MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Bellator 290: Bader def. Fedor, Eblen Beats Tokov | McGregor vs. Chandler | EP. 406

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

On Episode 406 of Morning Kombat, Luke and Brian recap a wild weekend of MMA. At Bellator 290 on CBS, Ryan Bader scored an easy first-round stoppage against Fedor Emelianenko in his retirement fight (00:12:00). Johnny Eblen outclassed Anatoly Tokov to retain his Bellator middleweight title in Saturday's co-main event. What was the most impressive part of Eblen's performance (00:27:53)? Brennan Ward continued his comeback with a second-round stoppage of Sabah Homasi (00:37:25). Plus, Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler will be the next coaches of The Ultimate Fighter and then fight at some point in the third or fourth quarter of the year. Is this the right fight for McGregor (00:51:33)? (00:00:00) - Intro (00:12:00) - Bader Beats Fedor (00:27:53) - Eblen Outclasses Tokov (00:37:25) - Brennan Ward Comeback (00:51:33) - McGregor vs. Chandler (01:08:10) - Spivac Submits Lewis (01:31:15) - HYSTS (02:10:15) - End Get MORNING KOMBAT merchandise now: https://morningkombat.store/   #MorningKombat #fedoremelianenko #Bellator290 #RyanBader #BellatoronCBS #Stand #BrennanWard #JohnnyEblen #UFCVegas68 #DerrickLewis #AmandaSerrano #LukeThomas #BrianCampbell #conormcgregor #michaelchandler  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

oh leaving on a jet plane? Don't know. What's the words? If I'll be back or when I'll be back? I don't know, but I know when I'll be back. But I know where we're also going. We're going to the UK! Hello, everyone.

It is Monday, the 6th of February, 2023. And it is time for Morning Combat. Hello, I am one half of your hosting duo. My name is Luke Thomas. I join you from the capital of Estados Unidos nidos right here in washington dc joined by my connecticut brethren who somehow survived that that cold snap was legit on friday that he made it it's my friend and yours going to europe for the first time it's b sizzle what's up man hold on luke i gotta take a call it's uh london calling okay they need an award-winning podcast host to come out there. So, you know, I'll break through my typical cultural ignorance and lack of world-renowned travel to do this.

I'm fired the hell up, Luke. You've had a couple of these moments where you've texted me. I've had a few of those where I've just said, wait, you know, we're supposed to act like this is business as usual. But you know what, Luke? It just isn't, okay? I mean, we host this stupid show that all of our stupid viewers love. It's really stupid, right? And now we get to go to the UK.

I don't know who greenlit that, but it's pretty damn stupid, and I love it, you know? It is very. This is the dumbest show ever. We're going to bring that idiocy across the pond back to our relatives in terms of historical origin, the Brits. But it will be more than the Brits. There's going to be some French there.

There's going to be some, I think, some Irish there. I hope you get kidnapped by some Indians, Luke, who has revenge for refusing to honor your origin story. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. BC, do you like Indian food? Wow, you just got out of that one quick you're like yeah i mean it's just it's just a very stupid line of inquiry do you do you like indian food i do i do you know i'm uh you know i'm a little bit of a bitch when it comes to hot you know to

spicy but uh i do enjoy it definitely okay well i was gonna say this you know british food is it's not that great but but uh but i'll say this the You know, British food is not that great. But I'll say this. The Indian food in London is maybe some of the best you can get anywhere in the world. So if you like Indian food, we'll try some this week. All right, but for today, we have a lot to get to today. So we had Bellator that was on CBS over the weekend. We'll recap some of the highlights from that. We did have a UFC event.

We're not going to get to a ton of it, but the portions that are relevant, we are. And of course we now know when McGregor is, but we don't quite know when he's going to be back, but we know the first thing he's going to be doing when he gets back, which is the ultimate fighter opposite Michael Chandler. We're going to talk about that. Plus we're going to have DMS from donks. Have you seen this shit? A lot of fun stuff. So thumbs up if you're watching on YouTube, hit subscribe. BC folks should know they should know and i mean this quite seriously there are like a handful of tickets left it is still possible candidly you're probably not going to get a great seat but we do have like a handful of tickets left if folks want to come see wednesday show right yes and if you cannot see wednesday show uh don't don't don't you know don't weep

about it it'll air fr, 11 a.m. Eastern on YouTube and our, in our traditional Friday episodes. So you can check that out and delay. We'll have a nice bonus for you this Wednesday coming up. We won't have our normal morning combat. We'll be, we'll be filming a lot of fun stuff Wednesday,

but we'll have the pregame preview with Chuck Mendenhall sliding in. So a lot to be excited about for 284 MK and UK I mean this, you know, Luke, if you and I should perish over the water, I do want to say, I want to go out with a bang so let's do a great episode today, okay like the big, you know, I don't know if the Big Bopper and Richie Valens

you know, put on their best show before Buddy Holly was like, hey, come join me on this flight, you know it'd be great, don't worry about it, you know, and don mclean was just waiting there like guys come on go down i got a great song idea so let's bang right now too he is really what i'm trying to say that's a very morbid and horrific way to start the show but we're guys we're going to do that just the same but still if you want that stuff it's there the tickets there's a couple there's a truly a handful left if you want to get them but uh it's going to be a capacity crowd we're incredibly by the way i'm kind of proud that we were able to sell that many tickets

it's insane also i gotta say you know me man i normally don't get real nervous i'd be lying if i said i'm not a little bit nervous for wednesday show i mean we have a good plan but you know it's a big deal it's hundreds of people that are gonna be that's the only thing i'm not nervous about because i'm weird like that luke this is you. This is what I've been dreaming about my whole life. You know what I'm saying? By the way, I have received photos from the Paquettes. They have gotten on the plane. They're in the air right now, Luke, okay?

Committed. Committed. They're coming from Mount Uniac. Appy, if he can clear customs, he'll be coming over from France. So many of our great, great UK and UK plus listeners are going to make the hop over so you know I don't care if you're if you're an adopted Welshian like myself if you're one eighth you know Irish if you got a Scottish last name all are welcome okay we're gonna this is gonna I mean look would would you consider getting real crazy and like loading up on Delta 8s and driving out

to Stonehenge and doing like a old school room service diaries there with some aliens or that's a little too far for you yeah i'm not doing i'm not going i'm not driving to stonehenge we're not we're not doing that so um i'm gonna stick to london plenty to see there plenty to see there all right uh as a reminder as well we do have some merch for that you can go to morningcombat.store i think we have three two or three london shirts in particular but we have more than that beyond just london. You can see it right there. And then let's see what else we have, BC. I think that is it. If you're ready to get the show started real quickly, though, before we get to topic number one, we do have to go over the results from OKBet on Friday, BC. Would you like to know the updated totals? Yeah, you know, I'm climbing out of the basement ever so slowly here all right so this

past weekend you and I were both three and two and we got different we obviously a different pick so I'll go through them real quickly your overall record BC it's getting better still it's still not great still four and four and then ten four four and ten is your record overall mine is barely above average uh eight and six so it's not like I'm out here killing the game either and we were both three and two so for this last week BC I whiffed on Fedor. That's an L for me. I did get Johnny Evelyn correct for my favorite. It's a W whiffed on Max Roshkoff, like whiffed big time. Cause he got stopped in the second round. Although he did look pretty good early. Anyway, over under, I got right. I thought Lara versus Avsar Gova was going to go the distance.

It did. And then I thought Ward versus Hamasi was going to end in ko and it's certain or tko anyway it certainly did for ubc here's your w bader you called it neiman gracie for your favorite you called it you whiffed on derrick lewis he took an l you whiffed quite badly on larkin versus bercomoff to go the distance it did not go the distance but you also got right the emmanuel navarrete navarrete versus liam wilson you had that one ending in the ko you get what a war as well what a war controversial though you see dan canobio timed how because if you folks didn't see this navarrete gets knocked down fine tries to stumble to his feet but then he drops the mouthpiece and if you actually see how long it took for all of it to get done the referee's trying to deal with the situation dan canobio of compu box timed it it was 27 seconds he had to recover that's a lot

that's a lot to recover so uh but you still get the w there yeah we'll round up the boxing weekend during have you seen this shit later today it was a fun uh fun spew of events they're just the same but yeah okay bet luke i'm slowly coming back you know i didn't plan on going down early neither probably did monica but it happened, right? But I'm going to turn my image around. I'm like her, Luke, okay? All right. Steady as she goes.

Let's start it. Topic number one, we're going to start with the biggest MMA event of the weekend. Of course, that's going to be Bellator 290 on CBS. There's a few different elements about it I want to talk about. Let's start with just the fights first. Ryan Bader, BC, BC excuse me scores an easy easy first round stoppage against Fedor Emelianenko in his retirement fight first question I would have is was there any real lesson to this fight it seemed in the end

just ceremonial how do you feel about it yeah I mean look was was the the fight ultimately a bit of a letdown from if you had outsized, romanticized expectations of Fedor, you know, potentially knocking him out to walk away on top? Or if you had any idea of a sustained back and forth multi-round battle, which I just don't think was in the cards. This was going to be, you know, what recent Fedor fights have been. First round, we're going to touch gloves and we're going to come out throwing. But I got to give Bader credit. He didn't let any of the spotlight, any of the pomp and circumstance, all those legends cage side, he didn't let any of that get to him. And on the flip side, Luke, whether, look, you could argue it would have been smart strategy to shoot right in the beginning,

take down Fedor and make this as boring and, you know, one-sided in the direction of Bader's strengths that he could have. Instead, you know what he did? He went out there and went mano-a-mano, relied on his speed and a lot of good head movement and foot movement, little sly stuff that kind of gave Fedor a little bit of pause from coming out and just throwing big. And Bader took care of business. You know, it ends up being a little, I mean, to be fair, it ends up feeling a little like womp-womp

in terms of the expectations coming in. But that was Ryan Bader's job. And I thought he handled it as effectively as possible. Yeah. I don't, I don't really have much to add to that. He, he had a good game plan.

And the other part too is, you know, we talked about it, right? Fedor is kind of wide open and the big lunging punches, he whiffed on a punch and, uh, Bader countered it over the top,

dropped them and then finished them off. I mean, it was, there's nothing controversial about it. The punches were clean application was great also kind of reminded me it's like amazing bc you and i went through the resume review i mean how many times did you see fate or trapped underneath fighters for very long times in his like in his pride run like never they couldn't hold him down random and couldn't hold him down none of these guys could hold him down and yet you go back to like the bigfoot silva fight which granted was a long time ago he got held down for a while obviously got

mounted there and then this fight too you saw baiter with that uh the wrist ride on underneath that sucked him down he was able to just you know land unobstructed basically with that with that left hand of his these are all like adaptations and sort of you know relatively ish modern usage of control mechanisms in the game and it just kind of passed Fedor by right he just didn't have he wasn't up against that when he was in his 20s in pride doing that sort of thing you can see the picture there right where he's got captured the wrist so and you wonder look the last two wins does it does it end up in hindsight being a little bit of fool's gold to create this sort of renaissance run by Fedor to make this rematch possible considering the first fight ended in 35 seconds.

I take nothing away from Fedor and the victory of knocking out Timothy Johnson, but you do have to wonder, you know, he had pretty extreme speed, hand speed advantages in those two matchups. So maybe we got sold a little bit on the idea that he was back in a certain level of shape and focus, granted that Timothy Johnson win was, you know, a year and a half before this follow-up fight here against Bader, but you got to give Bader credit for actually coming in with a game plan, matching Fedor's speed, and then able to take advantage of him.

You know, I was hoping to look for a Fedor that was coming in hot like he was against Johnson, moving very well, kind of lighting him up with combinations, but Bader's not there to be hit, Luke. And I think a little bit of respect we do have to put on Bader for this overall move up to heavyweight. He's 39 years old, but he still seems to have a lot left in the tank. And if you can take away those two stoppage losses

at light heavyweight in recent years, the first round won against Corey Anderson, and then, of course, the one-sided title loss to Nemkov, he's still unbeaten since moving up to heavyweight. So, you know, the odds were what they were. They recognized the puncher's chance in Fedor. But with Bader coming in, taking it this seriously, not looking to let Fedor hang around, and, you know, it was a very impressive performance, and I don't think he's done anytime soon.

Did Bader do anything in your mind to make himself an attractive opponent for francis and ganu well i think in general he is on name value alone as a ufc vet as a as a guy who's come up to this heavyweight division and shown his mixture of a high cardio wrestling attack with the improved boxing look it's tough to beat it's tough to beat in this in this promotion in this weight class i think no matter what though if they made that fight if francis and ganu signs as a free agent with Bellator and whether he would walk right into a title fight or need a warm up first, look, you're going to favor Ngannou. That's just what it is. But we got to put respect on this heavyweight version of Bader. I think that's my ultimate point and what I'm trying to say that like, you know, he's not out there getting

manhandled by people. He's a smart, you know, formidable champion right now. And you're never going to see him favored just by power alone against Ngannou. But when he says, like he told me in the interview this week, that, you know, I don't want that matchup, but do I believe that I have a certain level of skill which matches up well against Francis? To a certain degree, he does, Luke, whether you'd favor

him at all or not at all in this matchup. I don't think, look, does this performance make people who didn't want to see Bader Ngannou this matchup. I don't think, look, does this performance make people who didn't want to see Bader and Ghanou now suddenly do? I don't think it changes that equation. But if this is the direction Francis ends up going, this is a good matchup. I certainly don't hate it.

