MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 2022 End of the Year AWARDS | Morning Kombat Ep 391

Episode Date: December 30, 2022

On Episode 391 Luke is back with Brian to break down Morning Kombat's end of the year awards. The guys talk KO of the year, Fighter of the year, fight of the year and much more. (00:00:00) - Intro (00:34:00) - MMA KO of the year (00:39:00) - Sub of the year (00:47:00) - Boxing KO of the year (00:54:00) - Boxer of the year (00:57:00) - Boxing Fight of the year (01:07:00) - Hammer of the Month (01:11:00) - Event of the year (01:15:00) - MMA Fight of the year (01:23:00) - MMA Fighter of the year (01:30:00) - Donk of the year (01:42:00) - MK Moment of the year Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveley, Reveille, dogs Look at us now, tip to tip This is our life, this is our passion That's the spirit we bring to this show I'm Luke Thomas I'm Brian Campbell This is Morning Combat Oh, yeah, right.

That post-holiday feeling. Are you feeling what I'm feeling? All lords and lairds are welcome. This is the award-winning best damn combat sports show, period. It's morning combat. You're looking at it right now. Brian Campbell, BC, BDE. A lot of beige things on my body right now.

One half of your award-winning duo on this Friday, December 30th, 2022. New year right upon us here. But the guy next to me, we're so happy to have him back. He's a fantastic fight analyst. He's been under the weather post-holidays. He's sent me the grossest, I mean, really the grossest texts any one man can send each other. At this point i'm like yes stick pics please anything but what you're sending me which is the the fluid things

coming out of your body it's luke thomas everybody hi bc or should i call you culturally appropriated sway you ain't got the answer sway why are you dressed like sway in the morning uh i'm trying to expand my uh you know my my my footprint here in the world, Luke, okay? It'll take a little bit from everybody, right? You know what I'm saying? All the great podcasters. The wonderful drug rug. We know where you got that, morningcombat.store.

Where did you get the hat? You know, I found one in my neighbor's garage a couple years ago and put it on for the night and was like, you know, this could be my thing right here. So I bought one. Hold on. Look at me. at me look at me ready it's not your thing i mean am i like you know this is this is is this not just a midlife crisis move but like a double down on it like all in on it luke like oh well just so you know luke thomas does not have covid but he barely made it to this show he's dying people in my house luke are very sick but ag1 has allowed me to fight it off but i'm feeling gross too covid negative though luke so take that okay i didn't have just as i

want to update everyone i did not have covid we had it because here's the thing my kid came home sick from winter break and um she got all of us sick that's where i got it i know i make jokes about like the newark train station but i have a three-year-old who was around other three-year-olds all day long like for anyone who's had a who's a parent of kids that young bc you remember this i'm sure although your kids had a bit of a separate situation but you understand kids at three years old around other kids it's a germ factory yeah it wasn't it wasn't covid it wasn't flu it was they think rsv and dude i'll tell you man i've been more like punctuatedly sick like for example i got food poisoning one time in cairo egypt and it was i mean you know it was horrible but it lasted 24 hours you know is it oh and the only in the only toilet

you had to deal with that were the holes in the floor too right no okay now you're being racist no we say what does that have to do with race luke it's it's about you know that dirty egyptians have no methods of modern indoor plumbing gbc what could be racist about that i don't know you told me the commodes on that side of the world are different you told me in certain places but like did i say that the fucking marriott it was like really and this was like where all the diplomats say my dad was in the state department at the time anyway uh so i got worse i got worse yeah hold on i got worse sick there but in terms of like duration of sickness this is the sickest i've ever been in my life i've never i've never experienced anything quite like this this was terrible and dude here's the funny part about it like my mother-in-law and my wife got it way worse way worse uh shocking how bad it was man

really really really bad i was feeling for you until the you sent to mikey more mile our cbs sports producer and my uh you know text inbox when i hold it up and show it to the screen when you plugged our inhole with hey guys this just came out of my body and then did it again this morning like really you're pushing the boundaries of friendship all jokes aside so luke i was so pissed off two nights ago at that that i i decided to to paint i can't show that don't don't show the i mean are you kidding me out of my nose this i mean come on turn that shit off i mean this is disgusting i i couldn't show this photo in good faith to the people so i painted it luke so this

is basically what what uh what came out of luke's nose right there oh that's kind of awesome actually i like that yeah my family heckled me heckled me heavily saying i must have uh internal issues of anger for putting out a painting like that no it's pretty good i just let the art speak for itself like this show hey look this is going to be a great show um i have one more story i have to tell you i also threw my back out i didn't even mention this i'm fine i'm fine it's just for like like two hours i threw my back out because i have an old dog man my dog is 16 and it can't go down the stairs anymore so i have to carry it down the stairs outside so we can go to the bathroom but i missed time to picking it up so as i'm going down the stairs she's just urinating everywhere and this was when the cold snap hit so by the time i'm headed back up my stairs are covered

in frozen dog piss yeah upon which i slipped i just gotta hit my rib a little bit trying to get up dude it was a it was the worst christmas ever for me ever ever ever luckily your time in frat house has prepared you for that type of uh you know development and disgusting advancements but luke i'm just happy to have you back because, you know, you and I had a show meeting yesterday about today's year-ending Morning Combat award show. And dude, you couldn't even talk. I can't talk. You know what I mean?

You couldn't even walk me to your truck, Luke. You couldn't do anything, bro. But here you are. And, you know, as much as I'm disgusted by seeing what was actually in your body, thank you for joining us. Shout out to Shaq Majorey, by the way, who filled in admirably Wednesday despite some debacle tech issues we had on this show. But it ain't nothing like BCLT MK coming to the UK February 8th. It ain't nothing like it, Luke.

Sick or not sick. I mean, we're all dying in our own way, to be fair, Luke. Yeah. Well, Jesus, I hope I don't have to go through this again, but I did see a lot of Wednesday's show. Shaq killed it, so I was really happy to see that as well. And, yeah, I'm feeling better. This is the best I've felt in a week and a half,

so let's have a good show today. All right, we're going to quickly touch on the most recent news items in the combat sports sphere before we get into a detailed long look at this year in combat sports, our awards in boxing, MMA, MK moment of the year, MK donk of the year. Yeah, a lot going on today. Before we get there, though, I want to shout out the five folks at Showtime and a great network that you can dive right in the deep end with right now. Why, you're asking?

How about Bellator versus Rizin, Saturday night, 8 p.m. Eastern only on Showtime. You can get 30 days free right now by going to Showtime.com. A fantastic card, AJ McKee, Patricio Pitbull. Of course, championship boxing right around the corner, all that good stuff. But after the 30 days, you still like it? How about this deal? Six months at $3.99 a month. Folks, this will not last, to be fair, okay? Whether you think I do schticks or not, Showtime's a hell of an app. There's some good stuff on that VOD and the live programming as well. So check that out.

If you like it, get on this deal that we're doing. Speaking of deals, merch season is always active in my mind. You see this Baja hoodie right here, this drug rug, if you're so inclined. Go to morningcombat.store. We got mugs. You know, a lot of you, like, you know, Luke, I mean, look, I don't know how you did when it comes to performing the role of husband on Christmas, but I had to return a lot of gifts. And, you know, if you were like me and suddenly you got all this, you know, extra cash, you might as well go to morningcombat.store to spend it but did you were you the big winner as the male gift provider in your house because i took some l's okay i had a dodge you know i had

a you know i had to make good here you mean in terms of like did i give good gifts yeah i apparently i failed i tried i did try hard i waited until three days before christmas i did try hard look i want you to know that, okay? Only thing that got returned from me was one sweater. I'm a pretty good gift giver. Pretty good gift giver. You've been constantly giving in our relationship, and I can really appreciate that. I'm going to give you some more text messages with photos of my mucus.

Yeah, that's not the direction I'd like my life to go. Dude, my nose had an abortion this morning. Did you see that thing? That thing was the size of like a buffalo. Yeah, I'm not the direction I'd like my life to go. Dude, my nose had an abortion this morning. Did you see that thing? That thing was the size of a buffalo. Luke, before we get your take on a couple big-ticket news items going around, maybe this is the intervention we needed between the two of us. You're sick a lot. I don't think you're drinking AG1 every day like you say you are, like I do,

like I'm doing right now because i continue to stiff arm the vid left and right in my house and continue to put on this show luke while you're basically dying in front of us do i need to tell you once again about the benefits of that magic green powder eight ounces of water stir it up little darling thing if you lived with tuki you would be just as sick as me because if she gets sick and brings it home, you're going to get it too. There's really no way around it. However, here's what I will say.

Remember, I didn't get it as bad as my wife and mother-in-law. And you know why? Because I made it a point to drink AG1 every day that I was sick. Every day at noon, I had my AG1, I had my AG1, I had my AG1. They had ear pain. They had all kinds of sinus problems they're still sick they can't move your boy's out here working um i'm gonna take my daughter to the movies a little bit later tomorrow so uh i gotta tell you i may not have had as much ag1 as i should have had

but i had some and you could already see the difference between me and the rest of my family i know i don't need to tell you maybe apparently i need to tell abuela though, though. This special blend of ingredients, it supports your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, recovery, focus, aging. And look, it's like you might say, well, I'm a keto guy. I'm paleo. I'm Matt Snyder. And now I'm dairy free and gluten free at the same time. It doesn't matter, Matt. Right?

Or your Uncle Daniel. It contains less than one gram of sugar. No GMOs. No nasty chemicals no artificial anything and it still tastes real good look that citrus tropical clean taste look i i try to i try to put things in my body that are clean i usually fail but ag1 gets me ahead of the curve if you know what i'm saying it certainly does and i gotta tell you um you know as you mentioned many times cheaper than your cold brew habit and it's's got big benefits. And I swear this is true.

Whenever I get off AG1, it's not a miracle cure. Nothing is, you know, it doesn't exist that way. But just in terms of giving yourself resiliency over time, giving your body the nutrients that it needs, you do a good consistent habit for a long time and the benefits, the benefits pay off. And that's something I have to remind myself with all the time, BC. Yeah. Micro habits, big time benefits. 7,000 people can't be wrong who gave five-star reviews. You know, the names Ferris, Rogan, and Gervais, they still mean something in these parts. And it's time for you to redeem your health and arm your immune system. Cause folks, whether or not you believe in the vid, there's some ill shit out there

that can get you effed up. Okay. We're talking about illnesses. One scoop a day could be the difference for you. So why don't you go to athleticgreen.com, athleticgreens.com, excuse me, slash morning combat. Put on that slash morning combat. Get your first purchase today.

You're going to get the five free travel packs that we always speak of. You're going to get the one-year supply of the drops, the immune-supporting vitamin D. It's worth it. AthleticGreens.com slash morning combat. Take ownership, yes. Luke, I'm about to take ownership over this show, but a couple things to react to.

And one, obviously, is a very fluid situation, but it's dominating the news stream, and that's Gervonta Davis, who just a week from tomorrow is scheduled to headline a January 7th Showtime pay-per-view in Washington, D.C. against Hector Luis Garcia. But the much bigger news is the arrest in South Florida. He's been released on $1,000 bond, the charges of domestic violence, and, of course, now the major developments in the past 48 hours, which is tank Davis, multiple times going to social media to defend himself,

making accusations, essentially that he was set up. Look, there's a lot to digest there. There's been 911 calls and there's obviously the, the unknown of will this fight still go on? Should it still go on? All the folks associated with it are still doing their due diligence and

we'll, we'll make a public decision. But how do you feel this? Because if Gervonta is innocent, you want to give him that chance to, but he doesn't have the best history and track record. And this is a tough situation no matter where you stand to see break out. Jesus Christ. I mean, for folks who may not understand, he has a jury trial in February in Baltimore for a hit and run on a pregnant woman. That's a real thing. Now,

these are all alleged. He has not been convicted of anything. He's going to have a jury of his peers decide what the case is there. But if you don't know the story there, the judge, excuse me, the prosecutors and his attorneys had agreed to some kind of plea agreement, and the judge rejected it and made it go to a jury trial now that doesn't mean that they couldn't reach some kind of other agreement that avoids this in the future but just to show you that the judge didn't like the idea that he was in i guess in the judge's mind going to get off with some kind of light punishment here i'm like dude i mean how do you not get seriously I'm not even doing a bit here. Also in terms of his ability, how do you not get John Jones vibes from him?

