MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELLUFC Norfolk, Wilder vs. Fury III, Adesanya vs. Romero | MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 32
Chuck Mindenhall is back and he joins Brian to breakdown UFC Norfolk. They also preview Israel Adesanya vs. Yoel Romero and look ahead at Wilder vs. Fury 3 now that Deontay Wilder has activated the rematch clause.
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Hey, near far wherever you are, it's morning Combat. It's back and you'll face Monday, March second to zero two zero Bryan Campbells, CBS Sports and the Pilot's Chair this week. Okay, from then to a little Cabbage Patch. No, that is not Luke Thomas. Luke Thomas is fine. He's not in a jail cell, he's not serving jury duty. He's a very solid human being. Okay, I do not hate Luke Thomas. I love that man. This is the Athletic dot COM's Chuck Mindenhall, the man in the damn hat people have called you, by the way, the lovers, the viewers of the show like that cool hip substitute teacher comes.
To juxtaposition from your Anakin Skywalker comment.
I mean he does not look like Anakin episode six from They Took the Helmet Off, although I've seen him under the hood. All right, who's calling me right now? This is very Luke Thomas. Like, We're back and it's been a busy weekend of combat sports. We got a lot to look back on. From Flyweight till at UFC nor Walk nor Falk. Yeah ahead it the first time. Yeah. UFC two forty eight preview as well, cannot wait for all things at a Signia Romero. A lot of talk as well about Wilder Fury three. We do want to remind the viewers and listeners Chuck to subscribe. Please get out on YouTube wherever you access this fine piece of combat business and leave a review like it. Subscribe where this thing's going, This thing's going, okay, come with it, Come with us, right there, Chuck, I'm sorry for the awkwardness here by the way, welcome to our new set. Thank you under the awkwardness set that you got a pair of tips over your show.
It's fine.
I'm not normally looking in that direction. But what people don't know is that the frame had to be retaped today. It was breaking, it was falling apart. Yeah yeah, broken. Got a picture boulevard of broken creams going on there. I don't know what's happening there. But what do you think of our new set? Welcome to Orchids of Combat you.
Yeah, no, this is very this is great, man, all right, it's much better, much better, second professional outfit.
Now you should see what the ending's like after the show. Very happy, all right, Where you're going to get into this show? Oh? Follow his work By the way, you do a great podcast called The The Man and Man in the Myth with Sean L. Shoddy. One.
John, I'll look that out there.
Very solid UFC original UFC one.
Yeah, right there.
Sure, I'm rocking a little I'm rocking a little home sweet home.
Here.
You want to produce the level up video, I'll I'll be Karati. How do you be, Holly?
What do you think? Okay?
All right, hey, how awkward does the start of the show? This is really the worst here. Let's just start from the top. All right, what is in this cup? Let's break into it. Let's go. Combat starts now, folks. And it was this weekend in the UFC Norfolk, Virginia, a UFC Flyway Championship about kind of sort of. Here's what happened. Devison Figoto knocks out Joseph Benavidez in round two, but he missed weight by two and a half pounds the day before, was not eligible to pick up that championship title. So Chuck Mendenhall. The title was supposed to go vacant the second they entered the cage. But we don't have a winner, we don't have a champion. I think that means Henry Shudo is still UFC one twenty five champion.
He believes he is.
What the hell happens next from this?
They shut it down? Man? You know, I really believe you might be the moment that they look at it and they shut it down. I mean they've already lost, They've gotten rid of I should say, a couple of the best flyweights in the world. Demetris Johnson, Horagucci's gone. There's a lot of these guys where they've basically ended the relationship with This was designed for Joseph Benavitez. I really believe that the whole division was designed all the way back in twenty twelve when it was brought out.
Was Joseph really just needed a place to be.
Because of Domin Cruzy couldn't get back through. They wanted to create a division, and they finally get to the point and it's it's resurrected to an extent. I feel like we've been talking pretty glowingly about the fly weights. They've been cracking a lot of those. A lot of the fights on the undercards this whole year and late last year have been pretty good. But Suhudo leaves and now you get Benavidez, who loses and really doesn't have a way back to a title shot. Nobody wants to see that. What are you gonna do? Davison doesn't have the belt, Henry Sujudo is not going to defend it. This would be if they're going to ban that, if they're going to get rid of this division, this would be the time.
Here's the problem. Ready for this? Okay, I thought that would be my take coming in once Davidson figured I'm gonna get very proper on the pronunciation, cause I'm trying to develop it the bed though, that's not once Davidson knocked him out or once he misswait, I'm sorry, I'm sort of like, wow, that's comical for this division. If Joseph doesn't win it, you're right, doom is coming. Here's the problem.
Changed, you changed your mind, here's the problem.
The fight was freaking fantastic. It was two rounds of what elite level flyway action the UFC can be all about. You had Benevetez breaking out of this the submission opportunities role and constantly turning the momentum of that fight. You had back and forth. The early part of that second round was a war in terms of trading big shots back and forth. So the knee jerk reaction is either folded up or hey, why don't we bring back Henry Suhudo and have the proper handoff between him and Davison Figuredo. I've got a problem with that as well. And here's the deal. Okay, he doesn't want to be at this way class any where. Okay, here's a problem. That's a big time problem because if he beats, if he comes down, it cuts one more time. It beats Figuredo. We're in the same spot. So here's my solution to you. There's a lot of flywights. I really like. I was reminded how much I like this division. Let's have a rematch. Let's have Benavidas and Figuredo all over again. I know you can say, well, didn't we already learn what we're supposed to? Well know, the man missed weight, he cost himself. Let's do that a second time. What happens if Benevida's win. You have a natural trilogy there if he does. I don't think that's a horrible idea. Chuck's say it to my face, all right.
So this event was a kind of almost a throwaway event. Like if you look at this card, they just hey, we could put a card in Norfolk. Look down that that whole card, and you're like, what was on it? It was just really this and it was barely held together by this It was not a very marketable fight, even with the backstory of Joseph Benavitez and even with Figureedo being basically a guy that is like a mini Yole Romero or something like that, very different kind of guy. Yeah, they that they still couldn't really set now imagine doing it again. I just don't feel like there's much of a mark that there's there's a lot of money that goes into having a champion in a division, like it's a different money. Except for the UFC, they're not stupid. I'm not sure they want to throw money to the champion, you know, paid champion prices if they don't get a guy that's marketable.
Here's the deal. I don't like having a title fight headline a fight night. I don't care if it's Chevchenko against whoever's next in the division. I don't care if it's Demitrius Johnson when they expected him to get low ratings after proving he can't get big ratings and they throw him out on UFC Fight Night Kansas City. I think that if the title fight belongs in a co main event spot, if it's not going to sell, or if you're going to load up a supercart in IFW type card in July, then make it the third biggest fight of the night. I get what you're saying on there, but this is something we've said to the UFC and Dan away from the beginning, like pisser, get off the pop, make a friggin' decision. The fact that we're still going forward with this, then let's commit to it. You may have a changeover of champions for the next two years, but is that awful.
It's a weird time for them to recommit to something that they committed to and already started to dismantle. That's the only problem. They were half through the process when Henry Shudo basically got the the title and then we you know, there was like a new blush in the cheek type of thing with the division. I just even though that's the case, I don't even know if there's twenty total flyweights on roster right now for the UFC. I know that for a minute there, there weren't. So the division has been decimated by just kind of push brooming guys out the door, and now if they want to restore it, it's a weird time to do that, given the flux at the top. I could see them doing it, But I'm just saying, like, if they're ever going to if they're going to have cold feet about keeping it going, this would be the moment that they'd say, Okay, Flyweight's done.
I do believe they have to make a decision and stick with it. There isn't opening to close it because of how badly this was all mangled and damage, and you got to throw some shade at Davison for not being able to make weight there. But what I didn't like about this fight coming in despite the fight night main event status, was Benefitez is your ultimate long serving bridesmaid, a great maybe an all time great fighter who is really on that shortlist with Dan Henderson, where bisbeing used to be of the greatest guys in the UFC history to never win a title.
How how ironic was it that Bisping's the guy to go interview him right afterwards too?
That was just this extra I feel your pain but you know, in the end, the fight that should have happened was Benavidez and Sahudo in my mind, because Benavida has had a recent win over him in twenty sixteen. It was a fight of the year. It was fantastic, but it's also pisser, get off the pot for me. From the standpoint of Sahudo and double champions in general, I like when people get a chance to win two championships at one time. It shows your greatness. I also don't love how UFC has picked and choose who gets to be a double champ for a long time right now. Amanda Nunaz, Yeah, for as long as she wants, But people like DC gets stripped right away. I almost feel like there should be a rule you can win two titles, but you have to be stripped of one and be done with that division. It's almost as if winning a title on a second division, which typically happens in the weight above you, is your graduation into the new A class. So from that part, it's a clean break and a clean divide. So as much as I think Devison Figuraedo looked fantastic as much as him versus Suhudo, is it an interesting fight. They got to make a decision on the division, and Shudo's just got to stay north in mid.
