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Welcome to The Big Suie, presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Levitard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys?

I've done it.

And now here's The marching man to nowhere, fatface, and The Habitual Liar.

Brock Bowers needs surgery. Shane Bemer broke his foot. Iowa Hawkeye fans are furious with Lucy. Sam Hartman shaved his beard. This has been an absolutely banana's week of college football. Lucy, where do we begin in all of this?

That's a really great question. It's wild that all those things have happened in the same week. I left one of the biggest Pack-12 comebacks of all time early. It's been crazy. Brock Bowers is pretty devastating because he's one of the few players that's not a quarterback that you can make a real Heisman campaign for it. And if the Heisman truly went to the best player in college football, it's hard to say that that isn't Brock Bowers. So devastating loss for Georgia. Shane Bemer kicked something. We don't know what it was yet. Why do we...

Why do we think they're being cagey about what Shane Bemer kicked? Because the report was that he kicked something, an object, broke his foot. And he's really angry about kicking something, which at that point in which you kick something enough to break your foot, you have to be like, I can't be angry anymore. I need to work on this anger. But he's now mad that his foot's broken, which just adds insult to injury.

My guess is like, he had to kick like a helmet or something. Like something that would have done in the Lord of the Rings. Yeah, enough damage. I've never seen Lord of the Rings. I'm so sorry.

That's a deep meme cut for the listeners. So there's a scene, Lucy, in Lord of the Rings, where Vigo Mortensen, who played Aragorn, kicks a helmet in despair because he thinks that the Hobbits have been eaten by the Urookai. And behind the scenes, Vigo Mortensen told people that he actually broke his toe when he kicked the helmet. So when he yells, he was yelling in real pain because his toe hurt so bad. And so every time you watch The Lord of the Rings, and The Two Towers, you have to tell someone in that scene, Hey, did you know Vigo Mortensen actually broke his toe when he kicked that helmet?

Thank you so much for your service. Wow.

You're welcome. Thank you. You're welcome. I was thinking maybe like a car tire.

Yeah?

Because that's embarrassing. Don't do that. Formula One drivers do it all the time, but don't do that.

Maybe it was like a person.

Do we think it was an assistant?

Dude, I'm nervous he kicked Cerbik Spur. I'm nervous he kicked the chicken. That's why they can't say anything. Oh, my God. What have you kicked the chicken? What have you kicked the chicken? And they can't say anything about it because he kicked a chicken? And he broke his foot.

His bones are so soft.

He got it at the wrong angle and it went beef in the foot, broken.

No! We do not support animal abuse. We don't think he actually did that. -animaluse.

-we do not.

Support it. And we are not making.

Real allegations. We do not think this actually happens. But you're.

Right, that would be the likeliest culprit, because why else wouldn't they just tell us? Like, he kicked a locker. He kicked a helmet. He kicked something.

Like, you you kicked something. We've got the embarrassing part out of the way. If it's really that embarrassing, you can't tell us. You really.

Shouldn't have kicked it. Should we do a reenactment of what happened in the office like, 20 minutes ago? Okay, so I was in the kitchen looking at my phone, and Lucy was in the studio and the door was open and it was very quiet. Everyone's in L. A. It's very peaceful around here. And I go, Lucy. Oh, my God. Sam Hartman shaved his beard. No. Lucy just screamed no. It was the most.

Like, pure raw reaction I've ever had in my life. I wasn't ready. Of all the things she could have said, I was not ready for that. I was not ready to hear that.

And honestly- Taylor also yelled no from the hallway. Everyone was so shocked.

We lost Brock Bowers this week. Iowa fans are mad at me. The last thing I needed right now was Sam Hartman to shave his beard. If it ain't broke, don't fix.

It, Sam. I agree. He has a mustache right now. Notre Dame is on a by. Maybe there's time to grow back some stubble before their next game against Pitt. Pitt had a fun week. We'll get to Pitt in a second. But that is the breaking news headlines of the week. How do we feel about the fact that Iowa fans are mad at you for simply stating the objective fact that Iowa could finish 11 and 1, they have a really bad offense and a really good defense. And you're not sure if them going 11 and 1 is the best thing in the long term because of said terrible offense. What do we make of these fans being angry with you?

