MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Beterbiev-Bivol Picks, Topuria-Holloway Face-Off, UFC Fight Night | Full Episode

Episode Date: October 12, 2024

Yea that's right donks...Friday MORNING KOMBAT's are OFFICIALLY back! On the return show, Luke and BC do a final preview of the huge Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol undisputed light heavyweight clash in boxing. They make their picks and explain how each fighter can win. Plus, Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway go face to face during a heated interview. The guys react. Finally, Luke and BC preview this weekend's UFC Fight Night event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reveille Reveille Look at us now Tip to tip Oh Jesus Do you want a margarita? Yes! My God! It's us doing what we love.

Two, three, two, three. It's time to bang. Oh, yeah, it's Friday. You ain't got shit to do. Do not adjust your flux capacitor. This ain't 2022, right? This is 2024, and we back with a bang Friday, October 11th. We promised you it's coming back.

I had to find whatever was left of my AG1 collection to celebrate this. I'm Brian Campbell. That's Luke Thomas and LT. Today, we're actually getting paid for this ish full production uh we back and if you could even take that further you could argue that we back with a bang well first of all you're probably drinking some metals and carcinogenic uh substances in that disgusting drink also you're right it's back another fan told me we should call it fully funded fridays the triple f triple f i love it i friggin love it uh luke it's been it's been a bit it's been a year you know it's been a hot minute of a hot minute of hell the last two years to be fair but through

all the ups and downs um i want to thank you i want to thank the people behind this show uh brian daly matt snyder so many others uh i want to thank long island luke and mike i want to thank everybody the fans out there um it has been it's been a crawl and a scrape but we back so let's celebrate it let's have a great show today all right it's a great way to put it i don't have much to add except i echo all of your sentiments thank you to draft kings to brian daly to everyone on the staff here as well to all of the fans again didn't quite happen on the timeline we had hoped um but fully funded fridays are back mk is now officially two times a week fun little show plan for you today and every Friday going forward. Everyone else can suck my balls.

We're going to do our final preview and picks for all things Better BF versus B-Vault. UFC fight night from the Apex with a flyweight main event that's pretty damn good. And also look at some of the latest news, including this face-to-face between Ilya Toporia and Max Holloway. And Luke, maybe a little over-under today. We'll bring one back from the archives. We'll show the people what this used to taste like. What would you say, though, about the future segments on a Friday here as we continue to expand? So I think the way it's going to go, again, we want to just get back into a routine at first right like just keep having a regular slate of shows that people can expect that's part

of it i think the other part is we kind of discussed this previously on other monday shows we've been doing but to reiterate we definitely want to keep the classics that people want in terms of segmentation so we intend to do that we're not going to do it today, but OK, Bet, we'll be coming back, right? And I think under a system that people will be happy with. And, you know, some of the other things that folks like, but we also want to definitely add some new, fresh segments to it as well. So today we're just rolling out, I think, what we would call probably a little bit more of a traditional show,

but definitely as the Fridays get going, some expansion of segmentation for sure so morning combat at gmail.com it's still your way to reach us for dead wrongs which are now back in play okay we don't always get it right right actually rarely we do uh also fan subs we'll be back in some form so get out there with your artwork with your tight t-shirts with the picture of you and your wife on top of mount kilimanjaro shout out to joe leisenring right there um or your future wife in that case uh we're still a family we're still going to make this community work step by step so great show coming today uh luke thomas uh would you say you're pretty damn fired up for the weekend of fights to come i am you know i mean the ufc fights are very except for the main event the main event is

on those look give me give me a nubs on that right i mean they are i mean there's so for example like um it used to be roster watch and now it's roster tracker on twitter and the ufc apparently just had a fucking purge yesterday of fighters. And there was a couple on there. I was sad to see Brian Kelleher. I like him a lot. Obviously, I think he's done some great things, but he brings the boom. Just like he's had some tough losses, but like the vast majority of those

names, I was looking at this and be like, this is bloat on a roster. If I've ever seen it in my life. So I'm not saying I was happy to see him go per se, but overdue to get some of those names out of there. All right, let's bring in the third member of our team right now, live from his office at his house in Long Island. It is Long Island Luke, government name Noseda, son of an Australian.

Long Island Luke, thank you for being, you were always a part of this show going back to the Malka days, but happy to have you in the chair as we continue to expand and maybe an opportunity to plug your great podcast, The Mile High Minute. Thank you, BC. I'm happy to be here, boys.

You can sub to me on YouTube, Main Car Minute. We do bet breakdowns, watch alongs. I have a cat too, so you'll see me with the cat, all that. How many illegal drugs are coursing through your veins right now right now uh legal or really what'd you say uh i don't know a couple and also our fourth member of the team here reginald jackson who will be around biting me throughout the show so it's great to see luke you got to see his butthole during the uh pre-show meeting so it's fantastic cats cats i mean cats should get on only fans got to see his butthole during the pre-show meeting. So it was fantastic. Cats, cats.

I mean, cats should get on only fans because that's where butthole goes to thrive. There it is. There it is. So that's Long Island, Luke. That's BT, BC and LT. And we also still do sell merch. Morning combat dot store would be the spot for you. And I'm sure, I'm sure you can still get 10% off using our code live 10.

I mean, you know, you might be able to, we're look, everything right now is in progress. Let's just say that about it. That is true. But the wheels are moving. That's what you need. You just want us, I think back in your life on Fridays, look, a lot of competition out there, you know, that are mounting up a lot of people, you know, without crowns, but luckily you're always crowning crowning in fact you just barely made it to this show for your uh 10 55 bathroom appointment yes well good thing we took a year off and we uh we didn't let the competition make new plans i will say this too have you noticed that mma podcast now is just fighters talking to other fighters have you noticed that that's just all they don't need us anymore luke all right I'm sure you'll get lots of questions about taking Kadirov money.

I think that's probably going to be first and foremost on the list. I take that money every Wednesday in the Super Chat. Now, I don't feel good about it, Luke. I don't know if I have a future on YouTube. You know what? I think you feel just fine, if I can be completely honest. Listen, it's better than being a taxi driver. Well, I mean, I don't know about that.

But actually, there's lots of ways, I think, for you to generate some passive, would you even call it passive income? No, it's active income. Passive aggressive income is what I'm talking about. Passive aggressive income, yes. Yes, there you go, yes. But yeah, as you saw on those social channels,

you can check out Luke Thomas's fantastic YouTube channel as well as myself, The Brian Campbell Experience. Luke, tell me if you remember this guy. Big interview today on the BCcx with john brennan the cowboy from real world season 2 los angeles 1993 come on that's got to move you you're an old piece of s i do i do remember he wore a cowboy hat all the time if i recall why why did you decide to speak to him because this is my channel and no no what i'm saying i don't know i get i get that part i get that he's of interest what i mean is is he doing something interesting

yeah there's a few things after 25 years he's gotten back into country music he's got his own reality tv podcast with beth stilarchick from season 2 la i don't know if that's interesting under your purview luke but uh you know this is the kind of S that I'm into. I'd rather get fucked to death by an eight-dick walrus. Yeah, I've heard that one before. All right, let's get into this fantastic, wonderful show. We will be back, of course, in Metal Lock Studios in Manhattan on Monday. But for today, it's Friday.

We're going to set the scene here with topic number one. The final countdown is here. Both fighters have made the championship weight of 175 pounds within the last hour in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It's a DAZN pay-per-view on Saturday, but the main event will be offered one fight card only, 6 p.m. Eastern on ESPN Plus as well on Saturday. Of course, it's the first undisputed four-belt showdown in light heavyweight history as three-belt title holder

Artur Beterbiev out of Montreal from Russia with love will take on his former amateur teammate in the Russian system, WBA champion Dmitry Bivol. Luke, we looked at the storylines coming in on Monday. I'm happy we get this second show this week so we can really break down this matchup, including who might win and all of that, our picks. Let's look at the odds as we speak right now from our friends over there at DraftKings. Let's go minus 120, excuse me, minus 130.

Dimitri Bivol, your favorite. Plus 110. 20, excuse me, minus 130, Dimitri Bivol, your favorite, plus 110, better be of the 39-year-old in a very rare spot as the betting underdog. Luke, you and I, I'm sure, have been crunching tape and content all week. Obviously, this isn't the kind of fight where you're going to see trash talk and you're going to see your mom or your grandma texting you about it like my mom's doing over Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson. But this is as not good as it gets.

This is as great as it gets in championship boxing. Are we still feeling like this, in some ways, is the ultimate 50-50 fight against two unbeaten champions who are surefire future Hall of Famers regardless of what goes down on Saturday? I just, unless you have some kind of inside information who are surefire future Hall of Famers, regardless of what goes down on Saturday. I just, unless you have some kind of inside information, or, I don't know, some kind of strong belief, not only do I think it's 50-50, BC, I have been looking around and listening to podcasts and doing, to your point,

film study and reading about this. I've been spending a lot of time just kind of looking into this fight to see what other people who are inside boxing say about it, film study and reading about this. Like I've been spending a lot of time just kind of looking into this fight to see what other people who are inside boxing say about it. And I can't find any one of them who doesn't say that it's basically 50, 50 on occasion, you'll find someone who's like very, very slightly and better be of slightly in Bivol or something like that.

But nobody has come out at all and said anything like, you know, Bivol is going to dominate better be. If it be able to get the stoppage in the 10th. Again, gun to their head, you might get one of those. But I mean, like, confidently asserting that one person's going to take control of this fight and make it their own. Which, of course, by the way, sometimes we get these fights we think are 50-50, and that can happen. But the point I'm trying to raise is, even among insiders, there is what I would call not confusion of the sort that they don't, they can't make heads or tails of it, but rather anticipation, an understanding that this

is so close, it is really, really, really difficult to forecast what could happen. And so to the point I raised previously, that could mean it's a nip and tuck affair. It could be that one person completely takes over BC. I thought Spence versus Craw could mean it's a nip and tuck affair. It could mean that one person completely takes over BC. I thought Spence versus Crawford was going to be nip and tuck. And then Bud went in there and absolutely annihilated him. But I went back and I looked, actually, there were people who thought that Bud would run the table on him, or at least at a bare minimum, show a significantly stronger degree of quality. I cannot find any prediction from others about either Bivol or Beterbiev that asserts a similar kind of confidence.

This one is razor, razor close. Bivol, 33 years old, two years removed from being the Universal Fighter of the Year when he defeated Canelo and Zerto Ramirez back-to-back. Could not be further and still in the peak of his physical prime. Obviously, Beterbiev is 39, so that brings off certain warning signs in your head. Also, you're going to add in the fact that this fight was delayed from a few months back because of knee surgery to Beterbiev. But the reality, though, to be fair,

is Beterbiev started late in his career because of that long amateur background. Remember, he fought Alexander Usyk at heavyweight in the 2012 Olympics. He turned pro at age 26 after coming to Montreal and starting a new life there. And yes, I've made the arguments that in the second half of his career,

more post-COVID, you're seeing Better BF get hit a little bit more. But Luke, would you say that, because Better BF was asked about this all week. I asked him about it on my personal channel. The whole idea of, is this fight coming too late? Kind of how Mayweather Pacquiao did when they were both 38 and 36, despite the fact that they were still one and two pound for pound at the time. And he said, look, this is coming at the right time because I wasn't sitting

around waiting on this fight. I was fighting other champions and unifying to get these three titles. And when asked about the knee, he said, I wouldn't be here right now if the knee wasn't 100%. So Luke, he's been a man of few words, and we know that coming in, but I don't think there's any asterisks hovering over this fight. This is the perfect, perfect style clash between the traditional boxer in B-ball and the two-handed slugger in better BF. Yes, both can do the complete games, but would you agree as we get ready to break this down now, you know I like to talk about the central tension in this matchup. To me, the central tension is Bivol never been down as a professional, tends to control the terms of the fights.

