MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 16: DIAZ VS USADA, IS LIMA IN P4P CONVERSATION? CAN KOVALEV BEAT CANELO?

Episode Date: October 28, 2019

Luke is back from Columbia and he didn't bring BC any party favors but he did bring the heat and direct it right at USADA. Between Luke Thomas and Nate Diaz, USADA has been getting slapped around! Lucky for all of us that the BMF fight lives on! The guys also talk Ben Askren's loss and just who won the trade between UFC and ONE? Our MK hosts gush over Douglas Lima and not only his victory over Rory McDonald, but his climb to the top and how he must now be considered one of the best 170 in the game! In boxing, Lubin and Stevenson impress, Josh Taylor becomes the best at 140 in a classic vs Prograis and does Kovalev have a shot against Canelo? We are excited for all of the action coming up this weekend and look forward to our next show on November 4th.  Thank you Roots of Fight! Go to Rootsoffight.com and enter the promo code: MORNING20 and get 20% off your order from October 28th through November 15th. Check out their site...not only coul designs featuring the best athletes ever, but the quality is awesome as well! Tell 'em BIG LUKE SENT YA!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to some of these names, right? Ali, Tyson, Chavez, Bruce Lee, GSP, Boss Rootin, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Clemente, Dr. J, Shaq, Walter Payton, Jim Brown, even my cup of tea, the pro wrestling side with Andre the Giant, Bret Hart, and Rey Mysterio. You don't get more iconic than those names right there, brother. If you didn't already know, Roots of Fight not only makes clothes that feel and look great, they do so while celebrating some of the most legendary figures in all of sports history. And they just added, Brian Campbell, special Thrilla in Manila shirts,

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MORNING20. Morning, the number two, the number zero. Morning20. Code is valid today through the 15th. Cannot be combined with other promotions. And save 20% off your awesome Roots of Fight order. And tell them Big Luke sent you. The Invenito Stonks. It is October 28th, a Monday, 2019, and it is time for Morning Combat. Hello, everybody. My name is Luke Thomas, joined by my co-host, Brian Campbell from CBS Sports. We're back. We're back. We're back.

We're back. I back. I back, everyone. Trust me. We're back with a bang. Back with another one of those block rockin' beats. And back from Bogota, brother. You got any contraband for us?

What's going on here? I don't know why you're so racist towards Colombians, but you are, in fact, the white devil. Not the cocaine. You. Oh, wow. Did you miss me? I did. Although Chuck is becoming a... People love Chuck. I mean, his Q rating is through the roof, but he Oh, wow. Did you miss me? I did, although Chuck is becoming a...

People love Chuck. I mean, his Q rating is through the roof, but he slept over the night before in the bomb shelter. I mean, it was great. He's like part of the family here, you know? He certainly is. A lot to get to. We got, let's see, when are you flying to Las Vegas? That will be Wednesday.

Wednesday. So you're going to be out there for Canelo Cova. We're going to talk about that today. The BMF title got a little dicey last week, but it's still on. We're going to get you ready for UFC 244. That card almost became a fight night in a hurry. Wow. But we'll talk about that in just a second as well,

plus everything else that happened over the weekend. So let's get right into it. Whoa, no, we're not going to break down the vacation? We're not going to? What do you want to know? What'd you do? What did I do? Here's what I'll be honest about.

Machu Picchu? What do you got for me? That's Peru. Racist. All right, you killed a soccer player? What did you do? That is Colombia, but that was 20 years ago. It's a nice place.

We went to Bogota for a few days because my wife is from there. And then we went to Cartagena. And that's the beach. So it was cold and hot. And it was cool. But the thing is, we vacationed with our daughter for the first time. She's six months. Dude, you can't...

It's not really vacation. No, I give anybody that's that brave a lot of credit. You can't, you can't, like, because you can't go out at night. Like, you got to be there with the kids. I'm sure it's beautiful. I saw a lot of mountains in your pictures. Yeah. When I think Colombia, though, I think coffee and cocaína. There's an in-between, though. Cocaína is not a word. Cocaína, not nya. It's not an indian. I'm more from the coast. I'm Cartagena. You got that, you got that Costeno accent? No, it's cool It's not an Indian. I'm more from the coast. I'm Cartagena. You got that Costeno accent? No, it's cool. The coffee was great.

Food's amazing. People are super, super friendly. But it was a little, and also the altitude sickness, like kind of messed my daughter up a little bit for the first few days. But the beach, that beach life, that piscina life, the playa life, she was all about it. So it was cool in the end, I suppose. Glad to be back, actually. Yeah, well, vacation's over.

You want to talk anti-doping? You want to get the playa? I do. Well, quickly, by the way, Roots of Fight, I back, actually. Yeah, well, vacation's over. You want to talk anti-doping? You want to get the people fired up? By the way, Roots of Fight, I got my iPad here, but show them your shirt here. More like Roots of Merch. Check this out. Yeah, yeah. You know what? The Roots of Fight donks. Former UFC champion right now. You know, kind of getting involved with the show here a little bit.

You can see the promo code. 20% off. You can do morning 20 for their entire assortment. Code is valid today through the 15th. Cannot be combined with other promotions. Shoutouts to Roots of Fight fight they've been OGs in the game for a while they do the best t-shirts they've been outfitting Mendenhall for a long time he looks great in those hoodies he certainly does I just point out they've been doing like merch better than anyone else in the space and they do more than

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Go get some merch for UFC 244. Okay, speaking of which, over the last week, boy, what do you want to say? It came dangerously close to going away, but the BMF title will still be up for grabs on Saturday at Madison Square Garden when Nate Diaz does in fact take on Jorge Masvidal. But he came close to not doing that, putting out a message on Twitter, certainly social media, saying he had tested positive for elevated levels. He was told, in his words, to keep quiet. We come to find out he was not provisionally suspended because USADA has just unilaterally decided

to rewrite the rules along with the UFC. But in any event, he essentially strong-armed USADA and the UFC to come out and exonerate him, which they did. Now, Campbell, ordinarily I like to go first on our A topics, our 1A topics. I think the people are waiting with bated breath to hear you just splatter anti-doping hate like somebody spilled all this paint on this wall. People think I'm against anti-doping. I'm not. I'm against USADA. There's a big difference. But why don somebody spelled this thing on this wall. People think I'm against anti-doping. I'm not.

I'm against USADA. There's a big difference. But why don't you go first on this one. What was your big takeaway from everything that happened with Nate Diaz? First thing, he didn't want to fight. Then them coming out and say, we have these new rules,

and the fight's still on. So I guess fans should be happy. What do you think? I came out of here as just another sort of zapping my confidence that USADA is a credible body to handle anti-doping on this level across the board with UFC. When it seems like special treatment is given to the higher-name fighters,

did I want this fight card to fall apart? No. Did it seem a little sketchy when Nate Diaz is going out of his way to try to clear his own name and saying, no, I will not do what you told me to do, which is go on and fight and forget this happened, and we'll figure it out after. So my big question before we even get into what this says about USADA, who's right, who's wrong, all that, if Nate didn't say anything,

would he have fought, would he have potentially won, and been cleared without any of us knowing that? If that's the case, I have got a problem with that. Why? There's an extreme lack of transparency in there, in my eyes, in the way they handle it. It seems like rules are just changed out of nowhere. It seems like, like I mentioned, the bigger name guys, I mean, the handling of Jon Jones, as you know, over the last year seems unprecedented. The moving the card during Christmas week from Vegas to LA

is just bizarre and ridiculous. And then the whole idea of like, well, look, he keeps pulsing for this. We don't really know how and why, but scientifically, we got to tell you, it's not helping him at all to just be able to stand on that ledge for a fighter of his stature. Just be like, yeah, nothing to see here. Everything's fine. That shows me there's no one driving the ship right here. And I know that there's a sort of follow-up from some people. You saw Kevin Aioli of Yahoo had a column saying like, look, everybody, this Nate Diaz situation proves that USADA's got it figured out. It proves that they're ahead of the game on anti-doping. I don't think it proves that at all. I think it proves that it's just another situation where either they're too harsh or they're not harsh enough or sometimes they're just throwing

the balls in the air and saying, hey, this looks good to us. We're just going to roll with it. Or there's other times where you don't know information that's happening until after the fact. It seems like a big S show to me and anybody who comes from the boxing side like I do and has seen USADA's bad reputation on that side before they even joined forces with UFC, to see credible boxing journalist and author Thomas Hauser last year come out with that long expose saying, look, in nine years there's been 1,500 tests done in boxing by USADA, and they've caught one person. Eric Morales, 2012.

One person in 1,500 tests. One person. One person. One frigging person. Luke. With a retroactive TUE for Floyd Mayweather. One person. I don't know if you're understanding the words coming out of my mouth.

One person in 1,500. How many? One. Right? I'm playing Wyclef right now. One time, one person in 1500 tests, and yet we're supposed to believe on the flip side that when they're finding tiny little picograms

that everything's all good, you can't have it all. You can't have two completely different reputations at one time, and then have people writing columns saying, this is the most credible body in the world testing people right now. Yeah, I mean, I have a lot of thoughts about this.

I mean, the whole thing to me, like, the only real lesson to observe from this entire situation is that, I told you so. I told you so. Pop quiz. Just give me your honest assessment. All right, Hot Chat. Do you really think that T.J. Dillashaw is the only person who either A, takes EPO, or B, took EPO in the last four years? Absolutely not. Right. Okay. I mean, that's just- I mean, how about a pop quiz of a snapshot

of combat sports in the last decade where we're seeing more and more guys over 35 who are getting quicker and bigger and stronger and faster and all these things, and it's not- oh, they're training year-round. I get that compared to the 50s when guys are smoking cigarettes between fights and getting fat. I mean, we got to wake up to what's going on here. So I have to ask you. You want some form of anti-opening, right? Yes. Okay.

So would you rather, which way would you rather have it? Because we seem to be getting both from you, Sada. Would you rather have where everything is showing up on the screen or only when someone is obviously doing it wrong and badly attempting to try to break the system and then they get in trouble. Because I want them to be black and white. I don't want some guy to get... You're never going to get that, right?

