MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Beterbiev Beats Bivol, UFC Vegas 98, BKFC Spain, UFC 310 Revealed | Full Episode

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

An absolutely LOADED monday MORNING KOMBAT is coming your way after a fight-filled weekend! First, Artur Beterbiev scored a majority decision win over Dmitry Bivol in their undisputed light heavyweight title fight. Did the judges get the scoring right? More importantly, what's the big takeaway from what we saw? Should the winner of Benavidez-Morrell get the winner of Saturday's fight? AT UFC Vegas 98, Brandon Royval scored a tough but well-deserved win over Tatsuro Taira in the main event of UFC Vegas 85. He's lost twice to the current champ, so does he deserve another title shot? UFC 310's card received a bunch of fights including the main event between Belal Muhammad and Shavkat Rakhmonov plus a flyweight title bout between Alexandre Pantoja and Kai Asakura. Rate these announcements on a scale of 1 to 10. At BKFC in Spain over the weekend, Conor McGregor said he's fighting Dan Hooker in February in Saudi Arabia. Do we really believe him and, more importantly, is that the right fight for McGregor for his UFC return? Finally, the guys set the table for Francis Ngannou's return to MMA this weekend with the PFL's Saudi Arabia event. What's the biggest and most important storyline headed into Saturday's contest, the first MMA fight for Ngannou in nearly 3 years? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Reveille, Reveille Guys

Look at us now Tip to tip Oh, Jesus Do you want a margarita? Yes! Oh, my God! It's us doing what we love Hey, welcome to Morning Combat, where the question of the day is, which fighter is going to be the first to be the Chris Benoit of MMA? And by that, I mean murder, suicide, their entire family.

Wow, I did not sign suicide, their entire family. Wow. I did not sign off on that joke. Wow. Joke? Oh, boy. It's Morning Combat. It's the 14th of October, 2024. And we're going to talk about Better Be vs. Bivol and the results therein.

We're going to talk about Tetsuro Taira and Brandon Royval and the results therein. We have UFC 310 announcements, as well as, for the first time in nearly three years, in MMA anyway, it's the Francis Ngannou Fight Week. Never heard of it. Yeah, exactly. I'm Luke Thomas. That's Brian Campbell. We're Morning Combat.

We appreciate you guys joining us here. BC? Yes, yes. Sorry, I'm trying to get my gloves. The King of Connecticut, how are you, good sir? Not well, because I made the very spontaneous motion of shaving my facial hair, which was instantly regrettable. You look like the kind of guy at the office that gets relieved when the minorities get fired. Okay, that's unacceptable. It's about the second worst joke you've had since we've started.

So yeah, I regret it, but the good thing is it'll grow back. But, you know, you would have to say between that and the dye job, I do look like about 12 years younger, except for this luggage under my eyes that I'm carrying around, you know. Hey, name this tune, Brian Campbell. Yeah, what do you got? Brian Campbell's in the lot again. See, this isn't funny.

Outside the RV store. Sucking on whip, it's feeling numb. He's chasing thrills galore. I'm almost done. He's smelling like regret and fries. Oh it's getting rough a virgin by designer chance well no one calls his bluff i gotta tell you 10 out of 10 on the lyrics hit that hip-hop horn for me that doesn't justify it you know what it's like to be friends with luke thomas okay you wake up sunday morning to hey i just asked chat gT to write a funny song about me masturbating

it's like yeah please lose my number okay please okay I've become uncrowned thank you alright thank you here it is did you have a good weekend otherwise yeah I did thank you I did

I saw the good robot I took 2k to see the good robot I don't even know what that is. It's the new kid movie that's out. It's beautifully animated, and it's a very nice story. It is very overrated and not that good, and I was very disappointed in it. All right. I'm trying to hear myself in my ear. How do you sound now?

Check, check, one, two, three. Check, check, one, two, three. Glad we're doing this on the air and not beforehand. Check, check, one, two, three. There we go. All we go all right now i got what i'm looking for yeah you sound better yeah yeah um so yeah outside of me looking apparently like my loved ones have told me like a serial killer with this look you know i will go on and i'm excited for today's show and uh we gotta you know we have to get into this scoring debate going on with this better BFB ball mess. We do.

Not mess, a fantastic fight. So I'm excited about that. But no, I didn't go to the splash pad or anything, if that's what you're talking about. But I did mow the leaves again. I'm winning the battle this year. Normally I'm desperately trying to catch up. So a lawn expert told me it's actually better to leave,

no pun intended, to leave the leaves there. It's actually better for the... If you have... So what they explained to me was it's actually better for the life cycle of the grass to actually leave it there. However, if you have certain allergies and it rains on top of the leaves, you can get mold spores.

And so that could be worse. So in that case, you should rake it. But if you don't, you're not supposed to rake it. Well, I mow it and it makes it to a fine powder and it sprinkles all over the yard. You don't bag it up. That's just only when the hookerinkles all over the yard. You don't bag it up. No, no. That's just only when the hooker's behind 14th Street. I don't blow it either. Well, speaking of hookers, yeah, I don't blow it either, but I mow it,

and I'm winning the battle this year, so that's great, because I fall behind at home a lot because I care about the fight game so much. You know what I mean? You can't pick what you love in this life. Why did you shave? You know, I thought I was on to something on this on the design in my head you know for the i almost wanted like a connecting gervonta beard which really is just a flaw a flawed thought related to being there but you know i'm not afraid to make to take spontaneous chances

like that but i'm also got to take the l you know what i mean so then i went and i had the handlebar mustache going i'm like okay that's all right i'm gonna be totally 80s but you know it didn't look sincere or authentic so suddenly i'm down to a mustache and then i was getting like hitler vibes and then i'm clean shaven you know in the marine corps when you have i don't know what the current regulations are but i'm i doubt it's changed but when i was in you were allowed to have a mustache under certain kinds of regulations yeah but the big one was it could not extend past the lip line and i'm dude, in order to not be someone who looks like they're just automatically anti-Semitic,

you actually have to grow it past the lip line. That's a terrible way to manage mustaches. Long Island Luke, how was the main card minute over the weekend? Main card minute was fantastic. We only got one bet wrong, and that was unfortunately Alex Morono. He did win the first round, though. Clearly. He did lose. However, Gaff

made, get ready for this, Gaff made $1,000 off the most improbable bet. What was it? Grant Dawson by KO. He made $1,000 and he made $700 on Roy Vol. Shout out, Gaff. Wow. I would love to have that Roy Vol post-fight comment and have you seen this shit today, but UFC would

shut us down again, so I just said, you know. What is up with them? You can't even show anything even related to something that aired on their broadcast, much less the fights. up with them like you can't even show anything even related to something that aired on their broadcast much less the fights it used to be you can't show the finish then it was like no footage of the fights really you can't show a hog and we're like i get it and then it's like don't even reference us verbally on air like it has gotten to that point every time the video gets taken down my twitter mentions your your video got taken down i'm like first of all we're on it second of all they're hard asses about it luke sometimes sometimes those twitter people they get inside

of you they get in your head no no they're just they're telling me uh that the video got taken down it was there'd be just like 50 of them i hope that you don't care whether they live or die because that's when i think you're in your bet you do your best work when yeah most people i feel that way i'm a little disappointed that you bring in the pink monster today. Not like I wasn't equally disappointed in your bang energy last week, but, you know, I mean, turn the corner. Turn the page. Ultra fantasy ruby red.

Get rid of that bullshit in your body, all right? Why don't you stop looking like a child molester? We'll work on that first. How about that? All right. With that in mind, reminder, of course course like and subscribe if you haven't we appreciate everybody here you can see our socials as well plus you can follow bc on his personal channel the brian campbell experience yeah well how about that uh then you can follow me as well

youtube.com luke thomas however we also have merch for sale where you can get nice stuff like this we don't have the club or lang shirt which by the way is sick thank you shout out to the contenders they have fantastic but you can get some of ours and you can use the promo code live10 therein. I'm told that we got the Friday audio up a little bit late, but it did go up. Right? Isn't that right, Matt Snyder, back there? Yes? Okay. So we'll make sure from going forward that the Friday audio... Yeah, but Friday

was great to be back doing what we do. It was great. But we'll have another great one this Friday because, of course, it's going to be... We're going to have a great preview for Francis and Gondas' return against Hennepin. By the way, I will say this. We're going to talk about the card a little bit later. Just as a general observation for that card, it's good. It's a good card. It's a good card.

Now, there's a lot of problems around it, but just the card itself, quality. Very quality MMA. All right. With that in mind, BC, we have got to talk about, well, you know the drill. We've got to talk about Better Be vs. Bivol. You ready to go? Yeah, I'm ready to bang. All right, BC.

Let's get right into it. Topic number one, biggest fight of the weekend by far. I would call it a competitive good fight. Not a thriller, but definitely a competitive and good fight. Can you get past good, though? Can you get beyond good, above that? You've got to raise your rating. Highly technical.

Because I want to say this before we even get into it. Okay. I was a little too emotional coming off of it, entering a post-fight show, because I felt, and we'll get into it about the scoring. That's why they call it the instant reaction. I felt B-Vol got a raw deal in there, and I certainly re-watched it multiple times, three additional times in various ways, and I came away, first and foremost, that this was a way more entertaining fight because it was so

tense in the moment and I was so tied up into the scoring and all of that that I think I didn't fully realize until until I re-watched it how freaking tense high-paced and skillful this fight was two problems not all action but they sold out to perform like that. Dude, the defensive skill being shown and the IQ being shown. Next level. Next level. Highly technical. Let me just make two points very quickly. One, I would say that the scoring, or at least the impression

of the scoring, I think marred how we remember the fight a little bit. Also, listen, I understand that but for Saudi Arabia, this fight probably would not have happened. So I recognize you got to take the good with the bad. But the bad is they're putting it in arenas that are half full with people that don't really care about these fights.

Well, one man cared a lot about those fights, and his name is Ramzan Kadyrov. Ramzan Kadyrov, too. Okay, but I'm just pointing out, like, it's a dead atmosphere, and that didn't help necessarily either. All right, let's put that to the side for just a moment. BC, the question for you is as follows. Obviously, Artur Baterbiev scoring a majority decision win

over Dmitry Bivol, a score of 114-114, a draw, 115-113, seven rounds to five, and then 116-112, eight rounds to four, both of the latter two in favor of Artur Baterbiev. BC, he is now the undisputed, completely, that's the guy at light heavyweight. He told me, Luke. He told me that's the way to say it. Did the judges get the scoring right?

And more importantly, what would be the biggest takeaway from this fight for you? All right. I don't think the judges got the scoring right, but I'm not as much in my feelings and upset. Who do I think won the fight? Dimitri Bivol, seven rounds to five upon multiple rewatches while I change some of the rounds in terms of who I score to that I come away 7-5 Bivol every

time. Am I completely fine if it's a draw? Yes. Even 7-5 better Biev? Yes. There is an outrage that's gone too far with I can understand 7-5 but I'm not going to accept 8-4 so 1-16, 1-12 is horrible. Look, I don't think that score represents what we saw, but it is only one round in the

other direction. Ultimately, was this a stupid close fight? Yes. I wrote close after, I think it was seven or eight of the 12 rounds, meaning like could have gone either way when I scored it live. I think ultimately that the judges over-rewarded Beterbiev's pressure when I think for the most part, outside of the championship rounds

where I really thought he was able to overcome Bivol in key moments there, I think it was ineffective pressure. My biggest takeaway, Luke tell me if I missed this or whatever, Dimitri Bivol is even better than I thought he was. He's fucking great. He is potentially all time.

Great. He's so great. I wanted to see, I wanted to talk about, could he even go up to heavyweight one day? Cause he's such a firm, strong boxer. He looked like the bigger man in there against better BF.

And I don't want to hear people's takes that, Oh, he was running or whatever. No, he was bringing in movement to do what, what no one else has been able to do. Go the distance against Better BF. He brought in key movement that was making Better BF chase,

and then he would alter that movement with big stretches of big punches. And what he told Marcus Villegas, the journalist afterwards, from FindUpTV, in the interview that they did Sunday, was he kind of modeled this performance after Sugar Ray Leonard against Marvin Hagler.

So you can kind of understand it from that standpoint, where Leonard used a lot of motion and movement, but would purposely sit down on his shots and bring offense, particularly late in the rounds, to try to win that over. Look, this was a brilliant performance in which I think Bivol raised his level of everything, from stamina to IQ to toughness. I mean, I thought the biggest decider of this fight would come down to him taking better BF's power.

And not only did he prove to that, his chin is rock solid. I don't think he ultimately, Luke, I want to ask you this. I don't think he ultimately took better BF's best punches because I think his defense was so sound that better BF had to kind of basically go, I got to spam him in the final rounds to stay in the fight.

Don't forget better BF's team telling him after round 10, you need a knockout. So it's showing you, I felt like his spamming was fantastic, and he was, especially in rounds 10 and 11, slipping through the guard of Bivol and landing big shots. But for the majority of this fight, I felt like he was chasing, and Bivol's defense was out of this world where I don't even think Beterbeev hit him with his best shots.

So there's a lot I disagree with with what you said. Please, let's go. I think when you say something like Bivol wasn't running, I want to be clear. There were long stretches where what you're describing what he did is true, where he was going side to side. There were times, by the way, where he was just standing purposely right in front of Betterbeev, which I thought was dangerous. And for the most part, he got out of those okay. He spent most of the fight in punching range. In punching range.

Well, not about it. But there were times certainly where he, as he got closer to the ropes, obviously, he's using a lot of lateral movement, but he weaponized it very often. He made himself a very hard target, changing rhythm, changing angles, changing sides. It was fantastic.

However, part of what cost him this fight, and you know it's true, part of, and I scored the fight for Bivol. 7-5 to Bivol upon rewatch is how I have it still. But I recognize better be of winning, not a robbery. Certainly a draw I would have been more than okay with. Bad luck. It's bad luck, really. But the thing I want to point out is if you're trying to like,

okay, what could we identify as some of the shortcomings of what Bivol did? There were long stretches of certain key rounds where he would do well early, then cover round seven in particular, round seven, kind of cover and then not ever throw back very much. Sure. And I'm not saying that those rounds mean you can't score it for Bivol, but if you come up on the losing end of that, you have to reflect on how badly that looked to the judges. It was too much time spent in defensive, crouching positions where you're not running,

but you're definitely not throwing any offense out, and that hurt them. I'm not saying, I mean, particularly 10 and 11, I thought he was trying to survive more than he was using it to strategic points, so I think that does play into your part in what you're saying there. I just don't think that was the case for the majority of the fight, And even when people are trying to say, like,

I scored the 12th round for B-ball and I know all three judges gave the 12th round for better BF. And I think the online response I saw is people were split. I mean, rewatch that round. B-ball has success early, better BF late. But a lot of the times you have to ask yourself, I think, did B-ball success in the early round, which was always typically clean shots. That's what I'm trying to say about the argument that I don't think B-Ball showed a great chin, you do have to juggle at times, like the 12th round's a good example, but what about the success of B-Volt early

compared with when Bedor Biev is going downhill in the second half of the round? Yes, there were B-Volt at times being too much hit behind the guard, whether that was a stamina issue or whether he was just caught in tough spots and that's the only way to not get hit, but he's really not getting hit cleanly a lot.

