MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Benavidez Defeats Plant | Sandhagen Outworks Vera | Combat Sports Regulation | Ep 423

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

On episode 423 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell react to David Benavidez's win over Caleb Plant. Is Canelo Next for Benavidez? Cory Sandhagen defeats Marlon Vera at UFC San Antonio. What's next for each fighter? Who else on the UFC San Antonio card stood out? The guys close out the show with DM's from Donks and HYSTS. (9:40) - Bellator Breaking News (19:30) - David Benavidez vs. Caleb Plant (30:30) - Canelo Alvarez vs. David Benavidez? (42:30) - Cory Sandhagen Outworks Marlon Vera (59:00) - Holly Holm & Rest of UFC San Antonio (74:30) - Combat Sports Regulation (80:30) - Dm's from Donks (94:00) - 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

Hey, it's the 27th of March, 2023. We're back home and ready to do a show. Hi, everyone. It's time for Morning Combat, your award-winning podcast of so many different kinds of awards. We've just lost track over here. I am one half of your hosting duo. My name is Luke Thomas. I joined you from the capital of Estados Unidos right here in Washington, D.C., joined by the king of layovers.

No one loves a layover quite like this guy. What time did you get home last night, Brian Campbell, king of Connecticut? About 1045. Jesus. Good Lord. Yeah. You know, that's the Luke. That's the life we choose.

You know what I mean? God. Well, I hope the travel day wasn't too bad if you're willing to have it luke are you if you're willing to yeah well i had a different travel day i had the southwest early morning travel day that's a that's a different kind of job i just felt you always feel like an animal led off to slaughter you know what i mean like when you get on a southwest air uh flight yeah i would avoid southwest in uh sprint spirit frontier whatever all those cumberland farms well airlines are luke okay please yeah you know what i noticed here's a

true story because you can fly like you know any airline and there will be weird people no matter what but i will say this you know what i and also it could be that we had to fly into baltimore i couldn't fly into the regular DC airports. A lot of Crocs and camo on my flight. A lot of Crocs and camo. You know what I'm saying? If you buy a coach ticket and it comes with a hot dog and an icy Luke, you know you are on the wrong airlines. Although if you're offering.

A scratch-off ticket as well. Yes. Just play the fucking lottery while you're here. All right, everyone. Hi. We are back from Las Vegas. We are back from Las Vegas. We were there for, of course, Benavidez versus Plant.

It was a very fun week. By the way, I got to say this, BC. For all the boxing events we've ever been to, this one was by far the one where I felt like we got sort of recognized among MK fans more than any other time. Would you agree? Yeah, apologies to that donk I could not take the picture with as the main event was starting.

Yeah, you were like, fuck that guy. No, I love that guy. I mean, this is my life. This is my passion. That's the job I chose, and I had to do it. But yeah, a lot of donkage out there in Vegas, and it was good to see, Luke, because it's been slow moving on the box side

to get all these Jan Six-ing MMA nerds to come around to the good side of the combat sphere. So it's about time we make some inroads on that other side, Luke. Boxing's the good side. That's the good side. The pure combat side, okay? Growing up in the schoolyard, we boxed.

We didn't wrestle, okay? We didn't run any of thoselyard we we boxed we didn't we didn't wrestle okay we didn't we didn't you know we didn't run any of those pipes luke okay it wasn't that type of school well i don't even know what that means i'm just gonna ignore it uh all right we have a fun show planned for you today we'll of course talk about some benavides versus plan but we got to get to all the ufc stuff we never got to the good the bad and the ugly and in between so thumbs up if you're watching on YouTube. Thanks to everyone who joined us for all of our coverage in Las Vegas, including the post-fight show, which we did

obviously on Saturday night inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Let's see. Showtime.com is the label that pays. Showtime.com. Get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. That is certainly a reality there. And BC Merch. I know you're wearing some merch right there. Folks can go to morningcombat.store if they want yeah yeah they can they can get a bomber

jacket it's probably the coolest that you could possibly look look if you're an mk fan i know because i wear mine often i got two of them but uh go to morningcombat.store we got some new stuff in the works with uh rj roan goutner once he once he's done uh throwing relief for the cubs luke but uh uh it's coming around okay if we could i mean look if we could get vapors are for closers right you know if we could get uh there's a few other hot topics right now luke that i think you know speaking we can make into a very valuable very valuable merchant fair but check out what we got there. You know,

it may surprise you, but if it doesn't, you know, you think I care? I don't think you care in that particular case. BC, do we want to do the ad read or the breaking news? I think we should do the ad read.

Let's do the ad read. Okay. BC, our next partner has a product. I literally, this is true. I use every day. Started taking athletic greens, BC. I want to get a product I literally, this is true, use every day. Started taking Athletic Greens, BC. I want to get better gut health.

I want more energy. And I hate taking all those pills and vitamins. I don't believe that you take it every day, Luke, or you'd be a lot healthier, let me tell you that much. But, you know, you want to talk about what's in this magic green powder that you scoop into a glass every morning, you know, add about eight ounces of water. And I don't know, build a strong foundation for your day. We're talking about immune-supporting substances here, Luke. I can't find the script, but Luke, you know, the thing about when you live your life verbatim,

like you do, yeah, hold on. Maybe you can take over from here, Luke. So here's the thing. What's in this stuff with one delicious scoop of Athlet greens you know what you're getting 75 high quality vitamins minerals whole food sourced superfoods probiotics adapted gins to help you start your day right by the way the special blend help you with your gut health as i mentioned previously nervous system immune system energy that's a big one for us focus and of course bc aging aging is a big one right yeah it really is i thought i'm glad you brought that up do you

have any other info on that luke yeah i certainly do it's so easy to use i can take it on live stream days and travel with it it's lifestyle friendly whether you eat keto paleo daily free or gluten free contains less than one gram of sugar no gmos no nasty chemicals or artificial anything while still tasting quite good i don't know where you're finding this but it's great information look if you've got more keep sharing. I can't find any of it. Costs you less than $3 a day. You're investing in your health and cheaper than your cold brew habit. It's a small micro habit you can do

to take great care of yourself. And of course, don't trust me. You can trust the 7,000 five-star reviews from trusted health experts such as Tim Ferriss and Michael Gervais. So BC, why don't you give them the plug? What can they do? What should they do right now to be in the call to action? Yeah, why don't you go to athleticgreens What can they do? What should they do right now to be in the call to action? Yeah, why don't you go to athleticgreens.com slash morning combat.

And for your first order, how about this? One year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D drops. Hey, I put them right in my AG1. And the five free travel packs that have become a regular part of my lifestyle. And, you know, we talk about lifestyle-friendly. Let's get health-friendly. Let's get AG1. All right. right with that in mind we have breaking news we have breaking news one last reminder athletic greens.com slash morning combat to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate

daily nutritional insurance sorry about that okay we have breaking news bc we have news i mean fresh off of the uh printing press here from right off the skillet sorry i'm looking this way but this is farm to table luke farm to table we got big news here here we go ready this is from cbs sports course which is our employer bellator is set to return to chicago with a card headlined by a pair of world championship bouts bellator 297 ready for this gonna take place at the win trust arena on june 16th. Now, maybe that matters to you, maybe it doesn't, but this part should. In the main event, Vadim Nemkov will put his course light heavyweight crown on the line against Yoel Romero. That's big.

And folks, to me, this is very big. Also on that card, Patricio Pitbull is going to try to become the first person in major MMA, I should say in elite MMA history, to go for a third weight class title when he takes on bantamweight champion Sergio Pettis. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the former 155 and 145 pound champ, Patricio Pitbull is now going to go to 135 and take on Sergio Pettis now you might be saying well wait a second what about the winner of the Grand Prix yes the winner of the Grand Prix will get a title shot against I'm assuming the winner of this bout maybe uh Pettis because he was injured and was supposed to be in the tournament now wants to stay active

this is a fight they can make I think it makes all the sense in the world bc your reaction nemkov taking on yoel romero june 16th and patricio pitbull going for his third title this is big against sergio pettis what do you think hey scott coker you still got it because how do you make a tournament for one million dollars and a shot at the bantamweight world title in the interim strap even better right what we've got going on with this World Grand Prix. How about attach two others to it and make an all-new bracket? Yes, the winner of Raffia and Stotts versus Patchy Mix will have the $1 million, the interim title, a lot of momentum and confidence, but now we know who that winner will be facing, the winner of this side of this new bracket. Look, you could not ask for a better, bigger fight with Sergio Pettis now getting healthy

from the injury that pulled him from the tournament. He's not just going to be sitting around idle waiting. He's going to have to go through the best fighter in Bellator history, the pound for pound number one in Patricio Pitbull. Luke, I always wondered who would be the first to really go after this, to become the first to try to be a major promotion three division champion. I always thought it would be Conor McGregor at welterweight and maybe one day it will on the UFC side but to Patricio Pitbull what else could you say about everything he's accomplished running back the loss to AJ McKee and winning back his title and now he's cashing in on this long time thread of hey I can make 135 folks and Luke he's not going to do it against you know a vacant title holder a fly by night he not going to do it against, you know, a vacant title holder, a fly-by-night. He's going to do it against one of the best in the world in Sergio Pettis if he's going to do it.

You add that to a sexy matchup in Nemkov versus Romero, something we already wanted to see. I've got to find out what my travel plans are June 16th in Chicago, Luke, because this is front page here on Showtime, front row seating here, if they'll give it to me, to check out this night of action. I just, I'm not going to, you can't say anything bad about these fights. time uh front row seating here if they'll give it to me to check out this night action i i just i'm not gonna i don't you can't say anything bad about these fights nemkov versus romero nemkov in my mind has a claim to being the best 205 in the world certainly up for debate but he's in that conversation bare minimum and then patricia pitbull as you indicated the face of bellator

the best fighter in bellator history whatever you want to call him whatever he represents in that conversation certainly i agree with you b, he is the best fighter in Bellator history, trying to go for the third weight class title. This is what he should have been doing fights like this. Listen, Bellator is not strike for strike force is not Bellator. And in some ways that's good. In some ways that's bad, right? Like they shouldn't be the same promotion, but if they could borrow from that spirit time to time with the matchmaking,

I do think that would be good for Bellator. This is a great example. Not that Bellator was giving people, you know, third fights in weight class history. This is obviously new and different. But thinking outside the box, like really trying to make interesting permutations between divisions, between stars. Pitbull has been sort of telegraphing. Guys, I know I'm the 145 champion. Yeah, my power carries to 155.

But I'm telling you I can make 135 he still looks like he is a fearsome competitor he can beat 145ers it looks like BC all day let's see what he looks like down a weight class against the guy by the way and Sergio Pettis was not supposed to be Horiguchi kind of won that one got injured there's a lot of questions about him what a huge fight what a fun fight i love this matchmaking i love patricio's gusto count me in for june 16th love this oh absolutely and let's consider this like pitbull didn't lose his title at 155 he gave it up to give his brother the chance to to live out his dreams and add to their family history when he did not choose to enter the 155 grand

prix the lightweight one that's kicking off here with Bellator on the same time. I was hoping for this Luke. And in the end, I mean, look, people still people still right on top of his game. That trilogy with McKee is always going to be there regardless of weight division, but he had a special opportunity to do something big here. And I love that he only ran directly in that direction uh and look let's let's go look vadim nemkov could not be in a better spot you know redeeming himself in that performance against cory anderson to win the grand prix secure the million dollars and remind us exactly who he is after one night in the first meeting that he struggled before the

the early ending and no contest uh Romero still got something, Luke. Still willing to put on some risk to go after the big crown. That's not a foregone conclusion. You know what I mean? That's an interesting matchup. Romero in a new weight class at the tail end of his career, but bring some really special elements to that fight that it's going to be fun to see what the champion Nemkov does in relation to that. And Nemkov should win that one I think we both agree I would favor him

to win I suspect you do as well but that's just another version of good matchmaking because if Nemkov wins that you get some of that Romero rub they're not by the way like a lot of times these guys they come over to Bellator when they're like a little bit older and so by the time that they fight someone in that weight class that they're supposed to their name has faded a little bit over time because they're like several years or at least a long time into their bellator run when they might be 37 38 and obviously romero is well past 40 at this point but we know again relatively speaking they're putting him in what his second bellator fight basically i think this is what it would be like right away right away getting him in front of nemkov it's the right call pettis versus pitbull is 100 the right call this is

what i want to see from bellator make exciting matchups make different matchups make some fun ones they got one good one here i love this card already um so there you go we'll have more about bellator 297 in chicago as the weeks and months progress. But BC, think about this, though, just wrote to close on Bellator. And, you know, and you want to put together a fun year. The tournaments are a big part of that. But imagine if we end up with AJ McKee versus Usman Ramagomedov at the end of that lightweight tournament. Look at the title fight we have right here before the end of the Bantamweight Grand Prix

tournament, which already has a fantastic final with Mix versus Stotts. So it's fun things ahead on the horizon here for Bellator this year. Excited to see you. We didn't put it on the rundown, but we should get to it because it's supposed to be here. I'll put it on me if we're not putting it in there. The OK Bet update. Let's do a quick update on OK Bet from the weekend.

