MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Bellator 273 | Dana White Speaks | Oliveira-Gaethje | Quick Hitters | Ep. 257

Episode Date: January 28, 2022

On Episode 257 of Morning Kombat Brian Cambell is joined by Shakiel Mahjouri to preview Bellator 273. Can Ryan Bader bounce back? What other fights should we be looking for? Dana White had some interesting comments about some potential super fights. Do we believe either will happen? Charles Oliveira will be facing Justin Gaethje at UFC 274. The boys close out the show with a preview of Eagle FC 44, quick hitters and some Dm's from Donks. (7:00) - Bellator 273 Preview (35:00) - Dana White Speaks (48:00) - Charles Oliveira vs. Justin Gaethje (56:00) - Eagle FC 44 (61:00) - Quick Hitters (68:00) - Dm's from Donks 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:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveley, Reveille, dogs Look at us now, tip to tip This is our life, this is our passion That's the spirit we bring to this show I'm Luke Thomas I'm Brian Campbell This is Morning Combat Oh yeah, Friday, get it, get that

Get whatever the hell you want This is the best damn combat sports show Oh, yeah, Friday. Get it. Get that. Get whatever the hell you want. This is the best damn combat sports show. Period. It's morning combat, and it's back with a bang. Friday, January 28, 2022. Yes, don't dead wrong me on this Friday. I know I said 21 last episode, but Brian Campbell back at it.

The BBC with that BDE. Just call me the American Alpha. But you know what I'm here to do. I am here to remind Luke Thomas of the mess he left when he went away on vacation. But luckily, to clean that up a little bit, we have CBS Sports' own, the Persian prince of MMA, the pride of Vancouver, British Columbia, Shaquille Majoree of French origin,

my friend, back for round number two. Thank you for joining us. How you feeling on this winter day? Hear ye, hear ye. Roll out the red carpet. Feed me some grapes. The Prince of Persia is back on Morning Combat. How about them bars, Luke Thomas?

Look at this. Look at this. Dropping bars, cutting promos. Shaq, of course, if you're new to these parts, Shaquille Majority of CBS Sports Now, big-time combat sports guy. I've been enjoying all of your interviews. You hit that wrestling world hard. You know that's going to irritate the audience of this show.

Well, no one more so than Luke Thomas. But, hey, you know, you've got to get your traction where you can. going to irritate the audience of this show. Well, no one more so than Luke Thomas. But hey, you know, you got to get your traction where you can. And I don't know, man, the pro wrestling fans took to me. Yeah, yeah. More cushion for the push, and I think is the weirdest thing I can come up with right now. We're back at it, though, setting the weekend up. Bellator will return this Saturday night.

And speaking of that, Showtime, the great label that pays us, you can get 30 free days of Showtime right now. Why don't you go to Showtime.com? You can check out Bader, Moldavsky this weekend, Showtime Championship Boxing, Ray Donovan movies, Billions, the JFK doc that Mikey was all into. I mean, there's so much good shit on that Showtime app,

including your boy BC calling Showbox February 18th. So get your 30 days free now. And also, you know, you want to talk about merch. Shaq, did they send you any merch for being part of the family now? Not yet, man. I didn't even get a Paramount Plus subscription yet. Brandon Wise keeps telling me it's coming. But, dude, I can't get merch.

I can't get my free services. You have to pull teeth from Luke Thomas to get my interview clips shamelessly promoted on this show and so you know that's karma now you get an hour and a half of me yes indeed indeed luckily this show is still free but you can get your own merch at show sorry morningcombat.store

our great website look drug rugs are back for a limited time we've got plenty new lines out there if you like Luke Thomas and skulls there's a limited time. We've got plenty new lines out there. If you like Luke Thomas and Skulls, there's a lot of new stuff for you. Check all that out. RJ will be there to take your credit card information. Don't miss it, okay? But whoa, whoa, we got a little note here from the producer. See, Maniche refused to come on camera like Gaff was willing to on Wednesday. By the way, yeah, drug rugs are selling here and

there okay yeah from rj dunkelmaker yeah they're moving the drug rugs are moving so check that out out morningcombat.store uh shack not gonna waste anybody's time with anything else because i can't remember what else there was to throw to uh oh well yeah i was gonna say the sports podcast awards man about sports podcast awards how about an award-winning morning combat doubling down on itself? We can, we as a family here, listeners and hosts alike, if you go to sportspodcastawards.com and you love yourself some MK, why don't you vote for us for Best Combat Sports Show 2021. It's USA versus Canada, all right?

Us against Ariel in this one, among many others. Chris Jericho as well. So it's plenty. It's like the 2002 gold medal hockey game all over again. Or maybe that was 2008. Or maybe that was 12. You know, I'm really getting old. Shaq, where do you think you fit in on the Canadian combat sports power rankings? Power rankings?

More Rinaldo number one with a bullet. Some people love them. Some Ariel. How about my guy bronstetter right you're somewhere man bronstetter i would have had him ranked much higher up until his uh cryptos takes on twitter last week he's he took some l's from people in this industry but uh i love me some aaron bronstetter so i'll i'll i've got work to do i've got friend of the program and if you're a female on a plane, you probably love yourself some Mike Bone.

Just the same. All right. Shenanigans behind us. We've got a fun show. We're going to hit the big topics, set the stage for the weekend. Also, to end the show, in extended DMs from Donks Edition. I know we held out on Monday and Wednesday to load up today. Shaq, BC, we're going to go after it.

Your questions answered. It's pretty much all MMA, so don't get nervous that we're going to drop any pro wrestling in there. But let's get to the topic at hand, and the big fight is this Saturday night. Bellator 273 invading Phoenix, Arizona, which just happens to be the home of one Ryan Bader, your heavyweight champion under the Bellator banner. And we have yet another back-to-back weeks, MMA heavyweight title unification as interim belt holder,

Valentin Moldavsky comes in. Shaq, 10 p.m. Eastern on Showtime, this goes down. Pretty big deal here, but we talked about narratives on Wednesday. To me, that big narrative was, as much as we know, Valentin Moldoski is coming is ryan bader going 38 years old two defeats in his last three both by convincing stoppage including uh just under a minute there against cory anderson in the uh world grand prix semi-finals how much is the status of ryan bader in your eyes what we're really tuning in to see here saturday

night fortunately for ryan bader uh we know that power is the last thing to go we also know these heavyweights can generally uh you know extend their careers which is kind of ironic considering the damage that they take i i would say that ryan bader's home for the foreseeable future is at heavyweight. Now, if he loses to Valentin Moldovsky, what does he want, right? Because I've heard sort of behind-the-scenes murmurs of, you know, should he retire, should he not? I had a great talk once with Sean Sheehan about this in the lead-up to the Anderson Silva-Uriah Hall fight. What are you fighting for? If your only goal is to be the world champ, and if Ryan Bader comes out and loses convincingly, well, then it's time to reconsider what you want to do. But we'll talk another guy on that card, Benson Henderson. He seems

prepared to fight without a world title in the mix. And so I think Ryan Bader's career will last as long as he is willing to concede what he wants. He's already said that light heavyweight now is no longer really a goal for him. I think he's still very competitive with most of the heavyweights because a lot of the heavyweights in Bellator aren't the complete athletes we're seeing in the UFC like Cyril Gann or Francis Ngannou, right? These are guys who are still kind of plotting don't have terrific movement and that's something that i think ryan bader who is for the most part of career light heavyweight can still exploit he's got the power he's got the speed advantage but as guys in that heavyweight division start showing that well-roundedness that we're seeing in the ufc

maybe that's moldovsky maybe it's not you know bader's time bader's gonna have a harder and harder time as you go but i think he's still got a good shot at heavyweight you maybe it's not, you know, Bader's time. Bader's going to have a harder and harder time as we go, but I think he's still got a good shot at heavyweight. You know, it's tough to know how much mileage is on there. There's a couple, you know, there's always ways you can look at a guy's recent run and try to frame it negatively or positively. And for Bader, it's like, okay, two losses in the last three, but against super early competition,

both at 205 pounds, which to what you're saying is his future more at heavier 205. That might explain that. I think just the same though, when you look at what he's done, you can be just as cynical. It's like, okay, he had that really nice seven fight win streak, which ended his UFC run, overlapped into his free agent, moved to Bellator in which he reinvented himself to division champion. But do you look back and say, okay, the reinvention

wins, for the most part, are against aging fighters. King Mo, Matt Mitrione, Fedor Milianenko, Lyoto Machida. But when he fights guys in their prime who are coming, is he going the other way? Let's pause quickly and throw to a chat you had with him

ahead of this fight, which more directly looks at what is Bader fighting for? What does his future look like entering this title unification bout? All sights set on heavyweight moving forward, especially as the weight cut becomes harder, or do you still have an interest in competing at 205? Yeah, I mean, right now my sole focus is on heavyweight. I don't see any reason

to go down to light heavyweight you know i lost that light heavyweight title um i was planning on staying at heavyweight you know but you know i'm open to new things cool things and they they had that uh the grand prix instead of so i'm like oh why not you know it could just be a little gravy on the top you know why not go try to try to win that too, you know? So now that I'm just at heavyweight, I kind of, I see myself kind of focusing on just heavyweight. All right. Well, just heavyweight. I look at 38 being as quick as he is, as you mentioned, the, the wrestling ability, the stamina, he's a much better fighter against the matchmaking on the heavyweight side

than light heavyweight. Valentin Moldavsky is the betting favorite coming in. He's going to better fighter against the matchmaking on the heavyweight side than light heavyweight. Valentin Moldavsky is the betting favorite coming in. He's going to be a tough test. But to sort of close on where we can guess Bader is, I like what he said about the Nemcoff loss originally after it happened. He was honest. He said, you know, I had a bad training camp. There was a lot of personal stuff going on. I wasn't who I was supposed to be mentally coming in there.

And, you know, he fought an elite guy, arguably the best light heavyweight in the world, and he got taken care of. Shaq, how do we explain the Corey Anderson loss though? Is it just that, you know, his days at 205 are over now? Because Corey Anderson's not a monster finisher, at least not in the, in the one punch variety, one minute into the first round round that's where my big fear of some fighters when they're at this age when the chin goes it's gone can you look at that Corey Anderson loss and and still retain confidence heading into this one I think Johnny Walker would disagree with your assessment of Corey Anderson but I know what you're saying generally speaking you know we're not saying a lot of one punch KOs from the guy on the feet.

You know, Bader's never had the best, best chin at these upper weight classes. What you said earlier about sort of the aging names, I think that's ultimately what's going to benefit Bader at heavyweight. Valentin Moldavsky is definitely a step towards sort of those well-rounded, younger, more technical heavyweights that we're looking for. But I'm not 100% certain if he's the guy. The benefit I see in Bader right now is I think he's more well-rounded than a lot of the guys in that weight class. And at 38 years old, if he's only got a few years left anyway i have a hunch he might be able to ride it out but i'd like to think that his speed will help sort of protect him

from absorbing a lot of blows at heavyweight but i mean maybe valentine deserves to be the betting favorite and he is the real deal i was a little concerned and as was bader with sort of his early performance against linton vassell like linton was having a good couple of rounds especially with the wrestling so I see that as an avenue that Ryan Bader can exploit I know that's an avenue he thinks that he can exploit he has to be conscious of taking damage but I think he can do it with his speed advantage so as we look at DraftKings setting the line for this one plus 185 the champion Ryan Bader as the underdog minus 225 Moldavsky as the favorite if you're new to sort of uh the elite heavyweight area in Bellator and don't know Moldavsky 29 years old from Ukraine but came to be as this level of an elite fighter uh in mother

Russia with team Fedor and in the legend Emilianenko in his corner as lead trainer. 5-0 since coming to Bellator, actually 6-0, including that interim title win over Timothy Johnson where he showed you what Moldavsky does. Not a big finisher, doesn't have a TKO finish or knockout under the Bellator banner, but pushes a good pace, is aggressive, is versatile. But what you mentioned about Bader's potential advantage on the ground, sometimes when two very good wrestlers come together, as we know, or oftentimes the wrestling can cancel each other out and then you get Usman versus Covington one, and it's who can be the better striker. If it's on the feet and it turns into striking only, you know, you could

talk yourself into a Bader advantage there, even with the recent knockout losses, because he is a better pure boxer than Moldavsky. But do you get the sense, wrestling-wise, that it will be Bader controlling those terms, or they will be canceling each other out? How do you sort of gauge that? Because Moldavsky's no stranger to the ground. I'm going to give the edge to Ryan Bader.

