MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Bellator 292 | Yan-Dvalishvili | Tszyu-Harrison | Davis-Garcia Presser | Ep. 416

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

On Episode 416 of Morning Kombat the guys have a packed show for you. They start off by previewing Bellator 292. What will MVP look like in his return to the cage? Next up the guys preview UFC Fight Night: Yan vs. Dvalishvili. What does Petr Yan need to do to get back in the win column? Tim Tszyu will face Tony Harrison for the WBO Junior Middleweight interim title on saturday. What do we need to know about this fight? The guys also react to the Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia Press conference and close out the main topics with some quick hitters. As always we close out the show with Ok, Bet and 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. Reveille, reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. 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, you can hear the sound of that. That's nothing but art and male musts coming at you full time here Friday, March 10th, 2023. It's a show that wins a lot of awards.

It's called Morning Combat brought to you by CBS Sports and Showtime Digital. My name is Brian Campbell. I am one half of this artistically successful duo. And boy, do we have a great weekend of fights to get you all fired up for. Back at it live and back at it with my partner in crime, the best damn fight analyst in the game today. No asterisk necessary. It's Luke Thomas. Hi, BC.

How are you? I mean, you know, well, how am I, Luke? I mean, this isn't Halloween, but, you know, I do. I do resemble Rocky Balboa arriving in Moscow right now. From both my spirit and the particular efforts of this Rocky IV inspired outfit that I put together. And much like Drago, I view you as if he dies, he dies. Although that was Creed. But what are you going to do?

Well, no, that was Rocky IV. That was Drago who said that. But I only know because I'm- Was he talking about Creed or was he talking about Rocky in that quote he was oh I'm sorry you're right he was talking about Creed when you mentioned the word Creed I thought you meant the movie or the Creed 2 which I've yet to see but Luke I'm through five on the father-son journey on the Rocky movie marathon as we get closer to seeing Creed 3 and IMAX 3D and uh Rocky 5 unfortunately Luke it was way worse than I remembered like I tried to retain some level of like, it's still kind of charming and cute and fast-paced.

It's fast-paced at the end. That's about it. Do you know, for my kids, though, they're like, wasn't as bad as Rocky I, though, Dad. Okay, kids, you know, I mean, Luke, there is a gap in generations in terms of what we respect and love and how we understand things. And to them, Rocky V is only their third favorite, you know? All right. Are they big insane clown posse fans or what? No, no.

But if you put a bottle of Faygo in front of this family, Luke, it's very likely that thing will empty empty quickly. OK, because that's how we do. We're back at it here. We took Wednesday off as Luke Thomas and I were in Times Square for all things. Gervonta take Davis, Ryan Garcia, the two day press tour coast to coast. We'll be reacting to that today. We'll be setting the stage for a damn good Bantamweight title till a top UFC fight night that Saturday. And don't forget about tonight, though, only on Showtime Bellator 292, the kickoff of the

lightweight world Grand Prix, some good matchmaking up and down there that we will get into. And of course, if you want to watch Bellator or Saturday Showtime Boxing International telecast, as Tim Zhu welcomes Tony Harrison to Australia, go to Showtime.com. Now get your 30 free days.

I mean, look, just the all access alone that we're going to be getting from Caleb Plant and David Benavidez debuting tonight on Showtime and April 1st when Tank Davis, Ryan Garcia all-access debuts. These are going to be two fun pay-per-views to get all kind of horned up about. Am I right or am I right? No, I think you're right. think like on the horizon of big fights that are headed our way boxing or mma i can't think of any bigger mma fights in terms of grudge match like plant benavidez massive massive grudge match now

i don't know if you want to call davis garcia grudge match although they obviously got chippy on the press tour but you're just talking about about two sets of fighters here that, you know, there's all kinds of reasons to want to watch. The extra gravy on top is that there is, you know, just, they can't stand one another. And I think that that will impact the results and it will impact the fight and it will impact the enjoyment that we're going to have about it. I'm right there with you. This is going to be fan frigging tastic this spring, and we'll be there along the way and various ways to get you fired up and excited.

And a special thanks to Ariel Hawani for jumping on board yesterday, day two of the tank versus King Ryan press conference. I mean, he FaceTimed Ryan Garcia on the balcony. That was an interesting moment, Luke, in the, in the history of fight promotion. Very interesting right there. Enjoyed it. Luke, you look dapper in that MK polo.

Is that what we're calling it? It is, yeah. It's the MK polo shirt. It's the black one, but it's pretty nice. Underneath my Rocky IV outfit, I got a great t-shirt here that you can only get at morningcombat.store. Hello, my name is co-host.

You better believe that. You can get as much merch as you're looking for, including whatever's left, because it must must go of the MK and UK launch, the GTA shirt, all that stuff. Maybe you're just going to buy bestsellers, though, and pick up a Morning Hub shirt and look really awkward in your community. But if that's the direction you're going, Luke, which statistically they tell me is the direction that most of our audience leans, you know, what am I supposed to tell them? Tell them you're washed and lost. Both are true. Luke, I also want to remind the great people here that if you're going to

youtube.com slash morning combat for MK extra MK bonus material, your plate will be runneth over Luke, this room service diaries expansion into the UK that we did. There were three of them, Arnold Allen, MVP, Michael Venom Page, and just the other day on Wednesday when we were calling the press conference and getting them fired up and boxing, Paul Craig, he did some shit, Luke. That's a man who shags, okay? And he's a hilarious bloke.

I did question if we needed subtitles. Where do you stand on that scottish man no because i was able to get most things after a second watch so i'd rather force people to watch a second time than give them subtitles for someone speaking the same language yes exactly thank you very much paul craig he does he could hang with us look i mean we would be like the we would be the designated wingman in this in this transaction but i think he could hang with us uh well the better way to put it is we could hang with him right isn't that the way you should say it that's true that's true you know oh yeah all right uh mike perry's story's galore so check out that little piece of business right there

hey luke thomas you also know that it's march right now and that means something especially in cbs sports land we're talking about March Madness, and we're talking about a bracket challenge. It's just six days away, and the CBS Sports HQ bracket challenge is back. Scan that QR code on the screen that you're looking on right now, or check the YouTube subscription for the invitation to compete against your favorite HQ personalities. Look, you want to try and gain bragging rights over Tommy T Tommy Tran. How about Chris Hassel from Iowa? How about you want to see what kind of bracket Bellator commentator, AG to Amanda Guerra is making up Jenny Dell,

Brandon Baylor, so much more join now test your skills against Hakeem Dermott and all the great CBS sports HQ personalities. Luke, we might even be able to force you into filling out a bracket, but people will have to sign up to see. Luke, any spoiler alerts on that potential? I don't think CBS wants to make my opinion about the value of college sports known on a podcast like this.

I'll say sign up and enjoy. Okay, okay. I wish you could have signed. What do they call those deals luke nil deals oh uh for like the college kids who are like athletes whatever were you on officially the college debate team or math team at all no no no i don't i wasn't involved i don't even know if they had a math team and i wouldn't have been good enough at the collegiate level. It's good enough at the high school level where everyone's pretty stupid. No, I didn't join any of those. Also, here's the problem with debate.

I was actually pretty good at the debate team in high school. But the problem is there's two different styles. There's policy debate and then there's Lincoln Douglas and I did policy debate. And I really didn't enjoy policy debate past my junior year because it ends up being a contest. And I'm not doing a bit here. It ends up being a contest of who can speak the fastest and i hated it i hated it so i kind of quit well i i came in my hometown looked more from the burr hamilton school of debate so you know that's why things also often get aggro and angry between us but uh luke did you catch the other bc brian custer who of course hosted both days of the presser and yesterday in LA shouted out his fraternity over the microphone.

I was like, Luke Thomas is popping somewhere right now. Yeah. I mean, uh, the black fraternities, they roll, they roll deep and that's a lifelong affiliation in ways. I don't think that guys like me, I mean, I still tell you what my fraternity I was in, but like, I don't, you know, it's not like a, this late into my life. It's not like a prized association or something. It wasn't like I was in five beta Kappa, which is is the which you get into when you have a 4.0 in

college but um yeah man they love it i tell you it's like a big part of his life so god bless him shout out to the other bc and quickly luke when we're talking about showtime i just want to get our fans ahead of what is coming they've probably seen the the trailer Friday, April 7th on Showtime streaming platforms. And then it will debut two days later on Showtime TV, Sunday, April 9th. This new documentary catching lightning from Pat Condellas, the director, Luke, who we saw before he directed outcry the Hector Camacho, many docs that a lot of us have seen, dude, this is the story of lightning Lee Murray. And you've mentioned this in the past. Here's what I knew about Lightning Lee Murray. Robbery, jail, fought Anderson Silva, had heavy hands. In this four-part series of which I'm halfway through screening it, Luke Thomas,

this is a classic masterpiece of documentary cinema. And the more I find out these detailed stories, Tito Ort ortiz story all that stuff from lee murray at that level of detail holy freaking crap luke thomas wow yeah it's great it's great in fact one of the showtime staff who i would say to my knowledge exclusively works on the boxing side of things you gotta remember most people at showtime um work on at least in our our orbit the vast vast majority of them work on the boxing side of things. There are some that work both in MMA and boxing, but a lot of it is boxing, which makes sense, right? Boxing has been at Showtime for such a long time.

But she came up to us, and she's seen the whole thing, and she told us. I can't tell you some of the details in her in it. There's literally an embargo on it. There's one detail that's going to be revealed, I think soon, maybe even today. That is shocking that even if you like, oh, I've heard, I know the whole story. No, you don't. It's not possible to understand what you're about to see and or hear until you see this documentary. It's that good. It's that,

uh, it's, it's not just a telling of the story, but actually is, it brings you up to date into like where we are now. Um, yeah, I don't think we need,

we need to call an Eve here, but your mind will be blown just the same. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't,

uh, also Luke, great cameos by Anderson Silva, uh, Tony Frickland, Pat Miletic, uh, Chuck Liddell in this doc. So check that out April 7th, Luke, great cameos by Anderson Silva, Tony Frickland, Pat Miletic, Chuck Liddell in this doc. So check that out April 7th, wherever you stream Showtime. Hey, it's time to get into the show.

We do have a big time weekend of events and Luke kicking it off in topic one. Let's set the stage for a Bellator 292 card this evening. Only on Showtime San Jose, the location, 10 p.m. Eastern time, 7 Pacific is the main card. Of course, you can check the prelims starting a few hours earlier on the Showtime Sports and Bellator YouTube channels, Pluto TV, I believe, as well. But Luke Thomas, this is the kickoff to the $1 million lightweight World Grand Prix and more part in more particular in the main event. Although I believe this card is pretty damn good top to bottom it's the lightweight championship on the line when the new champion usman nurmaga made off cousin of habib is going to welcome former ufc champion benson henderson this is a quarterfinal bout there's eight guys in this tournament habib who's taking some time off, won't be there.

But Luke, did you see that video at the press conference where they asked Nurmagomedov who's going to be in his corner? Dude, it's like Murderer's Row from Dagestan. It's like, oh yeah, I got Islam. I got Umar Nurmagomedov. I got the other guy. I got this other guy that's awesome too. Usman growing into MMA royalty.

But as we set the stage for this matchup against an experienced veteran like Benson the odds will tell you they think they have an idea who wins this Luke but frame this matchup for me as we head into tonight in San Jose I think that's I mean the I will say this I'm not sure how you feel I'd love to hear it which is that I think the odds are a little bit out of whack on this one I certainly get that usman is better and is going to win and there's a decent chance he even wins by stoppage like he's he's very talented and at this stage of his career he's i think he's much better than benson henderson even then some of these odds are just absolutely insane uh like being a might near minus 2 000 in certain cases

i don't really understand that uh benson henderson i, is on a two-fight win streak. He's got wins over Islam Mamadov, and he's got this one against Peter Quealy. And the Peter Quealy win was a good win in the sense that he really showed a lot of veteran savvy in this one, a lot of veteran experience, and just really understood what his assignments were, and then carried them out in a very straightforward manner. Like, that's an experienced, talented fighter who knows what he has to do, and then gets were, and then carried them out in a very straightforward manner. Like that's an experienced, talented fighter who knows what he has to do and then gets in there and then executes according to the plan. It wasn't a whole lot of razzle-dazzle with it, but it was efficient, it was straightforward, and it was smart and, in the end, effective.

So that's pretty great. The question you have to ask yourself is at this stage of Benson Henderson's life, and forgive me, he is, let me see, me see let me double check this 39 years of age yeah 39 nearly 40 competing in the 155 pound division now I do think BC for a 155 or he's not in sorry for a 155 or at 39 he's not in terrible condition he doesn't look like crazy shop worn his his athleticism hasn't like completely crumbled or anything like that. But he's obviously lesser than what he was. And, you know, at 39, what can you reasonably expect? And so the question you really have to ask yourself is not that Benson Henderson looks terrible or is being carted out there for a for a beat.

And I don't again, I don't really agree agree with the odds but I just really don't know where he has an advantage except in experience and that's valuable we just saw it against Quealy but the difference between Quealy as an opponent and Usman Nurmagomedov as an opponent is a yawning gap so I respect Benson Henderson I think he's had a great career. It's going to take a lot to beat Nurmagomedov tonight. Yeah. Yeah. The former WEC and UFC champion Henderson, as we said, 39, he's fought for Bellator titles in two different divisions. I believe in his first three fights in Bellator came up empty, but he's had some nice win streaks. He's lingered from the standpoint where, look, he's always been crazy durable. He's big for this weight class when he cuts down to it.

This is his fourth straight fight back at lightweight. But 16-0, Usman Nurmagomedov at 24 years old, I mean, he's just different. He's just different. He's not only part of this, you know, Dagestan slash Russia slash Eastern European takeover at the moment within elite level MMA. I mean, he's like dynamic even within within that group, in terms of when you're talking about the UBL, the upper bound long-term limits, the odds that you tease here from our friends at Caesars at the moment, minus 2,100 Usman Nurmagomedov plus 1,100 Benson Henderson.

So don't you think that's a little crazy? You know, it is, but how much of that, like, cause you know know we always say the odds they they get them right more than they don't that's why you know it's such a great business for those that make these odds but a lot of times it can be to induce betting in this case where it's so wide does that play more into the you know let's try to get any type of bets and we can to even this out or is the truth here at, not being a finisher at this point in his career. I mean, how is he going to beat this kid? You know, obviously anything can happen. They can catch him in a sub.

He can cut him. He can do a lot of things, but is the victory here for Benson Henderson? Okay. You asked me, should it be this wide? Yes. And no, Luke is really the answer to be really fair because outside of a freak win or he caught him with something, where is the path to victory for this version of Benson Henderson? And that question is always hedged with, is there an area within Usman's game through 16 fights, dominated Petriki Pitbull to win the title, but to be fair, doesn't have a ton of overall elite wins because he's so young and he just got to Bellator recently. Is there a hole Benson Henderson can plug, even if it's mucking this fight up, trying to stay in the clinch, trying to slow him down, that could open up the possibility for a path to victory?

