00:00:05
Speaker 1: It is the eleventh of April twenty twenty, and it is time for episode nineteen of Morning Combat Extra Credit. This is the podcast within the podcast. Hello everyone, my name is Luke Thomas. I am merely the one half of your hosting duo for normal Morning Combat. On that show we cover MMA and boxing, so we have to leave some of the MMA fights off to the side, or even some of the boxing fights off to the side too.
00:00:27
Speaker 2: So this is.
00:00:27
Speaker 1: Where we get to some of the stuff that didn't make the regular big show today. This should be no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention at all to anything. I don't need to tell you what, of course, is going to be the fight. Oh I should say the card rather that we examine the most UFC two seventy three is where it's going to be. So thumbs up on the video. If you are watching this on YouTube, please hit subscribe as well. If you're listening on podcast platforms, thank you. Either way, Just make sure you let people know that you're listening to Morning Combat. However you consume it all right, So for today, five fights as usual. Two fights we'll talk about very very quickly. For honorable mention, let's take a look at that list today. All right, here we go UFC two to seventy three fight card. We'll talk about Dern versus Torres, mark O Madsen or just Mark Madson taking on Vince Pachell. We'll talk about Ian Gary versus Darien Weeks. I want to talk about Raquel Pennington and Aspin lad and I want to talk about Mike Malott and Mickey Gaul. Will give some honorable mention to Anthony Hernandez and Julio Arse.
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Speaker 2: Okay, all right, let's begin.
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Speaker 1: So Mackenzie Dern defeats Tsha Torres for fight number one via split decision twenty eight.
00:01:37
Speaker 2: Nine twenty eight.
00:01:38
Speaker 1: When I first watched live, I thought that that was I'm not gonna say clear, but I had a fairly ish strong lean towards Torres. I rewatched it again, and now I'm not as sure about it, but it didn't seem commanding in Dern's favor either or or Torres. I leaned a little bit more darn after watching it, but I was still pretty close to even on that round, So I don't mind the decision at all. You could have gone either way. When fights get this close, I know it upsets the losing fighter tremendously, and for all the reasons that we know. It impacts their pay and record and leg I mean, it's just terrible for them, even though it can come down to the tiniest, tiniest detail. This was an interesting fight because Torres did not fight badly at all. She won the first round, she survived the second, and she was pretty competitive in the third. Now she's what may have cost her was that she started the third a little bit playing prevent defense, where she wasn't really trying to Rather, I should say what she was. She was just trying to stick and move, but barely even sticking. It was mostly just touch and move like I'm gonna do just enough not to coast, but just there was really no engagement whatsoever. And eventually that changed. And of course there was the near takedown which she survived and push pushed off and whatnot, and there was a couple of decent shots she l as well. She had a few good kicks to the body, to the that sort of heel kick, that hook kick to the chin that was kind of nice. She had some decent punches, but I can admit that the first you know, minute or two of the third round that may have cost her because it was pretty competitive thereafter and then that part. It wasn't like durn did a ton, But it's kind of like Algoe in round one against John could go either way, but because there was so much inactivity or meaningless activity for enough of the round that anything after that, even if it's even doesn't matter anyway. Does the scoring is irrelevant? But what I thought was kind of interesting was Torres fought really well in the first, survived the second, and had some good stuff in the third. As I mentioned getting away from that, that second grappling scenario, had it been one right, she kicked her off from the first one being in the second round that was big that at least gave her a fighting chance. So I don't have a lot to say against Torres, or in any way, I don't have anything to say against her personally. What I mean to say is I don't have anything super critical to point out. I mean, she fought a difficult to put it and did her best. I take that in most ways for what it's worth. The one thing I did notice a couple of things all around, but for Torres, and I understand it right, like, if you're trying to survive a grappling scenario where the other person who you're grappling with has distinct skill advantages, you are probably not going to want to be reckless with ground and pound, right, You're going to make sure that your hands and feet and hips are and your weight is distributed exactly where it needs to be to make sure that this situation doesn't get any worse. That's fair, But the problem with that is, of course there is not very little, or in many cases there was like almost no ground and pound in any of those scenarios. So I understand the instinct and even the decision frankly to minimize that. But if you need a third round and it's that close, you know, it wasn't like she would have won back the second unless she was able to mount like a significant offense. But just finding consistent ways to land pays immeasurable dividends as the fight goes forward, and so that opportunity being missed certainly did not help her. Again, I think, you know, her submission defense was excellent along the way, and she's strong to be able to hold her up in the way that she did, So it's a setback for Torres, but she hardly fought poorly.
00:05:17
Speaker 2: She felt great.
00:05:18
Speaker 1: In the case of Mackenzie Dern, it's interesting, right, like, here's the thing she got the win Credit Tour. This is a tough opponent Credit Tour. Mackenzie durn is still in her twenties. She's clearly getting better. She's clearly deserving of respect. I have a lot of respect for her. The thing that still kind of worries me a little bit for her is that one, her striking has got a lot better. She has a great chin. She doesn't run from the challenge, but she's off balance a lot. She's like tripping over and kind of falling a lot, which tells me, like some of the mechanics she's gotten a lot better. But I just sort of wonder about the implications of all of that.
00:05:53
Speaker 2: One.
00:05:54
Speaker 1: Two, her overall defensive takedown percentage success rate heading into this content was just ten percent. It has to be We'll see how they measured it. I'm not sure how that fight metric measured any of those attempts over Saturday, but that would put her let's see, yeah, now it's just nine percent, nine percent. This is the thing her wrestling I'm sure she's worked on it, but in terms of the level of competition she's getting, it's not doing her a ton of favors when you're you know, takedown accuracy is somewhat of a meaningless statu it's not totally true, but it can be misinterpreted by a lot of folks. But nine percent is not ambiguous. That is a very low percentage, and you see that with the wrestling. However, once she gets you know, if she can jump guard or she can find a way to make it a grappling scenario, Dude, she terrorizes these people. Even though she lost to Marina Hadriguez, she was in the round or rounds whatever she was when she was on top, and like dealing in a grappling situation, she has these people running for their lives out there. They don't want anything, they're not like literally, Chicha Torres wasn't even striking her just so she could make sure that she didn't get caught something she wasn't supposed to. That's devastating. But it's like, dude, if you don't have the takedowns behind it, that you can't meaningfully leverage it, right, that's the first part and The second part is, I mean the Tourism the Hadriguez fights share a similarity. In the end, Hardriguez got the decision and Dern came very close to nearly beating her, but you know, kind of came short. And this time, this time she nearly got the submission, didn't and then came out on top. But they carry certain similarities where you know, DRRN might have been a little bit more competitive in the stand up here than she was against Hadriguez overall, although she was very competitive early and then less so late, if memory serves. The point I'm trying to make is these scenarios where you know it's it's you only get one of these grappling two of these grappling moments, and they're terrifying and they count and they're great and they showcase all the skills, but they're hard to reproduce if you don't get it.
00:07:54
Speaker 2: Now.
