MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Canelo Alvarez Stops Billy Joe Saunders | Bellator 258 Recap | UFC 262 | Ep 154

Episode Date: May 10, 2021

Monday MK is here to recap all you need to know from this past weekend. Luke and Brian recap Canelo Alvarez's win over Billy Joe Saunders. Who is next for Canelo (5:30)? Plus, they breakdown the results from both Bellator 258 (37:30) and UFC fight night (30:50). How impressive were Sergio Pettis, Rumble Johnson, and Marina Rodriguez? Also, UFC 262 is fast approaching. What are some of the storylines to look forward to (59:15)? --------------------------- 'Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Reveille, reveille, donks. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell.

This is Morning Combat. that side of the screen i think no wait this side of the screen this side that one uh he is also from cbs sports he's the king of connecticut when apathy is not around it's brian campbell hi brian campbell hi luke okay hi we're back i'm back let's be back together all right i can't quite read your uh sign back there don't. It's an encouragement to people to understand where we are in the great war. Don't Bogart the MK. All right. Don't don't don't hog it. Okay. You know, breathe out so we can breathe you in.

Spread the word. Tell your friends. All right. Let's make this thing as big as it can be. Look, I'm so I was wondering, is this orange make me look bloated? Or would you say it's more of my diet choices of late? Outside of that, I am so ready to take this thing to the next level. That's all. I don't know.

I don't know what it is, but you definitely you definitely look. I wouldn't say quite the color of country time pink lemonade. Not that bad. But I don't know. You know, pre-cooked hot dog kind of pink okay just lifeless flesh that's you thanks uh all right we have a lot to get to today um thanks everyone who checked out our content last weekend from the mohegan sun but the train rolls on we're gonna have a whole bunch of ufc 262 stuff for you coming up this next week so for the moment like the video hit

subscribe if you are new here, welcome. If you're new from the folks who checked out BC's Instant Reaction to Canelo, welcome. We'll do this three times a week at 11 a.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday here in the East Coast time. If you want to try Showtime, you certainly can. You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. And if you're ready to take that plunge, there's your URL right there. Show.com slash Bellator MMA. $4.99 a month for the first six months if you do it that way. Get a little bit off.

Again, that's the full live Showtime programming experience plus everything on demand. You get the twofer there if you do that. If you want to email the show, Wednesday's fan submissions, Friday's Dead Wrong, morningcombat at gmail.com is the best and frankly maybe the only place to email the show, Wednesday's fan submissions, Friday's Dead Wrong, morningcombat at gmail.com is the best and frankly maybe the only place to reach the show. And yeah, BC, there actually was a fair amount of stuff over the weekend. Are you ready to get this party started with our very lifeless intro? Yes, yes.

We had a little of explaining to do. We didn't get to do the Bellator post-fight show, Luke, but outside of that, we're back at it. We're good. We're ready to go. We're ready to rock out. Out of our hands. Everything's fine from what I can tell.

So, all right, let's get this party started if we can here. First things first, BC. I guess we have to go with what is actually the biggest story of the combat sports weekend. Canelo Alvarez doing an unbelievable job in stopping Billy Joe Saunders. BC and I were disagreeing all over the place via text message over the weekend, but BC, while we did hear from you from the instant reaction video, as is customary, I'd like to go to you first here if we can. Let me ask the question this way. Canelo stopped

Billy Joe Saunders uh basically at the end of the eighth round he damaged him in the eighth Billy Joe held on to finish that frame and then essentially the uh the fight was stopped at that point in terms of the totality of the fight plus the ending isn't this what we expected yeah in a sense and i don't think that's uh look when when somebody's dominant right floyd mayweather or anybody do you sometimes get to a point of overcorrection where you're just looking for that fighter to be challenged again on a certain level we've seen canelo just step up his level of domination since the two golovkin fights in which let's give him his credit he won won't stop getting better. He's in his absolute physical prime here at age 30.

The experience, everything has come together. He's almost unstoppable out there. So I think your stance in this against me was sort of like, you know, Saunders wasn't the real, was never going to be the real. This was always the ending. And I guess, you know, if you're only looking at that, okay, I can't argue that. Canelo's the best in the world. He was a fairly large betting to be the real this was always the ending and i guess you know if you're only looking at that okay i can't argue that canelo is the best in the world he was a fairly large betting favorite i just knew what i knew about the quote upper bound limits of the untapped billy joe saunders when he has no reason left not to give his very best that he's a little bit different and a unique out within the canelo universe i think that also played itself out, Luke,

depending on how you had it scored and what we saw. And I'm glad to, well, I'm not glad to find out that Saunders is hurt more than we knew, you know, exiting that fight. I mean, it kills the whole idea, did he quit, all that argument to a large degree. I know a lot of people say, if you're going to talk that ish, back it up. Well, he's, you know, he had multiple breaks in the bones around his face and needs reconstructive surgery. So Canelo finished him.

And if that was what was supposed to happen all along because of how great Canelo is, then it stuck to script. But would you also add in there, Luke, Saunders fought better in the end than you gave him any chance or right to. If this had gone 12 and Canelo didn't land that fight ending punch could it have been a a fun little shootout down the stretch of X's and O's maybe and also win lose draw go home Canelo was a star on Saturday and I'm going to give Eddie Hearn and them credit they turned that dome into a like Wrestlemania type feels with the entrances and the bombastity

um it was a good night out the fight's a good night for the sport yeah okay so maybe you predicted a knockout of Canelo still brought it to you doesn't mean I was wrong Luke okay yeah I mean I this this is weird because uh I think a lot of the British fans I don't see quite an eye to eye with them on this one usually I do usually I find that they're actually pretty sensible about it uh and again I do think that they're sensible about it I just don't see eye to eye with them here I feel like boy people are really grading on a curve with this one so I wanted to make sure like

I wasn't out of my mind to turn the commentary off I did not think I first of all I thought the commentary team was good I thought Sergio Mora questioning some of the decision making on the stoppage which we'll talk about in just a second was was a little bit off-base for me. I thought Grisham was good. We like Grisham here.

I didn't understand the scoring of Chris Mannix's card at all. I really didn't know where he was coming from. So this is what the fight looked like to me. To me, it looked like Billy Joe Saunders got cleanly outboxed for four rounds. Fifth and sixth, you could definitely tell had a bit of a comeback, however you wanted to score him. Seventh round, he had some good moments, but I thought Canelo came on strong at the end.

And in the eighth round, we all know the story basically there. That punch, by the way, that right kind of uppercut, essentially, that he was using when Billy Joe Saunders leaned off to his own left side. He landed that exact punch. I was like, I wonder if he landed it earlier. He did, BC. He landed it about the two-minute mark of the third round, caught him dead to rights on that one, too. So he'd kind of been softening him up just a little bit before that. But to me, what it looked like was, listen, if you've got a guy as talented as Billy Joe Saunders as decorated and as experienced a high-level veteran as that you know it's going to take something miraculous to get

him out of there inside of three rounds like something has to go terribly wrong so in that sense it's going to take some time and even Canelo said they thought the fight was going to turn at the mid slightly just past the midway point of it sure enough it did so I think that's probably fair if you wanted to say that I don't think it was a blowout BC I don't think it's that but I really do feel like people graded Billy Joe Saunders on a curve here I don't know how on let me make one point I don't know how on earth anybody can give him the first round. That one in particular to me was bizarre because I went back and I watched it. Dude, you need to go and pay,

not you, but the proverbial UBC, the proverbial out there. No, no, why don't you just say me and say it to my face and give me a chance to defend it when you're done? Fine, if you want to, I don't know if you're making, well, here's the thing,

I don't know if you're making this mistake or not, but I see a lot of people being like, oh, Billy Joe Saunders numerically landed on Canelo more and so certain an x frame or y frame and you go back and you watch it look at how many times he rolls with it so that it touches him but it doesn't have any impact but meanwhile in that first round dude Canelo was landing bombs on this guy to the body it is inconceivable that Billy Joe Saunders would win the first round of that contest. To me, there's a framing of this that's just way out of whack.

The reality of this is a couple things. I'm not going to support Mannix's card. I thought it was a little overblown, but at the very least, he was illuminating what was actually going on, a major shift of momentum in this fight. Now, that first round was boring as balls. Major shift of momentum.

Neither threw a lot. I think they combined to land nine punches in the round. So that's a pick-em round, Luke. That round was the perfect crystallization of what would have been a judging debate about this fight had it gone the distance. Did you like Saunders' activity better and his ring control, or did you like Canelo's harder shots? Same judging storylines in the Trout fight, the Lara fight,

because that's the styles of the fighters we're talking about. But I don't know in any world why you would want to die on the hill of the first round, a crappy round in which I scored for Canelo, but had no problem scoring it for Saunders. Because it's not the numerous CBC, it's the damage, and he clearly landed significantly harder shots than anything billy joe landed blown away this is seriously i'm blown away this is the round that you're that you're doubling down on that's fine but look in that round the only reason why it was a debate

is because canelo did not land enough i think canelo landed four punches in the round so he didn't land enough overall in the subsequent rounds Canelo was the aggressor. He landed more overall. I mean, he took over. He was the aggressor in the first, too. So here's the deal. Canelo won 2, 3, and 4 very easy, and let's give him a lot of credit. He took Saunders' jab completely away. I thought Saunders was going to have his best stuff early, not have to make an adjustment,

and that's a credit to Canelo, who I think speed early was a problem for Saunders. I don't think he expected that out of him, and obviously when you're mixing Canelo's great head movement from the waist up, all of that. But 4-5, I'm sorry, 4 was another closest round I gave it to Canelo, though. 5, 6, and 7, all three were won by Billy Joe on my card. And I don't see really, you know, I saw one judge only gave him one of those three.

Two judges gave him two of those three. But to me, that was a major momentum shift. He stepped up his output. He took the lead, got right in front of Canelo, was daring, throwing at tough angles. And the reason why he was able to win those rounds and have the success, not the looping punches like he was doing, but because he tightened up his defense, which allowed him to stand so close to Canelo, where Canelo couldn't really get off his jab. He had to try to pick in pot shot, but Billy Joe was getting out of the way of those pot shots and covering up well. So five, six, and seven, let's give Saunders the credit.

That's the guy who I was really trying to make a case is has more of a dynamic level and a will to win than a Callum Smith or a Rocky Fielding or some of the other guys in this division who were deemed credible to fairly credible heading in, and Canelo just destroyed them, right? So I think Saunders did answer that question. Now, the will to win part, he had his face broken. So some fighters have fought through that, some haven't. You can make that decision for yourself. But let's also realize why Canelo is the best.

The eighth round was a completely different story. I don't know if Canelo is resting a bit in five, six, and seven, is taking a screenshot of what's happening. I'm not sure, but he was a completely different fighter in round 8. He was aggressive. He hit hard. He stepped up. I mean, everything was great, and he got the knockout. So Canelo's great, but you start, you know, angrily

texting me, see, I told you Billy Joe Saunders sucks. I've never said he sucks. That's not really the truth. I've never once said he sucks. See, I told you that, guys. He doesn't suck. But, dude, people want Canelo's rivalries outside of Triple G. The Daniel Jacobs fight was close, too.