That's the real question here. I mean, the odds are widely against him. I like the matchmaking. He's on a two-fight win streak. I like the idea of former champion coming in. Let's kick off this tournament. But how does this really happen if it's going to Luke for Benson yeah short of Nurmagomedov getting injured I I don't know uh he doesn't make a lot of mistakes he's quicker um he's probably going to be as strong if not stronger uh his wrestling is better his striking is better um you know i don't i i you know and it's in saying this someone's gonna be

like well now you're you can't understand why the odds are what they are well again i get who's been being a heavy favorite i don't think that part is crazy, but with the veteran experience I'm talking about, plus, I mean, listen, I don't think he's going to make an error. He makes good decisions, but I get a little bit nervous when you've got someone this experienced, who's not like totally shopworn going up against someone who's got, uh, you know, some experience, but is still youthful and hasn't quite been in scenarios against guys like this. Um, you know, one tiny mistake could be catastrophic. Again, I don't think he's going to make it. I'm going to bet that he will be fine in the end.

But, you know, in terms of a reasonable path to victory, like where is Benson better? Beats the shit out of me. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. I mean, huge name recognition still to this day. I respect him still at this level to fight win streak all that uh at the very least here luke shaquille majorie our friend at cbs sports got a great channel on youtube called shack mma

does some pro wrestling where i think he even interviews celebrities goes to raves dressed like a cow he does a lot of things in his young life they're out of vancouver but luke he caught up with benson henderson and you kind of outlined what Usman brings to the table. Let's hear that same question from Henderson himself. He showcased in the last fight against Pitbull that he can wrestle. He does have that skill set in him. He just prefers not to use it. So I think the definition to his kickboxing, he looks just kick and stay at distance and kick and kick. And he has a good jab um but

then his last fight he showed hey you know my last name i can't wrestle you guys know where i come from but i can wrestle too and he showed that in his last fight i said even on top of that you have to be more aware of what other skill sets he hasn't shown yet maybe he's a jiu-jitsu ace maybe he has a flying triangle of this you never know you have to pay attention to especially the guys uh he is undefeated he does have the belt but he's still only 16 though so he didn't have a ton of fights that's a good amount of fights but it's not like a ton of fights he hasn't shown maybe his entire repertoire of of things he can do of moves that he's good at so i'm trying'm dropping attention to that as well.

Just keep my eyes open, be aware that there are other things that he could have that he's great at, he's amazing at, but he didn't have to use them in his fights just yet. Fair points, fair points here. Luke, this might not be the direct equivalent, but I'm trying to frame how surprising an upset here would be. It'd be different because there's a title on the line here and a chance long term at a million bucks. But like the last time I was like, holy crap, may have been remember when old Tito subbed out Bader and UFC.

Remember that? And you were like, damn, that's a bad loss, bro. You know that I didn't see that one coming. There's some elements of that here. If Benson pulls this off, when you consider the odds and how we're framing their abilities at this point but i don't want to be lost on the idea that you know benson's history ufc champion wec champion has not gone away here at bellator it'd be a feel-good moment if he pulls this upset he's the new champion and he's got a leg up on the competition here headed toward a million bucks how would you feel you've been covering this game as long as Benson's been fighting,

you know, more or less. How would that make you feel? Do you have a lot of nostalgic, historic respect for who Benson Henderson is? I mean, he made his pro debut in 2006. I've been writing about it pre that. So, yeah, a long time. Dude, this would be his best win since uh i'm trying to look here jorge masvidal in 2015 he beat jorge masvidal via split decision in korea if you remember that it

was like an overnight fight that the ufc had oh yeah back then i mean it would be it would be that level and probably better quite honestly i mean this is a fight that nimrga made up basically should not lose for benson henderson at 39 to become because right the belt's on the line right so yeah at 39 to become the bellator lightweight champion when he made his move to the organization at this point what four or five longer than that when did he make his move to fight koreshkov so that was all the way back in sorry I'm looking here that was all the way back in uh 2016 you know this would be his best wins again since the Masvidal fight I mean just it's just to do something that improbable in a weight class this deep and everyone's like oh UFC's got a better weight class and at 155 than Bellator maybe they do that's probably true but

dude Usman Nurmagomedov could very much swim with the Sharks over there. Certainly we think he could to go and take all that momentum away to, by the way, to make him no longer undefeated. It just doesn't happen for guys like this at this stage of their career. He would totally be breaking the mold of what you understand older fighters in the latter weight classes are even capable of and it would really make good on his promise as a big free agent signing when he left UFC to go to Bellator now late but certainly better late than never remember his his run in Bellator started off very inauspiciously remember this he loses three four right he loses to Koreshkov he has the win over Pitbull but that was from an injury that Pitbull was winning that fight.

I hope everyone remembers that Pitbull was winning that fight, then gets injured, then loses to Chandler, then loses to Patrici, doesn't get a win against Roger Huerta and Saad Awad. I had left him on the side of the road for dead at that point, but he has found another gear. To be fair, the losses to Chandler and Patrici that were successive there in 2016 and 17 were both by split decision. And obviously the Chandler one was for the title. The rematch did not go his way. But, you know, he stepped down a level multiple times and put together win streaks. That four-fight win streak immediately after the Patrycki one leading into the Chandler rematch. And now this two-fight win streak.

It's been a while since he's kind of really been fully at this level but on a nice run here and to close Shaq MMA asked him ultimately you know you fought for titles then you're fighting for titles again now what's that difference feel like let's hear from old Benny fighting for the belt now before fighting for the belt before uh just the realization of how few opportunities you get if you don't realize how few opportunities uh fighting for for the title fighting for this like maybe it was just me some guys would go the whole career they're fighting for title um for me like i was 24 on my first world title so i was like oh yeah this is gonna happen it's no big deal i'm gonna always fight for title and i you know i pretty

much have you know maintained that high level of a sixer. But getting that belt strapped around your waist, it's been a long time. And I forget that. So for me, it's just being able to actually stop and smell the roses, enjoy the process along the way, not just like, oh, yeah, another belt, and just kind of gloss over it now. Look, any truth to the rumor that to honor Benson Henderson in this title fight tonight you are doing this entire podcast

with a toothpick hidden in your mouth no no I've always hated it when he did that yeah all right uh Luke we know the odds against him we'll see what happens tonight but the co-main event also a quarter final matchup in this same tournament for a million dollars. Tawfiq Musaev will enter as a small underdog, plus 145 against Alexander. And tell me if I got this wrong. Shabili? I think it's pronounced Shabli, almost like the cheap wine that doesn't really exist by that name. You mean Brun's Farm? Yeah, I used to drink that too.

Shabliis minus 170. Luke, this matchup won't have the same name value in this tournament as the main event or even A.J. McKee and what have you, but this is a close fight odds-wise. What should we be looking out for styles-wise when these two touch gloves? Yeah, this is a very, very, very close fight. Mike, I think we've got some footage to this. If you want to roll it, I can talk people through a little bit.

We're going to try and add a little bit more analytical work to these Friday shows, if at all possible. But basically what you're looking at here is Chablis is a phenomenal striker. He can fight out of both stances very well. Let's see if we've got something. What you can see here, pay attention. He's going to slip off, right hand comes behind it,

and then he slides back and lands the left hook and then drops Brent Primus. Doesn't even have his feet under him when he throws the left hook, but because the timing on it is so good. Look, slip, counter, still too close, so he slides back, and then the left hook is there perfectly. He's got really, really good accuracy, really good timing, very good at catching kicks, tripping guys out off the post leg,

and then taking it. Now, pay attention here. He's going to follow. There you go. I want to walk you through it one more time because it happened so quickly. Pay attention. In the first series of footage that we saw there, he was left-handed. This one, he's right-handed.

So you can see he's very capable. And without being able to slow it down and really show you the second one, what I want you to pay attention to is just a short, pay attention, here we go, just right there. There's a short right hand. You can't even hardly see it. When you slow it down in real time, it's just, he sees the opening,

he slides over to create the angle, and then it's a short, short little punch is all he needs. And it sits Brett Primus down there. So just from that little clip, you can see right-handed, left-handed, very potent, excellent finisher, good accuracy, very good boxing, aggressive, great takedown defense. I would say great takedowns, unusual takedowns at times. He is a handful, very well-rounded fighter,

and a devastating puncher and finisher at the same time. 29 years old from russia seven fight win streak has won all three of his bellator fights and you mentioned brett primus the former champion he's a late injury replacement also in this tournament do you remember who he replaced luke it's it's not catching me on the top of the dome i don't remember exactly um uh oh no was it uh the guy who popped for like seven different BDs? Sidney Outlaw. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go.

There you go. Well, Luke, speaking of— Hold on, hold on. To speak Musaev very quickly, I think we have some footage on Musaev as well. Well, I was going to tell you quickly that Musaev, the 33-year-old from Azerbaijan, Luke, he had a 15-fight win streak, recently stopped and risen when he lost to Roberto D'Souza, but made the Bellator debut right after that and defeated Sidney Outlaw by first-round knockout in 27 seconds, brother.

Yeah, you just saw it there. Roll one more time if you can there, Mikey. Pay attention. What do you notice from this one as well? Again, head off the center line, comes over the top of the jab, and there's the same left hook as he backs up without having his feet under him. I cannot overstate this. So many guys in MMA, including good fighters,

they drop their level or they change this to the side, and then they just come right back where they are. So if you finish off with a hook at the end of the combinations, it works really well, even if you're not rooted to the ground in the way that Musaev is. Fast hands, electric striker himself, good wrestling. Obviously came up short against Satoshi, but these

guys have you know slightly different tendencies they're not the same fighter but they're good at a lot of the same things in BC I don't know if you read the odds or not but to me the odds are reflective of how close this one is arguably one of the best fights of the weekend this one should be fun and that tail end of that 15 fightfight win streak across Japan and various parts of the world for Musaev did include decision win over Petriki Pitbull in the lightweight Grand Prix in Risen and knockout of Johnny Case, a decision win over Darren Cruikshank. So he's beaten some guys, Luke, that we certainly know well and had developed a big name here.

This is a very good quarterfinal matchup. And in any kind of Bellator tournament or any MMA tournament in general you love that mix of you know aging names we know champions ranked guys of the moment and sometimes young guys on the way up or late arriving guys I mean look who could who could forget Davlet Zan Yagshamur Dav's arrival in the Bellator light heavyweight grand prix last you know year and a half ago right he's on he's on the card tonight. I know. He makes fun fights. I love that, dude. We're going to get into picks more on OK Bet, but look, this matchup seems like a flip.

Flip the coin. It does. Both guys are going to come in hungry with a chance to win this. Yeah, this one is very much up for grabs. Neither guy has a dramatic, you know, it's not like Usman and Benson where it's like, geez, I don't even know what Benson could do. There's a lot either guy could do here. Fun, fun fight. Rounding out this main card. I like this main card tonight, built or two 92 on Showtime, Valentin Moldavsky, your former interim heavyweight

title holder taken on Linton Vassell, who we of course remember as a light heavyweight contender, but now at 39, Luke, the reinvention to heavyweight has seen him go 4-0 since his loss in his heavyweight debut, which just happened to be against Valentin Moldavsky in 2019. So Vassell has kind of quietly turned the corner and made a nice run, and now he's got to run it right back against the last guy to beat him. And for Moldavsky, 31 years old, lost the unification fight to Ryan Bader in early 2022, then had that weird no contest with Steve Mowry due to the eye poke. Luke, I like the stakes here within this division,

Bellator heavyweight division, not overly deep. You can put together a couple wins. You can get right back into here. Moldavsky has to be the favorite skill for skill, and I think the odds ultimately reflect that when it's a minus 345 in his favor plus 285 for Vassell but don't sleep on Linton he jacked up on muscles he can wrestle he can take a shot Luke he's been a nice revelation in this heavyweight division of late yeah he was a big light heavyweight who I think was a little bit too slow and a little bit too hittable at 205, but at heavyweight, his transition in terms of being strong enough for it

was very easily done. It was not a hard thing for him to do. And because the guys are a little bit slower, I think he's got a lot better of a chance, good at takedowns, good at finding the back, good at ground and pound from the back. And he's got a couple of things. Mike, if you can roll the clips for Lytton Vassell, there there's something i want to show you i don't know if we're going to be able to slow it down he does something called suma geishi watch he's going to get taken down

here pay attention to the left leg right there it's hard to see it's very hard to see he uses his left leg right there and it's called a suma ge. This is exactly the same thing that Volkanovski did to Islam Makachev to win in a scramble. He uses his left leg on an inside hook here, right there, just to shuck him off to the side and then comes up on top. That's hard to do. That's all timing. It's just enough to create separation so he can rotate and come on top.

He's crafty like that. At light heavyweight against guys like Phil Davis, that's not enough. But at heavyweight, I think it's been pretty good for him. Now, Moldavsky's very tough, and he's not going to be so easily rolled over like that. However, I think Linton Vassell at this stage in his career is a good fit for heavyweight, and he's a little bit overmatched here,

but this is still, in my mind, a little bit more winnable than I think the odds might indicate. Well, look, he lost 29-27 on all three scorecards when they fought three and a half years ago. That was his heavyweight debut. It was fresh off of getting stopped by Ryan Bader in their title bout at light heavyweight, and then that head kick loss to Phil Davis. Then he loses to Moldavsky. So at that point, Luke, I mean, you know, we kind of wrote him off, but what he's done in the four fights at heavyweight since, look, knocked out Sergey Karatanov, knocked out Hany Marks, knocked out Timothy Johnson, who we've seen fight for the belt multiple times,

and has that split decision win over Tyrell Fortune. So in terms of who he's been able to fight, dude, he's passed the test, done so usually by stoppage, and now he gets to run it back against the guy who the only guy to beat him here at heavyweight in Bellator. Moldovsky's the favorite, Luke. Ultimately, I think he's more skilled a better wrestler but we do kind of need to see him come back and have a strong performance you know the lost debater he you know it wasn't dominated but he also didn't have the same type of success ultimately that we thought he could have odds

wise heading in you throw out the no contest with maori because we didn't ultimately learn anything the onus is on him team fedor in his corner to to come out and make a statement i have to believe he's going to be motivated to do just that but the second time around can linton vasel change this outcome at all i i'm you know we'll see what happens luke but yeah there's a stubborn nature to how vasel fights that that he's never going to be out of these fights that that and the the other part too is um you know Moldovsky is a good top control guy not a devastating finisher right so you can easily see a case where Vassell might get trapped underneath or something right when you're like okay well he gives again Moldovsky's just gonna you know grind out the round because as good a grappler as Vassell is not like a great guard player so he's much more top control kind of guy um but he even if he loses the first two rounds vassell still has a chance because moldavsky has this really

kind of plotting heavy style so it's good for winning rounds and ultimately therefore fights but it's not so ironclad that guys who are overmatched don't have multiple opportunities to right the ship. I favor Moldavsky for sure, but Vassell's in this one. It could be interesting. The opener on this main card at 10 p.m. Eastern tonight on Showtime, this might be the best fight on the entire card, style-wise, excitement-wise, pairing in terms of the welterweight title picture at large.

