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Speaker 1: On two, twenty two, twenty two, two of the best

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Speaker 1: heavyweights are going to fight to see who's number one,

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Speaker 1: and the three of.

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Speaker 2: Us are going to talk about it.

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Speaker 1: Hey, like my dad jokes, this is the resume review

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Speaker 1: of Francis and Ghana. Who were really here to talk

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Speaker 1: about that is Brian Campbell, my co host of course

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Speaker 1: at Morning Combat CBS Sports. He's a showtime commentator. Don't

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Speaker 1: forget that either. It's the honorary brother the man in

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Speaker 1: the hat, Chuck Mindenhall is here.

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Speaker 2: Hi, Chuck, how are you good?

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Speaker 3: Good? Chuck? One word to describe our new set, Well,

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Speaker 3: I'm gonna sit here and gloat. Awesome, Okay, thank you.

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Speaker 3: That's right. That we needed an expert on predators, so

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Speaker 3: that's that's right.

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Speaker 1: We need an expert of prayers. We have him here,

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Speaker 1: So we here to discuss Francis and Ghanu. As BC,

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Speaker 1: this is technically a title unification. Do you care about

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Speaker 1: the unification aspect that you.

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Speaker 3: Know it makes the marquee look shinier, But we all

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Speaker 3: know the real deal of why it's there, just because

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Speaker 3: Francis couldn't fight a month earlier in UFC playing business

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Speaker 3: hijinks behind the scenes, But obviously what's lingering over this

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Speaker 3: fight is it's a great fight Sarah Ganzi unbeaten interim champion.

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Speaker 3: Can he make that leap? But also this could be

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Speaker 3: Francis's last UFC fight for all we know, based on

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Speaker 3: his current contract situation, which win or lose, that could

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Speaker 3: play a part in which direction he goes. So it's

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Speaker 3: an interesting time for Francis, who's really figuring out right

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Speaker 3: now from that title winning bout last year againstep A

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Speaker 3: miochicch in the rematch, how great he can be. We're

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Speaker 3: going to look back at the build the rise to

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Speaker 3: get to that point before we get into anything specific.

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Speaker 3: Though you may have heard, Chuck. You may have been briefed.

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Speaker 2: Oh god, are you doing an awards thing and you

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Speaker 2: want him to react to it? Oh all right, let's

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Speaker 2: hear it.

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Speaker 3: There's something called the resume review curse.

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Speaker 2: Which, by the way, was it's not real and if

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Speaker 2: it was.

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Speaker 3: So, just just to keep you updated. Canelo Alvarez broke

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Speaker 3: the curse? But people say, no, no, bra this is

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Speaker 3: only I believe it's eight and oh with seven stoppage

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Speaker 3: wins the curse. Right now, do you put any stock

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Speaker 3: that we could somehow cosmically be altering the outcome of

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Speaker 3: UFC too.

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Speaker 4: I dude, man, I live in superstition. I think that

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Speaker 4: if that's if that's what the record says, that's what

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Speaker 4: it is. You know, I did not know about this

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Speaker 4: curse until just last night.

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Speaker 2: People take it very seriously.

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Speaker 4: They take it very seriously. So I hope for Francis's

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Speaker 4: sake that we're not putting a curse on.

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Speaker 1: We probably well, I don't think we are putting a curse.

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Speaker 3: Someone always to curse by it. So even if Francis wins,

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Speaker 3: you could be the one.

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Speaker 1: Just okay, before we get started with the actual look

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Speaker 1: at Francis's resume, Chuck, you're here.

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Speaker 2: Let me ask you very quickly.

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Speaker 1: You have covered every We've all covered every single fight

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Speaker 1: at least from the UFC on of Francis's career.

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Speaker 2: What can we say about it to this point?

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Speaker 4: Well, I mean, to me, he's the kind of quintessential

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Speaker 4: heavyweight right like you look at him, he screams heavyweight.

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Speaker 4: I think he's one of those guys. Boxing has had

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Speaker 4: these guys over the years. UFC has not had a

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Speaker 4: guy like that, other than maybe brock Lesner back in

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Speaker 4: his day where it's just a specimen to behold. The

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Speaker 4: first time I ever saw him actually was in his

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Speaker 4: first UFC fight in Orlando. No idea what he looked like.

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Speaker 4: He was on an elevator and I thought he was

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Speaker 4: a football player something attending the fight like he was huge.

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Speaker 4: I didn't even think he was a two sixty five

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Speaker 4: because he looked that big. And then when I realized

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Speaker 4: that this is the new guy who they were calling

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Speaker 4: Francis Gano at the time.

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Speaker 3: Apparently I've been told I don't.

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Speaker 4: Know, yeah, so like you know, but getting the first

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Speaker 4: look at him, it was just unbelievable.

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Speaker 3: It's so quick, right, he's in the moment, which is

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Speaker 3: not the word I was thinking of, but a good point.

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Speaker 3: He's just the baddest man on the planet.

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Speaker 1: He looks to your point, he made He makes his

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Speaker 1: debut in twenty fifteen of December actually twenty fifteen against

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Speaker 1: Louis Henrique BC and to the point you're raising here,

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Speaker 1: one of the things I noticed immediately in this fight.

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Speaker 1: We had never seen Francis before, unless you were, of

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Speaker 1: course part of the French mma scene. So this is

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Speaker 1: our our first look at him, and I just noticed

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Speaker 1: his opponent Louis Henrique was big, but a guy like

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Speaker 1: Francis was cut, he was muscular. He doesn't look to

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Speaker 1: your point block Lester are a difference when there, but

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Speaker 1: we're used to the Ti tree Vases, the Mark Hans,

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Speaker 1: the Derek Lewis is and God bless him, we love

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Speaker 1: him bec but Francis looks different.

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Speaker 3: He's built like a brick shit house. He looks like

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Speaker 3: an action hero or villain depending on your side. And

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Speaker 3: even Joe Rogan, you know, in the build up to

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Speaker 3: this fight, is just freaking out like this is a

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Speaker 3: huge man in Dominic Cruz during the prep point area

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Speaker 3: going you know that eighty three inch reach his arms,

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Speaker 3: goll below his knees while standing still.

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Speaker 2: You can scratch him, you know.

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Speaker 3: Obviously. It's one of those guys where you see him like, Damn,

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Speaker 3: I hope he can fight. Dana White's famous comments on

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Speaker 3: on Connor McGregor after hearing him talk Damn, I hope

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Speaker 3: he can Yeah, yeah, he can fight. I was taken

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Speaker 3: aback in this first fight. And by the way, he's

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Speaker 3: they're both making their UFC debut him and Henry Kue.

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Speaker 3: Francis is five and one coming in that suffered the

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Speaker 3: lost early early in his career, but he's way more

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Speaker 3: poison patient in this fight and really his entire UFC run.

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Speaker 3: Then I think sometimes your brain allows you to remember

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Speaker 3: he's never really been reckless, go out there and try

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Speaker 3: to finish you. It's more on strike. Well, I disagree

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Speaker 3: that a little bit. In this A lot of these

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Speaker 3: early fights it's more about counter strikes and reacting to

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Speaker 3: what the opponent does to him. So he was much

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Speaker 3: more of a finished project. And this is a repeating

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Speaker 3: theme Chuck in this when we do this, because sometimes

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Speaker 3: narratives change, you know, we reinterpret things wrong. I think

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Speaker 3: it was a lot closer to being freaking great than

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Speaker 3: I remembered early on.

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Speaker 4: What do you remember on as ufcdaby, I thought he

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Speaker 4: was just really susceptible to takedowns because in that very

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Speaker 4: first fight he was taken down. In fact, if the

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Speaker 4: referee for that first fight wasn't like a little bit

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Speaker 4: short triggered on standing them up, he may have stayed

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Speaker 4: there for the whole first round and then the second round.

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Speaker 4: So looking back on I just I do remember the

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Speaker 4: fight because he was a specimen of behold. But I

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Speaker 4: do remember him getting taken down, and then in the

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Speaker 4: second fight also the same thing. So I thought that

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Speaker 4: that would be the recurring theme early on in his career,

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Speaker 4: and obviously he's got that somewhat career.

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Speaker 1: There's a moment, this is why I should listen to

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Speaker 1: the fights on mute. It's Henrique. Yeah, I listened to

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Speaker 1: the fights on ut that's smart way to go though,

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Speaker 1: so the interest of correction, Henrique, I listened to the

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Speaker 1: fight to rewatch for the fight today or the show today.

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Speaker 1: There's a moment there where he gets hit with a

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Speaker 1: punch right before it's over, and you can see his

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Speaker 1: eyes like go like this. At the same time they

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Speaker 1: begin to do the wishy washy bit. So he had

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Speaker 1: this moment where he was hurt from the punch, but

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Speaker 1: also not so hurt that he couldn't process Oh my god,

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Speaker 1: this guy hits with before that?

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Speaker 3: Did you see the the leg kick that Francis opened

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Speaker 3: his offense with. He came out with a typical outside strike,

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Speaker 3: and I thought, I saw the oh shit from Henrik

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Speaker 3: in that same moment, like what the f is this

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Speaker 3: guy made of? Like holy crap. So his reach, by

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Speaker 3: the way, was a nine inch advantage of this guy

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Speaker 3: coming in and you can see that in there. I mean,

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Speaker 3: if you're and you got a guy that that's quick,

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Speaker 3: powerful and patient with that natural built in reach. I

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Speaker 3: feel like again like we should have saw somebody.

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Speaker 4: And rewatching that. You see him come out, You see

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Speaker 4: Henry come out with his glasses on, and he's smiling,

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Speaker 4: and you're thinking, this guy has no idea. From from

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Speaker 4: this perch of six years later or whatever it is,

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Speaker 4: you look back here like this guy just has no idea.

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Speaker 4: I don't know what tape he was watching or what

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Speaker 4: he was expecting, but I don't think more either.

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Speaker 3: No, he had gone two and three after this, even

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Speaker 3: though moved down to light heavyweight but lost to Ryan

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Speaker 3: Spam and then he was gone.

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Speaker 2: So I wish we had a picture.

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Speaker 1: Do you remember the scene where it's where I'm Francis,

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Speaker 1: your Rogan and your ferinand Lopez and he's trying to translate,

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Speaker 1: and dude, motherfucking Francis is towering over. He's like up

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Speaker 1: to here.

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Speaker 3: I mean, to be fair, though we would we would too,

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Speaker 3: So I've.

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Speaker 1: Been behind France. Franci's thing is a little bit taller

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Speaker 1: than me. He's certainly much much more muscular and bigger.

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Speaker 1: He just has a giant frame. But it was weird

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Speaker 1: watching him, like I think with one hand he could

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Speaker 1: have just swallowed Joe and picked him up like that.

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Speaker 2: He's a giant man. Okay, we move on.

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Speaker 3: To Well he knocks him out with a perfect uppercut

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Speaker 3: counter and it's a it's a holy shit, this guy

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Speaker 3: can crack. But I say, in hindsight, maybe we should

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Speaker 3: have seen some more of the potential. I remember watching

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Speaker 3: this fight live. I don't remember going, oh shit, title.

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Speaker 2: The problem is the person of the night.

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Speaker 4: By the way, it's like Derek Luis and Orlando, both

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Speaker 4: guys that debuted on the very first five.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and also what you saw on this you could

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Speaker 1: later pick out and be like, oh right, he could

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Speaker 1: do this with it. But if you just see this fight, yes,

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Speaker 1: Francis does look different physically, looks different, but it doesn't

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Speaker 1: look all that different as a fight for what you

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Speaker 1: normally see among the favos.

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Speaker 3: A lot of shitt heavyweights at this lower card level.

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Speaker 1: So it was a great debut actually, but it didn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily foretell all that we saw.

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Speaker 2: So we jumped now to twenty sixteen.

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Speaker 1: That was his only UFC fight, of course, took place

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Speaker 1: in December of that year, so we're now in April

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Speaker 1: now of the new year. In twenty sixteen, he takes

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Speaker 1: on Curtis Blades. Curtis Blade's a great wrestler out of

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Speaker 1: Elevation Fight Team out in Denver, Colorado. This was on

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Speaker 1: the Rothwell versus Dosantos card. Also, I want to point out,

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Speaker 1: for a guy like Francis, his first fight in the

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Speaker 1: UFC is in Orlando, his second one is in Zagreb.

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Speaker 3: Early on, they made.

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Speaker 1: This guy a bit of a road warrior, making him

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Speaker 1: constantly go to important markets for them, and he did it.

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Speaker 2: So I want to just point out.

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Speaker 3: About Blades's stock.

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Speaker 2: Coming in.

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Speaker 3: Blades was a minus one fifty five betting favorite, which

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Speaker 3: was the last time during this early run that that

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Speaker 3: Francis would be the underdog, and it's because he had

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Speaker 3: just tkoed over him and took a decision from a

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Speaker 3: still there Mark hump before that. So Blades, despite being

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Speaker 3: early in his UFC career, kind of came into this

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Speaker 3: fight as he could be the next guy if he

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Speaker 3: puts together some wins.

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Speaker 4: I'm not gonna lie and say that I was paying

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Speaker 4: attention to the fight like the like we're doing right now.

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Speaker 4: But at the time I know when the fight came on,

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Speaker 4: it was the same thing. Blades knew how to wrestle,

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Speaker 4: and I think that the recipe was obviously that he

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Speaker 4: could just take him down and keep him there, right.

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Speaker 3: And he six four with beIN reach himself. So this

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Speaker 3: was a great early test for Francis against a guy

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Speaker 3: who seemed ready to go places.