But outside of basically those two essential fighters, they want all these fights to be closer than they are. And Billy Joe, you're talking about a major shift in momentum. Dude, major on what level? He could barely back Canelo up. That I agree that he could win rounds five and six yeah he can win those rounds he won I think inarguably round seven to me is swing because I think Canelo did much better work but he got outlanded numerically it's a hard thing to call fine you want to give him seven you can't I didn't but fine but like this is not a major shift he didn't really the thing

he was getting Canelo on in five and six, partly he was catching him out of position, but he was countering his counters. So there was a situation where Billy Joe A wasn't being there, and then when Canelo would commit, he was cracking him. So Canelo got a little bit more hesitant and had to wait for his time a little bit. Yes, you deserve...

Billy Joe Saunders deserves to get the nod in those cases. But, I mean, again, you go through the first round. Do people think that Canelo just started punching hard in the eighth? This dude was punching hard from the first fucking shot he landed. Oh, Canelo's body work from rounds two through four were, in a lot of ways, The body work was good in round one, man. I don't know what numbers you're looking at. The body work was solid in round one, super solid.

That was the best work either of them did. Just to correct you again, it was a massive swing of momentum, not only on my scorecard, in which Billy Joe had lost the first four but then won the next three. Not only in that three-window block did he outland Canelo 31-18 overall, he also finally landed power shots. Dude, these shots are little flicking shots. They're not 31 shots.

You're kind of being an asshole. Look at the replay after round five and six. Both rounds showed a replay package in which he clocked Canelo fairly hard and clean to Canelo's credit he's got a great chin not 31 of them pitter patter anymore he had changed the the terms of the fight started coming forward it equaled wins on my scorecard how is that not a massive shift of momentum this was a championship fight and they both fought like champions in that regard dude 31 of those shots show me all 31 of those shots and i'll show you maybe less than 10 that have any quality yeah a couple of them stung him dude i'm not telling you he didn't win around five six and maybe seven this is i'm okay with that i'm okay with that but like dude if you're if you're

doing it in a way where you are calculatedly outboxing them by a fairly thinnish margin where yes you're the rightful winner but it wasn't like you were bombing on him you didn't have him on the ropes you didn't cut the ring off at least not for very long again you're fighting Canelo I understand he's the best fighter out there okay I get it dude he's the rightful winner of those but like you were taking the fight from him or like you know in some kind of way like meaningfully doing damage none of that was in play part of the reason why Canelo is fresh enough in the eighth round is he again he's Canelo in many ways his power carries late dude they didn't do anything to deter him in that way nothing they

never ever took away any capacity of his um to meaningfully have power carried late and so to me it's like listen he fought an admirable fight I give him credit for that but this was like I saw people like oh this was really close this was not a really close fight it just wasn't luke it was four rounds to three entering the final round on my scorecard how is that not a close fight like what the hell's wrong with you seriously i like and you're kind of saying well you know he didn't land he's not a power puncher a b he started to walk canelo down and stand right in front of him and land power punches and see Canelo down and stand right in front of him and land power punches.

And C, what's his only chance to be Canelo? To win more rounds, Luke. So he's got to play the 10-point must system and try to only win the rounds, survive in advance. So I don't know what else you're looking for from him. He's fighting the best fighter in the world, and he won three of seven rounds on my card. First of all, there's no way in my mind at all, Billy Joe.

I don't know what the case could be for Billy Joe winning round one. That, to me, is total delusion. Round one didn't happen. It's like Rocky V. Both guys went out there and landed four and five punches apiece. Luke, how are you dying on this hill? Dude, the quality. BC, BC, BC.

My abuela could land four punches on you i'm gonna guess that the four you land on her are gonna be of greater significance now that's an exaggerated example okay i scored it for canelo but you're acting like it was a dominant round the round sucked it was a pick it was not a dominant round it was it wasn't a swing round i mean i wasn't like well i i just don't know i was looking at who was doing better damage canelo pretty clearly pretty clearly in round one so i can't really understand what your actual argument and point of contention is that that i think it's that people are crazy to score round one for saunders or that this wasn't a competitive fight and never would be so in the end luke gets to say i told you so because it's not even about i told you it's not it's not about

you see you're asking the question i'll answer it it's not about save you from yourself that's my goal right now all right this isn't about this show anymore all right I gotta I gotta get you back as generous as this offer is and which I greatly appreciate let me just say it's not about like saying that and to the extent that the fight had carried on and we had had more of this potentially more of this accumulated offense from Billy Joe Saunders where now we have 12 rounds to examine, we're trying to see. At that point when the math becomes

that essential to understanding about, I might make more room for it. But to me, if you're having a difference in power punching from the first round to the eighth, to the extent that that ultimately in some ways, not by itself, but plays a major contribution in stopping the contest in between if someone got slightly better of the other one while I can grant under the rules that that is something that we should allow as 10-9 10-9 and

potentially another third 10-9 the point I'm trying to make was this was the Canelo show with Billy Joe having a couple of moments in between but the but the the the force of nature that was there was never really tested was never really pushed was never really challenged I think that's the point I'm trying to make all right I thought Canelo had to adjust to Billy Joe's adjustment and to give Canelo a ton of credit because he's a student of this game round eight looked a lot different than five six and seven so he made that adjustment whether he was setting him up for that in the previous rounds and you're trying to argue it was more about canelo setting that up than winning those rounds fine but uh we saw what we saw luke saunders was never going to be a knockout threat he was going

to be a threat to win six rounds against canelo though and he looked on pace to maybe having a shot at doing that so that that's just to wrap, just to wrap up on this BC. This is the only thing I'll say. I just didn't feel like we saw Canelo meaningfully challenged. I think that's the only point I'm trying to make now. Again, if it had gone 12,

I think the conversation would be different depending on how it went, obviously, but so I'm sensing a spirit in you, not, not, you know, maybe not different than episode three uh when when they could see that anakin you know spend a little bit too much time with with that sith lord right going in that direction i'm not going that regard but i'm sensing a a spirit in you that says this canelo's great no one's trying to argue that but I need him to fight the best opponent available and someone who has a chance at beating him every single time out or I'm gonna get bored

soon when in reality there's a lot of issues with that stance is that I don't think I don't think that's my stance I don't not not quite I mean maybe at 16, I'm a little bit bored, but that could change. I just don't feel, I never really was convinced, BC. I guess this is what I'm trying to say. I was never really convinced that Caleb Plant or Billy Joe Saunders were in any way bad fighters. Never, never, never, never, never. And that they could at times give spirited performances. But even at that peak of spirited performances,

the stars would have to align and all this other stuff would have to be in play for Canelo to truly be threatened. And so to me, because I saw Billy Joe Saunders execute excellent boxing in rounds five, six, and seven, that is to me impressive. But that idea of Canelo being meaningfully challenged, we never really got there. I think that's why I feel like, I don't know, folks, I just didn't buy. To your point, he's a bit, and to my point, he's a big puncher at 68.

I can't believe he's carried his power up to that. But he's a knockout puncher at 168. So you're going to be more likely, Luke, on paper to find even people who have a shot to compete against him to not have a shot at, you know, bodying him and knocking him out and getting the physical better than him. You know, 50% of his opposition, their only chance is going to be to outpoint him. So you do have to understand that. I just want to almost shake you sometimes and say you also realize that Canelo is a generational talent, right? He's not just the best right now.

He's insanely good. This is what the story should be right now. Of course, of course. And I also want to say this, BC, and I think you and I, let's start where we were actually agreed. I thought Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing did a great job promoting this.

People were interested in this. And Billy Joe Saunders and Canelo promoted it too. I don't want to say that the fighters didn't play a role. Of course they did, did, but you know, I really thought matchroom boxing and dude that night, like the fight was good. I wasn't bored. It had a good finish and Billy Joe Saunders is walkout and Canelo's walkout. I mean, they may have taken forever, but you can't say you weren't entertained that the fight didn't feel big. They packed that arena. And I don't know that the fight didn't feel big they packed that arena and i don't know what the covid protocol should be at this point but i'm double vac so fuck everyone else

you know what i'm saying like it just is what it is at this point every every man for himself i guess uh anyway the point being is this whatever the rules be whatever whatever the situation is did they not kill it on saturday night i really thought matron did a great job they crushed it this is the perfect promoter for Canelo Alvarez, and the model is there from what Eddie Hearn has done backing Anthony Joshua in Great Britain and putting him in stadiums with 90,000 people and all that and having Flamethrower come out and light up these giant letters, AJ.

He knows how to handle stars, and I think Eddie's the best new school promoter of the moment. We've talked about his comments in the past saying the reason why Aram's kind of arguing with these guys is now, and I'm having success with them, is you're their employee. I think he's doing it right, that balance. Canelo's been hurt before. Aram's the perfect, I'm sorry, Hearn is the perfect rebound girlfriend who can be like, this is how boxing could be presented.

We're doing it over in the UK. It's doing gangbusters. People are so dialed into the show the event the night the everything um i love seeing that spirit in in hearns you know uh rise in the u.s over the past few years but they're coming together at the right time and making it feel monster so um you know it's also boxing so you're not going to get a killer every fight. But let's also close by always renewing this part. Canelo's got more than enough financial leverage and all that to do whatever he wants, yet he's still trying to fight tough guys. Maybe Caleb Plant doesn't have a great shot next time if they do it in the fall,

but I'd love to see him against Benavidez, Betterbeave, Golovkin a third time, you know, insert, right? Andre Ward coming back, insert, whoever else you want there. I think he's going to continue to challenge. He's just trying to finish this goal of the moment to get these four titles. No doubt about it. All right, so let's talk about that stoppage, BC. I will actually take Billy Joe Saunders' side. Now, help me out here. I want to make a point, but just for a point of clarification, was it the physician who stopped it, the or billy joe quitting what was the official mechanism officially his trainer whose name uh is on the tip of my tongue and i and i can't find it

at the moment gave interviews afterwards in which he knew that billy was effed up coming back to the corner he tried to give billy a chance you know to see if he would come back billy didn't officially quit but he also didn't really give a strong answer. So that was the trainer realizing that he's going to go back out there unless I stop him. He's not in this fight, though, anymore with this type of pain and injury in one eye. So it was the trainer mixed with the doctor in the end. But obviously, there's a communication there. If Billy had a million percent wanted to keep fighting, he could have.

And again, I get, you know, with the trash talk, but this is a next level injury that, you know, look at the guys like Kell Brook, certain fighters who once they've had an injury like this, to some degree they're never the same, so, you know, I've got no issue with it, Luke, whatsoever. You know, I mean, look,

I don't know, I told you about it, I mentioned it on the post show, like, I knew there was a no no-mas possibility with Saunders. If he felt he was winning the fight, I feel like he would have been willing to go out on his shield switch and just be like, I can no longer win this fight, so F you, I'm out of here. You know what I mean? And just sort of like, that's it. So is that a quitter? You know, there's a spirit of that in that. It's also a guy who sort of, you know, looks at the risks and all that.