My point, Yeah, no, no, he does. That's the only problem with it. If Suhudo was still kind of saying like I want to fight, yeah, I want to fight at fly weight, I wanted to defend that belt, it would be a little bit different. But the fact that basically he wants nothing to do with fly weight at this point, I think he really takes the credit too obviously he should for kind of resurrecting it and giving it second life, but he's moved on and that's kind of where we've left things, and just given that that's the situation, it's just kind of a mess. It was the worst case scenario for Figaredo to miss weight because you just needed some continuity. You needed something to happy, you needed the page to turn and something good to keep happening in that division, and you got kind of the worst case scenario.
Hashtag justice for Joe, make the rematch. I'm telling you it's not because I love Ben the vidazn't respect him so much as I want to see him finally, I mean two losses to cruise at the highest level two losses to Johnson at the highest level, but it.
Was gutted for him, man. I mean, the bottom line is that this is a guy who has been after this for so long. This was He's never going to be tailor made for a guy go in there and have his moment like it was this past weekend, and he still did not.
Shout out to his wife, who had a very supportive tweet out there, very reminiscent of mister Wideman running in and saying, Chris is still my son. As cringe as that was, and it was cringe on this card UFC Norfolk. The other sort of interesting title discussion dilemma here is what's going on at women's featherweight. Heading into the card one for five, Champa Man in Newness did announce I want to fight at UFC two fifty on May ninth. Of course, that's the Josialdo against Captain Cringe fight. Yes, of course, and she would like to see somebody from this UFC Norfolk card over the weekend make a statement. Well, two people made very large statements with first round stoppages by submission to knock out Megan Anderson and Felicia Spencer. Should either of them get the tunnel shot next, Who should get it next? Should they fight each other? Where do you sort of sit right here?
Well, that was the entire featherweight division fighting in Norfolk. I would say, just on basic mma math, the Spencer gets it right because she just beat not even a year ago, she just won against Megan Anderson. So the B line is, if you just look at that, I don't think you could make a case the other way. So that's it seems like kind of like an easy decision. If the UFC really wants to make that Aman of Noon is his next, and if they want to keep that division on, which is even more puzzling. These were two like almost extinct types of divisions we're talking about on in this uh this this card in Virginia. But if they want to keep it going, that's the fight to make.
I can check ufc dot com slash rankings. More than three years into this division, we still don't have rankings, which tells you a lot about it. I don't like anybody who's saying.
Even any of those they're not listed, I'm not.
I don't like anyone who's saying they need to fight each other. They just fought a year ago. Spencer proved in that fight with a first round submission. It was a weird fight. She took Meghan down, worked really hard, got the submission, but she sort of proved she's a one up on her in that case. I don't think they should fight each other a second time because you have no contenders in this division. I'd like to see that two of them eventually get title shots in their future. Migan Anderson made the bigger statement. I thought on Saturday that one punch knock got it. Forgot the name of the of the of the fighter she fought, You have it off the top of that that that throw them up there was in a Dumont something like that, I mean whatever, anyway, it was in the UFC. It was fantastic. I think it showed you that her evolution has been slower than we thought. Holly Holm really broke around. It was baptism early. Lost that fight to Spencer, but we've got two viable contenders for the belt. Let's keep building on that. Let's get to that point.
Good for Anderson too, because I know that she struggles to even get in there and she has some nerves. Things like that. I thought she looked probably better than she ever has in the UFC. So it's good to see somebody catching momentum too. And if they can form any kind of queue at that division, in that division, that's shocking development, right, because for so long there's been nothing.
So, I mean, you don't see one punch KOs often in the female side in any way class, right. I mean when when androj had that one over copal Cavis, We're like, holy cow, and we just saw one recently and I can't remember it. This is a great show so far. But the point is when you make that kind of statement, she's a six foot tall featherweight and she's she's got a bright future, can really fight on the ground. I like to see where this is going. Indeed, he let's slide over to what we saw in boxing this weekend from Frisco, Texas. De Zone had a card headlined by Mikey Garcia, doubling down on his goal to make it as an elite welterweight eleven months removed from his last fight, a one sided she lacking against Aerospence Junior on pay per view, Mikey goes in there against tested veteran Jesse Vargas, a former two division title holder and comes away with a unanimous decision that Chuck was weird. It was closer than the fight looked, or maybe then it should have been. Yeah, Mikey was clearly the dominant fighter here, establishing himself as a hard counterpuncher in your eyes. Moving forward, He's won titles in four weight classes. He's one of the pomp for pound best. It's Mike Garcia an elite welterweight.
Elite No, I would not say that. I still think that the elite welterwits would beat him right now, but he showed obviously his whole task in this one, right was to show that he could do that, especially after the last fight. I think he did. Look you know, outside of overmatch, he didn't never really competed in that fight. I thought that this one, it took him a few rounds to kind of get rolling, but it seemed like once he did, it was like you could see him come to life in that fight, and especially after the knockdown, I felt like, you know, he kind of I don't want to say coasted, but he was landing those one twos man and it looked kind of like more like the vintage guy. His power is still showing up in there a little bit. I mean, to me, man, it still seemed like he had it. I just don't know. It still feels like he's masquerading a little bit. I know the money is there, but it feels like he's massing.
You love his dare to be great intention. You love the fact that he took on that Spence fight when when people in his own family, as older brothers trainer Robert, was like, don't do this. It didn't go well. It didn't go well at all. He said. He sort of rebuilt his body and he looked better physically. He looked a little bit more muscular. But here's the thing that's tough. He took damage to have to win this fight, even though he largely controlled it. He's probably going to have to consistently take damage at this weight class to win these very big fights. And you got to ask yourself, is the pursuit of a fifth title and as many weight classes for a guy who's not about the money has been all about getting that promotional con roll over his career. Don't forget he set out two and a half years of his prime to get out of his top ranked deal. He's signing one fight deals at a time. That was a one fight deal with his own for options for the next one. We'll get to that option in the second of what it could be. But here's a guy who just recently was making one thirty five and was a killer that lightweight. And if you're a guy who relies on counterpunching and technique and you're entering into fights in which you're gonna have to take heavy damage to win, that's where you sort of go is this the right move? Because one thirty five is loaded in boxing right now, and the idea of Mikey Garcia against Lomachenko is a super fight waight to happen against Tayo Fimo Lopez, who's getting the next Loma fight, against the Devin Hanes, the other guys who are on the rise. Certainly there are one forty. He's got plenty of options. But he's a stubborn dude. Did you think Vargas had a case afterwards to say he should have won it? I saw some hipsters on the internet kind of happening that as a seven to five fight for Garcia. I get where Vargas never gave up and came back boxing scoring is weird though, because what you see with your eyes can be different from the math how it adds.
I kind of went back and watched it again, like just kind of seeing that because I saw a little bit on online. You know, I don't see that. I don't see that. I thought it was it was pretty you know. After that, I'd say, what fifth round on? From fifth round on, it felt like it was the fight had turned, the tide had turned, and it kind of just went that direction. I don't know. To me, that's like they had. The one sixteen to one eleven scores was in the range that I would have had, so it didn't seem that close to me. I was kind of surprised that they talked about it.
I mean, his power, the plus is here as a Mikey showed legit counter punching power. He had Vargus on the verge of being stopped on I think three occasions. Credit to Vargas for gutting that out. Now the big store here is what happens next. Eddie Hearn of Matrium Sport and his zone have an option to match on his next fight, and the whole idea of bringing Mikey Garcia to his owne for a seven million dollar pay day. By the way, shout out to Mike Garcia there is to set them up for a big fight, ideally Manny Pakia. Now the problem with that, Chuck is that, as Eddie Hearn told me last week, there's one hundred and seventy four people who think they own managerial rights or sometimes promotional rights on Manipacio. We were of the belief in the last six months, ever since Pakio last summer beat Keith Thurman in a fantastic pay per view main event, that Pacio had won maybe two fights left on his PBC deal. Eddie Hearn's now saying from what he has heard and believes that would be no fights left and we just recently left. So of course Manypaccio signed with Paradigm Sport Audio tar of the same managerial agency that has what Connor McGregor twenty few steph Tony Ferguson right, sonya.
Yep, out of signing a lot, I mean a lot of the big UFC.
Would mikey Garcia versus Mannipacio this summer maybe July and Saudi Arabia And by the way, you better get the air condition and pumping if that's the case.
Is that movie?