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Speaker 1: What did you make of the idea since you did

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Speaker 1: not think his wrestling was all that impressive in the debut,

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Speaker 1: and fair enough, it wasn't necessarily all that spectacular. But

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Speaker 1: here he takes on a guy like Blades who is

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Speaker 1: maybe the best in the division at it. Actually Steve

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Speaker 1: Bay certainly has an argument for it as well, right

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Speaker 1: and yes, okay, according to fight Metric, he got two

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Speaker 1: of the six takedowns, but they never seemed to matter

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Speaker 1: that much today.

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Speaker 4: No, I just know that because I always gauge these

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Speaker 4: things by like buddies on fight nights that are like, hey, man,

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Speaker 4: who should we take? And I remember pointing this out.

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Speaker 4: I was like, you know, I just saw and gone

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Speaker 4: to fight in the last one and he was taken down.

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Speaker 4: I just envisioned him getting taken down and the fight's

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Speaker 4: going to go that direction. So him thwarting a couple

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Speaker 4: of those early on I thought was a tell a

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Speaker 4: little bit. The other thing is, you know he's from France,

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Speaker 4: he's training out of France, and a lot of times

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Speaker 4: these European guys, especially raw guys who've only been out

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Speaker 4: of two or three years, they just don't have wrestling yet.

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Speaker 4: You just don't believe that they're going to be able

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Speaker 4: to stop a guy like Blades who has a dedicated

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Speaker 4: pass to wrestling.

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Speaker 1: The other part, though, I will say when he got

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Speaker 1: up at times, and this is true in the Henrique

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Speaker 1: fight as well. He didn't have the best takedown defense,

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Speaker 1: but he was so fucking strong, and even in the

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Speaker 1: first Stpe fight you can see him. My guy just

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Speaker 1: stands up now times and these guys are like they

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Speaker 1: don't know what to do with it.

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Speaker 3: He didn't take damage at all being on the ground

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Speaker 3: against Henrique or Blades, and I think Kenrickett was afraid

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Speaker 3: to open up offensively even in top position because he

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Speaker 3: had felt that power. But did you see what's interesting

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Speaker 3: in this one is Blades, I mentioned, was first guy

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Speaker 3: with size equality for the most part. Yeah, that first

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Speaker 3: opening jab from Blades, I think Frances up like he

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Speaker 3: was like, oh shit, he was, he was hurty to

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Speaker 3: just step back. But the narrative on this fight tell

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Speaker 3: me if I'm wrong, and I think it was a

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Speaker 3: narrative that was built up heading into the Blades rematch,

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Speaker 3: which we can talk about later, but was oh okay.

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Speaker 3: Blades ends up losing this fight by TKO because of

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Speaker 3: his face was a mess, but oh man, he was

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Speaker 3: the first guy to expose that Francis and he was dominating.

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Speaker 3: Looking back on this fight, yes, Blades had two or

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Speaker 3: three successful takedowns there. He did nothing with it.

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Speaker 1: I don't, yeah, correct, It's been a problem that has

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Speaker 1: plagued Curtis Blades, I would say in his UFC run,

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Speaker 1: not in totality. Obviously he has those vicious elbows over overhim.

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Speaker 1: So it's not a consistent problem. But it's not something

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Speaker 1: that he has ever I think fully worked through. And

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Speaker 1: this is what I mean, a guy like Frances sort

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Speaker 1: of just picking his spots as a heavyweight.

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Speaker 2: He was showing good, good.

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Speaker 1: Perseverance, not through terrible spots, but just sort of picking

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Speaker 1: his own. You like what you see here a little

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Speaker 1: bit from Francis.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 4: I did like what I was seeing, but at the

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Speaker 4: same time, again, I'm not sure that I was circling

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Speaker 4: him as anything to really be.

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Speaker 1: Cham So let me say something here, and I think

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Speaker 1: it's in part of the audience should know this, just

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Speaker 1: what is the context here of the heavyweight division. We

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Speaker 1: are now pretty close to the end, the beginning of

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Speaker 1: the post Kane, post JDS heavyweight division, where you do

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Speaker 1: have a lot of older players in that division because

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Speaker 1: it's the it's heavyweight, You're always going to have older

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Speaker 1: players who've been there for a while, like erol Skis.

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Speaker 2: And things like that.

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Speaker 1: But there's this power vacuum at the top where we

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Speaker 1: actually don't know who the best heavyweight is. So this win,

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Speaker 1: by the way, I know it's like a t k

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Speaker 1: O ref stoppage because the doctor checked it twice.

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Speaker 2: The referee actually is like the referee.

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Speaker 1: Is like, come on, Dot, get him out of here,

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Speaker 1: and the Doc's like, ah, this motherfucker can't see ship.

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Speaker 3: And they actually he was like here, touch my finger

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Speaker 3: to be covered and he could back him in the face,

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Speaker 3: and the refords like all right, this is this.

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Speaker 2: This is a fucking joke.

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Speaker 1: So my point being is at this time we didn't

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Speaker 1: know exactly who Curtis Blades was either about the era.

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Speaker 3: This is now Stepe's time. But it took a long

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Speaker 3: time for a lot of us, including me, for you know,

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Speaker 3: I'm the leader of this anti fan club, to be like, no,

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Speaker 3: Stevee is legit, He's going to be, you know, lording

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Speaker 3: over this division for a while. To me, it felt

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Speaker 3: like an empty crown on top. Obviously with with Caine

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Speaker 3: handing it off, and we still weren't sure if Kan

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Speaker 3: was gonna come back. We all thought over him was

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Speaker 3: going to be that guy. He just had a couple

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Speaker 3: rough losses during that stretch, one of them to Blaze,

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Speaker 3: you know, obviously, to to Travis Brown and to Bigfoot,

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Speaker 3: where you're just sort of like, damn, he can't put

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Speaker 3: it together. So it was open there for Enganu. But

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Speaker 3: the UFC announcers nor us at the time, we're still thinking, God,

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Speaker 3: this guy could be next. I will say two things though,

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Speaker 3: Francis after around with the South bass dance for the

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Speaker 3: first time in this fight, didn't really have any success,

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Speaker 3: but seems comfortable early doing it. And also Blaze was

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Speaker 3: the first guy to be able to take his power.

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Speaker 3: He couldn't take his place, couldn't take his fWAR for

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Speaker 3: more than two rounds, but a guy with a big chin.

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Speaker 3: And you saw the freaking damage that comes to you

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Speaker 3: at this point if you try to take in Francis's power,

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Speaker 3: because Blade's face was a freaking I mean it was

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Speaker 3: bleeding from the from the nose down and the eye.

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Speaker 1: Which I was completely closed.

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Speaker 3: So if you take that ship, you're gonna get a.

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Speaker 2: All right, So we move along.

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Speaker 1: We still in twenty sixteen, he had a busy twenty

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Speaker 1: sixteen three fights. We now moved to Chicago, Illinois. This

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Speaker 1: is July of twenty sixteen at the Home versus Chevchenko card,

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Speaker 1: which is actually a really good card, quite well on

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Speaker 1: Fox with the ratings. I recall this is not a

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Speaker 1: big fight in his repertoire. This was something of a

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Speaker 1: next fight in the in the contract kind of scenario.

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Speaker 1: He beats bo Jan a me hal of Mihilo, a

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Speaker 1: little bitch who's screaming Nazi, whose tattoos were not great.

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Speaker 1: He didn't look like he had been in the weight

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Speaker 1: room at any point in his life. And I'm sure

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Speaker 1: he's a good.

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Speaker 3: Fight but I'm beating for a decade in the sub

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Speaker 3: UFC level. He had a ten fight he's coming into here,

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Speaker 3: but he was small for a heavyweight. And from the

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Speaker 3: opening second of this fight, you got bohen circling away

359
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Speaker 3: trying to see if that fence can open, because he's

360
00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:44,120
Speaker 3: just trying to get the frick away from him. Seriously,

361
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Speaker 3: But I will say before this fight, first time, Francis

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Speaker 3: says in the pre fight interview, I will be the

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Speaker 3: heavyweight champion one day. I thought that was a key

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Speaker 3: turning point moment. Even though he still got the predator

365
00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:55,280
Speaker 3: haircut and they're still mispronouncing his name, calling him Gano.

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Speaker 3: This was the first time we're out there.

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Speaker 1: Well, and he's on the main car, the main card

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Speaker 1: of the UFC on Fox card.

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Speaker 3: Big deal, all right.

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Speaker 1: So what do you want to say? I mean, there's

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Speaker 1: nothing really to say about this one.

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Speaker 3: Once Bo John let him open up, yeah he got

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Speaker 3: he was out of there.

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Speaker 1: But you can see the UFC is like, Okay, we

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Speaker 1: saw what you did against Curtis Blades, we saw what

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Speaker 1: you did against Louis Henrik. Let's see what else you

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Speaker 1: could do against an overmatch opposition.

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Speaker 3: But on a grand stage. Fair about stoppag jone and

379
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Speaker 3: if you guys rewatched the replace, he didn't actually catch Bojet, No,

380
00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:25,640
Speaker 3: he just kind of disci that this was almost like

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Speaker 3: a fear I'm gonna go to the ground.

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Speaker 2: Was this was close to Bob sapt.

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Speaker 3: And then he got hammered to the face. Was so

384
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Speaker 3: clean that herbs like, dude, you're not even fighting back,

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Speaker 3: You're done. Got at it even though he had not

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Speaker 3: been concussed by anything.

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Speaker 2: So now he's on a big stage.

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Speaker 1: He beats this guy, and you know, even though the

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Speaker 1: fight kind of sucked for the reasons that we saw, it,

390
00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:46,560
Speaker 1: begins to set up this myth. You've got the power

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Speaker 1: from the Henrique fight with that with the uppercut, now

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Speaker 1: you've got the highlight reel, you've got Blaze's eye being

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Speaker 1: completely closed, and now you've got a guy who wants

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Speaker 1: zero part of him on a UFC on Fox card.

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Speaker 1: That's a big win for this dude. If he could

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Speaker 1: have got it, he didn't even fucking try.

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Speaker 4: So the next all newbies, by the way, right, every

398
00:16:04,280 --> 00:16:07,120
Speaker 4: single guy to this point had been a UFC debutante.

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Speaker 4: They weren't like.

400
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Speaker 1: In fairness, Curtis Blades as a perennial contender, but at

401
00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:11,960
Speaker 1: the time, you're right, yes, that's what he was.

402
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Speaker 2: All right.

403
00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:15,040
Speaker 1: This fight is actually kind of interesting. It's another smaller one.

404
00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:17,520
Speaker 1: December of twenty sixteen. This is his last fight of

405
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Speaker 1: the year. He takes on Anthony Hamilton. Anthony Hamilton is

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Speaker 1: a bigger guy at the time. I'm not sure where

407
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Speaker 1: he is now. At the time, he was out of

408
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Speaker 1: the Greg Jackson's camp, and the reason why he was

409
00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:29,760
Speaker 1: a relevant opponent for Francis at this point it was

410
00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:32,160
Speaker 1: overall he was not nearly as good, but he could

411
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Speaker 1: do one thing that was important.

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Speaker 2: He could wrestle.

413
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Speaker 1: So the question was if a guy puts wrestling pressure,

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Speaker 1: is France is going to fight down to this opposition

415
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Speaker 1: and show us that he's got this really bad weakness

416
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Speaker 1: or can he overcome it?

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Speaker 3: Turns out over and Hamilton could crack. He was fresh

418
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Speaker 3: off a fourteen second knockout win in the octagon, so

419
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Speaker 3: this was sort of like, oh, two power punchers go

420
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Speaker 3: against each other and Hamilton, you said, where's he now?

421
00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:54,360
Speaker 3: Got he This was the beginning of a four fight

422
00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:56,400
Speaker 3: losing streak that ended his UFC run. So that can

423
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Speaker 3: happen when you run to Francis. He's got a seven

424
00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:01,240
Speaker 3: inch reach advantage, which is becoming a theme in each fight.

425
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Speaker 3: But here's where John Annick enters the picture. First fight,

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00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:06,399
Speaker 3: Annick calls it. We know Annix's commitment to pronunciation and

427
00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:08,719
Speaker 3: facts and getting things right, doing his soul work. This

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Speaker 3: is the first fight in which we are calling him

429
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Speaker 3: Francis and Ghano in Croatia that was it was Goldie

430
00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:17,639
Speaker 3: and it was other announcers. He's still gonna know the

431
00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:20,240
Speaker 3: whole way they go with and Ghanu and also Annik

432
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Speaker 3: calling him quote a rising star who is seen by

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Speaker 3: many to be the future of the division. So the

434
00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:27,880
Speaker 3: hype is there, slugger versus slugger, but looke this size difference.

435
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Speaker 3: If you don't have one legit or in Stepe's case,

436
00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:32,800
Speaker 3: you know the first one to beat Francis and the

437
00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:36,399
Speaker 3: UFC two or three four elite skills to bring in

438
00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:38,680
Speaker 3: there against him, you can't hang with him at this point.

439
00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:39,240
Speaker 3: You just can't.

440
00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:41,560
Speaker 1: And again I want to point out Anthony Hamilton takes

441
00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:43,679
Speaker 1: a couple of punches, not a couple of He's a

442
00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:46,240
Speaker 1: tough guy, but he takes some punches from a guy

443
00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:49,240
Speaker 1: like Francis, and his defense goes to ship as well,

444
00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:51,520
Speaker 1: where Francis can just pick up the arm and then

445
00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:53,160
Speaker 1: drive it across for the Kumora.

446
00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:54,280
Speaker 2: It's ridiculous.

447
00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:56,359
Speaker 4: What kind of that was a display of strength?

448
00:17:56,880 --> 00:17:57,480
Speaker 2: Mental strength?

449
00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:00,199
Speaker 1: We grew up in the eighties when guys would up

450
00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:02,879
Speaker 1: to fight Tyson fucking pissing in their pants. You get

451
00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:04,520
Speaker 1: a little bit of that with Francis, if not so

452
00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:07,919
Speaker 1: much at the beginning. Certainly several punches in from him,

453
00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:11,880
Speaker 1: but they're still awake. They're like, oh good, this is no. No,

454
00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:12,560
Speaker 1: we're not doing that.

