MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Canelo-Usman Twitter Spat | UFC on ESPN 35 | Stevenson-Valdez | Taylor-Serrano | EP. 295

Episode Date: April 29, 2022

On Episode 295 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian preview a packed weekend of combat sports. The boys preview Shakur Stevenson vs. Oscar Valdez, Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano and UFC Fight Night: Font vs. Vera. The guys also discuss Kamaru Usman and Canelo Alvarez twitter exchange and debate which fighter is correct in their assessment of the others sport. We close out the show with some Stipe Miocic vs. Jon Jones talk and Dead wrong. (10:00) - Canelo-Usman Twitter Spat (28:00) - Shakur Stevenson vs. Oscar Valdez (46:30) - Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano (58:50) - UFC Fight Night: Font vs. Vera (76:50) - Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic 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:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveley, reveveille, dogs. 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.

Oh, yeah. You heard the voice. You see the face. Yes, Friday's for the damn art. April 29th, 2022. There was a riot in the streets. Tell me, where are you? You're right here watching the one and only Morning Combat.

I'm that white guy who just goes, the BBC with the BDE, the damn American alpha, Brian Campbell. You're looking at him right here i'm the reason why you stay watching this show but the reason why you're here is for that ill fella next to me under the weather like tom hanks in philadelphia it's luke thomas i don't know if he was so much under the weather as he was dying um but today BC, on the air after your intro, I'm going to take a COVID test right here live on the air,

and I'll get the results in 15 minutes. Yeah, we need to find out whether you are, in fact, the father or not, Luke, as we get there. Welcome on in, though, to our fantastic show live three days a week, all things mixed martial arts and boxing. And today we set the stage for what should be a fun weekend. We got UFC fight night. We have blockbuster boxing main events,

including the biggest fight in the history of women's pugilism. Can't wait to get into that one. Should be a good one. And also we'll look back briefly at what was another stop on the PFL 2022 journey Thursday night. But look, we'll make you laugh. We'll sell you some shit. Nobody, nobody does it better than we do.

And I mean that at the end of the day. Okay. Thank you. You want 10% off our fantastic merch. You want to wear this hat right here. I encourage you to hit up morningcombat.store. Use our promo code live10. Tell them BC sent you.

Our good friend, RJ Dunkelmaker. He's ready, waiting waiting willing to take your info and send you something beautiful okay support the show so that um really so you can look cool really that's that's it at the end of the day showtime.com will get you 30 free days it's bellator it's boxing it's movies's documentaries, it's everything you would want out of a streaming app. Try it for 30 days free. Then is where you consider fucking off and pounding sand and all that good stuff. But, Luca, some of that business out of the way. And let me prepare you all to say this weekend, though. YouTube.com slash Morning Combat.

Your boy BC is going to give you a Saturday night instant reaction. After all things, Taylor Serrano Chavez. I'm Chavez. Good Lord. Shakur Stevenson, Oscar Valdez. Maybe there'll be a Chavez involved.

So check that out. Like subscribe to what we do, but Luke, you almost, I don't want to say you almost threw in the towel for this one. Oh man. You didn't almost because you're tough. Luke like Michael Jordan in game five of the

97 finals right food poisoning maybe drunk all night yeah that asshole was drunk the flu game you told me look if i was in an office job bc i would not be there today yeah but i have to be center in what is a combat sports podcast revolution that's happening right now. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if I had a Joe job, there's nothing wrong with those. I've had them in the past. If I had one of those, buddy, let me tell you, I would not be here today. But this ain't one of those kinds of careers where you can just say, oh, I don't feel great.

I'm not going to go to work. You kind of have to go to work unless you really can't. And I guess technically I can't. Although I will warn you, I am woefully unprepared and did very little research today because i've been so sick well uh fridays are for the art so let that fuel us and carry us but what i do want to do right now is let the people find out along with us how in fact sick are you luke can you would you prefer um and is this a is this the anal swab luke or is this the would you like me to do the anal swab right on air by the way that is my go-to joke whenever i'm in line for a covid test dude