But this was not a quit situation. I hope he heals up. There's still big fights he can make in his career. 100%. Well, this is a terrible injury to come back from. There's different segments of the skull that meet around the eye socket. I think there's four parts of them. He broke all four.

I mean, that is a terrible, terrible injury. Now, there was an old interview that came up that Billy Joe Saunders had done against a boxer by the name as Daniel Dubois against Joe Joyce, where Dubois essentially took a knee and famously Billy Joe Saunders attacked the guy for being a quitter. And then here you have this situation. Let me just say this, though. This is why when fighters give interviews about how tough and bad they are, I never like disbelieve it, but I don't hang my hat on it either.

Because sometimes they're telling you the truth and they mean it. And sometimes they're just saying shit that they absolutely do not mean or don't know that they don't mean. So he gets to this situation where it's a dude that, that thing swelled up fucking instantly. Canelo hit him with a bomb. And to your point, the thing that his power carries up to one 68, if that fight had continued, I mean, look at what Canelo did in eight rounds of a Billy Joe Saunders who was with two eyes, essentially. Imagine what he would do to one. I mean, however competitive you want to say, still, the guy landed the harder shots through eight rounds, pretty close to Canelo and only Canelo. Dude, four more rounds of that, you could go blind. I mean, you could have a serious long-term health problem.

For what? BC, if he was winning seven of those rounds or six of those rounds, and he had that injury and he quit, I think maybe the conversation would be slightly different. But if you're behind, you have a, I'm going to call that, if they send you right to the hospital, you have a traumatic injury. He has a traumatic injury, one that has lifelong consequences potentially. His trainer did, number one, without question, the right thing.

Why would you ever send your fighter out there to get fucked up by Canelo? Whatever he's going to make, he's already made. It's already done. You fought well. You put up an admirable fight. You got your shit broken. Call it a fucking day. And I'm so glad that they did.

I cannot believe this debate that people are having out here. Yeah, I'm with you on that. And I guess, you know, in light of the Dubois comments, well, you know, he got karma to a degree with that. But also, I think people can make jokes until they experience that type of injury and have those future life considerations flash before their eyes. So, you know, that's that. Also, I always like to say, I mean, Billy Dersaul is a professional troll. He doesn't care about ripping somebody and then being wrong on the other side, right? Like this is who he is and what he does. Fun seeing Tyson Fury by his side, but they couldn't pull it off. Luke, finally on this quickly is just, we saw Lawrence Cole. I think it was in the co-main event, the referee.

Long-time guy, Texas referee, whose father, Dickie, has been the long-time commission leader. I'm not sure if he still is the head of the commission there in Texas, but Lawrence Cole has done that, right? A stoppage in a fight that made no sense when the other guy who's getting stopped just lands a big punch and is having his best moments of the fight. That stoppage made no sense, but if you're new to the Lawrence Cole experience, guy who's getting stopped just lands a big punch and is having his best moments of the fight that stoppage made no sense but if you're new to the lawrence cole experience that that's what you get they you get what you pay for in texas and that's that's long been part of it so yeah thank you the

old uh boxing's john shorely uh okay let's go to point number two let's get to some mma here if we can all right so in the main event on a card by the way bc we haven't even talked about this fights were falling out the day of the fight we didn't get to see the angela hill fight but in the main event speaking of the same weight class michelle watterson suffers a unanimous decision loss to marina rodriguez and i gotta tell you see this to me was a little bit this was much closer than saunders and canelo i don't it's fine whatever i'll just say this bc i thought karate hottie made you know strong account of herself all things considered but more or less more or less this was the Marina Rodriguez show BC are you convinced at this point she is a Maria Rodriguez a title contender I'm

just blown away at you bringing Canelo back into this to try to like just show up. Sorry, I had to do it. Yeah, look, there's a bit, this played out, this fight, I think. Being that it's a replacement fight, being that you did hear a little bit of people saying, is that a main event fight? You know, I thought they did well to hold this card together the best they could,

and there were still good fights I needed to see, and this fight ended in the perfect situation, Luke, I think for everybody. Rodriguez comes in second, big win in a row after the one over Hibas, and yes, establishes herself, I think, as someone who now looks like a legitimate contender in this deep division. She's going to need a couple more fights, but she is putting herself in the perfect spot. The only loss had been to Carla Esparza, and it was a disputed split decision that could have gone either way. Yes, she's had a bunch of draws, but she's a lot better now than the fighter she was when she was having a lot of those draws and that showed.

Number two, the fight was a five-round main event and the theater was fantastic. I caught it on a replay this morning, Luke, and it was way better than I expected it to be. Back and forth, both women trying to counter what the other one did and one-up them in spectacular ways for a fight that was fairly tactical. But it was sped up. It was fun. And I think, number three, this is the type of loss for Watterson at this point in her career that I don't think does a ton of damage. And she still very much redeems herself.

Her toughness, her ability to rally back in a fight, the fact that she almost had a case at like a split decision loss slash draw where you would have been like you know what I had it for Rodriguez but Watterson really came after it I think she gets elevated from it so I don't see a negative in how this all played out I mean great fight no negative and again I want to be clear I thought this I think you're right about what it says about Watterson it says that that upper echelon is probably not within reach, but it also says against upper echelon fighters, she's going to be a tougher out than many might realize. The score is 249-46, which is how I had it, and then 148-47.

So the draw or three rounds to Michelle Watterson is a little hard to see, but what is not hard to see is that in even those rounds where Rodriguez won, you know, Watterson's durability, I don't know why we don't talk about it. I think it's pretty impressive. She went five with Ioana and now five with Marina. Five hard rounds in each case. She had good moments where she landed, you know, great strikes, particularly at range with her kicks throughout the course of the fight.

She had good cardio. So she can still beat good fighters. Maybe not the best in that division, but she can still beat some good maybe not the best in that division but she can still beat some good ones but i guess that leads to my second question here bc we'll circle back to marina in just a second because i have a question about her too but for watterson like we kind of been waiting for the big michelle watterson moment is the big michelle watterson moment at some point her career still coming have you lost faith yet no i have she's not going to get the big moment can she get a a celebratory victory late in her career in a fun fight that is just like the perfect way to put the bow on it yes she's not going to win a title i don't

think she's going to put multiple wins together but this was the perfect kind of loss like i mentioned against a streaking fighter she's still a reliable person to sub in she's in the rich franklin zone of her career and that's great though by the way okay she to sub in. She's in the Rich Franklin zone of her career, and that's great, though, by the way, okay? She can sub in and be a big name B-side and any type of thing. So that's great. I also think I gave her the last two rounds, so I think she made really a Billy Joe Saunders-like championship adjustment here, Luke, to really bring the Canelo fight back into this for absolutely

no reason. Her face broken, too. Stick it right in your dirty prick eye there. But I will say that. Hold on. Question for you. Yeah. Rodriguez, excuse me.

I saw some folks online say it's the fight to make. Let's see if you agree. My favorite fighter, Ioana Champion versus Marina Rodriguez. Okay. I think that's a good fight. The only reason I would like that fight is if it was...

I would have to look at the rankings to see if this would make sense. But I don't feel like Ioana wants to do anything unless there's a title fight involved or a path to the title fight right Ioana is at that point in her career where she's probably only going to fight once a year but it's going to be in a big fight but if this was looked at as UFC saying that's two big wins in a row for Marina maybe if we give her Ioana and she beats her, then she's like right there for the title. That would be interesting because, Luke, as much as you ask me if the Rodriguez win shows me that she's a contender, I say yes because I look at her as a tough out against anybody.

She has a style. She showed good cardio. She's got like certain, you know, the high kickboxing style there that they compared to Ioana on the broadcast but I don't see a mean streak enough yet to see her finishing a super elite name or or dominantly beating them so maybe Ioana would be the perfect fight in that regard where if she's going to beat even this version of Ioana at this age she's going to have to dial up her game even more than she just showed against Watterson yeah the problem with her game is that when it's on her terms, yeah, she's quite good. Like, for example, in the clinch,

oh my god, she was just a demon in that space. But like, if you're only defending takedowns, if when you're on your back you're only worried about getting up or something like that, there are just certain spots in the fight where you can only fight defensively, it's going to limit what you can do offensively.

I mean, it's just sort of quite obvious, frankly. You have to be able to have offense in all of these different conditions. Like someone like a prime Tony Ferguson, granted he's a bit unusual, but what he always had was in his prime, he had offense in every single position, every single scenario. Rodriguez doesn't really have that right now, so it kind of limits her. But she's sitting, by the way, right now. This is before the new rankings, BC.

She's sitting at six, Rodriguez. So I got to tell you, the only ones ahead of her, Mackenzie Dern, who's also coming off of a win. That's not a bad fight. Carla Esparza sitting at four. Jan Xiaonan at three. Ioana at two. And then Zhang Weili at one.

We got to watch out for Xiaonyan. Is that how I say it? She's really good. I don't know how to say it. She's really good. I love this division. I always going to love this division, okay? Yeah, I know.

All right, let's get back to it. We didn't get a chance to do it on Friday Night Bowl, so we can get to some of it here. Let's talk Bellator 258. Point number three here in the rundown. A lot, a lot to get to. I know it's disrespectful because it was the main event between Pettis and everything else. We'll come back to it in just a second because we just got to talk about the biggest fight

in terms of fan appeal, which was the co-main event, BC. All right, Anthony Rumble Johnson gets back to his winning ways four years later. This time he returns to Bellator. I should say he makes his debut in Bellator, but returns to MMA. Has real trouble in what was a very exciting fight. Jose Augusto, basically if you didn't see it, here's what happens. He looks like he breaks his hand, his power hand, and then still finds a way to survive

and then rock Anthony Rumble Johnson to the point where he nearly gets stopped, but he finds a way to hang on. They come out in round two obviously augusto is compromised and then he got sent to the land of wind and ghosts with a one-two right down the middle from anthony rumble johnson bc is rumble back yes with an asterisk and that asterisk is uh here's the here's the asterisk let me explain this was actually like this was an awesome fight. The theater involved in this. You know a fight's good when the guy who won, and I know there's some scariness mixed with this, but can't remember in the post-fight interview that he was actually hurt

and dropped. And he's like, you know, I didn't really feel it though. And then he's watching it for the first time in front of him, which happened to Johnson. So you know that's a wild fight. This fight played out the way we thought Romero Rumble was going to play out. So, you know, that's a wild fight. This fight played out the way we thought Romero, Rumble was going to play out. So all that rightful, uh, you know, lamenting we had of this fight not happening, even though we hear from Bellator officials, if Romero comes back, uh, you know, soon, like we expect where he'll make his debut, they still want to make Rumble Romero, which is great. But with this was sort of the shit ball crazy fight that we hoped that one would have been. So in that regard,