It's a formidable opponent. Bader has proven that whether it's come against older names or not, he's a legitimate heavyweight at this point on the global scale. Also, I just want to make a point, too, because we had Lorenz Larkin on this card. Now, he had a great win, which I'm sure we'll look at a little bit later, BC. But the thing that stands out to me was, you know, everyone makes this big deal. Like if you leave UFC, you can just go and dominate Bellator. And you know, sometimes guys like Ryan Bader end up doing that,

but he is more the exception that proves the rule. You know, Phil Davis was, I think, was he a champion for a brief moment? But you know, once Bader came there, he's kind of in limbo. How about Lorenzo Larkin? He beat Neil Magny and Jorge Masvidal in back-to-back fights. He leaves UFC. He goes to Bellator. He drops to Diego Lima. Excuse me, to Douglas Lima.

I think he had another loss after that back-to-back. Paul Daly knocked him out. Paul Daly knocked him out. So my point being is he had to climb back to get to the point where he was just on the prelims. Now, again, this win did him a lot of good. But I'm pointing out Lorenzo Larkin has been kind of MIA in terms of the public consciousness since this time.

And I just want to point out Ryan Bader is not that guy. I do think, and I think he knows as well, yeah, his light heavyweight days are over. He's not the best light heavyweight in Bellator or the world anymore, but the way he has managed to stay relevant, to extend his his game to bring whatever athletic and skill development he has and apply it excuse me in a very direct and forward way and then you know obviously this case um making a priority out of the heavyweight division it's just been smart it's been really successful people take it for granted i just want to take a moment and say bait or bait or excuse me is kind of the I won't say the exception that proves the rule, but for all the guys who have left UFC and gone to Bellator,

Bader is, I think easily the most successful of all of them. And folks should be a little bit more, I think, appreciative of how difficult it is to do what he's done. Granted, heavyweight, not as tough as,

you know, one 35 and Bellator or one 55 and Bellator, but nevertheless, BC, a very, very, very, very interesting pivot in his career. And I think one going from UFC to Bellator and one that in his case paid pretty massive dividends. Not that easy to do. Okay, with that in mind, BC,

I want to talk quickly about Fedor's retirement in terms of what you saw there. They had all the legends in the cage. I got to say, when they announced it during the week, I didn't really know what to make of it. I didn't think of it one way or the other all that much. But then when it actually happened, I really did think it was a great move by Scott Coker to have the Barnetts and Coutures and Shamrocks and Gracies and blah, blah, blah at Matt Hughes

and Liddell and everyone else in that cage behind him as this kind of show of solidarity Dan Henderson was there as well I mean you guys all saw it I gotta tell you I thought that was a nice touch especially since UFC president who was never gonna say anything nice about Fedor the UFC president Dana White on Saturday night being asked about him was like yeah he didn't want to come test himself here which is you know doesn't even deserve a response but I will say BC did you did you agree with me did you like the way that this looked on TV? I loved it. I loved that part of it. I loved the picture that they took.

I mean, to be fair, it's kind of like that picture of all of them standing around Fedor that they took, that's the kind I'd want framed for my basement wall in here. And it's because of, I think the best thing Scott Coker said about this, whether you thought the announcement on Ariel's show, you know, was hit big or kind of hit underwhelming,

is that he felt like this was the end of an era. That's why he wanted to have all those people from Fedor's era there. And it is. I mean, a lot of those guys are long retired and they were all Fedor contemporaries. And here's what's wild. Here's what I discovered. I didn't watch the Pride Days moment to moment as it happened. You know, I was watching UFC at that time, but wasn't, you know, that deeply invested

in Japanese MMA. I wish I was watching UFC at that time, but wasn't that deeply invested in Japanese MMA. I wish I was in hindsight. So when we did the resume review and you relive all of these pride events in succession order of, you beat this guy, you advance to face this guy. It was incredible, the field that Fedor went through and going 27-0 in a nine and a half year run. But what's wild, Luke, is watching those. It was like Noguera was the dude. He was the guy that was destroying everybody until he met Fedor.

And I think when you look around at all these contemporaries in the cage on Saturday night, Fedor is the last emperor, the last of the Mohicans, the last, whatever, like he's the last one that was not only still active, but still relevant and still in a title shot that,

you know, look, he earned that. He fought former heavyweight title shot that, you know, look, he earned that. He fought former heavyweight title contender Timothy Johnson and knocked him the hell out and looked like he turned back time in doing so. So I like what that final statement meant of him putting the gloves down with, you know, Couture, Liddell, Mark Coleman, all, you know, Josh Barnett, all these guys, the Gracies, all those around him, because those guys, a lot of those came before

fedor but fedor was kind of that bridge from the more barbaric original mma days of the 90s through pride through what ultimately fueled this this era of true mixed martial artists into the ufc in the mid aughts and even though Fedor never ended up fighting in the UFC, he outlasted all of those legends around him. You know, he tends to have the best record among all those heavyweights around him in terms of the guys that he beat. And he was the last one who still kind of mattered here on CBS.

I mean, it's, it's crazy. Look, if somebody would have told you in 2011, when Fedor lost three in a row with Strikeforce, where we all were kind of like, man, what a great run, but it's caught look if somebody would have told you in 2011 when Fedor lost three in a row with Strikeforce where we all were kind of like man what a great run but it's caught up to him would he still be fighting in 2023 and would it be a sad you know disgusting event or could he still be fighting on CBS in prime time and a title bout dude like you know you could have watched

that rematch and been like okay it's what we thought it was Fedor looked old and you know to a degree he did because he is old but him getting to this point I like his longevity has to be factored in high when you when you're asked you know what is Fedor's legacy and why did he matter look at all those legends around them they all petered out a long time before him yet they have the respect for for the real one. And I can't echo it enough. You and I were both asked a million times on HQ leading up to this or wherever, what is Fedor's true legacy in that? And you're always going to mention all the pride wins, and they matter. But the dude's still doing it.

And he was 10-3 in the last 12 years since, since those three losses in strike force. So we really, you know, it's, it's wild to me that, that, that the best fighter to never step foot in UFC, which for the longest period of time that this sport has been active, has been the true top shelf, major leagues of this. He's still in the discussion of greatest fighter of all time. That tells you a lot, Luke, you gotta be great to be in that spot, right? Have never fought in the discussion of greatest fighter of all time. That tells you a lot, Luke. You got to be great to be in that spot, right? Have never fought in the UFC yet, still have a place at the table in the argument of greatest fighter of all time. That's Fedor's legacy, man.

I mean, timeless and just classic, represents the sport, a true gentleman. Look, obviously me interviewing him this week, last week was more about me, right? It was about me having that moment. But in general, the couple smiles and laughs that I got out of him, you saw that pop up a little bit here and there, press conference and after the cage. He dropped the guard. It was the end of the run. And we got to see a little bit of who the true man is on the inside.

And, you know, I'm not saying he's some mythological perfect man. I don't know what his beliefs are because he doesn't often share them luke but what he does share it it's it's solid it's wholesome it's kind of you know it's a throwback to to what got us into this sport and the fact that he could still do this at 46 in 2023 mind-boggling mind-boggling whether that matters to anybody whether that's just romance storytelling or not you got to be humbled at that certainly the only thing that really stood out to me bc i saw someone tweet this i forget who it was so please forgive me i'm cribbing their point but it's a it's a fairly accurate accurate one which is you know this is not like basketball or excuse me baseball where you get jeter's retirement tour remember every team he'd show up to like the mariners or

the whoever and everyone had a gift for him as he retired. You know, like all of his foes would do that, and this went on for the season, and Kobe had something similar when he was alive. And those are fine. I'm not backing on him, but, like, you just don't get those in MMA. You don't get those hardly at all in combat sports. Like, retirement fights are usually the fight itself pretty sad.

We saw Frankie Edgar iced, right? We saw Shogun Hua recently iced Fedor same kind of thing you're not going to get like a celebratory oh my god big KO big sub last heroics that means sometimes that happens but it's pretty rare so that's why it's important for the promoter to do something beyond that to make the retirement such as you can you know telegraph those things feel special and it's hard to do it it's not an obvious kind of way to do it but i thought that building around this idea turned out to be in the sense of honoring fedor pretty good having the folks in the cage turned out to be like a really nice picture and very

symbolic i think it made fedor feel good it made him feel special you know to me it's just they're they're not easy to do and i know the uf tries, but I would like to see people continue to innovate to get something closer to what we got here rather than the old, well, you got stretchered out. See you when we see you. It should be a little bit more, I would hope, that kind of a thing. I think that's one of the qualities that Scott Coker brings.

He seems to obviously be a fighter-friendly promoter, but seems to really respect history, and I think you saw that in the overall presentation of this card and i'm here for that i'm certainly here you know look we could sit here and pick apart dana's missteps and we do from time to time but his history of outwardly talking bad about fighters sometimes in their absolute prime and sort of constantly being a a downer in that regard i mean that that's not always the best look when our heroes are on the way out so you're right it is rare i mean even the even the only

comparison mma wise to if fedor had gotten this done if he had won and walked off would have been the gsp win but even that one it was like he wasn't he wasn't necessarily planning on retiring now he wasn't going to go with dana's agreed and fight Luke Rockhold next or whoever was next in line and actually defend that title. But, you know, it took a while for him to officially retire. And even right now, it seems like GSP still trying to find that one perfect landing. We don't have exits like this, you know, win or lose where we are clapping on the way out. You know what I mean? I mean, I guess we got a close UFC proximity of that, seeing Shogun Hua in Brazil get that fight. But, you know, did that fight matter much? You know, I'd love to see more aging stars go out on their own terms

and matchups they can win, preferably against other aging fighters. And so you can have this rare sort of victory tour thing that you're talking about. This sport doesn't typically support that or produce that, but it is possible. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only.

At participating McDonald's in Canada. All right. Point number two, BC. Let's talk about the co-main event. Johnny Ebelin defeats Anatoly Tokov 50-45 and then two 49-46s. You could probably argue that Tokov won the first round, maybe. I think that's how I had it. But after that, it was the Johnny Ebelin show, although he had to rally past certain bad points early in the,

I think, second, even third rounds. But he did it, and he put it on him. BC, start with you here again. Most impressive thing about Ebelin's victory from Saturday is what? The combination of his cardio and poise without question. I knew Johnny Eblen was very good, 12-0 coming in, fresh off the destruction of Musassi, but I had my doubts. I had to see it.

And I think in the first two rounds, Tokov at least showed why I picked him for the upset. He showed an ability to keep his back largely off the mat. His wrestling defense in the first two rounds, Tokov at least showed why I picked him for the upset. He showed an ability to keep his back largely off the mat, right? His wrestling defense in the first two rounds was great. And when he was able to get into a technical striking battle with Eblen, Tokov kind of had the edge. You could have given him the first round, as you mentioned. And I thought he was leading that second round pretty well until Eblen rallied at the end. But Luke, the reason why that you have championship rounds and that more is required in title fights

are exactly what Eblen ended up showing beginning in that third round. His constant pressure and his never-ending gas tank. I mean, look, he showed that Tokov is a very good fighter, not ready for primetime fully at this level. And now I have to go, okay, I knew, you know, Eblen was very good coming in. Luke, he may be great.

He may be a fighter who's, who's, who's coming together right now in his absolute unbeaten prime and showing us how great he can be because he, he outworked Musashi in just about every category. Now he does this to a, to a guy who coming in, who had a seven and O record since coming to Bellator and had a lot of

strengths and abilities here to either cancel out Eblen potentially, or maybe even come over the top and win it. Yet Johnny Eblen's combination of confidence and poise, which don't really equal the amount of experience he actually has, mixed with his ability to weaponize that cardio and wrestling. Once he was able to capitalize on a fading Tokov in terms of stamina, he doesn't give you another chance. The fight is over. This was two and a half rounds into the championship rounds of full-on absolute domination.

So what am I impressed with? That he doesn't buckle, Johnny Ebelin. And when he finds the advantage there, when he starts to be able to go downhill against you, he absolutely smothers and dominates you. So I'm humbled by seeing that. I picked against him because I needed to see more he showed it to me he showed it to me Luke absolutely legit and somebody that Bellator should be outwardly aggressively promoting because he seems to be the goods here yeah I mean I I think he's great I think he's a very good fighter um I believe personally that Johnny Ebelin is among all weight class champions in major organizations, arguably the most unheralded. In terms of how good he is versus the acclaim he gets for being that good,

there's an enormous gap between them. It's something I've said before, but I really want to reiterate it here on this Monday show. The guy just doesn't get credit for what he deserves. I don't think the comparison fully works, BC. There are a lot of differences um but to me like a guy like eblin kind of reminds me a little bit of some of the better versions to an extent to an extent of chris weidman now weidman was a little bit different he had much more submission savvy uh as in terms of like things he could weave into his game that we haven't really seen that from eblin um you know

i think eblin striking is good but still a work in progress so it's not quite the same but in terms of a guy a big physical 185er who's got a gas tank for days who can wrestle you consistently and by the way in all different kinds of positions and then can mix that with forward pressure can actually do some striking so he doesn't have to constantly go to the wrestling dude he didn't really go to the wrestling in this fight so what bc the third round really i mean it wasn't really a big part of his game until much later in the fight that shows you he was able to get a lot of the work done he needed to just on the feet and so you know there's a question bc of like how well would he do against the very best in the ufc i think he's probably top five it's hard to know how much

further he is beyond that you could imagine because of his wrestling, he would give Izzy or Pineda a tough time, but I think Whitaker is probably a nightmare matchup for him. There's a question of like how a guy like, who's like a similar version of him, but not quite like a Marvin Vittori would do or a Strickland. Who's got like very good takedown defense. So there's some questions here about like matchup dependent.

