MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Bellator Sweeps RIZIN On NYE | Morning Kombat Ep 392

Episode Date: January 2, 2023

On Episode 392, the boys kick off 2023 with a bang. They recap the Bellator vs. Rizin NYE crossover event. Bellator went 5-0 over Rizin on the card. What are your overall takeaways from this event? (17:30) - Bellator vs. Rizin (25:30) - Scoring McKee-Satoshi (34:30) - Pitbull Defeats Koike (41:30) - Horiguchi Defeats Ougikubo (48:40) - Archuleta Defeats Kim (62:00) - Dm's from Donks (78:00) - HYSTS Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Hi everyone, happy new year It's's 2023 it's the 2nd of january your very first 2023 mk hi everyone i'm merely one half of your hosting duo i join you from the capital of estados unidos right here in washington dc my name is luke thomas and i look very yellow today i'm not sure what's going on with the jaundice on my face but there it is it was all yellow yeah i might have jaundice but this man is pinker than country time lemonade he's the king of connecticut he's my friend and yours although he's going to join me here this this this uh week down in my neck of the woods it's brian campbell hi brian how are you oh hi luke it's great it's great it's great to be heard

and seen uh on this side of the new year 2023 a new A new year, Luke, but no limits for Morning Combat, for you and me personally, for the extent that we're willing to damage our bodies in the name of lazy-ass living, you know? That's really the reality of it all, but hopefully we love our families along the way and win some more podcast awards. But, Luke, what did you say in Spanish to open?

You said... Happy New Year. Yeah, how do you say that? Feliz Año Nuevo. I would say, Luke, that I hope in 2023, as it pertains to MK, that I continue to help bring, put the huevos in Feliz Año Nuevo, Luke. Okay. Let's absolutely bring it.

Yeah, there's no huevo in Nuevo. Let's absolutely bring it, Luke. Okay. But you know what I'm saying? Mavels, Luke, okay? But you know what I'm saying? Mavels, Luke, okay? BC, is that a picture of Michigan J. Frog on your shirt, or is that a picture of you walking into the studio when you're late? I mean, this is my life.

This is my passion, Luke. This is the spirit that I'm looking to bring to combat sports in 2023. This is the face that BC makes every time he's trying to regale the room with his stories of Naugatuck, Connecticut. Let me assure you. Wow, look at that. That is, I mean, two twins. It's a Spider-Man meme pointing at each other right there.

Amazing. How was your New Year's? Did you do anything fun or special for it this time or what? No, I laid under the covers and watched some badass music documentaries, Luke, and missed the ball dropping. But, you know, that's much more than adequate at this age. What do your kids and wife do? Do they do like a stay up late thing? No, you wife went to sleep early.

One son didn't make it. The other one made it to midnight, but just watch TV. Yeah, I mean, it was low key. But, you know, I got to tell you, Luke, post now, this also coincides with being an old pos but post pandemic i love low-key shit man those this was the best christmas to new year's stretch i've ever had of doing absolutely nothing and i you know while i've i've recently attended some weddings went to a thanksgiving family party and rekindled that like oh crap like i should see more people i've got this amazing family that loves me i also like not showering luke and it's been an aggressive intense stretch of just not

doing anything and sometimes luke i mean sometimes you gotta unplug you know what i'm saying look before they unplug you you know i think about it sit on that for a while okay spread eagle on that that's deep you know that's deep yeah uh yeah I've been sitting around because we've been sick. So I had a similar, I guess, experience, but not really based on how I was feeling. I think I sound a lot better today, right? Do I sound a lot better? Yeah, you look better, too. You look a lot better.

Anyway, I don't know if you know this. I didn't know this until I married my wife. So this is not something I was ultimately familiar with. And I don't think it's exclusive just to Colombia. I think it's like a lot of Latin America does this. But, dude, they take, like, New Year's is a big deal for them. Not really just the partying part of it. But I don't know if you know this. Like, you have to put your wedding ring in the champagne glass, and then you have to toast it, right?

Then you have to eat a grape, 12 grapes, and you have to make a wish on every 12 grapes. You're supposed to wear a certain color underwear. Then you have to pack your luggage and run around the block with your luggage and if you think i'm doing a bit dude i'm not doing a bit like they many many people in that part of the world celebrate those kinds of kind of sounds like a spared airlines flight to me luke no well yeah because you don't end up going anywhere you just just haul your shit around all the place. Dude, they just can't show you. Dude, Southwest showed up to the airport was like,

we're just not going to do this today. Like, fuck your flights. Like, we're just going to go home. Eat a dick. So there you go. We're not going to do that today on MK, though. We got a lot to get to today. So thumbs up on the video. Please hit subscribe. What are we going to say, BC? Look, we have actual MMA to break down and shout out to the Bellator versus Rising card for for entertaining us this weekend there was some very high points

i enjoyed but look are you gonna you know it is it is a new year do you you know i'm hoping you're gonna turn over some of these leaves okay these these new leaves what do you have like a personal you know professional mk uh resolution to share with the people an mk resolution you know i will i will tell you this i even you could tell the audience the truth here i asked you last week you know as your co-host and friend what what was something that i could do better on mk in your opinion and one of the things you said was you could probably listen to me a little bit better act like you're enjoying the process maybe it was what i should excuse me not fully recovered yet um i thought that was pretty fair so i should talk to my wife about making a checklist of things i could do to make sure that i'm keeping up with that and we're gonna see if that works or not but i think for me

let me finish let me finish there are some metrics that i have in mind, but I want to talk about those with Mikey first. In terms of like you to me and then me to the audience, I think if I can get better about not wandering off mentally when I shouldn't be, I think that would fix a lot of problems. That's very humble and introspective. I appreciate that. I'll share mine. Apparently, I'm being teased by the producers, Luke,

that this will reappear later in the show. So I'll hold off. We'll continue that discussion later. But thank you mk fans let's start this new year and luke um i know you were going to get to it but is there a bigger gong we can bang about the new year than bringing up wednesday february 8th 2023 uh king's place in london damn i'm excited yeah yeah mk to the uk and folks we don't know how often this is going to happen. This might be a one-time thing. Grand opening, grand closing. So you might as well get in there while the getting's good.

You can get your tickets at the QR code on the screen right now if you're watching on YouTube. Or, of course, I think you can go to pod-live.com to get tickets. I think you can also get tickets at some other places. But those would be our preferred spots for you to get them. February 8th, King's Place, me and BC, and then you folks out in the United Kingdom or the surrounding areas. Come join us. We probably will have some guests as well, but it's going to be a fun time. BC, anything else to add to that?

Yeah, well, we're going fishing for some big guests, so I think you're going to enjoy in the end who we end up bringing on with us. But I don't even care if we don't bring any guests, Luke. This is going to be a 90-minute session of unadulterated and consensual love between podcast hosts and podcast listeners and viewers. And also, like you said, our invasion to the MK in the UK. I get to, you know, my name is Scottish, Luke. People don't tend to bring that up about me a lot.

You know I've been adopted by the Welsh. And we can pause a lot of my French and Lithuanian backgrounds and just say that, you know, I'm also an eighth Irish, which is true, Luke. So this is going to be a reunion of sorts in a lot of ways. It's going to be intimate. And I'm not doing a bid here. There's not many tickets left. And I get DM after DM of fans who are like, hey, remember me from that funny moment in this episode? I'm going to be there, bro. And it's touching, Luke. I mean, you know that Jan six scouser who who uh took a picture under our billboard in liverpool with that maga hat on luke that guy's

going too i mean this is wild you know it's going to be a really fun time so that's going to be the and listen there might be some more announcements around that date about some other fun things we might do but but this is the main course this is all guns trained on the same target. February 8th, King's Place in London, England. Join us there. We can't wait to see you. Also, BC, neither of us are wearing it, and I see you've resorted to your less dad but more acceptable hat.

Yeah, one love in this new year. Merch. Merch. Merch store. Morningcombat.store. I don't know if we've really refreshed it for the new year, but I'm sure we will very soon. I mean, I think RJ, I think RJ, Luke, we've really refreshed it for the new year but i'm sure we will very soon i mean i think rj uh mouth it mouth uh i think rj luke uh he's been a little quiet i don't know if he's vacationing

but we know we know he's the goat of merch and we'll give him a pass because he's rj dunkel red tube yeah i mean he is just he's taking that no hitter into the ninth i mean what else can we say about him the guy's fantastic but uh i don't know if there's any codes or any or sales, but it's the best merch in the game. Look, it really is. And I tend to use a lot of different MMA podcasts merch. Yeah. You know what I mean?

I don't know. Look, I really don't know comparatively, but it's good quality. I'm enjoying it. I've done the merch thing solo. Our stuff's a lot better than that. It's a lot better than that. So by the way i was walking

down the street the other day this was last week when i was still sick and i was going to cvs to get some throat lozenges and i had my green bomber jacket on and some dude walked out i was walking up the street this is like on 12th street over here i'm walking up the street and uh this dude walked out of like uh like a vet or something or no a dog grooming service a bed really no no a dog a dog grooming service and he was like hey man that's a real nice jacket where'd you get it and i was proud to tell him i was like yo on my podcast bitch i didn't call him a bitch but i did tell him where he could go morning combat dot store what was his name rafi on stats by any chance or luck or no no no i nor was he he wasn't a black guy

either just a normal old white dude here in town hey real quick speaking of both jan 6 and bc and dc we're going to be reunited this week in your home city luke yeah dude friday is january 6th we're trying to figure out what to do because i was telling the crew before this did we or did we not have a pre-show meeting about the capital steps luke true or false friday is january 6th which is a special day in the history of this show i mean all our fans are gonna be there anyway luke right it's like you know what i was gonna say was for folks who may not realize this if you're like going and touristing and like taking photos and stuff they won't stop you but if you post up and then if you post up with a set and then try to record, you have to have a permit to do that.

They actually will stop you for that. So we've got to figure out what to do, but I would like to do some special content around Friday, January 6th, in Washington, D.C. I think it would be kind of fun. Jan Sixers Unite. I mean, if Pat Milliton shows shows up will we be impressed and honored from our podcast or was he there anyway luke that's the question we have to ask for all of our guests

but that's not a bad way to pool a huge audience luke by showing up on the steps and going live with your podcast you know the worst things have been done or including our previous january 6th smeared shit luke i mean they have done worse things yeah all right uh lastly but not least morning combat uh certainly at gmail.com. Oh, and don't want to forget Showtime. Showtime.com is the label that pays. Showtime.com, you can get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it.

If not, you can bounce. And then again, remember, for the first six months, if you sign up, $3.99 a month. I mean, you get everything on that one. So you get not just Bellator, not just boxing, anything Showtime produces, including all the stuff on the library, you'd be wise to take advantage of that deal. And by the way, there is the Tank Davis fight this Saturday. From my understanding, it is going forward.

I guess we shall see. Showtime pay-per-view, Hector Luis Garcia. That's right. That will not be on regular Showtime. That will be on Showtime pay-per-view. But you and I will be there. Yeah, all access is out on that, and we'll have a lot more uh heading into that fight this week but look now it's time to look back right I mean what a fun let's look back all right so there

actually was an MMA event over the weekend I gotta say I I didn't I wasn't one of the guys who really was super sad about the decline of Japanese MMA because I thought it was kind of on a bubble for a long time but then it went like too far away and I kind of missed it a little bit this was nice to get a show back on New Year's Eve which is of course a big tradition in Japanese MMA both in K-1 and Pride and some other organizations as well here we had Bellator versus Rizin for topic number one we will get into the McKee fight and the Pitbull fight and the Horiguchi fight and everything else, but let's talk some overall impressions.