there's certainly some things negatively to say about Rumble from gas tank to getting lit up from a guy that's not known as a puncher. But, you know, he fielded that damage well. And then he put the one-two together and showed us who Rumble actually is. So no, he's not going to enter

the Vadim Nemkov fight as your overwhelming betting favorite, where maybe there was a chance he could have if he knocked this guy out and splattered him in 15 seconds. But I think we got to see the full package here. It was an entertaining one, and it also shows you that there's as many minuses and questions that still need to be answered about Rumble at 37 coming back from four years off. But he's always going to be one punch away from beating 37 coming back from four years off but he's always going to be one punch away from beating everyone and anyone including the champion next so it's not

really a negative luke it just kind of stirs up the entertainment value it made him look human and then once he stopped being human he started being rumble again and he you know punched through a guy um fun night at the fights right this is best case scenario again yeah this was far and away i would say the best bellator show since they went to showtime granted it's only been like what three or four but still this was the best one this was the best quarterfinal fight of the grand prix by far no doubt about it easily the best of the three just in terms of like fun and you know crazy ending and just in terms of being memorable if I asked you like what's your favorite fight from the Nemkov and Davis rematch you know I'm not sure you could tell me

easy to tell you what it is in this one quite memorable in that way right so that part is great honestly I saw the post-fight press conference we see I'm not sure if you watched it because because Rumble talked he's like oh I didn't really have ring rust I felt fine listen I know he said he didn't have ring rust to me when I watched this it's quite obviously he had ring rust which is to say if you want to point out negative things about his fighting style and some choices that he made I think that's okay folks this is what tune-ups are for this is why when boxing is why they do them because it's hard to be off for four years and come back and be everything you're supposed to be if the idea is he'd be better if he had another fight quickly you know soon after this one again whatever whatever the medical constraints may be he'd

be better the second time because he'd have reps that's the whole idea behind this yeah he had most things in play but his range was a little bit he got a little too cocky in certain spots you know he's a little bit too overly aggressive at certain times. I think he can tighten those things up. So to me, BC, I look at this and I say, okay, all right, there's some things to work on here. He's been off for a while, but they weren't, they got bad, but they weren't catastrophic.

He still won. The power is still there. He had no problems making weight. So I think it's fair to say that Nemkov, who's going to face in the semis for the Bellator light heavyweight title is the deserving favorite to me he seems more complete of the two and I think he's almost 10 years uh the junior of Anthony Rumble Johnson but Rumble Johnson still very much a force of nature

I think he's going to have a lot of the stuff tightened up in the second one and I'm absolutely looking forward to the the semi-finals here yeah this is this is this again this is an everyone win situation because obviously had Rumble been stopped there you know that's a tough one to bounce back from for sure and instead now I want to see Jose Augusto like every single time Luke I don't expect him to fight this wild and crazy given the stakes of this one but he's a fun fighter now that we got introduced to rumble moves on and we still get to build toward rumble romero whether that's an eventual eventual title fight for all we know or whether that's uh both coming off a lot and we have no idea i think bellator put the band-aid on quickly though and rebounded nicely and then to your point up and

down this card man it's entertaining as shit like they got the formula right on this one you know shout out to the folks over there. Yeah, 100%. This one worked, no doubt about it. All right, so let's talk about that main event. Sergio Pettis defeating the great Juan Archuleta to become the new Bellator Bantamweight champion. BC, first of all, you have to acknowledge it.

Bantamweight is just one of those weight classes now that's going to be good in a lot of different organizations. You're going to have a lot of places that have solid bantamweight talent because there's just just talent rich the scores on this bc 50 45 49 46 i had it 49 46 no denying he was the guy who deserved to win as you can see his counter punching there just tremendous bc your takeaway from what i think is sergio pettis's best performance ever yeah the maturity the much i mean he grew up this was the graduation and i liked you know i wrote the same narrative atop my recap i'm sure everybody tweeted the same thing you know you fully come out of your

brother's shadow the great anthony pettis and that's certainly true this was everything that uh all the years of showing promise from sergio pettis he put it together because he had the experience to to tie a ribbon around it and really do it. I mean, the patience, the poise, all these sort of words that are separate from what you're actually doing in there that are just describing what you're doing. He fought like a seasoned, mature champion,

and that's who he needed to be. You know, I'll give credit to, I think it was Josh Thompson in that, in that, you know, pod versus pod video we did that, you know, lit up the interwebs, by the way. A lot of hijinks on that one, Luke. A lot of drama. But let's give Josh credit.

He said, Sergio, and you had said it earlier in the week, he's going to have to toe a line in this fight to pull it off. He's going to have to be aggressive when it's time to be aggressive, be patient when it's time to be patient. And I think he did that dance perfectly, Luke. And what it showed was he was the more skilled fighter. I liked his speed in certain moments. He had the better experience.

He was just more seasoned. Archuleta got the most out of him that he could in winning that vacant title. And by the way, it's not like he's going anywhere, right? He lost a close title fight. But you can see why Pettis, plus money coming in, was a sneaky good bet to go after because he was the better skilled fighter. And I think for the first time in his career, he had the right balance of emotions and pace and everything that you need.

It just felt good happening, Luke. Like I imagine them going into that storage locker underground somewhere outside of Milwaukee and pulling all the old orange cereal boxes out to make room now for Pettis' world title. Sergio, okay? I don't know if they're going to quite do that, but we've talked about it a million times, BC, 27 years old, same age as Marvin Vittori. Think about that for a second. We just have these weird expectations for guys.

It takes time to get good. Yes, I know. We love the amazing stories of guys like Jon Jones who at age 21 are just blowing the doors off of everybody, but that's just not going to be the normal. And that's not going to be normal, not merely for most fighters, even for people who are championship caliber fighters. You're looking at living proof. This guy was not the same four years ago. He wasn't nearly as good as he is today. Now look at him at 27 years old. He has just come so far. His accuracy BC was on point. Dude, Juan Archuleta could not fool this guy. He had a couple of moments, for sure. He was in it, but he would go side to side, and he would try to make a blitz, and every time, Sergio Pettis read it. Maybe he would throw a

punch and miss because he couldn't get it all right every time, but he just was never confused, I should say, about what Juan Archuleta was trying to do. So it was smart, it was execution, it was experience. He still has good durability. He hasn't taken a ton of abuse, BC. Man, I love this performance. And I also gotta say, for Juan Archuleta, okay, you know, there's some things to work on, but I don't think that

the hill to get back on top is necessarily insurmountable. I like that little thing you did. You were like, okay. Okay. Archuleta, he fought the best of his abilities there. And Pettis' counter right hand was beautiful. His takedown adaptability, you know, defending some of them,

getting right back up after being takedown the other times, that was such a key story to the fight. So great performance from Pettis. And I like the feature. You see that feature ran earlier in the night by Showtime of Archuleta's family history. Luke, I had no idea. His dad went to jail for drug trade. Archuleta himself had done time.

It was a wild backstory, and you can really see how much he's grown to be the fighter and man he is. But, hey, it's Pettis' time, Luke. And now I don't know why he was talking a lot about his teammate Rafion Stotts in the post-final interview who had a nice victory on the undercard shouldn't we be talking about him and Magomed Magomedov unless we're are we slow playing that because that's the damn fight to make

at this division yeah that one is good Stotts I think I will say I think the reason they got asked about it you're right in the sense that it's early to ask about it maybe, but if he stays champion, that fight's coming. And there's no, if he loses it, then whatever. But they're on a collision course at the current trajectory.

So I can understand that. But I do think you're right. Mega Man, Mega Man is the one. I mean, he could, we could be in for 25 minutes of Ragdoll, meta in a movie. I mean, that's coming with with that man you know what i'm talking about here certainly could be uh last but not least on this card which i bought was a tremendous win for him uh mvp boy i gotta tell you uh you know you can say what you want about the quality of his opposition, but the dude just keeps delivering viral moments. He not only defeats Derek Anderson, who, by the way, I was thinking about this, BC. Why was he

running in the gym with me after making weight? That was kind of weird, right? I mean, I don't think that's why he won or lost, but that was weird. But whatever the case, MVP hits him with a kick straight to his nose that literally rearranges his face. That picture and the shot kind of goes mini viral. BC, I got to tell you, this guy just has a knack for doing memorable things. Yeah, that's what I was trying to tell Josh Thompson. He's really damn good, and I love him and appreciate him. We just, you know, can he live on a diet of just doing this? He'll need more than that at the super elite level where he was

once before against Douglas Lima in a fight that he had moments, got knocked out. Can't wait to see him get to that one again, which I think he will. I think that's the way things are going to play out. But let's not put Derek Anderson in those other categories. I mean, he was a rising contender in this division and he just could not handle the unpredictability, the speed, the angles. MVP did MVP things and it was a lot of fun. And I think he's deserving now five in a row to be back in a position where he can call for Douglas Lima. And it wasn't just, you know, it was that beautiful right hand there. It wasn't just the kick to the face. It was some flying knees. Again, it was MVP being MVP. This is the upper bound limits of him, maybe, Luke. He's going to have to be earned, or does he?

This is the debate here. Can he do this all the way to winning a title? I still think he needs to have a much different game plan to mix better. I think a guy on this card, and you're going to laugh at me for saying this, but I think I'm right. Could I grant MVP? You're not going to fill in Logan Storley again, right? I am.

Could I grant MVP a title shot based off of his resume in this win here? No, I really could not. Sorry. If I look at what Yaroslav Amosov had to do, he had a much tougher road. Significantly. Logan Storley was supposed to fight Omar Hussain on that card he didn't clear medicals Hussain didn't the day of the fight I don't know what happened but he didn't clear and so as a consequence Logan had no dance partner if you're going to give MVP a title shot it better be after he beats Logan Storley not before otherwise

oh dude no I mean look I love me some Logan Storley but he's. Otherwise, we're... Oh, dude, no. I mean, look, I love me some Logan Storlie, but he's coming off a loss. He didn't have a fight. To Amosov. I get that, but, I mean, look, MVPs won five in a row. And he's got... Name his five wins.

The point is not that. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Name three. Name three. The point, Luke, is that he's also a celebrity fighter. He's also a marketable fighter. So it's more likely he's going to get pushed in quicker.

I mean, he's won five in a row, Luke, after having moments against Lima. It's not like, I mean, look, I'm the one who's also in there pushing that same narrative as you. That I don't see consistent rises in competition. And I don't see consistent rises in competition and i don't see consistent uh you know rounding out the game i see a guy who can do special things and wants to keep doing special things and rely only on that and look sometimes it's going to be special and sometimes it's not so um but five in a row is still five in a row luke i don't think it's like there's one person above him who is coming off of

a streak of wins who deserves it more so you're like they should fight each other i mean it's not like the bellator welterweight top 10 is like you know where you got to wait in line for two years i mean he's won five what else do you want from him i want him to beat a quality ranked opponent which anderson was anderson was a quality ranked opponent Okay. BC, if the promotion wants to fast track him for the reasons you stated, then that's what the promotion's going to do. I don't know. Their call. You're asking me what qualifies to get back in front of Douglas Lima.