Your slight favorite here is Michael Venom Page, MVP, excitement wise pairing in terms of the welterweight title picture at large your slight favorite here is michael venom page mvp who you could argue could have just as easily took that interim title from logan storley and their very close decision now he's going to be a minus 125 favorite against goji yamauchi now look these odds have been very close both have been in the negative at times as we speak right now, Yamauchi plus 105. But he's coming in there with some legitimate momentum himself at age 30 when you consider the knockout that he just produced. Spectacular against Neiman Gracie in the second round

when they fought in South Dakota in last April. Luke, this is – I mean, look, it almost reminds me of like when Kung Lee used to show up on Strikeforce cards. You know, there's some of that spirit in Goichi. He's fun to watch. You mix that with MVP, we may get fire. Yeah, I mean, people have compared Yamauchi to something like Bellator's Charles Oliveira and he's gone in a different direction since some of those

comparisons began. We're going to walk through this finish here in just a minute, but he's got a fantastic submission game. He's got a fantastic submission game he's got a fantastic submission game he's come from 145 all the way up to 170 170 and still has fight finishing power through the whole process uh Mikey if you can let's roll the Yamauchi clip which kind of looks just like this one but I want to just talk through here very quickly if we can watch Yamauchi Gracie attacks on straight lines here

he comes in straight lines and a lot of guys like to double jab their wing because they stand far apart he fakes low there's the jab second jab he puts the hand up to block it there's just another jab in his face he walks into range and then eats the uppercut so it's good recognition from yamauchi who by the way is grappler first, striker second. Power carried up to 170. Excellent timing, and then just measures and goes. Excellent, excellent work. Now, how valuable is that going to be against a guy like MVP,

who's not going to do any of that shit, at least not in the same kind of slow way? Not that valuable. But he is not outmatched on the feet. He does know what he's doing. His power carries to this weight class. And on the mat, a genuine submission threat, whether on top or bottom, should be an interesting one. Look, if there's a lacking in Michael Venom Page's exciting striking game, in which we talked to him when he sat down on our couch in the UK for Room Service Diaries,

it's sort of like, this is who I am. There's an artist inside of MVP, I believe, to a certain degree am. You know, like he, there's an artist inside of MVP. I believe to a certain degree, he's, he's a striker. That's what he's going to be. Now he can use his ground game to certain degrees. Wasn't able to keep Logan Storley off of him long enough to win that interim title fight, even though it was disputed decision. Is there motivation here for Goichi Yamauchi to take him down and try to lean

into that strength for him, negativity for his opponent, or because they're both so flashy and carry that. Like, like I said, the artist side of MMA in terms of the way they set up their striking, you know, sometimes look, these things turn into like these fun standoffs where it's like,

who's going to make the first move. So the other one could try to spectacularly counter him. Look, if there were, if this wasn't a quasi number one contender fight, maybe that's the way it plays out. But with the stakes here, which are large, are you going to see Yamauchi shoot?

Yeah, you're going to see him shoot. You're going to see him try to clinch. You're going to see him try and do all of those things. Now, again, if he has to strike on the feet, I don't think he is desperately out of his element, but it's just not like, what does he have better than MVP? For sure, it's the ground game.p for sure it's the ground game for sure it's the ground game so it would just be a big mistake to try and you know if you have to hold your own fine but i wouldn't lean on that as the best path to

victory that seems dangerous so some of the antics he did to try to get gracie to open up against him which was almost ricardo my-like of putting his hands down and putting his chin out, you don't do that against MVP. Yeah, you're going to wake up looking at the lights with a broken skull. It's not a good idea. Very, very fair point there. You can see an MVP,

everybody long, fast. I think what you're really going to see from a guy like Yamauchi is waiting, waiting, waiting, and then as a guy like MVP leaps into him trying to get a hold of him. That's what I think you're going to see. And if you can't do that, I don't know. Well, it snapped a six-fight win streak for MVP last May when he lost to Storlie by split decision.

Here's the comeback here at age 35. And, Luke, you know, he's a young 35. It's not like he's taking a ton of damage here, but I still feel like he's got the resolve to really try to continue this run to capture a world title and fill out his, you know, his large size aspirations in a career, which has included being that viral knockout star, but it's also included chipping away and getting big wins. So we sat down with him. I believe the sound is from our, uh, our, our SD with him. Uh, we talked to him about how he rebounded the last time he had lost before this story fight. And that was against Douglas Lima, a victory. He came back and avenged and

won by decision. Let's hear from Venom page. Yeah, so again, just I always say anybody that thinks I'm like, you know, lost interest. After losing to Douglas Lima, I fought five times. And after every single time, I'm like, I want that fight again. I want that fight again. I want that fight again. I was just calling them out. They wouldn't give it to me. I was like, cool, give me another fight.

Like immediately. Fought five times in one year just to get back to what I needed to fight again. I was just calling them out. They wouldn't give it to me. I was like, cool, give me another fight. Like, immediately. For five times in one year, just to get back to what I needed to do. After that fight, I was like, when am I fighting again? Because I'm trying to get back. Same attitude. They were like, unfortunately,

we don't have the space on the shows that we have. Come in, it's not going to be a little while, which is why they gave me the opportunity to fight bare knuckle, just to kind of, because they know I'm just going to be sitting there bugging, bugging them every day. So like,

let's let him do something. You know, while, while we're sorting stuff out over here, now it's time for me to get back. And it's the same attitude. Luke, he reminded me there that in between,

of course, that 10 month layoff from MMA, he did take that BKFC fight with Mike Perry. Lost in the overtime round by decision. But as we look at the Bellator MMA rankings right now, Shaq, MMA, and myself, Luke, are voters on this. You can hold that for us or against us. I know Lorenz Larkin holds it against me.

Logan Storley, still your number one contender, even though he just lost to Amasov in the rematch. Page is second-ranked. Goichi Yamauchi ranked fifth. And if you're wondering, it's Jason Jackson, the ass kicking machine at number three and Douglas Lima at number four.

Is this a number one contender fight in your eyes? For the next shot at Yaroslav Amasov. Hmm. Yeah, probably. Probably. Especially if it's MVP. I think they would like to see that. They can take that to the UK and it'd be huge. People don't misunderstand something or maybe fail to fully appreciate it. Bellator's footprint in the United States. But I think that people underestimate the kinds of crowds and audiences they can generate in the UK and Ireland and with MVP, dude,

they can sell the place out. That's a big fight. That's a big fight for sure. Well, the last MVP clip we played, you can hear him tease the idea of people wondering, and we asked him ourselves, you know, is another title shot. The only thing that you're focused on or look, you came up empty against Storlie. Now, what are you doing? Are you floating? Are you taking a boxing fight? Are you taking a BKFC fight? Luke, when we cornered him with that question, we found out what really motivates him. Let's hear one more time on MVP's future goals.

I personally don't agree because I think, unfortunately, people do look at your medals and your accolades that you do get on the way that justify how good you are. But then you have the exceptions. But if you have people that just look at the sport and the talent in football, soccer, there are players that, unfortunately, when they went to specific teams, the teams just didn't win. But they themselves transformed that team and that person is an unbelievable player but because he doesn't have all the medals and things to go along with it people are like oh no he's definitely

better because he's got you know five champions leagues and this and that and i don't i don't agree with that i think you can if you can if you're just watching and paying attention to talent you can you can see talent but for me 100 uh win this fight i definitely won a belt you know um i think it's it's nice to be able to just say you you've achieved uh so that's the goal but like i said i would like to also lean into boxing again luke, fans of MVP have been very critical. MMA fans in general have been critical at times. We love the excitement. Sometimes they undervalue his skill and look at him as just a flashy striker.

Do you think he personally needs a Bellator-Welterweight championship to solidify his time in this game as an exciting striker, as a draw, as a legitimate contender here. Those are different things. Exciting fighter he already is. Legitimate draw certainly in his home markets already is.

Maybe in certain parts of the United States as well. But, you know, there's been a criticism of his resume being a little bit weak. And I don't think it's an unfair one. There was a lot of guys he fought for long stretches that were not really all that difficult relative to who he could have been fighting. However, of late, that's really not the case. I think of late, he has fought much better guys. I think he's performed better. It just took him a long time to make that transition to be able to handle wrestlers. He could always fight other guys who were like, okay at wrestling and, you know, maybe even good at striking or whatever. But it was when, you know, like a Logan Swirly got ahold of him. him and again there's an argument that he should have beaten logan when they did fight so to me it

would be really more of a confirmation that maybe there was a stretch of his career where the talent wasn't as difficult as it could have been but now he's i mean dude gucci amucci is good really good that's a very very credible win if he can get it and uh it's just happening at a later stage in his career not the middle part but kind of the end uh quickly to close on these prelims which will air on youtube and pluto tv uh the feature about abandon wait till eric perez against enrique barzola uh look i'll watch that that should be good uh it's going to be really good barzola criminally underrated has a motor for days but kind of has been a little bit behind the eight ball from a technique perspective but uh goyito should be a little bit easier for him to handle very fun one and i talk about fun fights serious tune into the prelims for this light heavyweights

julius and gleets kiss dove lets on yog shimmer dove both had opportunities and moments in that world grand prix for one million dollars uh for my lithuanian brethren julius it was as a late replacement but look these guys make fun ass fights on bellator prelim cards i don't know if you saw that war davlizan was recently in um i think they're going to reproduce that here come friday tonight so i'll be checking that out early but let's keep it rolling um look the biggest event this saturday from a zufa standpoint is it not the power slap pay-per-view turned rumble quasi youtube free stream because that'll be in the apex in the main event slot right later on in the evening but uh your your appetizer for that will come from

virgin hotels in las vegas a ufc fight night card do we have an official start time do you have one but your appetizer for that will come from Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas, a UFC fight night card. Do we have an official start time? Do you have one, Luke? I can tell you. I can give it to you. Give me just a second. I can pull up the – here we go.

It is going to start. You mean the main card? Yeah, main card. Main card will kick off at 6 p.m. Eastern. Okay, early start to allow for the slappage but luke that early start also allows you to watch tony harrison and tim zoo saturday night on showtime boxing more on that to come dude let's not sleep on it you want to talk about what's the best fight of this entire weekend i'm here to tell you luke it's peyote or yon the former bantamweight champion who who would have thought three losses in four fights,

although those three losses are a DQ and two split decisions at the highest level. He's going to welcome Marab, the Volush Wheelie, Red Hot himself. We look at the odds right now in this can't-miss Bantamweight war. Peyotr Jan minus 260, Marab plus 220. Now, lookke barab's on a win streak he just sent jose aldo packing are you okay with these odds in this loaded division here for key title placement um that's a great question i mean it's a it's there's a lot going on with this one because it's a big huge fight for yon in terms of his future and his standing. As you indicated, they've got him as a favorite.

And I wouldn't say a considerable one, but a decent one. I think their odds are right because here's the problem, right? Jan is, in terms of the technical aspect of MMA, vastly better than Marab. Like, vastly. But, as we've indicated multiple times marab's getting better at some of those things for sure but also he just has a motor that is good for as long as you need it to be right if you want to go 15 five minute rounds i honestly believe he could do it i really do he's a machine he's the damn machine okay and he weaponizes it and that was really helpful

against jose in salt lake city at elevation here they're not really at elevation i don't know what vegas is at but it's not super high certainly and more to the point um it is a five round fight which makes it different than jose but jan saw this one coming a mile away he should have good cardio he's faced a bunch of strong wrestlers including marab's teammate he should get it done but when you have the kind of cardiovascular conditioning that marab has it is a extreme it's just dude you know what it is it just flattens everything it's a steamroller everything that gets caught up in it and then just gets crushed along the way so it's really going to be up to yon to create separation

separation is going to be his friend here. Clearly, Luke, three losses in four fights is deceiving for the 30-year-old Jan, who has still very little holes in his game. Yes, he did lose clean to Aljo Sterling in our eyes, but a split decision from the judges. The Sean O'Malley fight could have gone either way. He defeated Corey Sanhagen over five rounds and a very good performance in between. Of course, the DQ lost to Aljo kicking that off, but he has to be crazy motivated for

this one back in a main event. We know how aggressively Piotr Jan wants to match make. He didn't want to fight somebody lower in the ranking. So let's look at the rankings and the potential that if a spectacular win breaks through here, is it potentially worthy of a number one contender shot in this deep division? Aljo is your champion. He'll be fighting former champion Henry Cejudo in May. Sean O'Malley ranked first.

Peyotre Yan, two in the UFC rankings. Marab, three. And you round that out with Marlon Vera and Corey Sanhagen at four and five. Luke, this feels like in any, like, I don't know what's going on with O'Malley. Is he going to end up rematching Vera? Like what is really happening here? I don't know. I know Vera was hurt for a while, but I know if somebody comes through this spectacularly,

you could be getting a call this summer, this fall for an opportunity. Cause we're at that level in terms of the win streak of Merab and the reputation of Jan. Dude, you, we talk about weaponizing cardio yon already fights at a high pace at a fast pace especially in those later rounds man this is this could be just a thriller just an absolute you know right yeah but not but not so much back and forth the question is like yon getting held down yon getting controlled, Jan getting slowed. Less about Jan getting his ass whipped. I mean, that could happen.

It's possible, but I don't really believe that. Dude, Jan has got to either create separation on the Wallace Wheatley or he's got to hurt him bad. Well, speaking of this matchup and the preparations for Piotr Jan, Coach Ray Longo, of course, in the corner of Aljo Sterling, they fought Jan twice. Also in the corner of Aljo Sterling. They fought Jan twice. Also in the corner of Aljo's partner in crime. They're their best friends and mentors in the MMA

space. Marab Davalish-Willie. Shaq MMA caught up with Ray Longo. Luke, here's his thoughts on preparing yet again for this Russian phenom. Without a doubt. Is the advantage sort of in your court that you guys have had so much time to prep and game plan for Jan, whereas his camp maybe hasn't put as much emphasis on Rob up to this point uh I mean theoretically I agree

with you uh uh but they're so different in their grappling approach uh I think because Aljo's got the grappling approach plus a real crazy style of jiu-jitsu. He's great. It's great. You see what he does. I don't know. Rob's not going to have that. He's going to,

he's more of a power based guy, I think. And I, so, you know, but he's got Aljo out there. So Aljo does understand. But again,

you know, Marab doesn't move like Aljo, you know, he doesn't kick like Aljo, you know, so he's got to fight Marab's fight. And that's the interesting part. So we kind of know what to expect from him for certain things, but it's just not linear logic like that.

You know what I mean? So I think it might be comforting, but you're only going to know when you get in there. Look, doesn't Ray Longo look like every corner storekeeper? Mom and pop grocery with penny candy and there's an arcade room in the back. I feel like I grew up with Ray Longo. I don't even know the guy, right? Great guy.

Probably met him a few different times in my hometown there, but great analysis, Luke. Do you feel like there's something like, look, like we know who pio dion is and that's why he is the favorite he is right now even though this is a great fight how much larger is what we've seen from devolish willie the ceiling the upper bound limits can he you know look he's working on his striking you saw more dedicated approach to that against jose aldo can we see him level that up ahead of this matchup potentially in a way that makes this an even tougher fight for Piotr? Definitely don't want to say no, but I will tell you I'm skeptical. I'm skeptical because to this point, I just haven't seen enough refinement.

Like I think if he was, here's the thing, man. Here's the problem, right? This is my concern. His cardio and the basic set of skills he has now, I'm not calling them all basic, but I'm saying the core sort of center of his skills, along with that conditioning, has enabled him to win fights that I think the rest of his skills would not be able to, right? And so it has moved him to win fights that I think the rest of his skills would not be able to,

right? And so it has moved him up the food chain. And so now he's fighting guys like this who are vastly more technical than him. But you're asking, could he make up enough of the difference to get there? I haven't seen enough growth to say confidently that that's the case. I guess we'll find out a little bit more tomorrow. But what's interesting me is bc if his cardio wasn't as good still good but not like crazy good like honestly marab's up there for like best cardio in mma like if it's not him you know who would it be there's not many guys you would put in front of him right if he was fighting someone of a lesser ability but he had less cardio i think you'd see some more of these technical developments. But when you, like, you can work on a lot of your game, but if you go up against someone who's much better than you, you're going to retreat to the things that are tried and true for you.

