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Speaker 1: Hey everybody. Luke Thomas from Morning Combat here to react

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Speaker 1: to some breaking news that we have in the boxing

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Speaker 1: and MMA world about a boxing match one you might

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Speaker 1: care about. The lineal heavyweight Champion and Tyson Fury is

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Speaker 1: now set to face Francis and Ghanu in a boxing

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Speaker 1: match October twenty eighth in Ryod, Saudi Arabia. Yes, in fact,

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Speaker 1: it is real first time I ever I can think

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Speaker 1: of about where the lineal heavyweight champion is fighting the

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Speaker 1: lineal MMA champion. Of course that's never really happened at all.

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Speaker 1: There's been the Ali Yanaki thing, which was a different

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Speaker 1: thing for a different era, but kind of interesting that

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Speaker 1: we have that. So let's get to what we know

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Speaker 1: about the bout. As I mentioned October twenty eighth, yadd

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia from the release that went out, and of

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Speaker 1: course this has been announced by all the parties, including

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Speaker 1: Top Rank and Francis and Ganu and Tyson Fury that

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Speaker 1: it will be scored under the ten point must system.

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Speaker 1: It will be a real boxing bout, more on that

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Speaker 1: than just a second. Will be taking place in a ring,

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Speaker 1: not a cage, right, It's going to be a boxing bout,

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Speaker 1: but here's the catch. They do not mention in the

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Speaker 1: release or in any report whether Tyson Fury's WBC title

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Speaker 1: would be on the line. And they don't mention anything

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Speaker 1: obviously about this being an exhibition or a pro bout.

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Speaker 1: They have left that murky and why is that relevant? Listen,

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Speaker 1: It's not the case that if it's an exhibition bout

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Speaker 1: that means that they can't ko one another. That doesn't

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Speaker 1: that's not the rule. But the rule would be if

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Speaker 1: it's not a professional contest and it is an exhibition,

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Speaker 1: you can have judges, but they're only there in a

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Speaker 1: performative role. Those bouts wouldn't count on either of their

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Speaker 1: professional records, right, So that would be the difference there.

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Speaker 1: People think that if it's an exhibition that means that

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Speaker 1: they can't really kaio each other. They could if they

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Speaker 1: decided to, if they wanted to go that route. It

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Speaker 1: just means, whatever happens, it doesn't count on anyone's record.

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Speaker 1: So that's sort of where we are right now at

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Speaker 1: this moment in time. I'm sure we'll get more details

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Speaker 1: as time passes, but it is happening. It is in October,

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Speaker 1: it is in Saudi Arabia. It is a boxing match.

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Speaker 1: The limits of that boxing match and the relevancy remains unclear.

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Speaker 1: Full steam ahead, So that's point number one. Point number two.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about this. This is a terrible day, and

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Speaker 1: I truly mean a terrible day for all of the

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Speaker 1: folks who said that the best bet for Francis Senganu

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Speaker 1: amidst his leaving the UFC would be to come crawling

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Speaker 1: back on his hands and knees and return to the

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Speaker 1: Ultimate Fighting Championship and beg for forgiveness and return. And

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Speaker 1: I mean he could go back to the UFC after

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Speaker 1: fighting Tyson Fury. He might, but it might be to

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Speaker 1: buy equity at that point, right, I mean, let's just

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Speaker 1: be serious about this. It wasn't to say that Francis's

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Speaker 1: reasons for leaving the UFC carried no risk. That would

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Speaker 1: simply not be accurate. It carried a substantial amount of risk.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, this fight could fall through before

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Speaker 1: we ever get there, we still have it even begun

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Speaker 1: his MMAPFL campaign. I mean, there's a lot of room

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Speaker 1: left for not that I'm wishing up upon him, but

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Speaker 1: nothing is done until it is done. There are all

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Speaker 1: kinds of ways things can get derailed. But and even

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Speaker 1: before that, just getting to this point was going to

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Speaker 1: be difficult. Attracting a suitor with a big name in

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Speaker 1: boxing for about was going to be difficult. We all

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Speaker 1: thought at the time fear he was gonna make that

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Speaker 1: fight with Usik. More on that in a moment. We

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Speaker 1: all thought at the time, you know, he's taken six

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Speaker 1: months off, He's not gonna fight until twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: I mean a whole year, really two years in the end,

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Speaker 1: but he's gonna take all of twenty twenty three often

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Speaker 1: not fight MMA. I mean, this is insanely risky. Those

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Speaker 1: concerns were reasonable, but that people could conclude right that

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Speaker 1: they could use all of that information and decide, I

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Speaker 1: guess we're done here. He now needs to go back.