Like with the 911 call, as you're mentioning, with repeated incidents, as you're mentioning, that we don't have the PED side of things. So that is a very different kind of situation, but you know, young and very, very powerful and a rising star in the sport but yet all of these other issues and man listen i know the story that this guy comes from we are talking about the most broken of situations at least that you could find in north america basically right yeah if you don't know if you don't know watch the wire it's basically an accurate portrayal yeah but i mean this guy you know like okay i don't know what happened with this latest incident and again by the legal terms he is guilty until proven innocent or whatever happens

but you know let's assume for the sake of argument that is true why do you think he does it why does anyone do it in his particular case or the case of other young men probably because they saw a bunch of other guys they were around doing it all i'm pointing out here is the following it's never okay no one's ever going to excuse it but i I do have at least some measure of, you know, an understanding that if you take someone straight from that world and then put them into a popular world where there's all these eyeballs on them, where did the process happen where they were supposed to undergo personal reformation? Where did that happen? It doesn't. So my point being is once they get in trouble with the law, you have to face the consequences therein.

But I'm willing to be like, okay, this was your moment to learn. This was your moment to learn. And again, I don't know what happened with this most recent one. I guess we'll see. I don't know if there's going to be a fight and whether it even should be won. These are all debates to be had. But I'm just sort of pointing out, like, dude, it's not hard to not get in trouble for these things for the most part yeah very much it's very much not difficult

and then to already have all of these issues once and now you're revisiting them on multiple occasions it's just major major major major john jones vibes and i definitely don't say that in a complimentary way no and and you know we've been harsh against you know very public turns from a lot of combat sports athletes and i think the sentiment this time around has changed to uh benefit of the doubt is is no more and and god there's it's no more uh we'll see how this plays out i mean look the fallout of this and the conspiratorial accusations and the pieces of 911 calls and the pictures with toothbrush with excrement i mean it's wild i don't even know how to you know figure all that out but um man dude stop tweeting stop yeah stop posting on

social stop tweeting stop doing any of that stuff dude like i mean dude he just can't get out of his own way he cannot get out of his own it's hard you and you know and it's like so entertaining i love it you know your interview with him was was was like a cool inside look at his personality and and you know all that can still be true and this could be a situation where it wasn't what it says it was but what it says it was right now was a misdemeanor assault and a closed fist backhand slap to the face of uh the mother of his daughter so we'll see luke we'll see what happens and uh obviously we'll update you along the way on how this affects the fight but you know fight on fight not should it happen should it not happen let me ask you this there's a lot there's a look

we're past the point of hold on we're just one second we're past the point of looking to the camera and saying something's got to change now you know what i mean like like we're we're past that you know and and and even though the combat sports is the wild west and you seem to get more of a you know chance to to mess up and still keep the train moving um the trends are just we're so far past that that that yeah something's got it something's got a massive listen tank is going to decide what kind of life he wants to have right i mean if you want to give away all your money to lawyers and you want to spend time in prison despite not needing to right you can just live a very normal and happy normal ish anyway happy life uh being a a law-abiding and citizen and everything else you can choose

that path or you can just keep going down the path you're going down and see how that works out for you you know it's gonna it's gonna go terribly one thing i want to say there is bc is i don't really know like if you're in tank again the most important thing here is domestic violence or at least the in this case again i want to be clear the letter of the law is that he is innocent until proven guilty but zooming out for just a second here because we don't know the specifics of that situation per se which is like is it even for him a good idea to even fight i don't know maybe it is maybe it isn't but like i keep saying this to people this guy he's fighting man he's not a joke he's not a joke

he's a good fighter now if tank was fully prepared and this guy's fully prepared i would definitely pick tank but with all this nonsense going on i i don't know what he's doing dude i really really you know not sound judgment i think is a great way to put it. Just a reminder that, you know, last January, I think it was Hector Luis Garcia on 11 days notice as a late replacement went in there and put a beat in on unbeaten Chris Colbert. So, you know, this is the boxing side of it

and certainly not as important as the human side. And, you know, that's going to get figured out. Damn, you know, I'm just obviously figured out uh damn i you know just obviously just disappointed it's not what you want to see happen um you know i love tank the personality from you know the rare times i've spoken to him but uh this is about as bad as look as you can have and it's really hard to support that uh you know any further until we find out the results on there uh luke the second bit of news is you know the only big time combat sports event we're going to see this weekend bam man it's a big one. Now, shout out, there is a

boxing title bout as well in Japan, which is typically have their own New Year's sort of spectacle and showcase. But Luke, when you think New Year's Eve and mixed martial arts, you think of pride, Japan, you know, all the great things and shout out to Mark Raimondi's ESPN story, looking back on some of those crazy moments.

This year's offering is an interesting one five bellator fighters against five rise in fighters in the main event promotion versus promotion we previewed it at length on wednesday with shaquille majoree about aj mckee's matchup patricio pitbull juan archuleta kyoji horiguchi and others luke what are your sort of general thoughts on what we should expect here because it's got that all-star game feel and any chance you get to see like Pitbull and AJ McKee and that level of fighters on the same night in a special sort of historical foundation here on New Year's Eve in Japan, you got to be excited. Dude, I am. I got to tell you, when they first announced it,

I didn't hate it, but I didn't necessarily get out of my chair for it. You know, I didn't, I didn't fully appreciate it, frankly. And now that it's here, I'm like, dude, I love this. I love that they're doing this. And I, you know, listen, I have been very critical of Bellator on this show. We don't cover much rising on this show, you know, quite candidly. But I actually thought that Shaq had a really great point on Wednesday. It's something you and I have talked about with one championship where, you know, you got to do something different than what the UFC is doing. In the case of one, you know, obviously having Muay Thai with four-ounce gloves and a cage and then having jujitsu championships and everything, and they do kickboxing as well on top of Muay Thai.

And it's just a very different and dynamic product, different rules, all that kind of stuff. You're getting that here, man. This is a great thing. First of all, you can do knees to the head of a grounded opponent, which is just tremendous. You get to keep your elbows, which is just tremendous. The ring will be interesting to see how that plays a role. But also I got to say, Rizin is putting up some decent talent against these guys, but I could see Beltor running the table on all of them, quite honestly. You know, Rabadonov is better archuleta is better

horiguchi should be better pitbull is better and aj mckee should be better than roberto de suza but the fact that both of these organizations are taking this risk and uh making something different trying something not new per se but bringing something back that i thought was important in a new way yeah uh this this tradition so to speak uh i think is great man i'm actually looking forward to it and i actually feel like these fights are gonna overall overall they're gonna deliver on quality content i think good finishes i'm expecting some some good finishes here i think there's the it's like the perfect storm of like they matter but it's like that all-star game feel where you can kind of just go off and try spectacular stuff and just have fun

and go for it mixed with wanting to protect you know your brand against the other brand mixed with hey if this thing sizzles is this the beginning of much bigger things in cooperation across the sport a lot of cool angles here and obviously it's not the first time bellator and rise and work together scott coker and psyche kabara is that how you say it luke sake kabara sakaki bar yeah um they have a great relationship and you know we saw the the caldwell versus horiguchi series a couple years ago and and they've worked together but this promotion versus promotion thing uh you know you you love the angle of it and how you can sort of frame it and man they got big names so you know a quick look at the odds luke aj mckee minus 225 favorite against roberto satoshi de souza in the main event

plus 180 patricio pippel is a minus 350 betting favorite against kleber koike erps who's plus 265 and then kyojo horiguchi who shack rightfully corrected me it'd be a trilogy here he has two wins over hero masa ugi ko, and Horiguchi, a minus-5.52 favorite, plus 3.90 on the other side. Juan Archuleta and Godzi Rabodinov, also favorites coming in. So, Luke, it could be a run-the-table situation, as you said, for Bellator. We'll have to see it play out. I want to see A.J. McKee do something wild, take chances here, Luke,

because you know he loves that free flow and style. This is the right foundation to do that, dude. So let's see it, you know? loves that free free flow and style this is the right foundation to do that dude so let's see it you know yeah this is a good one and also do that archuleta one it's probably gonna be fucking bananas as well archuleta is he's he's long in the tooth for the weight class but very talented very prepared he looked diced to the socks oh yeah excuse me i'm losing my voice here a little bit but um that should be a great one somebody had uh the weigh-ins probably see on have you seen the shit was uh naked luke they had something covering their their junk it was weird anyway luke uh one breaking news before we get into the rest of the show which is all awards all the time to close 2022 how about this

mike heck of mma fighting reporting that ufc april 8th are you ready for this, Luke? It's a good day for me to wear this drug rug to say this. Rob Fott versus Adrian Yanez. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's Yanez, by the way.

Yanez. What did I say? You said Yanez by the way yanez what did i say you said yanez dude okay i think even adrian yanez is okay with me calling him that luke okay he's a badass he's got great hands this is a big fight for him luke it's a big ass fight for him okay that's a great fight and dude font you know his listen font tried to push his way to the top of the division and got reasonably close um i think you found him that there's you's a few guys in the division definitely ahead of him.

But he is a great tactician and a great jabber. He is battle-tested. He can go the distance. Tough. That's a hell of a fight for Yanez. Boy, that tells you they got their eye on him, huh? UFC has their eye on that kid. He may just

earn that mk drug rug after all luke without me needing to get a tattoo although some people are wondering why i go to that length again we'll have to see okay i love by the way sean brady against michelle padilla also uh also interesting so we'll see what happens with sean i was surprised he took that fight i was surprised he took that fight like How come? Well, not so much from is it a fight that makes sense given where they both are. I guess in that sense it makes sense. But I think that the fight with Bilal Muhammad was a bit of a wake-up call about one, his own poise and competitive mindset and what he needs. And then two, his striking obviously needs some work.

And I thought he might take a little extra time to dig into that uh but he's gonna go right back into the frying pan so um i think he'll win i think he's talented enough certainly to win but i was a little surprised he went he got right back after it yeah i'm with you on that can't wait to see that fight though love me some sean brady love these guys that i'm like that's mk material they're the mk boys they may turn on us one day luke we may try to get yanez in studio i mean we just have to you know some of these fighters have that that spirit you know they get mk right all right luke uh we eschewed our our typical uh segments this week for various reasons we pre-taped monday's episode so don't have you seen this shit no fan subs or dead wrongs those will return next week but i have to dead wrong one thing about myself at the end of the show but go ahead yeah

hopefully it's involving romanoff but what we know luke is that morning combat at gmail.com is your home normally so next week check all that stuff out we close 2022 right now with the morning combat awards combat sports the show all that good stuff shout out to mikey more mile for his work behind the scenes to get this out uh luke i'm going to present five nominees in each category you and i are then going to pick our winners and then we'll mention who we may have missed before the internet comes knocking on our door let's start out right friggin here mixed martial arts knockout of the year and luke thomas your nominees michael chandler versus tony ferguson we all remember that front kick from hell i mean luke that's gnarly that was pretty damn gnarly right that was insane um hate to see it because

we all love Tony, and that was his fourth in this stretch of five defeats. But Tony was putting it on him in round one. People forget that, Luke. Chandler even had a shoot. But then in round two, man, I think it was like 18 seconds in or something, just walked right in. Just walk right in, sit right down.

You know what I mean? Yeah, that was some great shit. Number two, how about the head kick heard around the world? Fifth round, Leon Edwards, Kamaru Usman, Salt Lake City. Enough said. We have a new welterweight champion and a real-life Rocky story. Luke, this isn't fighter of the year or fight of the year debate or any other. This is just about the knockout.

