MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 2022 MMA & Boxing Predictions | Francis Ngannou | Quick Hitters | Ep. 246

Episode Date: December 29, 2021

On Episode 246 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian give their predictions for the combat sports world in 2022. Which champions will face the toughest challenges? Which fights do they want to see? Next up the guys discuss Francis Ngannou's status with the UFC. Is it really possible his manager hasn't talked to them in six months? The boys close out the show with Dead wrong and Fan submissions. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn 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, reveley, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. it's the end of the year as we know it, and I feel fine. Hello, everyone. It is whatever fucking episode it is of Morning Combat. Today is the day. It's the last episode. I don't know what the number is, of this podcast for the year 2021. I'm merely one half of your hosting duo. My name is Luke Thomas. I join you from the capital, Los Estados Unidos Unidos while I hear people talk in my ear. And I am partnered with the viceroy slash prince of Connecticut. He is wearing clothes that are, frankly, inexplicable.

But you know what? That's him. It's Brian Campbell. What's up, Brian Campbell? Look, I take direct umbrage with our great producer, Matt Snyder, and the staff who have ridiculed my midlife crisis dad hat i think i really am a cross between prime post-retirement randy couture and like a young fidel castro in this hat i really think i'm making it work luke maybe one day we'll laugh about it but uh for now your boy bc and the mk tie dye is uh is pretty much on fire and And Luke, I did want to apologize for the people in holding this show down Monday on my shoulders, right?

Like I was, you know, holding up the walls of Jericho. My sound was shite. I don't know why, but we're going to fix that moving forward. So apologies to all. You know, what else could I be, right, Luke? All apologies, you know what I mean? Mary. Yeah, right, Luke? All apologies, you know what I mean? Mary. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, there you have it. We are here today for what is quite literally the last show of the year. There'll be no show on Friday. There is one more event, Rising 33, which will be New Year's Eve day, and New Year's Eve, I suppose. But, yeah, there you have it. We're here. We're here to discuss the year in the sport and what might be ahead.

Okay, so housekeeping. First things first, if you are watching on YouTube, thumbs up on the video and click subscribe. If you are listening on an audio podcast, please give us a nice review, especially on Apple, where we are asking for five-star reviews. And you can see if you're watching on YouTube, all the various places you can give us a follow on social media bc i am told that we have holiday items not merely for sale but for special sale over at morningcombat.store hollywood our holiday line of tip...

Head on over to our website right now because these supplies, they're not going to last. They need to go as the camera shifts to Luke for no reason. And as there's more audio in our ear. Wow, Luke, what a great start. Look, these items need to go. They've been slashed. They've been marked down. We want you to own them.

And also, I'm told this, guys. The Drug Rugs 2.0, they have sold like H-cakes, Luke. They are just flying out the door. There is two remains. We want those gone. Apparently, I'm cutting out. Luke, can you hear me at all i don't know so your your voice is fine but your screen keeps freezing there you go it's better now did you what you got that mcdonald's wi-fi where are you i mean you know an award-winning show like ours luke you'd wonder why we still have so many uh college av club issues going on right now great stuff here uh all right well there you have

it uh so you can go to the store you can get holiday items on sale until they're gone until next year which is underwear sweaters beanies on sale all for a limited time and as you mentioned the drug rugs are almost gone quite literally a handful or less left so if you are going to get a drug rug literally now is the time. Do you want to try a short time as well? You know, people are sending me pics of other people wearing random drug rugs like around the country. Like Oteel Burbridge, our friend from Dead & Company, was at Walmart

and he saw a guy with it. He snaps a picture and texts me. He's like, thought of you today. Luke, it's becoming a thing, you know? I mean, even if you look back at doc documentary number one from morning combat our sound guy nolan you know the guy with the power crystals luke even he was rocking a drug rug before it was cool again so uh you know it's a revolution that i i would love to be the face of uh okay all right there's a bug on my motherfucking desk that's weird yeah i'm gonna kill his ass

why don't you clean up your house before talking about anybody else luke okay yeah that's what i'm doing i just killed this motherfucking bug uh okay so there's that as well bc um showtime.com for a 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you can bounce it's up to you and uh bc i didn't i didn't really ask you this uh how was your christmas and what do you have planned for new year's look this was my second straight covid christmas as a lot of people endured no travel anywhere no family you know just your it just who's in your house and luke this this is actually like the way to do it right you know pajamas all day napping left and, eating bad, rewatching all your favorite

bad Christmas movies. This was great, Luke. I didn't even know that you went on vacation for Christmas, Luke. How was it? Sort of, yeah. Yeah, we rented a small, very small cabin in the Shenandoah Mountains or the Shenandoah area in the mountains. And yeah, it was beautiful, dude. Although it was kind of funny. We had to pull into the place that we had rented. We had to go past these two neighbors that just live there all the time. And they had the kind of flags where, the flag setup, I should say. They didn't just put a flag like attached to their house.

Separate from the house, both of them had flag poles. We had to walk out to that bitch and clip it and then raise it and then one of them had the American flag and then the Dixie flag which is you know whatever it is what it is their motto is don't tread on me Luke okay yeah I know it's like dude no one is coming for you out here

let me just explain that to you don't you don't you worry the liberals from the city with their mochacinos they ain't coming here to take this shit from you. But the other neighbor, he had the same situation. He had the flagpole separate from the house where you had to go there and raise it. He had the Confederate flag. And then under that flag, he had the Punisher mask

that was highlighted the colors of the American flag, but it was only inside the mask and then two m16s behind it you you think they were um they probably were on the run from january 6th you don't know yeah i was gonna say out in the hills i was gonna say next next uh thursday luke you can probably go back to that house and loot it for all its chemical weapons but while they are uh out on the steps yes thank you anyway, it was nice to get the mountain air was beautiful and getting away from the city is always great, but I'm actually happy to be back.

And I'm the father of a two-year-old, so to answer the question, by the way, I don't have any plans for New Year's because how could I? Yeah, it's COVID Christmas again. I'm going to spend New Year's watching many balls drop in my house. Luke, Tookie, your lovely daughter, did she, you know, this is what it's all, it's about the kids, Luke. Like Wu-Tang, Christmas is for the children at the end of the day. Did she have a, you know, a dream Christmas? I don't even know if you, Luke, you don't, do you even celebrate Christmas, Luke?

You don't believe in any, you don't even believe in yourself. Why would I not celebrate Christmas? What would that, what would be the reasoning there? I don't know, Christ you don't even believe in yourself why would i not celebrate christmas what would that what would be the reasoning there i don't know christ it's a pagan it's kind of in the name luke okay you know i mean it's just yeah i ignore that part i don't give a shit okay but merry xmas luke to you just to say no no we celebrate we said my wife is a little bit more religious than me like they are catholic they did get baptized it's a thing tuki has to get baptized when she goes back to columbia next time so it's a whole thing but uh she had a great christmas first of all in kanto which we had seen in the theaters came out on disney plus bob quiz what have i watched more volk versus max 2 or in kanto on streaming i gotta tell

you in kanto's in the lead by a country fucking mile at this point i love that every conversation of you and i devolves to hey bc have you seen that insert latin-based disney animated movie and me going no no okay and you're like well that's the biggest i'm in a space where i have to watch a lot of disney plus whether it's latin images or otherwise but uh so that was great and do she cleaned up she fucking cleaned it we got her do you know what a balance bike is no a balance bike is so when we were kids how'd you come up you went tricycle training wheels bike that was the sort of standard yeah a balance bike has what no pedals and you just use your feet to keep yourself up yeah it's exactly right apparently it's supposed to be better for you than training wheels as they say in terms of development so we got we had to fall face first on the pavement without helmets.

That's what the early 80s were like for us. That's exactly right. Do all the playgrounds. Now the ground itself is all soft and shit. I'm like, dude, this was not like this when I was a kid. Let me just explain it to you.

But then the larger point beyond that was we got our bunch of Barbies. We got our bunch of Encanto stuff. We got her books. I mean, she cleaned up. Don't worry about old Tooks. She was, and she's at the park right now, so she's money. All right.

Splash pads galore for young Tookie. Look, at this point, our MMA fans are probably longing for some Jake Paul talk just to get us into the show. We can sort of skip that. We're going to have a semi-normal show. We will do fan subs today. We will do, by the way, morningcombat at gmail.com. We will do dead wrongs today, but we want to start with a little bit different. This is the last show of the year.

BC, I'm going to call a bit of an audible, if I may. I want to talk about MMA in 2022. I want to talk about boxing in 2022, and I want to talk about them in this year as well. But before we do that, dude, it has been a great year for this show. Like, honestly, one of the more rewarding career years I've had since I got into MMA. And I don't know that I was necessarily expecting it to go the way it did. It just did. So, BC, what was your favorite MK moment from the past year i mean i could easily say the upset bid to win that great award there the world mma awards best mma programming great moment but luke it was

connor dustin three weekend in july las vegas in our live show and if you recall luke as i know you do um it wasn't like we had you know know, 5,000 people watching us live at the Park MGM, but we did a live show there and we had, you know what, 50, 100 people. And it was just, you know, an explosion of love. It was us give it, them receive it. And then in return, back the other way, you know, we drank out of a shoe. We spun a wheel. We went nuts. That was sort of a organic, wholesome, joyful connection moment. We got to meet Damien the Donk from the 209 shout out. And by the way, Damien just created and put out on YouTube. You can look for it. All the best moments from morning combat of this calendar year. So it's a fun watch to go look

back. But, you know, he ended up getting the tattoo on his left bicep luke our connection to our fans whether it be aaron from washington driving halfway across the country to deliver handmade beef jerky that he may or may not have is ejaculated in the uh in the making of into it luke we'll find out maybe one day uh but uh luke it's obviously first even win that award it's it's our relationship with the fans and the weird connection that we have and we got to to meet them and and just you know it was it was priceless that moment Luke yeah I would agree I think that's my number one moment and not just that like it was so great and you know there was a lot we didn't do in that trip like we didn't broadcast to the house um you know we it was our first time

doing that kind of thing I feel like subsequent ones could be even bigger and better so like to me it wasn't just a great moment it was one that was like dude we can do this again and better yeah so I was pretty excited about that I'll have my people call yours we can do this every weekend yeah I'm fired up Luke that's right so thanks to all the fans who made MK this year not just the award winners and everything else in the 100k and whatnot, but just a great year. A great year to do the show. It was fun to do the show. It was a good year for combat sports, and we were delighted to be here for kind of guessing here, but this is the way that I want you to think about it. Something probably has been happening maybe this year, maybe even prior to this year, but kind of set in motion this year that we're going to see the fruits of that bear out in 2022. What would that be in mixed martial arts for you? For me, I'm going to be really straight

up and honest, and I know we're going to get the whole francis and ganu beef with the ufc a little bit later in the show and the updates on that but look there's two things happening at once and it's not only a trend to look out for for 2022 to me it's also you know if you ask me what's the prevailing storyline from mma in 2021 it's these two ships that are about to collide on one side side, UFC had its most incredible year, both financially and really in terms of being consistently spectacular. This year was incredible. Big fights, great matchups, great results, huge upsets. Every weekend almost, it felt like something was happening. UFC could not be more mainstream, crossing over. I mean, the CSPN deal for, you know, in terms of its relevance and it's in everyone's heart.

I mean, it is just, Luke, maybe the fruits of Dana being so aggressive in 2020 during the pandemic was that it created this new fan base that's hungry and on fire. To be an MMA fan, you could not have been in a better calendar year. Even though I've got much love for 2016, a lot of people have some love for the early Brock Lesnar rise or the Ronda Rousey rise. There's been some great years, but this year felt like as good as it can get. And I think that's about to collide with those storm clouds that are coming. As the great Sam Cooke once said, Luke, a change is going to come. You're seeing it in the stance Ngannou's taken.

Jon Jones hasn't fought in two years as he's taking a stand. Luke, we have speculated and argued and whatever for a long time that the control UFC has over the fighters and the matchmaking, it's the reason why this sport and this promotion is so great. The best

always face the best, no matter what. I'm not saying, you know, buckle in, buckle up. It's about to get worse. But we all agree the fighters deserve better. And, Luke, I don't think we're going to, you know, trot out Bjorn Rebny again and form a union this calendar year coming up. But change is going to come, and it's going to take these big-name fighters taking a stand.