You need to beat somebody very good. He hasn't done that. Sorry. Not since losing to Lima. And I need to see that. Okay. That's all I'm saying. But I will say, on Friday night, he looked unbelievable.

It was amazing to watch. All right. We go to a thriller here because, well, they're in a weird situation. A story came out over the weekend that we were kind of weirded out by. And then another one came up and we were like, okay, that's even weirder still. Two stories. One, Oscar De La Hoya tells Mike Coppedger of The Athletic that the deal that he has with Golden Boy and DAZN

runs out at the end of this year, which means he'd be a free agent. And he is thinking about taking his entire stable, which would include Ryan Garcia, Virgil Ortiz Jr., Jaime Munguia, to Triller Ryan Garcia, Virgil Ortiz Jr., Jaime Munguia, to Triller. Yes, Golden Boy signing with Triller. However, BC, and I didn't see any reports of this, so maybe you can fill me in and I'll

pitch the question to you and you can answer the whole thing. I believe you told me that Roy Jones Jr. did a podcast where he was saying he wasn't even fully paid yet for his fight with Mike Tyson so a what did you hear from Roy and B if that's true what you heard why would Oscar be saying this about Triller uh yeah it's interesting there's a plus and a minus in there that we're trying to put together and figure it out um I Roy said in the interview with Chris Mannix on his podcast that he still owed a quote substantial substantial amount and has only been paid in a small partial for that fight with Mike Tyson. That's eye-opening, I would think, mixed with Mike Tyson, after a lot of rumors, not ending up fighting for Triller this time around

and then putting out that statement saying he'll never work with Triller again. He does Tyson's Legends League. I mean, Tyson not fighting Holyfield after all those rumors seems to be another clear sign that something's wrong here. But also, the news with Oscar De La joya is a dip back in that other direction that we talked about when they moved the teofimo date should they be in actual boxing can they do this or can they only do the the circus fun fights with skits and and all that um it just doesn't seem like it's going to work luke i just it just doesn't sound like uh Is it going to be pay-per-view only on Triller?

I mean, is that... What is this going to be? Are Golden Boy fighters only going to be featured in pay-per-view main card fights mixed in with old guys and celebrities? I don't think that's the best way to promote your brand. But also, in the post-Canelo world for Golden Boy, you also have to try to get the biggest deal you can. I mean, is Oscar coming back right now in his 40s and supposedly fighting on Triller this

year? Is that for his ego or does he need that money too? You know, you never know. It's all an interesting thing. But I think, you know, there's no way to know which direction this is going, Luke, without just standing by and watching it. But I don't think that's where fighters would want to be. You could argue and say, well, if you're Ryan Garcia and you're already connected social media-wise to all, you know, and built your own following of, you know, 8 million Instagram followers, whatever, well, you can team up with Triller and all their celebrities and just, you know, go that. Okay, maybe for a Ryan Garcia, but does it make sense for any other fighter to only be fighting, you know, on the undercard of, like, circus fights?

I mean, if they keep doing big pay-per-view numbers, maybe, but it's a different lane, Luke. I think we can tease that lane once in a while, but I don't know if you want to go down it full-time. Let me ask you a question. Tell me if you think my theory holds any water at all. I feel like, because if you read Mike Coppinger's report, they say that the relationship between DAZN and Oscar not only ends in 2021 contractually, that in the meantime, it's gotten pretty icy.

Because while they've been able to retain access to Canelo Alvarez through Matchroom, they lost it all through Golden Boy. And more importantly, that the language in Canelo's contract didn't match what the promoter's language was that they had submitted to DAZN. And so they were pretty fucking pissed at Oscar about that, which, by the way, you could understand. That's why they apparently couldn't make the third Triple G fight in a more expeditious manner. So you could see that there's some bridges burned there. I wonder, BC, if that's really the case, how much of this is Oscar being like, he knows that DAZN's not going to re-up. They don't need him.

They've got Eddie. They could go somewhere else. Who knows? That losing Ryan Garcia would suck, Munguia would suck, but they would find a way around it. And that Triller is, Oscar's only bringing it up as leverage because A, he doesn't really want to go there, and B, he's got to find a way to get back on DAZN's good side.

That's a very fair point. To sort of go out ahead and put out a report that you know that tries to sway people that's a that's an we've seen that before a few times have we but the only thing i'll say about this we can move on but the only thing i'll say about this is dude it's like epically bad judgment on oscar's part unless he really needs to to put the heat on the zone i don't even know how it would work because you were raising these issues earlier like first of all how many fighters does golden boy have in total i don't know they've only got a

few stars but i don't know how many they have in total how do you keep all those guys busy what happens if triller goes tits up are they gonna have any home like it just i think there's fear in golden boy's long-term future you know i mean like they do have some very functional foundational fighters right now in garcia and ortiz yes but i mean did you see all that shit you know canelo was saying in those sit-down interviews we had we had talked about last week about you know oscar doesn't do a single thing for them and i know it's just one person talking shit but again canelo doesn't talk shit until two weeks ago right i mean this fight week Canelo and Saunders was maybe a little bit more fun than normal because Canelo was a little bit more fun

than normal he's kind of being his real self for the first time but I tend to believe the things he says about Golden Boy and losing Canelo was I mean in court records he was like 110 percent of their business per year uh when whatever that legal battle was where the court records came out I mean they relied on him. So it could be a desperation move. It could be a lot of different things. But wow. Wow, Luke.

What a weird-ass time. And some of it is the pandemic shutting down boxing, and now boxing's still trying to get off the ground, although I think $73,000 for Canelo Saunders and breaking an indoor attendance record, mask or not, Luke, that was pretty healthy. That showed some good things about where we're going with the sport. I mean, will we still be caring about Triller

boxing pay-per-views a year from now, Luke? Will the Jake Paul things have run its course or will those still be going strong? I don't even know if we're going to have this conversation nine months from now. I'm going to bet I i'm gonna bet yes but i'm gonna bet it's in its death throes like it's on the way so it's it's jake versus uh logan at that point look yeah it's some kind of like end game where you're like oh fuck they're doing that oh dude trailer is gonna be at the

point now we're like all, this fight's over. We had a musical act before the last fight. Before this fight, we're just going to have a straight-up orgy out here. We're just going to film an orgy. You could have used strippers as the punchline. That would have worked. But you want to go orgy. All right, Luke.

We're just, you know, why not? Just fucking and fighting. They go hand in hand. You know what I'm saying? So I look forward to that day. Maybe I'll buy that Triller pay-per-view. I don't know. Yeah, that's interesting.

A lot of interesting stuff. Okay, last but not least, BC. UFC 262 is coming up this Saturday. It's big. And at UFC 262, two title fights on the line Michael uh Chandler will fight the Ola Vera Alo Vera for the lightweight title excuse me one fight the the other one fell off but in the co-main Tony Ferguson versus Benil Dariush and also Jack Hermanson versus Edmund Shabazian Caitlin Chukagian versus Vivian Orujao and then Shane Burgos in your uh in your opener against

Edson Barboza. BC, give me your number one. Don't forget KGB versus Antoninia. Okay, don't forget that shit. I shan't. BC, give me your top storyline ahead of the big pay-per-view in Texas. That, you know, there's a chance that a star will be made in this main event. But should there be, Luke? And should I be harping on this?

Should I still be clinging to this, that this is a title fight between two guys I really like in Dobronk, Oliveira, and Michael Chandler that I just don't feel like should be a title fight? Why are we going forward with this? You know, like, Dustin Poirier should be fighting for this title, even if he chose to chase the money instead. You know, the Conor-Dustin two-fight

probably should have been for an interim belt, with Poirier then bumped up to full champion. If that had been the case, and you had to run the Conor trilogy now just for money purposes, I think I would have somehow swallowed that bullet better, Luke. Then

the fact that I still can't get over that, I don't think the winner here is the real champion, and I think the winner here would lose to, to, to poor Pauly in a fight. And maybe that's where we'll see. I don't know, but I just feel like as much as I love this fight and I love the fighters,

I can't get past that Luke. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Some grandmothers are never going to give their blessing to their granddaughter because you know, she was, she was living in the same house with the guy before the wedding right she just she just can't get over that fact i'm sorry she might like the guy she can't get over that fact luke they're living in sin sounds like

grandma's a prude um i'm being a prude about this bell ain't i i mean but i'm being honest with you it's interesting i i i really i don't know that i would disagree with you i think that's a fair way to assess it but i have a bit slightly different view of it which is to say i do think poirier should be a part of any title discussion at this point around 155 pounds but if he's not and we have what we have you know you have two unlikely stories here in charles olivera again a guy who got into the ufc very young when you didn't he wasn't nearly as good as he is today and you kind of get an impression about him as like you know he'll give good fighters a nice run but he won't beat them and then all of a sudden he just starts beating them 10 years later um there's something of a you know maybe we shouldn't have had a

version of him in mind because he was always evolving but it's very natural to do that like who is this person how do I understand them what is their place in the pecking order that's a natural thing to want to sort inside the human mind and so he became I think something of an unlikely story that came on late and Michael Chandler you know a guy who had Bellator gold but had that taken from him and had to get it back and then lost it and had to get that back again and at 34 years old coming over to the UFC you know a lot of these guys who come from other organizations after pride they didn't do all that well at least not right at first yes Eddie Alvarez won a title but he had to lose to Cowboy first and he obviously didn't hold on to the title for

very long so Michael Chandler has you know we didn't know if he was ever going to be in this place and if he was going to beat Dan Hooker, and he did. And here he finds himself. I mean, I'm not declaring it to you to be like, if he wins the title, the best acquisition since Pride. I think that'd be a little strong. But certainly, you could think of how many times guys came over from other organizations that had, you know, top-ranked premier talent, and they just kind of fizzled, or they struggled,

or, you know, Justin Gaethje did well but then he struggled right um michael chandler would be one of the more outstanding starts to an acquisition in a long time for that organization so either way that's the real story the potential of what i mean this will be quicker to a title and winning it than you know brock lesnar and so many other uh guys who came in with a certain amount of fanfare, whether it be a free agent or whatever. I mean, it'd be massive. I don't know. It's just weird because the last two or three years, we've spent time constantly talking about how this lightweight division

is the best in UFC in terms of depth, and it's historically great. And some of those matchups we either didn't get after much buildup like Tony and Habib or finally you know, finally got it, you know, and maybe it didn't woo us or whatever. But now, like, out of nowhere, Habib's gone. Conor's coming off of a defeat. Gaethje's coming off a defeat. Tony might be washed.

And now Poirier's choosing money. So these two guys are going to fight for the title. It just, I feel like we're, you know, okay, give somebody a chance to potentially be a transitional champion. Or maybe they're going to woo me over and win four or five in a row. Who knows? It's just weird. It's feeling weird. But that's what happens when you get, to be honest, when you're getting really good shit all the time, and we are from the UFC right now, they are on point. Let's give them the credit and never forget to say that.

