MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Bellator 288 | UFC Fight Night Lewis vs. Spivac | One on Prime Video 4 | ep 375

Episode Date: November 16, 2022

On Episode 375 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian have a packed preview show for you. The guys preview Bellator 288, UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Spivac and One on Prime Video 4. The break down everything you need to know about these cards. The guys also discuss PFL announcing their PPV Price and play a little over/under. As always they close Wednesday with fan submissions. (16:30) - Bellator 288 Preview (46:00) - UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Spivac (70:40) - One on Prime Video 4 Preview (82:30) - PFL Announces PPV Price (93:00) - Over/Under 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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Reveille, 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 Hey, lots of ads today

Welcome to Morning Ad Read Hi, I'm one half of your hosting duo my name is luke thomas i join you from the capital of astatis unidas of course it's morning combat and i'm joined by my uh editorial partner and uh rastafarian brian campbell hi brian how are you hi luke lights out this Gorilla Radio. So turn that shit up. We're back. We're back with a bang. Hey, you ever just wake up completely hungover because the weather changed last night and you're old as balls? I mean, this is great. I can't drink anymore because of my liver, yet ups and downs the growth of men i think in reality we're watching the the slow death of uh two once proud men dude it took it took me like today's wednesday right so i felt pretty good yesterday by the afternoon but now i feel better i mean i didn't wake up hung over anything but took a solid three days to get over last week man that shit is brutal um but uh you know no one

cares about us aging unless we die in which case they'll make fan subs about it speaking of which seriously if one of us dies on the job we better get that kind of overzealous david bowie reaction that people on my facebook timeline that i know for damn well ain't own a single bowie album their whole life but then they're like this man has touched me and inspired me in so many ways. We better get that same shit from our MKP ones, all right? You better start writing my own bit now. I just want to make good content. If I'm going to croak this year, I prefer it to be on camera.

And then they can make YouTube shorts out of it and shit, you know? That would be... Yeah, that's fair. But just good content. You know what I mean? I'd like to see you go out like Gigi Allen did, Luke. Naked, drugged out, eating his own shit. I mean, it's apropos for your career up to this point.

But it's been great working with you. And, Luke, how about this? How about Room Service Diaries, Laura Sanko? Okay? Okay? How about that? How about this phenomenon that is a wholesome interview between three consenting adults, right? It's great.

I don't know why the word consenting was introduced into that sentence because i think i think our audience wanted that to be something it wasn't i mean it can't can't we have constructive commentary about like the journey i mean what did people want me to do in that interview take my pants off i mean come on i mean this is ridiculous so were you wearing sweatpants and a drug rug i mean you totally had divorced dad eating hot pockets on a on a sad Sunday energy that whole time. Well, I would need a ponytail and a bald spot and possibly a sports car to really keep up with that. But, you know, midlife crises are what they are, Luke. So here I am.

But no, thank you to Laura Senko for joining us. And if you haven't checked it out, youtube.com slash morning combat. We got another great one coming for you next week. But Luke, sit and chew on this one. It was uh you know these things luke these rsd things at a certain point you and i stand back it is going to be what it is going to be and they've been beautiful and they've all been different so far so i've really enjoyed it yes each one is a little bit unique um still have i still don't think we've quite found our groove with it yet to be candid with you but uh that one was a good one the anthony smith one is a really good one as I still don't think we've quite found our groove with it yet,

to be candid with you, but that one was a good one. The Anthony Smith one is a really good one as well. So they're on their way. I just haven't quite figured out exactly how to do them yet, but the more the merrier, certainly. You just keep being you, Luke, okay? Just keep sitting in that large chair with the loose spring. I know what's going on. Yeah, I know. spring i know i know what's going i know yeah i know i yeah like wow that man you are you are hard to tolerate let me just put it that man's prostate

is so massaged i didn't understand it sit in that chair one time okay first of all the chair isn't large the chair is small that's the problem it's hard for me to fucking move in that thing uh yeah so anyway neither here nor there i mentioned fan subs. We will get to that at the end of the show. Plus, we have a lot of other stuff to get to, including there's not one, not two, three MMA events this weekend, two on Friday, one on Saturday. There's Bellator and one on Friday.

And then UFC has a Saturday card at the Apex. Not that great of a card, but good news is the one card's pretty good. The Bellator card's actually pretty good as well. So your Friday night is going to be very busy here here we'll get to all of that here today plus we'll do i think some over unders as well so thumbs up if you're watching on youtube please hit subscribe we appreciate that when you do uh of course showtime.com is the label that pays you can go to showtime.com get a 30-day free trial if you'd like it you can keep it if not you can bounce

that will come in handy for friday's bellator should you choose to watch. Let's see. Also, morningcombat.store. You can get a shirt like this. BC, are you wearing it? You got the All the Smoke merch, so you're doing the whole Showtime bit. Yeah, I'm representing one love, Luke, okay? One love is what I'm representing, but I've got a lot of love for our merch site. Do you know I talked to avid fisherman, RJ Dunkelfucker, who has a big catch for our listeners this week, Luke.

If you go to morningcombat.store right now, there's a little line in the middle of the screen that says, insert your email address. Like other great merch houses of all kinds of products, morningcombat.store has got a Black Friday deal coming up that I've heard is fan-frigging-tastic. But the only way for you to access that is just give RJ your email address. Okay. You'll, you'll receive back the link. You'll get all the inside scoops. All you have to give them is your email.

No car titles, no nothing. You know what RJ does with that information, Luke, you know, we can question, but until we find that guy in the act jeopardizing what right now is a flawless employee record, I've got to stand by him as a decent human and say, hey, folks, give him your email because you're going to get back a lot more in return. All right, fair enough.

And then let me see, what else have we forgotten? Oh, let's get to our regular, I mean, do we have enough? We're 15 minutes in, we're still doing reads. All right, let's talk about this partner though because it's one of the most important ones, longstanding relationships that we've had. How about Athletic Greens, BC? Take take athletic greens every day because we want better

gut health more energy we don't like taking a bunch of pills and vitamins and some people like wow athletic greens and mk great partnership it might actually be a secret intervention from our staff but if it if it is hey guys guess what it works you know want to know why because it tastes great i don't want to be tasting shit that's too healthy. I don't want to be. How about a slightly tropical citrus clean taste? One scoop every morning. Put in your eight ounces of water. Mix that up. Hey, I throw it in shakes as well.

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Adaptogens. All the things you may be lacking in your day-to-day. One scoop, one cup, one drink. I mean, can you get, you know, you don't need two girls. One cup right here of AG1. It's lifestyle friendly whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free, or gluten-free. It contains less than one gram of sugar no gmos no nasty chemicals or anything while still tasting good yeah it's so easy to use i even take it with me on the road luke on live stream days to help me prevent you know i'm literally to prevent dying

like i do on the road but so convenient you can travel with it and whether you're you know luke's always talking about keto paleo vegan all that stuff whatever you are this works for you because it contains less than one gram of sugar so i'll get on that it also costs less than three dollars a day so if you already wreck you know if you already got a vape habit a cold brew habit a you know fading milfs habit i've seen luke search history you know you can consider them seniors they have to eat too but at the end of the day cost less than three bucks to take a take a nice healthy bite out of your own health and start it properly with this magical green drink fruit flies are apparently optional though in the luke thomas no it's a fucking moth in my room out of nowhere.

All right. Right now, it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition, especially heading into the flu and cold season. Hello. It's just one scoop and a cup of water every day. That's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health. I mean, 7000 people given a five star review can't be wrong.

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Go to athleticgreens.com slash morningcombat. Make your first purchase, and they're going to toss in for free a one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D drops. I take them every day as well. I'm still living. And those five free travel packs that we talked about. So it's really up to you folks. Okay. Here's a way to kind of start getting,

take a little bit of your life back. Okay. Your liver's not going to make it to the end. It's just not. Again, that's athletic greens.com slash morning combat to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance all right bc let's get to it we'll start with topic number one here as we mentioned three mma events this weekend we're going to lead with bellator um the bellator card in my judgment is probably the best one this weekend now one has two champ champ fights so that's a little bit of a different thing but what i would say is the ufc card while it's on saturday and, and UFC is obviously the biggest promotion, the Bellator card, and again, they're not equivalent because this is a really good Bellator card

and this is an Apex UFC card, but it's got the most... I'll say this. Of all the fights this weekend, I'm most excited for, the number one fight is on the Bellator card. So let's start there. Bellator 288. We've got in the main event, BC, Vadim Nemkov, who is still technically the champion as the underdog at plus 185 taking on cory anderson the first fight by the way anderson at a minus 215 the

first fight ending in controversy anderson was winning the whole way then there was an inadvertent headbutt called called the whole thing off bc what's the story of this fight it's the tournament it's the rematch. Anything more to it than that? No, I mean, look, insanely high stakes with the title, the tournament championship, and the $1 million prize at the end of it. We got a two-and-a-half round, three-round sort of sampler into what it might look like, which I think is why you see the betting odds as they are, minus 215.

Anderson is the favorite. Nemcov plus 185. But I do want to repair a couple things that I feel like the general consensus became after that first fight. Was Corey Anderson in control at the time of that accidental headbutt, which opened up a bad cut over the left eye of Nemkov? Yes, it seemed that way. This was also a five-round championship fight, so I don't want to just write off or reframe this as one-way traffic or one-sided domination. Here's a little recap if you missed it.

First round, very close. I edged Nemkov. It was largely a jab battle. I thought he slightly did the better work. Second round is where Corey Anderson began to establish himself, working that single leg and just working it to the bone, getting some good ground and pound off of it, and really letting Nemkov know this is the way the fight could go. But, Luke, in that third round, even though Anderson's striking was the better work overall, you did see Nemkov put him into a choke on the ground that was somewhat hairy.

My whole point is this. At the time of the stoppage, and you hate to see a title fight kind of end like this, just as much as you hate to see somebody get the win, maybe like, uh, like Karmush did recently, where you're sort of like, man, I didn't, you know, I did, she really win it. And I'm not, no, she didn't in this case, Luke, as much as I don't like waiting to get the result. Um, this is probably the best course of action. Anderson was getting the better work, but this is going to be a five round fight. I believe these two are going to counter and trade and make adjustments the entire fight. I don't think we have all the evidence that we think we know already to really sort of look at this.

This is still the same thing it was coming in the first time. A great fight between two of the best 205 pound fighters on the planet. Corey Anderson did seem though to get first blood and show you that he's got a little bit of an edge as as things stand right now all right let me ask a few questions here because we're talking about the tournament finals that were already supposed to be decided hopefully we get a decision or at least some kind of resolution I should say uh this time out so that's part of it you know million dollar prize that's part of it the title that's obviously a big part of it. Is the conversation around the winner of this being arguably the best light heavyweight

on the planet still in play? I think it is. I think people are tired of hearing that. And that was a conversation, in my opinion, that spurned beautifully off of Jon Jones leaving 205 on the UFC side and going up to heavyweight, although we've still never seen him yet. That siding with, hey, man, Bellator's, you know, putting together some big names here. Jones leaving 205 on the UFC side and going up to heavyweight, although we've still never seen him yet. That siding with, hey, man, Bellator's, you know, putting together some big names here.

RIP Rumble. They brought in Yolo Romero. Suddenly you've got this tournament that does take a while from start to finish to finish. But I think, you know, it was an argument that was stronger then when we still hadn't seen somebody of note replace Jon Jones and make a run. Now, at this point, we also still haven't seen that. We're going to get a title rematch on the UFC side between Yuri Prochazko and Glover Teixeira after just an insane war. I do think it's still in play.

It can somewhat be a little bit of a tired reach at times to constantly go here. But these two are so battle-tested. Corey Anderson could not be more red-hot at this moment coming into the second chance here. It's still true to me, Luke, as much as I think it's a little bit of a gimmick sometimes to lean too heavily into it. It's still potentially true. We haven't gotten somebody on the 205 side in the UFC that's clearly made the kind of statement anywhere close to what Jon Jones did, not from the GOAT standpoint, but just from the, yeah, I'm pretty much the best in the world

in this division, this weight class at this moment. Yeah, that's still up for grabs in some way, especially if one of these guys can do this spectacularly. Yeah, I mean, obviously the current UFC champion in the area would be a difficult challenge, but you would imagine he leaves so many openings, he could be beaten. Glover has been beaten by Corey Anderson,

so we know that to be true as well. But I would say a guy like Magomed Onkolaev would that's a tougher fight I feel like but to your point like is the conversation at least around the winner of this being considered the best 205 or I think you could make a case for it certainly depending on how this goes and whatever else we see in the UFC these guys are minimum top three. I mean, I guess you could say top five. Yeah, winner of this would be top three. Top three bare minimum in my view. Massively important fight. Now, we've got some audio around this. We actually had Corey Anderson

in studio for RSD. He's been doing actually a fair amount of media all the way around. He was asked about the first fight with Vadim and what he learned. This was his answer. It's like I said, again,

I like to say, speak things into existence. If you go back after the barrier fight, I did the media and they said, what do you think about Vadim Nemkov matchup? It's like a hot pocket. You put them in the microwave, they come on hot. You don't want to touch it right away. You just got to wait a little bit. It's going to cool down. I said,

he's going to come out like a ball of fear. He does it every time. But the thing is, most guys, they're worth it with them. They're trying to keep up with his pace and they get tired. The thing is, I'm a cardio machine, so I can keep up with that pace. And I'm going to turn it up just a little bit. I said, I'm just going to wait. And when he starts slowing down, I'm going to take over. So it was really, there was really no surprise. Like, it went exactly how I expected. I told coaches, and he said in the back, don't rush anything. It's five rounds. Every time you rush something is when you get caught.

Remember, it's five rounds. First round, we might lose first. We might lose second. You still got three more. Just be patient. When you see the opportunity, take it. That was the game plan. We knew he was going to come out fast.