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Speaker 1: That was premature to begin with. It was motivated reasoning,

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Speaker 1: and frankly, a lot of it was just because folks

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Speaker 1: have some kind of an attachment to UFC, either financial

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Speaker 1: or emotional. That's not really a rational conclusion to make. Rational,

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Speaker 1: to have apprehensions, rational, to be understanding of the circumstances,

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Speaker 1: rational to be somewhat and maybe in certain cases very cautious,

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Speaker 1: not rational at all to decide the process had then

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Speaker 1: been resolved and the only thing left was to go

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Speaker 1: back on his hands and knees to the UFC. That

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Speaker 1: was not rational, That was never a good take, that

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Speaker 1: was never a fair assessment. So that's number two point

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Speaker 1: number three. We don't have any financial figure based on

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Speaker 1: what we know and what has been released to the public. However,

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Speaker 1: taking place in Saudi Arabia probably tells you that this

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Speaker 1: is going to be a substantial payday for both involved.

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Speaker 1: I don't know exactly where things will end up with

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Speaker 1: Francis when it's all said and done. Twenty million doesn't

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Speaker 1: seem in any way out of the realm of possibility,

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Speaker 1: and potentially a lot more, but I guess we'll have

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Speaker 1: to see once we finally get there. Because it's in

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, you are going to guess that the vast

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Speaker 1: majority of that money is going to be guaranteed, so

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Speaker 1: that should be looked at as well. However, the one

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Speaker 1: thing that we don't also have is we don't really

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Speaker 1: know what the broadcast is going to look like, where

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Speaker 1: it's going to air, who's gonna air it, who's gonna

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Speaker 1: be on the broadcast, how are they gonna treat it

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Speaker 1: what the other fights on the card are. So the

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Speaker 1: good news for Francis is that whatever money he gets

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Speaker 1: will be significant and it will be guaranteed. But on

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Speaker 1: the pay per view end, whatever else he might get,

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Speaker 1: it's hard to make any conclusion about that, just because

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Speaker 1: we don't really know how it's gonna be distributed. What

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Speaker 1: they're gonna charge, that remains very much unclear. Point number three,

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Speaker 1: Point number four, Let's talk about the fan bases here,

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Speaker 1: right on either side of the equation. And the reason

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Speaker 1: I say that is because this fight will probably do

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Speaker 1: really well because it's big star versus big star and

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Speaker 1: unusual pairing. Now, whether that appeals to you personally very

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Speaker 1: different matter. But remember, the biggest audience in combat sports

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Speaker 1: is the one that often pays attention the least. It's

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Speaker 1: the casual fans, and they come back for the big names.

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Speaker 1: They come back for what they believe is some kind

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Speaker 1: of gigantic fight, and sometimes they come back for fights

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Speaker 1: that are gigantic. Sometimes they come back for fights that

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Speaker 1: are not. They just have big names and they don't

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Speaker 1: know any better. You might, in fact argue that that

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Speaker 1: is what we have happening here. I don't really know.

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Speaker 1: Here's what I can say. The boxing fans are absolutely

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Speaker 1: furious with Tyson Fury, no pun intended. They are angry,

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Speaker 1: extremely angry. Here is what the boxing fans perspective is

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Speaker 1: is they've been waiting for Tyson Fury to fight since

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Speaker 1: his last contest, and it's been a while. He was

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Speaker 1: supposed to fight Usick, the negotiations fell apart. A lot

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Speaker 1: of people blame Tyson for those negotiations falling apart, and

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Speaker 1: now he is taking what in all likelihood appears to

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Speaker 1: be an exhibition about against an MMA fighter, not even

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Speaker 1: in the UFC anymore, like the boxing fans who wanted

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Speaker 1: Tyson to fight Usick to unify all the belts, put

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Speaker 1: one face, one name on heavyweight immortality for this generation,

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Speaker 1: and the fact that they think, in many cases a

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Speaker 1: lot of folks that believe that he has ducked Usik.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to make an argument that he really put

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Speaker 1: his best foot forward to get it. But either way,

