MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Bellator 255: Pitbull vs. Sanchez | McGregor-Diaz Twitter Feud | Jon Jones | Ep 138

Episode Date: April 3, 2021

Friday is here. So is MK. The boys preview Bellator 255, headlined by the semi-finals of it's Featherweight Grand Prix with 2-division champ Patrício 'Pitbull' Freire taking on Emmanuel Sanchez. Luke and Brian breakdown Bellator's opening event on SHOWTIME. Plus, Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor feuded on twitter debating who the real king of MMA is. Who is it. Also, Jon Jones continues his battle with the UFC, live tweeting a phone call he had with them. 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. Reveille, reveille, donks. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat.

Oh, yeah. Levity, levity. Indeed, donks. It is Morning Combat. Oh, yeah. Levity, levity, indeed, donks. It is Friday, April 2nd, 2021. This right here, live and direct from the bomb shelter, it's Morning Combat. The best show in the world, Luke. It's a big claim, BC. Well, you know, I think I'm the type of guy that can back it up with my BDE. You know me very well as a pale destructor of all good things.

I am the big beige one, Brian Campbell of CBS Sports and Showtime. This man next to me is a name that is... Just try. Try to be nice today. It's my co-host, Luke Thomas. Thank you. Hey, can the camera people make more noise? It's fine.

I mean, you guys want to knock some lighting. They're not making enough noise. I need more noise. Luke, when Friday's, it's BC Day. We let our hair down a little bit. We put on the tight tweed and make ourselves look a lot thinner than we actually are. And we have the audience rick us over the coals for our mistakes. Yeah, and I'm not hungover at all.

So this is a great start to Friday. And as you heard off the top, April 2nd, you probably saw the promo, big day for Bellator MMA moving exclusively to Showtime. That, of course, begins tonight. We're going to have some picks to break it down. I'm sure a lot of you saw our extended weigh-in special yesterday where we went very in-depth on that. A lot of great bonus videos and interviews as well. But this is Morning Combat.

This is the Friday show to get people set up for the weekend. A bit of great bonus videos and interviews as well. But this is Morning Combat. This is the Friday show to get people set up for the weekend. A bit of housekeeping notes. Please, merch 1.0, it may be the final days for this, but it's still available at store.show.com. You may have seen some teases and mentions throughout social media and in MK.

The new merch is coming. It is. Trust me, we've had to go through it all, quite literally. They made Luke try on every single piece. And you as well. And they tried to do more than that. We're like, we don't do that kind of stuff here. BC, would you mind getting on your knees for this photo?

I said, listen, I'm going to call HR if this continues. Also, in talking about Bellator on Showtime, it's a great time to get your 30-day free trial of Showtime right now by going to Showtime.com. And how about a first-time subscriber's deal for all things Bellator MMA? Show.com slash Bellator MMA. 30 days free. The first six months for $4.99. When we're talking about docs, movies, Showtime Championship Boxing, me belching on the air, and then you sprinkle on top

the launch of Bellator MMA on Showtime. Now is the time to get on board. And, of course, Luke, like all great drug dealers, Showtime willing to give a little bit for free in the beginning. Tonight, you can catch Bellator 255 on FuboTV, PlutoTV. YouTube. YouTube. J-Date.

I think we've got to work. Friendster. Yes, yes, Friendster. Friendster maybe might be carrying this. And, of course, Showtime. Grindr. I just met her. No, that's one Greg Hardy calls out Taito Iwasa.

Yes, yes. That's what that is. But no, no, it's going to be on Showtime tonight. So there's a lot of different ways. But here's the thing. You don't have to pay for it tonight. Today you get to just try it out. No excuse not to watch, really.

I mean, what's holding you back at this point, right? Unless you're just a big asshole. But we got a lot to talk about today. People missing digits, big time pranksters in the MMA game, potentially, depending on your side of the slate right there. Luke, before we get into all things serious, just want to make a comment. You know, this week we've been back where we belong here,

somewhere in the swamps of Jersey. I'd say making some of the best content possible in this space, all right? Yes. I think it's a big, important reminder that this show is, this show only, I'm not gonna say only exists in studio, but that version that we do on Zoom, it's great that we have the opportunity to do that. But it's a bastardized, redheaded stepchild. It's not this. We've done a lot of content this week. We did the Wednesday show. We did all the stuff for Bellator yesterday. I joined your live chat. You're doing the live chat, and we're doing the post-fight show tonight. And if people don't think we didn't record a Room Service Diaries last night, Luke.

We did. We will have to edit out. It was a good bit. It was a great bit, actually, that we'll have to get edited out so we can keep our jobs. Probably. Outside of that, people will be getting that on Saturday. So check out our social channels below. We're going to do Dead Wrong later, so of course, morningcombat at gmail.com is the way to reach us right there. Reach at us, not around. Please, we're not

really into that as much. And also... Jesus. See, that's where the HR line... I mean, we need an alert here on the show, like an HR alert when you're getting dangerously close to either bad jokes or bad problems. And I would have rung the bell on that HR alert. And also, we will have a live post-fight show tonight after Bellator 255. So, so much good stuff.

You know, when we say MK all day, nearly every day, Luke, I don't even think you were prepared for how much we are filling that hole, right? Yes. I like that hole, right? Yes. I like that smile. Yeah. I like the way this show feels on me. You put that jacket on, and you act like you're Dr. Strange. Dr. Strange love.

Oh, one more shout-out. We love our viewers. Thank you, of course, for all the people that sent in some things for us to sample, some beer, some good stuff like that, some sauces. I wanted to shout out one of our OGs from day one, Webscream, our fine ambassador of all things graphics. Him and his lovely

wife had the first offering to the world, their son. Pietro, I think it was his name? I don't know. Anyway, congratulations to Webscream and family over there in Italy. Much love on the extension of all that. Your family, your brand, good stuff. Luke, there's going to come a point where you're like, BC, enough with the intro.

Let's get into the meat. Yeah, well, you want to, you know, meander? It's your opportunity to meander. Okay. We'll pull aside the meat curtains like it's some leaked pics and we'll get. Where's the HR button? We'll get going. We used to be like BC's hilarious 90s

references. Now I need that button like Matt Lauer has, but this time it's the opposite. This time it doesn't cause an HR problem, it calls HR to solve a problem. And our camera people are walking off. And you hit the button and then

all of a sudden BC gets electric shock. Alright, Fridays are fun with BC. Let's start it out on this camera. Here we go. Tonight, of course, Bellator 255. 9 p.m. Eastern is the main card on Showtime. You can, of course, catch the underbelly of that on the YouTube channels. Check that out, Bellator and Showtime. Luke, let's get into 255 picks. We set the stage in great detail, and the buildup to this, people can still check out my interviews with John, big John McCarthy,

Emmanuel Sanchez, all that good stuff. But as it pertains to the cage tonight, semifinals of the Bellator Featherweight World Grand Prix, Patricio Pitbull defending his title against Emmanuel Sanchez for the second time. In terms of X's and O's, forget the storylines. What is this fight going to look like? I think it's going to look patient at first. I think it's going to look chaotic in many parts.

Some of the best fights that Patricio has, of course, like any good fight, has back and forth. But, you know, Patricio is not immune. He is very, very heavy-handed. He's very, very good, but he's obviously not immune from having good offense done to him. I don't know what's happening quite over here, but you get the idea. So to me, I think we talked about this yesterday. You have two guys who are very experienced, two guys who are very skilled, two guys who know each other. They're well-matched. Obviously, they earn their position that they're in now.

So I expect a fight that will probably go longer. Both are quite durable. I expect it to have every phase of MMA touched, all the transition points, some wrestling, a lot of striking. I expect Emmanuel Sanchez to do what he normally does, which is try to pressure, and we'll see to what extent Patricio can handle that or not. What's interesting to me, BC, we've spent a lot of time talking about the improvement of Emmanuel Sanchez

because it is incontestable. It is not debatable that he has not improved. Especially the last three years. 100%. Since that first fight. Since that first fight. The question you have to ask yourself is, A, if Patricio didn't improve, does he still have enough of a gap on him?

Or B, did he concurrently improve, in which case, what would be the difference this time for Sanchez? Yes, that's the key storyline right here, whereas we spend all the last few months telling you how great Emmanuel Sanchez is, how he's a live dog at what were the latest odds, somewhere around minus, or sorry, plus two. Yeah, current William Hill odds, that's who we go with, right? That's the in-house group.

They've got Patricio Pitbull as a minus 280, basically, favorite. So you're looking right there. We can talk for days at why Emmanuel Sanchez, who took Patricio's best punch and kept coming, who hurt Pitbull in round two of their first fight, who had success taking him to the ground, and who was really on even terms entering that fifth round, why he may have a better chance. But the point you just sort of teased is, oh, by the way,

Patricio got a whole hell of a lot better too, which is scary, which is why we are talking about him not just as the face of the Bellator franchise, but as one of the pound-for-pound best in the world for a reason. Luke, I think the confidence levels that Patricio gained from the one-punch knockout of Michael Chandler, from packaging these victories together, he's realized that he's not just a savage and a warrior. Here's a guy who's rounded out the tough edges of his game on the ground.

