MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 2025 Combat Sports Predictions & Story Lines | Full Episode | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

Happy New Year, Donks! 2025 is finally here, and MORNNG KOMBAT is back to kick off what promises to be an unforgettable year in combat sports. Join Luke and BC as they dive into their MMA predictions for the year ahead, discussing the biggest matchups, storylines, and moments to watch in both MMA and boxing. From rising stars to epic showdowns, they break down what’s next for the world of combat sports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reveille Reveille Look at us now Tip to tip Oh Jesus Do you want a margarita? Yes! Yes! My God!

It's us doing what we love. Two, three, two, three. It's time to bang. Oh, yeah. It's not just the sound. It's a feeling. It's a movement. Hey, it's a 2025.

Monday, January 3rd Welcome into the Best Damn Combat Sports Show They ever put together And you better believe it, we are here to stay It's morning combat They used to give us awards for this Right, now we just wear old weird merch Hey, I'm Brian Campbell of the DonkTastic

Co-host of the Mostost And that is Luke Thomas And Luke, we didn't prep that there would be a big announcement today but you did tell me off there you have hepatitis f congratulations the f stands for your fuck thank you very much all right yes yes where where are those condoms kids that's all i can tell you where are those condoms luke you're a bit under the weather will you get above i'm not i'm actually in that sense i the my whole family, I know a lot of families that apparently got sick over the holidays. I guess there's a bunch of nasty bugs going around.

I feel fine. But then ever since the illness passed, I've had a hard time drawing a deep breath. Yes. So that's not great. But, you know, it hasn't slowed me down too much, BC. I took toques to the tubing yesterday at the ski slopes. They're actually not far from DC., like a 90-minute drive.

Wait, there's mountains close to D.C.? Technically, if you look closely, you can get to Pennsylvania, and I'm not kidding, in 90 minutes. We went to Liberty Mountain, which is about maybe an hour and 45. But, yeah, you can go there, and we tubed it up, and she had a blast. So it was awesome. What a time. What a dad.

What a time. What a new year. Luke, I do hope that you're going to recover and you're okay. Yeah, I'll be fine. So it was awesome. What a time. What a dad. What a time. What a new year. Luke, I do hope that you're going to recover and you're okay. Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll be fine. It's just, you know, turns out vaping is probably not great for you. The doctor's like, well, what have the last few months been like for you? Like, I just got this pink monster in this vape.

Nothing out of the normal. Yeah, a white monster drink and then peach mango mango uh ice on uh my vape flavor yeah there you go well luke you know they've been trying to kill us and this show since the beginning right but they can't keep a good man down or even two of them or one and a half of them so we are here to stay here to bang too we hey and hey happy new year brian campbell thank you very much freaking new year dude how was your new year's it was awesome family and i played cards laughed it up watched the ball drop real low key went went away for a few days with my wife before then i mean what a time to be alive luke you know no no the phone ain't ringing but the family is here to stay all right there we

go that's been my experience as well i didn't get a lot of phone calls per se but um i had a lot of good quality time with the fam and um the only thing that sucked was alexandria which is just outside dc was supposed to have like a kids a kids new year's eve yeah so then they were going to do fireworks at 6 p.m right on the waterfront and i was like oh we'll take tukster to that yes and we did and then we got there early it was like 4 30 and we're like tukster was hungry so we're like all right let's just get something to eat right like right on if anybody knows the area we're out on king street and uh we we did so now it's like 5 35 45 and we go outside and it's pouring down rain fireworks canceled and i was like oh kill me yeah so that part wasn't great but you

know nevertheless well you know luke one love for the new year for sure um i did have something i was gonna ask you i'm trying to remember oh uh you know we gave out our awards on monday show and you know you were part of being responsible really for david appleton becoming a two-time mk donk of the year so what are your thoughts on that he seems like a sex pest i don't know i mean i'm not i can't declare anything as fact i can only give you opinion but he seems he's a teacher of the youth and the teacher of something yeah there you go there you go hey we got a decent show for you today i'm sure uh of course on monday we give out the year-end awards, and now it's 2025, so we will be looking ahead,

division by division in the UFC, making our predictions for MMA in the new year. We'll look at the big storylines we are following in both combat sports. We are looking, Morning Combat viewers, to bang you at all times, all right? Consensually. Thank you very much for that. that yes do you want to tell the folks what's up for monday well we got a show live 11 a.m you have a show the show is the show the show will go on like that's what it is on jan near far wherever you are the show will go on on jan 6 but we got big snow predictions and also look what the hell are we going to talk about

you want to preview dern he boss too and in, like, real, you know, intimate detail? Or that's kind of creepy? I don't know what to do for the show topic just yet. But what I can say is we're expected to get a Lex the Impaler size amount of snow, about 10 inches. You know what I'm saying? So I don't know if I'm going to be able to travel to the city on Monday or not. We'll have to see. Okay.

Well, you know, wherever you are, the people will show up, Luke, okay? You are the anchor that keeps this ship afloat. And I'm just both the captain and Tennille at the same time, but I'll take it. All right. You know, that's about all I got. Oh, we got another guy that works on the show. Yeah, we do. He's probably not.

Degenerate gambler, bong enthusiast, son of an Australian. It's Luke Noseda of the Main Card Minute podcast. Luke, happy new year to you, fella. I like the purple backlighting. What do you have to say for yourself in 2025? Nothing. Happy new year to you guys. New year, same old me.

The lighting, we could change the colors too, BC. We got whatever colors you want. I was feeling the purple today. I was feeling a vibe, you know? All right. Is that in honor of the late prince, the symbol, RIP? Yeah, sure. Purple rain, yeah.

There you go. Okay, purple rain. Come back here, Long Island Luke. What did you do for New Year's? I'm going to guess it involved a gravity bong at some point. Not a gravity bong, just a regular bong. No, me and my girlfriend just, you know, few drinks watch the ball drop on tv nothing crazy we got crazy crazy rain as well and my road flooded which happens every fucking time it rains so that was fun to deal with but yeah uh does your does your girlfriend smoke yeah of course

all right okay likes long walks on the beaches and bongs So what a combo right there Shout out to the lovely, I'm sure Mrs. Future, maybe Mrs. All right, enough of that conversation Hey, Luke Thomas, before we get into the show Before we start it, we want to tell people Please like and subscribe

If you've been on this train for a while Or maybe you're day one-ish It helps us out if you boost our numbers, all right, from the inside out. Help us out. Follow us on social. Follow our YouTube channels there on the side, our little side piece. Don't be talking about taking my side piece. You don't get laid.

Luke, what famous boxer said that quote? I don't know. That was Pauly Malinagy in the post-fight interview after losing to Adrian Broner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great moments in boxing history right there uh luke anything else you want to talk about personally uh you want to share any medical test results um turns out you are the father so congratulations you know oh nothing really else i just hope i'm not dying oh my wife uh got me a massage for christmas like a sports massage and i'm supposed to get

my shoulder grinded into dust uh after the well later on this afternoon so that should be fun do you prefer a male or female masseuse i had a fee i had a male masseuse one time and it was the biggest mistake of my life oh wow did you guys get to second base no but he it wasn't that it wasn't like some creepy like latent homosexual thing uh it was he did this weird breathing technique where he would purposely inhale as much as possible through his nose and then as actively and loudly throughout his mouth yeah the entire time so like as he's like grinding out my shoulder he goes and i'm like dude what the fuck are you doing what i hate to tell you but he makes those noises when he masturbates too okay now there's one exception to this there's one exception have you seen those and again i can't speak for all malls but the malls here they have these like

i guess they're families of like, I'm guessing they're Chinese. I don't know if they're Chinese. They appear to be Chinese families. Don't, don't do it. Don't do it. No, no, no. I'm, I'm making an educated guess. I'm not declaring to you that, but I think that's what they are, but they have these like a kiosks in the mall where they, you know, massage you or whatever. So it's only like, I think it was like, I want to say like 30 bucks for 30 minutes, something like that, that bad. And I'll take a male masseuse there. Cause you sit in those chairs and those dudes, I'm not kidding, dude. It's it's Shane Carwin, UFC one 16 round one ground and pound with those guys, they take their elbows and then they drive

their weight into your back. I have never felt my shoulder loosen up so well as from that so that's the exception i'll take a meal masseuse in that particular case but if it's a private room you know i used to hear from my co-worker robbie snyder that you got to go mail on this because if you're an athlete and you're out there lifting these guys can get inside on you luke if you know what i mean so again again i'd be totally okay with that i don't really have a problem but the last guy had breathed like he was a whale breaching the surface of the water yes and and and did it every 15 seconds and it was more than distracting it was annoying and i hope he dies yeah oh my god all right on that

note hey how about we'll look ahead to 2025. So here's what we're going to do to kick things off here, because some people complain, hey, nice award show on Monday, a little too much box ale for your cage-fighting liking. How about we go division by division in the UFC? Luke and I will each present one bold prediction. We'll talk about the status of the title picture and what's going on and we will kick things off here in the men's flyweight division one two five your current

champion alexandre pantosia tearing it up in his late 30s luke thomas i've been telling you these brazilian folks are built different every fight it seems like we say this is the time that age and mileage will catch up with Pantoja. It hasn't. He continues to reign. So as you look to 25, Luke, what's your bold take on what we should be expecting? I have been so wrong about Alexandre Pantoja. Not in terms of the fights I thought he could win, but that what I thought the grind would do to him. And I still think at some, I mean, at some point, unless he retires,

of course, that shoe has to drop. But because I've been so wrong about him, BC, I have to reflect on that and say to myself, okay, are there dangerous contenders at flyweight? Yes, of course. Kai Carr of France is a dangerous contender. We'll see what happens between Brendan Royville and Manoel Kopp. Kopp could win that one. Obviously, we're Team Raw Dog over here, but certainly you have to recognize Kopp is a very, very good fighter and could get that job done. Maybe he could be the guy that gives Pantoja problems.

But every time I think that the past wars are going to catch up with him, he actually doesn't slow down at all. He looks better and better. I know. It's ridiculous. He and better i know right it's not ridiculous he gets better every fight it's insane right because you think okay he had these wars maybe he could still win subsequent bouts but there's going to be some kind of like oh i can see him slowing down no no you don't see it at all he's going to end the year as champion he's going to end the year he's going to by this time next year. He's going to end the year as champion. He's going to, by this time next year,

my firm belief at this point, I just kind of have to wake up to the reality of what it is. Pantoja has, any flyweight champion, has got a lot to do to catch up with the brilliant Demetrius Johnson. About that, there is simply no debate. But BC, if my prediction ends up being correct, and he ends the year as champion, you're talking about the second

greatest flyweight ever at that point are you not i i hear me out hear me out hold on henry did more across combat sports of course he saved the division too let's be fair he saved the division olympic gold medal i mean that's just really hard to compete with but flyweight resume versus flyweight resume if if the prediction proves correct, that's your guy, that's your number two guy there. I mean, he's got a lot of really good wins before becoming the champion, right? He's got, you know what I'm saying? Like two over Moreno three, if you count the tough win, I mean, he's nine and oh, currently against guys that are in the top 10. Luke, I was going to make the same bold prediction because I'm kind of sick of being wrong about this guy.

And like we mentioned, if you look at, I mean, he barely won the title over Moreno, but did it in an absolute war. How could you expect him to go on this run since then of defending the title and looking more dominant? And then you look at the Ursa fight, you know, one strategic change, he might've lost that one yet. He gets, you know, passes the the test and then he absolutely blows away asakura most recently in a fight that had some danger early and maybe with that you know we need to wake up to that yes he will be 35 in april but he's somehow operating at the best uh of his career up to this point you see the shape he was in for that asakura fight he is operating on full steam ahead so i gotta give the same prediction as you right that

he'll stay on top but here's the deal i this happens to me in my combat sports journalism podcasting history where i'll be behind on a guy the fans know this they once in a while call me out on it i'll be so far behind on a guy's rise to the top that once that guy finally secures that throne, does a few things, puts his feet in the ground and says, I am him. That's usually when I'm like, oh my God, this guy can't be beat. And that's usually the next fight where he loses and loses the title. And it was like, wow, he had a great run. He found that window of his top of the mountain prime. Too bad I missed him on the way up. Luke, here's the deal. There's a man that he will probably, hopefully, fight next.

A man that is only on a one-fight win streak, but when you consider that Pantoja's pretty much fought everybody in the top 10 already, the first time I saw Kaikara France, I thought he was going to be a world champion. And it didn't happen. He's had a couple tough losses. He's been really close before. The interim title fight with Moreno that he was winning up until the point he was stopped my bold prediction this year luke i think kkf is of the goods and i think he ends this year

as champion and it goes against the grain of everything we're saying but at the same time how long can pantoja who will be 35 in April, be in close fights against other elites in this division and just continue to get the nod? I think Kaikara France has that boldness, that aggressiveness. He has a well-rounded game. It's going to be a close fight, just like Erseg versus Pantoja was. But I do think it's Kaikara France's year in time. I can't see that man in an era of this division where there is so much parody, maybe separate from Pantoja's last couple of title defenses. I can't see Carafrance

exiting his career without fighting for a title or potentially winning one. So give me 2025 as the year that CKB comes back on top and Luke Thomas has to open up the toy bin of the ones he threw away and remind himself how much he loves Eugene Bearman. Right. I never stopped liking Eugene Bearman. Yeah. You threw a few of his toys away after they got KO'd. What does that mean?