I had more than one person, which feels like a very high number tell me yesterday that I had sold my soul. To who? For what? If I had sold my soul, I would have gotten something better in return.

I don't know. Yeah, you've sold your soul to get made fun of by Dan for leaving a Stanford day. Are you for real?

They're a little dramatic. We're in this weird time right now with what happened with the woman at the Chargers game where people are really angry about your fan level. So basically, the common complaint I have heard is, Lucy, you are not a true Iowa fan. You are a fraud. You go to other games and you wear other school's hats, and you should probably rot in jail for that. So I would say that I think we should all just take a deep breath. And all I said was that I was offense is bad, and they are, and that I was defense is very good, and they are, and that I don't really know how I feel about it, and I don't. But if you keep being mean to me, I don't think I'm going to start feeling good about it.

Everyone needs to take a deep breath. I think all of the success that Iowa is feeling this season is getting to people's heads. I understand that you're not used to being... I mean, Iowa has been good over the years. You guys should be okay handling this, but they're not. You guys just need to get used to the fact that your punter is your.

Best player. He's so good.

He's 506 pun yards, and they're 10:1 all time when he punts at least eight times. Get used to it and get over and stop being mean to Lucy or I'll fight you.

I think the funniest thing about it is they're like, Yeah, we know the offense is bad. We're just pissed that you keep talking about it. It's like, I don't know what you.

Want me to do.

I'm not the reason it's bad.

Take it to... Take it.

Up with those guys.

It's ridiculous.

I love you. We'll work through it.

I'm mad on your behalf. Let's talk about the game of the weekend, not the Iowa game. And also, I will concede not the Notre Dame game. Maybe we'll give that second best billing. Taylor is now right now wearing his Carolina baseball jersey. My favorite thing that Taylor told me this weekend was that after the Carolina win over Miami, he went to Franklin Street and spent just a boatload of money on Carolina merch. And I'm like, who among us? That is how college football campuses get you. Don't you.

Get it for free? You played football there.

I just like to support them.

He's like, Please take my money. You got a little Mike Ryan in you, Taylor. I like it. But no, Washington beating Oregon was the game of the weekend. It was Electric. Michael Pennix Jr, what a performance. Washington's wide receivers are so good. Oregon also, to their credit, both teams are very good. I hope we see a rematch.

No, it was an absolutely awesome game. I think if that game was played in Eugene, I think Oregon would have won. I think Dan Lenning may have been a little too aggressive in spots that you may not have wanted to be so aggressive. But I mean, that's the day and age of college football now. I was so impressed with both teams. I think it was awesome to have this game at 3:30 PM because so far this year we haven't seen any of Washington. All we saw from Oregon was that Colorado game. The Pac-12 is where football is happening right now, and it's electric because either those teams can make it back to the Pac-12 Championship. They could play again. That's dream case scenario. But you also have other teams in that conference. I'm like, Shit, I'd like to see them playing the Pac-12.

Championship, too. It's crazy. Yeah, it's going to be really fun. The next six weeks I think it'll be really fun. I don't fault Dan Lenn for any of his going for it aggressiveness during the game. I think if there's something to criticize him for, maybe it's just the play calls. I don't know. I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to convert a fourth down when if... The game was close the whole time, but I think it was not incorrect of Oregon to try to take those big swings. And the analytics bear out that if you're a team like Oregon that has above average yards per carry, going for it on fourth down, you may have a slightly above 50 % chance of converting. And this is my very rudimentary understanding of analytics, so I'm apologies if I'm wrong. But I don't really fall to Dan Lanning. And I think when you're a player on the team, you probably like that your coach is confident that you can go for it. There's so many times watching college football when you see a team not convert on third down and you see their offensive players are like begging the coach to just let them have.

One more chance.

Not us. Not Iowa, but other teams do it. I think that that, over time, will probably work out in his favor. But it was a great game and three points at the end was the only difference, and I could have seen it.

Going either way. Yeah, I think where it gets me, because I agree with you 100 %, is when it is a three-point game and you think about Oregon not going for the field goal- Before half-time. Yeah, before half time, fourth goal. That's the call I'm referring to, but.

I have been-That was the one that Dan Lennon also afterwards was like, Maybe that one I should have just.

