MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 2022 Holiday Mailbag: Worst Christmas Moment, Favorite Movies, MMA Scoring

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell have you covered with a special Holiday mailbag episode to keep you busy during the holidays. 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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That's Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. We are not recording this live, but wanted to still, you know, check in with you on this Friday right before the big weekend. So, Luke Thomas, we got questions that we solicited from these folks on social media. You know, they want us to have fun and just be ourselves as if they're a fly on the wall in a toilet, Luke. Let's do it. Okay. All right. There you go. Thank you. Follow us like us. Happy holidays. This one's about you. Luke, let's start in the category of holiday here. Let's go positive. Wholesome eb wants to know luke what's your favorite christmas movie who favorite christmas movie okay so growing up it was um uh rudolph a christmas story

yeah right you'll shoot your eye out because that was what we watched as a kid sure i think i think now um man that's a great question probably elf yeah you have to start with elf elf has to be and it's a modern classic it has to be in your top three it really does dude that movie holds up man i told you like our family tradition we discussed this on an mk about a week or so ago which was you know when we put up the tree we have elf on in the background because my wife just really loves it i i watch it every time i mean and i'm almost blown away like this movie is still great still i mean uh peter dinklage whatever his name is the dude from game of thrones he kills it in that movie like there's a it will fare a peak will ferrell to be quite honest with you uh great great movie what about you um elf has to be there and i you know i echo

christmas story but i think it got played out by tbs and tnt unfortunately um i go elf i grew up on rudolph which is such a classic but my favorite like claymation one from a kid i always say it's jack frost it's it's it just makes me feel happy luke okay even though he doesn't get the girl in the end spoiler alert does all that work and doesn't even get the girl it's like you just let the other dude take her away jack like no wonder why you're like a ghost half the time. Like, be a real man. But, Luke, you know my affection for Holiday in Handcuffs starring A.C. Slater and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. It's probably the best stupid Christmas movie ever.

I mean, but, Luke, we just left off a lot of ones. Not just classics like, you know, It's a Wonderful Life or whatever. But some people really like that Tim Allen Santa Claus series, including all all the people in my house i've never been fully sold on it though yeah i watched it i didn't think it was that great uh i watched one on netflix recently that won an academy award it was a cartoon called klaus or claws i'm not sure how they pronounce it dude it's really good it's really really good i really enjoyed that oh someone's saying bad santa i mean how do you not our producer how do you not go with bad santa billy bob thornton in that movie is in i've never seen

you've never seen bad santa you're never fried a turkey what what you see bc i am confident in saying hold on hear me out now i am confident in saying that once you see bad santa it's going to overtake your choice as not just your favorite Christmas movie. It might end up being your favorite movie. It's got BC written all over it. All right, I'll take the plunge. But there's always been sneaky good Christmas movies. I'm trying to think of some other one.

Whatever, Luke, whatever. I don't know. Oh, Jingle All the Way with Arnold. Okay, my kids won't watch it. They think it's stupid. But, dude, that's solid, all right? My house does not tolerate Schwarzenegger slander. You need to get your house in order.

Good start. Okay. Luke, staying with holiday theme, let's go with Big Biz Ping. Sorry. He says, fifth grade teacher here, you would be shocked how many students believe in Santa and Elf on the Shelf

in fifth grade. Even some kids with older siblings aren't phased. It's a different time, Luke. Luke, I think that's a thinly veiled warning from Big Bisping to stop ruining kids' innocence through the method of this microphone on the show. Did you see the tweet we got yesterday? Yes. Yeah, someone was like, yeah, I listened to Luke on SiriusXM about eight years ago, and loudly on the air, he told everyone Santa Claus isn't real, and my eight-year-old was listening and heard him and was despondent afterwards. So sorry, young man, I didn't mean to ruin Christmas for you, but your dad buys all your shit, so be grateful to your dad.

Wow, wow, that's very wholesome of you luke i like that a lot not at all actually not hey gratitude for fathers the world could use a little bit more of that you know what i'm saying yeah yeah i mean look i had to wait till fifth grade to find out i mean does that mean i'm you know naive or i'm just really trusting in those who i entrust to take care of me i just think you're special needs. That's all. Aren't we all, you know? Yeah. I mean,

let he who is without sin cast the first stone, but you know, look, let's drop down to miscellaneous. Mikey Mormar, our fine producer at CBS sports categorize these from all of your Instagram and Twitter questions. This is from Mark R you both retire next year and decide on a fun hobby

together to keep the friendship tight what is going to be your hobby so let's say you and i lived close enough to hang out luke what would be our thing pornography delta eights not together movies like old guys right that's what we do you and i would go to the movies like old guys honestly you laugh at this but i actually feel like um if we live next to each other we're you know very close and we're looking for hobbies definitely delta eight at the movies for sure yes i also feel like lifting weights a little bit could be a thing a little bit get into that um now would we go to the level of uh sean coin who i went to high

school with and just piss on the chair in front of you in the movie theater rather than get up and go to the uh why would you go to the movie theater if you can't just urinate and defecate everywhere i mean what's the point the movie yeah yeah that's fair yeah luke i mean you're not much of a hiker are you i love hiking oh really i'll tell you i'll tell you what like the my strongest i had a i only had one or two years so i was tested for six years uh or you can have a pft the physical fitness test and when i was in the marine corps it was max pull-ups max sit-ups for a while then crunches and then a three mile run right and so only two years that i have a first class pft because i could never run for shit. But there was a couple of years where I got in like really,

really, really good shape. And, um, fuck, what was the question you were asking me? I lost my train of thought. You were like,

I went from PFT to PF Chang's and became, no, no, no. What were you at? What was the question? What was the question? Um,

about hobbies that we would do together. We would lift weights. We would go to the movies. We would, um, we would hike. Oh, the hiking.