He's going to bounce. He's going to bounce. Just stay with it. When he started hitting me, I remember I started getting frustrated. I wanted to rush it. I was like, nope, stay calm. We're going to start rolling with it. When he hits you, just roll with your neck. Just let it roll. Don't let it catch you. Don't let it knock you out. Let's just roll with it. He's going to slow down in a second. I started slowing down. I'm like, all right, now we're going to start countering back.

All right, you ready? Pop, pop, pop. All right, now he stopped. Now we're going to lead the dance. Pop, pop, pop. All right, now it's time for that first takedown. We're not going to get it. We're not going to get it. We know he's ready. He's young. He's ready. He's early. Shoot. We got him. He's going to defend. All right. Now he feels me. He feels me. We're going to do it again.

Now look, I remember it was like a minute and a half left. I said, all right. I'm going to wait. We're going to move. Last 10 seconds. I'm going to put him on his ass at the last second just so he knows. I'm going to take you down. And sure enough, you see, I'm looking at the clock.

And right before the bell, I foot swept him until his butt hit the mat. And I got up and just looked at him. It's not. You know. You know. I'm going to take you down. You're playing a deeper mental game than you get credit for yeah cory anderson talks kind of like he fights like in these like long and then these long bursts and again then long bursts and then again long bursts uh yeah he's right

that's exactly how the fight played out although vadim nemkov is certainly a uh interesting customer now he mentioned something in that interview BC with us where he said you know listen my friend told me now he's got tape on you he's gonna have to come out different what's the biggest change you think Vadim Nemkov needs to make I'm gonna I'm gonna say up front takedown defense and scramble ability has got to be better oh 100% that does but I don't think i don't know you i would like you to respond luke to my sort of opening rant where i said the narrative is that anderson dominated him i just don't see that to be true he was in control of the fight yes did what he just say in that sound bite kind of play out into what we saw yeah he put on a high pace it was a strategic one but there

were these bursts that definitely were meant to cook up Vadim, as he would say, a little bit, which basically just means slowly pull from that gas tank. Nemkov's best work was done in that first round, a tactical one, but one in which he was the most active that he was in this fight. And when he's allowed to get off with that power jab and those hard kicks to the body and the threat of that high kick, he's very good. So what's the answer to your question? In my opinion, it's getting that cardio to an even higher level, which means who potentially can benefit the most from that freak occurrence of that headbutt and us restarting it.

In my opinion, it's Nemkov from the standpoint of now he knows how much of a dog Corey is. He knows the best strategies that Corey's going to go after him with to try to nudge on that. He's doing, to your point, a ton of interviews and talking about this fight. I need Nemkov to come in, in the best shape of his career, prepared potentially to not just strike for five rounds, but to have to consistently prove that he can keep his back off the mat or when he is on the mat, that he can stay the submission threat that he was with that choke attempt, but not be there to be hit, not cook up on some damage. So in that regard, it is going to be interesting to see the, the adjustments that Nemkov makes. But do you agree with me that there was from the standpoint of, Hey, there's still two plus rounds to go at the time of that head, but we don't really know what the ending of

this fight would have looked like. Or do you feel like you saw enough to know at that point? I'm interested, Luke. So, no, we don't have enough information to know, and I think your point there is well taken. Like, declarations about how we know this would have gone had it continued, I don't think is true, but two things stand out.

One, Nemkov was kind of kicking everyone's ass. I mean, the Phil Davis fights, you know, or fight whatever was not, you know, Phil Davis is hard to beat and make look good. But this is the point. No one had really kind of put it on Vadim Nemkov in Bellator up to this point. Like no one had really kind of stuck it to him

where he was fighting off of his back and he was trying to figure things out. Corey was able to do that. And you're like, wow, that's kind of interesting. The other part was that as the time wore on, I just didn't like some of the tactical things I was seeing from Nemkov, like trying to play a guard game against Corey Anderson, trying to frame for arm bars and stuff.

It's like, dude, I don't think that shit's going to work, not unless you really have him hurt or he's really tired maybe later in the fight or something. We always talk about it. It is very, very, very, very,

very hard to submit an elite fighter or elite black belt from guard. It does happen time to time, but it's not easy. It's quite difficult. I just don't think that's a great way to go about it unless you're creating scrambles to get up. So fatigue influenced. Do you think Luke?

No, I think he believes, I think a lot of guys believe in their submission ability in certain positions um but off the back the numbers are clear man like again everyone's like well what about anthony pettis and fucking benson henderson well right pettis dropped him or hurt him badly with a body kick and then he shot and then there was obviously a a a i think it was a was it a triangle choke or an arm bar right there underneath? I forget anymore when they had their, their rematch in UFC, but you get the idea, like you have to do something to them first that really takes away their submission ability. If they take you down

and then you start playing guard again, dude, even for Charles Oliveira, even for the great Charles Oliveira, he's got two submissions that originated from his back. And those were guys who were not considered elite. And it was at 145. So, like, it's just not really fucking relevant. So, I just think he needs to make some separate choices. Also, we can't get away from this conversation without talking about the headbutt. We asked him about the headbutt, how he interpreted all of it, and what it all means.

This is what he had to say. I was playing this to three people last week. So you see fights where a guy with a headbutt and it gives the blood, the referee told the judge, like, don't count that. That was an accidental headbutt. That's all I was doing. I did not tell him. I was not thinking he was going to stop

the fight. I heard him say, that was a clean shot. But I was trying to tell him, like, no it wasn't. It was my head. So maybe he told the judge, like, alright, don't count that damage. That was an accident. I had no idea that it was going to tell him, like, no, it wasn't. It was my head. So maybe he told the judge, like, all right, don't count that damage. That was an accident. I had no idea that it was going to stop until I looked down

and saw how bad it was. And he's still saying, clean shot, clean shot, keep going, keep going. Like, no, it was a headbutt. So I'm thinking they were just going to give him a second

to wipe the blood out of his eye or something. I didn't know the doctor was even going to come in and look at it. They stopped the fight and the doctor from the, before he even stepped in the cage,

he steps at the gate, and he waves it off like, you ain't even come in yet. Like, yo. It was a bad cut. Yeah, it was bad, but at the same time, at least put some fast, let three seconds go away, and then take time to work on it. I was literally just letting him, because I heard him say, clean shot, just letting him know it wasn't, it was,

because Nemcov said something, and I was agreeing, like, yeah, it wasn't my punch, it was my, or elbow, it was because dem cop said something that's all like agreeing like yeah it was it wasn't my punch it was my or elbow was my head just being you see it feel like it was stopped fairly quick i mean is there any is there any validity to what he says luke i did feel like upon re-watching it uh recently that it was sort of like, oh, it's over. And you're like, whoa, whoa. Like there wasn't a ton of attempts made to do to try to repair it. Yeah. I mean, the issue for me on this is that there's just no consistency with some of these calls and certain jurisdictions, referee to referee, state to state. Obviously, the

organization can't play a role here in that way so but you know just in terms of the overall MMA fans experience when you watch one organization in one state with one fighter you get a certain set of results I don't think that what the referee did was by the book wrong it seemed a little aggressive but you know obviously there was that sort of diving headbutt that was I'm sure inadvertent but quite real and then they had to stop it. Here's what I'll say. The big takeaway I had for me was that who did this ultimately benefit, right? Whether you agree with the call or not agree with the call, who got the benefit there?

And the answer has to be Vadim Nemkov. I think he was troubled by some of the game of Corey Anderson, the mixing up of the levels, and then the takedowns obviously were a big part of it. This gives him a second chance to get that right in a way where making those adjustments in the middle of the fight are going to be much much harder than between them I think this is going to be a harder fight for Corey Anderson but now he tells us he understands that he's going to have some new twists I look forward to seeing what they are uh yeah for sure he bet Nemcoff benefits from the way this went down I

mean how could it have gone differently if it had gotten to the end of that round the third round uh would it have now been an official fight and would this have been an anderson victory by technical decision luke uh what are the rules has to go past two and a half rounds something like that okay this was this was midway of the third that the you know toward the end of the third that this happened yeah i cannot remember the exact rules. I believe that's right. What's the alternative? Anderson wins the title here,

and we get off of that accidental cut if it went to the cards, and then we get a rematch anyway. I mean, it doesn't change much outside of Anderson cashing in on that million, but you'd rather see it won the right way. So kind of a throwback to your original question about the potential changes Vadim makes. It's like, Luke, Vadim Nemkov is at his best when he's, when he's like a running back,

when he can start early going downhill, when he can work behind that heavy jab and those kicks. I mean, he hurts you. People can crumble under that pressure when he's in there against more of a, I mean, he hurts you. People can crumble under that pressure. When he's in there against more of a point fighter like Davis who can go long distances, he's still able to use the power and the threat of it to make sure that he gets off enough where he's going to get the nod on the scorecards in those close fights. Anderson represents, it seems, a completely different type of challenge for what we've seen from Vadim in his best win

so far. Somebody that can put him in situations he doesn't want. So my natural reaction was not only to mention the increase in cardio that he's going to need, but here's my kind of critical question on that. Can Nemkov, even with increased cardio, still be that downhill runner when he's allowed to set the terms and take the lead offensively and protect the threat of the takedown at the same time? I've got doubts. I've got legit doubts here. Right. I think that's a great point because one kind of undercuts the ability of the other. He could do both. He could probably thread that needle, but it would reduce the capability of his offense.

It would reduce the vitality and sort of the rhythm that he can kind of get into at times i guess we'll have to see it's a fun one we'll go into greater detail on friday but bc let's talk about this co-main event because this is just a phenomenal con this is the one i like the most and it's not because it's the most competitive in fact the main event vadim nemkov and cory anderson's far more competitive at least on paper but it's patricky fr the most competitive. In fact, the main event, Vadim Nemkov and Corey Anderson, is far more competitive, at least on paper. But it's Patrycki Friday, Patrycki Pitbull. This is the older brother, 155, defending his Bellator title against the ascendant Usman Nurmagomedov.

Now, BC, one of the big things that Patrycki Pitbull has been telling everyone who will listen is that Usman doesn't have a win over anyone ranked in the top 10 for men's lightweight. Let me read you what men's lightweight is right now. Obviously, Petricky is the champion. Nurmagomedov is your number one contender. He's 4-0 in Bellator.

Then Benson Henderson, Tawfiq Musaiev, Sidney Outlaw, Alexander Chablis, Brent Premis, Islam Mamadov, AJ McKee, and then Peter Quigley. I looked up the resume of Petrycki Pilbo I was like well how many of these top 10 wins does he have one he has a win over Peter Quealy he hasn't fought AJ McKee or Islam Mamadov or Brent Premis or Alexander Shabili or Sidney Outlaw he did fight Tawfiq Musayev in Rizin and lost and then you have Benson Henderson and now Usman Nurmagomedov so to me it's a fairly hollow criticism I have to tell you yeah it is fairly hollow I mean there there is a you know look Patrycki's battle test he's been around forever he's always fought the best no one no one here

is going to disparage him but you know there's a little there's a little bit of a little nog big nog difference between the brothers without question. He has a win over Benson Henderson. I apologize. He has a split decision at Bellator 183 in 2017. Well, not only does he lack the wins over the current top 10 guys, but the way he came into the title with his brother giving it up, with him getting a rematch against a guy in Peter Quigley who had just beaten him the fight before, that's not the typical way. Someone climbs the ladder and gets into the title position and then wins it.

Now, some of that might be due to him having been around forever. He's a consistent celebrity name in this weight class, and he's always tough. But no, he didn't. That is a hollow stance to hang on. And when you look at these odds, I mean, minus 600, Usman Nurmagomedov plus 450, the champion. You right away want to be like, nah, these are boxing odds. It can't possibly be. That's not the reality of this fight.

It might actually be the reality of this fight because Usman Nurmagomedov is scary good. And it doesn't necessarily matter that those four fights that he had to get to this point weren't against world. Because sometimes it just screen. I mean, a guy just jumps through your screen. Sometimes that's what Usman Nurmagomedov has been. Yeah. He's got the pressure of being Habib's cousin and coming up under the same

tree. And Oh yes. First name's also Usman. So it's like, you better be able to wrestle, but he can, he's, he's,

he's more in the variety of, you know, Dagestan 2.0 or from the Coach Abdulmanap RIP coaching tree. Meaning, Khabib was so great at one freaking skill. But he got the other stuff, you know, rounded it out enough to still lean on that skill. But look at Islam Mahachev, who just came out, you know, in his first title opportunity. But real step-up fight. He blew the doors off of Charles Oliveira to the point where we're like, man,

the next generation of the Khabibs that come from Abdulmanap, they are different. They're more dynamic. They're more well-rounded. That's exactly what Usman Nurmagomedov screams to us that he might be. And he's like 23 years old, too, on top of that. 16-0. I mean, this guy,

it might be time, Luke. That's not to mention that from a marketing standpoint, you want Habib in your corner wearing a Bellator MMA shirt? Yeah, it's a good move by the promotion here to give Usman the title opportunity now. You know, this is a division that did recently add A.J. McKee and is probably more likely that McKee operates in this division moving forward. The future is bright in this division, Luke. The real question entering this fight on Friday night

is can the old veteran do anything to disrupt this migration and this turnover to the new blood that's coming? The odds tell you hell no. Recent history might tell you hell no. But what are we, we meaning everyone right now, what are we potentially missing? And it might not be what are we missing in everyone right now what are we potentially missing and it might not be

what are we missing in patricky what are we potentially overvaluing in usman or magomedov that could come out over five rounds against somebody who's got knockout power who who's been there before even if he's not as nearly as dynamic as this young kid first of all i'm really glad they showed this takedown here this is the the one on, I think, Chris Gonzalez from his last fight where he baits a movement to score a knee tap. Knee tap doesn't work. That's okay because he keeps his base. He then transitions immediately to a guillotine grip with an underhook,

switches to then a power guillotine, and then finishes the show. Why do people believe in Usman Nurmagomedov? Yeah, okay, he's got the last name, as you indicated, show like why would do people believe in usman numrika made of yeah okay he's got the last name as you indicated bc um but why do people believe in him here is a very good reason you saw it there with that takedown the level of skill mastery that he already shows is so far beyond what the record can tell you and what the opponents can help you understand. You get these little windows of absolute technical mastery, like supreme level mastery, not just with understanding the technical progression of what an attack should look like, but the timing is perfect. The hand placement is perfect.