He had a big-time wrestling background. It's something he relied on for a long time in the UFC, and he still relies on while he's working on sort of bringing his boxing up to snuff. Maybe I'm selling Valentin short, but I think I'm a little more confident in Bader going into this fight than I think a lot of other people are. All right, that's fair. As we look at it in terms of what's at stake,

obviously unifying the title. I don't think, you know, when you look at the future, before we get into the final predictions here, this division, I wouldn't call it deep, right? You know, there's Czech Congos lingering around, which sort of sums it up. Do you see that guy's next situation as we sort of look at the bellator heavyweight rankings in terms of you know what's at stake in the future besides putting the the

the full heavyweight title back together i mean i hate to say considering i'm on that rankings panel i should probably know but nothing stands out and i mean i don't know if you're one of those guilty parties but i i remember seeing people um giving points points to Jake Hager in the heavyweight rankings. So, you know, no offense to my man. To be fair, Shaq, to be fair, you and I are both part of this much maligned Bellator voting panel. And some of that malignation, I think, is correct. But in the case of Jake Hager, what you're saying some of these divisions on the the online uh voting tool some of these divisions are only 12 13 people deep and we're trying to we're trying to fill 10

spots you know there's they're in no world and man i love jay kager i love what he's doing in aew i i enjoy watching what those fights are but when you have to pick between jay kager and the other dude who's like zero and one in the division i think that speaks volumes to how many legitimate contenders there are at heavyweight and bellator well there's a lot of recycling going on you got check congo at number two in the rankings right now lit and vassell at number four tim johnson who just got knocked out by fedor at five tyrell fortune is a guy who's coming on who you could see as a future contender. A couple other names scattered in, but ranked number third right now is Fedor, the Russian bear. So the storyline is interesting because, you know, Bader, Ryan Bader knocked out Fedor in the finals of the Bellator Heavyweight World Grand Prix. So now there's sort of this

built-in rematch idea with Fedor being the lead trainer for Moldavsky. I'm wondering though, Shaq, if, I'm not wondering, I'm telling you, you know, without having the knowledge, I'm telling you, if Ryan Bader wins this fight, you gotta believe they're getting Fedor up in the bullpen because I don't think you expected what we saw was in Russia, Fedor delivering it old school style to Tim Johnson you could make the argument here I mean when when Ryan Bader fought Czech Congo there was a what a stick kick or an eye poke or something we never really got it no one's itching to see Czech Congo I wonder if Scott Coker and company are going all right if Bader wins man let's run that thing back could be worse I guess

right I mean that first fight was not at all competitive. But to your point, like, when you have such a shallow division with no meaningful contenders sticking out, you've got to, you know, grasp its straws and figure out a storyline. And the funny part is, there's actually a lot of parallels right now between the Bellator and UFC heavyweight division. I don't mean in terms of competition, but, you know, in a one-week span, you had a UFC heavyweight title unification fight, and now you had a ufc heavyweight title unification fight and now you've got a bellator heavyweight title unification fight and as we i know we're going

to get to it a bit later but as we sort of discuss that super fight between francis and gandu and john jones that everyone is clamoring for you know super fights are fun fans love them the promotion loves them but very rarely is it like the legitimate most deserving fight to make but everyone in the ufc ranked one to nine in the heavyweight division is either coming off a loss or doesn't have an active win streak and the case is kind of similar in bellator where it's like really no one's standing out the champ has beat up most of the contenders in line so you know you got to do something so i've got no complaints about ryan bader versus fedor too but only because there's really nothing else well it may be a moot

point based on what we see on saturday night so let's talk about that moldavsky the slight but firm favorite right here uh will the wrestling cancel out will bader be chinny here at heavyweight or is it more of a weight cut situation? A lot of questions that will get answered. At the end of the day though, I do feel like they are two ships passing in the night but going in very opposite directions. The question I have of course is that

you're not going to handle Bader on the ground and Moldavsky, not a decorated finisher, has great stamina for heavyweight, can push a pace but if I'm him, regardless of that reputation, Shaq, I'm coming after Ryan Bader. I'm going to make this ass uncomfortable. I'm getting in his face. I'm testing his chin early. Of course, if you're Moldavsky, you can't be reckless because Bader can piece you up. That left hook has become a weapon, something he really

didn't have in the UFC when he was much more wrestling based. But Moldavsky's got nothing to lose here but to find out how great he is. If he's willing to push a pace on Bader, not that Bader's got stamina holes, but I think he's got to be aggressive and he's got to jump on him and not be afraid to try to be the first one to take him down and work in some ground and pound.

I think this is Moldavsky's fight to win. Luke disagrees. He thinks Moldavsky's the perfect setup for Bader to take him out. Give me a fourth round stoppage for Moldavsky is the perfect setup for Bader to take him out. Give me a fourth-round stoppage for Moldavsky and look for big damage on the ground as well. I said it. Shaq, how do you see in your crystal ball Saturday playing out?

Just to spite you, I'll go fourth-round TKO Ryan Bader. I think Valentin has a lot of explosivity going front and back. I don't love his side-to-side movement, but also Luke Thomas says, you know, I'm not the absolute authority on fight analysis. I am the farthest thing from that. So I'll go Ryan Bader fourth round, but that's mostly just to be a thorn in your side. Thank you. Thank you so much for that check. A co-main event is very interesting as well. It's, it's interesting that it's the same storyline we have 38 year old former ufc star

ryan bader only he's the champion coming in as the underdog and we have former ufc lightweight champion and 38 year old veteran benson henderson in this welterweight co-main event against is it welterweight or is that lightweight let me make sure i get that uh correctly it is a lightweight fight benson back at 155 against a guy who seems like he's coming, Islam Mamadov. Now, Shaq Mamadov is from Dagestan. We don't think of him in sort of the first shift of the all-Shmesh Factory team in terms of the names of guys who have next in the sport. I'm talking about Islam Mahachev.

I'm talking about the great ghost of Zabid if he ever gets back. I'm talking about, you know, Magomed Magomedov and Usman Nurmagomedov. But this fella that we're talking about here, Islam Mamadov, 20-1 overall, he's only lost in like his second pro fight, and he wins his deletor debut by split decision over former champion Brett Primus. Small sample size at this level level but he's been effective in any organization he's been in uh are we going to be exiting this co-main event adding him to this list of crazy dangerous russian-ish abe lincoln bearded fighters who we now need to be

watching out for and it's entirely possible and kudos to Benson Henderson for taking a fight that doesn't give a great return on investment right like this isn't a name fans are super familiar with if he wins it's not really going to push him up in that title rankings if he loses it's you know I think that what maybe four losses in a row three or four losses in a row not a fantastic look but listen Benson Henderson I, like I was saying earlier, if he's not confident that he can compete at a world title level and still wants to be an active fighter, kudos to him. I'd love, and I know Bellator may not have as many options as, let's say, the UFC, maybe some sort of more like legends matchups for Bendo.

That'd be really nice to see. I think a lot of these former champs have earned the right to have fights against guys of you know relative skill and i think a lot of times and the example i always kind of point to is matt brown versus miguel beza like how much did that did the damage matt brown take really do to elevate miguel beza i'd say he got a lot more rub off that Santiago Ponzinibbio war, but I think these promotions have a bad habit a lot of times of feeding their legends to guys who aren't going to get too much off that name value, right? Like, there's times it works, like Izzy versus Anderson Silva kind of passing that torch. A lot of times, I think fans look at it more as,

oh, I guess that guy is shot versus, oh, this young, hungry guy looks amazing. Kudos to Benson. I hope he does well. Bellator generally does a pretty okay job at making relative matches for their aging guys. But yeah, man, Islam might be the real deal here. Yeah, this is a great showcase for him to try this. And you mentioned kudos to Ben Hendo for taking the fight. Vegas DraftKings has it as minus 220, I'm sorry,

minus 410 Islam Mamadov is your favorite, plus 310 Benson Henderson. So, excuse me, you mentioned Henderson, three-fight losing skid. It's tough to see because he's competitive in these fights. I mean, yeah, he got sent to another level by Michael Chandler, but that's Chandler coming on at that moment, entering free agency, looking to be in his best possible shape, which he catapults to the UFC from there.

But then Benson Henderson loses three round decisions to Jason Jackson and former champ Brent Primus. So, you know, he's not one of those. The Jason Jackson, of course, was a welterweight bout in between. But, you know, he's not getting fully destroyed and handled. He's always a tough out. He's defensively responsible, all that. But you lose four in a row here with a couple of them against younger contenders looking to go. I wonder if we start talking about if that's it for Benson Henderson.

I mean, if he gets stopped here, I think you're definitely saying that. But I wonder where we're going there. In terms of what this fight will look like, though, you don't have a lot of great success taking down and dominating Benson and Henderson from top position historically. Can Mamadov do this? Possibly. I think we saw Jason Jackson have a bit of success, if I recall correctly.

But that's in a weight class. I don't think Benson needs to be competing at welterweight unless it's against a really favorable matchup. Like Jason Jacksonson you know he's he's a top level guy in the bellator welterweight division i think islam's capable of doing it i'd like to think bendo's technique will hold up but let's be honest like that grappling defense isn't what it once was probably because the division has caught up to it. I think a lot of times we focus on the downslide of the losing fighter, the aging fighter, and forget that this is a rapidly developing sport. And it feels like every time someone's like, oh yeah, wrestling is the key to this.

Someone like Izzy shows up and says, no, no, no my striking is is next level and can negate a lot of this and then you see habib come along so it's an ever-evolving sport and i think that's why it's so hard for these former champs these older guys to keep a leg up i i like islam's chances of making this a really dirty if not a takedowns like right up against the clinch sort of fight i agree i think he's going to maul Benson Henderson. I think it's going to go the distance, but I think this will be the biggest win for Islam Mamedov. I mean, look, the Brent Primus win is a big win,

although it was a split decision, but those are two sound, solid wins to package together to try to make that leap into instant title contendership. And to your point on, you know, what's the new trend? Is it wrestling? Is it jiu-jitsu? According to Vanessa Dimopoulos of the UFC, it's stripping, you know, what's the new trend? Is it wrestling? Is it jujitsu? According to Vanessa Demopolis of, of the UFC, it's stripping Shaq, which is the perfect sort of, um, you ever try it? Listen, um, that stuff's athletic, man. I had, I had a friend kind enough to, uh, like the first time I ever went to a strip club to buy a booth, we got our own pole.

Um, yeah, I could, I could hardly stand up on that thing, let alone. Okay. You know, I didn't expect the conversation to go here, but here we go, Shaq. Listen, man. Listen. How often do you get the chance to prove your mettle? Yes. Come on.

Don't lie. If you were at a fire station, you're not going to try and swing around on that thing once? Don't lie. My dad was a fireman station, you're not going to try and swing around on that thing once? Don't lie. My dad was a fireman. My dream was to come down the pole from the second floor. Well, I made my way up that sucker. I was never allowed to for insurance purposes.

So you're jealous, Brian, is what I'm gathering here. I always tell Luke to keep his daughter off the pole. That's a child's. I thought you were going to say a that's a that's a child's well i thought you were going to say that's a dated worldview women can do whatever they want for sure absolutely uh shack i see all those millennial vibes coming out here so yeah i see all those decorative uh fighting what is this shirt saying yeah he is for existential dread i specifically got the tie-dye for you today i like the tie-ye. I don't know if you're trying to make some kind of hipster statement using good words. Yes. The MK Millennial.