Not a great weekend for you, but so-so for me. So-so for me. All right, so BC, you came into last week 15-23 overall. I was 20-18-1. So starting with main card picks, we both picked Caleb Plant. That was wrong 0-1 for both of us. For my favorite, I picked Macy Barber, which I know there is some challenged scoring to that. We'll talk about that in the top five here today.

I got that one right. You got Holly Holm, so I believe i got that one right you got holly home so i believe you got that one right so we're now one and one my underdog i picked derive again some not questionable scoring but not a fun fight got that one your underdog you picked cheeto which i thought was a decent one but it didn't go his way so that brings me to two and one you one and two over under i had san hagen cheeto going the. I'm now three and one. And you had on your over-under Ramirez Comey going the distance. It did not. It ended in an 11th round KO, if I'm not mistaken.

Then you had for KO sub, I had Vinicius Salvador over Victor Altamirano. That did not happen. So I'm three and two on the weekend. And then you had Cheetah and Chikwani, Albert Duraev ending in KO. That's false. And then you had one more because you had a messed up bet from last week. That was not your fault. Jesus Ramos to defeat Joey Spencer.

You did get that one right. So I think you went two and four, and then I went three and two. You know, I don't panic, Luke, because like my history of post-meal experiences with Taco Bell, this is a game of runs, Luke, and I'm still looking to get hot this spring and summer, right? It's been a long December here on OK Bet. It's been a lot of sack bunts at the ball plate here. I'm never afraid to lay one down, Luke, and break up a no-hitter.

I'll get grimy if I need to, but just talk to me at the end of the year. Right now, Luke, you know what I mean? Yeah, so your record is, I mean? You're right. Yeah, so your record is, I think if my math is right, 17 and 27, and mine would be 23 and 20. So I'm still above water, but barely. I'm like a subprime mortgage. You notice you mentioned there was a bunch of questionable decisions. I think the same man was tied to all of those, Luke.

Right? What do you mean? Oh, we know there was more than one questionable judgment on Saturday. Okay, I was thinking if Dan Mergliata had a couple raunchy scorecards as well, Luke. Yeah, he did. He had a couple fun ones. May have torn up a restroom in San Antonio potentially, Luke, possibly. Right? You know what I mean?

You don't think... They've had to pull that wire that they have sometimes in the restroom. You know that one luke you you don't think he had some tacos al pastor you know oh yeah right no he did uh all right bc with that in mind let's get to topic number one of course we were there in san antonio excuse me when i think san antonio we were there in las vegas we'll get to the ufc card in just a second but let's open things up with the biggest fight of the weekend no doubt about it. David Benavidez defeating Caleb Plant, as we talked about it, kind of a tale of two fights.

First five rounds, Caleb Plant won the majority of those, like 3-2-4-1, depending on your scorecard. But from the sixth round on, David Benavidez never looked back. BC, we'll get into the Canelo aspects in just a minute. Let's leave it alone for now. But in terms of what the actual victory itself proved about david benavidez what did it prove it validates exactly who he is a a breakthrough star not only in the making but you're you're watching it happen right in front

of you because this was a pay-per-view that had legitimate buzz. It had celebrity attention to it. It had some level of crossover feel. And what did Benavidez do at 26 after two missteps along the way that stripped him of his world title, that kept him out of the Canelo sweepstakes when Alvarez was on the road to becoming the undisputed champion? He stepped into his biggest opportunity to date and lived up to literally every aspect of the game on a upper bound limit level. Why did you and I pick against him in the end? I think because we had questions and we believe that Caleb Plant was riding something. And I think Caleb Plant was riding something, some big momentum and confidence.

But if Benavidez was going to show up and be Benavidez, which means no issue with weight, no issue with the gas tank, no getting caught too much in the mind games that were a big part of swaying, to be fair, my pick, in the other direction. If we would have known ahead of time that none of this would matter, we would have went in the direction of Benavidez. And you have to love, you have to love when this happens. When you've got questions about somebody who's shown flashes, but they step up into the moment, put on the jacket,

and show that they belong here. This guy's an absolute star. Like you said, he's got the type of style that you want to see anybody have to deal with because it's pressure, it is speed, it's power, and it is relentless. And when he gains control of the terms of the fight, which happened, like you mentioned, right short of that midway point, up to this point, it's all Benavidez all the time. We thought Plant might be the first one to be able to slow that. No, not even close. That just shows you that all that hype hype all that flash you saw was

absolutely legit david benavidez is the real deal i think for me what it proved bc i would agree with just about everything you said for me you know in in picking caleb plant you know just bc who was the guy i am so bad with names who was the very nice guy who we ran into from the porterway podcast sean uh zetel zettle sean yeah dude what a nice guy what a smart guy we ran into him and he's like hey who are you guys taking and we're like ko plan he goes just like this he goes guys come on i mean look it's i understand it it was the betting betting favorite i get it but it wasn't like he was a minus 2000 favorite i think he was saying it like if you're a reasonably educated

fight fan, you should be getting this fight in favor of David Benavidez. And in retrospect, quite obviously correct. I will say this, though. This was what I was waiting for from David Benavidez, because you mentioned something we know about the cocaine, which was not my business, but if it's showing up in ways that commission tests can find it, you have to ask yourself about your

risk management, right? So not my business that he used but let's make sure there's enough of a firewall between your professional personal life so that one doesn't really affect the other in ways that we don't want it to that would be the first thing and of course the very first time we covered together a David Benavidez fight as an MK duo David Benavidez missed weight like that was my first time interacting with him and he misses weight, losing his title on the scales. And listen, it's not like you didn't see him on tape moving downhill on everyone. And, you know, it was incredible.

And the highlights that I showed from the David Lemieux fight, but like Caleb Plant was none of those things. And to me, when I said I needed to see David Benavidez prove it, I didn't necessarily mean to think he couldn't do it. But yeah, you actually have to go through it. At age 26, it was time for him to get a high-quality opponent in a big stakes fight. Ton to gain, ton to lose. Headlining role on pay-per-view. Let's see what you can do now.

You've got all the mistakes out of your system. In theory, you're set up physically to be here right when you need to. You know what you'd have to do to win. You've got your training set upright. You've got your living situation upright. You've got your house in order. The finances are there. No excuses.

What can you go in there and show us? And he showed us exactly what we thought, I think at least at a certain point, could have been there. It was a masterful performance from David Benavidez. Took his time early, obviously, and you kind of gave you the impression that Plant was in it, but when he really began to do things that David Benavidez does, he could not be stopped. And BC, some of the things I was worried about, like him bringing his defense together, it was so sturdy.

Caleb Plant couldn't break it open in any way whatsoever. Man, like all of the questions I had, BC, got answered, and then he put a little insurance and sugar on top to make it known that this guy is going to be a force to be reckoned with at 168, potentially 175, for years to come. You know, I'm glad you say that because it didn't jump out of the box score, but defense was a monster part of this, and this is something we don't talk about a lot with David Benavidez.

He's never reckless or irresponsible, but when you have a style built upon cutting off the ring, cornering your opponent with such volume, you can leave yourself open to begin with. He also squares up when he really feels like he has you pinned. But what was the big key in this fight and how things turned in the midway point? Once he was able to close that distance and start to trap Caleb Plant, the power was the big key in this fight and how things turned in the midway point? Once he was able to close that distance and start to trap Caleb Plant, the power was the difference. Never on a one-punch level because Plant never went down,

although he looked close to going out a few times. But think about it. Once that power started landing, it changed Caleb Plant, something I didn't end up thinking that was going to happen. I knew Caleb Plant had the heart to go the distance, and he needed to show every inch of the heart, it turns out, to be able to do that. But I thought he would be more into the fight in the second half offensively.

Benavidez took that away once he was able to start coming forward, using his footwork to cut off the ring, and the toll of this pressure-style big body wearing on you and a great infighter, right? If we found out something negative about Caleb Plant at this level in this fight was that he wasn't able to fight Benavidez off on the inside at all to gain that space. First half of the fight, Plant created that space with his movement, but once the toll of those short punches started to line up, especially to the body,

it slowed Plant down, it took the pepper off of his shots, and when you're allowing David Benavidez to come downhill on you, it's going to be over pretty quick. So anyone that had Benavidez and said it was a no-brainer, congratulations. Raul Marquez was on our way and show with us. Luke having fun with us, saying, I'm not going to be there to wipe your tears when this guy loses. I'm happy it went the way it did.

We want David Benavidez to live up to his full potential here as the Mexican monster. He jumped through your screen on Saturday to show you that. You could not ask for a deeper division now, Luke. I know the conversation sooner than later is going to turn to Canelo here, but we have a very deep, sexy division. The majority of them happen to be on this side of the street with under the PBC and the greater Showtime banners which is you know fun for fans but if this kid's going to become a star he's got the opportunity to do it in the next year or two luke a legitimate crossover star because he's got that mexican fan base behind him that was one of the best in arena experiences i've had in some time to let you know how it how you know intoxicating that crowd love was it felt like a big deal there and it turned out out to be. BC, I want to be very careful about what I'm about to say, because it's just two 40-year-old white guys talking about Latino fan preferences, but I will say something as an observer, and I mean it just in that role, as an observer. I have seen a lot of fighters of Mexican heritage,

both in MMA and boxing, obviously, but I have seen how the, or I have seen a version anyway of how the Mexican fight fans embrace them. And to be clear, the Mexican fight fans are some of the very best in the sport and they get busy for basically anybody of Mexican descent, man. Like if you're, you know, if you're that guy, if you're from Guadalajara, from Tijuana, wherever you're from, and then they read down the announcement when they're about to fight, the Mexican fight fans are not quiet. Like they'll let you know about it it but there are a certain kind of like top class of mexican fighter that to me doesn't just get the love from the fight fans but has a relationship to them pulls them like they are much more willing to uh like almost like khan's army like they're very dedicated to that

person canelo, is the leading light in that guy. Boy, I gotta tell you, you better put David Benavidez on that list as well. The Mexican fight fans, both the Mexican-American ones and, of course, the ones across the border, dude, they love this guy. They are ready to lay down for

this guy anywhere. He's got that exact spirit that the, you know, I'm speaking for the stereotypical Mexican fan here, but I'm trying to, knowing my knowledge in boxing, of a guy who's going to come forward, make the fight happen, has a great chin, acts the part of badass, doesn't back down

in trash-talking situations. So that advantage is always going to be there if he could live up to the expectations and keep his titles for the right reasons and win these big opportunities. So it feels like a no-brainer. But what's interesting, though, is as passionate and loyal as that fan base can be, they demand a certain thing. when he walked Gennady down, where the Mexican audience, even the most hardcore cynical ones that said, okay, is Canelo a pretty boy or is he our next Chavez? Is he our next guy that we seriously, no questions asked, can get behind

and rally and trust and love? Canelo became that over time. Oscar, as a Mexican-American, became that over time. Took him a while. Remember, he wasn't accepted by the Mexican audience when he went in there twice against their hero, Chavez, and won the way they did.

But for Benavidez, Luke, that part is already there. People already are just... So what that tells you is the fan base is waiting for him to live up to the expectations. And now that it's happening, oh boy, oh boy, how big can these fights get against the Canelos, the Charlos, you know, the

on and on across the board. And I love that you mentioned 175. It's not something they talk about a lot, but, you know, he's got to work hard to get down to 168 where he's a monster. I agree with you. I think he can carry that frame up because of the foundations of his actual boxing game. And bright future ahead, Luke, if he can keep his head on straight,

and I think he's in the right direction to start to do that. Yeah, no doubt about it. So that takes us to point number two here, BC. Let's move the conversation to where we know it's going to go. Because if you're at 168, you're asking who are the champions of 168, right? Well, good news. It's one guy. It's Canelo Alvarez.

He has all the titles in that weight class. But as David Benavidez says, he's been the mandatory for Canelo forvarez he has all the titles in that weight class but as David Benavidez says he's been the mandatory for Canelo for quite some time and I know there was some questions on the Canelo side about whether David Benavidez was going to win this contest he did whether he'd be a big enough star he is now in my judgment I don't think it's really any I mean he had that crowd BC eating out of the palm of his hand that night they were ready for him to just absolutely own so now we don't know what's going to happen canelo could fight biv all a second time he has the john rider mandatory coming up for cinco de mayo but bc let's assume a world can be made end of this

year or sometime early next year is canelo alvarez versus dav David Benavidez one of the biggest fights you can make in boxing yeah I think there's an argument to be made it's a hipster sneaky one that this could even be the biggest right I mean look if if Spence and Crawford get their stuff together even with the fatigue of the customer and the frustration that would still be big Fury Usyk would be massive I don't know it't even look like that's happening, Luke. Obviously, even Fury Joshua on UK soil would be huge.