455
00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:16,200
Speaker 3: I think this is his breakthrough win. You said another no.

456
00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:17,640
Speaker 1: No, it's important win because here was a guy who

457
00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:19,080
Speaker 1: was supposed to like really be like, Okay, he's not

458
00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:20,960
Speaker 1: the best fighter, but he could test him in this area,

459
00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:22,240
Speaker 1: and Francis ran, I mean.

460
00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:24,399
Speaker 3: He dominated him and for them to build him up

461
00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:25,840
Speaker 3: coming in as a star. It's the first time he's

462
00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:27,920
Speaker 3: got the new haircut, but the designs in the side,

463
00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:30,159
Speaker 3: they're saying his name right, he's number twelve in the

464
00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:34,560
Speaker 3: division minus five hundred betting fan. So you're starting to

465
00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:37,639
Speaker 3: see Vegas, who's typically ahead of the curve on identifying

466
00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:39,479
Speaker 3: who's going to be a guy who can go on

467
00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:41,960
Speaker 3: that type of run, and they they nailed it. And

468
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,040
Speaker 3: afterwards Brian's stanon commentary go yelling four years ago, this

469
00:18:45,119 --> 00:18:48,080
Speaker 3: dude didn't even know what MMA was. So we are

470
00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:50,639
Speaker 3: all I think journalists, fans, announcers are waking up at

471
00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:53,000
Speaker 3: the same time too. This isn't just a banger. This

472
00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:56,320
Speaker 3: is a legitimate. If this guy keeps doing this to everyone,

473
00:18:56,359 --> 00:18:57,080
Speaker 3: no one's gonna stop.

474
00:18:57,080 --> 00:18:58,679
Speaker 1: And I think at that time he may have been

475
00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:00,120
Speaker 1: twenty eight or twenty nine.

476
00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:00,840
Speaker 2: At that time.

477
00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:04,200
Speaker 3: He made his UFC debut at twenty nine and twenty fifteen.

478
00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:06,679
Speaker 2: So he was just thirty, which for heavyweight is like

479
00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:07,440
Speaker 2: fifteen years.

480
00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:11,520
Speaker 4: But just to peel or to pry that arm loose

481
00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:13,760
Speaker 4: and to do that it was almost big brothering, like

482
00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:15,960
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, That's why it opened my eyes.

483
00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:18,320
Speaker 4: That's when I was really like, Okay, his strength is

484
00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:20,960
Speaker 4: just something else. It's showing in different ways now.

485
00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:22,879
Speaker 3: Well, to get that back him getting a sub is

486
00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:25,160
Speaker 3: like the equivalent of like somebody learned to pump.

487
00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,119
Speaker 2: Yes, you know what's funny is Joe Silva wants him.

488
00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:32,800
Speaker 1: Had a quote about Frank Meir and his submissions and

489
00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:36,359
Speaker 1: it was Frank Mire is what happens when horsepower meets technique,

490
00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:39,600
Speaker 1: and that's what happened in this one, where actually Francis

491
00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:42,800
Speaker 1: showed some really good technique, but his fucking horse power

492
00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:46,480
Speaker 1: is just extraordinary, and Hamilton tapped immediately.

493
00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:49,480
Speaker 3: France is calling out Arlavsky or Travis Brown. The point

494
00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:50,479
Speaker 3: is he wants a top ten guy.

495
00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:52,240
Speaker 1: He wants to know, so then we move along. He

496
00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:54,880
Speaker 1: takes on Andrea Rolovski UFC on Fox. Look where they're

497
00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:58,239
Speaker 1: putting him, putting him Chevchenko versus Paeni. They're putting him

498
00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:00,840
Speaker 1: with Shipchenko, who, by the way, and her herself during

499
00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:03,679
Speaker 1: this time, is building a nice little run. He wins

500
00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:08,040
Speaker 1: this one against Andrea Rolovsky like it's a fucking joke. Well,

501
00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:12,600
Speaker 1: and he does hold coming in one thirty two of

502
00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:14,840
Speaker 1: the first round January of twenty seventeen.

503
00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:17,119
Speaker 3: Aloski's on a three fight winning streak. I think they

504
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:20,280
Speaker 3: rightfully sold it, sorry, three fight losing streak. They rightfully

505
00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:24,800
Speaker 3: sold it as you know or sorry Florian Joe Rogan

506
00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:28,280
Speaker 3: calling it, you know, maybe the best sort of prototypical

507
00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:31,320
Speaker 3: crossroads fight that we've seen. I know, Orlosky's had had

508
00:20:31,359 --> 00:20:33,240
Speaker 3: a lot of reinventions. But this was a time three

509
00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:35,240
Speaker 3: straight knockout losses that were sort of like.

510
00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:38,399
Speaker 1: He fair enough, fair enough, but at the time you

511
00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:41,560
Speaker 1: could see it on the screen when this fight was made, granted,

512
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:45,080
Speaker 1: will take that as it's worth. Chuck, Arlovsky was ranked seven,

513
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:49,200
Speaker 1: Arloski was ranked seven, So this Francis so I don't know,

514
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:50,639
Speaker 1: I don't know where he was ranked before that, but

515
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:52,560
Speaker 1: he was putting number seven. So if you're a guy,

516
00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:55,359
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the bigger part for Francis. Now

517
00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:58,160
Speaker 1: you are at the end of the division where one

518
00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:01,040
Speaker 1: Alofsky's a former champion, so you're fighting former champions right,

519
00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:04,480
Speaker 1: Two you're fighting names, and three you're doing it against

520
00:21:04,520 --> 00:21:05,880
Speaker 1: the old guard.

521
00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:06,200
Speaker 3: Of the division.

522
00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:08,359
Speaker 1: This is what John Jones had to do when he

523
00:21:08,400 --> 00:21:11,800
Speaker 1: went through light heavyweight. There are obviously some important differences,

524
00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:14,280
Speaker 1: but you see these big transcendental guys have to make

525
00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:14,920
Speaker 1: these pushes.

526
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:17,359
Speaker 2: This is the beginning of the meaty side of the push.

527
00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:20,639
Speaker 4: This was the baton pass because I you know, you have,

528
00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:22,720
Speaker 4: no matter how many fights he'd lost and row, you

529
00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:25,000
Speaker 4: still have images of Arlovsky in his heyday. You have

530
00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:28,480
Speaker 4: images of Arlovsky beating other guys, knocking them out. To

531
00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:30,720
Speaker 4: see him get knocked out by a ghana.

532
00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:32,359
Speaker 3: It was it was well, it was the first time

533
00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:34,119
Speaker 3: they touched, to be fair Erlosky had a lot of

534
00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:36,320
Speaker 3: leg strikes to open the fight. The first time they

535
00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:38,920
Speaker 3: both dug into punch Orlovsky missed the right hand that

536
00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:41,960
Speaker 3: caught him in the chin and it was two punch combo. Well,

537
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:43,560
Speaker 3: the fights freaking over.

538
00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:47,320
Speaker 1: This is by the way his uppercut lifts Arlovsky into

539
00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:48,359
Speaker 1: orbit like this.

540
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:50,360
Speaker 3: So this is where the whole idea that we may

541
00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:53,720
Speaker 3: have MMA's Mike Tyson. I think it's the subwin. Before

542
00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:56,199
Speaker 3: this Consamilton was sort of a breakthrough. Oh shit, you

543
00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:59,639
Speaker 3: gotta take legitimate notice. But this was the maybe he

544
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:02,679
Speaker 3: can not out anybody with his first punch, even if

545
00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:04,399
Speaker 3: he's not skilled, even if he can't wrestle, even if

546
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:05,879
Speaker 3: he doesn't have a guessing it may.

547
00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:08,720
Speaker 4: Be doggared at this point as a champion. In your mind,

548
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:10,439
Speaker 4: is he like when he beats our lobscy, you think

549
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:11,639
Speaker 4: this guy's the future champion.

550
00:22:12,359 --> 00:22:13,760
Speaker 3: I think he's going to contend for a time.

551
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:16,520
Speaker 4: Okay, because the weird thing is in the revisionist way,

552
00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:18,840
Speaker 4: people like you look now and you're like, what were

553
00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:22,280
Speaker 4: we already thinking, Okay, he's had a lot of quick fights.

554
00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:24,760
Speaker 4: What happens if he just goes into the deeper war?

555
00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:25,600
Speaker 2: Yes, there was.

556
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:27,920
Speaker 1: We've often said if you see a guy come off

557
00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:29,800
Speaker 1: the regional scene and he's got a seven and zero

558
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:32,560
Speaker 1: resume in all our first rown tkos, you know he's

559
00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:35,600
Speaker 1: a hammer. The problem is he hasn't fought other hammers yet,

560
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:36,600
Speaker 1: so you just don't know this.

561
00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:38,240
Speaker 3: Is that rare hammer. Where like I just said, you

562
00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:41,200
Speaker 3: start to debate yourself on all of these holes in

563
00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:43,040
Speaker 3: this game may not matter. We may not get to

564
00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:45,359
Speaker 3: the point where we find out if somebody can expose those.

565
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:48,800
Speaker 3: That's scary. Even Anik afterwards, who's typically not high up

566
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:51,359
Speaker 3: on the hyperbole and you know, too far in that level,

567
00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:53,200
Speaker 3: was like, we may be looking at the next heavyweight champions.

568
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:54,760
Speaker 1: I also want to point out something about this fight,

569
00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:57,080
Speaker 1: and folks you may not remember, just go back and watch.

570
00:22:57,480 --> 00:22:59,560
Speaker 2: This fight ends almost the same.

571
00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:03,560
Speaker 1: Way as the JDS fight, both JDS and Orlosky.

572
00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:05,080
Speaker 2: I went back and I saw this on the tape yesterday.

573
00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:05,800
Speaker 2: It's kind of funny.

574
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,000
Speaker 1: They're so far away from Francis that they want to

575
00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:11,480
Speaker 1: hit him with something, and like not be close, and

576
00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:12,879
Speaker 1: they want to get the fuck out, but they make

577
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:14,639
Speaker 1: bad choices to get to that.

578
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:15,400
Speaker 3: Here's what I mean.

579
00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:19,400
Speaker 1: Go back and watch Arlovsky and JDS whiff on right hands.

580
00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:22,240
Speaker 1: But they're throwing them from so far away with such

581
00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:26,240
Speaker 1: steam that they step and now they're leaning over themselves

582
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:30,240
Speaker 1: and their weight carries them forward, so they go past Francis.

583
00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:33,160
Speaker 1: So Francis just goes bop to someone with his back

584
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:35,320
Speaker 1: turned and fucking drills them. Go back and look at this.

585
00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:38,560
Speaker 1: It's the exact same punch Arlovsky whiffs. There is one

586
00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:40,280
Speaker 1: hand that kind of clips the top of them, and

587
00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:43,080
Speaker 1: it's the one on the backside where they're bending into

588
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:45,159
Speaker 1: where he fucking drills them, and he hits JDS, the

589
00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:45,880
Speaker 1: exact same one.

590
00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:48,359
Speaker 2: These guys were frightened of making.

591
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 3: Contact with him. Karloski was actually number five coming in,

592
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:52,879
Speaker 3: and Ghana was number ten. First fight for and Ghana

593
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:54,000
Speaker 3: with the frosted tips.

594
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:56,120
Speaker 2: Seven on the screen, five and ten.

595
00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:59,360
Speaker 3: But yeah, we can go back, and I've been wrong

596
00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:03,040
Speaker 3: at least one. But then you know the next one

597
00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:04,080
Speaker 3: with Oveream, which.

598
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:05,919
Speaker 4: Was oh wait wait before he gets to the over him.

599
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:08,399
Speaker 4: Now in between I think is where his lore starts

600
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:09,040
Speaker 4: to really come.

601
00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:10,800
Speaker 2: Into the last two of these performance bonuses.

602
00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:14,080
Speaker 4: Yeah, so he comes in before overream, right, this is

603
00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:16,880
Speaker 4: a big fight, big power guys. They both looked the part.

604
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:20,560
Speaker 4: But this is right when he goes to the to

605
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:23,760
Speaker 4: the performance Institute and he does that power thing, right,

606
00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:27,399
Speaker 4: and he breaks Tyron Spawn's record member for the heaviest puncher.

607
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:28,880
Speaker 4: This was like a big deal.

608
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:29,800
Speaker 3: Smith is built.

609
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:31,840
Speaker 4: This is what I'm saying. Everybody was talking about this

610
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:35,119
Speaker 4: and they're the viral footage of that. So heaving into that,

611
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:39,720
Speaker 4: suddenly we're looking at his punching power as like something otherworldly.

612
00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:42,159
Speaker 3: And you're first getting a taste of like the homeless backstory,

613
00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:43,960
Speaker 3: the hunger, all of this stuff. You're not get in

614
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:46,200
Speaker 3: the full details, but you're starting to get there's like

615
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:47,639
Speaker 3: a mythic superhero being built there.

616
00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:48,000
Speaker 2: All right.

617
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:49,639
Speaker 1: So now we move on to the next one, and

618
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:52,520
Speaker 1: this is you just don't punch a lot of number

619
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 1: one contender tickets quite like this. In fact, I would argue,

620
00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:59,080
Speaker 1: and I think it's pretty true in terms of uppercut

621
00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:01,640
Speaker 1: finishes and m M, this is your number one any

622
00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:02,760
Speaker 1: weight class at any era.

623
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:03,960
Speaker 3: I don't know what could be better.