BC, Bellator went 5-0 against Ryzen. Again, we'll talk about that as well. But in terms of the overall takeaways from this event, what would you say broadly stood out to you? The pageantry, and that's not unexpected for anyone that's had history watching mma in japan or new year's eve cards or pro wrestling or you know anything uh involving the the passion and the pageantry which really luke was the spirit behind my

original uh karate chop to the hand apology is about that type of like showmanship and you know it you felt that and i love seeing the active bellator fighters in a different environment with the ropes instead of the cage with the slightly different set of rules and you know the brutality of the all kicks being legal and all that it brought it brought an edge and a fire to it and i think overall look everyone fought with a lot of passion they looked happy to be there it was promotion versus promotion you can certainly play that angle up. And to that degree, boy, did Bellator shine in these matchups. And, you know, they brought they brought their A game. They brought some of their biggest names in company history. But, you know, the only really look, the only criticism I have to be the chance in the States to have watched this live. Would I have been up at that time? I don't know. You know, it could have been situational, but that's the only, you know, issue I had because the matchmaking was great. The fights had passion and a lot of skill, by the way, a lot of, you know, good grappling

exchanges and it was really interesting to see. I mean, in each fight, Luke had little different spurts of 15, 30 seconds a minute that were just insane. They were fought at a high level, but, you know i love the the extra drizzle on top i love the pageantry that went with it and it was good to see the belt or fighters getting this type of close-up with the with the uh you know the themed introductions and the costumes and all that um it was a show luke and i was here for yeah i mean i i i didn't love the ring um i think it got in the way in the horiguchi fight i think it got in the way in the aj mckee fight but that's a separate thing from like

overall takeaways overall takeaway is listen dude i mean scott coker runs bellator but i've been covering bellator events long before he ever got there i mean i saw rampage's debut against joey beltran in atlantic city in the now defunct Revel Casino. I mean, I've been covering Bellator for a long time. And I'll say this. This is the best Bellator in terms of a show and how it looked. This was the best Bellator's ever looked. Most elevated.

Well, I'm going to throw up Bellator Dublin on that level to you, Luke. That felt something was special. Okay, so that was electric in terms of the crowd and the energy and the overall scene. Fair enough. But I mean, in terms of taking a product and showing us its most elevated state of itself. I mean, remember, like folks were wondering why it was like tape delay. This was really just a rise in event that Bellator was invited to, right? The Japanese shot this event.

The Japanese production team shot this event, and then they sold the rights back for the English language back to Fight TV, and then Showtime, through Bellator as their partner, eventually got the tape delay rights. But that's why it was on tape delays, because Ryzen has all of these rights controlled, and then they gave it to Fight TV for the immediate pay-per-view for New Year's Eve. But it was essentially produced by the Ryzen production team,

and I got to say, it looked tremendous. Now, I don't love the ring, and to be clear, and fair to Bellator as well, they use the, for example, they use the ramp and everything. But dude, did you see the intro, the walkout by Juan Archuleta? And then they had the lighting, and then they had the ramp, but then they had that little smoke underneath. Oh, my God, dude. That looked amazing.

It looked amazing. The video package that opened the main card. With the Pride theme music in the background. With the two banners dropping. Yeah, look, that's what I'm saying. Like, the pageantry of it, it wasn't just like, oh, cool, that guy's in a costume it was like oh shit you know fight night like it really sets that that tone and and you know this is the first time it's been done obviously but really in comparison you don't see this i mean you don't see consistently this level of presentation it's like

when traditional american boxing goes to the uk and we see anthony joshua coming out lighting you know giant letters of his initials on fire and it's just sort of like damn for the right event for the right platform and this was certainly it with the new year's eve set up with the theme of promotion versus promotion there's a place for theatrics like that in in this game i mean there of course there is luke and And this was, dude, it was cool. It was cool to see, you know, what was coming next. So that's where it had that pro wrestling unpredictability. It's like, okay, who's coming out next dressed as what?

What are we going to see? And obviously the fights have to back it up, but they did. They backed up sort of in the intense setting of the pageantry, but, you know, not too comical. Also, these guys are going to come to kick some ass. Yeah, I'll say this. One more thing in defense of Ryzen, too. too like we ignore them a little bit on this show in part because it's like you know combate global does really good ratings but it's not they don't have

like the upper tier of the sport and so it's hard to know exactly like what to pay attention to there ryzen's in a similar position but dude they had nearly 24,000 people at this event. That would make it 3,000 more than the most sold out event that the UFC had all year. I mean, dude, the Japanese showed up for this one, not maybe the way they did for Pride, but certainly much better than a lot of the other things you see in the broad swath of MMA in 2022, which I thought was impressive. Now, BC Bellator went 5-0, but they were all decisions. Now, let's be fair. I will say this. I don't think the fights were bad at all.

I thought they were fine, in some cases good. I was hoping for a little bit more combustibility, if that makes sense. Was that an unfair thing to expect? No. I think with the All-Star Game feel, with the exciting nature of a lot of these fighters tendencies and skill sets and you know it was as if like the fights didn't matter because it doesn't affect their title placement or even their record in bellator so there was the idea why you could see some some craziness uh i think you know it was worst case scenario to see all five fights end up going to the decision

they weren't fight of the year contenders bombers but look there was moments in each one i thought there was an overall level of intensity. And I thought there were, there were definitely circumstances where they tried to elevate that. You saw some crazy attempts. There was, I mean, there was a lot of combustibility in little pockets. I mean, round two of the main event in particular, Satoshi versus AJ McKee got, got a little bit of that spectacular firework back and forth, dramatic, aggressive moves. And, you know, look at some of that. You set the table, you make the bed, you know, look, some of that, you set the table,

you make the bed, you know, you hope they show. It didn't fully connect and combust, but the intent was there, Luke, and I was in touch. I would say in general, Bellator working with Ryzen, and really, again, this was really a Ryzen event that Bellator was invited to. Again, it was entirely produced by the Ryzen team and everything else, but the combination of

what the two organizations could do together to elevate both brands i would say in general worked really well and i really enjoyed it i do agree on the tape delay and how about you know the the go better solution speaking of goats luke i got this for christmas here it's a little it's a little goat it's like a screaming goat but But we talk about goats. Are you doing the Thor Love and Thunder bit again? No, we talk about goats too much. But you know that goat Mauro Ranallo, he shouted you out on the broadcast. You did during the AJ McKee fight, I guess. People want to forget that I called it the McKee team.

Yeah, they're actively trying to forget, but not Mauro, not Mau, not my man. All right, with that in mind, let's talk about the fights themselves. Topic number two, we start with the main event. AJ McKee, he gets the decision nod over Roberto Satoshi or Roberto D'Souza. He's known as Satoshi in Japan being unanimous decision. BC, how did you score it? What's your sense of what you learned in this fight? You know, I had it for McKee.

I don't remember. I wasn't actively scoring this round by round, Luke, as I rewatched it. We'll talk about Ryzen judging. I mean, that's part of it, right? Because they don't judge. I wasn't actively scoring this round by round, Luke, as I rewatched it. We'll talk about Ryzen judging. I mean, that's part of it, right? Because they don't judge it that way. But I think overall, look, I learned that McKee, if this is a full-time move to lightweight, which outside of a trilogy for the featherweight title against Patricio,

all signs appear for that. I like how he's adjusted. That Spike Carlisle fight was weird, but he still overall, you know, dominated. But it was wild, not a control. But seeing him in some legitimately, you know, situations where he looked great, round one, you know, getting the top position on the ground really just looked dynamic there. But having to overcome some challenges of Satoshi taking his back

and providing that legitimate submission threat and the way that he responded. Look, I think he's, you know, at 27, put the weird loss to Patricio, not weird, but close, but, you know, unspectacular behind him. I like the direction he's heading at lightweight. This was a very good challenge to him. I thought overall he had answers to anything Satoshi had to bring to the table. And no, he didn't get the finish nobody did in the end in this card.

But I like the direction AJ's heading on, and this was a fun fight, and i think he really tried to make it that you know what i learned i this is true i think over the course of the card it is harder to wrestle in the rising ring you don't have as much of the assistance from the rule set number one uh because you know you can get kicked and need anywhere and then two obviously the rings that the ropes themselves make it harder but i think the rising guys are at a pretty big disadvantage when it comes to fighting someone who has to compete in a rule set or a surface where wrestling is at a premium, and then they can take the skills that they've honed and bring it over.

It seems to me that if you spend the majority of your time in an organization where wrestling isn't as much of a priority, you're going to be at a disadvantage even when you stay in that rule set and bring in somebody else over who does have all that wrestling built in even for the small pockets where it's relevant they can just tend to dominate position a lot more easily than you see some of these rising guys doing that i agree i thought at 155 the spike carlisle fight was really fun for aj but a little bit like shouldn't have been as close as it was not that it was super close but you get really fun for AJ, but a little bit like, shouldn't have been as close as it was. Not that it was super close, but you get the idea.

And this one was a little bit closer than I thought it was going to be too. I will say this. I think AJ's going to be more competitive at 145, but he's fast at 155, and he does have a lot of skills. I would like to see him put it together in a more direct, focused, planned kind of attack. He seems to me like still, like he looks to me like he does all of his homework and knows all the things he has to worry about,

but then just kind of lets it flow. And I understand the value of that too. But I don't think that's the best way for him to get the optimal results in the weight class. I think this was the setting, the all-star game feel, the romanticism of fighting in Japan on New Year's Eve. I think he tried to bring the flair to it, had a couple moments, also slipped near danger but was able to get out of it.

But I think overall, Luke, this got me, what, even more, if that's even possible, excited about what a fight against Usman Nurmagomedov next year could look like, whether that comes in the setup of the Grand prix that we're suspecting breaks out here uh or not when they finally meet i think this was for me okay you can pick out some things like you just did but this gives me even more confidence that i have no idea what this fight is going to look like or who's going to be able to implement control but boy can i not wait to find out what did you make of mckee using some of the new ruleset,

trying to stomp, head kick his way around, using guard pass stepovers to then try and throw a soccer kick? I got to say, not all of it worked, but I loved it. I loved it. Dude, the ruleset from judging and then the ruleset for fighting in America is by far not the best one it is not even close to the best one dude i we not we you know like sometimes the best horror movies are really just suspenseful movies that that constantly tease that something's gonna

happen and then it never quite does you know i mean psycho is like the greatest example of that this t just the tease of having the potential plus element of soccer kicks or you know flying knees or something crazy it kept me on it kept that extra edge in the air so it's like the idea of legalizing all of that you know uh kicks to grounded opponents 12-6 elbows all that i know a lot of the population of the me audience is just like dude why don't we already do that what are we doing here um that really added to the excitement level like like i was waiting for patricio to kick the guy in the face he tried finally at the end he almost connected luke but um it brings back and look anytime in modern full well-rounded mixed martial arts where we are you know where the skill levels

through the roof anytime something can give that old nostalgic spark feel that that's something gnarly can happen luke that that that really was the initial feeling you got watching this sport and you know ufc one like that oh shit uh that added edge man i liked it luke i liked it to the level of even going yeah wait why do we not have that again luke i mean can can you can you talk me off that casual ledge for entertainment purposes only because Because it was fun watching that shit. Which part do we not have are you referring to specifically? Really just the kicks to the downed opponent.

I mean, where do you weigh in on that, Luke? In general, because it was great. Here's what I believe. I'm against stomps. I don't like stomps. And I think that if there's a way to include knees to the head of a downed opponent based off of a wrestling situation, where in other words, if they're on their back, no. But if they're on their base, light them up.

Light them up. I think it makes wrestling much more interesting. I think it creates better scrambles. I think we have... This event was a great reminder that I don't think that the Ryzen model is the best model either, right? That's not what I'm suggesting. But we have ceded a lot of control to wrestling in MMA in the United States.

And now I think that's why we have this overcorrection on the rule set, right? We have this overcorrection on the rule set to kind of account for it. Whereas if you change the fighting surface or, and, or you change some of the rules, you may not have to change the judging criteria around it because the action is much more organically dynamic and moving. It doesn't stall out as much. I think we're missing something there. All right. So that's brilliant. And now let's find the middle ground to make this work. You said you don't like stomps. And in many situations, I would agree with you, although it was fun to see AJ McKee, for example, try to do that sort of flying stomp move.

It looked almost Michelle Podeta-like. Okay, so what if we are just not allowed to stomp or kick somebody on their back? But the whole idea of the debate over, are they down on one knee? Do they have the hand down? What if we just got rid of that? What if you fall to a knee, you're season for kicks or or knees coming at you i mean

you know i'm totally okay with that where you just say okay if they're on their back if they're on the ground i can't stop them i can't soccer kick them but if they're up on it you know at least one knee man that's fair game to your to your genius point you just made there what would all of this do to change the overall effectiveness of a dominant wrestler like all these hammers look coming from the same area that's interesting i don't know if that overcorrection is needed but is it wanted though it might we might look look at how demetrius johnson lost to sergio marais the first time yeah right same kind of situation if you just stall out under a double like that and it doesn't go your way you got to

move into one or you're going to get lit up and here's the sort of the mechanical reason behind some of this like to me explain to me the difference between getting need if you shoot on a double and you get stuffed versus getting head kicked like why is one worse than the other what the only thing i would need to see and this is why i'm against stomps, BC. If I'm getting stomped and I'm flat on my back, there's nowhere for my head to go. But if I'm on my base and I get hit, my neck has flexion. It has room to move. That is what you would want.

