BTG 191 - MVP MMA DOA?

Hello and welcome to Breaking the Guard. I'm going to talk a little bit about the fight card that we saw the MVP promotions, the first ever Netflix MMA card uh that happened just this past weekend. Not the worst fights put together, although that main event is probably one of the worst main events. Uh obviously spoilers are bound, but I'm I'm sure everybody knows what happened at this point. I'll start from the main event and work backwards because there's not much to talk about there. Main event, 16 seconds, Ronda Rousey by armbar. You heard me call that was going to happen and just about anybody who knew anything knew that's what was bound to happen. I don't fault the ladies for going after this fight because it is a payday, you know, they didn't make as much as as I would expect that they would have. But they walked away with a couple mill each, not a bad day, especially for 16 seconds, not taking a single punch. You know, maybe a little bit of a stretched arm for Gina. And uh yeah, not not too shabby, but obviously very disappointing for the fans that expected to be some conflict, some resistance. And in this case, it was pretty much zero resistance. It goes to show that really Gina as expected didn't develop a game or really focus on anything other than what it seems to be just losing weight. You know, and they made a big storyline of her losing 100 lb in like a year and a half or something like that. Which, to be fair, is a big obstacle. Right? That's a lot of weight to lose. Especially for the I guess they fought at 145. You know, you're talking about a huge amount of your your weight that you're you had to lose. So, impressive and I think that's wonderful that she was able to do that. However, that doesn't sell the fight to me. If anything, it's telling me how bad of a fight this is going to be. If you are 100 lb overweight, clearly you haven't been training. All right? And obviously she hasn't because she's been, you know, in Hollywood and doing movies and going through her own ups and downs. And I'm sure she's had lots of struggles and stuff. But that doesn't make for an entertaining fight. Right? Like you could try to make this a storyline, but there really isn't one. You pretty much have Ronda who was at the top of her game until she suffered two knockouts in a row and I think she just couldn't handle that and stepped out. And that's fine. You know, but she obviously still has the capability of taking anyone down and throwing an armbar at them. Gina, on the other hand, I I feel this was more of a money grab. And she just needed to get into shape and lose 100 lb and she did it. So, again, amazing, but doesn't sell the fight. It doesn't make me think she's going to win. And I know my wife was asking me, "Who do you think's going to win?" Like it's obviously going to be Ronda. There's like no chance. The only chance Gina has is if she actually did train and she's able to stay on her feet for like a minute or so and Ronda's mental game is still very fragile and she gets frustrated and runs into a kick. You know, outside of that she's going to get taken down, she's going to get arm barred. And lo and behold, that's what happened. There's no future in either of them for a fight. Uh they both made that pretty clear. So, for MVP, I guess they said this was one of the most watched Netflix uh sporting events. And they I guess congrats. I don't know how this builds anything though because they're the the sort of the stars, so to speak, are no longer going to be in the show. Um so I think it's a one and done on that effect. Now, other fights have interested Nate Diaz, Mike Perry. That was interesting and I got that one wrong. I thought uh Nate Diaz would be able to weather that early storm and come back and win in the later rounds, but he didn't. He took a good beating, especially in round one, the early parts. He then started to make a little bit of a rally at the end of round one, which I was thinking, "Okay, you know, prediction coming to fruition. Mike Perry's getting a little gassed and he's not used to fighting a 5-minute round, let alone five of them. And these later rounds are going to favor Nate." But he came in round two pretty sharp and was able to bust him up some more. Nate didn't really get any better, you know, angles or submissions or shots, so it wasn't looking like it was coming back his way. And between rounds two and three uh Perry had opened up significant cuts on Nick, one big enough where the doctor stopped the fight. And he wins by cut stoppage. Not a surprise from the guy who's coming from Baron Hookah Boxing to cut people up. And I he showed some savvy in there, you know. I I obviously don't think Nate is at the top of his game. But still, even a Nate that's not on top of his game is uh a tough guy to put away. Mike Perry did a pretty