UFC Iowa: Sandhagen vs. Figueiredo Preview | Times Square Boxing Lookahead | Morning Kombat - MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Reveale.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Look at this now, tip top.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Jesus.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Oh it's time to be Oh yeah, you feel it,

(00:39):
you hear it. It's on you. Hey, it's morning combat,
back at it, fired up, ready to be here. Friday,
May second, two thousand and twenty five, and I don't
know the best damn combat sports talk show they really
ever considered putting together the BBC with that b d e.
Brian Campbell one half of your hosting duo Today, tomorrow forever, right,

(01:00):
that's Luke Thomas of Washington, d C. Fame Luke. Today
is the ten year anniversary of what super fight?

Speaker 1 (01:09):
So today is May second.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yes, you might call it the biggest fight of all time.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
You might, oh give me a hint boxing?

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Would it be Canelo Mayweather?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
No, that was twenty thirteen, that was when we met.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
That's true. That's twelve, oh, Pakia.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Ten years. Since ten years, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, we've we've only gotten older. Welcome into today's show.
It's gonna be a great one for you. We're probably
gonna be goofballs, but we're going to get you all
fired up and ready for UFC. Is it des moines? Uh,
I'm just a calling it Iowa UFC Iowa this week,
and obviously Turkey's takeover of Times Square will be a
big topic as that goes down tonight on his own
pay per view, and we'll look at the latest news.

(01:55):
Look back at the PFL card last night from Universal
Studios in Orlando. No fan subs or dead wrongs today.
Apparently they weren't good enough. There wasn't enough of that.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Well, I think we have some, but we just didn't have.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
You know, we want to make sure that when we
hit them with the batch with Peter Northam, you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Like, somebody's gonna have to clean that up. Yeah, that's
pretty disgusting. So Morning Combat at gmail dot com would
be your way to get into the show. We'll run
the ones that we haven't run yet when you sent
some good ones to pair with them. Thank you. That
goes down on Friday's show. A programming reminder, of course,
we're here tonight right now today in studio here in Manhattan,

(02:33):
the medow Arks Studio. Will be home Monday. We'll do
an episode at eleven am Eastern. But next Wednesday, Next Wednesday,
right here at this table, May fifth, we're talking about
UFC three fifteen pregame preview BC L Let's go Iceman,
Chuck Mindenhall and lots of quervo to be had. You
gonna you're wanta man up? I had.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
I had quervo last night. Blanco, No, what was the
real nice one one? Cristellino Crystallino, that's the one I had.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
It was really good. It was really good.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Actually, yeah, I did it. Get my wife.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
My wife made fun of me.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
She goes, your breath smells like margarita and marijuana, and
I said, I said, sweetheart, that's a that's my favorite combination.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Fucking just be honest with you. Yeah, indeed, indeed, right there.
I didn't have a bunch.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
I didn't. I didn't.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Long Island Luke was making fun of me. Yeah, He's like,
did you have three of them? I was like, fuck you,
Long Island Luke. I only had one.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
So how drunk were you off of?

Speaker 1 (03:25):
No? Just nothing, I mean, I just just enough to
take the edge off the day. That's it all right that.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
This man once said it would take fifty two beers
to get you.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
There was a time in my life when I was
really completely, completely terrible alcoholic.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
But I had I should tell that public story. All right,
we'll let that one go. Hey, the third member of
our team, the man with the horn himself, comes to
us directly due to a gentleman's down Under from down Under.
It is Luke Nosita of the main card minute.

Speaker 4 (03:50):
What up gang?

Speaker 5 (03:51):
Coming down Under from man's down Unders sounds a little
bit nicer than ball Sacks.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
I'll take it, all right?

Speaker 1 (03:56):
All right?

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Does you is your dad aware of the show? By
any chance you're Australian born, My dad.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
Is very aware of this show. Is he aware of
the ball Sack joke? That is another question?

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Okay? Because you couldn't pick us out of a police
lineup right, he might.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
Be able to pick you guys out.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
I'm not gonna lie. Long Island.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
People on my sub stack were asking me if the
way in which we talk about the subject constitutes workplace harassment.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
I say yeah, I mean.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Well, considering the other side of that hit him being
a bad boyfriend. He's live streaming tonight too.

Speaker 5 (04:26):
You are, that's right, baby, I'm doing the boxing tonight,
you see tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
End of the year, I'm definitely doing UFC tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
I was thinking about doing the box tonight, but I'm
so fucking tired.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Well, because you got back from a commentary gig this week.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, which I wasn't supposed to do that gig. You
know our friend Johnny Joanne Lacuasto. Oh yeah, he was
supposed to do it, but then had he had a
last minute travel change. So they rang me up and
they're like, you want to do it?

Speaker 2 (04:50):
You see.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Let me just say this, because I know you've done
it before. We love John Annick on the show for
any number of reasons. Let me just say this. Any
kind of comment terry is hard, like anything, any any
even doing the in ring or in cage interviews, all
of that is hard. Play by play commentary, which is
what I had to do. And of course that's not

(05:11):
a natural fit for me. Sure I had to do
it this time. It is super fucking hard.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
The ultimate challenge in broadcasting, in my opinion, it.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Is so you don't realize every time you have to
throw to a production element, there could be something that
happens on the fly. You have to throw it back
to the announcer, They have to throw it back to you.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
You have to throw I mean, it's.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
Just constant balancing. It's a high wire act. That you're
always on the whole time.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
I love I love it.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Put me back in the color chairs.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Okay, okay, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
Don't get me wrong.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Chasta XSC for the opportunity was I in the end?
I actually had a great time.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
But it's tough, dude. That's a tough job, no doubt.
But the clips that I saw you sounded great. You
and Jessica Aguilar for xFC down there at kill Clips. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Young Guns seven was the one, and then we recorded
Young Guns eight. I'm not sure when that will air,
but that one, Young Guns. I cannot wait for folks
to see.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
You stand with me when I say that we stand
by the Young Guns two soundtrack as John bon Jovi's
like musical Mountaintop Ooh well, Lazy of Glory, come on.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
I would agree with you, but I feel like, what's
the what's the song that all the white girls love?

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Oh We're halfway there? Yeah, that one.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
I was gonna say. It's either that or pour some
sugar on me by Death Life.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
I feel like, I feel like that song by bon
Jovi is like their peak song.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
But I agree with you as a compendah in terms
of coolness. Yeah, yeah, commercial peak that or when he
sold out and went to country and it's my life,
you know, it's life.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Deserves to be I mean, burn the masters, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Thank you, burn the boats too, Goggins. There we go
a lot of rambling bullshit. But you can follow this
show before we get into the meat of it, right,
I mean the meaty part with our social channels, our
handles right there, our YouTube channels, all that good stuff.
Reach out and touch one of us, huch Sally, Yeah,
I I I don't know. Yeah, we're fired up to

(07:05):
be here on a Friday, rare Friday studio appearance from US.
I love it, Luke, because the trains aren't as busy.
This office is dead. You know.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
There was one person in here when I came in. Yeah,
I mean when the deer was sleeping and scratching his balls.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
I couldn't believe it.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yes, what do you think do you think Ken when
he goes home as maybe like a like a chemist
in terms of the creation of drugs.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Let me just ask a question.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
If you had who in that office right there, of
all the production donks, this will answer your question.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yes, yes, it is most likely to.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
Either to own either a reptile or an a racknet
Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
Because that question a beaker collection, because like Ken could
be a secret meth like genius level cook and we
just don't know.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
It, like like a.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Can you'll hear me, I got like a Walter White
exactly exactly. But in terms of the deer is nodding, Yeah, yeah,
pretty much pretty much. But uh, who do you think
has the most amount of milligrams in their system right now?

Speaker 6 (08:03):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, I mean you could. You've got Keith Richards. Are
you kidding me?

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Here? You go? There, we go? All right, enough of
that bullshit. Thank you for playing. Hey, your favorite show
is about to hit you up favorite style with topic
number one. And by the way, as we get into this,
I want you to know the topic number one. The
road to Saturday's UFC Iowa main event of Corey Sandhagen
and Davison Figaredo at bantamweight is brought to you by

(08:28):
Total Wireless, the official wireless provider of the UFC. Get
unlimited data that won't slow you down, Luke Thomas. This
is a very good main event, pairing the number four
and number five bandam weight in the world and a
decent card top to bottom for a fight night card.
I love the momentum we've been having lately of the
crowds last week fired up. It's been a good run

(08:50):
right here. So as Corey Sandhagen faces off with Figaredo
in this main event, and Figaredo having already been a
champion of course multiple times in the division low him.
Sanhagan has gotten close to that title opportunity himself a
few times, but has had a bispingion run of every
time he sticks his head up above water, he does
have a big time setback. So the question here is

(09:13):
this specific fight, this main event for san Haagen a
doer die from the standpoint that if you're going to
have at age thirty two to one more run at
the top is not going to happen if you don't
get by a Fagarato on Saturday night, is a do
or die for him.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Short of getting what Michael Bisping ultimately got to get
that title, which was a UFC one ninety nine, a
last minute notice to fill in to fight Luke rock Hold.
Short of that, this is it. This is this is
the fight, because you're not taking on some kind of
scrub and Davison figuredo, you're taking on a very good
former champion, but he is a former flyweight and he

(09:52):
is frankly in terms of age relatively speaking anyway, long
in the two seven and Corey Sandagen has had enough
of these fights where you know, losing to Umar is
no is no. I don't think it's any kind of
disreputable thing, but the accumulative weight of split decision to TJ.

(10:13):
Dillashaw that kind of set him back. And then of
course there's the Umar fight and then you know, getting
choked out by al Jamain Sterling. It's like every time
there was this chance to get across that threshold, it
has not gone well, or at least that a bare
minimum is you know, it could have gone a lot better. Actually,
think is the best way to put that at thirty
what is he thirty three?

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Now? I believe thirty two thirty three. Let's double check that,
double check that for me.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
If you can't look on Luke, we're not completely in
a place where it's impossible, as I mentioned, if serendipity
finds its way. But in terms of proving that you
deserve to be in thirty three to being I mean,
this is it be see, yeah, this is it this
is the window. And I know we have some sound
to this effect. He has even kind of talked about
I'm sick of being that guy who almost wins a

(10:59):
bridesmaid was a bridesmaid. He is so talented, and you know,
we understand the greater context, which is that bantamweight is
a very very difficult and tough division.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
It was historically deep about two years ago. Let's be
honest here.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
You know it's been deep for well, it's still deep.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
I mean it's still tough. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
So the point I'm trying to make is the one
you had raised, which is sometimes we like to be like, well,
there's always a way to come back from a loss,
and in general there is truth of that, and it
might even be true here to an extent, but it
also feels like we've seen the stumbles. If it's gonna
get right, it has to get right now.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
It's his time. It's his time to shake off the
label of the idea that he can't win the big
one or he can't beat fighters that that you know,
odds makers think are better than him. And I don't
think this is a case where people think, I mean,
what do we know the odds on this one coming.

Speaker 5 (11:44):
In up here, I got a minus five fifty Santagan
plus four to ten figure.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Okay, that's way wider than I would have expected.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Do you think those odds are nuts?

Speaker 5 (11:54):
There are little nuts. I got Corey back when he
was like minus four hundred. I thought that was a
little expensive.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Two things, Corey is the better fighter of the moment,
and I think he has better stock of the moment. Yes,
they're both coming off of defeat, but I think he
has more left in the tank. I think he's the
better stock at the moment. I'm shocked at nearly six
to one, nearly six to one favorite odds in that case,
that that's jumping out. What are we missing here? Outside
of the size difference? I mean, how much are you
gonna hold where Figuraedo moves up in this way class

(12:20):
and we don't know what we're gonna getrom him, We
don't know how long he's gonna be good. He gets
three consecutive wins and suddenly looks like maybe a dark
horse title challenger. How much do you take away from
the loss he had to piodor Yon in terms of
his shine right now to be this much of an underdog?

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Yeah, I mean again, losing to Yan is not disreputable,
but if we're asking, like what does it mean for
title implications, it is a fairly bad loss, in part
because it ended up being a little bit a little
bit one sided in the end, and you know, some
of the things you thought he might be able to leverage,
which were forms of grappling control, really didn't play a
significant role at all. But that's the thing that's interesting

(12:56):
about this fight, which is that Corey Santagan has at
times has shown to be vulnerable into certain kinds of
grappling positions. And when you've got a fantastic back attacker
like Figaredo, Oh yeah, I want to be clear, I
favor san Haagan to win here, but at the same time,
I you know, there are certain elements of Figaredo's game
that are uniquely suited to take advantage of what we

(13:19):
at least think bc are Sanhagan's known weaknesses.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Well, we all agree. I'm gonna speak for all of
us and say we think san Haagan has title winning ability.
We've always felt that sometimes it's luck, sometimes it's timing.
Sometimes it's the right improvement at the right time. Is
it his time? Is it now? At age thirty three.
It's gonna have to be based on the way we're
setting up this narrative. But here is Corey Sanhagen talking
about the confidence that he has in his skills in

(13:45):
what this win could.

Speaker 7 (13:46):
Do for him, and like I said, man, I'm better
than ever right now. I've never felt like I have
the actual skills to be a champion more than I
do right now. And Saturday night, I'm super pumped to
put on the best performance of my life, win this fight,
win it impressively, asked for my title shot, and then
hopefully land in a little bit of luck and where

(14:07):
there will be no one else that they have and
h and be the guy that fights for the belt next.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
I mean, you could argue that he could be fighting
for the belt right now if he was coming off
a win. It was bad timing for him at a
point where the division opened up, the sea's parted, but
he had that tough loss to Umar. Or maybe it's
always gonna be O'Malley with the marketing upside in that regard,
but obviously I think we can say it.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
But if he had blasted out Umar, it's a very
different conversation at that point.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Is it as simple as win and get a title
shot here.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
For well, that's a little bit more complicated because of
some of the the factors that you raise.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
I would say that a solid.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
Win here, Yes, the answer is he definitely will get
a title shot. If you look at the top five,
O'Malley sitting at one, Yon sitting at two. But Yan,
who has the winner of Figaredo, has already been a
champion and is not listen.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Well, Yah need another win or can he just say.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
This is the thing that people like, why didn't Yon
get the fight against Morob for UFC three sixteen And
the answer is probably a couple of things that they're
still want to push O'Malley on an individual basis. But
if you're trying to sell pay per views to a
North American audience, in a particular American audience, having two
people in there who don't have what I would call
is characteristically American names, and certainly in the case of Mirob,

(15:22):
he speaks fluent English, but it is a second language.
These are not like home grown stars in that traditional way.
And I'm not saying that fans can't appreciate people who
aren't from here. Of course, we know there's a decorated
history of them doing exactly that, but it takes time.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
It's hard to do that.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
An American is in terms of preference for slots on
main events on pay per view cards. Whether we like
this fact or not, they are going to get some
preference in there. So for that reason, if Sanjagan wins,
I think it there's a good chance he could.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
The thing I have to ask yourself is Yon.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
I guess I said before it was like Yon was
clearly better than Figuredo. Corey skates through. I think it's
as I don't know, I don't know how that one goes.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
It's probably, I mean it, it depends on a few things,
but I don't think Corey hasn't fought either of the
guys that are fighting next for the title, so that
also helped him, helps him well, he thought Umar who
already lost, right, But in terms of the rematch of
Morob versus Omalley, that's right, so it would be a
fresh match. That's exactly right. So look, getting the win
is obviously we've.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Already seen Marob versus Yon. Morob just ran over him.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, let's hear from Corey one more time talking about
that whole bride's maid label. And you know, look, it's
gotta be tough to what that does to your psyche
and your confidence when you're constantly having to rebuild when
you get as close as you can. Uh, here's saying,
Heygan talking about dealing with all that as you.

Speaker 8 (16:38):
Go into this next push, a fight like this, maybe
a title fight after where it's kind of the mindset
and like what you've done and what's limited to you
so far.

Speaker 7 (16:46):
Yeah, I mean in the past, I'm just losing by inches,
you know, I'm not really losing by miles against any
of these guys. So I just gotta you know, I
just gotta go out there and touch up some things.
You know. I'm sick of being the guy that's really
good at almost winning and uh and I'm and I'm
done being that dude. It's it's hard, you know, it's

(17:07):
hard to beat really good fighters. So I'm freaking trying
my best. But you know, I think that I've learned
a lot from my experience. I'm a super experienced guy.
I know everything that's you know, not everything that's gonna happen,
because fighting is crazy. But but yeah, I mean, after
this one, I really think that I'll land in one

(17:28):
of those spots where there's gonna be no one else
to fight for the belt. Umar's out for a while.
I don't know what Yan's doing for his fights, but
he's kind of coming off of a skid and or
a previous skid. He's on a two fight win streak now,
but he's also lost to both of those guys, So
I don't know how interesting of a fight that'll be
if if they do a title fight for for Yan,

(17:49):
but also the entire world wants to watch me and
O'Malley fight. The UFC fans have been calling for that
fight for a really long time. And then against Morob,
I'm the only guy that hasn't fought him, and so
uh so, yeah, man, I think that I have I
could land myself in a little pot of luck after
this one.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
But I got to go.

