Speaker 1: Revee revee dalks. We'll do the snow tip to tip.
Speaker 1: This is all life, this is our passion.
Speaker 2: I'm look Thomas, I'm this this Morning Combat.
Speaker 1: We gotta get Chuck his own intro. What's going on? Everyone? Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 1: Fights are back. They are back.
Speaker 2: They are finally back in our life, and we are
Speaker 2: here to preview them and talk about so much more.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Morning Combat on this nineteenth day of January
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. My name is Thomas. I am merely
Speaker 2: one half of your hosting duo, joined by my friend
Speaker 2: and yours.
Speaker 1: Again. I just can't get rid of these Connecticut bubba's.
Speaker 1: But here he is.
Speaker 3: It's Chuckman. What's up, Iceman? How are you just true?
Speaker 3: I guess yeah, You're last guy was Connecticut too. I
Speaker 3: guess that's where all the talents is for this chair, right.
Speaker 1: That's where all the available talent is. I suppose.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure how to say it. I'm ready for
Speaker 3: round two, man. You know that's when I come to life.
Speaker 3: This is our second show, and this is usually when
Speaker 3: I start to show up.
Speaker 1: You know that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course all feel out round like Bud Crawford. Yes,
Speaker 2: congratulations to your Broncos and also sorry about your Broncos.
Speaker 1: Isn't that fun? But I was happy.
Speaker 2: I was happy to see the Bills lose because, uh, well,
Speaker 2: their fan base is intolerable, let's just be honest.
Speaker 1: About I've found that to be the case.
Speaker 3: But I do know, I feel like I know more
Speaker 3: Buffalo Bills fans than just about any other like type
Speaker 3: of fan, right Like, there's I feel like they're everywhere.
Speaker 3: So some of those people I like, and so there's
Speaker 3: it's kind of always bittersweet when they when they get
Speaker 3: ousted like that.
Speaker 2: The reason why you know so many Bills fans in
Speaker 2: real life is because you see their mugshots on the news,
Speaker 2: and they're also close talkers in person.
Speaker 3: They are close talkers. You knew the people I know
Speaker 3: here in town. You know exactly that that's true.
Speaker 2: Hey, Josh Allen's the best quarterback in the league. Really,
Speaker 2: why does he keep going home sad flexibly with cheese
Speaker 2: on your face afterward? Yeah, all right, we have a
Speaker 2: lot to get to today, Chuck. So we're gonna talk
Speaker 2: about UFC three twenty four, which is finally here. We'll
Speaker 2: have a bit of a boxing roundup closer to the
Speaker 2: end of the show, there's been an update on referees
Speaker 2: understanding the problems with ipokes. John Annik has talked about
Speaker 2: how he would change the UFC product and so much more.
Speaker 2: Do us a favor if you can give this episode
Speaker 2: a thumbs up. If you're watching right now on YouTube,
Speaker 2: you can follow us. There are our socials as well
Speaker 2: for Chuck, for me for the show. If you're listening
Speaker 2: on the audio platform, give us a nice review and
Speaker 2: it certainly always goes far when you do. And let's
Speaker 2: not forget Morningcombat Dot Shop. We have our current merch
Speaker 2: that's up there. Remember the poster is just twenty five
Speaker 2: dollars for this month. They're a little bit banged up
Speaker 2: in transit, but of course you can get the Stranger
Speaker 2: Danger shirts. This design courtesy of Average Joe Art. Now, Chuck,
Speaker 2: what do you have going on for planned coverage? I
Speaker 2: know you're going to Vegas this week, yes, And I
Speaker 2: know you're going.
Speaker 1: To the zoofa boxing event. Are you going to through
Speaker 1: twenty four as well? I'm not so.
Speaker 3: I'll do a column coming out of UFC three twenty four,
Speaker 3: but we felt like to be at the event. You're like, well,
Speaker 3: what could really be different that they're going to be doing,
Speaker 3: maybe like some minor things, but really what you want
Speaker 3: to see is what it looks like on the presentation
Speaker 3: on television, right, Like you want to be able to
Speaker 3: watch and see what that is. So I'm going to
Speaker 3: fly back on the day of and be back in
Speaker 3: time to watch and do that part of it. But yes,
Speaker 3: I'll be out there for the ZUFA Boxing event, which
Speaker 3: it just feels huge as we get to fight week
Speaker 3: at this point.
Speaker 1: Doesn't it like it feels like a big one to me?
Speaker 1: Does it?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: No, it's like it's Callum Walsh in a warehouse. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I don't I don't quite get that, but I mean
Speaker 2: I guess I sort of. We talked about it last week.
Speaker 2: I guess I sort of get that. I will say this,
Speaker 2: how does it work for Uncrowned? Do you guys have
Speaker 2: someone that goes to all the events?
Speaker 1: Like? How do you all apportion that?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 3: I think that at some point we realized that the
Speaker 3: kind of coverage that most of the sites are doing,
Speaker 3: you know, just the way that they set up media week,
Speaker 3: now that the fight week it's not real conducive. Just
Speaker 3: you don't really need to be there for it. So
Speaker 3: I think we have a couple of events that will
Speaker 3: always have somebody on the ground, but for the most
Speaker 3: part they focus their travel budget on other things, you know,
Speaker 3: like visiting fighters elsewhere.
Speaker 1: The fight weeks themselves don't seem worth it.
Speaker 2: I'll say this, and I know we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about it here in a minute. That nine pm main
Speaker 2: card Storeeah, I just can't say. People have been like,
Speaker 2: what do you want out of the UFC on Paramount Era.
Speaker 2: I'm like, don't change anything, nine pm, start on the
Speaker 2: name card, no pay per view, just just just do that.
Speaker 1: Just do that and I'll be I'll be quite happy.
Speaker 1: I'd be dying.
Speaker 3: A lot of those times when you got when you
Speaker 3: limp into ten o'clock and they're just doing the promos,
Speaker 3: you know, they're just doing the intro for the show,
Speaker 3: the cold open and all that, and you're like, oh
Speaker 3: my god, man, we still got like two and a
Speaker 3: half three hours of this, and then you go you
Speaker 3: do a post like show right too, so like knowing
Speaker 3: that you're like, man, we're not even halfway home yet,
Speaker 3: We've got a long way to go, and it's you're
Speaker 3: already dying.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I mean again, this is part of the reason why
Speaker 2: the show. I mean, we'll be back in studio soon,
Speaker 2: I'm sure. But like part of the reason why we're
Speaker 2: doing this here on Monday remotely is because you know,
Speaker 2: the the just the toll it took where again it
Speaker 2: was more accumulative over many, many years. But then you're
Speaker 2: ba I don't basically basically on the nights where I
Speaker 2: do a postfight show, I don't go to bed until
Speaker 2: roughly four am, because after the show is over, there's
Speaker 2: a bunch of stuff on the back end you have
Speaker 2: to do to get ready for the next day's amount
Speaker 2: of work. So all that's done and then you go
Speaker 2: to bed, and then I would have to get back
Speaker 2: up at four am the following day to come up here. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I'm it's like, dude, when you're twenty seven, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's like, all right, you know, you're a little tired.
Speaker 2: Well you're forty seven, which I'm not quite yet, but
Speaker 2: like still, it's just a completely different ballgame. You know
Speaker 2: that one hour really does make it difference. It's critical,
Speaker 2: really critical, all right, Before we get going here, last thing,
Speaker 2: let's bring in the third member of our show yet
Speaker 2: another white guy here to give his opinions. It's Long
Speaker 2: Island Luke, the son of a as Brian Campbell would
Speaker 2: say many times, horned up Australia.
Speaker 1: And it's his birthday today.
Speaker 6: Actually it's the horn the birthday.
Speaker 1: Shout out to him. Going to impregnate for his birthday.
Speaker 7: Hopefully No, And I mean, you know, long long over
Speaker 7: those days. Also, me and my girlfriend seven year anniversary today. Wow,
Speaker 7: congrats she walking around going pretty much. Yeah, yeah, one
Speaker 7: of those there's a you know, empty spot there she's
Speaker 7: waiting for.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, but she's listening in the other room too.
Speaker 1: How many live streams are you going to do? From me?
Speaker 1: Are you gonna do the ZUFA boxing live stream? No,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do ZUPA Boxing.
Speaker 7: I might not even watch it to be honest, you know,
Speaker 7: probably try and do something else Friday, but I may
Speaker 7: watch it, but definitely doing full card Saturday. We back
Speaker 7: at it first one of the year. It's been like
Speaker 7: five weeks off because I did Jake Paul. But yeah,
Speaker 7: looking forward to it too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Last thing on this appreciate you long. Last thing
Speaker 2: on this is Chuck before we get going.
Speaker 1: I did that. I did the Jake Paul fight on
Speaker 1: that from him.
Speaker 2: It was a Friday night for Anthony Joshua and then
Speaker 2: he never went to bed and then just went to
Speaker 2: the airport and did a two legged international travel with child.
Speaker 2: God that was that was such a stupid idea.
Speaker 3: I don't think I could do that. I don't even
Speaker 3: think I have a I don't. I don't think I'm
Speaker 3: capable of doing that anymore. You know, we used to
Speaker 3: do shit like that all the time. I just I
Speaker 3: can't do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't either, even though I did, and I
Speaker 2: could do it again, but probably only at gunpoint, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, Like it would be one of
Speaker 2: those situations.
Speaker 3: It's an exotic life you lead there, Well, it's a
Speaker 3: it's an exhausting one.
Speaker 1: How about that?
Speaker 2: All right, without further ado, let's get this party started
Speaker 2: here Topic number one. What else would we talk about?
Speaker 2: The fights are back, Ladies and gentlemen, They are back.
Speaker 2: UFC three twenty four is this weekend, and of course
Speaker 2: it's a numbered event. We can't say pay per view anymore,
Speaker 2: as well as the first one of the UFC Paramount Era.
Speaker 2: A lot of high expectations. As we indicated, we already
Speaker 2: know this. It's going to be a nine pm main
Speaker 2: card start. It's been traditionally ten per and of course
Speaker 2: it's not going to be pay per view anymore. There
Speaker 2: still is the paywall to get through with you have
Speaker 2: to have be a subscriber to Paramount Plus, but not
Speaker 2: that additional layer to keep you out. So chuck as
Speaker 2: the UFC takes on, it's made in voyage here in
Speaker 2: the Paramount era, the first This will be the first
Speaker 2: as Mediicatu sort of like top tier UFC event. They're
Speaker 2: bringing on, CBS is bringing on Kate Scott as part
Speaker 2: of the broadcast. Does the UFC need to do even
Speaker 2: more than what we've already talked about to make this
Speaker 2: first event special and meet fan demand or have they
Speaker 2: already kind of set themselves up nicely to deliver what
Speaker 2: I think the fans are hoping for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a tough one. I was thinking about this.
Speaker 3: You know when they first introduced the Fox era, remember
Speaker 3: they had that bonus card. They're like, hey, we're gonna
Speaker 3: do a kickoff party before we even get this card
Speaker 3: going with the cane Velasquez Junior de Santos and they
Speaker 3: had I remember how strange it felt maybe maybe you
Speaker 3: remember this too, seeing like Kurt Minafee, for instance, like
Speaker 3: hosting that and it felt like our small, weird sport.
Speaker 3: Now is Kurt Minafie like sitting here talking about it?
Speaker 3: And they had if I recall it was like John Jones.
Speaker 3: They had a couple of people in the in the
Speaker 3: studio and it felt very like there was a ceremony
Speaker 3: to this whole thing, And I'm interested, I guess to
Speaker 3: see if there's anything like that. I couldn't remember other
Speaker 3: than the strangeness of the ESPN opening, if you recall,
Speaker 3: because of the Greg Greg Hardy was on the ConA
Speaker 3: main event, they had Rachel odjivish Ostovich who was down
Speaker 3: on the lower like on that same main card, And
Speaker 3: it felt very like tone deaf for the UFC to
Speaker 3: go into the ESPN era with that that kind of
Speaker 3: dynamic in place. But in terms of like will they
Speaker 3: do something that distinguishes it, and I don't necessarily think
Speaker 3: they have to, Like I feel like some of the
Speaker 3: promo packages and the things that they're going to run
Speaker 3: on Paramount Plus already contain a little bit of a different,
Speaker 3: I don't know, a different feel. Maybe maybe you feel
Speaker 3: differently about it, but like they they seem more cinematic.
Speaker 3: It seems to fit the themes of what they're normally streaming,
Speaker 3: and they're kind of like splicing in the UFC, So
Speaker 3: they're existing, you know, whatever they've got going on. I
Speaker 3: just it'll be interesting to see kind of what they
Speaker 3: come up with. But you know, I don't, to be
Speaker 3: fully honest, man, because I haven't seen them. Maybe it's
Speaker 3: because of Dana's kind of enthusiasm factor, like not being
Speaker 3: where it was, like, I don't really anticipate any big changes,
Speaker 3: do you.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I mean they've already done the big ones already,
Speaker 2: right the paper view has beenicated in the Star Times.
Speaker 2: What are they calling this, by the way, so like
Speaker 2: I was thinking about that when you put me we
Speaker 2: keep mentioning it as like a premier event.
Speaker 1: Or what do we call numbered events? Okay, that's what
Speaker 1: we're calling it, right, numbered events? All right.
Speaker 2: I think that they do have to do a little
Speaker 2: bit extra, so again bringing on the pay per view,
Speaker 2: getting rid of that we're doing the earlier Star Time,
Speaker 2: they're bringing on Kate Scott. I think if they add
Speaker 2: a few more bells and whistles on the production side,
Speaker 2: maybe they hold their cards close to their vest and
Speaker 2: then give an announcement about some impending fight. Maybe they announced,
Speaker 2: for example, I think the fans would probably be hyped
Speaker 2: if they did.
Speaker 1: I'm just making something up.
Speaker 2: Hey, we're gonna already tell you what the main event
Speaker 2: is for UFC White House, or you know, some kind
Speaker 2: of indication about here's what we got going on, here's
Speaker 2: what we got cooking. It looks shiny, it looks new,
Speaker 2: got that new car smell, kind of getting into it,
Speaker 2: and they're off to the races. But I think actually
Speaker 2: be a mistake to try and do too much. I mean,
Speaker 2: here's the reality. Every time the UFC signs one of
Speaker 2: these deals. So when they go from Spike to Fox,
Speaker 2: Fox to ESPN and now ESPN to CBS or Paramount,
Speaker 2: one of the biggest things that I've seen is that
Speaker 2: the in house teams at these places are not usually
Speaker 2: fully ready to deliver the UFC product as it's supposed
Speaker 2: to be delivered, which is understandable. This is not a criticism,
Speaker 2: it's just a reflection of reality. You have these in
Speaker 2: house teams that again they might do NFL, they might
Speaker 2: do whatever, and they're all very talented but MMA is
Speaker 2: like any other sport, is its own kind of beast.
Speaker 2: You have to have institutional knowledge to make this work,
Speaker 2: and they don't think they have really built that out yet.
Speaker 2: I mean, again, they've this is the first ufcvent on Paramount.
Speaker 2: They haven't really announced like all the different Paramount shoulder
Speaker 2: programming that's going to be a part of it, because.
Speaker 1: I don't think they've even come up with it yet.
Speaker 2: I don't even think they haven't even announced any hirings
Speaker 2: exactly for who they're gonna keep and who they're gonna add,
Speaker 2: and what shows are going to be there. None of
Speaker 2: this has been settled, and so I think trying to
Speaker 2: do too much in this moment would actually be a
Speaker 2: bit of a problem. But at the same time, are
Speaker 2: fans expecting, you know, a little bit of a red
Speaker 2: bull pep introduce them to the whole thing. I think
Speaker 2: as long as you deliver that, you'll be fine. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I really do believe that.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 3: I mean I feel like they have they traditionally. I
Speaker 3: feel like they think some of this through and I
Speaker 3: would maybe something like what you mentioned, like obviously, if
Speaker 3: they if they mentioned the White House thing, can you
Speaker 3: imagine the buzz because first of all, that when that's
Speaker 3: sort of like, okay, now we're definitely pinning the state
Speaker 3: we know for sure that this is going to happen,
Speaker 3: because I feel like still it lives in this abstract
Speaker 3: like we're trying to do this. We'll see, but they're
Speaker 3: promising it. But I feel like that that would actually
Speaker 3: say like this is happening. That would be a major buzz.
Speaker 3: In the old days, man, when they were like kind
Speaker 3: of you know, doing these cards, one of the big
Speaker 3: moments within the pay per views was they would announce fights.
Speaker 3: Do you remember this? And we would go, everybody be
Speaker 3: on Twitter. This is in the earlier days of Twitter,
Speaker 3: and everybody be talking about that. It was like this
Speaker 3: added buzz that you could add to your event and
Speaker 3: now suddenly you're very excited not just about what's about
Speaker 3: to happen, but what's down the road. So maybe they
Speaker 3: would use something like that. I think it would be
Speaker 3: advantageous for them to do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no question.
Speaker 2: Now let's talk about some of the fights on this
Speaker 2: card if we can. Obviously, the main event, the UFC
Speaker 2: Interim Lightweight title is up for grabs when Justin Gagee
Speaker 2: takes on Patty Pimler. We're gonna look at it from
Speaker 2: from both sides of the equation here. The first one
Speaker 2: would be a very basic one, and I want to
Speaker 2: play a video before we get your answer.
Speaker 1: Shock.
Speaker 2: It would be about justin Gaegee's legacy, because I think
Speaker 2: we're gonna have to start figuring this out. And here's
Speaker 2: why he told Aaron Bron's that or if he gets KOed,
Speaker 2: he's finished.
