MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Bellator 266 & UFC: Smith vs. Spann Recaps | Joshua-Usyk | UFC 266 | EP 205

Episode Date: September 20, 2021

On Episode 205 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell recap Bellator 266 and UFC Fight Night Smith vs. Spann. Who shined in these events? Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk face off on Saturday and the guys have an early preview into this massive fight. UFC 266 is also this weekend, What is the most important storyline heading into the event. Like always we end the show with Dm's from Donks, HYSTS and Odds & Ends. 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  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You hear that? Ugh, paid. And done. That's the sound of bills being paid on time. But with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, paying your bills could sound like this. Yes! Earn rewards for paying your bill in full and on time each month.

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. Looky, looky, who is here in studio? Okay! I'm Brian Campbell. The boys are back in town. I think it was Jesus Jones who said it best in 1991. Right here, right now, Luke, there is no other place I'd want to be, right? Because this is our home, the orchids of combat, the old massage parlor, the old table. It feels so good. By the way, I don't know what's happening in the control room.

It looks like an earthquake hit, so we got all our people sitting right behind the camera right here. It's a very intimate, gross, all-male orgy, but that's what you can get at Morning Comedy. The only show that can give you the lady in the street and the freak in the bed. I said, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, right? There is more. The amount of hog is inverse to the amount

of masks that people are wearing here. I mean, everyone's going to get COVID. It's going to be great. We are here, not just today. We're here for tomorrow for some extra recording. We're here on Wednesday. We're going to do Wheel of Death on Wednesday, a live edition in studio. So, please, ladies and gentlemen, thumbs up on the video.

Please. Hit subscribe. The August-September lull, BC. It's coming to a close. It was the worst. Let's be honest, folks, okay? There were no good fights. Luke was on vacation for like three weeks. Our morale was down. We're arguing all the time. We're giving

you a lot of Paul Brothers and Triller shit. I get it, okay? I get it, alright? We back, though, okay? We back with a bang. We got some real fights to get to. We have to react, BC, of course, to what happened over the weekend. We had fights on Showtime. We had fights for UFC. We have a big boxing fight coming up this weekend. We got some real fights to get to. We have to react, BC, of course, to what happened over the weekend. We had fights on Showtime. We had fights for UFC.

We have a big boxing fight coming up this weekend. We have a monster UFC pay-per-view this weekend. We have a huge, huge week on this

show. So, as we mentioned, please like, please subscribe. It's free. We don't ask a whole lot for it

in that regard. And BC, as we move along here, telling folks, if you want to watch Showtime, that was the time to do it. But, of course, you

can get replays and everything else that Showtime has. Go to Showtime.com. Get a 30-day free trial if you like it. You can keep it. If not, you can pound sand. BC, I am told, though, that we have much more important news related to these kinds of things. We have a merch store. It's our second merch store.

It's called Morning Combat.store. And you already know we got the freshest content up in that biatch. But today, we got a new launch. You wanted it. You asked for it by name. You got it, motherfucker. Factory Town MMA has launched. Okay?

We're talking about sweatshirts. We're talking about t-shirts. We're talking about fanny packs. We're talking about duffel bags. Do I love the logo, Luke? Was I asked about it ahead of time? You don't like the logo as much as I do. Maybe there's internal politics that will get sorted out,

but I love the spirit of what this new brand, this new launch is bringing to our morningcombat.store. I like it so much, Luke, I've decided to give the people a discount out of my own paycheck. Do you remember when Magic Johnson took less than $91 to bring Terry Teagle in from the Warriors? Remember that selflessness? No.

That's what I did here because I want the people wearing this shit. I remember when he announced he had HIV, though. That was a big deal. Why is that funny? That's not funny at all. I didn't laugh. You laughed. You're like, uh-huh.

Wow. Sorry. Yeah. Factory Town 10 is your code for 10% off, right? I think that's right, 10%. Guys, should I make it 15 or should we stay at 10? No, don't fuck it up and then lie. Okay, 10.

They're like, slow that shit down. 10% off the new launch of the new shit. Right there, morningcub.store. Now, BC, let me ask you a question. You made fun of me previously because I have a fanny pack. I don't wear it around the fanny or the... Well, no, you don't have just the fanny. I wear it across the shoulder.

Hold on, let me ask you a question. You can insult me after this. No, please. If I buy your Factory Town MMA fanny pack and I wear it like a proud dad to keep all my dad stuff in, will you still make fun of me? The difference is if you ironically wear a fanny pack like pro wrestlers do, like lame 80s weightlifters do, if you wear it in irony, it's now cool. What you are trying to do is the European man bag that goes over your arm that you have well-researched for three weeks to get the perfect one that has all the compartments for all your dad's supplies, which is lame as shit, bro. It is lame as shit. Because you're not only trying to be lame as shit, you're trying to be Gucci lame as shit. So it's like a double negative right there.

Mike, this thing's jumping off my ear, all right? These things in our earpiece are the worst. I have ear crabs right now. But look, this is a big moment, okay? You wanted that Factory Town shit. You wanted to feel gritty, grimy. You wanted to feel like what it's like to come from nowhere and get somewhere. Whether you're at somewhere or not, wherever you're at, that's where you are.

Wear this shit. You'll feel a lot better about yourself. I guarantee it. There you have it. I want to keep moving the show along because we have a lot to get to. So we have all the Factory Town stuff. You can go to morningcombat.store right now. Use the code, the whole nine yards.

There's another code, BC. A bro code that you broke. I didn't break any bro code. That's not how Eskimo brothers should treat each other. Last time. Okay, there's another code that I also want you guys to pay attention to, and it's for DraftKings. Here's the deal.

We all be talking about the NFL. Nothing changes. It's a great deal, but I got a new one for you. I got a new one for you. Ready for this? UFC 266 is coming up. It's going to be, of course, this coming Saturday and DraftKings Sportsbook, by the way, the official sports betting partner of the UFC has a knockout offer this weekend's fight. DraftKings is offering new customers $150 in free bets instantly if you bet just $1 on any fight night before the main event. So here's how it works, of course. Use the promo code COMBAT with a K. You can see it right below here, right there.

Use it, K-O-M-B-A-T. And when you sign up to receive $150 in free bets instantly, when you bet $1 on UFC 266, that's code COMBAT, to receive $150 free instantly only at DraftKings. You know what DraftKings is saying? They're saying Sharon is Karen. I'd like to get up on Sharon, right? You don't have to be over the top.

Yeah, DKMKBukake, you got it. But look, this is a great deal. You want to put a little action on your action when you're watching the fights. By the way, do you remember the director's cut of Raiders of the Lost Ark at the end when Yanni the Greek opened his mouth and the whiteness of his teeth melted everybody's face? That's fantastic. Love that guy. Love that guy.

But look, that's a great deal. You want $150 to play with to bet on UFC fights for a $1 bet? Guys, it doesn't get better than this. You support our code, but look, they need to use our combat codes, brother. K-O-M-B-A-T. By the way, I need my glasses and I forgot to put them on. Can you hand me my bag, please, sir? I know this is on air. You're like, hey, camera guy in the

John Stockton ball bag shorts. Let me ask you a question. Do you think the people who do the cameras on this show, do they shower before they come here? Wow. He does. That's Tristan. He's well-willed. Tristan, he's probably got a weapon on him.

Oh, my. Wow. I don't even know. How weird is that? He's real quiet. No, because he's the quietest guy on set. Yo, I bet that cameraman's got a pipe, bro. Yeah.

Yo, I'd love to watch some violent porn with that guy in it, right? That's like, come on, bro. You know? I didn't mean it that way. I meant an actual switchblade, but okay. You're talking about his hog for reasons that remain unclear you're just you know what you're hyped to be back in the studio i can feel it right yeah you know it's like when you reunite with your frat brothers i wouldn't know right because i don't join those

organized white gangs for no reason hey could the production team talk louder okay instead of instead of being quiet can you guys just yell at each other it's like yo do you guys think it's a problem that you put the studio in the control room in the studio? Like we may overlap our conversations? Like, no, it's fine. Oh, it's like I need a library atmosphere. And meanwhile, they're just screaming at each other like it's a street corner. Yeah.

Oh, look at that. We got a little voice of God here from Maniche. Okay. There we have it. Now I can see a little bit better in my stupid nerdy glasses. All right, BC, you ready to get this going? Anything else we got to sell or anything? No, I think that's it for right now. And then, of course, Morning Combat.

Just real quick, you know how we give them the best bonus content ever on YouTube.com slash Morning Combat? The best interviews. Me and Shevchenko go in 23 minutes. You're going to want to see that. Luke, we can't tell them what we got, or can we? Because we are dipping back into that Pandora's box known as resume review, okay? We are. You want to just leave it at that or what? Leave it at that. Okay.

Okay. Well, it'll be out this week. Just tell them that. It will. It'll be out this week plus some other special stuff we're here to record. So stay tuned. All right, BC, it's been 10 minutes. We need to get this show on the road.

I'm ready. All right, here we go. Topic number one, if we can start with, we will go to his weekend of light heavyweight action. We will start on the Bellator side of things. Joel Romero finally making his Bellator debut, but this time he's doing it at 205 pounds. He took on Phil Davis in a three-round contest.

I say three-round contest, not just because it was a three-round contest, but because by the end of the third round, when the fight was over, it appeared that Joel Romero didn't even know there were two more rounds. But BC, the biggest deal is this. It was technically a split decision win for Phil Davis,

but it should not have been. That should very much have been a unanimous decision. He controlled him in the wrestling, taking him down five times, Phil Davis did. A little bit slow to start, but in the end, he was clearly the victor, and deservedly so. What's the story? You're about to ask me something,

but I want to ask you right before you even start. Is the story of this fight what Phil Davis did, or is the story of this fight who Yoel Romero now is based on all of those questions we had coming in? Well, it's funny you ask that, because my question was going to be what did we learn about both fighters? I'll start with Yoel and pitch it back to you. Here's my sense about

Yoel. We still need to see a little bit more because he did have the long layoff. It is more time expired. New weight class, man. A new weight class, a new organization. By the way, that round cage does change. Things normally talk about that. So I'm willing to

say, you know, maybe a couple more performances, he'll get kind of warmed up. Plus I did not think, as we talked about earlier in the week, I did not think the matchmaking did him a lot of favors with this, but here's what I learned. I think

one, it's hard to hold on to Israel Adesanya slander. It doesn't age well. Everyone kind of blamed him for that bout. And I think people are now seeing, yeah, he played a role, obviously, in how uninteresting it was or how unfun. But the majority of that comes from, I think, Yoel Romero. He takes a lot of time off.

He takes rounds off sometimes. And then he has these bursts of action. But you didn't see a lot of bursts. And Phil Davis really, really neutralized him. Dude, Phil Davis was forgotten in the headlines, BC. This is his best win to date. So tell me, what did you learn about both fighters? Look, I don't want to be overly critical or overly reactive on a Monday morning

because Scott Coker, the Bellator president afterwards, he gave a somewhat sober take on what's Romero's future. He said, look, considering the layoff, the new weight class, the age, all that stuff, he came out there and showed himself. He's going to be a fun product for us. We can match him against many elites moving forward. We're going to make a lot of fun business. And that still might be true because what you did see there,

and if you heard Phil Davis' interview afterwards talking about even grazing punches from Romero hurt him and scared him, Romero still got something. He still got a marketability. He still got a knockout threat in the right style matchup. But I was expecting maybe too much of him or from him, Luke. And from that standpoint of expectation, I thought it was a disappointing effort and a little bit of a disappointing failure. Two things in particular, Luke.

One, not knowing it was a three-round fight and not a five-round fight. It's unforgivable to him, his management, to whoever else across the board. I mean, you don't know how many times he was reminded of that. I mean, he obviously had to sign a contract. But to just not know that in those circumstances, that he needed a big rally most likely on the scorecards, and again, to Davis' credit, four consecutive takedowns in round three to just dominate and cut that off.

But number two, I wanted him to have learned a lesson from the Adesanya fight that if you fight, and maybe he has to fight at this age like that, maybe it has to be more about smoking mirrors to disarm you and slow down the pace, but keep that threat so he can stay, you know, in the fight over the distance. That may be how he has to fight at this age. But Luke, you and I talked about, we want him to not lean on the, well, we went the distance. Let's see what the judges say. I wanted him to do more throughout. And that's something he just didn't do in this fight. A lot of that is because it's a bad style matchup and Phil Davis at 36 still has it, but I didn't see a Romero leaving no doubt and trying to win the fight. I saw a guy who was more like, you know, if I catch him with something great, man, but if not,

all right, you know, I've lost five of six and you know, four of those five, you know, if I catch him with something, great, man. But if not, all right. You know, I've lost five of six, and, you know, four of those five you could debate I won. But Bill Parcells is going to drop in here any second and say, one, that this earpiece is just not going to work today, but two, you are what your record says you are. And I'm not here to say that Romero's not going to be fun, and I'm not going to get jazzed up for his next matchup from the entertainment standpoint.

But against the elites, and Phil Davis and the Bellator banner prove that he's still elite, Romero doesn't have it anymore, Luke. It doesn't mean it can't be tweaked, but he showed you it's not there. This was an older Romero. I don't know if he can keep up the Paulo Costa pace that he did just two years ago and fight that style that we want to see out of him. That's the only way he's going to beat the elites, Luke. The sub-elites, he can F around and wait for the perfect counter shot. Against the elites, you have to press the fight. He didn't press it.