So it's like, this is why development can be a really tricky thing, right? This is why you got to get the right fights at the right time. Murab could still win just off of wrestling, pressure, and then cardio. That's actually a still a thing that could happen here, but you're asking about his development. I actually worry about his, I worry about his development given how much his cardio elevates him into the upper tiers of that division without the same, which I haven't seen yet. Again, we'll see tomorrow. I haven't seen a commensurate growth in the technical ability because I think that mismatch there is kind of making one more difficult

to achieve than the other. Yeah. I mean, is any of this because of those videos that have floated of Marab with those bikinied women and you're questioning his work ethic and focus right now in light of that? Remember that we ran that on? Have you seen this shit? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I doubt that's much of a distraction.

All right. Well, he looks like a handsome guy who knows what to do with it. Luke, love this fight. Stay tuned at the end of the show for OK Bet when Luke and I share our picks on this one. Hey, Luke, this co-main event, nobody's talking about it. Hey, folks, can we talk about how good this heavyweight fight is? Alexander Volkov, Alexander Romanov. And, Luke, it was not that long ago, last summer, in fact,

that Alexander Romanov was 16-0 from Moldova and running through the mid to lower end of the UFC heavyweight division in a way that really made us start to go like, holy shit, this wrestler, he might do some stuff. Well, he ran into a gutsy gatekeeper in Marcin Tybura who took a majority decision from him at Elevation in Salt Lake City. But Luke, you know the story there. Romanov gassed out and it was shocking.

And that was certainly a wake-up call for him. Maybe not too dissimilar to Stipe in the first JSD fight, or JDS fight, excuse me, although that fight was a lot more competitive. He's got an opportunity here to bounce back in a big way, but dude, it does not get easy when you're going from the first defeat in your run in a humbling one, and you're moving up in class against Volkov, has long sort of been there's a rude way of saying it but Volkov is the best of the elite UFC sorry the worst of the elite UFC heavyweights is that the right way to say it Luke like that that's the true entrance point Ty Burr is a gatekeeper

and he failed that test but he's coming back against essentially the guy that opens the door for you in the elite circles. And I think history proves that with Volkov, you know? Yeah, again, I don't know, worst of the best. I don't think about that more, but I do think your general point is correct. Like you beat a guy like Volkov and now you're in a new tier of future opponents, right? I do think that is very much correct, you know?

So I- This matchup is so good and my sound fell out. So if I talked over you, I apologize. I'm trying to is very much correct. This matchup is so good. My sound fell out, so if I talked over you, I apologize. I'm trying to fix that right here. But let me just tell you the odds, and then I want to hear you break it down. Plus 130, Alexander Volkov, yet it's Romanov coming off the defeat. Minus 150. He showed us a lot in that 16-0 start.

How do you break this down contrasting style-wise? Yeah, the big one for me is just if you're Romanov, how do you not wrestle here start how do you break this down contrasting style wise yeah the big one for me is just if you're Romanov how do you not wrestle here how do you not wrestle right and I just think that's going to be such a key component because listen Volkov's takedown defense used to be terrible I remember was who was it Czech Congo beat him Czech Congo beat his ass like wrestling him and I think even Minnikov might have as well like one of the two um or even both maybe but the point I wanted to make was he has vastly improved since then mostly along the fence line it's not quite as good in open space you saw that with the Curtis Blades fight so if you're Romanov you just realize if you stand at range with a guy like Volkov it's

probably maybe you could do all right but it's is that your best way to win you got to get inside that range. He's already a good wrestler. He likes high elevation throws when he can get them. It's a big thing for him. So I think this is a wrestle or not. And I understand that Ty Burrows, you indicated, gave Romanov some problems, ones that I forgot when we did our preview.

And I was like, oh, he's undefeated. That didn't work. But just given the – Romanov's not small, but given the height differential, given what he's already good at, what ways he wins fights, what he likes to do. I can see why they give Volkov a good chance of winning, but why they're ultimately skeptical. He gets it done, putting him as a betting underdog because that can he really do that enough to win? Obviously, we will see. but i can see why they think romanov this is a if he threads that needle bc it's just the right matchup for him yeah volkov has juggled wins and losses in his last four look i thought he was ready to make legitimate moves

after stopping allister over him in 2021 to potentially be a real title player here and even though yeah yeah that loss to curt blades, which to some degree could be a preview of this matchup because blades aggressively wrestled him in the first three rounds and kind of dominated him before kind of guessing out and slowing down as Volkov to his credit, hung in that five round fight and chipped away at him a close decision in the end, uh, came up empty against Cyril gone. Okay. We understand that style breakdown, but it was the way he got submitted so early against Tom Aspinall it did start to question at 34 whether Volkov can

ever get to a level of where sometimes his skills show you as possible right in between those losses he took a decision over Ty Burrow the same guy who just beat Romanov he stopped Rosenstruik in the last fight in two minutes but you know Luke a lot of guys on this near elite level are doing that. I guess I do have confidence entering a wrestler here because of that Blades fight where we know Volkov can hang in there, even if he has to give up a round. We know also he can control you from distance with that size, with that jab. He's got an excellent kick game. Skill for skill. I, you know, I like him in this matchup the question is how motivated is romanoff to come back can he revamp his cardio can he learn that lesson and come back and then still weaponize the fact that he can push the pace take you down and swallow you up i mean look he's a big ass

person okay alexander romanoff is coming here to do nasty things as much as it's weird that he's losing and then fighting a better opponent, I like this matchup to tell us exactly where both guys are going. And that's ultimately at the end of the day when a good match is made, it's going to show you that. I'm not sure which way to lean though.

And I like that coming into this because Romanov's a favorite here after a bad loss. But you look at the larger heavyweight picture, Luke, if Romanov wins this and puts the train back on the tracks, like we could be talking, I mean, as much as we overlook Sergei Pavlovich too much lately, I don't want to completely count out Romanoff for that one loss.

Like, let's see what he can do here Saturday night. Yeah, fair enough. 32, which we know for heavyweight, not old at all. I think you're right. He could change his fortunes and some of the, this is a guy I thought, you know, undefeated or not. This is a guy I still was pretty high on the beginning of the year. Even with the loss, I still think he's got great upside at heavyweight.

Volkov is much improved. Obviously, he has a lot of experience against top competitors in ways Romanov does not. And I think that's going to make things a little bit harder for him. But he's got the goods, BC. Like, he's got the goods to win this. But to your point volkov dangerous crafty long the only thing is bc i went to a wizards game recently you know why would you do that but i did uh but i saw porzingis play porzingis is obviously a seven footer and

very athletic even at this advanced age he hung 40 on the hawks maybe 40 plus uh but just watching his speed it's hard for really tall guys to have that kind of speed. That's been one problem that Volkov has just never been able to overcome. He's slow. He's kind of slow. Another Roman is some like speed demon, but you know, there is, there might be a gap there. Well, that's why I'm wondering if Volkanov as the under Volkov, excuse me, as the underdog can really use that jab to potentially use a striking to keep Roman off at distance. I mean, it's going to be interesting to find this out, but Volkov,

I think put that mean, that mean tattoo on his back. Hey, Mikey, I'm talking right now. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right. I had some audio issues. I'm back though. Hopefully I can get this faulty equipment swapped out. Luke, we got a bonus fight on here. It was supposed to be the main event recently. It's Nikita Krilov, Ryan Spann at light heavyweight. Only this time after krelov was was he hurt luke was he ill what happened a couple weeks ago when he i think he got ill last minute yeah he got ill last second or something

i don't think it was coveted who the hell knows something well we're running it back at a catch weight of 215 pounds due to the delay the odds still show you that krelov at minus 170 is your favorite plus 145 span the small underdog. Luke, Spann still, I mean, we already previewed this last time, but Spann's got a big opportunity to punch his way into contention here with a big win. We know that. But it's what can Krylov do coming off of two recent defeats to bounce back?

This is also a very good, interesting fight. Yeah, very good, interesting fight. Spann, to me, not nearly as dangerous in the sense that krillov's got a lot of different tricks a lot of different tools he by the way you know there was a time when he was in the ufc he was arguably like one of the worst fighters in the ufc roster and those days are long over they've been over for some time but you just really i think sometimes folks lose sight of how much better krillov has gotten he for folks who don't know this i don't know if it's still the case but you can look it up it used

to be if you looked at the sure dog fight finder he used to call himself al capone i don't even know what he calls himself anymore and he had ufc gloves on the guys at sure dog told me he took that picture and sent it to them to use in the fight finder before he ever got signed to ufc he was fighting like wherever the fuck and he had he had like ufc gloves like visibly ufc gloves with like an al capone like 1940s chicago gangster thing you know this guy was like trying to put himself forward in ways before he was ever ready but dude now is he the best light heavyweight no he's not but he does have a lot of skills he's always going for it he chases the finish he's got good kickboxing like he's really

come a long way the issue for him is he sometimes makes mistakes he can get out in front of his skis and Ryan Spann has uh got just tremendous tremendous punching power good accuracy he could be a real handful in that sense so I would say this BC if Krylov is a little bit more buttoned up with his approach he has more ways to win this but if Spann can take his time and really pick his shots Krylov has a tendency to kind of run into problems of his own creation for that reason alone it's dicey but a fun fight, I think, just the same. Indeed, indeed. Second time Krylov making a run here in the UFC, but it's like he's three and four in his last seven, but the losses are to the elite. It's Blachowicz, it's Glover, it's Ankulayev. It was that crazy submission to Paul Craig,

but he knocked out a lifeless Gustafsson, took the decision from Ozdemir. Let's see if he can put together a run. He's still sort of a wild card overall in this division, which I think you can also say about Spann. So let's see who can punch or kick their way through this one. Luke, when you look up and down this card, there is some interesting fare. What jumps out at you the most the rest of the way? Good question. So up and down this card, there's actually some decent stuff.

Said Nurmagomedov taking on Jonathan Martinez, I think, is a fun one. The odds are still – people think, oh, it's Nurmagomedov. He's just going to walk over him. And he is favored to win, but not by like some crazy amount. I think it's a minus 200 or so-ish to win. So it's still pretty competitive. Again, Bantamweight, another sort of, you know, some bigger names moving their way up through that division.

Obviously, Ricardo Hamos is back taking on Austin Lingo. He's the guy who had the spinning back elbow KO a couple years back. Also, BC, don't lose sight of this one. Now, I think his career is largely over, but he rebounded again in his last fight, and he had to work for it, but he got it. Rafael Sonsal taking on Davey Grant. Yes.

I think Sonsal is slight underdogdog or maybe just one way or the other. Like the odds are close on this one. Assuncao at his best was way better than Davy Grant at his best. I don't know where Assuncao was now except very close to the exit. But as I mentioned, he did cobble together a hard-fought win in his last one. Grant is good and offensive, but not necessarily of the same overall caliber that a once was so this is a very interesting pairing at the stage that both are in i like that contest as well also bc violence queen ariana lipsky taking on jj aldrich that's a ton of fun and uh carlston

harris coming on his last fight was against shovkat rakmanov he was yes i think uh he hadn't lost in ufc up to that point i think or, or at least he was on a decent win streak. Taking on Jared Gooden, that'll open the card. Be curious to see if he can rebound here. Yeah, they call that the curtain jerker, is what they call it in the pro wrestling world, you know? Yeah, and where is he from? He lives in, he fights out of Brazil, but I think he's,

oh, he's from Guyana, yeah. Yes. I used to work with guys from Guyana. Look, they love cricket. I mean, they love it. It's a big sport, bro. I mean, we don't from Guyana. Look, they love cricket. I mean, they love it. It's a big sport, bro. I mean, we don't play it here, but it's fucking big. Let's go to topic number three, Luke.

And this is a good one. It's a Showtime International Boxing Special Edition this Saturday, 1045 p.m. Eastern Time start. It's just the main event. We're doing a one-off here. Our friends at Showtime are going to call it from the studio in New York But we're going to Australia And this is a big deal

It was supposed to be Tim Zhu Against undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo Back in January An injury to Charlo Postponed that fight There's the idea that Charlo could come back Maybe this July Well he's probably going to come back against the winner of this fight

Because you know what Tim Zhu said, Luke? He said, if I can't get Charlo, give me the only guy that's defeated him, and that's former champion Tony Harrison. I love this fight. We've already played up the reasons to love this fight, but I caught up with Tim Zhu, and I straight up asked him, why not wait for Charlo? Why take this chance?

Here's what the son of the Hall of Famer, Kostja Zu, young Timmy there, had to say. Yeah, for sure, man. Look, I wasn't going to wait up on Mel and his life and what he's going to be doing in his career, what honeymoons he wants to take. I'm here to just do me, man. And Tony Harrison's the next best option and uh the next big fight to make so this is why it's made and this is why we're getting it on now tim you know could be a a slang difference in the lexicon but when you say honeymoons are

you implying that that charlo didn't need to pull out of that fight no no i no no not not in that reason i'm meaning the fact that uh he could be going for a holiday he could be doing this he could be doing that and um i really don't know what what he's what he's doing in his lifestyle i wasn't gonna wait around and uh not fight well luke i like that spirit by the way of saying look I know I'm a rising star he had his U.S. debut last year in Minneapolis on Showtime against Terrell Gauthier won a hard fought decision but I like that he's basically going look I got to move on so this will be for the interim WBO title and really just the opportunity to fight Charlo when he gets back and if you're wondering look Tony Harrison split two exciting fights with Jermell Charlo. So that trilogy option is big for him at age 32, just the same. But look,

people can catch this full interview at youtube.com slash morning combat. But a little highlight I'll give you is I asked him zoo about what you and I've talked about a lot. Like he's a great young fighter on the rise, but he fought like no one had ever taught him defense or head movement against Terrell Gaucher. He fought like a madman walking through big thunder. He got dropped in that first round. And I asked him, you know, the heck happened, Luke, he says, getting dropped there in round one, he got surprised by it. He said it clicked on the terminator mode. And once he enters that, that realm, that's where he's different than his dad his dad big time power but a boxer too different type of fighter when Tim decides to to just go for it you know I didn't love it Luke that he took on so much danger in that fight but he got the W is that a good enough reason in your

eyes why that happened do you think he'll be smarter this time around? Zoo? Yeah. Yeah, I don't think so. I think he's got one gear. Listen, to me, I went on boxing forums last night to see what the fans were saying, like where their heads are at, and listen to a few different podcasts, see where their heads are at. And there's a lot of people split on this. That's what I have noticed. There's a lot of people who on this that's what i have noticed a lot of people who

think zoo is going to win there is a more than normal amount i think who more than what i was expecting who think actually harrison's going to win here is my sense of things it's going to look like the gauche fight in the following sense i think early i don't expect zoo to look all that great i think midway through it might be back and forth. One guy wins a round, one guy loses a round, blah, blah, blah. It's late that I have a little bit of a hard time looking past Zoo. I think Zoo is, I don't, if it goes to the cards, and yes, it's in Australia, so there's the hometown factor.

I'm not that confident he wins. I think Harrison might be able, through a 12-round contest, to win more rounds than Zu. But does he get dropped late? Because Zu's pressure late, I think, is going to be a big problem for Harrison. He just will not let off the gas. I do think he's going to be able to really go to the body. I think he's going to be giving Harrison tons of problems late.