I agree. So I've lost the whole idea that this is any love. First of all, it wasn't a robbery to begin with because it was a close fight, but even that the judges may have gotten it wrong. No, when I rewatch some of these key rounds, by the time I'm watching for the third or fourth time,

I'm purposely watching the guy I scored against to see if I can make an argument for them. These are incredibly close rounds. So many of them where you can make an argument for either way and b-ball too in that interview with viegas was very honest about the things he thinks he can improve on being more offensive in some of those sequences right where look he rocked better be having round seven i mean he showed that he physically looked like the bigger man in there do you notice i didn't feel that way i thought he looked like the bigger man and i thought he

purposely when there were physical moments when better be in the clinch would try to move him around a little bit he would push back instantly to show that there were times of course when he got underhooked and thrown around a little bit too when he was a little bit tired late i'm not gonna i mean he look he faded a bit late there's no question about that so i'm not again away from the scoring debacle and debate on there you would you agree with me that Bivol took his stock, which was already, I had him number five pound for pound, and just took it to another level with this performance? Yes.

Okay, remember, you had picked Better Biv to win. I wanted Better Biv to win. I thought, gun to my head, Bivol would edge it. I felt like that's what played out in real terms. Obviously, the judges had a different perspective. But he did kind of what I thought he was probably going to be able to do again. The second half of the fight,

I think at times got away from him a little bit and we all knew the second half was going to be the big mystery. How was better be of going to perform. So he said he's going to move more in this, in the second fight. Yeah. I mean, to me it's like,

did he, he proved something very special, but he did prove kind of what I thought he could do. And also, even if he had won with that performance, I still can't put it ahead of the top three guys at pound for pound. Inouye and Usyk and Crawford. I don't think it jumps them, but I think it showed me. It puts them firmly just behind. I thought he would have needed a perfect fight to win this.

And even he said that about himself. So he was actually aiming for that. You know what I mean? It was interesting to hear him in that long of an interview with marcus really talk about how he addresses things mentally and how he looks at he said he he treats every single fight in training camp like it's his final fight but literally like brainwashes himself to believe that so there's never any stone left unturned and he gives all i mean he needed to give on that training camp because they both i think stamina wise gave everything they had, but his variety on offense,

if the Canelo fight was the eye opener to everybody else that before that, some of his title defenses had been, I don't want to say boring, but like he would, he didn't have the personality where once he had you figured out and controlled, if you weren't going to get out of there early, you're going to go to the decision against people.

Right. I thought the Canelo fight was him taking the very best of his skills and showing you what if I'm like this all the time because he was going to have to be against Canelo. He's going to have to back Canelo up. He's going to have to spam him with combinations. But the offense he was able to constantly give better BF in close range

with the danger of those punches coming back and the multi combinations the artistry of it. Look, he was at times leading with a lead right and then coming back with a left hook. I mean, he was there was so much offensive variety to his game that. He proved he's not just a better boxer than better BF. I think he's a better fighter overall, and I never thought I would say that coming out of that fight. I'm not sure I can draw that conclusion, but I do want to try big two points, if I may, that I take away from this.

One is something I've said in MMA, and I'm going to try big two points. If I may, that I take away from this one is something I've said in MMA. And I'm going to say it here again. We're trying to figure out, okay, if you're like me and you watch that is a draw acceptable. Yes. Is seven, five acceptable for better be of.

Yes. And then by the way, I know you mentioned like, well, eight, four is one more round. Two things I would say to that. Yeah.

But which other round would it be? And also the notion that you can watch that fight and find only four rounds for Bivol seems insulting. And to that point that point if i may let's get uh if we can't allow luke eddie hearn spoke to this and i gotta tell you i know that eddie hearn is backing his guy essentially this made a lot of sense to me here's what he said after the fight can't hear it can't hear it well let's take it off the screen if we can't hear we're going to start over we'll go back to that when they're when they're ready let me know when you guys are ready with that oh for fuck's sake the clip i said had audio i just want to be clear about that um all right

well whatever he he was he was dumbfounded that someone could only find four rounds for Bivouac. He said this guy worked his whole life to become a dispute champion. He took it from him. So I want to be clear. I don't have any issue with Better Be Of winning. But two things I want to say in response to all of this. The first thing I'm going to say is commissions never give us a sense of why people scored fights the way that they did.

And it's very difficult to know. Remember, you made this point in the Tyson Fury and Ganu fight. In MMA, we don't score ring generalship until other factors are all equal. That is not how it works in boxing. Defense too. And defense as well. Defense is positively scored in boxing. It is not positively scored in MMA.

So for that reason, it is very hard to know round to round how the judges interpreted the fact that Beterbiev was the guy at all times basically in center and stalking. But of course, at times, he was going downhill on Bivol. And at other times, he was getting chewed up by Bivol, even though Bivol was on the outside. What I'm trying to point out to you is it's very hard to know how much that mattered because they won't speak to us. This is the point I want to make. The commissions have to realize that they need somebody, one representative, to start explaining scorecards. And what they think is going to happen is that there's going to be backlash, which there will be, of course. And they think, oh, this won't be convincing.

It will be convincing over time. Over time, people will begin to understand how judges really look at things, which judges value X or Y. They desperately need to do this to help us understand things. That's the first one I want to make. The second point I want to make is this one, which to me is a little bit more interesting. Throw up the scorecard if you can, Long Island Luke. There's no audio on this one. Just the judges' scorecard from the main event.

That was a dig. You just took a little gut try. I definitely sent them a clip with audio but okay doesn't matter i want you to pay attention to something if you look at rounds one two and three they're all scored the same if you look at rounds 10 11 and 12 they are all scored the same such that there is any difference they exist between i think even round uh 10 was scored, excuse me, round eight was scored the same. So not even that. Four to seven is where there is any differentiation.

That's the only place where you really get any differences, and even some of those are unanimous. So BC, I went back and I looked. Thank you. I appreciate you for putting that up. I went back and I looked at rounds four through seven again. Holy shit, these rounds are hard to score. Dude. So one thing that happens is-

When you're watching and you're trying to make an argument for the guy you didn't score against and you're now convincing yourself that you don't know what you're talking about, shows you how freaking close this fight is. Round seven is a perfect example. Round seven, and this happened a lot, where you'd get Bivol sticking and moving early,

sometimes in combination, but definitely having the more noticeable effect. And then maybe in the last minute, 45 seconds, here comes Beterbiev downhill. This is one such round where Beterbiev got knocked off of his own balance. I think, like, legitimately rocked. He got rocked. He got stunned at least for a second.

But there was more than just that. And then Bivol jumped on him with two massive long flurries where it looked like Beterbiev was more hurt than he was, but the judges have to take that into account. However, he kind of Oscar De La Hoya against Trinidad himself, which if you've never seen that fight,

basically De La Hoya was winning that fight and then kind of took off late and then ultimately lost on the judges' scorecards. Got robbed, but yes. He definitely didn't do himself a lot of favors fucking off late in that fight. The point I'm trying to make here is I don't think Bivol was necessarily doing that but what you see is in the last 45 seconds or so i think 50 seconds of that fight 5-0 better be it hurts him and then starts

just touching him constantly and it's like without a judge explaining how much ring generalship mattered in that one or defense mattered in that one if you're just left to score the offense, it is virtually impossible to score that round in any kind of unanimous way. True or false? True. I mean, I was telling you that this was a specific fight where upon multiple rewatches, I now say, I don't think you can, like,

we can all score it, and we could all, if we wanted to, try to count the punch numbers, which CompuBox has built a reputation and a great business on. I don't even know how they would do it because there are sequences in this fight where you think you know what happened, but then you watch the ESPN zoomed in slow motion replays and you're like, oh, that punch did get in or, oh, they just barely got out of the way

of that one. I don't remember a fight with this level of craftsmanship on both sides where it was this much of a high-speed chess, where you actually need the slow-motion replays to begin to differentiate. So, again, it takes me away from the idea that I don't think there was controversy. I don't think anyone was paid off or anything like that. I just thought maybe they got it wrong. I still think, in theory, they got it wrong.

Meaning, I think, in theory, Luke, they didn't grade the defense enough of B-Vol. Or even if in the final minute, better be of his coming downhill. Dude, he swallowed up so many of those shots. You know, four and five punch combos, only one is getting through. I get that that's an argument to keep him in the round. But B-Vol's offense was so much cleaner, was it not? It was cleaner. He was the better pure boxer, which we knew.

But then to see how much better. He was the better pure boxer, which we knew, but then to see how much better. He was the better puncher, it seemed. Now, I'm not going to play into what he told Marcus about, like he was trying to say that Canelo might have more one-punch power than Better BF. I think my argument to that, and Bivol kind of explained it himself too, is that in this specific fight, Better BF wasn't loading up with one shot. He was spamming you, but like, you know, throwing maybe sometimes 75%,

but he said it's all heavy. He said Canelo was throwing literally everything he had to some of these shots. But I thought the first item when you're judging boxing is clean and effective punching. Not damage. Clean and effective punching. Yes. What does effective mean? Effective punching.

I mean, look. So that's another problem that Bivol had. Not all the time. For example, round seven, when he knocks him off of his balance. That was a huge shot that he landed. There's a couple times where you could see him land cleanly. But the problem is, like, over time, it barely ever deterred Beterbiev. And I wonder, again, without them giving us more information,

it is very difficult for us to know. However, one could surmise, if they wanted to, that because Bivol was landing cleaner and then more continuously, at least in the early parts of some of those middle to later rounds, but it didn't really slow Beterbiev down. They may have been like, well, and also, here's another thing I'm going to point out. I know Tim Bradley was getting killed for the commentary. He was pro Beterbiev. Super pro Beterbiev. Guys, I'm not good at calling boxing, and also, here's another thing I'm going to point out. I know Tim Bradley was getting killed for the commentary. He was pro better BF. Super pro better BF. Guys, I'm not good at calling boxing, and I know that. But we've done it before, and it's way easier to do it when it's right in front of you.

It's actually much harder than it looks when you're doing it in the studio. You have no idea how much you miss. Another thing that we just don't really know, BC, is those judges were right there, and they probably heard the impact of some of that stuff. And I wonder if just the crack of Beterbiev's shot may have played another role. Again, we don't know. And I wonder if they're judging,

because even Bivol said it afterwards when people were trying to say, well, look, your face was more beat up than his, which is you can't score a fight on face. But I know people try to throw that in the argument. And he was saying that he only had that swelling because he felt like Beterbief was hitting him so hard to the hand yes that he hurt his left hand he was getting hit like this and the inside was like and i don't

discount that there's not offensive effects in there when better bf does that it's not just that he's spamming you with pressure he's just constantly hitting you hard and b-ball said that but do you think the judges are scoring that or maybe overly scoring that where it's like that that's that gray area where it's hard to know i've talked about this before it's the diego sanchez versus martin campman effect it's an mma reference i know i usually try to keep my boxing references for boxing fights but we made this point before we have a bi crowd they go both ways they are they do go both both places they'll go you know what i'm saying top or bottom okay but the point i wanted to make is serious,

namely that I remember in that fight, if you've never seen it, Diego Sanchez throws a ton at Martin Kampman, and a lot of it gets close but never hits or bounces off the gloves or the arms, and yet he still won that fight. And you're like, well, that's just bad judging. Right, but it's a confusing element

that people have to interpret in real time. If you're just busier than the other guy or at least busier in spurts which is what better be it was i would say that there was like a steady drip from bival but then there was like i'm not going to call it avalanches but like the faucet turned on yes for better be of and i wonder if that is simply more memorable or just stands out in the minds of judges. Again, people want to be like, this was a terrible decision. I think it is very difficult to find eight rounds for better BF.

I really do believe that. On the other hand, it is not difficult necessarily to find a winning or certainly a drawing scenario. And so for that reason, by the way, there's a couple of rounds that could have been 10-10 too. Like we don't talk about that, that they probably should. And I don't think 10,

10 should be a thing. And a lot of, they don't teach that you should do 10, 10. I understand they don't like it, but like, here's one of those fights where it seems kind of appropriate. I hear what you're saying.

There are rounds that are just like, who won that? Who the fuck could you possibly, but I want to ask. Oh no, I've got one more. It's a test I wanted to give you. Okay.

No one does it this way. And it's not a way that I'm asking it to be done. But I wonder what answer you might give. Imagine you had to judge that pride style, pride fighting championships. So you have to judge it as a whole. If you're judging the bout as a whole, who's the winner? I think B-Vol. I think it's a draw if you do it as a whole.

And I get that a lot of people won't say B-Vol because Better BF had a better close in general in the championship rounds. For sure he did. But I mean, if I'm saying pride style, then I'm betting on the totality of the fight. Yes, that's right. Yes. But I think this plays into the question I wanted to ask you because you always want to check your own blind spots and take your own L's. And, you know, it's not enough for me to say I thought B-Vol won, so anyone that says the opposite is wrong.

No, there's a lot of nuances, and this is a ridiculously close fight. How much do you believe people like me or you or anybody, Luke, can get too caught up in the storylines where because B-Vol accomplished the scenario in which a lot of us thought he would lose? I picked a late better BF stoppage because I haven't seen anybody stand up to that tsunami of pressure and power shots. And really to be fair, better BF fought so well,

even though I don't think he fought the best performance he could have. It was such an even fight where they were canceling each other out so much. Do you think because B-ball not only didn't get stopped, but because he was the perceived smaller man or perceived lighter puncher. And he had the best, most eye-catching offensive moments of the fight. Do you think him winning that story of the fight to take the old next common phrase is making us overvalue some of these rounds?

Because it's like, holy shit, he's the boxer and he's standing directly in front of better BF outside of until the end when he was circling more. But I mean, he's giving it back to him and landing the bigger shots. And it's like, oh, shit. Does that jade you in your head? Like he's doing something.

Maybe I didn't think he could. So that is, you know, that sounds like a you thing. I thought he could do what he did. I didn't know if he would ultimately pull it off. But I thought that there was a charitable way to look at that and think, I think he can do it. So if he had stopped better be of, you wouldn't have been insanely shocked.

No, if he stops him, if he stopped better be of it. I thought there was a outside, but real chance he could have knocked him down. Yes. Did not think there was much of a chance he was going to stop him. If he had stopped better be of that would have been next level.