Which is the problem of anti-doping. They want to tell you that we can get a black and white world and they can't. Here is what's really what's stunning about the entire thing. People have... Okay, here's the first problem. And this is what I keep telling everybody and I don't understand why this argument... You can say I'm wrong about a lot of things. On this one, I'm not.

I'm just not. They are—USADA—they are no more allowed to have a seat at the table than Reebok. I don't understand why people seem to be resistant to this argument. Let me see if I can understand this. They pass themselves off as fighter-friendly. We're here to really service the fighters. They suggest that what they do is in service of a larger purpose, but individualized towards the rights of clean athletes, they say. Brian Campbell, how on earth do you secure the rights of clean athletes if you overrun the rights

of all athletes generally? If you don't allow the fighters to have a seat at the table, which by the way, VADA, the voluntary anti-doping association, does. They do not run into this problem. Oh, VADA, by the way, is reportedly cheaper than USADA. Yet people are going out of their way to use USADA, which is telling you something, Luke. Hold on. Understand something, and I said this on my own personal YouTube channel, which is the fighters seem to be under this impression

that USADA is on their side. They're the buddy organization. And you see those videos that USADA tweets out, these like dear leader videos, like I'm so glad USADA's here. Meanwhile, they're catching GNC users and then people coming off the regional scene who have no money to cheat very well. Everyone who's got money to cheat and get designer

stuff, they all seem to be doing just fine. The whole point is this. Dude, and I know this for a fact, USADA exists to serve the shield. They serve the only master that pays them, which is the UFC, which is in the event of crises, God forbid, the UFC can say, hey, look, we did the most anti-doping we possibly could. We have the most aggressive kind. It'll secure us from some kind of potential fallout. Well, wake up, fighters. This is what USADA is. They are enablers of monopolists. They are not your... Hold on, let me finish. They are not your friends. They are not concerned with your well-being. Ask Tom Lawler. Ask Josh Barnett. Ask Tanquinho. Ask Neil Magny, ask any of these people. Frank Mir, he's

justified to have a horseshoe about Bizarre. The point being here is, they have this weird and utterly undeserved reputation as a fighter force organization. No, they are not. They exist to serve the interests of the broader UFC shield.

And if they happen on occasion to serve your interests or another fighter's interest or whoever by catching a real cheater, okay, fine. But they're happy to hammer you on the other end of things. This is the key point about this. You mentioned the headliner part about Nate Diaz. People are saying, well, there's a non-story here. This is a morally bankrupt position.

You don't give fighters a seat at the table. You don't allow them to have anything to push forward their own future. They come out and they explicitly say Nate Diaz is exonerated, which they don't do for anybody else, and you want me to believe that this is real and effective antidoping? Get the fuck out of here. This is a charade. The fact that this was turned around in 24 hours, the fact that a fighter was allowed to strong arm them, and by the way, you want to talk about the BMF title, crown him. Crown Nate Diaz for basically saving that entire card just by his own stubbornness and willing to take this chance and put it out there and out himself to try to out the system as a whole.

This is not progress that they turned this around in 24 hours. Because how many other people are getting destroyed? They didn't do a bunch of tests in 24 hours. That part is misunderstood. They had changed the rules all the way back in August 31st. They just didn't tell anybody, which, by the way, is insane that this happens. What they did was, here's what Nate forced them to do. He forced them to go out there and say to them, I'm innocent.

Say it to them. And you had Dana tweet it. And you had USADA releasing a statement. And UFC releasing a statement. That should happen for every single fighter. Otherwise, you have a two-tiered

system of justice and USADA should say, some people get the Nate Diaz treatment and everyone else can go fuck themselves. The whole Jon Jones handling I thought was a clown show,

I think this takes it up a notch. But I just want to ask you specifically what I mentioned about the 1501 test in boxing and one comes up and that one only came up, by the way,

because a website at the time had found out the information and pushed it out there. Does that tell you that certain people, that all entities want USADA for the backbone, for what you're saying? Potential tragedy. Hey, look, we've been doing doping from the beginning. We've been testing these guys from the beginning.

Does that tell you that some people want to put out a front that says, look, we're nabbing everybody left and right and other people don't? Yes. I've been saying this since day one. A lot of anti-doping. Dude, testing is not totally. It does catch some cheaters. It is predominantly theater. You can see the message here that Nate Diaz put up. It is predominantly theater. It is designed to catch the low-level offenders and then the occasional idiot who gets out in front of their own skis a little bit. But the real big fish, like, for example, Nike just had one, I think their CEO resigned, and they got Alberto Salazar, who, by the way, isn't even eligible to be tested. You know how they got him?

Snitching. Investigations. That's how they get the real big fish, the ones who've been doing all of the really bad stuff. These guys who've been fighting on, you FC and Loser Fighting Championship or whoever, they're catching those guys because they're trying to cheat on the regional scene to get to the UFC. And then they're catching the Neil Magnes of the world, the Nate Diaz's of the world. They've done, what, 13,000 tests.

They've caught predominantly supplement users. Dude, people wake up. I've been saying to this since they, this is, and this is why it's important, Brian, because you are abridging the rights of athletes in order to do this. You are making Tim Kennedy shower in front of people. You are destroying the MMA career of Augusto Mendes.

You're forcing Josh Barnett to pay thousands for what? Just to come back to square one. Dude, it is unconscionable. It is unconscionable, it is evil, and it is morally bankrupt. And USADA has this reputation like we're the adults in the room. Dude, you are the enablers of monopolists. That is what you are. Wow. Wow. That's a man with conviction right there. We know that this is your thing, right? You're known for the beard. You're known for the anti-PED stance. But let's, or the anti-handling of it. I just want to find some kind

of common ground. How do we fix this moving forward? How do we use this lesson, this experience, to inform how USADA could work with the UFC in a proper way? This is quite simple. You get athlete buy-in. They have the most skin in the game. So you do not take away what the commissions are doing. You keep that in place because it's by law.

And then the rest of it is athlete buy-in. This whole thing about like, oh, I'm so glad USADA's here. Boy, I would love to see them take the Pepsi challenge where it's no longer mandatory. Let's see who signs up for it. Let's make it voluntary. And then that's a system where you have real, the people who suffer the most, potentially, who stand the most to lose, stand the most to gain, they're the ones who collectively have their own say. Well, let them have their own say. If they want to have VADA, then they can have VADA. I'm not against it.

What I'm against is this coercion that's not transparent and I'm really, truly sick of USADA getting this reputation like we're here to service the fighters. You service the shield of monopolists. And you want to go back pre-UFC deal and go back to the boxing history, there's a lot of question marks that come out there. You said Pepsi Challenge. I would have thought you'd done the Coke Challenge in Columbia, but that's another story. But here's the reality right here.

244. We talked about that big press conference they did on the water in New York. Just didn't seem to hit the right notes to actually get you fired up for it. I feel like this was the controversy they needed. This makes Nate look like a hero. This makes Nate look like an absolute badass. Unfortunately, you're not getting the Nate versus Jorge hate.

And I'm going to tell you, and you already know this, at the end of the day, that main event on Saturday is going to be hellacious. There's no scenario in the X's and O's where it's not going to be all fun and games, all entertainment, all violence, all the time. But there was that sort of like ho-hum bridge to get there. The card got some fights I want to see but the card top to bottom is not in line with the standards they established to begin when they finally got into Madison Square Garden into New York I feel like this at least put some buzz and

spin and now it's like I gotta hear what Nate's gonna say I gotta hear how Jorge responds where coming in it was sort of like who's gonna throw the first punch to make me really need to see it I already know I need to see it because I'm going to get paid off at the end. But if I'm on the fence, if I'm on a casual, we need something. And this, it felt like it was a gift to them. UFC's always been good at taking the dollies through the windows and using it to their advantage. Jay is up in my ear harassing me. Jay's up in your ass.

Get him out of there, all right? But the point being is I think you're right. Certainly, what's a BMF call? A BMF call is making all the authorities in play exonerate you, say nice things about you. It's a real power move in that regard. You're right. It doesn't do much necessarily for the Jorge Masvidal element of it all, but maybe that will build this week. It makes Nate Diaz very anti-hero on brand, and I think that kind of elevates the show more generally. It's crazy, the turn. Just real quick. It's crazy the complete 180 turn this man has made.

You think he's the skip joke. Sorry, a little J problem right there. This is a guy that you would think would be doing more drugs and trying to hide it, and yet he's the absolute Robin Hood. He's the guy who's fighting the system and showing day after day he's the real. This is unbelievable where we started with the Diaz brothers, who Nate established himself as first and coming all around full circle. The gangster is a vegan.

What can I say? The gangster is a vegan. He is a wolf in sheep's clothing. You know what I'm saying? Or sheep in wolf's clothing. Great black sheep album. I can't quite tell. Great black sheep album.

Let's move on. So over the weekend, UFC Singapore took place. Ben Askren falling to one and two, being submitted by Demi and Maya. Now, I did my whole morning comment on this, Brian, but the question is here, we're about a year or so past the initial trade between one championship and UFC. They traded Demetrius Johnson to one,

allegedly, or whatever you want to call it, and then they put Ben Askren in UFC. There's a question about whether now, who won the trade? And I'll say this, Brian. I mean, look, people, if you... Okay, so do you have a football team? The Atlanta Falcons. Really? But I'm not hardcore anymore. I was back in like the hammer

days. You know what I'm saying? Jerry Glanville buying a seat for Elvis. When Leon Dion was playing? Exactly. All right. Fair enough. When Left Eye was burning people's houses down. I mean, you know. Who wasn't a fan in those days? But I'm a Skins fan in Washington, D.C. You got Trent Williams, maybe the best left tackle in football. And the dumbest man on the planet, GM Bruce Allen, doesn't want to trade him. But if he did trade him, he'd get him for like, what, maybe a first, second round pick and some other. In other words, there'd be commensurate value, or at least perceived commensurate value. And people are looking at this trade and they're saying, well, you've got a world-class talent, a proven world-class talent in Demetrius Johnson versus

somebody who is now struggling at the world-class level to a degree, right? The two losses were not that great. One is a little bit flukish in the sense that it was only five seconds, but the win was also controversial that he got. And they're saying these are not equivalent things. And that part is probably true at this point, although I don't think Ben's career is over. There's still some to be learned there. But let's assume that they're not commensurate values. Let's assume there's actually quite a disparity between them. That, to me, is not the way to evaluate this trade. Look, Demetrius Johnson is happy at one. He's being well paid at one.