So I don't want to be the guys, know screaming dooming bloom is coming but i think we're about to enter a really transformative calendar year and i think the trend will emerge that more fighters will take a public stance whether that's for more money or more control over their matchmaking or their contract or whatever it's coming luke and it's going to be interesting to see the fallout both short term and long term for that because if I'm being honest I don't want it to change because I love what the sport gives me but I can't sit here and watch these these incredible athletes who who are the reason why this sport is so great not get what they deserve at the end of the day are there big names

that you're really keeping your eye on for who might leave the UFC in 2022. And here's what I mean. Your point is correct, right? Like if there's going to be a change in the court case or legislation, it won't happen next year. Maybe things get set in motion next year, but it won't happen. So there's going to be something else that might happen in the short run. Do you think that there's a grand exodus from UFC? Because I don't think you're predicting that.

But there might be some big names who leave. Who would you put at the front of the list of high-probability, big-name exits next year? Well, obviously, Ngannou's situation has to be first, front, and foremost because Dana White's openly saying, look, if you don't want to fight here, go. And he's got a big fight coming up,

a title fight against Cyril Ghosn, and we know the situation about how contracts can get draconianly extended for seemingly no reason or nothing. You win a championship or you turn down a fight, suddenly your contract's been extended. But look, Nate Diaz is a big character to watch as well. Even if he doesn't potentially leave for these reasons, he's also a big name free agent. You wonder if we are starting a trend where guys are working down to the end of their

contract. I think Sugar Sean O'Malley is a guy to watch who at times in the past year has spoke openly about wondering what his value is on the open market. And we've questioned, you know, is he just kind of playing out the string here to sort of test that? I just think, Luke, we're heading into an area where guys are going to find out what they really, what their value truly is. And inevitably it's going to take some leaving for some change to happen. And you can always say, look, there's a reason why Dana White, when asked about fighter pay, he always shits on it or says it's not a real thing. They can keep going.

They can lose four or five stars, Luke, and keep going. But I'm certainly taking a look, whether it being Gano, Jon Jones, Nate Diaz, or whoever follows after that, who are going to be the ones that have very small amounts of leverage left that are going to try to use it and what kind of change can we create? Because we always say, okay, what's the change going to be?

It's going to be a big union, it's going to be a big work stop. It doesn't actually have to be that. It could be some sort of middle ground in between in which the promotion bends a little bit and the fighters accept it and we keep moving. But do you have a specific name luke that you think could really upset the free agent market but by making one of these crossovers i definitely feel like the francis and gana situation is key to watch because here's the thing i actually favor cyril gone to win so that would mean that if that's true and and again, you know, we all know Francis can go

in there and put anyone's lights out at a moment's notice, but let's say for a second that he loses. That's an interesting moment in time because you know, you know, one would love to have him. Bellator would love to have him. PFL would love to have him in some kind of capacity or another. The question is whether or not they can afford him. Like one of the things that fighters keep coming back to is they'll actually fight out their contract. They'll get to the end of it.

And then they'll realize not always, but often that, yeah, I may want to go to another promoter, but I'm not going to make nearly the same amount of money as I am if I stay in the UFC. And I don't know exactly what Francis's situation is and how that could work out. His situation could be very, very different. But it's going to be interesting. Can Bellator pay Francis what he wants competing in Bellator? It's going to be really, I don't know the answer to that, frankly. I'm a little skeptical, but we'll see. Nate Diaz is the other one.

Those two are the ones that I've really got my eye on to see exactly what happens. Because Nate Diaz kind of feeds into my point. Also, I would say that this idea that jones is definitely going to fight in 2022 i mean i think it's not like he's getting arrested every day or something but you know he got arrested last year he got arrested this year um the idea that he's just gonna inevitably make it to the again like there's just a lot of questions about where exactly he's headed and all this but look can you address the john j Jones elephant in the room? I don't tend to subscribe to this, but I get enough DMs of people saying,

BC, when are you guys going to talk about this? That he's coming up on two years out of the game. Yeah. Could that be a silent USADA suspension because of their rule change in which they don't have to publicly tell us? Could be. Certainly could be. There's been a few of these two-year suspensions that we were like where is this guy and nothing got announced um hard to say but i will say this and i keep bringing this up and dude there's just like

this real expectation that 2022 will be just like you know whatever what 2017 for john jones just pick right back up where he left off and certainly a talent as prodigious as his that's nothing you could sneeze at I cannot dismiss that and say that that's wrong but dude there's just a lot of like dude the fight game in two years moves fast and John was very much ahead of the ball game for many many many many years maybe even still but I think the game is definitely a lot different than it used to be. And I'm curious to see exactly how that plays out. I agree.

Before you transition out of this first point about fighter pay and the fallout of that, as much as we don't want to talk about crossover celebrity boxing, and you and I even agree. I do a little bit. Well, you and I are even a little tired of it. It does have the potential, even though it's a bubble, and we all expect the bubble to pop because historically it has, you do have to wonder, Luke, in 2022, how much this could play a part in UFC fighter leverage and all of that.

Because, look, there's a bold prediction to make here if Jake Paul, for example, can keep luring MMA names and knocking them out will it get to a point that Dana White either wants to buy in or wants to try to send a fighter over to put an end to it or maybe that's all just ridiculous speculation he doesn't care either way that could play a role and give it because look if Nate Diaz becomes a free agent it's not that we expect him to go to Bellator or PFL tomorrow we expect him to go to boxing and cash in, right? Because as long as that is still offering a career-level payday to these guys, it's going to be an allure to try to either get out of their deal or have some middle ground in which Dana White says,

OK, I don't want to lose you guys, but I'll give you wiggle room to do one per year. Or if you're a big enough star to demand a Jake Paul fight I'll co-promote you you know I wonder if some type of change in that area is coming or if the bubble bursts before we even get there so I actually would like to approach the situation a little bit differently but include what you just brought up if I may my big 2022 prediction for MMA and this could work both ways, but I will give a separate one for boxing. You know, BC, when we started this program, I remember sitting down with Showtime and they were asking me like, how do you feel about covering boxing? And you know the story. I used

to, of course, before MMA fighting was purchased from AOL and brought over to SB Nation, I actually did a fair amount of boxing coverage, but then got away from it all those years as an editor because I simply did not have the time. So I was actually happy to go back to it, but I bring it up to say I thought that it would just be two different things that I covered at the same time or something. And it actually turned out that's really not the case. This is actually a really good time to do what you and I are doing, which is to cover both sports. Why? My prediction for MMA, and it's for boxing too, but I'm going to look at it from the MMA side of things, is that MMA and boxing are going to bleed together in a lot of different, unique, and interesting ways. Let me give you an example, and it's already been happening, but I mean, it's going to really

ramp up. The first thing I would say is from a technique perspective, we're seeing a little bit more of these Max Holloway, Adrian Yanez types. Now, those are two very elite names, but what I mean to say is guys in MMA are getting better at boxing and then bringing a boxing sort of centric kind of game to the sport, to varying degrees of success, of course, but you're seeing a lot more of it. As guys get better in boxing, they're doing better boxing in MMA. I think you're going to see a lot more of that archetype of a kind of fighter emerge. I would also argue more than that. It is clear, it is clear that the MMA industry and the boxing industry are trying to find ways to work together. And in 2021, some of that might have worked where, you know, you don't have the

firmament exactly of boxing, only a little bit with Jake Paul versus, you know, whoever he's fighting. But, you know, even like Kubrat Pulev doing this kind of triller triad thing where they're trying to accommodate some middle ground space where you can make it all work. When we grew up, there was massive distance between boxing and MMA. When I say grew up, I mean like junior reporters or whatever. They were not connected at all and there was grand hostility. And a lot of that is still around. But I think what you're going to see is that trend accelerate even more in 2022. And some things are going to work.

Some things are going to die off. Some things might work halfway. There's going to be a lot of experimentation, BC. There's going to be a lot of trial and error. But I do think that this thing that you've been seeing this past year, that's only going to continue into 2022. Luke, I want to ask you about this trend, whether we see it coming. For all we talk about fighter pay and what guys deserve and have versus have not,

we're also starting to see a little bit of guys taking control of their own situation and retiring on their own terms, or at least threatening to. From Habib late last year, although it didn't become official until early this year because of that ridiculous Dana White soap opera of courting him to Cejudo. Now we're talking about Kamaru Usman. How many more fights will he have? Is Amanda Nunes dialed in to want to keep doing this? You just had Habib yesterday or whatever on a press conference speaking in Russian trying to explain Dustin Poirier's loss to Oliveira as maybe this guy made a ton of money and then changed and doesn't have that same hunger.

Do you think it's going to become a trend here, not for guys to hang on too long, which has become the norm, but for guys to finally become that have, right? I think the UFC is so successful in the financial model they have right now because there's so little haves. We don't report their full income because of how UFC keeps everything secretive. And none of them really complain outside of like a John Jones or Ngannou because they finally get to that point Luke and they're like I ain't rocking the boat I want to take my couple million I want to finally you know buy my vacation home and set myself up yet once they get there finally I'm wondering if

we're going to start to see a trend of them looking at the overall equation and saying what am I going to gain from taking on extra damage and playing out the twilight of my career what if i can walk away now with everything intact and you know transition my money into investments in the business world do you see that as a future trend or just a couple you know aberrations linked together fighters are copycats of each other. I do expect you'll see some more of that, but not in the same way. Like Nate Diaz did that for what, three years or something where he was like,

fuck this, I'm out. I'm not doing this anymore. But he was never kind of fully all the way out, just sat around. And now he's trying to find another payday outside of, or maybe we'll see trying to find another payday outside of MMA. Again,

I don't know that that's, we'll have to see how that goes exactly. But trend? No. Couple of times where it could happen? Absolutely. I just... You're right to point out, and I made this point before, I don't talk to managers all that often, but every time I talk to someone who's got a UFC champion in their stable, they can't tell me more. That that person wants to fight like like three four more times and get the

fuck out you know so I think you're right to like worry about it but at the same time without there's not many of those people and without the UFC not many of them have that ability to do that Nate Diaz pivot you know those are going to be limited so yeah you'll see some not a trend I don't well look not a lot yeah be fair, very few in any combat sport have a successful transition out of it, which leads so many of them back into the game when they shouldn't be. So I don't see that trend changing per se. But, Luke, what about this trend in 2022?

That if you're looking to do that experiment, which we're not, most shows do, okay, let's go division by division and guess who's going to be the ufc champion at the end of 2022 would it be fair to go up and down the rankings and just pick out the highest rated shmesh factory alumni and basically say it's already a trend but it's really going to hit home and hit hard in 2022 that if you're from the caucus region you're probably going to raise a title across any mma major organization yeah i mean as it stands today the only ufc fighter even remotely from

even close to that area would be what valentina shevchenko the only ufc champion and even then she's not from there she's from kyrgyzstan which is you know not far or something you know another soviet satellite state previously that's all you've got. Like that, there's not a lot of them. But as you have pointed out, as I have pointed out, Bellator's got Usman Nurmagomedov, Megamed Megamedov, certainly PFL, Megamed Megamed Karamov in the UFC. You can shake it.

I mean, Islam Makachev, this might be his big breakout year in 20. I mean, you can. I mean, don't forget Vadim Nemkov, Yaroslav Amisov, if we're going to include greater Ukraine and Russia into the whole mix here. Yeah, but they're a little... I mean, you know, those guys from the Smesh factory, they're all Muslim, usually. I mean, the Caucasus mountains, obviously,

Georgia's going to have some say over that, and they're Christian. But you get the idea. Like, you know, Nemkov is a little bit more established and from a different part of Russia. But that unique stretch of land there, they've got so many guys in so many organizations ready to take over. I think you're right. In 2022, you're going to see a fuck ton of them.

And look, you could argue it was kind of like that with Brazil at the end of the aughts, correct? It was sort of like, you know, how many divisions can we get a Brazilian champion in? I mean, Brazil used to be, if not the most dominant force in MMA. And certainly, I mean, it was NHB back then. But even then, at worst, number two or something. And now it's still, you know, a perennial powerhouse.