How far would he go? But to me, BC, he's a top five guy in overall in the in the in the broader expansion of 185 fighters and i think saturday seems like might be one of the first times people come around to that fact yeah like my questions were essentially you know what if a fight isn't going his way what if he's locked into the type of technical battle that could potentially expose that his striking is not up to the same level of his wrestling?

But the poise he showed in navigating those opening two rounds against Tokov when at times it was leaning to the strength of Tokov because Tokov was able to stuff those takedowns early, man, that's championship level poise right there. And he made some very key adjustments and like I said, picked up on Tokov

starting to gas out and he played a big hand in gas in in attempting to gas tokov out by fighting at such a high pace i mean look you you you use that term weaponized cardio a lot and even at the highest level there there can be differences between between cardio and fighters there are levels to this game and you know i still haven't seen somebody who can shut off his wrestling for five rounds we've seen it now for two what happens you know can somebody match him for five rounds on that level you better be willing cardio wise to go through hell to do that and in this case he broke tokov and having that superpowered skill that can make up for any other deficiencies or holes in your game without question also i gotta say i'm not sure who like is a good matchup for him at 185 pounds I want to pull up the Bellator middleweight rankings

if I can BC because I'm just looking around I'm not really sure exactly who'd be a good fight for him so he already beat Musashi next would be Fabian Edwards I still would favor Eblen there Tokov he just beat Salter he already beat rasta's coming up and looks like hercules but only it still doesn't have a ton of fights left or yet excuse me and then after that it's aaron jeffrey austin vanderford lorenz larkin is interesting it's still being ranked at middle weight but obviously his last fight was at welterweight and then romero cotton dude i'm not sure eblin's got a real threat in that top 10 yeah well you know is luke rockhold coming over luke because no i don't you know even then i'm not sure that's a no for real to win eblin had mentioned that that he

expects the possibility of musashi and edwards fighting for for the spot and he'd be you know down for a fight in the winter both of those but you're right at this moment unless some of those names on the bottom end can start making a run and put some wins together look i don't think we've heard the last from austin vanderford still despite how disastrous that one fight went against giggard musasi and his step-up moment but yeah right now eblin looking pretty pretty damn good luke i mean this this was it to get the co-main event status on cbs in this type of showcase what else could he have done short of stopping tokoff i mean he was absolutely fantastic in this one that to me was one thing that I still think is a bit of an issue for him um the lack of excuse

me the lack of the submission game sure excuse me a lot get that age I know you've been lying for a while I mean just just start just join the revolution please it could change your life that's that's bong water I just coughed up. Let's be very real about that. I feel fine. I'm good to go. But what I was going to say was you got me off my track, BC. What the hell was I talking about? You were talking about Eblen's got to be able to.

Oh, yeah. The lack of finishing is still something for him to work on. Now, it was nice that he had the cardio to go the full five and then to punctuate it with that amazing suplex. That was great. I mean, that was great i mean that was great but i think to really get to the next level and potentially if he does this he can move up to 205 uh the finishing gotta really put on a little bit more of a way to like introduce danger and not just control into some of these bouts you know that's me nitpicking i'm very much nitpicking

but uh i do think he's got another gear to hit i guess the point i'm trying to make and this was a great this was a great showcase in terms of how he's getting there but i don't think he's done i think he's actually got some improvement that's still left ahead of him and it's a scary prospect if you're a bellator 185 or for sure luke we got breaking news do you care about it at all uh it depends on what it is tell me all right per release in a tweet from Mark Raimondi of ESPN, Tim Simpson has left Paradigm Sports to start his own MMA management group called Chosen Advisory Group. He will retain Israel Adesanya, Leon Edwards, Yuri Prohotska, Casey O'Neal,

Mohamed Mokaev, Jack Della Maddalena, Jack Hermanson, and others. And he has also, Tim Simpson today, signed Max Holloway, whose former manager Chris Daggett recently stepped away. So if you care about the positioning-wise of the power managers in this game, that seems to be a power move Tim Simpson just made. Yeah, Tim, who I've had some work with, I like Tim. Tim so far has proven to me to be uh definitely one of the better managers in the game i'd be curious to know what the story is about him going out on

his own though what's it called chosen advisory group yes chosen not not chosen like the villain from karate kid part two luke more like c-h-o-s-e-n yeah chosen as in like the frozen chosen like the battle in the war i think mark is saying that the news was first reported by Ariel so whoever had it first there you go but uh interesting news here uh I can't wait to see the latest MMAI video reacting to this thank you very much very good all right let's go to point number three here BC it opened the show and you knew what you were gonna get you were gonna get like just absolute chaos and you got something pretty close to that uh Brennan Ward and the comeback continues. Now his third fight since basically getting his comeback.

This was the first like real opponent he had. And this was the first one on a big stage. I think even outside of Connecticut. So here he is. He fights Sabaho Masi in BC. He looked a little bit flustered early, but put it on him. Proved to be the more superior power puncher it seemed to me.

And then was able to really just kind of close the show with overwhelming force and ground and pound how did how did Brennan Ward look to you he looked incredible and and it was a little nerve-wracking in that first round because I think the lack in striking technique and overall skills looked a little bit wider than I thought it would come in I pick Homasi to win We all assumed it would be a brawl. But when Ward started getting lit up early, got hit with those flying knees, I wondered if this was too high of a move up, if the two comeback wins last year were too low

in terms of getting his feet back. This was the big leagues now, and it was on CBS, no less. But you look back at how bad shit crazy that first round was. They both suffered two cuts to their face, swelling. They both landed big jumping knees. Ward had a big rally at the end of the first. I did not expect that he was going to be able to drag Homasi that deep into a war to the level where Homasi started falling apart.

And Ward only got better the more tired Homasi got. That shows you that deep down, dark inside, here's a man, separate from the MMA, who has come back, you know, almost legitimately from death, right? Like, he went as far down that road of severe, hard drug abuse and legal issues that you possibly could. We talked ad nauseum about how he really hadn't trained much throughout his whole career, always in top-level shape, though.

It's just sort of how he is coming from that amateur wrestling background. But this was a massive step up in showing poise, all that stuff that could lead him. I know he called for a title shot immediately after. You know, look, he's still putting things back together. But he's going to be a problem, Luke, for some elite fighters because of that will. And if they can, you you know if they're not able

to stop him from making it a war homasi seemed willing right he loves that that's what he does but if you can't stop brennan ward from getting you into a crazy fight he might he might just break you down because he showed an extreme level of of stamina will you know punch resistance took huge shots got cut pretty badly. And when he stopped Tomasi with that high kick and the punches afterwards, man, he still looked like he can go another three hard rounds. That can be a tough superpower. I was talking about Eblen's ability to weaponize his cardio.

It's not necessarily the same meaning for Ward. He kind of needs you to get into a war with him. But if you can't stop him from doing that, he could be a problem for some high-level guys, even if that pure skill and technical gap is still a work in progress. Yeah, I mean, at 34, with missing all that time, you do have to have, I think, just fairly

some managed expectations. Not that he necessarily has to, but as observers, I think it's reasonable to be like, I don't know how far this can go, but let's see see what we can get but the reason why I like this one is because he did face a little bit of adversity he looked a little bit rusty and behind the eight ball a little bit when it started to your point he had that hunched over stance he was getting eaten alive with some of those jumping switch knees that was a problem he got bloodied up early he got his eye messed up a little bit early and then when he began to settle into it and the pressure began to build and then he was able to execute while homasi was you know his

defense was basically collapsing as he was getting pushed back over time and again remember the other part too homasi was throwing these big hooks missing and ward was able to get the back slow the fight down make good decisions slow homasi down has a flurry at the end of the first and then comes back and puts it on him in the second dude that's just good judgment from brendan ward right like the fight's gonna it's getting a little bit chaotic i'm getting touched up a little bit let's take advantage of some broader uh techniques let's put the fight on my terms let's slow it down a little bit just taking some of the if you're gonna have chaos have chaos upon your initiation not theirs and he wasn't quite getting that by

draining homasi a little bit he switched the dynamic a little bit and he was able to take over that's just good work now to answer the question about how far he can go i don't know bc i really don't know this this told me that um he's definitely not going to be stuck fighting guys who have no name who they can put him on mohegan sun cars because he's from connecticut they can he can do certainly a lot more than that he's been talking about title fights i don't know if bellator is going to look at this necessarily and think we should put him in a welterweight title fight maybe they will i tend to think he probably has to beat one or two more guys but i do think it is possible this year he could get one i think based on what he showed poise decision making a little bit rusty but then answered the challenge

yeah he could potentially do some serious things in this welterweight division in 2023 i think that's on the table i mean i you know if he wants to take up the middle cushion on the room service diaries couch one day luke and tell us the the long story to come back here i'm you know i'll get my popcorn ready for for i don't know if we can call him the king of connecticut just yet but uh a high a high prince in that royal court you know what i'm saying me glover brennan chalk minden hall you know all the all this apathy you know all the ct mma guys with cte we're all we're all we're all going to come together yeah uh quickly we do have to talk about the ratings i mean if we're going to talk about slap ratings on TBS, we have to be candid about the ratings for Bellator. Because, obviously, the ratings are always a big part of it.

We don't know if there's going to be more of these or not. And if they are, what the threshold is. And Scott Coker talked about it with Eric Hawane prior to the event about what a reasonable threshold would look like. Now, we don't have full and complete numbers for two reasons. One, we only have 9 to 11 we don't have any uh sense of what happened after the 11 o'clock broadcast we will get some of those numbers tonight so this number is going to go up also bc this is the real x factor i just don't

know how streaming is going to impact it as well where you have paramount plus and blah blah blah but that being said ratings are not great uh we just have to be candid about that uh in fact of the one two three six mma events that have ever aired on cbs given the caveats i already mentioned keeping that up there uh this is the lowest rated of them all now again i think the numbers are going to go up but i don't know if they're going to match i mean that that element is not a surprise that it would be the lowest rating of all given how far the the template has changed in terms of streaming versus traditional cable and all of that.

But you did hear Scott Coker tell Ariel that, you know, he considered a major win, the potential of three million viewers. If right now it's looking like it's hovering around one million, you know, it's certainly disappointing in light of that. But you do have to ask yourself, what is the new baseline? You know, we don't know what CBS, we don't know what CBS was looking for toward the idea of doing this more often for big events, maybe bring them back boxing. They had huge success ratings-wise with the Porter-Thurman and Thurman-Garcia fights that

aired in 2016 and 2017 on big CBS. Obviously, us being big Paramount guys, we hope for good things moving forward, and I think if you're a combat sports fan, you would want Bellator to have the access here for big time events like this but uh yeah look it's it's hard to really know in this day and age uh what i don't know and and will those numbers can they change dramatically once the streaming numbers come in once the post 11 p.m numbers come in

so it came in it came in the nine to eleven o'clock slot fast nationals which is like your overnight numbers they came in at 928k i think when you get past 11 o'clock slot fast nationals, which is like your overnight numbers. They came in at 928K. I think when you get past 11 o'clock, it's definitely going to go past a million at a bare minimum. And then with the streaming, it's hard to say. Could it do a million five, two? I don't think there's probably two million total. So maybe a million five at the highest, something like that.

We'll have to see. And we'll update folks when we get the more accurate numbers. Just for clarification, by the way, of the six events that ever aired on cbs for mma four of them were either headlined by fedor or kimbo slice so elite xc primetime with kimbo slice did 4.85 million elite xc unfinished business which did not have him was 2.6 then you bring him back for elite xc heat 4.5 million kimbo slice a goddamn ratings oh no juggernaut then strike force fedor rogers was at 4.04 million strike force nashville which of course we all know the story there 2.9 million and then bellator 290 again overnight this will

go up but it stands at 928k i mean i i don't the other ones felt bigger like these cultural moments were like oh my god mma's gonna be on cbs in the case of, you know, either fade or, or you typically, or, um, Kimbo slice headlining. It was a really big deal. Everyone was kind of paying attention. And in this one, because the age we're just in a different time with MMA relationship to broader society, it's, you know, they, it doesn't have the same. This used to be like a punk rock move to put MMA on television. And now it's sort of just another sporting move. It's kind of, in a good way, transitioned up to that extent.

I will say, I just, I didn't see on CBS a ton of promotion for this. I don't know if I missed it. I don't know if there was other programming from the previous week leading up to this. But, and I also don't know if this is going to reach the threshold where they will do subsequent shows, but not a great number if we can be honest. Well, we got to see what the peak number is because you have the average across the whole broadcast, and then you have the peak.

So you mentioned that Strikeforce, Fedor versus Brett Rogers, which was the last big one, right? Nashville was the one after that that shut the deal down, but the last big one, that peaked at nearly five and a half. So let's see how high that peak actually was. But yeah, lower than the expectations that were expected. I still think a worthy gamble from Coker. But I think tied to this news, Luke, a lot of people DMing me saying,

you guys better talk about this. What do you make of the fact that the California Athletic Commission did release the purses. And on paper, it's what, 100,000 for Bader, 150,000 for Fedor. But the obvious after the fact expectations are that they will both make seven to eight, 10 times more than that based on a lot of things, including bonuses, sponsors, all that. There was some kickback from people saying, okay, if you guys are going to criticize that practice by UFC

to post small and then behind the scenes give a certain discretionary amount, is this the same case for this card by Bellator? Yeah, I don't know why people keep bringing this up, but they keep bringing this up. Guys, here's how this works, and we've been over this a million times. I don't know why we have to keep coming back to this. I'm not going to say, by the way, I think it was 100 for Fedor and 150 for Bader. Let's double check that.