Didn't you feel in round seven for that? Like quick moment when B-ball was swarming on him that better be of was like hurt hurt for a second i did but then 10 seconds later the fight completely shifts and he got angry he got angry he started putting it on him and by the way the advice that the corner gave of him in english for better be at which was if you notice they said stay on him they wanted to when he would move laterally they wanted him right on top of of of Bivol to give him no space and then touch, touch, touch, and then rip to the body, which was some of his body work. I thought was pretty incredible. It was heavy, early, heavy, late, put up the stats. If you can from CompuBox, I know they're a little bit hard to see. I'm going to put on my glasses. Jesus Christ. I'm fucking blind as shit. I can't see a goddamn

thing. Uh, I can read that. So Bivol had a slight edge in total punches landed, 142 to 137. The B-Vol 50% of power punches landed jumps out huge. That's insane. But Better BF did attempt a lot more punches overall, more than, what, 250 overall? Yeah, I just want to point out, though, if you look at the overall punching totals, look at the rounds, and even rounds where one is more than the other one, the difference is usually quite minimal. There's several like round six where numerically

anyway they are tied. This is what I mean. Are we saying round one and two are the only clear rounds for either guy? I thought Better Be Ever was kind of clear. Round eight I thought was as clear a Better Be Ever round as you could have had. 10 and 11 I thought Beterbiev was kind of clear round eight. Round eight I thought was as clear a Beterbiev round as you could have had.

10 and 11 I thought were strong Beterbiev rounds. 12 is a swing round for me. Okay, so there's more than I thought there. So for all that talk that I did trying to sway why Bivol should have won, what are we missing on what Beterbiev did from championship guile and knowing how to win fights to be able to make sure he did win this one. So definitely pouring it on in the second half. You could hear his corner even talk to him about it.

We're in the seventh round now. They knew that there was about to be a switch, and there was. You can just look at the first half offense compared to the second half, and it went up significantly. That's one. Two, he never got deterred by the movement of Bivol. Remember, Bivol wasn't just – there were times when he was doing this, and I thought that really cost him.

But then there's times he's going side to side, and then as he moves, he's throwing a punch with it, and then catching Betterbeev clean. It never deterred him from just staying on top of him, so he really stuck to his game plan. I thought that he realized that when he had good opportunities, he would seize them and throw more behind it. Some of the body work, especially early, especially late, was great.

Do you think Beterbiev was swayed away from using his jab as a weapon and going consistently to the body because of Bivol's speed? Yes, I think the speed, the foot speed, and the hand speed of Bivol were clearly better. Clearly better. Beterbiev looked like a very tactical patient powerful guy he did not look like the swifter athlete by any stretch of the imagination to do that after knee surgery and have that level 12 run stamina like that's impressive no he's super impressed he looked

he had dude he didn't have an ounce of fat he was on him they didn't they look like two warriors from like the 1400s that were sent to like days to represent their village and and we're just going to fight to the death they had didn't know they had that. Like some people were tweeting, this is the best of what Russian boxing could be. And shout out to a country producing these two great champions. No doubt about it. Regardless of war affiliations at the moment and all that. It showed out for Russia in that regard.

But again, I'll reiterate, I missed how great of a fight it was. And now I think the rematch, we were talking about that potential off camera with Long Island, Luke, no say it over there. I think the rematch will be more offensive on both sides because of how close this first one was. And I think they both will have a,

a bigger level of comfortability that, cause they were both careful yet crazy trying to win. I mean, the dude better be of defense was on point as well. Not as tight as B-ball, but for that destroyer to show that level of craft, it was a tense fight. I think the rematch you'll see more flow, more offense.

This is going to be a spectacular shootout. The last thing I want to say on this, and we'll move on to UFC content here in just a second, which is it felt like just by virtue of how they matched up, where they were, because when better BF landed, obviously fighter, he's going to be in a Muslim country. There's no problem with that, but of course he's going to be cheered a little bit more when he lands or when he moves downhill. This is one thing that I think really bothers us. One, BC, there was a draw on the scorecards, fine, 7-5, I can live with, but there was no scorecard that reflected how great Bivol did.

You're right. And that's just like really... That's why I said raw deal, almost like bad luck. Difficult to swallow. But there's something else to it too, which is that, and that we had known this on the commentary, Tim Bradley had said it as well, which was, in order to win this, Bivol has to fight a perfect fight.

Yeah. And he didn't fight a perfect fight and he lost, but the thing I want to say is we almost set it up like in order to get to the finish line, Bivol has to do more and be better than Better Biev does. And I think that is true. It is true that the task that Bivol had in front of him was much more difficult in a sense,

given the style matchup and given the strengths, than the task that Better Biev had. Now, beating Bivol is not some easy task, more difficult in a sense, given the style matchup and given the strengths, then the task that better be I've had now beating Bivol is not some easy task, but like round over round minute over minute more is expected of Bivol. And so I kind of feel like he had more to deal with. And the fact that that also isn't reflected in the scoring just doesn't sit right. That's a good way to kind of say what is the fuel of what we're feeling right there but very but i think it played out that way because the judges ultimately valued

what they felt were more thudding powerful shots from better bf so he did need to be perfect and i think that's why the rematch will be even better because it'll be more offensive and very quickly how does it all line up they look like they're going to do the rematch. We had Turkey on TV saying basically as much. As soon as the fight ended, he said. He wanted to do it. Both guys seem like they want to do it as well. BC, my question is this. Where do David Benavidez and David Morrell, who are also at 175,

there's no real belt on the line with this one. They're unifying some secondary belts, essentially, and some interim belts. So where does that put them? And also, Canelo wanted Bivol if he emerged victorious from this well now he's got no belts where does this leave Canelo, Benavidez, and Morel? I think because Turkey badly wants this rematch Turkey like I said was caught on camera saying to Bivol like I think you won or not caught on camera he said it right in the interview afterwards he thought Bivol won with by two rounds but he loves both guys He'd love to see it again.

Look, that's the guy who's writing the checks. I like the humble nature of both warriors afterwards. I thought B-Vol did a great job being as humble as possible, but also reiterating what he wants, the second chance here. So look, maybe Benavidez versus Morel in that regard produces obviously a proven first crack at the Undisputed Championship in terms of the next big fight for that champion, whoever comes out of that rematch. Canelo is obviously the wild card because Luke, I got to ask you,

what if Bevo comes back and wins a competitive decision here? Canelo is going to want to enter that sweepstakes probably to get his chance at the four belts. Yeah, I have less than zero interest. I don't have less than zero. No, no, I don't. I have more than less than zero, but maybe, do you think maybe that's the catnip that does get us Benavidez Canelo,

but we'll get that 175? Or you don't really care? I don't think Canelo is any way interested in fighting the appropriate tough fights. He's not going to fight. People think that Better BF somehow didn't look great, and now Canelo can beat him. Better BF would fucking put a beating on him. Yes, he would.

And Bivol, too, again in the rematch. Yes. I mean, I didn't see anything from Bivol that told me that a fight with Canelo would go differently. In fact, it looked to me like, oh, right, he would do that again. Bivol's fucking great.

He's great. So would you get fired up at Benavidez-Morrell winner facing the winner of a rematch? I would love that. And I don't know. Think about it. If Benavidez wins again

and Benavidez wins again, you actually like that fight a little bit more. Because if it was Morel versus Beterbiev, one, I don't think Morel is really up for the challenge, but it's a style contrast where one slickster is going to be on the outside, and Bivol is going to be center. Benavidez wants to do the exact same thing. I mean, they're different styles,

but at the core, they both want to march the other guy down. Well, someone's going to have to give that up in that fight. I would fucking love to see who comes out on top there. That's probably the best iteration, but don't discount if B-Vol wins in a rematch with Better BF how good a fight with him and Benavidez can be. And this standpoint, Benavidez claims and everyone else that was there

when they sparred that time that Benavidez was putting it on him. So you got to take that with a grain of salt however you feel. But I've seen multiple interviews where Benavidez doesn't brag about it, but he's like, yeah, I was giving it to him. What do you think about that? I think sparring is one thing, fighting is another, but it certainly makes me intrigued

to want to see that. I mean, there's no iteration of that I would turn down, even if it's Bivol Morel, I would take that. I mean, there's all the combinations that I would turn down. Even if it's Bivol-Morel, I would take that. I mean, all the combinations work. I'm just simply saying the one that's the most rugged is a better Bia versus Benavidez. Holy shit, man. Shouldn't we at least...

We got to move on. Okay, but shouldn't we at least give Canelo the respect and say the loss to Bivol came during that stretch when his left arm was injured and he didn't get surgery on it and he couldn't give his all in training camp? I'm saying that as an excuse because he he made the decision to cash those checks and go in with those fights and most of those he won it was just during that stretch where we thought he was getting older you really think he'd win more rounds in a rematch i'm just

saying should we do you think he'd win more rounds in a rematch than he did the first time yeah yeah i do think he'd win more rounds in a rematch i don't i think about the same i think it'd be about the same we'll see because you know money talks, Luke. It does talk. That is true. Very true. Let's go to point number two. There were some UFC fights over the weekend. In fact, the main event at the Apex, UFC Vegas 98, was sensational.

Brandon Royville getting the win, and it was a tough one to do, but he gutted it out over Tetsuro Taira. He wins via split decision. Probably should have been unanimous, but nevertheless. Heading into the fifth BC, that was a 2-2 fight if ever there was one. My question for you is, okay, one, your biggest takeaway from this,

but the second part is he's now lost to the current champ, which is Pantoja. I know he's got a fight coming up against Kai Asakura. We'll talk about that in a minute. But if it ends up being him, he's already lost to him twice. So what did he actually get from this? Biggest takeaway, what did he get? Okay, first and foremost, with a bang, he showed us and reminded us that he's still a threat to this title,

despite going up there on the title level and losing a competitive decision to Pantoja in their rematch. Yes, he has the potential to be behind the eight ball, but obviously in Roy Voll's house, they're going to be Team Isakura moving forward to hope that that gives him... I think he secured the next shot at the belt unless it is

Pantoja and unless there isn't somebody else. I mean, did KKF get screwed in this decision in the title picture? There's another big name that could be in there as well. We don't know if he got offered it and couldn't take it or something else could be going on. I mean, at the very... Look, he's... Royval's going to get another big fight. fight it's a what a gutsy performance from both fighters and what i love the most this was that perfect style contrast it almost had home versus tate vibes in

the sense that they took turns completely dominating with their lead skill only to lose the next round as dominantly in the other way it had fight of the year vibes i thought in that third round which was batshit crazy where the momentum switched out of nowhere but i think ultimately the next round as dominantly in the other way. It had fight of the year vibes. I thought in that third round, which was batshit crazy with momentum switched out of nowhere. But I think ultimately Royval, despite having problems on the ground against a dynamic grappler and Tyra, he was more game, more gutsy.

And he showed that veteran streak in him and saying, I'm going to have to win this close fight. And this is my way to do it. Him in round five, being that stubborn to keep his back off the ground or when he was taken down to immediately work back up showed you the dog inside the raw dog, where at the very least he held serve

that he's the status you have to beat to get to the title. And if things go his way in terms of the future, he might actually be next because I thought it was that strong of a performance against a guy who was being groomed to be great. And then you add in that sensational promo he cut afterwards, be next because I thought it was that strong of a performance against a guy who was being groomed to be great. And then you add in that sensational promo he cut afterwards, which we can't show because they'll take us down again. The UFC will.

But Luke, I thought that he showed humility in saying that Tyra is a future champion and offering to help him and train him and whatever. I hadn't realized that these two had sparred in the past, which gave Roy of all the confidence that he thought he was going to knock him out early. All in all, Luke, this was tremendous theater. This fight was awesome. Do you think it ends in the fight of the year consideration? It might make the list. I don't think it can't win it, but it will definitely, it definitely is a phenomenal contest. You know what I loved about it? One, it's going to be a big learning lesson for Tyra. That third round you talk about when the momentum shift, he was getting eaten alive.

He does not move his head at all. I mean, he is going to have to go. What I like about this one is, for example, I don't want to, the comparisons don't make a lot of sense for a lot of reasons. I don't want to compare it to Better Beavol, but any changes that those guys make are going to be very, very narrow, specific. The good news if you're Tyra is that it's no mystery why you lost. We're sitting

here trying to parse, well, maybe the judges favored this part and that part. It's very easy to understand why Tyra lost. In part, he was too reliant on the takedown. Some of his finishing needs work, and on the feet, holy shit, he doesn't move his head. And that nearly cost him the fight. But two things I want to say.

One, Tyra showing the guts to survive that and then win the next round. Think about it. The third round was so crazy because after he got rocked and was on the verge of getting stopped by Royval, he started to just throw such crazy haymakers that would turn into desperate

takedown attempts that it took a couple desperate attempts that led to him, remember, he grabbed the arm of roval and just dragged him down that's not only what saved him from getting stopped but then within seconds he's threatening and he's moving around and suddenly he's in position to joke his moxie under high duress and even being wobbled and hurt to be able to never stop finding an angle to try to win the fight roval knows what he saw and what he felt in there that that's championship moxie. It is. I remember when Evan Tanner fought Phil Barone the first time,

and after the fight, he barely survived an onslaught from Phil Barone. Phil Barone in Mexican jail for allegedly killing someone, I think his girlfriend at the time. Anyway. Neither here nor there. That's a real fact. But the point I wanted to make was if you go back and you watch the post-fight interview,

the first thing Evan Tanner says is, holy shit, that guy hits hard. First thing Brandon Royville says in this one is that guy's a future champion. And he's right. You can get better with the head movement. You absolutely can. He can work on that. But the grit he showed to survive, there were like two and a half minutes left, and he's getting teed off on by Brandon Royville,

and he managed to survive and then win the next round. He almost had a choke a few times, Tyra. A few times. For sure, for sure. I don't want to in any way underrate it. It had a great second-round performance, obviously, as well. But this is what I loved about Brandon Royville. As much as I liked about Tyra, he's got time to improve.

He knows exactly what has to get better, and he showed a ton of fucking dog. But Brandon Royville, starting strong, had a bad second round, came out and put it on him on round three, had a guy who would not go away in round four, but in round five, when it counted the most, he dug deep into his veteran bag of tricks and understanding about where in fights to press the gas, where to press the brake, and he took that fight by the scruff of the neck,

and that is why they won, because they were pretty evenly matched. You listen to his corner, too. His corner was smart. A very, very coachable guy. But what I want to make was, that was heading into the fifth round, you knew it was 2-2,

you knew it was a gut check moment, and one of them was able to really go deep into that experience. And it was Brandon Royville who did it. Dude, this is a great fight. And what a job well done by the raw dog himself. And the raw dog having the emotional promo, but cutting right to the core and making a case for himself and saying nobody in this division has as many wins over people in the top five as I do.

