← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
THE W.A.D.E. Concept - WEEK IN REVIEW - Moses Itauma Fight week, UFC PPV is GONE, Darren Till and Luke Rockhold face to face and more...
01:28:32
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Ryan Seacrest
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Podcast Host / Analyst
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Ryan Seacrest
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Podcast Host / Analyst
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Podcast Host / Analyst
This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? Business software is expensive and when you buy software from lots of different companies, it's not only expensive, it gets confusing. Slow to use, hard to integrate. Odoo solves that because all Odoo software is connected on a single affordable platform. Save money without missing out on the features you need. Odoo has no hidden costs and no limit on features or data. Odoo has over 60 apps available for any needs your business might have, all at no additional charge. Everything from websites to sales to inventory to accounting. All linked and talking to each other. Check out Odoo at O D O o dot com. That's O D O o dot com all right, so we are back on the way. Concept presented by the Ring Magazine. I am in North Carolina taking a little bit of a trip before I get into a ton of boxing commentary later this month. But today I wanted to talk to you guys about the fight coming up on Saturday. The best prospect that that the UK heavyweight scene has seen in a very long time. Moses Atalma is taking his biggest step up in competition. He's taken on Dillian White in a fight that I think is getting looked at the wrong way, but can also be a launching point for the Moses Atalma era, if and only if he overcomes his biggest challenge. What do I mean? The breakdown. Let's go. All right, so like I said, Moses Atama, this Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, taking on Dillian White. Dillian White, who is, I think, what you would consider now, honestly, a bit of a gatekeeper at heavyweight. Not because he isn't top of the world talent, because he is, but he's 37 years old. He does have a couple losses, is coming off a four fight win streak though, and does have wins over two wins over Derek Chisora, has a win over Joseph Parker, has beaten some big names at heavyweight, and has fought pretty much everyone at heavyweight outside of usyk. So I tried true test and more than that, more than a test for Moses Atalma. A real top five, top ten guy at heavyweight that can test him and put him in position to be talked about as one of the best in the world. Because the only people that have beaten Dillian White, Pavetkin, he avenged that loss. Anthony Joshua, who's looked at as one of the current generation's better UK heavyweights, Tyson Fury, probably this generation's best UK heavyweight. Those are the only three guys that have beaten Dillian White. So Moses Atama this Saturday has a chance to put himself, and we're gonna talk about pushing him too far, too quickly, but he's 20 years old and he has a chance to put himself in the same conversation as an Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, strictly off of this fight, not an entire body of work, not what they've done in their careers, not the titles they've held. But I am specifically talking about the level of boxer he can be and maybe already is at 20. And this fight is important for a ton of reasons. Number one, everyone is looking at this as Moses Atomas coming out party and it very well could be that. But let's not forget again, Dillian white, yes, he's 37, yes, he has lost to the top level guys, but we still have question marks on what Moses Atama can bring. I think he's the greatest talent I've seen at heavyweight in this generation. Strictly at heavyweight at his age, I haven't seen anything like it. The speed, the quickness, the precision, being able to punch forward and backward, being able to have power and finesse. He's got it all, he really does. It's just a matter of does he have too much too soon? 20 years old, is he ready for this moment? Being compared by people like me to the likes of Tyson Fury, aj. And they're pushing him like, you know, a Mike Tyson push when he won the heavyweight title at 21. So it's like you're seeing a lot of this big time pressure for this young kid that we don't know if he's ready for that yet. We don't know how he deals with the limelight yet. This will be his first real step into that. And I told you guys this. When Alexander Usyk just beat Daniel Dubois for the second time, I said, the only guy I see in the division, no disrespect to Joseph Parker, no disrespect to Kabiel, the only guy I see in the division right now that potentially can give Alexander Usyk a bit of a problem in a couple of years or maybe year and a half, whatever is Moses Atalma strictly because of his skill set, his speed, his agility, his. His light feet, his power, his eyes. Everything that I see with this kid, I'm trying not to get too excited, but he is the real deal. And the only problem is we're living in the unknown. We truly don't know what will happen when he keeps stepping up, because we've only seen what we've seen. We've only seen him go against guys that we think he should be. Again, only 20 years old. We haven't seen him fight past six rounds. He's only been scheduled to go 10 rounds. This one's scheduled for 12. So it's just that that matter of the unknown where you want to be excited about a prospect in boxing, but you just. You don't know just yet. But, man, he passes the eye test with flying colors. But again, this is no walk in the park. And Dillian Whyte is known for playing those mind games. Look back to the Anthony Joshua fight and how tried to get in AJ's head. Didn't work out for him very well, but he tried and he had some success with it, at least in parts. I can remember watching that fight and watching him throw that freaking axe overhand over the ref. It was a spectacle and I expect the same during this fight week. It's been a bit quiet so far, and I think that's the way Moses Atama likes it. If I'm Dillian White, I'm trying to pull out all the stops. Give this kid every mental game you have because you want to test him. You're not there to lay down for the youngster. He's. You look at Dillian White in camp and he's in shape. I mean, he is in shape shape kind of like what are you back on that stuff shape? No, but he is, he's in great shape. He's taking it very seriously. And obviously he's a bit of a more awkward guy as well to fight. Chopping hooks, big time. Power that Derek Chisora knockout left hook it left Derek Chisora flat. That's something. Again, you know, boxing math doesn't always work, but that's something Usyk wasn't doing, you know what I mean? So it's not really the same comparison, but you get what I mean. It's a dangerous fight for Moses the Taliban. This is what you could call a hype train derailer if Moses doesn't go out and take care of business. And you know, when we're on that subject, we talk about Moses upbringing. I've been watching a lot of the Zone in the Day of the Life camp stuff with Moses. He's talking about how, you know, when he started with Ben Davis, he didn't want to box, he didn't like box, and he had to, you know, fall back in love with it. And Ben brought him to that place. Fair play to Ben Davidson, you know, he's been around a lot of the UK heavyweight scene, trained Joshua for the Dubois fight, trained Tyson Fury when he came out of retirement. There's definitely something that Ben Davidson has that fighters attach themselves to mentally, right? He got Tyson Fury out of bed and got him ready for that Deontay Wilder trilogy when it looked like Tyson Fury was done for. I mean, completely done. And now you hear Moses Atoma talking about how, you know, Ben really brought him back for the, the love of the sport and really got him ingrained with the sport again. I just worry, you know, when I hear a 20 year old talking about, I didn't love this, I didn't want to. It's like you haven't even gotten to the hard part yet, you know, you haven't even got the dance. And again, this was when he was younger and he ended up going and winning European gold medals and all this. But what happens when you get some, you know, what happens when you get to the top of the mountain? What satiates your hunger then? Because right now the hunger is the same for everybody. It's chasing the gold, it's chasing glory, it's chasing legacy, right? And Frank and the boys over at Queensbury, they have really pushed him, you know, they've pushed him to the top of the heavyweight division with only 12 wins. And again, if he is to beat Dillian White, it's only going to go up from there. Like you can't go backwards after that, right? This is why, you know, some people wait before they give their prospect a high level fight. But then again, we're in an era where prospects are taking high level fights sooner and sooner and I love it because there is no ducking, no dodging, no let's pad your stats, let's get you experience. When in reality the best experience is iron sharpening iron in a fight. Yeah, that may mean dire consequences, but the test, if you're able to come through, it will make you better. Mike Tyson fought upwards of what, like 10 times, 12 times in one year at one point, like he was getting experience by going in there and he fought former Olympians and all this. So I like the trajectory they're on. I just, I wonder. I even saw him talking about Simon Jordan, how, you know, it's unbearable listening to Simon Jordan. It does his head in. Talking about Moses atalma again. He's 20 years old and now starting to get a taste of, of the other stuff, right? Not inside the ropes boxing, the media scrutiny, the, like I said, the bright lights, potentially the fame that comes out of this. How do you handle it? We have seen time and time again boxers that aren't necessarily ready for that moment yet. Soon, Mike Tyson, others that even Tyson Fury to a degree, others that grasp that goal and then go, well, what else is there? This was it, let's go party or let's go do something else in my life. And it spirals down and I may be reading too much into that. I just, you know, I want to see a high level prospect in boxing. I want to see that next wave. And I think this is the time for, especially for UK boxing, which they don't have. I think they have one world champion right now, or maybe they don't, which is rare for the uk. I mean, that's their second biggest sport they've dominated. It feels like the higher weight classes and even some of the lower ones in the last, you know, five to 10 years where America starting to have that 130 to, you know, 154 division kind of locked down. But now without a UK world champion, it does feel like the hopes and dreams of the next generation kind of rest on Moses atomic shoulders. A lot of pressure. It really is. We'll see how he deals with it this Saturday. And I'm excited, I'm excited to see that because it's put up or shut up time. As much as I say, oh, you know, let's not put too much on the kid. He's only 20 years old. Let's not, you know, let's move him. You can't really do that, especially when you're talking like Frank and, you know, Queensberry people are about him being the next great heavyweight. I think Frank had a quote somewhere where he said Moses Atama was going to have the star power of a LeBron James or a Tiger woods or somebody like that. And that's, I mean, as a, an American, I don't know how it is for Ronaldo or Messi, but when you're talking about those type of names, that is pressure of the highest order. That's LeBron James coming out of high school and being on Sports Illustrated with the words the chosen one above his head, right? That is being the next Michael Jordan. That is Tiger woods at the, the. I think it was the US Open in 2001 with the fist pump. And he's the newest thing. That kind of pressure can break people. I've seen it happen in combat sports way too many times. How many boxing prospects have we seen prospects jump up a little too soon. And unfortunately they pay for it with their career. So it's a fine line. But if we're going to go that route, which again, Queensberry's doing, he's doing Frank Warren's doing, everybody's talking about it, then you also have to accept that if he is to win this fight, that we have to talk about him like he is a world level contender for the heavyweight championship. I don't think he's the number one guy because that goes to Joseph Parker. Kabiel is probably somewhere in there as well. And Usyk, you know, he's 38. He says he's, he's just getting started. So we'll see how many more defenses. But I think again, if Moses Atama can beat Dillian White, I think he's a year and a half away, maybe one or two more fights away from a shot at the heavyweight championship of the world. And you're talking about a guy that at that time will be 21, maybe 22, which is fucking insane. But that's the way we have to operate based on what's being said about him, based on them jumping him up this quickly in competition, and based on this fight with Dillian White. Now, as far as the fight itself goes, you're hearing Moses Atoma say, we're probably going to get this done in round two or three. And again, Saying that when you're about to fight. Dillian White is crazy. To me, it's nuts because he's only lost to the top level guys and yes, they've been my knockout, but still, that's a big statement for, for a 20 year old, for 12,0 guy. But his skills pay the bills. But it's not his words that are making the statement, y'.
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Darren Till
All.