Put it in print. I don't know if there are any. I think it's all old, washed dads. Shaq, you do have decorative fighting belts behind you. Do you agree with that meme that says anyone wearing that in public should have to defend it? Dude, I went to a WWE

line. Now, look. These are like set pieces right that's that's like a 25 kids ufc belt from amazon i i don't know i i'd wager you've worn that in public at least once i'd wait i can't say you know you know 10 year old shack made quite the run of defenses with that undisputed belt over there but i went to a wwe live event and i saw a dude with like a belt on each shoulder around the waist grown man look passion's a beautiful thing you love what you love but uh that that that man has more confidence than i do i will i will drunk try and do a spin on the stripper pole i will not walk around a live event clad head to toe and replica championship belt you know every man has his own line he'll draw on what's lame, what's appropriate.

You know, for me, like you bring a baseball glove to a Major League Baseball game and you're not with your son and you're above the age of 21. You should probably be executed. But, you know, I used to work with a great guy, Jim Baskill at ESPN, who had a thing. He's like, you know, if you're a grown man, you're wearing the uniform of your favorite team. You know, they're not going to sign you. You're not playing for them next week. What are you doing? You know, to me, that's a little extreme.

You know, I tend to, you know, I like to wear the retro NBA jersey, but that's just me. I played hoops in a Cherokee Parks Mavericks jersey the other day. It felt very, you know, nostalgic. I hear you get in people's faces directly. You know, it's the only forum where I can do that, you know. I like to think you verbally do it to Luke Thomas three times a week. Yeah, yeah, there's truth in that regard.

Also on this card, Shaq Bellator, 273 from Phoenix. Aiden Lee versus Henry Corrales. There's certainly names you know on here. Saba Hamasi versus Jaleel Willis. But kicking off the prelim card on YouTube earlier in the night, we get ourselves some big tuna when Ben Parrish comes back to take on 2-0 Sullivan Cauley. Are you as intoxicated with this middle American folk hero underdog as myself and the rest of the world is?

I mean, he's a hairy bald bastard, but he's got heart, bro. I mean, at the risk of getting you in trouble, I did ask, hey, do you want the Ben Parrish interview? And you're like, yes. Did you ever follow through with it? You know, I ran out. I got COVID, ran out of time, never followed through. I should

have done that for the MK people. So keep in mind, keep in mind, you, I was kind enough for all of you done to me to say hey i could get some big tuna on me but i know bc i know bc's a fan i'm gonna let him have it this time and you didn't do either of us the favor so i should have i mean i've still hung up on him mentioning his dad was in the mob and i'm like what kind of like kansas city mob ozark season four are we talking out here I gotta get to the bottom of this you know I don't know

if Ben Parrish is a legitimate heavyweight contender I guess we'll find out I say just keep like feeding cans to him for now just I don't I don't need this if he becomes a world champ beautiful we'll get there but don't rush it like just give me some big tuna I want it sloppy I want

it heavy just Shaq are we still talking about want it sloppy. I want it heavy. Just. Whoa, whoa, Shaq. Shaq, are we still talking about Ben Parish here? I mean, come on, bro. Let's just. Yeah, all right. I think they should open the main card with him, to be fair. You know, I don't know.

Sometimes Bellator's burying Valerie Lareda on the prelims card. I'm not going to tell them how to match. By the way, decent prelim main event. Darian Caldwell against Enrique Barzola. So this should be a good card altogether. Saturday night, 10pm Eastern, Showtime. Go to Showtime.com. Get your 30 free

days. Alright, moving on to topic two. Oh, quick reminder here. Not this Saturday, but next Saturday, we do have a big-time boxing match. Keith Thurman on pay-per-view against Mario Barrios for the PBC. I had a nice sit-down with Keith Thurman. I-per-view against Mario Barrios for the PBC. I had a nice sit down with Keith Thurman.

I'm sure we'll run a little bit of sound next week, but you can check it out right now. YouTube.com slash morning combat. The former welterweight champion of the world. He hasn't fought in two and a half years due to injuries, fatherhood, COVID, all that.

Interesting talk. He still, still refers to himself in the third person. Chuck, I know you're not a monster boxing guy. So when I keith one-time thurman what do you think i haven't watched him one time all right that's great i saw tyson fury on the lineup and i'm like well if my phone battery dies i hope it's right before that so i got very leveled off i think i've told luke this before when i was when i first started, I was working at ESPN as an editor, and I would get a couple like, hey, you want to write this MMA story

or you want to write this boxing story? And I'd get a couple bylines and just hustle in. But I didn't know. I watched UFC. I watched the pay-per-views. But I don't know undercard. At that point, I'm not in it, right? Yeah.

And some radio station in Iowa or something sees your name on a byline. They get in it right and i and you know some radio station in like iowa or something sees your name on a byline they get a hold of you and you join and you do a little radio hit preview in the ufc car coming up you're like yeah man this is great you know i want to make a name for myself and then you're on there and they're like well brian around here we're a fan of these women's fights so let's go to this uh deep undercard the facebook only prelims uh which of these women's fights and why is going to be the best fight? I remember having an in-moment panic of, like, I literally don't know what to say. I don't know any of these fighters.

And hanging up the phone to pretend I had connection issues. And then quickly... You ghosted them? I ghosted them. And then when they called back, like, you know, 10, 15 seconds later, I loaded up the info, and I was able to finish the job. I've never shared that publicly before because it's largely pathetic, but...

Hey, you got to do what you got to do. Yeah, you know, look, to be a guy that wants the ball and the clutch, right, that wants to be on camera in the big moments, you got to have failed. You got to be Kobe rookie year against the Jazz airballing four three-pointers in the final minute. You know, you got to take that L, as they say.

All right. Let's keep it going before your phone takes that L and you're dropping out of the show. Dana White did a interesting ESPN Plus Q&A with Laura Senko, which the timing was very interesting because of all the negative headlines about the Francis Ngannou fighter pay situation. So Dana slides in to address a bunch of super fights, but check before we quickly get into that super fight talk.

Dana wasn't asked, or at least, you know, he was asked many questions by fans, but they curated it, you know, fairly carefully. So he never was asked a question about fighter pay or anything, but they curated it fairly carefully. So he never was asked a question about fighter pay or anything, but he did go out of his way to say, oh, by the way, anyone that you guys thought I ghosted Francis to disrespect him, I had to run backstage for an incident.

I wasn't able to be there after the fight to put the belt around the waist. What was interesting, Shaq, is Dana didn't address at all that he also didn't show up to the press conference at all, nor did he, of course, address the accusations that the UFC threatened to sue his manager for talking to Jake Paul and company. I'm not going to go down the full Jake Paul road with this video. We could save that for Monday's show, which I think a lot of people are exhaling.

But let's be raw and real. Did you see this whole situation like I did and have any other emotion beyond damn data? Here's a fricking dirt bag. I mean, come on, bro. Right. I mean, come on, you know, I mean, I'm not trying to get both of our press credential pulled, but like that, nothing about that across the border with the pandemic, nothing genuine, bro. Nothing, nothing. I about that looked genuine, bro. Nothing. I mean, that's the Dana White playbook, right? Like, I remember very clearly the first event, the first pay-per-view event I ever covered live was UFC 241.

That was the second Miocic-Cormier fight. And if you remember, it was Nate Diaz versus Anthony Pettis in the co-main event. And after the match, prior, Jorge Masvidal does some press. Why is he at the scrum, right? And he says he's got something good in the works. After the Pettis-Diaz fight, Diaz calls out Masvidal. And right away, there's not one but two cameras on GameBread. So I asked Dana at the press conference, it's like,

so, you know, Masvidal mentioned the fight, yada, yada. Is this something you guys have been working on? goes no who are you kidding so you know yeah that's that's dana white's job he's he's he's a politician we've seen we saw trump do it for ages he just denied denied deny and it is what it is but let's be honest yeah yeah come on that's uh who believes that at this point there's some dana white there are people that are like suckled to the teat of dana white who just linger on every word i'm not one of those people you're not i'd like to think most of these fans aren't and so it's just you just take everything with a grain of salt i tune into dana white to get like fight

updates and that's about it but dana is so so Dana that there are moments where I'm like, you know what? That was some cold-blooded dirtball shit, but way to be that bold. I applaud you, Dana, because it's just like, you know, the guy pushes through walls. He gets stuff done. He's monstrously successful for a reason. But this is just one

of those bad taste-in-your-mouth moments, though. It's hard to ignore. But the business, the super fights that he's talking about, Kenry Suhudo was mentioned and of course we remember suhudo throwing his name in there to try to fight alexander volkanovsky when uh that the for who was volkanovsky supposed to defend against uh max in the in the trilogy excuse me max holloway and getting shut down here's dana's updated quotes on henry suhudo well we just had suhudo talking about coming back if he really wants to come, there's a process that he has to go through, which includes getting back into the USADA pool. And if that's really the fight he wants,

he wants to come back and fight either Jan in Russia or Sterling, whoever is the champion, or something crazy like jumping up a weight class and really taking on Volkanovski. So this essentially just says, we're not going to give you the Brock Lesnar treatment and speed up the amount of time that you need to be in the USADA pool or eliminate that altogether like we did ahead of UFC 200. If you want to do this, you got to do it right. No more ordering off the menu, GSP style and calling your shots. That's it, right? I mean, didn't he say that Cejudo could come back to fight Sterling, Jan, or maybe even Volkanovski?

It was a couple weeks ago where he was like, no man, that's not how it works. To which, I mean, come on Dana, that's how it worked when GSP came back. That's how it works for Conor every single time. And I'm not saying Cejudo is or isn't like those guys but it just the fact that two weeks ago the idea of suhudo jumping in to an immediate title fight in any division was ludicrous and now dana white's opening up to it so you know like whatever aside from holloway there's not a super clear contender at present for the featherweight title so if sahudo comes through

i won't be i won't be super upset but um it man listening to dana talk about fights is and fights and matchmaking and fighter rights is just it's it's jersey shore levels of entertainment it's it's it is, it is extreme at times, depending on what stance you're on and what stance he's opposing. But, uh, back to Cejudo, I feel like the window just closed for me. I was a big advocate of him fighting Volkanovski, but I liked the idea a lot more when it was, uh, you know, last minute fill in or, Hey, there's no immediate guy at the moment and we don't want to do the max one just yet. Let's do this one. I think that window's closed, but I think, uh, Mac immediate guy at the moment, and we don't want to do the max one just yet. Let's do this one.

I think that window's closed, but I think Henry is doing the best move for him, which is to go verbally after the Peyote-Yon fight. He's coming out saying, I'll fight him in Russia, Rocky IV style. Look, he's going to cut the lines easier to go back to his actual weight division, I believe, Bantamweight.