He makes, I mean, he's got a great case to make from the standpoint that the only people to beat him in the UFC are Moreno and Pantoja, the last two champions. I don't want to see him caught behind the eight ball, but he may end up having to fight a KKF or somebody if Pantoja stays champion, right? If Pantoja stays champion, the KKF situation,

I'm not sure how they want to resolve that, but I would say this, like Brendan Royville, to me me doesn't need to fight again before he gets a title shot I don't know if that's what he wants I don't know if that's what the UFC wants he's no longer being that cheap ass hoe he said it right he's not gonna pick up that then he's like I'll fight anybody I'll be the backup it's like okay but don't do those things either but either way either way um what a phenomenal performance by him But I do want to point out one thing. Again, we talk about the judging, and because the commissioner won't talk to us, we have really no way of understanding the full context here. Put up the graphic we have, if you can, Logan and Luke.

Now, these are the decisions here from UFC. Six split decisions on Saturday. Which was a record, by the way. I think for the Apex series. Oh, wait, not all of these are split. There's a few unanimous. It's not all the decisions that I want you to pay attention to. Look at the highlighted Sal DiAmato.

He was on the, so if it's highlighted in yellow, that means he's on the opposite of how the other two judges scored it. So he had, for example, in the Palastri versus McKenna fight, he had it for McKenna. Which was wrong. It was dead wrong. Dead wrong. In the Rodriguez versus Mor morono fight he had it

for morono which is also a little sketch and then in this one in the tyra roival fight he had it for tyra bc what three rounds could you give to tyra yeah so he definitely what else three because three was the round he got fucking tuned up he must have been giving him the credit for taking him down and threatening that choke down the stretch there. And I think it's wrong. That's a fucking insane scorecard, dude. He's the outlier on three fights in one night, which means you went 0 for 3.

You struck out. Three strikes, you're out. I don't know if I agree with that. I don't mind if one guy is the outlier if you can kind of understand it. Three times. Okay, I admit it's a bit of a red flag if you do it three times. I'm just saying, what are the three rounds for Tyra? You can't find them.

This is my point. Could you argue the fifth? I think you would be wrong in arguing the fifth, but could you argue the fifth for Tyra? I don't think so. He had his back taken. He was getting beat up on from there as well. Like, I just don't see how you can do that.

He was busted early in round five, too, so that adds to the visuals. You know what? Actually, I can find the scorecard if you give me a minute here from the UFC. Let's see. Let's see if I can find it. Yes, I can find it. Give if you give me a minute here from the UFC. Let's see. Let's see if I can find it. Yes, I can find it. Give me one second. I'm going to look it up here.

Scorecards. Take all the time you need, Luke. I get paid by the hour here. Do we? I don't. All right, hold on. Here we go. So here is the scorecard for the Brandon Royville and Tetsuro Taira fight.

Let me blow this up here if I can. Good Lord, dude. I can't see for shit anymore. You do have glasses there. I know, I know, I know. Okay, I blow this up here if I can. Good Lord, dude. I can't see for shit anymore. You do have glasses there. I know, I know, I know. Okay, I blew it up here. So Sal D'Amato gave round one to Tyra, round two to Tyra, and round four.

How the fuck do you give round one to Tyra? One, two, okay, two, that is... Round three, he gave it to, obviously, Brandon Royval. He gave round one. Royval, you could go as far, even though Tyra did land a couple big right hands, you could go as far as say as Royval dominated the striking in round one and wasn't taken down, I don't believe.

I thought he had not just a winning first round, a strong first round. Yeah, that was a dominant first round. Yeah, so this guy's just. That's a terrible scorecard. Dude, the McKenna one, I don't know who cares on the Corey McKenna one. I do because I'm a big Poppins fan, Luke. But she lost that fight 2-1 seemingly on everyone's card. And that guy had her winning the fight.

Yeah. Pretty gross. BC, anything else from that event that stood out to you? I tried not to let too much of it, Luke, to be honest with you. Oh, here we go. I mean, no, seriously. I mean, it was a... I mean, would you say it played out to be a pretty shitty card um yeah yeah I wasn't I I wasn't expecting much you know these apex cards I'm like my general posture on apex cards is they're

all going to be bad and so when they are occasionally good or a good fight comes from it I'm like hey what a nice surprise what about uh Justin Taffa getting that big knockout on the undercard? Yeah, that was not a great fight. It was Junior Taffa. Junior Taffa, I'm sorry. I should take the tour of Taffa for that. Yeah, there you go. But he came back, right?

They were both huffing and puffing at the end there, were they not? They both did the big— That looked like Data Kimbo, didn't it? No, you know what it looked like? It looked like Robbie Lawler, Carlos Condit, except that fight was great. That's the difference. Oh, so it looked like Robbie Lawler, Nick Diaz, too, is really what you're saying. Not even that good.

Just, dude, these Apex cards, like, there are some good fights. There are some good fighters, obviously. But folks have it wrapped around. It's just UFC overflow content. He's right. That's all that it is. But, Noseda, were you the Polastri, the Brazilian chick that beat McKenna, she's looking like she's a good fighter, like down the line, right?

I'm going to be honest. I missed that fight. I missed the first few fights. Nobody watches women's MMA more than me, apparently. Shout out to Pat Sabatini. He had a nice win. Also, that flyweight dude, Temirov, he looked really good. Yep.

Again, there's going to be some decent talent on these cards at all times, and then the occasional good to really good fight. But it's mostly just the UFC overflow. These are guys that we have on roster because we need this for the larger content plan. Not that they're good. Yeah, it's just completely watered-down trash. But Daniel Rodriguez needed that split decision over Morneau. He did.

He gutted it out. That was a nice win by him as well, all things being what they were he's getting a little bit older too long in the tooth so um you know moreno i think is a guy who has really worked hard to maximize his potential but he alternates wins and losses every fight he does he is like just at this level you know what i mean like it is what it is but a good test in certain ways for the right kind of fight um with that in mind b, let's talk about topic number three. I'm much more excited about this one. Yeah, you lost interest in talking about the undercard aggressively.

You were like, fuck that undercard. What do you want me to say? I don't have much bandwidth for UFC overflow content. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I just don't. That's why you don't watch DWCS, right? Again, I used to love watching the contender series but now i watch it and two things happen one you do see great prospects you also see some fucking bums getting

contracts and that happens way more often it's only 12 and 12 they can write that up and i see the bums getting contracts way more often than I see somebody really, really good. It's really quite dispiriting. I think they throw people into the water too quickly, though, coming out of it. Yeah, there's guys, you know, 4-0, 5-0. It's like you don't need, unless you're really special, you don't need to be 5-0 in the UFC. You need to be 15-2 or something like that before you get there. I just, again, I can't say that everyone comes out of there as bad, but like the amount of just completely unimpressive talent getting contracts is just like, why the fuck do I want to spend time watching that?

Big roster, but they got a lot of dates to fill. They got a lot. And again, y'all look, this guy was on there. He's really good. That is true. There are some good fighters that come out of there and there's no question, but a lot of bums. All right, BC, let's talk about topic number three.

So UFC 310 got announced by UFC president Dana White, which of course means that some of these fights may not be signed, and we're just talking about them like they are signed, but nevertheless, let's talk about them just the same. Okay, I want to go through this card. Put up the graphic if you can, Long Island Luke, so we can see it here.

So what got announced was for the UFC welterweight title, Bilal Muhammad taking on Shavkat Rachmanov, your co-main event. Alessandre Pantoja taking on Kai Asakura. Kai Asakura, one of the guys making his UFC debut at a title shot. This has happened many times in the past, but obviously more recently is very, very rare. Sure. That'll be for the flyweight title, as I mentioned. You're going to get the rematch between Cyril Ghosn and Alexander Volkov.

Vicente Luque will finally lock horns with a 40-year-old plus Nick Diaz. Why? However, in a very interesting bout, Movzar Evloev taking on Aljamain Sterling. Obviously, Sterling up at 145. Now, this is essentially, certainly for Evloev, a number one contender's fight. BC, two questions for you. And there's another great women's fight on there, too ginger roba yes taking on tatiana suarez yes that is

right uh and some other ones as well there's there's more than that just as well josh vans on that card i think against um um cody durden i believe that's right in any case well what we saw there give me a rating on this card because i know what you're going to say. And I think this is the one topic where I feel like you're completely wrong. But go ahead. I had a lot of arguments about this card since it was announced. Yes. And it's like you can go like, OK, from the hardcore side. Yeah, it's a deep card with fights I want to see.

So it's by no means an awful card. I just feel like for everything we talk about, the water down of the matchmaking and the loss of the next level star power and crossover ability and just that it feels very manufactured at times. It used to be a major. This was the New Year's Eve Vegas card. What is wrong with this car? Tell me what is wrong with this car. That now in the ESPN era is at the beginning of the month. I just think it lacks star power and it kind of is like a editorial on where they're at. You know what I mean?

Like, didn't you expect Mahachev for this? You know what I'm saying? Like, and I know what you're going to say. Well, these are not bad fights. Dude, I want to see Asakura in this fight like hell against Pantoja. I want to see if it's Shavkat's time to put on the crown. I just feel like this is the purest example

of the era that we're in and people are just like, yeah, but I'm happy. At least it's deep and there's fights. I like this doesn't have that star factor. I mean, where's McGregor? You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? Look like this would be the time for that, that it used to have where I don't know if

there is majors anymore, maybe outside of MSG and the annual October Abu Dhabi card, which gets the best matchmaking. It just was a little, I mean, am I allowed from a, I mean, not, not a casual side of my white belt heart, but from like a business side slash job security side. Like hit me with the big ones that are going to draw the attention and crossover. It's not that era anymore, but don't you feel that at all? That there's like, like who's selling this card loop the ufc brand and the depth and the fact that it may be shop got tonight i get that but should we care anymore like that this used to kind of mean something and it would be somebody here that it's like damn i gotta i i have to see that let's you know this is not a let's get the friends together and do the

trip the weekend trip card it's a hardcore card in the december major spot that's the last i'll say on that i am disappointed though i'm not mad i'm just disappointed i'm i don't feel disappointed at all now i cannot in any way challenge one of the arguments that you made which is kind of your core argument but does this card lack star power yes it does there really isn't an argument around even must see like oh no i disagree with that i really very good fights but not must see like like toporia holloway oh my god is must see even chamayev robert whittaker to me has like must see field on what planet is shavkat rachmanov fighting for the welterweight title not must see i mean we're talking about

the main event though of one of the four major major welterweight title is up for grabs against one of the if not the most exciting badass contender in the entire sport, irrespective of weight class arguments here. I'm not talking about that. The fight sucks and that we don't need it. No, it's going to show us a lot that we want to see. I think there's two problems. Well, no, you can't. You can't fight my note. The star argument by talking how good that fight is on a hardcore level.

I'm talking about the. I'm not talking about just that when I bring up Shofcott. Yes, I do think that on a hardcore level, Shofcott will be exciting. I do think he will win. Although I do. People think, oh, I think he's going to. People assume that because I like Rachmanov, I think he's going to run over Bilal. I don't think that.

I think Bilal can make him human. My early read on this, BC, if you disagree by all means to say so my early read is you can't leave rock monoff hanging around for 25 minutes without paying a very stiff penalty for it i just feel like that's but campbell all gas and control him that'll be the i think for i think for parts of the fight he absolutely can i just feel like you cannot let a guy like that yes hang around for 25 minutes and not pay a very stiff penalty and i don't want to be the the the you know the cry baby here standing on the corner with the sign so let's shelf the no i think you speak for some fans i don't i don't i don't think you're being crazy the lack of star power is it's not a problem with this card it's partly a problem with certain guys not being available at the moment

that's partly you know where's wayley why is this not wayley tatiana she wouldn't change the star power equation no but it would upgrade it yeah it would upgrade it a little bit um certainly but you'd have to yeah you could you could sub that one in and change out the co-main by the way the co-main is going to be a banger kaya sakura is a limited fighter but a talented one and a dominant dominant puncher so i think tojo's in his dog era where he's just not taking shit he will take risks as well like that's going to be a great fight. I'm actually kind of curious to see how that one goes. But let me just say this,

like put the card back up one more time. If you can, let's just look at it from a, from an overall standpoint, you have two title fights, including one of the most prestigious titles that they have, which I do believe historically speaking, welterweight is one of their more prestige weight classes.

I recognize that some people are not as enthusiastic about Bilal Muhammad, but it is a division of record. Number one, that's the first thing I'd say. Second of all, gone versus Volkov. The second of these is not necessarily off the, off the rip, the most exciting fight though, but it is an important fight to move this division forward, especially as John and steep a right off into the sunset change since their first matchup in terms of where they both stand that I am interested in 100 volkoff has earned this and there's some questions about god yes now luke a versus d has to me is the weakness of this card let me ask you let me just get through very quickly i do agree it is the weakness of this card i don't have much to say in defense of it it'll

probably be as exciting as long as it lasts however you have an avloy versus sterling a essentially a number one contenders fight so what I'm trying to point out here is, on paper, two title fights, arguably two number one contender fights. That's what you want UFC to put together for a December pay-per-view. It's got depth. And the Rachmaninoff fight, I'm going to say it one more time, he is arguably the most exciting contender in all of MMA. I got to tell you, pants around the ankles for this one.