Speaker 1: You've always given me a number of how many wars
Speaker 1: you have left in you? Do you still what is
Speaker 1: that number? Today?
Speaker 8: One more knockout? I went to sleep. That was before that,
Speaker 8: I'd never been.
Speaker 1: Put to sleep.
Speaker 8: If I would go to put to sleep again, I
Speaker 8: would definitely call quits.
Speaker 1: Really, so you're drawing the line that's.
Speaker 8: Been my line. Yeah, it never happened. So I wasn't like,
Speaker 8: if I get knocked out, I'm quitting. But once I
Speaker 8: got knocked out, you know, thirty seven years old. If
Speaker 8: I was twenty twenty seven, thirty, this would be a
Speaker 8: different story. But this is not the beginning. This is
Speaker 8: definitely the end of my career and it's been such
Speaker 8: an amazing thing. You know, obviously they'll they'll use and
Speaker 8: abuse you in this sport, and you have to protect yourself,
Speaker 8: you know. And I altually have created a team, and
Speaker 8: I got my family and my coaches, and they all
Speaker 8: have my best interest in at hand. And I've always
Speaker 8: told him that I'm in it till they say I
Speaker 8: don't have it no more, and or whenever I feel
Speaker 8: like my younger self, the the hunger of my younger
Speaker 8: self can beat the skills that I've that I have now,
Speaker 8: then it would be done.
Speaker 1: Now. One more of this.
Speaker 2: I think we have a graphic from Trevor Whitman. Here's
Speaker 2: what he said, which is not quite the same thing
Speaker 2: as Justin quote. This is our last run. If we
Speaker 2: don't win this fight, we're not going on. We're not
Speaker 2: going to go out there and be a gatekeeper and
Speaker 2: look at money fights. He knows he's got to be
Speaker 2: there for his family and take care of his health. Chuck,
Speaker 2: It's interesting, right because he's already been an interim champion,
Speaker 2: and I guess there is something to be said for
Speaker 2: being a two time interim champion. But how would you
Speaker 2: assess Justin Gacy's legacy if this ends up being his
Speaker 2: last fight? Well, I guess it wouldn't be if he won.
Speaker 2: So if let's start with if he loses, what's on.
Speaker 3: The line here for Justin and what a swing this
Speaker 3: would be because obviously if you win, now you're the
Speaker 3: champion and you have fights lined up, right, So it's like,
Speaker 3: this feels very kind of a start. I don't know
Speaker 3: if you ever talked to Justin way back in the day,
Speaker 3: but he was one of those guys who was a
Speaker 3: bit of a red flag human being because the way
Speaker 3: he fought was unsustainable, because he was this berserker coming
Speaker 3: in from w soof and it just felt like, I
Speaker 3: don't think that you can maintain this for any amount
Speaker 3: of time, Like you're eventually this is going to catch
Speaker 3: up to you. And he would talk about it, He's like,
Speaker 3: you know, man, I know my styles reckless. I know
Speaker 3: that I could have CTE. He would talk about this
Speaker 3: stuff and you'd be like, man, I've just never heard
Speaker 3: anybody who's not worried about their future. The biggest juxtaposition
Speaker 3: at the end of his career, first of all, is
Speaker 3: that he sustained it and he went this far and
Speaker 3: like you mentioned, became an interim champion and fought for
Speaker 3: the you know, fought for the actual title and has
Speaker 3: basically fought top five for the last I don't know
Speaker 3: how many years is that he's still you know, he's
Speaker 3: still there, and how now he's thinking more clearly. It's
Speaker 3: very weird because he's sort of like, you know what
Speaker 3: if I lose this one, I'm out. And that's a
Speaker 3: very clear minded way to be. He has won a ton.
Speaker 3: I mean, in MA speak, when you win bonus money
Speaker 3: like he has, this becomes like a major deal of
Speaker 3: how you you know, supplemented your income. He's done a
Speaker 3: lot of that. And I think that when you mentioned
Speaker 3: his legacy, it's going to be like I was trying
Speaker 3: to think of the the actual like he may be
Speaker 3: one of a kind in the sense of the types
Speaker 3: of competition that he fought in and the magnitude of
Speaker 3: event that he fought in. He was always a guy
Speaker 3: that you could plug in to a major event, not
Speaker 3: necessarily like a Donald Cerroni where you could just plug
Speaker 3: him into a main card and he's like anywhere anytime,
Speaker 3: but more of a guy who was who would deliver
Speaker 3: on a promise of a card that maybe was lacking
Speaker 3: and he would bring something to that table that would
Speaker 3: that would fill it in for everybody, and everybody'd be
Speaker 3: happy with it because it was justin Gaigee and he
Speaker 3: brought out the best of the other guy and they
Speaker 3: went to war. He's a berserker man, and he's I
Speaker 3: think that that's going to be who is when I
Speaker 3: think back on Gaigee. Let's presume he doesn't win this fight,
Speaker 3: Like when I look back at his career, it's going
Speaker 3: to be a guy who brought that mentality, which I
Speaker 3: think is almost the quintessential you know mentality. The UFC
Speaker 3: always used to preach and their prep fights are the
Speaker 3: before the fights where they would say, like, hey, guys,
Speaker 3: leave it all out there, you know, do not leave
Speaker 3: in the hands of the judges, and all this sort
Speaker 3: of thing. This was justin Getchee. He was kind of
Speaker 3: a godsend in the UFC, stood in a lot of
Speaker 3: big moments and still was very, very successful in terms
Speaker 3: of the types of competition he fought because he fought
Speaker 3: the who's who man. So I think, I just think
Speaker 3: I'm always gonna think of a wild man. What about
Speaker 3: you when you think about him?
Speaker 2: I I firstly consider him part of a generation of
Speaker 2: lightweights that I don't know we'll ever get again, when
Speaker 2: you talk about him, Chandler, Eddie Alvarez, when you talk
Speaker 2: about Justin Parier, when you talk about you know, obviously
Speaker 2: Connor part of that as well, and Habib and there
Speaker 2: was that. I mean Connor and Habiber were a little
Speaker 2: bit different because they obviously ascended to greater heights, but
Speaker 2: there was like this, and Eddie was a champion too,
Speaker 2: but there was like a generation of lightweights who were
Speaker 2: just fucking war horses, and he was part of that.
Speaker 2: He made a very very very special era of lightweight.
Speaker 2: You can patrols Olifer in that as well. Who's getting
Speaker 2: kind of at There's just been a really, really, really
Speaker 2: special run. And if you look at the current crop
Speaker 2: of lightweights, I think they're very good, and certainly the
Speaker 2: guys at the top like sar Yuki and Tuporia, I
Speaker 2: think are really really good and I'm glad that they're there,
Speaker 2: but I don't think there's quite as much of the
Speaker 2: same thing. They're not easily going to be replaced. I
Speaker 2: think he's part of that. But to your point, he
Speaker 2: was a guy from World Tears of Fighting. There was
Speaker 2: a they never called remember James Vitt called him the
Speaker 2: Homer Simpson of MMS, where he was just oh, you
Speaker 2: just get hit a bunch, and then he flattened him
Speaker 2: and went out and he actually, I think over it,
Speaker 2: justin Gatchee has massively overachieved relative to his style. His style,
Speaker 2: he should have been finished in the sport a while ago,
Speaker 2: but because he is a special kind of fighter, he's
Speaker 2: transcended that. The interesting part about me for this spout
Speaker 2: is if he wins the interim belt, is a two
Speaker 2: time interim champion equivalent to a champion. I don't think
Speaker 2: that it is, but it's not nothing. But if he loses,
Speaker 2: I don't think it actually ruins his legacy either. It
Speaker 2: just kind of seals what we understand him in place.
Speaker 2: It freezes him, so to speak, in the Star Wars
Speaker 2: universe carbonite, and there's really nothing else there to advance.
Speaker 2: The only way any of this really changes how we
Speaker 2: understand him long term is if he goes out there,
Speaker 2: beats Patty and then does something special in the fight thereafter. Otherwise, again,
Speaker 2: it's not to say he's not done an amazing things,
Speaker 2: but this fight doesn't.
Speaker 1: It's weird. It's it's critical to change, but by itself doesn't.
Speaker 3: Do much I think, no, you're right, man, And like
Speaker 3: the fact that he, like you were mentioning that, like
Speaker 3: when he came over, you're talking about the lightweight field
Speaker 3: when he came over. How exciting was that the idea
Speaker 3: that you're now putting this guy who was the champion
Speaker 3: over there who fought you remember the leg kicks and
Speaker 3: everything like with the U and Luis Palomino and the guys,
Speaker 3: like he was blowing up over there, and you're like,
Speaker 3: you're putting this guy now into the fold of all
Speaker 3: these guys who are already here. It did make for a
Speaker 3: crazy era. But more to your point, man, like I
Speaker 3: hadn't thought of this until we were kind of like
Speaker 3: putting together the show and you'd mentioned this, But like
Speaker 3: it is a huge hinge moment because if he wins
Speaker 3: a title, I do feel like, you know, he wins
Speaker 3: an actual title, and you know, we see how everything
Speaker 3: plays out this year, it does change things for him
Speaker 3: because you know how it is. It's like Justin Poier
Speaker 3: is one of those guys who kept changing, you know,
Speaker 3: changing the perception of him as time went on and
Speaker 3: became like a more beloved figure even if you didn't
Speaker 3: win everything, like he became like this beloved figure. I
Speaker 3: think that you would have to look at like Justin
Speaker 3: Gaege and be like man the BMF title, you know,
Speaker 3: just standing in there, even though he didn't win that exchange,
Speaker 3: it became he became like the you know, posterized by
Speaker 3: by Holloway and that in that crazy ass exchange one
Speaker 3: of the craziest things we've seen in the sport. But
Speaker 3: to just come back from that and win a title,
Speaker 3: I do think that that, you know, that would be
Speaker 3: something that we would look at and I think you
Speaker 3: would have to consider with Justin Gatchie forever after that man,
Speaker 3: because that kind of perseverance is also very unique to
Speaker 3: a guy like him.
Speaker 2: This is interesting to think about which is on the
Speaker 2: other side of the equation with Pad Pimblet. Clearly the
Speaker 2: UFC has big expectations for him, not merely to help
Speaker 2: mature and nurture the UK market, but just as a
Speaker 2: guy that the fans whether they like them or they
Speaker 2: hate him, and most people seem to like him, but
Speaker 2: he can be a lightning rod in a variety of
Speaker 2: ways that there's just a lot of buzz around him.
Speaker 2: So what happens like do you think the UFC would
Speaker 2: be better if Justin Geechee won in the sense that A,
Speaker 2: it doesn't add much to his legacy to be a
Speaker 2: two time interim champion, and b now you've ruined the
Speaker 2: party on the other side, I guess it kind of
Speaker 2: tells you what they expect to happen.
Speaker 1: I don't think they think that Gatege's gonna win.
Speaker 3: They don't book. You know, if it was about Justin
Speaker 3: gate Like, let's put it this way, it would be
Speaker 3: Patty versus arm On, Right, if they weren't worried about Patty,
Speaker 3: if they weren't trying get him, they would be like, well,
Speaker 3: you just put this guy who deserves it. Justin's pushed
Speaker 3: out the equation you have these two guys go at it.
Speaker 3: The reason Justin's in there, I think is because the
Speaker 3: new era they want to associate with a guy who
Speaker 3: is a firebrand who comes in and, you know, like
Speaker 3: Paddy Pimblet and realizes, you know, he wins a title
Speaker 3: and he's able to kind of set up whatever next
Speaker 3: in that division, which could be a couple of different scenarios.
Speaker 3: So's it'd be in a very healthy position. And I
Speaker 3: think Patty is a guy that would draw casual interest
Speaker 3: back into the sport right away and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: So you're right, this is one of those situations where
Speaker 3: Justin Gaegie gets the like he gets the chance to
Speaker 3: kind of blow up the plans here and this is
Speaker 3: I don't know how you feel about this fight, but
Speaker 3: the end there's no animosity. It's almost like everything's off center.
Speaker 3: When they look at each other, they just have admiration.
Speaker 3: They've said some things, but it's like it's mostly like
Speaker 3: I like this guy. He just it's necessary. You've all
Speaker 3: just got to go beat him. Meanwhile, you know, like
Speaker 3: Dan Hooker and Patty Pimblet are like, you know, bad
Speaker 3: blood brewing like back and forth, and you got Armann
Speaker 3: out there, which Patty has commented on and Justin has
Speaker 3: looked at him as well. It's a very strange setup.
Speaker 3: It just it feels like in that sense that you're right,
Speaker 3: the gayche's being placed in there basically to get Patty
Speaker 3: over in the wrestling term, right, like to get him
Speaker 3: over and be like here we go. Now we enter
Speaker 3: this era and we've seen this before man, where whatever
Speaker 3: that plan is doesn't work, and it would be very
Speaker 3: interesting if it doesn't. I suppose the worst case scenario, right,
Speaker 3: is that you have Justin Gaichee who's never done the
Speaker 3: UFC wrong, and that's in delivering fight. So if he's
Speaker 3: your champion, you'll be fine. But that's not the way
Speaker 3: they're designing it.
Speaker 1: Here.
Speaker 2: The DraftKings odds have Geichee at plus one ninety Pimblet
Speaker 2: at minus two thirty. Of course, all of those are
Speaker 2: subject to change, they can change between now and then,
Speaker 2: but they kind of indicate, I think, pretty correctly what
Speaker 2: the odds should be that Pimblet deserves to be the favorite,
Speaker 2: but it's not so. I mean, so it's strong, but
Speaker 2: it's not so overwhelming that you could not imagine a
Speaker 2: case for Geige to win. Let's talk about Patty for
Speaker 2: just a second here now. In his case, I will
Speaker 2: tell you I did not see him even becoming an
Speaker 2: interim champion, and his improvement to me has been real.
Speaker 2: He's filled out dramatically in this weight class. That's another
Speaker 2: thing I didn't see coming.
Speaker 1: Well. He was at one forty five.
Speaker 2: Someone once asked me, like, you'll this was back when
Speaker 2: this was back when to PORI was at forty five,
Speaker 2: and even before he was championed, like long before that,
Speaker 2: and they were like, you know, oh, what happens if
Speaker 2: Taporia fights Patty?
Speaker 1: I'm like, you might kill him. It's a mismatch. You know,
Speaker 1: you can't even do something like that.
Speaker 2: But to his credit, I remember, yes, Yeah, to his credit,
Speaker 2: he has actually improved significantly. And now I still think
Speaker 2: I would picked Pory to beat him ten times out
Speaker 2: of ten, but his ascendancy. This was a guy you
Speaker 2: know people also talking about like favoritism in the fight
Speaker 2: game and like did he have some coming from Cage Warriors? Sure,
Speaker 2: but it all kind of worked. Like favoritism in the
Speaker 2: fight game can backfire, but when it works, you have
Speaker 2: to acknowledge it as well. Clearly the UFC favors him,
Speaker 2: and an interim title Chuck as minimal as we might
Speaker 2: count it as an award, I think in his case
Speaker 2: would actually be something of a freaking achievement. It's the
Speaker 2: same thing that Gaichie had and that had. It puts
Speaker 2: him in some pretty interesting company.
Speaker 3: It really does. And to your point, man, it's it
Speaker 3: would be fairly remarkable to look back on because I
Speaker 3: think with Pa pimblet it he felt more like a
Speaker 3: novelty that the UFC brought in than he did a
Speaker 3: legitimate contender, and they even in the in the early
Speaker 3: fights against Vargus and some of those guys that he
Speaker 3: was standing in against, they weren't easy for him. You know,
Speaker 3: he looked like he kind of he would get clipped
Speaker 3: too easily. Like it just looked like he was he
Speaker 3: would get himself into trouble. And I just remember back
Speaker 3: in those like in that time, you're you're thinking like, well,
Speaker 3: we'll see how long this goes. But it felt very
Speaker 3: much like a novelty, like you're just watching this guy
Speaker 3: who has this, uh, you know, this fan base he
Speaker 3: brings over, and we'll see how long that goes. For
Speaker 3: him to end up in this position and to actually
Speaker 3: win a title would be fairly remarkable because this is
Speaker 3: a guy who has had to deal with larger amounts
Speaker 3: of scrutiny I guess you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 3: he's been forced to have to deliver in situations because
Speaker 3: he's you know, he's he talks a big game and
Speaker 3: when you get in there, if he doesn't deliver, it's
Speaker 3: going to look very poorly on him. He's been able
Speaker 3: to do that, and honestly, man, like, yeah, you got
Speaker 3: Tony Ferguson, who's long and tooth kind of way past his.
Speaker 1: Prime, and you get a guy like Michael Chandler.
Speaker 3: This to me, even though Geychee's pretty old, but this
Speaker 3: to me is like, if you're able to get through
Speaker 3: Justin Geechee, and I don't think you're seeing a hugely
Speaker 3: diminished Justin Geigee, if you're able to do that to him,
Speaker 3: I think that that is one of the stories that
Speaker 3: we have to look at in our sport and be like, wow, man,
Speaker 3: this dude really capitalized in a way that I never
Speaker 3: saw coming. I personally didn't see it coming. And I
Speaker 3: remember talking to people who'd watched him in England beforehand
Speaker 3: and just kind of the way he took losses, the
Speaker 3: way he was almost suicidal at certain points, and they
Speaker 3: would wonder about his mentality if he was even cut
Speaker 3: for the fight game in a long term situation. So
Speaker 3: you get into this situation now, man, it's a fairly
Speaker 3: remarkable I know he's kind of almost downplaying it, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean, But this is a big deal
Speaker 3: for him.
