MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Bellator 291 & UFC Vegas 70 Picks | Paul-Fury | Conor McGregor | Islam Makhachev | Ep. 411

Episode Date: February 24, 2023

On Episode 411 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian kick off the show with some picks for Bellator 291 and UFC Vegas 70. The guys preview Showtime boxing and Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury this weekend. Next up the guys talk about Conor McGregor's charges being dropped and reports of him replacing fighters on The Ultimate Fighter. They also react to Islam Makhachev's tweet about who's next... Who makes the most sense to challenge for the lightweight title next? The guys also breakdown reports that Francis Ngannou wants $30 Million to box before closing out the show with dead wrong. (00:11:30) - Ok, Bet (00:26:30) - Weekend Boxing Preview (00:54:20) - Conor McGregor (01:03:00) - Islam Makhachev's Next Fight (01:18:00) - Proposed California Bill (01:25:00) - Francis Ngannou Boxing (01:40:00) - 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

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. At participating McDonald's in Canada. You hear that? Ugh. Paid.

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

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

I'm here, don't worry. I'm here. Oh, yeah. It's Friday. Don't you go dying on me. Yeah. Let me drink my life-saving AG1. Oh, yeah. The art's here.

It's Friday. It's February 24th, 2000. And 23, you stumbled upon the house of the award-winning, multidimensional, multigenerational, best damn combat sports show they ever made, right? It's Morning Combat. I'm Brian Campbell, the beige guy, one half of this dynamic duo. But the guy you pull up for on Fridays to get his picks, okay, bet, Willie, he will.

It's Luke Thomas. Luke, doing this show with you is the gift that keeps on giving you know does it like giving me odds giving me uh giving giving my kids shoes though so i appreciate that luke welcome back we got a loaded weekend of weird fights some good ones some weird ones some in between ones how are you feeling here on this friday in the winter in dc it's my headphones are messed up give me a second yeah that's fine we'll just we'll do a lot now no i know the headphones they just do this thing where i don't know why they do it but they do it and i think i'm okay now we'll see luke you're a man of the people how's your your

personal life going? Terrible. But, you know, what else is new? I will say this, that yesterday we had, dude, the most schizophrenic weather on earth. Your nation's capital yesterday had a high of like 78, right? Oh, wow. I know. Clear skies, like the weirdest weather.

I think it may have been like a high record for this time of year. And then right now it's, what time is it? Or it's 51 and dropping the high record for this time of year. And then right now it's what time is it? Or what it's, it's 51 and dropping the high later is supposed to be 39. So I did take Tuki to the zoo, which was fun. But yeah, that's it.

All right. What does she like there, Luke? Cause it's, it, by the way, it's going to, the feels like is in the teens in Connecticut right now.

So you dropping that 78 on me. It was like, what, Oh, what's Tuki into Luke? You know, the, cause I'm a big fan of the big cats, you dropping that 78 on me was like, what? What's Tukey into, Luke? Because I'm a big fan of the big cats. Not like a Joe Exotic thing, but I like the lynx. I like that, Luke.

She likes the big cats too, but really it's the elephants and in particular the orangutans. The orangutans, bro. She's about it. Orangutan means person of the forest. That's what it means. Wow. That sounds like a very general title.

Luke, speaking of famous orangutans like Rocky Balboa, did you know it's a week from today that Creed III hits theaters? And, you know, I'm on that journey with my boys, Luke. And last night was Rocky Deuce. What is your opinion of Rocky II? What is it, Luke? What is it? I haven't seen it beginning to end in a long time.

But, I mean, obviously, of the first four, it's the weakest, right? I think that's a fair statement of the first four. You nailed it. You just nailed that, Luke. You did. And there's people in this world that are like, no, Rocky II rules. And I'm like. I don't hate it.

You hate Rocky II? I don't hate it. So, it was my favorite as a kid, but that's exclusively due to the fact that I was, I saw it on VHS probably for the first time when I was five. And that ending scene, Luke, spoiler alert, you know, with the double knockdown and all that. I mean, it's great.

It's over the top sports theater, right? It's incredible. But you rewatched that as an adult a couple of times. And it does feel kind of like a mailed in, know they did a couple years later but like a mailed in sequel of how how we keep this franchise moving i'm happy in three and four they adopted that awesome 80s style of in your face action movie with one quick hitting scene after another but two is a little bit um i don't know it's got some of the slow pace of the first one, but some of it feels forced is what I'm saying here, Luke. You obviously need two before you can even make four, right?

So that's the issue. Like you had to have it. But of the four, it's definitely the weakest. Yeah, my kids, their verdict at age 15 here is that it's better than the first because it's not slow and it's their favorite one so far, Luke. But they laughed uncontrollably during the main event once one of my sons pointed out that Rocky not only doesn't have defense, doesn't move his head, doesn't lift his gloves to block,

but he got hit with every single punch Apollo threw in that rematch. So that was very humorous to them as he— Let's just be honest. Rocky wins, but he's the shittiest boxer on Earth. I mean, he can't box for shit, you yeah well then he gets in like ridiculous shape in three and four i mean he must have been ordering that australian hgh that he got that stallone got uh arrested for that time you know yeah he was on all the pharmacy stuff all the good stuff indeed all right so that's my personal journey journey luke i'll update you as we go along the way uh

showtime obviously the label that pays this showtime championship boxing is back right saturday night uh bellator is back saturday afternoon from dublin uh showbox is lingering great movies great documentaries you can get it all for free right now why don't you jump on board because you know not a lot of people talking about this showtime main event saturday night in boxing it's going to be a banger we all know about amasav storley too You can watch that for free right now. Go to Showtime.com. Get your 30-day free trial. Come visit the people that support us.

And also, Luke, if you want to wear this outstanding merchandise that we got here, how about MorningCombat.store? Whatever's left in the bin, Luke, when it comes to UK merch, when it comes to GTA MK-style merch, you can get it right now discounted. So check that out morning combat dot store you can follow us on the socials below i believe our producer mikey can throw those up thank you sir and now luke we're going to buckle up and get ready unless you want to add anything else any other flavor in your life you want to share any grudges you want

to you know you want to air out any grievances here it's your time oh well there's always grudges but uh none that i want to make headlines for how about that all right all right there we go um that mostly is what keeps me from like just absolutely dropping atomic bombs on everyone is i just don't feel like dealing with the angry and ugly media cycle that would follow yeah you don't want to make yourself part of the headline look right you want to be reacting to the headline you know that's yeah and i but also just like every day waking up to like angry messages on your phone i just don't want to do i just don't have the i don't have the energy to do that you know suddenly people are texting you you don't want none of this smoke and you're like how did i get here

okay i'm just trying to try to eat my bran flakes this morning right uh luke also youtube.com slash morning combat is the house of uh the house of horrors for everything. MK can get all our bonus content right now. We've got a fantastic Arnold Allen room service diaries. And look, I'm serious. If you haven't jumped in yet, don't do it for us. Do it for old Arnie here. Mowgli AAA. I mean, this guy is among the the the best interviews that people don't know about. Those that know, know. But people like me who didn't know how good this guy can be. His dad Pacer is an all-timer. Come hear those stories.

All-time great. Pacer Allen. All-time great. Also, Ty Ruotolo, who's got a big fight coming up in grappling under the one banner against Reneer DeRitter. You chatted with the bloke. You want to pub that at all, Luke? Yeah, so Reneer DeRitter was the two-weight world champion.

He was the light heavyweight and the middleweight champion at one he lost his light heavyweight title to interim heavyweight champion and it's only malikin but he's still the the middleweight champion of of one and also he has won i think the ibjjf european championships in pure grappling so like the guy has got some skills obviously you look at his last win I think it was over or who was the win that DeRitter had where he had the like the um the not the upside down triangle but he had it from side it was was it big dash big dash he did that too yep uh so the guy is clever and you might be like well Ty is much better in grappling which he is Ty is much better in grappling but there's a big size uh advantage in favor of Rene Derrida. So while there is a gap in skill, that gap, we're talking about a guy who is a good grappler and Derrida, plus he has the size.

That to me is a little bit more interesting, BC, because if it's just MMA fighter versus grappler, like, you know, you kind of know who's going to win, man. But if you get one like this, where the MMA fighter is uniquely good at grappling at least for MMA contexts and is bigger I'm with it I'm with it uh did you see uh Gordon Ryan pulled out of his big grappling match Luke a week after I did see that being on uh truck food truck diaries with Brendan Schaub not not a correlation there of course and I didn't see it okay okay but hold on first of all i don't even know if it's the burger that gordon ryan ate that did him in and if it is it's gordon ryan's fault for eating the fucking burger not for shop or booking the interview if you can't eat it don't fucking eat it like you're a pro athlete you know you can eat yeah but i don't even know that to me all the

time about hot dogs you know if your liver can't take it if your liver can't take it what are we doing here bro right all right that What are we doing? All right. That's all that bullshit, Luke. It's time to get into some more as we start our show this Friday. We got a lot of fights tonight. What is it? BKFC tonight, one championship. There's another BKFC tonight?

Oh, that's right. UFC and Bellator tomorrow. Floyd Mayweather back tomorrow. Jake Paul on Sunday. What a weird and wild weekend, Luke. And speaking of weird and wild. Are we doing okay, Ben, or not? Well, I was about to get it weird and wild weekend, Luke. And speaking of weird and wild. Are we doing okay, Ben, or not? Well, I was about to get it out of my mouth, Luke.

You want me to? I'm sorry. Speaking of weird and wild. I'm feeling these margaritas, Brian Campbell. Yeah, exactly. Feeling this Kratom. Oh, Luke, you were curious about Kratom the other day. A lot of people DM me being like, do not let Luke go down that dark road.

Do not. Do not. I've never done kratom i'm probably probably not gonna do it but i am kratom curious all right luke it's time to do this okay bet is our weekly betting segment in which luke and i go head-to-head five picks a piece you. You know the categories. Main event, pick a favorite, pick an upset, pick a KO or sub and name it, and which fight will go over or under. Be specific. Luke, we pick five every week. At the end of the year,

the winner gets to choose a concert that the loser has to attend with MKDoc cameras. And oh, by the way, I think we spiced it up on Wednesday now. I get to dye your hair if you lose and what are you doing to me something weird like like what are you doing well i i'm not fully agreed to the hair dye thing but uh the other one if we did it you'd have to wear la gear in studio thank you very much yes relive my seventh grade uh nightmares all over again to update last week

luke uh i i vowed that change would be in the air we're gonna have to wait one week for that i went one and four as you turned in and you know another stellar four and one turnaround our updated standings as you can see 13 and six for luke five and 14 so luke i've got eight points to make up here and i'm gonna chip away away and start this week. Okay. I'm ready. I did my homework. I'm bringing it. Luke Thomas, we kick off a okay bet each week by identifying what's the biggest main event of the weekend and making our picks. Are you going first or second today? Since I'm the winner, I can choose. I'll go second. Okay. Let's kick off on the top. Bellator 291 was of course saturday afternoon main card

4 p.m eastern start on showtime dublin's three arena we laid it out wednesday you can't miss with how good this fight has the potential to be a rematch for the welterweight title in this case a unification as logan storley fresh off the very close victory over mvp to win that crown is going to take on the defending champion Yaroslav Amisov. Two years removed from his last fight, which was, by the way, not against Storlie, but his last fight was winning the championship. But we know what happened there, moving to the front lines in the Ukraine and defending his homeland. He's back now, Luke, as we look at this odds-wise to make our pick for this, in fact, main event, our friends at Caesars have minus 160.

Amosov, your favorite, plus 135. Logan Storley. Luke, we did a great job Wednesday debating the potential of what two years means to Amosov mentally, physically, carrying the weight of a nation on his shoulders. But you know what? Skills win fights. And even though Logan Storley has improved a lot, he calls himself a completely different fighter since their first meeting.

I still don't think his standup is where it would need to be, knowing that at times the wrestling skills of both are going to offset each other. I've got a decision win here for Yaroslav Amisov. I expect it to be emotional. I think it'll be a lot like that first fight. Very competitive. A lot of changes in momentum. A lot of swinging back and forth there. Amisov's too good though, Luke. 26-0 for a reason. This is an uphill climb for him. I think he can do it though. I'm taking the champ over the interim title holder. I'm going to join you.