Would you be in for that?
I would like to see it, I honestly would. I mean, obviously, Pakio, what is he forty one or forty two years He's forty one years old. But if the Therman fight told you anything, he's still got his speed, he's still got his power as.
Long as he's passing drug tests. I guess we got a litle taught him because that was an insane turn back the clock performance.
Fas as tax issues going over Saudi Arabia. I would like to see it, man, I would like to see it, and I'd be like, what else are you gonna do? If you if if if Garcia wants to stay one seven, I feel like that's I want to see him in fights like that. That's the fight you want to see.
Jay, I've got I've got a static like you would not believe in my ear right now, Okay, just you know, just my little pelicon. Okay, we'll roll on. Let me know when it stops. It's an interesting fight to make. Manny can pretty much do whatever he wants. And if somebody and said he's gonna throw a buttload of money at Eddie Earn and they can make that work. It would seem like a resting spot. It's an interesting fight. What I love Manny against errel Spence to find out how great he can still be at this age. Yes, Danny Garcia, Yes, but uh I'll take I'll take my heroc if it ends up going in that direction. But it's just weird how Manny Packet can still be at this point in his career. Everybody thinks they own him or have some pool with him, but uh, hey, you know this is this is very loud, all right, nothing like throwing me off. We're gonna stay in boxing for the our third biggest topic of the week, and it is Deontay wild They're fresh off a very one sided knockout loss to Tyson Fury in the rematch a little bit more than a week ago in Las Vegas on pay per view. Wilder will not be firing assistant trainer Mark Breland for throwing in the towel, and he has officially sent in the paperwork to kick in his rematch clause for a third fight this summer. Subsequently, promoter Bob Aram, the co promoter of Tyson Fury, says July eighteenth, in Vegas at the MGM grand would be their preferred look at destination. If you have international fighter in the UFC with what maybe Connor, more likely Jorte and Camaro, and a week later you're doing Wilder Fury three. Lot to get into on this.
Chuck Okay mentioned the Pacquiao possibility that could.
Be, that could be really the same, that could be the same weekend as international fight week if this fight goes down in July, like they're saying it, good move for Wilder, considering that we just saw him take an l as hard in the from a pr standpoint and as frustrating, disappointingly embarrassingly blaming the forty pounds suit, blaming his trainers for throwing in the towel, blaming you possibly for taking your hat off one time on camera right moving your eyes here.
I mean, ultimately you would like to see him take a little more time off in furious camp. Did they not say that they would kind of wait it out anyway, if they wanted to kind of push it back, they would do that. To me, I would rather they take more time. Honestly, that was one sided traffic, man. You know, It's just and it was a bad look, Like you mentioned he was just he didn't really have anything. I also think the imagination needs to kind of, you know, come back to this fight. Unfortunately, when he made these excuses that you're talking about was right after the hysteria of having gone through it and everybody scrutinizing that fight and looking at it as just boring excuses, right like, and then you hear things they are kind of the forty pounds suit. I mean, who's talking about this? It just looks like the David Hay little toe thing. Yes, I mean, it's like, it's like weird. You don't want to hear that stuff. It's just it's I feel like the timing is all a little off on this. But ultimately, if he has that clause and obviously the amount of money he got paid and being competitor and u satisfactory way in which it ended, I'm sure that it's not sitting with him well and the competitor and wants to do it. I could see why he's doing that. But at the same time, as a person who watched that fight just like you did, you'd like to see him take a little more time.
I stand by what I said last week from the point of anyone saying we learned everything we need to know in the rematch, we don't need a third one. That's easy to say, but when you're talking about a guy with that punching power, dude, like he's going to be in this third fight, I don't care again if he comes in with a broken heart and an eighty pound vest, that power is going to give him a chance in it.
I like that you're still sticking up for that, because I feel like that's the romanticized version of why did that kind of got dispelled in it? For so many people, They're like, you can't go in one dimension when the other guy has every other dimension. You know he is going to dominate that.
I will say, though, I will hedge that and say, it was extremely disappointing to see this reaction from him, and I know that, Look, you have to be a con man as a fighter to talk yourself into a level of confidence and fearlessness that is just not inhumane, right, So I'll give him that benefit of the doubt. And also the whole costume thing is everyone's saying this is the lamest, worst excuse ever, and it might be I actually believe him. I actually believe he's saying it did weigh him down. I'm more embarrassed for him, but I'm more embarrassed for him that he would wear a costume like that and take that chance in the biggest fight of his career. It's ridiculously embarrassing from a business standpoint. Though he had to kick in this rematch, okay, just like Anthony Joshua ahead of the ruiz Wan last year, where he had the same chance to take time off. Then you're admitting I'm broken from the loss. I'm not the same guy, and you're giving up control or potential control of this division through the belt process. We don't know if he's so, even though he kicked it in. I wonder if there's a chance here that this is also a really smart business decision because the fight everybody wants to make off of that fight is Anthony Joshua versus Tyson Fury later this year for all four belts. It would be the biggest fight in British boxing history, Chuck, It would be non Maypack two, non mcg Conagreg Carnival, would be the biggest fight you can make in boxing in any country. I wonder if he kicks that in and if there's a part of him that doesn't want it right away. He could make a killing and step aside money if he wanted to right because he has the contractual control right now. Now. It's a little more difficult because since while they're kicked that in, Anthony Joshua just announced that he's going to fight Who Brought Who Love in June in London at a soccer stadium, and that's a mandatory defense. There's always the mandatory. It's a lot of boxing politics. But if Wilder wanted to take this step aside and say I'll just fight the winner, that could be an interesting road. But knowing who he is, I think he wants exactly what he's saying to get back into this fight and to he's gonna have extra motivation to prove everybody wrong. I would not favor him in this fight. I think Fury has figured him out. I think Fury has figured out how to be a different kind of fighter and walk him down. I'm just saying, you cannot count out this man, as disappointed as I was in his reaction. When you've got that weapon, when you've got the biggest weapon in the war you're in, the.
War's going to have to rebuild it a little bit. The two things that they kind of built narratives around going into that fight was his right hand and his backstory. They both say there's backstory involves now right Like I was, backstory has this thing. How does he respond? But I still think I'm not sure you can fall in love with the sam elixir, which is just the power versus the technique and everything that was going in that. You got the perfect, perfect fight, a perfect rematch, given how the first and went, I just feel like he's going to have to do some work to figure something out out. Even from the campaigning standpoint, in terms of selling that fight, we're gonna have to hear a little bit more from him going.
As much as we're disappointed that he didn't give Fury any credit and that he's making excuses, there's still a sale in that, right If you're not giving the other guy any credit, you're second. Look, it was all on me. I had a million problems. There is sort of a potential sale in how you mark.
Then on this one, because it was crazy to me that Wilder ended up like something like minus one sixty.
I think Fury is a he's a favorite, but it's not that large they've already got. Yeah, I think it's in the in the for a while there as an underdogs plus two something almost plus three big. I mean, we saw the first fight. I know that Fury wasn't the same Fury as he was when he's completely back in mental and physical the right health. But we've also seen Fury many times Chuck play up or down the level of competition, fall out of shape, lose that level of focus. You hope for his sake he'd come into that third fight with it. But just what what is on the line and what matters in this third fight? How often do we get heavyweight trilogies that adder that live up historically? You get a Bowl holy Field, you get a Ali.
It's just like it finally feels like we have a mini goal.
We're getting closer. I did. I did say last week on the show. Politically, you don't really have a chance to see the winner of Wilder Fury three against Joshua. I still haven't seen where de Zone can do pay per view with the traditional pay per view guys. But Eddie Hearn dispelled that when I talked to him my podcast last week. He said, look, we'll find a way. There's some smart people. There's a lot of money at the table. We'll find a way to make the streaming end and the pay per view end come together and make it work.
By the way, that cat's had a big couple of weeks. I feel like he's all over the place.
Yeah. Well, and I'll give you heard this credit. He promotes. He goes on every single show possible and stays as long as he possibly can. He loves it, he lives it.
I always tell him.
I tell Eddie, I go, look, you know, you're a good looking bloke, six with seven with the waistcoat. I know you're selling me a used car with bald tires, but I want to buy from you for some reason. You're really you know, he really sets you up there. Somebody's going to open Raiders Stay Adium eventually. This Yeah, in the first big combat super Bowl outdoors in front of you know, seventy eighty thousand. I wonder, you know, you sure Connor wants to do it. You'd think you'd think that Floyd might want to come out in the shadows and do it. It's gonna be interesting to see who chases that cat get.
In Vegas come in July, which is the worst.