His cardio is no joke. But that mean streak and that confidence and that ability that I'm going to walk in, hit you with my best shot, and you're not going to finish the fight, I think he's at an all-time level with that in terms of his run, where he is just at the point now at 33 where it has all come together, which means that even though Emmanuel Sanchez can set a strong pace and is going to be in this fight, his best chance to win also sets up his best chance to lose

in my eyes, meaning I think Emmanuel Sanchez has to hurt Pitbull to have a chance to win, but the closer he gets to doing that, I think the speedier he sets up his exit by second round knockout finish to Pitbull, okay? I am eternally struggling on this one, BC, between Pitbull's natural, we talked about this yesterday a little bit too, Pitbull's natural we talked about this yesterday a little bit too Pitbull's natural ability to finish strong he's very very good when the fight gets down to the wire either in a round or overall

he is really noteworthy about stepping his foot on the gas he's done it a number of times on the other hand I do feel like Sanchez has made the most amount of improvements since their last fight. And so you're really, I'm at this tension between, you know, is this guy who's just a, I wouldn't say a born finisher, but he's a very good finisher, Patricio Pitbull. And, you know, already has a win over the guy, has 25 minutes of experience with him.

I'm struggling with this tension between them. I don't really know which way to go on this one. But the odds for Sanchez, if you want to put a bet on him, is about plus 210. That's about, as far as betting goes, for a guy who is in the 200s and you think has a legitimate chance, that's a great bet, honestly.

I would take that bet, to be candid with you. Very interesting. Obviously, AJ McKee, the unbeaten one, is awaiting in the finals for the winner of this. We can get into that a lot in tonight's post show in terms of based on who wins this rematch. What will that fight look like against AJ McKee? Cannot wait for that. Quickly through this card, Luke, I'm looking for picks or ways you lean.

May not be your favorite thing in the world, Luke, but humor me. It's Fridays with BC here. That co-main event, it's the welterweight battle between Neiman Gracie against red-hot ass-kicking machine Jason Jackson from Jamaica, which, again, I talked about this on Thursday's post-Weigh-In show. I'm a little surprised that Jackson, who I like as sort of a rising force right here, ended up being the slight betting favorite as we enter into this one. That has switched just again. It has switched back again.

Yes. So according to William Hill, they've got Neiman Gracie minus 125, but Jason Jackson just plus 100. It's borderline pick-em. So Neiman Gracie at 9-1 can pretty much secure a title shot with a win here. You have to believe experience-wise and the strength of what they do best compared to the others. So what Neiman Gracie does so much better than Jackson and many others

is take the fight to the ground and have the option of submitting you. That's all in there. That's why I do believe he should be a slight betting favorite. But I'm really liking Jackson's potential considering the run he's on. He's won six of seven. The only loss was to Ed Ruth by split decision in which he dropped Ruth multiple times. Luke, I'm talking myself into the belief that Jason Jackson is going in the right direction at the right time. And he'll find a way to put hands on Gracie and make this a fight. If it's a no-gi grappling competition like you like to watch on the interwebs, I like Gracie for days.

Can Jackson, though, find the openings, hurt him, and win this by knockout? I tend to think he probably could. We mentioned this as well yesterday. He is huge for the weight class, which is, you know, welterweight already features big fighters. He's a big one among them. I tend to think that Neiman Gracie, obviously his best work is, you know, far and away on the ground.

He's very, very good there. But I don't think it's fair to say he's, like, out of his depth on his feet. I don't think he's as good as Jason Jackson. But I don't think he's that far behind either. So while if the fight stayed on the feet, you would like Jason Jackson's chances, I don't think that there has to be a desperate scramble by Gracie to put it on the floor. I don't think you have to. You don't get it there, there's no chance.

You can mix it up. I think at some point he probably does need to have some real punctuated moments of ground control, but if he doesn't get to finish there, I don't think that's a death sentence for Neiman Gracie at all. He's very underrated. Gracie, I do believe, is the better fighter coming in here, right? In terms of experience, in terms of just what he brings to the table.

I mean, he's already... And he's fought better guys, too. He's already established himself as a very legit title contender. He went into that tournament unbeaten. He did take a loss to Rory in the Grand Prix, but he came back and retired John Fitch. I mean, he's very good. The question is, can Jason Jackson elevate his game to a level we really haven't seen before?

Is this the beginning of Jason Jackson as a viable Walter Waite title contender, or is this just a guy who's going to be a tough out in the right situation? This is what I love about this fight. This is the ass-kicking machine's chance to explode into the elite. Now, should he lose it? It's not the end of the world, but he does go down to a level. He becomes sort of an also-ran, a guy. This is his opportunity to be much more than that, Luke.

They've given him the chance to splash into the title picture. I don't know. I feel the energy when he fights out there. Whatever he lacks in technique, he fills that gap with explosion confidence. You saw little unpleasantries between them at the weigh-in, too, which isn't typically the Gracie way. No, Neiman's a very nice guy. So this is a very well-matched fight.

It's going to be very interesting. I like Jackson, though. I like him. Yeah, I think he's very good, and I don't think he's going to be completely overmatched on the ground either. I don't think he's as good as Gracie. The more time you spend there, you're certainly courting risk. But I also

do think in favor of Jackson, if he wants to be spending some time on the ground, certainly on top. He wouldn't want to be underneath necessarily. But if he can get a takedown, he shouldn't necessarily panic. He might be able to do a little work there and then back out and go back to the feet and then mix it up. It's a very, very, I'll say this, well-matched fight

and I gotta like either person against Douglas Lima, which is really kind of what's on the line here. Gracie against Douglas Lima would be fun for one reason. And I think Jackson versus Douglas Lima would be fun for a very different reason. Either way, you kind of get a great fight out of it. Of course, Lima coming off of that loss to Gegard Mousasi when he moved up in weight. Obviously, MVP's in that top five. Yaroslav Amoslav. Amoslav, the... Yeah, I mean, how MVP is, again, over Yaroslav Amoslav.

Amoslav, excuse me, is a crime. Habib's cousin, Usman Nurmagomedov, the unbeaten lightweight, making his promotional debut tonight. It'll go in there against Mike Hamill. Seven and four. Trains with big-time competition. Pushed Adam Boric to the limit, I guess you can say, coming up short in a split-decision loss.

The storyline, everything here is about Usman announcing himself to the world that I am the next in line of the great Shmesh Factory's Nurmagomedovs. I'm a little bit different than Habib, we're going to find out. But in terms of betting-wise and picks-wise, is there any reason to like Hamill to prove this guy wrong? If someone said, and you can see him there on the right, if someone said, give me the number one reason, not being accident or anything else, like what in Mike Hamill's skill set is the best thing he can leverage against a guy like Nurmagomedov, and you'll

be able to point to some formidable things, but there's just not a really concrete argument behind that for winning. It would take those things plus, I think, off-peak. When I say peak, I don't mean like in his prime, but I mean like he's peaking for this moment in the course of the camp for that to happen. Something would have to be wrong in that equation. He's a massive favorite. William Hill has Usman Nurmagomedov as a minus 840. That's a huge favorite in MMA.

So I think Mike Hamill is a fine test. I don't really see any convincing reason to say he would win, but as we all know, MMA is crazy. And finally, we really like that women's flyweight battle that could again produce the next title contender when Alejandra Lara Azul of Colombia reformed after the two defeats to the former champ Elaine MacFarlane and then Juliana Velasquez,

the current champ in their non-title bout. She'll be in there against Kana Watanabe, Japan's 9-0-1, the former Judoka. Will your wife be watching and will she be chairing for the Medellin product? Medellin. Okay, how is that will she be chairing for the Medellin product? Medellin. Okay, how is that Medellin when it looks like Medellin?

Well, okay, we've had this debate before with Cynthia's last name, but in Spanish, the two L's together becomes an English Y sound in many places, so it is acceptable to say Medellin, but if you ask people from

that city where they're from, they don't say it with a Y, they say it with an English J, so it would be Medellin. The double L is a Y is a J in Colombian Spanish. I appreciate your studious response to that question. That's the answer, Medellin. Recognizing my lack of culture and filling in the gaps. In fact, you complete my sentences in many ways, but will Abuela be Team Azul in this one?

Yeah, big time, big time. This one, whenever, who's the one who trains with, out of the Kings MMA? The other Colombian girl. The olive oil one. Forget her name. Anyway, she's, yes, anytime a Colombian fights, they all kind of watch. So, yes.

All right, I kind of like Watanabe here. It's a very pick-em fight. It's a very flip-em. And I love Azul, personality-wise. She's fun they all kind of watch. So, yes. All right. I kind of like Watanabe here. It's a very pick-em fight. It's a very flip-em. And I love Azul. Personality-wise, she's fun. All that's great. I'm not seeing a killer in there yet, Luke. I'm not seeing somebody who can finish fights.

Yeah. I've seen her do well. I've seen her show at certain moments where she has a major advantage over her opponents in terms of skills. But to your point, I've never really seen all the different pieces put together in a real bout of consequence that shows real, you know, affirmable skills at the highest level. Like you can just say, okay, this is a person who is clearly putting everything together in a concerted effort to climb these ranks. I've not seen that either.

I've seen sort of inspired moments here and there unattached to the other. I think I'm looking for it. With Watanabe, who is, you know, pretty experienced given her short time in MMA, but overall as a competitive athlete, quite experienced. This will be an interesting test because she's not going to fade under the lights of the pressure or anything like that. Really enjoyed her work with Ryzen, by the way. Also, let's not going to fade under the lights of the pressure or anything like that. Really enjoyed her work with Ryzen, by the way. Also, let's not forget this division. Juliana Velasquez, as I mentioned, the new champ, took out McFarlane.

Will we see a rematch? Not sure. Liz Karmouche, also the newcomer, former UFC two-time title contender in this mix. Luke, that's the Bellator 255 card. Roger Huerta's on the undercard. Oh, yes. He's a plus 210 underdog. Is this his last stop before BKFC? I don't know.

