MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 2024 Predictions For Each Weight class

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

**Luke's mic is fixed at 4 minute mark** Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell are back with their predictions for 2024. The boys break down what they think will happen in 2024 for each weight class. #MorningKombat #JonJones #MagomedAnkalaev #AlexPerreira #BoNickal #shavkatrakhmonov #UFC #MMA #SeanStrickland #IslamMakhachev #LeonEdwards #AlexanderVolkanovski #BrianCampbell #LukeThomas (00:05:30) - Heavyweight (00:12:00) - Light Heavyweight (00:18:30) - Middleweight (00:25:15) - Welterweight (00:34:30) - Lightweight (00:45:00) - Featherweight (00:57:50) - Bantamweight (01:03:40) - Women's Bantamweight (01:06:00) - Flyweight (01:08:00) - Women's Flyweight (01:12:00) - Strawweight (01:17:00) - General Predictions Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts 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

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

Oh, yeah, you can call me Bro-stradamus. I got two crystal balls, and I'm rubbing them together. They're both blue. This got weird. Hey, it's Morning Combat. We've got 2024 MMA predictions to get you fired up for the new year. Welcome on in. Hey, you're watching this on December 27th, 2023.

I will not tell you, though, when we recorded this, but we got fantastic predictions. My name is Brian Campbell. That's India's finest Luke Thomas kind of, right? I mean, Luke, it's not like I called you an Indian, like I did on the last show that never aired, but Luke, I'll tell you this. We are morning combat. We are awesome. And Mikey Mormont has convinced me that we did this last year. I don't remember that, but I'm still willing and ready to bang. Okay. Actually, one of the people really loved the episode last year. Actually, you can go back and check that out.

Some of our, I mean, let's be honest. Our predictions are not noteworthy nor really all that helpful, but it's fun to go through the exercise of these. And there'll be a couple of trails trails I think we'll sniff out. In fact, we're doing a divisional piece here, right? We're going, you know, here's our predictions for all these different divisions. BC, I'm going to save it until the end because that's what we have to do. I'm going to save it until the end.

I have another prediction that I want to give out that's non-divisional specific about what's ahead in MMA. I think I'll win your approval, even though it's a little on the spicy side. Oh, wow. I can't wait for the end of the show for that. So we're going to go division by division across all of MMA. Yes, it's going to be a little UFC heavy,

but we're going to reveal our biggest, you know, biggest surprises that we think are coming your way in terms of the fighters to watch, the big events that will happen at each of the recognized weight classes. I can't wait to hear Luke's take about Women's 155. Believe me on that one.

But before we get into it, folks, you do know this is Morning Combat. You can follow us. You can like. You can subscribe. You can watch all of our beautiful content at youtube.com slash morningcombat. And, of course, you want to wear this hat right here. How about you go to morningcombat.store and buy all that shit that we're selling but Luke before we predict the future I got a prediction for you you start taking care of yourself for the new year

and maybe consider starting every day a new way hey and I'm not talking about Niowa a new way wow that guy's a monster right I'm talking about a different new way, Luke, about maybe starting your day with a scoop of the magic green powder that gives you the power. We know it as AG1. You got to have consistent, great habits. And what better habit could there be? Seriously, starting your day, a cup of cold water, however else you like it, putting some AG1 in there, getting the micronutrients you need, getting the probiotics you need. Not a ton of calories, by the way.

This whole thing has barely any calories in it, a tropical taste. And for me, folks, this is important. Having a glass of water. I know I'm 44, but making sure everything is functioning properly digestively, it's a big win for your boy. AG1 will get you there. Well, look, as I'm getting older, I'm learning how to be more efficient. I hate swallowing a handful of pills each morning that tell me how old I am.

How about this? Taking AG1 every morning to start my day replaced all my multivitamins. But here's what I love about every single scoop of AG1. Do you know what I'm getting back? Prebiotics, probiotics, digestive enzymes for gut support support how about magnesium and b vitamins for energy support how about adaptogens to balance my body's stress levels and vitamin c i got zinc in me look there's so many good things in me to start my day it's a lot easier to finish it good when you start it healthy you start it clean and this is all about the new year. No limits. Let's put our health first. For me, that begins with AG1. That's right. So here's what's going to happen. And by the way, I think my microphone should sound better now. Here's what we want you to do, right? We want you to be a part of the AG1 movement. So if you want to take ownership

of your health, it starts with AG1. Try AG1 and get a free one-year supply of vitamin D3K2 and five free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkag1.com slash morningcombatbc. Drinkag1.com slash morningcombat. Check it out. Athletic Greens is in the house. My house. It can be in yours, too. Get on board.

My family uses it. They love it. Hell yeah. All right, Luke. When we look ahead to the new year, division by division, we're going to get a prediction from both of us. We're going to identify our fighters to watch. And you know, Luke, what they used to say about the sport of boxing. Maybe not always true in MMA, but in boxing, you know what they always say? As the heavyweight division goes, so does boxing in an MMA sense. I have to say this. We entered the new year with some optimism, some hope. The whole point is we got to get these guys in the cage or ring against one another. When you look ahead at 2024 in the heavyweight division, what is LT's big prediction? Ready for this one? I don't think Jon Jones versus Stipe Miocic is going to happen. I actually don't think it's going to materialize.

How many times in MMA can you recall a plan being this delayed and still being successfully pulled off? It happens, but nothing really big springs to mind. And if you think about it, whether you like it or not, Jones versus Stipe is, in fact, a big fight. I mean, it's involving big names. And at a bare minimum, the talking points are big. And John is obviously relevant as the heavyweight champion.

Okay, fair enough. But even for all that bigness, the events that will transpire between now and whenever it is supposed to happen, Stipe Miocic could get injured. Can he even make it through a camp what happens if tom aspinall keeps blowing these guys out of the water i genuinely think with mma with how fast moving it is you can't freeze anything like han solo in carbonite and

then just unfreeze it later it doesn't really work i don't think it's going to happen that's your prediction hey look i gotta say Luke I I'm starting to be on that side even though you and I have been split on the future of John thinking he was coming back this past November at MSG from the standpoint of what do you walk away after Stipe is he even part of where the heavyweight division is truly going now with Aspinall as the face as the interim champion and some big young names around him. Guys like Jalton Almeida, guys like Sergey Pavlovich, despite the recent loss to try to knock on that door. I'm starting to lean on your side, too, in that regard, where I question a few things.

I certainly question what you're saying, whether Jones Mijic ever happens. And even if it does, I really question that the winner or loser would ever face the other side of the silo, the other side of the bracket, which right now is the interim side, which is going to become the undisputed side. So if your big prediction here is that, you know, we don't see that fight. I'm going to predict, though, it's similar, Luke, but I think Tom Aspinall is going to close out next year as full heavyweight champion. Now, if I make that prediction, it's an easier prediction to make under the auspices that Aspinall versus Jones doesn't happen. But I'm still going to leave that prediction out there under the possibility that it does.

And the reason is this. Not only is Jon Jones now one more year, you know, close to a year removed by the time he does come back and recover from this serious injury, it puts him another year of inactivity out. We don't know who he is as a heavyweight. It's a thing I say all the time, but it's true. What was it, 35 seconds, 55 seconds against Cyril Ghosn, a minute and 20 seconds?

It was nothing, right? He sat on him. He sat him down. He got the tap. He got the win. I'm not even sure that Jones, if he does come back, beat Stipe and still want to continue, whether you'd even see him as a favorite at that point against Aspinall.

Aspinall does seem to be the future. My prediction here is that he's going to close next year with or without Jones in front of him as the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion. Yeah, I would agree with that. That's where my money is as well. My money is on big old Tom carrying the belt. Big old Tom. Wow. as well my money is on big old tom carrying the belt big old tom wow good we have a we have a local uh harford connecticut area goldsmith called good old tom luke you can bring your

grandmother's old jewelry to him and he'll melt it down and pay you some shekels yes it sounds like a uh a perfect example of american despair exactly let's get craig jones in here to break it down uh luke i want to identify a fighter to watch at heavyweight for the new year. Can I give you one? Yes, sir. How about Vadim Nemkov at heavyweight? Oh, the Bellator light heavyweight champion. Yeah.