00:07:54
Speaker 1: The fight's real close, and yes, sometimes she loses and sometimes she wins, but it's not a hugely dis similar kind of fight between Hadriguez and Tours. I'm talking about the opponent per se, but in terms of like what she's tasked with, what the dimensions of the game, are presenting herself to and how the complexion of the fight looks. As a consequence, She's kind of running this one back to back a little bit, so the wrestling's got to get up. I will say her again, her durability is incredible. Clearly, her overall striking ability has gotten significantly better. She's strong, she had good cardio. There's a lot to like and obviously on the ground, dude, they don't have anything for her whatsoever. It's amazing to see how she has these people frightened and you know, it's and I'm not talking about that as a character flaw. I'm saying, like, you know, that's a rational response given what's happening. But there's got to be a you just there's clearly pieces of her game that are missing. There are clearly pieces that are missing, and that's true for every fighter. It's glaringly true here you have such an ace in the hole, but your access to it requires her. Yes, she can jump guard and she can pull it in ways that other fighters can't. So maybe taking an unorthodox approach by virtue of that like that level of the change and the risk assessment by virtue of the skill. I'm all in favor of It just feels like there's as good as she is doing and as much upside as there is. Please don't lose sight of what I'm saying. I just don't know if you're going to get the most out of her if some of these other pieces aren't brought along more forcefully. That's all I'm saying. But she's a handful pretty clearly. Mark mattson defeating Vince Michelle. I know some folks probably wanted me to go into Hernandez and Frimed instead. That was a ridiculously crazy fight. But there's a fewer different lessons to learn from that one that I just didn't want to focus on. I want to focus on this one. It was a lightweight contest. Matts and defeating Paschelle via unanimous decision thirty twenty seven on two judges twenty nine to twenty eight. I didn't understand thirty twenty seven. It seemed to me that Pachelle should have gotten the second round. Third round he got controlled, and first round was very close, pretty competitive to me. That Matson had a little bit more of a speed advantage, a little bit more of a powered or at least if not powered advantage. He was landing heavier shots a little bit in the first round, and then he had that takedown which he controlled for about a minute as well. So you know, close round, very competitive, nothing too crazy, but Mattson probably got it.
00:10:16
Speaker 2: Second round.
00:10:17
Speaker 1: You heard Pachelle tell his corner after it that he's done, but he wasn't there because he got wrestled out there. Okay, a couple Why do I bring this up?
00:10:24
Speaker 2: One?
00:10:25
Speaker 1: Vince Michelle is a very deceiving fighter. I don't know if people give him the proper respect that he is owed. He is a little bit longer in the tooth, but he is a guy who has very quietly worked on his game for a long time, and it really shows. There's a lot that I liked for him. I liked the fact that they went for that takedown at the end of the second. I liked the gumption there. He was doing a great job of attacking the lead hand in striking scenarios against Madson. He didn't get overwhelmed on the ground, although he did get controlled, which is a different problem. But you know, I thought that he just had a lot going for him, answering him in a lot of ways for the leg kicks. There was a lot you have to like from from what Vince Pachelle did. You know, he's a very talented, well rounded veteran. So this is probably Madson's best win.
00:11:07
Speaker 2: I mean that, like, I.
00:11:08
Speaker 1: Don't know, you know, he's got more forceful wins, but I don't think he's beaten anyone as good as Vince Pachelle, and certainly not you know, thirty twenty seven I don't quite agree with.
00:11:15
Speaker 2: But the tw twenty eight I get.
00:11:18
Speaker 1: The thing about it with Madson is this I'm a little bit you know, I'll say it this way, thirty seven years of age. Obviously, he's a phenomenal athlete, right, I mean you should just see his on the international stage five times You've done one two four time silver medalist, and the World Championships one time bronze, and then he was an Olympic silver medalist in wrestling as well. You know, he's just want or you know, placed very highly at at at some of the more prestigious combat sports events such as you can call the Olympics that of all time, he's phenomenal. And he moved to the United States, and I know he had a rough bout with COVID and lockdown on the whole nine yards. He had a rough go of it. I'm a little bit worried about what is potentially possible given that he is thirty seven years of age fighting at one hundred and fifty five pounds. For as much as he is an A plus athlete and he is, and as good as his wrestling is, especially now in this era of MMA where you're getting a lot of upper body takedowns against defense perfectly suited for it. He doesn't look physically overmatched, but his cardio I think, has been questionable insofar as not in this fight, but if he gets pushed into very difficult fights, potentially five rounders against very established guys. Has he shown Cardio in less admittedly a difficult fight, but less difficult than what the very best of this division has to offer. And it's been a couple of times at least where the cardio towards the end of a fight has kind of faded a little bit.
00:12:41
Speaker 2: So is it bad Cardio? No, certainly not.
00:12:43
Speaker 1: The question is is it going to propel him if he continues to move with the food chain? I have some questions. I'm not saying it can't, but because you never know, right, and it sounds like BS equivocation.
00:12:54
Speaker 2: We don't know.
00:12:55
Speaker 1: What I'm pointing out though, is if you're thirty seven and you're in an important bout, you're on the main card of it C pay per view, this is all very relevant fighting, but your cardio is still a little bit not where it should be even there and again you're almost You're much closer to forty than you are thirty. That's a that's a warning sign. That is a warning sign, as far as I can tell from you know, my time covering the sport. I thought in the first round Matson did a great job with leg kicks again, a little bit faster on the draw, a little bit more kind of getting after it. In the third round, Vince Baschell complained that Matson was holding him down and not doing enough ground upound. I'll say this, I don't agree, but I see where he's coming from. To me, it was right on the borderline between, you know, is he stalling or is he doing enough? He was probably doing enough, but barely, but barely barely, not enough to like if you wonder why the referee didn't intervene. Every referee's got a different sensibility, but in this particular case, I kind of get it. I see where Vince is coming from. Well it was, I mean, just over the line, but again that's all you really need sometimes in very close competitive fights, you got to be just a little bit better somewhere right where it counts, and he was. So to me, this is Mark Madson's best win, and for that he should be commended. He clearly has a lot of ability. I do worry though, that if we're still having cardio issues this I'm gonna say this late, but this far into his advancement, not the end of the world, but something that if it can be tightened up, and I'm sure he trains hard, There's always different ways to calibrate this. It's just he's got to be in a place where I think he went to the wrestling strategically for a lot of reasons. I think one of them might have been that in wrestling is you know, obviously taxing on his system too. But I think one of them might have been that he needed a little bit of a slightly more a less chaotic approach.
00:14:52
Speaker 2: Let's put it that way, all right.
00:14:53
Speaker 1: Ian Gary taking on Darien Weeks twenty nine to twenty eight, he gets one scorecard and then two thirty twenty sevens. I wasn't scoring it in that way. This was Ian Gary's fight to lose. Now Here's the thing. I had a lot of people asking me, like, you know, is Ian Gary one of the next future stars of welterweight folks? Please pump the brakes now. I will say this. I was asked on my live chat yesterday, you know who I think has the higher upside between he and Patty pimblet if we're looking at you know Irish UK fighters. Well, first of all, both of them have a pretty bright future number one and number two. It's it's impossible to tell I lean Gary in this equation. But I can't say that with a ton of confidence because I simply do not know. If there's so much in front of them that is unknowable that you know, Answering this question is kind of silly. Forced to answer. Gun to my head, I would say Ian Gary. But I want to be clear about what the purpose of this fight was. Right, there's a lot of different purposes to different fights, especially when you're coming up. This was great for Ian Gary, not a perfect fight. In fact, I thought Dean Thomas's reflections in the third round. Go back and watch that first and second round, and you can see Gary trying to find the right hand over the top over and over and over again, and Weeks constantly blocking it because there was nothing. He wasn't forcing him to transfer his defense. He was fainting at a level and level changing, but doing a lot of fainting, and then he would faint like three or four rotations before throwing.