And I wonder like in round, if it goes this far in rounds nine through 12, especially 10 to 12, do I think zoo is going to be in his kitchen cooking on him? I really, really believe that he does carry his cardio and his intensity and aggression late. And,

you know, I like what you ultimately came to a conclusion yourself. You're saying you think that's the speed at this level that Tim zoo has, and maybe the only one of that terminator mode. I think though, he's got to dial back and be a little bit of who he was on the rise, which is not a pure boxer by any means, but work harder with the jab on keeping that middle distance.

Certainly his body punching attack is a big part of what he does. And he loves to sort of break down your defenses and pin you against the ropes. But Tony Harrison is so crafty and that's ultimately why the odds are close. It's ultimately why you're talking about forums and the real fans going, hold up, this has trap fight potential. As we talk right now, our friends at Caesars, minus 280 for Tim Zhu, plus 210 for Tony Harrison.

But this is footage of Harrison's comeback win in his last time out last year. That's Sergio Garcia, a good boxer. But Tony Harrison did Tony Harrison things. So here's what you have to like about Tony. He's 32 years old. He's a veteran. His father and trainer recently passed, and it took him some time to get over that. But he fights in that old school Detroit crunk style.

He's one of the last active fighters that did time with Emmanuel Stewart, the Hall of Fame late trainer. And he's got that perfect old school mix. He can counterbox like he did against Charlo to pull the upset the first time around. He's got the power to get you out of there. He knows how to slow down, speed up the fight. He can overtake you and overwhelm you if you're vulnerable. But Luke, he has a four and a half inch height advantage that nobody's talking about and a four and a half inch reach advantage against zoo that both could get very interesting.

Yes. He's on enemy soil. Yes. You never know what the score scorecards, but Tony in the interviews leading up to this has really kind of won the event. I mean, they,

he did some stuff on Australian TV, like a face-off with zoo and he was very respectful, but Luke, you know, he, he also was confident about accepting this matchup. So zoo told me, Luke, look three times. We've seen Harrison and title fights against elite foes. And three times he's lost by knockout. I'm sorry. Three times. He's only

lost three times. Two were title fights, but all three were by knockout. Tim zoo told me history will repeat itself. So it should be interesting based on how you laid it out. Is this going to be a factor where it's just wait until zoo eventually catches up with Tony Harrison, who can, who, if there's any flaw to his game, Luke vulnerable to the big punch,

look at the history, right? Willie Nelson, upsetting him, Jared heard, not stopping him, Jermel Charlo in the rematch. And Luke,

I want to remind you Harrison up on two scorecards against Jarrett Hurd at the time of the stoppage up on two scorecards against Jermell Charlo in the rematch at the time of the stoppage with one card even so that has been the history for Tony Harrison but if he turns back you know if he finds a way to hedge that here it can slow Zoo down dude I know we all want Zoo versus Charlo they're saying maybe July Jermell can be back. And Jermell Charlo, by the way, will be on the call Saturday night in the studio with Brian Custer and others for Showtime. So he'll give you that perspective. I'm going to guess you would rather see Tim Zoo against him, but would you pop for a Harrison Charlo trilogy given how close the

two fights were? Yes, I would. Yes, I would. You're absolutely right. It's a fresh matchup. I would much rather see Tim Zhu face Charlo. Fair enough. But I'll tell you, I'll tell you that what's interesting to me about it is I had kind of not forgotten about Tony, but after he got stopped in the rematch, I was like, oh, right. Well, Charlo is just better. And Charlo obviously is the best in class in this weight class.

But if you go out there and he beats Tim Zhu in Australiaralia i mean let's let's let's take a step back here like harrison is taking on a tough challenge across the earth in that guy's hometown if you're crafty enough to beat that guy under those circumstances there yes i would like to see a third charlo fight i would be very much okay with that no doubt about it yeah you got me you got me in on there but luke timzu definitely feels like he has that star potential that we're talking about that uf's debut felt big he's 28 years old 21 and 0 with 15 ko's but you know this is the toughest test of his pro career it just is that's where we're at with tony harrison so final question on this luke my answer to this is yes in advance if zoo advances to the charlo fight

dude he's better off that it went this way he's better off that he that charlo got hurt that he has one more chance against a very tough opponent the only guy to beat charlo to prove to himself and us that he's really ready for all four world titles do you agree with that 100 like beating gauche is nice right that's a solid win especially we talked about it zoo got dropped in the first round by torell gauche and then came back and just put it on him i liked what he showed there i liked his metal i liked uh i liked a lot about that. And I'm not ready to be a big believer in his game, but you beat someone like this, man, it's off to the effing races at that point.

What a fun, great fight that would be. So Kostya Zou is rumored to be attending this. Now, I asked him about it this week. He said, we're not sure yet. We're waiting. Why that matters, Luke, is both Tim and his younger brother Nikita will be boxing on this card, but they live in Australia. Kostya Zu, at some point, split up with their mom in Australia, moved to Russia and started a new family.

So he hasn't been a consistent presence in either the corner or by the side of Tim Zu, even though they are cordial and close. you know him showing up it could be interesting I said you know Tim is that going to make you nervous at all he said no but he goes we're going to have to put a handler on dad because uh he doesn't stop screaming so uh very quickly BC very very quickly just for the newer MMA fans who don't know who Costa Zoo is what is, what's the best way to describe Kostasou, Tim's father, to our audience? He is the epitome of what makes a boxer puncher, meaning he was typically small in stature at 140, 147, his biggest divisions where he got big wins.

But he had power that would just come out of nowhere. If you're looking for the fight, look at what, look at the, uh, welterweight unification bout against Zab Judah, the way that fight ended the, you want to see the very best of who coached his zoo was. He could box you.

He had the Olympic, I'm sorry, the amateur pedigree comes from Russia, came of age in a lot of ways in Australia there, but Luke, um, he could do it all. He could beat you with quickness in,

in cunning. He was a boxer, but a pressure boxer, but he could stand in and land He could beat you with quickness in, in cunning. He was a boxer, but a pressure boxer, but he could stand in and land bombs. And, you know, we saw him on Showtime and that big title loss in England to Ricky Hatton,

the breakthrough moment in Hatton's career where Zeus shocked us by not coming out for round 12 after a hard fought battle. And, you know, that was the end of the line for him, but you can't judge him by that fight. He, he was one of the best. It's why he's in Canastota, New York in the hall of fame.

We'll see if, if he plays a role at any point in this telecast here on Saturday night, showing up in the corner of his son, Luke topic four, we'll stay with boxing here in the Showtime pay-per-view that really has the combat sports world buzzing. It's April 22nd, Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena, but a two-day coast-to-coast press tour for Gervonta Tank Davis, King Ryan Garcia, Wednesday in Times Square, you and I. Yesterday, it was in Beverly Hills. Ariel Hawani joined me in MK Studios to round out that action. But, Luke, we saw a matchup that's already so good on paper.

They're a combined 51-0 with 45 KOs. They're 28 and 24 years old. They're undefeated. We can talk ad nauseum about the crossover potential here. Forget that. Okay. Forget that. Let's talk about the growing beef between one another, because, you know, I thought, I thought that you could, you could flip the coin on, on who won if there's a winner in both days of the press conferences, because we saw a Ryan Garcia who was not happy that Tank Davis took his time showing up on Wednesday, allowing you and I to vamp for, you know, almost record levels of time there with some great guests.

But also there was a hold, it was a standoff Friday, Thursday, excuse me, where Ryan Garcia wouldn't leave his balcony in the hotel to come down until he was assured Gervonta Davis was there. That spilled over into a money face-off to kick off Thursday's press conference. Before I get your reaction, let's just watch this. This was Thursday at the start. Security promoters were not there, and we almost lost them. I don't understand. My understanding is, and I don't know this for California, but certainly in Nevada,

the promoter has to stand between them for any kind of face-off. Maybe California is different. So, you know, Ariel and I debated this yesterday. I loved it at the same venue, by the way, when Canelo Alvarez and Kayla Plant, the head of their Showtime pay-per-view tilt, had the same scenario. Nobody holding them back, and, you know, they landed a punch, and, you know, Plant got caught. Luckily, it didn't hurt the fight. But I think that helped the promotion. And, you know, Luke, I like in fight promotion, go as close as you can to the fire.

Maybe get maybe get a little bit burnt. But as long as you're not ruining the fight, dude, I could I could eat this up all day. They touched each other's chins. It got it got, you know, jawing back and forth. Give me your reaction. Two days here of what we saw in the growing beef between them i'll say this uh i love gervonta's jacket there that leather jacket is nice that was sick because he showed up to us uh wednesday looking like he got dressed in hot topic in the dark i mean i didn't even know what he was doing with the other

we had the weird purse and the shiny shoes. Well, I was going to ask you, which purse you preferred? His green one on Wednesday or the blue one on Thursday? Seriously, can we pause here? Gervonta, you know I love you, man. You know what I mean? Is this cool? Is it okay to bring a purse to a press conference?

I don't understand this. It must be. I don't know what the fuck's cool. I don't have the faintest idea, so it must be i love the jacket the adequate jacket i'll say this you know both guys want to make the deal and i think both guys um they made it and they they realized the significance of it and they're excited they didn't have any real beef for the most part and i still think they don't they just have like competitive beef more than like see like plant and benavidez plant probably wishes benavidez you know something bad would happen to him in his life and vice versa like they really don't care if the other one has a terrible life i mean they just

dramatically hate that guy i don't quite get that sense between these two but the competitive fire between them which is why the fight got made to begin with spilled over in this particular exchange their face-off on Wednesday was very good the face-off yesterday was great I loved it and it continued during the actual press conference portion particularly when Ryan was at the podium Tank next to him and Luke Tank really started to go after him on you know you're not a complete fighter you got a left hand you got. You go, you don't have a right hand. You can't box. But almost to like a dismissive level where I started to question for the first time is Ryan in his head.

Cause Ryan had some, some good come. Actually, they both had good, sharp comebacks and on Thursday's press conference in Beverly Hills, but there was such a dismissive level. They actually had to tell tank to like, stop talking, like give, give Ryan his chance to finish that. There was such a dismissive level. They actually had to tell Tank to stop talking, give Ryan his chance to finish. Did you think that, not saying get in his head to necessarily a negative level, but he got pissed off. He's feeling the confidence of Ryan Garcia at the very least up to this point.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of his opponents are much like, okay, so for example, let's take his last opponent, Hector Luis Garcia. Obviously, he didn't speak the language, and he did say some of that stuff on, remember he had a suit and he was next to everyone else. He was like, I look like a lawyer with my clients, and they didn't care for that too much. But in general, just didn't say a whole lot, was, you know, I'm here for the fight and blah, blah, blah.

And then Tank, we said it on Wednesday, right? Tank will respond to whatever energy Ryan Garcia gives him. And most opponents are fairly, as I mentioned, demure. But Garcia wasn't Garcia is brimming with confidence brimming with we talked about it on Wednesday right PC it's not smart to be like I'm going to prove the haters wrong but it is smart to lean into your competitive desire for big challenges especially when there's big money involved and then big reward and and right now I mean Ryan Garcia is, convinced he's going to beat

tank Davis and Gervonta, I think is incredulous at this, uh, and is almost having a hard time believing it, but, um, probably is equally convinced he's going to do the same to Ryan. So, well, if you want a more detailed look at their mindsets here, I encourage you to go to the Showtime sports YouTube channel and check out our interviews, which have been pulled separately from the stream with both Ryan Garcia and Tank Davis, where they talked at length about each other. I want to play a couple of pieces of sound from here. This is Tank Davis talking to us somewhat dismissively about how good he actually thinks Ryan is. And Luke, I want to preface that by saying him and Calvin Ford, they've straight up said, look, Ryan's hungry. We know, you know, hunger was with the

mixture of speed and power brings danger, but he has been very dismissive about the skills. Let's hear Gervonta's thoughts on, on Ry guy. Thank you. You said if there's a difference between the two of you, ultimately April 22nd, when you meet in the ring T-Mobile arena, that it would be the dog that you have inside of you. And we've seen that played out before in big time fights. Skills wise, though, is he on your level? You know that. I got to ask you that.

OK, no one cares about my. No, I don't think skill wise he's on my level, but things can change. I don't want to be this. I don't want to be like guy that's like, I'm so above people, you know what I mean? I gotta still respect him as a fighter. But again, as a fighter, I feel as though he's not

on my level as far as skill. Luke, would you say that that's true, or that that is you know, big brothering the younger fighter here? I think Tank is more skilled yes um in general like who is more who has who's more well-rounded um and who can do things a little bit more nimbly not so much with obviously garcia's left hook is amazing but um we talked about it before ryan has a problem fighting in

straight lines, and Tank is good at angles, at angling off and accepting pressure. His IQ, Luke. His IQ is underrated. His accuracy is excellent. His shot selection is excellent. His timing is really good. Now, Ryan's got a lot of those things, too.

Up to this, and also I'll say this. I think there's been complaints about both guys' resumes. Like, you haven't fought anyone great yet. this is obviously the toughest guy either one has fought so in some ways we'll get a little bit of that criticism to go away but I do think Tank has fought better competition now not every time not all the time but you know he's fought bigger guys like Mario Barrios Garcia has better pedigree than maybe not Fortuna but um you know like Fortuna was kind of like long in the tooth when he fought Garcia so I do think Tank has fought better guys this is what I'm trying to say I mean look Ryan's got one very good win and that's Luke

Campbell who he got up off the deck and knocked out and sent into retirement Tank's got wins over Jose Pedraza a stoppage for a right? Leo Santa Cruz by spectacular knockout. Right. Up in weight against Barrios, a champion moving up who was hungry in Hector Garcia, you know, on and on across the way. But yes, there has been some criticism of Tank of like, fight guys your size, do this. Well, look, he's fighting a guy who's significantly taller than him, might be faster than him. But, you know, it's going to be up to Ryan Garcia to raise his game.

And I thought our interview with Joe Goosen really showed some insight to some of the things they're working on, but let's go to Ry guy. Luke, when we sat down with him to frame it, it was while we were all waiting on tank. Now I've heard different things. Tank told us I was training all night and I hadn't slept. And, you know, so I don't know if that means he was napping and he was late. Some said traffic as to why he's late. Some said he was at the barbershop.

Other people, Ariel is one of them who says, look, no, Tank was late because he wants to show Ryan that he's the true A-side. Either way, Rod Guy came out guns blazing when he sat with us. There's a lot of stipulations in there that show what kind of character he has, his integrity, and the will of a competitor he has. He doesn't have it. He doesn't have the heart of the champion. Look at him, how he the will of a competitor. He has. He doesn't have it. He doesn't have the heart of the champion. Look at him, how he represents himself as a champion. He's not even here. It's been over an hour.

I mean, there was like 46,000 people watching and I was here and he's still not here. So, I mean, you could take that as he's cool and whatnot. But in reality, if you look at the truth, it's unprofessional and it's pretty whack of a champion like himself. Look, he was spitting hate on the balcony the next day to Ariel, but in regards to the catch weight of 136 pounds, the rehydration clause, some of those things that we've seen, the A-side leverage, I do think that's part of the game. You want to become a pay-per-view star. History tells us you've got to play on the other guy's terms

and take the baton, take his audience, take his world title, take everything he's bringing. Yeah, dude, I mean, what do you want me to say? It's a move straight out of Mayweather Canelo. Like, go back and look at the restrictions Mayweather had on Canelo in terms of his size and what the weight was they had to get down to and rehydration. And you'd be like, oh, well, Floyd did that. I mean, it's a different scenario because Floyd was a very preeminent name and Canelo

was on the way up. These two guys are roughly the same level. So it's not the same in that sense. But like the A side mandating to the B side that, yeah, we're going to fight the same way, but there's going to be some restrictions around that. I understand Ryan's point. I get it. This is what the A side often does in boxing. If you're going to accept the terms, accept the terms, right? Remember Glovegate with Maidana and Mayweather where Floyd's like, you can't wear the Mexican horse hat or punching gloves. And remember, look, Pacquiao made De La Hoya come down late in age.

