MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 2025 Fights To Make, Haney Teases Return, Revisiting 2024 Predictions | Full Ep | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

MK is back in the studio for the first time in 2025! BC and Luke kick things off by looking back at their 2024 combat sports predictions and grading how well they did. From boxing to MMA, did they get it right? Then, the guys shift gears and break down the biggest fights to watch in both boxing and MMA for 2025. Which matchups need to happen, and which ones will define the year ahead? Plus, big news—Devin Haney teases a return to the ring this March! Who could he face next, and who do Luke and BC want to see him fight? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reveille Reveille Boys Look at us now tip to tip Oh Jesus Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho Shout out to Mortal Kombat Do you want a margarita? Yes! Oh my god! It's us doing what we love Do you want a margarita?

Oh, yeah. Happy Insurrection Day to you and yours. For those that celebrate and welcome on in to morning combat, the best damn combat sports show we got going, period. I'm alone right now. Luke Thomas, not always there when you call, but he is always on time if you need him. And obviously due to the overwhelming snowfall in your nation's capital, Luke will be joining remotely today. We will have Pat Miletic on at noon.

Randy Couture following him. We'll look back at the events of the Washington steps from just a few years ago. Hey, how are you? No, Luke, we can do a little bit of this. Should have been dead on a Sunday morning. We got a great show for you today. Why am I wasting time? Let's bring him in live and direct from dc he's my co-host luke franklin thomas yes luke lt baby is your back broken from shoveling or did skip bayless just proposition you what happened no no skip bayless okay no joy taylor either uh you know that's not a thing i'm involved with but i can tell you uh it is insurrection day um i was thinking about wearing overalls and zip ties to today's show but then i thought that would probably not be in the class you should have honored shavka by wearing

a dead animal on your head which also would have been a nice january 6th shout out just the same yeah i didn't do that either so as soon as this over, I have to go play with my kid in the snow, so that should be fun. Great stuff. Luke, we have new cameras in the studio today. They've upped the production value down here. Now I might have to pay fees to bring this baggage on air underneath here. I was going to say, how do we feel about them?

Do you feel like you look more washed or less washed? Oh, definitely more washed, but more real definitely more washed but it's but more real and raw and that's ultimately luke what this damn show is all about so uh how you get any snow at all no and originally it was supposed to be six inches but then ct had enough and they passed it down you and i don't think the greater dc area is equipped to handle this luke i really not like the northeast is no mid-atlantic isn't i mean mean, it's not like the South where they completely lose their shit on an inch of snow, but it's definitely not like Wisconsin or something.

Oh, yeah. Well, as stated, it is Monday, January 6, 2025. Thank you for joining Morning Combat. New year, same attitude, same ambition, same motivation. We are going to reach through that screen and grab the fuel hole of every listener out there today. So please, like us and subscribe to what we got going on here on the MK,

our social handles, our YouTube personal channels, and all that. And Luke, we got a great show today. We're upon request from the listeners. And thanks to Long Island Luke, our great producer for compiling. We will be looking back at all of our predictions from 2024 and find out what we got right and what we may need examination on. Also, we will look ahead to 25 and list our fights to watch.

What are we most coveting? How big is that bone air underneath the desk that Luke's got going on, thinking about putting Topuria on a few of those. Maybe we'll find out. And of course have you seen this shit uh dms from dongs whatever else we're doing on this monday luke anything personally you want to share with the people at all um recent diagnoses anything no i'm doing well

but they are going to certify the election results today even though it's no one like a mfr here in the city because i was going to take tuki to do the whole Jan 6 bout like we did last year, and you can go they closed it off years ago, but then they reopened the slopes of the actual capital, which is a really, really good sledding position. And you can do like, do they have guided tours to remember

the date? No. Like Jan 6, you just have to charge the top of the hill. There really is no other way to get up there. Like Jan 6, if you've got to use the restroom of the hill. There really is no other way to get up there. Like Jan 6th, if you've got to use the restroom, just use Pelosi's desk, all right? Whatever we've got going on. But they closed it off, obviously, because they're certifying the election today. So I've got to figure out where I'm going to take her.

But we'll get it done. We'll get it done. All right. I read news of Justin Trudeau backing away. Is that going to make Sean Strickland very happy in Canadian politics this morning? I haven't heard anything about Trudeau, but I'm guessing it's... Did he quit? I think he's going to step down.

That's going to make a lot of people, I suppose, happy and sad. I don't really give a fuck either way. Well, look, people don't come here for the politics, okay? Only during COVID season. They're coming here for our hot ass takes, alright? On MMA and beyond. And there's...

Oh, yeah. the sweet sound. I need a fucking sponsorship with this because I use this thing like it's going out of style. I love it. I use it almost as much as I vape. Almost. Yes, there it is. Funny face indeed. Hey, let's bring in the third member of our team.

He's a great producer, director, bong enthusiast, betting expert, and co-host of the Main Card Minute podcast. Hey, it's Luke Nocedo of Long Island. What's up, guys? How we doing? Long Island, Luke, how come I can see you on the Zoom link that I'm using, but we can't use that to set up how the viewers see you? We got new cameras. You know what?

I could do this, Luke, but it just seems like a lot of work just to see my profile. You know, it's not really that great of a camera shot. It's more for you. I agree agree looking at you is nothing interesting however it would be better for the show you know what i'm saying yeah would you say he has a face for radio healthy hello bias for radio okay all right there we go uh yeah so we might have an echo is on the air today. How about that? Well, Luke, you know some people are going to face the music, okay? I don't know the truth behind any of this.

Look, I'm just living my life, okay? One moment at a time. You know, one Creed song at a time, right? I cannot believe you're back in on that. I mean, that is... It's a real thing. It's about freedom. It's a real thing. It's about freedom. It's a real thing.

Freedom from my own mind. You know what I mean? Because I created my own prison, Luke, to be fair, right? You know? No? All right. That's enough of that. Trying to get the right levels in my ear hole.

Yeah, we're going to kill time today, right? This is like those in-between gym classes when the football coach rolls out the balls. He's like, yeah, I got to go drink in my office and make game plans for Friday's night. You guys do what you want, right? No, I need to go play with Tukey, and we need to do this show, so let's get it started. Are you going to shovel? I mean, is this going to be an operation? I have to shovel, and I got double duty.

I got to shovel, and I got to spend time with her. All right, well, speaking of duty, you know the no-shit toilet? BC, hold on. I took a dump today, okay, this morning. It was my first dump of the day. Please, Macy, tell me more. Please, yeah. I'm talking an absolute breacher, okay, breaching the surface of the water,

like an absolute power dump. Wow. So it was the bowl that was crowning. And yet it was one of those perfect dumps where it, like, clean-up took, like, like a, a, you know, a wipe or two and it was completely set while standing. You ever wonder why we can't get above one 75 K on subs.

Look, I just figured it out. Okay. Wow. Yeah, that's great. Let's start the fucking show. I was going to try to tell you that the no shit bathroom has an out of

order sticker on the toilet at the moment. No, that's not me. Can't put that one on me. All right. We were out of office for a while over the holidays. Okay. Somebody came in here and mystery dumped it into obsolescence,

but it wasn't me. All right. Final pitch for the show. No new merch yet. We'll let you know about that, but you can email the show at morning combat at gmail.com. Please do so because Friday, this Friday,

we're going to be rolling out your fan submissions. You're dead wrong. So email the show, say hi to Mikey. Do not show him your pipe. Thank you very much. All right, let's get into it.

You, the fan said, Hey, BCLT, you absolute weirdos, fun prediction segment the other day, like every other podcast did, but we want to hear.

We want to see whether you still put your money where your mouth is. Can you face the music of your shitty predictions from one year ago? So that's what we're going to do. We're going to revisit them. Shout out to Long Island Luke for doing the painstaking work of going back

second by second through the broadcast. Luke Thomas, are you ready for this? Let's do it. Let's fucking do it. Alright, we kicked off last year in the heavyweight division in MMA, in which BC's big, bold prediction was Tom Aspinall will be

undisputed champion to close out the year at heavyweight. Well done, Luke. Thank you, thank you. Alright, that was a good delay there but okay all right uh lt let's see if you did any better tipe miocic is going to happen i actually don't think it's going to materialize um how many times in MMA can you recall a plan being this delayed and still being successfully pulled off? It happens, but nothing really big springs to mind. And if you think about it, whether you like it or not, Jones versus Stipe is in fact a big fight. I mean, it's involving big names and at a bare minimum, the talking points are big. And John is obviously relevant as the heavyweight champion. Okay, fair enough.

But even for all that bigness, the events that will transpire between now and whenever it is supposed to happen, Stipe Miocic could get injured. Can he even make it through a camp? What happens if Tom Aspinall keeps blowing these guys out of the water? I genuinely think with MMA, with how fast moving it is, you can't freeze anything like Han Solo in carbonite and then just unfreeze it later. It doesn't really work. I don't think it's going to happen.

Luke, that was, of course, Jones versus Stipe. And guess what? It happened. It did, in fact, happen. It did, in fact, happen. All right. What can I say? I thought that the train was, like,

just not even going to make it to the station. It was going to fall apart, but. The train's in Parris Island with the rest of the Marines. All right, Luke, there we go. It made it there. That was actually 29 Palms where I got the offer. It was not Parris Island. But it made it.

You had the corpse of Stipe kind of, you know, moseying on out there, and he got wrecked, but it happened, so I'll take that. We didn't do much better on heavyweight fighters to watch. I predicted Vadim Nemkov would have a breakthrough heavyweight year in which Nemkov did appear one time in PFL at tour, submitting Bruno Capeloza in the second round in the PFL versus Bellator showcase card. So not really, Luke, but on your end,

Anatoly Malikin, who ultimately went one in one overall, like that's a wash, but Owen one at heavyweight losing the championship to rug rug in a huge upset after taking the TKO win over Rainier to Ritter. So I feel like that's a wash because he did become a triple champ which was also a weird thing but then he did lose to Rug Rug which really undercuts it but you know what I mean like I was halfway there I was sure I'm with you I was way off all right let's go to the light

heavyweight division let's see what LT told us was definitely going to happen this year I can't believe I'm going to say this but this division is so wild and wacky. You can't tell me I'm wrong. I mean, I could, this guy, I can't believe I'm betting on this guy, so to speak, but I'm, this division is insane. Megaman on Kalev will at least wear the belt in 2020. Whoa. Right. Whoa.

Yeah. Okay. He might lose it the very next fight by making the most boneheaded error you've ever seen. Like, what are you doing? Like that is on the table. might lose it the very next fight by making the most boneheaded error you've ever seen like what are you doing like that is on the table but dude this division has no sense of coordination everything is all over the place every time you think okay now it's settling into a groove it doesn't settle into a groove come on man you can't tell me that's the craziest thing in the world if anyone's got a shot at light heavyweight, it's him.

Look, they did him wrong, to be fair. I mean, partly these predictions are stupid because I'm betting on, like, A, unreliable people here. But also, I thought he would have had a title shot by now. I mean, I don't think that's the... Like, you could say, oh, he wouldn't have beaten Poiton, and fine, that prediction would have been wrong on that sense. But I honestly thought at the beginning of this year, he would have had a title shot by now.

But holy shit, he has not. It's insane that we're in 2025 and now we're, and by the way, it's not even confirmed. I mean, we think he's like the shoe-in guy, but like, they haven't announced it yet. So who knows? Well, I mean, don't forget that cryptic tweet from Poetan recently that said not Ankalaya. I know. That was interesting.

I don't hold that against you, but you did get it wrong. And then, Luke, you said, you know, a lot of unreliable people. One of them is the guy you're looking back at making bad MMA predictions because this prediction I made for light heavyweight last year not only did not happen, I made it again for this year, Luke, and that's Pereira Poet on three for the 205 title no no is he poet on three not perera poet on three oh yeah he'd have to be uh manipulating himself which you know spider spider man meme yeah yeah i'm an undisputed champion in that division by the way uh so that did not go down your light heavyweight

fighter to watch luke was vadimkov, who never appeared in the damn division. Once again, I don't know what to say about that one. We were, you know what, in retrospect, like anticipating that the schedule would have picked up as normal for the guys coming over from Bellator, probably a bad call. Probably a bad call. You do take an L on that. Tell me if I take a win or loss on this one.

My light heavyweight to watch for 24 was Khalil Roundtree Jr. Even though he went 0-1, losing his title shot to Poiton, my quote was, let's see if he can have an unlikely run to the title. I think that's a win. Yeah, I think that's a win. He did lose. He got stopped, and he really didn't, you know, deserve it under a traditional sense of metrics and everything,

but he did get to the title. He did perform ably. His stock did rise. People are much more interested in him. That's a W. Do you think he retroactively now earned the title shot because of how he fought in that fight? Going 2-0 on the champ

taking a bite and and and you know keep plowing through i mean he was still the eighth ranked contender he didn't deserve it more than on kalayev did in that sense no but he proved he was a worthy adversary and that's probably enough all right i'll accept that i'll accept that let's move on to the middleweight division and uh let's listen in what I had to say last year. My sort of bold prediction for the new year incorporates a little bit of what you're talking about. Look, recent years, lightweight was the deepest and best division. Men's bantamweight caught up and passed it. I think we got to give a lot of credit for women's flyweight over this past year for coming out of nowhere and being deep and fun. But Luke,

this middleweight division, my prediction is that in 2024, it's going to be the bet, the most exciting division at the top end in UFC. And what makes that supported and makes it kind of true is this. We don't even know if Sean Strickland is going to hold onto the title in the next three months yet. Right now, he might be the biggest fan favorite of the group, arguably for what he's done to his brand since winning it and stealing some of, in my opinion,

Colby's thunder and gaining that fan base. But yet Adesanya can come back and reclaim the belt. Whitaker could come back and make a run. We've got guys who right now are ready to take over like Drikus Duplicy. You have guys like Hamza and Bo Nickel who have next. You've got hammers on the rise like a Roman Delidze. Luke, I think I nailed that. You keep bringing up the Roman Delidze factor like it's legitimate. Didn't he fight a 205 this last year? Well, Roman Delidze was my fighter to watch, by the way,

in this middleweight division. He went two and one on the year, one and one at middleweight, lost to Nasruddin Imovov by majority decision, and then got wins over Anthony Smith at 205 and a first-round stoppage of Kevin Holland. So would you say that he's also Cheyenne's man and also a middleweight to watch and also middleweight was the sexiest division let's defer this to long island luke because i

feel like this is more a miss than a hit but maybe he's got a different interpretation so me and bc talked about this pre-show and i was saying it was a bit of a gray area a bit of an opinion i kind of agree with it middleweight was pretty exciting between the top 15. A lot of up-and-comers there. I don't know. I think he nailed it. Ding, ding. Thank you very much. Tie goes to the runner here. I'll let it go. All right. Luke, your overall middleweight prediction was

DDP versus Chumayev will happen in 2024. You know what? If they were on pace to fight this spring like they should be, I'd give you half credit because it probably should have already happened. But what the hell are we doing right now? So, dude, that's not a bad prediction.