But you can't remove those attachments to this knockout. The fact that he was down on the scorecards, that it looked like he was was done the fact that his corner gave him a speech from a rocky movie before round five and then john annick like two seconds before was like no guys he's not cut of that cloth he would never quit basically you know what i'm saying here and then he freaking delivers that luke and it wasn't lucky it was something he had worked on in training camp i mean this is a magical moment you know it's also a sick knockout yeah this is my winner i mean i know we're supposed to wait until we do through all of them but you're taking a long time thanks for ruining the suspense luke i mean this is great this is great when you take it forever we're going to be here for three hours

at this pace but it'll be the best three hours of your week i think you know it'll be the worst it'll be the worst but this is i mean I don't need to add much to it. MMA stories, finishes, moments don't coalesce like this very often. It would take something special to ever top something like this on a list. Nominee number three, Weili Zhang, knocks out Ioana Young-Jacek in their rematch from maybe the best female fight of all time a couple years back. This was competitive in the first round. People forget that as well you want to came in the best shape of her

career but that's spinning back fist in round two look it wasn't just the nastiness of the knockout the stakes of the fight also you wanna was coming forward as that shot hit dude that that was like central casting the way she dove forward it was like the perfect knockout and it was a it felt like a firm changing of the guard yes firm like i'm up here you're down there now for and that's how this is going to be a majorly dramatic and majorly impactful huge and what what added to that moment was joanna retiring after although obviously she's teased potentially coming back since then but that was a big night it was was a big moment. Also, number four, Luke, we can't forget this one. One championship, Demetrius Johnson knocking out Adriano Marais in the rematch of the title

that Marais won. Remember, DJ comes to one, wins the tournament, gets the title shot, loses by upkick knee knockout there. Luke, did Mighty Mouse get the exact same knockout in the exact same position that happened in the first fight? Like, this is poetic almost. Yeah, I mean, very different setup and execution. But in a freeze-frame moment, they look the same.

But just a total reminder of the quality of this fighter, a total reminder about what he can do how thoughtful he is how well he puts the game together how resilient he is mentally i mean you could go on and on what a win beautiful win itself major stakes tremendous tremendous knockout dude i think this could win i think whaley could win uh the final one you can't forget this and you reminded me of that sean strickland alex pedeta this fight had stakes essentially it was the number one contender opportunity The final one, you can't forget this, and you reminded me of that. Sean Strickland, Alex Podeda. This fight had stakes. Essentially, it was the number one contender opportunity.

But boy, did Poiton deliver the two-piece from hell, Luke, to leave no doubt. This is one of my favorite knockouts of the year. Partly because the way it made him look. He just kind of limped after he got hit, basically. And just shows you the destructive potential and accuracy of a guy like Boateng. Incredible. All right, Luke, you gave your winner my winner. It's the same thing.

Rocky, Leon Edwards, it had everything. It was perfect. You may not find a better knockout of the year candidate ever. Let's just say that. Quick honorable mentions on the way out, Luke. Chido Vera, Dom Cruz was tough to watch, but that was beautiful. That right hand from Ilya Teporia against Jai Herbert, you can't forget that, dude.

That was from hell. Brutal. Dude, don't forget Spartan Koreshkov either, who had that spinning back kick knockout in Bellator against Chase Rancounter and broke five of his ribs on it. It was gnarly to see that. I'm glad that made the list. People forgot about

that one but that is one of the most brutal ko's i've ever body shot ko's i've ever seen in mma or boxing he breaks five of his ribs here in one go just like that shattered him look at that i mean he's so savage uh luana carolina and the spinning backfist from molly mccann also needs mentioned but how about jamal hill versus johnny walker i tried to fight to keep this in the list luke johnny walker had one of the most angelic like like the ghost was coming out of his body as gnarly as that is to say like he got hit by his it looked like a basic right hand obviously was powerful because it's jamal hill but dude his body self-combusted and just like launched against the cage it was wild beautiful you like that ko more than i do but it's a good ko yeah yeah fantastic let's go to submission of the year in mma luke your nominees are paul craig

doing paul craig shit after nikita karelov beat his ass for nearly a full round paul craig works that into a uh was that an arm bar luke it happened like that you cannot i mean like what do you what do you call this luke had an arm here triangle choke triangle joke yeah yeah um the fact that it came in a when he was getting his ass beat and then he went from getting his ass beat to winning like that that's the kind of submissions i love luke, when it's just like, oh shit, the whole fight turned and now it's over. Yeah, Paul Craig has decided that a great way to lock up submissions is to enter into very dangerous situations where he's taking punishment. The punishment is what psychologically and positionally opens him up. If you go back and watch this one,

notice how Paul Craig has his feet in the hips of Krylov, which he uses him to space him out and then shoot the triangle underneath it. And it worked to perfection. But to your point, you had to take some abuse before Krylov would really commit to it. So incredible. Nominee number two, Jessica Andrade. How about that standing head and arm choke against Amanda Lemos? That was just pure strength. And the fact that like you don't see it attempted on that like standing clinch the exact way that she did it luke it was aggressive and she took the life out of her yeah you have to be stupid strong to do this i just can't overstate this most people get it by

locking it and then the way they cinch it is by like turning the faucet so to speak when they when they go cross body like this right it actually turns this the the choke tight but to do it parallel with someone standing so you can't even use gravity to force into them holy shit dude you have to be very strong for that uh round five in singapore for number three wow yuri prohotska subbing out Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt legend Glover Teixeira in the final stretch of round five there of their just insane Rocky movie

meets video game fight. It was a title fight. There was insane sways of momentum, but the guy got the submission that isn't known for it against the lead. I mean, look, it wasn't like the most beautiful one, and Glover kind of tapped quick. He was exhausted and like on the edge of just implosion after lead. I mean, look, it wasn't like the most beautiful one, and Glover kind of tapped quick. He was exhausted and like on the edge of just implosion after just,

I mean, a war. But this has got to be high on the list. You can make this all the way number one if you wanted to. Yeah, I mean, it's not like it's the most beautiful, weird, naked joke you're ever going to see, but to have the presence of mind to do that after one of the most pitched battles you're ever going to see between, you you know a case

of glover not only talented extremely experienced and very good on the ground and then to be as resilient and then again presence of mind as prohachka incredible uh pfl this was in the regular season stevie ray versus anthony pettis won uh stevie ray won both of these matchups including one in the playoffs the rematch but it was a body triangle luke which you almost never see pettis broke ribs he ended up tapping due to the pain but dude he manhandled him you know and also like you know where he was able to like cork um pop the ribs by sort of pulling on the his his separating his ribs apart essentially in the way he had locked him in it wasn't just the body triangle body triangles are pretty useful under the right guys ivan salivary was very good with body triangles and making people hurt um and then

this one you know it's a it's uh it's not a high percentage thing you're going to find but the right guy knows the right kinds of immediate diagnostics to make something painful and for stevie ray to pull that off pretty, pretty special. And you're right. There was like a twister element that just F'd Pettis up. Final nominee. This came in a title fight.

Charles Oliveira was in a war with Justin Gaethje as we expected, but he went from taking damage to delivering it, to taking the back, to getting the tap and just showed showed you, weaving together, Luke, everything that makes this guy a wizard and a master. A chef's kiss on this one. And also, remember, Gaethje had taunted him as a quitter. And so he goes in here and then makes the other guy tap.

You know, this isn't, again, is this the most spectacular rear naked choke you'll ever see? It's a very good one, but maybe not the most spectacular or something but it's evidence it's like it's like why is charles olivera good like look at how nimble and immediate and threatening and lethal everything is when he's dialing in dialed in it's incredible to watch yeah burning them luke he gets quick and nimble he also goes crazy when he hears that symbol. Five strong nominees. Who you got? I'm excited to find out here, Vanilla.

Who you got? Who's your choice? It's an interesting list. None of these are like dramatically better than the other ones. They're all different but they're not dramatically better. I'm probably going to go Andrade and Lemos. I just can't get over how the previous to this one,

there was a Brian Foster got head and arm triangled by Rick Story inside of Brian Foster's guard. Now, I can't tell you that's also very, very difficult to do, but you still have gravity there, right? You still have help. You don't have shit on this one, nothing. And foster i don't think was a ranked guy in the same way that lamos was like this is a talented fighter and andrage just fucking boa constricted her in you know just superhuman way like dude you could roll for five years ten years and never meet someone who can do

that i don't know if i ever met someone who could do that uh that's crazy that's crazy i respect that i respect that pick luke i've been back and forth you i did a full 180 on this from me not even having all of vera gaethje on there to begin with to to re-watching the clips retaking into account what was at stake and everything i'm gonna go all of air hair luke that was everything that makes him great and dangerous and resilient and incredible and the technique and the reversal and just yeah i mean dude he what a great year uh honorable mention this quickly luke claudio poesias had the clay guida knee bar but he basically took his leg and bent it backwards and just stared at him as he tapped luke that was gnarly okay uh oliverkamp in Bellator is known for that buggy choke. The one he got on Mark Leminger was like a pretzel, right?

Yes. The buggy choke is like a choke you can do underneath when you're in, if someone is on top of you and they are in side control. It's a little on the gimmicky side. It does work, but he made it work here. And Saeed Nurmagomedov, shout out to him. He had some standing stuff going on.

But the two other ones, Luke, are title ones. morma reminded me obviously islam machev against the submission expert himself charles olivera giving the stakes the dominance and the fact that he went in there and subbed that guy damn that's on there but luke do you have love in your heart for zhong weili who put carla esparza the the dominant wrestler into a crucifix and spread out her other arm so she couldn't defend and then sunk in the choke. Dude, that was nasty. Yeah, it was pretty nasty. She's a remarkable talent.

Still, for me, is not up there with the very, very, very, very best of the year, personally speaking, but I couldn't knock it if I tried. All right, Boxing KO of the Year should be a good one here. Number one, Luke, you remember pbc on fox on the wilder pay-per-view caleb plant not known as a puncher oh boy the trash talk with anthony durell led to this incredible shot where he went to the body brought down the guard of durell and a rapid left hook to to just i mean damn look at that picture damn luke shout out to caleb plant you didn't expect you you did not expect that did not expect that no and it was I mean, damn, look at that picture. Damn, Luke. Shout out to Caleb Plant.

You didn't expect it. You did not expect that. Did not expect that. No, and it was beautifully set up. Caleb Plant, not known, as he mentioned, a heavy puncher. You could see him doing the Tito Ortiz gravedigger, which was a big controversy in boxing. I couldn't believe it, but it was.

But, dude, listen, Caleb Plant gets a lot of shit, you know, because he is a slickster. He gave Canelo a good run, but he didn't beat him. And before that, it was like Luskategi and some other guys. But you watch him, man, and true acts and shit. But, like, dude, he can box. He's very, very slick, very good.

And then for this one to, like, out of nowhere, you know, Darrell's older, obviously, but for him to just so smoothly set this up where he waited a beating and came over the top after fainting low golly dude it was fantastic and dude they had talked a ton of shit in this one it was an ugly rivalry and it was dude ugly rivalries being settled with brutality that that's i kind of like that you know like i felt bad for jose aldo but boy it put the finality on it you know what i mean yeah him and connor and don't forget this is not the same level obviously but pretty pretty big don't forget you and i interviewed andre durell the brother of anthony durell who's you know arguably better than you know in terms of pure talent it's fantastic even he was like uh when we talked to him ahead of that uh prelims

fight that we called he was like uh yeah dude my brother talked a lot of shit he kind of had it coming i can't really hate on caleb you know he's like members of my family are really upset but i can't really hate on him uh number two came in england oh my god lee wood and michael conlon put on an absolute war but it was wood down on the scorecards i believe this was the final round right right? He not only knocked out Mick Conlon, dude, he sent him through the ropes and onto the floor. Holy shit. This fight in this moment. Damn, Luke. BC, great me if I'm wrong.

Not only did Conlon get sent to the floor, but before that, you mentioned he was winning. Didn't he drop Wood at least one or two times before that, in the early rounds? He came out, Conlon did, on fire, correct? Yeah, I don't remember the amount. I'd have to I'd have to go I'm gonna pull up the scorecards because I remember him not I mean either way to your point he had started very strong and Wood was kind of pulling it back in the middle doing definitely doing much better later but he

needed the 12th round to win boy did, did he get it. Holy smokes. Nominee number three, Gervonta Davis. Luke, despite the headlines of now, we all remember the Roley-Romero feud, the back and forth, and then the knockout. Dude, I mean, that's like Mayweather on Ricky Hatton times two. Remember when he sent Hatton face first into the corner post, and it was just like, damn, this was like that, but worse almost.

This shows you the power, and obviously Roley ran into it. I mean, he ran right into it, Luke. It was unfortunate like, damn, this was like that, but worse almost. This shows you the power, and obviously Roley ran into it. I mean, he ran right into it, Luke. It was unfortunate for him. Yeah, but it was beautifully set up. He timed him coming in, and those are the best ones. Not only is Tank a hard puncher, he's a devastating puncher, but this one was cleverly set up, And Rolly was outmatched here. The big rematch earlier this year in Japan, Naoya Inoue versus Nonito Donair.

