MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Adesanya-Whittaker 2, World's Strongest Man, TV Shows | Luke Thomas' Live Chat, ep. 79

Episode Date: June 17, 2021

Today on the podcast, we'll preview the weekend's fights with the Korean Zombie and Dan Ige, discuss the World's Strongest Man competition and more. We'll also talk TV shows, UFC marketing Dana White, Brandon Moreno's future, what really happened at UFC 263, mixed martial arts (MMA) journalism, the most exciting boxers, what we learned about MMA during the pandemic, scoring fights on TV versus at home and more. 'Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Hi, everybody. Let's put this up a little bit. There we are. My name is Luke Thomas, and this is episode 79 of the Luke Thomas Live Chat. It is 4.02 in the afternoon here on the 17th of June 2021. I hope you're doing well. My daughter's having a motherfucking meltdown outside, so who knows if she might come barging

in, tears streaming and incoherence being babbled. If you'd be so kind, give the video a thumbs up. You can see it right here. You can hit that subscribe button as well. We are barreling down the final 10K stretch towards our first goal of 100K. So any and all subscriptions are greatly appreciated. What will we get to today? Let's see. We got some breaking news on some bullshitideshows Which apparently, you know I'll make money off of it

The check's good enough But not in this particular case I'm not really involved In all seriousness Triller's got an announcement There's some Anderson Silva contests this weekend There are some actual real combat sports I'd like to get to that weekend

Whatever is on your mind We will do that here today So I appreciate you tuning in And without further ado Let's get this party started, shall we? we will do that here today. So I appreciate you tuning in. And without further ado, let's get this party started, shall we? All right. And we are back. Okay. Golly, what a day. What a day. Found squirrels in the attic today. That was fun. And on the same day, my dryer broke.

So I have to pay to someone to get the squirrels out of my attic. And I have to buy a new dryer. So, that was supposed to be vacation money. But, uh, I guess not now. Now it's going to be vacation money But I guess not now Now it's going to be home ownership money So that should be a lot of fun Alright, let me turn this off here

Let's see, where's the line There we go Okay Alright, so I put these thingies up on The questions thread up on the Morning Combat YouTube channel's community section. As I always do. I usually do it the night before. This time I did not. But here we go today. Alright, let's get to it.

First question. Can we all agree that BC's Diaz brothers versus Paul brothers idea is peak BC? Skinny liver season, indeed. Yeah, man, it's a genius idea. It's a genius and devilish idea at the exact same time. I absolutely hate it for all the reasons you guys could well imagine. But at the same time, it's like, is this where the market is? This is where the market is this is where the market is and if you're going to go where the market is i i am i am struggling to think of a better permutation

uh or i should say iteration maybe of this exhibition thing and the current climate than this you know and honestly to be candid with you if the Diaz brothers were involved with Bellator there's a decent chance I think Showtime would just make that honestly I mean if they're going to make Jake again I don't speak for Showtime to be very clear you know a lot of times news comes down from another reporter not even us and I had no idea it was coming but you know if they put on Mayweather and Logan and they're going to do the Jake and Tyron thing, why would they not do the Nate Diaz and Nick Diaz versus Paul thing? Of course, assuming it could be made. And it would fucking kill.

And it would kill. BC's got a mind for, like when we were in Miami, I don't know if this is a story exactly, but when we were in Miami, he was thinking the entire time about before the weigh-ins and then after the weigh-ins and then like for walkouts and like post-fight and stuff. He was always calling out to me like angles that the Paul brothers should take or things Mayweather should do to heighten the atmosphere or to, you know, to move the narrative. It's like total pro wrestling stuff. But, you know, if you've got a mind for it, you can see some interesting angles to make

things work. Again, I hope that we never see that, but BC's got an eye for it, man. He's got an eye for it, no denying it. Which fighter who has the most outdated style is still currently the most successful. Outdated style. All right. So is there somebody who's like, you know, a 2012 wrestle boxer who is kind of still getting it done? Man. I mean, you can still win with those styles. But you're asking for somebody who is like, who's the best version of an outdated style that's currently still doing well?

I mean, you would have said a couple years ago, maybe Demi and Maya? Something like that? I don't think Ferguson's style is outdated. I don't know if that's quite the right word for it. Because it's not a function of, well, sort of a function of the game's modernity

in terms of why he has had some recent struggles. I mean, you could have said Khabib. I mean, the individual tactical instruments that he uses are not outdated. But if you want to sort of zoom out and say, you know, is this sort of like hyper-specialization, is that outdated as a mode of best practices? Maybe you could have gone in that. I'm trying to think.

Like, you know, Alexi Olenek is kind of in that conversation in a weird way. Even the – but here's the thing. Like, there's a lot of guys who have been hanging around a long time, but they've kind of picked up a few extra skills along the way. There's very few people competing with really outdated. It's a good question. It's a great question. I'm not really sure who the answer would be. Is there someone over in Bellator I'm not thinking about? I feel like there's a big youth movement happening in the sport more generally. I mean, there are some figures that hang on that kind of tell you that maybe that's not true. But I think in general, there's not a lot of people who are using 2012's best practices as a way to get ahead. Let's see, there's six replies, so let's see what they say.

Someone says Nate, Esparza, Edgar, Chandler. Edgar? Edgar's an interesting one. Because he was way ahead of the curve for a while, but the game caught up. But I still wouldn't say his style was outdated. I mean, there's a difference between having a style that's outdated and then uh you know what are the individual just limits of that fighter independent of that style i mean of course the style is going to be a function of who they are in many ways in some ways it's a

expression of their personality but like if you had to pinpoint what's wrong with with edgar you know would you be like oh his style is just really outdated? I would just say, you know, any kind of... Yes, there's something to be said for that. Any kind of style's usefulness is going to have something of a shelf life. But at the same time, you know, he's got enough modern things going on where he's not some kind of relic either, right? So it's a little bit of a weird situation here. Out of all the recent Georgian fighters, and he means the country,

God damn, this thing is fucking up my neck. I'm going to have to, I told you guys, or maybe I didn't, I like pinched a nerve in my right fucking trap here. God damn it, that thing hurts. Jesus. I'm going to try and switch screens here if I can. I got to turn on this computer here. Because this thing is messing my neck up.