I don't think he's going to be subjected to some of this Dana White hard speak of get weight division, I believe, Bantamweight. I don't think he's going to be subjected to some of this, like, Dana White hard speak of get in line, get tested, you know, fight one or two times first. No, I think if he's really serious about doing this against Piero de Jan, then maybe the timing will be perfect, Shaq, because maybe him taking the time to reenter the USADA pool and training up for this can coincide perfectly with Jan potentially

cleaning up the mess that is the top of this Bantamweight division, you know, reclaiming the belt if he ends up doing that in the rematch with Sterling. And, you know, maybe there's time for even another one in between there. But either way, I think you should start, if you're the promotion, building toward the idea of Suhudo versus Jan because it's a pretty big fight at the end of the day. Suhudo versus yan because it's it's a pretty big fight at the end of the day suhudo man i don't think people give him enough credit because the cringe dick is just that cringy yeah but man dude's got his head on right right he's got the podcast spot with mike tyson he's building this super camp of killers with davison figuero and um zhong wei lee and john jones and yuri prahashka supposed to go

and work down there man he he he's hitting all the right notes and for him to sort of recognize his value and say you know i could just jump in once in a while for a world title fight maybe not based off of just strictly name value but dude only ufc champ champ with an olympic gold medal like the pedigree is legitimately there and it may not be what fans always seek but for those who are in favor of of the fighters getting what they can monetarily you got to support a guy like henry suhudo who's not going to go in there and take unnecessary damage until the prime opportunity is there, the intersect between legacy and money. And I'm all for Henry Cejudo doing it, so long as it's not at the expense of a very clear contender in either the bantamweight or

featherweight divisions. I think that's why when T.J. Dillashaw does come back, you put him in there against Jose Aldo and you say, I know you sort of had a title shot already locked up but you kind of lost it with the injury and you know them the breaks in this division but look Jan's got to get through Sterling first to close on Dana and super fights he was sort of asked by Laura Senko at the end you know if he could make one

super fight for the fans you know despite any issues what would he do like what's the one fight of the moment and he said right here off the top of my head, as far as super fights go, it's Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou. The only other one that comes to mind would be Cejudo versus Jan or Cejudo versus Sterling

or even Volkanovski. So he's identifying at least Cejudo having multiple options and being a potential super fight guy, which is interesting and a step forward. But in regards to him, and he had a couple other comments about Jones and Ghanu, particularly Dana, let's give him the credit where it is due. He did say it was a genius game plan and an adjustment

from Ghanu to wrestle and put Ghan away. Shaq, I went all week on this topic. Jones versus Ghanu in the calendar year of 2022, what percentage of odds do you give that of coming off oh is there i mean you never want to say zero i'll go 10 percent you know i think a lot of times we've seen fighters come out and complain about their purses or the

negotiation of the contract details they have for the ufc generally what happens is the UFC gives them just enough more to be content, and they go silent, right? The difference with Francis Ngannou at this point, it's not a monetary issue. It's a matter of principle. He is not happy with how the UFC is treated him. He is not happy with the terms of his contract, or furthermore, and more importantly, how these UFC contracts are structured, and that's an issue that runs down runs from top to bottom will Francis Ngannou compromise or his beliefs or may those

beliefs change possibly but at present he is the first guy to read not the first but the first in this sort of modern era to really go out there and say this is wrong the way i am being treated is wrong systemically and i want those terms changed i don't know that is there a dollar value perhaps the dollar value the ufc will part with i don't think so i i just see in ghanu being gridlocked for a while and that's a shame because in some ways we're as close as we've ever been to that fight it makes the most sense because there are no other clear contenders. Dana White is ready for it to happen. But I just, I expect Ngannou to hold out.

And the longer this, you know, I was thinking about this the other day, the longer this holds out, the worse. Because, you know, the fighter pay issue is not, I mean, I don't know the statistics or the contract details. But at least on the surface, it's not a race issue. It's an issue that affects every fighter. But I can't help but think from Canada looking down, when I think of sort of race relations in the U.S., the stuff that at least gets fed here most frequently is black rights and Asian rights. And so I can't help but wonder that even if it's not put to the forefront,

like we saw in Gone Who Shared that text message that is Asian God, that racist text message, I can't help but wonder as the story continues to build, if people don't start to, whether that be other celebrities, politicians, someone start to sort of associate with the underlying theme of a black fighter speaking out about how white ownership is suppressing their value to make their ability to make money their ability to explore

their options i don't think that's what nganu is going for but i can't help but wonder if that storyline becomes more and more prominent if large third parties start catching, you know, really paying attention to what's going on. Right. And that might have a huge effect on just the overall. Without him leaning into it, without Nganou using it as a strategy. Yeah, I don't think he's intending to do that or he's really made steps to do that. But I can't help but wonder if that's an extra thread that may emerge over time. And listen, I am all for Ngannou standing up for what he is deserved when it comes to finances, his ability to explore other options. These guys are independent contractors and they're not treated like it. Well, Ngannou's already just such a steel wrestling term, just a monster baby face at the moment in like every possible category if he ended up getting an

unnaturally large sort of celebrity and global support for this from those same you know things you're saying even though he wouldn't try to go you know go down the race road it would be it would be part of the you know it could become part of the conversation that's why i think when luke rockhold had that wacky idea of sort of this all African power front union of Usman, Adesanya and Ngannou, it's like it's almost like pro wrestling nation of domination sort of storyline booking. And it's going in other areas of politics and stuff, but it also would work. It's just it's interesting. Fighters at this point really need anything, any kind of leverage they can get to and look i hear a lot of weird i think it's weird when you get when you get too locked up on the fighter pay debate in either direction it can get a little weird i think it's there's a responsibility for journalists to at least put it to the forefront like we're doing and of course sprinkling in our two cents of

saying look like they deserve it okay let's just get like let's make the justice happen but there's there's the flip side of like people that have no state say or stake in this of just like and gone who's greedy or he's stupid or didn't he turn down seven million per fight no he turned down a deal that would have paid him seven million in total over the course of multiple fights and would have extended his deal uh exceedingly further under these same conditions that he's fighting against. So, I don't know. It's wild and it's the most uncertain and craziest times in this category. But when you add in, of course, the Ngannou injury,

they're sitting in, you got to believe UFC brass is sitting in that war room now going, okay, interim title. We're going to throw it out this summer. What's the best thing? You want to do Stipe Jones? Do you want to do Gon Jones? You know, like, what do you want, you want to do Stipe Jones? Do you want to do Gon Jones? You know, like, what do you want? You want to do Lesnar?

What do you want to do? Right? You know, that's the conversation they're really having right now. And maybe business-wise they should be having. Let's keep the show going. Topic three, big UFC news. I don't know if this was floated in response to all the Nganou negativity, but a great fight.

UFC is booked, as Dana White the SPN Brett Okamoto for confirmation UFC 274 that's going to be May 7th Cinco de Mayo weekend it won't be in Brazil due to some vaccination issues and all that in terms of travel for UFC but it's going to be Charles Oliveira it's going to be the lightweight title it's going to be Justin Oliveira. It's going to be the lightweight title. It's going to be Justin Gaethje. I may need to roll paper towels to celebrate how excited I am about this, Shaq. Your thoughts? Yeah. First, I want to apologize because my phone's at that 10% mark.

The pre-show prep really took it out of there. So I want to say it now so we can just keep rolling. Thank you, Brian, for having me. Thank you, the MK team. Thank you for all the donks putting up with me today. So we're here until you're in real form. Yes, and I will try and see if after I die, if I can figure something out and resurrect myself.

Dude, it's on brand for MK. Unbelievable. Keep it going. The courtesy is I let the fans know ahead of time. All of Aragachi. We'll keep it going. The courtesy is I let the fans know ahead of time. Oliveira Gaethje. I mean, talking about something being shut off here, right? This is so exciting. Charles Oliveira is such a complete fighter,

but maybe I'm not giving him the respect that Brent Brookhouse would like me to give him and like all of us to give him. The fact that he gets hurt in every one of the fights he got rocked by chandler he got rocked by poirier and now you're going in there with justin gaethje the juggernaut of the division you can't help but be a little bit scared for olivera who has a whole complete game right now but is still hittable um on the flip side we saw gaethje's submission defense against habib boy was it lacking and i know he'll be working on it diligently but this is one of those great fights and this is the kind

of fight you would get back in the day right a jujitsu guy versus a boxing guy a wrestler versus a kickboxer now it's so much more fun when it happens because you get two complete athletes that either have one predominantly strong skill over the rest or one weakness. For Oliveira, obviously, he's got a record-setting submission game. Justin Gaethje, that power is just unrivaled at 155. So, man, anyone who isn't excited about this does not have a pulse because this is just this is just violence personified and if olivera wins man we're you know there's a lot of lightweight pound for pound grades you really got to start discussing where he falls in that ladder no absolutely i think the conversation about

how quickly the mileage is going to add up for olivera who even before this incredible win streak had fought all killer, no filler. He's here to steal Chandler's line for a short time, a good time. And it may not last through this fight, but he's so red hot right now that who knows? Who knows? Because this man, we already know Justin Gaethje resides in hell in terms of the style of fights he likes to get in. He may be craftier during this you know

this uh most recent title run and of course the the victory over uh Chandler which wasn't technical that was that was manly but that's at the end of the day who Justin Gaethje is that's also Charlie Olives just his savagery because he he's found a way whereas Gaethje lives in hell Charlie's found a way to to reside thereje lives in hell, Charlie's found a way to reside there, vacation there once in a while, and be just fine there. So, damn, you love that. Damn, I... Dude, I don't get all this... For as long

as we have you on here, can you explain the... There's a side of the audience that's like, Gaethje didn't deserve to be back here. He only won one fight. He lost to Habib just like everybody else. FBC's theory that he was one leg strike away from putting the champ in peril. Oh, he was one leg strike away. There you go.

Thanks for speaking the truth. But I don't get how people just don't look at this guy as an absolute stud who could be your next champion and somehow think that, you know, he lucked into this. I mean, that's the thing. You have to put an asterisk aside anyone who has a loss to Habib. And that's not to say Habib isn't amazing. It's just to say the only reason lightweight is as exciting as it is now is because Habib so graciously took mercy upon the division and left. Right.

So the way I look at it is when you're when you're looking at matchmaking at the top of the division, you almost have to just kind of scratch out Habib because Habib isn't a factor in this division anymore. Who is the best guy outside of Habib? Would it be nice if Justin Gaethje was coming in on a win streak? Sure, but you've got Islam and Benil tied up. You've got now potentially Tony Ferguson and Michael Chandler tied up. Conor isn't fighting right now. Dustin Poirier is coming off the loss. There's no immediate contender, but we're getting there, right? Islam Dustin Poirier is coming off the loss. There's no immediate contender, but we're getting there, right? Islam Benil, that will be the next number one contender. In the meantime, Justin Gaethje is the guy because, like I said, outside of that Habib loss, because everyone loses to Habib, he was on a killer stretch, knocking out guys left and right,

beating Tony Ferguson at a time where tony ferguson was still considered that guy to beat habib justin gaethje is entirely deserving of this fight and beyond that look there's something sick and twisted about justin gaethje coming out and saying that he doesn't think his michael chandler fight was all that exciting and he doesn't get the allure around it that was the fight of the year that is the kind of guy you want to see fighting for the world title. A guy who thinks a three-round war, one of the best fights of all time, is like, eh, slow day. That's the guy you want fighting for the world title.

I can't wait. I can't wait. And I'm about to say goodbye to you because you're about to say goodbye to us technologically. But this does mean this is better. What's great about this news is Conor's not going to parachute in to get an undeserved title shot. You know, he's probably more likely to fight Nate a third time or Max a second time or

what have you. Do you see the same Conor McGregor correlation that at least you were like, phew, because I don't need Olivera McGregor right now. I don't need that. No, neither do I. I understand where Conor gets a leg up in terms of the title fight, but at this stage, fortunately, look, Conor McGregor made the early investment into his mic work and into his octagon career where he is a pillar of the sport. He is a top draw and nothing is going to change that. I know the UFC likes to put gold belts in their main event spots.

Conor McGregor does not need a gold belt to sell major pay-per-views. In fact, I would argue Charles versus Conor doesn't sell as well as Conor versus Nate because there's a huge market of UFC, casual UFC fans that just want to see the names that they're very familiar with. Dustin Poirier worked himself into that position

by beating Conor McGregor, but that star power doesn't immediately translate, you know, from Conor to Dustin to Charles Oliveira. Conor doesn't need the world title fight. It's not in his best interest either. So don't do it. Goodbye. And that is Shaquille Majury.

Thank you for your time, sir. Thank you for joining us on today's Morning Combat. Check out his work, CBSSports.com. Also, I think, I believe, is Shaq Fu YouTube channels there, whatever he calls them, in multiple sports. There's a lot of good wrestling content as well. So appreciate you being on, Shaq. BC will take you home, though, folks, the rest of the way,

transitioning to our fourth topic of the week. Ego FC makes its U.S. debut this weekend. It's Khabib Nurmagomedov's MMA promotion, of course, out of Russia. It's gone global. It's gone worldwide. And they got a couple names on this piecemeal gas station hot dog of a card here that at least people are taking notice of. Main event, of course, Tyrone Spong versus Sergey Karatanov.

And, of course, Rashad Evans, Sugar Rashad, the former UFC champion, is 40s now. What, nine years removed, seven, eight years removed from his last victory, I believe, in 2013. But recharged mentally, spiritually, emotionally, physically, going in there against submission specialist Gabriel Checo in the co-main. Ray Borg also on the card. A lot of smash factory hopefuls as well with Habib's farm system here. And it should be interesting. A couple different reasons. I like the way that the promotion has used Chael Sonnen in a very strong and powerful role.

