MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Bellator 290 & UFC Vegas 68 Picks | Serrano vs. Cruz | PFL Fight News | EP. 405

Episode Date: February 3, 2023

On Episode 405 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian kick off the show by giving their picks for Bellator 290 and UFC Vegas 68. Can BC come back from going 1 and 8 the first two weeks? Next up the guys preview Amanda Serrano vs. Erika Cruz and a couple more boxing matches of note this weekend. They also discuss PFL's fight announcements before closing out the show with dead wrong. (9:30) - OK, Bet (36:00) - UFC 284 Promotion (53:00) - Weekend Boxing Preview (58:00) - PFL Fight Announcements (67:00) - Quick hitters (96:00) - Dead Wrong Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

It's Friday, it must be time for another lethal injection of that art. The sauce, right? It is coming back around again. This is for the people of the sun or the fist, depending which side you're on. It's Morning Combat, the award-winning combat sports showcase dedicated to all things comedy, Delta 8s, and sometimes even fights. I'm Brian Campbell, your hostess with the

most s uh the american alpha the bbc with that bde follow below i'm sure you enjoy what i sprinkle on top of this here meat but i know you come for that beef right you come for it you know i'm saying yeah you do it's luke thomas from the nation's capital and luke considering we're well considering we're washed but considering we're just a few days away from going to London, I mean, could you be any happier right now? Seriously. I'm more just delighted that you think of me as the hot beef injection of this show. It really is just a wonderful place to be.

BC, I got to tell you, man, we had discussed it prior, right? Like, we just didn't want to get on that plane, feeling a bunch of stress about how's the week going to go. Did we sell enough tickets? Blah, blah, blah, dude. You know, who the hell knows? We still have to go there and make it all happen. But I am feeling great about this trip. I am feeling so happy. We can report that we have literally just a couple of dozen left tickets left to sell to this thing. It is going to be a – not near – it could be a sellout, but it's going to be either a sellout or right at it, like right at the line. We're going to have Dan Hardy there.

We're going to be shooting all kinds of RSDs while we're there. We're going to have doc content while we're there. Dude, London is going to be a blast. I am so – London's going to bang, too. It will. Right now, of course, is Friday, February 3rd. We're about to set the stage for the combat weekend to come, but everything looks at is true.

Just a few days from now, Wednesday, February 8th, King's place is the venue in London. The King's cross, not King's court, King's cross section of London. Of course,

we're headlining pod live. The first annual podcast festival brought to you by the sports podcast group. They named us podcasts of the sports Podcast of the Year in 2022. I mean, that's ridiculous. But, Luke, we get 90 minutes to show the world what we can do. You mentioned the outlaw Dan Hardy. You can still get tickets.

As of yesterday, this is full disclosure, folks, about a 500-seat venue. We were down to 49 tickets yesterday. A bunch more moved overnight. So I don't know where we're at Luke 25, 30. I mean, we are closing in or so. And that's, that's all thanks to you guys. I mean, we've never even, I've never stepped foot in the UK and here we are, here we do it. Whether you're coming from Ireland, Nova Scotia, wherever,

we're excited to be there with you. So could be the time of your life. Could be the beginning more like this to come, but just a reminder, that's going to go down live February 8th. That episode, if you can't make it is going to air Friday, February 10th, uh, ahead of that weekend's fight. So, uh, that's, what's going on. We've got a great show planned for you today. Of course, to set the stage for a kind of weird UFC fight night card. That's going to go on in the middle of the night on Saturday. And of course, Bella tour two 90 on CBS, a week three of Luke and I doing our new segment called. Okay.

Bet you better bitch. We're going to break down our five picks this week. See if I can pull my way out of the gutter. So I don't have to end up at some cannibal horse concert and watch children get mutilated or something. But Mikey Mormont on the ones and twos. I'm going to see Pantera when they come to town in September, I think. September?

Now, with respect to where we're at in Pantera's history, is Phil still singing? Yeah, I mean, look, half the members of Pantera are dead. That's what I'm saying. It's half Pantera, half cover band. I i just heard little feet is coming around luke and i'm like okay that's great but didn't little george die like a couple decades ago like i don't know if you can replace certain people luke have they replaced my bag daryl yeah you don't but they've got zach wild on guitar for folks when i know he was in society as well as he was ozzy's guitarist

for a long time i saw him live uh with o and he, he, he kicked an asshole through. He has a song. I think he wrote with black label society to dime bag after he died. So I think they'll probably perform that on various points on the road. So it's, he was kind of an obvious choice there. I forget who the other donk is. You'll have to forgive me, but yeah, I mean, it's enough to get me to go, really. I mean. Oh, we'd like to remind you of our great partners.

And, you know, of course, the label that pays us. Team Paramount over here. You better believe that. But Showtime.com right now can get you 30 days free of Showtime. We're talking about Bellator MMA Championship Boxing, Showbox with your boy BC, and W. Kamau Bell's Cosby Dock, which should not be slept on, folks, okay? Certainly not post-Roofie.

Got nominated for an Emmy, if I'm not mistaken, right? You're damn right. Check it out there, Showtime.com. And obviously there's news in the future about Showtime, Paramount+, all that. We'll walk you through that as that happens here. But same great content, same great wash dads here bringing it to you, okay? So, okay, bet we're going to hit that later in the show for sure. Or maybe even right now I got to do it right off the top there.

Maybe I should get caught up on the rundown, but look, before we kick this show into gear, um, anything else you want to talk about mentioned, you know, everything good in your personal life, because sometimes look, you can, you can agree to this. And when I say sometimes I really mean permanently, This show is only as good as your attitude. It's a harsh way to put it, but... This is definitely an intervention, yes. Yeah, no, I'm feeling great. I'm feeling great.

There'll be a post-show tomorrow for Bellator right here. So come back and see me following Bellator 290 on CBS. It's basically free. you can watch it there so uh yeah other than that i just have a weekend with the fam before i hit the road and that's it man you all right all right tookie thomas a lot a lot of london stuff coming her way like luke i gotta get my kids like a bag full of european candy are you gonna do the same for toques i'm not gonna give her the candy but uh yeah she's gonna expect like you know and it's also like this is a weird thing that colombians do like dude if you get on a plane to go see someone i don't care like how it would last

it doesn't matter if you get on a plane to go see someone you have to bring them gifts you just have to i don't understand it but that's what they do so you know i have that why you're always trying to touch me a lot and when we see each other uh no that's because you know i can't even say i can't even do half the jokes i want to do anymore or we'll get demonetized but bc i want you to know i had a absolutely inappropriate joke i wanted to save it for only pipes luke one day all right there you go uh all right we're about to start the show we got a fun weekend of fights a little bit of news to sort out maybe even your dead wrongs on the other side reminder morning last week yeah morning combat at gmail.com is your way to reach the show say hi to mikey for us but uh let's start the show right now and we'll

kick off with our opening segment this is the third week we're doing this for the new year. Okay, bet. Okay, bet. Okay, bet. Okay, throw the animation. I thought we had some graphics for this. No? There it is.

Okay. All right. So to recap. So two weeks ago was week two and we're doing this for a full year. Luke and I will compete every week by picking five picks head to head we will pick the main event a favorite from the weekend an underdog to win from the weekend which fight will either go over and under and which fight will either end in a ko or a submission what you're looking at was our week two results after i bombed out and went oh for the first week these are wrong Mikey fucked it up these are wrong why because a Rodriguez is spelled wrong it's an s but more importantly he lost

I had him as the favorite that's true that pick is correct but the problem is and I should have seen it before Mikey so I accept you know I'm not trying to air him out I should he posted him and I didn't even notice till now so it's on me too but uh but no no i picked i picked rodriguez to win and then he got beat he got knocked out in the first round so i only got two of those right last week pretty well to update the standings right now overall in our head-to-head competition of course at the end of 2023 the loser has to attend a music concert of the other's choice with jake Amsterdam and the doc cams present right now. Luke is six and three through two weeks. He went three and two officially in week two.

I am get ready for this. Luke one in eight overall. I correctly picked Jamal Hill with thrill us, but one in four, two weeks ago. So I got, I'm five picks down here i've got to start pulling my weight up from the basement forward so luke there you see the updated standings at

the moment uh apparently you are the uh you know forget about the red and blue corner or the the prime hydration water recovery zone or the harley davidson prep point i am the fist you are the sphincter luke in terms of the uh monopoly uh pegs that we're using to yeah but so for example though i think we i think we'll have to update this and again this is on me too i think oh two weeks ago i was three and two i thought two weeks ago i was four and one oh no you lost glover and Robocop, dude. Come on, catch up, all right? No, no, no, no. This past weekend, yeah, I was two and three. But two weeks ago, I thought I was... Anyway, whatever. Well, I'm in the lead, but not by much.

And also, like, I'm not doing great. You're just terrible. You're terrible. Well, I mean, you know, I don't know if my... You know, I've got a track record loop that involves, you know, great moments like Woodley Till and, you know, Will and Ganu Russell and all that great stuff. But, you know, I took some chances early on, Luke, because I, you know, I too like to live dangerously, but I'm trying to get back. So we will kick it off this week on OK Bet.

And of course, for our number one pick, we both picked the main event of what we consider to be the biggest fight of the weekend. Does it get any bigger than Bellator 290? 9 p.m. Eastern is your main card. Three-fight kickoff time on CBS. And it's Bader versus Fader part two. When Bader and Fader, Luke, meet for the Bellator Heavyweight Championship, the 46-year-old legend. We have to make the pick. So you have champion's advantage. Luke, you going first or second here?

I like going second. That's worked better for me. I'll go second. All right, here we go. I got to play it safe now. And your odds are telling you that Ryan Bader is around a minus 300, minus 330 betting favorite. He knocked out Fedor Emelianenko in 35 seconds in 2019

in the finals of the world grand prix. And I do understand because I'm one of the people that are banging the drum loud enough that like, look, Fedor may give us and himself like the ultimate walk-off wholesome moment. I'm romanticizing this. I want it as much as I love Ryan Bader. I want this Fedor moment. I'm a selfish fan right here, but I can't get past this notion that it's true. This version of Fedor, even though he's 10-2 in this last 12 years of his twilight, he's not built to go five rounds. He might not even be built to go a round and a half or even two full rounds here.

He comes in there looking to get into a skirmish and knock you the hell out. Vader's got the wrestling advantage. He's quicker. 39, yes. But what he's shown at heavyweight is, look, he can take you down and control the action. I think that's what he does. I think he's not going to be afraid in this instance to try to gas Vader out, try to beat him up on the ground if he gets the chance as the fight develops.