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Podcast Host / Analyst
It's his skills that are paying the bills. They're the things doing the talking. And his confidence rises from the fact that he is truly a nasty, nasty southpaw. Like I talked about earlier, the speed, the shot selection, the setups, the feints. By the way, again, I go on and on about Tyson Fury and his feints and how it sets up everything he has. And he's 6, 9 and he can kind of get away with fainting with his hands down and touching from the outside. Moses Atalma, he'll faint you to drop the bomb on your ass. And I'm talking left hand and then that lead hook, his right hand out of southpaw. That lead hook is dirty work. His last fight he touched old boy on the chin bow and had him doing a freaking Tinkerbell Cinderella dance, a pirouette and fall to the ground. It was nasty. Scooted on the ground a couple times for good measure, like he was in stomp the yard. So that right there is special timing, execution. I think that will be the difference. Again, the big question marks. What does he look like? If this fight gets pushed into round seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, potentially championship rounds, Jillian White can get into that zombie mode. Start walking forward, just put pressure in your face, hit you with those body punches, make you feel a little bit of that. And again, I'm not sleeping on Dillian White at all in this fight. Watching him train, looking how trim he is, he's going to show up in shape and ready to shut down this hype train. Which is why when I sit here and predict, I don't, I don't know if I'm going to go, oh yeah, Moses Atalma, next generation golden era heavyweight of the UK is going to knock him out in two rounds. I don't know about that. I think there's a possibility because of how sharp this kid is. I mean, he's like a freaking razor blade with boxing gloves on. But Dillian White can make this a tough fight for him. And if I'm a fan looking at this and asking myself, what do I want to see? Sure, I want to see Moses Atalma go in and shut the show down right? Completely. Lights out. We have a new prospect. He's on the scene. Not even just a prospect. We have a new contender at heavyweight if he goes in and completely flatlines Dillian White. But as somebody that looks forward to seeing how he grows over the next five to 10 years, I'm kind of going, man, he, he may need a little bit of a welcome to the show moment in this fight, and I don't want to wish a tough fight on anyone or whatever, but that may be what we're getting here, right? We may get a Dillian White that's like, hey, listen, all that other stuff's cool. All these other TKO is great. I'm different. You've gotten to the level that matches your own now. But saying all that, I just think this kid is special. I do. I think he is. Is for a heavyweight. The combination of power and speed, the feints, the timing, the setup, the execution, I don't know if I. I mean, Usyk is the guy that you remind you of, like all those things I said at the highest level. He's the guy that you think of when, like, who's the best at that? But now you're looking at a kid that's 20 years old, has those same traits to a degree. And let's see if it carries to the next level. Let's see if it carries to the world level like it has at every other level he's ever been at. So I'm just going to say it. The eye test tells me that Mosatama is going to knock out Dillian White. And honestly, I think it is going to be early. I do. I think just because it's so hard to get used to his speed and timing early on, if you can slow him down, maybe. But I haven't seen him slow down yet, right? I haven't seen him really show any scratches, any, any dents, anything like that in the arm. But if you can show him and you can get up here with a kid that's already questioned himself a couple different times before he got to the dance, before he got to the pro scene, then maybe we will see him struggle. Maybe we will see a flaw in the golden child, right? But as of right now, I'm, I'm, I'm taking Moses Atalma. I don't think it'll be a first round knockout, but I think that second third that he predicted might be spot on. I'm gonna, I'll say fourth. I'll give it the fourth round. Maybe he hurts Dillian White. In that third finally finds an opening right after a bit of a chess game to start, or about a bit of a slow start as Dillian wants to come out, get in his face, be aggressive and try to take control of the fight. And just the issue of being a little too aggressive with a guy that can box on the front foot and walk you down, but also probably is better as a sniper off the back foot. You get a little too aggressive, you overreach, overextend, and then Moses Atoma is there to bang the left hand and the right hook over the top. That's, that's the way I see this going. I see him using Dillian Whyte as a vehicle to showcase the announcement that Moses Atalma has arrived on the heavyweight world scene and is a legit contender for the world title at 20 years old. Now again, does he need a couple more fights? Sure, because we have contenders lined up and people that have already showcased what he's trying to do on Saturday. But Ites speaks loud and if you can go in and beat a guy. And Dillian White, who already has a win over Joseph Parker, who's the number one contender right now for Usyk's belts, has already beaten high level guys that Usyk has fought and that holds a bit of gravitas in the heavyweight scene. Like I said, Caballe is there and he should potentially get his shot as well. Most of the time on Saturday can prove he's the real deal because people are watching right now and there's definitely a lot of hope and a lot of hopefully and maybe, and I think he will be. But on Saturday he has the opportunity to turn that maybe into absolute. Does he get it done? I'm saying yes. By knockout, fourth round. But you guys let me know in the comments below. A game Dillian White trained his ass off. It may not be that easy, but in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this Saturday, Moses Atama versus Dillian White. What happens? I don't have those answers, but guess we'll find out. All right, folks. So breaking news. We are back here once again from Carolina beach on vacation. But the grind never stops because the UFC just sold its TV rights for seven point billion dollars to Paramount. And we have to break it all down for one reason amongst many that we're going to get into in this video, but the biggest being. Ladies and gentlemen, pay per view in MMA is dead. What do I mean? The breakdown. Let's go. All right, so as I woke up about to go to the beach today, the news hit across every major wavelength in combat sports media. The UFC's rights deal has been announced and boy, it is a big one. $7.7 billion to the winning bidder. And it's, oddly enough, one that I never saw coming. Not that I had inside information, but even people with inside information did not see this coming. The UFC is partnering and selling their TV rights to Paramount. Now, for people that are not in the United States, Paramount is essentially a major player and the US Nationally televised market. And we're not talking about just cable like you've seen in years past with ESPN or Fox Sports or any of that stuff. Now, granted, they had their own national providers like ABC and Fox's actual channel. We're talking Paramount, which in other words, is cbs, a national televised channel in pretty much every home in America, whether you have cable, subscription, whatever that channel is in your household. Now, couple of things about this deal is that all events are going to be a part of this package. It isn't just some sort of UFC Fight Night package. And then you still have your pay per views. Pay per views are gone. You are going to get to watch UFC numbered events, meaning when the deal starts, events like UFC 319, 320. I'm not saying those events specifically, but the numbered events, the big pay per views, the biggest end of the year card, International Fight Week, start of the year, those kind of Conor McGregor level cards, you're going to get to see those apparently on Paramount and apparently according to Ariel Helwani and even Dana himself today, talking on various shows, at least four of those events. I don't know how many they're going to run per year now, but at least four are going to be on cbs nationally televised. That's insane. So, yeah, pay per view is gone and you know, I have a smile on my face, but it's a bit of a nuanced situation. Number one, yeah, it's great for fans. I saw some number like UFC fans were paying $1,061 a year, are now going to be paying like $120 a year. Right now, I think as it sits, Paramount plus is either 599 or 799, which gets you pretty much all access to all Paramount properties. And for fans, that's a massive win. Think about what combat Sports specifically, because they're pretty much the only sport left in the pay per view business. What they've struggled with for years, and that is pay per view sales, that is paywalls, that is illegal streaming, trying to get fans to pay $80, $50, whatever, $25 to watch a pay per view level card already behind a paywall. When it was at ESPN, you had ESPN plus and then an $80 pay per view behind that. Now looks like it's going to be behind again, the Paramount plus paywall for most events. And then if you just want to watch the major cards, apparently those are going to be on cbs. That's again, this is huge, huge for fans because in an ever changing market, pretty much every sport is going away from pay per view. Even though it's kind of odd the way it works now because companies are banding streaming services together to almost make a new version of cable tv. It's very odd. I just saw an announcement with ESPN and Fox working on their direct to customer provider, being a collaboration and I'm like, this is just cable, right? So we'll see what happens with that. But this specifically Paramount, the ufc, apparently the way this thing went was they were only going to pick up a certain amount of events for the ufc. I don't know if that was Dana White contender series. I don't know if that was the Ultimate Fighter. They were only going to sparse out a couple of things for the ufc, which I thought was going to be the play here. I thought the UFC was going to go, okay, Netflix, take our pay per view events. Instead of being pay per view, now they're on Netflix. Dana White contender series over here. ESPN gets the fight. You know, I'm saying I thought there was going to be like four or five different places like you see with the WWE right now, right? You have smackdown on a different place than NXT and a different place than Monday Night Raw and a different place than the WWE Premium Live events. They're all over. They're not in one spot. The UFC said, we don't want to make you fans pay for this subscription, for that subscription, for this subscription. And I have to applaud it because that's one of the big gripes of all MMA fans. We got to pay for this and that and this. They just said you're going to get it in one place. At least here in the United States, I assume, you know, my UK people, you guys are still going to have TNT sports or however you watch the UFC now, But for fans here in the US this is a massive, massive move. And I keep saying for fans, for fans, because it, you know, and it was an entertainment product, it is a massive move. And for us to be able to enjoy the sport of MMA like we enjoy here in America, the NFL, which is predominantly on CBS or Fox. The NBA, which is predominantly on espn, ABC or your local NBA game time. Baseball, which is on Fox or espn or just you don't see a lot of MMA and for that matter, boxing on big time national broadcast television anymore, not here in the us. So this feels like it's a step up in legitimacy, honestly, for the sport of mma, because you feel like you're kind of playing where the big boys are now, right? Look at the adjective play. Sorry, Kevin Nash Reference. This feels like a major sports move. And again, you got to give credit to the people over at TKO. Sure they're going to line their pockets with this. $7.7 billion is an insane amount of money for a TV rights deal. Just, just to give you guys reference, I got a couple stats for you. Does everybody remember when the UFC sold in 2016 to what now would become TKO, they sold their entire company for $4 billion. Not the rights, not the archives, the entire fucking company. And almost a decade later, just their TV rights have sold for just over a seven year period, $7.7 billion dollars just for one year of being on Paramount. Plus the UFC is raking in a fourth of what they sold the entire company for just nine years ago. Also, I talked about other sports comparisons. The NBA, that's right, the National Basketball association, one of the most profitable leagues in the US. Their media rights deal is $24 billion over nine years. It comes out to about $2.6 billion per year. The UFC is at 40% of that while not doing what I mean, you're talking about. The NBA runs over a thousand games a year. The UFC, as it was announced today, they're going to do 43 events per year. 43 events for $1.1 billion per year. That right there is a steal, son. It just feels like MMA has become like it's taken that next step, right? When they got to Fox, it felt that way. When they got to espn, it felt that way. And now they're on cbs, Paramount, Paramount plus. But cbs. And you hear Dana, I'll run the clip talking to Pat McAfee and others about the potential for this big White House lawn card. They're talking about doing next year potentially being on cbs. Think of the millions and millions of people that are going to watch that event. Take a listen. July 4, 250th birthday of the United States of America, live on CBS from the White House. And now I know we still have some cynical UFC fans that are saying, well, we'll get the four big events, the four big ones that Dana's talking about and everything else will be crap because they don't have incentivization to do big time cards anymore because pay per view is gone. And to that I say, you guys just hate everything. Because not only does this give you more incentivization to build a star because you're not having to try to create one behind an $80 pay per view wall before they even become a star. Like think about the way the UFC is trying to build stars now. There's a reason you're not seeing the Brock Lesnar's and the Ronda Rousey's and the Conor McGregors and even the Chuck Liddell's and GSPS. You're not seeing them because one, you're in an era of pay per view where you're trying to build the star on undercards of people that aren't stars. So you're building under a card that not as many people are seeing as it is. And granted there's a