You talk about swamp ast season, It really is the worst to be in Vegas in July. So, hey, International Fight Week? How about how about uh Nova Scotia? How about uh yeah? All right, there we go. Hey, let's move on to our next topic, which is UFC two forty eight this weekend in Vegas, a title doubleheader at the top that has to have you licking your lips for the potential of violence, history, competitiveness, all of that, and of course in that marquet it's Israel out of Sonia making the first defense of his middleweight title against Yo l Rameiro. Can we take a baus for the cause? Can we pour one out for the homies here and just be like I think, if I do this fast enough, I'll start a fire chuck? Can I keep going with this?
Home?
My? How frickin fire up? Shout out to the UFC Countdown for using a clip was there criming that fight and getting it getting it ready?
Here?
Can I I'll just you know, I'll just be weird here. Can you just tell me forget the daring to be great, forget the title i' sake, forget everything violence and entertainment how wired are you for this?
I love it, man, And it's funny for something like this that there can be any kind of outcry about it, because I you do hear that the people who kind of follow the meritocras. I get it. You know, there's other there are other guys, there's other fights you could make. But to me, that fight was so close between Acosta and and Romero. It was a coin flip, right, so in some ways it's easy to squint and put him right into that position. And honestly, man, just the two physiques just by themselves, if you knew nothing else about it.
You're not a body guy, but even you were kind of like, I mean, just.
As a spectacle, right, Like you're just looking at the two guys. One guy wies Sinews and like, you know, electricity, the other guys like this this Hulk. I mean, it's just it doesn't get any better. I think that it's going to be a really fun build up to the fight because of the eccentricity that's kind of in the air for the type of guys. You saw the initial thing where Romero's doing a backflip and Dane is like, what the hell's going on? He's forty two years old and he's doing this type of stuff. I just think that it's a unique matchmaking experience, and I also think that it's the perfect fight in a lot of ways for aud Asanya is his first true title defense. This is a guy that nobody likes to fight and he wanted. He welcomed it when he didn't need to do this, and he welcomed it.
And he's only a slight bit over two years into the UFC. To see what he's accomplished is insane. I will stand by and hold that sort up and say all you last year in twenty nineteen missed it. Adasania should have been your Fighter of the Year. And I think if he can win this fight, and I don't care who he fights in that Costo Whitaker again, he could be your twenty twenty legitimate fighter of the Year because he's daring to be great. He's putting it on the line. You have to respect that. But when you do that, when you dare to be great, you're always toeing the line of daring to be reckless or daring to be crazy.
So Ben towing and that's what's great. Same with McGregor when he came up. All of it looked dangerous. That's what was great about it.
I heard out of signing that press conference basically say this, Hey, Robert Whittaker, you went ten rounds with Romero, and you can argue that Whitaker has never been the same physically from doing that. You know, out of SONI basically said, that's not what I would do. I would go three rounds or less with him. Well, that's a ideal level of thinking here. And look, I'd favor out of Soignia.
It's just that easy, you.
Know when you compare gas tanks, and you know, sometimes Romero has to take a round off after expelling so much. But if he went life or death meaning out of SNI with Gastalum in twenty nineteens fart of the year in Atlanta, love that fight. Yeah, Romero's a little bit different cat than Gastelum. Do you what are the avenues of victory here for Romero? Is it just you know, come up with some spinea shit and see what happens.
No, is, remember who you are, right like, remember your credentials. You are an Olympic wrestler going against a WAYSI guy who's taller than you what you want to do is plant him on his back and then you know, hulk smash him. That's what you want to do, right, But I think you also want to kind of flex that. I know how Romero thinks he's a little bit more. He likes to demonstrate his power in the stand up. That's where the fight is really going to be exciting, I think. But if I'm him, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to take him down and just wear him out and take take away his most dangerous assets, which is his limbs. Man, you don't want him catching you from afar And that's what Adasnia is sublime at. Right. So I feel like his best average just to go back to who he's been, you know, back in the day, like be a wrestler.
Dan Rustler, dance with the with you know your mind if we dance with your dates, right, dance with the one that brought you here.
Right.
We've seen him go away with that. We've also seen out a Signia improve his takedowns defense. But again, Romero is a different cat. There is a potential to take a lot of damage in victory here for out of Sony. So there's a price you pay if he can get through this for telling everyone I am that man. I'm gonna go out in the first night of jail and go after the toughest guy, which is essentially what he's doing in this title defense. Here do we see a five round wars?
Is?
I mean? I can't imagine. As much as I respect in love Robert Whitaker, and I sure rightfully favored him there against OUTSIGNI in the first time, I thought he was the rightful betting favorite. The way that fight ended, though, I could see that. I don't know if I could see that against Romero. I've never seen that against Romereo. I've never really seen him in that level. I don't think you can one punch him like that. What are we going to see here? See the five runs of hell?
That's the bar? Right, Nobody has done that since all the way back to Faijio, remember the fight and all the way which is like, right, force, we got to ever finish him? That fight was so long ago. Do you know that that was the night that Alexis Davis beat Amanda Nonez in strikers. That's how long ago it has been. Nobody finishes him, So that's the bar right, Like, if he's able to do that, then suddenly he's done something. If Adasana can put him away, I think that's what he's going to try to do. Can you do it? I don't know if it ends up being a five round more. I don't like that for Audusana, even if he wins, because that is a lot of where and Sarah on you man going five rounds with Romero and at the accelerated rate of which he's been fighting, and to go through another one after Gasolon and guys like that.
Of his teammate Dan Hooker. We were saying the same thing about it last week of sort of like you've just put it all on the table to get through guys like Paul Felder. Now you want just engaged to you. It's like eventually we saw it with Robert Whitaker. You know I that they want that, but you know there is a limit. There's a limit to how tough you can match yourself against killers and the wear and tear that comes on your body. I'm not saying I want to see out a sign you go into point fighter mode and try to you know, completely ditch and dodge this type of fight, which I don't think you can against Romero because he'll he'll catch up to you. But we are going to learn even more than we already know about out of sign.
Show too much. I don't think he's going to be a point fighter for a long time. He's got to lose. He'll have to lose at some point and then say like, Okay, let's style this back and figure out how to just win again. But as he's on top, he's still he still believes in his invincibility in the sport.
He should after the after, the after, the way he survived against Gaston, the way he walked down Robert Whittaker. Wow, this would be the statement of statements if he was able to if he was able to finish this soldier.
I think it really is. There's still a little bit of pending, I think for his superstardom out here, and I know he's a global asset like the UFC sees him that way. But at the same time, I still don't think he's over all the way in North America. Still like he needs to do more. This could be his big moment.
Could be the star of stars off of this Saturday's Cole Main event is one you cannot miss folks. We're right here all right. It is your women's strangweight title about Joang Wee Lee of China, a rising star, will make her first title defense against the former queen My girl jj You wanna Young j Check Boogie Woman Morning with her is Calming. I did spend the morning with her on Manhattan interviewing her for CBS Sports. Check that out this week, Chuck. The biggest storyline here is really the redemption angle potentially for you onto Young Jake Check trying to become the first female fighter in UFC history to win back a title that she has lost. The counter question of that, how good is Jong Wailee? Do we really know from what we've seen so far?
And forfront see, that's what's fun about it, right because I think that she surprised a lot of people by knocking out Jessica Andraje. Now you're in a position where you're like, Okay, you have somebody who has you're wearing the bullseye, and you have a former champion who's hungry again and wants to take it. It's going to be that kind of fight. I feel like this is kind of the extended introduction for Wili Jang, Like, what is she going to do in this? I don't think any of us really know her full potential yet. She's the champion, but we haven't seen her in every situation where we have seen Yuana in a lot of different situations. This I think that this is the kind of gauntlet fight for her to kind of figure out where she's really at. And it's crazy to say that for a champion. It's just the way it is in the division.
Right, I mean, I give you on a lot of credit for rebuilding herself to win over Michelle Waterson was a reminder of how great she is. She's a five round deep water type of fighter. But she even told me when I talked to her this morning, I mean, whale jeong Wailee is giant, She's strong.
Is that how it's saying?
UFC is now going on? Look, you know that's the Japanese surname thing, the whole Suzukichiro min yao. I mean, look, I'm I'm not cultured. We are, Oh this as well. I didn't go to the College of William and Mary. All Right, this is well established here. She's tough. Can't she go five rounds? We don't know that, But on the flip side, kN yawanna survive that type of It's look almost you can ask yourself, was that Androge fight a little bit of fools? Gold Jessica came out way too reckless and brutally paid the price for that. I'm sure Wang Jelly's let's regroup her. I'm sure Jean way Lee could do that against anybody who runs at her full speed. But when she was in there against the Tsha Torre, she had to go through round. She dominated that fight. I can't wait to see once it goes from the early to the middle ground. Can you want to turn that fight around like she did against Claudia on the rematch? If Wayley Jean comes out so hard, so fast in the beginning, it's such an interesting matchup. It may come down to mental because you want to be talking so much about removing the negative influences in her team, and that's why ultimately she feels she had bad weight cuts leading into the first fight against Rose, and you know, the breakup with her fiance and everything personal that just really dragged her down. She is insanely mentally tough. It's gonna be stretched.