Okay. Okay. So one of the things in hiking, it's not exactly hiking, but one of the things that I was really good at, not because I was special, but because I had just the right leverages. I was tall, and I could take a big step, was what they call, you're going to laugh at this,

but it's true, it's what they call it. They call it humping, right? That's when you put the big pack on your back. Hold on. Listen, hear me out, hear me out. I know there's no way to tell you about this. What are you in, Luke? With Den Master Sandusky or what?

Where are we going with this, Luke? No, no, no. So you carry the very heavy pack, and sometimes these packs would be 100 pounds or more, and you would just go for 5, 10, 15. Dude, I know of an infantry unit that crossed from the Panama Canal from one side all the way to the

other in a single day doing that I was really good at that because I was so tall and I could take big steps and I was very large so like the the packs weren't as heavy for me as they were for other people relatively speaking so hiking which obviously really deals with elevation and nature but still I've done that as well and I really like it anything on foot I'm actually okay at I'm actually, I like it. Would, would you go to like an art museum with me?

I mean, we can, I mean, short of banging Luke, I'm willing to take chances for you. You know, save that for the Patreon. Yeah.

Yeah. For only pipes. Yeah. Oh, wow. Luke, did you see a bad baby was on the barstool Sunday interview and said she makes 50 million on OnlyFans.

I mean, we may be missing out. I don't think we can offer the same thing that she can. Wait, you mean Bad Barbie? Bobby? Yeah, Bad Baby, Luke. The girl who was like, catch me outside? Yeah, she's been around for 20 years, and she's only 19, Luke. I feel like she's been in our lives forever since Dr. Phil.

How much does she make on Only Pipes? I was told a million in the first two hours and 50 million since she launched a year ago or something. Well, dude, I mean, we got to figure this out. We got to find a way to. I mean, there's probably a market for Old Pipes, Luke. We might be able to pull something in on the side. I don't know.

All right, let's get. Come look at BC's butthole. We're going to charge $10 a pop. I don't want to know how many clicks we'd get on that luke uh i got an interesting one here from chris merging pro wrestling and ufc luke should ufc champions this is a legitimate question hear them out should they walk down to the cage during their walkout with their belt during their entrance just like pro pro wrestlers do? And also, should the belts be unique to each weight class? So let's hold that unique question. Do you think the walkout, to be more badass,

should have them with the belt over their shoulder or around their waist, Luke? The thing is, I remember watching Joe Son walk out to the cage with him carrying the cross. And then he was like, he got to the cage, and he was like tired as a motherfucker from that, you know? So the belts are not going to weight out a champion in that way but i don't know like maybe someone behind him holding it up or something but i don't need to see it like over their shoulder i mean everyone knows who's watching who the fucking champ is i really like how one puts it on that little shelf that you can see through the cage while the fight's going on yeah i do like that

too yeah the two me it's a two-meat luggage. What he was asking, Luke, was do you think that the belt should be different? It could be even minor changes like colors per division or who cares? I like the symmetry. I like there's a standard bearer for what the UFC belt looks like. I kind of like that. I mean, it was fun when they – here's the thing. I get what he's trying to say, like isn't there a case to mix them up? But that's where Bellator has a unique advantage.

Like, they can have their weight class belt, and they don't really do this. But what they could do is they can have, like, a wildly or somewhat remixed Grand Prix belt. The Grand Prix belt could be all different kinds of things. You should look at the Cormier heavyweight Grand Prix belt he has from Strikeforce. It's got all these names on it, all the guys that were in it, and all the guys he beat.

It's pretty cool. So, like, I think if an organization can do that, fine. But otherwise, standardize them. Although Pride used to mix them up a little bit as well. Yeah, I like mixing it up. I like variety. Look, I never drive home the same way I went. What are you, hiding from the terrorists or something?

No, I'm just enjoying life, Luke, okay? Let's go back into holiday questions from jaeger meister jaeger here you only get this you get one christmas movie one alcoholic beverage and one snack what are you picking and why so like is it with your family okay so like let's say you know tonight they go uh what do they call you papa in that house luke poppy padre poppy what if they're like poppy we're gonna do the family you know, tonight they go. What do they call you? Papa in that house, Luke? Poppy. Padre? Poppy. What if they're like, Poppy, we're going to do the family movie thing tonight. Abuela, too.

Maybe even Pipe's there and put that thing away. Pipe, you know what I'm saying, right? No, Pipe's in Columbia. He's in Columbia. And they're like, you know, tonight is your night. Pick the movie, the alcohol, the snack. We'll run out and get it for you. What do you want?

All right. So, wait. Is Violetta watching or not ah that is a deal yeah but what if we uh what if yeah but you don't have like you'll let her watch pg-13 look you don't care you're like yes and no like i've noticed like if there are pg movies where two kids are fighting she'll start hitting things yeah all right no the whole family's there so it's kind of like the pressure's on you to pick something that like everybody's gonna like okay wow i would probably do a christmas story um if that's the condition if it's just me and my wife and my mother-in-law it's definitely bad santa i mean for sure a whale laugh at that does she oh yeah they love it we've watched it together multiple times like she loves it um and dude there's like sodomy jokes in there like it's a whole thing but yeah the drink i don't really drink anymore but bc do you remember when we were in la we went to

that weed store and i bought that like that long tin can that had like a thousand that that pharmacy that medicine store yeah the pharmacy that had that thousand milligram drink of weed that you took a sip from and then your ears got set on fire uh i'd have that because i don't dude i don't really do the booze thing that much anymore man like it doesn't do it for me i met up a friend for beers recently i had one and a half beers like i was like you know i used to drink until my face fell off but i didn don't get by. But the snack is the interesting one. The snack is the one that I like. If I'm –

Smart food, dude. That's the best movie. Smart food. Give me a full bag just to myself. Nobody else can touch it. I like the popcorn. Yeah, that's just crack cocaine. Yeah, I do like –

But see, I like the movie theater popcorn. No, no. No, you like the smart food? Yeah, yeah. All right, what's your movie and what. No, no. No, you like the smartphone? Yeah, yeah. All right, what's your movie and what's your drink? Nobody really cares. Luke, let's keep this fun show going, all right? I mean, what would I do?