What happens in the second half and particularly in the championship rounds when Beterbiev has figured you out when he's going downhill and starts cutting that ring off with more efficiency and you're in the fire to me that's when we find out who really wins this fight how do you see it as we move into this i don't see it too dissimilarly but i do disagree a little bit sure um i do think it's relevant to wonder about better bf's age and not fitness i mean do we all see the the push-ups he was doing his grip strength must be absurd it's it's it's it's insane and if you like like i don't want people to injure themselves but if you want to just play around with the fingertips back back of the hands, fist, try doing that. And by the way, he doesn't just do that and keep his feet planted.

His feet come off the ground at every one of those as well. And like the knee surgery, I don't exactly think is a bad thing in the sense of, oh, he'll won't have the same mobility. He does use a lot of level changes and then shuffles to get into place, but I don't think that having his meniscus repaired is going to necessarily limit him. But I do think there is a difference worth pointing out,

and the reality is I don't know what the answer is, but that's why tomorrow is so important to get one. Namely, Betterbeev is 39 years old. That is not young in boxing years. He is a very in-s shape 39 years old, but there's something to be said for what that might mean if he is just really unable to close the distance and what kind of damage he could be

taking. And more to the point, it's less about getting his knee repaired, but it's the time off and not competing whereas Bivol has stayed fresh. And I made this point previously when you look at the case of Tank Davis coming out of before the Ryan Garcia fight taking the Hector Garcia fight first, which was

something of a tune-up-ish kind of contest, and then moving into the Ryan Garcia fight, he just looked much better prepared. I think Tank is just better than Ryan anyway, but it's hard for me to imagine that didn't help him. I do think that's probably going to help Bivol a little bit. So my point is, I can't declare to you that that's going to be some major reason for the about going one way or the other, but I do think it's an open question that we don't really have a good answer for just yet. However, however, the second thing you brought up, which is really this fight, the first half, it's not irrelevant.

And in fact, if Bivol banks six, seven rounds right up front, that is highly relevant. However, the most consequential part of this fight, assuming that it goes long, is going to be the second half or certainly the last third or quarter at a bare minimum, where I would imagine at that point, Beterbiev is going to be having a lot more success with a much more stationary target.

And when that kind of artillery begins to land downrange, what does a guy like Bivol do about that? Because the reality is this, Beterbiev has been under fire before and been dropped. He got up and obviously he's got a 100% KO rate. But to your point that BC raised, Bivol has never been down. I've seen him take some big shots and recover pretty well, but he never had an opponent who was as tenacious and unrelenting as a guy like better be of. And this is the joy of this bout. Both guys have faced, you know, very, very tough threats. Both guys have problem solved in a lot of different unique contexts, but the very particular threat that each one poses, neither guy has really faced anyone quite to that level who has as much of a complete

package in that way as each of them do and so so we can kind of piece together well in this scenario that one this scenario that one but the reality is the second half the last third bc maybe at a bare minimum i better be it was going to be landing can Can he keep Bivol against the ropes? And if he does, can Bivol withstand something like that? I, I, I cannot wait to find out. I love that. You said for as much as both have very decorated resumes, they fought everybody. They more or less could in this light heavyweight division, you know, going back a decade, they've both beat former champions.

They've both done some big things, but we could say B-Ball's never been down, but he's never faced a puncher like Betterbiev, who's finished all 20 of his pro opponents, which is absurd. But the flip side for how good of a puncher Betterbiev is, is that statistically B-Ball is among, if not the best, defensive fighter in the game today. ESPN stats and info combined with CompuBox to combine some of these numbers and illustrate. And I was able to sort of look at them and

Luke, here's the deal ultimately about Bivol. Not only does he have the best jab in boxing, meaning he averages 8.8 jabs connected per round in attempts, 35.3. Both are the best in boxing and his attempts of 35.3 are 13 more than the divisional average. He also 65% of his punches he attempts are jabs. So, you know, he loves to, with that in and out pendulum style, likes to set you up with the jab, get inside with combinations and get out of there. But I think when you look at the totality of his defense, his opponents land 13% of total power punches against him. That's the lowest among all active fighters. And if you think about the plus minus, which is a statistic we use a lot in hockey, right?

But in boxing, the plus minus is the difference between your punches landed compared to your opponents landing on you. He has the third best plus minus overall in the entire game at plus 17.8, only bested by Shakur Stevenson and Bam Rodriguez. So you know the company we are talking about. So on one end, you've got B-Ball, this efficient defensive fighter who does, it's not that he doesn't take chances. It's just that he's so technical and so preserved and always in control of the terms of the fight. But he's going up against this guy who averages

eight more punches attempted than him per round, lands five more than him per round. And get this on the combination punches for better BF, 26% of his combination attempts involve four or five punches at one time. So when we talk about this is the perfect style contrast, it's statistically the perfect style contrast. It's ridiculous. I mean, better be of lens, 13 power punches per round. Be ball only launches land seven. So it really comes down to who can break through what the other one,

not only does good, but does great at an elite and in some cases best in the entire sport. Luke, how much of a challenge after me laying out those stats do you think it actually will be for Beterbiev to consistently find a home with his power shots inside against a B-ball who you know his style is constantly darting in and out and kind of leaving you off balance I think early it's going to be very difficult I you're talking about I mean the most important consideration about this fight for me is yes distance management but more to that point footwork footwork yes the jab of course the jab is the foundation of everything that for the most part both guys do but in particular for Bivol like all of his offense comes behind that all of his combinations come behind that his power punches come behind that I mean everything he does is a function of that but to get that going has to have the right kind of

distance and to have that he has to have the right kind of footwork and so I think early and middle of the fight I suspect that that will be something that will be very difficult for better be able to overcome if you just look at when he's really able to overcome guys, he's got them backing up and he's got them to a degree trapped either up against the ropes in the corner or someplace pretty close to it, very, very concerned about the damage. A guy like Bivolov, he can keep the jab steady. That can disrupt the rhythm of a guy like Betterbeev. It can enable him, you can jab and then move. You can jab and get out of the way you keep your feet moving the whole time and so I I really feel like um you know one thing that Paulie Malignaggi said that I thought was kind of interesting was like what better be able to do is he'll throw and he

doesn't really care if he hits you in the head especially early he's going to throw to the arms to the elbow to the hip right anything he can do to cause you to not just second guess or think more, but to slow down just physically or to cause pain in some kind of way to make you less able to do that going forward or less able to do something else going forward. And I think there's just going to be a lot of foundation laying early there. The question is, can he keep that up? I mean, the reality is 12 rounds of better BF BF. I mean, let's just say it outright, like BC, like literally no one else has ever survived that. Not a single person, even in times that they've hurt better BF. Like you mentioned, he can get dropped or cut, but he's never out of

these fights and it's not miraculous comeback knockouts. He punches the life out of you as the fight progresses. That's the reality. So it's like, if it's not just that, if Bivol wins, he's the first guy to do that. He'd be the first guy to survive 12 rounds with him. That's insane. That's insane. So I, again, the way you kind of framed it to start the conversation, I think is the most helpful one, which is early. I do think that better be of is really going to struggle. I think he's going to have a hard time finding this guy. I think the speed, the rhythm, just the output, everything that Bivol does is to the point that you had raised,

making the fight and defining it on his terms. It's once that slows down a little bit, assuming that it does, can Betterbeev mount enough offense to really degrade the physical capability of Bivol to keep that up. It's the great unknown. And just the same on the flip side, how much can Bivol take? I mean, I get why he's the betting favorite here, despite not being the bigger puncher of the two. And when things are typically even, sometimes you'll get that favor going to the bigger punch with the two he's younger certainly you can argue fresher at this moment and more active of late but it's a different story in the second half of these fights

against better be have and i like what you talked about it it doesn't matter if he's not hitting you flush hitting the shoulders hitting the arms a move canelo did remember when he injured callum smith and beat him down in that regard it seems that these shots that better be have lands throughout the beginning and middle ends of these fights. Obviously body punches, we know you can put that money in the bank and slow somebody down late. But everything he lands at short range consistently takes the gas tank and the fight out of his opponents.

But you could argue B-Fall's among the most fit 12 round fighters in this game and he doesn't get hit regularly so luke the central tension on this question and somebody asked this in my live chat this week and they were right on is do we actually know b-ball has an amazing chin on the better bf level or is he just such a great defender that outside of getting rocked by joe smith jr in that fight, we really haven't consistently seen him in any form of trouble. No, you haven't. He hasn't really been tested. Not in this particular way. No, it's not like he has been like he went up against dynamic punchers who landed a lot and he like no Garrett his way through it. No, that's that's not what has happened. He's taken a couple of big

shots from overhands that caught him those are the big ones that he tends to get obviously if you extend on the jab and you know no one's going to set it up perfectly 100 of the time and so what you've seen are overhand rights really come over the top on him that has been lefts too but uh you get the idea it's the overhand that tends to cause him some problems at times but a lot of times he's still leaning out of the way so he is um you know mitigating some of the impact um and there's just very little follow-up thereafter like he's very good about getting hit and being like okay let me let me change the circumstances so that doesn't happen quite to the same extent again and then he'll do

that so it's it's the what you're looking for from Beterbiev is obviously if he's got sustained offense, that's a great sign because really no one's able to do that. But the question is, like, how will he get that sustained offense? Because without his footwork and his jab and his feints and level changes, cornering or somehow trapping Bivol. Like, the last time I saw Bivol take a big shot, he had space behind him to move. That's the issue.

If he can take a big shot, and then you mentioned better be his four-punch combinations, the other three or four are going to miss if he's out and he's off to the racetrack again. You have to control the space. And once that happens, or assuming that it does, it's a different ballgame. There's two elements, it seems, to B-Ball's offensive attack. One is building behind that jab.

I just mentioned statistically how he's the best in the game, the most accurate. He uses it at times almost exclusively to set the table of what he wants to do with combinations once he starts darting in with that upright european style but you know he has great hand speed better than better bf of course but luke early yes i see him building rounds but as this fight progresses do you think b-ball can continue to have success on the inside or do you think ultimately he's going to figure out that jabbing on the outside in going into a role of pure boxer because remember he's an incredible boxer but he didn't outbox canelo alvarez he stood in the pocket with timely combinations darting in and out and he put it on canelo i don't expect that

to happen in this fight do you think though that better BF can discipline slash scare slash humble him enough to the point where maybe the second half road to victory for B ball is exclusively boxing? Yes. Yes, absolutely. I mean, I could see a scenario where he's leading on the cards. Everything's going pretty well. He takes a gigantic shot that he's not taken before. And now he's really quite hesitant, which by the way, that would be a problem too, because then better be of would turn on his afterburners and go after him. But again, you're just talking about a guy who's never faced firepower. Like what better be of is going to rain

down upon him, at least in theory anyway. And so what does that do to his psychological makeup when shit goes bad? What happens to him when, by the way, if he gets cut, if his eyes swell shut, what happens to him then? So these are all kinds of scenarios that, this is what I mean, it's like, are both guys tested? Well, yeah, I mean, they are. These are undefeated world champions.

This is for all the marbles, all the belts. It would hardly be fair to call them untested. At the other end of things, though, they're untested against this. They're untested on these circumstances, and it's hard to know exactly what happens when they come together. So I can definitely see that,

but there's a point you raised about could it change his game plan if he's touched up? But there's so many unknowns because we are entering the kind of fight where either guy can do something to their opponent that neither of them has really had to solve for in any kind of sustained round-over-round way. And it just makes it really, really, really hard to know what that will look like. And if you're wondering how hard does Beterbiev actually punch outside of the gaudy knockout

record of 20 KOs and 20 fights, the first time he unified titles in this division came against an unbeaten version of Oleksandr Vodzik, right? The Ukrainian Olympian who just recently came back after, you know, he's built a comeback in the past year and then had the big loss to David Benavidez, but fought very well early on in Saudi Arabia. Let's remember that better be I've stopped him late and retired him at the peak of his prime due to a brain bleed scare because of how brutally he beat him late. Look, I don't know if you saw that interview this week with Vazdik, and they asked him, I wish I knew the outlet. I wish I grabbed the audio.