Taken the points for. I loved the aggressiveness on fourth down the whole day, although it wasn't really working in their favor. That was the one call where I was like, Maybe it's the Iowa me. But I'm like, Take the points. Take the field goal. I think Dan Lennon is a phenomenal coach. I've been saying it all year long. I think that he takes Oregon to a national championship game. It may not be this year. It may not be next year, but I think he's one of the next guys. He will be in the Kerby Smart, nick Saban conversation.

The second best game of the weekend, not in order that Taylor wrote them on our sheet, the Notre Dame-USC game, because of, I think, the way that this has had Heisman implications, this has had major playoff implications, USC is potentially on the verge of an implosion. They're going to have to really fix some things before they play Utah this weekend, which you will be in attendance at that game. I think the biggest, most hilarious fallout has been Oklahoma fans joining the Frey. I have seen more Oklahoma fans tap dancing on USC's grave than I have seen Notre Dame fans doing it. It is remarkable how much they still have all of this angst for Lincoln Riley.

Oh, yeah. When we went to Texas, Oklahoma, I asked the fans I talk to, How do you feel about Lincoln Riley? When I say that name, what do you want to do? And they're like, throw up? What do you mean? And they love Brenton Venables. They love him so much. He's a Stoops guy. Yeah, what's a Stoops, an Iowa guy? So Brenton Venables, he brings that defensive mindset that Lincoln Riley never had. And they're sitting in this world and they're like, Wow, this is the first time I've gotten to watch a team with a good defense and this guy left us in shitty fashion. Yeah, I'm glad they lose. I think it's funny. It doesn't really bother me that Oklahoma is dancing on their graves, especially when- No, it's so great.

I've seen, USC fans begging Oklahoma fans to stop spamming their mentions. And I'm like, It'd be really funny if Oklahoma fans doubled down on this. Like, Put them in a bowl game. Matt Lyner tweeted something the other day about like, Wow, Oklahoma fans, you're salty. And it had 1,300 replies underneath it of Oklahoma fans just on him. And it was hilarious. But yeah, Oklahoma, the fact that they have a dog in this fight, I think, is so funny. It's awesome. There's still a chance that you will make a playoff with Venables before Lincoln Riley makes it makes a playoff with USC because the thing that I think USC fans are so frustrated about is that you had to watch USC blow the Pac-12 championship last year with your Heisman winning quarterback, Caleb Williams. Utah was their Cryptonite last year. They lost their New York to Tulane. But now he's coming in his third year as a College football player, second season with USC, and you have this expectation or at least hope that they figured something out on defense. And Caleb Williams plus a couple of weapons are going to be enough to get over the hump this year before he probably will leave to go to the NFL.

And it does not look good right now. Notre Dame is by far the best competition they've played, especially on the defensive side of the ball this season, and they lost by 28 points. Caleb Williams looked completely just like a normal college football quarterback, throwing picks, fumbling the ball. They were just completely lost the entire game offensively. Their defense didn't even have to screw up. It was all on the offense in this game. So tough for Trojans fans. But on the plus side, you control your own destiny in the Pack 12 now because it wasn't a Pack 12 game. You have all these tests ahead of you. If you win all the games, you're still good. But the question is, how do you see this team winning any of these games?

It's one of those things where I know it very well. You cannot win significant... You can win games with just having one side of the ball be infinitely better. But to actually be competitive against good teams, you cannot trot out the best offense in the world and the shittiest defense. It's just not going to work. It's vice versa. With with Iowa, it's one of those things where Lincoln, Riley, you... We said it so many times, I sound like a broken reticard, but it's like, How have you not figured this out by now? Or how have you not hired somebody to figure this out by now? We know what the problem is, because if you get in a situation where you're playing a team like Notre Dame that has a great defense, and now your high has been winning quarterback, it's just a regular dude, that's it. You're done. That game is over. You have no shot. You can't be reliant on one guy unless he, of course, is your punter. And in that case, very important.

Huge.

Don't live a tard.

Well, my about Jimbo Fisher is that nick Saban, he's been trying to cancel me for saying that Mrs. Met has cake. Bobby Walton would have said, Mrs. Met, she is snatched.

Stoogots. I'd never.

Pay for a player. Now, I would pay for Mrs. Met to give me a lap dance.