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Speaker 1: the boxing fans are pissed at this one. So that's

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Speaker 1: only the very hardcore boxing fans. I don't think that's

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Speaker 1: a wide segment of people who are willing to pay

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Speaker 1: to watch boxing, but it should be noted hardcore boxing

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Speaker 1: fans don't love this announcement at all. Okay, and MMA fans,

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Speaker 1: I think are somewhat split ish on this one a

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Speaker 1: little bit. There are a lot of folks who are saying, hey, listen,

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Speaker 1: I'm really happy for Francis that he's getting paid. I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna watch to support him. This is great. Who knows

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Speaker 1: you might knock out Tyson Fury. Stranger things have happened.

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Speaker 1: That's kind of one perspective. Another one I've seen is, hey,

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Speaker 1: I also am happy for Tyson Fury. Excuse me, I'm

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Speaker 1: also happy for Francis and Gan, who I apologize to

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Speaker 1: get paid, to get paid, and finally you get some

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Speaker 1: serious money that he has been looking for, especially if

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Speaker 1: you're taking all this risk. However, you know, i don't

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Speaker 1: know how much I love the fight, but I'm happy

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Speaker 1: for Francis. I've seen that, and I've seen people being like,

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Speaker 1: this fight means nothing, it's a joke, Francis sucks, blah

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Speaker 1: blah blah. You sort of run the game. But the

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Speaker 1: first two was the more common positions I've seen. Listen,

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Speaker 1: there are gonna be hardcore fans in either direction who

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Speaker 1: aren't gonna love this. There's gonna be folks who say,

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Speaker 1: for boxing fans again that Fury is not taking the

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Speaker 1: fight with USA. But on the MMA side, they would

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Speaker 1: rather see Francis fighting John Jones, they would rather see

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Speaker 1: Francis fighting Sergey Pavlovitch. They would rather see Francis fighting

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Speaker 1: somebody in MMA, maybe even on the PFL side, rather

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Speaker 1: than going in taking a boxing fight he is almost

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Speaker 1: certain to lose. I understand that. I actually think both

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Speaker 1: of those perspectives are pretty fair. I don't think it's

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Speaker 1: really wrong to say that the people who feel that

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Speaker 1: way are somehow being unfair to Francis or unfair to

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Speaker 1: the process. People like what they like in combat sports,

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Speaker 1: and it's I get hardcore fans having a disagreement about

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Speaker 1: with this fight from either side of the MMA or

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Speaker 1: the boxing aisle. I would just say, if you feel

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Speaker 1: that way, I don't really judge folks about it. Again,

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Speaker 1: I think they're going to be overruled at the box

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Speaker 1: office by the casual fans. But it should be noted

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Speaker 1: that hardcore fans probably have a very different perspective about

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Speaker 1: this fight than what than who it's appealing to. This

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Speaker 1: really isn't a fight for the hardcore in that way

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Speaker 1: it is if you're like a Francis fan and you

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Speaker 1: want him to do well, But it's not so much

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Speaker 1: for the competitiveness of it, or the relevancy of it,

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Speaker 1: or the legacy of it. It's really something very different. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that's point number five whatever up to here, point number

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Speaker 1: six or five, whichever one we're on. Here is something

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Speaker 1: else we really need to just have a very frank

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Speaker 1: and clear discussion about this day was made possible by

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Speaker 1: the Fighter lawsuit. You know, you guys hear me on

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Speaker 1: this channel in my own discuss quite frequently how much

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Speaker 1: I dislike the state of MMA News and MMA media

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Speaker 1: and what they really report on. And of course they

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Speaker 1: have reported on this, but it's been mostly like just

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Speaker 1: a handful of guys who have done it, John Nash,

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Speaker 1: mostly Paul Gift as another one, and you know, there's

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Speaker 1: been a handful of others less than that who have

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Speaker 1: who have really done some active reporting on it. From

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Speaker 1: my've perched, I've tried to amplify their work, but I've

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Speaker 1: not done exactly any hardcore work on this one either.

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Speaker 1: If we're just going to be transparent about it, but certainly.

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Speaker 1: You know, you guys hear me talk about what is

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Speaker 1: reral in what matters, and we do make a point

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Speaker 1: to get incorporated into morning combat. Here is a great example.