i've been in line with this jerk face so many times and we get to the front and he goes to the lady who's just you know some health care worker he goes uh you want to drop my pants this is an anal swab i can no no no no no that's not that that's a that's a reckless way i'm gonna start the joke is my friend here was wondering that's the joke luke okay oh yes you pin it on me i forgot about that that's right all right so i got the liquid and the vial which go in here yes let's see i got the swab now you're gonna have to tell me if i went deep enough with the swab well that's probably what she told rocco but i'm gonna need you to go deep here balls deep okay you got to make sure that's a swab on rocco i don't know i mean that's okay i don't need a false positive

here luke okay you can't be half pregnant here i need to find out the truth obviously you can't see what i'm doing my desk so someone could say i'm rigging the results i really i mean i don't care what the results come up as. I'll be honest. So this is the test once the results come in. You put the three drops, and then it comes over here. All right, so let's set this part up, and then I am going to swab my mother effing face.

BC, have you ever administered an at-home COVID test? I know that Miguel Tejada used to take B12 injections in the ass, Luke, and that's why he won the 2002 MVP. But no, I've never given it to somebody else. In terms of COVID tests, I'm more of a power bottom, Luke. I don't even know what that means. All right, here we go. Now, you got to judge me on this, BC.

Am I going deep enough? Now, this is not a huge swab this is about what i don't know four inches ish something like that all right uh maybe three it's a very it's a very familiar length for you luke to be fair right you're a fucking idiot all right here we go ready tell me if i'm deep enough oh boy here we go that's pretty fucking deep i hope tuki comes running in right now luke and you see god at the end oh my god this is great probably deeper look probably probably a little deeper there's blood on it jesus god this is great tv this is why we win awards okay dude my

fucking eyeballs are about to pop out of my skull from that one holy shit all right here we go wow wow all right oh look at that going through all the wreckage and pain and scarring yep find the wow. Yes. Wow, this is weird. Yeah, all right. Fuck me, man. That was deep. All right, now I'm going to put it in here. You got to put it in the wash, so to speak.

Good Lord, dude. That made my eyes water like a motherfucker, man. All right, so now we've done that. Luke, your ability to act like you're the first person ever doing something knows no limits. I love it, Luke. I love it. Dude, that's the first person ever doing something knows no limits. I love it, Luke. I love it. Dude, that's the part of the bit, you dumbass. You think I don't know that?

Hey, BC, the first rule of improv is come on, yeah. All right, so now I got to put three drops on this side, and then we'll see what happens. All right, here we go. I guess you can see. Let's see. All right. Yes, yes, you can. Drum roll, please.

One, two, three, and then one more for good measure. Let's see. All right. Yes, if you can. Drum roll, please. One, two, three, and then one more for good measure. There you go. All right. Now, we have to wait 15 minutes, but I will. Set a timer, Luke. Set a timer. So what time is it now? It's 1109, so 11, what, 24?

Yes. Something like that? Yes. All right, 1124. We we're gonna see if my band has covid yes here we go the 19 yes yes give it to me all right moving you see the bar it's moving well luke why don't you set an alarm and we'll get to the bottom of this at the end all right okay we'll figure it out uh we do we do have a show for you today, okay? We're going to set the stage. Before, though, before we get into previewing, reviewing all things mixed martial arts, Luke,

our first topic of the day on this Friday, an interesting of sorts Twitter battle, which started somewhat lamely and innocently with UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and boxing superstar and pound-for-pound king started somewhat lamely and innocently with UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and boxing superstar and pound for pound king Canelo Alvarez going back and forth, talking a little trizash, a little, you know, talking that chi-at, not so excitingly, but Luke, this escalated in some interesting directions, not only bringing in our extended boss, Showtime Sports President Steven Espinosa,

but ending with Kamaru Usman taking one hell of a company man stance, Luke. Wow. Can we throw up a few of these and sort of catch up anybody who had missed it? Of course, it was Ali Abdelaziz, the manager of Usman, trying to

stir the pot for a boxing match that they feel could change their life financially. Can Canelo the who the fuck is this Long Island Luke can we keep the train moving here Benich all them you know who I am I'm Usman's manager blah blah blah here's what Abdelaziz said you've been ducking I like I'm going we go back for just a second. This is one of my favorite parts. I'm being very nice to you because it's Ramadan. Well, he says you've been ducking Triple G for two years now. I don't know about that.