He wanted out of the UFC. He got a bunch of value. One got a lot of value in having somebody that good on their roster. UFC is a much better fit for Ben Askren than one was. His trash talk, his bravado. And there was this big speculative question. This guy had spent the majority of his career on the sidelines. You got to at least see this question being at least attempted to be answered.

And you could also say that the Jorge Masvidal popularity boom. Doesn't happen without Ben. Doesn't happen without Ben Askren. So the thing is, are the equivalent trades in the sense of goods for goods? Not necessarily. But was it like, number one, is it good to get these guys out of their indentured servitude contracts? Yes. And moreover, fans, what do you want?

You got a chance to see an experiment. Maybe it's not going to pan out in favor of the way you thought it might. But I'd rather see the attempt than not the attempt. I mean, one championship until they make the full U.S. expansion and kind of go for it. They're a classy boutique. DJ fits that mold perfectly. But if you want to know who won the trade, UFC has won, is still winning, and will continue to win the trade. Because those three Ben Askren fights up to this point, Luke, have gotten more interest and attention, unfortunately, than most recent Demetrius Johnson title defenses,

which were largely happening on UFC fight nights for a trend, for a stretch, for a while, for a reason. UFC won this trade because when they look at these goods, they're not necessarily thinking or caring so much about, well, DJ may end up being our greatest flyweight, one of our greatest fighters. It's about commodity in the moment. And Ben Askren was a better commodity and actually still is with these losses in getting Masvidal over and bringing attention

and bringing fun fights. I think the bigger question here is anytime you have somebody in Ben Askren's spot, which was so dominant in anywhere but the UFC, and you start making the same type of debates that we'll probably have in a minute about Douglas Lima, how do you compare what he's doing to what's going on in the UFC? Where would you rank him? And there were times that we would say, look, Ben Askren's looking so great, not taking a loss, taking punishment and coming back and just controlling people with this one skill that, man, what would it look like if he fought GSP and all this stuff?

And I think sometimes people get solved when they come to the UFC, right? Sometimes people have an Eddie Alvarez type run where they surprise you. This was one of those where I think, unless Ben Askren can come back with a run and really prove something, if he feels like he has to and needs to, this was a win and a victory from a brand standpoint, from the idea of this man being a world-ranked, legitimate guy in the top two or three. Not top 10, but we're talking about at those times when he's blown people out in Bellator 1, we're like, what would it look like against a UFC champion? I think those were wishful. There were clearly some, look, there's clearly some over-speculation going on, and this has's clearly some over speculation going on.

And this has been a bit of a market correction. I think that's fair to say. One, I don't know what Ben's next step is, but if he continues to pursue a career in UFC and he's allowed to continue one, I don't think it's inconceivable. A run, I don't know. But put some nice wins together, I'm not ready to throw in the towel on that particular part yet. Although that could be wrong too.

I don't know. I'm speculating. But I made this point on Morning Combat Dissected, Brian Campbell, which was people are like, oh, he's 35, but Demian Maia's 41, now 42, I think, in a week or so. This idea that age is the excuse is not really fair. First of all, 42, doing what Maia's doing is just insane, number one. Number two, it's not an apples to apples comparison. Dude, if you are on a path like he was in Bellator when he was beating Koreshkov and Amosu and Douglas Lima, and by the way- Young Koreshkov and young Lima, though, to be honest. Young Ben Askren. The Douglas Lima story, which we'll get to in just a point, is a question about longitudinal perseverance and having to be part of a process that pushes you in that direction.

He was never really pushed. He went over to one because he couldn't get a shot in UFC in his athletic prime. He fought a bunch of people he had no real reason to push himself against. Then he retired. Folks, forget this. He was done fighting and then came back. Here's my point. If you had stayed in the UFC, or excuse me, if Askren had a chance to go from, let's say, Bellator right to UFC, maybe he would have washed out fast.

I don't know. It's a possibility. Or maybe he would have had some wins. Maybe he would have had some losses. But he would have been part of a developmental process that would have either washed him out or potentially pushed him to greatness. It's like another fighter, if they're good, but then they don't ever get that push, then they get to 35. You can't make up for lost time in that particular way. So when people say, oh, well, it's not an excuse. Ben Askren's super overrated. Again, maybe there is a bit of a market correction happening.

But I don't think it's supposed to be. Well, the thing is, you're never going to know, though. It's not fair to somebody who was not part of the real cauldron of the UFC process to say now at 35, oh, they're super overrated. So you're calling him Arvidas Sabonis. That's what you're doing right now. What I'm saying is, if he had been a part of that process during his athletic prime, it could be a very, very different answer. It could be. But when you're trying to do that in your head and you're trying to

mythically say what would it look like if he came over i think there we gave so much credit to his one skill and then you get a guy obviously world-class and great like maya who had put a very strong performance and many ways seemed to cancel out whatever ben could do and then you basically saw two teachers in the break room fighting over a cup of coffee trying to throw punches at each other it was it was maybe not the classiest fight. I don't even understand that analogy. The striking... What high school did you go to?

I went to a tough one, by the way. Nog Takai, thank you. What high school did you go to, bro? But the striking in this fight was... Yeah, it was not awesome. It was not the best. I just think, like, look, man, you know, it's... How do I explain it?

It's certain portions of your life to get the most out of yourself, what if he had gone to the UFC at age 28, let's say, and gotten a loss? And he would have thought to himself, Jesus, I really need to go and work on some other things. What if he never sent that tweet at Dana? Really? Right. All these things. But he had then gone to the UFC, got the loss. What if that had retooled him, changed things, got him to a point where now he could push forward and maximize his strengths?

If you're never forced to maximize your strengths and then you're called upon it years afterwards, what are you realistically going to get out of that? I don't – I find it weird that you're building this foundation of excuses. We're just basically saying – Foundation of excuses. Like he's got – if he wants to hang on and keep fighting, he's got to prove it. All of a sudden development doesn't matter now? It does.

But the whole point was even though I feel like the UFC won the trade, hot take or matter now? It does, but the whole point was, even though I feel like the UFC won the trade, hot take or not, hipster take, whatever, yeah, I think they won the trade, marketing purposes. But he still hasn't really shown us anything in the UFC outside of being able to take a beating against Robbie and Persevere, which, again, I'm going to give him credit for. But if he wants to keep fighting, he's still got a lot to prove that he's top five UFC level

with that one great skill. I just think, last thing on this, I just think the idea that you can look at him now and say, yes, was there a certain estimation of his abilities coming over that was overstated? Pretty clearly. On the other hand, looking at him now and saying, this is all he ever could have been, this is all that ever was, when he was denied the opportunity to maximize his ability, is just not fair. It's simplistic. But back then, he would have been going up in there against Prime GSP.

Fine. Then maybe he would have lost and washed out. He wouldn't have this curiosity. The curiosity is born of the fact that he was denied the opportunity. That's my point. And in that speculation, yeah, you're going to get some wild-ass theories. I just don't normally see you go that direction. We're hard and fast.

We don't protect anyone on this show. I just think it's really unfair. Athletes think you're just born good. Dude, you get better. Douglas Lima, when he started in Bellator versus now, look at the difference. And it's not, yes, a lot of that is just Douglas Lima being awesome. A lot of that is him losing to Rory McDonald. A lot of that is him losing to Ben Askren and then force himself to going back and getting

better and getting better and getting better and getting better. No one ever forced that on Ben Askren. He was rolling through everybody. I'm just saying, in this show, we cut to the chase. There's no friendships, right? I'll go downstairs, little brown hairs everywhere. You're nasty, B. I don't care. You know what I'm saying?

I'll bring you around here. I'm not trying to protect anything. I don't have any interviews lined up with Ben. I've not even reached out to him. I just think it's unfair. I just don't think it's fair. Not totally fair. I'll say it's halfway fair. I don't have any interviews lined up with Ben. I've not even reached out to him. I just think it's unfair. I just don't think it's fair. Not totally fair. I'll say it's halfway fair.

I don't know what happened to you in South America, but it must be a very... I've got a heart, Brian Campbell. Wow. I've got a heart. Took a long time, Grinch. Great to see you back. All right. All right, let's move on.

Speaking of Douglas Lima, Brian Campbell, you go first on this one. Boy, he was out there winning. Not the most exciting fight in the world, but he wins your Welterweight Grand Prix, a million dollars, has won every rematch now, and in this particular case, avenging his loss to Rory McDonald. He is now, again, the Bellator Welterweight Champion of the World. Brian Campbell, what do you make of his victory?

Where does he rank among welterweights? I was cage-side for this fight. I interviewed both last week in New York, spent a lot of time with both. Was fired up like hell for this because that first fight was so much fun. They both overcame a lot in that situation. And this fight was a dud from an entertainment standpoint.

But this fight played in line with this great evolution of who Douglas Lima is. He has improved in such consistent incremental status that this hot run right now of knocking out MVP, of submitting Koreshkov in their trilogy, and now beating Rory is impressive as it is, but you go back and see how he's done it by adding little bits to his game.