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Speaker 1: The only reason a day like today happened is because

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Speaker 1: there was a class action lawsuit against the UFC. The UFC,

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Speaker 1: in the process of this lawsuit, moving forward to the

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Speaker 1: court system, eventually decided to introduce into a series of

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Speaker 1: contracts at the time in which Francis and Gone was signing,

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Speaker 1: one basically a five year expiration or sunset clause. In

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Speaker 1: other words, it enabled him, by the allowing the contract

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Speaker 1: to expire within a semi reasonable amount of time, to

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Speaker 1: then free himself from the contract and then ultimately go

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Speaker 1: and seek services of various promoters or opportunities elsewhere. By

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Speaker 1: the way, those provisions that Francis was able to use

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Speaker 1: to get out, some of them are not altogether gone,

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Speaker 1: but they have been very much weakened. In some cases

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Speaker 1: they're gone, but innother ones. The overall picture of being

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Speaker 1: able to get out of a UFC contract if you're

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Speaker 1: a champion like Francis, many many, many of those visions

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Speaker 1: have been weakened. And now remember we also know based

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Speaker 1: on some of the reporting of the gentlemen. I have

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Speaker 1: aforementioned that the new contracts that folks sign requires them

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Speaker 1: to take part in any future class action lawsuits, so

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Speaker 1: they're actually like preventing people from ever getting on board

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Speaker 1: with this in the future. But the only reason that

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Speaker 1: we know about this stuff is because of what reporting

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Speaker 1: was done to make it happen from the lawsuit itself.

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Speaker 1: Like that's why media coverage in MMA to me is

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Speaker 1: a completely broken It's all like what some guy tweeted

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Speaker 1: about another guy's mom or something, which is just absolutely

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Speaker 1: meaningless in the grand scheme of things. And what actually

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Speaker 1: is important is the coverage of the business cycle, the

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Speaker 1: coverage of the lawsuit, the coverage of the earnings report,

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Speaker 1: all the things that are kind of boring and don't

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Speaker 1: necessarily draw the clicks, because you actually have to be

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Speaker 1: an adult, and you actually have to care, and you

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Speaker 1: actually have to be interested in the mechanics of power,

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Speaker 1: and you have to be interested in what actually moves

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Speaker 1: the way world, not what narratives make us feel good

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Speaker 1: about participating in a sport. Right, That's the coverage that

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Speaker 1: actually matters, that's the stuff that we benefit from. That's

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Speaker 1: the stuff that ultimately helps change things. It's the coverage

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Speaker 1: of what we found out from this lawsuit that essentially

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Speaker 1: compelled the UFC to make, at least for a brief

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Speaker 1: moment in time, anyway, some changes. Look at the fruits

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Speaker 1: that that bore, Look at that, Look at the tree

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Speaker 1: that was planted, and all the stuff that happened afterwards.

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Speaker 1: Look at now the fruit. Now. I don't mean to

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Speaker 1: say that I think anybody can now do that. Again,

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Speaker 1: the contracts have changed. Francis is a unique case. He

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Speaker 1: was the heavyweight champion. Like, this is not something that

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Speaker 1: you can just do at scale very easily. But rather

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Speaker 1: look at what happens when people actually try to do

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Speaker 1: something about fighter pay in a real and meaningful way.

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Speaker 1: Of course, the class action lawsuit is about more than

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Speaker 1: just that, and then it gets reported on. Now it's

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Speaker 1: in the public consciousness. Now it's in the public record.

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Speaker 1: Look what this does to force change. This is real.

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Speaker 1: This is actually is this, ladies and gentlemen, This is

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Speaker 1: MMA journalism. That's what MM journalism looks like. It doesn't

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Speaker 1: look like previews, it doesn't look like reviews. That's media, right,

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Speaker 1: and that's fine. That actually is valuable there's nothing wrong

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Speaker 1: with That's what I mostly do. It actually serves a function. Okay,

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Speaker 1: fair enough, But journalism is separate. Journalism is actually holding

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Speaker 1: the powerful accountable, not trying to get access to them

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Speaker 1: so you can be a favorable outlet. That's journalism. That's

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Speaker 1: what it looks like. And look at the power that

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Speaker 1: it has. So when you think about your daily intake

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Speaker 1: of what kind of news you get and where you

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Speaker 1: get it, you should take a look at it, and

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Speaker 1: you should ask yourself how much of it is actually

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Speaker 1: this kind of stuff that all feeds into it and

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Speaker 1: all the questions that get raised about fighter pay based

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Speaker 1: on these reports, and how much that influences the public

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Speaker 1: consciousness that ladies and gentlemen is media. I sho always

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Speaker 1: say all of his media that is journalism right there.