I mean, it's a wrong prediction because it obviously didn't happen. But if Chimaev didn't get, if basically if Whitaker didn't have to fight Ikram Al-Eskerov and he had fought Chimaev and it went about as we had thought it was going to go you know I don't know exactly how it would have fit into the calendar but this would have made this one much more likely because obviously Hamzat is like the next guy gotta be and we think maybe even a favorite to win the whole thing so I'll take the L because I was just ahead of myself. But that one seems, you know, the spirit of that one was correct, I think. Yes, for sure.

I mean, you couldn't have predicted that he would break Whitaker's face, but the idea that he would get his way to the top, he did that. I almost want to give you partial credit. Your middleweight to watch, though, was Bo Nickel. Now, he did go 2-0, but both the Brundage and Paul Craig fight produced probably as much negative comments as positive, would you say? Yeah, I don't think he had a breakout year. I don't think that's a good way to put that.

He had a normal, fine year, but it wasn't anything special. Does Roman slipping one through the goalie's five hole a second time add to my idea that he was one to one this year? No, who he's banging adds nothing to it i have to tell you all right all right let's go down to welterweight where one of luke's favorite bonairs is on the end of that stick and we're talking about chav caught rock monoff luke you came out there and said rock monoff will end 2024 as the ufc's welterweight champion while that obviously cannot be a ding, should you at least get partial credit that he was scheduled to fight the champion,

took on a top contender in weighting last minute, and got the win even if he looked human at times? Again, one of those things where like the matchup itself I definitely saw coming, and I don't think that takes some great skill but that part is correct but there's like between the fact that it didn't happen this year and the fact that rachmanov stock has fallen to a degree it's definitely more l than w for sure all right well you can keep taking l's luke and we'll keep getting recorded wins for me because my middleweight i'm sorry welterweight bold prediction was Ian Gary will be on the

verge of a title shot after winning two to three fights in 2024. If you recall, Ian Gary was two and one, and the only loss was almost a moral win in terms of how he reacted to it for what should have been the interim belt, but it was the number one contender. Look, give me that

ding, okay? Meet me down low on the... Luke, you got dinged down okay like aljo all right all right that's what i'm saying you want that ding-a-ling it's what it's yeah yeah but luke we did both take l's on our welterweight to watch which was the same pick that was yaroslav amasov who never fought despite rumors that he could be coming to the ufc dude that yes betting on the PFL guys who were coming over, the Bellator guys, tragic mistake. That was a big fucking L. I mentioned an honorable mention of a welterweight to watch,

JDM Jack Della Maddalena, who did go 1-0 with the stoppage, although a rally against Gilbert Burns. So, quarter credit. Give me a quarter credit. Yeah, partly, yeah. All right, let's go to the lightweight division. Gilbert Burns. So quarter credit. Give me a quarter credit. Yeah. Yeah. Partly. Yeah. All right. Let's go to the lightweight division and Luke Thomas. You talked about Islam. Jeff, you said he will finish the year untested in 2024. Yeah. Dub. He did go one and oh, but was he not tested of by one DP, Dustin Paulyway?

I think it was a good fight, but Poirier got finished. Okay. What do you make of the fans' reaction to our award show that neither of us even mentioned as an honorable mention the submission of Mahachev over Poirier, which a lot of people thought should have been the number one choice for submission of the year? If not a fight of the year candidate, they say we kind of glossed over it.

Your thoughts. I mean, there's probably a something to that, that neither of us, I mean, between the two of us, one of us should have probably mentioned it. That's probably a fair criticism,

but the reality is, you know, we right or wrongly, we do these ones from what speaks to us and that one didn't speak to me as much as it did to other fans yes so yeah i know i get that like as a group representation some kind of signal that that should have been in the conversation is real but i pick what i pick man i don't know what spoke to you was that the best fighter in the world would dominate he largely did in that one appearance Let's go to my pick for the lightweight division.

My prediction is very simple, Luke. I just don't feel like we're going to see Conor versus Chandler at lightweight. And maybe we're never going to see it in lightweight. Maybe if it did happen, it was going to be at welterweight. So it's a little bit of a trick wrong question. But, I mean, you hear Michael Chandler talking about, I'm waiting for Conor. I still believe Dana even admitted we got a lot of fighters here that are just waiting for a big fight like Colby did.

Chandler's one of them. But, Luke, you never, ever, ever hear Conor talking about fighting Chandler. And lately, you hear Dana talking about it even less. So we have debated in the past that they don't necessarily need Conor at UFC 300, right? When Conor fights, they kind of stop everything and put together a patchwork. Look, I obviously wasn't going to nail that he would pull out with a toe injury of that Chandler fight, which was scheduled for International Fight Week, and that he would have the civil trial with the sexual assault.

So I still got it right, but even though it now feels like a no-brainer, automatic, it's insane to me that this fight hasn't happened. When did they coach tough? Like a year and a half ago? I mean, holy crap. Two years ago? Yeah, it's been some time. I mean, that was a great prediction by you.

That was kind of where I was with Jones and Miocic. I kind of thought it would just kind of fall apart. Obviously, it did not. But that one definitely did. They never even really – well, I guess they did get close, UFC 303. Oh, they got real close. They got about a month out, and then the whole thing just kind of fell apart the way that it did interesting um I look I I could go a bold one and say and I think I did in our prediction

thing that that Conor won't fight in the UFC in 25 and I still think that's that could very well happen but where are you on the idea that McGregor versus Chandler ever happened I don't think it does I think of all the possibilities of what Conor has left Gregor versus Chandler ever happened. I don't think it does. I think of all the possibilities of what Connor has left, there's just other ones they're going to go to at this point. There's just, and by the way, like besides Chandler, like who really wants to see that one at this point?

You know what I mean? Like, do you think it'll live in infamy the same way or not infamy, but the same way John Jones versus Rumble Johnson, which was was scheduled never happened and then we were always like damn i would have loved to have seen that is this on there is this on that level yeah but worse because that one fell apart why did that one fall apart like somebody got injured right rumble got injured john got injured how did that one fall apart they were scheduled to meet they remember they had the press john John got in trouble, right? Long Island, look what the hell was it? I mean, it's like the bingo card of John Jones instances.

Yeah, I know. I can never connect the dots. Didn't DC and Fighters get the vacant title? DC fought Rumble twice. Then this was Albuquerque. This was the Albuquerque accident from John that forced the UFC to strip him of the title, right? That could be correct. Correct.

It was the hit and run. Okay, there we go. Jesus. Luke, your fighter to watch at lightweight. He went 1-0 with a split decision win over Charles Oliveira, and he'll be fighting for the title in just a couple weeks. Armand Saryukian. You might have nailed that.

Became number one contender. Had a big win at UFC 300, 300 and then also the what the dory ushwin um yeah i feel like that one panned out dory ushwin was in 2023 okay well close the fuck enough you get what we're talking about the charles olivera win a better win for him all right yeah much better win that's the only time he fought this year was that was that is well he's in line for the title so yeah uh my pick tell me if I want to loss this because he went one and one. The champion has a name, Luke, and it was Charles Oliveira. He lost to Tarverdian, to Saryukian by split decision, and then comes back to get the decision over Michael Chandler.

Are you giving me a ding? That's pretty good, yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. He's still in position for the title. Let's move on to the featherweight division where Luke Thomas' favorite fighter took over the sport.

Let's see what Luke predicted. I don't speak Russian, Luke. I'm not even in a hurry. What do you got at featherweight? Yeah, Ilya Tepory is going to be your next featherweight champion in 2024. Okay, but that's just because he reps Spain and you love Madrid so much. Come on, Luke, show your cards.

I got a question for you. How come I can't believe in things for reasons I actually believe in? Why do I have to believe in them for the phony reasons that you invent in your head that I like them? Show your cards, Luke. Show your dong, brother.

It's a very relevant question. It's a very relevant question. You did nail that one. By the way, it now now looks easy but he knocked out volkanovski and then knocked out holloway that this prediction was before that so like holy shit right and by the way seriously i want to be clear like obviously i thought he would be champion i didn't think he was going to run through well volk i thought was going to be in trouble but remember even before the max fight i was like i'd be surprised if he stops max and he fucking stopped max too so my featherweight prediction did not go the way of yours even sully sullenberger

couldn't land this plane let's look back at it featherweight the old 145 obviously my prediction is simple right a certain great featherweight will finally come out of retirement and gain the ufc title after years of us wondering is he the the great one that got away you know what direction i'm going there right yeah that's a bunch of silliness can i tell you what's actually going to happen oh sure wait wait you you don't believe in the beat luke what are you doing isn't he a doctor now or a student or some shit i don't know something like that he ain't fighting i can tell you wow that was a wing and a prayer and a hope and a dream and um i just want to point, I'm going gray like it's a contest.

Like even a year ago, I had significantly less gray. It's insane how fast I'm going. My wife gave me an intervention sit down again the other day, just basically saying, look, I know you like the gray. I don't like it, but you got to pick a color. You got to stay in line with one of them. You can't dye it for two months and then not for three. And I'm like, well, it's not like I'm looking, not like I'm on the market looking for, you know, looking for people here.

All right. We're locked up, lady, for a long time. Your wife was like, get your shit together. Oh, yeah. Get your shit together. You know, she's the best thing that ever happened to me, Luke. All right. You know what I mean?

I've held together an editorial marriage with you for a long time, but not as long as with that lovely lady. Your fighter to watch at Featherweight was young, still young, Aaron Pico, who went 1-0 on the year, stopping Henry Corrales in a largely unnecessary Bellator fight. We didn't talk about this. Is he not a free agent? Did we not hear that? I believe he's a free agent now.

Yeah, it looked like Don Davis put out some counter messaging on Twitter saying we'd love to sign him. We'd love to give him a title shot and a big opportunity. But the thing is, again, what I'm saying is you're giving him, what, a Bellator title shot. These are not real belts. In the world where Apache Mix is complaining and Leandro Ego and Patricricio Pitbull how they can't get fights also John I don't know Johnny Ebel has complained but certainly uh Corey Anderson has complained you know like you would be absolutely foolish to sign a deal I think without some serious guarantees written into that thing yes he goes been saying he wants to fight in the UFC by the

way yeah then there's that as well you know but someone was asking asking me the other day, how would he perform against Ilya? It'd be a good fight. And I'm like, I wouldn't mind seeing it, but I would not favor anyone at 145 over Ilya right now. I think that'd be a big mistake. No, no. I mean, Pico's insanely skilled in every category, but we still need to see him to put it together

on the Bellator title level first, I guess, even though I don't want those belts to be around. Put him in the PFL Million Dollar Tournament. Why not? Why do we do this, PFL? I don't want those belts to be around. Put him in the PFL million-dollar tournament. Why not? Why do we do this, PFL? I don't know what he wants is really the issue. All right, so you don't get a point for picking Aaron Pico because he didn't do anything, really, and neither

did my pick, Patricio Pitbull Freyetti, Luke Freyer. Freyer. He, of course, stopped Jeremy Kennedy in his lone appearance in March and now is complaining actively. Did you see Don Davis's latest LinkedIn message, Luke, which was the five worst things that happened to PFL? I'm not doing a bit.

Did you not see this? And number three was Bellator fighters. I can't believe he posted this on LinkedIn. That's the most PFL thing imaginable. To all of his investor friends. And number three of the worst things to happen was, and one of them was like sponsor pulled out at the last minute this happened whatever that stuff happens i feel bad for them you know but number three was bellator fighters complained publicly making the brand look bad i mean that was like literally the gist of it luke like it wasn't like oh we need to

get these fighters like direction or opportunity or or like a date you know it was yeah the problem was they complained about their behavior, not the behavior, right? Sorry, the Pitbull pick. I'm sorry, I was wrong. You were wrong twice. You had Pitbull and Pitbull as your featherweights to watch, Pitbull and Pitbull.

Not me, Luke. They didn't have bad years, but they definitely didn't have breakout years, yeah. They couldn't get fights. Let's go to mine. I picked Arnold Allen, who I erroneously stated the other day went 2-0 this year. He actually went 1-1. Lost the close one to Evloev.

Came back in July against Giga Chikadze. So he was 1-1 this year. I mean, he's a featherweight to watch, but not the featherweight to watch. I also threw out there Bryce Mitchell bouncing back from a couple devastating losses, in which he did look really good, although it was against Chrome Gracie in the one appearance. But he did. He bounced back. I mean, he definitely wasn't a huge bounce back,

but he bounced back. Yeah, do with that what you will. Let's go to the women, Luke. 1.45 women's featherweight. No longer a division. What was our prediction last time? Luke Thomas, you predicted that Kayla Harrison versus Chris Cyborg will happen.

Yeah, that's an L. It didn't happen. Kayla went free agency. Dude, how many of my predictions were contingent upon someone in either PFL or Bellator getting fights? That was dumb as shit. Now, I'm not keeping score, but it sounds like you're like one and eight up to this point, and I'm like six and two. I think it's probably not quite right, but I definitely think your predictions are doing better than mine. All right.