But not in the same way. It certainly made some more room, as you've indicated, for the Smash Factory. Now, BC, somebody asked me, and I don't know how to answer this question very candidly, or at least very easily, I should say, which is what champions face the biggest test in MMA in terms of their future? You would appoint someone like Sergio Pettis, given the nature of his win over Kyoji Horiguchi. But, you know, even looking at the UFC champions, dude, I mean, I'm not saying that all of them are going to lose, especially Valentina Shevchenko.

She'll probably be here at the same spot a year from now. But dude, it is perilous for everybody. It is perilous at flyweight for Brandon. Bantamweight, do I expect Aljamain Sterling to be the champion in a year's time? I don't. Volkanovski's probably got another showdown with Max he's going to have to answer for.

Charles Oliveira, I mean, he's great, but come on, it's lightweight. Usman, that's a little bit different situation. We'll see what happens with him. I love Israel Adesanya perhaps more than anyone else else but I can recognize that there are some fucking contenders that division he's got to fight Robert Whitaker again Glover Teixeira god bless him the king of Connecticut but he's 42 Francis has this mutant in Cyril Ghosn he has to fight who's just a fucking beast and then you know Rosnami Unis is maybe the toughest division in all women's MMA like

BC they're all up for grabs. Are they not? Yeah. Juliana Pena as well. Following that upset. Yeah. Right. I look parody is, is incredible at the moment. And if there's a trend I'm looking forward to it, I don't know if it's a trend, but Luke, there's so many people that are in and around the category of elite. Maybe some of them, we consider them sub elite so that when they figure it out and go on a run

like Charles Oliveira has, it blows our mind. We're like, okay, we knew he had that potential. I just didn't expect to see it. I think you have to, it's hard to identify in the crowd who's next to do that. But there's, if there's a trend or anything, it's someone sort of hitting that early thirties, having already learned from lessons and defeats and figuring out their right weight class, and then going on a run. It's as hard maybe as it has ever been to have the type of title defense reigns that go down in the history books, the GSPs, the Anderson Silvas, the John Jones, and until just now at Bantamweight, Amanda Nunes. It's really hard to do that.

What Usman's trying to do, what Adesanya's trying to do, it's killer after killer every single fight. I think, Luke, we're seeing the full, in this era, evolution of people growing up not as specialists but as complete mixed martial artists and figuring out through the early parts of their their career you know how to fix their stamina how to fix their mindset and it is kill or be killed in there and it creates great parody it's always fun to bet on an underdog in a UFC title fight because boy do they cash in Luke and uh yeah who will face the toughest challenge as a champion you got about

eight answers to that I'll answer that everybody will be luke and he and maybe that's what is part of what makes the sport so great right now i mean that you know we love when somebody goes on a reign we love when there's a superstar but i love when i tune in there and i don't know what's going to happen next and you can argue we don't see that enough in boxing so that the moments that when we do when we can say no guys this is a true 50 50 pay-per-view fight, which seems to be rare, I feel like we get that every week in MMA. I think that's absolutely right. So let's wrap up on the MMA side of things with this, BC.

We're looking ahead to 2022, but let's look back one time. When you think about big storylines that impacted, what is the story of MMA in 2021, I guess is what I would ask. Yeah, aside from the business thing that we pointed out earlier, look, Conor McGregor fought twice for the first calendar year in five years, and he lost both, and he lost both badly by TKO, including one sort of major injury. And even though his two returns, Luke, according to John S. Nash's reporting,

accounted for 40% of UFC pay-per-view sales, that only accounted for 7% of UFC revenue. So you're seeing how little leverage the fighters have. But again, separate from the business, it's at 33, who is Conor McGregor? What does he realistically have left? You and I love to argue that, you know, he was too great at one point to count out that he doesn't have any big wins left in him,

but he's as close to transitioning into a full-time, you know, event fighter than ever before. Even if he gets the Charles Oliveira controversial title opportunity next year, which, you know, hasn't been decided, but made an argument on monday show why it kind of feels inevitable at this moment um you're watching luke the greatest you know the the greatest box office fighter in this sport's history hit a really uncertain crossroads as we enter the new year no doubt about it i i echo that completely but i still think that the story of 2021 and MMA beyond just that is, and you kind of alluded to it several times at this point, we've,

we've talked about it several times. We'll just wrap it up here. Like, dude, that was a great year, not just for UFC, although it was certainly a great year for them. I feel like Bellator had some ups and downs,

but they had some big wins. Certainly along the way, the arrival of AJ McKee and the way he has done Sergio Pettis was a great signing for them it turns out getting Kyoji Horiguchi back it's one fight I understand but it's relevant for them they're going to have that bantamweight tourney that they set up like they had a lot of decent moments in the year and PFL this is arguably PFL's best year ever it's not arguable it's not arguable Luke it is by far their best year ever now one did take a bit of a back seat it's hard to know exactly why they did raise a bunch of money recently over 150 million

dollars but because of covid well your boy shot tree is the same he seems to be too worried about that reality show luke okay i mean it's cool i know people people people uh uh they they added us in the comments of one of his like stupidass posts about, like, oh, The Apprentice is coming to Netflix. Like, five motherfuckers are going to watch this. But okay, neither here nor there. People tagged us in there being like, hey, you guys were clowning him. Look at him now.

I'm like, yeah, look at him now doing this doofus shit. Who wants to be Chachri's assistant? How about who wants to make big fights in the U.S., which is what they sort of promised entering last year? Right, which is what they tried. Remember, they had those fights on TNT, and they fucking bombed because they just did it. Well, they had them four weeks in a row,

and then never again, right? They have no footprint here, which is why it's hard to do business here in that way. But in any case, we'll see what happens with them in 2022. I do like their product. When it works, it works really well. And they had some wins themselves. They obviously had Boucher make a big debut for them.

I think he'll be a big fixture for them next year and whatnot. How about Arjen Boulard representing the spirit of your home nation, Luke? That's right. Now in a clash with one because they don't want to sign him to a new deal or they do in none of the terms he's asking. So they're like, fuck it. Let's just create an interim belt because fuck our champion, right? Hey, they did that in the UFC over the summer with Cyril Goddard.

I remember that, Luke. Yeah, exactly. The playbook is pretty similar, team to team. All right, BC, let's go to topic two. Same kind of discussion, but let's have it around boxing a little bit here. So first question, what was something that was happening in 2021 that you fully expect to become a big story in 2022? Well, you know, the continued success of this heavyweight renaissance,

which really wasn't exclusive to last year, although, or I'm sorry, of this year, although this calendar year we got, what, a Fury Wilder 3 that exceeded our expectations by leaps and bounds, even with Fury, Anthony Joshua falling apart due to typical boxing bullshit. And then we also got Joshua getting upset by Alexander Usyk. It could not, this heavyweight division, Luke, which, you know, can never be overstated, how important the gateway drug of big time heavyweight boxing is to boxing's crossover mainstream appeal.

We're in a pretty damn good spot entering the new year with talks of aj usik 2 coming our way with tyson fury trying to negotiate with dillian white although those seem to be falling apart i think at the very least though luke we could be looking at three to four heavyweight fights which do not include this saturday's pbc on fox pay-per-view more to come on that later but But outside of that, Luke, I think we're going to see three to four big time fights and look, you can't,

you can't underestimate what that means. I mean, dude, everyone cares when fury and wild or, you know, or Joshua and somebody else fighting. It just is what it is. And it seems like the heavyweight division seems to transcend some of the

typical pitfalls, which prevent big fights from happening between rival networks and rival promoters because everybody just knows it's such a big deal when you can get two big names and big stars together and right now we still have a vibrant pool of big names aggressive fighters vulnerable fighters so i'd love that trend to continue to get us closer to an Undisputed Champion. Will it happen in 2022? Probably not, Luke, because that's how things work. But we are getting closer, and that's super fun.

I think that same trend of guys going outside of their network, going outside of their promotion to make big fights, we get little morsels here and there, Luke. We get a little taste. We just had Sean Porter against Terrence Crawford on ESPN, which was the same type of setup. It was great. God, we need more of that, Luke.

And, you know, can I also bring up pay-per-view in general here, Luke? Please. Is this a safe place to do that? I don't know what the final numbers are on this Paul Woodley 2 pay-per-view. You hear rumors that it did not do well. We'll have to see, you know, what Showtime reports and what comes out. But do we have too many pay-per-views in boxing? Yeah.

And we have had too many pay-per-views in boxing for many years. For MMA fans who may not know, what is the argument for why boxing, who, I know you don't forget this, but we should say it out loud, when DAZN was introduced to the market, they were like, pay-per-view is dead this is the whole thing and even they are getting back at least a little bit into the pay-per-view market

so what happened well look we celebrate that boxers make what more you know the the top end but you know the top not only the top end but really the the the second half of of of very good to elite boxers get paid so much more on average than MMA. But what happens, Luke, because of that is, you know, networks can't afford to pay the guys to put them on regular cable TV or put them on national TV. And inevitably, a lot of these fights just to be made have to go to pay-per-view. That's not long-term sustainable for the product.

And you and I would never sit here because we love boxing. And to be fair, we make money off of boxing. We would never sit here and try to hope that the trend goes in the direction of more pay-per-views bombing to be less of them. We would never do that. But I wonder how sustainable in the long-term having so many pay-per-views, especially fights that, let's be fair, Luke, are not pay-per-view level. Is Luis Ortiz against Charles Martin on January 1st pay-per-view level?

No. Was Andy Ruiz versus Chris Areola? No. I mean, you can argue, you know, when fighters get to a certain star level, they really can't fight on anything but pay-per-view because of what I just talked about, how much money they demand. And I guess we're sort of accustomed as fight fans that that's just what happens. In the UFC, every month, you've got to pay for a pay-per-view.

It's what it is. It's the model. But I hope a trend changes and turns that look, we've got a problem in boxing on pay-per-view. Not only are the undercards just not on the level of a UFC, so maybe the top guys aren't getting paid, but UFC pay-per-views are pretty loaded

from top to bottom. I want to see more care and concern for the customer in 2022 and that's across all networks to to just say look i get that the pay-per-view seems the easiest way to try to make this fight happen but how much are we hurting the sport long term especially in the era luke where we can't lie and turn away from it it's easier to to illegally stream a pay-per-view than ever ever ever before how much longer can this go on putting fights on that really don't meet that level um the market will

dictate it and i'm not cheering for people to stop buying them so it changes it but anytime boxing teams to take big steps forward and getting fighters to the mainstream it can also equally take big steps back by putting fights to the mainstream that either don't deserve to be there or by putting fights on pay-per-view that don't deserve to be there. There's really no fix for this, Luke, because this is the same problem every year for boxing over the past 20 years. But, you know, boy, would I like to stay optimistic and see a change. I think it's a fair point. It's an interesting one as well. I guess we're going to see what happens in 2022. I don't expect that trend to abate very much, but one never knows. What do you think of my trend idea?