This is the Dan Levittar Show with.

The Stugats.

Okay, the actual big, prime time game that a lot of Miami fans, Levittar Show fans probably were watching was the Miami-UNC game. Taylor was boots on the ground. He was at the game. He reported to us live that A, Tess Walker did the upside-down U in Mike Ryan's section right in front of his face, and B, Mike Ryan left in the third quarter, so he's not allowed to be mean to Lucy for leaving the Stanford game. Thank you. This was a huge win for Carolina. They own the series against Miami. They have a couple of really tough tests ahead. Georgia Tech has been a tough team for North Carolina the past five years. They are the team that, of course, upset Miami two weeks ago. And then they also have to play Duke and Clemson, who is still unranked. Maybe we'll have a low 20s ranking by then because they have two losses to Duke and Florida State. But where do you put this North Carolina team in the context of everything else going on right now in.

College football? When it came to UNC, I've been judgy and very hesitant up until this point because you have no doubts about Drake May, you have no doubts about that offense. But to see Carolina try to have a defense that plays well, that actually looks tough and physical. That was something I'm not used to seeing with UNC football, and it's pretty much changed my view in the sense of I think they're competitive in the ACC. Florida State is going to... I don't know if they're on the regular season, but they have a test with Florida State with Duke, but it's an actual competition. I don't think it's Carolina getting blown out by 30 type of deal.

Like last year against Clemson.

And Miami credits to them for keeping it competitive in the first half. And then that went downhill.

For the loss. I don't know where does Miami go from here, because now they have to play Clemson. They still have to play Florida State. They've already got two losses. I think this.

Shows why-The Duke's Mayo Bowl, is that where they go?

It's possible. Do not knock the.

Duke's Mayo Bowl. We know the Duke's Mayo Bowl is great. I don't think Miami deserves it. It was the only ACC bowl game I could think of off the top.

Of my head. The Pop-Tart bowl, I know the ACC bowl time. Since Notre Dame gets access to some of the ACC bowl games, I- With the Scissors. There's the Gator Bowl, there's the Holiday Bowl, but those ones are usually reserved for the nine and sometimes ten-win team. So I don't know, maybe if we're thinking Pop-Tart bowl. We'll see. There's nothing against the Pop-Tart. Notre Dame, they're playing the Pop-Tart bowl.

Love a.

Good Pop-Tarts. I used to love Pop-Tarts. I don't eat them anymore. But they were once a staple in my diet. Then I got onto Uncrustables. Elevated Pallate.

Speaking of.

The ACC, though.

One of the unbeaten teams in the ACC, Louisville, got Narkuzied.

Pit is like- It happened to the best of us. Honestly, we.

Should have called this because last week I was like, Oh, Louisville is good. I want to see them win more games because they haven't played quite a tough schedule yet. But they did play really, really well against Notre Dame. But then they go to Acrisure Stadium, formerly known as Hein's Field. It's raining. It's disgusting. And you're playing against Pitt, who has finally put in their backup quarterback, who had a solid game in his debut with Pitt. There was all this chatter over the week leading up to this game about this Blue Vase, Lucy. Can you explain the phenomenon of the Blue Vase to people and what happened there?

I will try my best because I'm still a little confused by it. So there was a Blue Vase at the Pit football facility that a reporter said was to put your negative thoughts into.

Like write down your negative thoughts and put them in the blue base.

And then it was like, Okay, that's not actually a real thing. It was just a blue base that was there. And then post beating Louisville, Pat Narduzzi walks out with the blue base and just sets it down because it's his world and we're just living in it. It was.

So weird. So I think what happened was that a reporter misunderstood what the context of the base was, and everyone clowned Pitt for a day. And then I guess what the blue base is, is that it's a motivational tactic that Pitt uses that came out of a book from the 1920s. And this is something that they've used years in the past. And so they brought it out for the Louisville game because they really needed the motivation. And it worked. And it worked. And so now everyone's all in on the Blueface. And so it wasn't like a complaint box. That was the misinterpretation. But it is very funny. It's very nerdoozy. It's very pit. Like they've got this... It's tiny. It's like a tiny little Blue Vase that he trotted out in his postgame press conference. We'll put a picture of that in post, Taylor. But yeah, credit to Pit for upsetting the Cardinals because if you're a Louisville fan, like that is winning against Notre Dame at home, one of your biggest home wins in a decade and then losing on the road to this pathetic Pitt team is... And maybe pits figured some things out on offense, but it's still such a downer.