The way in which he rotates into position is, you can tell he's been doing this very well even though he's quite young for a very long time that is why people have high belief in him is because if you actually know what you're looking for and then you watch him execute it it is done fucking textbook that's why he is legit and bc we just went over this with the main event from UFC 280. Charles Oliveira's resume was certainly much better than Islam Makachev's heading into that fight. That much was not up for debate. One guy's resume clearly had better wins on it to that point. But we kept saying, dude, this guy Makachev just has, he's defensively sound. He makes good decisions,

blah, blah, blah. We went through it all the whole time. Sure enough, he goes in there and just runs the fucking table on Charles Oliveira. I'm absolutely expecting something like that on Friday night. I think Usman Irwin made off. He could be seen, to your point about Petriki, the reason why you should have some trepidation and why I do think these odds are a little bit out of whack is because, dude, Petriki Pitbull is a veteran. He has seen a lot of different looks.

He is well-trained. I would say he's the best version of himself that he's ever been. Heavy-handed, good team, good corner. Like, those are things you should absolutely take seriously, and a guy who doesn't have experience against them, you have to have some level of respect for that. But on the other side, the other things we've seen from Usman Nurmagomedov are simply unmistakable.

Of all the things that could happen this weekend, him not claiming the belt would be, to me, the most surprising, and by a wide margin. Yeah, I'd like, you know, selfishly, I'd like to see this go rounds. I'd like to see Usman Nurmagomedov have to make adjustments. You know, I mean, there's that chance he just comes out here and just blows us away, and this is, you know, that statement bout. But I do want to learn a little bit more.

Can Petriki make him do that? We're going to have to wait and see. But Luke, is it possible? Now, it's tough to make this question audible because not only is Habib just such a unique all-time talent and, you know, all the intangibles are just sick, but so does Islam Mahachev look to be. And up to this point, so does Usman Nurmagomedov,

although, look, he's got to be, you know, some much bigger names before we can include that. But that's the setup for me to say this. We talked so much once Habib retired, and then it was clear he was going to become Islam's coach. And then it was like, okay, you got this potential Habib 2.0. We talked about the whole like, man, that's a lot of pressure to put on any of these guys from Dagestan that they're just automatically going to be good as Habib. Is there a chance we have that scenario out of whack and these guys are going to consistently be better? Not every single one, but Islam, you know, you can argue Islam's the best fighter in the world right now. I mean, literally, like he's got, he's screaming some of those things, even though let's give him a chance to prove it. But Usman and Malcolm Madoff looks freaking

special. Like I can't, one time in some like fill in the blank category or over under or something. I asked you, is there, you know, what would have to happen for Habib's resume as a coach to one day outweigh that what he did as a 29 and no fighter who retired on his own terms. You know,

I'm wondering if this, this team might, we might, we might have no idea what the entire school the team is capable of yeah it might be a different conversation at the end of the day luke that doesn't even it's not even about habib anymore he was just the first and the best that could happen yeah that could happen yeah we'll have to see i mean again makachev did great against uh charles olivera we'll see what usman can do here there's two. I'm going to skip the one on him not deserving a title shot

because I just think that's a fucking silly, ridiculous argument. But the one about Usman speaking about Coach Habib and what it all means, he actually was asked this and addressed it. Here's what he had to say. Everybody wants to get better. Everybody's hungry. Everybody's learning every day.

They're getting experience from the champions, from people who already been through it. But, you know, again, it's life. Older, elderly are leaving. The new generation is coming. That was, of course, Shaquille Majorey of CBS Sports. You can follow his Shaq MMA channel for more but were they trying to induce a uh a seizure out of us with that uh with that shaky cam Luke

yeah that was a lot there that was a lot there but you get the idea a guy like Coach Habib he's incredible not just he he brought to another group of young guys the same things he did to dictate his own championship run. He is forcing them to do. And, dude, he's got a real clear either you're going to do this or you're not going to do this. And if you're not going to do this, the door is that way. And that's just what it is. The proof's in the pudding in terms of this whole Habib as coach thing, if it's going to take off and be legendary. But he's taken the structural foundation of what his dad taught

him and so many others in that school and now added in that experience edge as just a no-nonsense absolute badass always ready down to fight anybody at any time like when i hear these comments from bilal muhammad who just joined that team about you know know, in the various interviews, what's it like dealing with Coach Habib? Yeah, dude. This state, I don't know, like this super team, Luke, they're about to make some noise, okay? Hashtag holy hammer across the entire family and region, okay? Not going to go through the whole card, but a couple other fights here to keep in note.

Daniel Weichel taking on the undefeated Timur Kizriev I did some tape study on Timur Kizriev another one of these fucking hammers from Dagestan a very very good top control very good wrestling very good mixing of subs into takedowns like you just saw there with Usman Nurmagomedov getting the trip and then going over to the

power guillotine Tyrell Fortune taking on Daniel James the one I want folks to pay attention to is the opener it looks like on the main card. Remember this name. No, it's not Bilal Mohamed. Roman Feraldo. Roman Feraldo is taking on LeVon Chokhali. Chokhali is a guy out of Georgia. Good boxer. Has had some losses from grappling, I think, but is a pretty good striker. Roman Feraldo is an unbelievable striker can do all different kinds of magic tricks on the feet not fully tested in the in the in the larger depths of the game this one is a sort of a stylistically I think a favorable matchup for him although Jokoli is obviously very good on the feet

as well but you know he doesn't have to worry about wrestling in that sense uh but Roman Feraldo is a fucking highlight reel if you've not seen him believe me when I tell you you need to make time for him just look him up on YouTube he's got a ton of different highlights the good news is that fans have have you seen the shit I've probably seen every single one of his Bellator fights in that segment because he's 8-0 with I'm looking at it real quick all stoppages all you know all all by knockout or referee stoppage, flying knees in there. Shout out to Bellator for putting him

on the main card now, early now, getting ahead of that because, yeah, this guy is, you know, well, let's see. But, you know, you step up. Remember, Aviv Gozali was ripping off submissions left and right and then stepped up and lost. So you do got to come out here and prove it. But, Luke, I love this card, really.

Seriously, this is going to be a good one. Chicago, Friday night. Do you have a start time here on Showtime? 9 p.m. in the east. All right. All right. 9 p.m. in the east. All right.

So we'll go to one in just a second. Let's go to UFC, which is on Saturday. BC, this card is not that awesome. Not that awesome. UFC fight night. Derek Lewis taking on Sergei Spivak. That's your main event. Obviously, there's some other fights on the card we'll get to in just a second.

Let's talk about that main event. Heavyweight main event, five rounds. I do not expect it to go five rounds. And BC, here's kind of the interesting part. Sergei Spivak has not faced anyone, or I should say he's not defeated anyone quite as high-ranked as Derek Lewis. That would be new, but he's on a surge. Derek Lewis, on the other hand, we don't know. So this is my question for you. Is he on the true decline? Because Sergei Spivak could be knocked out, but on the ground,

he has good takedowns. He's got good subs. Could be a bad matchup for him. In fact, he's the favorite at minus 195 to Derek Lewis at plus 165. Are we about to watch the unraveling of Derek Lewis? It feels that way. It's also felt that way before. Now, have things ever been this dire for Derek Lewis heading into this fight? No, they really haven't, Luke. And he's also fighting a guy who, as you sort of set up,

it does seem to be ready to find out how good he can be. Sergey Spivak has won five of his last six, and he's dominated that certain tier of, you know, the Gusto Sagais, the Alexio Lennox, the Jared Vanderas, those guys. I mean, he sent Greg Hardy to hell in less than a couple minutes. He, of course, lost when he stepped up and got stopped by Tom Aspinall in the first round, but he's letting you know where he's at levels wise he beats derrick lewis he gets the opportunity to go to that next level and look shout out to moldova which is representative here in the main event and the cole main event so uh double shot of of uh moldov mania here but it's like you know

is sergey spivak a guy who's not yet 30, can do some things? Is he a guy that he's screaming that he's ready to get to that next level? I'm not sure yet. I'm not fully come around on this guy, even though, again, he's beating the guys that you're supposed to if you're ready to this point. But it does all come down to Derek Lewis because those losses, and he's now three of his last four, they've been awful in some ways. Okay? Like, you you know when he

stepped up against gone for the interim title i mean he didn't show up that night i mean you know there was the hometown thing of course the pressure on him but he absolutely did not show up and then got stopped by a guy who we weren't looking at as a you know as a finisher striking wise in that fight and you know the tie to evasa won and you know Ivasa is better than we knew at the time. Yes. But Lewis imploded and got knocked around and eventually fell apart, which he tends to do when he steps up to the highest level. But Luke, it's that last fight that's got to have you more scared than the others. You know, there's been hints that Derek Lewis was ready to go. I always thought after the loss to Cormier for the title, we'd never see him motivated again. But he's now 37, and that last fighting question against Sergey Pavlovich in July,

dude, that was 55 seconds. He just folded. Could he shock you if you put plus money on him and get a big knockout here? Of course. And that's always going to be the calling card. But Luke, how much do we look at the Pavlovichich one because that's not oh he stepped up against gone he was going to lose in any way and he may have talked himself out of trying his best and that's not hey man he got into a war with who avasa shit happens dude that was like 55 seconds and you're done dude you gotta be you gotta be nervous for what this means right the thing was like was the tie to ivasa loss lost a turning point? And again, we don't know that yet. But I mean, the commonality is Gonza, not a huge puncher,

but he's sort of technically overwhelming. To Ivasa, a big puncher. Pavlovich, a big puncher. Now, Spivak is not a weak puncher by any stretch of the imagination, but I wouldn't say he's a big puncher. He can land with accuracy. He can land with power. But mostly, if he wins, I would imagine he would win with some he can land with power but mostly if he wins i would imagine

he would win with his some level of his grappling game mixed in there could be ground and pound as a part of that like a tko finish is certainly in play but more than that other forms of control and whatnot so i don't know if this is exactly the same kind of threat which is why if he gets you know bludgeoned here that would be like well that's bad you're right man I um you know you look at that Brad Riddell situation right where he had I think three losses in a row but it was the loss to I think was it the Jalen Turner loss where I just after that he just didn't quite look the same he got two first round losses back to back now here we are burying Derek Lewis he could come out and just blow the doors off of Sergei Spivak but he's lost three of his last four and again the gone one you can

you can write off especially because he came back out after that and knocked the bejesus out of chris dawkins fair i want to stop you there i want to stop you there i'm not going to take the wheel i'm just going to interject this and you can pick up i want to stop you i don't feel like you can write off the gone one when he's had two more in succession with them. Obviously, the one Doc has knocked out in between to show us he's still got life. But even though, again, you can make the argument that that's a horrible style matchup, he's never going to look good against Scott. I mean, look, he absolutely imploded. So there's a difference when Derek Lewis is not injured. He's a much different fighter. There's obviously a difference when

he's motivated enough to get in great shape but it was like it's like in those fights the second he discovered resistance he was done and when that happens Luke sometimes you can repair that if you had a bad camp or you were hurt or whatever dude the fear has to be that it is gone and I don't think you look back at that gone one and just go oh yeah whatever he was never going to win that dude he he straight up shit the bed in that one i hate to say that luke it's unfair for me in my basement to say that but would you agree that there is this there's a spot in his death star where he can be imploded to nothing and you know once or twice that's okay but we're on a pattern run right now it could be true i mean he's had back-to-back losses before all the way back in 2018 and 2019 but that was to daniel cormier and junior dos santos

like so here's the thing bc it's like i do think for him it's hard to shake off the losses a little bit especially as he gets older it's a little hard to to get things going again and at 37 that's going to be the hardest it's been certainly in his life um yeah yeah i do think you're on to something it could be that case on the other hand bc what do we say if all of this analysis ends up being totally wrong he looks sharp he defends takedowns or he gets taken down but doesn't take a ton of punishment shows life gets up you know the kind of classic kind of classic kind of Derek Lewis experience that you're used to and then goes and just blows the doors off of Spivak. It wouldn't necessarily change what his ultimate upside is,

but I do think it would have a massive change about where his current level of ability is because one more time, Sergey Spivak has looked the best he's ever looked in this division, so he'd be beating a good fighter on his rise right as we're kind of being like well is this the end yeah no you're right and for as long as he shows legitimate danger in life as a product losses are never going to tell the full story on him

because he's the perfect tv fighter he can beat anybody on any given night all that but what you just said sets up perfectly the true stakes in this fight if he goes in there and knocks out spivak in a round or round and a half yeah we forget about what recently happened no we don't look at him as a title contender necessarily but we can go back to again believing c-level kane motivated bj every couple fights you know derrick lewis but if he loses and if he gets stopped or if he gasses, that's the thing. You're only relevant with defeats if you bring a certain product to the table. Excitement or you're a great test for the young guys on the way up. But those implosive losses that he's had, in my opinion, although obviously they're fueled by people hitting him really hard,

but I think you get my point. He's just gone. The fight's over. Those suggest something different that if he loses this one, I mean, I don't know. He doesn't get caught, but you take a fall. I mean, he's going to take a fall with a loss here, Luke. This would be bad.