I mean, I did that with Holiday in Handcuffs the other night, Luke, and it was great. I was the only one laughing, but it was funny. There was some good one-liners in there. Was your snack Delta 8 gummies? No, my snack, no, no, it wasn't. Thank you. Let's keep this podcast going in the weird direction, Luke.

This is from The Governor. Speaking of movies, what are your most anticipated movies of 2023? So, Luke, for me, it's the Dune sequel. I mean, can't freaking wait. Cannot freaking wait. What are you looking forward to this year on the movie side? So I don't know what is exactly coming out, but I can't say I did see the advert.

Oh, the third Creed movie for sure. Dude, we got to watch that in 3d IMAX. We have to Luke. Okay. Okay. All right.

All right. In the eighth row. Okay. Okay. I do that. I will tell you that you laugh at this one, but there was a movie that came out a few years ago it was a spider-man movie and i forget exactly what they called it but it was with

um um uh the kid was a dominican kid out of spanish harlem um i think was his name was what was his name marlin what the fuck was his name um in any event it was this in i mean the animation is so spectacular it won an academy award like it was this, I mean, the animation is so spectacular. It won an Academy Award. Like, it was an amazing story. Just the perfect superhero movie that at least was illustrated anyway. The sequel to that is coming out. They've already had advertisements for it. It's about the multiverse because that's where obviously all these things are these days.

But because the first one was so good, look at the Rotten Tomatoes reviews of it. It's like 98-98, critics and audiences rotten tomatoes reviews of it it's like 98 98 critics and audiences alike i mean it's that good i'll look up the name here just a second um the sequel to that is coming out i am very very excited about that did you see this guy the trailer in the theater in the last couple months for this tom cruise movie coming out or not tom cruise tom hanks where he's like the old grumpy guy neighbor. And it's like right away within three seconds of the trailer, you're like, oh, I know how this movie ends. Like, okay, if I have to get dragged to it.

But then by the end of it, you're like, wow, Tom Hanks is really going after it here. Like this may be the heartwarming holiday movie that I need. Did you get that feel at all? No. No, no, no, no, no. Okay. So the first movie that I saw that was 2018,

it was called Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse, and the kid's name was Miles Morales. That was the sort of protagonist's name. He basically becomes the new Spider-Man. The sequel to this one is called Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse. Cannot wait for that one. Truly, truly, truly gonna... Let me pull this up real quickly the uh the rotten

tomatoes okay so into the Spider-Verse the 2018 movie 9793. I mean everybody loved this movie I took my wife to see it at uh this movie theater that wasn't far from us and she loved it so yeah for sure okay okay there you go uh I forgot what i was gonna say it probably would have sucked anyway luke but let's keep this fun game you are washed as shit for this broadcast maybe i'll try to rev back up during your next answer luke okay uh aaron g wants to get all serious about fighting again and say if you could make an adjustment to mma scoring on a one-year trial basis what would that look like so luke the ufc comes to you and the commissions and everybody mike mizzouli shows up at your house

so like you're the only one that could help us but you're only allowed to make one change one adjustment what's your single adjustment to the scoring system on a one-year trial that could change the game next year okay it depends what you mean by like a single change my single change would be to scrap the 10-point must system and use ones i wouldn't want to see it what does it happen what does one mean you either win or you don't each round or what no no the one championship where it's it's scored as a whole versus round by round yes yes i think we don't have data on that yet like there's it's still unclear so like So my belief in that system is somewhat unfounded. It's partly based on evidence and partly based on conjecture,

and I'm very honest about that. And there are disputed decisions in one, to be very clear. But I really wonder. I wonder, because of the way they score takedown defense and shit like that, to me, their system just brings a lot more clarity to the imprecise situations. I would like to see what happens. Even if not for UFC, just for Contender Series. Doesn't that become an instant handicap for fighters who can't finish?

Not necessarily, no. No? Why would it be a handicap for fighters who can't finish? Because if you are somebody who doesn't have consistent finishing ability you can become a point fighter and know how to win rounds and you just need to win more rounds than your opponent and if it's now being scored as a whole as opposed to round by round and adding up the total at the end then conceivably you could you know have have the control of most of the fight but a bit on the wrong end of the two biggest moments of landing

big strikes and having damage that if you're scoring that on a whole it's like who really won that fight well the person that wobbled them twice right what about that dude who did everything else luke i think you're gonna you're gonna send those people i mean it's gonna be better for entertainment right there's gonna be more there's gonna be even more reason to go for broke than ever before which like that's is that a good thing or is it too much i don't think it does that i mean i think if you if you're judging a fight as a whole you look to see who overall did the best work and of course your mind might naturally break it up into rounds although you don't score it in that way but i've seen plenty of people who were point fighters thrive in or you know guys who weren't dynamic finishers thrive in that in that kind of a system

and also like here's what we really need the 10 point must system is not terrible for you know things that are fairly clear right for situations that are fairly clear of course there's controversies there too but in general if one person was basically better than the other one the judging system more or less gets it right enough the big problem that we have are close fights and the system that we have there is not good for for judging it i would like to see because i don't know but i would like to see if the one system is better there do you think there should just be a more ironed out detail of what a 10 8 and 10 round and the separation between the two and i know a few years ago they tried to make it where there'd be more 10 8 rounds

but it feels like now there's like that's gone all the way back in the other direction. But like, would you like to see more of specific intentionality put into the rules so that there would be more 10, eight and 10, seven rounds that would tell a better example of how much like, cause we only give you a 10, eight round when there's monster damage, but what if in a round there wasn't damaged, but you just completely outclassed the other person. Could that be a 10, eight round Luke? Would that change things at all?

