MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Canelo-Billy Joe Saunders Drama | Bellator 258 Storylines | Fight News | Ep 152

Episode Date: May 5, 2021

Luke and Brian are back together at Mohegan Sun for episode 152. The Guys discuss the drama between Billy Joe Saunders and Canelo Alvarez ahead of their matchup this weekend (12:45). Nate Diaz vs. Leon Edwards was postponed. Is Leon Edwards having the worst luck of any fighter in recent history (19:55)? Bellator 258 is friday night and you know the guys have you covered with the latest storylines (23:25). Plus recap all the fight announcements/rumors from this week (46:30). --------------------------- '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

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.

Cinco de Mayo, the 5th of May, 2021. And it is time, diggity donks, for Morning Combat. Hi, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. I'm from CBS Sports, joined by my CBS Sports brethren, Brian Campbell. Brian, you can tell it's Morning Combat, not merely because you and I are on the screen, but because of all the generous Morning Combat signage. I mean, could the Bellator logo be bigger? Seriously? Well, Luke, we are inside Mohegan Sun Arena. We are.

Just days out from bellator 258 so uh a lot of big business for us this week maybe it could have maybe an mk would have looked nice right here but uh could the background be shinier i wonder luke's very very critical man production wise also you look like uh the former rob ford of canada well i wanted to ask you have you been have you been doing illicit things in the... Todd Grisham on our Morning Combat bonus clip yesterday did ask, why am I looking so pale and red this week? Am I dying?

It is possible. Honestly, here's part of my belief, and I could be wrong about this. In fact, the camera guys are going to tell me I'm a fucking idiot, which is definitely true. It looks like the white balance is off because you look like Brock Lesnar after beating Shane Carwin in terms of how pink.

You're the color of country time lemonade, pink lemonade. Don't tech talk me here. It just could be my personal choices, Luke, and I'm going to have to deal with them at the end of the day. Man, we got a loaded Wednesday show, which not only is looking at the biggest headlines, storylines of the week as we set the stage here for Bellator 258 and beyond. But look, we have for the first time ever an in-person wheel of death that you can spin. You get what you freaking get, Mother Effer, okay? I'm looking forward to that. Not at all.

But that will be later in the show. We do have fan submissions as well. You guys have sent in your artwork. Yeah, we are here in the belly of the beast. This is as you can, well, can you, Jay, can you throw it to the wide, that one shot you showed us before? They put us in the concourse. Can we go back to it?

Real quickly, real quickly. Right to the side there as well, where they will be cooking the hot dogs later, hopefully. But thanks for the direct... Well, I'm looking for... Oh, there it is. A little bit of delay there. Yeah, so right off to the side is the ladies' room and also the... I mean, could the background be shin little bit of delay there. Yeah, so right off to the side is the ladies' room and also the cooking. I mean, could the background be shinier? I mean, as you –

Not an MK logo in sight. As you made the joke earlier, Luke, you know, if the arena is Manhattan and we are right next to the tunnel to the arena, we are very Jersey City in this spot. So maybe that's where we – You know what's good about this spot? The fruit flies that are flying into my drink well look they're nice no shortage of morning combat content this week including at least most importantly for what's next luke 250

250 p.m eastern time today from this desk on youtube you and i will be doing a bellator 258 uh interview special yep that is going to be roll the dice, kind of fun, wild, getting people fired up and set up for the fight. I'm excited. I've seen our guest list. The great Danny Brenner of PR fame. Yes. Has set us up nicely. We were going to start at three for that, and we'll have the names you would imagine that are relevant for Bellator 258, including but not limited to Rumble and One Art Joletta and a bunch of guys.

We were going to start at three, but we wanted to add Logan Storley. We actually saw him and wanted to add him yesterday. Full disclosure, we ran into him in the COVID line and he recognized you. Full disclosure. See, I don't bring that up because that's not uncommon. That happens quite often. I don't

mean to flex, but it's true. A real talk Luke actually had with me is, you know, PC, get ready. As the show grows, you're going to find that you'll be in public, and, you know, people are just going to recognize you. It's like, okay, thanks, doctor. Thanks, Uncle Luke right there. Listen, 25,000 followers, over 100,000 followers. Hey, I'm pushing on 30 on Twitter.

Okay. I'm closing. This week I might hit 30. All right. Speaking of those kinds of metrics and milestones, if you're watching this video, thumbs up on it. Hit that subscribe button. We're trying to keep that train on the tracks and keep it moving.

If you're new to subscribing to us, welcome. We do on occasion get out of our literal studios in our house, and sometimes we get on location. And it's great to be here, by the way. I love the Mohegan Sun Resort, and we love our partners, our supporters at Malco, Showtime, CBS Sports, Bellator, even to allow us to be here. Last thing on this, I was going to tell them, I am happy to be here as well.

It's nice that we have this set, but I was telling them, if you think I'm not going to say mean things about this set, you don't know who you hired, so just putting that out there. Maybe that's why your career has had a lot of highs and lows in it. Quickly, Luke, not to air dirty laundry on the inside and the outside,

but sometimes life dictates the storylines of a real-life documentary more than any producer could, as you and I do this morning combat episode right now and as we do every other piece of content this week from Uncasville, Connecticut. More out of need and necessity than choice, the man in your ear. It ain't Maniche. No no it ain't gaff no

it's jay yeah pennington james is running the show which is why you know jay can you do the the backdrop look again can you show yourself here can you can you show your flesh there is there say hi there it is yeah as you can see, he's got a chin diaper on, just masked nowhere near his fucking nose. This is like Buckner walking back into Fenway Park, right? It's more like- Or Shea Stadium. It's more like Wade Boggs getting off the plane after 40 beers. So, you know, they were like, the bad news is everyone's booked this week. A lot of people have things planned, but we got Jay.

You're getting Jay. So we're getting Jay this week. Let's see what happens. All right. So we got to get the show started. We do have some topics to get to, we got Jay. You're getting Jay. So we're getting Jay this week. Let's see what happens. All right. So we got to get the show started. We do have some topics to get to, as I mentioned. Also fan submissions. Also the Wheel of Death.

Tons of stuff. Like the video. Hit subscribe. Yes, as you can tell, this is a Bellator and Showtime kind of affiliated production, I guess. If you want to try Showtime, you certainly may. Go to Showtime.com. Get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it.

If not, if you want to take the plunge so you can watch, you're ready to go and just make Showtime a thing. I'm assuming they're going to show lower thirds. There we go. Show.com slash Bellator MMA is the URL to go to. Hit that thing up. If you want to take the plunge, again, you get all of Showtime's library plus live, you know, regular programming.

Before you get to the topics, Jay does have a bonus video, like a fan submission thing that he just, he was like, BC, I got to put this in the show. He's like, I got to do it. Jay, have a bonus video, like a fan submission thing that he just, he was like, BC, I got to put this in the show. He's like, I got to, Jay, quickly,

before we lose Luke here. Imagine all the people Sharing all the world Sending, we got Jay Birded, as he would say. Yeah. Woo, okay. I thought I was going to see some tickle bitties, and instead I saw, I thought I was going to see two 10s,

I saw one zero. Yes. That's what happened there. Can we get that man a bra? Let's go. All right. Nice rack there, Pennington James. Okay, let's see.

If you want to email the show, morningcombat at gmail.com. Of course, that's where your fan submissions will get picked up. And then for Friday, which we'll also do the show from here on Friday, for Dead Wrong, anything that we get wrong, send it in there. And if you don't think we're not only going to hit you over the head with so much bonus content from here, your boy BC's got interviews with Todd Grisham from DAZN, sitting down with Michelle Watterson.

Cowboys. I mean, all these Bellator guys later today. It's going to be a big week for this brand, Luke. I'm ready to go to the next level with you. I'm ready to take this. Stop, please. Stop. And also to BC's credit, he even canceled an interview with Canelo

to make sure he was here to do morning combat content. So you can tell how much we have going on this week by consequence of that. That's a true fact. Ready to go? I'm ready. Let's start with topic number one here if we can. It's kind of over now. I don't know how big of a story it is. But it's enough where it's at least

worth bringing up. So there was all this stupid ass drama on social media yesterday. Hey BC, could you act professional when the show starts? I figured the director would see what happened and would, you know, go to the one shot. No, it's Pennington James doing this. So Canelo and Billy Joe Saunders had a bit of a dispute.

Billy Joe Saunders was saying, by the way, did not show up to media day and was saying he wasn't going to compete unless they made the ring 22, but more importantly, 24 feet is what he was really looking for in diameter. And I guess the ring was somewhere between 18 and 20 originally. Now, here is my point.

They worked it out. The fight's on, and I think the ring is going to be 22. I'm not sure what they eventually settled on. But enough that Billy Joe Saunders walked back any kind of threat about the fight not taking place. So there's no story there. But the question is why it was so big and so important for Billy Joe to do this and if there's any implication. BC, here's my read on this. Tell me if I'm right

or if I'm wrong from your vantage point. He was absolutely right to request a bigger ring. It is more of an advantage to his style. This is the biggest fight of his career. The details need to be right for him to do it on the other hand the way that it was made such a show tells me that it's less about that and more about i want to fuck with canelo any way i can before saturday so if it was any other fighter you would have some of those concerns of is this showing is this him showing you that he's doesn't have the balls right is he trying does he know he's gonna lose this so he's trying any way to potentially wiggle out? I might say that if it was any other fighter.

The thing about Billy Joe Saunders, and it's part of the narrative, Luke, of why this has the potential to be a sneaky, good sort of trappish fight, depending on how it goes, is that Saunders is so friggin' mentally tough, and he's a full-time troll at all times. So he's going to do this stuff, yes, to cause a commotion, to disrupt it, to bring headlines. Look, it brought headlines, right, to this fight and sort of, you know, got you woken up if you didn't know about it going, what, is this guy really going to walk away from the fight?

It's also to get into Canelo's head, and it's also to do exactly what he did, which was brilliantly steal an advantage from Canelo in a fight in which he's the betting underdog. When you fight somebody of Canelo's stature, you don't get to call the shots, right? Floyd, Oscar, all the big guns had done that before. When you fight them, you fight on their terms. Ring size, glove size, rounds, weight, all that stuff. This was Billy Joe Saunders being crazy enough to just stand up and go, no, this is what I need to have my best chance. And it just so happened that Canelo was like, the ring's not going to win it for you.