solid job of executing a solid game plan, not getting in too much trouble, and getting a W there. Does that mean he's going to walk back into the UFC? No, I don't think so. But uh maybe in this organization he could uh string together some wins, call out some people, make some interesting fights. But outside of that, he is not a championship level fighter in my opinion. He is a tough guy, can make for fun fights. But he's not in the top 10 of the UFC in my opinion. Next fight below that, we have Francis Ngannou and Philipe Philip Lins. And this seemed to be a mismatch just on paper. You know, I don't I wasn't too familiar with Lins, but he didn't have the type of resume that Ngannou had. And although Ngannou has some off time, you can tell by the physique that he hasn't been wasting his off time. The guy is chiseled and put a beating on Philip and pretty devastating knockout at the end there. Caught him with a big uppercut and then a clipping left hook that slept him. Unfortunately, he did show restraint, didn't do any follow-up shots, and that was all she wrote. Ngannou is looking still in pretty good form. And he wasn't particularly challenged in this fight. So, hard to say like how, you know, well-rounded his game has remained. But, I wouldn't think he has fallen off much if any, to be honest. He's still training and looks just as dangerous as ever. And now the question is, can they get anyone in there as a heavyweight to jump into this promotion and put some interest into it? Because I'll tell you, from top to bottom, the MBB card was mainly mismatched, at least the main event. Uh you had Junior dos Santos fighting uh the young Well, he's not that young, but younger than him, because I think Junior's 44 or something like that. 2 to 38 doesn't seem like a lot, but it's a lot. And that that span of time is significant. Uh that I didn't look great, you know, Junior got knocked out pretty badly by a guy who flunked out of the UFC, 0 and 2. Uh big Cuban kickboxer. Man, I can't remember his name. But, you know, he did what a heavyweight does and put a beating on somebody. That they're trying to set that up now to fight Ngannou. I think Ngannou would destroy him. But, I guess they could put that fight together. But, outside of that, I'm not sure what other entertaining fights there are in that promotion. Like, they have to build something up right now, cuz in my opinion, there's there's nothing there. And that's not And you you guys know I don't really care too much for the UFC as far as wanting them to be the big dog. I'd rather there were a lot of competitors here. So, my criticism is not um because I don't I want to see him fail. It's just honestly, like I want to see him succeed, but you got to start putting together better fights. You got to start getting people in and hopefully making this a prosperous circuit so that we can have a viable contender against the UFC. Cuz that's only going to benefit all the fighters. I think the minimum pay in MVP was 40 grand, which is quite nice. The biggest payday was Gina. I think she had 2.1. I'm not Gina, Ronda. Gina, I think had 1 million something. Uh and then 1 and 1/2 for Ngannou. S- So, not bad paydays for those gentlemen. I think Mike Perry and Nate Diaz was like 400, 500,000 dollars a piece. So, you know, people did pretty good in that. I think the only one that I felt got kind of short-changed compared to his opponent was Felipe or Philip Lins. He was at 100,000 to 1 and 1/2. So much so that Ngannou gave his fight bonus to Lins, which was 100 grand, basically doubling his purse. I get it. Their value was very different. It just a little hard to see that as a fighter. You're like, "Man, how was that undervalued?" Uh but probably fairly, um to be honest. With that aside, I didn't tune into the UFC, so I don't even know what happened there. I I'm pretty sure Arnold won his fight. So, he's trying to make his way back up the title picture there. Now, I I want to talk about something else, which is I I went on a trip to Oregon. That was the first time I've ever been there. Uh quite lovely. Pretty good time to go. It was around 40 low, 60 high in Fahrenheit. So, the climate was beautiful. It was high desert. So, kind of similar to here, but a lot more greenery, lots of pine trees, lots of Christmas trees, uh birds, deer, all sorts of animals. It was a really lovely time. And that was just uh over the past weekend. So, uh quite enjoyed that quite a bit. Uh so, if anybody wanted to go to Oregon, yeah, I know as a '80s kid where the Oregon Trail was probably a very good idea, man, cuz it's a beautiful land. Uh very fertile as well. I didn't realize like all the blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, uh cherries, cherries. They even grow watermelons out there. I I didn't even realize that was a thing. Uh very good produce. Uh