MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Burns Washed or Morales Legit? UFC Fight Night Recap and Welterweight Rankings | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Join Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell live in studio to talk all things from UFC Fight Night: Burns vs. Morales. In the weekend's main event, 25-year-old Michael Morales steamrolled veteran Gilbert Burns inside the first round. Is the takeaway that Morales is about to break out in the division or that Burns is washed at this point? There's more to discuss from the rest of the Fight Night event like Mairon Santos looking good against Sodiq Yusuff. Where does Santos go from here? Melquizael Costa and Julian Erosa had a sensational fight. How high is Costa's ceiling after his win? Plus, the guys have fun ranking the welterweight division and boxing news. Happy MK Monday Donks!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Oh, ha ha Get fired up. It's Monday morning and we are here to bang. It's morning combat. The best damn combat sports show that they ever put together. Maybe maybe maybe the best thing to happen to Monday since what? Thank you very much. Hey, Brian Campbell, one half of your hosting duo today, Monday, May 19th, 2025. That gentleman right there, fresh off the cracking open of a pink monster energy drink.

Monster ultra strawberry dreams. Looks like this, this job is going to drive me to an early death. No, that can right there, Luke. That can will. No, I don't think that's right. I think the chronic. It's not really the job. It's just my body failing me. Yes. Yeah.

Yes. Well, you know, you used to have body for days. Now you're down to hours and minutes left, but hey, we're going to have a great show for you today on this side. Uh, this episode of morning combat is brought to you by DraftKings and with DraftKings, the crown is your shout out to everybody watching. How do we not have a monster or, and listen, I'll hold it up for just a, well, not every energy drink because they're not all created equal.

I'll clear it up for forward up for green liquid. I'll tell you that. I know you will. Well, what I was going to say was there's a few different energy drink companies that I would tolerate. How do we not have a talk to our deal with them? You know what I'm saying? I actually use this. How do we not have bomb deals with them? You know what I'm saying? I actually use this shit.

How do we not have bomb deals? Let's get Nocita on that. We are, oh wow, hey, there you go right there. Shout out to everybody watching on the DraftKings Network, on YouTube, at Morning Combat, or wherever you find fine audio podcasts. And you can see right there are handles to follow us, the show on socials. Also also are extended YouTube channels. Did you put out a very moving important interview in the Luke's Luke Thomas substack this week? Yeah, yeah, but not on it's not on YouTube. It's almost up stack. Yeah.

Well, I put out a teaser. The real one goes probably live tomorrow, maybe Wednesday, the latest. Okay. And there's a Comedy Central coming up that the teaser video that came out yesterday has you in it. Uh, it does. Yeah. Um, they told me they were going to let me know when it was going to air and they

never heard from them. So it's going to air real soon. I guess it's like a separate daily show special. Yeah, that's right. That's right. So I guess that's soon. I guess we'll see a lot to come in the land of Luke Thomas. We got a third member of this fantastic team coming at you today. He's from that Long Island. His name is Luke. It's Luke Nocita of the

main card minute. And that's all we have to say about how we got here. Yeah. Never came from any men's. No, I guess I did. But yeah. Yeah. Hey guys. Do you guys call your dad's balls down, down under? No, but that's good. I got to use that. I like that. What's up my brother guy? This is a true thing. This is true in the world of iPads, in the world of tablets kids Don't get bored anymore My daughter does because we don't allow her to use that at all, but kids get bored

They don't they don't think like they don't know what it's like to go on a road trip For however long and you got to just count the rocks and shit like they don't know what that and I one time was like I was so fucking bored. I Was doing a 20 questions with my brother. I was like, I got one you're never gonna guess. And he goes, is it dad's Becker? Wow. And it was!

How did we end up here in the backseat? It was! It was Thomas' siblings. It was, it was! He got it on the first question. Wow. What a moment in Thomas brother history there, bonding over their dad's dong. Right on brand for the old MK. That's how we do it here.

Luke, did you have a nice weekend? Did Tookie get new shoes? What's going on? Tookie did not get new shoes, but we took her to a kids dance party yesterday and she ran into a bunch of her classmates there. You're not going to believe this. I didn't tell you this. I'll tell you now. I ran into not one, but two MK dogs at your, at the kids dance party. Yeah. Okay. And they were super friendly. They were super friendly. And, and then she had a play date and then the neighbor kids came over. Yeah, it was a whole thing

That's great. That's great. My kids had their junior prom. I mean what a time to be a how did they enjoy it? They loved it. They absolutely loved it. They don't they know one really dances at these apparently now It's just like a big Instagram picture fest now like you did they come home covered in Taco Bell and shame? No, no Nothing, it's a it's a different time right now. These kids don't party They didn't grow up in a factory town like I did luckily You know they weren't huffing gas behind the art you know they were they were not back there But yeah, I did what a weekend to be a dad though

So everything's good, and then I played my song one-on-one in the driveway yesterday and pulled out another old man Bankshot victory did you do the Paul Pierce? You know did you call game or did you call bank? No, I called game. Uh, the amount of old dad shots that I'm still relying upon to hold off his inevitable takeover of my cardio and experience and skill here. But a couple of dirty dad elbows when you need them, you know, uh, long on Luke, another weekend of skipping out on being your, uh, boyfriend of some woman that I'm sure exists. How was that? good man it was a good card seven of eleven finishes

you know if it was a C on paper I think it was a B in execution was there an eighth finish that night if you know what I'm saying maybe he was a very good boyfriend I'm in a mood also Luke my son Chris tracked me on Friday ran a mile in 429 429 he's only nine seconds away. He's ready for states. You know getting ready. He's getting fired up. That is him, dude That's a that's an extremely impressive. Wow What's your fastest mile by 56 I think it's better mine's about six. Yeah. Yeah. That's about six. Here we go. Sharing mile times. It's a great time. Hey, we do have combat sports to talk about. We're going to break down all things. Well, let's be honest. I mean, it was UFC Nubfest.

Yeah. UFC Apex recap. We'll look at this loaded, funny shit, welterweight division within the UFC. Also look at the future of TKO boxing and by proxy that announced partnership with Turkey Al-Asheq. Is it on the rocks? There's a lot to talk about within that. We will also get to your DMs and maybe check out the colonels in my shit to close. Look, I hope we got a big finish right there. If you know what I mean, right?

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for supporting that. All right. Hey, why don't we just start the show, though, and get right into it off the top with the first topic. And that, of course, is UFC Fight Night Las Vegas. It was the apex once again. And in the main event, a welterweight tilt as Gilbert Burns and 25 year old wrecking ball, Michael Morales. We wondered why the odds were so wide in favor of Morales.

And I know there was a great argument to talk this off into 38 year old Gilbert Burns being that gatekeeper one more time. But we got this one wrong in a big way, Luke, because Morales positively steamrolled his established veteran opponent in less than one round. Is the takeaway here, Luke, that Morales is absolutely about to break out in this hot division and add himself to those knocking on the title picture door. Or is the story more that Burns with his fourth straight defeat at age 38, to use this term, thoroughly washed.

Where does the meter fall on that divide? Well, I'm... Because I thought he Burns was in this until he wasn't. Yeah, I mean, this is a tough one. So we were talking about this with Long Island Luke before the show. When we get up here as old washed pieces of crap who knows what it means to be washed, you have to understand something.

When we say that these fighters who get in these tough long fights, which Gobert has been in a number of them, sometimes on the winning side, sometimes on the losing side, when we say that they leave a piece of themselves in the ring or the octagon, we're not kidding. I mean, we're not being literal with it, but we're obviously being in reference to the toll that it takes. To me, Burns looked in shape. And to me, Burns never fights with a lack of intentionality.

He always has a sense about what he wants to do and what the terms are that have to be established in order to do it. But what it did look like to me, BC, was that his ability to withstand punishment has been pretty compromised by this point. He just didn't have the physical sturdiness that he once did. He was in shape. He was getting off despite that incredible reach disadvantage of eight inches that you can say it. But when you see it on the screen, it's another thing.

It's absurd. It's absurd. It's a piston jab too. I thought he was looking good, but those looping punches around the guard effed him up. Yeah, I mean the jab brings your hands up like this and then he would loop over. Remember, you hit him with that uppercut too. Yes. And hit him from so far away.

I think a lot of that stunned Gilbert and Gilbert was, I think, not in terms of his preparation in the gym, unready for it, but his body can simply no longer tolerate this kind of a thing. Whereas I think before, maybe he would have lost anyway, BC, but it would have taken probably a lot longer. I mean, a year ago he had the current champion, Jack Delamattalena, on the verge of losing, like two minutes ago. So this is my point, like, I don't think there's any way to have this conversation about the fight and not acknowledge that Gilbert

Understandably is simply not what he once was and we have a high degree of respect for Gilbert Burns and for a guy Who's very honest about his state. I suspect that he will have Some admission that this is the thing for him as well on the other side BC on the Michael Morales side I mean, let's talk about Okay, so I have so I have good things to say but I also think we need to keep something in mind yeah he is gigantic for welterweight and he's just 25 here's my view he's not gonna live at this weight class for too much longer did he looked massive can we see the the the tweet here to to ex exfoliate that yeah I mean this was 12 if you take off the lower third yeah

12 hours after the fight he was basically 200 can you imagine what he would have been 24 hours or after the weigh-in? Excuse me what he would have been he is enormous for the weight class. He's 25 years old by the time He's 30. I suspect he will not be in this way This is a Rumble Johnson situation or not well Rumble Johnson missed a bunch of times And you know I don't know that he's 30 I suspect he will not be in this way cause this is a Rumble Johnson situation or not? Well Rumble Johnson missed a bunch of times and you know I don't know that he's quite on that level but there's the credit card thing but we don't bring that up a lot. Okay putting that aside yes yes putting that aside finally so to answer the question like what is this future at welterweight for the time being the sky sky's the limit. But I do think that you cannot keep doing what he's doing

as you age and maintain your competitiveness. But as it stands for the next year, two, or maybe even three BC, he's got a dynamite jab. He is obviously a physical beast. He's a predator. He's a predator. He's got a good combination of jab and then hook, which he uses to set it all up

Which I just referenced his takedown defense Which we said going in was 93% looked dynamite in this fight and Gilbert putting him through his paces a little bit Testing it didn't matter still got up right away. We took an L We missed that he you predict him to win, but we missed that it was going to be run right through him well, because the one thing I do want to though is, like, part of the story is Burns' decline. Sure. Part of the story is Morales is huge for this weight class, which I don't think is sustainable over the long term,

and part of it is his ability that is quite good. But the other part is the thing that we did pick up on. You know, this technique is still pretty raw. Like, he makes a lot of positional mistakes. He makes a lot of, he takes a lot of risks because I think he feels that these guys can't hurt him. It doesn't really matter. Eventually he's going to land and score it. So to me, he's still raw as a prospect. He's a raw beast, but pretty green still 18 and Oh,

coming off first round knockouts of Neil Magni and Gilbert Burns, and that doesn't happen typically. So Luke, separate from how many fights does he have left at welterweight, and he won't be here for long, which I can understand saying that. Separate from that, what he would have needed coming into Saturday's card to make enough noise in this division to insert himself into an already overflowing and crowded conversation atop of this, a conversation that we are now injecting the best fighter in the world Islam Mahicev into. He would have needed what? Exactly this in this kind of efficiency

to enter this. So separate from how long he'll be here while he's here, even with the flaws. When you have an 8 inch reach advantage over someone like that, and he's going to have an advantage like that against a lot of opponents. We're going to get into this division at large and a couple topics from now and pinpoint where everybody belongs in our mind, but he's got to be added to the title discussion now, does he not? He does, but he reminds me of Francis, I mean he's better than this, but it reminds me of Francis Ngannou before the first Stipe fight, where he was, again it's not quite the same thing because... He just delivered the knockout of the year against Overim like a month and a half earlier. Right, but what I mean is you watch him in that Stipe fight and he's ringing Stipe's bell and he's dangerous, but he also gets overwhelmed, now part of that was the wrestling too,

but he gets overwhelmed and wasn't technically there. And I think it kind of cost him in the end. I'm not saying he's as far back as that. I think Francis was really far behind. It's a, it's a loose comparison, but to me, there's just a lot of work left to be done. And again, I want to say it, he's 25 of all the hot young guns at 170, he is the youngest. He's got the most amount of time to get better. But like if you look at the polish in someone's game of who's maybe the oldest of the young guns, Sean Brady at 32, his ground game is super refined, super refined. And I would say JDM standup, pretty, pretty damn refined as well. To me, Morales has some of that. Again, the

take down defense lights out very good, but he gets by a lot on his physical abilities, which I don't think is the end of the world. This is what I, how many times I sound like a broken record on this god damn show. We got to slow roll him a little bit here. I know he just be burns, but I don't want to jump him right to the front of the division. Maybe give him one or two more good ones before we really launch him up. Dude, I did not think we were getting this. I want to overreact. I want to throw myself into the hyperbole hyperbole zone now with this long Alan Luke Can you bring some level of clear-headed sanity to this did this scream? Future title contender we need to take this guy seriously or are there levels to this and as he climbs to that elite level It's not gonna be this easy. I just feel like I didn't learn enough about either guy in this fight.

Truth be told, I don't know if Gilbert's done yet. I don't know if he still has some left in the tank. I don't know if Michael Morales is a fucking killer or just caught an older Gilbert. Michael Morales versus Leon Edwards, though, I like him. Hell yeah. So many good matchups to make in this division. Michael Morales sat down after this fantastic breakthrough victory.

He had a different name in mind, and it's a name he's been talking about for a while. Let's hear from Mike. Who makes sense for you next, and what are the names that you wanna call out that you'd like to be in there in the octagon with? I talked about Ian Gary. That's the fighter that I've always wanted to fight.

But I know that he's won in the last fight. So he's looking up in the rankings right there. So that might not happen. But I said, the fight that I would really like to make, the biggest thing is just being healthy and just kind of recovering from a couple of strikes that I had. And I took to be in Guadalajara. I think that if that fight, if they're able to make it,

I would like to fight whoever in Guadalajara. But I think that at that fight, if they're able to make it, I would like to fight whoever, you know, in what are. But I think that at this point, taking advantage of opportunities and being grateful for opportunities to fight maybe the sixth, the fifth, the fourth in the ranking and will take an opportunity that God gives us to do. Look, he's both a killer and an extreme mama's boy, not hiding it one bit. He has a cool look. Dude, I wanna I wanna awaken to what he can bring to the table because this is fun.