There's been talk about him wanting to move up to heavyweight. We've already seen him beat Ryan Bader, although at light heavyweight, we don't know in some ways. It's like, Luke, so PFL champions are probably going to fight Bellator champions in an early PFL pay-per-view to kick off 24. Probably right. I got to see Vadim Nemkov, whether he's going to defend that light heavyweight title one more time in

that setup, or whether we see him going up to heavyweight, because not only do I look at him as a potential threat to take the Bellator heavyweight title, should he choose that path? I think he's just as big of a threat of winning the PFL tournament. Should he want to. And oh, by the way, Luke, when we get whatever Francis is, meaning Nganou's, you know,

potential PFL debut out of the way, whether that's wild or not, I do think as the dust settles across the new PFL slash Bellator landscape, before we realize it, Vadim Nemkov is going to be on that short list of which heavyweights would you actually want to see against Ngannou, who is on that collective roster. I think he's going to be ready for some big things come next year across that promotion. All right. Very good. Yeah. My fighter to watch. I mean, listen, the answer is obviously Francis, Tom, Aspinall and Jon Jones. Right. I mean, like, what are we talking about here? Those are the three most important. It's steeped to an extent, obviously, but, you know, it's those those guys but whatever they end up doing whatever Francis ends up doing in terms of boxing MMA like that's the answer here to this question so I will just add BC I he had some momentum I don't

really know where it's going or what he's going to do with it uh Anatoly Malikin over at one is kind of this guy where BC if you imagine a world think about for just a second Anatoly Malikin versus Curtis Blades Anatoly Malikin versus Jalton almeida anatoly malikin versus tom aspinall i don't know if he wins all those he could but that's just what i mean we're talking about a guy on the outside looking in if i don't know if one's going to keep him busy i know they did with renear to ritter and all that kind of stuff but um he's just kind of some of the momentum i think he had at certain parts of the year got lost a little bit i'll be curious to see if you can pick those up in 2024 all right luke division that at least for UFC circumstances has been all

over the place in 2023 has been light heavyweight, 205 pounds, Alex Herrera. Currently your champ being a two division champion at that. Although Luke, you talk about potential heavyweight fighters to watch. What do you make quickly of all this talk about Pereira going up to 205 including stare downs he did with gone and 265 going up to two I'm sorry to heavyweight I meant to say yeah sorry I meant to say go up to heavyweight I mean if you think about it how good of a candidate is he for that probably about I'm not gonna say as good as he gets but for somebody who came from middleweight about as good as he gets right in terms of the frame

that could translate there's gonna be it's not gonna be perfect and it's there's probably gonna be you know a lot of ways you can look at that and be like that's not the right fit it's not the right fit but if anyone could get pretty close dude yeah the thing is you just don't you just don't like his chances against tom aspinall dude tom is bigger tom is quick you can take it to the floor yeah exactly like you're just thinking realistically like could he do it sure but probably not right that's not a disc somebody's gonna fight for and win a third division championship in a major MMA promotion we saw a guy from KSW come up short we've seen guys close we saw um Rene Derrida try that for the interim strap against Anatoly Malikin and won. I bet you Pereira can end up in a shot sooner eventually.

I mean, look, especially if he can hang on to this light heavyweight title. But let's get into his actual division as we look forward to the new year. Luke, for UFC purposes, light heavyweight is wild. Champions getting injured, champions getting stripped of titles. What is your big prediction for light heavyweight in the sport of mma in 2024 i can't believe i'm gonna say this but this division is so wild and wacky you can't tell me i'm wrong i mean i could this guy i can't believe i'm betting on this guy so to speak but i'm this division is insane megaman on khalaev will at least wear the belt in 2020 whoa right whoa yeah okay he might lose it

the very next fight by making the most boneheaded error you've ever like what are you doing like that is on the table but dude this division has no sense of coordination everything is all over the place every time you think okay now it's settling into a groove it doesn't settle into a groove come on't settle into a groove come on man you can't tell me that's the craziest thing in the world if anyone's got a shot at light heavyweight it's him it's an interesting proposition uh my prediction will be something that i'm not sure jamal hill will love luke you know i get caught up sometimes when there's a fight that's so big sometimes you got to stop everything and make it forget about the meritocracy.

Forget about anything. I've been telling you that when UFC rolls out this UFC 300 card in April of 24, that at least they're going to talk about the idea of Adesanya moving up to light heavyweight, fighting Alex Pereira for the title in their third. What would this be now, Luke? That would be their third MMA meeting, their fifth their fifth six meetings fifth meeting overall yeah meeting overall i didn't realize it was going to be math associated with this and look it can come one of two ways we could see come back against jamal hill in a title defense because jamal hill was promised before his injury

maybe in the first half of the year but whether it's a rush job for 300 because it's huge or you wait till the second half of the year, when you get two guys that have this level of a rivalry and they both scored dramatic knockouts over each other in the last two fights, both in title fights, then you add in the added wrinkle of Pereira moving up and doing something that Izzy tried a few years ago but couldn't. I just think UFC is smart enough.

They're in a position now where big fights with big themes like this matter to them. And if we're not going to get Francis versus John, which we're not, I have to believe the company looks at this as something that's worth doing. People can say what they want that Izzy moving up to 205, suddenly he has less chances, but this rivalry is more about each other than it is about weight title or

circumstances i don't think if they announce that a final meeting between them or the next meeting between them that people are really going to groan luke this division's wide open as long as jamal hill either gets money or gets his shot first i think we see this fight in 24 hell yeah not a bad pick do you want it do you want that light heavyweight? I just want some kind of stability and storyline. What's lifting it is that the fights where they've had title fights, they've not really been bad fights. Was it the fight you most wanted? I don't know.

Did it go exactly how you wanted it? Maybe not. But you can't go back. Well, the Ankaliev and Blachowicz one ultimately sucked. But in general, they've been kind of decent right like they've been fun for what they are Yuri and Glover for example right uh so that's been kind of saving it but there's no storylines between these guys for the most part I mean there's a little bit of like the imagery thing between Poetan and Yuri and that was cool and that worked out just fine

but in general like dude they don't have rivalries based on having shared experiences together you know what I mean like the way Nate and Connor did ultimately like there's just not there's not there's no there's nothing really connecting them they're just molecules bumping into each other yeah and sometimes getting big reactions that's not nothing but i want i'd rather have a little bit of stability you know absolutely they're just two ports in a storm passing each other luke let's have it so when we look at potential fighters to watch here, Luke, you can go a few different directions here. I'm just going to say this.

Obviously, I mentioned Jamal Hill, who's somebody to watch to see if he can get back there and regain the glory that he experienced winning the title from Glover to Shara. But I got to identify Khalil Roundtree Jr. at the very least as a guy I'm watching because this five-fight win streak has been very interesting.

And even though the knockout victory over Anthony Smith, which was violent and destructive sort of says, okay, you're at this level. What I want to find out in 24, if he can get any higher than that level, because the level that round tree appears to be at now, he's a tough out for anybody in this top 10, but do I believe he comes over the top and beats the guys in the top five? I still need to see more, but he's got my eyes open. He's got my attention. Let's see if this guy has an unlikely run to the title that to be fair would match the unlikely run

that Pereira has now, that Hill just had, that Prochazka had before that in just a few fights. I mean, look, this division post John Jones has been insane from old Jan winning the title to Dom Reyes falling apart. You never know what's going to happen next. Who says Khalil Roundtree can't continue to shock us? These fights are brawls at the title level.

Sometimes it comes down to you got a bigger fist and a bigger chin in the right moment. You may get your hand raised. So let's see what this man can do. Very good. Yeah, that's a good one to watch. I mean, you kind of took my thunder with the last one but i like the way you did it but it's just the best light heavyweight in the world maybe but for sure the best light heavyweight outside of ufc is vadim nemkov like there's just no denying that okay so pfl had impa kasanga and i win their 205 tournament dude great story

legitimate improvement nobody's mad about it but he ain't beating Vadim Nemkov with all due respect he's just not gonna so what are they going to do with him in Bellator you talk about fighters to watch what they do with him who he ends up competing against and BC's right heavyweight is probably in play to an extent that is going to be a real interesting thing because does he stay with the organization does he move on if he does the ufc would be foolish to not pick him up i think there was no question that they would it's an interesting time for vadim nemkov let's see what happens yeah absolutely here we go to the middleweight division absolutely absolutely jim absolutely luke and we're back we're back with the middleweights 185 and luke

certainly we talk a lot about the ufc it's a little bit wide open right now in the UFC no Whitaker no Izzy and even no Pereira in the title picture we're headed towards Sean Strickland versus DDP but when you look at MMA as a global hole stick your hand in that hole Luke tell me what you pick out

at middleweight for 2024 I think we're headed for a DDP Hamzat crazy ass showdown oh oh shit luke that's what i think i think we're headed for that i think we're headed for that hamzat i don't know what's up with his visa and whether or his passport and his because he has such a i mean his case is unequivocal right you see i'm not trying to we don't have to relitigate it but he does have a very openly well-documented uh friendly or professional or some combination of the two relationship with with Ramzan Kadyrov

so we think he probably cannot enter the United States as a consequence I don't know why no one's ever asked Dana for clarification on this maybe they have and we didn't get it but that's fucking weird right anyway neither here nor there but he can still have big fights obviously at Fight Island Abu Dhabi those can be huge huge opportunities for him UFC's going to Saudi Arabia next year keep that in mind as well um although I know they said they're going to be fight nights the point I'm trying to make is uh I think DDP I've really I mean I slept on him and Sean Strickland but I really slept on DDP sure and uh I really got you know like like many of us I got to come up and send that one he seems like like Sean's going to give him a tough fight.

But the things he's saying about fighting at his pace, not Sean's, bringing a little bit of physicality to it, taking a little bit more risk. It's like, dude, you got to learn the lesson. And I hate to say this because you guys know I love Izzy, but that was not the fight to fight. Like, that was the wrong. You can go back and see.

Here's what doesn't work. If you do it this way, it doesn't work this if you do it this way it doesn't work and i think he's gonna do the opposite uh it's gonna be a tough fight for sean but i think ultimately ddp is gonna get his hand raised hamza's gonna get pushed to the front of the line again they don't have to do the the pay-per-view in the united states and dude if you actually think about what could get maximum crazy it's actually not sean strickland and hamza because they used to train together. Sean's got an inherently more defensive style.

Dude, DDP does not. He does not. He has a very offensive style. He has a very physical, in-your-face style. Well, gee, you know who else has one of those? It's Hamzat. I think he's going to get fast-forwarded. People are going to want to make an action fight.