But I believe that's how it went. Guys, we know from court documents that Bellator gives about 46 slash 47% of their annual revenue to fighters. This is what they can offer. Right? This is what they can offer, right? This is what they can offer. Now, maybe there's more on the back end that we don't know about with Fedor, you know, who knows how he gets paid. I have a very strong suspicion. It's probably not just 100K, but to the point you're raising, like, which were UFC, would we draw the same distinctions? This is the difference.

The difference is that Bellator doesn't have any other money to give. So what you see the fighters get is literally them maxing it out in terms of their annual budgets basically every time. So if it ends up being less than a UFC card or not in keeping with what you might imagine, those are fine criticisms to make, but my response is going to be, where would you like the money to come from?

In the total amount of their budget, they're giving away 47%. There just isn't much left so right but isn't the spirit of that criticism from ufc fans who feel we are too harsh on that ufc's every move that it's the same practice that they would do of of under report the total oh it might be sure it might be i don't know if it is but if but if it is, sure, then it's all part of the same industry practice, in which case it's not great. There's no chance Fedor agreed to $150K on CBS.

It's very, very difficult for me to believe that. It's very difficult for me to believe. But if you're just wondering about Bellator payouts, be like, oh my God, these guys on Bellator, like on the prelim card, they're making like five and five. It's like, again again one more time what we're what we're asking for is for the ufc to share a greater a greater uh percentage of their overall revenue to put it more in line with what you might see in other professional sports bellator already does that we know that we have we have evidence of

it we have proof um now whether they're doing the same kinds of promoter tricks like, to your point, hiding it here and bonus there, yes, none of that is great, and that's a big problem. I just want to be clear about the overall numbers. Bellator is sharing 47%. I just don't know what else you could ask them to do. Right? Am I missing something?

Yeah, I know. I mean, I don't love the practice, whether this is Scott Coker doing the old ufc trick or not of trying to under report so others don't know and you know but like there's no chance they fought for just that number i mean i you know i don't i don't love that practice luke uh no i don't love that practice either who knows how fedor gets paid too like how much with sponsors or right Russian TV I mean there could be a lot of elements there's a lot of different elements too he didn't fight for 100k but to your point and also like we should just say any promoter engaging in practice of like uh show and win

for example like it shouldn't be that way it should just be what your purse is you're already slotted to pay them anyway um so let's just be very clear about that I'm just I'm more speak any of those need to go away whether it's Bell that i'm just i'm more speak any of those need to go away whether it's bellator pfl ufc i'm more speaking of what do they have what do they share bellator is more or less maxed out in that sense um just that's all quasi related luke did you see that jake paul said publicly he would be willing to boxSI at the end of this year, but only if they both agreed to a winner-take-all where literally the loser would not get a single dollar for taking the fight and competing in it.

I did not see that. Do you care about that? No. All right. Not even a little. All right, BC, let's switch gears to UFC if we can. So it was announced after Friday's show, because why would it be before,

that Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler are going to be the next coaches on The Ultimate Fighter. Now, I'm not sure exactly when that starts. It is roughly expected that whatever fight between them will take place in either the third or fourth quarter of this year. USADA came in and be like, well, he hasn't re-entered the testing pool. And I'm always like, whenever I see USada try and like regulate what connor's doing it reminds me of that scene

from which batman was it where it's with bane and he turns around to that jamoke and he goes do you think you are are you wait he goes do you think you are in charge do you feel in charge you know that whole bit it's like do you do you feel like you're in charge here you haven't seen i'm fucking up the story but you know what I'm talking about. BC, let's talk about this. Choices for the ultimate fighter as coaches. We talked about that a little bit when they mentioned Tony. And also, is this the right move for Conor McGregor?

It's an interesting one. It does make me wonder, did we just fall for, and we're finding out here from our great staff that the Ultimate Fighter Series is scheduled here to air May 30th to August 15th. So this will be all summer with the fight afterwards, as you said, and Conor will have to, in theory, undergo six months of testing. I just wonder, like, was that Tony Ferguson just tweeting it out to bring some attention on himself? Or what was the deal with that? Was that floated out to put pressure on either Conor or Chandlerler to give in either way it's a big move here i've said it before i'll say it once more to put tough now danis did everything he could to keep it alive

now it's on espn now you get to put conor mcgregor back in it when he's been you know away from the sport for so long once again it's a smart move it's big business i am a little surprised about the matchup though i'm just because to me this is a fight yes that connor can win without question but based on recent history of both of them to me this feels like a fight that michael chandler can win should win and will win but luke when i saw you know we always get those emails from the various overseas betting accounts that want to give you like the first line dude the first line on mcgregor versus chandler is mcgregor has the favorite as is the updated line as well he's an even bigger favorite i think minus 140 around there i'm very surprised by that now dana did say saturday night afterwards after the ufc card that you know he doesn't know any details surrounding this fight, which I think is really weird when he's the boss.

Anyway, Ariel Hawani did report from his sources that this will be a welterweight contest, which I guess again, makes sense. Connor gets to call the shots on things like this, but Luke, what am I missing here from the idea that there's way more questions

regarding Connor and so many categories as it pertains to fighting Chandler that I love this choice for the to make tough matter again to do a long-term build for a big pay-per-view fight which this will and should be but this is a tough-ass fight for Conor McGregor because it will be a war and even though that might facilitate more opportunities for him to win rather than putting him in there let's say against a wrestler who's going to drag him down dude this is the kind of stuff that michael chandler does on the regular against the most elite fighters in the world and either wins or like he did against charlie olivera comes that close to winning it's gonna be a tough ass test for connor what am i

missing betting odds wise connor if he's at all the way he once was is a sniper and would be able to pick off Chandler I think at various points. Conor's also had a rock chin. But I've been the last of the Mohicans until very recently to believe that Conor can still magically create that guy back in the lab again and have that same

mixture of drive with whatever's left of his athleticism and the fact that he does take long periods of time off since the Eddie Alvarez fight where it's hard to stay crisp Michael Chandler's in the cage you know like clockwork every couple months right and he puts on these barn burners that isn't it to me there's a very uphill battle for this version of Conor but I like the boldness I like that they're not giving him a supposed easy way out of tony even though you can justify it like the cowboy comeback fight this is going to be a big event it's going

to matter it's going to be dramatic as shit but they are asking a lot of connor here so it's it's put up or shut up in terms of his future i actually like this for connor a lot obviously he does great things for the ultimate fighter in terms of viewership but that to me doesn't really matter one way or the other. But I think it gives you a window into whatever kind of state Conor's in. It gets the fan base warmed up by him because he's been gone for so long, and there's been a lot of really bad headlines around him, or at least controversial ones, anyway, related to both USADA as well as any alleged criminal activity outside of the cage. And it's just been a very, very strange time.

And even that last fight with Poirier was strange and his whole attitude was strange. There's been a lot of, you know, strangeness and distance between himself and the actual game, right? This kind of gets him a soft landing into the game. It boosts the ratings of the Ultimate Fighter. It gives fans a chance to reconnect with him and anything else that goes into it. Plus it's going to promote the fight, at least in terms of all the digital assets you can create,

all the promotional material it's going to create. It does a lot for an eventual fight with Chandler. I want to point out something folks being like, Oh, well, why would UFC two 84 need to be promoted outside of the actual fight week, which of course starts today or whenever. And it's like,

well, this just shows you when they actually plan yes the ultimate fighter takes care of a lot of that on its own as the ultimate fighter but it just goes to show you when the ufc wants to really promote a fight and get very much ahead of it to give it a lot of promotion in the lead time far outside of fight week they can and they do they can and they do it's a great example of it different circumstances obviously because of the vehicle of reintroduction but it won't just be that that they can and they do. They can and they do. It's a great example of it. Different circumstances, obviously, because of the vehicle of reintroduction, but it won't just be that that promotes the fight.

There'll be a ton of other stuff far outside of fight week that does the job as well, BC. And I just want to be clear, like with the UFC, they have a very, very capable promotional machine when they want to use it. They're wisely using it here. I think it'll be good. Now, look, here's the deal.

Conor McGregor wins it. And look, it's not lost on me style wise why connor could be confident or even even though i don't agree with the lines i mean i get what how you described of why why connor's in this fight and has an opportunity if he wins it luke i mean dude he might be fighting for the for the lightweight title next that's's just how that works. But the choosing of pure company man Chandler here to get this type of big opportunity, is there any element in your eyes that UFC's worried based on Conor's legal issues, based on the fact that, you know, it's getting harder and harder to believe the idea

that he can go into the phone booth and come back out as Super Mystic Mac again? Is this a slight, subtle cash out of him at the very top level? Or no? I don't think so. Cash out. No, wouldn't they be more banking on him having like a rebound? Isn't this whole idea to rebound him well i mean

you just so my point was you just as easily could have gone tony and it we would have accepted it oh i could have gone of a veteran like rda and i'm not saying that's an easy fight for connor either but you're going the very dangerous ass chandler who i know does lose against the super elites but dude he fought his ass off against Poirier in defeat, fought his ass off against Oli Rivera is dangerous as shit. Could wrestle if he wants to. Um, I mean,

if, if, as much as we talk about, Hey, if Connor wins, anything's possible matchmaking wise, what happens if Chandler wins this one off at Walter weight here? Yeah,

no, that's a problem. That's a problem for Connor. If Chandler wins, and let's say wins spectacularly right like because his wins have been for the most part pretty goddamn spectacular that would be a real problem for him but the truth but it's like it's it's risk reward right like the other side if mcgregor gets the win and gets the stoppage and you would imagine if he wins

it would be via stoppage then you know connor I mean, he launches right back to the front of the division because Chandler is a volatile opponent, but he's a credible one. He's an exciting one. And we're coming off the ultimate fighter. All this would do is put Conor back in a great slot. I know your point. He's tougher than Tony. Maybe Conor wanted a tougher fight. Honestly, maybe he doesn't think it's that tough. And I also, I just want to point out one more time. If Conor striking is even close to what it was once before, that is a big problem for a guy like Chandler who likes to blitz in and make these big sweeping motions.

A guy like Conor typically, typically has eaten those guys for breakfast. It'll be interesting to see if the old Conor is still around. I'd be worried about Conor's gas tank if this thing goes, you know, a round and a half of batshit craziness. But love the fight. Let's not miss out on that. Really love the two personalities and what that could mean for Tuff, a vehicle I try to avoid on the most part because it just doesn't entertain me.

But I'm going to be front row for this, Luke. I'm going to be fired up. So, wow, big opportunities here. I mean, look, worst case scenario with a win for Conor, he could get a Poirier trilogy if he really wants. Or is it at this point? Are we talking about a fourth fight, Luke, if he really wanted it? Or he could he could get a title shot in multiple divisions.

I mean, you never know. Same thing. You know, it's like how damaging would a knockout loss be, though? I guess it would depend in some levels of what he looked like leading up. It'd be bad. It'd be bad. It'd be very bad. By the way, my friend RJ Clifford, who is a producer for the some of the stufffc does for their weigh-in show he's a host at the serious xm as well he made a

point on twitter i thought was excellent he writes quote michael chandler has gotten more out of his two years in ufc oh yeah than most fighters get in two decades a title shot five pay-per-view appearances against marquee opponents a tough coachingint, and then the golden ticket against Conor. I mean, you want to talk about maximizing your time in the UFC. And I made this point on Twitter. And of course, Twitter is a place where reading comprehension goes to die. I've noticed that it doesn't really matter what you tweet. People decide what they think it means, even if it bears no relationship to what you actually

write. And then they have issues with that. But the point I wanted to make, BC, was that you saw this a lot 10, 12 years ago where guys who were in Sengoku, Dream, IFL, you name it. Well, WC got bought out, but Bellator at the time. Guys like Alvarez, Hector Lombard when he came over. Guys who had already built up a name that were in another organization that the UFC wanted to acquire, they would often get

better deals than their contemporaries who had to put together enormous win streaks to reach a commensurate level inside of UFC. They didn't have to do all that, and they typically got better contracts in the end. Now, certainly Michael Chandler has done the most to make himself attractive to the UFC for these

fights and for these opportunities. But it just sort of goes to show it is often better to be acquired by the UFC in terms of all the things that might be available to you, right? You have some leverage. They want it. They're going to bring up a little bit more of the brink struck to get you or other opportunities versus just being a homegrown guy who has to fight his way to the top. If Chandler had to fight his way to the top, does he get at age 34?

I'm going to read you these. Hooker, Oliveira, Gaethje, Ferguson, Poirier, and then Conor McGregor. I have to tell you, I don't think he does. Well, you have to add the asterisk of, I mean, he didn't just come in with a company man, quickest way to Dana's heart mentality. He's doubled and tripled down on it. He was willing to go to Abu Dhabi on day one to serve as the backup for a title fight he was willing to take on any

big name and go out there go I mean he's he's you could argue Luke he's fighting in a style that's that's just not always the smartest in in direct correlation to his odds of winning yet he's willing to be that guy here for a good time not a long time and what you know it's a tight rope to walk in terms of having enough of a winning record coming out of crazy fights like that to keep getting opportunities but he's been everything Dana White could have dreamed of and then some so it seems like a special case scenario when making a point like that but i do get your point look you know what's interesting the reason i make the point is because it's backed up by facts i mean

people want to gloss over to make it about me about like all the great work chandler has done i'm not taking that away from him chandler has done great work but if you just examine the guys who got cherry picked from other organizations and look at their contemporaries who are already in ufc and then examine their contracts. They were almost universally, it was much better to be acquired to get to the front of the line without having to fight your way through it the whole way. And I'm just saying, yes, Chandler has more than done what he was asked of. Sure, sure.