No, I don't. If we're going to really experiment, let's experiment. Let's completely scrap the old one that we have tried over and over and over and over to fix. Let's scrap it. Let's try a new approach and see what that yields. How about just five judges for title fights only instead of three, and we take out the high and the low? How about that?

Just for title fights. Extra security to get it right. That, uh, the high and the low. How about that? Just for title fights, extra, extra security to get it right. That wouldn't be the end of the world. I think that would be better than what we have potentially. But again, if we're really trying to experiment, like let's just, let's just fucking go nuts.

You know, you're not going to get a dirt bag system with the one system. It does work. How much better does it work? I'd like to find out. All right. The average as AF podcast average is F right. The Average as AF podcast, Average as F, right, Luke? They say

what family member do you dread seeing during the holidays? Come on. They won't see this. Let's stir the pot a little bit. Luke, they want you to have an airing of the grievances right here, right now. No, I'm not going to sit here and blow up my family. But the thing is we celebrate Thanksgiving.

My family really loves thanksgiving they're not like diehards on christmas in that way so i i don't even i'll see my dad which is fine um uh and i might even see my other family members but like it's christmas is not necessarily all that big to them besides besides dude my sister-in-law my wife's brother is due for a baby january 3rd so i'm gonna see them soon anyway. Wow. The first that he knows of at least, right? Who? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, first that he knows. Well, I mean, it's not Pipe. It's my actual brother. Oh, I screwed up. I screwed it up there, Luke. Okay, I'm sorry. No, no, no. It's my actual brother's wife.

Yeah, congratulations to them, Luke. That's great. I mean, is Tukey excited about having a... Super, super excited. Getting a young cousin. that's going to be wholesome as crap yeah this guy wants us to shit on our family luke but um yeah i'm not doing that i'm not doing that yeah yeah that's that's not it's not nice all right let's keep i'm not going to do that either all right well you know i mean look who's going to be the one that potentially ruins christmas in my house it's probably reggie jackson if he ends up you know i mean he'll just make a run for the tree luke and run right through the middle of it all up

through it and ornaments fawned over left and right the things swaying and no remorse dude not a single ounce of remorse from that dude you know what i'm saying let's be honest dude cats and dogs too they're dumb as shit i mean they're just stupid animals yeah they're wonderful though luke i don't know they're great they're great but they're dumb they're dumb they're fucking stupid yeah yeah you're right you're right oh great one from robert q here what can we expect from morning combat next year any meet and greet or live episodes happening 2023 in the u.s thanks guys keep up the hard work great work happy holidays you see there's a lot of people in the u.S. that are bitter that the U.K. gets a show before they do. I've heard them say –

That's the worst argument in the world. Well, they go, hey, East Coast show. We can't get one East Coast live show. And to be fair here to folks, the plan was to do a live show, New York City, this past November. I mean, Ariel and Chuck did one too, I think, for The Ringer. We were going to do something like that, going to be a fun entertainment, hands-on, fan-friendly one. But to be fair, Luke, we kind of behind the scenes said this opportunity came about at the, you know,

in London when we'll be there February 8th with the Pod Live Festival. So we just sort of, you know, robbed from Peter to play Paul and said, why don't we put all of our eggs in that basket? But, Luke, we've already gone public and said for the debacle that our summer live show was everyone there loved it. They were like, this is great. Come on. You know what I mean? So that's in play for sure. And look, are we going to do a tour of Europe? Not likely Luke, unless, you know, we get a big hit song that comes out of this. Um, but in some ways thison show could be just for our own creative ideas and stuff as as a as an incubator as a test case to see if this is something that's scalable i mean look

could you imagine if we showed up to like the four biggest fight cards of the year regardless of sport and and did the live show treatment in a different city each time and made it entertaining as f and you know insulted people and their families right to their face, Luke, because that's what comedians do. Dude, we had a guy on staff. There's only a thousand of us in the world, you know? Hold on. We had a guy on staff.

This is, BC did this the other day and I fucking died laughing, although I joined in, so I'm no better. But this guy on staff was like, hey, one of my fraternity brothers, you know, he's a big MK donk, which he was, like legitimately he like legitimately he was he was like it's his birthday and blah blah blah could you could you um could you you know give him a shout out like oh like a fruit not like like cameo but just for free like on his phone to send it to him and then the guy started giving us details like yo his wife's name is like i'm gonna make something up like jasmine or whatever and bc goes all right one two three go so the guy holds up the phone and bc goes luke

you'll be great is if the donks and this guy's name was like steve or something he's like if the guy if our fans like steve would just completely let us fuck their wives uh i don't think i said it as grossly as that luke okay all right you know the the intent you know it may have been similar like scalable you know game you literally said it'd be great if Steve let us bang his wife. I mean, that was exactly what you said. That's a private cameo, Luke. That's not supposed to go mainstream, all right? Just for our fans to enjoy.

I was like, oh, my God, I can't believe it. I'm just going to join him. Well, actually, yeah, okay. What's the origin of her family? Yeah, there it is. Are they in the giving holiday spirit, if you know what I'm saying? I mean, look, would you look like, I mean, I don't know, Luke, do I want to show up at monster events and be part of the action

and have a fun show and have fighters attend and fans attend? Here's the thing, I want to do all that, but then if we're going to do that plus all the the grunt work and I'm saying grunt work, like we're lucky to have the job as you've indicated many times, but like, dude, by the time we leave those things after all those broadcasts, it's like,

I don't want to talk to anyone. I have nothing left to say. I had nothing left to say. And some of those weeks after like the third day, much less the sixth, you know? So yeah, we do want to do it.

