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What's up everybody? Welcome to Prime Time Pregame. I'm Michelle Margo alongside Chris Williamson. Ahead on the show, we'll get you set for college football. Number four UCLA in action tonight, looking to stay perfect. We're also going to break down the playoff implications for Saturday's slate. But we start with the UFC where two titles will be on the line Saturday at Madison Square Garden. Chris, that's right, Michelle. Josh Hokit and Zeroggon battling for the heavyweight championship for UFC 334 in the main event and Kayla Harrison facing off against Amanda Nunez for the bantamweight title in the co-main event. And Friday UFC had the ceremonial weigh-in for this highly anticipated card from the world's most famous arena.
Josh Hokit has never lost during his career at 10 and0 while gone is 4-2 but he hold 14-2 but he holds the current title of being the undisputed UFC heavyweight champ. Now, let's hear from Mr. Hoken. Listen. Tomorrow night, the future is born and the past is put in aing casket. Tomorrow, Gotham is saved. All right, so I got a bunch of booze there from the crowd. And Josh Hokit, he knows how to get people excited. And a little spiciness again. Gone. Heavyweight champ 14-2 Hokit 10-0 and you see really split when it comes to KO's TKO seven for gone six for Hokit and for more let's send it out to Hakee Dermish and the crew from the world's most famous arena take it away
two monster matchups at the Mecca and a cavalcade of stars here to set it up and break it down the veteran MMA coach Dean Thomas UFC Hall of Famer Rashad Evans and CBS Sports combat analyst Brian Campbell. And look, we were just watching the ceremonial weigh-in, the excitement, the vibes. Rashad, what's your take away from what you saw? Man, I thought Kayla looked a lot better. She looked like she's filling out a little bit. Her muscles look full. Her face is still a little bit sucked in, but her energy was back. She was bouncing around and she looked like she gave off really good body language, so she looked like she's tapped in.
Yeah. And we saw uh Josh Hokit go from slumped over uh in the morning with his official weigh in to him being lively and playing to the crowd here at MSG. Yeah. Well, that's his whole thing. Josh Hok is going to do Josh Hok. But no matter what it is that he does, you got to watch it because it's going to be fun. Look, I have to shout out the lioness Amanda Nunes. In a normal situation here, all of our analysis would be built around her coming back from a three-year layoff. What does that look like? Maybe some of that is because Kayla Harrison
has some questions to answer herself physically, but Amanda looked young, sprry, muscular, fit, and joyful. We saw that all week. I think we saw it again on the scales and in that faceoff. It's hard to call her the underdog. And by the way, she hasn't been the betting underdog since she knocked out Chris Cyborg back in 2018. She looks ready and to go, and you got to give that to her in this one. No weight disparity between Kayla Harris and Amanda Nunez. an 11 lb difference between Josh Hokit and the heavy serial gone. When you see them weigh in, when you see the size difference, you saw the height difference, 3-in height
difference, 7 and 12 reach advantage for serial gone, Rashad, and you see the different styles of fight. We always talk about styles make fights. How do you think that will impact this fight for the heavyweight championship? Well, I think that Josh Hoker, his whole plan is to get inside of Serial Gone's kitchen. He's going to come forward. He's a guy, he's no touch-ups, no feelups, or nothing. he's going to be in your area. You're going to have to fight him off from the start of the bell. Now, with Serial Gone, he's going to have to use that movement on the outside. If he can do that, the reach and everything can come into play, but for the most part, I'm looking at this fight is going
to be in chaos and somebody's going to get caught in that chaos. Who it may be, who knows? But it's going to be in a chaotic pace. Dean, this is a step up in fight class for Josh Hoken. He's never seen anybody in front of him like this. I know, but he's been so impressive. I called his Dana White Contender Series fight. Yes, you did. And to see him ascend to this position in just a year and what he did with Curtis Blades was special. Like no one thought that he was going to be able to do that. We thought Curtis Blades was just going to run right through him. He went through Curtis Blades and then what he did at
the White House against Derek Lewis. I mean you got to assume that he can accept that he's going to be able to handle any challenge in front of him. I think I want to find out in this fight for Sel Gan. Was that knockout victory over Alex Pereira more about what was wrong with Alex Pereira that night or is he a heavyweight or was this a new serial gone? And I say that because he was calm, poised, and efficient with the way he picked apart and stopped Pereira. And if there's any knock on gone historically, one through 10, he's going to look like a million bucks against all of them. But when he got to the title level against Francis Enanu, Jon Jones, and even the Tom Aspenol fight with the
fowls, maybe we saw some of that poise fall away. He now at age 36 seems much more mature. Hok really wasn't able to get in his head this week. I like what I saw out of uh Surel Gan. And if he is that, he is the undisputed champion. Certainly, he's going to have a upset-minded aggressive opponent, but he looks in control entering this fight. Well, siran trying to shed the reputation of a dirty fighter and we know that Josh Hoken is trying to get inside his head. And Rashad is a former fighter yourself. What you see from him week in and week out, right? Is it a clown show or is it a mental edge for him? It's a mental edge for him. And what it does, it looks like a clown show, but it's his way of releasing himself,
becoming free in the moment. And being free in the moment is one of the hardest thing to do as a fighter because you train so hard to hit that perfect note and get your hand raised. But when you make it about just being free and allow yourself to flow, then you get something special. But you have to admit, Rashad, it is a clown show. Yeah. I mean, IT'S IT'S STILL A SHOW. YOU GOT TO WATCH IT. It's still good, but you have to admit it's still a clown show. There is though there's a crazy like a Fox element to him because this is very calculated what he's doing. And it's obnoxious and polarizing in so many
different things. But as great as we should celebrate the fact that he's one year removed from his debut in the UFC and now he's fighting for the title, how about the fact that in one year he's gone from unknown to packing these uh arenas here for the weigh-in for the press conference having everyone chant and share his name. I know what he said about overnight sensations. He says it takes 10 years to build an overnight sensation, but he has checked all boxes entering this fight. Well, the folks in California know him well. a great wrestler there at Fresno State, a football player, then of course a practice squad player for the San Francisco 49ers. So certainly they know about him in California and his skills.