Speaker 1: Why do you think he's done playing it? I don't know, man.
Speaker 3: I saw an interview and it just seemed like he
Speaker 3: was like, you know, maybe he's he has almost like
Speaker 3: soporific delivery. Sometimes he doesn't really feel like he's you know,
Speaker 3: fully awake sometimes, but he was. He was just kind
Speaker 3: of saying like it'd be great to be the champion,
Speaker 3: but it was almost like it was not the the
Speaker 3: end all for him and all that stuff. But I
Speaker 3: just to me, it feels like though he's not really
Speaker 3: seeing it, Like I'm just pointing out, it's not like
Speaker 3: he sees it as this escalation in this moment to
Speaker 3: kind of like put a bow on something that you know,
Speaker 3: he came from a from these very hard beginnings and
Speaker 3: here he is. I just I didn't get that sense
Speaker 3: from him. Maybe that all changes with the emotions on
Speaker 3: fight night, but he's he's just kind of downplayed it,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't I don't know why, to be honest.
Speaker 2: You know what's interesting is I think he almost sees
Speaker 2: it as automatic. Let's play this video here. Patty thinks
Speaker 2: that it's actually fate that he's gonna end up unifying
Speaker 2: the title opposite Eliotaporia side It's fate.
Speaker 5: Oh man. It was meant so often because a lot
Speaker 5: was just over non for now, we just dislike each
Speaker 5: other known to man, and I'll just bet a fight.
Speaker 1: I think he's a billion fire, He's a lot.
Speaker 5: Up until Armon Forts, I was thinking arm was the
Speaker 5: tougher fight, and then when I face off, they've seen
Speaker 5: so many holes in his game, so they leaves the
Speaker 5: toughest fight out there. People think Islam's plan for pound
Speaker 5: number one. He's number two, and I want to beat
Speaker 5: some mother. I want to be on that planful pound list.
Speaker 5: I want to show everyone why we have weight divisions
Speaker 5: and that he's just too small to beat me. And
Speaker 5: as I say, on a professional level, I'm I think
Speaker 5: he's a very good fighter. He's cause champion for I'll
Speaker 5: be an even better one.
Speaker 2: You have to love the moxy. You have to love
Speaker 2: just a breezy kind of confidence that this is all
Speaker 2: set up. I mean maybe you feel that way when
Speaker 2: you're fighting nothing but dudes in their late thirties and
Speaker 2: early forties.
Speaker 3: Well that is true, man. I mean like he is
Speaker 3: getting the platter of the you mentioned. You mentioned you know,
Speaker 3: the lightweight the lightweight division being a golden era through
Speaker 3: the through all those fights, he's kind of, you know,
Speaker 3: getting the leftovers of that of that division at this.
Speaker 2: Point people, people, which is true, like you have like,
Speaker 2: this is one of those things where like you see
Speaker 2: you'll see this all the time if you watch fights
Speaker 2: long enough, where like again, this was a similar kind
Speaker 2: of criticism that was levied against John Jones. Here he
Speaker 2: comes and he's beating Rampage and Showgun and Macheetah and
Speaker 2: Bait or two. But that was obviously before the title
Speaker 2: run itself, and everyone's like, oh, he's just beating all
Speaker 2: the old guys. I'm like, that's the job. That's the
Speaker 2: job of someone who is taking out a division and
Speaker 2: is instituting generational change. Now I'm not saying that's what
Speaker 2: Patty is going to do, because we're talking about John
Speaker 2: at the title level doing that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, less so at the pre title level, but you
Speaker 1: know that's the job.
Speaker 2: At the same time, though, Chuck, the other thing that's
Speaker 2: what I have you come back to is like, Okay,
Speaker 2: it's great to beat all the unks, but it's not
Speaker 2: the same as beating.
Speaker 1: The Armins and the ilias. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Well, And it's also that like at some point in time,
Speaker 3: you've seen Gaechee fight everybody, right, Like you've kind of
Speaker 3: seeing him fight and everybody, like you said, it's the
Speaker 3: job to go in there, but it's also the game itself.
Speaker 3: The game itself is saying like the young guy has
Speaker 3: to come up and get rid of these old guys,
Speaker 3: and we do it again. It reimagines everything. We have
Speaker 3: fresh matchups all over the place, and uh, you know,
Speaker 3: the excitement level or I guess the imagination of the
Speaker 3: fight game has a whole different meaning. If Patty is
Speaker 3: holding that belt, even even for a little while, like
Speaker 3: you're gonna have he mentions it, they have a they
Speaker 3: have an ongoing you know thing that at some point
Speaker 3: maybe they can do something about it.
Speaker 1: It's just you get a lot of he's able.
Speaker 3: He's been very good at just kind of setting the
Speaker 3: table for his run, which maybe it is fate, maybe
Speaker 3: he's maybe that's how he views it, but he's done
Speaker 3: a very good job and it just opens up the imagination.
Speaker 3: Whereas a gay chee, you know, at some point you're like, well,
Speaker 3: what who else do we want to see him fight?
Speaker 3: We've kind of seen him fight the gamut and all
Speaker 3: these new guys that are coming up doesn't excite you
Speaker 3: as much.
Speaker 1: And the truth is last thing on us.
Speaker 2: We'll talk about the comin event, which is you need
Speaker 2: people to do what Patty has the opportunity to do.
Speaker 1: It's not at I mean, okay, it's.
Speaker 2: Technically at the title level because it's an interim one,
Speaker 2: but for the sake of argument, it's not the real
Speaker 2: title level.
Speaker 1: Obviously.
Speaker 2: You need young guys to beat up the old guys,
Speaker 2: and you need them to replace to be replaced, like you.
Speaker 2: That's good for a division when that happens, and not
Speaker 2: for nothing, Chuck, he's not an American. The UFC could
Speaker 2: use some stars obviously in UK as well. We don't
Speaker 2: know what the hell's gonna happen with Tom aspinall, and
Speaker 2: you know, Leon's on his way out like Patty, would
Speaker 2: be revitalizing both for the UFC brand. We're broadly in
Speaker 2: that market. Now, let's talk about that co made event.
Speaker 2: With the time we have remni here for this topic.
Speaker 2: It was supposed to be Kayla Harrison and Amanda Dunaz.
Speaker 2: That's gonna be postponed for you know, however, many months.
Speaker 2: We'll see how that goes. So they moved up Sean
Speaker 2: O'Malley versus song Ya Doong, Chuck True or false. I mean,
Speaker 2: what a what a turn of events for Sean O'Malley
Speaker 2: who gets wasted by Mirob dawallash wee Lea twice in
Speaker 2: basically ten months or something like that, and you think
Speaker 2: it's completely out of the title picture. Then he loses
Speaker 2: to Yawan, who Showan O'Malley technically beat. He's facing song
Speaker 2: you dong if he wins. I'm talking about Sean O'Malley.
Speaker 2: It's a guaranteed title shot, is it not?
Speaker 1: No, it definitely is. It definitely is.
Speaker 3: It's actually and it's crazy how this works because you
Speaker 3: got you have a guy. I think when O'Malley lost
Speaker 3: the second time to Morob, you're basically like, what happens now?
Speaker 1: This is a guy who he's not playing at the
Speaker 1: top of a head.
Speaker 3: If there's a possibility of a title does he just
Speaker 3: go to a different weight class. He's kind of cut
Speaker 3: out that way, like as a competitor and like as
Speaker 3: a as a personality, uh not to just hang around.
Speaker 3: But yet the guy that he gets stuck behind Morob,
Speaker 3: you know, tries to make history and loses this fight
Speaker 3: and all it does is exonerate you know, like O'Malley
Speaker 3: and puts him into this new space where it's like,
Speaker 3: hey man, I've got the inside track. They would completely
Speaker 3: give O'Malley the title if he's able to go in
Speaker 3: there and do work, especially in the first card of
Speaker 3: the year like this. In a comin event, they're definitely
Speaker 3: going to put him against Uh yawn because that fight.
Speaker 3: The first fight was very close. You I don't know
Speaker 3: if you remember like watching it in real time, but
Speaker 3: it was. It was very close in the sense that
Speaker 3: there was a lot of volume from O'Malley and but
Speaker 3: he kind.
Speaker 1: Of outstruck him.
Speaker 3: But the efficiency went to Yan and Yon like put
Speaker 3: him on his back like a bunch of times. He
Speaker 3: had like almost six minutes. He had six takedowns for
Speaker 3: almost six minutes of control time. Could you could have
Speaker 3: easily given that fight the other way? And I think
Speaker 3: a lot of people thought Yon wonted so like you
Speaker 3: have a controversy to actually it feels unresolved. There's no
Speaker 3: way in hell the USC would missed that opportunity to
Speaker 3: pu him against Peter Yaan Again.
Speaker 1: What happens if he loses.
Speaker 2: Now, this is obviously the biggest win of Song ya
Speaker 2: Dong's career, but would it be fair to say that
Speaker 2: if O'Malley loses to someone like this, and I know
Speaker 2: he lost a chooto verra on his run up, but
Speaker 2: that was semi injury related and obviously he avenged that
Speaker 2: lost pretty convincingly, so he's not really lost to a
Speaker 2: guy of this level. Does it move Sean O'Malley to
Speaker 2: forty five?
Speaker 3: I think so in the sense that what we were
Speaker 3: just talking about, he strikes me as a guy who
Speaker 3: if he if he doesn't have if he can't be
Speaker 3: at the top of the game, right, if he can't
Speaker 3: be near the top or threatening for the top, I
Speaker 3: don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he just wants to play.
Speaker 3: In the kind of more like middle the middle ground
Speaker 3: with the other guys like he's he sees himself, even
Speaker 3: though he downplays it a little bit like, I think
Speaker 3: he sees himself as that guy. So I think one
Speaker 3: forty five fresh matchups that would probably be the way
Speaker 3: to go.
Speaker 1: I know he's not super eager.
Speaker 3: To do that, but if he wants to remain kind
Speaker 3: of vital, and also maybe where maybe that's the track,
Speaker 3: maybe that's where you follow the money a little bit too.
Speaker 1: I think that that would be the move.
Speaker 3: I just can't imagine him just wanting to work his
Speaker 3: way back from uh, you know, from I guess a
Speaker 3: three fight losing streak at that point, right, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1: Also like not for nothing.
Speaker 2: But you know, people are constantly complaining like, oh, so
Speaker 2: and so is an industry plant or they're getting unfair
Speaker 2: you know, a boost, and it's like, dude, I mean,
Speaker 2: on the one hand, yes, he has the win over Yon,
Speaker 2: which makes this you know, it would make a potentially
Speaker 2: revenge fight, certainly a rematch, and that has a certain
Speaker 2: kind of appeal. But at the same time we talked
Speaker 2: about it, Chuck like UFC is going to be trying
Speaker 2: to find any American they can't to push to the
Speaker 2: front of the line to help revitalize I think this
Speaker 2: market to a degree, like Sean O'Malley is just sitting
Speaker 2: in a really great opportunity. Songa Dong is no joke,
Speaker 2: but it's such a fortuitous position. On the other side,
Speaker 2: beast or excuse me, I'm god, I gotta get.
Speaker 1: Used to it.
Speaker 2: The other side, shock, I apologize, Yeah, I know, I
Speaker 2: got a drink. On the other side of it, songa dongdud,
Speaker 2: This would be far and away his biggest win. Here's
Speaker 2: a guy who's been kind of maturing, kind of maturing,
Speaker 2: getting better, but I don't think he in my mind,
Speaker 2: he doesn't have a real signature win. He's got good wins,
Speaker 2: but the Sahuda win doesn't count.
Speaker 1: Do you share that assessment, Yes, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: I think that that's his big moment of rival, right,
Speaker 3: like his big moment where you're like, Okay, that dude
Speaker 3: is for real or whatever. It's definitely this is exactly
Speaker 3: the kind of name he needs. It's kind of a
Speaker 3: I feel like it's one of those situations like we've
Speaker 3: seen them many many times in this game where a
Speaker 3: guy is kind of cast in a position where you know,
Speaker 3: if he wins, which is the whole objective, you kinda
Speaker 3: you might piss people off ultimately, right because people are like, oh,
Speaker 3: we wanted to see the O'Malley thing. They're not really
Speaker 3: contemplating you. They're kind of looking past you towards other things.
Speaker 3: And that's where he's That's where he's at. Man, he's
Speaker 3: being cast into this position. He's very he's still a
Speaker 3: young guy. He's had some great fights. He doesn't have
Speaker 3: that signature win and he goes in there and does business.
Speaker 3: You can't worry about all that perception. You just got
Speaker 3: to go get your you know, secure your own bag,
Speaker 3: get that title shot for yourself, and let the chips
Speaker 3: hoover in. They may, but I know in the short
Speaker 3: term that would be a bit of a buzzkill for
Speaker 3: a lot of people for the very reason that you're mentioning,
Speaker 3: which is just trying to get especially with this White
Speaker 3: House card looming, some American you know, some American title
Speaker 3: holders again are getting guys back into that space.
Speaker 2: UFC would probably love nothing more. And as a matter
Speaker 2: of fact, we have clip here. O'Malley wants to fight
Speaker 2: on at the White House.
Speaker 1: Let's see it.
Speaker 9: Meevers Peter at the White House just makes sense. I
Speaker 9: don't know what else they what else?
Speaker 1: What else?
Speaker 9: What's a bigger fight than that? If we're going off
Speaker 9: just pure big fights. If you're going off you know
Speaker 9: what makes the absolute most sense, which is not always
Speaker 9: what the USC goes off of. I think Morob deserves
Speaker 9: a title shot, but if you're going off of, what
Speaker 9: the fuck is the biggest fight? You know, Mever's Peter
Speaker 9: rematch at the White House seems like the biggest.
Speaker 10: Fight and we need someone to represent you were saying
Speaker 10: that White House because what I seen.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would like to say that I disagree
Speaker 2: in purposes of meritocracy for Morob.
Speaker 1: I don't think that I do. I don't think that
Speaker 1: I do. No, I don't think so.
Speaker 2: Also, the first fight was under dispute about who actually
Speaker 2: was exactly.
Speaker 3: That's the biggest, you know, thing in his back pocket
Speaker 3: is just there are a lot of people who thought, oh,
Speaker 3: Maley lost that fight and he ends up getting his
Speaker 3: hand raised. So now you have a rematch to kind
Speaker 3: of resolve that whole issue. And dude, after Yawn did
Speaker 3: work to Morob at the end of the year and
Speaker 3: put on his master class performance, that's a huge fight
Speaker 3: for him too. So I just can't imagine that they
Speaker 3: would rush Morob back into that space when you have
Speaker 3: that kind of fight sitting there ready made.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: There's a million other things we could pick from, but
Speaker 2: in the interest of time, I'm just gonna go.
Speaker 1: To punt to you here.
Speaker 2: Any other storyline that you kind of have your eye
Speaker 2: on that stands out well.
Speaker 3: I mean, this kid, twenty three year old at TIBA
Speaker 3: got man, Like, that's a guy you have you been
Speaker 3: watching him?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 3: I mean like from the middleweight division. He's completely freaking yoked.
Speaker 3: He goes in there and it's like every punch looks
Speaker 3: like it's just going to just drop the curtain on
Speaker 3: whoever he's aiming at. And literally that has been the
Speaker 3: case so far. He's got a fight coming up. I
Speaker 3: know that they have he's got to fight on this card.
Speaker 3: They have him again at something like a minus one
Speaker 3: thousand favorite to go in there and.
Speaker 1: Just smash a guy.
Speaker 3: So it's like, it's these things are always a lot
Speaker 3: of fun because you're still in the showcase mode. But dude, like,
Speaker 3: pay attention to this guy. I think that the thing
Speaker 3: I realized I was I was. I haven't been to
Speaker 3: a lot of ufcs over the last couple of years,
Speaker 3: but I was at a last one at UFC three twenty,
Speaker 3: and it's just like every time he throws, there's something
Speaker 3: in that building. This is fun when you get a
Speaker 3: guy like this, Like every time he throws, you're like,
Speaker 3: oh shit, here we go. You know it just everything
Speaker 3: is so has such bad intention. So I'm looking forward.
Speaker 3: I'm hoping that he's able to kind of keep building
Speaker 3: because that division could definitely use a monster coming up.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see how he looks. Also, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna just throw in here. Rosanama unis now Listen. She
Speaker 2: currently sits at thirty three years of age. That's not old,
Speaker 2: but she's been and she does have a ton of fights,
Speaker 2: just twenty professional fights. That's not nothing, but that's not
Speaker 2: a huge amount necessarily. But she's been fighting kind of
Speaker 2: for a long amount of time, Chuck. She's gone through
Speaker 2: a lot of ups and downs and journeys and titles
Speaker 2: and big wins and big losses. She is coming off
Speaker 2: a win over Miranda Maverick, which is nice. But if
Speaker 2: she loses to Natalia Silva, I just don't know what
Speaker 2: this does to her title opportunity. She still will have
Speaker 2: a big name. I'm not saying that she would be
Speaker 2: rendered ineligible, but she's been up and down. She beats
Speaker 2: he Boss, she beats Cortes, that's great, but then loses
Speaker 2: to Blanchefield bounds against Maverick. You know, but to keep
Speaker 2: some kind of winning streak alive, to get back to
Speaker 2: an opportunity, which not for nothing. This division feels wide open.
Speaker 2: It might be a strong word, but still available for
Speaker 2: the taking. I suppose in some ways, No, that's not
Speaker 2: quite not right either, But I don't think a title's
Speaker 2: out of reach, I guess is the way that I
Speaker 2: would put that, given how things can change at the top,
Speaker 2: and so a win here is not like, oh, it's
Speaker 2: win or go home, but it's not far from that.