I'm going to join you with that. I like Amisov in this one. So we'll have to have our differences elsewhere in the segment. But for this one, we certainly are in this one. So we'll have to have our differences elsewhere in the segment. But for this one, we certainly are in lockstep. It's not that I don't think that Storlie can't win this. By no means am I suggesting it. It's winnable, frankly. There's a great case you can make in either direction. And there's plenty of concern, obviously, around Amosov's absence from the cage. And then also, I do think if you go back and watch the first fight, I am a little bit worried about his ability if this goes three four maybe even five rounds might he fade down the stretch but skill for skill i do think he's better than storley and i think that will

ultimately manifest itself and he will get his hand raised i like yours a lot all right it's a push here in this main event pick we go to category two which is pick a favorite to win look a lot of mma boxing bkFC, a lot to pick from here. Luke, we're going to get into shortly the Jake Paul card, which is Sunday, about what it means, the recent happenings at the press conference and all that. But my favorite, I'm actually going to go to the co-main event on here. It's the most legitimate boxing fight they have on this card in Saudi Arabia.

It's a decent one. Alunga Makabu, the defending WBC cruiserweight champion, is going to take on a name we know well, former two-division title holder Badu Jack, the Ripper, who himself, Luke, is in a bit of a twilight. Yes, he's won a handful of fights in a row, but he's moved up to cruiserweight, trying to make a bid for a three-division title holder. As we look right now in terms of who's the favorite, it's Lunga Makabu minus 190. Luke, I'm going with the favorite here, even though the odds are close. And ultimately, if you don't follow this closely, Makabu's a power puncher.

He's held this title for a while. He's beaten some good names, although some of these fights were competitive. But Badou Jack just has not faced top-tier competition since moving up to cruiserweight. He took on unbeaten Richie the Popeye the sailor man Rivera who's from Hartford area by the way Connecticut shout out to him and that was way closer maybe than it should have been last time out I think Badou Jack is always tough he's always gonna have a chin but at this point two divisions higher than where he started he's a little bit over his head against somebody like Makabu I'm going with the favorite here the defending champion

by decision Luke who's your favorite over this whole weekend? Yeah, again, to the point you raised, a lot of different ways you could go. I've been surprised to an extent about how close the odds are in this one. I get it. I do accept it, but I think ultimately I'd be very surprised if there was an upset. I'm going to go Jake Paul. Jake Paul's not a huge favorite at all. I think like a minus 180 or so, give or take, over Tommy Fury. And I'm a little bit surprised by that. I saw Tommy Fury denigrating the opponents that Jake Paul had faced. And again, you can make a lot of criticisms of Jake Paul's resume, but I'm sorry, Jake Paul's resume to me is vastly better than Tommy Fury's in every respect. I was shocked that he was saying some of the stuff that he was saying.

I mean, I get it. It's for promotion. But Jake Paul is a slight favorite according to the oddsmakers, and I think he's going to get it done. Jake Paul, I like him in the main event. Your updated odds from our friends at Caesars, Luke, have minus 170 Jake Paul plus 145 Tommy Fury. I can't believe that.

I'm sorry. I'm a little surprised by that. Yeah, we'll get more into this fight, but you're going with chalk here. I don't disagree. Your favorite pick is Jake Paul category number three to keep this going. We got to go with an upset and underdog and Luke, I'm going to go with that UFC fight night card from Las Vegas Saturday evening. Look, I've been a fan of what Jasmine jazz. The vicious has done since coming to this sport at the highest level, somewhat late in her early thirties. I know she did have a close defeat that she's looking to bounce back from.

She's a plus 105 betting underdog in a preliminary bout here against Gabriela Fernandez come Saturday night. Luke, is she a Lithuanian? That sounds very Lithuanian. Her last name is what, Jasutavisius? She should be. She should be. You know my background.

You know why I'm leaning here, Luke. It's like, you know, if there was a Colombian on this card, you'd be picking them. Your background. You mean as a sex pervert for women in lighter weight divisions? Anyway, Luke, this women's flyweight matchup. Look, I do expect it to be close. You see the odds right there in that regard,

although Gabrielle Fernandez is not a household name up to this point. Look, I'm going to bet here that Jazz DeVicious is going to bounce back. She's tall. She's long. She's tough. She's got some good striking. She needs to add more wrinkles to her overall game. Give me a close decision win here on the upset pick as I crawl back,

pick by pick, to ruin your life this calendar year. You might. I mean, you ruin my life most days. But in this one, BC, I'm actually going to go a slightly different direction. Here's another one where I'm, again, I'm not surprised that one guy is the underdog, but the extent to which our friend at Caesars have Pedro Carvalho as a plus 230 to Jeremy Kennedy's Kennedy, excuse me, minus 280.

And Jeremy Kennedy is good. We've mentioned this before, particularly when it comes to positional control. He, he won his bout against Emmanuel Sanchez that way, but Carvalho is just coming off of the Mads-Burnell win where he showed very good scrambling, very good takedown defense, and beat a very, very respectable featherweight talent. Kennedy can get the job done here,

but if he's not as on point with the positional control, it's like an all-or-nothing proposition with him. And if Pedro Carvalho can put a dent in that, he can take the whole thing. Give me Pedro Carvalho can put a dent in that, he can take the whole thing. Give me Pedro Carvalho to upset here. Wow. Okay. I mean, he's born in Portugal, but we know he fights out SBG there in Ireland.

Luke, you expect him to get the fan favorite pop that also, you know, Sinead Kavanaugh is going to get. And who's the other guy, Luke? You know, the guy that always. Peter Quigley. Peter Quigley, Charlie Ward. Everybody's going to get a big pop there. I like that you went this way because, Luke? You know, the guy that always... Peter Quigley. Peter Quigley, Charlie Ward. Everybody's going to get a big pop there.

I like that you went this way because I'm obviously cheering against you to win this segment. And I got Junior Bacon Cheeseburger on the other side, Luke. So I like that. Although it's not part of my picks this week. There we go, Luke. On to over, under. Pick a fight that will either go the distance or won't. I'm going to go over here to the Showtime boxing card. We'll talk about this main event in a second in terms of what it means and stuff.

But the opening night fight of the night is an interesting one. Elvis Rodriguez and Joseph Adorno, two 140-pound fighters. Both, by the way, were huge prospects originally with top rank were let go. Each of them for different reasons. Rodriguez, after he had the only loss of his career, a big time upset to 20 and one underdog, Kenneth Sims on show or you've seen a lot on Showtime. Elvis Rodriguez was bounced back nicely from that fight with a couple of knockdowns and Luke, a couple of knockouts in Adorno. He's got power. If he could ever fully put it together, there's still time. He's so young. We just had

him in a win on showbox last year. But the reason why I'm going over here is Adorno's got a chin. He absolutely does. He's usually the puncher in most of his matchups, and the guy in the second half of the fight who was looking to try to end it and walk him down. Both of these guys need a win. They could be tense here. I think we're going to go the distance, Rodriguez, Adorno, and the Showtime opener.

Interesting. Okay, so we're doing over-under. For me, this one I struggled a little bit, BC, and I'm going to take just a bit of a gamble. I just wanted to see who typically goes to a lot of decisions or is there a matchup where someone could be decision-prone based on the way that it looks. I'm going to go Joe.

I don't know if it's pronounced Selesky or Selecky. Either way, he's taking on Carl Deaton III. I'm going to bet that one to go the distance, BC. I'm going to say Selecky under the pretense that that could be quite wrong. He has gone to a decision a fair amount, and also he can be a real top-ride grappling kind of grinder. Just the guys that either are grinders or at times can have grinding tendencies based on the matchup,

you just like him to go the distance. This is someone I'm not very sure of, a bit of a guess, but I'm going to say that Selecky versus Carl Deaton III goes the distance. All right, let's hope for a stoppage in that fight. Finally, Luke, KO or submission. You pick the type of finish and you pick the matchup. I am going over to tonight's one championship Fight Night 7 main event. I believe it's going on down in Bangkok. And of course, it's the rematch for the Bantamweight title.

John Lineker lost the title on the scales last time out against Fabricio Andrade. They had a wild fight that ended with an illegal blow. No contest. We're running it back here. Luke, both of them, they're knockout machines. It was a physical aggressive fight the first time around. I'm going to take the bed here in a five-round title fight. It's Bantamweight.

Of course, with the one hydration rules, it's a 145-pound fight. Give me Lineker Andrade to finish via knockout. Okay, fair enough. For me, I'm going to go slightly different pick. I just don't see any way this goes the distance at all. I think it ends in either TKO or KO with strikes. How about Phil DeFreeze taking on Todd Duffy over in KSW? Todd Duffy, again, we haven't seen him in three years. And then before that was 2015, or actually, I think it'd be four years at this point for Todd Duffy, 2019, right? So it's been a long time since

we've seen him. It's a rematch 10 years or 11 years in the making, but Todd Duffy is just not one of these guys I think that's going to go one win or lose. It's just not going to go to the final bell in a heavyweight contest. That one, one of the other is going to put the other guy's lights out for sure. Yeah, that's a fairly safe bet on. Okay, bet. I'm down eight points. You see the scoreboard below.

Those are your five picks either way. Good luck to you. And Luke to close. We previewed the UFC card at length here. I did want to get your picks quickly, though, as fans are certainly interested in this light heavyweight main event as Ryan Spann comes in as the underdog against Nikita Krylov to look at the current odds on this situation.

I'll tell you this, Luke, okay? All right. Minus 170, Krylov, plus 145, Ryan Spann. If you're looking to get specific, it's plus 300 for a Spann KO, plus 1,600 for a Spann decision. Luke, what makes this one tough to pick is that Spann's last five bouts have all ended in the first round. Twice he's gotten finished, three times he's done the deed.

Who wins this in your eyes? I think fans are interested. I'd be surprised if Krilov lost this one. I mean, the thing is he is error prone, and for that reason you're always like oh right he could get out in front of his skis and do something but skill for skill or at least it's just in terms of the basic question right who has more ways to win Kralov Kralov just simply has much more ways to win I think he's more forceful with his offense I think he's got offense at many different ranges. I think a guy like span is going to try and catch him with a big one, which by the way, he might, I mean, that's on the table, but you know, minute for minute

Krilov should be doing better work. He should be doing more work that should make the difference in the end should be. Yeah. I got to lean Krilov here. I'm just wondering if Ryan span can put it together, Lou, he can surprise anybody surprise anybody we know that big power but when you're walking in and blowing people away so quickly it is tough to sort of always figure out five straight fights haven't gone past the first we don't still know a ton about his ubl luke sometimes guys just have the pop and explosiveness where they can get to places without really proving that at the end of the day i mean it's like have his two recent finish losses prove proved anything? I mean, there's a lot that's unproven with Ryan Spann.

He could very much surprise us. I think you got Alin Krylov still as we continue. And look, I didn't want to gloss over and not mention that co-main event. You mentioned on Wednesday, it's not great, but Andre Muniz of Brazil is making some noise here as he looks to continue that unbeaten start in the UFC opposite Brendan Allen. And quick stats I looked up here, the 33-year-old Muniz, 5-0 in the UFC.

He won two Dana White Contender Series fights before that. He's on a nine-fight win streak overall since 2016. I only bring this up because you know Ian Parker? He's a decent bloke, Luke. I DM him from time to time, works at ESPN, covers PFL and UFC. He said Muniz is one day going to wear a UFC championship. He's convinced of this. Your thoughts on that?

I don't think that's crazy. I'm high on him. There's still some work to do to see exactly how far he can go. And also, let's see what Bo Nickel does at 185. Let's see what Hamzat does at 185. And there's some broader questions here about how this is all going to shake out. But he looks poised for greatness. I agree. I think he wins this one, and he's some broader questions here about how this is all going to shake out but he looks poised for greatness i agree i think he wins i think he wins this one and he's got a massive upside there it is luke bets are behind us we roll into topic one on this friday as we set the stage

for the remaining fright cards we haven't given a close-up to luke but let's do it right here saturday night showtime championship boxing 9 p. Eastern. A triple header coming from what I consider to be an upstart hotbed over there in Minneapolis at the Armory downtown. You get real boxing fans there. We know that. Luke, you and I will be calling the prelims from our Jersey City studio, 645 p.m. Eastern, Saturday night night on the Showtime Sports YouTube page. Obviously, if you're looking to watch that triple header, go to Showtime.com right now. Get your 30-day free trial. But as we look ahead, though, to the main card, I'll tell you what.

Honestly, even as a hardcore boxing fan, this fight's below the radar. But I think it's going to be one of those after the fact that wins a lot of people over. A vacant 140-pound title is on the line that used to be Josh Taylor's title that he was forced to recently give up. And you know who's going to fight for it here? Two guys with knockout intentions. Puerto Rico's Subriel Matias is going to take on Jeremias Ponce from Argentina,

who's making his U.S. debut. But when you look at the records and the histories here, you know Matias is 18 and one with 18 KOs. His only loss he avenged by KO one fight ago against Petros Ananian, which was a fight on Showtime. Look, this guy's got an interesting backstory, Subriel Matias, that I'm sure not everyone realizes. He was stabbed in the shoulder blade in 2012. In 2014, he was sentenced to 19 months in jail for drug trafficking. He got out the next year, turned pro as a boxer.