They asked him, like, what would you tell B-Ball to do knowing that this- Oh, run away. He said three things. Yeah. He goes, don't get hit in the face, work your ass off, and run away. So that guy knows what it's like to be in there. He's basically saying, hey, B-Ball, don't dart in. There's going to be no combination punching.

You're going to jab, jab, footwork, move, and try to outwork and outlast this guy on the scorecards. I don't think that's going to work. You're going to have to see B-Ball establish himself, step in, take big chances. But this is power like nobody else. So, Luke, as we fuel into the predictions here, it's like, what do you do? Could you imagine B-Ball winning six of the first eight rounds?

Yes. But what the hell happens round nine through 12? Luke, are you ready to tell the people what does happen? Because this guy is a different power puncher, but he's going up against maybe the most perfect technical boxer with some good speed, power, and offensive flair that this division could hope for right now. So you want my pick? I do. Well, let me just say, I like, it is a joy to watch better bf compete he may be i don't know if he's my favorite but he's like top five like of all the guys who even if he wasn't even fighting bival this weekend i would be like i want to make time whenever he competes he's got such a

there's there's just very few guys in the game who have such a unique command of the sport that when you watch them, you realize you're not watching. Like other guys cannot do this. Even Bivol. Bivol could not do what Better BF does. Not even close. And so for that reason, he's one of my favorites. So I want to be honest.

I actually want him to win. I just don't think he will. I actually feel like Bivol is going to get to win i just don't think he will i actually feel like bivall is gonna get this now i don't think bivall gets a stoppage or anything i think i think bivall by split decision is the way i'm gonna go i think on activity on activity i think he's gonna get the canvas I'll say, man, I don't know. I don't know. I, I don't, I do think this, I feel confident saying this. He's going to have some moments, several rounds where he's just up against it in ways. He's absolutely never, ever been up against it. But I feel like the problem that

better be of has is that even if he lands, Bivol is smart enough to know what I mentioned previously, which is that if you go too safe, you actually make it worse. You actually, you actually enable better be of, I mean, you have to, there's a certain delicate balance you have to get right. But if you go too far over that, you're going to get finished. If you go too less than that, it also invites further aggression. There's a certain amount you have to maintain, a certain kind of order and distance you have to maintain, and I feel like even if he gets rocked,

he has to know that has to maintain, otherwise it all completely falls apart, and that will lead to enough of a work rate that will enable him to get his hand raised in the end. I hope I'm wrong. I hope better be of wins. I'll be happy,

delighted if he wins. I just feel like I got to go with Bivol for the reasons aforementioned. That's a strong pick. And by the way, when I was reading those quotes from Vodzik, that wasn't him making jokes. He said that. Yeah.

Let me just say this. BC's right. If you actually watch it, the guy's like, what? It was like a British interviewer, right? And the guy's like, what do you recommend? And he's like, run away. And dude, he was not joking. He was being dead serious.

He's like, just get the fuck out of the way. It's like, what do you do when a building collapses? Get the fuck out of the way. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Building 7 also, Luke. All right.

All right. I mean, you couldn't have said that. All right. Here of the way. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Building seven. Also, Luke, just all right. All right. I mean, you couldn't. All right. Here's the deal. I've been be involved this whole time. Luke, I really have because of everything you said. He's so efficient. His defense is through the roof.

I mean, those numbers don't lie. He commands and controls almost every aspect of the fights he is in. But that better be a power is just so different. And even in the post COVID fights where I feel like more than ever, you're seeing little pockets of, I don't know if it's slippage or slowing down, man, does he figure his opponents out? It's not just, you know, wait till the end,

like Deontay Wilder and he'll find a way to land that one big punch. So if I'm picking better BF by KO, which I am, by the way, I'm not picking him from the standpoint of one massive punch to bail himself out when he's losing, you know, 10, eight rounds to three at that point. I think ultimately the biggest problem for B-ball here is no one has been able to take the terms of a fight away from him at the highest level professionally up to this point. And the only one capable of doing it is Better BF because of his knowledge, his strength, his boxing, his ability to cut off that ring. He is such a smart puncher. He throws short, heavy, devastating blows almost at all times, almost exclusively a power puncher at times,

right? Obviously though, he does have a very good jab, a very heavy, strong jab. I think when we get into that second half, the one underrated aspect of Better BF for being such a big guy, right? He's a huge light heavyweight. He has a gas tank. He has an understanding of how to win fights. I just think when he starts changing the terms of the fights in the second half, and really we see B-ball, like you mentioned, not in the center of the ring, looking to either avoid or how does he react to one big punch? What happens when the real estate changes? What happens when he gets cornered? I know he's better than all 20 of the opponents Better BF has knocked out before.

But Better BF is different. I've got him by KO in this. I've come around. I've watched enough tape. I've watched every interview. I've crunched all the numbers in my head. I got the action figures out and recreated it in front of me, Luke.

I did the whole thing on this. Either way, we're all going to win because this is an insanely awesome 50-50 fight that's not only going to determine the first undisputed champion at 175, the best fighter of this era in this weight class. Luke, as we mentioned on Monday, there are legit pound-for-pound considerations. I have better BF4, BVOL5 on my list right now for CBS sports.com. I know we both can talk ourselves into this. It better be have improves to 21 and know with 21 KOs and knocks out be ball to do it. Could he get a vote ahead of Usyk, Bud Crawford in a way? I think we all realize if he does it spectacularly yes but Luke what about B-Vol

if B-Vol goes in there and solves better BF what are we going to be saying about his pound for pound relevance come Monday morning okay so here's the thing I I still don't think it would put him ahead of Inouye, Budd, or or usic for a very simple reason which is that these guys are conquering weight classes beyond their original one or their basic one they're the natural one whereas with bival this is kind of all he's if assuming he gets to that point this will be the only weight class he's ever unified he hasn't done it in multiple weight classes so for that reason i would still at best rank him fourth but in terms of like the quality he'd be offering it would be nearly tantamount to the other guys like what you're looking at there's not there's you know it's why it's really hard to decide like who's different

from bud to in a way to usic and it's because i mean they have very different styles they're in different weight classes different parts of the world even but there's no real drop-off in quality between them even if there are some noteworthy differences I think Bivol would be part of that kind of conversation too there's no draw you you get past better be Evan by the way I mean we haven't talked about it I don't think it's likely but could he stop better be of and if he stops better be of yikes you know what i mean you're just you're you're dealing with somebody who that this is what i can say either guy scores a stoppage assuming it's not a fuckery win you know i mean like a like a you're you're talking about basically the best that boxing has to offer i'm not saying

i'd rank him number one pound for pound but in a sort of a looser sense of the way we describe it, that's, that's the best that boxing has. That's what that looks like. That's what that means. That's what that would signify to me. That's where I was leading you. And I'm glad you said it. Cause not only could you argue that this fight in general, all the stakes in terms and what they bring to the table, I've wrote a column this week. This is the best in by this is the best as you know this fury versus usic one spence versus crawford one i mean you know mayweather pack like these are on paper the terms is the best boxing can offer but the fact that the winner could potentially have a chance to say in this era by the way which i've never seen a more competitive pound for pound era i

remember three years ago i was, there's six to seven guys with an outside claim at number one. Right now, that's really three. Could we get a fourth? Could they have a shot at exiting the ring in Riyadh on Saturday saying, I'm the best fighter in the world? Yeah, because what's the biggest currency

from a pound for pound level that you can add? Defeating another pound for pound, great. These two are in my top five. Everyone else has them in my top five everyone else has them in the top seven or eight for the most part it can get congested there in the middle but that just adds on to how big this event is no rematch clause by the way Luke did you see that little back and forth with uh with Better BF and Eddie Hearn at the press conference yesterday we never see that personality from our turn Eddie Hearn getting real mouthy yeah that's a I don't

know I don't know if Better BF is the guy you want to get mouthy against Especially since Eddie Hearn's main event guys have been on a dramatic losing skid Now, granted, Bivol is excellent But still, Eddie Hearn plays with fire Does he not? He pokes the bear I love when Artcher was like, you talk a lot and that he's like, yeah,

it's my job to do that. You should try it. I was like, okay, you're about to get, you're about to get knocked out. He had me at, he had me at it's my job to do that.

Okay. Fair enough. And then you should try it. No, you should be quiet. You should shut the F up. Uh, Luke,

I'm not that interested in the undercard. I mean, we do get chris eubank jr back um who gives a shit yeah the only thing oh hold on who gives a shit the only thing that was even remotely interesting about him this week was connor ben also being a jackass and getting in his face taking the glasses off yeah yeah which i also i want to be clear that was the best thing about it and i also didn't care about that i like chris eubank i don't have anything against him but but, like, let's be real.

This is, it's not fair to call this a one-fight card, but insofar as I am, like, actually thinking about this and how I'm going to really apportion my attention, it's a one-fight card. There you go. There you go. A lot of UK-friendly fights on there. Some good ones, though, too.

And, you know, some people like Skye Nicholson a lot, Luke, the Australian boxer. So is this the one who like weighs in in her her lingerie? I no, no. Maybe I'm thinking of somebody different. You're thinking of Ebony Bridges, I think. Oh, maybe. You're thinking of Ebony Bridges. Look at Mr. Pornography here. No, no. Because Skye Nicholson's an Aussie boxer, so I like her. I said boxer. But she's not slutty like that.

She's chill. Will you go pants off on the main card minute during the pay pay-per-view undercard is there no i will not but i will main card minute are you guys like the worst kind of mma fan that like i don't like boxing at all no i just was saying i'll probably do a lead-in with better be beevil into the main card yeah because the ufc card starts at four if i'm not mistaken yeah. Yeah, but the main is seven. No, Sita, before we leave you here, this is a 50-50 fight. Luke and I just picked opposite sides after a long breakdown of what can happen. You're a betting man. I don't know how up you are on these two guys, but what is your pick for Saturday?

So you guys definitely sold me on Bevo by decision as a good prop. I also like Better Beave money line at plus money i was just looking at the knockdown odds beevil to get knocked down plus 100 oh and i like that a lot so i might do beevil by decision and beevil to get knocked down as like a little hedge that's a i like those are good bets those i like all those bets yeah dude it's a tough one it's a really tough one to call very very tough follow for more good bets. Those are, I like all of those bets. Yeah, dude, it's a tough one. It's a really tough one to call. Very, very tough. Follow for more good bets.

Thank you. Uh, Luke, uh, big, follow for more good bets and pornography talk and balling hits. Apparently, uh,

Luke, this fight will probably end around 7. P.M. Eastern on Saturday. Will you be post fighting it on the Luke Thomas show? I'm like, I'm definitely going to do a watch along, which means I'll probably do something of a post fight but join me to watch join me at 6 p.m to just watch

the shit so there you go check it out at the uh at luke youtube.com slash luke thomas indeed i might do something on so we'll see i got some other things going on all right luke that's our first topic our second topic let's move over to mma MMA and UFC. And let's talk about the big face-to-face ahead of one of the biggest fights in the last few years. The type of fight that gets me out of my chair. Shadow boxing, just thinking about it. Ilya Teporia defending that featherweight title in his first defense, fresh off the destruction of Alexander Volkanovsky up against former champion, BMF champion, and really second half of career resurrected Max Holloway.

They did a Zoom-style face-to-face. Brendan Fitzgerald of the UFC was the host. Luke Thomas, I exited this getting even more fired up for UFC 308, which is coming up in Abu Dhabi in, what was it? Is it October 26th? Did I nail that? Yeah, two Saturdays from now, basically. Two Saturdays from now.