00:16:16
Speaker 2: It just wasn't enough activity. Now.
00:16:17
Speaker 1: In fairness to Ian Gary, his opponent Darien Weeks was doing the Yuel Romero bit where he was fighting in spurts. It was a lot of just defense right and not even trying to throw back. He would clinch with them a couple of times. Gary did a phenomenal job staying on his feet and then he would throw and Gary would either you know, get out by the way. Gary's lateral movement, his his his ability to throw as like a check hook or to get underneath punches and to get out of the way is really good against the fence line, like all that stuff is. It was it was on point. The purpose of this fight and the value in it was not that you needed to see anything that told you Ian Gary was going to be, you know, the next big thing in MMA, and that's not what any of this is about. What this was about was here's a guy who was obviously extremely talented, who is with a great camp. Who you know, how old is he and Garrett, I mean he was twenty four or something, whatever he is. He needed a fight that went the distance where he could work on all the things he's been working on implementing, whether that was the strategy for the game, for the particular fight with the lateral movement, pumping the jab, all of that, the particular combos they worked, the overall skilled development about where he is generally as a fighter. This was a chance to put those things into practice, see what worked, see what didn't. Get the dub and get home and be safe and don't take a lot of damage. This was nothing you're going to point to when his career is all said and done. This is nothing you're going to point to as like, oh, this is the Hall of Fame fighter, however far he goes. You know, this was the fight that made him into a contender, This's the fight that put him in the top ten whatever whatever. This is, though one of the more important parts of his development. He got fifteen minutes against a fighter who you know, was a difficult challenge, but not super onerously burdensome, right, He wasn't that way, and he got a chance to defensively take care of himself, to offensively put things into motion. This was about taking a step forward as a very young prospect who needs cage time and needs implementation time in a live fight scenario, which he did quite nimbly and got out of there. Did he wow you with everything he did? Certainly in that third round he was I think he landed a head kick. I think he had like a decent one two that rocked his opponent. Like yes, by the third round he was cooking he had. I think also he was having a little bit of trouble finding exactly the angle he wanted on weeks based on what was opening. So there was a little bit of the bodywork he needed to get to. There was a little bit of not accuracy issues so much, but you know, the transferring transference of the defense. But the lateral movement was great, rolling underneath hooks was great, and escaping takedown defense was on point. Jab was on point. That's what this was about that was about this, and I will say that the level of skill he showed is obviously quite high and should give you confidence about his upside. But he is at the stage of his career where these fights they aren't showcases for somebody who wants the smoke right away. These are foundational building block processes that have to happen so he can get there. Because he is young and he is talented, and yeah, you could rush him to the front and maybe he could beat some good guys, but you're not gonna get the most out of him. This is what gets the most out of him. This was the right fight to take against the right opponent in the right moment. He won't be heralded for this win as some kind of groundbreaking achievement. Not the point. This will put him in place much better than other kinds of matchmaking, to have that groundbreaking moment. That's the value of this. This was next step boom, done it. Now we can begin to keep working on this. Keep working on this, keep working it, implement it, try it, test it, what worked, what didn't, tweak it, tweak it, go back once again. That's what this is about. He's at that stage of his career, and that's where its primary value comes in. We go to Raquel Pennington defeating Aspen Ladd at Women's Bandsamway, this was a baffling fight, twenty nine to twenty eight. I'm guessing they gave I haven't seen the scorecards. I'm guessing they gave Aspen Ladd the third because she was pressing into Raquel the most. I'll say this for aspen Lad.
00:20:19
Speaker 2: How old is she?
00:20:21
Speaker 1: She is twenty seven, so she's still quite young. She made weight, she's still twenty seven, and she clearly has some ability. She didn't really get a chance to get a ground a pound, going by virtue of what Rocky Pennington was doing to stand up, and by the time the third round sort of four pressure came it was decent, but not great and in any case, too little, too late. I am shocked that they thought that they had a chance at winning that fight. That is extremely surprising to hear. Listen, I am very conscious. I try to be. I don't I can't always be. I try to be as conscious as I am about some in my role, offering critical feedback and evaluations of people who are as it relates to that practice far better than I and you know this is the this is their identity. Like you don't want to be I try that to be unnecessarily cruel about any kind of criticism, nor do I intend to be here, and it won't sound this way. I just mean to say the following. I do not know if she's getting the proper amount of development up to this point, given where she has been in her career. Let's pull up Lad's resume here. You know, when she was burning through Sijari Ubanks and what was her fifth fight, Lena Lansburg, Tanya Avenger, cijar Ubanks again. In her eighth fight, she lost to durand to Me, which was fine because Durande me hit her with a big shot sixteen seconds in. And then she was kind of losing the Kunaskaya fight, and then lost the Dumont fight and the Penitent fight. I don't know if I can say she's regressed, but I cannot comfortably say that from the time she beat Tanya Avenger she has meaningfully improved performance of the night bonus when she beat Evenger and granted, Rocky Pennington looked awesome this fight. I mean she had the timing down of aspen Ladd right away. She was getting underneath all of her punches, she was getting in between them, she was getting after them. She had the timing down and was giving in the striking department fits to aspen ladd through at least of the first two rounds. It was it was incredible to watch that so Rocky Pennington. You know, there was she was Superman punching into it. She was going to the body then coming upstairs. I mean, just a total veteran showcase of her boxing ability. This was one of the better performances in terms of just straight boxing.
00:22:37
Speaker 2: I see.
00:22:37
Speaker 1: Pennington's always had a good boxing, but this was like a really strong showcase of it. And then she's gritty in the clinch. Granted she got pressed into the fence with the third frame, but through the first two she had done tremendous work Rocky Pennington. You know, for all the difficulties she has faced, the loss to Nunez and the accidents, and she had a terrible bout with COVID and all this stuff, through all of that she has really rebounded and she looks great. She looks as you know, afresh as a daisy. I don't know, she's been in the game for a while, but she's firing on all cylinders these days. But for asmen, Ladd, I just listen. At twenty seven, it would be very foolish to write her off, very foolish to write her off. And I'm not going to join in with the course of people attacking the corner. I would just say, we saw a lot of progress between her fifth and eighth fight. Between her ninth and her twelfth, we have not seen even close to the same amount. And yes, I grant, I grant that between the ninth and the twelfth she has fought much tougher opposition. At least in three of those cases, all of them were tough. But you know what I'm saying, Durand to me and Pennington title challengers Kunskaya too, although it was a little bit somewhat rushed anyway, the point remains the same. I've not seen the same amount of development, and I'm not sure where all of this is presently headed. I think that there's probably some.
00:23:57
Speaker 2: Need for.