Dude, I'm not talking about the quality of the depth and how good these fights could be. It was almost two separate arguments in one, but it went across the board. Now, would you have preferred that that was a Nick Diaz, Tony Ferguson? Not Loser Leaves Town, both leave town. We'll celebrate them on the way out of a sloppy action fight. I don't. I'm not interested in seeing Nick diaz fighting yeah i'm not that sounds like i was

trying to justify this like nick diaz has changed literally he changed the fight world both in the fight itself in the fights themselves and then outside with some of his battles with commissions around among marijuana like he actually has played a very important role in the fight game but i i'm not interested in watching him get it. But he's on this main card to do some level of damage control for a lack of a crossover

selling point. He's the biggest star on the card. I mean, that's the reality here, which kind of tells you about the state of the UFC's current roster. What's really happening is they just don't have a lot of stars in the way that they might have had access to a different set of players before and then they have a lot of cards to fill that's another problem i think their strategy doesn't

create stars and i don't think they compared to what they used to do they don't play into that and invest in building the stars that's a very well now you can say some of that is because the fighters have their own platforms now so that So it's a different ballgame altogether. But whatever money seems to go... No, it's definitely true that they don't try to build stars quite with the same... Like media tours, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, again, when they were very reliant on pay-per-view money and they needed to have these big pronounced wins on these dates on the calendars,

they obviously still would like to do well, but it's not as much of an imperative. And so promoting it in that kind of way or building stars in that way is not as much of an imperative and so promoting it in that kind of way or building stars in that way is not as much of an imperative and you're now seeing the fruits of that i'm simply pointing out i kind of have accepted that reality to a degree i i we are where we are and so what can you ask of the ufc given this is what i mean like there's nobody challenging their business model nobody can challenge their business model so you're just going to get what you're going to get them putting two title fights and then arguably two number one contender bouts on the card. That's what you can expect from them. And they did deliver that. I'm going to, and I think Rachmaninoff, I think could be a big overseas star for them. I'm told that in Kazakhstan,

he's the biggest star in that country behind only Triple G Triple G is bigger fair enough but Rachmanov is right behind him there's something valuable absolutely and when I take the stances like that it's almost as a watchman of the old guard of eras that don't exist anymore and I get to some of you it's like enough of that sour grapes and just enjoy the fights but Luke isn't some of it just being like, I don't want to see this sport become a microwave for bringing new fans in for six months and driving them out. You know what I mean? You want to see the business you work in be as big and grand as in

successful as possible. And I, especially this calendar year, you just don't, you don't feel that you feel like there's areas where like, make, you know, capitalize on the John Jones,

Aspinall capitalize on this, capitalize on the things you can control rather areas where like, you know, capitalize on the Jones Aspirinol. Capitalize on this. Capitalize on the things you can control rather than just like, no, we have to fill as many dates as possible and stretch it out. And this is what it's going to look like. It is the reality. I got to get over it and get with it. But I do yearn for it to be at full capacity what it could be. But it's not set up to be that anymore.

So I'll shut the hell up. Aussie Rules Luke, give me a one to ten grading of this card i'm gonna give it an eight i think it's pretty solid you guys are fucking tough crowds what do you give it i'll give it i'll give it an eight point three that's a nine eight point three it's better than 307 i'll say that much well i mean that's not saying a lot 307 was kind of nubs, you know. 308's fantastic. 308's great. I mean, like BC said, it's one of the majors now. 309's okay. 309 is what?

DDP? No, it's Jones and Cephe. Oh, that's right. MSG. Which is the most unnecessary fight imaginable. But Chandler versus Olivera too. Some good fights on that card. Anyway, I just feel like this card, for me, if Rachmaninoff goes in there and finishes him,

you would have somebody who was undefeated and finished every opponent all the way through winning a UFC weight class title. That is extremely special, extremely rare. Now, of course, Balak could win. But it would also be pretty awesome and special on a smaller scale the same way if Asakura in a pro debut. I know everyone's digging up the stats. UFC debut, not pro. Right,ura in a pro debut I know everyone's digging up UFC debut not pro right I meant UFC debut I guess I know everyone's digging up the stats of this has

happened this many times whatever 22 or 23 but so many of those circumstances are tied to yeah it's basically only three in the modern era right so many are tied to either the old way or when pride was done and people are coming in and making their UFC debut that this is really interesting it speaks to the where the division's at too I mean this division's wild man I love it also let's just say this like Kaya Sakura was the rise in bantamweight champion he beat Juan Archuleta that's why we were confused previously when talking about because I was like didn't he just fight in a bantamweight fight he did and he won that title he gave it up obviously I think to ultimately lead the way for this signing he must have had some indication that's where he was going to be going the point i want to make was i kind of like it like a champion

from another organization versus a champion of the ufc ufc used to lean mma organizations more generally used to lean into that a little bit more i kind of dig that as a bit of a throwback way to do things obviously it's not on the line so you know how about asakura roival for the title at uh saitama super arena listen i think he's earned it i think he's earned it he's got to win it first and they don't go to tokyo though that's where they always go they always go to saitama super arena i don't know how the japanese would treat a raw dog named fighter but i love that his his new catchphrase is uh what was it four babies six baby mamas that's what he always says this is like his joke like when people ask

about the nickname oh right i wasn't listening during that. Or most of the show, but that's fine. Well, you know, I mean, there's only so much Brian Campbell I can think of. Yeah, I know. I know. They made a whole channel to contain all of it these days. Man, I should never have shaved Luke. You know what I mean?

BC. You know, I mean, just be honest. You know, my dad had a big mustache my whole life. And two times in my youth, he shaved it. And it like freaked us all out. Yeah. Have you seen the videos of like dads shaving their faces and then going up to their babies or toddlers and scaring them yeah what what would it take for you to shave that off what would it take because you would never

have the guts to to put your beard on the line in any type of show yeah like a house fire you know what i mean like you would have to like bake me oh like you you like they burned half your face you're like sure you're gonna have to shave the rest it's gonna look yeah yeah someone throwing acid in my face or something, you know? What do you think you would look like? Do you ever think about that? I mean, I was in the Marine Corps the entire time without one. Yeah, without your face, your shape was just different.

You were young. Yeah, I don't. Probably terrible. Probably. It's like a turtle without its shell. Who the fuck wants to see that? It's like when Chuck took off his hat that time when he was on camera. I know.

I was like, Darth Vader, is that you? Anakin. BC, very quickly, let's go down the list. Early predictions. Gun to your head. You have total right to change your mind from now until then. Rachmanov, Muhammad. It's Rachmanov's time.

All right. Asakura and Pantoja. You know, I'm waiting for Pantoja's recent, I'm going to take all the damage no matter what, and this is how I'm going to win these fights, to catch up with him at this age. He's a dog, though. I mean, I'm going to still lead Pantoja to get it done but uh but i want to see kai has upset

potential for sure yes he does the cyril gone and volkov too i don't know it this would be a great moment for cyril gone to come back offensively and completely remind us who he used to be and can still be at times i doubt sometimes that that guy's still in there This would be the matchup because he has the one dominant advantage he needs in this, which is speed compared to how slow Volkov is, even though Volkov is smart and tough as crap. And it's really seemed to round out his game of late to try to get the most he can out of it.

But I think that speed difference really hurts him still, even in this rematch. Luke and Diaz. Okay. Yeah, probably. And then lastly, of Lloyd and Ster lastly of loyve and sterling great fight that's a great fight that feels so 50 50 to me of any very 50 50 because i could i think the better pure wrestler is of loyve and i think he's probably stronger although sterling is very strong but the better backpacker and the quicker guy of the two is definitely sterling aljo always has a

way to like come back after a tough fight too he's a very talented guy people want to dismiss him he's a very talented guy um something to keep in mind all right bc let's talk about um well bkfc first of all shouts to oscar willis yes have you seen this shit we'll have a oscar willis dedicated section okay that man had bengali tiger size balls you would go that far both of of them, I thought. Yes. Getting off the canvas the way that Ben the Bane Davis did is not easy. So Ben Davis, the Bane, got dropped four times in a first-round TKO win for Oscar. And, I mean, we'll certainly hit it when we show some of that. You know what's kind of funny about that, if I could say very quickly? Have you ever been to a regional MMA fight ever in your life?

I've been to Bellator Post Slims, which is very regional. No, no, no. I'm talking like like have you ever been inside of a pool hall that they just put every so i've done i've done all of that i've seen people knocked out in parking lots fights for brendan shop second pro fight that was at least in the eagle bank arena on the campus of george mason that was that was not like that was that was regional but that was good that wasn't like the parking lot outside no no no no i've done i've dude i went i've called fights in a pool hall that was converted

and a shooting range that was converted. Like, that's real. That's real regional MMA. What I wanted to say was, if you watch regional MMA, it looks like what you see between Willis and Davis, where one guy blitzes and just doesn't stop firing, and the other person gets overwhelmed, which you see from good fighters.

Look at Bivol and, for example, Better Be be we're talking about the opposite end yeah their defense is so good that it's very hard for one to get the chance to really hurt the other guy it's very very difficult whereas in the opposite end of that which is what this was the basically the first guy to hurt the other guy ends up winning the fight. To his credit, actually landed some big shots trying to counter that blitz. Inevitably, the blitz would always lead to him getting knocked down. But he tried his best to weather that storm. I'm just saying, if you go to regional MMA, and I know this is bare knuckle, but I'm just saying,

if you go to regional MMA, you'll see, they'll have like 25 fights on the card. 15 will end just like that. Yes. 15 will end just like that. So this gives you a sense of things but the interesting part that came out of this bc was that conor mcgregor and dan hooker who were in attendance hooker was in the corner of ben the bane davis sorry of oscar will excuse me i apologize

they both said that they're going to be fighting each other in february in saudi arabia we have two clips of this I want to show. First, let's show the Dan Hooker clip. No, no, Conor first. This is the first we heard of it. Okay, so Conor, I think, spoke to... He was walking out of the arena. He was walking out of the arena.

He is asked about what he's going to be fighting. We have audio on this clip, I'm assuming. Let's roll that one, please. What's your message to Floyd? Conor, do we have a date for the comeback yet february 4th who's the opponent okay so february sounds official he was walking down a hallway i mean could he have party voice more than you're saying 365 consecutive days he hasn't been sober in a long

time all right but then let's go to what Dan Hooker had to say he spoke to the boys that's or excuse me he spoke to the boy radio yeah the boy we're kids at first as you can say we get along quite well um I think we're both very similar there's a lot of similarities there yeah we just broke in the ring and just yeah like I'm on board he's on board We just need to get the UFC on board, and we'll get this thing across the line. Okay, BC. In the words of Aaron Bronstetter,

we've got to fight except we have no date. Well, he said February 1st, but there's really nothing confirmed. No date, no site. We have no promotional contract, no venue, no nothing. To me, it's like it's just two guys talking, but you seem to think that there's something here. I don't. Well, no, no.

Okay, they just proved to you that it's two guys talking. I mean, there is video of, uh, of Dan hooker in the ring. I don't know if it was after the event, whatever, with a beer in his hand and Connor and him are laughing it up and

talking. And I'm sure they probably hatched the idea right there. And I'm sure hooker came on this trip probably, you know, to support Oscar for sure. But one, you know, I was hoping this could happen.

The reason why I don't like completely dismiss it is ask yourself this. Who is a better opponent for Conor right now, knowing that Chandler's going to have the rematch with Oliveira coming up in MSG? Conor already said he wants to fight before that, and he is ready to fight Chandler no matter what happens. Dan Hooker is kind of the perfect opponent. He's getting there in terms of age, but could still win a big one. He is riding a three fight win streak,

but he's also going to get you into an exciting brawl and is there to be hit. I think this is actually perfect. I mean, this isn't quite Connor against that version of cowboy. Cause that version of cowboy at that time for that comeback fight was washed. I'm not saying that this is a fight Connor could lose,

but it's also a fight Conor could win. And given that this comeback continues to extend calendar year after calendar year, who the heck knows what version of Conor could even be produced, especially given the last 365 days, which all seem to be on camera, by the way, I feel like I can prove this, this assumption here, Lukeke i think it's perfect i actually think in most cases i'd be like good luck guys the only thing you need is the ufc is signing off which is the everything you need i actually feel like the ufc would look at it and go yeah that is the perfect comeback fight let's make it a pay-per-view main event doesn't even matter

if it's bollocks up and down the card underneath that because this is connor i'm happy that hooker can get that payday that he's at this point right now, three-fight win streak, let's do it. I see nothing wrong about this fight. I like the fight. I really like the fight. If they made it, I'd be totally happy. I'm skeptical that they make it because I don't know if he's a big enough B-side.

Hooker is a legend in Australia, and he's well-known to hardcores here. He is not a big name in the United States. What did Conor say, Saudi he wanted it in, or you say abu dhabi which one he said saudi arabia then if it was in saudi are they really gonna put conor mcgregor in saudi arabia i have a hard time believing they wouldn't even put conor mcgregor in fucking ireland what if turkey's basically like i'll pay for connor turkey pays for it they're in new ball game new ball game okay fair enough don't you think riad sisson would want conor mcgregor's first appearance to be there in a big UFC match? They're going to have to pay premium for that.

They pay premium. That's what they do. They do. They do. Again, they could. Certainly with Saudi Arabia, anything is possible. They could do that. I don't know if they would, but they could.

But the point I'm trying to make is I just don't think the UFC really believes that that is a big fight for Conor. And do you think they would reject this style of public matchmaking or what? Yeah, this is the funny part to me. It's like fighters like, hey, we've got an agreement. We just got to take it to the UFC. It's like you have literally nothing. You have nothing. The UFC, if they want to, like if they think it's a good idea, they'll go along with it. But their advocacy or enthusiasm for it means nothing to the UFC.

It's utterly irrelevant as a concern. Okay, what's the line? And I don't mean the line to induce betters. What line accurately portrays where both of these guys are at? Obviously, there's so many question marks about Conor, but you know Hooker has the right style to be a connor foil i don't even know what connor minus 120 a little higher than that maybe minus 150 175 something like that long island luke you're a degenerate what do you got on this i just made up my own line it It was minus 175 McGregor plus 150 Hooker.

That sounds exactly right. How do you read that fight, Long Island Luke? Probably Connor gets an early lead and if Hooker can weather the storm, he takes over in 3-4-5. That's a good read. He just gets a gas stoppage. That's a good read.

He could get a stoppage. Rockstar Connor's gassing out quick yeah he's gonna go he's gonna go for like the set the first ds fight he's gonna go for it early yeah for sure and he might get him he might get him i mean he's is he still a sniper that's what i'm saying how much abuse can you do and still who knows i mean it's not like he's been clean for a year and we're gonna like with tyson fury he had his moments and then he came back and miraculously proved that he can get moments later too I think you still got some moments going on there but um it's interesting um is it it's definitely its own pay-per-view main event with not even a good co-main right we're still doing that that's

that's the still probably yes again that's the weird part too or if they would they really put Connor at like five in the afternoon on in Saudi Arabia give me a better answer then give or an alternate if if Chandler's busy, what's the better one? Gaethje. Gaethje? Gaethje coming off a bad loss? Yeah, Gaethje. So it could be damaged goods Gaethje.

But couldn't Gaethje make Conor gas out just with huge violence and drugs? Yes. I mean, Conor's up against it. It's not going to be Islam. Okay, is there an opponent that Connor could be wider against? An older name or somebody smaller than him? Well, it could have been Poirier for another fight, but Poirier's like, I got fight news coming up,

so it doesn't sound like it's him, so you can write him off. Yes. Do you think his fight news is Keiichi? Probably. Probably. So the hooker news is interesting. I mean, it's certainly not a terrible fight. I wonder if there are some complicating factors

that would make it unusual to go that direction. But to your point, if it is possible, Saudi Arabia can make it happen. Would you be upset if it was RDA in 2025? A little. First of all, he's got a fight coming up anyway. Who's he fighting at 308?

I'll check. Top of my head, I don't know. I forget. He's got a fight coming up anyway yeah who's he fighting at 308 i'll check top of my head i don't know i forget he's got a fight coming up it's not an easy one and yeah it's because like dude that was like i mean he was literally the champion it was peak rda you know what i mean like yeah you're not getting a peak version of him no but jeff neal tough fight and he's a 170 i mean it's 170 cowboy got the connor comeback fight coming off multiple losses let's not forget that cowboy The Cowboy is... He has a name. I get it.