Jesus. Out of all the recent Georgian fighters to explode in the MMA scene, which, if any, do you think will become a champion first? Giga Chikadze, Marab seem the most likely. Those guys are good. That kid that's fighting Ryan Hall, I mean, it's so early in his development. I don't want to make a claim that,

you know, oh, the title is next for him. I don't know. Topurian, I think his name is. I've seen him fight maybe once or twice and every time I've seen him, I've been like, that dude is fucking good. He's good. Who's another Georgian fighter beyond Murab is good Murab's very good he's got a motor like I've just never seen before but at the same

time um there's a little bit of polish issues that I think he has to work on before I could declare that he's a uh he's got championship future uh written over him Giga Chikadze, I think, is going to develop into somebody pretty, obviously already is pretty special, but I mean like really upper echelon special. Whether he wins a title or not, I don't know. The only time you want to stamp on someone as they come through that they've got a title on the horizon, like when I saw Habib coming through, I was like, man, I don't know if he's going to win a title,

but like he is going to win a title, but like, he is going to contend for one when, when St. Pierre was coming through to you just knew it was inevitable. And I don't want like, Oh, because I, you know, just because you didn't read it a certain way, it doesn't mean that it won't happen. Lots of people over, you know, achieve estimations from people around them. So that doesn't mean anything necessarily. But I'm just saying personally, I'm a little bit hesitant to be like, that's a future champ

unless they're doing something that's just blowing you away. And these Georgian guys are very impressive, but I've not seen, you know, generational talent out of them just yet. But yeah, all of them are good all of them I can't believe we've never seen Tony versus Nate in their prime is now the perfect time

to make that fight who do you think wins shit man I'm not even sure who wins that one at this point I mean obviously I would have said a while ago Tony probably still would side with Tony, but I think it's obviously a lot more competitive how it never happened. I'm sure it got offered to them one way or the other at some point in their careers,

but you know, Nate wasn't taking it or he wasn't interested or, you know, something else came along or Tony wasn't feeling it or he wanted a title shot or who knows, who knows could be any number of things that prevented it from happening in terms of it's, you know,

getting signed pen to paper. But I think the better question and one I would like to know, maybe next time if I ask them or if I next time I see them, I'll ask them, which is, um, were you ever, were you ever,

uh, offered the fight? I think that's a little bit more of an interesting question. Were you ever offered the contest? And if so, you know, if you turned it down or it fell apart, why? I'd be very surprised if that like never... I mean, because it, you know, occurs to all of us, more so now given the circumstances,

but it wasn't like that'd be like something like shocking to never think about. So like, why didn't that happen? That'd be good shocking to never think about. So why didn't that happen? That'd be good. All right. Let's see. All right. Put that fucking thing over here. God damn, my neck Bros, when you get old Shit just stops working

You might be like, Luke, what did you do to your neck To like fuck it up? You know what I did? True story, took a nap You know how DC went, I was like Oh, I almost threw my back out sneezing I was like, I feel that bro, you know I know how that is I know how that is. I know how that is because I woke up from a nap, I don't know when it was, but a week or two ago, two weeks ago,

and I was like, God damn, my fucking neck hurts. And I was sleeping kind of like this. Oh, what a nightmare. What a nightmare. All right. How do you think Leon Edwards versus Kamaru Usman will play out, given their strengths and weaknesses? Much like the first time, Kamaru would close distance on him, and I think take him down and hold him down. I don't know how exciting it would be, but I don't... Listen, Leon Edwards is deserving of major opportunities and fights

and card placement and, frankly, money that he's been denied by virtue of bad luck, the pandemic, who knows? You know, the Bilal Muhammad fight was kind of weird and everything. Like there's been a lot of circumstances that have kind of impeded his development, not so much as a fighter per se, although there might be a little bit to be said about that, but certainly for his name value, for his visibility. But as much as I'm entirely sympathetic to that, I mean, I don't think anyone really suffered more in terms of what they were supposed to get versus what they didn't than Leon Edwards, at least in terms of the pandemic. Remember, he was supposed to headline

that big card in the UK and the whole thing fell apart. But I don't think we should overestimate his chances. I don't think you should take what is a genuine, rightful point about how good he is and what's been denied him and then turn that into a separate conversation about like, oh, well, is he the best welterweight on the planet? I don't get the vibe that he is. I get the vibe that he is among the very best, for sure. Stranger things have happened if he were to win, but I think Kamaru is several steps ahead.

What are your thoughts on Dustin Poirier allegedly knocking amateurs? You mean like a lot of different ways to interpret that. And are you surprised Colby and Dustin What are your thoughts on Dustin Poirier allegedly knocking amateurs? You mean like a lot of different ways to interpret that. And are you surprised Colby and Dustin have this much animosity with each other considering they are in different weight divisions? I have not heard anything about this. Did Colby make some claim in the gym about something? Listen, man, I'm not suggesting to you that that is wrong

if that's the way the information has been revealed, but I would be very hesitant to not get Dustin's side of the story. By the way, could also be possible that maybe back in the day he was a gym bully and now he's not, right? Or it could be the case that he actually is. I would just say, if Colby, again, I don't know, I've not heard any of this, but if Colby has made a claim, it's much like other people in the industry, it could be very well true, but you'd be very well served to double check.

Do I think it's surprising that Colby and Dustin have this much animosity? No. They're prize fighters, and one has said incredibly horrible shit about the other. That's just how it goes, right? Let's see. Will non-Apple users ever have a method to review and get a question on the MK podcast for room service diaries?

Yeah, I'll figure something out. I don't know. CBS comes down and they're like, tell people to do this so we do it. You know, with like the leaving the review thing. But I don't prefer that way because it's just gaming the system, which I'm very clear about. You're just trying to game the system in terms of how many reviews it has and what it does to your standing there. Yeah, no. Luke, your cardio routine.

Let's see. Cardio is not my favorite, as you can well imagine. Not a lot of people's favorite. So what I do is I find a way to incorporate general mobility and a little bit of strength training into it. You guys know if you saw it, fell on my Instagram, I bought the Tank M1 sled. That thing has been, that thing is a fucking beast. Man, let me tell you.

Listen, here's the way home gym equipment works as best I can tell. Not an expert, but the last three, four years I've been kind of slowly investing. The trick to it is buy cheap when you're supposed to buy cheap. Like if you have a pair of a set of weights you can buy on eBay and they're cast iron and there's not hardly

any rust on them and you need them for your bar belt, do buy those things. Like you don't need to get brand new things. Now obviously if you need to get brand new weights for whatever reason, like you need bumper plates that and you can't find any around you at a cheap price and you want to get some new ones, okay whatever. But if you can find deals, you do not need to spend a lot of money on stuff like that. You can, there's all kinds of little hacks you can do, um, to save your money. But I also firmly believe that if you're going to get some foundational equipment, you might want to spend a little bit more money on those. Even then you can play around with things like, do you have to buy a brand new barbell? No. Uh, If you can find one in good condition, blah, blah, blah, you get the idea.

But certainly during the pandemic, a lot of this stuff was in short supply. But my view is there's a couple of foundational items you're going to want to pay a little bit of money for. One, I like to pay... I want to get a newer barbell. That's something I can have for maybe the rest of my life, literally. That's right. You really want to get quality. What else did I buy that

was new? I bought the NuoBells adjustable dumbbells, right? I feel like I had years and years and years ago, I bought the Bowflex ST, I think 1020s, 1090s. It's the one that goes to 90 pounds in each hand. They're okay, but they're, and this is true with all adjustable dumbbells, they're a little bit, dude, if you're pressing 90 pounds, whatever it might be, in each hand, and you're done with the set, let's say even if you're incline benching or you're flat benching, once the weight comes back down, if you're not careful, and the weight can be hard to control, even if you're very strong, you know, you can't drop the weights like you do in the gym. Like, they're very, very delicate. They're good to press, but they're very delicate. The Nua bells are a little bit easier to wield, although they're kind of sensitive too.