She's also been in this position. She knows how to handle moments when the and the scrutiny is at its biggest, you know, and people are really paying attention and so much is on the line. I feel like that could play into this a little bit. Like you mentioned, I don't think she's just gonna go in there and throw knuckles and just kind of see what happens, like just Gondrodge. I don't think she's going to be wild like that. It really is going to come down to how she kind of hands it, if she can expose basically those nerves, because let's face it, this is a new champion who's now coming and especially just giving the whole backstory of what's going on with Whitley, just getting out of China, her traveler, everything that's been going on, and all the bad blood. Let's not forget that there's an emotional expense going on here. It's going to be very interesting, man. She kind of plays up that zen mentality a little bit. She likes to play the kung fu panda stuff and all that. I'm like, that's all very cool, but it will really shine in a fight like this.
You know, you want to told me she sort of took a fence to the narrative that through the two Rose fights that she became this villain, this bad person, this bully, And I mean like she hasn't helped herself with putting out that meme like I talked about with the gas mask. But it's interesting if a win for either of them would be massive. Now let's start with Jeongwi Lee, not just the journey of changing camps three times, almost outrunning the coronavirus to get to like the States for this fight, but how true is the you know, every time you talk to Dana and you say who's the brightest star in your bullpen and he's like, well, the last time Jeong Wi Lee was on Chinese television, you know, five trillion people watched. I mean, is this like a financial lynch pin to USC's future Hung Wie winning this fight?
I would think so if it's really like that. And honestly, talking to Brian Butler, all her manager, and just seeing some of the numbers did a piece with him, and it looked like that from the Chinese perspective, man, it seemed like the whole country was paying attention. And if that's really the case, they do have a massive, massive star in their hands. Obviously, she's got to continue to do that work. And I would think that the UFC could go to China at any point after that and hosts a big event with her headlining. You know, but a lot rides on this. This is a very dangerous thing. I always go with the Sean Shelby thing when he told me, like a book, you know, when they book these, a lot of times they look at it like they're booking the challenger to win. They want that, they want the champion to lose. Now. I don't know how much that's really true in some cases, but I think in this case, you know, you watch certain fights be made and you're like, why are they doing that. That's a very dangerous fight because it's not Boston they want to be. They wanted to be that, they want the flux at the top.
I love it. I love that if Joanna did win, the idea of let's say Rose, Beat Andrage, and you have that trilogy for the title, You've got Claudia rebuilding herself. Who wants a trilogy with Joanna? But to close on young jcheck here, if she wins, there isn't really a female equivalent to like Captain America, Randy Coutur coming back and turning back the clock, and I know, look, Jana's not I mean, she's gonna be thirty three. It's not ancient. Maybe when Misha Tate the Holly Holm at UFC one ninety six, it had that sort of redemption feeling of finally climbing the mountain. The thing, the key is here. Yu Wanta has been on the mountain before. She was that close to equaling Honda Roulsey's title defense record and kind of becoming the next Rnanda, not commercially but critically from the this is our next all time great. What would a win specifically do for her legacy here?
I think it would do so. So that's an interesting thing you said. I still believe that most fans who've paid attention to you want and really understood how good she was during her run have sort of compartmentalized that violence and put it over here is like Rose kind of derailed the whole thing, and then you know, it's been an odyssey since. But everybody, I think it would be very easy to access that area again. I think that if she gets through this and she's suddenly the champion that comes back into focus. I think that it would feel like there was a discontinuation at some point and then she re captured it. I still feel like she has that, but it could go away. I feel like that's kind of the fleeting thing. But people have not let that go, and the UFC has been very smart to kind of latch onto her viciousness and really point her out as the nasty, you know, champion all this stuff. I feel like they've done this correctly and I feel like that's who she is. She could get all that back. I feel like she'd be right back there.
She's claiming that there's no way to issues, that she's never cut better. And remember her ahead of her last fight with Water, since she was sort of petitioning to the UFC in the last minute to move that fight up. And wait, oh my god, how about women's Strawwaight I say it, and people think I'm either joking or I'm talking about how beautiful these women are, and now you know whatever and all that I'm just saying consistently across the board, Men's lightweight is the deepest and best division right now in UFC history, even better than men's light Have youweight a decade to go, but women's strawweight pound for palm week to week always delivers chunk storylines, matchups depth. You look at the rankings, it's there's still some killers up and down there.
I agree with you, and I think that it's kind of well. It would be like the lightweight in the weltsweight right, like you're going to have the most body types that are going to fit into that category. I guess that's one twenty five is really what the ladies are. But you're right, man, it is always It's always got a lot of there's always eight people at the top that you're like, oh, that person could be that person.
And I can't get enough. I can't get enough of the women's straweights. And the only thing I'll ever ask you about that is you got to promise not to stop when I say win. All right, right, she's saying, right wow, all right. That will wrap up the biggest topics of the week.
Now.
I want to get this echo out of my ear, Jay, and I want to hear from the people DMS for donks. People always sating me up BC, how yeah wow, look at that ass. People are always asking me, Chuck, how do they get their question on the show. A reminder at Morning Combat on Instagram every Sunday night, we put out the full screen graphic. Respond to that with your question and you'll have a chance to have it read right here through my donk mouth. Let's hear from the people. You fired up, Chuck fired up? All right, let's do it.
What do we got?
This one's from at Roxy Depew. Maybe that's French, all right, Chuck, who has the best chance to win a rematch? Connor Habib or Wilder Fury. So they're asking Connor McGregor or Deontay Wilder who has the best chance to win it.
That a great question because I feel like they're very similar, right, there's one sort of dimensional against a multi dimension. I would probably go with Wilder in this scenario. I just feel like he'd have the better chance of actually finding a way to land that shot. And obviously we know if he hits you and it's flush, you're going down. So I think that I would probably go that direction. I know McGregor has that power too, but I think it is five is too smart man. I just feel like he's not going to allow him to get that shot off.
Plue, even though McGregor is a slugger. It's a speed and precision that sets up his shots. He's not the kind of power that like, if there's ten seconds ago in the fifth round, he still might get you out of there. Deontay Wilder can lose every second of the fight. As we've always said, Yes, we have to find out about his inside. Can he bounce back from his first defeat. There's a lot of intangibles, But I've said this, a lot.
Of people are so upset right like with the towel coming in, because they know, especially with the gambling money, everything and that goes into it, and the people who paid eighty bucks, they know that there's an equalizer that he can still land. They know that it's still there.
Transitions through that burp I just had right there, right and they don't even notice it was great. No, you're right. And look as much as Deontay still has to establish because one loss has broken the heart of many a top fighter, he's very mentally tough. I am not willing to throw in the towel on Deontay's chances. The Connor side is like there's a fool's gold element to how Grady looked against Cowboy because it was the perfect matchup. I do tend to buy into that fool's gold a little bit and believe that, especially mentally, he's a somewhat reborn, changed man from the guy we saw heading into that first to Bib fight, where I would give him a better chance to persevere and set up his offense rather than gas early like he did against Abib and then kind of be lost and wandering. I wouldn't favor him. I would just give him a better chance than the first time. Are that's fair?
Right? I think that's fair. And if he's if he fights justin Gaichee in the summer and he's able to kind of do the same thing that you just did with Seroni, then maybe this is a whole different scenario because I actually I put a lot into that headspace. And also, like you know, is he does he want it again? Because that was always the question after you know, after the Mayweather thing and everything else, how bad does he want it? If he does that? To Gai Chi asked that question again, and maybe do.
You think they're gonna do that fight? I do, Actually, that's again, that's such a financial gamble to do it. But then again, should he walk down and finish Gaichi, which we think is possible. Yes, out of all, think of the money that you're sprinkling on top. If Habib wins against Tony in no disrespect to Tony, but if Habib wins him versus Connor, two would sell an any era, any situation. But it would sell even more if Connor's fresh off of knocking out just engaged you. That's a hell of a gamble though.
Look how big just beating Serony, even if even when people kind of thought, wow, he might be a little bit shot at this point, you know, blah blah blah. Look how big that seemed when he did it. Anyway, imagine him doing that to Gechee in a big card in July. I just I think that that's that just sets. It's pretty much whatever he wants at that point. So if it happens to be a bib. But I also think that all the haters of that fight would then come back to it and say, like, well, you never know, because it's kind of you know, etch just sketch.