And if you really think about that and you want to see Hamzat get tested, I mean, let's see if he can get past Sean Strickland first. Okay. But if he gets past him in the way that I think he might do, that fight would be fucking July 4th. I don't care what day they actually put it on. Kaboom. Two trains colliding on that one. I really, I feel like we might end up with that in 2024 for sure. Wow. i haven't

heard you talking that excited about trains since the marines wow yeah like like artem loba what do you say choo-choo motherfucker quite literally motherfucker you know uh my sort of uh bold prediction for the new year in core incorporates a little bit of what you're talking about look recent years lightweight was the deepest and best division. Men's bantamweight caught up and passed it. I think we got to give a lot of credit for women's flyweight over this past year for coming out of nowhere and being deep and fun. But Luke, this middleweight division, my prediction is that in 2024,

it's going to be the most exciting division at the top end in UFC. And what makes that supported and makes it kind of true is this. We don't even know if Sean Strickland's going to hold on to the title in the next three months yet. Right now, he might be the biggest fan favorite of the group, arguably for what he's done to his brand since winning it and stealing some of, in my opinion, Colby's thunder and gaining that fan base.

But yet Adesanya can come back and reclaim the belt. Whitaker could come back and make a run. winning it and stealing some of, in my opinion, Colby's thunder and gaining that fan base. But yet Adesanya can come back and reclaim the belt. Whitaker could come back and make a run. We've got guys who right now are ready to take over like Drikus Duplassie. You have guys like Hamza and Bo Nickel who have next. You've got hammers on the rise like a Roman Delidze who's trying to break out of that sort of fight night main event lane. And you've got enough lingering veterans that can still bring it and still make tough matchups that here's what I'm saying.

Luke DDP versus Strickland is going to get a lot of our attention. The winner, if they end up facing Adesanya is going to get a lot of our attention. Palms out against anyone in the big fight for the title or a number one contender is going to get our attention. And if we can even make the matchup that you just threw out there, then I think we're talking about guaranteed action and fireworks. We're talking about the potential of a hot potato belt, but it's one that we're not sure

is it going to go back on the old guard? Is it going to fall on the waist of a riser? I mean, look, there are rumors that Bo Nickel could be kicking off UFC 300 in the first fight yet a year from now, when we close this year, he could have three fights and be on the verge of a title for all we know. You just don't know what's going to happen. But if you basically say, hey, here are the five or six biggest fights you'll see in the division this year, I think we're going to be able to put these up against every other division and compare. And I think middleweight is going to shock a lot of people.

Sweet. Absolutely. Absolutely, Jim. division and compare and i think middleweight's going to shock a lot of people sweet absolutely absolutely jim luke i sort of i tipped my cap hand in there and identified a riser that i'm following closely and it's not just because his uh significant other just gave birth to their first child luke over there in georgia no not not big chicken not atlanta georgia talking about roman delizze luke okay i'm no longer talking about love triangles or the things you think i'm talking about i'm talking about an absolute hammer that if he can iron out some of those wrinkles that stopped him from getting past marvin vittori when he had the close-up moment i'm wondering how many wins away roman delizia is from crashing this party even if he does not become a complete well-rounded force he seems to be one of those

guys that can win a big fight in the big moment with what he has he's got to work on some of that craft around it but he's a riser that i'm watching closely that's a good one i mean i so bigged up this fight but let's be honest other than that fight what am i paying attention to which is basically what we're asking what am i paying attention to at 185 pounds in 2024 it's bo nickel right i really really really want to see what the hell's going to happen with him because we feel like we have a sense about his uh limits and how fast he can get there and then he continues to challenge them in all different kinds of ways but usually just by shattering them but what actually will? Who will he get an opportunity against?

Can he get, frankly, a little bit more activity? I was disappointed we didn't get him at the end of the year. So I guess, you know, obviously we'll look for him in quarter one if we can. But anyway, that's where my head is at. Bo Nickel, let's see what happens. Need I say more? No. Our 2024 predictions for MMA now go to the welterweight division, 170 pounds.

Hey, that's Leon Edwards territory. Luke, when we look at this division and you try to identify the biggest prediction, I've got to believe you're coming at me full on Kazakh right now. Yeah, I mean, this is real simple. Shafqat Rahmanov is going to end the year as your welterweight champion. Unless he gets hit by a car, God forbid, right? I mean, unless something crazy crazy happens he is going to be your champion by the end of this year and people have said oh you're underestimating leon

well i guess maybe in a sense i am if i'm thinking that shof got's going to win but not really like a shop no one is going to beat leon edwards easily nobody it's not going i mean mma is crazy you know anytime you think a guy can never lose sometimes they do but uh i i feel like shafkat's gonna have to walk through hell to to get that belt it's just if anybody can do it it's him he is mowing through contenders one of the most remember me when i say this one of the most exciting times i think this is true in boxing too bc but it's a little bit different but in mma it's especially true because the window is narrow but dynamic yeah there's a window when you get these guys who are the real blue chip guys and there's no doubt even if you don't think he's going to beat

Leon you probably would be in agreement that he's going to fight for a title like next year or at latest 2025 I mean he's just they can't find a guy who can last literally. This is the window you want to pay attention to is actually before they are champion when they're going through these contenders. And it's this brand new excitement every time because you just don't know exactly how far they go. Could they go all the way? Are they one of those special guys? And what Shavkat is doing and just easily dispatching them where they can't even make it to a decision against him and he did it with a bad injury guys you're talking about someone who has next level ability Shavkat Rachmanov is truly special and so do I think Leon Edwards and by the way Bilal Muhammad could beat him too like I don't want to disrespect him either

but let's just keep the conversation about Leon assuming that's what it comes down to Do I think Leon Edwards, and by the way, Balaam Mohamed could be him too. I don't want to disrespect him either, but let's just keep the conversation about Leon, assuming that's what it comes down to. Do I think Leon is an insanely talented fighter? No doubt in my mind. I don't know if he is quite as special as I believe Shavkat Rachmanov to be. But 2024, we're all going to find out, aren't we? Can't wait. We surely are.

Do you think there is one man in the top 15 at welterweight that could give him the biggest problems? Brady is an interesting one because of how he could match him on the ground, you think? Yeah. Leon probably because he's the most well-rounded, maybe? Obviously. Obviously, again, like I said, dude, no one –

you could always get knocked out by a single punch, but in general, no one is beating him easily. Like, he's going to be a hard fucking guy to beat, right to beat right indeed um so yeah so obviously he's on that list as well but uh maybe maybe those two had put and then again you know i don't want to we're all just we keep shitting on balal muhammad not intentionally but it ends up happening that way i really don't mean it that way because he could come in and by the way crash this whole party in ways none of us expected but you know we're talking about some of the names that stand out. We listed them.

That's basically him, Brady, Leon, Bilal. And for now, that's about it. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, my prediction is going to center around Luke, a husband who has come into the headlines a lot lately. You know where I'm going with this, Luke? Oh, are you making an ejaculation joke and marriage sex joke because it's Ian Gary?

I didn't consider ejaculation at all in this joke. But yes, I'm talking about Ian Machado, Gary Luke. So here's my prediction. Look, I got questions, right? Ones that weren't answered to close this year because pneumonia and the flu really kicked Gary's ass and dropped him out of that fight. We're going to see him reschedule coming back quickly on the turnaround against Jeff Neal, which is no easy task. But here's what I think Gary's going to do in 2024. I think he's

going to absolutely break and bust out. So here's what I'm saying. One year from now, I think Ian Gary's in the same spot Shavkat is now. That doesn't mean I think Ian Gary gets to the threat level that Shavkat is or the guaranteed matter of fact, like Luke is that I'm sorry, Shavkat's going to end next year with the title. I'm just saying, I think the metal inside of Ian Gary, the want for the spotlight, the ability to raise his game when it matters,

which coincides in my opinion with the ability to block out distractions and not use, not, not let them become an albatross to him. I think there's some level of Gary with the cameras following him. We've talked about it a lot. That loves the attention more than anything. Well, Luke, he's going to get the attention, but I think this will be the calendar year where he gets those really tough key wins. It's going to begin with Neil.

They're going to be hard fought. He's going to take, you know, we're going to find out about his chin. We're going to find out about his gas tank. But I believe whether it's two wins or three, that Ian Gary exits 2024, getting ready to find out what size his crown is and seeing if he's ready to fight for a title. It might be Shavkat in 25, Luke,

and he might not have a prayer. But my point is, for all the questions that we have about him, I think this bright, unbeaten prospect answers them next year. Yeah, I'll just say that right now, I'm glad that we're after ufc 296 because my my social media feed and my daily consumption of news has a lot less ian gary news in it and i'm really happy about that not even mad at him he was i was just sick of that whole news cycle yeah you hate people's families a lot luke and no no no i hate discussing people's

families oh oh that's the difference okay well luke here's one welterweight I want to tell you that I'm looking out for in the new year. Can I do that to you, Luke? Please, please. Yaroslav Amosov. Remember that guy? Oh, man, you took mine. Well, why don't you tell him? Why don't we be fair?

Why don't you tell me why he's your fighter to watch at welterweight in the next one? Well, because I didn't see him losing to Jason Jackson in the very last Bellator event. And he didn't just lose. He got stopped. And the guy had nearly 30 fights before he was undefeated so this was really I can't say out of nowhere because Jason Jackson has quietly been building a very very impressive run to this title and by the way talking about fights to watch at welterweight in 2024 how about Magomed Karamov versus Jason Jackson that's one of the very best fights you can make at welterweight we'll be able to talk about the weakness of the division.

If those two guys were fighting in the UFC, it'd be a lot more dynamic. Trust me, you'd be a lot less unhappy. But this loss was so surprising. It was very surprising to me. It really was. How is he going to rebound? What's it going to look like? The guy had all this time off.