I read somewhere, I don't know who to quote for this, but Jeff, Brom is 0 and 4 in the game after Bromming another team. So we should have all seen this coming.

You can take Jeff, Brom out of Purdue, but you cannot take Purdue out of Jeff, Brom.

Okay, we should look ahead to this weekend. We have six minutes left. We were gifted an extra 12 minutes today.

So let everyone know how much you like it. Yeah, because 12.

Minutes is not long enough to talk about college football. There are 133 FBS teams. We don't need to talk about the group of five, but there's a lot of big games this weekend, Lucy. Ohio State and Penn State, the big game out of the big ten. This one is going to be very interesting.

Penn State is a team I can't get any read on right now. I genuinely don't know what's going to happen in this game. I'm staying away from betting it. I'm going no predictions here because Penn State, their toughest test was against Iowa that you played half a team. I don't necessarily know if that counts. And they struggled against the Iowa defense in the first half, which is natural. The fans are not.

Going to like that.

Yeah. Well, you know what? You awoke in the beast, all right? I don't know what you guys want from me. So they struggled against Iowa's defense. They're not throwing the ball deep. The reason James Franklin got that wild question is because they're not having these big, giant plays, and they have a great quarterback. I don't understand how good they are in any measuring stick, because UMass, and Illinois, and Iowa, I don't think are good litmus test for how good you are. And also for Ohio State, that Notre Dame game was weird. There were odd circumstances there. Kyle McCord has looked really bad and really good. These are two teams that I just don't understand. The only thing I know for sure is Penn State's got a phenomenal defense. Marvin Harrison.

Jr, is really good. My advice to Penn State: play all 11 guys on defense. They've got a really good defense. I think Ohio State, they have a lot of injuries. We were taping this earlier in the week, so we don't know exactly who's going to be good to play if Travion Henderson is playing or not. Ohio State's star running back. Their run game has struggled a lot, and Penn State's defense has been really good. The concern with Penn State is that they lack explosive plays. They're not taking deep shots, but they haven't really had to do that to beat anyone on their schedule. So again, I'm with you, Lucy. I don't know how to pick this game. I will say like, Ohio State has won a tougher test. Well, I guess, Iowa's defense is really good, too. It's really hard to compare these two. So that's why it's going to be an.

Exciting game. It's tough because Penn State and Iowa, that game was a lot closer than it felt up until the second half when I would just started turning the ball over every other play. It's very weird because James Franklin is out here throwing shots in Indiana, and that tells me something's up. Why are you getting mad at Indiana right now? You got humass coming up. You could just take this time to be low key.

You're not doing it. Well, that's going to be a very exciting game in the Big Ten. We have 10to 10. Tennessee and Alabama in the SCC. This is a rematch of... We all remember last year's Tennessee-Alabama game ended in that field goal. Absolutely crazy. Nick Saban wants revenge. Alabama is a nine-point favorite, Lucy. But I've watched a lot of Alabama football this year, and I do have still many concerns about their offense. Their defense looks good. They're solid, I think. But I'm still really, really concerned about Jaylen Millrow specifically.

My issue with Alabama is their offensive line. I don't think it's very good. They struggled against Arkansas, but I also have a ton of concerns about Tennessee. Tennessee is running the same offense they ran last year with a quarterback who's not capable of running that offense and the receivers that don't also have the speed and the ability to run that offense. This is a completely different Tennessee team than they were last year. The way that they got manhandled at Florida, which I know is a weird place to play for them, they're not what they once were. Now, I don't think either of these teams are bad by any means, but this is not what this game was last year. I think Alabama wins. It's in Tuscaloosa. There's a lot of revenge and hatred for this game. I'm not trusting this Tennessee team right now. Now, just because they need to figure out their identity without Hind and Hucker, and they haven't done that.

