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Brett Okamoto and Anthony "Lionheart" Smith preview #UFC319 live from Chicago, IL highlighted by the main event featuring Dricus Du Plessis defending his middleweight title against Khamzat Chimaev.
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Video Transcript
What's up guys? Brett Okamoto alongside
Anthony Smith. We are here in Chicago to
talk about UFC 319. We're going to go uh
main co-main, but I also want to talk to
you to you about uh you interviewed
Carlos Prades yesterday that's available
on the YouTube channel. What was your
biggest takeaway from it?
I think my biggest takeaway was his
self-reflection. Him talking about his
last fight, even admitted kind of that
he maybe took Ian Gary a little lightly,
that he just didn't fight a very smart
fight. Um, especially for the fighting
nerds, that's a that's a pretty a pretty
bold thing to say that he, you know, he
didn't necessarily use his best tools.
He thought at any point in time across
25 minutes that he could put out Ian
Garry and and and gave Ian his flowers
and said that he was tougher than he
expected. So, I think that mindset is
best like when you're coming off a loss
and you make a bunch of excuses and
you're trying to explain to the world
why you lost, usually that the next
fight's usually not your best fight. But
when you can sit down and you can just
be honest with yourself and say, "Hey, I
I I took him lightly. I didn't fight a
very smart fight.
I wanted to fix a lot of things." He was
he was also focused less on maybe his
performance and entertaining and just
wants to get a win.
Well, it's such a fire match up. I mean,
he could headline a UFC fight night.
It's on the the main card at UFC 319.
The main event, of course, Hamzat
Shamay, Drakus Dupy. I've been waiting
to watch Hamzat fight for a UFC
championship. I I want to give Draus all
the credit in the world. He is the
champion. He deserves to to be the first
name we talk about. But it's tough,
right? It's because Hamzat it's five
years ago, man. Five years ago when he
burst onto the scene and then they were
going to match him up against Leon
Edwards, you're like, is this guy going
to win a championship in the first six
months in the organization? And now here
we are 5 years later and he's finally
getting the opportunity. What comes to
your mind when you think about just the
circumstances and the the everything
that goes into this main event?
Well, like you, I can't believe it took
this long. Um, I feel like we should
have been in this position a long time
ago. A lot of that comes down to his
activity. Uh he's had some some health
problems. He's had some injuries. Uh I
think a lot of that comes down just how
hard he trains and how hard he works. If
you watch his training videos, you look
at his his social media. The guy's a mad
man. But he's been the boogie monster
between welterweight and middleweight
for a long time and and I think we all
seen this coming at some point. But I do
think he has absolutely his toughest
task ahead of him.
Is Drake going to be able to stop the
takedown? And like how quickly are we
going to know?
No. And and I mean in the last like five
fights, Hamzad is hasn't taken longer
than 13 seconds to shoot a takedown.
Yeah,
I don't believe that Duplex can stop his
takedown. Is he going to be good enough
to get back to his feet? Is he strong
enough to kind of deal with that early
onslaught? I believe he is. I think that
we're going to see Hamzad have to do
something we haven't seen him do, and
that's fight through adversity deep into
a fight because what are the questions
always? And the Camaro fight, Camaro
started coming on strong in the third
round. Gilbert Burns started coming
along coming on strong at the end of the
second going into the third. Everyone
always says if there's two more rounds
he loses both those fights.
I think we're going to find out does he
have the capability to fight deep into
the fourth and the fifth and continue to
stay ahead
if he goes in and if he does take him
out very quickly if it is a Robert
Whitaker type thing. What are we talking
about here? Like like what do you want
to see in Hamzad moving forward if he's
able to do that to somebody like Drakus?
Who's next? If if if Drius can't stop
him or at least push him deep into a
fight, I don't know what we do with him
after that. I really don't. It he he's
unstoppable up to this point. And I've
said for a long time, I think that
Duplex
is probably the guy that's going to be
able to push him. He's physic he's he
matches his physicality. You hear
Duplex's opponents talk about how hard
he hits, how strong he is. And early in
his UFC career, we were talking about
how bad his conditioning was, that he
always looked exhausted, and he said it
was this nose thing. He gets the
surgery. Turns out he was right the
whole time. Yeah,
he's got incredible cardio. He looks
like the most tired human on planet
Earth in the first round, but it never
affects how he fights. He pushes five
hard rounds every single time he goes
out there. So,
if that guy can't slow down Hamza, I
don't know who can. Selfishly, I hope he
he is not a Robert Whitaker fight. I
hope it's I hope it's I hope he's
pushed. I hope we see a fight between
these two. And I think we will. I I I
tend to think that we will see a fight
between these two. Before we uh we wrap
up and stay tuned uh all week because
we're going to be talking about this on
the pre-show. Aaron Pico is finally
making his UFC debut. We just
interviewed him and and he is like the
most soft-spoken, nicest guy, but then
when he talks about the way he fights,
he's like, "I will walk you down. You
can't stop it. You will go up against
the fence and then I get to unload my
shots on you." And that's he's he's
right. What is the ceiling for you in
terms of Aaron Pico and and fans who are
a little bit new to him? What should
they be expecting
in terms of a ceiling? Ask me on Sunday.
We we go we do this all the time where
we get these guys to come over from
other organizations. I've been singing
that guy's praises from the day he
stepped in in Bellator when he stopped
wrestling. Been a huge fan of him. But
it's hard to tell where these guys are
when we don't see them fight UFC caliber
opponents. Royal Murphy is as tough as
they come. He's as skilled as they as
you can possibly ask for. I I don't
know. I I I want I that's what I think
I'm most excited about in this matchup.
I just want to see where he is. If he
goes in and he looks absolutely
incredible, then that's exactly where he
is. But before that, it's really really
hard to tell in terms of fans and what
they can expect. This guy has non-stop
action. He's got crazy power in his
hands. He's an incredible worldass
wrestler. He he's, you know, he's a
legend in the wrestling community. And
his boxing looks like he's been boxing
since he was a little kid. the way
he'll, you know, he'll dip to the left
and rip the body shots. He's got crazy
power. He's and it, like you said, he's
he speaks very clearly about what he's
planning on doing. He's going to walk
people down. He's going to throw hard
shots. If he ever gets in trouble, he
always has that checkdown of just being
able to get a takedown.
Dude, it's a good card. Aaron Pico
making his his UFC debut. Pes and Jeff
Neil. Michael Venom Page is on the card
taking Jared Cananer in kind of a weird
middleweight fight, but it's fun. I
mean, I'm here for it, you know? So,
great main card UFC 319. Thank you for
watching the preview with myself and
Anthony Smith. We'll be here again all
week long talking about uh everything
and then the preview shows on Friday.
Make sure you tune in to those before
Saturday. Take care.
[Applause]
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