so, yeah, we had a really great time hiking around there. Uh did some cycling, went into some caves. So, that was a lot of fun. And now it's something I'm going to try to do more of. I did this kind of as a spur-of-the-moment thing, planned it with like 5 days of notice, and came out to be quite a nice trip. Had a lot of fun. My wife enjoyed it a lot. And you know, she's very difficult to please. So, >> [laughter] >> uh I was impressed. So, something I'm going to try to do more of is just try to travel around. I mean, I I travel quite a bit, but not always recreationally. So, I'm going to try to get some more recreational in there as well. I will say that for people who struggle with routines, because that's something that I noticed about us on this trip. My wife is super disciplined. Works out every day. Doesn't matter what is going on in the world, what's going on with her life, she will still work out. She always carries a jump rope with her. She always carries some um strengthening bands, so she can tie it against a bed post or whatnot and do her workouts. Doesn't miss a day. And sure enough, on this trip, same as usual, she will be working out every morning when she gets up and she'll work out again at night. Her And this is mind you, we're still hiking uh around 4 to 6 mi a day. So, and these were easier hikes, but still it's a good amount of exercise. You know, it's like a couple hours of, you know, walking. And then she's still doing workouts before and after. Whereas of for me, I wasn't working out, but I was doing my regular routine still and the diet I always keep, it's I I have cuz I have people ask me, "How do you do the, you know, your diet and carnivore when you're traveling? It It's got to be challenging." And I was like, "It's really easy actually because you just >> [laughter] >> eat meat and eggs. They're everywhere." Uh it's not difficult at all. I think people complicate things a lot more than it has to be. And just like when I'm here, I'm eating once or twice a day. Not that big of an ask and I can pretty much go anywhere and get a steak or a burger. It's not difficult. And my case, I generally find a place with a kitchen and that's what we did here. And although I cooked once, the other times we went out, they cuz there were some really nice steak houses there that we decided to visit and they were quite excellent. So, I got to treat myself there. Although my wife says I cook better than the Michelin star chef. I'm not sure, but I really like the support from her, so I'll take it. But, uh cooking at home was very simple. You know, if you can get a Airbnb with a kitchen, makes it really easy. And just go to a grocery store, get a couple steaks, get some eggs, and you're pretty set. Uh and I've noticed for me, when I'm on vacation, I tend to just eat butter straight, which I never do at home. And I realize it's calorie deficit because when I'm traveling, I don't eat as much. Uh and when my body wants those extra calories that it would normally get from fat, the craving for me is butter. So, I've noticed when I was in Iceland in my first trip, I was eating a lot of butter, too, and it was the same reason. Just I wasn't getting enough calories in and I was using butter to fill the gap. So, my little little extra tips I've noticed in case people, you know, struggle with doing animal-based or carnivore and little workarounds. I will also say that being 100% strict is not really necessary, in my opinion. Uh well, last night, we had a dessert. I ordered a burnt cheesecake, like a and which is pretty carnivore friendly cuz it's just cream cheese, uh eggs, and sugar. You know, the the sugar you might say is not the greatest thing to add into it. When I do it at home, I use honey, which is, you know, a little better, but it's really sugar at the end of the day. But, my wife had a bread pudding and I had some of that. It's not like I died or like my diet was completely tanked. If you have some flexibility with your your diet without crashing I think it makes it a lot easier. But it's not for everybody. I feel for myself, I'm very disciplined. So, it's pretty easy to have some leeway and then be able to come back. It's not I'm not a a foodaholic, if you will. Even though I love food. I can shut it off if I need to. Much like I'm not an alcoholic. Right? I can I don't drink though, but I can drink. I just don't enjoy it. But an alcoholic, you know, at least from my understanding of it, they have a little bit like one beer and it begins to spiral of disaster because now they could have been sober 10 years, but that one beer is enough to open up a new hole that they're going to forget everything about sober life and start drinking nonstop. Similar to a drug addict or any type of addict, right? If you have that type of personality then you can't have that type of leeway I was talking