My prediction for featherweight for the new year was that UFC would shut down the women's 145. They didn't formally shut it down, did they? Okay, so it doesn't exist on the UFC rankings anymore. So that to me means it's shut down. Well, hold on, Long Island Luke. No, but they didn't formally announce that. They've never, ever had rankings. They have never, ever, ever had rankings for women's featherweight

on their UFC.com slash rankings page. It has always had a header with no top 10 because they never had 10 candidates for the title there. Right, but they at least had the champion listed. They don't even have that.

True, you're right. But the champion retired. They just didn't give the belt to anybody else. Well, they wouldn't let Kayla fight for it. If it was still around, Kayla would have fought for it. Effectively, it is not there.

In reality, it's not there. But that doesn't mean they shut it down. That's a different consideration. They're just not using it. It's different from shutting it down. Okay, not only are they not using the title, they're not promoting featherweight fights anymore. That doesn't mean they shut the division down, BC.

That means they're actively not using it. I heard it. They didn't get out there and say we are no longer in the women's 145 pound business. They didn't do that. LIL had me at ding. That's all I have to say there, Luke, okay? Luke's fighter to watch at featherweight was no one. Yeah. I think that's a ding.

Yes, I'll take that. That one landed. I'll take that down.c's featherweight to watch kayla harrison who went two and oh but both not at 135 at 135 women's bantamweight getting the best part about that was you guys were debating if kayla could make 145 and she ended up fighting at 35 twice damn look at that look at that right there well I don't think she made 135 healthy. I'm going to go to my grave saying that one. She did it because she can do amazing things. It's pretty bad for her to do that.

All right. Let's go to men's Bantamweight right now. Luke Thomas, your prediction for 2025 was combined prediction with fighter to watch. You were concerned about patchy mix's future in pf elator wow this was another funny one in hindsight because luke said something like yeah bellator only has 10 events scheduled in 2024 and they ended up having i think three so yeah there you go that one nailed that one That was the one time I should have recognized. I should have recognized that.

I only made that prediction because he cleaned out everybody. And then they gave him that Mega Man, Mega Madoff rematch, which ended up being a little bit closer than we thought it would be. But nevertheless, he won. And it just wasn't clear where they were going to go after that. And then, sure enough, they didn't go anywhere. They didn't go anywhere. So that's a point for Luke.

But you got to be the harsh judge here, the Polish judge, if you will, Luke. Do you have any Polish in you? I don't think so that's a point for luke but you got to be the the harsh judge here the polish judge if you will luke do you have any polish in you i don't think so want some i do not wish i'm lithuanian i'm lithuanian luke okay please uh here was my prediction for men's bantamweight in the new year but my prediction bold prediction for bantamweight for next year is 2024's mma fighter of the year is currently in this top 10 Luke and he's going to close the year as champion are you ready for this Rob devolosh Willie wow because if he gets a win over Henry Cejudo which I'm going to assume he's going to be the betting favorite although that's a great fight to start the year could you imagine him then fighting the winner of uh of of the champion O'Malley versus Chido Vera

and winning that championship to close the year? Yes, I can, Luke. It's his time. I know there's been injuries. I know there's been some things. But what separates him? The cardio. Because he's already proven that he can win a crazy win.

Now, to be fair, Luke, he finished fourth in my personal ballot for fight of the year. But that's pretty close. Pretty close. That's definitely a dub. Dude, you did much better than me these are very very good i got whored by a couple of calendar issues on shopcot and uh but don't i lose all of my credibility based on that zabeat pick or is that just my heart talking you know dude that that's it dude you you would push me in front of a bus you would throw me into a pit of alligators just to have Zabit fart in your mouth.

I mean, it's unbelievable what you would do for him. Well, he could put it in a coffee container and mail it to me. That'd be great. All right. You picked Patchy Mix would be your fighter to watch. We hit that. You also picked Umar Nurmagomedov as your fighter to watch at Bantamweight who went 2-0 and is on the verge of

a title shot. Yeah, I feel like that one panned out. I don't think that's crazy. All right, what are you going to grade my pick? Aljamain Sterling, who's not even in the division anymore, and went 1-1, beating Calvin Cater. Barely losing to Evloy. I mean, the thing is, he definitely didn't have a bad year. But not in that division, so I lose.

Yeah, exactly. And the fight against Moffs, sorry, he lost, but it was really good. He beat Calvin Cater, you know, but to your point, it's just not a 135 thing. Alright, women's band and weight, which is still a division by the way. Luke Thomas, your pick was, it will take years to fix this division

as it pertains to rivalries and storylines. How is that a win? I nailed that one. We have some rivalry right now. There's only a rivalry slash storyline in the title picture. The rest of the division, I don't even know who's in the rest of the division. It's a three-way right now because Amanda's coming back and Pena wants her in a rematch, but Kayla wants to super fight.

We don't know where Amanda is. And also, like, that division, the only – like, they had to force a woman who fought at nearly – or competed, I should say, at 170 pounds in in judo they had to get her down to 135 just so they could inject some fucking adrenaline into this yeah but guess who they guess who they let fight for the title somebody who came off of a one-sided 50 to 45 loss and took two years off luke that's who they let fight for the title yeah and they won and they fucking won that's the best part about it they won shouldn't have but they won all right you'll get the the borderline win there my pick though oh my

god i'm so embarrassed by this luke are you ready for this yeah i'm ready holly holm will fight for the bantamweight title in 2024 yeah i mean just just letting your horniness really take over your it's not true letting the lack of depth in that division did i think kayla was going to come here no so if kayla didn't come here and if holly had like won a couple at 43 she's 43 now luke 43 that's that's definitely that's definitely up there i mean do you think she can keep going as a as a middling bantamweight yes as a gatekeeper yes i think if i don't know if she wants that for herself but could she do it yes all right long on loose got to be the judge here luke thomas's women's bantam weight to watch was no one i feel like that i kind of want to give a half ding to that i mean harrison yeah

you're right kayla harrison mine was iranayana, who I thought was going to... Look, she fought valiantly in that sphere brawl with Norma Dumont, Luke, but she didn't get the win. She lost most of her face. Yeah. Yes, but also Kayla Harrison I just didn't think was ever going to make 135. It's still crazy that she is.

I mean, can't they shut down 35 and open up 45 now and just let Kayla fight for the belt there against everyone else? You would think. At women's heavyweight? Come on. BC made that up a while ago. Let's go to men's flyweight.

One of the most exciting divisions right now. And Luke Thomas' pick was Brandon Moreno will get the title back in 24. Yeah, that's an L. What did he do this year? I thought he had a good year. Moreno, who was also your flyweight to watch, went one and one. He lost a split decision to Brandon Royval and then beat Amir Al-Bazi. So it didn't pan out, Luke, but he was close.

And he's still in the title picture based on that. He's still relevant. Yeah, he's definitely still relevant. But that's it, though. He didn't do anything special. All right, your boy BC finally going chalk here rather than pulling Zabit and Holly Holm out of his rare end. Pantoja will be the champ to end the year.

Yeah, baby, right? I like it like that. Pretty good. Pretty good, I have to admit. Very good. He was also my flyweight to watch, Pantoja. He went 2-0, of course, with defenses over Erseg and Kai Asakura. Let's go over to women's flyweight, which is on the come-up for sure these days.

And let's go to my prediction off the top here about the champ. My big prediction might come true, Luke. I doubted it as you did. Can Valentina Shanchenko come back and climb that mountain? And the rematch against Grasso, she actually did, Luke. And if they didn't screw her on that 10-8 round, right, she would have won back the championship. So you get the feeling that they're probably going to do a trilogy here.

And I just think if anybody can do what Devis and Figueiredo did a couple years ago at 34 at flyweight, men's flyweight, come back and win the title at an advanced age. And in this case, because Shevchenko's already 35, would add her name to the vaunted Luke Thomas stat of doom that only Tyron Woodley has been able to stand back and stiff arm and win a battle against Father Time. Luke, they say Father Time's undefeated.

We don't know much about Mother Time. So you know what, Shevchenko? I think she gets the belt back. With the fact that Blanchfield's coming on. Hey, Luke, your boy kind of nailed that one, right? Pretty good. Pretty good. You did great last year, I have to admit.

Like Figueiredo, she had been finished by the champion and came back in the rematch, you know, and won it. So it's huge. Luke, your pick didn't come to fruition, although she bounced back. Erin Blanchfield will become the champ in 24. Yeah. No, not enough.

Not ready yet. She's relevant. She's at the top of that division or pretty near it, but too much to say. Okay, was she audited by Firo, or was the fact that Blanchfield rallied back with takedowns enough to say no she just lost the reality is Firo is has a style that just audits everybody you know what I mean I don't

feel like Blanchfield looked bad in as much as which being she looked limited against an opponent like that but Firo is just tough dude she's physical she keeps distance she has good takedown defense she can strike at range she's hard to hit like this she's tough she dude. She's physical. She keeps distance. She has good takedown defense. She can strike at range. She's hard to hit. She's tough. She's tough. She's a tough opponent to look at against. Indeed. Indeed. I think she can still bounce back and get into a title fight, but she's got to really improve on that striking

in the new year. Hopefully she does. Your flyweight to watch at Women's 125 was Macy Barber, who did go 1-0 this this year beating Caitlin sermon, our former title challenger and kind of being on the verge here of some big business in the new year. Luke, I don't consider that an L it's close to a push, but I'll take it for you. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Again,

she didn't do poorly and then had the injury where she was supposed to compete in the second half of the year and didn't. But then we had her on the show when we were talking about our feces and she explained that she's ready to get back at it. So she'll be good. Yeah, I mean, she survived that moment well, Luke, unfortunately, right? There's about to be another one. I'm about to have to go take a dump in the middle of this show.

Oh, that's exciting. All right, my pick to watch in this division, I've had two of them. They both have the last name Silva. Natalia Silva did go 2-0. Wins over Viviana Rrujao and Jessica Andrade to really firmly put herself on sort of the knocking of the outside of the door of the title picture. Karine Silva, on the other hand,

would go 1-1 on the year, beating Lipski, losing to Araujo. So more of a push there. Luke, do you take Natalia Silva seriously as a title contender, or you need to see more? Both. I do think she's got what it takes to contend for a title, but there's not quite enough momentum built behind her.

And so I think that we're not far from a place where a title fight is really in conversation. But at the same time, what was her last fight? Was that the Apex, right? I just feel like you've got to graduate from that a little bit before you're getting title shots, at all possible all right women's straw weight is the final division that we gave predictions for luke thomas mine was the same prediction i didn't realize i just gave the other day about 2026 and that's mackenzie durn will have

another lackluster year she She kind of did, right? Just betting against these people at this point. Going one and one. I mean, look, did you see that HeBoss is a minus 200 betting favorite for Saturday? By the way, UFC Fight Week, we're back. We're back, baby. Okay, we're back. Yeah, we'll talk about that on Friday.

Yeah, but that's true, and it's been true for the last five years, that she looks good in one fight, looks bad in the other, usually in the step-up. But she's had inconsistencies in camp, dedication. I don't know. Your pick? Tatiana Suarez will have a big year. She did not appear in 2024, but did get the title fight that we've been waiting for her to get.

Most of my predictions were good for 2025 and not 2024. Jesus. Luke Thomas' fighter to watch at 115 and 24 was no one. Luke loves women. Looks like, in fact, if they can get an apron, that was where I want to see them in 25. I think that's a little much. But wait, was there anyone?

But to be fair, this division did not have a great year. Did anyone have a year to watch in this division? Like, no. Who had women's MMA had a year to watch, except to go to wayley fall one year to watch except to go to dichova oh jangaroba maybe yeah jangaroba had a decent year she went from like half that's true people didn't know about her to title contention okay fine i mean she didn't have a she had a fine year but like is she a breakout like fighter no no so my pick definitely was wrong i was riding the five fight resurrection win streak of Carolina Kovalkevic

and old KK. Went 0-2, losing to Lucindo and Denise Gomez. But then did the unscheduled Christmas collaboration on, I think, OnlyFans with PVZ. I didn't check it out, Luke, beyond the pictures that floated. Did you buy in? I did not buy in, no. All right.

Are you surprised by that collab, Luke of social media behemoths? I don't have much of a comment on something like this I'm trying not to shit in my pants I'm really struggling We'll talk about this in our Patreon later Luke, we also made general storylines and predictions

for the new year Let's revisit them My number two was oh boy morning combat regains best mma programming at the world mma awards luke we would lose for the second straight year of the dana white contender series uh we didn't have our best year but i will say we bounced back in the shittiest year we've ever had to i think to be doing some great stuff the last three or four months. Am I wrong?

I think that's right, but it was definitely the shittiest year we've had, for sure. All right, let's see if we've found this. Speaking of shit, it's about to be shitty right now. I really have to go take a dump. This is insane right now. I can't control this. Can you call into the stream from the dump every time it blobs or what? Well, Luke, how do I do this? Because I can can't control this i'm actually about to shit my pants if you gotta go

go and we'll just have bc host i mean all right bc i'll be back in like a few minutes okay take me off take me off screen yeah please take him off volume too and and uh wow well luke attacks all of the senses right hang around with him long enough, you'll smell him. Luke's pick, Long Island Luke, his number two storyline for the new year was, one championship will be barely hanging on at the end of 2024. Yeah, I got to ding that, LIL, right? That's pretty accurate. I mean, we don't actually know what's going on behind the scenes,

but I have not heard one good thing from the fighters. Well, I mean, they got another show this weekend. They're pretty consistent. But more and more, we're seeing, you know, Muay Thai in the main event constantly. And I mean, it's exciting with the four ounce gloves. Those Muay Thai, those early morning, I think it's Friday morning. Muay Thai cards are actually fucking sick. Yes.