We thought he came back great against Storlie. Just a lot of questions all of a sudden for a guy you were starting to say you had no questions about at all. A real change ofes and now with this whole pfl move how is he going to integrate there this is a big year for the career of urasol of amasov i couldn't agree more because two fights ago he returned from a two-year layoff almost while on the front lines protecting his native ukraine in the war and came back in a rematch of his toughest fight as a professional against Logan Storley and made it look easy. So then suddenly he's 27 and 0 and literally Luke, I'm starting to go, he beats Jason Jackson heading into this

merger with PFL. You're talking about a guy that's going to be a couple of wins away from tying and besting Habib's record. And that doesn't mean that's the record. It's sort of a record in a mythical sense, like Rocky Marciano's 49 and O was. So when Floyd approached it, it was like, oh crap. You know, what does this say about him? We were going to say the same thing about Amosov. Well, look, that O is gone. So like you, I want to see how he bounces back.

But even on the bigger picture, he's one of the guys, you know, we didn't bring up Johnny Eblen mostly because PFL doesn't have a middleweight division at the moment. So he's got to be on the Bellator side of things but I do think I'm a slob I'm a I do think I'm a slob Luke but I also think that Amosov is going to have an interesting decision do you want to go back into the Bellator international series get your rematch with Jason Jackson potentially and try to win back that title do you want to go the tournament format

and a million dollars for PFL? Or, and this is less likely given his current brand status, you know, are you more of the pay-per-view variety? I'd have to think, Luke, I'd be interested to seeing him in the middle option. I'd be interested to see a guy like that cross over into the grind of that PFL tournament, know he's going to sign up for a bunch of fights in short succession,

and try to see how quickly he can get to a million bucks and raise his profile back up but what a weird time for that guy to be entering this merger with almost no fanfare because he just lost the title yet just three four months ago we're like what are we going to do with this guy if he keeps winning well now he's got to come back and prove that he can do it again so i look like that we both had that pick luke and i think equally a guy we didn't mention jack della maddalena also a guy where we want to see is he going to have the exact same year that i just predicted ian gary would in 24 in this division you think jack della is of that ilk luke where it could be it could be his year next year yeah i mean the gilbert burns fight's going to tell you basically the answer to that question right i mean

that's about as legit a test as it comes at welterweight so let's see but yeah it's it's i think optimism with him is is uh the right the right call you know um but a tough ass fight against gilbert yeah all right let's drop down to one i almost i almost short-circuited there for a second i apologize did you have a internal seizure that almost became external look what happened yeah i was just i couldn't quite get the word uh that i wanted to use so my brain went you know yeah you're stroking out yeah let's go to 155 lightweight luke the division that jed meshu the second down there in uh hardscrabble georgia believes it's still the deepest in the sport he's crazy but it's in the process of reloading at least from the UFC standpoint

it's pretty wide open in the Pelotor slash BFL standpoint because we never got the conclusion of that tournament we don't know if Usman Nurmagomedov will be cleared so Luke all things considered what is your big prediction for 155 next year um I don't really have a great one other than uh islam is basically going to finish the year completely untested i don't think that there's really anything anyone's going to do to wrestle that away now you might say saryukian okay i guess we'll see bc i guess we we'll see. I guess I'm still not believing in my native, in my fellow Armenian, Armin Saryukian. I just feel like Islam is either going to fight one time

and then get a welterweight title shot, so it may not even matter, or it just won't matter in the end because he'll have just won all the fights at 155. It's probably going to be more than likely the latter one, BC. Think about it. If he goes and beats Justin Gaethje, and let's say he finishes him on the ground or something he's already saying now and said before this fight he wanted to fight

at 170 he goes and then dusts off justin gaethje now they might give him more sorry you can i guess we'll see it really depends on everything else but uh i think he's going to try and go to 170 at that point and so you know we're going to see how that whole thing plays out too but um or he might sit out and god only knows what else i just feel like nothing is really going to destabilize the so the so-called monarch anyway of 155 pounds it's the best way i can say it interesting yeah it's tough to see with with so many ambitious champions wanting to move up and if anyone maybe deserves a chance out of the group i mean you know you're talking about a champion amahachev who just beat the best fighter

in the world twice in the same calendar year, Volkanovski, albeit a smaller fighter moving up. But, you know, he has started to put together big names on his lightweight resume, too. Could he add another one to start the year? Could he move up? It is interesting. My prediction is very simple, Luke. I just don't feel like we're going to see Conor versus Chandler at lightweight.

And maybe we're never going to see it in lightweight. Maybe if it did happen, it was going to be at welterweight. So it's a little bit of a trick wrong question. But I mean, you hear Michael Chandler talking about I'm waiting for Conor. I still believe Dana even admitted we got a lot of fighters here. They're just waiting for a big fight like Colby did. Chandler is one of them. But Luke, you never, ever, ever hear Conor talking about fighting Chandler.

And lately you hear Dana talking about it even less. So we have debated in the past that they don't necessarily need Conor at UFC 300, right? When Conor fights. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. At participating McDonald's in Canada.

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Terms and conditions apply. They kind of stop everything and put together a patchwork undercard because they know he sells. I'm going to say look for him to return on his own card. I'm just saying between ideas of him maybe fighting Gaethje for the BMF, you know my Patty idea.

You know there's a lot of crossover ideas. There's a Nate third fight. Masvidal, I mean, you could go a lot of different directions with old guys too. I just feel like if we were going to see this fight, the wheels really would have been in motion already a year ago. You remember a year ago,ke when when tough season was being filmed and we were like okay so what's the timeline now if connor goes in the pool now what happens look he never stepped a toe in that pool as far as i'm concerned so now that you saw

it as going away let's let that guy juice to the gills and come back against whoever he wants because that's what's going to happen anyway am i speaking crazy here luke he doesn't want to fight chandler it's obvious it's obvious. It's obvious. Yeah, it's an interesting one. That's a great. I said something similar a while ago, but just didn't believe it. I was like, yeah, it won't happen. And now you're getting closer.

You're like, oh, Jesus, man. They're not going to do anything. Like, what's going on? There's no. It's just Chandler kind of being like, the flame's still lit. The flame's still lit. no it's just chander kind of being like the flame's still lit the flame's still lit and it's like okay and i mean you can't say no until we go through the 300 card and whatever connor does but you're right dude doesn't like would you buy that stock and given the way it's moving now no because look we all know that connor has a very short shelf life

left he's injury prone know, how serious is he really committed to training with everything else going on? I really think it's going to be a couple handpicked old guy, or like I said, a Patty type fight where you're fighting a not so ready younger guy, just one of those, they're going to be spectacle fights. So I don't think you're going to see him going into fights. He doesn't want to is really what I'm trying to say, right? You know, I think he's going to take that hard stance but luke there's so many fighters we could watch in the lightweight division across you know global mma but i want to shout out one name right the champion has a name well he used to have a name and it was charles olivera

i actually think when you look at the top 10 at lightweight right now the only true threat to maha chev's title is olivera in a rematch because what he did to dariush and the confidence he's carrying even though he had to pull out of that scheduled rematch in abu dhabi with mahachev i just think that the way that charles olivera is operating i'm more apt to actually believe him when he said that first fight was an aberration 10 horrible minutes he got handled fight over the the Islam era begins. I just think that even at his age, Charles Oliveira is going to have one more big swing if he gets the opportunity

and is going to be an absolute threat to take that title back against Islam. And if they make that fight, I'm going to be watching it closely, Luke. Yeah, fair enough. For me, I'm just going to hedge a little bit here. It has to be Armin Saryukian, right? Because no matter whether he... It doesn't have to. Well, it does. It has to be Armin Saryukian, right? Because no matter whether he... It doesn't have to. It doesn't have to be.

It does. It could be BST. Luke, get Frenchy with me. It could be Benoit Saint-Denis. It could be. But he's so much further away, I guess that we've got to still see. Although he does have exciting fights ahead of him in 2024.

Fair enough. But with Saryukian, he's right around that spot. So does he fight Oliveira? Does he win? Does he lose? How does he win? Does he lose? How does he look? Does he fight Poirier? We don't really know what might be next if he doesn't get a title shot

and what that's going to look like and everything. So definitely, definitely, definitely for me, Saryukian is one of these guys. We talked about it. The graduating class of new guys wasn't quite the graduation that we thought, but maybe they're going to start to pick it up here in 2024. Maybe, Luke. Maybe freaking not.

We've got to name two other guys in this division. AJ McKee, Usman, Namaga, Medoff. We, we, we hope they'd be in the Bellator lightweight Grand Prix championship.

It's, it was arguably the best fight you could have made in all of Bellator over the past year. Now, I don't know where they're going. Usman had the drug test. He got pulled from that tournament. We don't think that tournament's going to conclude.