He's young. He gets after it. He's a problem. He's a problem. Of course, like you're saying, you got to see that leveraged against a lights out wrestler. You got to see that leverage against somebody like Ian Gary who has that defense to be able to kind of shut you down. I want to find out those answers quicker on him than I do some of the other guys in this division though, because sometimes

it's fun to have somebody that breaks the rules that may still have holes in their games that may not be completely well rounded, but they come in through there with that excitement and he has that that spark that is refreshing in this division at the moment. It is refreshing. I know it's going to kind of get lost a little bit. It's not the biggest story.

It's not even the top 10 biggest stories. But I do want to say something else. It's nice to see South American prospects who are doing good work outside of Brazil. And what I mean to say is like you can kind of count on Brazil to just constantly pump talent into the pipeline basically from flyweight to heavyweight and in the women's divisions as well.

They're good for it. But the Spanish speaking part of South America has kind of, well not kind of, has severely lagged behind. Now in North America, Mexico on a Spanish speaking side is now pumping a bunch of prospects in. But anyway. Shout out to Argentina with Aileen Perez.

Argentina's had a few along the way. Argentina's kind of like pulling up the ridder a little bit, but the point I wanna make is like, here comes a guy, Chito before him, obviously was doing this as well. It's just great to see the talent begin to disperse through vast parts of the globe, and that's something we shouldn't lose sight of.

But I still believe, I still believe, he's got a ton of talent, but it's a problem in MMA when you can be so physically imposing that you can jump further than what your talent level actually suggests you belong. But then the matchmakers are like, well, he keeps winning, so we're just going to keep bumping him up. I don't know what it's going to mean long term.

And again, I do think he's going to end up at middleweight. I just don't think he can maintain this. But for right now, he's a fucking handful. Topic number three, we're going to break down this division at length and rate the fighters and kind of matchmake for the future. But let's play one matchmaking game now with Morales. What is the right next fight for? The Leon one I like.

Let me pull up the rankings if I can here because the other names, the young guns that he's measured against, I don't know if I like any of those fights. I don't, if I like any of those fights. I don't let me back up. All of them would be fun, and he might even win some, but I don't know that they're the right fights to make. So to answer the question a little bit more nimbly. Man, see, this is what a problem he's already there. You could do Buckley.

Excuse me. You could do Buckley. You could do Buckley Excuse me bless you. You could do Buckley you could do Covington Want to Covington? No. No, I don't why not Covington Covington's on the on the way way out for me I mean, I know this would at least be utilizing what he has left brand-wise to the best of your powers to at least Morales try to put over a younger fighter, but I try to put over a younger fighter, but It feels too similar to the Gilbert win Kobe like okay, but like look at Buckley's been doing they doing the old man tour Right just after the after the rusa boy fight. He's just been fighting unks out there it going going to the now

He's getting tomorrow We still ranked in the top five Lee has been going to various various family gatherings around the country and just beating up everyone's unks and look what it's done for his career look what it's done for his development it's done fantastic things why can't we do that for Michael Morales he could be a legend killer I'm not necessarily against that I just don't want I'm so sick of Colby dude I'm just so freaking all the more reason for this 25 year old to go in there and just dent up his dough I think you can say the same thing about Burns his future and what is there a get well fight with Burns coming off of four losses. Colby might be that. I'd almost rather use Colby for that.

But I guess either way you're just using Colby to give somebody else a potential run. Let's forget using Colby Getsum. Let's hear from Gilbert Burns. He did put out a post fight message. This was on social media on the IG. Thankful for this journey! I'm still super blessed, of course. Wasn't the outcome I was looking forward to, especially for this one. I work extremely hard.

Who saw? Saw. But it's the fight game and it's life. Congrats to my opponent there. Wishing you and your team all the success. That's it. No sad stories. Grateful for this beautiful journey and for all the lessons. God is good all the time. All honors, praise and glory give to him and winner defeat Luke. He's coming back there He said let's take some time off and let's come back for straight defeats all against elite opponents or in this case

Someone who's looking like a killer on the rise up Competition-wise he's still there we broke down the previous three defeats before this and how much he was very much still there in each of those fights to a certain degree. Yeah, but close to only council portion. I know, but he's not getting flatlined. I know obviously he did get KO'd kind of brutally by JDM there and that was a fight that turned away from him late.

But he's no longer chasing a title, but there's still a place for him if he wants it. What you're observing is that Gilbert is so technically proficient and such a studious Preparer that he really never goes into any of these fights outgunned in that particular sense But to me the common denominator through all these losses is these younger guys Have a level of in certain cases craftiness or brute force that is proving to be too much of a match. No matter Gilbert's smarts and technical proficiency and no matter the

level of preparation that I'm sure he puts in. There's really no question in my mind that he does that. Again, at some point, dude, your body just begins to fail you. Dude, fighting at 38 years old at 170 pounds is tough. That is tough. That's a tough thing to do. You got a 25 year old with an 8 or 9 inch reach advantage with a jab that hurts and stings and rocks your shit. It's a tough fucking business, man. It's tough. He's got too much left for his own good because it'd be hard to tell. All the more reason to walk I'm not saying he has to walk now. So

No GFL coming through that door. I don't think GF else coming through any door other than the bankruptcy one, but If the if Gilbert wanted to fight Colby, right we could do that. We could do that fight I think that fight would be potentially something worthwhile that maybe fans could get behind And I think I would favor Gilbert to win that one. But before on last week, we were noting that like, oh, well, Gilbert's proficiency might give a guy like Morales a little bit of trouble. But then when you see that the physical deterioration

just makes it hard to deal with, that's when I think you don't have to look for the exit right this instant, but it is the cue to begin to look for the exit. All right, it it is the cue to begin to look for the exit. All right. It was back to Morales quick to close this out. There was potential for us to be able to see him truly challenged, pushed past the third round for the first time as a pro. Maybe if he's down on the fight cards having to rally back.

We didn't get that because he was so proficient in getting him out of there kind of savagely. So, Luke, if you could have one question answered on what we don't know about Michael Morales moving forward or in his next fight. What's the what's the key question that you would need to know to say? Yeah, one day this guy could fight for a while to wait time. What does he do if somebody fully neutralizes his jab? now Understand something he does something that I absolutely Love and you hear me complain about it all the time He does something that I absolutely love and you hear me complain about it all the time. How many times have I been on this show and said I'm so tired of seeing young fighters

not develop behind the jab, especially with a guy with the dimensions that he has. He's doing it exactly right. But you're probably going to go up against somebody who's going to have some kind of an answer for that. Either A, they're going to be able to get the takedown or the back or B, they're going to find some kind of way, maybe from open stance to neutralize it, and what is your second order game going to look like?

We don't know what the answer to that is, and I don't think his jab, as good as it is, is so imposing that nobody in that line is gonna be able to figure out what to do about it. I think Ian Gary would figure it out. Ian Gary's gonna be a tough fight. Fast feet, fast hands, touch and go. At the same time though, like that beast lands on you

and bad shit happens very quickly. It's a fun fight, 25 versus 27. It's just I feel like there should be other guys that give them to let them work through some of this stuff. Yeah, yeah, we're gonna hit a lot more on this undercard as well as that welterweight division. We also got some big news we gotta jump in with related to John Jones, but before we get there,

I wanted to say, hey, this podcast is sponsored by Total Wireless, the official wireless partner of the UFC. So when you are streaming the fight or sharing those takedown highlights with your friends, right? You need a wireless provider that'll keep you close to the action. With Total Wireless, you're covered by the Verizon 5G network.

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about how Total Wireless can be in your corner. Excuse me, 5G access requires a 5G capable device in a 5G service area. Monthly rate in the Total Base 5G Unlimited plan for new subscribers applies only to the monthly rate for your plan. Additional terms apply, see website for details apologies for that well said no problem luke and now is a good time to also remember where tequila's story truly began what am i talking about i'm talking about 1795 when cuervo invented tequila since then cuervo has stayed true to its

roots the same family the same land you better believe that same passion, right? Yeah, 230 years later, Cuervo is still there in every pore, in every margarita, even three of them, and in every celebration. So enjoy the tequila that started it all, Cuervo. The tequila that invented tequila, ProximoCuervo.com. Please drink responsibly. And Luke Thomas, we love partnering with Cuervo for pre-game preview ahead of each UFC pay-per-view and with 316, And Luke Thomas, we love partnering with Cuervo for pregame preview. Yeah, we do. Ahead of each UFC pay-per-view and with 316, the Stone Cold Steve Austin pay-per-view that's

our June 7th Newark. That fight week, we're going to be in the studio that Wednesday, right? Right? We have the day on that. We are. The fourth, June 4th. So that is June 4th, 2025, Wednesday, 11 a.m. in the studio. Cuervo is bringing us UFC 316 pregame preview, LTBC and?

Aaron Braunstetter. Let's go, let's go. A. Braun. A. Braun time, all right. So let's get after it. Will this be the first time that he's ever had alcohol in his life? Wow, this'll be a big episode, okay.

Are we allowed to haze and insult him? I'm gonna bring up when he mentioned mentioned our show that time that he was like a noted high school athlete. We got to get we got we got to get a hoop in here and then take turns dunking on him. Quite literally Pablo Torre to find out about whether a B's telling the truth on that. Okay, but we love that guy shout out to a B. Pablo Torre might end up getting Bill Belichick fired. Have you seen this story? This would be a

great, you know, it'd be great plot twist if he ends up like getting Bill fired and then he gets the girl too on top of that. Yeah, that'd be sick. Yeah, that's like, I think he's married though, but shout out to Pablo Torre. I'm sitting in his seat. Yeah, I mean, he gets after it.

He gets down to the truth. He got to certainly does. All right, there we go. Please pardon that chair. Topic two, let's do topic one AA here. John Jones is in Thailand and when he's not on the back of the motorcycle of a random man as he runs his fingers through that gentleman's curly sweaty hair, he was holding it like

a horses like I don't know stirrups or whatever. I don't know. He's also enjoying a lot of coconuts and having a grand old time overnight. He went on a Twitter rampage. It seems responding to fans in the two tweets that seem to say the most about why he hasn't fought Tom Aspinall yet and why he hasn't been stripped. Appear to be the bottom one first, a fan saying, enjoying your last days as a

champ before being stripped. I see John and bony, AKA Johnny Meats says y'all stripped. Lol. Do I come across as the type of person who cares about things like that? Jones would go on to tweet, y'all barking up the wrong tree, I told the UFC my plans a long time ago, I have no clue why they haven't shared them with you guys yet. Yeah, you know what, fair enough.

In some ways, this is much to do about nothing, John's like trolling everybody and living his best life, but there seems to be some levels of truth within that. What do you take away from this tweeting sphere that he went on? Uh, well, partly all these antagonistic videos he's intentionally putting out where he's like, you know, sort of a sipping coconut water and being like, guys, I'm over here and I'm unbothered by your concerns, right? That's what it's all part of a kind of a public facade.

So that's part of it, but just putting that away, I actually feel like he makes a decent point here, which is I told the UFC my plans. And when I say decent point, follow me. But he says, I told the UFC my plans. They haven't shared them with you, but he's saying he's unconcerned with being stripped. So obviously what he said is either pay me or not that he's telling them to strip him, but he's saying he's unconcerned with it. The ball is in the UFC's court either pay him such that he gets off of his rear end and stops eating, you know, exotic fruits over in Thailand or whatever. And, or just take the belt from him. In other words, he is making his demands clear. The, like, whose inaction are we waiting on? We're making it seem like we're waiting on John's inaction.

But he probably already set his price a while ago. Which by the way, we could be. Yes. But if these actually, if what he's saying in this is the truth, which is he has declared to them what the lines are that have to be met, then the ball is actually in the UFC's court in that case. Is the UFC just running like four to six months behind how they normally book? Because like we saw the main event of 317 come together and late, right? Like 40 something days away from IFW and

dependent upon another pay-per-view main events result in a lot of ways to dictate who's fighting. I talked about how UFC 300, they were kind of like late to the ball and had to call Poet on the last minute. They've had to do that a lot lately. Like, did they have they just not gotten to it in their priority list to seal up Jones Aspenall? Are they holding it for the next TV deal? Like, no. Or is this a pissing contest between Hunter Campbell and John about whittling down to that number for sure let me ask a question along the way in here if you

can't here's my question. How bad would it be for not just the fans course we all suffer but how bad would it be for the sport and in particular the UFC brand if they fail to deliver on making the John versus Tom fight and And I know what you're going to say, John's going to shoulder a fair amount of that blame. You're right. I'm not asking about that equation. I'm asking if you just go back, there's no GSP versus Silva. There was no Fador versus Brock. There's no Randy versus Fador. There's a bunch of

super fights that have all fallen to the wayside. Now you would in that particular scenario, which I'm positing, you would add that to the equation. What kind of damage would that do? Fuck man, I don't know. And you left out Jones and Gano too, which is another super fight we should have got. Yeah. I don't know, it would be bad if they can't make this, but also like I was saying to BC, the rumor has been MSG.

They wouldn't have announced that by now anyways. They can get a killer gate at MSG. I personally think it's not different from what I said a couple days ago. UFC knows they're targeting it on MSG. They're just going to wait John out. Somebody's going to be the one that bends first. John, to his credit, if this is just a pissing contest, using his leverage, putting out publicly that it doesn't care, constantly acting like, I don't care or I don't need to fight this guy. And it's going to be a last minute, what's the closest we can get that number down. So we're already announcing fights technically main events anyway for August right because we

announced and to an extent there are reports now that Volk is probably gonna end up fighting Diego Lopez no sorry what am I saying Yaya Rodriguez for the rematch for UFC 320. So we're basically almost at September. So we probably have at least two more months of this before we can even get to a conversation about what's actually gonna happen in November. Now Tony, they dodged a bullet by not putting Aspen Olgana at 317. I think that would have been one of those

turning point moments where a whole bunch of fans would be like, fuck this. I don't know what the answer is, the question that I asked Long Island Luke, but I do think it's worth thinking about about what kind of long term reputational stain would follow UFC if they're unable to make this fight. And again, I want to be clear one more time. Even if John, and I don't think that this would be sensical or that they should do it, but it's want to be clear. Even if John was asking for a hundred million,

they could easily afford that. Make no mistake about it, whatever number he's asking for, A, he's earned it and B, they could pay it. So to me, there's a lot of blame to go around here. I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic that this is all posturing. Well, because the posturing has taken so long, though, everybody looks bad. We're just sort of like, let's go. Yeah, but if they come through, everyone's going to be like so freaking pumped.