What would you say, we do have clips that we can throw to you in a second, but what's your biggest takeaway from seeing these two, and I know this is just trash talk, but seeing these two on the same camera at the same time getting after it i love how i wouldn't call it angry it is between them but competitive you know like each guy's yeah yeah yeah right so i love that i just want to say as a general worldview i love how much ilia makes everyone angry i i can't tell it feeds and nourishes my soul not so much max and you're jones don luke where is your right hand at the moment that's what the viewers want to know yeah but like just to watch like oh i fucking hurt this guy really i'm like yes let the hate flow

through you i fucking love it but i will say. I thought Max had some good jabs against him. I did think the one about going after his English backfired on him pretty big. Maybe we can throw to it now and react. Yeah, I have one more take after that, but let's see that one. I believe this was the biggest sort of takeaway that so many people had. This was at the very end of their 20-something minute back and forth. All the time, say the same. Speak bro.

Why? I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm speaking in your language. Let's talk in Spanish. Let's talk in Georgian. Let's talk in Russian. Let's talk in, in, in Germany. What the you talking about, man? CQS out on was in a panel at the point to see if you want to talk in english whatever you want to do boy

uh luke i don't think max looked great there what's your takeaway i mean it's cool that teporia speaks 18 languages luke but what are you taking away from that on the merits of the point i i just know how you could disagree with seporia like this is like what third or fourth fucking language like you know he's just not going to be as fluid in that as he is in what he speaks normally i think most folks at a bare minimum could understand that bc now i Now, I have to be careful here because I like how much Ilya irritates the fan base. Yes. But am I wrong, because I very well could be, am I wrong in perceiving that he seemed to be doing a little bit more than irritating Max? He had Max a little bit befuddled is not quite the right word, but

not really himself either. Did you detect that he had that kind of effect on him or is that my imagination? I don't know if it's the effect on him or if Max just didn't expect that this was going to be a full-time back and forth, like where's your best trash talk? Like this is some kill Tony slash rap battle or something like that in that sense. And again, you can always argue what the value is in these pre-fight moments like this. I always try to argue.

There is a lot of value, but I'll tell you this. I watched that and max lost, not a 10, seven, not, not maybe even 10, eight,

but a clear 10, nine. I thought Ilya had better responses for his fourth language or third language. He, he was more articulate and humorous and tough and all of that. I don't know if Max was overwhelmed and just kept going back to the, OK, we'll see, we'll see. Or maybe that's just more of how he is. I mean, do we have a long history of Max being in these, you know,

McGregor versus Diaz war of words leading up into a fight? Maybe not as much much but whatever you want to take away from who won this to pour you want it but does that mean he's in Max's head I personally believe Max is too much of a veteran too much of a look the thing about Max wherever he ends up on any kind of all-time list, whatever other titles he adds to his, you know, or a second title here at Featherweight, the one thing I will say about him is he's more game mentally than, you know, 99% of the fighters that ever walked in there.

And I know that because of how many times he's reinvented himself in the face of us going, oh, this might be the end. Too much damage. Oh, a third loss to Volkanovski. And he got bloodied and his ass kicked yet what does he do goes back and turns it back on so no i don't think this is some big l where he's going to go back to the gym and be and be down and out but for whatever this is worth to sell the fight to pour you kind of clearly dominated this yeah i'm not convinced

that these exchanges when they go well for one guy means he's going to win in the fight or when it goes poorly he's going to you know lose in the fight i i tend to think that they have a a minimal relationship or you know tangential at best in many cases to what ultimately happens in the fight and to the point you raised like dude max is highly experienced highly motivated like i just don't believe that support like toporia just seems to be annoying to people who are on the other side of whatever he's doing right if you're fighting him and you find him annoying or you find him annoying because he's beating your favorite guy or the stuff he says on social but like he tends to have this very like radiates this kind of negativity from uh from other people and i just think like you kind of saw that from the fan base you're kind

of seeing it now from max but i'm with you like i thought that you know to pour you had you know performed ably given what this kind of event is but in the end that is really not going to explain to me who wins or loses and you know is he in max's head again dude max is just on a completely you can rattle an experienced competitor yes you can but it's going to take a lot more than that to do it long island luke would you be a gentleman and play another clip here i want to react to it hit me your choice hit me with this. Dealer's choice. Ilya, what did you think of Max's fight against Justin Gaethje and April? Yeah, you don't have to answer that. Everybody saw the video already. We saw the video. Run the clip.

Bro, I was so bored watching that fight. The only thing excited about that fight was the last 10 seconds, to be honest. I didn't see any technique in that fight. I didn't see any strategy. I didn't see any f***ing thing, I just saw a bar fight. It was very spectacular for the fans, but for me as a professional, it was a, I don't know, not something very impressive. I mean, your face says otherwise, so it is what it is, brother. I challenge you to have that exchange, but in the first 10 seconds of the fight, and you will see what's going to happen when you face a fighter like me inside the octagon who brings that technique and that power you can't do that i'm going to take your head off find out in the first 10 seconds we're going to find out

you love that you get tired every time really get tired i get tired i get tired of knocking people out we've got two more weeks i get tired of knocking people out. You got two more weeks. I get tired of knocking people out. Calm down. By the way, I got to say, let me just interject here. Like calling himself champion on his Instagram before he beats Volkanovski, everyone was like, the nerve of this motherfucker. Then he knocks him out. Now, I don't know what's going to happen against Max, but having that like fake BMF belt

Over the shoulder Dude he irritates people I get it And I fucking love it Look I don't love it like you do But I respect it I respect that he is so cocky And so in belief of his

Abilities and strengths that He'll flaunt it on that level Again I don't think you break max with that but you maybe give max a lot to think about and it is interesting you know the signature right here like you did against lamas like you did against gaethje at the end of the fight at the end of that five round fight what about in the opening 10 seconds it's really about in this interview played into that a lot toporia believes lu, that not only is his power the difference in this matchup, which I think, you know, in a generic sense, it might be,

but he really believes his boxing is light years ahead of Max and went on multiple times to break down, not just sort of making fun of the Gaethje win as some street brawl or bar brawl, but really saying in general, he doesn't think max moves his head enough he doesn't think max throws pinpoint precise punches is he making points here luke max moves his head a little bit but not i mean again is there validity to a degree about what ilia is saying yes is he also to a degree overstating it for effect? Yes.

So it's not one or the other. It's a little bit of both. I would say this. I think of the two, in terms of the full body of boxing ability, it's more central at a bare minimum to Teporia's game. And he is, at least in terms of the record overall, a more dynamic power puncher. But Max has a phenomenal jab.

He has great tactical awareness. Obviously, you saw how his power translated at 145. We'll talk about this in a couple of weeks. I think the one thing I'm looking at, BC, is to what extent does going from 45 to 55 back down to 45, when we know that 45 cut is hard and you already were kind from 45 to 55 back down to 45 when we know that 45 cut is hard and you already were kind of accustomed to 55 what that does to both his ability

to take a shot, perform, and then also what it does to his power punching. These are some questions, and again, I won't know the answer until we watch, but it's something that I'll be kind of paying attention to. So, yes, Ilya has some smoother forms of technique overall than Max, but Max is obviously a very, very, very capable boxer in MMA.

Long Island Aussie rules. Luke, can we see the third clip here? It's just talking until October 26th. The cage door is closed and made a better man win. And no one's going to save you once that cage is going to be closed, my friend. No one's going to save you too, buddy. No one's going to be in there. Actually, there is.

The referee is going to save you, buddy. The ref is in there gonna save you too buddy. Actually there is, the referee is gonna save you buddy. The ref is in there to save you buddy. For the first time, trust me, trust me. The ref is in there to save you. And you become an instant fan. An instant fan. And you already know how it feels when you have to bounce back. You already have a seven professional defeat. I had zero. So you're gonna do it once again really well. I don't have any doubts about that you are a great example of that and you have to say i took a lot of people's donuts bro i hope you like churros because you're about to get one come october 26 buddy i don't quite get that one because the

churro is like a long stick you don't think about it it took me a few minutes but a donut is a zero so he's taking a lot of people's unbeaten records and he says i hope you like churros because oh it's the one i see i see i have the same reaction at first of you of like max what kind of kind of trash talk we doing here bro they say good but uh i get it now dude i cannot wait for this and we had an off-camera conversation with our crew do you believe that the winner of this fight is the fighter of the year? Yes. Yes. I can't believe this is even a debate. It's not a question about whether like.

It deserves to be in a debate when we're talking about Poiton. So don't take the too high and mighty. People think this is an indictment of Poiton. It's not. It's not an indictment of him. It's not a question about like. Okay, so let me back up a step if the winner of the 308 main event is like controversial or they eked it out i cannot imagine the fight will suck but let's you know stranger

things have happened right in a situation like that where like no one really was like because the presumption is that max is so good and that illya is so good that in order to beat them, you're going to have to show an incredible amount of skill, durability, preparation, the whole nine yards. And if for some reason the fight doesn't show that, then we have a different conversation. I'm assuming that no matter who wins, it's going to be difficult for them, right? Guys, this is not an argument about whether Poiton is good, really good, or excellent. It's got really nothing to do with it. And in fact, it's not even really an argument that like is what he did in the course of 175 days. Very, very impressive. Yes, of course it is. It is extremely impressive. However, the quality of opposition at 205 in 2024 in terms of what Poiton has faced versus the difficulty in task about what it would mean to either beat Volkanovsky

and Max Holloway in the same year or up a weight class 55 BMF title back to 45 and then beating Ilya all in the same year these are vastly different levels of quality in terms of opponents yeah I know Yurip Rahachka was a champion he doesn't have defense like he literally doesn't even use defense at all he makes all kinds of suboptimal decisions in the course of a fight like I don't know how you can look past that Jamal Hill certainly was a champion as well and I think has some ability it's a good win I wouldn't call it a great win and same thing with Khalil Rountree who promised to not even take him down like these are things that like these are luxuries that a guy like either Max or Ilya would never be afforded in terms of the quality of the opposition and one more thing I want to say I know folks are making out to be like well Volk was

coming off of that knockout BC I'm not here to say that that didn't play a role at all. That's not what I'm pointing out. But we had seen Volkanovski peel out, head up like that against many other opponents who were not able to take advantage of it. Teporia, a dynamic power puncher. Like, the idea that any featherweight on that night could have done what Teporia did to him, to me, is completely not understanding what actually transpired there. And in the case of Max, I understand that he's a little bit longer

in the tooth and, you know, he does have some miles on him, but he just scored one of, I won't call it his best wins because he finished Jose Aldo back to back. Now that is about as impressive as it gets. So I can't rank the Justin Gaethje win as high as that. However, Max is a former champion, an all-time great at 145 on top of it. Just got one of the, not his best win, but one of the best wins of his career up a weight class and is now back to fighting for a title because he's beaten basically every other person at 145. This is a quality that either in the case of Teporia or Max, that is so far beyond what, what Poiton has had to go up against. The difficult thing that, that Poiton has done is take on, I would call good fighters under very difficult

conditions, short notice, injured, that kind of a thing that makes it very very impressive but i'm sorry if we're asking what is harder to do beat an all-time great at one two two all-time greats at 145 or a goal up to a 55 and then beat basically the next generation guy at 45 is that more difficult to do than beating good not great fighters i don't know what i like how is this even a fucking debate okay this is gonna be a fun debate in two months i'm not saying i outwardly disagree with you but i think you're being a little too heavy-handed and not bringing nuance in and the nuance in this case is i get you could say good not great fighters two of the three were world champions so yeah 205 though i get that that division is

arguably the worst right now in men's ufc but we're talking three wins we're talking the three title defenses in a record amount and i think in some level you have to take into account that two of those were extreme last minute on the biggest cards possible i look it's going to be a fun debate i will say this, though. If Taperia does what he's promised and finishes Max Holloway and becomes the first person to do it and his 2024 is knocking out Volkanovski and knocking out Holloway,

yeah, that may close the debate under those circumstances. But this is going to be very reminiscent of 2019, a debate I'm not done arguing, by the way, when the rest of the world wanted to reward jorge masvidal on a fantastic turnaround in year and three victories and becoming an overnight star and all of that adesanya got robbed that year i just wanted to put that back out on the record yes brandon wise and brent brookhouse of cbs sports i'm looking at you guys

okay so i mean here's the thing like in a circumstance like that, it's like, could you call Masvidal fighter of the year? I mean, he was certainly in the running, I mean, at a bare minimum, right? You would agree with that. Like, he deserves consideration. But maybe, like, it would have been better for, like, breakout fighter. You know what I mean? And also, I want to be clear. Even if Teporia ends up KO-ing

Volk and KO-ing Max, which I don't think will KO Max, but let's just say, right? Let's just say he does that. That still doesn't mean he was as important for the UFC as Poiton, or certainly he wouldn't put him in a place where he developed his, like he became as a popular and attraction and like as an adored a figure as Poiton. Poiton has had an incredible, incredible year. He has been in certain ways, like he has saved 2024 in ways that even if Teporia gets those wins, wouldn't put him on

the level of what like Poiton has done. So I want to be clear, like Poiton has done something for us as fans in 2024 that even with a KO of Max Holloway, like listen to what I'm saying, like that is almost impossible for me to even imagine. Even with that, it wouldn't put him on the same level of importance in terms of what Poetsan has given us. But I'm sorry, you have to evaluate the level of fighter we are talking about here.