The whole imagination be the biggest month in Irish history if in July, if Connor fought I know, on ifw in seven days later Fury Fought and Biggest. We're gonna have like a bono concert in between two.
I mean would be great.
I mean, if you have any other Irish superheroes, Irish James Joyce, right, like, yeah, James Joyce, the Juggernaut. You're talking about the English heavyweight? All right, all right, let's roll on here. You got more donks for us?
Jay?
We're live, Hey, Jay, We're live? All right? All right, I'll just keep playing with my air, all right? From at Johanna or maybe how about at Johann alexof So all right, sorry, I mean, where are we going with this name?
Right? Jock?
Okay? Who would have the best quote? UFC combined forty yard dash, vertical, et cetera. It is meat market time in the NFL. Who do you think is just that that kind of athlete in the UFC? I mean, God, good god. Forty two year old joll Or Merro might be in his actual prome right now. He might actually be in his mental.
Physical prime, so does Sonyet from a different perspective like forty yard dash, it almost seems like he'd be like a gazill I.
Always felt like Tyrone Woodley was like the perfect sort of athlete where you could plug him into any other sport. I know he'd be small for certain sports, but if you plug him into football at halfback, I would have to believe he'd be fantastic.
Trying to think who else Paulo.
Costa looks like a looks like a centerfold.
That's true. Anthony Johnson back in the day when he could get down he was he used to play football. But that guy, can.
We get him back? Can he kill him? Mofos soon?
And I mean this guy, I'd love to have him back. Man, who are we missing here?
There's there's got to be some smaller fighters that are just athletic machines.
I mean, guys like GSP obviously are like they come to mind. It's like it has to be like that combination of kind of athleticism.
And I mean Matrix Johnson is a freaky Yeah, let's be honest with that.
Hey.
To close that Flyway conversation.
Metrich would actually probably surprise and all of them.
The metrist to go public a couple weeks ago and basically was like, I'm gonna end my career in one I've known, you know, I have nothing else to prove that's going to end my legacy. You would like a scenario where when he's like whatever, thirty six or whatever, and he's run the gauntlet at one and if he's still the guy that he would come back and try to you know, pull an ask if he pull an askrin and kind of come back late and just you.
Know, be very poetic. It really would because the way you know, Dana and him button heads all that time, it would kind of be like this strange victory, his biggest victory of his career would be kind of like here I come back, now you need me, yeah type thing.
I need to read a Chuck Mindenhall Athletic poetic breakdown on that app. He's the best writer in MMA.
You think so?
I think sixman, Thank you, Thank you. Shout to anyone else who's the second place? Raf Bartholomew Hon't have you ever heard of? From Athletic dot Com? Here my my Brohm. All right, we'll roll on here, Jay, if you're willing, I got to hear from the people from at Darren Robinson fitness star. Wow. I have to check out that profile right here. He wants to know. Okay Dong's longtime fan here with an odd question. If you had to breed the best MMA fighter, which female and male fighter would you breed? No tip to tip on this one. You know what, I think this is a secret plan here from Darren Robinson to basically play like like fantasy mm A porn with us, like which female and male fighter do you want to see?
Bang?
I mean, so he's basically breeding factory Stepanie Graff Andrea Acus. He probably you know, they got kids, They're probably gonna be tennant stars in m M A. Who you got who do you want to see? Go under the covers?
Oh?
Like so that we're just you can't watch. You're on the outside where you have to wait nine months and years for a kid that would like Sean Rocky. Where are you going with this? No?
Like a child child that like what would be the child in the end? What kind of monster would this be? Would be? Johanna and Yoel?
Oh wow, trying to set something for Vegas on Saturday Saturday after party?
Wow?
Wow, I see you soon? Yes, yes, yeah, a question. You'd want the freak athleticism of Yoel? You would want the mindset? Can you transfer mindset through? Uh?
Through?
You can you can transfer bad ass? Your old man was probably a bad ass.
Right, Hey man, Tyson fury came from his dad's.
That is true. Yeah, I mean, look, I can I can match up. You can match up any two great fighters. But I think you specifically want one to be a hulk. You want another one to be precise. I mean you want it's pretty precise. That'd be a that'd be a hell of a fighter there. I'd appreciate that.
Yeah, you made me say, let's hear yours.
You and Amanda. All right, really we'll get your poetic brain. Na's gonna step in there and to get in trouble if we keep this question going, and let's move on to the next one. At web scream, how about this guy. Have people begun to realize that the coronavirus will be the reason we won't see Tony habib five as the entire event will be scrapped due to public health kncer, get it, get out of here, web scream with that crap, No, no, Ricky, Bobby.
No sad As you see something like that and you think, well, maybe that's the case, only because this thing has been so cursed that you almost feel like any scenario is in play, right, Like anything to make it not happen is in play. Like that's how I read that. I'm like, well, that's as good as this.
Fight is going to happen. Okay, and this fight is going to be awesome. April eighteenth, you have C two forty nine. The fifth time is the charm. There's a reason why we had to wait this long to see it the first time. It matters so much right now. No, Corona's not getting in the way here. Although the cases are kind of popping up left. I don't want to get you on a neopolitical kick are, but they're popping up left and right.
It's a lot of fun walking through New York City right now.
I was wondering if you were going to wear a mask on set today. No, I don't know what's funny about that. People are trying to save their lives.
Yeah, this is a safe spot.
Okay, this is a safe spot, all right. Yeah, it's not gonna it's not gonna break down from at This is PO two pot you.
I get, Yeah, this is pot you do.
Either of you have burner accounts. My guess is at Luke Thomas News doesn't. But at Bryan C. Campbell has at least three. Uh no, why would I have a burner account? I'm I live my life very outwardly. I put it, I put the tips on the table. I'm on the wall over there. What do they want? You know what? Am I gonna go lurk from an assumed name and be like that Brian guy's pretty cool?
No? Like you know I Nope, I don't have one either. I do know a lot of people who have them, and it's I think it's because they get blocked by enough people that they want to have someplace where they can go, say, like so Dana White and people like that who end up blocking guy.
I get a lot of from people saying they give me screenshots of being blocked by Luke and they're like, please, I never meant him any harm. Please get Luke tang like.
One point three million follow ups if he didn't block everybody.
What are you saying about his character?
Uh? His character? It's it's poor. No, I'm not saying that he's a good love.
We love people want to people want me to hate Luke. Why why?
I mean, come on, it's easier that way. Yeah. No, he's a great guy.
But yeah he was believable.
But he blocks. I get it too, and I do not work with him weekly like you. But people tell me all the time, like ask Luke to unblock me.
Who didn't somebody in the Philadelphia seventy six ers organization they got fired because they had a burner account or their wife something. I saw somebody that there was some police chief and Vermont just got fired with a burner acount. You don't want to mess around. You go on your Facebook. Make sure there's no pictures of bongs from like early Colorado days. You want to wipe that crap up. Luckily we came up. We're old, we have old balls. We came up in a time where you could do really dumb ship. Yeah, and it's not Yeah, it's.
Not consequence free back, not anymore.
Remember how how much condoms just casts back in the Dead Man? We never used him?
Right, great movie.
I gotta keep going back to it. Right, it's a great movie. It's who's on the nineties Connor today? Jay? Can we step it up? I know, I know you're reliving your by the way, Jay was in a boy band. Did we get into this yet?
And you talked about that a little bit.
We found a picture that Jay the classic j He is a real person. It was in a boy band in the early two two thousands. There's no records of this very early two thousands. He says he had blonde hips. He had he had like dance moves and stuff. It's one day we'll play it on here.
One day he plays, doesn't he as a guitar player?
He does. There's a weird YouTube video of him doing a Johnny Cash cover with fingerless gloves. Jay. I don't want to expose you to the people unless you want me to. But Jay's got a lot of work out there, all right. He's a documentarian as wow. Okay, enough Jay, Jay got any more for us?
No?
All right, Hey, it's not for the the most exciting show on combat sports.
All right, we're gonna do it.
The most exciting segment. This is where we searched the globe, Chuck.
Oh wow, here it is. Look at this. I love with the new graphics.
We searched the globe for the good, the bad, and the ugly. If it happened in the world, you'll see it on this show. Chuck, have you seen this shit? Let's start with UFC Norfolk. We've got a few entries Chuck. Check it out on the screen over here.
Check yet?
Yeah, yeah, but who's the who's the bloke that he thought this was before the fight started? Have you ever seen him in the face off, Chuck? Basically, I mean we thought they might go tip to tip. No, they're about to throw They're about to throw punches. Here, who's the bloke?
Yeah? Look at that? You know this guy is crazy.
Man.
You see him when he dresses like he does, the whole green and the whole thing.
I have never seen something like this, and I've never seen fire it up for this.