But Kamaru has fought everybody UFC threw at him. I've been very nice to you because it's Ramadan. Kamaru says, let's all just relax before somebody gets hurt. Luke, this is where it began to escalate so you got Canelo going I agree it will not be me that gets hurt in the cage or in the ring Kamaru says I'm willing to find out in both but are you

Canelo starts to play the alpha role here but Luke then we brought in the guy then we brought in Steven Espinosa here. Enough said. Camaro says you don't want that smoke. And it was Espinosa saying, LOL, UFC fighters want that boxing paycheck, but don't understand that boxers have the autonomy

to choose opponents. It's not about wanting the smoke. It's about professional self-determination a foreign concept to those luke who let that kickboxing instructor choose their fights so our boy steve going back into the playbook here to continue this uh this war that he's had with dana and mcgregor but uh this is where kamaru surprised me luke boxing is a beautiful art with some amazing athletes and even a couple of

good promoters. The problem is low lives like you are around the sport that has destroyed it for everybody. Take notes from what Dana has done. I know. What does that mean? Establish a monopoly in the marketplace. Like then finally Camaro goes all in here.

Our fans know who the best is because the best fight, the best, they don't run and hide and fight.bodies with those plastic belts and call themselves super champion. Keep quiet next time. And if you need lessons on how to save that dying sport, let me know. And I've got Zufa boxing head Dana on speed. Luke is notoriously successful boxing promoter dana white dude this went from something that i

couldn't care less about to something that i'm like really to now i'm going tomorrow dude like i get i get what you're doing you're trying like hell to make life-changing money to make the kind of money that we all realize ufc stars with the exception of McGregor, but even there's limits there, aren't making in comparison to boxing. But, Luke, this road, this method, dude, it ain't it. This is not the right way to go. This is not a good look. Your defense is call up Dana White, who's preventing you from making these type of paydays? I know, I know.

It's the most insane fucking thing. Yeah, dude, this is crazy to me. John Nash had a good tweet about the whole thing too, which was, quote, boxing needs to be like MMA where the best fight the best, which is why Canelo should stop ducking a boxing match with unranked 0-0 boxer Kamaru Usman. Yeah, right, of course.

Like, everything about what they're trying to doO boxer Kamaru Usman. Yeah, right, of course. Everything about what they're trying to do, other than what it nakedly is, right? What it nakedly is, is it's just a power play for money. I mean, that's all. And fine, you can shoot your shot. I want to be clear about this. I don't have any interest in a Kamaru Usman

versus Canelo fight, and I think it's silly, and I think them trying it is silly, but fine. at the end of the day that's you can try what you want and crazy things happen and you know if you get it great if you don't well you never probably never going to anyway so I don't really have any issue with it other than I just don't really care but then when they start going about the things about like well you know it's a are we still playing the dying hit sport? It's like, dude, boxing is in like, it's not to say that boxing is in like tremendous shape

with all of its various conflicts of interest and we just had the Kinahan situation. Like there's plenty of problems with boxing, but like, is it in a good place? Yeah, it's in a very good place. And we have the best record. The attendance marks of the past month would show you, right? What kind of place we're in?

It's a global sport. We're going to have two women headline in Madison Square Garden here on the weekend. Like, dude, the best absolutely are fighting the best. You have Oscar Valdez and Shakur Stevenson fighting each other. And then in about a week, you're going to have fucking Canelo at 175 fighting Dimitri Bivol. Who are these people who are saying boxing's in terrible shape I understand that there's a larger concern about sort of the way in which there's there's multiple belts multiple sanctioning organizations that's fine but between what Jake Paul has done there is now actual research to

show that this YouTube boxing phenomenon has brought in a horde of younger fans otherwise boxing would not have then you have on the upper end of things the sort of international ability to put in 94,000 people in the UK again Again, women back at Madison Square Garden, we're having top guys consistently fighting top guys all the time. Here is the reality that MMA fans and MMA fighters to an extent just need to accept. None of you really know what's going on in boxing. You're not really paying attention and you're surfing off of late 90s talking points about what the state of the industry was back then to make points that no longer make even any sense whatsoever. And the weirder part about it, the part about that really just blows my mind