I mean, for Roger Huerta to go from being on the cover of Sports Illustrated to now, he's on the prelims and nobody cares. It's hard to fathom if you saw his rise. Also, Magomedov making his debut at Bantamweight for the Bellator MMA. He did beat Peyotre Yan. How much of a favorite do you think he is? Over who? Over C.J. Hamilton.

Minus 2,000. Close. Minus almost 1,700. All right. That's a lot. He could be a player in this division. Yeah, I'm a little bit confused, except for the matchup itself, as to why he's on the prelims, but I guess they're looking for a better opponent to showcase him again.

They need to draw people to the prelims, though, Luke. They need something to spice it up a little bit. I guess so. All right. 255, check that out. Let's continue the news cycle from the past 48 hours since we last did this show. And in the UFC, we had a little bit of a social justice Wednesday breakout, although today is Friday's show,

between rivals Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz, who fired back and forth on Twitter debating who is the real king of MMA, Luke. Can you humor us here and take us through these, Luke? And we'll find out who, in fact, is the real king of these MMA Twitter streets. All right. It started out with Nate saying, who went up two weight classes in half a day? Notice no hesitation and not promotion about it. Just did it because I ain't no bitch. How's that, Connor? F you.

Whatever you think you did already been done by a real G. Try not to get finished again. So this is Nate showing the picture of the Rory Markham fight, Luke. Yep. And Connor's response? What in the Facebook prelims is this shit? Who the fuck is Rory Markham? Is that the worst accent ever?

Well, that's on point. I like that. 177. Can we continue the slide here, please, Corey Monich? Should I keep going with this bit? Yes, please. Is it racist? No, it's not.

All right. Look, you can impersonate. I impersonated the great Japanese style of fight announcements. Yeah, they really loved it when you did that. It worked out well for us.

And don't worry on my next fight, bro. I think this is like Scottish. What am I doing? You kind of sound like the leprechaun from the movies. You and your face

know what I'm like when I go again with it. I don't think that sounds like Conor McGregor. Okay, then Nate said, don't forget Dustin fucked you up, but he's scared of me. You are both some bitches. And I slapped Habib. He was scared. No, no, no, no, no. Read what he wrote.

And I slapped Kebab. He was scared with no counter. And he owned you. So who's the real king? Me, bitch. That's who. King Nate dog. I love, by the way, that Nate continues to go with the I slapped Habib in public, and he did nothing. I know.

He takes that as like I won a fight. Yeah, that is the way he takes it. All right, let me see if I can do this one. Can you blow it up so I can read a little bit better? Sorry. Even with these glasses, I'm fucking blind. I forget nothing, bro, and you don't see that soon enough. Can you blow it up so I can read a little bit better? Sorry. Even with these glasses, I'm fucking blind. I forget nothing, bro.

And you'll see that soon enough. And don't talk to me about a little slap in the scuffle. I had them all trapped thinking they were dead. You're the king of Newton. You couldn't even win your belt they made for you, let alone any other. I see you got my lucky charms there. I don't present this as a good Irish accent, just the best one that I can come up with. Is that the end of it, or we have more? Oh yeah, the Nate said... L-O-L, you suck. Yep, Connor came back with...

Wait, what's the other one? Yee, on big tits. Now what does that mean? Is he calling him fat? He does call it. Connor constantly refers to Nate as the fat skinny guy, the skinny fat guy, which I've been called before. Is Nate skinny fat? I've been called the skinny fat guy many times. I think he thinks Nate's flabby, never really cut up.

Nate seems pretty rail thin to me. So, Luke, I can't believe this made the second topic in our rundown here, but your thoughts on this little... What's the whole Rory Markham thing they were debating there? Well, I guess... So here's my understanding of this. He did fight Rory Markham, I think, on short notice, and Rory Markham was a

welterweight. Rory Markham missed weight for that weight class. So I think what he's saying is because Markham came in at 177, technically he was fighting a middleweight contest because that would actually be above welterweight you'd actually be remember the middleweight can be 172 depending on where you're at

all the way to 185 or 186 again depending on where you're at so I think that's what he meant but Conor's like dude yeah Rory Markham. I mean, you didn't fight. So is that Nate's way of saying, fight me at welterweight, bitch? Is that what it's like?

I think he's just trying to say that Conor's taking a lot of credit for being the first to do these big, bold leaps in weight and everything else. And he's saying, I kind of already did it. But yes, dude, Nate fighting a guy at 177, given he's a natural lightweight, and he beat the fuck out of Rory Markham, too. I do think that's a legitimate win, but I understand Conor's point, which is like, yeah, that's not an A-class opponent, and it's not. Yeah, you're taking everything I worked for, mother effer. All right, we'll put that one to bed.

Let's move on in the news cycle. As we left off on Wednesday's show, Jon Jones was on a lengthy Twitter attack against the UFC for all things negotiations to the idea of him moving up in weight and challenging new champion Francis Ngannou. Luke, this continued in very bizarre ways over the last two days. If we can show the stream of consciousness tweets. Here's Jon saying, I feel like the fight is monumental.

Matchups like this don't come very often in a lifetime. Me stopping Francis. Wow, who said stoppage, Luke? In my first fight up at heavyweight would be nothing short of extraordinary. Ali versus Foreman, hosted by the UFC. Manish, stay right here. Luke, are you okay with him essentially comparing this to Muhammad Ali at a time where people thought he was getting washy fighting a destroyer in George Foreman. Is this

the potential to be UFC's Ali Foreman? I don't think it carries some of the same cultural significance, but I don't think the comparison for the sport itself is all that off, honestly. I really don't. Yeah, and it has the potential. Look, when I said on this show

I think this fight can do, with the right promotion, over two million buys and I know I said, well I wonder what it could do. Could it do three? But really, the whole point was I think it could do above two with the right promotion. People are like, BC, what are you stupid? What are you crazy? John's never done more than a million on his own. I'm telling you, now we

have the ESPN arm, watch what happens. If this fight does get signed, and we're going to get into that in a second with the ongoing of tweets, and they promote it the right way, and they use ESPN and SportsCenter and push it into people's living rooms, it's going to get there. I'm telling you, this is that kind of thing. I certainly don't know what its upper bound limit is, BC,

but I do recognize, if promoted correctly, these two together are greater than the sum of their parts. Damn right. The temerity of you to tell the truth there. Very O'Merica sandwich waiting for you after this one, Luke. Let's continue with the tweets. You literally did that jacket. No, the jacket.

You did that jacket as well. You did that joke yesterday. You know, but I wasn't allowed to joke during your live chat, so I had to really, you know, spend my bullets. You weren't allowed to joke, just, you know. Anyway, John came back with, I've been working my ass off for years. Concussion surgeries fighting the toughest competition UFC had to offer throughout my 20s for right around $2 million per fight.

Very candid here, John. I'm just trying to have my payday, the fight all of us fighters believe is one day possible. Fair enough. Let's move to the next one. I believe I was grossly underpaid throughout my entire 20s. I'm not even here bitching about that. I just want to see the future done right. He's a Robin Hood in fighter's clothing here.

Let's keep it going. And here's the interesting one. I had a brief phone meeting with UFC's lawyer, Hunter Campbell, a few days ago. As of right now, I expressed to him that anywhere around $8 to $10 million would be way too low for a fight of this magnitude. That's all that has been discussed so far. Pause right here. Luke, we talked about John countering Dana's boldness with basically putting it all out there on Twitter. He's basically live tweeting a negotiation here. The right move for John in your eyes to put a number that says anything above that and we'll start. We're talking.

He's right. Damn damn right eight to ten million he's absolutely correct i mean i know a lot of fans are like oh i see i'll see a bunch of memes on social media floating around being like anytime john jones bitches about pay and then so you know someone covering their ears or something like that it's like i know this is not the kind of content as a fan that you want to see that these are not the things that you want to discuss we want to discuss the fight and how it's going to go and blah, blah, blah, or what happens. But his argument, I'm sorry, y'all. This is not up for debate.

He is 1,000% correct. They could easily pay him that, make all their money, 3X. Do people realize that if this fight does... He was underpaid in his 20s. All right, let's say this fight did conservatively, to me conservatively, not to you, but let's say it did 1.6 million buys, which is a lot, right? Which would be a shitload, and let's say underperforming relative to some of your expectations.

At what? What, 79 a pop? What are they charging? I think it was 69 the last one I paid for, so let's say 70. Do people realize how many millions that is? Do people realize how much money the UFC makes off that? And they don't have to split it with anybody else. It goes, the partnership is funneled. You know, when people are like, I don't get that people are not realizing that the higher end, the guys who are on the damn poster, I mean, I do.

And BC, you could have it at a place where there's a gate. You can make money off the, I mean, whether it's COVID appropriate, that's a separate debate. You can do it. You can make your money back. I mean, look, I do resume review, or not resume. I do Storytime with Rashad Evans, a spinoff show on MK where we go fight by fight, and we just break down every detail. And one of those is I

read what Wikipedia reported from the State Commission of what they made. There was a time, his first fight with Tito Ortiz, a pay-per-view co-main event. Rashad made $15,000 to show and $15,000 to win. That was a draw, right? Yeah, or sorry, so he made $15,000 to show because it was a draw, but he goes. Sorry. So he made 15 to show because it was a draw.