Any scenario where there's room to move like that so that the full absorption of damage doesn't happen on a closed surface like that. You just get up, you know, when you're getting hit in the head, this is all bad for you. Tell that to slap Commissioner Dana White, please. Okay, please, Luke. Yeah. But the point I'm trying to make is I think that I just, I really think that it used to

be a lot easier to appreciate this when there was more diversity of organizations across different places in the world, maybe 10 or 15 years ago where they're different rule set different world different time zone all kinds of stuff pride having 10 minute first rounds and again not all of those were great either but you it what this event reminded us of is that our rule set in the united states it's not great it could be a lot better now with that in mind bc we'll go to topic number two, excuse me, topic number three here, excuse me, moving on from the AJ McKee fight itself. This one was kind of interesting.

Patricio Pitbull scored a unanimous decision win over Kleber Koike in the co-main event. Now, BC, what was your major takeaway from this one, and is it a little too little too late from Koike? Yeah, certainly, but i think the reason for that luke was i mean at 35 damn remember at some point this year when we were going what will age catch up or you know to pitbull or or like does he still want to be here taking on challenges at this level this performance and really this sneaky calendar year for him which i'll get to in a second

was such a kick in the face reminder of who the hell he still is and how vicious he is and now look in this event the romanticism for him was the return to the valley tudor style which he you know came up idolizing in brazil and the want to soccer kick somebody which he never fully got but dude he disciplined his koike and and by landing shots and really was able to use that, that control of the distance just by being a threat. So imposingly that, I mean, look,

look at this calendar year. Now I know when we talk about, you know, MMA global, not just UFC, who's the fighter of the year. And I think you can still make that strong Alex per data case in a lot of ways while still recognizing Demetrius Johnson and one,

and you know the years people had yeah how about Patricio now when you consider he beat AJ McKee to win back the featherweight title took a decision over a very strong Adam Boric to defend his title and now moved into this all-star game and beat the the rise in featherweight champion uh you know and damn dude he's I mean at 35 luke he's not going anywhere but but into oncoming traffic uh wishing the smoke could get there a little faster dude he's still got it man i mean did you see anything you're gonna pick apart here outside of a late rush here from yeah not really i mean to me he looked i mean we already know this right i mean he's got his

record is 35 and 5 right so this is hardly some kind of grand revelation, but God, he just looked so battle-tested, so in command, so calm. You know, his style is not as open and wide and aggressive and crazy as it used to be. It's a little, it's actually a little, it's a lot more scientific. It's a lot more patient. It's a lot more careful. Still brutal when it needs to be. But he's aging into a style that he can now scale for this next however long the rest of his career goes. This style will work against top-tier opposition. He won't take a ton of damage. Fights may or may not be as exciting, but he's going to get the W along the way.

And also, BC, I'll go back to this. Clever Koike has a record of 31-6. Pitbull has a record of 35-5. So pretty commensurate amount of experience. Dude, no one's got experience in the trenches like Pitbull. And did you see him shake off that head kick right there, Luke? He shook off that front face kick like it didn't happen. Dude, he has fought in the trenches against all different kinds of guys,

and it has turned him into something that even though koike has a similar kind of numerical experience relative to pitbull the quality experience and what it did to him showed to me like you just didn't get the same out of this experience that pitbull did look imagine if you're pitbull entering this new year and i know he he was interviewed recently by shack and we played some of that on the show and you can watch that whole thing where he talks about what's most likely for him in 2023 but he you know he regained his title in a three-win year which again that's why i don't like voting before the end of the calendar year because you're like oh how do you recalibrate him back into the fight of the year voting man he had a hell of a year with big name wins and this is just gravy what he did on Saturday, but he's 35 yet. He's the champion again. He's the pound for pound number one for many in Bellator

and Luke, his options for 2023, depending on which way he aggressively leaned are potentially get AJ McKee back in a trilogy to defend his featherweight title. Maybe decide to move into the $1 million lightweight tournament to try to chase back the title he gave up so his brother could win it or do that thing he's been threatening forever, which is to cut down to Bantamweight and look at who, you know, we're going to end up having Sergio Pettis against the winner of Pachy Mix and, uh, uh, Rafion Stotts, which is going to be a fantastic Bantamweight $1 million Grand Prix final. The winner of that hopefully fights Sergio Pettis, but also, you know, next year or maybe announcing it next year, Pitbull could also go in that direction to try to become a three-division champion against any of those killers just mentioned. I mean, who has more like power at

this moment in his career yet? If he decided to never fight again, dude, he's like an all-time great and one of those guys who, okay, never had a UFC fight, but he's up high on that list of those guys, you know, Fedor included, of just those just, I mean, immortals, Luke. But he's not going anywhere. And he can go in any of those three directions and chase, you know, chase big-time history. It's wild, right?

Yeah. And, in fact, I don't know if you saw this. Over the weekend, Duke Rufus, who coaches Sergio Pettis put out a thing on instagram uh basically saying that they would love to fight pitbull next right so at the same time as the grand prix final right like in the same season i i mean i i don't know no i don't know if they're worried about the 155 grand prix i think they're saying like bring on pitbull next for us like i meant the bantamweight final so so in the same time frame that you have those stats versus mix fight you just say hey pettis is healthy let's sub in patricio right now that's a dude that's aggressive promoting but if coker

and company went in that direction you'd see you'd see two jeans and siskals over here luke right i mean come on bro right ebert too all them guys two thumbs up rex reed right i mean come on, bro. Right? Ebert, too. All them guys. Two thumbs up, Rex Reed. Right? I mean, come on. I mean, I got to tell you, like, the winner of the Grand Prix, whether it's Mix or it's Stotts, having to fight Pettis for the title is great. It's great. I got to tell you, it's maybe a little bit greater if it ends up being Pitbull. Right? Like, the boss at the end of the video game is this guy again? Like, I don't know, man. I think that's worth trying.

We can do it on CBS, too, if they want. i'm here for that hello my baby hello i mean come on right uh anyway clepper quick i thought made an interesting fight of it he had interesting front kicks as we saw there as you indicated he had some good leg kicking as well interesting guard work but dude pitbull i mean he's seen it all black belt in jujitsu his position you remember how many times did you see Koike try to pull deep half and then he got completely shut down by Patricio? He's just such a well-rounded, talented fighter at this point. It's going to be very hard to get one over on that guy.

Yeah, he's a hammer for all seasons, Luke. I mean, seriously, we're going to miss him when he's gone. Seriously. Love that man. There it is. Yes, yes. Stop. Hammer time time uh yeah all right shout out shout out by the way to ilia to peria right there right yes of course all right topic number four here we move along the card bc koji horiguchi he also scored a unanimous decision win over hiromasa ogikubo

this is the third fight between them they fought in 2013 in Shuto they had a rematch in Ryzen along the Shuto weight class which was 60 kilograms that was in 2018 and then of course fight here in 2022 but at a standard 125 so it's actually the lowest weight either of them had ever fought BC I'm gonna ask you did we learn anything from this fight Horiguchi looked very Horiguchi which is a good thing but that's not that wouldn't be the lowest either of them ever fought didn't Horiguchi, which is a good thing, but not a new thing. That wouldn't be the lowest either of them ever fought. Didn't Horiguchi fight for the UFC flyweight title? No, no, no. The lowest either of them ever fought each other.

Each other. Alright. So third time... As I go tip to tip. Yeah, we didn't learn much, but do you agree with the direction that Big John McCarthy was going on commentary? I mean, look, dude, he came as close as you can come to winning the agree with with the direction that that big john mccarthy was going on commentary that i mean look dude he came as close as you can come to winning the uh to winning the bellator bantamweight title

back right there in that fight against pettis which was crazy then he gets bounced out of the tournament is 125 really his best weight class and should he explore that you know we know bellator doesn't have that division but he's still isn't he still under contract to rise and luke uh this he actually represented bellator in this particular event obviously he is a rising and japanese favorite but he was a member of team bellator i'm not sure of his contractual situation to be quite candid with you would you would you would you like to see him make a run at 125 somewhere globally yes yes okay here's the thing he can compete at 135 he can by the way, as he indicated on the broadcast, as we all know, he had beaten Darion Caldwell in this particular venue, I think, to do such a thing. I just don't think that's where he's going to get his best work. I don't think that's where he's going to do the very best things he can do. He still is at an age where I think he can make 125. They said he walks around around 143. 125 is doable. 125 is still doable in a disciplined fighter's life.

I would like to see him there. He dropped Ogikubo, I think, at the beginning of the second or the third. I mean, he was just really in command the entire time. Ogikubo had nothing for him. Dude, that sequence right there was insane. Do you know that sequence I'm talking about, Luke? Which one?

There was a slam and a roll. I mean, there was a few of those sequences in these fights, Luke. There was some crazy constant positions. Show him doing the ground and pound they showed before, BC. I want to tell you why I hate the ropes, because this is a clear example, and I telegraphed it earlier when I mentioned this fight. Watch him doing this ground and pound here on the...

By the way, Jason Herzog, great referee, by the way. Great referee. In fact, there was one stand-upog, great referee, by the way. Great referee. In fact, there was one stand-up. He drops him here into the first. Now look at this ground and pound. I mean, you know, this is just not great. And he's trying to go through the ropes.

And then he goes through it like this. This is just, you know, I don't like this version of it. It seems to be clumsy and mixed and not great for either guy. That's old school right there, though. valley chudo with luke that's i mean that's yeah that's grimy and you gotta get 10 people on the ropes to like pull it in the right direction i don't know i kind of like i kind of like the added grime you like that i don't like that i don't want i don't know if i want that on the regular but this was like a nice departure and diversion luke that sequence i was i was talking about that was in the pit bull bull fight that I'm talking about, where there was a slam but then a quick reverse slam, but there was crazy

sort of position changes in this one as well. Yeah, I'm down with Horiguchi at 125 and see what we got here. Luke, age-wise, he's still got a lot left. You can certainly see that. And you look back again on that mix loss, and that's more about what Patchy Mix is doing right in the run

he's on. Yeah, okay, there you you go i would have to believe bc now obviously i don't know what bellator's realities or priorities are necessarily here but um you know they're investing in women's featherweight which i think is a thing you can do it's not the end yeah they they signed sarah mcmahon luke shut up right fair. And they might get Kayla, in which case investing in women's 145 over the long term really makes sense. But I don't know why you, like, globally, 125 has really grown. I would

really like to see them make a run at 125. I don't know if they feel like that's in their best interest or they can't, you know, move the market with it. I don't know. I don't know why they don't have a 125-pound division, but they've got guys who can do 125-pound things at an elite level. It makes sense to give them a home.

Look, Bellator doesn't need this because they're, you know, look, they've carved out a corner in this market, and they're having sustained success up to a certain level, and this was a great night even though it was a rise in show, but it showcases the relationships that Scott Coker has, right? Yes. Could you ever see, I mean, look, more of these on the regular as part of the Bellator schedule,

and could that ever lead to partnering up with another promotion for a stretch of time? I mean, it's more, you know, fantasy fanatical. Could all of the organizations join forces and make some superpower? I mean, you know know it's all fantasy but is this the relationship that that that you would advise bellator and scott coker to invest more in or is it just in general being a friend of the globe and being willing to work with anybody i i would just say this here's what really stood out to me we kind of discussed this in the first topic but let me re-articulate it another way we have so much homogeneity right all of these promoters have all of these content deals with these networks and they want to pump out as much

content as possible and to do that they turn it into banquet food right we're going to make as much as we can at scale to just pump out to meet these demands and sometimes you get really good banquet food but a lot of times you don't you can you get bad pasta and meatballs at a banquet or a stag luke you can't right okay no but you can get like bad salads you get a lot of bad other things too yeah gross chicken yeah we've been there yeah here's my point the larger the more you produce it the harder it becomes to maintain quality they need to just just remix it. The reason why this event was great was because it was remixed. You didn't just have guys fighting

in a different organization here, Bellator guys fighting in Ryzen. You had a different fighting surface. You had different rules. You had different things you could do for the intro and all the production and everything else around it. It was completely remixed. We need more remix culture in MMA.