But I'm never up early enough to really get. All right. My number one storyline to watch out for was PFL needs, this is a direct quote from your boy BC a year ago, PFL needs Francis Ngannou or Jake Paul to fight on pay-per-view or the year will be a bust. Well, okay, Ngannou. I'm giving you partial credit there because they did meet Ngannou.

Ngannou did fight on pay-per-view, and the card was a success. His result was a success. But this year was a bust, right? Am I right, William? No, that's a good point, actually. Like, PFL as a whole had a shit year, and that was your general take there. But I do agree that they need Francis to succeed, or Jake, or Dakota Ditcher. You know, a star.

Yeah, I'm with you on that one. Luke's number one general storyline prediction. Can't believe this didn't come true. The UFC antitrust lawsuit will be the biggest combat sports story of 2024. Yeah. Dude, that went away real fast. Faster than Dana on New Year's Eve, right? Faster than who was that coach that bet on everybody?

Coach that bet on everybody? Coach that bet on everybody? Yeah, with the betting scandal, James. Kraus. Kraus, they just put that. No one ever talks about Kraus at all anymore. That went away real fast. So did. Well, remember, he put out that tweet saying he could make you millions in real estate

or something, and then he disappeared again. I don't know what's going on with Kraus. He had a good run. All right. So I guess we had a good run. So long, I don't look. Without doing the math, would you say, since he can only hear us from the stall, from the throne, that, you know, I had a pretty damn good year picking, you know, picking the future in mixed martial arts. You had a great year.

And as I was going through them, trying to find the clips, I was like, shit, these are all going to be BC getting them correct and Luke getting them all wrong. Luke did call Ilya, though. We got to give him credit on that. Yes. I didn't see that coming. And my L's were more comical, my big L's of Holly Holm. I mean, dude, come on. Holly Holm could have easily ended up in a title.

Dude, my prediction for this year is Holly Holm will headline an event. So for you to say she'll get a title shot, isn't that crazy? That is true. That is true. All right. We only have a couple more topics, so we'll hold up and wait on Luke Thomas right there as he continues to purge and continue his battle against porcelain. Wow, what a just disgusting fellow.

I mean, Long Island, look, you know, I have dealt with the guilt, the lack of self-esteem when I have to urinate mid-show because I'm supposed to be a professional, but I'm so well, you know, I'm fueled by these liquids that I don't, you know, I'm not ashamed necessarily that I have to make, you know, press. But if you're going to take a dump mid-show, you might need to look in the mirror. I agree. And I'm totally with you on the mismanaging of fluids.

In fact, I make a comment about you every show where I'm like, how the fuck does BC drink four drinks during the show? I can barely have a cup of coffee and I'm about to pee my pants. I like when the Long Island comes. A cup of coffee talk. You love every time I say coffee. Yeah, it's very Mike Myers SNL in the early 90s if you're old like me. But, yeah, I hear you.

You know, Luke, you're right. Luke Thomas is just a disgusting human, but you know what I mean? We love him. We stand by him. Just not while he's standing to wipe, of course. But, you know, you wonder about this show sometimes. Like, what could we be if we cleaned up our act? You know what I mean?

That's the thing, you know? We'll probably be canceled anyway, so maybe we'll just keep living on the edge. But thank you, folks, as always, for supporting this show, even during smoke breaks and crap breaks and shit breaks. There, once again, are our lovely handles if you want more from us in the future. Long Island Luke, will we be seeing any content now that the UFC is back this weekend? A fight night Las Vegas card,

headlined, of course, by that rematch between Mackenzie Dern and Amanda Hibas at 115. Will we be seeing content from your channel, the main card man? Correct. I'll be putting out the 60 second breakdown later today. Yes. And I'll put out the 10 minute breakdown tomorrow.

A couple fat dogs on this card I'm looking at. Are you talking about female fighters? Because I would think that's largely insensitive. No, but I do, I don't want to say I like Dern as a dog, but there's value there. Dude, that's the thing. We're obviously going to preview this fight in length on Friday, but, and I know she lost to Hibas the first time,

but the every other fight thing, I mean, dude, like, you know, it's like every six months she puts it together. Right, but she's coming off a win, so this will be a loss. Now, I said 1-1-5. Is this really? This is a strawweight fight, right? Yeah, it is. At least I think it is. Yeah, Hibas was floating between two divisions for a while. Oh, yeah, actually it is. She came back, because I remember looking at

she's 6-1 as a strawweight, and this is at strawweight. L this is actually Luke is back. Oh, he is back. He's back in the chair. All right, Luke. We just you know, we kill time. We talk shit about you and taking a shit. It was great.

Really? To be fair, you know, it's fantastic content. It was good. You need a I think in I think in nearly 20 years of broadcasting, that's the first time I've ever had to interrupt it to shit. You need a cigarette to celebrate. mean you look like you that was like you're vinnie mack coming out of the boardroom this morning this morning was the birth that was definitely the afterbirth i oh that was the death yeah that's the bar show and your banana peels and cigarette butts you name it speaking of number

two luke topic number two, what a transition right there. As we look back now, let's look ahead. Our final preparational chat ahead of this new year is to look ahead at matchmaking in 2025 in the sports, of course, of boxing and mixed martial arts with our three each per sport of best fights to make. Now, Luke Thomas, this isn't biggest fights to make. This doesn't have to be most important. These are in my, in my, how I think of it, three fights from each of us in each sport that satisfy our fighting heart the most that would get us to go, holy shit, forget working it. I got to be there as I might want to be there as a fan. You know what I mean? Like Luke, what is going to get you out of bed for MMA in 2025 what is your number three fight you most want to see number three

fight that I most want to see so this one is pretty straightforward in fact two of the picks I didn't realize this two of the picks follow along from the 2024 predictions so my number three is pretty simple that's kind of a title, but I really think it's a critical, pivotal one. Bilal Muhammad versus Shavkat Rachmanov. I mean, I think this one is so huge about the division. One, if Bilal Muhammad wins, I mean, to beat Leon Edwards and then Shavkat, to be a champion, I think, given where he was maybe a couple of years ago and the stock that we had for him and the impression about what his ceiling looked like a lot of us were wrong including me I thought he was good I didn't think he was this good and he has proven us wrong already and then if he goes in there and beats what you know I think the boogeyman label is probably off of Rachmanov at this point but still a very very top undefeated contender I think that'd be kind of huge by contrast if Rachmanov wins now I think you have this real formal turnover in the division where even if he wins it's out of the frying pan into the fire where JDM is going to come up the the ranks and probably Sean Brady is going to come

up the ranks and I suspect he's got unfinished business with Ian Gary who has proven to be quite good the the division the welterweight division you know Leon kind of got rid of the Colby and Usman era of it but he was still kind of connected to it. And then Bilal finished them off, but Bilal is still obviously closer to 40 than he is 30, which is sort of a rare thing for a champion. You get this official turnover if Rachmaninoff happens or this turnover of how we ever perceived a guy like Muhammad. It would be an interesting dynamic

and a huge and massively important fight, no matter who wins or which way it goes. Dude, that fight made a huge leap in my eyes in terms of my interest in it. And maybe it's just everything you said, and maybe it's just humanizing to some degree Rachmaninoff, and maybe I can stop for once and always underrating what Bilal can do.

He already broke the age curse at welterweight or below. I really want to see that fight, not in my top three, but, Luke, I'm much more interested in terms of my expectations. And let's do that. My number three, though, Luke, I'm going to go one division higher. I think we should see it next, but we're not because DDP will be taking on Sean Strickland a second time. And look, their first fight was so close.

What, a split or majority? Whatever. It was a decision that thin over five rounds. They're going to do it again. But if DDP gets his hand raised, the number three fight I want to see most this year comes out Chimaev going for the title against that physical behemoth in DDP,

who, yes, is raw and aggressive, but he's also a gamer and a winner and currently on an incredible streak beating current and former champions one after another, demolishing Whitaker, demolishing Adesanya. I mean, youishing Whitaker, demolishing Adesanya. I mean, rallying back against Adesanya in a good fight. The close fight with Strickland,

I mean, he's putting it together across there. But when Chimaev does what he did to Robert Whitaker, oddly enough, going against a guy who had a similar sort of just one-sided takeover of Bobby Nucks there, you got to see if he can do it on this level. sort of just one-sided takeover of Bobby Nucks there. You got to see if he can do it on this level. Luke, is this the fight, at the very least, if it happens, where we find out what Hamzat's made of over five rounds?

Like if the cardio can go the full distance, if the wrestling can be stuffed, and then we'll see what he does next. I almost don't count the Gilbert Burns fight because I still agree that Chimaev, while he did show us what he's made of, he was too focused in that fight on showing us what he's all about and his ability to take punishment and brawl. But yet other fights when he's committing,

I mean, look, is my hindsight wrong? Did Gilbert take away the dominant side of him? Or do you agree with what I'm saying, where that was a shootout that maybe didn't have to be? want to see him in a real five round barn burner at the title level this might be the right fight for that well that's just the thing i mean i don't think uh i i the gilbert burns fight chamaya fought inadvisably he still got the job done but he didn't fight he fought recklessly right i think it's a very fair way to put that um but you're asking about the ddp fight and i gotta tell you i don't really know how the ddp fight goes because first of all ddp has to beat sean strickland let's not

count our chickens uh before they've hatched but assuming that it is him i can't tell if ddp is going to push him in ways that we never imagined and ddp as we know it just finds ways to win that are just remarkable or if he's going to get run over too that we never imagined. And DDP, as we know, it just finds ways to win that are just remarkable. Or if he's going to get run over too. Like, dude, I never saw Whitaker getting just like annihilated that way. I mean, like it was nothing. He ran through him like he was nothing. And we all know Robert Whitaker is a lot more than nothing.

So is DDP. But is Hamzat going to run through him too? Like this notion that like Ddp because he's the champion is the guy best suited to take him five rounds i'm not so sure that's true i really don't know if that's true yeah um so it's hard for me to say i hope because that'd be awesome but i mean this is the hamzat shema i've experienced it's reckless it's wild sometimes it's very very quick and brutal and violent like that's that's what you to get. I want to see it at middleweight. We never got the welterweight title shot, which I

would have loved to see. As much as him versus Perera, him and Poiton, as much as that's a weird idea that is oddly intriguing in so many ways, contrast in style, star value, all of that, I wouldn't turn it down in a second.

Damn, we got to see it at middleweight first. Come on, right? I mean, don't go too far ahead before we actually find out what this guy is really made of at this level. It's hard when in the biggest fights he has absolutely run through people. I don't consider Kevin Holland one of his biggest fights, but considering the scenario of missing weight that badly, having all the negative PR, and then just going out there

and mopping him up in seconds it felt like dude this guy has that extra gear that's just frightening don't let us see it for the first time at 205 at that level right that might be the first time you actually do see it like the way you're describing that's the other part too does he have to go up another

weight class I know does he have to go up another weight class dude who beat Robert Whitaker the way that Hamzat beat him nobody only ddp but that's after like not even that quick is he the first time finished him too yeah i don't think that was the best version of what he was yeah but like dude how long did the fight last with with chamaya a couple of minutes i mean something like that right yeah it was the first one yeah no one beat him like that no one beat him like that not not izzy, not DDP, nobody. All right, Luke, let's go to your second most coveted MMA fight for 2025.

So this one might come as a surprise because my honorable mention, BC, would have been what yours was, which is DDP versus Hamza, but I don't want to double up on it. People are going to say that this is the wrong one, and I know that they're going to say this is the wrong one. don't really care i feel like this is more important for me um and more important for the health of the sport that we kind of encourage these athletes to go in certain directions versus others for me for me i want to see ilia taporia versus diego lopez i think whoa i could accept i could accept Movsar

if there's really a lot of, you know, as like a backup choice, if there's something that happens. I know what everyone's going to say. Oh, it should have been Ilya versus Islam, but I don't really have a ton of interest. I mean, again, it's not quite the right way to put it.

I would obviously happily take it if it's a fight that gets made, but I just don't, I feel like Islam fighting another featherweight is really not the best use of our time i understand going back to what we said previously that if ilia ends up beating charles olivera if he gets that fight then he sort of becomes the number one de facto contender now it's a fight that there's a ton of hype behind i fully i fully grant that but they were getting the cart before the horse you can look at some of my predictions from end of

2023 for 2024 and they were just way too early in certain cases i don't know if we're going to get there this year you're asking about this year and i feel like if ilia is going to stay at 145 which he gave at least some indication he would i know people are down on the contenders for reasons i'm not fully i don't fully agree with i'll put it that way i actually feel like taporia versus diego lopez and I know he might fight Volk, and the whole thing could get disrupted there too, BC. But assuming that that fight gets made, I actually think it's a very difficult fight for Ilya.

I think it's a very fun fight, a very competitive fight, at least in spurts. And I think that Ilya will get his hand raised in the end. But it's one of those fights where it's like, dude, I say this every time. People always think, oh, it's that guy who's going to stop that guy and sometimes that happens but when you're talking about champions standing opposed and accepting wave of contenders it is often the ones you think the least amount or you just you don't really quite see the picture of how they get there they end up causing a lot of

trouble Diego Lopez has offense absolutely everywhere and for a careful but deadly striker like Ilya, that could be a lot of problems for him. That could shut him down, disrupt his rhythm, make things a little bit hard for him, obviously on the ground. Diego Lopez has offense there too. I actually feel like it's the most underrated fight the UFC can make. Between how good it is and what the fan level of enthusiasm for it is,

there's a yawning gap, and I really think it's a mistake. That's a great, great, great fight, and I really hope you get a chance to see it. Yeah, that's a fantastic fight. I didn't think you could pick that off the menu like that. I mean, I thought Islam versus Shavka could be your number two, for example. Maybe it's your number one.