But he goes, oh, no, don't worry. Dana gave me the backstage handshake, and he gave me another 60 grand, and that changed everything. Even with that other 60 grand, we're talking about paying a pay-per-view co-main eventer something like 75 grand. So then the next episode we did was the pay-per-view main event against Michael Bisping. The purses were not announced because the New Jersey State Athletic Commission chose not to.

But Bisping ended up getting sued by his manager or he sued him, one or the other. And it went to court. And it came out in court that Bisping made, I think it was $220,000 for that. And I said, Rashad, what did you make? And he was like, I think it was around there. We're still talking about a pay-per-view main event at the time of a show that did something

like 700,000 buys. And they're still only making $200,000-view main event at the time of a show that did something like 700,000 buys, and they're still only making $200,000 apiece at that point. The UFC has been getting—let's just say it outright. The UFC has been employing these independent contractors due to the leverage in the marketplace at a discount rate for virtually the entire experience of their existence. I mean, I get that somebody like a Mayweather and Pacquiao had Canelo have built up such a large standing and control and better leverage and all that. And Mayweather can control the price of the hot dogs and the seats. I mean, he has all the control. So not everybody's going to get guaranteed 40 million or whatever,

but we're in 2021. The UFC is on ESPN. It's got, you know, like there's a lot of big things going. You're telling me a pay-per-view main eventer for a fight that we know is going to do at least a million and a half buys conservatively, they can't make 10, 15, 20 million each? Like, do you not, like, people do the math here. You know what I mean? Like, who deserves this in your eyes at the end of the day? And also, it's like, dude, how many times are we going to watch a year where Dana White and whoever else that works in the UFC brags about their success and how they're taking things to the next level.

And then when it comes time to pay for fights like this, they all cry poor. Well, which is it? Yeah. Which is it? Show me the site fee that Abu Dhabi's paying for Fight Island. Seriously, yeah. If it's really that financially ruinous to do that,

show us. Because I remember when Randy Couture sued the UFC he was making some claims about what he was paid and what he was owed and blah blah blah and then the UFC kind of said well you know what your contracts pretty good they kind of revealed all the details in his contract and what it said and what it didn't like when the facts were on their side they don't mind sharing them come on man like what it what game are we playing here you know you can afford it you just don't want to pay that for

all the reasons you don't want to pay for it. The Twitter truth took some weird turns. Let's continue this road down Twitter lane here, Maniche, if we can go to the next slide. Derek Lewis jumping in with a nice funny joke, but I think he's being realistic. I'll do it for $8 million.

Shit. I like that tweet, by the way. I retweeted it. Okay. I know that to you it disrupts the market in the wrong direction. It's fighters saying, well, if that guy won't take it, I sure will. And that's been the history of UFC being able to underpay guys because there's so many people just hoping to get into that next tier of, and I get that.

Can we keep it going? This is the reason why they can always go to the lowest bidder. You're right. So here's where it got weird. So overnight, last night, John Bowens puts out, I just had a great dinner and the best conversation I've had with Dana in a very long time. We got the deal done. Date to be announced soon. I woke up to these tweets and I was like, oh my God, holy shit, we've done it. And then you see Dana's response, which seems to be a stamp of this is a legit tweet.

Incredible night, brother. Could you imagine them just kind of squashing their beef, going out to the Palms, Luke, having a steak, maybe some other stuff, and just squashing it? This seems real, right? Is your nose itchy? It seems real. Let's see what happened next on the twits. Then John comes right back with, hope you guys had a good April Fool's.

He also would tweet, hey guys, it's still 11.42 p.m. in Albuquerque, which would let people know it's still April 1st. Luke, is this a freaking joke or not? Why would Dana play along if it is? I don't get what's going on here. Please. Did any other reporter issue any kind of report? Nope.

Backing this? Nope. And there are already blog sites who are like, you know, Dana White and John Jones play April Fool's trick. So do you believe there's some truth in the middle that maybe they did have a meeting that was the first step in the right direction? But yet the whole idea of the fight being done is April Fool's? I don't get what's going on here. I can't. Here's what it looks like to me.

Of course, I have no way of knowing. It looks like John just tweeted it, and Dana went to just play along with it, and that's it. There's no real other coordination. But I don't know. What's your best guess? I think that makes sense of a situation that doesn't seem to make any sense. But I do think it at least screams to me that we're getting closer, right?

I wouldn't doubt if they did have a phone call or a meeting last night. And maybe Dana's just having some fun throwing it on there. But I think we'll get there. I think the fight's too big. I think with everything going on with the IPO and all that, they'll figure out the right price in the end. I hope. We'll see. I hope. Interesting developments right there. All right, Luke, let's keep the show rolling here. Speaking of IPOs and UFC, get this out. We teased it and it happened. Endeavor is now the 100% owner of UFC. They had a stock right around, what, 50 point something, 51%. They've bought

out the other owners ahead of this expected public launch. Endeavor is now the 100% owner of UFC. And Luke, they named Elon Musk to the board of directors. This is pretty big. There's no more, what were those other sort of, who else had ownership is what i'm trying to say it was i think some of the investment groups that had helped to fund the acquisition previously there was a group yeah so like that kind of stuff now it's all in-house for ari emmanuel patrick whiteside and endeavor white white cell i think white cell white white skin yeah um like you and me what what's going on here now lou well it's interesting if you look at some of the numbers in the new york post article they've been following this

endeavor ipo as a story um not so much the ufc but just the endeavor side of it for quite some time because obviously they had the initial one that they tried in 2019 that was a big failure um if you look at the finances b BC, they lost something like 2020. Endeavor lost something like 600 plus million. And if it was not for UFC, I think UFC accounted for in 2020 for Endeavor, 80% of their revenue, 80%. All of their other assets combined did jack shit for them.

Wow. It was just UFC. And so they must have looked at that and said, we need to be in control of that ahead of this IPO if we're going to get the kind of money that we want to bail us out of this terrible financial position that they have arrived by virtue of a number of factors, not least of which is the pandemic.

But yeah, it's interesting. Does this mean going public that there will be a more of a desperate push to get crossover fights? Like, does this open the door for like a Brock Lesnar to come back in a fight he doesn't deserve against Ngannou? I mean, what does this actually mean toward the future of matchmaking in your eyes? So I would caution a little bit against trying to draw a direct connection. I do think it will make a difference in what kind of fights ultimately get made in a way that is noticeable. But let me just explain why you can't overreach with that.

Right. Like, are they going to try and keep big stars in rotation a little more than they ordinarily would? My hunch is probably yes. Because do you remember in 2016 when the UFC sold, when the Fertittas and White sold to Endeavor, there was a concern that because they were floating so much debt to do it, that they would now have to force the kind of matches on pay-per-view that maximize the mitigation of that debt. I tend to think that that was true, but a little bit overstated. So I would say, yeah,

they're probably going to be a little bit weird matchmaking here and there. You are going to see a push for bigger fights here and there and unusual matchups for that reason, but not in a super heavy handed way. I just mean that, you know, for the stats you're spitting out that basically Endeavor's future is dependent upon the UFC succeeding at the highest level. If you took away the UFC from Endeavor, they would fold. And then they just took on more debt to basically become the sole owner. That's right. Then this is an all-in move to go public and make as much money as they can off of what we thought was like an overpriced $4 billion reach in 2016, correct?

Yes, correct. So I wonder what this means in terms of big fight after big fight. Who cares who's in line? Let's make the biggest possible fight, which you could argue, Luke, we're already doing by having a Poirier-Connor 3 without a title at stake just for the sake of, hey, it'll sell a lot of pay-per-views, which again, tying it back to Jon Jones, leads me to believe that they figured out. I mean, listen, on one level, I don't know that this will happen,

but on one level, let's assume for the sake of argument that it's possible that the reason why Poirier is in play with McGregor and now Diaz is back, and oh, by the way, Jon's bitching about money, but to your point, they'll probably come to some kind of conclusion or some resolution at some point here soonish. Maybe you could argue, I don't know if this is true, that the need for Endeavor to have the UFC reach, you know, its peak value for them, they need to make fights like this. They got to pay guys a little bit in particular situations to remain active. Like it doesn't, it doesn't result in like a pay boost across the board.

It's not that, but for this guy, for that guy, for her, yeah, they might get a little bit more. There might be something to that. Well, for fans, 2016 was still my favorite year as both a fan and journalist of following the UFC. It was just big fight, loaded card after loaded card. And I think, Luke, we look back and we realize it was because let's make the brand as strong as possible at the moment it gets sold. You have to wonder if 2021, which we already were sort of praising as,

damn, look at 261 with the triple header. Look at, you know, we are just getting big fight after big fight. This is a great time to be a lot of your fan. Like maybe you don't care as much in terms of the fighter pay, in terms of the other that. You just want great fights. This is the year you're going to get them. I mean, is it a coincidence that Dana tweets Misha back and goes, come home?

I don't think that's a coincidence. You tweeted her? Yeah, she revealed that she had some concern given her employment with One, whether she would be welcomed back, and she basically said the moment Dana texted her, not tweeted, texted her and said, come home, that was the turning point. So I mentioned Brock Lesnar before. If you're looking at, like, what's a big piece we can bring back that will just shake up the casual fan and big pay-per-views,

what about that other lady that brings in a lot of eyes? Ronda Rousey. Didn't he just say that there was no chance she was going to come back? He did. I'm just wondering. Of course, yeah, with Dana, you have no idea what's true or not. I don't think it would happen. I don't think Rousey's going to do that again. Does he hire Gina?