In no disrespect, obviously, to what Tank and Ryan are going to do April 22nd, but you have the fan base across global boxing, and now you've got two of their own. Style-wise, Luke, who's the boogeyman in this division?

It's Benavidez. I mean, no disrespect to David Murrell Jr. and these other names that are coming up, and they could have their say. But it just makes it where that's the best style that we want to see Canelo against. Canelo can fight anybody, any style. And he's been great, and he's been great and he's versatile and everything about it. But there are some questions about exactly where Canelo's stock is after an interesting 2022, close loss to Bivol, but clear in our eyes,

and then beat Gennady Golovkin a third time. But, you know, not all that inspiring of a performance. He knows, he's hearing that whispers. He's going to do the Guadalajara homecoming. He'll be a big favorite against John Ryder. but he's got a big decision to make here and i and i wonder if the fact that people are doubting canelo now if they're saying okay has it finally caught up to him the grind he's had a busy schedule he's got way more fights than you think he does so when you're in your early 30s luke but you turn pro at 15 right you've got some extra miles on you in that regard

i think the competitor and canelo may end up winning out when it comes down to decision time and it obviously helps that because benavidez won in the way he just did against plant and headlined a pay-per-view and in vegas with the mexican crowd just elevating him up i can't believe i'm going to say this, but I don't think Canelo can duck it right now or it will be looked at as a duck. And that's hard to say when the duck, if it goes that way is potentially him moving back up in weight and getting a

second crack at one of the 10 best in the world and unbeaten light heavyweight champion, Dimitri Bivol. Like in any, I mean, in any situation that's daring to be great, like with an asterisk on it, that's badass,

right? But I think now it's, it's not just the hardcores. Boxing in general is calling for this fight because there's no way entertainment style clashing wise. It doesn't live up to expectations. And I think it's going to be that kind. It's going to promise action.

It's going to be all about sort of those pure elements of this game that people love to put their hard-earned money out and get in return. Yeah, that fight is in contention for the biggest fight you can make either this year or next year. And I think, Luke, and tell me I want your opinion if you think I'm wrong. If Canelo chooses B-Vol over this at this point for the second half of this year when he owns Mexican Independence Day weekend September Las Vegas I don't think people are going to be like hey dude great job B-Ball's a tough act let's do it a second time people are going to be like

the real Mexican monsters over there and you're not you're not you're not going to hear the cries the difference Luke is this Canelo's got a history that he's shown us that I think he will right I think he will I think he will do this I think he's going to give us exactly what we want because I because that's how he's wired and that's who he is but will it be fair Luke if he chooses B-ball and we're calling him a a duck that's I mean that's a hard justification to make what are your what are you I don't yeah I don't think people would it's almost one of those things where it's like if you take the B-ball fight certain people are going to look at that like, right, you're taking a fight you already lost that you know you can't win, but you won't get beat up in. And you can say, oh, look at the tough fight I'm taking.

Meanwhile, you're avoiding a fight that would be physically more taxing in David Benavidez, and potentially you even lose that one. But you can at least say, well, I was 175. If the guy was smaller. I would have won. There'll be a certain cynic in that regard who will make that argument. PC in terms of the question, like, what is it going to be the biggest? I don't know if it can be the biggest, especially when you have like a fury Joshua in the UK. I mean, dude, that would sell out a stadium almost instantly. Right. I mean,

that's going to be hard to copy, but can I pause you? Can I pause you and just ask that if, if the idea, and I haven't heard anything, I haven't heard anybody talking about this just happened, right? But if the idea was something as big as Canelo versus Benavidez, could you do Jerry's world? Canelo sold a shitload of tickets at Cowboy Stadium for Liam, Liam Smith, the Liverpool guy is his opponent, Luke. So could that justify that? Where it's like that's a full-ass stadium fight? Sure, sure. But even then, it's like there's not a question in my mind

you'd fill a stadium in the UK with Joshua and Fury. There's still a question in my mind about whether you could fill it. But you probably could. But I mean, here's to me the sort of other way to look at it, BC. What is it? Top three, top four box office potential, pay-per-view potential in all boxing fights. But here's sort of another historical angle. And if i'm getting any of this wrong obviously please

correct me on the air bc i don't mind but here's just one thing about canelo that makes this interesting to me he's never really had during the prime of his run a genuine other mexican rival i mean alfredo angulo is not that guy um jose cito lopez is not that guy when you look at say say again they did the chavez jr fight as junior bro only because of 2014 or something 2017 2017 or 18 but only because of what you're saying only because there was that much time left to cash in on the name of chavez jr okay but to your point you're right not point, you're right. Not a real one. He didn't have a real one. And there's a question, obviously, what do you want to say about De La Hoya

fighting Julio Cesar Chavez twice? And Chavez had, what, 90 fights or something before they ever fought? The first fight, I think, is still legitimate from the idea of Chavez having enough in the gas tank. But to your point here, the Mexican audience looked at De La Hoya as American and not one of them in that fight. It took Oscar a while. I think it was the Corté fight that started to win people back and but but to your point here the mexican audience looked at de la joya as american and

not one of them in that fight it took it took oscar a while i think it was the corte fight that started to win people back because of how large his satchel was in the 12th round okay but the point i'm trying to make here is david benavidez doesn't have to win over boxing fans necessarily in the same way that de la joya did but de la joya had to sit down a top rival he had to face a mexican rival sure um the older one in this particular case canelo would actually fill the role closer to julio cesar chavez in this comparison but what i'm saying is he's never really had that in all my time covering canelo basically he's always been that guy for mexico he's always been the leading example and he never had to share the spotlight

uh except you know like with andy ruiz but he's at heavyweight or something else in various times. And then half the guys were in the same stable anyway. To me, this represents a new challenge for Canelo. There could be, can you imagine another fighter young who beats him, who also has the adoration of the Mexican fans? That's like a new threat to Canelo in ways that we just simply haven't seen really ever in his career in a meaningful way. So, you know, David Benavidez represents not just a huge and lucrative fight, but BC, historically, one of the more, frankly, important challenges, especially for that market they come from in ways that we just haven't really seen in Canelo's career before. No question. Now, let me ask you the hard questions now. I'd like to know from you, do you have any concern based on 2022?

But again, it's a little unfair to even say this, but let's be real here. Is Canelo a notch down from where he was through the plant fight? In your eyes, given age and mileage? And number two, did you see enough in Benavidez on Saturday to know that he's actually ready to win this? This is in play where he could go out there and potentially beat Canelo. Two hard questions here. Let's start with the second part first. he's actually ready to win this. Like this is in play where he could go out there and potentially beat Canelo. Two hard questions here. Let's start with the second part first. As good as this performance was, and it was good,

and as good as his preparation was, and it was excellent. Remember, 166 and change. Well below championship weight. And he looked still the bigger, stronger guy. No cardio issues. I mean, he was fucking amazing. But he's got to do that again. amazing but he's got to do that again and then he's got to do that again that is the one thing about kaylo plant being like i don't

need this opponent to get up or that opportunity to get up i just get up no matter what we're gonna have to see some of that same consistency from a still remember david benavidez is 26 26 um so we'll see on that end bc i forgot the first part of your question. The first part of the question was, do you have any doubts that Canelo's slipping a little bit? Oh, slipping. Well, listen, I'm like you. I saw the Triple G trilogy fight, and then obviously against Bivol, he was totally outmatched.

It's just two fights. Now, it's 24 rounds, but it's just two fights. I don't know because the guy in Triple G was really old. Okay, it's 24 rounds but it's just two fights i don't know because the guy in triple g was really old and so you okay it's a weird fight and then bill ball was just way too big and way too good i need to see one one or two more before i can really permanently say other people might feel more comfortable but i don't feel all that comfortable declaring if he stops john rider in guadalajara and the fans go crazy we're all going to be back in believing on this guy, you know, in the conversation for number one pound for pound.

And, you know, he never really fell off too far with that B-ball loss. Let's be fair. Like, that was, you know, extra trying, daring to be great. But, yeah, I mean, dude, hey, Canelo, Big Red, I love you. I mean, the eyeballs of your wife on the the farm it's it's what you know it's questionable it's questionable tattoo but uh you know to each their own all right BC with that in mind no look there's nothing that in mind I'm in the middle of a soliloquy to come I'm sorry I thought you were done I apologize no no I was just just getting just warming up but um go ahead go

ahead my friend big red you've long carried the the crown of the rare crossover superstar who's the biggest pay-per-view king in the sport while being, for a stretch, a strong stretch, also the best fighter in the sport. That gives you leverage to do things that the fans hate. Okay, you waited Triple G out a little bit. That's fine. You inevitably caught up to him. We got three fights.

We only needed two. We got three. That's fine. You inevitably caught up to him. We got three fights. We only needed two. We got three. That's fine. I know what you're made of. You make great decisions in this spot for the sport. Go swiftly in the direction of young David Benavidez this fall. You know the business it will

do, but also you know what it takes in this spot, and what it takes is to welcome all challengers so uh you know the b-ball fight will be there let b-ball fight better beef can we have that fight canelo can you not get in the way of that fight that's the other part too it's not just a waste of canelo's time at least to us it's a waste of b-ball time too yeah so canelo to close okay look me very closely here in the eyes they Not these eyes, these eyes. Okay. This is what we expect of you.

Membership has its privileges. You're the man in the game because you do stuff like this. It's what we expect, bro. And good Lord, are we going to be loving it later this year if we can get that in September? Wow, Luke. I mean, can you put that in Azteca stadium?

Can we break the Chavez hogHoggin attendance record, Luke? I don't know, but wow. All right, I can't wait. We shall see what happens. BC, let's get to the UFC side of things if we can. Point number three, so let's talk about it. Corey Sanhagen outworked Chito Vera in his UFC main event of UFC San Antonio.

In your opinion, did he just not get a win? Did he also outclass Chito Vera? of UFC San Antonio. In your opinion, did he just not get a win? Did he also outclass Chito Vera? Yes, 100%. We make jokes about it. One day I want to get it tattooed around Luke's navel. Upper bound limits. This was the peak of what Corey Sanhagen is able to do, and we asked a lot of him coming into this matchup

because what was at stake ultimately was retaining your spot. As one of the true elites in the deepest division in the game right now. And arguably even historically. And Luke he came out and did that and then some. This is what a mixed martial artist looks like. He's already unique in the style of his movements and his setups. And how smart he is. And he's got the long limbs and all of that. He's already unique in the style of his movements and his setups and how smart he is.

And he's got the long limbs and all of that. But, Luke, he never stopped coming at Marlon Vera. And that's what happens is a lot of times Vera will give up the early rounds, allow you to pour out a little bit of that gas tank, show him a lot. But once he makes that adjustment and dials in on the area where he believes he can land the fight, the fight changing strike. He starts to do that. Usually these opponents slowing down a little bit. He starts to walk in.

Sanneken never allowed an opening or opportunity for that save for a couple punches in the final minute there. And look, that took such variety of offense. That took such great timing. That took the legitimate threat and mixture of his, of his takedown threat, which turned into instant ground and pound, by the way. I mean, this across the board was like San Hagen going back to the lab and saying,

I know where I'm at, but I need to get up to here. How do I do that? Let me make sure I am maxed out in every single category and come in with a dynamic movement strategy that never allows Chito to do anything but be a step behind and on the defensive this is that's a championship level performance right there out of out of Corey Sanhaken I love to see it and I think Luke it look did you expect Jason Perrello in the corner to be like Chito like are you okay like what's wrong with you

Luke he was he was dominated I don't think I've seen that in that level since Jose Aldo in the third round against Volkanovski, where he was almost resigned to the idea that I can't figure this guy out, so yeah, let's go to the scorecards. It was like that, Luke. I'm so glad you brought that up, dude, in that last fight. Sorry to cut you off, but if people forget in that third round of the Volkanovski fight, Aldo didn't exactly punt on the sense of, like I'm just gonna let this guy do whatever he wants. But it looked to me like he had punted on winning. Volkanovski had him confused.