But I'm pointing out, like, those are some things where, you know, getting a nice set of adjustable dumbbells, a nice, you know, again, barbell. If you can find them used, great. Anyway, you're asking about the cardio, the sled. That was something I had tried out and I was like, man, I think I like this fucking sled. And then so I bought one. It's a monster. You can do so many different things with it. I bought the two handles that come on the rope where you're supposed to pull back like this? But the problem is I'm too tall. I actually can't extend my arm fully actually get locked here because I can't pull it any further So that was a fail, but I also got the rope to pull bros That is an amazing thing

So I'll do 30 minutes a minute on a minute off of pulling and then I do pulling, pushing, rest, pulling, pushing, rest, pulling, pushing, rest, max effort for 30 minutes, you will be huffing and puffing like a motherfucker on that. And all you need is one. You don't even need it, but you can put just 145 on the M1. Put it on. It has adjustable settings. Neutral, neutral, one, two, three. Three is like very hard to push. And again, it's got accommodated resistance. So the more you push, the more it resists. So I'll put it on two and then I'll pull. I'm telling you, dude, that will wear your ass out. It is fantastic. And like, I just can't do, I just can't run for five miles. I can't, I can do a little bit of biking for like leisure. And then over time it ends up being like 20, 25 miles. And then it's kind of fun, but I just need something that, um, is, you know, it's a movement pattern. It's got a little bit of strength built into it.

You know, high intensity. You know, walking the dogs for an hour kind of counts too. But it's not really, you know, I don't program that. But I do program that. I do 30 minutes. And I'm just, you know, every time you're on, you are on. You know what I mean? It's great.

Luke, with Leon Edwards' performance last weekend, do you think Jorge Masvidal can beat him? Yes. I wasn't sure prior to the Diaz-Edwards fight, but after seeing Leon get rocked by Nate, I'm leaning towards Jorge being able to do the same. It's a great matchup. Obviously, you don't want to play too much MMA math, but who beat Nate worse? You know, I would argue strongly that Masvidal beat him worse. Masvidal striking is super good. Super good. Is it the very best in the division? Obviously, he had trouble with Wonderboy. That's a function of styles as well, but man, his jab is phenomenal. His range is tremendous. Range management, I should say. His accuracy is good.

His shot selection is good. His reactive decision making is good. Like, he's fucking good, dude. And he's got good power, too. He's a little bit mean, you know, with the way he fights. Yeah, Jorge is a tough fight. That's what I mean about Leon. It's like Leon's finally arrived in a space where

these are the kinds of guys he should be fighting. And certainly I want to be clear, Leon fighting Jorge is a winnable fight for Leon. I don't want to suggest that it's not. I would favor Jorge to win, but take that for what it's worth. But this is his peer group. His peer group is not 10 to 5.

His peer group is not really, let's say, 8 to 10. I think it's somewhere in that 3 to 6 range, 3 to 7 range. That's where I think his peer group is. And that's where Jorge Masvidal, I think, finds himself. It's a tough fight. Tough fight. I'm a brand new combat sports fan. The first fight card I ever watched was UFC 253.

Now I'm all in. What are the best, most entertaining fighters and fights I should watch on Fight Pass? I'm looking for fighters that have been retired long enough that people don't talk about them anymore. Great question. And will Bellator ever put their fight library on Showtime? Bro, I've asked the exact same question. And you know what answer I get every time? Every time I ask that, nobody knows.

Nobody knows. Nobody knows what they're going to do. The only thing they ever say to me when I ask is like, dude, are you going to have like a, are you going to put these fights anywhere? You know, like what are we going to do with these things? And they always say, yeah, you can just go on the website and fire them up, which is true, but the search functionality on the website blows.

The website is fine, but it's not a dedicated space for fights. One thing you have to give UFC a lot of credit for with Fight Pass is, man, it's just a dedicated space for live fights, for libraries, other stuff too. But you know where to go to get that stuff, to just kind of mix it into your Bellator site. I just don't think that's the kind of dedicated space that it needs. Now, you're asking about this question, this is the way you worded it. I'm looking for fighters that have been retired long enough that people don't talk about them anymore. Great, great point. I got a couple of them for you. One, Randy Couture. Randy Couture had a really interesting career. Bouncing in the early age between rings and UFC and a lot of other places. Fought at heavyweight, fought at light heavyweight, had a really long career. In many ways had to kind of Nate Diaz

record. He wins some and he lose some, but Couture was beloved by the fan base for a really long time, in part because he had battles with management and wanted to fight Fedor, and that sort of made him look like a... What's the word? He was a leader in the clubhouse kind of a thing. But he's got some incredible wins. I mean, if you've never seen the Tim Sylvia fight, that might be his best one ever. I mean,

I just can't ever state it. The guy had lost to Chuck Liddell, retired, said he was going to come back. He lost to Chuck Liddell twice, by the way, viciously. Said he was going to come back. Everyone's like, oh, I remember it. I remember it so distinctly. Everyone was like, dude, what the fuck is Couture doing? And then there were some videos that came out and some photos that came out of some of the dudes he had in his camp. You guys know, and I remember this name. It's a bit of a hardcore name, but he had Eric Pele in his camp. And I was like, damn, he brought Pele into there?

You know? Not Pele Landy Johns, a different guy, but Eric Pele, this big Hawaiian motherfucker. And he brought in all kinds of people. And then when he came back, I think it was in Ohio, Columbus, Ohio. Maybe it was Cincinnati, but it was Ohio. Crowd was epic. Crowd was incredible.

And Junkie one time, I could be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure this is what happened. Junkie had, and this is a little bit of a different era, but they just took a recording that someone made inside the arena, no video, of Bruce Buffer introducing Couture back for the first time.

Dude, you would have thought they were introducing Elvis in his fucking prime. I mean, they were shaking that bitch with their cheers and stomps and hooting and hollering. It was incredible. And then he comes out, inside leg kick, overhand, I think it was overhand right, and drops Sylvia. And dude, the place exploded. I don't even know what it would be. Imagine Nate Diaz, you know, retiring. This is not quite right because he was, Couture is Captain America and Diaz is, you know, the anti-hero. But in terms of how the population of MMA fans respond to him, there are some similarities in that particular kind of way.

And imagine he came back, inside leg kick, dropped the hammer on him, and became champion as a result. I mean, he got a title shot out of nowhere. You know, imagine he did a title shot out of nowhere. You know, he just, like, imagine he did it to Kamaru Usman. And then, on top of it, he beat the fuck out of Tim Sylvia for 25, I mean, Tim, I don't know if Tim landed a punch hardly

in that fight. Just one of the most incredible things I've ever seen in combat sports. And when he beat Tito Ortiz, he spanked him. You guys remember what's his face? Adesanya grabbing Vittori's ass. Go watch Couture fucking putting the beat down on Tito Ortiz.