And that cost him De La Hoya tried to get Bernard Hopkins in their middleweight unification, undisputed title fight to come down two pounds. Behop did that. He got the win, right? You know, what did Oscar make Floyd do everything in their fight in oh seven.

Let's close with Ryan Garcia though. And something I've been building up to is this Luke, they both can knock each other out. There's a lot of excitement with that, but for Ryan Garcia, though, and something I've been building up to is this, Luke. They both can knock each other out. There's a lot of excitement with that. But for Ryan Garcia, he's got to level up his skills and really every key fundamental department if he's going to do the other way, which is get a decision over Tank Davis and outthink him and outmaneuver him. Here's Ryan Garcia talking about his own boxing game and really what he's going to try to

make a statement against the critics here in this fight, April 22nd. Everybody's looking for the hook, but you don't know where he's going to try to make a statement against the critics here in this fight April 22nd everybody's looking for the hook but you don't know where it's going you don't know if it's going to go to the head or the body or around the ear so yeah you could look for the hook but now that I have a a really good body shot it really helps my element of surprise you know me I'm I'm actually surprised I landed the same shot to Fortuna, which really opens up so many other doors for other shots, including the right hand. I actually have a strong right hand, and now my right hand is fully back. Yeah, Joe was just telling us the sparring partners are like, yo, everyone is thinking left hook.

My right hand's heavier. My left hook is sneakier. Which one knocks people out is the sneakier one. So this one has enough power to knock you out because it's so sneaky but this is heavier if you get hit with this even if you see it it hurts it's like what the hell you hit me with you know what i mean but this you won't see it it don't matter i don't care who you are you think you have the best left hook in boxing i mean there's a lot of people that have great left hooks. I think what I've seen, what you've seen in my fights,

you could have a very strong argument, I do. But a lot of people have good hooks, but mine seems to be knocking people out. It seems to work really well. Yeah. I mean, I'm actually surprised. I'm like, damn, did I even, I don't even think I hit him. Did I hit him? Like, do know, I was like, doom, and he just went out.

I'm like, dang, it is pretty like, doom. And he just went out. I'm like, dang. It is pretty sneaky, though. I'll give it that. I think what he's trying to say. Yeah. Left hook urgent care. Right hook WebMD. Luke, that's what he was trying to say.

Right. BC, hold on real quickly. I got an update here from, you know, Max Bretas. ESPN. I love Max Bretas. Yeah. So he is ranking New Haven pizza. I know this is out of the blue, but he just put it up.

Is this true? He says there's three places in new Haven. You got to try. I say three and a half, but yes. Yep. Pepe's. Yep.

Sally's. Yes. Modern. And then there's one called modern pizza. Are those as good as he says there is. Yeah. So here's the deal. So the long debate and look, they're trying right now. somebody has a bill in front of the legislator to make pizza the official

state food of connecticut to try to further attract tourism and look if you go down to worcester street in new haven you're gonna find real shit and it's it's tour it's a tourist trap but it's also authentic and real it was always pepe's against sally's they're next door to each other they're old school like one still only accepts cash you gotta trap, but it's also authentic and real. It was always Pepe's against Sally's. They're next door to each other. They're old school. Like one still only accepts cash. You got to wait outside forever. It's a small area.

Those are always the two that get the debate. And Pepe's has actually become a chain in recent years. They've got locations all over Connecticut. I don't recognize those chain locations. You got to go to the source, right? Pepe's is great. I've done it. I like Sally's better. But Modern of Late, which is not in the Worcester street area it's a couple blocks over i believe on state street that is the one that's

been coming on in recent years where the those that know that know that no right or like no that's really the one like pats versus gino's stakes in philly but everybody's like no the real philly one is that other one down the road i personally think it's a three and a half horse race because i came up on a place called bar in new haven it's right off the green and it's it's a bar restaurant nightclub type place and they have their i mean their mashed potato pizza their everything it's just i think that's in the debate as well but then again that's new haven style uh just look every year at the top 10 best pizza places in the in the country look uh countdown luke three to four will be in new haven every year on that list like not even freaking kidding okay it's uh countdown luke three to four will be in new haven every year on that

list like not even freaking kidding okay it's worth it luke but you gotta love that style new haven style is that thin crust sometimes charcoal oven can i get pizza can i get pizza with meth and hyperdermic needles on it in new haven or not is that a thing y'all do no they don't they don't they no longer serve that it was problematic but uh you know if you were gonna ask me though like where should i really go luke i would tell you don't go to the italians go to the greeks because they put more sauce cheese and grease on it okay and greek greek pizza is the real pizza where i come from my factory town okay luke mike's pizza palace you know dave portnoy got that number wrong when he was there okay better believe that.

Damn. And Luke, I hope you always tell me like, I don't know how to dress as a modern 43 year old man. I'm going to tell you, don't wear those jeans that right guy was wearing. Okay. Don't, don't do that. All right. Yeah. Again, I do.

You know, it's amazing. Everyone dressing like it's the nineties again, right? Baggy pants, shiny shoes, band t-shirts. It's like everyone is going to hot Topic again, and I hate it. I hate it. And, Luke, don't sleep on how dark and dirty Connecticut cities can be. You always think Connecticut's like country club, and I'm trying to show you. No, it's –

No one associates Connecticut with country club. Well, let's – Let's be very clear about that. Yes, they do. They do. They do around the world, Luke. It's because of the per capita income on the Gold Coast. I get it. But, you know, Mikey just referred to it as gun wave in New Haven. Don't forget, we got hard hit in New Britain, the dirty water in Waterbury. Look, OK, we got we got some some some places that can hold up. OK, you ever hear of a place in.

But do you have knife crime on par with Glasgow? That's really the issue. I don't. Did you ever hear of Bridgeport, Connecticut? They used to have this neighborhood called Father Panic Village. Luke, look it up one day, okay? If I'm not mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong, do you remember the band? It wasn't... Who was the band that had the song Mud Shovel

that Fred Durst discovered? Oh, I don't know. I mean, come on. The song that's like, it's been a while since i was stained that's stained dude isn't stained from like like new haven or waterbury or some richport i don't there are people in connecticut that i grew up with that love stained so that may exam that may explain it luke mikey's saying um mike are you saying stained is from connecticut i can't i can't

read that fast i don't know know. I think he is. Luke, would you argue that... I was talking about this with Bronstetter the other day. Because the 90s, you know, very underrated for music. Because, you know, hip-hop was insane. Grunge took over. And I even think that post-grunge period, we call it alternative rock, in the mid to late 90s...

You know, I still stand by it and play it all the time, but the late nineties turn toward limp biscuit, kid rock, and even stained Nickelback fucking puddle of mud. Like all that sort of like, what do we even call that early aughts rock scene? It sucks. The horn,

all that rock that Jay Aaron loves, like shine down Luke. He says the best band of all time, dude. Like when that stuff comes on the radio, dude, aughts rock scene it sucks the horn all that rock that jay aaron loves like shine down luke he says the best band of all time dude like when that stuff comes on the radio dude i can't click that shit fast enough watch the woodstock 99 doc to remind you how bad the the actual music of the moment was right not not chili peppers and those other legendary bands that played the music of the moment rock late 90s 2000 man you could well i mean no wonder why we were all sterile and i would say it's a little more early to mid 90s like woodstock 94 and a

little bit after that um but you know once once nirvana died i mean there were some good albums that came out afterwards but everything pre that is a little better than post that you got to go to britain dude you got to go to radiohead oh that's true that's true i'm at the american scene by the way our intrepid producer mikey more mile says stained is from springfield mass so okay that makes sense because the lead singer what was his name um aaron something he did he used to do solo shows in connecticut it would sell instantly people love that guy luke i never got into stained i've i've stained a few pair of dungarees in my time luke okay you better you better believe that hey luke you and my daughter there it is there it is

hey uh just a reminder though uh tank versus ryan first episode of all access is april 1st it's a saturday night uh this is going to be fun this is going to be a fun ride to get there all right luke thomas topic five we got some random quick hitters. Let's start right here. I think we call this boxing. Did you see after the Miami Heat game the other night? Jake Paul was walking out, and Floyd was there with his entourage, and we got a video of what happened next.

Is this TMZ here? So stupid. Let's go to the videotape here. What's going on? What's up, Floyd? I can have what I want. What you got with the camera? What's going on? What's up, Floyd? I can't have what I lost. What you have is a camera. No, you got cameras too.

So who you supposed to be? I'm just working, fam. What happened? You're not tough anymore since your loss? What happened since your loss? Yo, we gonna bust him up, guys? Yo, let's bust him up. Where you running, Jake?

Where you going since your fight? Since you lost? What's up, Jake? Where you going, Jake? Oh, he's running. He's running. Look at him. Jake Paul running, champ.

Why is he running? All right, enough of this bullshit. So, Luke, ultimately here, there was an alternate angle of that in which one of Floyd's guys did kind of step to him, and that's what led to Jake running. Jake came out a couple hours later with two tweets. Here it is. Floyd, if you want to fight one-on-one, we can do that,

but don't try to hop out of three cars with 25 dudes deep trying to jump me while I'm trying to enjoy my Wednesday night. Floyd will not see me one-on-one in a real fight. That's a fact. His team has hit my team numerous times to do one of the exhibitions. Now he ambushes me. Come see me in the ring. Real fight, no exhibition, robbing fans bullshit. I'm not going to pretend here like we're both like super excited about this idea. But if this ever happened, I got two questions for you. Jake Paul versus Floyd in a real catchweight boxing match, not an exhibition.

I don't even know if that's legally possible. A, could you actually sell this like legitimately? And B, do you think Floyd actually would be willing to take a real fight given the size difference against him? I don't think you care. I know you don't care. Don't give a fuck about any of this. Let me just say this.

If you're one of these people that watches this clip and you're like, oh, wow, Jake Paul really, you know, I mean, he didn't look great on this clip. Obviously, it's not like designed to make him look great. But if you think he was like the right move was to fist fight in the street, you're a fucking moron you're a moron like you're in you're like beyond the point of rational comprehension this is this means nothing this is stupid this is just honor culture bullshit it has nothing to do with the real world or anything else it's all nonsense and you know it's a good great litmus test if you looked at this you were like man they really got jake paul yes he doesn't look great on

the camera but like you know he's scared to fight you're a fucking idiot just to be super clear yeah i mean maybe oh yes they did oh yes they did dude yes they did well as much he reminds us floyd's bodyguards did beat up j Jake when he stole his hat at that time. Well, okay, but he reached for him, and that was all close quarters, and everyone was on top of each other. Yes, melees happen in that way or something. And someone might say, right, but this is all designed to set up some kind of future fight, which it might be, too. One never even knows anymore. I just cannot believe some of the attitudes of being like, well, you're a fighter.

You've got to fight there. Motherfucker, what are you what what year are you from 1873 like what are you talking about okay i don't think anybody educated is really taking that stance though okay um i hope i hope but look i i know i i get that you don't care i get but luke the difference between floyd exhibition fight against Logan was that Logan had what, like one fight or two fights before that. And it was an exhibition, but still Floyd, I think it was a harder fight than he thought it would be. He said he'd never fight again after that. Well, he's been doing exhibitions every day. Just the other day, Floyd said on Twitter that he's going to do like five more exhibitions this year in different countries, fighting Jake in a real

fight is different because Jake has some level of experience although I get in the boxing world the loss to Tommy Fury is sort of damning to the idea that he's a real fighter but one of these days Floyd's going to sign on for something that's a bridge too far when he's a little bit too old I don't think he takes this in any circumstance in a real fight isn't there some potential there that like this could go bad because jake is like he has a punch to him luke i mean when logan actually tried to unload on floyd it was comical right yeah i mean it was comical uh he won with he won by surviving with defense one like i say win but like it was like floyd like routinely stole on him you know what i mean yeah you know but flake, he's not doing this fight, Luke.

It's not happening. Why are we talking about it? Let's move on. I don't know. I don't know. You know what's going to be a real fight? Davidson Figueredo, your former UFC flyweight champion, moving up to Bantamweight. He talked with Trococo Franca.

Is that a name of a podcast or a person, Luke? That's the podcast done by Guillerme Cruz of MMA Fighting. I'm sorry for mispronouncing that. Here it is this is what figueredo said i'll go up and represent i won't be just another one in the bantamweight division i'll fight the best no doubt about it i respect anybody there they were all excellent fighters but i'm going there to do 100 my 100 i've talked to my manager and we came to the conclusion that dominic cruz would be a great fight for a first one at 135.

Former champ. I'm a former champ. That would be great. Are you in? Yeah, I'll take that. Okay. I like that type of matchmaking. I do in a lot of ways, in a lot of ways, to be fair,

because I'm not expecting a ton out of Figueredo with the size difference in the age here. In the age, right. But I'm excited to see if he comes out guns blazing. If he's just like, look, this, you know, is he going to pull a Chandler right now at Bantamweight? Also, like, I just don't like Figueredo's chances at Bantamweight long-term, but that's a winnable fight. That's a winnable fight, you think?

And you're like, oh, well, Dominic's old. So was Figueredo. Figueredo's not young. So yeah, I'd be okay with that. Okay, let's go to quick fight announcements, and you just tell me whether you had any movement, Luke, either way. All right? Okay, all right.

June 3rd, UFC fight night. Mary Bueno Silva is going to take on a returning Misha Tate. This is really happening, Luke. I saw that. Yeah, that's um uh what weight class is that do we have the weight class for that where did silva fight her last fight at i don't have information on that i haven't even heard this bit of news yeah i will tell you i saw this the other day so let's see in her last fight she fought lena landsberg and against lena landsberg that fight was at bantamweight um and again before

that Stephanie Egger and that fight was also I believe let's see here yes that was bantamweight as well so didn't Tate tell us after tell the world after the Murphy loss that she that 125 just debilitated her uh yes and I think she said she was ready for a you know she wasn't done with this comeback after that you know for whatever year absence it was i bantamweight i think it's a better opportunity for misha um the and she can still wrestle certainly um but i don't know like she's long in the tooth at this point and just didn't look great at 125 but i think this one's winnable for her and i'd be curious to see what she has

left in the proper weight class so yeah cosmetically she has fine teeth luke to be fair but let's see you want to go out on your own terms here luke if you you got to win this to stay alive here but yeah bantamweight can be can be low i'd like to see her change the nickname though back to takedown and just really work off that style luke you know what i'm saying fair enough strike force all right i'll this got me excited may 6th ufc 288 pay-per-view is that the miami pay-per-view i think no that's the sorry that's the the newark new jersey pay-per-view correct yes cinco de mayo weekend there may 6th hey remember we mentioned crone gracie the other day and we're like man i'd love to see that guy back

so would the ufc charles air jordane lu Luke this matchup rules love it um Jordan is certainly much more well-rounded we think and we probably have good reason to believe he's been much more active um although he's had some you know some setbacks along the way too with crone it seems like jujitsu or bust and if he can get the back it's probably lights out for jorda but uh crone looked not great against cub swanson and we haven't seen him fucking since so but would you say see this was an argument you and i had after that fight and people made fun of my my takes on it but crone decided to strike with cub the whole fight like it wasn't in his skill set or his strength and he went for it do you see him also coming back with more of a realistic focus

on the ground game or luke how much could he have improved that striking game what the hell has crone gracie been doing has he been in the gym working on that craft he may come back and surprise the absolute bags out of you i don't think he will and. And the reason why is, I think he'll come back better maybe, or certainly like a better version of what we saw the last time. That seems like not unreasonable. He does train hard, and he's obviously very gifted as a grappler. But you gotta remember, Krohn has this, like,

he has one of the last Gracie's to inherit this idea that, like, you know, you still gotta win with Gracie jiu-jitsu, and, you know, he's still horse stomping into like takedowns rather than like, you know, setting them up off level changes and whatnot. As long as he's committed to the ideology that it's Gracie Jiu-Jitsu or bust, he's not long for the UFC.