Is Usman going to go into the PFL Bellator? Is he out of the car? I mean, like there's a lot of questions. And the same thing with McKee. Look, you could argue that McKee is the most valuable. You're going to say about Usman that either of these guys is the most valuable acquisition from PFL in this deal. You could argue that. You could. So let's see where these guys end up, what weight class, what side of the company of pfl inc that they're going to go after this could be a really big years for both they could also do nothing luke can be wasted we got to find out i'm going to be wasted watching them you know yeah no i'm going to be uh high as balls watching them it's going to be great thank you thank you

all right and any other lightweights you care about probably not no thank you that's that's the bottom line on that one. All right, Luke. You would have said, I mean, maybe you would have said OEM if he stuck around. Maybe, but he's gone too. So who else is there? All right. Well, Luke, speaking of a new year and trying to predict the future in MMA, I can predict the future for anybody out there who's heading into the new year,

maybe hoping they can make a health change, maybe already purchased the new gym membership. But my prediction is this, guys. If you don't have it together, if you don't have a plan, if you don't have the knowledge and wisdom at hand, heck, if you don't have the coach in the palm of your hand, like the FitBod app gives you, then I got to tell you, good luck climbing those plateaus. Good luck getting to that next level because you want everything in one in an app that can plan out your workouts, can adjust to where your body is going, can build recovery into it, can show you 1,000 instructional videos on new ways to build your body and mind. Look, FitBod's got it all.

Why don't these people download it right now? Guys, this is real simple. You want to have a New Year's got it all. Why don't these people download it right now? Guys, this is real simple, right? You want to have a New Year's resolution for January. January is now just really a little more than a week away, more than a week away, but you get the idea. Like, it's not far. You've got some time to get this right because it's so simple. You can just get the app, FitBod, but what you need is a plan for 2024.

Whatever your goal is, you want to put on muscle, you want to lose weight, FitBod can help you get there by giving you specific plans where when you show up to the gym or when you work out at home, because it can adapt to all of that. You know exactly what you have to do. You just have to follow it. It tracks your progress, makes adjustments to everything so that you can get to your destination. The goal you have in mind on time, FitBot folks, that's what it's going to give you. It's going to give you the blueprint for success. FitBot, FitB time, FitBot, folks. That's what it's going to give you. It's going to give you the blueprint for success. FitBot, FitBot, FitBot.

Luke, I used to think it was weird back in the 90s when people would show up at the gym with a giant notebook and a pen and they'd be writing down every rep and they'd be charting it like it's a science nerd experiment. Turns out, Luke, the nerds are the ones that are cool nowadays because you know what the FitBot app does that I love best? Keeps track of everything, not just the varying of my intensity and volume or the app that keeps my gym sessions fresh. It keeps all of my achievements in personal bests. And with FitBot's all new progress tracking charts, I can actually see the direction that I'm headed.

If I continue to push myself harder, vary my workouts and intensities, I can get to the direction that I'm headed. If I continue to push myself harder, vary my workouts and intensities, I can get to the next level. I can't stress this enough, guys. You do it alone, you're gonna get the results of what you're capable of. But if you wanna be more than what you used to be, you gotta put what's in your hand, what will get you there.

And that's the instruction, the motivation, the organization that FitBot brings today. So folks, we want you to download this great FitBot app right now to get a head start on your fitness revolution and to sweeten the pot a bit. How about 25% off your subscription right now? How about three free personalized workouts?

All you have to do is go to fitbod.me slash combat with a K. Luke, tell them. Tell them. 25% off free personalized workouts at F-I-T-B-O-D dot M-E slash combat. Folks, that's combat with a K. Fitbod.me slash combat. Let's do it. All right, Luke, back to 2024 and MMA.

And when we look at featherweight the old 145 obviously my prediction is simple right a certain great featherweight will finally come out of retirement and gain the ufc title after years of us wondering is he the the great one that got away you know what direction i'm going there right yeah that's a bunch of silliness can i tell you what's actually going to happen oh sure wait wait you you don't believe in the beat luke what are you doing isn't he a doctor now or some engineering student or some shit Yeah, that's a bunch of silliness. Can I tell you what's actually going to happen in 2024? Oh, sure. Wait, wait. You don't believe in Zabit, Luke? What are you doing? Isn't he a doctor now or some engineering student or some shit?

I don't know. Something like that? He ain't fighting, I can tell you that. I don't speak Russian, Luke. I'm not even in a hurry. What do you got at featherweight? Yeah, Ilya Teporya is going to be your next featherweight champion in 2024. Okay, but that's just because he reps Spain and you love Madrid so much.

Come on, Luke, show your cards. I got a question for you. How come I can't believe in things for reasons I actually believe in them? Why do I have to believe in them for the phony reasons that you invent in your head that I like them? Because, Luke, I embody the spirit of our fan base. Okay, Luke, that's why. All right. It just amazes me that no one

is allowed to actually like things for reasons they like them they have to they can only like them by this bizarre interpretation this prism of limited understanding frankly all bad faith interpretation for one's human action share a good faith give me a good faith interpretation of why to prory is the man next year so is anyone going to credibly claim I haven't give Volkanovski his due as a fighter? Please be fucking serious. The guy actually changed my perspective, frankly, on what I thought fighters could do. If you actually ask me what I think Volkanovski

leaves to the fight game, it's the ways in which, he talked about it before, scrambling their brains. Everyone tries to do it, but the systematized free flow jazz kind of way that he was able to do it, I think actually raised the level of what you've ever seen in MMA. I really mean that.

I actually think he's that good. I have that much respect for him that I think if you can change the sport. Think about it, BC. The best players you've ever heard of talking about American football. These were guys like Jim Brown. They had to make rules to change the game so Jim Brown would stop shitting on him. That's the level of ability he had. Anyway, and that was in lacrosse actually not football but same concept but he is 35 or he will be by the time they fight and more to the point coming off of

that head kick ko to uh to Islam I understand that from a medical suspension standpoint he's doing everything above board. I understand that. I'm sure his, he and his team have thought about this and taken the best care that they possibly could all given the circumstances. I'm sure he'll have a great camp. Like I don't have any mistrust of what Volkanovski can do.

I just think father time will in fact, catch up with him in 2024. The speed at which he's been moving has been remarkable for a long time it was true when folks were not paying attention when he was beating the jose aldo's of the world when he was beating the chad mendez's of the world and no one really pegged him as a future guy he's been killing it for that long and here he has arrives at this point it the problem is this is a brutal fucking game toporia is next level good um and you no one no one not even the great alexander volkanovsky can beat father time that's it that's very true it's very true and that's why that fight is so important we're

going to find that out it's going to have a it's going to it's going to dictate a lot because i was you know toying whether to make a prediction around Max Holloway, who is the number one contender right now at featherweight and still has it. But Luke, he's kind of dependent upon to pour you a winning right to try to to try to turn this upside down and give him an opportunity. So let's talk about if Volkanovski won, what would be my prediction? Here's what it's built around, Luke, Even though I've made predictions or fighters to watch in this division exclusively about Brian Ortega for each of the last years that I've worked in MMA, because I love that guy. He doesn't seem to be coming out of that bullpen for the big Renaissance year. Although let's give him another chance.

You know who's coming on, Luke? Arnold Allen, the almighty. And what I saw in his last fight earlier this year, the incredible five round fight in Kansas City against Max Holloway in which Allen lost. But it was one of those fights where they both got elevated out. Allen proved that he belongs at this elite level. And if anything, kind of learned a tough lesson about maybe believing in himself a little bit more, because when he did step on the gas and put the pressure on Max. He had big success. And when he poured it on the final round, you started to believe, hey, you restart this fight over again.

Maybe Allen gets the W this time. So Luke, there's rumors that Arnold Allen could come back to kick off the new year in a bounce back fight against Movsar Evloev with respect to that guy who's ranked number nine in the UFC right now. But my prediction is, Luke, that Arnold Allen, if things fall his way,

would find himself in line for a title shot at the end of this calendar year. You have Jair Rodriguez and Brian Ortega at two and three, but can be question marks in some degree, especially Ortega. And you've got Tuporia, who at number five, if he loses against Volkanovski, it really comes down to this. Is UFC going to sub Max in? Probably not. Is there still time for Giga Chikadze or anybody else at the back end of this top 10 to make some big noise? Of course. But who is really like a guy in this top 10 that really you can carve a path for? I think it's Arnold Allen. And I think the company respects the performance he had against Max. He's got to come out in his first fight in the new year and put it on. But Luke, I don't think this guy's figured out how great he can be at 29.

And I think he will next year. And I think a fight for a world title. What do you think about that? Yeah. Yeah. That's actually a decent. I don't think that's too crazy. I would mostly agree with that.

Okay. Mostly. All right. Who are you watching for then? I'm going to give two names from the same organization because, I mean, obviously you could pick whoever you want from UFC, but I do think there's more interesting stories sometimes around the league so to speak bc what about aaron pico and patricio pitbull now they're both still in bellator and we don't know what's next but pico in his last fight looked great looked tremendous they have really done

it appears brandon gibson and the folks over at Jackson Link have done a phenomenal job in slowly rebuilding him into the great fighter that he appears to have become. Will he get a title shot? I don't know. What's next is really a big question for me. But also, BC, Patricio Pitbull, still the featherweight champion over there at Bellator. But man, big questions coming off of, obviously, what has not been the most successful of his campaign of his career in the last year so obviously punctuated by in my mind the 135 loss attempt to Sergio Perez which he lost pretty cleanly and then patchy mix went in there and we'll talk about him a little bit later going there and just kind of beaten I won't say no problem but relatively simply beating Sergio Perez so big questions around two very good very interesting different stages of their career featherweights over at Bellator.

Obviously with Bellator, another layer of intrigue on top of it. Let's see. Yeah, I was going to go with Aaron Pico as my choice because I think he's the most interesting to see if he breaks out, whether they make that pit bull fight. Can he win it? Can he win the championship? I just think when you look at the fighters that PFL acquired

from the Bellator banner, Pico is one of the most interesting because he's still young enough and potentially dominant enough to actually become a consistent champion and a star. But Luke, if I've got to pick somebody since you stole that thunder, I got to see what happens with Bryce Mitchell. He is someone to watch and it's potentially not in a good way.