lot more that goes into it, fighter personality, promotion, etc. But now in front of a national televised audience, whoever is on these undercards is going to get seen by so many more eyes, so many more opportunities to build stars. And honestly that right there is a talking point that I turn around and I look at the boxing game right now and saying are you watching this? This because this is why the UFC keeps growing and why boxing, especially without big he Turkey Alashik is kind of spinning around in a circle because what the UFC is doing is what boxing has failed to do for two decades now, which is get their together and find a way on one specific platform or to find a way on one specific platform without pay per view, without every single promoter being at every walks and ends of the earth. So you have to find this subscription or go over here or here's boxer and here's Dazn and here's this and here's that. That plus the, the different sanctioning bodies in boxing are, is, is a real problem for why we're not seeing that breakout major star. I mean again also comes down to personality and, and everything else. But my point being there's a reason that TKO got into boxing and yes, the Ali act will be something that we have to talk about as it continues to develop and how that's going to work with fighters rights and everything else. But they got into boxing because boxing shot itself in the and over and Turkey Alice Shake got into boxing for the same reason because there wasn't this Natural excitement about the sport. It wasn't growing. The sport was maintaining, not growing. And I'm telling you, if you're looking across the aisle and seeing what the UFC is doing, I think they're going to do the same thing in boxing, and it's going to take over the sport again. TKO builds relationships with these companies, build relationship with these partners, these TV rights holders. You're going to see the same type of thing go on in boxing. And I don't think these other promoters are ready for it. I really don't. And it. I only think they have themselves to blame, because you had years and years to figure this out and you didn't do it. And now the UFC is kind of showing people how it's done. Turkey has gotten in business with Dana White for this specific reason, With TKO for this specific reason. You're going to see it on Netflix in about four weeks. They're going to run a huge event with Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford. I got more videos coming out on that as we get closer. But not to get away from the point, I guess I just wanted to show you guys the UFC is miles ahead of boxing in this way. Way miles ahead. And it's going to keep their sport growing where boxing's tried to maintain. And just we have our two or three or four big stars, and outside of that, pay per view has been dead on that side for years as well. It's just no one wants to admit it except Turkey. I mean, honestly, Turkey's the one trying to pull back the curtain on pay per view and say, hey, listen, no more pay per views when we do ring events. Here we go. But this is just a monumental announcement and one that I think is going to change everything when it comes to combat sports. And also, this comes off the heels of another big announcement in the UFC that does have to do with this. You know, you have these pay per view gone, you have the UFC numbered events going to be, you know, easily accessible. And then you have the big four events that Dana wants to do potentially on CBS again, national syndicated television. And, you know, people are kind of throwing the jokes about, oh, the UFC's going to do four big events, and the rest are going to be in the apex. Well, normally I'd be like, yeah, that's bullshit. But also, that's not happening. Number one, we're not going to have 40 straight events in the. In the apex. But. But the ones that are in the apex, the apex events are getting expanded. It's like every complaint an MMA fan would have is getting just slashed as I keep breaking down this announcement. It went from, you know, no fans at the apex and people don't like that. And for good reason. It's not a great watching experience for the average fan to hear someone get flatline KO'd and just crickets after. There's no energy. The fighters don't feel it either. Right. It's just not a great place to hold fights because it feels like, like sparring almost. It doesn't even feel like an actual big time event. You're going to see 5,000 to 10,000 people in these arenas wherever. If it's going to be a build onto the apex or if they're going to put more seats in or however they're going to do it, they're actually going to have fans and these things are going to be centralized in Vegas, I assume still. But that's a massive win as well. So even when you don't have the big massive stadiums, you still get that big fight feel from a 5 to 10,000 fan base perspective. Now, the only real underlying thing that hasn't been addressed just yet, and I think some fighters I saw, Tom Aspinall was on Ariel show today asking about it. The question now as you move away from the pay per view model and you keep hearing me talk about a big W for the ufc, big W for the fans, big W for the sport, everybody seems to be legitimized. More things are growing, going in a great direction. Fans, questions, concerns, all that are being answered in real time. But what about the big elephant in the room, which is fighter pay? If pay per view points are taken away from champions, which is kind of their big incentive once they get the belt to sell pay per views, Guys like Tom Aspinall and Magomed on Goliath, Dricus Du Plessis, who's fighting on pay per view this weekend, Jack Della, Madeleina, Ilya Topuria, who's probably the biggest star in the UFC right now, and so on and so forth. What happens to that extra bonus they get for pay per view points if pay per view is no longer there? What's, what's the big difference now in pay for a champion? And, and how is that going to be addressed? I mean, for one, yeah, the fighter split has never been great in the UFC. I think it's somewhere around, you know, 18% of the revenue share goes to fighters. Even when that number soars to 7.7 billion over seven years and even when the UFC is probably going to be raking it in hand over fist at the gate still, meaning their ticket sales are still going to be massive. Now they're introducing new ticket sales, I assume to be a part of the Apex events and be in that crowd, all that stuff, you still want to know. Okay, that's great. Revenue is going up, but is the share percentage going up for fighters? I haven't heard anything like that. And even Tom Aspinall, he really had no idea, right, because it's all coming out in real time. So instead of pay per view points, are we going to get streaming points or, you know, is it going to be one of those things like a music industry change, where music went from record sales to streaming numbers? Is that how it's going to be now with, you know, bonuses for champions or, you know, whatever it is that that is going to replace pay per view points? I don't know. I really don't. And I know that's a big concern for people and it should be, right? Because selfishly, as fans, of course we want the best, most affordable option for us, the people paying to watch these fighters fight. But just like Fi said, the sport was going to grow to be recognized in the same space as the NFL and the NBA and the mlb, NHL. If the UFC is going to treat their fans that way, they should treat their fighters that way as well. Not to say that every fighter should walk in there and be on a $10 million. I don't know, I'm exaggerating, but. But you get what I mean. There does need to be some sort of compensation relief for the pay per view points going away. And I don't really know how much the pay per view points in today's era were as massive as they were in like 2016 with Conor doing crazy numbers. Like if you were on a Conor McGregor card, your, your numbers were going up instantly and Conor was making money hand over fist, you know, or even, you know, a guy like GSP or Brock Lesnar, who, they all made pretty decent pay per view points. I don't know if we've seen pay per views to that level and yield. So I don't know how much of a difference it would really even make. But regardless, there does need to be something in place and that needs to be a topic of conversation when we're talking about it because it is a really good thing. Like seeing this happen is a massive win for MMA fans, for MMA media, for the sport itself. But at the end of the day, the fighters fight and this also needs to be a win for them. This also Needs to be, yes, you're going to get more exposure, yes, you're going to get more eyeballs on the product, but they need to have more money in their pockets based on this because ultimately, yes, Dana, tko, Mark, Shapiro, Hunter, all those guys, the big wigs, they're the ones that are going out and getting these deals done and negotiating and all that, so, sure, reward them handsomely. But these fighters, unless they're stepping in the cage and providing highlight after highlight, guys like Ilya Suporia, guys like Alex Pereira, guys like Tom Aspinall, guys that are changing the sport, changing the level of the sport, and you hear about Conor McGregor potentially coming back. I know I say it in pretty much every MMA video, but he's two days a row training, so I'm getting a little hyped there. But without that, none of it happens. So, yes, selfishly, as a fan, this is great. I want it to be great for the fighters as well. But yeah, it starts in January 2026, so you have about five months, a little less give or take to get through the ESPN era, but this is it. ESPN is gone. No more ESPN plus sitting on a blank screen waiting for the commercial break to end and, you know, hopefully no more buffering issues and all the issues that came with them. Working with espn, I think everybody is on the same page with thinking it was not the greatest viewing experience for fans at times. Even just trying to buy the pay per view on the platform, it was rough, but you could say goodbye to that and you can say goodbye to pay per view because MMA just got a massive, massive upgrade for the fans, for the company, for the sport and for the fighters. But again, we're going to see how that plays out, payment wise and everything else, but the exposure, the sport's growing, Boxing better take a look. I'm telling you now, if you're not looking at this and you're in the boxing scene, this is what's coming. Promoters, everybody else that's sitting here and doing deals with different people, this is what Turkey, Allah, Shake and TKO are going to do. Make no mistake about it, that's not a prediction, it's a spoiler. There's a reason he brought these guys on board. This is that reason. And if TKO is able to get it done, being the newest kid on the block in boxing, I think that tells you all you need to know about the cesspool and the chaos and the just flat footed, melodic, quite frankly, lazy era that boxing has been in. This feels like what the PBC wanted. When they went to Amazon and didn't get, except the UFC got. And it's also telling that Paramount just did away with Bellator and did away with Showtime Boxing just recently over the last couple of years. And then immediately, once they signed their new merger deal brought the UFC in. I think someone also said that the deal is worth more than Paramount itself as a company is right now. Obviously, with the merger, you invest to make more money back and it drives their value up, but still, they just signed the UFC's TV rights deal for $7.7 billion. The entire company of Paramount, I think, is worth 6.6 billion. That shows you how willing they were to go in business with UFC and how trusting they are that MMA is on the upside, is going to grow, and that this is going to be the way forward in the future. I agree with them, but you guys let me know down below. This is massive breaking news. What happens next for the ufc? What happens in their first big event on cbs? Who's going to be fighting there? How's this partnership going to go? Can they even top this in 2016? I never would have thought they would sell for 4 billion. And then after that, I never in my wildest dreams would have thought they'd sell TV rights deals for 7.7 billion. But here we are. Nothing's off the table except pay per view because it's dead and the UFC buried it. And I'm going to be honest, to my appreciation and I think a lot of fans out there as well, what happens next with this whole thing? Don't have those answers, but keep your eye on this again if you're a boxing fan, because I'm telling you it's coming. But 2026 is when it starts. Like I said, 7.7 billion over seven years. Those are the answers we have. There's a lot more that we don't. But starting January of next year, guess we'll find out. It's the way concept presented by the Ring magazine. And today we are. Hold on, let me make sure this mic is working good. And we are taking a look at the face off between Darren Till and Luke Rockhold. Misfits 22 Ring of Thrones Thrones is on August 30, and it's headlined by Darren and Luke Rockhold. The last time we saw them face to face was at their press conference, and that was pretty much just complete chaos. I think these things are filmed on the same day as the press conference, though, so we'll see if they still have that same energy. I'm not sure who this man in the middle is. I probably should know, but he's hosting these two the main event. They're going to sit down and talk their shit and here's where things get a little more you're not trying to play it up for an audience in front of you. You are just there talking man to man, face to face with the man you're about to try to fight on a misfits main event. And I want to see how two of the highest level operators in combat sports, Darren Till, fought for a world title. Luke Rockhold held two world titles. And by the way, I got to get up close and personal with Luke Rockhold just a couple of days ago. That video's coming soon. But I want to see how they talk that talk when they're in front of each other. I want to see when the crowd's gone and they strip away all the pieces and the filler and they're just sitting there, man to man, what they got to say. So let's take a look. But before we do guys, you know I'm trying to stay jacked and you can too with the sponsor of today's Video First Form. 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- [39:55]
Interviewer / Host
Undefeated in Misfits, Darren Till takes on former UFC Middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, making his Misfits debut live August 30 from the Mantra Manchester AO arena, exclusively on design.
- [40:07]
Luke Rockhold
I'm not taking steroids, dog. No, I'm not.