We probably will. I mean, I suspect that we will, but you know, they're going to be few and far between. Look, anything else to say to, I believe it was Robert. I forgot his name already. His question, Robert Q there about, uh, beyond the live shows. What, what are you, do you have hopes and dreams for MK in 2023? People don't understand. Like we have the MK stuff and we have like our individual partnerships beyond just the MK scope. And we do call-in-the-fights for the prelims now for Showtime Championship Boxing, which is a lot of fun. I'll just say this, man. Don't get me wrong. I think UFC's going to have a big year. They're starting off with the big stuff. Bellator's going to be on CBS. Dude, boxing is poised this not a great year for

ufc blah blah blah again it's not just ufc but in general mk is going to be busy because next year man especially the first two quarters it's going to be on it's going to be on there's a ton of big fights happening all over the combat sports space and we're going to be there for most of them so you know pack a lunch yeah i mean what do i want i want mk to continue to um move into those fields that you're talking about and shout out to showtime that week when we get to host the big you know way in live you know or the big press conference or calling these prelim fights which is you know no secret to anyone what i love to do and to get to do that with you luke that's just been such a bonus as well. So I hope we continue expansion on that, but also

Luke, I'm looking at RSD. I want to have a big year RSD wise. I want to see that thing go full bloom into the vision that I, that I think it will be. And I think we've already effed around a little bit and got some pretty cool results in terms of the different kinds of interviews, but I want to step that shit up, Luke. I want that. I mean, I've said it before and you laughed at me, but I said, one day we're going to be known more for RSD than anything else. You know what? I didn't laugh at that, but it definitely takes time to build, but I do think we are on the right track with it.

Like we're finally putting some momentum behind it. And yeah, I think it's going to be, I think next year's, I think 2023's RSDs will be much bigger than 2022's. And we had some good ones this year. And hopefully we don't get fired next year. That's probably the job. And by the way, I have to renegotiate my 2022. So we had some good ones this year. And hopefully we don't get fired next year. That's probably the job. And by the way, I have to renegotiate my contract. So fingers crossed.

Yeah. I mean, you could end up. I mean, what if Vox just backs up the truck? You know, you're like, fuck you. You know? Yeah. I'd push it off a cliff. I mean, we don't have to say that publicly, Luke.

But, you know, Mikey had mentioned before that. It's a metaphorical cliff. It's metaphor. And also never going to happen. A friend of the show and, you know, UFC badass, Billy Q Luke, has gone the only fans route, but to write fight blogs for fans. And we've certainly seen, you know, a bunch of people come forward and say, enjoying it, but be like, look, just so you know, I'm not doing the nudes, no pipes, no only, only nothing.

This is just about, you know, intimate stuff. You know, will MK ever expand nothing. This is just about, you know, intimate stuff. Um, you know, will MK ever expand into the pay for play territory, you know, beyond just showing our hogs, Luke possible, but I just think we're so busy next year that we're not going to have time for that. We don't have time for this. We barely have time. Yeah. We don't. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's hard, Luke. It's hard. Oh, let's keep it going in the miscellaneous category. Luke, let's go to go to um i did shit in my room yeah you should probably invest in some better uh setup there uh oh this is good from cj what advice would both of us give to a new dad luke what what's like your go-to advice when someone's like

oh you got a three-year-old daughter give me some advice bro um new dad hire a nanny is that what you're gonna go with luke if you have the money um hire a nanny but even that no because that's not really like being a dad that's just being like a manager of household operations which is not the same thing always um being a dad i mean look i'll jump in here luke what's what's the there you know we both travel a lot and i'm sure a lot of people that listening have jobs where they have to travel a lot and it's a grind and it adds up and it makes you really appreciate everything you have when you come home and look you only get so much time with them and my kids are 14 freshmen freshmen in high school,

like, you know, on the verge of becoming men. And then you go, well, my God, I got three years, four years, you know, guaranteed four years left. Maybe, you know, who knows what else? Um, like when met with those tough decisions and we've all made them. And sometimes we still make them today where it's like, oh, that opportunity pays so much.

I got to take it. Sometimes you have to. But when met with the tough decisions in life, if you choose what your job is, family putting in the time over, you know, when you can not long-term, it's going to, it's going to pay off. There's nothing like this time. You don't have to be good at this job. Just be there. Show up. Be there for the moment. Have a smile on your face. Teach them that anything's possible in their life.

Imagine that, Luke. Imagine you start teaching that from the first day. Anything's possible if you believe, Yoel. Right? Go. Imagine that, Luke. Yeah. Be present.

Just be there. Be there as much as you can. Be there for the recitals. Be there for dinner. Be there for the morning. Just be there. Be there as often as you can. And honestly, many of the problems or the things you're supposed to do kind of work itself out but just be there yeah i'm i'm hard on my kids look in certain categories you

know manners hygiene that kind of stuff but i'm even learning on the go like it wasn't worth turning that thing as a dad into a major blow up you You know, the kid's going to be okay tomorrow. Let it go. You know what I'm saying, Luke? Yeah, I'm getting slightly better about that, except when Tukey writes on my walls or throws my shit in the garbage. Wakes up your sleep by jumping on you and turning the radio on full blast to Daddy Janky. At first it was cute, but now it's like, you know, no,

we don't have 4 a.m. disco parties in here, okay? You know what I'm saying? This isn't the clubs of Barranquilla, right, Luke? You know what I'm saying? This isn't the clubs of Barranquilla, right, Luke? You know what I'm saying? Barranquilla. Yeah, this is D.C., you know? All right, yeah. I mean, look, it's the greatest gift of all time, isn't it? And

also the greatest, and I mean this in a positive way, like the greatest challenge. Yes. You know, because you have to set the example, and so you really have to begin to think about how you're living your life. And they will repeat back to you. You're good and you're bad. So you have to be on top of that. So, um, you gotta listen. I don't, I don't listen enough. I'm trying hard. I'm trying hard. You gotta listen because you want to raise people, Luke, that have, um, strong opinions, strong beliefs. Um, you gotta give them that chance to grow that

muscle. You know, you got to listen. It's hard. You just want to come down and be like, I told you, put those toys away. What do you want to fight? You want to fight? We're going to fight. We're going to fight right now. You know, like, no, no, no.