I saw nick Saban go crazy because an offensive lineman got a presnap penalty during the victory formation against Arkansas last weekend. So he's mad. He's not mad. They won, but he's going to be yelling at a lot of... They had a lot of penalties last weekend. He's going to be yelling at a lot of people. This feels like a game that nick Saban comes in and just like, Okay, all right, why did we doubt this guy? He still got it. He still got his pass ball. We also have the Dylan-Gabriel-Revenge game this weekend that I think only Jeremy Teche will be competitive. Did he write this? Their UCF is a 19-point underdog. I don't feel like I would take Oklahoma and the points. I would. Yeah, I don't... That's my betting advice for the weekend. Duke and Florida State. Duke is a big underdog. We don't know yet if Riley Leonard is going to play. He didn't play last weekend to NC State. Duke still gutted it out and won. I feel good about Florida State, but maybe I would take Duke in the points?

I'm taking Duke in the points. When Mike Elko was asked if Riley Leonard could play, he was like, His status is unknown, but he smiled. He smiled. So I don't know what that means.

Oh, Mischievous. He's really becoming a.

Hug-pud-pud football coach. I love him. I love him so much. Duke beat the crap out of NC State this weekend. Their backup looked good. Duke's got a solid defense. Riley Leonard was not... Riley Leonard is an incredibly important part of this team, but there was a solid surrounding cast for him. I'm not picking Duke to win. It's in Tallahassee. That's really tough. But Florida States got a loss in him. I think Duke is a really solid team. I have them covering.

I want to finish the segment. Miami and Clemson play this weekend. Davos Weeney was asked at his press conference about the kneeldown fiasco and Mario Cristobal a couple of weeks ago and what he would do basically. And Davos said, Hopefully in that situation, someone would just punch me. I'm not.

My crying will punch him if he continues to say stuff like that. Be careful what you wish for, my guy.

He can and he will.

He will absolutely do it. He got so mad just over this. Don't do it.

Don't do it.

Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don Levator. Smart. Stugats. More sports. This is the Dan Levator show with.

The Stugats. All right, welcome in to the MMA hangout. That guy across from you right there is MMA junkies, Danny Seguira, who's been traveling Spain. He's been an international traveler, nomad, international nomad. Danny, what's up, brother?

All good, man. Out here with my Cafecito, a little bit. But ready to talk some fights, man. I have tough for this card.

How is it that the USC goes in with a certain main and co-main, and then both guys get injured, and then all of a sudden you have a better card than the one that was previously put together that was already good, but this one is now better? We're talking about the headline or the main event, Islam versus Charles O'Levera for the lightweight title. Then the co-main event, it would have been Hamza versus Paulo Costa. How is it that we go from one thing to a completely different card almost overnight?

Yeah, it's crazy, man. It's one, the magic of the U-of-C being able to negotiate with these fighters, and two, just being the spirit of MMA. Let's say, Canelo was fighting Charlo, you don't see Charlo get injured, and then all of a sudden, name whoever, Benavides, goes, Okay, I'll fight them on 10 days notice. That doesn't happen. That doesn't happen. Usually, just fights just get scrapped. But in the U-of-C, there's that culture of fighters taking opportunities, taking chances, and just daring to be great. And that's what we're seeing Will Volkinovsky and Camara Ouzman. Yeah, it's insane. We got an upgrade. Out of something that would have destroyed a card, we actually got an upgrade here because the fights are fantastic. Not only did they get more competitive, in my opinion, but the stakes are much higher in both bouts.

Let's start with the headliner of the main event, Islam Makashev, who's been just dominating the division at Lightweight, was going to fight a Lavera, rematch from their fight a couple of years ago to now Alexander Volkinovsky to their rematch a couple of months ago. Now we're looking at Alexander Volkanovsky off of a hand surgery, what, three months ago after his fight with the Ayur Rodriguez?

Yeah, he fought in U-of-C 290. That was July. Yeah, June and July, right. He shortly after got a hand surgery.

Now he's coming off of what, two weeks notice? He was a buck 80, I think, when he got called. Now he's got a cut down and first fight since his hand surgery. But again, Volk is a warrior. Valk right now, and I know we've talked about this in many MMA hangouts past, but Valk right now is just trending, arrow, screaming up to being one of the goats in MMA.