- [40:09]
Darren Till
Hey, you don't look like that for the age you are.
- [40:12]
Luke Rockhold
No, I'm. I work every day.
- [40:14]
Darren Till
Yeah, but you don't look like that.
- [40:16]
Luke Rockhold
I work every day.
- [40:17]
Darren Till
No way. You definitely.
- [40:20]
Luke Rockhold
I'll test right today.
- [40:21]
Darren Till
Let's do test.
- [40:22]
Luke Rockhold
Test today.
- [40:23]
Podcast Host / Analyst
Any.
- [40:24]
Luke Rockhold
Test me today. I work. I work every day. Oh, my God.
- [40:31]
Podcast Host / Analyst
I don't know if Darren actually believes that Luke Rockhold's on steroids or if he's just trying to play mind games with Rockhold and just be like, look, you're not. You're not training that hard. And he tries to psychologically push Luke to train harder, maybe over train for this fight. Because we all know that Luke Rockhold comes from AKA's gym where they train like mad men. It is not even close to the level of like, a level of dedication in that gym is like, why they had at one point, 1, 2, 3, they had four world champions in the span of like, five years in that gym. Luke Khabib, Daniel Cormier, and Cain Velasquez, all in that gym at the same time. So there's no doubting Luke's work ethic. It's more about the mentality of what happens during the fight for Luke Rockhold and for Darren Till, you know, yeah, there's been some of that as well, but his has been mostly about work ethic and other things. So Darren saying you're not working hard is very interesting as well. Could be mind games.
- [41:22]
Luke Rockhold
I'll test. I'll test right now.
- [41:24]
Interviewer / Host
But before they meet in the ring, they meet here.
- [41:27]
Podcast Host / Analyst
This is Face who's man's who's hosting this? I like him. Looks official.
- [41:34]
Interviewer / Host
When you look into each other's eyes right now, what do you see?
- [41:37]
Darren Till
Well, just like, just an old, frail guy. He's not really about anything, is he?
- [41:43]
Luke Rockhold
You got some confidence.
- [41:44]
Podcast Host / Analyst
Just an old, frail guy. He's not really about anything. That is. Yeah, Darren's playing mind games for sure. This is clearly the same day as the press conference. And he's continuing to follow up with the whole, you're old you need steroids. Frail mentally, you're vain like he was. He was kind of cooking him. I'm not gonna lie. Darren was, was cooking with some of the stuff he was saying about Luke in the, the press conference and he's just following up on it here in the face off.
- [42:08]
Luke Rockhold
It's because he beat up two bums, huh?
- [42:09]
Darren Till
A little bit.
- [42:10]
Luke Rockhold
Like you better. You beat a wharf and the guy with two bums.
- [42:12]
Darren Till
Six years ago I battered Perry for fun and you just got annihilated. You quit, didn't you?
- [42:18]
Luke Rockhold
Quit? No, I realize it's a dumb sport.
- [42:21]
Darren Till
Yeah, it's a dumb sport. Petty's made for it. But like when we put gloves on.
- [42:25]
Luke Rockhold
You haven't, you haven't signed up. They have offered you millions of dollars and you haven't done it because you realize how dumb it is.
- [42:33]
Podcast Host / Analyst
Luke's like, yeah, you're smart, I'm not. That's why I love Luke because he's like, I realized it was a dumb sport after I almost got my teeth knocked out while fighting. But not before that. Not while training for a bare knuckle fight, not while seeing bare knuckle for the, I don't know, six or seven years it's been a thing, but only when Perry split his lip. And Luke, I mean, I hate saying fighters quit because I am not a fighter and I don't feel like it's very fair for me to talk about fighters heart and quitting and all that. But it's clear that yeah, that fight, Luke just stopped fighting. He was like, I don't want to do this anymore. He definitely did not want to continue fighting Mike Perry bare knuckle. So if, yeah, he quit. All right, there again, Darren Till using that. It's a little mental game I think is a genius play because all Luke can say was, oh yeah, you were smarter than me to not do it. And I'm sure Luke got a lot of money, but, but Darren Till can be like, yeah, we spied spa. You want to do a spa, mate? And they did. Years ago, Darren Till and Mike Perry sparred and apparently the, the story was Till beat the shit out of him.
- [43:31]
Luke Rockhold
You haven't, you haven't signed up. They have offered you millions of dollars and you haven't done it because you realize how dumb it is.
- [43:35]
Darren Till
I'm in the, like, I'm 32. You're like, what are you, 56 or something? Like that's. You should be in that, just getting paid. I'm still on a little thing. So like, yeah, I'm 32.
- [43:45]
Podcast Host / Analyst
What are you, like, 56 or something? This is like how I feel. My YouTube comment section talks to me when they call me Unk every day. I'm 32, y'.
- [43:53]
Darren Till
All.
- [43:54]
Podcast Host / Analyst
I'm still somewhat young, dude.
- [43:58]
Darren Till
And like, he just dog walked it like that, man. Dog will not fight me, mate. You can't use brilliant.
- [44:05]
Luke Rockhold
He would have took the fight a million times. You've been denying the fight.
- [44:07]
Darren Till
You were brilliant in Strike Force ufc. At the start, you were fantastic, but you were technical. You've got no, like, you haven't really got any balls and you've got no power.
- [44:15]
Luke Rockhold
You ran away from the hardest sport in the world in the prime of your life.
- [44:21]
Podcast Host / Analyst
That's a nice line from Luke. Darren says you were top. You were class in Strikeforce. And in the early days of the. Or his. Luke's early days of the ufc, that's because you were technical. You don't have any heart. That's interesting because again, there are some fights where you've seen Luke check out a little bit, right? The Paulo Costa fight, he was kind of in and out and kind of walking around, and you heard his coach screaming at him to get, like, locked back in. And then the Mike Perry fight. And Darren, again, he has been a fan of MMA and MMA fighters like Luke for a long time. He watched him on the come up, so he's not talking shit there. He's kind of talking truth. But Luke with a truth bomb back, he's like, yo, you left the ufc or they were done with you in your prime, so what are you talking about, Hart? How are you going to talk about my heart? You couldn't even keep going in the ufc. You had to come do this. Even though it's like both of them are trying to insult each other for being on misfits, but at the same time, they're both there. It's like, yo, you're not even in the UFC anymore. Well, neither are you. It's a Spider man meme of, we were once big time UFC fighters, right? And again, I don't look at it as disrespect to being misfits. Like, I think it's a great thing that guys that are either in that period of their combat sports career where they want to do something different or they need a change and they don't want to do MMA anymore, or, yeah, they're maybe done with their MMA career, can come to misfits, get a crazy bag and still compete and still have the adulation of their fandom. To root them on and maybe carve out a new lane for themselves. Mike Perry is carving out a new lane over in Bare Knuckle. So is the let me bang bro guy, what's his name? Julian something he's doing. He's made himself six fight win streak over there. Perry has come over to Misfits and become the main attraction right now with KSI, not boxing. So, yeah, I think this is a great avenue for anybody that wants to get a little switch up from the MMA scene or any other sports scene.
- [46:07]
Darren Till
Battered him.
- [46:09]
Luke Rockhold
He broke you like a.
- [46:10]
Darren Till
He broke me when he tapped me out. When he broke teeth. I had my hands down, just looking.
- [46:15]
Luke Rockhold
This is what you do.
- [46:15]
Darren Till
You do all this stupid stuff and I was just like, get out the way, get out the way. When it comes to cycling, I can't be beat.
- [46:20]
Luke Rockhold
He breaks.
- [46:21]
Darren Till
The best thing you've got over me is the left kick, your left kickers. But anything else, mate, I'm gonna bulldoze you. And I am.
- [46:28]
Podcast Host / Analyst
Don't forget Drigas did break Darren till like, again, I don't like to talk like I'm somebody that even knows anything about stepping in there in the Octagon, but Darren's right. He was out striking Drake. He was piecing him up, but Dricus was able to take him down over and over, gas him, and eventually break him and choke him. Both guys are telling truths to each other here. They don't want to hear it. Like, Luke doesn't want to hear that he's a quitter. Luke doesn't want to hear that after his two world championships that things changed or that he's vague or that he's not got the mentality for fighting. Darren doesn't want to hear that Dricus broke him and that he couldn't stay around in the prime of his MMA career in the only place he wanted to be in the ufc. They don't want to hear that stuff, but they're both telling the truth.
- [47:06]
Darren Till
Back to your career, Strike Force. I was a fan of ufc, but you're old now. You're just here to get paid. Come on, let's just be facts. So what then? So you train harder than me. You wait.
- [47:17]
Luke Rockhold
I train, I wink. I woke up this morning at 4am I ran.
- [47:21]
Darren Till
Okay? Yeah, you ramble. You're just doing skew.
- [47:23]
Luke Rockhold
I got off the flight. I got off the plane last night.
- [47:26]
Darren Till
Your body's frail.
- [47:27]
Luke Rockhold
You'll see.
- [47:27]
Darren Till
I'm fresh.
- [47:28]
Luke Rockhold
You can believe that.
- [47:29]
Darren Till
You believe that and you're on the.
- [47:30]
Luke Rockhold
You believe that. Everybody from your camp is on the steroids. Everybody's popped. From your. From what I understand.
- [47:36]
Darren Till
Have you seen my belly?
- [47:37]
Podcast Host / Analyst
So they're talking about steroids again. And Luke says everybody's poked from Europe. From urine's. From what I understand, that's local knowledge. From what I understand and that's local knowledge. It's like I think they did, but I know this from talking to the. I guess he means from talking to the locals. I'm not sure. I don't know who he's speaking about. That's pop for steroids and Darren's team. But I don't think Darren's ever been associated with peds in any way, shape or fashion like this is. This is a nothing burger for both guys. Like, Luke's not on it. Darren's not on it. Luke's always looked the way he looks now. It's, you know, he's looked that way consistently throughout his career. So I think that's a nothing burger there.
- [48:13]
Darren Till
I'm a big fuck.
- [48:15]
Luke Rockhold
Hey, I'm ready to get tested anytime you want. Trust me.
- [48:17]
Darren Till
There's no proof you are.
- [48:18]
Interviewer / Host
Do you see this fight being more of a technical battle or based on this animosity right now? Is this gonna be an all out war?
- [48:25]
Luke Rockhold
Hey, it's gonna be a fight. A fight's a fight. He got. I mean, this guy Darren Stewart put you to the ropes, Luke.
- [48:31]
Darren Till
I'm not that good. Really?
- [48:32]
Luke Rockhold
You're not that good?
- [48:33]
Darren Till
I'm not that good. You're really not that good.
- [48:34]
Luke Rockhold
You're really not.
- [48:35]
Darren Till
You look at my security. Even though, has anyone even come too close apart from Masvidal to beat me on the feet?
