Aubrey Marcus, Eddie Bravo, Brendan Schaub: Fight Companion - May 16, 2015 (Part 2)

This part of the broadcast opens as Frankie Edgar is introduced, and the commentary goes straight to his reputation for toughness. The main speaker presents Edgar's heart as a maximum that no fighter can exceed. Another fighter might match it, but nobody gets beyond it: "You can get to the top," and if you do, you have Edgar-level heart and nothing more.

But you don't ever get to more than Frankie, Edgar, heart. That level doesn't exist on the game.

The speaker then gives Edgar's opponent, Uriah Faber, similar credit. The evidence offered is Faber's fight with Aldo. He absorbed "Leg kick after leg kick after leg kick" and still "Made it five rounds." Afterward his leg swelled to "more than twice the size of the other leg," which Faber documented in Twitter photos. The speaker calls those photos "terrifying."

Faber is also described as a fighter who rises to the occasion. This rests on secondhand testimony from training partners: "Everybody who trains with him says he's better in the cage than he is in training."

Both hosts say they were impressed by Edgar's fight against Cub. The main speaker describes him as "relentless" and says there was a visible moment when his opponent seemed to give up hope, wondering "what is this guy made out of." Their summary of Edgar's strengths is that "he just doesn't get tired," with "cardio for for days, nobody works harder, and unstoppable heart."

The Gray Maynard fights are their second example. In those fights Edgar "got hit with bombs," and the hosts rank them among "Some of the best fights ever." The two men fought three times. The speaker describes the first meeting as a decision loss from "early, early back in the day" and calls the second and third fights "just fucking wars." The transcript does not state the results of the later two bouts here, beyond a later mention that Maynard "went to a draw with Frankie."

The trilogy leads to a question: has Maynard been the same since? The answer is "No," qualified with "he's definitely taken some serious punishment." The hosts then look up his recent results on air, and their first claim gets corrected. One says "Alexander Yakoviev is the guy that stopped him in his last fight," then revises it: "Actually, it looks like it was a decision."

Maynard's losses as the hosts list them from the lookup: - TJ Grant: first-round knockout, which they remember for "The elbow." - Nate Diaz: first-round knockout, described as "The knockout against the cage." - Ross Pearson: stoppage in the second round. - Most recent fight: a decision loss to the fighter the transcript calls "Yakoviev."

The count also shifts as they talk. One host first says Maynard "lost badly twice in a row," then settles on "three ferocious knockout losses in a row." On the decision loss, the speaker notes that Maynard lost to someone "he never heard of before" and immediately hedges: "not that the guy wasn't a good fighter, I'm sure." The point is the contrast with Maynard's peak, when he "fought for the title twice" and drew with Edgar. They describe him warmly, "I really like Gray", and sum up the decline with "But then the battery got drained, man."

The hosts call the booking "a smart move by the ufc." Their reason is that Edgar was "just kind of chilling" on the shelf until the Aldo–McGregor result, and this fight keeps him fresh. One host adds that the fight is outside the weight class where the title is at stake, so "no matter what happens he still has that fight available." The transcript at this point is garbled, so exactly who is protected by that arrangement is somewhat unclear.

The hosts disagree about a reported fight offer against TJ. One says the fighter turned it down flatly. Another says he has since said he is open to it, citing "an interview on Fox" in which he is "not shutting the door on it" after this fight. The first host objects that he still "said no to a title fight," and the reply is "At the time, yeah." The disagreement is left open with "I wonder what changed." The transcript does not say clearly who "him" refers to. On the stylistic question, one host judges TJ "a tougher matchup because he's not faster than TJ for sure."

When Edgar walks out, the hosts turn to his coach, Mark Henry, whom they call "a fucking ridiculous coach." The detail they give is about how his corner communicates. Henry yells out combinations using signals that change from camp to camp.

They switch up their signals every time. But they have a whole language for each camp.

The speaker says Henry gets visibly nervous and is "sweating profusely" from calling combos, and that "Frankie listens like a fucking video game." They also admit the calls are "tough to hear" on the broadcast, so this is the speaker's account more than something viewers can easily check.

The on-screen stats are read aloud: "Four wins by knockout, four by submission," and a "three fight win streak." The hosts single out that Edgar "beat BJ Penn three times" and say the last of those fights "was just a demolition" and "hard to watch."

Thinking back to Edgar's fights with Henderson, the hosts stress the size gap. "Benson's a big 155-er, and Frankie makes 145 pretty easy." That leads to a short aside on Henderson at welterweight. One host likes him "at 170," says he "looked great against Datch," and praises his willingness to fight anyone, including calling out Tyron Woodley. They agree that would be "a great fight," but note that Woodley is "trying to get that Johnny Hendricks fight."

When someone asks whether "Hendo" has a fight booked, the answer is "I don't think he's got anything booked right now." Another host says the nickname makes him think of Dan, which leads to a brief mix-up.

The fighters are introduced by rank: Faber at number three at bantamweight and Edgar at number two at featherweight. The hosts note that reach and height are about the same and that "Everything else is virtually identical."

Faber's age, 36, leads to some personal timeline confusion. The main speaker remembers Faber as "the kid that was 22, 23" back when the speaker was working for the UFC and was 36. A co-host disagrees, saying "You were like 30," and appears to be thinking of King of the Cage. The speaker clarifies they mean the UFC and puts their own age then at "35, 36." They agree Faber fought in the WEC and "fought in King of the Cage once" before moving on.

The speaker first saw Faber at Abu Dhabi, where Faber competed as a blue belt even though "He wrestled his whole life." His opponent there is transcribed as "Bahumpin from American Top Team."

Before the opening bell, after a shout-out to Justin Buckles, the hosts make their picks. Both favour Edgar: one says "Frankie, my decision" and another "Frankie's going to win three." The segment ends with talk of a side bet, "Double or nothing," and the joke "And you don't even have the double on you."

This part opens partway through a dispute over paying a bet. One speaker offers to pay half now and the rest later ("But you get half of it"), and the other turns it down: "You're not getting this." The talk then moves to the main event. One speaker predicts the result in rounds: "I think Frankie wins three to two." Another answers "That would suck" and "It's going to be a close fight."

The cost of losing is social as well as financial. One speaker warns, "Imagine the memes if you lose," and the target admits, "Oh, I know." Later the stake gets a number: "They're just memes and $1,800." The bet is described as "double or nothing," with "Eddie Bravo" holding Uriah and the speaker holding Frankie. Another voice is surprised at the arrangement: "I can't believe you made him take Uriah double or nothing, even though you were very strong coming into this."