This was the showcase right here. I mentioned there wasn't a lot of entertainment. There was booze like crazy. Those first two rounds, I may have fallen asleep cage side there, but you know what? It got that way because Douglas Lima learned from that first fight. You remember after round four in Los Angeles, January, 2018 fights up in the air. It's even on the cards. And what happens Rory on one leg takes Lima down and spends that whole final round on top of him and wins the fight. So what did Lima have to do? He had to figure out his wrestling, get it up to the elite

level of his striking and his leg kicks. He showed you a little bit of that in the third fight with Koreshkov, but for him to come out against a Rory who physically still has that mentally may be another question, and we can talk about that, but to come out there and stuff every single takedown more or less and control Rory McDonald and put Rory in a spot where, you know, he said afterwards, you know, I thought I had done more. I thought I was winning. I don't know what he could have thought because it wasn't that exciting, but it was Lima at every end stopping what Rory could do or was able to do. And when he won it,

and 50 Cent shows up with that bottle of champagne and the million-dollar check and the confetti falling from the sky, this was a culmination of really a guy who just put his head down and has become one of the best in the world. I want to have that mythical talk with you right now. I want to ask you, if he gets in that damn octagon...

Where does he rank? Where does he rank? Among welterweights. Where does he rank? We really have to ask ourselves, okay, you stopped, what, 15 Rory McDonald takedowns, which is very impressive. But the top end of UFC right now is very wrestle heavy. So, I would say he's

at worst the third best welterweight in the world right now. Wow, that high? Yeah, yeah. So the top five of welterweight, or top six if you want to count Kamaru as the champion. Kamaru, they still have

these rankings in UFC. These people do not know how to do rankings. Are you on the rankings board? I didn't even know there was a rankings board. I thought it was just a computer. These people have Tyron Woodley

ranked as the number one contender because they have no idea what they're doing. Well, they have that weird rule that if the champion loses... It's not a rule. ...it's automatically number one. Well, it's every time. Every time the champion loses, they stay at number one. Because the people who are doing it don't understand what the rule means.

That has to be an in-house order, though. Maybe, but the rankings are supposed to decide who is the most deserving next contender for the title. To have Woodley at one is insane in that regard. It doesn't mean he's not a good fighter. It just means in that contendership queue... Anyway, Kamaru, Woodley, Covington, Masvidal, Edwards, Dos Anjos. Those are your top six right there. Where does he rank in that space?

I think he's right there. I said that worst three, but I mean three or four is, look, striking wise, tell me he's not world-class elite right there. He's world-class at everything. At everything. And so I think fixing up that wrestling hole a little bit and being able to outthink Rory. I went back and watched that first fight over again,

and it really impressed me how in the moment, in the midst of pain and vulnerability, Rory is the damn Red King. He can just control and center himself and persevere and overcome. He got out-thawed in this one badly. And it was really, for the first time, this wasn't Lima lining up MVP

and hitting him with a highlight reel knockout. This was really just such a strong victory mentally that, yes, I would have questions against somebody who's just such a motor and machine of Usman right now. I think Kamaru still has to prove to us that he can do it, not just against Woodley, but a couple times and defend the spell and do that. But would I like him against Colby Covington? I think I would. You know, what's interesting to me is I always say this. It doesn't matter if you're a media member. It doesn't matter if you're a promoter. It doesn't matter if you're a fighter, an organization. Two ways to measure success in MMA, Brian Campbell.

One of those ways is the peaks at which you hit. If you're a fighter, do you become a champion? If you're an organization, do you get big numbers on pay-per-view? Whatever those numbers might be are measurements of success. The other way is longevity. Now, the two actually end up corresponding at certain intervals, but look at the case of Douglas Lima, and it tells you that, again, they sort of correspond at the end. But more than that, I want to focus on the second part. Here is a guy who has always been pretty good,

a little bit of Jorge Masvidal vibe, where if you ask, like, what is Jorge Masvidal bad at? Nothing. He is bad at nothing. He is good at boxing. He is good at kickboxing. He is good at jiu-jitsu. He is good at wrestling. Is he the best at those necessarily? No, but he's very competent in all of them. But he just kind of never made a lot of noise, either necessarily with his victories or his mouth. And then slowly but surely, you just begin to see the accumulation of work show itself.

And never with his mouth, always with the craft of his hand. And it is amazing to me that now the flower is truly beginning to bloom. He is the best test case I've ever seen in MMA for perseverance because he was always good. He is now great. And it took a long time to get there. He is an overnight success, 10, 15 years in the making, Brian Campbell, but he finally hit it. It is awe-inspiring to watch him, man. And he has done it by the sweat of his brow, by the sweat of his brow. Never got a handout, never got an easy push, never got some kind of like...

He ain't no fortunate son, right? He's not somebody who was like with a name or with a famous association. He's just a guy who showed up and beat tough guys and sometimes lost and then came back and won. It's crazy how he never went to the, I know his brother is in and out of the UFC a couple times. It's crazy how he's never got there.

It's also kind of crazy. At the same time though, he's been loyal to Bellator. Bellator has been loyal to him. There's a few of those relationships that really work out. I don't know the guy in that kind of a way. I'm honestly kind of proud of him. It's fun. There are some people

who just, like Conor McGregor, they rock it to success. It's amazing to watch and it's this awe-inspiring thing you just can't, it raptures you. And then there are

these Chinese water torture guys, man, who just slowly by the time 10 years pass, you're like, oh my God, this guy has done incredible stuff. And without the fanfare of the biggest stage and without the fanfare of like,

he's never even had, I mean, I guess Rory's been a rival, but Rory is like, you know, in his own way, quite humble as well. I suppose, but he demolished him enough times where it doesn't really matter anymore. It is him. He's an impressive guy, man. He's an impressive guy. There's just something about that old school way of shut up and deliver and don't do anything else he is Jaime Escalante stand and deliver

he basically said when I was young I was partying I was not living the life and when he committed to it and committed to getting better and fixing his holes he's really become a perfectly well rounded fighter but the flip side is Rory McDonald, and this was the end of his Bellator contract.

He talked a lot after the fight about wanting a third fight with Lima. We'll go to the negotiation table and see what happens. But at, what, 30 years old, 29, 30 years old? Yeah, something like that. I got questions. I sat down with him, and a lot of journalists have, and I had the hope of, I'm going to decode him. I'm going to get in there. I'm going to get up on that ass.

I'm going to figure this guy out. And I came away with a lot more questions. A lot of people attribute that to religion. I'm not. I know. That's weird, because I'm a Christian man like him, too. So even in the questions where I tried to come with that angle, I just didn't feel like I understand what's going on beyond those eyes.

See, I don't buy that it's his religion. I'm not religious, but you know, you've got Habib, a Muslim. He obviously is a ferocious animal. Do you remember back in the day, the t-shirt apparel, Jesus didn't tap? Yes. There are some people who like, you know, Benson Henderson's like, I can do all things through Christ. You know, he's out there getting enraged, frothing at the mouth.

Now they're going to mention chemo with the cross. Chemo holding the cross, Joe San too before he went to prison. We forget about that. But the point being is it can motivate you, it can not motivate you. I don't really see that as the defining factor. To me it's like he came across a point in his life, a little bit like Will Brooks, where they become pacified through maturation, which is, by the way, a healthy thing. I'm not in any way downplaying it.

I just don't know how good that is for an MMA career. I don't pinpoint the Christianity. If you were looking for a performance that would get you nervous about whether he still has that it factor to come into these fights and go to the next level and win it, you didn't see any of that. All right, Jay's killing me. Jay can F off. You didn't see any of that on Saturday, all right? Fair enough. Let's get right to it now. We'll go to you again here, Brian Campbell. Canelo Alvarez, Sergey Kovalev is this weekend. Canelo Alvarez jumping up, not one, two weight classes to take on old Crusher himself. Interestingly, Crusher is an underdog, I believe, in this fight from the betting odds.

But let's just jump to one of the more interesting questions that we have here written out for ourselves, which is, do you think Canelo Alvarez can get it done? If he gets it done, how is he going to get it done? What are you expecting from this fight, actually? Canelo is the favorite for a reason. He's quicker. He's a better boxer. He goes to the body like hellfire, and that's 36-year-old Kovalev's biggest weakness. Look, let's be honest about Kovalev. He was a menacing, bullying puncher when he won the light heavyweight title and put together those title defenses, but Andre Ward exposed something in him, a lack of

heart, a frontrunnership, something in him to be able to figure him out. And once Kovalev was figured out X's and O's inside the ring, you didn't see that comeback. Now, to Kovalev's credit, he took a big gamble by sticking with that Anthony Yard title defense that he had in Russia a couple months back, knowing that if he lost, he lost the essentially career-defining payday. I mean, I don't know the numbers,

but you'd have to assume he's going to make more fighting Canelo in this one night than maybe he had his entire career. Probably. And what did he do against Anthony Yarda? A limited guy, but a big puncher on beat. And he walked through hell and came back and rallied to win in ways that we'd never seen

in his whole career. But with that said, Canelo's the favorite for two reasons. One, if it goes to the scorecards, Canelo's got this long history. Two, he's the prime guy. He's arguably, he's in that discussion of where I said in the past on the show that we're in a weird time, pound for pound. There's four or five, maybe six guys who have like a legitimate claim to the throne. Canelo has one of those legitimate claims. But unlike fights like this in the past, unlike Manny Pacquiao moving up to face Antonio Margarito, unlike

these type of things where you're like, okay, the younger prime guy moving up against the older guy. I think there's more danger in this one for Canelo than any of those guys faced. And the fact that he isn't making Kovalev come down and sacrifice himself to a catch weight is going to give Kovalev a chance. Will Canelo win? Probably. Should he win?

Yes. He's tough. He hits hard. All that stuff. But this is going to be fun. And that factor of not really knowing. So often boxing, even on the highest level, you know what it's going to look like in the end, right? The hope that you have for one person to do that one thing that they do good is somewhat minimal usually.

This time around, he's got to be careful. Canelo has to be careful. Even with his advantages going to the body and hand speed and all that because Kovalev is not just a 36-year-old limited slugger with questionable chin. He's a guy who can box. He's a guy who uses his jab very well and uses it as a weapon. So the way that Canelo is going to walk this out,

if it goes long, if it goes into the second half of the fight, I don't see how Kovalev wins. He's not going to win the decision, and he tires and wears down in every big fight, even the ones that he wins. If he's able to turn this into a six-round fight, Luke, and just say, look. What does he mean, stop him in six?