Unification at Bantamweight. They had not only the fight of the year two years earlier, but arguably the best fight boxing has seen in like the last decade. Like seriously, dude, this rematch was a like, I mean, it was like taking the great old dog out back. I mean, look, he kicked the shit out of him. And I hate to say that because Donair is the best ever. We love Donair.

Dude, he got hammered out. Yeah, we talked about this fight in the lead up to it on the show, being like, man, the first one was so competitive. And, you know, Inouye thugged it out after getting his face broken. Dude, there was no remnant of that in this one. I mean, not even close. Fucking Inouye went in there. And again, I also hate to say it because Donaire is such a special fighter and we're lucky to have had him.

But fucking Inouye was taking out the trash. I mean, it was ugly. Hey, what do you make of Donaire working with Zhang Weili lately as her new boxing coach? I don't know if it's i don't know if it's like a permanent thing but she went into his camp and like worked with him good good get better at it can't hurt she's got time to skill build get get on with it but dude in a way was frightening here oh absolutely our fifth nominee from england luke a lot of people love this right hand joe cordina against kanichi ogawa was just a i mean a missile

and and you know ogawa imploded there uh i've even seen some publications uh name this their knockout of the year we couldn't forget it the fight was also great as well here's what i can say we what this may or may not be your fight of the year or excuse me your knockout of the year may or may not but it's the best i think it's the best one hitter quitter on the list. Yeah. I think even Conlon was a little bit accumulative, you know? Yeah. All right, Luke, five nominees.

We certainly could have put others on there. You and I did. Most of our awards we didn't discuss beforehand. We discussed this, and I think you put me back in the right place. Dude, this Wood Conlon one, it was like legendary. Yeah, the answer here has to be Wood Conlon. And again, just as a reminder, I looked it up. Conlon did knock him down in the right place dude this wood conlon one it was like legendary yeah the answer here has to be wood conlon and again uh just a reminder i looked it up conlon did knock him down in the very first round conlon knocked wood down in the very first round so like dude everything started bad for for wood but he slowly stuck at it chipped away chipped away chipped away

and then in that final round dude sent him packing where he folded over. And then, dude, out of the ring. Now, obviously, Conlon's okay. But this is like, also, this is one of those knockouts where you're like, dude, you were worried about the other guy. Like, is he going to get up? Is he going to be okay? They had to send him to the hospital. He couldn't even do the post-fight press conference.

Wood, I mean, ended it. Just tremendous win. Yeah, late night Wood, Luke. As opposed to morning morning but it's still it's still hard luke right i mean that was midday wood yeah it was uh honorable mentions can't forget deontay wilder's one punch against helenius the punch wasn't great but helenius like died in front of us you hate to say that it's it's it's a bad thing to say but he like exploded luke it was over um i also have to say frank gore had a pro debut this not not on a j thing to say, but he, like, exploded, Luke. It was over. I also have to say Frank Gore had a pro debut.

This is not on a Jake Paul card, but he had one in, like, a local Miami, you know, smoker. Dude, he destroyed a man almost the same way Julian Let Me Bang Lane went to Russia in his pro debut this year and got splattered. Both of those could have been nominees as well. Luke, do you remember anything else, or are you good? No, I think that list about covers it for me. Yeah, that's it. Boxer of the year, Luke, here are five nominees. Dimitri Bivol, the unbeaten light heavyweight champion who upset Canelo Alvarez to defend his title and then against mandatory but very tough 44-0 Zerlo Ramirez Bivol. God, did he put it on him. What a year. Number two, Jesse Bam Rodriguez. Probably the best boxer in the world that we never talk about on this show.

But he's from the lower weight classes. He's like 22 years old. He's an aggressive southpaw. He moved up in weight to 115 this year. Had three victories, including taking a title from Carlos Cuadras, who's a tough out. Knocking out Sri Siket Sor Rungvisai, which is no shortage of a feed, and then coming back and defending his title by decision in his third fight.

Jesse Bam Rodriguez jumped through our screen, and the fights were somewhat under the radar, so he didn't get a lot of love, but boxing fans know he's in this discussion. Katie Taylor, what else can you say? Stayed unbeaten, but had the biggest women's match in history

that actually exceeded expectations and won a close fight in that. She's in this just as well as Clarissa Shields. I also want to shout out Women's Boxing, who had two victories, but the Savannah Marshall fight was monstrously huge and dangerous. Marshall showed in the loss here that she's world-class. I mean, look, this could have been almost like a sneaky fight of the year contender. Shields had to earn it here. And when you consider she took two MMA fights the year before and only boxed once and then just

comes right back into the sport and shows her dominance, she's a nominee. Our final one, the monster Naoa Inoue, the first undisputed 118 pound champion here at bantamweight the paul butler fight was almost a joke in the end but he still found a way to knock him out and he destroyed the legend nonito donair and he's your pound for pound king interesting ballot here luke who you got um this was i think pretty easy for me i'm gonna go with Bivol Bivol is my boxer of the year just two fights I usually like it when they're more active but you got to get what you got to get dismantling Canelo I don't care what the scores said it was not that close he was just much better certainly much bigger but he was much better better. And then to go in there and then against Zerto Ramirez

and just kind of dummy him a little bit. I mean, Ramirez was barely ever in that contest, and he looked better than he did, Bivol did, than in the Canelo fight. I mean, remarkable, well-rounded talent, defensively strong, brilliant setups, always in position or out of position when he needs to be. A joy to watch if you really like boxing gotta be bivouac for me not only do the accomplishments tell me bivouac and he's my pick as well and i think it's kind of becoming unanimous across the sport but like here's why for me he had been safe and boring most of his career before this calendar year no one

disrespected his technical ability but dude i mean if he can control you from the outside and not to take chances, he's going the distance with that style. In these two specific fights, though, Canelo, because of Canelo's skill level and the fact that, hey, look, it's hard to get a decision against Canelo and obviously against a bigger, stronger, more dangerous opponent in Zerdo Ramirez. Dude, B-Ball had to be a different fighter if he was going to win both of those. He became that. He stayed with the defensive technical structure he had,

but he was offensive. And, Luke, in both of those fights, his combinations are quick, straight, and potent, and fluent. I mean, fluid, excuse me. Dude, he's nasty when he goes after it. That's why there's better be a fight next year. Oh, God. Oh, God. You know better be a fight next year. Oh, God. Oh, God.

You know? Oh, God. Right? Oh, God. Oh, God. Alexander Usyk, who only had one fight, but look, upset Joshua a second time, is in this discussion. I thought Devin Haney, although you're going to discount because it's cambosis, but he became the undisputed lightweight champion and twice had to travel overseas and do it on other people's terms for his contract to do that and he did that and

he looked insanely great doing it um anyone else we're forgetting or that you want to shout out here luke um yeah no haney and usic i think a lot of people would be surprised we're not on our list and shields was but i thought you made an important argument about like what shields is actually doing this year so absolutely uh let's close out boxing here with our fight of the year and number one this was on the pbc showtime undercard of chris colbert's upset loss to hector luis garcia do you remember jerwin and chaos versus fernando martinez dude this was this was so fun to watch it it was it was raw at times it was wild as shit both took big clean punches and kept coming back but luke fernando martinez of argentina this was his coming out party and even though he took on heavy damage at times he was the more skillful fighter and he also was a dog in there don't forget about this fight it

came in you know january of of this calendar year yeah this was on showtime memory serves right yeah oh yeah oh yeah it was luke as i mentioned there yeah yeah sorry i'm just looking at the list here i didn't see that part but yes i mean tremendous tremendous dude like one of those how do i say this exactly like i wouldn't want every boxing fight to be this way but if i could get one fight like this on every card i would never watch another sport no you might be right yeah no you might be right and by the way remember during the post fight interview he had felix de jesus as a translator and jim gray was asking him and he took out a list of like everybody he needed to thank for the victory and just kept going and going and Gray's trying to cut him off I was like yeah that's awesome he's like my hairdresser is great Felix de Jesus is

great like my Spanish is limited but there are times these guys go on long tangents he'll just summarize that shit oh yeah yeah he's like no he's happy he's happy yeah there you go uh number two the aforementioned fight from the UK Lee Wood versus michael conlon it was our knockout of the year unbelievable it had big stakes and conlon was fighting very aggressive to make this a fun war dude hold on can i say something it's one thing when like you're watching highlights on your phone or on tv or whatever and you see someone roll out of the ring or or something like that When you're watching a fight like this live, and these are not the two best in the weight class, but these are international class fighters here, right?

When you're watching this in real time and the crowd, this is the other part you can't miss. Conlon was in enemy territory here, right? Wood was the hometown guy. The crowd was going bananas. Conlon was up. And then to watch in real time as wood storms back and sends him kind of just like a jellyfish almost beautifully in a way i don't mean i know it was dangerous but like beautifully through the ropes that way when you watch it in real time dude it's impossible

to forget you will always remember where you were when you see something like that no doubt about it here's one a nominee that was very under the radar it was like on a DAZN co-main event but Jesse Vargas and Liam Smith two veterans 154 pounds both former champions uh they just had one of these like somebody has to win this to move forward and get a big fight so we're just gonna we're just gonna throw and two skilled guys came in there and threw. That was a sneaky good fight on this list. Luke, New York City, Madison Square Garden, undisputed lightweight championship out.

Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano. I mean, did this have everything? But did this also have more pressure to not live up to expectations in any fight in the history of this sport? And yet it was better than expected. It was a disputed split decision. It was 10 insane rounds in terms of pace, but also skill and will. Serrano landed big shots and wobbled Taylor at times,

but she put together some late round surges and rallies using activity like she always does, bit down on her mouth guard. I believe I did score this for Serrrano but it definitely was a flip the coin you know by the way it was at madison square garden in the main event in the fight being billed as the biggest fight in women's history between arguably the two great like you know shouts at leila ali and you know but arguably when it's all said and done two that will be in the discussion for greatest women's fighters of all time. I love this fight.

And I've said I said that on this night. I'm going to say it again. That's the best women's boxing fight I've ever seen. And I don't even know what would be number two. Yeah, I mean, this was so far ahead of everything else I've seen from women's boxing. It was a prelude or I should say a window rather into what it could be. Although, you know, reminder, it was two minute rounds, which kind of, I hate that, but sold out MSG, insane crowd, two of the very best you'll see in the women's side of the game, giving it everything that they had,

using every resource they had to try and win, close disputed decision, fun. I mean, so much fun to watch that. Just a a joy what a joy it was to watch that contest our fifth and final one luke we saw it on showtime it was a rematch for the undisputed junior middleweight championship 154 brian castagno had to settle for a disputed draw against jermel charlo in their first meeting. Also a very fun fight. This one had Charlo with that mean streak that he gets when he feels like he's been wronged and he gets a second chance. Luke, he sent Brian Castagno in the end down

with some vicious shots that you're seeing here. But, dude, this fight was great. You can't not shout it out. Loved it. I said this on the Monday after we did the show. Remember something? You know, we all thought that, like, pre-fight, you know, based on the first fight, we thought pre-fight, like, Charlo's got to get off the ropes, man. Like, you know, you're going to spend some time there, but you've got to get off the ropes to win.

And it turned out he had a great game plan for being against the ropes, and that is exactly where he hurt Brian Castaño. I know the Charlos get a lot of shit from people sometimes it's deserved you know um the lion's only thing is a bit gimmicky and weird but I'll say this man I think both of them can fight and obviously Dremel being the the 154 undisputed guy tells you about his abilities this was such a great win for him I don't know honestly if he gets the credit for this that he deserves. He gets it from you and me.