I'll fight you in any fight. And look, this goes back to that whole thing I do. Part of this, by the way, part of this had to be, let's see if we can make Canelo bend the knee publicly. And publicly, he was like, yeah, fine. You want 24, we'll do whatever it was, 22 or 24. We'll do it. But I think part of getting him to acquiesce to a demand

is also part of the experience as well. Definitely part of that, but it's also like, this is the best ring size for my style. And I think it's also trying to piss Canelo off. Look, Canelo is so calculated that Billy Joe's best chance of winning this fight, and if you know him as a boxer, he can be the guy in front of the charging bull

with the matador. He can play matador. He's at his best when he's playing matador. When somebody's coming at him, Canelo's so skilled, as we know, Luke, he can win the fight under any circumstances. Walking you down, outpointing you as a counterpuncher from the outside,

I think it plays best into Saunders' style, not just to get the bigger ring, and he somehow pulled it off, but to have Canelo maybe upset, maybe looking to press the pace, that's going to allow counter opportunities in theory for Saunders. So it all goes together. But Luke, if you're going to make a stance like that,

though, you do have to risk, you know, the potential embarrassment. And also, I think you risk potentially losing the fight. Eddie Hearn, the promoter who has a contract right now with Canelo, did fly out John Ryder, who's a top 168 contender who's never really gotten over that hill to the title level, but as a potential replacement,

you saw the headlines in the past 24 hours before this got resolved. So if you're Billy Joe Saunders, you had to at least in the back of your mind go, this type of power move could lose me the fight. I just think he's crazy enough and has been so hard to negotiate with and so selective enough in his run that he was actually okay with that. If it had to go down, if the whole thing I just think he's crazy enough and has been so hard to negotiate with and so selective enough in his run that he was actually okay with that. If it had to

go down, if the whole thing fell apart, he's willing to do that to try to get this advantage, and he got it. So there's a lot of people to praise. No excuses now. I think, you know, he's a wily fox where it's like he pulled off exactly what he wanted, but I'm also here to praise Canelo, who basically was like, dude, take it, alright? We're fighting, and I think

that's a big part of, this tells me we're going to get a ready Billy Joe Saunders because there's no excuses now. Right. I mean, you go in there and you lose with a 24-foot, again, whatever it was, let's say 24, 24-foot ring that you had requested. We saw, you know, again, they're very different styles. But from a similar kind of orientation in the way they fight, we saw what that did for Erislandy Lara.

You could maybe make the case that he beat Canelo. Again, they're very different fighters. I'm just sort of pointing out a little bit about what might be in play in terms of sticking and moving i don't remember the size and the dimensions of that ring if it was any way significant but you did see laura have some success with that but that was a canelo that was not this version of him who is so like he is a come forward kind of boxer when he needs to be but but very strategically, very thoughtfully, not much of a bull who rushes in. More about a guy who is something of a sniper on the outside

who creates openings and then builds upon them. So, again, if your ability is Joe Saunders, great. You got what you asked for. But also, be careful that you got what you asked for because if you go in there and Canelo houses you, eventually in the end, which is an if, but let's say he does it, you simply will have nothing to say at that point. You got everything you were asking for.

It's weird. I held some weird respect for Billy Joe through all this. It's ridiculous what just happened. And your response to me over text was boxing is so stupid. And it is. But, you know, he's willing to. And maybe I relate to this because in the basketball court, Luke, I'm able to cross over the lines in old guy pickup basketball and know that this is the only space in my life where I can

be a raving asshole and it's okay because it's about the competition within those lines, right? So I'll get up in people's heads. I'll get up in their face. I'll push those lines. I'll Billy Joe Saunders that shit. And then when we leave the court, hey, bro, it was great hanging out with you because that's my battlefield. Are you like Seymour Hersh

and what about Along Came Polly? Rain Buckets or whatever the fuck you said. No, I'm a little bit more of a sweaty underneath hog who boxes out and does the little things, does the dirt. I'm a white Dennis Rodman, if you will, on that level. Who was the guy from Georgia, the big man,

who played for the Warriors? Todd Fowler? Whatever his name is. Oh, Pachulia. Pachulia. Yes. The guy who like, when you go up,

undercuts your knees. Yes. You're that guy? No, not necessarily. That's a lame, more of a lame beer style. I'm just,

I'm the mind games guy. So I can respect what Billy Joe Saunders just pulled off. What we're lucky is that it wasn't a David Hay situation. Do you remember he had fights scheduled with Vladimir and Vitaly Kuchko? Those are real withdrawals. And he pulled up. Oh, well, have you seen the fluid? He pulled out of both of those, Luke.

That's a bad joke. And then ultimately finally cashed in. I don't think this is what Billy Joe's doing. I think this is the biggest fight of his life. He knows it. Now he's ready. Whatever level of ready he needs to be, now he is. Let's have no excuses here. Fair enough.

All right, so let's go now to topic number two. The good news is that whatever the delay might be, it's not really substantial. So Nate Diaz and Leon Edwards, they were scheduled to fight in the first ever non-title five round co-main event in UFC history. The good news is they are still going to be five rounds, whether or not it ends up being a main or co-main or whatever position it ends up occupying. It will still be five rounds at 175 pounds. But Nate Diaz versus Leon Edwards is postponed until, I think, UFC 263, which will be June 12th. Nate Diaz suffered an injury. Here's one thing that I don't see a lot of folks talk about.

This is actually very unusual for the Diaz brothers. They have a very good record of showing up to fights without any kind of interruption in their training. When was the last time you recall them ever being in a situation? In fact, between the two of them, this is the only one I can think of more prominently. There may have been one on the smaller scenes. These guys have been fighting for a long time. I can't say with total accuracy that's true, but at least in the UFC runs for both of them,

I don't recall them ever delaying a fight due to injury. However, BC, I also recall the moment, and this is true, when Nate Diaz fought Rafael Dos Anjos, and he went into that fight kind of messed up because he didn't withdraw due to injury. And he got paid nothing. And he got paid nothing. Here's what I was going to say. I think Dos Anjos on that day would have won that fight

no matter what, but certainly, certainly, Nate being as injured as he was was a disaster for him. He decided to delay it a month. At this stage in his career, I kind of get it. I kind of get it. Any objection to the Iron Man streak sort of being broken here among the Diaz brothers?

No, and look, he's also older, and it comes with that. And, you know, I know that Nate in the past, like, he still, look, he believes that he defeated Dustin Poirier in New York City that time that they never fought. And Khabib, Luke, he believes that he defeated Dustin Poirier in New York City that time that they never fought. And Khabib. Yeah, because those guys ran from him. And normally if a Diaz is pulling out of a fight,

it's because they didn't show up to the press conference. I'm okay with it. 262, which it was originally on, which has the Chandler Olivera main event for the vacant title, it's still a pretty damn good load. Still pretty good. You get Tony Ferguson. That pay-per-view does lose its star power, though.

Nate was the biggest star on that card. Now, listen, I think it's going to be in Texas, and I think there's going to be a big crowd there. What's the main event for this, where it's moving to? June? June 263. I look it up. I don't believe that that's Teixeira and Blachowicz, is it?

We'll get our crack research team on that, and by that, I mean Luke's stubby fingers. All right, UFC 263. That is Adesanya Vittori. Yes, yes. Deverson Figueredo and Brandon Moreno rematch. So that's in Arizona, right? Yeah, the Gila River Arena.

And, yeah, please stop talking. Jay's telling you June 12th. I understand. I already said that out loud. And then Demian Maia versus Bilal Muhammad. So that made that card sick, dude. Sick. Super sick. That should be interesting.

Should be really interesting. Yeah, you don't see the Diaz brothers do this kind of a thing. I'm glad that they're going forward with the fight. It's a weird matchup that we didn't see coming, and there's a lot to gain for either guy, so I'm excited about this. All right, so now let's jump to the thing with the subtle marketing that they have arranged for us.

No, the desk is not... I mean, you turned this into a catastrophe right before we were going to go live. Tell the people what happened. You leaned your big meat hook on the deck and the thing just imploded. I put my fucking drink on it. Is my drink like the hammer of Thor?

You were like, alright, I'm ready for the show. Is it like the hammer of Thor, only the worthy can lift it? Are you worthy? No. All right, so topic number three, which is really what we're here for, Bellator 258 storylines. BC, we got a lot going on. A huge storyline is the absence of Romero.

We kind of know that. Turning that page just a little bit, because there's nothing we can do about it at this point. The event is going to go forward. It's still real to me. My heart still hurts. Well, the good news is as we talked about it before, they did keep Anthony Johnson on the card. BC, listen, I know, we're going to talk about it,

the Bantamweight title fight, people are losing sight of how good it is. It's yet a demonstration if you look at how good Bantamweight is globally in other promotions. Here you can see also, Bellator has a strong bantamweight contest between Sergio Pettis and the champion Juan Artur Leto on Friday night. But let's talk first about Rumble Johnson. It has to be the biggest storyline in terms of fan attraction.

What kind of rumble are we going to get? Exactly. Four years removed from his last fight. And let's be honest, it was against Daniel Cormier in a rematch for the UFC light heavyweight title. You could tell, Luke, that his heart wasn't in it. So maybe that was the good time to get away. He blew up in weight. He worked on his, you know, his ventures outside of the cage.

And now he's back on his own terms and he's in sick shape. So you not only want to see, has he added things to his game? Has the time away eroded big things in his game? You want to see how he responds to a new replacement and uh what's the guy's name jose agusto uh yes jose agusto from brazil who's who's or jose on a good run here he's got submission ability you certainly want to see what rumble looks like but i think the bigger storyline for rumble is this luke he was going to be one of those wild card guys when we looked at the favorites but team namcoff you're defending

champion the favorite rightfully so. But it was Romero and Rumble who were like, whoever comes out of that fight, and if either one can look just more spectacularly dangerous than the rest of the group, more of a wild card firecracker, which is really the identity that both of those guys

brought to this tournament, which is why them fighting together was going to be so sexy, but notwithstanding, I want to find out if Rumble is really the favorite in this tournament. If he goes out there and splatters Augusto, which he may have trouble, we have no idea. It's part of the theater, part of what we want to see. But if he splatters him,

and at the very least shows you that he is a knockout threat like he's always been at any point against anyone, he may actually become the real sort of fight fan's favorite as he would enter into that fight with Nemkov in the semifinal round, where obviously whoever wins that one is your favorite. Nemkov's already your favorite.

If Rumble dazzles on Friday night, could he end up being the new favorite? I really think so. Also, just consider this. Dude, if Rumble wins on Friday night, which odds makers expect him to do, his next fight is going to be for a Bellator light heavyweight title because he'll face Nemkov next in the tournament. Nemkov is your reigning champion, which means that if he wins it, he will defend it against the winner of Ryan Bader and Corey Anderson.

So things are working out well. Yeah, so really, I mean, I don't want to say he lucked out because we're kind of just completely looking past Jose Augusto when we do this. But in fairness, you know, we don't know the situation with Rumble, but it appears from all evidence Mike Vaughn went down there to Sanford MMA and talked to him. He appears to be in tremendous condition.

Didn't take a beating the last five years. I'm not going to say it's like St. Pierre-like, but the four years St. Pierre had off, even though he was injured, he didn't come back, you know, worn down. He didn't come back looking terribly lesser than himself. Here's what I think is possible for Rumble on Friday night, not really sort of the setup of what comes next. He can't show you his total upside.

It's not really possible against this kind of an opponent, we think, right? In all likelihood, this is not the guy to test us this. But if he can show us flashes of what was, he can certainly inspire confidence. He can tell us that the bottom has not dropped out on him. And then against Nemkov, well, then that comes the real deal. I don't want to call this a tune-up fight, BC, because when you face someone else on short notice,

there's so many unknowns and things that can go wrong. But you've got to like your situation if you're Rumble. You get an easier fight to come back to, which sets you up for a title shot against a very complete fighter, but at that point, you got your feet wet again. He's sitting in a very, very advantageous position. And again, Pitbull Brothers MMA

is the team that Augusto comes from. He's won five in a row since joining them. He's hungry. He's six foot three. I mean, there's some things to like about him, but storyline-wise, it is all about Rumble. Storyline-wise, it is all about how this Bantamweight title main event, I don't see how it cannot be fantastic.