Speaker 2: It feels like this needs to be something she can
Speaker 2: put together convincingly.
Speaker 3: And it's also weird because I think that she's one
Speaker 3: of those fighters who you're like, in a condensed version,
Speaker 3: you look at her career and you're like, she did
Speaker 3: so much.
Speaker 1: She did so much.
Speaker 3: We first saw her coming at twenty two years old,
Speaker 3: you know, coming off the ultimate fighter fighting Carla Sparza,
Speaker 3: losing her first thing, getting compared to you know, the
Speaker 3: next Ronda Rousey, all that stuff, so big time kind
Speaker 3: of expectations probably unfair placed on her. Overcome all that
Speaker 3: have a career where she you know, wins titles twice,
Speaker 3: beat some of the best, I mean the very best
Speaker 3: women in the strawweight division with Zangueli and also Yoanna
Speaker 3: a couple of times, just fights that you will always
Speaker 3: think back on it, like, oh, my god.
Speaker 1: I remember when that happened.
Speaker 3: It was already to the point where it's like, well,
Speaker 3: the title doesn't even mean that. She was almost talking
Speaker 3: about it, like who cares about the title anymore? Like
Speaker 3: I've kind of done everything. This is her years ago.
Speaker 3: So now in the weight class that she's in, I
Speaker 3: think that the hunger to kind of hold the belt
Speaker 3: again is still there, even though she you know, I
Speaker 3: don't think that she necessarily went there specifically to win
Speaker 3: it again. I think she just wanted to do the
Speaker 3: new weight class. But she's she's right there, man, and
Speaker 3: I feel like that's actually like a huge legacy defining
Speaker 3: thing if you're able to go up weight class kind
Speaker 3: of persevere with the loss you mentioned, like to Blanchefield,
Speaker 3: and like, you know, put yourself in a position where
Speaker 3: you win another one. The Rosana Mayuna story is a
Speaker 3: wild one in the end, so I you know her
Speaker 3: her path is right there. I agree with you, though,
Speaker 3: if she loses, it's one of the situations You're like,
Speaker 3: I don't know where that leaves rosanama unis. I don't
Speaker 3: know if she I don't even think I don't even
Speaker 3: think she has interest in going back down I've never
Speaker 3: heard her really talking about maybe you've heard mention of this,
Speaker 3: but like, obviously she could if she wanted to, because
Speaker 3: she owns you know, she's beat that. I guess what,
Speaker 3: I presume will be the champion again at some point
Speaker 3: in the Jiangulie a couple of times, so like she
Speaker 3: could maybe still do something like that.
Speaker 1: But ultimately, it.
Speaker 3: Feels like for' thirty three years old, it feels like
Speaker 3: she's been in this game forever. And I'm not sure
Speaker 3: how much she would want to do any of that stuff.
Speaker 2: And I again, I don't I don't discount her skill,
Speaker 2: and I don't think she's over the hill. But Natalia Silva,
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna say this probably has a much greater
Speaker 2: degree of hunger, oh yeah, at this point than Rose does.
Speaker 2: And that doesn't mean again, that doesn't mean she's better,
Speaker 2: but that could make the difference. And who gets their
Speaker 2: hand raised if we can. We got to move this along.
Speaker 1: Here, Chuck. It's got a topic number two two, which.
Speaker 2: Is I gotta say I saw this news and I
Speaker 2: was elated. How about this for a UFC announcement, The
Speaker 2: UFC announced Featherweight's Josh Emmett and the Argentine Kevin I'm
Speaker 2: trying to how did BC pronounce it? Kevin hos uh
Speaker 2: like the most gringo pronunciation ever, Kevin uh Fahe host
Speaker 2: will headline and it really was pronounced. So I'll explain
Speaker 2: it just a second. All right, Well, headline an APEX
Speaker 2: event in March. Now, obviously the UFC believes in the
Speaker 2: Argentine here are pretty big. They're pairing him with an
Speaker 2: aging slugger. Is the answer to this pairing as simple
Speaker 2: as it puts him in the top ten? Or do
Speaker 2: you read a little bit more into why they put
Speaker 2: these two together?
Speaker 3: No, not really because and also the other side of
Speaker 3: the equation, Josh Emmett like forty years old, right, like
Speaker 3: what do you what are you supposed to do for
Speaker 3: with him? It's kind of like what we were talking
Speaker 3: about before. You've kind of seen Josh emmittt again. You
Speaker 3: kind of know at this point what a ceiling is obviously,
Speaker 3: like it's forty years old. He's not going to do
Speaker 3: crazy things. So you put him against the guy like
Speaker 3: a younger, way younger generationally younger guy who's coming up,
Speaker 3: you know, smoking everybody, and it's kind of making his
Speaker 3: move and you take whatever juice is left of Josh
Speaker 3: Emmitt's name. And I mean it's still a fun fight
Speaker 3: because Josh hits so hard and always his game to
Speaker 3: go in there and mix it up. It makes for
Speaker 3: a fun fight. But I do think that it's another
Speaker 3: one of those situations where and I'm maybe I'm reading
Speaker 3: way into this with the paramount plus thing, but like
Speaker 3: on a card where you're kind of introducing a new
Speaker 3: era and you're kind of pushing these new uh you're
Speaker 3: kind of pushing guys like you know, you're trying to
Speaker 3: push guys over who maybe we weren't paying close attention
Speaker 3: to before. That makes sense to me that you'd want
Speaker 3: a guy like Kevin, you know what I mean, right
Speaker 3: into that top ten because he's the one who's going
Speaker 3: to bring excitement.
Speaker 1: He had that fight. Was it chicase that it was
Speaker 1: his last fight? Yeah?
Speaker 3: And I mean it was fair to me. I was like,
Speaker 3: all right, you know, I'm convinced that this guy is
Speaker 3: now going to do exactly what it looks like they're
Speaker 3: trying to get him to do, which is kind of
Speaker 3: busting the top ten to be a problem. And uh,
Speaker 3: I kind of like it because I think that you're
Speaker 3: still saying to Josh Emmett like, hey, we're gonna give
Speaker 3: you a dude who you're not supposed to beat, right,
Speaker 3: And sometimes that can speak to like a competitor's like non,
Speaker 3: I watch you know.
Speaker 1: That's that sort of thing.
Speaker 3: And from his motivational standpoint, you're like, well, I want
Speaker 3: to I want to prevent this guy from taking my spot.
Speaker 3: But we know how the US, we know what the
Speaker 3: UFC is thinking when they booked this fight.
Speaker 2: I don't think there's any question, by the way, on
Speaker 2: the pronunciation. And again, okay, I don't know if I
Speaker 2: don't know if I told you this. I'm now taking
Speaker 2: Spanish classes, are you really Yeah, Like I'm an adult
Speaker 2: learner showing up and being like, oh, lay, I'm a
Speaker 2: room you know, may gusta taco bell and all this
Speaker 2: bullshit or whatever. You know, Like I have to do
Speaker 2: a bunch of that and it's very embarrassing because I'm
Speaker 2: not very good at it. But the pronunciation here, I've
Speaker 2: had this conversation a million times with other folks. Uh,
Speaker 2: there's just a million different regional accents in in Spanish,
Speaker 2: and because he's Argentine, they do two l's next to
Speaker 2: each other, like the letter like the sounds like that's
Speaker 2: how they do it.
Speaker 1: So like, for example, the word street.
Speaker 2: In Spanish is spelled c A l E, and they
Speaker 2: would pronounce that kashe.
Speaker 1: That's how they say it's so it's vachet Hosts. That's
Speaker 1: how they do it.
Speaker 2: But I mean you might hear his name like in Mexico,
Speaker 2: they would not pronounce it that way.
Speaker 1: I would pronounce it by yea.
Speaker 2: Anyway, dude, I love this fight for any number of reasons,
Speaker 2: not least of which is they're both sluggers, as you indicated.
Speaker 1: The other part, too, is not for nothing.
Speaker 2: If you look at the numbers on for shet Hosts,
Speaker 2: he lands five point seven to eight strikes per minute,
Speaker 2: which is very very very high. But he also absorbs
Speaker 2: four point seventy one like he puts himself right in
Speaker 2: the line of fire. And Emmett is limited in his weapons,
Speaker 2: but the limits are he's either got nuclear weapons or nothing,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So the so the consequences
Speaker 2: of getting that wrong against him can be catastrophic.
Speaker 1: To me.
Speaker 2: It's not just a place but inside the top ten,
Speaker 2: it's they're asking him a little bit to problem solve
Speaker 2: because if you can work behind a jab, if you're patient,
Speaker 2: if you can pressure, if you can set things up
Speaker 2: rather than I, you know, I kind of just bite
Speaker 2: down and go you you he this is a winnable fight.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that it's a scrub, but I'm saying
Speaker 2: it's winnable for someone who is able to do those
Speaker 2: kinds of things. And we've seen that he's got, you know,
Speaker 2: incredible acrobatic You know that that that spinning shot he
Speaker 2: landed on on Gigachikazi was incredible. But he, you know,
Speaker 2: he takes a little bit of punishment to get there.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it takes a little bit of time to get there.
Speaker 2: This is to me, the UFC asking him graduate also
Speaker 2: not for nothing. Recall that you heard Laura Senko being like,
Speaker 2: you know, there's gonna be kind of like a violation
Speaker 2: I'm paraphrasing, but that there's gonna be kind of like
Speaker 2: a violence premium put on who the UFC promotes going forward.
Speaker 2: And it just feels like, look at this pairing. I'm
Speaker 2: not saying that that wouldn't have happened prior to her
Speaker 2: making these statements about the future of the company, but
Speaker 2: what I am saying is it fits directly in line
Speaker 2: with that kind of a thing.
Speaker 1: Long may it rain for the future.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that so I didn't see this loora Cenko thing,
Speaker 3: But that does seem semi accurate to me, right this
Speaker 3: doesn't it seem like that. That's kind of the That's
Speaker 3: maybe the unspoken thing with the UFCS. Like I even
Speaker 3: with just I think those last years start to cut
Speaker 3: you off struck. But I think I don't have the
Speaker 3: same opinion about both. But I think there was enough
Speaker 3: consternation around the Hamzad fight and the Islam.
Speaker 1: Fights and other stuff that UFC.
Speaker 3: Was just like, what the fuck I mean, so a
Speaker 3: guy likes most are you know, evil, like you're you're
Speaker 3: I just feel like that's you know, the kind of
Speaker 3: treatment of a guy like that, right is in that
Speaker 3: fight in print, it's just kind of like, well, we
Speaker 3: want guys who are going to deliver again.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you ever sat in wait, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know when the.
Speaker 3: UFCUH basically stopped doing this, but Dana used to always
Speaker 3: gather all the fighters on a card I think around
Speaker 3: the weighans essentially, and and tell them, you know, encourage
Speaker 3: them to go for broke to you know, die on
Speaker 3: their shields all that stuff. Obviously that has changed over time,
Speaker 3: but I get the sense that that kind of mindset
Speaker 3: is returning. You know, I don't know why I said
Speaker 3: that exactly, but there's just it's the indication is mostly
Speaker 3: within the matchmaking and uh and some of the guys
Speaker 3: that they're promoting and how they're promoting them. It just
Speaker 3: kind of gives you that indication like this is like
Speaker 3: the violence at a premium is the way to say it,
Speaker 3: because I feel like those kind of guys, if you're
Speaker 3: going to go in there and that's your mentality, it
Speaker 3: feels like you're going to get the rub and the
Speaker 3: guys like Momsar, who's been how many fights I don't
Speaker 3: know in the UFC and doesn't have any finishes, is
Speaker 3: going to have a hard time.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: You know, I think that that's going to be the
Speaker 3: new way we look at the roster. It's not an
Speaker 3: automatic thing. If you put string together a bunch of wins,
Speaker 3: it might come down to, uh, are you you know
Speaker 3: Carlos Prochausen like or you know those Michael Morales. Are
Speaker 3: you going in there to destroy the guy in front
Speaker 3: of you? And The UFC loves those guys right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, again, I think they like both sides of the
Speaker 2: forchhet host equation. They love the high output and they
Speaker 2: kind of like, you know that he fucking gets banged
Speaker 2: up a little bit, least statistically speaking. Now, Long Island, look,
Speaker 2: he put this in the asset rundown ahead of the show.
Speaker 1: He long.
Speaker 2: I want's bring him in set this up for us.
Speaker 2: Look at the self satisfaction.
Speaker 6: I mean you, I said it was an optional clip.
Speaker 6: You could play it if you want.
Speaker 2: But I have to play this clip here. I think
Speaker 2: it's more roasting BC than it is me. Right, it's
Speaker 2: not roasting anyone.
Speaker 7: This was just my bold prediction for twenty twenty six
Speaker 7: at featherweight.
Speaker 1: All right, fair enough, let's go. I'm done rooting against
Speaker 1: Long Island Lukes predictions. They're very Yeah, he's on fire.
Speaker 1: Let's go for our bold prediction. Let's go right to OCDA.
Speaker 1: What's your bold prediction? I fed the waight for the
Speaker 1: new year.
Speaker 7: This was similar to my women's bandon weight last year
Speaker 7: when I said about Holly Holm.
Speaker 6: Josh Emmett will headline a UFC event in twenty twenty six. Okay,
Speaker 6: they milked.
Speaker 7: This guy for all these words for the headliners he
Speaker 7: has lost, like top of my head, three in a row.
Speaker 6: Maybe even that ain't that bold, brother, that ain't that bold?
Speaker 6: So BC calls me out. It wasn't that bold of
Speaker 6: a prediction, but I mean it did come true.
Speaker 2: We're only yeah, I mean bold or not quite accurate.
Speaker 2: I have to say it's bald.
Speaker 3: I mean that dude does not does not a letter,
Speaker 3: but it is at the meta APEX right, And I
Speaker 3: wonder sometimes do we consider these main events still? Like
Speaker 3: I know it's a main event, but like I don't know.
Speaker 2: Whenever I see an APEX event, I'm like, oh, good,
Speaker 2: I can hang out with my family.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, that's what that is.
Speaker 2: I'm not kidding. That's if if they're on the road
Speaker 2: for a fight night, that's different. Obviously, you know, numbered
Speaker 2: event totally different. Yeah, you know, And I'm not saying
Speaker 2: I won't watch the APEX ones live, but like I
Speaker 2: can look at that and be like, oh, if I
Speaker 2: want to hang out with my family tonight, I can
Speaker 2: do that because nobody fucking watching that ship. I will
Speaker 2: say this, do you see the jet you know Jack
Speaker 2: Slack the Yeah, like yeah, he had a hilarious tweet
Speaker 2: when Dana was like, Yo, now it's gonna be the
Speaker 2: meta motherfucking apex and uh he quotes tweeted.
Speaker 1: It and he goes genius business strategy to uh what
Speaker 1: did he say?
Speaker 2: There's like a genius strategy to you know, give naming
Speaker 2: rights to the thing we all hate, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean?
Speaker 3: It's so true. Now we got to say meta apex.
Speaker 3: I'm not You're not gonna play that game.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying meta apex. Yeah, I'm not. I'm not.
Speaker 1: You know, that's just not a thing that's going to
Speaker 1: happen on this on the show. For the stadium there
Speaker 1: in Washington will always be a RFK.
Speaker 2: No fuck RFK, it's gone. You know, it's I went
Speaker 2: on my first this is true. My first date with
Speaker 2: my wife was at RFK. It was a DC United
Speaker 2: now and it was raining and you know, I don't
Speaker 2: know if you I don't know if you know this,
Speaker 2: but the stadium, the seats they would bounce.
Speaker 1: And in fact, this is true.
Speaker 2: You might have seen the renderings of the new stadium
Speaker 2: they want to build on that same property. And one
Speaker 2: of the things that has been not this is not
Speaker 2: a joke. One of the things that's being requested is
Speaker 2: that they find a way to make in a safe, like,
Speaker 2: you know, engineering controlled way to make the rows of
Speaker 2: the seats bounce. And I'm like, guys, I don't need
Speaker 2: that at all. Oh, it was some of our fondest
Speaker 2: memories in uh going to games.
Speaker 1: No the fuck it wasn't. You were close to death.
Speaker 1: Stop stop promoting this ship all right?
Speaker 3: Oh my lord, I never got to go there, but
Speaker 3: that the renderings, by the way, just look beautiful. That's
Speaker 3: one of the few stadiums I'm like, Okay, they might
Speaker 3: get this thing right.
Speaker 1: They might get it right.
Speaker 2: That thing was it was a mix between the Kennedy
Speaker 2: Center and the old RFK.
Speaker 1: You know, they actually did get it right.
Speaker 2: The last thing I'm gonna say on this too was
Speaker 2: I've seen the Nats play there. I've seen concerts there.
Speaker 2: I've saw the old Redskins play. I've seen one of
Speaker 2: the Commanders didn't play there. DC United I've seen played,
Speaker 2: I've seen like every I've been in every version of
Speaker 2: that stadium for however long it lasted.
Speaker 1: I live down the street. I grew up on East
Speaker 1: Capitol Street, So yeah, anyway, it was.
Speaker 3: A big deal back in there because those teams are
Speaker 3: so good, the Redskins teams, they were so good that
Speaker 3: you always thought about like their home field advantage.
Speaker 1: This is a true story.
Speaker 2: There was no there's a metro station there now, like
Speaker 2: right next to it is what's called the Stadium Armory,
Speaker 2: which is like a like a facility that the National
Speaker 2: Guard runs there. In fact, I saw on Spike TV.
Speaker 1: I was there. I saw Adrian Broner on Spike TV
Speaker 1: fight Ashley Theophane. Okay, that was.