No one at 205, Izzy's different because that's 185, but no one, no one, no one at 205 is he's different because that's 185 but no one no one no one at 205 that uh poet on has faced has even an approximate level of skill relative to max holloway or alexander volkanovsky two of the alexander volkanovsky was pound for pound number one pound for pound i know if you if you're going to recognize the nuances of why you're bringing Poetan down, you do have to recognize the nuances of Alex coming off of the head kick KO.

And I know you said that earlier, but I'm just saying it all. Definitely. I definitely think it affected him. I definitely feel like it takes the win down a notch. I do agree with that, but like, I'm sorry.

I still think that Volkanovski who Teporia lost to is beats almost every other featherweight that night. Not maybe not every single one, but just about because here's what's really happening. What's really happening is people just don't like Teporia, which we all would agree with people just by proxy you Luke. Okay. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. But what I feel like is happening there is that people really like Powhatan. And again, he did beat good fighters. I'm not saying he beat bums or scrubs. He beat good fighters. But what's happening is people are wanting to use why they dislike Toporia as a reason to explain fight results. Oh,

you know what? Volkanovski was coming up the head kick. It matters, but they're saying that's why to Poria one, that plays, it plays a role. It plays a role. But the reason why he won is because he was able to trap a guy against

the fence and he has blinding one punch knockout power. And if you can't appreciate that, I feel like you're probably going to be in for a rude awakening as his continues. Yep. And maybe if Poiton had fought Ankalayev instead of Roundtree and had a win, that could have changed. That would change it a little bit. Yes.

But three wins in that succession, hard to overcome. Let's put a pin in that debate for late December when we certainly have that. All right, Luke, our third topic will take us to what's going Down entire inside the apex on Saturday We back baby we back with a bang or a Bunghole it's going to be a fantastic Flyweight feature inside the apex when Former title challenger multiple or Sorry for a title channel we'll leave

Like that Brandon Royval and by the way Friend of the program yeah raw dog in It is going to welcome japanese sensation six and oh inside the octagon tatsuro tyra just 24 years old and boy is that man happy all of the damn time luke thomas as we speak right now draft kings offering to tsuro tyra as a minus 298 betting favorite and a plus 240 roy ball who don't forget only losses in the ufc came against the last two champions pantoja and moreno and he just beat moreno in their rematch by split decision over five rounds at altitude I believe too in Mexico

City Luke Thomas are you okay with these betting odds which seem to illustrate that Tatsuro Taira is coming on right now they're a little strong to me they're a little strong um Long Island Luke do you consider these a little strong yeah I'm avoiding the money line like dude roy val earlier in the week was plus 195 now he's plus 240 i kind of like him now if you're gonna take a dog but uh i'm going with the over one and a half in this fight all right i mean this is sort of my view on the whole thing bc is that i it seems a little okay so what would be tyra's best way most likely path to victory you've got a guy in Royville who's got a ridiculous chin who's very experienced who does take risks but I feel like is much better about managing that as we go forward and to your point is coming off of

a win of a former champion Brandon Moreno I went back and I watched that fight in preparation for today's show and you know you see a lot of openings for sure but this is a much more measured calculated skillful guy than it was even a two years ago or so the way that I could imagine Tyra getting the win is because the takedown defense of Brandon Royville is not great and Tyra has good wrestling good passing mount back he can really control position dominate from there passing you know good ground and pound like that's he's that's really really where he excels and so for that reason I definitely understand um the the value in putting in there plus he's coming off of that Alex Perez win it's just the thing for me is this BC like the wins he had are great um that he had the Perez win which was like okay he's at you know

obviously a very high level I feel like he would have needed maybe one more before a rival fight but the reality of flyweight is it's like hey are you good title fight you know what I mean like Steve Ersnick flatlines Matt Schnell and they're like title fight and he performed pretty good for the most part in that fight obviously the he couldn't follow it up against kai car france but you see what i mean that's a mokaya please tell that to mokaya all right mokaya didn't have offense mokaya had control and good defense but he didn't really have offense um tyra's got offense like he absolutely will lay it on you it's just that like as good as he is and he's good. I do think he deserves to be the favorite, but at minus 300? I know.

So, like, he is a finisher. He's got, meaning Tyra, four stoppages and six UFC wins, although the Alex Perez stoppage did come due to an injury, but Tyra was putting it on him. And I certainly get what you illustrated with the gap in perceived ground ability. Yeah, Royival does get taken down he doesn't though link gets he's never really forced to linger there for the most part i

mean when moreno would take him down roival would find a way to quickly work back to his feet and certainly roival from a submission standpoint it can handle himself fine on the ground i do identify that tyra is a bigger finisher threat, whether on the feet or on the ground, has explosive striking. Look, he has a way to blend all parts of his game with just seamless flow. I mean, Tyra looks absolutely legit in that aspect, but he hasn't never been past three rounds in his career. And you have Royval kind of known for his cardio.

He's coming off back to back five round fights and had one back in his early days when he, when he lost to Casey Kenny and LFA. So that advantage, big fight advantage certainly will be in his favor, but really it seems like the odds makers are identifying as this guy's coming on. And if you beat Brandon Royval right here, you will be fit for a title opportunity. So I also agree that the odds don't fully tell the story, but Luke, would you be surprised in the end? Tell me the truth.

If Tyra not only won, but finished him, would you be shocked? By ground and pound? Yes. By submission? No, I could see him getting a submission.

I just feel like polishing him off with strikes. It could be done. It could be done. It could be done. It's just that I would, I would be much more surprised by that. But like, you know, Royville will take risks. He does engage in scrambles on the ground and like that kind of thing. You know, if you're the one initiating the scramble and obviously there's a skill disparity, you're going to end up coming up on top and doing much better against Tyra I don't know how that's gonna go but you know Tyra at five rounds against an opponent like this a very very battle-tested opponent that's a lot man that's a lot to deal with so I understand the enthusiasm behind Tyra I am high on him he's very good he probably should win but I can't lose I just don't want to disrespect the guy coming off of a win of a

brandon moreno on like a deserved one at that luke do you think if royval does get the win that he's in a bit of a dead-end trap considering he's owing two against pantoja got submitted in 2021 and then lost a competitive five-round decision in their title rematch in december would he be sol even with a big win here that's why I think they kind of expect him to lose. You know what I mean? He's just going to Rich Franklin his way back to Anderson Silva again. What does that do for you?

So I think that they're... I mean, but also, I'll say this about Pantoja. He's very underappreciated, but I'm sorry, dude, you can't take that much damage in the way that he does without that showing up eventually. It's going. It's going to get him. So like pantoja i'm not saying he's going to lose his next fight that's really not the point i'm making but like he's not he's not going to keep it that much longer um and so yeah long island revealing long island luke revealing to us that both fighters

made the weight 125 and a half pounds uh obviously non-title bout they can both go as high as 126 here in your fight night main event roval was in last week to help a teammate in salt lake city luke and was part of the group of fighters who rushed to the aid of a shooting victim that that died in front of them which is wild and roval was asked about it this week and really just said like unfortunately i'm i'm a shit magnet to these type of things i've been in and around a lot of crazy situations and and those fighters are built different luke i mean when shit does go down Unfortunately, I'm a shit magnet to these type of things. I've been in and around a lot of crazy situations. And those fighters are built different, Luke. I mean, when shit does go down, they do run after it.

I mean, you know, for better or worse. They're brave individuals. But that's not what I want to talk about with Raw Dog Roy Vall. He showed up on the Shaq MMA channel this week. You know Shaquille Majore of CBS Sports. Yeah, he still texts me a lot. A very MK-friendly gentleman, Lukeke please retweet him please i mean good lord right help the kid out he does that he caught up with roy val and asked him an mk centric question that i'm sure

you'll enjoy who do you think would be more fun to get stoned with luke thomas or brian campbell oh man brian campbell for sure brian camp campbell for sure brian campbell seems so fun brian campbell seems so fun uh luke thomas i feel like we could be at like stone and just talk like just serious shit you know brian campbell just be fun and shit though yeah uh never had before have i seen someone who needs weed as much as luke thomas and who looks like they smoke weed as much as brian campbell they complement each other really well i love that show yeah wait first of all did shaq just send both of us to hell right yes yes he did yes he did he just yeah you keep asking me to retweet you fuck face

i will say that contrary to roy val's opinion on you you are very fun to be around in those elements luke? The problem is I have too much anxiety all the fucking time, man. You know what I mean? Like, it's hard for me. Yeah, but off-camera, you're the... I get labeled as, you know, the jokester on this show, although most people hate my comedy, Luke, including

my family. But I will say that, you know, off-camera, you hold it down, Luke. You're a very fun hang in that regard. I try. I try. I mean, three margaritas deep, you don't know what you're gonna get. You're a very fun hang in that regard. I try. I try. I mean, three margaritas deep, you don't know what you're going to get. You know what I'm saying? There you go. There you go.

Luke, you're going to have to make a pick here, right? So the odds are where they are. The reminder, once again, plus 240 on DraftKings' Royville, minus 298 Tyra. Which way are you leaning, and how does it happen? So it sounds like I'm hedging and I am actually if it if I was to bet money I would take the underdog because of the value right I just don't feel like that that seems like a lot I mean I just have a hard time seeing him going in there and just muscling Brendan Royville around for 25 minutes that seems like a lot but um I do think Tyra's very, very talented.

I do. He's very good. He also makes errors and he does get hit at times. Unfortunately, in all ways that you can see how off-balance he is, I feel like Royville has really cleaned a lot of that stuff up. And his kicking,

give Royville credit, his kicking game is solid, man. Yes, and in all different kinds of distances, all different kinds of setups. I think on the feet, he'll be a big problem. The thing is the wrestling. By the way, the wrestling got him in trouble against Pantoja, too. You know what I mean? Because he is a black belt in jiu-jitsu himself.

It's just that the wrestling, I think he's like sub-50% with takedown defense. That's tough to get around against a guy this good. I don't disagree with you. I'm going to go Tyra by decision. That's probably about right. I think Royville's very tough, very skilled.

Again, very battle tested. He's not going to go quietly, but I think that the rest of the team. No, he's going to make Tyra earn it. We're going to find out a lot about Tatsuro in this fight. Does he, Luke, coming from Japan, we haven't had a big Japanese star in UFC in a long time, right? Am I forgetting someone badly? I mean, do you have, if he wins this,

and maybe this would get him into a title fight, he just stopped the former title challenger in Perez. Would you say that he does have breakout potential on the other side of the world here? It's hard to know. I don't know how the Japanese receive him. I don't really know what his star power is there obviously we're very familiar with what noia in a way does but you know he's a very very unique case um it's so funny dude like when i got into the sport the japanese dominated dominated they didn't

necessarily have anyone at like heavyweight who was all that great maybe closer down to middleweight and down like yushin okami or whatever you know but they had so many talented fighters in so many organizations in so many different weight classes male and female and that has declined so badly and by the way i don't think it's just tyra i think you know rey saruya there's a bunch of other guys as well who kind of represent like a new class of Japanese fighter. I don't know which one of them is going to be a breakout star, but I feel like one of them is going to hit. And it's overdue.