Just go, look, if we get past six, I'm probably going to lose the fight anyway. So six rounds, I'm emptying the tank. I'm going to make this a fight. The entertainment value goes up. His only chance of winning goes up. Canelo will be in there for an absolute fight. And you may think that's wishful thinking if you're looking at this from just purely a betting standpoint,

but Kovalev's got more in the tank than guys in this spot tend to have, in my personal belief. Even with some of those questionable intangibles, if he can come out there first two, three, four, five rounds and just fight and make this a fight and use the jab to set it up, you're going to have an interesting chess match in there that could get physical, that could get heavy. And we're going to find out a lot of things. We're going to find out if Canelo's power does anything at 175, just as much as we're going to find out if his chin can take some of the offense that inevitably Kovalev's going to hit him with. Well, anybody from the weight class at 160, from middleweight, that Canelo's coming from, if anyone has a chance for that power to translate,

it's Canelo Alvarez, as you particularly to the body given some of the vulnerabilities of Kovalev I was doing some thinking about this fight watching a little bit of tape on these guys in anticipation of today's episode You know, it's interesting. I don't know which way canel is gonna fight because he fought Triple G Obviously a very different fighter I understand but in one fight going backwards another fight going forwards He has an opportunity to do either of those against Kovalev. Kovalev's got the much longer reach, but I don't think he's as snappy with his punches as he used to be, which is going to give a great counter puncher in Canelo Alvarez, a faster fighter in Canelo Alvarez, probably you would imagine, a chance to just absolutely swarm him in certain intervals. Again, if the power doesn't translate, all this is for naught. I kind of wonder about that. But also, I think the jab, the educated jab of Canelo Alvarez, his ability to defensively push his way to the inside,

I think the speed is going to be differential. This is what I'm, I mean, everything we're talking about here is why we were pointing out, yes, do we want to see a third fight with Triple G? Of course, which person breathing oxygen who watches boxing doesn't wish to see this. But that doesn't mean there aren't real, interesting, credible merits to this contest. There quite clearly are. You can favor and shade in a direction of either fighter, depending on your perspective, but no one really knows. And again, you could say, well, that's the case of every fight. No, it's not. When Pacquiao fought Claudio, there was no mystery. I wasn't thinking, what is Josh Claudio going to do to Manny Pacquiao?

You're thinking, okay, how was Manny Pacquiao going to feast on this fool one way or the other? And again, he just did this the whole time, so he couldn't really, but neither here nor there. This one is not that way. This is a fight between open-ended, I want to say, heavy gunners in different kinds of ways. The best comparison for this fight is Sugar Ray Leonard. After coming back from retirement to beat Marvin Hagler, he moves up to 168 and fights Donny Lalonde, the Canadian puncher with the long hair. For some reason, they put a light heavyweight title at stake in that fight as well.

And Leonard had to get up off the canvas early in that fight and figure Lalonde out and eventually rallied to stop him. And it was hella theater. I remember watching that as a kid. This has some potential in that, but it's going to be up to Kovalev to make that jab count. He can box. There's some craft. You saw him box against Yard when he was in trouble. The kind of work he's got back in.

Of the two, obviously he has the much better amateur pedigree. Yeah, yeah. Canelo had a very brief amateur career, so it's going to be really interesting, and I think we've got to wake up. This is the Canelo era, Luke, and it's been defined yes by, look, you can say he's a golden boy type guy, not the reference to Oscar,

but a pretty boy. You can say he gets the decisions. type guy, not the reference to Oscar, but a pretty boy. You can say he gets the decisions. You can bring up the tainted meat. You can bring up a couple bad things. He waited out triple G two years, never forget, by the way. But this era has been defined as Floyd walking away and Canelo stepping up and saying, I got this, I'm a global star, and I'm going to fight the best at every turn. And they asked him during his media day this past week, what happens if you beat Kovalev?

Will you stay at 175? What about this guy, Artur Beterbeev, who just blew away Vodzik last week? And Canelo, now it's just words, but Canelo said, I'd fight him. So at this point, we're in a spot where you can't doubt that. Megusta.

All right, let's move along with our last topic before Jay has an aneurysm in the back. Greg Hardy, who just had a, you guys covered it, inhaler, gait, and everything else, just had a terrible, weird, kind of good, sort of bad outing against Ben Sassoli, and is now going to fill in on, I think, a couple of weeks' notice here when he takes on Alexander Volkov at UFC Moscow in the main event, Brian Campbell. Folks are wondering, why now? Does this make sense?

And can Greg Hardy win after being a guy who, let's see, in his UFC Brooklyn show, needed an opponent illegally, used an inhaler illegally, has never apologized for his background, which is a whole separate story, has looked good in the contender series fights, but in his UFC fights, fought guys who weren't all that great and just kind of had weird outings. In fairness, you guys didn't cover this in the Ben Sosoli fight. That was one of those fights to me that showed me he had better defensive awareness than he had before, which is a small tick.

He didn't have three-round stamina, though. Inhalergate. Inhalergate, baby. Combat Wombat was fine in that chin down the stretch there. A little bit. But I thought his footwork was educated to a degree. I'll put it that way. Again, dude, it's hard to get good at fighting, even when you're an athlete as good as Greg Hardy.

Okay, but now he's filling in on a short notice against Alexander Volkov, and folks are wondering what kind of chance does he have. I got bad news for Greg Hardy haters. A good chance. Really? Yes. Whoa, you're catching me off guard with this. Okay, well, hear me out.

If we're asking who is the much better fighter, it's Volkov. I mean, there's no question about it. He's a much better fighter. He's longer. He's more experienced. He's beaten much better guys. The fair favorite, let's put it that way, is Volkov. I would expect Volkov to win. But Brian Campbell, number one, he was supposed to fight Alistair Overeem and he didn't for whatever reasons we don't know. He was supposed to fight, who was the, Girodo Santos in this one and fell out. So

number one, he's dealing with a last-minute opponent. You've seen A-sides. We talked about it on this show, I think, two weeks ago. Don't tell me you're building the case for Greg Hardy. Hold on, let me finish. I'm telling you flatly, Volkov is the favorite. I'm telling you he's the favorite. What I'm telling you is this

Jejun, insouciant attitude that you have about upset potential with big punchers who are kind of spazzers at heavyweight is misplaced, my man. It is super misplaced. Volkov is your favorite to win. He probably will. If he gets knocked out, do not be surprised. He has not fought since getting KO'd. He has not fought since getting KO'd by Derek Lewis. And he won every second of that fight before the KO. He got caught by a giant puncher. I'm not telling you. He's won seven in a row before that, Luke,

against some actual legitimate guys with a pulse like an ovary. I'm sorry, like a verdum. Dude, this is a sport where there are 40% upsets. What are you banking on? If you can watch the combat wombat fight, if you can go back and watch round three of Sassoli's mullet flying around and go, yeah, Hardy's next level. He's ready to make that leap.

No, two things can be... That's not what I'm telling you. Okay, but two things can be true at the same time. Are you ready for these two, Luke? Okay, here we go. Rub your face. Here we go. One, I'm proud of him.

I'm proud of Hardy saying, you know what, I'm going to go all in and do it because I don't want to live in a world where a loss ruins a guy, right? I want to live in a world where you can step up and see where you're at, get knocked the hell out, and then go, okay, I got to work on this and this. Fair, I agree. Boxing or MMA, I want to live in a world where you can step up and see where you're at, knock the hell out, and then go, okay, I've got to work on this and this.

Boxing or MMA, I want to live in that world too. He's going to get knocked the hell out. He's going to get his ass kicked in this fight. He's not remotely on the level of a Volkov who has that type of stamina, who has a point-fighting machine up there with the height and length to go with that. Yes, Greg Hardy could load up and get lucky early, but I haven't seen anything, even in those knockouts of those guys who probably drove the Uber home after the fight, that he could do this against somebody

on this level. I mean, yeah, Volkov won every second of that fight and lost it against Derek Lewis, but it's still Derek Lewis. You remind me of UFC, was it? UFC 17, Randy Couture was supposed to fight Mark Coleman. In comes a little-known change. Last minute, it was Pete Williams who kicked him in the face and changed the entire course of heavyweight history in MMA.

Dude, I'm not telling you Greg Hardy's the favorite. I'm not even telling you he's Pete Williams or Mark Coleman. What I'm telling you is... I'm not sure he can hold Seth Petruzzelli's jockstrap, all right? There is no division in MMA that is as donk-friendly as heavyweight. That's true. That's true. That's all. And you've got an

athletic big puncher, and he is a big puncher. Sorry, the Austin Lane fight showed it. I'm telling you, if you go in there thinking, oh, Volkov's just going to run over him. Yeah. Ask me to bet, I'm betting on Volkov. Ask me to bet on Volkov, like, oh my God, Greg Hardy's got no chance. I don't feel comfortable saying that. No, I don't.

Greg Hardy, and I'm not saying he's awful by any means. He's got plus athleticism. He's got power. He's got the best coaches down there at ATT. But what has he shown you against very lesser competition that could give you the belief that outside of Justin Corky, one lucky one, that he's going to be able to set up the type of shots he'll need to finish him?

Volkov has gotten better about using his range recently. That is true. He has historically not been all that great at it. That's a problem, dude. It's a problem. It's one he is likely to fix. It is one likely not to cost him. I'm blown away by this new Luke.

I'm absolutely blown away by this. It's not a new Luke, dude. It's just, dude, here's all I'm trying to say to you. I'm just saying don't be super dismissive. That's all I'm saying. This would be a massive upset in my heart. Of course. Dude, this is what happens at heavywe. This would be a massive upset in my heart. Of course. Dude, this is what happens at heavyweights.

It's a massive upset if he's competitive. This is a big step up, Luke. No, no, no. If it goes like... But I'm happy for it because I don't want to do the wombats anymore. It's time to find out. I don't think it's going to be...

Two things are going to happen. One, you're right. It's not going to be competitive. It'll go down the stretch or let's say two and a half, one and a half rounds and Volkov just tools them up. That's one possibility.