Speaker 2: A rowdy crowd, but that metro didn't exist for the
Speaker 2: longest one. I grew up there, so people would just
Speaker 2: walk down East Capitol Street and throw trash in your yard.
Speaker 2: So after every Redskins game, we had to go in
Speaker 2: the yard and pick fucking trash out because it just
Speaker 2: be like thousands of people coming in and out. It's crazy.
Speaker 2: All right, let's go to topic number three if we can.
Speaker 2: UFC commentator John Annix saying something I thought was very
Speaker 2: very interesting, namely, well, we'll play the clip here in
Speaker 2: just a second, but how he would change the UFC
Speaker 2: product if he had an opportunity to do so. Now
Speaker 2: I don't want to. I don't want to spoil the answer.
Speaker 2: So let's do this, Chuck, I'll have a question for you. Okay,
Speaker 2: let's play this clip and let's react. Do we think
Speaker 2: that John Annex's ideas are what could improve the UFC product?
Speaker 10: Where do you think the product is at this moment?
Speaker 10: A lot has been made about that. I think that
Speaker 10: just comes with the territory of getting more fans. But
Speaker 10: sometimes people say, oh, it was better ten years ago,
Speaker 10: or is that just something that we are going to see.
Speaker 10: There'll be people in ten years that say, right now
Speaker 10: is the best moment, you know.
Speaker 11: I think our biggest challenge is the fact that our
Speaker 11: events are way too long, and we should have ten
Speaker 11: or eleven fights instead of fifteen. And even if you
Speaker 11: want to make this broadcast five or six hours, and Hunter,
Speaker 11: I love you. Even if you wanted to make this
Speaker 11: five or six hours instead of eight, I'd be okay
Speaker 11: with it. But we ask a lot of our fans,
Speaker 11: even fans as rabid as yourselves, eight hours times forty
Speaker 11: one Saturdays, right, So if I could affect change in
Speaker 11: one way, it would be too And we have a
Speaker 11: lot of masters to serve right Television partners in different countries,
Speaker 11: a lot of different things. A roster north of six hundred,
Speaker 11: getting fifty fighters signed on the Contender series every year,
Speaker 11: which I think is less than ideal. But if I
Speaker 11: could affect change in one way, and perhaps it's selfish,
Speaker 11: because I'm a broadcaster that doesn't understand how we do
Speaker 11: back to back Super Bowls. Every time we crack a MIC,
Speaker 11: I would just shut I would cut one hundred and
Speaker 11: fifty fighters off the roster. I would do ten fights
Speaker 11: a card and just make it a much more ingestible,
Speaker 11: palatable sporting event.
Speaker 2: I don't hate that ideas, what about you, No, I
Speaker 2: don't hate them at all.
Speaker 3: And in fact, what he's asking for, Luke is basically
Speaker 3: to go back to the way it was, because if
Speaker 3: you look, I can remember very specifically doing a piece
Speaker 3: on this when they started to kind of boost the
Speaker 3: cards up to twelve thirteen fairly regularly a few years ago,
Speaker 3: and if you went back to the UFC before UFC
Speaker 3: one hundred, kind of going backwards, there were a lot
Speaker 3: of cards that were ten fights, nine fights, sometimes eleven fights,
Speaker 3: and I felt like from one hundred to two hundred,
Speaker 3: eleven was kind of the goal. You know, you'd always have,
Speaker 3: like the prelims would be listed and there'd be like
Speaker 3: that one kind of outline, and then there'd be five prelims,
Speaker 3: and then there'd be five main card type things. Very
Speaker 3: very easy to kind of watch all of those, But
Speaker 3: I find it extremely difficult to sit and watch fifteen
Speaker 3: fights and especially alive at an event. Like from his perspective, man,
Speaker 3: God bless them, because that what they're doing is just
Speaker 3: such a herculear thing. Every time there's a fifteen fight
Speaker 3: card to go for eight hours of you know, backstories,
Speaker 3: eight hours of information, eight hours of reads, all the
Speaker 3: things that they do. That's just such a marathon. But
Speaker 3: it's a marathon too for us who are just spectators.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you'd get to the to that main event and
Speaker 3: they would mention some of the prelims, or you try
Speaker 3: to think back of the first fight on the prelims,
Speaker 3: and it feel like it was like a fortnight ago.
Speaker 3: It felt so far away that it didn't even belong
Speaker 3: to the event. That's a crazy thing to feel, you know.
Speaker 3: So I'm I'm all about it. I just I don't
Speaker 3: think that even the passion, like sometimes you're trying to
Speaker 3: create a passion in the room you want people to
Speaker 3: build towards the main event and feel like there's times
Speaker 3: where I feel like by the time they get to
Speaker 3: the main event, people are like, it's like a marathon.
Speaker 3: They're just barely getting to the to the finish line.
Speaker 3: That's not ideal. You want people to be like at
Speaker 3: that point, brought up to the highest moment. They've been
Speaker 3: anticipating it, like in the old days. And I think
Speaker 3: that is one way to do it. Ten fights, to
Speaker 3: me is ideal. Do five on the preglems and five,
Speaker 3: you know, do five main card, and that's that's still
Speaker 3: a very long show and you get every thing you
Speaker 3: need from You don't need fifteen.
Speaker 2: You don't need fifteen at all. Except here's the problem.
Speaker 2: Every time I see one of these things, it's like
Speaker 2: and you heard, and it kind of allude to it,
Speaker 2: which is it's not hard to imagine ways in which
Speaker 2: you can make you could, don't know, revolutionize the product,
Speaker 2: but certainly I think the way he put it palatable,
Speaker 2: there are ways in which you can make this more palatable.
Speaker 2: And again what he had recommended was going from eight
Speaker 2: to six or five hours, reduced a number of fights
Speaker 2: to a card for ten, and then sign fewer fighters
Speaker 2: from the Contender Series. Now, I want to point out
Speaker 2: something here. Contender Series season one signed sixteen fighters, but
Speaker 2: in the last three seasons season seven, eight to nine, respectively,
Speaker 2: they signed forty six, forty two, and then forty six fighters.
Speaker 2: So like it has taken on an outsized importance as
Speaker 2: a feeder operation to then staff the ranks of what
Speaker 2: they have. This is the problem to me. It's that
Speaker 2: the product as it currently exists, for as good as
Speaker 2: it can be at times, is it's not designed to
Speaker 2: be ma maximally palatable, right. It is designed to fulfill
Speaker 2: a variety of content delivery needs. Right, So they owe
Speaker 2: partners content to begin with, how many events do they o?
Speaker 2: The owe thirty fight nights. They owe thirteen numbered events.
Speaker 2: That's part of it. They owe for when they're on
Speaker 2: linear television. Certainly this was a component and they've kind
Speaker 2: of kept the same thing, which was, yes, we've got
Speaker 2: the main card component, but then we also owe the prelims,
Speaker 2: the four fight prelims. We owe that to a component.
Speaker 2: And then you might say, oh, you can just cut
Speaker 2: off the other part, but you can't because those guys
Speaker 2: you have to kind of keep active as a way
Speaker 2: to staff the larger operation to fill nearly every weekend
Speaker 2: with fights. So like, it's built in a way so
Speaker 2: that it can be scaled maximally. That's why it's as
Speaker 2: big as it is. That's why the events are as
Speaker 2: long as they are, and that's why they have as
Speaker 2: many events as possible because they're trying to take something
Speaker 2: and then pull it apart as much as possible to
Speaker 2: sell every piece of it. So like when he says, hey,
Speaker 2: wouldn't it be better go from.
Speaker 1: Eight to five?
Speaker 2: Yes, wouldn't it be better if we signed fewer contenders
Speaker 2: series guys? Clearly wouldn't it be better by the way
Speaker 2: he says, cut one hundred and fifty guys from the roster,
Speaker 2: no doubt. But they can't do that because the contractual
Speaker 2: arrangements they've made around content, length and delivery preclude that possibility.
Speaker 2: That's kind of the issue. It's not designed to be like,
Speaker 2: what can we do to make Fight Night a more
Speaker 2: fast moving but cohesive experience. That's not really what it's about.
Speaker 2: It's about how do we stretch the shit out and
Speaker 2: sell it? This is why Chuck. This is why like
Speaker 2: people are like, oh, what do you want? From the
Speaker 2: UFC product, the question is less about what I want
Speaker 2: and what is just even possible. This is why the
Speaker 2: move from ten to nine is actually a pretty big deal.
Speaker 2: It's it is actually one of the few things they
Speaker 2: can do without disrupting the larger ecosystem.
Speaker 3: Yes, one percent, And you know it's funny that you
Speaker 3: mention it, because yes, it's the arrangements they've made that
Speaker 3: puts them into this situation where they kind of have
Speaker 3: to hold this many fights. But it is funny because
Speaker 3: the way the UFC kind of I guess hatched their
Speaker 3: ideology on to what they were going to do as
Speaker 3: a brand, what they're going to do as a as
Speaker 3: a as an event and as a sport was be
Speaker 3: different than boxing. They were going to eliminate some of
Speaker 3: the ceremony of boxing. They were going to be way
Speaker 3: more efficient, streamline and how they presented it. And uh,
Speaker 3: I feel like back in those days when they did that,
Speaker 3: that's that was one of the reasons it was so great.
Speaker 3: It was almost like they, you know, get those guys
Speaker 3: out of there, let's move on to the next. But
Speaker 3: they were it was all within a contained amount of time,
Speaker 3: and I guess you get into whatever they were trying
Speaker 3: to avoid with boxing from before. You know, you get
Speaker 3: into your own burden, right, like of having an eight
Speaker 3: hour event, and I mean it's just not ideal, even
Speaker 3: given all the situation, even all all the things that
Speaker 3: you laid out, which is absolutely true, it's just not
Speaker 3: ideal for a fan base. It really isn't like you
Speaker 3: can't even retain the like you can't retain if the
Speaker 3: passion for that amount of time, right, like, whatever your
Speaker 3: love of the sport, that's a long time to be
Speaker 3: watching an event.
Speaker 1: It's just too much time. It is too much time.
Speaker 2: To the point you raise about the way they used
Speaker 2: to do things back then, it was them trying to
Speaker 2: solve for like how do we make this better? Oh
Speaker 2: boxing has you know, press conferences for example, like Whire. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean the UFC press conference has changed over time too.
Speaker 2: It used to be mostly just for the press. Now
Speaker 2: it's just a pep rally for the fans, which you know,
Speaker 2: I don't like that, but whatever, it is what it is.
Speaker 2: But the reality is Chuck, Like back then, it'd be like, oh,
Speaker 2: boxing used to have like this guy would get up there,
Speaker 2: and then his manager would get up there, and then
Speaker 2: everyone takes turns of the days and it's slow and
Speaker 2: it's painful.
Speaker 1: And then Dana was like, you know what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna come out there be like, who's got
Speaker 1: the first question? Right?
Speaker 2: It was this way to streamline against what you consider
Speaker 2: to be boxing's inefficiency. But because they are now you know,
Speaker 2: I've said this before, I made this. I made this
Speaker 2: point on a recent interview I did on on where
Speaker 2: Josh Nason. I don't know if you know, you know,
Speaker 2: Josh yeah, I know, Josh yeah yeah. And I was
Speaker 2: talking about this point, like all content, if you go
Speaker 2: to Spotify, if you are on Netflix, the goal is
Speaker 2: just to keep you on the platform as long as possible.
Speaker 2: It's not really about like, is Netflix trying to give
Speaker 2: you the very best programming that they can develop. No,
Speaker 2: They're trying to give you the kind of programming and
Speaker 2: the kind of use of the app that just keeps
Speaker 2: you on the app. Spotify is the same thing. The
Speaker 2: design is that you just stay on the app. What
Speaker 2: you listen to them is frankly immaterial, whether it's podcasting
Speaker 2: or not. But the whole point is that they're going
Speaker 2: to try and find ways to keep you on the
Speaker 2: app a, Twitter and all the other social media as
Speaker 2: are the same thing. What they measure is time on
Speaker 2: app is is not how much you look at any
Speaker 2: one reel, it's how many reels you look at during
Speaker 2: one kind of sitting. It feels like sports leagues are
Speaker 2: now trying to do a lot of this too, where
Speaker 2: the NFL is expanding into Europe and now they're going
Speaker 2: to Brazil, and it's cool to see some kind of internationalization,
Speaker 2: but now you're starting to stretch that product in ways
Speaker 2: that just feels a little bit less palatable. And if
Speaker 2: that's the way you're going to arrange your product, it
Speaker 2: makes some of these concer iterations about how do you
Speaker 2: fix fans sentiment or a dress fans sentiment on the
Speaker 2: back end kind of remote to me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it feels like, now, do you still watch an
Speaker 3: event that's fifteen fights deep? Do you still watch from
Speaker 3: the very opening prelim on? I feel like you kind
Speaker 3: of do, because I'll see sometimes when I'm not able
Speaker 3: to get there, I'll see you that you're one of
Speaker 3: the people who actually tell us what's happening on those
Speaker 3: early prelims.
Speaker 2: Yes, So what I'll say is If it's a numbered event,
Speaker 2: I definitely watched the whole no question about it. If
Speaker 2: it's a fight night, I might watch the whole thing.
Speaker 2: If it's an apex event, I'll catch them, motherfucker the
Speaker 2: next Not fair enough, man, I mean, dude, I can
Speaker 2: barely like for a for a post fight show, I
Speaker 2: can generate a pretty respectable audience, yea for fight night stuff.
Speaker 2: You know, it depends on where it is, like that
Speaker 2: U se kuitar one, who's fine. Yeah, for an apex like,
Speaker 2: no one's watching the apex cards, like, no one. The
Speaker 2: only people watching those are degenerate, you know, the dogs.
Speaker 2: And then that's it. Yeah, exactly, it's the main card,
Speaker 2: Minute and his friends.
Speaker 1: That's who's there. Hilarious.
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Speaker 2: hello to long lasting freshness. With that in mind, Chuck,
Speaker 2: let's go to topic number four. And this is something
Speaker 2: that I saw fall under the radar and I was like, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: we got to talk about it on this show. And
Speaker 2: I was so glad I put it on the rundown.
Speaker 2: And you were saying if you didn't put it on
Speaker 2: the rundown, and you were gonna add it.
Speaker 1: Thank god you did.
Speaker 2: There was the recent in Las Vegas, I believe the
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six Combat Sports Officials Summit. This was hosted
Speaker 2: and I think run by legendary referee Big John McCarthy.
Speaker 2: And during the course of this they were talking about
Speaker 2: ipokes in MMA. And there's a couple of different things
Speaker 2: I want to reference. Put the screenshot of the This
Speaker 2: is the article here I screwed up. Is what it
Speaker 2: says inside the room where MMA referees sort through the good,
Speaker 2: the bad, and the chaotic. Of course, this comes from
Speaker 2: your coworker, Ben. Folks over there love Ben at On crowned.
Speaker 2: He went to this event and there was a bunch
Speaker 2: of regulators there, including Andy Foster, the head of the
Speaker 2: California Athletic Commission. We'll talk about that in just a second,
Speaker 2: but basically, basically, Chuck, during the course of this what
Speaker 2: Ben reports is that a the MMA referees recognize that
Speaker 2: the that ipokes in MMA are a not only a
Speaker 2: long standing problem, but an even worse problem today, and
Speaker 2: that on top of that, shouts to Big John McCarthy
Speaker 2: and others apparently along with him, he basically told the
Speaker 2: referees you're you're at fault on here. You won't penalize anything,
Speaker 2: and as a consequence, we now have a culture of
Speaker 2: impunity that makes no sense. So does this prove, Chuck
Speaker 2: that belly aching from both dogs like you and me,
Speaker 2: as well as the fan base as well as the
Speaker 2: fan base ultimately plays a slow but critical role in
Speaker 2: how regulatory change happens in the sport.
Speaker 1: I do think so.
Speaker 3: And a part of that obviously is like with social media,
Speaker 3: like we'll see things. We've seen this for years where
Speaker 3: like something will happen and like we'll all talk about
Speaker 3: it and it moves on. But the ipoke thing is
Speaker 3: one of those is one of those issues that we've
Speaker 3: had in our crosshairs for a long time. They went
Speaker 3: through the you know, the gloves change thing where they're
Speaker 3: trying to like solve it this way. They've they've people
Speaker 3: have had different theories as to what you can do.
Speaker 3: Most people are a base. I feel like we've got
Speaker 3: to the point now where people are like, hey man,
Speaker 3: you either you've got to penalize it. If you're not
Speaker 3: going to penalize it, it will never change. We'll just
Speaker 3: keep doing the same things again and again. And I
Speaker 3: feel like during this particular one, that's what showed up
Speaker 3: and it is I think it is kind of like
Speaker 3: a peer pressure situation. The fans, media, the media talks
Speaker 3: about it a great deal, uh, and you know, people
Speaker 3: are asking fighters about it more and more. And I
Speaker 3: thought it was very telling or not maybe not telling,
Speaker 3: but it's funny. I guess in its own way that
Speaker 3: one of the uh, one of the great examples within
Speaker 3: the series of videos they showed at that summit was
Speaker 3: of John Jones just constantly, you know, using his hands
Speaker 3: kind of thrusting them out with the fingers out and
Speaker 3: you know how how this goes unpunished and that sort
Speaker 3: of thing. We're at that point when you have a
Speaker 3: guy like Cyril Gonne who puts two fingers into the
Speaker 3: sockets of you know, Tom Aspacall, who's the champion and
Speaker 3: represents big business for you, and you're putting him now
Speaker 3: on the shelf, and definitely that it probably needs to
Speaker 3: be addressed. You know, you don't want to, like you,
Speaker 3: if you have a hazard. If it was any other
Speaker 3: sport and there was a hazard out there that could
Speaker 3: be avoided or at least be taken, like made to
Speaker 3: be punished a little more severely, this would be the
Speaker 3: moment right like where you have a guy who we
Speaker 3: don't even know if he'll return. I know that sounds
Speaker 3: kind of like, you know, an exaggeration, but we don't
Speaker 3: really really don't know if Tom Aspinall will return.