I don't think American fans really understand what it means to have MMA where the Japanese have prominent, decorated, celebrated figures, which would allow the UFC or whichever promotion to go back to Japan and really experience the show in a very different and fun way. I hope that one of them does. Whether it will be Tyra or somebody else, I don't know. Could you imagine UFC at the Tokyo Dome in 2025 or 6 or 7? I mean, that would be wild.

Would they do a show in a venue that big? They don't like doing it that way, no. But what if you were doing Tatsuro tatsuro tyra defending his ufc flyweight title against kai asakura are they in the same weight class yeah they are right uh i think asakura's bantamweight oh you're right i just did i did i just ruin that long island look you know better you know you know so i'm pretty sure brandon roival said this week he was offered the fight against kai osak. Yeah, I thought he was a flyweight. Maybe I'm not an idiot.

Am I out of my mind? I hope so. I could well be. I could well be. Maybe you were out of your head. No, he's Bantamweight. Yeah, MMA Fighting posted a day ago an interview with Royval saying he turned down the Asakura fight. All right, well, it is one division north, so it's not insane.

But there you go. That's interesting. Yeah, he fights at Bantam. I mean, what am I missing here? Luke, can I have you comment about the nubs that we're going to see from the co-main event all the way down? Maybe we won't see it. Maybe we'll be watching B-Vol, better B-Ev. But give me something to care about on this undercar.

I'll be watching Corey McKenna. Shout out to her. She's a good artist, Luke, outside of the cage. But I don't know if I'm going to watch any of the other ones should i so i'll just go down the list and say like what you can watch for uh jung yong park is aggressive and throws power punches against brad tavarez that could be fun um not really yeah maybe no grant dawson is trying to rebuild after that last loss he had which i think went kind of poorly for him but i do think he's very talented d rod against alex moreno it's fine okay that fight's gonna bang d d rod fighting for his life right now yes he is

that's a fun fight uh pat sabatini again kind of also trying to rebuild a little bit after a tough loss uh against jonathan pierce that's that you know, I always like that. Oh, Nico Price! Dude, I didn't even realize that as I rocked Nice Price right here. Nico Price in the house. The interesting one to me is, and when I say interesting, I'm, you know, again, relatively speaking, Junior Tapa taking on Sean Sharaf. Now, this was supposed to be Chris Barnett,

the big, the huggy bear donk, but he couldn't make it because I think he's, I think he was affected by the hurricanes. So he's having some issues. Obviously, we wish the best for him. This guy he's fighting, Sharaf, is coming on short notice. Has nothing but first-round KOs, which means he is completely untested but obviously has a dynamite fucking punch.

So that could be fun. And then you look at fights like Clayton Carpenter and Lucas Hocha. These are guys coming off of contender series wins. So if you're a contender series fan, you'll catch some people here because of that um but you know it's a lot of overflow let's be honest abdul razak al hassan is back look at that i know but like he's kind of cleaned up his style and it's obviously made him better but it's made him less exciting so it's like what do you you know pick your poison that's a park reporter for taking that tour of taffa that time finding two ko's at the bottom of that that's a tough that's a one-two act, let me tell you.

Luke Noseda here for the final time. Let's get your betting advice. You do care. You do care about deep on these UFC fight night cards. What's the most value here from a betting standpoint? I like Alex Morono as a dog against D-Rod, man. D-Rod's lost three in a row, hasn't won in two years. He's fighting

better people given that he fought Neil Magny, Ian Gary, and who did you just fight? Kelvin Gasol. But doesn't Morono rotate wins and losses for like four years in a row. Yeah. Morono has never lost back to back and he's coming off a loss. So I don't know. I like the value on it. He's gone up to, since I got him plus one 80 yesterday. So it might be also D rod 37. It'll be 38 in December. That is exactly. I think he's, I like the value on it. He's gone up, too, since I got him. Plus 180 yesterday. Also, D-Rod, 37. He'll be 38 in December. That is up there. I think the window's closed on D-Rod.

I love him, but I think it's closed. He does have some good tattoos. I will also say Dan Argueta versus Cody Haddon. I hate to go against Cody Haddon because he's an Australian. He's coming off Contender Series. But Dan Argueta's a fat dog against him, and I kind of like Dan Argueta in that fight he's got a gas tank you know do you always blindly support australian mma fighters oh pretty much especially australian boxers almost exclusively blindly never

watched it like you uh hell yeah i'm a tim zoo guy jai opetai is fighting this weekend like you know i'm just betting on him i don't care who he's fighting i've got a jai opetai is fighting this week. You know I'm just betting on him. I don't care who he's fighting. I've got a Jai Obatai story I can tell you off air that is fucking insane. I think you told me it. My favorite Australian MMA fighter was Nadia Kasem. Oh, dude, she was terrible. Shout out to her for that one time she faked a glove touch

and then got knocked out five seconds later. Was that against Vlismas? I don't know. There we go. That's all we got. Here's the most important question. Who gives shit that's that's what i would say no cita out all right that's that uh the fight night goes down saturday i don't think luke is doing a reaction to that but we'll talk about no i mean what would be the fucking point no what would be all right

luke uh let's go back to a new segment here but an old old one. It's back, right? MK Fridays. We're going to have fun. And please, a reminder, morningcombat at gmail.com. Hey, send in your ideas. What do you want to see out of this show, right? Are you going to see some old? You're certainly going to see some new. How about this oldie but goodie? We call it Over Under. Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop.

We don't have all the imaging yet. Not yet. I've got eight scenarios of sort here where I will read to you a number, and you will say whether the scenario is more likely to go over or under that number. Here we go. Number one, Luke, after staying retired for the past 21 months, and of course as the mentor and trainer of Alex Pereira,

former UFC champion Glover Teixeira, who turns 45 in two weeks, told MMA Fighting this week that he's not done competing in MMA. The over-under number here is three. The amount of top 10 UFC light heavyweights that you would favor Glover Teixeira to beat. Okay, so I'm going to look up the rankings here. So he would have to pick. Let me just go back to the rules of the game. It's not if he beats three.

He has to beat four, right? It's how many you would favor Glover to beat in the top ten. Okay, but if the answer is three, that's not taking the over, correct? No, that's a push, Luke. All right, very good. All right, top ten. All right. Top 10. So I can't include 11. So you have Carlos Ulberg. Would I pick?

I don't know. Johnny Walker. Yes. I'd pick Glover over Johnny Walker. Johnny, would I pick Glover over Khalil Roundtree? Not on the feet, obviously. I think he submits him, right? He could. He could. nikita krillov i think

his takedown defense has gotten better that's two oh no no i've only picked one i'm i'm non-committal on olberg i don't know walker for sure i think he beats him uh uzdemir i don't think this is no rakic no blachowicz no blachowicz maybe but no jamal hill no no so i'm gonna take the under no i don't think wow so what to close on this topic if he did come back and if it was a big ufc fight from those last two title fights we saw both absolute brawls obviously the jamal hill one he was largely dominated though do you think he would still have what it takes to, to, to be in big fun fights at 45? I doubt less that it's a skill issue. I think his skill is pretty considerable.

And remember, like consider how good he is. And when he was in his prime, he couldn't beat the top guys 10 years ago. You know what I mean? Like this is what I, when I try to explain to people like how bad light heavyweight has gotten a much better fresher version of glover got waxed by guys like john jones and anthony rumble johnson and gus and like this is this is what i mean um i do think he's more skillful than a lot of these guys. But at 45, at 45 more generally, plus to the point you're talking about, where like, dude, like some of those, like that fight against Yuri, like how could anyone be the same after something like that?

That's going to take years off the back end. Seriously. That's what I mean. So for that reason, I believe in his skill. Yes, I do. But the body gives out, man. It's hard for me to look the other way. I'd almost let him have a BMF fight because that's all they're going to be at this point, right?

You know? Because he's got so much dog in him. The skills are a little diminished. He'll have success on the ground at times, but eventually it's going to be a war. I mean, he's a slugger, but we'll see what happens. I do love Glover, and I hope if he does fight, he fights with the full gray beard because he looks like your old neighbor who's a plumber and would kick anyone's ass if they crossed onto his yard, you know? Yeah. But also if you had to borrow his leaf blower, he'd let you

and he'd be cool about it, you know? Yeah. Well, unless you didn't bring it back. No, no, no. But I'm saying like you, if you were also a good neighbor, he'd be cool about it. There you go. All right. Number two on over under Luke, we are eight days out from the october 19th pfl super fights battle of the giants pay-per-view that's a long title in riyadh saudi arabia featuring 38 year old francis and ganu finally returning to mma after a 32 month layoff he'll take on pfl heavyweight champion i believe henin fajita all six foot eight of him so our over under number here is one and a half the total amount of mma fights that francis and gano will have inside the pfl smart cage i asked you this on this segment two plus years ago the problem is

francis never came back to mma right 32 month layoff here. So Luke Thomas, one and a half, counting the fajita fight, the total amount of MMA fights that Ngannou will have in the PFL. This is a tough one. So I think I'm going to take the over. And the reason why is because I do believe that, for example, if Francis wanted to go back to boxing and set up a fight against Deontay Wilder, would Turkey pay for that? I do think he would. I do.

How much? I don't know. I don't think it would be the same kind of check he got against Anthony Joshua at this point, but it'd be good. It'd still be a healthy, nice-sized check. People would still want to see two dynamic punchers, even if, you know, Wilder is, I mean, fucking tsunami-washed.

Well, is he? I mean, come on. Let's be honest about that. We love Deontay Wilder. He's been great for American boxing. However flawed he's been, he's fucking washed. I mean, just whiz I mean, come on. Let's be honest about that. We love Deontay Wilder. He's been great for American boxing. However flawed he's been, he's fucking washed. I mean, just whiz-oshed. Okay.

I'm going to take the over because Francis has said this week that he intends to be in the game until he's like 40, 41 or so. And I think he was 37, 38 now? 38. 38. So I think for that reason, he'll have at least another crack. Like, is he really going to fight for the PFL just once? I'm skeptical, given what he has said and given how he still has options in boxing, but they're not necessarily all that great.

If he loses to Fajita, especially if he dominates them early or something, they could just do another one of those. Give me the over. All right, there you go. Maybe I should have gone up to about two or two and a half on that. But it's like, yeah, I could see a scenario that win or lose against Fajita. The boxing opportunities aren't what they were. And he takes a couple pay-per-view fights because that's what they're.

That's why they gave him all that money and give him all that control this is what it's all about finally it's happening but you do never know luke you never know you never know if he knocks out fajita and then finds new life in boxing and he's like sorry sorry smart cage you never know if the smart cage let me ask you this let me ask you this because the scary possibility i want to be very clear about this francis has been a much better fighter and has beaten much better guys than Henan Fajeda. About that, there is simply not even an ounce of debate. But Henan Fajeda is enormous and has a gigantic punch. And if you just watch him in PFL, he's got the dim mock. He touches people they just they turn to dust okay it is very

possible he could knock out francis and ghani like that is a real thing that could totally happen if you were francis's manager and let's say he does get viciously knocked out in the first round what do you do with him i mean he got he got KTF owed against Ngannou. Like, I talked to people who know him and said, like, that was the— Joshua, against Joshua. Sorry, against Joshua. That was a legitimately tough mental and physical recovery from that. Dude, I talked to Glenn Feldman, the judge from my town here, Luke, in Connecticut,

who was there judging that night. I was like, have you seen anyone take a beating that vicious in a short period of time with a couple knockdowns he was like in my history i've never seen that type of just i mean just tee him up and just the here comes the boom luke ready or not here comes the boys from and i hate to bring it up but it's just a reality when you're talking about someone's focus, ability to do the work. I mean, he had a terrible tragedy in his life, right? Yeah. Like a profound one, a life-altering one.