You know, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a running joke that the fans have with you, Luke. Okay. Cause you get a, you get a bone air for a, for a rising fighter. And then again, what actually happens is that everyone is late to pick up on how good someone is. And then as well, late to pick up on when they're actually in decline. And because I timed that more correctly with those, at least with those guys, not, I mean,

I make the same mistakes with other fighters, but not with those ones. I correctly timed their ascent and I correctly timed their decline. People treat this as like, Oh, I don't care about them anymore. I certainly think they're great fighters, but their best has left them. And obviously, I don't have to explain that. You know how hard it is to put together three, four, five, six common title defenses in this modern era. Anything can happen. But Clyde Carr-France is probably next in line.

Luke, in fact, let's look at this title picture at the second regarding what could be next. Number one, of course, is the Champions Pantoja. Royval, the number one contender. He'll be facing number six, Manel Kopp. You've got Moreno at two. Albazi coming off a loss at three. Kaikara France, four.

And Tatsuro Taira coming off a loss at five. Do you see KKF next? I definitely think he's dangerous. I thought Erseg was going to have much more success against him than he did. Kaikar France blew the doors off of him. That was insane. I am hobbled by the fact that KKF has ascended a couple times and then tumbled. The Brandon Moreno fight being a great example of that, where he was moving on up and was doing well in that fight but then on a retreat

got hit with a body kick and just got folded and it's hard for me to look past that it's like if if brandon moreno can do that under those circumstances as well as you look at a guy like pantoja and his ability to you know wrestle and take the back which is fucking crazy you can't rule it out you definitely cannot rule it out i just don't know if i see that and his ability to wrestle and take the back, which is fucking crazy. You can't rule it out. You definitely cannot rule it out. I just don't know if I see that as the likeliest outcome, but I recognize he's a dangerous threat. I think that's probably the best I can say about it right now.

All right. In terms of the old championship-level names that are either threatening to cut down or are lingering around the division, Henry Cehudo davison figueredo demetrius johnson kyoji horiguchi will we see any of them at 125 at the highest level in this calendar year no oh i mean you might see okay so you might see them back but you said the highest level no so who will be what 38 this year i mean that's a wrap um davison figure out probably a little bit of life but i think that weight cut really really really messes with him dj is probably

not going to come back who was the last name horiguchi but he's horiguchi yeah i looked a little up and down at ryzen so um i don't think so i don't think again you could see them there whether or not you're going to get like peak form ofweight, that's the part that I think is a little bit not likely. Long Island Luke, are you seeing a 2025 in which Pantoja continues to climb that pound-for-pound ranking and maybe ends up being in that number two slot all time at 125? I wrote my prediction separately from you guys before I read yours, and yeah, I have Pantoja being the champ.

And I did say before that fight with Asakura that Pantoja would still be champ at the end of 2020. Oh nice so I'm sticking to that all right very good all right Luke do you Luke Thomas do you think this uh cop versus roival fight that we're excited about for February that it could produce the second half of 2025 title Challenger yes I think if cop if cop wins, they're going to give it to him. I don't think there's really any question about that. They want a fresh challenger. He loves anti-gay slurs, but he is a good fighter and the UFC doesn't care about the former.

They care about the ladder. So there you go. Well, UFC also cares about Mexico a lot. Can you see Brandon Moreno sliding back into a title shot again? Yes, but it would take a lot. Yes.

I mean, he's got three losses to the guy. It probably would. Yeah, it would take a lot yes i mean he's got three losses to the guy it probably would yeah it would take a lot i mean all right and roival are in tough positions you know absolutely uh still love that division still love that every fight's a banger still love that for the most part it feels like anybody can win the title on any given night hey where's ask our askarov when you need him i still feel like that guy's got some time to come back and win a title. Luke, is he alive? I'm guessing he's alive. I'm guessing he's not dead, but one never knows.

Yeah. All right. There we go. Hey, let's go to Bantamweight 135 maybe. Maybe still the best and deepest division in the sport. I think that's up for debate with the rising success over at middleweight. Welterweight and featherweight are still in it. Lightweight's always awesome.

But Bantamweight, we are heading in just a couple weeks out january 18th in los angeles ufc 311 when the champion marab davalishvili takes on umar nirmaga madoff luke before we get into our bold prediction i did send you a video this morning a little bit of controversy on the old twitter these days because brett okamoto sat down with Umar for an interview ahead of this title fight for ESPN.com in which Umar seemed to reveal that he broke his forearm recently and it's not fully healed as he enters this title fight that sort of got rushed in before Ramadan. And then I'm being told on Twitter that that interview got pulled from ESPN.com completely are you nervous what do you think about that does that change any of your

bold predicting expectations for Bantamweight okay so not really not really I tend to think that he'll probably get pumped full of cortisol to like kill pain or whatever and so it won't really actually affect his performance too too bad also marab has kind of indicated that he's got injuries as well that he's dealing with so it's like neither is really probably yet there dude that fight got pushed into that position to make that you know card better it wasn't like a bad card but it really kind of sent it over the top and excuse me and you know the idea that that fight was booked under ideal circumstances for either guy is just complete nonsense right they forced that fight in there and so you're getting compromised guys in both directions i think it'll probably you know it'll probably

you know go out in the wash so to speak um it's not that i'm saying it's not a factor bc it's just i don't think marab is walking under there under great circumstances either. And they kind of semi-cancel each other out. Yeah, I get where you're going on that one. Hit me with a bold prediction here, Luke. What are we looking at in Bantamweight in 25? Sean O'Malley's coming off of a title loss. We have some big names lingering around this title picture.

What do you see happening in the future? Yeah, I think not only does Umar Nurmagomedov end the year as champion i think he will be the champion i think what he's going to start setting up is um he is going to bring order to the division for i think some time now it's hard to say exactly how long he will reign i'm not making a bold prediction necessarily in that direction but what i think you're going to end up seeing in this marab fight again you know who knows but what i think you're going to end up seeing in the marab fight is that umar is going to be able to neutralize just a lot of what marab is able to do and on top of that is going to beat him up on the feet to the extent that that fight takes place in the feet which you know again we'll see um and i think that what it's he's going

to show both in terms of in that fight and then going forward is a wide enough skill set to basically answer for what every other contender essentially has top contender anyway has at the present moment uh if you need him to wrestle he will show that he can wrestle if you need to strike he can do it or he can or it. Or if someone is good at wrestling and they're not on the striking, he can go that direction or vice versa. He'll be able to play all the levels in such a way that you'll see

he's going to, I think, I'm not going to say he's going to reign over the division forever. That's not exactly my point. But he's going to bring stability to this division. You had Sean O'Malley who had it for a little while. I think Murav's not going to have it for very long. The Aljamain had it for a little while as well. And we're kind of talking like how many more to, you know, really be the best bantamweight. I think Umar Nurmagomedov in 2025 is going to plant the seeds to potentially overtake TJ as your best bantamweight ever.

Wow. Well, first of all, I love that unequivocally without hesitation, asterisk or anything else, you just named TJ Dillashaw my favorite bantamweight of all i love that unequivocally without hesitation asterisk or anything else you just named tj dellishaw my favorite band of all time so there is debate about this if it's not him it's dom cruz correct yeah i mean you do have to mention the pd use for tj don't you or are we just going to assume everyone's on it i think that i think the this is the problem and i'm trying to you know i'm not trying to hector anyone i just want to be realistic about this b is the problem, and I'm not trying to hector anyone. I just want to be realistic about this, BC. The problem with the argument about TJ popping is that, obviously, he was guilty, and he admitted it. There's not really any ambiguity.

John had any number of test failures, John Jones. But he took his case to arbitration. Arbitration, for the most part, exonerated him. You can make of that what you will but the point i wanted to make is you do not have a measurement across greatness in mma that fully accounts for uniform anti-doping standards and in fact what i would argue is there are people that we hold up as icons in the game that largely were able to get around the testing uh were competed in an era where it wasn't really even relevant or you know some some something in

between where yeah you know you had tougher anti-doping standards in the case of tj by the way i think a lot of guys got through that too but obviously some did not and you're like oh he got caught right but the notion that like only the guys that got caught are the ones that you can remove from the conversation to me is at best misleading and kind of dishonest. And so I'm not saying that if you feel very strongly that you couldn't make a, you know, a clear case. You could even throw Anderson Silva in there as well, depending on, you know, how much you wanted to buy his Thai sex drug explanation for some of his popped PED tests. You're going to leave on guys on your list that almost guarantee have used at a bare minimum, never had to face a similar level of scrutiny. What does that mean for your list?

It means your list is probably inaccurate. No, I think I, I, I actually kind of agree with that sentiment right there. So your list is probably inaccurate no i think i i actually kind of agree with that sentiment right there so your pick is umar and dude i did a film deep dive on umar in the past few days and you know it's like i'm trying to find reasons why it's too much too soon who is he be elite behind besides san hagen even he and even in that impressive san hagen wing i felt like he could have done more more and pulled back and maybe was a little bit too safe,

but the totality of the film Luke, and then you see Omar come out as a minus three 45 betting favorite currently on draft Kings. It's hard not to go down that exact lane. So what's my bold prediction. Even with the arm injury, my bold prediction is everything you said but even a little bit more i think umar and amalga medoff is going to take over the bantamweight division as

you said and then really be in the running for fighter of the year at the end of the year and that's a bold claim when you add in the fact that he could go in there and beat marab but re-aggravate that injury be out a while but broken forearms tend to give you about a six month uh recovery period since the first fight of the year here this title bout is in january could he come back in the second half of that year can you imagine a scenario if umar defeats marab and then fights either o'malley or yan on his first title defense like you could be looking at your fighter of the year i think either way umar's here all those early rumors that hey guys for everything you like about islam or usman the the best guy

in this abdul manap extended family tree camp is still coming and his name is umar i kind of feel like it's an inevitability at this point right the coaching in the corner the the the tree behind him the iron sharpening iron. I mean, look, there could be a scenario in about a year's time where Habib and Javier Mendez have three UFC champions from the same, you know, family team there of what Abdulmanap put together in Dagestan if Usman Nurmagomedov comes over. That's a way bigger leap.

You know, we got to see what that looks like if he gets out of his deal. But, dude, I'm in. out of his deal but dude i'm in umar's for real i'm in i mean i think you got all you have to look at is marab's behavior since this fight got proposed and it lets you know that he understands what he's in for too doesn't it yeah i think so i think so i mean you're talking about guys i mean you can say whatever you want about the number of made of. None of their success is accidental. Absolutely nothing about it. They understand what their fighting style is supposed to be like. They understand how to win rounds. They understand how to prepare. For the most part,

they understand how to remain healthy. They just have the game on fucking lock. And you can like that fact or you can hate that fact, but you have to reckon with it one way or the other and i just think it's very very very foolish at least right now to be betting against anyone from that camp and especially with that last name with some some exceptions about long island luke you'll get a lot of fans that are probably watching this live going enough of the slobber on the dagestan cover a cupboard of hammers that you can pull out at any time what are we missing should should the mma community be giving marab more respect as we head into this considering our two predictions right now damn right you should my bold prediction marab remains champ not only that defends the belt three times in 2025 you're out of your

fucking mind he said he wants to fight like four or five times he said three times in 2025. you're out of your mind eddie wants to fight like four or five times he said three times in like three months that's not happening but let's be real that's definitely not happening we've got umar in january let's say he wins that then over the summer he gets someone and then quarter four it's totally possible all right he's gonna beat jan he's gonna beat o'malley he's gonna beat umar let's go well he already beat jan and thoroughly at that, and he beat O'Malley, I would say, mostly thoroughly at that one. But I think Umar's got his number. We'll see.

Quick note, Long Island Luke did look it up. Askar Askarov, the flyweight I didn't mention, has fought once since his UFC release. It was in November of 23 for ACA, in which Askarov then asked for his release from that deal due to health issues. Luke, before we continue down the Bantamweight road, we did not mention Mohamed Mokhaev at 125. Were we in error? Will you see him back in the octagon?

Will he be a factor in the title picture? I would love to see him back in the octagon. I thought his departure was... Listen, I'll repeat what I said when the UFC cut him because everyone was like, oh, he was a great ranked contender. I mean, there is one argument about his departure that I do feel like is very true, which was the UFC cutting that guy at a time when they just don't have many contenders

was probably not that smart, and I do agree with that. However, I also agree with the UFC probably realizing this dude needs some work. Like, he's got a lot of really good foundational skills but he he doesn't have that second order offense excuse me i'm dying over here he doesn't have that second order offense bc where he can really lean into damage he can really lean into like you know hardcore like what habib could. Habib had good control and then would just turn you into fucking ground chuck. I mean, that's just what he did. Mokaev doesn't have that second-order offense, at least not much of it,

and giving him an opportunity to work on those things, I don't think is a bad part. Nevertheless, if he's able to actually do some of that, really begin to turn some corners, I think bringing him back makes all the sense in the world. But until we see that development, do I think he's a threat to like a marab or an umar i do not i do not all right as we look at this division marab

the champion number one sean o'malley umar rank two despite just having that one big win over san hagen yan at three he's got a two fight win streak and looks renewed you got san hagen four figueredo five and then the usual suspects after that of Vera, Cejudo, Song Yedong, Rob Font, and Mario Batista to round it out. Luke, this division's always so deep, so dangerous, so everything. Is there anyone you're targeting at 135? I mean, is it Peyote or Jan? Do you think he's fully back here at age 31 and a threat to get back in a title fight this year?