Speaker 1: I hope he does.
Speaker 3: But you get into that situation you're like, we better
Speaker 3: address it, and I feel like it had we The
Speaker 3: media and the fans have talked about this fairly consistently
Speaker 3: since that time, and since it's in the news, I'm
Speaker 3: glad to see that they're talking about it. And I
Speaker 3: think a key distinguishing thing within that summit it was
Speaker 3: just getting rid of the intentional verse is unintentional? Right, Yes,
Speaker 3: that's the big part of it, because for the longest
Speaker 3: time they're like, I was accidental, was accidental? Well, most
Speaker 3: things are probably accidental, but it really comes down to
Speaker 3: is it a foul or not? And I feel like
Speaker 3: that's finally where they're getting down to it.
Speaker 2: Yes, as you indicated, the head of the California Athletic Commission,
Speaker 2: Andy Foster, said, they didn't. I mean, obviously this stuff
Speaker 2: has to be voted on and they can't just declare
Speaker 2: what it's going to be. He doesn't have unilateral power
Speaker 2: in that sense. But to your point, Chuck, when he indicated,
Speaker 2: was they're just going to get or they're looking, I
Speaker 2: should say, looking to get rid of the intentional versus
Speaker 2: unintentional foul for all the reasons that we've already articulated,
Speaker 2: which is like if someone fouls Lebron in the NBA,
Speaker 2: if it's I mean, if it's obviously egregious, they can
Speaker 2: add a little bit extra to it. But the basic
Speaker 2: point is that it doesn't matter if it was intentional
Speaker 2: or not. For the most part, did a foul happen
Speaker 2: is the question, and if a foul happened, then it
Speaker 2: has to be penalized.
Speaker 1: I mean where we literally got to the point where.
Speaker 2: Fighters were openly saying why wouldn't I cheat, and then
Speaker 2: in fact that they do cheat. I've interviewed multiple both
Speaker 2: on and off the record. I view Corey Sanhagen and
Speaker 2: I asked him, have you ever like intentionally done something
Speaker 2: like that?
Speaker 1: I say, yeah, of course.
Speaker 2: There was a guy that I think either was biting
Speaker 2: him or doing something so he like either bit him
Speaker 2: back or you know, committed some other He did an
Speaker 2: eye gouge, but with some other kind of foul just
Speaker 2: as a way to like set the tone for someone
Speaker 2: that was just something that was just going unpunished. Now
Speaker 2: to what extent this will affect regional MMA where you
Speaker 2: get a lesser quality of ref I don't know.
Speaker 1: Also, I'll just say this chuck, you know. I do
Speaker 1: think that the answer is does the slow accumulation.
Speaker 2: Of evidence matter to MMA regulators over time and the
Speaker 2: belly aching that you see from folks like us, And
Speaker 2: then the fan base. I do think that that it does.
Speaker 2: It does affect this so like there is a value
Speaker 2: to it. However, what I will say is it is
Speaker 2: painfully slow, glacial, and at times insanely frustrating, and you
Speaker 2: just can't look at that as like a this is
Speaker 2: not an efficient way to do regulation, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. It has to get to like overwhelming stages
Speaker 2: before they really act.
Speaker 3: You tell me too, man, because like one of the
Speaker 3: problems with this is in an MMA attack, you know,
Speaker 3: you need the dexterity of your fingers obviously in the
Speaker 3: grappling game and like all of that stuff. It's been
Speaker 3: very difficult basically for them to institute or you know,
Speaker 3: to kind of like say like, hey, guys, keep your fingers,
Speaker 3: you know, don't don't have your fingers out of that
Speaker 3: sort of thing. Can this happen? I mean I feel
Speaker 3: like if you if you're if you're taking an automatic point,
Speaker 3: especially in a ten point must system where it matters
Speaker 3: in a three round fight, and in MMA as big
Speaker 3: as it does, I feel like fighters would instinctively keep
Speaker 3: their fists closed, don't you like, over the course of time,
Speaker 3: even with you know, the aspects of like maybe I
Speaker 3: need to be defending, you know, a single like fingers
Speaker 3: can come out when those things happen. But I feel
Speaker 3: like the instinct would eventually take hold that you got
Speaker 3: to have your your fist clinch, right.
Speaker 1: I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure.
Speaker 2: I when I say that, I mean it quite literally,
Speaker 2: like I don't know, I don't know if that's the answer.
Speaker 2: I have been of the belief that one of the
Speaker 2: things I really don't like about the way the UFC
Speaker 2: approaches this is it just seems like they don't take
Speaker 2: the technology component of it as seriously as I would
Speaker 2: have hoped, which is really weird for a company that
Speaker 2: in general, you know, with the UFCPI for example, leans
Speaker 2: into a lot of like scientific best practices. You know,
Speaker 2: I think most people would think that the PI, certainly
Speaker 2: at this stage anyway, is really good about that, and
Speaker 2: I would largely agree, you know, everything being state of
Speaker 2: the art, everything being you know, a leading cause of
Speaker 2: this or that, having a glove geometry that forces it
Speaker 2: over like for example, I've talked to I've made a
Speaker 2: video about this on my personal channel. The Association of
Speaker 2: Boxing Commissions looked into it, and what they basically found
Speaker 2: was that glove geometry where it has it curves the
Speaker 2: fingers over. These are the only ones that have statistical
Speaker 2: excuse me, statistical significance in showing reduced eye injury. Those
Speaker 2: are the only ones. And so it's like, if you
Speaker 2: have this kind of evidence and you have the Medical
Speaker 2: Board of the uh excuse the Association of ringside Physicians,
Speaker 2: So you have a you have a group of doctors
Speaker 2: being like that, we think this is a good idea,
Speaker 2: and then UFC being like, yeah, we don't care.
Speaker 1: I don't get that part.
Speaker 2: I think that to me seems like a better solution
Speaker 2: or at least at a bare minimum. You have road
Speaker 2: to UFC, you have contender series, you have all these things.
Speaker 2: You have places where you don't have to affect the
Speaker 2: core UFC product, where you could test this stuff out.
Speaker 2: I would like to see more of an open I
Speaker 2: like a better attitude towards using that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, man, your prediction, like in terms of ipokes,
Speaker 3: the amount that we've seen, especially ipokes right like, like
Speaker 3: do you think that we set we see people, you know,
Speaker 3: punishing that in the new year, like where it's like
Speaker 3: the first defense.
Speaker 1: Becomes a point. Do you think that we see that
Speaker 1: kind of advancement. I think the first offense thing.
Speaker 2: Can be a good tool, but I think is a
Speaker 2: little bit heavy handed for most If you've got someone
Speaker 2: who has a demonstrate history of either negligence or ipokes whatever,
Speaker 2: or someone who's been a unique victim to that, then
Speaker 2: I think taking the first point is important. But I
Speaker 2: think the question is not that one. The question is
Speaker 2: the second one. That's the one that I think is
Speaker 2: the most important for most people. Again, in most context,
Speaker 2: if they don't do shit, then then they're doing nothing.
Speaker 2: That is really the demarcation line for me, to be
Speaker 2: honest with you. Okay, I think that one's the most important,
Speaker 2: but I have to say hardened to be like, well,
Speaker 2: finally these motherfuckers are getting around to this shit, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's always nice because you don't never hear from
Speaker 3: them otherwise, Like these types of things are at least
Speaker 3: like you know, it's like you're like, oh, there is
Speaker 3: some kind of accountability. At least he's showing in videos
Speaker 3: and saying like, hey, we're being idiots, you know that
Speaker 3: sort of thing.
Speaker 1: No, No, they call me when they get mad at me.
Speaker 1: That's what happens.
Speaker 2: Say something like these people don't care, and then a
Speaker 2: bunch of regulators will call me and be like, this
Speaker 2: is totally not fair, and I'm like, I got to
Speaker 2: tell you, I think that it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Douglas Crosby one of those guys that gives you
Speaker 1: a ring.
Speaker 2: He won't stop fucking texting me, and every time I
Speaker 2: see it, I'm like, all right, with that out of
Speaker 2: the way, let's talk about topic number five, a bit
Speaker 2: of a boxing round up, and as we mentioned, Chuck
Speaker 2: is going to be going to Vegas to go to
Speaker 2: ZUFA Boxing number one. We'll talk about some of that
Speaker 2: a little bit just a second. Let's start with a
Speaker 2: bit of an opening piece of news. Ji Opataia has
Speaker 2: signed with Zufa Boxing. As you can see a cruiserweight
Speaker 2: twenty nine to zero six foot two reach of seventy
Speaker 2: six inches here on the graphic, He's got twenty three KOs.
Speaker 2: For folks who are MMA fans and don't really know
Speaker 2: the significance of it, ji Opataia has a claim to
Speaker 2: being the best cruiserweight in the world. I think he's
Speaker 2: the Ring magazine and IBF champion. The other one would
Speaker 2: be Zerdo Ramirez, who I think is WBA, maybe WBCs.
Speaker 2: I think WBA champion, but in any event, it'd be
Speaker 2: one or two of those guys. This is interesting, right, Chuck,
Speaker 2: because on the one hand, they're starting in the APEX,
Speaker 2: starting modestly. I don't think Callum Walsh has a super
Speaker 2: bright future, but it's maybe fine for like a first event,
Speaker 2: main event to have him in this particular circumstance. But
Speaker 2: you know, on the one hand, they're like, oh, we're
Speaker 2: signing a bunch of prospects, they're trying to sponsor USA boxing.
Speaker 2: But on the other hand, Opataia is a no bullshit signing.
Speaker 2: He is a very very very good fighter, still young enough,
Speaker 2: represents Australia, undefeated as you saw, and arguably is the
Speaker 2: best in the weight class.
Speaker 1: How do you explain Zufa's.
Speaker 2: Ambition on the one side signing prospects and starting in
Speaker 2: the APEX, and on the other side this is a legit,
Speaker 2: no bullshit signing.
Speaker 3: Well, do you get like the sense like you're mentioning
Speaker 3: the production. You know, crew may not be just ready
Speaker 3: yet to show everything and build everything at once as
Speaker 3: they get into a new era. I wonder, especially with
Speaker 3: the ZUFA boxing if this thing is just harder than
Speaker 3: they understood, and like everything has been slower to develop,
Speaker 3: you know, over the course of getting this together, because
Speaker 3: we were talking about this last week. I mean it
Speaker 3: felt like not knowing the main event just a couple
Speaker 3: of weeks before the main event was so anti like
Speaker 3: counter ZUFA, you know, like for the longest time knew
Speaker 3: everything that was kind of coming up within something because
Speaker 3: the promo packages were already made and this one was
Speaker 3: very slow to be put together. And then you get
Speaker 3: Callum obviously is like the main event, which I think
Speaker 3: a lot of us predicted because the UFC has been
Speaker 3: behind him. I was a little surprised it was going
Speaker 3: to be at the Apex because you just mentioned it earlier.
Speaker 3: Like a lot of people don't pay attention to these events,
Speaker 3: so it almost cottons closer to like a slap fight
Speaker 3: or something like as an aside from the UFC than
Speaker 3: it does in actual unveiling of its new product. But
Speaker 3: I would say that the signal is that they intend
Speaker 3: to change that, and maybe that that is kind of
Speaker 3: where they're at with it right Like they're going to
Speaker 3: try to start rostering some bigger names, putting on some
Speaker 3: bigger fights and hopefully they get out of the apex.
Speaker 3: But that's kind of where it's at, to be honest,
Speaker 3: I feel like right now it's just kind of you
Speaker 3: tell me your sense on it too, because like right now,
Speaker 3: I feel like it's just been kind of a mysterious unveiling.
Speaker 3: That was the first piece, like you know, sign up,
Speaker 3: signing a big name to to some kind of semblance
Speaker 3: of like.
Speaker 1: Okay, here's the strategy, here's what we're going to do.
Speaker 2: I think, uh to me, you know, you saw that
Speaker 2: we we can't play it because of the Rolling Stones thing.
Speaker 2: But you saw the video that came out with Dana
Speaker 2: promoting zupa boxing, just Max Kelman narrating Max kellerming.
Speaker 1: Won't what'd you say? What in the North Korea?
Speaker 2: I mean, just like Max Kellerman just there. I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't, I don't even know who he is anymore.
Speaker 2: But the point I'm trying to make is if you
Speaker 2: listen to the language, it's very ambition oriented and like
Speaker 2: big picture and you know, who can fix It's almost
Speaker 2: like who's here to fix boxing? Like this big broad
Speaker 2: ambition and I think Opataia fits onto that side of things.
Speaker 2: But as you indicated, you know, let me ask just
Speaker 2: a basic question, who is the ZUFA boxing matchmaker, Who
Speaker 2: is the ZUFA boxing scout clips that they have you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, they don't who the who the
Speaker 2: fuck are their teams? And the reason why I asked
Speaker 2: this is because I was there in Vegas, as I
Speaker 2: think I told you previously, for the Canelo Crawford car right,
Speaker 2: and the UFC team, who probably didn't want me in there.
Speaker 2: They were so overwhelmed they were like, yeah, I just
Speaker 2: go on and we don't even give a fuck, you know,
Speaker 2: because they had the San Antonio card and Kendella Crawford.
Speaker 2: Now granted that was the same weekend, but so is
Speaker 2: this So I mean, it's different days, but it's essentially
Speaker 2: the same weekend. I don't think they've even built out
Speaker 2: the internal infrastructure. I don't think to make all of
Speaker 2: this work. And so I think you can see where
Speaker 2: there are like the eyes are on the prize. But
Speaker 2: on the other hand, this is just the reality in
Speaker 2: front of them as they slowly kind of inch their
Speaker 2: way forward. That's my sense of thing.
Speaker 3: Did you think that they would be able to do
Speaker 3: more with the with you know, at this point when
Speaker 3: they're ready to roll out their first event. Did you
Speaker 3: think that they would be bigger and that they would
Speaker 3: already have more going for it at this point?
Speaker 1: Yes, But in retrospect, I don't think that it matters.
Speaker 1: I really don't. I think that.
Speaker 2: One the ALIAC changes haven't gone into place yet.
Speaker 1: True. I mean, okay, the legislation hasn't passed. It's not
Speaker 1: like it's passed.
Speaker 2: But the bill, by the way, goes to mark up tomorrow,
Speaker 2: so we'll see if in what any changes take place
Speaker 2: as a consequence.
Speaker 1: So there's that.
Speaker 2: The other thing I would say is again between like,
Speaker 2: I can't overstate this. Just to get the UFC on
Speaker 2: Paramount show ready to go, they had to take a
Speaker 2: forty day break, you know, just to get that going,
Speaker 2: and then they want to add in on top of
Speaker 2: it the ZUFA boxing component. There was really no way
Speaker 2: to do it other than this, to be honest with you,
Speaker 2: given the internal constraints of what they're trying to build.
Speaker 2: So at first you're like, oh, well, that's it, But
Speaker 2: then when you think about it, you're like, they're just.
Speaker 1: Getting started, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I mean the way that he's kind of
Speaker 3: laid it out. I will say that Dana has kind
Speaker 3: of I think he's pointed this out to an extent, right,
Speaker 3: that it would be a little bit more of a
Speaker 3: slow build. They would try to build stars within their model,
Speaker 3: and they would do I think he said, only one
Speaker 3: ZUFA boxing card per month, right, So that's a pretty
Speaker 3: that's a pretty like realistic way to go about it.
Speaker 1: I get.
Speaker 3: I'm a little bit anxious, I guess to see if
Speaker 3: I can find any answers as to what's what the
Speaker 3: plan is all that stuff when I go out there
Speaker 3: this week and uh and take it in, We'll see
Speaker 3: how it all works.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: But I have you been in the APEX before, Because
Speaker 3: when I've been in there in the past, it's just
Speaker 3: the events themselves, like without that real like a real audience.
Speaker 1: They're tough, they're tough to watch.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, it'd be very interesting now, like it's
Speaker 3: not even MMA, it's a boxing event, and we'll see
Speaker 3: the crossover media, like who's there like some of the
Speaker 3: fan base.
Speaker 1: It'd be very interesting to check this out.
Speaker 2: Also, It's like, don't get me wrong, I think they've
Speaker 2: got some legit prospects on that card. You know, there's
Speaker 2: there's there could be some good fights. I don't we'll see. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm less impressed by Walsh, but whatever, like there could
Speaker 2: be fine. But it's like, if you don't have fans
Speaker 2: in there, which they might, they might have fans, But
Speaker 2: if you don't have fans in there in the Apex
Speaker 2: and you want MMA fans to watch boxing, dude, good
Speaker 2: fucking luck.
Speaker 1: Good luck. You're gonna need it.
Speaker 3: That's the other thing to me, I'm like, as it
Speaker 3: seems to me that there's like this, Hey, guys, come
Speaker 3: on over to this side too and check out boxing.
Speaker 1: The way we're gonna do it. We're gonna build it
Speaker 1: like the UFC. You're gonna love it.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure that this card or anything coming up
Speaker 3: in the in the little bit here, especially at the Apex,
Speaker 3: is going to achieve that, you know. And I felt
Speaker 3: like that that's that's another thing we'll wait and see on.