I toyed with that one, too. Okay, so I toyed with that one, too, but here's the problem with that one, BC. Yeah, tell me about it again if they made it would you be like oh you're terrible no it's it's fine it's great it's terrible i'd rub i'd rub it all over my skin luke this is great here's the problem that we run into though the problem is that let's assume shafkat wins against balal which by the way no guarantee but let's assume for the sake of argument that he does. If he does, you're going to tell me that his first title defense is against a lightweight. And it's like,

I understand that there's star power value there. And like, there's reasons to make the fight because if there's enough demand, that's really the only thing that actually kind of matters in the end. But it just seems to me premature. The best kinds of super fights are when you have people who have, and they never made it, but it would have been GSP Silva, where the GSP had reigned over welterweight. Silva had reigned over 185. And then there was this meeting of two, you know, colossus, basically.

Colossi, I guess. That's not what you have here. You have a guy in Rachmaninoff who is still, obviously, undefeated and near top contender, but his stock came down to earth a little bit. And if he wins that's just winning the title you're going to send him right into a super fight against a 155er again it's not like that would be the worst thing in the world it just that doesn't to me I think they should make super fights when the timing is right not just because they want to pit two names together

for the fuck of it. That's where I'm at. I mean, I can't say I don't get it because that's essentially the same argument I have why I don't want to see Pereira versus Chemaev next in a lot of ways. But with that said, good Lord, is that a sexy matchup that doesn't sound like it would be forced

under my big prediction for 25 that Mahachev, if he beats Tariuki in a second time, excuse me, Edmund, sorry for the head movement, that he would just kind of naturally at 33 want to move up and go that way. But yeah, back to Diego Lopez, this would be a very interesting fight. The hunger, the explosiveness. I like that pick for you. My number two.

I put it at number two. Because I couldn't see this countdown. Without having it on there. Even though it's not. You know in a matchup sense. There are more. There are fights I want to see more. But look.

I don't have to explain to you. Why we need to see John Jones versus Tom Aspinall. We need to see it. We need to see it for the sport. For the health of meritocracy. I know that maybe that's a little overblown. John's an aging guy who he's either going to retire or he's not. But due to everything we've been through in this division with Francis, you know, coming up as John's away and leaving just as John's coming in and to not get a fight that is such a slam dunk and would be such a monstrous fight would do more harm for the sport and the future of guys looking to duck each other than anything else. In my opinion, I wish John didn't look as old against even older and more compromised

steep at times. So I would be more excited about this matchup, meaning more excited to the idea of John's chances of winning for the record. I think John can win this fight. It's part of why I want to see it, but I certainly wouldn't favor him. But I want a spectacle. I want fights like this.

We're having Usyk Fury 1 and 2 in boxing. Better be B-Vol 1 and 2. Yes, with the big pageantry of Saudi Arabia and all the money and the glitz and glamour, but it's putting such beautiful wrapping paper on such fights that are so monumental and historic. This has that potential for UFC, especially if they're willing to move past Dana's understandable pushback against the viewer experience and wanting it to be in arenas because you can control every aspect and being anxious about the idea of having it in a stadium. And there's there's weather.

There's other things, although you can have it in a closed dome easily without issue weather-wise. I want them, when they have fights that are this big, like you just explained, the super fights like GSP versus Anderson Silva. This isn't an apples comparison to that, but it decides the hierarchy and the division that we need. It cements John's opportunity to walk away with the sport unquestioned as the greatest of all time. It could launch the next great star out of the UK

and the heavyweight 2.0 that we thought gone could become, but it might really be Espinel. If they do it in a stadium and give that grand feel, it would be a spectacle, an event. I want UFC to give that to the fans, to the business, to the industry, to itself. So I'm going to put that at number two, Luke, because I can't see the year go by without this happening. It's going to happen.

This is not Chael Sonnen telling it to you. I don't have inside information. It's just, it's lining up. They got to pay that man his money. You saw the report of Joe Rogan saying publicly that he heard the offer that John wants is 30 million from the ufc luke i know you've tweeted out a response to that a couple times pay that man his money let's do this absolutely huge fight you let's go let's go just on the money part i saw people like there's it's weird like there's this, everyone seems to criticize Jon Jones, like, the wrong way. And here's what I mean.

Well, it's not quite true, but on this level, it's true. Which is, they're like, oh, I saw someone reply to me, and he wasn't alone, being like, oh, he doesn't have a top 10 gate in UFC, or top 10 buy rate in UFC history. And it's like, well, back up a step here. So if you take out McGregor and you take out Rousey and you take Lesnar, I'm guessing that gets you that, that, that, I'm guessing that alone occupies all of the top 10. I haven't looked at that, but I'm assuming that's what you're going to get. People think that if you're not doing that, you're not really making the UFC money.

And I just have to counter that in the strongest terms possible. This isn't always true, but if you look at what is available in terms of the public data, there is a significant amount of pay-per-view buys that John did somewhere typically between 500 to 750,000 buys. I cannot overstate to you, if you are putting consistently, pretty consistently anyway, pay-per-view buy rates in that range, it won't top McGregor and it won't top Lesnar and it certainly won't top Rousey, but you are making the UFC money hand over fist, hand over fist. 700,000 is a phenomenal buy rate, a phenomenal buy rate. It's not record setting,

but it is massively lucrative. And so if you combine that reality right where he's selling again not record setting but consistently well is the way i would put that there's a couple of aberrations but basically consistently well and then on top of it you recognize that he was paid like what most guys were you know uh the ufc never had to spend approximately uh 20 percent uh year over year in terms of fighter costs, you realize that in asking for $30 million, A, if they paid him that, they would still make all their money back and then make a profit.

That's number one. Number two, the UFC can easily afford it, even if they were to take a loss on this event, which they're not going to. And more to the point, I don't know if you want to call it wage theft, but the reality is he has made the UFC a ton of money that under even a 50-50 arrangement BC, he is left wanting in terms of what he earned

versus what he's been given. You know, I've got a lot of problems with John, but like when he, if it is true, he's asking for 30 million, he's more than right to ask for that. He has earned that multiple times, or at least the opportunity to have a payday of 30 million multiple times over. And people saying, well, he doesn't sell as much as McGregor are deeply, deeply missing the point. He's been a consistently high earner for them and has not been relative to even a 50 50

mark paid anything close to that yeah he deserves 30 million for this absolutely look at the end of the day does this fight appear in if it happens in 25 t-mobile kingdom arena in riyadh or allegiance stadium slash jerry world meaning the the raider stadium in vegas or the the equally big dome in arlington texas i think the only two places that are going to happen are t-mobile i can for sure see t-mobile that's a seems like a no-brainer or uh msg i think those are probably the places they're going to put that um i don't think they're going to put it in allegiance i don't people keep talking about saudi arabia It's like, dude, the UFC retains control over their product. Look what Saudi Arabia has purchased with their relationship with UFC.

Now, not with boxing, but with UFC. With UFC, they sponsored the Noche UFC event, but did anyone there say, by virtue of the kingdom's involvement financially, that they got a bump in pay? No, you did not see that. No, but the UFC got bailed out on the price of it was it was called riyadh season presents ufc no jay so yeah right but how does that what does that have to do with fighter purse that has nothing to do with fighter purse it only has to do with ufc's uh administrative okay can i just counter you i'll

say look the sphere was about the inflated cost of running the dome this fight if it if struggles at the negotiation table, in my opinion, would only be about paying John the money he's asking for. Couldn't Turkey fill in the gaps on the John money, just like he filled in the gaps for Dana on the Sphere money? Couldn't that be the reason why... I don't know how many different ways I can say this.

The UFC does not like to be leveraged. They can afford whatever he's asking. I cannot overstate this. They can afford whatever he's asking. I cannot overstate this. They can afford whatever he's asking easily. Not like they have to find the pennies and the couch. They can easily afford what he is asking. It's not a money issue. It's a leverage issue.

And I don't think they want to set a precedent for any of their A-listers to be like, well, create some demand or however you can do that or let there be demand and then just say i want you know uncle saudi to come in and come rain cash on me they don't they don't want to set that precedent so the last thing last thing last thing the only other thing that saudi arabia has purchased are the events that have taken place there which are good events but even then are not marquee events and if you have pay-per-view points, it's not really involved. They've kept Saudi Arabia in terms of having a hand over decision-making and bouts at distance.

Boxing promoters, they just put their butts in the air and said, you know, this is what we – we'll do whatever. So that's where we are. I just put my butt on the ground, and I had an enormous, enormous shit. So you're saying that instead of, you know, Dana 50K in the post-fight interview, they don't want, hey, Uncle Turkey, bail me out. They don't want that. They don't want that.

All right. From what I have seen, the relationship between the UFC and Turkey has not translated in any way to an increase in fighter purses. I don't think that's accidental. I can argue and just counter that and say it's because the UFC doesn't want to in fighter purses. I don't think that's accidental. I can argue and just counter that and say it's because the UFC doesn't want to raise fighter purses. But this would be a scenario where it might be the only way they could do it to the greatest fighter of all

time and the only way they can make the fight work. So call Uncle Turkey, get the... You know, it's sort of like when you have your confirmation as a kid or your bar mitzvah, it's like, oh, we don't talk to our second uncle in the town over, except for when we have these big events,

because he's going to put $500 in the anvil. I mean, I'll say this. If there is any fight where they could break the rules to make that happen, it'd probably be this one, because I, you know, it's such a huge fight. I'm just saying it's worth reflecting on what the relationship has been to this point before we just lazily be like, oh, the Saudis can afford it. I'm like, guys, this is not an issue of the UFC not being able to afford it.

That's not the holdup. The holdup is that they just don't feel like that kind of money should transfer for one particular bout, period. And they don't want to be leveraged for it. That's the issue my final counter would be that's the the mission statement of the zufa era we're in the era in the tko era have haven't would they prioritize the big event over the one-time precedent i think they'd prioritize the big event if they i can't rule it out i'm not i'm not going to sit here and say that they won't do it because I don't know that either. I'm just trying to say they guide their business

by a very clear directive, typically speaking. Yeah, extraction. Yeah, extraction. And I just don't feel like... I want to be clear. I'm not saying that they won't make the fight or John won't get his money. I'm really not making...

I'm going to remain agnostic on that until it does or doesn't happen. I just feel like, oh, we need the Saudis to bail us out. It's like, the UFC wants to set that precedent? I don't think that they do. I have a very... Well, Saudis might not be here forever, so get your shit paid for now while they're

around. You may have to put the fight in Riyadh. Yeah, the UFC wants to keep Uncle Turkey's money. They don't want you to get it. You know what I'm saying? All right, Luke, let's have you put your money where your mouth is. As you're a journalist and fan, what fight do you want to see most in 2025? I would say that we kind of have been discussing it. It's Jon Jones

versus Tom Aspinall. This is number one. This is the fight to make. This is it. Is Jon going to get his money? I don't know. Is it going to be New York? I don't know. Is it going to be New York? I don't know. Is it even going to happen?

I don't know. I think that this is the most important fight that they can make. It's the heavyweight division. It's the last of John Jones. Again, if he loses, I suspect that there might be another one after that, BC, right? Which is, by the way, something we should— I don't know for sure. If he gets stopped, do you think he's going to come back?

Let's talk about that in a second. But either way, either way, it's's a huge fight it's a great fight a a a literal generational fight right because john jones isn't that much older than tom but they represent two different eras of mma to be quite sure won the past and certainly won the future and also the present to a degree he's already defended the title of the interim title twice at this point or at least whatever it was once but his head he's had it now for multiple bouts um this is it this is the big one this is a this is a generational fight it's a unification fight it's a star making fight if tom aspinall can find a way to win it's just so and by the way just on fight terms itself

tom aspinall has not been tested by a guy that we think like Jon Jones has the ability to test him and vice versa, right? There's just so many different questions, so much interest. This is the one. And again, I've got my differences with Jon Jones, but whatever he's asking for, if it's 30 million or less, I absolutely believe he has earned that. I absolutely think he should be paid that. This is the fight to do it. This is the time to pull that trigger.

This is the big one, metaphorically and literally, make it. Well, it's the JV big one. The real big one is John versus Francis, and we would only get there. I don't know if I agree with that anymore. I don't know if I agree with that anymore. I certainly think, like, by 2023 or 2024's measurement, you know, it would be the JV one, but,1 but like honestly i mean francis is not a big pay-per-view mover i acknowledge that there's that and also like you know dude tom might be that

guy we don't know that's what i'm saying like we don't know let me ask the question though and i would love to get long i'll look afterward after i get your response if john were to lose and i'm just going to leave it at that you can set the terms about what that means but if john were to lose do you think he would want to run it back or would he be content losing on his last fight of his of his career it would depend in my opinion on how much that invincibility the unbeaten record means to him mind you look they haven't overturned his defeat his defeat to Matt Hamill by DQ like but no one counting that as a as. So in a sense, kind of like when Roy Jones only had that one loss by DQ to Montel

Griffith that he avenged by nasty first-round knockout, it was the idea where he doesn't need the O, but we're still looking at him as an undefeated fighter. If that means everything to John, and that was part of his hesitance in why he's been so openly, publicly putting his thoughts in his head out

on a microphone and saying, I don't know. I don't know. You know, like or is it really only about showing disinterest? So the UFC will raise that price and give him what he deserves in that regard. Luke, if, if it's more about the money and not about the, Oh, then if he loses, I, then again, I still don't know. Cause if it's about the, Oh, and he didn't have to protect that anymore. If he lost, let's say it was a competitive fight, but he lost the decision,

maybe if you saw the competitor in him going, all right, I'm no longer undefeated, but I know I can beat that guy. Let's come back and do it, and it's going to be a ton of money. Under that scenario, yes. Under the scenario that he loses dominantly, no. I think he'd walk away and be done.

Because I don't get the feeling, like again, this whole front he's been putting on could be largely fueled by money. It could just be public negotiation 101. But I think there's been enough weirdness coming out of what he's actually saying that has led me to believe that he's questioning himself.

So if he goes out there and finds out the question that he's not on the level of Aspinall at this age, I don't know why he would come back again luke no cedar what do you think if he loses and again you can decide what that means does he fight again i think barring nothing happening outside of the cage yes they fight again if he loses interesting interesting yeah and i don't know how to to your point bc like it's a it an interesting question too. Let's say he would be at least willing to come back, but like if he loses a split decision, does he go through it again? If he gets stopped, does that make it more or less likely?