I don't want to bring that up as some kind of thing where we want to discuss it too much, but we can't pretend it doesn't. It could go either way right right so that's what i'm saying like dude henning fajita could actually do it however the flip side bc what if francis goes in there and just lowers the boom on this guy i honestly feel like he could change some of his fortunes around getting a better boxing fight again if he does that i agree with that i do agree with that let's go to number three and over under luke this saturday shout him out oscar willis of the mac life will be making his bare knuckle boxing debut at bkfc marbella in spain this is also the first card into zones and i'm sorry and bkfc's new deal with the zone so

much bigger platform oscar will be taking on fellow journalists, Ben, the Bain Davis, both by the way, gave hilarious speeches at the press conference yesterday. I'm happy for both. They're maniacs though. Just let that be known. Luke, the over under in this case is three and a half. The amount of illegal substances, whether recreational drugs or PEDs, that Oscar Willis will have in his bloodstream when he steps through the ropes of that circle

to take on the Bane? The amount of illegal substances in Oscar Willis' bloodstream in Saturday's BKFC. I'm going to take the under, not because I think he's clean, but because I don't think he's smart enough to juggle four or more drugs at once. Okay. So you're going to take the under,

so you're probably thinking like three, what, like two recreational drugs in one. Like, yeah, he's got, he's got painkillers, steroids,

obviously. Uh, and then, and then, yeah. And then, well, you know what? i'll take the over yeah i'll take the over here we go here we go ready steroids obviously uh methamphetamine wow obviously painkillers and probably he's probably going to be drinking

let's just be honest about that we We're talking about Oscar Willis here. When was the last time he was sober for anything? You know what I mean? Wow. This is hard. By the way, I did ask him that on my channel. He wouldn't answer it, Luke. But hilarious, just the same.

I hope they both have a great time. I hope they don't get caught up really badly. But do you want to make a pick or no? You don't do that. I mean, they both already have horrendous teeth. So I don't think it's going to be too much of a, you know. Wow. Bane's a pretty handsome guy, isn't he?

I just, dude, did any of you grow up with brothers who insulted you or something? Like, I only grew up with that. You know what I mean? Like, I do it. People are like, you're so mean. I'm like, this is what dudes from my era do when they talk to each other. I like both of them very much. I obviously hope nothing happens to them. But I'm going to insult them along the way.

Take that. Take that. Let's go to number four. In the 1980s, Luke, you know all about the four kings, Leonard, Duran, Hagler, Hearns. The key here is those four Hall of Famers fought each other nine times in ten years. What do we have today? Hey, for lack of a better term, we have the five princes. Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis, Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez, and Shakur Stevenson,

who thus far have fought each other a total of two times. Tank versus Ryan Garcia in 2023. Ryan Garcia versus Devin Haney earlier this year. The over-under here is one and a half. The amount of times that the Boxing Five princes will have fights against one another in 2025. So you could do Ryan Tank two. You could do Ryan Haney two. You could do Shakur versus Tank.

I don't think Shakur and Haney would fight each other. There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in that, plus they too far apart um i'll take the under i'll take the under i am we we had high hopes wait did you include teofimo lopez in that one yeah there are five princes here there's five of them and he wants crawford he also is calling out tank but you know he can't cut to 135 tanks not gonna fight him at 40 or 47 right no yeah i'll take the under i mean you might get one you definitely might get one you're gonna get haney garcia too or at least you should right so did you see garcia was like i'm not going to enroll in vada did you see this i did not i see i saw that he said that he's not going to rehab because he has

a therapist and things like oh i can't i can't believe he's not going to rehab because he has a therapist and things. Oh, I can't. I can't believe he's not going to rehab. Wow. That was such an ironclad promise. How did we get here? By the way, right after he promised that he went on like a world tour partying. So he was like, yeah, I'll do it in a few months. Yeah.

No, that didn't happen. I do think we see that fight next year. I think both will act like they don't, you know, or Haney will continue to act like he doesn't want it. We'll see what happens with that lawsuit. But both are going to look in the mirror and know how much money they can make and how important it is for both of them. Ryan doing it clean, right, with no shenanigans and getting out of his suspension. And then Haney, the number one thing Haney can do to revive all the talk, which is negative right now against him, is go back in there and handle your business. So, I mean, dude, that could be, couldn't that be a legitimate like million and a half pay-per-view

with even counting illegal streams? Like it might be that big. I think it's somewhat going to be mitigated by how many N-words Ryan Garcia drops between now and then. But, you know, if he can dial back, you know, the grand wizardry that is coursing through his veins, then maybe, maybe he can get over that. Jerry was going to change his name to David Duke, but they were like,

that's not a good look, not a good look. All right, we're joking. Number five here, Luke. At age 31, former Bellator champion Yaroslav Amasov, who sports a 27-1 record despite being upset in his last fight by Jason Jackson, revealed he has fought out his Bellator contract and intends to seek a free agent deal with the UFC. You're over under, in this case, is plus 210.

The betting odds that you would assign Amosov in a UFC welterweight title fight right now against Bilal Muhammad. This is a good question. I, you know, I put in the time, Luke, I care. Okay. I definitely would make Muhammad the favorite about that. There's no question. Yes. Uh, but you're a slob. I'm a slob as BC likes to say is very well-rounded. Um, how bad is that? Jason Jackson lost, right? I mean, bad is that Jason Jackson loss right now? I mean, the thing is, Jason Jackson beat him on the feet, not on the ground. And, you know, Muhammad can strike better than we thought,

but it's still, I feel like, the majority of his game runs through that, you know. Well, you would say he's UFC ready, right? Oh, for sure. Oh, for sure. Like, can you say he's the best welterweight in the world? Probably not, but he can probably beat top five guys. I do think that's probably true. Certainly top 10 at a bare minimum. Man, that's a great...

I'll probably... You know what? Logan Storley gave him a tough time, but I think Bilal's better than that. So I'll say... I'll take a slight over. I would maybe say a little bit more than plus 210 closer to like plus 240 250 something like that and it would depend who we who had beat

to get to that point right but i was causing a scenario where he came in day one which wouldn't happen but that's the i i think i think plus 210 is actually in the ballpark i might go a little bit higher interesting all right you'll take the over let's go to number six jake paul posted a tiktok video on tuesday offering five million dollars to mike tyson should the soon-to-be route 59 year old or 58 year old last at least four of their scheduled eight rounds in their november 15th netflix heavyweight super fight the over under here is two and a half the total number of combined knockdowns that we will see when Tyson and Jake Paul show up on Netflix man that is a great question I have not thought about wow total number of combined knockdowns well here's the thing the one issue is that they're not gonna

let mike get pummeled you're right for knockdowns you're right you know what i mean actually you have to ask yourself this bc are they gonna let mike tyson beat the count even if he does you know what i mean like even if he beats the count at 58 are they gonna let him get knocked down and then keep fighting i think the comparison here is when 58 year old holyfield fought vitor belford on triller and they did they gave him a short leash and he got knocked down a few times because his balance was so bad meaning holyfield once he got hit for the first time he lost all balance dude they pulled that quick they didn't like wait till he got knocked out cold do you think I mean this fight is a much much much bigger platform than that but I tend to lean on your side that you're not going to see Tyson get get a chance to get knocked down three times unless it's super competitive and they

happen like you know one early one you know I'm saying like if they happen like, you know, one early, one, you know what I'm saying? Like if they happen in any close succession, they're going to protect him. Oh, man, this is such a great question. Jesus, I have, dude, I have not thought about. I've kind of thought about like, you know, it's probably going to be sad and Jake Paul's probably going to win because every time I thought Jake Paul was going to get beaten by an MMA guy early on anyway, I don't think that obviously any longer. Like I thought Silva had a chance, obviously.

Not that Diaz did, but I thought we both thought thought Silva had a chance obviously. Not that Diaz did. We both thought that Silva had a chance and then he just got walloped. He's going to be 10 years more than that. Fucking hell. I'll take the under only because they're not going to let Mike get... If he gets knocked

down twice, they're going to call it. Of course, he could knock down Jake get knocked down himself and then Jake you'd get you know one more knockdown which would be three obviously but I think I think that I listen Jake Paul is the king of I you got to appreciate his hustle you have to appreciate the business

he's built for himself and I genuinely do we've seen it up close it's impressive but he's a sandbagger and this is what we think is probably sandbagging. And so for that reason, I'm going to say two. All right. All right. Got two more of these left.

Here we go. Number seven. Saturday's UFC headliner, the aforementioned Brandon Royval, made headlines this week when he, as we talked about, revealed that he turned down an offer to fight Akai Asakura at UFC 305 in Perth because quote Roy Ball said I am not a cheap prostitute anymore end quote so Luke uh the year over under here is 70 the percentage of active UFC fighters who you believe would literally accept any fight offered by the UFC when they call.

I'm not saying every single one of those are cheap ass prostitutes, but over under on 70% of the roster would say, Oh, Hey, Sean and Mitch, how are you? I'm in. No, I would take the under. And the reason why is because I have had many conversations with, well, I've talked to the UFC matchmakers before I've talked to, but I've talked to all the matchmakers. I've talked to the ufc matchmakers before i've talked to but i've talked to all the matchmakers i've talked to wecs bellator's matchmakers guys turn down fights all the time all the time now you're right like well don't they eventually say yes yes if you just keep

picking up the phone you turn over enough rocks you will 100 find worms about that there's no no question about it but the amount of fights that people turn down especially on short notice the the one see you you fucked up the question because what you should have said was for 2x what they made at their last fight if you said that then i would say yes the answer is 70 but like just based on what's in their contract they're gonna turn it down like all the time yeah i'll take the under so what do you think the percentage is and it doesn't mean they're all stupid businessmen people pride themselves on saying i disagree with it but they pride themselves on saying i don't pick my fights i fight whoever the ufc says to

what do you i'm not sure what you're asking oh what the actual percentage would be i mean yeah probably sub 40 somewhere around there all right all right yeah i do i do agree with you mick mick and mitch mick mick maynard and uh sean do have a very tough job these days finally look we go to number eight here conor mcgregor was interviewed in las vegas by the schmo on tuesday where he said that not only does he still plan on fighting Michael Chandler in 2025, he said he's talking with the UFC about multiple names regarding opponents to fight before that in his comeback, because Chandler has a fight first against Charles Oliveira. The problem, of course, is that every time we see McGregor in public and on camera,

he looks like he just auditioned for the lead role of Motley Crew lead singer, if you know what I mean. So Luke, your over under here is 340, 340. The amount of days Conor McGregor has been intoxicated or worse since one year ago today. Dude, I'm taking the over on that hard fucking core are you shitting me you're gonna give me a 25 day window of uh i mean get the fuck out of here this guy i don't mean has one one style i mean he's go you know he's he's part he's getting after it you know yeah i'll take the i'll take the over i'll take the over i mean this is the easiest call on earth i'll take the over a million so of 356 you're like of the amount of days 356 365 365 i'm sorry 365 you know it's the ct luke um you're you're going what 365 i mean

what are we doing here i'll go 364 and a half i mean there's probably been like a morning or two where he was sober till like noon and then after that like all bets are off like dude i mean i'm not even mad about it like the guys in a stage of his life are off like dude i mean i'm not even mad about it like the guys in a stage of his life were like i mean you know i i don't know if i would want to do it if i had his kind of money i don't know if i would want to party like this but i'm just pointing out like you beat the game dude you beat it like what's the best you can do in the fight world you can beat the game he fucking did that he did it he 100 did it. He 100% did it. You should, again, I'm not saying you should be like this drunkenly and all the time, but like on a basic level, you should be enjoying your life.

That's what you should be doing. So he enjoys it by, you know, this shit, which is whatever it says. That's, that's his call. But like, I'm not even bitter about that. I just don't like, we just got to, you know, you have to call it what it is. This is the stage of the life he's in.