Try new, like to your point, the answer to the question is, should it be these two or just a more openness try new like to your point the answer the question is should it be these two or just a more openness i don't know what the answer is but i would like to see probably the answer is openness but i i'm not sure of it because i don't know what the best method is to shake things up and bring something new but the attempt at it the willingness to try and bellator you know going over to essentially to Ryzen and meeting them on their terms, we need more of that. That is what we need. And what it leads to, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but the attempt is what will get us to a better place in the end.

You want MMA Rodney King in the end, Luke. That's what you're saying. I mean, I don't know what Rodney King has to do with this. Can't we all just get along, Luke? All right? All right. I mean, that's probably the worst way to make that argument, but's a way no i just i mean it's okay you know you know what uh big john is a former lapd right i bet she's got stories luke i don't know if we want to go down this path

do we i was talking more about going to japan and using the restrooms i was really wondering how it went how the weekend went for me japan John, everybody in Japan just take a big ass dump. He no-sold my inquiry during our rematch podcast, but I'm sure he went ham over the weekend there, but shout out. All right, BC, last but not least, topic number five, Juan Archuleta. Now, this one is a little bit more interesting. Awarded a split decision victory over Su Chil Kim. BC, how did you score it again? We're scoring in totality in the way that rise and does.

And second part of this, does Kim have a legitimate case for winning this bout? I think under the scoring that we're the round by round 10, nine scoring, I liked Archuleta, but is there a larger discussion for Kim? Is that really your question? Luke under this,

under this scoring pretense? Yeah. You could have argued him a victory in that regard. question luke under this under this scoring pretense yeah you could have argued him uh a victory in that regard i was entertained by this fight but i also thought there were key moments here where juan archuleta wrote the wrong and stepped up his game and got out of you know potentially nasty situations dude here's another guy again who's flirting around that age you know right in the 35 area where where who knows which direction he's going but this was a strong effort overall out of him are you are you going to come back with around that age, you know, right in that 35 area where who knows which direction he's going, but this was a strong effort overall out of him. Are you going to come back with, no, you really have a stronger case for Kim than the one I'm even making here? I mean,

could you have gone that way? Yes, but I was fine with Archuleta winning is really what I'm trying to say. I was fine with Archuleta winning. Gaff, if he's listening, I sent him via email a graphic. If he could put the graphic on the screen at any point, let us know when it's ready. I'd love to reference it. But here's the idea. I'm going to read something to you. Ryzen has very different judging criteria. So here's how they do it, BC.

One, they have three criteria. One is damage, which they count as basically 50% of the overall, like, what matters. Two would be aggressiveness, which would be 30%. And then three would be generalship. Now, understand something. If there is no significant difference in damage and aggressiveness, which would be 30%, and then three would be generalship. Now understand something. If there is no significant difference in damage and aggressiveness, the judges will score a zero for both fighters.

However, there must be a clear winner in generalship. Go back to the conversation we had about guys. Maybe the American system puts too much emphasis on wrestling, but when you take guys who have that emphasis and you bring them into Ryzen, like in this fight in particular, I think it's kind of funny. I think Kim would have won under the unified system,

maybe two rounds to one, but I think under this system, based on how heavy generalship is regarded, you get a case where actually Juan Archuleta constantly going for the takedown, constantly trying to get on top, constantly trying to find to the back or whip his opponent around or manipulate his weight

or whatever he could do. That actually gave him a bit of the difference in the end. Now, there still is a question of whether the choke in the first round, especially the one in the third round, should have, again, won him those rounds, but Ryzen doesn't do it that way. I think you can make an argument for that i think online most of the hardcore fans feel like kim won i actually do agree by ryzen system he should have won but under the american system

i actually think archuleta loses really so you think kim wins both ways no i think archuleta wins that boy now who's not listening i think no no i heard it i was confused by it there it is so basically you were the exact opposite of of how i viewed it casually what i'm saying is when it was over i thought in my in my mind from watching fights under the you know 10 point must system i was like oh kim might win this because yes archuleta had more control and whatnot, but it was actually the guy like that, especially that choke in the third, bringing him really to the point of precipice there

that he had to adjust and everything else. I was like, wow, the guy who actually did better work in that sense might have been Kim. But if you look at how much effort, I should say how much weight, so to speak, they give generalship here in Ryzen, you get a situation where it's like, actually to speak, they give generalship here in Ryzen, you get a situation where it's like, actually, dude, think about how many times it was Archuleta moving into Kim, taking

him down, trying to wrestle with him, trying to control him. And he tried to use those knees from top position, Luke. Archuleta found a way to utilize those well. Exactly. So I didn't mind the scoring controversy per se, but I do think it's illustrative of how the rule set can give you very different results just based on slight tweaking of what they prefer. BC, in terms of Juan Atraleta, 35 years of age now, again, something of a controversial win,

but I thought overall he looked pretty good. He looked to be in phenomenal shape. Again, he had that crazy intro. He's still a viable player at 135 pounds make no mistake about it yeah still and look when you get head kicked by rafi on stats although he was you know he had the advantage up into that point uh still still a loss you do wonder any time do you take a ko like that at this age but yeah dude he's been able to use this year to just constantly show us that when when he bites down and goes after it luke and gets in that level of shape, but also adds those tiny improvements. Like, Luke, I think he's a much better fighter today than the guy who lost to Sergio Pettis in a competitive decision over five rounds. But Pettis was able overall to be a little bit more dynamic, better game plan, use the technique, and just kind of sidestep the straight ahead attack.

There's a lot more head movement and thought into what archuleta does when you pair that with he's going all in on the cardio um he's tough he's tough i also think he's been more offensive since that pettis fight too he's looking to land more damage i guess he's looking to make them count luke so uh no stone on left unturned i think he's still viable for sure i mean this is this was a hell of a win i mean this was you know there was there was a couple moments here where it could have gone south for him i'll just sayed i think he's still viable for sure i mean this is this was a hell of a win i mean this was you know there was there was a couple moments here where it could have gone south for him i'll just say this i think the casual american fan and maybe the folks watching this show are like what are the significance of these wins if like bellator won all of them well first of all

you could argue that kim won this one and you could maybe even argue satoshi might have won i guess makia it's a little harder to make, but I could squint and maybe understand the idea behind it. So one, it shouldn't have been 5-0 necessarily, but more to the point, these are quality world-class opposition that to me it doesn't tell you like, oh, well, the rising guys were bad. To me, I respect the rising guys a lot.

To me, it tells you like, you might want to start respecting some of these Bellator fighters a little bit more. They're pretty fucking good, especially the the one now these were hand-picked all-stars to the point that you had made bc like having a bit of an all-star game but dude pitbull is so in command aj mckee can play a little bit but still certainly understands the game in a very comprehensive way what do i what can i say about horiguchi archuleta former champion and i can go on and on dude the guys at the top of the Bellator roster, to me,

this was a moment to like, you know what? These dudes are very, very, very talented. I hope the folks understand that at home. Yeah, and dude, I thought they had to really bring it and raise their level and show how well-rounded and world-class they were in each instance. I expected, like we said, that there would be a little bit more guns blazing, go for broke.

But I think these turned into some very competitive, high-level fights. And I think you're right. It does say a lot about where Bellator is at. And when they're in a position to flex, Luke, they do have weapons to make it interesting. And Coker had said at the post-fight press conference, this is the best roster they've ever had. That's true. But I think the goal for 2023 is to make that count in the public consciousness. Absolutely.

Now, fighting Ryzen, you know, which is largely Japanese. I mean, I should say it's obviously exclusively Japanese. But what I mean to say is that, like, you know, it's on the other side of the world. That's not going to help the American fortunes. But February 4th, when they're on CBS, and they're going to have Johnny Ebelin in a title fight, they're going to have Fedor in a title fight, these are going to be the moments to really begin to make it count. Ebelin, by the way, a homegrown guy.

Fedor is not. Bader is not. Ebelin is. Ebelin is a homegrown Bellator champion. Let's see what that guy can do. And by the way, Tokov, his opponent, is also kind of in, well, I won't say homegrown either, but for the American audience, Bellator was the conduit to them. This is a chance. This is a chance.

This is a chance. If you've got a great roster, and I do believe that they do, you've got to make it count. You've got to make it, push it into the eyes of the American consciousness. BC, I have breaking news, if it matters to you a little bit. I just became an uncle. Wow. Yeah.

Congratulations. My brother and his wife, or his his wife anyway just had their baby boy he was just born is this tuki's first first cousin it is it is two congratulations how excited is she luke uh beyond excited uh six pounds 15 ounces 19 inches good size good size um so anyway congrats to my brother and uh his wonderful wife so luke i would i would close there by saying although the loss of of nemkov versus uh romero on cbs would have been a sexy co-main uh you know the the shack and i were talking about it during during the episode that you were ill was uh the substitution of tokov who very well could win this i mean he's this

gonna be a good ass fight but having the the you know team Fedor in the corner and and you know Fedor in the main event uh that there's a that's a very strong replacement and don't forget about the cards opener on CBS dude Sabah Hamasi versus Brennan Ward for as long as it lasts Luke um this is the Brennan Ward who went through like life and death uh situations with substance abuse and now is all the way back yet is is like guns blazing almost more than ever before luke he is going i talked to brendan ward last week did i tell you that no uh how yeah can you give us some insight on how he's doing because this is yeah this is this fight's gonna be insane luke i can't wait for this so we were gonna do an interview and i was like it's too far out so because you know you never know if someone's

gonna get injured or whatever so we're supposed to, I think either this week or next for like a full sit down interview, but we had to kind of like a catch up, uh, dude, Brennan Ward told me this is the first time in his career, right? Think about that for a second in his career. He's ever had a camp. Now he's had like, Oh, I'm going to go do extra work during the six weeks leading up to a fight or something. But this is the first time where he has like work gave him off completely right he is this senior into his career and this

is the first time he's ever going to have a full camp i'm expecting good things from him he's always had good power um but you know the lack of prep whether it was drug addiction or just you know work realities i think has definitely hindered his ability to do the maximum amount of things he could do but who knows man this should be a really really fun one on cbs he's a wild card right now in terms of what is his you know upper bound limit potential uh upl on on this comeback but we can't like go past him just getting to this point i mean you made a great point like hearing his backstory in detail is wild how like there was just no structure or camp or game plan and a lot of times luke the drug addiction and party life had bled into his his preparation time almost exclusively in some sequences just to get

back to this point is incredible and he's packaged a couple wins but you know this is like also a big fight and it's going to be on cbs and he's there because he brings it you know he's guaranteed entertainment and even through the craziness he's always sort of been you know all or nothing swing for the fences if he doesn't get you first you know you you're you got to get him out of there and that might still be the case but i'm just happy to see somebody who's who's been through hell you know but can come back and can make something of themselves and get another chance and get back to this point and you know he's in insane shape and dude he's a one punch type guy so uh he could have a a great night or a disastrous night and

that's sort of the the entertainment offering in this matchup luke it should be fun all right with that in mind bc as we kick off the year, we wanted to remind you guys about our favorite sponsor, Money Lion. We created the Hammer of the Month to spotlight undercard fighters who aren't getting the recognition they deserve. Erin Blanchfield, of course, was our first winner in November. You can check also out our conversation with her at Room Service Diaries. And for December, it was Spain slash Germany, or Germany, slash Georgia's Ilya Topuria with his dominant winner for Bryce Mitchell.

So remember to tweet us your nominees throughout January with the hashtag Hammer of the Month, or you can use Holy Hammer, so we can reward someone with their incredible performance. If you have more questions, you can always go to moneylion.com slash morningcombat to learn more about how to enter. Speaking of hashtag Holy Hammer hammer luke as we know showtime boxing pay-per-view is back next saturday january 7th with really a deep and loaded card

obviously giovanni davis in the main event there but geron boots ennis luke is in a interim ibf welterweight title fight against karen chukadzian uh is boots ennis eligible here on hashtag holy hammer if something crazy happens, Luke? You never know, right? He sure is. He sure is. So watch out. I have a feeling he's about to do evil things.