Will he walk through danger? Of course he will have to early. But I want a big feel-good moment. But in combat sports, Luke, that almost never happened. Seriously. That almost never happens in moments like this. And even though Bader's 39, like, like, look, it's, this is not, you know, a slam dunk. That's why the odds makers are respecting Fedor's power, but Bader's going to take him down and he's going to control this. And, uh, he's going to defend that heavyweight he's going to control this and uh he's going to defend that heavyweight championship that's my pick Luke where you going I think you probably have made the

right pick uh Bader is a fairly sizable favorite he's on a two-fight win streak both of those hard fought against you know um experienced or otherwise you know reasonably talented opposition in the case of Moldavsky and he had to go the full distance and both of them so they were ugly wins but they were like real legitimate wins uh not overwhelming but in a sense overwhelming in terms of damage but overwhelming in terms of um just the kind of pressure he was able to apply he should be able to do that here um but you know what fuck it i'm gonna have a little fun with this one listen we just saw frankie egger get iced and we didn't get the goodbye we wanted. Then we had to watch Shogun get iced,

and that was not what we really wanted, but that's how the sport goes. In all likelihood, the sport's probably going to go like that tomorrow as well. But for fun, to be different, and honestly, I will say this, in defense of Fedor, he fights in a very open style, and that's going to cause problems for him sometimes, but it's going to help him overachieve in other times as well.

He's just accepting of a certain level of risk, particularly exchanging in the pocket. He still has pretty good speed, obviously, for heavyweight. And, you know, again, one more time, Ryan Bader is 39, so he's not looking exactly young himself. There's a chance he could certainly get it done. I think you probably made the right call, but for fun, I'm going to go with Fedor, and I definitely take his potential as a, you know, make things interesting here

pretty high, actually. I mean, I wouldn't advise you to watch these highlights here against Large Rampage, but the ones we saw right before that against Timothy Johnson from 2021 in Moscow, which is the fight that seriously allows Fedor to be in this rematch in terms of, you know, no one picketing outside the building aside from the history and the romance

and all that. He knocked Timothy Johnson the hell out. He was quick. He was crisp. The combinations were there. So your play could certainly play out. But look, a reminder on both of these gentlemen, Fedor and Fedor, I caught up with both of them on CBS Sports HQ.

They're going to run today, both on HQ and as well posted on the Morning Combat account, youtube.com slash morningcombat. If you want to check it out, Luke, I did get a chance to actually talk with Fedor and get back what you took from me all those years ago. Did it feel as good as you hoped it would? It really did. I'm not going to lie here.

It was a moment for me. And it wasn't a great interview, obviously. We're doing it through Zoom. I could barely hear the translation. He's a man of few words, but did i get him to laugh a few times yes did i feel in some form luke like he felt me yeah i think he did i think we connected our spirits aligned right there but uh i'm glad you felt touched by fedor i'm very delighted uh before we could transfer on to pick two let's catch up here with ryanader. We've got him. Look, he has the opportunity to become the first fighter to defeat Fedor Emelianenko twice. Fedor's got six career losses.

He's pretty much, you know, beaten everyone he possibly could short of Randy Couture, the fight that we never could make. So let's hear Bader on how excited he was at the potential of doing this a second time. Yeah, at first I was kind of, I was kind of iffy on it. You know, I was like of iffy on it, y I've been there done that again? Um I really can't spectacular fashion, you

the point? And then I star and I started warming up getting really excited ab one, it's on CBS and numb Oregon, you know, legend know, it's on CBS. And number two, it's Fedor again, you know, legend of the sport. And, you know, I'll get to be part of his story as well as he's a part of my story. You know, with two fights here, I get to be one of the only guys that can go out there and have the potential to beat him twice also.

So I'm definitely very excited about it. And, you know, most importantly, it's a huge platform. And any Fedor fight is a big fight. And throw it on CBS, it's going to be huge. Just a reminder, you can get to both of those interviews in full later today, Morning Combat and CBS Sports HQ. Luke, I like his upfront attitude. You know, I mean, look, if I was him, I get it.

You beat the legend in 35 seconds. Why would you want to mess with that? But I'm glad he came around for the potential of this moment. And, Luke, there was some level of breaking news, if you want to call it that when scott coker appeared on aerial show on wednesday and he said organically he was reached out to by so many legends we're talking randy dan henderson josh barnett henzo and hoist gracie uh you know mark coleman chael son on and on and on that coker's going to put them all cage side during this and is looking at this as some,

to some degree of like an end of an era moment. Is there any like connection there that that spurs Fedor to really pour out the jug of everything he has left here to try to make a moment happen? I don't think it's that. I really think this is just, this is vintage Scott Coker, actually. Coker has always had a sense of, in terms of like the Japanese side of things, the sense of ceremony, not just in terms of making, you know, a show with pyro. I don't mean just that, although it can mean that as well, or, you know, big, big walkouts, those kinds of things, the traditional things you might think of in that way. But more than that, like this, the ceremony of tradition, the ceremony of honoring history and honoring moments and honoring signposts in the fight game, like he's always kind of

had a soft spot for that. You know, candidly, I don't know how much the average MMA fan today will really appreciate who was sitting cage side or who will be, I should say, sitting cage side. Does the modern MMA fan really know a lot about the career of Henzo Gracie? Do they know a lot about Frank Shamrock? Do they know a lot even about Matt Hughes who will be in attendance? It's really hard to say, but I think for Coker, this is a moment to never let go of history if you can avoid it, to make sure that people understand the community of fighters about which Fedor belongs, how the community of fighters that he belongs to view him, what that significance says, and to then have a moment to think about how these greats, what it must mean that all of these greats have such adoration for this figure. I think MMA in general does a pretty bad job of honoring its history. It's gotten better at it over time, certainly certainly but in general could go a lot further i think coker's always been um you know i think there's other criticisms

you could make of him as a promoter but i think certainly on this level in honoring history and making sure that it's a forward part of the program he's always been a little bit better at it than most and i think this is an example of it i like that he's doing it you know it was it was john mellencamp and probably epstein that said hold on to 16 as long as you can you know what i mean i like keeping the memories and the magic of those pride royalty regal days alive and we're gonna do that come saturday night all right luke pick number two time out i know you want to steamroll into the next one but hold on let's pause the show here for a second so we're you asked me about all of these legends being caged side and you turned that into jeffrey epstein

echoing a john mellencamp lyric about the joys of youth and summerhood right or summertime anyway uh that's great bc i'm glad you're all. All right. All right. There you go. Great sell right there. I don't know. I'm not used to that. I'll look number two on. Okay. Yeah. I'm a, you know, what did we say in the past? I'm, I'm brilliantly dumb.

That's it. Luke. Great. That's it right there. Uh, pick number two on. Okay. Bet. We pick a favorite for the weekend and a reminder.

This could be boxing, MMA, bare knuckle, power slap. No, uh, Luke, my favorite is going to go like this we know it's a three fight bellator main card 9 p.m eastern on cbs but 6 p.m eastern will be a very loaded preliminary card on both the bellator youtube channels and also on pluto tv and in what may end up being the featured prelim we got a welterweight till till neiman gracie taking on dante shiro now as we speak right now our friends at caesars have neiman gracie in this matchup as a minus 280 favorite to the plus 230 dante shiro luke you may remember dante he's uh he's traded wins and losses over the years but he pushed logan storley to the limit and a close split decision loss that really

could have went either way when logan storley had that homecoming back in South Dakota. He's a certain level class of fighter who can give you trouble. But do I believe he's on the same level as Neiman Gracie? No. And even though Gracie's riding a streak in which he's lost three of four, including being knocked out by Goichi Yamauchi in his last bout, he needs a bounce back. I've seen him. He's in great shape.

I think, Luke, if Neiman Gracie makes a return to focusing on what got him here, which is the ground game, the grappling, the submission threats. And as much as I like the willingness he has been in the big fights, think against Logan Sturley to throw a big shots and eat big shots. If he has to, he's just so much better when he's leaning on his strengths i see a return here i'm going naming greasy gracie as a as a as a favorite here minus 280 to get back in the wind cone i think that's a perfectly reasonable call it's not the one i'm making but i wouldn't really take issue with it at all i gotta put it safe luke until i can pull out of this basement all right yeah i get it you got listen you got to play the portfolio whenever you invest some a little more high risk some a little bit more low risk this is more of a low risk one but a reasonable one just the same uh bc for me i'm gonna go a little bit

higher risk this time now i'm picking a favorite obviously so it's not that high risk but it's one where the underdog could surprise here and i recognize that i'm saying it out loud i know that this is of all the favorites i could have picked there might be some different ones i could have gone with uh but i'm gonna go with johnny eblin i think johnny eblin for me bc is you could very much make a case he is mma's most unheralded champ right of all the guys who have claimed a organizational or a major organizational weight class title in terms of how good they are and then in terms of the acclaim that has followed who's got the biggest gap in the sense, in the negative side anyway? I think you can make a case for Johnny Eblen.

He is very well-rounded. Well, I should say well-rounded enough, but great wrestler, great athlete, not hardly any miles on him, built for distance, King Mo trained, out of American Top Team and a whole lot more, not just him. His whole corner is just a world-class corner. And I know his game sometimes doesn't please everyone. I know he hasn't made a big splash in the media. Fair enough.

Maybe some of the parts of the fight against Musashi weren't entertaining enough. I'm not in any way saying that there's not criticisms to make or limitations to acknowledge. But in terms of how well he's done and whether that's caught on to me it's just there's a yawning gap between them and I think that's affected the perception of people not enough for the odds makers because he is the odds favorite in this one all but not by a significant margin and I grant that Tokov I grant I grant nothing would

surprise me if Tokov won he is great BC. BC. I acknowledge it. I acknowledge it, but I just feel like Johnny Ebelin doesn't get his just do. He doesn't get what is owed to him in terms of how good he is and sturdy. Uh, I think, uh, a divisional champ will bring him in terms of stability to that, to that weight class. So me, I'm going to go Johnny Ebelin. Ebelin a minus two 60 favorite, according to Caesarsars plus 210 is Anatoly Tokov who I almost took Luke for number three as my pick to win by upset but I went a different direction last minute here we go BC's gonna play it safe this is what I call a safe upset pick your main event of late Saturday night or maybe more at you know more correctly Sunday early morning when UFC Fight Night starts,

1 a.m. Eastern time, the main card, of course, to appeal to the South Korean market where this card was originally scheduled to air. And it's Derek Lewis in that main event against Sergey Spivak. As we look at the odds right now in this heavyweight tilt, Luke Thomas, as I just got me to get there, okay? Plus 190 is Derek Lewis, the underdog minus two 30, Sergei Spivak.