And like I mentioned, has this incredible 18 wins in 18 KOs and 18 wins. And his opponent Ponce, who's promoted by Marcos Maidana there in Australia, he said, I always go for the KO and I leave nothing to chance. Saturday will be no different. Dude, these two are going to collide and it's going to be spectacular with a big-time belt on the line. This fight is great. And I'll tell you, if you look at the tape, here's my read, BC.

Tell me if I'm missing something, okay? My read on this is that if you've never seen Matias, that dude can thump. He can thump he can thump that he has sick power all the whole way through but here's the other part about him he gets hit all the time right he is very very hittable ponce does not have that same kind of power but can chip away definitely i think if you can avoid the big shot will win long stretches of the fight long rounds and yet in the end the question you have to ask yourself is, can this guy for as long as the bout lasts,

stay away from the blasting nuclear power of someone like Matias? That's really what it hinges on. Because I just don't think if he lands clean, anyone, well, in this case, Ponce is going to be able to take his punch. So this one is going to be, and by the way, Ponce will get in like, absolutely put himself in danger. He's not going to be able to take his punch. So this one is going to be – by the way, Ponce will absolutely put himself in danger. He's not going to just jab and do nothing else. He lives for the smoke, Luke.

So what I'm saying is this one is built, built for action. This one, there's just no way this ends up being some ugly clinch or jab fest. These guys are going to throw absolute bombs at each other. The question is who can survive, and I really don't know. or jab fest, these guys are going to throw absolute bombs at each other. The question is who can survive. And I really don't know. And look, when you're talking about 140 pounds, there's already a lot of fun names in there. Teofimo Lopez moved up. He might be facing Josh Taylor,

who I believe still has one of the titles he used to have or two, but you know, we also have Ryan Garcia moving up tanks, eventually going to be at one 40 on the full time. I mean, Devin Haney's already talking about moving up. I mean, this division is going to be at 140 on the full time i mean david haney's already talking about moving up i mean this division is is going to be a star-studded one soon having a world title here will be key but uh i love this type of scenario in which ponce is in he's 30 and 0 with 20 k.o's but never fought in the u.s before but he's hungry as crap you can watch the tape and see that he's aggressive god he's promoted by marcos maidana luke so many times when guys come and make their u.s debut with glossy records records in South America or somewhere in Asia or whatever,

it's always tough to know what you get. But, man, do you remember? I always bring up this reference because it's great. Do you remember when Miguel Cotto fought Ricardo Torres back in about 2005? Torres had knocked out all 28 of his opponents. Was he from Colombia? I don't know. I believe he know he was i have to look that up but it was like a lot of colombian boxers have some fugazi records and you're like okay how many

cab drivers uh you know has he he's from columbia look he turned into a world title holder and a legitimate fighter he lost that fight against koto but he rocked him knocked him down made it an absolute war you just never know what you're to get when somebody makes the leap to the highest level in the States, comes out of their home country for the first time and tries to make some noise. This is going to be a very, very interesting fight, as you mentioned. Luke, when you talk about Matias having the 18 KOs in as many fights, great stat here from the crack research team at Showtime.

There are only four fighters right now that are ranked in any division by Ring Magazine who have scored knockouts in all of their wins. Artur Beterbeev, Virgil Ortiz Jr., the unbeaten welterweight, 140-pound contender, Gary Antoine Russell, and Subriel Matias. So we're going to see. This will be a good one come Saturday night.

Check it out there on Showtime. I mentioned Adorno's in that fight to open up against the Southpaw right there, Elvis Rodriguez. And also look at that co-main event. Jamal James is finally back. Used to have a secondary title at welterweight from Minneapolis, has filled up that arena many times, but he lost that title against Raja Butaev late in 2021,

was really worn down and eventually stopped in that bout. Took a long layoff. He's back here. Let's see what he can do against Alberto Palmetto, who is a southpaw also from Argentina. So good action expected in this tripleheader. But Luke, boxing's going to have that Sunday offering. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, ESPN plus pay-per-view Jake Paul, who told Ariel this week, he signed a one fight deal here with ESPN on the boxing side. We do know eventually he's looking to

move on over to PFL and MMA on a somewhat multi-fight full-time basis. He's going to take on Tommy Fury third time. They tried to book this fight, say what you will about it, but on paper, at least it's, it's supposed to be the offering for Jake Paul that answers the questions of when are you finally going to face a real boxer? He tried against Hasim Rahman, tried twice against Tommy Fury. The real question here, Luke, and you already gave your pick of Jake Paul. I also think Jake Paul is going to win this thing by decisions. Good. But I think it, the question is, will it be more competitive or will there be more danger for Jake Paul than we think from Tommy Fury? Because yes, at 8-0 with four KOs, he's a quote-unquote real boxer,

the half-younger brother of Tyson Fury, but his competition has been atrocious. I mean, I read you that stat, Luke, that when we were on HQ yesterday together, of the record of the opponents Tommy Fury has faced as a professional 24 wins, 176 losses and five draws. And I know that it's not uncommon for any of your favorite boxers on the way up in their first 10, 15 fights to have a few of those guys who are making their pro debut or journeymen who are only there to push you rounds that happens.

But Luke, he hasn't faced anybody with a heartbeat, arguably at all. And when he was in there meeting Tommy Fury two years ago on the Jake Paul Woodley one undercard in Cleveland, dude, he took on Bellator's Anthony Taylor, who was two weight divisions, at least smaller than him. And he struggled to a decision. So we know where Jake is the best of the celebrity group showing you some attributes that lead you to believe man maybe this guy could be something eventually in boxing how good is Tommy Fury in your opinion though from the tape you've seen from what we actually know about him

he's not uh unfortunately from what I can tell now I want to be clear he's young right I didn't realize he's just 23 uh he's very very young so uh his capacity for improvement should not be slept on should not be ignored but what we have is in terms of the tape just the tape so whatever has happened in the past and again that that also doesn't I mean that's very much not a complete picture because I did the tape study on the first and second Woodley fights with Jake and then he comes out against Anderson and he looked just way better than both of those just by a mile so let's just sort of posit that like you know past isn't always prologue but BC mentioned a stat about the overall win records of his opponents in fact if you go and look a little deeper and you look at the last two opponents thaty fury has stopped they have a combined record of oh and 69 good lord lord

the only two guys he's actually or i should say the last two guys he's put away don't have a single boxing win in nearly 100 fights between them i mean this is what we're talking about here like i said at the beginning of the show i really didn't understand tommy fury denigrating uh jake paul i mean I get it for promotional purposes but then when you just look around it's like dude Jake Paul's resume is better it is I'm sorry it is and you could be like oh you guys work at Showtime dude this fight ain't on Showtime yeah like we have to cover it for CBS sports but like if it wasn't for that like I probably would just skip it all together like I'm not into this it doesn't do anything for me but the facts are what they are like from what we know up to this point jake paul is vastly better uh i've not

seen a ton from tommy fury i don't he's got a lot of like you know uh fairly foundational elements built out bc but he doesn't have anything super signature that i can point to that really kind of stands out um there's a decent jab obviously he's very strong but even then BC like someone was asking me like I forget maybe it was on HQ yesterday you know oh well Tommy's got big power I'm like you sure it's better than Jake's I'm not I'm not sure about that I think Jake's probably the harder hitter of the two to be quite honest with you I think you might be right especially on a one punch scenario Jake's left hook in particular that he buried uh Woodley with Wasn't that a left hook, Luke, on the Woodley rematch? Right hand. Overhand right.

Right hand, excuse me. But his left hook's been quick there. Here's the thing. Jake Paul's got four knockouts and six wins as a pro. Tommy's got four and eight. But, Luke, I watched highlights of each of his stoppage wins, and it's obviously against very low-level competition. But I don't know.

I mean, he's not even landing these power punches cleanly. They were sort of accumulation of shots, guys covering up, getting hit partial and just sort of not getting back up. What's Tommy's best attribute here? His last name? I mean, this is where we're really at with this fight, Luke. He's muscle bound. He looks good, right? He looks the part of a boxer, but when Jake makes fun of a lot, the fact that his legs are much smaller and skinnier compared to his upper body. He's not wrong. He seems to be a big kid that if he can use his physicality to his advantage, this could be a different wrinkle for Jake because, look, for the most part,

Jake Paul has fought boxers smaller and lighter than him. The Anderson Silva one was the first time he fought a guy that size-wise at least was head-on. Obviously, Anderson was older but had certain levels of experience that made that his toughest challenge to date on paper I'm just not sure that Anderson Silva's not tougher here of a challenge than Tommy Fury I think it is Fury does not put his punches together well I think his worst attribute is really a lack overall of defense or head movement or really the the smooth sort of way of putting that together yes he, he could land a big right hand. Yes, he's got an okay jab, but man, there's a lot of pressure on the family name here entering this. And Luke, this might be the time to throw to the video of what happened at Friday, at Thursday's press conference, excuse me, where the topic of the family name and the topic of a

bet came up. And you know, in the past, Jake Paul likes likes to bet things bet the tattoo for tyron woodley bet the tommy fumbles name remember he's gonna have tommy fury change his twitter name we got a new bet for sunday's fight let's watch this from the press conference i think we make i think we make a deal then since you're so confident i think we make a deal if you win i'll pay you double what i'm paying you already but if i win i take everything that I'm paying you already. But if I win, I take everything that I'm paying you. Delicious. Deal or no deal? Since you're so confident.

Deal or no deal? Since you're so confident. Take it. Deal or no deal? Take it. Take it. Deal or no deal? I want to shake on it.

Why are you going to stand up like you want to do so much? Sit back down. I just want to shake your hand. Sit back down. Sit back down. Answer the question. What are you going to stand up like you want to do something? Sit back down. I just want to shake your hand. Sit back down. Answer the question. What are you going to do? Answer the question. Answer the question.

You've dealt. You've got a deal. All or nothing. All or nothing. You've got it. You've got it. You've got it. The ball, you've heard it.

He's got it. He's got it. I'll put you all inside the first round. First round. It's over. It's over. You heard that, ladies and gentlemen. It's a deal. It's a deal. It's a deal.

Luke, your reaction to John Fury, Big John, answering for his son. Dude, John, this is the problem for Tommy that I feel like. Again, it's very hard to say this with any real degree of confidence. But what it feels like from the outside is that Fury's got this last name. Tommy Fury has this last name. And it's really good for him in terms of spotlight. It's really good in terms for him. It's got,

it confers any number of benefits, but the problem is that I feel like his family around him wants him to be something. And they're just shoving him into circumstances, whether he's good for it or ready for it, or it's a, it's a great idea for him in the end. Jake, if he wins,

we'll still pay Tommy. I mean, this is all contractually obligated, but the point I wanted to make here is it just felt like... Well, do you know, hold on. I don't know if you're right. They said, Jake said he had a lawyer making up the paperwork. Tommy was interviewed even hours after the presser,

and they said, is this legit? Are you going to sign it? He said, absolutely. Why would I not bet on myself here? All right, either way, he's being, it feels like he's just being dragged into shit and pushed into shit because he's part of the clan, and all of a sudden, you've got to be part of it now in every way.

And it's like, I don't know if he's that guy, fellas. I guess we're going to find out, but it doesn't seem like it. It was just funny that Big John, who's not going to back down from a challenge ever, he'll take his shirt off at any moment, challenge any living human to a bare-knuckle street fight because that's how he gets down. He scoops eyeballs out, you know, with his fish hooks there,

Luke, uh, it felt like Tommy wasn't going to say yes. And dad jumped in and did it for him. And there was one other quote that I, it almost felt, felt sad to hear. Did you hear when John Fury went on,

when he was asked a question about what the stakes are in this fight and what he basically said, you know, Tommy's fighting to keep up the good name of world champion tyson fury his brother but said it in a much too much way put a lot of pressure on tommy to live up to that you know to tommy's credit anytime he's asked about this bed or this fight he has the right answer look we interviewed him in the past he talks a great game good looking kid you can see him having a successful reality career in any kind of those

avenues that he wants now the tape tells you he can't fight now obviously when you're at this level with this level of combined inexperience you never know who's going to get cut and it could ruin the fight gas out and it could ruin like anything can happen chaos can happen when people don't have a ton of professional experience but jake he's just Jake, he's already passed some of those early tests. If Jake was going to fall apart, it would have been against Anderson Silva. It really would have been, right? Or it would have been that first fight with Woodley, where he was knocked into the ropes.