about. Like it just doesn't exist for you. Like there it's all or nothing. Fortunately, I don't have that. So, I have leeway. I can move a little bit off the strict path and I'll always come back on it. Because I genuinely enjoy that path. I I think for other people, from my understanding of it, it's a bit tormented. Like the they know there's a wrong path but there's a pull to it that they can't have or they have a really difficult time avoiding. So, they can't flirt with the lines where I'll go here one day and then here the next day. It's either they're all here or they're all there. And this path is disastrous, so you just got to be super strict on this path. So, when I give this type of advice, I feel I have to give that caveat, which is if you feel like you're more inclined to just completely get off the wagon off one move, then don't do what I'm doing then. >> [laughter] >> But, if you have some flexibility, then it makes it very easy. And I feel very fortunate in that. Same thing with my working out, same thing with, you know, practicing jujitsu or anything. I can step away from it, come back, and I'll be all in. I don't have to be as strict. I would think, at least from my perspective, that would be ideal. Like I said, it gives you more options. But, you have to know yourself, you have to know your limits, and you have to know how you work best. So, what might work for me might not work for you, and you have to know that, own it, and be able to make decisions accordingly. However, I will say, and I I continue to say, to me carnivore diet is the best weight loss diet. I'll say animal-based is probably the best diet. It just seems the easiest to do, the most healthy. Energy levels are always high. I feel like you get the benefits of carnivore, but you have a lot more enjoyment in life. Just eating meat, eggs, meat, eggs, and water, that's very limited. You know, I I don't think that is ideal, either. Despite having read the carnivore books and all that, I don't agree with the idea that just eating meat, salt, and water is all you need. I think you need a little bit of I I just think the proportions are always skewed out. Like, you know, the old food pyramid, eating a bunch of grains, eating a bunch of vegetables, and having a little bit of meat, I think that was wrong. I think the animal products are going to be the most of your diet. Having some fruit is a nice bonus that you would always take advantage of if you were in a survival situation. But, having to survive purely on vegetables wouldn't, in my opinion, not a great way of doing it. I don't think it is optimal whatsoever. If you had to choose one extreme, I would say carnivore would be the best one. But, if you're Again, this is my middle ground again. Animal-based is kind of like a middle ground, right? You're You're getting a lot of of the animal products, but you can have fruit, you can have honey, and honestly, you can have some vegetables and stuff, too. I know like some of the people carnivore community like, "Oh, you know, vegetables are poison, you know, or" And like, man, you're going too far on the other end, in my opinion. If you can process the food in a way where it tastes good and it's, you know, it sits well in your stomach, probably works good. Um For me, like, I have onions and mushrooms regularly. Doesn't affect me negatively. Uh And like I said, I I partake in fruits mostly when I travel. When I'm at home, I don't really care to eat fruits. But, when I travel, I do. Uh because whatever they serve, I'm going to eat most of the time. The only thing that I have avoided the whole time has been bread. No breads, no pastas. Um I try to pretty much everything that has flour. Uh and I've done a pretty good job of that cuz I haven't had a had lick of bread or flour or anything. I I to me that's just a filler food. Don't need it. You can live without it. It doesn't really have a purpose if the rest of your diet is solid. If you're starving and you need calories, then that's a place to go. But if you can get your calories from somewhere else, I think you're far better doing that than just eating bread. The butter is more valuable than the bread in my opinion and healthier. Any case, these are my opinions. I'm not a doctor, so take it for with a grain of salt. But I I it just came to me just because the the few things I've noticed whenever we we travel, my wife and I, is that we're able to keep on the diet. She's able to keep on her routine, whereas I get a little bit more off of my routine, but whenever I come back, I get 100% on board right away. And there's not a big struggle to get back. The only times that I have struggles is generally with weight training cuz of recovery time, but mentally I'm dialed in to get into the next lift. Anyhow, that's all I have for you guys for this week. I'll catch you all next week.