624
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:08,040
Speaker 1: Francis and Ghanu at the co main event of UFC

625
00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:13,080
Speaker 1: two eighteen. This is Holloway versus Aldo. Two is in

626
00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:15,920
Speaker 1: the co main event against Alistair Overream. We are in

627
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:19,960
Speaker 1: a place called Detroit, Michigan, and he takes his motherfucking

628
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 1: head off.

629
00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:23,639
Speaker 3: It's the greatest knockout in MMA history. Please tell me

630
00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:24,600
Speaker 3: if it's not.

631
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:27,400
Speaker 1: If it's not, as you would agree, as merely as

632
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:30,119
Speaker 1: an uppercut ko, that's the best upper cut KO might be.

633
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:32,480
Speaker 3: You can argue that other knockouts have meant more in

634
00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:35,360
Speaker 3: title fights, but like just brutality and violence.

635
00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:38,520
Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever seen someone's head whip over

636
00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:39,680
Speaker 1: their shoulders the way this.

637
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:41,359
Speaker 3: I mean, just to put just to double down on

638
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:44,280
Speaker 3: where overhim was. This is number four and Ghano against

639
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:46,520
Speaker 3: number one over eim over him had won two in

640
00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:48,720
Speaker 3: a row, but six of seven overall, with the only

641
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:50,720
Speaker 3: loss being the title loss of two of three and

642
00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:53,479
Speaker 3: Steepe and by the way, step may have tapped. So

643
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 3: you get what I'm saying here, Oveream's coming in as

644
00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 3: like did he'll do this?

645
00:25:57,440 --> 00:25:57,480
Speaker 1: No?

646
00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:04,119
Speaker 3: But anyway, the point is he could over this, I

647
00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:06,040
Speaker 3: mean over him said it again like Arlovsky a couple

648
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:08,720
Speaker 3: of peaks and valleys, but the stock was so high.

649
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:11,280
Speaker 3: If and Ghana really is MMA's Mike Tyson, if he

650
00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:13,960
Speaker 3: really is a superhero, where or the you know, the

651
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:16,240
Speaker 3: villain at the end of the video game. Okay, Prooven

652
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:18,760
Speaker 3: now against this guy. This ain't washed Arlovsky, the same

653
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:21,879
Speaker 3: fat white guy with with Nazi tattoos. This is this is.

654
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 1: The former K one Dream Strike Force simultaneous chance.

655
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:27,760
Speaker 3: This is the best heavyweight in the world who's not

656
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:28,720
Speaker 3: the current champion at.

657
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:30,840
Speaker 4: The time, which was steep end and he sent him

658
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:34,360
Speaker 4: into the was you watch movies in Hollywood, like where

659
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:37,240
Speaker 4: they they choreographed an upper cut where the dude goes back,

660
00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:39,159
Speaker 4: his head goes back, and he goes back. That's what

661
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:41,760
Speaker 4: it looked like. It looked like it was a choreographed

662
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:43,560
Speaker 4: cinematic thing.

663
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:46,600
Speaker 1: How many times is a a guy get ko and

664
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:48,240
Speaker 1: you and I don't mean like, oh you wrote it

665
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:50,119
Speaker 1: on Twitter, I mean like in your head you were like,

666
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:52,520
Speaker 1: I don't know, dud, Dude's not okay.

667
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:55,600
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say, that's not a career altering or ending.

668
00:26:55,640 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 3: That's like a life ending. He hit him that way.

669
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:00,400
Speaker 3: I was so worried about Overheim.

670
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:02,639
Speaker 4: Especially when they kept showing it and somebody captured a

671
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,119
Speaker 4: brilliant like photo where you just see his head straight

672
00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:06,480
Speaker 4: back as it's gone through his face.

673
00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 2: And we haven't talked about this too, dude.

674
00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:12,240
Speaker 1: Oveream before this fight had called news of Francis's power

675
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:14,959
Speaker 1: fake news. Yeah, and you know who told him he's

676
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:17,240
Speaker 1: gonna show him like the skills matter. And to be clear, yes,

677
00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:20,760
Speaker 1: Overim is a better overall kickboxer, that is true. But dude,

678
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,000
Speaker 1: when you've got the off switch that a guy like

679
00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:25,320
Speaker 1: Francis does, I don't give a shit what your skills are,

680
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:27,439
Speaker 1: they just don't really matter on those contents.

681
00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 4: For sure.

682
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:31,040
Speaker 3: This fight was Francis stuffed in opening takedown from over him,

683
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:33,240
Speaker 3: and once overhim was able to get into the standing clinch,

684
00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:35,359
Speaker 3: Francis locked him up to the point where the referee

685
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 3: broke them apart due to inactivity. So Francis is not

686
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:41,159
Speaker 3: getting dominated or bodied yet in the skill sets that

687
00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:42,520
Speaker 3: we assume he may not be.

688
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:46,200
Speaker 4: Remember that, were you at the lessenar Oveream fight back

689
00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:49,360
Speaker 4: in the day. Yes, so they're watched, they're they're they're

690
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:51,280
Speaker 4: standing there and it was like impressive because you're like,

691
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:53,080
Speaker 4: these are two of the biggest guys that could actually

692
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:55,080
Speaker 4: throw at each other. I remember that fight.

693
00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:55,920
Speaker 3: The cleanest fight.

694
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:59,240
Speaker 4: They were definitely not on PV and JFK's a lot,

695
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 4: but they were like when they were when they when

696
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:04,000
Speaker 4: they went and Ghanu and uh and overhim went to

697
00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:05,960
Speaker 4: the fence, and and Gano had him on the fence.

698
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:08,639
Speaker 4: The way he eclipsed his whole body, I was just like,

699
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,400
Speaker 4: I was like, dude, over him's huge. And to see

700
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 4: a guy that just is that much big his back

701
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 4: just a broad Were.

702
00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:17,359
Speaker 3: You guys surprised that entering this fight for everything we

703
00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:19,159
Speaker 3: said about over him that and Ghana was a minus

704
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:20,960
Speaker 3: two twenty five betting favorite. Were you surprised?

705
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:25,160
Speaker 2: It's a little low. But no, not that so much.

706
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:25,720
Speaker 4: I think.

707
00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:28,120
Speaker 1: I mean, we're we were living in a pre oveream

708
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:30,679
Speaker 1: get his head sentence in the moon world.

709
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:32,960
Speaker 3: So what's funny is Rogan didn't go crazy. He called

710
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:34,600
Speaker 3: this fight with Annik. He didn't go crazy though. It

711
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 3: was actually Annik who's like paging Steep a miochicch Francis

712
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:40,840
Speaker 3: and Ghana was coming. Joel was almost like flabbergast, and look,

713
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:42,000
Speaker 3: he didn't know what to say. I think a lot

714
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:44,520
Speaker 3: of us. They're like, get the ambulance right now for Overreim.

715
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:46,000
Speaker 3: I don't know, you know, but Anna.

716
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:47,560
Speaker 4: Thinks is going to tire out with all those muscles.

717
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 4: That's what he's gonna say.

718
00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:51,880
Speaker 3: But here's a good stat with this win. Uh and

719
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 3: Ghano joined Rich Franklin, Ronda Rousey, and Anderson Silva as

720
00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,120
Speaker 3: the only UFC Modern fighters to start their career with

721
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 3: six straight finishes. So this is like, let's get him

722
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 3: a title shot. And Luke, what did they wait? Less

723
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:04,600
Speaker 3: than two months? Day Ina whit It's like, let's get

724
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:07,160
Speaker 3: this guy in like right now against the very next month.

725
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 1: They went from the second of December twenty seventeen to

726
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 1: just January twentieth. That's creating. That's a hugely fast tracking.

727
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:16,240
Speaker 3: And so there he is.

728
00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:18,160
Speaker 2: This is where things start to get a little bit

729
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:18,720
Speaker 2: rough for him.

730
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 3: Let's set at the stage coming in Steve Paser Champion

731
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:22,960
Speaker 3: and he's your RIGHTFULE Champions.

732
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:25,000
Speaker 2: UFC two twenty At January twenty eight, he.

733
00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:27,560
Speaker 3: Defended the title in a real tough fight against over Him,

734
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:29,960
Speaker 3: and he was starting to be that guy. But Steep

735
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:33,080
Speaker 3: as still in this early sort of financial battle with

736
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:35,200
Speaker 3: the UFC and you know the rumor of well, SEPA

737
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 3: can't sell it, can't talk on the mic, and UFC

738
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:40,560
Speaker 3: kind of not given into his wishes. There was a feeling,

739
00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:42,240
Speaker 3: and Stepe brought it up in the interviews. I remember

740
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:44,400
Speaker 3: talking to him ahead of this fight that UFC was

741
00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:46,719
Speaker 3: not only fast tracking in Ghano to be there Mike Tyson,

742
00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:49,320
Speaker 3: but they were trying to get Stepe out of office

743
00:29:49,400 --> 00:29:51,240
Speaker 3: as quickly as possible. Do you guys remember that?

744
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 4: Yes, I remember that, of course it was.

745
00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 1: And by the way, steep A coming into this fight

746
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:59,400
Speaker 1: with Francis had beaten JDS Alistair himself, although he had

747
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 1: little bit more trep to your point, Francis Arlowski, Mark

748
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:03,560
Speaker 1: Hunt and then had.

749
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:05,640
Speaker 3: One with those names and contest five wins in a row.

750
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:08,680
Speaker 3: For Steep entering this fight all by knockout against all

751
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 3: like former champions or that level.

752
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:15,040
Speaker 4: It felt like the biggest heavyweight fight of all time.

753
00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:17,760
Speaker 4: And I remember I went and met with Angano in

754
00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:21,120
Speaker 4: Boston at a Boston Celtics game courtside, first time I

755
00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 4: ever got sit court side and for this interview, which

756
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:25,840
Speaker 4: was really cool. But I remember the NBA players kind

757
00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:27,280
Speaker 4: of coming up to him in awe and that's when

758
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:29,440
Speaker 4: I was like, this dude, man really is the guy

759
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 4: that could be the Tyson like we're talking about of

760
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:35,800
Speaker 4: this sport, because there was a genuine, sort of transcendent

761
00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:37,600
Speaker 4: awe going on with this guy sitting.

762
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:40,000
Speaker 1: I remember he did the first time he met Joel Embiid,

763
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:42,880
Speaker 1: the center for the Sixers. They're both from Cameroon, and

764
00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:47,000
Speaker 1: Joel had like reverential things to say and sort of

765
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:49,080
Speaker 1: acknowledge Ghan who's plays if.

766
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:51,160
Speaker 3: You're wondering, and Gono's still the betting favorite heading into

767
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:54,160
Speaker 3: here as the challenger again, how to talk?

768
00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:54,400
Speaker 4: You know?

769
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:57,080
Speaker 3: Are we going to see mmas Mike Tyson? Stott couldn't

770
00:30:57,120 --> 00:30:59,920
Speaker 3: have been higher UFC hoping he is the real deal,

771
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:02,760
Speaker 3: and finally we had somebody who could stand up to

772
00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:05,200
Speaker 3: him but also have the skills to avoid his face

773
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 3: becoming hamburger. This round one it holds up. It's batch.

774
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:11,520
Speaker 3: I mean, it's not nuts crazy like we've seen, but

775
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:14,280
Speaker 3: it is constant damage that they're trading off of each other.

776
00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:18,480
Speaker 3: It's not only interesting to see steepe get get clipped early,

777
00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:21,240
Speaker 3: not nothing, fully flush and clean, but he's constantly getting

778
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:23,520
Speaker 3: touched to where you're like most heavyweights are going away

779
00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 3: at this point. But even more importantly, when Stepe starts

780
00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 3: to figure out the right poll counter is there and

781
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:32,000
Speaker 3: he starts lighting Francis up to close that round.

782
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:34,680
Speaker 1: It reminded me of Amanda Nonas being stunned against Pina

783
00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:36,480
Speaker 1: just kind of hands out front, or.

784
00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:38,680
Speaker 3: Being stuned against Cyborg yet turning that corner and putting

785
00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:42,600
Speaker 3: the back on her, and this was manshit. We do

786
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 3: not give Stepe or I historically never say maybe you

787
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,320
Speaker 3: don't do We give Stepe enough credit in hindsight for

788
00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:51,800
Speaker 3: going five rounds with this guy, but walking through hell

789
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:54,880
Speaker 3: in the first round and putting up enough fight against

790
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:57,320
Speaker 3: the bully where and Gano's kind of like, I don't know,

791
00:31:57,320 --> 00:31:58,160
Speaker 3: I'm gonna beat this guy.

792
00:31:58,320 --> 00:31:59,800
Speaker 4: You could go through the what if we do this

793
00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:01,440
Speaker 4: all the time, But I was sitting there a cage

794
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:03,720
Speaker 4: side and a couple of those punches by and Ghanu

795
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:06,520
Speaker 4: could it could have ended like the second fight did

796
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:09,560
Speaker 4: very early. They were so close to the landing. So

797
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 4: it just felt this was the first anticipation, edge of

798
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,840
Speaker 4: your seat, anticipation, any second, don't blink feel right. It

799
00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:17,960
Speaker 4: felt like any second Miotis was going to get clipped

800
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:20,320
Speaker 4: and go down. So when he weathered that storm and

801
00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:22,960
Speaker 4: started to land, it was a weird feeling in that building.

802
00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:24,880
Speaker 4: It was like, Okay, whoa, what happens now? It was

803
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:25,640
Speaker 4: it was kind of fun.

804
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:28,480
Speaker 2: Then they started getting takedowns. Yeah, started getting takedowns. Takedown

805
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:29,760
Speaker 2: started to come a little bit more easily.

806
00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:32,280
Speaker 1: By the fourth round, they came like it was nothing.

807
00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 3: Would you agree that in Ghana's fighting spirit was kind

808
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:37,920
Speaker 3: of muffled out at the end of that first round,

809
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:39,760
Speaker 3: That last takedown from step A where he put his

810
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:41,520
Speaker 3: form into his throat, it was the first time in

811
00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:43,560
Speaker 3: Ghanu had like stopped putting it.