Speaker 7 (18:07):
Out there and make this luck happen by just going
out and looking like the most impressive Corey Sanhagen that
the world's ever seen. On Saturday against Davidson Figaredo.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
You know, there's no net this time. The back is
kind of against the wall. From the standpoint of the
super elite opportunities, maybe this brings out somebody who's not
gonna be too patient, somebody who's going to have a
little bit more onus in this fight. It's not that
Sanhagan has lacked that consistently, but it's sort of you
got to find the right confidence momentum. You gotta find

(18:38):
that right moment, and so far it's felt like the
right moment for him, but the results have been wrong
in terms of if he can get this done against
what Figaredo brings at age thirty seven, Is it as
simple to call it a strikler grapper strikler versus grappler matchup,
or does it have the potential to entail a lot
more than that strikler strikler strickler, Yeah, strikler, thank you.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Figure can crack, He can crack. But Sanhagan has historically
shown a very good chin and should probably have a
pretty decisive advantage. And you would just imagine, if you're Figuredo,
do you really believe that your best chance to win
is keeping it on the feet. Probably not. Probably, that
seems unlikely. It seems unlikely that that's your best way

(19:22):
to do it. So I think you're gonna see something
like what you saw with the Yon fight, Figuredo's gonna
test the ground or at least what opportunities exist there
and if it gets shut down, which it basically did
for the most part. Yeah, so then what happened there,
Yon just began to basically style over the course of time.
I think that's a similar kind of fight. Similar, I mean,
there's gonna be meaningful differences, but similar kind of fight.

(19:44):
For what san Haagen's going to want to look for here?

Speaker 2 (19:47):
I mean, is it a problem that at bandon weight
Figuredo's more of a single punch, out of time counterpuncher.
He's shown good power at this weight division. Yes, his
power has been sometimes his saving Grayson close fights, but
I don't think he throws in enough. So are you
setting up in your mind that if sand Haagen has
the same takedown defense success that Yan had, we could

(20:07):
be looking at a repeat here.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
I mean, look at Figuredo's numbers. He lands two point
nine to one strikes per minute. That's a little below average,
but he absorbs three point five to five. So he
gets hit a lot. Now, a lot of that comes
from the moreno fights and whatnot, but you know, in
general he's hittable. I think is the way I would
put that. Contrast that with Sagin five point zero two
strikes landed per minute, it's very high.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
Yeah, here we go sand Hagan, excuse me.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
And then he absorbs three point four to six, which
is also high, but at least has a positive differential.
But the point I'm trying to make his volume, he'll
he'll rain on you if you let him do it.
And I just don't feel like Figuredo has a defensive
umbrella to go with the metaphor if I may so, Yeah,
that's got I think these are the fault lines that
you're kind of looking for here.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, there's no question about that. In terms of a
betting angle Long Island Luca, these two you'd probably guess
they would go the distance. But is their value here
on the under?

Speaker 5 (21:00):
There's not a lot of value on this fight. I
gotta be real, like, I'm going Sandagan again. I got
him at minus four hundred. He's even heftier. Now you're right,
it probably goes a distance. Even Sandagan by decision is
minus money.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
So is this the fight though? That Sanagan not only
makes a statement but makes a large one with a finish.
I'd like to see the threat more of high kicks
from him, but also he could submit in this in
this pairing Sanhagen. Yeah, taking that back too. I know
it's a threat on the ranges.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
I think that's less likely. But he does have a
big height advantage. This is five to five versus five eleven,
so it's always harder to jab up. And then he
has a two inch reach advantage, So there are some
physical to the extent that Sanagan can manage range, that's
going to be a big problem for Figaredo, something to
pay attention to. Also, if I may just say one thing,

(21:49):
when you watch Sandagan's early UFC fights, he did get
himself into a few problems by being too confident. But
there's a certain kind of swag that he had that
has been replaced with a little bit more cold, calculated,
functional game.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
And you get that.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
You know, sometimes you get injured in a fight or
it's just you got to win in advance. What I
would say is when he's flowing and he's in that state,
it's just a much more dynamic game. If he can
find a way to avoid those mistakes but get to
that flow state, he will be tough to beat.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, big moment here, big close up for Corey san Haagan.
Do you think that he gets it done and do
you think he gets it done over the distance?

Speaker 1 (22:26):
I think he gets it done over the distance.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
Yeah, I'd be surprised if he scores a stoppage, but
you know, one never knows. But yeah, I give me
san Hagan by decision.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
I think I'm sort of in the middle. I think
those odds are strikingly large. I do think he's going
to win, So give me about half of those odds
and a more comfortable I think.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
I mean if it was like a minus three high twos,
I'd be like, yeah, that makes sense. High fives is surprising.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
I mean this to close the shop on talking about Figuredo,
there's as much pressure on him in terms of staying
relevant in the top seven here with a win. I mean,
how far does he fall with the second consecutive los?

Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yeah, figure Outa's sitting at five, San j haagens sitting
at four. I don't know how much further he would
fall because you've got song Gadong Vera and Rob Faught.
He's beaten two of those guys already, so it's a
little hard to say. But certainly, what is figure out
of like thirty seven years old. You know, you lose
to san Haegen, you lose to Yawn. It kind of
tells us that, like you you, we now know what

(23:19):
you are at bantamweight.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Warning track power.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah exactly, He's got big power, but he's obviously got
great jiu jitsu, but he's maximized what is possible basically.
So again, both guys kind of in a position here
where it's like, all right, what do we got, Fellas, Like,
who's going to show us something here?

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Big stakes for combat fans that want to juggle this weekend,
and we're going to get into it shortly of the
Times Square triple header that's going on, which I think
is a six pm Eastern just pay per view star
You know what time this UFC Fight Night card starts
and will we be clashing? I can tell you in
just see One Man, Okay, So we're going much later there,
so there won't be that same competition by the time

(23:54):
San Jagan figured out, which I as a fan, I'm
happy with Luke because this is a very good man
event to see.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
It is a very good main event. What time is
the Canelo fight?

Speaker 2 (24:04):
I believe that card starts at eight pm Eastern, the
four fight pay per view main card from Riod. Yes,
they're starting it at eight pm Eastern because they wanted
to guarantee for the Mexican and Mexican American fan base
that won't get to see him in person live, but
at least they'll get to see it.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
Or you could just put fight where the Mexican fans are.
You can do that.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
We were doing that in the six thousand Seed Arena
and Riod. Did you see the Grand Arrival that there's
like eight people there.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
I mean it's any any there's a bunch of Mexican
media because I follow some and they clearly all got
flown in because all the questions are like.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
How much is your watch? And you know, how excited
a year to be in Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Still a fun weekend of combat ahead of us, and
that includes PFL last night, which we'll get you. I
enjoyed that card, so that was pretty good.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
Actually, yeah, there we go.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Let's go to the cole main event though of Saturday's
UFC IOWA Fight Night card. Really good ground match up here,
the grappling of Bo Nickel. There's great submission in jiu
jitsu skills of Renier de Ritter, a middleweight clash with
two guys that are really looking to make a big statement,
but in different ways. For ourdr, he's looking for a

(25:08):
third straight win since debuting in the UFC. Just what
in November. He's fought twice already, two big submission victories,
and you've got a Bonnicchol who certainly has the glossy record.
But man, has it been a little bit of a
reality TV journey if you're following the court of public
opinion about exactly where Bonnicol is at. Two fights ago,
he gainst the big Showcase opportunity fight against Cody Brundage,

(25:31):
people thought he got hit more than he should and
then last fight out against Paul greg Luke, we saw
Bonnickel not even shoot to the ground once win a
striking decision, but kind of took a chance in how
close and weird the fight was to practice out his
skills at that level. Is the backlash against bon Nickel
that has a lot of people questioning if he really

(25:52):
is that phenom we thought he was coming out of
having to win twice in the Dana White Contender series
and then watching him mop up and submit and take
down a bunch of guys in a row. Where do
you think the stocks at right now for bo in
real life? And do you think people have been too
harsh in terms of critiquing him as he enters a
very tough matchup here. I, oh man, it's such a

(26:16):
it's such a difficult question for me to answer.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
I don't share the fans hatred of him. I don't
necessarily have as.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
Much hatred strong, but there's a side. It's a side
turned aggressive Long Island.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Would you call that? There is palpable hatred for bow
Nickel from the fan base.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
Again, hatred is a strong word.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
Dislike, sure, but fear that he's not the real fear
that we've been because we've had a weight around. It's
not like he's fighting every three months. I mean.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
So there's basically a couple of problems that have really
fucked him up. One is the inconsistency in terms of
how often he's out there. It's you know, when a
guy is hot, you got to get him out there.
And when he was doing that in the Contender series,
like where he was one and then back again and
he's blowing the doors off people, You're like, oh shit,
this is amazing. He's upping the ante every time and
he's staying visible. But that hasn't really happened. That's the

(27:07):
first problem. The second problem is the skill set development. Like, yes,
there were some elements of what some elements of what
he said after the Paul craigfight, which was, you know,
I didn't go for a take down and I lasted
three rounds on the feet, blah blah blah. That's good
experience for him, and it does show something. It just
didn't show nearly what he thought it meant. And then

(27:27):
to like think that that was an especially interesting accomplishment.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
Do you think he sounded delusional or do you think
he sounded all very sober, like, Look, I got a
chance to work out all.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
Fighters are delusional.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
Like when people are like, oh, he sounds delusional, I'm like, dude,
he fistfights in a cage for money. They're all delusional.
You can't do that job if you're not delusional. But
you can be delusional about certain things. There still has
to be some part of it that's grounded, And to me,
it's the over rating of things. It's not to go
on and like, listen, I'm happy to get the three rounds.

(28:01):
I'm happy that I didn't need my wrestling, but I
also understand that you know, hey, he was just throwing overhands.
It wasn't like there was this other array of skills
that complimented it, and it was that it was ignoring
that plus the lack of frequency in terms of octagon appearances,
and then to your point, being very very delusional like
all fighters are, but being very delusional, that combination has

(28:24):
turned quite toxic for the fan base. They really really
really really don't like that. But this fight, to MEBC
is an interesting opportunity. Our dr is many things, but
a wallflower is not one of them.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
No, Jacob Dellen and that guy not one headlight, No no, no,
not one or two or even three. Marlena is in
this case. All right?

Speaker 3 (28:45):
You know, the point I'm trying to make is he's
going to bring the fight to you, and sometimes he'll
do it recklessly and sometimes he'll do it excitingly, and
it's everything in between. But he's not going to just
lay back and have a fight like Paul Craig had
with him, right, Like, do we expect Paul Craig two
point ohs or I should say, another version of the
Paul Craig fight.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
I do not I do not expect that.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
I think if it goes that way for a little while,
RDR is going to clinch up. So the point I'm
trying to make is you're asking about bo Nickel. I
actually feel like there's a lot of opportunity here, opportunity
being the word, to recapture maybe a little bit of
what is lost here. One fight is not going to
do it. You guys are wrong about this. I think
it's more than dislike. I think there's people like aggressively

(29:25):
angry at him, but I think you can kind of
tamp that down a little bit provided he turns in
something beseener.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
So if you believe that it's anger, is it fueled
by distrust? Like we thought you were going to be
great and you're just not that.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Yes, there's people who think he's a fraud. There's people
who think there's another thing we haven't discussed, which is
the UFC pushed Sean O'Malley really hard. Yes, and for
a while that actually worked for folks who don't remember
Sean O'Malley in the Contender series, and then that little
magical moment right after that in the UFC fans were
red hot about him, but it cooled off eventually for

(30:01):
a variety of reasons.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
Two years, suspension of drugs all that's one.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
And the cheeto VERI the first one was weird and
the whole bit. But you notice that they began to
get resistant about what the industry was pushing. You hear
this term industry plant that's getstrated pushing right wing politics
at the moment. That's why I mean, it's just laundering fascism,
is what he's doing. But the point I'm trying to
make is, in the case of bo Nickel, he got

(30:25):
pushed in that similar kind of way and then it
fell short, and that turns up the toxicity to the
nth degree. So what I'm trying to say is he
doesn't even necessarily have to win BC. But if he
goes in there and it just gives it his all
in some kind of way.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
He has to win over the fans. That's more importantly
than he has to win.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
But I made this point yesterday in my life chat.
Does he think that he has to win over the fans?
That's because if he doesn't think that, he's not going
to fight that way at least I should say the
chance of him fight in that way is significantly reject.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
Does he think he's better than he is and because
of that it's slowing his his well rounded growth. We're
going to get a great answer to that great point.
I love the matchmaking to be very fair. It's fair,
it's a great matchup. They really did a good job
with that. So Bonnickel seven and oh just still twenty
nine years old, So he's still on the light side
of thirty. But we haven't seen that consistent commitment in

(31:16):
him beating the legitimate names. Well, maybe here's the first one.
Long onan looke. I'm very curious they see the odds.
I really don't know where they go, but I would
guess you would go RDR at least minus two fifty.

Speaker 5 (31:27):
I'm I'm assuming you mean plus two fifty. What really
RDRs plus two to eighty Bonnickel minus three fift.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Okay, then here's the question. What am I missing when
I see athletic differences? I get I get the one
dimensional for the most part status of what RDR really
is at this level. Let's be honest. I get that.
But is Nickel either not one dimensional himself or is
his one dimension so much more dangerous than r DR's
one dimension. What are we doing here? That's I think.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
I think if I had to guess what the odds
makers are looking at, they're looking at the athletic difference.
There's simply no question. Bo Nicol is a much better athlete,
I'm sorry, three time national champion out of Penn State.
He's a better athlete. Fact, kind of gets what he
at certain times, gets to the fight in a hurry,
whereas RDR just kind of stands real tall, you know.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
But you just said.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
RDR sometimes will come out you and put the pressure
like he did to Kevin Allen a ground affair, and
you know he can ground it out that way too.
But I think all of these force bow Nicchol to act,
whereas Paul Craig. The thing that was frustrating about the
Paul Craig fight was Paul Craig felt like a sitting
duck and that Bo Nicholl just couldn't do anything about.
RDR is just going to force contact, like you're going

(32:40):
to have to do something.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
I think for that reason they're they're high on him,
But you know, well I would I would have favored
RDR bye by like to really no.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
I would have Again, I think the odds here are
a little high in both the main.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
And comine, but I would have I favored Nickel. Well,
we've got Nickel talking about why he believes he's gonna win,
and certainly that would support the odds if you believe
that too, And it's built upon the idea that our
dr does make a lot of mistakes. Certainly not a
perfect fighter, let's hear from Bo.

Speaker 6 (33:06):
Yeah, you know, when we look at Deritter, I think
that we can obviously talk about the jiu jitsu. You know,
he's many many submission finishes and you know, different submissions.

Speaker 9 (33:15):
He's got very creative.

Speaker 6 (33:18):
On the ground and so that's something that I looked
at as high level skills.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
And you know, he's also got a judo black belt.

Speaker 6 (33:25):
So he's a guy that you know, uses that to
his an advantage in the clinch and being able to
throw people. And then when I look at a striking
I think that, you know, he's got a really good
job straight left hand is pretty solid. But I think
that at the same time, he makes a lot of
mistakes in all areas, you know, on the ground and
the clinch, on the feet, and so that's something that

(33:48):
I'll look to exploit and I feel, you know, with
the game plan that my team and I have said,
that I'll.

Speaker 9 (33:56):
Be able to do that.

Speaker 6 (33:57):
So looking forward to just competing from bell de Belle
pumped up about it.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Let me ask a question. Did he sound a little nasally?

Speaker 10 (34:04):
There?

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Are you trying to uh put at bougar shoegar rumors
around this?

Speaker 1 (34:09):
No? Is he sick?