I know he does there. I love this fight, and I loved how Castaño made Charlo better as a boxer, made him better as a tactician, and upped his level so that whoever gets him after this has got an even tougher assignment on their hands. What a fight. This wasn't just a great game plan from Derek James who we don't have a boxing trainer of the year discussion here but he would win it in my in my eyes this year right what he did with Frank Martin Errol Spence in this

but also Jermell had to buy in on getting inside going inside fighting Castanho on his own terms but relying on faster hands better technique to then get his power shots off. He had to welcome a lot of danger. He had to go into Castaño's wheelhouse and knock him out, and he did that. Luke, it's unfortunate. He was supposed to fight Tim Zhu on January 28th on Showtime in Vegas. I know. Charlo's injured. It's postponed, and people were giving Charlo shit,

so he actually put his doctor's x-ray and note up on the Twitter just to show people. That drives me nuts, dude. I mean, just think about this for a second. This guy has all the fucking belts in this weight class, and you've got jabronis on social media challenging the authenticity of his claims about injury. It's like, dude, Jermall Charlo is tougher than all of you. All of you.

I mean, let me ask you, how accomplished do you have to be before people stop doing that? I don't know what the answer is. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair, Luke. There's your five nominees. Who's your pick, Thomas? Great question.

I did love the Jamal Charlo Brian Castaño win a lot but um dude I'm gonna go Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano I feel like this was you know in many ways not the biggest fight of the year but in many ways quite big but it over delivered as you said previously it was everything we hoped it could be it was so so great. And dude, you know, listen, a lot of times, it's not because we're saying women are unequal, but the women's side of the game is not equal to the men's side, in part because of the way in which we've treated it. We won't let it be that much.

They don't even have the same rules, right, about the number of rounds and how many minutes and all that kind of stuff. Like, we don't treat it equally. And yet on this night night you didn't even hardly notice it on this night they transcended all of the limitations on the game in ways that made it utterly forgetting forgetful and what all that mattered was two absolute dogs getting after it in the best way they could it was a a magical night. It was a memorable night. It was a historic night.

And I tip my hat to everyone else on this list, but I think the ladies got it this time. Amen. I agree with you. They also left you wanting more. Like, you don't need to do that, but they also left you wanting a rematch with three-minute rounds,

12 minutes of three-minute rounds. Like, let's go all out. Let's give them the chance. They're worth it. Damn all right luke i don't want to miss uh dan rayfield for his sub stack uh subscription service gave seventhy non chinga versus hector flores which was well below the radar but dan's always been ahead of the game at going around the globe and finding any stream as his fight of the year in boxing i would have been fine with anyone picking wood against conlan i know we left out a few others that could have

been in here there's a japanese one that was a title fight as well but you know i'll get accused of chopping my hand maybe luke but there's other great fights out there but you can't beat taylor versus serrano luke you know what you also can't beat well we're building here with one of our favorite sponsors money lion this partnership as we love to do watch combat sports as our fans do over each weekend and kind of identify in the undercard or short of the main event who's coming the hell on i mean who is about to become something and making their move and getting attention and being an absolute hammer last month it was aaron blanchfield for our inaugural run but money lion and morning combat are combining for this month's hammer of the month you voted on social media you use the hashtag of holy hammer or hammer of the month you went at money lion on twitter you went at money

lion inc on instagram you even went to the website do we have that isn't it like money lion.com slash morning combat you did a lot of good stuff for us. Our nominees for this month, as we revealed on Wednesday, are Ilya Tuporia for that Bryce Mitchell assassination, Luke, right? Yep. Roman Delidze, who took Jack Hermanson and just, well, put him into a pretzel lock. Patchy Mix, maybe the rare exception of somebody in like a featured bout that we put on here but

his submission in the bellator uh grand prix just just continuing an insanely great year and stretch for him and god was he just nasty put mogomed mogomed off to sleep how about billy quarantillo once again billy q getting into a war on a night of wars for the ufc but surviving the damage, showing that he's got that dog in him, Luke, and coming back and making this list in a very competitive month. Our fans have voted. We have voted behind the scenes.

Our votes have consummated. And the winner is, for December 2022, your Hammer of the Month from Moneylion, Ilya Toporia. Damn, Luke. Hot damn. that's the right call dude he beat an undefeated bryce mitchell so bad he had mitchell contemplating whether he wanted to retire from the sport damn i mean he put a fucking beating on that kid and dude bryce mitchell is good bryce mitchell is very good that's not a

bullshit fighter at all Bryce Mitchell is a talented guy you know and tough and and durable and skilled and Teporia just assassinated him dude Teporia I think I've said this before Teporia needs to work on his energy management and his resource management because the way he fights, I am worried it's not going to scale for 25 minutes. But in terms of abilities, this dude is, I mean, I would be shocked if he doesn't wear gold at some point. I'd be shocked. He's an absolute hammer. So per the deal as the Moneyline Hammer of the Month for Morning Combat, Luke,

he will receive the physical Moneyline Hammer. We'll get in touch with him. Maybe we can get a drug rug on on him luke i would ask rj bang bus breaker to uh to maybe throw one of those in the package as well when we mail it out but uh shout out to ilia to pour out he deserves it uh even if i butcher his last name there by accident and a big thank you to all the fans who participated and uh thanks to our sponsor money lion Lion. Luke, Teporia is a hammer. He's now going to be able to put one on the mantle to prove that. We got a couple more awards here, Luke. So now the Hall of Hammers is Aaron Blanchfield and Ilya Teporia.

I got to say, so far, I feel like you can't look at the Hall of Hammers and say anything other than, yeah, those are deserving people right there. Yeah. Stop. Hammer time. Yeah, Luke, right? You know? I mean i mean look we do have to pray just to make it today he was right on that now it out the banana hammock the banana hammock and the pumps and the bumps you know i mean you know if you like that then it was it was right up your alley it was a desperate move though from we should we should get those like um you know how those tennis balls come in, like the long cans or whatever?

And then just put those in our dungarees and then recreate the pumps and the bump video. Stop sitting on your Aeroplan points and get big savings so you can be somewhere you actually want to be, like on a beach. Right now, you can save up to 25% in Aeroplan points when you book a trip to one of 180-plus Air Canada destinations worldwide. So stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one. Don't miss out. Your chance to save in points ends February 23rd. Book at AirCanada.com. Conditions apply. Luke, our next category is Event of the year in the sport of mixed martial arts i wish we could have this category for boxing but they don't always give us uh

you know this deep of a spread but luke what is your choice here uh in a loaded year across not just ufc but dude bellator had some bangers one made a major leap in our consciousness. PFL was on point and with a very intelligent cage. What's your pick for event of the year? Yeah, I'm going to go with UFC 275, Teixeira versus Prohachka. Love this card. Obviously, the main event was, you know, I mean, look at the card here. So your main event was, I mean, what do I need to tell you about that? Shevchenko Santos had drama, right?

Because Santos was winning these grappling exchanges, or at least so we thought. To your point about Jean Wiley getting the submission of the year nod, potentially, with this win over Carla Esparza. Jake Matthews, you know, KOing Andre Fialio is amazing. Jack Dillon, Madelena doing the same thing to Ramazan and Meave. And then you could just go on down the list from there. How about this?

Joshua Kulabala had a split decision. Okay, but Mahashate KO. The Brendan Allen fight against Jacob Malkun was a back and forth. Look, I don't mean to dead wrong. I don't mean to dead wrong our team, but that Zhongwei Li fight was the Ioana rematch. Esparza is there in error. Oh, yes.

I'm sorry. Yes, you're right you're very much correct hold on so let's go one more time i'm glad you caught that yes ufc 275 of course prahachka and tashira correct shevchenko and santos had the drama then you had the zhong and the nj check and by the way there's another one for ko of the year candidate right so you can just sub in one for another tremendous tremendous finish then you have matthews over fialio jack dylan madalena against ramazan amiv and then you had some decisions all the way through but you had these really weird um so sort of fun fights how about

the silvana gomez juarez fight over naliyang or she just viciously get one punch chaotic like that card was tremendous oh yeah luke that's a great card it could have been my pick it was in discussion for it my choice in the end though takes us back to july 23rd of this year london the o2 you know what i'm talking about it was actually a ufc fight night card but ufc london tom aspinall versus alexander volkoff in that main event um it felt like a pay-per-view it had that transition of energy from fight to fight that creates this feeling like anything can happen. And obviously a big part of that was Patti Pimblitt and Molly McCann,

Molly Meatball coming together and really being like, you know, even though sometimes I say, man, that's too much meatball on my screen. Dude, they represented their home area, the passion of those fans. Well, they got big wins. They were running around on each other's shoulders. But, dude, that energy, that carry, that spirit from fight to fight, that's special. If you just ask me straight up, what was the best night you had watching fights this year? I know this took place in the afternoon, but this was a great one.

It's hard to forget that. And you look back, Luke, and you know that Paul Craig submission of the year nominee against Krylov. You know, big moments here. Ilya Tepora had that knockout of the year contender against Herbert. This is on the same card. Molly McCann spinning backfist.

Like, there's a lot of shit that went down on here. Yeah, do we always sort of default to the pay-per-views, but sometimes the fight nights have really special mojo. This is one of them. Also, the Long Island card, the UFC and ABC card was great. The one in Texas, I forget which city it was,

was also great. The one that Yanez knocked out, the racist guy, I forget his name, but you get the idea. So it's not just the pay-per-views that do really well for the fans. Yeah, I had the wrong date.

I was looking at the July return to London. The actual date was March 19th, so don't dead wrong me. Same arena, but very fun card that night. Luke, honorable mentions. Look, I got to mention Bellator when they went to Dublin. I mean, that could have won this, Luke. That feeling was something insane. Zombie, right, Luke?

I mean, there was a lot of craziness going on. How about UFC 270 with Ngannou and Gon? Don't sleep on it, Luke. All right? Point of note, International Fight Week didn't make it this year. It kind of tells you what kind of year it was. It had some good fights on the card, but didn't make it. You could have gone with the 271 without Adesanya Whitaker, too.

It was a very memorable card. UFC on ABC3, Luke. All right. MSG, how about? MSG, no? Yeah, you could go there too. Okay. All right.

Let's do it. MMA Fight of the Year. Your nominees, the aforementioned Crazy Night in Singapore when Glover, Tashira, and Yuri Prohotska put on a light heavyweight duel for the, yeah, for the ages. The thing for me was not just, like, the fact that they both sold out to this crazy game plan.

They both mutually at some point agreed that this is going to be insane. You know what I'm saying, Luke? That, you know, they're taking each other down. I mean, dude, suddenly you had Prohotska in top position. It was bloody. They hurt each other like crazy glover had long stretches of dominating on the ground then he also got dominated on the ground but it wasn't just like video game meets rocky movie fight there was like a next level craziness to it that

you just don't see in title fights consistently you know like you know ufc produces bangers like this every once in a while and we love it you get the right you get luke rockhold and paulo costa together and things weird things happen but this was a title fight dude this was special you got anything else to say about it before i move on luke no this is just one of the most amazing fights i've seen in some time number two gilbert verne burns versus hamzat chamayev luke the best thing you could say about this is it might have carried that same spirit. It didn't have to be as crazy of a war, but they both wanted it to be.

The only problem is it's a three-rounder, so it's going to be hard for me to give this one as the official fight of the year, but for what it was, it was... How come nobody's talking about that it could have been 3-2 Gilbert? Nobody cares about fighting that argument. I don't understand it. You mean 2-1 Gilbert. 2-1 Gilbert. Thank you for the math. it was how come nobody's talking about that it could have been three two gilbert nobody cares about fighting that argument i don't i don't understand two one gilbert two one gilbert thank you for the math update uh let's go to cyril gone versus ty toivasa ufc paris uh this wasn't

supposed to be this competitive gone on the homecoming looking to bounce back from losing the title fight i thought he was just going to pick him apart from the outside, but dude, Taito Iwasa bites down, takes punishment, and he started landing shots that dropped and visibly put Gon into that fight-or-flight area. But obviously, dude, Bonga Min showed that he's absolutely legit in the toughness department on this night. They gave us something that we almost didn't deserve. It didn't deserve to be that good, Luke.