I don't have to belabor this because I fought for Lewis's chances on Wednesday show based in a lot of ways by the shape he got in ahead of this, which shows you how important this fight is to him to maintain at this level. I just think if he's coming in there fit, we know he's going to look to throw hands, but when he's got that extra level in his gas tank,

it's not that he's chinny Luke. It's really that he can bust when, when, when the, you know, like right now, Luke, I don't know if you're experiencing a chill in DC,

but do you know about this cold streak? I know there's cold everywhere. Texas is getting hammered out by ice, but it's going to be like, yeah, tomorrow it's going to be like minus 25 here in connecticut uh the paquettes have told me that in nova scotia it's like minus 40 there luke on the lakes of i mean why would you live in places like this i mean just you know i don't know i don't know yeah i mean if you know by the way we have it i want to tell you we have an mk listener who lives in none of it luke all right

the old yukon territory you know that no north canada like up by the pole luke you know what i'm talking about right yeah i mean you just you know what are you hiding from the law like who the fuck no no no him and his wife his wife's a teacher and they're helping out the local indigenous community luke so i want to shout out to that guy i forgot his name though so that hurts that but you know whose name i won't forget lu Bilal Muhammad but secondly Derek Lewis I like him he's my upset pick and I also think he does it by knockout if you're looking to double down on that all right fair enough good pick I think it's a fair one as well from my upset I'm gonna go I'm gonna I think all of mine yeah I think all of mine are gonna stay with the Bellator card um I'm gonna go Max Roshkov

Max Roshkov is back he makes hisator debut. This was supposed to happen a few times already. He was supposed to have two bouts with Eric Sanchez and then Mike Hamill was supposed to happen. Actually, all of those were in 2022. That was supposed to happen in October of 2022 for Mike Hamill, and it didn't. So here he gets Chris Gonzalez. You might remember Chris Gonzalez fresh off of his loss to Usman Nurmagomedov. Usman Nurmagomedov was the one who kind of handled him. Now, I don't know that I put Max Roshkoff on the level of Usman Nurmagomedov. Usman Nurmagomedov was the one who kind of handled him now I don't know that I put Max Roshkov on the level of Usman Nurmagomedov quite candidly but not many guys are and this is a tough fight we even told you before Nurmagomedov fought Gonzalez that Gonzalez out of American excuse me out of a team alpha male was a great wrestler I believe he

was an all-american right so this is a guy who can get that done. This is a tough fight for Max Roshkoff, who was famously in that corner situation where, you know, he was asking for it to stop, and the corner was trying to talk him out of it, and it was, it was, I think it was Drysdale, I think it was, who was involved in the corner there. Anyway, Drysdale eventually did tell the corner that, or the coaches, excuse me, the officiants that he didn't want to quit, but anyway, you guys the remember the story he has looked good for the most part since that Austin Hubbard fight he had two fights in cage warriors where he looked pretty decent he is I think training with extreme couture I like his chances here he's not a significant underdog I think a plus 175 as it currently stands BC it's a close one i recognize it's a difficult

one but i think there's a reason to believe still in his upside um we'll see if you can get it done yeah now these are the ones i need you to not land luke so i can build a comeback here but i love it excuse me or what you're going in that regard okay category number four and okay bet we need to pick that a certain fight will go over or under from the standpoint of going the distance and i'm going to stay here on that bellator preliminary card how about this welterweight matchup it's a rematch of some sorts when lorenz larkin takes on unbeaten mukamed berkamov they fought in july of 2022 but it only went a round or two before illegal elbows made it a no contest here's the deal um mukamed is it berkamoff, Luke? Am I pronouncing that right?

I believe so. I'm not quite the guy to go to on this, but I believe that's right. Now, he's 14-0 with 11 finishes, nine of them by submission, and this is a tough matchup for Lorenz Larkin. Larkin, a plus 170 underdog, minus 200 is Berkomoff, but they're going the three-round distance here, Luke, because Lorenz Larkin is tough as nails. You know that he's got that bell sometimes shaved into the side of his head,

Riverside, California, in the house. And it's not that he hasn't been stopped before, but he's had a nice little streak at the moment in Bellator, having won six straight since the knockout loss to Paul Daly. You may remember that time. You can watch it back on Donkey Mentory No. 3 in the Morning Combat anthology when he called me out at the Mohegan sun for not having him uh ranked as a voter in those bellator rankings although to be fair in that moment lorenz you didn't have a middleweight

fight yet you'd been out for a long time you weren't eligible for the rankings you did try to you know send me to the deep dark depths of hell but luke i will show that i have no hard feelings by telling you that larkin is going to go the distance here and win or defeat i'm taking the over on that matchup uh i like that i like that uh for my over over uh over under uh bc i am going to go with one of the fights that i know has you all steamed up ready for the weekend what are we talking about here? Brennan Ward in a pair of, in a ski. What are we talking about here? No, no, we're talking about Diana Avsar,

Agova and Alejandro Lara. That's the one I think it's going to go the distance. Yeah. I've never, never once ever heard of him. Diana asked Avsar, Agova, Avsar, Agova, excuse me. Obviously she, her last win was a decision. In fact, I think she's only had two of her fights, two of her five wins have ever gone to,

and it kind of finished the rest of all decisions. I think the last four of Lara have gone to a decision, if not the last five. Let me double check here. The last three and then two more before that, actually. So, okay. Yeah, no, four. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is they go to decisions a lot.

There's a lot of decisions that happen between them. The current state that they're in, you know, and Laura is kind of like in this place where she's kind of good enough to hang on, but kind of not to, like, turn that corner. She's always been stuck in sort of this limbo situation. I think you're going to get something like that. This one goes the distance. Oh, I think that the fire in her to fight

for her job will lead to somebody getting stopped. Luke, she's only been stopped once, Alejandra Lara, that was in her title loss to Alima Lea McFarlane back in the day, but we'll see if that happens again. Finally, KO or sub, and which fight you got? Luke, I'm going to go off the board here. We got boxing

Saturday, ESPN+, Emmanuel Navarrete will look to become a three division champion when he moves up and welcomes a late replacement Luke it was supposed to be Oscar Valdez of course instead it's going to be Liam Wilson sliding in the Australian uh Luke I don't know if you saw the uh or maybe we'll maybe we'll get do we have a spot for that later oh forget it Luke I'm gonna go with a knockout, though, in this fight. Navarrete, at this point, is your favorite to win this. He's more seasoned.

Liam Wilson's a good, strong, young kid coming up. The thing I wanted to mention, Luke, was they weighed in for this fight. It's a 130-pound title bout. Liam Wilson weighed in at 126 and said he had weighed himself 20 times in the previous few hours, and he was right at 129 and he accused the promotion, the venue there in Glendale, Arizona and now Verete of messing with the scale to allow Navarrete to make weight at 129.2.

So, you know, that's just his conspiracy theory right there. Either way, I see a finish in this one. So I'm going knockout on Navarrete Wilson. You see that fighter, Liam, is he an American fighter? No, he's Australian, Luke.

That's a globally popular name. The guy named Liam is not American. I just want to clarify that. That's how that went. Just so you know on the odds here, minus 1,200 for Navarrete to win, plus 700 on Liam. But look, people are killing you in my DMs over that, telling me, you know, I went to Catholic school in Massachusetts. There was like 17 Liams, so Luke can shut the F up, you know?

Yeah, there's not. I don't believe that. I don't believe any one of you went to school with 17 Liams. You didn't, and that's not true, and that's okay. But all right, BC, for my KO or sub i mean you know i how does ward versus homasi end in decision it could end in sub but uh i look at you look at look at you looking to pad your lead here playing it's safer than uh switzerland at the moment but that that's cool. Listen, you continue to make bad investments. I'll continue to make winning ones.

You want to argue the strength of your record, guy? Is that what you want to do right here? I swing big. It's not like your clients are making money. I just want to be very, very clear about that. But all right, neither here nor there. I tend to think this one ends in KO. Frankly, either way, I'm forced to guess.

I'm going to guess Ward. I think he's a little bit underrated, but, you know, they're going to fight balls out. So it really will just become a gunfight at that point. But yeah, that one's going to end in KO, no doubt in my mind. I like the quotes between them this week. They both essentially have predicted that they're coming in there to knock each other out, but they got respect for each other. Ward did tease a couple times, Luke, something that you mentioned Wednesday,

that since this is like a real training camp, a long, real one, he's not used to that. He's got a game plan. He hopes he sticks with it. But even Brennan Ward acknowledged that when this thing does eventually turn into a fight, he's going to be there fighting Luke. And when that whole idea of when it does, I don't think it's a, a it's it's not a brawl at all i think they're going to touch gloves and bang touch gloves and bang there it is all right okay bet behind us we'll see who uh survives and advances in regard to that hey let's hit the biggest topics of the day here on Friday, February 3rd, 2023. We'll start with topic number one. Luke, there's some buzz going around about the anti-buzz, the negative buzz, or no buzz at all, however you want to say it.

As we are just a little bit more than a week away from UFC 284 Perth, Australia, where you have not one, but kind of one and a half title fights. When you consider the interim featherweight strap is on the line. When Josh Emma takes on Yair Rodriguez and one of the better fights you can make in this entire sport. When number one versus number two on the UFC pound for pound list meet as lightweight champion Islam. Islam Mahachev welcomes Alexander Volkanovski from the featherweight division. Luke, the news in this case is a lot of people have taken notice that UFC, Dana White in general, not really going ham on promoting this fight.

We can make the larger argument that that's not the direction that they're in anymore post-ESPN deal. But I think even I saw Mike Bone tweet out that of like the last 20 tweets on the UFC account at the time that he mentioned this yesterday, nine were for power slap. One had to do with UFC 284. So the comments that spurred this news release is that Islam Mahachev caught up with our sport in Russia. And this, these quotes were aggregated by MMA Junkie. He says, I see that it is not such a big promotion. Dana White himself has some problems. He does not pay much attention to this fight.

In terms of pay-per-view, yes, more could have been done. I only saw Volkanovski once in Sydney. A tour could be organized around the world. A conference could be held in America. End quote. Luke Thomas, how do you weigh in on this? Has UFC 284 been promoted to the level of a normal loaded pay-per-view, which at least at the top end, this thing is?

It's not even a question of has it been promoted like a normal pay-per-view. Yeah, like a normal pay-per-view, I suppose that it has in the normal sense of things. But the question is is is that adequate there is a really big broader like conversation that has to happen around the ufc's model of promotion and it's changed over time but at the current state of things it really is centered on like where does the ufc's promotional muscle really begin to get noticed it's's fight week, right? Sunday they put out a series of assets on their YouTube channel. These do quite well.

There'll be some shoulder programming that accompanies that eventually on ESPN Plus or some of the other on-demand services where you can get access to it. Fight week begins. People turn their interviews in. There's the scheduled events, pressers. It used to be workouts, weigh-ins, all that stuff. Everyone knows the story. And then there's the scheduled events pressers it used to be workouts you know all way way ends all that stuff everyone knows the story and then there's fight week they're very good once that once that sunday starts really fight week starts on the sunday not the monday

once that gets going they're very good in that space the question is for a really special event do they have the promotional and mechanical ability to then scale out for something much bigger than that when the time arises? And it appears that the answer to that question is, at least in the way in which they've showed us, no, right? No, they don't. They don't really have the ability to pivot to something broader when the need arises. Now, you can argue Volkanovsky versus Makachev will not do that well on pay-per-view and I would be open to that neither is a proven pay-per-view draw with enough uh numbers to their name over the course of you know many events to show this and I understand that argument it's a fair argument

but here's the problem with it right it's number one versus number two by their own rankings in the world pound for pound that is a special and frankly historic fight and if you're going to put on fights like that if not just a champion champion fight but number one versus number two on the pound for pound lists under those circumstances when you have a legitimate battle for pound for pound i mean if volkanovski wins there's just no question on earth i mean he already is number one but I'm talking he's number one with a bullet if he beats Makachev. When you have a question like that on the line, BC,

when something like that is up for grabs, it is owed something more than what the traditional fight week model that the UFC has mastered, in my judgment, is capable of providing. And here's the last part of this, BC, very quickly, which is maybe they do have the capacity to do this more, but to Mike Bond's part, I have seen a ton of promotion for PowerSlapp. UFC staff that normally I haven't heard from in years were emailing me press releases for Slapp League stuff

that I in no way requested or otherwise have a relationship with this person professionally that they would send it to me ordinarily. They they went out of their way to send it to me i didn't get anything like that regarding ufc 284 i think it tells you about a question about the ufc's priorities regarding slap and how much of the in-house labor force it actually occupies and takes away from potentially bigger mma competitions yeah uh you know I think the answer is yes and no. I think you nailed the part that, you know, if business goes back to usual after Saturday night's late night card from, you know, with a lot of the Korean fighters on it, with Derek Lewis main eventing, if we kick off Sunday and it's like episode one of Embedded, here's

countdown and here's everything we need, it'll make this a moot point quickly but no there has not been an aggressive push by any means now the the water's muddy right now because it's power slap season and because this has become a recurring topic and because it's just you know i think it's just a bad look to use the ufc hype machine as aggressively as they have to push this thing that is just an entirely different sport and And oh, by the way, just a bad look on top of that. So I think it's yes and no, but I totally understand from Islam Machev's point. I mean, this fight is massive, but no, we aren't seeing that aggressive next level, spend the money to do the media tours.