There's flash stoppages, right? Like there's flash knockdowns in boxing. You could get starched for one second, and the referee looks, then you're knocked out. And in that situation, did you get dominated? No, you got hit by one shot. There's a difference between that and the kind of beating that Jon gave Shogun Hua, right? If Jon takes

an extended beating, no, he's not coming back. That's what I'm saying. Okay. Alright. Very good. There you go. Alright, my number one for 25. Interesting enough, Luke, it was a fight that in one of your earlier preambles, you said you're not interested in for a lot of certain reasons. Unfortunately for you, Luke, it's the fight I'm most interested in. Even though my

bold prediction was that Mahachev, your pound-for-pound king, would move up from lightweight if he defeats Saryuki in a second time and takes his business to welterweight, allowing the door to be open for teammate Usman Nurmagomedov, who's still got to get through Paul Hughes later this month and get to the UFC. But with that said, who is number one and two in my current pound-for-pound top 10 in the UFC on CBSSports.com? It's Oslo Makhachev and Ilya Teporia.

And look, when somebody like Teporia not only climbs the throne like he did in 24, but does it in the most demonstrative terms possible with knockouts of two former champion future legends, both who were in the top ten of pound-for-pound when he did it, which is what allowed him to edge out Poiton in one of the closest fighter of the year balladings that I can recall. It's the idea of if you did that, and by the way, Holloway put up a hell of a fight before that finish. If you did that on these terms at this level, what the hell can you do one division north? And since he's already talking about openly the hard way cut and wanting to

do it, dude, like, I don't, I know we don't always have to do this. I know some people didn't want a second Volkanovski versus Mahatchee fight. I get all of that. This is different from that. This isn't, you know, where Volk had a knockout before against Mahatcheev and now he's coming back down and do it. This is the arguably the two best fighters in the world could have a chance to meet up at the same weight. That's why you get into the sport as a fan

to see the best fight the best. I love the style contrast. I love everything about this fight. The well-rounded games of both. I love it. Give me Mahachev versus Toporia. I mean, look, that is the ultimate, like, holy shit, I might have to be there fight. Whether I'm there as a fan or a journalist,

like, hold my calls I damn don't you it's not on GSP versus silver levels in historical stardom and what they've combined accomplished since they're earlier in their careers but it's pretty damn high up there Luke and it's rare when you can get one and two pound for pound to match up in a weight where we find out I mean we may have just done no we didn't do it recently with Volkanovski and Toporia because Toporia wasn't there yet. But he's there now after the Max fight. I mean, dude.

Volk Islam was one and two, I think. That was one and two Volk Islam? That was the storyline going into it. Okay. I mean, obviously, you know, Luke, in both sports, it's very rare. This would be one of the biggest fights they could promote in a while,

potentially, too, wouldn't it be? I don't hate the fight. It's a great fight. It's a lovely fight. i would love to see it i just doesn't don't you want to see what your boy's made of don't you want to see that it's the same reason why when floyd was running through that that undefeated run that people like me were like did he go to middleweight once just to show us like you want to see the best take on the very best luke do you want to see if he can dance at that level?

So what's middleweight in boxing? 154? No, 160. Jesus, you wanted Floyd at a 60? In hindsight, it's too far. He did well in the three big fights he had at 54. He showed us enough. I'm saying the reason why I would even say

that back then was because somebody is so great and so dominant against fellow elites that you're like, I got to see the limits to that. I got to see what this guy's actually made of. I know. I know. I know everyone's going to disagree with me on this one. And I understand that. I it's just a personal preference thing.

But I really feel like the timing is not ideal. I can think that's the way I would say it. The timing is not ideal. And, of course, the counter to that would be, well, you kind of have to like the timing is not ideal I can think that's the way I would say it the timing is not ideal and of course the counter to that would be well you kind of have to make the timing like the timing like how many times you're going to get an opportunity to put these two guys together or the other combination which is Islam

and Shafkat and I agree that that window is narrow but I'm not like dying to see either of these I got to be honest with you they don't okay I love them if they announced them tomorrow I would I would be like these are cool but if i'm not i'm not pining for them i i let's keep the shavka islam one out of this let's do number one versus two pound for pound am i being too much of a fantasy video game maker is this the best fight you can make in the sport well you just said let's leave islam shavkat out of it i was going to say

personally if we're going to throw islam a two-division super fight like that, I want to see him versus Shavkat rather than versus Ilya. Also, Luke, the reason you're so hesitant on this is because Ilya might lose. Somebody brought the whispers that have been going on behind in the dark to the light, Luke.

Am I worried he would lose? Why would that be a concern? Because you love that man. Because that's your guy, yeah. I don't want Jon Jones to win anymore, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to see a fight where he could win. I don't understand this.

I think it was a question that the world was asking themselves, but Noseda had the guts to bring it to you. I mean mean the guy just polished off two of the best featherweights of all time you know if he lost up a weight class i don't think it would be that damaging to be honest with you let's do also also the bedwetting on this show that would take place if he knocked out islam between youtube motherfuckers oh yeah i'd have to get a life raft to survive the amount of tears that would be streaming down your face and then filling up the room. Oh, it'd be so good. You say that now.

You say that now. All right, let's go to the best sport in the world, Luke. They call it boxing. My number three pick for fights I most want to see. Look, this is like another video game fantasy fight, only it's a very possibility it could happen. We all know David Benavidez is now fighting at 175 because he's not going to

wait for Canelo. The David Morel Jr. pay-per-view on February 1st is going to be must-see TV. But if Benavidez wins, we already know he's being set up in Riyadh season to fight the winner of the February 22nd Better BFB Vol rematch for the Undisputed Light Heavyweight

title. It's actually possible in 2025 that Artur Better BF, if he beats B-Vol a second time, stays undefeated, could take on unbeaten David Benavidez for the Undisputed Light Heavyweight title. I would have thought we'd already seen Canelo Benavidez one and two by now. We didn't. And I don't know if we're ever going to see it. But Luke, holy shit, this would be a spectacle.

Like, you got, like, you know, could you favor Benavidez? First, let's see what he did against Morel. But who cares about that? He'd be an underdog coming in. But this would be a manly, hectic, highly skilled, but aggressive fight. It would be absolutely incredible, especially if Betterby wins a second time. Is that old dog pushing 40,

still fighting for the pound-for-pound number one consideration against Benavidez, who would have really, despite never getting Canelo, stepped up some quality steps, plant on Andrade. Now this, you know, Vodzik and his debut at 175 and now Morel first. Luke, how much would that interest you? Is this fight at 175 or 168? 175.

They're full timers now at 175, Morel and Benavidez. I need to see how Benavidez looks. I mean, it's not just a win here because he looks fine against Vodzik, but not overwhelming. Yeah, like he might not beat Morel, just so we know. Like, we don't know yet. That's why that fight's so good. Exactly.

Or he could beat Morel, but like by the skin of his teeth, in which case you're like, let's slow down. So I need to see how he looks. But I'll say this. If he looks like he looked against Andre or, you know, not even that, but a good plant or something, then yes, I'd be highly interested in seeing a showdown with better be. Hell yeah, let's go. What do you got for me Luke number three? For my number three, it's,

You just have to see it. Or I'm gonna guess that there's a significant amount of market appeal for it. Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia too. Hell yeah, give me that just seems like a no-brainer for a fight that has i mean everyone is suing everybody ryan garcia's burning crosses allegedly or something like that dude it's a freaking soap opera it's a it's a it's and remember i cannot even like i know that i said that

ryan garcia was going to get tuned like a guitar that is I mean one of the all-time worst predictions ever and I understand that but I do want folks to remember the madness of fight week where Garcia had like party voice was drinking in the club until late at night missed weight I mean just a circus beyond circus and then went in there within the first minute of the first round rocked devin haney's shit with a left hook and then of course people also forget haney collected a bunch of rounds like rounds three through six or seven or so uh where he was doing really quite well and then everything kind of came off a couple more times when he got dropped subsequently in that bout. I think two more times after that, if memory serves.

So the whole thing was just the whole thing was fucking madness. Devin Haney saying he's going to be back in March. Obviously not against Ryan Garcia, who's still suspended. So there's a little bit of business to be conducted. And, you know, we'll see what kind of state Ryan Garcia is in by the time he is reinstated from his one year ban as well. But B.C., I mean, am i lying and saying that there is just an enormous i mean it's one of the biggest rematches you could make oh yeah if not the biggest rematch you could make in the year and it's going to be so palatable to the casual fan to jump over and

be like oh yeah i know that situation i know that story i know that that fight let's do it again a second time look my second fight is going to be right involved there with the five kings if you want to call them that of in and around the 135-140 division. We've only seen two iterations of this group fight each other. Both have involved Ryan Garcia once against Tank Davis and, of course, the first fight with Haney. Damn right, I hope he rematches

Haney and that would have been my number four pick. But my number two pick is a fresh matchup. How about Ryan Garcia versus Teo Fimo Lopez Jr.? And I know Teo and Devin Haney have been talking trash. We'll get to Devin Haney's future in a second, but Luke, Ryan Garcia versus Teo Fimo Lopez Jr.? And I know Teo and Devin Haney have been talking trash. We'll get to Devin Haney's future in a second. But Luke, Ryan Garcia versus Teo in the ring would be so quick, twitch fiber, explosive. It would be incredible.

And the lead in with how, you know, we think of Ryan Garcia as unfortunately at times being crazy. Dude, Teo has been wild and out of control lately. I mean, both guys have used the N-word, unfortunately, Luke. That's not the direction I wanted to go here with this matchup, but it is the reality. Tell me this wouldn't be an offensive just joy to behold, to watch in the ring. Yes, it would certainly be the kind of madness

that you tend to prefer. I think it's a good way to put it, right? Hulk Hogan will be the special guest referee right you know dog the bunny hunter would be the timekeeper it'd be great oh that's hilarious uh yeah but listen there's a market for chaos and that fight brings it and the 140 title let's do it let's do it let's do it it would absolutely work i can't say otherwise it would work it would work all right for my number two bc i struggled with this one because my number one is clear and so i didn't know which direction to go for my number three

honorable mention i'm gonna say uh canelo and um bud but i just don't think it's very likely to happen so i can't really put it on my list oh they're talking about it it's it's it's still kind of out there as a possibility i just find it unlikely i don't know i find it unlikely i hope i'm wrong jesus i hope i'm wrong and based on my 2024 predictions there's a good chance i am right um virgil ortiz and boots that's the one i want to see i really want to see that one boots had a big debut signing with match room and it's not gone poorly exactly but it has been no boost from his fortunes at well again at pbc we know he's not really a pbc guy but you know had a pbc friendly essentially relationship it's been no change and And in fact, maybe even worse.

And some of the things that people have said about him, like he's ducking this guy and he's ducking that guy and he's ducking this one. You know, I think some of that might be overstated, but not all of it, BC. Like there has been a moment where we've kind of been waiting for, for boots to break out and he just hasn't broken out. And not only that, this fight would be all action. It would be important for well I mean 154 essentially I mean I know he he was saying I might go 154 147 but certainly in 54 to interrupt you the latest news is that boots is talking with Stani Onus about a welterweight title unification which is fine but that's not on the level of this one I mean it's just not

you know in terms of the interest level Virgil Ortiz is not the slickster. I don't think that a guy like boots is, but he's hard nose. He's devastating. He's very good. He's in your face. The kind of guy I think that could give boots who is defensively lazy or at a bare minimum, not optimized could cause real problems. Like it's just a moment for boots to either show us who we thought he could be or for Ortiz to sort of set the record straight about what the pecking order actually looks like and either way you're going to get a dynamite fight out of it I love that one BC I really hope they find a way to make that one happen I love that pick uh my number one pick look I'm going to be consistent I say it all the time whenever we talk about what's the fights you want to see most it's not as sexy at the moment because both haven't had great years in terms of marking themselves by staying busy

and upgrading their competition, although I credit Tank Davis for that Frank Martin win. He just hasn't been busy, and who knows if he's even fighting Roach in March. I hope. But we saw that weird cryptic tweet from him. We saw that new hairstyle on social media yesterday, which was interesting as well.

But, you know, at the highest level, I love skill versus skill. Dude, Tank Davis and Shakur Stevenson give it to me? Give it to me at lightweight. Unify the titles. Finally, this would be the fight that both badly need. For Tank, it would be the highest level critical opponent where people would probably be split or, you know, some pick in Shakur to beat him there,

where he'd have to prove against a contemporary, same weight, same age group, you know, same era here, that he can have to prove against a contemporary, same weight, same age group, you know, same era here, that he can do this on the level of him. And that's what Shakur has shown. For Shakur, it certainly would be that same thing, but it would also be that one giant commercial fight that he's been grasping for but hasn't been able to get.

And I know he hasn't always been his own best advocate inside the ring. He got booed out of his own home arena, switched promoters. I know everything that's happened had an injury recently but if you put these two together the ones that know the hard cores know that that's as great of a fight as you can make in the entire damn sport i want answers i want these guys to fight each other while they're still in their 20s and in their

primes come on five kings five princes whatever we're calling you make this era great by fighting each other and going out of your way to do it. Uncle Turkey's there. If we need a financial boom, we need five booms. We can get that too. Luke, let's make it. I want to see skill versus skill, best versus best. Let's go. That's a good one. It doesn't move me. Okay. It does move me quite a bit. I just find it so unlikely. I just don't. I mean, I'm not even sure if we're going to get to the Lamont Roach finish line,

much less the Shakur Stevenson finish line. But if they made it, it would be fucking epic. It would be huge. It would be fantastic. I would love it. I have not a single bad thing to say about it, other than I just don't know how likely it is. But for my number one BC, this is an easy one.