Because Gina is Captain Controversy now. What if they pulled Rousey back and did either a Holly Holm rematch or a Misha Tate trilogy? Is that still moving a million plus buys in 2021? Yeah.

Yeah, it does. I think so. It has to be promoted correctly and everything else like that, but yeah. Do you care about a Ronda Rousey comeback? And we have no reasons outside of just full-on financial speculation. If she was training in a real kind of way,

maybe let's say outside of Glendale. Less Armenians? As the son of an Armenian, I say that painfully, yes. Maybe some fewer ones are in order in this particular case. But yeah, I would take that seriously. Let me ask you something about Ronda Rousey. Please. A buddy of mine told me this because, dude, I have tried.

You know what? On my timeline, BC, I curate my timeline. Oh, really? And any time I see a pro wrestling hashtag, I put it into muted terms so it doesn't pollute my timeline. It's a lot of work. Here's what I found. It doesn't really work. They just keep coming up with new ones, and I constantly have to go through this process. So here's what I've noticed, BC, and this is a serious question. I've noticed that the women in pro wrestling tend to feature a lot more of my timeline than they used to. I'm just seeing them

all over the place in various matches of consequence, and I see people talking to each other about how they're important. I asked a friend of mine, like, is there anything to, anything at all, the rise of women's MMA and its popularity and its mainstream acceptance with the rise in women's professional wrestling?

And he said that there was, and that the center linchpin between them is probably Ronda Rousey. Yes. That to the extent she sparked a revolution in MMA, she may have sparked something similar with the women's side of the game in pro wrestling. It's 100% true. Dude, that seems to me like a very big story that doesn't get told. Well, it got told since I used to be a pro wrestling journalist, especially around when Ronda Rousey made her WWE in-ring debut at

that WrestleMania in, what was it, New Orleans? Or was it the year after? Was it outdoor? The one in New Jersey. Rose Bowl or something? No, the one. So there's two things. At the peak of her UFC still fighting prime, remember she had that appearance in 2015 at

WrestleMania 31 where she came out from the crowd and with the rock. So I think that was a big turning point because that was when the women's MMA boom was still climbing. And I think that sparked a lot of change within WWE of taking women's matches more serious. I think Ronda Rousey was sort of the thing that flashed in front of their eyes to open that door. But then her first

match, which she joined in 2017, was at WrestleMania. And the build to that was all about that storyline. It was all about that, this women's evolution, as they call it, in WWE. It would not have happened if Rousey didn't have that success at the time that she did when the UFC brought her on board and made her a pay-per-view headliner. Honestly, to me, that changed things a little bit for me, knowing that she's responsible as a major catalyst for industry-wide change across two related but ultimately different forms of sporting entertainment.

That is, well, you want to talk about a pivotal figure in the history of combat sports. That's a big fucking deal, man. Yeah. Yeah. She ultimately made UFC and WWE Eskimo brothers. Right. So for those reasons, if she came back and it was serious, yeah, I would. You know, listen, dude.

I thought the way she handled UFC 207 or was it 209, whatever one it was. It was awful. It was fucking terrible. Like, there's no denying she handled it super poorly. But, dude, a figure that important in combat sports, if it was genuine, how could you say no? Yeah. Great gal. Never met her.

But that's interesting news. Luke, let's keep it going here in terms of UFC business. As the news came out, we know April 10th is UFC fight night next weekend. It will be the first fight post-Rebok deal and into the Venom apparel deal. And Luke, UFC revealed the new pay tiers for fighters. Some of it's similar to the Rebok deal, some of it different. Can you talk me through this menagerie of statistics? Yeah, it's similar to the Reebok deal, some of it different. Can you talk me through this menagerie of statistics? Yeah, it's not much to say for it. I'm not even sure that these pay

increases relative to when the Reebok deal was introduced even keep up with the cost of inflation. It's not much of a raise. So you can see here, we don't have the old one. I do believe there is a comparison. Like, for example, title defense, I think it went from like 40 to now 42, 30 to 32. I think before it was like 3,000 or 3,500 for one to three. We're talking very, very marginal, barely keeping up with the cost of inflation pay increases. So yes, it's a pay increase across the board. That's nice. But this was what I argued when the Reebok deal was introduced, right? The UFC probably had at least a rough idea because, remember, they didn't allow some sponsors.

And they had a sponsor tax to the tune of $100,000 per. They had at least some idea of how many brands were advertising with them and what kind of money was going into that. Again, probably very ballparkish. I doubt they kept a very close spreadsheet, but they had some idea. And this was what I always asked everyone about the Reebok deal. In terms of what you are taking out by not allowing these sponsors in this way, with the Reebok deal, are you putting that money back in? Yes.

And the answer, of course, is not even close. So even with this marginal upgrade that barely keeps up with the cost of inflation, can Venom say we are putting back in what has been taken out? No. So you're asking me what's different about it? Nothing. Nothing. There is nothing different.

Chris Cyborg, nay, Santos Justino tweeted at you. She has another last name, yeah. The great Chris Cyborg, current Bellator featherweight champion. Here's what she said, I have it. I tweeted like, there's nothing really new here. And she wrote, again,

I have no idea if this is true. Or if it's her. Or if it's even her. It is her account. But she wrote, my first fight in Bellator MMA I made ten times that amount in fight night sponsorships what Reebok paid me for my last UFC fight. I also know, however, that Miles Jury, who went from UFC to Bellator, was kind of alarmed at the fact that he was able to get advertisers, but there was almost no market for it.

He said he made a little bit more with Bellator than he did UFC, but not much. But of course, that's partly a function of that whole market being killed off by virtue of some of those restrictions. But it's also a function of your popularity. That's true. So do you think this is still a big hook? And we've heard people going back from Benson Henderson to Ryan Bader to Rory McDonald, people that have left the UFC for Bellator.

Is it still a major free agent carrot that Bellator can hang out there. The idea of if you come here, we'll take great care of you and you get all your old sponsors. I think it can be under this new Showtime sponsorship and it can be for a sponsorship, a partnership I should say. And then it can be for the right kind of fighter.

Some of the ones who are a little bit more senior, a Bader, a Machida, I would imagine probably can get a little bit easier than a jury. But it is going to vary. Again, there are going to be certain cases. We do know this from the Reebok deal. There are going to be certain cases where guys in the UFC were not making a ton on sponsors or they did have to chase some of them down.

And for them, this is either status quo, there's no change, or it could be a bit of an upgrade form in certain situations. But for the majority, it was a major and substantive downgrade. Are we missing out, Luke? Because fighters, they'll put anything on their body for money. Condom Depot, Dynamic Fasteners, South Coast Mitsubishi, Imprint Brewing. Dip My Car. Nice Price Books and CDs from Raleigh, North Carolina.

They'll put anything on there. Can we get one of them to go MK all day, nearly every day on their trunks? We're going to have to pay them, but yes. Which fighter, I guess we have to say outside of the UFC because they don't allow this, which fighter should we be getting? It would have to be somebody young that we can get for cheap, but somebody that we think has bright potential. If we can get in now as an early, and I want probably the right ass patch.

Which part of the trunks do you prefer? The whole ass. I was going to say, I don't know if you want the cup position. Imagine, you know the MK sunrise? Do I have that? No, that's the fist. You know the MK sunrise? You know that thing, Luke? Are you making a white power symbol? No, no, it's right there. Wouldn't that be this the mk sunrise this luke right are you doing a white power no is that like well it kind of looks like a sphincter right so what i'm saying is if we put the mk sunrise on some guys on some guy's package there who should we target you want to get on pico no i think we have to go yaroslav amosov. That's a fair point, yeah.

It's affordable real estate, I feel like. If we could get on Amosov's package, this could do wonders for this show. And his whole ass. It's like, all right, where do you want this ad? We want to cover his entire ass. Thank you. All right, let's keep the respondents to news going. Hey, let's go boxing.

And all you MMA fans can tune out right now as BC tunes in. A couple quick hitters, Luke, this Saturday afternoon on ESPN from Dubai. We have a world title bout when your buddy Semper Fi all the time here, Jamel Herring, defends his WBO 130-pound title against the great Carl Frampton, Luke. Frampton of Northern Ireland is looking, Luke, to become the first fighter of Irish origin to win titles in three different weight classes. Do you care about this fight even remotely? I do, because the odds have it as a pick-em.

Which I'm a little surprised, because like Herring, remember that last fight in the quarantine last year, I think it was against Okendo? It was not a strong performance. He ended up winning a technical or disqualification he won by. And it just wasn't... He looked like shit. Yeah, let's be honest with that. And also Carl Frampton in his last fight kind of got into a war with a guy you wouldn't expect him to.

So Frampton is at that point where he's a legend. I could see a loss leading to retirement. He's had some injuries. I could also see him winning this fight. I feel like he should be a higher favorite, but the odds makers like it as a virtual pick-em here. William Hill is not a, I don't know what else to say. It's minus 110 both directions.

So Herring is a good boxer. He's tough as nails, Luke. He's of your ilk, right? And I like Frampton here, though. I like him. I like him a lot to win this fight. By the way, I don't know who this is. Is this King Tug?

Who is this? Tursin by Kalachmet? No, that's not King Tug. Okay, he's minus 10,000 favorite to beat Heber Rondon. All right, I'm going to go war Heber here. I'm going to put a lot of money down. Luke, try to put an addition on my house. Also in boxing, Luke, Tyson Fury.