It could be quite bad. You mentioned the co-main event. I don't really have a lot to say about this one. Ayan Kutelaba, or however you pronounce his first name i i can never remember correctly one luke that's right ewan kute laba taking on kennedy and zetch q you uh fine fight at 205 not significant stakes um and zetch q you out of fortis mma huge reach as a winner recall carl roberson heading into this, but consecutive losses to Nikolai Negomirano,

who just lost to Carlos Olberg on Saturday, and then Daun Jung. And in the case of Iwan Kutelaba, he's off a two-fight losing streak, albeit against much better competition, Ryan Spann and Johnny Walker. BC, any strong thoughts

about this one? No, it's not a great fight. Now, it could play out fun in the end and maybe there's a hunch in that and certainly the winner is going to be able to put the recent past defeats behind them and you know try to in theory start and create new life and are both in a spot where they could do that where we haven't seen the best of them yet of course but no luke the rest of this card outside of the one two or three ones we're gonna identify there's some gems on this there's some gems on this right so what i said was the rest of this card outside of the one two or three ones we're gonna identify no no there's some gems on this there's some gems on this right so what i said was the rest of this card outside

of the one two and three fights that we're gonna identify in a second if we get past three luke i'll be shocked my point is no i don't love this as a co-main i don't love chase sherman against waldo cortez acosta after that even though you know why chase sherman is in this spot because he comes to bang and he's gonna make fun tv yeah, let's get into more of the hardcore variety here. So here we go. Super sloppies, too. What do you like the most here, Luke? The main card opener.

Once again, Bellator picked a fire main card opener. So did UFC. Jack de la Maddalena, one of the top prospects in the sport. In the sport. Jack de la Maddalena taking on Danny Hot Sauce. I think his name is Hot Sauce Roberts. Or maybe it's Hot Chocolate. Hot Chocolate.

Yeah. What's his name? You lost your damn brain today. Yeah, sorry, dude. To be quite candid with you. It is what it is. All right, BC, I love this one. Jack Dela Maddalena coming off of the Contender Series some time ago. I think 20, where, when was that?

20, not 21. Since then has beaten Pete Rodriguez and Ramazan Amiv in UFC. But dude, his striking looks so fluid. He can do so many different things. He can attack the body and the head. He can mix, he can switch stances. He is just a clever, clever striker. Danny Roberts has had some good moments in the octagon.

He also has a win over Ramazan Amiv, although that was via split, but he had the loss to Massa Randubo more recently at UFC 274. Francisco Trinaldo, you have to love this one. A battle of strikers, very, very clever guys, well-trained, well-experienced. What do you think, BC? Am I right to highlight this one? You are. I mean, in one case, it's nearly 5-1 odds in the favor of mr madelena mr jack della madelena hey you didn't you didn't think i was going to pull out

the uh well who sang that luke who was that i don't know i don't listen to uh bullshit is that mc brains no who's who who who recorded that great hit mr dobolina you know that one look i had that on cassette single okay wow look at me with not being able to remember the name the point is this while he's a five to one favorite basically you know danny roberts is kind of the right test on this early early rise for him uh all the things you mentioned skill wise technique wise he's got got a punch as well but he seems mentally to be like all about it and i mean all the, everybody wants all the smoke, right? And, you know, especially this great all the smoke hoodie right here.

But he does seem to be like his understanding of the game mixed with his confidence is ahead of where he's actually at right now. And that's when you start to get that itch. Like we got something special here. We got somebody promising. Has though in the first two fights that he's given us on the UFC level at all, Luke, has it shown you that there's any defensive holes? Does he get hit too much?

What are your thoughts up to this point? I don't have his numbers in front of me. We can go over this more on Friday. I don't think he gets hit too much. There is a question of his game's well-roundedness a little bit. Now, when I say questions, I don't mean glaring ones, but just sort of like where exactly is the limit,

where are the strengths, and that kind of thing? We haven't had a full sense of it. And again, UFC, I think, is doing the right thing here. They're giving him a striker. Well, a tough guy with nearly 30 fights, hardly some scrub, but a guy who's going to tilt the game, tilt their fight a little bit more the direction I think De La Badalena likes to fight. So still some bigger questions to be clear,

but this is just a guy who, if you're not paying attention, you really, really, really should. He is destined for something probably pretty special. He's from Australia. Luke,

I was going to get, I was going to guess that he was Welsh. I forgot that I've heard the Australian accent out of him before. And I can't believe you didn't correct me with the Dell, the funky homo sapien. Uh, that was the, the artist in question of that great hit. Didn't really listen to Dell, the funky homo sapien, if I can't believe you didn't correct me with the Del the Funky Homo Sapien that was the artist in question of that great hit.

Didn't really listen to Del the Funky Homo Sapien, if I can be candid. Oh, God, I was huge. I appreciate your candidacy. That was huge. Speaking of candidacy, Luke, DT Sr.'s back, and Colby has woken up and chosen violence. He has publicly backed on social media Donald Trump and not this high riser, this young up-and-comer in Ron DeSantis. Are you surprised?

It's going to be interesting. It's going to be interesting. All right, two other fights on this card, BC, that I know you're going to care about. 125, it's on the prelim card. Jennifer Maia is back against Marina Moroz. Is this the BC super sloppy special? Where are we on this one? It's not, but it's in contention for that.

Look, no, this is actually an interesting fight here because Marina Moroz, she's making a lot of attention for the things she's signing up for outside the cage business-wise. Hey, cool on her, Luke, right? I don't know if you follow her on Instagram. Is she in Playboy? I think she's going to be, yeah. I haven't seen that stuff, but I would only read the articles anyway.

Remember when people used to say that? It was like a classy dirtbag dad joke. Oh, I only read it for the articles. Yeah, but you just outed yourself as an absolute dirt hole. I mean, it was considered classy in the 80s for dads to have side mags, right? Or no? Not even just the 80s. I had fraternity brothers who would live off campus.

You go to their bathrooms, they'd have a stack of Playboys by the shitter. That was a good time. These are college frat kids. I was talking about dads. I wasn't talking about... Well, dads are just college frat kids, just 30 years older and sadder. All right. I like this fight because it's going to tell us exactly where Marina Moroz is as a rising contender.

And she's had some good wins lately, Luke, and she's really starting to put it together, it seems. Jennifer Maia, I don't think she's at the stock that she once was at the time she fought for the title. And let's give her credit, man. You know, I mean, Tyler Santos pushed Valentina the most at 125, but Jennifer Maia made things interesting in that fight. Since then, I'm trying to think of the loss she had, Luke, that scared me.

Do you remember that? I'm going to look it up real quick. Who? Jennifer Maya. Jennifer Maya had a loss that scared you? Scared me on the direction she's going. Okay, so it's the back-to-back decision loss. Well, she's coming off of two back-to-back losses.

So she comes out of that title shot, looks good in a loss, beats Jessica Ai, you should have, and then it's the back-to-back decision defeats to Kaitlyn Chukagian and now Manon Ferreau. Now, I'll take it back. I'm not concerned on any of those in particular. I didn't see an implosion, but I did see back-to-back losses against two of the top contenders who just fought, by the way, for a potential No. 1 contender spot. So this is the right fight at the right time to find out about Moreau's, but on the flip side to see if Jennifer Maia still has it here know what Jennifer Maya can do on the ground Luke when she's able to get off with

her power shots though on the feet she's twice as dangerous she can't always do that against every opponent she had problems finding Manon Faroe consistently but when you look at what's going to be asked of both of them style wise it's a good ass fight that's why I don't put the super sloppy name tag on it Luke this is a good fight for 125 are you in on it yeah no it's a great fight i actually like it a lot it's on the prelim card so you know people might make a judgment about it and its worthiness by virtue of its card placement but no i actually like it a lot but there are some big questions like marina morose how good is she jennifer maya how good is she still right so you're getting a bit of a coming and a going.

And Moroz is not, I mean, the thing is, Maia has losses to back-to-back to Chukagian and Fioro, right? These kind of like distance jabbers and, you know, long-range kickers. Moroz can kind of play that game, but isn't so disciplined with it in the way that Chukagian and Fioro are. So it has some echoes of those fights, but still is very much its own one. So it'll be interesting to see if she can overcome. The problem for Moroz is she's had five fights in six years.

That's really the problem. And, you know, there were two back-to-back decision defeats to Esparza and Angela Hill there, and she's bounced back nicely. She's on a three-fight winning streak coming in. But again, those three fights took place over like a four-year period. So it is tough to figure out exactly who she is and where she's going. The second round submission went over Agapova in March. Obviously, that's the big eye-opener.

It was nasty. She went about her business. I love the pace she set, the intention she had. Now you have to ask yourself, is Agapova going in the wrong direction and not going to live up to some of that early pandemic hype that she showed? That's certainly in play. But if that's who Moroz could be moving forward, and if she's able to do that against somebody as tough as Maya, that's the real what's at stake in here.

Yeah, this should probably be on the main card, Luke. This has better stakes than most of these fights. Let's be fair. All right, and then the one that I know you really, I mean, you're not going to have pants on for this fight. Maria Oliveira taking on Vanessa Dimopoulos. We actually saw Vanessa where? At the Jake Paul fight, right?

Yeah, at the Jake Paul weigh-in where we were interviewing GSP. I think she was there like as a media member. I'm not sure what the deal was, but you know, this is your BC super sloppy special of the week. Okay. And I know you always be super watch with your pants off. Not none of that stuff, Luke.

I just love really high theatrical women's MMA. That's batshit crazy and goes back and forth shades of like, remember the first Ronda Rousey Misha Tag fight under Strikeforce label? That fight was all over the place. Vanessa Dimopoulos makes crazy fights that are all over the place. She'll take big damage. She's a threat

to score surprise submissions after doing so. She's a dog in there. Anytime she fights Luke, she's becoming must-see TV. Now, obviously, the extra training she does on the poleke she's becoming must see tv now obviously the the you know the extra training she does on the pole and she's proud about it that you know that makes fun headlines but she could she could fight she's got the fighting spirit the question is can she fight at this level consistently every time she comes out i'm i'm here to see it marie olivera is going

to provide the challenge as the slight batting favorite, minus 115. I'm sorry, no, Demopolis is minus 105, so this is a virtual pick-em. But don't forget, last fight, Luke, Demopolis was like a 4-1 underdog and came out there and got a submission win. So she makes the craziness. I'm here for it. Are you here for Ricky Tertios from, what was he, a tough fame? I believe so. No, I don't have a strong feeling one way or the other about tercios versus

nativity nativity nativity oh you guys have a nativity scene in your house on christmas uh yeah yeah there's like a christmas village that my wife and son put out on like a table in the hallway and there is a nativity scene in there look because as a person living with hispanic people we have a several of them in this house. Well, I think that's great that you are regularly, actively in your house celebrating the birth of my Savior, Luke, and that's what this holiday used to be about, okay? We don't celebrate my birth on Christmas.

Yeah, I know, I know. Enjoy whatever holiday you want under any terms. I'm not here to bust your balls. But yeah, nativity scenes are pretty cool too, Luke. I'm into that stuff. Are you into anything else on here, Luke? I know you were telling me offline that you're a big Fernie Garcia fan against Brady Heister.

No, the rest of the card is fine, but unremarkable. Not even Rodolfo Vieira against Cody Brundage? You don't like that one at all? Rodolfo Vieira? Here's the thing, dude. Rodolfo Vieira has been... His UFC run did not go as I had expected it to because here's what I had picked up on from his grappling.

Again, one of the best grapplers in all of MMA, right? And he had good takedowns in jiu-jitsu. Like, he had very good takedowns. But I guess going back to it, they were a little bit more gi-based than I remembered them to be he always had pretty good judo for a jujitsu guy um but doesn't have like you haven't seen any evidence of that in the octagon at all and in fact like his like here's

what we talk about all the time people take it for granted like Mackenzie Dern has a lopsided game but when she gets hit she doesn't lose composure Vieira loses composure he doesn't quite have the the sort of centered nature and you know like that kind of that kind of bearing that you need under fire he hasn't shown I mean he's shown to be tough don't get me wrong he's not like some kind of guy who's just sort of getting by despite being tough no he's tough but he loses composure which means he loses his best ability to get his game to the next stage and so um you know i just don't really know what the upside is he looks fucking great coming off the scale but that's you know no i'm not super thrilled yeah well he's he's yeah this i mean are we are we nearing the end here um that's a tough question i i don't have high hopes i'll put it that way yeah people don't like to answering or asking tough questions these days

luke luckily you have me in your life thank god you're here bc yeah thank god oh hey dude did you see i know you don't like when i constantly interrupt the show but did you see rafi on stats of bellator mma fame wearing our fantastic mk uh bomber jacket in the gym and then adrian yanez was like yo man like what up and what was that great line they dropped he said yo that bitch clean yeah i if if rj doesn't come out with an mk that bitch clean shirt like you know or put that on the back of the mr plow jacket i mean it is bomber jacket sizzling right now so i know adrian yanez who has great boxing just great boxing i know he's outed you on social media and said look i'm like a you know mk outed me he tagged you too motherfucker he didn't out he's like he's like i'm like an mkp1 here what the fuck, dude? And our collective answer was, you only get that if you go on the couch, right?

That's like a parting gift that RJ gives our fine people. So, hey, come to the couch, bro. You can get lost in that cushion. There might be dead women in there. I mean, we'll find it together, okay? Because down there, it's our time. Our time, right? Come make it happen.