You only held up the division Aspinall's career for another additional year. I mean, what are we doing here? But they are going to pull the trigger by November. I think that there's no way they delay past the last year and a half of combat sports. I know we got big fights as a result of Turkey being in our lives, but the BS that comes with Turkey and TKO's monopolization ways, it's really, I know it's aimed at sucking every dollar out of the sport for them, but it's slowly sucking out all the fun, right? You know what I mean? Like, this is all we talk about because this is all that's going on and it dictates what we talk about.

Is this better or worse than guys popping positive for steroids and or crimes and or? I don't know if the fights are good. People don't care what else is going on. That's true. That's right. You know what? So fucking true. But yeah, this is crazy. All right. Let's get back into topic number two, which is what else we learned from Saturday's UFC apex card.

It is the reality. It's where we're at, this was not an overly deep card and we lost the co-main event due to... Herpes. Matt Herpes. Not Herpes. No, I was just saying like it was a bad way to lose the fight. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So who has Herpes? Bellato, allegedly.

And so Paul Craig will live another day. Herpes free. Or allegedly. And so Paul Craig will live another day. Herpes free or maybe not. I mean, maybe not. He might have been like guys been there, done that. Luke, as far as the rest of the show, Myron Santos had a very interesting fight against Sadiq Yousef. Yousef coming off of that defeat. But it was Santos is striking that ultimately held him off 30 to 27 on all three scorecards.

That's showing for Sadiq Yousef, who, by the way, has now had a rough run of it. Obviously, things went poorly in his last fight, which I think was UFC 300 against Diego Lopez, and he got bombed on there to two of three scorecards. The other one was twenty nine twenty eight. You know, you said trying to wrestle to mix it up and got nowhere with it. Santo showing great takedown defense again, again, relative to the attack of Sadiq Yousef, who's not known as a wrestler at Mining Stretch. Bad fight for bad fight. This is a tough moment for Sadik Yusuf because he's just 31. He's still in his physical prime.

He looked to be in tremendous physical condition and I take Sadik as a very smart guy. I hope he takes his time to reflect that like his development is causing him some issues. Three straight losses is no joke. Not against chumps. No, against Edison, Barbosa, Diego Lopez, and Elmiron Santos. He should be better than this. You agree with Bizping saying Santos looks a little Spider Silva-esque in the delivery of his striking?

I won't say that, but I think what I will say, and I was talking about this with Bolling Island over there before the show, he does have a certain natural aptitude. You can see certain guys get good at striking through rehearsal and then certain guys have a natural aptitude for it. Santos appears to me to have a natural aptitude for it and that that is noticeable. I don't think that puts him in the conversation with similarities even to necessarily Anderson Silva, but I do recognize he's got some ability for sure. But for Yusef, this is a real come to Jesus moment.

This is a tough one. This is one of those ones we have to reflect on like, okay, if you don't, you don't have to be like drastic necessarily, but if you don't diagnose what has gone wrong at this point, then you could derail everything from here. So an important moment to get it right. Yeah, we had a potential action banger to open up now.

What was a four fight main card in the featherweight division there with Melky Costa fighting for the third time in 85 days against Julian juicy J Erosa. It would go by the way of 2928 on all three scorecards for Melky Costa. It was a fun action fight there Luke Thomas Are we like picking up vibes now that Melky Costa is here the the fast schedule the Evolvement of his game. He's starting to show a different turn like he's like he's pointing toward the top of the division Luke Yeah, the evolution. I mean he looks like a like a like with the he's got like Elvis sideburns mixed with like two different kinds of color hair

He almost looks like a movie villain, you know, like he should be in like Batman Returns again. I Hadn't thought of it on that though those terms. I will say this he's gotten way better You watch his early fights even in the UFC He's I'm not gonna say indistinguishable, but he just, he's cleaned up so many of the problems. Dude, I thought it was pretty impressive, the way in which he was able to pick his shots, the head kick he landed on Erosa in the first round. But let me ask a question.

Did either of you seem to think that Erosa looked off a little bit, even before the head kick. He hung in there and encountered a lot, but he was- Yeah, like he got a little bit better by the third, but Long Island Luke, did you not seem to think, he was moving underwater to me? I didn't think he looked off. I think he just was getting hit clean,

and like he was buckling with a lot of these shots, dude. But you're right, round three, he put it on him. I was actually nervous when they read the scorecards, I had a bet on Melky that I was like shit Did Julian pull this out because round two was close to but yeah, well he got it done Hey, you did four straight wins for milky improving to five and two in the promotion. So he's turned it around big time I mean he loves to paint his face at the way It's like he's got like a fun vibe to it for sure, but that striking was crisp this time around

Yeah, I thought the shot selection was great in this fight. Yeah I mean I'm not exactly sure how far he can go with it but whatever he was gonna be he's absolutely leveled up far past that. 35 year old Jared Gordon would go in there against Thiago Moises and deliver him via one perfect counter right hand at the tail end or in the second half of that first round. 35 years old, but this felt like a breakthrough win for him. And then he's afterwards shouting out a mental health recovery for fighters and trying to, you know, partner with the right people to create lifeline opportunities. All in all, big, big weekend for Jared Gordon. Jared Gordon is a good fighter. I mean, he's had some tough luck along the way. There's

a few fights you can go back to where you could say he got robbed or the judges could, the Patty Pimlet fight. That could have been a breakthrough moment in his career and he's 36, sorry, not 35. And you know, to be the guy like Thiago Moises who is limited but good and to do it so thoroughly and with a brilliantly timed kind of counterpunch over the top, dude, Jared Gordon, again, the clock is working against him here a little bit, and sometimes the judges are too, but he's clearly not an easy out for anybody. I'm very impressed with his, how he has managed to turn himself into somebody quite formidable.

Yeah, the fight before he had dropped a split decision to Nasrat Akhbaras, so that's a close fight. Then he had stopped Mark Madsen before that. You had the no contest against Bobby Green and then the fight against Patty Pimblitt that probably should have gone his way. So he could be on a much bigger run right here. But at thirty six, it was good to see him come around with that. Getting Moises out of there. What else on this card jumped out at you? I have not heard you say the name Nersultan Ruzaboyev yet.

No, not that one. Hold on. Let me have my notes here. And now I cannot find them because today is. I mean is there was a lot of talk about Luana Santos. Give a shout out to Gabe Green. He had a great come from behind submission win. He was definitely losing the first like seven minutes of that fight got the face crank. Yeah. And that second round against Mateus Camillo. Luke, a lot of people love Luana Santos at Bannon weight where we don't talk nice about anybody. What do you think about that key lock?

I know your ass does. What do you think about that key lock, Luke? So, the key lock... I believe they said first key lock in women's UFC history. Yeah, the key lock is not something any UFC fighter should ever submit to. You're talking about some white belt shit right here? Yeah, it is. It is.

You should never ever be in a position where shit right here. Yeah, it is. It is. You should never, ever. You should never, ever be in a position where you have to tap to something. You rolled with Ryan Hall. I have. And your wife has rolled with Roxanne, Mataferri. You guys. Ryan Hall snatched me up. That was bad. It was a bad role for me. Did you catch Matt Harpies? No, I did catch an L though. It was terrible.

I got twisted. He actually twisted me. It was terrible. Dude, you should not be losing. Dude, key locks are things you see at like heavyweight and then among nubber ass fighters typically. Now, it worked here, so good for her. It's not a thing that I think you can really hang your hat on as super impressive. I'm sorry. Okay, Elise Reed's punch defense was not super impressive, but Denise Golems out there at Strongweight put her away. No, the kid, the Korean kid, Hyeongseong Park. Yes.

Dude, he's good. He's good. He's good. So we talked about him on Friday. I shouted him out on Friday show. He won road to UFC in the flight weight division. Dude, his ground game is good. It's balanced.

He was able to find the back very easily. He got the rear naked choke perfectly. He's good. A lot of these Korean guys that they are signing are a lot of like, they're dudes who will bang it out with you with like mid-carter's. Have you noticed that? Yeah.

But there's, this kid to me looks like he's got some real potential. I like what I saw from Hong-Sung Park, detail oriented in his game. That's what I wanna see. A promising future, let's say. Yeah, Wong-Han Luke, anyone else you wanna want to shout out Luke no sold my Denise a gombs finish there in the second round like it didn't happen you know what I mean well

gaff had Denise e gombs round 2 ko plus 1000 he cashed that so I gotta give him a shout out for that that guy Yadier Deval he got the sub he looked on a Matthews yeah featherweight I think that was his first ever career sub to Yeah, Gabe green. Yeah, I mean it was it was an okay. It was a good card. Is that what it was really? In execution it was a fun card. It was a fun watch okay, but Yeah, this motherfucker will call anything good that's true, but I got three words to say about the apex in general and Saturday's card too much bids being But I got three words to say about the apex in general and Saturday's card. Too much bids being so he's got to say it, OK, somebody's got to say it.

He is chatty. I will say this, though, about the apex. You know, the UFC has been undergoing and trying to undergo some renovations. A few renovations, a few changes to the way it goes. It's going to feel different. I do believe that if you have a three to five thousand and they If you have a three to 5,000 and they're real fans. Not even two. And they're real fans.

And they're on top of the action. Yes, make it, dude, let me just say this. For the UFC, you guys are already charred and everyone's doing it, it's not just UFC. I have to take my wife and daughter to go see Shakira later this month. And we have, dude, we're in the 400s. You're not gonna be able to see her hips from there.

I told my wife we have to go get fucking binoculars to go watch this goddamn show. You will enjoy watching that. And dude, the tickets were like all together for the three of us plus taxes over $700. Sorry, Luke, to you and your family, not worth it. I told my wife this, I'm like, what the fuck is the point? But she made a promise to my daughter, whatever. And we never go to concerts this this expensive I always go for free or for you know cheap-ass things wait when is to keys first Cannibal Corpse concert not yet although she was in utero when I took my wife to see dying fetus in not acceptable my wife

was pregnant the point I want to make was here's a chance this is the thing that's driving me fucking crazy about the PFL yeah the PFL has an opportunity at a moment where TKO was just pulling all the fun out of the sport to be like a fan first organization. Dude, if the UFC, you don't need to make a bunch of money on these Apex shows, you're already like, doesn't matter. Charge prices that any real fan can afford. Dude, you know they would prefer to do what they do now,

and I know that they are expanding, but right now what do they charge? They charge experiences. They charge you a couple thousand to sit. Okay, but you know, but that's right now as it stands. If they're gonna put some capacity in there, if they would make the tickets, I don't know, 50 bucks, 75 bucks.

They don't do that though. They're in value extraction mode. But why? Because Ari, because of, dude, because they've got all that debt they gotta pay back. Because they're trying to take over combat sports and own everything. Okay, well, seems to me like they already

don't make money on that. You could still make money on that by charging that. It would build more fan interaction. 100%. And feeling like, okay, maybe I can't afford a numbered card in a big arena because of these government contracts and them raising the prices

But maybe I can go to where the real fans go the apex that would be great if they build that would be amazing And they'll be able to go see UFC fights for 75 bucks. That's great We also have a shot of milky Costa's toes Luke. He had that that footage. Wow, that's why are we showing this? This is gross and okay. That's yeah into this Luke you like that. It's biology You say that the same about female fighters showing Luke? You like that? It's biology. You say that the same about a female fighter showing feet on OnlyFans? It is biology. That's more, that's titillation.

That's a little different. Let's slide into topic number three. And it is the UFC's welterweight division at large. Now that we, yes, we can, we can insert Michael Morales's name to the stuffed, overcrowded bottleneck of fun, violence. Is it historically deep? I don't know. It's deep as shit. It's the best division to watch right now. Look, I thought middleweight was the best division to watch last year. Bandom weight the year before, light weight the year before that.

It goes in ways sometimes. Do you know how fucking insane you have to be to be like middleweight is the best division to watch? Last year at the top end, not knowing who was going to come out of there as champion, whether it was a reborn Whitaker or Adesanya or Hamza or DDP or like it was like it was wide or bone nickel or like it was wide open at the top. It felt like it could be a soap opera. Yeah, no, it's a terrible call. Okay.

Well, this division is deep and exciting, Luke, positively on fire. So let's do an episode, an exercise. Excuse me to put this in perspective. We are going to rank names in the following way. Who do you think is the actual best welterweight ignore the records. It's not by the what they accomplished. It's almost a pound for pound way to look at it in terms of ability. Where do we stand when it's all said and done? Who will be proven to be the best? Luke, the names that we are the top seven here that you have to, for this exercise rank,

include Islam Mahachev, who we believe will be fighting for the title in his debut there, Jack Delamattalena, the champion, Shavkat Rachmanov, Sean Brady, Ian Gehry, Joaquin Buckley, Michael Morales. I think the only, you know, superstar major names we're missing is Leon Edwards and Bilal Mohammed, the two former champions that might be going in the other direction.

But these are the seven that are firmly within the grasp here of this title. How would you rank them on ability? We remember we did this exercise before a round of big fights and I had Ian Gary at number two and the people were killing me. The people were killing me. The people were killing me, Luke.

Yeah, well, good reason. Just to say a couple things here. In order to do this exercise, it requires that we speculate. We are not doing this based off of what they've done. We're making a presumption. Let's say if we could fast forward in five years, what will we be able to say about this current crop, seven names that we mentioned, how good will they all end up turning out to be if you had to rank them in that particular sense?

So like, I'm looking at it like how talented I think they are and how far I think they will go. I am required to speculate based on the way we're doing this, okay? But that's the point of it. So there's no disclaimer needed. No, no, no. I'm telling the audience. I'm telling the audience because I don't want anyone looking at their resumes and being

like, oh, your rankings don't make sense. Yes, based on their current resumes, it might not. It's a function of how I perceive how it will go in the future. Right, because as Luke often says, nobody knows who's going to win the fights. They don't. People can say whatever the fuck they want. They don't. Science has proven that.