And I hope it's getting the attention it deserves because Sergio Pettis riding that three-fight win streak, he's fought everybody in the world in terms of UFC flyweight during his run then, but now he's calling this the biggest fight of his career when he challenges Juan Archuleta. Yeah, I mean, here's a guy who his last loss was to the pit boy up at weight class. He was at

145. He lost that, and then previously, it's all the way back in March of 2015. He's 20-1 since then. 20 wins, 1 defeat since then. It's remarkable, and he beat Henry Corrales at 145 after losing to Patricio, then went back down to 135 and beat Patchy Mix,

who I know some folks may not know, a guy out, I think he was previously with Jackson Wink, I think he's now at Extreme Couture. Either way, one of the best rising bantamweights anywhere in the world. Archuleta has a style, let's be real about it, that's not going to get fans eagerly lining up to demand more of his services.

Why do you say that? Because he's got a volume style. He has a stick-and-move style. He's got a style built to go distance. He weaponizes cardiovascular conditioning. Don't get me wrong. You look at his lockout of Eduardo Dantas, he can put hands on you.

But when the fight gets tough against really talented guys, he has a stick-and-move style, which I have nothing against. I just understand fans are always going to gravitate to the big power, kind of rock-em-sock-em dude. But Sergio Pettis is strategic enough, smart enough, and now I think developed enough. Remember, him versus 23 versus him versus 27, 28, he's just not going to be the same guy.

If all you know of Sergio Pettis is his UFC run, you think to yourself, okay, he's talented, but maybe with some fatal mistakes. But that's just not who he is anymore. I'm not saying he's perfect, of course, far from that. But he is, I'll say this, very grown up as a fighter. Yeah, I mean, just not who he is anymore. I'm not saying he's perfect, of course. Far from that. But he is, I'll say this, very grown up as a fighter. I mean, we've known about him forever. You can always, in hindsight, wonder if

we knew about him too early because his brother was the lightweight champion of the world in the UFC at the time, and there was a lot of expectations that young Sergio could just follow right in that. And it's not that he failed those expectations, just that, like any young fighter, it took him time to figure it out. You do look back on his resume, though, Luke.

He's got wins over Chris Carriazo, Joseph Benavidez. I mean, there's like, you know, three, four, five of those like very impressive wins, yet at a higher weight class, this is definitely a tough challenge for him. He's got a win over Brandon Moreno. You know what I mean? And it was a unanimous decision. That ain't easy.

Joseph Benavidez. And then, of course, in Bellator, he's beaten Alfred Kashakian. I'm not sure that was his name. If you can't pronounce it, is it really that great of a word? But the big one he had last time was Ricky Bandejas, who he kind of just totally outclassed on the way out to getting the title shot. So I got to tell you. And by the way, 27 years old, he's 20 and 5.

He won't be 28 until August. So his last fight in UFC was what, 2019? So it was two years ago. Dude, he was 25 when he left the UFC. 25. I mean, that is nothing. That is absolutely nothing. If he wins a title Friday night, and, you know,

both Pettis brothers will have won world titles in major organizations. Have we seen that before? I mean, the Diaz brothers have had a hell of success along the way. Noguera brothers, they both won titles in pride, I believe. I wonder where the Pettis Brothers will rank all time in MMA Brothers Impact History after the Fertittas, above the Millers. I don't know if they'll do that.

I want to see, did Little Nog win a belt? I don't remember if he did or not. Let's see. He definitely won some jiu-jitsu titles, so they have that. He represented boxing in Brazil. I'm trying to see. I'm going to go with no, Luke.

He went to the quarterfinals. No, he never won a pride title. Sorry, so I was wrong about that. But, you know, he had some medals or some shit. I don't know. It's a good family lineage, good family history. I mean, what are the Thomases known for? Not winning titles, I'll tell you that much.

Surliness and demanding to see the manager. And education. And doing well in school. That's about it. That's the only thing we're really good for. Alright, so we have the storyline there. Oh, you know what? The rest of that card I actually like a little bit here. Let me pull it up if I may, just a second. I have it here. Here we go. So, one thing I want

to point out on the main card, which will open on Showtime, we started last time we had Paul Daly against Sabaho Masi, which was just an amazing fight. But what was key about that was it was 175 pounds. I've been a vocal advocate of making a 175-pound weight class because when I did the Luke Thomas show on SiriusXM, my producer and I, we did what was called

a draft. We took all the names in the top 20 we could find for 155 and 170 and then we selected out a 165-pound division and then made 175 welterweight. So we'd have 155, 165, 175. And it turns out that if you just let people sort themselves, you may get imbalances. But if the organization takes time to actually sort it

with a bit of a heavy hand, you can evenly distribute it, and it actually does really work pretty well. I don't know if Bellator's in the same position. I bring this up to say, BC, I like seeing a 175-pound weight class. I got to tell you. And here we have Michael Page taking on Derek Anderson. A tough fight for Michael Page. It's a real tough fight for Michael Page.

It's very tough. And I got to say, at 175, only makes Derek Anderson actually more of a threat to Michael Page. Derek's won five of six. You know, he's got to win over somebody like a Patrycki Pipple, who we'll see on this card as well. And even though this is the fight that could show us that Derek Anderson is for real in this division and would be his biggest win to date and he would really advance forward into that upper core title picture which

is Doug Lima the champion defending it against Yaroslav Amoslav? Amosav. Logan Sterling will be back on this card Friday night so he's getting in position but I think the bigger story is referendum time on MVP. It's now or never, Luke, to not

only gain the Doug Lima rematch, which is his goal and it would be for the title if Lima still held it, obviously, but I think really to live up to the hype and the potential and the highlight reel knockouts. And you know, his only defeats his only defeat is one when he got knocked out by Douglas Lima in that wild fight. But I think

the fight before that, when he edged Paul Daly, it critically was looked at as a defeat. That fight sucked. Because the fight sucked, and, you know, he's had a few of those in the past where he was beating guys who shouldn't have been in the fight with him, and he was just barely edging them. So he's had moments of up and down.

Incredible highlights like you see breaking people's faces. Other times, not so much. It's time for him to figure out, Luke, the best best version of him and he may have to dial back the theatrics a bit but he's 34 there's still time he wins this he's freaking getting a title shot you know it luke you know at the end of the day he is because he's that marketable and this is a top five match up between both probably derrick anderson's an interesting guy i've been fighting since 2011 but not i mean consistently like he's been in there for the years but he didn't do a whole lot of work in the last few in fact he did fight in 2020 once

in 2019 once in 2018 so he's not been super active but what you've seen from him is sort of physical well-rounded ability um he's got 21 pro fights so he's not a neophyte like he's sort of been around the block and i think actually represents a pretty real threat to MVP. But to the point about MVP, you're like, oh, it's do or die. I tend to think the window's kind of closed, actually. Really? Really? You think that he'll never be that dude, that he's just a fun guy?

That's what you're saying. He's 34 at 175 pounds, 170 pounds, which is not a death sentence. And to your point, has not had a ton of miles put on him by virtue of the way he fights and some of the matchmaking that he's gotten. But at 34, like now is going to be the time you break out? Maybe. I tend to think not. See, I think it's not as much anymore about the breakout. I don't think he's going to become a global star.

I think he had potential. I think there were moments. Remember he put up that weird Ronda Rousey dance video after she got knocked out? Vaguely. But I think it's more about getting the title chance in the rematch. I don't think he matches up horrifically bad with Douglas Lima. It's a fight that the odds will tell you you should lose every time, but he's a threat.

And that fight was a little bit wild where obviously Lima couldn't just go and walk through that despite the very definitive finish there. But I don't know. MVP's got to show me something I'm still willing to believe. Maybe he's one of those nine lives guys like I am with Adrian Broner where you can talk me into another comeback.

Also on this card, Patrycki Freyde is back. By the way, his last fight I think was a loss at Ryzen. I want to tell you something about Patrycki Freyde. Freyde? Freyde. You ain't got no job. You ain't got shit to do. Take it on. Take it on. SBG's Peter Quealy. If I mispronounce it. It's Peter Quealy, the

showstopper from SBG. And by the way, we saw his compadre, James Gallagher, at the hotel, at the fire pit outside there. Shout out to that guy. Not engaging in the healthiest behavior I'd ever seen. I would have asked him to see his DMs if he hadn't walked out as soon as he saw us.

Yeah, he definitely did not want to chat. The whole point about it is I hosted the Bellator virtual media press conference last week, and one thing I asked Scott Coker on it, Luke, is this whole idea that Patrycki Friede, who's won five in a row under the Bellator banner, then he went to Risen, and he was two and one during those cross-promotion fights in recent years. But this is the best version of Patrick Pitbull. You know, he's like his brother. The the savage ability and the aggression that he shows has meshed nicely with the experience that he's gained.

He wants a title shot at lightweight. So they're showing neither of them on the screen. Yeah, that's that's Archuleta. That's Archuleta and patchy mix. But OK, that's that's Jay's. That's all right. So my point here is this, Luke. Do you remember when we had Patricio Pippel on this desk

during the announcement of the Showtime deal? I like violence. Yeah, we said, you know, how's your brother going to get a title shot? He said basically that he'd be willing to vacate it when Patriki was ready. Okay. If Bellator would guarantee him.

I asked Scott Coker on last week's media call, what are we going to do about this? He said, it's not out of the question that they fight each other. And I was like, oh, he's like, I'm telling you, it's not out of the question that they fight each other. We've seen teases of this. The Shamrock brothers, who weren't even actually birthed, but they're adopted, Ken Shamrock and Frank,

and they weren't even in the same weight class. Remember, they wanted to do it as more of a publicity stunt. We've never seen... We wanted the Klitschko's to do it. It was never going to happen. We've never seen brother versus brother for, like, something legitimate. I mean, this would be like Serena and Venus,

you know, in the U.S. Open final. I mean, this would be insane. Is this family savage enough where they can say, we'll suspend the, you know, the love for each other? I think they are. Would that get 10 times more viewers than it normally would because of that weird element i gotta tell you though like you know it was another weird brother fight that just made me sad do you remember when um who was the this was when it was the world series of fighting not pfl who was the crime fighter the guy who got dressed up? I don't remember.

And his brother, who previously fought in UFC for a time, Carlos Fedor, was one of the brothers. The other one was, what was his name? Oh, I remember this. I had him on my show. Did they end up fighting each other? They did end up fighting each other, and it was the saddest shit ever,

because I had one of the brothers on my show, and he was like, yeah, we, you know, I think they're adopted, too, or they have different, you know, they're not exactly the same mother, same father, whatever the situation is. And they had real beef as a family, and they wanted to fight it out, and it just made them sad about the state of their family. Like, I would say this to Bellator. That's some Jerry Springer bullshit. Yeah, dude, but like in a real way where you actually was like, oh, God, this is kind of pathetic.

If you're going to do that fight, I need assurances your family is okay. Our producer Mikey Mormyle texted Phoenix Jones. Phoenix Jones. So it was Phoenix Jones and Carlos Fodor were fighting, or the guy who plays Phoenix Jones. That was sad and really exploitative. I don't know because both guys signed up for it. Exploitative too. It's way different than that. That seems like that was

also done for. I'm not saying it's the same. What I'm saying is if you're going to put on a fight between brothers, just make sure everything's hunky-dory ahead of time. But the thing about the Pipples is that, you know, we thought they were twins incorrectly for a long time, you know what I mean? Because they look so similar. Their styles are so similar. Man, I mean, this ain't tennis.