Now, I want to be clear about this, BC. I'm not saying that this is a huge trend. I want to say this is, in fact, something kind of small that maybe I'm piecing together that isn't there. And in 2022, I'm not saying that the growth will be dramatic. Far from it. But what I am saying is that you might see growth in 2022 that you didn't see in any other previous year for quite some time around the sport. Namely, women's boxing. I have been a big critic of women's boxing,

and I still think that they haven't gotten the rules right. The round should be three minutes, and I do maintain, I really believe this. I think the gloves should be smaller. I think it would add a dynamism to the game that is currently a little bit missing. But even with those considerations, not really something we can bank on changing, there's a few big fights that we know are potentially in the works. So certainly Serrano-Katie Taylor fight. Mikayla Mayer made a little bit of noise on ESPN this year. You see what, obviously she's going back and forth, but Clarissa Shields, what she's doing in MMA and boxing, again, going back to my previous thesis of the sports kind of intertwining

and clumsy but sometimes unique in interesting ways. I think you might actually see a little bit more momentum for women's boxing in 2022, not just the big fights, but just as a matter of more routine visibility on cards that matter a couple of big names that matter a couple of big fights that matter again not a huge explosion where all of a sudden everyone just loves women's boxing i don't think that but i think it might have its best year that it's had in quite some time absolutely luke and look the model is already there from what both strike force and ufc you know, seven, eight years ago to bring,

you know, women's fighting to the forefront and show people again. I say again, because, you know, women's boxing has had some moments through the years where people cared, whether it's Christy Martin, Layla Ali, et cetera. But look, the, the early, you know, Strikeforce UFC showed with the Rousey run that you bring personalities to the forefront and match them in competitive fights. You're going to see magic, but magic but you know it doesn't there's no divide anymore of uh i just don't want to see females hurt each other like that that's gone it can be that way in boxing the larger problem of course is the lack of a of a pool of of credible fighters outside of the three four five big stars that people know and like hopefully luke this generation which you're hinting at having momentum

entering the new calendar year, will start to turn out younger fighters and populate this sport. It was dead for a while. It wasn't on network TV for a while, meaning women's boxing. I think you're right. I would love,

what I love most about it, Luke, is that they make, when you finally get great matchups, the fights are exciting as crap. They're great. You know what I mean? I would love if there was one promoter or network. I mean, what would we all wish for in boxing?

Organization. Tough to say that. But imagine if even one promoter or network could just bring in all the top female fighters and push them out in one central format. I'm not saying would an all-female pay-per-view card sell big money. I'm not necessarily saying that, but I'm saying you have stars, both inability-wise and potentially in terms of their commercial marketing, whether it's May or Katie Taylor, Shields, like you're mentioning. I mean, big-time appeal in a lot of ways. I hope they get what

they deserve. Obviously, someone like Amanda Serrano, who has toiled for so long, setting records and doing great things behind the scenes, is getting more of a close-up because of Jake Paul. But we've got to make these big fights, like Taylor versus Serrano, and we've got to put them as much as we can to the masses to get people to realize that there's something here.

You might be right. I don't know if there's even a way to do a tournament because the weight classes are so fractured and thin, and I don't think we're there yet. But it'd be kind of cool if at some point promoters actually did a tournament and you had a couple of decent fights halfway through. I think you'd be surprised about what kind of results you could actually get. I mean, I don't know if you can get everybody to sign up,

but the good news toward that idea, Luke, is that we've seen Clarissa Shields debut at 168 pounds and fight as low as 154 and sometimes throw around the idea. She comically says, look, I'll only go down to 147 and eliminate my booty for big time money. You know, she's even entertaining that idea. You've seen Amanda Serrano fight over what? Seven weight classes. You're seeing fighters say, I want the big money. I want the accomplishments. I want the glory. They're willing to go far and wait up or down to try to make that happen. So to your point, you would love something. I don't know if a, if an open weight centralized tournament within a certain larger weight group is the answer. I would love to see something where, where these fighters get a close-up

or at least populate these match-ups, especially when they're well-matched, as co-main events or as even main events as we've seen with Katie Taylor and Clarissa Shields more often. BC, same kind of question to you. I mean, obviously boxing is different because you've got a million champions per weight class, but is there some kind of major established champion you see handing over some belts next

year yeah i think i think to alter that question as you sort of tease it's it's not just which champion could be most in danger it's more which weight classes should we focus on in 2022 that could have the most amount of excitement so look it's always going to be heavyweight and welterweight because that's the glamour division and the money division. But Luke, let's watch out for light heavyweight because even though Canelo Alvarez had that little brief, you know, tease with the idea of going to cruiserweight and fighting Makabu, which we find out after the fact that Canelo didn't even know his trainer and manager, Eddie Reynoso, was going to announce that at the WBC convention. It caught Canelo by surprise. So I think it's much more likely as much as I'd love Canelo to fight David Benavidez at 168 or Jamal Charlo or whatever.

I think it's potentially in play for Canelo to go up to 175 and one by one, try to do what he just did at 168. Try to pick off each champion, make each step in that journey, a big event. I mean, look, you already know this. There's some good ass fighters at 175. The champions right now are Joe Smith Jr. Who's got big time power, even if he's a little bit raw, Dimitri Bivol, who's unbeaten and can box circles around people. And obviously our guy, Artur Bieterbiev, who's just a destroyer, although he's aging. If Canelo cleaned out that division of champions, I mean, I don't know how much more praise we can give him. We might have to open mouth kiss him, Luke,

just to let him know how much we appreciate him. That division could be one to watch because of Canelo, but so obviously could won 35. Who's the champion? Who's going to be under the most pressure this year? George Cambosis Jr., who upset the apple cart to win three or four, depending again upon your stance of those titles. He's going to, whether it's Devin Haney next or whoever it is, there is an unlimited amount of big name fighters who are going to be gunning for him. That division is going to be a shit ton fun to watch Luke as is a division Showtime invested a lot in and got big

results this calendar year. 122, you can call it junior featherweight. You can call it super bantamweight. You got Steven Fulton Jr. I don't know if Brandon Figueroa is going to try to stick around for a rematch. You got Danny Roman. You've got the other dude. What's his name? MJ Akhmadaliev, who holds two of four belts. You've got Aleem. You've got some names here, Luke, of guys that are coming. So those are some tough divisions with big-time players to watch.

No doubt about it. I love that answer. Yeah, I think you're right. Also, you know, let's see what happens with Spence and Crawford. We say this every fucking year, it seems like. but now we'll see exactly where bed croft bud crawford signs with uh with pbc who knows who knows what could happen there are lots of possibilities how about errol spence jr fights your danis ugas which seems to be the three belt welterweight unification that both the WBA and the other

two sectioning bodies are angling towards let's say Terrence Crawford does sign with the PBC and makes a title defense in the first quarter against you name it let's get creative whoever could we see Spence Crawford at the end of the year provided Bud goes to the PBC for all four belts Luke if they all get there I'll say this bc i'll say this i think i'll say this if crawford sign excuse me if yes if crawford signs with pbc i don't think crawford versus spence would be next but i do think you would get it by the end of the year the question is what is he going to do and i will say this if he doesn't sign with pbc and signs wherever the fuck uh i think the chance of seeing it was zero at that point at that point i would write it off completely

luke i would like to see um the charlo brothers have big years i would like to find out how great they are i think both had a little bit of a stumble in 2022 now look jermell fought brian castagno to an incredibly all-action draw. It was so fun. They're going to rematch early this year. I can't wait to see it. You know, Castagno's in play for that one of course. And Jermall Charlo at middleweight had that very tough title defense in which he looked very human.

Whether it's Jermall getting Triple G or Andrade or, you know, Canelo for that matter or Benavidez, I would love to, you know, that he'd have to move up to 168 for most of those. I'd love to see both really find out in their early 30s here who they are, and we can find out for sure whether they are legitimately pound-for-pound great fighters or whether they're not on that level.

I think both have been marketable at times, and both really have yet to put it all together on the highest platform. I hope they get that chance yeah no doubt about it going back to crawford very quickly i think he's 34 if memory serves so that is the age that michael chandler uh was when he switched from bellator to ufc i mean to say definitely by no means done but if you're gonna have big fights that really matter it's this next career chapter where they have to happen otherwise they're essentially not going to or otherwise happen at a time when they're meaningless

so luke i want to ask you final predictions here um where will jake paul be to close 2022 quickly because people don't want to go long on this but quickly yeah i think it really depends on what kind of, I won't say enemies, what kind of opponents he can get. If he can reasonably lure somebody like a Nate Diaz to his side of things, I think he can do big things. But if it ends up being Tommy Fury, and I have, again, people forget about this. It's just worth pointing out that KO over Woodley was spectacular. I mean, it just keeps showing up on my feed, even without Showtime accounts. It's just worth pointing out that KO over Woodley was spectacular I mean there is it just keeps showing up on my feed even without Showtime accounts it's just one of those things because it was so good but the fight before it was horrific um you know I don't know what Tommy Fury is going

to do for him from a pay-per-view sales standpoint or if the fight is not that great but I think a Diaz situation could give him here's's the thing with Diaz, dude. If Paul and Diaz fight, maybe stupid, maybe you don't want to see it, maybe you hate it, fine, whatever. But if they fight, I think it could be big. To the point, BC, where if Jake Paul lures a Nate Diaz over, and let's say it makes a fuck ton of money, just shy of two million buys, right? That genre could have life beyond jake paul it really could it's possible to find that now a lot of this is the jake paul

situation it's feast or famine or whatever which is kind of what you're asking but i wonder if could you create an event so big that it ends up spawning a lot of copycats to try and do something pretty similar and could they pull that off? I wonder about that. I really do. I wonder if he doesn't get Nate and then the whole shit just dies this year. Cause that's also, yeah.

You know, simultaneous with that, with the experiments by like Chad Johnson and Darren Williams and Frank Gore, will that lead more recently retired pro sports athletes to join? I don't know. You know, if you tell me Jake's going to fight Chavez Jr. and Anderson Silva next year,

that could keep things going. He'd have to win some tough fights, but that could keep the momentum going. I don't know. Didn't Sports Illustrated just write that Jake said he wants to play safety in the NFL? I don't know what's going to happen in 2022. I'm not really going to pay attention to that.

Will we be talking about Triller to close next year at all? Probably for like bad shit. Okay. Right? 2021 was not their best year. I mean, I think even they would say that. I mean, they had some things they could probably hang their hat on that, you know, weren't a total disaster.

But they had a lot of disasters this year. I mean, just the Cambosis. Dude, I mean, thinking about what cambosis did to teofimo they were going to pay him six million plus which was like way over the asking price i guess in that sense they got away from it but the point being is they fucked that fight up they had to rearrange it by essentially by the time the zone got it was its ninth iteration and it was this massive upset that they could have had, and they fucked it all up.

I mean, it was not a money year for them. I'll put it that much. And I don't think that will change a whole lot in 2022. Look, I've got a couple quick hitters related to predictions for 2022 that I'd like to ask you. Would you be willing to give me two minutes of your time? Yeah, let's do it. Okay.

I think we can both agree, although we didn't really hand out awards, it seems to be played out that kamaru usman on the mma side and canelo alvarez on the boxing side seemed seemed to have locked that shit up for fighter of the year do you have a guess an early feeling on who could close 2022 in both combat sports with the same fighter of the year hardware being raised. Like, somebody who could get it for boxing and MMA? No, in each sport. Separate choices. Oh, like who's going to have the best year?

Yeah, I want a prediction. Let's go on the record here, Luke. Who's your fighter of the year in both sports as we look ahead? I think in boxing, the fighter of the year is probably going to be... It might be Tyson Fury, depending on what he does. Ooh, interesting.

Because if he fights Usyk and White, and then maybe, I don't know, Joshua one more time, or Dustin one more time, at all, rather, I should say. That could be really, really fucking big. But, you know, it's just a lot of tension on that. On the MMA side, I'd say Valentina, but she doesn't have the right opponents at this point.

So I don't know about that. So I would actually say I'm going to have my eye on, of all people, you're going to laugh at me a little bit, but I think he's going to have a, at the end of the year, he'll have a breakout year. I'm told he's trying to get to a new contract. Dude, I think very highly of Shakat Rachmanov. I know you're laughing at me because everyone wants to say Hamza.

Well, I didn't laugh. I laughed at when you said Cyril Ghosn will one day hold the UFC heavyweight title and look at us now, Luke, okay? Yeah, and I think he will. And I think he will this year um I do I think very highly of him so the only question for him is I think his manager is trying to like get him a new deal which is a standard practice like fight out this deal and to get a new one so he may have a bunch of fights that aren't that big a deal as he

just tries to work through the contract but I think once they start putting good guys in front of him and he's mowing them down, I think everyone's going to wake up a little bit to this dude. I think he's extremely special. We just need to see him in the right fights. If it's not 2022, I honestly think he's going to be in a title fight in the next two years, maybe next year. All right, I'm looking at boxing,

basically the winner of Errol Spence against Bud Crawford because I think both of them are going to have interesting first-half matchups. And if they can fight each other in the second one, Luke, I mean, that's the highest level. Errol Spence, Bud Crawford because I think both of them are going to have interesting first half matchups and if they can fight each other in the second one Luke I mean that's the highest level that's like Crawford yeah I mean I think that's number you know three versus four on the pound for pound rankings or two versus two versus three I mean like you win that you know and get two total wins you're the fighter of the year also obviously Gervonta Davis if he can continue Luke to keep you know uh matching up and and really try to take on big opportunities, maybe he goes to 140, maybe he can crash this party of big names at 135

and lure Orion Garcia. I'd love to see that development. He's in play. MMA's wild. It's hard to predict, but as much as you are high on, did you say Rachmaninoff, Luke? Shavkat Rachmaninoff, yeah. Rachmaninoff, is that German?kat Rachmaninoff, yeah. Yeah, Rachmaninoff. Is that German? That's a Willy Wonka reference, Luke. Don't even put the 90s.