All right. Put up my top seven here, and this is how I've got it. All right. There we go. So again, this this is how I've got it. All right. There we go. So again, this is my power rankings, however you want to call it, right? Number one, I've got Shafkat Rachmanov. I still think he hasn't rightfully ascended to the throne. I think he will.

I'm going to put Islam in number two. Now I got to tell you, between Islam and Jack, I had a really hard time with this one. I could easily see a case, BC BC where you could have Jack number one or number two. Okay, I'm I struggled with this part of it, but I do think Islam is generationally good and Jack I think is very talented who might end up beating him. Okay, but I just don't know. So I'm gonna you know I'm gonna kind of go with my gut a little bit and say I think Islam is gonna do really well up there, but we'll see. At number four, I think Sean Brady. Sean Brady's not done getting some big wins,

but I do think the lack of the striking game as a dual threat, because we all agree his ground game lights out. In fact, I'm gonna argue Islam has a better way to marry the two between striking and grappling but pure ground game I'm gonna give it to Sean Brady. Yeah, the big quibble I have already is this four or five pair. Okay, hold on That's fine. Let me get through let me get through it. Let me get through it So Sean Brady, I think has the best pure ground game But I think it's a little lopsided relative to some of the ones Gary sitting at five to me the lack of Gary's finishing Mechanics and finishing ability more generally, I think is going to really hurt him long term. Buckley, I think I could even see higher.

I could see him at five and Gary at six and Morales I put at seven. And the reason why is because I just don't think he's going to be in this division for that much longer, relatively speaking. That's my top seven. But that's, that's built heavily on speculation. speculation We got to see how that's the whole point of this fucking exercise, right? At the top that we're speculating this we're speculating how they would do against each other We're speculating how they will evolve within there I'm saying you specifically to invent a wall specifically adopting the guarantee that Michael Morales is not long for this division All I'm saying is that specific speculation.

I can't believe it until I see it, until I see him talk about a really hard way cut, until I see, you know, reasons to go, yeah, he's gonna move up eventually. But I'm saying you're speculating on your own off of Saturday Night's fight that he's not long for this division. That's right. I'm speculating in that direction. That's right. Okay, that's the second worst thing you did. What up with with the disrespect that you're showing Gary here? One more time, you know, I love Sean Brady as a man. He's a hell of a fighter you think you think okay Let's talk this out. So like head-to-head so don't explain to me clearly you think Gary beats Brady head-to-head Gary beats I will bet you I'll bet you 20 bucks that that Brady I would wish that we would do something like

Brady Brady is gonna take his lunch like Eric 20 bucks that Brady smokes out. I would wish that we would do something like... Brady is gonna take his lunch money. Like Eric Nixik and Paul Felder exchanging cash on the air live. Oh my God. I would be wanting to... Hey, maybe he owed him 20 bucks for a sweet green that day. I don't know.

Maybe they went to Chipotle and Felder was like, I can't find my... Yeah, yeah. Wow, okay. Luke, let's go, but wait. All right, Long Island Luke, weigh in on my rankings. What did I get right, what did I get wrong? Well, I do wanna see BCs before,

but I would put Islam number one. Okay. I'd admittedly put Jack a little lower. I'd probably, yeah. I hate to say it, because he's my Aussie brethren, but I really don't have a lot of faith in Jack. Jesus, really? Sean Brady, E, and Gary is such an interesting matchup because I do think Sean Brady could out wrestle him to a decision

But I do think Ian Gary's the more well-rounded Gary just takes away everyone's best Attribute not even three seven is appropriate. Buckley morality. Oh, yeah, eat shit. How about that? All right? Let's see BC's BC's more Sobered list here. Let's see BC's list. All right. Talk us through BC. Look, until I'm proven wrong. I always felt like Islam could go up to 170 and win the bell on day one until I'm proven wrong. And you know, still in his peak of his prime here at 33, I'm going to go with that. Shavkat. I'm not going to write off on injury plagued performances, even though I'm building a lot of my in Gary stock on how good he didn't defeat against shop cut

I'm saying that was a compromise shop cup, but let's give this killer a chance Okay I struggled the most with the three four here because I had Ian Gary to last time and that was before some big developments and some changes atop this division I know in Gary's ceiling is limited by his ability to not be a dangerous finisher But I also know that he can hang in there and defuse anyone's top game, maybe for their top skill, maybe with the exception, like you're saying, if you believe that Brady would break through

and that would give him the fight, that he could break through on the ground. This isn't meant to disrespect Brady, I just think Mike Morales, for as long as he is gonna be here, has a chance to shake some shit up with those physical advantages at the top. He has a shot. shake some shit up with those physical advantages. He has a shot without without his without his deficiencies necessarily costing him.

Okay, like I want to see if he can ride this wave and what we can do there. Buckley's a tough out. I just feel like Brady may have already scored his biggest win. I can't believe the Sean Brady disrespect Long Long Island Luke, how do you perceive Brian Campbell's power rankings here? I do think Sean Brady, I mean I said I agreed with Luke six and I do think Morales Buckley needs to be your bottom too. So I think Buckley would be Brady. I think Buckley would be Brady. Buckley is sneaky, well rounded, but he is

and very athletic. I still don't think he's. You make a mistake against him, you pay big time. I don't think he's top five though, I really don't. Man, I think Gary is overrated here, and I think Brady is being slept on. I'll tell you this much, can we agree on this? To me, Buckley is a bit of a wild card. Of course. Because he hasn't beaten anyone yet that makes you really go, wow, he can contend with the top three. But you look at him on paper, I didn't

think he was best suited at 85, 170 is much better. He's very athletic. He is very well rounded. He can beat you on the feet. He probably is not going to sub you out, but he can certainly wrestle you or defensively wrestle you. So I feel like you know, that's the hard one for me to get right on that one But I do feel that Morales is technically behind the curve And I think Brady's ground game is gonna be a problem for a lot of people I mean, I love Brady, but I feel like he's still very dependent Do you very dependent upon the takedown and I'm not even though the strike you see how many different kinds of takedowns? He got on Leon Edwards. I did he made it look fucking effort

I would love to go head-to-head with you in a Gary versus Brady matchup. Dude, if Gary fights Brady, we have to do a special about this. It'll be Layla and I on one side, you know. And it'll be me and Sean Brady getting tattoos together. How about that? There you go. All right, Luke, let's stay in this topic and let's stay in this division. It is time to play matchmaker moving forward.

OK. If they gave you the keys to the matchmaking tomorrow Sean Shelby Mick Dana set you down be like Luke. We're sick of here and you rip us so low-key Why don't you come in here and hardly at all? Why don't you come in here and help us? So Luke Thomas? From the champion on down there. Those are seven big names. You can also use people like Bilal the former champion there Leon Edwards the former champion, but how would you map it out moving forward? So definitely and I know he's been calling for it. You know, he's been calling for it I think Sean Brady versus Ian Gary is the fight to make that's the first okay

Then who's getting the title shot if that's the fight you're making art. So Islam is gonna come over So Islam and JDM there we go. Okay. All right, so then we have got to figure out what to do with Rachmanov We got to figure out what to do with Buckley. We got to figure out what to do with Rachmanov. We got to figure out what to do with Buckley. We got to figure out what to do with Morales. All right, let me ask you a question. Does Rachmanov, due to the injuries and delays, lose that spot he once held, which means when he's healthy, he gets the title shot. So I don't think he should, but let's posit that he does.

Give him Balal. That was the fight that they were going to make anyway. Give him Balal. Wow. So Balal would go from losing the title in a close fight to Jack to here's Shavkat. I didn't think it was that close. I thought it was 4-1, but I know what you mean. Okay, but it could be, it was, I scored a 4-1-2, but it was close and competitive. It was, it was.

Physical. Okay, so I would go Balal and Shavkat. We've already got, are we assuming that Buckley beats Usman? I am. Okay, I think he's gonna wax him. I think it's not even gonna be close look Well, look no see that you got it. You want to fight for us mine here don't know I'm favoring buck All right, so if Buckley wins that one, I think you do Buckley Leon Edwards and Then if Morales well, he's open Morales

I'm not sure what you do. It was Wonderboy got coming up. Doesn't he have a sitting at 11? He I mean Michael Morales is I'm not sure what you do with Morales. Who's Wonder Boy got coming up? Doesn't he have a fight? He's sitting at 11. I mean, Michael Morales is already at 12, but that was before the updated ranking because he's gonna be past that. Again, Colby. Colby's the name you could do. I know this is too far of a stretch possibly,

but I want Morales Bilal. You want Shavkot Bilal. You want Morales Bilal. That's an, oh! It's a little last minute. Five rounder. Yeah, five rounder. I don't hate that. I don't hate that because you got the in the piston jab and you've got dynamite take down defense, but Bilal is going to be on him.

It would be it would be dependent upon Bilal not moving up to middleweight, which there was already talk of that. He already was calling out Hamza. And then you also have Sean Strickland, who badly wants to fight with him. So since middleweight in a year span kind of lost a lot of its luster with a lot of those big names losing I wouldn't hate that but if he stays from that perspective he would be getting a guy who's still raw and Morales you know I'm saying they both beat Gilbert somewhat recently I know I don't hate that I like that a lot that's my pitch

on there but I'm starting to come around to Brady Gary might be that right fight. I think Brady Gary is absolutely the right fight. We're creating multiple number one contender fights. So is it just going to come down to who looks the best at that moment with the most hype behind them? I don't know how they're going to manage it because you got so many guys who are all of a sudden just surged. We don't need Islam. Someone tweeted me, they're like, every week it feels like there's a new welterweight contender or emerging star anyway.

And I'm like, that's absolutely true. What I'm just gonna say is, I think that this title's gonna change hands a lot. I just don't see hardly any of these guys as like, even though I like Shavkat the most, see the kind of guy who's gonna have like, four title defenses, I don't think so. I just don't believe that.

Long Island Luke Luke who's closing 2025 as Walter way champion in the UFC. Oh god. I wait I wanted to make two quick points Yes one is I think winner of Buckley Usman should fight Balal cuz Usman Balal already got that built-in beef and then Buckley gets The former champ it's like a good step up in competition. That'd be a big opportunity for Buckley right there No, no versus cuck. The other thing about how hot the welter Big opportunity for Buckley right there. No, this is cock the other thing about how hot the welter vision is right now We're forgetting all about Carlos protest because he just lost to Ian Gary But like he's in this mix somewhat and we're forgetting about Joel Alvarez who after just coming out of that BSD fight is now Moving up to welter. There you go protest Alvarez next there you go. I was gonna say Alvarez Gilbert Burns Give him a nice veteran test. Yeah, can we give Gilbert Burns?

The belly of the beast. This is what happened. Gilbert Burns has been fighting nothing but hammers for the last like four to five times, man. Like, come on. But you would agree that this calendar year will end with Islam as champion. You will agree with that. Probably. That Jack fight's going to be awesome. And I can't wait. I can't wait. They don't put that in Perth. Where do they put that? Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi October probably. Yeah. Here we go. Okay they're pulling us back in the UFC. They're trying again. If they can make that John fight in November, I mean it's gonna be on.

And then if we can still build towards like the long-range build toward Ilya Islam, is it still possible with the weight changes it could be could be I think if islam wins the title it's impossible I think if he loses not if not if ilia wins the title by stoppage and then calls and calls out for it If islam wins the belt he's not coming back if he loses different story all right interesting stuff right there Indeed Quickly before we get into our next topic right there, I want to talk to you about a classic idea. How about a true classic idea, right? Because True Classic, fantastic clothing brand,

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Check it out, trueclassic.com. Trueclassic.com slash combatwithak. There we go. Hey, let's head back into topic number four, and this is a developing story in a couple different ways. The future of TKO boxing. That's not what they planned or plan on calling it, of course, but the idea of the March 5th announcement

that Turkey Al-Ashiq, the nation of Saudi Arabia, would partner with TKO Boxing, Dana White, Nick Khan, Ari Emanuel, all those behind there, and that we thought they would kick off with a September 12th, Friday night, Netflix Allegiance Stadium offering with Canelo Alvarez versus Bud Crawford. A lot has changed since then.

You remember in the past week, Turkey Alishik changing the narrative with his tweets through Mike Hoppinger of Ring Magazine about moving that date to Saturday the 13th. That would go head to head with what TKO is already doing with UFC Noche. Now we have more boxing media outlets updating their stories and changing the conversation.

One of those is Brunch Box boxing, which interviewed a bunch of fighters who had been reached out to by TKO to fight under their banner to fight for their TKO world titles and to fight at these certain pay structures and the reviews at least from this group of fighters are very negative. So Luke Thomas, we have an additional update overnight from Turkey Al-Ashiq. Can we go to the tweet again here that, we have an additional update overnight from Turkey Al-Ashiq. Can we go to the tweet again here?

That says, we have confirmed the promoter for Canelo Crawford. It will be Salah for Riyadh, says, and the broadcaster we have not decided yet. But the date will be Saturday, September 13th. More details soon. Luke, originally there was that boxing scene report that said, don't buy this, this is another smoke screen. But UFC hasn't commented on it yet, Turkey doubling down. There's no world we're going to live in, right? Where TKO Boxing is going to put out Canelo

Crawford on the same night that they're doing UFC Noche. So does this mean all things considered? Could it be grand opening, grand closing for TKO Boxing? or at the very least, are you convinced now that there is a divorce of some kind between Dana and Turkey? I think it's a little too early to proclaim divorces on the way. But I will say that natural fault lines have emerged far faster than I thought they would. One thing I've not heard brought up, you see, I would love to get

you to weigh in on this in just a moment, which is, I wonder to what extent Canelo got in Turkey's ear. You'll recall that when Canelo fought Kovalev, they had to wait at that time for the Diaz and Masvidal fight to be concluded in this- Dizone chose to. Dizone chose to, but like, you know, Canelo having to play almost in the evening,

second fiddle to what the UFC was doing. I don't think he liked that. I don't think the boxing fans like that. And by TKO putting this fight on Friday while maintaining that Saturday slot, which is typically the fight night for boxing too. It was kind of TKO, which by the way, understand something TKO is UFC and WWE first. The boxing part is a secondary thing that they only now are adding to. And again, it might become a huge part. We'll see how it goes. But what I'm trying to point out is organizationally, what do they prioritize? They prioritize their MMA business. I don't, I don't know. I wonder if Canelo got in someone's ear about that and was like, I don't really want to fight second fiddle or early or the opener.