Interesting take from Luke Thomas. You might be right. Finally, the same night, May 6th, Nate Maness is how he pronounces it, Luke. So, like, can you get that right, please? Against Zalgis Zumagulov. I probably got that wrong, but do you like this fight, Luke? Yeah, that guy I thought had retired

because he had been at the rough end of poor decision-making, or at least suspect decision-making a lot of times. He's well-rounded. Nate is... That's a good matchup. I don't have a strong opinion

one way or the other, but yeah, it's a finerounded. Nate is, that's a good matchup. I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other, but yeah, it's a fine fight. Okay. Recently ass-tatted former boxing heavyweight title challenger, Artur Spilka, you know, of Polish fame. He's going to take on a Polish legend in a different sport. It's called MMA, Luke. It's KSW Coliseum II, and that legend is Pooja Mariusz Pujanowski.

I didn't think in the year of our Lord, 2023, that we'd be seeing a MMA match between him and Archer Spilka, but it has been a long time since Deontay Wilder nearly decapitated him. Luke, will you get some curious interest in this come whenever it is? I don't have a date. A little bit. I'd catch the a date. I don't know. A little bit. I'd catch the replays on social media. Yeah.

I mean, KSW really owns that Polish market. Pudzianowski has been literally and figuratively huge for them. And for folks who don't know Spilka, he was the guy that I think you mentioned, obviously, that Deontay Wilder sent to the land of wind and ghosts. It makes sense for their brand. It makes sense for their market. It makes sense for their market. It'll be sloppy and stupid as long as it lasts.

So, you know, count me in. That May 6th weekend is always a big one in both the sporting world with the Kentucky Derby, championship boxing, playoffs in the NBA and NHL, usually Yankees, Red Sox, and baseball. Well, Luke, in fighting this year, we're going to get Canelo back probably against John Ryder, although that's not official. We're going to get that Newark May 6th UFC pay-per-view event. And down in Japan, Mojo Rizin.

It's Rizin 42, Luke, in Tokyo. How about this? Kai Asakura versus Yuki Matoa. Naoki Inoue against Juan Archuleta. Roberto Satoshi against Spike Carlisle. You can move up and down there and see John Dodson on the card, Luke. Some man called Yaman is going to fight a custom rules bout against Koita Mayura. If I say any more names, I'll mispronounce them badly.

Does this move you at all? Because you and I have debated in the past about whether we're moved by risen events. And to be fair, it was a very regrettable debate. I'll say that. I do like this again. I don't think it's a game changer. This is more about appealing to the Japanese market, but this infusion of some talent,

that's not typically associated with rising. Obviously some names were Kai Asakura. The Asakura brothers are a big deal over there, but you know, you mentioned Roberto, well, Roberto Stoshis certainly, but you know,

Spike Carlisle being in there. Juan Archuleta being in there. These are guys who are, in the case of Archuleta, talented and I think brings the fight to an extent. At least smartly, but brings the fight at a high pace. Spike Carlisle, I thought your description of him was the best. He's one of the most fun TV fighters you can book in MMA. Yeah, I like that. Those are fun. All right. Well, Luke, you can get good and you can get, I like that. Those are fun. All right. Well, Luke, you know, you can

get good and you can get bad in this game, particularly in the boxing world when unfortunately Spence Crawford doesn't get made when we're at the doorstep. The injury to Amanda Serrano will postpone a Katie Taylor rematch we can't wait for. And if you were hoping Alexander Usyk and Tyson Fury were going to fight for

all four heavyweight world titles soon, not looking good apparently. So here's the deal. Yesterday Ander Usyk and Tyson Fury were going to fight for all four heavyweight world titles soon. Not looking good, apparently. So here's the deal. Yesterday, Usyk's team came out and said publicly, we're trying to make this fight. But as we see things right now, we're pretty close to walking away. So here's the deal, Luke. At some points, it was felt that they had agreed to some level of a 50-50 split.

That has since gone away. According to Team Usyk, Tyson Fury is saying 70-30 split financially in his direction or the fight doesn't happen. This is an opinion that he doubled down upon on a recent social media video. Let's throw to that right now. Here's the Gypsy King. All this talk of boxing fights, they want 50%. Usyk's an all-orless. Tyson's being greedy. Gypsy King. you'll do what the copper box and get a few million dollars you want to make some real money come and fight the gypsy king but i will say for every day from today that you linger mess around i'm going to deduct one percent from the 30 so every day i'm going to deduct one percent until

you take it and if you don't take it if i do buy for two million. Not a problem. But how in the world could Jews ever offer me a deal? Not possible. TikTok, TikTok, pussies. So Tyson has one of four recognized titles. Usyk has all three from the two-fight series with AJ. But we talked before about Tank and Ryan. Somebody's got to be the A-side to potentially have leverage. How do you rate the decision-making here?

Because, like, look, is he afraid of Usyk? No, but there's no question Tyson has other options and Ganu's out there. You know what I mean? He wants to fight Anthony Joshua. He wants to fight Joe Joyce in big domestic fights. Is this an understandable stance business-wise from such a big star?

Gives me the sense he doesn't want the fight. I don't know that. Can't prove it. Just an opinion. Just a hunch. No more than that. But the more this goes on, I become less and less convinced he really wants that. I do agree that even though he's got the one belt and Usyk's got the other three,

promotionally, it would not make sense to have Usyk versus Fury. It would make much more sense to have Fury versus Usyk. It's just going to sell a lot more that way. He is the much, much, much bigger star than Usyk. I don't think you can really count that out and discount that. And to the extent that this fight makes any money, it's going to make money. Yes, because of the history and everything else and the significance and the four belts. And we've talked about that that ad nauseum but it's going to be a spectacle because of tyson fury that's really what the reality is here so i understand his leveraging but i don't know i just don't come away from any of these things get in the sense that he's like desperate to make this fighter really wants it yeah do your point other options and i think he's like yeah if it happens great if

it doesn't great too and that puts us in a weird spot and i do think team music knowing a bit peripherally about being around them luke um i don't think they're going to give in i mean i i would hope as a boxing fan that they would but you're asking a guy who's in usic who's undefeated was the undisputed champion of cruiserweight now is doing monster things gold medalist all that i think they have too much pride to say we're going to come in with three belts and you want us to take 30 just because this will be my biggest payday i i i have bad feelings and unfortunately luke in our in boxing like it's like but look is the narrative that boxing is dead that constantly resurfaces overplayed and not true yes but we still have these problems here we we still have these problems here. We still legitimately have these problems here.

Boxing is not dead, but it is definitely dysfunctional. Right? Definitely. Finally, under the terms of quick hitters, Luke, you know my guy Big Tuna, Ben Parrish from Arkansas, you remember when he went to Bellator in his debut, and who did he knock out? Big upset win. That was against Edwards edwards right i'll

look it up while you do that i don't remember either well luke you know um ben ben parish is coming off a loss to sullivan collie and bella tour he was a a surprise attraction there with that big upset but his story his persona hisiveness, they're coming back Friday, March 24th under the LFA banner. Niagara Falls, New York, LFA 155. Your featured attraction at 205, Big Tuna Ben Parrish versus Glory kickboxer Joe Taylor. Are you in, Luke, Friday night, May 24th? Always in for Big Tuna. Big fan of him.

I know you are as well. You're right. He had the win over Christian Edwards and then the loss to Sullivan Cauley. Sullivan Cauley, surprisingly, has some pretty good ground and pound. So that, to me, is not that devastating a loss in terms of a good name you fought. So we'll see how he does against Joe Taylor, but I'm always happy to see Big Tuna back. One of the much more unique personalities in the sport.

And yeah, we like them over here. Yeah. He shouted this out there on Instagram yesterday and always, always a big fan there. Look, let's close here in terms of setting the weekend straight by setting our picks in order.

We do a new segment called okay, bet where you and I go head to head every week, five picks in which we pick the biggest main event an upset choice a favorite to win an over under in terms of which fight will either go the distance or not i know that's not really over under but that's what we're calling it and obviously the final one which is a little bit of a bonus at times if you can nail it perfectly pick a fight and tell me whether it ends in KO or submission. Our updated standings after last week.

We talked about this on Monday. You went 3-2. I went 2-3 after some heartbreaking losses. Our updated standings. Luke Thomas 18-11. I am seven picks back at 11-18. But Luke, if you can remember where I started from, I'm going to tell you this. I think you hear me knocking, and I think I'm coming in.

You know, like an STD, Luke, you dabble in that area. Can't avoid it. You can't keep me away from this. I'm coming for it. Can we start this two hours in? Can we start this? I'm sorry. We should hurry up. You're right. We should hurry hurry up i learned that in that great gsp debate no all right what

you what you what you misunderstood was there's a time to hit the gas when it matters and a time to hit the brakes when it matters and you can well i regularly welcomed your exit into the connecticut pizza debate luke can you regularly entertain my absolute bullshit here okay because it's all i got all right that's fair that's fine uh luke thomas you have champions advantage are you going first or second today uh i'll go first i don't feel very great about these picks but we're gonna do our best with them so for we go main event first if i'm not mistaken uh so we we have a rule obviously uh we can't you can't have someone who's got like a eight minus eight billion favorite and pick them for your main event numerica made off is the minus you know whatever it was favorite, so he's out.

So we had to go to the UFC. Or I guess you could have done boxing too, I suppose. But in this case, we went with MMA. I'm going to pick Jan over Diwalish Wheatley. Now, it's close. I do think that Murab has, we talked about it, his cardio is such a problem for everybody but Jan is so skilled I would be surprised if he suffers yet another loss back to back to back or whatever

it is at this point um and I just feel like BC he's got too many ways to win too many ways to win you know what's coming there's no elevation factor here Jan should win I agree with you fully I think that of anyone who's got three losses in four fights this is the most deceiving to a large degree in that obviously the DQ is his fault Aljo had a great night in the rematch and won it no one's necessarily arguing that although there's a few truthers out there um I love Murab Davalishvili but the Jan has too many ways to win and the reason why we went away from that Bellator main event is ultimately because we're both going to pick Usman Nurmagomedov. It turns out, Luke, we are both picking Peyote or Jan in this one.

I almost pulled the trigger on Murab, but I've got to go with the chalk here because I believe in this guy to get back in that title picture. Luke, the second category we always do is pick a favorite anywhere across the combat sports world world minus 300 and under or so who you got this week yeah we mentioned him before he's taking on Jonathan Martinez I'm gonna go Saeed Nurmagomedov Martinez I think started a little bit slow or not super impressive all that much in his UFC run early he was beating good names but you know he's getting a lot of decisions and then finally he fought Cub Swanson and he put him away with leg kicks he's devastating in that way but I just

feel like a guy like Nurmagomedov is going to be able to wrap up with him control him not be at the same kind of mercy and he is favorite to win not heavily because Martinez is vastly improved but I like Saeed Nurmagomedov among my favorites who fit the criteria to get his hand raised on Saturday minus 245 according to Caesars, is your favorite Saeed. Jonathan Martinez was very tough. Plus 205. That should be a very good fight. Luke going the direction of MMA is winning his family at this point. Let's be fair about that. Whether they're related or not, Luke, you got a Magomedov in your name, dude. You're Nirmagomedov, Magomed, Magomed, Karimov. I mean, look, people win with those names. Okay. My favorite though,

is going to go to that slop fest on that Bellator undercard. Light heavyweights are going to bang. Minus 180. Lithuania, we back, baby. Julius and Glitskis continuing on in the combat fames and the precedents set by me, Rosnami Yunus, Arvita Sabonis. Okay? Lithuanian pride.

Davlitsan Yaksimurdov, it's at Bellator 292 luke this is a very even flip the coin fight they're gonna throw punches uh i just think anglitzkis has shown us that just a little bit more in his steps up to better competition uh i like him to get the edge by decision here as my favorite let's go to upset pick me a winner here luke well this one i don't feel great about but i'm trying to trying to like you know see where I could you know find the right one I don't feel super confident about it but I'm gonna pick Rafael Sonsa over gravy excuse me Davey Grant the odds are very close because if you look them up I

don't have them in front of me I think that's like plus or minus 100 in either direction Davey Grant did get the win over Luis Smolka in his last bout, but he has lost to Adrian Yanez and Marlon Vera, and you're like, well, okay, but those guys are really, really good, and he took Yanez to a split decision. Still, Asuncao is crafty. He is hittable, and I do think the speed might be a bit of a problem for him. It's close, man. It's close, but I just wonder if this guy is crafty enough to get another closely contested, kind of smothering win, slowing the fight down a little bit we shall see i'm going to take a bit of a flyer on a sunset davy grant minus 140 plus 110 the veteran a sunset should be a good one i like that pick indeed let's go to my underdog luke and it's that heavyweight

fight that i love the co-main event of ufc vegas this weekend from the virgin hotels remember i'm taking alexander vol Volkov plus 130. Luke, I've ridden this train before and I've fallen off of it. Alexander Romanov has the larger upside for sure. I expect him to be in better shape and I expect him to look to grind with that wrestling. But people don't tend to physically dominate Volkov. Okay, and so Tom Aspinall went in there and subbed him out of nowhere. Yes, I get that.

That's a breakthrough performance. I think Volkov is still only 34. He's going to be able to keep some distance. He's going to be able to get up off the ground too eventually. I like his ability here as the underdog to take a flyer on the more skilled fighter to try to pick him apart, teach him a few things from distance,

and get a surprise. I don't know if it's a surprise. It depends what side of the tracks you're on between this battle of Alexanders. I'm going Volkov plus 130. All right, so for over-under, I'm going to take the over, meaning I think it's going to go the distance between Tafik Musaev and Alexander Shabli, and here's why I'm going to say that. Both of these guys are very devastating.

We're talking about two guys who can strike who can wrestle who can who got good experience beating other high level guys like these these two are legit but I also feel like they're going to cancel each other out a little bit because it's going to be hard to land on the other guy they're going to take not no risk I think there's going to be risk involved but not as much and so there might be a clear winner one guy might get a little bit more beaten up than the other in the end hell obviously either these guys can ko anybody but i have a feeling that because it is so tough and they are so closely matched this one's going to go the distance hard to say but that's my pick yeah let me go to bellator 292 i'm taking the over it will go the distance

three rounds linton vissell valent, Valentin Moldavsky. We're going to see a wrestle fest here, Luke. We're going to see a nice bounce back performance from Moldavsky, but he's going to win it by decision. It will go the distance. I feel like that's a layup and I'm taking it. Okay. Yeah, that's a layup, but I almost went that one too.