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Oh wow? Like if he've been dancing with the staff.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
If he's sick, he has some kind of respiratory illness,
and he turns in another shitty performance. Even if and
especially if he wins, all of his problems are only
going to be exacerbated as a consequence.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
I agree, now, But what do you get with what
he said here? R DR is certainly not perfect, certainly
not well rounded. But is our DR error prone or
is it the opposite that he's just so unorthodox that
that's his strength.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
I think he's a little error prone because he'll take
risks and get himself into bad positions.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
Right, But against against good strikers, that's where that becomes
an issue.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
Yes, on the ground three hit him with some big shots, Yes, exactly,
So there's that, and I would say that for me,
it's like, what makes him magical is that he's got
you know that that revert, that inverted triangle he hit
on vitally big dash.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yes, you know those.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
Kinds of things where he can just I wannt't I
wuldn't even necessarily call it hail Mary with.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
The ease of how he dominated Kevin Holland. I mean
it was he just took him.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Down to Holland is not at all the force that Bonnickel.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Hasn't beaten anybody on Kevin Holland's level, has he?

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Who would you favor if he fought Kevin Holland?

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Wait, who would Bo Nickel? If Bo Nickel fought Kevin Holland.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah, Bo Nickel would run him over. You don't think so?

Speaker 2 (35:30):
No, I see the I see the reason why you
said yes. I guess what I'm really trying to say
is is there an argument?

Speaker 8 (35:36):
Man?

Speaker 1 (35:36):
No?

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Maybe I followed. We followed r DR's career going back
to one. We've had him on the show a bunch
of times. I've seen what he can do in multiple
weight classes. I believe he's faced better competition, has better experience.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Oh, that's true.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
Yes, So since Bo showed us something against Paul Craig
that felt like there was a disconnect, like with the
game plan and understanding the whole situation. Even though r
DR takes chances it can be a wild card. I
just see a guy that's fought much better competition and
has has swam for the most part. I mean, look,
he got sent to hell by Mallekin twice, Like there's
no but that's all. That's a freaking heavy, that's a steamroller.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
In retrospect, it's kind of an insane fight to make.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
And I'm just saying like the ease in which yeah,
maybe maybe bon Nickel handles Holland in that same exact way.
So that part's a moot point. But bow Nickel has
more questions than he has things to impress us each
time he steps up right, and I want him to succeed.
I like the bon Nickel story. That was one of
the rare college wrestlers that I did follow his story
throughout it, and you know, he has a cool name
and he seems like a decent dude, but his striking

(36:35):
ain't it. But this is also a weird matchup in
which both guys can't strike. So how does that what
is that going to produce as an actual fight in
your eyes? Is it going to be one of these
things where they're not going to look to push their
ground advantages and it's a really gross spar striking match
like Damian Maya versus a versus No versus a ben
A Askrin you shall receive Yeah, or as Colby Covington

(37:00):
called him, ass Cream. Yeah, him and ask Cream had
the grossest hand fighting match ever. Yeah. Is this a
replay of that? Or does one person have the ability
to hold an advantage on the ground with their specific skill.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
Set you I would imagine that in terms of M
M A, which is what this is. Bo Nickel has
sizeable advantages on the ground because he can he is
much more nimble, he can reverse position I think underneath
in terms of like wrestling get ups, you can control
from the back. But he's not the same kind of

(37:36):
submission threat that I think a guy like RDR is.
RDR is significantly more dangerous and that particular respect. But
you know, you have to get to a position. I see,
I see you smirking.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
I think he's gonna tap that ass. I think RDRs
plus money, I mean put your name on it, as
HERM Edwards used to say, Yeah, r DR by submission
win an upset win, and this will catapult him into
a very big fight Long Island. Luke, tell me there's
value on this.

Speaker 5 (37:58):
Please, I mean there's val I would just take RDR
as a dog at that point, though, why even then?

Speaker 2 (38:04):
Tell me the other side of it? Do you believe
in Bonnickel in this fight? What is he going to do?

Speaker 4 (38:07):
One hundred percent?

Speaker 5 (38:08):
Unlike what you guys were saying before, I actually think
this is exactly like the Paul Craig fight. And it
might be another boring Bonnickel decision where he doesn't even shoot,
But I'm cool with that. I'm taking Bonnickel by decision.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Well, I'm not even sure bon nichols striking is better
than RDR. That's what I'm trying to say.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
I might agree with that, but he's a better athlete
and he can control in the wrestling and thrash him
about That's what I think.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
So he'll win a gross fight.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
I don't know what he wants to do, this is
what I mean. It's like, what does he there?

Speaker 6 (38:34):
Was?

Speaker 3 (38:34):
Okay, so there is one interpretation like once someone pisses
off the fans. You can't tell them anything that doesn't
go with a prevailing narrative.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yes, but one thing that.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
Is at least on my mind, and I cannot declare
that I think it is true because I don't know
if it's true. But there's a part of me that
thinks that he fought How do I say this? It's
it's not it's total logical to say he fought that
way intentionally. But what I'm saying is there was a
he held something back against Paul Craig intentionally, not just

(39:05):
the wrestling, but even in the striking, get the experience,
to get just the experience, because he just wanted to
almost carry the guy.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Is that like Larry Bird playing left handed in Portland
that time?

Speaker 3 (39:15):
That's exactly right, That's exactly right, And so I kind
of wonder about that. I don't know, I don't know
if that's the likeliest explanation, but I've seen it with
other fighters before and then they come out the next
time and you're like, where the fuck was that guy
the last time?

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Yeah, let's just see what we get. Interesting shit, right there,
two aging bangers in the welterweight division. It'll keep me
in the chair. But do you care at all about
Santiego pods and nibbio versus Derod Daniel Rodriguez.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
No, not really.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
I mean it's a fine fight and it'll be fun,
but no one's going anywhere. Yeah, I mean two guys
a little bit older, long in the tooth, but they're
experienced and they're dangerous and that should be fun.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
All right.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
What about Montel Jackson at bandon weight, he only fights
once a year, but he is on a fairly impressive run,
even though his inactivity actually includes a JP Bays.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
Win during this curtain wind, I was gonna say'm actually
a little hiher on Daniel Danielle Marcos.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
He might be the bigger feature in the bigger focus
right here. But how much do you like this fight?
Because in terms of what they're both trying to accomplish
and what's ahead of them, this is interesting till.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
Yeah, quiet little banger this one. As you indicate everything
about Montel Jackson, I echo. But then you go to
the Marcos side, has that winter over Castanieta and yan
Yez which was a very surprising, hard nosed, devastating leg kicker.
He's interesting, undefeated I kind of like that fight a lot. Actually,
that one is definitely one to keep your eye on.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Oh should I keep my eye at all? In this
six fight main card on the other bandonm waight tilt
between Cameron Smotherman and Sir he Sidey, I don't neither
have wiki pages come on long and like give long.

Speaker 5 (40:40):
Cameron Smotherman, in his UFC debut, was plus four forty
against Drake Hadley gaff cashed it.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
I'm taking Cam Smotherman this week. He's a dog again.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
Interesting, Well, look here seems to be a little bit
of care level over BKFC star Jeremy Stevens making a
UFC comeback. It's into his home base right of Iowa
where he comes from. There isn't he a Bettendorf?

Speaker 1 (41:00):
I don't know if he's betting door for or not,
but he's definitely Iowa.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
Okay, what do you think about this matchup against Mason Jones?

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Iowa worst Mexican food in the country.

Speaker 3 (41:08):
Do you remember when you had COVID that one time
or ever where you couldn't taste anything?

Speaker 1 (41:12):
You know, it's just for a little while.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
That's what all the Mexican food in Iowa tastes like
tastes like you got cod.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
It's like having pizza everywhere else in the country.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
Yes, okay, I saw an interesting stat from Dan tom
For I'm not sure if he said Ima junkie still
or not. But when Jeremy Stevens made his UFC debut,
Chuck Ledell was the light heavyweight champion. Holy shit balls,
what an iron man this guy has turned out to be.

(41:40):
Mason Jones was a guy who previously was in the UFC,
had a lot of hype.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
He is well.

Speaker 3 (41:44):
Rounded, but couldn't quite put it all together. Gonna get
another crack at it here. I I don't know what.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
To make of this one.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
To be honest, Mason Jones is more well rounded, but
Jeremy Stevens is a devastating puncher. He's certainly gonna have
the wind that is back in terms of the home
and field advantage.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
Like this is a big moment for him because if
you actually look at his MMA record in his last
ten fights, he's one win, eight losses in one no contest. Yeah,
and that one win is a split decision over Mouth.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
But then you know what, But then but then he
had boxing match.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Well, this is the point then he goes out of
the UFC kind of rebuilds his name to the point
where he's headlining for BKFC and kind of, I know,
he's like a free agent now, but kind of like
a star. To get that callback from the UFC and
for it to be in your home state, we might
get a way more dangerous version than thirty eight year
old little heathen. Then we have a right to because
of that, that that swagger, that peacock moment. He's being

(42:35):
recognized in a lot of ways.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
I totally agree. So it's a weird one where Jones
on paper has more ways to win, but Stevens is
seemingly still kind of dangerous and in a once in
a career literally for the UFC anyway, and him once
in a career opportunity.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
I suspect you're going to get something special out of him.
Let's hear Jeremy Stevens cut a promo here on how
excited he is.

Speaker 9 (42:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (43:00):
I was snapping brawls and breaking jaws and then my
wife was like, hey, you should have hit up data,
and I was like, nah, you know, I'm kind of
an older guy.

Speaker 9 (43:08):
They want these young guys, you know.

Speaker 11 (43:09):
I was just kind of like in my nerd thoughts,
everybody kind of goes there right like I don't know
if I deserve this or what that really is. But
my wife, you know, God bless her, she was just
really all me, like, dude, hit him up, hit them up.
And I was on my way actually back here to
Des Moines, And before before I even got to the airport,
I was like, hey, you know, right, write me up
a little message. I'm gonna shoot him over a message

(43:30):
because I think I lost his number. I got like
an old number of his we stayed in contact over
the years. And she wrote me a message and I
sent it to him on Instagram.

Speaker 9 (43:41):
And I came back here to Des Moines. I came
here to like see.

Speaker 11 (43:43):
My mom, fill up my cup of family that way
and go back home and just get.

Speaker 9 (43:47):
Back to business.

Speaker 11 (43:48):
And all week I've been around, I was taking my
grandma out to eat, you know, visiting people, and just
the fans around here.

Speaker 9 (43:54):
It's my hometown, everybody recognizing me.

Speaker 11 (43:57):
They're like, man, you know they announced that card you
should be on that, you know, And I was like, yeah,
I send Uncle Dana a message.

Speaker 9 (44:02):
I haven't heard from him, you know, hopefully something pops up.

Speaker 11 (44:04):
And the day that I left, on like Sunday morning,
I woke up like four point thirty in the morning
and I got a message from him like one two
in the morning.

Speaker 9 (44:12):
You know, how Dana is. He's up. You know, maybe
he's throwing like five grand on black you know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
So he was.

Speaker 11 (44:17):
He sent me that message, was like, hey man, I'm
been trying to get a hold of you. A great fight, dude,
I'm gonna have Hunter reach out to you. I go
to the airport, my flight gets delayed. I was supposed
to go to Denver, Denver to San Diego, and I
ended up going to Vegas. So my delusions started kind
of like kicking in, like Yo, I'm gonna be in
the big Boy office tonight.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
You know.

Speaker 9 (44:34):
I landed in landed in Vegas, and I got.

Speaker 11 (44:37):
On the phone with with Hunter Campbell once I deeporded
that plane and he's like, hey, just go home, like
you know, like we had like a really good talk.

Speaker 9 (44:43):
He's like, go home, send me some names. You know
what you're thinking. And I shot.

Speaker 11 (44:47):
I shot big you know Connor justin Gaegee, you know
Max Holloway for the BMF.

Speaker 9 (44:53):
Bel you know, considering he just got knocked down. I know,
I'm thinking real big, you know, I'm gonna shoot my.

Speaker 11 (44:58):
Shot, and they gave me the opponent, you know. And
he calls me up later and he's like, man, congratulations,
I'm gonna announce it as soon as we get off
the phone. And you know, I told my wife, you know,
and gave her a big hug like I was like
almost in tears, you know, because you know, I.

Speaker 9 (45:13):
Know I made it happen with my work.

Speaker 11 (45:15):
But if it wasn't for my wife, I wouldn't be
sitting here right here today.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Hey, the hardest one forty five are It feels good
to see him get a moment, it does, I mean
he's hung up with not.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
Enough UFC fighters get a chance to compete in their hometown. Yes,
And I don't mean like the ones who moved to
Vegas and fight in the Apex. That doesn't count.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
I mean, like.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
Where you have roots, where you grew up. It's nice.
I'll never forget when they had and listen, it was
a great fight. I'm not mad at it. I really
enjoyed it. But when Dominic Cruz fought TJ. Dilishaw, I
was in Boston.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
It's like, what the fuck are these two guys fighting
in Boston for?

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Like?

Speaker 1 (45:47):
Put them in where they're from.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
And so it's nice to see a guy who's just
been a consistent presence get an opportunity like this.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Indeed, and we do have one more piece of video
related to the bow Nickel fight that I forgot to
throw to. Here's him epping on the scale. There has
been a lot of talk that he's talking about that
ye too bulky, and he's had a bigger weight cut
than maybe he needs to. Well, I wonder if this
will play into our betting strategy. Let's watch it. I
had my foot.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
Okay, okay, Long Island. That's fake, right, I.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
Don't know if it's fair. How when was it released
as my class this week? But was it from this week?

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (46:32):
But look at the camera cuts? Are we not talking
about the fucking camera cuts?

Speaker 2 (46:34):
I mean, you can't believe any video or photoshop.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
Yeah, it's what I'm saying, Like, I just don't. I don't.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
There's no such thing as a leaked video anymore, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (46:44):
Well, I mean there are ways to do it, but
I agree, like in general, it's not it wasn't. I'm
not saying he's once again, we don't know what the
truth is, but my feeling is there's a high probability
that could be faked. I don't I don't accept it
at face value. I can certainly tell you that. How
about that.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
Okay, that's fair, that's fair, But maybe that plays. I mean,
there's a big fight for him, big fight for him.
He's got to come take his swing. You can't backdoor
a gross decision. All right, come take your swing. Bo
let's find out. All right, Dutch Knight is ready? Do
you care about the featured prelim main event and the
women's bandam weeight division as Yanna don't call her Maheta
Santos Luke will take on Misha Tate. I mean, we

(47:26):
got to respect the band, the brand when it comes
to Misha Tate. But I can't say that this fight
is going anywhere.

Speaker 3 (47:32):
Or that I am so surprised she's on the prelims,
like for an organization, like for example, like.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
We got six fights on the main card and she's
not one of them.

Speaker 3 (47:39):
That that is so surprising to me. Like, don't get
me wrong, Santiaga, Ponzinnibbia and dant d rod. I don't
hate the fight.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
I'm not mad at the fight, but you know, you
got Tate and Santos. I don't know what what do
you think it says that they put this on the
pre limbs, like they're cashing her out.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
Yeah, yeah, they're cashing her out, right. I mean, she's
She's two and four in her last six, She's two
and two since making the comeback. The two losses came
against decent competition, right, Like Kaitlyn Vieira was one of them.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
I double check, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
I've got it right here, and and then you know,
didn't look great in.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
The Murphy and Kitlyn Vieira.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
So so those are you know, decent sort of elite
gatekeeper esh and then be lower level competition outside of that.
I know she made those recent comments about I'll only
fight Juliana Payne if it's a title fight, and we're
all like, I don't know at thirty eight if we're
getting any closer to that, even in a completely shallow division.
So maybe out of respect, you could have thrown it
on the main card or maybe this is do they

(48:37):
still do I mean, is it still in their mindset
of a featured prelim sets up as the preview to
the main card. If you're on the fight night level,
probably not. I don't think it's It's different when you're
using that fight to sell the paper, right, so put
an old Robbie Lawler in there or whatever. Yeah, it's
a little surprise. Shes just a sign of the times.
I mean, what is she still fighting for? Just the
competition loves it.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
She wanted to, she took a five break and then
wanted to come back and scratch that itch.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
And I'm not I'm not. I'm not really sure what
she wants out of this, to be honest with you.

Speaker 3 (49:07):
I mean, maybe she still believes she can be champion,
and I honestly, you know, at thirty five, is it
that hard to get a title shot right now?

Speaker 1 (49:17):
I mean maybe it's not the craziest thought.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
I wouldn't you rather see her in like PFL against
Cyborg or am I making it my acting crazy?

Speaker 1 (49:25):
I would?