Let's go head to head. We've got the bigger fight. Or let's just go on Saturday night. Like we have a different fan base and we can do this, we can put this anywhere. We don't have to accommodate the UFC's and TKO's interests in this regard. And I think that, I haven't heard anyone bring this up, but like Canelo was noteworthy pissed after that Kovalet fight for having to sit around and wait for UFC. I don't think he wants to do that again. He didn't seem pissed fighting at 730 AM against a William school who wouldn't stand in front of him.

And if they were going to pay him a cove left, you know, 100 million, maybe he would have done it there too. I don't know. But you got to tie into what happened with with the fact that Turkey had tweeted out a week ago that he was flying to New York that coincided with the Netflix up front where they announced the schedule including of course, the boxing match that Jake Paul's promoting with Taylor Serrano three in July,

including an NFL game. No mention of this. I'm wondering if Turkey, Dana, Netflix all get together and the deal didn't go well. And then does this lead to Turkey going, well, we don't we don't need Netflix. So if it's not going to be Netflix, it's going to be Riyadh Sisson on our pay per views and we're moving it to Saturday and we're going head to head anyway we're going to head to head anyway. Somehow there was the origin of this.

Your theory on Canelo is interesting. I'm wondering if they just didn't get the offer that they thought they did. Or maybe Dana's public comments about I hate stadium fights. I think that's a big part of it. He was like, what was the clip? He was like, someone asked him, hey, you know, you're famously don't like doing stadiums. And he was like, I hate it. And I'm like, how does Turkey hear that and think it's a good

idea to make that guy the guy? It's not that I don't think Dana can promote shows. I saw Dana promote shows successfully for a decade plus. But if you have openly disdained the stadium show, how does that work in your favor? Long-term, think about it. disdained the stadium show. How does that work in your favorite long term? Think about it.

A big part of what Turkey does, obviously the main point of it since he's using his nation's public investment fund is to put across sports washing side of it. The Vision 2030 thing the thing that they're doing to to not have the same dependence on oil money create tourism create entertainment options for we know like that whole mission. That's first and foremost. Secondly, though, there's a big eagle play.

There's a big flex play going on. If that's what he's normally used to being the center of it all, the matchmaker, the guy who calls the shots, all that. And now TKO putting in zero money and going equal partner and they're calling all the shots with Turkey's gonna sit back in the row and just you know, fold his arms and enjoy the show Maybe we were naive to believe that this would ever work out that way. I Just feel like the TKO I really wonder if the concept is even possible. Can you conceptually?

manage both a monopoly in pro wrestling a monopoly in boxing as well as in MMA without there being a substantive trade off in one direction or perhaps multiple directions without buying a promotion so you actually have the fighters you need to try to do. Can you tell people about the brunch boxing report that indicated that TKO was having some difficulties signing talent? Yes. So the main quotes coming out of the talent were, why am I going to take the risk of potentially leaving my current promoter, going to a promotion that I'm not sure is actually going to last

the test of time, and on top of that, exiting out of the out, much as we hate the alphabet structure with the four sanctioning bodies, the fighters it's their dream those are the titles that forever they can say I was WBC champion and now these fighters have been saying the ones that were quoted by brunch boxing why would I take that risk and go fight for this absolute fake TKO title when there's no you know all that you mix in the pay structure I interviewed Eddie Hearn on my YouTube channel it's gonna come out in the next 24 hours. He specifically said two key things. He said one, I asked him, I said, look, Eddie,

when do you know it's up, the time's up with Turkey? What is there a stop and start date that's been announced to you that says this is when TKO is taking over and doing the four Netflix cards a year and they're going to be the focus? And Eddie said, I don't think there is an end date. He goes, I think we and the other promoters that work with Turkey are just gonna continue to be working with Turkey. And then I specifically say, well what about TKO Boxing in there? And he's like look I don't think it's gonna work. Look at that pay structure, look at the reputation, look at all of that. So he was very aggressive.

Now he's a rival of them so of course he could kind of say that just like Eddie's been saying publicly, I'm the best promoter in the world. I don't need Turkey should he decide to not work with me. But he was matter of fact that there's no end in sight and he doesn't think there's going to be an end in sight. Does that just mean he doesn't believe TKO will work? But Luke, I just think it was naive back in 2017 when Dana talked about coming in because the one good thing Turkey has done,

obviously he's giving out money to everybody more than they're used to. So they've been- Not've been the fighters paid can't say otherwise. They've been like here take our you know do our matchmaking whatever. But he has to his credit unified the sport in a lot of ways made people work together who don't. UFC from the beginning TKO boxing the model was the exact opposite. We will work with nobody and we will come in and take over it all. We will you know print our own money. We will make our own belts. We will be all of that. We will try to change the Ali Act.

Boxing is just not going to bend over for that. So what have I been saying for months as we constantly try to figure this out? There's two business models at once. There's the potential for four big fight nights a year on Netflix mixed with the Prospect League. But how do they merge those? One is a five to 10 to 15 year plan. How do you mix those together without having stables of active, meaningful fighters?

Who's going to cross that quote unquote picket line to come be TKO exclusive if there's no big name fighters fully attached to that? And will the existing promoters actually be willing to put their fighters on cards promoted by TKO? And more importantly now with this change in development, is our TKO and Turkey at odds for good? That's the thing. Let me ask your opinion.

Do you feel like Dana and Turkey are beefing? Yes, but I also feel like something happened there with Netflix. Why Turkey suddenly took control of the announcements and switched it up and said we're off Friday night, which means you're off Netflix as far as what everybody's concerned. We already know Allegiant Stadium is not booked is pre booked for Saturday and Sunday for football. So yeah, I mean we've heard nothing from the UFC.

Even boxing's even put out a new report from Lance Pugmire overnight that doesn't seem to suggest that this is all a lie. It seems to suggest that there's enough smoke here to show us that we're not going to be on Netflix for this fight. In Turkey saying, Selah's gonna promote it. That doesn't, that doesn't seem to involve Dana in TKO who doesn't, who currently don't have by the way, and neither does, no sorry, it's Selah who currently doesn't have a promoter's license, but they could get it or they could partner with Eddie Hearn or Tom Loeffler, whoever they wanted to. I mean we could be proven wrong here and maybe this would expose the ring putting out misinformation, but you

have to smell this. You have to see this smoke and realize that the fire has to be Dana and Turkey not on the same. I just think, I was trying to explain this to my wife, it seems like real bad that they would make these announcements and then within less than a couple of weeks, roll everything that they just told us was going to happen back. That's Turkey's style, dude. That's his style. Okay, but that's his style when he's the one, and I guess he is still the one calling the shots, but I'm saying if you're going to be using the TKO Dana White

Imprimatur then that you would imagine that there was some power sharing, but it sounds like There's not and I mean this thing's report about TKO BC. They're not putting any money up. They're not putting any money up So they're not gonna fight for it. Well, here's the thing. That's that's right If if if if relations stay bad, and I don't if they will, maybe it's just a one-off and they write the ship, but it allows them to cut bait much easier. It allows them to be like, you know what? We don't, this is not fine. We're gonna, we're gonna stick with our core business.

And by the way, we should remind folks there's a whole other conversation to be had that it's smaller, but TKO is trying to take over a professional grappling as well. Craig Jones, Craig Jones has been sounding the alarm. Understand fight past, invitational contracts ready for this ready? There's a show money. So let's just, I'm going to imagine something 5,000 and not win only if you submit there's there somehow worse than MMA contracts. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine that? So all that is happening simultaneously. And I suspect that they'll have a lot of success in the grappling world because. You know, I don't think athletes think about these things. It's not a fully developed sport, but in boxing, it is a fully developed sport. And it's a little harder to say. It's one thing to take both tasks BC are difficult, but it is harder or I should say they're hard in different ways

to take over and develop a sport that has no federal regulation, but is also not known to the public versus there's a fully fleshed out universe and we're going to come and take over that one. Neither can be easy, but I don't know, I don't know if one is, I don't know if TKO is equally suited for both. I'll put it that way. Think about it.

Dana was supposed to be the brains behind this in a lot of ways. You know, Nikon, the financial side, Dana on the production rollout side. He hates brand gestures, stadium type shows that Turkey loves to make those statements with. He criticized publicly Turkey's plans by ripping the stadium idea. I think also, remember Turkey tweeted out a while ago after their announcement that

I'm going to leave all the announcements moving forward to Dana. He's the boss moving forward. Well, that changed, right? That changed at Canelo's school when suddenly Turkey's just rolling out the fighters. I think we were naive to just assume, based on past success, that they would have this level of success within boxing. And I think we can start looking at the Riyadh-Sizen era

of the past year and a half and say, without question, Turkey has given some very big fights that would have been difficult to make. No argument. He also has raised up the expectations, I think, of the grandness, the royal regalness of the sport that can still happen. You can still put some lipstick on this pig

and he's shown us how you can do that. From big red carpet galas, whether you care about that or not, to big movie trailer premieres ahead of these fights. But think about what he's actually done. He hasn't brought boxing to the masses. Everything he's done, he's put on the zone pay-per-view for the most part, which is, especially in the states,

is only the most hardcore boxing fans have access to that. So for all this money that was spent on changing boxing, and yeah, he made a lot of people within boxing happy. Remember at that Crawford fight, they inducted him honorarily into the Nevada Hall of Fame. No events in Nevada. But outside but so like but outside the sport It's not like the Times Square card was was on, you know national television The this is like a lot of money spent to make some big flexes

But what has this done to advance the sport or advance his plan? So Luke like that money is not indefinite behind him coming from the Saudi government I wonder if the the the Bacchal that was the Times Square slash Canelo school weekend That money is not indefinite behind him, coming from the Saudi government. I wonder if the debacle that was the Times Square slash Canelo school weekend maybe hurt their chances of what they thought was a no-brainer getting Netflix involved for big-time money in a Canelo-Crawford one. I just think it sends a weird, I get a weird vibe when they say Dana White's the guy in charge and then two weeks later, no he's not. That to me,. It's just it's just never happened. He was not gonna take that shit

I've watched a million Dana White deals get signed over the course of almost 20 years I don't think I've ever seen one go like that. I mean we are seeing TKO just Exceptional Exceptional the only one would be the boxing show that he had on discovery that they cancelled after a couple of episodes Fine or one episode fine, but that's TV. They can just they can call it a day. Whatever. They didn't like it. That's TV This to me feels different and I don't know what it means long term, but I was shocked to see this development I don't know. I no longer believe that Turkey will be in the sport in two years Wow, that's a big claim. I do I

of the turkey will be in the sport in two years. Wow, that's a big claim. I do. I think it will be. 2027? Yeah. Without buying a promotion or without like- Who says he won't buy one? Okay, but when does he begin to make money?

I don't know the answer to that. TKO at least, knowing how their proven history of bringing down the prices that they spend while they raise up the amount of money that they make. Like that could have worked partnership wise, but if you had the fighters. They haven't proven yet that they have the fighters. In a concrete on contract type of way. And boxing, I think, for as disloyal boxing acts ask the big players involved to each other,

I think people are loyal to the sport. And I don't think people are loyal to the sport. And I don't think they're going to, I don't know, I just, I feel like the winds have changed. That's what I feel like from the, from the, the happening. I think like TKO and Turkey thought it was gonna be automatic, they thought they'd just continue that success and continue to land grab and take over.

Something happened here at Big Tom behind the scenes that has put that relationship at jeopardy. You have to believe that. It's interesting stuff. It's theater. I can't wait to see what happens. It's crazy. You have to believe that. It's interesting stuff. It's theater. I can't wait to see what happens. It's crazy. I couldn't believe this development, but I guess we'll see. Yeah. I mean, you do have to question like, is this just, you know, a little Crawford great idea, but is it the right buildup? Is the right set of circumstances

that are setting it up? It would have been if this talk happened in late 23 after Crawford took out Spence. But also like the wait the way that Dana and Turkey originally were in business together which is where like you know Riyadh season would sponsor the note the no Jay card at the sphere or whatever or we know they would they would take a show to the Saudi Arabia and stuff like that like you know that's like oh Turkey will take your money and we'll take your branding and we'll big it up

but this is our show and we're going to control control it They have that relationship with every single partner. They have they control the show they control ESPN They editorially control every how do you get your see editorially controls everything that appears on how do you keep that relationship? When that's no longer in play I Don't know I don't think Netflix is just going to bend over like everyone else does in combat when somebody else has money or status and be like, oh, do what you want, here's the money. No, like they seem to only wanna be in the type of really big events that move cultures,

bringing casual fans. Now look, I like that they're making this movement into women's boxing based off of the viewership that Taylor Serrano too got on that Mike Tyson, Jake Paul card. This is, I think it's a good direction, a good move, but I don't know if this is gonna be gangbusters for them viewer-wise and would lead to consistent buy.

I mean, somebody's gonna, is there, is there going to be a home for boxing on Netflix in your eyes, or is it only gonna be for one night going out of business, real big crossovers? I would say that. Because that's the only thing that circumvents the divide between regular cable and streaming. You put it on Netflix, everybody's going to see it.

Everybody's going to see it. Well, I mean, I was asking you before the show, someone told me that WWE has seen no growth whatsoever in their audience by going to Netflix. So how true is that? I don't know how true that is. What I can say is to the extent you can bring them, it doesn't have to be big as Paul Tyson, which was obviously enormous, but to the extent you can bring them something that's an event.

Yeah, Netflix will be in the boxing Tyson, which is obviously enormous. But to the extent you can bring them something that's an event. Yeah. Netflix will be in the boxing business, but short of that, no. Deep inside as a fan, do you feel like you want your UFC back? Like maybe, like maybe TKO is the worst thing to happen to combat sports since like CTE. It took a while for me to really, because when, when WME took over or Endeavor took over, it still felt pretty similar for a long time. And again, they were hot during the pandemic, or big portions of it anyway.

But now it feels soulless. And Dana White skipping post-fight pressers, which dude, Dana used to like look forward to sparring with the media, far from like just, you know, he didn't have time for it anymore. Like he used to look forward to like, you know, I'm gonna tell everyone what time it is. And that was like, again, he was a bulldog for the brand, for better for worse, a bulldog. I don't know, I don't know.