It always cracks me up when I see something like this. When they get in the fight, before the fight or between rounds, you're like, dude, you guys are fighting.
Let's roll on to the end of this fight. You want to talk about a questionable stoppage? This fight almost got more bizarre. SOTB was in the black and Chuck. He was saying that he was faking that he was on Queer Street if you've ever been there but been down there, and the raft jumps in to stop the fight. He get him a little a little slaptick there. What are you thinking about it?
In this I now in real time though if you were looking in real time, it did look like he was wobbled and he was hurting, so he was faking. But if you watch it, not a lot of those head kicks are landing. He's blocking most of them, and you kind of see him actually anticipating.
So he's Are we trying to believe that he's faked being punched drunk so we can come back with a counter I think that's what.
We're to believe. But all right, he certainly like it took him like one nano second to start disputing that.
So yeah, and can we play more of a is it ion yan ion Ion? How do you pronounce his first name? I right, Ian, it's Iowin. I don't. I don't really speak whatever that is? Can we play the next file here of folks? And this is what he's known for at the way? Wow?
Wow, Wow, love it.
How long do you think it took to get that stuff off?
That's pretty damn good man.
Wow, guy's ripped too. All right, let's roll on. Have you seen this ship? Also at UFC Norfolk this weekend?
Run that back by the way.
Afore mentioned Megan Anderson went into the crowd to pull off the Aussie special with the shoey Is this hot? Does this make does this? Is this redeemable? Does this make you want to hang out with her chuck and get tattoos? What? Do you think?
It was as impressive as her punch though, I mean, you know what I mean, like she does two things that are very impressive. I didn't really think she'd be the one to go for this, but this is this is so I hope that that's a brand, like somebody's brand new leg Is that a rebox whatever it is. I think that that's like just somebody's shoe.
There's some dirty motherfuckers out there. I don't wear socks chuck most of the time, So if she wants to do that with me, you know you're rolling the l No, I am wearing socks stick. It was cold out, but that till I live my life. I mean, she she wants to play this with me, you know I'm here, I'm here, right, Yeah, well she's I mean, it's a right hesitation in that country. I think it's a right. It's freaking gross. Let's we can joke a lot, but it's freaking gross chuck.
That is really freaking that is they do it in Australia.
But I mean I've seen it. I've been in Virginia.
You don't want to drink out of somebody's shoes Virginia.
All right, speaking of weird people in Virginia, UFC Norfolk, how about this guy auditioning to be the next just bleed guy? What do you look at his shirt? Chuck? I love dirty. Virginia is for lovers, chunk, as we established, and this guy is an absolute dirhole. But it did it did not win T shirt of the weekend.
In careful because this guy be coming after us.
Like the last guy with with the with the just that guy was coming after just direct guy. Uh the He did not win worst T Shirt of the weekend in sports. Check Out this hockey game about what this guy?
Chuck?
Wow? Wow? Yeah that was more of like a life slogan for you in your late teens. Right yeah, all right there, Chuck. Hey, let's roll on from MMA this past weekend one Championship. Speaking of coronavirus, they had an empty arena event in Singapore due to that virus. Check out this entrance. I don't know the man's name, do I? Oh Shannon, Oh dude, we face like he actually he sold it very well. Look at him just walk up man. Yeah, that is uh, I'm down with that. That is some good stuff. This was in Singapore empty arena, though, which is weird. You know. I mean, hey, you gotta protect you, gotta protect you. But uh, that's there's there's gotta be some relatable thing here in this. This am I the kid in Luke's arms there, I mean, what's going on? This is like something to the show, right, I can't get enough. That is that just a giant That is that a giant green dong from uh Ian? The whole koda right there? All right? Also in one this weekend, here's what really matters. Yoshi Hero aka Yama Sexyama is back sending fools tie hell, chuck. Life is good when a well tanned Sexyama is back in our lives with the with the what kind of what kind of hair is that color? That's ah, that's like the uh the gray what do you call that? Uh? The gray? That dyed gray? What do you call that? No? Silver?
Correct?
Platinum? Thank you camera guy, platinum, Thank you Jay, he's got the platinum. He Look, this is really like my hero sexy is the man. I aspire to be in life.
You could have gotten all about that guy man until this weekend.
He lost his one debut, but he came back with a bang one more time. Look at that, right and get out of here. Wow, this guy went down in sections. Get a suitcase out, scoop him up and get them out of thee. You think you can get that guy through t s after that? Clearly Yokshi Hero Akayama is too sexy for this cage. Right? Are you getting any right? Said Fred Vibes. Can we can we play that in the back? Can we can we hit that up there? Can we be a little faster here?
Jay?
Oh yeah? Look at shout out to the nineties. Here, look at these guys. I can't imagine these brothers like girls.
That's fine.
I mean, look, you know they're ahead of their time, right, I know. So he's a model and you know what that means, right Chuck? And he he does his little turn on the catwalk? Would you hang out in the back of that question? They't's get the same car from the how Bizarre video by OMC.
You know what I'm saying.
Look at the shirt just.
Fall off off.
Yeah, I kind of wanted to be these guys all the time. Great, I'm like, these guys have to get all the girls. Turns out they don't at all, Chuck. But you know how about the brother on base? All right? Yeah, I don't think you can play that based at all.
Sexy video.
We should stay in the nineties. Remember turning on MTV like spring break, being like Daytona beach, people's tops falling off, you know, and just being your parents sit next to you on the couch like normal. Right, the nineties were a wild time, Chuck, you know what I'm saying? Oh, all right, hey, what else kind of shit we got this week? Yeah? You ever seen a sidekick ko like this? We're going to Dublin. This is Jamie Faulding in the black short in the white shorts.
Oh my god, I again.
Damn. It's like throwing a dart and having a bulls eye.
Whoa, No, you don't really see that too often.
Sidekick from the deep dark devs right there, that guy's not getting up, chunk. Okay, let's roll on to a one more time, one more time for the people. No, we're in boxing over the weekend. Former heavyweight champion Joseph Parker was back when his third straight, sending Sean Dell Winters. Oh threw the ropes onto the apron with a vicious four or five six punch combo. I don't know, just enjoy it, Chuck.
That's not.
Now. He's not known as being a great finish. He has a Burger King sponsorship in New Zealand, so shout out to that. You've ever seen in the middle of the ring and he fights down there. He's trying to get back in the title picture. So this was a good showcase for him. Remember he lost the unification about to Anthony Joshua a couple of years back. That's not a bad spider bite last year that kept him out for a long time. You ever get a spider bite in ever? Yeah, it's weird, right, it's real weird. Yeah, all right, all right, thank you Joe Parker.
It's beautiful.
Speaking of ko, Yeah, let's go to some logging here. We got some logging action. Sometimes you just want to throw a big log. My god, throw a big log and it hits you with the ghetto blaster Ben, who's brown style here? This guy is an alcohol Oh my god, Lord, who's filming this?
Right?
That's what I always want to know in these situations.
Those Rex Chapman, you follow Blocker charge?
Yeah? This Wow? Shout out to that world of koops. Where do I find this stuff? That guy? Yeah? Hey, we squeak scattered the globe for Weird pro Wrestling.
He's back.
He's the smooth criminal truck. He's backing a kipop right there. What do you think of this? I don't know what country this is in, but it's pretty creepy to see Michael Jackson. Yeah, to take out these young guys. This is he's bad. Found it found me. I think it found me. He's bad. Wow.
Yeah, amazing.
You know I don't It doesn't matter if he's black or white.
You know what I'm saying. Those moves and everybody has dainty ankles that can do that.
You know, I got dainty ankles, you do? What does that mean? Though? It's weird? Where is this that a mall? It's black, it's white? Yeah?
You can get down with the Michael Jackson wrestling.
Yes, yes, so this was only the second creepiest and most dangerous thing he's ever done with young men? Can we roll the first one? Where's blanket? You remember this?
Of course? Do you remember this? Yeah? Dangle.
Oh God, he puts so many young people in danger. It's unbelievable. This guy, I mean, rest in peace. You don't want to talk about you don't want to talk about the dead with Will. But you have a favorite MJ moment? H No, not really, not even the Moonwalk at the I used to dig.
The moon Walk. That whole album was awesome, like the beat It video.
And yeah, the Thriller album.
I mean it was you remember second grade eleven minute video right the Thriller vinyl was playing wherever you were. That's crazyck.
Then you know that.
I don't even believe that. He's like, you watch that now? And I was like, what do you think his.
Kids are going to His kids are going to grow up doing auctioning off his weird artwork? What do you think?
I don't know.
I could watch this all day, all day on the Have you seen this ship? Yeah? I've seen it. This is weird. Wow. All right, hey, let's roll on to something even creepier.