Speaker 3 (49:27):
Yes, I think it's a much better opportunity for her, Okay,
but I don't know what she wants and obviously she's
under contract and it's not that simple.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
Do you have levels of care for any other fight
on this preliminary.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
Yeah, I will say that I was talking to I
did the xFC commentary this week with Jessica Agui Laara,
and she was telling me she'd been in contact with
Gillian Robertson, who's Dean Thomas.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
Actually, it was kind of funny.

Speaker 3 (49:46):
I was supposed to do the call this past Wednesday
with Dean Thomas, but Dean had to travel for this
because he's cornering.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
Gillian shouts to Dean.

Speaker 3 (49:54):
We love Dean here, we gotta get him in studio quick.

Speaker 5 (49:58):
Do you know Jeremy Stephens as you mentioned, when he
made his UFC debut, Chuck Liddell was champion.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
Yeah, he fought Dean.

Speaker 4 (50:04):
Yeah, he fought Dean.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
Dean arm martem right, that's fucking crazy. In fact, Dean
arm mart him and then he picked Deane up and
slammed him. But it only like made the armbar tighter. Yes, yeah,
Dean's Dean's. Dean has been around a lot. Dean got
knocked out by bj Penn back in like the Oughts Brod.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
He catch those Kenny Florin helbows too.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
I can't remember anymore.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Maybe he almost fought my ooga until Don King suit at.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
The last at the at the bow Jangles are yes,
so yes, I actually that one's kind of interesting. Jillian
Robertson is quietly put together a nice little record. Marina Hadriguez.
You know she is thirty eight thirty, Well, she's dangerous
on the feet, very tough in the clinch. The ground
is not her best place. So this is a you
would imagine a potentially very winnable fight. Jillian Robertson, I'm

(50:48):
just I'm gonna says, sort of like a quiet kind
of you know, contender, maybe a little bit at the
back end, but making some moves for sure.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
She Jillian Robinson has won five of her last six.
Very impressive for you know, a certain level of competition
in Harodriguez will being you know, greater in terms of experience,
and Raking in the past has lost four or five.
So it does have a little bit of a crossroads effort.
And isn't Jillian a big backer of THHC as well?

Speaker 1 (51:14):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Is she? Yes? Bong Island Luke knows that.

Speaker 4 (51:16):
Yeah, she's the one who took Bong hits in the sauna.
We put it on. Have you seen this ship?

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Well, we just found our new favorite fighter didn't right.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Speaking of favorite fighters, you into the Killer Miller Juliana
Miller against Evanna Petrovich curtain jerker there at Women's.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
Flyway, not really no, nor.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
The heavyweight matchup between Thomas Peterson and Dantel May.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Would you argue that you've lost the level of care
for Killer Miller on this run.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
I think that's a question for you pants around the ankles,
not for me.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
That's also we didn't we didn't we.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
Gaston Balanos is an interesting guy. I don't think he's
performed up to the level of his potential. A very
good kickboxer, but he is always at least good for
counting on somebody who's gonna, you know, bring the action
I think often than not India.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
Let's go to the topic number two, and it's going
to take place in this city this evening. Folks. It's
a Times Square tripleheader, at least in terms of the
major fights that's being pushed. I know there's also an
NYPD versus NYFD matchup, but Turkey Alshka is going to
take his Ring magazine series on its second stop, this
time first on us soil and the first boxing match

(52:20):
in Times Square. This does matter. This is something. There
are some young must see personalities on this card with
a big tease for the future. It's a Di Zonne
pay per view this evening beginning at six pm Eastern Time,
and we've got three of the biggest young stars when
you consider Ryan Garcia, Devin Haiti and Tao Femo Lopez
Junior in separate bouts, but Luke with the exception of

(52:41):
Tao's bout, which is probably the closest matched on the card,
certainly from an odds standpoint, the main and Comaine is
featuring Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia in separate fights. There
seems to be no hiding that the promoters the Turkey
plan is to see those two in the ring against
one another. It looks like September they're targeting it. Brian
Garcia saying, the deal's already done, it's already signed. Like

(53:03):
you can even get the feeling like win or lose,
you're gonna see that one next. What do you think
about the way that this fight has been promoted though
and pushed. It feels like the focus has been almost
completely on Ryan versus Devin, including the movie trailer that
they put out. Is that the right push an angle here,
considering that's what they're building to, and is everybody else
just sort of you know, players in that larger drama.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
It clearly is one of these cases where if the
event ultimately goes how the promoter has set it up,
all's well, that will end well, right, there's really no
problem there. But it has been very, very weird Long
Island Luke, who is Ryan Garcia fighting this weekend?

Speaker 4 (53:43):
Rolando Romero okay, who.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
Is Devin Haney fighting? And Teo Femo?

Speaker 4 (53:49):
Arnold Barboss all right, well you're were on.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
The show, you don't count.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
I feel like if you asked the most casual boxing fans,
they couldn't tell you. They would tell you, Hey, I
know Tayo Femo's on the card, I know Ryan's on
the card, and certainly Devin Hanes on the card. But
like I was looking through the ring magazines online content
that it put out, yes or this week anyway, for
the various media events they were doing out of this card,
they absolutely did. It's not a question of did they

(54:13):
promote it hard.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
I didn't hear one fucking quote from Jose Ramirez. I
didn't hear one. I did hear some stuff from Barbosa.
Barbosa managed to kind of chirp back and forth with Lopez. Lopez,
by the way, putting on the luchador mask.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
We'll kind of like that.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
I will tell you if there is any possibility of
an upset among these three, it is absolutely with Barboza
Junior against Lopez, and part because I'm not fully convinced
Lopez is taking him seriously. But I'll say this, if
this ends up actually just being a kind of a
showcase event to promote the rematch, We're going to look

(54:52):
back on this weekend and say, you know what, maybe
it was a little bit of a you know, we
didn't have to have these fights, but but it served
a purpose.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
But the potential for backfiring here is significant. It is
not so much because we think Ramirez or whoever is
a genuine threat, but if they're if Rolly does something
you know, insane and knocks out Garcia, which I don't
think will happen, but if it's I didn't think Garcia
was gonna beat Haney, and holy shit, Cano beat Lopez

(55:21):
right exactly. So if something goes wrong, we're gonna look
back and say, these guys completely wasted an opportunity, and
we should point out something. Garcia has been off a year,
Haiti has been off a year. There's been changes in
their whole lives, and yeah, the whole thing. And so
it's like there's a bunch of questions about this. They're

(55:43):
rolling the dice. Let's like, like a true Vegas businessman,
let's see what ends up happening. But it is not
without risk.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
In the end.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
I think that we talk a lot in the show
about how boxing odds are naturally just way wider than MM.
They don't. Boxing doesn't doesn't often try to actually tell
you the true chances of somebody winning a fight. I mean,
Long Island, do you have the odds right in front
of you? They're astronomical in the main and co main
event involving Garcia and Hani.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
I don't have them right in front of me.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
I'm pulling them up. I'm pulling them.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
I mean we're talking like like ten to one.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Okay, So according to our friends here at DraftKings, Devin
Haney is a minus twelve hundred to Jose Ramirez's plus
seven hundred. Roly Romero is I'll let me start with Garcia.
Garcia minus eleven hundred to Rolando Romero's plus six fifty, So.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
That doesn't tell you the actual chances that the B
sides have. I'm here on record saying I love the
way this fight was matched, I love the personalities involved,
I love the chances. Turkey's taking by putting it in
Times Square probably cost an enormous penny. And you know
he wants to bring the next cart in July to
an unnamed as of yet New York unique location. Same

(56:52):
thing with Alcatraz. I'm all in on this. I'm also
not going to criticize the idea of people just saying, well,
why don't Hane and Garcia just rematch it you right now?
Because although I'm not normally a fan of marinating like this,
as we like to say in the boxing game, because
that's dangerous, this is also an event tonight that we
must see. It's got a lot of layers to it.
There are a lot of questions to answer for both

(57:14):
Garcia and Hani physically mentally, from that big upset last year,
the no contest, the drug suspension, the fact that Hane
you know, has sued Garcia. So maybe they're right Luke
to make it all about this. In fact, it might
be time to go even deeper on that level. It
might be time to go shots fired. Brought to you

(57:34):
by Querovo. Let's go right here, That's what I'm talking about.
Brought to you by Quervo. Now, of course it's a
good time to enjoy the tequila. That evented tequila and
the trash talk has been very good, especially at this
week's press conference where it very much became Ryan versus

(57:54):
Devin and Bill Haney. Let's go to the videotape.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
I got multiple personalities.

Speaker 10 (58:04):
Crazy one.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Biggest luke. I mean, you can you can cringe or
you can love those moments. But I thought for the
Haines this whole tour, and it has been a tour.
They've done multiple press conferences, they've done multiple face to
face sit down so, they've done round tables. Look Turkey

(58:32):
and the ring have promoted the crap out of that
part of it. I've got to say I like the
way the Haines handled themselves this week. They've acted like
the villains. Bill Haney showed up to the public workout,
was taking his own video of Ryan. Ryan was kind
of spooked and there was trash talk back and forth,
and you can see right there, they got Ryan to
go off script this week. The whole build to this,
he has been controlled, focused Ryan, and there you got

(58:54):
them going. You know, I'll open up the crazy for
you guys. Do you think that's the right move for
the Haines, even though they're not even Ryan right here?
I do the best move for them might be to
try to get Ryan off of his game, going against
a slugger like Rollie.

Speaker 3 (59:06):
And anything they can do to trip him up. I
think that they are. They obviously have tried, and I
think they should continue to try that. I mean, listen,
that's the game that Garcia played when he thought Devin.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
Haney true all of them.

Speaker 3 (59:18):
Remember there was pushing at the at the presser at
the or whatever, the media event at the Empire States,
pushing at.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
The super Bowl when they went to media day. There
was that.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
There was of course the beer bottle which maybe an
apple juice or whatever.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
Being in the club.

Speaker 3 (59:31):
You know, just every antic he could possibly do to
completely be weird and maybe I think disarm Devin Haity
to a degree or give him false confidence.

Speaker 1 (59:41):
He did all of that.

Speaker 3 (59:42):
Now again, if you're Devin Haney, you need to focus
on what is in front of you, which is Jose Ramirez.
But nevertheless, I fully agree anything any seeds they can
plant of doubt or misdirection or just lack of focus
at a bare minimum, they should do that. And to
the what you raise, it's two against one if they
leverage those strengths with Bill and Devin against Ryan, because

(01:00:06):
I think we have some sound around this.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Oscar tries to go back.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
And forth, but Scar almost fought Bill. But Bill is
just and I say this as a compliment. Bill is
a loudmouth.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Yes, he is a traditional boxing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Dad, loud, loud instigator.

Speaker 3 (01:00:20):
He's the new Angel Garcia, right, something like that. They
probably say the end word of the same amount of
times to be probably honesty pointing out. I'm just pointing
out that he is a firestarter, and Devin, to me,
is a little bit like demure in his attitude.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Bill is not.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
Bill leans into confrontation. That is such an ally to
have if you leverage it correctly. They've been doing some
of the right thing trying.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
To get the pressure off of Devon, which is smart
because there is a lot of pressure on Devon. No
one expected him to get dropped three times by Ryan
and not have an answer how to get away from
that left hook. So I don't hate how pointed there
being and saying, Okay, we've seen Ryan go to the
extreme mental now he seems to be some level of safer,
which is good for him and his family and his future.
But Ryan was involved in a lot of toxic shit

(01:01:07):
last year. Maybe they think it's not going to be
that difficult to get him off of his game mentally.
But of course shots fired were brought to you by Quervo.
Now's a good time to enjoy the Tekila that invented
tequila and Luke I got to mention about our friends
over there at Quervo. They'll be behind. Of course, next
Wednesday may fit here in this studio, here at this
table when it's UFC three fifteen pregame preview brought to

(01:01:28):
you by Quervo and the iceman Chuck Minden Hall is
back and he better bring it because we've had we
had old Jet in this chair and that guy asked
speaking given, yeah so so. But luckily, you know, with
Chuck's hair situation, I don't think the license well, he
took that hat off before you got here.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
When I did the show without you, that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
One time, and uh, I was like, well, I didn't
know I was doing the show with Anakin.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
Okay, I didn't. Okay, there we go right there. And
by the way, young Anakin was a bitch. Fuck. I
can't believe that that bah turned into Darth Vader, all right.
One of Bill Hanes, though, as we focused in a
little bit closer to Ryan's actual matchup here with Roly Romero,
has been the transformations in Ryan's body. Now, if you remember,
Ryan was suspended for a full year due to testing

(01:02:12):
positive for ostering in just one of the tests after
the Hainy fight. He claims it was a tainted supplement.
But that's Ryan on the right now, he ha on
Haney last April. On the left is Ryan Garcia during
the open workout this week, and Luke, to be fair,
he looks softer. He claims it's from moving up in
wait from one forty to forty seven.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
Ye.

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
Also, he claims, I'm just in a different spot in
my life. You're going to get a different version, Let's
say a couple things. I've seen some other pictures where
he didn't look nearly as different. In fact, it could
be to a degree quite negligible That's one thing I
want to say.

Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
Two, there is simply no denying he sounds healthier this time.
Oh yeah, his voice doesn't. He doesn't have that party
voice or whatever that was. He obviously is not nearly
as manic. He's not partying, to my knowledge anyway, he's
not in the club partying. He made the way. He
didn't misswait this time. I remember he missed wait last time.
So it's it's not a case that you can look

(01:03:07):
at this and say he's as unprofessional as he was
last time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
That's not.

Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
But it'll be interesting to see what kind of performance
we get from Ryan. Because I'm gonna say it one
more time. Forget all the stuff where he was talking
toxicity about every aggrieved you know, group on Earth, going
after fighters, wives, aggressively wives, black people, Muslims, you name it.
He was going after everybody. He's obviously copped. He just

(01:03:32):
seems so much healthier now. But the point I'm trying
to make is bec he did miss wait last time,
and he did pop for oster Ee.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
Last The villain in the in the soap opera with
with well not with the crowd. With the crowd absolutely
loved him. Why has the crowd in your eyes come
back that quickly and maybe not held against him his
own toxicity. Is it because of the throes of mental anguish,
substance abuse, his mom having cancer, Ryan going through a divorce.
Do you think there's been an active like past given.

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
I just think people we live at a very gross
time where nobody cares about anything terrible anymore, and so
I think it's part of it. The other part of
it is, obviously, without any kind of question, people just
fucking hate Devin Haney, and I think it's over the
top and comical at this point, like, oh, he sued
an opponent, his opponent maybe intentionally missedweight and had performers
dancing drugs in his system.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
Like, well, I don't agree with the suing.

Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
I don't necessarily gore with the suing, But BC, everybody
in boxing sues everybody. Why are we pretending like the
Hanies are unique in the situation.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
They are not.

Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
When you lose a fight and then you sue and.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Roy you or see it broke every fight.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
It ruined the book. But wouldn't you agree that was
a bad twelve months of pr for the Haney family.

Speaker 3 (01:04:39):
It was a disastrous twelve months of pr That's what
I think a lot of the fans are responding.

Speaker 2 (01:04:44):
Sure, let's hear from Bill Haney, who continued the stance
this week that that Ryan's the bad guy in this scenario.

Speaker 12 (01:04:49):
He was cheated, he was violated, he was robbed, and
it was my job to make sure that it doesn't
happen again. Turkey made sure that for this fight all
of the fighters would be not just tested, but be
extensively tested in a way that they couldn't cheat or
it would be very hard for him. Whereas they said
that it was only a little bit, it was sixty

(01:05:11):
times the limit, but they tried to create the narrative
that it did have any effect. How does he look
right now? He's the one that played guilty, He's the
one that had it in the system, and he's the
one to shrinking before our eyes.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
Wow do you see rec Renore just as Hudson Hawk
and then with yeah, it was awesome right there, It
was great. That's such an in Rick Grino is going
for it this week in fashion. Have you noticed like he's.

Speaker 3 (01:05:35):
Going for he Heana Jones hat every day He's like
crocodile Dundee.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
The next day it's who knows, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
Do your thing player. That was interesting right there as
it pertains to the fight with what Bill's saying, here's
the big question here. Look, should Row should Ryan beat Roley? Yes?
I do think people are overlooking the fact that Roly
also has his back against the wall right now from
the standpoint of you're not right, You're not gonna be
a viable B side who will come in and talk

(01:06:04):
shit and have a puncher's chance if you can't win.
And in his last four fights he was knocked out
by Tank, he was kind of brutally stopped by Pipul
Cruise in a fight he was not even in. The
weight cut played a big part. He had the win
against barroso that he clearly didn't rest where he was
getting beat up. And then in his most recent fight,
a tune up against man Walheimus, he just looked too

(01:06:25):
safe and not into it. Mentally. Roly is saying that
his biggest fights have come in title fights at thirty
five and forty when he should have been a division
or too higher. He's saying he will be reinvented now
at forty seven without having to make that weight cut.
Do you think or how much do you think not
just the puncher's chance, but the idea that Roy realizes

(01:06:46):
I need either an upset win or a very good performance,
a very good representation of what I bring, or he's
gonna drop many pegs? Will that make him extra day dangerous?
If Garcia is softer than we've seen, if like Bill
Haney's saying, maybe Garcia was on a shit ton of
Oustrien last time and this time he won't.