812
00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:45,520
Speaker 1: Look like it was the first time someone even including

813
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:47,080
Speaker 1: in the gym, had put it on him in a while.

814
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:49,240
Speaker 1: And he was like, well here, but here, it's interesting

815
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 1: about this this. At the end of that round, a

816
00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:55,120
Speaker 1: lot of factors revealed themselves. One was, Okay, we've been

817
00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:57,479
Speaker 1: saying Francis doesn't need all these skills because he has

818
00:32:57,480 --> 00:32:59,880
Speaker 1: all these physical gifts. Well, it turns out at heavy

819
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:02,720
Speaker 1: there's there's you just don't need any of those skills

820
00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:04,560
Speaker 1: until you get to the very top, yes, and then

821
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:07,240
Speaker 1: there's like three guys who do what heavyweights don't do

822
00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:10,120
Speaker 1: he got to that level and it really kind of funny,

823
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:10,760
Speaker 1: but it was.

824
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:13,000
Speaker 3: It was very fatigue based though, And let's be fair,

825
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:14,200
Speaker 3: I mean, he's not going to everybody.

826
00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:16,520
Speaker 1: In the first round he was talking about either Francis

827
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:20,240
Speaker 1: has a really good chin, people just tested.

828
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,000
Speaker 3: But like, he's not going to know how to have

829
00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:24,000
Speaker 3: the right stamina until he's putting that spot he lost

830
00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:27,680
Speaker 3: the Obviously, credit to Francis for not tapping out of

831
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:30,320
Speaker 3: this fight, not just getting stopped or gassing out completely.

832
00:33:30,360 --> 00:33:32,160
Speaker 3: He went the distance. Whether at the time we were

833
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:33,880
Speaker 3: questioning if that was good for him or not, but

834
00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:35,920
Speaker 3: this was the first time anyone had stretched out that

835
00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:39,120
Speaker 3: gas tank. So because of that, do you think what

836
00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:41,480
Speaker 3: became a narrative that he can't wrestle at all? Is

837
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:42,840
Speaker 3: it that he can't wrestle at all, or is it

838
00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:45,080
Speaker 3: that he was just exhausted around one?

839
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:48,440
Speaker 4: I think I mean it felt existential watching him go

840
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:50,520
Speaker 4: to his corner after like the first round, especially after

841
00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:52,560
Speaker 4: the second round, where he's like, I have a long

842
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:54,200
Speaker 4: way to go and I don't know how I'm going

843
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:56,120
Speaker 4: to get through this fight. You could see that in

844
00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:58,400
Speaker 4: his demeanor, like he was like, how am I going

845
00:33:58,440 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 4: to do this?

846
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:01,200
Speaker 1: I know what I'm up against, yeah, and I know

847
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:03,120
Speaker 1: I don't have any of the tools, nothing left.

848
00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:04,800
Speaker 4: So he would go in there and try to wing

849
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:06,880
Speaker 4: the biggest punch you could throw and then get taken

850
00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 4: down and it was all it was just a repeating okay.

851
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:11,600
Speaker 3: The fact that he finished it though, went four dull,

852
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:14,399
Speaker 3: one sided rounds where he try to muffle up energy

853
00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:16,040
Speaker 3: and get up and try to you know, start something,

854
00:34:16,080 --> 00:34:18,520
Speaker 3: and steep and put him right back down. In hindsight,

855
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:19,960
Speaker 3: was that the best thing that could have happened to him,

856
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:21,880
Speaker 3: because he took out a lot of damage a lot.

857
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:23,880
Speaker 1: So I at the time this did not prove to

858
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:27,279
Speaker 1: be true. At the time, I was worried. You kind

859
00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:30,040
Speaker 1: of indicated it that that fight went on so long

860
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:33,400
Speaker 1: that you know he's going to be d dude. I

861
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:36,160
Speaker 1: watched the fight live between Rich Franklin and David Lolazzo.

862
00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:37,839
Speaker 1: I go to this fight all the time, and David

863
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,719
Speaker 1: Luazzo was not the same after that fight, and I

864
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:43,480
Speaker 1: really worried that I think France has the same finally

865
00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:44,920
Speaker 1: gets to a title shot, he's not gonna be the

866
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,160
Speaker 1: same after this one. And for a short time he wasn't.

867
00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:50,200
Speaker 1: We'll talk about in just a second, but mercifully that

868
00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:50,480
Speaker 1: did not.

869
00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:53,719
Speaker 4: This is also when expectations play in right like you

870
00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:56,600
Speaker 4: were having this moment. It's like vertigo, like this thing

871
00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:59,080
Speaker 4: is not going my way, it's embarrassing or whatever. He's

872
00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:01,840
Speaker 4: thinking the expectations of what he was going to do,

873
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:03,359
Speaker 4: what he was going to mean in the UFC where

874
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 4: he was going. Obviously there's a huge disappointment. It all

875
00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:08,640
Speaker 4: goes funneling out of there. So I think that he

876
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:11,960
Speaker 4: felt that and obviously it played into his next fight.

877
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:13,920
Speaker 4: But I'm like, I feel I feel like he was

878
00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:14,800
Speaker 4: dealing with that.

879
00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:17,719
Speaker 3: Too, the mental He talked all the mental side of

880
00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:19,160
Speaker 3: it on the build up to the Derek Lewis fight,

881
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:21,560
Speaker 3: which will be the next one, about where he's actually

882
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 3: openly saying and now this is also this is the

883
00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:24,960
Speaker 3: first fight. Tell me if I'm wrong. The steep A

884
00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:26,919
Speaker 3: fight is the first fight with the new train.

885
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:30,279
Speaker 1: No JD Well, it might be, but because there's there's

886
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:33,040
Speaker 1: there's Dewey Cooper. Yep, but Nick Sick didn't start till

887
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:38,120
Speaker 1: the JDS fight. Okay, okay, so more recently, but but

888
00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:40,360
Speaker 1: Dewey Cooper might have started long before Dewey Cooper seems

889
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:41,919
Speaker 1: to be there and overlapping between the two.

890
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:44,040
Speaker 3: But there was a lot of talk where I remember

891
00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:46,239
Speaker 3: interviewing Francis, He's just like, I'm not even sure what

892
00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:48,080
Speaker 3: I'm supposed to be. You know, I came in there

893
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:50,800
Speaker 3: trying to knock everybody out, and then my problem against

894
00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:53,120
Speaker 3: steep A was I didn't you know, I'm trying to

895
00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:54,880
Speaker 3: extend the fight, but I really don't know how he

896
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:56,920
Speaker 3: started filling out his identity. I also think and we

897
00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:58,359
Speaker 3: would find out that this is where him and Dana

898
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:01,080
Speaker 3: White would begin to have major issues, Dana calling him adva,

899
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:03,080
Speaker 3: a guy who you know, doing what he wants, spend

900
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:05,279
Speaker 3: his money on cars, whatever. And I'm sure that it

901
00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:07,800
Speaker 3: got to Francis. I'm this god suddenly right and the

902
00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:13,600
Speaker 3: until he wasn't. But Francis's mindset is uh was very shaken.

903
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:15,560
Speaker 3: I think Derek fight, he just did not know who

904
00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:18,120
Speaker 3: we should be, what attitude to take on, how to mentally.

905
00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:20,120
Speaker 4: Recovery from his identity, his identity.

906
00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:22,399
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that. So we're still in twenty eighteen.

907
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:25,160
Speaker 1: The the Steve baby Ochich fight was in January of

908
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:29,480
Speaker 1: that year. The Derek Lewis fight. I'm gonna say in

909
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:31,120
Speaker 1: contention for worst fight, UFC.

910
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:34,640
Speaker 3: Said it was awful because the expectation. Think about it,

911
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:36,360
Speaker 3: the expectations this.

912
00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:37,839
Speaker 2: July of twenty eighteen is all I want to say.

913
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 1: July of twenty e teen, so we're only six months later,

914
00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:41,160
Speaker 1: seven months later, so.

915
00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:43,480
Speaker 3: He got rushed back in the expectations for this. You're

916
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:44,920
Speaker 3: gonna see the greatest slug fest of all time, and

917
00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:46,759
Speaker 3: they're still in play because we're gonna eventually see this

918
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 3: rematch one day. But I also think Dana felt betrayed.

919
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 1: In a way.

920
00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:54,600
Speaker 3: This sounds stupid. Oh no, he wanted Francis to be

921
00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:57,160
Speaker 3: Tyson so badly and they put all this into it

922
00:36:57,200 --> 00:37:00,319
Speaker 3: and argue whether he actually ever really likes the pay.

923
00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:03,840
Speaker 3: And yes, I'm sure Francis went over the board and

924
00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:06,320
Speaker 3: was became a diva and maybe starting to try to

925
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:09,440
Speaker 3: exercise his value and negotiating a Pistina off. But Dana

926
00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:12,960
Speaker 3: was straight up upset that Francis didn't kind of like

927
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:15,160
Speaker 3: plan out. I believe that, I really.

928
00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:17,800
Speaker 2: He didn't fall on his sword is a big deal

929
00:37:17,880 --> 00:37:18,480
Speaker 2: for data.

930
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:20,160
Speaker 3: Well, that he didn't pan out and turn and look

931
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:22,359
Speaker 3: and turn into what he was looking like, I don't

932
00:37:22,400 --> 00:37:23,160
Speaker 3: know what they expected.

933
00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:25,239
Speaker 1: If you have the result from the Miochich fight that

934
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:28,719
Speaker 1: you have in January of that year, why would you

935
00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:31,520
Speaker 1: put him a back in six months number one?

936
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:33,759
Speaker 3: And then against fucking Derek Lewis.

937
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:36,160
Speaker 1: Like the UFC, I understand that they can look at

938
00:37:36,160 --> 00:37:38,080
Speaker 1: a guy like this and say, Okay, he's you know,

939
00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:39,880
Speaker 1: he's not who we thought he was, at least at

940
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:43,360
Speaker 1: this point in time. But you know, you you hastened

941
00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:45,320
Speaker 1: his demise at this point, like, do you get you

942
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:47,759
Speaker 1: they bear some responsibility.

943
00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:49,759
Speaker 4: Yes, one percent hastened his demise, But I actually thought

944
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:51,960
Speaker 4: I was looking at a broken figure like this was

945
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:55,279
Speaker 4: it was so so bizarre rewatching that fight. I didn't

946
00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:56,960
Speaker 4: rewatch it for this. I actually did a piece on

947
00:37:57,000 --> 00:37:58,520
Speaker 4: it a little while ago when they were talking about

948
00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:00,759
Speaker 4: doing that rematch ahead of the John Jay jumping in

949
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:04,360
Speaker 4: all that stuff and when the when the crowd itself

950
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 4: is booing and taking out their phones and doing the

951
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:09,799
Speaker 4: light lighters and all that stuff like like that, it

952
00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:14,360
Speaker 4: was like it was like theater. It was like performance

953
00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:17,640
Speaker 4: art that had gone wrong. It was it was there's

954
00:38:17,719 --> 00:38:20,480
Speaker 4: thirty three total strikes over the so that.

955
00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:23,560
Speaker 3: To be fair there was back injury, had actual on

956
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:24,600
Speaker 3: the weight of this fight, it.

957
00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:26,719
Speaker 4: Was I think the indictment was more on Anghano right

958
00:38:26,719 --> 00:38:29,080
Speaker 4: like because everybody's waiting for him to explode. It was

959
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:30,040
Speaker 4: the same thing and just.

960
00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:32,880
Speaker 3: A moment to counter Derek Louise is not giving him that.

961
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:35,320
Speaker 3: But do your fair to your point on the status

962
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:37,000
Speaker 3: of Lewis, he had won seven of eight coming in

963
00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 3: and the only loss was when he guessed out against

964
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:41,000
Speaker 3: Marclant in a fight you should have sort of put

965
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:41,400
Speaker 3: away in one.

966
00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:43,920
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, certainly, no no doubt about that. And and

967
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:46,719
Speaker 1: also we'll be kind of been over that part. But

968
00:38:47,120 --> 00:38:49,600
Speaker 1: you get to a point now where I think they

969
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:52,040
Speaker 1: had booked this. They should have thought like, oh, this

970
00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:54,359
Speaker 1: guy's gonna be terrified. We shouldn't look against a power punch.

971
00:38:54,600 --> 00:38:56,359
Speaker 1: But I think what they thought was, oh, you had

972
00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,400
Speaker 1: such an underwhelming performance against Steepe, let's give you the

973
00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:01,480
Speaker 1: chance to bound against a guy who will slug with

974
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:04,919
Speaker 1: you wrestle. That's what they must have done, not realizing, dude,

975
00:39:04,920 --> 00:39:07,880
Speaker 1: this guy is battered in his mind, in his mind,

976
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 1: and you got to give him somebody like the Bojon

977
00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:11,759
Speaker 1: dude who you know, well.

978
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:13,840
Speaker 3: If Danda wasn't was mad coming in which we I

979
00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:16,040
Speaker 3: think can prove through interviews and stuff that he was.

980
00:39:16,360 --> 00:39:19,000
Speaker 3: He turned on. He doubled down his turn against Francis

981
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:20,560
Speaker 3: on this fight. He is still this day and never

982
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:22,799
Speaker 3: said anything bad about Derek Lewis not pushing the pace

983
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:25,719
Speaker 3: and and you know, despite the back injury, it has been.

984
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:27,960
Speaker 3: This is proof that Francis sucks and we hate him

985
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:29,520
Speaker 3: and it's just bizarre looking.