I think he'll get back into a title fight. I think his rebound has been real. We've talked about his decline. His decline, how real was that? That, to me, was a little bit overstated. It was two split decisions. Now, granted, Murab, of any loss he had in that stretch, the Murab one was the best one for Murab,

but the worst one for Jan. It was clear. I mean, I think Murab attempted something like 50 takedowns in that fight, something fucking absurd. Okay, he lost that one cleanly. But the other two were pretty close. I thought he actually beat Sean O'Malley. There was just a burial of him that didn't really make a lot of sense.

And sure enough, here he is back pretty close to the top of the division again. Umar might have a date with him because that's a really, really, really cool fight if you actually think about it. But I don't know if he's got enough at this point to redo you know how it is it's it's hard as shit to win a title and then if you lose it it's really hard to get it back only the very special ones or people who work in weak divisions can do that and bantamweight ain't a weak division but do do I think Ayan will be back in big fights and have some big wins? 100% I think that. Do you think this division is losing its luster a bit, Luke,

from where it was as sort of the best division in the sport maybe over the last year and a half? I think all the divisions in general are kind of suffering from a star power decline. Don't you feel that way? I agree. There's some exceptions to that. Ilya had a big

year um i think islam's still on top in a big way um you know we'll see what happens with shafqat obviously he lost a little bit of luster in that ian gary fight for sure but you know something's possible with him but it just feels like there's a there was like a star class like the usmans and the again islam has kind of been on top for a while there. You know, Max Holloway lost and Volkanovski lost. It was a real tumbling of the apple cart from big names that the fans adored that also had some star power. And there hasn't quite been a firm replacement. Maybe we'll get some of that with Umar.

Maybe we'll get some of that with, who knows, if we'll talk about Featherweight in just a minute, maybe Diego Lopez will have a big year. And that will, I mean, he had a good year in 2024 folks are not even acknowledging that he had a great year in 2024 and so maybe that will continue but it does feel like we're at a little bit of a moment where there's a shuffling of the classes and as a consequence star power is kind of again poeton is doing great and you know ilia is doing great and whatever but am but am I, am I off? I kind of feel that way. No,

I think, I think you're right. I think you're right. Also, there was this window in Bantamweight where you had so many title ready looking guys who maybe hadn't fought for it yet. And you had those veterans that were still around in more viable than they are now.

Although Suhudo, maybe even Dom Cruz. So it's just changing and maybe it hasn't reloaded fast enough. Still super compelling at the top. I mean, you know, Jan is looking at a comeback. What do you make right now for the future of O'Malley and Sanhagen, two big name guys who are coming off of big name losses? I think those guys are probably, well,

I think O'Malley still has designs on getting his title back. I think that's probably unlikely, but. I remember that he was going to fight Murab if he wasn't hurt. That they were going to freeze out Umar and make him wait. Which probably got Umar to sign on the dotted line, right? I mean, people... If people really knew how the sausage was

made and how some of these fights get made, I think they'd have a very different impression of how things in this industry really work and what's what. but okay. Putting that aside, I don't want to dismiss O'Malley's possibility of getting the title back. I think that he's a very, I mean, he's limited in his wrestling,

but he's very dangerous on the feet. And that's always going to be something that you have to contend with. So I wouldn't want to put that out as something that we can just look past. What was the other name you mentioned you mentioned amalia cory sanhagen i lost umar i really believe in sanhagen's ability but every time he's had an opportunity to really cross that line against tj against um umar and you know he's a fucking tough guys right he's not fighting chumps out there it's just kind of come up short for him i i like cory a lot as a person i like him a lot as a fighter i love his mind i learned

something every time i have an opportunity to talk with him i think he's probably looking for super fights at this point i mean maybe that's a little premature but i don't know he can still win the title but he's good enough to be i think on his best day he's good enough to beat anybody sure but those guys are also good enough on their best days to beat him and it's just that's it dude it's a fucking tough division somebody as talented as cory sanhagen at 170 or 185 or whatever that dude's a champion like there's no doubt in my mind that fucking guy's a champion it's just at 135 holy shit man like i caught between a rock and a hard place every single time no doubt about it

speaking of this division one of the best fighters in the world i got questions about what 25 looks like for him and that's patchy mix who of course won the 1 million dollars in the bellator tournament went to pfl tour did not have a giant breakthrough year had a rematch with magomed magomed karamov i believe and uh it kind of struggled in that one after putting him to sleep during that one million dollar tournament so brutally but Luke it's interesting what does 25 look like there's a lot of questions will PFL open up a Bantamweight division as part of their one million dollar tournament that's my first question if not what do you do you just have patchy mix

Defender or fight for a fake Sort of a fake Bellator title Out in Dubai every couple months I mean What are patchy mix options What do we do I mean maybe he gets offered A fight at featherweight against a big name Because that's just what's available to him I would love to see this guy in the

UFC's Bantamweight division right now to See him add depth and add What I believe right now would be a legitimate upper echelon top five contender. But I don't know what is – I'm sorry, Long Island Luke correcting me. He fought Magomed Magomedov. Yeah, Magomed Karamov is a welterweight. Good call. My bad. Luke, what do we –

On this people question, this is – so later on we're going to do like three big questions and storylines. This is one of mine, so I'd like to table this part of the conversation if we can. Let's table patchy mix on that moving forward. And stat guy, Noseda, letting us know that Murab attempted 49 takedowns. Yeah, 49 fucking takedowns attempted. I mean, it's just raining on you. Noseda, quickly, in the UFC's bantamweight division, are there other up-and-comers you're looking at?

And Amon Zahabi, maybe Song Yedong putting it together for the first time or really making a run? Yeah, I mean, Song, no. I feel like he's got the Corey curse, we'll call it, I guess, where he kind of, as soon as he steps it up, falls back down. So who knows? Too old. Chido, probably too much mileage.

No. Chido doesn't have the requisite skill set either. I really think it's a four-man, five-man race up there. Merab, Umar, Piotr, Corey, Sean. I'm with you. I'm with you on that one. All right, let's go to a very exciting division. Of course, it is featherweight.

Ruled by Ilya Tuporia, who also rules Luke Thomas's heart, emotions. Also, we don't know if he's going to stay here amid rumors of potentially moving up in weight. So Featherweight's got a lot of fun names, all different ages and experience. Luke Thomas, when you look ahead to the year at 145, I mean, you still got Volk lingering. Max is supposed to go to lightweight, but will he? I don't even know if Tupori is going to defend the title again what are you looking forward to in this coming year? Well I don't know if I'm looking forward to what I'm about to say

but I do think it's headed our way and we should kind of get ready for it I think that Volkanovski is going to try to recapture the title and I think the UFC will probably award him something let me be clear about this, what I'm about to say does not count if what we're talking about is interim title fights. I haven't quite thought that through.

But what I will say is he's probably going to try to recapture the full-on weight class title and will fail. He will not get it. And I don't know what that will do for the remainder of his career, whether he will choose to keep fighting, move up, take super fights, whatever. I don't know. But I think that my prediction for Featherweight 2024 is Volk's going to try and recapture that title,

and it's not going to work. And then we have to kind of deal with the fallout from there. I mean, if he goes in there a second time against Teporia, and let's say he gets stopped, it's hard to really know what would be left for him. But what if Teporia is going to leave this division? What if Volk gets in against a vacant title opportunity against a Diego Lopez, against a Movsar Evloev?

Does that alter, alter bridge, Luke, the new creed? Does that alter what you just said about your bold prediction? I mean, I guess with Evloev, I would maybe think twice about it. But if Diego Lopez is the opponent like volk is obviously cleaner as a fighter in so many ways relative to diego but diego's ability to just find random openings in every single phase and seemingly every distance in a fight more to that point um dynamite finishing instincts on top of it uh i think I think prime Volk beats him no problem I just don't think that's what we got anymore and he's never had a great chin although he's had obviously

amazing amazing recuperative abilities I don't think it's going to be enough against a guy like Diego I mean it's so weird right and I hate this I hate I've seen so many times in LBC and this gets back to the kind of point you made previously where it's like people sometimes okay so we have to be very careful about this sometimes fighters have graduated declines and there's a number of factors that go into that how many injuries they had kind of damage they took what kind of fights they're taking so you can get like a Jim Miller who's at a very graduated decline but you know he's very careful about the kind of fights he takes because he takes them you know rec uh in concert with the kind of stage of the career he's in so they're all pretty winnable in that sense he's not like title or

nothing you know what i mean um but one desperately sad fact of fight sports it's true in boxing sometimes too bc and i'm sure you can recall a couple of examples there are times and it's not it's not rare where guys can become pound for pound guys in the list and champions and then they hit a rough patch and they just never ever recover it just doesn't work for them they can't they cannot get it back let's not say they don't ever win again but they don't have a graduated decline they have a precipitous one that they're kind of able to hang on to in points but um i just fear that the damage that volk took and the nature of the youth movement that's coming up in that division i don't know that he has the ingredients anymore to reclaim gold even in the absence of ilia but especially if ilia is there i think it's pretty hopeless i'm with you on that one. And by the way, Volkanovski will turn 37 in September of next year.

Unless you're a Brazilian, Luke, I think the 35 rule does push you off a sharp cliff. Although Bilal Muhammad beat the 35 rule for champions, Rocky Pennington did too, Luke. Yeah, up past 170, not 155 and below. I'm with you on that. I mean, Rocky's 135, but that's like the equivalent of like 185 over in that women's division. Before I share my bold prediction for Bantamweight, Luke, Pete Talbot should have been mentioned in the Bantamweight discussion,

wasn't it? Wasn't that true? I think he's really interesting, but it's still very early with him. Okay. So let's see. He looks dynamite, but he hasn't fought anybody really. Okay. So let's see. He looks, he looks dynamite, but you know, he hasn't fought anybody really great yet. So let's see. All right. Let's stay at featherweight here. I'm going to, this is probably my boldest one because certain things would have

to happen to really open this door for it. But how about Patricio Pitbull at age 37, either fighting out or exiting out in some form of his pfl tour deal he's been the most vocal of these ex-bellator champions and big names who can't seem to get fights that interest them or fights at all for that matter what about him coming in making his ufc debut and doing so in a title fight to close the year luke how insane is that are you giving it like a five percent chance i don't think that's that crazy i just the problem is you're asking for a degree of competency from PFL. And I don't know if they have that. I mean that genuinely.

I don't know if they have that. Would you think they'd try to freeze him out as much as possible in terms of not give offering him fights in succession so he can figure out where he's at in his career at this age? I I'll say this. I don't think they really have a good idea about what to do with him. Okay. And that's why they are where they are. They don't really,

I mean, you know, there's a couple of things they can do with him, but I don't think they like any of them. It doesn't really fit their plans. Dude, the Bellator guys didn't fit their plans very well. I mean,

it's just, they, they've got problems. They've got, well, here's the deal. We saw a change right now that UFC and, and rise and seem to be working together in some ways.

I mean, you see people talking about rise and almost becoming a feeder league. Now for UFC, you saw Sean O'Malley at the week, New Year's Eve cards representing the UFC. And you saw Kai Asakura go from free agent signing to title opportunity in his first fight. Now that was more about,

Hey, that champion had already sort of cleaned out the division. But I guess I'm building this on the idea, what if Teporius stays at featherweight? What if Pitbull can come in at the right time as a sexy free agent? I want to add in that when Dana was asked about him at the most recent postcard press conferences, he keeps saying, oh yeah, Pitbull's a badass. I love him. So do you think

that if the opening was there that Dana would give him the same respect he gave Kai Asakura coming in and giving him a title shot even though they're much different ages I could see that happening but I think if they fed Pitbull at this stage to Ilya I think Ilya would demolish him potentially but I don't know if Ilya is still going to be there. I mean, so let's talk about the rest of this UFC division, Luke. That's our real question right now. Tupuria's status affects a lot of this, but in terms of people that are sort of due,

possibly Volkanovski, your number one contender, could get a vacant or the next title shot, no doubt. You've got Max Holloway at number two, but we don't really know what's going on. He seems to be lightweight. Diego Lopez at three and Mozart Evloev at four are your most deserving of this next generation so do they both get title shots this year do they have to fight each other to maybe produce Teporia's second title fight if he ends up fighting Volkanovski or could you see him maybe to pour you a beat Volkanovski and then exit and go full-time up to 55 I think to pour you is going to try and get that Charles Olivera fight and then go back down

in the year later to fight whoever the rightful guy is at that point that's kind of my sense of things okay do you are you of the belief that they're gonna that they're gonna make Evlo have weight because of his style that they're just gonna make Evlo have weight because of his style? That they're just going to keep making him? Yeah. I mean, I've seen the John Fitch movie before. That's 1 billion percent. They put his last fucking fight, which was a good one, on the prelims. It's the John Fitch movie over and over again. If you can keep winning, they'll eventually reward it, but they're going to put as many delays and obstacles in there as they can.