A much bigger name. But don't put it past them that they wouldn't give him complete damage goods at this point because they don't trust where he's at. So I'm saying, what if they give... I don't trust where he's at. Do you think they would give him a damaged opponent that he can beat? We're saying Hooker, he might be able to beat if he still has it. But do you think they might go low down and dig and be like,

okay, we're going to make sure he wins? Here's tony's question could if nick diaz beats luke could they do that and i'm not even joking they would because the if he goes out there and pounds out luke or even just like survives a war and gets a no but let's let's let's even give it a bit of a doubt let's even say he looks like surprisingly good i have to have a lot of balls to do that. They could do it, bro. That would sell. That would nostalgic sell. Big Diaz versus McGregor. Dude, that would be a gross fight too, wouldn't it? Oh, it'd be the fucking, I mean, the saddest shit on earth. Conor would play down to the level of his competition and he might be just as sad in there.

Maybe that is the perfect fight for him. That is so gross that we're even entertaining that. Or they just sign Nate Diaz back completely and then just make that fight. Yeah, I feel like Nate's got more in the tank right now right or how about what if nate comes back and fights dustin poirier which is another possible they were they were they they made that fight before and then it fell apart and even if nate loses that you still make nate's out there kind of tweeting and doing all this shit would you say that the performance nate showed against um miles vidal in the boxing ring gives you confidence that this version of Conor would have trouble against Nate?

Or do you think no matter what, they're a close match? I think no matter what, they're a close match. Yeah. I tend to differ. I beg the differ on that one. You beg the differ? Oh, we're doing skits and bits. I didn't commit to it.

I barely committed to it. It was like, that's a problem. All right. Let's go to topic number five, which is to me, honestly, of everything we've discussed, really the most interesting. For the first time in nearly three years, nearly three years in MMA, Francis Ngannou is back, ladies and gentlemen. He has returned. He'll be headlining a pay-per-view event from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,

when he takes on PFL heavyweight champion Henan Faheda. They're calling it Battle of the Giants. Brace for impact, BC. And as we mentioned, do we have the card? I don't know if I gave you the card. Yeah, they have it. No, we don't have it? We'll get to the lineal one in just a second.

The card itself is good. Obviously, Chris Cyborg takes on Larissa Pacheco. That's a great fight. By the way, for me, maybe the best fight all month, but one of the best non-title fights all month, Paul Hughes taking on AJ McKee. Fantastic. Johnny Ebelin is back for a title fight against Fabian Edwards.

Another fantastic contest. That's a rematch, though. It is a rematch. Still, Johnny Ebelin's pretty good. It's worth seeing. Yeah, if that's the worst fight on your pay-per-view four card, you're looking pretty good. That's not my question nor my interest at this moment, BC.

Here's the one that I want to ask you. It's open-ended, but I want you to think about this one. What is the biggest and perhaps the most important storyline headed into Saturday's contest? As I mentioned, the first fight for Ngannou in MMA in almost three years. I think it all surrounds what does this version of francis and ghanu look like in mma of course with the layoff and the potential of whatever extreme damage he may have taken physically and or mentally from the inganu boxing loss and then you mix that with the tragedy of

losing his son and this is suddenly spark of fire under him or are we seeing a potential you know wounded big name out there that can be taken down? But I like to apply this in terms of what I'm kind of watching the most here. Luke is not necessarily who wins this, but what does Francis's performance do for PFL's fortunes moving forward? When you frame it under the idea that they put so much into this year being their year, they were going to launch pay-per-view. They're going to have Jake Paul make his debut. Francis was going to fight regularly, all this stuff. And then they ended up waiting 30 something,

32 months for Francis and all that time. And the Joshua knockout has changed how we look at them. Like I said, when this fight was signed, I think it improves how much I want to see this fight now because of those questions. But Luke, I want to see what does the,

the, what the potential performance success of this pay-per-view both from an entertainment standpoint and from a commercial standpoint which we don't assume will be great even though it's a really damn good pay-per-view card i want to see what this says about the gamble they took on bringing in francis for all that money and that control which i don't i didn't damn them for it francis got the bag all of that but they couldn't have preferred that it went this way, Luke. And now what does Francis potential performance say about where they're at as a company? I think to me, that is, that is tied into this. And that's as important a storyline to me as what exactly does Francis look like and who wins this fight? I think there's a relevant questions to me. The biggest one is the one you asked, which is what does Francis even look like and who wins this fight? I think there's a relevant questions to me. The biggest one is the one you asked,

which is what does Francis even look like? You mentioned the death of his child, obviously the terrible knockout to Anthony Joshua, the inactivity, so to speak in MMA. All of these, I think are bigger questions. My question would be a little bit different,

which is what the fuck is the PFL doing? This card has been so poorly promoted.'s actually quite shocking for example i mean there's any number of ways to tell this i mentioned that they had the press conference in my hometown of washington dc with hen and fajita let me guess they didn't reach out to any of the local media okay how do you not do that how do you go to town and you don't promote the card you have there the next day nor the major kind of like arguably i mean arguably arguably bc this is one of if the not if not the most important events in pfl history yes right you've got your biggest star ever you can argue the most important you can absolutely argue it's the most important and you're doing no real media outreach they did no

real media tour for it jake Jake Paul didn't stump for it. Don Davis is talking to essentially financial news outlets that are utterly disconnected from the MMA fan base. They did do two big press conferences and had Jake host both, right? Or one of the two. Yeah, but that's not a media tour. And they didn't do one-on-ones afterwards. They didn't do any local outreach. These are really poorly promoted. You go to the PFL YouTube page, they have actually a cool thing that they did where they had Brett Okamoto out in Cameroon in the house that Francis Ngannou grew up in,

but no one's paid attention to it. It was out two days ago. As of this morning, it had like 16,000 views, and there's really no other promotional content. This is the point I'm trying to make, BC. It is arguably, or to your point, very likely, the most important PFL event ever, ever, ever, ever. And the UFC is on autopilot all the time where everything is just off the

factory assembly line. Nobody is trying to do buttoned up white glove treatment of any promotional content. This was the opportunity to do it. And they didn't even do it. I know like Francis did like a small little media tour last week, speaking to a couple of folks out there. I know he's talking, spoke to, I think Mike Bond of MMA junkie and like some other places, but not much. You didn't really do hardly any there.

And it's like, dude, if you can't promote this card, you can't promote any car. So is it because they're, the idea is this is a Saudi paid for card which is footing the bill so there's no need to or is it just that they don't know what they're doing because we make the same speech a lot about what they're doing wrong and what we thought they were

going to be doing what they maybe should be doing I mean can we just send this message one more time drop the season and playoff format nobody cares I have two responses to that when they say it's Saudi take their rosters put them together like they're supposed to be with Bellator. I don't even care about whatever TV money they can make on this. Put your best foot forward all the time. You've got all these great fighters that no one even knows you have, like Pachi Mix, Usman Namaga-Madoff that you're wasting away in whatever's left of Bellator.

Make you matter at what you do right, not the potential of, in this case, finally getting to see Francis and everybody's going to pop up again and look in i really hope they come back next year with a bang so can this pay-per-view card if it's a success and if it gets a result that promote it that sparks excitement can this be the beginning of a big change or is it too far gone spent too much money and nobody cares okay i know people don't believe me when i say this there's nothing they can do to really change their fortunes they will eventually go out of business because the industry is controlled by one dominant player people just even with the espn tv contract people have a hard time accepting the truth of the matter it is it is it listen to me i'm like

agent smith it is inevitable okay however this is the point when people bring it oh it's a saudi card they don't need to promote it right show me which non-Saudi cards they've done a good job promoting. There's a through line on everything that they do, which is minimal to no promotion no matter what. That Saudi might be footing the bill to me. Seems like if I can't tell the difference when they are and when they aren't, it seems like that's actually more part of the corporate culture. Hey, we almost got Randy a few times. At least consider that. And more to the point, here's the thing I want to put up.

Put up the graphic. This came from Tim Wheaton, who covers kickboxing, but MMA as well. You can't read this, but they show the lineal title. The lineal title is, in boxing, as you well know, it's like, who is the real man? Like, the guy who beat the guy who beat the guy, essentially, in MMA. There's places you can go. You can start Ken Shamrock first. They start it with Hoist Gracie.

It goes from Hoist Gracie to Boz Rutten for a while. Then it goes to, and you could say Mark Coleman, depending on how you want to look at it. Then it goes to Big Nog. Then it goes to Fedor. Then it goes to Fabrizio. Then Alistair. Then Cain Velasquez. Then back to Fabrizio.

Then Stipe. Then Cormier. Then Stipe again. And then Francis Ngannou. Francis Ngannou is the inherited man who beat the man, and they've not told this story. It's like you legitimately have the guy essentially at heavyweight. And unless you're a hardcore, this information has not been presented to you. This is what I mean when I say, like, why didn't you promote this card?

This is the card that gives you the best chance at promoting or giving you promotionally useful material, and they've done nothing. They've done nothing. Yeah, I'm puzzled by it because this card is very good. It got a lot that you need to see about this main event, what it looks like, but there is no buzz at the moment on it how does this fight card produce that positive buzz i know you say it can't what is the best case scenario in your eyes

for pfl in how this main event plays out provided that the rest of the card you know lived up to the expectation it's a very good card on paper i think a good scenario for pfl is francis winning crushing knockout crushing knockout i mean it could be competitive if they need it to be but very good card on paper. I think a good scenario for PFL is Francis winning. Crushing knockout. Crushing knockout. I mean, it could be competitive if they need it to be, but in the end, like what,

what highlight can they show? That's the one. And then secondly, what I would say is they need to sell over a hundred thousand pay-per-view buys, which I don't think is likely, but it could be. I mean,

are they getting ESPN sports center push on any other stuff. I don't watch it. So I don't know. I mean, a sports center really pushing their stuff. I see ads. I do see that they've purchased a lot. I mean,

this is what blows my mind about PFL. Like they'll purchase ads for like the company CEO to have their tweet repopulated on your feed. They'll pay for influencers to like show up and give themselves like no rub whatsoever and i guess they'll buy some you know advertising along the way but it seems like the stuff that they should be investing in they don't seem to think is relevant and it's like if building a fan base is not important to a promotion and it's quite clear to pfl it's not then what are you you are a financial asset you are a contract yeah you are you are you are just

the sum of a tv content plan you're not actually a real fight promotion in the end that's the weird part about all of this but you think dominant and ghanu knockout after a competitive start is the best case scenario so because then we're going to start to go is it possible that john jones could fight him or that aspinall so here's the thing the the downside is if Francis goes out there and just thunderously KOs Fajita it boosts his stock to get another boxing fight and PFL may not want that but I do think it's better for them to have Francis as a rejuvenated MMA star than not because if Fajita wins people like oh then you can say you're the guy that beat the guy.

Number one, they're not even telling audiences that this is the guy, the inherited lineal champion. Two, who the fuck is Henning Fajita going to fight? They'll have to do another rematch with Ngannou, which I guess you can get two out of that, which is better than nothing. But there's a bridge to nowhere there because they've not been able to effectively get anyone who's a ranked heavyweight from the UFC to go over to PFL, which if they don't do that, there's nothing to build off of.

You can't go anywhere after that. I'd rather them combine their roster, have an knowledge at all times as a fan who are their champions say to yourself, okay, I can't wait to see if that guy comes up in the rankings enough of the format, enough of all of that, the season, the playoffs. Give us your, run it like a pro wrestling promotion where you're building the storyline. So we always know, okay, this fight is probably going to lead to this and this. I'd like to see some of that old school storytelling in their promotional ability.

Let's see where this card takes them, Luke. But yeah, I want to see where Francis is at. I mean, this, there are a lot of people that think he's vulnerable out there, that this could be a big time for hate a moment. You will get two fights out of that. I wonder if maybe you can argue that it's just as good. If this is a Hendo versus fade or type of fight and Fajita wins it.

And then we get that rematch and we see what happens. Yeah. I mean, there's something to be said for that, but like, you know, three losses in a row for Francis, I don't, and that's your biggest star that is that what's good for you i mean again because he has options it the answer might be but the problem that they ultimately are up against this is what i keep trying to explain to people unless there is a world where the pfl roster can cross pollinate with the ufc roster it is over it is over and i know folks have a real hard time accepting that because it seems so dramatic mark my fucking words.

Unless you can do that, it is hopeless. What should we be thinking about storylines quickly on Cyborg Pacheco? That it could be a potential passing of the guard for... That one seems... I mean, again, I want to be clear. Hennepin had a winning on Saturday. If he does, should not be a surprise to anybody. Because he is dangerous no matter what,

plus tons of questions about Francis. This is a great fight. It's that more so for the co-main. For the co-main, Pacheco looks like she's the real deal at this weight class. Cyborg, obviously, her record speaks for itself, but she is long in the tooth. It's a tough one. It's a really tough one.

Also, Paul Hughes, one of the best prospects in mma taking on aj mckee that is cannot miss material that is going to be a fucking awesome fight it's a great card it's a great card it's a legitimately great card that has i cannot believe how poorly it's been promoted when you did the great card bit right there you almost aj buffundo yourself and i thought it was going to be it's a double chunk chocolate cookie. Like you were on that road. You're on that vibe. We're Costco guys. You know? Yeah. Yeah. We're into pornography.

Right. All right. We're Costco guys. Yeah. We don't wear condoms. So Saturday night is this Francis card. Yeah. I think the main card's at 4pm. 4pm. Are you going to pay for the pay-per-view? How much is that pay-per-view? I think it's like $49.95. Something like that. Let me pull it up here. I'm going to watch the pay-per-view how much is that pay-per-view i think it's like 49.95 something like that let me let me pull it up here i'm gonna watch that pay-per-view okay i'm gonna not so pay-per-view all right according to it let's see browse plans what does it ask me

to do browsers i don't think you should be on that hey could you believe it espn plus is up but it doesn't work right who when has that ever happened huh all right your biggest enemies in life are espn plus and commenters on social media less so in the commenters i don't get nearly as engaged as i once did i believe me i have you once stayed up at night thinking about well i just was like on heavy on the block button now i'm like clowns now i'm just like whatever i don't get to clown punch 69 what's that generic name you always use? Clownfart? Clownpenis.fart. There you go.

That's the great website. That's our top five. I don't know if we have a read or not. I don't have one in front of me. We do, Luke. And I wanted to tell you that you know like among friends when you discover a new bin show or a song that you want to bump on your stereo and you're like, man, I need LT to be involved in this. I've got something, too, that's awesome that I want you guys to experience as Morning Combat listeners.