And Chito didn't punt on winning here. His best, by the way, offense was the final minute, but it's like, where was that urgency earlier? I think Sanhaken took away that urgency completely. But, you know, look, once he took him down and was that much of a threat with elbows and punches on Chito, I was like, this could be a different fight. I mean, you love to see it. You love when someone is challenged by their own success or lack of it at times,

and they rise to the occasion once again. Dude, Corey Sanhagen can beat anybody in this division, and he showed you exactly why on this night. And what was the biggest question you had for him, Luke? We needed him to be more of a striking threat, right? That one or two strikes could change the momentum. It was all there. Everything was there. Yeah, I completely agree. So the question being, was he outworked or outclassed?

The answer is clearly outclassed. I mean, he was outworked too, BC. Let me read you some of these stats. They're kind of incredible. Now, he only got three taked. I mean, he was outworked too, BC. Let me read you some of these stats. They're kind of incredible. Now, he only got three takedowns, but he attempted 12. And we know that the relationship between attempts and success is, you know, a lot of times you're just trying to get the attempt to slow them down or wrap them up,

especially if you're a striking-based fighter. But he got three takedowns. Let's see, he got one in the first, one in the second, and one in the fifth, which was important. We'll talk about that in a second. How about striking totals, BC? Corey Sandhagen attempting 378, landing 187, of which 128 were significant. For Marlon Vera, just 58.

Just 58. Corey Sandhagen, in terms of significant strikes, almost, almost, not quite, 3-1 on him. I mean, that's a hard guy to beat when he's landing with that. Not so much pain and punishment, but with clear regularity. First round, BC, 32-5 on significant strikes. 18-6, 32-20, 24-13, and 22-14. There wasn't a round where he wasn't landing on Chito Vera, numerically anyway, a lot more.

Also kind of interesting, BC, Corey Sanhagen, here's something to think about too. Corey Sanhagen was going a lot more to the head, 65%. And I wonder to what extent that demonstratively adds more than Chito Vera only going 48% to the head. That's kind of an interesting thing to think about too. But either way, it didn't matter. BC, I love what you said. The lateral movement was on point.

Dude, Chito Vera just couldn't find him. He couldn't find a good opportunity to use the skills that he had to make it work. And that was because of the movement. It was because of the range that Corey Sanhagen was implementing. And there's one more point before I pitch it back to you, BC, that I really want to make. If you go and look at early UFC or, you know, right at the regional scene version of Corey Sanhagen, it looks a lot like this version, but it was much more attacking, much more attacking. He was almost like a pressure fighter at times, still doing all the switching and everything

else like that, but much more attacking. And he realized that that got him into trouble. It put him in bad positions. It got him hit more. Look how little he got, relatively speaking, hit in this fight. He was the one on top. He wasn't going underneath for low percentage scrambles. As you mentioned, ground and pound right away off the takedown. Dude, he learned that his style just had to be a little bit more defensive in order for it

to work against the top guys. But the interesting part that you mentioned, BC, as I pitch it back to you here, is that even through that defensiveness he had much more offense than Marlon Vera so it's not true that by being defensively sound you become offensively limited it is true that you become much more capable of having better rounds by virtue of not having to fight out of deficits or big shots yeah yeah absolutely I mean it was eye-opening to that regard and when I look at Chito Vera and I look at the type of success he normally has, it can be from countering patterns that he picks up on. Think about this. He wasn't even able to pull the trigger for the first four rounds because Sanhagen was spamming but doing it with such varied strikes that had the threat of damage on them. It wasn't just, you know, weak pitter patter. I mean, he really was a master in, in the variety of his offense and the unpredictability of it, but keeping everything tight, keeping,

staying close to him in terms of the footwork. I mean, it was masterful to the, to the degree of literally shutting Vera down where he did not know what to do in return. It's not lost on me, Luke, that when we are talking about the super elite in this division, that maybe Chito was the most limited from being a completely well-rounded fighter compared to everyone else. But obviously the threat of his violence raises him up there. So this would be the best type of performance to showcase this. But Sanhagen really needed, I think, those recent losses to raise that game and have such a reason to. And he was coming off

already a good win against Song Yudong, but this, this was way different against a much more dangerous foe. And it was thorough across the board, but think about that, Luke, they filled in the one area where Chito can be the most dangerous and never allowed him any, any time to even set up or, or, or wait and look to counter because you can't counter what you, what you're not, what you can't predict is coming. And i mean you got to agree though it also exposed the limitations of chito to a degree but no one's been able to do that to him at that level yeah that's a great point too but here's the other part that stands out to me bc like chito's chito does have the limits you mentioned but his strengths like the durability for example like his durability is just, it's, I've never seen anything quite like it.

His durability is, it's BJ Penn-like in his prime. And I know, you know, if you watch like the end stage BJ Penn, you won't appreciate this, but there was a point where he had not only a rock chin, but it was actually hard to hurt him in terms of like scarring his tissue or, you know, blowing up his eye. Like he just had absurd resistance. Chito Vera is that guy. So here's the point I wanted to make. Chito Vera is a hard guy to look good against, even when you win. Name someone who's just beaten Chito's ass. Nobody does that.

His last two losses, Jose Aldo. Marlon Vera technically outstruck him, at least numerically speaking, in that fight 46 to 44. Jose Aldo didn't whip up on him. How about the fight against Song Yedong? Song Yedong didn't whip up on him. They had big strikes that they landed, but they didn't destroy Chito Vera. They didn't just demolish and walk over him.

He's a hard guy to look good against. So for a guy like Corey Sanhagen to have the numerical split that he had on top of the well-placed takedowns, on top of the not making a lot of the same errors that had got him into trouble last time or in previous instances against top contenders, you can't look a whole lot better against Chito Vera without either A, getting much higher risk of getting knocked out yourself or B, getting banged around as well. He's just really hard to look good against. Absolutely.

And you think that was part of the strategy to, there wasn't a ton of calf kicking involved in there. It was pretty much head hunting, but it completely neutralized Vera. That seemed premeditated. Luke. It did. It did. I think, listen, look at who's in his corner.

Christian Allen is, is one of his coaches. There's another guy I don't know, but then the other guy is ryan hall i mean you know cory the fact that cory again i've known ryan hall for a long time the fact that cory and ryan hall got together is like the most obvious thing that i could have ever imagined like not obvious in the sense that one guy's in colorado and one guy's in false church virginia, but that these two guys, when I talked to them, they, you can tell, they think about martial arts the same way,

the same kinds of problem solving skills and how they like to approach things. You could tell these guys were kindred spirits. The fact that they're working together and, you know, Christian Allen's a similar thing on the striking side. It just makes all the sense in the world. They're using his already considerable abilities.

Now, some of the tough experience he's had along with just some all the sense in the world. They're using his already considerable abilities. Now some of the tough experience he's had, along with just some of the best brain power in the game, to really power this dude to new levels. And it is working. Is now the time where we talk about that one judge who only had two fights on his IMDB MMA judging profile coming in? Scored this 3-2 for Cheeto.

Luke, could you try to explain that please we will get to that in point number five and we're going to get plenty of time for it but just on this one we want to talk about cory sanhagen um bc though real quickly on cheeto vera listen he came up short um he didn't get his ass whipped in the sense of like you know thoroughly beaten up no one really does that to cheeto um it's a good learning experience he's still relatively young i believe i'll look up his age here in just a second. Stock is down, but not terribly so in my mind. No, I mean, he does open up the opportunity to come back with a big win.

And then you can say exactly what you just did. Okay. Lost to San Hagen kind of got handled, but learning opportunity didn't take the damage. But let's be clear, though, Luke, it was exposing. It was it showed legitimate limitations on the highest level now you're going to need somebody with that body size and the the the masterful combinations together of what that full performance was from san hagan you can't get that from everybody but um just as san hagan used the recent defeats to try to figure

out what was lacking in his game, Luke, there wasn't even, you know, remotely a takedown threat from Chito. And, you know, he had long stretches on his back, dealing with a lot of different submission threats and elbows and stuff that, I mean, there's a lot that they should address in between fights. Maybe it's as easy as he got flustered. It messed with his ability to attack and he started too late if you could just flip a switch and come back and start again and that's fine okay luke but you know is there time to work on some of these deficiencies in your eyes when you're particularly talking about the

ground game yeah yeah there are i mean i didn't think nothing of what cheeto did looked bad um he just didn't have an answer for cory's movement um that i think that's something to work on his takedown defense got better over time and his get-ups were good but that can also be improved um weaponizing the clinch he didn't get a whole lot going in the clinch this time which i thought was kind of surprising there's a lot of things he could work on you're asking does he have the time and the ability i think he does i think he's what 30 years old 31 maybe at most something like that so he's still got a little bit of time although you know obviously at 135 time is not always an ally's 30 yeah so 30 years old bc it's a little too early

to be like well you know this guy is not going to make it chito has been if anything a defier of the odds this was a setback fair but i would be two years like do i think a two-year improved version of cheeto could make this kind of fight a very different one i do yeah yeah but this was the time luke i mean i was talking about putting him in against o'malley in a rematch for the interim title well that was premature i mean he's still you know one big one big win away from being right back in there but if you're a big cheeto backer you have to be disappointed that it took that long to trigger urgency in him i'm not i'm not counting it against him how san hagen was ultimately able to neutralize him and the idea of a 50 50 fight but i needed more urgency out of cheeto earlier and the fact that

okay okay but i'm not going to say that um i'm not going to say that sprinting and putting more effort in the last minute and then getting more shots landed is evidence of nothing that's not what i'm saying but it's a lot easier to sprint the last minute of a especially the last minute of the last round of a fight than it is for the let's say 17th minute of the fight when you might have a lot left and you don't know what this sprint is going to get you i mean that's why guys don't do it as much right they don't sprint because it's risky if you get hit you don't want someone to follow up on you and two what if i blow out all this energy and now i have to fight for two and a half more minutes and it doesn't do anything so i'm not here to say that

like he couldn't have shown more urgency to the point of your criticism bc but it is a little bit unfair to look at the last minute of the last round to be like oh why didn't you do that earlier because that moment in time to do that carries significantly more rewards and fewer risk than at other points in the fight well i'm not doing it just based on the success of the last minute i'm doing it based on the idea that that was the only success he had in the fight so would you hit us you know i get it i i know his game is to land something monster of significance and take advantage of it so in theory that could have come at any point spread out over a 25 minute fight and yes against the pace cory sanhagen was setting you're right you've got to check that gas tank but it's definitely the time where he's got to be kicking himself going. If I could have inserted more urgency in the third round to start, could it have been a different fight?

Sure. You got to ask yourself that. Sure. Sure. I think that's fair. I don't think that's crazy. I mean, I just think if you're Chito, one of the lessons that you might take from this and looking at is not just

sort of addressing the movement as we talked about earlier, but we had complimented Chito, right? We had called him the king of the five rounders. And still think it's a compliment like you know you're trapped a lot of times you're trapped in there with him he ain't trapped in there with you but this time he was he was trapped in there with cory because he just couldn't find him most guys simply don't have that kind of movement still though if you're cheeto there's nothing wrong with being a slow starter and a strong finisher a lot of times it's going to do you good, right? We've seen it. But it's not enough. You have to be able to play the levels when the levels call for it.

When the levels say, hey, we need you to be able to go full five and we'll pick it up late, Chito's got you. But there also has to be a time when he can initiate and create offense of a much more substantive variety much earlier in a contest. Of course, this is very easier said than done it requires you know a coach's eye and retooling the strategy and the tactical choices that they make up until that point but if you're just one of these guys who's going to wait

around till elite fighters get tired that's going to be great i mean you can do good things with it but i don't know if you're going to be a champion with it that's the problem and look just short of championship level we all have different standards but the type of talent i come from if you have tattoos that aggressive on the back of your skull go for it you're kind of expected to go for it luke okay that's that's that's you know that's just the deal right they they are aggressive they are aggressive all right bc let's stay with the ufc card here let's talk about about Holly Holman, that co-main Holly Holman gets back to her winning ways. What is she 41 or something like that? Some absurd age and basically just totally running over Yana Santos BC. Is there any other move for Holly Holman at this point? Other than a title shot? Well, if they can get Macy, excuse me, not Macy, if they can get

Misha Tate another win in this division, which I'm sure she's trying to do that. Is there an attraction level to a rematch between the two former champions? That could be a nice bridge toward coming back to the top of the title, maybe just for commercial reasons. But to your larger point, Luke, this division is is it's very shallow and she's been the consistency. And when other hopeful contenders try to come up for air, she puts them down, Luke. And this was a situation where, you know, I give Yana a lot of credit for coming back so soon from giving birth, and she was in great shape and she was ready, but she was sort of a poor man's version across the board, a poor woman's version of what Holly was in every category.