There's a picture making the rounds on the internet. We know he's supposedly in discussions for a two-fight deal this year against Anthony Joshua. Have you seen this picture of how skinny our man is here, the Gypsy Kid? Okay, let me just play devil's advocate for a second. Whoa, bro. Hold on. Let me play devil's advocate for a second. First of all, the pick starts at the bottom of his knee or the top of his knee. Run the full screen, man. It wouldn't even matter. The full screen, I double checked it before the show. Even with that, you don't get much else. Okay? He has, he's

more or less fully clothed and he has a goatee. I'm not saying, excuse me, I'm not saying he doesn't look thin because he does. What I'm saying is, how can you tell he's lost a bunch if he's fully clothed and he has a beard to change his appearance? Well, he had a gut straight up in his last two fights,

even though he did get down in good shape. He had a gut against Wilder. He had handlebars. I don't know if he had a gut. He was pretty big against Wilder in the rematch. In the first one. I don't know if it was the second one. The second one he looked pretty good. All I know is we haven't seen him this thin since the Klitschko fight in 2015 when he first upset everyone to win the title there, and he just danced.

I mean, he disarmed and confused the balls off of Klitschko. If he's back into this level of shape, I know it goes against the body shape he came in against Wilder in the rematch. Remember he said, I'm coming in there to knock Wilder out, and he ultimately did. Not a clean knockout, but a stoppage, just the same. I wonder if he looks at Joshua and thinks, you know what, maybe I do want to be as quick as possible

to counter and just outbox this guy and basically wear him down and hope to stop him late from just outclassing him. I wonder, because a focus fury in this kind of shape. He definitely looks to be in shape one way or the other. I just, I mean, you know, every time, I'm trying to do this new thing now, like... Where you don't body shame

people? No, not even that. Did you see this situation, this terrible, terrible situation, where in New York, on like 65th Street, this Asian-American old lady was beaten in front of this... Oh, God. Okay. But everyone was like, oh, the security guard didn't do anything, because it looks like it's the security guard on camera.

And then we come to find out the security guard was not that guy in the video. He was actually on the other side. He didn't see it. And the security guard didn't do anything because it looks like it's the security guard on camera. And then we come to find out the security guard was not that guy in the video. He was actually on the other side. He didn't see it. And the person who didn't help inside the building was actually a delivery guy who had nothing to do with anything else. I'm just pointing out, whenever I see photos and videos on the internet, I want to know more. This, to me, interesting. I'm sure he's going to come in shape. But there's enough factors here for me to conclude we don't have enough evidence to say he's lost. All right. Well well let's continue the boxing heavyweight body

shaming fest as we go on now to Andy Ruiz Jr., Luke, who will return, I believe it's May 1st, is it? Or maybe they moved the date, against Chris Areola You are pumped for that fight, by the way. And that Fox pay-per-view, that is, God, that's a bad fight. But Luke, check out this picture that Lance Pugmire got in the San Diego gym

of Andy Ruiz Jr. Holy crap. Now Luke, check out this picture that Lance Pugmire got in the San Diego gym of Andy Ruiz Jr. Holy crap. Now, Luke, I'm not saying he's rail thin, but you remember how freaking fat this guy was in the Anthony Joshua rematch. He now has Eddie Reynoso as his trainer, who has been Canelo's guy, Ryan Garcia's guy. I mean, how many new names? Oscar Valdez brought him on. There is a change going in boxing with Eddie Reynoso becoming the man right now as the trainer. Luke, if he's in this kind of shape, Andy Ruiz, considering what he did to Joshua in the first fight,

are we about to see, like, is he a title player suddenly soon? I think Andy Ruiz is a very good fighter. And, you know, he completely botched the rematch. He came in fat as Christ and ruined everything. Christ very thin, very thin. Look, I don't know what you're doing. I wanted to hear what you had to say if I said that. Yeah, he came in, you know, he looked terrible in the rematch.

But he is a good athlete. He is a talented fighter. Honestly, dude, like this Areola fight, I don't give a shit about. No, you shouldn't, though. This is not a good fight. You know, I want to see him versus Wilder. All right, there was a great headline that Boxing Scene had. I love Boxing Scene, another

ViacomCBS own brand. Is it? Yes. Andy Ruiz Jr. said, I feel amazing. I used to have tits that wouldn't let me throw the right punches. So, Luke, he has removed those meat flaps. He literally had friction and drag

due to meat. So is that a realistic quote? I mean, if he had moves, I guess it could hurt the combination ability. Maybe we'll see just a quick, I mean, wow, all right. I wonder if we're building toward Andy Ruiz versus Deontay Wilder. You'd buy that pay-per-view. Oh, in a fucking heart. I think, honestly, Andy might be a

bad matchup for Deontay. And don't forget, with the Mexican American fan base there, there's still time for Andy Ruiz to really double down on his potential star value. Let's close the news cycle with this, MMA fans. April 10th, we talked about the new Venom deal. Also, a new main event to that

fight night card. Darren Till's out, as we talked about. Marvin Vittori's new opponent after all. The opportunistic one. Kevin Holland who will be tying a UFC record for main eventing consecutive cards in a three week span

that is Michael Bisping and the GSP and Gastelum fights and who was the other guy? I think Chris Liebend. No, Figueiredo. In consecutive main events. Yes, yes,end. No, Figueiredo. In consecutive... Oh, main events. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, last year, doing that the same. Luke, your initial reaction to Kevin Holland getting such an important opportunity

so quickly after losing to Brunson? I've said it before. One of the things, if not the most important thing, the UFC values in fighters is a willingness to say yes. Yes. In not just short notice circumstance, but any circumstance. Like to the extent you can help them keep the machine churning, they really value that. And Kevin Holland is that guy.

He is a guy who perhaps to his own detriment, we shall see, and perhaps against his coach's advice or whatever the case may be, he is very good about meeting that particular need for allowing the UFC machine to churn. I don't know that I like his chances here on the feet. I do think he has an advantage over Vittori, but dude, Vittori is hardheaded and tough. He's a fucking rhino, that guy. So it's like, on the one hand, I sort of get it and I get why UFC would be interested in doing that, and it does come with some reward. If Holland wins, you get to completely erase the Brunson win. You beat not number one, but pretty close to a guy

who's knocking on the door of a title shot opportunity. It's a huge opportunity, but on the other hand, if you go in there and shit the bed twice back-to-back, and you're like, I'm just out here having fun, you could double down on some of the bad sentiment that you fomented from the Brunson loss. This is a big double down. This is an opportunity for Kevin Holland to erase that.

And this fight is going to be a war, Luke. Do you remember the great college football movie from the 90s? It might not be a war. Called The Program with James Caan. Who does it? Laying down in the middle of the street. I saw that on opening night. By the way, there was a fight in the theater between Crosby High football of Waterbury against Nogatuck.

It was wild. Luke, do you remember that psychopath? That sounded sad. That linebacker, Latimer, the psychopath, who took the roids. All the steroids. And then kind of messed with that girl and kind of did bad things to her.

He reminds me of Vittori. He just goes out there just to slay, right? Are you saying he like... No, I'm not saying what you think I'm saying. I'm just saying he reminds me of him. But great move. Remember Ray Griffin, starting tailback. Remember when he one-dupped Omar Epps there?

Yep, that was great. Guess who got the girl in the end and the starting job. That's what I'm talking about right there. That drunk quarterback, Joe. Yep. It was great talking to you. Luke, do you think that... Do you like this fight?

I don't hate it. I mean, I don't necessarily like Kevin Holland in this fight, but again, we know the quickest way to Dana's heart, and again, this ain't an easy fight. So he's going to... And it's their main event, and who the fuck's going to fight Vittorio on short notice? Kevin Holland is...

Dude, Holland has... Luke, there's no way this can't be a brawl, because Holland has to prove that he is a winner and that he's tough. Okay, but he's the new Cerrone. And we all know that Cerrone is going to go on win streaks. Prime-ish Cerrone was going to go on win streaks and he's going to beat people. But we also know that that style is going to eventually, maybe this fight, maybe not, eventually, though, we all know it blows up in your face.

We all know that when you just take fights like this all the time, I think it's something to be said for the kind of streaks it can put you on, but it can put you on another kind of streak just like that. Every time you say to the extent, which is probably your favorite newest catchphrase, I always want to be like... It's not a new catchphrase. I've been saying it since seventh grade. I always feel like you're about to go to the extreme. I rock a mic like a vandal, light up the stage and have them jump like a candle.

Dance, right? No. Like a poisonous mushroom? There are people on the internet who find this bullshit charming. You should know I'm not one of them. All right. Currently searching for co-hosts, all right? Thank you.

Got a job vacancy out there, all right? Look, it would be awesome if, look, we will divorce one day in a catastrophe. Yes, it will be a nuclear meltdown. But if somehow we were able to do it, because you know how some divorced parents get along? Yes. And they're able to. Not mine. They're able to still function as operators if we started our own Monday Night Wars in-house.

If you and I were like, you know what, fuck each other. But at the same time, you know, we love Showtime. We love this brand. We're going to do Morning Combat, red and black, fuck each other. But at the same time, you know, we love Showtime. We love this brand. We're going to do Morning Combat, Red and Black, Wolfpack style, and then the regular Morning Combat. And we go head-to-head, not in terms of clicks and views, because I know you value that shit so much. You value the bottom line and the, you know.

No, I'm talking about critical value, okay? I find myself a new dance partner, and I go head-to-head with your show. The least relevant kind of value. I'm going to do a podcast with a certain Canadian Syracuse fan and we're going to call it Corning Mombat. What do you think about that?