That's a 1970s reference. I'm going to say, in the same regard, Islam Mahachev is coming, Luke. Oh, yes. So, you know, I'll get on board now and say, considering how awesome that division is, if he's going to get to the top of it by the end of next year he's going to have a fighter of the year worthy resume to have done that to get there so be on the lookout for that um you know do you have any mk predictions for 2022 luke i think we went on the road a lot this past year i think we'll go

i think we're going to bring that desk to to more places past year i think we'll go i think we're gonna bring that desk to to to more places next year i'm pretty confident about that and i really i this is you know i'll say this out loud because this is just what i want i want our if we're gonna be on the road for um for showtime stuff i want our mk you know post fight show not that not that it's been some kind of afterthought i don't mean that. They've taken, I wasn't going to be very clear about this. Showtime has taken unbelievably good care of us and always does and always will.

You have to earn any kind of spot you get. And I intend on earning it, right? So through the earning process. But as we earn it, BC, I would like to have the post-fight show we do be a, you know, be a big deal. Like be a different kind of production where the fighters come through,

we get to talk to them, like its own different kind of production where the fighters come through, we get to talk to them, like its own separate kind of thing rather than just the reaction, which it is, which I'm grateful for. But you know what I'm saying? I'm always thinking ahead. That's it. I want to do a post-fight show in the arena, Luke, pay-per-views, right? I want to be that team, that duo.

So let's see if we can get there. And, you know, I said it on Monday's show, Luke, people didn't think we could win that award, right? The World MMA Awards Best MMA Programming? So let's see if we can get there. And, you know, I said it on Monday's show, Luke. People didn't think we can win that award, right? The World MMA Awards Best MMA Programming. Some people are like, hey, what are you guys going to do now? Run for president? What's the next thing you could think of?

That guy Helwani keeps winning, right? 11 years in a row, whatever they call that. Best journalist from there, Luke? Yeah. What if we teamed up together and went after him? What if best journalist of the year was a duo? But I'm not one, so I couldn't win that one. I mean, I'm not a journalist.

Neither are you, Luke. You're not even. I don't know why. Add L. Thomas News. There's nothing newsworthy about you, Luke. No one cares more about the names of my social media handles or my facial hair than you. No one on earth. Wow. You saw that coming. I had a facial hair joke coming right after on earth wow you saw that coming i had a facial

hair joke coming right after that because you are obsessed with it you're predictable at this point all right will we win that award next year luke not forget forget the helwani one forget best journalist that's an uphill battle will we win best mma programming back to back brother only if the donks put us there it is in their hands bc okay and they're capable but their hands just the same all right my final question to you luke before we get out of this segment is if you ask me the fights that i want to see the most next year obviously you get like spence crawford fury all that shit in mma damn do i really want to see connor versus tony ferguson and in boxing luke i really really really want to see gervonta Davis versus Ryan Garcia.

It's going to be fireworks. It's going to be wild, right? Do you have any fights in that lane that could be spectacular top-of-the-billing fights or they could just be, I need to see this matchup? What is itching you entering the new year? I'd like to see Gaethje versus Conor. I really want to see that one.

I think that'd be a fun matchup, a very fun matchup. I am curious about if he can even make it to the cage. I'm curious to see what Jon Jones looks like. You know, because obviously, listen, we said it with with Jang Wai Lee. We'll say it here. You know, I do think with Henry Cejudo, it could only be a benefit. But, you know, John is a mess. So it's hard to say that's a big one.

I will say that, you know, light heavyweight to me is still in upheaval. You know, obviously, Gulaver is the king of it now. But that's a tough division to reign right now, no matter who you are. And there's a lot of parity, certainly, in there. So you're saying you want to see Prochazka versus Ankalayev next year for the title. That's what you're saying. I think we just might, whether I want to or not. You know what I'm saying?

I also think, dude, Adesanya, like, he has held the belt for a long time. If he can make it out of 2022 still with the belt over his shoulder, that would be unbelievably impressive. I mean, what he's already done is beyond impressive, but to do that... I can't wait for their trilogy. Whitaker out of Sanya 3 to close next year. Luke, it's going to be great.

Could be. Could be. All right, BC. Well, that's it for our two big topics. Let's do some quick hitters if we can. Now, you had mentioned for topic number three, Francis Ngannou. His manager apparently has... Let me pull this over here so I don't have to keep looking so far.

Here we go. His manager has said he hasn't spoken to the UFC in about six months. But Francis is first pissed about sparring footage that apparently his camp leaked that makes him look bad. Quote, when I saw that footage, my first reaction was laughing because I know exactly what happened at those training sessions. Here's the thing. When they want to do some highlight, they always choose the part of the video that they use. And they have a lot of videos that like that. They were filming our training session to promote him, his fight and everything. So there was a lot of footage from those few training sessions.

He just says, I'm thinking, I'm like, wow, how easy is it to manipulate people, which they're really good at manipulation. But at the end of the day, as I said, we both know everyone knows for a fact. Does everyone know for a fact, everyone know for a fact bc i don't know i don't know what what's the motivation here i know that team gone has a right to be upset at the way the fallout of losing francis went and obviously this fight will be a close-up again you'll see all the columns written the stories about you know how the relationship fell apart. Did they actually train and spar together more than that one time? Do they put this out to try to anger Francis? Is their game plan and mindset built upon,

let's get this guy away from the more technical destroyer he was in the Stipe rematch and get him back to just being angry destroyer, and that will fall into their hands with guns quickness and counter punching and footwork luke is that the lane they're trying to go or is this more about spite i don't know these camps i mean you took i interviewed um obviously the head of mma factory and um fernan lopez and he was like no we don't know why francis is so mad at us. And then Francis is like, these fucking guys are out to get me.

It's hard to know exactly why we're at the stage we're at and what it all means, but I do expect, I think Cyril Ghosn's going to win, so we'll see how that goes. But the bigger one was from his manager, Markel Martin of CAA, your favorite place, BC. Speaking to SiriusXM, he said, quote, from the beginning, we've always and still do remain open to negotiating with UFC.

Even from my standpoint and his business reputation standpoint, UFC is the best MMA promoter in the game in this business. However, where a lot of people don't want to come out and say or mean it is that it has to make sense for the client. It has to make sense for Francis. At the end of the day, I work for Francis, and he and I spent a lot of time chatting back and forth and trying to understand, okay, what does this mean for his future?

And we've had a lot of back and forth with UFC. But to be honest with you, I haven't heard back from them since June, BC. Yeah, that seems problematic when your fighter is entering the final fight of his current contract, although obviously we know if francis wins what they can they automatically extend it luke every time you win a title fight is that true uh well they yeah basically yes basically um you know john nash had a great reaction to this on twitter for as much as him and i sometimes can go back and forth in the dms you fuck off john nash um John Nash. You know, saying, you know, what do you want MMA managers to do, to bow down to Dan? No, like, this guy's doing his job.

Obviously, this situation is so hot, Button is going to be interesting on the fallout of this fight. But am I conspiracy theorying, knowing that this guy works for CAA and that UFC is owned by Endeavor, which has under its umbrella a rival agency? Is that part of it, Luke? Is that part of it? So I would answer the question by asking it this way. If he wasn't part of CAA but otherwise saying exactly what he was saying and advocating for what he was advocating,

would he get a different reaction from UFC I doubt it does it help that he's with CAA no it definitely doesn't fucking help look what was the root of the initial fallout between Dana White and UFC Brass and Ngannou following his loss to Stipe in the first fight you remember that whole scenario they said he got too big for his britches and that he was what do you remember that whole deal like what was that really about i don't know what it was really about because they were like oh you know he's too big for his britches and he went back to paris and he was you know he was just fucking around basically and so it was a lot long after that where he left and then moved his camp basically in his life to las

vegas um i don't know i don't know the answer is i don't know do you feel like they were angry at him because you got to remember when he knocked out allister over him at the end of what 2016 maybe 2017 one of those two 2016 one of those two luke um which i think is the most devastating knockout in the history of this sport they fast tracked the shit out of him into a title fight like a month and a half later against Stipe. They were doing the whole, we've got the Mike Tyson of MMA. Obviously, this is the type of fighter at that point

that Dana would dream of. They put a lot into him, and look, he laid an egg against Stipe. It was a real exposure of his lack of ground game stamina, all that stuff, right? You think Dana and company were like, what the F, dude? You're supposed to be our guy, and you dropped that shit. And now we find out, you know, beyond the scenes, you think you're a superstar and you're all that.

Is that part of it, Luke? Or mind you, I'm grasping for straws, right? A little bit grasping. I just think the UFC is kind of like that with anyone who wants to assert their own vision for themselves. I mean, remember, at that exact same time, or at least not too far from that, they were beefing with Stipe. anyone who wants to assert their own vision for themselves. I mean, remember, at that exact same time, or at least not too far from that,

they were beefing with Stipe. Stipe was like, I'm the greatest ever at heavyweight, and I don't feel like I'm respected, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know? I mean, there's a lot of that storyline going around as well. One thing we haven't talked about also, BC, for like 2022 predictions, is who's going to be the next champ champ. I wonder if that might slow a little bit. You know, i haven't heard a lot of talk about that yeah um i mean it could it could

be it could be chef chang we don't know what's going to happen here with the whole juliana pena situation it seems dana and company want to go right back to the newness rematch right they're calling it already it's going to be the biggest women's fight in history okay that's great it's probably going to be really fun in the buildup when we get to it. The betting odds makers will tell you Amanda will fix the glitch, eliminate Matt Serra from her life, right? And just kind of move on. Okay. Who knows? Maybe Pena beats her twice in a row and it shocks us. If Pena does hang on to that title in any form, Luke, you got to feel like that's Pena Shevchenko's opportunity to really cement herself

in the history books and even if amanda comes out of that with the title god valentina still wants that trilogy real bad i wonder if she's the next champ champ luke and i want to side that with how close are we whether it's bellator whether it's's UFC, to the first triple champ in major MMA? I say major because, I don't know, did it happen once in regional MMA? Maybe. I mean, you know, guys fall out of the sky in regional MMA, Luke. Sometimes they put mats down because it's raining in the cage in regional MMA. At the highest level, do we see somebody attempt?

We've never seen somebody attempt to be a triple champion yet. Does that happen this year? No. Not on a major level no it won't there's too many other things competing with that for that to be i mean it would have to be connor at welterweight so who'd oh at featherweight or like out of sonia running the table at 205 and heavyweight, not going to happen. Or Patricio Pitbull going to 35, Luke, which he did not do for this tournament, which I don't get. I don't get it, though. Yeah, and that's another part, too.

A, he lost a belt. Two belts, really. One belt, Luke. Oh, yeah, you're right. He gave up that. He gave up the other one. I mean, in a sense, he lost it. Even if he got that third belt, he wouldn't be like the champ, yeah, you're right. He gave up that. He gave up the other one. I mean, in a sense, he lost it. Even if he got that third belt, he wouldn't be like the champ, champ, champ.