Has all of Eagle FC's, you know, darts hit the bullseye? No, but I like the attempt they did. I believe it was after the press conference or way in this week to do sort of a round table show. No traditional host, but Chael handling it alongside Habib, the promoter,

and his fellow stablemates on the managerial side, Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo. So you had a lot of star power there. It was a little sloppy. It was, you know, it was hit or miss, but there were some parts that were certainly legit. And there's a lot of star power there. It was a little sloppy. It was hit or miss, but there were some parts that were certainly legit. And there's a lot of celebrity backing in this and name. They're going to have to pull off, though, a better menu to MMA fans than basically BKFC

Triller level stuff. And this has some higher elements than that. That's an insult to this has some higher elements than that. You know, that's an insult to this in some levels. I like that the state of Florida is finally starting to wake up. This main event was supposed to be Bigfoot Silva, who should be nowhere near a fight like this. And the state, you know, Florida State Commission stepped in and made a change. The state commission just stepped in and made a great change, by the way. I think it was just yesterday on the BKFC side when Melvin Gillard was announced to headline an upcoming fight card. And the state commission denied it, which rightfully so, because Gillard's lost something like 14 consecutive fights across

MMA and bare knuckle boxing and like seven or eight knockouts in there. And, you know, the ghost of Joe Riggs just sent him to hell in like a minute uh and knocked him almost out of the ring and in his last fight and they they pulled him from the card in fact the association of boxing commission had uh mike mazzulli who works you know with the with the mohegan tribe in connecticut and in his uh uh regulates all the uh most of the bellator cards if not all i believe he said look bkfc you've got to you've got to reevaluate your roster and what you do. And I like that this is at least a conversation. You know, I saw the extended press release from the commission saying that, like, you know, your market is these 35 and older guys on the way out.

And that's exactly their market. But they've got to be careful here. So Tyrone Spong versus Sergey Karatanov. Not an awful fight by any means. It's going to be interesting. Tyrone Spong had Sergei Karatanov not an awful fight by any means it's going to be interesting Tyrone Spong had just tried to transition of course he's got the decorated kickboxing background but he tried to transition into

heavyweight boxing and got the Alexander Usyk fight before Usyk of course had upset Anthony Joshua only to lose it for a failed drug test at the last minute now he's back on this side of things I'm going to be interested the first time, just like anybody else, to see the production value. I know they don't have a traditional TV deal. I think to be able to watch this on Saturday, you've got to go to

their promotion website and stream through there. But I'd be interested to see what the announced team is. Is it Chael calling the fights? And what they can start to do when the power of the Habib name is put forward and and I don't underestimate that power but it's going to come in the matchmaking so uh I don't know by the way if we're getting Shaq back there may be a chance technologically if not I'm just going to keep rolling on topic five oh so we're going to check it out uh the Eagle FC I know of course also Kevin Lee and Diego Sanchez just had their press conference for the second card from this promotion in the U.S., which is coming. I hope Rashad Evans is okay because I think he should compete and be good in this.

It's probably not the safest career move, but having to know him, getting to know him like I have, hosting the CBS podcast with him, doing all the work on Morning Combat, CBS Sports HQ. I love that man. Mentally, he is in the right place for this. Is it advised? Physically, probably not. Let's see if he can potentially end his great Hall of Fame career on his own terms.

We'll check that out. Quick hitters coming at you to close here. UFC revealing Dana White in that same Q&A with Laura Sanko that the promotion is interested in Michael Chandler versus Tony Ferguson for this next fight. So this is interesting. On the surface, obviously,

it seems like can't miss two legendary names, two action heroes. Yeah, just throw them in there. It's going to be batshit crazy, freaking fantastic. This is the type of matchmaking that is, it's like a bowl cereal, right? You can't afford it. You got, I mean, you know, remember when CeCe Zabathia said that time in the prime of his career,

he was like, you know, I lost almost 100 pounds in the offseason because I stopped eating cereal. And they were like, dude, how much cereal did you eat? And he was like a box of, or I think it was like multiple boxes of Captain Crunch per day. And, uh, or no per sitting, he didn't, you know, eat a full box in a sitting. And I'm like, you know, and it, it, it led to extreme weight gain, obviously. And I'm like, you know, I've, I've been there at different points in my life. I've, I've Sabathian at that level. And, um, it's, um, it's, it's a hell of a of a drug okay so i don't know how we got into cereal but my my my you love this but my only fear here is that tony is a little bit more washed

than we even fear and that if he's got a short window left of very fun you know legend fights or big name fights i'd much rather see him against conor mregor or Nate Diaz or, you know, Dustin Poirier than I necessarily would Chandler. Maybe not Poirier, but I don't know if you get my point. And my point is I'm being greedy here. Beggars can be choosers. I'd rather use this bullet for something else. I think Chandler's still, he's still in it, man. You know, he's still going to, you know, it's not impossible that he would

get another title shot working his way back around, you know, just the same, he could lose every fight from here on out and just be an action star, who knows, who knows, but I feel like he's got a little bit more in there, so I'm being extra greedy there. Boxing shakeup, well, that's all only boxing could do, there was some reporting, there was some hope, some thought that maybe just maybe Tyson Fury could get into an undisputed championship bout with Alexander Usyk for all four titles like right now next it was going to take some incredibly heavy business swingling and and and now how to do it legally is to offer step aside money to people so So in this case, Tyson Fury had a mandatory challenger and Dillian White. So they would offer step aside money to White. And then Anthony

Joshua, of course, has a contractually guaranteed rematch with Usyk after losing the three belts to him by decision last year. So the thought was, if we also pay off Anthony Joshua, we could make them step aside. It is common practice, the step aside thing. It's not a backroom deal. And make Fury versus Usyk right now. And I didn't believe it. I saw Gareth A. Davis, the warlock, had a report on that. I just didn't believe that we were really that close, that that could actually happen. Because I don't see the same full-on motivation in all parties to take the step aside money right now. To just, I like to just say, okay, go ahead. You know, I don't see where that necessarily benefits them.

And it was hard to believe Anthony Joshua would come out in the middle of that and said, you know, I didn't make those comments. Where is this interview coming from? I never considered. But the most recent report is from Mike Hoppinger of ESPN, who's saying, according to his sources, the agreement in principle for both Dillian White and Anthony Joshua to step aside collapsed at the last minute after parties attempted to renegotiate in the 11th hour. So according to that reporting, they were pretty damn close to this potentially happening, but it's not going to happen. So here's how the future will play out. Tyson Fury will fight Dillian White.

Friday's purse bid coming up. I don't know if that's today. I think this is the purse bid today, I believe. So the purse bid would just dictate whoever puts the highest bid in would be the promoter and could take it to any network they want. So that's, you know, it's most likely that this becomes an ESPN plus pay-per-view. But Tyson Fury against Dillian White is a big time fight. So if this is the fallout from not getting Fury versus Usyk now and not getting that clarity now, you've got to love it. Dillian White is awesome.

And if you don't know him, he's gritty. He was an early rival to Anthony Joshua in the amateurs. Then they fought as a pro, and White had Joshua Hurd, but Joshua rallied for the knockout, and it was like the first big test that AJ walked through the fire and did it. And since then, Dillian White's just been a terror to everyone in this heavyweight division, except for those, those couple of top names that he hasn't been able to fight yet. And although he got one punched by Alexander Povetkin, um, when he was the mandatory, he won that back in the rematch and avenged it. So, uh, that's a tough fight for Tyson Fury and

they know that, but you did see Tyson Fury, and they know that. But you did see Tyson Fury clowning the crap out of presumably Eddie Hearn and Anthony Joshua for turning down the money in multiple Twitter videos and IG videos. It was pretty interesting. They say this fight's going to go down in Saudi Arabia, by the way, for Tyson Fury. Interesting, interesting.

To close here on your quick hitters uh jeremy stevens has ended his very lengthy career uh promoted promote fighting with the promotion the ufc it is uh it came out to be that his name was removed from the roster jeremy stevens confirmed it and now according to ariel hawani stevens is like this close to signing on with PFL, which is interesting because at 35, he's such a fun banger at times. You know, I say at times he is a fun banger. There's been times when he's curtailed the violence just enough to try to make a run or to try to evolve and credit to him for doing that.

You know, just despite always in his heart being a all or nothing home run swinger. But I thought he might go straight to BKFC or Triller Triad. He's going to stop at PFL and continue this run. He's 35 years old. So at first I'm like, okay, you know, he's won some, he's lost some. He's not in the best run of his career, but it can't be that bad, right? Then you look at the, you know, you forget how they add up

and you look at the record and you're like, oh crap. He's 0-5 with one no contest in his last six and it's you know he always fights killers i mean these the losses are jose aldo zabit calvin cater yair rodriguez matthew matthias gamrot in his last fight a submission in the first round um it just kind of caught up with me that he's already here, even though he's 35. And even though he's had a, you know, absurd amount of fights, was he 28 and 19, uh, 48 total fights. But, uh, when you look at the record and the recent run, you go, Oh yeah, yeah, it is. It is kind of time for that next step, that next level PFL. We'll see. We'll see if he can compete there. I mean, you know, it's interesting. I thought Anthony Pettis was going to come in and compete and he found out

the hard way right away. So, uh, that'll wrap So that'll wrap up the news, the news as it was, the top five topics of this Friday, setting up the weekend, of course, Bellator, Eagle FC. What I had been putting off all week, answering your questions. We know about how to get to us, right? Morning Combat at gmail.com is our email address for Wednesday fan submissions. Normally Friday dead wrongs, but these are Luke Thomas segments. So while he's away on vacation, we will hold those.

But DMs from donks, we send out that Instagram post every Sunday night. Your response to that IG post makes up this pool of questions. I believe my production staff is trying to get a hold of me here. What do you got? What do you got, people? All right. Shaq may be back alive. I don't know.

But here we go. Here are your questions answered. It is called DMs from dogs. All right. Hee-haw, hee-haw. BC taking your solo from at Sasquatch Toys, when are we going to get Factory Town MMA Championship belts made, oh, wow, all right, um, that's extreme, now, now, you could say we are already living in the extreme

on morningcombat.store, when we're doing Hawaiian shirts with BC's face and fricking drug rugs. Right. So I don't know, or I don't know the Christmas underwear with Lukanai's face on your, uh, on your Sasquatch. So, um, but you can, you can manscape that by the way. Uh, so is it too far to go championship? I don't want to go down this lane. We're probably already here. Would they sell? I don't want to go down this lane. We're probably already here. Would they sell? I don't know. Cause I never thought a Hawaiian shirt would sell my face on it and we

couldn't keep those in stock. So thank you for being so weird. P ones stay, you know, stay in arms, maybe a six feet, maybe a, a stone's throw away from us except for at,

you know, publicly securitized public events. But I'm kidding. But yeah, I'd like to see some other things first, all right? I'd like to see my Randy Couture, Bob Marley hat, Fidel Castro hat come on there. But you're probably sick of talking about merch already. Let's keep to the next question from at JPT underscore working.

This guy's working it. Why doesn't the UFC push Izzy as the face of the company? He has more followers than Masvidal and Jones on Twitter and IG. Is it because he lost or because he was in New Zealand during the pandemic? Love the show. I think this is an interesting question. Because you do have to look at, you know, you sort of reset every once in a while. And go, okay, Conor's still Conor for

now, but he's not gonna be Conor forever. You know, who are, who's the next pay-per-view stars that you could potentially build around where, you know, of course, just be successful and get to that level. They got to win or be champion, at least championship contenders. But obviously sometimes you can just, you can just be an all action guy, or you can just be marketable and relatable as hell. And you can get on one of those runs of must see. Why hasn't that fully happened for Izzy? I think that's interesting because just, you know, a year and a half ago, that's that guy who you're like, OK, the next five, seven years, who's going to who has the potential

to be the face? Israel Adesanya. But it hasn't fully connected and it may not ever get to where, you know, I thought the potential could be, or maybe that the UFC thought the potential could be. Izzy's a little bit weird, right? But he, you know, it's like, he's in, he, he, he wins you over if you're just like, tough guy, love the mastery, mastery of the sport. And you're just like, man, that guy's so skilled. I love him. Then, you know, he has the Gaslamum fight and you're like, oh, damn, he's he is an action star, too, on top of that. But I think he lost a great deal of momentum with the Yoel Romero fight, even though he won it.