00:24:01
Speaker 1: Consideration about, you know, at twenty seven years of age, where she wants to be by thirty. Granted the Dumont fight was at one forty five. She was back at one thirty five. She looked better here, but.
00:24:16
Speaker 2: Not.
00:24:16
Speaker 1: I guess I'm not understanding where this is supposed to be going relative to where it had been going, and that seems like a problem. Mike Mallott defeating Mickey gall three forty one of the first round. TKOS was a welterweight bout man. Mickey Gall is in a tough spot, folks. He had won and lost alternately since the twenty sixteen fight against Stage north Cut. So we beat Sage north Cut, then lost to Randy Brown. Then he beat George Sullivan but then lost to Diego Sanchez. Then he beat Salem to Ai but then lost to Mike Perry. Then he beat Jordan Williams, which was nice I was in twenty twenty one, but then he lost to Alex Morno and then followed it up with a loss to Mike Mallott. Now he has been finished before he got finished by Diego, but that was in the second round. He got finished here inside of four minutes. This is he's in a tough spot. He's seven and five. Now he's not so old. He's thirty. That's not old, but at thirty. If you're at seven and five and then for the first time ever. You're on back to back losses, and you know Alex Morenau is very talented guy out afford to seven, maybe on the game for a long time. And then Mike Mellott, the guy looks like a physical beast. But these are not guys at even close to the upper end of that division. I think Moreno is pretty close. He might be in the rankings. I don't want to disrespect him unless I already have more No. No, I don't think he is there yet. So you get the idea. These are guys that are not even ranked in the top fifteen. That doesn't mean they're bad, it doesn't mean they won't be there, It doesn't mean they're not worthy of respect. But we're talking about you know who's ranked where he's still outside of even that, and he's getting he's getting put away. How did he get put away here? He was an orthodox fighter, and he switched stands through a shift, which the initial punch of the shift landed, so that worked. That was good, And they tried to come over with a right and it didn't come through. So he reshuffled into distance to close the distance. While staying in that stance, he throws a punch, but Mallett slips off the center line and drills him over the top with it. And then if you look closely, he already had the left chambered. Now not chambered like this, you're delivering a straight shot, but chamber for the trajectory it's going to go anyway. So this pushes the head over and then it's just a short little left hook, almost like an uppercut, kind of like a shovel punch, and it hits him clean as a whistle, sends him face first down. So the shift was nice for Mickey gall that was actually pretty good. But staying in that position and kind of inching your way forward and then standing straight up, you know your defense is going to be different. Obviously, by virtue of the stand switch, you're cheating that position a little bit. Just by walking up. You had to kind of, you know, either reset or change stances or bring your hands up or so there had to be some kind of re evaluation of that moment rather than just inching forward in that stance kind of reaching out in front of you. There's just not there's just not enough defense there. There's not enough defense there. And Mike Mallott. For him to be able to take that kind of pressure and then slip off the center line and then throw and then bring the left. That was fantastic, fantastic from Mike Mallott. What a perfectly placed shot, big athletic power. He brought it to bear. And again I'm gonna keep saying that, dude, these guys who can slip punches versus the ones who can't. I'm not saying Mickey gaul can. I think he may have a little bit in this fight actually, But in general, as a rule to think about you hear me say it all the time. There's a gonna be a huge there's already developing. It's only going to widen. The ones who can slip versus the ones who can't. In anime is gonna be a massively important dividing line. And that's just not true as a general skill. But fight to fight. When you can do it, can you slip under certain considerations and not under others, All of those are gonna be brought to bear. The ones who can slip most of the time are gonna have exponential advantages over their competitors. And you saw that here as well. It brings them into position and creates vulnerability for you to attack or it's a it's a very narrow window, but once you open it, you can, I mean, you can just absolutely devour people with it. So sick win by Mike Mallott. And as I mentioned, for Mickey Gall seven and five, he's three, he's one in three in his last four he has losses to Perry Morno and ma Lot. The only win was the Jordan Williams one, which is a nice win. But I don't I don't know what uf He's gonna do with him. This is a bit of a cautionary tale. I'm afraid you do have to at least respect the fact that he has made it an effort. Mickey Gall, I think he has. You know, he went to Joe Shilling's team. I think that was probably a good move for him. He switched it up away to Stanford MMA, probably another good move all things considered. But once you're at the UFC, you have to be very careful about your development. And this is why I always tell people people develop in different ways. You know, at this point, John Jones wouldn't have needed as much, you know that careful matchman like, yeah, careful matchmaking around the right kind of fights. He probably would have been a little bit more fight ready. Well that's him, that's not going to be a lot of other guys. This is why rush the Ian Gary's and in different ways, the Patty Pimblets and whoever else. Granted Patty has more experience than Ian Gary, but certainly on the regional scene. But even then, you really, really really want to be careful about how you progress these guys because once it starts going, it's hard to undo. So you got to make sure that the escalation is happening at the right time, and that can come, as I mentioned, not just getting to the UFC, but getting into the top ten, getting into the top five, becoming a title contender. They have to make sure that all of these thresholds are crossed when they are supposed to be crossed, otherwise development can get badly affected. It's just hard to get better when you're under this kind of duress about making sure everything you need is already there. You needed time before that to bring all of them to bear, and then you can mix and match them as needed. That's what the very best ones do, very quickly, very quickly. For honorable mention, I had indicated Anthony Hernandez and Josh Framm having an absolute war out there. What a ridiculously crazy fight. Anthony Hernandez a amazing grappler. I was blown away. I did not see that coming from him. And also his gas tank was phenomenal. He was giving it to friend, then friend gave it to him, and then he turned the tides once more to really kind of claim that fight. Great job from Anthony Hernandez, salute, what a performance by him. And then Julio Arse out of I think Corona Queens, New York, Little Columbia in many ways, defeating Daniel Santos thirty twenty seven on two of the judges scorecards, twenty nine to twenty eight on another one. Dude, he was his footwork was great, his jab was great. I mean that it just looked like he'd been really working on that for a long time. Dude, Julio Arse screams, last guy in the gym. Just you can just tell, you can just tell that this dude has put in a ton of work to make sure his movement looks crisp and clean. It's his intentionality is clear, his defense is already you know, yes, he's making reads, but it's already muscle memory about where he needs to be and he what signs do you need to see to begin to escalate, to get more volume out, what fans are working, which ones are not? How do I bring them back? But dude, that was all set up from his footwork. That was all set up from footwork. That was a fun nomenal display of getting yourself into and out of position as as required, absorbing pressure as he did and making sure that you know, listen, it's the basics footwork, the jab. But dude, you're seeing with skilled with skilled technicians like Julio R say, you can see the value in phenomenal footwork and a great job. And of course there's more to it than just that, but those two building blocks alone, boy, if you have those dialed in, those will do a lot for you. Phenomenal job by him as well. So congrats to all the winners and chin up to all the losers because there's always another tomorrow.
00:31:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, thank you guys so much for watching the podcast. Thumbs up.