And this was like when Tito was very good. Like Tito was a legit, super excellent 205er at that time. And Couture went in there and quite literally spanked him. And then he's got the losses too. He's got the loss to Brock. He had the one win, the first win over Chuck Liddell. And then you could see how Chuck Liddell kind of got theanked him. And then he's got the losses too. He's got the loss to Brock. He had the one win, the first win over Chuck Liddell, and then you could see how Chuck Liddell

kind of got the better of him the second two times. He has the loss to Josh Barnett, but then he had that amazing win where he fucking lifted and dropped Gabriel Gonzaga and shattered his nose and fucked him up. Couture had an amazing career,

so that's one I would go to. Let me pick somebody from Pride. Who's someone from Pride? A lot of directions I could go in Pride. Vanderlei Silva. Go look at Prime Vanderlei Silva. Dude, there was hardly a person in MMA more feared in his Prime than Vanderlei Silva. There was a stretch of his career where he was terrifying.

He was unbeatable. He was hittable. But for a moment, or at least he gave off the perception that he was unbeatable. And he, dude, in pride, remember, you could soccer kick and stomp. He had, I've talked about it previously years ago on this live chat. Like everyone thinks the hard part about fighting is the receiving of damage and to be clear that is a very very hard part if not in fact the hardest part for many people but i've said this before one thing that people don't think about until they've actually trained and then they have to go out there and do it is the

delivery of punishment and uh and um it's not it's not as easy as you think. Not just the skills to learn it, but the willingness to hurt another person, especially when they're suffering and you can see it. Not everyone has that in him. Dude, Vanderlei Silva. Whoa. I mean, you want to talk about a guy who had,

when it came to dishing out fucking brain damage to other people, he didn't have a second of hesitation. Nothing. And he had wild technique for a time. But he was part of the shoot-a-box versus Brazilian top team rivalries. And, you know, fought outside of his weight class more than once. But when he was on, dude, he was. And the wins over Rampage, when he knees him and then sends him through the ropes. Dude, Vanderlei Silva in his prime.

I don't even know. Who would you look at today as, like, who's the guy who's feared now in a way where people feared Vanderlei in that time. I don't know who that would be. I honestly don't know who that would be. Just a complete sledgehammer of a man. Why didn't Bilal Bahamut get to speak to Joe Rogan after his fight? So I had a lot of people write me about this,

and it's an interesting question. So Bilal is obviously Palestinian. He's American, but he's Palestinian-American. And he wears the Palestinian kit. He comes out to Palestinian music. And people thought that they didn't give him the rub because he would say something pro-Palestinian. Listen, I can't say that that is entirely untrue, but I'm a little bit skeptical of that theory, to be honest with you. First, you know, it wasn't the most exciting fight. And we all understand beating Demian Maia is very difficult to do.

And whether Tyron Woodley is doing it, whether Kamaru is doing it, and Colby, granted, Kamaru and Colby put on more punishment. But, you know, people didn't exactly say that those fights were amazing after that was over. A lot of it got overshadowed with Kamaru's 30% comment and Colby's, you know, you Brazilians are animal kind of thing, whatever the exact wording was, I forget now. But so yeah, like maybe those were better. This was not the most thorough beating that Maya ever got, but you know, it wasn't exactly great. Maybe that

played a role. But the biggest thing I think actually played a role was they had three scheduled five round fights coming up after that, and they had gone the distance. Now, I understand that the fight previously was pretty short, inside of a round, but then this one went the full distance. I think that they really wanted to avoid all three of those fights afterwards going the full distance and them not being on pay-per-view. That fight went really late into the evening, unusually late for UFC, and I think they were just trying to save on broadcast time.

And I know what people think. They're like, oh, there are other trying to save on broadcast time. And I know what people think. They're like, oh, there are other ways to save on broadcast time. You're right. There are. There are other things you can cut. But I'm just telling you the way producers look at things. They will go to the post-fight interview if there's time. And if there's not, they'll cut that out.

Because all of those other assets, anything promoting another fight, anything to do with a sponsor, anything to do with a sponsor, anything to do with graphic elements that they have to talk about on the screen or whatever, that's all planned ahead of time. Guys, there's something called the ROS in production, run of show. And what happens is they will go minute by minute over what it's supposed to look like. Now, obviously, they have to create some leeway and some openness, depending on if a fight goes a minute versus 15 or 25 or whatever. There's flexibility in the run of show to some extent, but the whole thing is planned.

And you have to go over it with the producers before the show, piece by piece by piece by piece by piece. Okay? You know ahead of time which elements you can cut out. I'm just telling you, post-fight conversations, that's the first thing they're going to cut. Because they can't cut the ads. They're not going to cut all of the assets that they've loaded in the system to then play for a sponsor or whatever, the next fight or whatever. They're not going to cut that.

But they can cut somebody who went the distance in a not so great fight. You got three five round fights coming up. Fuck it. Let's just go to the next thing. That's my operative theory. I really don't believe that they thought he was going to come out and say something, I don't know, anti-Semitic or something like, dude, Bilal Muhammad is very pro-Palestinian, as am I. I'm not Palestinian, but you guys know my loyalties. I am firmly, firmly of the belief that, you know, the Palestinian people are mistreated. But even I don't think that what they were trying to do was censor pro-Palestinian worldviews.

I can't say for sure that's what they were trying to do was censor pro-Palestinian worldviews. I can't say for sure that's what they were doing, but just knowing how production works, that didn't even occur to me. The first thing that occurred to me was, oh yeah, they just moved on from that shit. They got three five-round fights coming up. Fuck that. They just moved on. That was exactly what came to me. In fact, it wasn't until people hit me up afterwards being like, hey, do the UFC censor him, that I was like, well, I guess I hadn't thought of it that way. So, you know, everyone can believe what they want, but gun to my head, forced to make a call here, I'm very confident that it had nothing to do with that. I mean, just think about how many weird-ass fucking things fighters say. And, dude, They're giving you a Palestinian fight kit. You're coming out to, I think the name of the song is something like,

my blood is Palestinian, like super pro-Palestinian stuff. And Bilal Muhammad, dude, what does he say that's ever been controversial? Hey, my dad's store was vandalized. Is that controversial? No. I like being Palestinian. Is that controversial? In fact, what was the last media day I went to he fought on? I'll tell you exactly what it was. You can go back and look at the interview if it ever got posted. I don't remember if I did. I know the audio got posted. I don't know if the video got posted. I interviewed him at media day for the UFC's first show on ESPN+. That was that, let me verify that. I think that was the, because it was the same, it was, let's see. So this would have been when he beat TJ Dillashaw, UFC Fight Night,

Cejudo versus Dillashaw. So was Bilal Muhammad on that card? Yes, he got beat by Jeff Neal that night. I interviewed him at that media day. And I asked him, do you feel a responsibility to, you know, speak about Palestinian issues? And his answer was, yeah, of course, but, you know, I come in peace.