And he did put out a video immediately after his knockout loss at UFC two 96, just thanking Josh Emmett for not piling on with more punches. But Luke, even though a lot of it was giving glory to the Lord and even said the loss kind of opened him up to the idea now of looking for more ways to serve the Lord, I got a lot of questions if he bounces back and is the same fighter mentally and physically

after such a destructive knockout. Now, two destructive losses in three fights. Look, it's tough when guys are around this age, right in the midst of their prime, where one devastating loss or injury sometimes sends them in a direction they never come back from. You hope for Mitchell, this is not the case,

but even if it's not Luke, as good as he is on the ground to defeat the big time killers on the, you gotta beat a lot of these guys on the feet. And I still question whether he's at that level as we've seen in two of those last three fights and chasing that uh are we going to see more endings like that now that's a random one emmet was in great shape landed the perfect punch but we both said it when bryce mitchell went down you know you hope this isn't the one that pushes him down toward the toward the gates

toward the exit you never know with a knockout like that indeed absolutely absolutely Jim well Luke that was men's featherweight now it's time to really get you working okay because now it's time for yeah I mean easy easy Kayla Cyborg we're gonna get it are we gonna get it 145 I know they're supposed to do the the champion versus champion bit so we're supposed to get obviously pacheco uh taken on cyborg or that's what is again we'll see i don't really know what i don't really know ultimately what they're going to do they're putting dude only the pfl would put a fight no one asked for in front of the fight people have at least asked for somewhat and then for a time a lot only they would be like okay we can't give you the thing you want but here's what we're going to do

we're going to give you a dangerous fight that not only will come before it but could actually ruin the one after okay i here's what i'll say with them if you and you're referencing putting pacheco against cyborg in the bellator versus pfl yes this bellator pfl i think that is one of the best matchups in that crossover series, so it's worth doing. I'm not saying it's a bad fight, PC. I get your point. Can I get to number two then so you can understand why I'm giving you two points?

And number two, I think the promotion wins because whoever wins that, that's a fresh fight against Kayla, meaning she could have the chance to redeem herself against Pacheco and do it after Pacheco slays cyborg if it happens which makes that fight bigger or pacheco i'm sorry cyborg versus kayla is just big unto itself and with pacheco losing do you know what that would mean luke if cyborg beats pacheco first that means they can do kayla versus cyborg without everybody going hey didn't kayla lose to pacheco why are she you know so i'm saying is that what people are going to do the pfl diehards are really going to hold their feet to the fire right so like

what you know what we really dude when are people going to realize that procedural adherence in the most strict sense is the is the death of mma promotions like you do need structure you do need order but you need the ability to tap dance at times as well if Francis gets a big fight which is a big if but if Francis gets a big fight in the PFL whatever that may mean you know just I'm positing a scenario you would it would make much more sense to have Cyborg versus Kayla on that card unobstructed uh for whatever marbles you want to make it for. By the way, Pride used to do non-title fights like that all the time,

which I'm not the biggest fan of either, but there are ways around this. I'm just pointing out, I'm not 100% Pacheco versus Cyborg is a great fight. Dude, Pacheco might go in there and wipe the floor with her. She seems a tough customer, but PFL is at the point now where they need to do maximally everything they can with any names that they have trying to follow that proceduralism makes a little bit more sense for something like the ufc it does not make sense for promoter at the level of the pfl stage it's the same thing it's like yeah we're going to get you sought out dude the ability to rely on state

commission drug testing as a means to run your product is a benefit to you oh my god what are you doing you know oh yeah i'm with you on that all right my prediction luke is pretty simple ufc finally shuts the door on a division that they've really never embraced and only rolled out for the hopes and chances of chris cyborg winning a title and it happened we've kept it around maybe for the hope that kayla comes over but luke it looks looks like Kayla's gonna be on the other side it look it appears to be maybe I'm wrong but it looks to be she's gonna end up on the other side of the street I gotta think they shut it down Luke they haven't had any movement since Amanda Nunes retired earlier this year and really they hadn't even had any movement for a year before that in this division um what's what's

the reason to keep it around if kayla's not walking through that door and i'm going to combine my prediction with my fighter to watch my fighter to watch is kayla mostly because i want to see where she actually fits in look if they just send her right to pay-per-view and she fights cyborg and that's the the crux of her 2024 and then maybe they throw around at the end of the year in the championship card in a one-off okay you can see that but look can cyborg can kayla consistently make 145 we don't know that we don't know that if she could compete for the bellator championship should she enter that side of it or ever go back into a tournament bracket i don't know if she can make 145 consistently so maybe she is only a pay-per-view brand but if she

stays on that side of the fence ufc has no reason to keep that division around there's nobody coming up in the ranks or through that door at women's 145 in the ufc that would make sense to employ that anymore you're done we're done look do you have anybody to watch or you're saying there's nobody to watch that's who you should watch yeah i don't have strong feelings about that at all all right all right let's go to men's band on weight arguably the best the deepest division in the entire sport and is headed for some really big things right around the corner to kick off this new year with Sean O'Malley and Chito Vera. So, Luke Thomas, when you look at the division globally at large, give me a prediction here. Give me something juicy. Oh man, I don't have quite the same feeling, even though like I'm actually most excited about this division more so than any other division. I'm kind of bleeding between the two things we're doing, which is like a prediction and then fighter to watch. Here's what I'm going to do.

We see, I'm going to kind of combine it a little bit because I know that their universes won't overlap, unfortunately. But the two guys I've got my eyes on for what they could do and what it might mean are it's got to be over a Bellator-Patchy mix, having just absolutely had the 2023 of his life, a tournament run that was spectacular. I mean, he couldn't have looked better, except to maybe finish Toriguchi, but he controlled him and won that one cleanly the whole way through and then finished everybody else, including the champion Sergio Pettis

in terms of uh um the the unification what the hell are they going to do with him there's only going to be eight Bellator events next year are they really going to be able to keep him active how much of the roster have they called oh my god dude like that is a huge question you've got a guy who has a claim in my mind I don't know if Pachy Mix is the best bantamweight in the world but I know if he's not he's going to give the next best one the toughest fight of their life and probably beat a few of those guys in the contender spot from five to two he is good very good and young and well-rounded and only getting better it is amazing what a natural dynamic finisher he is but I'm a little bit worried BC if I can be honest with you that they're gonna put him in a way to not maximally be able to do a whole lot with it

I really do not like this plan that PFL has for Bellator I'm not saying it's going to be a disaster for everybody but special cases like patchy do I really think he can maximize his time and when there's only eight calendar events on the year and they've got to give fights to a bunch of people I don't really feel great about that to be honest with you so um now they they are supposed to have the showdown versus pfl that could be kind of interesting but uh but i mean who is who even is the pfl 135 pound champ i'm not even sure i know the answer to that isn't that panetta panetta who fought no panetta was 145 panetta was 145 let me look this up here do they even have a 135 Luke I don't think that they do they didn't they didn't at the last thing they don't have middleweight

no so they don't they don't even have one this is what I mean yeah they had they don't even have anyone for him to unify against and it's like this guy's good. This is like of all the cars in your driveway. Which one is this? Dude, I mean, I don't know how nice you want to go with the metaphors, but this is the nice one. This is, if not the crown jewel, the one right behind it. Like an orange Subaru. Like an orange Subaru that someone stole from Lilith Fair

when the Indigo Girls were headlining. So that's one the other hat I guess move it uh no Movelet Habulaev maybe in 2021 or was that 145 I can't even remember anymore anyway neither here nor there the second one's got to be Umar Nurmagomedov BC Umar Nurmagomedov I cannot believe how much he's been forgotten in fact the dude's out there tweeting recently about like how come no one's calling my name great question well we sort of know the answer to it don't we no one really wants to fuck with that guy but they're gonna have to come see him eventually and i think 2024 is going to be that year he's too far back in the pack bc to just run up on a

title shot i just don't see that happening but he's going to have some interesting scraps this year and how that changes especially via you know the depending on who he has to go through whether it's san hagen or anybody else what this is going to teach us that has got to be a fight to pay attention to and if two fight scenarios two different organizations maybe they're two best bantamweights we'll see but two definitely interesting storylines. Very big picture there. I like them both. I almost was going to go with Umar myself. My fighter to watch is actually Aljamain Sterling, Luke, because I don't know where he fits in suddenly, right?

He's still the number one contender. Just lost the title at O'Malley. Is talking still about, should I move it up to 45? Or will he take another big matchup? I'm not sure, Luke, and with the age creeping up in these smaller weight classes, you do have to watch that as well for Aljo. Will he

break out and have some big, you know, non-title wins or establish himself in a new division or not? I don't know. But my prediction, bold prediction for Bantamweight for next year is 2024's MMA Fighter of the Year is currently in this top 10, Luke. And he's

going to close the year as champion are you ready for this rob devolosh willie because if he gets a win over henry suhudo which i'm going to assume he's going to be the betting favorite although that's a great fight to start the year could you imagine him then fighting the winner of uh of of the champion o'malley versus chito vera and winning that championship to close there. Yes, I can look, it's his time. It's he,

I know there's been injuries. I know there's been some things, but what separates him the cardio because he's already proven that he, he can win a crazy war. Like the one he had with Marlon Marais. He's proven that that cardio can go 25 full minutes and he can wear out anybody. And when you've got the wrestling to take down guys like O'Malley,

and when you have the gas tank to outlast everybody you're you're a major problem give me Merab to be fighter of the year and champion of maybe the deepest division in the sport all right Luke we can't keep you here all day so let's keep slot sliding down here let's go to women's bantamweight another near vacant division here 135 at least in UFC terms uh is your prediction that this division also gets shut down along with 145 or i'll be honest i sat here and pretended like i have a prediction if i do have one it's that misha tate might find her way into another title shot i do think that that is given how she performed in her last fight and just how fucking absolutely barren this division is in terms of anything interesting but honestly bc if i have

to give you a real prediction it's that it's going to take a lot more than a year to unfuck what you have going on there with how there's again not really any rivalries not really any interesting compelling matchups you do have individually talented fighters you do have individually great performances hell irene aldana at at UFC 296, pretty redemptive fight given the egg she had laid against Amanda Nunes. So it's not like there's nothing there, but good Lord, there's just not a lot. There's not a lot going on in terms of exciting contenders, exciting matchups, exciting storylines.