00:31:50
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, and got more coming your way. Got a big surprise coming to you, I think tomorrow. I hope we'll see how it goes, but until next time, appreciate y'all watching, enjoy the fights,
Speaker 1: It is the eleventh of April twenty twenty, and it is time for episode nineteen of Morning Combat Extra Credit. This is the podcast within the podcast. Hello everyone, my name is Luke Thomas. I am merely the one half of your hosting duo for normal Morning Combat. On that show we cover MMA and boxing, so we have to leave some of the MMA fights off to the side, or even some of the boxing fights off to the side too.
00:00:27
Speaker 2: So this is.
00:00:27
Speaker 1: Where we get to some of the stuff that didn't make the regular big show today. This should be no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention at all to anything. I don't need to tell you what, of course, is going to be the fight. Oh I should say the card rather that we examine the most UFC two seventy three is where it's going to be. So thumbs up on the video. If you are watching this on YouTube, please hit subscribe as well. If you're listening on podcast platforms, thank you. Either way, Just make sure you let people know that you're listening to Morning Combat. However you consume it all right, So for today, five fights as usual. Two fights we'll talk about very very quickly. For honorable mention, let's take a look at that list today. All right, here we go UFC two to seventy three fight card. We'll talk about Dern versus Torres, mark O Madsen or just Mark Madson taking on Vince Pachell. We'll talk about Ian Gary versus Darien Weeks. I want to talk about Raquel Pennington and Aspin lad and I want to talk about Mike Malott and Mickey Gaul. Will give some honorable mention to Anthony Hernandez and Julio Arse.
00:01:29
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, let's begin.
00:01:31
Speaker 1: So Mackenzie Dern defeats Tsha Torres for fight number one via split decision twenty eight.
00:01:37
Speaker 2: Nine twenty eight.
00:01:38
Speaker 1: When I first watched live, I thought that that was I'm not gonna say clear, but I had a fairly ish strong lean towards Torres. I rewatched it again, and now I'm not as sure about it, but it didn't seem commanding in Dern's favor either or or Torres. I leaned a little bit more darn after watching it, but I was still pretty close to even on that round, So I don't mind the decision at all. You could have gone either way. When fights get this close, I know it upsets the losing fighter tremendously, and for all the reasons that we know. It impacts their pay and record and leg I mean, it's just terrible for them, even though it can come down to the tiniest, tiniest detail. This was an interesting fight because Torres did not fight badly at all. She won the first round, she survived the second, and she was pretty competitive in the third. Now she's what may have cost her was that she started the third a little bit playing prevent defense, where she wasn't really trying to Rather, I should say what she was. She was just trying to stick and move, but barely even sticking. It was mostly just touch and move like I'm gonna do just enough not to coast, but just there was really no engagement whatsoever. And eventually that changed. And of course there was the near takedown which she survived and push pushed off and whatnot, and there was a couple of decent shots she l as well. She had a few good kicks to the body, to the that sort of heel kick, that hook kick to the chin that was kind of nice. She had some decent punches, but I can admit that the first you know, minute or two of the third round that may have cost her because it was pretty competitive thereafter and then that part. It wasn't like durn did a ton, But it's kind of like Algoe in round one against John could go either way, but because there was so much inactivity or meaningless activity for enough of the round that anything after that, even if it's even doesn't matter anyway. Does the scoring is irrelevant? But what I thought was kind of interesting was Torres fought really well in the first, survived the second, and had some good stuff in the third. As I mentioned getting away from that, that second grappling scenario, had it been one right, she kicked her off from the first one being in the second round that was big that at least gave her a fighting chance. So I don't have a lot to say against Torres, or in any way, I don't have anything to say against her personally. What I mean to say is I don't have anything super critical to point out. I mean, she fought a difficult to put it and did her best. I take that in most ways for what it's worth. The one thing I did notice a couple of things all around, but for Torres, and I understand it right, like, if you're trying to survive a grappling scenario where the other person who you're grappling with has distinct skill advantages, you are probably not going to want to be reckless with ground and pound, right, You're going to make sure that your hands and feet and hips are and your weight is distributed exactly where it needs to be to make sure that this situation doesn't get any worse. That's fair, But the problem with that is, of course there is not very little, or in many cases there was like almost no ground and pound in any of those scenarios. So I understand the instinct and even the decision frankly to minimize that. But if you need a third round and it's that close, you know, it wasn't like she would have won back the second unless she was able to mount like a significant offense. But just finding consistent ways to land pays immeasurable dividends as the fight goes forward, and so that opportunity being missed certainly did not help her. Again, I think, you know, her submission defense was excellent along the way, and she's strong to be able to hold her up in the way that she did, So it's a setback for Torres, but she hardly fought poorly.
00:05:17
Speaker 2: She felt great.
00:05:18
Speaker 1: In the case of Mackenzie Dern, it's interesting, right, like, here's the thing she got the win Credit Tour. This is a tough opponent Credit Tour. Mackenzie durn is still in her twenties. She's clearly getting better. She's clearly deserving of respect. I have a lot of respect for her. The thing that still kind of worries me a little bit for her is that one, her striking has got a lot better. She has a great chin. She doesn't run from the challenge, but she's off balance a lot. She's like tripping over and kind of falling a lot, which tells me, like some of the mechanics she's gotten a lot better. But I just sort of wonder about the implications of all of that.
00:05:53
Speaker 2: One.
00:05:54
Speaker 1: Two, her overall defensive takedown percentage success rate heading into this content was just ten percent. It has to be We'll see how they measured it. I'm not sure how that fight metric measured any of those attempts over Saturday, but that would put her let's see, yeah, now it's just nine percent, nine percent. This is the thing her wrestling I'm sure she's worked on it, but in terms of the level of competition she's getting, it's not doing her a ton of favors when you're you know, takedown accuracy is somewhat of a meaningless statu it's not totally true, but it can be misinterpreted by a lot of folks. But nine percent is not ambiguous. That is a very low percentage, and you see that with the wrestling. However, once she gets you know, if she can jump guard or she can find a way to make it a grappling scenario, Dude, she terrorizes these people. Even though she lost to Marina Hadriguez, she was in the round or rounds whatever she was when she was on top, and like dealing in a grappling situation, she has these people running for their lives out there. They don't want anything, they're not like literally, Chicha Torres wasn't even striking her just so she could make sure that she didn't get caught something she wasn't supposed to. That's devastating. But it's like, dude, if you don't have the takedowns behind it, that you can't meaningfully leverage it, right, that's the first part and The second part is, I mean the Tourism the Hadriguez fights share a similarity. In the end, Hardriguez got the decision and Dern came very close to nearly beating her, but you know, kind of came short. And this time, this time she nearly got the submission, didn't and then came out on top. But they carry certain similarities where you know, DRRN might have been a little bit more competitive in the stand up here than she was against Hadriguez overall, although she was very competitive early and then less so late, if memory serves. The point I'm trying to make is these scenarios where you know it's it's you only get one of these grappling two of these grappling moments, and they're terrifying and they count and they're great and they showcase all the skills, but they're hard to reproduce if you don't get it.
00:07:54
Speaker 2: Now.