I mean, outside of, I saw some preview clip that Daniel Cormier put out that he had both Machev and Volkanovski on his DC and RC show on like a zoom at the same time. And that was like the first time I've seen in like a, you know, a couple of weeks, this fight being like pushed out to the masses. So, um, it's, it's disappointing to a sense, but Luke, would you say it's, it's, it's on par with the, you know, separate from power slap. It's on par to the larger direction UFC is going with the standpoint of how much they're getting paid by ESPN per pay-per-view card, where, you know, we've said it before and

it's true. They're not in the business of making pay-per-view stars anymore, but is it even more easier explained by just saying that this fight card might not really be aimed at the U S crowd? Like, obviously if you're a U S UFC fan, you know about this card, you know about these fights, you love them and you're probably going to buy them. But I don't know what the aggression on the publication and marketing for the promotion of this fight card has been in Australia, in Russia. I don't know. Now, you know, could you make the argument that this is more for, for, you know, they want to sell out the house in Perth.

They want to get as many pay-per-view buys internationally on this. They almost feel like in the U.S. their work is done, right or wrong. Then why is it on pay-per-view if their work is done? And, like, pay-per-view, 90%, it can be a little bit less, but, like, the vast majority of the buying public of pay-per-view is north american it's us and canada um like like it used to be at 90 i think it's closer to 70 or 80 but still the overwhelming majority like yes i get that this is going to have huge significance for australia fair enough huge significance for russia depending on the outcome i get it no argument but if the primary customer is North American,

and beyond the fact that it's just a sort of transactional thing, like trying to get money from us, again, inside that week-long model that they've built, that generally is good enough for them to get what they want. Like the UFC is doing really well financially. That works. But I think what fans are saying, and it's not just Makhachev, the fans are having a conversation about this as well,

is like, okay, but this contest is historic. This is the number one guy versus the number two guy in the sport. If that was happening in boxing, dude, you'd be hearing about it. The promoter wouldn't stop telling you about it. I just feel like there's something a little bit missing, an extra level of polish, maybe not a huge amount, but a little extra polish that could have gone into it that would make it feel as special as I think the people in the know know it to be. You know what's crazy is if you ask me, hey, BC, in boxing, when was the last time that there was like an argument to be made that a matchup was one versus two on the paper?

I'm sorry, on the pound for pound list. Now, obviously, the raise your hand go-to is Mayweather Pacquiao, and that fight had enough promotion. You didn't have to promote it, right? Five years it promoted itself. But I'm hearing an echo here, Luke. Are you hearing that? You might be.

If I can, I can just put my headphone in. It's no big deal. Go ahead. Well, there was 2017, 2018 around there, if you remember, when Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev fought twice both on hbo pay-per-view and back-to-back pay-per-views for the light heavyweight title and there was argument at that time that it actually was pound for pound number one versus number two and at worst really he had two of the top three or four and what's what's interesting is because because neither

fighter is a dynamic commercial cell those fights did not do well on pay-per-view. And I don't know if you remember, I think ahead of the rematch that Kathy Duva, the promoter for main events who represented Kovalev, like went scorched earth during the press conference, you know, kind of throwing shots at everyone, media, everybody for this fight being presented almost so deeply under the radar.

So it's interesting here that in that case, you had the promoter accusing everybody else of the fight not being promoted. And now in this case, you have the fighters accusing the promoter of not doing the job. So it's just weird. It's just weird, the whole situation. The fight card's still going to bang. And I got two quick things to bring up to relate to this fight card.

Here's one thing that, like, folks, two folk two things that like folks don't imagine like what would a fight look like if one had the number one mma fighter in the world versus the number two mma fighter in the world how would they promote that i don't know but i'd be curious to see how would bellator promote it if they had the literal number one pound for pound fighter in sport versus the number two what would that look like i don't know but i'd be curious to see and you can go that with ksw or whoever in the hands of someone else who actually had access to pound for pound number one versus pound number two what would a promoted fight look like i i i don't know the answer to that but i want folks to imagine we don't even get to contemplate these things by virtue of the ufc having the totality of you know the vast

majority anyway of the overall world's elite talent but like saying well they got this model and it works for them and blah blah blah but it's like dude we're not even imagining a world or what that would look like in someone else's hands and how much more grander it could potentially look like the UFC is very successful but they're fat and happy too right they've they've just got such a lock on the market their competitors are so far behind them I don't think they feel the need as much as they once did to kind of really show out and be the next level guys i mean they are in many ways just by virtue of everything they've built but you know i'm talking about that extra rub they used to put in there that some of that maybe maybe i'm wrong but some of that feels like it's missing a little bit

because of their high perch they just don't feel the the push what. What word is the opposite of incentivized? Decentivized. Would you say right now Dana White is de-centivized from trying to create pay-per-view stars? Like he loves that, you know, if he gets a chance to take like a McGregor and put him with a Jorge or a Nate for a third time, they're going to do it, right? They're going to do it.

But like, would you say they are de-centivized because then they have to pay them more to actually create pay-per-view stars at the moment under the current financial landscape? Hard to say. I would have to, you know, it's, are they drawing enough on pay-per-view where they feel like they're making themselves happy? They're set up for success in the future and it overall fits the budget and how they understand it with contracted revenue and then pay-per-view revenue and then all the various forms it's a much bigger question it's hard to argue like whether or not it fits into that um i tend to think that they don't need pay-per-view stars in the same way they once did and we've talked about it before they don't even want them in some ways because the volatility

would create between pay-per-view events um but they still want stars like stars sell more than otherwise and yes they cost a little bit more but you know they're still valuable to have and yeah they want them the parallel is weird it does remind me did you ever read you know jim miller who writes those huge like oral histories you ever read the espn book that massive one that came out about seven eight years ago the one of the main sections of that book looks at the sports center in the 90s when when dan patrick and keith olbermann for example those guys have all the fun yeah they. They became bigger than the brand and, you know, had commercials and had all this stuff and demanded more money and demanded all this, that it was almost like the company responded to that era by saying, we're never going to, you know, create

sports and our anchors that are stars that are bigger than the brand. And they kind of changed the system and tried to have as many sort of interchangeable, almost faceless people. To some degree, you can make that argument right now with the UFC, but it could just be the perfect storm of all the other factors coming together. But Luke, quickly related to this card, we're going to have a pregame preview with Chuck Mendenhall that goes out next week. And obviously we're going to be talking about it, but Habib officially will not be there in the corner of Islam. According to the reports separate from whatever Habib is leaning on in terms of taking this absence to, you know, have more time with his family. Is this like a good thing for Islam?

Biggest fight of his life. You can argue here that, that the, you know, it's not that Habib's not going to go by his side. I just feel like this is weird, right? I doubt that it's a good thing for Islam. I doubt that he prefers that Habib's not there. But guys, let's just be really, please be adult. Let's just be adults about this. I'm not saying you're not, B.C., but I'm just saying, let's make sure the conversation happens on adult terms.

If Volkanovsky were to win, it would have fuck all to do with Habib not being there. Like the mountain that dude has to climb in order to win, Habib not being there probably makes it a little bit easier. Maybe that's a thing. But is that the full summit? Does that get you to the summit in terms of all of the distance he has to cover, all the things that have to go right for him to win? Please be fucking serious. No chance, no chance. So if Volkanovski wins, if he beats Makachev, it is such an extraordinary achievement

that yeah, you could maybe be like, well, it could have helped his chances a little bit, a little bit. Yeah. But once he does that, if he does that, I don't give a shit that it'll be, was or wasn't there. It wouldn't have made made a difference he was going to win either way would you respect to be more if it came down to him just not wanting to endure that flight luke from dagestan i mean would you go east or west on that would you go left or right which direction shorter uh he would go east i think he would go east uh the other quick point i wanted to make was that i just saw a quote from that same interview where Mahachev said, Look, I don't want to be known just for my wrestling.

My goal is to go in there and knock Volkanovski out and beat him with my striking. What's your response to that? Stop sitting on your aeroplane points and get big savings so you can be somewhere you actually want to be, like on a beach. Right now, you can save up to 25% in AeroPlan points when you book a trip to one of 180-plus Air Canada destinations worldwide. So stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one.

Don't miss out. Your chance to save in points ends February 23rd. Book at aircanada.com. Conditions apply. I don't really buy that. I think he's going to try and wrestle him. I don't. Okay.

Yeah. And then quickly, loosely related, Wednesday night was the third episode of the road to PowerSlat pay-per-view or whatever it's called. And that got the worst ratings of the three, Luke. About a third of the total of what AEW had as the lead-in. So we'll see that ride continue there. One last note on that, if I may. We talked about how, like, with different things Dana White had tried,

like the Ultimate Surfing Competition and then the Boxing Reality Show, and none of them worked, but they were really, you know, his ideas, and, you know, it's what it was, what it was. But we talked about how power slap is much more intertwined with the UFC brand. And I thought that that was just a branding thing. And then using some of the same resources in terms of like actual brick and mortar, like the apex.

But it turns out that like, they're using internal resources as well. Right. Where if I'm getting emails from PR staff that I haven't heard from in a long time um you know from power slap when i haven't i never hear from them otherwise like there is a question now about not how much the two are just intertwined but how much power slap drains actual ufc's ability to do all the other things that they want to do beyond what they can you know on an assembly line just do churn out. Can they do anything above that? I don't know. I don't know what the answer to that is,

but it's worth thinking about. Yeah. I think they're draining me of my, of my dignity every time I see more of that. Oh, Anthony Smith loves it though, Luke, you know, and I vouch for Anthony Smith factory town tough. That's that he has become my guy. I'm never going to talk bad about Anthony.

I like him, but you know i i think he's trying to set up a professional future which i understand i don't actually believe that he like this shit is righteous like like he's too he's too talented righteous all right topic number two luke let's quickly look at the boxing we have this weekend we do have two cards and i did have a dead wrong in the moment at the end of our okay bet. One card will actually take place this evening tonight. ESPN and ESPN plus from Glendale, Arizona. When Emmanuel Navarrete, like I mentioned, looks to move up in weight and try to win

a title in a third weight class at 130. When he takes on Liam Wilson in the main event from Australia. Wilson has one defeat. It was by knockout, but he did avenge it with a knockout of his own. And not a bad co-main event, Luke, when Jorge Pedraza, the sniper, the veteran, takes on rising, unbeaten Arnold Barbosa Jr. You're also going to get Richard Torres Jr., the Olympic medalist at heavyweight from the U.S. of Southpaw. He'll be back.