It's interesting to see if two brothers could ever pull that off in an entertaining manner in which both actually went for it and didn't just try to out-wrestle each other. And would the public receive that? Well, it would be such an interesting experiment. Maybe Dada45000 could be the referee. Is that how much he weighs at this point? He's just an unbelievably obese man. Alright, also on the prelim card,

people don't know this, Josh Hill, who only has three losses on his record. He's 20-3. Two of those came to Marlon Marais in World Series of Fighting. And one of those by decision. He's actually a pretty good fighter taking on Rafael Stotz. You know him? No. So Rafael Stotz is this, I think it was Division II National Champion. I think that's right. Hell of an athlete.

Hell of a wrestler out of Duke Rufus' gym. Putting the beat down on people. That's a name that I don't see a lot of people discussing. Do you think he made Phil Brooks sweat a few times? Oh, I think he's given Phil Brooks the business more than a couple of times. He is a very good fighter. That's the main event of the prelims.

Also on there, previous champion Rafael Carvalho taking on Lorenz Larkin. Lorenz Larkin is back. Holy shit. Yeah, Carvalho had left the organization. They brought him back for this fight. So this is a big opportunity for him, Luke, against a name to really, you know, make a comeback. And Lorenz, of course, at 185 pounds, not 170. And then Pachi Mix, who I just mentioned, taking on a late replacement, Albert Morales.

It was supposed to be James Gallagher, who is here, but not part of that. And then we saw him in the line, Logan Storlie taking on Omar Hussain. Now, Logan Storlie, to me, if you guys didn't see it, the Yaroslav-Amosov fight, maybe one of the best fights Bellator's ever put on at welterweight.

I do mean that sincerely. Incredibly competitive. Really, really good. High pace, technical, very good. Technical shit. And Storlie, I thought that Amosov was the rightful winner, but it was dicey. It was very, very close. I think they got it right.

They got it right. They got it right. But would you say this? He gave Amosov everything he could handle. Yeah. A hundred percent. So he's back. He's another top prospect in my mind.

Division one national champion the whole nine yards. So Henry Corrales is on the card. He looks like he has country strength. Yeah, he looks like he's got a high butt too, which means he's got them hammies. I wasn't looking at the man's backside. Dude, the front is for show, the back is for go.

That's what they always say in weightlifting. So when you see someone who's got a big old traps and a big old rear end. Do they say that at Latina nightclubs as well? Is that allowed? They might as well. Was I allowed to say that?clubs as well? Is that allowed? They might as well. Was I allowed to say that? Okay.

They might as well. And that's it. Okay, so that's it for that story. We'll have more coverage all week long. 250 Eastern today is the live Bellator 258 interview special. So tell your friends, live on YouTube. Don't miss it. All right, real quickly, I just wanted to get to this here.

I don't think it's all that interesting, but it's worth a mention. The California State Athletic Commission is looking to add MMA fighters to this boxer's pension that they have. So here's to this here. I don't think it's all that interesting, but it's worth a mention. The California State Athletic Commission is looking to add MMA fighters to this boxers pension that they have. So here's how this works. They established, this is only relevant in California, this is not relevant in any other state, but what California does is they take 88 cents on

the dollar for ticket sales, so from the gate, and they put it at a max capacity of $4,600 per event, and that pension is established. I think it sits at around $5.5 million or so, and they put it at a max capacity of 4,600 per event and that pension is established I think it sits at around 5.5 million or so and they eventually cut checks for different fighters who qualify and there's rules about

qualifying how many times you fought in California how consecutive. Is that if you're a retired fighter and you don't have enough income and you need a, or is it to cover your medical? So I don't think it's the way the checks have been written seems to be that there has to be some kind of medical issue, but it can cover a pretty wide array of life challenges. I don't think it's, if you're just poor but you have no health elements, they'll cut you a check,

but we would have to get more clarification on that. I wonder if it can get you a medical marijuana license. Dude, if you don't need one in California, just show up. Shouts to the herbarium, and they've got some good stuff over there. Anyway, the point being is this, BC. They have not added it yet, but they want to add MMA fighters to this. And so there have been times where fighters have been cut five, sometimes six-figure checks to address some of these issues.

My takeaway from the story, BC, it's pretty simple. It's that is what California is doing a good thing incontestably? Do I think that a $4,600 tax is going to drive? Maybe that's pretty simple. It's that is what California is doing a good thing incontestably? Do I think that a $4,600 tax is going to drive? I mean, that's per event. Is that going to drive away the UFCs and the Bellators? Only California could get away with it because they have so much MMA in that state. The volume is so huge. They can kind of tell the bigger promoters this is how business works here,

and they're really not going to change any of that. But it does keep for me highlighting a simple reality which is everybody but the fighters wants to do something for the fighters and really. Is that a knock at Daniel Cormier saying Jon Jones shouldn't get paid? I don't know what he's talking about I mean it's just a totally indefensible position

but BC don't you understand what I'm saying here it's like is this a good thing they're doing? Yes. Will it majorly impact the occasional fighter's life? Of course. And in that sense, we applaud it. But is this really at scale, any kind of change? Well, you've got to start somewhere.

Look, you've got to start freaking somewhere. So this is a positive turn. But even at its, you're right, you've got to start somewhere. But it's not about this process. However big the fighter's pension in California gets, it's never going to be big enough to cover what we need at scale for broader fighter support. That has to come from actual fighters taking command of their own leverage.

Everyone else can help them a little. Endeavor ain't going out of their way to give that up. No, it turns out that they're not. They're not going to do that. They like to keep costs low, which you can understand. Most businesses do, especially if it's legal to do that, which, by the way, it is. Fighters are left alone when

their career is over, and their career ends at a very young age, and this is, again, a very good step in the direction we need to go. That's all the analysis you have? That's pretty much all I've got. Do you got any analysis on Triller giving out a grace period to turn yourself in? This was an interesting way to handle streamers, so we know on Triller giving out like a grace period to turn yourself in? This was an interesting way to handle

streamers. So we know that Triller popped a lawsuit out of nowhere and went after streamers. Not different to what UFC had recently done and made big headlines. UFC though seemed a little bit more focused on the providers. You know, not the local drug dealers, but the larger

sort of cartel members. Whereas Triller was like, they just want to handcuff everyone and say, look, here's the deal. We're going to offer you this very ridiculously large fine for having streamed that illegally, or you can just pay back what you should have done and order the pay-per-view. Pay us that price.

I think that's interesting because it's designed to retain customers. It's designed to say, I could have hurt you bad here, or I could have made you do this bad, but I'm going to let you out just to buy this so maybe you'll feel good about this and you'll keep buying this. I kind of like that idea. Is it different than giving the first one free in the drug dealing game? How the fuck would I know?

All right. I don't believe any of this bullshit. I don't believe they're going to actually go after customers. There's a lot of really good things that you don't believe any of this bullshit. I don't believe they're going to actually go after customers. There's a lot of really good things that you don't believe about life. Yeah, the ones that are false, that just sound nice. Those ones. Hope, love, optimism. Listen, I've seen the notebook.

That's not how shit goes. I can't tell. You look tan in the video, but very jaundiced in person. I can't balance this out right now. Yeah, I don't quite get it either. It's something wrong with the white balance. Also, can we put another Bellator logo on here? I can't balance this out. Yeah, I don't quite get it either. It's something wrong with the white balance. Also, can we put another Bellator logo on here? I don't think

I don't think there's quite enough Bellator on the actual screen. How about that piece of artwork over there in the corner? They got some fat guy over there who is apparently famous. Can we get that fat guy in a little coat, please? They literally got some, by the way, he's

probably some Native American chief who runs the show. Yeah, I mean, of course. Now that we're saying awful things about his weight and we're fat shaming him. Alright, I don't really give a fuck about this story. Last but not least, we have some announcements and some rumors going on in the world of UFC. We'll get to some of them here.

So just something to think very quickly. I love this fight. Tough fight for Louis Smolka, but he could do well. Sean. Tough fight for Louis Smolka, but he could do well. Sean O'Malley versus Louis Smolka taking place at UFC 264. That'll be, of course, a bantamweight contest. It's interesting. It's an interesting fight. Sean O'Malley really needs to continue to show us things

in a short period of time to regain, Luke, everything that was lost. He seemed to get a lot of it back in this return, this comeback fight. This is a tough fight for Smoka, but it's winnable. Do you think, so look, I looked at its surface and I said, okay, you know, cool fight, whatever. But, you know, I was talking to our CBS Sports brethren there, our editors, and their reaction was another fight for O'Malley against somebody who's on a losing skid. There was some weird comparison of is this UFC's version of MVP? I didn't agree with that.

No, not at all. He's already fought tougher competition than that. And also, partly it's, you always got to remember with matchmaking, is this the first choice of the matchmakers? When they went to the board, did they say Sean O'Malley versus, ah, I know, it'll be Louis Smolka. Could have been. My hunch is that they wanted to keep both guys busy. They're probably

not too far apart. It's a busy division, but it's deep though with names. So that's the only argument. I like the fight at the surface. We don't know who turned down who. We have no idea. Don't people like Aldo, Edgar, Faber, a lot of old names that need fights, right?

You want to put Sean O'Malley versus Frankie Edgar after that fucking fight against... No, not after that fight. That's a terrible idea. That's a terrible idea. Maybe I'll go back to just looking, you know, rock lobster hair. I mean, could you be redder? Donald Cerrone is going to face... He was supposed to face Diego Sanchez at UFC and ESPN 24 it will

instead be sort of like workman like fighter out of who continues to get better haven't seen anything too special I hate to say that but he's a tough out Alex Morneau doesn't do a ton for me how bad would this be a loss for Cowboy in your eyes

I think it's very winnable for Morneau I think it's very winnable but would this be a loss for Cowboy in your eyes? I think it's very winnable for Morneau. I think it's very winnable. But would this be the end? He'd be close to it. Yeah. I mean, he's got a lot of miles, bro. Yeah. He's got a lot of miles.

And at least the Diego Sanchez, which was the original fight for Cowboy, you get the storyline-wise. And again, that's always my ask. If you're going to still promote guys who have very little left in the tank, but are still legends, we still love seeing them fight,

put them against each other. I always say that. I get, in this situation, it's last-minute booking, so it sort of is what it is. Oh, remember, he gave Pettis that really tough fight at the beginning, and then Pettis kind of came back. But you can see he wasn't totally out. I mean, when Pettis got going, you could tell he was a lot better.

But early on, Morneau had enough smarts to, like, really take the fight to him, and that played well early. He just has to be able to last. I'm not going to let you go any further in the show, Luke, without addressing the Diego Sanchez interview he did with Anthony Smith and was it RJ Clifford? RJ Clifford was the host.

That's your old stomping ground. This interview got a lot of mileage. I haven't listened to it, but I've read some of the poll quotes, and basically it's Diego Sanchez saying outright, don't be surprised if I show up dead in the next two years and it will be the UFC's doing. Are you allowed to say that a lot? He's got problems.

You know, we want him to say. Honestly, dude, we should have a conversation about this for just a second. Like, I'm really not sure how to cover Diego because we can sit here and do this shit all day with the stuff he and his people say. We know it's crazy. So you want more Jake Paul, less Josh Fahby on this show? I don't think it's an either-or.