Admit it. He didn't press the fight, but he didn't really have a way to press the fight. This is why when they booked him up against Phil, I was like, I didn't know Phil was going to get those takedowns, but I think he would have won it even, well, I don't know if the judges would have done it that way, but it seemed to me quite winnable on the feet, even without the takedowns, although obviously, as you indicated in the third round, it kind of sealed it, but I had done some informal polling and just sort of seeing what fans were saying. You called people up, yes. Well, I'm just sort of seeing what are people saying on social, what are they saying on forums, what are they saying on websites, what are people saying about Yoel Romero, and I think a lot of them thought

he was going to win, and I never really understood that. Again, MMA is complicated, it can be random, but just looking at the tea leaves, Phil Davis has never been submitted. He's never been knocked out. He's only lost for the most part, except for the rumble fight, pretty close decisions, dude, for a guy who manages risk for a guy who manages distance, who never really, you never see Phil Davis just get stole on. It just doesn't happen. That's a very hard guy for you. Well, or any guy, but especially Yoel Romero, who takes these long amounts of time off and then tries these trick things. Dude, Phil Davis doesn't get tricked. So what I'm saying is Bellator didn't do a whole lot of favors for Yoel with the way it was booked, but also Yoel was surfing on a reputation that may have been deserved at a certain time in his career,

at a certain part of his run in the UFC, but it's not really relevant at the current time. But he can. So how did he really built his reputation to me? He really built his reputation of fights like the Weidman and Rockhold fights where out of nowhere, he can go regardless of where the scorecards are at. He can go from zero to 60 and end it. I think that guy's still there,

not the same exact prime version. So what I mean is if you're facing big names who are a bit flawed like both Weidman and Rockhold were, and they both made one mistake and paid for it, and the fight was over, I think Romero can still do that to guys in the Bellator roster. I think that's what Holter is saying. I put him in the right fight, we're going to make exciting fights. But against

the very elite, man, I don't think he can do it. This is what's getting lost here. I asked you about both fighters, we're talking about you well, but we have to talk about Phil. Dude, Phil has been forgotten. Like, if you look at his Instagram and you look at how the headlines have been about him, no one's been talking about Phil Davis, not just for this fight, for years. He has not been talked about. He's just been the forgotten man of Bellator.

And I don't think folks were really in tune with, again, you can like Phil Davis' style, you can hate it. He had the Nemkov fight. He had two of the Nemkov fights. They weren't exactly the most thrilling fights on Earth, but dude, Nemkov, as we can see, is a fucking beast. And Phil took him pretty far, especially in the first time. Here's what I'm pointing out.

There was a ton of dismissive attitude towards what Phil does and what he's capable of that boosted Yoel's stock artificially pre-fight. Plus, the three rounds instead of five brought those betting odds closer, I thought. But, you know, those who may be in the know,

and you and I both picked Phil Davis by decision. We both said, look, the things that maybe prevent Phil Davis from beating the super elite in Bellator, Bader, Nemkov twice, all three very close decisions, two split decisions, is the same thing that will allow him in this style matchup to beat Romero because he plays it not safe, but he's so technically sound that he doesn't need to take chances, and he knows how to keep you at distance. And a lot of people were tweeting, like, let's wake up and give the praise

to Phil Davis, which is what you're saying. You know, Mr. Wonderful fought wonderful for this situation. Yes, he leaned on his strengths, which is his strength. His strength is leaning on his strengths and lowering the risk. And again, that leaves him where he doesn't do enough against the super elite, but against Romero, he did enough. Now, I'm, of course, upset that one judge went two rounds to one for Romero. But you do have to understand that when the output is so low,

like it was in rounds one and two, you do leave the door open to have the round stolen from you. That's why Davis loses very close decisions. But I think that, you know, all in all, I had a 30-26. I mean, that's a 10-8 final round. So you give him the 10-8 for the round. It could be because his top game was offensive, Phil Davis. There was elbows.

I mean, that was the point about this. Like, against Nemkov, he tried takedowns. It's just Nemkov is just a brick wall. But, dude, the way he was able to get that takedown at the end of the second round and then go right back to it in the third, and he was hammering him on top. He wasn't just controlling position, although he was doing that as well, but he was giving something of Yoel to think about. I saw people even saying, by the way, I feel about this,

being like, dude, look how much bigger Phil is. Now, Phil is a monster 205-er, but they were saying Yoel should go back to 185. Again, I think your point is well taken. Against non-Phil Davis fighters, there's a decent chance Yoel Romero can beat them by doing Yoel Romero things. However, I just, and I say it again, Phil Davis is the forgotten man of MMA, and he reminded everyone who he is. Here's the problem for Phil. He's got a couple problems, okay? Really nice guy, in great shape.

At 36, he still has it. A little bit of a corn ball, so maybe that's played into... Has taken no damage. Maybe that's played into people overlooking him at times. The style isn't always super aggressive. He's a little bit of a corn ball, and maybe he held on to the microphone a little bit too long in that post. I thought he was going to retire. He was going so long in that post-fight interview. Here's his problem, though, Luke.

You're not going to get a trilogy with Nemkov anytime soon, so he may have secured the next title shot after the tournament if Nemkov doesn't win the tournament, right? Like, that's the thing. Phil Davis could be in a very good spot with a very big win for him right here, or he could be the odd man out if Vadim Nemkov comes to the tournament.

Because what are you going to do? You're going to run Davis-Nemkov back a third time, right? No. So I think if you're Phil Davis, you're hoping, okay, what's the next biggest marketable name I can get in there? Here's the thing. It was you, me, and Rashad on Friday's weigh-in. All three of us picked Davis.

All three of us picked Davis by decision. Not a very hard pick to make, if you ask me. I mean, there's always unpredictability with UL, but I felt pretty confident about it. And then we got what we got. Dude, someone at Bellator who made this fight had to know this was going to happen. And here's why I say, A, I didn't think that was a good fight for his debut because the guy was off for a long time, up a weight class.

You're giving him maybe the toughest riddle to solve at 205 in that organization. Where's Melvin Manhoff when we need him to come in there? Right, exactly. That's exactly what I was wondering. I didn't understand this. Now, let's go to the second part of this problem. They have compounded for themselves. It's not their fault that Anthony Johnson is out of the tournament.

And by the way, it appears he has a very serious illness. We do not know what it is. He wrote not COVID on Instagram. Which is like good and bad. Okay, it's not COVID, but then if it's easy, he'll be back in 2022. Josh Thompson was very emotional too and sort of relaying that.

So I don't know what it is, but we wish him nothing but the best and the speediest of recoveries and we hope to see him again. Of course, of course. But here's the thing. If Yoel had won on Saturday night, they could have pumped him.

I know they had announced that they had a replacement already for the tournament, but they could have easily pumped him back into the tournament some other way. They could have found him, make him the official, you know, this will be the guy on standby. Now they don't even have access to that. And to your point, they can't go back to Phil because Phil was already in the tournament and got bounced by Nemkov. I just want to say it one more time.

I really did not understand that matchmaking by Bultor. I didn't understand to announce Anglicus. I didn't understand the matchmaking to begin with. Now, we're transferring to the next part of the news, which is, of course, Anthony Rumble Johnson is out of the tournament, as you mentioned, won't be fighting Vadim Nemkov on October 16th in Phoenix. It will be Julius Anglicus, who's on a hot run.

He was named the tournament replacement at the beginning. The guy in the bullpen, just in case a hot run. He was named the tournament replacement at the beginning. The guy in the bullpen, just in case. And yes, we can go the, hey, Daniel Cormier was also forgotten about and into the Strikeforce World Grand Prix as a replacement and won it all. That's all great and stuff. But I didn't love the Davis matchmaking for Romero, and I didn't love necessarily announcing Anglicus before the Romero-Davis fight happened.

Because wouldn't you want to kind of take a chance as a promotion that Romero would have a chance to beat Davis without taking damage? And then you go, hey, we just fixed this. Romero's going to fight for the title against Vadim Nemkov. And it's the balance between the same lack of meritocracy that we complain to UFC about at times because they've got so much control and we're like, well, this guy's really deserving, yet they're throwing another title shot at Jorge Masvidal or whomever.

You're mixed with that with the fact that most of us probably would have wanted Romero in that spot. Well, he didn't win, so now it's over. How much do you think the tournament takes a hit? And obviously Rumble South, first and foremost, we're hoping for and caring about. But losing now, we never got Rumble Romero. We may get it in the future, but I think what we learned from their two fights, Rumble and Romero, in Bellator, is that they're compromised enough that that fight would have been a rollercoaster.

It would have been fucking insane. Unpredictable, quite literally. How much does this hurt the tournament just from that star factor? It does. It does hurt it because Nemkov needed names to beat. To build his name. To build his name.

Here's the thing. BC and I, we don't need to be sold on Nemkov. You saw what Phil Davis did to UL. Again, UL is coming up a weight class. Dude, Phil can't beat Nemkov. Phil's had 10 rounds against Nemkov, two different tries, and he can't do it because Nemkov is a beast. We already

saw what Nemkov did to Bader. So if you're a Nemkov, you needed somebody new, somebody fresh, somebody interesting, and we all know whatever you want to say about Anthony Johnson before his illness, and again, we wish him nothing but the best. He maybe was not exactly the same as he was before, but he still has big power.

If you really cared, you'd send him your credit card numbers if you really cared. I mean, you really are just playing. One of these fighters is going to steal on you one day because you're not used to the limelight, and it's going to come crashing down on you. By the way, the first time we went on a road trip, it was like, I know you're not used to, like, getting recognized in the limelight, but get ready. I know you're not used to the limelight, and it's going to come crashing down on you. By the way, the first time we went on a road trip, it was like, I know you're not used to, like,

getting recognized in the limelight, but get ready. I know you're not. I know you're not. Here's the point. Here's the point. Independent of all of that, excuse me, Rumble would have been a great, great way to build his name for folks to understand him,

for folks to get a clear sense of his abilities. And with Anglicus, it's like... Let's be honest about why the Rumble and the Romero signings were so smart for Bellator because you're not signing them for their future in your promotion necessarily. You'd hope if they could run into the title, you'd love it, right? You're signing them to give shine to your real guys who aren't getting the shine. Again, these two fights falling apart, not remotely Bellator's fault. This is a string of unfortunate bad luck. Correct.

But it's rough because I'm still going to be watching October 16th. I'm still going to be excited to see if Anglicus can come in out of nowhere and make a run at the title. I'm hoping that other people will pick up that same level of care because that Corey Anderson Ryan Bader fight in the other half of the semifinal is a very good one with some history

in there of having trained together. It is, but the problem is Nemkov destroyed Bader. I mean, it wasn't close. Yeah, but that was a really bad night for Bader, as he said personally afterwards with some things. Okay, fine, fine. I'm sure a second fight would be closer, but I still would pick, would you pick Bader to win?

I'm picking Corey Anderson to beat Bader. No, no, no, but I'm saying, let's say Bader wins. No, you're still going to pick Nemkov. You should pick Nemkov. So if Corey Anderson can beat Bader and make things interesting, that might do some wonders for them. You know what I was hoping for?

I just feel like putting Romero in the way that they put him after everything fell out just was not a good call. Can I say what I was hoping for? And it's not easy. You can't be fantasy matchmaker and snap your fingers and all the money will be there and everybody will say yes. Because you know my knee-jerk thing when Rumble got hurt, when Rumble pulled out, was, hey, there's a free agent out there

who can make 205 that would really turn this tournament around. His name is, I think it's Andy Silver, according to Trump? Yes. Anderson Silva. Famous Jewish fighter out of Brazil. It's a very complicated plan. But there's one other name. Gegard Mousasi.

His brand critically, not commercially, but critically right now is as strong as ever coming off that title defense against Salter. I would have liked if he jumped in there. I actually feel like he's waning. And then you do champion versus champion, Mousasi versus Nemkov. That won't give you the same commercial appeal of Rumble or Romero,

but critically, people are lining up for that fight. Yeah, but the question is, did Mousasi want to be in the tournament? I have some reason to think that he did not want to be in the tournament, or at least at the end, he did not want to be in the tournament. So again, that's not Bellator's fault per se.

He opened the door probably for your boy Yagshag Mashadov to come in the tournament, or at least at the end, he did not want to be in the tournament. So, again, that's not Bellator's fault per se. He opened the door probably for your boy, Yagshed Mashadov, to come in there. Dov Letzdan Yagshimurov. Love that guy. In any case, it's an unfortunate series of events, but again, the matchmaking by Bellator I think compounded a bit of their own problems. Rumble's Instagram account, he did say he hopes to have good news next year and bounce back. We can't speculate what it is, but I'm really hoping.

Because his comeback, the retirement was on his own terms. The comeback was on his own terms. And even though he had some ups and downs in that Jose Augusto fight, he showed you that he's going to be making fun fights for Bellator moving forward. For his sake, his peace of mind, I hope he can come back and keep this going. Anyone else shine at the Bellator event? Anyone by the name of Big Tuna? I was going to ask you because Big Tuna will be showing up,

and have you seen this shit? You better believe that. But how deep did you want to go? Ben Parrish, Big Tuna, went in there against minus 1,000 favorite Christian Edwards, the 22-year-old light heavyweight who was on a four-fight win streak, and this was, I guess, supposed to be a setup. Luke, Bellator has had, at times, an ability to create these one-night folk heroes. Do you remember that guy that worked at the meatpacking plant that fought Jake Hager?

And we were like, we need more of this Pantera fan in the Bellator cage. Oh, Pantera fan. Oh, please, please. That guy's an insane clown posse fan. I don't want to hear it. Ben Parrish, he won. He won the internet Saturday night. The damn big tuna came out there,

knocked Christian Edwards the fuck out with the first big punch. He threw a perfect counter. What was it, right hand? Counter left over the top. Yes. And he went right for the microphone, and Luke, he doesn't look the part.

Be honest. He doesn't look the part of fit. He's not going to win any bodybuilding contests. He's a guy from Mississippi. He said his interviews afterwards were incredible. He's like, I'm the son of a mafia member. I mean, the interview was all over the place. Yeah, he looked around like, stop asking questions.

But he got into that microphone right after the KO and was like, this is what you get for talking shit about someone who looks like me just because you think you're better than me. I loved that shit. Bellator, because sometimes the matchmaking can be wide. There are sometimes showcase fights. You can find some of these soccer moms and these folk heroes that come in here. I'm hoping they kind of like what Top Rank did with Clay Collard,

the MMA fighter boxer who had a couple upsets over prospects. And then last summer when they needed fighters, they started saying, hey, let's make Clay Collard kind the MMA fighter boxer who had a couple upsets over prospects and then last summer when they needed fighters they started saying, hey, let's make Clay Collard kind of a featured performer. Wouldn't you love to see Ben Parrish, the big tuna? If he didn't earn himself another fun fight matchup, win or lose, I don't know, but another fun fight, you'd be like, oh hey, that's a banger.

What else could he have done at this point to earn that opportunity? That was like a feel good moment. And it started the card. It was a surprising mean, that was like a feel-good moment. And it started the card. It was a surprising knockout. It was a good-ass card. Yeah, and the crowd got completely behind it. Then he took advantage of his moment.

He did everything he was supposed to to start the show off right. He was great for that. But the real answer to your question is Neiman Gracie. I said on CBS Sports HQ that I need him as a heavy favorite over Mark Leminger with two losses in his last three on the elite level, even though the Jason Jackson one was questionable. I needed Gracie to not only beat Leminger. What did I say, Luke?