They don't like that. They don't want it. It's valuable to have in certain ways, but it's not what they prioritize that's going to be a challenge for him, for sure. All right, I want to tell you the featherweight I'm targeting the most to have a big year outside of my prediction on Pitbull, which is a little bit of a Hail Mary, but I'd love to see it. You got that AIDS that I got. I'd love to see Pitbull get his chance,

even though that window is going to be even smaller than Chandler's to come in and be a part of big fights. Arnold Allen is the friend of the program. It's the guy I'm targeting. Look, he went 2-0 under the radar this past year. He's in the back half of the top 10 still. He's right at the peak of his physical prime there. I believe he's 30, 31 years old.

He could easily, in my opinion, go 2-0 this year, just short of that title level. And we could be heading into 26 with him as the number one contender. He's been so close before. I think both the loss to Holloway and the loss to Evloev, it just felt like if he just did a little bit more and it felt like he could have, maybe he gets the nod and the edge there. Are you seeing an Arnold Allen Allen eventually finally getting a title shot or maybe lingering in the middle of the pack for most of this calendar year I think he might get a title shot especially if Teporia is really gone which again there's a big x factor here you're right he was 2-0 he has been this close so many times he's got a very defensively sound skill set I think he's got a little bit of a slow starter

but he's got a lot of ability um he's been again he's been neck and neck with guys who are all-time greats he might be due he might be due this year again it's going to have to the calendar and matchups and blah blah blah but he's got the potential you know he's got the potential to fight for a title and and and he's got the ability to perform well whether all those factors will line up in his favor we shall see let me tell you the four men movsar evloev has beaten over the last two years dan eagay diego lopez arnold allen al germain sterling it's insane lord luke I know the John Fitch comparison, but he's got a win over the other guy who's red hot, Diego Lopez. Do you believe that

because Diego is 5-0 since the loss to Evloev that it wouldn't be a bad idea to see them rematch in a number one contender opportunity? I'd rather see Diego fight for a title first than running that one back. Unfinished business though. He lost to that man. You cango fight for a title first than running that one back unfinished business

though he lost you can finish it for a title all right all right that is that is not a bad idea that's somewhat interesting long island look what are we missing here at featherweight what are you looking out for this year uh i think ilia is going to move up to lightweight so that's where i went with my prediction and i do have volk reclaiming the title i don't know if he'll end 2025 with the title but i do think he'll win it back excuse me against diego or mavsar i do think if ilia stays at 45 you got to do the volk rematch and then you do the diego mavsar rematch for number one contender why do we have to do the valk rematch why is well i mean you can just say he's a legend former pound for pound king but he sort of got extra opportunities twice against Islam right running back that rematch on short notice yeah but he did them favors in both of

those fights he also was coming off four months span of getting knocked out twice in a row he's got a year off now year plus because he's not even booked yet so i feel like you gotta you gotta do him right give him a full camp get him in there see what he can do all right all right let's keep it going here we'll go up to lightweight 155 pounds and as we look at it your best fighter in the world islam mahachev just a few weeks out will defend against sarukian in the rematch and don't forget 14 fight win streak for Islam in the UFC too shy of Anderson Silva's record Luke Thomas when you look at this division it is in the midst of phasing out the action heroes of old and there does seem to be a small handful of guys who could have next in the future even

between that 10 to 15 ranking with guys like Benoit Saint-Denis, Paddy Pimblitt there's guys that are lingering. Joel Alvarez at 15. What are you looking for as you look ahead here at lightweight? Much like my grape drink here in my Voltrex, you know, drink, whatever the fuck this is called.

The guy I'm about to mention is in, is already in the mix in terms of his name. But I think when the year is over, I don't think he's going to get a title shot right away because of some factors we'll discuss here in just a second, BC. But I think the year is going to end and your number one contender at lightweight is going to be Ilya Teporia. I think that that is a, you know, whether it's Charles Oliveira or somebody else, I think by the time we're having this conversation in one year's time, Teporia will have secured at least one win up there against a big name that leaves not only no doubt that he should be fighting for a title at 155, but could potentially win it.

Now, the complicating factor, of course, BC, is are we really going to have Islam fight another featherweight, essentially, you know, in a pound-for-pound fight? He already fought two of them. By the way, Ilya just won at 45. Like, what's going to happen there? Again, it's that X factor there that's really hard to know. But my prediction is he's going to get one big 155 fight this year he's going to dominate it and that's going to create appetite enthusiasm and an opening for him in 2026 to fight for the title all right let's see if that happens right there um interesting i'll get to my welterweight here's the thing very quickly bc here's the thing we

keep talking about who's the next guy you're like is it gamrot well he hasn't really improved that much is it fazeev he's dangerous but he's kind of hit some walls as well. Toporia, I don't know if he's better than all of those guys, but I think with one big win can just so easily leapfrog them that it won't even really matter, if that makes sense. Look, my prediction for this division in 25 is Paddy Pimblitt's going to have a year. I still don't know if he is truly of the ilk,

and when he does finally get his opportunity can he climb that mountain and become a champion there's still too many questions even though he's trending in a better direction of late don't forget his submission of the year contender against king green and if he's headed toward a money moicano test fight i think it's still one that he can win but what if he goes into the top 10 there over the second half of the year and scores a big win over a still highly ranked aging name in what we would look at as a big step up for him? Luke, my bold prediction is that Pimblitt ends the year in the top five at 155.

And really, we start setting up what's the site, what's the pay-per-view, what's the venue where he fights for a world title. And look, he came on the scene as sort of a star ready to go, just unwrap him, throw him out there, put Molly meatball on his shoulders, give him a weird barstool sponsorship. And I know that there's been some hiccups and setbacks, but if he goes in there with the same mentality that he did against King green, I think he beats Moicano and there's enough aging names, like I mentioned, where it could just line up perfectly,

that he could legitimately earn his way into the top, and his name will certainly help him get that push. But because this division is not reloading fast enough, I think you might see a window for Patty to close this year as critically high in terms of how we look at him ranking-wise as maybe he'll ever be in his career. I think this is a phenomenal prediction. I've i've been down on his development for well fuck most of his ufc run but he looked really good against bobby green i think when he's in shape which is a problem for

him but when he is in shape he looked he looked chiseled out of fucking stone in that fight against bobby and if if they're, that they're going to match him up with, or if the rumors are right, that they're going to match him up with Michael Chandler in the new year, that's a winnable fight for Patty and the kind that could really launch his name. BC, I think of all the predictions you have, and I took a glance at some of them. This one to me seems like the best one you've got. I it's surprising. If you had talked to us two years ago, it'd be like Patty Pimble at top five at lightweight no fucking chance but MMA is funny he has he hasn't been exponential you would agree right it's not been exponential improvement but it has been steady some of these other names that

we thought were going to take over just didn't and now look where we are he's on the cusp of potentially again we think getting a Chandler fight which I think at this stage is very winnable for him yes I I think this is a good prediction by you thank you so much and I think Luke it is time as much as I love these aging action heroes which still make up the top 10 of this division it is time from a ranking standpoint for these guys to phase out and for that next level of Patty Moicano Alvarezarez uh bsd who's not done dude bsd is not done he's got to put that rough stretch behind him for sure but uh he's got to tighten up stuff he's just he's just all he's he's it's not quite the same but he reminds me of yeary at 155 where he's just offense you know yes and you can go pretty far with that but then when you start

fighting the really good guys that's when the problems emerge but he's young enough and athletic enough where i think he can tighten some of that up it's just time in my opinion for the gaichis porius chandlers to fight consistently these next generation guys and let's see what we got no we've seen some of those you know iterations gaichi versus fazeev uh long i don't look you got anything bold here to say about 55 probably not that bold and you kind of just said it yourself, PC, but my prediction was that out of the top 10, and you could probably say this about any division, out of the top 10, at least five of those guys

are not going to be in the top 10 anymore. Hooking the Poiriers, the Hookers, Chandlers, Darius. Well, Hooker, dude, that went over Gamrot. Okay, okay, okay. I understand that the larger picture is not what the gamron fight represents but he's fucking crafty dude he found a way to put himself back in the mix and that we none of us really saw coming everyone i just named is crafty though and could obviously still be here i'm just saying i think these are the most likely names that

they put against an uh joel alvarez or something and they come up now you swap them out joel alvarez is going to have a real big year yeah indeed all right let's go to welterweight here 170 pounds we seem to be all set up finally for the breakthrough title fight opportunity for shavkat rachman off after that close win over ian gary with balal muhammad's injury so we know from a big picture standpoint that's what we're looking at. But Luke, I'll go first here. My bold prediction is this, that your bold prediction for lightweight probably makes sense, which is Ilya Teporia moving up and becoming a top contender.

Why? Because I firmly believe if Islam Makhachev defeats Arman Sarukian in just a few weeks in the rematch, even though it's not a guarantee, that if you look at where he's at, 33 years old, the pound-for-pound best in the sport, Usman Nurmagomedov eventually is going to come on that ship and come over here and compete for that title, in my opinion, but he's got to get through Paul Hughes first. I think my bold prediction is this. Islam Mahachev moves up because he will have no one left to fight at 155

after that Saryukian rematch. Even though it would only be his fourth title defense, it would seem to be a cleaning out of the division, especially if you count the two wins over Volkanovski moving up. This division's aging, and it's time. My prediction is Mahachev goes from that aging division to welterweight. And, Luke, I could see a scenario where he closes the year fighting Shavkat for the championship,

and it would be a hellaciously great fight on paper but I think it's one that the best fighter in the world needs to be taken seriously from an odd standpoint that he can win that my prediction is Mahachev does whether he goes through Shavkat or Bilal he closes the year as a two-division champion leaves the title at 55 behind and continues moving forward for as long as he's going to stay here that's i don't think that's a bad prediction man this one is this one is tough because you know he wants to go to 170 right so that's on the table i think he's the pound for pound best guy in the sport i'm not even sure where they rank him anymore in ufc but certainly he's he's in that at or near that position and you would think if he gets another win, you know, why wouldn't they do that?

So I'll say this, BC. I think that prediction only comes true if Bilal Muhammad retains the title. Oh, no, wait, because he won't fight Bilal. He would only fight Shavkat. Well, he would fight Bilal if Bilal beats Shavkat. You think he would fight Bilal? Aren't they teammates? I don't know how deep their brotherhood is, Well, he would fight Bilal if Bilal beats Shavka. You think he would fight Bilal? Aren't they teammates?

I don't know how deep their brotherhood is, but they are teammates. They have the same manager. I don't think they're teammates. Okay, correct me if I'm wrong on this. And again, the viewers can correct me along the way, Luke. I believe that I have heard Bilal say that as long as Islam is the champ, there's no way that they're going to fight. I can't confirm or deny the quote but i know that like habib has been in balal's corner the last two camps and stuff he's

like part of that team all right dude dude i mean and and the reality is i think balal balal's team in chicago is maybe the most underrated team in mma those guys are amazing but i also think that being with habib has helped – I mean, both of them have helped him be the champion that he has become. But I think if Shafqat wins, then that is where it gets really interesting. That is a fair point I need to take seriously. And by the way, Bilal's got a shot here. I mean, we don't know if Shafqat's superhuman anymore.

We don't know. We don't know. This could be a good fight. Well, then let me get to my welterweight prediction because this is what I still believe. i've gone through a range of interpretations the one i had in real time the one i had a couple days after and now the one i'm in today and so like you know if it feels like i might have an inconsistent position probably because it has been inconsistent right i'm trying to deal with the information and process it as we get it but here's what i basically believe i believe that bilal is a very good fighter. Again, an elite one.

He's a champion at 170 and very underrated and underappreciated. But I think that the fight against Gary was, I'm not going to say flukish. I don't think that's quite right. But I think Shavkat is going to have a much better performance against Bilal. I think he's going to win that title. And I think it is going to have a much better performance against Bilal I think

he's going to win that title and I think it's going to be a bit of a moment for us to reflect on what happened in the Gary fight as again aberrant seems a little bit strong because I do think that there is a clear reality that Rachmanov is disdainful of defense in both the grappling and the stand-up department I do think that is real and that could cost him both in his next fight and any potential one so long as he employs that attitude nevertheless I think he has been hobbled by injury in more ways than we understand and some of that will go away when you see him against Muhammad. Well, then that could make my prediction very true in the end.

I mean, look, would you, I said it, that Umar is a hardcore wet dream. I can't wait to see that fight, even with the wider than expected odds or expected from me. How much does the idea of Mahachev potentially against Shavkat, even though we are definitely projecting things that need to happen to get there. How much would that just put you in a room that was suddenly covered in white? Be a lot of ejaculating. It would be one. I mean, I'm not big on these pound for pound fights. Not that I don't think that there are good ideas in theory.