He had a real, very much like, you know, I just want people to know more about my people i don't want to get into geopolitical uh um back and forths just that you know i love who i am and i want people to know about it and i want to represent them he's never said anything that was remotely uh you know to my knowledge, controversial about the rights of Palestinians. So again, I understand the question. Every time I say something pro-Palestinian, even for this, I get fucking shitloads of hate mail. I get angry emails.

I get DMs calling me all fucking kinds of names. I get it. I get it. But I, I really don't think that's what happened there. Uh, who'd win a debate between Biden and Putin? That's a funny question. You know, Biden is, he did better against Trump than I thought he did, although I thought he would rather. Um, yeah, I don't know. I don't fucking know. I mean, you know, an honest debate between the two of them, I don't know, is such a thing even humanly possible.

Any idea why it is referred to as a submission when a limb breaks or someone is put to sleep so it's actually not called a submission by itself it's called a technical submission right because uh the idea is you didn't get the full official tap the i surrender the i submit to you but you know you got what the submission is attempting to do within the framework of human biology and the rules, right? You put them to sleep, fight over. You broke their arm. We cannot continue with this. So they call it a technical submission. And he asked, why not

call it a strangulation of your arm break? Yeah, I mean, you already use the words knockout and stuff, which comes from boxing. Do I think that adding strangulation and arm break to commission vocabulary as a method of victory would be good for MMA's image? Probably not. Probably not. Luke, have you ever encountered or ever heard a conversation about a fighter being paid to throw or a ref being paid to stop it early if given the chance? I can honestly say with full sincerity, I have never heard that and I have never personally eavesdropped on a conversation or something where that was being discussed. Never. Does Diaz manifesting that rally against Edwards in the fifth add some credibility to what some people were saying about the stoppage against Masvidal and how Diaz was coming into his element? Well, sort of. I mean, a little bit maybe, right? Like, I mean, yes and no. On the one hand, what was the big takeaway from Nate in that fight?

Which is, to me, it was proof of concept. He wanted that fight to go five rounds for a reason. First one, non-title, non-made event. Because he wanted every opportunity against a guy who was not a devastating finisher to land a big shot and maybe take over the fight and win. Well, you got pretty close in the end there. By the way, I had conversations with his people. That was the bet.

The bet was if it was five rounds over three, Leon Edwards is not a big guy at 170, and he's not a devastating finisher in any capacity. It gives you time to hang around and do stuff. That's exactly what happened. Not enough to matter in the end. In fact, you've had three fights now where I think Diaz has gone past the third round and he's lost all of them. So what does the math say?

The math says it's not really true, but the greater details say that it's a little bit more of a muddled picture. The problem against Masvidal, dude, and I don't know why people don't understand this, go back and watch that fight. Dude, that was a beat down. That was a one-sided shellacking. Yes, is it certainly conceivable that if the

fight had continued under the same kind of basic idea where you've got another minute or two to land something, does that increase your odds of landing it? Maybe. I don't think that's crazy. But dude, he was getting beat up. That was not a close... I mean, it was a close fight. No, it wasn't. No was not a close i mean it was a close fight

no it wasn't no it wasn't uh it wasn't a close fight and and masvidal was hurting him leg kicks knees up the middle hard fucking uh overhand rights and hooks could i entirely dismiss the idea that um you know, something dangerous could have happened to him later? Of course not. But, you know, forced to make a bet? Mm-mm. I'm not taking that bet.

No. Luke, what do you think of Darren Till saying, quote, let's sign a petition to get Brendan Schaub out of MMA, end quote, because of his reaction to the Logan and Mayweather fight? I mean, I don't know what you fucking guys want from Brendan. Listen, I'm not going to go and rush to anyone's defense like they're a damsel in distress. Brendan's a big boy, and you want to be in the spotlight.

People are going to go after you, right? So if Darren Till wants to go after him, fine, go after him. Like, it's whatever. You know? You know, you can't police people's tastes in that way. But at the same time, I watched the clip, and I'm really kind of struggling to understand what the problem is here. I don't know the nature of their friendship, and everyone wants to assume that everything Brendan does is bad faith,

which, you know, you're entitled to that. But knowing the guy personally, it just doesn't match the reality that I know. And you can take that for what it's worth. And more to the point, dude, the guy, him and Logan Paul are friends. Logan Paul went eight rounds with Mayweather, and he got whooped. But, like, relative to what I thought was going to happen and all of you thought was going to happen, he overperformed. He overperformed. You know, what does that mean? Does he mean he's going to be and all of you thought was going to happen, he overperformed. He overperformed. You know, what does that mean?

Does he mean he's going to be a future as a pro boxer? No, of course not. Like, I think if you fought anyone who was really good, you know, with a commensurate level of experience, he'd get worked. But the, I don't know that either. But the point being is, dude, a friend had a huge moment and he kind of did better than expectations. You know, wasan effusive with

praise yeah but like dude if that was your friend what would you say would you go in there and be like hey good job losing all eight rounds fuck face you know what would you what do you want him to say and then the other argument is oh well don't put it on on on um Okay. I don't put a whole lot of things on Instagram because you guys know I think my life is pretty boring for the most part. If something relatively interesting happens, I'll put it on there. But if not, I don't really know what to do with the thing. Well, 41-year-old dad, you can hear my daughter out here just screaming. My life is not especially cool. But if you're going to go that route and he goes that route and you put it... I just... Of all the things people want to kill Brendan over.

That's the fucking thing that people want to kill him over because he was nice to a friend who had a who had a moment. I just I just don't understand. I just don't understand. So like, am I here to like, oh, shame on Darren Till. Look, people can say what they want, man. Let him let him have their say. Let him air out all their grievances. But for the life of me But for the life of me,

for the life of me, that's the thing? Like, if y'all want to get after him for his verbal trip-ups and all this kind of stuff, I completely understand that. I mean, that's, you know, it's funny on some level, right?

And I think he understands that too. At least he should, if he doesn't. But that shit, like, you know, people just, you get to a certain point with certain folks where they can't see any other action that you take as anything other than bad faith posturing. They cannot imagine a world where there's anything other than that. And, you know, I know Brendan Schaub and I know most of his critics don't, and I'm just telling you folks, like, I've just never had anything other than a genuine great experience with him.

And I'm going to say it one more fucking time because it bears repeating here. Dude, there are just absolute snakes through this business in every level. In every level. And most people won't do shit for you. And if they do something for you, they definitely want something in return, which I'm okay with. That deal trading is how things should be on some level should go. Dude, he has never needed anything from me. He doesn't get anything from me. There's no benefit for him to have lobbied on behalf of me

in the way that he has. And he just went ahead and still did it. Is that bad faith posturing? It must be, right? Because everything he does is bad faith posturing. Well, what is that? What is that? Who has an answer for that?