I needed him to do something dramatic with his hands. Luke, even I didn't expect it would look like that. Or Neiman Gracie's walking Leminger down against the cage, letting those uppercuts go. That was a statement win that I haven't gone anywhere. That, hey, Yaroslav, I'm a Slav. If I can get to you at the end of this video game, you're the big boss. I have the potential kryptonite to cancel out what you do on the ground.

Luke, he needed this, and this is a big win. I've been saying for a while, folks have been sleeping on Neiman Gracie in part because his game was very one-sided before. For that reason, folks are like, yeah, of course the ground is good, but if you can't get it it, blah, blah, blah. The tale is old as time. But I'm like, no, no, no. First of all, on the ground, he's very good, number one.

Way more than people realize. And two, now you can tell he has been steadily working on his hands under the tutelage of Rafael Cordero over at Kings MMA, and wow, has it paid off big for him. He can absolutely use them to win fights or against more elite opposition BC, create a dual threat where at least you can threaten with the strikes and then do more on the ground. I totally agree with you.

Does Lemminger look like KJ Noon's old school flashback there a little? A little? No. No? Okay. I got a little flashback. A little bit. Not much. I'm going to go with Deanna Bennett, though.

Deanna Bennett, for me, beating Alejandra Lara. Deanna Bennett, again, you look at a lot of these women with records, and she came to this fight, I think, with like a 12-7 record, obviously leaving 13-7. You like women with records, though, in real life. Who doesn't? Prison records.

You've got to have a couple miles on there for them to really know the road. You know what I'm saying? But the point being is this. In her case, she had wins previously over Miranda Maverick, and even Jennifer Mai, although Maverick ended up avenging her loss.

But she's beaten good fighters. Damn, I didn't know she beat both of those names. Both of them, yeah, both of them. And she has done good work, but to me the Laura win, if not necessarily her best name on her resume, still won a good name. And 2BC, what I thought really stood out to me was everyone was

hyping up for good reason her ground game. She has a very, very good ground game. Dude, she won this fight basically everywhere. It was a totally complete performance. And Deanna Bennett has been in the trenches and fought out of her weight class and blah, blah, blah and everything else that a lot of women have to go through to get some respect in the game. Well, she got it.

Now she's turning into a very well-rounded fighter. Mike's just going to let your thing just fly off in the air. This thing may fly away at some point. I don't care. Look, I thought that was touching, the connection to her dad, who had worked security at that arena forever was great. But this was supposed to be another, like, hey, Azul, hey, Alejandro Lara, who has, like, some real marketing potential in a lot of different categories.

We were hoping that she would bounce back from those losses that really showed a ceiling to some parts of her game, particularly on the ground. We know she's got a good stand-up, a great left cross. She can work in some kicks. Luke, she took multiple steps back in this. This was Deanna Bennett's night in a turnaround and a big win, and I'm glad that she got the close-up, and I want to see her moving forward.

But Alejandra Lara was a former title challenger who went the split-decision route against the current champion, Juliana Velasquez, with somebody who really looked like something. Luke, is it not over? But is there enough time for her to go back and really close up those gaps and those holes in her game? So here's the problem for me. You could pick many things in the fight, but there was one thing I noticed that Laura kept doing, which is Bennett would pressure in for some kind of striking situation, land or miss or whatever, and then she would circle away.

But then there'd be a moment where Deanna Bennett's back would be to the fence as they changed position. Laura would just continuously let Bennett just take center again. Here's why that's important. One, you should basically never do that. I mean, there are circumstances where that could be allowed. That's white belt shit you're saying. What I'm saying is, how are you

this far along in your development and something as foundational as that is not consistently implemented? That's the part that gets me. She's got some flashy strikes. She landed some nice strikes in this fight, but when the foundational elements that bring your game to bear, like again, you have to always

think about it. It's not this punch or that punch. It's not this submission or that submission. It's not this submission or that submission. It's under what conditions does a person, any individual fighter, have the most amount of success. If you are letting an opponent who likes to pressure into you consistently retake center, you are not putting yourself

under the conditions under which you're going to win. In fact, you are allowing your opponent to have the conditions under which they're going to win. And you're being critical of a Colombian fighter. Medellin is her home, Luke. Did you hear how he was pronounced? It's Jean. It looks like Medellin. Medellin?

I don't understand your people's pronunciation at all. But, Luke, it's a bad night at the office for her. It is. She's going in the wrong direction. She's going fast. She's dedicated. I'm not questioning that at all. But, like, I don't know if it's there, Luke. I don't know if it's there either. We're going to have to see. direction she's going fast so i would say she's dedicated i'm not questioning that at all but like

i don't i don't know if it's there luke i don't know if it's there either we're gonna have to see i don't think bellator is gonna get rid of her or anything like that but uh she she had some opportunities to get some big name fighters to have some big name moments like when my wife like when my wife when we get invited to go over someone's house and my wife's like i gotta get wine first i'm like why do we have to bring some they invited us i know we have to bring a gift my wife's the same she's like what is wrong with you? How do you not know that? How do you not have that? I'm like, well, first of all, I'm from a factory town, but second of all.

Factory town 10. But it's like you. You're like, you don't tip your house cleaner at the hotel? That's how they pay their- I'm like, I didn't even know that was a thing. How ignorant am I? Well, the first time I met Brian, he actually took a shit in the corner. He's not house-roofing.

Folks don't know this. All right. I've changed my ways, though. Let's move on from Bellator if we can. Go to topic number two. How about UFC, ladies and gentlemen? Again, we stick with the light heavyweights. Anthony Smith, I mean, just burning a trail right through Ryan Spann.

That was Big Bank take Little Bank, 84s and Candy Paint BC. Question for you. Was this such a mismatch that did Anthony Smith prove his critics wrong, or did he beat who he was supposed to beat? Luke, there is a lot of people on Monday morning here at the Water Cooler that have to look into that camera and make amends for the things that they've been saying. Luke, I feel bad for them. There's been a lot of people who have looked at Anthony Smith as, you know,

nothing more than a past prime forced gatekeeper who keeps getting thrown into main events on us. And he went out there and proved all of those fucking people wrong, Luke. And you know what? Fuck them, right? You know what I mean? When you say them, are you talking to the mirror? Those people. Look, this was very impressive. Very impressive.

I wanted to believe that the 6'5 span, you know, having won 4 or 5 and the only loss, he still looked good before the implosion against Johnny Walker, that it was his time. And everything was set up for us to find out if he was ready for prime time. And you know what? I don't think this is about as much that he's not ready for prime time as it was to what you're saying, that Anthony Smith with three wins in a row, still got it. And he is a very well-rounded, hardworking.

I mean, you know what, Luke? I can talk to the board. He kind of is what we're looking for at Factory Town at May. Like, I'm not kidding. That's why I've never understood your derision. I mean, look, I might have at one time been part of the mob, who when he gets thrown into another main event, it's like, really? This is what we're doing?

But you know what, Luke? He's a good broadcaster. He's got questionable tattoos. He may have 75 fights, but he is still pretty damn elite, and I'm going to give him his credit. He hurt Spann seemingly every time he touched him. He had an answer for whatever Spann had, and I think he just sort of, you know,

there was the candle there of Ryan Spann's future, and he just snuffed it right out. I mean, he just said, you're not on this level, and then they almost went to fisticuffs afterwards, Luke. That was a little intense. Do you think, and I know I asked you this off camera. We can reproduce it as if it didn't happen. Was that Anthony Smith, like, looking at Ryan Spann

as an embodiment of his haters and being like, fuck? Yeah, I think the problem that Smith has been facing is that even when I had interviewed him years ago, like prior to the Gustafson fight, there was Luke Rockhold at the time out there chirping about how the guy was overrated and not particularly good and didn't deserve to be taken seriously, and then he goes out there and submits Gustafson, and they take it away from him.

He beats Uzdemir, and they're like, oh, well, Uzdemir was this, that, and the other. And, of course, he had some losses along the way. I mean, the Glover Teixeira loss is terrible. The loss to Jon Jones was pretty thorough as well. Although we do, let's give him the credit for not taking the DQ win. He didn't take the DQ win. So you know what? He is a real man.

So hold on. You asked me a question. Let me finish the point here. Can you let our coffee guy in just for a second, Luke? Yeah, for our coffee guy here. Yeah. What's this guy's name? Phil.

Phil. Phil. Yes. Yes. We can't put Phil on camera? With this camera right here? That's good. Thank you.

I know he's not housebroken either, but, you know. Yeah. Phil? Yes, please, Phil. May I finish my point about Anthony Smith? You can talk while Phil just operates. No, because you won't shut up. Can I please make a point about, not Phil, but Anthony Smith?

The point being is this. Anthony Smith, I don't folks really fully appreciate. Yes, it is hard to change how folks have an impression of you. And I did a preview video on Friday, and we talked about, if you look at the stats behind Anthony Smith in terms of strikes landed versus absorbed and takedown percentage and whatnot, nothing really floors you in terms of the numbers there. But look at the tape in terms of the Ryan Spann fight.

Dude, he was better literally everywhere. And not just that, BC. One guy was making mistakes. BC, one guy was making mistakes and one guy wasn't. Every time Spann overcommitted, there was Anthony Smith just out of the way and then cracking him. And then on the ground, dude,

this was not even close to a contest. He was way better than him there. Dude, this was clear demonstration. Am I saying that Anthony Smith is the best light heavyweight? Well, this is what I want to know what you're saying. I want to ask you what you're saying. I want to ask you what you're saying. They said doing this long preamble.

I know where you're going with this. They know where you're going with this. They know. And by the way, Phil probably deserved at least a shot on camera. No? Please stay on track, please. Okay, so Anthony Smith is not going the other way. He

firmly reestablished his foundation of where he is. So where is he, Luke? Is he a legitimate title contender still? Are you seeing what fighters do, like Jared Kananier, learning from the Robert Whitaker loss and then coming back in his last fight and really showing us that.

Are you seeing that in Anthony? Yes, we have talked consistently about this phenomenon, BC, where guys get started a little bit early and have, in his case, it was very different because he spent a long time on the regional scene. But BC, how many times have we been on this show and talked about guys in their mid to late 30s, even in some of the lower weight classes? I know this is light heavyweight, but how much are we talking about Diego Fajeda over at lightweight where this is happening, but now we're talking about light heavyweight, where they don't really

figure the game out fully until their mid to late 30s, but once they do, you have to let go of who they used to be. Dude, Anthony Smith has fully arrived at that position. Now, he called out Alexander Rakic. If you go back to the Rakic fight, Rakic was tearing him up with leg kicks, and once he was on top he was stopping all the submissions and played a very, very careful game. Did I see anything in this fight that makes me

think that that could be challenged? No, I think Rakic is a very different fighter than Spann, but BC, you have to acknowledge the opinion you had of Anthony Smith after beating Shogun and Rashad. It is simply not accurate. You were telling me at the time, this guy's not that good.

I don't know why you like him. Now you know why I like him. Now you know why I like him. First of all, you can't stay on track. I got you to the level that I needed you to be right there. I'm in a fucking zone right now. I used Phil

the coffee guy to get you fucking wired. Here's the deal though, Luke. The reason why I can't bow down and give you the full come up here is because you like to say things like, well, Anthony Smith must see TV and this matchup on Saturday is a great fight. You do go a little

bit over. Okay, so where are you on him? He is a title contender. A hundred percent. The jury is still out. Like you're mentioning, if he can get back in there with somebody like a Rakic and show you, Rakic, and show you that he can get over that hump. But I'm not willing to count

him out. I'm not willing to dismiss him. And yes, people DM me, you're really going to have to apologize on Monday. I apologize. I was wrong on the guy. This was not Spann's moment, even though, let's be honest, both Luke and I picked Anthony Smith. I picked him by decision. He impressed me a lot.

So he's still in the game, and he's a good dude, so I have good things to say about it. You just need to be careful. I love me some Ioana, but I'm not here trying to say she's going to win a title. You know what I'm saying? I thought she beat Jang Wai Lee, candidly, the first time. I'm on her Instagram account, but I'm not here trying to say she's going to win a title. You know what I'm saying? I thought she beat Jang Wai Lee, candidly, the first time. I mean, I'm on her Instagram account, but I'm not here trying to say, you know. All right, well, let's stay with UFC Fight Night from the weekend.

There was another person that stood out there. This was a hardcore fan's delight. There were not a lot of people who were clamoring to see this card. I enjoyed this card. It was long, but I enjoyed it because it started earlier. That's why. Yeah, the earlier cards I do like better. I have to agree.

Okay, but let's talk about one other guy who is a blue chip prospect among blue chip prospects. Let's go to point number three here if we can for the people in the back here who keep going back and forth on the cameras. Let's talk about Armin Saryukian. Easily defeating Christos Giagos via TKO in the first round. Okay, BC, are you a believer in Saryukian's upside, or was he made to look good with favorable matchmaking? Okay, that's a really good question, because I do think it is a little bit of both. But yet, to take the opportunity and finish it as brutally

and as efficiently as that, then it's, again, more the first side. He's an absolute hammer and a pile of nails right now, Luke. You were right about this guy. You didn't find him. You're not Chaz Chandler. I found Jimi Hendrix, you know, or Samson Lukowicz. I discovered Manny Pacquiao. No, Luke, but you supported him from the beginning like you did Cyril Ghosn.

So for as many as these Anthony Smith moments that you have, you do have a good track record in the other direction. Luke, he wants the smoke. He wants it, okay? It's time. It's time for them to find out how good he is. I know he had the loss to Islam Makhachev, the earlier version of him.