Do you remember that first interview on that BKFC pay-per-view when Feldman brought in Connor and announced him as the, as like a new partner and people like zoomed in on Connor's face whenever he was like, yeah, yeah, he was the freaking weekend, Luke,

for sure. Wow. That is wild there. That's your over under for the week. Oh, yeah, yeah. He was the freaking weekend, Luke, for sure. Wow, that is wild there. That's your over under for the week. Luke, did we want to close with some? Yes. Hey, let's we don't we don't have imaging for this yet. We're all the stuff still being built, but I want to try something.

It's a Friday. We have just a little bit of time left in the show. And how about we try something where I'm going to call it, to start maybe, between rounds. Here's how this works. Very simple, very simple. Tell me one thing going on in your life that has nothing to do with fight sports. Can be anything as long as it has absolutely nothing to do with fight sports. Between rounds, BC, you go first.

I teased this topic when i was asked about uh caitlin clark on my live chat this week and i can't believe i'm saying this i cannot believe i'm saying this look i've come completely around not to a diehard level not to a creepy you know old guy level i've come around on super elite women's basketball and i think last night's game one of the wmba finals that insane game at msg between the liberty and the links really proved exactly what i'm trying to say whether we're talking about you know the caitlyn clark experience at elite college level the last couple years or the impact that that rookie class in general has had on the WNBA this year, mixed with all of those, you know, names that we kind of know, dude, I used to watch WNBA

in the beginning a lot. Cause I was such a diehard NBA fan. And for a lot of this run, you know, the quality of play was, was just subpar. It was just not what so many of us are looking for. Maybe it plays into this idea that I'm just unhappy with today's NBA game. It is just so supercharged and, you know, dunk from a step inside the free throw line or hit a three from 35 feet up and down the floor. It's a different game from when I was, you know, infected and injected and living and loving it. Dude, the elite WNBA game today, I cannot believe it. It's pretty damn good. The defense is through the roof.

It's physical as hell. The teamwork, the skill, the scoring, the deep shots, the rivalries, the fighting at times. Like, it's kind of everything what the 90s NBA used to be. And I keep telling myself shooting from way outside also like the modern NBA not as many but yes without question I mean Caitlin Clark's pulling up from inside half court I'm just saying like they have figured it out and it's not just Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and and the otheries that have, you know, Cameron Brink that have made a big name here.

The game is really good in ways it never was. And obviously it's picked up in terms of interest. And now you're seeing celebrities that, you know, it's, it's, it's becoming like a business now finally, but like, I'm going to be that cynic in the corner. That's like, yeah, yeah. But who cares until I tuned in and was like, this is competitive, intense, a sport I love. I love to watch, you know, almost as much as I love to get inside the box. And I am real.

I mean, watch the highlights from last night's game one. I mean, it's ridiculous. This is, it's pretty awesome if you love basketball. And I know most people are already up on that, but, you know, there's a lot of those curmudgeons, you know. I mean know how many wmba jokes did you make in the late 90s luke you know we used to get real drunk and be like let's show up with signs protesting at the games you know go back to the kitchen yay massage someone once asked me a serious question they go what would you rather do get courtside seats to a WNBA final game or find $5 in your pocket?

And you're like, you take the fiver. You just take the fiver, but not anymore, man. Not anymore. It's different. So, you know, I don't like schedule my life around it, but I'm watching the highlights and, or, or, you know, they'll, they'll make like half hour condensed highlights of these games and these great moments. And I'm, I'm kind of enthralled here uh and you know i know you can make a uh strawweight comparison there but i you know it's it's about it's not even about that luke dude i so like you know you know one of the big stories was caitlin clark had you know obviously has injected so much life into the league that some of these teams are chartering their own flights now i took a couple flights years ago uh like i think i took one in like arizona i forget where i was going and maybe arizona to that some of these teams are chartering their own flights. Now I took a couple of flights years ago. Uh,

like I think I took one in like Arizona. I forget where I was going. It may be Arizona to Texas, something like that. And the WNBA team got on board. First of all, I was amazed. Like many of them were taller than me and I'm six foot four.

Like they were tall. And then the other one was like, they were pretty attractive. Like I'm not, I'm not, I'm not going to lie. Like they were, they were body for days. They had body for days. They had body for it, I'm not, I'm not going to lie. Like they were, they were body for days.

They had body for days. They had body for it, which is not the reason why you want to watch. In fact, quite the opposite. I actually have been watching WNBA too. Cause my, cause,

cause Tukes, she loves balance Sesto. If you know what I'm saying, she loves that game. So she'll watch it as well. She, we didn't watch the finals, whatever,

but like through the course of the season, we were definitely watching the mystic. She wants to go to, she's been asking to go to a Mystics game this whole time. Uh-oh, did you freeze? Did he freeze? You sounded like you were remixing. It sounded like you were... Oh, you got that McDonald's Wi-Fi, bitch.

I think you have it. No, I think it's you. I don't think it's me. Long Island Luke, who had it? It's BC. He's still kind of jittery he's coming coming back now yeah you got you got that piece of shit country bumpkin middle of nowhere connecticut fucking wi-fi all right i'll do mine for uh my uh between rounds

here one thing going on in my life that has nothing to do with uh fight sports bc i i don't get to the movies very often and i know everyone has already seen this i'm not really telling you anything you don't probably already know how did you see the wolverine deadpool movie or the deadpool wolverine movie it's not the kind of thing i'll go after unless my kids are really into it and they haven't mentioned it so no i haven't seen it they did not even your kids didn't want to see it dude they they live on their phone on youtube and if it doesn't come through that way you know then they're not gonna what they did they sit in their room with a massive tv and never turn it on and

just live through youtube which i guess i do too luke in hotel rooms killing time so you know spider-man meme well you can watch it on your phone now too i watch it on fandango at home so you can buy that's actually how i went i did not go to the movie theater i waited till i came home on streaming and so if you've been like me and you have a kid you never get a chance to go do anything fun anymore uh I'm teasing uh you can wait till the movie comes home let me just say this let me just say this I am very much uh kind of sick of the uh both the superhero movie and the anti-superhero movie. And I'm sick of the multiverse stuff.

And I thought I was sick of like the Deadpool shtick, which is like, you know, taking nothing seriously. And it's, you know, a homoerotic kind of humor. So I went in with like being like, all right, I'm going to watch it. But like, how good could it possibly be? Dude, it's great. It is actually really kind of fun. And some of it fell flat for me but most of it didn't and i'll say this there are at least at least four different cameos more than that but there's at least four

different cameos in the movie because i had not seen any spoilers or anything like that i just went into it as is there are four different cameos in this movie that are fucking awesome one in particular that is epic epic and uh it actually worked i actually thought it was i i was very surprised at how much i ended up liking it um they were able to like like uh what's the Aussie donk who plays Wolverine? What's his name? No Seda? No. Hugh Jackman. Hugh Jackman.

Hugh Jackman. He was able to be both himself and then, you know, like match the Deadpool energy because he was obviously in a Deadpool universe, so to speak. That worked out really well. And the storytelling kind of worked. The pacing worked. Dude, like, it was fun i legitimately thought it was a really really fun movie all right i i recommend it with those type of movies unless it's thor love and thunder and i can you know get you upset but love and thunder is like one of the worst movies ever made i enjoyed it in the theater but i hate that genre dude that's all the movies

are these days right i just sound like an old man yelling at the clouds. Hey, speaking of the clouds, did you, I don't, I don't, it definitely didn't extend to DC. My wife is so huge into weather and weird stuff like that. And Aurora Borealis. I did see them yesterday. Yes. Yes. I went to the front yard and couldn't believe what I was looking at.

I had a moment yesterday and you're going to, this is like when you know, you're just a completely old, dumb fuck, loser, bitch ass motherfucker. Like I am. Yeah. I had to go meet someone yesterday at the Washington monument.

There's a project that I've been a part of that is going to debut next week that everyone's going to see. So I, this was the last piece that had to, we had to work it out to make that happen. And so this was at the golden hour so like it got i finished with what i was doing at like 6 30 6 45 huh you said golden do you know what the golden hour is do you know what the golden hour is i get it yeah it was it was like like the last hour of hanging out with r. Kelly. That's the golden hour shower.

The golden hour, for folks who don't know, is the last hour before sundown. And you get a certain yellowy kind of glow with the sun and the light. Anyway, so I was biking home from the Washington Monument, which for folks who are looking on the map, it's 15th and Constitution.

And I had to go essentially eastward. And behind the Capitol was the Aurora Bora borealis and the bike lane is actually right in the middle of pennsylvania and i got to go for like a mile just looking at the capital on my bike with beautiful weather with the pink hue in the background it was as as my in-laws would say espectacular it was unbelievable i had such a moment i was like this is beautiful now i also was high i also was high but still um it was all like pinkish red in in my area i saw jay paquette's pictures from nova scotia shout out to mount unike crew up there it was uh you know green and other colors mixed in i mean Unike crew up there. It was, you know, green and

other colors mixed in. I mean, that's art, Luke. That's true art. That is art. That's that's the universe's art. It was beautiful. I also want to mention and I know you saw the the clips for it on Twitter. I don't know if you saw it yet. Did you watch Top Ranks the Fight Life on ESPN Plus? I have not. I have not. Dude dude you are going to love this i had i saw all the commercials and we're like yeah we don't really need this it'll probably be decent but whatever dude this series is freaking awesome luke awesome like you mentioned in a way we know so little about in a way largely because of the language difference and the fact that he mostly fights in tokyo dude getting the cameras to follow him around for 48 hours before the fight,

having him sit down with his coach and just chat and stuff like that kind of stuff is super interesting. But how that series covers the business at large, like the chances Top Rank took by bringing cameras into their pitch meetings and like it's all honest and real and raw, kind of like the UFC Roku. In that regard, dude, this is really, it's like honest and real and raw kind of like the UFC Roku in that regard dude this is really it's like showing boxing war and all here it is and it's on ESPN plus yes it's on ESPN plus they do build each episode around one fight and they take you up and through it but

they do a lot of uh the inside of the boxing business just the same. And I loved it. Man, I haven't seen some good boxing content that good in a while. They nailed the tone of it perfectly. All right, I'll have to check that out. I know you've been effusive with praise about it, but I got to say it. Yeah, I'm very effusive in general. Wow, Luke, what an episode. What a two hours of just bang bros, right?

We're back. Back. And we got paid. Yay! Well, not yet, but we'll no no you know what i mean yeah yeah yeah there you go uh could not be more excited to be back in the lives of you folks from 11 a.m to 1 p.m every single week uh long island luke thank you thank you for playing your role in this i mean this guy's decently valuable to this show you'd say luke thomas right yeah i mean he's never sober

but he's always there and for that reason i i value him there you go guys appreciate it check out the main card yeah get out of here we don't you don't need that uh luke any uh any weekend plans any messages to close what do you got i have to go to a kid's party tomorrow but then after that i am going to be doing the better be a bit of all watch along please join me for that and then of course monday's mk will react to everything plus we're going to set the the Better Be Bivol watch-along. Please join me for that. And then, of course, Monday's MK will react to everything. Plus, we're going to set the table for Big Francis' return. This month, dude, is fucking bananas. Two UFC pay-per-views, the return of Big Francis,

Better Be Bivol. I mean, what else do you want? And Halloween to cap it all off. Let's fucking go. The only one thing that can make that better, Monday, 12 p.m. Eastern. Randy Cooter on MK to set the stage. What do you think?

Come on. Come on. What do you think? This time. This time, right? I'm good. I'm past. I love Randy. He's great, but I'm good on that. He likes grass on the field. We've already established that. Okay, yo. For our fantastic team here, guys.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you to you folks for sticking by us through some tough times in the family. But we back. Morningcombat at gmail.com is where you can start sending in those fan subs, dead wrongs. Pitch us some ideas. Tell us what you think. Let's build this thing back up from the ground.

That's Luke Thomas. I'm your boy bc follow us support us continue this thank you we're back we're not going anywhere enjoy the fights this weekend 6 p.m eastern time espn plus better bfb vault it's gonna be wild can't wait for it we are out