986
00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:32,239
Speaker 4: Greatest line of that fight was Anik at the very

987
00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:34,400
Speaker 4: end was like, good luck to our crew trying to

988
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:36,200
Speaker 4: find highlights of this fight to show you. Yeah, he

989
00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:37,600
Speaker 4: said that at the end of that fight.

990
00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:43,200
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, Chuck, after this point, how bad

991
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:46,800
Speaker 1: do you assess the relationship between Francis and the UFC

992
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:49,560
Speaker 1: after the two losses. Certainly that's the worst it's been,

993
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:51,600
Speaker 1: although you could argue now it's pretty fucking bad.

994
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:54,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, we had no leverage after these two losses.

995
00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:56,479
Speaker 2: Maybe it's yeah, that's a good point.

996
00:39:56,560 --> 00:39:58,520
Speaker 4: I actually thought that's what I thought. More so it

997
00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:00,759
Speaker 4: was like now they now they kind of have they

998
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,120
Speaker 4: have Angano in a place where they can kind of

999
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:05,560
Speaker 4: just do what they want again, so that it felt

1000
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:09,120
Speaker 4: like it actually got better after this point after the thing.

1001
00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:11,560
Speaker 3: Yes, Francis was a minus three forty favorite in the

1002
00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:14,719
Speaker 3: Lewis fight despite helight the loss. To me, it's just

1003
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:15,480
Speaker 3: what was the.

1004
00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:16,799
Speaker 4: I want to know what the odds were for the

1005
00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:18,880
Speaker 4: first round finish of the or the under on the finish,

1006
00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:20,759
Speaker 4: because everybody thought that fight was going to be over quick.

1007
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:22,160
Speaker 3: He should have. But so I want to ask you

1008
00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:23,799
Speaker 3: one thing about who Francis is. And we know that

1009
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:26,080
Speaker 3: he's confused now in terms of how should I fight?

1010
00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:28,720
Speaker 1: There's this is this is this is when the beginning,

1011
00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:31,080
Speaker 1: He's beginning to be like where should I be to

1012
00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:32,520
Speaker 1: get the best out of myself? And I'm not saying,

1013
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:33,879
Speaker 1: by the way I want to do about this. Yeah,

1014
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:36,439
Speaker 1: an interval fernand Lopez. I think he is a great

1015
00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:39,800
Speaker 1: trainer with a great gym. Cyril Gone is a great fighter.

1016
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,160
Speaker 1: For that reason, this is not anything better. But I

1017
00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:45,600
Speaker 1: should just point out people learn to not get along

1018
00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:48,120
Speaker 1: and you can begin to see Lopez and and Gone

1019
00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:48,919
Speaker 1: who begin to butt heads.

1020
00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:50,880
Speaker 3: And Gano came out in South Pod Open both the

1021
00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:54,000
Speaker 3: Steepe fight and the Derek Lewis fight and had zero

1022
00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:57,799
Speaker 3: really success from it. He's very confused in terms of

1023
00:40:57,800 --> 00:40:59,640
Speaker 3: who we should be and how he should be still

1024
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:02,160
Speaker 3: the betting favorite because of that power. But man, it's

1025
00:41:02,160 --> 00:41:04,840
Speaker 3: an interesting time to ban Francis's brain right here, because

1026
00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:06,719
Speaker 3: it's not out of the question at this point to

1027
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:08,560
Speaker 3: think that he's a bust and we just saw a player.

1028
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:09,840
Speaker 1: Right, If he was going to get that was a

1029
00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 1: narrative in the air, that's right. If he's going to

1030
00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:14,200
Speaker 1: get better, if he's going to do something. At this point,

1031
00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 1: reinvention is a must. It's not a thing, well, you

1032
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:18,640
Speaker 1: can do a little bit. No, you have to completely

1033
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:20,319
Speaker 1: reinvent who you are at this point. Yes, you got

1034
00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:23,240
Speaker 1: the big power obviously that will never go away. But okay,

1035
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:25,839
Speaker 1: so now we go to the redemption side of things.

1036
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:29,400
Speaker 1: Curtis Blades is his next and a violent redemption, a

1037
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:31,839
Speaker 1: violent redemption. And again, want to point out something, we're

1038
00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 1: now in July of twenty eighteen. Excuse me, we're now

1039
00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:37,120
Speaker 1: in November of twenty eighteen. He had three fights that

1040
00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:39,800
Speaker 1: year as well, return they sent his ass to fucking

1041
00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:42,680
Speaker 1: China for those two Beijing, China, he got a performance

1042
00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:45,640
Speaker 1: of the night. Curtis Blades BC couldn't last more than

1043
00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 1: forty five seconds against.

1044
00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:48,920
Speaker 3: Them, and this was another time where we're like Blades

1045
00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:51,680
Speaker 3: had rebuilt himself from the first and his only loss

1046
00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:53,000
Speaker 3: at this point is to Francis.

1047
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:56,279
Speaker 1: Heading into the second the second fight with Francis, he's

1048
00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:59,200
Speaker 1: beaten a bunch of them, but not limited to Alexi Olenic,

1049
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:01,759
Speaker 1: Mark Hunt over him, his biggest hand that wrong.

1050
00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:03,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, ahead of the first fight, he was less experienced,

1051
00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 3: so he's coming in completely reborn and now he's kind

1052
00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:08,080
Speaker 3: of stopping people on top of that to stop JDS

1053
00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:10,160
Speaker 3: at this point, it was an eye opener and it

1054
00:42:10,200 --> 00:42:11,640
Speaker 3: didn't get out of the first round. And it was

1055
00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:13,360
Speaker 3: kind of the same thing the first time they really

1056
00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 3: touched each other.

1057
00:42:14,160 --> 00:42:16,440
Speaker 4: What was the Betty favorite on this one? I don't believe.

1058
00:42:16,520 --> 00:42:19,040
Speaker 4: To look, there's a blaze. I thought because of the timing,

1059
00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:20,600
Speaker 4: because it was all happening one year, that it was

1060
00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:23,440
Speaker 4: a really really bad matchup for him Gone. I was like,

1061
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:25,360
Speaker 4: this is a horrible idea for him to go against

1062
00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:27,239
Speaker 4: a guy who has a target on him anyway, from

1063
00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:30,359
Speaker 4: losing before you know, uh, the fight stopping and then

1064
00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:32,759
Speaker 4: coming off of that performance against Serraclis, I just thought

1065
00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:35,920
Speaker 4: this was an awful matchup. So to see him return

1066
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:37,919
Speaker 4: to kind of his old self for even that moment

1067
00:42:37,920 --> 00:42:39,440
Speaker 4: time was like kind of eye opening for me.

1068
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:41,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, we didn't necessarily learn a lot, but I actually

1069
00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:45,200
Speaker 1: thought that this was a great rebound him because he

1070
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:47,560
Speaker 1: got to go there. He's headlining a card, he went

1071
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:50,520
Speaker 1: to China, he did the promotion to Solid. Essentially he

1072
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:53,440
Speaker 1: gets a win with no damage, I mean literally no

1073
00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:56,600
Speaker 1: damage against a guy who's highly ranked, highly were regarded.

1074
00:42:56,920 --> 00:42:59,440
Speaker 1: It's like the best way to just get an experience

1075
00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:01,920
Speaker 1: under your belt without taking a shitload of damage to

1076
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:03,879
Speaker 1: get to the other side. And so now he can

1077
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:07,240
Speaker 1: focus in on retooling, redeveloping. I think he has switched

1078
00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:10,000
Speaker 1: camps by this point, although I'm not sure if it's again.

1079
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:12,600
Speaker 2: Eric Nixon told me his first camp was the JDS fight, So.

1080
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:15,440
Speaker 3: Just quickly on that rematch and Kanu opened as a

1081
00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:17,960
Speaker 3: minus one fifty five betting favorite, but it had switched.

1082
00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:18,959
Speaker 4: That's what I thought.

1083
00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:21,719
Speaker 3: Wow, the books were kind of split across the board

1084
00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:22,000
Speaker 3: after that.

1085
00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:24,000
Speaker 1: By the way, the Curtis Blade story is not finished

1086
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:25,960
Speaker 1: being written at all, but it will show that the

1087
00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:29,239
Speaker 1: Nganu chapters were not favorable to him ultimately in the end.

1088
00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:30,759
Speaker 1: All right, so there's not much to say about that one.

1089
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:33,240
Speaker 1: Now we move to one of the most important ones.

1090
00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:36,040
Speaker 1: Here we go. He takes on and defeats Kane Velaskaz

1091
00:43:36,120 --> 00:43:39,480
Speaker 1: via ko at just twenty six seconds into the first round.

1092
00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:42,080
Speaker 1: This was not only a headlining moment, Chuck. This flight

1093
00:43:42,239 --> 00:43:44,920
Speaker 1: night was called and Ganu versus Velaskaz. You have the

1094
00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:49,520
Speaker 1: return of Kane Velaskaz after years away the most celebrated

1095
00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:51,720
Speaker 1: brock Lesner maybe, but Kane Velaski is the most celebrated

1096
00:43:51,719 --> 00:43:54,120
Speaker 1: heavyweight probably ever or you know one of them anyway,

1097
00:43:54,560 --> 00:43:56,960
Speaker 1: and Big Fight back, it's the main event.

1098
00:43:57,000 --> 00:43:58,640
Speaker 3: It's on ESPN regular.

1099
00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:00,960
Speaker 1: I remember this because they threw it a jail and

1100
00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:03,279
Speaker 1: Ariel to take the Sports Center afterwards.

1101
00:44:04,040 --> 00:44:05,759
Speaker 2: And you can't last thirty.

1102
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:09,960
Speaker 3: Seconds, to be fair before you talk about Kane falling apart. Look,

1103
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:12,080
Speaker 3: I'm a big king guy. The narrative of this fight

1104
00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:14,239
Speaker 3: was Kane wins this and it's not And you know,

1105
00:44:14,239 --> 00:44:16,279
Speaker 3: no one, no one thought he was going to run

1106
00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:18,279
Speaker 3: through him. But I picked came to win. I'm like,

1107
00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:20,440
Speaker 3: you know what, he could stretch him out and wrestle,

1108
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:23,399
Speaker 3: and he's more savvy than the blades level guys. He'll

1109
00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:26,120
Speaker 3: be able to avoid it and we were already preparing

1110
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:27,879
Speaker 3: the narrative of Kane's going to go on and fight

1111
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:30,600
Speaker 3: Steve Babe to declare who really is that's weight of

1112
00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:33,239
Speaker 3: this air, that's exactly end of all time? And in

1113
00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:37,360
Speaker 3: Ghana was just like your plans. Yeah, was it injury

1114
00:44:37,480 --> 00:44:39,080
Speaker 3: or power? That end of this fight?

1115
00:44:39,640 --> 00:44:41,839
Speaker 4: It look I mean, I I just rewatched this fight.

1116
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:46,480
Speaker 4: I watched it in its entirety actually, but the way

1117
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:48,799
Speaker 4: he folded and like he kind of screams out in pain.

1118
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:50,839
Speaker 4: I thought at the time, like he broke his leg

1119
00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:53,359
Speaker 4: or something or hurt his ankle. It just didn't look right,

1120
00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:56,880
Speaker 4: but very weird, just the short stuff it gets landed inside.

1121
00:44:56,880 --> 00:44:59,920
Speaker 4: But just the power, you know, of what what was displayed.

1122
00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:03,560
Speaker 4: I just felt like, honestly, going into this fight, I

1123
00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:05,759
Speaker 4: kind of saw it playing out like this. I don't

1124
00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:07,640
Speaker 4: know why, but I'm not not exactly like that.

1125
00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:08,279
Speaker 3: But I was.

1126
00:45:08,360 --> 00:45:11,400
Speaker 4: I was like, if I could see it happening very quickly,

1127
00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:12,880
Speaker 4: let's put it that way. For Angano, I thought, if

1128
00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:14,960
Speaker 4: he if he's able to touch Kane, it would probably

1129
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:18,120
Speaker 4: be quick. I remember making that pretty public too, so

1130
00:45:18,480 --> 00:45:19,200
Speaker 4: maybe you guys can look.

1131
00:45:19,320 --> 00:45:20,680
Speaker 1: I'll just say this, I didn't know if it was

1132
00:45:20,760 --> 00:45:23,200
Speaker 1: a punch or injury or a combination of both, probably

1133
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:24,719
Speaker 1: the latter, but I'll just say this, when it was over,

1134
00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:25,080
Speaker 1: I was.

1135
00:45:25,040 --> 00:45:29,879
Speaker 3: Like, right, Kane was not the guy. Second, So we're

1136
00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:33,200
Speaker 3: starting to get back into okay, and Gone is back

1137
00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:36,399
Speaker 3: with two knockouts. But to be fair, it really until

1138
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:38,880
Speaker 3: he fun Steep the second time, we didn't know and

1139
00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:39,920
Speaker 3: we still don't know.

1140
00:45:39,880 --> 00:45:41,879
Speaker 4: What everybody was like. We don't not want to jump

1141
00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:43,440
Speaker 4: on the hype train again because we don't.

1142
00:45:43,239 --> 00:45:45,319
Speaker 3: Know if he's in wrestling at all. We don't know

1143
00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:47,200
Speaker 3: if mentally he's where he needs to be. We don't

1144
00:45:47,239 --> 00:45:49,239
Speaker 3: know if we're just waiting for anyone to take him

1145
00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:51,040
Speaker 3: to the second round and guess him out of there.

1146
00:45:51,200 --> 00:45:53,640
Speaker 3: We don't know shit, and we didn't necessarily learn it

1147
00:45:53,680 --> 00:45:54,759
Speaker 3: with this next one against Junior.

1148
00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:57,280
Speaker 2: We didn't, but we know we did learn, which was okay.