I think that was the moment where it was he had potential to bust through even more, just like had he beat Jan Blachowicz and the Jones feud thing continued. And then it suddenly, oh, he's a two-division champion. Could he go to heavyweight? That was going to probably end up being the magic carpet that would have taken him there. And that's not going to happen, at least not right now.

Most likely not ever, right? I mean, I do eventually see him going up to light heavyweight, but will he end up being a two-division champion? Nothing's guaranteed. I thought he would be further right now. I think the more you get to the personalities,

it's a little bit weird, but it does connect to a younger audience, video game audience and all that. I don't know. I don't think he can be a great trash talker and flashy and all that, but you've got to push him. You've got to push him. We saw certain

moments of that. Paulo Costa could push those buttons a little bit. Whenever somebody's not a massive draw on their own, like Usman, you need a Covington. You need your own McGregor to get you there. And I think that Izzy's a much more, you know, naturally stronger draw than Usman for sure and has much brighter potential. But let's see if he gets there. All right. Uh, from at Scott R new is Henry Cejudo, the Diddy of MMA coaches all up in the videos, the interviews, dancing and all the cringe who's death row Whitman with team elevation question mark.

Uh, I love the spirit of this question of course,. But yeah, I don't know, because like, I mean, did Diddy, did he make, you know, his buddy B.I.G. in some ways that that the Notorious One couldn't have filled in and needed that friendship and relationship and and and, you know, the professional back and forth? Or did Diddy really ride his tails and score a big hit after his death about his death and in all that um maybe both can be true and maybe both can be true on henry cejudo he can be cringe he could whether purposely or not steal the spotlight a little bit but he's also proving and let's not forget that eric albera seeing the captain is a monster part of the

brain trust of what Cejudo's you know using to to become this great coach and develop this reputation um they're getting it done so when you join with them you know they can help they can help a guy like Davidson Figueredo who doesn't speak English right they can help uh you know give some some some sort of image to that and I think in other situations it's it's sort of why I think Shaq was right in saying Suhudo's on a heck of a run right now in terms of presenting himself, in terms of the different things

he's putting his hands in. He's really smart in that he uses the cringe to disarm you and then sort of move in. And he's sort of, in his own way, because there's nothing cringey about his. And, and he's sort of in his own way. I'm not, cause there's nothing cringy about his fighting style, but he's used other ways, you know, in his fighting style to, to really develop the IQ and smarts where to, to use feints and strategy. And, and I mean, he's, he's a pretty damn smart fighter and, and I think he's able to bring that

mindset to the coaching here. So yeah, he may get up in the video, right? He may hang vanilla ice by his ankles. Obviously, that was Suge Knight. That's a Suge Knight documentary. And I don't know if it's still on the Showtime app, but that's a wild ride. I don't know if anybody saw that. Suge is who they thought he was. Yeah, yeah.

He's living it. He lived it. He's still living it. All right. From at Ilya745, if you can press a button and extend the Muhammad Ali Act into MMA right now, would you? Look, it's an interesting question because the Ali Act hasn't been perfect for boxing by any means, but the spirit of it, right? What's the spirit of it that, you know, you can't manage and promote a fighter at the same time. That's the spirit of the Muhammad Ali Act. And it's basically, you know, you can't control everything, which is to the credit of UFC, Dana White, Zufa before that.

They they are who they are now due to their smarts and their balls and their creativity as marketers and promoters, yes. But by creating a forum, a platform in which they hold all the damn cards and they were able to do that because they picked up UFC when it was dead, when it couldn't get on regular TV. You have to always remember to refactor that into it.

I mean, it was gone. It was a good day. It was, I mean, you could still watch it and follow it if you were hardcore, of course, but it was not trying to show up in your day to day life.

And there wasn't the internet as prevalent. It was, it was barbaric at that point. So, um, it, it was gone. Right.

And it was, it wasn't a sport. It was like a experiment that was fun, but failed, you know, it was like, I mean was it wasn't a sport it was like a experiment that was fun but failed you know it's like i mean it's like fate you kind of put it in line at the vhs store next to faces of death but before the porn right i mean it it fit into that and now it's so damn polished up and it's here because they control everything in the matchmaking, the best fight the best, and they keep them underpaid and hungry and coming at it. So it's always going to be hard as we continue these conversations and look at the fallout, because as I always quick to say,

like when we finally get an MMA, what the fighters deserve, it's going to handcuff some of what makes or a lot of what makes UFC great right now. I mean, there's always going to be hungry and willing fighters and all that. And there's so many great fighters under roster now or in this era right now, you know, active that it almost doesn't matter in the end if somebody gets into a dispute and sits out for a while or whatever. I mean, you can just keep reloading. But at the end of the day, it's what the fighters deserve. So could I extend the Ali... Would I extend the Ali Act in MMA by pressing a button now

and saying whatever we have to deal with, we have to deal with? Yeah, because it's what the fighters deserve. And you just do the math with how you compare it to other sports. They're not... They don't have insurance. They're not paid well. You know, like they're this is this is not a career it's a short opportunity to make a lot of money in a short window but it becomes a career for so many of these guys and and they deserve more so if it was something like the aliak to make that change happen you know it's it's it's what's right so you got got to take what comes because of that. From at Connor.dc13, is RDA in the Hall of Fame?

It's funny. We do the high court episode with Chuck Mendenhall, which we had a fun time doing, but it was based on an actual sort of argument. I definitely don't ever want the default of, oh, that guy won a UFC title once. So he's automatically in the Hall of Fame because that's not always true. You know, even like in baseball, like, OK, the guy won the MVP that one year. But it doesn't mean they were that Hall of Fame type. Bisping, I always felt, is either right there or right below it. You know, I mean, he's the one you can make a real argument for.

But what was the thing for Bisping that I just couldn't get over at the end of the day you know i love the longevity and the big twilight in the end and you know everything the one i think you love everything i love this thing but he really lacked on elite wins against other elite fighters when both were in their absolute primes you know and you look at a guy like rda not only does he have the reputation side of absolute badass duck nobody fought everybody fought more guys than you actually remember he fought oh my god like this guy's a badass oh he also won the championship too and he also has a damn good set of wins too um i mean you look up and down you're like oh yeah he did beat paul

felder kevin lee robbie lawler neil magni tariq Safedine, Donald Cerrone, Anthony Pettis, Nate Diaz, Benson Henderson, Donald Cerrone again, Evan Durham, George Sotteropoulos back when that was something, right? I mean, come on. And that was something, by the way, back in the day. Yeah, RDA. You mix all those things together? Yeah. And by the way, he also won a championship and he's not stopping doing whatever it takes to try to cut weight or, you know, reinvent himself again at a lower weight class. Yeah. I mean, man, you know, or most of the time, it's not the, it's against their own, for their own good. You know, it's always short-term success in spite of whatever type of long-term damage or receipt that comes paid or how many losses you take because of it.

But I was watching Randy Couture versus Big Nog last night just randomly on Fight Pass. And you're just like, man, I mean, these are two old cowboys, right? Like these are, I mean, it's one thing to be like, uh, like a Don Fry. Don Fry was great in his day, but you look at Don Fry as almost like a cartoon. I mean, I think he's still knocking out fans in the crowd, by the way, watch out. Have you seen the shit on Monday? But you know, you look at him as the gunslinger, but like Couture and Big Nug were that, but they were also elite, all-time, all-time greats and go after it. And I mean, maybe that was in some ways, meaning that era of like 2008, 9, maybe that really is

the good old days because it was, you know, the skill had started evolving, not to where it is now, but you still had that old fight feel, that old like, like, yeah, my skill that I have over you, in the end, it's going to help me win. But what's really going to win the fight for me right now is that I'm an absolute badass. And I have balls and I'm just going after it. That's RDA. You know what I mean? And it's not like that's not biz ping. But that's why there has to be a line and a difference.

Because Rda also has the wind so yeah i'm i'm team um captain on rda doesn't get the love uh that he deserves and we'll have more of that fine wine reputation as it goes on uh want to own part of the airline you flew with on your last vacation or part of the company that makes your favorite triple shot latte with extra foam what about owning part of a company that one day favorite triple shot latte with extra foam. What about owning part of a company that one day could send you on a tour of outer space? Now you can. With partial shares from TD Direct Investing, you can own part of your favorite companies.

Just pick a stock and decide how much to spend on the share. It's a piece of cake. Learn more at TD.com slash partial shares. TD, ready for you. We do have Shaq back. Learn more at td.com slash partial shares. TD. Ready for you. We do have Shaq back. Wow. Anything's possible, Kevin Garnett. Can we bring back in Shaquille Majorey with a... Are we going through the cell phone now?

Yeah. I mean, listen, man. Tech is your best friend until it's not, right? Until it's not. You do what you do. They always say this is a... Yeah, they always say this is a 90s centric show but uh you have like a 90s centric tech setup right now and i can respect that for sure um why don't we t1 right up here on the next one here for one shack majority in the midst of this extended dms from donks shack this is from r i rli2cool6 i mean just as Luke was, they just an awful handle.

Like why don't you, well, not, we could probably fit a couple of underscores in there too, but Shaq over under, when are y'all going to a cannibal corpse show? Brian gets in the pits over under one half amount of times. Shaq,

I not only want you to answer the, how many, you know, the over under on how many times Brian would be, you know, man enough to try to go in the pits at a Cannibal Corpse show. Could you give me any reason why, even for the sake of a documentary, that I should try to subject myself to this atrocity of music and lifestyle and way of living and being and go with Luke to a flesh eating just yeah we already know you go to Cannibal Corpse Showtime sends you to an AEW show

see the problem is Brian Brian so much fun to watch plus the live experience I haven't been to an AEW show but you know this the live wrestling experience is a lot more fun than like keeping up week to week just go have a good time and here's the best part you know luke's actually

going to enjoy himself it's worth it and that would be fun but man i'm falling in and out of love i can't get myself to watch any product anymore and i'm an aw guy but i just man i got i mean you know what it's like shackq because you you're a fan and a journalist so you have to you have to live this you have to live it and I lived it to you know yeah they beat it out of you man they had you

and not only live in it you have to have so much like there's so much there's so much time put in that you don't that you do not ever get the the uh recompensation back to make it. That's the beauty. I'm only obligated to watch two hours a week. And also, we forgot the over-under.

Dude, you're going into that mosh pit like three or four times. You're sneaking up on people with that rear naked choke that you like to call it. Yes, yes, yes. I know. You're too aggro on the basketball field, on the basketball court, to not jump into that pit a few times. Yeah. Well, let's get out of this pro wrestling talk

because, you know, chicks don't hear that. At least it's not a chick fall. Yeah. All right. From at TonyG8305. Good question here because I did, as I mentioned, watch Randy Couture lose that incredible 2012 Fight of the Year contender against Big Nog there.

Would the best version of Randy at heavyweight compete with the today crop of heavyweights? Shaq, are you, you're a younger guy than me. Did you grow up watching Captain America or is this something you? A little more retroactively so i started my first sort of experiences with the ufc was probably around like 2008 2009 and then 2013 is when i really started getting into the fold um but i'm familiar with cap's work i think these conversations are difficult to have because like if you were to say if you would take if you were to take a bet prime randy couture and place him in modern mma and give him time to build up those additional skills like oh yeah that that is a once in a generation kind of athlete like

grandpa does it big but um you know taking the prime randy couture and putting him into the modern era the game has just evolved so much I don't think you can ever really make that translation, but like, you know, if Misha Tate can be a top 10 bantamweight, a woman, a woman, that's my camera.

What division she's in anymore. Um, Randy Couture, the best Randy Couture, I think for sure would be like a top 15 heavyweight. So, yeah, because I think because the intangibles are so damn strong.