It's just none of the matchups really excite me. Couple of couple of challenges to that. I think, you know, i would take ilia versus islam i think ilia has work to do but we've talked about this that'd be a good fight i think uh ddp versus uh poet on a 205 not a 185 but at 205 i think that could be interesting and there might be some other ones but those are the two ones that stand out to me the rest of them i could take or leave and you know again you could do poeton versus tom aspinall bc and that's that'd be big but i think tom aspinall just kind of washes them to be honest with you shavkat and excuse me shavkat and islam is an interesting one that is an interesting one because i definitely believe that Islam is more skilled and certainly defensively much better no I mean just no question about it uh but the size difference is real and I just wonder what that would mean

for him um especially against a guy who you know struggled I think is a strong word but had some challenges in the first fight against a 145 guy so yeah i would be all in favor of seeing a fight like that okay quickly does the islam turn against dustin where poirier actioned his way back into that fight does that give you any pause that at 33 islam might not still be the palm for pawn superhero king or is that just is that just a tough ass fight against a tough ass out right yeah i mean listen is dustin poirier now or at any point the best lightweight in the world no but you can't think of it quite like that right you have to think of it like moment to moment round to round how

skilled is he and of course there are plenty of deficiencies in his skill set like there is for anybody. But dude, he's experienced as hell. He's as tough as they absolutely come. He has faced every kind of fighter that 145 and 155 basically in terms of style could throw at him. He has been there across multiple generations of fighters. He's got dynamite power, which is the last thing to go. Yeah, dude, that guy's going to be fucking tough. He's going to be fucking tough.

And maybe somebody like Islam can beat him, and he did. But the idea that you're just going to walk through a guy like that, even when you're pound for pound great, seems to me foolish, foolish. This is not 205 where you're beating you know guys who just pledge to not engage in certain parts of the game with you and again i like laurantree i just think that's emblematic of the state of 205 dude that's you don't get those luxuries if you're islam makachev you don't get shit like that you get guys who are dogs who are coming to take your head off whatever way they can find the fact that islam put him away to me says a lot more than the fact

that Poirier pushed him a little bit in moments of that fight for sure. Luke, I don't disagree with what you said right there, and I love Shavkat, but I'm here to tell you that I would back Islam, even if Islam was the betting underdog. Wow, really? I would back him in that fight. He doesn't have mistakes. His entire game is so tightened up and ratchet.

And I wonder if the move up in weight would give him, before he gets too old, a window where he could weaponize his wrestling even more in this division. I don't know, Luke. Long Island Luke, break the tie. Shavkat versus Islam at 170. Who wins? It doesn't matter because Bilal beats Shavkat

and remains champion at the end of 2025 that's my opinion now uh i'd have to go islam probably at 170 wow dude the roses uh the bloom is off the rose whatever the fucking expression is at this point i sound like tito ortiz um people have lost confidence in shop cop very interesting it is it is i just have so much confidence in islam and by the way long island luke producing quotes from from maha or sorry from muhammad balal who said yes 100 i would never fight islam quick question on the second generation here at welterweight below the title picture in terms of the young guys who are looking to parachute in i'm talking about number four ranked jack della maddalena number five sean brady number six joaquin Buckley. Ian Gary at seven. I also want to consider Michael Morales at 12 and Carlos Pratish at 13. That's a group of about five or six able-bodied, largely exciting and aggressive fighters who want to get in this title picture. Who of that group are you most confident about is going to really make those moves and crash the party here?

Process I think is exciting, but untested against, you know, really good guys. But that doesn't mean he can't win. I'm just saying we don't know enough about that's all I'm saying there. I'd say, and Brady, you know, doesn't have like, you know, huge power in the standup, but I mean, bro, if Ian Gary can take your back, Sean Brady is going to have his way with you.

If what Gary showed against Shofcott is true and that my interpretation that it's a bit misleading is wrong, Sean Brady is going to feast on that guy. I'd say it's a tie in terms of my enthusiasm about what you're talking about between Sean Brady and Jack Dela. Dude, if Jack Dela is healthy, he's going to, he's going to get to the top of this division.

I think that's right. I think, I mean, I think Sean Brady will too, actually. I, I, you know, Sean Brady, I don't know if you saw this at CFFC, he did the grappling event and then afterwards called for a fight with Leon Edwards I don't know if he's going to get it but think about that for a second Sean Brady versus Leon Edwards I Sean Brady aggressive on takedowns pushing you up against the fence trying to find his way to the back Ballal did that that's a tough fight for Leon so it's a tough fight for Sean, too, obviously. It's a two-way difficulty, but I think those guys are the future. You mentioned Leon Edwards, and I didn't mention him in talking about this division. He was just palm-for-palm top five, and then he had a bad fight with Bilal. I mean, are we done?

Yeah, but then he made a bunch of excuses afterwards, too. It was really a bad look. Do we lump him in that Usman Covington older generation of lingering welterweight names or is he still viable I love me some rock I think he can still beat somebody good I don't think he's getting this title back yeah I know I can't disagree with that until I see him again but he's younger he's older than we realize right what would you guess he is I think he's 34 how old is Leon Edwards let me let me see here he's 33 right think he's 34. How old is Leon Edwards? Let me see here.

He's 33 right now. He will be 34 in August. He's got some time. He's got some time. For sure. For sure. All right, let's keep it going up to middleweight, which I thought was sort of the sexiest division this calendar year

at the title level with the big fights that could have been made, that were made, that we're still talking about, especially considering Hamzza Chemaev is knocking on that door he won't get the next title shot that will be when Sean Strickland goes to Australia for the rematch with DDP but what a year for Drikus Duplicy finishing third in most people's fighter of the year ballot Luke when you look at this division dude they got some star power here what's your boldest take for the new year i think that i think the guy i'm about to say will compete throughout the year i don't think it's you know uh one loss

and done that's not really what i'm saying i think he'll compete throughout the year but i would be very surprised if is he i'm very surprised a strong word i would be somewhat surprised somewhat surprised if is he is still fighting in 2026. i think he might retire after one more year of competition i mean again i've said it before right he's at worst the second best middleweight of all time there's simply no dispute about that he has a much better record than weidman a much better record than rockhold you name it the only one he can't beat is silva i don't know they fought know he fought a diminished Silva but you get the idea um so now he's back on fight nights now granted it's a big fight night because it's the one in Saudi Arabia if memory serves right so that's the one that the kingdom

pays for like a usually an unusually good fight night and I think they're getting one against Naser Dean Imavov you know that's a guy or quality of guy who's not bad by any stretch of the imagination but that's a guy I feel like in his prime he would have smoked and i feel like we're past that so i still think he's a good a very good fighter i you know i think he can beat guys but if he were to suffer maybe not in this one but in a subsequent fight a devastating knockout loss and you're competing on fight nights and you're not in pay-per-view anymore and your legacy is such a that's a relevant concern is fully secured. I mean, there's not even anybody who is even close to having

what he has other than Anderson Silva. I don't understand what the point would be. He's had a long combat sports career. He's had a gazillion boxing fights. He's had a gazillion kickboxing fights. I think well over 100 between them. And then you throw in MMA, I think, or maybe it's all three, but it puts him over 100 pro combat sports fights.

And if you're at the point now where you're past your prime, it's dangerous, you're not fighting for big money anymore because you're not getting the pay-per-view points. Izzy is many things. One of them is smart and usually, I think, understands the nature of his own career and where he is in it at times better than some of us so I could be totally wrong about this and I'm not wishing difficulty upon him it would be a

great joy to me for if he went undefeated this year or something I'd be like well shit I'm glad my prediction is wrong because this is fucking great but I just have a feeling that like you know he's slowing down I think that's I don't think that's unfair to say uh yeah he's had 28 mma fights 80 kickboxing fights and six boxing fights these are pro fights obviously so he has 114 fights in total bc if things start going south this year what would be the point in continuing you've made the most amount of money you're gonna make you've secured your legacy uh you're not on the big shows anymore again assuming that you know my sense of things continues i you know what's the incentive structure in place at that point you

know i'm with you i i can only add to this when we get to light heavyweight in a second spoiler alert but i'm with you on there look my bold take at middleweight is that bone nickel will suffer a loss this year his first of his career and i don't think that necessarily means he's derailed as a prospect, found out to be a fraud. I don't like the speed of how he's been matched. I think he's, you know, he's had so much time off between big sort of showcase opportunities, but he's coming off that performance against Paul Craig.

That was just, there were like too much to just sniff out there that things aren't maybe what we thought they were. And it's like, it was a little bit overblown, you know, him not bringing the fight to the ground. He's still controlled and one on his feet, but it felt like there was a disconnect in the post-fight interview and the press conference afterward about where nickel actually is and about why that

was a dangerous strategy to sort of try to point box from the outside in a fight that really didn't have a lot of action that could have been scored against him and could have been a big blow to his rise. I think that his striking game is certainly not where it needs to be to equal that of the ground game. And I think he's going to find that out. He's going to obviously have to match himself higher now against now he fought a veteran who's on the way out against Craig. It's time. We got to see what he's made of. And I think when we do see it, I think he's going to lose a competitive fight. It's not at the end of the, it's not going to kill him. I still argue that him fighting that way against Craig doesn't necessarily have to be a long-term disaster. It could actually help him to get the three rounds of experience on that level on a card that big. and do what Hamzat did to Whitaker and did to whom I think of?

Who did Hamzat run through? Oh, I'm thinking of what DDP did to Whitaker. It's not going to be like what Hamzat did to Whitaker, dude. I think Bo's further out from that. He's still an interesting prospect, but I don't see how you can not be a little bit down on him based on the lack of stepping up and shining over the past two years and showing us. I will say that, uh, the best criticism, I think it's one we made too, but I

saw others say it about Bo was like, he, I thought some of the criticism he faced in the Paul Craig fight, some was unfair. And, and this is what I mean. I thought that people missed one key aspect of it, which is Bo has not had a lot of in cage time and getting three rounds against a, you know, a limited, but quality fighter is a important, be quite helpful and see, he did get to work on his striking. Now his striking was shown to be quite limited as a result, but nevertheless, he got 15 minutes to work on it. I think people really underestimate the value of that in getting him to the next place that he wants to be.

Even if you can say, well, I've left a lot to be desired. I really feel like people missed the boat on that one. However, however, the strongest criticism is the one that I think you and I made at the time and I saw again I saw others say which is okay fair enough that there is value in what he achieved there in terms of what it could do for him not in terms of what it showcased but in terms of what it can do for him and you know as a fighter but he should have been able to take Craig down pass his fucking guard or take his back or, you know, some kind of turtle position and just absolutely pound him out.

It's like, do you think Habib, you know, or Hamzat since it's the same weight class, do you think Hamzat would have like, Oh, I'm going to avoid the guard of Paul Craig because he has a good guard. He did. He would have run right through that shit. Now, of course, Hamzat has good power and can strike on the feet too. We've seen that. I'm just saying if he chose to, does anybody think that Hamzat would have been the least bit afraid of engaging on the ground

with Paul Craig? Not even a little bit. Zero, none. That wouldn't even occur to him. And to me, it's like I think an opportunity was missed. If you wanted two rounds to go in there and strike with the guy that's fine that third round you should have taken him down and just blown right through him if that's really what the skill set is that you have and

the fact that he didn't do that i think tells me that there are some developmental issues at play i fully fully agree with that uh let's talk quickly about the title picture there's three guys in this title picture so i want to get long island luke's take you've got the champion ddp he's going to be rematching sean strickland and you've got the runaway freight train that is hamzat chamayev who closes this year as champion though cita all right who closes if they give hamzat the title shot because i'm if he also he's rumored to move up to 20. Now we don't know what the deal is with that. You can scoff while you want. It might happen.

Uh, I, my bold prediction is that this title will change hands more than once this year. I can see a world where Strickland wins the rematch against DDP and then they make, and then Izzy beats him off and then they do Izzy versus Strickland. Wow. And then Izzy wins the belt again. And then Izzy loses to hamzat or something like that i could see it it could happen there's a timeline there is a timeline uh luke thomas are we not putting enough respect on ddp even with hamzat in the distance even with strickland who we barely beat the first time ddp's on a run right now could he end this year's

champion i think he could i think he could uh i tend to think it will be tramaya who ends the year's champion but i think dude ddp is the king of people being like oh he can't win and then he just fucking wins you know what i mean how many times have we been like oh he doesn't have skills to beat this guy he doesn't have the ability to beat this guy he's never fought a guy like this and then every time he just sort of finds a fucking way it's like winners you know i hate i hate these are there's winners and there's losers but it's true there's a certain kind of person in competitive sports who manufactures opportunity by just being relentless

and he's one of those guys and um he'd also well that's not quite true um i won't say that second part but i think between the physicality, the durability, and then, you know, RoboTroll Soldich has something to say about that, but in general, the durability and in general, the physicality, and, you know, Hamzat is a bull in a china shop, but he makes mistakes too.

I could see, I think it will either, I'll say this, I think it will either be Hamzat or DDP. I don't think anyone else is really in close contention. Yeah think it's going to be hamza and i can't wait to see that fight but strickland maybe the strickland may take it back from i don't think strickland will but he may you know i mean it's in play that he takes it back you got long island luke scenario i think they've got to put chamayev in the title fight as fast as possible i'm still shocked he wasn't in this one in australia it's not a travel issue i don't get it but we'll see maybe abu dhabi was like we need him in october that's what we do we pay you a lot of money give us what we want we want him to win the title then and there maybe

we'll see what happens uh welterweight was so deep that i can't wait from the buckley's morales this protest just to all fight each other gary and we'll find out it's not as deep at middleweight luke but with just the same i want to see if fluffy Hernandez Kyle Barajo I want to see some of these guys if they're ready to get that second generation close to competing now because it is time to get those guys ready and find out who's coming on at middleweight but uh Joe Pfeiffer in that mix Bo Nickel of course it will be fun to see how it plays out let's go over to light heavyweight luke thomas what do you got for me in 25 it's been poet on for a while now since gaining the belt from um adesanya i'm sorry losing the belt from adesanya at middleweight going up to light heavyweight and we know the run he's on in the

year he had last year he could get in and get in a parachute and end up at heavyweight at any point who knows just like some chamaya fight happen. But what are you looking for, which is most likely to happen in this new year? I think before the year is up, there's a very good chance he just drops the belt and for a final act moves to heavyweight. Especially since we'll talk about the heavyweight predictions. I think that, you know, one way or the other,

let's put it that way, one way or the other, both Aspinall and Jones want a fight with him. There's too much interest in that for that to not happen. And how old is Poiton? I think he'll be 38 this year. Yeah, in July, he'll be 38. He'll be 38 in July, which is not ancient, but I think it's good for heavyweight.

