User Reviews

As a long time fan of Showtime, as well as a combat sports and comedy enthusiast, I was interested in their latest digital offering in this area. This was a mistake. I am frankly disgusted that this is passed off as acceptable content in 2020.

Among the lowlights of what I have seen, the host (Brandon Schwaub) made a number of derogatory comments regarding the ethnicity of the hosts of UFC on Fox, and also asserted that homeless people 'do not matter'. The fact Showtime support these views is deeply disturbing and I will not be subscribing to Showtime going forward.

Title says it all. He openly talks about how he doesn't watch the fights, and will just make fight picks based on nothing. He's notoriously wrong, consistently. And he defends his wrong picks in a childish way by having a tantrum on the next episode, saying things like "I don't give a f______, and I didn't watch the fights." He doesn't care. Showtime, do better!

The host of this show looks like a deer in the headlights, and desperately resorts to the lowest, loudest methods to get a laugh. I was surprised to hear he's considered a "professional comedian." I can't fathom anyone paying money to see this guy do jokes on stage if he can't even land a single joke in this type of scripted, edited youtube show.

I'm stunned Showtime actually got behind this weirdo when he can't even pronounce most fighters' names correctly. Khabib Nagamurdov, Rose Namanunez, Jerandamay, Francis Ganoe, the list goes on. It seems like he even struggles to even say basic words in English though, so I'm assuming he either has brain damage or a learning disability. Either way, he's simply not equipped to work as an analyst when he can't even speak correctly.

Aside from his terrible broadcasting abilities, his actual takes are even worse. When he's not talking about candy and pizza on his podcast, he usually spends most of his time talking about fighters' "stories," their fashion, their drawing ability for PPV sales. When he actually gets around to talking about the fights, there's simply no actual breakdown. Instead he'll just spout a half-assed betting tip like "I like figher X as a dog pick. I'm predicting he gets it done in the 3rd, TKO. I love both guys though. They're a beast."

There is simply no substance or laughs to be had with this guy as host. The format's not a terrible idea, but they should get someone like Yves Edwards or Michael Bisping to do it.

I've found the host to have dreadful interviewing skills, constantly yelling, mispronouncing names and basic words, and the camera cuts are beyond annoying.

Also as the previous reviewer mentioned, i'm pretty sure this is actually just a YouTube show.

From what I can tell the host used to be a UFC fighter, yet his show focuses on boxing. After listening to him and then constantly reading conflicting opinions on forums, I struggle to see how any beneficial content can be derived from this YouTube channel.

To be perfectly honest, I think it's a good concept for a show, but needs a much better host- preferably one who can pronounce rudimentary words like draw.

Not a drawl.

Never has there been so much footage taken of someone with so little talent. The atmosphere of the "tv show" is a desperate one. It's quite clear this is the hosts last practical way of making any sort of money and he'll let you know all about it. He has a son called Tiger and a unfaithful girl friend/fiance/ex.

It'll become abundantly clear that the show is simply an echo chamber of an overweight, former cage fighter who is riddled with cte doing his best to be funny. Instead we get mispronounced words and a bloated, oily face barely holding it together.

I wouldn't recommend this for anyone other than a homeless person with time on their hands, but even then.....

Brendan Schaub keeps promoting this "Television" show but essentially it is a glorified video podcast.I tried to watch about a few episodes.

His on camera personality is lacking, he shouts lines and uses tired catchphrases from Adam Sandler movies from the 1990s like they are his own. He has hacky bits his attempts at comedy are for the bro and mma casual fan set.

Showtime should stay in the Mixed Martial Arts/ Combat sports realm with someone more knowledgeable in the field and with a better on air appearance, Micheal Bisping, Yves Edwards, Alan Jouban, etc. Brendan Schaub is a poor man's Skip Bayless. He steals talking points from more popular MMA podcasts like the Luke Thomas Show, and the MMA hour. Brendan always talks about "Stars and PPV Draws." gives no in-depth analysis. He constantly rags on UFC going downhill since WME bought it like a jilted ex-Lover. Yet he was just a journeymen fighter himself yet seems to critique like he has the answers.

His Boxing credentials are lacking and laughable he got on the radar with his b.s. hot take for the Mayweather/McGregor circus now. Do yourself a favour don't let him steal 2 hours of your life like he did mine.

Where do we begin... Below the Belt is a podcast on YouTube and Itunes that fails to identify itself as fighting/MMA show. The host Brendan is incredibly boring with 30 minutes of awful stories about his weekend and what he ate during the first part of every single episode. After the first 30 minutes he goes on to talk about fights from the week before. His "breakdowns" are amateur level considering he used to be an MMA fighter himself. There are no fight analysis. He just talks about how one did better than the other and how much money they made. He also seems drunk throughout the show because of constant stutters, usage of made up words or mispronunciations of popular fighters' names.