You actually start to nitpick like this. You know what I mean? This is a great freaking fight. I can't wait to see it. But never lose sight of that. But, you know, my feels are what they are, Luke. I can't ignore them. You can't bottle them. You can't bury them down. I mean, they'll come for you.

Where are you on Ferguson and Dariusz? What's your read on that? It's good matchmaking. It really is. And it'll be wild. I just got a bad feeling for Ferguson here. Yeah, the storyline here is, okay, did Ferguson stumble against, you know, guys who were either won titles or title contenders?

And now Darius, who has to this point been something of a step down in that sense. Obviously, he's very, very good. Please don't misunderstand me. You know, and if he loses this one, it's sort of like Woodley losing to Vicente Luque maybe that's the case or maybe Ferguson can write the ship I don't really know but he has his back up against the wall Edmund Shabazzian back against Jack Hermanson that's a really interesting fight Luke that you know when you see the the hot prospect like a Shabazzian lose so definitively,

it's always a story when they come back, especially when there's the potential of, like, did that damage his psyche because of how it was. You always need to see that. So he's got a lot of explaining to do, and that's a tough opponent, Luke. Tough as balls. Certainly is. That will be on Saturday.

Okay, that is it for you guys asking us questions. It's, uh, or excuse me, us asking each other questions. Now it's time for you guys to ask us questions. It's time for DMs from donks. I need them sent to me, by the way, if possible. Yeehaw. Players. Oh.

All right. We always put up a post on Sunday where we solicit your questions for monday's show you can follow us on instagram at morning combat i'm assuming that's being sent to me here pretty quickly or you can just put it on the screen i can read it either way doesn't really matter um but put the first one up if you there we go from talal underscore double a 767 worst name ever name ever. How would Jake Paul do against Canelo? Not well. Not well. K01? Yeah. Here's a serious question. Could he last a minute?

Yeah. That's probably the peak of it, to be really honest. If Canelo gets inside and lands one of those uppercuts, seriously, I mean, that fight's over. I mean, he's not a professional fighter. I don't think he can last a minute. Yeah, I don't think he can last a minute. Hey, you see this, Luke?

There's some reports out there, and Logan's, one of these TikTok videos from Logan seemed to confirm it, that Jake Paul might end up being banned from the Floyd-Logan fight from the stadium. I wouldn't doubt it it I bet Floyd doesn't fuck around with that kind of stuff is that is that Floyd or the Florida Commission because either or that's a major misstep Luke yeah it's a misstep it could be either uh who knows um I mean is it though but because they got they got what they needed out of them is it a major misstep that's a fair point he also works for the for the competitor by the way this trailer thing um but no look i think he got he got pretty fucked up and we didn't

realize that in real time the other day while showing that video that whether it was floyd or floyd's handlers he got like he caught the uh the the two-piece with the uh with the side of uh with the soda and the the side of grits luke i mean. I mean, he got effed up there. All right, let's go to the next one, please. This is fun. From Greg Leach, BigMeach99, should Chandler capture the UFC lightweight title this Saturday? How much of a testament would it be to the skill level of Pitbull

and the overall quality of Bellator's drastically improved roster BC it's a great question and is that question you know scaled across Bellator on a whole or is just Pitbull and Chandler also you know it's pretty special fighters of this era uh you know both could be true in this regard but yeah it would say a lot because Chandler you know was was essentially one punched by Pitbull and look at the success he's having now, but also Chandler lives and dies by that same kind of style though. He's, you know, like Eddie Alvarez, why they made great fights together. You know, they can lose the big one just as much as win the big one and they're going to go for it either way. So, uh, yeah, the, the answer in the end is yes, Luke. Also, we didn't mention it, but Petriki

losing to Peter Quealy on Friday. I thought that was actually good for the rivalry. You know what I mean? I wasn't happy to see it per se because it kind of blows up their title picture plans for 155, but I don't know. There was something about like, they'll run this back. It makes for a better storyline down the road kind of thing.

I agree with that. All right. From Cam Newton underscore underscore something your personal thoughts on the crossover show was weighing in was that the first time interacting in one setting well bc you're the one who had more of the issue with josh than i did so you tell me in the end i didn't have an issue with him i thought uh you know he brought an energy and it made fireworks on the air and it was wild and it was fun though i think we i think we put together look i i don't know how much traffic that did comparative to our morning combat stuff but i thought it was one of the better shows we put out there because it was alive

so that was very good um i had never actually met josh before that uh had interviewed big john a bunch of times and it always went well and john was great on there and you know i mean look josh was competitive combative i didn't agree with a lot of the stuff he said or necessarily his methods but you know we ran into him later when we went out to grab dinner and we ran into him again and then ran into him again you know everything's great in terms of us respecting that podcast

and all that I would like a rematch though knowing now Luke that that you know that's a man that makes you bring your A game and so sometimes in settings like this, you get a chance to spar with that. You're like, I want that energy. In fact, I want to take that energy

and take your fans, all right? Yeah, I have... Take your fans. Take your listeners, all right? All right. I'm less focused on that, but what I will say is I thought it was great. I love the different kinds of energies

that are out there. I will say, though, that if you're MMA media and you do panel with anyone else who's not mma i mean i guess they are mma media now but they historically certainly were not your role kind of just like you know i would actually you know what i won't say big john to this josh did a little bit of this and he and i talked about it later so it's fine but you know or your your media you're kind of expected to play the asshole jamoke you know the and i do that keyboard warrior right like i out myself is that always because i just want to show you i get my place in this but it doesn't mean what i say is all bullshit right you know yeah yeah but otherwise i would say i love that podcast that they do. I think they're a great tandem.

And I would happily do it again. Same for you, right? You'd do it again? Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I'm not, you know, believe me, I'm not here lamenting, you know, angry at Josh. Part of that was fun. It was good times and great oldies. So, you know, let's do it again. Also, everyone's, I mean, listen, he was a little bit, you know buttons but we know that we can handle ourselves we're you know we're old and washed you know i

learned luke that that i learned that i can handle myself because in that setting apparently i had to handle it what do you want me to do throw you a fucking life preserver just yeah let's just let the truth be told let's smear that truth like a handful of shit out of psych ward on the side of this wall okay luke you know that i left at mohegan sun just blowing up those commodes yes okay you know it was one versus three but you know one one did you i was not against you you are such a baby about this you know if well look is is just sitting back and watching is that consent at the end of the day luke okay yeah it is that's exactly what it is uh all right from carmine alvaro 32 what is a more heartbreaking story for mma fans diego's time with fabia or bj penn's decline

jesus what a good but awful question wow can you look at this rash i got here and tell me which which part is worse the the you know the the the tip or or the undercarriage there? Yeah, that's pretty bad, Luke. We're going to get into Fabia a little bit more in Odds and Ends to end it, but I do think, well, I want to say I think the Fabia thing is looking sadder overall, but it's just, it's a new kind of sad. Is there anything really sadder overall than a fighter hanging on too long and getting beat in those fights and then having fights in bar in strip club parking lots i mean that's that's pretty sad too look they're

both really sad all right i'm just i will say this i will say this about this sanchez and fabia thing after i interviewed them on my radio show however long ago that was at this point um i remember that they sent me a bunch of DMs because I forget who's, I think my radio, I think my producer booked the interview for me so they didn't have my personal information. So after the interview, obviously they come off,

not Diego so much, but Joshua Fabio comes off terrible, right? So him and Diego sent me a bunch of DMs but I never accepted them because they were just super combative, you know? So, like, I didn't really, I didn't go back and forth with them. I was listening to, like, Ariel and some other folks who interviewed him. They all did it through text, which is common.

I've booked a million interviews through text messages. It's very, very common. But now they have your text information he was saying that after their interviews whenever that was that fabio was just fucking typing out 30 40 50 texts back to back threatening him all kinds of crazy shit i never had to deal with any of that uh mercifully so um i think the pen one is worse dude because it's not over you know what i mean like he didn't get help that i'm aware of and he's still out there looking for thriller fights um yeah who does he who did he tweet at or whatever he's actually paul jake paul yeah yeah i mean you got to be kidding me dude i mean unfortunately he does fit like the perfect he is like the perfect type of opponent that jake paul should

be fighting next dude jake paul knocks out bj penn mma will have to stop existing do you understand that or step in and like you know just take the guy out guys can you please stop signing up to get knocked the fuck out please i know you want a big check but it's making us look bad um all right last but not least we stay on topic here to a degree actually oh you know what let me take a crack at this one bc from neil underscore totally how much crazier do you think the sanchez fabia thing is going to get bc here's my read on this ready i don't know which way it's going to end or when, but it's going to end poorly. Well, let's just talk about this right here. Why break this up?

Maneech, you or Gaff, can we just play the video that got everybody? The video has leaked of this Josh Fabia training method, the school of self-awareness or whatever the hell that thing is. Maneechiche you just say you just give me the go okay you just you just speak into my ear after many oh go okay go yeah maniche yeah there you go maniche fresh off an inoculation vacation so shout out to him um luke this was this was just one of the videos in which Diego Sanchez is upside down and he's covering his face and he's just getting lit up with strikes. And we know that there's other videos with them being chased around with knives because Fabio thinks it brings out a reaction that's deep inside of us from generations ago to being in wars.

This ain't healthy, Luke. Okay. And the interviews that Fabia is doing with Sanchez with whoever is willing to talk to them, they're not healthy either with, you know, them making accusations against UFC employees prominently about what they've done to women in the past. You know, we're getting into some saucy, dangerous territory here. And I think I would side with the UFC in thinking from what we've seen in those other videos, it does look like Fabia's angle was probably, you know, going to be some kind of lawsuit for Diego. I think the UFC just needs to be like, and they will, but be done with Sanchez and Fabia forever. Just watch, just we're done. And I think the MMA world to a certain degree should too.

And I know that's really harsh because that's basically all of us saying sanchez a guy we love who we can tell isn't right and is in his role with a guy who's not right what do we just want this guy to go away i just think the more like we just got to get this guy away from the sport and and and i hope there's somebody that can step in i love that rashad had evans uh who you know in the past had jumped on instagram and been like you know die we love you. Wake up, man. See what's really going on here. But the conspiracies and all that, we're in a really bad spot, Luke. So comparing it to the BJ Penn ending, which is not over either, they're both really sad. And I just feel like a really bad turn is coming in the Sanchez Fabia thing. And I don't, I don't want that to happen, Luke.