Nico Ali Walsh, the grandson of the greatest, also on that undercard. But, Luke, the bigger card in terms of the attention that I see promotionally is going to be on DAZN. It's going to be in New York City, I believe at the theater at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Amanda Serrano back again. And, Luke, she's making everything.

I mean, at this point in her career, right, at the end of her prime here, I think she's about 34 years old, of course we're all hoping that this is building to a rematch with Katie Taylor and Eddie Hearn, and everybody just recently said we want that too. But Amanda Serrano is just trying to fight as many champions and unify as she can here. She's going to welcome Erika Cruz.

This will be a unification of titles at 126 pounds. I actually called Erika Cruz's biggest win when she won the title on ring city USA and NBC sports. When she upset Jelena Marjanovic, the longtime champion, she beat her again in the rematch. So this is an interesting matchup. And how about this?

Alicia Baumgartner in the coal main event. We just saw her. She's back already. We just saw her get the win against Michaela mayor and their grudge match. Now she is going to try to unify titles herself. I believe this is at one 30 when she takes on champion Elham Nekeled. Luke, do you feel like, Oh, also, sorry. Sky Nicholson also on the card. She's a, she's a rising UK boxing talent. That's getting a lot of, she was on aerial show. She's getting a lot of love as well. Luke, are, do you feel like although Serrano versus Katie Taylor is the obvious big fight,

some people really wanted that Croke Park in Ireland, whatever. I just want to see it. And if we can be there, Luke, I do regret not being there the first time at Madison Square Garden. I do, because people tell me that that's the greatest atmosphere they've ever seen for a pro fight. I've had a lot of people tell me that. That's wild. Yeah, but I don't like

crowds, so. Yeah, you don't like people. Is there any chance that this card sets the stage? Do you think at a future fight between Serrano and Baumgartner? Because obviously Baumgartner versus Michaela Mayer too is something we can do whenever it's a grudge match. The first fight was very

close, but Serrano fights in almost every single weight class. Luke, you know, that might be something to watch for in the future. I hadn't thought of it until you mentioned it, but yes, you could absolutely do that. Serrano, and also like Serrano's style is Swiss Army knife, right? I mean, she can do a lot. It wasn't enough against Katie Taylor,

but like obviously she pushed Katie Taylor in a way that nobody else had. And to your point, I think even Eddie Hearn this week was talking about it. He's like, dude, we'd be dumbasses to not do that. It seems like there's a lot of interest in making that fight happen. But to your point, if it doesn't, yeah, you could. And I got to tell you, like, Baumgartner promotes spicy. Like, she is, you know, even yesterday she called Mayer, like, delusional and salty. And, like, you know, she gets after it.

She does a lot of media. She's good at it. So that could be a fun one, too. That's an interesting idea from you. Yeah, that could definitely work. Interesting. Just if you're curious about the odds, Amanda Serrano, a minus 800 favorite, according to Caesars, plus 550 is Erica Cruz.

And in your co-main event, Baumgartner, a minus 1,000 favorite against the plus 650 Mechaled, if I'm pronouncing that correct. Probably not, though, Luke. Probably not. Check that out. Look, I got to say, though, tip of the cap here. In this case, it's Eddie Hearn in the zone. But, dude, I love the attention women's boxing is getting.

I love that these fights are living up to expectations on the highest level across the board, whether it was Clarissa Shields in England there in that big fight, Baumgartner Mayer on the undercard, Serrano andlor um this is great to see i hope we continue it i mean i mean we're proving here once again that women in the main and co-main can be the draw and can sell luke and this is great to see so i'm very happy about it and we have a i mean i will see how the fight goes and not every men's fight is great not every woman's fight's gonna be great they don't have to be we'll see how it goes but But Serrano versus Cruz could be good.

Like there's a way that that goes, of all the plausible outcomes. One of them is that that fight is, for as long as it lasts, which could go the distance, an action fight. So let's see. Absolutely. Topic number three. Hey, Luke, how about this? The PFL announced their first card for the 2023 season that will go down.

Turns out none of them are real. That will go down April 1st. It's going to be at the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas at the theater. And in totality, they announced the first three cards, April 1st, April 7th, and April 14th, along with the main and co-main of each card. Now, there is a problem. I'll get to that in a second,

but here's the release that the PFL sent out. April 1st will be in the main event, Brendan Loughnane, last year's featherweight champion, will take on Marlon Rice, the UFC veteran. And in the co-main event at light heavyweight, Robert Wilkinson will take on Maheta Tiago Santos. You can't hate on that one. We'll fast forward to April 7th, when Ante Delia and Jorgen De Castro

will meet in the main event at heavyweight. Larissa Pacheco, who, of course, in her third meeting with Kayla Harrison, got the win last time. She'll welcome Julia Budden, an interesting co-main event at women's featherweight. And then April 14th is OAM Albon Mercier against Shane Burgos in his PFL debut, and welterweight champion, the defending one, Sadabu Sy, against Jara Al-Silawi. But Luke, it wasn't all fun and games and claps and, you know, high fives and hand pounds over this announcement.

Can you explain this further, what actually went on here? So just on one bare minimum of first round management which is run by mulkey and his brother uh ibrahim uh abe kawa they rep shane burgos and i believe they rep brendan locked in as well right so two of the fighters named on two different i believe two different cards that were part of this certainly two different fights they're not fighting each other um and he was like we didn't agree to jack shit yeah no uh-uh we did not in any way sign an agreement i know like you know the cobble brothers they they pick me they pick fights and you know they've they've said things that i've disagreed with a million times before but if he's telling you he didn't sign i'm i'm he's telling

the truth like they didn't sign and uh it's crazy for PFL to do this. Now we know UFC does it all the time, all the time. PFL. Listen to me very clearly. Yeah. Anyone from that organization, listen to what I'm about to tell you.

If you guys want to be a fighter first organization in the way that, which you claim and, and, and part of the way in which, uh, uh, you know, the way you're paying fighters through pay-per-view

and the 50% cut is supposed to be some kind of representative of that. You can't announce fights before they're ready, right? That's super, super shitty. So don't do that. Can I read between your lines? Is this what you're saying to PFL, Don Davis, Ray Cefal? You know, great people over there. Are you saying, hey, guys,

you have an opportunity right now to disrupt the market ufc is almost making it easy at the moment at least headline and goodwill wise to disrupt the market so please stop doing anything that that is considered a ufc move at this moment to piss off not even just that ufc makes a lot of good moves i'm not even trying to bag on them that way i'm just saying if the shit is not agreed to what are you doing what are you doing and also like fighters some fighters in an organization you know washed out of UFC or other places some chose like Shane Burgos let's be very clear about that Shane Burgos did not wash out of UFC he chose to go to the PFL and you're announcing fights he hasn't agreed to please don't do that please don't do that that's shitty don't

do that that's not like why would you do that so that's what i'm talking about this guy chose you at a point in his career where he's got good fights left to give don't do that to him like this is very easy quick question on how pfl uses how pfl uses 2023 to further their position in this business now if they end up signing francis and gano like wow that would be massive that'd be you know or nate diaz or anything like that. But the signing of Jake Paul and the announcement of a pay-per-view division could go really good, could go really bad. But you did hear Don Davis in multiple interviews saying like, even though Jake Paul is not going to fight in MMA until 2024, us signing him was more about essentially he could be a walking commercial for all of our other fights. What level do you believe PFL will use Jake Paul in 2023 from a promotional standpoint, from a live fight telecast standpoint?

Because, you know, I've heard Ariel say that they should almost make him their own Dana White from the, you know, in terms of like speaking at press conferences and being almost the face in that regard. Is he going to be on commentary? What do you, what do you see Jake's role this calendar year in this regard? I think, I think Ariel's probably more right about this than not. Uh, you know, Dana White level, I don't know. I didn't hear Ariel's comments. I'm only reacting on what you said, but if that's what he said, that's, I think that's pretty accurate. I mean, if you like, you know, who's the head of strike force or excuse me, uh, Bellator, there you go. Who's the head of Bellator, Scott Coker, who's the head of UFC Dana White. And again, that's the head of UFC, Dana White.

And again, some of that's just like nominally true. Like there's other players involved that are as important in some ways, perhaps more important, right, than just the sort of the titular head of the organization. But in the case of PFL, there's Don Davis, and then there's another gentleman, Pete something, I forget his name, Dropik, or I forget his name. But these are like important

guys and they're very very smart please don't misunderstand me they're very relevant to the job but they don't have quite a media outreach charisma type role within the media they're more just guys who say things in press releases in terms of how the media treats them you know getting a jake paul to have a more hands-on touch with various PFL cards would be a good idea, but also he has to have something to sell. Just asking Jake to go around and sell a run-of-the-mill PFL card, that's a waste of his time. Give him something he can actually sink his teeth into, and that's something that hardly any organization can produce more regularly.

Do you, because look, straight up pfl signing jake paul being that he's that much of an outspoken dana white and ufc critic being that his announcement was sort of sold on the idea of like 50 50 split of revenue on pay-per-views and i'm going to do everything the ufc is not do you think the uf the pfl broadcast even though it's on ESPN, the same network as UFC, will feature anti-UFC propaganda in the same way of the WWE, WCW, 90s, Monday Night Wars? See, I would have said, well, I'm not sure what those look like exactly. But BC, I would have said no earlier. Maybe six months ago, I would have said no. I don't think that they want that smoke.

Not so sure now not so sure now it would be a different conversation if you get in Gano right it would be a different conversation if you can get him yeah if you if you can secure the best heavyweight on earth on your roster um by this like sort of you know it's more PR push than anything but the rev share part of it certainly is interesting. Yeah. Then that, then they might go full on aggressive with it. But I think that to me, the question you raised is it's really unknowable at this juncture, but to me, it's the most interesting question about their posture moving forward.

How adversarial do they get with their ESPN sort of bunk mates? And I guess they're in the top bunk, you know, UFC is in the bottom, but that, that is to me the most interesting one. Cause it will tell you a lot about where they see their future versus not.

Are you saying that the bottom bunk is the more desired spot? See, it changes among siblings. I all, here's the way I look at it. It's that the older sibling tends to get first pick. And the older sibling goes up top because he doesn't he's not afraid to fall off but they have the little barrier there no matter what that they

can't fall off from true like you don't just you don't just risk it or did you just risk it with your twins you didn't give them a bear no i don't i hope when i wake up one of you motherfuckers isn't dead that'd be that'd be terrible you know did you have a bunk bed set up in your dorm in college at william and mary yeah you had to the rooms were too small there was no you couldn't have two flat beds on the floor did you have the top did you have the top bunk i had the bottom did your roommate do gross things in the top bunk that college students do all the time they're in rooms despite their roommate being right there my roommate was he's now a doctor so if that tells you anything so his his days of study no he's a radiologist actually he's a radiologist

my buddy matt shouts to matt he uh he got he's a doctor now so he spent his entire senior year doing uh pre-med stuff so he was never he was in the no fucking sections what i'm trying to tell you he wasn't doing a to tell you so when he did I would just have to leave the room I mean you know it is what it is but that didn't happen sock on the door handle yeah your brother Matt is also a doctor I did want to put that out there a doctor of math but not a doctor

of this kind of thing yeah not a doctor of replying to my DMs indeed to close on PFL are you as excited as me for Tiago Santos here and you, you know, but also. No, not at all. Also, Shane Burgos. Shane Burgos, yeah.