He would just be like the champ who also was at a different time. I mean, you know what I'm saying. It wouldn't be exactly the same. BC, I don't know what to say about this for our quick hitters. Do you even want to get into this? Luis Ortiz, Kong, is taking on Charles Martin on pay-per-view on January 1st yeah is that Saturday set there yeah for folks who want to set their money on fire I've got a great fight I mean they got a lot of balls putting that on pay-per-view so it seems it's unbelievable it's a

PBC on Fox show uh you know look we all thought that Areola versus uh Andy Ruiz pay-per-view fight last year was on paper right one of the worst boxing pay-per-views we've ever seen. Turns out the fight turned out to be super exciting. Andy Ruiz got dropped. It doesn't justify coming in what it was. I think PBC on Fox thought that was going to be Deontay Wilder versus Andy Ruiz last time. And I think, Luke, they thought this was going to be Luis Ortiz versus Andy Ruiz, and it didn't work out.

Would that have been a better pay-per-view than this? Yes. Would that have been a pay-per-view worthy fight? Probably still no. But it seems clear, Luke, as PBC continues its relationship with Fox this coming year, that it seems along with having that Keith Thurman, Mario Barrios pay-per-view,

that Fox is really into the heavyweight side of things. They're the ones who put on that last two, along with ESPN, the Fury Wilder fights. They're the ones who put on that last two, along with ESPN, the Fury Wilder fights. They're the ones who put on that Areola versus Ruiz fight. But Luke, this matchup is, yeah, man. So Luis Ortiz is, some people think he's 55. Luke, what is he on paper? Like 40, 41? Gave Deontay Wilder hell twice, but got knocked out a very good heavyweight, but he's getting up there in age. Charles Martin, if you don't remember this guy he was like 15 and 0 but hadn't fought anybody he gets a vacant title opportunity a bunch of years back fights Tsar

Glaskov Glaskov breaks his leg in like the second round never fights again and retires Martin wins the title and then loses it in his next fight to Anthony Joshua to start that title reign. And since then, Luke, look, I like Charles Martin. He's a brawler. He goes in there. He tries, but there's a pay-per-view main event, dude. So, um, yeah, I mean, you know, again, if we're trying to build toward Andrew Ruiz versus Deontay Wilder, then I guess you can justify neither of those we're trying to build toward Andrew Ruiz versus Deontay Wilder, then I guess you can justify neither of those guys are on this card, okay? So I don't know what we're building to here, Luke,

but that pay-per-view is going to happen Saturday, whether you watch it or not. All right, and last but not least, the last MMA event of the year is going to be Ryzen 33. BC, actually a fair bit to like on this one. Yeah, don't we get a little tension? Nasa Kawa action here. Yeah. You got tension. Nascar was taken on Takanori Gomi in a special standing rules bout where

they have to just fucking the kid. There's no ground, but I guess it's semi. I'm not sure what the rules are exactly other than it's a standing bout. So you have to, there would be no ground. It's interesting. The card will have the Bantamweight Grand Prix semifinals that will

happen earlier. Kai Asakura will be on there as well as Naoki Inoue. The winners of those two bouts will then fight in the main event for the Grand Prix finals. Plus the Rise and Lightweight Championship is up for grabs as the champion, Herberto D'Souza, takes on Yusuke Yachi. Um, big kickboxing names on this card.uta kubo is on here uh reena kubota if you're a japanese mma fan and you want some solid mma action like high level you could do a whole lot worse than ryzen 33 to be sure bc kai asakura on it luke which last year you know i got us into some accidental trouble over that whole thing but you know he had that two fight series with Kyoji Horiguchi he's back here oh look it seems to be the the most of the attention is on that that that quasi weird rules match you mentioned there's a big

difference am I right in both age and size here between Tenshin Nasakawa and Takanori Gomi uh yeah it's pretty significant I mean Tenshin was outsized by a 140 pound floyd i mean gomi is a legit what lightweight so luke they are 20 years apart in age they're 23 and 43 yeah dude it's a uh it's a um it's a thing will you be watching will you be watching luke let's be fair here let's put it I'll watch after the fact. I'm not staying up in the middle of the night to watch. Also, Hamasaki versus Izawa

at 49 kilos is a big fight as well. For a time. The one thing about Ryzen is it delivers action, Luke. The promotion brings it. Yeah, that's true. They bring it. It's a good fucking event.

And it's a good... It's a good tradition in MMA to have it on New Year's Eve as it. It's a good fucking event, and it's a good tradition in MMA to have it on New Year's Eve as well. It's very, very unique in that way. Yes, your Super Atomweight Champion is Ayaka Hamasaki, and I think it's a non-title bout against Saika Izawa. So Hamasaki is a good fighter. I don't know about Izawa.

I'll be candid, but it should be a good contest, and it should be a good card all the way around. Transitioning out real quick, are you psyched about the announcement that DAZN's going to put on a trilogy bout early next year between Roman Chocolatito Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada?

If you remember, they had their rematch early this year. It's one of the best fights of the year. Estrada got a controversial decision. They first fought back in 2012, back when Chocolatito was, you know, the guy. This could be special, Luke, this trilogy. It could be great. I'm not as pumped for it as you are.

I'm not as high on Chocolatito at this point as you are, but I grant that it's a pretty big fight, and it's a good one for them to put on. Yeah. 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. Shout-out to the Superflyweights. They bring it at 115, Luke. Thank you. All right, BC, it's now yours, and I guess we have Dead Wrong and then Fan Subs. Yeah, so we do this every friday but today's wednesday uh morningcombat at gmail.com is your email address every week because when luke and i is talking to a microphone for this many hours good god inevitably we'll

ramble on and our microphones will tail out and people will get upset and then we'll say incorrect facts and piss a lot of people off but we are man enough to take the stand take the l go face to face with our accusers okay all right you want to catch a predator you better bring some receipts with you chris hansen because we're we're here all right itke we start with a man named frazier frazier frazier from edinburgh scotland edinburgh borough edinburgh i think it's edinburgh edinburgh something like that it's not burg is it uh maybe it is i don't really speak gaelic you speak or. Or Irish. Or Scottish. You speak Hick. Or Welsh. During the episode by The Pool

for Jake Paul vs. Woodley 2, BC said Nate Diaz was cornering his teammate and quote UFC veteran Chris Avila. Now I only said that because Luke said that earlier in the day. This is dead wrong. Chris Avila had two UFC fights, but

both were losses, including one to Artem Lobov that hardly qualifies him as a UFC veteran, you washable fuck. No, it actually explicitly qualifies him as a UFC. What kind of fucking dead wrong? This is a terrible dead wrong. Chris Avila did fight in UFC.

He is a UFC veteran. He's not a decorated ufc veteran but he fought there if that counts veteran has different levels i mean veteran could mean you've served in the armed forces veteran could mean you're old at whatever craft you've done and you've been around for a while or in a more loose generic sense it could just mean you used to do that for that thing this guy used to do that for that thing he closed with love the show latin fauci army but frazier why don't you why don't you get f'd frazier all right frazier i'm afraid to say while i appreciate your uh you know your preferences and attractive women

you are good you are wrong sir you are dead wrong all right there we go we're undefeated so far jordan from hawaii sliding and happy holidays and 2022 donks in episode 244 at an hour and four minutes bc refers to bruno silva versus alex pededa as quote a sex fight and he said one we might see on the spice channel in the 1980s bc as another guy who grew up in the 80s and 90s and who recalls scrambled cable channels as part of my adolescence the spice channel did not come into existence until 1994 looking forward to an awesome 2022 jordan from hawaii jordan did i say 80s i may maybe i may have said it luke. I'll take the L if I said it. It sounds familiar-ish.

Yeah. Luke, I used to babysit at a house in the early 90s. Well, I guess it wasn't that early if he's saying this channel debuted in 94. They subscribed to that, Luke. Is it hardcore pornography or like no no but it's it's it's it's more extreme than what hbo and show in cinemax and showtime was offering at the time but short of hardcore so it's that like gray area in between you know if you've i've been watching incredibly disturbing pornography since i was like 14 so come on well that explains lot. That's why your morals and your heart are so black.

Yeah. Wow. All right, Jordan. Thank you. I may have been wrong on there. I'll take the L if I was. Spencer comes in and says, in BC's solo episode, which got rave reviews, Luke, besides the sound quality,

of episode 245, when talking about McGregor's run at lightweight, BC refers to Conor's win over Eddie Alvarez as an upset victory. But this is dead wrong. Conor closed as a minus 155 betting favorite with Alvarez as the plus 135 dog. Luke, I'll take that L, bro. Okay, I didn't realize that. That's a good correction. That's a good one.

I like that one. That's better. I'm dead wrong that. That's a good correction. That's a good one. I like that one. That's better. I'm dead wrong there. This was Conor. I want to say moving up in. Yeah, it was moving up in weight because he fought Diaz at welterweight the two previous fights. So it was moving down from there, but moving up from featherweight where he had run the gamut there and winning the title. Okay.

He was the betting favorite, Luke. Who do you think should have been? Outside of, because obviously the lines sometimes reflect the need to bring in other bets and the crowds that flood the... I mean, heading into that one, I knew it was close, but I thought Eddie would edge, and then Eddie got blown out. So Conor deserved to be the favorite, obviously. No, I think at the time, Eddie deserved to be the favorite

because I think Eddie should have won that fight in hindsight, Luke. He abandoned all forms of a game plan. came he said he came in there to wrestle but connor you know talked shit waved him on and got him into a fight he also just made a lot of bad choices in the fight itself more than just like being mentally out of it i mean i guess they're all connected but yeah he he fumbled that one unfortunately for him you gotta admit though love him or hate him connor was riding high at that point like he could have beaten anybody that night like he was just i'll never forget i'll never forget after that win he did a scrum with reporters backstage and i was there i was there yeah and he asked for shares in the company i remember that you know he

didn't get him obviously but i remember thinking at the time dude he might get this shit like he really might do this i i will have to see but i remember for the first time i was like here is a guy who you absolutely cannot if he says he can do it you could say it may be unlikely but i would be very cautious about i wrote a column that night right after he said that i went back to the media room wrote a column that night. Right after he said that, I went back to the media room, wrote a column that led the front page of ESPN.com the next day, Luke. Okay? Wow. Wow. So there you go.

Take that shit, people. Okay? I've done some stuff. You've been some places. I know that. I may have even been late, Luke. It's possible. All right.

This one comes from Simon. Brian did a great job of hosting the show by himself on December 27th. Thank you, Simon. But while listing his top 10 best fights he was ever present for he claimed that japanese boxer takashi miura retired immediately after his loss to francisco vargas in 2015 bc you're dead wrong miura actually went on to fight three more times including a world title fight against Miguel Burchell. Look, I'll take that damn L. I thought that sent him into retirement.

I'm dead wrong on my recollection. Did he take a bunch of bullshit fights, or was that his last significant fight? I don't know. I mean, that was a significant fight against Burchell, and it was an early part of Burchell's incredible reign that was just ended by Oscar Valdez this year. But yeah, I thought that was the end.

I mean, no one remembers that fight, Luke. Vargas busted eye down on the card, just rallying back for that sick finish. But yeah, thank you for pointing that out, Simon. You're right. I was wrong. I wonder how much other shit I said was wrong, and people just didn't look it up, Luke. You have to wonder that.

Am I just full of hot air and piss? Yes. Yellow piss? was wrong and people just didn't look it up luke you have to wonder that am i just full of hot air and piss yes yellow piss lots of piss probably yellow piss yeah super dehydrated almost brown yeah there you go uh michael says on the episode the monday after christmas wow they're coming for me here luke okay bc was listing the top 10 fights he attended. Whoa, there's a theme here, Luke. He was dead wrong on some of the details. With his first two entries. First of all, when discussing Ferguson versus Pettis, BC said that the fight ended because Pettis' corner was concerned about the cut. It was actually Showtime suffering a broken hand that made coach

duke rufus throw in the towel wow god well they could have been concerned about the cut it's just he's right they didn't throw it out and in fairness and in fairness i was i was at the arena for that so i wasn't hearing the commentary and i don't think i've ever re-watched the fight luke so take that i'm wrong then I'll take the L. Secondly, when talking about Usman versus Covington, one, BC said that no one was knocked down. Put down the bath salts, player, because Usman definitely knocked Colby down in round five twice before the controversial Mark Goddard stoppage. We all know you're on the back nine, bc but that's no excuse to phone it in

much love from brooklyn keep up the decent work and he dropped him he dropped him once or maybe even twice in the second fight right yeah but so in relation to this first fight so one i will take the l because i said that but after saying that it triggered my own head so what i meant by that luke is sometimes you get action fights tell me if i'm wrong here great a great uh point is uh do you remember brandon rios versus mike alvarado you remember that that that two fight series they had the earth trilogy actually remember the first one was like fight of the year in 2013 and people were going sick over it like this before or after rios made fun of um Roach for having Parkinson's. Oh, God.