I think you're right. That's probably the other one I would have gone with for sure. All right. So for KO or sub, you got to pick one fight. I'm doing a TKO slash KO or sub. Now, BC, let me clarify the rules here. What if the fight I'm about to pick ends in KO and I picked TKO?

Does that count? Yeah, it's TKO or KO, which they're both knockouts, right, in the name, or a submission. You don't have to pick the fighter. You have to pick the fight and the stipulation. Okay, so I'm going to go with the KO side for Krylov's span. I just have a hard time seeing how that one goes the distance.

Obviously, any fight could. We were there last week when you had picked Garbrandt to the Garbrandt. Who was he fighting? I forget. Trevin Jones. Yeah, to not go the distance. I was like, that's a great pick, and then sure enough, it goes the distance. But here, guys who both make a lot of mistakes,

one guy who's heavy-handed, another guy who's a very good striker, aggressive, it just seems like that one's destined for a finish. Could be in the submission side. I'm going to guess it'd be a strike, so that's my pick. All right, Showtime Boxing is my sub-KO pick, Luke. There's no subs in Showtime these days on the boxing side, but I'm taking the KO. Your analysis of what could happen here in Zoo Harrison,

I felt was perfect. It's the same preview that Tim Zoo ultimately gave me, but I think it's true. Can Tony Harrison win this one? Absolutely. Does he have the power to win this one by knockout? And if he does, I still get this right. Absolutely.

But Tim Zoo is going to put on that pressure throughout and as crafty as Tony Harrison is, even if he's up on the rounds like he was against both Swift Hurd and Jermell Charlo when he lost by knockout to both. I feel this is inevitable on Australian soil that Tim zoo gets his breakout moment by stoppage, welcoming Jermell Charlo, all four belts, maybe July. We'll see what happens. Those are our five picks up and down Luke for okay.

Bet I've down seven to you. You've been, you've been the leader in this game but there's still time for you to show up at like a weird jazz fusion concert event with the cameras there still time all right we shall see we shall all right we close quickly here with two dead wrongs luke we know that email morning combat at gmail.com allows you the fan to say look guys you know you guys are okay like i subscribed to you but that opinion you had that fact you tried to portray those clothes that hair i did dye my hair look am i looking younger did i do i turn to the side other side yeah it's not bad that's not bad that's not bad my wife didn't notice and i'm like i'm doing this for you okay

okay i love you. What about my hair dye? You like my hair dye? Yeah, it's great. It's called Dead Wrong. And you better have a receipt. Okay? Yeah.

Dead Wrong. There you go. All right. We've got angry male viewers. Yes, we do. Let's talk. Let's hear from Wes. On Monday's show, I should have corrected this in real time.

Damn it. Luke referred to Bush Light as Beast Light. But the term Beast refers to Milwaukee's best beer, not Bush. I know because that's the cheap shit my dad used to drink, says Wes.

P.S. Hope you laughed at the Predator Insta post I tagged you in, Luke. Did you laugh at Wes's post? I don't know if I saw it, unfortunately, maybe. Wes, you might be blocked and you just don't know it. No, he's not blocked. He might be. Who knows?

But I'll take that L. He's right. Fuck, I can't believe. Boy, you got BC. It's time to revoke my fraternity card. Because you shouldn't have ever been in a college fraternity and not know that. But sure enough, I fucked that one up. So, yeah, that's an L.

I drank a lot of Beast Light in my time in the early 2000s the sad dude look my saddest days there was beast light in my hand my vet like the extreme sad days you know yeah well you ever had an nyc uh the nyc or excuse me the nypd ever wake you up with a nightstick because you were sleeping on some stranger's doormat oh i didn't go there no yeah that happened to me wow wow uh but if you're drinking beast light there there's a there's probably a reason luke i i mean have you ever had a credit card with a 300 limit and you maxed it out buying a case of bud can because i did that in my early 20s a lot luke okay i had some bad moments i've had some i'll tell you this i've never here's my one here's the one piece of shit move

I've actually never done I've never shoplifted at a liquor store I've never shoplifted Now I've shoplifted many other places But I always felt like I gotta pay for this This is I'm not big on shoplifting Well I have run out on it before

Shoplifting is great Let's just be very real about that I don't know about that I always feel like every bad thing My friend Bogo and I always say this. Every bad thing that happened to us after Game 7 of the 2001 World Series was because we walked out on that bill after the Yankees lost. You know what I mean, Luke? I feel like that.

But that's not shoplifting. That's just dine and dash. That's different. That's shoplifting. It's just the same. Somebody had to cover that in their tips, and I feel bad. Whoever that girl is out there, I'm sorry. Dude, but if you're shoplifting inventory It's just the same. Somebody had to cover that in their tips, and I feel bad. Whoever that girl is out there, I'm sorry.

Dude, but if you're shoplifting inventory from the store owner, that's not the same as, like, taking money from the person who waited on you at a table. That's not quite the same. What about stealing jokes, Luke? What about Dennis Leary? Is that shoplifting? It's a certain kind of.

Yeah, it's bad. What about stealing takes yeah yeah yeah yeah all right there we go finally this is kevin sliding in hey guys so luke i love you but wow i'm not even sure how to write this dead wrong because i think luke had a stroke when he was making his arguments on monday oh i read this email hold on he sent me this email by the way everything you're almost everything you're about to read is also wrong. I had a back and forth with this guy,

so I'm going to correct it at the end, but feel free to read his very wrong. All right, Kevin says, Luke even said he looked this up and did the math before the show. So first Luke was saying that his opponent's average age was 29 for GSP and 32 for John.

So he's trying to argue that GSP fought more guys in their prime, I think, even though 32 is definitely still prime. But then he goes on to say that the first guy GSP and 32 for John. So he's trying to argue that GSP fought more guys in their prime, I think, even though 32 is definitely still prime. But then he goes on to say that the first guy GSP fought in his 20s was Condit, which I think he's trying to say the guys he fought were old. I don't know. Anyways, this statement was very incorrect.

He fought BJ Penn in 09 when BJ was 29. He fought Tiago the same year when he was 26. He fought Dan Hardy the next year when Hardy was 27. I was so confused like BC during the show. I honestly don't know what Luke was trying to argue. It was all over the place. You need to go back and rewatch the show around the 21 minute mark. Luke Thomas, do you have anything to say about the stroke you had on air on Monday?

Because it wasn't virtually none of what you didn't. Here's the thing. You didn't answer the question. You were the one that said GSP's resume was better, not me all I did was ask you to explain it I didn't say his resume was better because he has losses on it I said his strength of schedule was tough strength of schedule, which is close

but the point is, you said that and I'm just sort of like, wait that's not an impossible statement but I needed it explained. You didn't explain it. All right. So let me cop to two things to back up a step here. One, I did a poor job of arguing for it.

I'll acknowledge that up front. I was so focused on just the conversation around Matt, Sarah, and what that loss to me signifies for their resumes that when when you asked me, I just kind of, my brain just, I didn't have a great answer. So I will admit that. What this guy is talking about is mostly wrong. Now here's the one part, in addition to like as a broader statement, like what I got, I didn't do a good job of arguing, but what he misunderstands, this is the one part I got wrong.

St. Pierre has two pairs of fights back-to-back where the opponents were 20-somethings. So a 20-something, 20-something, then a bunch of 30-year-olds, then a 20-something, 20-something. I had said that the first guy that St. Pierre had fought who wasn't in his 30s was Condit. That is not correct. The first one was, I believe, Dan Hardy, and then I think, no, excuse me, Thiago Alves,

and then Dan Hardy. So the two pairs of 20-somethings are believe, Dan Hardy, and then I think, no, excuse me, Thiago Alves, and then Dan Hardy. So the two pairs of 20-somethings are Alves-Hardy, and then the other one are Condit-Diaz. I mixed those two up, but he didn't listen because what I had said was we're talking about just title fight opponents, right? And when St. Pierre fought Penn for a title, St. Pierre was 30 years, excuse me, Penn was 30 years old, right? So the, he only fought four guys in their twenties, two pairs. It was, as I indicated, Alves and Hardy, and then Condit and Diaz. Those are the ones I had mentioned.

So the only part about that I had really fucked up was I said, it was Condit. It's actually Alves. This guy thought I was talking about all their opponents in terms of their age just okay but title fight opponents that's even that point though the so essentially what you're trying to say which i tried to basically say is this what you're trying to say that that the argument you were using ultimately is that gsp's resume or quality of competition or whatever you want to say even as champion is slightly better and that's it can only be slightly because we're talking about two legends here all-time greats that it was because he had fought i guess in theory younger more prime guys but if these guys in general that are below 30 or only like this guy said 27 28 29 that doesn't

always be an advantage guys a lot of times suffer losses early and they're a lot better at 32 and 33 than they are sometimes guys like you know you kept going back to tiago alves i'm not here to say tiago alves wasn't dangerous and great up to the point of fighting gsp in 2009 he was borderline unstoppable and he was but my whole point is like a lot of guys look unstoppable in their 20s then suffer a first loss and not everybody ever can regain that dude to me john fought the best competition like by far so what's your real because I don't think that's the reason to say well his guys were younger I mean that's relative changes that argument yeah again so again I did such a poor job and there's so many different elements to this just to be clear BC between you and I I am not arguing that because they are

younger uh relatively speaking for the title fights, the argument is not that there's a three-year gap, the St. Pierre ones are 29, which they are, and then the ones for John for title fights are 32, which they are. Those numbers are correct. It's that I was just sort of making a point that in general,

I think if you're getting high-level MMA fighters who are ready for title shots in their mid to late 20s versus their early to mid 30s, in general, that's going to confer a little bit more difficulty over the course of time. It's not that in every case, if one guy was 25 and one guy was 32, by definition, because he's younger, that makes it more difficult. That's sort of not my point. It's sort of a broad stroke idea. That's the first part about it. And as I indicated, same thing I told you before,

like Rashad was 32 when he fought John, but he had like a 17 and one record heading into that fight. And it just whooped up on Phil Davis on Fox, like controlled Phil Davis for five rounds. So like that was a hot Rashad Evans when John got him. I understand that. I made a point yesterday about looking at some of the wrestling. So for example, you can look at guys like DC and Bader. They have great credentials

in wrestling. Fair enough. But then of course you add in Hendricks, you add in Matt Hughes, you add in Josh Koscheck, and then some of the sub names you got below that, like a Fitch who went to Purdue, Jake O'Brien also went to Purdue, but Jake O'Brien wasn't nearly the level of fighter that John Fitch was. So they both have the same wrestling credentials, but one is just a much superior guy with way more well-rounded skills. Same thing with Brendan Vera. He has ODU. He wrestled Greco Roman.

It just didn't show up as his career went on as a fighter, as being a reasonable tool. Contrast that with a guy like Sean Shirk, who did not really wrestle collegiately. That guy gave Matt Hughes, a two-time All-American fits when they fought, and that's not a title fight opponent that GSP had. The point I'm trying to illustrate to you is that over time, I think if you just looked at the wrestling capabilities of the guys that GSP had, yes, Cormier and Bader, we can't say anything bad about their credentials. Nothing. They're great.

Hey, Kupchasen took John down too, okay? Exactly. But also add in Frank Trigg, who wrestled at Oak State and Oklahoma. I just feel like top to bottom, GSP had a slightly tougher road with guys who, in my estimation, were a little bit younger, a little bit more spry athletically, and were a little bit more time. Again, piece by piece, not necessarily the case. A little bit more wellry athletically and were a little bit more time not again piece by piece not necessarily

the case a little bit more well-rounded a little bit sturdier of a competition with some very noteworthy differences and uh differences in terms of john having tougher competition in certain ways along the way dude we're not far apart it's not a huge difference it's not i guess i just wanted to so your ultimate thing is the mixture of younger with a better pure wrestling base makes them more difficult i just don't want to get into a position like some people get into where they go well john's reach is so big you never beat a smaller fighter dude but you notice i don't say that you notice i don't say that i get that you make the way you make the way that's how that's how it works but all right i mean i disagree but look

there's a four-year stretch here where john fought 10 consecutive guys in order and beat ryan bader shogun hua rampage jackson leota machida all the shot evans vitor belfort chael sunnin alexander gustafson glover to shara and daniel cormier a 10 fight run in four years i i'm i think that's so impressive that if those were the only 10 fights of his career luke and then he retired like i would still be like you beat more people than like five hall of famers put together who they just to give just to give john another nod we i talked about this when shogun retired so you can actually look back and be like, just ask a very basic question. Which fighter had the best single calendar year in MMA history?

And there's only two answers to that question. It's 2005 for Shogun to that pride middleweight Grand Prix when he was just fucking bulldozing a level fighters. Yeah. And it's that other year you mentioned with John, where he beat those four guys, starting with Bader, whoever else it was, Rampage.

I can't remember the exact list. Shogun, Machida. And that's still a dangerous as shit Machida. I mean, that's why I got mad because I'm sort of like, just calling those guys retreads or old or former champions. No, I don't. That doesn't really sound what I mean. That year where John beat those four guys in that single calendar year,

it's either Shogun or John as the best calendar year ever for any fighter in MMA history don't get me wrong dude I believe in John's resume I still think he's the best guy ever um I just don't want to lose sight of the fact that GSP had to go up against some fucking well-rounded very difficult hammers who were a spry as shit very difficult and also like the BJ Penn wins. The one was non-title, one was title. And by the time the title one came around, it didn't look nearly as impressive.

But at the time, that was a champ-champ fight. And BJ Penn was like the gold standard for takedown defense. And it didn't matter. GSP still got him down. It was fucking incredible to watch. So, you know, everyone can have their own opinion. And I'll admit, I did such a poor job on monday with that i could get why people are confused but just want to state the record i

had only messed up the pair of 20 year olds the numbers 29 versus 32 for title fight opponent age that is correct whatever that's worth all right i disagree but that's a better argument you make and obviously we're talking about the two best fighters of all time so if you can lean whichever way you lean in the end we are going to close this week by ending the show with a pre-planned segment a shout out to the folks at the sports podcast group shortly we'll be tossing to luke thomas and i while we were in mk ahead of our uh i'm sorry in the uk ahead of our mk live show the nice folks at the Sports Podcast Group brought out a ton of London, England, UK-based food, candy, soda, all that. And we did some taste tests.

We're going to throw to that, but we want to remind you folks, thank you for tuning in. Of course, thanks to Mikey Mormile from CBS Sports doing it solo on the ones and twos. Buy our merch at morningcombat.store. You can follow us. You can like and subscribe, all that good stuff. Check out our Room Service Diaries interview with Paul Craig.

I'm telling you, if you watched MVP and Arnold Allen but didn't watch this, continue the journey. Those guys in the UK are certainly something special. And don't forget Showtime this week, your home of combat sports. You can get 30 days free right now at showtime.com. Here's what you get. Tonight, Bellator 292. That's 10 p. free right now at showtime.com here's what you get tonight bellator 292 that's 10 p.m eastern on showtime and saturday night 10 45 p.m eastern from australia it's tim zoo it is tony harrison don't miss it luke anything to say before we throw to this clip

on the way out enjoy the fights tonight enjoy the fights tomorrow and uh we'll recap it all on monday thank you guys so much for watching this week and thanks everyone who tuned in for all of our davis and garcia coverage especially for bc's double duty there two and two we love you we out of here two more words i guess that's the same too i just said either way we're out enjoy the clip on on the exit thank you