But also, coming in at age 34, the way he did, it put him at the front of the pack without having to do a lot of the other things that his contemporaries had to do. It reminds me of 2013 when i was at espn and doing big stuff and first started realizing that i can't pay my rent and somebody important told me hey they're never going to pay you because you came up with them you're gonna have to leave and one day come back if you ever want that that's that's how business works at the end of the day luke you made a comment about twitter being such a twitter is like the last place I feel like you should be because it's got to be just constant disappointment. Because when I examine, you know, closely our friendship, Luke, and the times that

I've, you know, touched a nerve or hit the wrong button and you've, you know, been really pissed off. The purest you ever get pissed off at me is not an inappropriate joke, not miscalculating, you know, Colombian stereotypes. It's when you feel like I feel like you are making an argument in bad faith. You tend to lose your shit at me, even when it's not warranted. That's all you get all day on Twitter. Yeah, I know. The thing is, for me, it's like I don't like any person over the course of a year is going

to have, let's say, on the show like this, a thousand opinions. And half are going to be right and half are going to be wrong. That's humanity. You can't get around it. So I accept that in the course of doing this job, you are going to say and do wrong things. And I understand that. What I just cannot tolerate is people not understanding what I am saying. Because in many cases, they don't want to

in other cases they have poor reading comprehension skills and then deciding that my point is actually something that I'm in no way arguing in no way advocating and then going to battle over that and then being ugly about it afterwards I'm not even arguing anything you're saying it's like if I'm wrong

let me be wrong about what it is i'm actually saying and i can accept that what i cannot accept is bad faith and or you know all the other bullshit that comes with how far away are you from turning the comments off on your twitter post no i don't not not at all uh i don't care about that but because you got tough thick skin because you're half armenian no i mean people are gonna people are gonna say listen i've recognized that listen okay we're in an industry with people who are hopelessly lost by and large right hopelessly lost and so i don't imagine that the role that i'm going to serve with the time that i have in this industry is going to be grand in any kind of way or that i'm going to be especially convincing to a bunch of people who are desperately

lost but what I do think is possible is to at least introduce ideas that otherwise potentially would not get introduced or to give advocacy to opinions that maybe get lost or otherwise just not a part of the the conversation so that's I fully expect disagreement it is only that's the only inevitability with twitter the only thing that i ask is that if there's going to be disagreement just make it about what i'm actually saying and not about what i'm not actually saying i think that's pretty fair but tough to do apparently tough to do um it also do this so many people in this fucking industry are stupid like i don't care about their opinions like they have they you know these people have been like andrew tate's great like i don't your opinion is shit i don't i'm not interested in convincing you you're not very

bright so why do i care i would rather just put out the information to the world and if people find it valuable great if they don't that's great just be honest about what it is i'm saying and not all right bc sometimes though sometimes people in this industry make say things that make sense did you see on instagram that they asked jamal hill a lightning round of questions including who he thinks the best looking ufc fighter was i did not what did he say he said warrior princess who's that i mean you know maybe great championship minds think of life like who is that who's the warrior princess cheyenne velismas cheyenne velismas okay all right you have your pants on i'm just curious you know, maybe great championship minds think of life. Who is that? Who's the warrior princess? Cheyenne Vlismas.

Cheyenne Vlismas. Okay. All right. Do you have your pants on? I'm just curious. I was just relaying information I learned on Instagram, Luke, which is what I do on a daily basis here as a journalist. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Last but not least, BC, I guess it's great news if you're Sergei Spivak. Everyone else, I don't know. Derek Lewis is now one in four, I believe, in his last five. He was submitted in the first you're Sergei Spivak. Everyone else, I don't know. Derek Lewis is now one in four, I believe, in his last five. He was submitted in the first round by Sergei Spivak. BC, I would like to know your overall impression. I watched the fight again this morning, and, dude, Derek Lewis got big brothered.

Like, he got thrown around the octagon by Sergei Spivak. What is your biggest takeaway from this fight? It's over. I know Dana White said afterwards that don't worry, Derek Lewis is fine. I love him. And you know, and yes, you should, you should love a guy who's got a great personality as the most knockouts, right. And I think in UFC history and, and fights in such a straightforward and fun style, but his run of, of main eventing cards, in in my opinion and fighting either elite or guys who

are trying to join that elite pool it's over because how many more times can you see a flat performance an implosion or in this you know or just straight domination i mean luke i i was fooled it seems whether that picture that that got me all excited about derrick taking this fight super serious was doctored or real or not. But what you saw in there, you said Big Brother. I just saw a flat, non-inspired, you know, this is not a shot at Sergei Spivak, who's put together a very good win streak. This is just the realization that this beloved fighter in his late 30s,

who has now lost, what, like four of five and I think been stopped in all of them. This was not a performance in which he went out on his shield, willing to throw big shots, and he just got got. That has happened in this run. This was just flat, straight, one-sided domination. Derek showed enough life to get up off the canvas after being taken down early, but never able to create separation. And Luke, even the tap out, which, you know, it's hard for me, right,

to criticize any fighter in a choke on the ground, but the tap out just seemed like, all right, you got me. So the idea of me, even me, big Derek Lewis fan over here, being fooled into, no, this is the time, you know, where he's going to put it back all together. Umpty Dumpty's not, you know, you can't do it, Luke. You can't do it. And I love him.

Maybe he fights out a few more times against up and coming heavyweights on the way up. Maybe he scores another big knockout because when you got that type of power, that's what he can do. But I think it might even, I think it's more mental than physical at this point. I just don't think he has the same level of focus, drive, and desire that at certain flashes he showed, right? Even, even rallying against Volkov in a fight, he was losing every single second until he wasn't. Like that was a different

Derek Lewis than the one we see now. And even though there's a collection of knockouts in succession, it's not due to a lack of chin. I just don't think the fire's there anymore. And he can't relight it. And I don't know how the UFC can continue to present him as a featured fighter anymore with this amount of performances that kind of all look the same. Different elements, different opponents, different ways they ended, but they kind of all look the same. And I'm saying that from a guy who loves and respects Derek Lewis's potential and upside, but to me, Luke, it's over.

I'll say this, BC. I agree that he looked a little listless and lifeless. The way he just got thrown around was just really surprising to me. Derek Lewis is typically not the best grappler or wrestler, but certainly sturdy as a physical presence. He's been taken down. It's not even exactly what I'm saying, but if you have to go back and watch,

he just gets literally returned to the mat over and over again by a guy who was just like kind of dominating him again the whole fight was three minutes and five seconds um I just feel like I echo most of what you're saying the only thing I would add BC where I don't really disagree with what you're saying but I want to add this part I do think we should take a second look at this point at sergey spivak if you haven't already it's probably time bc he's just 28 years old by the way i think uh tomorrow february 7th is the black beast's birthday so he's gonna be 38 tomorrow kind of getting up there but in terms of sergey spivak he's just 28 years old he is now with extreme couture he's gotten a lot better better BC and I love the way he's able to punch his way into the clinch and from there

he can manhandle people. He tried to outside trip, almost like a like a Tai Tochi and then went the other direction with a throw which was just beautiful. He's great from scarf. He was able to get good ground and power and by not wasting energy trying to hold down the big fella, kind of let

him get to his base and then just unloading and then when he was halfway there tearing him back down again dude it was just a really well executed game plan that head norm triangle to get it so fast like that is is very difficult to achieve even if you're i grant that like i didn't see the most resistance i've ever seen from derrick lewis but i just want to point out i think everything you're saying about derrick le Derek Lewis as a potential headliner and the state of his career, not great. At the same time, let's not lose sight of the fact that Spivak is young and getting way better, way quicker.

I think we also have to acknowledge that. I agree with that. And in the run he's put together, we have won six of his last seven. The only loss being stopped by Aspinall early, but he recovered from that very nicely and coming back. He's well-rounded. He's very confident, very young. He just turned 28 in January. We normally, even in the UFC heavyweight division,

don't always see guys fully come into their full potential until early or mid-30s. Are you looking at the potential of an all-Sergei Super Showdown to find out which one of those two guys, Pavlovich or Spivak, is coming and which one's going you like that type of matchmaking hey we got these two red hot Sergei's here let's make them fight each other um you could do that you could do that um this is the problem with Spivak's win like this is the best win of his career and this is the problem with Spivak's win. Like, this is the best win of his career, and this is the best he's ever looked, but because Lewis also looked a little lifeless,

I don't... Here's what I'll say. I came out of this fight to myself thinking, wow, Spivak, you look great. You look really good. But I didn't think of an obvious matchup next. It didn't necessarily, like, click. Like, oh, he'd look...

That'd be a great fight there and that one would be interesting and that one would be telling me it sounds like you feel differently i just didn't have a strong feeling about who would be a great pair for him next his last loss before this streak of when he won six of seven was a decision loss to marchin ty bura who you know look good enough against uh blog boy ivanov on the same card luke i wonder if you run that rematch back going okay this is one of the guys who's beaten spivak in this promotion and tybura look luke you know he's a he's a tough ass out i mean he's that guy you gotta beat to to to prove that you're truly coming so i wonder if that's the better matchup here as we sort of sort this out

truly just coming yeah i mean that's what that's what um who said that uh sabahu moss he said that he had planned on doing lots of jizzing uh all right so we'll see what happens with uh with what's next but uh that's our top five bc there you have it uh i believe we don't have any other ads so it's time for DMs from dogs, BC. The diggity dogs. Hee-haw to that absolute bullshit. All right, we got mail. Viewers. I think.

Viewers, yeah. All right, BC. From at big underscore max 69. I mean, can you imagine putting that on your resume? Big max 69. What's your Instagram handle? Big max 69. Dude, it's a triple underscore.

You see that, Luke? Just to separate them from the other big max 69s that are out there underscore you see that luke just just to separate him from the other big mac 69s that are out there you know what you know what's great about that name it just flows so easily very easy to find great name uh all right is there a fighter in any division that you guys recommend should move up or down in weight johnny eblin might explore 205 at some point i don't think that's crazy i don't think that's crazy. I don't think that's crazy. He seems to have good size in that regard. Where are you on the idea?

I mean, Aljamain Sterling is the defending champion in the UFC's deepest weight class, but there has been some sprinkling of talk that an eventual move up to featherweight could be good for him. Do you think that he could thrive there? Maybe. What about Max Holloway to 155? How do you think that's that he could thrive there maybe what about max holloway to 155 how do you feel about that well i mean you know some of that is dependent upon what happens in the arnold allen matchup but it's i mean like how much do we hold against max the when he came up for air

in a big moment against dustin poirier in which he fought his ass off at 236 and it was a you know one of the best fights we've seen in these modern times, but did not have the firepower at his preferred style to one-up a guy who could match him and had a bigger arsenal. How does Max offset, as he's aging into his 30s, not having finishing power at 145? Can he be a volume guy and wear you down, Luke? Can he be more of a ground specialist? Max has a good-ass ground game, but he doesn't lean on it, right? it right yeah I don't know I don't think 155 is a great place for him again

we have to see what happens this coming weekend we're all getting on flights after this but the reality is number one versus number two is going to be fighting on Saturday and if Volkanovsky wins he's like I'm going to defend both come on get the fuck out of here no you're not like that's just not it's not it's not realistic it's not. I know he is not lying to the audience. He probably believes he can, but it's just not real. So we'll have to see. I don't have a great answer on who desperately needs to go up or down because no one's cutting insane amounts of weight like they used to

or, you know what I mean? There's not as obvious a candidate for it as there once was. But, all right. From at PJ Hayes 7. BC, what path would you recommend an MMA prospect take to make the most money in their career? Only fans? Become friends with the Nelk boys.

Show up on their shows. You got Dana's attention. Fight like a badass out of hell, right? A bad out of hell, excuse me. And I mean, yeah, I mean, look, you got to market your, you're right. The OnlyFans was a good comment. You've got to be, I mean, you know, what, how's Patty able to just dance right in? Markets himself extremely well, right?

That he's, that he's sort of living on the edge in his fight game and getting fat between fights. I mean, marketing and finding a financial outlet for that is huge, considering that UFC tends to, as you get in there, cut down on your outside interests, you know, in terms of sponsors and all that that you can bring with you. But, I mean, it's hard, Luke, because would you say the majority of fighters are coming through the factory of the Dana White Contender Series and starting at very low salaries purposely? Let me just tell you, it's almost impossible to make money in MMA.

Like in terms of the amount of people who try, promoters, media, fighters, anyone, it's extremely difficult to make money in this industry. So first of all, what would I recommend? I would recommend that if you actually want to make money, don't fight MMA, first of all. Because unless you're really good and you can get to the pay-per-view side of things, I just don't know how that's going to be for you. But I will go back and say one thing, BC.

We made it before about Michael Chandler and everything else. Again, you go back to Hector Lombard, Alvarez, all the guys who got recruited when they were already established names that the hardcores knew that the UFC had to go and pull. And not Conor, who went Cage Warriors UFC, where he was kind of graduating. Yes, going from Bellator to UFC is a bit of a graduation,

but Alvarez was already king of the underground. He already had a bunch of belts and so forth. So getting those people, like much more senior level. If you can get recruited and signed in that way, you can probably get more money. And I would look at someone like A.J. McKee. A.J. McKee is going to get a fair amount of money that he probably would not have necessarily gotten in UFC.