It's such a narrow, such a shallow division, Luke, that it shouldn't be much more than this, to be fair. I know she just lost a split decision to Ketlin Vieira, but like if they needed to go in that direction of a rematch, the terms and the situations, would you argue, Luke, are different than when Amanda fought Holly the first time because Amanda was like on top of, on top of the world. And the fact that Nunes was able to look at her opponent, know that home is a threat with high kicks,

and then say to herself, I want to finish Holly with that exact threat, and then goes out there and does it. I mean, that was a humbling knockout. But I feel like some of that has changed because Holly never really went away. Amanda come down to some level of earth, although regaining her title against Juliana was obviously shows what's still in there i'm kind of into the idea of a rematch potentially

am i alone in that luke i'm into it i mean you don't have many other options well here's the thing i'm into the idea of a rematch only because i don't have a better idea uh if you're the champion as we've talked about on this show you have a responsibility to defend it against the top contender and okay maybe ho Holly is or isn't that name, but she's at least in that conversation at this point. And by virtue of her status, as well as her ranking, I know status is sort of a little bit different. I just don't know what the better fight would be.

I mean, I guess you could do a third fight with Pena, but I'm not sure what the point would be. Aldana would be the best fight, right? Aldana would be the better one. I don't know if they're going to go that direction or not. I thought they were for a while, and now I'm not so sure what the situation is with that. But, no, I think she has the fight coming up later, right?

Well, let me tell you, Peña's ranked number one because that's UFC rule. You just lost the title. You're ranked number one. Pennington's ranked two, which is interesting. Then Holm three, Vieira, who beat Holm fourth, Aldana five. So everyone else seems to be a legitimate step behind further down the ranking.

So if that's our five-person pool atop the title picture, Luke, how do you map out that future? I don't know. I don't know how you would do that. Yeah, I don't know. This is the part of the matchmaking conversation that I'm not really all that great at. I don't know how you want to do that part. They were initially supposed to fight, by the way,

Aldana and Nunes, and then I guess they canceled it. So I'm not sure what the situation is going to be at that point on that side of things. All I'm saying is this, BC. Here's my only real point. My point about Holly is, if you wanted to say that there's a better fight to make at the top of 135 because holly hasn't done enough as a contender purely

as a contender i wouldn't get in the way but short of that i don't know what the better option is and more to the point bc it is amazing what holly holm is doing which is not so much electrifying everyone with her fighting style at this point but to to be, what is her age, BC? If you could tell me, I think it's 40 or 41, 42, 41. She's 41 years of age. So remember that stat I shared last week, and I think this was the men's division, if not just the women's. Excuse me, I think it was just the men's, not including the women's,

where every division 185 and up, excuse me, 170 and up. I'm sorry. I think that's right. No, sorry. 185 and up. Sorry 170 and up i'm sorry i think that's right one seven no sorry 185 and up sorry it is 170 from 170 on up look are you seizuring out here what's going on i i'm almost i i'm almost seizuring out i just tried to get the math right i don't want to get it wrong here's what it is from men's 125 to men's 170 so everything everything from flyweight, including welterweight, not including 185. In that bracket, we know that the title picture win for athletes above 35 and above, I believe,

is two and 28. And those only two wins are from Tyron Woodley. That's it. Everyone else loses. Now, on the women's side, obviously, it's a bit of a different ballpark. But I'm just simply saying to see what she's doing at 41 years of age, you'll count on your hand the number of times you'll see fighters remain this relevant this late we've seen him with glover to share it we've seen it with randy couture and of course we're speaking about non-heavyweight mma bc but for non-heavyweight mma to do this it's remarkable i also want to point out something else bc like we already said she's in the international boxing hall of fame and still competing as an active mma fighter she didn't really win this one striking she won this one

on the ground she won this one with takedowns passing some ground and pound and you could make criticisms of how like rough it looked or whatever it's still good enough to beat top contenders in her division to put herself in this kind of position so bc while it is amazing that she is outperforming these people at age 41, you do have to ask how much longer in the 40s that can go, because when that goes, it's probably going to go pretty quickly. Listen, she's already up there. Fans seem to like her for the most part.

I mean, her stock has slipped certainly to a degree. I don't know what the better call is than whoever you're going to put in a title fight give Holly Holm the winner. I figured it out, Luke. I've done the research, okay? Let's hear it. Here's how the future should be. You should do Amanda Nunes against Irene Aldana, and I think you should do it in Mexico, by the way, as part of a large

blowout card there. So that makes sense. So if that happened, Luke, or if that was in place to happen, even though Pennington is ranked above Holm, Holm beat her twice already. I know that Vieta is ranked behind Holm, even though Ketlin recently beat Holly, but Ketlin just lost by split decision to Pennington.

So that weird triangle of MMA math kind of just deletes both of them. So Luke, you go number one versus three next, Juliana Pena versus Holly Holm. It's a fun little commercial matchup. It's an interesting one for, okay, if either of you want to get back into the title, you got to beat one another. That seems to make the most sense here, Luke, as a final four. But if Aldana or Nunes, if they can't make that fight,

what, is someone injured? I think they're kind of waiting on the whole decision of when they're going to do Mexico, Luke. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah they didn't dana say at the presser because y'all know you were traveling all day yesterday dana said at the presser on saturday night that uh they're not going to mexico anytime soon oh okay okay if that's the case then i still think these two matchups make the most sense are you against this final four but this is the other part about mexican fight fans which you know like you can just put the fight in texas

they'll show up you know what I'm saying? Yeah, no, that's not the problem. They travel. I mean, but this is a fun Final Four bracket. We don't say that often in this division. Yeah, I don't mind that one. I don't mind Peña versus Holly. That's got something to it.

Obviously, both of them have history with a champion in different ways, but they do have history. And if Aldana wins, it creates some reasonably, certainly as a title picture, some reasonably interesting fresh matchups along the way or some different ones. Real question, though, to close this conversation. Do you believe Holly Holm,

if she can work her way back into a Nunes rematch, do you actually believe she could win? You mean more than like a puncher's chance? More than a really bad cut or, yeah, more than something wild and ridiculous. Probably not. Probably not. But I do think that there is the other part about Amanda aging that makes it a little hard to be like, oh, what if Amanda has a great cut?

Right. What if she doesn't? It's just she's old now, know um so there's that so i would say i would definitely favor amanda if that's what you're asking but can she win unlikely possible but unlikely unlikely um all right bc so now let's get to the part oh one more one more before we get to topic number five one more anyone else at this event took a step up or a step down for you anyone else from UFC San Antonio move around for you well in terms of the streak this is the type of win Macy Barber needed fifth in a row this is her weight class all good the division's fun is crap at the top suddenly there's big fights to make but I don't really think she won this fight and to be fair Luke I

didn't think she beat Miranda Maverick either so so she's gonna advance big on the idea of another quality name and it is here against uh uh what's lee's first name luke is it andrea andrea yeah i get confused because of angela lee from one championship um okay but luke is there some level of like a cloud over this? I don't think she won this fight. Like what happened here? I watched this fight this morning and I did not think that. It's tough, dude. It's tough. You can make a case for Lee. It's not it's not crazy to have a case for Lee.

Here is my issue with the grappling on this one, the grappling rules, less so than the judging. The problem was, is there a scorecard for Lee? Yes. Is there a scorecard for Barber? I do believe you could make that argument, yes. But it's some of the scorecards that we got where we're like 30-27.

What the fuck is that? Dude, that was Mergliata, Luke. That was Big Dan. Yeah, I know, I know. So here's my point, though. Putting that aside, where we're like 30 27 what the fuck is that that was murgliata luke that was big dan yeah yeah i know i know so here's my point though putting that aside this is my issue with grappling in the rules bc the people i think misunderstand this part the way the rules work as best i understand them is that if i take you down bc and i have a dominant position but it's really just control let's say i'm not i never get close to a sub i get just control. Let's say I never get close to a sub. I've got two minutes of riding time, but I never get close to a sub,

and maybe I pass a little bit, but there's just no real clear ground and pound, and you were winning on the feet beforehand. What is the value of that grappling supposed to be? And I think that's a fair question. Here's the problem for me. In the first round, the striking was relatively even-ish, and then there is a takedown, and top control, or at least a version of dominant control, is established. Here is my personal belief on things. Yes, it is true that if you take someone

down and there's no sub-attempt, and there's no significant ground-to-pound, there's a question of the value of what that ground and pound or the takedown gives you. But in my mind, if I take an opponent down and I hold them down, even if I don't get significant ground and pound, and even if I don't get close to a sub-attempt, if the only thing you show me underneath is defense and then scrambling and it takes you a while to get there,

I kind of consider that to be a bit of a tiebreaker personally. Personally, my view is, let me finish. If I force you, okay, you agree. If I force you to the ground and I force you to stay there for a prolonged period and your response to me forcing you is not offense really from your back, just survive, defend, and escape, and I do it for long enough and we're having trouble

adjudicating the rest of that round i think the tie should go to the runner the person who initiated the takedown and who established lengthy top control to the person merely acting defensively on top on bottom excuse me i fully agree obviously only if the striking you know wasn't wasn't dominant in one direction then as a tiebreaker yes by the way, I think the letter of the law already indicates that again, I know big John McCarthy said the word was supposed to be damaged, but the entire group didn't want that word in there. And they ended up changing it. The letter of the law is the word impact, not damage. And what the letter of the law in the ABC rulings and breaking down says that if striking is close enough and you need to go to the tiebreaker that doing that employing a strategy that greatly impacts your opponent

by tiring them out by frustrating them by forcing them off of their game if somebody's a striker and you're controlling them on the ground for four minutes, okay, you didn't land big ground and pound, but if nothing else happened in that round, that has to be the type. You can't just wipe it out. I think the rules interpret it that way, Luke, where you can't wipe it out. And I think in general, across the board,

no one really knows what we're talking about because these rules can be interpreted so greatly in either direction that that may ultimately be the problem. I don't know, but to me, like, yes, that's how you win close fights when there isn't you know enough damage on the feet or or dominance on the feet with striking to to warrant that being the chief you know uh the chief element that you're grading upon i mean like but i feel like luke from broadcaster to fighter to judge everybody's got a different interpretation right now yes i i i don't know what interpretation the judging the judges were using here it's just my personal view that that's how that should have looked but take it okay can i ask you a

critical question here luke because macy barber does survive in advance but i want to ask you this do you think she's showing us at this point that she's still a step down from that core group right now below the title of tyla santos aaron blanchfield manon feral um and now valentina who are all looking up at grasso you think barbara's still a legit step down from that group yes yes she's obviously very talented very young 24 24 i think she is yeah she has plenty of time but was this the kind of performance that told me she was ready to contend with the aaron blanch fields of the world the potentially because she's moving around a lot but the jessica androges potentially of this world um no i didn't see that i didn't see that at

all so uh good win in the sense that it was a tough opponent and she fought well uh but it was a close one and not the kind of one that tells me like there's enough weapons being sharpened for the upper upper tier but on the other side bc she's 24 give it time so do you need her to get a caitlin chukagian level opponent here to find out exactly where she's at. Something like that. Yes. Something like that. And also just more time.

She just needs more time. For me, BC, I'm going to quickly give a shout out to Daniel Pineda. Daniel Pineda has been around forever. His record's 28 and 14. I mean, you know, not the cleanest record, but dude's good. He actually submits a dude out of Baltimore named Tucker Lutz. I like Tucker Lutz a lot. He gets submitted here from a guillotine choke.

It was a great setup. He was pushing Tucker Lutz into the fence and then he forces him to come forward, wraps the head and sits and he gets it. It was super clean on the finish to the guillotine looked excellent. Daniel Pena is one of these guys has been around a really, really long time. He's never going to be a UFC champion. Never really going to get close, but it'll give you good fights. He fights like a dog half the time, actually more than that, virtually all the time, really. And, um um i just love these guys who you know i not going to be in the hall of fame but um this was the last fight on his ufc deal

he took he did the brian barberena thing like either the ufc is going to give me a new deal i'm just going to call it a day i love it when guys are in that position because they don't really they're not doing it for anything but themselves really at that point you know because they might have some future already kind of secured or a path they're going to walk down. They just kind of want to see what's left of themselves as fighters. I like Pineda doing what he's doing. I liked his big win. Good for him.

Yeah, they got some things left in the basement, Luke, that they want to, you know, they want to pour out. I can respect that. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy, consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada.

All right, BC. Last but not least, let's get to topic number five. Let's talk about combat sports regulation in the state of Texas. So on the night before the UFC, at the Fury FC, I think 76 card, there was a referee by the name of Frank Collazo who did not intervene when a fighter goes to sleep in a triangle so that the other fighter then has to transition to an arm bar, which then the fighter who was in the triangle and now in the arm bar wakes up in the middle of it.