1149
00:45:57,560 --> 00:45:59,080
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's gonna be the guy who

1150
00:45:59,160 --> 00:46:02,120
Speaker 1: can you know, stop Stepe's takedowns or whatever. But I'll

1151
00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:05,520
Speaker 1: tell you this much, when Francis fights, you don't blank.

1152
00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:08,720
Speaker 1: Don't fucking blank. So he takes on Junior Do Santos

1153
00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:11,439
Speaker 1: again UFC on ESPN card It is the main event

1154
00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:13,400
Speaker 1: and Gone versus Do Santos is the name of it.

1155
00:46:13,719 --> 00:46:17,080
Speaker 1: And just one eleven into the first round in Minneapolis, Minnesota,

1156
00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:18,160
Speaker 1: he got to perform to the night bonus.

1157
00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:18,399
Speaker 3: We see.

1158
00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:18,759
Speaker 2: It's the same thing.

1159
00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:21,200
Speaker 3: You feel like it's fair losing people though this isn't

1160
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:24,800
Speaker 3: Hella wash jds. Yet he's on a three fight win streak,

1161
00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:28,000
Speaker 3: including knocking out Derek Lewis. So I know that that

1162
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:30,600
Speaker 3: was another one for Derek Lewis. That was Stanmina induced

1163
00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:32,800
Speaker 3: in the end, but it's sort of like he's reborn.

1164
00:46:32,840 --> 00:46:34,880
Speaker 3: He's won four or five overall, with the only loss

1165
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:37,080
Speaker 3: to Stepe for the title. This was the last time

1166
00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:39,080
Speaker 3: we sort of propped up Junior Do Santos and said

1167
00:46:39,440 --> 00:46:41,480
Speaker 3: maybe he's got another title fight in his future. This

1168
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:43,799
Speaker 3: is a legitimate sort of you know who's coming back

1169
00:46:43,840 --> 00:46:46,640
Speaker 3: into title contention. And it didn't freaking last more than

1170
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:47,280
Speaker 3: two minutes.

1171
00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:50,279
Speaker 2: This is what he's took me from. You disagree, Shuck.

1172
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:51,879
Speaker 1: What he is showing in these fights is like, dude,

1173
00:46:51,880 --> 00:46:54,439
Speaker 1: they make one mistake against him, yes and it is over.

1174
00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:54,960
Speaker 2: That's it.

1175
00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:57,239
Speaker 4: And also, like you'd mentioned the old Guard earlier, this

1176
00:46:57,400 --> 00:46:59,680
Speaker 4: was the moment for me the JDS and the Caneblaska's

1177
00:46:59,719 --> 00:47:02,239
Speaker 4: back to back where he's beating these guys who are

1178
00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:04,560
Speaker 4: the staples of this division and went to war against

1179
00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:07,120
Speaker 4: each other, and it was just like this declaration like no,

1180
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:08,919
Speaker 4: this is the new thing, this.

1181
00:47:08,840 --> 00:47:10,359
Speaker 2: Is what goodbye to all that.

1182
00:47:10,480 --> 00:47:14,839
Speaker 4: And they all looked old, slow, outmatched, They all looked

1183
00:47:14,960 --> 00:47:18,000
Speaker 4: like that. So I think I bought into the step

1184
00:47:18,040 --> 00:47:20,399
Speaker 4: a thing at this point because of the rematch, because

1185
00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:23,920
Speaker 4: I was like, man, he's just the benefit of that loss.

1186
00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:26,000
Speaker 4: Like you mentioned, what he took from the loss earlier

1187
00:47:26,000 --> 00:47:27,960
Speaker 4: to be very interesting to see how he bounces back.

1188
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:30,719
Speaker 4: But having won those three fights and the way he did,

1189
00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:33,080
Speaker 4: I just felt like I didn't feel like he'd make

1190
00:47:33,120 --> 00:47:34,399
Speaker 4: the same mistakes against him.

1191
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:37,120
Speaker 3: The JDS Fighter is June of twenty nineteen. This would

1192
00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:40,239
Speaker 3: begin this long stretch of relative inactivity where in Gon

1193
00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:42,040
Speaker 3: is fighting like once a year, and a lot of

1194
00:47:42,040 --> 00:47:44,480
Speaker 3: it is due to the back and forth politics between

1195
00:47:44,480 --> 00:47:46,800
Speaker 3: what's going on the title division or with the title

1196
00:47:46,800 --> 00:47:48,720
Speaker 3: at the top of the division at the moment, Daniel

1197
00:47:48,719 --> 00:47:51,440
Speaker 3: Cormier and steep A Miochich trading fights in their trilogy.

1198
00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:54,400
Speaker 3: This began the continuation of the ice out period. When

1199
00:47:54,440 --> 00:47:59,319
Speaker 3: they offer him unbeating Gyro rosenstroke. It's a great fight

1200
00:47:59,360 --> 00:48:02,000
Speaker 3: on paper, but he believes he should have had a

1201
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:04,720
Speaker 3: title shot right here in hindsight. Did he get screwed

1202
00:48:04,719 --> 00:48:06,919
Speaker 3: by the love affair that we had with the dc

1203
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:07,560
Speaker 3: ST page.

1204
00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:09,400
Speaker 1: He did get screwed by that, But the other he

1205
00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:11,120
Speaker 1: got screwed two ways. One was he should have gotten

1206
00:48:11,120 --> 00:48:12,720
Speaker 1: the fight that was different than that. The other one

1207
00:48:12,760 --> 00:48:15,160
Speaker 1: was they if you recall, they never made this one

1208
00:48:15,160 --> 00:48:17,400
Speaker 1: an interim title fight, and I am I'm of the

1209
00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:19,560
Speaker 1: belief that interim title fight. We've been saying that this

1210
00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:22,440
Speaker 1: unification between God and Francis is a little bit gayzy,

1211
00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:24,680
Speaker 1: but I'll say this, if there was ever a time

1212
00:48:24,680 --> 00:48:26,920
Speaker 1: to build an interim title fight for heavyweight, that was

1213
00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:29,759
Speaker 1: the one. And Francis was like, dude, I will I

1214
00:48:29,800 --> 00:48:32,320
Speaker 1: have tasting out, I will defend.

1215
00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:32,759
Speaker 3: Us whenever you want.

1216
00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:33,600
Speaker 2: I'll go around.

1217
00:48:33,719 --> 00:48:37,040
Speaker 1: I'll be as active as you were every month. And

1218
00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:38,640
Speaker 1: I felt like he was due for a good payday too,

1219
00:48:38,680 --> 00:48:39,759
Speaker 1: by the way. So I was the other part. And

1220
00:48:39,800 --> 00:48:40,640
Speaker 1: so he just didn't get it.

1221
00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:42,880
Speaker 3: And this ain't easy matchmaking giving him this version of

1222
00:48:42,960 --> 00:48:43,480
Speaker 3: roses strike.

1223
00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:44,920
Speaker 1: Right, du They're give him a Roses Strike who was

1224
00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:47,399
Speaker 1: kicking everyone's ass, who was beating our Lobsky the same way.

1225
00:48:47,600 --> 00:48:50,680
Speaker 1: You know, just like one shot putting him out. And

1226
00:48:51,040 --> 00:48:53,239
Speaker 1: you know what's funny. I actually talked to Eric nick

1227
00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:56,200
Speaker 1: Stick after this fight because it only lasted twenty seconds.

1228
00:48:56,880 --> 00:48:59,439
Speaker 1: And if you go and look at the combination that

1229
00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:02,759
Speaker 1: Francis through, and I feel comfortable saying this. I mean,

1230
00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:05,480
Speaker 1: it's a dunk. It's a dunk combo. I mean it's

1231
00:49:05,480 --> 00:49:09,240
Speaker 1: the worst combo ever. He's just fucking throwing.

1232
00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:11,279
Speaker 4: I mean, somebody's slowed it down in the slow money

1233
00:49:11,280 --> 00:49:12,560
Speaker 4: and put like classical music behind it.

1234
00:49:12,719 --> 00:49:14,319
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean he's just flailing.

1235
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:16,800
Speaker 1: And and you see, by the way, go watch this

1236
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:19,600
Speaker 1: ship because rosen Strike is backing up the whole time

1237
00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:21,799
Speaker 1: and he's watching and you'll watch him.

1238
00:49:22,040 --> 00:49:23,760
Speaker 3: He sees everything coming and he's.

1239
00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:27,440
Speaker 1: Throwing strikes around it to like intercept and they're landing

1240
00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:29,799
Speaker 1: on Francis and Francis is eating it.

1241
00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:35,360
Speaker 3: And Francis goes, this is this Francis fuck you moment

1242
00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:37,279
Speaker 3: to Dana White in the breast. They're like, okay, you

1243
00:49:37,360 --> 00:49:39,320
Speaker 3: got basically the next thing, Ghana, which is could be

1244
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:41,440
Speaker 3: rosen Strike if he beats me, You're just gonna throw

1245
00:49:41,440 --> 00:49:43,160
Speaker 3: me into another one. I should have got the title shot.

1246
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:44,359
Speaker 3: So he just runs easily.

1247
00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:44,880
Speaker 4: That's what it was.

1248
00:49:45,480 --> 00:49:47,480
Speaker 3: I don't care what you have, I'm gonna run right

1249
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:48,360
Speaker 3: through it and knock you the.

1250
00:49:48,320 --> 00:49:50,600
Speaker 1: Fun But it just shows even when Francis is not

1251
00:49:50,760 --> 00:49:52,880
Speaker 1: on his game, which he was, this is the pandemic.

1252
00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:55,319
Speaker 2: This was Jacksonville. There was no crowd for the first time.

1253
00:49:55,480 --> 00:49:56,640
Speaker 2: This was all weird and new.

1254
00:49:57,280 --> 00:50:00,600
Speaker 1: Even when he doesn't perform even close to his abilities,

1255
00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:01,719
Speaker 1: he just.

1256
00:50:01,640 --> 00:50:03,719
Speaker 3: Still puts people out in like thirty seconds.

1257
00:50:03,800 --> 00:50:05,279
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're supposed to do with that

1258
00:50:05,680 --> 00:50:08,000
Speaker 1: other than be extraordinarily talented.

1259
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:10,319
Speaker 4: And also the return of the panic on the guy

1260
00:50:10,360 --> 00:50:12,040
Speaker 4: he's hitting, because I felt like when he was in

1261
00:50:12,080 --> 00:50:13,799
Speaker 4: his retreat trying to get out of the way, you

1262
00:50:13,840 --> 00:50:17,200
Speaker 4: see Rosenstrup, just like, what is it about to happen

1263
00:50:17,239 --> 00:50:17,400
Speaker 4: to me?

1264
00:50:17,480 --> 00:50:18,160
Speaker 3: You know? All right?

1265
00:50:18,200 --> 00:50:20,680
Speaker 1: So then we go to a prolonged layoff where he

1266
00:50:20,719 --> 00:50:22,719
Speaker 1: doesn't fight for nearly a year, but it's his last

1267
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:25,520
Speaker 1: fight on record, but BC I would argue maybe the

1268
00:50:25,520 --> 00:50:27,200
Speaker 1: most important fight he's had him to this point in

1269
00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:30,200
Speaker 1: terms of proving everything. So he has now earned a

1270
00:50:30,239 --> 00:50:33,680
Speaker 1: title shot against the champion, Stepe Miocic. This will be

1271
00:50:33,680 --> 00:50:36,000
Speaker 1: for the heavyweight championship. It was in March of twenty

1272
00:50:36,120 --> 00:50:40,239
Speaker 1: twenty one. And he didn't just win via ko with

1273
00:50:40,320 --> 00:50:42,840
Speaker 1: kind of like a jabholk punch, one hit or quitter

1274
00:50:42,960 --> 00:50:46,040
Speaker 1: in the second round fifty two seconds BC. That was

1275
00:50:46,080 --> 00:50:48,080
Speaker 1: a man in full That was a guy who showed

1276
00:50:48,120 --> 00:50:50,920
Speaker 1: well rounded ability and Stepe didn't have a prayer that night.

1277
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:52,719
Speaker 3: You know that feeling when you're a kid in lu

1278
00:50:52,800 --> 00:50:54,719
Speaker 3: kates till pro wrestling and look, I even kind of

1279
00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:56,600
Speaker 3: hate pre wrestling right now, after I go on and off,

1280
00:50:56,600 --> 00:50:58,120
Speaker 3: I got hot and cold. It is stupid, But there's

1281
00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:01,839
Speaker 3: that year old and you're watching pro wrestling at home

1282
00:51:01,960 --> 00:51:05,000
Speaker 3: or maybe in the arena with your parents, and you're

1283
00:51:05,040 --> 00:51:07,560
Speaker 3: young enough where it's still kind of possibly real to you,

1284
00:51:07,680 --> 00:51:10,600
Speaker 3: damn it. But the big villain comes out, whether it's

1285
00:51:10,600 --> 00:51:12,919
Speaker 3: whoever was the guy of your era, and you're like,

1286
00:51:13,560 --> 00:51:15,239
Speaker 3: You're like, I don't want to fucking be in the

1287
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:17,480
Speaker 3: same state as that guy because he might reach his

1288
00:51:17,520 --> 00:51:19,680
Speaker 3: hand through the TV meet and kill me like that.