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this thing going. I was like, you know, are we on the improv stage? i was it was like it was like you know are we on the improv stage if i threw something out there would you take it and manipulate it a little yes if it was good if it was good you gotta start somewhere okay uh let's go back to uh fighting chris says uh no we already got that one let's keep it going over here luke uh julian m what fighter is on a hype train that will certainly be derailed by the end of 2023 god that's the worst way to ask it but luke from molly mccann was on a hype train until aaron you know got there she said she's taking some time off uh which is probably a good idea actually i

actually really trains have been patty pimblitt whether he ends up living up to it or not is on a hype train sean o'malley's on a hype train so we're not asking it from the standpoint of whose hype train is going to come crashing down but which fighter who is getting a lot of attention Luke may have to go through some learning phases here next year could be Patty um depending on how they match make him and you know there still is a little bit unknown about him you never know quite I mean i don't think this is true but mma is surprising hamzat you know who knows also john jones like oh he'll just come back and win again he might like who the hell knows but he might get roughed up too like um there's a couple ways of guys who

have like big and connor jesus dude i mean who even knows what to expect about connor and of course he's had a sort of a steady decline for a lot of reasons, but if he goes out there and gets viciously KO'd, which I'm not saying will happen, who the hell knows, but if it happens, that would be bad. What about Volk? We're all cheering for this Dare to be Great move against Mahachev.

I am. The thing is, it's not in his own weight class and even if he loses, he's still the champion. It's not the same as... That's why I like Dare to be Great moments. Sometimes you can frame it as playing with house money but it's a it's you're risking something too he's not in an f around and find out moment here at loop right he's not gonna get hurt here right no i mean he's also like a very proven talent uh in the middle of his peak like connor was a proven talent and has taken all this time off and of course he had the terrible injury and everything but it's a little bit different like Volk is hot right now you know okay okay maybe maybe this will be a tough year

for Dylan Danis in terms of not living up to the hype Jesus do you see what Gordon Ryan said about him yeah yeah yeah I did like he's got a remarkable ability to stay relevant despite not doing anything and it really is quite except taking L's but um golly dude i mean i don't even know what to say about that uh we have from cnm which is one of those irish ways which probably like it's cian so it's probably pronounced like crown i think it's sean sean maybe uh if you could pick one president that you know the other would hate what would it be so what if we did like a malca showtime morning combat secret santa luke or chinese grab bag or whatever you call it maybe that name hasn't aged well i'm not really sure

whatever you want to call it in your family luke so we had to pick each other a gift secretly that we didn't know the other was going to uh that was coming what would you get purposely to to like to like mess with me. Any movie in a foreign language? Any book with words? I almost said a book. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to show up with the Bible at your door,

Luke. Okay. You know what I mean? I'm not going to, I'm not going to bring you hair dye. I mean, you're not going to use it. I'm not going to use it,

dude. No, that, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. hair die uh uh and obviously you can't just bring like a bag of dog shit like you know it has to be like

a real thing you know yeah yeah that's fine i would just give you a bunch of french and french and like movies that you know in in french, in French and then like Korean or something. Just, I know you would never watch them. What if I rang your doorbell and you opened up and it's me and Joanna, that might be the answer right there. Right. I'd be like, hope you brought jackets, slam the door in your fucking face. All right. Let's go over to a E to desk. He won. Hey guys, I'm curious,

which form of content you each prefer creating the preview or the review for example previewing a fight or event before it occurs or reviewing one following it my guess would be bc prefers the preview while luke sides with the review chairs and i'll see you on february 8th yes luke d tedchi. Remember that name? I'm going to see that guy in person, Luke. Okay. I don't know if he's right about you, but he's right about me. I like the review better. What about you? Yeah. I like that. I like the build better because look as in MMA, as, as you and I strengths are what we play into Luke, you love the breakdown and you're even better than it after the fact to go back and do the work and see the trends.

I love the story of the fight in a lot of ways. I love the preview. I love the human struggle. I love the, you know, overcoming doubt, all that stuff. And just as much as I love the fights in the cage. But yeah, my favorite thing to do, like, as I still write for CBS is I love writing, you know, the big feature ahead of a fight. And that doesn't mean the big feature where you sit down with them. that is like the big feature column where like this is the angle or the question

that must be answered in the fight i love that stuff luke yeah i like the review yeah you're like i can't wait for this stream to be over with but they told me i had to keep doing it so hey let's keep doing it luke all right um paul g says in question about the live show percentage chance of the vegas live show returning for ifw in 2023 probably pretty good right probably probably pretty good yeah i mean assuming if a few things have to play out the right way but i'd say the chances are decent yeah i mean you know maybe maybe, they were, I was told by many a donk that the drinks were like, not spiked, but they went all in on the alcohol and the drinks there at the, at the, at the beer house. Yeah. I mean, they weren't like, you know, God bless the beer house.

They weren't, they were tasty margaritas, but they weren't like, you know, they leaned into them. Let's put it that way. They leaned into it. Donks bought you drink, punch donks bought you a drink. Punch Drunk Pete bought you a drink. Maybe he put it, like, they probably don't want us to break this down, the potential of this, but Punch Drunk Pete may have roofied you, Luke. He probably just gave me COVID. That's where I got COVID, I think.

Luke, real quick, as it pertains to the donks that we love, and I know we're going to see a bunch of them in February, and it's going to be awesome. The ones in Vegas, seriously, the interaction with our people it's great i love you guys um is damian the donk still alive i don't know the reigning and defending uh mk fan of the year donk of the year i don't know either i mean he put us on his body luke yeah he did do that and then you know but he puts lots of things on his body that are ill-considered you know that's true i like that guy a lot i enjoyed interviewing him last year remember he did a podcast for a while about our podcast and then spun it off into his own mma podcast i cheer

for that guy mma alien i think is his alias i don't know whatever uh let's go back we got a couple more here jason g wants to know any embarrassing or hilarious christmas story so looking back on your life, you know, oh, we set the tree on fire. Anything crazy around Christmas or embarrassing that happened? The tree fell over three times last year. So three times we had to redo it. That sucked. That's great. But I've never had like a crazy blown out Christmas. No, I've had a blown out one. My mother-in-law fell into the tree a couple of years ago.