But seriously for a second, dude, how do you cover somebody who appears to be lost in the sauce a little bit? And I'm trying to say that as nicely as I can. You kind of have to just say it for what it is. It's not really worth piecemealing the individual claims anymore it's more about i mean the thing is there's no one in his life giving him good good advice like this is gonna get way fucking worse it will and i think he's just like a unique character in this sadly that i mean he said crazy shit back when the days were good too so right um yeah this is sort of wild um ali ali ali ab, Ali Abdelaziz, excuse me, has tweeted apparently that Colby Covington has the chance to make himself the number one contender after Nate versus Leon was postponed.

Now, it wasn't postponed very much. They pushed it back about a month. What the hell's going on in the title picture? Didn't Dana say Colby's next? Yeah. And he defended it at the press conference after the fight. Yes. After Usman's last fight.

Yes. And then, then suddenly, uh, Kamaru was like, I don't think he deserves it. I understand Kamaru's point. He's like, these guys need to show me something. If you're Kamaru, what did Colby do? He beat a Tyron Woodley that you had already beat. Granted, he did it by finishing him, so I guess it was a little bit more

authoritative, but he did enough at the time to render himself relevant, plus it's a bigger fight you can make for money. But I understand his point. Like, I've beaten all these guys. In fact, remember, you can say what you want about the stoppage, but Kamaru did stop him and was on the way to winning that fifth round

cleanly no matter what. Why do I have to fight these guys again when there could be other interesting names out there? He's just waiting for another. I think, honestly, here's what I think. I think if Vittori wins at 185, he's going to want a piece of that. Wow, so he's looking really to

double down on his, you know, the peak of his powers right now at age 33. Dude, here's what it looks like, though. Last thing on this. Dude, who's he chasing at this point? Hughes? No, he's chasing St. Pierre at this point. You've got to go up and get a belt in another weight class to do that. I mean, that would be a, again, a monster power move.

It just doesn't look great when you say Colby doesn't deserve it. Colby's the guy who nearly beat him, right? Colby's the guy who pushed him, the only guy who's been competitive enough to actually push him the damn limit before getting stopped in that fifth round. So I think if it was somebody that didn't bring any marketability for him to, you know, I get that he's just coming off a rematch that didn't need to happen against Masvidal, and he handled his business, meaning Usman, in a big way. But, you know, he didn't necessarily, like, love that fight.

This is an opportunity for it to be a much more competitive fight, though. I get saying, well, maybe we should do Michael Chiesa and stay busy, but as much as I love Mike the Mav, people don't want that fight. They want this fight, and if Dana's behind it, it's going to happen, right? I agree. I agree. I tend to think, well, I mean, when these guys, you have to understand something. Like, when these managers and these fighters go out, and it's not just Ali, it's any of them, any of them, and they say that's who we want or what we're going to do, you know, it's not that they're not telling the truth. They are telling you what they feel.

It's a chess move. Right. It's a chess move. It's a way to put pressure and create conversation and prime the pump for direction that they want the UFC to ultimately go. But that's really what they're trying to do is get outside factors to influence UFC's decision making around this. Now, yes, fighters can turn it down, but if you're a champion, you know, there's I mean, if you're going to pass up on the Colby fight, you need to have a good reason for that. If there were another contender that really stood out, and I do think Chiesa is close. I do think he's close, but not over the hump yet

to be the number one contender. I don't want it to look like Kamaru is ducking Colby because I don't think he is. I don't think he is either. Kamaru, dude, he's my number one palm for palm fighter in the world. He's at such a great position right now. I just don't want to see any missteps there.

Just be honest, right? We always tell Dana, just be honest, and we'll judge you on the result of that. Don't make us have to believe and assume that you're up to no good here. So wouldn't you want him to just say what she said before? I'm never fighting my brother Adesanya, but hey, if Adesanya loses, I'm coming in there. Klitschko brother style to fix that. Right.

I think he definitely has a design, but I don't think he ever wants to fight Adesanya, which you can understand. Derek Brunson has apparently, at least he claims to have, agreed to a fight with Darren Till. Where are you on a Till versus Brunson fight? It's okay. I like it. I like it more than I don't like it. I'll tell you. I don't like the fight in the sense

that the fight itself wows me. I like the fight in what it would say about the winner. It's valuable for the winner in either case would say about the winner it's valuable for the winner in either case either Till beating Brunson who I think a lot more would agree in the way he beat Shabazzian for example

and then Kevin Holland much more disciplined doesn't make as many mistakes if Brunson is able to keep that up and beat Till you have to respect what that reformation might mean on the other hand if Till gets out there and can stop a guy who is reformed

to a degree, like Brunson, it would say a lot of good things about the abilities of the winner. It's just that the fight itself wouldn't necessarily excite me. Well, it also slows the role to the idea that Darren Till gets an extra boost from the UFC in terms of opportunities, right?

You know, this is the kind of one where this would be him earning a step closer to the title rather than being put in a spot where if he wins, he might be the next title challenger. This is a hugely important fight, you would agree, but in terms of pomp and circumstance, very lunch pail kind of, but could be good. Hey, speaking

of Edmund Shabazzian, who spent the last year as the bassist in that band Edmund and the Head Movements, he's back Saturday. System of a down? Yes, yes. And by the way, Ocho Cinco, is this going to be on the Showtime Mayweather poll card? Yes, on the undercard of the pay-per-view,

a four-round exhibition bout for Chad Johnson or Chad Ocho Cinco, who he's been wanting to do this for a while. Is he going to fight a pre-diabetic gas station attendant? Who's he going to fight there? I don't know. But I was actually hoping for more from Anne Eson Gibb, Anne Eson Gibb, the British YouTuber and rapper who lost, or did he lose to Jake Paul in Jake Paul's debut?

I didn't even know who he was. I was just saying words. I was expecting more firepower for him to come back at you, maybe start a war against Armenians or something, right? I don't think anyone wants to do that. I will say this. Did you know, did you know today in the second leg of the Champions League semifinals

Real Madrid plays Chelsea? I bring it up, BC, because did you know Chad Ochocinco is a monster Real Madrid fan to the point for being sport? He has done sideline reporting at Real Madrid games in Madrid. Did you know that? You want to go to the Waterbury Open on Saturday?

Yeah, I'll meet you there. Connecticut, Spain. Connecticut, Spain. Also, Luke. Connecticut is the boil on my ass. Felix Verdejo, that's a bad story. Oh, God. What do you want to say about that?

I just want to say that we know what happened. There's not much we can really say about it, but he was denied bail. He's the 27-year-old fighter who's under contract with Top Rank. It's an insane story. In Puerto Rico, the lightweight who looked to be the next big thing then had some hiccups. He has been charged with murder? He's been charged with

kidnapping that led to murder. He's been charged with murder. He's been charged with weapon... And his mistress who had approached him. No, it was his girlfriend. Well, okay, but who had approached him and his wife and said that she was pregnant. And there was talk about it. It's so crazy.

I mean, he even shot her body after throwing her in the water. Allegedly. The details are as disturbing as you can freaking imagine. This is basically a movie, a sick movie. The only thing for fans to think about here is if he's guilty of these crimes, then, you know, by the way, if found guilty, it's a federal charge. The feds don't lose murder cases.

So I think he's boxed his last round. And they expedited this quickly. Quickly, yeah. Well, what happened was the guy who helped him do it turned on him. Yes, that is true. So, again, allegedly did it. Just like I will turn on you one day. I'm sure.

I have no doubt you're a snitch. I am Canadian. Or at least half. I will turn on you one day. I'm sure. I have no doubt you're a snitch. I am Canadian. Or at least half. I will say this, BC. The details are so heinous. It's one of those crimes that shocks your conscience. The only thing I would ask you about is, obviously top rank has so many irons in the fire,

losing Verdejo is not necessarily calamitous in any kind of way. But is there any way for folks to understand, is there an MMA equivalent? What did he represent for top rank in the division he competed in? How good was he? There was a season where he was in, look, there's a gap right now in Puerto Rican boxing for the star of the moment.

Who's the biggest Puerto Rican boxer right now? Well, there is none at the moment. Berlanga? Berlanga's rising. You always had your Benitez, your Cotto, your Trinidad, whoever it was at the moment. He was really anointed to be that next guy. And it's not like top rank wasn't already transitioning away from him

and realized, look, he's had two losses, both by stoppage. The second one to Nakatani, the guy that Lomaf is going to fight next, he had that fight in his hands, and he got stopped late. So he's already kind of been a disappointment in a project gone south. But, you know, at his original peak and being propped up, good God, he was like the next giant big thing. And when you're the next, when you become anointed by the fans of a nation like Puerto Rico, which has such a deep-rooted passion in this sport,

I mean, it means everything. I don't think there's an MMA equivalent, Luke. I mean, I really don't, you know. Like, you know, unless there's going to be some young Brazilian phenom rising up and then everybody's talking about him, and maybe that's fan base comparison-wise, there's that same passion. But, no, it's just I don't even want to talk about, you know, his career. I don't want to talk about it.

So let's move on, Luke. Last but not least, thank you. I appreciate that. Last but not least, PFL is back, BC, and they have an event tomorrow night. Kayla Harrison competes on it as part of the women's lightweight tournament. And then at heavyweight... Did you know she has adopted her niece and nephew?

We had that on our interview on MK. We talked about this. That's why that was funny. Yeah, but it's an old joke. We've done it already. You don't have to do it again. And Fabricio Verdum is on. Level of interest in this.

I'm going to give PFL the benefit of the doubt because those first two shows of this season, again, I told you I'm kind of becoming a PFL fan. They're doing something right so far, and there is enough name recognition and star power to get me in the building. I love watching Kayla Harrison fight. Verdum in the main event is interesting.

Who is his opponent? Henen Fajera. Is this a winnable fight for him? Ferreira is a guy, believe it or not, in a Brazilian biopic about somebody else. A biopic? A biopic, yes, as you incorrectly call it. In the biopic, Ferreira played Fabricio Verdum. Did you know that?

Isn't that weird? Really? That's wild. That's full circle, right? Also on that card, this is the most important fight on that card, if you ask me. It's not the Kayla Harrison versus Mariana Moraes fight. The brother of Kamar Usman,

who's a heavyweight, Mohamed Usman, is on this card. What do you know about his game? How's his game? He is a lot like his brother. He's all pressure forward. He has a different body type. You know, Francis looks a little bit like, body type-wise, looks a little bit like body type wise nobody looks like Francis

well you know I mean both bricked up not a lot of fat on him his brother is a little bit more like I would say lineman than linebacker but still all athlete a little more Art Jones than Chandler how about that a little more Art Jones than Chandler but

very athletic very good top prospect trains at Sanford MMA. Definitely one to keep your eye on there with him as well. And then Cindy Dandois, it takes on Caitlin Young, who's a longtime pioneer. Caitlin Young was one of my first interviews back in, like, 2006. She was an MMA pioneer at the time. She's still competing. Was an Invicta matchmaker for a time. I don't know if she still does it or not, but she's been a good fighter for a long time there as well.