We found out where he might be, but he's way better than he was in that night. I mean, he's getting better on the regular, and there is a star quality that jumps out of him that's not a commercial star quality, but there's an it factor with him that you're like it's because they fucking badass like a well-polished like a hitman in a movie like he's got that that it factor that tells you that he's ready right now to find out how great

he can be and this is going to be fun watching luke i actually feel like this was the perfect opponent i'll tell you why if you actually go and look, there is a level change under a punch that Saryukian hits. And when he goes for the takedown, it gets completely stuffed. He actually got overturned on that one. I couldn't believe how strong Gyagos was. And then, if you notice,

there's a moment there where Saryukian is going for a double overhook sweep from guard and cannot get it. Gyagos stuffed that. Oh, he's strong as shit. Gyagos must be strong as a motherfucker to stop that. So what does Saryukian do? He takes his time, he gets his back against the cage, he stands,

and then they begin to strike. And you can see he is going for that left hook several times, catches a kick with it, and then fires one over the top. Here is a guy who had previously gotten into trouble. Well, not trouble, but the lack of – everyone was impressed with him, but to the extent there weren't any questions about him, it's because he wasn't finishing opponents. This, in fact, was his first UFC finish, and I like it, BC, because usually the problem was he was just over-wrestling people. He was constantly wrestling them. He's got an

indefatigable motor, and he's got very good wrestling, and so he could just get away with it. This time, Gallagos didn't let him get away with it. Now, is Gallagos the toughest fight on the feet in terms of standing? Not necessarily that, but to your point, if someone is serving you up someone you should beat, not only should you beat them, you should do it impressively. I like that he got challenged in the wrestling, and I like that he still put it away with clear authority early in the first. Saryukian did everything he was supposed to do in this fight. This was exactly the right matchmaking. UFC did a good job with this.

He's only 24. The UFC, I mean, Bellator's doing a great job with it too, but the UFC now in the post-Habib era are doing a great job at just going around the smash factories and being like, anybody sweeping up in the basement, can you fight? Do you have a ground game? The lowest guy on their totem poles is still the beast. They are stockpiling some badasses.

I thought this guy was Armenian. He's Georgian. No, he's Armenian, and he lives in Russia, which is true for a lot of Armenians. But he's from Georgia. No, he's from Armenia. Not according to Wikipedia, which has him born in Georgia. Oh, he might have been born there, but he is. I don't think he's Armenian at all.

I think your love. His last name is Saryukian. That's about as Armenian as it gets. This could be the one, because last name is Saryukian. That's about as Armenian as it gets. So this could be the one, because, you know, we thought it was Karl Parisian. We thought it was Edmund Shabazian. We thought it, you know, for you, for your people, this

could be the guy. Even though he's not Armenian, this could be the guy. I was thinking about it the other day. The first generation of Armenians in the UFC, they were all out of that Gokor, Chivichian, Hayastan grappling style, which was cool, but it pretty short-lived, him and Manny. And then you had your right. You had head movement.

What was his name? Edmund Tarverdian. Edmund Tarverdian. Come around, and he did some interesting stuff. Do you think Sarukian laughs at Tarverdian, or do you think he respects him? I don't think he shits on other Armenians necessarily, but I don't. He ain't training with him. I can tell you that.

He ain't training with him. He's out there. You know who he's training with? Jorge Masvidal over at ATT all the time. All the time. Him and Jorge are big buds. So, dude, Saryukian is a fucking beast. And that dude, I don't know if he's going to win a title, but he's going to beat some good fighters along the way, and he might just get a title as well.

Can I tell you who I was impressed with on this main card, Luke? Please. I'm going to pronounce it correctly for the first time. Iwan. Iwan Kutilaba correctly for the first time. Iwan. Iwan Kutelaba. Now an extreme couture fighter. From the Blue Moon of Endor. Iwan Kutelaba looked like the fucking tank we thought he may be able to be, Luke.

I said it, that Devin Clark was the perfect sort of, unfortunately I want to say journeyman because of his record, but journeyman level guy where you're like, if I can't get past this guy, I might not be that guy. Not only did Kutaylaba get by that guy, not only did he break his mouth, I mean, busted up his teeth, but Luke, Kutaylaba finally put it together on the right night and the ease in which he was able to destructively take Clark down, then go to full mount when Clark has a wrestling game. That's his base.

I mean, he crushed him, Luke. This was high motor, high dominant. This was who this guy was supposed to be. For all the theatrical antics. He literally rearranged his face. More to come on Have You Seen This Shit? But for all the theatrics and the Incredible Hulk and all that bullshit that he does.

And I love that bullshit, by the way. Luke, this was a step forward. He needed this. He got this. Are you, do you get like, what's the guy's name? The guy that just lost to Adesanya. You know, I can't remember every name. The guy that just lost to Adesanya.

You mean Vittori? The damn Italian. Do you have young Vittori vibes from this guy in terms of his style and his swagger? I think Vittori's better. Vittori's definitely better, but this was a step forward rising fight to build the confidence. The post-fight interview

afterwards was hilarious. It was, I hear, I ready, I hear. Dude, Kutai Lava has always been a fucking gorilla,

and I mean that as a compliment. Always, always been a gorilla, but he has not been making, dude, against Ankhalaev the first time when he's like faking him out and then goes for it

and the ref gets all confused. Like, the ref made a bad judgment there, but at the same time, he's like faking him out and then goes for it the ref gets all confused like the ref made a bad judgment there but at the same time look at those teeth he was going for gimmicky things before he was going way too aggressively a guy like Eric Nixick over extreme couture can take the physical beast that he is and the gameness of the mentality that he has but then sharpen that through refined technique I think that's a good marriage for him so to your point I have a I think we need to recalibrate what might be possible in evaluating Kutaylaba

because under this tutelage he can go much further than the way he was going before. Only 27. We don't really see a lot of Moldovians. Who was the Maria Shafir who was the friend of Ronda Rousey who kind of fizzled out? Yes, she's married to

WWE wrestler Roderick Strong. Is that right? Yes, Roderick Strong. Also, if you watch 90 Day Fiance, there's the guy from Chisnow, Romania. My wife watches it, so I've sort of been abused. All right. On this card, I don't want to forget. How about Nate Maness?

I mean, you want to talk about this guy. More to come on Have You Seen This Show. Just real quick, this guy got sat down at the end of the first. I was not sure he was going to be able to walk to his corner. He gritted it out. He did. And then scored just an unbelievable comeback win with a beautiful punch. And I want to point out something.

They put my tweet on the air. I was so excited about that. He hits him with the shot. It was sort of like a shovel hook with the right hand slash uppercut. It was more of a hook. And the immediate ground and pound, I want folks to go back and look at the replays if you can, the immediate ground and pound all lands precisely.

He gave Gravely, once the first shot hit, not a single second or instant to recover. That is putting away someone when the time calls for it. Nate Maness, stand up, young man. You earned that one. So Nate Maness has that tattoo. We just showed it on his arm that says, no regrets. Do you think he regrets that now?

He says he has no regrets. I'm going to go with that. That's a great win, and I don't want to people want more MMA out of this. They want us to go deep down these cards. Luke, Raquel Pennington, I didn't love the performance against Panny Kianzid, even though she... I thought she lost. I thought Kianzid should have been boxing more.

But the thing is, what does Penny do well? She works great in the clinch, dirty boxing, and she leaned on that. I thought she lost as well. But it was a big win for her to keep her career alive. And then to find out medically, you're Dr. Luke Fauci, 30 days in the damn hospital with the COVID. Yeah, hospitalized twice for the same battle with COVID. We didn't even know about this. She had to go through extreme measures.

She thought she was going down that road. She thought she was going there. Dude, she was saying afterwards that, again, she got hospitalized twice for the same bout with COVID. So for her to come back from that and fight this well, she's a badass. And dude, don't forget, she also had the, I think it was the

snowmobile accident where she nearly lost her leg. I mean, Raquel Pennington has been put through the ringer in life and has come out on top. She is not to be underestimated. Still, I did think that Kian Zod deserved the nod, but I agree with you. It's close enough in one of those sort of like back and forth clinch fights where you can't

complain too much about the decision. And I do want to shout out Hannah Goldie. Look, two losses in the UFC. It looked like she was better than that, Luke. This was a big win against Spitfire Whitmire, upper weight class. Is that why you're bringing it up? Why do you think I'm doing that?

She's the Sean Shirk of women's MMA, Luke. Because I know what you text me when no one's looking. Stop that. Luke, she's jacked. She came in there to pull out that arm bar. I'll say this. Hannah Goldie has been in the fucking weight room. That's a big win.

That's a big win, Luke, okay? She needed that. It is a big win. Also, it's interesting that arm bar from the guard tends to play more of a role in modern women's MMA than men's. I'm not sure what to make of that exactly, but in any case, a nice win for sure. I miss Sean Shirk. Huh?

I miss Sean Shirk. She's not Sean Shirk. I ran into Sean Shirk while doing resume review research last night. But, you know, I miss him. We're doing one on BJ Penn? No, no, we're not. No, we're not doing BJ Penn? I wonder what this means for the curse. We'll have to see. All right, let you know, I miss him. We're doing one on BJ Penn? No, no, we're not. No, we're not doing BJ Penn? I wonder what this means

for the curse. We'll have to see. All right, let's go to number four here if we can. Oh, anyone else? We can, Luke. All right, number four on the card if we can here,

our rundown. How about this, BC? Not only is there UFC 266 this weekend, which we're going to talk about in just a second, but first, big boxing is back. And when I say big boxing,

I don't mean just the kind that boxing fans care about. I'm talking about the kind MMA fans care about, too. Oleksandr Usyk is going to take on Anthony Joshua this Saturday. You want to talk about a huge, a huge fight. It's going to be at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. I mean, this is... First of all, if you haven't seen AJ fight in a soccer stadium, Anthony Joshua, in England,

it's like a rock. It's like the rock. So let me ask you a question about that. When the rock came out at WrestleMania a few years back in Dallas, and he had that gun of fire torch, and he's lighting the rock, it's like that. Let me ask you. In terms of that, in terms of fighter in his home country having the biggest grandeur about it, who beats Anthony Joshua at a big stadium in London?

I don't think anybody. No. No. Canelo can't match that. It's a different environment. That's like a movie star, rock star coming out. So it's a crazy environment and this fight really matters. Let me pitch to you. I'll catch you pitch. Okay. So here's the thing. We had this huge fight coming up and as you know, it's mandatory. We were all supposed to get AJ versus Fury, and it didn't happen. Fury's got Wilder coming up in just a few weeks, not even a couple of weeks at this point. But first up is AJ against Usyk. Usyk, BC, for folks who don't know, one weight class down at cruiserweight.

This guy was the man. He unified all the titles and said, see you, bitch. I'm going to go to heavyweight. He fought Derek Chisora, and it was good, but it was bad. It was both. And now he finds himself here against AJ. So my question to you is this. How big of an underdog should Usyk be to Anthony Joshua? Okay, he should be an underdog because AJ has big-time power, and even though Usyk has two fights at heavyweight, you throw out the first one against a late replacement, and Chisora was equal levels of good or bad,

Usyk still hasn't proven that he's potentially that elite heavyweight. Yet, he, outside of Tyson Fury, is the most dangerous matchup. Outside of Deontay Wilder's right hand and Tyson Fury, Usyk is the most dangerous matchup for Anthony Joshua, style-wise. Meaning that although he is a rightful underdog, it really shouldn't be that much. Can you look it up? We're looking it up right now, Pro Boxing Ops. If you don't know who Alexander Usyk is, look, he's from Ukraine, same amateur system

as Lomachenko. I've long called him the Lomachenko of the high weight classes. He came up training with Lomachenko's Papachenko and Itoli. He uses footwork and angles similar to Lomachenko. He won all four Cruiserweight titles despite not being a big puncher, but he's so slick.

He takes a couple rounds to read you, and then once he's figured you out, his counters, his sideways, sidearm hooks, all kinds of different varieties. You can get underneath your shoulder and really use crazy footwork. His problem at heavyweight was always going to be the lack of power. He's 6'3", but he's thin and muscular, not a big hulking guy. It's going to come down to whether he can absorb big-time punches from AJ and still fight. If he can, Luke, and he showed, by the way, a great chin

when he was in that cruiserweight tournament, the World Boxing Series Super, the one where he became a star in. He had to go up there against unbeaten Maris Brightus, and that fight was like a fight of the year candidate. Revisit that. He had to walk through hell to win a close 12-round decision. That's not heavyweight power, but it's close. I think Usyk has, see, I say I think.

I don't know if he can withstand AJ's punches. If he can, though, this fight's going to get very interesting because AJ can box better by far than his critics say he can, Luke, but he cannot going to get very interesting because AJ can box better by far than his critics say he can, Luke, but he cannot box on Usyk's level. And I know there's the narratives of can Usyk win a decision, can anybody win a decision over AJ in a soccer stadium? And I don't bring that up because of, you know, the judges being dumb or the judges being paid off. When you're fighting somebody in a soccer stadium and the crowd is going nuts, it's going to influence the way the fights are looked at, even by a judge at ringside.

Either way, Luke, there's a final four right now of heavyweights. Joshua's bringing three of the four titles at stake against Usyk, who was the undisputed cruiserweight champion, as we mentioned, and is undefeated. And then, obviously, you're going to get the Fury-Deontay Wilder trilogy two weeks from now, which has the

WBC title and the lineal title at stake. This is your final four to find out who's the man at heavyweight. You couldn't ask. I know Dillian White's still in that group, but he's like the fifth. You could not ask for four better at this moment. Fury's undefeated. We've only seen Wilder lose once. Joshua lost once to Ruiz, but he won it back, and then Usyk's undefeated.

What a time. What a time the next two weeks are going to be in the heavyweight division, and Usyk is in this fight, Luke. He's in this fight. Let me ask you two questions about this fight. You said mandatory. It technically is a mandatory. But at the same time, this is not a mandatory fight. This is a fight.

This isn't Canelo versus Yildir. No, this is a fight. Two questions about this fight and researching it. One, to what extent at all does Usyk's punching power threaten AJ, who doesn't have the best chin, number one. Two, is Usyk going to elect to fight on the outside, where he might find himself at range with Joshua,

or is he going to find himself on the inside? Because experts have been saying he might find himself on the inside, but then you go back to the Joshua Pulev fight, and Joshua fought quite ably on the inside there. So where do you think this fight's going to take place in terms of distance, and what about the punching power to the extent that it exists at heavyweight for Usyk? I think it's going to take place all over, to be honest with you, because once Usyk figures you out, then he does a lot of sort of leaping in, ducking in,

and he does like to fight at close range once he's got you, because the angles. Revisit Usyk's final cruiserweight bout against Tony Bellew when he sent him into retirement. It was a zone fight. Your boy was the color commentator on that fight. And the way that Usyk, once he figured Bellew out and Bellew fought tough early, he stood right in the pocket, but he swiveled,

and he'd throw these sidearm shots. So it's going to be contested all over. The key to your question is interesting. Usyk didn't have big power at cruiserweight, doesn't have big power at heavyweight, but could he hurt Joshua with the right punch? The way in which he knocked out Tony Bellew, knocked him out cold, was with one of those shots you don't see coming.