That was a debacle, Luke. The cats, oh, the kids one time took a, when they were like two, they took wiffle ball bats to the tree and like, you know, went to town on it. And just this destructive, like, you know, like devilish grin on their faces. They were doing it. But yeah yeah nothing too crazy my dad dropping that big toy he put together for me at like three in the morning it's just one of those legendary stories you know like completely just dropping it down the stairs into a million pieces after staying up for hours putting it together it's just you know great great uh

haven't really had that i mean look you ever drink too much and throw up all over everybody on christmas morning Nothing like that. No, nothing like that. I've never done that. I mean, I've been to people's houses on Thanksgiving, and I saw that they ate like peasants. So that was fun. The power move, would you agree the power move as like a middle schooler would be if you were somebody's boyfriend, you'd break up right before Christmas so that you didn't have to buy a gift and do that like awkward, you know, power move is just to go straight through Christmas

and not buy him anything anyway. All right. There you go. There you go. All right. Uh, let's go over to, uh, Austin a and the world in a world of shitty combat movies. What is the best movie in your opinion that shows the most realistic fight choreography this can include any movie with a boxing mma kickboxing plot when i say realistic what do they mean dude most hand hand-to-hand fighting is not very good like when i say realistic you mean like real real according to what standard like how people fight in the street i guess or maybe how they fight professionally so john wick did a really good job of having like genuine people who knew fighting and like real judo and real striking and

the hand-to-hand combat so like a lot of that is done according to what i would call like textbook right it's like textbook fighting but that's not that's not realistic in that sense um but again i'm going to go back to it dude like the raid not realistic in the sense of that's what fights look like but in terms of what guys can do with the power of imagination also adherence to best practices so to speak in technique and then bringing it to life but you know john wick does a really good job but dude all the movies that we grew up on were like they weren't realistic at all and they were fucking great you know yeah they were I mean I mean try to watch you know Drago versus Balboa and try to correlate it to any actual real boxing blood sport like blood sports are just like I mean it just it's such a classic it was I mean

there's not much about that that's like super realistic uh but it's great you know who cares not related to the spirit of this question but Luke I watched the making of Dune because I'm obsessed right now and you know people are already hating me for it they think I'll make it six pages through that book and put it away but do the fight sequences and doing with that short infighting with the swords Luke uh how they broke them down and trade them train them dude that's good man there's yeah that's fun yeah dude that's you never heard me say a bad word about doing it's a well-made movie but when people say realistic if you want to see realistic just watch tiktok fights like they're not very good you know so if you want like like fun action sequences there's

nothing really realistic about that okay uh doom face says luke can you tell me your top five mcs and a song you love from each of them that's a a lot. Luke. He says, I am also a huge Sean price fan. And when I found out you're a fan, I've been curious about others. Also nice Sean P statue, uh, BC, what are your favorite hip hop artists and also bonus points. If you guys can freestyle lines. Wow. This guy's asking a lot, Luke, you know, what do you want me to do? I'm not freestyling. I read books. Um, who at least you consider your core core favorite MCs of all time?

So definitely Sean Price. A great song by him would be Onionhead. You can check that out. Vinny Paz. I mean, I could name a bunch of different songs by him. I would say either Cheesesteaks or The Coffin. Either one of those is pretty great. You know, obviously Notorious B.I.G. was tremendous, I would say.

Obviously, and Shouts to Frankie Edgar, Kick in the Door is a great one as well. Who are some other MCs that I really like? I wouldn't put them all the time, but I really like his work these days. I would say Esoteric from Zarface. And one of his great songs would be, God, he's got a bunch, Jesus.

Zardicus is a good one. It's not like one of his best ones, but it's fun. And then I would say a fifth one, Nas. And then I would say It Ain't Hard to Tell. Nas' It Ain't Hard to Tell. These are some great ones. All my reference points would be old,us, it ain't hard to tell. These are some great ones. All my reference points would be old, Luke, when I was in this game,

but my favorite MC has always been Q-Tip of the Tribe Called Quest, Luke. Nothing wrong with that call. And this guy, Juan. And, you know, obviously, Rakim, you know, paid in full. I mean, that era of him just being the best in the world for, you know, Eric being Rakim at that point. But point but no i've said it before i'm a massive tribe fan tupac um digital underground luke with more of a party ridiculous style but you know at birth tupac i love them and uh third base luke who are absolutely legitimate you know the the gas face and i mean the cactus album and the weasel and the commercial album

that they followed it with are just badass as heck but uh no tribe public enemy or or my you know i you know i don't know does public enemy hold up as well like dude i was the biggest fan ever of them in the early 90s like just i mean i definitely feel like if you look back on their records especially in the time in which they were making them they really hold up it's just that the modern sound of rap is so far removed from that that they're barely even the same genre but like you know their production was incredible and you know there was almost like they felt like a rock their social commentary is as relevant as ever you know what i mean it's as relevant as ever so i mean but dude the class the classics are the classics i love i love the crap we didn't mention jay-z i'll say this for jay-z

it's it's not really one of his better songs by any stretch of the imagination but his flow ever heard 22 twos no oh i never ate kills it on the song called 22 twos it's amazing wow i remember when chris berman was caught on camera off camera that time he was like you ever have those deuce deuces in canada you know those muscle relaxers and you know i was like dude, I would love to party with Chris Berman. Yeah. I mean, can you imagine how many pills and fucking pork and fucking, I mean, he's a widow. Now, can you put a little, like, you know, we can, we don't have to like, you know, I know I'm just saying like, no pork, like, like the way he's probably eating and drinking