Demetrius Andrade going to make his PBC debut on that undercard. A couple other big names back. It should be fun to see. But yeah, Luke, shout out to Moneyline. I can't wait to see Ilya Tuporia receive the hammer, Luke. I mean, this is the gimmick of all gimmicks, dude. When it got pitched to us, we were like,

yeah, I don't know. There's something's something dude this might catch on luke this might be wildfire okay this this this told the world that aaron blanchfield is here no not her win over molly at msg it was when she raised that hammer up luke right yeah yeah uh now let's all put on banana hammocks and dance around to the pumps and the bumps you know what i mean luke because we don't like pumps and the bumps we like the girls with the pumps and the bumps all right bc let's get let's do it now uh dms from donks you guys ask us questions the producers pick them we put up a post on instagram really on social media and then you guys fill it up so let's do it now dms from the old diggity donks hee haw hee haw hee effing haw all right we've got mail yes bc from at o'reilly 7402 after seeing rose get tapped by jillian robertson you see this

at the fury fc grappling event so quickly she got overrun in a minute in a minute and looking at her overall mma record can it be argued that while she is good rose namajunas is overrated by most people no that would be a terrible argument to be yeah that's a bad argument the the real thing that you can say and it's hard to really sum it up is obviously her her overall arc and legacy and the career that she's still very much in the midst of is so unique for when she hits the high notes she is the mf-ing best in the world but disaster seems to always be lurking obviously it's her ability to uh adjust resurrect from the missteps and be so human in the process which is why you know i'm such a big fan and the documentary that they just

put out was very well done in that regard. That can lead at times to where you can either overvalue and say, you know, I don't care who's the champ. She's still the best strawweight maybe ever. I mean, you can go that far down that lane. You could also question, but to try to say, is she, is her skill overrated or anything like that? No. The only thing is, can she put it all together? She's a human. Can't she put it all together? you know on the night most nights yeah luke but uh that that's the other shoe drops and when it drops it drops disastrously i mean that's human but that it's rare that you can see an elite fighter do that and just keep bouncing back like nothing happened that's what makes her so unique uh agreed also i would not read into too heavily the result from a related sport and make a

judgment about mma um games translate differently people translate differently situations translate differently julian robertson is a better pure grappler than rose dummy unis you can see that but she's definitely not a better pure fighter and that's really all that matters uh all right from at the double in the sense of mma evaluations um from at the double official uh what's the boys thoughts on isma gulov's retirement did you guys see this demir isma gulov who you know lost to armin saryukin wasn't a terrible loss but he lost uh out of nowhere just retired bc what do you think dude i got the beat vibes and feels although the good news seems to be that the beat actually could be coming back but separate to that let's shout out uh demir here uh no i'm shocked i didn't see this coming does this look look you

picked him to win over armand saryukian and i thought armand made a big you know leap shout out armenia luke you should you know maybe you maybe you should have seen that coming but should have seen it come would you still say that something was off for your boy and maybe does that play into this retirement decision I I just think it's weird man like he came out of nowhere he didn't look like I'm you know listen you get predictions right you get predictions wrong but he didn't look himself I'm sorry man if you had seen the way he defended takedowns in previous fights he didn't look himself here in this one i don't really know what to attribute that to maybe i was my even though i'm a i love sorry you can i was not high enough on him as possible and if you notice something about

ismagulov he has a bit of a tick where he would kind of blink like that i don't mean i don't want to i'm not mocking him i'm not trying to be uh disparaging but he did have a noticeable tick with one of his eyes i don't know if that was related to some kind of autistic issue or not. Maybe that has gotten worse. Maybe that's a function of something else. I don't know if that's related at all, but it was certainly a visible thing he was dealing with. I don't know what the story is, but I'm disheartened. And I got to tell you, man, whether or not this guy was going to fight for, or I should say, whether or not this guy was going to be a champion at 155 BC, who knows but you know between him and kutete laze and gamrot and saryukian he was part of those guys we were talking about there were these these horsemen who were coming to be the 55 apocalypse

boy if you're at the top of that weight class you're like whoo dodged a bullet with that one he wasn't going to beat everyone but he was going to beat a lot of good fighters and i think they're probably breathing a sigh of relief yeah i mean look you know who knows without knowing the situation you could never know is this you know a permanent thing but i do think in there's many cases in many careers where sometimes just a break for whatever reason can can be what somebody needs hopefully he's okay luke and you know who knows if we ever do see him again but it's shocking and it's it's always tough you know in boxing this happens but it happens more for again, but it's shocking. And it's, it's always tough, you know, in boxing, this happens,

but it happens more for bad reasons where it's like, you get like an Edwin Valero or you get somebody who just flashes on the scene and they look like they could be something amazing, but they never quite get that chance to show it for whatever reason. And, um, damn, I want to, I want to see it.

I want to see this guy do some, I want to see the beat come back. Luke, you think, you think Magomed Sharapov can, can do this? I mean, Habib's been making references that it could happen. You think Magomed Sharapov can do this? I mean, Habib's been making references that it could happen, Luke.

You mean Magomed Sharapov? Yeah, that's what I said. I think you said Mago. You said Maga Sharapov. I think I said Magomed Sharapov. Maga Sharapov is the Florida version. Yeah, yeah, that's Kobe, yeah. Yeah, COVID Maga Sharapov.

That's what you would call it in Florida. But yeah, mean if he not really i don't think i don't think it's gonna matter one way or the other yeah all right from at jimmy underscore read red why is luke scared of underscores and usernames yeah i mean i would say i'm oh fuck i skipped one we'll go back to it but it's fine no no stay with where we are stay with where we are why is luke scared of underscores and usernames? I'm not. They're just stupid. Yeah, that's it.

You're not suggesting that it's them hiding something or them lacking self-esteem or a terrible secret? Dude, nobody wants to enter that. Nobody wants to enter a bunch of letters and then have to hit shift and then another fucking key. Just put the fucking name normally. And also, it doesn't even look good. It looks weird. We're just going to put a fucking name normally and they also it doesn't even look good it looks weird

you know we're just gonna put a fucking blank there as this placeholder dude you know i'm not my name is not clever but you can just go you know i don't have to fucking shift and hold and all that shit they're awful these are awful names from awful people who deserve to live on mars i mean let's just be real wow okay all right there you go uh i don't know how to counter that oh look you want to go back to that other question all right all right so sorry about this so this is my mistake at cole underscore brown 858 just another worst name in the universe but good question what are your thoughts on manny pacquiao signing with ryzen which he did this weekend as well what are the chances they make a mayweather rematch well i gotta tell you my my appetite for a pacquiao mayweather rematch in 2023 fairly low bc yeah yeah i mean even like two years ago

could you make a much bigger bigger and better case for it you might have been able to but even if you think about it floyd's been on that other circuit for a while this seems to be manny entering that circuit he just had that you know exhibition against that youtuber i know he also called out crawford and spence it's seemingly no one else likes my idea of pairing him against tank davis one day luke i don't know really what man he has left but i've always expected he'd be a guy who hung around real boxing for too long using his name just because he loves it i mean he loves this game but uh in terms of him going this potential route and doing this this circuit um yeah cool good for him luke i'm gonna be as less interested as i was in floyd's one-offs

in this same category but uh cool okay right i mean what are you gonna say like yeah make make that money player cool here's what i'm gonna say i basically don't care yeah yeah cool cool all right uh last but not least i remember when mike tyson had that uh that exhibition I basically don't care. Yeah, yeah. Cool. Cool. All right. Last but not least. I remember when Mike Tyson had that exhibition pay-per-view tour idea. Remember that, Luke? Remember when he had that pay-per-view main event against his sparring partner, Corey TX Sanders, who wore the half shirt to cover up his moves,

and one of them wore headgear? I mean, it was just a debacle. Do you remember that? That was an actual pay-per-view, and it was supposed to be like a like a giant gimmick i'm glad that thing you know went the way of the slap league in 2023 if you know what i'm saying you know yeah shouts to all the mma media covering the slap dick league you guys really dude did you see they named force i mean how sad is this ufc hall of famer forrest griffin has named the official i forgot what the title is but but he broke it on TMZ. Whatever

the name of the job, jismopper of the person who catches the fallen, the fallen slapper, Luke, by the way, I love that all the UK MK fans are in our DMs going, you know, in our terms, slapper means like, like, you know, uh, uh, uh, a woman who's very, you know, progressive. Uh, I mean, who's very aggressive Luke on the social scene and gets around. Forrest has to catch the slappers, and he gave this detailed quote to TMZ about how the sport's so dangerous that we need somebody in position who knows what they're doing to prevent the extra damage from, yeah. I mean, come on, Forrest, right?

Let me just say this. Run, Forrest, run. You can't like what you like in this let me just say this run for it you like in this world like you're allowed to like what you like for real like this is the thing that gets you through your day death metal dude you're look we give you grace on that debacle of a turn you made right well i'm wearing you know i mean you can't really hate on this one you can be racist and hate on this one but you can't be you know sean price boot camp. Give me a number two pencil. Watch me take the test. BC, you can like what you like,

but if you end up liking slap fighting, your opinion on what's cool in combat sports, you're off the list forever. Wow, okay. Forever. Be careful. Some of these same people may be in our audience on the steps on Friday, Luke, for the anniversary.

You're off the roll call of like, hey, who's got a cool opinion on combat sports? You're off the list. Forever. You're cool. Fuck you. Yeah, there you go. All right, BC. That's it for the DMs. That's it for the top five. It's time for BC's PC. Oh, you didn't hit up the personal goals question, Luke.

Oh, sorry. I missed that one. Yes, I'm totally wrong. All right. Geez, I'm off on this one. I apologize. From at RLI to R really to cool six, whatever the fuck that means, what are some of your personal goals for 2023, BC? Personal goals, not professional. Yeah, that's a fair question.

Professionally, Luke, I liked your humility earlier, and to please both you and Dom Cruz, not Tom Cruz, I plan on watching more tape, Luke, certainly. But in terms of my personal life, I would like to listen more, whether that be you, Luke, or the other marriage in my life and my family. I would also like what we say to start every year to really aggressively put health first and and get into that daily workout routine to take those liver numbers down luke that's a big focus for the new year um what else we got here luke what else we got i can tell you from some of mine well one is bc i will tell you that this will say that so this thing i got

whatever virus this was that destroyed me and my family uh i haven't had a puff of vape in like i don't know 10 days it might be my gateway to helping me finally quit remember i told you my goal was to quit dude i this the silver lining silver lining might be i could finally move on from this shit so uh definitely the goal is to quit vaping for sure 100 so there's that one i will say this bc i don't want to reveal the number but um i so i lost so i gained a bunch of weight the pandemic then i lost a bunch and then i kind of just held steady for about six months which is what i've been doing the last six months i think i'm ready to finish the job and finish the job so my goal is to get down to my weight that i was when i had a first class pft in the Marine Corps, which is a fair amount of distance,

but I definitely feel like I can do it. What is that number, Luke? So I was about 240 when I had a first-class PFT. I can't get much lower than that. That is really about the smallest I could ever get, healthy-wise, anyway. So that's the goal. The goal is by the end of the year to be on that track, and I'm ready, I think. I'm finally ready to... I did it wrong. When you go into caloric deficit, you're only supposed to do it for like three months, and I did it for like a year, and it kind of burned me out,

but I feel better now in terms of being ready to tackle the assignment. So I think between the vaping and the weight and everything else, and I'm lifting weights all the time, but I got to get my weight down. That's the goal. That's the goal. Yeah, yeah. I'll also echo that. And I applaud you on that. And I know you can get there.

By the way, if you come down to 240, when you come down to 240, Luke, you're going to be jacked. And I don't even know if you'll be lean as shit. I as shit i'll be super i mean maybe you could still go the trt direction at that point but you may just go i don't need it or want it but yeah i want to get that healthy i want to get to that next level where i feel that but also mentally luke you know even in in the mental health battle that we all go through daily or weekly or what you know whenever it comes knocking um sometimes you know we get a little lazy and like, oh, there's other things I should be doing each day to make that mental health battle easier, not just on me, but those around

me who love me. I want to start doing those extra things. Luke, I'm really bad at journaling and, you know, that kind of stuff. And my therapist is all over me and maybe she's right. My wife agrees, you know? Yeah, I mean, you are a degenerate piece of shit. So maybe I'll get a, you know, maybe I'll get my own silver linings playbook, Luke, and write agrees you know yeah i mean you are a degenerate piece of shit so maybe i'll get a you know maybe i'll get my own silver linings playbook luke and write you know i mean look you know maybe i'll just it'll probably be all about it's not it's not gonna end with you banging jennifer

lawrence i can tell you that right now okay okay there you go but no no let's all improve luke in the new year and uh you know mky's um i mean we're gonna crush that live show february 8th maybe we'll get a ton of professional ones, too. But for personal, I think it starts with you can't take care of anything else until you take care of yourself. And so I'm going to do that. Yeah, let's raise our game to the next level this year, Luke. Damn, this is going to be fun.