Dude, that's him doing nice shit for his friends. It's him doing nice shit for people he cares about like like you know maybe he didn't maybe he didn't have to put that clip on social okay fine he deserves to get roasted for that i just don't i i you know i'm sure i'm by i'm i'm i'm unbelievably biased i have my own blinders on i get it but i see the world the way in which i see the world and i just see people attribute these motivations to him that i'm like this is not y'all don't know this guy man uh not like i do and how do you explain what he has done for me uh you know going to bat for show

in showtime in in ways that you just couldn't imagine. Is that all bad faith posturing? And he got nothing out of it. You know, dude, maybe he just likes to say nice things to friends. I don't understand. Maybe you can explain it to me, but cause I really don't get it. I get some of the other stuff,

the goofy shit he wears, you know, I killed him for his own, uh, uh, benching shit. And, uh, you know, he has verbal

slip-ups. I understand that. That just comes with the territory. Because I know that if I slip up, Bohashina Depot is going to fucking roast me. Man, it comes with the territory. Fine. You know, I get it. Saying nice shit to a friend? Okay. Did you watch the Riddell versus Dober fight? If so, what were your thoughts? And do you have an estimation of how far Brad can go? Dude, I have a very high opinion about Brad Riddell. I got a high opinion about Drew Dober. I have a very high opinion about Brad Riddell.

Dude, Dober is a bad motherfucker. And he put it on him, Brad Riddell, early in that fight. He snuck that straight right down the middle. Riddell did not see it coming, and it dropped him. And it took every ounce of what he had, including all of the well-rounded mixed martial arts. Remember, he's a decorated kickboxer. But he had to use all the well-rounded mixed martial arts abilities that he had, all of that veteran experience to survive, and then to turn the tide, and then to use all the dimensions in play to do it. Because by the way, Dober was still

landing on him through the second and even parts of the third like hard that dude's got a chin that dude has a will that dude has a great team obviously he has i think he's physically strong for the weight class i think he's a much better wrestler than even i realized how far can he go you know we're gonna have to see obviously you know the dober testing in the way makes you maybe say well um is he a little bit more hittable? Are there some defensive issues as it relates to MMA, right? Because you can level change and shit, you know, like a Gregor Gillespie could or something, then that could, you know, raise some defensive issues. But in terms of the character and the grit and then the implementation of the strategy after all the trouble, I found

that to be extremely impressive from Brad Riddell. I have a very high opinion of what he did there. Do you think BC will ever surprise you with a painting that deserves a compliment or is it just a part of the MK art to shit on his heart? Well, I am clearly not a art critic. I'll just say this. You know, that kind of abstract art I used to do and everyone shat on me and my family for it, so I feel like I'm just paying it forward at this point. Listen, man,

if you're going to create art, I guess if you're very good at it, it's for the world, but I've always found it to be something that people do for therapy for themselves. So, you know, if you're very good at it, it's for the world. But I've always thought it to be something that people do for therapy for themselves. So, you know, if you want praise from others, do something that others benefit from, I guess. What has hurt Jiu-Jitsu the most? Double guard pulling advantages. Brazilian favoritism from the IBJJF refs.

Double guard pulling. The culture of guard pulling. The culture of takedowns being a function of development that is inherently unnecessary given the rule set. You do not need to learn takedowns. Obviously, there can be some benefits to learning takedowns beyond just sort of the character of being well-rounded. There can be some strategic advantages, certainly in a wider array of changing rule sets.

It's obviously good to have, especially with Nogi in particular, because there still is a little bit of a judo element. Adolfo Vieira had really good gripping systems and some good takedowns with the collar. Even at the purple belt level, you'll still see some collar drags and things like that. Advantages are not great. And, you know, any kind of favoritism I think has sometimes been true.

I've definitely seen it. But I've definitely seen people go back, oh, that was Brazilian favoritism. I'm like, I think you lost. But the double guard pulling, which is less about the double, any kind of guard pulling, I think frankly is understandable given all the incentives and the way people learn. But that is a, it's a learn. But that is a real problem. It's a real problem. Well, he's already answered about Connor.

Let's see if we get something new here. Luke, let's pretend Nate Diaz got the finish in that fifth round. What happens next for Nate? And what fight do you think he gets next after handing Leon his first finish in MMA? Does Leon get put back in a title shot jail for at least another year and a half? Yeah, it would be devastating for him, number one. Number two, second thing I would say is, the question is not like what you would ordinarily presume to happen to any fighter in that circumstance,

but very particularly what would happen to Nate. I don't know if Nate would get a title shot. I'm frankly not even sure if he would care. I mean, I think he'd take it if the circumstances were right, but I don't know if that would be his title shot. I'm frankly not even sure if he would care. I mean, I think he'd take it if the circumstances were right, but I don't know if that would be his, like, be-all, end-all goal. If it set up some kind of other lucrative possibility, whatever that may be, let's say Conor beats Dustin or something, you know, would he take that?

I know that the Conor fight and then the Masvidal fight, those are things you could do again, even with the loss. But I wonder if winning might facilitate it in some kind of way but you know I think the three major things you would think about that point would be Conor Trilogy depending on how things go with him you could do the Masvidal rematch and then a title shot against Kamaru I I don't know if he wins any of those fights he might but that's probably where it puts him you know biggest stage he doesn't mind being the b-side to some of those guys in certain ways uh obviously he's much more popular than Kamaru although I think Kamaru's popularity has him you know biggest stage he doesn't mind being the b-side to some of those guys in certain ways

uh obviously he's much more popular than kamaru although i think kamaru's popularity has come a really long way i really do uh i think that i think we don't talk about it enough to kamaru knocking out jorge masvidal was big really big for his career i don't know that it puts him on the same level as jorge or certainly not connor maybe not even n Nate, but I am going to be curious to see when Masvidal fights again, how that pay-per-view does, if it's not a huge name opponent. Because I bet it does actually better than

300 or 400K. So we'll see. So I think it would put Nate in that kind of position if media does the rankings then how come stuff happens that so clearly fits UFC motives such as Leon being removed from rankings when he didn't fight the Chimaya fight and added back when he won

well in fairness to the media that's not their call. That's the UFC's call. Hi, Luca. Moving to the DMV. That's the DC, Maryland, Virginia area. I fucking hate that acronym. I was wondering if you know any decent MMA BJJ gyms in the area.