All right? Okay, BC. I think with that, it is time. I don't know if she still does it or not, but she's been a good fighter for a long time there as well. Okay, BC, I think with that it is time. Oh, here we go. Ad read. Which camera do I look into? Do I look into this one? You're supposed to make these feel natural, as if, Luke, you're just sharing an opinion with the people. Okay, ready? Natural AF. The Champions League is close to crowning a champion.

With the second leg of the semifinals this week, Brian Campbell, the K. Golasso podcast provides previews, recaps, analysis, and betting tips for Champions League and Europa League, which is like the NIT of Europe. Listen in as the team chats with UEFA team insiders to give their picks on which team takes home the Champions League title. Could they put team in there more? Follow K. Golasso wherever you find this podcast.

All right, very good. What show are we here for? Okay, got it. Yes, we're here for the Bellator MMA Showtime Podcast, which is what this show is called. Alright, Luke, let me slide over so the Showtime thing gets more view from the people here. I'm going to close this now and... It's time. I don't know

what's about to happen here. So here's the deal folks. Not only is this the best segment in all of combat sports every Wednesday, the wheel of death. Why do we do this? Because Luke Thomas can be a flaming prick when it comes to things being on the rundown or not. His

producer credit he approves. So I provide 10 categories and 5 spins of the wheel, Luke, to get good faith answers to decently faith written questions. This time though, because you've complained, I want to spin that wheel. Yes.

I want to have a chance to pick a category. That's right. Which I've worked that in. We have. The people here are great people of Show Malka have given us. Now, I requested a Gracie Brothers train to deliver this thing in. They're not going to do that. They're not going to do that.

Everybody in a row. I said it had to be male-female alternating. I thought that was fair. Please don't get us fired. Okay. Hey, here's Showtime's Matt Snyder. Let's bring him in here. All right.

This is the guy that makes it happen for us. So, Luke, you may see this wheel has 14 spots as opposed to 10. One of them takes up two spots. So we have some bonus. You know on Wheel of Fortune you can get bankrupt, lose a turn, whatever? Yes, yes. The bonus ones are Luke Choice. If you hit that, you get to pick a category.

Okay. So when I pick that, I can pick other categories here? Yes. Okay. A bonus category is Apologize to Jay and also Watch Jay Dance. So 10 categories. Luke, for the first time ever, you will actually get what you freaking get here.

Oh, let me read that. Can I read the 10 categories? Okay. All right. Hold on. Let me just. I like how you wrote them on with your fucking chicken scratch. Okay.

Here we go. Our 10 categories for this week's Wheel of Death are Trevor, Never Met Her, Libyan Plutonium. They don't have any. Bad Moon Risen, So Much Showgirls. The Cosell of MMA. Oh, God. Ketchup Popsicles.

Welter Skelter. Keeping Her Off the Pole. Oh, God. Fuck. Dana White. These fruit flies. Dana White was never my friend. And everyone's favorite taking up two spots on the wheel this week.

Impromptu improv, Luke. Yes. Ashley, could you bring in more fruit flies? I don't have enough here. Okay, Luke, if you would spin your first spin. Five spins. Apparently, according to this sign, I have to spin clockwise in order for this to work. So let's try this.

Ready? Yep. Give a manly spin, okay? Like Price is right here. I didn't put a whole lot into it. What's that? Impromptu. Impromptu improv.

Oh, fuck. All right. Hey, I need more flies landing on my face. This is not enough. Where are we? Mogadishu? Come on. Where's the full?

Good job on this, BC. You're really, this thing is moving along. It's moving along great. Hang with me here. I'll find it. Could you be redder? You are turning into the red of the MMA sign behind you. Violet, I'm feeling violet, Violet.

Yeah, okay. Here we go, Luke. I'm almost there. I like this dead air. All right. We have picks that we'll associate with this, but here's my long preamble, Luke. All right.

This one is about respecting our champions, those who have bled and sweat for our entertainment. If this is something I have to do where I have to talk to Joanna, you can cram it. You can cram it. In this wild world of professional MMA journalistic. I hate you. That goes for you too, Luke.

That goes for the most decorated UFC women's strawweight champion. You're so fucking predictable. In the history of the free world, you'll want a champion. So, Luke, as you saw this week, she posted pics, Luke, of

a gnarly gash she suffered during training. In fact, you texted me with a very mean response and if you really think about it luke the recent rise in the celebrity gets paid to talk to a fan scam it with was what we call cameo um and how hilariously people use it to set to say things to celebrities that they wouldn't normally say lu Luke, okay? Yeah. Here we go. They just want your money at the end of the day. So let's imagine Luke Thomas created his own cameo account.

Why? Because little boy blue, Luke, he needed the money. Fucking phenomenal. Luke, imagine one young Baltic MMA fan who saw Ioana's IG, saw the injury, had a bad day because of it, and wanted you, prominent MMA journalist Luke Thomas, who has his own cameo page, to record a message giving the former champion encouragement during this tough time physically. For this week's impromptu improv, Luke, look into the camera, and you have 60 seconds or less to deliver that cameo message to Joanna.

Jay, can we play the pictures first so the people know what the hell we're talking about? I don't want to tell you how to direct the show, though. Oh, and final thing, the young Baltic fan who sent in the paid for the cameo, Brian C. from Factory Town MMA. Jay, can you put the

pictures up? I'm not doing 60 seconds. You might get six seconds. Jay? Jay doesn't have pictures. This segment is going very well. That's great. Luke, cameo video from a young Baltic fan. Please send an encouragement to Ioana Champion

for that gash she suffered during training. Let me ask you a question. Into your ISO camera. Hold on, hold on. So who, I'm recording it, who is the customer? The young Baltic MMA fan, and his name is Brian C. So I'm addressing it to Brian C? No, you're addressing it to Ioana Champion.

For Brian C? No, for the world, Luke, okay? That's not how a cameo works. That's how it can work. I've done it. Go ahead, Luke. Please ruin this segment more. I don't want to do this. right uh the iso cam yep here we go

just to be clear i'm only i'm only doing this because there's a gun to my head metaphorically I'm never going to like you, but I don't wish anything bad. So, get good healthcare treatment for your ailments so that I don't have to do shit like this anymore. Go Rose, go Whaley. Wow. Go the rest of that division.

Well, Luke, since this is your life this week, we actually have her. Can we connect the Skype on Zoom so he can deliver the... Luke, I'm just kidding, okay? Alright, spin number two, Luke. Let's see if we don't get shut down before this. Alright, here we go. Ready? This is kind of weird because I have to backhand it.

These are not good. These are not good. Another one. Can I spin that again? Spin it again, Luke. That's bullshit. Here we go. Unless you want to call it this time. Luke's choice.

Oh, boy. Here we go, Luke. You get to pick any category you want. This is your dream. Jesus, fuck. Spin number two here of the wheel of death this week um uh let's do ketchup popsicles that should be stupid okay here we go luke the fight promotion game at its very core is sales and manipulation of the general public into an emotional financial response right like tomm Tommy Callahan's dad and Tommy Boy, who, by the way, could sell a ketchup popsicle

to a woman wearing white gloves. Yeah. The devil is in the details, Luke, when soliciting interest. In some ways, the June 6th Floyd Mayweather Logan Paul pay-per-view sells itself, right, Luke? Simply given the combined star power, the contrasting audiences,

and the fact that there are more people in this country who love carnival train wrecks than we realize at times. Okay? So here we go. All right. Considering this isn't a fight most believe will be remotely competitive beyond the spectacle of it, how would you present this matchup if Showtime and Mayweather Promotions hired you to be the marketing

and PR director behind the scenes? What would be the ideal attitudes taken by the fighters during the pre-show interviews and promotions? And what would be the perfect tagline and strategy to get people to buy this paper? I would encourage Logan Paul to go full heel slash racial with it. Oh, wow. Not because...

Hold on a second. Hold on a second. Hold on a second. Why are our show talking people walking off the set right now? I mean, this is great. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It's not real. I only say that not because that's an actual thing you should do,

but because it would be nice if someone behind the scenes sabotaged Logan Paul's career. You know what I'm saying? The guy got pretty close with the guy in the tree in his video, and I thought, for sure, this will be the end of him on broader society. But I was wrong, and it didn't go that way. Good news, they've asked if they can remove the Showtime branding from the sign now.

I'm not being serious, for crying out loud. No, but look, let's be honest here. All right, all right. What's a way you could actually sell the fight as a way? So what's the goal here? Give me a as a way? So what's the goal here? Give me a convincing buy-in. That's the goal here, a convincing buy-in. Who?

A convincing buy-in. I mean, famous guy versus famous guy is going to sell, right? We know it. Right. If you hate Logan Paul, this is going to sell. If you love Floyd Mayweather, this is probably going to sell. But you've got to try to hook that general audience for that big inflated number. Honestly, I don't know.

I'm like trying to rack my brain about it. Do you play up Floyd's age? Logan's size? Or do you just make it a hate fest? A good trash talk war. The trash talk, definitely. McGregor did that, and it worked to spectacular effect to sell it yes but the problem is mcgregor was like super awesome at it honestly here's what you do you know how those youtube stars always do like rap diss tracks and stuff like that

i feel like if you're logan paul you actually got to hire your brother. Because I got to tell you, of the two, Logan actually seems like a little bit quieter, a little bit more serious, a little bit, I think he's older too, right? So I think with that, yeah, he's not the guy. You got to unleash the forces of his brother to start making taunt videos. To start being like you're a fish. You know how guys have like a hype man you got to have him as the hype man he's got to be the one just spraying the block with all the insults and what we know whatever path he wants to go down because i wouldn't go the race route no i'm obviously not being serious um but i don't know how because he can't be the one

you guys someone else has to do the dirty work and the funny work for him, like these fruit flies. Alright, Luke. Spin number three coming up. Go for it. This is going quite well. Can you get a good one this time? A good spin? Alright, hold on. There we go. A little harder than it looks. Which one did we get here? Libby and Plutonium. Libby and Plutonium, alright.

Alright, here we go. Luke, it's only fitting that on the day our trusty and shamed former producer Jay Aaron makes a triumphant return to MK, that we would have a question based on the film Back to the Future, given Jay's fantastic back-in-time documentary that's available now on Hulu, by the way. But imagine, if you can, suddenly having access to hopping into the DeLorean for MMA analyst purposes only, grabbing the gray sports almanac and going back in time to be able to have called a major MMA upset ahead of time

on the Luke Thomas show that, in theory, we should have seen coming. So, like, every analyst dreams of this. I used to work with Dan Rayfield at ESPN. He always tells people that he called Hasim Rahman to knock out Lennox Lewis in their first fight. That's a great call, right? You can retire on that one, okay, Luke?

So given that, not every upset is obviously the same. Some like Matt Serra's TKO of GSP in 2007 have gone down in history as more of an aberration or a mistake than something top pronosticators missed. Serra, for example, would go on to win just one more fight, Luke,

before retiring, and then becoming best friends with Dana and getting in the UFC Hall of Fame with an 11-7 record. Conversation for another time. But other major MMA upsets were there before our eyes the whole time to have been uncovered. We only missed them. Forget for a second how much of an

old bitch you are about making predictions. If you could hop into the time machine with Doc Brown and go back and have called a major MMA upset ahead of time, one that we should have seen coming, which one would it be? An MMA upset we should have seen coming. That is an interesting one. And a big

one too. Can't be a small one, right? Big one. Gotta be like a historic one. When we get fired, we're gonna get fired big. Hmm. Honestly, I... Who should we have seen coming? There's a simple answer. I don't know if you're going to reach for it.