And for this level, Jake's pretty damn battle-tested. So you got to go Jake at the end of the day. You just have to. For an eight-round cruiserweight fight here, you just have to. But Luke, there are other types of stakes here that are, that are disturbing for me. You know, my feelings in most hardcore boxing fans on the sanctioning bodies, the four major ones, they constantly make decisions that are head scratching, self-serving sometimes, you know, corrupt in nature.

I mean, it's just, it's baffling. You know, the WBC likes to make world title belts for any fight, for any reason. They did again for this one. It's got a Saudi Arabian theme. It looks like it's very expensive. But Mauricio Suleiman Jr., the president of the WBC, he's taking it further this time. And I don't think enough people are talking about this.

He says the winner of this fight will receive a top 15 WBC cruiserweight ranking, or sorry, he said specifically if Jake Paul gets the win, he will write. And the reason why that matters is you have to be ranked in the top 15 under WBC rules to get a title shot. What he's essentially arguing is that Jake Paul has fought the equivalent through eight fights. And I'm not here to trash Jake Paul's resume as a social media influencer turned boxer. Like he's escalated at a pretty quick, you know, and he's in Gibb is not a tough fight,

right? Nate Robinson would never fought before in his five foot seven, not a tough fight in this sense. The other ones he's escalated, but they're basically trying to set the stage here for Jake, whenever he wants moving forward to, to sort of cash himself out, if you will, and actually fight a legitimate Cruiserweight champion.

We have Alunga Makabu in the co-main event, as I mentioned, taking on Badu Jack for the WBC Cruiserweight Championship. It feels too synergetic for my liking here, Luke. How the hell can we take 47-year-old Anderson Silva, 38 or 39-year-old Tyron Woodley twice, Ben Askren post-hip surgery, and try to compare this to any boxer's first 10, 15 fights? Like, good for Jake. I respect Jake. He's doing it the right way.

If he's going to be a top 15-ranked cruiserweight with a win over Tommy Fury, dude, this is just straight up hashtag that's boxing. Like, that's bullshit. Yeah, it's complete bullshit. There's nothing to it. It's not real. I mean, it might be real in the sense that it happens, but this is just credentialism in the worst kind of way.

We're going to give this guy a certain degree of authenticity just for marketing purposes, you know, to advance WBC's interest. It's fucking gross.'s sick it is it is cheap opportunism it's transactionalism it's just absolutely trading on whatever legitimacy you have for you know short-term monetary gain and certainly this is there's been one criticism that the ufc brass have had of boxing that I do think is true and it's partly a function of just the way the industry is set up but one they've said a lot of things are just

nonsense but one thing that they've said is true is that if you just look at the people in boxing who make decisions who are in positions of power they too often make short-term decisions without any any uh concern for what the long-term effect might be for the larger sport. So long as they can benefit now or now-ish, whatever happens later, we'll deal with that later, but we're just going to protect ourselves, and no one's really taking care of the industry. Now, you can argue well, is UFC really taking care of MMA or

taking over MMA? That's a separate debate. But BC, per this one, that criticism is right on the money. That's exactly what they're doing here. It's gross. Don't buy into it. Don't award it. exactly what they're doing here. It's gross. Don't buy into it. Don't award it. Don't give it any legitimacy. It's gross.

It's just sick. The WBC is the same. You know, if you, if you ask me, who's the dirtiest of the four, who's consistently breaking boxing purist hearts, that would be the WBA with them constantly creating crap titles. But WBC does some of those same sins. They created the bridge weight division when the rest of boxing essentially rejected it.

They have the super champion nonsense, which is basically their way of saying, if we have a celebrity champion, like Canelo, we don't want to make him have to face mandatories. He can keep the belt and be the super champion. And then we'll just crown another WBC champion underneath them in the same division.

Like it's, it's such utter bullshit. This feels like that. Jake's record of, of, uh, of opponents combined record is three and two, but four of those were making their pro debut. That three and two combined pro experience is the Woodley lost to Paul. And then Anderson Silva's previous boxing pro background before that fight. So, damn. I mean, look, when we've seen people on Jake Paul cards in in the past it typically has been like

a potential preview for a future opportunity is that why alunga makabu is on here because i'm a little nervous right now to be fair right probably probably but like dude like are they gonna make a fight with him and jake paul if j, that's a, that's a massacre. Okay. This is the right question though, in terms of how do you think Jake closed the year? Because the PFL, uh, owner who Don Davis told Ariel a couple of months back that Jake's not going to debut in MMA until 2024. We saw Jake say this week that he still wants to, to, to fight Nate Diaz to close the year. He wants to do a boxing match and an MMA match back to to back i don't know if that'll happen whatever it seems like a bad idea in terms of the mma side you've got ksi right who has his own like promotion and division under the zones banner constantly telling everyone including ariel this week that his big fight his big money fight is

jake right ksi has boxed logan twice already has not fought Jake. You've got the zone, Luke, who has KSI tweeting out a lot of Jake promotion this week, even though Jake's fighting on ESPN. So are we setting up a KSI Jake fight to close the year that will probably be big in influencer circles, but doesn't necessarily escalate Jake's momentum in terms of stepping up opponents? Where do you think Jake ends this year? Do you care? Yeah, I don't care at all, especially if it's a KSI fight. Like all of this is just for Jake. Like, I mean, I'm going to say this one more time.

Like if you're going to be party to this, it's because you've got some investment in them and that's fine. If you do like that, that's the thing you care about. Great. But like, if you care about high end boxing, this is just not it. So, i'm not going to be mad at him go make your money it's life is short and it's hard to make money go make it but like yeah i just it is it's just not relevant to my life so all right so i mean look could he blow at some point jake is going to cash in that thing though though if he keeps winning look that that opportunity at a world title i just wonder

when and where what the timing is like are there more celebrities to try to fight first is MMA going to be a real full-time path for him there are a lot of questions if you care about the Jake Paul circus and Luke you're going to get a lot of people coming after you after the show and saying well we're Luke weren't you promoting this for showtime now you're critical we've always been honest okay we've always been very for, for a check. Yeah. Right. I mean, it's my job. If it's my job, I'll do it. You're just asking me like, how much do I care about Jake Paul boxing, Tommy Fury and KSI? Like not much, not much. I'm not going to go out here and tell you that you shouldn't watch it or it's terrible but it doesn't do much for me yeah all right sunday afternoon is this fight on espn plus pay-per-view luke saturday there's another pay-per-view fight it's an exhibition though unlike jake paul's fight

it's going to be floyd mayweather he just turned 46 he's back in another exhibition that's going to air on the new streaming app or i don't know if it's new, actually, but have you heard of the Zeus Network, Luke? That's where you can buy the pay-per-view on the Zeus Network. Yeah, I'm not. I'm not. Saturday at the O2 Arena in London, by the way, Aaron Chalmers is the opponent. The 35-year-old ex-MMA fighter, reality TV star under the Geordie Shore and ex-On the Beach brands. He went 5-2 in MMA. He's retired now. He fought in Bellator a few times. I know you don't care at all, so I'm not going to waste that question,

but we do have one bit of sound from the press conference to get you fired up for this one. Here we go. About going to the Olympics, that was one of my goals. Excuse me. Whoever child that is, y'all got to take the child out, please. I'll wait. Thank you. No disrespect, but this you know, this is a press conference,

and this is not a daycare. So we just want to make sure we're all on the same page. To be fair. That's what I say to you every time you walk in studio. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a press conference for an exhibition boxing match against a reality TV star, not a daycare center. Have some respect and sanctity for this grand occasion.

Will you even catch a Twitter gif? No. A Twitter gif. No. You got nothing for me. It means nothing. Look, there's sometimes rumors about Floyd actually taking a somewhat quasi-real boxing match.

Do you ever think he takes like a a middle ground like you know sometimes people like could he will he box Nate Diaz and like a real type ish fight will he box Manny again like yeah is there any scenario you think he does there it is possible it is possible he could take one more big one but again it would have to be against like an MMA fighter in a real boxing bout, but an MMA fighter just the same, but short of that. Like a Conor rematch or Nate or whomever. Yeah, something like that, something like that. But other than that, no.

All right. All right. Also, Luke, you mentioned it on Wednesday. One Fight Night 7 is tonight. Lumpini Boxing Stadium in Bangkok. John Lineker, Fabrizio Andrade. Lumpini. Lumpini.

Lumpini. Daniel Kelly also back, Luke. The rising grappling star taking on Ayaka Mayura in a catchweight submission grappling match anything else you want to sprinkle onto this Luke no no in terms of the card yeah no all right great talking to you I agree with you that about covers it and also tonight Kenner Louisiana look let's put some respect on the momentum BKFC is building, at least from the standpoint of showing up on this show. Arnold Adams putting the heavyweight title on the line against Alan Belcher.

We already know that Lorenzo Hunt, not Lamar Hunt that I kept calling him the other day. Lorenzo Hunt wants to become a three-division champion. He'll probably be ringside. He may jump in the ring and do some shit after. Will you watch at all this evening all right great talking to you alan belcher once fought sexy yama and i think he beat him right dude i saw sexy yama have you seen this show physical 100 on netflix or physical menu all the time he he's the picture that comes up when you're flipping through yeah dude it's actually kind of amazing people don't know this but back when he fought uh the real grivaka hitman Kazuo Masaki they had a they

had an epic rivalry and um for folks who don't know I can't remember the full details but it's either that so Yoshihiro Akiyama is uh I think he's half Korean half Japanese Japanese. But I think he started out with full Korean national... I have to go back and check this out. But I know that there is some tension in Korea about how he has some kind of... Even in Japan as well, excuse me. He has some kind of dual identity. So it's interesting that MMA fans know him by his Japanese name,

Yoshihiro Akiyama. In this Korean television show. He goes by his Korean name, which is, I forget at this point, it's so seldom used. But I remember when he fought Masaaki, it was a big point of contention about who was actually Japanese and who was actually representing people. That was a big deal for him. He had to overcome a lot with the Japanese fans. Yeah, for sure. You mentioned tension in South Korea yeah for sure you mentioned tension in south korea luke there's tension in japan and his name is nasakawa did you know that jimmy lennon jr told me that tension nasakawa who once boxed floyd remember that you know he went all out and got stopped

he's turning pro as a boxer luke and it's actually like big news over there and he's promoted by mr honda who is a niowa inu's promoter and they're like gonna make a run at at him becoming a a boxing champion you into that yeah i guess okay let's see what he could do i mean he got run over by floyd and you know you just don't really know what's left for him but um but yeah sure okay uh mikey's telling us that alan belcher said he's open to a bkfc fight with francis and ganu for the heavyweight championship there if he wins on friday that's definitely Francis is headed BKFC what do you make of Jake Paul saying that he's gonna talk to Francis and get him to sign with the PFL like do you have any early early

idea oh wait we're talking about Francis later let's keep the show moving all right what am I doing here what a jerk topic number two takes us to some Conor McGregor news we know he's in Las Vegas filming the ultimate fighter opposite Michael Chandler. Our good buddy, Oscar Willis of the Mac life caught up with him briefly yesterday. But the bigger news, Luke, is that the woman in Ireland who has filed high court, who had Luke, what, what's happening here? I'm juggling my words. The woman who accused Conor McGregor.

Right. She initially didn't accuse then she did try to have charges pressed and now she is withdrawing them yet again so she claimed that that she had shown up on the boat in what spain where where uh yeah connor was partying for his birthday and that she was accosted that she had to essentially jump off the edge into the water and run for her life. There were some even deeper accusations made by some media members that it was more than just physical accosting, Luke.

Now she's pulled the idea altogether. I don't know what to do with this news because Conor's often embroiled in many of these things, which is either him being a big celebrity name that's easy to attach to or him living a dirty life on the outside, Luke, that needs check. Do you look at this news as the truth came clear or something different? I don't know. I don't know how to feel this. One thing that we forgot to mention, do you remember when we were going through all of the incidents that Conor's had since he got famous and we were listening? We forgot about the one, do you remember what the Italian DJ said that Conor just attacked him out of nowhere and punched him in the face and whatnot we didn't

even get to that one because that one sounds a lot like this one like out of nowhere just starts wailing on people uh but again she no longer is going through with the process whoever this person is for whatever reasons it's just funny connor's back and here comes john jones and people are just ready to completely even with john like with his issues in in vegas more recently during the hall of fame induction ceremony everyone's just kind of like yeah we don't care about that just kind of get back to fighting we just we want to see you guys back and fighting and so between people's forgetting between cases like this where it just becomes unclear about what to say about any of it yet the one thing

that is clear is they're both headed back for the octagon so that's just where all the attention has moved yeah the the previous accuser the woman I mentioned told the independent or her lawyer did that a notice of discontinuance was filed after it was decided that she wanted the case terminated look there are some people that have said this whole tough thing is just to try to get, you know, Conor's good name back to cover up the other stuff. I don't know. I wasn't there.