Yes, Luke? I gave you the best of me. Luke, we do three live shows per week and a lot of bonus shit and sometimes we say the wrong things. Sometimes we get facts wrong. Sometimes we do three live shows per week and a lot of bonus shit, and sometimes we say the wrong things. Sometimes we get facts wrong. Sometimes we do. It doesn't happen all that often.

And by the way, today should be epic because we didn't do one with Rashad. So that bail is like past due. We call it dead wrong. Yeah. Morningcombat at gmail.com is the address to reach us at with these. Our own Mikey Moore, our great producer, hopefully he curated these effectively. Here we go, Luke. Shall see.

Number one, this is from a man named Lika. Could be a woman. At 1.30 and 15 seconds of MK133, Luke says a tattoo looks like a blobfish they find at the bottom of the oceans. But Luke, a blobfish looks bloated and horrible when it ends up in a low-pressure environment because it normally lives in a high-pressure one, so a blobfish looks like a blobfish on land. To be fair, it's not a pretty fish either way. I don't think that's dead wrong. He's saying...

He didn't say that the blobfish doesn't look that way. He just said it was a limited context, but I never clarified which context I was talking about, so therefore I don't feel like that's a dead wrong. So you won't take the L? Not on that one. Not on that one. Alright. I think that's fair. Brandon, you got something to say behind the camera over there? Yeah, dude, a lot of

chit-chat, a lot of noise. You got a date after this? Hey, hurry it up, you twos. All right. This is from Joseph Michael or Michael Joseph. Either way, don't ever trust a man with two first names. That's me. Luke Thomas?

Oh, God. It's so true, yeah. Or Thomas Luke. It's fucked. All right. Hey, last Friday, about 42 minutes into the show, when talking about T.J. Dillashaw, Luke mentioned his trilogy with Cody Garbrandt.

I know, I keep doing this. However, they only fought twice, with TJ winning them both. Yes, yes. I expect this kind of error from Average Dick Energy BC, but definitely not from Brigadier Bengay Luke Thomas. Brigadier Bengay, fuck this one up. There's sometimes where I'm like, hey, remember when Sw when Smiling Sam Alvey had a light heavyweight title fight? And everyone's like, no. I'm like, I could have sworn I remembered it that way.

I can't undo a bad idea for some reason. Yes, I'll take the elder. Do you remember when Travis Luter went full mount on Andy Silva? I do. I thought for sure he was going to win that fucking fight when he did. Remember when Silva offered to go full mount on my wife in that weird email offer? That was odd, right? Oh, I do remember that, yes.

Well, you know what? You listen. I'm still using the hair gel that he sent me. You got to shoot your shot, you know? All right. Thank you very much. Let's keep it rolling here. Ryguy from New Hampshire writes in, on episode 132 of MK,

BC referred to the late, great Kurt Cobain's wife as Courtney Hull, but her name is Courtney Love, and she was the lead singer in the band Hull. Love the show. You guys are great. Yeah, that was the joke, guys, to call her Courtney Hull. Where do you come down on? That was the joke, okay? Where do you come down on?

Yeah, the curation of these is not. Yeah, that was actually the punchline, Courtney Hole. So that was, yeah. Right, it's a joke. Okay. Where are you on Hole in terms of as a... In terms of as a band? I don't want anything to do with him.

Oh, make me over. Burn it, burn it, burn it. No? No. Do you think she had a hand in his death, Luke? No. As in like an active contributor? Yeah. No. Or you think she had a hand in his death, Luke? No. As in like an active contributor? Yeah.

No. Or just she... Well, she could have inactively contributed through First Nation. I think there's a lot of fantasies about her having some kind of... Puff Daddy-like hope that Big B.I.G. dies so he can cash in? Yeah. I mean, is he really missing him? I tend to think that they're all bullshit.

Is he really missing him? Probably. Probably. I mean, it's kind of hard when he's not around. Because there's a couple more albums I could have made. Every day, we definitely think of you. Okay, thank you. All right. Jumbo, Chris, and Rahul write in.

Sounds like a boy band in the making there. Maybe a Noah's Game. BBC mentioned in the Wheel section that tough Melendez Pettis, where the inaugural strawweight champ got crowned, was season 12 of tough. Dead wrong. That's season 20. Season 12 with GSP Koscheck coaching

featherweights like runner-up Michael Johnson. I'll take that, Al. Yeah, I was wrong. Season 20. You think I care? You know that's the first UFC fight I was ever in attendance for? Which one? Esparza versus Nama Yunus. That was the fight night card. Yeah.

December 2014. Was it the night before a pay-per-view? It was the night... I think it was the night before boxing. No. I was in... That was Vegas, I believe. December 2014.

I can look that up. Yes. That was Vegas, I believe. December 2014. I can look that up. Yes, that was the night before I covered Amir Khan versus... Canelo? No, versus Devin Alexander, which was a Showtime fight. And also that night, Tim Bradley fought Diego Chavez, also in Las Vegas, but on HBO. So I was there that weekend, Luke. It was rodeo weekend at the MGM Grand. So it was the day before a pay-per-view?

It was a lot of drunk cowboys there. It was the day before UFC on Fox Dos Santos versus Miocic? Yes. The first of those two? But the ultimate fighter was at the Palms in Vegas on the 12th. The next day, the 13th, UFC on Fox was in Phoenix. Yes, and I was in Vegas for Amir Khan, Devin Alexander. Thank you.

We figured it out, Luke. You know, afterwards, I got into the Hakkasan because they wanted $200 a person to get in. Did you pay? No, I showed my... Credential? Credential, and I got in. And we were in Khan's army, had this giant party. The

Charlo bros were there. They came out with the giant bottle of champagne that has the explosions, like the sparklers coming out. And then the ladies came out with C-H-A-R-L-O. You know what's amazing, dude? If I was rich and young, I still wouldn't go to clubs. I'm not a club guy. Big surprise. I don't want to party. I don't have a need to party in front of you. I'm not a club guy. Big surprise. I don't want to party. I don't have a need to party in front of you. I'm not going to dance.

So no, I'm not going to do that. That's not a thing. You're also very square. Motherfucker, you have nerds on the internet gassing you up to make you think you're cool. You're a fucking dweeb, motherfucker. You're a fucking dweeb. I'm a dweeb. I'm not in denial about it.

You're a fucking dork. Luke, I'm an international man of mystery. No, you're a fucking zero. You're O'Doul's beer. Brandon, can we zoom in on this? This is a very male pattern. I'm not talking about baldness. I'm talking about color scheme. You don't see... And you've got LARPers on the internet, dudes playing Dungeons & Dragons, being like, I think BDE on BBC is hilarious. And he's like, yo, I must be real fucking cool. You are not cool.

Can we ask Grace, the camera person, a question? No, because she's nice and under pressure. Grace, a woman wouldn't wear a black, white, and gold pattern, right? Yes, they would. She's wearing one right now, motherfucker! She's wearing one right now! She's got good style, that's why, Luke. You walk around cock of the walk,

I don't know where you get this from, bro. I know who you are. It's called BDE. Yeah, it's not. It's definitely not. I'm only an eighth Irish, there's no curse here, bro. God. Alright, Ben S. says on Wednesday's episode, toward the 150 mark, Luke said, are you going to be wearing gloves like you killed Nicole Kidman and Ron Goldman?

God, Luke. What the hell? When did this happen? Was I here? I think it's over Zoom. Luke, Nicole Brown Simpson, not Nicole Kidman, was allegedly murdered by the juice, Luke. Didn't he do a thing? Why would I admit it?

How many times has OJ confessed for money? Yeah, so Nicole Kidman was Tom Cruise's former wife. They did Far and Away together, a very good underrated box. What was the movie where they did masks and orgies? Eyes Wide Shut. Yeah, that was very pantsless with the orgy mask. Deontay Wilder wears an Eyes Wide Shut orgy mask. That's right.

At the weight of the ring. 40 pounds. Yeah, so no, OJ killed the other white lady. Allegedly. Allegedly. Okay, all right. Luke, this one is from Eric with a K, a CK. By the way, I was talking about the gloves you wear

on Ring City. That was the first episode because the California Commission was very nervous, Luke. So yes, I wore latex gloves. All right, all right, all right. I look like a predator, right? Not just you, everyone on set, but yes. Luke was dead wrong

on Wednesday when he said Tyron Woodley wrestled in the Big Ten conference at Missouri when actually Missouri was competing at the time in the Big 12. Now they are in the MAAC in which they have won nine straight titles. The MAAC? The Missouri Athletic Conference? No, I think it's like Midwestern Athletic Conference.

Well, I was wrong thinking he wrestled at OSU. Yeah, at least I had the right university. Was that Cormier OSU? Yes. Bader Arizona State? Correct. Or Arizona. No, wait.

Arizona State. Yes, Arizona State. Eddie House, Arizona State. I'm not sure. Kane was Arizona State. Mike Austin, Arizona State. Kane Velasquez, Arizona State. Eddie House, Arizona State. I'm not sure. Kane was Arizona State. Ike Austin, Arizona State. Kane Velasquez, Arizona State. Brown Pride, brother.

All right. Also, Luke, we've got another one for you. You had a rough week. This one's from Jackson. When discussing Gordon Ryan's record, Luke said that his last loss was to Pena when it was, in fact, to Vinny Magalhaes. Big love from Sydney, Australia. And P.S.

I don't know if I said it was his last one, actually. PS would love to see footage of BC on the mats in DC. Can you make that happen? We can go, yeah, sure. We can go train if you want. I don't want to. Okay. If you'll set up the home gym for the cameras, right?