Speaker 3 (01:07:05):
Be, well, let me just say I did not take
Garcia's chance to seriously last time. I'm not gonna make
that mistake twice. I think I think he rolls here.
But let me just put a point out something about
Roly Romeiro. Dude, he hasn't made a clip on social
media of note the entire fucking week. He's been quiet, right,

(01:07:26):
very quiet, And I can't tell if that's because he's
finally wising up that, like, you know, he needs to focus.
But what I can say is the guy who was
shit talking tank about his you know, the size of
his Johnson and everything else, Like, where is that guy?

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
Nowhere to be found?

Speaker 3 (01:07:41):
I think his confidence has been shattered, and I can't
quite tell if he's internalized that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
Oh, so he's injecting it. He might not be a
sly as a fox sitting under the radar. You think
he might just kind of be broken.

Speaker 3 (01:07:52):
This is what's so interesting about this promotion. Like, as
we mentioned, the tail female fight against Barbosa is great.
It's what that's a really good fight on this one
of the other ones are all kind of lopsided, at.

Speaker 1 (01:07:59):
Least by the OYE dds.

Speaker 3 (01:08:00):
But it's just weird that you've got Roly Romero on
this card and no one's talking about him. It's all Hany,
it's all Garcia, it's all about Bill Haney, it's all
about Tangentially now Oscar de la Hoya, Roly is and
I can't believe I'm saying this a wallflower.

Speaker 1 (01:08:16):
In this Yeah, it's weird. It is so unusual to
ever see.

Speaker 3 (01:08:19):
He wasn't doing that against Barroso, he wasn't doing that
against Pitbull, and he's sure as hell wasn't doing that
in the lead up to the fight with Tank.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
A new turn for him, all.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
Right, there are some things to think about that. The
HAINI said, is Ryan off the stuff and will that
change it? My belief is that Ryan will be fine.
Will look fine and actually could be on the path
to the best stretch of his career and the most
dangerous he's ever looked. Why Because I think he got
close enough in the toxicity of last year to losing
everything his career. He had to sit out a year,

(01:08:49):
he got arrested, he almost lost custody to his kids,
he almost lost his mom. Like, there was so much
going on, a lot of itself imposed that I think
he got close enough to that line that it scared
it and it rejuvenated him. He seems to be back
in a better mental state physically, Luke. Outside of looking softer,
I thought he's looked good, specifically the training clips with
Derek James. He's showing a right hand more. His technique

(01:09:11):
has been very good, his footwork seems improved. There's a
big opportunity for him to come in and pinata the
shit out of early and get and get a thrust
forward in the public eye. I not only do we
need to see this second Hani fight, but holy shit,
Ryan's a killer when he is fully dialed in, when
there's nobs, So Luke for me to believe that. For me,

(01:09:32):
it's fueled by something we saw in the Hani fight.
But the question is, was what we saw in the
Hani fight an indomitable version of Ryan Garcia, one who
would not be denied. It's not just the heart he
showed in getting up off the campus against Luke Campbell,
which was the first sign that like, maybe he is
that guy. Then he went through a lot of ups
and downs. Am I wrong to look at the Haney

(01:09:52):
fight and the way he carried himself even with a
shitty training camp where he couldn't fight three minutes of
every round. His defense was smart, on point. He had
head movement, He was smart in the way he utilized
the stamina he did have. He knew how to set
up that left hook. He carried himself like a killer
in there. That's not the guy from the Tank fight
who came in reckless, got humbled and then kind of sheepishly,

(01:10:16):
you know, worked his way into a stoppage loss to
the body. I know he had the pre existing injury.
I'm just wondering if he has matured mentally at the
exact right time, if he's been someone who's been open
about the stuff he's been dealing with mentally, or maybe
he got a lot of that anxiety out of the way,
Maybe he got a lot of that shit out of
the way and we will see the most focused version
of him, because if you talk to his ex trainers,
some of them will tell you the focus wasn't there.

(01:10:38):
He's not great at carrying a bunch of times too.
I wonder if now is the time that it is
the right opponent at the right time, the right setting.
There's gonna be a lot of eyeballs on this, even
though it's at his own pay per view. Do you
believe we're gonna get a better version than we've seen
before Ryan Garcia based on all of that. Is there
enough that he could have gained confidence wise from that
experience or could it have been pe d driven? Hard

(01:11:02):
to say about whether or not it was Pedes.

Speaker 3 (01:11:03):
I mean, I know he failed for him, but Austerene
is one of the ones that is easy to get
via contamination.

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
So that's something that we have to understand.

Speaker 3 (01:11:11):
What I'll say is this, BC, I think that your
theory is probably correct, but let's add a little something
to it if we can. Devin Haney, I know everyone
shot on him for that performance because he got knocked
down three times and got his you know, he got
rocked within the first thirty seconds, but BC he also
cleverly clawed his way back in several rounds to kind
of make it I'm not going to say like crazy close,

(01:11:32):
but closer than you might have massed in a way.

Speaker 2 (01:11:35):
That he's not getting credit for.

Speaker 3 (01:11:37):
Romero can't do that. Romero does not have that kind
of a skill in the same way that Haney does.
And so to the point that you're raising, could we
see a more you know, a guy who's coming into
his own at just the right time, trying to put
some of the negativity behind him. Absolutely also in his
favor is that even if he is that way, he's

(01:12:00):
not going to be going up against a guy who
can challenge him in the same way that Hani Haney
is doesn't have Romero's power, not not by a long shot,
but he is a much better boxer and he can
steal rounds from you in ways that Romero absolutely cannot do.
This is set up for Garcia to look great, and

(01:12:21):
I think honestly the pressures on Garcia a little bit here,
because there's no reason why you shouldn't.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
If you are what you say you are, you should
cruise here. Let's see, you know, a long Luke jumped
into my live chat this week on the BCX and
asked about the over under, and it's like, certainly all
your knees are jerking toward the idea of under. I
think Ford to go the distance. Really, Ryan has to
underachieve and get hurt and have to try to like
box his way to the finish. Yeah. I just don't

(01:12:47):
see a scenario because of Roy's lack of defense. He
squares up way too much even with the threat of
his power. That left HOOKI is monstrous. And now we're
gonna see left took in boxing. And now we're going
to see a full one forty seven Ryan without the
weight cut issues, without rehydration clauses like the tank fight,
which you know that was a part of it. Big
Ryan Ko come in.

Speaker 3 (01:13:06):
And then again, even if there were no pedes, there
were there were substance abuse issues with recreational drugs. It
does appear like that is going to Like I said, man,
this is set up for Ryan to have a phenomenal
New York homecoming, which I think is.

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
Most intriguing for me outside of just seeing the event,
seeing how it's going to be. Remember, they couldn't sell
tickets for it on a New York law There's going
to be a bunch of influencers and media and selected
Turkey friends and people around there. But obviously it's such
a cool locale and location we want to see it.
I want to see how good and I think that's
what everybody else wants to see how good Garcia and
Haney look in their matchups, to see how that changes

(01:13:42):
the narrative entering into their inevitable rematch For that to happen,
in a lot of ways, both need to win. Of course,
both are favored big to win. But in that col
main event matchup of Devin Haney against former unified one
hundred and forty champion Jose Ramirez in a one hundred
and forty four pound catchweight bout, so it's a soft
move up in weight. Devin has looked incredible and picks.
He's been working with Sugar Shane Mosley on sitting down

(01:14:04):
on his shots. They've been using him as a consultant
in camp. Luke, I'm here to say Jose Ramirez is
a live dog in this. Not a live dog to
knock him out, not necessarily even a live dog to
pull a decision I'm saying a live dog to make
it more competitive than people think. Because Rome Romerez, who
also had trouble cutting too wit one forty in recent years.

(01:14:25):
Even though he's a step down for sure from where
he was five six years ago heading into the Josh
Taylor fight, He'll get inside on you. He'll work aggressively,
He's precise. There's a lot to like about him. He's
also not getting caught up in trash talk. He's only
worried about the job at hand and redeeming his name.
I think he's gonna make this tough on Devon. I
think you're gonna see a fight that's, you know, a

(01:14:46):
four to seven five in the end.

Speaker 3 (01:14:47):
I think he can in spots, but I feel like
Devin's ability to move around the ring is gonna be
real hard for him.

Speaker 2 (01:14:54):
Do you have any fears mentally that Devin will carry
the skeletons from the Mercy No.

Speaker 1 (01:15:00):
I think it's really over sold, Okay, I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
I don't believe. I don't believe. Then are you gonna
go as far? Even though Ramerez is durable to imagine
a scenario where Hani is there is there a scenario
where Hane exit this exits this card as the favorite
against Ryan in the rematch.

Speaker 3 (01:15:16):
No, no, I don't think. Yeah, I think he's gonna
I could be close, but.

Speaker 2 (01:15:22):
No, no stoppage, but but a solid win over twelve rounds.
You're gonna guess for Devin Haney.

Speaker 3 (01:15:28):
He yeah, I would pick him by decision. I would
pick garciavia stoppage. I think are probably locks. They're probably
very ol.

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
Those are not the ones that are interesting to me.

Speaker 3 (01:15:36):
It's the fucking Lopez and Boza fight that's an interesting
one too.

Speaker 2 (01:15:40):
Femo Lopez Junior will defend his one hundred and forty
pound title against unbeaten mandatory in thirty three year old
Arnold Barbosa Junior, who has taken the long road, not
been given the you know, huge promotional push opportunities, but
has consistently wanting got the job done. He went into Manchester,
England to beat a very tough Jack Catterall to put
him in this position, and Luke, maybe most importantly along

(01:16:03):
with the odds actually representing the chance he really does
have in here, is He's coming here completely confident. He
has not gotten caught up in any of the Tao
Femo antics. He has answered it, I think the right way.
He's presented himself as strong. He's mentally focused. Like I said,
thirty three years old, this is his moment, Luke, Is it?

Speaker 13 (01:16:24):
Though?

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
Are his chances fully dependent upon which Tayo we get?
You know what that means? It's the pump for pound
Teo and the Loma and Josh Taylor fights, and then
it's the just barely won the decision and wonders if
he's still got it version that has popped up a
few times, even if he's not only always doing this
at the end more often than not, lately we've exited

(01:16:47):
Tao fights going does he still have it? Like he
should have done more? He could have done more, maybe
not his most recent one when he beat up that jobber.
But in your eyes, is Barbosa's upset chances pinned upon
which one of those two show up for Tayo.

Speaker 3 (01:17:03):
Tao at his best should not lose. But I saw
Sean Zetel talking about this, and he's got pretty good takes.

Speaker 2 (01:17:10):
Oh, he had some some takes coming after Turkey Dana
the FBI. He was cooking.

Speaker 3 (01:17:15):
He was cooking, but I mean, as it pertains to
this fight, and he was sort of pointing out, like,
you know, if you you're going to get at one
hundred percent motivated Barboza, this is a monster opportunity for him.
If your Tao and you're eighty to ninety, that's a
big drop off. I mean, Tao is a much better athlete,
and I think at his highest can just do much more.

(01:17:37):
But if he's showing up in a luchador mask and
you know, kind of playing second fiddle to the circus
that is surrounding Haney and Garcia, to what extent is
he locked in on this one? And I just don't
know how to answer that. Also, more to the point,
there's a bit of a style issue between them, where
Barboza doesn't throw a ton of punches, he's a little

(01:17:59):
bit more economical and excuse me, almost with hey in
the Garcia Lopez tends to be a counterpuncher, tends to
want to wait around.

Speaker 2 (01:18:07):
The bad version of Tao does not throw enough punches.

Speaker 3 (01:18:09):
Does right, So if Barbosa is economical about this, and
he's the one moving Tao around, and Tao's going for
these like big hitters, and you know a lot of
them aren't landing. Some of these rounds are going to
get away from him. You know, dude, Barbosa is good
like again. I don't think his full upside is as
good as the full upside of Lopez. Question but not

(01:18:29):
spectacl exactly, but Lopez, but but highly motivated, very professional,
jab good job again, good good, good, good movement with
his feet, Yep, Lopez if he's fucking around, Dude, If
cam Bosis can beat Lopez when Lopez isn't dialed in
one billion percent, Barbosa can.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
Be still throw the asterisk of the torn esophagus that
mattered in that fight. But I think you're right, and
I think it comes down to this, the problems for
Tao and these performances of late where he hasn't thrown
enough punches, and it just he hasn't figured it out, Lucas.
He doesn't always adjust back to his boxing roots when
things aren't going his way and just win rounds with
jabs like he needs to. He tries too hard to

(01:19:10):
come up with more ways to do the explosive Roy
Jones stuff when sometimes against tough opponents, and Barbosa's not
gonna give him a lot of windows to land these
huge shots unless he hurts him early. We're gonna have
to see Tao work for it. We're gonna have to
see him get behind that jab and make sure he's
out working Barbosa. I tend to believe he'll rise to
the occasion because history has shown that history has shown

(01:19:32):
that you bring a big opponent or a big opportunity,
he will rise to the occasion. I know that the
jury's a little bit out because it's been a while,
but this is set up for him knowing what's at stake,
and what is at stake, by the way, because Ryan,
if he beats Rothy, is gonna fight Devon in the fall.
But Ryan and Tayo have been talking like crazy that
they're gonna fight next spring. And by the way, you

(01:19:53):
also now have Connor Ben who's gonna be at this fight.
Him and Ryan have been exchanging that they'd love to
do it in a stadium, big, big, big opportunities for
these young still twenty somethings. Four prince five prince guys
that are aligned with Turkey, and the fact that they
all want smoke and all want to keep fighting each other.
That's the best thing we can say about the Turkey experience.
And you know, there's lots of criticize, and we've tried

(01:20:15):
to be as honest as possible. But Luke, the Turkey
experience has surrounded the fighters that we kind of care
about the most, that are the most exciting, and it
might it might help inject the opportunity for them to
continue to face each other. So Tayo is going to
need to be the best version of him if he
wants to fight Ryan Boots, Connor Ben, all these guys
coming up in big fights.

Speaker 3 (01:20:36):
I don't have much to add to that, but certainly
it gives you a sense of the stakes tonight involved
and the universe of what is possible given the results.

Speaker 2 (01:20:45):
Indeed, indeed, right there, all right, topic number three, let
it let us slide over to the rest of boxing
this weekend. And look, it's a big week obviously, it's
a huge weekend for Turkey. Ala Chic not just going
to Times Square on Friday and putting his Ring magazine
series right on the streets of New York. It's going
to be Canelo Alvarez on Saturday night in Saudi Arabia
in the first of his four fight deal with the Kingdom.

(01:21:09):
And it's also Sunday's top rank card on ESPN plus
in which Niowa in Awe is an ambassador for Ring Magazine,
one of Turkey's focus close guys, so he has some
hand in that. But Luke, before we talk about Canelo
and in a way's return, if you are going to
criticize Turkey, because there's a lot of this weekend that
is very good for boxing. Instead of one big Sinko

(01:21:30):
Demayo pay per view card, we have three cards and
three nights, all of different levels of value coming through.
I don't like the opponents for Canelo or in a
way we'll get to that, but it should we accept that,
accept Turkey raising the profile the sport and putting it
in Times Square or is it safe to counter even

(01:21:51):
if it sounds like sour grapes and be like, you're
also counting the Connor Ben fight last week, giving fans
three pay per views on his own in eight days.
You're also keeping all these young stars off of regular
TV or channels in which casuals can stumble into them.
Are gonna be on his own pay per view and
the only one that's not Sunday night. The top rank
card is gonna start at ten pm Eastern on a

(01:22:12):
Sunday night. Do you think it's fair to criticize that.
It's not like we think Turkey's doing it for the
betterment of the sports, doing it for himself, for his country,
and of course for fully try trying to take over
the entire sport. But does this weekend actually help boxing?
If that's a thing that still matters, Pulling Canelo out
of the States, doing a card where fans can't show

(01:22:35):
up on Friday, and having three pay per view cards
in eight days, where you could argue, if you're gonna
throw that much money at the event, don't get a
time buy on CBS or NBC or something where you
can put it directly in the living rooms of the
people that can go. If that's the future of boxing,
I'm in on it.