- [48:42]
Podcast Host / Analyst
I love Darren, man. He's like, look at my entire career. And he's right that on the feet he's had a lot of success. But you know, he's fighting MMA and talking about on the feet. I get it because we're doing boxing, but yeah, Jorge Masvidal did leave him unconscious. You know, it was controversial. Him and Stephen Wonderboy Thompson in that fight I think in his backyard, right? That was in Liverpool in the Robert Whitaker fight as well. That was a fight where Darren did hit him with a nasty elbow, but Robert ended up finding a way to win. So yes, Darren is somewhat right that on the feet as a striker he is far better than a lot of people. He's one of the best in the world. And even as a boxer, Darren Stewart, Anthony Taylor, they were no match. Darren Stewart was tough as nails and had his moments. But in this fight, the Difference absolutely will be how Luke Rockhold it just. And of course, I think everybody is leaning toward Darren Till winning this thing because of his experience as a striker, because of his ability. But if Luke Rockhold is surprising and he's able to be tough, this thing could change. And I don't want to say too much about what Luke looks like in person. You guys will see that in next week's video. But Darren is talking as if Luke has nothing for him, and Darren's just levels above him. And he may be right, but it's a dangerous way to think. If there's a lot of unknown in.
- [49:53]
Darren Till
That picture, I'm a mustard on the field.
- [49:56]
Luke Rockhold
Masvidal.
- [49:57]
Darren Till
Yeah. Like, okay, so you know what I.
- [49:58]
Luke Rockhold
Would do to Masvidal?
- [49:59]
Darren Till
It happens.
- [49:59]
Luke Rockhold
You know what I would do to Masvidal? Smoke him. He'd be done in a round.
- [50:03]
Darren Till
Okay, what happened with Perry then? These.
- [50:05]
Luke Rockhold
Mike Perry, this is bare knuckle. This is bare knuckle boxing. It's completely different.
- [50:10]
Darren Till
Okay, but he still dog walked.
- [50:11]
Luke Rockhold
And, you know, he didn't dog walk me. I didn't want to lose my teeth for a dumb sport.
- [50:15]
Darren Till
He was coming at you.
- [50:17]
Podcast Host / Analyst
This whole exchange is crazy because they. I don't know if they're even talking about boxing or if they're talking about mma, but Luke's like, you know what I would have done to Masvidal or to have smoked him inside one round. And I assume he means an mma. I'm not boxing. I don't know. But then Till says, what about Perry? And then Luke's like, well, now that's a different thing. Well, yeah, but it's closer to boxing than it is mma. I mean, I guess. But then Luke, again, being like, he said this to me too. He was like, it was a dumb sport and I didn't want to lose my teeth. He about lost his tooth when Perry cracked him. But I just don't know, like, what did Luke think he was getting into to? He keeps saying, oh, I realized it was a dumb sport. It was a dumb sport. It's bare knuckle boxing. You're punching with nothing on your hand. So, of course, just like in mma and just like in boxing, you run the risk of getting hit, and if you get hit, it's going to be so much worse, you know, aesthetically, because there's no padding in your hands. I don't know why Luke keeps using that as, like, the thing to go to. I realized at one point it was stupid. Not while training for it or when I Accepted it, dude.
- [51:13]
Darren Till
And you were throwing hooks like that. Like, what's that about mates? Get involved, get involved, get involved.
- [51:17]
Luke Rockhold
Have you ever put on no gloves and walked into the ring? No, because you're.
- [51:25]
Podcast Host / Analyst
I love Luke so much, man. Have you ever put on no gloves? Let me go put my no gloves on, son. I mean, everybody obviously knows. He's like, have you ever fought with no gloves on? But just the way he says it, have you ever put on no gloves? Like, what are you even saying, dude? Have you ever not put wraps on and then put on your no gloves?
- [51:44]
Darren Till
I've ever been. I have no gloves. Well, I'm basically fighting in my city center every Saturday and Sunday, and then I go and train Monday. So what are you about?
- [51:51]
Luke Rockhold
You don't think I put my time in on the street?
- [51:53]
Darren Till
You're not that guy.
- [51:54]
Luke Rockhold
This is what you think.
- [51:55]
Darren Till
You're not that guy.
- [51:56]
Luke Rockhold
This is what you think.
- [51:56]
Darren Till
I know you're not that guy. You think you're not that guy. I've been a fan of you. You're a brilliant Strike Force UFC champion. You're not that guy. You know, you're not that guy.
- [52:04]
Luke Rockhold
I am a lot more than what you think you're about.
- [52:08]
Darren Till
And let's not forget, you're old now. I'm very young.
- [52:12]
Podcast Host / Analyst
The thing about this is these two are talking like, neither of them know how to fight, when we all know they both do, but they're in this little separate conversation of, like, between people that know how to fight talking. You're not what you say you are. And, you know, vice versa. What Darren is saying is like, oh, you're not a street tough guy like that. And Darren's like, I am. Neither of them have to be street tough because we're boxing. They need to be boxing savvy, boxing tough, but also tactical and strategic and have some ability and some technique and some skill and some ability to adjust. All that is more important than the whole, I'm a better street fighter than you, but it's ego comes out and a little bit of machismo as well.
- [52:49]
Luke Rockhold
This is how you're building your confidence. I want you to build that up.
- [52:52]
Darren Till
Because all I know is I'm game. As for fighting, I love fighting. So I'm not trying to build anything.
- [52:59]
Luke Rockhold
I love fighting.
- [53:00]
Interviewer / Host
With that being said, Darren, or for both of you, what does a win here for I review prove at this point in your career and moving forward?
- [53:06]
Darren Till
Eating Luke does nothing for me. He's a bum right now, inn he wasn't a bum 10 years old, but.
- [53:10]
Podcast Host / Analyst
Right now, Luke's 20 years ago.
- [53:11]
Darren Till
So just, you know, me and Misfits are going to pay him well and that's it. I'm the star. Luke used to be the star, like he did, didn't he? He's a great champion.
- [53:21]
Podcast Host / Analyst
You're here now. I said this in my breakdown of their press conference, and I think I was more right about it than I even knew. I think he's being a little bit facetious when he says Luke's a nobody because Luke may not be the biggest, biggest star MMA ever produced, but he's a big name and a two time former champion in the sport of mma. Like, that's, that's not, that's nothing to slouch at. He's a main event guy wherever he goes. Main event in mma obviously had some massive moments there. Main event in bare knuckle, main evented, I think karate combat as well. And main events here on Misfits. What I think Darren means when he's talking about all this is he's talking to Luke saying, I used to watch you as an MMA champion in Strikeforce and in the ufc and you were the man, and now I'm the man. Now you're coming over to my thing, right? He said, oh, me and Misfits decided to pay you. Now Darren's the star now. He's the one at the marquee. He's the one given opportunities. And I think that's been more important to him for this fight than probably even money or anything else that he. In his mind, it's so important to him to be an MMA champion, even if it's not in mma, because Darren still looks at himself as a UFC fighter. He's not even looking at this as like, oh, Misfits boxing. It's like Darren Till versus Luke Rockhold and their UFC accolades kind of on the line. Like, he can be like, I beat a world champion. And that confidence, it gives him to potentially one day go back and fight mma. But I'm telling you, there's something about that that Darren loves more than just boxing. It's that it's Luke Rockhold and it's an mma, specifically UFC champion that he can potentially beat.
- [54:46]
Luke Rockhold
You're building this confidence off two guys that absolutely suck.
- [54:50]
Darren Till
No, I asked my coach today, when we're on the track, I'm like, is Luke saying like this? And he's like, not a cat in hell's chance because I'm putting proper working. I will not believe that.
- [54:59]
Luke Rockhold
But also understand I'm working harder than you every day.
- [55:02]
Darren Till
You know, I've watched all your work and you know you're on. You're on the track where Cheeto and that and you're just doing.
- [55:08]
Luke Rockhold
I'm not doing anything with Cheeto. I'm doing my own thing. I'm in a boxing gym every.
- [55:11]
Darren Till
Yeah, I watched in the boxing gym. You're not. No one's teaching you.
- [55:14]
Luke Rockhold
Because I'm using two pound gloves every day. You can judge it, okay? Read it while you want. Wait till they put on a bit of that when I'm beating your ass.
- [55:21]
Podcast Host / Analyst
I can confident that Luke does use two pound gloves every day to train in. It's one of the craziest things. I didn't even know people did it. But again, you'll have to stay tuned next week for that video. I tried him on and did some work with him and it felt like a fucking sledgehammer was attached to my arms. It made no sense. But this is an interesting kind of thing too, and this is why I said at the beginning of the video, I don't know if Darren Till's trying to play like psychological games with Luke, but you hear him even talking in his training, he's like asking his coach, he's like, I'm asking my coach. Do you think Luke trains this hard? And his coach is like, not a chance in hell. I know a lot of fighters do that and there's maybe, you know, you could read into some insecurities there. But I think every fighter has insecurities when they're coming up to a fight and they need some reassurance. Right? You need them sometimes, your coach to be there, to be like, yeah, no, he's not training like you are. Ain't no way he's training like you are. No one trains like this when in reality, everyone trains hard. I'm sure that some more than others. But I'm not going to chalk this fight up to who trained harder. I think it's going to come down again, just skills, pay the bills. Not necessarily just who trained hard.
- [56:20]
Luke Rockhold
I'll let you throw the first kick.
- [56:21]
Podcast Host / Analyst
This is what I mean.
- [56:22]
Luke Rockhold
Hey, if you're losing, you can throw the first kick.
- [56:24]
Darren Till
No, I wouldn't.
- [56:25]
Luke Rockhold
I'll let you throw two because here's.
- [56:27]
Darren Till
What I'll tell you about. I'm a realist. Your left kick is crisp. But we're just boxing and I am gonna smash.
- [56:34]
Podcast Host / Analyst
I liked what Luke said right there. You know what? If you start losing, you could throw the first kick. Matter of fact, you could even throw to call back to Darren Till saying he was gonna kick Tommy if he started losing. I like that. That was clever from Luke.
- [56:44]
Darren Till
I'm gonna be in on you whacking you and making you quiz and I'm younger and I'm probably stronger. Even though you're juicing up, man, that this is not, this is just me ready to come. So. And you're coming here, bear in mind, you'll find, mate, I'm gonna proper do you in Luke. I'm gonna batter you. Hopefully right after. I know you love yourself enough but you know I'm gonna batter you and I know that.
- [57:07]
Luke Rockhold
I want to put it on you.
- [57:08]
Podcast Host / Analyst
It's a psycho like way to think. Think number one. There's a couple things Darren said there, that Luke is flying to the UK and that's going to be a big factor. It is. I mean, depending on when Luke gets there, he might get there a little early and adjust. When I got there and I was fighting because I live in Orange County. Luke was training in Orange county in LA and I went to Manchester. Luke's fighting in Manchester. It was a big adjustment. It was a real adjustment for me. Granted, I'd never fought before, so there was a ton of nerves and you know, me just trying to even sleep with all of the incident anticipation and just wanting to get in there and you know, trying to make sure that it wasn't cutting weight but I was making sure that I wasn't eating a ton and you know, just keeping myself ready to go. It was a lot. It was training and sleep schedule being the main thing. But that's a major factor and I don't think we talk about it enough when we talk about where these fights are held. But that's an eight hour time difference. So your sleep schedule has to change like that. It's, it's, it's insane to think about. But outside of that, you know, Darren keeps prodding him with the steroid stuff. But even the way Darren's talking like, dude, I'm gonna smash you. Like the confidence he has that it's not even gonna be close tells me that again, Darren has built himself back in this misfit scene and that he relishes the idea of someone now coming over into what he's built and trying to take it away from him. I like that.
- [58:19]
Darren Till
You're not gonna put on me.