But by that point, he then taps and the referee intervenes. He tore a ligament and I think some other stuff in his elbow. He probably has to get surgery. He got nearly maimed as a consequence. Texas put that guy to judge a UFC fight, actually two UFC fights, I believe, the very next night. So that's one problem that they had, or two problems actually that they had. Then on top of it, they had these insane scorecards,

at least very, very difficult to understand four cards of 30-27, or as you mentioned in the case of Chito Vera winning three of the rounds, it'd be hard to imagine winning maybe one you could give Chito. That's really about it. Maybe the first round because he cut Sanhagen with that elbow from the bottom. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

And even then, you're like, you're reaching at that point, right? You're really reaching. We talked about the stat line previously. BC, go back to the Jon Jones-Dominic Reyes fight. Dominic Reyes, to me, clearly won that fight, but didn't in the judges' eyes because Texas at that time was using a scoring criteria where just walking into a guy still counted more than backing up.

BC, I know the answer to this question is no, but I want to ask it rhetorically anyway, just have some fun with it, which is, is it time for promoters to skip the state of Texas? Because I'm telling you folks you are taking your health into your own hands with that commission well i i hate laughing and i laughed like three times during this conversation why because i'm a boxing fan boxing fans are all laughing right now because all i have to say are names like gail van hoy the the late longtime texas judge or current texas referee lawrence cole and boxing fans know what we're

talking about here texas forever street yeah luke it's a freaking wild west in the already wild west world of united states combat commissions and in jurisdictions but you know why is texas on that daniel white shortlist luke of florida and abu dhabi and tai chi palace which you know still owed a pretty big favor where i come from luke and Taichi Palace, which, you know, still owed a pretty big favor where I come from, Luke. You know what I mean? I mean, you know, they were ride or die on a Chewbacca level. You got to throw it up for Taichi Palace for sure, Luke. But I mean, I think, look, you're always going to have a chance of big fights in Texas because of the tax laws, which is why, you know, so many big time boxers by the second half of their career

when they're making real money no longer want to fight in new york's madison square garden because the vegas and texas tax cuts in that regard are just you know epic but i mean look it's not just texas though i mean how many how many jurisdictions do you actually think in this country are like legit and regularly active at the highest level like you know california texas new york you know a couple others but you go anywhere else outside of, New York, you know, a couple others. But you go anywhere else outside of that and you get a lot of Texas practice, Luke. I mean, it's like, yeah.

What else do you want me to say, Luke? We could pick apart years worth of questionable notions, yet everyone keeps going back to Texas, okay? They got a really large dome there now, too, that attracts really big fights. The whole system has always felt wonky to me well how about uh i don't know if he pronounces it joel or hoel but his last name is ojeda he according to mma decisions only has two fights he's ever ref that they have a record of they both came from saturday ufc andPN 43, and he had a 48-47 scorecard for Marlon Vera. So it's not merely that they enable referees to do horrible shit and there's no consequence for it.

They then also pair inexperienced judges with other inexperienced judges or put inexperienced judges in important fights. Let me explain something to you if you don't have a record on mma decisions i don't want to see you refereeing excuse me refereeing or judging a title fight ever a five round main event i mean are you serious a five round main event just the same like we're between top contenders it's malpractice it's malpractice and here's the part that gets me bc i know what you're gonna say which is like what are we gonna do like we can't control these decisions and certainly not they're not up to us and the things you being up about uh there's not many states that promoters go to and then the

tax situation they're known as a lenient state why does dana white embrace them so like they're known as a lenient state right okay but the other part is this it's like and and certainly dana has backed up off of this in Las Vegas, I recognize. But he used to go to war over like with the commission over Mazzagati or this ref or that ref. You know, they used to really kind of put their foot down. And then he's asked about some of this stuff in the post-fight press conference. And he really just didn't have a whole lot negative to say about it. And it's like, I don't quite understand this. You've got the sign in the tough gym or the old tough gym that says never leave in the hands of the judges because you know yes texas notwithstanding you don't want to put yourself

in that kind of position but it's sort of being keenly aware of how unfair the commission process and oversight can be and yet not having anything negative to say about it when it's in this case the right people i think you argue about barber but certainly cory sanhagen still won so it's not like some cataclysmic event, but if it was, would he really go to bat for it? Then I don't know. I just, I'm honestly a little bit surprised that he went as hard as he did about

the Nevada commission when he did. And now it's like, yeah, this, you know, he's what do you, what do you want me to do? It's like, I'm sorry to tell you, I'm sorry to tell you this. You might be new to this, this idea of thinking, but Dana's checked out. Now on most things that don't involve slapping. Did you see his response to USADA? He's like, glad that's not my job anymore.

Talk to Novitski. Yeah, Luke, you think he cares about anything? Well, then what is this argument? Like he couldn't be punished for a day for, you know, changing, exchanging blows with his wife because he's so scary important to the business that one hour without him on slack the whole thing collapses it's like well which is it man i don't quite get it here i get it i understand it just right luke okay somebody grabbed me a nelk boy seltzer all right here we go you know all right well that's it for that one then bc um that's it for us on the top five time for when the donks get to ask us questions we put social posts up on every sunday y'all fill them up it's time for dms with the dignity dogs bc yeah hee-haw

hee-haw already that hee-haw we've got some mail boy i don't agree with this at all from at the real k carter kayla plant has post, and oh, actually I might agree with this. Caleb Plant has entered post Anderson Silva, Rich Franklin territory. So what that means is, obviously he lost his belt initially to Anderson Silva. He got a rematch, I think, two or three fights later. And then he was kind of stuck,

and he went to 205 at times, got some good wins, went to 185, got some good wins, but was never really able to to win a title again or be like the guy in that division bc do you see something similar for caleb plan i'm not so sure with four belts no the the division is deep enough at the moment you're right it's hard to keep four belts together it really is the mandatories line up and all of that and inevitably you know you you get stripped i think that i think i even saw dan rayfield right in regards to the fury-Usyk negotiation talks

that somebody would have gotten stripped for a belt to be able to make that fight happen anyway. That's just how it works. But I think Caleb Plant is—we know how hungry he is. I mean, look, it meant so much to him to earn that respect to Benavidez and go the distance. Did he take a lot of punishment? Yes. I mean, his resolve is certainly impressive. But I think with so many names in this division especially if those belts start to to you know mix around you also have david murrell jr unbeaten with the secondary title of note in the moment uh there's a lot of matchups to make i think he can get himself back up to the top

potentially luke he's gonna have to really come back but styles make fights and caleb plant's style works against a very high-tier level of fighter. Not against Canelo and David Benavidez, though, which is why we're talking about those two potentially, you know, later in this year in a big summit meeting. But wouldn't you love to see Caleb Plant against a Jermall Charlo in a super middleweight debut? I mean, really, you can name any of the names in that elite group, and I think he's got a defensive style and a good boxing pedigree, good enough to win a lot of those fights. So, I mean, look, it's not ridiculous to think the idea of what he said after that I can't wait to rematch Benavidez one day.

It's not a ridiculous thought if he builds himself back up. Not at all. All right, from Matt at Matt Tucker Photography, BC. Oh, that's our guy, Luke. Matt Tucker rules. Which one is this? The guy with the glasses who's at every boxing and MMA event shooting. He works with Marcos Villegas, the journalist.

Yes, yes, yes. I didn't know that was his last name, Matt Tucker. Okay. Thoughts on the Chris Colbert versus Rayo Valenzuela decision. You seem to think it was totally fine. You're like the only person who thinks that that was great. I didn't think it was great. I'm going to rewatch the fight and score it round by round.

I did not have the time with the late travel last night to do that for today's show, and I will get back to you on this. I will say, though, with my eyes, did it look like Valenzuela had did enough? Yes. But was the fight also close, and was Colbert fighting back every round in which he was hurt? Yes.

Sometimes, Luke, let me say this. I think this may fall. I'm going to score it and get back to you. But I think this is one of those things where when one guy scored the knockdown and the rounds he clearly won were like twice as dominant as the other guy. It can lead you to believe like when you say the other, you know, when you're say Colbert may have had a chance to win here, it sounds ridiculous. The math could add up. You know what I mean?

You only get 10-9 in most rounds, even if you're clearly winning. But it was only a 10-round fight, and I don't think it was the slam dunk everybody thinks it was. Now, does it hurt the situation that all three judges had the exact same score, basically, and two of them had the exact same scoring round for round 95 94 yeah that leads you to believe you know that that that fuels people's conspiracy or ineptitude debates here but that also means they had the three best look at it from that close so i hate to have this argument without having watched it and scored it a second time let me do that and get back to you luke but i don't think robbery is the word it may be the wrong decision but i don't think robbery is the word yeah my my threshold for robbery is high so i don't know if i'd call it a robbery either but not a great call it was a close fight

it was a fun fight too all right it was a fun fight it was that was definitely a fun fight it was definitely by the way chris colbert man even if he got that win he got that one by as you know as you well know he might have been lucky to get it and he certainly got it by the skin of his fucking teeth getting dropped hard in the first round um and he was like are they gonna you're gonna give valenzuela a rematch here's all you need to know he was like fuck no i'm going back to 130 i'm not fighting that fucking guy again so that kind of tells you he kind of knew he got away with one. He got away with one. Yeah, yeah.

All right, but he ain't the first. He won't be the last. All right, at Cole underscore Brown 858BC, in your opinion, was it a mistake for Chito to take the Sanhagen fight, seeing as one loss can set you back so far in such a stacked 135-pound division? Well, hindsight is 2020. It's easy to say that now. What I don't know is his financial situation,

what was offered to him. If he said, you know, how do I get this O'Malley fight? And if they said, oh, sorry, we've got, you know, different plans for O'Malley, then staying active and staying busy and making a nice headlining paycheck may have been very important in this case for Chita. Because look, there's always going to be guys that no matter what.

I mean, you have an extreme guy like Cowboy Cerrone, who just got announced and added to the Hall of Fame for Saturday, as a guy who's going to no matter what want to fight every three months and get as much money as he can. But some guys just also feel like being active keeps them at their highest. So it's hard to really say that without knowing the the uh the details also i just think it's i mean i get the question right i get the question being a function of hey man take something a little bit less risky and work your way up but

dude if you want to be the champion at 135 in this weight class there's just not an easy road man like there might be some fights that are better than others fair enough cory sanhagen is a living testament to the fact that like dude it's really like there's just there's not oh here's the path you have to walk over lava and this one it's a red carpet it's really not so binary at all like it's all lava every way you go it's non-binary to be fair luke well whatever whatever you want to say i'm just pointing out like i get the idea of thinking critically about what fights you accept but if you're a contender trying to wrestle away opportunities and then eventually a title there's a certain level of all comers and ability you have to show in order to get there and um

cheeto did show it. It just came up a little bit short this time. Sure. All right. From at Brendan Adrian 9. I love this one, BC. Thoughts on Dana's comments on Covington deserving a title shot, saying, quote, if not for Usman, Covington would be champion for years.

What does it say about the UFC matchmaking on hopes and dreams rather than reality and merit? One of the worst arguments I've ever heard for a title shot but it worked so here we go hopes and dreams uh ways and means right um yeah i mean that's a lame double down to frame it like that these are the moments where you just want dana to be honest because i get that because it's colby and because it's denying somebody like balal who people rightfully look at as like this blue collar you know guy that's worked so hard to climb the ladder at all odds. And he has. Let's give him that respect. It's easy to frame this more under Dana White privilege and do all that. But we've seen it happen consistently for guys who are marketable.

It's clear the UFC truly loves and respects how Colby carries himself, you know, as being the willing villain and all that. So it's just, to me, not a surprise. That's how they do it. So just come out and say it. Yes. There's an argument to be made anyway,

because his only losses were to the champion. I made that argument, even though people hate hearing it, but also this guy knows what he's doing. And look, we were debating the least legit title opportunities over the years, you and I, and we were kind of throwing out ideas. We forgot Chael against Jon Jones in our debate.

That was one where there was no merit whatsoever. It's not that bad, dude. I mean, come on. There is merit here. I just wish Dana would be honest and say exactly what this is. You know? Well, what is the merit? Tell me.

We already went over this. People disagree you disagree that's fine but within the title contention and his recent record and the only losses in close fights to the guy who was the champion and he's coming off a pay-per-view win i know there's holes in that resume i'm not saying that i mean that's the most euphemistic way to describe a very lacking resume for this opportunity it would be different if he was coming off a loss which people got title shots in the past i don't think it would be i think they still might give it to him like if you're going to give it to colby now there's not many circumstances where you can deny one my whole point is just you'd prefer dana to be honest yes i certainly it's just a it's a really silly argument to make saying well if not for usman colby would have been

champ okay well usman was there and colby was found to be second best, number one. Like, that's just a reality. Number two, you could make the same argument about John Fitch. John Fitch was the man but for St. Pierre. He went on, let's see who he beat when he went to the UFC. Consecutively, Brock Larson, Berkman, Thiago Alves, who, by the way, was later on into being a title defense for George St. Pierre, Kuniyoshi Hironaka, who was good at the time, Luigi F by the way, was later on into being a title defense for George St. Pierre.