Yeah. If you want to look at a guy that is trying to build legacy in the sport, that's the best example. I'm sure he cares about the money and all that, and I'm sure that you paid him quite handsomely to take this fight on short notice. But that just seems like a secondary thing. When you see other fighters, you see them call up McGregor, you see them call out for boxers, you see like, Yeah, they want to build legacy, but their primary thing is making money, which they should at the end of the day is prize fighting. But for Volkinovsky, it just almost feels like he's okay with what he's got. Anything that comes after that is bonus, and he's just out there to be the most badass fighter he can possibly be. This is obviously right in line with that. Volkinovsky is just an absolute stud by taking this fight because we knew that this fight was going to happen eventually if both guys kept winning. People wanted it, the U-of-C wanted it. It felt like a big fight back in February when they first fought. And to take that fight on 10 days notice and potentially put on the line that this may be the last time you ever see the guy because once you're 0 and 2 against the guy, good luck getting a third fight.

Dude, I mean, the guy's got balls. The guy's got balls. There's no way around it. The guy is just daring to be great, just as his nickname is. Vokinosti is just something else, I mean, props to that guy.

And we get to the exes of the fight. In February, I think it was what, 284? Yes, 284. We saw Islam do what Islam does, great wrestling, great ground games. He's got really strong hands. Islam is almost a perfect fighter when it comes to this division. You saw as the fight got further and further along, Volkanovsky start to wear him down, wear them down in that last round. The only thing I remember from that fight is Volkanovsky on top of Islam, raining blows. You're like, Oh, wait a second. I think Volkanovsky might win. They obviously give the decision to Islam. But how do you see this fight working out?

I feel like it's going to be very similar to the first one. I don't think either guy has changed a ton. They are who they are at this point. Yes, they can get better. Yes, they can strategize. But if you look at the fight, the fight was so competitive that either guy doesn't really want to change much about their strategy because both had a ton of success. Yes, there was a loser and there was a winner, but I don't think if you're a Volkinovsky, you want to change a whole lot because a lot worked. Enough that maybe 50 % or close to it of the MMA population out there as far as fan base thinks you won the fight. I think it's going to be a very similar fight. I just wonder what Vokinovsky's mentality is now because entering that fight, he had no chance. We saw his confidence grow round by round by round. At the end of the fight, it almost felt like I could have been doing this since the first round. Why wasn't I doing it? I don't know if the added confidence is going to change a bit the dynamics of the fight.

Also, we got to keep in mind this is a short-noticed fight for Volkinovsky, so I just wonder what shape he's in, especially after that hand surgery. Those are the two biggest things I would say. But outside of that, I think we're going to see a very similar fight, very competitive. Obviously, we have Volkinovsky trying to keep it on the feet, and Issa Makash is trying to drag it to the ground.

Volk has been such a dynamic fight over the last couple of years where he's been letting his hands just fly on people. That fight with the Rodriguez was incredible. That entire card was amazing. But his last couple of fights, Yair, Islam, which you could make an argument, he won that fight later on in the later rounds, and then against Max, beat Max. Split his eyebrow open four times wider than I saw Charles' injury from sparring, which I want to get to in a second. But it just looks like he was in such a groove where the hand thing worries me a little bit because is he trusting it enough? This is his first fight since that hand surgery. Has he sparring? Has he really tested that hand enough to make sure that I can let it fly and it'll be okay? That's the one thing that worries me about Volg is he hasn't tried it yet.

Yeah, that's definitely an issue. But you wonder, right? If he took the fight, there's got to be a level of confidence that he can do it, right? He could have said no, because remember, this fight was against Charles Olivera, but they also had a backup fighter in Gamrat. They could have put Gamrat in and still have a comment between Shamiv and Uzman. Is still a pretty damn good pay-per-view. People would pay for it. I feel like if he took it is because he sees a big opportunity to do something. I do have questions, but I feel like his hands should be fine. He did say after the fight against J. Rodolphe that the surgery that he was supposed to have was going to be minor. In fact, that's why he was campaigning for this fight to begin with and not have Charles Olivera be in the main event. I do feel like he should be almost close to 100 % as far as the arm goes. But we'll see, man. That's a big question as well. Also we got to flip it to the other side, like credit to Islamakhashif defending his title. He has a title to lose, but Kanovsky doesn't.