I mean, Marlon Marais, I'm nervous about. Dude, none of this shit is real to me. They announced a bunch of Fugazi matchups until they're independently confirmed, number one. And then number two, why the fuck is Brendan Lachnan fighting fucking Marlon Marais, who's on a five-fight getting-stopped-losing streak? Like, who the fuck thought that was a good idea? Because they bought Marais for his name and the fact that he's, you know, was a UFC title contender.

I don't give a shit. The commission shouldn't sanction it. They shouldn't sanction it. They shouldn't say, no, I'm not saying that's great. Appropriate fight. Yeah. Yeah.

Didn't he lose his PFL debut already on that? On the shame in Marais? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You got all the battle. No, hold on.

He was doing well, but he ultimately got stopped. He got fucked. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Hey Luke topic. Number four is a little in-house selling here,

but I had a little part in this and I'm happy to do this here tonight on Showtime. How about this? You know, you can get 30 days of free Showtime right now. We already talked about that. But Showtime's got some of the best documentary game going out there. Stand will debut tonight, which of course is the story of former NBA star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf turned social justice activist. And Luke, when it comes to telling Mahmoud's story, a media pariah in the 1990s, who was more or less, and he confirmed it in the interview I did with him, blackballed and almost banned from the NBA. To recap, if you didn't live his journey like we did back in the 90s, he was playing at a near all-star level with the Denver Nuggets. Of course, he was a huge star in college at LSU under the name of Chris Jackson. But beginning in his third NBA season when he converted to Islam, changed his name, began to be very outspoken about that. And then, of course, eventually stopped standing for the national anthem.

He became a very public pariah suspended by the team. Eventually they worked out a deal where he would be fined for not standing. And then he started to be, well, why don't you stand and pray? It got messy there, Luke. A couple of years later, he's out of the league for good. A couple of years after that, the KKK burned down his house. So the documentary is powerful. I got a chance to watch it in advance because of where we're at today. Think Colin Kaepernick. Think all of that, Luke. Think of the fact that it's becoming rightfully so more allowed for pro athletes to speak out on big issues and to be given a platform to speak where even just 20 years ago, that was not the case. Well, youtube.com slash morning combat, of course, for our bonus content, I had a great sit down with Mahmoud.

You know me, I'm a 90s NBA junkie. But we talked about a lot of good stuff from mental health, religion, all the way across the board. We're going to throw to one sound where I essentially asked Mahmoud this. You told me you believed you were blackballed from the league. So what was it? Was it not standing for the national anthem? Was it the comment he made about 9-11 that essentially got a proposed comeback with the New York Knicks in 2001,

you know, demolished? Was it being Muslim? What was it? Was it one thing or was it everything that led to his ultimate demise from the NBA? Let's hear what he had to say. I think, I thought it was a combination of things, but I think the nail in the the coffin was and it wasn't he

I'm disrupting business when it's all said and done and when when you deal with a African-American athlete athletes entertainers musicians whether we like it or not, listen, youth oftentimes, statistically, are probably going to listen to us more than they listen to their parents and school teachers because of the influence. And so even back in the day during J. Edgar Hoover's period, it's now declassified information.

He had came out and said something down the lines of, we want to, I'm just paraphrasing, we want to promote the brain-dead athlete, not like the Muhammad Ali's. This is what we want to push to the public because of the influence that they had and so when you when you topple that on top of that with you have someone that is practicing their religion like even with a.c green a.c green was a christian basically he was like he wore christianity on his sleeves that's kind of shunned even, right? Because there's a country club environment, right, of other things that they don't want. Yeah, nobody wants to hear about your celibacy was what we used to say, right? You

know, it's like, but even if it's not hearing about it, it's just the fact that you're there, and we know that you're trying to be on the straight and narrow, and you make us feel uncomfortable, because we're doing what we know we shouldn't be doing in a sense and so with all of that and you say something about this country right and so many people there's this intoxicated i think here this is intoxicated intoxicated nationalism and patriotism sure everybody even in islam says he created us in nations and tribes not so that you'll and tribes, not so that you'll despise one another so that you'll know one another. The best of you is he that is most righteous. So even we like, oh, but but there's a it's intoxicated. It's like, oh, we can't

do no wrong. And so I think when it's all said and done, it wasn't so much me. It was like kind of like what Noam Chomsky said, the threat of a good example or bad example to pay on. You know what? We have to make an example of him to send a message to others that if you do this, this is what's going to happen. Look, I like that he's in. This is not about whether you believe and have the same opinions politically or even socially on everything he stood for. But I love now that, that we look back and say, you know, he should have at least had the chance to, to, to stand up and say his piece, you know, without losing his job more or less.

Um, I love that he's getting his flowers now. And I know people hate that we overuse that statement, but I think in this case, it actually makes sense that, you know, again, believe or believe or agree with what he says or not, but he did have the guts to put everything on the line for what he did believe in back in the day and getting a chance to talk with him. I mean, he has like a Yoda like vibe of wisdom to him. It was, it was something that I, you know, it meant a lot to me and I, and I want to forget. The phrase is overused and it's kind of stupid and boring now, but, uh, he was canceled. That's what he was. He was canceled. He was canceled. He was canceled for his views, his political views, and he doesn't have right-wing political views.

He got canceled for the opposite. And I just want to be very clear about this when we talk about who gets silenced, who gets to have a voice, and who doesn't and when. It's a complicated one. It's one where it's incessant debate. But in that moment in time, he didn't get to have one, and he didn't get to have one because of his views and his religious identity. That's just the reality. The larger NBA and sporting world and common society

canceled him for it. So be very clear, foes of cancel culture, who exactly that means you're supporting and why that's important to be standing on principle. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, even, you know, everybody could check out the documentary stand tonight that premieres in Showtime. Uh, even back then, I mean, there was foul footage of, you know, in the Muslim community, some people were divided and were against him for not standing for the national Anthem and for, you know, Hakeem Olajuwon came out. A lot of people did, but, you know, looking at what he went through, his, his battle with Tourette's syndrome, mental health, all of that.

I have a lot of respect for, for who he is and, and, and, you know, it couldn't have been easy. It couldn't have been easy, Luke. And, and he risked it all. And in some cases, you know, he lost it all from the standpoint of the dream and the business and the money and all that. But I think in the long run, you know, he's at peace with, with his life now. And, and, and this is a very moving documentary that i recommend to everybody but i mean i'm not i don't

want to compare him i don't want to compare every situation to another one and overstate things but in one little sliver of our conversation around francis this situation is instructive because dude he was canceled he lost out uh, many more millions of dollars. He probably could have made right. And you know, everything else that was taken or taken away early. Well, we can say that certainly. Uh, but to your point, he has, he's at peace with it, right? Because in the end he made the decisions that were most important to his values and his values, the things that drove his life. and you can disagree with those choices or whatever but that's the way he lived francis it appears we shall see and again you know i'm not he's not having his house burned down or

anything like that they're not the equivalent but in the idea like we talked about you see he could fall flat on his face monetarily but if what he actually says is true that he's living these decisions because the principle of doing it is the most important part. Well, then virtue is its own reward. That is the reward. You're virtuous. It doesn't have to come with monetary gain, and it often comes with the opposite. Anybody who is looking at, and I guess the Francis situation can be a little gray because leaving the UFC doesn't mean he can't make money.

I didn't even want to make the Francis one. I'm just making it because it's recent. I mean, he could make big money, and even money and even mock boot even though when he was black balled and banned from the nba you know he still went to europe he still made it an nba comeback a short-lived one a couple years later i mean there was there was that but the whole idea is when you can walk away from money and say essentially like that's not my god what i'm standing on what i believe in is more important dude i, I've got respect for that. That's why, to me, this is not a political movie. His story is not a political one to me.

I mean, it can be, Luke, but I think in general, even though him and I don't have the same necessarily religious beliefs, his message that he's sharing now through this movie, to me, is very universal, and I was moved by it. I think that people can see the unfairness of how it all went for him and I think most reasonable people would agree, even those who might be very much on the other side politically,

I think the reasonable versions among them can see that this is not the way it should have gone for him, right? Like he should not have had to suffer the indignities and the pushback and the threats and the violence and everything else that went with it. That part was unfair. OK, but I do think I mean, he's quoting Chomsky to you.

Right. I mean, there are clear left wing political dimensions to what he is saying. Absolutely. And you can agree or not. I mean, that's a separate debate. But to say it's not political, I don't think it's quite fair either. There are clear political dimensions to it. There were details of a situation that are political but i think the overall message and what we can learn in hindsight of how things went down for him i think is a is a more universal message because he was never about violence in his message he was never about you know it was it was more about peace and when he called out the american flag and was so heavily villainized which i i understand especially then why people reacted that way. He was never here

to tell you the U you know what I mean? The, the U S is evil, you know, and everyone's like, well then go move. It was more about, I don't want to stand for the, this flag because of my, you know, beliefs. And, and at, and at times what that flag stands for. And, um, it's, it's, it's a very interesting topic. If you want more, catch out, catch the documentary tonight, but look from a basketball standpoint, very good pro, almost an all-star, almost great. It ended too early, but do you remember him in college? Like the, you know, that is like, that goes back when he was a freshman averaging 30 points a game at LSU the year before Shaq came in, dude, it was like must see appointment viewing TV when he would have like the big, you know, national CBS game of the week to see a six-foot-one guard who told me Luke was really 5'11".

Just, I mean, he would score in bunches. And Luke, that's back when you drive the lane at that size, dude, they put you in the front row. They will knock you the hell down. And that guy, you know, before Steph Curry, before Iverson even, was just fearless. And I'm happy he gets the respect now, at least. Great interview. was just fearless and and and i'm happy he gets the respect now at least great interview uh i have not watched the uh the documentary yet but that's on the weekend to-do list and i'm excited about it

all right luke i got a couple uh for our final topic uh you know here and there odds and ends to throw to we got some video accompaniments uh let's talk about francis and gano briefly scott coker of bellator was interviewed by Ariel on Wednesday, and he said he has a meeting sort of loosely scheduled with Francis Ngannou. We know Ngannou's in a free agent period where he's talking to many different people globally at the moment to see what his best situation is. But we know from Scott Coker that Bellator does have interest. Well, you know I caught up with Ryan Bader.