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Speaker 1: And then last but not least, you know, I thought

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Speaker 1: there might be a case for this to have four

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Speaker 1: ounce gloves if they were going to go that direction.

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Speaker 1: They ended up not going that direction. I didn't hate

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Speaker 1: that personally. I thought the four ounce gloves were actually

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Speaker 1: pretty cool. But I guess, you know, it takes all kinds.

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Speaker 1: The last thing I say is do you find the

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Speaker 1: fight competitive? No? Probably not. There is no good reason

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Speaker 1: Tyson Fury shouldn't win. That isn't to say that he

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Speaker 1: won't or will. Combat sports is crazy. Francis has been

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Speaker 1: a defire of the odds for quite some time. But no,

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Speaker 1: Tyson Fury should win this one, and he should win

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Speaker 1: it relatively easily. I guess the last thing I'd say,

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Speaker 1: whatever point we're up to seven or eight at this point,

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Speaker 1: is just about the story of Francis and Ganu More

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Speaker 1: in particular, Let's end there. I mean, really, that's why,

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Speaker 1: that's why we're all here talking about it. Francis is

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Speaker 1: one of the most remarkable athletes and humans I've ever

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Speaker 1: I've ever covered, you know, to come from a place

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Speaker 1: where he he didn't have money for school books, even

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Speaker 1: pencils and papers, working in assault or working in minds

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Speaker 1: by the time he was I think ten years old,

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Speaker 1: living on the streets, homeless, after crossing dangerous terrain, and

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Speaker 1: ultimately to get to Northern Africa and then France, building

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Speaker 1: himself up into this contender, beating all the folks that

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Speaker 1: he did, taking on the most institutional I mean, the

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Speaker 1: MMA industry is the UFC. At this point, there's not

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Speaker 1: many much room for any other player. He took on

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Speaker 1: the biggest one and now on the other side of it.

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Speaker 1: Despite all of the other proxies doing what they could

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Speaker 1: to benefit the UFC narrative here, he still came out

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Speaker 1: on top. It looks like he is just a continuous

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Speaker 1: to fire of the odds. He is a continuous author

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Speaker 1: of his own success, and it is remarkable. You just

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Speaker 1: won't see a lot of guys like Francis sin Gami

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Speaker 1: really ever. And I know that doesn't make MMA fans

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Speaker 1: who aren't interested in this fight because it's boxing or whatever.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't change their opinion. And I understand that. And

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Speaker 1: if you're a boxing fan and you wanted Tyson Fury

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Speaker 1: to box Alexander Usik, I get it. I totally get it.

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Speaker 1: I think those criticisms are fair, to be quite honest

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Speaker 1: with you, I totally understand it. But at the same time,

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Speaker 1: you just can't do anything. But if you're a human being,

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Speaker 1: have admiration for the perseverance, the will to succeed, the drive,

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Speaker 1: the fire in his belly, the self belief of Francis Sengano.

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Speaker 1: All of us could learn a lesson from him about

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Speaker 1: what it means to believe in yourself and what it

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Speaker 1: means to take risks, but also how and when and

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Speaker 1: why you take those risks, and what motivates you to

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Speaker 1: do that, and having the right reasons and the right

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Speaker 1: strategic thinking about it. Man, Look what you can do.

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Speaker 1: He is a testament to the power of the human will,

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Speaker 1: and he is a testament to how all of that

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Speaker 1: can carry you to the greatest heights that prize fighting

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Speaker 1: can basically take you. Amazing guy, amazing guy. We'll have

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Speaker 1: more on this on tomorrow's MK. What do you think

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Speaker 1: about the fight? Do you like it? Do you hate it?

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Speaker 1: Are you gonna pay for it? Give me your sense

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Speaker 1: of things? Believe a comment below so we can gauge

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Speaker 1: how the fans feel about this. I would love to

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Speaker 1: get a sense I get There's gonna be opinions everywhere.

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Speaker 1: Let us hear yours. Okay, We'll talk to you guys

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Speaker 1: on tomorrow's MK, and until then, peace,