and consuming every vice imaginable. God bless him. Uh, let's maybe get a couple more and then we'll close the shop down. Luke, let's look in this thing. Hey, this from Evan M. Hey, Luke and Brian, love the show. My question is, if both of your significant others were paid to watch a morning combat marathon of about 30 episodes start to finish, how many episodes could they realistically get through and which one of

you would get divorced first i mean what is this guy evan trying to do here luis can we skip this question it sucks a real man would skip it i agree with you i agree with you 100 all right we'll even edit this out after the fact yeah all, all right. No, just leave this in. We're raw-dogging the audience here. GG says, if Luke and BC switch bodies for a day, remember like in Vice Versa or Freaky Friday, what would be the first thing you'd do as one another and how long until you'd evidently ruined each other's marital, parental relationships?

And he also says... Dude, are we talking about banging each other's wives on this podcast and he also says uh dude we talk about banging each other's wives on this podcast i'm really not into that tuki for life biatch as his cat as his uh hashtag at the end so luke if we if we did a freaky friday on each other um not not not touching each other significant others or being a bad parent what what would you do right away luke go deep into my record collection and experience what I'm experiencing? No. I would drain your ATM.

Yeah, I would shit on your counters. The only thing I'm doing, if I'm you for like 24 hours, I'm doing nothing but stealing from you and then committing larceny. That's it, dude. I mean, and arson. I'm just setting all your shit on fire. I'm doing nothing else. I'm going to assume that you have hidden vapes like in delta eights and like various like whole like cracks in your wall like i'd be going all around your house and just collecting yeah that's dude

that's a very fair assumption by the way a very fair assumption no this these questions are now getting disgusting mikey mikey is saying if i had if i was you for a day i would get on your phone and then just dm straw weights constantly hey hey my name is i'm feeling these margaritas 115er luke i your liver might actually be in a better place than mine like probably not alcohol related because you used to pound it back in the day 52 beers to feel it but you know i could do so much damage a couple in farms with a healthy liver right now you have no idea all right my gallbladder's all messed up would you know all too well yeah wow we are just old pos is here uh we got time like one or two more and we gotta call it a day all right all right uh chase asks which christmas character would be

most successful in the ufc theoretically theoretically he says clearly this is a bc question probably heat miser luke you don't know that guy all right all right um you just burn everybody in the cage uh this question's so lame luke a bad saying i'll add heavyweight probably yeah uh mitch g says luke do you have a favorite Pacino and De Niro movie separately? What's your favorite in each of their canons? Taxi Driver. It's going to be great for De Niro. Dude, that thing.

That's a movie you ran into. No, sorry. I'm going to back that up. Raging Bull. Raging Bull. Yeah. It's a great one. That's a serious performance.

For Pesci, I'll tell you. You know what I've been watching? It's not my favorite by a long shot. Not P pesci i'll tell you you know what i'm watching it's not my favorite by a long shot luc pacino pacino what are you doing here well i thought you said so who are the two deniro and pacino the two guys you know that they're the guys uh i will say any given sunday is a little bit slept on it's a little bit slept already given saturday whatever it was on sunday uh was a little bit slept on. Yeah, Sunday it was. Ooh. Dude, the Deer Hunter with De Niro. Dude, De Niro's best role in my...

Look, Taxi Driver is incredible, and if you re-watch it today after not re-watching it since you were a teenager... Since you were a teenager, it's still... Taxi Driver still hits you over the head at the end. I mean, it is just insane. Especially if you've seen the Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix. Yeah, but dude deniro and um deniro and deer hunter is it for me or uh dude pacino's

role pacino's performance in godfather one yeah in one to me is just amazing you know young michael yeah just uh just i mean as was james conn in that one i know everybody loves deniro on the second one when he's playing young the younger version of the guy. But, dude, what's your – I mean, Pacino, you could go Son of a Woman, but that's more like modern crossover fun. Dude, I go to the gritty 70s Pacino. I'm talking like Dog Day Afternoon, Luke. I'm talking about – Dude, I've never seen that.

That's Matt Snyder's movie. It's really good. Yeah, I've never seen that. That's Matt Snyder's movie. It's really good. Yeah, I've got to see that. You know, all the ones like Serpico, dude, that's a power performance. Serpico. How could I forget? And Justice for All, when Pacino's the lawyer.

At that point, he's just basically playing the same character, and it's great. I love it. I didn't see Cruisin' yet, Luke, from Pacino, but maybe there's still time. Yeah, yeah. All right, we can call it a day. So, Luke, that's it.

What is this airing? Friday? Friday. So, happy holidays to everyone, right? All that good stuff. Take us out, BC. Thank you to Mikey Mormal producing CBS Sports and all our great sponsors, all our great team at Malka, Showtime,

CBS Sports. We love you all. Thank you for making this show as fun as it is and your fans for tuning in. Thank you. MorningCombat.store if you're looking for a little bit of merch. And, of course, Showtime, the label, that page. You can get 30 free days right now at Showtime.com. And, dude, six months at $3.99 after that? Like, seriously, they're going to hit you over the head with boxing this calendar year, okay?

Bellator MMA coming on, okay? The Cosby doc is still there if you want to watch it, all right? It's fantastic. So that's it. That's all I got. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, whatever you celebrate or don't.

Just be safe. Don't drink and drive. Don't text and drive. And enjoy the holidays. They used to have this big joke on my dad's side of the family, Luke, where at Christmas, everybody would go, hey, did you make a profit? You know, Luke, I hope you make a profit this Christmas. I hope so, too.

All right, BC, that's good. You know, in terms of my loyal games, you're incredibly disloyal. I mean, it's just unbelievable. Yeah, we're out. Hey, Merry Christmas, right? Yeah.