I asked him straight up the idea of you get past Fedor in your rematch. If Bellator goes shopping and they get Francis Ngannou, is that something you're looking forward to? Hopefully I'll be done by then. I'm just joking. I've never backed down from a fight in my life. I've fought, you know, everybody in this division in 205. And, you know, in my past in the UFC and all that

kind of stuff and the belts are coming in here they're jumping up the heavyweight I fought the who's who of MMA you know and there's been fights when I walked in there and like how do I beat this dude and I pull it off you know so it's one of those things when you know if it comes across the table and it's something we need to do you know for sure you know don't want to fight them not really but you know I do believe that I have, you know, certain skills and everything to go out there and get the job done even with him. I wouldn't be in this sport if I didn't think I could go

into that cage and beat anybody on that planet. I like that answer, Luke. I like the joke up front and I like him being honest. Do I want to fight him? Not particularly, but I'm not going to back down. Luke, what would you think of a fight like that? Well, I didn't hear a word of what he just said. Cause I can't, I couldn't get the audio correctly. So, uh, um, he, he pump faked and said that, you know, he hopes he's retired by the time they find they signed Francis, but then

he, you know, ultimately said he doesn't, he doesn't look forward to that matchup, but he thinks he has the skills to win it. Would you be entertained by a potential baiter and gato heavyweight title fight no no no i have no interest whatsoever okay all right there you go luke thomas it's not for everybody speaking of bellator you know luke if i'm going to host a show on friday and i'm going to be all about the art and i come across a video of sabah homasi telling us why he's so freaking excited to throw hands against brennan ward in the opener of saturday night's three fight main card at bellator 290 i am gonna have mikey play that sound luke i'm here to tell you that sabah homasi is excited you ready to find out why is he gonna make some kind of ejaculation comment? I cannot predict the future.

Here we go. Let's go to the videotape. Right here in front of you, big slot opening the card on CBS against another guy that fans have been clamoring for you to fight for a couple years now. How excited are you for this matchup and this opportunity? You'll see how excited I am on Saturday night. I'm going to come all over the place.

I'm going to fucking blow my load. I'm going to fucking beat this guy's face in. All right, I think we can end it right there. Dude, that was better than that time. I think we can end it right there, guys. That's a wrap. That was better. You remember when Aljo was like, I'm going to come on top of his back and take it right there, guys. That's a wrap. That was better. You remember when Aljo was like,

I'm going to come on top of his back and take it and choke him out. And we were like, dude, let's hold off on the former. The latter is fine with us. I spent the first five years of my hardcore fandom being like, I hate the people who are like, MMA is homoerotic. And now I'm like, dude, it's the most homoerotic sport on fucking earth. Please be serious. Somebody's going to get their rocks off Saturday, Luca.

Let's hope for Homasi's sake it's him. All right. Also, Luke, I don't know if you saw this, but Bromani Jones has a show on HBO these days, and there was a teaser put out by the network of the interview that he has in the hopper with Jake

Paul. It got a little spicy. Let's check this out. Tommy Fury, where do you go from there? Like what happens if you lose one of these fights? I don't plan on losing, you know, I don't train to lose. Maybe that, I feel like that's probably like your mindset. You know, a lot of people try to project their mindsets. No, I ain't no projected of a mindset.

My question is is this is work because we're all surprised that you keep winning these fights right but if somebody does beat you how much interest stays in this when it stops being spread they won't they won't and and i'm gonna be honest bro i don't know who the fuck you are my pr this interview. All I know about you is that people don't like you. That sounds vaguely like my father talking to me at my high school graduation. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

Is there a story there? Or was it just that Jake didn't like the line of questioning? I mean, here's the thing. This is what you just get when you get people who aren't in the fight game interviewing fighters. Sometimes the interviews are better. In some ways, they're better. In some ways, they're worse because like you and i would never ask a fighter what happens if you lose because we've done it a million times already you just and you've seen it you just know what you're going to get the answer is i don't train to lose they're just not going to give you an answer there so we just kind of go the other

way right you kind of have to work with them a little bit in terms of what their worldview allows for it's a perfectly reasonable question for one of us, you know, or one of his advisors or something, but asking a fighter that, on the other hand, you know, like, is it, like, the saying things like, well, I must be you projecting. It's like, maybe just, like, try to understand that not everyone thinks the way you think, and to answer this in a more, like, professional way. Like, it's not, I understand that's probably not the best question to ask, but it's not, like, an insult in the way you think and to answer this in a more like professional way like it's not i understand that's probably not the best question to ask but it's not like an insult in the way that he took it so that like there was just a you know you get the wires crossed like that a little bit you know do you think a feud will rise up now because i've seen a lot of people go oh my god bomani's gonna

hammer him out moving forward i know like bomani's audience doesn't watch jake paul anyway like any negative things bomani says about him is going to have zero. Like, that's why Jake said he didn't know him. It's not because Bomani doesn't have a major profile among sports media types, as he does. It's that no one in Jake's audience watches him. I think that's pretty fair to say. Do you think that's a sick burn? We see that from time to time, the sick burn of going, wait, who is that?

I don't even know who you are. That's a, that's like a Jake Paul go-to move. And I thought he delivered it, you know, kind of, kind of well, kind of,

kind of cold here, but do you like that? Romani's comeback was good. It's like, well, dude, like, let's be honest about why I know you,

you know? Yeah. Yeah. That was good. All right. I'll finally look just a little note. How about this band and weight matchup? It's already been announced and we love it.

Marlon Vera, Corey Sanhagen was supposed to be at the Apex on February 11th. Now we're going to get the full audience treatment. It's been moved to March 25th, San Antonio, Texas, the main event of a fight night card. Your reaction? I think it's, I listen, when the pandemic hit, there were not many great parts about it, but one of the things that I didn't mind was like the quietness of the Apex. Be i need to hear the audience well i mean you know to each their own is what i would say but it also is just quite obviously clear at this point that

um there's a big portion of the fan base that would clearly love to be there for that kind of a fight in that it's clear that between the media and the fans, there's a portion of them that I would say the vast majority who would really like to see big five round main events that matter, that are exciting, that the fans are excited about not be put in the apex, but being put in front of actual audiences. Well, congratulations, you're going to get it. And so if you're the kind of person that really relishes that, especially if you're in San Antonio, congratulations. But I tend to think it's all good news right well it's gonna be march 25th as i mentioned and that same night showtime pay-per-view will be in las vegas when former super middleweight champions caleb plant and david benavidez square off we've been playing different clips to remind people of the the legitimate bad beef between them

well luke yesterday they had a hell of a press conference to kick things off. This is a huge fight in a huge division. You don't even need a title at stake. Let's see what happened between these two on the stage. I've been knocked the fuck out already by Canelo pushing me to sleep. That's exactly what I'm going to do to you too. At the highest level,

great fighters fight great fighters. You still hit like a bitch. You got 13 fucking knockouts. You hit like a little bitch. Ask Anthony Durrell. What did I do to Anthony Durrell? No, no, no. Let him finish. Let him finish.

Let him finish. It's all right. It's all right. Chill out. Chill out. Let him finish. Finish what the fuck you got to say. You ain't going to do nothing.

Finish what you got to say. You ain't going to do nothing. You're scared. You're scared. Look at you. You're scared. There's a lot of tough guy, rah-rah stuff. Yeah, these fucking guys.

He fucking looks like he's about to cry. Look at his fucking eyes. I know a pussy when I see one. Yeah. Even his dad, you know, senior, he calls all types of fighters bitches and pussies. I respect everybody. You a bitch. I respect everybody.

You may hear a banter between fighters. You may even hear a fighter say something like, I've never lost to a white boy and I'm not about to start now. Who the fuck said that? When did I? Did I ever fucking say that? I'm not about to start now. Who the fuck said that? When did I? Anthony Durrell. I'm not talking about you. Am I Anthony Durrell?

So don't fucking, don't bring that up. Like if I'm the one saying that shit too. I didn't say you said that. Finish what the fuck you gotta say. Then shut the fuck up and quit interrupting. Wait, wait, wait. What you wanna do? Go ahead.

You're fucking crazy. What you wanna do? Go ahead. What you wanna do? We could've got outside the fucking hotel. You're a fucking pussy. You got all these fucking people with you. This dude ain't scary.

He's so mad. He's so mad. You're not going to do nothing. So anyways, you know, you hear Jose Sr. You know, he calls fighters bitches and pussies. And you may hear that between fighters, but you don't normally hear boxing coaches talking like that and the reason you don't really hear that is because a lot of boxing Trainers you know they've been in the ring. I gotta go run brother. They've been in the ring They fought before exercise so you can run. But you've never fought. They're gonna close the fucking track

You've never made that walk. You never had to lace up a pair of gloves to feed your family You don't know what it's like. So it's easy for you to toss those words around because you've never had to do it you're a bitch that fight's gonna be great i don't i don't care what anyone says that fight is gonna be great i don't know you could not love that even though it's you know back and forth swearing you're a pussy left and right like what do we want as as fight fans obviously we love technique and we love world titles and royalty dude we love old school grudges i don't like you i think you're a pos so let's go do it these two have hated each other for a long ass time and now the stars are aligning and just so you know luke the two teams nearly came to blows when they got out of the cars outside of the event and i saw on twitter that they that some level of a fight did happen after this press

conference between extended members of their team so like this shit's real i mean he's calling out senior telling him you know you ain't never fought before i mean this dude i'm here for this would you say this about caleb plant you can love or hate his personality but he wants every single inch of the smoke he wants it all he wants to smoke and i made this point on a pre-show meeting which was man like people think that like the salty hardcore is like what they don't care about the beef at all and the reality is that's not true the problem is that beef is so often introduced where it doesn't really exist or it's magnified in obvious ways that didn't need to be, or it's too much the promotional focus when there were other more interesting angles about it.

But when two guys have a genuinely organic dispute, which is actually rare, it actually does it like a true Hatfields and McCoys type situation, right? When there's just bad blood all the way across it is almost irresolvable and it's real even if they never fought it would be as real as as the you know the the sunrise and sunset when you get that yeah it absolutely makes a fight better when you get that that is that that extra something that extra seasoning on top hit it with that garlic powder nah all that stuff right the good stuff that's what this is and then on top hit it with that garlic powder nah all that stuff right the good stuff that's what this is and then on top of it hello these are two of the best guys in that

weight class like what is what is not to like hit them with the horns money yeah i mean like i'll tell you this um don't like benavidez i think should be the betting favorite and i don't even know what the odds are right now but don't sleep on who Caleb Plant is becoming with Steven Breadman Edwards in his corner and the confidence is just like doubling and tripling so could he do the same thing to Benavidez that he did to Durrell I mean I would doubt it but like he is willing to Bernard Hopkins said he thinks Plant beats Benavidez and and relatively easily at that I don't know about that but wow bhop doesn't doesn't rep him he's not a golden boy fighter you know none of that stuff none of

those guys so we are going to be on the ground in las vegas for this fight luke hopefully we'll get to host some of the fight week events like we get the chance to this is the type of weigh-in press conference stream that i love hosting when there's some energy in that building you know what i'm saying luke let's do this shit okay this is what I'm talking about now I got one more clip because after that near scuffle on stage Caleb Plant did and all all the fighters did some uh media scrums here's Caleb Plant talking about uh Benavidez one more time say his best attitude that you have to worry about. Probably the big-ass titties he got. Play it again. No, no, no.

Play it again. Play it one more time. Play it one more time. Say his best attitude that you have to worry about. Probably the big-ass titties he got. Dude, he gave that deadpan. He was like, yep, that's exactly what I'll be looking for. What's the thing you have to worry about most?