And I don't think that just one year is actually going to be enough to get us to a place because the problem is no matter how far down the list you look you don't necessarily see a lot of change on the horizon that's not the case at all for the other women's divisions but it definitely is at 135 yeah it's bad i don't want to waste too much time here but i think aldona's the fighter to watch coming off of that brawl with hosa to see she might be the best fighter in the division obviously i still want to respect juliana Pena, who hasn't been back. She's going to need a big fight.

We're going to see if Mayra Buenasova can get past Pennington. But my prediction is kind of simple, Luke, and you stole a little bit about my thunder with Misha, but I've predicted this every year now for like four straight years. I think this is the last year I can get away with it. Get ready. Holly Holm will fight for the title for the last year i can get away with it get ready holly holm will fight for the title for the last time in 2024 luke she's it's gonna happen here i mean dude what a

shit division is there even there's no 135 in pfl or or uh bellator right uh bellator does they have 25 they have that's 25 doesn't bellator haveouche? Yeah, at 125 they do. Are you sure? Yeah, she beat Velasquez for the title. Oh, you might be right about that. Yeah, all right. That wraps that up, Luke. Nobody likes that division. Men's flyweight, though, is on fire, and it's wild.

And, Luke, we got a new champion that might have staying power. So you ready for a crazy prediction from your boy BC? It feels easy to go with with but he's won me over Pantoja is going to go the distance and end the year as champion despite creeping up in age and despite welcoming so much damage look he is the right guy at the right time like Figueredo where he's a dual threat finisher and he's tough as nails he also makes the weight a little bit easier I just don't see anybody i think kai car france is a is still a dark horse and one to watch but i don't see anybody that i'm like they're

gonna take the belt from him i don't see that guy right now i'll tell you who that is it's gonna be brandon moreno brandon moreno is gonna have his hand brandon moreno is gonna have his hands full with amir al-bazi i do think that is true uh but i do think he'll persevere and if anyone has now the know-how and by the way by the time pantoja gets to another stiff challenge i know we keep saying hey you got to pay attention to how much damage he's taking and he keeps on surviving so what the hell do we know but at some point that bill is going to come due you can only get away with a finite amount of that and he is charging a lot on that credit card every time he competes um yeah the moreno

one was a unique circumstance but i think moreno actually has a resurgence here moreno's ability to show improvement over time is very very um significant i don't think he's done yet he's still actually quite young i do think he's got one it's not infinite for him either but i think he's got one more gear left of development really turning into something as polished as what he already has become but then more so and i think he's gonna get his title back in in 2020 i think that's the opposite because he's not a finisher in terms of striking luke i think it leads to him being in sustained wars he stopped kai car france recently i respect that i get that but he's been in a ton of wars win or lose including four straight against Figueiredo I just think that age is going to catch up with

him and he's not a finisher on the feet even though he's got some submission wins there too but we'll see what happens there fun to fun division we'll see if the current champ can stay the champ let's go over to women's flyweight wow Luke I love this division and wow are there a lot of questions on top as we turn to the new year when you consider the risers like manon faro and aaron blanchfield and the fact that valentina shevchenko the former champion current champ alexa grasso probably do need to see each other again luke so where do you stand on either fighter to watch or a big prediction in this great division for the new year yeah it's going to going to be the Aaron Blanchfield division. Here she comes folks.

It's going to be the Aaron Blanchfield division. Now I do want to see what happens between the Grosso and Shevchenko. If they can make that happen again. And that might, that might interrupt the calendar BC because if they delay that or they, if they want to hold that for the next year, I mean, I doubt they would hold it for the next UFC.

No J, but if for some reason it pushes everything back, then it delays what Blanchfield will do. But she, I mean, again, no one is truly inevitable in MMA, but if anyone is, it's got to be her. I think her level, she has real deficiencies. You know, for all the good about her, she's hard-nosed, great wrestling, good top control, good boxing.

She has shown in recent performances the ability to persevere, but she's taking big punches for extended periods of time like there's a lot in her striking defense that needs cleaning up and there's a lot of polish on the ground that she doesn't necessarily have but the will bc the will to hammer whoever is in front of her out of the way again and she is also skilled the two there man they do a lot of work for her. I think it's her time at 125 pounds. Shevchenko is, you know, as good as everyone says she is, but older.

I don't think that's unfair. And Grosso is super amazing. You can argue that she should have lost the rematch, and I don't think the physical intensity she's going to be able to match aaron blanchell is going to be hoisting gold by this time next year yeah by the time she gets the chance you're probably right but before she gets the chance my my big prediction might come true luke i doubted as you did can valentina shanchenko come back and climb that mountain and the rematch against grasso she actually did luke and if they didn't screw her on that 10, eight round, right,

she would have won back the championship. So you get the feeling that they're probably going to do a trilogy here. And I just think if anybody can do what Devis and Figueredo did a couple years ago at 34 at flyway men's flyway, come back and win the title at an advanced age. And in this case, because Shevchenko was already 35, would add her name to the vaunted Luke Thomas stat of doom

that only Tyron Woodley has been able to stand back and stiff arm and win a battle against Father Time. Luke, they say Father Time's undefeated. We don't know much about Mother Time. So you know what, Shevchenko? I think she gets the belt back.

With the fact that Blanchfield's coming on, I got the same questions as to who will end the year. But I predict that Valentina Shevchenko I think she gets the belt back with the with the fact that Blanchfield's coming on I got the same questions as to who will end the year but I predict that Valentina Shevchenko scores one of the most impressive old person fighter wins you know old meaning 35 for a career mixed martial artist who lives this yeah I think she can dip back into the bag one more time she proved me wrong in that rematch when she came as close as she did. My fighters to watch both have the last name of Silva, Luke. You know I like Natalia Silva's kickboxing game, the high pressure. But I think maybe even Karine Silva has a higher upside

because she's more of a finisher. Either way, both of those two Brazilian fighters are part of this next new generation that's turning over at 125, and it's more than fun to watch. So this division is going to be great. There's old, new, and in between. We'll see who ends the year. Very quickly, very quickly.

I'll add Macy Barber to that list, who I thought at times, you know, there were some hiccups in her development, but more recently has looked better than ever. She's got a big year with big fights in front of her as well. Pay attention. She could do something special this year as well. Luke, 115 pounds, women's strawweight, such a great division. And it's our final one of this look ahead for the new year.

So, Luke, Zhongwei Li is your champion once again. But there's at least one inevitable fighter that's knocking on that door. Where are you looking for the new year? What's going to happen? Yeah, dude, what's up with Tatiana Suarez, right? I mean, that's the whole story for me. Now, getting to, if the UFC ends up going with Zhong Wai Li and Yan Xiaonan in China,

that is the story itself, because opening that market is going to be huge. Opening that market with a women's fight in 2024 is like a remarkable feat in all of sports, to be quite honest like it's a very difficult thing to do like think about like what's the first like really big fight between two Chinese nationals in China on like assuming that they put it on pay-per-view or something like that some big show like that you want to do that one right to do that with

two of the smallest of the smallest of the overall smallest division you have in the smallest obviously among the women that's that's a that's an interesting thing in combat sports and it's an interesting thing in MMA to I think frankly to brag about um but putting that aside for just a minute we're examining disruptors who could disrupt the party who could come through and crash it we didn't even know if she was going to be able to return to the octagon with what was it a three or four year layoff bc I remember interviewing her before the layoff and everyone at the time. And it was, you know, somewhat exaggerated, but they were calling her the female Habib. The female Habib was what all the conversation was about.

And so has she gotten back to that? Not necessarily, but she's looked really good. Her last fight in particular was very strong. If she's going to make a move, clock is ticking because she's just missed so much time. Dude, she's ready. I don't know if she's going to wear gold, but I think what her story is,

wherever she goes, the division will probably go. You'll know what's going to happen based off of her performances. Big year for her. Yeah, that seems to be an uh an inevitable feeling and eventually when if she does face the winner of uh zhong versus uh xiaonan it's going to be a hell of a fight to see her try to climb that mountain she's probably gonna have to win one in between uh what i'm going to predict here luke is unfortunately i always said mckenzie duran

has nine lives and i've tried to fight that battle that look there's still time but luke i think she's run out of a lot of lives and i think the fallout of the most recent disappointing step up that should have been the one that lifted Dern finally into the title picture the true core of the title picture and UFC a chance to really find out how marketable she could be what we saw was that you know she cut ties with Jason Perello when the gym closed down and suddenly her corner was chaos and Luke we subsequently we've subsequently found out that, you know, you don't really, it's hard to tell from the inside out, but is her dad a great influence as a corner man is the new boyfriend that, that she's rumored to be dating and living with. That's now her coach.