We'll outfit you in plenty of things, all right? Down here, we all float. cut that people joke about it like dude that bomber jacket is legit like it fits great my wife fucking loves it like it's a legit great jacket so i think that's probably our seriously our best product top to bottom but i will say this about the the drug rugs i know it's got a comedic effect some of you would never go near it it's not only legit in terms of quality it's warm like you don't actually need a winter jacket when you put that thing on so reconsider your holiday options and send your email to rj and you'll get great discounts for black friday thank you very much look black

friday sucks it's weird people go out and fight each other in stores and miss holidays to wait in line outside. Can you imagine fist fighting someone in a Walmart over an air fryer? I mean, you should just leave the country forever. You're the worst person in America. Yeah, but if that's what you're into, hey, why don't you give us your email address and we'll give you deals. That's how it works. Luke, take back

the show. I dated a girl who was wealthy and she still got in line for black friday deals because she just liked the experience of wait this is in high school and she just loved the experience of just standing in lines i used to be like i think i have to fucking dump you you're a fucking idiot like what are you talking about this is well she's good unfortunately luke she's probably as a cruel joke that life served her she's probably been standing in a lot of lines since then you know what i mean the unemployment

the uh the clinic for uh you know std testing luke you know what i mean if they if i'm going to if i'm miscalculating you know if i'm being just she makes money on wall street now i found out so so she jokes on us is she a swinging corporate raider luke yeah something like that something like that all right uh bc now i i'm just going to be candid with the audience i'm not going to pretend to know things i don't know but here is what also i don't quite understand the strategy so one has a card friday night on amazon prime one on prime video for, I mean,

just the worst naming convention you could ever imagine. They keep going back to it, right? Just the fucking worst. Now here's the truth. It's a good TV deal. It's a, it's a,

it's a good TV deal. It just doesn't have to be like the title of your program, right? Right, right, right, right. Now they actually have another card that same day.

They're doing that. They've been doing this for a while they have one championship 163 or i guess maybe the day before i'm not sure how it counts in singapore whatever it is yeah the day after maybe but they're putting these two events back to back the one that's not going to air on amazon we're going to skip in large part because the main event is a kickboxing bout the co-main event is a kickboxing bout. The co-main event is a kickboxing bout. Shinya Aoki is in it, but he's long in the tooth. I will say, Yushin Okami is back after three years,

41 years of age. Yushin Okami is back on that card on the 19th for one. But BC, speaking about one on prime video four, here's essentially what they're doing. It may not make any sense because of weight classes and everything they have not one but two champ champ fights so here's how it's going to work they're going to have lightweight champion christian lee is going to take on one welterweight

champion kiam rion abasov all right and then one flyweight Muay Thai world champion, Rod Tang, who of course fought Demetrius Johnson, is going to defend his belt against strawweight Muay Thai world champion for one, Joseph Lassiri. So you've got back to back one person moving up to the next weight class champ champ fights bc here's what i want to say about this i i've seen i know a fair amount about christian lee um he looks pretty good i don't know exactly he beat timothy nasty yukian who that was the guy that fucked up eddie alvarez and he's beating some other good guys it's only 24 dude only 24 he's a very good fighter and he's got some losses on his record but he you know i don't think that they speak to his ultimate upside at all here's just the thing for me, BC. When you look at these names, also on this card, the one on Prime Video,

the guy who may have ended the career of Sage Northcote Cosmo, Alessandri, who fought in Bellator previously, he is back for the first time since that fight. He's on this card three years later, taking on Juan Cervantes. Bibiano Fernandez is back on this card there's a bunch of card look i'm here for rod but it's a daniel kelly danielle kelly who is a great grappler of the united states is on this card in a grappling super fight hold on let me just say this real quick yes yes yes yes but let me just make a broader point about this card more generally

i've been saying this and i think that it's this is true look they've got a they've got an mma fight and they've got a champ champchamp Muay Thai fight, and they've got a grappling fight. Outside of the UFC, it is just incontestably true that one's got the most unique product for MMA fans or combat sports fans. That much is just undeniable. However, BC, when I read you these names, Kiyomryan Abasov, Rod Tang, of course, hardcore fans are going to know that.

Cosmo Lashandri, you know, all these names I went over before. These are not household American names. These are not household North American names. These are not, not a single one of these names is known to casual fans and so do you agree with me that while they have the most unique product their major hurdle is they're trying to get american fans to like certain sports and names that they just have zero relationship to yes but here's you're right you're right and when it doesn't help that the other two key free agent pickups at the time of demetrius johnson eddie alvarez and sage northcutt you

know didn't ultimately pan out well they did get a handful of fights out of eddie and one of those was in prime time you know when they had that turner deal but um you know it did they did you know both guys aren't active or even with the organization, it seems at the moment. So they never quite replaced that in the idea of let's throw catnip out to the mainstream American fan and get people that they know, although they did bring.S. debut, which I know they're still forming now. But I think you do have to ask yourself this, where has there consistently been in this Amazon Prime run, like, more reason than not to tune in for each card? Well, maybe not each one, depending on your level of hardcore knowledge of some of these names. But it's like, that shouldn't always be your calling card, though, to lean on the past. Now, you know, a strike force, a Bellator, anybody who's, you know, PFL, they do that at times. And I think

you have to do that strategically at times to, to give people a reason to try you out. But after they try you out, you've got to show them how special you actually are. So this has been actually pretty aggressive matchmaking of late from one creating all of these champ champ opportunities. We just saw Angela Lee, Christian sister in a trilogy bout of basically champ champ fights what what does that do though when you match that aggressively it it it kind of forces that american audience who may be tuning in because they heard some news or they watched the dj fight and right away they're like trying to make stars with the best assets they have right in front of you and serving it up it's aggressive but that may be the best course of keeping you there and wanting you to come back. So the next

card, yeah, you know that aging name, but you also know these other guys. I mean, Luke, I'll say this about them. Same thing I said about PFL before their damn intelligent cage just won my ass over. I mean, it's so fucking smart. It's ridiculous. But Luke, if you're all these guys, I want to dismiss you because I'm like, man, I don't have time in my diet for more MMA, right? I'm already watching everything UFC Bellator, you know, everybody else has given me. But then you taste test it and, you know, like a lot of those other promotions that are competing for time, you know, I like it. I like the rebrand that PFL's gone through in recent years. I really like what I've seen out of one so far,

the competitiveness, the hunger, the way the presentation is, you know, it's got some Bushido vibes. It's got a little bit of that Asian theatrical flair, but it's, hey, come tune in. We're not going to fill the time with video packages. We're just going to give you awesome action. In that regard, Luke, let's give them a chance

to win us over by putting the young stars they do have in crazy opportunities. I mean, look, DJ versus Rod Tang was smart. You know what I mean? It's fun. DJ versus Rod Tang, I mean, okay, smart in what sense? Get groceries delivered across the DTA

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So stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one. Don't miss out. Your chance to save in points ends February 23rd. Book at aircanada.com. Conditions apply. It's an attraction. It's a way to introduce people to Rod Ting that didn't know of his wonder, and it was also just sort of interesting. As a fight, it was stupid. As a marketing gimmick, it was very useful. That's the best way.

Because Pride did this shit a long time ago, and the results are always the fucking same, or usually always the fucking same. But as a marketing tool, I think it was quite successful. Who from this card, you mentioned Danielle Kelly, who's in a super fight or grappling match, but who else from this card stands out to you that you really care about? Bibiana Fernandez is back.

Okay, main event, you want to see if Christian Lee here can become a two-division champion. He's 24. His sister is also a star on the rise. They've got another younger sister. This is sort of that young family from the U.S. that is sort of like perfect to pair with a Demetrius Johnson when you're trying to make this U.S. invasion.

So I want to see him go up here against Abasov and find out how good he really is because I haven't watched a ton of him. Rodteng's automatic. You know, the names you mentioned, I kind of know them and remember them. But look, I had a lot of MK users DM dm me specifically and say bro start following danielle kelly on instagram and i think i know the reason why they did but what i ultimately found out was she's seems to be an up-and-comer in the submission grappling game has intentions of taking that

over to mma and is you know, from Philadelphia and, and has a big following already. I'm just becoming aware. BC, I've got some breaking news. I was going to ask you, Luke, if you thought she was a prospect to watch in that regard, or do we just have, you know, grimy fans that, that, um, you have grimy fans. You have grimy fans. We have grimy fans, uh, very quickly, uh, breaking news. It's official. We knew this was kind of coming, but now it's official. Okay, Yair Rodriguez is going to fight Josh Emmett for the interim featherweight title in Perth, UFC 284. It's official.

Yeah, they had kind of made it official, official the other day, but now it's officially, officially, official. They didn't make it official before. Yeah, they did. Some people said we kind of missed it in the interim. We should have said it on Monday. It was already was all right well fuck me then fuck me then uh you know what i mean i love that hang on by a thread i love that freaking fight okay um do you want me to talk about that or are you going to answer my danielle kelly question the danielle kelly question she's an interesting black belt she has not won anything to date

in terms of like um i don't think at the black belt level she's won a world championship she certainly she did well i think at the adcc trials but i don't think she's got anything beyond that in fact she had a grappling match with flow against tammy musumechi that's the brother of the other musumechi who's in yeah mikey yeah mikey musumechi yeah that's mikey who who is who is a nerd that loves pizza um so does our mikey our mikey too you know i mean you know thc infused pizza probably but you know um so she is a very good black belt out of the philadelphia area i believe she represents silver fox bjj so she she has wins over carla esparza in grappling from like you know pro grappling

events and whatnot but um hasn't quite you know she's not over Carla Sparsen grappling from like, you know, pro grappling events and whatnot, but, um, hasn't quite, you know, she's not like Bush. She's not like, you know,

I don't know, pick someone like, um, you get the idea. She's, she's, she's done some good things, but doesn't have that a level win just yet.

Uh, but she's exciting. She goes for it. Should be a fun contest against Maria Molchanova. Um, but look you would agree that everybody needs gimmicks to get the audience to try them would you say that these are better gimmicks than like going the extreme old guy versus old guy route or going the here's the thing like i don't want people to misinterpret what i'm saying it sounds like what i'm saying

is oh nice try but this is no good. That's not my point. If you watch one, and you can look at my tweets after the last three events of these, I've been like, damn, these came out good. These were good. These were really good. I have zero doubt that this event on Friday will be really good for one. But there's this question of like, A, how much is Amazon paying them? Two know amazon's trying to get this sort of hub for sports but like i don't know how well that's going beyond thursday night football and the other part too is again it's like this totally divorced product from the american audience trying to now get the americans to like it i'm not saying that that's not a worthy pursuit i would love nothing more i would love nothing more for this to be successful and i I love what they do with the Muay Thai and the grappling

and how it changes everything. And it gives you access to more high-level athletes than just trying to fight for the exact same pool of MMA fighters alone. Dude, it's great. The one product is great. As much shit as I give to Atri Sitya Tong, the product is great. I just don't know how sellable it is to the average person who cares about mma on even a moderate level this is a tough sell for them is that my only point yeah you know

that's fair that's fair but i guess if you hope that they tune in just in time to see rod tank come out like the ultimate warrior and just like just start starching people luke i've seen that gif where he does that yeah i'd have rod tank fight every other fight each card how about that just keep serving them up you know the equivalent of uber drivers and yeah let them have it uh all right bc let's talk about topic number four here before we get to over under which is the pfl has revealed their pay-per-view price for their upcoming pay-per-view on the 25th of November. It's going to be $49.99 on ESPN+. Let me tell you what you're getting with that if you buy it.

Main card is going to feature seven total fights, including six championship bouts that will crown winners. So you're going to get Kayla Harrison versus Larissa Pacheco 2. Actually, they've already fought before. The three, Luke. It's a trilogy fight. This is the third one? Jesus. Okay, here we go. Even better.

Brendan Loughnan taking on Bubba Jenkins for the featherweight championship. That's actually a great fight. I love that one. Anton Delea or Anton Delega. I never know how to pronounce it. Taking on Mateus Scheffel for the heavyweight. I like that fight. Yep. Stevie Ray versus Olivier Aubin-Morcier for lightweight.

That's great. Delano Taylor taking on Sadamu Si for the welterweight championship. Dude, this fight's going to be good. The welterweight one's sneaky. Delano Taylor for taking on Sadamu Si for the welterweight championship. Dude, this fight's going to be good. The welterweight one's sneaky. I like that one. None of these are bad fights, although this one

is less interesting to me. Omar Yakmedov taking on Rob Wilkinson for the light heavyweight championship. You might remember both those guys from middleweight runs in the UFC.

And then Aspen Ladd taking on Julia Budd. Marlon Marais is on this card, on the preliminary card, which will be free, taking on Shaman Marais, Jeremy Stevens versus Natan Schultz. Megamed, Megamed Karimov taking on Gleason Tebow.

And then, by the way, how do you pronounce this guy's name? Is it Biagio? Biagio. Yeah, Ali Walsh taking on Tom Grasser. BC, here's my question to you. Alexis Brother. Yeah, got it. Yeah.

BC, here's my question to you. Alexis, brother. Yeah, got it. Yeah. BC, here's my question to you. These are all fine fights. Forced to nitpick. Of course, like any fight, you could find something. There's nothing wrong with them. But my question is, number one, how well will this do on pay-per-view? And B, are you worried about the future of the organization that they're moving this quickly into pay-per-view and b are you worried about the future of the organization that they're moving this quickly into pay-per-view not with a weak quality card but understand something what's the

job of the promoter the job of the promoter is to put on fights that people want to pay money to see i don't know that people want to pay money to see that yeah it's like part of me is like well i don't hate not only the ambition of putting your championship on pay-per-view but trying to set this precedent that we're only going to get better in the future in terms of our names and we give you good action already and good lord is our cage just a fucking savant right but you know it's like the selling model it's old pro wrestling it should be get your first round and second round third round matchups for free but then come back and pay for the you know for the for the championship the main event there it's like in theory i don't hate that but

paired with what we already know which is that in 2023 they they plan to aggressively go into the pay-per-view space with at least two fights you you know, under the guise of, can we keep Kayla Harrison happy? Can we keep her getting matchups that matter? And can we give her the things that she would have gotten naturally if, if they had allowed her to sign with the UFC, which was a lesser deal, you know, apparently the one she ended up signing with pay with PFL, but they had matching rights under that guys is this specific pay-per-view compelling or star studded enough to to really necessitate no it's not it again if you're trying to just start that

new precedent where the championship will always be go for it but 49 99 no you know i like these fights a lot and i think if you've been watching even if begrudgingly you you gotta come across around to it pfl's fun it's good matchmaking it's competitive it's all you know it's all it's all good but is it good enough for you to pay for it uh the proof will be in the in the put and in that regard no question about it and i just you know you don't want to see them jump into pay-per-view when they're not fully ready or don't have a plan of attack or don't have access to the right opponents particularly for kayla so you know can you get a cyborg in here can you justify it you know let's see what happens but i'm not holding my breath here on this i want to see these fights i will see these fights you know if i have to pay for them legally and expensive luke that's the avenue i will take but have you ever

heard of uh have you ever heard of uh have you ever heard of uh ben thompson who has a website called uh stratechery i believe it's what it's called no so this is this dude who worked for all of these major companies and now lives in taiwan and started this like independent newsletter where he would break down how the business of tech worked and he would do it with diagrams and all this stuff it was so good that now he has audience with all of the tech giants the newsletter blew up he makes a ton of money because he really understands the business and one thing he said that's true not just for tech but for everyone was that if you've given away your product for free before it's a real bad idea

to then put a paywall behind it after right the best way to put a paywall up is from the word go if that's the if that's the if that makes sense to have a paywall don't introduce it later introduce it right up front because once you've given away something for free they don't want to pay for it then after the fact we've had multiples of these kinds of cards all free or at least you know with the ESPN plus or with their cable subscription, essentially already. And now they're putting it behind a pay-per-view. I mean,

let me just be very clear about this. I would love to be very wrong because again, everyone's like, Oh, we're bagging on these promotions. We're not dude. MMA is better. My job is easier.