1289
00:51:19,880 --> 00:51:24,160
Speaker 3: I had that as an adult who is a mixed professional,

1290
00:51:24,239 --> 00:51:26,960
Speaker 3: mixed martial artist, journalist, whatever, that means where I was

1291
00:51:27,040 --> 00:51:30,239
Speaker 3: just like, this guy's fucking scary as shit. This is

1292
00:51:30,239 --> 00:51:32,040
Speaker 3: obviously the most important fight in win of his career

1293
00:51:32,080 --> 00:51:34,640
Speaker 3: because he finally climbed the mountain and won the title

1294
00:51:34,880 --> 00:51:36,960
Speaker 3: and beat and knocked out and brutalized the guy who

1295
00:51:37,160 --> 00:51:40,200
Speaker 3: stopped him the first time from doing that. But in

1296
00:51:40,320 --> 00:51:42,799
Speaker 3: terms of the evolution of his game, dude, this is

1297
00:51:42,840 --> 00:51:45,640
Speaker 3: why it's a crime that he's fought three times in

1298
00:51:45,680 --> 00:51:48,000
Speaker 3: three years and that we're waiting. You know that there's

1299
00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:50,600
Speaker 3: an interim title and all that shit. I cannot wait

1300
00:51:50,640 --> 00:51:54,040
Speaker 3: to see against Cyril Gan this in this unification. If

1301
00:51:54,040 --> 00:51:56,680
Speaker 3: the teases that Francis showed in this fight, being able

1302
00:51:56,680 --> 00:51:59,640
Speaker 3: to stop the takedown, being able to be quick and

1303
00:51:59,719 --> 00:52:03,359
Speaker 3: Dan durious and confident on the ground and transitioning, and

1304
00:52:03,400 --> 00:52:05,799
Speaker 3: then the new setup to the offense, going southball and

1305
00:52:05,800 --> 00:52:08,479
Speaker 3: throwing these weird combos and and just using his jam

1306
00:52:08,480 --> 00:52:12,120
Speaker 3: as jab as a battering. Ram Stepe, who yes, was

1307
00:52:12,160 --> 00:52:14,479
Speaker 3: not the same compared to the first fight, the DC

1308
00:52:14,640 --> 00:52:18,160
Speaker 3: Wars had had it up something right. He still was

1309
00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:20,600
Speaker 3: willing to fight to the death and tried his best

1310
00:52:20,640 --> 00:52:26,600
Speaker 3: to take every big shot. And he's a freaking this

1311
00:52:26,880 --> 00:52:30,360
Speaker 3: was the scariest version that anybody has ever been in

1312
00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:32,200
Speaker 3: US history. Talk me down from that pedestal.

1313
00:52:32,239 --> 00:52:35,440
Speaker 1: That's the So when the Predator movies, what scares you

1314
00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:38,200
Speaker 1: about the Predator is won He's this giant, hulking creature.

1315
00:52:38,480 --> 00:52:39,919
Speaker 1: And the other one is he's got all these cool

1316
00:52:39,960 --> 00:52:41,160
Speaker 1: toys and these tactics.

1317
00:52:41,160 --> 00:52:42,440
Speaker 2: You couldn't imagine he could.

1318
00:52:42,680 --> 00:52:45,040
Speaker 3: He could track your blood, the temper of your blood.

1319
00:52:45,120 --> 00:52:47,320
Speaker 1: Kinds of shit, dude, That's what Francis is now. Francis

1320
00:52:47,480 --> 00:52:50,319
Speaker 1: before was just a predator with no armor. Now he

1321
00:52:50,520 --> 00:52:51,920
Speaker 1: is all of that. What do you remember about that

1322
00:52:51,920 --> 00:52:52,879
Speaker 1: fight night, just.

1323
00:52:52,840 --> 00:52:56,080
Speaker 4: Being in awe because honestly, like that was the hump, right,

1324
00:52:56,080 --> 00:52:57,839
Speaker 4: like he had to get over the step amochic thing.

1325
00:52:58,120 --> 00:52:59,920
Speaker 4: There's also a mental hurdle when you lose to a gull.

1326
00:53:00,160 --> 00:53:02,040
Speaker 4: That so if you're going back into a fight like that,

1327
00:53:02,239 --> 00:53:03,759
Speaker 4: you know the mental side of it. We saw him

1328
00:53:03,800 --> 00:53:06,960
Speaker 4: affected in the Derek Lewis fight. How would he present himself?

1329
00:53:07,080 --> 00:53:09,000
Speaker 4: It was like none of that existed, you know what

1330
00:53:09,000 --> 00:53:12,279
Speaker 4: I mean, the way he handled himself, thwarting takedowns and

1331
00:53:12,360 --> 00:53:15,359
Speaker 4: just that, like you mentioned, just the tactical side of it,

1332
00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:18,359
Speaker 4: Like what he was doing I was blown away, and

1333
00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:20,680
Speaker 4: I'm with you guys. I think when that happened and

1334
00:53:20,719 --> 00:53:23,040
Speaker 4: they were talking about John Jones at the time coming up,

1335
00:53:23,080 --> 00:53:24,800
Speaker 4: I was like, there can't be a bigger fight. I

1336
00:53:24,840 --> 00:53:26,680
Speaker 4: honestly can't think of a bigger fight because John Jones

1337
00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:29,360
Speaker 4: never put into a situation where he'll be an underdog.

1338
00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:31,040
Speaker 4: That was the whole thing. It was like, if there's

1339
00:53:31,040 --> 00:53:33,239
Speaker 4: an all moment for John Jones, this is it, because

1340
00:53:33,280 --> 00:53:36,279
Speaker 4: now you have a real guy who's standing there that

1341
00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:38,600
Speaker 4: will cast a shadow on you, you know what I mean.

1342
00:53:38,640 --> 00:53:40,600
Speaker 4: And I wanted to see that, you know, at the time.

1343
00:53:41,080 --> 00:53:43,359
Speaker 4: And that's why it is like tragic in so many

1344
00:53:43,400 --> 00:53:45,400
Speaker 4: ways that they've not even been able to get a

1345
00:53:45,440 --> 00:53:48,759
Speaker 4: fight for this long, because at that moment in time,

1346
00:53:48,800 --> 00:53:51,240
Speaker 4: I felt like he was possibly one of the biggest

1347
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:53,759
Speaker 4: I don't know what his drawing power was yet, but

1348
00:53:54,080 --> 00:53:56,399
Speaker 4: he was one of the biggest feeling events the UFC

1349
00:53:56,480 --> 00:53:56,840
Speaker 4: could put on.

1350
00:53:57,480 --> 00:54:00,480
Speaker 3: Yes, because I had a long betting history of counting

1351
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:04,240
Speaker 3: Steepe out his ability to come back after a knockout

1352
00:54:04,280 --> 00:54:07,560
Speaker 3: and beat Daniel Cormier twice and and own that and

1353
00:54:07,640 --> 00:54:11,839
Speaker 3: just basically show you superhero level of like punch, resistance

1354
00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:15,560
Speaker 3: and grit and being able to change strategies in the moment,

1355
00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:17,400
Speaker 3: which is what we want out of a true champion.

1356
00:54:18,160 --> 00:54:21,640
Speaker 3: I predicted he would defeat and Gonda win this rematch, thinking, Okay,

1357
00:54:22,120 --> 00:54:23,560
Speaker 3: he's probably gonna have to go five to do it,

1358
00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:25,440
Speaker 3: or maybe he's gonna have to just dig in and

1359
00:54:25,520 --> 00:54:27,640
Speaker 3: knock out the bully. But I'm like, he can do this.

1360
00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:30,319
Speaker 3: I've seen him do crazy shit yet with all that,

1361
00:54:30,360 --> 00:54:32,960
Speaker 3: and god, I'm still my one five the betting favorite

1362
00:54:33,120 --> 00:54:35,759
Speaker 3: plus one to five Miochitch. And then obviously it was

1363
00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:40,080
Speaker 3: one way traffic the whole time. I don't even want

1364
00:54:40,080 --> 00:54:41,960
Speaker 3: to skip past this and then this program because I

1365
00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:44,240
Speaker 3: want to go back and remind people what that feeling

1366
00:54:44,360 --> 00:54:47,000
Speaker 3: was like. This is the most destructive human we've ever

1367
00:54:47,000 --> 00:54:48,879
Speaker 3: seen in this sport. If what happened in that second

1368
00:54:48,920 --> 00:54:52,600
Speaker 3: step a fight is really just a showcase of what

1369
00:54:52,800 --> 00:54:55,879
Speaker 3: he did from that two loss losing streak from being

1370
00:54:55,920 --> 00:54:58,640
Speaker 3: the next big thing and failing from being at odds

1371
00:54:58,640 --> 00:55:01,680
Speaker 3: with the company. That was all from being kept out. Basically,

1372
00:55:01,719 --> 00:55:03,400
Speaker 3: it had to sit out for a year twice in a

1373
00:55:03,480 --> 00:55:05,719
Speaker 3: row to try to get the fights he wanted. That

1374
00:55:05,840 --> 00:55:08,360
Speaker 3: built a resolve to go back in the gym, and

1375
00:55:08,440 --> 00:55:10,520
Speaker 3: we still don't really know everything we need to know

1376
00:55:10,560 --> 00:55:13,600
Speaker 3: about this guy at what age thirty thirty three?

1377
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:16,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, he he.

1378
00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:19,240
Speaker 3: He might be on the way forget the greatest heavyweight

1379
00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:20,800
Speaker 3: of all time. He might be on the way to

1380
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:22,520
Speaker 3: becoming one of the greatest of all time. If what

1381
00:55:22,560 --> 00:55:25,040
Speaker 3: we saw in that steep a fight is what the

1382
00:55:25,080 --> 00:55:26,719
Speaker 3: future of this division is gonna look like. I know

1383
00:55:26,760 --> 00:55:28,400
Speaker 3: you love Ceril gone in this fight. I know this

1384
00:55:28,440 --> 00:55:30,840
Speaker 3: fight on paper is a great style matchup. I'm just

1385
00:55:30,880 --> 00:55:35,680
Speaker 3: saying what I saw, the feeling, the spirit that night. Well, honestly,

1386
00:55:35,760 --> 00:55:38,839
Speaker 3: if it's real, if it's real, yeah, wa wake up, bro,

1387
00:55:38,960 --> 00:55:41,680
Speaker 3: because your guy, your guy from from France. There, the

1388
00:55:42,880 --> 00:55:45,400
Speaker 3: other guy France, he's gonna be he's looking up.

1389
00:55:45,520 --> 00:55:47,000
Speaker 2: Okay, we yeah he might.

1390
00:55:47,040 --> 00:55:49,040
Speaker 1: I mean Francis's power is you can never take it,

1391
00:55:49,120 --> 00:55:51,760
Speaker 1: not seriously. I just feel like we're at the same point.

1392
00:55:51,760 --> 00:55:55,120
Speaker 1: For me, I'm at the same point prior to January

1393
00:55:55,120 --> 00:55:58,440
Speaker 1: twentieth of twenty eighteen, when he fought Steepe, who was

1394
00:55:58,560 --> 00:56:01,520
Speaker 1: significantly more well rounded in skill advantage on him.

1395
00:56:01,719 --> 00:56:04,719
Speaker 2: I don't know that Cyril might be more well.

1396
00:56:04,680 --> 00:56:06,680
Speaker 1: Rounded, but he does have in terms of striking a

1397
00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:10,080
Speaker 1: skill advantage, and so the question now he was perceived

1398
00:56:10,280 --> 00:56:14,319
Speaker 1: perceived skill advantage, and so now the question becomes can

1399
00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:16,960
Speaker 1: he overcome that? Can he overcome the kind of challenges

1400
00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:17,799
Speaker 1: they used to bury him?

1401
00:56:17,840 --> 00:56:19,799
Speaker 3: Is it unfair to guess based on what we saw

1402
00:56:19,840 --> 00:56:21,560
Speaker 3: in the MEO TI treating match? And I'm continuing this

1403
00:56:21,640 --> 00:56:24,320
Speaker 3: hype that's that Francis may be able to take people

1404
00:56:24,400 --> 00:56:28,160
Speaker 3: down and work in a top game. Remember Brocklesson, for

1405
00:56:28,239 --> 00:56:31,800
Speaker 3: whatever his strengths were overplayed or his drug history and

1406
00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:33,800
Speaker 3: all that, if he got top position on you on

1407
00:56:33,880 --> 00:56:35,520
Speaker 3: the ground as soon as to fuck you up right,

1408
00:56:35,560 --> 00:56:37,640
Speaker 3: frank me or we saw that, Yeah, is this the

1409
00:56:37,680 --> 00:56:40,200
Speaker 3: future potentially for Francis? Could he take Cyril Gone down

1410
00:56:40,239 --> 00:56:41,040
Speaker 3: and just just.

1411
00:56:41,640 --> 00:56:44,000
Speaker 1: I actually I actually think that's I would actually recommend that.

1412
00:56:44,239 --> 00:56:46,000
Speaker 4: I think he could do. You think he could I

1413
00:56:46,000 --> 00:56:48,360
Speaker 4: think he could do that. Yes, I can see that

1414
00:56:48,400 --> 00:56:49,800
Speaker 4: scenariome preview.

1415
00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:53,399
Speaker 2: We should all right, So let's call that a day here.

1416
00:56:53,440 --> 00:56:55,319
Speaker 3: So to twenty twenty two.

1417
00:56:55,640 --> 00:56:57,439
Speaker 1: This guy who's been putting together one of the most

1418
00:56:57,480 --> 00:57:00,560
Speaker 1: unusual and friendly his story, I heavaway runs. He's gonna

1419
00:57:00,560 --> 00:57:02,960
Speaker 1: try and keep it going. We will see what happens.

1420
00:57:02,960 --> 00:57:05,480
Speaker 1: Maybe he becomes the full on or no, he retains

1421
00:57:05,480 --> 00:57:07,400
Speaker 1: his full championship, or maybe Cerrial does. We will have

1422
00:57:07,440 --> 00:57:09,840
Speaker 1: to see. But for now that has been the Francis

1423
00:57:09,840 --> 00:57:12,920
Speaker 1: and Gon who resume reviews. Excuse me, that is Brian Campbell,

1424
00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:14,920
Speaker 1: that is Chuck Mind and all. I am Luke Thomas.

1425
00:57:15,040 --> 00:57:17,160
Speaker 1: Until next time, enjoy the fights