I don't know the truth, but there's been a consistent bad pattern here of Conor really since the Eddie Alvarez fight, right? I mean, it's been a wild, a freaking wild seven-year run in and outside of rings and cages with this type of stuff resurfacing a few times. It's not a great look, Luke,

whether, you know, all, all things to consider. Just, it just doesn't seem to have any pronounced long-term effect from what we can tell. All right.

Uh, Connor, Luke, the people that are following this closely, Jedi Goodman, one of them that I follow on Twitter, Connor still has not been tested in 2023 by USADA. Amazing.

Even though he's already started the coaching process, even though he was just jacked his shit for the, for the remake of the roadhouse movie. And he would need under rule a six month window to, to test clean before coming back and fighting. So if it's late February now, they're filming tough. Now,

when is he going to fight Chandler will they actually stick to that six-month thing or will they bend it in half like they did for Brock Lesnar ahead of UFC 200 and is there any chance they're just going to wait for it all to flush out of his system and then test him a ton of times what's going on here yeah I mean your guess is as good as mine on these I don't have a better answer for you but let me just say this here's my best guess, Brian Campbell. Ready? If Conor wants to fight in September, they're going to find a way to make it happen.

If he wants to fight in August or October, they'll find a way to make it happen. Like, I don't know exactly which lever is going to be pulled at what time and in what way. That part to me remains very much unclear. To your point, he has to reenter the testing pool no matter what. What happens then? How long will he actually stay in there before the UFC just decides we've had enough? Let's put him into whatever role we want to put him into. They have that discretion.

We all know it. So I don't really know how the process is going to go, but it looks to me like he's definitely going to fight in 2023, and whenever he's ready, the commission will move things for him. USADA, UFC, whatever, whatever, whatever needs to happen in order for him to fight. It will period. That's it. Like there's no way they stop him.

Yeah. I mean, we're very critical of Connor and certain major missteps or the threat of them, but you know, him coming back is a monster deal for us as fans, for us as journalists, for everything. I mean, we'll want to see it back. I'm actually going to watch Tough closely, Luke, so they've succeeded there. But a lot of questions still. His interview with Oscar Willis yesterday,

which I believe is the first time Conor spoke like this in a long time, not much to take from that. He respects Michael Chandler a lot. Oscar asked what division the fight will be in. We all assumed to hear it's going to be welterweight. Conor tried to make a joke and say, hey, how about 185? I assume this is going to be like the cowboy fight, a welterweight fight. I do, like we talked about when it was signed.

You know, Connor's got big chances here given his counter-striking ability. But there's already some, you know, static coming out of the tough house. If you follow the Twitter account of one Gilbert Burns, can we throw to this item? Luke, did you see what Gilbert put out there? I did. It's a, it's a series of Instagram posts where he's basically saying, this is my teammate.

This guy, Loic Rods above two-time PFL finalist at one 55 works so hard and was ready to finally get his shot in the UFC on tough, was in Vegas everything good to go, this freaking Conor bring his own guys and they kick him out not fair I think is what he meant to say do you care? Is this true? Conor would delete this response but his

response was not true, I only know one guy on the show and he put himself forward for it and he is now after today set to fight the number one seed, I didn't ask nor request nothing and i certainly didn't have people removed just trying to get back in the mix myself so fuck off yeah i mean apparently here's the thing this is the issue the issue that i as i understand it was whoever got picked for the show they showed up and were told they were on the show and then last minute there was a switch for what was perceived to be a guy on either his team or associated with him or whatever,

maybe even a couple of guys up to three, I think was the number. In the end, I guess we'll see what the truth is. And so the point being is it's not a big deal. So goes the argument that he wanted his guys in there. But if the cast was actually set and then they had to go home, that's super shitty. That's the part where they get uh upended but like you know it's not like i disagree with that bc but it's we just live in a world where

people of this level of wealth and power just get to do shit you and i just don't get to do uh yeah so it sucks but what do you want what the fuck to say? Like, yeah, a rich guy got his guys taken care of. Welcome to Planet Earth. I love that you've already predicted that when they announce this Conor Chandler fight for International Fight Week or whenever. Wait, do we know when the Tough Series, what's the air date set up? I think it shoots for about six weeks, so I'm not sure when it will air. Mikey knows.

I think Mikey can tell us. Mikey, didn't you tell us it was going to air from like May to June or something? It was a summer air. If it airs leading directly up to International Fight Week, I mean, what's USADA just going to say, oh, we have been testing him secretly for a while? I mean, you're already predicting that that's coming. Like, oh, no, we've been testing him for a while.

It's fine. Don't worry. Again, I'm not predicting a date, and I'm not predicting a date and i'm not predicting a place i'm not a weight class nothing i'm just saying whenever he wants to fight like they're they will make it happen there's no way they're gonna be like you have to wait six months get the fuck out of here please in history the biggest stars of all time get that privilege they do yes they do that's the world we live and i and it's not great like it sucks for everyone else who's not that guy. I don't like it. There should be less of it.

But, like, when it comes your way, it's kind of like, right, you know, powerful people use the leverage that they have to get things that they want. That's just the way it goes. It'll begin airing in the United States on ESPN television May 30th to August 15th. So it'll go right through International Fight Week. So that cancels that. So, like you mentioned earlier, could we be looking at a big September zoom in

or is this more of MSG in November or is this more of second weekend in December to close out the year? We'll have to wait and see. But if Connor got tested today, that would put that would still put him

what? That'd put him late september six months yeah so late march late april late may late june late july late august late august sorry my math skills falling behind brutally there late august all right still possible still possible uh topic number three takes us to the guy in a different way not the biggest star in the sport but arguably the best fighter islam mahachavir, reigning and defending UFC lightweight champion. I think it's past us now going back and forth and debating everything from the IV to the scoring in his close win over Alexander Volkanovsky and the overall debate about pound for pound. But Islam tweeted out something that I think is meant to move the conversation forward. Who is next?

And Luke, he got some celebrity responses from that. First, from Volkanovski, who, quote, tweeted, let's run it back and give the people what they want. Then we heard from the great American action hero himself, Dustin the Diamond Poirier, who responded with, what's up? Luke Thomas. It could be a number of folks, from who's next in line to celebrities flying in. What should be and what will be next for the lightweight champion post-Ramadan? I don't have a good answer for who will be next and what should be next because we don't have enough information. Again, if Dari, I don't know if the timing works out. So when is 288 BC?

When is UFC 288? So UFC 288, if they end up making that fight for that weekend, it would be May 6th. Okay, not that far from here. So if Dariusha ends up winning in May, then you could do June, July. You could do June or August or July or August for potentially a Makachev. So I think that is what probably should be next. But then there's the Conor sweepstakes. So is he back in September? I guess he still has to fight Chandler. So that would be a little bit maybe end of the year slash first quarter 2024.

So let's put Conor aside for just a second. Yeah, dude, it's Dariush. It's Dariush. And I saw a lot of people are still on this we want to see the the Volk fight again I gotta tell you dude I don't I don't I want to see I mean yes I want to see it but not next I want to see Volk beat or fight anyway Yair because if Yair wins that it blows everything up in a totally new direction in the way which by the way it's supposed to be that guy earned that spot he earned that interim title and if he beats volkanovski every part of that went the way it was supposed to right so in terms of fairness anyway so i i would much rather see

that we got to see this for five rounds we i would love to see another five but not at the expense of just just you know not making dude the most i've said someone asked me in my live chat yesterday we see for free for free bc yeah they asked me like you know is being a double champ the hardest thing to do because you saw izzy go up and he couldn't do it you saw volko up and you know against disputed but he couldn't do it isn't it isn't going up another weight class and you have seen becoming a champ champ the hardest thing and certainly it's an extremely difficult thing to do but if we're talking about like broader achievements what's the hardest thing to do in MMA and my answer is defending a weight class defending a UFC weight class title over time that's just the hardest thing because you cannot do that for very long it's very very even the very best ones you know

what's the what's the biggest winning streak 11 or whatever it is for title defenses it's just so hard to do consistent excellence like that over time that to me is the hard part i want to see more of that i don't have a problem with that none of that bores me none of that in any way makes me like sad or feels like i'm missing out on something i want to see the best in the weight class go at it you have fucking 145 and 155 it would have to be extra extra extra extraordinarily necessary for that fight to be made right back to back it's not move on it's not no not with not with the big win at featherweight for yair rodriguez and not with what we're talking about at lightweight so let's dip back in here for a second how is the fight to make next not dustin poirier look, he's ranked number two in the division.

The number one ranked former champion is Charles Oliveira, who's fighting number four, Benil Darius. The winner of that, which will, you know, need three, four, five months, six months in between, would definitely be my number one contender. You also have Justin Gaethje fighting Fazeev soon, which is another important bout because Gaethje's ranked three, Fazeev is ranked six. The number five is Michael Chandler, who just lost, but is now in a pay-per-view bout who did he lose to

number two dustin poirier in a very manly incredible exciting performance he has not fought much of i think it's time for him to get 25 more minutes to make life fair here luke because when you look further down the rankings number seven is Gamrot who's going to fight number 10 Jalen Turner eight is Armand Sarukian nine is RDA the legend tell me why it shouldn't be Poirier next considering what he just did to Chandler probably because I'm just not convinced it would be very uh i mean he's up at the top but he's had several chances to win a title and they've not gone well um i've you know no one has anything bad to say about this to poirier as a fighter or a person but i just don't buy that that's really competitive and but that's not the argument here the argument is he's he, but like, that's not a strong argument either.

Like I would rather wait for the guy who. What argument does the UFC lean to more often than not the business one, which says if we have a champion who we want to potentially make popular, who isn't like popular just on his own career, charismatically. I'm not sure that's true. I don't think that's true, but you want to put them against a huge name,

former champion that he's probably going to be favored to be. That's how you, that's how promotion works, right? Like, like this, you will not, I don't think we're going to find a better time in this great twilight of

Dustin Poirier, where I counted him out. Hey, is he getting old last time? No, he's not. Okay. He's not,

but I don't think he's going to have another closeup exactly like this, where you just beat a top three or four guy in Chandler. Chandandler's getting connor next dude poirier's gotta be the guy this is it this is the fight to make it's promotional malpractice if you don't make it next it it checks every box except for that one that you just said was well isn't poirier gonna get beaten well i mean let's find out let's freaking find out yeah here's the thing i'm looking at google trends the past 12 months for both makachev and poirier makachev is still ahead he actually has more and in most states and on top of that the only states in the united states where poirier gets more searches are all you can imagine sort of your bible belt there south carolina alabama i was obviously

louisiana and other places as well but uh in general, Islam is more popular. I just don't buy it. Islam is like surprisingly popular. Like he doesn't, he's not the kind of guy that people are writing huge features about or that fans do like adoration over their personality on social media with all these tidbits about stuff. But in terms of who fans pay attention to and prioritize, I'm not sure Islam's already a bigger name than Poirier. Certainly they're pretty commensurate. See see that's an interesting argument because i'm not

trying to discount the habib rub or what comes with when you're dominant real it's real you're the pound for pound king and you know you just fall volkanovski and maybe that wasn't promoted in the u.s to the level that we all argued it should have been but dude poirier fought connor twice on pay-per-view luke poirier is like he, he's like, has a Randy Couture-like All-American vibe right now as like the action star who delivers. I'm not saying he's going to beat Mahachev, but dude, like, I would have to believe he's more popular and the name gets more instant. Like, oh yeah, I'll pay for that.

Then Mahachev, but if you match them together, isn't that the right fight? Because if it's not, Luke, then what are you doing? Are you waiting for the winner of Darius Olivera? Then what do you do with Poirier in that moment? Let's see, I don't have the rankings in front of me BC cuz that usually defines my attitude on this. But if I did and now I do and I'm looking at them. So Poirier could fight the winner of Fazeev and Gaethje.