So I wonder, down the stretch of this fight, if it gets there, if Joshua's got to be careful because Usyk can hit you with that right shot at the right time that turns your chin. I know there's going to be a lot of AJ benefactors out there who say, look, you guys never talk great about him on this show. He's got the best resume of everyone at Heavyweight right now. He does. I'm going to give AJ that credit. I mean, he's one, he's good. Look at the names. But he's still vulnerable

as shit. We cannot look past that. And Usyk is by far the better boxer. So I know there's all those questions surrounding Usyk, but this is a real fight that you need to care about. Is that a disowned fight? Yeah, it's a disowned real fight that you need to care about. Is that a disowned fight? Yeah, it's a disowned fight. That you need to care about on Saturday. I believe it's going to go on around

dinner time on the East Coast here, so it's going to be a nice setup before we get to UFC 266, but it's going to matter. Last question. You asked about the odds. Our friends over at Caesar Sportsbook have Anthony Joshua as a minus 270, Usyk as a plus 220. That might sound like a wide disparity by MMA standards. In boxing, that's pretty fucking close. That's close. I think that if you like Usyk as a plus 220. That might sound like a wide disparity by MMA standards.

In boxing, that's pretty fucking close. That's close. I think that, hey, if you like Usyk, now would be the time. If you like Usyk. That's interesting. That's going to be a hell of a contest. Yes. Can you bet that on the DraftKings Sportsbook app?

Of course you can. Of course you can. And if he blows it all up, dude, between that and what could happen, we'll talk about Wilder and Fury as he gets closer, because BC and I have been monitoring very closely what Wilder's been up to. It's been fun to pay attention on the sidelines to see what Wilder's been up to. Believe it or not. Wilder's doing all the right things right now. Well, not quite all of them, but he's got a certain fire.

Yeah, he's still making outrageous claims. I mean, he's benching terribly with gloves on. What are you doing? I mean, please stop doing that. Okay. All right. Last but not least, BC, we go to point number five here if we can. We said we're going to mention

UFC 266. Let's get to it. That is also going to be on Saturday night. Saturday is going to be a very busy day in combat sports. BC, when I ask you about the most important storyline between the featherweight title fight involving Brian Ortega and current champion Alexander Volkanovsky,

what stands out to you most? Look, I know this ties into us promoting ourselves and saying I did have that interview a little more than a week ago with Brian Ortega, which you can check out right now on youtube.com slash morningcombat. It's a little weird because Ortega's a little weird. The interview I had with him in March was intense and weird. This one's slow and plodding and weird.

I'm wondering, Luke, if he's a little bit too cocky or a little bit looking over Volkanovski a little bit too much. Look, I'm a big believer in Brian Ortega's talent. I think he's super elite. I think he showed you everything that's in his tank against Max Holloway from a blood and gut

standpoint, but what he showed against TKZ, even if that's a favorable style matchup to show that, he still showed it beyond belief that the two years off, the technical stuff he's focused on. I mean, look, he is a title contender right now. The betting odds are close for a reason. He's got the size

over Volkanovski. This is a freaking great fight that I don't even think is getting the pub that it needs. I just hope he's not, because if you watch all the Ortega interviews, he's just kind of all over the place. He's talking about Max Holloway a lot more than he's talking about Volkanovski. He's very dismissive of the champion.

Not that I think he needs to bend down and kiss the feet. They were tough coaches opposite. Obviously, there's a little bit of trash talk in that. I just hope that he's going to pick the right balance that he needs between the warrior he was against Holloway, which was, I'm not even going to go to the ground. I'm just going to show you that I've got the biggest balls in the cage here, and the technician he was. Obviously, the right answer is a middle ground, some type of, to figure it out. I do think he has physical advantages that could

lift him to victory. I don't know who I'm favoring yet. We've got a couple days to figure it out. I just hope, Luke, that Ortega's in the right mindset confidence-wise and has the right game plan to attack this because I think this is a winnable fight to him. Although nobody looks good against Volkanovski, it's as tough of a chess match as you can get into. I've just been weirded out. But to be honest with you, by all these Ortega interviews,

I'm not really sure where he's at, Luke. Do you think I'm overplaying this? I mean, do you watch this guy? He just seems to be all over the place. I think even without that, here would be my major takeaway. And to your point about the odds, they are quite close. Our friends over at Caesar Sportsbook have Volkanovski, a minus 160 favorite, which is not high, and Ortega, plus 135.

So they got pretty goddamn close. I would actually say this. In MMA, there's a lot of, let me state this up front. There's no good reason why Ortega should win, which is to say the following. Ortega is deserving of this. He is extremely dangerous. And there's lots of fighters who had no business winning fights and then they just did anyway, because our understanding of the situation might've been wrong or they just overperformed or whatever the case may be. But Volkanovsky's ability to manage around, to manage distance, to manage exchanges, his camouflage of his striking, his entry into exchanges, his exit from exchanges. Dude,

Max Holloway had 10 rounds against him and you could say he did it, but it was so close he didn't twice, at least according to the other judges who had a chance to review it. And again, that is certainly in dispute. But at a bare minimum, Max had a very hard time with him, not from a damage standpoint, but from a chess standpoint. Let me see what I can understand here. Volkanovski doesn't get credit because the wins over Max were razor thin. And again, some folks want to dispute that, and I understand that.

But the reality is this, dude. Volkanovski's game, in terms of the way in which he camouflages everything he's doing, it is unlike almost anybody else in the UFC because... Maybe I don't give him the respect he deserves. Let me say this. He does a lot of the... Adesanya has a very different style, but they have conceptually a lot of the same

things about camouflage and whatnot. But then, the difference with Volkanovski is, A, he can wrestle his ass off both directions. Two, there's a good motor on Adesanya. There's a good motor. But the other point is he has a much higher pace about it. He just constantly goes like this.

It's death by a thousand cuts, but it's still death in the end. I don't know what in Ortega's game, short of Volkanovski making a terrible mistake, which is entirely possible, but short of making a terrible mistake, this is a very difficult fight for him. See, I'm not as far down that road with you. I think Ortega's better than people realize.

I think he's fucking awesome. I just think he's a little flaky. He's a little... I think there's potential for inconsistency. He's trying to do art when he should be doing a show.

Very few can pull that off. Very few can pull it off. By the way, sorry, I know I get on Luke. I was texting. I'm trying pull it off. By the way, sorry, I know I get on Luke. I was texting. I'm trying to secure a big time guest, maybe in person. I'm trying to do big things here. Luke, I love this fight.

And you know, I don't maybe get as jazzed up for you about a potential chess match technical war. This is my type of potential technical, like, this is a great fight. Can we forget about storylines and all that shit? Oh, it's a phenomenal fight. This is a great fight in a division that we need clarity,

that Max is waiting, that we've got a bunch of guys on the rise that want to crash this party. I wish the beat could be part of this party. I really do. We asked about the storyline. I'll tell you what my storyline is, dude. This is all roads lead to Max Holloway. Yes.

Right? Because if Volkanovski wins, dude, you've got, after what Max did to Calvin Caterer, and if Volkanovski's waiting around, how else do you move that division forward without running that trilogy back? You know what would be great, by the way? I know you hate when I interrupt you,

but I have great shit to say, Luke. That's why in person... That's why you just got to wait. In person, the flow is so much better because you don't get my tics and my cues over on the Zoom. Just wait a second. Tranquilo. Okay, a second. Just tranquilo. Okay, here's what I'm saying. So, obviously we know the Volkanovski side if he wins. Even if

Ortega wins, BC, even if Ortega wins, you've got to run that one back with Max too. This is, to me, the Max Holloway sweepstakes, and either way, it's a great setup fight. You're damn right about that. I forgave you for how rude you were before because you're damn right about it. What I was going to say, Luke, and I think the people would love this.

If Volkanovski beats Ortega and we set up the trilogy fight, I am willing to sit down with you in the studio and watch Volkanovski and Holloway 2 for the 50th time with you. Okay? I'm willing. I'm willing. That was pretty good. You should just blow me instead.

Pretty good setup and delivery right there. Pretty good. That camera guy is real into the show right now. Check him out. He's borderline asleep, right? I think I can see his balls right here. No, you know what? He's on DraftKings right now.

Oh, that's right. He's just putting some free time. Yeah, the guy's like, oh, me, me. Yeah, yeah. All right. Okay. Well, that's it for our top topics there. So that means it's time for you to ask us questions.

It's time for our top topics there. So that means it's time for you to ask us questions. It's time for DMs from dogs. All right, here we go. First question, BC. This is from It's Not Cage Fighting. It's not a Tuma. Is the light heavyweight division better without Jon Jones? That's a great question. What do you think, BC?

I understand the spirit of that question. That without... It takes the lid off it. The crabs have much more room to attack each other versus just being under the thumb of one dominant figure. Even though he wasn't as dominant by any means the last couple title defenses. In fact, you can argue he lost both of those to Mejeda and Reyes.

We know that. When you remove a dominant champion, it allows others to step in and grow. And you and I talked about this last night when walking down on the docks of Jersey City with the Manhattan skyline above, just like, how the freak did Jan Blowitz get this good this late in his career? We started just talking about the, like, two guys,

just having guy talk, right? It allows others to shine, so I have enjoyed that. It allows Glover Teixeira to make this run right near it. Guys like Prohacic and Rakic are making runs. But does it feel as important and special without a goat-like guy like him? No. So I like it. I don't love it, though.

Like, meaning, Lehovic, Teixeira's a good fight, but you're not getting jazzed about it. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. I mean, I know what you mean. Listen, the best-case scenario would have been for him to either win and then go right to heavyweight in action, or to stay at light heavyweight and have someone beat him, and then there's this rightful passage from generation to generation,

so to speak, of champions. Like as a fan, this sucks not seeing him at all. That's right. I mean, his absence makes it so it's like, well, is this really better? I think you're right. There are clear upsides to his absence where you get to see all these other stories, and it's not all roads lead to John all the time. True.

At the same time, I'm with you. If he was around and competing win or lose, it's hard to argue that would be worse, is sort of what you're saying. I don't really believe that. I think him there makes it better, but him not being there has some unique advantages is the way it goes. Is there anyone in your contacts on your cell phone under the name

Boo Boo Wild Thing? You. All right. Here's from Jack C. McGinn, BC. What's something new you've learned over the course of the pandemic MMA? What's something new? Are they asking about our personal life? I think anything. Did you pick up any skills? Well, as we know, I picked up painting. I picked up vinyl records. Those were both two advancements in my personal life because you and I had a lot, as everyone else,

had a lot of time at home, a lot of free time. I didn't learn a new language. I wouldn't say I became a better father or husband. I think that, look, would you say it's, it's been, look, obviously for anyone who had COVID and who had dealt with that or loss of family, it's been really hard, but even just the monotonous at home life, both my wife and I work from home. Our kids were doing school from home for half the year in a small house. You got to grow. There's some ups and downs here, ups and downs, mental health wise. There's, you know,

it was tough. I'm happy. I picked up painting and vinyl here. Ups and downs mental health-wise. It was tough. I'm happy I picked up painting, and vinyl records is my life. You know what I mean? I got Bronstedter up in the DMs for days. But looking back, maybe I wish I had done a little more with the time, Luke. Okay? I don't know if I learned anything new. I mean, I'm always – yeah, I don't know if I... I can't say that with a pandemic,

like, I picked up new skills in the same way you did. Yeah, your personal YouTube channel didn't really go in the right direction during the pandemic. Yeah, because I had a person whining about it, so I had to fucking stop for the most part. But in general, like, I just sort of... No, I can't say that I did anything new during the pandemic. No, I can't.

A lot of things I'd been doing, I kept doing. That's true, but no. Did you have a trying time? Look, you don't usually speak openly at all about your misgivings, ups and downs personally. When you look back at the pandemic, which is not over, but whatever, was it trying on you mentally? No. Because of your medical license? I've never pretended to have your medical license. I've never pretended to have a medical license. I just listen to people who are experts. No, you're... Shut the fuck up.

Your medical marijuana license. Oh, you mean medical marijuana license. Yes, yes. Yes, I did. I did. That was new. Yeah, that was fun. Because I look back...

Look, when I made that incredible top 20 countdown of the greatest moments in morning combat history that we ran on our 200th episode, looking back at the first 100 episodes, you were angry as shit. You're a lot more calm now. Yeah, the CBS job changed a lot for me. I'll say that. I didn't learn anything new, but I was burning the candle at both ends

for years and years and years, and then CBS came along, and we still have to do work, obviously, but I wasn't having to stretch myself so crazily all the time. Yes. And I was like, oh, I don't have to be angry. Like, you can do things in your life where you're angry so long that you think it's your personality, and then you realize, no, it was just, you were just living in a really bad way. So that was a big revelation.

I did get a therapist during the pandemic. It had to be virtual visits because of COVID. But although at times it's awkward and you're like, man, should I really be doing this? It's huge. It's huge. I don't talk about you a lot, though, or my other wife. It always ends up like back to your childhood. It's like I got these issues about work.

They're like, well, what about your parents? It always ends up back there. That's true. I got a therapist who challenges me. She don't take no bullshit. She challenges me. All right. All right.

From Scully, it's me. Will you guys wear costumes for the Friday before Halloween, and what are your best, worst Halloween memories? If we are in studio, I'd love to. If we're in studio, I'll do it. If not, no. See, here's what's interesting. I went to an adult Halloween party

a couple years ago with my wife and we dressed up and I was like, this is the first time I've ever done that. She's like, what? People didn't have Halloween parties. Did you go bag snatching like a fucking degenerate? No, I just did regular Halloween like everybody else. I don't have epic stories. I don't have it. My parents. I no. I just did regular Halloween like everybody else. I don't have like epic stories. I don't have it.

My parents, I mean, I just. Yeah, they tried. Mama tried, you know. My parents' rule was if you're going to go out for Halloween, you can't buy anything. You have to make whatever you're going to have. And you could maybe buy like a couple small things, like obviously face paint and shit like that. But like whatever your costume is going to be, you have to make it. And it was pretty clear from a young age,

I had zero fucking talent in fucking Project Runway Halloween costume edition. I'd always have the shittiest. Like you wear your Little League costume, and you're like, I'm a baseball player. Yeah, I'm a Jose Canseco. It says the Reds. You know, what am I?