My job is more lucrative, frankly, when all of the PFLs and everyone else outside of the UFC can have more success. That's just generally going to be true. But this pay-per-view is going to fucking tank. I mean, when all of the PFLs and everyone else outside of the UFC can have more success. That's just generally going to be true. But this pay-per-view is going to fucking tank. I mean, it's going to tank hard, right?

I don't know who the fuck is going to pay 50 bucks for fights that they used to get for free for the entirety of the PFL's experience up to this point, and you don't have anyone on there that is even close to, I would call, a big star in MMA or a proven pay-per-view talent. And so if they're already going to pay-per-view, because here's the thing, to get people to get paid money and what they want, you've got to go to pay-per-view. That's really where all the money is.

But they don't have any of the ingredients that make pay-per-view successful. I have concerns about them. I feel like you would give that same exact speech to any strawwe weights out there that were considering only fans right luke no if they went to only fans right up front and like if they were just putting up everything for free like if you could just put up hardcore pornography on instagram i wouldn't recommend that put that hardcore pornography behind a paywall yeah please uh all right so back to legitimacy of this so here's what they're lacking they're lacking a

secondary attraction or just star power fight that would justify you if you were on the fence. If you were like, hey, I have watched the season. I do want to see if Pacheco has the punching power to finally give Kayla issues after taking her to a decision twice before that. But it doesn't have the, let me insert the creation I created a while ago, Eddie Alvarez versus Anthony Pettis. Luke, if they had put that out as the, like, you know,

co-main event attraction, come see two legends brawl, I think you got a fighting chance. I love Aspen Ladd versus Julia Budd. Is that even still happening? I thought there were issues in an Aspen Ladd fight. Or did they get a new opponent, or am I just behind the times? No, I don't know. Behind the times, the issue was that Shane Burgos fell off the card as I that's right that's Shaman Marais yeah so I mean okay so you can argue

and say look they tried right they tried to put Shane Burgos and Marlon Marais together but that's not Eddie Alvarez versus Anthony Pettis not that I think a ton of people are clamoring for Eddie Alvarez versus Anthony Pettis but I think you you get my point. It doesn't have any of that here, Luke. So it's got depth to it, yeah. But it's depth you're used to catching for free if you've got nothing else going on. So this is a tough first step potentially in that direction if that direction is only going to lead to more in their 2023 pay-per-view division.

Luke, is that ever going to get off the ground? I mean, what does 2023 look like for Kayla and the P pfl i don't know i got a legit question yeah yeah i feel bad that mma contracts are what they are where as long as someone matches and they've got matching rights for like a fucking year and you know if someone gives them a good offer but the other promotion can match then they have to get they have to go back again everyone thinks that like oh she chose pfl no pfl chose her. Quite the opposite, actually. Someone made an offer and by contract,

she had to go back or retire. She couldn't just be like, oh, I'm going to disregard this. They had matching rights. Listen to that word, right. They had a right to match and they did. And so as a consequence, she has to fight for them. It doesn't serve her long-term interests, it seems. I mean, you know, listen, if you just just do it like yourself a very basic test right pick out the last ufc card pick the top

three fights and look at the google trends around those names and see how high they get right then you can compare them on the same graph with any of the names here pick the top three names whatever you think they are on this card and match them up. And you're going to see a vast, vast, an ocean of difference between the level of searching and engagement around those terms versus the one on the PFL. They don't, they do not have the ingredients to make pay-per-view work.

This thing is going to tank. It's going to tank spectacularly. And, um, that sucks because it's not a function of quality. It's not a function of quality. It's not a function of quality. It's a function of star power. And the star power is just, there's none.

There's none on that card, unfortunately. So we shall see. BC, we are getting closer to the end of the month. And you know what that means. Almost time to select the first ever Money Lion Hammer of the Month. For those of you who may have missed it, a few weeks back,

we decided that we wanted to start spotlighting undercard fighters, not prelim necessarily, who aren't getting the recognition they deserve. Our new sponsor, Moneylion, agreed, so we came up with a Hammer of the Month, which invites you donks, the viewers, to nominate which undercard fighters

blew your mind and deserve to be rewarded for it. Very simply simply go to moneylion.com slash morning combat to learn more on how to enter you can use the qr code on the screen there as well yeah i mean you know there's a few that's blown our mind so far i appreciate people uh using those hashtags we mentioned hammer of the month holy hammer even the people that have used holly hammer i'm down for that, too. But yeah, Luke, whether it was Aaron Blanchfield, Pollyanna, Vianna, there's been a few. It's going to be interesting to see who comes out in the end.

And I like Money Lion, you know, maybe reaching out and giving a spotlight on somebody who's yet to fully break through but seems to be knocking on that door. If we can get our hammer in their hands, that's, you know, as long as it's consenting, that's a boon for everyone, Luke. Well noted. Thank you. Yeah. All right, BCLT. I think legally we were supposed to say that, but yes. Yes, they can go to moneyline.com slash morningcombat

to learn more, to enter today. Thank you. All right. Okay. Luke, let awkward pauses be damned um yeah thanks all right you just gave up there you were like you know whatever it's your it's your turn okay uh luke sometimes we fill time while looking at the latest headlines in combat sports and this is one of those times but it's a good one they call it over under yeah so lt i got a handful of numbers and scenarios you tell me which one's the safer bet now speaking of kayla harrison she recently talked to mma news and they asked her to name her top five all-time female mma fighters like the mount rushmore plus one of female mma history

her answers number five she had a tie between rose and holly number four you wanna three ronda rousey two cyborg and number one the lioness amanda nun So four, the number of recurring names that you would have on your same list in comparison to Kayla. Read her list one more time. Number one, Amanda, then Cyborg, Rhonda, Ioana, and number five was a Rose Holly Holm tie. So there's six.

We're saying that over under, you'd have at least four of those six definitely three not definitely one really oh you're saying you're not saying the number you're saying the total okay the total definitely three okay um would i put rose top five you better yeah probably i probably would so i would have four was it when she's the best luke she's the best okay rose i just want you to know that um usually you'd have four so it'd be a push it wouldn't be over or under i mean look what's the biggest thing what's the biggest thing? What's the biggest name that everyone's screaming that Kayla missed here?

I mean, you could go old school a little bit. Or you could go Valentina right now, Luke. Or you could do that, right? You could do Valentina. You could do, if you wanted to, Megumi Fujii. You could do. Nobody will, though. Respect to Megumi Fujii.

No one's doing that anymore. Can you name one fight she had, motherfucker? It was another time and another place. It's going to become like hoist Gracie in this list. Okay, Luke? I mean, that's really not even remotely accurate, but... Hey, I like putting you on your heels regardless. When Izzy got put on his heels

after getting his heels kicked a bunch, Luke, that's what happened in round five. I'm never afraid late in a fight to try to win it against you yeah dude espousing ignorant opinions is not putting me on my heels just just so that's yeah but it may open you up for a big mistake that i can capitalize on that might be true that might be true um you know i mean let me ask you this because i don't i have never like there's also like old school marlous coonan i wouldn't put her top five but you know I think there's honorable mention maybe somewhere in there.

What about the idea? No, I guess you wouldn't put Misha Tate on there either. I'm just trying to think about all that story class of bantamweights that were around when Ronda was around. Yeah, Valentina would be the one big omission on that list that I think you would have to include for sure. So then you'd have to bounce Holly, right? Yeah, youina would be the one big omission on that list that I think you would have to include, for sure. So then you'd have to bounce Holly, right? Yeah, you'd bounce Holly.

For sure, you'd bounce Holly. Yeah. I would bounce her just on account of Rose. Like, that's Rose's spot, you know. Luke, I believe it's this weekend. Am I wrong on this? DAZN was going to have their new, what do they call it, the wild card division, the X division.

I forgot what they call it, but it's basically crossover fights. And it will be this weekend. But Vitor Belfort won't be involved, Luke. He was forced to pull out of his boxing matchup against Haseem Rahman Jr. But the replacement is somebody you know all too well. Star of the Gridiron, former mixed martial artist greg hardy gonna take on hasim rockman jr hardy did recently win his boxing debut by big knockout we know hasim rockman jr's got a somewhat questionable run to 12 and 1 um the over under i'm asking you here is 1.5, the number of rounds Haseem Rahman Jr. versus Greg Hardy will go.

Wow. You put it at one and a half. This is a Mikey Mormyle production. This is well put together here. One and a half is his overall. Put the graphic back up. I just want to look at this. Dude, you're talking about the two biggest flakes in combat sports, are you not? I mean, but this is a good line because hardy can punch he also may just get

handled or this is really gross and it goes like three four rounds anyway right what's it scheduled for do we know no i've i've been somewhat distant from this i mean i'll watch it right i'd subscribe to disown i'll watch it but um jesus christ um i mean it's gross i mean look this is one of this is the all i mean this isn't just gas station hot dogs this is like like they say so once in a while mass pike and but you know on the way to boston they used to inject the hot dog with the hot cheese beforehand before they put it on the roller now luke that's as grimy and bad for you as you can i mean when you vape so you know as you can get but i still stood in line for that shit luke i still took it down i had to know what it was on the other side of that what was on the

inside of that even i don't know where i'm going oh this fight is one of those look i have to know what it looks like you know i just have to it's one so it's four rounders this fight is one of those. I have to know what it looks like. You know what? I just have to. So four rounders. This fight is what you see when you go into the porta potty at the Renaissance Festival. You know what I mean? Just. What? Somebody just shitting it?

I mean, what are we doing here? Just shit and blood and just all. All right. What? Was the birthing room floor now? I mean, come on. Mikey says the fight is scheduled for four rounds, so it's only scheduled for four.

I'll take the. God damn. God damn. I'll take the goddamn. Goddamn, this is a tough one. Dude, Mikey only puts tough questions in there, all right? You know what? Fuck it. I'm going to take the under. I'm going to take the under on this one. This is a shit show to the nth degree.

But, dude, you admit that Hardy's going to be dangerous uh for like 60 seconds right so does that force rockman into like a shell or does he just go no you can't box i'm going to come out brawn dude i don't know what to make of hasim rockman who's trying to get a hold of this like new style of not new style new way of promoting yourself outside of traditional opponents but the part about that that's hard for him to be a badass while doing that is part of us getting interested is the idea that he's not as good as his name or record would indicate so he's got to like dumb down his game to kind of be considered for these right yes greg hardy seems like the perfect opponent for whatever the fuck they're gonna do yeah'll take the under. I'll take the under on this one.

I think that this one is just designed to be a complete shit show for a very short amount of time, and then that's it. All right. All right. Well, Luke, I don't know the, for our next one, I don't know the source on here, but Leon Edwards was interviewed, and the subject of Jorge Masvidal was brought up. Here's what Leon had to say.

Let's say Masvidal fights Gilbert Burns in December or in January and he gets a good win. I would fight him in April in the UK. I would love for him to beat Burns and then that would be a big fight. End quote. So this is the champion Leon Edwards who's going to have to fight Usman a second time already kind of calling his shot. He wants the money fight of Jorge. Yeah, you can't damn him for this. But related to this topic, Gilbert Burns put a tweet out that might be exposing Jorge Masvidal's intention. This is Gilbert saying, just let everybody know that the UFC offered me game bread fighter three times. First was November 12th. He said he needed more time. The second was December 10th. He said he was going to Brazil to fight me. And now he just said no again.

So I guess the B from the BMF doesn't stand for bad. Wow. I think he's implying that it stands for bitch. Now, this is one side of this argument. Who knows on the flip side, but in relation to our over under Luke seven, as in months, the number of months before we see Jorge Masvidal return to the octagon. Last saw him losing to Colby Covington in a pay-per-view main event over under seven months. I'll take the over.

Wow. I'll take the over. Wow. Yeah. I don't think he's in a giant rush to get back. I think he knows that his time in the sport is now quite limited. And he's trying to find the right opponent you would have thought gilbert would have been that guy but at the same time here's the problem gilbert's got a big name coming off that homzat win for sure

but gilbert's tough as shit bro yeah jorge doesn't gain much from a gilbert fight because in jorge's mind he's in that like twilight period where he's a name so you don't really have to earn big fights you're just a name well dude it's just like okay but like here's this is the problem for Jorge he needs someone with a name who also is like a competitive fight and it's like dude Gilbert ain't that guy you know I mean Gilbert's got a good name but he's way too tough to beat could you argue that Masvidal's already reaped the rewards of being an old name without winning a lot to justify it?