You could do that because he's free. Well, I mean, he would have to wait, too. Look, if it's Gaethje, I love it from all-action rematch, but also has title contention. You can also do it against Gaethje if he loses, for all I care. Why would he have to go back and also beat Fazeev? If he just beat Chandler and a huge showcase of it. He wouldn't have to. I mean, I guess you could? If he just beat Chandler and have a huge showcase of it?

He wouldn't have to. I mean, I guess you could do it is the answer. Like, I see what you're saying. You could do it. But to me, it seems unnecessary and slightly on the forced side rather than we need to see Islam defend against this particular athlete at this time because they're the most deserving. It just doesn't feel like that's a strong argument.

But to your point about schedules and trains leaving the station on time, I can see that, yes, you could do that if you needed to. I mean, what's left in your eyes for Poirier of Big Fish? Like there was a hot second where he wanted to fight Colby on pay-per-view. I guess you could do a fourth Conor fight, but Nate's gone. Like what are the Big Fish options outside of a title shot for Poirier in your eyes outside the title shot I'm really not sure I mean there could be another big name that they want to attach him to but it seems like that's actually his best bet at this point would be to go and try and get a weight class

title in whatever way possible I don't think Walter White's going to be a good option for him so it's going to be 155 or bust because he can't make 145 anymore. Obviously, he hasn't for some time. So I think that's really going to be his best option. It's great in the weight class because there's obviously a lot of good names that could match him up with, but to your point, like a big marquee name,

Slim Pickens right now at this point. He's a big attractive name, but in terms of who he could target, it's pickings well luke um you know eddie alvarez is a free agent and they made two very good fights against each other could that happen or no we're not doing that i don't i don't think eddie has aged as well since no he hasn't god i'm just trying to give poirier a reason to be on be on pay-per-view in a big spot luke it's going to be for the title and it should be for the title okay okay that's it that's it all right Luke, it's going to be for the title, and it should be for the title.

Okay? Okay, that's it. That's it. All right. Again, I can't say you're wrong because I don't think you are, but it seems like a waste to me. Because, you know, they could have just given Oliveira for Poirier in a rematch and then basically say, Benny, you got next for the title.

They could have done that. Yeah, true. And then our producer is saying, if Oliveira wins, do you do Oliveira Poirier too? You could. You could do that as well. Dude, if Oliveira wins, he wants to go right back in the direction of a title. I understand. But let's say that they went with Darius Shore.

I mean, who the fuck knows what they're going to do? I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do. All right. Well, Luke, let me ask you what they're going to do at 1-4-5. Because it would seem, oh, just take the interim title they're going to do at one, four, five, because it would seem, oh, just take the interim title holder. Yeah.

You're Rodriguez. We just stopped Josh Emmett and put him against Volkanovski in a fight. That's fricking amazing. Yeah. Here though, was on the MMA hour asked if he's heard anything from the UFC matchmakers. His response was nothing. I think it's just too soon to hear something like that, but whatever, at the end of the day, if he decides not to defend the title, that would make me the undisputed champion. Why? Because I'm

going to defend that belt against somebody else. And what's going to happen. I'm going to be the undisputed champion. If he decides to come and fight at 45 again, and this is obviously Volkanovski he's talking about, then whoever wins that fight will be undisputed. So regardless of the situation, blah, blah, blah. Um, I don't think there's a debate here, Luke. Yair Rodriguez versus Volkanovski for the featherweight title is one of the best fights you can make in this entire sport. What's the question here that Volkanovski would say to himself, hey, why don't I just campaign full time at 55 to avoid that guy? No, that's not what Volk does, Luke. No, not at all.

I don't understand. What was this in response to that he said this? When Ariel asked him, has anyone reached out to you about making a Volkanovski fight now that you're the interim champion? Yeah, they're going to make that. I don't think that they're planning. We've talked about it before.

I don't think they're planning right now, certainly, to do Makachev-Volk 2 right away. They're planning to do that. I guess they just haven't gotten around to it. But that's the fight, dude. I am so surprised that people are like not interested in this fight that fight is like one of them i'll say this certainly what's the most important rivalry in volkanovsky's career and it's got to be holloway i mean the answer is holloway by a million miles

but that's over that's over right now right they're done three fights Volk won them all it's over if you're asking me beyond that like what are going to be some of the more defining fights of Volkanovski's career win or lose it is Yair Rodriguez this version of Yair is insanely dangerous and capable of beating absolutely anyone at 145 on the right night and i don't see how anyone who's actually watched the tape and is thinking rationally can disagree with that that at a bare minimum does he have a real shot at beating volkanovski yes he fucking does man that is super exciting to watch that when you get through that one man and you have really done something special at 145. Make no mistake.

Where Luke Thomas stands right now on February 24th of 23, where does Volk versus Yair fit in your ranking of UFC fights that I would get the biggest direction for? I would just be fired up as hell for this. Yeah, I mean, bare minimum top five.

F you, Luke. This is a top two or three at worst. probably close to top three. F you, Luke. This is a top two or three at worst matchup. Yeah, top three. Top three. Top three. Yeah. Top three. I mean, it's one of the best fights they can make.

Right? Just ask yourself a question. Title shot or otherwise. Yeah. What's some of the best? Not like biggest. Right? We're not talking box office.

We're just talking if you're a real deal fight fan. What are some of the best fights UFC can make today and Volkanovski versus Yair you could take the title away whatever it's still top three period of all the best fights they can make it's that good and it arguably has a case for number one so this whole shit about like I would rather see him fight Makachev again okay I get it that's not in any way a bad idea, but holy shit, you can make this one and you should make this one so that we don't have an interim title floating around anymore to say nothing of the fact that it's

going to be insane and bonkers. Let's do that. Let's see what that looks like and then we can go to something else after that. Yeah, Luke, you know how I picked Jasmine Jazdavicius for the upset win this week? She was down at ATT training with Ioana for a few weeks and was

constantly IG-ing about that. That's going to be the difference in this fight. I just wanted you to know that. By the way, Ioana Champion, she's staying fit enough and working out enough where I still feel like she's going to try to answer that phone one more time. I do. I still feel like it.

If they needed an opponent in a pinch for a title fight or something acute you know do you think so luke i mean she i think she wants it one more time yeah probably because they all come back right don't they all just come back for one more round one more time one more you know one more once one more once more into the breach you know that kind of thing yeah but uh you're probably right you're probably all right topic number four luke actually indirectly connects with another former women's mma legend there or legend forever you can't be an ex-legend in mma luke and that's ronda rousey here's the news proposed in the state of california uh the legislator would set up a pension fund for former mma fighters who have a certain number of fights in the state legislation. I'm sorry, who have a certain number of fights in the state legislation

was introduced. Who wrote this Luke? Who wrote this paragraph? Mike, is that you? This is, I don't know what this says. Is it just gibberish? So here's the deal. Uh, Matt Haney, a Democrat from San Francisco, uh, introduced this in the state assembly on February 15th. He said it hopes it'll pass. Ronda Rousey's name is linked with this as she's a huge proponent. She was interviewed by Mark Raymondi of ESPN yesterday about it. It's a pension fund for retired boxers in California already exists. The only such fund of its kind in the U.S.

How about California being progressive here in areas, Luke, that we talk about a lot, right? Yeah. I, the guy who, let's be very clear. It's not just California. It's Andy Foster. Andy Foster is a very, we bag on regulators all the time and he's made mistakes, right? You know, he, the third fight between Chuck and Tito should not have happened and he botched it. But in general, in general, I really trust Andy Foster to do a great job, and California is the biggest and, I think, best commission in the country. It could be heard on the assembly floor, according to Ray Mundy's ESPN story, as early as March 18th. Excuse me, Luke.

Rousey would say you have a much shorter window this is this is in mark's interview uh in mma because your body takes so much more of a heavier toll and the difference with these kind of combat sports with all the contact and neurological injuries involved you don't know the day that you're taking you've taken one hit too many you're going to find out that you cross the threshold many decades later when you no longer have that income luke i'm um if that bill passes by the way, $1 from each ticket sold at MMA events in the state of California, we'll go into this pension fund. Checks will then be cut annually to retired fighters, age 50 or older who have had a certain number of pro fights in California. And the criteria for those eligible would be roughly 13 fights on california soil

i don't know though luke if that means if you fought at the tachi palace on um native american ground if that counts as california because remember they were willing to go they went to bat for dana luke and then he then he stood down and he never he remember he promised that they would get something huge they ain ain't got shit, dude. Okay? Because someone at Disney was like, we're just going to move on from this. Thank you. Thank you for that. BC, one more time on this

just so folks know, like, what kind of compensation does this actually look like when you get a check, right? If you're eligible for this, what does it look like? And the answer is, according to Foster, Andy Foster's disclosure to ESPN, the boxing pension program, so this is the one that's – they're proposing an MMA one modeled off the existing boxing one.

It currently has sent out 171 checks since 2012 with each check averaging $19,000. Now, $19,000 is not chump change. You can actually do a little bit with 19,000. That's a, that's a, you could buy a car with that. You could put a deposit on a home, pay off some credit card debt. You can do a fair amount with 19 grand. It's not a game changer, but it is valuable. So there's just one thing though, that I want folks to note. I actually like this program and I think it's great and we should do more of it. But we should also be honest that like,

well, if the average check being 19,000 is a good check, that's not enough for a family of four to live off of for a year, right? Not in the United States, certainly. That's just not enough money to get you very, very far. So depending on your situation, that 19,000 could either be quite valuable or really not much at all.

And we should be understanding that these are, in that sense, relatively modest sums yeah i mean you got to fight 13 times in california to be eligible this isn't a perfect system but at least it's something to start the momentum okay okay this is why we should have some limited expectations about it and i've seen people be like oh we should see something like this in every state, but that doesn't do you any good. California is highly unique among even like Nevada and other commissions. It gets more MMA shows per week, per month, per year than any other state. In fact, you could add up most of the states combined don't do what California does in an annual year, right? And then boxing and MMA, they do hundreds and thousands of events.

So they, by the way, that makes them less able to be manipulated by any kind of promoter who wants to be like, well, we're the big dogs around here. No one is bigger than the commission in California. No one promoter certainly is. I would argue UFC is in many ways kind of bigger than the Nevada commission.

And so you have that kind of hand and glove treatment there. They're different than that kind of hand-in-glove treatment there. They're different than that. But also the point being is they can set up a system where they can tax a small amount per event, save it towards something useful, and then spend on it. Other states simply cannot. They don't have the turnstile churning in that way

in terms of the number of events that they can tax people on. It doesn't exist. Like how many events are in Tennessee? How many events are in Alabama? How many events are in Montana where you could reasonably do something like this? Hardly any, relatively speaking, compared to what California does. So I like what California is doing. It's helpful. It's good. Two thumbs up for me. But this idea that like, oh, we could do this, scale it across 50 states, and we could solve, you know, fighter pay or post-career problems. No, you can't. You cannot do that at all.

This is a very unique program specific to the very unique realities of the California combat sports economy. Oh, we lost BC. Luke, take over. Okay. BC will be back here in just a moment so just want some folks to understand what the reality was about california california is a great commission again not a perfect one but a great one they do great work this is a great program at least in theory and by the way whether or not should it be 13 fights, 10 fights, 15? I don't know what the right answer there is. And I don't know how they came up with that number to get that. I don't really understand how the math came up there. So some questioning about that, I think, is in order.

And that's fine. And we could look at that. Oh, by the way, BC lost internet at his house. Well, that's bad. That's real bad. Mike, you keep me updated on whether we're going to keep going, because if BC lost internet, then this is the end of the run, folks. This is what it's going to be for today.

All right, let's see where he left off on the rundown here very quickly. And yes, we asked about Islam. Oh, and a proposed bill. Let's do this, Mikey. Let's jump to topic number five if we can. So a boxing promoter who went by the name or goes by the name Tolia Sulianov posted a screenshot of messages online related to an Nganou debut fee.

So let's pull it. Can you go full screen on that, Mikey, for just a second if you can? Let's see. There's Ali Abdelaziz on. He loves WhatsApp, by the way. Hello, here's my friend. I don't manage him. Yes, I know you guys are friends.

He wants to make $30 million. Nganou wants to make $30 million from one fight. Yes. And a promoter,atoly sulianov wants to create an intersection where mma and boxing worlds meet and find a way to get it uh brian campbell's back i believe we can pull him in whenever we want uh there he is hey i lost power quickly luke but i'm back with i'm back okay let's Let's bang. BC, we're talking about Nganou wanting $30 million according to some text messages from Ali Abdelaziz.