Is that guy a good choice? Look, it seems to be like there's a lot of chaos around her constantly, whether that's her fault or not, the fallout of her divorce still seems to to be a big thing on her mind. And while that may have fueled her past Angela Hill, that's also a fight she should have dominated over five rounds and looked the way she did. Luke, my doubts have never been higher. Everyone like you who said, look, you know, you can like certain parts of her game, but

unless these foundational elements get fixed, she's got issues. You know, I would always tell you to pack that up and sit on it, Luke, because my feelings, my vibes are telling me that she still can be dominant. But Luke, I'm starting to wonder for real, if she's the problem, the relationships that she encounters, the way she prioritizes her own need for training and instruction,

there's a major disconnect. It's been there all along. It's still there in a big way. I don't think she gets over the hump and has a big year. I think it's going to be a continuation of one step forward, one step back. And we're going to reset at the end of the next year and talk about her age and talk about whether she can finally get it. But I don't think she gets there. That's that's that's the new thing. And I hate to say that because I've always been a big fan of the game that she brings and the toughness and all that. But you got to have all things working for you, Luke. And you can't drive a car with a flat tire and it's just not working out for her.

My fighter to watch, though, Luke, interestingly enough, in this division is, though, can Carolina Kovalcavich continue this second and third tier win streak when she had lost, what, like five or six in a row and we considered her you know the old guard and now she can't stop winning against a certain level of competition i want to see if this fun story can continue in the new year and how much how far how far she can actually go it reminds me of that big win streak andre arlosky had a couple years ago where he was actually becoming an outside quasi-title threat once again. I don't have high hopes for KK, Luke.

She's old school with an old-style game, but her ability to reset her career and find new life has been fun and interesting to watch for one of the old guard. I'll be watching closely again in the new year. I know you couldn't care less, Luke. No, I definitely couldn't. All right. Well, Luke, we have just enough minutes here and time, unless you any other uh straw weights you want to talk about no i'm good on that my pants are not around my ankles just just disgusting to even think about luke general predictions in mma for the new year now you have been flaunting all show a big one that i'll be

unhappy about does this related to joanna or rose just to prepare me no it's related to neither i do well the biggest story you think about like what was the biggest story this year maybe francis going to the pfl that was a big one right yeah so how that continues will be a big story next year dude i mean the fighter lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in april for crying out loud i mean i don't know how it gets any bigger than that. So that's a huge story, something to pay attention to. There's ones where all my attention is going to be. I mean, that's going to be can't miss stuff.

But I got to tell you, man, I'm getting some weird vibes, and I think you are as well. So there was that article on the reporting of one's finances that said they were going to run out of money, basically, and runway in 2024. More recently, and it's due to what has happened with Bellator. Bellator had an economy, basically, had an annual budget of $40 million that they would pay out to fighters in the whole year. There was $40 million operational cost, but a lot of that would go to fighter salary. And so you lose that, and that's a lot of money being taken out of the

economy i know they're going to have eight events but that's not i mean they were doing more than 20 i think close to 30 basically uh for the most part so you're losing a lot there and i understand it but you know also like you don't hear a lot of fighters complaining publicly about one because their contracts are so restrictive they i feel like they might view retaliation as a problem, but I can tell you privately, you hear a lot of complaints, a lot of complaints and not just, I don't like this, but also, um, how poor the pay is, right? We all focus on UFC because that is where the dominant amount of money is made

by, you know, 90 cents of every dollar in the industry is taken by UFC. Like there's just not much money left for anybody else. Here is basically what my, I don't know if we're doing predictions. I'll give you the best I can. One might be here at the end of 2021, but barely, barely. I think that this is the make or break year for them. Either something will happen in

the industry that allows them to get acquired somewhere or they sell or you know there's some kind of real change of hands where they can just say hey victory declared we can move on in a new system or format uh or what you have been witnessing will eventually just go away and this year it looks like it's going to be the test case. I'm hearing too many bad things from too many different directions to think that there's not more than just smoke. There's, there's fire here probably as well. Does the new season of a survivor one championship additions ratings, uh, play into this at all, whether they will be able to,

they were number one in singapore for a single week yeah congratulations yeah yeah that was that was great yeah all right uh interesting prediction there luke um it's hard to predict here looking ahead but i wonder for francis and gana luke because when the pfl and don davis on ariel show did say like they hoped to roll out the bellator pfl supercard in like february ideally get francis making his debut in the first half uh first quarter actually hoping it would be deontay wilder and then they wanted to close 2024 by getting that jake paul mma fight that they were guaranteed and don kept saying look man you know jake told me he needs a year to train. So I'm going to give him that. But Luke, other factors may play in there that that really could prevent PFL from from getting its paper.

Now, look, they're trying to do three things at once. They're trying to reinvent Bellator. They're trying to do their regular season tournament championship format. And they're trying to launch a pay-per-view division or really what that means is they want to launch two pay-per-views. But Luke, Jake Paul is not talking about MMA anymore. All right. I know he signed a deal. I know this is the plan, but this guy's talking about taking a bunch of boxing fights against

prospects and building toward an inevitable title shot. And on the flip side, you know, I just talked to Anthony, I'm sorry, Deontay Wilder ahead of this Rick's return right before Christmas. And, you know,

he was hoping to beat Joseph Parker, fight Anthony Joshua in February or March. And then, you know, he said, look, if a PFL fight comes around and it could be made, maybe. But, you know, I'm not making that priority. Look, to some degree, if you're telling me right now that that that Francis is getting Wilder and Jake will fight, I'll say, OK, they got a fighting chance to do the big type of, you know, impact that PFL is getting wilder and Jake will fight I'll say okay they got a fighting chance to do the big type of you know impact that PFL is trying to make next year and in legitimately trying to compete head-to-head for the UFC but Luke pay-per-view and the success of

it and getting people to have to see these must-see events that's going to matter in that transaction in fact you can argue it's going to matter the most. So you mentioned that there's a way that the Pacheco versus Cyborg fight could kill the overall effectiveness of what we've wanted, which is Kayla versus Cyborg, new generation versus old generation. Okay, what if that happens? And what if Wilder's not available for Francis? And what if Francis gets the call from Saudi for a huge boxing fight? And what if Jake Paul stays doing what he's doing? All I'm saying is here is I've had optimism for PFL to come out in the new year and swing big and at least have a fighting shot at doing what they're

saying. But Luke, they need, need, in my opinion, those pay-per-view main events to get made and to hit big, or it's going to be hard for them to invade this top tier of global mma promotion the way they want to because let's ask ourselves who else is francis gonna fight right now right like yeah you could get a certain second rate heavyweight that would at least be a place filler and we could see francis return at mma but that's not what they want they want big time freak show must see francis versus deontay wilder they can't get that and if jake isn't on schedule like they want i don't know who else they're going to put on pay-per-view next year and that's that's really

uh a prediction not a prediction but something i'm i'm nervous for them that i need to see play out because if you don't have these book end pay-per-view events that rock the world and get people's attention, what do you have, Luke? You got a lot of quarterbacks in that system. Who's the starter? You're right. You got a cage that's very, very intelligent. Really smart cage right there.

Do you have any? My other prediction is this, Luke. You're going to go over the allotted time that we have? After a year off, we come back and we win Best MMA Programming at the world mma awards from dana white contender series we hold off the aggressive competition that we normally face from the likes of ariel hawani rogan i'm sorry rogan at times anakin florian respect to all those great shows but what we have planned in 24 in the mma and boxing space and the dick joke space for you

here on morning combat it's next level it's gonna take a little bit to come next level dick jokes but by the end of next year you guys will know who the best damn combat sports show period really is okay so that's not a prediction luke as paul hayman would say it's a spoiler yeah there you go also we didn't it's kind of funny this is like the what was the last time we did a prediction show we didn't mention nate Also, we didn't, it's kind of funny. This is like the, what was the last time we did a prediction show? We didn't mention Nate Diaz. We didn't really, you briefly touched on Conor McGregor, but we didn't really have a lot of Conor McGregor discussion.

That hasn't happened in quite some time. I don't have much more to add to it than that. Again, the antitrust case is just the most monumental thing that could happen one way or the other. So we'll be paying attention to that. It should be a fun year. And yes, for you and me, knock on wood, hopefully we get to do everything that we think we will be able to do. I guess we'll see.

Yeah, let's do it. Let's stay together. Let's not break up, Luke, okay? Let's keep this together. We'll find out what happens in MMA in the new year. Keep alive this sexless marriage. That's what I'm talking about. At least now I have two of them, Luke.

Let's shout out Mikey Mormo on the ones and twos of CBS Sports. And let's tell you folks, enjoy yourselves this New Year's. Let's be safe. But let's get excited for a new year for all of us, for this show, for your health, for your mental health. Let's do it, folks. Big year to come. We hope you are enjoying your holiday break.

This has been Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell of Morning Combat. Luke Thomas, you get the last word entering the new year. Hey, happy holidays. Merry Christmas. Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, all that fun stuff. Happy New Year. Don't drink and drive. Call Uber, and if you can't, just walk.

Don't do anything stupid. We'll see you jabronis. I know we have shows after this, but I just want to say we'll see you jabronis. Obviously, next year as well. Be there for the MK experience. For the king of CTE, I'm the king of DC. Two kings out of here. MK, we're done.

Peace. Smell your gains. Be loyal. Bitches.