It didn't. That's right. And, you know, it was a big night for UFC because it was their debut in France. And they had a French guy in the main event who was victorious. But to your point, Chui Vassa really made him work for it in ways we did not expect. And it just created a lot of magic. Tremendous, tremendous. Dude, Chui Vassa was never out of it, even as he was getting his ass handed to him late with those body kicks he was still dangerous but dude he took a hellacious beating including that

uppercut that finished him talk about knockout of the year nominees damn uh number four luke i didn't want to see this one slip by dude it was so good one championship gave us a trilogy bout for the strawweight title angela lee zhong jing nan and it would go the the way of zhong to to take the lead in this series two fights to one with yet another or this time it was a close decision but didn't they finish each other in the first two fights luke if my memory serves me i mean these are closely closely matched competitors and the difference was that uh jingnan is a great boxer and then sort of physically stronger the two and a great wrestler but angela lee showing all sorry

showing all kinds of showing all kinds of poise and the ability to create offense even when you think she can't and just sort of staying in jingnan's face it was a really really great fight you're recreating the the heart shown by tai toivasa to stay in that fight right now luke and i can appreciate that how you're staying in the show it's trash our final one was uh our final contender is madison square garden dustin poirier michael chandler you do these action heroes who had never met we're going to give us something that would fit into the category of best fights we've seen from this same group of lightweights in this era whether it's Gaethje or Alvarez or all those other names I don't know if this is like in the conversation of best from this era Luke it was better than than I even thought it could be over three rounds it also showed that

Dustin Poirier at 34 still freaking has it but, you had bloody Chandler putting holes in fingers and DP's holes, Luke. You had a lot of blood. You had Chandler nearly getting stopped at the end of round one only to, like, largely dominate round two, even though he got cut by an elbow from Poirier on the bottom. Dude, this was all that and then some tall pale and handsome just like me luke and dude uh i think it was um poirier who told ariel hawani afterwards he finished gaethje he finished eddie alvarez and he finished michael chandler that's the violence triangle and poirier turned out to be the king of all of them didn't just win those three finished all three damn that is that is and you finished conor mcgregor too boy that's quite a resume he's got uh five choices here all very

strong luke thomas my winner is glover tashara and yeri prohotska and i as good as the other ones were i don't think this is actually close i agree i like the other ones a lot i mean we're talking about you know very special selection of fights. But, dude, when you're watching Teixeira and Prohoshka, and you can't even compute round over round how this is happening when you're watching through your fingers, when you're just like, dude, this fight should have been over a long time ago, and yet one person keeps making it possible for the other,

but vice versa, you know. I typically don't go with fights of the year that are crazy. But in this year, given the stakes, five rounds, UFC light heavyweight title, and both guys pouring out the jug, as Brian Campbell likes to say, I just didn't have much of a choice. I think you have to pick this one. Honorable mentions quickly. I did want to shout out Luke Rockhold and Paulo Costa.

That was one of the just, I mean, that took the wacky part of of of crazy that was too strange for me it was strange as shit but like dude that was prime entertainment like you have to have that on this list and Luke Brent Brookhouse of CBS Sports went to bat in our own editorial meetings for Nate the Train Landwehr versus David Onama. Will you back him on that? No, not really. I mean, it was a fine fight, but Brent, you know, that's his, I mean, listen, we love Brent, but he's got some hipster. Oh, that's not hipster.

That's just, that's a, that's a real fight fan, Brent. You know what I mean, Luke? He is a real fight fan. Yes, yes. No, that's true. He is a real fight fan, but picking that one as like fight of the year is very hipster. That's in the discussion. We, i know there's other ones as well so as always share what you thought we missed or whatever but it's our choice so back the hell off mma fighter of the year your first selection

how about that featherweight champion alexander volkanovsky this calendar year he became the pound for pound king he destroyed the korean zombie as a last minute replacement and didn't he finish him didn't he finish his ass dude he finished him and showed an offensive not just potency but like intention to go in there and do big time damage and then of course finally getting the trilogy with max holloway and he battered and bloodied him. Damn. This was a great year for, for a Volk. Who's also, by the way,

moving up to lightweight and taking on Islam. So God, Luke, God bless him. Right. That is a, that's a special guy. That's a special guy doing different things than other people.

And his success is not accidental. Number two on our nominee list comes from brazil and poeton alex pedeta three and oh he gets a decision against bruno silva but what we remember most is knocking out sean strickland in a number one contender fight and then oh by the way uh sorry for that leon edwards stole his fifth round magic headline flurry he also did that same thing down on the cards against israel out of sonia know the backstory, the history between them. He showcased, meaning Poetan, next level intangibles from the standpoint of toughness, focus, poise, in a fight he was getting kind of pieced up in and basically was stopped at the end of the first round

if it had gone another five seconds. And now he's your champion, dude. That's a hell of a year. That's a hell of a star turn right there. Can't hate on that. Nope. Nope. You're just not going to find better years for a 34-, 35-year-old fighter.

Yeah. God, I mean, what a year. You know who had a great year, too? How about Islam Mahachev? Finally got the title shot against Charles Oliveira. And, dude, he didn't just win against, you know, someone who's kind of becoming an all-time great over the last year and a half right in front of our eyes. Dude, he submitted the guy with the most submissions in history, dominated him, barely took any

damage in return. Everything was on point. He didn't have enough big time name wins to like make this a slam dunk. So we have a couple horse race here luke but you can't forget islam machev in that race i mean even if you'd only fought one time and it was the olivera fight you might have to put him on this list just such a complete takeover of the title yeah against a guy who was as red hot as he'd ever been. And Islam was like, you know, crazy. Yeah, he was like, here, take this.

This is me. This is great. Number four is Aljamain Sterling, the Bantamweight champion. It's hard to give him credit for the TJ debacle, but he also got the rematch with Piotr Jan. As the champion that no one believed should have been the champion from the DQ fight, And he beat him straight up. Pay that man his money, and he looked great doing it.

It's a big year for Aljo. The Dillashaw thing complicates it, Luke. But if you don't put him as a top five nominee here, you're just hating, I think. I mean, dude, he's the head of the deepest, best division in the game. He's the guy. The thing is this. The TJ fight fight he just didn't get a chance to you just can't draw any conclusion from it positive or negative you know

um a little bit positive i suppose but there's just not much you can read into it because of the state of tj's injury but like again i'm gonna say it one more time with islam makachif if that was his only fight against olivera you'd still put him on the list. Man, I got to tell you, I was a big believer in Aljamain Sterling early, and I kind of wandered off that when he had some losses, and now I really regret it because that win he had over Jan is so impressive and so difficult to pull off the way that he did. You just have to be really talented to do something like that,

and he deserves his flowers. I don't think, you know, candid do something like that and uh he deserves his flowers i don't think you know candidly i don't think he deserves to win the winner but um that performance alone we need to have what category bc a new category like best performance not you know um biggest stakes or most wild or most fun or whatever best i like to call it best win luke and i think that you had the best win all year i think aljumar against gone and gone to against gone obviously you could put leon edwards in there but this has to be in there too you're right there's no i mean he straight up beat peyote on i know there's some truthers that believe it could have gone the other way but i don't i

don't see it i don't believe it luke so So how about the case, though, for number five on our list and the only female representation, Zhongwei Li, who had lost her title, including by head kick knockout in the first round, and then lost the rematch to Rosnami Yunus in 2021. She comes back, rematches Ioana, and after a decent, pretty good first round with action and back and forth, I mean, she sent her to, not just to hell, to retirement in one of the most spectacular knockouts in women's MMA history. And then, dude, she, as much as Islam Mahachev dominated Charles Oliveira, I know different, different, different strokes, but the same level of dominance young Jung Whaley did to win back her title against Carla Esparza, the two-time

champion who's no slouch herself. I mean, dude, she kicked the crap out of her and beat her at her own game and dominantly submitted her. She's in this discussion, dude. Hell yeah. And she has figured out after that title loss how to get better. And we may not have actually seen the best of her.

I know she's not young, Luke, but she's like rounding out the potential holes in her game at a rapid level yeah that's exactly it i mean she just appears to be capable of growth in ways you didn't think possible um tremendous tremendous year i think she would probably be top three on anyone's list here this one five strong candidates and the winner is dude it's poet on it's alex podeta i don't think i have to explain that you get it all right i think volkanovsky has a good case for it too but podeta just bulldozing the division in the way that he did and then having to like really rescue his chances in the fight against izzy i mean he did have to rescue himself a little bit there. And then to do it in the fifth, like, I mean, it's just very,

very special fighter. Very special. If he hadn't had that third victory over Bruno Silva, and by the way, he's only been in the UFC, this guy, Poiton, for like, you know, not even a year, right? A little over a year, I think. If he didn't have the third one, would it be Volkanovski in your eyes? Yes. Yes, it'd be Volkanovski. Okay the third one, would it be Volkanovski in your eyes? Yes.

Yes, it'd be Volkanovski. Okay. And he could even still be Volkanovski. Quick honorable mentions I wanted to hit was Francis Ngannou, one win, but it might be the best win of the year over Cyril Ghosn for those circumstances. How about, obviously, Leon Edwards had a very big moment and year to become the welterweight champion. Anatoly Malikin of one one championship luke that tank right the two division champion he's nasty um let's give love to him and dude demetrius johnson mighty mouse we had a fun

little game there with rod tang that we all tuned in for but then he went back in and avenged his knockout title loss against uh adriano maraish and the trilogy is going to be one's first card in the u.s next year in colorado so um big years all around and there's probably a few others i'm forgetting luke but it's not you know you guys can put them on your award show then okay all right um we've got two categories to go look and you're hanging you're hanging strong and i'm proud of you, okay? Actually, three. I got a final bonus category, all right? Oh.

Here it is, Luke. Donk of the year. Luke, how would you form a criteria for what would make a donk of the year, remembering that two years ago it was WebScream, Christos Christoforos from greece living in italy and also don't forget stockton california's own damien the donk last year even though i mean is he in witness protection i haven't heard from him at all so um he's probably in jail or the bottom of a river somewhere i hope not he's a very nice

guy he's got a son shout out to damien the dunk despite the this the tattoos of death all over him including he has morning combat on it so maybe that was a bad omen for our show's future luke or his own i don't know but how what makes a donk of the year because you don't care about this to be fair like at all right yeah i would say my criteria is who has been dming bc the most that would probably be the number one criteria uh we have so many great fans who not only like live you know live and die for this show in ways i never imagined in terms of passion but the fact that we have so many talented and weird people out there who love what we do love love this thing and are willing through fan submissions through dms from donks through social media through dead wrong through whatever to become a playable character luke i mean we got

some characters on this game you know what i mean we got a we got an interesting ballot though this year because people have stepped up fan subs to levels unseen before we got to meet a lot of our fans at the vegas live show which was incredible and amazing and people dude remember that guy that came from india luke forgot his name and and he's like yeah i came from india this is my vacation to come to come see you guys like are you kidding me um people have sent us gifts the paquette household luke is touring the globe with us so thank you before we announce the nominees thank you folks for for being so rabid and active and luke if that leads to our death one day you know it was worth it okay it was worth it to be this close to you folks that doesn't mean

i'm dying anyway who cares that doesn't mean they can touch luke at the live show in london but here we go uh february 8th by the way. Your Donk of the Year nominees. Luke, this first man, somebody behind the scenes was fighting for this guy, and they might be right. Who can forget what Alan W. did this year? I don't know much about him. I don't know what he looks like. I don't know where he lives.

But would you say his fan subs have spoken for themselves this year? Yeah, these are consistently excellent. I'm Lieutenant Dan there with the 40. That's amazing. Shout out to Mikey Morms for organizing all these lookbacks here. And Mikey Morms was the guy who said ABC, you can't forget this man, is just consistently great at his craft. I mean, look at this.

Ariel Hawane was busy on this other guy's poster. It his craft. I mean, and look at this area. Hawani was busy, like on this other guy's poster. It's so good. Yeah. That's so good. Um, I haven't, I haven't vaped in days in days.

Maybe that's why you got COVID. Yeah. Yeah. Um, that's one of our nominees. Nominee number two, Luke. Uh,

he's been compared to such Hollywood legends and luminaries as Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Dr. Larry Nassar. Luke, he's a teacher of the English language in the country of France. He's UK born and bred. And I love this guy. They call him Appy. It's David Appleton. And here's a little sampling. I believe we have a video of one of his finest submissions this year,

talking to his students. You guys, who is the American Alpha? Brian and Kambodji! You guys, who is America's finest ex-Marine? There is no such as an ex-Marine, sir! Sir! Look around you. You guys Sir! Luke and Brian. You guys ain't getting no younger.