Kuniyoshi Hironaka, who was good at the time. Luigi Fioravanti. Juan Carnero. He had to fight out of a deficit on that one. Then he beats Diego Sanchez. Then he beats Chris Wilson. So he's 18-2, and then he loses to St. Pierre, but then goes right back into the contender pool, beats Tiago Alves again, beats Ben Saunders again, beats Mike Pierce,

beats Paulo Tiago, who was a beast at that time, and then Akihiro Gono. And I could go on and on and on from there. That's the draw against BJ Penn. He was that guy. It didn't do shit for him. And after he lost, he stayed beating top contenders at that time in that division, which Colby never did. This has nothing to fucking do with anything.

No, I'm saying there's enough merit. Saying a guy would have been champ but for another guy is one thing that's yeah that's stupid that's and then on top of it no one who he's beaten in the interim restores his placement in that division if he had been the guy like he was against usman right that same argument but rather than taking time off he's out there beating gilbert burns rather than taking time off he's beating whoever the fuck out there at the top of that division. That's a different conversation. That's not what happened here. He has one win over Jorge Masvidal and,

uh, in the last, or as the only one in his last two years, whatever it was deeply, deeply, deeply undeserving of a title. Right. And it was stupid when Dana compared it to Leon Edwards saying,

Oh, he was out for two years and then got a title shot. It wasn't the same circumstances or situation or scenario. He also had like nine canceled bouts. Totally different. Just be honest and say there's enough merit mixed with this being our best move commercially. I don't think it's the next level that I'm getting in my DMs

of people saying that they're trying to time Colby winning back the title with Donald Trump running for office and then they can have the championship belt out on the forefront. don't think it's actually that Luke but just be honest about what it is you know Luke I mean you know but to your points you tried to make if it wasn't for GSP then UFC Hall of Famer Matt Serra you know would have you know right all these arguments are so bizarre if not for the facts a different thing would be real yeah but honestly though if it wasn't for Minotauro then Little Nog wouldn't be this massively overrated, to be fair. Just to be fair, right?

He also wouldn't be Little Nog. He'd just be Nog. You know what I mean? There'd be no Lil, there'd be no Big, there'd be no nothing. All right, last but not least, I don't know how to pronounce this, from Gassim Hussaini. I think I'm saying that right. If I'm not, please forgive me.

What do you make of Patty's aggressive push for the Gordon rematch? It seems like he's avoiding a step up at all costs. See, I got to tell you, I don't know if you saw this. He put out something on social media, I think like from the hospital, Gurney or whatever, for surgery he was getting. I actually like this from Patty. Yeah, there's unresolved issues with the Gordon fight. Take it again.

Let's see what you can do. Again, Patty needs... We talked about Benavidez, right? Everyone kind of thought he could do it and he did do it, but I needed to see it. I needed to see him get out there and prove he could be that guy. That's what Patty needs to do.

He has to go and prove it. Go prove it. I like that idea. Yeah, prove it all night, right? Any thoughts, BC? I agree with him okay well i mean i agree with you i guess the question is i don't need to belabor my agreement specifically when you love quick shows so i'm trying i'm trying to play into hey hey we talked about this hey um no i mean look yeah you have the opportunity to fix the glitch if your biggest critics are saying those type of things that you didn't you you know, I mean, he didn't.

He didn't light the world on fire in his last fight. So a chance to go back there and fix it. Okay. Would you rather have that or him rush into something he's not ready for? I mean, I have no problem with that. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to see that at all.

No interest. All right. That is it for our top five and our DMs from dogs. BC, it's time for BC's Feces. Let's let it roll. What I do every Sunday is I like scour the globe for the good, the bad, the ugly, the highs and lows, the in-between, and the world of combat sports.

We're usually, usually going much further beyond that. This is called Have You Seen This Shit? Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Somebody light a match. Luke, we're going to start off with Corey Sanhagen defeating. Did we just have a seizure there? Corey Sanhagen got a big win on Saturday, Luke.

And as we teased last week, he doesn't want the champion. He's got a different name in mind. And he's got a new catchphrase he wants to try out on the San Antonio Faithful. Let's hear it. Rob, you're hungry? Well, I got something for you to eat. And it don't taste good! Look, that was pretty damn Cejudo-level cringe. But I guess I'm here for it. i guess i'm here for it i guess

i'm here for and it don't taste good i love cory that sucked i hated that all right look do you like that fight though right that's a great fight yeah i mean dude cory sanhagen fights nothing but hammers bro yeah nothing you got anyone calling out marab marab is the fight you've got to avoid. I know, but he's like, I want to match my beast inside me against that guy's gas tank. Okay, let's do it. I'm here for you, Corey. Seriously, Corey Sanhagen, it's hard not.

A beast. He goes after it. You've got to have respect for him, for sure. I think he does look exactly like Corey Minici of Morning Combat fame. He does a little bit. I think if Minici took the hat off and started speaking on the mic, he'd be like, oh my god, right? It don't taste good.

It certainly don't. Hey Luke, Nate the Train Landwehr usually says ridiculous things into the microphone so let's introduce San Antonio to the gun show. Hey San Antonio, take a look at his bicep! Woo! Nate the Train in the UFC! show look he had a nice submission what'd it be amazing given his last name if he just spoke like

fluent german you know yeah that'd be great that'd be great um he's becoming a fun fighter who can who i mean he's on a nice little run here right i mean he's wacky as all shit but if you ask me bc is there a spot for him on the room service diaries couch you're damn right there is okay he's what you would call a phenomenal tv fighter phenomenal tv fighter yes he's getting better uh luke flyweight venetius salvador uh brought out his spider Silva instincts here, but he didn't get the win against Victor Alta Morano. Do you get the haircut? I don't get the haircut, no. So that was a haircut from the original Ronaldo, not Cristiano.

Oh, Ronaldo, yeah. The Brazilian version. And he had this, I'm not sure what year. I want to say like early 2000, something like that. I can't quite be sure. I'm not sure when he had it, but he had a stupid ass haircut. He would go on to lose by unanimous decision, which I'm asking you. I don't think you can act this flagrantly if you're not winning the fight, right?

I mean, you can do this when you're like 16 title defenses into your career. Yeah. Hey, come over here. I'm going to play fuck fuck games. You can't do that when this is a, this stage. And maybe not with that haircut either. All right,

let's go over to a CeeLo green Luke. You know that fella? Yeah. He, uh, he has a version of everyone was Kung Fu fighting from Kung Fu Panda. That tukester loves. Oh,

wow. Let's see if she likes him on a horse. Let's check this out. Is that the horse that bit me with Jake Paul was around? Well, you've been bit by a few of them, Luke. Yo, that the horse that bit me when jake paul was around well you've been bit by a few of them luke yo that horse that horse is like yo get this heavy set oh shit oh shit yo you got me with that oh boy why is this horse in a room full of strobe lights can

we get this fucking horse on a farm somewhere please yeah luke floyd money mayweather was in las vegas on saturday for the fight was good to see him inside the mgm grand but he just came back from dubai and check out this luke i named this the money may latte do you do you respect the artistry here uh we i do respect floyd um oh there it is that's the coffee yeah isn't that incredible and he didn't even drink it probably not but you know shout out to pat cummins and the the artistry of the barista luke that's fantastic you see i'll never forget do you remember what you used to watch mtv cribs back in the day right oh yeah dude that red man episode was incredible the red man episode was one of the best ones do you have a favorite of ones that were like

non-ironic like someone's house was just amazing oh not an amazing way i'm only an irony who was the guy uh who's percy miller luke oh master p master p had the most ridiculous use of like he's like see that gold ceiling above my bed it only cost eight million and you're like okay yeah he had a big ass like mural of himself too my favorite from that episode was that master p coined a new term his house wasn't eloquent or elegant it was elo it was uh eloquent eloquent is what he said you know this house is real eloquent and uh it was real nice but no it was the dame dash episode remember dame dash remember him yes rockefeller records and he said he never wears the same pair of socks twice he would open a new pair of socks fresh wear them and then when he was done he would throw them in the garbage and i thought to myself at the time

i'm like man even if i rich, that seems real fucking dumb. Sure enough, you don't have that money anymore. So I actually that's actually my goal in life, at least in terms of boxers. Look, underwear. I'd like to get to that point where I just set them on fire as soon as they come off of me. Right. Well, I mean, you're already shitting in them, so you should be throwing them away. You know what I'm saying? Look, have you ever heard of the MMA promotion in Russia called Ural FC?

I have out of the Ural Mountains. Yes. Well, they produced what I thought was the weirdest face-off in MMA history this weekend. Let's check it out. I saw this shit. Bro, look at the fucking... Can we play the audio?

I'm going to assume that both of these athletes are drug-free, right? This is how me and BC do show meetings. Okay, okay. This is not the weirdest one. It gets weirder. Luke, if you could continue to avoid dropping spoilers. I thought that was the weirdest face-off,

but then, Luke, these two weighed in, and then we got next level. This is so great look at these two this is just straight I mean my man's got like five teeth look at him are you going to show the fight at him. Are you going to show the fight?

No, I didn't even bother to find out who won, Luke. Oh, the white guy one-punch KO'd him. Look for that in next week's Have You Seen This Shit? Wow, that is all-time great stuff there. That's weird as shit.

Boxing weekend recap time, Luke. A lot of people are against referee Kenny Bayless for constantly breaking the clinches during Benavidez's plant, largely before they even happened. Well, maybe this was payback for both fighters' refusal to touch gloves, Luke. They were like, yo, fuck Kenny Bayless. In real time when he did this, you looked at me and laughed like you just saw some old lady go face first into the concrete.

Did you see his face, dude? He could not make that happen. I got to tell you, I fucking hate that. I like it when they say, if you want to touch gloves, do it now. Otherwise now otherwise go back to your corners when they fucking try to make them get the fuck out of here you're not the only thing lamer than that is sometimes boxing referees will try to make them stop talking to each other like if they're trash talking it's like yo this is a fight like come on you know they're fighting okay let's let i mean let this wow yeah hey uh the final test you got to give respect though where it's due.

And Caleb Plant, he was willing to go through it all, Luke. Let's look back on the final 10 seconds of round 12. It was wild. The courage of Caleb Plant on display. David Benavidez lands a left and a right. Right in the middle. Tremendous close to this fight. I mean, dude, seriously? Caleb Plant's going to win over a monster fan base just by trying his best.

Really, just by literally trying his best. He was sticking and moving, but then I think he realized, I'm just going to stand with this guy and get some points for it. I will say this. You see Caleb's tweet the next day? Yeah. Yeah, he was like, no excuses. He was better.

I'll be back. I loved it. I think a lot of people who are haters of Caleb Plant definitely got some respect for him after this one. And to see, I mentioned it on our post show, but the way his debt that benavides his father who was in some ways had the original beef with with plant that started this whole thing you know the respect that he gave him afterwards like they they as a family like

love this guy now because yeah i mean but dude at that level luke if somebody's bringing it you gotta respect them you know you gotta if they're willing to leave it in there it's crazy um also chris colbert tried to win the fashion wars on saturday uh your thoughts on this luke looks like my fucked up tie from uh saturday looks like i mean i appreciate the effort i really like i'm not gonna hate on the effort even though he looks like a dick tracy uh you know private investigator um that's that's an old man reference dick tracy jesus christ yeah i just made it 12 seconds ago luke okay oh yeah oh i didn't sorry i didn't hear you i was sorry i apologize i didn't hear you do the the zoom audio in my ear goes in and out i missed some shit but um the problem is that he didn't he got dropped in the first round doing this shit.

You know what I mean? Speaking of that, Luke, let's look back at that first round knockdown. I didn't think he was going to survive this, let alone win the fight. Just runs into him. Look at this, Bob. But he did show a pretty gnarly chin, though, and getting back in this. I'll get back to you on the scoring, but a wild outfit. I wouldn't recommend those trunks for most people, chris colbert able to pull it off with the

devison figurino he's a big like whiz khalifa fan black and yellow black and yellow maybe look let's go to fresno we had that top rank boxing fight and jose ramirez coming back for the first time uh actually the second time since losing in that unification bout to josh taylor him and richard colmey went to battle, and Luke, round 11, Ramirez was finally able to close the door. This is a really good performance. I have not seen this yet, so let me see. He's hurting.

Oh, body shot, body shot. And he did say afterwards that he'd like either Regis Progre for the WBC title or a rematch with Josh Taylor. And Lukey said he's going to do about two to three more fights at 140 before the official move up to welterweight. So, you know, there's a potential here that all these guys move up to welterweight together and that, you know, they just all fight each other a bunch of times. I'm not against that under any situation.