Speaker 3: But you've you've done this and this show is one
Speaker 3: of the few that touches on boxing and MMA, and
Speaker 3: as you see, sometimes, man, there's two sides to this,
Speaker 3: and the one side doesn't want to look too deeply
Speaker 3: into the other. It's just kind of the way it's been.
Speaker 2: Also, if you're a boxing fan and it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: it's been Saudi this, and you know grandiosity that, Yeah,
Speaker 2: this is not that you know. Again, it makes sense
Speaker 2: for the UFC's purpose or TKO's purposes, I get it.
Speaker 2: But it's a big departure for them, so some big stakes.
Speaker 2: I look forward to your coverage this weekend. Now, other
Speaker 2: pieces of boxing news, we should note Canelo Alvarez has
Speaker 2: announced he'll be back in action in September for Mexican
Speaker 2: Independence Day. In fact, before I ask any question, we've
Speaker 2: got Turkey making the announcement with Canelo.
Speaker 9: Let's roll that tape, Champ wait for us in September
Speaker 9: twelve of.
Speaker 4: September, big, big, big fights, and this is will be
Speaker 4: the first cup for Canelo Romo promotion.
Speaker 1: It will be name.
Speaker 12: Of Mexico against the world, all the fighters from the
Speaker 12: team of Canelo against the world and the champion and
Speaker 12: the main events and world title and it will be
Speaker 12: surprised in Saudi Arabian.
Speaker 10: Shot.
Speaker 2: Now the audio is not great, long Island. Look, did
Speaker 2: he say that the fight was going to be in
Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia?
Speaker 6: Shit, I don't know. I wasn't playing close enough.
Speaker 7: September twelfth, Mexico Versus the World started Canelo promotions.
Speaker 6: I heard all that, I didn't hear where it was going.
Speaker 2: I think at the end of did you hear that chuck?
Speaker 2: I don't want to say I make it out. I
Speaker 2: just could not make it out.
Speaker 3: But like that would Mexico versus the World from Saudi
Speaker 3: Arabia would be very strange.
Speaker 2: What they're They're fucking killing the American and UK.
Speaker 1: Market with the ship.
Speaker 2: Now, I mean they're not killing the UK market with Canelo,
Speaker 2: but they're killing the American market by having Canelo fight
Speaker 2: over there. And I saw his single to my own first, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean this is yeah, I don't know what the
Speaker 2: fuck are we doing. This is so fucking bad for
Speaker 2: American boxing. It's so bad for you know, the Mexican
Speaker 2: American fan base. It's so it's just so terrible. That
Speaker 2: being said, if he does come back on that day,
Speaker 2: which of course he always fights single to my own, Uh,
Speaker 2: anybody you think it would be a good fight.
Speaker 3: For him, Well, if it's if it's Mexico versus the World,
Speaker 3: does that exclude David Benavitez, Like, because I know that
Speaker 3: David is not like a you know, born in Mexico,
Speaker 3: But like does that exclude.
Speaker 2: So I think Benavidez is going to fight in Las
Speaker 2: Vegas on that same weekend.
Speaker 3: Okay, obviously that fight one of those ones people have
Speaker 3: talked about and UH would like to see. But I
Speaker 3: guess the the bevol matt like the rematch to that
Speaker 3: because that first fight being what it was, and it
Speaker 3: was the last time Canelo lost. If you're really trying
Speaker 3: to do it up big, I feel like that that
Speaker 3: might be a very good option. I'd like to see
Speaker 3: that fight too, like where where Canelo was at at
Speaker 3: this point.
Speaker 1: In his career.
Speaker 3: And also I also I get the sense sometimes with Canelo,
Speaker 3: even as he's getting older, a second look at somebody,
Speaker 3: it would be very interesting to see kind of how
Speaker 3: he handles himself. Right, any interest in that fight, Like,
Speaker 3: is that something on your radar? No, Canelo is washed.
Speaker 1: He's washed.
Speaker 2: That first Bivol fight was not competitive and he's not
Speaker 2: gotten any better. Sense then, I don't think Bivol has
Speaker 2: gotten any worse, So to me, it's not competitive.
Speaker 3: Him has washed it. But I know what you're saying.
Speaker 3: In the last in that fight, I didn't see Heim
Speaker 3: was washed in that fight. I saw him as honestly, yeah,
Speaker 3: A little bit of that was the problem. That was
Speaker 3: the issue. All right, Well, who would you like to
Speaker 3: see him face?
Speaker 2: Okay, so I'm thinking about this, so you can't like,
Speaker 2: how washed can he go with the matchmaking? Could they
Speaker 2: do a plant or Berlonga or Mungillo rematch? I certainly
Speaker 2: fucking hope not. I don't think so.
Speaker 1: Honestly what I think, and this is something that was
Speaker 1: teased before. I think they're gonna go Chris you Bank.
Speaker 2: You Bank killed himself to get down to those fights
Speaker 2: for Connor Ben. This would be back at a normal
Speaker 2: weight class for him. I guess they could do six
Speaker 2: year sixty eight depending on what Canelo wants at that point,
Speaker 2: but you know, a much better weight class for him,
Speaker 2: and it would bring you know, it's a big enough name,
Speaker 2: it's got a UK name. I don't think it would
Speaker 2: mean much to Americans, but they'll watch Canola no matter what.
Speaker 2: To me, though, it's like, I think this is one
Speaker 2: of those questions about like what is even left for Canelo,
Speaker 2: because I know he was like, oh, I want to
Speaker 2: get the I want to get the Crawford rematch, but
Speaker 2: then Crawford retires and so that's really not a place.
Speaker 2: It's like, does he go to a place in terms
Speaker 2: of matchmaking that is I mean, if he did a
Speaker 2: burlonger rematch, I would probably cry, to be honest with you.
Speaker 2: But could he go Jermal Charlo, Big Charlo, that's a possibility,
Speaker 2: you know, could he go Hamsushiras That's what Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: a that's a tough one for me.
Speaker 1: See, that's why I don't think he does it.
Speaker 2: I think he goes you Bank, who is manageable, I'm
Speaker 2: reckless as a strong word, but hitable and you know
Speaker 2: has a relationship with Turkey. You know, Yeah, that's that's
Speaker 2: to me a likely scenario.
Speaker 1: It's it'd be sad though.
Speaker 3: I guess if Canelo is as Washer is just saying
Speaker 3: for that, because like if he's fighting, you know, in
Speaker 3: Vegas for instance, I've been out there when Canelo is fighting.
Speaker 3: I've been in the hotel when he's at the hotel,
Speaker 3: and you see the entourage, you see the people. Is
Speaker 3: such a feeling if you're going to do a Canelo
Speaker 3: fight at this stage of his career and you know
Speaker 3: the writing is on the wall, you really wish that
Speaker 3: they would put it in United States because you're just
Speaker 3: not going to get too many of those, right, You're
Speaker 3: just not going to get too many more of those
Speaker 3: types of events that draw that kind of enthusiasm from
Speaker 3: people in the United States.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, I dude, they're putting this motherfucker in Rio.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: Oh dude, it's now, which leads me to my last one,
Speaker 2: which is that Golden Boy had an event I think
Speaker 2: over the weekend, but it was a one off and
Speaker 2: the deal between them and his Zone is off.
Speaker 1: So let me just set the table here very quickly.
Speaker 2: Top rank American Boxing promotion has no television deal PBC.
Speaker 2: It's on Amazon, but certainly not a linear television and
Speaker 2: godling like, what is the Amazon deal done for PBC?
Speaker 2: Not nothing but not much I think would be the answer.
Speaker 2: And now on top of that you have Golden Boy,
Speaker 2: and here it is first source. Golden Boy and Zone
Speaker 2: have been discussing the extension of the rights deal. The
Speaker 2: contract expired three months ago, and then the event you
Speaker 2: saw on Friday was a one off. There are no
Speaker 2: other Golden Boy events scheduled on Friday. The Barrios Garcia
Speaker 2: pay perview that's coming up is one of Turkey, so
Speaker 2: it's not actually a Golden Boy event, and that'll be
Speaker 2: on pay per view as well. Dude, I got to
Speaker 2: tell you this is to me why the pitch. I mean,
Speaker 2: people are like, how much worse could it be if
Speaker 2: ZUFA Boxing takes over? And on some level it's like
Speaker 2: how much worse could they do?
Speaker 1: You know what? I mean? Like this is so bad.
Speaker 2: My retort to that would be like, I just can't
Speaker 2: believe people think it's a good idea to have one
Speaker 2: company who's the dominant promoter in wrestling, in MMA and boxing.
Speaker 2: That to me seems like you just dystopian. To be
Speaker 2: perfectly honest with you, however, however, and just assessing the situation, Chuck,
Speaker 2: could you have imagined even five years ago that American
Speaker 2: boxing would be fucking erased from the American sporting landscape
Speaker 2: as quickly as it has been. I will tell you
Speaker 2: I did not see this coming. No, I didn't see
Speaker 2: it coming either, and you wonder too.
Speaker 3: I Mean, the biggest issue has been I feel like
Speaker 3: if you didn't really follow boxing and you just kind
Speaker 3: of paid attention when big fights are trying to be made,
Speaker 3: you would see this kind.
Speaker 1: Of like.
Speaker 3: How hard it is for the two guys in the
Speaker 3: same weight class from different promotions to come together and
Speaker 3: to actually do it.
Speaker 1: And that has been that.
Speaker 3: So when you're talking about zuofa boxing, I guess in
Speaker 3: that sense, if you're able to make fights with all
Speaker 3: the red tape and you're able to see them, that
Speaker 3: would be restorative, I think to the scene. But No,
Speaker 3: to answer your question, man, I mean, there's no way
Speaker 3: that I would see like it would you know, you
Speaker 3: mentioned Golden Boy to Zone and like you know, some
Speaker 3: of these other ones like a top rank with with
Speaker 3: ESPN not existing or you know, not renewing or just
Speaker 3: kind of being in place with these to have a
Speaker 3: television deal. No, I could have never seen this coming
Speaker 3: because boxing, out of everything, has been like kind of
Speaker 3: the more ubiquitous of the combat sports, and this has
Speaker 3: kind of been you know, ongoing well before there was
Speaker 3: even such a thing as UFC. So to me, you know,
Speaker 3: especially with the kind of resurgence maybe you tell me too,
Speaker 3: but like with the resurgence of the Saudi money and
Speaker 3: everything that came in, it felt like there was a
Speaker 3: little bit over twenty twenty five, certainly in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 3: twenty five more of an eye on boxing. Certainly, people
Speaker 3: who I know that were never into boxing, we're paying
Speaker 3: attention to certain events, which was a big deal in
Speaker 3: my mind.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I feel like sometimes the fragmentation between the promotions, you know,
Speaker 3: like makes it so difficult for people to really pay
Speaker 3: attention and tune in, and somehow that that indifference starts
Speaker 3: to reach the streaming service or whatever the platforms and
Speaker 3: you arrive in these spots. But it's a bad look
Speaker 3: for American boxes. It's a dark day in that sense.
Speaker 2: I just can't believe how I mean, It's true the
Speaker 2: older you get, the more you see things like this.
Speaker 2: We were like, there's never been a year in boxing
Speaker 2: where you're like, oh, you know, boxing fans aren't complaining.
Speaker 2: I mean, twenty twenty three was super hot, but like
Speaker 2: even then, it's like all the sanctioning bodies did this
Speaker 2: and this guy walked away from that. Like the inefficiency
Speaker 2: efficiency of it kind of always rubbed people the wrong way,
Speaker 2: but you kind of dismiss it because you're like, you
Speaker 2: had a hot year and twenty twenty four wasn't exactly
Speaker 2: as good, but it was still pretty good, or or
Speaker 2: it was it was decent. Then last year things really
Speaker 2: took a different turn, and now it's like a completely
Speaker 2: barren landscape. What I'm trying to say is like this,
Speaker 2: It's like it's very easy to dismiss Chinese water torture
Speaker 2: when the first fruit few drops are happening, right, but
Speaker 2: like over twenty years, Chinese water torture is unbearable. You know,
Speaker 2: it's like a great point. It's just nothing ever happens,
Speaker 2: nothing ever happens.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, it all comes crash down.
Speaker 3: I've tried to I've tried to make it more of
Speaker 3: an effort honestly, to like embrace. But you know, because
Speaker 3: so many of us in this space, there's so much
Speaker 3: going on in MMA that you just stay in that lane.
Speaker 3: But I've tried, because there's so many dynamic boxers coming up,
Speaker 3: and so I've been to multiple big events over the
Speaker 3: last couple of years, soaking in the atmosphere, just kind
Speaker 3: of getting to know, you know, the fighters better and
Speaker 3: stuff like that. And I was at the Boots and
Speaker 3: His fight with Chikaids in I think when in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four, at the end in Philly, and the biggest
Speaker 3: thing was a you know, now he makes the move, right,
Speaker 3: he's going to go fight virguo Ortis. That was well,
Speaker 3: Now you get into twenty twenty six and that fight
Speaker 3: was being looked at obviously it was everybody thought we
Speaker 3: were going to get it. And now you get a
Speaker 3: situation where you know, his own and Golden Boy, you
Speaker 3: know gold He's got the lawsuit against Golden Boy Virginal Artios,
Speaker 3: So it's like, does it happen? And I feel like
Speaker 3: this is kind of what fans end up dealing with,
Speaker 3: rather than getting a fight that you think you're going
Speaker 3: to get and maybe the one you kind of desire
Speaker 3: after watching a guy kind of come up the ranks
Speaker 3: and what's the best fight for him next to challenge him.
Speaker 3: I feel like we're always mired in this kind of
Speaker 3: thing where it's like, Nope, you can't get there, you
Speaker 3: can't get that fight.
Speaker 2: Also, like you know, it's amazing at the beginning of
Speaker 2: the NFL season where they're like, here's here's the calendar,
Speaker 2: this is all of your games, this is all the
Speaker 2: games you're gonna play, here's your bile, here's the rest
Speaker 2: of you know what, I mean, and so you have
Speaker 2: this grand anticipation both about the start of the season
Speaker 2: but about each week what each one represents and even
Speaker 2: for the league. Oh, you know, there's a lot of commanders.
Speaker 2: By the way, this at the beginning of the season
Speaker 2: had like a bunch of primetime games, and then they
Speaker 2: didn't perform very well. Jadon Daniels was hurt half the time, right,
Speaker 2: and so they flexed a bunch of them. But they
Speaker 2: have that capability to then, you know, rearrange things in
Speaker 2: a way that's even more dynamic given the circumstances, and
Speaker 2: boxing has just never really had that. People have said like, oh,
Speaker 2: you you know, it would be better to have one
Speaker 2: dominant brand control it. And my answer to that is
Speaker 2: always the same, which is, Okay, I can imagine that
Speaker 2: to be true in a world where there's significant athlete
Speaker 2: protections and that same brand is constrained in certain ways
Speaker 2: about you know, you know, with those protections or what
Speaker 2: they can and can't do, as well as it's not
Speaker 2: the same ones giving you MMA, and it's not the
Speaker 2: same ones giving you pro wrestling. Under that circumstance, yes, sure,
Speaker 2: I can understand that there might be an argument with it.
Speaker 2: The degree of inefficiency in boxing has been absolutely poisonous
Speaker 2: to it. But I mean, what can you even say anymore?
Speaker 2: They the the the architects of it.
Speaker 1: The the what do you want to say?
Speaker 2: The the people tasked with its, with its perseverance, they
Speaker 2: all fell down on the job.
Speaker 1: They all fell down on the job.
Speaker 3: It Is it just coincidence or is it I don't know,
Speaker 3: symptom like so zoop of boxing. We all knew it's
Speaker 3: gonna happen. Now it's gonna happen in the in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty six. It's and then you see these other hubbless
Speaker 3: you know, is it? Is it one of those things
Speaker 3: You're like, well they're getting into it, maybe we don't
Speaker 3: want to be in it, Like is it?
Speaker 1: Does some of that exist? You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Where you know, certain entities are like we're not getting
Speaker 3: a the bang for the book, and you know zopa
Speaker 3: boxing is kicking a zoopo boxing factor into that landscape,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: It's not true what you mean like who are the
Speaker 1: people who would be punting?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm saying, like you know, like for for de
Speaker 3: Zone not to be you know, not to have the partnership,
Speaker 3: right like if if yeah, if they if we're not
Speaker 3: going to see the the streaming services that we're doing
Speaker 3: it before h with ESPN and Top Rank for instance,
Speaker 3: like they don't have a deal right, like they're just
Speaker 3: that's come to an end. But is it does that
Speaker 3: have anything to do with suber boxing? You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, Like, does does that do there's one plan
Speaker 3: to the other?
Speaker 2: It might now I don't know if it did, you know,
Speaker 2: back when some of this stuff was less clear. It's
Speaker 2: a great question for the Zone because now if you
Speaker 2: you know, like Top Rank hasn't had a deal for months,
Speaker 2: like if the Zone wanted to sign them, they could
Speaker 2: have just done it, right yeah, you know, uh and
Speaker 2: they didn't, And that to me is like a huge
Speaker 2: red flag, like Golden Boy, if they wanted to resign them,
Speaker 2: they we could be done with this already, you know.
Speaker 3: And it feels like we've been talking like sort of
Speaker 3: like eulogizing the you know, the PBC thing for a
Speaker 3: long time. I mean, we'll see all this all plans out,
Speaker 3: But the truth is, you know, you've seen this in.
Speaker 2: MMA, whereas where the death of a promotion it actually
Speaker 2: takes a little longer than you might imagine.
Speaker 1: That's true, it does.