Speaker 1 (01:22:50):
Well let's give them a little bit of credit.

Speaker 3 (01:22:52):
The U Bank and Ben fight was in sixty five
thousand people at Tottenham, so that one was touching the
people so to speak.

Speaker 1 (01:23:00):
I mean, listen, whenever we do these Saudi Arabia cards.

Speaker 3 (01:23:02):
I don't want to sound like a broken record, but
to me, we we have to acknowledge there is a
lot of good with them, as well as a lot
of things that I think we have to be aware
of critically, The good part is the stuff we've already
talked about. We are excited for the return of all
of these guys. We are excited about what it could
mean down the road for handing Garcia to get together.
If you didn't see the trailer that Dezonne or you know,

(01:23:22):
I don't know if the Saudi's paid for it or not,
but the one they put out for this that was Yeah.
In any case, it was really well done. Like, there's
a lot of fun stuff about this, and again it's
gonna look really good. I think on TV tonight on
this for this, for this Friday.

Speaker 2 (01:23:36):
Night card and the weather is holding up.

Speaker 3 (01:23:38):
No, yeah, yeah, So like listen, there's a lot of
positive there that you ben, card was incredible. This one
tonight should be really really good. I don't think tomorrow
is going to be a home run. I think Tomorrow
is going to be a bit of a dud, and
Sunday probably too. I don't know if you guys have
been following this. Apparently the Las Vegas economy is not
doing great. Have you Long Island look, have you heard
anything about this?

Speaker 4 (01:23:58):
I can't say that I have.

Speaker 3 (01:24:00):
I've been reading about this a little bit. It turns
out like not a lot of people are showing up
to Vegas these days.

Speaker 2 (01:24:05):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:24:06):
I don't think it's strictly a function of the fights
not being there as often.

Speaker 1 (01:24:09):
It's probably a number of factors.

Speaker 3 (01:24:11):
But anyway, I'm pointing out, in a way, is there
kind of on a kind of a dead weekend in
the city.

Speaker 2 (01:24:17):
Well, wasn't the rumor that the Vegas was value extracted
even more than Tiko was doing in the in their
specific combat. And then you know, listen, you go to Vegas,
everything is insanely expensive.

Speaker 1 (01:24:25):
So here's what I'm trying to point out.

Speaker 3 (01:24:28):
I am happy to talk about the good parts of
what the Turkey experiment is going to give us, and
it has given us some great English fights. It is
giving us right now pretty consistent use of their talent.
He has paid for previously for any number of big
heavyweight fights. And of course there was Bivol and better
BV and we got that twice, and you know, the

(01:24:49):
whole nine yards. All that stuff is great. But at
the same time, to that point, everyone was telling me,
you look how cheap the paper view prices are, But
how cheap can they be if you're getting three in
eight days. That's the first thing I'm going to say.
Second of all, let's just be honest about it. Canelo
fighting in Saudi Arabia is borderline of crime. It's ridiculous
that he is fighting there. It is absolutely indefensible, other

(01:25:09):
than everyone's just trying to cash in on what is
probably gonna be you monstrous paid day.

Speaker 2 (01:25:15):
Where they needed to keep Canelo away from Jake Paul
knowing that they could put that fight on Netflix at
that time.

Speaker 1 (01:25:19):
Fine, but even then it should not be absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:25:23):
In Saudi Arabia at all.

Speaker 3 (01:25:24):
A total disaster, total disaster. And in a way versus
Cardanas is fine. But the real fight is the Akmedalia fight,
which this one is supposed to set up, and it's
happening in a weekend where I don't know if in
a way it can actually be a big star in
Vegas absent some other real kind of promotional force and
top ranks doing their best, but there's just not a.

Speaker 1 (01:25:44):
Whole lot necessarily to it.

Speaker 3 (01:25:45):
And the Riya season shine does not appear to be
the halo does not appear to be extending in that
particular way. Also, you know, some of this stuff is
very fan inaccessible. The ubank Benkard is a clear opposite
of that. But you know there's going to be not
many people to see Canelo. Yeah, it's a mandatory, but
I've seen other mandatories. But the last one in Guadalajara
when he fought who was it?

Speaker 2 (01:26:07):
It was the white guy from England.

Speaker 1 (01:26:09):
Yes, he couldn't finish him off.

Speaker 3 (01:26:11):
But you know the opening scene, John Ryder had this
huge almost orchestra and all these mariachis in this giant show.

Speaker 1 (01:26:18):
Was a fucking show.

Speaker 3 (01:26:20):
You know, what are we gonna get in Saudi Arabia
with this like nothing even approximately.

Speaker 2 (01:26:23):
Putting it in a six thousand person arena? What is this?

Speaker 1 (01:26:26):
What is this? This is this is a this is.

Speaker 2 (01:26:27):
Absurd, I hate to say it.

Speaker 1 (01:26:29):
So it's a mixed bag.

Speaker 2 (01:26:30):
Is it's a mixed bag. I've never seen this much apathy,
anger or just I don't give an f about Canelo's fight. So,
for the record, Canelo's defending his unified super middleweight championship
against unbeaten IBF title holder William Skull. Now Skull only
became the champion because Canelo wanted to fight Edgar Berlanga
last year instead of defending against Skull his mandatory, so

(01:26:54):
Canelo was stripped of the IBF title. Skull fought Vladimir
Chikin in Germany. It was not a fun I didn't
make either one look good and Skull kind of had
a hang on. Lady got hurt and kind of staggered,
you know, and faded a bit late, although he was
the clear winner. But Luke, even though he's unbeaten, he's
from Cuba, fights out of Germany, has almost no footprint.

(01:27:14):
As you know, victory is over some second tier guys.
The Shishkin fight is a decent win. Skull is terrible,
but now he's in here against Canelo only really to
be fair because when you do Canelo versus Crawford later
this year, which we expect Turkey a TKO to do
in a Vegas stadium, Allegiant Stadium, it's going to be
a much better sell if Canelo comes in there as

(01:27:35):
undisputed super middleweight champion, so that Bud Crawford has the
historical chance to become a three division, four belt on
disputed champion. But yet what you're doing is you're tossing
it on a weekend where the focus is really on tonight,
and this just feels like an extreme afterthought. The crowd's
not going to be wild, it's not going to be
going crazy. There was nobody at that at that Grand arrival.

(01:27:57):
It's in Riod and oh, by the way, he's a
fifty to one favor Yeah, I mean, who gives a fuck.
It sucks. It sucks, and it just further pushes him
away from Benavidez, which is the fight he should be
doing right now. Nobody's making Canelo though, doesn't it. I mean,
the IBF stripped him, but it's not like WBC's like
making him, you know, defend his title. They'll just give

(01:28:19):
him super champion bullshit. It feels like Turkey would just
rather have him than than have the enemy have him.
And obviously Turkey wants to do big things with TKO,
with Canelo, but this is a waste of the remaining
fights that we are going to have left with Big Red.
I feel like it's the kind of fights he wants
though right now he's more than happy to take this
money and do it. Here is Canelo talking or grading

(01:28:39):
potential future opponents on a good and great scale. When
he did talk to the media this week.

Speaker 14 (01:28:43):
William Scale, Christ Jr. Good fighter, Billy Joe Saunders fought
fighter to meet true bivil, good fight, great fighter.

Speaker 13 (01:28:57):
Yeah exactly, Floyd Mayweather, great fight and good blangah, good fighter,
Terrence Crawford, great fighter.

Speaker 3 (01:29:10):
So Skull Billie Joe Sanders, by the way, is incredibly fat.

Speaker 2 (01:29:14):
He is. He was trying to he was trying to
get involved in that U bank bending last year.

Speaker 1 (01:29:18):
I got a little racial back there.

Speaker 2 (01:29:19):
Yeah, well he likes that. Uh. In terms of this one, look,
Skull is taller than Canelo. He's got quick feet, he
holds distance well, he's pretty accurate with his punches, decent speed,
but he doesn't throw a lot. He doesn't hold a lot.
He holds a lot so which keeps the output down.
But that's not the avenue to getting a decision over Canelo.
He did come out this week and say I'm going

(01:29:40):
to eat him. When talking about Canelo, I mean, you know,
God bless him. It's the biggest opportunity of his life.
But here's the belt on the line that the WBC
is going to flow, obviously, the undisputed championship.

Speaker 1 (01:29:50):
This is the coolest thing about this.

Speaker 2 (01:29:51):
I mean it's unnecessary, but it is pretty cool. The
design is absolutely incredible. Okay, WBC continue to put out
the Colliente bill there, what is that called the Zico
ten cattelvelt. I don't even I mean like shout out
to I mean like, that's the only connection to Mexican
history that we have here on Syncle Domester. Not not
that that's a Mexican national holiday that they take it.

(01:30:12):
It is in boxing. It is in boxing, it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:14):
Is It's not their actual Mexican holiday, but it is
in boxing.

Speaker 2 (01:30:17):
For young white women, it's their holiday. Okay, there's no
question about that.

Speaker 3 (01:30:20):
Hey, hey, or forty five year old watch dads in
Vegas doing live show.

Speaker 2 (01:30:24):
Let's see why I'm Skull working out here. I mean,
his body is a wonderland. Shout out to the guy.

Speaker 3 (01:30:28):
He looks like a fucking tank. But don't be deceived.
He's not good.

Speaker 2 (01:30:33):
He doesn't have power. He is nineteen in zero overall,
and here's Skull talking about wanting to shock the world,
which is exactly what he needs to do.

Speaker 15 (01:30:40):
Most of the time they have Undermian coming like the underdog.
So he said, the same time, it's a great feeling,
you know, because people is not expecting I love from
you and then you choke the war and then you
show who you are.

Speaker 2 (01:30:53):
So here's the deal. Though, he's been the mandatory for
three years and he has constantly taken step aside money
to take instead Colt McCoy money, six or eight rounders.
You know, he fought Sean hamp Hill, who's an American
journeyman who was on the showbox level. He fought him
on a Canelo under card to take step aside money.
This is his moment. He's waited, he's put he's put
his career on hold. He's been fighting mostly nobody's but

(01:31:17):
he doesn't even have like recutable wins before that. Like
the fact that he even can become number one in
a sanctioning body for not even beaten anybody is the
other side of how boxing alphabet works. Like you know
what's going on.

Speaker 3 (01:31:28):
Two best ways to get money in sports be a
backup QB behind a franchise quarterback. It's like Colt McCoy money.
He wasn't he didn't have a franchise guy in front
of him, but still or that step aside money. Just
keep taking that step aside money, dude. You can get
rich doing that shit.

Speaker 1 (01:31:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:31:44):
Well, Sunday Night in a way is good and ewa
in a way, the Monster is going to defend the
undisputed one hundred and twenty two pound title against Ramon Cardenas. Look,
I covered Ramon, he fought in Showbox in the past,
He's from San Antonio, He's got legit power for this division.
But this is a monster step up opportunity. And the
unfortunate part is you feel like he only got selected

(01:32:05):
because he's Mexican American and we're doing this fight on
single to my weekend in Las Vegas. But it kind
of spoils in a way's return to the US, which
was supposed to be a big exciting deal. I'm not
gonna say that the card is gonna be awful, but
in new way's a bit bigger betting favorite than even Canelo.
But Luke, I actually think Cardinals has a better shot
in this than Skull does against Canelo. Skull is not

(01:32:27):
gonna throw a lot. Canelo is gonna break him down
to the body and probably stop him midway. Now, cardin
US might not even make it through four rounds for
all we know, especially if he fights aggressively. But is
there any redemptive thing about like, I'm shocked that they're
doing this. I know that in a way wanted to
stay busy and this just fit in on the time
on the calendar. I'm shocked that they would put it
on Sunday night, on an already loaded weekend at ten

(01:32:48):
pm Eastern against an opponent that's not going to move
the needle again again. Maybe that was the only chance
it was gonna work because he's in a new way. He's
supposed to be going to Saudi Arabia later in the year.
He wants to fight twice more. He wants Na Katani,
maybe MJ my Akuadaliev.

Speaker 1 (01:33:02):
Dude, here's here's my view on this.

Speaker 3 (01:33:03):
The way that that John Ryder fight went and who
was the also Canelo at the hard Rock Stadium What's
what's the name of the hard Rock Stadium?

Speaker 2 (01:33:11):
And Billy Joe Soners in South Florida. No, but he
had a he also had a tune up a mandatory
defense and he.

Speaker 3 (01:33:18):
Came out with j Balvin and it was the whole thing.
My view on this is, if you're a big megastar
in boxing or a pound for pound guy, one of
the two or both, and you have to take a mandatory.

Speaker 1 (01:33:28):
Make it a fucking show. Make it a fucking show,
this whole.

Speaker 3 (01:33:32):
Thing that we're doing in in Saudi Arabia or in
case of the inn a way, what venue is he
competing in?

Speaker 8 (01:33:38):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:33:38):
The the venue at riadd Season in Saudi Arabia that
has six.

Speaker 1 (01:33:42):
No no no no no.

Speaker 2 (01:33:42):
The in a way, I think it's T Mobile? Can
he feel Team Mobile?

Speaker 6 (01:33:48):
Long?

Speaker 2 (01:33:48):
I don't look is it T Mobile?

Speaker 4 (01:33:50):
I'll check.

Speaker 2 (01:33:50):
I mean, there's a couple of good cards. It's basically
like a pretty good regular ESPN top right, that's right,
like Rafael Espino's and the Colemane. Some good prospects one
of the Argus brothers on the take.

Speaker 3 (01:34:00):
A fighter to their a place where it's either their
hometown or their hometown fans are reliable to be so
for Canelo, that could be a lot of places. He
is a global superstar. But you know, Miami makes sense
for a lot of reasons. Vegas makes sense. Gaud lehr,
where is it gonna be?

Speaker 1 (01:34:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:34:15):
I mean, I can't wait to see what the numbers
look like for that one. I just cannot imagine he's
going to sell big there. But you get my point,
Like we're doing these things in weird ways to accommodate
other interests, and it makes the fights themselves a little strange.
I agree with you, Cardenas has a much better shot
than Skull, but Skull has basically no shot, so that's
not really saying a whole lot.

Speaker 2 (01:34:36):
And in Canello it felt like he's been going through
the motions and all the interviews. He is going through
the no, no, no. This is a great opportunity for
Mexican fighters, because if I show everybody that I can
fighter all all around the world, then Mexican fighters can
believe that they can do the same. Like that's that's
that's the fuck are we talking about. He's turning about money.
That's what he's talking about, and maybe he deserves it, Luke,
maybe we should shut the f up. But you're still

(01:34:57):
going to be that guy, and you're still going to
carry yourself as that guy. Fight the guys. I mean,
I love the Crawford fight, but I'd almost rather rematchin
Bevall or fight Benevitez, or fight Morell or fight like.

Speaker 3 (01:35:07):
Or fight Skull, but fight Skull in I don't know,
Mexico City or you know Miami again, or you know
something something where there's a show everyone can kind of
get into it. It's a fun it's a you know,
it's a it's festive. Nothing about fight week with Canelo.
This week it's the opposite of festive. It feels almost
afterthought ish, yeah, but quite literally distant, you know, it

(01:35:31):
doesn't feel anything.

Speaker 2 (01:35:33):
The Saturday pay per view with Canela will have Haimimongia
rematching Bruno who of the year Faad Jagba in a
heavyweight bout against Martin Mccoli.

Speaker 3 (01:35:43):
So did you see them getting after each other? I
did not, but that's pretty awesome they had. They were
talking greasy to each other at the press, and that's
going to be a fun fight, no doubt about it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:51):
And I also like they've got that young the Mexican
olympian who signed to Canelo. Canelo's manager and trainer, Eddie
Renoso signed him. I don't know his name, Marco I
think is his name. I forgot the last name. But
he's debuting on there as well. So there's some things
to look out for. But of like the fights that
really mattered this weekend, my focus is the most on
Ryan Garcia because I think he's the biggest story and
I love really too, and I think that's going to

(01:36:12):
be explosive fight. Of all the fights this weekend, what
is your focus on the most Lopez Lopez?

Speaker 1 (01:36:18):
That fight is very interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:36:20):
Lopez Lopez can either really hurt his stock or become
a player in an unusual way for the rest of
the year. Yes, kind of all hinges on what happens here.
Third title defense at one forty. He's trying here, let's go,
let's do that thing.