He's undefeated. This is his first ever title fight at this level, Rashad. And look for him, this is a stacked against him. Who you going with on Saturday night? You know, I'm going with Hoken. I'm going Hoken for this reason. He has the fearlessness and he doesn't care about getting tired when he goes and he go fights right out there from the bell. He's in your face. He's pushing the pace and a lot of fighters have no choice no matter how reserved they are but to fight in that space. If he does that sirro gan will have a hard time keeping up with that hogen pace. But it's a
double-edged sword. Having that having not having a fear of getting tired causes you to run forward and make mistakes. And when you're dealing with a guy like Sirro Gan, he's such a sharpshooter. His aim is always on point. I see him finding his spots, going down to the body early, and his left hand is going to be long and laser-like. I see Sroan finding a knockout somewhere in the fight. I also like the Gagan knockout. And the biggest thing for me with Hok is he's an undersized heavyweight and that has worked great for him against larger opponents, slower opponents. He's got the wrestling in his back pocket. He's
got quick hands. He's aggressive. He's also smart. But this is a bad style matchup because Sarah Gan does all of those things to the other heavyweights but with better technique, better footwork overall and now a seven and a half inch reach advantage. I love the Hocus story for just getting to this point. But this is Sarah Gon's fight to lose and I think he does it by stoppage. I think he raises that belt once more. Well, perhaps the trend is your friend because undefeated fighters are 0 and3 in title fights this year. A title on the line in the co-main event. One of the greatest fights in UFC women's
history. The bantamweight strap on the line. Kayla Harrison looking to defend it against the GOAT Amanda Nunez. There's nothing more to say about what she is, who she is. She's coming out of retirement, fighting for the first time in three years. We know Kayla Harrison coming off the neck surgery. And you saw what Kayla Harrison looked like during the weight cut didn't look great. But Rashad, when you talk about the history between these two women, their former training partners, what's that like? You've been there before. Well, I mean, it's an emotional thing. You try not to bring the emotions in the cage, but it's it's kind of something you cannot help because across from you
are people who coach you on those nights where it's hard for you to walk out and have that fight. And she's going to be facing that. And being able to face that is something that she's going to have to just get over in yourself, but the emotions going to be there, but you got to welcome the emotions. You can't make yourself too mental about it and just enjoy the process along the way. And you coached Amanda, we know that. And you also had her on the Deep Waters podcast. You were able to sit down kind of pick her brain. What's her mindset as she comes out of retirement? Her mindset is better than ever. It's better than I've ever seen it. And she does get a little emotional at times,
but I think that works in her favor now because she's using that as fuel to her passion. And with this fight camp, she was so excited to be able to fight Kayla to get back cuz she felt like she lost at American Top Team. So, this is getting a little bit of revenge back and then also proving to the world that she's still the goat of women's MMA. BC, who you got? I got Amanda Nunes. And it's nothing against what Kayla Harrison has established. 19-1, one of the most dominant female MMA fighters we've ever seen. But her questions that she have to answer go beyond just neck surgery. It's
a 17-month layoff. It's going in there against somebody who has the great equalizer and the power that Amanda Nunes brings to this game. Not a knockout, which was what Kayla has accomplished. This is wrestler versus striker at its core. But Amanda Nunes doesn't fall into those deep waters on the ground. She's a black belt in jiu-jitsu. She's going to figure her way back up to the feet and when they strike on even terms, it's not going to be even terms. I like the lioness and I think she's wired for a stoppage win here. Yeah. I mean, I like what you said, BC, because it's the fact that my difference maker is the fact that Nunez is going to be able to get off the ground and then what do we have on their feet? And then we have the war of
attrition that I know that Kayla's going to be facing because you can't suck down that much weight. and then still fight at the pace, a grappling pace where it's got to hold somebody down and get back all on your feet and then still strike with the accuracy you're going to need to and with the power you need to. I mean, Amanda Nunees hits like a dude and it's a different kind of hit when you get hit with her versus other women in the weight class. Yeah. And I've been with her when she wasn't passionate. To answer the first question again, I've been with her when she wasn't passionate. Juliana Pena, even Raquel Pennington, lackluster performances, but when she's passionate,
Ronda Rousey, Chris Cyborg, Holly Holm, those are the fights that she win with something to prove. She has that same sparkle in her eye this time against Kayla Harrison. And I see something great going to happen tomorrow for her. Nunez across the board. Who will meet the moment at the Mecca? Dean Thomas, Rashad Evans, Ryan Campbell here with us on CBS Sports HQ. And of course, UFC 334 coming your way on Saturday night. Paramount Plus, the home of the UFC. You can stream every live fight card, watch past events. It's all included in a Paramount Plus subscription. Say goodbye to pay-per-view. And hello to Paramount Plus.