And if he eventually signs with him at some point, because he's still, I think, well under 30, if he signs with him at some point, he might get a really sweetheart deal and then jump right into pay-per-view. That could be something. That could be something. So, you know, finding ways to make yourself attractive, to be acquired, but just like, I'm going to bite down on the mouthpiece

and I'm going to do all the grunt work that no one wants. No one else wants to, because I take pride, you know, in the, my work habits in my, in my, you know, commitment to the grind. That's great. That's noble. That shit ain't going to get you paid. It's not going to get you paid. You have to be very, very good. And you have to be acquired uh as like some kind of you know um valuable attraction so simple or just or just show your hog on only fans yeah just show your dick on stop doing this like i mean look what what do you think of this movement? We tend to think of it more for female fighters, but you hear female fighters talk about it, and they talk about it from a standpoint of like,

my body is like an artistic statement. I'm proud of it. I want to show it. And also the reality of when I do this, and OnlyFans, I can afford to not have a full-time job now. I can train full-time at a high level. But what does that say about this industry that that's becoming like part of the job, part of the deal? Dude, I've been telling you this, like you talk to media members. I don't know how many are happy with their job. You talk to a lot of fighters. I don't know how many are

happy with their job. You talk to promoters, except like the most successful ones. I don't know how happy they are with their jobs. Like we're happy with our job. We have the best job maybe in the industry. So I want to be clear jobs like we're happy with our job we have the best job maybe in the industry so i want to be clear like we're extremely lucky but that's just my point like dude this is not a great industry to work in it's not like it's actually not great um because there are very few jobs very few of them pay well and that's true in any direction that you look yes you see all the big cases of people who have done really well and that's it kind of warps your perspective, but the vast, vast majority aren't going to make very much doing it.

Don't. And by the way, to your point about OnlyFans, I don't think it's worth clutching your pearls over like, oh, you know, women might be showing skin or even doing more than that on OnlyFans. Life's short, dude. If you can get some money and get some breathing room and that life is hard enough just making it through the day just making

it through the day is so difficult and then to put together a year and then 10 and then 20 it's fucking hard and if you have kids it's even harder and if you don't have a lot of money it's fucking insanely hard so you can show your and whatever else and you can get some cash. Go do it. I'm not showing my go do it. Okay. I have certain I have some limitations and standards. I'm not judging those who do, but I'm not.

I'm not showing it. All right. I just feel like I understand your point. What does it say that they have to do that because they can't get a fighter purse? But my response would be, I don't know how much money there is in the industry more generally even if you had a better more uh equitable conditions that would be better but it still would be winners and losers in a very stark kind of way and more to the point do life is hard and it is short get fucking paid just get paid i mean well the ufc is is look there's a lot of great right now we're in a good time for the sport the health of it i mean there's

there's some there's a lot of mma Right now, we're in a good time for the sport, the health of it. I mean, there's a lot of MMA organizations that are above the regional level, maybe not quite competing head-to-head with the UFC, but have their own niche, have large TV deals, have exposure and all that. With UFC being considered still the extreme elite, but also the one that tends to pay you not not as favorably at least compared to the the overall uh financial gain of the company like at what point does that truly embolden the free agent market where you can use that against ufc you know what i mean like there there's a certain you know francis is a big free agent nate diaz can get money probably look what they're doing they all

want to go box because there's no one until the industry is changed by force of law ali act unionization um you are going to have a real hard time getting paid in the industry period like it's just going to be very very very very difficult some will some will do really well like honor's going to do really well francis even if he stayed in the UFC, would have done really well, right? He would have made $10 million. That's a lot of money. But as long as, this is the whole point, he can't go to any other MMA organization

and find other dance partners who he can make a lot of money with because the industry is so concentrated on one side. And so even if you get someone like a Bellator who pays sub but close to 50% of their overall revenues to the fighter pay, that's still not as much of a pool as it would be for someone else like the ufc given the control they have over the industry so you know uh i gotta just keep saying it like what what's gonna have change in the dynamics for fighters to get paid more force of law force of law anything else won't do shit that's it all

right uh okay at abernathy do you guys think the reason we haven't heard about colby fighting anytime soon is his lawsuit against masvidal he writes i would assume if he is claiming a brain injury it would hurt his case by taking a fight and the more time off is more compensation he can get i'm told that that may not be in play anymore or that there's all kinds of weird ways in which that could be adjudicated and it's not necessarily relevant I don't know the law in Florida nor do I know the ins and outs of that case BC but I think we'll probably see him in 2023 no I still feel like it's it's dependent upon how these matchups play out and he just wants to kind of see from a

distance here because he would be a very fresh title challenger for Leon Edwards, and he's coming off of a pay-per-view win, so why throw yourself back in the pool and have to fight a, you know, Chemaev or Shavkat or whoever, you know, Bilal, Sean Brady, all those guys when he feels like he's at a certain level of fame where he can just get the opportunity. But I don't understand the legal implications here of why this would keep him out, Luke. Is he accusing the UFC in it?

So the idea would be like, okay, there's a criminal aspect to what Jorge allegedly did. There's also a civil component there as well. And so if you're claiming that you suffered a brain injury such that you are entitled to financial compensation. Now, again, I do not know the law. I'm not a lawyer. I believe the thinking is that if you actually did suffer a brain injury, how could you then resume a fighting career where you're now building upon this professed and alleged brain injury? How does that square sort of the implication?

But the law is tricky. I don't really know what it demands. We need people on call. Like, you know, the NFL the nfl broadcast they'll have like former head of officials up in a studio booth somewhere we can go we need like john s nash you know on call at the moment like we're like i don't know what that means for legal or fighter pay oh let's call john right i mean can you think we could do that we'll get a couple straw weights on call too luke just to sort some shit out put them on put them on speed speed dial yeah uh we do need that i have friends who are attorneys but then every time you talk to them it's like well i practice this very particular kind of law i don't really know what

it means for that one i'm like didn't you pass the fucking bar man can't you just can't you just tell me but they never seem to be able to all right From a friend of the show at Telvin Kipapa, BC. Yeah. Wow. You recognized Hawaii's own right there. That's right. BC. We have a big week, right?

So we're flying out today and then we have to come back Friday. Then there's Showtime. We have to cover boxing on Saturday. Then after we cover Showtime boxing, I have to cover UFC 284 that night. Right. And then the next day is the Super Bowl. So he's asking, who do you guys have winning in the Super Bowl,

the Eagles or the Chiefs? BC, you got a read on this one? No. This has been the calendar year that I would say I was the least following NFL and mainstream sports because my entire life is my family, this show, Luke, and fist fighting so um i don't have also fist fighting your family yes i don't yeah i don't have a great read on this bowl here luke i mean you know i've only missed one super bowl going back to super bowl 21 1987 january um and January. And that was the one, the Patriot,

I guess the first Patriots Giants won because my kids were born the day before. So I didn't watch that because they had like surgeries that day. And I was like, you know, screw Tom Brady. I got life to deal with here. But, you know, I do come back for the damn bowl, Luke. All right. You know, I could probably beat most

in all-time Super Bowl trivia, but no, I don't know who's going to win this. Mah my homes have a healthy ankle i don't know where we're at who's the eagles quarterback nick falls where we at right now jalen hurts all right who balled out this year okay thank you you know no i'm gonna go i don't know who's gonna win i mean hasn't my homes like thrown a bunch of picks in his two super bowl appearances like four fucking picks i don't know but i'm sure real real NFL fans love this breakdown we're giving. Yeah, they love it. I'll just say this.

I don't really like either team, but, like, the Chiefs fan base, they used to be great upstarts, and now they're arrogant dicks. And so for that reason, even though, you know, Philly fans are, I mean, they're just known as absolute fucking scoundrels, I'm going to say, even though I have no idea who's going to win, I'll root for the Eagles this time. I'll cheer for the Eagles. And they're not supposed to because they're NFC East rivals,

but the commanders are just. I just hope both teams play well, Luke, and they're really happy with their performance. You know what I'm going to do during the Super Bowl? Nothing. I hope somebody shows their boob during the Super Bowl. Yeah, you know what I mean? That's about it.

That's it. You know what I do tune into and my wife and kids make fun of me you ever watch like no the the the halftime like puppy bowl or the kitten one luke when they're like you know like tackling each other and playing with the yarn and stuff like that you know maybe i'm an absolute weirdo but that makes me really happy watching that bc i think i have this right but i could be wrong who is the super bowl halftime show this year? I have no idea. I think it's Rihanna.

I think. Yes. Long Island Luke and Gaffer confirming it is Rihanna. Last but not least, BC, from at MJ.Heath. Over under four and a half. The number of Brian's jokes that Luke no-sells in front of a live London audience. Oh, I'm taking the over on that. I'm taking the over huge on that.

Here's the thing. I expect that no-sell from you, but I'm looking to see if I'm big in the UK. I'm looking to see if my material just sticks to people. Just, you know, just, yeah. Are you going to do the traditional? You, of course, are going to do traditional Brian Campbell, where you walk into a room loudly and then fill it with yourself so that no one else can have any room in that room. Is that right?

Would you confirm that I had some pretty strong ideas for this show that certain people got very conservative about? BC wanted to have – I can't even explain this to you. BC thought that what we were doing was like that we had the production staff of American Idol, and we could do all of these crazy things on set and they're like we can't really do any of this shit and he wanted staff whose job it is to like hold cameras to then like be part of the show and like they were all like we're not fucking doing this i mean here's the thing you know you want to do a really good live show or you want to do the best live show anyone's ever considered on a podcast scale that that makes other corners of the globe go damn we need we need

mk we don't want them we need them luke okay uh well i'm not looking i'm not looking to tickle the rim luke okay i'm i'm going i'm looking to you know i'm looking to call tooey if you know what i mean right a couple of digits and just have fun with it uh all right bc that is it for our top five it is time now for bc's feces take it away yeah i scoured the globe yesterday luke uh for the good the bad the ugly the high the low the in between all that real bullshit we talk about here in combat sports and beyond it's viral videos it's fun it's called have you seen this oh god oh oh oh oh uh yeah we're gonna do this we got some boxing to get to but let's start an mma bellator 290 from inglewood here is the slow motion highlight of lorenz larkin hellboeing mukhamid berkamov luke nasty nasty boys super super. You can't really see it from this clip,

but he actually turns him and gets him to stop, which is all he needs to then fire that right elbow over the top. It's pretty great. He's 7-0 with one no contest in his last eight since losing his first two Bellator fights that you mentioned earlier, and he's done it over two divisions, 36 years old, still got it. Still got it right now, okay? He looked great. He looked great.

He looked great. Absolutely. And you mentioned Johnny Eblen in round five took an exhausted Anatoly Tokov and sent him to suplex city with old Brock Lesnar over there. Let's get a replay of that. This was gnarly. Yeah, picks him up. Bah.

Damn. Just a great punctuating moment in round five, and then he runs this one down does he the knee tap couldn't quite get it but great job by johnny eblen really great job uh we mentioned brennan ward got into that war with homasi here's the finish with that high kick in round two just great stuff he almost had he almost had uh homasi turning the wrong way that's how you know somebody's you know ready to go luke yeah Yeah, dude. I'll say this. First fight back on CBS, the guy was covered in blood.

Perfect. Perfect. There it is. Gentlemen, we're on national television. Gentlemen, yes. Yes, Gus. We know. We know.

We know, indeed. Brennan Ward not only got the big KO win, but got the creepiest hug attempt of all time afterwards from JCVD. Yeah, failed hug. hug failed hug weird hug and then they're good can't believe jean-claude gave her vd right luke i mean look at this guy like an old pos right look at that hair jcvd is the man don't get me wrong i love him but what's up with the hair just combing it forward halfway to it was got the lebron haircut there you know what i'm saying yeah so they didn't know if they should they didn't know if they're hugging kissing high

five and it was very awkward but i was told by people to look up jean-claude van damme's attempt at hugging fedor back in the pride day so let's flash back luke here's what we got back in the day that's decent kind of creepy but look at that face from john oh boy okay did you see that face at the end luke that's the i just want to make love to you that's a man who's got casey and jojo singing love songs in his head all his life luke he's just you know he's been waiting for a man like fedor i mean i have two to be fair you know all right uh luke, heavyweight Ali Isaev. Yeah, this fight sucked. Fought to a draw with Steve Maurer.

Even though Big Steve got full mount, he couldn't finish him off. But did you see Ali's corner? Nearly came to blows. Explain this to me. I don't know. We don't know what it's about. But the dude, first of all, these guys just have Gandalf beards. The one who hit the hat backwards and then this dude in the front.

They're having some kind of disagreement. Then they stand. And then this woman comes over her. She's with the commission. First of all, and then this dude in the front they're having some kind of disagreement then they stand and then this woman comes over her she's with the commission first of all like tough lady by the way getting in between two two weird ass corners but they're just yelling and you know whatever fucking language and we don't know what it's about you think he was like in my culture we don't respect authority from women i hope not luke i hope not yeah i hope not i'll just say that i hope all right let, let's move on before we get in trouble. Hey, UFC from the Apex, Luke,

this went on at 3am. Somebody must have been lonely. Hey, let's play some sound. Here's Bantamweight, Rinyah Nakamura KO-Wanning Tashiomi Kazama in a real breakthrough moment here. Let's listen. ...to see. That's what makes it great. ...

... ... ...... to see that's what makes it great zoom sucks and i can't hear anything but yeah that the sound tends to get swallowed in zoom but dude nakamura of all the korean fighters that had done the reality show with ufc and we're looking to make a splash here dude he made a huge one you got to give him that his last name is nakamura yes yeah so he's japanese then you're right you're right shinsuke nakamura the famous wrestler but was he on that korean show or am i the road he might have been yes i think he might okay i think that's the reference i was making which is why his shorts were like of the dana white contender series kind not the ufc venom deal kind so there

you go by the way i haven't watched it yet but i saw like the ads or i saw it popped up i opened up netflix and you know how like it'll play the trailer for a show if you just leave it like covered on whatever it is on the cursor and i have the show physical 100 have you seen it no so it's some kind of like i think japanese game show and they brought it i don't know the premise fully but i know they open up it looked like the Squid Games and they open up this room and it's like all of these people who are like insanely fit.