Like he got the second title shot that he, you know, you could argue from his performance in the first, even on last minute notice, did it matter? Did we care? Was it necessary? No. Then he got the Colby main event. So that's like, hey, you're a brand still.

Let's put two brands together. To continue that treatment, you kind of have to win though in between and the ufc typically makes you prove that you can win in between so you know he may not have a lot of leverage here in terms of turning these fights down i get why he wouldn't want gilbert so what do you want instead um hamza you know what i mean no no or any of them other hammers on the way up like no good luck good. There's no great answer here at all for him. Or do you want to box Jake Paul or some shit?

I don't know. Yeah, now that's a better fight. Honestly, serious question. Serious question. If for whatever reason he was released from his contract today and the Tommy Fury thing went away, not would they make the fight. Better question.

Does Jake Paul beat Jorge Masvidal in boxing? I don't want to say i fully bought into this because i wanted i want to keep open the idea that if he could get these big matchups nate connor you know jorge obviously the contracts that the lineup nate is most likely now that it would be this great build-up of trash talk and then it'd actually be a war in there but no i'm coming around to the idea that jake paul is pretty darn good for this level and has anytime he's going to have a size advantage over somebody um you know we thought silva would be him getting sunned or hitting his wall but you know it turned

out to be the perfect storm in a lot of ways and what he showed us i think if he goes in there against these smaller mma lightweights and welterweights at this point he should be able to keep him away with a jab, right? And potentially hurt them. I mean, look, you got to prove that these aren't, you know, these are pros, but this isn't elite level boxing, but I'm coming around to where you already are, Luke, that we may need Jake to go bigger. That's why, whether you think Tommy Fury would be competitive or not, it is him going bigger, a quote unquote, real boxer. Maybe John Fury will take his shirt

off and attack somebody I mean that would be fun in that regard did you see Jake tweeted out that he wants or his own quote of him is saying he wants uh February in Manchester or London against Tommy Fury I did see that I did see that I don't you know to me it's like I actually do feel like maybe transitioning to boxing uh what excuse me stop because we like I actually do feel like maybe transitioning to boxing. Excuse me. Stop. Because we spent all fight week being like, oh, he picked a fight with MMA. But he kind of picked it too well.

And now people are like, well, what's the point? If Anderson can't beat him, would Nate? And obviously the Nate fight would be big. And so I don't mind him pivoting towards regular boxers. And if this fight's on Showtime. Well, let me frame it this way for you because i'm gonna cover it but i i'm gonna let me finish let me finish well i want you to i want you to tell me fury okay i wanted you to stop for a reason that's why i was like it looked impolite but i didn't want to stop for a reason so that's right but now i'm gonna re-tee you up because this is part of our under over under segment so i didn't want

you to give away your answer before i could frame it properly okay because i i got too ahead of the game here it's my fault but luke jake paul had tweeted out dear frank warren i agree to fight tommy in manchester or london in february i'll come to his country no more running his his baby is due and you've said it's a no issue since john is adamant we've agreed i'm giving you seven days to prevent it to present a side and contract or I'm moving on. Oh, God. The over-under that Mikey's serving up here is four, Luke, the number of months before we get Paul versus Fury.

Okay, I just got to say, like, I'm giving you a week, or I'm moving on. Please stop. I mean, either make the fight or don't. Like, this bullshit, like, you know, you got, you know, what? Just, okay okay never mind um four months okay so mid-december mid-january mid-february mid-march i'll take the under take the under on that i think that we well hold on fight actually takes place or fight is announced and booked uh i would think it's i think he's asking takes place,

but I think we will see this. No, no, I'll take the over. In that case, I'll take the under that they make it before then. I'll take the over and have it in second quarter. Is there any conspiratorial part of your brain that says Vitor Belfort pulling out of a boxing match against Hasim Rahman is because he's saving his brand

and portfolio to be a Jake opponent? Because if that theory is true, that Jake reaching down to smaller guys is only going to lead to domination. Although let's give Nate Diaz a chance or Jorge, whoever gets the chance that Belfort is the perfect bigger opponent, right. To still do this cross.

Yeah. But like he got removed from this fight. And then I saw someone being like, you know, prayers up for him. So did he have like fucked up blood work or, don't know yeah i don't know what the situation he's not reliable in the sense of can you you know reasonably figure out if he's gonna be able to make it fight to fight without commission issues age or otherwise uh he's a little bit of a wild

card in that sense yeah let's hope he's okay, obviously, Luke. Finally, I've got one more for you. Dana White in the post-fight presser on Saturday in New York said, quote, John Jones will fight next year for sure. Yeah, we never had a Stipe-John Jones fight. John's going to fight next year. That was the answer from Dana before that other unnamed reporter went at him. Did you see that adam do you see that look that one guy was like what's next for heavyweight which steep a good fight like he was grilling dana he didn't have the right he wasn't armed with the right

ammo to really pull it off but he did have like you know guy in a pink suit level aggression but here's the point here luke regarding dana seems to be revealing that there was never negotiation for a steep eight interim title fight. So with that and the knowledge of Dana's hope to booking Ganu versus Jones for all the marbles next year, two and a half, the amount of fights total that Jon Jones will actually have at heavyweight. Take that under big time. Take that under big time.

Yeah. I mean, obviously, is there a world where he has like three or four of them and that would in no way be controversial? Of course. I mean, of course. Dude, for folks who may not realize this, of course, next year is 2023. Everyone realizes that. But here's the point I want to make.

2023 represents the 10 year mark that Jon Jones has said he's going to move to heavyweight 10 motherfucking years for a decade he's been saying he's going to do this I am skeptical certainly I have no crystal ball I'm not BC but I am skeptical of the idea that he's got some long march planned for that weight class I think he's got a couple of fights maybe a few we shall see that he's got some long march planned for that weight class. I think he's got a couple of fights, maybe a few, we shall see, that he's going to get in and then call it a day. I don't believe that this is in any way the longevity approach of him. I think it's a little bit, not quite like GSP, who did the one fight at middleweight and got the fuck out.

You probably get two of them. I would be surprised if you saw four. Three, I guess i could probably envision for no chance zero all right i think three because i think the money's on him still being pretty damn good we don't know how good he's been off a long ass time there are a lot of questions but if he i mean if he has to fight in ghana without a tune-up all right if he wins it's going to be over two and a half it's going to you know yes but i think your analysis seems to be potentially subconsciously teasing the idea that you don't believe john would

be in ghanu so let me ask you if john no no no no quite the opposite no no no the opposite so well well okay let's let's imagine let's just imagine what might happen we're talking about a guy who's been telling us he's going to go to this weight class for 10 years and has not done it number one number two has been off for an extraordinary amount of time number three everyone just likes to forget this he had that run-in during the pandemic where he was drinking in his car and firing off shots in albuquerque uh and then you know the whole incident in las vegas with his uh now estranged i don't know what you would call her ex or whatever and his children banging his head on the car hood of a fucking police vehicle my man's got problems to put it quite mildly everyone just seems to forget all of that let's imagine they forget it i think they realize that that's who he is and that's the only way that's who. What does that mean, that's who he is? I'm not justifying his actions under any cloud of imagination,

but I think people are at the point where they realize he's never going to change and they also realize that that's how he gets the best out of himself in the cage, which ultimately, fair or not, is the only reason. I mean, he's banned Teflon to a large degree despite so many of these bad moments publicly where, yeah, there's times they'll lose a sponsor or people talk bad about him, but dude, people always come back. Everyone thinks this, uh, because even someone like John,

who to your point has been Teflon. I mean, there's no denying that. Um, everyone thinks that, you know, these things, they, they, I don't know what people think think but they need to be reminded that you in life cannot outrun your problems cannot happen it will not happen they will meet a resolution one way or the other okay so i want to point and into this being like getting into the training probably is a bit of a distraction in that sense or a way to manage things in another one but let's just sort of imagine like you've got this backdrop of problems that have driven you to training now let's say he goes in there and absolutely beats the shit out of francis and god who i mean just wipes the floor with him what else would there be left to do number one or conversely if he goes in there and gets absolutely fucking viciously over reamed

ko'd does he really have it in his heart of hearts to come back and meaningfully put on a long reign after that he would get the he would get the rematch probably right because he's john jones but i'm just pointing out the guy is getting significantly older he's got all of these life problems that to my knowledge remain completely untreated and he's got this of these life problems that, to my knowledge, remain completely untreated. And he's got this sort of really tenuous situation at heavyweight. What about any of that is built for longevity? None of it. None of it.

But I just don't understand that. None of it. And it's bad, but it's been standard operating procedure for him. I do poke a couple holes in some of the things you said. Not that I've suddenly become John's new fixer to defend him, Luke. You know, I've slung a few curveballs at John Jones and press conferences. I just haven't got dunked on with two hands, you know, maybe fortunately or unfortunately. But yes, he has been saying it for 10 years.

But dude, he's been teasing the future. You really have to go up on three years. We're coming up in February on three years since he beat Dom Reyes and then gave up the title to move up to heavyweight that to me i mean we could say 10 years but the three years are so unanswered in terms of like why the f is it taking this long i know some of its pandemic then there was the argument over money and getting paid while their money i get it i lived through it which he was right about what the f now he is 35 but that's not all for heavyweight and you know it's it's like you you mentioned something where the key question for me in terms of this over under is if he gets knocked out because i think then you're going to

get an under no matter what because either he never fights again if he gets knocked out badly or he you know maybe it's a ron d ron d maybe it's a ronda versus Amanda 2 type of situation where he comes back for the rematch, tries it again, and maybe loses a second time. But I think the flip side is where you're wrong. If he comes out there and beats, lives up to his potential, becomes a two-division champion, and beats the toughest guy available, which in theory would be a rehabbed and ready Nganou,

dude, the only normalcy in John's life has been the success in the cage. That has been something he can cling to and always know that no matter what else happens around him, usually by his own effing up, unfortunately, that he's fine in there. Dude, if he's back on top and he's the GOAT again, people are not going to be... He'll be the real all-time GOAT if he beats Ghanou and becomes a two-division champion. I'm not saying people will forget about the other stuff, but it's no longer going to be front-page news until he makes it again after that.

So I think that would produce... I'm not asking people to care because... But I'm not saying you are. But I'm saying he'll be around for a long time if he beats Ngannou, dude, okay? Because that's what he loves to do, be the best, right? That's what he loves at the end of the day. But if that's the case, why did he take three years end of the day um but if that's the case why did

he take three years off that's the unexplained answer that gives that that i no longer can carry that same confidence that i always had through 10 years of him teasing that moving up that whenever he does and adds the bulk he's going to be unbeatable now at times the heavyweight division wasn't as deep as it is now and i think that's changed with that three-year absence mixed with francis being this force gone being amazing i mean it's a new era luke but yeah that's three years i mean what it was it wasn't another you saw the suspension right it was like it's just weird i mean so so so some time off made sense i think he was burned out that makes sense and i think that he need to get his body right for heavyweight. That made sense. But remember, during this time off is when all of these other incidents were happening.

And again, it's like, what's the connection between that and longevity? I'm just pointing out, like, everyone's like, oh, he's gotten away with it before. Why would you think differently? Well, let me explain something to you. They will catch up with you. They will. They will. They will take ownership over your life if they go untreated.

This is just how life goes for me, for you, for everyone who watches. And more to the point, there's another part we haven't talked about. Now, of course, you have Chael telling us that he's been training with Henry Cejudo. Henry tells him he looks amazing, and so he's going to pick right back up. But I'm going to go back and say it one more time. People say lots of shit about what happens in camp. What happened at the end of his run at light heavyweight? He was very beatable.

In fact, I thought Dominic Reyes beat him. So I thought that the advantages that he had over the division rapidly declined. Now, again, burnout probably plays a role in there as well. All I'm pointing out is like this idea, like John was real. John in his prime was probably as close to unbeatable as I've ever seen a fighter, right? I mean, I don't know if I've ever seen anyone who's more unbeatable than that. No one truly is, but he was pretty fucking close. probably as close to unbeatable as I've ever seen a fighter, right? I mean, I don't know if I've ever seen anyone who's more unbeatable than that. No one truly is, but he was pretty fucking close.

But he's been fighting since he was in his, since he was what, 21, 22? He'll be 35 now. The wear and tear is significant, even with all the time off. The amount of motivation is going to play a factor. Changing his body is going to play a factor. The depreciation of skills is going to play a factor. All of these fucking things that have plagued him in his personal life, that's all going to play a factor the depreciation of skills is going to play a factor all of these fucking things that have plagued him in his personal life that's all going to play a factor i just don't understand how people can look at that soup and be like oh that's a soup for longevity i don't see any of that as a recipe for longevity i see this for a short stint get in he might go

in there and fucking dominate maybe it's more than two maybe it's three maybe it's four but at most four and then getting the fuck out i just don't believe he's going to do that for a very long time you know outside it's hard to say outside of the second cormier fight because drugs or not it happened and john was awesome in that second fight as he was in the first fight he was vicious in that fight it's been a while since he's been impressive right i mean osp was an interesting scenario that fight you know yeah he won it but there was some caution okay he comes back and knocks out cormier in the rematch reminds us how great he is then that gustafson rematch was weird they changed cities gustafson folded as soon as that fight heated up to any degree and has never been the same sense

anthony smith okay maybe that's it maybe I overlook that he did he did kind of dominate that and look good doing so correct I mean that maybe I'm blowing this up and then of course you went to a decision so I think some folks were like oh well why didn't you take remember there was a lot of time where Anthony Smith uh Smith spent in turtle remember that yeah kind of in turtle and so folks were like why didn't you just polish this guy off um you know who's to say I mean look in the tiago santos and dom reyes fights could you make arguments for both losers to have one yes i get the idea that overall that's a trend of he was declining and the division was catching up so maybe him

leaving at the time he did after reyes was smart and perfect timing in the end but he also i mean it's not like he fought bad in either fight he was just a little more cautious than he should have been in my opinion i don't think you actually can make a case that tiago santos won i know i think it was a split so i guess one judge gave it to him um i could be wrong about that i have to go back and look but um i didn't think that tiago santos won i never thought gustafson. I didn't think any of those guys won. I thought Dom Reyes beat him cleanly. Cleanly.