Speaker 2 (01:36:34):
All right? Well, are you ready, by the way, speaking
of this weekend, to win some cash during the basketball playoffs,
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Speaker 2 (01:38:32):
Well done right there, degenerate bong Island Luke, who's winning
the NBA playoffs?

Speaker 4 (01:38:38):
Newk's babet No. I probably a thunder of the Calves.

Speaker 2 (01:38:41):
People keep saying the Calves. I know they were a
number one seed.

Speaker 3 (01:38:43):
I did not pay attention to the Calves at all
the season, and then I saw them absolutely Who did
they just play in the opening round?

Speaker 4 (01:38:51):
Them?

Speaker 1 (01:38:51):
And I saw the last one where they finished them?

Speaker 2 (01:38:53):
They fucking they're They're really good?

Speaker 3 (01:38:56):
Are I couldn't believe how good? Also, I have to
say this Pascal Siakam. I know he doesn't play on
the he doesn't play on He.

Speaker 2 (01:39:04):
Used to play for the Raptors.

Speaker 3 (01:39:05):
Yeah, they want chance, Yes, dude, he consistently finds himself
on these unusually good winning teams. Yes, I'm amazed by
him and Schroeder have this kind of ability sick to
Mike Coppinger.

Speaker 2 (01:39:16):
He just keeps showing up at the top spot.

Speaker 1 (01:39:18):
Just there and walk on in. That's amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:39:21):
Real quick, breaking news. Greg Popovich is leaving the Spurs
as a coach. That's interesting, winning as coach in NBA history.

Speaker 1 (01:39:27):
Yeah, we go.

Speaker 2 (01:39:28):
We also have breaking news. I meant to open the
show with it real quick, but I did want to
hit you up with it. Ilia Taporia has gone public
in a video in Spanish confirming the rumors that Inariojwani
has been ahead of this, that he will be fighting
at UFC three seventeen International Fight Week. We don't know
if it's Mayn or Coleman. You would assume Man, given
his star power and what we don't know. Will it

(01:39:50):
be for the lightweight title against Islam Madchev or will
it be an interim lightweight title opportunity, maybe even a
vacant I don't know, against someone like Charles olivera Armant Sarukian.
Just engage you. I mean, there's some names out there.
Luke Thomas, I'm very happy that that level of star
power in terms of carrying the story forward, will be there.

(01:40:10):
Do you think the uncertainty and the lack of an
announcement so close have everything to do with what will
happen next Saturday. First, Yes, UFC three fifteen of Montreal,
when JDM challenges Blah Muhammad for the title and the
idea that Islam could be moving up, should his buddy
Bla lose?

Speaker 3 (01:40:28):
Yes, I think that's the entire conversation. I have nothing
else to say about it except that is exactly what
they are waiting.

Speaker 2 (01:40:34):
All right, we'll have this to say about it. I
think we all want Islam, right, I mean, that's the
best fight you can make in the sport. But if
it's not what you want for him, that's sexy.

Speaker 1 (01:40:46):
Yeah, that is Charlie and I think Taporia Wrexham.

Speaker 2 (01:40:52):
Wow, what about Saryukian? Do they save that?

Speaker 3 (01:40:57):
That's an interesting one. I don't know about that one.
I don't think they make that one, so you can
would have chirped up already.

Speaker 2 (01:41:02):
I mean, this is going to be better than Mahajev,
like anybody will be better than Gaichi Machi.

Speaker 1 (01:41:10):
Yes, that's right, I agree with that.

Speaker 2 (01:41:12):
I did talk to Billa last night. It'll be on
the Brian Campbell Experience today and he said he is
with the rumors are true, he is willing to move
up to middleweight and face Hamzat for an interim title
if necessary, and ye, and is willing to give Islam
a chance at.

Speaker 1 (01:41:28):
I don't think that's likely.

Speaker 2 (01:41:30):
Interesting Musical chairs being played on the Titanic deck that
is t Ko's UFC. The only thing is as they're
going down into the water, they're catching more and more checks.

Speaker 1 (01:41:39):
Yeah, I don't quite get it all right.

Speaker 2 (01:41:41):
Topic number four, Hey, how about this former UFC fighter
Jeff Molina was of course embroiled in the betting scandal.
Remember coach James Cross Derek min are involved as well.
That would lead all three of them right to be
black sheep removed from the UFC, suspended and really what
you thought would be a huge casualty to whoever would
violate UFC's current era of embracing sports betting, of having

(01:42:05):
DraftKings of a sponsor and all of that. But this
week it was announced by BKFC that the promotion was
going to sign Jeff Molina, which led to Molina appearing
on the Ariel Hawane Show. But after that interview aired,
it was an announcement from BKFC that the signing was
actually premature. Why because molina suspension doesn't actually end until November.

(01:42:29):
BKFC would tweet yesterday's announcement regarding Jeff mollina signing was premature.
We respect the ABC's current suspension and will honor their
rules and suspensions. So, Luke, let's just start right here.
Should BKFC have signed and shown public interest in Molina
when he's still suspended and we're so close to the

(01:42:52):
can't miss toxicity that came out of that betting scandal.

Speaker 3 (01:42:56):
I saw people saying he should be banned for life, which, well,
can we hear what Molina?

Speaker 1 (01:43:03):
Can we hear his side of the story?

Speaker 2 (01:43:04):
Side of the story? First, let's hit it.

Speaker 10 (01:43:06):
How long have you been betting on Mma?

Speaker 8 (01:43:12):
Let's see I had my debut April twenty twenty one
on my point in the right way. It is yes,
two sixty one by at the night, don't forget it.

Speaker 2 (01:43:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:43:22):
So, because I got the bonus kind of similar to
a well maker, I was able to quit my job.
I was working like thirty something hours a week at
Team Mobile slinging phones and it was paying well. My employer,
my coworkers were all super cool and awesome. They're coming
to tend my fights, and knew that the goal was
to get into the UFC and eventually quit that job

(01:43:45):
and kill it in the UFC. It's been my goal
in dream since I was a kid, since I was
fourteen years old. So they got to kind of watch
me have these regional fights, attend them to Contender series
to then have the debut get the bonus.

Speaker 2 (01:43:57):
Because of the.

Speaker 8 (01:43:57):
Bonus, I was able to quit my job. But so
I had that debut in April, and then I ended
up quitting my job. I think late July, early August
around then. But I was freaking out.

Speaker 1 (01:44:08):
Man.

Speaker 8 (01:44:09):
I was like, I was scared to quit my job,
but I knew it needed to be done. I knew
I needed to be able to I was training full time,
but it's tough when you're getting off from practice and
then you're going to work and then you're waking up
six hours later don't want to run and practice again.
So it's just a lot easier if your full time
gig is fighting, especially at this level. But I was
terrified to quit my job. So I went to my

(01:44:32):
coach at the time, James Kraus, and I was like, Hey,
I think it's time I quit, but I'm fucking scared
that I'm gonna tear my ACL next week during practice
and then you know, I'm shit out of the luck
that there's no way to make money. And at that
time he was like, dude, don't worry. We He was like,
there's ways to make money, and I got just betting

(01:44:53):
on MMA August of twenty twenty one. It started off
with like a WhatsApp group chat with like four or
five people. And if you know kraus uh, he's one
hell of a coach man. That's what sucks with all
this is that his legacy is like forever been tarnished.
But ask any fighter that's been trained under James like

(01:45:14):
he would have went down. I think he would have
been like the first Hall of Famer coach, Like he
was that fucking good. So obviously a mastermind of the
sport could break down the fights very well. And you know,
it started with just making a couple extra hundred bucks
a month, you know, which helped for a guy that
wasn't working a job and training full time.

Speaker 10 (01:45:34):
Did you ever bet on your own fights?

Speaker 1 (01:45:37):
No?

Speaker 8 (01:45:37):
No? Uh my second fight in the UFC, I thought
about it, but I was like, I got so much
shit to worry about. Man, Uh you know, yeah, No,
never bet on myself.

Speaker 10 (01:45:49):
Did you ever bet on your teammates fights?

Speaker 2 (01:45:52):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 10 (01:45:53):
Did you ever bet against them?

Speaker 8 (01:45:57):
Yes, yeah, yeah, But it was never like people that
were We had a lot of people coming from out
of town, so it was never one name comes to mind,
and I don't mind saying that I bet against a
former teammate and he would come across train and do

(01:46:19):
like two or three weeks of his campus. It was
never like, really his own base Joe Holmes, I remember
betting against him. I just didn't think he looked the best. Yeah,
but that was my own personal decision there was.

Speaker 10 (01:46:34):
Yeah, But was there ever a scenario where you knew
that someone was hurt? I'm not talking about Derek Minner here,
where you like saw someone like twist a knee and
you're like, oh, this guy's gonna get smoked, so let
me bet against them.

Speaker 1 (01:46:44):
No, No, okay, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:46:50):
Pretty damning stuff here.

Speaker 3 (01:46:52):
Let's bring along is Luke because I feel like of
anybody who would have a sense of things here, like
there's a right way and a wrong way to bet,
right and I feel like Long Island Luke does it
the right way, and we should be clear.

Speaker 2 (01:47:03):
Like, you know, we should ask his girlfriend if that's.

Speaker 1 (01:47:08):
Long Island Luke as somebody who tries to bet the right.

Speaker 3 (01:47:11):
Way, as best we can tell. What do you feel
about what Jeff Molina is saying here?

Speaker 4 (01:47:17):
I mean, he's obviously in the wrong.

Speaker 5 (01:47:19):
If the UFC tells you you can't bet on fights anymore,
and then he continued to bet on fights, that's obviously wrong.

Speaker 4 (01:47:24):
But it's not like.

Speaker 1 (01:47:27):
It's almost should he be banned for life?

Speaker 5 (01:47:29):
No, I know one hundred percent disagree with that. I
think the UFC needed to set an example with him,
so I don't disagree with them whatsoever saying you're done.
It's almost like a Paul Daily situation. You're our example,
will get him out of here. But now he totally
fine if he pops up in PFL, I don't care.

Speaker 3 (01:47:44):
That's kind of where I'm at. I don't really care
if he comes out with BKFC. Now there is the
question of the timing of it all, and I think
that's a little bit of an issue because he's still
suspended through what November.

Speaker 2 (01:47:53):
Yeah, let's shrow that tweet there from Nolan King about
the actual breakdown. Jeff Molina has been suspended thirty six
months by the Nevada Commission for failing to disclose Derek
Minner's injury and knowingly placing a significant bet on that injury.
It's retroactive and will terminate November fifth of this year.
That's bad. I mean, look, I think there's a couple

(01:48:13):
sins at once. Like one, if the UFC says no
betting because of obvious reasons as an active fighter, then
it should be no betting as an active fighter. But
I get I get that even within that it's a
little bit of a gray area. But when you add
on his admittance that I've bet on or against fighters
that I'm training with and you're using inside trading, I mean,

(01:48:38):
that's like it's it's the same reason why me, as
a CBS sports writer can't go apply for Survivor on
CBS and win a million dollars. Right It's considered a
major conflict of interest. So right there, he sealed his
fate with UFC at the worst possible time, and he's

(01:49:00):
been admitting it too here and along with being caught.
So to me, the question isn't what is the proper
suspension from the UFC. The question is should he be
allowed to fight elsewhere in the sport? I mean, should
you lose everything for one mistake in this situation like that?

Speaker 3 (01:49:16):
I don't think so now as me personally, I know
other people disagree. There is a range of opinions on this.
To me, it does not strike It does not strike
me as the nuclear option kind of scenario. It strikes
me as bad. I mean, I don't think anyone thinks
it's good. It's bad. It's quite bad. It just doesn't
strike me as I mean dud. I say this all
the time. If you can't fist fight another guy for

(01:49:38):
money in this country, I'm not really not sure what
you can do. It's like one of those things where
the government has a compelling interest in regulating it. But
there should be a low barrier to be not to
be in the UFC, but to be able to be
an active combat sports participating.

Speaker 2 (01:49:52):
Tommy Morrison took an MMA fight under mixed rules on
a Native American grounds when he had HIV.

Speaker 3 (01:49:58):
Yeah, well, I mean that's a little different. That's regulatory shopping.

Speaker 2 (01:50:03):
Saying everybody finds an opportunity to fistfight in some form
under every circumstance.

Speaker 3 (01:50:07):
Yeah, but BKFC is a bigger brandy. They put out
a statement. If we have it, let's take a look
at it.

Speaker 2 (01:50:11):
We read it already. Did we put the graphic up?
Oh yeah, we even read it out loud. We did. Yeah,
it was when you were on your laptop.

Speaker 1 (01:50:18):
Sorry about that.

Speaker 3 (01:50:18):
Yesterdays announcement regarding Jeff Moline, the signing was premature. We
respect the ABC's current suspension and will honor their rules
and suspensions.

Speaker 1 (01:50:24):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:50:24):
You remember earlier on the show when you took your
thing out and you're all inching it. We're like, Luke,
that's not really appropriate right here.

Speaker 3 (01:50:29):
That sometimes when duty calls, you just gotta anyway, you
get the idea. I don't mind BKFC signing him, I
really don't. I think it's a different sport too. It is,
and that label shouldn't go away like he did it.
He admitted to it. It ain't right, It ain't good.

Speaker 2 (01:50:44):
I mean, is there is there like is the there's
the gray area. The fact that sports betting is so
prevalent and people like Connor McGregor are constantly posting their betting,
you know, wins and losses. But is he not even
an active I want.

Speaker 3 (01:50:56):
To bring that up if I may. Here's the thing
that I just don't understand about all of this. If
people want to crucify Jeff Molina again, there's a debate
about it, and I do understand that there is at
least an argument for a lifetime ban. To me, it's
not the most convincing argument, but there's a one that exists.
This comes to us from ESPN. Mark Ramondi shouts to
Mark Ramundi, January of twenty twenty three BC. This of course,

(01:51:17):
is all in the fallout of the whole James Croud scenario.

Speaker 2 (01:51:19):
Quote.

Speaker 3 (01:51:20):
UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell wrote to fighters and
teams in a memo Thursday that the promotion quote expressly
prohibits end quote UFC fighters from betting on UFC fights
themselves or through a proxy. UFC insiders, which is a
designation that includes coaches, managers, handlers, athletic trainers, and quote
other individuals affiliated with the athletes of the UFC end

(01:51:43):
quote are also prohibited from wagering on UFC fights. Disciplinary
action would be taken against the UFC contract athletes if
the insiders were to violate the rule. Campbell also added
that is the UFC's expectation that any fighter who has
knowledge of a violation of these restrictions will immediately notify
the UFC Long Island Luke, how can that be the
rule that they put in place? And Connor McGregor is

(01:52:05):
tweeting about putting five hundred k bets on Michael Chandler's fights,
it seems like a direct violation.

Speaker 5 (01:52:11):
Yeah, and then we get into the hole that they're
technically independent contractors, so like there you go, I'm in
between bouts or in between like am I an employee.

Speaker 4 (01:52:20):
Of the UFC? No, the whole thing is a gray area.

Speaker 5 (01:52:23):
Also, I want to talk about pre that tweet from
Ramondi justin Jane's Extreme Cauture fighter publicly said before his
final bout on his contract that hetled himself.

Speaker 4 (01:52:32):
His entire purse on himself.

Speaker 2 (01:52:34):
Maybe they used to do that.

Speaker 5 (01:52:35):
Unfortunately lost that fight, but that I feel like shit
like that going public was part of the prompt of like,
oh we should probably.

Speaker 1 (01:52:41):
So here's my point.

Speaker 3 (01:52:42):
It seems like there was a big wave to the
point you guys raised to like clamp down on this stuff. Fine,
I don't have a problem with it, but I just
can't tell what is or isn't being enforced at this point.
And if that's the world we're living in, why should
Jeff Bilina have a lifetime ban under this new whatever
we're in.

Speaker 2 (01:52:58):
And what do you add into that the culture of
where we're at in modern UFC, which is everything about
free speech, everything about why are we going to discipline
Connor McGregor for the Dolly incident? He paid enough fines
to the New York you know, court system commission. That's
a commission issue. I still think it's such a like
if you have insider secrets, whether you're a trainer, whether

(01:53:19):
you're UFC manage And if UFC matchmakers got called betting
on fights that they matched, you know, yeah, they kind
of you know, like, I think it's separate when a
fighter is betting on themselves. If we found out fighters
were betting against themselves like that, I think that's unforgivable.
So if you're going to be banned for life from
a certain promotion or job, I'm I get that. I
get that it breaks the sanctity of what you're trying

(01:53:39):
to offer, and there's too much at risk with the
drafting sponsorship and with betting being where it is, and
betting is such a big part of the UFC ratings.
If you really think about it, then I'm okay with that.
I think the bigger question is should it be okay
that they work elsewhere? Should James Krause be allowed to
carry out his craft moving forward the rest of his life?