By the way, to my knowledge... Can I ask you a question? Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. Is this Ali trying to expose Francis and limit his possibilities, or is this him trying to become his manager? I can't figure it out. Yeah, so Ali is, to my understanding, not Francis' manager,

but I know Ali is close to a lot of the Extreme Couture guys, right? So, for example, he manages like Danny, Ige, and some other ones as well. And I know he's around – Well, Kamara too. Well, Kamara's not an Extreme Couture. No, but he's like – he's tight with Francis, okay? Tight with Francis, exactly. So this is my point.

Like Ali, if you ever like – for example if you ever see like uh any behind the scenes with Francis or even Eric Nixick they just run into Ali all the time there's just so much overlap between whatever business he does at Extreme Couture and then Francis sort of being there as well so I think maybe he listen who the hell knows you have to ask Francis did Francis ask for him to do this did he do this uh unsolicitedly like what what's the context here but it i think the bigger issue is right like is it true that francis wants 30 million and if he does could he get it dude i think if he took a fight to saudi arabia yeah yeah he probably could get it right you know i watched the full press conference of the jake paul tommy fury from yesterday and you know there was a lot of fluff in that right like you know they had mike tyson

and devin haney on and did like a round table to start it talking about the future of both boxing and saudi boxing they had the promote the local saudi promoters who are you know connected with the government and and look there's always going to be an idea of, of, you know, sports washing and all that, you know, but it comes up anytime WWE or big time boxing goes to Saudi or even UFC in certain areas in the middle East, but there's a lot of money there in boxing and they want to become a serious, serious player. I mean, that's why Anthony Joshua got a $75 million upfront fee to fight Andy Ruiz there in the rematch. $75 million, Luke. $75 million.

We're going to pay you $75 million to box here instead of, you know, Wembley Stadium in front of $90,000 plus. So could Francis get $30 in some type of Deontay Wilder or Tyson Fury? Yeah, hell yeah, he could, dude. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, we could, dude. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, we'll have to see what happens here. But Francis wanting $30 million, and this is the most amazing part.

It's like, dude, what were the UFC going to offer him? Like around $10 million a fight? Probably add another $1 million or $2 million on top from pay-per-view, something like that. So let's say around $11 or $12 million. You know, $30 million, you could get almost 3x that in one fight plus whatever sponsorship he gets for that one and wherever else he can negotiate into the contract he could he could arguably make in one fight what he would get in three fights on a UFC contract

which is a full year plus um that's insane that's insane if he can pull that off I mean we we talked a lot about Francis's decision to not re- not resign with UFC or even really go down that negotiation road once they were like, we're not budging. And a lot of it, you know, we're talking about virtues and, you know, I feel like he didn't do it for the money. I really did. I feel like he did it for principle. Obviously, it helps when he knows you've got chances to make big money elsewhere. But if he accepts like this type of crazy life changing money, which is good for him for getting it, would, would you think at all that would counter that argument?

Like, like how much of his decision at the end of the day, even though I'm taking the romanticized virtuous, you know, man, Francis stood up when nobody else is willing to. And I do believe that, but dude,

if he gets 30 million here to box, like you, like you said, that's more than he can make in his entire UFC career. Forget life-changing. Forget what you can do with that type of money. Would you then come out and say, look, the decision was about money? Not necessarily, no.

Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you. We want everybody to be pure, but I think he is pure. I pure i think he is luke well here's the other part too it's like okay i mean he even said it's not like the ufc didn't offer me a ton of money it's with the other parts the idea would be it's gonna any boxing promoter he goes with is not gonna have the money to do health insurance so that's really not on the table anyway, right? The point being is the UFC has such vast resources and such control over the industry that they are now actually on the hook by virtue of that. These boxing promoters can't do that. But more to the point, it wouldn't just be that he would get a giant sum of money with a

check post-fight. It would be that as the 50 50 guy on this right he would have an extraordinary amount of control and leverage to define the terms of how the fight was promoted and what a press store is going to look like and what cities it goes in and who's going to people don't realize this bc true or false if you're powerful enough in boxing you can even pick to an extent anyway the commentary crew on your fights that actually is a thing we have seen before yeah right to a degree to i mean i don't know it depends on the relationship but yeah i'm just i'm just saying the power of the a side in any of these contests even the b side if it's a big enough fight is vast and its tentacles go all the way through sure week, the contracts, pay, sponsor,

who's on TV, who's not, blah, blah, blah. It's so overwhelmingly controllable when you have a more open-ended system. And so I think that's what – listen, how many of these guys have we talked to who have been part of the whole Jake Paul process? They like to check in everything. But more than that, they just like having, and even Jake has most of the say, but even relative to that, they still had a lot of say.

They were like, oh my God, this feels refreshing to have this kind of input and control. I think more it's just that. They just want to have say. And it seems so basic, but it turns out it's a rather profound need. Well, Luke, I've got an interesting quote to share with you here,

if you're ready for me. Do you remember, and I know this because Mike Bone just tweeted out this potential hypocrisy here. According to Mike Bone's tweet, five weeks ago, John Jones was quoted as saying, I'm happy for Francis. I'm glad that Francis knows his worth. No man has a right to shame another man for fighting for his worth, end quote.

But as you mentioned this week john actually was on a podcast he was with uh rmc sport and he was interviewed here's john's new quote on francis francis had the opportunity to face me and he opted out of the opportunity if anyone should be criticized it's francis and ganu if i'm correct he was offered the biggest contract in heavyweight history he had the opportunity to be a guy to dethrone me he didn't believe in himself francis didn't believe in himself he wasn't willing to gamble on himself your thoughts just total contradiction i mean this is this is this is fucking john right this is what he does yeah this is what he does dude sometimes he wants to be the hero and then sometimes he just

wants to be and indulge his own you know i'm better than you uh feelings about the world like he just can't do he can't do one or the other he has to do both and here you get it this is i mean this is classic john jones this is what i mean like oh he's turned over a new leaf he's a new guy you're sure about that like i actually think franc, even if he gets, you know, 30 million in some big boxing match may end up signing with PFL or Bellator and, you know, and we'll keep fighting because that's who he is. But look, if he only took one more combat sports fight and it was some hybrid boxing thing and win or lose spectacularly, he walked away with that 30 million, even though I just

tried to paint him as this virtuous guy which i think he actually is isn't that betting on yourself gambling and winning that's kind of kind of is at the end of the day so i mean look dude i want to see john jones versus ghanu so bad is there a reality luke thomas where francis and ghanu makes a shit ton of money in a boxing match this calendar year in some hybrid or not. And then he looks at his free agent offers from across the board, but calls back up Dana and Hunter and says, just so you know, I'm willing to fight John for the heavyweight title if he has it at that point. Can we still have our cake and eat it too here?

Yes. If the UFC reasonably thinks that they could make a ton of money off of that um and he already got you know there's not like a there's not like a great option for him in terms of um you know a big fight that they can make the boxing side yeah I mean that's very on the table, sure. Dude, that would be awesome because then that would show you that somebody can exercise their freedom to get the type of opportunity, payday, and respect that they were looking for,

still was able to fill the headlines with the kind of things you hope fighters will talk about, the lack of care, all that stuff, and then was still able to come back on his own terms if that was possible. Luke, I said it before, I'll say it again. By bringing somebody back in that you had issue with for the sake of business for your fans, that's a Vince McMahon move.

It's the greatest part of Vince's very mixed legacy, right? Is that he's always willing, now you could say it's greedy, but he's always willing to put the business first for the audience. Dana, we're seeing more and more of grudges here,udges here we don't talk about this guy anymore i think the best thing dana could do for his legacy is always put that grudge shit aside you know and and if the fight's available make it let's see let's see moving forward you know all right let's see what's happening here okay that's what we got look before we get into our closing segment on fridays which is dead wrong uh our producer mikey found this interesting clip from Donald Cowboy Cerrone

that may apply to your life moving forward. Let's hear from this piece. Yeah, I like the acting side. Like I said, you got the look. If you got the skill. Now I got the steroids and put the size on. If I'd walk around 172, 173 using my weight, I'd be all the time. I'd go buy all new clothes, pants, underwear. Holy fuck. Yeah. You got a bigger dick?

Yeah, a huger dick. I was injecting the steroids. I didn't know. I didn't read it right. Put it right in your dick. Yeah, put it right in your dick. It didn't say that on there, but I just tried it and it worked. I think that's a good approach.

Yeah. Yeah. I could have done about that. When are you going to just, I mean, stop talking about it and be about it. What is going to stop you from TRT or just straight Royden with Pacer Allen? You heard cowboy dad, dude. He's got a, he's got more girl masked on that cast. Luke.

I mean, come on. Yeah. It doesn't do that. Uh, from anything i've read about steroids but um soon bc the answer is soon i've been talking about it i don't know man i've just the thing is listen bc it's uh once you get on it man getting off i've seen people get off of it and it's not easy and uh are you talking about the jones osp fight is that what you're referencing i'm talking i'm talking about vaping i'm talking about vaping oh vaping see I'm talking about you injecting directly in the piece like Cowboy said

and just going for it I mean just going for it yeah I don't know man I'm the answer is inevitably but it's just not right now I feel like if this show's still alive what what are the odds that this show Morning Combat with Brian Campbell and Lukeomas not in that order is still on the air in five years because look look at pti did they expect to still be on the air will what's the what's the percentage chance that we still are in five years 50 50 50 okay that's decent right that's actually pretty damn good like what shows stay together that long not many in five years what's the percentage that luke thomas will still be talking about you know maybe i should maybe i should get trt dude go 2013 v2 or not so i'd be 48 by that point yeah that's a little different that's a little different there yeah you're

willing to vape and you're kratom curious and you know i'm dude i'm dude there's no denying i'm trt curious i mean i'm super trt curious but i just haven't i haven't i haven't i haven't done it yet pirates are curious to be a pirate luke inject that shit okay all right what does that mean oh there's a new study out there that certain podcasters believe that a large percentage of pirates historically have been homosexual and it's like okay cool you know all right uh i don't know about that but i just know that uh listen it's inevitable but you gotta wait your turn all right uh here's our turn to take the l luke if they've got receipts to back it up we give you the opportunity with morning combat at gmail.com the email address that houses one man at the end of that tunnel.

It ain't Luke or BC. It's Mikey Morms. But you better come correct. You better come original with timestamps and proof. Come original. You better come original. That we. Was it all imitators, all haters, whatever it is?

Come original. All content creators, come original. I don't know, something like that. You better have the proof that we was dead wrong yes we have angry mill seven different levels to devil worship at horse sticks human sacrifices cannibalism candles and exorcism animals having sex with them camels mammals and rabbits but i don't get into that i kicked that you never heard that song bc only from you luke i'm big meat call me larry hoover you know like that's all i ever get from you is you've well you've never heard biggie's song dead wrong with eminem i mean yeah i remember that happening but i don't have the lyrics like like i have most

other things luke which is right i was dude i was i was so waiting for you to be like oh i remembered eminem's lyrics because he was white i was waiting for you to say that yes i was waiting luke like eminem i am whatever you say i am which is white and washed okay so you know if i wasn't then why would you say i am hey edgar is here let's see you took a lot of l's last friday luke i'm hoping it continues i did not look at yes Yes, I certainly got hit with a barrage of L's. Okay, Edgar says, on episode 410, while discussing BC's favorite football player, Jair Bolsonaro, Luke Thomas. Oh, boy. It sounds like I'm about to take an L, but I like how he gave you one on the road to L-Town for me.

I didn't call him Mbappe or Mvaping or something like that. I called, yeah, whatever. Luke Thomas claimed that Brazil was the world's fifth largest economy. I implore you to put some- Oh, yes, this is not true. Yeah, it's not true. I implore you to put some respect on your country of birth. That is, in fact, India, which can claim that title.

Brazil is only 12th their former president sleeps in a minions themed bedroom in jose aldo's house you should know this regards it's edgar wow someone else someone else actually wrote me about that so i had to double check they were right i will take that out that will take oh look you're about to get served again here this is jack from melbourne you know that you know melbourne right they got strong coffee hardcore melbourne i try to i try to speak it like the locals do you know how you do for colombians and no one else look i try to get it exactly right i'm just i'm just teasing i don't you know well we filmed the pregame preview the other day and you're just like left and right alexa grasso i'm like you don't learn you know

ronda rousey you don't learn a thing luke Ronda Rousey. You don't learn a thing, Luke, if they're not Colombian. Come on. You're right. I don't. It's fair. I'll take that L too. All right. Look at this.

Look at this straight vulnerability transparency from Luke. This is a great future. All right. Jack says those L's. You do. In life, you better. You better be willing to straddle the L. Okay.