BC's got gas station hunger. And he's obsessed with joining. Luke, he's had a hell of a year. I mean, look, just watch this. And Thomas, he can drink more than 50 fucking beers, you know. But he's not such a hero after three more good times. When you get the two in studio, there's magic in the air. David Appleton was consistent this year. He was hilarious. Luke, he claims that,

um, uh, first of all, he's already predicted that this election will was hilarious. Luke, he claims that, first of all, he's already predicted that this election will be rigged, but he claims that, you know, he was, Mikey shut down, censored a lot of his videos. But Luke, you know, you do have to go to sleep at night and wonder if we're aiding and abetting a future criminal here. But he makes me laugh. I was surprised I didn't see his name in the roundup

when the Romanian officials arrested Andrew Tate last night. Shout out to Appy. He gets us. I did tell him, Luke, if this ballot doesn't go his way, then maybe, you know, maybe we'll get, you know, maybe we can blame it on the Russians. And we'll get a Jan 6 attack this year on the Malka steps in Jersey City to protest. But we'll see if he has won or lost here, Luke. This debate feels like it's going to be Gore, Bush and 2000 all over again luke you know what i'm saying it's feel i feel like this is going to be a close vote this year uh would would you say gore bush is a great way to describe your college uh uh sex life luke let's keep it going here um i don't even know what

that means nominee number three comes to us from mount Unike in Nova Scotia, Mount Uniac. And I did want to shout out, of course, his lovely wife, Dawn, who's a big part of Jay Paquette's fan submissions, his creativity. We've seen videos from him. Luke, he created just, I mean, incredible, incredible, you you know gifts for us here and and is living the morning combat brand and lifestyle what can you say about the campaign put forth by jay paquette he probably likes this show more than i do right i mean this dude lives and breathes this show in a way even I do not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He gets us, Luke, okay? I mean, he may get our organs one day too,

but we'll have to, you know, I think, you know, I mean, he looks like a great guy, Luke, and I do love, you know, his wife's inclusion lately and taking MK around the globe for her job and helping Jay out here. Look, they seem like great people and they're, you know, like Bill and Jen in the RV back in the day, Luke. They feel like they're our type of people. So love to see this. Jay Paquette had a huge year. Nominee number four. How about Little Anthony?

He's the fake Saul from the live show, Luke. But Anthony and his lovely bride there, or maybe it's soon to be bride. I'm trying to get an update where they are in their life. Little Anthony has taken MK everywhere with him. From his engagement to wedding to our live show and where he told us luke they want to they want to give birth with mk there with like merch on uh for their first child and you know that's probably poor parenting but could you find a more humble happy couple here who we met in person here who love our show and and have been a key contributors to to what we do in the fan interaction no this is pretty great this is uh this is uh well this is what human happiness

i think is supposed to look like i'm not i'm not entirely certain it was just with mk as your as your main focal point there uh thank you guys uh and there's a lot of husband wife duos out there that that we love and deal with but these this is one of our favorites and number five dude you cannot have a donk of the year discussion without christian daguerreau who came up to me in the receiving line at our vegas live show in the summer told me he was an amateur mma fighter we talked about his future and you know encouraged him and he was a cool dude and then he went out trained with tony ferguson wearing our merch and then had an amateur fight in which he put our logo on his

balls and he went out there and won it oscar willis style e casey lyden style only luke he's a legit like young aspiring fighter here not that those guys aren't they're journalists turned uh tough guys and i give them a lot of credit. But, dude, he went above and beyond for the brand. I'm a big fan of this kid. He's amazing, and he looks like he might become a legitimate talent at some point. We'll have to see.

But I really appreciate his support, and I'm so delighted to have it. And please keep giving us free publicity. Yeah, and we'd love to corner you one day, Coach Latorre style, with the doc cams there. You know what I mean? Yes, yes. When we fill out the commission report,

he'll be like, there's going to be a red-haired man with a camera named Jake that's going to follow us everywhere. Yeah, there you go. Five nominees, Luke, and I know, dude, I almost want to mention the honorable mentions now because there's so many people that this could go to and it's not a popularity contest

but it is but it's not people are creative we love them they're consistent they've made our show a part of their lives um i want to shout out before we announce the winner everyone from danger mouse to russell ingram from georgia luke you remember him as the uh elvis shotgun wedding guy and his beautiful wife heather they've They've gone to your locations in Georgia. And Punch Drunk Pete challenged you to a drink-off at the live show and has been a big part of our boxing fandom. Dr. Mike and his tattooed wife, the real Saul, Luke. Gregory D.

You know that Jan Sixer who drives that truck with the beard? The power lifter. He loves us, Luke. How about, you know, Melissa Lo loves nachos who came to our live show and it's a big part of what we do nicola from uh scotland i believe luke who's been ill lately but she's a big fan of us we're a big danger mouse i did mention him and you know he he was coming on for a lot of this year luke and i think he's going to be very unhappy with us and it sucks that you know in a large family you do have to look at your children and say i love you all but just not the same yet yet i like danger mouse he gives us good she gives

us great wednesday stuff yeah this may be the biggest uh you know if we can extend to a sixth nominee then danger mouse is in this as well so many others we love you and thank you but luke this felt like a two horse race it really did between. Between David Appleton and Jay Paquette. And you know how much I hate. Like the kiss the sister idea. Like I want to see what I'd rather see these guys fight to the death at our live show in London on February 8th, which I think they're both going to, by the way, which is mind blowing to me. But, you but you know under insurance laws we couldn't have that um do they have to what do they have to do to separate this i don't know luke david appleton had a great finish to the year jay paquette's been there every day every step of the way they're both brilliant they're kind of like the the the the devil and the and the angel on our mk shoulders here for 2022 i don't know if i can break this tie as i stand right now your code donks of the year david appleton and jp do we live with that are you okay with that luke i mean they are i think i think i think we have to

i think we have to there's no clear way to separate them and um you know i mean you a lot you know sometimes it gets down to like two people in a competition and they go hey how about we take a tie and we split the money do you think they'd be willing to go in the history books to be in our family tree as hall of fame fans who have won donk of the year or do you think they want to do some type of competition, Luke, to decide that? I think you want them to do a competition to decide that. Either way, as we stand right now heading into our live show February 8th, your Donk of the Year 2022, and we thank you guys so much. It's a tie, David A. and Jay Paquette.

Thank you to all our fans here. Our final formal award is morning combat moment of the year look we've had some great ones through the years of course you remember that live show for poirier mcgregor where you did the war cry and we drank out of a shoe i mean we've had some great moments here but you had to narrow it down to five at the end of the day we have uh we have videos to remember here are our top five nominees for MK Morning Combat Moment of the Year. Nominee number one. Hey, it's very recent.

It took place in seedy Norwich, Connecticut in a motel basement. We were there on the scene to interview Bellator fighters and give you morning combat. We gave you a little bit more, Luke. They thought I was a swallower, but I wasn't. We might as well just bang to it. On the Patreon, Luke and Brian have sex. Alright, let me switch.

Oh, dude, you just sprayed jake you fucking animal oh my god uh all right let me switch uh luke thomas your thoughts just watching you short circuit and then explode is fucking hilarious yeah that was a pure moment i think you know what people liked about that moment that the pure the real luke thomas came out i don't know why people are so worried about what the real version is of me i don't even know what that means anymore you're multifaceted luke okay yeah yeah nominee number two hey let's not forget we had a very decorated year awards wise but do you remember when the first year the inaugural sports podcast group out of england yes the same folks who will be putting on the pod live podcast festival february 8th at king's place in london we'll

be there more on that later but luke they named us not just Combat Sports Podcast of the Year. Let's go back to this little video that was put together where we found out in the moment what else we won. We have to announce the overall sports podcast of the year. Yes.

So out of all of the winners you heard from today, our superstar advisory board got together to crown the overall winner. The winner's winner, the best of the best. It gives us great pleasure to announce the sports podcast of the year. Morning Combat. Oh, yeah.

Let's chat with the winners. Guys, I have a little bit of news for you. It's actually breaking news. So a little bit of news for you it's actually breaking news so a little surprise here morning combat has won sports podcast of the year wait congratulations sports podcast sports podcast of the year are you serious what wait uh-huh who what yeah Who? What? Yeah. Luke, that was people want the real Luke Thomas. We didn't know about this. We found out at that exact second.

I didn't even know they were going to do a best sports podcast of the year. We won the combat category. Thank you very much. We appreciate you. And while we would go on to duplicate the same honor from the People's Choice Podcast Awards because our fans are so great. Dude, that felt like a moment. got billboards in liverpool and london they named us the best and that wasn't fan voting we got fan voting to get there but their advisory board who were like execs at like facebook and major sports tv networks were like oh yeah that one right there that's the best sports podcast that we have going in the world. I couldn't believe it.

I still can't believe it. I mean, it is very MK to be self-congratulatory in this way, but nevertheless, it was a big moment for us, and we were legitimately shocked. We didn't know that was coming. Shout out to the sports podcast group, and as we mentioned, Luke, we're not going February 8th in London

without all this craziness happening, and our fans got us to this point, and we hopefully are going to put on a great show February 8th in London without like all this craziness happening and our fans got us to this point and we hopefully uh are going to put on a great show February 8th with some special guests for all of our fans in the UK Ireland and beyond who are making the journey all those who are making the journey for Mount Unike too I mean wow I mean we can't you know just look at the chain reaction of events that happened here right you know we did the live show in Vegas and was fantastic but we also are going to go do one in the uk and it's because of that moment wow what was that dash live.com to get tickets do you remember the name she works for the nfl network who was that

that that interviewed us there oh i forget i forget i did too now i feel like a bad person but uh final plug there you can get your tickets on that qr code that you just saw on the bottom of the screen there uh king's place in london february 8th don't miss it number three luke they call this to this day three and us three plus years into this the greatest episode in morning combat history it came in jersey city and it's well known mostly for two incredible back-to-back moments. Let's relive them. Inside the MK studio. Oh, hell yeah.

What do you think about what to shoot? What is important? What is not important? Well, I think it's important we take a step back to realize. Why are you talking like this? I don't know what he's talking about, honestly. So I was on holiday one day in Lithuania and I saw a billboard. And on the billboard was a picture of Brian Campbell, and after doing some research, I found the show Morning Combat.

I really am hoping for an incanto karaoke. There's a way this ends normal, and there's a way this ends absurd, Luke. Let's see which one you got. Yes! We don't talk about Bruno, no, no, no. No se habla de Bruno. Here we go. Hey, good to live in fear of Bruno stuttering and stumbling. I can always hear him sort of muttering and mumbling. I associate him with the sound of falling sand.

Cha-cha-cha-cha. It's a heavy lift with a gift so humbling. Luke, I don't remember the date or the episode number you can see the prep i've done for this show but that felt like a special day dude how about jake von amsterdam in that moment dude he just became he just became a character in front of our eyes i actually don't even like the jake von amsterdam bit i think it's a stupid bit but people seem to love it so it just lives on episode 277 mikey says says, in our history there. It's been called the best episode we've ever done.

There was a special energy in the room that day. It felt very Bellator Dublin, didn't it, Luke? It's a good example of what we can do when we're in studio more. All right. Speaking of the studio, nominee number four for MK Moment of the Year also came to the studio because one of us showed up on time. Yeah! Who could forget this?

If we go live right now... Thank you, sir. There is Luke Thomas. Get the fuck out of my face. You're live on Morning Combat, Mr. Thomas. Any word for the fans? He's surly for sure. Yeah, blame Amtrak, motherfucker.

I was at my train on time. What happened? Uh, train doors wouldn't close we had to switch trains studios i don't care about it the four year the well the well holiday decorated your stupid fuck fuck game come on let's go luke believes he's stepping into a fuck fuck trap shortly we'll see if that plays out. Is that being transmitted or not? It's live, Mr. Thomas. Is it transmitting? No, it's not.

Was it transmitting? Oh, you do have the live view. Holy shit. It's live, all right. Motherfucker, I got to get ready and shit. Like, I'm not just going to walk in there. You got to turn this motherfucker off. Award-winning content that only Morning combat can give you sort of point out when you're late it's because you drove in you're responsible if i'm taking the train what can i possibly do and i saw folks being like get to the train earlier

there was no earlier train they're like take another train the next let me finish the next train out doesn't get me there on time either. It was either that one or no one. Folks don't understand. I will do anything possible to make it on time. But if Amtrak fucks me, what can I do? This was poetic justice because that live show we did, the drinking episode, you know, back on like New Year's Eve 2019,

I drove an hour to the train station as I always did back then in Bridgeport. The train was late. I got on it. There there was a problem the train stopped that they had a fix the next stop or the subway was late like everything across the board was late late late in like unspeakable ways and you were like incredulous as if I had like broken your lifelong trust and you didn't just like daddy pants me you I thought you were going to walk off the show. Like you were like ready to kill me. And the same shit happened to you, Luke. It was beautiful. I still believe you could have been there earlier.