The other possibility is Greg Hardy gets kind of lucky. I'm trying to tell you that luck potential, that puncher's chance, I'm going to call it an elevated puncher's chance given some of the mechanics in play. The only elevated will be if Russata is overseeing the urine samples here. All right. With that in mind, we now move to DMs for Donks. This is where you get to ask us questions. I always post a picture on Sunday nights

on my Instagram, Luke Thomas News, and then the folks come in and say what they want to say. All right, we'll go to you first on this one, Brian Campbell. This comes to us from mporter440. Yes. Who has better striking, Krohn-Gracy or Ben Asper? You're a big Krohn-Gracy fan.

What we've learned on this show is that Krohn-Gracy has major league striking. Is a big Krohn Gracie fan. What we've learned on this show is that Krohn Gracie has major league striking. Is that what you said? People are still killing me for that comment. I get that I represented it in a way that made me say that, made people think I'm saying Gracie is an elite striker. No. I expected coming into that fight that he would have no striking.

And what did he do? He went three rounds with a good-ass striker and had some big moments. So yeah, he showed me some major league talents. He's a better striker than Ben Askren. Krohn-Gracy. Yes. Although you've got to give Askren credit for the sneaky uppercut, which reddened Maya's face and beat him down. No, it cut it.

It cut it. Yeah, that was a nice wrinkle to the collection. But Askren looks out-of-place striking, where Krohn-Gracy showed me some, like, tried-and-true stuff that he'd been working on. Part of Krohn Gracie's striking is just an insane durability, which we talked about with the Cubs-Watson fight. But you're right, from the clinch position, I think he's a better dirty boxer.

There was a comfortability too. Like he wasn't afraid at being out of his element and doing that. I think he tried to prove a point like we talked about that week. But I think people killing me, calling me Dr. Casual and all this stuff. It's like he impressed the balls out of me. I like that nickname for you, Dr. Cash. No, but I agree with you. I think Caron's probably a little bit better than Ben.

But, dude, Ben's striking is functional at best. I mean, it's not really what he – I don't think he probably would tell you the same. It's not, you know, a thing he invests heavily in. You're right, the sneaky little uppercut when my dipped was nice. But other than that, there wasn't a whole lot to it. A little bit off balance, not a lot of head movement kind of thing. But, you know, we're still not talking Major League Striking in either case here, Brian Campbell.

This comes to us from Zatarain. How do you feel about the recent success of new heavyweight prospects with names like, is it Gane or Gane? Gane. Gane, I believe. Gane, Pavlovich, Jair, Rosenstruck, Spivak, Hardy, and DeCastro. Who do you think will make the biggest impact? Is there a name not listed that comes to mind? It's got to be Gane or Gane, however you say it.

Yeah, that's the name that jumps out. Dude, that guy he fought, do you know the guy he fought? I forget his name now. I apologize. But he was on Contender Series, I you know the guy he fought? I forget his name now. I apologize. But he was on Contender Series three different times. I saw his most recent one. This is another guy. Credit to him.

Perseverant. Just trying to get better and better and better. And he did. And then he goes up against a guy like Cyril Ghosn, who just clearly looked like naturally a level above him. Ghosn in 60 seconds. Gotcha. Yeah.

What's his name get you out of you the other day who these nuts you're so stupid They'll make them just walked right into it. I mean just just you are a stupid. I mean I even stumbled through it I was so excited to get that out. You need to sign your both of papers Wow Wow all right You know the both of papers. I don't. Bofa deez nuts, bitch! Oh, wow. Wow. By the way, Jair Rosenstruck, he's fighting Orlovsky this weekend. He appears to be a force of nature.

Answer this question, then, before we move on. What is your thought on Hardy's upside? Forget about the Volkov fight. I think he's going to take some Ls. I think we're going to go a stretch where we're really down on him and just say, at best, he's going to be average. But he seems to have the want and is in the right camp. I think he'll be a contender. I don't think he'll ever fight for a title.

I think he'll be in the worse than a blog boy, better than a... Can I find a couple bad heavyweights? I think he'll be okay in the end is really what I'm saying

what do you think again a million to one shot what if he KOs

Volkov in the first round what's going to happen they might give him a title shot

you never know they couldn't they couldn't though but they couldn't they couldn't

really they couldn't I don't know dude they couldn't dude they couldn't one win

one win I mean it's a good it'd be a great it'd be a good, it'd be a great, it'd be a good-ass win. ESPN loves putting them on TV. All right, from CamRouse93, should fans be worried that Tony versus Habib hasn't been announced yet? I get this question a lot. What do you make of it? Yes.

Because until I officially hear that Conor McGregor is back on a specific date and there's like a poster made and the news breaks and it's official official, I would never, ever put it past UFC not to sub him in. You think they're waiting on Conor for January? I'm not saying I think that's who he's going to fight next, but should I be worried that we're not hearing Habib Tony? Dude, I mean, anyone will tell you that same honest truth. To me, it feels like breathless speculation. Have you heard something about why it's not happening? No, but the question was, should we be afraid? And my answer is, until I know who Conor McGregor is fighting next, and I know it's official, I will never have that full piece

that Tony's finally going to get what he deserves. I don't know. I mean, let's see. Habib fought at what? UFC 242? We're about to have two, right? I mean, he just fought in September, so it's not... I don't know what folks are expecting. It may be a little while before there's a title defense. I think if you haven't heard by

second quarter 2020, well, now you can panic. But end of quarter four? Look, you've got to understand, they've got this lottery ticket in a jar, right? Which is Habib-Connor 2 would be the biggest fight in MMA history because the first one was the first biggest. And in theory, it's going to just automatically approach that or eclipse it. So you don't want to lose that if you're the business owners. And I'm not saying they're going to do that,

but it's going to be in play at every turn, right? Like you've seen Dana's answers saying, well, unless Tony turns the fight down or unless something happens, it's almost as if they're walking around the Fox studios with that cord saying, hey, Tony, come over here for a second. Let me just, you know. By the way, did you see that video of Conor doing that Q&A with the media and then someone chucked like a shoe or whatever at him?

I've got to say this. Conor's head movement was awesome. It was great. Nice slip, dude. What was that accent he brought out, though? When he was yelling back at the guy? Fuel. Fuel.

I don't know how the Irish say fool. Okay. Fuel. All right, this comes from JL Combe. Combe? Whatever. How many of the fighters in the UFC would tell Dana White to basically F off if he didn't directly hold the direction of their career?

Because rankings don't matter, money matters to Dana, and he hoards it. I think the better question, Luke, is how many fighters right now have the FU leverage where they could and it would not be a problem. Who right now is the holder of FU leverage in the UFC? Conor McGregor, yes. When you say FU leverage, you mean like literally going out and telling Dana to go F off? Yes. Writing on Twitter, F off, Dana.

Nate, Conor, Habib. Habib. Habib threatened to keep UFC out of Russia on my show. John Jones has that. John Jones maybe has that. A handful. There's a few BMFers in this conversation.

The question is, what if they all had it? I don't think they would all exercise it, but, you know, it's the same thing where we talked about USADA at the beginning. Everyone's like, these Dear Leader videos, like, I'm so glad USADA is here. You know, or they're just, they either are forced to do it or pretend that they like it, or they

think it's good because they've been, they all have Stockholm Syndrome at this point. If you remove that, again, I don't think everyone in their mind would just lose their, you know, go crazy on Dana. But look at Eddie Hearn, like Chisora at that presser. Remember that? Losing his mind or Golden Boy's own Golden Boy, Canelo going after him. Imagine having that ability to tell your boss to F. Imagine you having the boss to tell

Jay in your ear to back you up. Hey, Jay, no one likes you. Sincerely, everyone. Why don't you get back in that time machine to the day when people did like you? Yeah, how about that? I got 1.21 gigawatts in my pocket for you. Go to the jerk store. They're all out of you. Is that a 90s reference? I think it is. That is.

Alright, alright. I'm going to take your gimmick. Thank you. We got any more donks here? One more. This comes to us from Iron Paradise Fitness. With so many fight nights throughout the year, a lot of which have very weak cards, I get this question for years. Is the UFC watering down the quality of events and in danger of spreading themselves too thin? With less higher quality cards, I see you pulling the phone out, which gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Would less higher quality cards, Brian Campbell, do more for both avid and casual fans as well as the UFC brand itself? The answer is no at this point, right? Because the cards are watered down. They're super watered down. Campbell do more for both avid and casual fans as well as the UFC brand itself? The answer is no at this point, right? Because the cards are watered down. They're super watered down. They're watered down absolutely on purpose, but it's designed to create a monetization scheme, not scheme, but a plan with their broadcast partner in ESPN and the growth of their plus platform as well as others. And the reality is they can basically get away with

having these lesser cards without a tremendous blowback. They still have the ability to promote stars, which, by the way, ESPN, I'll give them credit, they're very good at storytelling relative to Fox. It doesn't really affect the upper bound limit of their business, and it keeps out competitors from really being able to shine. There's a lot of value to it. I'm with you on that. It is watered down like hell. I went back and was looking at

the first three New York cards to sort of fuel my thing saying, look, I like this card on Saturday. Not a New York card for them. Is UFC 205 2016 the first New York card? If you take the last seven fights, is that like the best card in UFC history? So it was the three title fights. No, it was, yeah, it was Conor. Yeah, it was three title fights. It was Woodley, Thompson won. Which, by the way, people forget, fight of the night.

It was fight of the night. It was Ioana Carolina, which was a war, right? Yep. It was Rocky Pennington retiring Misha Tate. And it was... That was 205? And also you had, I forgot what the, oh, Wideman getting sent to hell by... Here, I got it right to hell by Romero.

Here, I got it right here. McGregor-Alvarez, Woodley-Thompson, Ioana-Carolina, Yoel-Wideman, Pennington-Tate, and then on the preliminary card, Edgar-Stevens, Habib, Michael-Johnson, Tim Boach-Natal. So I'll give you those seven. I'll put those seven fights up against any card in UFC history. And you go back, look, UFC 200, there was a lot you needed to see in the preliminary level. They did a good job at matching it, but losing DC John hurt that a lot. And then UFC 217 is close.