Um, I mean, so let me dead wrong myself in real time. I'd said the Couture-Big Nog fight was 2012. Obviously, it was earlier than that. And as I look at his run, it was 2009 UFC 102. And, I mean, that's a 46-year-old Randy Couture in that fight. And he was, you know, that's basically the fight of the year from 2009.

He's ripped. I mean, you know, you can always believe what you want about performance enhancing drugs. And believe me, I do. But, you know, I mean, he's fucking ripped in that fight. But that fight will show you, look, he's really undersized for heavyweight. Like, really, like, he's undersized for heavyweight like Frankie Edgar was undersized for lightweight. So it's like for a while he can, he can do it,

but then, you know, the evolution, the adjustment, but the thing in his favor is parts of his game or, you know, he was considered ahead of his game to certain degrees back then. Parts of his game are still,

still foundationally strong, meaning wrestling base, high cardio based, you know, dirty boxing can outbox, like, you know, can outbox a guy who doesn't have the technique almost easily as he was doing to Nog at times, only Big Nog was still close enough to his prime that he can, he can bite down and counter. And that's why that fight is incredible. But the, the whole cardio wrestling, competent boxing,

I don't know, man, that, that still works. You man that that still works you know that still works today who is the highest ranked fighter you think a prime couture could beat right now so off the top of my head you got like in ghanu gone maybe it's mia chich curtis blades derrick lewis well that's what i was going to ask you because derrick lewis is the perfect thing that i think makes this difficult whenever you're doing this whenever you're comparing eras and it's not just that the evolution of athleticism is the difference between the two it's also well they were very undersized you know okay Rocky Marciano great first time but the guy's like five what you know ten and a half like we're gonna put him in there against Tyson Fury you

know what's that going to look like? I don't know. Like, that certainly, that's part of it. But what is Randy Couture going to do with Derek Lewis sitting on top of him? Like, what is he? Because the thing about even what made that big nog fight so great, and again, that's like sort of the last, some of the last great fights from that old romanticized era where, like, it was more about winning with will than skill,

but you still had to be really skilled to get it done, is Randy was in such horrible positions, like two, three, four times in that fight. And again, that's why he's Captain America, right? Like him just fighting out of a submission in which Big Nog's sitting on his back digging it in is sort of epic epic but you can't make those kind of massive mistakes in this era especially with a guy as big as derrick lewis like

potentially laying on you forget hammering you with shots laying on you that size difference maybe is where i need to turn out romanticizing this you know yeah perhaps i think maybe like marching tybor i know that's not like a sexy name in the heavyweight division but he's ranked number nine uh augusto sakai is ranked number 12 maybe he beats those guys yeah sorry sorry i'm telling you he beats those guys i'm saying that those guys don't have yeah yeah so top 10 heavyweight i think i mean i mean i think that speaks volumes how amazing randy couture is if we're discussing i you know not to say i'm the authority on this sort of stuff but if we can seem as a top 10 heavyweight now, I mean, that's something else.

All right. This is interesting. From at Rich P Top Tier, Rich P Top Tier, this is going to increase the potential of a Bronstetter versus Mejuri feud, I'm sure. Does fighters getting paid on crypto fix the fighter pay debate altogether? No, man, this is such a, look, I think, I know nothing about crypto. I'm not inclined to learn anything about crypto.

It's just, I mean, you might be able to see a hair of it over there. I still got my little Christmas tree up. Like I'm too far behind in my life to worry about crypto right now. I'd like to think aaron's just really into crypto and not so much like trying to jump at the defense of the ufc this is the thing

right when the ufc comes out and says yeah yeah we're gonna give the fighters 50 of all the nft proceeds well that's split 25 25 between those two fighters one second how many fighters are going to actually how many fighter nfts are really going to sell well at top one percent of fighters maybe and again that's a really convenient time to say look we're giving fighters 50 of something when the entire argument is every other major sport gives the fighters a 50 gives their athletes a 50 revenue split you guys say you're one of the fastest growing sports. You're a major league sport. Why are your guys only getting 16%? It just seems like the crypto and NFT arguments are second to the fact that this is a really, really amusing time

to say, look, we're giving fighters something. How many fighters are really benefiting from it? Well, I mean, I think the argument Bronsted got in was like surrounding like $18,000 like that on any budget that fixes nothing. So, OK, it's sort of like, you know, I've had a few of these jobs. Unfortunately, you ever have a job where the job sucks, they're paying you crap and they're really not all that nice to you. But, you know, every Friday they buy pizza for the whole, you know, the whole building. And, you know, you know, they just bring in ice cream bars every once in a while. And then you're just sort of like, man, this job sucks. The pace sucks.

But, dude, that free pizza is great, dude, every Friday. I mean, that's great. That's what that's all this is. So stop. Stop that shit. Well, maybe we need to get Bronstetter in here to defend the. Oh, I don't think I could go blow for blow within Bronsted. I look good right now.

I look good right now. That's Canadian on Canadian crime. Yeah. By the way, you know, I always say this now that I'm, you know, becoming an old POS at 43. There's just going to be certain things. Like for me, it's, you know, Sean O'Malley, like the character.

Like it's just, I know that I'm old now because there's just certain things I'm not going to get, right? If it makes you feel better, I have I don't align with like the Sean O'Malley vibe, it's not it's the same This isn't about Sean O'Malley per se, but it's more about me just saying like

NFTs, dude, like just you know, get that shit out of here Brian, I know you play Fortnite. I don't even play Fortnite. I do. I do play Fortnite. Don't sell yourself short. I do have a Fortnite addiction, I guess. Yeah, that is something right there.

All right. Oh, how about this guy from at Brandtendo64? You know that bloke, right? He's Bisping's video guy. Oh, is it? Wonderful. Yeah. He's a P1 MK guy, too. He says...

Well, he should put in a good word for you because clearly michael this thing has not gotten the same uh yeah no he was cool by the way with that high core i saw some responses from oh yeah he didn't watch it but uh luke had you know reached out to him ahead of time so he was like no those guys are just fooling around yeah all right cool um how much has the flyweight division evolved how do fig and moreno compare to mighty mouse um that's an interesting question shack because i i think it's i don't want to say a lack of evolution because in general like the best thing you can do is go on fight pass and watch fights from 2008 then 10 then 2012 then 2014 then watch a fight from 2016 i mean the evolution is

constant but I think it was getting rid of Demetrius Johnson. And then even Cejudo who did a great deal of job of saving the division. It's just made it now parody in an exciting parody. And it's, it's just awesome more than damn. These guys have evolved to, to they're all killers now. I mean, okay. I don't want to give Henry too much credit. Like, we really played up that TJ Dillashaw's Thanos, Henry Cejudo's coming in to save the world. He won that. He turned around immediately.

I was like, okay, I'm going for the Bantamweight belt. Now, you don't hear featherweight on his lips at all. To your point, though, Mighty Mouse going was probably the best thing for him and also the best thing for Flyweight. I think Mighty Mouse would still be a top five guy. You've got to remember, when he lost to Henry Cejudo, that was not a robbery. That's not anything close to the truth.

Nobody talks about that. A lot of people thought Mighty Mouse won that fight, myself included. So to say that Henry Cejudo, if he stayed at Flyweight, wouldn't be competitive with Davidson and Brandon Moreno, I think you're just lying to yourself. included so to say that henry cejudo if he stayed at flyweight wouldn't be competitive with davidson and brandon moreno i think you're just lying to yourself i think mighty mouse could possibly still be champion if nothing else top three top five i mean look how competitive jose aldo still is now that he's made the move down to bantamweight um but in terms of action it's funny because we went from brandon moreno being part of those flyweight cuts to being one of the most important

fighters the ufc has under their roster right now in terms of the global expansion flyweight cuts to being one of the most important fighters the ufc has under their roster right now in terms of the global expansion flyweight is fun flyweight is all action flyweight is starting to draw from these different markets and it's poetic because it's what flyweight deserves after getting trashed on by fans by dana white to go from you know on the verge of extinction to being a really reliable co-main event, firefight, time in and time out. I'm just I'm really happy for everyone in that weight class. No, absolutely. And it's unfair. I always have to add this disclaimer because I think it's true.

It's unfair to DJ because, you know, when people called him a decision fighter, he just started finishing dudes left and right. Like he did everything right. You know, it just it didn't click. It didn't work. And Dana also never put that gold stamp on him and when dana doesn't do that also can we point out how late the ufc was to really like one thing i always kind of talk about when i talk about ufc marketing fighters is sorry to bring you back to pro wrestling what the attitude era did tremendously is it it gave every wrestler top bottom on that card a writer work with. It didn't matter if you were in the main event or if you were losing every single week. You had someone helping you define your character.

The UFC never really tapped into Mighty Mouse's gaming market until after he left. And now we got Twitch watch-alongs. We got Let's Plays with Stephen Wonderboy Thompson and stuff. I'm not saying that would have made him a main event star, but it would have. I know a lot of gaming fans. In theory, you're right. But that's not the ufc's market though at the end of the day like like obviously coming out market now like they're starting to bleed into it's not going to be make

you the main event star but i had a lot of gaming friends who only knew mighty mouse and they never okay that's encouraged yeah yeah i have a lot of i know a lot of friends who only know mighty mouse from gaming and they never really welcomed that market until after he left and they really do go after it now. Yeah, and now they'll benefit from it when you got like a Sean O'Malley guy or you got anybody that's young, hip and plugged in.

I just think, man, it's evolved so quick that that was almost a different era even then when they had that opportunity. Let's keep it rolling here and I hope, I think DJ is getting, is he getting that one championship rematch against the guy that beat him? era even then when they had that opportunity but uh let's keep it rolling here and uh i hope you know i think dj is getting is he getting that one championship rematch against the guy that beat him uh i mean i don't know why he would he got smoked um i know he's got a fight coming up but there's still some give him one fight he's still got some stuff left in him yeah i know he could win but

i just i you know i know i didn't get to it with Tony Chandler. It's just like, give these guys some breathing room. Give them a chance to, like, why do you have to throw them to the wolves constantly? Same with Conor McGregor. Dude, take a fight against someone a little bit. Take an ADS fight, something that's a little bit more manageable, because you're not doing yourself and the legacy you want to reattain any favors by constantly going against the top, top, top guys.

Well, sometimes you just need to be busy, dude. You just need to be busy to be at your top form. McGregor's learned that lesson the hard way. And thank you, though, by the way, for as much as I'm putting so much coal in the stove lately to keep the fire going of underrated Henry Cejudo, no Luke, he really could compete potentially with Volkanovski. You don't know how great this guy is.

At the same time, your point about, I don't know how great this guy is at the same time your point about I don't think he actually beat Demetrius Johnson in that fight I think the judges got it wrong and Johnson had like two major injuries he was fighting through and had already beaten him before even though Cejudo used that win to really springboard

you know what was that brief but incredible closing run look how look how close the margin of error can be right i mean you know we he suhudo might not become the real that he is now you know if had that division had a decision excuse me gone the other way you know um from at clp film did vanessa demopolis previously mentioned just become bc's new favorite fighter clearly i hear you bring her up every episode. No, not my favorite

fighter, but it's a fun kind of crazy, right? I like characters like this in this game. Not to be lame, but the thing I've learned from talking to fighters is there's so much you could... When she says that a lot of her jiu-jitsu skills comes, I know it's easy to make fun of it, and it is hilarious.

But I believe her. Like, Izzy, Cyril Gan, like, these guys pull a lot of stuff from dance. Raging Cajun Johnson, former UFC fighter, used to do a podcast with him. He has a podcast with him. He has a breakdancing background. That stuff really has an impact, especially popping and locking and being able to make really, really sudden, abrupt shoulder movements and hip movements and stuff like that. It's hilarious,

but I'm sure there's something there. I fully believe her when she says her jiu-jitsu is all her homework. But I'm not even coming at it from the angle you're probably assuming I'm coming at it. I'm just coming at it from like, it's like a character in a movie. Like these type of personas, when it's Big Tuna or whether it's, you know, whomever. It's awesome, yeah.