There was literally no way for me to be there earlier. Yeah, that's a special moment. Shout out to Jake Von Amsterm. We never talked about this. What were you thinking when you got out of the car? Because you knew I might do this because i did tech you were on a so i did get it so for folks being like because of my i'll tell you what you know what's so funny about that clip is that even my friends who don't watch the show they saw that clip and they go dude

that's pretty funny that's pretty funny and i was like it is i mean it's hilarious like what am i gonna say it's not hilarious it's hilarious but i, I did get a text ahead of time and then I didn't know if it was going to be live, but they were like, Jake may or may not be greeting you, um, outside with a camera. And I was like, oh, fuck me. And then when I pull up and he's there and dude, you shouldn't, you couldn't see him obviously. Cause he's holding the camera. Like, how do I explain this?

This fucking asshole. He had that like goofy 13-year-old, I'm in the tech club kind of energy about him. Like he saw the car pulling up and he like pulls up his pants real high, you know, like I'm getting ready for my big day. Like the first time a kid pulls out a condom for the big moment, you know,

it kind of goofball nervous energy and he's like fumbling with the camera to get it on. And I just knew. He's Seth Green from Can't't hardly wait in that moment is what you're saying yeah yeah he was american pie just banging pies waiting for me to come along and uh you know he made it work so many parts of that had to happen for that to be that perfect from jake asking you hilariously with the british accent which fooled there was people high up at showtime that legitimately reached out and were like who's that australian talent that you got to do these interviews like so jake was brilliant dude i don't think you were acting i think you were literally

like get the fuck away from me like you were like that was just oh it was great i mean it was great and luke i wish that the i wish we had the doc cameras behind the scenes because to orchestrate that and jake i was like jake you could take the live view down there. You could do this in the moment live. And they were like, maybe we could. And also I gave a speech to the Malka employees that if that they may get some pushback from you or Showtime to this idea. So remember that scene in Rudy Luke where the players went to the Dan Devine, the coaches, and they put their uniform down and they said, you know, if Rudy doesn't play, we don't play. And then the coach is like, you know, you're an all American and a captain act like one. And then that, you know, cornerback was like, I think I just did, sir. I gave that

speech to the Malka crew, Luke. I said, no matter what we have to land this plane, we have to do this. And wow, what a moment, Luke, but was that moment better? The number five, top five MK moments of the year. Luke, we love all the awards we won. God, we just won the second straight World MMA Awards. We won People's Podcast Best Sports Podcast Award. But the first time last year, the year before, we won the World MMA Awards that we had the dockhammers there for. That guaranteed our fans a live show in Vegas for International Fight Week at the Brewhouse.

Beerhouse. Brewhouse. And while, Luke, it didn't necessarily go the directions I thought it would or live up to my own expectations, you created a moment, sir. Let's look back at it. The reason everyone is looking. Because, look, that's a mismatch. I get it in terms of their speed and all that.

But the offensive. But I'm Dub T, and I really want to vape. How about the service we're getting here from the brew house, New York. Yeah, no, beer house. Beer house. MGM property in the house. Beer house, not brew house. Sorry.

Why don't you know the name of where we're at, stupid? It's so on brand. He's trying. I mean, it's so on brand. Do you have anime? I'm feeling these margaritas, Brian Campbell. Do you have anime in your search history, like your favorite fighter? That's not in my search history.

Other things are. Here we go, evil. Here we go. Here we go, evil. Here we go. Here we go, evil. Here we go. Aaron, you sit there. He'll stand there. I've been drinking.

Bro, I don't drink anymore, and I've had like two margaritas. Three, I think. My favorite dad. Luke, they could have shown many moments from that show. It was a bit of a shit show although i i love that our fans came and they they seem to enjoy meeting us and look you were very very good to the fans afterwards so i salute you on that i'm i'm feeling these nominations brian campbell but dude that line and and like i remember being mad afterwards because more of

the tech issues that we've talked about ad nauseum that the crowd couldn't hear us. And I'm like, are we playing to the people at home or the crowd? I don't even know. But I knew though, in the moment that we had created an MK moment and that's because of you and your great tolerance, Luke. So you also humped me in front of everybody too. I mean, there was some, there was some dark moments in that.

I think some of that you overplay a little bit yes it was definitely me being frat-tastic and that's awful but not that big a deal however you know i could see you being like let's talk about this guy's speed i'm like let's talk about ass and titties instead you know just completely derailing it into like the worst place ever that had no business going so i do feel bad about that but hey listen it's on this list uh spit the water london billboard jake von amsterdam slash incanto luke late to studio or feeling these margaritas brian campbell luke what was our mk moment of the year uh am i supposed to go what's on the thing here can i just like no you gotta tell me your choice what the hell is your choice i will just tell you the one that brought me the most fun how about that all right okay and it's me being late to the studio because i will tell you in real time i

was i didn't i didn't remember i'm not watching the feed so like they told me like jake might be with the camera but i thought that the show wasn't going to start until i got up there and we were going to settle and then like everything's on i'm like what the fuck and so i get up there and so i didn't appreciate until after the fact i went back and i watched the the clip and i was like oh my god that is funny as shit and i laughed and laughed and then like but dude my wife thought it was funny my friends thought it was funny it was one of the ones that kind of reached into my personal world and everyone really liked so i have to go with that one all right that's my choice as well and it's in contention for my favorite moment in mk history only again because everything worked

perfectly it was the perfect storm i mean we had to kill like a half hour it was it turned out to be the perfect storm um you were legitimately pissed when you walked into the studio that was not an act and i was not i was not that pissed i was i was playing it up a little bit all right all right i thought it was real you fooled me you got me you got me so there you go i was part pissed part just confused legitimately when i told you i was like i don't even understand what i i'm trying to explain to you like i didn't start the thing so i literally didn't on my phone like to watch the show so i like i did not understand what the hell was happening.

That's all. Honorable mention time quickly. Oh, honorable mention on Dunk of the Year. I got to shout out Rustic Tribe Design, Luke. They've made us some fantastic wood pieces, drink holders with our brand on it that we keep in the studio. They've inquired about making a table for us, which would just be insane and incredible. Just love again that we have creative people in this world and in this space. And when I'm giving an honorable mention to Moment of the Year, it could tie into Donk

of the Year, too, Luke, because we have celebrity Donk friends that we love, from Oteel Burbridge wearing our MK bullshit on the Grateful Dead stage, to Kamau Bell on his CNN show, United Shades of America, wearing a sweatshirt. We got to shout it out. We're going to get that podcast with him out next year. It was on the back burner for a while, but it's going to come out. Love that, man. Joe Rogan shouted out Luke Thomas and that other dude,

and Brian Simpson on the Joe Rogan experience. This was great, by the way. We've had some cool moments. Rafael Stotz wearing our merch. We've had some amazingly cool moments. Big E, the WWE star, is always vocal about watching the show. So we appreciate everyone, Luke. Everyone.

Seriously. I mean, what a year. The only other award I had that they wouldn't build, you know, an award. I wanted to, like, mail an award. I wanted to, you know, but here's, I'll do it anyway, Luke. BC's Best Straw Weight of 2022. Luke, this is your 115- pound fighter of the year award your nominees of course luke are uh mackenzie durham amanda hibas martina de la rosa

zhong wei li and uh cheyenne vlismas in uh yeah i wonder what the um your winner criteria is for making that list your winner is cheyenne vlismas luke so congratulations uh the strawweight of the year. Thank you very much. Coming off of a loss, right? I'm not allowed to mail any hammers, Luke, to anybody, nor would I, knowing how ridiculous that is. Okay, there you go. That's the awards for this year. Luke, this ain't quite Jordan Flu Game, but I have to give you a lot of respect.

You hate this shit. You're sick as balls, and you delivered. I try, man. respect you hate this shit you're sick as balls and you delivered i try man i know i i had very low energy today i'm doing my best last night was the first night of sleep i'd gotten in a while man it was it's been terrible but hold on i got um hey can i dead wrong myself because i'm so embarrassed about it i really want to talk about it okay but just tell me which uh which midlife dad crisis had is the worst look for me right now? Is it still the one love? Now, I would need the Showtime producers who have a stronger opinion about the one.

You know me. I don't hate the one love hat. I don't love it. I'm neutral. I like the man in the hat, so to speak. The one you're wearing now, you don't have the answer, Sway. I mean, you just look like a fucking buffoon all right what are you gonna dead wrong yourself about luke oh my god dude so we did the previews for like all the weight classes and whatnot for 2023 and we're just having fun with it you know it's not exactly designed to be the most you know uh groundbreaking content on earth but

dude this is i gotta tell you like this is why okay sometimes i get stuff wrong like hey i thought he fought him on this year or it was a split decision versus unanimous and a lot of times what happens is it's because i just didn't do enough due diligence i was like relying on memory and your memory can fade or trick you or whatever and i'm like ah i should have double checked i said alexander romanov undefeated. Here's why this one is especially egregious, okay? And I'm admitting this because it was like one of those moments where like, holy fuck. Dude, I don't know how I got so short-circuited. I actually did double check that one ahead of time.

I actually went and looked at his wiki and his stats page on Fightmetric, and it went in in one ear and out the other and i somehow still jacked that up that was like oh my god dude how did i even do that i actually went through ahead of time and tried to get that right and still messed it up it's terrible that that happened so i'm apologizing to you apologizing to everyone who watches the show i don't mind getting shit wrong like because we do get it wrong opinions or facts or whatever but shit like that should never happen and so i feel really terrible about it and i'm sorry and uh i'm gonna work on my due diligence to make sure that doesn't happen again i forgive you luke i also didn't get your back i was like oh yeah you're right romanoff's great and then yeah i mean you didn't exactly call me out on it but that doesn't

matter like yeah you can't get shit like that wrong you just can't uh quick final reminders for of course morningcombat.store for our great merch uh showtime 30-day free trial and it's it's put the onus on this saturday night 8 p.m eastern on show it's only on Showtime about Bella you want to see Tukey hold on you want to see Tukey yeah yeah yeah please Bella tour MMA versus rising five best versus your five best Saturday night 8 p.m. Eastern only on Showtime get 30 days free now at Showtime.com $3.99 each for six months after that Tukey in the house Tukey it's Uncle Gringo did you have a nice Christmas should I take this out so she can hear? Yes, please.

All right, let's see. Okay, here we go. Okay. Go ahead and talk, Lucy. Tuki, it's Uncle Gringo. Did you have a Feliz Navidad? Thank you. Did you have a Merry Christmas, Tukes?

I have a good boots and boots. She just saw Puss in Boots 2 with her mom. Oh her mom oh nice nice can you tell me about the car you got toky for christmas did you get a mini mouse car yeah you like it you're gonna go see dinosaurs you know i didn't really answer anyone's question but i love it a lot like Dana White. Hey, Tukes, you know what else I got for Christmas? Vio? Hey, Vio, you know what I got for Christmas? I got new glasses. You want to see them?

Yes. Check out Uncle Gringo's new glasses. Meanwhile, he's what we call in real life a moron, okay? Tukes, have a great year and don't talk about Bruno. Okay. At all. Not one time. Did you hear her call you a moron?

No, I did not. That's probably a moment of the year, Luke, for next year. Wow. Say it one more time. Say moron. Moron. Yeah. I love you so much.

You're such a sweet kid, okay? Te amo mucho. Okay, you want to call it a day there? Yeah, I can't wait until she replaces me on this show one day. She's fantastic. Big fan of the Tukes. Have a happy new year. Same to all you folks out there.

Luke, could I be so presumptuous to ask for Tuki to take us out? Our final show of 2022. Okay, could I be so presumptuous to ask for Tukey to take us out this, our final show of 2022? Okay, Tukey, say happy birthday. Ciao, everybody.