The second garden card, you had the three. I thought that was the best a card ever closed in UFC history with those three title shots that had crazy dramatic endings. And then you had some pretty good fights below that. But I think that's the standard bearer right there. I think they were supposed to have, by the way, Cerrone versus Brown on that card as well. They lost a chance. Alright, we've got to roll on here. It's time to find out. Alright, so let's do it.

This is where you bring your slapstick. Yeah, have you seen this shit? Luke, I scoured the globe to find the best in combat sports over this past weekend. We start Bellator 232. I was cage side, Mohegan Sun in Uncasville. Patrick Mix. Patchy Mix. The Bantamweight with an insane, what do we call him, this Salulev stretch? No, the Amar Suluev stretch.

I think you got this out of the Kama Sutra playbook. Look at this. How do you get that for a tap? That thing hurts. Is that the late spring donkey? Is that what they call it? One of them came. I mean, are you kidding me right here? Have you seen this before? Yeah, this is, well, Marsulo Ev is the guy who this was named for.

Oh, God. It's a hamstring ripper. You've seen the UFC before. Aljamain Sterling's done it. Kenny Robertson has done it. But Mike Bond from MMA Junkie Point has done it. He is the first guy, Apache Mix here, to do it in Bellator.

He is a dude. I've seen that move, but there was a pole involved. I mean, I've never really, like... Bro, that's a legitimate prospect right there. Ah, God. He is very talented. And 50 Cent comes in the cage afterwards. Did you see this?

Normally, it's a tournament winner that gets the champagne. Patchy Mix gets it. And look at this dance right here. You know what this dance is telling you? You know that champagne tastes like balls. You know what this dance is telling you? There will be sex in the champagne room. Look at this guy.

Look at this. Yes. Yeah, he's feeling it. That champagne is certainly the worst champagne ever made. Probably. I want to take you to England for the second one. Have you seen this shit? Yo-Kai-O 43.

It's a Muay Thai event. Check out Stuart Stabler here with the brutal hatchet job. This looks like my vasectomy. Look at him. This is like an axe being thrown with his elbow at the top. This is insane. By the way, this is real Muay Thai. Oh, God, that's vicious.

Most slashing elbows from vertical, they don't allow. By the way, this is real Muay Thai. Oh, God, that's vicious. Most slashing elbows from vertical, they don't allow. But this is real Muay Thai right here. By the way, Baby Slice got away with some bad 12-6 elbowing on Saturday night. Yeah, but this is not 12-6 in that particular way. That's 12-L. Bro, that's real Muay Thai right there. Remember Scream 1 when Matthew Lillard was like, cut me. I'm ready, baby.

I've never seen any of the screams. I've never seen any of the, baby. I've never seen any of the screams. I've never seen any of the screams, and I've never seen any of the Fast and the Furious. You know why? Because I read books. Wow. All right. Hey, number three, I want to take you to Poland. There was a bizarre MMA fight. Luke, I don't even have jokes. What the hell's going on here? Serious question. Why wouldn't you just knee him? This was at Fame MMA. Are these guys in the same weight class, Luke? I mean, I've seen

fights like this. Normally they're in a men's room. Dude, you know what it looks like? Oh, look at that! Chin checking him! Boom.

Oh, he got him! He rocked him! This is the thing. I don't want to be demeaning, but does it not remind you of Glass Joe and Mike Tyson's punch out?

It kind of reminds me of another David Goliath MMA fight that broke history. WrestleMania 24 in Orlando. There it is, Luke. Look at the size differential. Look at Mayweather's focus. His unbeaten record was on the line this night, but very similar to that MMA fight in Poland.

I didn't see the results, though. You know, instead of showing me these highlights, why don't you just have someone with a super soaker shoot AIDS into my face? Oh my god. You went too far. The line was here, you went over it. Well, that's what I do. Wow. I don't even know if I can come back from that. Have you seen this shit?

Takes us to Sochi, Russia. GFC 19. Zasulan Akimzanov with the spinning back kick on Migan Arturanyan. Look at that, dude. That's like covering your eyes and throwing a dart and getting a bullseye. So he's rotating into

it like that. And the guy crouching Tiger just got right into the Hidden Dragon. That is nice. Bro, these guys out of Dagestan. They don't have to round. They are a different breed, man. They're different animals over there. Wow. That's a beautiful thing.

See, you think it's all slapstick and slapstick. I give you some beautiful things to do. Well, you didn't have the thing before from Poland, but I'll dial that back. All right, let's go. You bring the heat today. Let's go to Myanmar. Let's get some Burmese. Is this Lethwei?

Kickboxing. This is Lethwei 14. Whoa, the round's not starting, guys. Break this up. Oh, God, the ref. Why is he barefoot? Yeah, why is the ref barefoot? Dude, that guy took a dive worse than Jake Hager's opponent

on Friday from that knee to the balls. I didn't see that fight. Look at this. I don't really think he got clipped. By the way, dude, isn't Lightway like you can only win via knockout and they can wake you up after you've been knocked out? Are you serious? I believe that's right, yeah. Wow. Dude, Lightway is hardcore. Hardcore. Yes. Well,? I believe that's right, yeah. Wow. Dude, Light the Way is hardcore.

Hardcore. Yes. Well, I know what you're saying, Luke and viewers. We didn't see any tip-on-tip action. Nobody grabbed anybody's dick. No dick touching the way? Nobody touched Dong's. But you know I always got a bonus for you.

So why don't we go to 55-year-old Ken Shamrock's wrestling comeback against the King of Dong style, Joey Ryan. Oh, he grabbed it. He's got a hold of it. What is this? There's no coming back from this. Here comes a dong drag. Are you ready?

Ken, you're in trouble. Oh. You got any movement? I don't understand what's happening. Joey made Ken grab the dong, and then the dong's so strong, so big, so strong, as he would say, that he was able to, yeah.

All right. Well, Ken Shamrock's doing crazy things in pro wrestling. You been watching lately his return to impact? He's flipping and flying. Looks to me like he's just grabbing dudes. You saw that he's giving him a clear pass here.

Look at this against Moose. You got to give him credit for that, right? Do I? All right. All right. Hey, it was fun while we did this weird dick-touching exercise.

I guess we'll see you back next week. Yeah. All right. Very good. Yeah. Do you have any more surprises for us?

I know you do. No. No, I don't. I don't. Hold on. Jay, spit it out, buddy. Oh. Odds and ends.

Shit, I forgot. Let's do odds and ends. Very quickly, Brian Campbell. Odds and ends. Shit, I forgot. Let's do odds and ends. Very quickly, Brian Campbell, odds and ends. I don't think I can go very quickly here. I've got to take you quick on boxing. Did you see Shakur Stevenson on ESPN on Saturday in Reno? I did not. Wins his first world title in a featherweight bout against Joette Gonzalez.

Wrong footage up there in the moment there. We'll leave that up there. But did you hear the crazy story coming in? Shakur Stevenson, you know this guy named after Tupac. He's got Andre Ward and Terrence Crawford as like his co-manager and mentor. He was banging Joette Gonzalez's sister. So the family turned against the sister. She's in his corner. They wanted to fight with him. Two unbeatens get together and Stevenson wins a wide decision. It looks like the next Mayweather doing it. And the father refuses to welcome the daughter back into the family. Is this the best one-man takedown of a family since Sakuraba and the Gracies?

If you want to just finish them off and step on the back of the throat, and by the way, to Shakur's credit, he wants family unity, but they want nothing to do with him. They left the ring afterwards. You might want to slide in the mom's DMs. I mean, he's taken the son's O. He's taken the daughter's O. It broke the dad's heart.

Why are you here? All right. The footage you saw over my shoulder, did you get a chance to see on DAZN the 140 Super Bowl, the WBSS final? I did see the Taylor versus Progray. Regis, Progray. The Rougarou. Losing a majority decision to Josh Taylor. How'd you score it?

I had Taylor, I believe, by two points. Great fight. Great fight. Yeah. And I thought Taylor looked... You thought... I thought... There's Shakur Stevenson over our shoulder now.

Jay, you're all over the place right now. You had... Did you have... I had Progray early and then late and then Taylor through most of the early middle. See, I give Taylor more early rounds than other people did. Here's the thing.

We thought Taylor was going to be the boxer and Progray was going to be the puncher, but Taylor was the longer, bigger man. From round one, he crowded Progray, suffocated him, and landed the bigger shots and just went after it. You saw the damage.

Josh Taylor's eye was cut and swollen. Rougarou made a push late. I mean, look, Rougarou was so humble afterwards in just saying, look, I thought I won, but you're the better man. Which I loved, by the way. I loved that. But Taylor made a leap. You know these Euro guys, dude, when they go up to the elite American competition, a

lot of times they end up getting folded up into a suitcase. Josh Taylor looks for real. I want to see him against Jose Ramirez. We've got to make the networks work together. There was some speculation that the winner of this could move it to 147 and make some noise. That seems a little premature to me. Well, Rougarou was calling out Terrence Crawford. He said, after I get all the belts together at 140, I'll move up.

Close loss. It's like a fight of the year contender, though. It was great. I don't see these guys as 147 bangers. No, I think Progray showed you that his power against a bigger man didn't really translate like we hoped and wanted. It wasn't as explosive as we wanted. But this weekend, also in boxing quickly, Erickson Lubin, the 154 bright guy on the way up, had a nice win over Nathaniel Gallimore.