These folk heroes. Remember that dude, Spike Carlyle? Was that his name? That dude who had that brief cup of coffee in the UFC? Oh my god, he was amazing. I can't remember. Did he go on like an anti-Jewish tear or something, an anti-Semitic tear or something like that?

Oh, I am unaware of that. So I'm certainly not supporting that angle. But, you know, characters like that that can come in. And that's the thing I wish the UFC would do more of. And I know, man, dude, you know, talking to some fighters is like drawing blood from a stone. It's just impossible, no matter how enthusiastic you are but there are characters that i think i don't think the goal always has to be in the ufc um the best fight the best you know this isn't there's

room to make legends fights there's rooms to have guys like shout out to shauna malley he's not fighting the top guys until his price tag reflects that. And I'm all in support of that because he still draws. Why does he need to fight the best guys all the time if his incentives are financial? And I think there's a lot of guys like, for better or worse, Spike Carlisle, like Big Tuna, where

they can be, they're never going to sell the card, but they can be a meaningful component in telling people to tune in. I think we need more of that in MMA. Yeah, there's a line. You've got to be competitive. There's a line, but there's also a way to do it. And to do it slight of hand even, feeding sometimes

softer matchmaking to give somebody a chance to become something. You could just as easily argue there's no place for forcing that. The best still fight the best. Whatever. We'll see. There's room on a, for forcing that. And you know, it's the best still fight the best. Let's let's whatever. We'll see.

We'll see. But you know, there's room on a card for all kinds of weird matchmaking when it makes sense. Yeah. From at Brandon class in 26, seeing the deficiency in Cyril guns, ground game.

Do you still believe gone is the harder matchup for John Jones? Hmm. Jack, I'm going to say no. I think Francis is the tougher matchup for John without question. Yes. Yes. I'm inclined to agree with that. I think Ciro Dugan, like, people are

kind of hounding me on it for online, but I really think he gave away that last round. That's not to say he intentionally handed it over, but sitting back that leg lock was such poor judgment i don't know i guess maybe he was under the impression that he was down three to one i know he was on one judge's square card he was under that impression shack his uh fernan lopez told him that after what rounds three and four you're down you you know that i mean that bad call fernan l Lopez is an amazing coach.

Don't get me wrong. I can't see the fight the way he can, especially cage side. But it was so close. Even if you thought he was down 3-1. And obviously you can foresee him take down to leg lock unless that was called for. But in reality, it was close enough where I think in a situation like that, you just split the difference and hope that the judges lean in your favor or at least see if you can work yourself to a better position but

I agree as of right now I think he was in the wilderness I know that it makes sense that people look at that as like a turning point or the thing that won it for Francis you know the big mistake and in reality obviously it was but to me even though if that moment didn't happen,

he still could have won that final round and it was very close. I just think those last three rounds, dude, he had, I mean, he was just hanging on. I mean, he was just really hanging on. Like, it was lifeless enough that even if he had pulled that out and gotten a close decision, he still would have looked bad. Yeah, I think Cyril Ngan, give him a few more years and I think he's going to be that guy. But as of right now, without a doubt, Ngan is a tougher matchup.

All right, from at Doug's 123. A-Doug's, A-Doug's. Where does Moreno and Figueiredo rank among the all-time great UFC trilogies I think that's that's that's the interesting question I did ask Chuck Mendenhall about you know how how much how well did the third fight do to really make this you know one of those rivalries um in terms of meaning I get what he's saying where it's sort of second tier, but man, these guys are delivered. Okay, there's one fight of the three that isn't as competitive, but I think it's still a fun-ass watch to see Moreno, you know, climb the ladder and get that moment

in the post-fight interview and all that. It's certainly not, you know, Edgar Maynard, but I think, you know, it deserves to be up there. Oh, certainly. And I mean, beyond know, Edgar Maynard, but I think, you know, it deserves, it deserves to be up there. Oh, certainly. And I mean, beyond that, we're looking at probably the first four fight saga in UFC history, which is an accomplishment in its own. I think my biggest takeaway is they did not have a boring fight. Sometimes in these trilogies, you get one that's not quite there. Now, obviously, you know, the first one was a fight of the year situation. The second one you got to finish. The third one, not so much.

But you're not going to have fight of the year three times out. And that third fight was still damn good. I think you owe a lot. I think they deserve a lot of credit for not only the quality across three fights, the fact that they're 1- one and one now is super unusual um the fact that you have to give them a lot of you have to applaud them for bringing back this flyweight division in that sense i think there's actually a lot of value historically when we look back on it but i agree i don't know if there's some for some reason it doesn't emotionally connect with me the way

you know let's say stipe cormier did i don't know why that is maybe because the results were so emphatic you know you didn't have to draw in there you had very clear decisive knockouts but i i think this saga is only going to age better with time yeah i think this has that i mean the comparison might be be in boxing, which you won't get and I respect that. The great Israel Vasquez against Rafael Marquez trilogy, which became four fights and the fourth fight they were both washed and it was unnecessary, but

that three, it just like you watch them and you go, oh my god this is among the best trilogies of all time, but yet sometimes that matchup doesn't make it in the conversation when people are talking about it casually. It's just like this will be pushed off a little bit. But, hey, the fourth fight could change it completely.

I mean, I thought Pacquiao-Marquez, once they got to a fourth fight and did that, it's like it's hard. When you get four fights between two guys and all four fights are great and all four fights were contested for things that mattered on the title level let me ask you a question dude seriously if the fourth fight is great this will be a top three rivalry all time it would have to be i i think the fact that we're going one one and one into a fourth on its own has that merit it's so unique it's so unusually competitive i want to ask you very quickly, what is your favorite kind of fight?

I'll give you mine just to set it up. I love a fourth or fifth round finish in a title fight. I don't like that quick first round knockout. You don't get the drama. I want to see a long fight. I want to be competitive, but I don't want a decision. No one likes a decision. Fourth or fifth

round TKO. Give me that every time i mean that's a great that's a great fight that's a great fight i always prefer the high speed chess i always prefer the the technical thriller that has big pockets of action right is he gastelum well that yeah that's that but that's that but even that's got everything that's an action movie that fight i mean that fight's god i love that fight right i mean come on best fight i've ever seen you're cage side right yeah and it's just like i'm always going to take that to the grave when they write you know boxing broadcaster mma journalist oh yeah he sat cage side at a sonic so yeah the beauty of doing uh being pressed at these ufc events is for you all the time, for me sometimes, you get to sit capeside for the fights.

They make it very clear. It's like, hey, guys, be impartial. Don't cheer. You're there to work. Yeah, don't cheer. But I'll be honest. The first time I went and the first time I saw a UFC fighter get hit up close and how loud that thud is, I'd be lying if I didn't go, oh. And then I'm immediately shutting down.

Looking each way, making sure I'm not getting kicked out. It's hard sometimes, man. No, I get what you're saying. You gotta bite down on your natural instincts. You can't be like Luke Thomas and, you know, you can't, you know, people know that, you know, if you know, you know. Oh my god, he stopped him.

Yeah, alright. But there have been, obviously, because if you love this job and this sport this much and you're blessed enough to be down there and can you know tell these romanticized stories of mythological proportion and how what it felt like um the the best moments are when you sort of involuntarily be like oh my god you know and you look over at the guy next to you and you're like are we experiencing this together as you are you as as I am? Has it hit you yet? It's a lot probably like you

when you go to those EMD raves or GHP raves or whatever. Next Friday, see you guys at Thunderdome. Oh, wow. I'll have to buy a new phone, man. Yeah, we live such different lives, Jack. Alright, to close here from

at J underscore Costa. Once upon a time, Brian. From J Costa with an extra A. When is the BC or Luke Thomas barfing after shooting pregame review NFT coming out? Okay, that would have to be the NFT that would get me to have to know what one is and look into this thing. Do we have footage of this? No, we don't. And I wonder this okay and but

by the way i mean is it on brand for us old ass farts to have a moment like that it is but it's embarrassing nonetheless so if anyone forgot the first pre-game preview on the rooftop with chuck mindenhall we did go hard you know we bought a bunch of mixed drinks or beer or whatever we had and uh we went after it i drank a lot in that one hour of filming um i drank so much that you know some people were like maybe you shouldn't say the word bitch so often you know and i get that it's all fun and games although that episode it did have the it had the magic it had the special sauce but um had the camera still rolling as Luke takes off the microphone, walks in, turns and then vomits into the into the public sink, while mine at least was three, you know, two and a half hours later

at a Mexican restaurant after just sort of eating a burrito and just not feeling it. And, you know, just having that, oh, crap moment. If if that had if the camera had captured luke while we are talking huge you know doc you know mk documentary um must see value that might be that discussion behind the scenes where we go you know we can't show this is there a subscriber goal that would have you know 500k are you are you are you intending that we should consider creating an MK OnlyFans just for moments like that? I was actually thinking this whole time, has anyone made an MK drinking game? Because there are enough tropes on this show

without a doubt to do that in a heartbeat. Yeah, Luke's glasses updating. How often? Pooping? Post-show? Yeah, what is that move called when Luke every 45 seconds is like... It's the one hand, too, right? Yeah, yeah.

Alright, that's it for DMs from Donks. Thank you to our fine Donks out there. Please, folks, like this video, subscribe to this channel here at Morning Combat. There's Shaq Majorey right there, a partner in this walk for CBS Sports, and we much appreciate you filling

in for the vacationing Luke Thomas today, but it's three live shows, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Get on board with the revolution here at MK. Like, subscribe, all that good stuff. MorningCombat.store is where you can find our merch. Luke's going to be back next week. I'm not sure exactly which day, so stay tuned, but Luke's going to be back next week. 30 days free of showtime. Bellator this Saturday night. Don't miss it. Shaq, where can we... You want to shout anything out? Where can we keep following you? Like I said, Luke's not throwing

me enough bones, so I've got to take every chance I can to shamelessly promote myself. All my written work you can see on CBSSports.com slash MMA slash WWE. If you want to see my mma interviews youtube shack mma uh i have one with yuri prahaska right out right now we'll have jack romanson next week ryan bader later today if you're a pro wrestling fan that's the one that's actually like doing great

for me right now so you can type in shack wrestling on youtube to the four of you who care would love that there's not a single m fan who... There must be one. It's me. If it's someone else, it's me. Brian, you've been spending too much time with Luke, man. I knew you had that fire once upon a time. Don't let it go out. I needed to get lit again. I had that chance to sit, I think it was second row at AEW in Newark, and then I gave up

my ticket at the last minute. I've been drifting. That's a butterfly effect moment, man. That could have set you on a whole new course in life. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, maybe I'm free right now and I just don't know it.

You know what I mean? Shaq under underscore foo, Shaq, the K underscore FU on Twitter. Help me. I've got a friend in e-sports who laughs about having more followers than me. So help me, help me kick his ass.

All right. Please buy, buy Shaq's love with following him. Shaq, did you get heckled as a child for your Shaquille O'Neal-like name? Maybe Shazam? Oh, actually, so Ryan Bader and I were bonding over

that, so he picked Darth Vader because the alternative would have been Master Bader, which has been haunting him since childhood. I got Shaquille in high school, so that's the one that keeps me up at night. Oh, wow, bro. That's rough. That's rough.

That's rough. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Okay. I consider counseling after that. Yeah. I mean, I'm in it.

This is my therapy PC. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Shaq. Thank you to the great staff, Maniche, Gaff. We got to see Gaff's mug the other day. I love Gaff. I love these guys. I want them on the show more often. I'll J-Aaron your ass if you turn on me,, Maniche, Gaff. We got to see Gaff's mug the other day. I love Gaff. I love these guys. I want them on the show more often. I'll J Aaron your ass if you turn on me, Corey

Maniche, or I believe that I'm kidding. Uh, thanks to the folks, uh, all the labels that pay me. And thank you to the fans, um, the viewers, the listeners, whatever you, whatever you call yourselves, the P1 donks out there. Thank you for making this job so fun. We'll see you next time. May all your ex-girlfriends still not look too cougarish, right? Not look too thick, right? I don't know where we're going. We out.