He was getting ready for a tall, aggressive, jiu-jitsu, Mu-Tai guy. Now he's fighting a short, stalky, counter-stryker. I mean, props to Makashif are going, Okay, yeah, we'll take anybody.

It's a complete different game plan, which is what makes U-F-C so great is that the guys are like, You know what? I don't care. Let's do it. It doesn't matter to me. One quick thing on a Lavera. Is there validity to what Dana said? Hey, if you call me first, we'll get it taken care of the right way. Instead, you did it behind our backs, and now you're out of a title fight?

Yes, yeah. You got to let the USC know a lot. I'm out. That's the first thing you got to do. Because in that way, the U-of-C can prep, have an announcement ready. So yeah, they're out. Hey, look, we got that Volkinovsky rematch going on. Rather than, Okay, what's going to happen? And then have people get a little bit confused as to what the main event of U-of-C 294 is going to be and all this. Certainly you got to let the company know. If you get sick at work, the first thing you do is probably call your doctor if it's that bad, but then probably call your employer and be like, Hey, look, I can't make it, rather than go on and announce it to the world. Now it's a little bit different with independent contractors because that's what fighters are anyways. But yeah, I think this whole thing could have been handled a lot better because we saw Vokinowski took this fight with no problem. They probably could have had an announcement rolled out, announcing that Charles O'Livera was going to be out.

Let's head to the co-main event, Hamza, Chimaev, 12 and 0, perfect against now Camaro, Ousmane, whose twenty and three last two losses to Leon Edwards, both for the Walterweight title, it feels like people are just feeding older fighters to Hamzaat. Does that feel the same way to you? Because they said-I.

Don't know, Matt. I think this is his toughest test. If you look at some other young guys like Kevin Haalan, who he's fought, and some other names, this is his toughest test. This is his toughest test. And Ouzman, yeah, he's not champion anymore, but I think he's still one of the best in the world. Top five at least at 170 and 185. Well, I'm curious to see how he looks there, but I've seen him in person. Dude's pretty big, so I think he should be all right. Plus, Hamza has made 170 before. No, I love this fight. This is what a proper number one contender fight looks like, and we're getting it. I'm super hype. I might be more hyped about this fight than the actual main event. Really?

Overvoke Islam too?

Yeah.

Wow. Hamza is such an enigma, right? Because he's only fought a couple of times in the last couple of years. When he's fought, he's dominated. That fight is legendary against Gilbert Burns last year. It was an absolute banger. And you look at Caron Lusman, last couple of fights against Leon. He was winning until the headkick. So basically five rounds into the last 30 seconds. And then Leon dominated him and picked the spots against him in that last welterweight fight. But moving up to 85, Hamzaat now at 85, it's just electric. It's going to be huge.

Yeah, it's going to be amazing. There's so many questions surrounding both guys, something that we don't really get a ton of in the main event, and that's probably why maybe I'm a little bit more excited. But if you look at Hamzaat, the last time he fought was against Kevin Haalan, when he missed weight by nine pounds when he was supposed to fight Natesays, where is his mind? That was September of last year. Where's Camara Ouzman after two consecutive defeats? And after that, he was considered the number one pound-for-pound guy in the sport. And now moving up a weight class, I mean, there's just so many questions surrounding this matchup that I don't know. I just want answers. That's what I want.

Yeah, right. All right, we got a minute left, prediction time. Let's go, Co-Main Event, and then we'll head to the headliner. Co-main Event, Hamzaat versus Kamara, Wusman. What do you got?

I'm going to go Hamzaat.

Okay.

By what? I think he finishes him in the third.

Wow. Okay, so he finishes him.

Yeah.

All right, let's go to the headliner, Islam Makashev, Volkanovsky 2.

I got to go with Makashev here. In Abu Dhabi, full training camp, everything is stacked for him to win, so I'm going to go with Makashif. Makashif, you're- Can see you can vote.

You can. It's going to be exciting. Like, both fights are going to be electric. There's one fight that you want to buy. The entire year has been great for the USC. Yeah. No point in all. But this has been an incredible year for the USC. Again, '94, '95, '96, all bangers the entire way through the USC, killing it as always, as you do, sir. Danny Seguiro from MMA Junky. Thank you, brother, for hanging out and always giving us your time.

No, thank you for the invite.