All like either Japanese or I don't know all their ethnicities, but certainly I did see this. One of the contestants on the game show is Yoshihiro Akiyama, Sexyama. And they all go there. All the dudes have to take off their shirts and they're all fucking yoked. Sexyama was not the only yoked one he was he was he had competition look I apologize

I've been shaken because I got to take a whiz so the microphone's been bumping and our producers told me like people are probably mad at me but all good moving forward here we go I got to see that if sexy Yama's in a reality show I got to see it Luke all right I've been I've been caught up on season two of the White Lotus does any show make make elite white people more unlikable than that one, Luke? That's a fantastic piece of business. They are. Well, it's not just the whites that are unlikable in that show. That's the good part about it.

Just about everybody is. Yeah. Hey, let's go back to the UFC octagon. Here's flyweight Tatsura Taira with a submission in the first round. This is the opening fight of the night against Jesus Aguilar. That was gnarly, Luke. Yeah, this is a weird one because they're both repped by the same management company.

Jason House, yes. Well, I think it's Iridium, right? So they're both repped by Iridium, and Tyra was a minus 1250 favorite, I think plus 750, plus 850 for Aguilar. I don't know why a fight like that would get booked if they have the same manager. You think they were cashing Aguilar out I don't know why a fight like that would get booked if they have the same manager, but you think they were cashing

Aguilar out? The wonders never cease in this war. Yeah, or punishing him for something. He got punished in that one, Luke. Tough to see. Let's listen to this, Luke. Jean-Yong Lee had a big win on this card, and he's got a fucking plan for what he's going to do after a split decision win over Yiza.

I have a plan. Then he get next Topuria, next Max Holloway to Volkanovski. That's my fucking plan. Yeah. This guy's great. Dude, how good is that? First of all, I love the balls of being like,

here's my plan. I'm going to beat this guy, then Holloway, and then I'm taking the title from Volkanovski. But to hammer it home with, that's my fucking plan. It's like, yeah, you're damn right it is. Yeah. Not in your native language. It's tough. Good for him.

It's tough. Well done. John Young Lee is his name. I'm going to be watching him moving forward. Hey, let's catch up on some other MMA violence from around the globe, Luke. Let's go to Chuteau, Brazil. Here's 6'4", welterweight Jose Henrique Souza. Oh, I saw this.

Sending Alan Silva to the land of the ghost, but he called him on first. Watch this. Bop. That knee. Dude, was that a front kick to the face? That was a knee. Damn, I love that he called him forward, too. He's like like come get this

smoke it's here for you bro yeah you need a lighter notice he chased along the fence line he didn't corner him see so he's chasing he's not cornering him off and cutting the cage off he just runs right into it like anytime here's a rule of thumb anytime you see someone not cutting them off but then following them around the cage Like they're both along the fence line running that way. Like Verdum versus Miocic. The person doing the pursuing is going to see the land of wind and ghosts. It's going to happen. You're right.

You're right about that. Like Kimbo versus Seth Petruzzelli, Luke. It's a little different, but you know. A little different. Okay. Let's go to Fame MMA. Here's Alan Kwasinskiinski i think he's a polish fellow luke with a uh that's the best running front kick ko i've ever seen your

thoughts luke that's nuts my lord see it again he's pumped look at all those advertisements on him are those just bad tats i can't figure it out by a combo combination of column a column b there all right a lot of him celebrating let's see the let's see the finish let's see let's see the shot look at this dude good lord luke you don't see that successfully pulled off too often in elite circles that's nice damn all right hey also at chuteau brazil how about heavyweight cleberson tavarez in a title fight for the heavyweight strap against andre vieta look at this finish and look how fired up your guy is with salt and pepper to boot here

just bleed right that's gonna be you getting off the plane in dallas that guy loves it in the crowd yeah but look at first of all great knockout then he walked over him then he laid on him yeah that's your new heavyweight champion right there it looks like a badass he looks like a dude who's seen some shit i'll say that yeah hey look remember that time islam mahachev accused dana white of uh not properly promoting saturday's ufc 284 card in perth he might be on to something let's go to dana from saturday night when you have the number one versus number two pound for pound guy guys in the world fighting each other like you said in their prime

it never it's never happened if you think of all the fights that we've done in the UFC. So, you know, when you talk about legacy, if Volkanovski could pull this off, it's obviously massive. And if, if, you know, yeah, can pull it off. It's, you know know he's on his way to building an incredible legacy look who's the he that he's talking about i i didn't i didn't catch that no clue couldn't couldn't figure it out is that slap jesus he was he was thinking of look i couldn't i couldn't get it i'll say this i mean here's the thing like in defense of dana like you know the older i get like our brains can't have the recall that they used to either, candidly. How many times have we been on the show? What's the guy's name?

Oh, Jesus. Tatiana Suarez. We butchered that a few times. Yeah, a few times. So we're not. It's in fairness to him, midnight or one in the morning, and you're having a hard time doing the recall. On the other side, we see the optics. Not great. Not great. Not great at at all and thank you for all those times you put

pay-per-views late on the east coast luke because that's what we're like trying to write our deadline stories we're like what's that guy again that just fought i'm you know yeah there you go all right hey luke dana will not uh he won't do that right he'll do anything for love but he won't promote 284 on the level that Islam wants. You know what else Dana won't do, Luke? High-flying dangerous attempts like this guy. This ain't YMI Cliffs, but check that out. Well, I guess he stuck the landing.

Well, I mean, I just can't believe that he's white, BC. Dude, look at that. Is that parkour over power lines? That's wild. I don't know what it is, but I just know this dude's dying early. I mean, he's not going to live to see 40, right? What a way to go out, though, doing what he loves, Luke. Yeah, it's not that noble.

Not that noble. Luke, remember that scene in Half-Baked where Dave Chappelle walks in on his girlfriend, Mary Jane, and she's got weed. And he's like, you smoke? We could have been hanging out from the beginning. But it was really a trap. It was like an intervention. This video got me feeling the same thing. Hey, Ariel Helwani, we could have been hanging out since the beginning, bro.

We spoke with Ariel just before. Helwani. Yeah, Ariel Helwani. Smokes marijuana? No, no, we spoke. Oh, smoke. Helwani. Smokes marijuana? No, no, we smoke. Oh, smoke. You said smoke. That's really disappointing to me.

I know that you potheads have won this argument, but there's still a few of us that don't like it. That would have broken my heart. We're sober guys. Really? All three of us, we've been like all three of us are

we've lost our license to smoke marijuana that was really funny that was really hold on you know do you know any other aerials

so sad a barrel had gone to that side we smoked we spoke okay god I'm glad I didn't enunciate

that word um you know common misconception there Luke I was like man we could have God, I'm glad I didn't enunciate that word. You know, common misconception there, Luke. I was like, man, we could have been bros with this guy for a long time, right? I can confirm I have never smoked with Ariel Helwani. I can confirm that. Okay.

Okay. I have also not smoked with him. Would you rather smoke with Chaelale or steve-o neither i mean that's a nightmare blood rotation i mean it depends are we smoking with the luxor i think i think they're both fine but like here's the thing it's like i think they're both we i love you we had you on the show like chell's great i don't know steve-, but he seems like he's a peaceful dude. There's nothing wrong with either of them. But I don't know if I want to do drugs with them.

That's a different kind of consideration, you know? Okay, there you go. Luke, let's head to boxing from the weekend. We got a lot of high points here. Let's go to the theater at Madison Square Garden, the Hulu Theater. 126-pound undisputed championship. Amanda Serrano and erica cruz went blood and guts for 10 rounds here's a little sampling of the action between them

i mean i think this this fight had like most punches thrown in a women's title fight in history it was wild this fight something, these two getting after it. Cruz got a cut on her hairline from a headbutt, but then we weren't sure at the end of this fight if Serrano was cut or it was Cruz's blood all over her, but Luke, here's the final sequence in round 10. I mean, they went start to finish, balls out. I give a lot of respect to both ladies. I mean, she's literally, Cruz is just square,

bent over forward, and just winging these those isak cruise punches you know i'm talking about oh yeah oh yeah let's chat about this fight for a second you can take that video down there luke um serrano ended up getting somewhat wide scores two of them were eight rounds to two which i didn't fully agree with i thought there's a a solid four rounds you can give uh cruise But did you end up watching this fight? What did you think about Serrano's performance overall? I thought she was not as dominant. I did watch.

I thought she was not as dominant as I thought she was going to be. I agree that she won. Not as comfortable. I basically share your concerns. I didn't think that the scorecards really reflected how accurate it was. Also, Cruz is a tough opponent, but not the same as Katie Taylor so I don't want to read too much into it either way tough opponent for Serrano but she got it she got the job done she was the deserving victor there's no controversy yeah but hard to know about

how much it might mean for a rematch right well look she she I wasn't sure watching it live if this was her slowing down or if it was just sort of a, I didn't love Serrano's style. So basically in the first half of the fight, Cruz, Serrano's not used to fighting southpaw. She said as much coming in and you got to give Cruz credit. She ducked her head down and just threw the same kind of three punch combination over and over again. But it made it hard for her to get countered. She was landing with the body. Then she started landing some pretty big hooks against Serrano where it felt like Amanda just wanted to stand in there, go punch for punch.

You know, Womano-y, Womano-luke. Womano. And see what happens. And it really, even though Serrano hurt Cruz in round six and kind of visibly wobbled her, I feel like she really won the fight from round seven through nine by actually listening to her corner jabbing from distance landing combos from distance it was almost as if she got lured into a brawl figured hey i'm comfortable doing this when you know if she stayed on that course she may have lost this fight i mean look the judges ended up kind of doing this wide in the end but that key strategical change i think was really what won it for so i don't think she's necessarily getting too old or anything like that but she had someone in front of her who was a little bit awkward and was not

willing to go away. I give Erica Cruz a ton of credit. You know, it was Mexico versus Puerto Rico and she, she showed out on this one despite the loss. Well, the victory Luke, we'd wondered when we're going to do this big rematch.

They announced it right after the fight, March, sorry, May 20th. It'll be on the zone. It'll be somewhere in Ireland. We don't know the venue yet, but Katie Taylor was ringside. She came in the ring, and here we are, Luke.

Must see TV. Arguably the greatest women's fight of all time is going to get a rebooking. Your thoughts? Picture's amazing with all the belts. I hope they make it in Croke Park. I hope they make it soon. Cannot wait. Cannot wait. Again, my only complaint

is I think the rules are BS in terms of two minute rounds and they don't do 12. They only do 10. I hate that part, but okay, that aside, those are commission choices and I just gotta say, I don't know what on earth anyone could hate about this rematch, especially if they put it in Croke Park.

Historic, historic meeting between two all-time greats in women's boxing love it this is going to be the first time in boxing history granted the four belt era is only what 20 25 years old but this is the first time a four belt undisputed champion which taylor is at lightweight will be welcoming a challenger who's also a reigning four-bell undisputed champion of which serrano is at featherweight gonna move up two weight divisions again to take on taylor and luke if it was three minutes per round yeah i feel like that benefits serrano who did have taylor hurt at you know particularly one big time in in in the mid rounds of that first fight you wonder if she's got that additional minute could she have could she have stopped her dropped her it changes a lot but until we do it it's like

i don't know what to say you know yeah hey friday night glendale arizona dude we got some people calling it an instant classic it was theater it was emmanuel navarrete moving up to a third weight division fighting for a vacant title at 130. And Liam Wilson of Australia would not go away. Here's the round four knockdown, which created that long count controversy afterwards. Yeah. So he hit him after his gloves touched the canvas, but okay, whatever.

And then this is how it ended. As you can see, obviously, from the caption. Again, on that knockdown, Navarrete eventually got 27 seconds 27 seconds to recover by happenstance do you believe BC that he dropped the mouthpiece on purpose because he might it would be a very veteran move to do that yeah it would be and we've certainly seen it done correctly in the past to buy yourself some big time Corrales against against Castillo in the first fight, even though he ended up getting penalized when he did the second time.

The point didn't matter in the long run because he rallied for the knockout victory. We've seen people get just straight up penalized for it in the past. But yes, I do think that was the case, but I don't cry the same level of controversy of all. Now, look, when you watch a video that has a timer on it that Dan Canobio tweeted out, did he get 27 seconds? Yes. But here's why I don't think it was actually controversial.

Navarrete got to his feet in about two and a half seconds. He was never not going to beat the eight count. Was it perfect refereeing? No. But what the referee does have to do in these circumstances is get the mouthpiece back in. It's not like the referee went and got it rinsed off. He shoved it right back in Navarrete's mouth. And if you're a referee in the modern days, you

do have to kind of look at them. Watch them take a sidestep. Sometimes you see the referees call them forward. He did have to, in the moment, just make sure Navarrete was okay. But what are you going to say about the heart of both guys, Luke? Liam Wilson, in this big moment, he was a late replacement opponent.

Dude, he fought his ass off, man. He did. He fought off man he did it was much closer than i thought it was going to be do you think navarrete can compete in this weight division because there are questions of that after this performance yes i mean we need to see him against someone else uh but i think i don't know how it's not even his punching power that i have or his ability to hurt opponents and put them away. I necessarily have a question about his sturdiness against them, I think is certainly a question here. Yeah, yeah, big performance from Leon Wilson in defeat. And I do have questions.

You know, Navarrete's crafty, he's awkward, but once he figured out how to land that punch from distance, the tenor of the fight kind of changed, but I don't know if he's got big-time power at this weight class to really move people. It took him a while to wear Wilson down. On this undercard, U.S. Olympic medalist Richard Torres Jr. continued his unbeaten start.