I don't know how to fix it. And it's, it's really making me upset. I mean, that video makes me really upset to watch it. It's, it's bizarre. And people like trying to make this out to be like, like the story here is some homosexual relationship. First of all, I don't even know if there's a homosexual relationship. I tend to not care if there is. And if there is, it's probably none of our business although you know there's a way where someone who is manipulating someone else could use that as a way to also manipulate them but in general i think that people are bringing it up because they just have no way of you know uh understanding this relationship without making some kind of comments about sexuality um but to me like whatever the case is with that

is of all the problems that they might have that they might be fucking is like the least of them uh quite candidly uh it's not even a topic anymore it may have been like a haha thing in the beginning because yeah exactly there's that weird bringing it up i see them i see people being like oh that's what's happening i'm like no no if's happening, that's not really the story. First of all, I don't think it's happening. And if it does, who cares? But they had a season when that weird picture came out of them shirtless and then the OnlyFans account launched.

How many fighters post pictures with their bros shirtless? I mean, come on, dude. That's the standard, really? I'm just saying that that sort of storyline already had its minute. And that's not even a factor to your point like who cares like that's not even like like i don't know what to do here these are two people who are not sound mentally that are really doing some crazy things look do you even understand from what you've seen like what their argument is you know the ufc is this evil organization What are they even arguing? I don't understand it. They're kind of all over the place.

Partly they're arguing that the UFC callously treated their health, which, you know, depending on the specific nature of the claim, on a principle level, I'd be willing to entertain them at least, to hear them out. But I don't know that they make very convincing claims. that they couldn't but they just don't uh and then part of it then see that's the one part where you're like okay that's sort of rooted in reality like i'm sure diego has taken a fucking metric ton of abuse by virtue of fighting right so there may be something to that right but the other part is then they're like oh well they send out assassins

and these bots are paid for and there's this you know coordinated campaign dude i've dealt with family see the comments from leslie smith the the you know bellator fighter former ufc fighter but she also clarified she wasn't actually being serious yeah she walked them back afterwards so um yeah dude saying that like like the ufc left a dead hooker in the room next door to mess with someone you know I mean you can't just like throw that out there like you gotta have real fucking evidence for I mean that's a bold fucking claim you're making you know so I don't even want to get into that but I'll just say this here's what I'm worried about you know not less about what they do with behind closed doors and more about what's gonna to happen to Diego's money.

Does Diego have money? Is he going to have a path to make money? Like BJ comes from money. His family is wealthy, which is why he is somewhat unusual in the way that he lived. Um, that Diego doesn't come from money. You know what I mean?

So like, that's where I have my attention focused. Yeah. And if, if somehow this leads to, you know, better attention to fighters being taken care of directly based on the things that they're

arguing or indirectly because we're watching how bad of a state he seems to be in now then that's the only plus I think that can come with this yeah that's it alright BC we can turn the tide here and we can have a happy segment it's time for your shit alright this is what I did this weekend

I scoured the globe for the highs and lows, the good and bad, and the ugly, and all the in-between in combat sports and beyond. We call it. Have you seen this shit? Alright, Luke, we start. UFC Vegas Marina Rodriguez gets the coach slap treatment to fire

her up before the main event against Michelle Watterson Luke I would I think I need this before the show each day maybe you can perform this I would love to slap the fuck out of you before every show don't tempt me although coach that's that's that's borderline second base right there coach all right maybe take a step back okay nah he's got big hands I know you're the one yeah all right uh let's keep it going welterweight Carlston Harris and the first fight of the night Luke wins via anaconda choke when he put Christian Aguilera back in that genie bottle and put him to sleep how good was this Luke you love this is a very

very very clean setup he had the whole thing locked before he even went to the bicep grip he tried to get on top of the other arm didn't need it i mean that is just yeah eyes open that's a super that is a position he knows really well he did a great job yes let's see that guy again all right canelo saunders on the zone in arlington texas that undercard colman i talked about katsunari takayama came back from retirement at 37 luke he was in this fight against slugger and champion Elwin Soto he was rallying he was taking shots and Lawrence Cole effed it up and jumped in but did you see this guy shadow boxing for the cameras he was a real showman Luke bro the I would be tired after doing this yeah I love that that was the way he protested the stoppage like

look I'm still here I still got this um Luke he was that fight was going way he protested the stoppage. Like, look, I'm still here. I still got this. Luke, that fight was going to end badly for him. I just had a feeling, but he had a lot of balls out there. I love guys with balls. Sir, I love your balls. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Luke, we mentioned the entrances.

Let's check out Billy Joe Saunders here. I was starting to get Prince Nassim vibes for the length of it, Luke. But this was awesome. Bro, his entrance wasn't as good as Canelo's because Canelo had the whole song and dance thing, literally people doing song and dance. But when they had the alarm going for him, and then he comes up and you can see more of him,

dude, they killed it with this. They did a great, they just made it, tell me if you agree, BC, they made it feel big. Yes, they did. They made it feel big. Yes, they did. They did. And, you know, unbeaten champion and unification bout against Canelo was fairly big. But I think you got to give Billy Joe credit for all the fight week shit he did.

And then this type of presentation. And he was, for folks who didn't see, he was getting booed by 70,000 people and just bathing in it. Yes. Yeah, he was getting booed by 70 000 people and just bathing in it yes yeah he was loving it uh in the crowd were many celebrities from merrill spence to others but jamel herring on his phone sitting next to tyson fury they saw a brawl break out right in front of them luke this is the new thing again dude if you don't if you go to a boxing match and people don't fist fight in the audience did you even go uh did you see tyson fury had that that uh drug dealer shirt on which is fantastic but he also had that black eye in the interview and manix didn't even ask him about it do you think fury told them i'm not talking about this shit it's probably sparring you know okay okay uh this was after the canelo victory

check out this embrace picked up by the 18K cameras over there at DAZN between Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. and Canelo. I don't know what it was about this interaction, but I lit up on the inside. It was like father and son of Mexican boxing lineage here, Luke. This was great. I mean, that's the Mexican goat with the Mexican goat in waiting, right? Is that fair?

I think it is. I really think it is. I think the discussion soon is going if not already really is when does he pass chavez in the eyes of the mexican hardcore fan you're not in the eyes of us per se i guess but like in the mexican family right in mexican boxing where it's the backbone of the sport have they already accepted canelo as one is he does he need to take on some big challenge i mean because, because Chavez casts such a large shadow, it's ridiculous. I mean, he's like a folk hero because of his style and where he came from and all that to Mexican boxing fans.

But you can't deny what Canelo's accomplished. I mean, it's ridiculous what he's accomplishing now. Yeah, it's nuts. And also, I'll say this. Whenever I've traveled in Latin America, they may or may not know a Latin MMA star. They all know canelo they all talk about him endlessly like yes he's a mexican star no doubt about it obviously but he's a latin american star

too man well he picked up a good time to start speaking english publicly again luke i think you saw this the post-fight press conference let's throw to the sound when demetrius andrade the unbeaten wbo middleweight champion interrupted him tarver on roy jones style let's check this out Get the fuck out of here. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying.

I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying.

I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying.

I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying.

I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying.

I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying.

I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying.

I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying.

I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying.

I'm you. Fuck you. Get in. Come on. Get in. Come. Come. Come on. Big bitch. Fuck you. Fuck you. All right? Come on. Come on. You got a tongue? You got a tongue? You got a tongue?

Hey. You got a tongue? Get the fuck out of here. Get the fuck out of here. I ain't gonna go back to you, bro. Watch your mouth. Watch your fucking mouth. Nice.

All right. We're good, buddy. Guys, please. What? Ain't what? BC, I fuck you. Hey, hey man get the fuck out of here while he while he really had one line he kept using it in various tones from happy to funny to like serious no i'm really really i'm gonna fuck you up and i dude finally we're getting that out canelo luke

he there's still a window here where he like becomes a matinee idol in the states right i mean he's got that potential he he's tired ofinee idol in the states right i mean he's got that potential he's tired of the piss ants you know what i mean like he ain't got time for it at all i've done interviews with him where uh you know we did the whole like um han solo chewbacca thing where i talk to him in english and then he answers me in spanish and my spanish is good enough where i can understand him, and his English is good enough where he can understand me, and we actually never speak the same language. I've done that before. It's fun.

Poor Demetrius Andrade, who showed up to that fight, Luke, wearing a shirt saying, Billy Joe Saunders and Canelo are ducking me in one ever fight, making me scared. He's promoted by Eddie Hearn, yet Eddie Hearn was even like, dude, get the fuck out of here. Like, seriously, it's not your time. I respect what he did though because i think it's a little it's a little shannon briggs isn't it oh definitely it's like i said it's tarver

ahead of the roy jones fights to get him to finally agree um but it's also desperate so it's both at the same time right i mean it's it's pretty desperate canelo i don't know why but canelo's like i'm never fighting that guy never Never. That guy sucks. So, again, Luke, I could talk myself into that style matchup just like I could Billy Joe Saunders. I'm sorry. Demetrius Andrews got the. You love guys who could maybe sort of kind of, if you squint, get it done.

That's your favorite guy. All right, one more sound from DAZN Weekend. Here's Jerry Jones, owner of Jerry World, where the fight went on. Look at his mouth breather. Fans that can't be there can enjoy the fights live on da zone i can't wait to be there in person at 18th state luke um do you think jerry jones honestly even though he agreed with you know eddie

to do this fight on on da zone has ever freaking heard of this network before. Let me just say something. I can't stand the Dallas Cowboys. The fans, especially the ones who live in my hometown of Washington, D.C., are absolute vermin who deserve to be mailed like normal to Abu Dhabi

for the rest of their lives. Jay Aaron is a Cowboys fan, just so you know. Shocker. Shocker. Youer that that... You know who his favorite teams are? Duke, the Yankees, the Lakers, and then fucking Dallas. Those are his favorite fucking teams. That's a guy just screaming for a friend.

Just front-running central. I can't stand Jerry's world. But hold on a second. Can we defend him for a second? Dazon is the worst fucking name ever for anything. I believe it's called DAZN. I could have another child. I could have another child, BC,

and name my child Shitstack, and that would be a better name than DAZN. So the fact that he didn't get it right is frankly understandable. He's too rich to get that shit right. All right, all right. Bellator 258.

Check out this sound here of bantamweight johnny campbell after submitting henry corrales 135 james gallagher where is he james gallagher i will mess that man up i will send him back to ireland in a body bag bring him on love to hear it ladies and gentlemen outstanding win wow wow bc how about john big john mccarthy loves to hear anti-irish i'm teasing i'm teasing that was a pretty awesome call out luke i'm gonna follow this guy now johnny campbell all right you into that uh he actually fought really well he had some moments where corrales was landing on him but that's one of those wins that like no one noticed over the weekend.

That's a huge upset for a guy like him. So, yeah, actually, I'm curious to see what else he can do. You know what else was a feel-good moment here after Sergio Pettis' win in the main event? This tweet put out by Big Bro Showtime Anthony Pettis. Luke, this is like Canelo

Hagen Chavez Sr. I caught the feels here. It was like the passing of the Pettis torch yeah man they've got those two dudes have wec ufc and now bellator titles that is quite a pair they are very very very talented it was good to see anthony there in his corner supporting them but it wasn't my favorite pick of the week luke this one was um Could I love this photo anymore? It just makes me really happy, Luke. Okay, I'm sorry. It does.