So when you say cleanly, you mean three rounds to two cleanly? Yes. I thought he won the first three rounds without really any issue at all. The last two, he got beat up. Now, John came storming back, to be clear. John ended that one much better than Dom Reyes did,

to be absolutely certain. And if you judge the fight as a whole, then who knows? It may be went in a different direction. But under the 10-9-1 system, Dom Reyes won. I think I'm being overly harsh. Because even in the Tiago fight, I thought, you know, how do you not shoot on a guy with two bad legs by the end of it?

I actually spoke to John's coaches after that fight. What they told me was that a lot of the look... Remember when we were talking about this with... 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 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 were talking about this when I said linear attacks up the middle. We were talking about this on Fight Night. Was this with Anthony Smith? Yes. Is that what you were talking about?

No, no, no. It was during Fight Night. We were doing the watch along. A linear attack up the middle would just be something. The Claudio. Yes. It was Dan Hooker fight. So a linear attack up the middle would be someone showing a knee up the middle center line

or an uppercut up the middle center line. This linear attack, straight attack through the middle onto oncoming traffic. My understanding was Tiago was really tricky with what he was showing him and some of his timing so that John was a little bit apprehensive about going for those shots going for that space um in real time anyway maybe if they had a rematch and obviously Tiago was in a different state it would be different but uh but you get the idea that's what apparently was intimidating him was that there was he was just creating a real he was like inviting him on and then like creating these big threats up the middle. And to be fair, that was such a scary version of Maheta.

It was the best he'll ever be. And he was compromised, wounded animal. Every, in the first three rounds, especially any attempt at like explosive combinations that he put on. John was like, oh shit. Like he, you know, Santos came close and I think it was closer than John wanted, to landing the big one multiple times. And I can understand that apprehension, but okay, the division caught up with him. Maybe you're right. Let's transition out of here, Luke, with something that we offer the fans every week.

It's morningcombat at gmail.com. You know, they could send in their complaints and dead rungs on Friday, but on Wednesday, it's like taking their artwork and putting it on our morning combat fridge to either gawk at and complain. This is P1s only, I'm being told by my, a P1 only fan submission collection. Luke, only all, there's like the MTV All-Star Challenge right here, okay? You ready for this? I'm ready, bro.

This one's called fan submissions. We've got mail. Viewers. A lot of people, We've got mail. Viewers. A lot of people. We've got mail. Yes, viewers. A lot of people are stepping up their fan sub game, Luke, to try to enter this title picture for MK Donk of the Year this calendar year.

I even had Chef Kaz DM me and say, don't forget me, Donk of the Year. Definitely. Luke, everybody wants to wear the crown, but is everyone willing to put in the hours and the time? If Chef Kaz gave me COVID, does that eliminate him from being Donk of the Year? Or does that actually make him Donk of the Year? We have a lot of suspects into this.

Let's see who gets arraigned and gets named. Probably would be happy if anyone gets arraigned. It's him. Hey, let's start with Don. I believe this is Don Paquette, the boss the wife of jay hello mk it's dawn back again to report on my mk global merch tour it's completed now with germany and ireland friday night bar hopping in dublin temple bar district with my mk shirt was a time for sure luckily i didn't run into conor mcgregor take care and all the best it's dawn

paquette look she's representing our brand on a global scale you know it's not about places just faces where your butt comes from is where your space is you know what i'm saying i'm not going to spend my life being a color yo macaulay delivered that shit this is pretty fucking impressive i've never been i've been to germany i I've been to Germany. I've never been to Hanover. That's pretty impressive. O'Brien's. Man, are all the pubs in Ireland like that?

What, with an O apostrophe? Probably, yeah. O'Sullivan. Thank you, Don, for allowing your husband to spend just a ridiculous amount of time uh you know watching our show and building interesting fan subs for it hey let's go to mikey who's mikey here uh this mikey more mile our producer this is called morning combat's pre-show routine mikey is this you submitting one

all right All right, good talking to you. What the fuck is going on outside? I need to get back to bed. I have a big day ahead. Oh no, oh no, what is happening? Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, what is happening? Oh no, oh no. Daddy, are you on to build up the park? Finally, I have time to work out at my state of the art gym. I'm gonna get a good lift in today. I cannot work out with you. Man, I really need to get out of DC. Man, I can't believe I missed my alarm again. I have to feed these donks and get on the pre-show call.

No funny business. Just take the hot dog out of the basket. Once you vote 1,000 times, I will let you out. Let me out. I'm time to do some pressure research. It looks like Alph-Bar Lemon has a higher puffs per second, but Alph-Bar Mango has a better hit differential. What do I go with for today's show? I can't forget my brine eliminator plogs. Our journalist! Beautiful Brit!

I in heaven please bring me the strength today! Reveille, reveille, dogs! Look at us now, tip to tip! This is our life! This is our passion so look mikey the gatekeeper of all things fan subs just just effed around and tried to enter the donk of the year contest with this one right here right that is that is one of the best fucking things i've ever seen and by the way i have to say this me vaping which is just indefensibly stupid dub t bullshit i mean it's just the worst thing i do on earth it has been an absolute treasure trove of content for this show can you at least admit that i mean it it's it's eclipse

tip to tip we don't even talk about that anymore, Luke. It has become the center of our show. Yes. And I got this wheezy laugh now. That's probably from being sick, actually. But that was good. Good shit, Mikey. I didn't realize that was you who made that when you sent it in.

I thought it was a web screamed David Appleton production. Hey, Danger Mouse, you just saw him at the bottom of that well. put the lotion in the basket already uh he says hi bc last week i made you the duke of donkton when i should have made you the clown prince of cocking up reading my emails you've messed up before but this one was off the scale are you the kind of douche that opens other people's mail why would you read out something addressed to Mikey? Maybe if you used a laptop instead of your phone, you'd be able to see the entire email. Anyway, best laugh I've had in ages, and it did give me some material.

So thanks for that, you clown. Wow, Luke, high and inside from the danger mouse. That is awesome. I did kind of pull a shop there luke i didn't realize that in real time last week but pulled a job what does that mean we try to power through these remember on that ad read when he kept reading like turn over page for more details you know like you don't remember that i don't did he do that yeah yeah they let him have it on that on that website look i don't know about that that's crazy all right look let's go to the second one here from danger mouse

that's not fair to amanda lamos first of all that's risky there whoever let that one in right there all right well not fair to amanda lamos first of all and second of all that's not how my hair looks i i have different kind of fucking you know what my haircut sucks i understand but what can i do it's it only cost you 100 bucks it's great hey this one was 50 this one was we know luke you you made a throwaway comment during the watch along that danger Mouse has one more meme to build off of here. Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell, the odd couple, a pair of washed MMA journalists in New Jersey. Say no more.

Why do I have a, I guess it's part of the thing, a ladle and a fucking duster? Because I think that's Tony Randall's character in the odd couple, Luke. Also, I look like, I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't think I look young, but I look even older in this rendition. And you just look like there's feces coming out of your nose

and streaming down your face. All right, so it's accurate. Thank you, Danger Mouse, for roasting me so harshly. Let's go to JP from Mount Unaiki, Nova Scotia. Good day, crew and fans. With Luke perusing his own vape product line, BC revealed his love and passion for self-help literature. It's BC's number one Connecticut Times bestseller.

The art of being you, only better. Forward by Luke Thomas. And, of course, I got the pipe. I told you, dude, the vape. Stop being a dirty, old, washed bitch. Yes, yes. Well done, Jay. He says, love you guys.

Keep up the amazing award-winning show. Jay did have other ones, Luke, but they were a little racy and borderline, right? You know, they were, you know. He had Ioana in a swimsuit. We had to tone it down a little. He had a lot more than that. Yeah. He had a lot more than that you know, he had you want on a swimsuit. We had to, you know, we had to tone it down a little. And by that, he had a lot more than that. Yeah. Yeah, he did.

Yeah, he did. All right, let's go to Alan W. This guy's been making some noise lately on the fan subs. It says Luke and Brian's relationship manifested in the Batman universe. Luke, you complete me, but please don't touch me. This is bullshit. This is bullshit. How does BC? I don't mind that this is bullshit this is bullshit how does bc i don't mind that he's the joker that's fine but how does he get to be like the heath ledger joker and i

gotta be the old fucking dad bod adam west fucking batman can i not can i not be a newer version of batman what the fuck luke if the uh if the jumpsuit fit fits you might as well wear it okay if the nylons uh yeah yeah there you go luke fucking hey that is not fair at all so what do you think i should have been like the uh who are some bad jokers in the modern era luke like in that 90s run of you know who the worst no you know you know who the worst joker is was the jared leto like mafioso guy did you see this one is it part of that trilogy of dark knight ones no no no no he played the joker in uh suicide squad did you see that you know i don't no no no i don't i don't really mess around with uh too much in those categories of movies luke you know i mean i just

saw black adam it's not it's not yeah i just saw black adam and it sucked look i mean let's be fair well the rock is nothing but a completely totally soulless corporate whore uh well yeah it was whoever wrote that it just wasn't good you know i mean the the thor love and thunder was better luke i'm sorry and that wasn't that's not saying much that's not yeah i mean i enjoy it was a good experience but uh yeah all right enough of this bullshit thank you l&W. We got one more from Juan. It's a video. It's called Vape God Thomas Gets Caught Red-Handed. At 205, you saw Habib take on Michael Johnson, and we saw the introduction of many Habib catchphrase big moments,

including taking down Johnson in the corner where Dana was and peering over Michael Johnson and saying, like, I fight for this title. I deserve it. You must quit. A few moments later. Remember he was talking to Dana? Like, you know, or he was talking to

MJ in the fight. I wonder what you do when I talk because you love to react to what I just said. You're like, hey, remember this? And I'm like, yeah, I remember 30 seconds ago when I said it. This was Habib kind of opening up that character which really helped him become a pay-per-view star, an unlikely one of sorts.

Sorry, BC. I apologize. Wow, they know us well, these people, right? Yeah. I tell you, here's the truth a little bit. I can't speak to that particular moment exactly. I don't actually mean to be like yo fuck brian i don't care what he has to say but sometimes i'm like oh i have an idea about

something i want to say i look over my computer to like double check a detail or like think how i want to say it and as a consequence huh you vape you vape too during these and i vape sometimes but the truth is that i get those ready and in the consequence, I kind of tune you out to do that. So then it creates these moments. So I apologize, BC. That's shitty. I didn't mean to do that. But it is fucking funny.

I mean, I've done it to you once or twice, so I can't be throwing glass cocks at a dildo house. But I will say, Luke, your consistency of doing it is impressive. I mean, you're just like... It's next level, really. Let's be honest.

Yeah, it is. It is. Wow. All right. Morningcombat at gmail.com. Thank you for those P1 submissions this week. Great video. Hey, maybe we should probably consider, along with Donk of the Year,

which I'm still down to have a public debate on air, Luke. Bring these people on. Let them fight for it. Tuki's about to come in. I don't want her... Actually, you know what? If Tuki comes in, Luke. Bring these people on. Let them fight for it. Hold on. Tukey's about to come in. I don't want her. Actually, you know what? If Tukey comes in, she comes in. Fuck it.

I don't even care. But we should probably have submission. Well, my larger point that I was setting up, Luke, was we should probably have submission of the year, too. You know what I mean? Meme, video, whatever. I mean, that video from Mikey was great just now, okay? Yeah, it was hilarious.

That was funny. I don't have to say this one that they made of me, especially with the Pikachu face of getting caught red-handed. That made me laugh. All right, very good. Reminder to everyone, we're back on Friday. We're going to have a ton of stuff for you to get ready for all the fights. Let's see.

Bellator, of course, is going to be on Friday. If you want to watch that, Showtime.com is the place to – or Showtime. And if you go to Showtime.com, you get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. The merch store, 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you can bounce uh the the merch store morningcombat.store there it is morningcombat.store be on the lookout for it uh for anything you want might you might want there including that bomber jacket yo you don't believe me believe ralphion stotts you don't believe him believe adrian yanez who wants that shit yeah um also Luke, they can enter in their email address on the front page right now of morningcombat.store

to get those Black Friday exclusive deals sent to them. So if you know your husband, if you know Jay Paquette's been like, honey, when you get back from touring the planet, I'd love if I can get an allowance and get a bomber jacket. This might be the time to get it look okay with that discount all right i got i gotta i gotta move this along because i gotta go help out with the kid uh let's see what else morningcombat at gmail.com morningcombat at gmail.com for friday's dead wrong whatever we got wrong today i'm sure we got a shitload wrong today so load them up folks put the put the rounds in the chamber. Uh, morning combat at gmail.com is the place to do that.

And, uh, BC, anything else before we go? Um, please watch our room service diaries with Laura Senko. It might surprise you. It surprised me, Luke. I think we sometimes have preconceived notations of who people are, what they're, how they're wired, what they're here for. And, uh, I love an interview space like ours has become where, Hey, who are you? Tell us.

Okay. Tell us who you are. I think she did Luke. It was a real fun chat so uh you know we've had some great ones right truck mindenhall michael kiesel a bunch of great ones but we're it's only going to get better from here okay this is the future i can't wait until one day luke our entire show is done from that wayne's world looking basement and we don't do anything else but put women on that couch. Fighter. Ass.

Titties. Ass and titties. Ass, ass, ass, titties, ass and titties. Brought to you by Only Pipes. It's time for Room Service Diaries. Yes, yes. All right, that's it for us today. We got you through hump day.

We'll get you through the weekend as well on Friday. So for Mocha, for Showtime, for CBS Sports, that's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. We're the MK Crew. Until Friday, may all of your gains be loyal.