Probably Rousey and Holly. There it is. That's the one. That's the one that all of us had blinders on that we probably should not have. Peaky blinders? I've never seen that show. I heard it's good.

Have you seen it? No. I'm told... I. Have you seen it? No. I'm told, I mean, if you go back at the time, I understand why, and again, I didn't see it coming, so this is hindsight being 2020, but if you go back at the time, there was not enough evidence to conclude that someone who could stick and move like

Holly, why would she automatically not have success? We just assumed Miranda would be able to grab a hold of her, and then you immediately realized, oh my god, there's like a yawning gap. We didn't take into account her physical strength, Holly Holm. That, too. And she was an experienced athlete as well. So was Sarah McMahon.

But, you know, she took the knee to the liver. So, yeah, it's got to be Holly versus Ronda. There were some unanswered questions about Ronda's resume that we not only didn't answer, we covered it up with myth. Don't you remember when Edmund Tarverdian did some of the media scrums from his own gym, and he was like, oh, she's knocking out WBC champs in sparring? Yes, yes. And we were just like, oh, yeah, her boxing is just all of a sudden the best.

But in reality, there's that gif where she's like. Yeah, and don't you remember? She was on the cover of Ring Magazine with an MMA glove in one hand and a boxing glove in the other. Yeah, that was a little shameful. That's a little shameful. Hey, listen, boxing is nothing if opportunistic. But MMA fans, and excluding some media, not that we believed it all the way,

but we kind of let it affect our thinking a little bit. So yeah, probably that one. Probably that one. It would have been Gustafson over Jones if he had won that fight. Oh, good call. But he didn't win it, so at the end of the day. Luke's spin number four. Here we go. All right, here we go. Spin number four. I don't know if this is a r fight. Oh, good call. But he didn't win it, so at the end of the day. Luke's spin number four.

Here we go. All right, here we go. Spin number four. I don't know if this is a raving success or just raving. I wish this was the wheel of Spud. No, we've got to do another one. You don't want Luke's choice again? You know, I feel like in the spirit of the game,

while these things fall off because they weren't screwed in properly. Can you trap a few of the fruit flies in there? You can spin it either way. Oh, that's much better. Oh, that was easy. That's much better. Problem is, though, Luke, if you get something you've already gotten, I mean, it's a delay.

It's a little more dramatic this way. Oh! I got keep her off the pole. Oh, Jesus, fuck. Is this going to be about my daughter, you creep? Contrary to popular belief, Luke, not every wheel of death question needs to be absurd or designed to put you in an uncomfortable position.

I don't believe that. Sometimes we actually get wholesome around these parts. Luke, if people don't know already by watching our second documentary, you're a very dedicated father. I am. Like Kobe, R.I.P., you're a self-proclaimed girl dad. I guess so, yes. Who would love nothing more than to raise his daughter right

and figuratively keep her off the pole, right? Jesus fucking Christ. So with that in mind, Luke, what are the three most important life lessons or characteristics that you are actively trying to raise up in your daughter as she absorbs being raised by you, aside, of course, from all the profound ways in which you will screw her up just by being yourself. Yes.

I mean, I definitely will pass down all my pathologies to her, so there's that. Three most important things you aim to instill as a parent. Okay, one, got to be work ethic. I think, I won't say most problems in life will be solved with work ethic, but a lot of them. A lot of them can be solved. And not just like I'm willing to do a lot of work, but like the kind of skills that go into making meaningful work, like organizational skills, time management, that kind of a thing. So I'll say work ethic.

That's one. Two, I will say, you know, you got to make time for happiness in this world. What are things that make you happy? Do you like to dance? Chase your passions, maybe? Okay, but like some people, this is true, you got to acknowledge this. Some people don't want their passions to be their hobby. If she does, fine.

But like you got to embrace things in this world. Life is short, dude. There are people in my own house who have not embraced my turn to art. Well, you know, you are like Coco the gorilla finger painting. It's more just a curiosity that a primate of your level has the coordination skills and the color management to get that right. I'm thinking about working on that large Native American fellow over there. That is a good. I would say, yeah, making, you know, not like you have to be hedonistic about it, but just understanding the role that things that bring you joy in this life and not losing sight of that.

Yes. And I think... If you don't find the pole position of joy in your life, the pole will find you. Can we not talk about the pole and my two-year-old daughter? Would that be okay with you? The last thing I would say is you have to honor where you come from. You cannot lose sight of that. I think that the fact that she

is American is important and she will not lose sight of it, but her mother is Colombian and she will not lose sight of that either. She will speak Spanish because when she goes to Colombia, she is going to speak to a bunch of people who don't speak English. And the reality is you can't have a deeper relationship

with your family if you are impeded by a language barrier. That's a real thing. If you want to have a relationship with your aunts and uncles in a place where you have many of them, you should be able to talk to them and you should understand that world. You should understand their customs. You should understand that you come from that too. Can we understand their customs. You should understand that you come from that too.

Can we play the full house slow music in the background? That's why her name is what her name is. We didn't give her a name like Jessica. We gave her a name like Violeta because... You're just dropping bombs on all Jessicas out there. Well, it's a fine name, but it wouldn't tell you that she necessarily had... She has American roots, so she has my last name,

but she has her wife's roots, so she has a Hispanic name. You're like, we would have named her Ashley or Courtney or the name of anybody else on this staff. Yeah, two boring-ass fucking names that no one wants. Wow. Wow, all right. For folks who don't know, there's an Ashley here who's tolerable. There's a Courtney here who's great.

That's not nice at all. Okay, thank you very much. This is Luke, who HR is going to have a conversation with. Yes. No, I enjoyed that. It was very nice and sweet of Okay. Thank you very much. And this is Luke, who HR is going to have a conversation with. Yes. No, I enjoyed that. That was very nice and sweet of you, Luke. Don't forget.

That's why I'm starting up Factory Town MMA, because I may live in a cushy Connecticut suburb now, but I didn't always live there. Hey, you know how the PI is like the Performance Institute for UFC? Can Front Yard Jim be the PI of Factory Town MMA? That's pretty good, right? That is pretty good. That is pretty good. Final spin, Luke.

You're going to get what you're going to get here. All right, here we go. Yeah, this was much better. I should have been doing this from the beginning. I kept spinning it the wrong way. We can do this every weekend. Okay, now it's taking a little longer. Can't wait for it to land on something we've already done, Luke.

Oh, what's it say? Bad moon risen. All right. Rising. Your something we've already done, Luke. Oh, what's it say? Bad moon risen. All right. Your final spin of the week, Luke. And nothing short of a good faith response. Provide for me a top five pound for pound list of the best MMA fighters in the world right now, currently not in the UFC. Oh, shit.

Okay. Jesus, that's hard. I put Pitbull. Fred A is number one. Patricio. Okay. Jesus, that's hard. I put Pitbull. Fred A is number one. Patricio. Yeah. Demetrius Johnson. Well, he lost, so you got to give credit to the guy who beat him.

Yeah, so he can't be number two, Luke. Marais. He took a number two against that guy. Let me think out loud here. Hold on. Best ones ever. No, no, no. Right now.

Right now. Right now. Who? Keep in mind, Douglas Lima, Vadim Nemkov. Keep in mind. Currently not in UFC. So you've got, yeah, Nemkov's up there. Do you want to say Kayla Harrison?

Well, that's why I was going to ask you, because female-wise, you can certainly make separate rankings with Cyborg, Kayla Harrison. Kayla Harrison, yeah. But are they in the top five of any gender in your eyes here right now? Of the spirit of this question? Maybe Cyborg, just by virtue of the resume. If you're going to do women separately, for sure they're on the list. You know, you could put Lima on that list.

You could put, who are some good guys that PFL has? Rory McDonald. He looked good in his last fight. I might put him on there. The one, Christian Lee, their lightweight champ over at one, he looks good. He's good in his last fight. I might put him on there. The one, Christian Lee, their lightweight champ over at one, he looks good. He's a real talented guy. Are there any big

heavyweights out there that we're not thinking of? I'm trying to think on the regional... Joey Beltran and BKFC? No. I don't know if that's top five. No. I'm just excited for his new relationship with Bretton Hart. And honestly, you could even, I mean, we'll see what happens,

but maybe Rumble? Maybe? I mean, I don't know how that's going to, that's the part about it, it's like I don't really know, I expect him to look really good on Friday, but I don't know that he, maybe, I don't know, I don't know. So, Luke, interesting first experiment with the wheel this time. Yes, I went the wrong way.

I was trying to go this way, and it fucking sucked. We didn't get apologized to Jay or anything like that. You know, it's hard, Luke. The more we do this in person, I'm going to put ten questions on there, and you get what you get. Some are wild, some are random, whatever. But it is what it is. Thank you, folks.

Thank you very much. All right, you want to finish the show with the fan subs? Morningcombat at gmail.com is the correct email to let your voice be heard, let your face be heard, whatever you want to create and put it on the show. We'll run it. It's called Fan Submission. All right, Luke, we begin with Guterf. And he says, guys, why can we not watch Bellator in Austria?

We go tip to tip as hard as anyone! Jay, can you put the fan sub up so we can react to it? I can't see. Can you blow it up? Jay, you're going to have to blow these things up. As these two idiots touch feet? Jay, if you can blow a little bit more, please. I mean. That made that one? I don't know.

And that's why they're toasting it? No, I think they're just toasting the fact that they're watching the show together. Touching feet like weirdos? Okay. They go hard tip, tip, tip, tip. They go bunion to bunion here. Yeah, tip to tip. Okay. They go bunion to bunion here. Yeah, tip to tip. Okay.

Fungi to fungi. Second one is from Gorilla God, and he says, Love the show. Gets me through my factory work and workouts, and I love the super comfy morning combat shirt. Oh, dude, he's got a nice setup. Can't wait to order more merch. Shout out to Luke and Brian from a factory town in Ohio.

Let's zoom in on his setup there, Jay, if you don't mind. He's got a flat bench He's got an adjustable bench, pull-up bar He's got some hex rubber dumbbells He's got in the back there, you know There's MK on the TV He's got an air conditioner In the wall, it looks like

My man, he's got a cooler up there With some lunch Did you see the Netflix documentary, Tread About that guy that went crazy and built an armored tank and drove it over the buildings in his Colorado town? No. His setup looked a lot like this guy's, so I'd watch out for this guy.

But thank you. There's weird people out there. Thank you, Gorilla God, for sliding in here. Steve B. has a Luke in Yuri Prohotska meme ready. Before TRT, after. Yeah, I might have to get those dreadlocks. Yep. Forget the dreadlocks.

This was 2016. Yeah, look at my beard. It wasn't nearly as. For the purpose of this show, would you go on a TRT cycle? Sure. But it could give you bitch titties. Okay, good, Luke. Okay.

It's a risk I wanted to take at this point. Wow, wow. Okay. All right. Actually, wanted to take at this point. Wow. Wow. Okay. All right. Actually, I don't know. The TRT wouldn't really necessarily do that. They don't give you the kind of dosage for that. They don't give you the Belfort package?

Yeah. I don't think they give you the all-out hose you down sauce. It's more regimented. Would you wear the mohawk if you got cut on TRT? That's not a mohawk. No, the 2013 VTOR. That was a mohawk plus a met, plus like a fade, plus he had like five haircuts at once.