And that's kind of what it feels like when you discover Mint Mobile offering premium wireless plans for $15 a month, folks, when you purchase a three-month plan. It's such an awesome deal that there's no way I can keep it to myself any longer. Luke, just like the things we exchanged in college,

I've got to spread this around, okay? Because friends don't let friends overpay for wireless. Say bye-bye to those overpriced wireless plans and switch to Mint Mobile today. Mint Mobile is here to rescue you and your squad with premium plans that are only $15 a month. Get that three-month plan. All the plans come with high-speed data, unlimited talk, and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. Use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan. Bring your phone number along. All your existing contacts. It's that freaking easy.

Ditch the overpriced wireless, Luke. Get the three months of premium service for $15 a month. Tell them about it, please. I don't have this ad. All right. Well, here's what you want to do. If you're a new customer here, it's your time. Here's your offer. Three-month premium wireless plan for $15 a month. Go to mintmobile.com slash combat with a K. Mintmobile.com slash combat with a K. Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month. Mintmobile.com slash wireless with a slash combat

with a k get it right get it right and also by the way 45 up payment upfront payment required equivalent to 15 a month new customers on first three month plan only speed slower than above 40 gb or on unlimited plan additional taxes fees and restrictions apply. See Mint Mobile for more details. Sorry about that. I don't have the ad. I can't read it. Yeah. All right, with that in mind,

it's time for when the donks get to ask us questions. It's time for DMs from the diggity donks. That last, this sounds like a fat guy getting off of his wife, you know? It's gross. All right, let's go. First one up here.

I'm not even going to read them. Uh, it's not cage fighting says, is this the golden age of the UFC flyweight division? Golden age seems like a little strong. I mean, golden age is like, would you have like the very best guy,

which would be Demetrius? But here's what, no, I disagree. Golden age to me is when you have multiple guys at the top, preferably you'd want them to be big stars. What's a golden age of heavyweight boxing? The 1970s with all those big stars.

No disrespect to DJ, but he dominated his era. Henry Cejudo had a short run on top to keep the division alive, but I consider this era to be the four fights between Figueiredo and Moreno leading into Pantoja's dramatic,

you know, emotional takeover of the division. And what are we getting in every sort of like title fighter, number one contender fight, we're getting bad-ass fights like we saw with Roy Voltyra. So I think a hundred percent, this is the golden age of great flyweight fights between hungry, crazy,

wild competitors. And anybody can be anybody anytime. I'll take that as my favorite era in the era i want to live in and that's not a disrespect to mighty mouse who is one of the greatest of all time and gets one of those five chairs up in the up in the ceiling there i'm not saying that in the upper room i'm not saying the golden era is the dj era i have to think about a little bit more but i would say if you're getting title shots based off of like minimal wins it's very hard for me to accept that this is the golden era

the proof is in the put and though as floyd would say aren't these fights just awesome every time out almost when were they bad when they almost shut down the division they weren't bad that's not true that's a total no one liked watching flyweight yeah they weren't they weren't great hardcores back then were all jacking off about how great flyweight fights were. The first year of it, yeah, but then people got bored of DJ's dominance. Not his fault that they got bored. That's different than saying the division was bad.

No, the division's more exciting now compared to then. I think there's more parody, and so you think it's more exciting. I don't know if it's actually more exciting. It helps when everyone in the parody bubble are all action fighters and they're bringing it so yeah i would say i think you missed the goal this golden era i don't think this is our podcast i don't think this crop of flyweights is like remarkably better than the joe b versus dj era where john dodson was like john dodson versus dj DJ Juan. Did you see John Dotson versus DJ Juan? Yes. Okay.

He gets dropped in that fight. I'm just saying. It's a fucking awesome fight. No one cared when John Dotson left the UFC. I'm just saying that much. He kind of researched his career. And people are going to care when Kai Asakura leaves. Or people are going to care when Matt Schnell retires.

Why can't you just be happy and enjoy what we have right now? I do. I think flyweight has. Here's what I would say about flyweight. It has resurged back to a very healthy interesting level golden age i don't know i'm less convinced by that all right let's go they're golden i see your skits and bits fuck face i didn't skit anything from bode bulger grant dawson is now 10 and 1 in the ufc with one no contest what do you think his ceiling in this division is? Yeah, but he just got knocked out before Saturday. Three fights ago by Bobby Green.

Was it that long ago? Yeah, that's his second straight win. Okay. But that was a bad loss. It was. The problem was that was supposed to be his step-up moment. That was his moment to become a true contender. So, listen, I actually really like watching Grant Dawson fight.

I think he's very good. Him and Pat Sabatini, I think he had the same problem. He finally stepped up and then got wrecked as well. So I'm going to say this. On paper, I think very highly of what Grant Dawson has been able to do. But when it's gut check time, he's got to really, really answer that.

And that's been something that's kind of held him back. So what's his ceiling? Do you think he gets to the title shot level? I think he falls short. I think he's a tough contender. Yeah, I'm not sure about that. Without making dramatic improvements, I'm not sure. Okay. But he's good. The guy can fight.

Great soundbite on Saturday. Wish I could play it. Would you ever mention that about your wife on national TV? No. Drop on a quarter? No, no. That's inappropriate. I don't know if I would make it home.

Keep the marriage bread pure. I think my wife might ISIS my head. Yeah, yeah. What are we doing here, please, Grant? Okay, from Real Kempe. How many pay-per-views does Conor's BKFC debut do? Well, him fighting, they're saying. Yeah, yeah. So two things I would say.

Depends on the price point. Depends on the price point. And it depends how washed he is by the time he gets there. Okay, let's say he is competitive in two UFC fights over the next year but he commits to not resigning with them but he loses both fights so that's a certain amount of losses in a in a stretch but he's still Conor McGregor and then it's like he's coming home guys him against Mike Perry or whoever is the most Mike Perry of Mike Perry at that time yeah that would be the most kind of viral all action.

I'll say this. I'll say this. It would never happen, but let me just posit this. Hear me out. Exact scenario you're talking about. He does the two, looks competitive, but loses, but whatever, and then goes right into it. And let's say he promotes the fuck out of it. Yeah.

Conor McGregor versus Jake Paul bare knuckle. That easily clears a million. That easily clears a million. That easily clears a million. That's more than that, I think. Okay, yeah, I'm saying easily. Listen to the words I'm saying. I thought you were going to go him, Nate. Him, Nate.

Him versus Nate, I think, also clears a million. The person asked two million. I think you have to get to Jake Paul to get to two million. Yeah. But you could do it. And if your pay-per-view is like 50 bucks versus like 80 or 90. You don't think they'll do something weird like Connor versus 60-year-old tyson in a bare knuckles circle i hope we don't get to that point please golly dude also what do you think about people that say that uh tko is eventually going to buy

bkfc because connor is elevating the brand so much now in his role it seems possible they want their hand in boxing obviously as we know now um i don't know couldn't tko in theory take whatever like you know big name boxers and mma guys that'll be eventually in wrestlers that'll be under their tko silo and then move them around and go okay who wants power i think they would they've already put page vans and who's out and then is back in but like they put her in power slap which is she's gonna do another one for them which is which is not great but what i say was, dude, who is one guy? This is one of the most slept on BKFC storylines. He's a champion now.

Who is doing really well in BKFC? Austin Trout. Yeah, he had a win again. Austin Trout. Austin Trout, a very legitimate boxer. And he's kicking ass over there. No one's really paying attention to it, but it's a big thing. So I could absolutely foresee a situation where, if that was ever in their interest they could move people around for sure all right what do we got next elvis has a racial slur next to his name that could just be his last name no that's a racial

slur who should at oscar willis fight next some people want he's been fighting the sun i mean fucking a with the bane in an mma cage i'm gonna say he needs to beat his battle with sobriety first you know how dare you that is that is okay it what about the schmo the schmo do you think the schmo would do mma because i don't think he's gonna do bare knuckle dude you gotta be real you gotta be real wild oh is there somebody we're not thinking of that would could be competitive with that who's Casey Layden oh yes so I was they're two different in weight I will tell you this I was on the BTL on MMA fighting with Mike Heck and it was leading into the Oscar fight and and Casey said I asked him I said Casey would you want to fight

the winner because Casey also had an amateur MMA fight around the time of Oscar and he said 100% really he wants the winner and he's willing to do bare knuckle. Really? How would you like Casey's chances in there against Oscar? He's way too big. I think he hurts Oscar. Interesting. Yeah.

Oscar had a great win. He had a great game plan, but Casey is much bigger than him. Don't you imagine Oscar fighting like a Nelk boy? Like Steve will do it or one of those? I don't know. Those guys really do a fucking bare knuckle fight don't know those guys do crazy stuff look at jake paul he's fighting mike tyson i mean those guys do crazy stuff for clicks right look yeah but like fighting mike tyson on eight two minute rounds for a gazillion dollars is real different

than fighting oscar willis for like a stick of gum and a paper clip in your pocket you know what i mean like it's a very different proposition. All right. Next. From Bryce Walkner. Who out of Umar, Toporia and Shofcott loses their 0-1? What a great question. Yeah, that is a great question. Probably Toporia against Max,

right? Yeah. Well, I mean, his fight is, well, hold on. His fight is the most recent.

Like, it is the closest one to us now. It's not like they all fight on the same day. People do want to know in regards to the size of your bulge, whether it points more true north for Shavkat or Ilya. I already know the answer because I'm around you a lot. Yeah. So what do you do with the toys that you're talking about?

I like how everyone else gets to fit. I like how you a lot. Yeah. So what do you do with the toys that you're done with? I like how everyone else gets to fit. I like how I was talking. What do you do with those two toys, Max and Izzy, that you're no longer done with? How am I done with either of them? You don't have the inner passion for them like you used to. This is very, very simple. Other people get to like fighters, and it's no thing.

If I like a fighter, all of a sudden it's weird. I don't quite understand the difference. Long Island, does he like them, or does he love them? He's got an affinity for Ilya. What about you two fanboying out for various losers? For straw weights, okay? I like Robert Whitaker and Volk. I mean, you know.

He looks Australian. Solid guy. First of all, you'd blow both of them. Let's just be honest about that. All right, all right. That's the end of the show. And then secondly, what i want to say is i don't even like bring up or even deny like all the bad parts about them yes i i know this is a weird concept hear me out hear me out i like fighters

who are hear me out now ready for this like where i'm abercrombie and Fitch? No, no, no. Good at fighting. So a lot of people like fighters and then like everything about them. What they wear, what they say, how they show up, their social media stuff. I don't care about any of that. I care about good fighters in good fights doing awesome things. So you're saying the Madrid fandom for Ilya is coincidental? Well, he's Spanish. I mean, Georgian, but Spanish. I don't understand the question.

You said, I like fighters because they're good at fighting. Yes. Some people think you're cosplaying through Ilya's success because that's the man you want to be. Living in Spain, loving BBLs, kicking ass, nice tats. I mean, I don't ever think of it that way, but his life doesn't suck. I'll put it that way. So when you say, I only like fighters that are good at fighting,

no one believes you because they know. Yeah, but I liked Teporia before Madrid ever got on board. And I had no, I didn't even know they ever would. I didn't even know that. I mean, he blew up a little bit faster than I thought he would, actually. So that was a bonus for a guy like me. Boner. Is that it?

Do we have any more? That's it? All right. It's time for BC Species. Yeah, so here's what I did yesterday. I scoured the globe for the good, the bad, the ugly, the highs and lows, the in-between in combat sports and beyond. Unfortunately, Luke, crowd surfer boner clip is no longer a working link,

so that got dropped, but here's the best ish I can find. It's heavy scene. This year. Luke, what a weekend for Conor McGregor and not his promoter debut, but considering this was BKFC first card with their new deal in the zone and it was in a bullfighting ring in spain it felt like this was connor coming to the

forefront and taking his job full force it started when he was at this media event to promote this bkfc fight and the opportunity to shit on your boy ilia he couldn't pass it up so i want two big bets betting on spanish athletes so there you go. Let's go Spain. I would say I would bet on Ilya Tepuria, but he is not Spanish. He is Georgian. Let's be real. I am a Spanish, if not more Spanish than Ilya Tepuria. There is a Georgian man undercover.

He is operating undercover. So we support the real Spanish athletes. That racist look, I don't know, but is Ilya Tepuria? Definitely not racist, but definitely stupid. For sure that. Okay. I thought that was pretty funny. Who do spanish seem to think is more spanish him or that upset you no you guys pointing out social media riffraff as like some did you did you for example did you include the dunk he had on uh balal in your shit here no i didn't right so this is what i. You guys think this is one sided. Do I think that it is visibly?

So, okay. Okay. You do this on purpose to like tilt. So I need to play more. You act like you like tilting me is like above what you would ever do. Well, it's my full time.

I would know. It's really the full time focus of the show. Exactly. Yeah. So don't even mean guilty as charged. Well, how do you think? Cause you know, I would not. It's really the full-time focus of the show, to be fair. Don't eat his guiltiest chars. Well, how do you think, because you are very respectful of your own transition to Spanish, and you sometimes talk down your ability to speak Spanish. Yeah, it's not very good.

Let's hear what Connor is when he took to the mic at this BKFC show. Oh, here is first a, sorry, here is first a montage of him acting unhinged at the weigh-ins, Luke. He's just having a good time. This was awesome. Come on, this was very awesome. He's having a good time. Okay, this was great. All right.

Yeah, there we go. And then we go to the actual show. Here is Conor speaking Spanish, addressing the crowd. Let's go. Hola, demas y caballeros. Hola, fanaticicos de Los Pideos! Hola, España! This is the XFL.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, live from beautiful Barbella, Spain, and only on DAZN. What you are about to witness tonight, ladies and gentlemen, will be like nothing you have ever seen before. Hey, could his collar be bigger? So there are a lot of people saying, rightfully so, he's really good at that. Yeah, he is good at that. Seriously?

Yeah, he is good at that. You don't think UFC is scared by that at all? I don't think they are. They're scared. They're not even in the bare-knuckle business. But he's good at that. I don't think they are. They're scared. They're not even in the bare-knuckle business. But he's good at that. I want to see more of him like this.

I actually do feel like, promotionally, he will have a lot of success. Well, he did jump. The Spanish, by the way, is terrible. He did jump Dave Feldman on this post-fight excitement call out here. Let's listen to this. We're going to do a bonus for this fight. We're going to do a bonus, Conor. No, no, no, no, no. Listen.

What we're going to do for these two gentlemen, as well as a bonus no no no no no listen what we're gonna do for these two gentlemen as well as a bonus is double the purse they're getting double paid that's it well done gentlemen because i get double paid and bonuses thank you yeah i love every time he does stuff like that like when he's like mike perry you're fired and feldman's like is he not the guy who gets hammered at the party and then close talks everybody? Yes, he is. He also has that vibe of the rich boss's son who can call the shots, but no one trusts him. I could smell the beer on his breath from here.