Who's the bulldog? I don't know who that is. I don't want them in boxing. They're gonna create a soulless product that takes advantage of the fighters and changes legislature based on political connection. They were talking about putting Teofimo Lopez versus Jaron Boutseak, which they may not even

make the fight, but if they make it, they're going to put it in Saudi Arabia. Dude, what the fuck is that? What is that? That's... Look, this was a wild run. We had a fun ride. Obviously, it's not over. Turkey's continuing to add things and try to do more things.

I just think emotionally, I'm kind of done with this era for boxing, the Turkey slash TKO era. I think you're done. I don't know if kind of done with this era for boxing the the turkey slash TKO era. I think you're done I don't know if boxing's done with I mean the year before turkey 2023 was red-hot One of the best years of boxing and maybe a decade. I've had a lot of money that year I was I don't make that same money anymore, but shout out to those days. Yeah, I'm in a good I mean, I'm in a pretty coin that year. Yeah. Yeah. All right

Hey, let's go to topic number five and this is good good news for the UFC. Patchy Mix is here officially. He showed up at Saturday's Fight Night Card at the Apex, met with the media, and now we know for official, he has signed a deal with the UFC after PFL released him. And now we've got an opponent as he is yet, he's going to face Mario Bautista as a late replacement at UFC 316 in just a couple of in Newark, New Jersey June 7th. So Luke, how much does Mix have to prove in your eyes? He remember a year and a half ago he was

one of the most red hot fighters in the world. He's been cooled off a bit with that one fight in PFL, the rematch with Magomedov. How much does this specific matchup against a tough Mario Bartista mean to his UFC future here? Because this is a hell of a signing to fall into your lap at the moment. I mean, I think on some level he it's weird, right? Because in terms of being 32 and needing to make a splash and move to the front, the clock is ticking a little bit. I don't think he's getting old, but he did miss a portion of his prime just kind of fucking about waiting for PFL to get their act together. On the other hand, he's kind of playing with house money here BC Bautista not

well liked patchy mix not well known to the casual fan the hard cores know who he is, but he has the opportunity here to make a gigantic splash and then I think honestly rocket to the front of this division and what's kind of interesting is for folks who don't know we had had Patchy Mix on this show, but he's discussed it in other places. He and Marab have trained extensively together. They have a very friendly relationship, but he's not opposed whatsoever to fighting Marab

if it comes down to it. So BC, you've got a guy in your UFC debut who to me people are sleeping on Mario Bautista a little bit. I actually think he's not, he's limited but tough in certain ways. And to your point, patchy mix did not look, he, the guy who won the strike force bantamweight strike force, Jesus, the guy who won the bellator, excuse me, bantamweight grand Prix. I think that guy could beat any bantamweight in the world, but then he showed up against mega Madoff in the rematch and looked like not a great version of that. So

I don't really know where we haven't seen him since. So I don't really know where he is. It's not about proving anything to the hard cores because that's kind of a, it's not really of a relevant concern. It's a question of introducing himself to the casuals, winning over the matchmakers, winning over UFC management. And he's got an absolutely a plus golden opportunity. You wanted to fight, boom, it's fallen in your lap immediately against a guy the fans basically don't like in a division where they're hungry for a contender and oh by the way there's a storyline built in with a guy who will probably remain and currently serves anyway as the existing champion. And by the way, if O'Malley

wins that one and Mix beats Batista, I would favor Mix to win against Sean O'Malley because his ability to find the back is extraordinary. BC, this kid has the opportunity, 32, but he has an opportunity to do something huge for himself at UFC 360. I'm so excited for him. And Batista's 31, he is riding a seven fight win streak, but that split decision went over Jose Aldo. You almost feel like it was worse than a defeat would have been to set back his stock. Obviously, he gets a win over Patchy Mix in the debut here and extends that win streak to 8. Bautista will advance himself, but yeah, this is great.

I mean, I'll give UFC a lot of credit. The recent free agents that have come in, they've put them in tough fights right away. They're giving RDR a path to the top here. Now, three wins in six months He's got Whitaker coming up even though Pitbull lost and didn't look great in that fight We were talking maybe he can get a title shot off of that win in his debut that he lost there to Yair Rodriguez Also, Kaya Sakara debuted in the title fight So I like this aggressiveness from UFC to to show respect to these guys that are coming in from other

organizations that are established and inserting them right into the mix so as We look at bantamweight at the moment where will mech will mix ultimately fit in in this division I mean can you know can he get two wins is he two wins away from a title? I think he's less than that. I think he could get a win and move him Depending how it goes if he goes in there and does to Bautista what he did to, I don't know, Ralphie on Stats? Yeah, I don't know if you caught Don Davis's latest LinkedIn post. It was about how his success as an entrepreneur has become, has been directly in relation to his positivity and right now, you know, it's so negative on like, you know, social media, which is true and he's not wrong about that.

But I like to stay positive, Don, just the same as you. I also like to keep my assets and use them to get me ahead right there. Damn, I mean, I'm happy to bet you make the box the shit. The fuck, PFL. Dude, what? Let me ask a serious question, B.C. Looking back on it, what the fuck was the point of the Bellator acquisition? To inroads in Europe. That's it Bellator acquisition? Inroads in Europe. That's it.

Pre-existing inroads in Europe. Someone asked me this and they said given all the talent they've given away, what was the point? To get rid of competition. So they're the clear number two. But they would have faded anyway. They were looking for a seller. And to add to their tournament depth of available bodies, like that was also part of it, I'm

sure. Could have found those anywhere. what did paying for all of that? Oh, I'm not saying that they knew they were doing or had a plan I mean the biggest they didn't pay for shit right they got it all in stock options or so true, okay I mean they didn't come up off cash, but they they wasn't handed them for free. He has not used that brand to help him I like that first pay-per-view when they did PFL versus Bellator cool idea was fun Whatever there's been a couple of good fights or opportunities, but they're not inserting the Bellator fighters into their biggest profile opportunity I mean they got in Johnny Eblen and Dakota Ditcheva in Southfucking Africa. Well, I called home to my parents on Mother's Day in my I talked to my dad for five minutes

four minutes of that conversation He brought it up was about Dakota Ditcheva I talked to my dad for five minutes. Four minutes of that conversation, he brought it up, was about Dakota Ditch. I'm not kidding. Dude, are you and your dad the horniest men alive? I'm not kidding, but this is a true fact that did happen. Wow, okay, thanks dad. But yeah, what are we doing here at PFL? Would it be crazy?

I mean, what is the, you think one win for patchy? One big win here could open up the door that seems like who's next? If Marab wins, who's next? Corey is probably next. OK, so they could maybe do another one after this. But I'm just saying he could catapult. Let's just say this with a big win over Bautista, he could catapult huge amounts. Who's more likely in his marriage bed to win a UFC title first at this moment?

Apache Mix. You think Suarez comes back? Because that was a disappointing title loss. It's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. Okay. Well, good news for their household, though. Just the same right there. Shout out to Apache Mix. Oh, we have some sound from him. Yeah. Let's hear it. I'm not afraid of anyone in this division, especially Mario Bautista.

So he's on a seven fight win streak and I want that seven fight win streak. So when they called me, I answered it and I'll make weight and I'll get the job done. So, you know, it didn't matter who, I didn't mind if he was ranked number one or number 50. I would have went against the best, you know, it didn't matter who, I didn't mind if he was ranked number one or number 50. I would have went against the best, the hardest, the guy that they didn't want, you know,

anyone to fight, it didn't matter. So, it had, it happened to be him, and I think Chito Vera popped his rib or something. They called me within like an hour or two. I was like, hell yeah. Within like a day, I think it was getting made, so you know. I'm already a multi-time world champion. I'm 20 and one with 16 finishes.

I got more finishes and a better record than every single guy ranked right now, you know. I'm already a multi-time world champion that's beaten the who's who very good names in MMA. So I plan to win this fight and I expect to be at the top of the division. Whether it's a title fight next, I don't know, but I don't mind what it is. As long as it's a step up, I plan to be successful against Mario Bautista and then move forward.

Hopefully the top five, top three, I don't fear any man. So any of them are fine. We got high with patchy mix. We did indirectly. I mean we didn't mean to but we did I stopped him and I was like Tap that motherfucking ass and he was like, I think you did. Yeah, we were at we were at high rollers And there was I cannot overstate to you the amount of marijuana smoke in that place We were at high rollers and there was I cannot overstate to you the amount of marijuana smoke in that place Wow, so dude the way that he rolled through that Bellator tournament the names that he picked off one after another and submitted the shit out of them Does he have the the BJJ size and demeanor to do that same thing to a lot of the top ten at Bantamweight? Should we be shocked if he does we should not be shocked if he does again He's got something to prove here a little bit in terms of the folks 10 at Bantamweight? Should we be shocked if he does? We should not be shocked if he does.

Again, he's got something to prove here a little bit in terms of the folks paying attention to his career. That run through the tournament was absolutely magical. It was one of the best runs through a tournament I've ever seen an MMA fighter do. Not the best, but one of them, certainly. And then the follow-up was just very flat. So there's some big questions to answer, honestly.

But the fact that the casual fan doesn't know him means he doesn't have so much to live Up to it's just about what's available to be grabbed and there's quite a bit there loose loosely related to mix is Pfl kind of maybe they're hearing the criticism there have an upcoming tournament semi-final card But they're gonna add an individual special attraction about in that fight though Our teammates Sergio Pettis and special attraction bout on it. Oh! And that fight though, Oh! That fight though, our teammates Sergio Pettis and Ralphie and Stats.

Ralphie and Stats who we love. By the way, very good fight. Heck, very good fight. But it's like, they've been sitting on the shelf doing nothing. I would have liked to have seen them inserted into the tournaments or into something.

This fight is worthless though. It's just an attraction fight. It's just something to entertain. Well, it's better than just having Donk, Donkerson versus Rick Rickerson in the tournament, putting a couple names on there and making it a crown jewel. Now, they should have done it for a title fight. They should have had Eblen fight there or they should have had Dakota fight there. But whatever, as long as they're making moves in the right direction, I'm generally supportive

of it. But it's like, you know, you could have done this a few years ago. I mean, my dad knew everything about Dakota. That's a little alarming. He was like, I watched every single fight in a row. I know about her mom. We talk about Bong Island's dad's ball bag, but maybe the more interesting ball bag is your own father's.

I don't think we can talk about that any further there, but that was an interesting life development. OK, dad, that's it's cool. All right. That's great. Those are our five. I can assure you that is not what my dad talks to me about when we talk on the phone. Does he talk about world markets and stocks and? He does talk about things like that.

Not so much the economy per se, but, the history of the Peloponnesian War was the conversation yesterday, yeah. Peloponnesian, who was involved in that? I encourage you to go read a book. The Peloponnesian War? Yes, go read about the Peloponnesian. What is it? Who was involved in that? I Encourage you to go read a book the Peloponnesian War. Yes, go read about the what nations You see the Peloponnesian War my supposed to be like right off the tip of my tongue have no not prefer to say the war Of 1812 I'm reading a book. You're gonna laugh at me. I'm reading a book by this history professor at Stanford on the nature of history professor at Stanford on the nature of revolutions. And the central thesis of the book is that through much of human

history, revolutions were considered to be a dangerous bad thing for society. But that all changed right around the time of the French Revolution, because a theory of history began to get put forward at that time, which is that history is inexorably progressive, like over time it gets better. And then revolutions become a ladder for progress. They become something you see people lean into and not just from the Western minds. Aytolah Khomeini, when he talks about the 79 revolution in Iran, leans into a positive

vision of the future through revolution. This all changed. And I was talking about some of the ancient Greek and Roman thought and history that went into it, and then my dad goes into a part about the Peloponnesian War. Yeah, from 404 BC. Yeah. Oh, you guys are getting interesting right now.

I mean, we couldn't be more different in what we talked about. Yeah, your dad was like, I'm horny for fighters. Although he lives in Florida, he doesn't speak like you. I'd like to have more different in what we talked about. I'm horny for fighters. Although he lives in Florida, he doesn't speak. I'd like to have sex with the fighters. Uh those are

our five topics now. Now, though we hear from the fan. Uh first and foremost, you can reach us if you want to reach out to the show at morning combat at GM. I'm sorry. Morning combat at gmail.com for Friday's fansubs, Dead Wrongs, and just in in general if you want to show Mikey your pack

I mean no no if you you know you want to complain about the show But this is a segment we do where every Sunday night at morning combat on Instagram on X We reach out to the fans and say ask us ask us anything you can put it anywhere. This is called DMS from dogs All right, I have not read these. Luke, we're not ready either. Fire here. Let's see who's the first question from maybe Daz. No, from Sam Laban. Why are there no celebrity power slap matchups?

So much potential to manufacture beefs between B and C list celebs and then slap it out. Is that a serious? I mean, yeah, but you the game, you can a real sport. He's presenting it as a real. Well, also, if you're a B and C list, you can just do like a meet and greet and probably make as much or more than you would

one of these like dumb fucks lapping contest. Also signed some like independent wrestlers to slap as well. I don't know how much is it into it as an indie wrestler making a year? I mean, that that makes a little bit more sense. They've got personality and they don't make much right right exactly But be a B list celebrity dude a B list celebrity can I?

Mean we're talking about like a fair amount of good money But we always talk about it like who was a coat McCoy Backup quarterback in the league the motherfucker made almost 50 million dollars not doing jack shit a B-list guy and as a celebrity a C-list guy look you can make good money doing that. Yeah This is you can do it. Well first of all Colt McCoy is not gonna slap anybody I'm pointing out like you need our if reality show drug addicts. That's what you like Jersey sure cast I was gonna say DJ Paulie D dude. He makes good money. Why the fuck would he go into a slapping? Right, we would need someone much much worse off

You know like I think the question though is posing like regardless of if DJ Paulie D is making money Would you watch power slap if it was DJ Paulie D getting slapped? I'd rather get I'd rather think I would I'd rather get fucked To death by an eight-dicked walrus you would prefer that over a lot of things. It's actually kind of questionable I hate power slap, but let's go to our next question Have you seen the Australian thing or maybe it's the Kiwi thing called Run It? Yeah. Where they run at each other, and they'll go home and drill no pads?

That best, the best event in American Gladiators, remember Breakthrough and Conquer? You have to run with a football through the other, and then the Conquer part is you get in the wrestling ring, you gotta push them out. That running thing was always awesome because it was like real contact, and no pads for the most part.