All right, there you go. All right, BC, let's see some feces. There you go. So, look, we didn't have it last week because we had pre-taped the bonus episode they're looking ahead at ufc and mma in 2023 so uh this is what i've now have two weeks worth of holiday videos and thus uh you know searching the globe of course for the highs and lows the good bad the ugly in the in-between and combat sports and most certainly beyond uh shout out as always to gaffney pierre for finding the kernels in these giant piles of absolute shit. That is BC's feces.

Yeah. BC's feces. Sorry, I'm sending my brother a text. I have to send him something, right? Oh, please, please. Congratulations. He just had a kid. He's old, too, right?

He's older than me. He's two years older than me, bro. I told him, too. I told him, too. Here's my brother. My brother is like me, only worse in a lot of respects he so he didn't ask me a single like one of my opinions on like anything child rearing or the the you know the birthing process nothing i didn't didn't ask a single question and so i was like do warn him about the floor though warn him about the birthing floor

please okay a little late now a little's like a Gallagher concert only. Yeah, it's great. It's the cover of a Cannibal Corpse album. I mean, it's really what it is down there. But he was like, yeah, he goes, I read a book that compiled all of the best studies on what works for sleep training and the birthing process. He took classes ahead of time.

Tell him to burn all that knowledge, Luke, because it's a shit show. It's called parenting. Yeah, well, we we'll see how it goes but he didn't ask me a single question about anything because he was reading studies on child rearing and he took that to be like the best kind of wisdom so um i'm really not sure what to tell him other than congratulations and you know violetta is very excited to meet i'm sure he went to a few ted talks on this process luke i can't wait to see his results but no seriously dude for an old guy smoking from shooting right i mean that's just like still got it still able to produce right yeah but dude here's a piece of record i don't know how all the audiences who's watching this will have to see you know what the metrics say but let me tell you something folks i'm not telling you to have kids early because that may not be the best thing for you or for them here's what i can say try to have them on the earlier side if you can because what

you don't want to do is wait until you're fucking 40s and then you're changing diapers at 247 in the morning for three months straight you don't want to do that it's going to fuck you up i aged in the last three years like it was a contest god bless you me. I haven't noticed at all, Luke. Yeah, I haven't. I mean, it's, you know, yeah. She fucked me up proper. So just keep that in mind. Yeah, yeah.

Don't worry, Luke. 2023 is your year. You're coming back to pre-MMA solo hour version. Because you were a walking corpse at that. You were like a vision of death. Can you imagine going to New York two times a week? Every week. And I did it for 50 weeks. I took two i don't i took two weeks off when my daughter was born two weeks and i got no surgery in the middle of that two weeks like dude i was that

was a terrible year for me terrible but before that i used to see you at uh ufc events you were jacked as shit luke you were intimidating to talk to because you have like that angry like aura around you but you i'm gonna get back to that i'm gonna get back to that the anger yeah just feel it anakin please there we go all right luke uh hy sts time let's go to japan yes saitama super arena bellator versus rise and this was fantastic but it all started at the weigh-in nobu mitsu tyson luke was going to take on johnny case and here's nobumitsu on the right um he hit the skins for the hell of it just for the yell he gets for okay i can't even carry this bit out luke what is happening here i really wish that the taliban ran japan and just executed

this guy okay he looks like that guy i told you I'd never put again on this segment where the guy goes pulling things and he's nude, but there's a teacup covering his junk. You know that guy? Here's what I'm also going to say. It's like, dude, listen to me very clearly. I know, matter-of-factly, I am not cool. But MMA fighters, you don't have to have weird haircuts.

You don't have to. Haircutscuts you don't have to haircuts are weird haircuts are cool well i'm more talking about this chippendales variety here all right that was the first order of business but the second order of business is you don't have to have weird haircuts i mean you can just be you know relatively cool was doing this though bad karma for nobu mitsu tyson here's 30 seconds 36 36 seconds into round one when Johnny's got a case for him, Luke. Yeah, Johnny Case is a good fighter. Very good fighter. And it turns out murder was the case that they gave

him, Luke. There's the payoff for that weigh-in bit. Johnny Case gets the win. A lot of folks forget that. He beat Satoshi. He's the only guy that did it until AJ McKee did. There you go. Alright. Ah, okay. Very good. let's keep it going here luke how about habib nurmagomedov who was in the corner of godzi rabadanov um getting

some scott coker facetime kate ringside and dude dressed in 90s flannel my man right man habib looking like i mean i don't even know what he looked Habib looking like he's picking up a bag of Twinkies and a Mountain Dew for a long day. I mean, putting up shingles on someone's roof. What if Habib was one of us? I know he's not. Did you see those quotes he gave about being on the Mike Tyson podcast? He was like, nah, man, all they're doing was drugs and not intelligent conversation.

I was, you know, he was just like the narc on your dorm room floor, but I'm okay with that too, Luke, because he made a promise to mother and father, and he's keeping that. Do you think they should absorb Eagle FC into Bellator, Luke? That'd not be a bad move, right? Probably. Boy, I got to tell you, how triggered were the MMA fans watching all the Japanese with the masks on, huh?

Boy, that must have really got them. They were like, I guess they don't love freedom in Japan. You love amazing entrances. They do. Here's Juan Arch archuleta the spaniard um finding his animal instincts here on the walk-in this is pretty badass i gotta admit i mean they this this clip of it misses oh here we go no this is this got it right look at this with the smoke i mean that's just incredible and i will say there was good symmetry between this

and the broadcast the broadcast had the full breakdown on why the outfit looked the way it did and what it symbolized. And Mauro was able to talk it through while he was making his entrance. It all kind of worked very seamlessly. Really great job by the Showtime production team in getting that right. By the way, having Mauro call this in Japan New Year's Eve like that's just perfect. Just perfect. Also, we saw Patricio Pippo in Spartan looking outfit that was badass but here's AJ McKee ahead of the

main event dressed as a samurai Luke your thoughts on the theatrical ability this one hard as fuck too man everyone's like oh Deontay Wilder vibes but no like he had it it looked great but it wasn't too heavy he had the whole sword and everything else around it. Like if you followed his Instagram, he had done his research in the, in the week leading of the two weeks leading up in Tokyo to go get a better look at all this stuff. I thought this went hard as fuck. This was amazing.

Luke on the undercard, which was a rise in show one more time, show one more time. Let me make one more point here about slapdick league. It's like, I, every time we see something like this, folks are always like, how come the UFC doesn't do this?

It's like, dude, the guy who said that they wanted no more of this is the guy behind the slap league. Like, you know, the judgment about what's cool might be a little bit off. Just saying. That's why we're in Venom kits now, Luke. All right. Also, this undercard was presented as a rise in pay-per-view on the fight TV thing, Luke.

And John Dotson was on there. He scored a first-round stoppage of Hideo Takoro. Here was the exciting finish. I know he's bounced around the bare knuckle, too. Luke, does he have anything left? I mean, his hairline's going south. So John Dotson had two MMA wins in 2022 and had the BKFC win over a UFC vet as well. By the way, Hideo Tokoro is a very good fighter.

I think he's a UFC vet as well. Certainly, I think he fought in Dream or Sengoku. He's been around for a long time. I think he used to be a cop or is a cop in Japan. He was for a moment. But a very credentialed, good fighter. Dotson just went through him like a fucking hot knife through butter 2022 was a very good year for John Dotson I think he needs the right kind of fighters and the right kind of setups but if

you give it to him he's gonna give you something special he's still got a little bit left in the tank for sure yeah uh boxers in the wild Luke let's do some of this it's statue season in the tank for sure yeah uh boxers in the wild luke let's do some of this it's statue sizzin in the boxing game remember we saw deontay wilder make out with his in tuscaloosa here's canelo alvarez receiving the life-size statue routine in his native uh guadalajara luke uh damn right okay i know he's dude he's had kind of like a sneaky underground thing going against the mexican government of late have you noticed this this was good to see him kind of like a sneaky underground thing going against the Mexican government of late. Have you noticed this? This was good to see him kind of come back to the home country and represent. Is he against AMLO? Like, who is he against?

I think he accused them of kidnapping someone in his family. I mean, there was some deep stuff going on there, right? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. The Mexican government's got some issues. But I will say this. If they ever made me a statue, BC, I would want to look like MC Hammer in the Pumps and the Bumps video. Look at those chiseled abs. Put a can of tennis balls in my dungarees and call it a day.

Very chiseled abs on that statue, which almost don't even look realistic. And speaking of chiseled abs that look statuesque and unrealistic, Luke, I don't know if we should shout out 49-year-old Oscar De La Hoya for being so happy on Instagram, but I have a question. That's his wife, Holly Saunders. Are those abs real, Luke? I don't know. He's flaunting them every day, and he is in great shape for 49, and he seems to be very happy, Luke.

Which he won't stop telling people about i can't tell if uh they just drew like cosmetic makeup lines to give the separation there it's just weird that his abs are like chiseled and nothing else is you know what i mean everything else is kind of like normal floppy or whatever yeah all of these posts have like this fu like angle back to the world i mean this is oscar's you know every post is like, guys, I'm so happy. I wish you nothing but happiness, even for you. He's like Donald Trump. He's like, even for the haters and losers,

you know, you guys can all suck my balls. But, you know, we're not talking about that anymore. We're just talking about happiness. It's like, I don't think we're just talking about happiness, Oscar. I hope though. Maybe we'll have him on and we'll talk about those abs, Luke.

I want to get to the bottom of this story uh let's go to fury fury fury grappling right fury grappling is that how you pronounce it fury fc i think fury fc ufc fight pass luke on this undercard how about chase hooper putting the calf slicer on clay guida your thought this was sick he was going for the twister and then he just inverts him to a different position and goes for the calf slicer. That's nice work. That's real nice work. Don't forget that that card is brought to you by OnlyFans, Luke.

And also on the main event, it took less than a minute, but as we talked about, Jillian Robertson got the best of Rose Namajunas, who was part of the marriage duo that Pat Berry was also grappling on this card. But that was quick, and it was shocking. I mean, is shocking the right word? I don't know. Shocking? Pat Berry was on this card?

I believe he was. I saw some advertisements for that, yeah. And also, I think they're still engaged. Or did they get married? Yeah, I don't know. Whatever. Yeah, well, Julian Robertson, a really, really, really good grappler um and uh yeah dude this is what happens big bank take little bank uh luke mark ray monday of espn was in japan over the weekend and he showed up of course at the bellator versus rising

card but he also went to this card put on by enoki boombaye collaborating with gonryu jima i know that sounds like an std luke but it looks like to be like a pro wrestling mma hybrid i don't know this shit but this is wild none the same what nonetheless i loved it i loved it i loved everything about it i don't know if there's really a way to do mma you can do custom rules but i don't know if there's really a way to do MMA. You can do custom rules, but I don't know if there's a way to do MMA as we understand it with no cage at all. But if you can do some kind of modified version on occasion with wild zany rules, including ones like this

where you can just dive bomb your fucking opponent into the ground off the fighting surface, I'm all in favor of it. So first of all, is this like a like a combo like pro wrestling hard hitting thing or is this actual combat mixed martial it's actual combat it's just with customized rules i know they have the smoke to build like that mode idea which by the way was like the original idea for ufc1 to have like water around it with freaking sharks with freaking

laser beams luke i mean really there was some crazy ideas thrown around can you legally throw somebody to the floor here or is there like mad i think you can no i think you care i think he did that legally yes all right that's boralzinho whose name is marcus aurelio do you know him or no uh there's been a lot of marcus aurelios but no i'm not overly familiar with him all right all right uh luke jake paul staying in shape uh over the holidays with some uh he put out a cock boxing video um your thoughts on this wow i didn't know shack lost his dong somewhere wow majuri or o'neill your choice luke all right yeah wow i mean what is what the fuck is jake okay i don't know if we can keep showing this. Let's move on. All right. Hey, Luke, you know anything grosser than that clip right there

is the behavior of NFL fans, right? I hate them. Let's go to the Chiefs game. Let's see this guy. Just look at this. Look at this guy whose car is getting repossessed as we speak. Look at that fine American, Luke, doing the old tight sweep. This is the kind of asshole who barely reads and writes English,

is letting everyone know he's never worn a mask anywhere. I guarantee it. It's this kind of guy. Not enough ass crack for me in this, so let's go to the Eagles game. I don't know if you've seen this viral video, but crack kills, Luke. Stay off the pipe. Wow. Wow, look at old Jabba here.