- [58:20]
Luke Rockhold
I'm gonna put it on you.
- [58:21]
Darren Till
No way.
- [58:21]
Luke Rockhold
You have no idea what I'm gonna bring to the table. I'm a lot different. You no one's ever seen me in boxing. No one's ever seen me step with shoes and gloves and movement and not having to worry about kicks. It's gonna be different, Darren, okay? I guarantee everyone. I'm gonna change a lot of opinions and I'm gonna put it on you.
- [58:37]
Darren Till
A little bit and see. Maybe you're right.
- [58:38]
Luke Rockhold
You got hit. You got hit by Stewart. You got hit by Stewart.
- [58:42]
Darren Till
You haven't got Dynamo and I am smash it right off.
- [58:45]
Luke Rockhold
I took it from Paula. I knocked out Joe Schilling. I took his. I took his best punch.
- [58:51]
Darren Till
Are you on about Joe Schilling beating old guys up and by. Hey, you shut up, Luke. Shut the.
- [58:58]
Podcast Host / Analyst
Why did Joe Schilling get wrought up? That's so. I mean, listen, Joe Schilling was a nasty, nasty striker in his day. But Darren says, Joe, she'll have beaten old people up in bars.
- [59:10]
Luke Rockhold
Look at the last two guys you beat, dog. It took you six rounds to put away that little dwarf.
- [59:18]
Podcast Host / Analyst
It's a good point. That's a good point from Rockgold. It did take Darren a lot longer to put away Anthony Taylor. Anthony Taylor's tough. Tommy Fury couldn't put him away. There's a lot of guys that haven't been able to put away Anthony Taylor. Like he was getting soundly beat, but a lot of guys can't put him away. Darren did, but that's a, you know, it's a good point. Darren did struggle to put away Anthony Taylor, who's not naturally that heavy of a guy, usually fights at around the 170, 175 range. And Luke is a big dude. He was bigger than me and we, you know, I'm saying I trained with him, did a little square up, see where I was at. I was a little taller, but he was just big. He was a big dude.
- [59:51]
Luke Rockhold
I'm just gonna be like, Stuart, Stuart can't even walk.
- [59:54]
Darren Till
The guy's got two left. Have you seen that guy? Have you seen the mush?
- [59:57]
Luke Rockhold
Have you seen me?
- [59:57]
Darren Till
You seen the bowler? Yeah, you're tall, but you do. You know what? You got a lot, but you got no chin. And that makes me happy. I sleep at night going, you sleep.
- [60:04]
Luke Rockhold
At night because you think I'm not working. You think I got no chin. But you're gonna find out everything.
- [60:08]
Darren Till
I know you're working, but you're old. You're old and your body, when you're waking up, your body's a little bit broken and it's like, oh, do I really want to go the track? So you're having days off, you're on the beach posting all selfie that you know you're not coconut waters. I'm in cold England. There's only, we can only train her. There's nothing else to do.
- [60:25]
Luke Rockhold
I'm putting the work in.
- [60:28]
Podcast Host / Analyst
Hey, man, I'm not gonna lie. Yeah. Trying to do hard work in Orange county is probably tough. Like you have to be, I think, even more mentally, like locked in to push yourself harder to go out and train hard when you live in Orange County, California, or when you live in like a really beautiful place because it's so easy to not do it. So you really do have to be committed if you're gonna train and live in California to being a fighter because there's way too many distractions. London, I've been there, not so much.
- [60:57]
Luke Rockhold
Putting the work in and I'm better than I've ever been. When I fought Paulo Costa, I off harder than you've ever off for three years and I didn't take care of myself. And coming back from that, since then, three years later, four years later, I've been working.
- [61:09]
Darren Till
I live up. Paul Costa's a bum. Some Brazilian bum. He doesn't eat, he can't even string a sentence together.
- [61:13]
Luke Rockhold
I'm just saying when I fought.
- [61:14]
Podcast Host / Analyst
Paulo Costa is not a bum. Especially after his last fight. Paul Acosta is fully back. And yeah, Paolo's had a little bit of a on and off career. He's taken a lot of time off. But if Darren's gonna call Paulo Costa a bum, he kind of has a similar career to Darren Till, right? Had some great fights, beat some tough guys, lost a world championship and hasn't gotten back to it yet. Darren, that's a. You can't go and say you're the best striker, this, that and then call Paulo Costa a bum. Because the careers are very similar.
- [61:46]
Luke Rockhold
I fought, fought when I fought that fight. Now I've been working non stop every day and it's different and everything's improved and universe really seen it. No one's ever really seen it because I test myself every, every dimension.
- [61:58]
Darren Till
Boston boxing. Do you still got your MMA stance? And it's different in boxing.
- [62:02]
Luke Rockhold
That's how what I found out I got a stance. Trust me, I boxed one of the best, some of the best guys in the world.
- [62:06]
Darren Till
Who? Who?
- [62:08]
Luke Rockhold
Hey, just watch. I've done it.
- [62:09]
Darren Till
Don't tell me watch. Give me the facts. Boxed. No, I'm in a gym with proper world champions.
- [62:14]
Luke Rockhold
I am, trust me, I, I do.
- [62:16]
Darren Till
I do work your coaches me but you're not. You're not with all the world champions. I actually am. All the guys are all professional boxing world champions fighting the likes of Camelot.
- [62:24]
Podcast Host / Analyst
I love how it's both these guys are like, I fight world champions in the gym, in my boxing gym. World champions go in and out. Luke's like, I spar world champs. Darren's like, whoa. Oh, you sparring? Luke asked him the same thing. And neither of them want to give names. I said, let's talk facts. And both guys went, no. Yeah, yeah, me too. Yeah. World champions. World champions. Fucking hella fuck this. I mean, I'm sure they're both right that they fight high level guys, but why won't. I mean, if you're gonna talk about sparring, which you probably, you know, it's one of those things you probably shouldn't. If you're gonna talk about it, just say who it is, you know, Otherwise none of this means anything. Both guys are just being like, oh yeah, no, you, you just fighting the likes of Canelo.
- [63:00]
Darren Till
There's the fox.
- [63:00]
Luke Rockhold
Yeah, I boxed.
- [63:02]
Podcast Host / Analyst
Lord.
- [63:02]
Darren Till
And I can't get. I need. I might need to spy if it's right, because guess what? No one wants to spy. Real quick, cuz I've knocked every sparring partner out.
- [63:08]
Podcast Host / Analyst
Did he just say, I need to spar you for this fight cuz I've knocked all my sparring partners out. That's hilarious, head guard.
- [63:14]
Darren Till
So just.
- [63:14]
Luke Rockhold
You want to spar before.
- [63:16]
Darren Till
Well, we can. Yeah, cuz I can't get sparring partners. Please don't want to spar me. Oh, you're scared.
- [63:21]
Luke Rockhold
I'm not. I'm not scared at all. The problem is if we sparred, there's no way you're making it to the fight.
- [63:27]
Darren Till
Well, that's funny because I spar like a fight. I just want to air people to. You're technical, Luke.
- [63:33]
Luke Rockhold
That's what everyone thinks. But I walked in the ring last week against a 6 foot 6, 260 pound professional boxer and I lit him the up.
- [63:41]
Darren Till
I'm not asked. You think I'm asked? I'm not arsed. I fear you. Yeah, of course. But that's where you're wrong because you're saying you don't fear me, you should fear me.
- [63:48]
Interviewer / Host
This Bridgerweight title is on the line.
- [63:50]
Podcast Host / Analyst
It's so weird. I don't. Like Darren is talking that. Talk to him like, yeah, I believe what Darren's saying. Like, yeah, I go in there and spar people. I just fight him. And again, there's that Mentality, difference. In his mind, he thinks, like, I'm a proper fighter. When things go bad, I'm still gonna fight. He's like, luke, you're technical, but when things go bad, you'll quit. And that. That is the thing that I think Darren is really holding on to and saying, that's what separates us. Like, I'm technical, I'm a good striker, but even when I'm not having my best day, I can get through it. Even when someone's putting on me, I can come back. Luke, if things go wrong for you, you're gonna quit. Because I know you're technical, I know you're good, you're strong, all that. But when someone stands up to you, when someone pushes you back, you quit. Keep that in mind for the fight, because I think that's from psychoanalyzing this thing. I think that is such an important point that Darren keeps going back to, and Luke's just like, no, I'm different. I'm different. Which, again, I don't. Could be deflection, could be the truth. But I'm hearing a lot from Luke saying, like, I'm different now, and things are different now, and I'm working harder now, and things are changed and no one knows and no one's seen it, and it's a lot of hype, but I need to see it. That's the biggest thing I need to see. I've seen it from Darren. I need to see it from Luke.
- [64:56]
Interviewer / Host
On the line for both of you. Start with you, Luke. How much does that belt mean for you for the next stage of your career? Where does that belt take you?
- [65:03]
Darren Till
I don't give a. About the belt. Let's just get it straight. He's got one thing I wanted. The UFC title. Yeah, I don't care.
- [65:09]
Podcast Host / Analyst
I called him. I'm sorry. I'm laughing. I've told. I've told you guys that I don't think the crossover boxing belts should be as big a deal as they are. I get it. You know, it's. It's. It's a symbol. It's symbolism for being the best in misfits. But I've never understood why we even have belts. Because we just want to see fights. We want to see. It is what it is. The belts, I'm not going to gripe about them anymore, because they're here, whatever. But the fact that both these guys go, yeah, fuck that. It's because, again, they see themselves as the UFC top tier level guys. And you heard Darren say it right there. I Called this stuff. The only thing that's motivating Darren externally is the fact that Luke Rockhold is a former UFC world champion. And Darren always saw himself as a world champion level fighter. So when he beats Luke, he in his mind can justify that he was world championship level. That's what he said right there. I see a UFC belt when I look at him. That's what I've been saying.
- [66:08]
Darren Till
Care about that belt. What, are we even fighting for the belt?
- [66:12]
Interviewer / Host
Yeah, you are.
- [66:13]
Darren Till
Well, I don't give a what's fighting.
- [66:15]
Luke Rockhold
We're fighting for one reason. One reason. Homies. We know what we want. We want the money. We want to right the wrongs of this stupid. This world that is boxing. And there's this clown and someone's got to put him down. It's going to be me for you.
- [66:29]
Podcast Host / Analyst
What the fuck is he talking about? Nah, bro, I love Luke. That's awesome. We got to fight the wrongs of this world. World of boxing. Someone's gonna put this clown down, and it's me. Bars.
- [66:43]
Interviewer / Host
Luke, how does this one play out?
- [66:45]
Darren Till
Don't just whatever I want to. Smash me. Be a realist.
- [66:47]
Luke Rockhold
Oh, whatever way I want. I'm gonna. I'm not.
- [66:48]
Darren Till
You can't say that.
- [66:50]
Luke Rockhold
Darren's gonna come. Darren's gonna come. He's gonna play his game. But he doesn't like pressure. He doesn't like pressure. He doesn't understand how hard I hit. I can. I can. I can move him around.
- [66:58]
Darren Till
You don't hit hard.
- [66:58]
Luke Rockhold
Oh, mate, you don't, guy.
- [67:02]
Darren Till
You don't hit hard.