It does. All right, war rose. Tell me what you like about this photo. The joy in her face, the awkwardness of wearing the title on jeans, but with the picture of herself, which looks like she's a background singer on like a madonna video or something from the from the late 80s um i don't know it's just so not her that her doing it with the shit eating grin it's just it's great it's great she's like

the the pic the one on the t-shirt is like the ones who's the guy who did it like the gonna have to face it you're addicted to love yeah uh robert palmer right yeah well he was total sexist 80s she does it like that in the t-shirt yes yes she does um loved it thank you let's keep it going here time for some drunk fun here's your drunk save of the week it's good to have friends luke in high places when you're when you're flipping out on a bridge you know just let her go dude just i mean that was almost disastrous right there good thing that guy bent down at that exact moment yikes all right just let nature take its course uh this drunken uh piñata action here has a predictable ending luke oh god yikes

wow that looks like a hell of a party they had going on there luke she got brained with that what was this a fucking blind guy's can't oh it's a pool cue yeah yeah bro she got brained by a pool cue that that must have fucking hurt yeah man. Yeah, that's pretty... That pinata's looking clean. They are white people, Luke. All right, let's keep it rolling here. Since Jay effed it up last week and really showed no remorse, here are from at JonahEatWorld on Instagram

the Factory Town MMA mock-ups, Luke, that we were talking about last week. Check these four out in succession. You know, I know that WebScream's working on them, but I think I've got to put these into print right now, okay? These are good. I'm going to put these on T-shirts. I mean, you know, this is good shit right here.

There it is. That's the one right there, Luke, okay? That says all you need to know. The smokestacks just billowing fucking poison into the atmosphere? That's all you need to know. We're going to get this gym up and rolling. We're going to make a dent. We're going to make a big dent, Luke, in this space.

Let's go over to the WWFC. I have no idea what that stands for. But check out this submission, Luke, from Horobets Cabrilli. I believe they call this the banana split. Or crelo. Sorry, crelo Horobets. Single? I believe they call this the banana split or Cree low. Sorry. Cree low. Hortibets.

Single mount back. He could do a twister here. Oil change. If he wants to, he has to get a banana split. He's going to go for a banana. Oh my God. Yeah. It's just a, it's just a crotch ripper. It's a banana split. Yeah. That for a banana oh my god yeah it's just a it's just a crotch

ripper it's a banana split yeah that's got to be the most painful right um i've only been putting it one time and it was bad but not the worst i've ever been in no i mean you got to walk around like you got like a fourth testicle for like a week after that right it depends how much they tear wow all right speaking of genitalia here's some weird moments in recent genitalia history what do you think about this penis mailbox luke man someone put a lot of effort into getting the shaft and head right and gave him the worst two balls i've ever seen maybe that's symbolic of the relationship between these two okay yeah just just a total cuck. Luke, I don't know if you saw...

She's like, this is the mailbox where I take suitors, and this dude has to watch me bang. Luke, your old boss from Sirius, Marissa, shout out to her, put out some old travel pics on the social media. This is when she was in Amsterdam a few years ago, Luke. Inside of a vagina. Yeah, yeah.

Progressive women love to do stuff like this. It's not my favorite. All right. Speaking of genitalia, check out this Major League Baseball play of the week, Luke. You're out. Wait, I missed it.

That's Mookie Betts. What happened? Oh, he got banged right through the bag. Oh, he got tagged in the... Oh, you're out, all right. It was like an uppercut to the bag, Luke. Yeah, you're done. And I don't know if we have the footage.

He's, like, grimacing in pain. It might not look like... Now, when I played Little League BC, which, of course, is a very, you know, comparable thing, we had to wear cups. Do they wear cups in Major League Baseball? Yeah, obviously. Do they? What, obviously. Do they?

What, do you think they just get to the majors and freeball it? I mean, you see how fast those pitches are? Come on. I think they do, yes. I think some do. All right. Let's go on to this. Luke, they call this man Ukrainian Tyson.

I think it was like some low-level regional boxing. Watch the footwork on this uppercut. Oh, that is pure Tyson. He'll switch stance when he goes to hit this. Watchut oh that is pure tyson because he'll switch stance when he goes to the hit this watch see that boom oh yeah stance switch oh that is just perfect i mean i'm sure the opponent's legs were stuck in cement there to be able to pull that off but you know i like some regional shit luke you know that uh look at a windy day would really be the worst day to be just dropping a sweaty deuce here in this port-a-john.

Did you see what happened in this video? I mean, that's going to ruin it. This is what I did to the toilets at Mohegan Sun. This is me farting and then leaving the bathroom, and all the commodes just get sent into the air wizard of oz uh black and white that's what i'm imagining right here wow yikes all right hey look this man right here like you very excited about being vaccinated you know what i can't even hate on this message you've seen these dudes who are like hey go to a bar and get a shot of you know tequila and then a covid shot you know what i mean they're

doing a shot for a shot yeah yeah those things tend to work they actually are like very very they are very valuable as a way to get vaccination down to the community they're offering that special and massage parlors too luke you You know what? They should. Shot for shot? They should. Vaccinated and ready to fuck. God bless this man. All right. All right, Luke. Remember that time I run the video here?

This guy jumped off the roof and never walked again. Here it is. Dude, we watch a lot of people jump off roofs. Oh, shit. This motherfucker did this. Look at my stilts. Oh, shit. This motherfucker did this. Look at my stilts. Oh, shit.

Oh, my God. He folded himself up into the carry-on. Bro, what the fuck was in his boots? Lead? Two hamstrings gone. Hold on. Don't move off this one. Yeah, I want to keep going with this asshole.

Hey, work on your break falls, fuckface. Wow. That looks like the UK. Definitely the UK right there. Oh, Jesus. This is our post-fight show. Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh, yeah.

Let's go on to the next one, Luke. Look at this couple. They've had the time of their lives, Luke. Oh, we saw this. I never saw this. Now,, Luke. Oh, we saw this. I never saw this. Now, usually this. Oh, Jesus. Oh, wow.

And you demolished the TV? Is that a man underneath? Yeah. Well, there was at some point. I don't know what happened to him after this. You know, normally I blame this on Whitey, but I guess I can't do that today. Equal opportunity fails. People are willing to put anything on social media, Luke,

including our final one here of this week's shit. Big Kevin. Hey, you know, Kevin, I only got a facial, Luke. I do now. Yeah. no no wait wait hold on but there's no cream on the mustache um i don't i don't know i don't know why luke i don't i don't really want to know in fact can you get this off the screen thank you that's the shit bc have you ever had a facial no no i have? I didn't say I was offering. Who's offering?

You or Big Kev? I mean, really, that'll decide it. No, that's it, Luke. That's all I got. That's the shit for the week. Anything for odds and ends? What do you have? Well, I had the Fabia thing, Luke, but I don't have that.

So why don't we play a vinyl record of the week, Luke? This has changed my life, Luke. This is called Bright Size Life by the great jazz guitarist Pat Matheny with Jaco Pistorius, the legend, the Jimi Hendrix of bass, on bass, in fact. Luke, this is, I finally found this record. It's got blood and coffee stains on it. I was like, I was like when an old used record has a story, you know, has a soul. Like it lived lived you know what

i mean somebody bled on this shit uh this will change your life this is among the greatest uh fusion records ever made and i just wanted all you people out there who have style and grace uh in class and understand art to make sure you're listening to this so you'll be appreciated this uh my odds and ends got taken up too so it's fine but um i was gonna tell you bc yesterday i was trying to get my daughter to like something different so i started showing her i think i showed her um the rem song that's great it starts with an earthquake um it's the end of the world we know it yes but then i just let the algorithm run and we got into some other rem that was kind of old there's some good stuff that rem has man my daughter didn't care for any of it, but it's good.

I'm not going to sit here and vouch for REM, no. Your daughter can lose her religion all she wants, Luke, okay? You don't like REM? I mean, I don't disrespect the talent and songwriting there. I'm not saying there's not a song that I haven't rocked out to. You know, what's your frequency, Kenneth? I mean, they got some, you know, but no. It's not my cup of tea luke okay bitch yeah you're you're this look at this tough guy making a case for rem that's great

that's great that's another great hill to die on okay oh yeah yeah they're real shitty those guys uh all right i prefer art luke okay yeah well you prefer some kind of art anyway uh all right well that's it for us today let me remind anyone if you want to try Showtime, why wouldn't you? You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial, and you're ready to take that plunge. You can go to show.com slash Bellator MMA, $4.99 a month for the next six months if you sign up using that URL. You want to email us for Wednesday and for Friday morningcombat at gmail.com is the place to get that in plus we are all over the socials morningcombat's name

is consistent everywhere but if you notice BC and I will have slightly different names for our Twitter and Instagram accounts by the way we forgot to plug this BC I don't even know where merch is anymore but they're a place where you can get some merch store.show.com

you haven't received an adequate response after you challenged the merch guy on the air i didn't hear one thing from him did you no i don't i don't think it's happening bro he did tweet at you about jake paul though i was waiting for your response i probably blocked him. I don't know his name. Yeah, so Luke, we also filmed two-thirds of a documentary the other week in Bellator. So we got to put some loose ends and wrap that shit up. But that was an interesting time. Well, it was nice seeing you. I'll say that, BC.

It was good to see you. We did a room service diaries. What happened to it, Luke? Basically, here's what we did. A bunch of it has to get edited out because it's got nothing to do with what happened on scene in Mohegan, only about something BC said that we just cannot talk about.

And he knows we can't talk about it and he fucking talked about it anyway. So we have to clean that up and then we'll put it out. But it's fine. Nothing to do with MMA or Japan. No, I wish it was, but in fact you made it much grosser

and much worse. And so F you, guy. Well, it wouldn't be a Room Service Diaries, Luke, if you didn't edit out all your potential landmines and leave mine in. So, you know. Listen, BC, I've said this to you if you want to shoot it and then edit it you can have dealer's choice about what goes we don't

airbrush these nude photos hugh okay not on this show all right you put nude photos in there uh i don't want to see them but you know everything's got its place all right that's it for us uh let's see lots of 262 coverage coming your way um so stay tuned like the video hit subscribe for mulca showtime cbs sports brian campbell i'm luke thomas until next time all of your gains oh wait you have well you have a thing well now that you got into the intro now i'm like stopping you before the you know the moment which is weird right yes it is weird i was just, Showtime Championship Boxing is back with a bang this Saturday. So I just wanted to remind the folks to turn that on from Carson, California. I will be there.

It is a 122-pound title bout, Luis Neri against Brandon Figueroa. Luke, this fight could be special. This could be really good. I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah, it could be. So that means, whether you can catch BC, is the fight on friday or saturday sorry saturday night saturday night um so be on the lookout if you're watching showtime on saturday you'll see brian campbell out there that should be a lot of fun and uh yeah good stuff okay so for bc i'm luke

thomas and showtime championship boxing until Wednesday, may all of your gains be loyal. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.