There was a video, which we don't have, of him and the schmo dancing in the bullring afterwards. I did see that, yeah. But here's the post-fight party, which Conor starts getting up on Britton Hart, the BKFC champion. He pulls her by the hair, no less. And then Dee Devlin's like, nah, nah. No, no, not in Mutombo's house. Nah. Josted Dikembe. And he's just like, nah, honey, I was just yanking on the

chain there. There you go. I really respected Dee for standing her ground there. Alright. Alright. I'm glad. Do you not want to talk about their relations i cannot tell you how little i find the private lives of fighters not even bevol's estranged wife she's a firecracker is she not speaking of oscar willis he obviously also had a huge weekend here is connor hyping up oscar at the weigh-in so talk me me through, Ben Davis, one of the presenters at Misfits is fighting.

Talk to me about that fight with the Macklives against Oscar Willis. Oscar Willis is a fucking, Oscar Willis has balls like a Bengali tiger. Fucking big juicy balls as Oscar Willis and the Macklives go. And he's fighting Ben Davis, fair fucking play to Ben. He's outsourced and Oscar, he's in home territory. So he's up against it. But Oscar's coming for the goal, baby. Let's go, Oscar Willis, to the Magna.

Once again, if the cops come, we can just hide under Conor's collar. Luke, despite the fact that Oscar Willis had a huge win, I do want you to rate that tat. Here's him posing with his coach, Dan Hooker. He added the Muhammad Ali tat on his midriff there. What did you think? Is there any way to zoom in? I don't think so.

It looks pretty bad. Oh, come on. He's got the Union Jack flag above his right pec. I don't know what he has above his left pec. Maybe like some song lyric. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. It all looks pretty bad. All right, there you go. Well, here's footage of his performance.

Four knockdowns in round one against Ben the Bane Davis. He rushed him from the start, and it was that straight right, which just couldn't miss. Yeah. He goes over the top, then underneath. And again, he had the right idea, dude. Once, look, he keeps a hand on there and just doesn't stop firing. He ate big shots, too.

He did have some big shots there. I mean, Ben was trying. Ben's, look at Ben. He's throwing. It's just he's not having much of an effect. He was like a cyborg the way he walked through him right yeah look at this so do you think the hooker and or mcgregor coaching like really helped i definitely think they would do that like coming out there and storming a guy i'm telling you if you're making a pro debut or you're an amateur fighter they all look this way like that is the best game plan.

Get out there and overwhelm your opponent, and they crumble every single time. If this continues to be a thing, I mean, it's almost like the Jake Paul thing. It's almost like the crossover boxing bubble. But if not just Oscar, but crazy enough MMA journalists, maybe some of them are craving more crossover attention and opportunities.

If promoters would entertain more bs circus stunts like this at this level i can get into it i'll just say this the fighters are becoming the media and the media are becoming the fighters point it's a crazy time oh my god and then of course post fight drinks for these two on the floor there in the marbella shouts to both of those guys we know them both we like them both a lot you know we we kill them both on the show, but they're both great, and when I see them, I enjoy hanging out with them. Huevos, too. For sure. Absolutely. No question. Teofimo Lopez Jr., who, by the way,

is trying to suit... Hold on. We'll say this. I will say this. Everyone's like, oh, they got big balls, and everyone's like, you gotta respect everyone that gets into the cage, and I'm like, if these two bozos can get it, how special is it, really? Can we be honest about that? Have you seen the tattoos on most BKFC fighters? Do I really have to respect everybody that gets in there? Yeah, I don't think I do.

Teofimo was at a boxing event in San Antonio. Luke, he's suing Topper and claiming that there's a loophole in his contract. He's also done. That he should be a free agent. Here is what the ladies thought of him. What does that say in Spanish? Que en vida con las tias. No se la palabra en vida,

but tias is the aunts. Oh, okay. Yeah, the tias are all over, all over Teo. Tias for Teo. There you go right there. Well done. Let's go to Better BF B-Vol time from Saudi.

We all remember B-Vol's estranged wife, Ekaterina, aka Katie. Luke, we saw the tweets leading up to it. Here is her commenting on the We-in Instagram post where she claims, my children and I are for Arthur, meaning Arthur Betterbeave. Okay. By the way, everyone misspelling his name.

Author. Remember when Berlanga was like author? Berlanga. By the way, how is Edgar Berlanga the most annoying person on social media? We'll get to that. If you don't know the story, Beavol and his wife are divorced. She's claiming that he's not paying child support. No.

Say what it is. She claims he's a deadbeat dad. And she claims that he are divorced. She's claiming that he's not paying child support. No, say what it is. She claims he's a deadbeat dad. And she claims that he beat her. She posts pictures. She posted pictures of him crushing her. I don't know, something like that. She did a, how's this for the most spiteful moment? Hell hath no fury like Katie B-Vol did a live stream

in which she openly cheered for Better Beef the whole time. And here's the finish, Luke. Fuck, honestly? You need it, you moron. Arthur, Arthur! Yes! openly cheered for better beef the whole time and here's the finish, bro. Damn, dude. You want to talk about praying on someone's downfall? Jesus. She's getting her comeuppance here. And she says her date.

He is getting his comeuppance. No, she feels like she's getting it. That's not what comeuppance means. And enjoying. Oh, you're right. He'll have to get his. Well, she basically said the fight will be in court. So that's where she. Oh, okay. But I don't know who's right or who's wrong obviously but that is a

wild side i will tell you her reactions look very real like they don't look very manufactured at all she looked quite quite thrilled wow uh did you see ben whittaker on the undercard there on the zone pay-per-view undercard which they originally said was free and then they did a switcheroo and charged for it a great look uh here's him going over the ropes this looks like bow versus elijah tillery part one whittaker would claim he was injured in a fight in which he wasn't looking great and then they called it they went to the cards it was a technical draw he was getting beat up a little bit he was getting beat up in this fight he was a minus like 2000 favorite so that was a wild show and then we'll go to the co-feature Fabio Wardley and Frazier Clark fought to

a draw earlier this year and a great heavyweight all action fight. Yet it was Wardley on the left against a much more skilled amateur background and Clark, but he brought the woodshed out here. Luke, these two rights, uh, it looked like he broke his face too.

He dented the side of his head. And cause he broke essentially where the jaw connects to the skull. Yeah, you're shaking my microphone. Oh, sorry, bro. Yeah. Is that your knee or your genitals? Both. All right.

Well, look, Usyk Fury 2 is coming up in December. That's the next big one to look out for. And Usyk had a message on social media for his good friend Greedy Belly. Hey, my friend Greedy Belly. Continue training. I'm Rez, brother. I know. Your hard work is good.

Appreciate it. Thank you so much, Greedy Belly. You my friend. You are my friend. That's what you say to someone in prison before you have your way with them. You are my friend. That's what you say to someone in prison before you have your way with them. You are my friend. Do you notice that in public, like Fury goes up and hugs him and acts like they're boys now? I think there's a little bit of camaraderie that's brewing.

I think it's one-sided. I think it's Fury. I think Usyk's still looking at this as competition. Yeah, yeah. But still, I think Usyk thinks he's secretly funny. Does it get you fired up when you see these Fury interviews of late where he says, like, I'm going for the knockout? Yes, I do. Outboxing him, I don't know how good

that's going to go. Yeah. Try and just physically put it on him. Luke, when you walked through the turnstile and graduated high school and threw your cap, if I would have said, what are your plans next, what would you say? College. Alright, let's see what this kid has to say. You just graduated high school. What are you planning on doing next? Shit, going home and jacking off. That's me every day after mk though yeah somebody had to say it uh luke no

one ever talks about how dangerous the game jenga can be oh wow you've seen that shit that guy has good lord all right um let's go to this game show for kids it should be wholesome right Oh, wow. You've seen that shit that guy has. Good Lord. All right. Let's go to this game show for kids. It should be wholesome, right? Spalding, look at the monitor and give the full name of this person. Adam. Adam. Adolf Hitler.

Adolf Hitler. That's actor Jason Statham. Television as well. Oh, wow. Dude, how did he catch a stray like that? That's a big time stray right there. Okay, let's keep the fun going here. Oh, me too.

It's so fun. Hey, look, I'm just going to go to the bathroom, and then we'll keep it going. Oh, fine. Wow, we're almost the same size. Ah! Bro, The Crying Game was a 90s classic. I'm not saying I'm trying to watch it again, but... Same size there, Luke.

Hey, Black Friday's coming up, your favorite holiday. Let's get a recap of what can happen. Look at the spirit. Look at this Christmas spirit, bro. Oh, wow, look at that. Listen, someone chucked the fucking... Look at that Christmas spirit. Jack Frost nipping at your toes or whatever the fuck the line is.

Oh, look, the Dodgers sunned the Mets last night 9-0 in Game 1 of the NLCS. Our producer, Matt, is very upset about this. But these zesty Dodgers have been known this postseason for doing stuff like this. Tip on tip, your thoughts. You know what I got to say? I think this is my new favorite team. I don't even like the Dodgers, but the fact that they're

insanely homoerotic. Yeah, that's what they do. It's the Craig Jones of baseball, is it not? That's true. Would you say gender reveals are among your favorite things ever? Everyone who does a gender reveal deserves to die in a house fire. They call this the most over-the-top gender reveal in history. The most

spectacular. Oh. So she wins a pink Jeep, Luke. And she's having a girl. Where's a drive-by shooter when you need one? Oh boy. Let's go to, like, Colombian gender reveals. Why are they Colombian? they could be right like is there hispanic i mean they could be colombians they look like very nice people right oh they're having a girl luke get out the bank to cotton

not joe i just yeah one more time where's the drive-by shooter when you need one uh we haven't had a good road rage uh incident in a while let's go down under here to australia you can tell these are aussie rednecks half of them have no shoes oh yeah well that's a knife i got a knife, I feel like Aussie white trash is different. I think I had Nocita's take on that. He is the offspring of that. Hey, Nocita, when you recorded this video, where were you? Okay, watch the truck here.

His bugger's gonna fucking... Bro, look. Look, there's going to steal the truck. Oh, shit. Oh, he's just gonna steal the car. Fuck. Oh! Just some good old boys.

Never mean it. No harm. And it gets messy from there. Long Island, Luke, can you defend your people, please? Why did you record that? I just thought it looked entertaining, and I knew it would go viral. Let me ask you something. Like, dude, it feels like Aussie white trash.

I don't know how to explain it, man. It's as close to Florida as you can get, but yet far away from Florida, right? I'm telling Jack Della he said that. I do feel like Aussie white trash is white trash. Like, that's what everyone thinks. Like, straight up swamp trash. That's where it originated.

Luke, you ever have that friend you can't invite over because he breaks things? You mean Brian Campbell? Oh, you fucking moron. You're fucking serious, bud. Those fish are done, Luke. They are done. But that's not our drunk of the week.

This is our drunk of the week. He's about to go head first into that bit. See ya, ho. Ah, boy. Yeah. Yep, wasted indeed. We have to skip the crowd surfing boner that came out why because uh the video didn't work anymore i couldn't find the replay the north korean sensors they're just

passing this guy along at this like you know a big old hard-on just got a connor mcgregor at the floyd wayans uh two more for you here let's check out this lady in the bathroom. Okay. I mean, send her to the fucking hell. What, bitch? Get the fuck out of my life, you absolutely disgusting. Look, it's cake. It's just cake.

Disturbing is what it is. Fucking gross. And you always say there's BC, there's not enough elder abuse. So we close with our elder abuse clip of the week. This is a bad idea. Holy shit. You gotta be fucking kidding me. Oh, Oh,

Oh, yes. Yo, take that granny. Wow. Oh, yes. Yo! Take that, Granny. Wow. What a twist. What a twist. What a twist, right?

Woo! Dude, that one got me good. I was like, is this the punchline? And then she got fucking ran over. Yeah, that's the shit of the week. I hope you saw it. Holy shitballs. Woo!

Wow. Okay. Hey, big week here, Luke. We're going to be back on Friday. Yes, Friday, 11 a. Wow. Okay. Hey, big week here, Luke. We're going to be back on Friday. Yes, Friday, 11 a.m. In which we are going to have our picks for the PFL Supercard. We've got some boxing this weekend, of which I'm calling Saturday Night Orlando Amazon Prime. Hey!

When Tim Zoo challenges Bokrum Muradzaliev for the IBF junior middleweight title in a triple header. Brian Custer, myself, Keith one-time Thurman, Jordan Plank on the call. Over and under the number of times Keith Thurman refers to himself as Keith Thurman. As one time, hopefully

the whole night. That's what I hope. I hope he brings the flute out and starts playing. So this is not pay-per-view. If you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can just get it for free. Yes, Prime video. Check it out. Saturday night. It'll be a starts playing. So this is not pay-per-view. If you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can just get it for free. Check it out. Saturday night. It'll be a great time. And where is this fight?

This is at the Caribe Royale in Orlando. Okay. There you go. There you go. That's what we got for you. Is it a decent paycheck? It is a decent paycheck. Yeah, I'm back.

TV gigs. I'm back in business, all right? TV gigs. That's where the money is. I'm coming for you, okay? I'm coming for this life, okay? I'm coming. Well, okay, Schwarzenegger.

Calm down over there. Let's remind everyone, like and subscribe, the whole nine yards. There you go. You can buy our merch, morningcombat.store, live 10, take 10% off if you're so inclined. Take it off. Brian Campbell experience on YouTube, just Luke Thomas on YouTube on this side. And what else am I forgetting? Friday, live 11 a.m.

We'll get you ready for a PFL. Yeah, I think that's really about it. That's all we planned for. All right, two hours and six minutes of the best show. Long Island Luke, plug your Degenerate podcast. Everyone tune in. I'll have a new breakdown out tomorrow. Main card minute.

We have a fight night card this Saturday. Michelle Podeta versus who? Fluffy Hernandez. Fluffy Hernandez. It's a good one. But we got a worse fight Night main event coming up. Neil Magny versus Carlos Pratish. Pratish, I think is how they say it, but I don't know, actually.

So there you go. What does your quality control feel about that as a main event? If that was on the card of like a regular fight card, I'd be okay with it. But as a headlining fight, it's suboptimal. But I do like Pratish. Yeah, he is coming on. He's awesome. He's awesome. Yeah, for sure. All right, that's it. That's BC. I'mimal. But I do like Prochaz. Yeah, he is coming on. He's awesome.

He's awesome. Yeah, for sure. All right, that's it. That's BC. I'm LT. Thank you guys so much for watching. We'll catch you on Friday at live at 11 a.m. in the East. Until next time, may all your gains be loyal.