And folks have said, what about a fight versus gone? I think poiton can win that fight you know what i mean and there's some volkov too like poiton versus volkov is interesting it's not to say he couldn't stay at 205 and keep winning but i think there's a lot of incentive for him both in terms of a big marquee fight aspinall or jones or whatever and then beyond that very winnable fights for him up there as he ages I tend to think that just fucking around at 205 I'm not going to say it's a waste of his time that seems a little strong but you've already beaten

if you beat Magomed on Kalaev and I tend to think there's a good chance he will BC what's the big fight at 205 you want to see if he just washes on Kalaev you could say a Hill rematch but Hill's got work against Yuri. Yuri's already lost twice to poet. You see what I mean?

Like I can answer your question with my bold prediction. If you want, let's hear it. I'm not saying that, like, I'm going to wave the flag and say, this has to happen. It needs to happen,

but here's my thing. Yes. They could shove in against Pereira, uh, to Maya. And it's such a sexy star power matchup that our complaining would stop somewhat soon and we just get into that matchup and yes I agree that inevitably he's heading to heavyweight but I don't think it'll happen until 26 and I think

he'll end up fighting Ankalayev first and if Adesanya beats Imavov even though that's at middleweight Luke I could see a scenario that UFC looks at the super fights available and says, we could get one more for the light heavyweight title if we do a Poetan versus Adesanya trilogy. And I think Alex knocks him out in their third fight. And your prediction comes true that Adesanya ends this year retiring. But could you see that scenario happening if Adesanya redeems himself against Imovov

in a close but strong win? And if Poiton goes through Ankalayev, that we could cash that lottery ticket once more? That's an interesting one. I get the sense that if you're Izzy, you feel like one of the first three fights, you should have won one of them. Now, obviously, he got knocked out in, what was it,

the second kickboxing fight, so that wouldn't count. But I think he believes he rightfully should have won their first one, and I think he also believes that the stoppage came a little early in the first MMA fight, and then you finally get a fourth chance and you viciously KO him. I think if you're Izzy, you probably are at a point where you're like i don't have much more to gain from this yeah yeah like marquez after knocking out pacquiao on the fourth fight we were like fifth fight anybody and marquez marquez was like no not

happening this is like i won the rivalry yeah i mean it's different i don't think per up i don't think out of sign it could act like that posture that he won the rivalry but maybe he's just realizing that i don't know but if but if he beats him above it's like what is next for him he just fought for the middleweight title and lost like what would he be hanging around for just celebrity fun fights this is kind of a celebrity fun title fight that has history i mean i think he's i think he's looking to see if there's a chance that he can maybe leapfrog hamzat in the event that he beats imavov and then you know again something happens between if they do that at middleweight then chamayev's coming up to light heavyweight

fighting for the title because what else would you be doing for him with it yeah that's true uh again i think it's shemayev should get the winner no matter what but you know it'll be interesting but this is what I mean. I mean, they're giving Izzy to younger... In the case of Yvonne Malvov, I'm not going to say damaged goods, but somewhat known of a quantity. Yeah.

It seems like, I think, cashing out Izzy is too strong a word, but transitioning him, I think, away from the title picture is sort of in play here. You know, you could argue that in the top 10 or maybe even 15 of this division, the only guy we still don't know about that's rising is Carlos Olberg. Everybody else has been to the top and still lingering action fighters. It's not a deep division anymore, although there's a lot of names. I want to see what Olberg can do this year.

He's going to step up in his next fight and get a big opportunity. I saw a rumor. I think it might be bullshit, but I saw a rumor that Olberg is next for Poetan. Olberg's booked. He's fighting Jan Blachowicz. Oh, what am I saying? Yeah, so this was a while ago. It was a bullshit rumor.

But anyway, I had seen it. Was it from that fake Michael Benson account that got no seed? Yeah, with the two Ns. Yeah. Anyway, can you imagine if they had tried that? If they were going to leapfrog uncle i have to give them all we're got to be like holy fucking shit if i'm uncle i have to be wild by the way that that fake account got steven a smith the other day with the fake

deontay wilder retirement announcement hey dude james responded to colby covington let's not you know that is true that is true all right let's go heavyweight. Let's go to the big one right here. Luke Thomas. Jon Jones is the champion. Tom Aspinall is the interim champion. I said I was 55% confident that they make that fight next year. Dude, I really, really, really believe they're going to make that fight next year. I know Chael Sonnen just said, guarantee it, it's going to happen, which could mean it's probably not going to happen at all.

You do have the idea of Poetan moving in here you've got Francis Ngannou on the other side of the line shout out to Rug Rug in one championship Luke give me a prediction for this division next year yeah this one is easy for me um because I don't think it really matters what happens in the division i mean i mean it matters what happens in the division but i'm saying no matter the permutation one man will be king in one year's time and it's tom aspinall i am as convinced of that as i think of anything in mma and that's of course all conditional but if the john fight doesn't happen tom will be be your champion. If the John fight does happen, I still think Tom will be your champion. If some other fight happens, Poiton moves up and they make it,

Tom Aspinall will be your champion. Tom Aspinall is going to be your champion. About that, there is just very little doubt in my mind. So I hope the Jones fight gets made. I don't know that it will. We'll have to see. But I think it's irrelevant to the details as it pertains to who will be hoisting that belt in one year's time. It's going to be Tom Aspinall.

And that is, you know, that's a virtual guarantee. I don't disagree with that. I do give Jones a chance for sure. But I think you can pick out more things in the steep a fight that you didn't love about Jones coming off of the injury in the layoff than what you did. I'm agreeing with you. I'll, I'll take that bet.

My big, bold prediction here surrounds Francis and Gano. I think even with the small amount of momentum that he built for PFL, with the comeback in that pay-per-view and the knockout of Fajita, I still think he's headed toward a big boxing match in, in the first half of this year. And that's his focus. He's been in Saudi Arabia a ton

for those big boxing cards of late. Could it be, I don't know what it would be. Deontay Wilder, I mean, that would probably be the most obvious one, unless he can one day catch Fury coming down into a rematch. But that time certainly isn't now. So Luke, as it pertains to MMA, I do think PFL will get one fight out of Francis.

They'll put it in a pay-per-view main event. And I think it'll come against Vadim Nemkov and you'll see Francis kind of do the same thing over again. Get the early-ish knockout. I think it's enough of a name value here, the former Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion, where it's not going to sell gangbusters, but the MMA community will go,

okay, we're okay with this. And maybe that's some of the fuel behind Vadim Nemkov going, why am I going to do this Corey Anderson trilogy? If I can just preserve myself for that potential cash in against Ngannou. Cause don't forget part of the Ngannou contract is that the PFL opponent gets paid millions breakthrough money too. So give me Ngannu nemcoff late summer i'm not sure how much more in ghanu fights for pfl or mma in general after that but maybe i'm wrong we'll see i don't know what the future holds for francis i think as long as he has boxing fights that he can take mma is just going to be a back burner for him um pfl needs him but at the same time they don't really know what to do with him or what

they can do with him so it's hard to say but i think as long as boxing is viable for him that will occupy his time and it'll be as simple as that all right no see it quickly do we get jones aspinall this year yeah that was my that was my bold take bold prediction we get the fight finally maybe november msg maybe international fight week i don't know yeah i don't think it'll be bold take, bold prediction. We get the fight, finally. Maybe November, MSG, maybe International Fight Week. I don't know. Yeah, I don't think it'll be soon. I think they're going to pick a destination and really make it a thing and finally go for it.

And I support it. I hope not MSG. Let me ask you a question to you, BC. Again, this is just a thing that could happen with any fight, but let's just imagine. Let's say they book it for International Fight Week and then Jones gets injured. They're going to rebook that fight, right?

You could see them rushing in Poiton. Right? It's doing... No, Gon. Gon is coming off of a win. Could they just run in Gon as the opponent? I know it's not a win that we thought he got against Volkov. I thought Volkov won that, but yeah.

I don't know. It's going to create an interesting possibility because Jon's getting older. He never used to get injured like that. Now he got injured. All right. Let's see. Let's go to the women's side. Luke, strawweight, 115.

You know it used to be the deepest division in town. It is really going through a transition that hasn't been overly fun or rewarding. So, Luke Thomas, we are getting Tatiana Suarez finally healthy enough. Weili Zhang, we're going to see that in early 25. What is your prediction for this year? My prediction is that Tatiana Suarez is going to win the title but won't be able to defend it. And let me explain what I mean by that.

I think head-to-head against Strong Weili, she's got enough skills to get the job done. In fact, I think at her peak, she is, I'll say this, to an extent what women's MMA has been missing a little bit. You get a little bit in a different way from Dakota Ditcheva, but somebody who has that wrestling prowess, hard nose, in your face, grinding kind of thing, you've seen glimpses of it more recently, but not even the full thing that she had before she really had to take a long hiatus pre-pandemic i think she's still got enough in the tank to win that fight

but i feel like between all the injuries she's still suffering between all the difficulties of just you know being who the best she can be she won't really be able to hold on to the title whether she has an injury issue and gets stripped whether she you know just doesn't have it for one particular night because uh her preparation has been affected something i feel like you know at her peak she's you know a dynamite fighter but for someone who's had so many issues how often can they maintain their peak it seems like for her it's very very difficult which is why they're like oh limo fight and whatever other fight they picked for her and they're like you know what fuck it let's just give her a title shot because it's the ufc kind of realizing it's basically now or never yeah i think if you're in that position bc you're

obviously very good and i hope for the best for her to be clear but i think we also have to be realistic that you know someone with that kind of condition can't just reign over a division very simply i i suspect it'll be, you know, maybe a two, but probably a one and done for her. Oh, I don't want to affirm that. I don't want to put stock in.

I almost made that something similar to that. My pick, you know, that she doesn't even get to the fight, but then it's like, I don't want to breathe that out into the, you know, ethos.

She'll get there. She'll get there, get there. And she could win that. And that's a great fight. And I'm happy for that, for the division, but this division needs some players to happen and climb up that ladder soon for the future i mean who do we only

really have as a viable contender that hasn't fought for yet janjiroba it's it's there in a tough spot you know who they need they need mackenzie dern but luke my prediction my not so bold one because it's been consistent is for the fifth straight year, Mackenzie Dern's going to have one win, one loss, and be treading water near the top. Still enough potential to show us that if she can ever put it together on the right night, she's tough enough. She's tough as nails. She's a fighter.

She's got, at times, a really good right hand, and obviously you know what you can do on the ground. But we spend every time she fights, and I'm sure we'll do it next week, ad nauseum talking about the potential that doesn't quite ever seem to come together. Maybe she beats Hibas in the rematch next week. But if she goes and steps up again short of the title, I kind of feel like we've seen this movie already. Yeah.

I just... I don't want to say I've lost confidence, BC, because again, I think that she can find a peak for just the right moment. But when you're champion, you have to find consistent peaks. And I think that has proven to be, you know, and I hate to say it because obviously she had the cancer thing early in her athletic life. And like, you know, she had the torn ACLl or whatever was it the knee injury i believe you know these are not these are things you would never wish on somebody of course of course but once they have begun to accumulate as much as they have bc it's not like you can just look the other way i think that's the problem that i have and you know i think she can find her peak on the right night

but not consistently anymore. And I wish her good health and good fighting. I just think we've got to kind of inventory the situation for what it is. That's all. I mean, maybe if she gets it. I mean, could they put her in a title shot if she beats Hibas again, Luke? I mean, come on. You can't. You've got to.

Gian Giroppo's there. You can't. I think that they might try and give Dern any kind of title shot that they. Imagine Suarez Dern next for the title. That'd be wild. They could squeeze that one in. I don't think that's the craziest thing. That's not that I'm wishing for it, but it could happen.