I don't think anyone's going to be super surprised by this. I'm not saying it's the biggest fight for anybody else, although I do think for some it will be. Simple. Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua. It's not what it once could have been. Okay, fair enough. But it's still pretty great, and it's still big, important, could set up for

phenomenal atmosphere, could set up for phenomenal action. I think it still settles something pretty important, and you know, BC, I'm not going to put it on the same level of like, it's the heavyweight British version of Garcia Haney. I don't think that's quite right, but I do think between them, you're going to get a crazy guy acting out in Tyson Fury and sort of the straight man as it were in either Devin Haney or in this particular case Anthony Joshua and you're going to get a fun contrast in the build up to it I think that fight has to go in the UK and not necessarily in Saudi Arabia I don't know I don't know how Saudi Arabia feels about that, but I'm just pointing out that fight for me would be so fun, so interesting, so weird.

It's my number one boxing fight to make. Well, look, it's a great pick, and it has to happen. We need it. Turkey was willing to put Dubois versus AJ in front of, what was that, 96,000 at Wembley? This fight, if you can cram more bodies into that building, they'll find a way. This is that fight. And as much as you would rather see this fight, if both

were unbeaten champions unifying to get an undisputed champion, it didn't go that way. But a second best option is two former champions who still have something in the tank and a chip on their shoulder from recent big-time losses looking to redeem themselves against one another to work their way

back into that undisputed title shot. It's central casting still, even at this point, even with both having a couple of losses here. So yeah, great choice. Need it. Hope we see it. Think we'll see it next. It's a perfect Riyadh season in London fight. Let's do it. So there you go, Luke. Before we get to DM from Donks, I need one answer from you. Quick shot of a couple right here. Number one, best MMA fight this year you want

to see outside of the UFC. I would have said, as I've always said, Usman Nurmagomedov versus AJ McKee. We never got that one. I'll take Usman versus Paul Hughes. This is going to be a hell of a fight in just a couple weeks here and to kick off the Road to Dubai series. Is there any fights outside of UFC that you're itching for?

Definitely that one. I'll be very curious to see what they're going to do with Dakota Ditcheva it's not a name that you're asking or you're asking I don't have one but like I that seems to me like appointment viewing for 2025 trying to think through the rest of their champions obviously I want their guys to stay busy um I think what happens with Francis on the MMA side we didn't really talk about it's kind of big um I don't know who they're going to put him up against that i saw people saying nemkov i don't know francis comes back for that that seems a little speculative um i'd have to think about that one a little bit more because here i was last year being like i've got all these plans

for pfl bellator yeah you got nothing don't come true so i'll have to see but like for sure there are some and again i would love to see patch I mean, that's sort of relatively simple. I would love to see him just in action more regularly and then kind of let drama and different feuds build. But right now there's just not a lot building, right? Okay, what about if they did some kind of catchweight Patchy Mix, Patricio Pitbull, make them both happy you fight each other. There's not much meaning there outside, you know,

because the belts are secondary. I mean, they're giving away belts if you win a pay-per-view fight at this point so um yeah i'd take that in a heartbeat uh quickly it'll close luke mk in 25 do you have any predictions to make oh jesus fuck no do you have any like where will we be one year from now i hope not dead um here's the thing we i got beaten like a dog this year so it's very hard like a dog tar yeah yeah you're tuned up like one yeah yeah i got two i got i got tuned up like a fucking guitar this year so um it's a little hard for me to be optimistic and and uh you know in a ready for show kind of way. I mean, I'll let you take this one away BC cause I feel like you got a better vision

for it anyway. Get us on the road a few times this year. Agreed. Get us in a studio, a fun house studio or, or a consistent setting where we can bring back a pregame preview, bring back an RSD. Um, you want to be there for the three or four biggest events, boots on the ground, doing the content we used to do.

We get back to that with two strong shows a week like we've been running of late. Long Island Luke raising the rent around here. Mikey's lingering. We got the skeleton core of what we were, and we add a couple more back, and we build up, and we build stronger. We could be entering 26 a year from now, Luke.

I mean, you never want to say regaining where we were because we used be entering 26 a year from now luke i mean you never want to say regaining where we were because we used to have a stupid budget in hindsight well but regaining that spot we had in the minds of our contemporaries of the viewers of the fans you know what i mean where it's like shit no matter what's happening i gotta see what mk says about it let's get back to that i think we'll get there. All right, Luke Thomas, that's the end of us answering our own questions. Well, we killed a lot of show with not much, so that's great. Oh, Devin Haney, sorry, really fast. So Devin Haney, the news is that he's going to come back in March,

and it looks like the report that will be on BLK Prime against Adrian Broner isn't necessarily true as the true opponent of his return has not been revealed or what the platformer situation is. And obviously with Ryan Garcia's suspension not being up until April, we know that this is in some form going to be a tune-up fight. So we think.

Lou Caney has not handled the fallout of his loss to Garcia well, in my opinion, from a PR standpoint, suing him afterwards, all that. He hasn't fought since then, whether that was to heal the jaw or not, I don't know. Long Island Luke, can we show the footage that he put out this week of him getting back into training? Luke,

what do you want from him in March? How tough of an opponent? How much should he jump back into this pool? Because we know to close the year, we've got to see him in really big fights in and around this 140 weight class. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how I feel about an opponent, but i do think he needs a tune-up there's just no question in my mind that was a bad loss he took a lot of damage against garcia and his stock fucking collapsed like everyone who decided they didn't like him

came out of the woodwork on this one and he needs he needs to get back into it, I think, in an easy kind of way. Boxing is good for this relative to MMA anyway, so you would be better than I would about a name. I have no fucking clue who it would be other than it should be a tune-up. Yeah, I'd like a little more than a tune-up. I know he's already beaten Regis Progress, so I don't want him, but somebody like that, an aging veteran who may be able to give him some trouble, but we want to see him get the mojo back.

I wouldn't even hate, by the way, the Broner fight. I know that's saying a lot because he just got schooled by Blair the Flair on the comeback. But I mean, the idea of just let's see him look good in a fight that we might care about for that night only, but he's got to rebuild that. The interesting thing, obviously, is that he's a promotional free agent. He could, in

theory, kind of go anywhere. You can go anywhere anyways now with Turkey around. But let's see a step up to some degree, shake off the rust, and then you got to go big. Look, you got to go, in my opinion, right back into Ryan Garcia, meaning no matter who he fights in March, make Ryan Garcia as soon as possible, May, June, whatever, because I think the only true way to get the mojo back,

get the reputation back, is to go back in there and have the result against Ryan that we all thought should have been the first time around. And it would make him a lot of money, too. I mean, stop with the lawsuits, all right? Let's get through this. Let's get past that point. Enough with the lawsuits, I agree.

Would you be moved by Teofimo as we show quickly the tweet as they had a back-and-forth? Teofimo now questioning the blackness of Haney's skin. Teofimo on this racial attack of late. Dude, he's got issues. He's got real issues about this. Yeah, and Haney would call him out for that and then say, stay off them pills you love so much,

and you know exactly what I'm talking about, too. You also see Teofimo is trying to get up on Nina Drama. I mean, this guy's all over the place lately on socials. You know we love Teofimo, but he's a wild card, Luke. What was he doing with Nina? Thirst reacting. Oh, I see. Just being horny on the internet?

Something like that. All right, that's from us. Let's hear from you now. You know every Sunday night at Morning Combat on Instagram and Twitter, we put out the call for your questions. We got five of them. We're going to answer them. This is DMs from dogs.

Alrighty, let's hit it, people. What do you got for us? This first one is from at Emery Nix, in your opinion, who was the toughest MMA fighter of all time. Someone who just kept going forward no matter what. Luke, this is different than who has the greatest chin although that certainly helps to to be in this category but is there someone that you've identified that's just tougher than the rest uh i don't know about tougher than the rest they're all pretty fucking tough to be honest with you but i think one guy that the current generation might not realize or appreciate was really really really tough in his day is the

original dentist josh neer there were a bunch of guys who copied that nickname after him but he was the original and in his prime he was limited he was limited but he was i mean you know if you actually i think it's the drew fickett fight where they're talking about it and in the in ufc and you can even hear rogan being like this is just not a guy you're probably going to stop unless you just put him unconscious like he's not he's not ever going to tap he's not ever going to quit

you have to you have to separate him from consciousness in order to win and he did he wasn't the best fighter but he was insanely fucking tough Josh Neer. Would you throw Lionheart Anthony Smith in this discussion? Sure.

Sure. Absolutely. I mean, I mean, it's not like the ability to take punishment should be like a highlighted skill, but the dude was just tough as freaking nails to his own detriment. You know,

it's relevant. Someone was asking me the other day, BC, like how come you look at promotions like cage warriors relative to UFC and then cage warriors will have a higher finishing rate relative to ufc fighters and the answer is a bunch of things one of which is you've got more mismatches at the at the international regional level right you'll have guys who eventually go on to ufc versus guys who never get close and that means that the defense is not going to be as good but the other thing that i think people really sleep on is i make this point all

the time bc if you go to like a a local mma show right like just the dudes around the way that are fighting there'll be like 20 or more fights on a card and they do that because the fights last like 30 fucking seconds most people don't realize how yes the guys at ufc level have good defense or whatever but more than that they just have unnatural chins most people just take the one single shot and it's over and of course even for tough guys that can be enough too but typically it's a little bit more for them if they these thick-necked motherfuckers dude they're hard to put away and you can see guys at the regional level who have good skill but just don't have that same

kind of durability that no gara level durability and so that explains partly too that i've seen guys get to the ufc level who are not necessarily that great but just fucking old shoe leather you just can't put them away you know matt brown matt brown's pretty tough i wouldn't he was more technical than you're giving him credit no at the very peak yes but but that the toughness certainly reigns supreme throughout he was more enforcer, more than durable guy. But Noguera in particular was one of the most durable guys I've ever seen. The pride knock, the shots that Big Nog would take in pride and just keep going was just- Dude, he injured his neck badly in the Bob Sapp fight and then went on to fucking armbar the guy.

And Bob Sapp was pushing 400 pounds in that contest. Can we sell much? Nogueira is another level. Brazilians built different. That's going to be the new t-shirt for MK that I'm going to sell and make millions off of. Let's go to Cormac O'Hagan. Sounds like a fine Irish lad, I think.

Says, if DJ Mighty Mouse Demetrius Johnson came back and got the title shot at 125, would he be favored over Pantoja? We must add, by the way, that DJ's basically been fighting at Bantamweight since going to one championship due to their heart rate rehydration clause said he stopped being a 125 fighter after the Cejudo rematch. Luke, do you think he could cut down to 125

one more time if he wanted to? And what would be the line on that? The line is a question for Noseda. But do i think he could do it yes what would the line be no cita i'm gonna put dj as a slight dog just because time off you gotta you've got it yeah but it would be close i'm gonna say dj plus 125 let's not forget pantoja's on a run right now okay even though i picked against him with kkf yeah but he's on a run i now, okay? Even though I picked against him with KKF. He's on a run right now. I'd favor Pantoja as well, but obviously it's DJ. You've got to be respectful of that, right? You've got to be wiser.

Next one. This one's from Inside Underscore Spectrum. Who would be the most likely candidate to become the three-weight world champion? We're not talking about Anatoly Malikin with three hydration rules in one. We're talking about the traditional way. Also, hypothetically speaking, if Alex and Ilya do become the three-weight world champions,

wouldn't Ilya's status be higher because he did it in a way more competitive weight class? You certainly could argue that. But Luke, I always thought it'd be Conor. Right now, Poiton's probably got the best chance to go for it. So who, though, at one point, tried to push himself into a Volkanovski fight to get it who will be the first fighter to actually do it? I know that's an impossible thing to predict but are you leaning one way? I mean Poetan's got the best chance

because heavyweight isn't that far of a leap, it's a leap dude, I mean it's a freaking leap, but it's not impossible with his power is it Teporia? Are you going to Teporia me right now Luke? I mean, it's a freaking leap, but it's not impossible with his power. Is it Teporia? Are you going to Teporia me right now, Luke? I don't think it's Teporia. I mean, 145, yes, obviously. 155 is a maybe.

I don't know how likely it is, but you certainly couldn't rule it out. 170, I don't think so. I mean, Chimaev, it would have been that dude if he had already collected the one at Welterweight and then was done there. Then you're like, okay, I could see him winning at middleweight i really don't i i i think somebody could do it coming up from bantamweight i think that's possible honestly i don't think anyone on the current roster does it but you're right the best chance is going to be poet on because he could fuck around and you know he's a big power and you never know at heavyweight i wouldn't i wouldn like his odds, but he's got the best shot.

Look, are we missing anybody that would be perfect for this idea? No, honestly, I don't have anyone. That's the best insight we can produce. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Let's go to our next. Nah, I'm going to hit this bong. Let's go to our next question here so we can fit in that ish.

What do you got for me here from at Von Beck Cal? Is BKFC the second most successful combat sports entity right now? Now, you have to add this into the... Well, let me ask you this. As much as we can say is PFL number two in MMA is one championship, blah, blah, blah. You said combat sports. That means he's including all of boxing, too.

I get... Okay, maybe you're right. What if we threw BKFC just in the mma competition here's the one thing that they do have going for them they're gonna put 15 000 people in philadelphia for eddie alvarez versus jeremy stevens in that that sort of wrestlemania not what do they call it knucklemania card they do luke very few combat sports promotions can do that right now maybe in boxing there's more and bkfc isn't traditional mma or traditional boxing but they need more respect than we probably give them for

their health and staying power at the moment i admit that if we're just talking about mma brands which they're not but they're kind of closest to it based on who they sign and what their fan base is then you could maybe make a case that they're number two i think you could do that um they have a fan base but pfl really does not and i think that's a big difference but at the same time it's not like it only works because it's not mma and it's certainly not number two in all of like all of uh that's true sports no that is definitely true but credit to them because they're driving the one thing that a lot of people are having trouble with. Consistently moving tickets.

They're doing that to some degree for their big events, for sure. For their big pay-per-views? Yes. And they've got McGregor, for better or worse, which is interesting. All right, one more from the fans. Let's hear what you have to say. This is from Ad MMA Fan Belfast. Question for Luke.