00:07:54
Speaker 1: The fight's real close, and yes, sometimes she loses and sometimes she wins, but it's not a hugely dis similar kind of fight between Hadriguez and Tours. I'm talking about the opponent per se, but in terms of like what she's tasked with, what the dimensions of the game, are presenting herself to and how the complexion of the fight looks. As a consequence, She's kind of running this one back to back a little bit, so the wrestling's got to get up. I will say her again, her durability is incredible. Clearly, her overall striking ability has gotten significantly better. She's strong, she had good cardio. There's a lot to like and obviously on the ground, dude, they don't have anything for her whatsoever. It's amazing to see how she has these people frightened and you know, it's and I'm not talking about that as a character flaw. I'm saying, like, you know, that's a rational response given what's happening. But there's got to be a you just there's clearly pieces of her game that are missing. There are clearly pieces that are missing, and that's true for every fighter. It's glaringly true here you have such an ace in the hole, but your access to it requires her. Yes, she can jump guard and she can pull it in ways that other fighters can't. So maybe taking an unorthodox approach by virtue of that like that level of the change and the risk assessment by virtue of the skill. I'm all in favor of It just feels like there's as good as she is doing and as much upside as there is. Please don't lose sight of what I'm saying. I just don't know if you're going to get the most out of her if some of these other pieces aren't brought along more forcefully. That's all I'm saying. But she's a handful pretty clearly. Mark mattson defeating Vince Michelle. I know some folks probably wanted me to go into Hernandez and Frimed instead. That was a ridiculously crazy fight. But there's a fewer different lessons to learn from that one that I just didn't want to focus on. I want to focus on this one. It was a lightweight contest. Matts and defeating Paschelle via unanimous decision thirty twenty seven on two judges twenty nine to twenty eight. I didn't understand thirty twenty seven. It seemed to me that Pachelle should have gotten the second round. Third round he got controlled, and first round was very close, pretty competitive to me. That Matson had a little bit more of a speed advantage, a little bit more of a powered or at least if not powered advantage. He was landing heavier shots a little bit in the first round, and then he had that takedown which he controlled for about a minute as well. So you know, close round, very competitive, nothing too crazy, but Mattson probably got it.
00:10:16
Speaker 2: Second round.
00:10:17
Speaker 1: You heard Pachelle tell his corner after it that he's done, but he wasn't there because he got wrestled out there. Okay, a couple Why do I bring this up?
00:10:24
Speaker 2: One?
00:10:25
Speaker 1: Vince Michelle is a very deceiving fighter. I don't know if people give him the proper respect that he is owed. He is a little bit longer in the tooth, but he is a guy who has very quietly worked on his game for a long time, and it really shows. There's a lot that I liked for him. I liked the fact that they went for that takedown at the end of the second. I liked the gumption there. He was doing a great job of attacking the lead hand in striking scenarios against Madson. He didn't get overwhelmed on the ground, although he did get controlled, which is a different problem. But you know, I thought that he just had a lot going for him, answering him in a lot of ways for the leg kicks. There was a lot you have to like from from what Vince Pachelle did. You know, he's a very talented, well rounded veteran. So this is probably Madson's best win.
00:11:07
Speaker 2: I mean that, like, I.
00:11:08
Speaker 1: Don't know, you know, he's got more forceful wins, but I don't think he's beaten anyone as good as Vince Pachelle, and certainly not you know, thirty twenty seven I don't quite agree with.
00:11:15
Speaker 2: But the tw twenty eight I get.
00:11:18
Speaker 1: The thing about it with Madson is this I'm a little bit you know, I'll say it this way, thirty seven years of age. Obviously, he's a phenomenal athlete, right, I mean you should just see his on the international stage five times You've done one two four time silver medalist, and the World Championships one time bronze, and then he was an Olympic silver medalist in wrestling as well. You know, he's just want or you know, placed very highly at at at some of the more prestigious combat sports events such as you can call the Olympics that of all time, he's phenomenal. And he moved to the United States, and I know he had a rough bout with COVID and lockdown on the whole nine yards. He had a rough go of it. I'm a little bit worried about what is potentially possible given that he is thirty seven years of age fighting at one hundred and fifty five pounds. For as much as he is an A plus athlete and he is, and as good as his wrestling is, especially now in this era of MMA where you're getting a lot of upper body takedowns against defense perfectly suited for it. He doesn't look physically overmatched, but his cardio I think, has been questionable insofar as not in this fight, but if he gets pushed into very difficult fights, potentially five rounders against very established guys. Has he shown Cardio in less admittedly a difficult fight, but less difficult than what the very best of this division has to offer. And it's been a couple of times at least where the cardio towards the end of a fight has kind of faded a little bit.
00:12:41
Speaker 2: So is it bad Cardio? No, certainly not.
00:12:43
Speaker 1: The question is is it going to propel him if he continues to move with the food chain? I have some questions. I'm not saying it can't, but because you never know, right, and it sounds like BS equivocation.
00:12:54
Speaker 2: We don't know.
00:12:55
Speaker 1: What I'm pointing out though, is if you're thirty seven and you're in an important bout, you're on the main card of it C pay per view, this is all very relevant fighting, but your cardio is still a little bit not where it should be even there and again you're almost You're much closer to forty than you are thirty. That's a that's a warning sign. That is a warning sign, as far as I can tell from you know, my time covering the sport. I thought in the first round Matson did a great job with leg kicks again, a little bit faster on the draw, a little bit more kind of getting after it. In the third round, Vince Baschell complained that Matson was holding him down and not doing enough ground upound. I'll say this, I don't agree, but I see where he's coming from. To me, it was right on the borderline between, you know, is he stalling or is he doing enough? He was probably doing enough, but barely, but barely barely, not enough to like if you wonder why the referee didn't intervene. Every referee's got a different sensibility, but in this particular case, I kind of get it. I see where Vince is coming from. Well it was, I mean, just over the line, but again that's all you really need sometimes in very close competitive fights, you got to be just a little bit better somewhere right where it counts, and he was. So to me, this is Mark Madson's best win, and for that he should be commended. He clearly has a lot of ability. I do worry though, that if we're still having cardio issues this I'm gonna say this late, but this far into his advancement, not the end of the world, but something that if it can be tightened up, and I'm sure he trains hard, There's always different ways to calibrate this. It's just he's got to be in a place where I think he went to the wrestling strategically for a lot of reasons. I think one of them might have been that in wrestling is you know, obviously taxing on his system too. But I think one of them might have been that he needed a little bit of a slightly more a less chaotic approach.
00:14:52
Speaker 2: Let's put it that way, all right.
00:14:53
Speaker 1: Ian Gary taking on Darien Weeks twenty nine to twenty eight, he gets one scorecard and then two thirty twenty sevens. I wasn't scoring it in that way. This was Ian Gary's fight to lose. Now Here's the thing. I had a lot of people asking me, like, you know, is Ian Gary one of the next future stars of welterweight folks? Please pump the brakes now. I will say this. I was asked on my live chat yesterday, you know who I think has the higher upside between he and Patty pimblet if we're looking at you know Irish UK fighters. Well, first of all, both of them have a pretty bright future number one and number two. It's it's impossible to tell I lean Gary in this equation. But I can't say that with a ton of confidence because I simply do not know. If there's so much in front of them that is unknowable that you know, Answering this question is kind of silly. Forced to answer. Gun to my head, I would say Ian Gary. But I want to be clear about what the purpose of this fight was. Right, there's a lot of different purposes to different fights, especially when you're coming up. This was great for Ian Gary, not a perfect fight. In fact, I thought Dean Thomas's reflections in the third round. Go back and watch that first and second round, and you can see Gary trying to find the right hand over the top over and over and over again, and Weeks constantly blocking it because there was nothing. He wasn't forcing him to transfer his defense. He was fainting at a level and level changing, but doing a lot of fainting, and then he would faint like three or four rotations before throwing.