- [67:04]
Luke Rockhold
I hit hard with both hands. I can put people down with both hands.
- [67:07]
Interviewer / Host
Obviously, everyone who's watching this knows.
- [67:10]
Podcast Host / Analyst
I mean, again, Luke was never known as like a hard puncher in mma. He was definitely, like Darren said, a hard kicker. But Luke is a 210, 15 pound guy that's cutting down naturally. Bigger than a lot of the guys Darren Till has fought. He's going to hit hard. Maybe not, you know, boxing hard or you know, someone that's punched their entire lives hard, but Luke's going to crack. Garrion can't just rely on the fact he's going to take punches to get. I don't think that's the right move for Derek.
- [67:34]
Interviewer / Host
We've got a serious heat coming off this matchup. Two fantastic strikers, two of the best southpaws ever, in my opinion. To do it, guys, thank you. Don't forget to tune in August 30th. Live from Manchester AO arena only and.
- [67:46]
Podcast Host / Analyst
Exclusively on Dazn banger of a face off. Okay, so thoughts again. I think Darren is so giddy to fight Luke because he sees him as what Darren sees himself as. Like, he sees himself as a world championship level fighter, and Luke represents that. Even if Luke is not the UFC champion anymore, Darren always wanted to get there. That's why he relishes this moment. And he's super confident, right? I mean, he's telling Luke that he doesn't have the mentality for it, that he's going to quit, that Darren's going to make him quit. And I believe it when Darren says, like, hey, you're not about that scrapping fight. You're about being technical. You're about, when it comes down to it, you're better than the other guy, which is why you'll win. But Darren's essentially like, listen, you're not better than me. And even if you were and things went bad for me at certain points, I still would have something for you. I would still find a way to come back because my mentality is different than yours. Darren sees himself as a fighter and sees Luke as an athlete or a sportsman. And, you know, the age and the fact that Luke is not a natural striker or a natural boxer like I think Darren is. Realistically, again, I love this stuff because you get to see a little bit of mentality, and Luke is essentially saying, I'm the best I've ever been. You haven't seen this. You don't know what. I'm going to bring all that. And it's great to hear, but I've heard a lot of guys say stuff like that. And then it ended up being, you know, not as great as what they thought based on their sparring. Because you can't necessarily replicate a boxing match even in sparring, even if you've been an MMA world champion. The match itself is different. The speed is different, timing is different, distance is different, and it's just you can only do so much in sparring to get yourself ready. But both guys are confident. I will say what I have seen from Luke is a bit different than I expected, and he is. Is a lot better with his hands than I expected. Being an Aaron person and knowing what I did know about his MMA career, so maybe he's right to tell people, do not sleep on him as a boxer. I just. I don't know how it's going to translate when Darren's in front of him. But if you want to see that, stay tuned. This week, Me, Luke Rockhold training vid coming soon. You don't want to miss it. As far as what happens in this fight, listen, I don't have those answers. The one answer I do have is this is going to be a banger of a card. Darren Till, Luke Rockhold in the main event, Tony Ferguson versus Salt Pappi in the co main event. A ton of other great fights on Misfits 22. You don't want to miss it. August 30th. I'll be there. As far as what happens, don't have those answers but guess we'll find out. All right folks, so we are back on the way concept presented by the ring. But today folks we are talking MMA because UFC 319 is just around the corner. You do not want to miss it. Khamzat Chimaev taking on Dricus Du Plessis for the UFC Middleweight Championship of the World. This fight, my opinion is going to go one one of two ways. We're going to break it down. We're also going to talk about the co main event and the Aaron Pico title run starting Saturday in my opinion, as well as some other fights on the card. But the main event, like I said, Hamza Maev, Drikas du Plessis. I see the path to victory for both guys being very straightforward and very simple. But I could be wrong and it is fighting 50 50s at the end of the day. But let's take a look at my final predictions for UFC 319. But before we do, I want to say a big thank you to to the sponsor of today's video, DraftKings. That's right folks. UFC 319 is back in the Windy City, Chicago, Illinois for the first time in six years. And you can get in on all the action thanks to DraftKings Sportsbook. The official sports betting partner of the UFC. 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DraftKings sportsbook, the Crown is yours. Thank you to DraftKings for sponsoring this video. Always, always gamble responsibly. Now. Now let's get into my final prediction. All right, so like I said, UFC 319 this Saturday in the Chi Town, Chicago, Illinois and this is a banger of a card, man. Kai Asakura, Tim Elliott to start out the main card. I'm looking through the prelims now. We got King Green on the prelims, Gerald Meerschart, Jessica Andrade, Alexander Hernandez, and Chase Hooper. Man, feels like Chase Hooper is like in perpetual limbo there. Edson Barbosa on this card, man. Yeah, some OGs in the game on this one. But we're going to take a look at the main card and we're going to start with the Michael Venom Page and Jared Cannon near fight. I mean, listen, no one's been able to strike with Michael Venom Page since he's got in the ufc, really since ever outside of Douglas Lima hitting him with an uppercut as mvp. Tried to be all snake like and flatlining him there. But in the UFC especially Ian Garry had to grapple with him. He beat Chara at his own game. He's just a difficult matchup for a lot of people. I don't care if he is close to 40 at this point. And he got into the UFC late. He's fighting a guy in Jared Cannonier that's also up there in age. He also has that weakness of, you know, being able to go strike for strike with some of the higher level guys. And also Jared can be exposed going strike for strike with some of the higher level guys. But the main factor I see here is obviously the, the weight that Michael Venom Page is fighting at, it's 170. It's 185. It's 170, 185. He's bouncing around a little bit, but also his height, his reach for 170 or 185. It's kind of like Kevin Holland when you watch him fight. It's kind of insane to see how much taller he is than guys even at 185 and his reach is incredible. He's got a 79 inch reach there. So I don't know if Jerry Kendir is going to do a ton of grappling. If he does, he can slow this fight down and potentially make it a boring decision, kind of like Ian Garry did to mvp. But if this does remain a striking bout, MVP will win this fight, in my opinion. I think he has enough ability. He's got great timing, he's obviously explosive. Potentially. You could see Jared Cannonier tries to grapple. I don't think Jared Cannonier is a big time grappler in his own right, so maybe that attempt makes him more fatigued, opens him up to more shots. I mean, we're only going three rounds here and I think Jarrett has fought an average of 15 minutes or so in the UFC and that's probably because he's been in five round fights multiple times now. But I don't know. I think MVP can win a decision here. I think Cannonier, if he does try to grab a little more, you think potentially there's a chance for him to win a decision. But I think striking, if we're going to go strikes for strike, Cannoneer is more open to being it, but also more open to hitting. Michael Venom Page, you see his strikes landed per minute. Strikes absorbed per minute. But when MVP does throw, he throws with high velocity, looking to damage and looking to hurt you. So, you know, fight could go either way. I'm going to rock with mvp, though it may not be a super flashy performance and it may be something where he wins by just a little bit more striking, just a little bit more damage. But, but I can see this being a bit of a stalemate coming into that third round and one big shot making the difference. And I think MVP will be the more accurate guy, take less damage this welterweight bout. Next, Carlos Pratas and Jeff Neal, two just scrappers, dude. Two, two guys that are really going to go for it. I hope in this fight. You look at their shots, landed per minute. Jeff Neal, his output a little bit higher, but he also absorbs more per minute. Carlos Prattas, when he's not out here chain smoking and destroying his lungs. He is a wizard on the feet, obviously. Tattooed Muay Thai on his chest for a. The guy is a high level striker. So again, you're looking at another fight that I think is super close. But I just think Carlos Pratas, for whatever reason, maybe it's his reach, maybe it's the way I've watched him fight, the way I watched him fight Ian Garry after being controlled in that fight for a long period, still having the ability to potentially knock you out at any point. Jeff Neal's been in there with some of the toughest guys at welterweight, but I'm going to lean Carlos Bratus here. I do. I think he ends up getting this done. Yeah, I mean, you even look at their takedowns and take down defense, these guys are not going to go to the ground. At least you wouldn't expect them to end up in many grappling exchanges outside of some clinch work and you know, reseparating from there and getting back to the striking. I'm going to go practice. Both guys are getting knockdowns in each fight they're in. Pratas has two per fight average. I can see Prata stopping him. Yeah, I can see that. Let's go. Pratas by stoppage. Then we get to the co main event and oh, I am excited about this. I have put all my eggs, eggs in the basket of Aaron Pico making his debut in the ufc. I love this kid, I really do. And listen, Rome Murphy is a high level prospect making his way through the rankings in his own right. Number six in the world at featherweight, just come off a five round decision where he pretty much beat the out of Josh Emmett and dominated that fight. But I'm telling you right now, even the UFC don't even have Aaron Pico's debut picture up here. Man, they got him as a blank slate. I know he's 13 and 4 in MMA. I know he lost his debut. I know that Aaron Pico is a Bellator guy and he's coming over. And Bellator guys haven't had a ton of success in the ufc, even though people love watching Michael Venom Page and Michael Chandler and some other guys as well. But the point is this I think could be the time where we finally see the prophecy come to life for Aaron Pico. If you guys don't know who Aaron Pico is, and you know, you just started watching MMA four or five years ago. Aaron Pico back in 2016 I think was the time period, maybe even 2015, I'm not sure, was supposed to be the next big prodigy in mma, this kid was supposed to be the next coming of. I hate to put this on him, but Roger Huerta, right, Like if you don't know who that is, he was like the first MMA fighter on Sports Illustrated. But he was supposed to be, you know, Jon Jones reincarnated. He was leading the idea that MMA was practiced as a Complete martial art versus being a specialist coming into MMA like Aaron Pico had already. I think he was 17 years old and one match away from qualifying for the USA Wrestling, like Olympic wrestling team. He was a Gold Gloves boxer and he was mixing the martial arts when he made his pro debut. And then everything kind of went left for a while. He lost his first fight, got knocked out, and I think his fifth or sixth fight lost a couple more times. And you thought, okay, maybe the hype trains over for Aaron Pico. But after that, quietly, Aaron Pico has gotten better and better and better in Bellator. I get it. Competition is not the same as it is in the ufc, clearly. But you watch his style. He's not a big time kicker. It is mostly offensive boxing. Body work, hooks to the body. He's knocked out some guys with nasty lead. Hooks to the body and upstairs. And then clinch work and grappling. He's got good knees in the clinch. The only problems with Aaron Pico is that he does drop his hands and wants to get into some firefights sometimes in the clinch and gets caught there and clipped. He's been knocked out doing that a couple times, but it seems like he sured that up. He's implemented his wrestling more into his game when he was a youngster, you know, I think he's 28 now, but when he came into MMA as a pro, he was 18. He was looking to to knock people out with his hands. Wasn't utilizing his almost Olympic level wrestling at 17 years old, you knew he was bound for the Olympics, wasn't utilizing it, and now he is. So LaRone Murphy taking this against Pico, that was a big time shot for him too because he didn't need to fight an unranked guy in his debut. Coming into the UFC from Bellator as the number six featherweight in the world, so this will be an interesting fight. Murphy doesn't really impress with his power, at least not to the degree Aaron Pico does. But he's able to control fights and that's got him to this number six spot. Pico, very flashy at times, has some big time knockouts, has some big time finishes, but can he sustain at this level? Right. This is, like I said, the big boy leagues. So we'll see. Purely off bias alone, I'm taking Aaron Pico, but