Speaker 3 (01:53:55):
And I would need more information about exactly what he
did or didn't do. I think some of that is still.
There hasn't been a full report about some of these matters,
so it's a lot of like Molina is able to
go public this time, so we have some information at
least in terms of what he's telling us.

Speaker 1 (01:54:08):
Krause hasn't said a word, really should we?

Speaker 2 (01:54:11):
Is it okay if BKFC just waits for the suspension
to end, and then I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:54:14):
Okay with it. I'm okay with it now.

Speaker 3 (01:54:16):
Obviously, if Molina does something sketchy again, well then you
just simply cannot trust him anymore. But if this was
a true learning experience and he can live on the
straight and narrow reasonably speaking, you know fine. I want
to say again, I don't think there's a single thing
wrong with sports betting, particularly in combat sports. Combat sports
and betting go hand in hand. The New York Commission

(01:54:38):
was created in the early part of the twentieth century
to get a hold of some of these things. They're
just part and parcel. But there's a right way to
do it, and there's a wrong way to do it.
And we always always encourage people who listen to this
show or watch it, you gotta bet the right way.

Speaker 2 (01:54:51):
Indeed, indeed that's true. At the end of the day,
I feel bad for Molina, but also like knew what
he was doing, right. I don't think these guys sometimes
absorbed the seriousness of it. He just admitted on Aeriel's
show that I bet with knowledge that I got from
there at that time.

Speaker 1 (01:55:09):
What kind of infraction did he think that that was?

Speaker 2 (01:55:13):
Well, he would have to know if he signed a
paper from the UFC saying you as fighters were not
going to allow you to bet.

Speaker 3 (01:55:17):
But that wasn't until this is twenty twenty one we're
talking about here. Oh, so that was it was pre
it was prey.

Speaker 2 (01:55:23):
So is this the same debate as like you can
get on Maguire for using the Royds, but all that
stuff was legal for most of his career.

Speaker 3 (01:55:29):
But it feels to me, it feels to me like
the TRT thing again, where these guys were getting commission
approval to do it, but that whole thing had been
gained to an absurd degree that it just became untenable.

Speaker 2 (01:55:40):
Dude, this has gone away so quickly, this story. Yeah,
to UFC and TKO's credit, because it could have been
a very potent bombshell. The top thing they got on
top of him, I mean, worse than Dana's you know
mishap of slapping his wife. Like that thing just went away,
and it's like it never.

Speaker 1 (01:55:55):
Held a board of meta.

Speaker 2 (01:55:57):
There you go, right, also right, that was topic number
and topic number five about looking at the PFL. They
had their I believe it was their fourth tournament card
on Thursday night that went down in Orlando, of course,
and I thought it was a very entertaining card top
to bottom. Shout out to PFL. There were a lot
of issues though, Luke the lights went out during one fight.

(01:56:17):
It was an egregious amount of fouling. But that's modern
day mma, not.

Speaker 3 (01:56:21):
Struck to the piers, no such thing as fouling there
are just certain things you can do at certain times
and that's it.

Speaker 2 (01:56:27):
Yeah, And I do think PFL is going and obviously
so as UFC and TKO, but they're going so gratuitous
on let's put an ad on every piece of the screen,
on every piece of the canvas, and everything we do
is sponsored by a different sponsor, which is a weird time.
If you read, if you read Zack Arnold's piece on
the NIM draw this week that suggests PFL currently has
lawsuits against five major sponsors that haven't paid. But notwithstanding,

(01:56:51):
I enjoyed the show on Thursday night. They even had
who was in the crowd chanting the fighter's name, so
it almost had like that college basketball, small arena build
to it. But in the end, in the main event,
light heavyweight Phil Davis came back from a two year break.
He had not fought in the PF Eleator World before,
after that long run in Belator, after the long run
in the UFC, and at forty years old, he gave

(01:57:14):
it to Rob Wilkinson, who two years ago was a
champion at two hundred and five pounds for PFL. It
goes down as a second round stoppage. It was a
beautiful right hand that dropped him and then Davis jumped
on and quickly ended it and Luke. The first round
was a typical Phil Davis round where you're like, just
not trying enough offensively, just not doing enough, even though
he sound in every way and he's in great shape always.

(01:57:36):
But when his corner challenged him at the end of
round one, he went in there and did the thing.
It's like, we could have been doing this for the
past decade, Phil, come on.

Speaker 3 (01:57:44):
So weird to see what's happened with Phil Davis. Not
that he, by the way, forty years old, look great
first team all body, let's just be very clear about that.
But you know, by the way, national champion out of
Penn State. You know I called one of Phil Davis's
fights back in the day, that's my warrior challenge.

Speaker 2 (01:57:58):
Yes, when he.

Speaker 3 (01:57:59):
Fought Terry t X Cohens and beat the fuck out
of him, I called that fight.

Speaker 1 (01:58:02):
I was. You know, this is a long time ago.

Speaker 3 (01:58:05):
Phil Davis, for folks who don't remember, had a lot
of hype coming out of college because he was a
national division Division one national champion and when he was
at UFC, when when John Jones fought Glover to share
it in Baltimore. That was the night that was the
same one of Anthony Rumbel. Johnson was kind of coming
back from World Series of Fighting and fighting Phil Davis,
who had been on a great wind streak, and we.

Speaker 1 (01:58:27):
Didn't really know what to expect.

Speaker 3 (01:58:28):
We kind of thought, well, maybe Phil will come back,
and you know, Phil will will really shine here. And
it was actually Rumble who surprised him, but he was
you know, there was a moment where John was supposed
to face off with Glover and then Phil got in
the way, and so Phil kind of faced off with him,
and I remember John being like, you better worry about
Rumble first, and he was right. He you know, give

(01:58:49):
John his credit, he was right about that. But the
one I wanted to make is when he went to Bellatore.
They also did a huge media push with him.

Speaker 2 (01:58:56):
Yeah, he was like a fake presidential role.

Speaker 3 (01:59:00):
But the last few years a pre pandemic even but
certainly since then he has been quiet as a church mouse.
I haven't seen a single interview that he's done nothing.
He just fell off the face of the earth. And
then to the point you raised was off for two years,
he comes back and gets maybe the best win he's
had in I don't know, six years something like that.
By the way, another win over a bellator guy over

(01:59:22):
a PFL guy. Just pointing that out both UFC veterans.

Speaker 2 (01:59:25):
THO.

Speaker 3 (01:59:25):
Obviously, what a win for Phil Davis. What a weird
story he's had. But I gotta say, this was a
Phil in beltour. We called someone, you know, we were
covering it together for showtime at the time, and they
were dreadful.

Speaker 1 (01:59:37):
They were fucking dreadful. This was not He looked pretty good.

Speaker 3 (01:59:42):
Here and you even for him. It did, It did,
and he looked so thrilled about it too.

Speaker 2 (01:59:48):
So in that light heavyweight bracket he advances to the
semi finals. He'll face former Belator fighter Sullivan Cawley, who
on the undercard needed less than a round to take
out Easy Policy by first round TK.

Speaker 3 (02:00:00):
But his team is going to uh, they're going to
fight the result there and they think those shots were illegal.

Speaker 2 (02:00:04):
Okay, well, I like that matchup potentially, And on the
flip side, I really like what we saw in the
UFC VET Screwface. It's it's shoeface from Mark for Death
with Steven Sadel the.

Speaker 3 (02:00:16):
Series of Illegal Needs in this fight that did not
get it was illegal.

Speaker 2 (02:00:20):
Everything on this card there was like there were either
were crazy amounts of cheating going on in this card.
It was crazy. I remember they went to replay in
this fight and then the referee was like, yeah, replay
is not working, so we're just gonna warn Yeah, that's right. Anyway.
Shoeface Antonio Carlos Junior, who is ripped and a former
PFL tournament season champion, takes home a split decision twenty

(02:00:42):
nine to twenty eight on two score cards against Carl Moore,
who fought for a Bellator title in his last fight. Luke,
it wasn't the best performance from Carlos, but I'm glad
that he got the nod because I thought he did enough,
even though the announcers were kind of expecting that more
would get the decision. We end up with Phil Davis
versus Shoe.

Speaker 1 (02:01:00):
At the end.

Speaker 2 (02:01:00):
I'm not going to be mad at that. Shoeface will
have to fight the other side of that bracket, which
was Sammy and Powell, who had a very good finish
over Carl Aprickson, and in the second round he just
exploded and became violent. So I have to say, is
this super high profile? Is there tons of steaks? No,
we actually don't even really know what's at stake in

(02:01:21):
these tournaments. You get half the money you used to.
You become a number one contender in the Champion Series,
But I don't know if that counts you as a
PFO TA imagine if every one of these was headlined
by like Apache Mix or Yeah, I don't guess. I
still don't get it, but I enjoyed the fights. I
kind of like where they're going. Shoe Face seems a

(02:01:41):
little reinvented over all of us few years. This was
kind of a plus this main Cardwell, getting that stop.

Speaker 3 (02:01:47):
To me, it's not I keep saying this to people.
It's really not a question of does the PFL have
good fighters. They they've got really good fighters.

Speaker 2 (02:01:55):
They just don't feature their best fighters in the spots
that they.

Speaker 1 (02:01:59):
Spots that matter. Just fucking blows my mind.

Speaker 3 (02:02:01):
But yes, like there's quality up and down this roster,
and if you tune into a PFL card, there's a
good chance you're gonna see some good fights.

Speaker 2 (02:02:08):
Absolutely comin event was former Belator interim heavyweight champion Valentin Moldovsky,
who is trained, of course by Vadim Nemkov. He took
on fellow Russian Sergei Bilo Stenni. Yeah, Luke, that was
a wild fight. Did you see the end of the
second round when they were rock em sock him, hurting
each other back in the uncle Randy Cooter was losing
his shit, hoping that there's grass on the field next

(02:02:29):
time he checks out those nudes. But Valentine would get
a close unanimous decision win. And dude, you know who
he's gonna fight. I'm down for this Moldovian hulk Alexander
Romanov who has completely given up the fitness fight but
still has to cut down to two sixty five and

(02:02:49):
the free chered prelim he took on Timothy Johnson submitted
the shit out of him in a first round submission.
So again, this isn't like musty TV. But at the
same time, Fat Moldov or Moldovski against Fat Romanov, Like,
I'm in on this, dude.

Speaker 1 (02:03:04):
Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say it's blowing my skirt up.

Speaker 2 (02:03:07):
But do you see did you see Fat Romanov celebrate
and he was like just just like moves, jumping around
and rolls and he's like brother.

Speaker 3 (02:03:13):
His he's got you know, he's got done lap disease.
Have you heard about that? No, his gut's done lapped
over his belt.

Speaker 2 (02:03:22):
Yeah. Oleg pop Off got a disputed split decision win
at heavyweight over Carl Williams on the undercard to advance,
and Nacimento a split decision went over Abraham Babbel Babble Baby.
I didn't see this fight, father Abraham. I watched the
main CARDA then had many sons, Luke, I want to

(02:03:46):
say good things about the PFL. I want them to just
give us the reason them putting Jonathan Coschman in the
postfight press cart in the way that he answered questions
and tried to spin it forward and was like, look,
we're not gonna harp on the negative. That's a much
better change. Getting down, sorry, straight up, getting down off
the TV is a much better change.

Speaker 3 (02:04:06):
I couldn't disagree. I think it's a good role for coach.
I think he leans into it quite well. I think
it helps him. But but you know, once again, why
didn't we see patchy mix the last month. Oh, we're
gonna save him for the Champion Series. You could use
them both times.

Speaker 2 (02:04:20):
Why did you not build their own air in Pico.
You could use them both times. Look are they gonna be?
That honest question as we stand right now May second,
twenty twenty five, on the tenth year.

Speaker 3 (02:04:30):
Anniversar, fifth month of the year, and we haven't seen
a single except for Ousman and Paul Hughes, and.

Speaker 2 (02:04:36):
They took two months off, by the way, after that.
Will we see PFL in twenty six? It's a real
question right now.

Speaker 1 (02:04:42):
Yeah, twenty six, Yes, it's twenty seven. I can't quite tell.

Speaker 2 (02:04:44):
Okay, that's where we go. I enjoyed the last card
though of this quarterfinal round. We'll see what happens in
the semis as we roll on. I know they're gonna
move around. They're going to Wichita. They're going uh which
they should caago for the finals.

Speaker 3 (02:04:56):
Whichita is a great city to go to for this
kind of a product like this. Lincoln, Nebraska, Backerville, Well, Backerville.

Speaker 2 (02:05:03):
Is the land of time forgot. But Oklahoma in general, what's.

Speaker 1 (02:05:06):
The shittiest US state?

Speaker 6 (02:05:07):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (02:05:08):
Oklahoma?

Speaker 2 (02:05:09):
Mississippi?

Speaker 3 (02:05:10):
Mississippi is the poorest. It might be it might be Arkansas.
Arkansas is another number.

Speaker 2 (02:05:17):
Yeah, some of those states are barren. Oklahoma, Okay, I
got robbed in Oklahoma, so you know I have less
than wonderful. Also, you had two uncles that went to
Oklahoma State. One played football, uh University of it's a
famous SoundBite from documentary.

Speaker 1 (02:05:31):
And university and the other one went to Harvard.

Speaker 2 (02:05:33):
So yeah, deep nice deep cut there. All right, we
ran over time with really not much to talk about,
and we don't have fan segments this week, but Morning
Combat at gmail dot com is your email address. Let'slet's
step it up next week. Fansobs last week were fire,
So thank you very much, Thank you very much to
all the fans. Thank you to Long Island Luke for
playing ball this week. And we'll check you out. What
Friday and Saturday Luke on the main card minute on YouTube.

Speaker 5 (02:05:55):
Yeah, I'll be living about five hours for the boxing
and then tomorrow night main card.

Speaker 2 (02:05:58):
All right, how many bombs rips on air will you
deliver in one in one show?

Speaker 4 (02:06:03):
It's usually one per fight, so you do the math.

Speaker 2 (02:06:05):
Add God, have you ever ended one of those streams
like not even sure if you just said racist shit
for an hour?

Speaker 5 (02:06:13):
But it's not because of being remoking. It's usually because
of the drinking. And then I'm like I probably you
shouldn't be drinking.

Speaker 2 (02:06:19):
Hey, you want to party, you want someone to hang
out with? Long Islan Luke.

Speaker 3 (02:06:22):
My wife said that Margarita marijuana combination is that's that's
that's all.

Speaker 2 (02:06:26):
That's a washed Dad special right there. All right, thank
you to Ken the dear Daniel Snyder's nephew for helping
us out. As always, it's been fun. Lt Okay, I'm
not leaving or dying yet, but don't you go dying
on me. I'm gonna go home. And I got coverage
tonight for CBS Sports of this Times Square event. I'm
looking forward to it. I'm looking for Turkey. Show me
what you got. I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 (02:06:46):
Yeah, it's the biggest event of the weekend.

Speaker 6 (02:06:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:06:48):
They're claiming they have bells and whistles and surprises on
this card tonight that weve I.

Speaker 1 (02:06:52):
Might do a watch along.

Speaker 3 (02:06:53):
I'm really not sure yet, but if I don't for sure,
I'm doing a watch along for the UFC tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (02:06:58):
Final question, final topic, final part of this show. What's
the deal with Bill Belichick's girlfriend? Does she already have
his complete four oh one K? And should we be
as worried for his future. As for a Las Vegas
combat sports journalists, Here's.

Speaker 1 (02:07:16):
What I'll say.

Speaker 3 (02:07:17):
As long as it's not elder abuse, I don't really care. Also,
can you can you imagine having to bang Bill Belichick
that's really gross in one.

Speaker 2 (02:07:25):
Of those sweatshirts with the holes And you know what,
I just do you think he has a pipe pole
in one of those? Just so like she doesn't. Okay,
we've gone too far there it is.

Speaker 1 (02:07:34):
I think our sponsors are gonna love this conversation.

Speaker 2 (02:07:37):
Our sponsors, Hey, check us out next Wednesday. Don't forget
May fifth, Right? May fifth? No?

Speaker 1 (02:07:42):
May seventh, seventh.

Speaker 2 (02:07:43):
God has been giving you the wrong date. May seventh, Wednesday,
eleven am. Pregame preview brought to you by Quervo right
here for Luke Thomas on BC, for our whole staff
and crew. Hey, enjoy the fights this weekend. Check out
our coverage. We love you. We out

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