I'm okay with that. Remember that Josh Taylor Pro-grey fight? That was a classic. The top-ranked undercard. Check out Subaru Murata. He only needed 90 seconds to get rid of Jose Negrete. Oh! Right down the middle.

And the way he fell, too. Damn. He's trying to collect himself. I admire the hustle. He's got the old Edgar haircut, too. Damn. He's trying to collect himself. I admire the hustle. He's got the old Edgar haircut, too. Yeah, I don't know if we can see that again on the loop. Oh, here it is. Woo!

Right down Main Street. Hey, Luke, let's go to the NFL stands. You know the fans there in that league. They'll do anything. Luckily, this gentleman had no problem picking out his seat, Luke, and his seat was a good one, right? Yeah, look at look at this fucking degenerate why don't you sit down you disgusting barn animal look look at this fucking

god just execute this peasant just execute him uh let's go to baseball in the caribbean here's a great father i will say this the one thing that the pandemic did better for everyone the one thing it did better for everyone is it put hand sanitizer everywhere you know that thing i'm pretty glad about how you can just go to like hotels and restaurants and they just have hand sanitizer stations that we can all use that that is definitely an upgrade look great father great father son moment down there in caribbean baseball during this post-fight interview. Let's check it out. Sorry. No, son.

We don't do that here. No, no, no. And look at the kid. Look at him biting his lips. All right. Hey, let's go to the white women on a jet ski. That always ends good. I bet they're going to be sober be sober oh look at this just 10 000 pounder i mean oh come on come on luke wow yeah just just sink that shit just what is that life preserve i mean do you have do they have to

wear more i mean it's i'm i'm over here fat shaming and i shouldn't be but i mean i mean look dc is a hall of famer we don't need to keep going down this road. Luke. Okay. Serious. They do have weight limits on those things though. Hey, parkour fails have become a big deal. Watch this.

We'll do the front view. Then the back view of it. Luke, look at this fucking moron. Yep. Falling a tree. Dumb piece of shit. Yeah. Hey, newsflash.

Whitey, you're not a bird. All right. Hey, it's time to rate that tat, Luke. We looked at the leg tat of Dan Hooker the other day. He's got the second one going, too. That looks pretty good. Now he's got both legs. Yeah, that looks pretty good.

I like the quality of his work. Yeah, he at stained skin tattoo in terms of aggressiveness luke this is the type of tats i give my ufc4 on ea sports guys like this is a lot there's a lot going on here it's a lot it's a big piece uh and they're from what i can tell again i'm not an expert well i'm not an expert in any tattoo style but i'm not super familiar with this tattoo style but just from basic tattoo work from what i can see and it looks really really good all right hey rate this tat luke the message is universal and i certainly agree with it but it is an aggressive tat jesus didn't tap so i don't know if folks know this or not um that used to be a clothing brand. Are you aware of this, BC?

I am not aware of that. I'm not. Maybe 10 or 15. I'm closer to 15 years ago. They were one of the upstart brands that were in the MMA space. I used to joke. It was like, I don't even know how this is a fucking name. Like, how do you name?

Whose idea was it to do this? Because it's a really fucking stupid idea. But they did name a clothing brand after it, and they sponsored a lot of religiously oriented fighters. And this guy said, you know what? I'm going to take a bad branding idea, and I'm going to make a tattoo out of it. The tattoo itself is heavily...

It's sort of a darker feature, obviously. It's not a horrible tattoo in that sense um it's just nothing i would get oh there's a zoe the cat appearance luke wait what's the difference between zoe and reggie is zoe long hair uh yeah zoe's like himalayan style almost she's got a lot of hair and big big puffy tail and she bites very very aggressively, Luke. You ever hear of, like, love bites that animals give, Luke? She doesn't really show you that she loves you until you bleed. That's usually her first point of contact where she gets, you know. Hey, will you sing to her?

Will you sing to her? This is as long as I've ever held her without getting stabbed, Luke. Sing to her. Sing to her. Sing to her. So, you good? You good? Sing.

You know, she's become a regular on my on my only pipes channel luke cameo.com dude i'm telling you there's this dude on youtube whose cat only stops harassing him when he sings sing like the national anthem sing like the national anthem she's purring into the microphone for you luke you just won't commit to the bit will you this is just wholesome content right now so friggin wholesome right now. All right. I hope that cat fucking claws out your eyeballs. Oh, come on. Stop that.

Stop that. All right, Luke. Let's continue the shit here so we can take this home, you know. All right. Hey, one more tattoo to look at. Check out this Conor McGregor superfan. Did she get it right, Luke? It looks like he's got a potato in his mouth so no

it looks like he's at second base already luke so i don't know about that hey let's go to your favorite involving two of your favorite items on earth luke cars and weed well that's just the greatest car ever made i mean if tesla has any sense they're going to start making these uh luke i think i speak for all mk fans after last friday's episode that um this might not be a bad way to fix your attitude problem would you be willing to undergo this treatment let's see i thought you guys were trying to get the stick out of my ass i think that's what they're doing here luke uh inadvertently just pulling it out he's just getting taller you ever zoom in on the crowd luke during old ufc fights and you sometimes

see some crazy things you didn't notice in real time sure i got two instances let's go to ufc 261 you remember kamaru versus jorge part two not everybody loved usman even back then that was i vote what is it what is it uh uh i volunteer as tribute this motherfucker right here yes yes uh luke we have another instance do you remember ufc 87 and that guy that guy my family does the same thing whenever i uh i start talking they just they just speak over you yeah all right all right yeah sorry luke sorry about that yeah uh look you do remember brock lesnar versus heath herring from ufc 87 right sure of course i do 2008 you ever hear of our producer mikey more mile from cbs sports

watch this look for the guy in the affliction t-shirt are we looking for the biggest piece of white trash scum ever? There he is right there. Look at this absolute zero. Oh, yeah. Is that a Jesus don't tap brand shirt right there? He's got a Jesus don't tap shirt on. Probably not, but I'm just going to say that. God knows he's got some dirt weed in his pocket, probably, and half the other gummies in his tummy.

He's got a chin beard like a true piece of shit uh smiling just you know like i mean just look at beavis and butthead right here just two american zeros mikey just wrote it and said his hr case is growing larger and then the guy behind him the guy to his bottom left is having a religious experience with brock look at him reaching up to this guy oh yeah well that was a moment hey mikey i'm glad you uh i mean i'm just you know did you bring all your white friends to this fucking event all right all right wow wow mikey claims that uh roger huerta's family was right next to him luke so they were the ones that were uh and now he's trying to say all my other friends oh my friend was like from this place where like they can look white but then they're definitely not oh okay luke let's uh hey another

big week for hasbula luke let's check out they took him to a shoe store right who would have thought this are we still doing this shit really Yeah He's a menace I'm kind of tired. I Don't understand how people don't see that this is the act the act is little person with some kind of developmental disorder punching people you're actually missing out because there's a lot of wholesome i am has beulah moments like i didn't put in this week's has beulah countdown when he met mickey mouse for the first time and yeah he tried to punch him once but then it was heartfelt here's what people like he's just living i know he's like a menace what does that mean what the fuck does that i'm just

that despite his circumstances that despite his circumstances that he's just out there being the best happiest version of himself and i think people at their core can relate to seeing that joy in him luke in five years in five years there's gonna be interviews with hasbulla where he's admitting he felt like he was being manipulated and uh he felt like he had to act a certain way around cameras i guarantee mark my fucking words all right well luke he did get to meet mike tyson for the first time and that's cool mike god bless mike but i don't know if mike thought he was like a stuffed animal or something watch this luke yo was i gonna uppercut him hasbulla's got some cool shoes dude mike was like treating him like he was like uh like zoe the cat about the first time i interviewed mike tyson no so he was actually a special guest

at the glory event in hampton roads or maybe it was norfolk i can't remember that we were at there for and uh so they had me as like the ringside guy. Interviewing him between rounds. But I was just sitting next to him. For the majority of the fight. And he had. I mean poor Mike dude. Like wherever he goes. He just gets mobbed.

It's insane. But it was the main event. And it was two. Or whatever it was. I don't know if it was the main event. But it was two heavyweights. Who were like in the glory ring. And they were in the corner next to us.

And it was like shaking the ring. You know. And he just kind of looks over at me he goes them two motherfuckers is huge that was the first thing he said to me i was like yes yes they are mike they're heavyweights all right all right that's that's a very interesting story look but these two motherfuckers is huge hey you and I were almost guests on his podcast about three weeks ago, true or false? I mean, were we? I was told we were.

I was told we were. All right, let's keep it going here. Hey, remember that weird guy that I said would never appear on Have You Seen This Shit Again? Luke, I had to give in for this one. This is a Scooby-Doo inspired moment. Hey, my glasses! I can't see without them. They should be around here somewhere.

I hate that guy. I hate that guy and his gross genitals i hate that guy and how much you love his gross genitals all right we got one more for you luke everybody wants mk's live shows to come to their area some people even from the heartland of america luke i went to the future and took footage of us finally doing a live show right near the people, you know, like Omaha or something. Let's check it out. Let's look ahead to the future.

Show that one again. Show that one again show that one again great show that one again yeah there's me now which one are you are you the dumbass on top of this car i think look yeah because that's mikey on the ones and twos there yes yes yes yes oh yeah that's great stuff that's the shit i think you've seen it whatever pretty good that's pretty good uh let's remind everyone hey you got to vote for us you got to vote for us for uh best combat sports podcast we didn't get to it at the top of the show but we should mention it before we get out of here you can go to there you see you can put your phone on the screen for those of you watching on youtube with the qr qr code excuse me and then of course if you're listening

sports plural sports podcast group.com and you're listening, sports, plural, sportspodcastgroup.com. And you can vote for Morning Combat Best Combat Sports Podcast. We'd appreciate that if you did. Of course, we have merch, morningcombat.store for all of that. Let's see. We have Showtime, showtime.com, 30-day free trial. If you'd like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce.

NBC, any other final thoughts? No, no. Just, you know, thanks for having Zoe on the show today luke uh let's thank the crew the malka crew that was in las vegas the showtime folks that were in las vegas oh yeah good yeah good asshole good she's like yo get the fuck up off me you know she calls you she caught you call her zoe she calls you uh harvey weinstein that's really okay okay all right all right there we go uh all right but want to thank all the crew from uh showtime and malco that were there to help make everything so smooth when we were in

las vegas we appreciate that you can follow the socials all below there on the screen we're on tiktok instagram and twitter at morning combat and then bc and i have stupid ass names on our various other accounts. All right, BC. Anything else on your mind before we go? You know, it might be time to catch up on sleep from the weekend. But, you know, we're going to be back with it. What's this weekend, Luke?

I know it's Anthony Joshua returning in boxing. What about MMA? I have thought not even two seconds about it. I could not tell you. Dude, I had to get... So I had a PFL this weekend. So I went to sleep at 1 o'clock in the morning local and I had to get so i have a pfl this weekend so i went to sleep at one o'clock in the morning local and i had to get up at 3 15 so i got like two hours and then i had

to go catch my flight then flying on southwestern is sort of like saying hey where do you live and you say a house but you're actually just sleeping on their couch you know what i mean like it's you're crammed my seat didn't recline and it wasn't an exit row by the way it was number the first fucking it was just awful yeah i had first class luke you know so dude the guy here's what i understand i'm sitting in the aisle row and there's someone sitting in the window right so the middle seat is open this guy who was not as big as me i'm 6'4 and i'm solid 260 uh maybe even 270 maybe he he uh he sits down in the middle he's maybe 6'2 220 230 or something he's a big dude i'm like there are other middle seats now obviously he wanted the extra leg room but now i can't put my right

arm backwards because he has to sit like this because he can't move either so we were just immobilized for the entire four hour plus flight andrea lee in the first round when she had her arm pinned behind her back the whole yeah the whole time it was like that bro it was like fucking awful it was like that and then there was traffic on the bwi parkway and so it was you know i didn't get to sleep and then i went to the kite festival i took toky to the kite festival and then she started crying because she hated kites so that was a waste you know good thing you got up so early for that yeah i was like thanks to because i really appreciate this but she gave me a big kiss it was great all right well you she sent me a nice video of yeah but you didn't even reply to yeah i did i oh see i replied when i was on the plane so it

could have been one of those situations didn't get through it didn't get through it didn't get through uh okay all right well that is it for us so thank you to everyone who saw everything we did in Vegas we're back home for a little while and then of course we're going to get you ready for a couple of weeks for UFC 287 but everything else in the in between for Brian Campbell for CBS Sports Showtime and I'm Luke Thomas thank you guys so much for watching MK back on Wednesday with a live episode. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.