He's having a hard time. You mean one job all yeah it's uh jesus why is he falling like peter griffin down well i've got a i've got a better angle showing you what happened apparently this guy with the ass crack was talking some shit is this the guy that fought at the wawa yep so that's uh we'll see the alternate angle here. That's what happened. Oh, shit. And that there is assault, brother. Wow. Yep. Dude, why would you, serious question, why would you ever go to an NFL game?

So that guy in the Packers sweater was talking a lot of junk to the other fans, and one fan had enough, Luke, so he deposited that ass crack straight down the steps. I mean, that's a worse fall on stadium steps than the one oj simpson made in the wheelchair in the closing sequence of naked gun remember that or didn't he launch him into outer space was that one yeah no into the into the field but ricardo montalban got launched over the stadium and they got run over by like a parade and then the steam roller truck yeah it was great hey by the way you know what i played uh this was new year the night new year's eve eve my son isaac and i uh he was like can we watch like a cool like action old school movie and he loves nicholas cage so i'm like i got the one for you uh uh

what the hell snake eyes dude we watched that shit it was awesome remember that with uh gary sinise uh with with the boxing match and the shooting and Carla Giugino. Oh, dude, that one's great. You got to go back and watch that. It's not as lame as the Van Damme sudden death one where he plays goalie, which I still have affection for, but there you go. Thank you. All right, let's keep it going in the NFL.

No, let's go over. Yeah, let's go to NFL fans. This is an oldie but a goodie, Luke. Check out Derek Carr turned ninja in the Raiders crowd here. I believe this is from the oakland days oh boy that's that's not that's not the right way oh god charles woodson all doing the heisman pose on him. Wow. Yeah, I mean, why would you go to an NFL game? Yeah. I mean, he did have a cover. NFL fans, like hardcore team NFL fans, these guys will absolutely stab you in the parking lot.

I mean, they're the worst humans on earth. So you're saying if The Running Man, the old Arnold movie, became a reality and they had like a real Squid Games, we'd be throwing NFL fans in there as contestants, Luke? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, basically. All right. Well, he did have it coming. You don't hit a man with glasses, Luke. Everybody knows that. Hey, let's do some MMA fighters in the wild. Did you see this Twitter post from Frankie Edgar? So Luke, he was doing work on his house and he replaced the ceiling and he found a bunch of VHS tapes that he tweeted out. Let's look at these titles.

Sister Snatch. Sloppy Seconds. Tattle Tale. Yes, yes, Luke. I didn't mean to leave these there. Yeah. Luke, do you think he has a working VCR and did he watch these? Who has a VCR? Jesus.

I mean, I have one, but it doesn't work. And I have an old VHS tape that I really want to play, but I got to go. I don't think he does. But, you know, honestly, whoever the guy was that left those there, that's a real American hero right there. Let me just tell you. There you go. Hey, speaking of heroes, how about Armand Saroukian, who got the win over Ismagulov, Luke,

which unfortunately sent him into retirement. But here's how he ate in celebration, going full-on animal style at In-N-Out. In-N-Out is very good yeah it's very good yeah it's massively overrated massively okay but not on a five guys level what do you mean five guys is is like it hits the spot the first time and then it's just like bloated gross crack the rest of the time um it never and you never feel good again you know like you it's the worst it's heroin it's just like bloated gross crack the rest of the time um it never and you never feel good again you know like you it's the worst it's heroin it's been years since i've had five guys so i can't remember but it's the worst it's the worst i love it i love in and out it's great i

would i mean if someone's like hey you want to go in and out i'd be like yeah dude let's it sounds like a great idea but people being like i'm gonna go motherfucking stand in line i'm like yo i'm not yeah i won't go to that regard but dude you can still find amazing experiences there luke by yeah it's good i'm just not standing in line for in and out it's not all right uh chael sun and had dana white on his uh podcast luke and um here's how that interview ended i gotta talk to you a while i gotta tell you a new joke that's going around what is six feet tall what is six feet tall dashing and disappears in an instant? What? Oh, he froze right at the punchline. He froze at the punchline.

That's fucking brutal. Looking to get the joke, apparently. By the way, Chael. He didn't freeze, Dana. He didn't get the joke, apparently. By the way, Chael. He didn't freeze, Dana. He didn't freeze. Chael did that same thing to me on my podcast once, the old CBS Sports State of Combat. He's done that to everybody. It never fails, Luke.

It always hits the mark. Always. All right? Did they say anything interesting, the duo? I don't know. Look, I didn't hear that. I'm here for this bullshit. That's the only thing I cared about for a minute.

No, I didn't watch it. You know, whatever. Great moments in dad fails time. Luke the let's go to the garage here let's get on the chopper okay remember remember when michael vick won that game in overtime his rookie year, Luke, or maybe a second year when he cut through the defense in overtime and the two defenders ran into each other

and it's like the greatest quarterback run in history? It looked like that right there. Why was there a piano there? Where the fuck were they? I don't know, but I think... So, Luke, you know that move in pro wrestling they do a lot called the kip-up? Yes. Where you're on your back, but you can, like,

pump your hips and you can, you know, elevate to a standing position. Check out this dad giving it a try. Hey, hey, hey! That was... Oh, God, Dad. You got one. Oh, Dad. Please stop, Dad. Oh, Dad.

Please stop, Dad. So, Luke, is that a fail or a victory? He ripped ass right in the middle of it. I don't know if you heard that. I didn't hear it, but it's the perfect ending to Fat Man's failures. All right, more Dad's fails takes us back to the garage luke and oh there's another motorcycle here let's check this out okay i mean now to be fair i don't know if that was a dad luke but i'll tell you pretty confidently he never will be after that accident that's rough dude that is

rough you know oh boy yeah dude they should never repair that wall they should just leave it there be like hey remember when that sounded this big dumb motherfucker just fell into it turned into a trophy i mean look at this fucking moron uh luke i don't i don't assume you grew up in tough neighborhoods so did you ever play football on the street sure oh dude i was nasty at the crossing pattern just like this guy. Check this out. Oh, Jesus. Oh, fuck me. How do you get run over by a stationary car?

He got jacked up, Luke. He did get, yeah, wow. Is that what they used to call it? Yeah. For folks who don't watch other sports, ESPN used to do this highlight reel where they would show guys getting basically paralyzed or crippled, and they would call it like, you got jacked up or he got jacked up, whatever they would say.

Yeah, yeah. They would show the highlights, and it would be like this crushing blow, and then they would talk about it. They can't do it anymore because obviously, like, hello, these guys are getting CTE like shit. But hey, we can do it on this show. We don't give a fuck. You're uh chris benoit and junior say i'll unfortunately

ruin that uh that segment but you guys can do it here just fine i gotta say though the quarterback didn't do his receiver any favors here no he let him there no he let him there uh speaking of dads luke big week for that cowboy dad energy coming out of don Cerrone's post-UFC retirement camp. Here's first cowboy doing something, Luke, that maybe you'll one day do at the crossroads to keep that young spirit alive. Hair implants. Oh, he's getting old implants. Yeah.

Yeah, I might. I might. Okay. He's got the old LeBron spray paint job in the front there. No, no, no. They have to individually seed them one by one. Yeah. Yeah, you know what? Let's pay attention to see if it looks good i might have to invest all right well he's not just stopping at the at the old uh hair implants

luke he's admitting to going on the sauce luke cowboy is jacked the hell up showcasing on uh social media this week his his admitted steroid induced post-fight career body this is also luke what you should probably be doing soon right yeah i think 2023 i said this before i mean i'm gonna get a blood blood work panel done to see where there we go all right i mean he's ripped you happy for him luke i'll get jacked up super like dude i mean life is short be happy do what you want and okay cowboy does but is there limits to life being short and doing what you want um here's cowboy serrani this news brief brought to us by the thick boy news network uh fight network about his maybe future thoughts the jake paul phenomenon is kind of crazy it's got everybody

calling him out and kind of like the big connor push you know what i mean that's why i feel like it's happening with jake paul everyone's wondering and i don't see why they wouldn't because that's a big money fight um but you can't take away like everyone's saying those are like rigged fights i think he's hitting hard you know what i mean i really i really do think those are legitimate shots and strikes and he's been practicing boxing and and for the show and he's whipping their asses so it's I don't think that there's any like miss hype you know I think there's just he's got something going on there would I like to fight him fuck of course how could I how could I say no to fucking millions of dollars

so I would definitely go out there and do it but I'm not sitting over here saying Jake you're fucking youtuber ain't worth a fuck, blah, blah, blah. My man, you're making money, make the fucking money, and if you want to throw some money my way, I'm with you. So, Luke, you down in 2023 for Juice Cowboy against Jake? No.

No. Alright. Well, you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch. And Luke, when we debated in our mailbag episode, the best Christmas movies ever, rightfully we got Holiday in Handcuffs correct, but we didn't mention the remake of The Grinch with Jim Carrey being up there. Luke, it is.

Yeah, because it's not. It's shit. Wow. I think even the original cartoon is badass and up there, and I think you're wrong on the shit. Yes, the cartoon I'll look the other way around, but the redone cartoon is really bad. the Jim Carrey version is like stupid. I mean well there's a new viral video sensation of dressing up as the Grinch to scare your kids

on Christmas morning and here's Jarrett Swift Hurd. You remember him Luke? He's on the comeback trail by the way the former unified junior middleweight champion in boxing and here's him scaring the crap out of his own kids and extended family. Are you here for this, Luke? I mean, I got to tell you, this looks more like a traumatic home invasion. Well, Luke, keep that same energy for this next one. I'm not going to send you five different Grinch videos, but here's the most ridiculous one. We're going to play the audio here.

Swift's kids reacted a lot better than this family did. You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch. You really are a mean one. You're as cuddly as a cactus. You're as charming as a mule. Dude, these kids are like, you're not taking my fucking PlayStation 5 away. You're a bad banana with a juicy black peel. He's going through with the bit. Luke, I know we're all laughing here, but that's like legit trauma being inflicted on those poor children. I mean, come on. If you would like to see what my childhood looked like,

just imagine instead of that being the Grinch, that was Divorce Court, and I was in the middle of it howling. Wow. Wow. I probably shouldn't have played that. That was disturbing and hilarious. I mean, did you love the Grinch making that one more run back at the tree to stiff arm the kid? That was the moment of that clip, wow. I probably shouldn't have played that. That was disturbing and hilarious. I mean, that, that, did you love the Grinch making that one more run back at the tree to stiff arm the kid?

That was the moment of that clip, Luke. I gotta tell you, that kid's got some balls. Brave kid. Yeah. Brave kid. Future UFC fighter, I hope, Luke. You know what I'm saying? Probably more of a slapdick kind of guy who's going to end up being in the draft league,

but you know. Well, I've got a wholesome alert related to the Grinch. This dog looks a lot like the Grinch's pup sidekick, does it not, Luke? No, it just looks like a fucking regular dog. Dude, you can't, this is great, right? You're not touched by this wholesome content? No, this is just another dog, bro. Okay, here we go.

Listen, after you've slipped in iced dog piss down your stairs, you begin to get a little bit different view of this whole thing. I got you, I got you. But Luke, this guy might be your new hero because he combined your two favorite things from your 20s lifting and drinking 40s your thoughts luke i think dude i'm not even doing a bit i'm looking in the background hold on go full screen here go full screen notice in the background he's got what's called a mochila which is the bag there hanging on the wall and it's the bolivarian colors my man might be colombian here bro i'm not

even doing a bit i mean he's a badass I wouldn't put it past him, Luke. Is that hair real? It's fantastic either way. It is if he believes it is. If he believes it is. All right, all right. Hey, Luke, kids say the stupidest things. Am I right?

They do the darndest things, right? Let's go to this wedding video. This is a memory that'll last a lifetime i mean that's at the altar bro oh god if anyone uh believes these two should not join in holy matrimony uh puke now or forever hold your breakfast luke wow Wow, yeah. Dude, kids, they don't give a shit about Sarah. Oh, my Lord. Yeah, they don't care about waiting when you bring out the pinata to make sure nobody's standing in the way.