00:16:16
Speaker 2: It just wasn't enough activity. Now.
00:16:17
Speaker 1: In fairness to Ian Gary, his opponent Darien Weeks was doing the Yuel Romero bit where he was fighting in spurts. It was a lot of just defense right and not even trying to throw back. He would clinch with them a couple of times. Gary did a phenomenal job staying on his feet and then he would throw and Gary would either you know, get out by the way. Gary's lateral movement, his his his ability to throw as like a check hook or to get underneath punches and to get out of the way is really good against the fence line, like all that stuff is. It was it was on point. The purpose of this fight and the value in it was not that you needed to see anything that told you Ian Gary was going to be, you know, the next big thing in MMA, and that's not what any of this is about. What this was about was here's a guy who was obviously extremely talented, who is with a great camp. Who you know, how old is he and Garrett, I mean he was twenty four or something, whatever he is. He needed a fight that went the distance where he could work on all the things he's been working on implementing, whether that was the strategy for the game, for the particular fight with the lateral movement, pumping the jab, all of that, the particular combos they worked, the overall skilled development about where he is generally as a fighter. This was a chance to put those things into practice, see what worked, see what didn't. Get the dub and get home and be safe and don't take a lot of damage. This was nothing you're going to point to when his career is all said and done. This is nothing you're going to point to as like, oh, this is the Hall of Fame fighter, however far he goes. You know, this was the fight that made him into a contender, This's the fight that put him in the top ten whatever whatever. This is, though one of the more important parts of his development. He got fifteen minutes against a fighter who you know, was a difficult challenge, but not super onerously burdensome, right, He wasn't that way, and he got a chance to defensively take care of himself, to offensively put things into motion. This was about taking a step forward as a very young prospect who needs cage time and needs implementation time in a live fight scenario, which he did quite nimbly and got out of there. Did he wow you with everything he did? Certainly in that third round he was I think he landed a head kick. I think he had like a decent one two that rocked his opponent. Like yes, by the third round he was cooking he had. I think also he was having a little bit of trouble finding exactly the angle he wanted on weeks based on what was opening. So there was a little bit of the bodywork he needed to get to. There was a little bit of not accuracy issues so much, but you know, the transferring transference of the defense. But the lateral movement was great, rolling underneath hooks was great, and escaping takedown defense was on point. Jab was on point. That's what this was about that was about this, and I will say that the level of skill he showed is obviously quite high and should give you confidence about his upside. But he is at the stage of his career where these fights they aren't showcases for somebody who wants the smoke right away. These are foundational building block processes that have to happen so he can get there. Because he is young and he is talented, and yeah, you could rush him to the front and maybe he could beat some good guys, but you're not gonna get the most out of him. This is what gets the most out of him. This was the right fight to take against the right opponent in the right moment. He won't be heralded for this win as some kind of groundbreaking achievement. Not the point. This will put him in place much better than other kinds of matchmaking, to have that groundbreaking moment. That's the value of this. This was next step boom, done it. Now we can begin to keep working on this. Keep working on this, keep working it, implement it, try it, test it, what worked, what didn't, tweak it, tweak it, go back once again. That's what this is about. He's at that stage of his career, and that's where its primary value comes in. We go to Raquel Pennington defeating Aspen Ladd at Women's Bandsamway, this was a baffling fight, twenty nine to twenty eight. I'm guessing they gave I haven't seen the scorecards. I'm guessing they gave Aspen Ladd the third because she was pressing into Raquel the most. I'll say this for aspen Lad.
00:20:19
Speaker 2: How old is she?
00:20:21
Speaker 1: She is twenty seven, so she's still quite young. She made weight, she's still twenty seven, and she clearly has some ability. She didn't really get a chance to get a ground a pound, going by virtue of what Rocky Pennington was doing to stand up, and by the time the third round sort of four pressure came it was decent, but not great and in any case, too little, too late. I am shocked that they thought that they had a chance at winning that fight. That is extremely surprising to hear. Listen, I am very conscious. I try to be. I don't I can't always be. I try to be as conscious as I am about some in my role, offering critical feedback and evaluations of people who are as it relates to that practice far better than I and you know this is the this is their identity. Like you don't want to be I try that to be unnecessarily cruel about any kind of criticism, nor do I intend to be here, and it won't sound this way. I just mean to say the following. I do not know if she's getting the proper amount of development up to this point, given where she has been in her career. Let's pull up Lad's resume here. You know, when she was burning through Sijari Ubanks and what was her fifth fight, Lena Lansburg, Tanya Avenger, cijar Ubanks again. In her eighth fight, she lost to durand to Me, which was fine because Durande me hit her with a big shot sixteen seconds in. And then she was kind of losing the Kunaskaya fight, and then lost the Dumont fight and the Penitent fight. I don't know if I can say she's regressed, but I cannot comfortably say that from the time she beat Tanya Avenger she has meaningfully improved performance of the night bonus when she beat Evenger and granted, Rocky Pennington looked awesome this fight. I mean she had the timing down of aspen Ladd right away. She was getting underneath all of her punches, she was getting in between them, she was getting after them. She had the timing down and was giving in the striking department fits to aspen ladd through at least of the first two rounds. It was it was incredible to watch that so Rocky Pennington. You know, there was she was Superman punching into it. She was going to the body then coming upstairs. I mean, just a total veteran showcase of her boxing ability. This was one of the better performances in terms of just straight boxing.
00:22:37
Speaker 2: I see.
00:22:37
Speaker 1: Pennington's always had a good boxing, but this was like a really strong showcase of it. And then she's gritty in the clinch. Granted she got pressed into the fence with the third frame, but through the first two she had done tremendous work Rocky Pennington. You know, for all the difficulties she has faced, the loss to Nunez and the accidents, and she had a terrible bout with COVID and all this stuff, through all of that she has really rebounded and she looks great. She looks as you know, afresh as a daisy. I don't know, she's been in the game for a while, but she's firing on all cylinders these days. But for asmen, Ladd, I just listen. At twenty seven, it would be very foolish to write her off, very foolish to write her off. And I'm not going to join in with the course of people attacking the corner. I would just say, we saw a lot of progress between her fifth and eighth fight. Between her ninth and her twelfth, we have not seen even close to the same amount. And yes, I grant, I grant that between the ninth and the twelfth she has fought much tougher opposition. At least in three of those cases, all of them were tough. But you know what I'm saying, Durand to me and Pennington title challengers Kunskaya too, although it was a little bit somewhat rushed anyway, the point remains the same. I've not seen the same amount of development, and I'm not sure where all of this is presently headed. I think that there's probably some.
00:23:57
Speaker 2: Need for.