Speaker 2: They hang on in ways where they kind of just
Speaker 2: find a way to put events on and they're cutting
Speaker 2: half the budget and no one's getting paid, but the
Speaker 2: show's kind of still happened for some reason, right that.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, you might see some of that.
Speaker 2: But like, honestly, these fucking morons, these sanctioning bodies who
Speaker 2: just created infinite titles and never forced mandatories, they really
Speaker 2: fucked up. These promoters who got greedy and didn't want
Speaker 2: to work with each others, they fucked up. And dude,
Speaker 2: the chickens have come home to roost and now they're
Speaker 2: about to get their mother fucking lunch money taken from them.
Speaker 2: And baby, yes, congratulations. Now you can watch Canelo Mungia
Speaker 2: too in real so congrats. All right, that's it for
Speaker 2: our top five topics. Let's transition now if we can't,
Speaker 2: we do have a fun segment at the end planned. However,
Speaker 2: I have a doctor's appointment, so I don't know we're
Speaker 2: gonna be able to fit it in.
Speaker 1: We're gonna try here, Let's see.
Speaker 2: How you Let's go to it's time now where the
Speaker 2: fans get to ask you and me some questions. You
Speaker 2: and I You and right, it is time for dms
Speaker 2: from dogs.
Speaker 1: I hate that fucking sound. It makes me feel at home.
Speaker 1: It's a dinver Broncos sound. So that's good. Oh right,
Speaker 1: well it's a donkey, it's not a Bronco. Well they
Speaker 1: call them the dogs.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, here we go. Question number one from
Speaker 2: Lord Page. That's a weird ass name. What do you
Speaker 2: think will headline UFC three twenty seven in Miami in April?
Speaker 2: This person writes, my pick is interim light heavyweight so
Speaker 2: Olberg versus Parhatchka and Men's flyweight.
Speaker 1: Van versus cop.
Speaker 2: Hmmm, So three twenty four is this weekend? Yes, three
Speaker 2: twenty five will be Vulk Lopez. Two, three twenty six
Speaker 2: is Max and olivera. This will be the one after
Speaker 2: that Miami.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's tough to predict these ones that start to
Speaker 3: get near the White House because I've mentioned this as
Speaker 3: a as a vortex, because you're not sure how much
Speaker 3: talent they're going to concentrate into one thing and what
Speaker 3: that would mean to the surrounding cards, to say two
Speaker 3: or three months either side, right, I would be okay
Speaker 3: with the fights they mentioned there like that. You know
Speaker 3: it is is Parira just guaranteed to be out, Like,
Speaker 3: what's his status right now?
Speaker 2: I mean, just think until we know if he's going
Speaker 2: to be on that White House card. Yeah, it seems
Speaker 2: foolish to add him anywhere else, you know, Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3: I mean, to be honest, I feel like they normally speaking,
Speaker 3: you'd be like you'd have some kind of projection on this.
Speaker 3: But the way this paramount thing is, it's kind of
Speaker 3: the abstract nature of that White House card. It's hard
Speaker 3: to say who will end up on something like that.
Speaker 2: And honestly, you know what's kind of funny is these
Speaker 2: Miami cards have ended up being something rather important for them,
Speaker 2: the bigger I'm trying. I'm looking here on the calendar.
Speaker 2: So when they last went to Miami, let's see here,
Speaker 2: that was three fourteen. That was a great card. Yes,
Speaker 2: Lopez one here, I mean, you know what, let me
Speaker 2: pull this up here, Miami.
Speaker 1: There we go.
Speaker 3: They've got John so again. John Silva was on that.
Speaker 3: There were a lot of lot of good fights on that.
Speaker 2: Then they had UFC two ninety nine that was O'Malley
Speaker 2: vera tu that had some decent fights on there as well,
Speaker 2: and then they had UFC two eighty seven which was
Speaker 2: Poeton Izzy too, which.
Speaker 1: Was a huge fight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they've had some pretty big main events up there,
Speaker 2: and Poeton has fought there obviously one of the bigger
Speaker 2: stars in the company. But again, to your point, I
Speaker 2: think it's a totally correct one, the UFC White House
Speaker 2: card in terms of like sucking up resources both before
Speaker 2: and it's like a black hole and it's just hard
Speaker 2: to know what's gonna get pulled into the gravity, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, next next one from Asray videos, ass Ray what
Speaker 2: what are the Man in the Hats? Top five favorite films?
Speaker 1: Wait? Do you go around like do you go around
Speaker 1: with the top five?
Speaker 3: Like you know, like that you're always like I could
Speaker 3: just cite my top five like top.
Speaker 1: Five, No, but I could go top three maybe.
Speaker 3: Okay, Man, Well I would have to include if you're
Speaker 3: talking about just the impact right like with like your
Speaker 3: life inside is Star Wars, the original Star Wars would
Speaker 3: be up there because that was something that was ubiquitous
Speaker 3: in my whole life, like it was always there, and
Speaker 3: it's like, so if I'm going down in different genres too,
Speaker 3: like I love the Shining I like the Kubrick version
Speaker 3: of that.
Speaker 1: God that's jackets Well. Metal Jacket is awesome. Man.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it would be in my top five.
Speaker 3: But see, this is what I'm saying. I don't really
Speaker 3: think this way, but uh god, Okay.
Speaker 1: Here's the question. If you're trying to sound smart to someone,
Speaker 1: what do you say? Oh?
Speaker 3: Man, the turn Horse. It's the one about Nietzsche. You remember,
Speaker 3: you ever when Nietzsche was like, uh, he broke down
Speaker 3: when he saw a horse getting whipped like and beaten.
Speaker 3: That's what sent him into this kind of madness. It's
Speaker 3: it starts with that and then it just gets darker
Speaker 3: from there. It's a black and white film, but it
Speaker 3: was really well done. It's uh white films that they
Speaker 3: are they make.
Speaker 1: It was a good one, dude. I'm I'm a little bit.
Speaker 3: I I hate cheap action films, like for the most part,
Speaker 3: I can't watch them like I do like thought provoking movies,
Speaker 3: you know, so I will say it like that.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: It's very tough for me to distill it down to five,
Speaker 3: but I do like that. I like movies that kind
Speaker 3: of have something more to them, and you know, they
Speaker 3: have real direction and good acting and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Kind of a snob that way, And you know what
Speaker 1: I watch.
Speaker 2: I didn't do it on purpose, but I just kind
Speaker 2: of noticed over time that foreign films are a little bit.
Speaker 2: The better versions of foreign films, not like any old one,
Speaker 2: but like the better versions, they tend to have less
Speaker 2: American movie making convention built into them, obviously, yes, and
Speaker 2: as a concert, and they tell you stories that you're
Speaker 2: not super familiar with because it's like, oh, what is
Speaker 2: it like to be a person in this part of
Speaker 2: the world under these circumstances.
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about those things, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I've been watching a lot of Iranian movies,
Speaker 2: like they're frikling good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, do they're good. Somebody just recommended one. I don't
Speaker 3: remember the name of it. It was an accident, that's
Speaker 3: what's the one.
Speaker 1: That's the latest one.
Speaker 3: It's like that actually does sound right, but yeah, man,
Speaker 3: I loved or it was just an accident something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think something like that.
Speaker 2: The last one I saw was Seed of the Sacred
Speaker 2: fig which was they had to shoot it into ran
Speaker 2: in secret.
Speaker 1: Wow. It was badass, like really really really good.
Speaker 3: Favorite you're one of those people I would actually take
Speaker 3: recommendations from There's a lot of people are like, oh,
Speaker 3: you got to watch this, you got to watch this,
Speaker 3: and you watch one of them and like, okay, I
Speaker 3: can't listen that. You've lost your credibility, you know, like
Speaker 3: at some point you send you send me Astray the
Speaker 3: first time, you.
Speaker 1: Mean, like BC being like, dude, I liked Rise of Skywalker.
Speaker 1: Get the fuck out of my life, you know, give
Speaker 1: the fuck out of my life. Like the sequels were
Speaker 1: better than the prequels. Yeah, dude, anyone who's like, dude,
Speaker 1: the prequels are great.
Speaker 2: I like jar Jar binks you're a fucking idiot and
Speaker 2: your parents don't love you.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, you've been on that one for a bit.
Speaker 1: Just camp. Here's the thing, because I this is the
Speaker 1: funny part. Love. I've said this a million times. I'm old,
Speaker 1: and I know that I'm old.
Speaker 2: I don't know, there's no how could I hide such
Speaker 2: a thing. But I was nineteen when the prequels came out.
Speaker 2: I was nineteen, and I remember the entire country being.
Speaker 1: Like, this is bullshit. These movies are terrible.
Speaker 2: They got mocked on Conan O'Brien every single night for
Speaker 2: being how fucking bad they were, and then the people
Speaker 2: who were kids at the time have now grown up
Speaker 2: being like, no, we love the prequels. You're a fucking
Speaker 2: idiot and your parents don't love you all right. Next
Speaker 2: uh from Empty Booble, Does Chuck have a favorite hat? Well,
Speaker 2: that's an important question.
Speaker 1: Yeah it is.
Speaker 3: And you know most of these are directed tored me
Speaker 3: because that graphic they did was like Chuck Minton Han
Speaker 3: was like a strong male prequel. So, uh, probably there's
Speaker 3: like a traveling Barcelona that I bought, like the original one,
Speaker 3: Like this way back at UFC one oh seven at
Speaker 3: the Peacock in Memphis, they had like a little hat place.
Speaker 3: I bought that, and it's always been one of my favorites.
Speaker 3: But I'm not even sure I still have it, but
Speaker 3: that at the time I wore it a lot, and
Speaker 3: it was kind of the beginning of the Man in
Speaker 3: the Hat and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: So I'd probably say that one. Go full screen on
Speaker 2: Chuck here for a second. Look on the left side,
Speaker 2: if you're watching the screen, look at the hats. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 2: on the ones over there, look at all that.
Speaker 1: Shit that kind of extends over there too. It goes,
Speaker 1: how many hats do you have?
Speaker 3: And then there's a few more on my door over
Speaker 3: here with the Ryan Garcia gloves. I probably like these
Speaker 3: types of hats. I probably got like thirty of them.
Speaker 3: But I had like a deal with Boston scally Cap.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, so like, uh so they made like a
Speaker 3: myth hat. So I've got to I've got to if
Speaker 3: you count those, I've got a bunch because I sell them.
Speaker 3: But like in terms of just the ones that aren't
Speaker 3: that probably like thirty and then a bunch of ball caps.
Speaker 1: You know, you got to cover up the ball.
Speaker 3: Dome, man, you know, just let it go. Why haven't
Speaker 3: you flown to Turkey? And then this was an Eric
Speaker 3: nixick thing. Uh Eric Nixon. I saw him fint last straight.
Speaker 3: He's like, dude, you gotta go to Turkey, man, you
Speaker 3: gotta go to Turkey.
Speaker 1: It was all about it.
Speaker 3: He's just gotten back and he's got a nice lush
Speaker 3: head of hair. Now it could be men. I'm not
Speaker 3: gonna do it.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: I was with Sean el Shoddy. It was also like
Speaker 3: he's been bald since he was twenty one. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean it's insane. Yes, that's the only reason that truly.
Speaker 2: It's the only reason I haven't got on TRT yet
Speaker 2: is that I know that you can also take medications
Speaker 2: to prevent hair loss while you're on TRT.
Speaker 1: But it's like, I don't know, No, you got like nice,
Speaker 1: you got a nice head of hair.
Speaker 2: There would message what I'm saying, like I'm just gonna
Speaker 2: punch on this to have some bigger muscles for a
Speaker 2: little bit.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, Next one from von beckcal in your opinion, boys,
Speaker 2: which MMA era would you consider it?
Speaker 1: The Golden era? Great question? Check what do you think?
Speaker 1: Just to the sport, it had to be.
Speaker 3: It would have to be around the time of the
Speaker 3: of the Sale, right like twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen. Yeah,
Speaker 3: because you had the biggest stars at that moment, and
Speaker 3: Ronda Rousey's still around, you had a Connor McGregor, and
Speaker 3: there was just it felt like it was as big,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't want to say it as big
Speaker 3: as gonna get. It felt like it was still going places,
Speaker 3: but it felt so big from where it had come from,
Speaker 3: and there was just so many good fights that they
Speaker 3: were making at that time.
Speaker 1: I agree. And also like one thing of one of my.
Speaker 2: One of my issues with the current state of MMA
Speaker 2: is that like, in some ways it's got more cultural
Speaker 2: cachet and relevance than it ever has. But it used
Speaker 2: to be a broader more like it had more subcultures,
Speaker 2: It had more it was a more interesting thing because
Speaker 2: there was more to it. And to me, MMA has
Speaker 2: gotten more homogenized and a little bit smaller. Even though
Speaker 2: it might be in certain ways globally more popular, it's
Speaker 2: still it's it's less of a thing that invites more people,
Speaker 2: you know, but fifteen twenty sixteen, where you're like Rowsey
Speaker 2: is at her peak popularity, and like, do you remember.
Speaker 1: When Rosy gainst Man, Ye might be.
Speaker 2: Do you remember when Rowsy first came around and it
Speaker 2: was like little girls were going to UFC events, like
Speaker 2: a bunch of them, and you.
Speaker 3: Saw I saw girls crying when she went up and
Speaker 3: signed their stuff. I was like a roped off petition
Speaker 3: thating she went over and signed and they were crying
Speaker 3: like they were like was the Beatles.
Speaker 2: It was amazing to see that, And I think that
Speaker 2: kind of thing is kind of lost. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 2: I think there's one more maybe from Bucket of Chips.
Speaker 2: Luke has had a few embarrassing moments we know, well Jones,
Speaker 2: fad or, I don't recall what that one was, But
Speaker 2: what have I've had many of them? What have been
Speaker 2: some of Chuck's most embarrassing moments with a fighter?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 2: Oh, like you know where John wouldn't answer my question.
Speaker 2: Or I had a bad interview with Fador, which, by
Speaker 2: the way, is Fador's fault.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, he's not a good Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean the no, I haven't had a ton of these,
Speaker 3: which just I'm fortunate, you know, like and most fighters,
Speaker 3: I feel like, have been fairly okay with me. But
Speaker 3: Tim Sylvia like and this was all because his manager
Speaker 3: at the time, Money Costs, called like he was trying
Speaker 3: to make a point that when Tim Silvia came to
Speaker 3: the gym, he didn't really he wasn't that good, and
Speaker 3: he called he was like, oh my god, who is
Speaker 3: this fat tube of shit? That's what he said to me, right,
Speaker 3: So there's a quote of his, not mine, like he's
Speaker 3: a fat type of shit. And then as he kind
Speaker 3: of ascended in the UFC and became a champion, he's like,
Speaker 3: oh my god. He was trying to say, like, my
Speaker 3: fat tub of shit became a champion, like he was
Speaker 3: trying to give him his flowers, as such as like saying,
Speaker 3: like I I I was wrong about this guy. He's
Speaker 3: actually that good, right tim Sylvia saw that quote a
Speaker 3: pull quote and a piece I'd written about Bettendorf and
Speaker 3: got very very upset by it, thinking I was calling
Speaker 3: him a fat piece of shit, and I think he
Speaker 3: was on some show, maybe Ariels, he was on some
Speaker 3: show and he was basically, you know, kind of threatening
Speaker 3: me up. But I wasn't necessarily embarrassing, but it was
Speaker 3: a little embarrassing that he didn't understand the context of
Speaker 3: what he was looking at.
Speaker 2: Listening and reading comprehension skills are in short supply of
Speaker 2: these days.
Speaker 1: Yes, but I mean, honestly, not too much.
Speaker 3: Besides like stuff like that, like guys getting pissed off
Speaker 3: over you know, reasons there You're like, ah, it's not really,
Speaker 3: it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: I mean, BC has uh has pissed off a lot
Speaker 1: of people.
Speaker 3: I've pissed off got the whole flyweight the strawweight division, right,
Speaker 3: like it's been kind of offended or.
Speaker 1: Well, the charlow's cursed him out on him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I've had I've had a few of those
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is that it are? I think that's the five
Speaker 1: that's it.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, we have to punt on the thing that we
Speaker 2: had try or we're gonna try today because I do
Speaker 2: have a doctor's appointment.
Speaker 1: I apologize everyone about this, but we'll bring it.
Speaker 2: We'll get to it either the end of this week
Speaker 2: or the beginning of next one. Chuck, where can folks
Speaker 2: find your coverage this week? What's the best place to
Speaker 2: get what you're Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do.
Speaker 3: I'll have something in the zoof of boxing. It's gonna
Speaker 3: appear at Uncrowned probably on Saturday. I'll have some kind
Speaker 3: of wrap up piece there, and that's where all the
Speaker 3: UFC three twenty four coverage of mine will be as well.
Speaker 2: And of course you can see the socials here down below.
Speaker 2: We are on TikTok, we are on YouTube, we are
Speaker 2: on ig and then Twitter. Don't forget merch. You can
Speaker 2: go to Morning Coombat Dot Shop. Of course, the poster
Speaker 2: is available for I think half off or something approximating that,
Speaker 2: and then of course the Stranger Danger logos on everything,
Speaker 2: including the two different kinds of shirts. They last until
Speaker 2: January thirty. First, we will have a show later this week. Well,
Speaker 2: we're gonna break down everything.
Speaker 1: I do have to go.
Speaker 2: I apologize, Chuck, safe travels, my friend, enjoy the meta apex,
Speaker 2: and I look forward to your coverage. All right, man,
Speaker 2: very good for Charles Mindenhall. I'm Luke Thomas. Thank you
Speaker 2: all so much for watching. We're out of here until
Speaker 2: next time. May all of your gains be loyal