it's a lot to ask. It really is. It's a lot to ask for Aaron Pico to come in and face the number six guy in the world and, you know, and swim with the sharks here. Because Larrone Murphy certainly is that, especially over his last couple of wins. Josh Emmett, Edson Barboza, Dan Ige, he's got all those and he's 16 0. So this is, this is a big time step up. I'm going to say Aaron Pico, again, pure bias because the matchup itself is pretty interesting for the way lerone Murphy fights. He could be a bit of an issue for Pico if he keeps this thing at distance and kind of frustrates Pico because he can't get to him with his hands or he's not able to grapple with him. But I do think Pico grapples him. Maybe a submission on the table here for Pico, I don't know. But I'm going to say he gets it done by some sort of stoppage because I think he needs that. I think Aaron Pico needs to arrive in the UFC on the main stage of MMA with a big time statement and I hope he does that in the co main. Then we get to the main event of the evening and this one has take your pick written all over it, right? I have looked at it and looked at it and I can see multiple avenues for both guys, but realistically you come down to two choices, at least in my opinion. Number one, it's an early versus late fight. Early on Khamzat Chimaev, very dangerous, A very, very unique and talented grappler that doesn't do things other guys do as far as how he enters grappling, how he holds you down, how he continues to attack, how he systematically breaks you down once he has a hold of you and puts you on the fence. When you watch him shoot at guy's legs, he doesn't really do it from conventional spots, right? Whether it's underneath a rider left hand and he ducks under and gets your way, he is attacking almost like not in the same way, but kind of in the same way. Habib used to attack diving at your legs from long range, right? It's something that he'll shoot from what looks like five yards away, like he's, he's not even close to touching you with a right hand or a jab or a kick. And here he goes diving at your ankle or diving at your knee and if he gets a hold of it and he works his way up, then it's almost ggs from there. So that's, I would say, what everybody understands is the most likely scenario for Khamzat to overwhelm Dricus with his grappling early and I'm not saying he has to land the first takedown, but if you watch him in the Robert Whitaker fight, he came out southpaw and did a lot of fainting, did a lot of, you know, stuff with his legs and his feet to try to get Robert Whitaker to settle down a bit or just to use that to pressure Whitaker against the cage, and then from there, shot at the legs. Got it. Broke the jaw or whatever happened there. We all know the rest. I don't know if that is going to be the case, because Dricus du Plessis has such a will to win that even when he's in bad positions, even when he's being outstruck, Darren Till, Israel Adesanya. Or when things are not going his way and he needs to create a moment, he's a great scrambler. He's unorthodox. He's a bit awkward, and he just finds ways out of bad spots and turns them into really good ones for him. I mean, even in the Robert Whitaker fight, that fight goes from Robert Whitaker having, you know, a good amount of success, at least for a bit there, to just drickish running him over out of almost nowhere. It's like, what the. The Darren Till fight before the. The deviated septum got fixed. He's on the feet getting pieced up by Darren Till, who's no longer even in the UFC, even though he'll be fighting on misfits August 30th. I'll be there, make sure you tune in. But then he out grapples Darren Till and then figures out how to beat him, chokes him, and it's just like he has a will to win. What did he say? You know, I'm willing to die in there, but more importantly, I'm willing to kill a man. And I know that sounds super morbid, but the case of Dricus Du Lessse is kind of true. He fights like that. Like every last breath is dedicated to winning. Like, no situation is without hope. Now, again, if Khamzat gets that freaking arm under his chin and starts to squeeze, it may not mean shit. What I'm saying right now, Like, Khamzat has a different level of strength and size, apparently, according to Twitter, because today they had a little face off that we're going to take a look at. This is the first interaction apparently they've had during fight week, week, little handshake, and that was it. Now, if you watch this on Twitter, the MMA experts will tell you that both guys mogged each other, which I think I'M a little too old to understand that Khamzat was fidgety, that Drickus was fidgety, that he emasculated Drus, that Drickus humiliated Khamzat by tapping him on the shoulder and sunning him. In other words, none of that shit means anything. Yeah. You can take away from this if you wanted to post a screenshot that Khamzat is tall, right? He is. He's about, I think, six, three, six, four. He's a tall guy and for that height and at this weight, he's very strong. He's not, you know, a bodybuilding, just super jacked up monster like that, but he is strong in all the right areas. He's got great grip strength, his legs are super strong and he's explosive. And for a tall guy, when he does shoot across the cage like he does on seemingly everyone after the Gilbert Burns fight, which we'll come back to, that's a massive advantage. Having his height, being able to, you know, his reach, being able to get to your legs and work his way up, you know, Dricus, on the other hand, is tall in his own right, you know, but he's not the most towering figure at middleweight. But he doesn't have to be to do what he does to people. Israel Adesanya towered over Dricus too. And again, Drikas found a way to beat him and had a reach on him in the striking and Drikas found a way to beat him. So that stuff doesn't really matter to me. You'll get the body language experts and everybody else talking about what matters and people looking into it. But that, that's complete bullshit. What isn't bullshit is the idea that Khamzat can be beat. I think right now because he's 14 and, oh, because he's pretty much steamrolled everyone. There's an aura of invincibility around Khamzat, but it seems people have a lot of short memory because we did just watch him arguably lose to Kamaru Usman in their fight, or at least have a draw in their fight. You could argue that Gilbert Burns, while Gilbert Burns may not have beaten him, or maybe you thought that Gilbert Burns did. He put hands on Khamzat Chimaev and made Khamzat rethink about standing there and striking with even the gatekeeping level of striking ability at welterweight, let alone middleweight. So, right, you've seen where some weaknesses have been exposed from Khamzat Chimaev not being able to go strike for Strike. With Gilbert Burns, we have a high level kickboxer. As much as y' all want to say Drikus is just throw and pray he is. It might be awkward, but it worked. And he is a high level kickboxer. He knows what he's doing in there. It is unorthodox and I don't know how much Khamzat can train for it. And listen, I know Khamzat was in Orange county training. He was right there at Jackson Gym. He was up in LA doing his thing. I know Arman was out there with him. Aaron Pico was out there with him, and they were getting work done. So I don't doubt that Khamzat will be ready at all. I don't doubt that his conditioning is in good shape. But since Trick has got that freaking septum fixed, I've watched him become an almost unstoppable machine of cardio where nothing seems to really break break him. Where Khamzat I've seen get tired when he gets into the later parts of fights and the striking's not as effective and the grappling is not as effective and he's standing there taking punches and not necessarily as explosive and active and looking for those takedowns like he was earlier. And I'm mainly talking about the Gilbert Merns fight, but you know, Kamaru Usman as well, he slowed down a little bit. So over five rounds, this is why I said one of two things happens. Khamzat early with his grappling or Drikus wears him down and takes over late in this fight. And I don't know, I don't know because Khamzat is so strong. And this is where I think a little bit of the conversation changes. If Hamzat isn't able to stop Drikas early and Dricus is able to keep that pressure mounting and Khamzat starts to gas a little bit. And again, he's kind of floated between weights and he's had the sickness and he's been out for long periods and all that. This may be the point where all that catches up to him in a fight where it's not three rounds and in that third round he can just let the gas tank flow and hope for the best. He's got to go the full five and take the belt off the champ. I think this is gonna be that moment where it finally catches up to Hamza. Not because he's not trained well, he's not conditioned well, but because the style in which he fights is so explosive so early on and so offensive control, grapple heavy, that their arms eventually are going to get tired. Unless your name's Merab d'. Volashvilly. And then I don't know what you're on, but maybe, maybe Khamzat's cut from the same cloth. We just haven't seen it yet. So there's a lot of we don't know what we don't know that's the biggest problem here. So when it comes down to it, like I said, I think it's a, it's a two way street that we're looking at for this fight. I think Khamzat very dangerous early. I think he starts to fade a little later. Drikhis, if he can weather the storm early, and trust me, it's gonna be a freaking thunderstorm, hailstorm, it's gonna be a fucking hurricane. When Khamzat walks through that first round, he may be a little patient and feigning to start out, but as soon as that first shot comes out, Khamzat's gonn to the fucking wall. So Dricus mentality and the way he is just cut down champion after champion after champion makes me want to lean Dricus Du Plessis and still, because what I thought would give Dricus real problems would be a taller guy that could strike from the outside and pick him apart. And Izzy did give him those problems. I think Izzy was probably up in their fight before. Again, Dricus just found a way to scramble and jumped on top of Izzy and ch. Choked him. I just, I think that is probably the best way to handle Dricus. Now again, does Drikas have the same grappling as Amjat Chimaev? No, but he doesn't have to. He just has to have enough to defend himself and get back to his feet. And that may mean time and time again early on, but if he can weather that storm, I think he has a really good chance. The problem is I could be saying all this and Khamzat could go out there, shoot once, take him down, get the arm under the neck, neck crank or rear naked choke and it's over like that. And it's just like, well, okay, nevermind, none of this shit mattered. So, ah, it's just hard for me to go. Khamzat's just gonna do what he's done to 12 other guys to Dricus du Plessis. It's very hard for me to see that. Not because it's not a reality of what can happen, but because certainly as you step up in competition, you can't just make it look that easy, right? Like, you can't just continue making it look that easy. I know Robert Whitaker, that one. I don't even know if, like that was Khamzat or it was Robert and his whole jaw came apart. I don't know. That was Frank. And if something like that happens again, I'll never doubt Khamzat Chimaev's grappling strength or anything like that. He could maybe just habib his way through 185, 170 and 205 if he wants to, if we're talking about that level of freak. But I'm gonna err on the side of caution here and say that's not the only thing that this fight's gonna be. I think it's gonna go a little longer than that. And because of that, I think Dricus du Plessis can and will and still win this fight. I don't know if it'll be be a decision. I don't know if eventually Khamzat gets tired and Dricas goes on offense and looks for TKO strikes or whatever it is, but I think Drikus is going to turn the tide on Khamzat Chimaev, and I'm probably wrong on that and I'll probably get flamed by the MMA community. But I just think Dricus mentality, the way he trains, I don't think it's as easy this time for Khamzat is just walking in, taking him down, choking him or, you know, ground and pound, whatever. And if he does want to stand in straight, strike with Driggas, then I think that that could be a potential issue as well. But hey, who knows? And the casual concept over here, when we make picks, they usually go the other way. So if you're going to play on draftkings, make sure you guys do so responsibly. But that's UFC 319. My breakdown. What happens in the United center in Chicago between the champ triggers Du Plessi and Hamza Chimaev. What happens on Saturday? Don't have those answers, but guess we'll find out.
- [90:44]
Ryan Seacrest
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- [91:59]
Darren Till
Ugh.
- [92:00]
Podcast Host / Analyst
Come on. Why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient.
- [92:04]
Ryan Seacrest
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- [92:18]
Darren Till
Whoa.
- [92:18]
Podcast Host / Analyst
This thing moves.
- [92:19]
Ryan Seacrest
Stop hitting snooze on new tech. Win the tech search@lenovo.com Lenovo Lenovo unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 carbon powered by Intel Core Ultra processors so you can work, create and boost productivity all on one device. This is an iHeart podcast.