Yeah, that was fantastic. All right. Our next one is from CA. He says, BC's do-rag turned face mask reminded me of the 2000 film Hollow Man. I don't get it. On the left kind of looks like the right, right? Hooded sweatshirt, sunglasses.

Sure. Okay. That's a bad bit. No, I kind of liked it. Jason A. Is this Jason Aaron? He says, what's going on, fellas? Jay here from Boston.

Paying my respects to the MK curse today. Here is Papa Shango, a.k.a. Papa Campbell, with his lucky shrunken head of future lightweight champion Kevin Lee. We haven't cursed Kevin Lee. Is this a wrestling? Yeah, that's Papa Shango. You don't remember that guy? No.

He became the godfather. How did you go to be that? Why are you so jaundiced in that pic? I think that's just my natural look, unfortunately. Jason A. has a second one where he says, here is LT making a sacrifice to curse all future opponents of Anthony Smith. You know, you got to pray to the gods in the way they deserve to be prayed to. One more from Jason A.

Here is Shaman LT in Young, B.C. down in the M.K. Basement crypt plotting their next mark. There's been a lot of talk, Luke, about who's next. What scene is this actually? Is that Goonies? I don't know. Alright. I have to poop. Luke, who are we going to target next? I don't know. Are there more of these?

Yeah, there's more Phantom missions. Oh yeah, I'll see them then. You really have to go that bad? No, no, I'm kidding. Sort there more of these? Yeah, there's more fans of Michigan. Oh, yeah, I'll see them then. You really have to go that bad? No, no, I'm kidding. Sort of. All right, Ricky says, Hello, gents. Here is a Ghoulies poster inspired by MK episode 148. Due to my amateur computer skills,

this thing took long hours to make. Ha ha, I see you soon. The goat dentist. Donkley's. And at the bottom it reads, A Too Flush Production. Starring Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell available exclusively on Betamax.

With Pat Berry's motivation written on the front of the toilet. You are the best motherfucker ever. I am the best. I am the best. Commode Monster? Yes, you're the best Commode Monster. Alright, thank you for that Ghoulies memory. A lot of people had

a tough time growing up thinking that as they shit, somebody was going to, you know. Well, I can confidently assure you I was not one of them. Were you crowning like the, are you right now crowning like the King of England? I've got a tortoise in my rear end. Just. I mean, really, in hindsight, guys,

it's probably not even in the top ten of most offensive moments today, but it really grows from there. I've got a tortoise. Okay. Ricky says, no, that was Ricky. Jose A., hey, Donks, I made this fan art of the original MK with the MK family. Love the show, and I hope you guys enjoy it.

Much love from Brazil. That's funny. That's funny. That is great. Old school. I got the Kano treatment. I like that. Look at Sugar in the middle there. Yeah. That's funny. That's funny. Oh, that is great. Old school. I got the Kano treatment. I like that. Look at Sugar in the middle there.

Yeah. That's nice. That's nicely done. I like Chuck's hat. That is great. He's raiding. That is fantastic. The brawn is what they call brawnsteader.

Got the all Canada bracket on the top right. Wow. You got to unlock that character. He's hard to pin down, Luke. Okay. Let's go over to at jonah eat world mike bone sure gets the ladies he says mike bond from uh from uh usa today he gets the hogs here this is bc at 4 a.m

i waited my turn at the Chili's bar. Here's where it gets funny. Jonah Eat World is back with another one. Hey, BC, next time in Connecticut, I'll hit you up to get some rounds in a FT MMA. So this is my new graphic designer. By the way, WebSpring is also working on some graphic designs for this, but these are the first ones sent in by Jonah Eat World. What do you think so far?

That's actually pretty good. I see the F and the T there. Dude, that's actually not bad. I mean, Factory Town MMA is building quick. We're going to get the merch way before we get the building. Jay, you want the other ones with the smokestacks? Oh, God. That's not it.

That's not it. That's not it. You don't have the other ones I sent? No, the bottle I mixed. No, you're That's not it. That's not it. That's not it. You don't have the other ones I sent? No, the bottle I mixed. No, you're fast forwarding. Okay. All right. Thanks, Jay. It's great working with you.

It really is. Glad you're back, Jay. It's great. All right. Jonah had a lot more that he sent me. I guess we'll have to see those at another time. All right. Scott M. says, live look at BC's

gym. You don't want this smoke. Is that a bong? What is that? Yeah, I think it's the Olympic torch, right? No, it's a ball and chain, yes. Why do you have a speed bag

in the back that looks like one testicle just drooping lower than the other? Yeah, that is not... That's the a speed bag in the back that looks like one testicle just drooping lower than the other? Drooping low. Yeah, that is not. That's the worst speed bag I've ever seen. I did pop for it, though. Look at the shorts on these guys, too. Okay, let's go over to Todd M.

He's got two. He says, hi, guys. If you ever run out of things to talk about in the MMA world, I think you've already paved the way towards reinventing yourselves. From Todd in San Diego. Jay, can you hit the button now god you look gross you look at that is that ben rothwell's chest look at that hot dog on there that is great i hate that picture i don't know why but i really hate it i hate it too that picture sucks here's the second one from todd. Luke's job. Fuck yeah.

Thomas Fitz, son. That's exactly what my shit looks like right there. I'm not exaggerating. Chain link fence? I don't have the chain link fence. I have a wood fence, but still. Will you go shirtless at all? I got a little work to do before I can confidently do that, but if it would embarrass my daughter,

I might expedite the timeline. Here's a fan-frigging-tastic one. River Kitty Ransom, one of our best IG followers and submitters. He's got a great cat named River, by the way. Okay. Luke, here it is. Traveling to Virginia over the weekend and stopped by the current home of Sigma Pi. No, that's Sigma Pi Delta.

Hold on. Hold on. They put the pictures in the wrong order because Jay's producing today. Oh, that's Sigma Tau Delta, whatever that is? And here, traveling to Virginia, stop by the current home of Sigma Pi at William & Mary to rep MK. Yes, look at that. Is that really in Williamsburg?

And here's the tree that Luke vomited on that time. Can you go to the tree? It's not, but okay. And he says, in case I'm dead wrong, I took a photo in front of the old Sigma Pi building, too. Is this William and Mary? This looks like it, Luke. He went on a research trip in your old stomping grounds and recreated the photos of your famous story.

Sort of. So this looks like, I forgot the Greek lettering. I think that's, is it either Phi Tau or Chi Tau Delta or whatever the fuck it is? The other one was Sigma Pi. It used to be what was called, yeah. So it used to be what was called's called yeah so it used to be what was called uh unit e on on fraternity row i don't know where they are now so i actually don't even know if that's accurate but um but yeah that's what that was at the end there were two lines of fraternity homes we had the last one on the front end unit e right before um right

before the the big stadium what's the story with the uh the tree that you threw up on man i probably pissed and that you threw up on? Man, I probably pissed and shit and threw up on a million trees. I don't know what that one is. Because this guy made a pilgrimage on behalf of MK, holding MK merch to retrace your steps, your path. There's nothing with that tree that I can recall. No.

All right. Well, thank you. But I appreciate him going to Sigma Pi. That was funny. Yeah. That's cool. Probably a bunch of losers there now. But, you. But I appreciate them going to Sigma Pi. That was funny. Yeah. That's cool. Probably a bunch of losers there now, but, you know, what are you going to do? So that was an interesting show we just did, right?

Yeah. You know what today is, by the way? Huh? May 5th. Cinco de Mayo. Yes. Or as my wife would say, Cinco de Mayo. The 14th anniversary of Floyd Mayweather versus Oscar De La Hoya on pay-per-view. Oh, man.

And also the 14th anniversary of my weddingweather versus Oscar De La Hoya on pay-per-view. Oh, man. And also the 14th anniversary of my wedding night. Yeah? Today, my beautiful wife Jen and I, 14 years strong. Is tomorrow going to be the first day of your divorce? How's this going to go? Well, people may say, hey, BC, you're really going to show up in Uncasville,

Connecticut at a... Yeah, I told my wife that. She was surprised you were here. But not only is me getting out of the house a great anniversary gift for my wife, but also, you know, she married a boxing writer. So I've been away at big fights, unfortunately, for for most. Jay, nobody cares. Jay Slottington, that's his mom's birthday. So happy birthday to Jay's mom. But hey, let me say let me say this.

I don't want to, you know, count my chickens before they've hatched. We don't know exactly Jay's mom. Hey, let me say this. I don't want to count my chickens before they've hatched. We don't know exactly what's wrong. My cat had some real health scares last week. Like, hey, BC, I know you were serenading your wife on the biggest day in your marriage's history, but my cat might not make it. Okay, BC, you're not serenading your wife. She's not going to see this. You don't think she supports my work?

No, no, I don't. And if they're anything like my family, they don't either. My wife literally, she goes, wait, why are you going to Connecticut? I'm like, for the Showtime thing. She's like, there's one next week? And I'm like, I've been telling you this for weeks. She's like, oh. And then didn't ask what I was doing here.

Like, I had no clue. No, but my cat was really fucked up. We thought he might die this week. Booger. Booger. Moco. He still might. We don't know exactly what fucked up. We thought he might die this week. Booger. Booger. Moco. He still might. We don't know exactly what's wrong.

Whatever. But he's been on a regimen of medicine and is looking significantly better. So knock on wood. Thoughts and prayers and love out to Booger. Big fan. It's a big booger. I don't want him to die. I don't want him to suck.

You don't want my marriage to end. It's my anniversary and we're celebrating it here, okay? You and I. My other marriage. Are you expecting me to be your wife? My other marriage. I will also not bang you. Come on, that was a good joke!

You stole that from me yesterday. I got dizzy telling it. Oh boy, oh boy. Okay, I feel better. We have a lot more show. How awkward do you think the post-show recap chat with our producer Matt Snyder will be after this? Oh, it's going to be fun. He's going to be...

We saw some steam come out of his ears today. We'll have a shit chat together. But 2.50, so in about an hour and 40 minutes or so from this moment, we're going to be back here. Logan Storley will be with us, but he's only the first of many. We have an entire show. We got Rumble. Rumble's going to be here. I think the champ Archuleta're going to be back here. Logan Storley will be with us, but he's only the first of many. We have an entire show. We got Rumble. Rumble's going to be here. I think the champ Archuleta's going to be here. Patriki Pipple, that savage. I love

that man. So come back here in about an hour and a half, hour and 40 minutes. We're going to have a lot for you. For now, let's see. You want to email the show morningcombat at gmail.com. Easiest place to do that. You want to follow us on social media, you can do that as well. Morning Combat is going to be the name consistently

everywhere. But as you can see, Brian Campbell and I have slightly different names between Twitter and Instagram. If you want to get Showtime, why wouldn't you? You can go to showtime.com. 30-day free trial. If you're ready to take the leap, however, there's your URL. Show.com slash Bellator MMA. $4.99 a month

for the next six months, which is not just the live Showtime, but the entire library of Showtime. You get a lot for it there. Bang for your buck. Thumbs up on the video, hit subscribe. We'll see you back here in about an hour and 40 minutes or so. For Malka Showtime, CBS Sports, Viacom, CBS, Brian Campbell, I'm Luke Thomas. Until about

an hour and a half from now, may all your gains be loyal. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time. you