And the thing is here, Luke, 154, there's a lot of killers. There's a lot of business to be had. You're going to get a Jermell Charlo, Tony Harrison title rematch coming up. Jared Hurd had just lost the title by upset to Julian J. Rock Williams. You got Erickson Lundie Lara that wants a title shot. Now you got Erickson Lubin that inserted his name back into the mix. I don't know if you remember he lost by first round knockout to Charlo. Oh, yes. You got Erickson Lube that inserted his name back into the mix. I don't know if you remember he lost by first round knockout to Charlo. Oh, yes. You're right. And he's

bounced back four straight wins. That was a very clinical one on Saturday night. And I don't know if you saw that fight of the year potential brawl in the co-main event when Granados went in there against Robert Easter. Unfortunately, I did not. They let their hands go, bro. There's only so much violence I could watch. I was watching Bellator in front of me, and I was watching Showtime on the laptop. Last but not least, Conor McGregor said on this European tour he's on for, I guess he's promoting his brand or whatever he's doing, he was saying that he has, didn't mention the opponent, but he said that January 18th, T-Mobile Arena, he's going to be there. That's going to be his return to the Octagon.

Dana White said, I mean, yes, that is a date we are looking at, but we don't have anything else in mind. Brian Campbell, let's do a little bit of a back and forth here. Who would we like to see him fight if it's a return bout January 18th? He said he knows the opponent, but he won't say it. He won't say it because the UFC will switch it on him last minute. I think it's going to come down right now to Donald Cerrone or Justin Gaethje. Yes, correct answer. I mean, I would like Frankie Edgar.

I think any of those three fit the mold of what you're trying to do. I don't like that we had to wait so long. This should have happened back in April or May, if you're asking me. But the fact that Conor needs to get back in there against a name that he could lose to, but will probably win, and then you are... But by the way, Justin Gaethje is not that guy. You're right.

Donald Cerrone might be that guy. I'll put some respect on that name. You're right. Justin Gaethje. I mean, I'm not saying Conor can't be Justin Gaethje. That's a hell fight. But the whole point is you're not going to put him back in there against Habib until you've got to get at least one more win. You've got to come back and get that win. And that's not saying that Habib's going to walk through Tony, by the way. That's a hell fight. But the whole point is, you're not going to put him back in there against Habib until you've got to get at least one more win. You've got to come back and get that win. And that's not saying that Habib's going to walk through Tony, by the way.

That's going to be our Super Bowl. That's going to be the fight we need to see. But damn lightweight's hot. And just the fact that he's coming back and has a date and it seems serious, it's about damn time. I don't need to be reading any more New York Times reports, all right? Yeah, two of them there. Oscar, too.

By the way, with the fist, I don't need to be reading that either. Before we close out the show here, I want to make one more mention of Roots of Fight. Here's the code at the bottom, 20% off. Just put in MORNING20, and it's good from now until November 15th. I want to thank Roots of Fight for sponsoring the show here, being a part of the show. We love Roots of Fight. Check out this Boss Rootin' shirt right here.

Got the whole GSP thing going on. I got a sweatshirt there. Yeah, there it is. Show them one more time. There it is. They are our sponsor. Hey, you want to sponsor our show or our product. You want to put clothes on my back.

I'll be willing to do that. Yeah, and there's virtually nothing we'll say no to. So please send us some stuff. Hey, you think the show's over. Use the promo code MORNING20. 20% off on everything. You think the show's over, but we actually have a surprise. All right?

Because the donks out there. I've been clued into your surprise. The donks out there won't let me rest. They're sending me pictures of you. So there's the high school, Luke Thomas. But here's the donk evolution. Is this post-Marines, mad at life? Yeah, that was a bad time in my life.

But look at the evolution here from wide-eyed teenager, pre-Jeremy Pearl Jam to like, I might kill you by accident. I look like a hairless cat. Thinking of transformations, it brought to mind a great, not great, a horrible 90s physical and mental transformation. Oh. It's very, Jay, you're in the back. Can you hit us with it?

It's very Remy in Higher Learning. I mean, look at that. It's like right on right there, you know? You ever called somebody Malik? That is. This is, yeah. Do Higher Learning. That's an old school reference.

That's an intense-ass movie. But that's the first thing I think of when I see that bald head angry, Luke. You know what, though? That's not nearly as good as Jaime Escalante standing in Deliverance. Second reference to that. You know what, though?

I have a surprise for you. No. Oh, yes, I do, Donk. You see, here's what happened. Let me tell you the story. You look like the third shittiest Paul brother between Logan and Jake. That's a cross.

You're a poor man's Logan Paul. Dude, what the fuck were you doing with that headband? You walked out of the house with a headband being like, yo, I'm killing it, son. So there's a story behind that picture. Remember when Breathe Right strips were popular? I wear them every night. I had one. I literally wear them every night.

All right. I had one on in there, and I wrote our boys cross country team slogan of T-A-B, TAB, which stood for? The Asshole Boys? Tits, Ass, and Bush. But it got around to the yearbook editor, Mrs. D'Estasio. It got around to her that that might be what it was. So she pulled me out of class. She said, we can't run your cross-country senior picture in the yearbook because we hear bad things.

What is TAB, she says. I said, oh, it's an old soda. She goes, no. What is TAB? Did you have said, oh, it's an old soda. She goes, no, what is tab? And in the moment... Did you have the dots after the letters? Yeah. Okay.

And in the moment, I go training, attitude, and balls because that's what we're about on the CrossFit. And this is what she said. She was like, all right. She let it roll. She let it roll. She let it roll. There was a guy my brother's senior year

at Valdosta High School. The rival high school was Lounds. This is a true story. The guy, and we knew him, the guy who did all the Lounds drawings for the yearbook, if you turned all the pictures upside down, it was just a bunch of dicks. So it would be like a Roman god flexing an arm, and he turned the arm upside down, it was a huge dick on his arm. Two guys touching dicks in Poland.

Two guys touching dicks in Poland. Yeah, that's great stuff. Anyway, you are the long-lost Logan. Welcome, Brian Paul. It is nice to see you here, my friend. Hey, Logan Paul's got a big fight coming up, all right? He certainly Logan. Welcome, Brian Paul. It is nice to see you here, my friend. Hey, Logan Paul's got a big fight coming up, all right? He certainly does.

Do you know what he told me when I interviewed him last week? Oh, wait, you did talk to him? I did talk to him for a half hour. He told me his goal. How much of that was just armpit noises and him doing that kind of thing? He said his goal is to be the biggest and best entertainer in entertainment history, and number two, to fight in the UFC. Like a legitimately fight? Legitimately fight.

You know he's got the amateur wrestling background. Not some CM Punk affirmative action case. Yep. And yeah, so maybe we can get him and CM Punk in there again. No, see, that's what I don't want. Look, if Logan Paul is actually good enough to fight, he should fight in the UFC. I'm actually not against that, but you actually have to be good enough to fight. He's way more charming on the phone than you'd think.

You know who's going to get there before him? The Gotti boy. Yes. Who actually looks pretty good. He actually looks pretty good. Great hair, too. All right. Any more surprises about shameful moments of my past?

No. No, that's good. That's it. Can we stop shaming each other? Where'd you pull that out of there? I mean... So the guy... So remember the first time you shamed me?

Yeah. The guy who sent me the one time I responded to you before, he sent me a bunch of those. And Jay, who is a royal fuck-up, was running through all the programming stuff before you got here, after I did Morning Combat Dissected, and I saw it. And I went to him and I said, Brian Campbell is going to fucking sabotage me because you're the Osama bin Laden of this shit. How dare you? Terrorist who just comes out of nowhere and he goes, get me something before the show.

So Jay was a double agent. Jay is serving both. So I went through and I found the, because I'd never used that one before, and I found this old one. I was like, I'm going to fucking get him with the headband photo. So there we go. The cross-country senior year, the shorts were so John Stockton-y, they were so ball-y that, like, you know, the chicks on, you'd be afraid that the chicks can accidentally

see something. But I would wear the boxer shorts, the long flannel ones, underneath, down to my, like, you know, the chicks on, you'd be afraid that the chicks can accidentally see something, then I would wear the boxer shorts, the long flannel ones, underneath down to my, like, above knee as a way to counteract the ball seams. I think in hindsight that was a poor move. You are McLovin. No. You. I was much cooler.

I was much cooler. You are McLovin. Yeah. Okay. Well, McLovin was in the movie, sort of. All right. That is Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas.

Hey, guys. Favor to ask. Not only if you want to go get a discount on sort of. All right. That is Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. Hey, guys. Favor to ask. Not only if you want to go get a discount on Roots of Fight, that'd be great, but also like the video, give it a thumbs up, and subscribe to the channel, and tell folks about the show. Right? There is no show. I want to quickly, before we go, there is no show like this in combat sports. Period.

It doesn't exist, and it won't exist. Well, I mean, we're doing fine, but we need your continued support to get to bigger and better things. We're the realists. We're going to be real. By the way, we're building fine, but we need your continued support to get to bigger and better things. We're the realists. We're going to be real. By the way, we're building an army of crazy fanatics. People are sliding into my Instagram DMs, giving me pictures of the Shevchenko sisters, like I'm not already in a relationship with their Instagram pages right now.

Well, he's weird, but I'm just saying he'll be around and I'll be around. We're going to be around together. We're super appreciative of your support, but keep telling folks about it. Keep subscribing. Help us get there. The bigger that this gets, the more stuff we about it. Keep subscribing. Help us get there. The bigger that this gets, the more stuff we can do. Right now, we're stuck in someone's basement.

They're going to put a ball gag on him like the dude from Pulp Fiction here in five minutes. Luke's 90s reference. Get the ball gag out of Brian Campbell's mouth. Let's get on to, let's do some other things. You keep subscribing. You keep telling folks about us. You never know what's going to happen. We'll end up in your basement. You know what I'm saying?

And here are our social channels. You can follow me, Luke. You never know what's going to happen. We may end up in your basement. You know what I'm saying? And here are our social channels. You can follow me, LukeThomasNews on Instagram, LThomas on Twitter, and then Brian C. Campbell on Insta, BCampbellCBS. There's a lot of Brian Campbells in the world, apparently. There are. Actually, when I searched your name, it wasn't until you got verified that it was the first one up. All right, guys, we've got to get out of here.

Enjoy UFC 244. Enjoy Canelo versus Kovalev. For Brian, I'm Luke. Until next time, may all of your gains be Lord. We'll be right back. Outro Music