Yeah, there's a few. Any of the Yamasaki academies are great. There's on 14th Street, Beta Academy, where I trained at for a long time. It's run by Pedro Sauer, Black Belt. If you're up for it, if it's something you want, obviously there's a little bit of controversy around it, but there's the whole

Lloyd Irvin system. There's Crazy 88. There's his place in Camp Springs. It's obviously, again, super high level. There's going to be 50-50 with Ryan Hall out of Falls Church, which is just outside the city. There's going to be 50-50 With Ryan Hall out of Falls Church Which is just outside the city There's going to be Capital MMA

There's Pentagon MMA I mean, you can swing a dead cat And hit a BJJ gym around here There's a shitload MMA gyms are a little harder to come by But even then, there's some There's a bunch of MMA gyms in In Northern Virginia

They fight on all like the Operation octagon or cage zilla cards if you just go look at a cage zilla card and see the teams where they're from kaizen mma k-a-i-z-e-n is an mma gym uh the jiu-jitsu i would say is very high level in the dc area not like the highest level but it's pretty good mma is a little less so here. Hi, Luke. Oh, let's see. My friends believe in fairy tales about the rock being natural. Woo. Your friends are dumb and MMA and professional sports being clean It's so funny In your opinion should we let people keep on Believing in Santa or should we forcefully

Tube feed them the reality of the world Also anyone in particular you would recommend That talks about PEDs and sports More plates more dates thanks for the content Yeah dude listen The Rock is you know He's almost certainly He's not natural.

You don't look like that at his age without a little bit of help. And let me say, God bless him. God bless The Rock. I followed The Rock on Instagram recently. He's fucking motivating, dude. That guy is the American dream in every way imaginable. You know, I'm not into the pro wrestling shit, but I'm into the weight room shit. And he is a fucking beast in the weight room.

Seems like a nice guy. Has a positive attitude. He's got a go-getter attitude i like seeing that on my timeline you know like the rock is the shit two thumbs up on the rock i love him but he ain't natural bro like you cannot look like that with that amount of lean muscle and be that fucking shredded without a little bit of help and who gives a fuck honestly who who could possibly give you want to have a debate about what it means in sports, that's one thing. What is this? What is this?

He has all the money in the world. He's got all the places to get information and questions answered and to look into this and to make appropriate decisions for his health and his family and his life. Leave The Rock the fuck alone. If he wants to be juiced to the titties, I say good. Great. Makes him fucking bigger. We don't have juiced to the titties, I say good. Great. Makes him fucking bigger. We don't have enough people on steroids, frankly, in this world.

There should be more of them. In any event, as it relates to professional sports, it's just comical to me that you have all of these people out here being like, Wow, these guys are playing into their 40s. Yeah, I wonder how that's happening. Especially with increased load over time. Athletes playing more games maybe than they ever have. How did that happen? It must be all that asparagus and good night's rest that they're getting.

I mean, you need those things. But people have no idea what goes into elite athletic performance. And the reality is many, many, many of your best memories, your favorite teams, your favorite athletes, they are built on the back of, in many cases, strategic, but in other cases, just outright performance-enhancing drug use. People don't want to know how the sausage is made. They just want to deliver it to their plate in a nice, edible way, but they don't want to know about the slaughtering process and the casing process and everything else. They don't want to know about that. I'm telling you. I'm

telling you. I've had a lot of private conversations with athletes about this. It is rampant across sports. Rampant. Rampant. Everywhere you turn, it's nearly there. You know. Oh, they caught Eric Koch recently. Did you guys see that, USADA? It's like, you caught one champion since y'all been here? Y'all really think one champion has been using? I mean, it's just a fucking joke. It's a complete joke. So your friends are deeply, I'm sure they're very nice people. And by the way, they're not the only ones. I had a debate with a buddy of mine. He and his wife, I knew him from a long time ago.

He and his wife are both doctors. And they were saying shit to me that was like they don't know here's what people don't understand you can have some degree of you know medical expertise but people don't know a whole lot about anti-doping and they don't know a whole lot about you know one was a radiologist the other one doesn't really you know doesn't really deal with um you know chemical use in the body. And I was showing them information that just totally contradicted everything they said, verifiably. And they were shocked.

They were shocked. Dude, I'm telling you, people, they want to live in a world where there's these Horatio Alger myths about up from the bootstraps and I'm going to eat my Wheaties and I'm going to bed on time and I'm going to read my Bible and take my vitamins and say my prayers. It's all bullshit, man. Listen, you can't look like The Rock without an insane amount of hard work. I mean, just every day killing yourself. But you also can't recover and then go back to it and then look the way he looks with the amount of lean muscle and the fat proportion without help.

And I got to tell you, if anything, I'm jealous of him. Not bad at him even a little bit. Go look at Eddie Hall who's going to have this match with Hafthor Bjornsson. The dude is almost 400 pounds and he has abs. Folks, what do you think? He just does more sit-ups than everybody else You know and I don't give a shit what he used it means absolutely nothing to me If that's the way that he wants to live his life, and if he's in a competition where everybody knows the score

Why do I give a fuck? It's his life He is an informed adult he can make his own choices He certainly has all the money in the world To find the best doctors and to get the best kind of treatment and to get the best kind of medical advice for people who actually know what they're talking about in those particular fields. And he wants to use it. Why on earth would I care? This is weird moralizing. Let's police the world because we think it will make it better. Everyone wants, the war on drugs is a dramatic failure everywhere. Oh, except for right here. Oh, well, that's not part, PEDs are not part of the war on drugs, you ignorant motherfuckers.

The use of amphetamines in cycling dovetails directly with Nixon beginning the crack crackdown on the war on the initial stage of the war on drugs the two are intertwined you actually don't even think about anti-doping in its initial stages without the initial stages made possible by the war on drugs they are linked forever it's just they don't people people have no fucking idea what they're talking about. Dude, I have literally, people ask me for reading lists. I have recommended study after study,

book after book, research paper after research paper from experts in the field who have done nothing but devote their lives to the study of this shit and people won't read it and then tell me, well, I think anti-doping is a success. Man, fuck you. You don't know anything. You don't know

shit. You are ignorant about it all. Read what I have read. Ask the questions of those people that you may have. Go get a second opinion on all of it, but peruse the literature and then come back to me and tell me I'm wrong. I will issue that Pepsi challenge to anybody, to anybody. I had a reading list I put out on Instagram. I think it was on Twitter too, right after I went on Rogan Show because we talked about it there. Read that, and then come to me with a straight face and be like, anti-doping is working. What a fucking joke. What a joke. But people need fiction for stability in their life. They need fiction for world building they need fiction for to make sense of the world as it's been presented to them uh it's it's hard to understand the world absent those things uh if you're if if

you've been going down one path for so long but fellas ladies go look on my Instagram page right after, whatever date I was on for the Rogan show. I don't remember this one. Was it October or something? Whatever it was. Go look at the post I made after that. I listed everything because I've done the homework. I've looked at what, wait, wait, wait, wait. What do experts in this field who don't study anything else but this, what do they tell us about the perils of overzealous instrumentation? What do they tell us about the distinction between private versus public use on PEDs? What do they tell us about the history

of the war on drugs and anti-doping? What do they tell us about what measurements in the field in terms of how much use there is? What are the actual facts about that? How much evidence is there to support any of the drugs that are listed on the WADA code? And by the way, that's a whole other fucking can of worms you can get into.