Probably them big-ass titties. That's me before my date at prom. There it is. What are you most worried is going to trip you up tonight? Probably some big-ass titties, if I'm just being totally honest. Well, Luke, on that note, it's time to hear a word from one of our sponsors. Can I read off that screen any more deliberately there, Luke? But you think if they ask Caleb Plant why he –

what's the number one reason why you picked private internet security? And he was like, the big-ass titties. Probably the big-ass titties he got, you know? Probably. Probably. Luke, real quick on the way out before we get to our final segment, I wanted to congratulate Evan Korn of Top Rank. People know him as one of the better boxing PR guys in this game today.

He is still going to be doing some PR, but he's announced that he is going to transition into more of a matchmaking role with Top Rank moving forward, getting to learn under the, you know, sit under the learning tree of the Hall of Famers, like Brad Goodman, Bruce Trampler, you know, I mean, like a good guy in the business. He's you know, I mean, like a good guy in the business. He's a ginger though, Luke, but a good guy in the business

and I'm really happy for him in that regard. You ever meet the corner man or no? You're not a big corner man. I may have met him at an event, but I don't have a professional relationship with him. All right. Top Rank also acquired Gabe Rivas, who's one of the best translators and PR men in the game.

He used to work with Golden Boy. So congrats on the new gigs for them. And Luke, Edgar Berlanga, the unbeaten super middleweight who top rank effectively divorced. Did you see he's narrowing his search down to Golden Boy, Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Sport, and Al Heyman and the PBC. He's been courted by all three, and he's going to make a choice. I know you're not huge on his long-term potential, but imagine if he parachuted down into the land of PBC at 168. That could be pretty interesting, right? Okay, let's say he fought Andre.

Who would win? I hear you. I hear you. I mean, maybe he goes to wherever Canelo goes. There are rumors, by the way, that Canelo wants to come back as early as May 5th and fight in Mexico against mandatory John Ryder. I don't know if that would move you at all.

Yeah, I saw that report as well, and I in Mexico against mandatory John Ryder. I don't know if that would move you at all. Yeah. I saw that report as well. And I have like, I mean, less than zero interest in that. So. All right, there you go.

Our final segment, it begins with an email morning combat at gmail.com. Every Friday, we give you the chance to, to get back at us to say, Hey, I sat through, you know,

10, 12 hours of YouTube slobs on the microphone. And that one time you said some shit that was just not true and i've got not true i got receipts to prove it it's the pedantic pos home it's called dead raw we've got angry male viewers there we go uh here we go this is from telvin dude telvin key papa luke from haw Hawaii. You know this guy, right? Not personally, but yeah. Okay.

He says, Aloha. This is your favorite Hawaiian viewer. This dead wrong is for Luke. Episode 482 at 2930 into the video. Luke said, Tough on ESPN Plus did one season. That's dead wrong. They did two. The first one was Volk versus T city the second one was nunes pena

you probably would have known that if you didn't yeah you probably would have known that if you didn't go back to vaping to old to old wash piece of shit i know the pfl smart cage wouldn't have made that mistake also when you guys are done with the uk any chance you guys are doing a live show in hawaii at the world's renowned lava shack it would doing a live show in Hawaii at the world's renowned Lava Shack? It would be a great show. Keep up the great work. And P.S. Seriously, we need to do a live podcast from the Lava Shack. That has to be amazing. I mean, forget we don't need Dan Hardy there. We'll just get BJ. That'd be Governor Penn. That'd be fantastic. But Telvin also says, hey, B.C., thanks for the follow on I.G. Look, I follow fans if they

if they enter the, you know, the the inner. Look, I follow fans if they enter the inner crush. Yeah, dude, you love giving cats to stray milk and then six months later being like, dude, this guy is sending me nothing but dick pics. What do I say? That has never happened. And I'm all for you. Don't start by not accepting those invites.

That's what you do. All right. Hey, Derek is here. He says, well, good old fuckstick McGee is back at it. During the intro to episode 404, BC remarked that James Hetfield acknowledged that Metallica sold out every show, every night. He's likely referring to the Behind the Music episode

about the band from the late 90s. I am. Unfortunately for our vinyl-obsessed basement dweller, that quote is properly attributed to former bassist Jasonason newstead uh he's a stud he's this uh so derrick says newstead is a stud but hetfield ain't thanks fellas safe travels to the uk well i heard hetfield say that on the behind the music so am i dead wrong because i didn't attribute no i think you're i think youremembering who said it. I think he's right that actually on camera

at the time, the bassist said it. He's no longer with them. I think Hetfield said that. I don't know. I'll get back at Derek though. He said safe travels to the UK. You could probably catch it somewhere online. You could probably catch a fade from this guy.

The internet. Our producer is telling us that the fan said that Telvin is right. Or whoever the fuck said this. Derek from the UK, yeah. Alright, finally we got TJ here. He says, this is TJ

from Victoria in beautiful British Columbia. I have two dead wrongs for y'all. Both are attributed to my fellow Indian, Luke Thomas. At the 1 hour columbia i have two dead wrongs for y'all both are attributed to my fellow indian luke thomas at the one hour 11 minute and 46 second mark when bcx asked luke whether the mandatory military service was the reason for do who choice absence from the u.s i didn't fucking know luke said quote that would have been four years implying the mandatory military service for South Koreans is a minimum of four years. Luke, you're dead wrong.

The mandatory military service for able-bodied South Korean men is only a minimum of 18 to 21 months. Interesting. Did not know that. Okay. The second dead wrong is an oldie. During the holiday mailbox episode,

what the hell is the holiday mailbox? Mailbag. Mailbag, you bag of dicks uh at three minutes and 46 seconds luke recommends the animated movie klaus and says i watched one of net on netflix recently that won an academy award yes we're talking about sea biscuit again uh lu once again, you're dead wrong. Although surely nominated for best animated feature, it did not win the prestigious award. That honor, yes, that's the correct spelling of the word,

H-O-N-O-U-R, was given to Toy Story 4. I don't care. He says, Luke, TJ says, you may want to examine the contents of the hair gel that your DC barber applies when you get that $100 haircut. It seems to be depleting your brain count dramatically. Be that as it may, you seem to have reached your intellectual upper bound limit, and it's all downhill from here. Jokes aside, I wish you guys success.

Have a fantastic trip to the UK. He is right. It was nominated for an Academy Award. It won a BAFTA, I believe. BC, you know what BAFTA is? Is that the film festival in Banff? Is that the Banff Film Festival? The BAFTA is like the British Oscars.

It's their version. Oh, no, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. It looks like it won a BAFTA, and then it got nominated for a bunch of other shit. So it did get nominated for Best Animated Feature, and it's very, very good. It's very good.

Okay, so Luke, while you are currently, through two weeks, kicking my arsehole in on the OK Bet competition, I think we need a Dead Wrongs scoreboard, because, dude, you are... Oh, Jesus, I had two bad weeks. Motherfucker, you are 70% of the Dead Wrongs. I don't think so. I don't think so.

You want to play... Okay, you know what? We can play the long game on this, motherfucker. Look, if you ask the history of my dating life, I've been playing the long game for years, brother. Usually alone, though, unfortunately. All right, that was

morningcombat at gmail.com if you want to reach out to Mikey and touch him. All right, there you go. Hey, Luke, what a show, right? What a freaking show. I'm going to say this on the air because otherwise I'm going to forget. I think we should do on Mondays a recap of how Friday's picks went, right? Put that off.

We can revisit it very quickly on Friday's show. Here's how we did last week. But I think, I don't know how Mikey feels about this. Mikey, I think we should recap the results of the weekend on Friday's show. Here's how we did last week. I don't know how Mikey feels about this. Mikey, I think we should recap the results of the weekend on Monday's show. I think that it would work a little bit better that way. Basically, you're saying if we don't show that we care about this segment, no one else will. That's what you're

saying. No, it just seems like, hey, the weekend's over. How did it go? How did it go? Thank you, Mikey Moore and Myles CBS Sports for your fantastic production work. Shout out of course, to Showtime, all the labels that pay us, you can get 30 days free of Showtime by going to showtime.com right now. Don't miss obviously Saturday night, 9.

PM Eastern on CBS. It's Bellator 290. You can catch the prelim 6. PM Eastern on YouTube and Pluto TV. Excuse me for that. Belch. Luke, you and I are going to be all over CBS Sports HQ for the next two days. Setting that stage there for Bellator. Reminder, Luke will be post-fight Saturday night.

Morning, youtube.com slash morning combat. It's a Bellator 290 instant reaction and analysis. Hey, Luke, can we just put to bed? I know I've complained about this before, but I still get people the rare times I do an IA of saying, I can't believe you didn't say no spoiler alert at the beginning. I mean, are you freaking kidding me? They're like, you don't understand. If you haven't seen the fight and you're actively on YouTube clicking on a video that says instant reaction

and you're saying to yourself, well, I'll just enjoy the intro until they tell me spoiler alert and then I'll drop off. Why don't you just drop off in general? All right. Just eat a buck, eat a bucket of scorpions. I don't care. I just know. All right.

That's all we got. Take great care of yourselves, guys. We will be back Monday. That'll be a regular episode, but we're leaving on a jet plane. Don't know when I'll be back again, but London is calling February 8th. Next Wednesday, guys, like we talked about, about 20-ish tickets remaining. And if you're going to sit, you're going to sit in the way back, but it's a fine place they got.

Look, do you know that King's Place, where we're having this venue is also the home of the guardian offices i didn't i didn't do you read the guardian often no yeah do you read often is actually a better question does the warlock work there i know he works for like every british outlet who the warlock no i don't think i think he works at like the Independent or I don't think he works at Guardian. Guardian is largely like a left wing. Would you be shocked if we went to the live show and Gareth was just a donk in the crowd? Would I be surprised? Only if he's clothed.

I've been trying to get him for room service diaries for a while. I'd love to hear some stories, but you're like, I don't know if that, you know, we may get canceled. We make, you know, you're like, we may get canceled. I've just kind of want to reserve the couch for, you know, we give it to Chuck or whatever, but like I don't want to get in the habit of interviewing media guys. I don't care. There you go.

There you go. You can get your pod live tickets right now by hitting that QR code down there. There's a few left, but it's going to be 90 minutes of glory. Outlaw Dan Hardy, BCLT. We got Jake Von Amsterdam. You can see Tristan's sleeve. I mean, would it be inappropriate if I told Tristan he has to wear a tank top

as security so that people can see the rabbit animal tattoo? I think you telling another man he has to wear a tank top to work is going to cause some problems. All right. All right. Big fan of that guy. Just the same. Big fan of all of you.

Enjoy the fights this weekend. It should be a wild time and it's only going to get better next week with two 84 with MK in the UK, uh, big pay-per-views and boxing coming up in the aftermath. I mean, what a great time. And look,

it's been a mild winter until tomorrow when it's going to be a negative 25 in Connecticut, but it's been a very mild winter. So I don't want to jinx it. Right. Apparently you don't suffer from seasonal depression. It's more of like a lifetime. We can close this show.

We should, we could have closed it easily a minute or two ago. We're just all right. Let's close that door for, for everybody. Thank you. We've we've yeah, you're right.

I should end it. We're out. We're out.