Let's go to the next clip, you know? For the grandbaby. Oh, yeah. for the grandbaby oh yeah yo someone got a taste of the fucking wood shampoo bitch uh luke when kids become teenagers they also take big risks fashion wise what do you think of these ice tips this guy's got i mean just shoot him into the sun just shoot him into the sun he Just shoot him into the sun. He's got a neck tattoo, the worst beard I've ever seen. I kind of like it, dude.

That's a sweet fade, dude. That's a sweet fade. And he looks like a geriatric Sonic the Hedgehog. Shoot this motherfucker into the moon. All right. Hey, Luke, it's a new year, which means it's time to get that gym membership so you can work on your sex moves apparently uh look out for this at your local no judgment zone

i mean i don't know if that's uh in good taste luke that's uh creepy and i guarantee this guy walks around the bathroom with his shoes on and socks and no underwear blow dry in his fucking taint yeah that's well first of all that's a guarantee that he is that guy but second of all what is this machine called like the the sodomy i mean what are we doing here right this is a this is supposed to be a tricep you can either pull down or uh or i should say tricep push down you can use it for some kind of pull down you could use it for like lats in this way he's just uh he's just stupid there's really no other way to put this he's just well if you can't afford a gym membership luke there's still other ways you can work on that uh that sex

prep wow america baby there you go you ever like walked out this is not if you live in a small town you will not understand this but bc you know and you live in a small town but because of the way your work is you're in big towns fairly frequently how many times have you walked down the street in a big town like new york especially and you've ever like looked down the street and you've seen like a a condom there you ever done done that? Oh, yeah. Russ Beneave is a famous comedian, or he was for a time. He has a famous joke about this, and it's always like, dude, who is so reckless that they're having sex in an alleyway,

yet so careful that they're putting on a rubber? Yeah. Luke, that comedy scene is a dirty business. You know that though. You do know that, right? I guess. Why is the next clip something related to that?

No, no. There's just a lot of comedians with very, very, uh, shifty and shaky past. That's all I'm going to say right there. But look,

you also, when it comes to working out in the new year, you got to work on your core. How do you rate this guy's technique? Core training. It's like, dude, I'm'm not gonna say this is not impressive but this is the least useful skill ever that's at least a party trick right and it's it's healthy it's a healthy turn too right it's like the ag1 of uh of circus tricks right there i know but he just looks like he looks like lucille ball in that famous sketch where she's trying to eat all the chocolates on

the conveyor belt. Yeah, oh yeah. Well, you don't need a gym membership or a gym, Luke. You can build a home gym like you did in your front yard. And this guy going straight to the dick lift at his home gym. Oh, I mean, this is a... That's the erection row machine, I think. I don't understand what a dildo like that does.

Who's that for? The local elephant? I mean... This is a loaded edition of BC's Feces. So, Luke, let's play America's favorite game. Would you eat? It's a simple yes or no, Luke. Here we go.

First, I think they call this the instant heart attack maybe. Let's check it out. So that's a mac and cheese. And a bacon bowl. With, I'm guessing, shredded pork. Yeah. Barbecue sauce. Yeah.

That's pretty intense. With more bacon crumbles. Yeah. Would you, Luke? with that's uh that's pretty intense with more bacon crumbles yeah that's uh would you luke bc i don't think i'm gonna meet my weight loss goals eating that one no i i would hope you would say yes so you'd have to give that a try hey look there's very convenient ways to cook the the silent killer that is hot dogs as well you hey you ever you ever have an old beer can but you don't want to wait in line to recycle it for a nickel because you're going to get Newark Penn Station diseases from the handling it, Luke. You can build your own beer can grill.

This is kind of ingenious, right? Okay, so if the apocalypse happens and there's nothing else to do other than this, this is great. Yeah, this and those military meals. You know those things, Luke? MREs, meals ready to eat. Dude, I still have a box of those.

There was an ice storm in October of 2011 in this area, Luke, that we didn't have power for eight days. The National Guard was giving those out. Dude, I was bringing those to ESPN for night shifts and just eating them every night as my dinner. You're probably not surprised by that, right? Did you at least heat them up the correct way? No, yeah, with the way where you pour the water bottle in it

and then it just instantly turns into a cooker. Yeah. It's wild. Okay. Would you eat anything off of this guy's bicycle grill? Because when we're talking about geniuses in the modern era, this guy should win some award. Dude, can this guy just get hit by a car and we can stop doing this i mean if he if he like i mean

if he either sells those or just gives them out i mean i'm down for this luke he's helping the community right i hate him okay uh finally luke i don't know uh you know country they called uh breakfast foods different things like curcups you know, and croissants. This looks to me like a genitalia waffle. Your thoughts? Have we done this ten times now? You know, look at... We've done this bit ten times now.

BC, we have done this exact fucking video. No, not with the breakfast vulvas, Luke. We haven't done that, okay? We have not done that, alright? This is, not with the breakfast volvas, Luke. We haven't done that, okay? We have not done that, all right? This is a new wrinkle. But there you go.

Would you? Would you? Oh, my. Oh, God. Okay, cancel the show. Cancel the show. Next one, eh? Let's go over to Abuela.

Luke, we haven't checked in on Abuela in a while, but heard she had a good time at her friend's birthday party over the weekend luke here's footage oh wow oh wow oh yeah uh speaking of america that's definitely not the abuela in my house but i will say that um i've certainly seen things like this have you ever seen life on a florida highway luke it's just a different mad max uh beyond uh beyond thunderdome type feel check out this road rage holy fucking shit uh they would walk away with their pride yeah yeah dude i why would you ever live in florida i mean there you go there you go desantis 2024 look coming your way hey how about we rate that tad everybody enjoys that luke sean brady went back to the ink station again to get a little piece on the side of his neck your thoughts love it super well done um shading looks great it's tradition it's american traditional

placement is great uh execution is great art concept is great i have nothing bad to say about it i love it yeah his ear looks like a shit lord look at that oh wow wow come on you know i mean i mean i mean who wants some dim sum on sean brady's face look at that i'm not even sure that's that's getting good taste to say that out loud luke i'm here for it's a bad just like my toes luke it tells a story of how i've how he got here and where he's been all right that was the story that you don't wash your ass enough that's enough that's not him but you that's not true all right rate this you you started the show bragging about not showering all right i'm gonna work on hygiene in the new year at home all right my road hygiene's top notch luke so you wanted me to listen more

and now i am i don't know if you want that exactly no i do. Hey, rate this tat from the Uruguayan goalkeeper, Sebastian Sosa. Luke, your thoughts. Uruguay. I don't. This is a terrible tattoo in every way. Oh, wow. I mean, I don't know what the fuck is up with his hair. And that lion looks like a piece of shit.

And it's just an awful tattoo. It's a really, really awful tattoo wow that was that was mr hibas level aggression out of you right there look at that okay hey celebration of the week time speaking of soccer hey luke argentina won the world cup and the whole world cared check out this guy's celebration oh fucking a look it got messy yeah damn he could have used the hand of god to open that door for him luke wow i like how drunk people are no more coordinated than hummingbirds you ever seen hummingbirds run into a screen door like that? Yeah. Yeah, I have.

I have. But that's actually not the best celebration of the week. It came in this Filipino basketball game. Luke, check this out. From way downtown. Bang, baby. That's pretty good. Dude, have you been watching the highlights of um god what's his face uh the dude who played a million teams he played for the lakers and now he plays in taiwan

what's his name um dwight howard dwight howard have you seen the dwight howard highlights from taiwan i watched his entire first game that went to overtime and it was like it's like you want to praise him because he had like 40 points and 30 rebounds but into overtime and it was like it's like you want to praise him because he had like 40 points and 30 rebounds but he also like it was like watching you know retired nba guy go down to the ymca and uh and just kind of f around for a while knowing that at any point he could turn on that next gear and you know he eventually got to that gear luke but it was a little i don't know it was a little Yeah, man. If I, I would love to play in Taiwan. That'd be fucking awesome.

Great. I had a friend who, who was like decent at basketball in, in our age level in my town, like decent, solid, like, okay,

okay. And then he was a German exchange student for a year in high school. And he was like, I tore every situation up. Like I was magic Johnson driving the lane, like throwing passes around my back. He was like, it was the best year of my life in that regard i want that you know what i mean like if i if i moved to deadwood luke and i was single it would be the same thing

how about stack telling us pre-venezuelan collapse that when he was like 19 and he his first pro gig out of high school was playing in Venezuela as a young guy. I was like, Oh, that must've been a little bit of fun. I could only imagine. Yeah. Yeah. Good thing they didn't have Facebook back then or anything like that.

Oh, Luke, we close with this. Sometimes, you know, you could trends in terms of decency and law change. And then, you know,

we can all pull up this old video where someone said something and we're like, damn man, do they really say that? What do you like? Chris Collinsworth, you know, him all pull up this old video where someone said something we're like damn man do they really say that what do you like chris collinsworth you know him the football analyst not especially you know he does that like famous thing and well you know he used to be a player and he used to get you know attention from ladies because of that let's go back to this file photo uh interview video of him talking about his social life outside the game. Being a bachelor and playing football, I have a lot of similarities between them. You go out and there's not anything in the world any more competitive than going out

and trying to find the girl. Chris Collinsworth is a wide receiver with all the right moves on and off the field. Like the crafty player he is, you never know when to take him seriously. So Chris, why do you think those girls really like you? I think probably because of the money, you know, and I'm not going to deny it. I walk around with $100 bills hanging out of my pockets usually and try and give it my best shot because before I ever made any money, it was pretty much uh big nothings bill I like girls that aren't too bright because you can trick them a little bit

the punk rockers all of me that's those are my big girls and uh high school girls love me 14 to 18 I'm a big star with them as soon as they you know as soon as they mature after about 18 years old they start figuring out that a minute, I know there's better than that out there. Dude, that is, sounds like an MK viewer. I was like, I can't see too well. Is that David Appleton right there? Is that Bill Shakespeare, Luke? I mean, good Lord, right?

Wow. Yikes. Yikes. Dude, the 80s were different, i'm telling you they were a different time luke they were a much you know i love the he's like yeah i just walk around with hundred dollar bills hanging out in my pocket because before i was famous i had a big nothing when it comes to sex yeah all right okay that's great at least you know what works for you yeah yeah uh all right is that it we're done that's all the shit i got for the week if we survive you have you have somehow

managed to drag this show out to two hours despite my protests about it but here we are so reminder folks we're going to be in london we're going to be in london february 8th come see us pod live i think it's pod dash live.com for tickets or you can just use the qr code on the screen right here put your old phone up there come see us in london uh showtime is the label that pays showtime.com. 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce.

Or, of course, don't forget, $3.99 a month for the first six months. MorningCombat at gmail.com is, of course, going to be the email for Wednesday's Fan Subs. Friday's Dead or Wrong. Wednesday will be still in this scenario. Friday's show will be together because this week we're going to be in Washington, D.C. for the Showtime pay-per-view Tank Davis fights. And then morningcombat.store. Well, we kind of effed up, Luke, because so many of our fans will already be in the city this week

for the Jan 6 reunion, and maybe some of them are boxing fans too, and they're there for the pay-per-view. We could have done a live show. I know we're doing one in London. That's what our efforts are pointing at. But imagine if we did a live show i know we're doing one in london that's what our efforts are pointing at but imagine if we did like a live one at like forge theater and we like recreated the moment with uh with booth and lincoln luke you and i yeah i just shoot you in the fucking face okay in the face yes there you go thank you in the face uh yeah it's gonna be a fun week uh should

be a rewarding week and i'm ready to get 2023 started on the right foot yeah seriously luke let's step our game up let's take it to a whole new level i think we actually i mean first of all that's the goal that's what you want but all the success which is hard to really frame like what do all these awards mean and these opportunities outside of hey they want us in england let's go to england let's go mk and uk let's bring it is um you know it puts pressure on you to raise you know our respective games to the next level. It's not just us, it's our production team, it's the planning people behind the scenes, it's the whole unit.

You know what I'm saying? It's the whole operation, Luke. And I'm ready. I'm ready to be different. I'm ready to be better. I'm ready to change lives. And even if your day sucked, I hope that you can go to bed going, BC forcing that show to two hours.

That was the best 120 minutes of my day. I didn't even need Ricky Rocket, you know? It probably wasn't the best 120 minutes, but it was a decent show just the same. All right, we're back on Wednesday. We appreciate you guys tuning in for Malka, CBS Sports, and Showtime, as well as the King of Connecticut, Brian Campbell.

I'm Luke Thomas. Talk to you folks on Wednesday. And until next time, may all of your gains be loyal.