Luke, unfortunately, he's fighting kind of cans, but he's crushing them right now. He's crushing them. He's crushing them. It's the early part of his career, and he's got a little bit of acclaim. So they're putting him in fights that everyone's going to be like, oh, he's crushing him. It's the early part of his career, and he's got a little bit of acclaim. So they're putting him in fights that everyone's going to be like, oh, he's crushing cans. He's so new, he's supposed to be.

This is how the game works. When you're a decent prospect on your way up, they give you fights that are increasingly difficult, but ones that you're supposed to win up until about 15, 20 fights in or whatever it ends up being. And then you get the really tough ones, or you're supposed to get the tough ones. So yeah, he's beating up the dudes that he's supposed to beat up, but BC, he is hurting them.

These boys can't do much to them. Look at that uppercut. That's beautiful from a southpaw heavyweight. That's a good looking punch right there. Let's not forget about Alicia Baumgartner, Luke. She was in the co-main event on DAZN below Serrano in her own undisputed championship fight at 130. Her opponent came in.

I forgot the fighter's name look i just called her a chick too what a double embarrassment by me a a strong fighter who came in and addressed luke but once they actually touched gloves and let it go dude bob gartner's power her timing her footwork this was a very impressive performance two knockdowns and then the eventual stoppage she looked great uh bob Baumgartner, and then, by the way, was shitting on Michaela Mayer in her post-fight comments. She has turned into a star attraction in women's boxing, and it's no accident.

She's great. So she's at 130, where she's now the Undisputed Champion. She's got Toni Harrison as her trainer, so she's really making some big gains here. I wonder, Luke, I still wonder. Obviously, the rematch with Mayer will be big eventually when it happens, but with Serrano and Taylor having that big rematch at 35, this is 130. Could Baumgartner be a long-range opponent for either one

or short-term opponent in terms of making big fights? It's something to watch because she's really made some big gains in a short period of time, Alicia Baumgartner. Let's go to some random fails here. You know that's what we do. Were you a big double-Dutch guy as a kid,ke uh all the kids in my class were but no people forget before video games got really good we would go outside with a with with some weird ass giant jump ropes and do stuff like this luke i just didn't have you know fat wasn't really into the flips yeah it's just that he gets i mean he gets he gets like there's no way that was gonna work without your feet getting tangled like what are you doing

no all right let's go to the basketball court you ever see these high school cheerleaders they can flip all the way across the arena like blindly it's crazy yeah they're insane athletes look at this she's kind of headed in the wrong direction oh the crowd loves it too look the crowd loves it after she gets hit oh yeah bc i want to see that in an mma fight where someone just flip all the way over to the other side and the other person's so dumbfounded they just get hit in any way yeah once michelle potato washes out of the ufc down the road luke and does like the regional circus circuit he's going to be doing moves like that there's no question i love it all right finally our other fail is from from the champagne bottle this happens it happens do people not know how to

take off champagne oh she's just gonna get she's gonna eat it huh yeah there you go there it is oh boy do people not know how to take it off i? Yep, there you go. There it is. Oh, boy. Do people not know how to take it off? I don't know, but I kind of get the feeling that's not the first time that's happened to her. Maybe the first time with an actual bottle, but, you know. My family is no longer in the bottled wine business, but they were for some time. And so I'm not an expert. I want to be very clear about that.

They are, but one of the things that they showed me was how to take off, whenever you have any cork like this. You typically, once, you should have a hand on the thing once you undo that they showed me was how to take off. Whenever you have any cork like this, you typically want to, you should have a hand on the thing once you undo that little metal piece that holds the cork and then get a towel and then slowly turn it. And as you do, actually, it'll naturally force its way out. But when you just pop it open like that, that's when it fucking jizzes everywhere. So, you know, keep that in mind.

Luke, you and I are really good at this podcasting game, as evidenced by where we'll be Wednesday night, right? King's Court or King's something. One of the Kings is there. King's Place? King's Cross. King's Cross. You ever come across somebody in a regular 9-to-5

who's just a master at what they do and you realize, look, they've perfected the art. Check out this guy at the movie theater. Now, you know, do I question whether that's actually butter on there sometimes based on his hygiene? Maybe, but this is elite level skills right here. Okay, so here's what I'm going to say. At first, I thought he was just doing the Tom Cruise cocktail shit

where I'm just moving around for no good reason just to add some dramatic flair and i'm taking longer to make the popcorn than ordinarily i would but he's making the butter go in stages on the popcorn chub rock knows what he's doing here yeah and then by the way he spins it like and you see the popcorn come up as he spins it which kind of washes it through all of the popcorn i gotta say 10 out of 10 for the big fella here. 10 out of 10. Big win. Big win for the fat fella.

But not all fat guys take wins in this segment, Luke. Let's go to the Arctic. Let's go to Russia. Hello, everyone. Oh, my God. I'll break you, right? You'll scratch yourself. Come on.

Let's go. Look at his gross butt crack. Hey, why don't you get a concussion with that hypothermia? There you go. There you go. It's a package deal, Luke. That's great. Great work by that guy. Hey, it's time for a grandson of the greatest update, Luke.

Nico Ali-Walsh scored a decision victory on the undercard of this top-ranked card. People seem to be still mixed on his growth potential as a fighter, but he's posing like he's Johnny Walker there. Remember when they held up Johnny Walker and his junk was out front, Luke? That was great. This is how BC sits on the New York City subway

right here. Absolutely. I want the world to see what i've got going on there it is yup but that's not the only uh grandson of the greatest who's making some rounds on the internet did you see layla ali posted a picture of her son who looks exactly like a young cassius clay jesus wow he does wow wow amazing right yeah the other ones all have like ali in their name but then they they bear Wow. He does. Wow. Wow. Amazing, right? Yeah, the other ones all have Ali in their name, but then they bear no resemblance to him. This young fellow does. Isn't his dad Curtis Conway the ex-NFL receiver?

I couldn't tell you. All right, I think that might be true. Great genes, Luke. Great genes. Where are all the elderly people falling off skateboards? I'm really disappointed with this batch. Hey, let's play a new game. It's called Does, great jeans, Luke. Great jeans. Where are all the elderly people falling off skateboards? I'm really disappointed with this batch. Hey, let's play a new game. It's called, Does This Guy Fuck, Luke?

I'll play the video. You tell me if this guy fucks. All right, there we go. Let's go to the dance floor. Oh, he's fucking. I don't know what he's fucking, but he's fucking. Oh, boy. Look at this.

Look at that fancy footwork. Wow. Are those high heels, too? Wow. Dude, this is me waiting outside the shitter when someone's in there and I have to go. All right. And what are they asking us? What is Gaff asking us?

Is that Marin? I don't know what the fuck that means. Yeah, I don't know what that is either. But thank you, Gaff. Oh, let's go to this orchestra. Oh, Martine. That's Martine. You know, the Lascaucho. The Lascaucho? Oh, let's go to this orchestra. Martin. Oh, Martine. They're asking if that's Martine. You know, the Lascaucho, Luke.

The Lascaucho? No, that's not him. All right. Let's go to the orchestra here. Is this guy F, Luke? He does is the answer, but probably to very gross sexual partners. Very quickly, too too i could bet can you imagine this dude kissing when he gets all horned up no he is he is probably so gross

uh look you and i are big fans of the uh alt country band called the drive-by truckers they produce jason isbell love them you ever hear of drive-by lovers drive by lovers okay just crash and fucking die just just just right into the drink there please who's driving luke i mean what the what just run them over on the road you have my permission it's okay not everyone has to live bc not everyone it's not for everybody hey let's go to the pool party inevitably someone takes a big fall and it gets messy. Let's check out this party. And there they go. I don't think that was planned.

She twists her ankle, pantses the guy, and then sends him into the drink. Yeah, you can leave now. You can leave now. Look, anytime I show you a video of Alex Pineda in real life, he looks scarier and scarier, whether it's dressing up like indigenous people in Brazil or this video in Dubai of Alex walking with a drugged up lion. Probably.

No, no, no no not probably definitely but you're not gonna be able to walk this lion without some level of trank in his bloodstream uh yeah unfortunate that uh we saw who did we see we saw charles olivera do this too apparently all these people go to dubai and then meet animals they're not supposed to meet guys yeah you're not supposed to know lions and tigers i don't know if that's a thing we are aware of but if you're actually rather they go to would you rather they go to bag of vans place luke is he's is he in jail or not not yet i don't think joe exotic is joe exotic has been tweeting a lot of pro dana white uh tweets lately do you think he's trying to get pardoned through that relationship how would he get pardoned by dana white dana has friends in high places luke

joe biden i don't know also a president can only uh overturn uh federal convictions not state gotcha thank you for that update from washington hey let's go to rate that tat here's ufc fighter dan eagay your thoughts on his new ink? Please be good. That's pretty good. Who is that? I'm not sure. All right. It's not bad.

It's not bad. Okay. The upper part seems unfinished. It's still purple. Yeah, I was going to say, there's some parts that look like they need some touching up, but it's a little dark at the wrist. But otherwise, actually, there's... Oh, oh wait no no he's so he's getting the whole sleeve done see it's a little dark you're gonna have to wait until it uh it lightens up a

little bit okay okay it's coming together nicely though dan e gay well done there uh 50k dan e gay finally luke let's go to the marathon i don't expect you to ever run one luke but if you did no i would be this guy cheering you on is that a bong yes it is with the lighter okay that's great oh that's good stuff how do you not stop and hit that on the way i mean i'm busy trying to make my time i'm i'm trying to get baked fuck y'all yeah they have a one of the best road races ever luke is this one called the litchfield hills road race in uh litchfield connecticut's seven miles and the last mile is straight uphill

and they actually have an ambulance halfway up parked just because because people collapse on the way up because it's so hot. They have this stretch of it. So it's one of those like hometown races where every time you turn the corner, there's another like rock band in the front yard of someone's house playing. You know, you wave to them. You go through the woods and you come around the corner and they got these dudes with a keg and they got filled cups just handing them out to you.

And I was like, yeah, man. But this takes it to a new level. Yeah, that's nice. I could get by with that. I could get by with that. All right. What's the longest race you ever ran um i've done uh 10ks or what those are 6.4 miles i've done a lot of 10ks i've done that race that i just mentioned which was 7.1 and i was marathon training in the fall of 2015 and um i ended up quitting training because i got the job at espn so like i'm sorry not 2015 2005 i got the job offer from espn and i was like what do i do what do i do

i chose the career path but luke i was where i was building up on my long runs and i was to the point where every saturday i was running uh 14 to 15 miles that's a lot point yeah the most i've done 10ks and then the most I ever did in one go was nine miles. I'm not a big runner. I hated it. I don't know if you know what this is. That was a boots and utes run. Boots and utes is where you actually have to wear your combat boots and

pants when you run. This was at 29 Palms. So that's the one I beat. Oh, God, dude, that's hell and torture. I had the... I'm not even doing a bit i had the worst shin splints of my fucking life after that run it was terrible terrible i've always hated running it sucks i love running i'm but i'm the most inconsistent runner of anyone who loves running ever meaning when i can get myself into it luke i'm all the hell in i will i will run until i die

meaning like i'll give all in a race luke you know i ran people forget this luke if'm all the hell in i will i will run until i die meaning like i'll give all in a race luke you know i ran people forget this luke if i've done one thing well athletically in my life at age 27 i ran a mile race in 556 and i was really proud of that that's really good that's really good yeah i collapsed at the finish line and had to be like almost resuscitated but it was a great moment i had a coronary and died and they had to resuscitate me and that's the thing Luke like a motley crew guitar player you know when I'm passionate about something

Luke I'm willing to die doing it right which is which takes us to London when I've had a sub seven minute mile at my very best I've never had a sub six never never never that's pretty good that's pretty good all right BC that is it for us today. Yeah, that's our last show ever in the U.S., Luke.

I don't know about ever, but certainly this week. BC, that is it for us today. So here's how this is going to go. We're on a jet plane tonight, all various different ones. I will see you in the U.K. tomorrow, tomorrow morning. I'm going to leave like right now, Luke, okay? I know. I'm going to wrap it up.

I'm going to wrap it up. And so we'll have Wednesday. We're going to have an episode where it'll be the UFC 284 pregame preview with Chuck Mendenhall. That'll be out Wednesday. And then the episode we record at night for the Big Pod Live Festival, that'll be Friday's show. So Dan Hardy will be there with us. There's just a handful of tickets left.

If you want to get them, come be a part of the experience. BC, any final thoughts before we wrap it up here i gotta i've gotta pee my pants but thank you for everybody for supporting us for voting us as best podcast so we can do this ridiculous live show thank you to everybody's going to show up the jan 6 scouser all these people that are showing up for us luke we're going to show out for you we're going to absolutely bring it you can watch this episode on friday of that we're going to film Wednesday night. We got some good room service diaries scheduled for the next few days in London. So be on the lookout for that great content. What a time.

What a time to be alive. I got to go pee my pants. Look, I'm so sorry. All right, you go do that. I'll take us out of here. So reminder, Showtime.com is the label that pays. You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it.

If not, you can bounce. Reach the show. MorningCombat at Gmail.com. MorningCombat at Gmail.com is the place to do that. MorningCombat.store for all of your merch, London merch or otherwise. It is all available there. And of course, we already told you about the pod live tickets.

Pod-live.com for folks who are listening on the audio portion of the podcast. That is it. That is it. That is it. The next time you see us, we will be in London, England. So for Brian Campbell, Malka, Showtime, CBS Sports, and everyone else involved, my name is Luke Thomas. We'll see you all next time.

And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.