Like I just had the worst fucking costumes. So what I would always do is I'd show up like nominally, you know, Halloween, bug, bug. You know, what am I? Like, I just had the worst fucking costumes. So what I would always do is I'd show up, like, nominally, you know, Halloween-y. And then by the time the party was on, I would just, you know, kind of halfway out the bag, I'd have a T-shirt on again and, you know, just sort of let it rock. I remember in eighth grade, the old guys, when you stopped at their house, they're like, aren't you a little too tall or old to be doing this? You know what I mean? That always felt bad.

I never had that. Dude, my dad was so fucking, oh, my God. Okay, so my dad is a true story. I old to be doing this. You know what I mean? That always felt bad. I never had that. Dude, my dad was so fucking, oh my God. Okay, so my dad is a true story. I'll tell a story here. My dad, when my parents were split up, he used to live on East Capitol Street. East Capitol Street is the street that connects RFK all the way to the Capitol.

It's like straight. It's one road, okay? And so let's get tons of trick-or-treaters. My dad, after my parents got divorced, dude, my dad was living that 1980s, 90s fucking. Wait, did he have a ponytail and a convertible by any chance? No, no, no, no, no. But here's what he did do.

When I remember, I was like, my mom took us trick-or-treating, and then she was going to drop us off at my dad's house. And as she was walking us to go to my dad's to stay with him on Halloween night, there were trick-or-treaters in front of us, and my dad never got candy. And so he was, this is true. Do you remember the fast food restaurant, Roy Rogers? Oh, yeah. Where you could build the top of your own burger with the toppings? Mm-hmm.

My dad was handing out Roy Rogers coupons. And I walked up, and I'm like, Dad, they're going to fucking, they're going to stab you over this. There's only two people worse than that. The old ladies that give out the popcorn ball. I mean, come on. Really?

I mean, just die already. And then the old ladies that give out nickels or like dimes. And you're like, really? Yeah, what am I supposed to do? Cook these dimes? Wooden nickels? Yeah. It's just.

The old whore. Luke, what's your most memorable costume that you wore? Memorable. You mean like good or bad? Yeah. God, they've all been fucking bad. Yeah, I hear you. Memorable.

Oh, God. At one time... Oh, God? I was like, at one time, tried to go as like... I don't even know. Dude, this was the most fucking stupid idea I've had. I was like, I one time tried to go as like, I don't even know. Dude, this was the most fucking stupid idea I've had. I was like, I'm going to try and be like Frankenstein, right? Classic, can't go wrong. Let me just see if I can be a hipster Frankenstein. You do have like an Eddie Munster vibe.

Yeah, so I tried some of those years ago, but it didn't work either. No, it's just natural. And so I tried a hipster Frankenstein, which just doesn't even make any sense. And I showed up. My wife looks like, you just look like, because I had like a little bit of green on. She goes, you just look like you're fucking homeless and seasick. And I'm like, oh, right. Yeah, it's fucking terrible.

You know what? This is sixth grade, I think, that Halloween. It poured. And I remember being really upset. And my dad. You were still trick-or-treating in sixth grade? Dude, I trick-or-treated through ninth grade. Not a good idea. You're a fucking loser. I stopped my kids, basically, trick or treating in 6th grade? I trick or treated through 9th grade. Not a good idea.

You're a fucking loser. I stopped my kids basically in I think 6th grade. I was like no you're stopping. This is ridiculous. My last was 5th. In 8th and 9th grade there were people that were like you shouldn't be trick or treating anymore. You're too tall. No my dad took us to Stop and Chop and was like, because if you buy candy on Halloween night I think they're already starting

to mark some of that shit down. So he's just like get anything you want. We just got shit loads of candy was like, because if you buy candy, like, on Halloween night, I think they're already starting to mark some of that shit down. You know what I mean? So he's just like, get anything you want. We just got shit loads of candy and then brought it home and watched Halloween 1 and 2 back to back. Oh, that's amazing. And that was the best Halloween of all time. That's amazing. That's a great holiday.

Shout out to you, Pops. That was great. Yeah, my parents did not do that ever. Your dad's like, you want to dust up on foreign policy? More or less. Yeah. Here's this book on 20th century trench warfare. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right, here we go. We've got to get him on the show before it's too late. Okay. I mean, we don't have to worry about my dad's impending death. No, I mean, eventually he's going to die. Hey, before your dad croaks like a bitch, we should get him on the show. All right, from MooHammer8. How strong is the skill

slash weight discrepancy at the elite level? For example, could Habib or Poirier compete against an unranked middleweight? Yes, they could. Yes, they could.

Yes, they could. They could. Yeah, the skill... Okay, so they're saying the skill level between a championship elite level and a UFC debuting

fighter is wide. Is wide, yes. For the most part, unless the guy's a fucking Russian hammer, right? Yeah, I mean, obviously there's going to be exceptions to that rule, but I guarantee you that Poirier and Habib have trained with middleweights in the gym and fucked them up good. Like, yeah, for sure. For sure.

Obviously, there's going to be exceptions to that rule. There could be a middleweight who's not very good, who's fucking huge and strong, in which case, blah, blah, blah. I think we had a wheel of death question at one point. Something to the degree of what's the lowest high-ranked fighter in terms of weight that you think could beat a heavyweight or light. Remember we had some kind of question where we were like, which small-weighted guy do you think could beat a...

Like, how far down can we go where somebody could beat a ranked light heavyweight or heavyweight? You know what I'm saying? Oh, right. Yeah. And you're like, hmm. I mean, we did find out in the early UFC and Pride days that like, I mean, BJ Penn fought a light heavyweight?

Mm-hmm. Or straight up? It didn't go well, but yes. No, but like I'm saying, like in the right matchup, the skills can be enough. Yes, that's right. Back then. Not now. Now it's a little bit harder, but even then it's still possible.

Hey, shout out to Muhamer. He always slides in our DMs. From Combat Sports Commentary, what do you guys attribute to fighters who find their success later in their careers, like Anthony Smith? This one's actually pretty easy. Dude, it takes a long time to learn how to

fight, and some guys can do it quite quickly, some can't. Well, you need patience and humility. Yep. Work ethic. Good experience. Good coaching. And, dude, honestly, MMA is there's so many things to learn.

Dude, it just takes time before you learn everything. Would you say that we're like the Anthony Smiths of the MMA media? Like, we had to just. We had to just. Eat shit a long time. We had to chop that tree for a long-ass time, right? Yeah, for sure. Canadians are making big dollars. I can't even pay my rent, right? We had to chop that tree for a long-ass time, right? Yeah, for sure. Canadians are making big dollars.

I can't even pay my rent, right? We had to just, I mean, we. We were never scouted for the elite team right away. We just forced our way on there. People always say, oh, BC worked at ESPN for 12 years. I wasn't, they didn't know I worked there. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, fair.

You know, a couple times I batted eighth for the Yankees when they called me up, but it wasn't like that was a hot prospect in that organization. Look, you know, by the way, this is the most humbling thing. You know your true value because you ever been at a job, like I've been at ESPN for years when I was underpaid and wanted a big offer elsewhere. I'm like, man, once I get that big offer, I'm going to find out how good they think I really am, right,

because they'll match it, right? When you get that offer like I got from CBS in 2017 and then you go back to your bosses, and they're just like, good luck to you, you know what I mean? Then you're like, oh yeah, okay, so you did, yeah, I know exactly where I stand. I didn't have that experience leaving the box. I did not get a counter offer. I did not get a sit down with the big bosses, good luck to you, whatever, is there anything

we can do? I mean, it was just sort of like, oh, you're going to be gone in two weeks? Hey, it was nice knowing you. When I left MMA Fighting, they, I've never told this before, but I'll tell it now. When I left them, even though Showtime and CBS made me an offer that, well, at the time, Showtime, that there was no way Vox could have matched,

they kicked me off the email distribution list for the internal team and never let me say goodbye to the team. So, you know, I understand the feeling of, you know, you've got to go where you're wanted. I'll put it that way. Yeah, Luke, you know, I understand the feeling of, you know, you got to go where you're wanted. I'll put it that way. Yeah. Luke, you are wanted here. I know you want me.

I know you do. I've been picking up those vibes since the day we met. All right, BC, it is time for the silliness to commence. Good, sir. Oh, shit. Please take over. Okay, let's do it. You know what we do, guys?

We scour the globe every week for the highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly, and in between in combat sports. It is called... Have you seen this shit? Oh, God. Ow. Luke, well, we haven't done this in person in a long-ass time. A long-ass time.

Bellator 266 from San Jose. Luke, rate my tap. Bellator edition, light heavyweight. Alex, easy-poly-zy. Going after my factory town heart with the Arby's. Is that real? That can't be real, Luke. No, it can only be real.

Yeah. I mean, you know, I tweeted at Beef and Cheddar for days, but you got to love that shit, Luke. Dude, that is. I mean, that's for life, brother. That's so Bellator. And he's like a ranked guy. Dude, Polizzi's like a good, he's decent. I didn't say anything about him as a fighter.

But that is, yeah. Luke, I'm going to make a little digression to pro wrestling. Are you aware of the pro wrestling move mastered by Japanese legend Minoru Suzuki called the Gotch-style pile driver, which is named after the legendary shooter Carl Gotch?

Here's him applying it in AEW against the former Dean Ambrose, Jon Moxley here. You know when you grab around the grundle and then you drop him down? Are you aware of that Gotch-style piledriver? No? Why would I be? Well, Alex Polizzi is. Luke, did you actually watch this Arby's fight on Saturday? Check out Polizzi breaking out the Gotch-style piledriver in his split decision win over Grant Neal. Can we advance the slide, please? Since we're all in the same room now.

Okay, thank you. Virtually identical, Luke, right? Sort of. Not bad. I'm liking Polizzi. But Gotch was a real catch wrestler when catch wrestling was still real. Oh, yeah, Gotch will kick your ass. Yeah, yeah.

He was a real dude. Gotch will stretch you. Easy Polizzi might be my guy now with this tat. I would actually like... You've got to make room in your heart for Big Tuna. I would like to get Big Tuna on this show. I'm serious. Me too.

And I would like to get Easy Polizzi because I've got to find the origin of that tat. I really got to find it. Dude, we need to go on a tour through America with Big Tuna. I mean, he's that special. He is. He is. All right. Alejandro Lara.

We mentioned Azul took a loss against DeAndre Bennett. Check out this. Elshie took diving in, Luke. Up kick from hell. There's a few things that translated from wrestling your brothers growing up. It turns out that the bicycle kicking from your back is quite effective actually. It works. All right. We mentioned the big tuna. Let's show the highlight. Ben Parrish

against a minus 1,000 favorite. They're not sure what happened. He switched stances. Sometimes when guys switch stances, their defense isn't as good. A lot of things aren't as good, but in this particular case, he switched it, and he just got absolutely clobbered with this punch. Well-timed. Look at that.

Score one. Bob. Yep. I mean, look, he doesn't look the part, but he is the part. Look at those hammer fists. Those are some gorilla-ass hammer fists, too. Yeah, he is a hammer. Luke, after I tweeted out post-fight,

the MMA Fighting put together his best quotes from the press conference. And I tweeted out, hey, I'm not above Luke making Showtime replace you with the Big Tuna on MK. And you're like, I couldn't even blame you, BC. Big Tuna responded to us. Did you see this? No, what did he say? He said, no, Luke, you got to stay so I can see all those tears you start bringing out and folks what are you making bitches cry luke you know what i'm saying bro okay big tuna gets us okay dude i love big tuna he's a fucking listen part of his appeal and he makes it explicit is

he's anti-bullying because you know he obviously doesn't look like a bodybuilder so he gets shit on for it and then he goes out there and stretches these dudes who obviously been in the weight room good for big tuna bro good bro. Good for him. Good for him. Are you a former fat kid? No. No. I mean, I'm a fat guy now.

But I was never a fat kid. No. All right. UFC Vegas. We talked about Kute Laba's antics at the weigh-ins against Devin Clark. Look at him. He does a little salt bae. I like that shit.

Yeah. Salt bae's interesting. And that's the before, Luke. Here's the after. Dude, look at that. That is Devin Clark, man. Wow. Let me just say before, Luke. Here's the after. Dude, look at that. That is Devin Clark, man. Wow. Let me just say this, too.

You ever date girls like that? You mean your exes? No. He probably shouldn't have gone out for that third round. I don't know if he should be fighting. Did you hear his dad in the corner? Get up! Get up!

I know. And his dad sounds there like McGruff the Crime Dog. I'm like, that's the deepest voice I've ever heard. All right. It was tough, man. We mentioned that incredible comeback from Nate Maness in his Bantamweight fight. Here's when Tony Gravely put it on him to end round one. That was a beautiful shot.

Both of them got hit with right hooks. You could have stopped the fight. Admit it. You could have stopped the fight right there in the closing seconds. Well, except, no, another five seconds maybe. But they did that thing where they watched Maness, but they wait for him to stand up, and if he can't stand up on his own power,

the fight's over, right? He was at that level of peril. He was like Habib if one more leg strike against Gaethje. Sure, in whatever fantasy world you've entertained about. Back comes Nate Maness, as you mentioned earlier. Look at this finish, Luke. Went to the body. Bang, dude. What's up with that bang?

I want to know. That ground and pound is perfect. Perfect shit. Yes, love it. Alright. Hey, main eventers time. Anthony Smith and Ryan Spann after the finish getting into some extracurriculars like I mentioned. Luke, they almost went at it because your boy Anthony Smith was acting like Ben Wallace at the Palace Brawl. He wouldn't let that shit go, Luke. Bro, they almost went at it because your boy Anthony Smith was acting like Ben Wallace at the Palace Brawl.

He wouldn't let that shit go. Bro, this was you and me after Friday when you were slandering Anthony Smith. That is true. Don't you slander Anthony Smith. Don't you dare slander that shit. Okay. I did like afterwards that Spann was like, let me get to him. I want to hug.

I want to, you know, Spann's a real man. Okay. I think he takes his losses like a real man. Yeah. All right. Middleweight Joaquin Buckley, Luke, yet another highlight reel finish. Antonio Orojo was kind of piecing him up, and look at Buckley come back. Yeah, he was losing that fight.