00:24:01
Speaker 1: Consideration about, you know, at twenty seven years of age, where she wants to be by thirty. Granted the Dumont fight was at one forty five. She was back at one thirty five. She looked better here, but.
00:24:16
Speaker 2: Not.
00:24:16
Speaker 1: I guess I'm not understanding where this is supposed to be going relative to where it had been going, and that seems like a problem. Mike Mallott defeating Mickey gall three forty one of the first round. TKOS was a welterweight bout man. Mickey Gall is in a tough spot, folks. He had won and lost alternately since the twenty sixteen fight against Stage north Cut. So we beat Sage north Cut, then lost to Randy Brown. Then he beat George Sullivan but then lost to Diego Sanchez. Then he beat Salem to Ai but then lost to Mike Perry. Then he beat Jordan Williams, which was nice I was in twenty twenty one, but then he lost to Alex Morno and then followed it up with a loss to Mike Mallott. Now he has been finished before he got finished by Diego, but that was in the second round. He got finished here inside of four minutes. This is he's in a tough spot. He's seven and five. Now he's not so old. He's thirty. That's not old, but at thirty. If you're at seven and five and then for the first time ever. You're on back to back losses, and you know Alex Morenau is very talented guy out afford to seven, maybe on the game for a long time. And then Mike Mellott, the guy looks like a physical beast. But these are not guys at even close to the upper end of that division. I think Moreno is pretty close. He might be in the rankings. I don't want to disrespect him unless I already have more No. No, I don't think he is there yet. So you get the idea. These are guys that are not even ranked in the top fifteen. That doesn't mean they're bad, it doesn't mean they won't be there, It doesn't mean they're not worthy of respect. But we're talking about you know who's ranked where he's still outside of even that, and he's getting he's getting put away. How did he get put away here? He was an orthodox fighter, and he switched stands through a shift, which the initial punch of the shift landed, so that worked. That was good, And they tried to come over with a right and it didn't come through. So he reshuffled into distance to close the distance. While staying in that stance, he throws a punch, but Mallett slips off the center line and drills him over the top with it. And then if you look closely, he already had the left chambered. Now not chambered like this, you're delivering a straight shot, but chamber for the trajectory it's going to go anyway. So this pushes the head over and then it's just a short little left hook, almost like an uppercut, kind of like a shovel punch, and it hits him clean as a whistle, sends him face first down. So the shift was nice for Mickey gall that was actually pretty good. But staying in that position and kind of inching your way forward and then standing straight up, you know your defense is going to be different. Obviously, by virtue of the stand switch, you're cheating that position a little bit. Just by walking up. You had to kind of, you know, either reset or change stances or bring your hands up or so there had to be some kind of re evaluation of that moment rather than just inching forward in that stance kind of reaching out in front of you. There's just not there's just not enough defense there. There's not enough defense there. And Mike Mallott. For him to be able to take that kind of pressure and then slip off the center line and then throw and then bring the left. That was fantastic, fantastic from Mike Mallott. What a perfectly placed shot, big athletic power. He brought it to bear. And again I'm gonna keep saying that, dude, these guys who can slip punches versus the ones who can't. I'm not saying Mickey gaul can. I think he may have a little bit in this fight actually, But in general, as a rule to think about you hear me say it all the time. There's a gonna be a huge there's already developing. It's only going to widen. The ones who can slip versus the ones who can't. In anime is gonna be a massively important dividing line. And that's just not true as a general skill. But fight to fight. When you can do it, can you slip under certain considerations and not under others, All of those are gonna be brought to bear. The ones who can slip most of the time are gonna have exponential advantages over their competitors. And you saw that here as well. It brings them into position and creates vulnerability for you to attack or it's a it's a very narrow window, but once you open it, you can, I mean, you can just absolutely devour people with it. So sick win by Mike Mallott. And as I mentioned, for Mickey Gall seven and five, he's three, he's one in three in his last four he has losses to Perry Morno and ma Lot. The only win was the Jordan Williams one, which is a nice win. But I don't I don't know what uf He's gonna do with him. This is a bit of a cautionary tale. I'm afraid you do have to at least respect the fact that he has made it an effort. Mickey Gall, I think he has. You know, he went to Joe Shilling's team. I think that was probably a good move for him. He switched it up away to Stanford MMA, probably another good move all things considered. But once you're at the UFC, you have to be very careful about your development. And this is why I always tell people people develop in different ways. You know, at this point, John Jones wouldn't have needed as much, you know that careful matchman like, yeah, careful matchmaking around the right kind of fights. He probably would have been a little bit more fight ready. Well that's him, that's not going to be a lot of other guys. This is why rush the Ian Gary's and in different ways, the Patty Pimblets and whoever else. Granted Patty has more experience than Ian Gary, but certainly on the regional scene. But even then, you really, really really want to be careful about how you progress these guys because once it starts going, it's hard to undo. So you got to make sure that the escalation is happening at the right time, and that can come, as I mentioned, not just getting to the UFC, but getting into the top ten, getting into the top five, becoming a title contender. They have to make sure that all of these thresholds are crossed when they are supposed to be crossed, otherwise development can get badly affected. It's just hard to get better when you're under this kind of duress about making sure everything you need is already there. You needed time before that to bring all of them to bear, and then you can mix and match them as needed. That's what the very best ones do, very quickly, very quickly. For honorable mention, I had indicated Anthony Hernandez and Josh Framm having an absolute war out there. What a ridiculously crazy fight. Anthony Hernandez a amazing grappler. I was blown away. I did not see that coming from him. And also his gas tank was phenomenal. He was giving it to friend, then friend gave it to him, and then he turned the tides once more to really kind of claim that fight. Great job from Anthony Hernandez, salute, what a performance by him. And then Julio Arse out of I think Corona Queens, New York, Little Columbia in many ways, defeating Daniel Santos thirty twenty seven on two of the judges scorecards, twenty nine to twenty eight on another one. Dude, he was his footwork was great, his jab was great. I mean that it just looked like he'd been really working on that for a long time. Dude, Julio Arse screams, last guy in the gym. Just you can just tell, you can just tell that this dude has put in a ton of work to make sure his movement looks crisp and clean. It's his intentionality is clear, his defense is already you know, yes, he's making reads, but it's already muscle memory about where he needs to be and he what signs do you need to see to begin to escalate, to get more volume out, what fans are working, which ones are not? How do I bring them back? But dude, that was all set up from his footwork. That was all set up from footwork. That was a fun nomenal display of getting yourself into and out of position as as required, absorbing pressure as he did and making sure that you know, listen, it's the basics footwork, the jab. But dude, you're seeing with skilled with skilled technicians like Julio R say, you can see the value in phenomenal footwork and a great job. And of course there's more to it than just that, but those two building blocks alone, boy, if you have those dialed in, those will do a lot for you. Phenomenal job by him as well. So congrats to all the winners and chin up to all the losers because there's always another tomorrow.
00:31:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, thank you guys so much for watching the podcast. Thumbs up.
00:31:50
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, and got more coming your way. Got a big surprise coming to you, I think tomorrow. I hope we'll see how it goes, but until next time, appreciate y'all watching, enjoy the fights,