There are certain people in this world who have reviewed all that information. There's doctors for WADA or something like that. These are acolytes. These are zealots. But I think that for the most part, I don't think you can do the research on this topic in due diligence and in good faith

and come back to me and say, yeah, anti-doping is working. You cannot do it. You cannot do it because the evidence suggesting otherwise is enormous. It is enormous. But people just don't want to do the work. So I sound like a raving fucking lunatic presenting to you things. I'm only telling you about things research universities have done. I'm only telling you about things people who have advanced degrees and have done nothing else. Or even former athletes to a degree. Every kind of stakeholder in the chain. The only ones who will look at you with a straight face

and say anti-doping is moral, it is necessary, and it is working are people who are just willing to entertain fiction. Comes down to that. If you wanted to institute some other reforms, or like I've said before, I think last week on this chat, I said something to the effect of, you know, if the UFC had wanted to bring in VADA,

the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, versus USADA, I would probably have a lot less of an issue. That is true, because at least there, there's just agency among the athlete to get to what they want to know. If they want to go participate in that, you know, they have a choice to participate. Okay. All right. I mean, that's a world I can live in.

But folks, I'm telling you, please, not even I'm telling you, I encourage you, fact check it. Fact check it. Read the stuff I've written or people who critique that work because there's certainly a range of opinions and a range of debate out there. But go through the literature as it has been collected by the experts in this field. Go through all of it that I have listed, the stuff that I have painstakingly gone through, and then come back to me with a straight face and tell me you believe anti-doping is working I I would bet every fucking red scent I own you couldn't do it could not do it

Um Favorite mk moment so far I don't know man I had some private conversations With some Showtime folks In Miami I told you guys That Mayweather-Paul fight Whatever But the coverage we were able to give in Miami. I told you guys, that Mayweather-Paul fight, you know, whatever.

But the coverage we were able to give and some of the things we were able to show, not just that day, but in the lead up to, not even the week, I mean the year or two prior. Shit, July is going to be two years we've been with Showtime. Right?

Isn't that wild? So all that stuff leading up to it. We had some conversations about how Showtime felt about us with some other level Showtime folks, and it was, it was rewarding, man. It was awesome.

It was really, really, really, really awesome. So, I don't know, that's like an on-air moment, but like, you know, the return to the studio for the first time for me was great. I don't know. I just feel like, you know what the best part about MK is, dude? I look forward to it every time.

I look forward to it every time. Every time. Even if there's no fights to talk about. I know I'm never going to go there and be like, oh, I had a bad time. It doesn't work that way for me. I don't think about individual moments on the show that are my favorite. The pandemic obviously kind of derailed some stuff. But yeah, the return to the studio the first time was big.

That conversation I had about what MK was doing was big. There's been some good stuff. Let's do one or two more. So, I don't want more fitness questions. I mean, I'm not, you know, barely even fucking. Luke, are you still tracking? Yes. For flexible dieting? Yes.

So that I watch Doc 3 and your body recomp is looking good day by day. I had a lot of damage to undo. For sure. I worked out right before the show today in my front yard. Calories you're aiming for, they alter a little bit. Some days I don't track. Certainly if I'm traveling, you have to. But I don't really want to say because it can vary a little bit. But I would just say that what I've learned is through tracking, like tracking every single

day can become exhausting. It's the one real problem with flexible dieting. But if you do it long enough, you begin to realize what foods you can have and what foods you can't have. You begin to realize how to balance them, how to, when to eat them, what you respond to, what improves satiety, what doesn't. And I've gotten pretty good at it.

I've gotten pretty good at it. I, you know, quarantine was embarrassing for me. Didn't even realize how bad it got until one day it just kind of smacks you in the face. You're like, fuck. It's going to take me a while to undo all the damage, but I'm on my way, folks. I'm out there doing the work. And obviously it could be better.

It's certainly not perfect. And I'm a little bit older now, so it's going to take a little longer than it used to. But I'm real happy with the progress to date. And one day at a time. One day at a time. All right, last one. I just really believe, I said this before, dude,

if you guys are goal building, it's good to have a number in mind, I think, as like a North Star, like, hey, I want to get to, you know, whatever it is. You know, my Marine Corps weight was 225, pretty far from that, but even now, I'm not even sure if I could do that, really. Dude, that was a struggle for me when I was in my 20s, hardcore in the gym. Like, I don't even know if I could do that now. So, you know, having a number in mind is fine, but I really believe it's just the day-to-day consistency. That's it, man. For anything, anything you want

to do, fitness, fucking whatever, anything. I go to, I wake up every day and I'm like, what's the plan today? I usually have a plan for a week, but I'm saying, I remind myself what the plan is today. Let's just go in there and have quality work. You know, let's try our best to stay within our parameters for eating. And let's just be consistent and as disciplined as we can. You don't have to be perfect. You're not going to be perfect. If you try to be perfect, you're going to fail. But focus on the day-to-day.

And over time, you don't think about it this way, but each of those days, again, this is just not for fitness. This is for anything. Each of those days, whatever your goal you're working towards about building wealth, about a home project, whatever, every day that you stay consistent about your plan, that's a win. That's a win.

Dude, you put enough wins together, you can do pretty impressive things. You'd be very surprised at the kind of things you can pull off and how, not effortless, but that's when everything comes to you. Have a plan, detail it, make it doable, make it realistic, and then just consistently apply it. You're not going to be perfect. You're going to fall off sometimes. That's okay. Consistently apply it. You're going to see, I took BC to the gym in doc three. Um, you know, that week I was in Miami. I still got to the gym four times on the road four times because that's the plan. The plan is, uh, for that week anyway. So it's more here,

but it was four times. Boom. Didn't miss it on the road. You got meetings coming and going when the fuck am I? Well, I got up early and just went and went and did it four times on the road This is not some grand achievement I don't present it to you that way but I didn't derail my path because once you begin to derail your path You begin to make excuses. I can do it tomorrow. It's okay. Yeah, what if I miss one? All right I can just do a little bit less it the the complacency and the laziness and the Accommodation that will build on itself just as the consistency

of W's will accumulate and build on themselves. So my recommendation is to everybody, it doesn't matter what you're doing, plan, focus, doable. It doesn't have to be perfect. You won't be perfect. The challenge is always just be consistent that day. Have a plan, be consistent that day. And that's a win. When you put your head on the pillow that night, if you did what you were supposed to, at least pretty close, that's a win. And the accumulation of wins over time, big. Huge. That's how winning is done, folks.

All right. Let's call it a day there. My daughter's probably going to have a fucking meltdown. So love you guys, man. Thank you so much for watching this. I really appreciate it. Show tomorrow. Tons of breakdowns. Tons of stuff coming your way.

Yeah. So let's do this. Let really appreciate it. Show tomorrow. Tons of breakdowns. Tons of stuff coming your way. Yeah, so let's do this. My neck feels better not looking constantly to my right. Thumbs up on the video. Hit subscribe. Yeah, I'll see you guys tomorrow with Brian Campbell. Until then.