Probably in the middle of that. My point is this, Luke. That fight, everybody wanted it to be an all-time great fight. I interviewed both fighters ahead, and they're like, this is going to be Goddie Ward all over again. Everybody wanted it to be. The networks were talking about it. Remember, Jim Lampley didn't call that fight for HBO

because it was on their junior series, yet he bought a ticket in the crowd. He probably probably didn't buy it but you get my point everybody wanted it to be it was like six or seven rounds of two guys just running into each other but my defense that time was look great fight but it didn't have character there wasn't ebbs and flows there weren't knockdowns there weren't you know like what why do i like goddie ward more than i like corrales castillo one even though corrales castillo one is the better fight and maybe the best fight of all time for all i'm concerned because goddie ward one had character there you know guys get above the kid just just like oh my god you know what i mean corrales castillo one had the two knockdowns in the last round don't dead wrong me i get but my point is this Luke when I made that comment Monday it was that Usman Covington was a great fight

but it was like two trains running into each other it's one of the top 10 fights I was ever cage side for but what prevents it in my mind from being a top five UFC fight of all time is it lacked a little bit of character there weren't big sways of momentum yes there were two knockdowns at the end that ended the fight, but there wasn't a kind of like, oh, my God, in the way that even Adesanya versus Gastelum had of near submissions and guys getting up and, you know, wackiness. So that's the point that I was ultimately trying to make there

and saying there were no knockdowns, there were no sways and ebbs and flows of momentum. I hope people get that. Maybe it's just me rambling on luke who knows i don't know whatever they're coming for you today i want to point that out they are coming for you you know when you take the chair and you take it solo and you dig in and you give two hours and eight minutes of your life to the people luke and you bring it you're putting yourself out there but the thing is luke i can take bro all right it's the last show of the year while you're doing doing Dead Wrong, do you want to see Tukey?

Do you want Tukey to say goodbye to the viewers? Of course I do, Luke. Do your thing. Let me see if I can get her. Alright, we got one more Dead Wrong for you. Here we go. Fidencio says, How's it going, BC? And Luke, love the show. On Monday's show, again with Monday's show,

at the 1 hour and 12 minute mark, BC mentioned that the Nunes vs. Cyborg was an honorable mention for the best fights he'd ever attended and that it was a great fight in Vegas. BC is right. It was a great fight. But it took place in Inglewood, California. It was the fight that was supposed to take place in Vegas but got moved to California due to Jon Jones and the whole Pico-Graham debacle.

Keep up the great... Dude, that is another dead wrong. I will take that L. That fight was in LA. I was there for it. It got moved at the last minute. That's the end of the dead wrongs. Let's go to Tukey.

Hi, Tukey. Tukey! Tukey. Tukey. No se habla de Bruno. No se habla de Bruno. Si, mi amor. Si.

Can you say hola to the audience? Can you say hola? Can you say hi? Hey, Tukey. There you go. Hold on, she can't hear you. Hold on. Tukey, te amo gringo BC. Me amo gringo BC.

Tookie. Do you like Brian Campbell? Hola, Tookie. Hola, Tookie. Tookie, what do you think of him? Uncle Gringo here. Hola. Hola.

Tio Fail? Hola. Taco Supreme. Come on. Nothing. here hola hola do you fail taco supreme come on nothing nothing at all really taco supreme is what you're gonna say really that's not racist i've limited spanish luke okay please i'm very limited spanish all right okay man more well i want you to say Gracias Okay She's tired she's going to have a nap I think she wants to see my glasses again that's what I think No I don't think she does because you made her cry Last time like a jerk job

Tookie Here we go What do you think about this idiot Tio Feo Los Dientes Alright Luke Alright we gotta go That's the face I made the first time I saw the

Emmanuel series on Showtime in the 90s Say ciao Bye Te amo Oh You got a blowing kiss Look at that Was that the audience or Uncle Gringo?

No, Uncle Gringo for you. Papa Gringo. Yes. Okay. Yes. Go with Loretta. Go with Loretta. Okay.

Bye-bye. That's so wholesome. That shit's so wholesome, Luke. There you go. You got to see my daughter. She's growing up fast. She's the best, Luke. All right?

Thanks, man. She's awesome. You would love her. She's great. Big fan. Big fan on this end. Luke, we closed up dead wrong with me getting small facts incorrect, so I'll take those L's.

Thank you very much. Did you know that Cyborg vs. Nunes was in LA, not Vegas, Luke? I did not. Yeah, they moved that last minute. I forgot about that. All right. Yeah, thank you. Luke, we got one more segment for you.

MorningCombat.gmail.com the same email address that you can send in your artwork pictures of you and our merch really whatever you got we'll put it on the screen because mikey mormar our producer really doesn't do the best quality control on this luke is that fair to say yeah i mean i'm not even sure he's sober it's quite we love you we love you mikey it's called fan submission Mikey is like Chief Keef I hate being sober I don't get that reference he has a song called hate being sober

and I joke about it because everyone sings sweet Caroline sweet Caroline is the national anthem for drunk whites irrespective of their country doesn't matter if you're from the UK or America or whatever. It's what drunk whites do when they get together. They sing Sweet Caroline.

But what they're really doing is they're just parading that they're drunk. So I'm saying, let's substitute Sweet Caroline for Chief Keef's Hate Being Sober because they're essentially about the exact same thing. But, you know, it's falling on deaf ears, the argument, even though i'm quite right okay that's fair um to close on what i was saying

before about rios alvarado one you remember kevin aioli the next day after that fight put out a column on yahoo calling it the greatest action fight since the year 2000, Luke? Wait, he called what the biggest action fight? Rios Alvarado won. He said it was better than Pacquiao Marquez 4, better than Corrales Castillo 1, better than Gotti Ward 1. That's a big claim. I didn't agree with it then.

That was dead wrong, okay? Not BC. He wasn't dead wrong. That was dead wrong, okay? Thank you. Maybe I'm wrong, Luke, because he's on a great run right now luke so shout out to him right i agree all right no selling that here we go uh fan submissions start with david a is this the french rapey guy luke he says hi guys i thought i'd share my mk drinking

games for the christmas holidays where did where did he put the GHB in his liquor cabinet? Yeah. Five drinks to be consumed depending on what you guys say during the show. Number one, top quality locally produced daffodil beer. It's a lot nicer than it sounds. Four swigs to finish the bottle. One every time Luke says, last but not least. Down in one if he says it in the first five minutes of the show number two he'll drink vodka he buys from the dodgy polish neighbor not my thing but something so something said two or three

times a show bc making it look easy or any word made up by brian that's an adaption or conceivment number three luke he drinks special scotch malt whiskey a celebratory triple any song double shot for bc's ragdoll song or luke's dead wrong rap wow we haven't heard ragdoll in a while in here luke right you know um also luke he'll drink a uh chatanoff do pop pap pape it's red wine and it's his staple so i need things you say all the time like to your point bc if you're gonna come on i don't know what this even means luke where are we at number five he drinks shitty greek sweet mike all right i'm i'm ending it yeah i don't care i've lost interest after like the first two so i like dodgy french dave better when he was like trying to get

inside on this on his uh students you know what i mean all right drink up his booze he says p.s the other two photos you have bowie the cat's version of the game that's a cute feline look okay i'm with it he said i nearly put morning combat underwear on her head but i thought better of it all right david thanks for your time here i mean is this motherfucker literally sending in pictures of his cat is that what we're looking at these assholes he's just thumbing through his phone and then sending it to mikey he's like normally i send pictures of the pussy in class now i'm going around the house yeah all right thank you uncle dave thank you uh All right. Anything else from him? Oh, here we go, Luke.

Here's his final one. And who's Emma? My white cat there, Luke. Oh, okay, okay. All right. All right. I mean, that's mildly funny if you're 50. All right.

Daniel's coming in from hot and heavy from Tampa, Florida. Quote, hey, Luke, could you rate this cable management? He says, Luke. Yeah, BC, the PAs didn't do you any justice with that setup. No, I came running in from HQ, and it was what it was, Luke. Look how washed we were by the end of that week. They're just get, get me home.

Get me home. Yeah. I was ready to get the fuck out of there too. All right. Uh, Jack is here. He says, Hey Luke and Brian,

I hope I'm not too late sending this, but in the last week when you guys pulled the upset of winning the best MMA programming, I was working in the backyard. When I saw your post saying that you won, I was in so much shock. I ran into the house yelling. They won.

They won. My partner had no won, I was in so much shock. I ran into the house yelling. They won. They won. My partner had no idea what I was talking about until I told her that MK had won. She wasn't excited as I was, although she did tell me to wait here because quote, this is a good time to give you your Christmas present. Look, check this out. I waited confused and she returned holding morning combat 2.0 merch.

I was in shock. i knew talking about you donks constantly would pay off and now i can enjoy the elite club of people whose partners buy you shit i've been here since day one that's awesome i even subscribed on my partner's account to help you guys get to 100k ps luke how's my cable management atrocious but the the hoodie is nice the house looks nice the floors don't look banged up which i appreciate you see that the floor is all the hardwood finish is still there now look he keeps mentioning a partner management is would you guess he f's luke you would you have guessed that yeah yeah he probably f's all rights. All right. He's probably a great guy, right? Yeah, he's probably a great guy.

His cable management is a three, but his life is a nine. So, you know, what are you going to do? All right. All right. Let's keep it going here. Jay says, happening now. I don't know which Jay this is. Jay Aaron, maybe?

Oh, God. That's a good-looking pooch. That's a good-looking living room. Yeah. I like that. I like that. That whole setup is nice. Yeah, that's well done. Although, you know That's a good-looking living room. Yeah, I like that. I like that. That whole setup is nice. Yeah, that's well done.

Although, you know what? That Christmas tree is real ass. I mean, my skin blown up on a big screen like that, Luke. It's a little Patch Adams there. But, you know, outside of that, looking good in that drug rug. Thank you, Jay, for sharing your in-house look with us. John slides in and says virtually identical i'll take that luke you know two two badasses from the uh with eastern european roots i'll take that luke did you uh did you tell your son what you thought of his back tattoo uh it's it's

it's gnarly it's aggressive it's this side of sean brady to be fair luke right it's gnarly, it's aggressive it's this side of Sean Brady to be fair, Luke, right? it's aggressive it's aggressive alright, Tanner is here, he says hey BC and LT, happy Merry Festivus from a cheap Chinese American restaurant in Idaho with a two hour wait time I'm drinking double G&Ts watching the Cards Colts game

you guys are going to crush 2022 love Tanner H Luke, forget, where does he say he is? Wyoming? Or no Watching the Cards Colts game. You guys are going to crush 2022. Love Tanner H. Luke, forget, where does he say he is? Wyoming? Or no, Idaho? This guy's on the Capitol steps looking like that. There's no question, Luke.

No doubt about it. Although I will say, first of all, shouts to this man for his gear and then for everything else. Also on top of it, BC, have you done the Christmas Day go to a Chinese restaurant tradition? We do the christmas eve take home thai food tradition oh you know what i like that i like that little remix that's nice but i will say i did it in new york city a couple times spent christmases at chinese restaurants and like decent ones dude i fucking love that tradition that is a great tradition i love it my my dad and

mom kind of made fun of me because you referenced the Christmas story movie where they eat after the bumpus hounds. But going with the Thai food night before, it's great. It's great. So shout out to Tanner. Especially if it's snowy and then you have a big warm noodle dish the next day. It's fucking great. Oh, the leftovers are incredible. I was still eating them yesterday.