Let's go to a better division there. Women's flyweight, 125. You certainly have Dakota Ditchova's rise in the PFL, and you've got a lot going on in UFC afterc after valentina shevchenko at what 37 announcing she's going to only fans luke in the past few days also she won back the title in the sphere and is a is a is a legend there's no question about it and you know what luke even with manon farrow on the scene even with blanchfield bouncing back against rose even with the tatiana santos is a, you know, a new

generation, Macy Barber, that those younger fighters that seem ready. My bold prediction is that Valentina ends the year as champion again, Luke, she's going to have some tough fights ahead of her. I can't wait to see that for real fight, but Shevchenko still the most well-rounded battle tested, very good chin. Not, it's not that she can't make mistakes. We saw that in the Alexa Grasso loss but she's still at a very high level and might be doing this old Glover Teixeira thing of just

focusing on the fundamentals keep people pinned down I think she can do this again Luke so then let me counter that with my bold prediction for this weight class which is I don't know who's going to be the champion at the end of this year, except to say it will not be Valentina Shevchenko. I think whether it's Manon Fiora, whether it's Natalia Silva, whether it's Erin Blanchfield, whether it's maybe even Macy Barber, depending on how things go, somebody's going to take that title from her. I do admit that she did something really special in fighting Grasso three times, kind of getting

screwed the second one, and then leaving no doubt in the third one, pretty incredible. But as we mentioned before, I think Grasso really regressed. I cannot believe how much worse she got in terms of her wrestling defense over time. And I don't think she's going to get Shevchenko the same kind of luxuries with these other hungry up-and-coming contenders. Again, I don't know which one will be the one. Maybe Fiora seems like your likeliest contender, but Shevchenko will not be the champion when we talk. Not at 125, anyway. Will not be the champion.

I don't know. What if Val takes Firo down and kind of mucks the fight up? Firo's got good-ass takedown defense, bro. I know. She's a physical specialist. She's a great athlete. She's strong, but it's going to be an interesting test for Val, and I'm looking forward to it. Do you you have more confidence in uh Barber or anyone else Luke in terms of crashing the party or you're not really interested hold on I want to see these uh uh yeah I mean

Minos the non-fuel rose takedown defense is 93 percent I mean it's fucking good dude that ain't Grosso you know what I mean this is a much tougher fucking fight. And she's beaten Tabitha Ricci, Mayra Bueno Silva, Jennifer Maya, Kaitlyn Chukagian, who has a new name through marriage. Shermanera, Luke. Yeah. Rose Namajunas, now Erin Blanchfield. Bro, Valentina Shevchenko ain't beating her.

I hate to tell you that. Interesting take there right now. For Rose, great, man. We'll see. Finally, Luke, let's go to women's bantamweight. I will not have you make any predictions for women's featherweight because it's not a thing. Bantamweight is barely a thing.

But the thing we're going to get finally is Juliana Peña, the new champion for the second time against Kayla Harrison. Hopefully we'll see that the first half of this year. And then you got Amanda Nunes lingering. So my prediction is similar to what Long Island Luke said earlier about middleweight I think there could be a scenario where three different women hold this title in 25 could you imagine Kayla Harrison defeating Pena of course you could can you imagine Nunez coming back and in a big fight

defeating Harrison I could I could also see you, if some permutation is a Pena Nunes rematch for the title, if it has to be due to weight cut issues or what have you. Again, I'm not trying to put that out in the ethos. I want Kayla Harrison to be healthy and be able to make it here. But Luke, I think this title, even with Kayla's arrival, is very much up for grabs and I think if Amanda comes back,

it'll inject some much needed storyline and interest. Not a ton of it, but man, this division's hanging out for dear life right now. Yeah, I think they're going to offer... So my prediction, to coincide with this, is that Kayla Harrison's going to become champion. And then the UFC has a really tough choice to make. Because if Harrison becomes champ, I don't really...

I mean, I guess you could do another fight with Pena, if that's a thing that they want to do. But I have a feeling they're going to try and goad Amanda Nunes out of retirement and try and pay her a bunch of money to come back and fight. And I think that is a really, really interesting and cool fight that they could do. But short of that, I don't really know what. So my prediction, BC, is Harrison's going to be the champ this year. I'm not saying she'll finish the year's champion,

because I don't have a strong sense about that, but I do feel pretty cleanly that she's going to beat Pena. It's after that where it gets a little bit hard to decipher. Yeah, it gets a little dicey, dicey after that. Long Island, Luke, you got anything to say about the women's divisions here about the future? Yeah, my prediction is Holly Holm will headline a ufc event in 2025 at age 43 we'll see because it wouldn't be a ufc year if holly holm didn't headline like an apex

card or something so i don't think that's a bad prediction i think that's probably a pretty good one yeah i might i might have to agree with that all right let's go to mma storylines we each have three for the new year coming up lu Luke, you go first, number one. Give me an MMA in general, any division, any conference, any promotion. Excuse me. What do you got for me? I think that the PFL storyline that I'm following is I don't think that operations are going to cease in 2025. I think after that, though, it really becomes a very interesting question, in part because, one, we're going to get a clear answer about where UFC is going to be headed by the end of the year, I believe.

We'll know at some point what the future holds for them. Are they going to stay on ESPN to a degree? Are they going to move to Netflix? What's going to happen? And that will obviously tell us what ESPN's relationship to PFL will be, but more to the point centrally. I know Don Davis came out with this really defiant thing about like, we're going to have more events than ever and servicing more fighters. But it's like, there is a lot of discontent among fighters, particularly with the Bellator, like series fighters.

But more than that, they just don't know what their product is. They're clearly trying to get more money for it. And I think that this is going to be basically a make or break year uh is really the kind of thing i'm saying they'll finish all of the fights i don't think it's gonna like oh they're not gonna make it to the finish line like you know this time next year i think that they will but like they don't know what their product is is your product a tournament is your product a regional the you know servicer is your product pay-per-view is your like what where is your fan base they can't answer any of these basic questions in any kind of coherent way if they don't solve that this year and have a feeling

that they're going to make a lot of bad choices that will be their undoing by 2026 or at least that will set in motion by 2026 they're undoing i think this is only about another year or so where they can kind of maintain what is essentially status quo yeah without that really becoming without without the without the screws coming apart you know i called last year make or break i really thought with the return to espn with francis jay commander serrano like all these names that you could throw out and gimmick fights with the Bellator roster coming in that they were just going to put the pool, all their strengths together and absolutely bring it.

They didn't. They still have an even bigger now make or break, as you said. So look, I'll share my third point, my third storyline now because it identifies with this. You're talking about will they still be alive after 25? Yeah, this year is going to dictate that. My storyline is can they get out of their own way enough to change public perception can they get the media to buy in and almost chair for them

based on the changes or decisions that they make now look i i hear that they're not going to really make changes they're going to kick they're going to keep the regular season playoff format and that the focus for them is on pfl champion series that that you can take the best from the PFL, the best from Bellator, the best from PFL Europe, Mina, and all that, and that's their goal of bringing them together at the end. That doesn't bode well for their future. I mean, if you told me Ngannou's going to fight three times on pay-per-view, could that bode well for their future?

Well, it would help. Well, he may only fight once. What are they going to do to keep Dakota Ditch of a happy, active, challenged, showcased. If they are going to just roll out the same things that they've done, the same practices, strategies, not put a mouthpiece out there that people trust and want to, you know, support then. Yeah. Your demise in your pick for them is going to be true. I want to see right away, you know, know can they do can they start doing things change their philosophy that can get fans and media on board rather than doom counting down the days until they're gone because luke i want competition i want them here i like a lot of things that they do have going on if they would pull together the names properly i mean i love

watching ditch of a paul hughes patchy mix, Aaron Pico, Usman Nurmagomedov. There's names on the AJ McKee. There's names on there that don't suck. You know what I mean? Let's have them fight each other for one championship. Eat chowder. Eat chowder. But that's not going to happen.

So I don't know what they're going to do to win us back. Do they have pay-per-views up their sleeve that we don't see coming with featured fights or Jake Paul in a hybrid fight? Probably not. So you know what? I don't have high optimism at all. They just don't know what to do with their talent. They got Dakota Ditcheva and their product at its core that the tournament is good for what they did for her this year,

turning her from what she was until into this. And now they don't know what to do with her. That's why they tried to launch the PFL Superfight, you know, pay-per-view thing. But it's like they don't have anyone for her to fight. So, you know, it's just a very difficult product to manage based on the UFC's control of the industry and then also some of the bizarre choices that they make along the way.

But I think these things are going to, I mean, they, they, they catch up to you. It takes time, but I think that this will be a year where if no substantive course is altered and even if there is, I don't really know what is available to them, but I don't think they're going to alter course and it's going to, it's going to cost them. All right, let's go to our second storyline, Luke. I'll kick off with this. Obviously the Conor McGregor story and status has changed in some strong degree with the results of that civil trial for rape in which he was found liable.

Now you've got the storyline changing to somebody in India is offering stupid money originally for Logan Paul boxing match. Now back to a Jake Paul boxing match. Some people are reporting not trustedly here. It doesn't seem on Twitter, but that that's being targeted for April. So my biggest storyline here is not who will Conor McGregor fight in the pursuit against one of the Paul brothers in a boxing match for stupid money and maybe align the other things that they have going on in boxing and just say like they did for Maymac there's too much stupid money not to get on board let's just do it or are they going to try to block that and could that unto itself lead Conor to not come back could

they be in legal limbo with him what What is going to happen with that boxing match? And normally this wouldn't be a thing I cared about Luke, but the money there is like Saudi money, crazy level. So money changes things. And I think whether TKO decides to go all in on the charade, because it's following the trend of Paul versus Tyson, and you just can't miss this. And what that means for McGregor's future and other fighters trying to inganu their way into some leverage in their contract how you know what will that all mean

will UFC back or block them Luke Thomas that's my big question here on this story I think that they'll probably back it just seems like a no-brainer for them for all the reasons we previously discussed. I don't know if they'll reach the finish line. Who knows about, you know, what difficulties exist and trying to make a fight like this happen. But I tend to think if, if they can make this fight PC,

they will. That's my view. If they can, if it can be made, they'll do it. Simple as that. It's almost them in a weird way, cashing him out through a different lane,

just being like, all right, we'll just take the money from it and just not care about it. Exactly. And again, if he wins and looks awesome, they'll probably just book him in a fight and be like, hey, we're great. And if he looks terrible, they can be like, you know, we still just made, what, 50, 75 million, whatever it ends up being, you know?

Indeed. All right, Luke, what's your second storyline? So this one may not sound like it's directly MMA related. And for the most part, it's not. But there is an MMA tie-in, which is this is the year to pay attention to what TKO is doing in sport jiu-jitsu there have already been concerns aired by Craig Jones and against guys like Mikey Musumechi for signing exclusive contracts and it seems like the UFC really has initiated and intimated some plans about really going all in this year and and moving sport grappling forward under fight pass

invitational and the, you know, who knows whatever other things they might cook up. And by itself, that may not seem like there's really any kind of MMA tie-in. And I don't think it's the biggest MMA tie-in, but I would say that there is a tie-in in two ways that are important to pay attention to. First, a growing trend that has happened is that as sport grappling has gotten more popular, you're seeing fewer and fewer college wrestlers try mma you know there are guys like michael pixley and jason nolf who these were guys who well what north was a division one standout pixley uh i think division two but was a national champion i believe uh it's a very good one at a bare minimum and they don't seem to have any designs on doing mma because they can compete in sport grappling and turns out they can make a decent

buck. If the UFC really puts all their weight into sport jiu-jitsu and starts offering what relative to the rest of jiu-jitsu are significant prize money payouts, I think that this could help cement a longer trend that dilutes the quality of the talent pool that you see in MMA. Something to pay attention to. The second part of that is, BC, as TKO grows as a brand, you know, they're going to move into boxing maybe this year. They obviously already own pro wrestling. They obviously already own MMA. And now they move into sport jujitsu. If you have that many irons in the fire, how well can each core product be maintained and i just have a significant question about that especially because i'm going to guess in order to like bulk up their efforts

at fight pass invitational some of that will fall on ufc itself um and so like what does that do as the ufc product you know they have a very expanded schedule and now they've got essentially another baby to take care of dana's already kind of half checked out because he's so into power slap and whatever the fuck else is going on i mean you laugh because but i'm being serious you know what i mean like with this many irons in the fire especially bc if he gets into boxing too yes which we know has been rumored what does that leave for his involvement and really the kind of involvement that the ufc needs to continue to put out the best product it can I don't know the answers to these questions I'm simply saying these are storylines that I think are really worth following

in the coming year well as you were peeling the layers of that onion Luke you got into my storyline which really surrounds Dana White I could have easily said you know I'm interested to see exactly what he does in boxing will it be with Turkey El-Ashik? Will it be this high-end elite We Are HBO takeover or will it not be? And that's part of it. But it really surrounds what will Dana's role be in 2025 in terms of UFC and their week-to-week product. You know, you see the reporting from people like MMA Draw and talking about the conflicts between Dana and TKO management around the sphere.

We see how publicly the Dana versus MGM thing happened. We've always sort of questioned, would less Dana be a plus for the promotion as the TKO era moves down the road? And Hunter Campbell, by way of us getting the look inside with that documentary they put out, did that show us that Hunter Campbell has already sort of ascended a higher level of responsibility of the main things that we always ascribe to Dana in the past? Dana still needs to be involved as a front-facing mouthpiece,

as a promoter to get you fired up about the big events and all of that. But if he's got a good chunk of what he's doing in PowerSlam, now you're going to add in boxing and the fact that, you know, the more we get into this TKO era, it seems the less and less need that they have for Dana. I don't know if this opens up the door for him to become the governor of Nevada, whatever on that side of it, Luke, but you have to believe that he's going to throw his time a lot more into his

interests. And it just doesn't feel that he's going to throw his time a lot more into his interests. And it just doesn't feel like he's motivated to carry certain parts of the company's future and success under this current financial format. He's kind of just coasting. And I almost feel like they're kind of slowly phasing him out, too. I mean, would you say you agree with that statement? Phasing him out? I don't know. I think that they actually like him in that role. I heard that, oh, they're phasing Dana out at UFC for many years

and it never seems to happen, and you can like that or hate that. I am less confident about that. I just feel like he won't have a hand in pro wrestling. Okay, fine, whatever. But if he's going to have a hand in boxing and, again, I don't know what role he'll have in sports jiu-jitsu, but I would imagine that there would be some overlap with ufc staff there and you know what the fuck and he's doing power slap too what does that leave for mma when he seems

already kind of halfway checked out certain times about mma i i again i don't know the answers to these questions but it just seems like yeah it'd be foolish to not even consider them. No doubt about it. Luke. Uh, did you, you, did you hit us with your three? We nailed up MMA, right? Where'd you have a one more? I have one more very quickly.