I had a friend recommended this "tv show" because he knew I was into MMA. I legit don't get it. This guy knows nothing about who is fighting 99% of the time. His producer pulls up the fight card and he just picks randomly who will win. Spoiler alert, he's wrong more often than not. But sure enough, the next show after the fight he is talking about how he picked all the winners. This guy is such a fool. And why does he dress like a such a tool? Either his jeans are too tight or he has severe head trauma. Either way, the guy dresses like a blind kid who won a gift card to ross dress for less. I cant understand most of the words that come out of this guys mouth.

I need to tell my friend that I can't hang out with him anymore if he thinks that this is either funny or insightful.

I'd like to begin by saying that predicting sports is no easy feat to accomplish even with all the facts in hand.

Brendan takes not doing any research to the point it seems he doesn't even watch the sport he used to partake in.

His picks are typically wrong the week of the fights (don't worry he changes all his picks after the fact)

I also don't understand where he gets off ranting about business practices of people who took a 2 million dollar company and sold it for over 4 billion.

Showtime has great content such as desus&Mero, Boxing, billions. What are they doing with this guy?

A show where a "fight breakdown" means making random picks. Poorly written, scripted "comedy" with shouting and bad sketches take away from any in depth fight talk. The looks on the faces of the fighters being interviewed on the show says it all.. what are we doing here?

Not only is Schaub's opinion uninteresting, he is completely uninterested in doing this show. He mispronounces every fighter's name apart from Jon Jones. Gustafson is 'Gusfsen'. Li Jingliang is 'Jingaling'. He does not even try. He mispronounces simple words and sentences. He chews on tobacco while he mumbles through the episode. He often does not watch the fights. It would be hilarious if it were intentionally bad, it's so bad you can't believe he is not doing it on purpose. When he picks fights, he always looks at the odds to decide. Scrolling through wikipedia is a regular occurrence. He films it in mornings, he always looks hung over. He does not know half of the fighters because he does not watch the fights. If he made a pick or a prediction, which turns out wrong, he will blatantly claim he knew all along what was going to happen, although he said the opposite on the show. It is his utter lack of effort and absence of respect for Showtime or the audience that make it completely unwatchable.

Love hus personality and enthusiasm, shaub has great inside knowledge

Brendan... PLEASEEE at least do this show properly and professionally, stop with the unnecessary weekend stories etc, more about the fights, proper breakdowns, no random picks and no mid-podcast ads on YouTube .

Schaub has no respect for anyone but himself, and makes the worst comments on fighting. I didn't expect him to be good at comedy but you'd think he could say something insightful once in a while about fighting. Nope.

Brandon is clearly trying to make an easy buck by lazily talking into a podcast mic about something he no longer cares about. He doesn't watch the fights anymore, unless it's for a Rogan fight companion and makes his picks based on betting odds. He doesn't have a comedian buddy to carry him so hes not even entertaining. You can tell he just doesn't like this job anymore.

How this show has any legs is amazing. He's like some random who won a host-your-own-show prize. Nothing to see here. Just the musings of a CTE victim.

Brendan doesn't even watch the fights anymore. With this kind of attitude the "show" is doomed to fail.

I use to enjoy fighter and the kid but lately he seems checked out and disinterested in everything he does. He really doesn't want to be there anymore but still shows up for the paycheck.

Really little about fighting and just boring like all his other stuff he's in. It's pretty much a solo BS podcast.

The weakest chin in the game, Brenda "CTE" Strawb offers little other than "insider" gossip and slumber party banter. He rarely actually talks about the fight and when he does usually it's in the tune of "Kahbib punches like a gorilla" or "you tell by fullness of his lips, Diaz is probably a great kisser". The whole podcast , much like his career, is a vain attempt to copy and ride on the success of Joe Rogan.

Schaub mixes news with some fun comedy and gives fighters an arena to show their personality. Great stuff.

If you know anything about MMA, it becomes clear very quickly that Brendan either doesn't have enough knowledge about MMA to discuss it or he just doesn't care enough about it. The best commentary that you can hope to get from him is "great fight" or "both guys have a lot of heart". When he reviews fights, it's clear that he hasn't actually watched the fights he's trying to review.

If he decides to interview a guest, expect for Brendan to interrupt the guest several times and talk about himself for most of the interview.

On top of this, Brendan is so interested in himself that he spends probably 75% of the podcast talking about himself, other famous people that he likes to name-drop, or something else that has nothing to do with MMA.

If you're looking for an MMA podcast that has good content or an intelligent host, this is not the person to watch. The only thing worse than his MMA content might be his attempts at comedy.

He's just not that funny and just yells. He also lies constantly.

This podcast used to be pretty decent when it first started. Brendan spent most of the time having legit takes on upcoming fights, but ever since his CTE started kicking in, Brendan spends 90% of the podcast talking about nonsense and now his takes are absolute trash. I'm pretty sure he just looks up Luke Thomas's opinions and copies him. Much like his "special" which was mostly stolen and below mediocre material.

I don't know who this gentleman is, but he is clearly not fit to be leading a show. He must be some kind of celebrity to have been given a platform like this, because he has absolutely no talent whatsoever.

That was painful to watch. Stay away.