What is your top three, my dad is so tight he wants... We know this man, Robert Thomas, once gave Arby's and Roy Rogers coupons as Halloween gifts. I also was raised by a cheap dad who would refuse to pay five bucks a month in the

90s for caller ID so we didn't have to stop answering the phone from solicitors. My dad was always like, certain things he would just never entertain. Other things he'd spend through the window for, but what was your dad like? We never had air conditioning growing up until I was just about to enter college. We always had to deal with it in the summer. Just suck it up. Are you shitting me?

You never had AC in the summer? Not until at the very end of high school holy shit so you would just cook in august huh oh yeah we so you just you put a fan like what directly next to the bed and just yeah um here's an example of him being so like the roy rogers one is is great handing out roy rogers coupons that's a great one on halloween another one was he one time asked me to well i think i was wanting like some money he's like we'll wash my car and i was like we need car washing equipment and he i'm not i'm not doing a bit he asked me to wash his car with tide like like clothes detergent because it was all he had i was like we can just go we can

just go to the store and buy this shit he was like just use that i'm like okay all right well that's yeah that's a terrible fucking idea um what's a i mean he was just constantly fucking cheap like it it was everything it was like if the standard was x he was sub x all the fucking time he had a betamax player luke there shout out to that that's right we had instead of getting a vcr my dad had a fucking betamax player he was like the rest of the world uses this. And it turned out that we didn't. So it didn't really fucking matter if Japan used the goddamn Betamax. Did he use the metric system in your house too?

Did he force that on you? No, he didn't do that. I'm trying to think if it was anything else. But then, you know, the one time. And then this is, I told you guys this before. But like the one time he came off of his pockets. And he got his Reebok pumps with the basketball on the tongue. My parents were divorced. And my mom made him send it back and I never got to wear them

one time. It was devastating for me. That would have been a big moment for you. Where would you be right now if you had those? You know what I'm saying? Late a lot more. Happy. Content.

Not longing for things. Thank you for your questions, DMers. Don't forget, again, our email address is morningcombat.gmail.com get your fan subs in get your dead wrongs in for this Friday's episode our final segment is the best segment in all of combat sports it's when I search the internet for the highs and lows the good the bad the ugly the in between in the worlds of combat sports

and beyond this one's called have you seen this show hey Luke it's the new year so let's kick things off with some big booms let's head over to the balcony the fireworks are about to start oh damn you titty wow that's a's a foley, Luke. Wow. Yeah. Those Fox Sports 1 offices are different. Oh, wow.

There we go. Speaking of big booms, Luke, AJ, Big AJ, and Big Justice had a cameo where they laid some respects to a fallen person. Oh, we're so sorry to hear about your brother that passed away. He gets five big booms. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. brother that passed away he gets five big booms boom boom boom boom boom that's got to be ai edited like best with they couldn't have said that it's the saddest thing i've ever seen they couldn't have said that look they couldn't have come on and who is the person

who paid for that and what did they pay for like how much was that i don't know but that's that's brilliant content so we need to get we need to get some boom cameos. Like, I got gonorrhea, but they caught it early. That goes five booms. Yeah, yeah, indeed. Luke, you know it is time to get those holiday decorations away because you don't want to be that person in your neighborhood. But watch Uncle here trying to mess with the tree.

You got to be careful. Don't fall. Thank you. I hear it cracking. Oh, my God. Yeah, time to put it away. Put it away for the year after that, Uncle. Cancel Christmas.

Cancel 2025. Who puts a giant fat man on top of a chair on top of a table and thinks that's a good idea? Did it all for the gram. Luke, in Connecticut, we have roof rakes to prevent the roof from icing up and dripping down. Yeah, watch this guy turn it into a treadmill to save his own life. That's not a roof rake.

This is just a dog. Oh, wow. He almost didn't make it there. Wow. Yeah, that's not a roof rake that's just a man running in place like a dog on on uh linoleum floor or something oh luke there's christmas but then there's the morning after when you gotta deal with this you know that was me during the show by the way bc did you see who responded to my thing they tweeted about it on the show account

and i reached oh that's great and um social people shouts to to eric bickle eric bickle is one of the hosts he's been the host here for 30 years on the morning show on 1067 the fan here in dc the sports junkies he replied to me he was like you do what you need to do in the middle of a show don't feel any embarrassment when you gotta go you gotta go shouts to eb i see you there you go well luke the winter's here in dc you'll be out on the sidewalk shoveling let's tune into this oh big mama's about to have it make sure you put that rock salt down oh wow all right and uh she did the split and you could hear a thousand fucking tendons and ligaments snap and rip in real time. And then she just slides down the fucking...

By the way, did you hear her huffing and puffing? Oh, yeah. Someone get her an oxygen... Someone get Albert Hainsworth over there a fucking oxygen tank. Oh, my God. That's her last Christmas, Luke. She gave us her heart. You know what I mean?

Wow. Luke, it might be time to return those weird Christmas gifts She gave us her heart. You know what I mean? Wow. Luke, it might be time to return those weird Christmas gifts you got. Let's go back to home goods with this one. No. No. No, no, no. Yeah, that's that Fox Sports one.

Okay. Luke, I just recently went to Paris and my wife won't stop talking about the wine, the bread. It doesn't make you feel gross. They didn't pump it full of American chemicals trying to kill you. But did you ever wonder why the French bread tastes so good? Watch

this. Oh yeah. You get that dookie bread. Oh yeah. Yeah, you get that. You get that butthole bread. Oh yeah. Touch all that. And then hold on. You get to the store and then, you know. You gotta check it for me. Oh gosh. Just then you know Oh yeah you get that one Oh yeah

Just like this Look at that, you get that butt cheeks Yeah Oh look this next clip brings new meaning to the term got that dog in ya Oh, how's it going man? It's going terrible Uh, why's that? I just found out I have that dog in me

Isn't that a good thing? You think this is a good thing? You think this is a good thing? Oh, God. Okay. All right. Look, I don't know if you're still... Where is the drive-by shooter when you need one? That's brilliant.

Look, let's check in with the homeless. They're getting more political, Haley. Do anything for a dollar but no okay all right listen beggars can't literally be choosers you understand well they can if they find a great place to sleep look at this homeless motel luke this is innovation take this shit out look at this shit no motherfucker's sleeping in there

warm right you know what to the victor goes the spoils he claimed that manifest destiny he claimed that that's actually ingenious there's like a TCBY fucking signage there he took that out and was like you know what

gonna call this home suck a dick but Luke the panhandlers need to stay off the skateboards though all right i look like the nyc i always just assume that if you're was that a white guy with dreads it was a white guy with dreads right yeah right i always look yeah Was that a white guy with dreads? It was a white guy with dreads, right? Yeah. Right? I always, look, yeah. Boom! No, because the stop sign on the back says pare, or pare, pare. It's a stop sign, so it's Latin America.

But I just assume that if you're, if you've culturally appropriated dreadlocks and that's not, like, where you come from, I assume you're naturally a little sick. Like I assume like, you know, him vomiting that way, just sort of like, you know,

it all kind of lines up as like a singular identity. You know what I'm saying? Interesting. Uh, Luke Arcao of the week from boxing. Uh, look at this rope edge here. Oh,

my goodness. A soft landing right there, right? Weebles wobble, but they also fall down. I mean, wow. Luke, have you heard about the Weekend at Bernie sequel that's coming out? You know, I thought Jimmy Carter. Oh, boy. I mean, they say not to listen when there's a solar eclipse.

They say not to look right at the sun. But Lopan over there is on his last leg. So let's just be clear about that. Time for MMA fighters in the wild. We always ask what if the MMA fighters were like one of us, Luke, just a slob like one of us behind an Arby's. You ever get any good gas, any good stuff to huff out there whippets back in the day not not the dental gas back when i used to work at a restaurant we used to crack them whippets oh yeah i knew dp was like us luke i knew it right let he who's without sin

cast the first stone uh luke you know phil roe right the ufc fighter yes he used to spar with david benavidez back in the day listen to this story so i trained with david benavidez for a while no way let's go so 2013 i was going a lot and honestly he was like kind of wide in box he would me up bad effortlessly people like phil you can box i'm like yeah but this fat fat Spanish kid beats my ass. And they didn't know him. No one knew him. I swear. I would go everywhere and tell people about this guy. He was like 6-0 at the time.

He only had fought in Mexico. He wasn't 18. And he would f*** people up. He would spar Ryan Bader. Pow. Down. C.B. Dalloway. Pow.

Down. See you later. But he's on a level, though, dude. Bro, he was 17. Yeah, that's so crazy whatever you wanted to pop bow down done for the day i'm done yeah he won a world title at 20 by the way just to that podcast those guys are cool man um uh i would love to collab with them in the 2025 if there's ever an opportunity is phil a whole a host on there or i don't think so i think

it was just a guest okay uh luke you Roman DeLige came out on this same segment and spoke out against artificial bong making in the nation of Georgia. He's not going to like this next chick. Fucking Morgan. Oh, my fucking God. You know, death don't bother me. Death don't bother me. Death do bother me a little bit.

Just a little bit. Oh, my God. Bitch, you got this. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my god. Oh my god Luke, that was just Christmas morning at the Noseda. Is that how that got in there? Yeah.

Well, now, Luke, that's very big of you to put the women in your life on the show. No comment. Luke, I just realized right now that we've actually run this next one before but it's so good we had to bring it back you know what they say about pierced titties right pierced titties taste like house key okay time for your t-shirts of the week let's hit it feeling cute might clog the toilet later that's your boy that's your boy speaking of balls let's go to the next one god knew i would be too powerful if i had regular bowel movements yeah i could see you wearing that look that's a little much he knew he knew right all right let's keep it going watch the carpets here boss please dress comfortable but

at the christmas party me bukkake ruined my car okay what the fuck go back put that picture up first of all look at this place and look what he's eating my man is just eating hot dogs looks like a halfway house luke it's he's looking at what's in the back there and the underneath his left hand what's in the back like on crates some bottles of water looks like modelo or something possibly yeah this is this is the weirdest christmas party and of course they've got a camera in the upper right hand corner you better on these freaks uh luke uh we have a bonus for you it's a hat of the week call me the twin towers the way her bush has me oh my god oh wow i mean you said it not me my oh boy god okay speaking of that let's go to this next video It just hit the second tower.

All right, that's too far. That's too far. Well, Luke, New York City, speaking of, has a subway system that can kill you. We've seen it a few times. Check out this guy. Free Diddy. Free Diddy. Free Diddy, baby, all day.

I'm my mama, Free Diddy. Free that freaky engine. What do y'all free that freaky engine? It's a big slide. I want to be clear. I want to be clear to everyone. When you see clips like that of the New York City subway, BC and I can tell you it is as accurate as you might imagine it to be. As advertised. That is what it is like.

It is like that. Yep. Let's keep the fun going on the subway. It's also like that too, Luke. Okay. Dog, I cannot overstate to you. I cannot overstate to you how accurate this is. This is accurate.

Look, you know, one of my favorite content creators is that guy who goes to department stores and farts in front of people? Let's check in on him. You want some oh look that's you in first class without question with no class i have a little bit see here's the difference between me on airplanes like do i fought do I fart audibly on airplanes? Yes.

However, the difference is because of the sound of the engine, it's usually drowned out. But I make no effort to conceal. That's the reality. That's the guy who holds that mirror up when he goes to Walmart and takes videos of, like, you know, his eyes through the mirror looking back at them. That's creepy.

Let's go to the crowd surfing. Always a dangerous activity, Luke. You got to watch out here. Oh, boy, there's a man down. Okay. Well, it's a very inclusive environment, though. You got to... They tried. They made a good faith effort.

They did try. They didn't think the physics through very well. Your rap bars of the week here. Deliver them. This is my area, and I'm afraid to fuck you because your ass is full of bacteria Right a constant problem that we all run into Indeed Luke one of your marine buddies got interviewed by barstool this week the dumbest decision that you made this past year She was $40.

I'm not going to lie. Wow. Thank you for your service, sir. You think that's a joke? No, not really. Honestly, I think that the armed services keep more of street prostitution in business than maybe any other entity. Your government tax dollars at work. The soldiers fill the hotels on the weekends, Luke, if you know what I mean. Fleet week, my friend. Fleet week.

Wow. I've got a couple more for you, Luke. Have you ever met the strongest MF-er in the world? We have him on video. I'm the strongest motherfucker in the world, bitch. I think you were high when you put that into the list. Probably. Luke, our last one, just good news. Just 150,000 more YouTube subscriptions on the Morning Combat channel until you

and I are forced to do this. I'll meet you in the middle, Luke. Okay. We're not going to lady and the tramp a fucking banana. You understand? Yeah, I got you. We are not going to do... No, we're not doing that.

That's all the shit I could find this week, Luke. I hope you saw it. There we go. BC, how are you getting home? Did you stupidly decide to take the bus again like a fucking idiot? No, I'm getting on the train. There's no snow in New York or Connecticut. Oh, that's right.

It all went down to you, so we're fine. I just have to brave the subway. I'm being told it's snowing outside, BC. All right, that's fine. Whatever, you know what I mean? I'll get there. A little bit of snow won't matter. It's when it gets like, you know, eight, nine inches.

That's when the problems emerge. Look, I thought today's episode would last about 40 minutes. We gave them two hours and nine minutes, okay? What would we do? Okay. And by the way, have a we'll get everyone ready for the fight night fights are back rejoice darn he boss too let's get fired up for it friday that's all we got for this week's episode though long island luke thank you so much for taking care of us don't forget to email our show at morning combatbat at gmail.com. Follow us. Like the video.

Subscribe if you have not yet. Guys, we're coming hard this year. Aggressively. Yes. Yes. Consensually. Yes. The only way.

All right. Luke, that's it. I got a train to catch. All right, bro. Thank you guys for accommodating me i'll be back in studio next week assuming that we're not pelted again by snow but uh yes love you all for lil the lt i'm the bbc with that bde we loved having you take care of yourselves we'll see you on friday but until then we are out