is, let me see if I understand this. You guys are trapped in contracts and in situations with a monopolistic or either outright monopoly or something close to it with your MMA contracts such that you are desperate to get boxing fights so you can get massive paydays which fine don't hate on them for it Francis might get it if Kamaru gets it great it'll be life-changing money not mad at that at all but you're going to boxing to get paydays that you otherwise would be it would be impossible listen to that word impossible to even come close to an mma and this is evidence that steven espinosa needs to ask dana white for like tips on how to promote it's like dude on what fucking planet does any of this make sense

you know espinoza became a part of this but we're not bringing this up to defend him yeah it's not about him i'm just saying like this is evidence that the mma industry works better no but it's like you know you mentioned they're using a dated argument i mean i feel like you know the thing is usman is a guy I love. Like, he's done everything the right way, the long road, the hard work, the constant improving himself. To see him so aggressively whoring himself out for a fight that, like, in theory, he can't win because, like, it's not even like he's bringing in the puncher's chance of an Nganou or even a McGregor boxing against

a 40-year-old Mayweather. So we're sort of, you know know is there a chance right like this is a i mean dude kamar usman didn't get hands until like two fights ago right like this is what are we doing here first of all but he it sounds like he went in a time machine back to that sports center debate between joe rogan and lou de bella remember that thing back in like 2008 and it blew up about which sports better. And we're using, you know, horribly outdated concepts to debate that.

I was just blown away that Dana's the one preventing him. Dana's the reason Francis Ngannou is at this crossroads where he may walk away from the sport for good to chase this payday. And you're trying to use the defense of call up that guy. If you really want to make these fights. No, you can't make this fight because of that guy. Like you,

like, so I don't know. It's just call him and call him and ask his permission. Cause that's what you have to do. It was a real, yeah, that's the thing that would have been a great reply from Steven. Why don't you call him?

Okay. Why don't you try to improve your contract in your situation? So that GSP who's retired will no longer get banned from boxing Oscar De La Hoya like he wanted to do that time. Like, how about we get out of that draconian business? So I don't, I'm never going to hate, like you said, Usman's want for that payday, even though we are still in this sad position where the top, you know, this ain't a low level champion or a regional champion

that camaro response the pound for pound king like the he's unbeaten in the promotion like the top guy the literally the top guy critically that they have is still at the end of the day willing to sell his soul or his brain to another sport to their best guy just to get this payday like that's still the reality of what we're doing here. And so to try to, you know, defend the guy holding you back, it's just, it was worthy of sort of opening the show and being like, bro, you know, wrong lane. You know what I mean?

Like, show me the water. This ain't it. This is too deep for you here. So, Luke, was it even him, though? Are we going nuts over Ali? Yeah, who who knows I mean I don't know if it was it could have been his manager Ali Abdelaziz it could have been Kamaru I mean both of them seem to be in lockstep anyway about again I'm not mad at them for pursuing

something I think it's silly and it won't work but I've thought lots of things were silly and didn't work and then they did so I don't really care that they're trying to like you know rustle up one but like you know Mayweather was in a different position at the time. The thing with McGregor was happening and Fury seems much more open to it. Dude, Canelo does not seem really interested at all. He's got a lot of work. He has nothing to gain here. That's the thing. If this.

He can, he's going to make, how much is he going to make for Bivol? 50 mil? Probably. And by the way, that's a really hard fight. Like really freaking hard. Like trying to say you're ducking Triple G. The hardcores don't want Canelo to fight Triple G again because we all know he's gonna knock him out right so it's like it's too late in the game triple g's 40 so stop but luke um you know kamara was really up against

it because nobody wants this fight canelo can make more money seemingly against actual boxers the difference again for floyd was that he was already retired and he sees somebody across from him. Who's got a lot of him in him and Connor. He's like, Oh, I, you know,

I can dance with this type of spirit. I can create money. That's never been seen before. Again, Kamara was not nearly the celebrity Connor was. And Luke, in terms of the potential of selling it, he's not nearly the the physical threat

we thought Conor might have been for Floyd or at least casual fans thought which is why they spent that much money 100 bucks 4.4 million times right and obviously in Gano dude that's a different story it's heavyweights it's one punch power what a can we stop it now Luke is this the funeral for for any Usman Canelo talk moving forward? We just, we have it right here. Probably. Just one more point that I'd like to make, or two points very quickly. One, listen, Francis, to your point, has big knockout power,

and especially if they change the rules because Fury is an entertainer and they give him four-ounce gloves, I would still pick Fury to win. But, hey, that's, you never know. That's kind of an interesting little twist. But with Kamaru, to your point, it's like, dude, let me just be real about this. Kamaru is the pound-for-pound best fighter in MMA. And what he's done in MMA is beyond commendable.