Here.
Check out this guy wearing high heels. Sudden death is coming, chub, get ready for it? Oh what happened? I thought we weren't allowed to show back on the show. We tried to show a circus at the snake choked the guy out and he killed him. We couldn't show.
So, I mean, there's a lot of effort going into this.
That's like.
I mean, I mean, I've never seen that. That's pretty impressive.
I've never seen a guy in high heels crumble like that. It's pieces, you know what I mean? Just damn wow. The meat shop after he's a good balance in those heels, Chuck, how are you in those?
Not as balance?
It's not as good there. Hopefully they sweep. They swept that ship up right, Get a dog out there, chew on that, chew on that meat. That is that is not weird. That's weird.
Okay, it's very weird.
All right, Hey, you got job. Let's let's get something manly and bad. Asking her how about Mike Terry at submission underground Aliaquinta not having it, by the way, you're looking for you're looking for a condo and Long Island l a Yaquinta will sell it to you. Don't smoke inside of it, though he's not happy. Shades of Ricardo my Orga, the boxing king from Nicaragua. That is bad to the ass. Did he win the fight. I didn't see.
I don't know if he I don't pay attention to really who really follows? He is an interesting cat man. I mean this is this seems like the least. I feel like he smokes your round and like drinks whenevery.
I think he's two percent black, so he can say the N word too. Yeah, that's all. That was awful. I can't believe he did that. All right, let's close with this. We always have hijinks to end it. Somebody's dog gets hit or so, Oh my god, look that guy right to the pills. Look at the reaction here, Chunk. Check out the guy in the green. He can't even handle it. Can't handle it? What do you expect?
What you don't know?
He's got the life jacket on. Can we get a yeah?
I like see that.
We're gonna close with this day in mm A history, Chunk, it's been exactly one thy three hundred and sixty seven days since you have C one ninety nine. Do you remember when Michael Bisping pulled the upset and then he pulled apparently that what what? What?
What is that?
I didn't mean to give you the chef that is uh yeah, that is uh wow.
Yeah, creative types out there.
Somebody sent that. One of our fans sent that in Uh. I don't know if he made it himself. I can't read the guy's name. I'm a little turned off by what happened. That is kind of what happened. He did take his manhood that night and his title I was there, are you? I was not Los Angeles the Forum. Yeah, look at the look at the look in his eye. Notice I said, I all right here, let's let's get off of that. It's time. Thank you in the back for dealing with all that BS. It's time for odds and ends. Chuck. I'm going to go first, Okay. I don't know if you saw this weekend the col main event of that design card in Texas. The Great and I knew mean great Ramon Choco Latito Gonzales, the former pound for pound king. You may remember Chuck at the peak of his stardom, which really was the back end of his prime. He had those two fights with Cecross get sore Rung Visai lost a close brutal decision. The first one got sent to hell in the rematch. Had one fight in the last two years, but came back on Saturday to reclaim a bell at one fifteen against calia Phi walked him down, stopped him with a beautiful brutal So here's the deal. The fighters in the extreme low weight classes. And by the way, Chuck Latito's won titles in three divisions. He really didn't get the fame and attention until really he was on the back half of his career fighting in a weight that's above his head, where he's taken damage to win fights. He went in there and just and just reminded you of who he could be if I was a little too balls. He tried to walk in there and punch with the puncher. He got sent down. But to see a guy, I know he's only thirty two, but that's old for these weight classes. To see a guy, you know, empty the jar one more time. You want to talk about the big business that could be ahead. Did you ever see his twenty twelve fight with Wan Francisco Estrada, who's a pound for pound ran guy, he's the king at one fifteen, they do that rematch there? Yeah, how about how about a trilogy fight with with SSR.
I mean, that seems like that's the one he wants right, that's understandable.
I just you know, these lower waight classes are always under the radar. But Chocolate Tito is a man. He is a man. He is a king of kings. He is a a great dude.
And uh was he on the uh he likes he was on the McGregor Mayweather card, wasn't he?
No, he wasn't he. He would be on the triple G under cards first stretch. When HBO got ahold of him, they kind of put him out there. He likes family stuff. Do we have that in the back. You know, he's just you know, I mean, you know, my jet is a dude. Well yeah, you're hey, this is HRD.
I mean hilarious.
All right, that's it. You want to get into there, you know, we just leave that.
Forty eight is this weekend obviously, And Sean O'Malley remember that, yes, twenty three years old, last time we saw him in the cage, and he's finally returning. It's been I think almost two years there is look at him if you remember in that fight, his last one at UFC two twenty two. I thought he was kind of on the verge of kind of breaking through and sorry, Reebok was putting out like tied ice shirts about this.
He was like all kinds of love ideas he wanted to basically every time.
The show him's got a spliff, he's he's always doing this stuff. I felt like he was on the verge. But for the last two years he's had he had that foot injury in the fight, and then you know he's ad a I think yet hip surgery. He's been suspended like it's he's been wronged because of the residual effects. He's been pulled off a cart. Luke, I'm only just barely touched I can right now. Luke's his domain. But it's good to have him back, very very quietly on the prelims this coming Saturday. It's kind of a crazy thing. That's been two years. The guy is no. Twenty five years old, the Matt and that you know what's crazy is in that age range. They just took two years away from this guy. That's when all the stupidity is out there, right, Like this guy what I had like four fights in that time. That's when you're stupid, you do crazy things. And it would have made him a star. I would have liked to have seen that. They took those years away from him. I hope he's still hope he built up guy.
Yeah, I hope he hold you know, I hope he stayed in the gym and was just going after it and he has a funny dude.
We can remember they were interviewing him, Joe Rogan, you're a.
Tattoo before you're e Doesn't that mean you're in a gang? Or is that just the tear drop just means his star?
Sorry? Sorry? Is the star? All right?
All right? He said, Chuck, do you have any tattoos?
I don't, do you?
No, I don't. Yeah, I'm a little afraid of needles. I don't like I go to get a flu. I didn't get a flu shot this year. You know, really it's good. Yeah. I don't want to get on any pro anti vaccination rant here. Luke will take me out there, Chuck, thank you for joining us this week. Fun We want to We want you people out there watching and listening to us to hit us up. Can we head up with the socials here? Jay? Can you follow us on Instagram at Morning Combat? Follow us on YouTube. We need you. Here's the deal on YouTube. All right, we're building an army here. We want you to like this video. More importantly, want you to subscribe if you are still watching this show, if you are still drinking from the the areola every week and enjoying it. Guys, can you pay it forward? Can you just click subscribe? This thing's taken off like a rocket ship, all right, like the Challenger. We don't want to be any school teachers left behind. It's been fair enough. I can make that joke. Yeah, we want to see this thing take off to the stratus fair So do your part and that and follow this gentleman right here at they probably just Mendonhall or something on follow simple the man in the Myth podcast the Athletic dot Com. We love your work. The people love you. You know what I'm saying. You have a you have a scary almost rash Markazi level Q rating with.
You think so yeah, I don't know if I go quite that bad.
That guy's a man.
We've got restaurants in Vegas that like meals.
I've I've eaten his uh his, Yeah, I mean all right, that's the show for this week. Sorry if we creeped you out at all. Luke Thomas will be back next week. And as you guys know, two forty eight. This weekend, giant things to come morning combat will be with you as we head into Tony Habib season. So we head into wilder fury through. This is gonna be a great This is gonna be the year for combat sports and a man boxing together the consummation station. I'm right in the middle of it.
Okay, let's hope it all happened.
Yes, let's hope. Let's hope. I got nothing else to add.
That's it.
You got any instructions people, you've said plenty of spade and new to their animals or anything.
We're bringing that back.
No, Bob that died with Bob.
Is he alive?
Price is wrong? Price is wrong? Bitch? Is he dead? Jay?
Now?
Yeah? That long, real thin Michael. That was a little creepy, right, He always like hold it like it was like a joint, like it get roach clip. Yeah, he's like, he's like, I bet did he ever touch those women on that show?
God?
Very hard, very hands on approach, very Harve Harvey, w I know eins seen. I'm sorry Win who didn't kill himself with the other guy didn't kill himself Epstein, Sorry about that. Hey, shout out to our team here guys, a lot a lot of andy kings in here. They will take one for the team if they need to. I really appreciate that hunger out of them. I'm lingering, but the show is over. May all your hosedy loyal or something like that. May hopes and dreams, get in the weight room, whatever you gotta do here. A lot of people call me a chubby lance based It's time to get in shape, right, it's time. The spring's coming. Uh yeah, swimsuit scissen is gonna be on the horizon before you know it. Morning combat is the show. There's nothing else like this. Okay until they can't sl it, and that'll be there'll be nothing left. But for now we are hot fire. Thank you. We out