But this is CTE that's amazing these guys will like get knocked out, and then they'll do like the fencing pose You know where their fingers are all fucked up like Tua and then the whole crowd around them will like surround and be like oh bitch You got knocked up. I'm like this guy has severe brain damage. What the fuck are you doing? Yeah, that's what power slap needs more intense celebrations like tea bag and so well if they're out cold Here's what I'll say if the conversation is what's better now. They're both insanely stupid and dangerous But if the conversations what's better slap or run it do run it is much more exciting Much more exciting probably more dangerous much more dangerous too. Yeah. Yeah. All right next question from the people This is at Eric Bolden

he says would you rather have a fight card basically every week like they do now or go back to the 2010 days where they held 24 fight cards? What would be better for MK? Better fight cards, but spaces out or weekly cards? It's a hard conversation to have because MK is based off of the calendar that exists. If you change the calendar, we would have to change MK to some extent to follow that. It would be a lot goofier and gimmicky. Here's what I would say. Here's what I would say. I would be okay with the UFC dialing back to high 30s,

low 30s maybe, mid 30s, somewhere around 33, 34, somewhere around that in terms of annual events. But with one caveat, BC, that there'd be enough of an MMA economy beyond them, where on some of those other weekends, where for example, back when the time at this time 2010, if UFC didn't have an event on that weekend, Strike Force might have. Right.

And we would give our attention to it. And you would give our attention to it. It would be a little bit all over the place. And you could decide if that was worth your time, but like just going back to, oh, now we're just going to make up something. Now we're going to have 30 events, but then there's no corresponding uptick on Saturdays from the rest of the MMA economy. That doesn't really serve our interest either.

So it's about, it's not, it's not like, it's not that I mind MMA being on every weekend, it's I mind one dominant brand being the only thing on every weekend. And the fight night quality of the main events Yeah, exactly Boss, sir. I as Luke would say You're insulting. I was looking up this car. Hold on just one second. I'm holding on. What are you talking about this Blanchfield car coming up? No, no, no, no. So I was looking up at the time. I was looking up this Strike force card because I was I was trying to find out when this take place I was I was looking up for the rankingsce card because I was trying to find out when this take place. I was looking up for the rankings, right?

Check out this card. Let me just tell you who was on this effing thing. It's just unbelievable who was on this. Hold on just one second. Let me pull this up here. Would you go through the big lady on Wilson Phillips to get to China? Okay, that's a lot. You just put on my plate.

I don't know what to say about it. Here's what I'm going to say. This was the StrikeForce Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinals. This took place September 10th, Cincinnati, Ohio. It was on Showtime. Listen to this card. This was a Strikeforce card. Okay. Josh Barnett versus Sergey Hrytanov. Great fight. Cormier Bigfoot. Okay. Luke Rockhold-Jacquere for the title. Great fight. Okay. King Moe versus Hodger Gracie. Hodger Gracie, arguably the best gi grappler of all time. Not arguably the best gi grappler of all time. Pat Healy versus Maximo Blanco. Maximo Blanco was a wild man. Pat Healy fought Habib. Mike Kyle versus, listen to this, Marcos Hojerio de Lima, who's still fucking fighting

to this day. Mike Kyle won that one, by the way. Joel Romero loses to Fei Zhao. Rafael Capacante gets stopped inside the first, second round, excuse me, by the way. Joel Romero loses to Fei Zhao, Rafael Capacante, he gets stopped inside the first round, second round, excuse me, of that contest. Jordan Mian versus Cyborg Santos. Alexis Davis beat Amanda Nunes on this card. Damn. And then another one, Dominic Steele versus Chris,

I can't pronounce the other guy's name, but the last one doesn't count. Dude, that was a strike force fucking card. This is what I'm talking about when we have like a different MMA offerings to enjoy. I'm with you on that one. It's yeah. Yeah. I want my combat sports back.

I want that. That was, you know, again, you know, you don't have to start fighting for our combat sports or just throwing in the towel and doing something else. Yeah. Getting into political punditry. No pornography is really what I'm thinking about. All the peas covered. You got any more of them jams from the people? This is from at TV GC MMA views on sailor promoting Crawford and Canelo, not TKO.

And do you think this was always the one and used to K.O. for attention or because Dana said doesn't like staves? We had all topic built upon this. Yeah, we kind of been over this one. We need quality control on these. Sorry GC MMA you already heard right you already heard I mean I heard you got any more of these jams At flannels and jits we like this guy like you know he's he rolls this guy he competes. He's a computer He's a competitive win. Yeah, this is a great this guy's a good dude with Jose Aldo now retired

And he did say publicly Jose did that he there wasn't there's not a UFC fight he would come back he did come back yesterday as a matter of fact yeah what is your favorite King of Hio fight or memory and then second question what is his MMA legacy I have to share so really three because I the guy who he beat in his WCW Piqu Neguera, had a big reputation for having a fierce guillotine, and Aldo beat the living fuck out of him, and that was an eye-opener. But the two big ones were, I was actually with my then-girlfriend and now-wife at the time. We were at her place when he beat Mike Brown, and I did think he was going to beat Mike Brown, but people will look at Mike Brown's career who didn't live through it and be like,

what was so special about it, motherfucker? He was dominant. He was very, very good. He destroyed all the WEC plans to promote your eye of favor. And then he has the belt and Aldo went in there and toyed with him. I couldn't believe. Would you say it was Silva Liebman style? Different because he was more positional control on the ground. But like, you know, Mike Brown was known for his physical strength and Aldo manhandled him I couldn't believe it and then the other one was his first fight with Chad Mendes where he knees him and then jumps into the crowd

I was gonna say that's the moment. And they hold him up. It's like dude this triumphant king of his people. Oh my god And was that the rematch? No, that was the first one. The rematch ended up being a great fight. Competitive as shit was a great fight Yes, yeah the run into the crowd that was like iconic reminds me of Pearl Washington in the carrier dome for Syracuse after he hit a half-court buzzer beater He ran like 50 rows. Oh, he's a fuck about Syracuse. Um wow okay, so I Mean that's a great moment. I Think when he was at the Jeremy Stevens fight when he had lost the back-to-back by stoppage to Holloway and we're like Yes, it was a rebound fight. Yes. Rebound fight. It was like a body shot and it just felt like, like he was back and his team put

them on his shoulders and everything. Yeah, that was a good moment. And right there, um, his resume, Luke is despite me trying to previously keep him out of it, he's an upper room guy. He's an upper room, all time, great guy, the best in his divisions, history, um, an absolute icon. Look at the longevity. He could still go right now if they actually put him in fights that matched his, uh, an absolute icon. Look at the longevity. He could still go right now

if they actually put him in fights that matched his, his current state. He went down in weight late in his career and was a title contender. I mean, took on all challenges. I wish for him he would have gotten a Conor McGregor rematch at some point. I wish for his, his arc, his legacy, his story.

That would have been great. Life takes you in funny directions. He almost folded up shop against Hominik around five. Don't forget that, all right? I was there at that event. his story that would have been great. Life takes you in funny directions. He almost folded up shop against hominac around five, don't forget that, alright. I was there at that event. Oh wow, that Rockman size hematoma. Yeah, Hussien Rockman thing. I mean you love that man, the King of Hio, but you know he's going to be in BKFC soon, you know that.

He says he's not even going to put on a gi. He said what he said he would do is help friends train Yes, because he wants to help people but he's like in terms of like competing He says he's done and I hope he's done do he's taking a fuck ton of damage at this point You know if he gets a chance to box like a bad version of McGregor. I'll take it It's kind of funny man Like Aldo went long stretches of his career right through that first Korean zombie fight where he

didn't take hardly any damage and it was after that where all the damage began to get poured in and then once it did like it just kept coming. I refused to try to remember what the yawn ending looked like when he got hit in the brain so so I'm glad he's calling it a day. What a legend what a man what a very good man Are there any more? Oh wow from at probably Brian maybe at almost halfway through 2025 and with the biggest fights on the horizon. What is your fight of the year so far? I'm still torn Brian says probably Brian between Paul

Hughes versus Usman and Raghmetov or JDM versus Bilal Muhammad. I'm going to say Hughes number can made off. Yeah. But. I think there's a variety of responses. Long on look, what else is in the fight of the year? Conversation, I'm going to say I'm like blanking on what we've even had so far. No, I'm not. Hughes is like the easy go to because he gave us the options,

but there's probably like a random prelim fight we're forgetting. Can it be that good if we Did we just had milky costa julina rosa put on a banger of a fight? Like this fight is gonna stand that was a test of time The best fight on the card. I probably won't remember it in a month. Okay. Yeah, that's fair That's the two fights he listed were both main events. There was whenever good made off Hughes and then JDM and below Those were both made events events. The Usman-Nerberka-Madoff-Hughes and then JDM and Balal. Those were both made events.

I'm sure we're forgetting one. I'm sure we're forgetting one. There's been a lot of good fights. I will say it's not like the year's been nothing but bad fights. That's really not true. Right. But there's not been like huge amazing breakout fights. That's the kind of thing. There have not. Do you think you you bank Ben is going to win in boxing? It's gonna be tough to beat. I mean that the second better be a bevel fight was great as well Yeah, but you bank Ben had more drama. Maybe maybe the third Taylor Serrano will will weigh in on July, right? That we got that right love Netflix damn, right? That's a hell. Yeah, fantastic That's a sick fight and we're gonna get a third better be a fight at the end of the year Right better brave be all be vol excuse me

Maybe Maybe you imagine Canelo. I know how you were like oh Canelo could fight be vol again word Word that was gonna happen you get absolutely fucking I want to see him. I want to see him compete You know that that's you sent me that video Bob Aron was like, yeah, Canelo doesn't want it anymore. He doesn't. I've been saying that. I've been saying that for how long, BC? Yeah, you're right.

You sniffed out that red, all right? You sniffed out the amber that was the color of his energy, Luke. All right, those are our fan questions. Thank you for sending. We have one final segment for you. It's when I try to make Luke Thomas either laugh or be Heavily disturbed by the viral videos I found by scraping the internet. This is there's the cake lady on here I'm punching you in the face. This one's called. Have you seen this ish?

Can I tell you my wife now likes the cake lady? Oh, your wife is aware of this? Yes. Not from the show, independently. Okay. And she sent me one because she likes that show, Is It Cake? Have you seen it? No.

I think it was on Netflix or HBO Max or whatever. And where they make like, oh, is it a bookshelf or is it a fucking cake? But it's like a little more structured. Whereas this lady's just walking around eating things like a fucking I'd like go Would you watch an x-rated version of that segment like is it dick or is it cake, you know? And yeah, I'm not gonna watch a dick eating contest. No Yeah, when you frame it like that one that one you can keep that one. Oh speaking of eating a dick Luke here's your boxing interview of the week with us this morning and

Look, I you know, this is to be a tough fight on paper at least against Williams Zepeda. Tell us why it won't be tough in the ring. First, I want to say we would by far the worst commentator and interviewer in the business. Actually this is his third take, but you know Williams Zepeda is a great fighter and on paper he's supposed to be the hardest fight of my career. So let's see what happened July 12th. Yeah, we'll see.

And I appreciate the kind words, Shacor. Thank you for that. Not no kind words for you, brother. Oh, okay. Well, I was being sarcastic, obviously, but. Oh, for real. I didn't know. Okay.

Oh, good. I'm glad you have a sense of humor, but in the ring Williams Apeda likes to bring. Can you rate this on of humor, but in the ring, Williams of Peta likes to bring. Can you rate this on the cop a meter? Is that the worst? Let me just say this. In fairness, your right hall did this to us. Yes. Oh God, it's happened to me. I've been dunked on. Yeah. I've actually, he's not the only one who's done it to me. Mike Perry said he will kill me when he sees me. Yes. Yeah. That's another one. Um, so, you know, it's happened a few times. That was pretty funny. That was... You know what the line is that actually makes that whole thing?

He goes, this is actually his third take. Poor cop, dude. He got... Shut the fuck up, you little prick! You love that clip. Would you say that's your favorite clip of all time? That's... It's top three. We should watch it again, right? Shut the fuck up, you little prick! Yeah?

Yeah, prick. Go ahead. Come on, get him out of here. You're getting out of here. Shut the fuck up, you little prick! Yeah? Yeah, prick. Go ahead. Come on. Get him out of here. You're getting out of here. Shut the fuck up, you little prick. Yeah. Yeah, prick. I'd love to write an oral history on that moment. Just get like interview everyone involved. Oh, dude. Bob Arum.

Bob Arum has been promoting since the what? 60s? Yes. He went to Harvard. Obviously, his body has declined. That motherfucker's mind is sharp. He's still sharp. Sharp and salty. And dude, this is what I love about boxing.

Boxing is full of old men, and old men don't give a fuck what you think. Yeah, that's true. And they will absolutely tell you whatever's on their mind. Indeed. It is amazing. This old man, Derek Chisora,

tried to pick up Skye Nicholson on camera, and this is what happened. Oh God. How are you? Good, thanks. When are we gonna grab dinner? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Derek just Sora tried to pick up Sky Nicholson on camera and this is what happened when I was gonna grab dinner whoa whoa whoa whoa when I was gonna grab dinner don't be coming at me like that

don't you like dinner on my own alright that's some cold shoulder shit did you see that no cuz I just got a fucking alert that there's god damn it, dude God damn it. Did you hear about this? I don't know what the alert is Luke. Yeah, how am I supposed to guess due to New Jersey? Transit work dispute there may be an event taking place outside of the blah blah blah blah blah And it's gonna affect traffic and your ability to get home on a reasonable time. So now please put a gun in my mouth Okay, I don't accept that type of talk. That's ridiculous I was two and a half hours late last week my you know just the trains behind you know

I go home two and a half hours late But I still watched when my friend played a funny video. I'm sorry about that. Yeah Okay, you don't have any follow-ups about sky-nickelson well sexual harassment in the workplace all right there We go hey UFC was back in the apex on Saturday check out Michael Morales is his mama going sick on the sidelines here So I asked my wife because I never heard this word are Rachel yeah, and I asked my wife, because I never heard this word arecho. Yeah. And I asked her what it means. And what she tried to explain to me was it really depends on where you go.