All right. The London live show. Jack says, now, both of you must have been flying high on Delta 8s while doing room service diaries with Arnold Allen. You know, Luke, that may have been true. I can't confirm or deny. I was not. I can say that.

I was not. You both said you don't recall a fighter with the nickname Mowgli, which, of course, is what Arnold Allen said that they called him growing up. Yeah. Now, how could you guys forget the hardest kicker from AKA Gabriel Mowgli Benitez? I know it's a little pedantic, but I can't pass up an opportunity like this. Love your work, guys. You need to do a live show in Australia,

and you'll see how many of those tickets would sell out in minutes, if not seconds. Wow, UK. they're calling you out calling you out dude i got i got many many tweets from bronstead are saying the same thing about toronto is everybody people are just like yo come to our area we'll treat you even better dude uk treated us great all right i say i don't have a single complaint about the way the uk treated us but if it's even better let's let's go to let's go to perth dude i'm still thinking about big chicken and marietta though i'm still willing i know you are you oh where's the camera put the camera on me all right yeah put the camera on me ready put

the camera on me mikey put the camera on me ready i'm never going to marietta again ever wow come on russell doesn't deserve that wow all right yeah Luke, I'll take the L on that one. I didn't know that Gabriel Benitez had that nickname. I didn't. I forgot. I forgot at the time. So I'll take an L too. Yeah, I'll take the L. All right. Let's do this here. This is from Hurricane Aug, the awesome auger himself. Did you spell it A-U-G? Yeah.

Or is it Augustine? August and nothing after, apparently, is his name. At about 2.06.35 of episode 403, Luke claimed that his Washington Nationals beat the Houston Astros in the World Series, the year in which they employed their infamous electronic sign-stealing trash can banging system. Wow, sounds spicy. No, it was the year uh either before or after right this is my second attempt to get this on the show after i included a lengthy astros were scapegoated truther rant which i wholeheartedly stand by they cheated like they cheated like whores

so to make sure luke's bitch ass gets corrected i'll keep this brief this is really what he wrote look lt may be misremembering because of the news of the scandal broke and the investigation took place shortly after the Nats beat the Astros in 2019. But in reality, the sign stealing took place in 2017 when they took out the Red Sox and Yankees in route to defeating the Dodgers in the world series. According to the MLB investigation, the Astros scrapped their system during 2018 due to

ineffectiveness long before they met the gnats in the world series on that hard fought uh and their three subsequent last place finishes in the nl east wow and luke even though you are bitch i hope one day you get your escalade with the spree wells spinning want that. Cars stop, rims keep spinning. That's what I want. Did you ever consider buying those Sprewells shoes with the spinners? It's pretty inventive. I've never seen the Sprewells on the shoes. I've never seen that.

No, they were a thing. I need to see. If you had an East Bay catalog in 1997, Luke, it would be in there. By the way, BC, how is it that all of these basketball podcasts and we love them i watch jj reddick's old man and the three i watch obviously all the smoke how have they not interviewed or maybe i missed it have they interviewed latrell spreewell because dude back in the day like peak spreewell peak spreewell was just not a dude you fucked with on the court right i remember him oh dude it's like an enfor. His second year in the league with the Warriors in 1994,

which was also the one year that they had Chris Weber as a rookie. Remember, they played the Suns in the playoffs, and Weber went around the back and dunked on Barkley, and then Barkley scored 56 in the next game. Sprewell was first-team All-NBA that year. People forget that. Replacing who? Michael Jordan, who sat out the year.

You know, it could have been Mitch Richmond. It could have been anyone. It was Latrell Sprewell, who was first-team All-NBA, second year in the league. But, Luke, that team fell apart. He was then a big-time scorer on a shitty team. And then he choked the shit out of P.J. Carlissimo, so his legacy and financials changed pretty aggressively.

But we're talking about Mahmoud Abdul-Rayouf. How about Sprewell's story? It's an interesting one to try to revisit, right? Yeah. And also also he was making shit tons of money in the 2000s with those rims dude he was killing the game but i guess he was out of style so good on the 99 nicks especially in in game five of the finals i mean just just aggressive and raw and high flying i mean angry he played angry and i always loved that luke i

like people that do anything with a lot of passion. That's why I get the most mad at you when you try to end the show early, you know, impassionately. Yeah, but you think it's a lack of passion. It's more a respect for less is more. I don't know if I've ever heard of that theory. I'd have to see it proven to really,

you know, at this point in my career. Right. You know, I just, yeah. Okay. Finally from Jordan, here's the L that I mentioned earlier. Aloha, Luke and BC. I have a dead wrong for BC at 56 minutes at episode four or nine discussing BKFC. He suddenly goes from Lorenzo hunt to Lamar hunt, who died at least who did, he did it at least twice in a minute. BC Lamar hunt is the founder of the Kansas city chiefs and the name on the Superbowl trophy,

probably a slip of the tongue, but I offer this up as an L for you to take Mahalo Jordan from Hawaii. That's awesome. Yeah. Aloha brother. I accept that. I accept that Lorenzo hunt. Who's becoming my favorite BKFC fighter.

Luke him and do like him. Yeah, dude. He makes pro wrestling things happen constantly and then knocks people the hell out dramatically. He's a warrior, right? I got some favorite fighters over there, like Britton Hart-Beltran. Luke, you don't give her any respect.

It's not that I don't. I just don't care. I mean, is that a... Am I allowed to not care about things? I think I am, right? You know, yeah, yeah, you do have your own... Well, Mikey's sending us links on where we can buy the... Wow, they put the Sprewell spinners on eBay for $649 right now.

Let me see those things. Hold on, let me take a look at them. Mikey, can you do me a favor? Download a picture and then put it on the screen real quick i want to test mikey's producer skills wow download a picture and then throw it on the screen because i want people to see what it looked like if you want to see a trend hasn't mikey walked the tightrope enough considering his uh thc levels look are higher than john all roots batting average in 1994? I mean, come on.

Bro, they don't know about the guy who wore the helmet on first base. That's true. They don't know. They have no idea. Olerud was a beast, bro. He was awesome. Alright, I think Mikey's working it up. Is he still on the show right now i love mikey

now mikey by the way mikey running these friday shows solo he's doing a fantastic job all right he's got look at this shit hey can you put us on the screen in the not not weird way i guess not let's see if you can work it out here what you got for us mikey looks like now no he's getting he's getting it's tough it's tough to get i mean listen it's a it's i call it an audible you know what i mean you gotta you gotta know uh he says he can't have you guys on screen all right just throw it up one more time throw it up one more time dude look at that piece of shit i mean i like that look that's actually pretty cool luke that's inventive i do kind of like that i don't think this shit i got i mean i've purchased

many shitty basketball sneakers. A lot of them are still in my in my closet over here. Luke and I wear them in the old guy league. But that's a decent model. Come on. No, it's not. It's garbage. All right.

All right. You're going to be wearing some L.A. gear. So you just, you know, don't worry about it. I got clowned the other night because Mikey says the pump that would spin the spinner would break three days in. Yeah, probably. I mean, look, a lot of great ideas were shitty sneakers and didn't really work out. Like any pump that wasn't made by Reebok, those things always failed, Luke. Even those David Robinson Force pumps that had the little pump on the side, those never worked properly.

I wouldn't know personally, Luke, because back then I had to wear L.A. gear because finances were dipping down and I, you know, I had to get made fun of a lot, but, um, people forget the original shacks that were Reebok shoes had that little cartridge that would come with it, the CO2 cartridge, and you would pump the shoe. Remember that? Yeah. And then you can keep like nudes on there and get private internet access to make sure nobody knows what you're looking at. Yeah. I know those days, Luke. Uh, also, you know what I wore the other last week for hoops, Luke? I have these 2008 Gilbert Arenas Agent Zero Adidas shoes that are specific for the New Orleans NBA All-Star game that have all those like, you know, Cajun type stuff on them. They're fantastic. They're full of Cajun seasoning. Yeah.

Yeah. I got I still wear to the the O2 T-Mac Adidas ones. Those like heavy dark blue ones that's the that's the heaviest basketball shoe of all time dude you can you cannot run end to end in those that's just ridiculous yeah hit it with that garlic powder nah hit it with that butter nah what are you speaking what are you speaking right now there's this dude who's a cajun chef on like uh instagram and tiktok and i forget his name but he he's got the thickest fucking Creole Cajun accent you've ever heard of in your life.

And so he just goes through the recipe as he's making chicken stir fry or whatever he's making. And every time he tells people, you can imagine, BC, that every recipe has garlic powder in it. So every time he tells people to put garlic powder in it, he says, put garlic powder in it now. But the way it comes off is, hit it with that garlic powder, nah. Hit it with that butter, nah.

Yeah, check this out, y'all. Every recipe is like that, every single one. But he makes fire shit, dude. It's amazing. Luke, I'm getting heckled pretty hard on Twitter for saying big meat instead of big meech in the Larry Hoover line. Yeah, I mean. But that's that's rick

ross that's actually a little different so i don't care i mean you know i i you don't like to differentiate african americans from one another but i'm saying well no the other day i was singing a white lyric wrong you got all mad at me i was like a white angel down the road that i must travel but that's not even the words it's not carrie and angel it's curia lazar excuse me while i kiss this guy luke sometimes sometimes we you know we get what are you a pirate yeah wow i like what i like when you dip in a few times and have fun luke it's great what a great friday we gave the people right to two hours of passion right passion the thing about rocky bell blue luke he was passionate as shit dude i don't i don't have my phone on me but uh mikey is saying

the guy i'm talking about his tiktok name is stale cracker i did not know that stale cracker but dude hit it with that garlic powder nah telling you he'll get you he'll get you ready he'll get you ready for some cajun food look can Luke, can you cook at all? I'm a horrible cook. Can you cook a little bit? So I used to be able to cook a little bit, but I have just completely devolved into, you know, Chef Boyardizzle up in this fucking house. Well, once you put that ring on, you don't have to impress anybody anymore, Luke.

Yeah, but my wife, she cooks, but she's not much better than me. We're both not great. Alright, does Abuela have anything where it's so good that you're like, hey, Ab know it wasn't your turn to cook but like could you do that thing with that thing because i just need to like you know yeah dude so her dude uh and actually my wife's pretty good at this too but they make arepas from scratch that are next level bro next level wow um wow and they make they make good colombian dishes like they make good ahiaco

they make good stuff like that so they're really good at that weinstein had scratches in his arepas too but those were different kinds right there in that regard all right all right well that's that's awful yeah i couldn't even get it out i was like you know it was like kill the phlegm you know it was like stop stop that all right hey i guess that's our show right i mean we want you to watch showtime uh we want you to watch showtime uh we want you to get showtime for free actually if you don't have it 30 days free you can watch bellator 291 tomorrow saturday 4 p.m eastern only on showtime when logan storley and the full welterweight champion yaroslav amasov have a rematch three years in the making also 9 p.m eastern saturday

night showtime championship boxing triple header a vacant-pound title on the line as Subriel Matisse takes on. I vow to get this guy's name right every time. Luke, how do you say that first name again? You said Jeremias, but I believe it's Jeremias, actually. Jeremias Ponce in that main event. There's other weird and wacky fights this weekend. We hope you watch and enjoy. You can catch Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell,

6.45 p.m. Eastern, Saturday night on the Showtime Sports YouTube channel calling the preliminary action. Look, I think it's three fights this week. And we're going to be setting the stage for the evening, entertaining you, doing a little play-by-play in color. I mean, having fun out there. This time, Luke doesn't have to do it alone we're getting

the band back together and I'm ready for it alright should be fun should be fun ready for it should be fun indeed Mikey Mormile you've been fantastic behind the scenes thank you kind sir to our incredible audience out there I mean look Jay Paquette said he's starting a Facebook group with like

international donks from all over you good with this or you a little nervous? A little nervous, but you can't stop the internet, BC. Do you think Jay Paquette could put his sleuth skills together and find out what happened to Damian the Donk? Or do you think that Damian the Donk's disappearance in any way correlates with Jay Paquette and David Appleton rising to the forefront of fan nation here on sports? I also think it's time to end the show. Probably has been for some time. Okay.

Here we go. Uh, stale cracker is Luke's favorite, uh, nickname for me as well. All right, there it is. That's the end of the program.

Um, uh, please buy our merchant morning combat dot store. Enjoy the fights this weekend. Uh, yeah, that's all I got. Uh, tip your waitresses, take care of your mind, right? Put this weekend. Yeah, that's all I got. Tip your waitresses. Take care of your mind. Right. Put this first. Okay. For your family. Put this first so you can take care of everybody.

Be that person that they need. We love you. You can get through this. We'll do it together. Two words. We out.