I can easily do that. And will you walk me through some squats? Not necessarily from behind, but will you walk me through some CrossFit? No, I'm not going to do CrossFit because I don't have the equipment for it, and I don't want to do CrossFit. But we can do some deadlifting, we can do some squatting, and we can do some overhead press. I don't do benching that much.

Okay. Is that it? My wife says it's snowing in Connecticut right now. Oh, Jesus. Seriously? Yeah. It's April, guys. It's April.

It's April 2nd. We've got one more segment for you on this week's show. Someone told me there was a dead wrong for my white meat thing. No, Manish said that was it. Manish, that's it, right? That's it? Manish, can you come out here, bro? So here's the deal.

Normally we have an airpiece, and it's a very expensive piece. Luke yesterday took the airpiece from the producers. I did not. And then he was just like. I did not. I did not. And then it's gone. I don't know where it went.

I did. They did hand it to me, and then it got lost. But I didn't recklessly. Maneech, can you come out here? Maneech, I need you out here. I've been using it all this time. I've been using it for almost two years. Maneech, come be a part of the show, OK?

Dude, hold on. You know he's very. Not everybody wants to be on camera. You know he's very reticent because he thinks his career will go the way of Jay Aaron. It will. Come be a part of the show, okay? Dude, hold on. Not everybody wants to be on camera. Do you know he's very reticent because he thinks his career will go the way of Jay Aaron? It will. You don't have to come on the screen. Manege, come here, bro. You don't have to.

You absolutely do not have to. Join us, okay? Right here, all right? What is it? Come home. Is this, you know, get in the hole. Is it? There he is.

What's the question? I wanted to talk music with you. Okay. Dude, what the fuck are you doing? What is this bullshit? We got to talk about the finger. Dude, what the fuck are you doing? What is this bullshit? We gotta talk about the fingers. Yeah, we didn't do tip, motherfucker. I have to be back there.

Yeah, he's gotta go do shit. What are you doing? Well, I can't communicate through the air with him. So here's the difference between Luke and I. Luke knows no one's name here that works here. Not a single person. I also don't do weird, distractive bullshit. Okay, but, alright. You're weird. That's fine.

That's fine. Guess what's gonna happen, though? What? Maniche will send that to his parents. Alright? Yeah, that's a big moment. Alright?

People will start Googling Maniche Lonely Angelus. What's that? You know what I mean? iTunes, baby. Clicks. Clicks. Downloads.

Alright? Guy's got soul for a honky. Alright, it's time to close with a segment we often do, tip to tip. Only this week, it has a different meaning. Luke, we will not be giving recommendations or touching the extensions of our limbs together. We will be playing up a story that got a lot of buzz overnight in the promotion called CFFC that aired on UFC Fight Pass on Thursday night. A fighter, Luke, I don't know his name offhand, but speaking of hands, he had a finger kicked off during the damn fight. Let me ask you, let me ask you, let me ask you. You're sure it was kicked off?

That's the explanation? That's what, so Angela Hill tweeted, my teammate just had his toe kicked off in the middle of a fight. His toe or his finger? His finger, sorry. That's the explanation. So Angela Hill tweeted, my teammate just had his toe kicked off in the middle of a fight. His toe or his finger? His finger, sorry. That's what Angie Hill tweeted out there. Here's a video of the guy with the ice on it. What else do we have here in terms of this? The guy's name is

Ketag Pilyev. Pilyev or something. Yeah, it's a weird name. Ketag Pilyev. The fight was stopped. Can we show the pic of... So there's the missing finger. I've got to tell you, of all the things you could have told me that would have happened in an MMA fight,

I would have had, what do you want to say, severed fingers? Fairly low on that list, but I obviously have a poverty of imagination here. So Angela Hill's teammate is Devin Goodale. He was the one who kicked the finger. Okay, so he was the one doing the damage. Okay. And here's a tweet here that Kaposa put out in which you can see them locking up.

The finger's still there. Did I send you, Maniche, the one with the finger on the ground? Look at that. Oh, mother fuck. God, that is yikes. Pliev? How did he not quit? He's tough as balls.

Oh, shit. See, Luke, this is the part of MMA culture that I've never been into. Like, hey, you want to see a guy's leg break and risen? No, I don't. I don't want to see that shit, okay? My family, friends, and fans from the depths of my heart. It means depths. You and God are my soul.

Okay, there's a few misspellings. He shouts out Dr. Maggie Wilson here, Luke. Okay. He says... Finger is back in place. Okay. All right. That's good.

Oh, wow. Jesus, dude. They did a good job with that. I mean, it looks like a bad cut, but it doesn't look like that bad, right? I'm not into this shit, Luke, okay? I'm not into this. I love this shit. That's not what I get down.

I don't get down to that stuff, okay? I like to be, I like to dress in tweed. Back in the early days of the internet, did you ever go on ogrish.com and looked up fucked up videos? No, no. People used to show videos of, like, women making love to horses. I was not into that either like they're just like there's i wasn't really going in that direction no i'm saying there's bestialities i think yeah no no not not for me but there are people that like gross stuff

like hey man check this video out no and by the way you you have a history of sending people you love on holidays the most outrageous shit like tweets of of, hey, check this out. And then they click on the link. Yeah. And it's, I won't say what it is, but it's very questionable. It's not nice of me. It's not nice of me. So you should talk. Well, it's not bestiality, I can tell you that.

That's a little weird for you to bring up. But yes, I used to go on ogres. See, I'm a husband, I'm a father. So I met the guy. This is going to be an OG reference. Yes. Did you ever go to Consumption Junction? No, no.

I met the guy who founded it. Sounds like a OG reference. Yes. Did you ever go to Consumption Junction? No, no. I met the guy who founded it. Sounds like a stall in a men's room where bad things happen. No, but bad things do happen there. I saw a guy get beheaded once. It was not money. It was not money. All right. Maniche, I'm sorry about that awkward interplay.

I thought we were going to have a conversation. Luke kind of spoiled what we were doing there. Yeah, that was my fault. It was for the culture, by the way. What does that mean? Maneach is a very, very, very talented person. Gaff? We found out last night Gaff's got a Taekwondo black belt.

He's a blindside left tackle in high school, and he's a rapper. Can we get Maniche, Gaff, and Pennington James to finally make a Morning Combat theme song? Maybe team up with Cali on drums from Holland? Cali, you know the guy, right? Yeah, I want a rap song about me and BC from the three of them. All right, all right. Maniche, you good? I'm good on the Cali collab.

Maniche's not into the Cali collab. The Cali collab, you can miss me with that. Luke and BC, make it look cheesy. All right, Bellator 255 is this evening. You can check out our pre-fight coverage on CBS Sports HQ. Luke, you and I will be on directly after Pitbull and Sanchez are off tonight. I'll be doing a little stop by HQ. You'll be getting things going right here in the bomb shelter,

and I will join you in progress. So please, after the fights tonight, check out our live MK Reaction show. And if you're looking for even more content to get you ready, go to Showtime Sports' YouTube channel and check out Road to Bellator 255, in which you and I sat at a very beautiful restaurant under the auspices of freedom and did this high-end, expensive shoot that, I don't know, 2,000 people

have watched on Twitter? I don't think even that many have seen it. More people have seen me interviewing boxers you've never heard of than that. That's right. But it's a nice video. It is. It is. I apologize for being so hungover today, Luke. That's okay.

You pulled it together. I do. I do. You know, I did pull it off. All right. For the great staff here, Luke, Malka, Showtime, CBS Sports, we love the people that love us. Also, please follow us at these handles right here. These handles.

At Morning Combat on both. You can see the difference between Luke and I. L. Thomas News. He doesn't ever touch any form of news breaking. Also, 30 days of free show time. Guys, if you're not going to subscribe now, then just, you know, if you're not going to get your 30 days free

and $4.99 a month for six months to check out Bellator, to check out all the things that we're doing, then really, pound the sand, get bent, get out of here. And merchstore.show.com is where you can pick up MK 1.0 with the new stuff. It's coming. It's all over the studio.

I can't wait for you to see. We've teased a little bit. I can't wait for you to see the full package, the full Monty of what we have going on. Luke, we're going to hit them with so much content. Tomorrow they're going to get room service diaries. They can check out yesterday's live chat when I fan manned my way into the middle of it.

Luke, there's just something about being with you and all the people that love us and the camera turned on and, you know, it's like magical. It's good. Good stuff, yeah. Anything else you want to... I'm hungry. After shit. You got to...

All right. Thank you, folks, for... That's my enduring contribution to the show. ...for all you do for us. One last plea. We need you to subscribe. We have monster plans that, you know, we got sponsors that are

ready to get on board. We got spin-offs, launches. We got a lot ready to happen. We don't get there, though, unless you click subscribe. If you've been freeloading and watching for free, the only price it costs is one click of a button, okay? Do that for us. We'll continue to hit you between the eyes with the best

content going in combat today. You're a big Syracuse fan? That's cool. You're from Canada? That's cool. This is the real show. This is the real deal. You want producers dancing in the video, coming out, trying to tell us about their R&B career? Come to Morning Combat. Okay? Thank you. That's it.

That's it. You know, you got gains. You want to make them loyal? That's up to you. All right? Bye. The new home of Bellator MMA is on Showtime. And the first epic event goes live April 2nd. Patricio Pitbull, the winningest fighter in Bellator history, versus bitter rival Emmanuel Sanchez.

In an epic rematch to advance in the Bellator featherweight world grand prix pitbull versus Sanchez to Bellator MMA on Showtime where warriors rule