What did you think of Tanner's beard, Luke? That's aggressive. You know, it's fucking great oh the leftovers are incredible i was still eating them yesterday um what'd you think of tanner's beard look that's aggressive you know it's a lot it's a lot but if you're in idaho what the fuck else are you gonna do that's a fair point all right antoine is here yes antoine the yeti you know that six foot eight guy who ran away to alaska luke i love that guy night riding and gotta represent the mk hope you guys are having a lovely holiday appreciate the content even though the jake paul gives me dysentery like symptoms keep it up in my newer merch is on the way luke i've told you in the past check can we zoom in look how big this mfr is luke yeah he's a tall drink of water but you know he he shared with me a couple a couple pics of the tail he pulls up up north there in the final frontier and um um well done Antoine all right yeah I mean he's out there just slaying and and skiing it's a great life I mean what do you think Alaskan women are what do you think native

Alaskan women are like Lou threes well they probably need warmth like everyone else so he this guy's just cleaning up wow left and right big fan just you just rolled right over the fact that i just torched like 75 of alaskan women completely unfairly well if they're not five foot three bbls luke you don't like anyone we've been through this before this is this is true you're it's a fair point all right robert's here with two photos uh first his mom leslie in the background and his brother unpictured hooked him up with the best Christmas gift ever. Can't wait to shard on you guys.

Also, how does my gray beard compare to Luke's at age 35? Zoom back in. I gotta see a lot of things here. Hey, could you place more things randomly on the wall? Well, first of all, he loves Louisiana, Luke, okay? Shout out to his mom, Leslie, in the background with a thumbs up.

She bought him. There's no chance that underwear stays white through the holidays. Luke, there's no chance. No, dude. We're going to be doo-doo brown before first quarter 2022. Are you kidding me? And then he's going to randomly hang it on his wall. Yeah.

He's got three pieces of merch there, though. So shout out to Robert. Love that shit. All right. Thank you, buddy. Thank you. Yes. Oh, shit.

Look at that. Oh, zoom in here. Oh, he's got the Carter, a little Wayne doll. Then our pieces of merch and then some other clothes there. Yeah, all right. He's doing well for himself. All right. All right gonna you were gonna insult him then you're like you know what he's probably a good guy yeah yeah he's a good guy he's all right he had a funny joke the ones who show us the funny jokes i like that i like them better all right sam is here he says

love you brian but dude we got things to do at least stop mumbling if possible i hate choosing between hearing your whispers and hearing you're at me. Keep up the good work. You earned that award. Sort of. LOL. Look, it's not my fault. It's not my fault. All right?

We're going to fix it. We had some tech issues. We're going to fix it. It'll be fine. The people love you. It'll be fine. I'll take the dead wrong for it. I'll represent us.

But, you know, come on. All right. Greg is here. He says, me and my brother accidentally bought each other matching orchids of combat t-shirts that's awesome for christmas we both have some fresh ass merch to cover ourselves in while we opened our presents and deleted several mimosas on christmas morning i guess they don't call them best sellers for nothing happy holidays from saint catherine's ontario canada luke look at these fine young canucks it looks like a before and after picture from like queer eye except they they kept the clothes the same look at this guy on the left facial hair all shitty hair all shitty hat all

shitty and then the guy on the right he combed it up yeah a little bit he cleans up well what do you think about two brothers blindly buying each other the same gift and not realizing it? I think that they're smitten by the magic of MK, so I don't blame them. I bet they walk around going, we're the BC and LT of Canada. I'm not sure if that's a good thing.

You could argue that Bone and Bronstetter are the BC and LT of Canada, right? Yeah, but like they're not just like the... No. No is the answer. Luke, I know you don't read the comments at all, but did you see there was a comment on... Every time you do this, I'm going to say something about it.

So I see you. I did not mention ferraris in any form look um did you see there was a comment on monday's show some guys like my sister was the one mike bone fondled on the airplane that time yeah i don't think that that's true because i know what happened on the airport on the airplane and it was much to my amazement wildly consensual all right luke we've got a video from david a didn't we already excommunicate this guy maybe it's a different one he says hi guys until recently i thought i was in a two-horse race with the tattooed damien for donk of the year but then i was not included in bc's top 10 donks for the wheel of death. It's time to remind you who I am to this show. Here is my year in year end song. I enclosed the lyrics at the end in case you can't understand my Franco

British accent. Luke David Appleton's making a second run on the same segment and not getting canceled. So let's see what he's got. French Bill Cosby kicking in, leaning in motherfuckers. I'm the French Bill Cosby. So let's see what he's got. French Bill Cosby kicking in, leaning in. Motherfuckers, I'm the French Bill Cosby. Damien the donkey, stormed the capital, you widow. You got a shitty tattoo and then you disappeared.

Some of the donkey people, it's gotta be me. Every show they talk about the French Bill Cosby. Sometimes they call me... Oh my god. Oh my god. And that Berlin Oh, vote for me You know it makes sense Oh, I'm dating you I've got no other friends Got my students to repeat The MK mantra Got a predatory lung

For a sexual enhancer In Europe's showtime Is that my chance? Hey Mantra, got a predatory lung for a sexual enhancer In Europe, showtime is out of my hands Gotta fix my cable management and go and pounce on If you're gonna come on Tonight's the night Gonna lay me some pipe Vote for Bilzy

Vote for Jocko Vote for Harvey, vote for bilzy vote for harvey vote for happy happy new year everyone oh god i just spilled someone someone needs to tell david no means no i was gonna say he'll probably get himself canceled anyway on his own luke but he's back in my good graces i gotta tell you when he was putting the photos up of cosby then epstein then i couldn't even see what it was after that i was like wow he really went for it he really went for it the lyrics are like sometimes they call me jeffrey epstein sometimes they call me the french weinstein i i gave you the best tip to tip you've ever seen. Wow. Luke, this is redemption in motion. You just saw it right here. That's commitment.

That's creative. I mean, he played the guitar on his own too, Luke. If I go to Paris again, should I hit this guy up? 100%. But don't bring the women with you. Yeah, fuck all that. I'd love to meet them the end lyrics Luke were if you're gonna come on come on tonight's the night

gonna lay me some pipe wow wow I don't think I've ever had the internal dialogue tonight's the night gonna lay me some pipe I just spilled half a water bottle over everything, Luke. That was great.

Wow. Yeah. Alright. That's it. That's all we got. Morningcombat at gmail.com will get you on our show if you're weird enough, but thank you to our fine folks. Luke, as much as you want to distance yourself from French Bill Cosby,

he's one of the reasons that we are the best mma programming in 2021 luke okay all right it's it's p1s like rapey p1s like him luke okay that's how we got here um i am ashamed to admit it but you are right it's the rapey p1s um bc are you okay over there i see you doing some things. All right. So let me, let me, let me do the, the fine print stuff while you're up doing that as a reminder to everyone, as he indicated, morning combat at gmail.com will be the email for dead wrongs for fan subs. Please send those in. We always appreciate that when you do, if you want to try showtime in the new year and why the hell wouldn't you showtime..com. You can get a 30-day

free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can do whatever you want with your life. Of course, we have a deal right now. Morningcombat.store. All holiday items on sale for a limited time until they're gone. Underwear, sweaters, beanies, all on sale for a limited time. You've got to go right now to get them ladies and gentlemen uh if you are listening on a podcast platform give us a nice review there if you're watching on youtube thumbs up hit subscribe bc we should probably take this final moment since we have thanked the donks who watch this repeatedly at this point we should probably take a moment on our last show of the year to thank the amazing crew behind the program that makes it what it is.

From Corey to Gaff to Al to, of course, our intrepid producer at CBS Sports, Mikey Mormyle, who did not get thanked properly, of course, at the awards ceremony. So we could do it a little bit extra here. Mikey, thank you for everything this past year. Of course, as well, Steven Espinosa, Brian Daly, Matt Snyder, Courtney Mogg, who's been an MVP. Don't forget about Staten Island Sally. Don't forget about Sally. I mean, are you going to give Jay Aaron any love? Fuck no.

For what? For what? Good luck with that Pennington James CD that five people are going to fucking throw in the trash. Wow. All right. Well, I'm just saying they will. Jake Roseman, our documentarian by the way

uh documentary number six it's coming luke it's coming i'm supposed to be seeing a what's the uh what's the what's when's it supposed to because this is one i'm actually interested in so when is it supposed to be out i'm supposed to be seeing part of it later today and i'm told in the next couple weeks it's going live so uh it's gonna know, recap a few different stops on our recent run and should be interesting, Luke. Also, Luke, I got some new paint for Christmas. I was working last night. Can you judge my can you rate my my latest creation here, Luke? It's like if Van Gogh were stupid. I mean mean what does this say to you luke i mean you know

that you tried to brush your teeth and the germs won all right luke um you know it art can be interpreted many different ways luke but that's more of a uh a a caterpillar in the cocoon, you know, spreading its wings, Luke, despite the turmoil around it. Really a lot like our show's evolution. And to your point about shouting out our great staff across the board, Malka, CBS Sports, and Showtime. Luke, I don't think you and I expected to have this great of a year with this show. And a lot of it goes to our staff a lot of it goes to our incredible fan base for voting us in and for supporting us every week and clicking the like and subscribe and sending us their weird entries but luke a lot of it also is because of you so

luke thomas thank you for a great 2021 as my as my you know my bedside partner in this weird editorial marriage. If you don't think I appreciate you, you're crazy, okay? Now, with that said, am I trying every day to best you, to make you, you know, to eliminate you, to push you to the side? You better believe it, Luke, okay? Because I'm coming. But I think that tension, not Nasukawa,

is what makes this show so great all right yes well i am not out here to compete with you i don't know if you are with me that's one thing you can choose to do but i am out here to partner with you and i feel like it's been a fucking great great year i'm actually happy to close it only because i'm so excited to start a new one of these chapters with you. So you've been a great partner to work with. You're a little bit brain damaged, but that's okay. I can work with that.

And yeah, dude, I'm hoping that 2022 is everything we think it could be. I really am. I mean, you can only huff fumes for so many years and have Factory Town and not come out on the other end looking a little gnarly, Luke, okay? It's a little true. And by the way, I will say this year, BC, at least in the case of me although you two a little bit too you know we had to kind of look in the mirror and be like we got to get some shit right with

our lives and we did we put things into motion this year that kind of put us we're ending the i'll say this we're ending the year in a lot of a healthier more balanced way than we started the year that's yeah i've backslid a bit more than you, but yeah, I'm looking, I'm looking to, you know, Luke, it's fun being the goofball show,

but I think we got a taste of, of, of what it's like to, to take over the business, to take over the industry. Okay. And it feels good. I think we do.

I'm really proud of what we did this year, dude. Thank you for everything you did this year. Thank you for covering for me on Monday and everything else big and small 2022 is going to be fucking awesome dude it's not we went gas and now brakes

we hit the gas pedal and now we're going to drive it even further to the floor I'm excited so one more time I want to thank the crew I want to thank everyone at CBS I want to thank everyone at Showtime who made this possible I want to thank all the viewers everybody who makes this what it is from Brian Campbell all the way want to thank everyone at cbs want to thank everyone at showtime who made this possible want to thank all the viewers everybody who makes this what it is from brian campbell all the way down to just the viewers who have only seen it even one time thank you thank you so much for making mk what it is we'll be back in next week it will be back in 2022 and it is more not less

of everything we've already put to close last year to close, last year we gave the Donk of the Year award to one web screen. This year, you and I and the staff have not voted on it yet, but do you have any feeling who's the clubhouse leader in the Donk of the Year stand? David A. from France just made a move right there. I mean, Damien the Donk put us on his body. Yeah, he wrote a song, and he put a lot of effort into it, you could see, but Damien got a tattoo. Sorry, that's the Trump card.

I don't know what you could put above that as a show of loyalty. That's probably number one. You can name your kid Morning Combat, and that would be cool. That would be an interesting move, yeah. I wonder who was our first listener to get arrested. It probably already happened, actually. Probably Jay Aaron. Yeah, yeah yeah all right i wonder who was our first listener to get arrested it probably already happened actually jay aaron yeah yeah all right all right thank you that's it all right for brian campbell for cbs sports for mulca for showtime and everybody else thank you for making 2021 what it was we'll see you next week we'll see you next year and until then

may all of your gains be loyal