He was losing that fight. He had a Rockman-sized hematoma on his head, too. He looked like Mark Hominick in round five against Aldo. I think someone tweeted me. I forget who it was, but it said a little like he had a fun-sized snicker inside of his scalp. How about him coming out to Money, Money, Money, the song, and then afterwards... Dana! Dana!

We gotta talk, bro! We gotta have a meeting, bitch! It was great. It was great. I love Joaquin Buckley. Love that guy. Alright. Luke, we have a new entry into the celebrity boxing bubble. Let's check out the form on your boy Drake, the Canadian. Oh, God. What do you think? Is he ready? Is he ready for the

balls? Dude, I'm too old for this shit. You know what I mean? I mean, who's he training for, Luke? You know he DM'd Ariel during the Showtime pay-per-view? That's great. To thank him for that shout-out. That's great. All right, Luke, that form, though, kind of reminds you of a prime BC, right? Do you need more proof?

That's you? No. Do you need more proof of what prime BC can do with the gloves on? Let's see. Gaff, can we hit the button already, please? This is a long enough setup. Look at that jab. Look at that jab.

Look at that stiff-ass jab. Look at that shit. Bitch. Oh, you want to fuck with the jokester? Bitch. Okay? Bitch. I mean, that is literally, and I'm making... Look at that. Look at that footwork. Look at making look at that look at that footwork that

is the worst footwork i've ever seen look at that yeah do you know who's watching this angry right now you know our boy brandon wise the guy who's holding pads for you no that's my boy that's my boy i went to fort lauderdale to visit the home office brandon wise and i went to this title boxing gym that's now r.i.p'd and we could even box, this dude right there was like, hey, let's do the warm-up training. Luke, the warm-up was like running a damn marathon. It was like I was so gassed after the warm-up that there's video out there that Wise has he's threatening to put on the internet of me throwing uppercuts

like I'm a paraplegic, Luke. I hope those never see the light of day. I don't even understand that. Paraplegics are just paralyzed from the waist down. Yeah, I look like that. What the fuck does that even mean? No BDE at all. It looks like me throwing uppercuts while sitting.

At least I've got this footage of me with that stiff-ass jab. Did you mean quadriplegic? Wow. Okay, Luke, let's go to the best T-shirts of the week. This guy don't care, Luke. I mean, this guy, you know what I mean? Dude, if I never ride the New York City subway ever again, which I know this is from, it'll be too soon.

Shout out to subway creatures. By the way, I want to make this point. If we have to ride again, like forget about COVID. I don't give a fuck about that. You're wearing a mask on the subway, right? Oh, yeah. I'll never not wear a mask on that disease-infected vector of filth.

When we used to take the train to come here on Monday mornings when we did it once a week, I'd have to take a couple trains. I'd get off the train and I'd take a couple subways.

That subway from Grand Central to the World Trade Center would be so freaking tight at like, you know, 8.45, 9 a.m. in the morning that it's sardine. Dude, you're sardined.

I would never, ever, ever, ever do that again. Yeah. You're just going to get every communicable disease. People are putting their hands in your asshole. Like, there's just, it is, yeah. Subway Creatures is an incredible Instagram follow. Yes, it is.

Luke, this t-shirt, this might be the winner for the week. Direct and to the point. I'm not saying I hate you, but I would... Unplug your life support to charge my phone. Dad? Well, that might sum up your life, Luke, but I think this third one definitely sums up your life. The only thing I like more than reading books is fucking.

If this man ran for office, I would vote for him. I don't even know what he's even supporting. The best t-shirt of the week comes from Anderson Silva. I don't know if this is a fake or not, but it is fantastic. It's a fake. I fuck on the first date. It is fantastic. I believe it, too.

The way that guy moves, I totally believe it. All right. Hey, Luke, we got great crowd fights this week sent in from our folks. This is college football. West Virginia versus Virginia. Check out this crowd fight, Luke. Oh, shit. Oh, kick to the...

Soccer kicks, Luke. Wow, pride style. Yep. Look at Chad Henney jumping in here and throwing shots. Look at this. Chad Henney. Haven't heard that name in a while.

Where's Major Harris when we need him? This might be, these might be fans of the same team, Luke. But they don't know how to do it in the U.S. You know where they

know how to fight for, wow, look at that guillotine, Luke. No one's breaking that up. Yeah, not much of a guillotine, though. Dude, people are just like, yeah, we see this all the time.

This is fine. This fight's still going. I know, everyone's watching the football game and they're just like, yeah, that's the insane clown posse.. This fight's still going. I know. Everyone's watching the football game. They're just like, yeah, that's the insane clown posse. By the way, Josh Nason, you know him from the Wrestling Observer Network? He sent me a Cleveland Browns fan fight. I don't like putting it on because at the peak, it's like white guy versus black guy,

and I don't like putting on fights that have race-fueled. You don't like when Whitey takes the L? No, that's not it. We put on a lot of Whitey L's on the show. It is the most epic. I gotta put it on next week. It is like a movie. Well, you've sent it up to this point where it's... No, he just sent it. I can't get it on in time.

Alright, but you know who really knows how to do the crowd fights? The football people. This is Leicester versus Napoli. Oh, this is Champions League. So this is Italy versus England. Yeah, they know what they're doing here. There's weapons. What are those? Nunchucks?

Dude, the fucking Italian fans, man. Oh, shit. The Turks are the worst. Armenians can do it too, Luke. Okay. Yeah, but they don't have many big clubs. Italy has big clubs. Aren't she getting giant Persian clubs?

Just swing them around. It's crazy. All right, Luke, let's go to FACA. That wasn't that great, by the way. No, it wasn't that great. I didn't watch it through. I put it on without screening it in my bed. I just assumed, you know, the European soccer fans are going to beat the shit out of each other.

That one actually sucked. You know what doesn't suck? Fat Guy MMA and this guy, Mad Max Novoselov. Are you aware of what's about to happen here, Luke? Yeah, lateral drop. Oh, my God. Watch this. I know you're training.

Watch this, dude. Watch this dude take him out here. Mad Max beyond Thunderdome, Luke, okay? Wow. I know he's going to sit for kind of like a white belt armbar, but it does work. Because he can't quite swivel his hips all the way. How do you pronounce that first guy's name, Luke? Yagshim Yagdol.

And he's got a sob game. Look at this. Wow. He twisted halfway through the armbar, not fully, but he got it done. That lateral drop, though, was fucking nice, man. Let's see why people get hurt. Luke, when doing it for the gram goes poorly, check out this chick. She's got the firework in her anus.

Yeah. I mean, the other guy's got his firework in his crick. This is one of those people. This is. Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh, no. Oh, God. Oh, God.

Oh, God. Oh, I think she just put a permanent tramp stamp out there. Dude, this is what I mean. Every race does dumb shit on Instagram, but only Whitey puts firecrackers in their ass. That's just like, it's only Whitey does that. Yeah, yeah. All right. Hey, let's go to Risen 30.

You know I support high-level Japanese MMA, right? Yeah, usually with karate chops in there. Shintaro Ishii. No, no. Ishii Watari. I know exactly who this is. Shintaro Ishii Watari. He got a tribute for his retirement,

so they started playing his greatest hits. Luke, this is the craziest clip of all time, no. Ishii Watari. I know exactly who this is. Shintaro Ishii Watari. He got a tribute for his retirement, so they started playing his greatest hits. Luke, this is the craziest clip of all time, dude. Yeah, it was a leg scissor. Shintaro Ishii Watari was a good fighter for a time in the aughts, and it's one of the most incredible finishes ever. Dude, Grubaca Hitman put that out there, and I had to grab it for this show. That's in, that's. So, it's funny.

I actually recommended this fight to a regional, like, radio show, and then they laughed at me, and they go, this is the exact joke they said, I'd rather tie a nada around my neck than rather watch this fight. And then Ishii Watari did this. Did they do like a karate chop at the end of it? They might as well have, and then this happened. That's racist as shit.

Luke, speaking of Risen, Risen 30 this weekend, check out Yushke Yachi. Look at how he opened the fight, Luke. Yeah! That's old old old Fabrizio Verdum Travis Brown style wild running knee

I love that shit right bah yep get that get that alright let's go over to regional MMA CFFC this is Charles Radke

making him do the full testify in church Luke this is your favorite kind sign of the cross I think I'm wrong

I think the other one was doing like a drop shift I have to watch it again. Shout out to Chuck Racky here. This is fantastic. Decent hats, right? Yeah, he was doing a drop shift. He got caught right in the middle of it.

So if you watch the guy who gets dropped, he's doing a drop shift. He's switching his stances to take the angle on the right hook. He's doing a drop shift. I actually don't think he takes the angle at all. I think he just stays right there. And he must have been doing that a lot. He times it perfectly. All right, let's head out to the bar.

You get alcohol involved. We get crazy clips on this show, Luke. This chick can party, right? I mean, I don't know much about her, Luke, but... Do we have her number? I'd like to call her. I believe after this airs, she'll be getting a lot of calls, Luke. That is, wow, okay.

I don't know if we can legally show that. I mean, this is not the one you take to prom. No. But you meet her after you dump your date. If it's 3 a.m., I must be lonely, and that's where she is, Luke. Okay, yes. Let's go over. It's time for the KOs of the week, Luke.

We call this one Dancing in the Dark. That's like, oh, wow. What splattered? His brain. His brain matter all over the, wow. No one puts baby in the car. Flash dance, yes. You're out.

All right, let's go over to the playground. Luke, you got to be careful pushing the kids. You got to keep your eye on the, oh. Dude, up kicks, you know, protect yourself at all times, ho-ass bitch. Oh, God. That's what you get for growing your hair out like a fucking... Oh, yeah.

Keep following fish on the road, Jerome. Fucking asshole. Cut your hair. Down with disease indeed. Wow. Okay. Let's go to spring break, Luke. Check out this chick in the blue bra.

I mean, mom must be. Oh, big B. Larry Hoover on that takedown, right? Look at that. I was going to say, look at. Well, can I even say, look at that ass? I mean, what else is anyone looking at? I don't blame that guy for taking the L right there.

I would. I would just let it happen, right? No? Okay. Let's go to the hallway. You got to be careful on drunken races in the hotel lobby, Luke. I couldn't see that. Do it again.

Do it again. I couldn't see it. You'll see it, all right. Breaking Balls underscore is our provider for this one. Oh, shit. Yes, yes. Wow. Luke, you and I will be working out in the hotel gym later.

This is how I plan on spotting you, okay? I hope you're okay with this kind of close contact. I'm going to be the girl who just leaves your ass there. Yes, yes. Can we go to the gym now? Can we please? Let's take it to the hotel gym. This is how I'm going to spot you, Luke.

I'll give you the reach around. Just a little how's your foot? Oh, boy. I mean, can I just say this? Fuck these guys? Well, they did fuck. Look, as you can see. That's a common law.

They got a bar off Amazon.com, number one. He's not squatting in any way that resembles anything. Yeah. And his guy is just ass-banging him in the back. They deserve this. Luke, if you and I ever do make it back on the subway, I'd be into this if we can keep it going here, Luke. We should just act like the subway car should be totally

empty. We should just act... Dude, fuck you for putting this in here. This is fucking gross. Tune in Tokyo, Luke. You got problems, bro. You got problems. I was trying to see if they had 660 AM.

Yeah, alright. Hey, Luke, shout out they had 660 AM. Yeah, all right. Hey, Luke, shout out to all the frontline workers. Can we blow this up? You know what? God bless these hoes. Can we blow it up? Yeah. Luke, as you can see for these nice women.

Could no one tell them you shouldn't stand in front of the E and R? At this hospital, Luke, hoes work here, as you can see. You're damn right they do. God bless the hoes. Wow. All right. Luke, as we know, marriage as you can see. You're damn right they do. God bless the hoes. Wow. All right. Luke, as we know, marriage features a lot of highs and lows. Luke, here's a, this is how it started. Luckily, chivalry ain't dead.

Again, New York City subway. If I never ride it again. Chivalry ain't dead, but this guy's immune system is after this. But Luke, if that's how it started. Can you imagine touching the floor of the New York City fucking. No, no. You've ridden it, right? Can you imagine putting your hand on the floor of, like, the A train? I mean, no.

Here's how it started, and here's how it's going for this same couple, Luke. Happy divorce, Max. Back in the game. That's when you know you have good friends, right? Exactly, exactly. Like, his friends are like, oh, Max, they backslap him. Don't worry about the alimony. We told you not to marry that bitch. Yeah.

All right, Luke. That is fucking great. I got one more featuring a Rock Lobster MMA promoter. And I'm interested in your thoughts. I mean, could he be pinker? What's going on with Dana? Dana has turned the, he's like acai. Yeah.

Violet, you're turning violet, Violet. I feel blue. I mean, what is happening here? It's a sweet dog, Violet. I feel blue. I mean, what is happening here? It's a sweet dog, though. That dog is awesome. Yeah, I mean, at some point, do you think he put peanut butter on the back of his head? No, dogs are just weird.

Okay. Right? I don't know if he was trying it out. Like, if I put peanut butter here, and then I, you know. You put peanut butter on your balls like a weirdo, and everyone knows that. Luke, that's the shit of the week right there. I hope you saw it, okay? Okay, BC, it is time now for odds and ends.

Hold on, I'm rubbing this mic way too much. It's also, it dropped a little bit. They're going to make negative comments about it. Where's the, oh, all right. What would you grade our sound guy, Mike, for his performance this episode? B. B. B. B, getting to the unemployment line?

Will you be getting to the odds and ends, please? All right, odds and ends. The great campeon himself. No, not Eric Morales, my true campeon in boxing. Manny Pacquiao, Luke, officially has done it. He has announced his candidacy to become or to run for the presidency of his native Philippines in 2022. Luke, we knew this was teased as a possibility, but Manny put a tweet out there to the world saying, you know,

he wants to make a change. He wants to do right. Sportsbetting.eg, Luke, already put out the odds. I think it was the betting odds were like minus 250 that he will not get elected. And talking to those in the know, it doesn't look like he's a favorite for this election. But we got to be honest here. Pacquiao's had an insane career, right? 27 years still going, although he's coming off the loss to Ugas and eight division world champion and just the consistency incredible.

To have a boxer like this is Muhammad Ali level crossover in terms of like your cultural impact. Having a boxer go on to like run for president of any country, you know, second, third world or not, like whatever, it's pretty big. Like even though we knew it was coming, like it's still like, holy shit, Manny Pacquiao's running for president. I mean, you know, I don't see, you know, I don't see George Foreman running for president of the United States. I don't see Floyd Mayweather. I don't see, you know, this is, this is States. I don't see Floyd Mayweather. I don't see, you know, this is pretty interesting. We'll see what happens. I don't know enough about Filipino elections to say much.