So apparently in Colombia and Venezuela arecho means horny. But I guess in Ecuador, where they're from, it means more like, like power or passion or you know, like, like strong feeling. Not hashtag horned up. Yeah, But it doesn't quite mean horny. All right. Uh, yeah. Well, long out and Luke's fight of the year, milky versus juicy Jay had a rocking and Apollo moment, moment back at the hospital. This is some nice pushy though here. Linked forever in history.

When they're, when they're doing the hospital gurney bit, you know it was a tough ass fight. Luke, you once gave explosively awful life advice for people to not follow their dreams. It's good life advice actually. I'm wondering if this is your mentor. What's your life advice? Life advice? Just because you don't give up doesn't mean you will make it listen to Luke Thomas folks okay shoot low I know that people don't like hearing uncomfortable truths

but that lady is right all right time for your sandcastle of the week I don't know if this is appropriate around children but they did it anyway Luke oh god! Look how happy that kid is. Oh yeah, oh yeah. And he's got the two beers. You know what? Actually, now I support this. It's pretty great. Look, I'm a sucker for foreign people who speak broken English yelling insults at each other. Yeah, it creates moments like this. So this is in, this is in DC. That's Dulles airport. So I don't know who that was, but, um, I also love scenes like this.

Third world your ass says Luke Elfin says, no, no, no, it was the cab driver. I know that was a cab driver. Luke, we won't show footage of it because they'll copyright us, but Darren till scored a misfits boxing victory over Darren, the dentist, Stewart, nearly getting a KO in the final second. But here's who he wants next. I don't hate Jorge Masvidal, but I promise you right now, I promise you on my life right now, I will get my revenge on Jorge Masvidal,

and I will knock him clean, spark out. I will get my revenge, mark my words. Are you into Till Masvidal too in a boxing? No, no, not at all. Alright, here's Jorge Masvidal's response get it That was a flying cock that move I don't know if you saw that very funny elsewhere in boxing this weekend Chris cyborg was back in the pro boxing ring in California and deliver first round

Sorry an early K 20th anniversary of her combat sports career, basically. A legend, a true legend. Can't speak on the quality of opponent. Yeah, listen, you're fighting numbers at this stage of boxing or whatever, but the fact that Cyborg is just out here getting after whoever she can,

staying active however she can. Are we gonna see Cyborg home too in a boxing ring? Is that possible? You can see it can see by the way remember she beat Pacheco right in in PFL the one time that she's been used in PFL Cyborgs fucking legend. That's all rumor that Pacheco Can't make any headway with PFL or UFC right now. I do hear about that I don't know I have a dry with the situation in the moment

I would like to see her get back to the UFC if she wants to because she can fight that not she's proven to be Quite the quite the formidable opponent our final boxing highlight of the weekend took place in Santo Domingo the Dominican Luke Check out the referee here. He just got punched in the back of the head, and then it's gonna get worse for him Oh, what the fuck this is disgraceful. This is not good. Okay. Do we know what the story is? Why are they beating up the referee? I well, I'm sure they don't like the way he officiated You just dove out of the ring Jesus my my church CYO basketball team my junior year No, I wasn't on the team this year. I want to see why oh, I joined the team the next year Yeah, Christian youth organization

So basically in my in my town if you didn't play in the high school team you could play on the rec team, but the rec league only, it ended your junior year. So senior year, I was like, I need to play hoop. So I joined my CYO team. The year before, they made it all the way to the New England Championship. But when they won the state championship over a team from Hartford, as soon as the final whistle blew, the referee ran out and the team chased him out in the parking lot, beat the shit out of him. And I. So that's like this work home from for Jesus

No, forget it. Don't forget. Don't forget. You look you know this game rate it from 1 to 10 It's time to rate that tat here. We go. Here's Daniel Rodriguez old D Rod putting Jesus on the dome Luke right that test so a couple things there should be noted about this number one dome tattoos have exploded in popularity yes more recently like in the last year or two It's the first thing I'll say second of all it's hard to say from right here Because I would need to see how it looks at the front like this it does not look like a bad tattoo His beard supposed to mimic a hair like a hairline in the front when he when he lifts his head up?

I don't this is what I mean about like doing these kinds of tattoos where he's trying to get the hairline to mimic the beard I don't I don't know if that works It does not it's not a poorly applied tattoo if that's what you're asking great topic great great subject matter Little much for me six the guy who did bunch of my tattoos has a big-ass head tattoo And I asked him what it was like and he said He you can just hear buzzing like rattling through your skull. That's good. So I will I will never do that So you won't rate this that though because of the religious connotation Seven okay. Let's take that rating to the next one. Here's a combination of two of our childhood heroes Luke ET and stone cold

what Y'all are trying to find me for scientific experiments. What? What do you rate this one, Luke? I mean this is a negative 8 billion. That's a solid 3, right? I mean I love the detail in the armpit which is really weird on both sides.

The abs coming through the vest. I love this. One bicep is a lot bigger than the other. Yeah, I mean this is a poorly done tattoo. But it's funny. You're magicing gonna put the back of your fucking leg alright Luke I trash rate this shit rate this political tap, please one to ten Wow brother down bad, huh, man You imagine like the level These by the way these are the kinds of people that will get in my mentions and be like you have Trump derangement syndrome.

I'm like, actually, I think it's you. I think it's you. All right. Let's go to the next one. Luke. Let's combine the two things. I love the best hot dogs in women's bodies. Luke, what do you rate this one?

It's a little bit better. A little bit better. Still weird. The ketchup covering the titties is a little bit. How about the bun covering the buns? They thought of everything on this Once again another white trash piece of shit, but it's like a like a solid seven though on the give it a five All right one more. It's a UFC related tat Luke. Can you rate this out of one to ten? I?

Mean you got it. Okay. I know you hate the subject material of house subject matter negative infinity It's good tattoo. I'll give it a six. Oh wow Speaking of has Bola Luke. Let's check in on John Jones. He's apparently still in Thailand, but Like Mike Tyson who picked up has Bula like a baby him like a bear come and kissed him John also having fun with this small man Why is he treating him like a bear cub? And kissed him. John also having fun with this small man. They are friends forever, Luke. You know what? When you finally need Hasbulla to smack somebody,

Yes. Now, now you don't have it in you? Really? He's not a child. He's like 23 years old. Yeah, he's like 22 or something. Yeah. Poor guy. Okay, that's weird. Let's keep the John Jones stuff going. Here's UFC pulling out all stops to try to get him to sign for the Aspen all fight Luke They've created a trail that leads to Madison Square Garden He just has to find a police escort just in case things get out of hand right behind just needs to follow it all right

Hey, let's check in on our favorite journalist, the warlock, Gareth A. Davis. Bosh. Hold on. My pants tied. That's not good. That's not good. Vapors or closers, Luke? Bosh. Okay, guys. No comment?

There's so many sex assault jokes I want to make, but I'm going to keep those to myself. Brock Lesnar's daughter, Maya, won her fourth consecutive Mountain West Championship. She is an NCAA champion as well. Shocker, she's an athlete. And she is a tank. A very strong young woman. You're going to do the shot putt here? Dude, she looks so much like him, it's ridiculous.

So that's from, I don't think that's with sable right this is a this is a daughter he had early on I don't know I don't know who his significant others are but yeah bro she's she's an athlete I mean what do you think she'll go into because Olympics maybe I don't know she good enough for that I don't know she good enough for the Olympics did she go to pro wrestling or MMA or I wonder if she wrestles too you You know what? I mean she's got the athletic stock to get good. Luke, you've heard of Super Mario.

What about Super Maria? Never needed that toe head more, Luke. That toe or the feather. Yeah, let's... Baby Jessica's in the hole, everyone. I tell you what, I tell you what. Infrastructure in several parts of North and South America, not that money. Oh, they got they got the flying down music. She did live ultimately. Alright, let's flatulate. It's time, Luke.

Check out this China Zoo and what this hippo did to the onlookers Oh, they should have made a celebration for people like you and this hippo. Absolutely spray those hoes. Let's see if they made any signs for this celebration. Oh, there it is. Look, the- That's why it's kind of a festival, bro. Every morning under the sheets, stuffy. My wife hates it. Luke, Boots Ennis versus Tayo could be next at welterweight,

but my boy Tim Bradley, the hall of famer, has a disclaimer for those who think that Boots has this. That's one thing what I'm talking about boxing. That's what I'm talking about And I'm here to tell y'all he got what it takes to beat boots in his hand the two most athletic Fighters in the game damn Where is Tim Bradley where the foo fighters are on? It's not like it's not like a kid soccer game or the county fair or something. I was like Tim What the hell where are you? But What do you think of that? That Teo's too athletic for boots and would... I don't buy that. Yeah, he might have problems against boots.

Dude, the Haney's are pushing hard for the Teo fighter. Well, they need a little redemption. I mean, Devin won, but he looked like butt cheeks in that fight. Let's check in on the NBA playoffs. This is a T-Wolves fan. You know, you get on the Skycam, you kiss Luke. Or you just take a bump. That's, uh, there we go. That's how we do it.

Yep, that's it. I mean, I also would need to do Coke to go to a Timberwolves game, but yes. Oh, Ant-Man is unbelievable. He's amazing, yes. And I'm saying that as a Wizards fan, but, you know, I like to be insulting. Luke, it's hashtag never forget. We know there's certain dates that we, uh, we never forget, but check out this old school phone, by the way

Hey Oh All right, all right, I'll catch you later bye they hit the second tower That was all the way back then they knew yeah, that was like a controlled demolition like building 7 Luke Let's go to this instructional video of faith whether they're young or old The best kind of friends are people who are friends of God Is this real? Yeah pre-event but that is very that one. That one aged poorly. It did, it did. Luke, we got a bonus rate that title.

Let's see what your 1 to 10 scale brings. Okay, this is, I don't support this. They did get the second plane there, huh? Okay, all right, wow. What are we doing here? Finally, Luke. People love it when you make jokes about death. They write me telling me how much they love it when you do that.

Would you say that you are the biggest fan of toporia's hog that is out there? Probably his wife is number one. I found one more. His name is DC watch this Let me see that. Damn boy. Okay, that's the shit of the week, Luke. DC was ready for the shaboing-boing, huh? Oh boy, what a time to be alive. Thank you for the fun and games. That's your shit. I'm pretty good. I give that one a B.

Okay, I'll take a B. I'll take a B cup if you have to. Yeah, alright. Ba-na-na-na-na-na. Ba-na-na-na-na-na. We will be... I saw the Minecraft movie. What'd you think? Well, I don't know shit about Minecraft. I'll make that a disclaimer. I know nothing about Minecraft. One of my twins loves it, the other one hated it.

So let's see, where are we at here? So I had to watch both movies. I had to watch the new Snow White movie because hello, I have a six-year-old daughter. And then I had to watch the Minecraft movie. The Minecraft movie was way better. Jack Black? Dude, he was pretty good in this movie.

I hear the term chicken jockey yelled in my house a lot. There is a chicken jockey in this movie. Yeah. I was on a date night with my wife this weekend and I saw the accountant too with Ben Affleck. How was it? Pretty good. It was at one of those theaters where you order dinner and drinks and they bring it to you and you... No, do the seats recline on that one or? They do, but like the tray isn't like close enough or big enough so you're eating this burger in the dark and you're spilling it all over yourself.

Was it Alamo? Was Alamo theater? No, Sinopolis. The Napoli's and I believe indeed. I'm waiting for Dune three, brother. That's what I know. Yeah, I'm with you on that there. How about this? Star Wars is doomed for stupid people. That's the reality. Accept it.

I'm with you on that. George Lucas, by the way, in his. These now is the. That's the show for this week. I hope you enjoyed some of it, maybe even all of it. I'm with you on that George Lucas by the way in his base now These oh, that's the show for this week. I hope you enjoyed some of it. Maybe even all of it Thank you for playing morning combat at gmail.com to reach our show by the way. Thank you very much once more You can follow us on the social handles below including our YouTube channels And just a reminder that this fantastic episode of morning combat was brought to you by draft Kings and with draft Kings the crown is Yours long I'll look anything else that you want to say No, UFC this weekend. No major MMA this weekend man. I might have to be a good boyfriend this weekend

But you know what the hell are we gonna do on Friday show skits and bits. Yeah, let's just I don't know Watch porn react to it. One more thing put the camera on me put the camera on me anyone else To it one more thing put the camera on me put the camera on me anyone else Oh, what's anyone else check out this Hey more to come folks, okay, we got our shit together more to come. All right, so get ready get well, okay So get ready. Okay more to come and it won't be me. Thank you very much a fantastic show this week We'll be back Friday. I have no idea what we're gonna talk about. Yeah, I have no fucking idea. And then don't forget, June 4th, Wednesday, 11 a.m. Eastern, right here.

A-Bron. UFC 316 pregame preview brought to you by Cuervo, Aaron Bronstetter, that fantastic gentleman of a fellow there from Canada, he'll be joining us. Hybrid athlete. Old school hybrid athlete. Luke, do you wanna say anything? You have like, there's a camera, there's a microphone.

No, thanks for watching the show. Get anything off of your chest? No, I'm good. Alright. For LT, it's BC, and we love you folks. Thanks for watching, take care. We are out of here. All the smoke fighters headed to the Hall of Fame.

That's right, this year's International Boxing Hall of Fame induction weekend in boxing's hometown, Canister, New York, takes place from Thursday, June 5th, through Sunday, June 8th, ending with an annual ceremony immortalizing boxing's all-time greats. The International Boxing Hall of Fame are hosting fan events and experiences all weekend long. On Friday night, June 6th, Salida Promotion will present a terrific fight card

in association with All the Smoke Fight, live on The Zone, from the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Ramona, New York. Featuring USBA Heavyweight Champion Brandon Moore defending his title against undefeated prospect Stanley Wright in the main event. Plus a stacked undercard featuring world champion Franchon Fouze de Zurn and rising prospects J.J. Pagan and Devel Smith. Sounds to me we're going to have a great fight night and of course Sunday,

a ceremony to induct the class of 2025. Legends like Manny Pac-Man Pacquiao, Michael Second-to-None, and the Pazmanian Devil Vinny Paz. Join all the smoke fight and salida promotion at Turning Stone Resort Casino for this year's International Boxing Hall of Fame Induction Weekend. Hey listen, visit turningstone.com for accommodations and tickets to Friday's Fight Night. Visit ibhof.com for the full Induction Weekend schedule. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.