I mean, we kind of talked about already. Here's one thing I want to note. Let me ask you a question. Did you watch any of the NFL games on Netflix on Christmas? I did not. I have no idea what happened. Long Island. Luke, did you watch any of the NFL games on Christmas on Netflix? I did not. I have no idea what happened. Long Island Luke, did you watch any of the NFL games

on Christmas on Netflix? I'm an NBA guy. I was watching NBA on Christmas. You're an NBA? Who's your team? The Knicks, baby. They just beat the fuck out of the Wizards, I think, a couple of times.

I saw that the Celtics have a better record in D.C. than the Wizards do. No doubt. No doubt. Okay, that's not the point. B.C., here i watched them i watched the games here's what i'll say first of all there were no streaming problems at all and it was crisp quality and it went off basically like like any other nfl game you've ever seen it was a different graphics package or whatever, but it was a lot of familiar voices.

The set looked not too dissimilar from any other set. In other words, it seemed like they could do this no problem. But something kind of interesting happened along the way, which is it was really boring. Not just the games themselves, but the way in which Netflix presented it. And I cannot remember the author who I read about this because he read my mind when he wrote, I forget where I read this. I'll have to try and find it. But he made the point that like Netflix

is the king of just making content that is background noise. Now, a lot of times that's not true, right? Where you can think of like Squid Game was edge of your seat, or you'll have like a high action movie, which is also edge of your seat but apparently like all the stuff that they're in charge of making they realize that netflix is partly just noise in the background and they actually cater the writing on some of their movies so that actors say words that folks who are halfway paying attention can follow the plot by virtue of what is happening there and there's a certain kind of netflix aesthetic i bring this all up to say bc we keep talking about ufc and combat sports going to netflix into being a huge win and i do think

there's many many ways of course where it could be i'm not telling you it's bad what i'm saying is i was actually very surprised at how boring the broadcasts were and how flat it all kind of looked and felt product the way that it's supposed to be treated when what they're really consumed with are metrics like watch time and you know uh just kind of keeping you there not necessarily keeping you fully engaged and what that might do to the ufc product if they end up signing with them i know ufc controls their own production but it still will have yeah i don't know something to think about yeah i mean we'll see i mean that raw on netflix is starting you know in three days which is a big deal that we'll see what netflix's combat future is for sure hey let's close strongly here with our boxing storylines to follow luke my number one it's an obvious right it's it's it's

really what are we going to say a year from now at this time about the turkey experience riyadh season more than one year into this but this is the year where it matters, right? I don't know if you saw the launch of that Ring Magazine gala that they did. There's going to be a big awards show in a couple of weeks. You know, looking back on the year that was, it's going to be a red carpet Oscars type event. Whether that means much to people or not, Turkey is trying to organize and class up this sport we're seeing deep pay-per-view cards for less money we're seeing dream matchups being made possible so i just really want to know one year from now are we going to be like you know what

i had my doubts i didn't love the sports washing i didn't love this or that but i loved how i was entertained i'm very interested to find out no one has attempted this at this scale what turkey's doing yes there's a lot of reason to doubt there's a lot of reason to be cynical it's boxing well let's give it a shot luke right you're either in or you know you're either with him or if you're against him it seems let's give it a shot what do you expect we'll be saying 12 months from now i think so, so for my first one in boxing, it kind of dovetails with this, which is, again, I'm asking a question. What is going to be the reaction if big fights in the UK and the US continue to not,

or, you know, fights that you would otherwise have gone in the UK and the US continue to not go in the UK and the US and they go in Saudi Arabia or, you know wherever turkey decides to put them it's like on the one hand you know no one is upset the fact that biv all and better be fought like holy shit we're great usic fury twice like this was a great year in that sense but like what you know virgil ortiz versus boots if a fight like that were made that fight should happen in the united states and i don't think that it would. Now, again, Boots might just appear to have declined

it outright anyway, but you see my point. They're taking fights that we've discussed before that belong here, and I've never lived in a world where the U.S. was that irrelevant in boxing as it appears to be becoming, where it's not on CBS,

it's not on NBC, it's not on CBS, it's not on NBC, it's not on ABC, it's not on Fox, it's still on ESPN, but that remains to be seen. The Netflix thing, I don't know if they're really going to get into it or not, but it's like you're not even on a major American broadcaster anymore. You're on DAZN, which I'm going to guess in the United States has less than a million subscribers. Dude, this seems bad.

I don't know, but I don't know how I feel about this. There's a price to be paid for the awareness of the sport moving forward if all those big pay-per-views go to Riyadh and you're not seeing the old-school boots-on-the-ground way of promoting in the traditional American sense through the channels and the platforms we're talking about. Yeah, I've got concerns for that too. There's no question.

I really hope, and Turkey seems to be saying that he's going to do Ring Magazine series cards in the US that are going to be funded by him privately, not from the Saudi fund. Maybe that's a sort of counter to the fears that we have of all those big companies. Which again, how much involvement do you want from Turkey? It's a debate, but I think that would certainly be better

for the UK and the US. Yeah, yeah. Good questions to be asked. My number two is an extension of this, Luke, and it's what's PBC's fighting future this year. It seems like top rank is already halfway all the way in on Riyadh, meaning their big fighters are already fighting on there. Bob Arum is going to Saudi all the time and rubbing elbows.

Obviously, we have to see what happens to the TV deal for top rank, which is going to Saudi all the time and rubbing elbows. Obviously we have to see what happens to the TV deal for top rank, which is on ESPN through the summer rumors. They could go to the zone rumors. There could be a lot of directions, but what about PBC, which still has its series with Amazon and the pay-per-views largely that they put out has a great pay-per-view and loaded one coming up February 1st with Benavidez and Morel at the top of it. Got a pretty damn good one with Tank Davis if it goes off coming up after that. Nothing else on the schedule, but Luke, if Turkey's going to have the control that we think he will this year, unless you got a couple big-name promoters teaming up, I don't know if PBC can survive on its own. Now, you're already seeing David Benavidez telling the media that um if he wins against morel he wants the winner of b-ball better be even he's

already talking to both turkey and al hayman and everything's fine we've seen some pbc fighters make the jump can they survive on their own outside of riad season or are they going to join the family too that's what i want to focus on because even though pbc is not what it once was you're still talking about some of the biggest names in the game and clearly some of the most marketable from tank to Canelo to Benavidez. So a lot to look for closely for PBC, which has had a tough adjustment year coming off the end of showtime, but you can't really doubt Al Heyman until it all falls apart. He's going to find a way in theory, Luke and theory, right? Al Heyman always finds a way.

I want to see the next few months what that way is. This was my number two as well as what the hell is going to happen with PBC. And again, maybe they find form some kind of Alliance with top rank who's left on ESPN and the two sides work together. And I think that could be great. I don't know how likely that is. I don't know how likely any of this shit is. And as you indicated,

there are already some things on the calendar that look pretty good, but they're in a tough position. Al, I'm not going to say has been asleep at the wheel because my understanding is he has been dealing with either his own illness or some kind of family illness or a combination of both.

Can't be easy. I don't wish it upon anybody, but it has affected their business big time. What happens with them is a huge, huge story. And finally, Luke, my number three boxing storyline that I'm focusing on. Lovemer, hate him, Luke. Ryan Garcia moves the needle in a way that very few boxers, especially in North America, can do. And not even when they're fighting, right, can just make his life a reality series that we all inevitably subscribe to through social media, whether we're cringing, whether we're cheering, whatever.

The good news, though, Ryan Garcia is back in April, and I say good news because his recent history is to go out of his way to make the biggest fights possible. Tank Davis, Devin Haney, he's only talking about doing exactly that when he does come back. I don't know. I hope that he's going to still go through with that kickboxing crossover boxing fight with Ampo in Japan. You know, BC got the call on that one, Luke, until it fell apart. But even if he doesn't, imagine if he fights Devin Haney in a rematch or Anteo Fimo this year or any iteration of the big names available out there Ryan Garcia

is going to be a part of our week-to-week talk when he's back inactive I hope obviously that personally he's going to be healthy he's done a lot of deplorable things through this mental health journey um you still wish a young fighter who's still got a lot of big fights in front of him well though to come out and do those whether he's playing the heel or whether you're a fan of him when he fights when he's talking about fights it matters i give him the credit for being a big spark in this generation wanting big fights and wanting them now so luke it comes with a price but i'm in on the ryan garcia experience yeah i'm not i couldn't care less if we ever see him again until he gets help i think he's an awful human being and i don't i don't care to ever see him again uh absent absent absent getting help absent getting help sure sure sure uh which i think he needs you know and i hope he

does get because i could i think do a lot for him and then it'd be great to have him back you know let's be clear about that but as it stands you know he's irredeemably awful. Mine's a little bit different, BC, which is the future of Canelo Alvarez. Now, there's been a person like BC, which I don't think is crazy, that has been kind of saying, well, listen, he took some mandatories. Munguia fight was a decent one. This is a guy who has been, you know, has he been taking the David Benavidez fights that he should have been taking or whatever? But no, but it's okay because he's doing some of this other stuff right now and he'll come back around to that.

Well, this is the year where he has to come back around to that, BC, right? Because A, he's going to get so old that after this year, it won't really matter anymore. And more to the point, like, you know, he has been facing consistent ducking accusations. I think if he fought Benavidez this year, especially after the Morel fight, assuming Benavidez wins, that could do... This would immediately shut up people who are concerned that he is ducking. On the other hand, BC,

let me ask you, if he goes another year fighting Chris Eubank or some mandatories or whatever and doesn't actually fight anybody that we are asking him to, that he should be fighting in terms of the fights that make the most sense against the toughest challenges. What reaction will you have?

Yeah, it'll change the way we talk about him. It'll change the way we think about him. No question. The pressure's on him, Luke. That's why I think he's got to take the Crawford fight in May. That is being rumored out there that Turkey's publicly saying look i want to make it somebody get me canelo's number i hope that that's in that might not even be a turkey fight that might you know if crawford crosses the line it comes back to pb that could be a huge pbc

opportunity whoever's paying for whoever's involved we want to see it what if canelo fights crawford and then looks to fight the winner of the winners of benavidez morel versus the winner of b-ball better bf2 then he's right back in where we where we want to meet him to be right back in he he he used his own leverage he used it i mean it comes with the territory when you're close to being the pound for pound king and you're the number one draw in the sport but yes i agree, I agree with you. That's a good storyline. The pressure's on him to remind us what he's all about. He has aged well, even though, obviously, he's slowing down in his mid-30s.

He has aged very well. He's in tremendous shape. What are you going to do, Canelo? It's up to you, bro. We're going to cheer for you if you do the right thing, Luke. I mean, Luke, all in all, I've really enjoyed the Canelo experience. I really don't like this season where we're like yeah it's a duck call it call it what it is yeah it sucks i don't even want to have to talk about it but it's like what the

fuck is he doing and where are we headed with all of this and so let's see what the year brings we have some time he's got some time but if we're here in a year and he hasn't fought any of these guys that we're asking them to fight then we're just like you know i think i think at that point the accusation sticks. And I do hope Tank figures everything out, from whether he wants to keep fighting or not, whether he's in line business with the people he always was, or what he's doing.

Like, I don't know what he's doing, but I hope he figures it out. I want to see just the same. Is Canelo and Tank going to end up partnering with Turkey? We'll see. But a lot to think about the new year to come. Next week, week though fights are back in that january 11th fight night card from the ufc with dern and he boss good to see we've got jio pataya back next week on the zone as well so luke it's i'm happy to see fight sizzin is

starting to heat back up ufc 311 to come morel benavides benavides february 1st i'm ready let's go let's go just a couple weeks away from uh from the real meat uh of the calendar starting to kick off so let's do it there it is oh long island luke thank you for your service today sir okay we wish you well are you gonna do a live bong rip on the main card minute at all this weekend for phone uh no not this weekend because oh no the fights are next weekend so yeah i will uh also i put out a betting recap for 2024 if anyone wants to go check it out make a minute thank you very much ish out thank you so much luke thomas anything else to say to the people i have to shit so bad all right hey with that uh we've been happy to

be in your face all for the last couple hours thank you guys you are you i'm looking at you you're the donk of the year thank you so much. We're going to bring it this year. Okay. Still bringing it. We're still bringing it. All right. For a big justice in AJ and cousin Angelo. I'm BC. That's LT and Long Island. Look, we're out of here. Take care of yourselves. Thank you very much. Yes.