He's had a controversial record at times with his political stances and human rights. He's got retrograde views on just about everything. Yeah, which is a different culture there for sure. But it's going to be interesting. I wonder if he's still, I wonder if this cancels out the idea, because remember he was trying to get Ugas back in the ring around Christmas time to try to run that back

with the idea of entering into the election season on a high, on a win, showing the people that you can overcome. I do wonder if that's still part of the strategy. Like, would that help his voting potential if he comes back and avenges this loss, like he's Muhammad Ali against Leon Spinks or something? You would have to imagine that it would.

But again, dude, I don't know enough about where he's polling in Filipino elections to say much. But you have to imagine it would help. It can only help. I mean, this has got to be the first time fighters ever ran for president. Am I missing something here? Ran? They've ran from police and presidents probably. And certainly local elections and whatnot they've won.

You might be right. You might be right. For a major country. Philippines is a major country. I don't know how you define major country. It has geopolitical importance. Okay. For sure.

Okay. Anyway. Would you vote for him? Fuck no. No. No. No. No him? Fuck no. No. No. No. No, no, no.

No chance. Ronald Reagan, the actor? Right? Yeah, what about him? Yeah. All right. For my odds and ends, I have two of them very quickly. One is in the great state of Florida, nothing is permitted.

Or excuse me, nothing is off limits, I should say. Lamar Odom is going to fight Riddick Bowe. It's supposed to be an exhibition. They've got to stop that. Dude, did you see the video of Riddick Bowe? It's so sad. It's so fucking bad. You saw my jabs.

My jabs are way better than what Riddick Bowe is offering. I think you could beat the fuck out of Riddick Bowe. Sadly, sadly, yeah. So this is my point. It's like, dude, I get that it's an exhibition, and I don't know that I'm predicting calamity, but this should not be happening. And I said this before.

I'm like, oh, Florida should never reputationally recover from this. I was one of the guys who, when the UFC, at the beginning of COVID, went to Florida, I was like, well, the state's sort of assuming a role for this. I'm reasonably okay with it. Dude, like, you cannot trust these people even a little bit. They are not worthy of any kind of reverence that you might heap on any major state athletic commission. They are virtually limitless in what they will permit to the point of outright...

The Association of Boxing Commissions put out a letter saying this should not happen. I think the ringside physicians weighed in as well. Talk about bad timing. That's the same state that just put Evander Holyfield out there and we had all that shit. It's shocking what they're willing to permit and really shame on them and it's fucking disgusting.

And it should not happen. If this fight goes on... And by the way, just look up Riddick Bowe's Muay Thai fight he had. From eight years ago. From eight years ago. That's just the saddest shit ever. Like, what's that little column Sports Illustrated used to have? It used to say, like, when Armageddon is upon us, you know what I'm saying?

This week's sign of the apocalypse, remember that? Remember that? Oh, yes. In combat sports, this week's sign of the apocalypseocalypse, remember that? Remember that? Oh, yes. This is, in combat sports, this is the sign of the Apocalypse is upon us. Oh, can we just bump Paulie Malignaggi and Corey B up to the main event already, Luke? Seriously. That one I'm less bothered by.

I mean, it is what it is. But Riddick Bowe, dude, I saw Riddick Bowe when he was there just as like a guest for Peterson Con. So it was at 2011. So we're talking 10 years ago. Yeah. And he was jittery and guest for Peterson Conn. So it was at 2011, so we're talking 10 years ago. And he was jittery, and he was hard to understand. I mean, I told you that story where... That was a full decade ago.

Like, in the 90s, Riddick Bowe was my guy. Like, he was my guy in the heavyweight division. And when I saw him backstage at the Barclays Center in, like, 2013, and that was back when we would first take the cameras out so that you could record interviews, like, on your camera and stuff. And I was like, Riddick Bowe, can I interview you interview you for espn and you know uh what do you think about the klichkos and all that and he and he kept doing the how much you're gonna pay me and i'm like no no no but you know haha bro just you know he's like how much you're gonna pay me and i'm like no i'm

not gonna pay you i just i just want to interview you and then he grabbed my arm he's like you're white boy you're whitey how much you're gonna pay me and he grabbed one of his guys to come over and like this motherfucking better pay me and it was like, this is not like never meet your heroes. Like this is really bad. And then we ended up filming the interview and he was, I'll fight both Klitschko's on the same day right now. And it's like, okay, we can't use this. And at the end, he just grabbed my bicep and squeezed so hard

and was like, you better pay me. And I was like, man. Did you steal on him and then leave? Yes. And I took my belt off and I held it up. I put it in the trash like the WBC strap, just as a little callback, a little shout out there. All right, and then last but not least.

Sounds like Len Kuss was a bitch, right? Last but not least, you got to follow this story. Have you guys been out there paying attention to what Dan Hooker is doing? So Dan Hooker, because of COVID and a bunch of other issues, couldn't get a visa visa or i guess renewed passport whatever it is whatever documents he needed for travel from the government of new zealand so he managed by literally you know creating a twitter campaign to blow up the

ambassador and the embassy's um twitter account to get a meeting to get whatever documents he needed he got it yesterday he leaves on th on Thursday from New Zealand to travel quite literally all the way up, not all the way, but I guess halfway around the world. He lands in Vegas on Thursday afternoon night, has just enough time to cut weight for Friday morning so that he can fight on Saturday. He could be setting himself up to fail, and he's coming off of defeats. This is like every obstacle against him. I am sure that in the Pride era,

there must have been last-minute flights to Japan that happened or something like that. But for a guy who I would still say, I'm not sure where he's ranked, but I still would put him in my mind, he is capable of top 15 wins. Oh, yeah, sure. Right?

Well, we question the long-term punch resistance because he's been in one war after another. We're talking about an elite-level fighter here. I have heard of fighters coming from Brazil at the last second and then making the scales and blah, blah, blah. I have never heard one fighting at this level who is coming geographically this far away. I've never seen this. And who has to probably wait a month afterwards to go back to his family, right? Yeah, and then he has to quarantine before he can even see his kids again.

I mean, dude, this is a level. This is like, let's just say it. If this were your friend, you'd be like, dude, you cannot take this fight. This is a terrible idea. But, dude, fighters are just. Is this the universe telling him that he shouldn't be fighting right now? Say again? Is this the universe telling him that he shouldn't be fighting?

Well, here's my thing. It's like, are his coaches going to be there? Or, like, does he have cornermen who are also making the trip? Like, is he solo? What the fuck is going on? I've seen the UFC's financials, thanks to John Nash, for last year and what this year is expected to be. Can Dana send a private plane to pick this guy up?

This probably wouldn't be the first time that Zufa sent a private plane for a hooker. I mean, it was really well set up. It's been a nice run. Thank you, everyone. It was really well set up. You got it. I mean, you got it. It's been a nice run. It was, it was, it was really, it was really well crafted. I appreciate everyone making the sacrifice. No, but I mean,

he's an elite guy. We should probably send him a private plan and pick him up. Yeah. I mean, LOL, you know, they're not going to do that. Okay.

What do you want? Benefits? What do you want? What do you want? Revenue sharing? I'm sorry, you want more than 20%? No, not going to happen. So anyway, pay attention to what's happening with Dan Hooker. What do you want, benefits? What do you want? What do you want, revenue sharing? I'm sorry, you want more than 20%? No.

Not going to happen. So anyway, pay attention to what's happening with Dan Hooker. There is no good reason why he should win, but he just might because he's committed in ways that are hard to explain. So there you have it. All right, PC, that's it for the show today. As far as saying that our in-studio shows, Luke, I mean, they're at least 10 times better than our Zoom shows. I need you to pull up the Manscaped read so we can do this phony read together. It's not phony, Luke.

I used the product, okay? I used it, too. Oh, my bozak. I want you to think about that right now. Are you ready? All right, all right. Let's act it out, Luke. BC, before we move on, let's talk about something important for our male listeners.

It's time to talk testicles, baby, please. Manscaped is keeping things fresh this fall season with a brand new fourth generation performance package. We've talked, Luke, about Manscaped in the past, and for good reason. Do you know the products? They work really well. I've used other products before.

This is true. I've been nicked down there, Luke. I've had ball cuts. Yeah, but on purpose. I've had ball cuts. Seriously, many on purpose. I've had ball cuts. Seriously, many times. It's the absolute worst when you're trying to get that Peter North look. You can't jizz like that.

This is where you would jump in and take us down the serious road, Luke. If you don't want to carve up your... This is a true story. Can I stop this for just a second? This is a true story. The first time I was ever on Spike TV, they called me up and were like, we want you on. It was to talk about Dakota Cochran, who had done... He's straight, but had done gay porn for pay.

That's the first time I was ever on national television, was to talk about gay for pay porn. Now here I am, 42, and I'm saying, if you don't want to carve your man jewels up like a pumpkin, the Manscaped Performance Package 4.0 includes the new Lawn Mower 4.0. It features a cutting-edge ceramic blade to reduce grooming accidents thanks to their advanced SkinSafe technology. But BC, there's also a 4,000 LED spotlight. So here's the deal. There's a light on it. You can use it in the shower because it's waterproof,

and there's a light on it, and there's a guard you here's the deal. There's a light on it. You can use it in the shower because it's waterproof. And there's a light on it. And there's a guard you put over the thing. So you cannot nick yourself and you get the clean shave. It actually works. But, Luke, to get back to this, you don't want to carve your mandules up like a punk. No, that was your line. Luke, as you know, I'm a day one-ish believer in a shorn scrotum. It's quite breathtaking.

Dude, who the fuck proved this? I don't know. I mean, Austin Powers read this? I mean, this is ridiculous. It's quite breathtaking. Dude, who the fuck proved this? I don't know. I mean, Austin Powers read this? I mean, this is ridiculous. It's quite breathtaking, really. But in addition to keeping yourself clean down there, the Performance Package 4.0 also comes with the Weed Whacker ear nose trimmer. Now, that's handy.

I'm not joking. I use the nose one because it's the first nose trimmer that doesn't hurt. It doesn't, like, make you cry instantly. It just kind of shaves up the area. You ever see a grown man who's decent looking, but he's got, like, hair coming out of his ear hole? Yep. That's just gross, right?

Can we get through this? Okay, keep it. And by the way, of course, they have the proprietary skin safe technology, which prevents nicks, stags, tugs, and delicate holes. BC, if you want to get the Manscaped Performance Package 4.0 that comes with the Lawn Mower 4.0 trimmer. It's got the ball deodorant too.

Yep, weed whacker, ear and nose hair trimmer. It's got the ball deodorant, too. Yep. Weed Whacker Ear and Nose Hair Trimmer, Crop Preserver Ball Deodorant, Crop Reviver Toner, Performance Boxer Briefs, and a travel bag to hold all your goodies. You can get 20% off plus free shipping with the code COMBAT. COMBAT with a K. K-O-M-B-A-T at manscaped.com. Again, 20% off plus free shipping with the code COMBAT at Manscaped.com. Make your balls a priority this fall.

Choose Manscaped, your balls. Now, we are old wash dads. No one cares about our balls. But seriously, if you're still in the game, this is a good product. So use it. Tell them BC sent you. COMBAT with a K is your code. Get that percentage off.

Get it in your house. Get it on your balls. Thank you. All right, one more time I want to remind folks, if you go to DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sportsbook provider for the UFC, you bet $1 using the promo code COMBAT, K-O-M-B-A-T, for new customers. If you're a new customer, you can get $150 free to bet on UFC 266. You know, shilling aside, Kurt, or any other way, do you like sports?

Do you like sports betting? Do you want to bet $1 and get $150 more to use on UFC? Guys, go download the DraftKings Sportsbook right now. You need to remember our code, COMBATWITHAK, to get your new subscribers-only discount. And if it is not available in your state, meaning legalized betting, you can still get on the DraftKings daily fantasy setup and still have a chance to be entered to win $1

million. Restrictions do apply, but slowly but surely, our country is removing those restrictions, Luke. Us kings of Connecticut in October will be betting legally, bro, okay? Breaking down a lot of families and marriages. I can't wait. Let's do it. Alright, so then just to remind folks, if you want to reach the show for, let's see,

Wednesday's fan submissions or Friday's Dead Wrong, morningcombat at gmail.com is the place remind folks, if you want to reach the show for, let's see, Wednesday's fan submissions or Friday's Dead Wrong, morningcombat at gmail.com is the place to email. If you want to try Showtime, you certainly can. Go to showtime.com. You can get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you may keep it. If not, you may move on to something else. We will have three big surprises this week.

Yes. A resume review of a fighter to be told about soon. A bonus video with... Don't give too much away. ...with a friend of the family. That's right. And Documentary 5.0 is supposedly launching this Wednesday. We might have a little tease for you on Wednesday to launch it live

as long as Less Than Jake can finish it soon. Also, you want new merch? Go to morningcombat.store. Get 10% off the new Factory Town MMA line using our code. A lot of codes this week, okay? Factory Town 10 will give you 10% off this fantastic

merch over here. You can get the fanny pack. There's a satchel. There's a duffel bag. There's the camouflage. I love MK. There's a lot of good shit out there, okay? Some of it I even approved. And you should be wearing our shit, okay? It'll look fantastic. You're going to love it. There's a lot of good shit out there, okay? Some of it I even approved. And you should be wearing our shit, okay? It'll look fantastic. You're going to love it. You're going to like the way it looks

on you, at least. I guarantee it. I'm going to manscape my Bozak and then send you the clippings in one of these bags. Look how good we look in front of this merch, Luke. We've come a long way, okay? We've come a long, long way. Alright, let's close the show. It's been almost two hours. Alright, so thanks to everyone at Molka,

Showtime, CBS Sports. We are back in the bomb shelter again on Wednesday, plus content today, tomorrow, a whole lot of stuff. Oh, by the way, I know there were some reports out there, BC. We did see it reported that Canelo is maybe going to be fighting on Showtime pay-per-view coming up in November. I guess stay tuned. We'll see if we have some stuff for you and soar for that, okay?

Big Red? All right. Talk about, I heard it both ways. Talk about Big Red? That's the key in Connecticut. I'm Luke Thomas. Until next time, may all of your gains be loyal.