It is historic and incredible and inspiring and magnetic to a degree. And he has earned everything he's gotten to his point. Why he wants to get this Canelo fight is because he hasn't been given everything that he's earned in my judgment. And I understand the need to go get a payday i get it but dude canelo would fuck him up in a boxing it would not go well for him at all it would be very very very very bad for him if they made that fight in boxing it would not he would eat the canvas

multiple times oh god he'd be destroyed but the point to me is, even if they brought in, even if this was totally a ruse to try to get Canelo's interest and then get more money from the UFC to stay put and get a bigger contract, even if that's the game, and that may be the game at the end of the day for Kamaru and Ali,

they may be, you know, two steps ahead of this. This is the lamest way you could go about to try to stir up interest, right? Like, dude, Canelo, in all fairness, probably has never heard of Kamaru before this all started probably probably and also again Kamaru just is like dude what are you guys you have to be not so much Kamaru and and whoever else but like just in general to the MMA fan base are you guys this show everyone knows but for the MMA fan base wider it's like do you guys understand what Canelo has been doing for a little while he is marching divisions down and snatching

belts and then going up well past any weight class he ever needed to and he's fucking those guys up too the idea that he's not fighting the best is comical comical is what it is it's not even remotely reflective of reality and bc is the last thing i would say on this thing which is it is alarming to me how much stockholm syndrome some of the mma fighters have i understand that they take pride and they never had an easy fight by and large right and i get that that they should be proud of that but that is a reality that was basically forced on them by their promoters and it turns out when you open up the rules and you let fighters have some say about the future of their careers, that kind of thing, to some degree, goes away.

It's a function. When you brag about having done that, I get that the idea is that you had a hard road. Fine. But you had a hard road because somebody gave you marching orders because you don't have autonomy over your career because you can't line up fights like canelo can to get the big fights that is how the sausage is made and then to ape and parry what excuse me to to to borrow what a promoter says and bring it back and then use that as like a defense point for the way the career is gone when the promoter is the one that has control over the careers of MMA fighters and to a degree that you know what you don't see at all in excuse me in boxing it's bizarre it's bizarre it's truly bizarre be proud of the road that like the the road that Kamaru Usman has

walked is fantastic fantastic but the reason why fans like what the UFC does is because their interests are directly aligned Kamaru Usman's interests are not necessarily aligned with that bragging that your rights and your interests got overrun in favor of the promoter I don't think that's I don't think that's the brag that they think it is I really don't Luke I hate to go back to this because it's still a little bit too much wwf faction talk but you remember when luke rockhold told aerial man imagine if in ghanu usman and adesanya the three champions from africa teamed up joined the union unionized front against fighter pay and contracts and all that i mean i know that's like saying wow

why don't we make the nation a domination here at central casting no the point is luke if something like that had happened and kamara was now using this public platform to try to get canelo and was using like in ghanu is the fact that they aren't paid as fuel to why he deserves this i think that the public would welcome it a little bit more, right? Yeah. And again, just to wrap up here, there's a lot of people and I, you know, there's a lot of people that have opinions about boxing and I've got some too. And I try to couch them as best I can in the evidence that I've collected, but there are a lot of people who know nothing about boxing, who have very strong opinions about it. And I got to say a lot of y'all clearly haven't

done your homework in a long time whatever you think boxing is it ain't all right bc i'm ready to give some test results if you're ready you're like you ain't never been to the ghetto so don't ever come to the ghetto because you wouldn't last in the ghetto so stay the fuck out of the ghetto yeah i don't know about all that i'm just saying you're gonna have opinions about something you may want to watch it time to time but okay you ready for a result reveal now i don't know about that. Fuck out of the ghetto. Yeah. I don't know about all that. I'm just saying. If you're going to have opinions about something, you may want to watch it time to time. But okay. You ready for a result revealed? I don't know if the camera can pick it up, but I'm going to give it to you.

BC, what do you think? COVID or no COVID? COVID. Yeah, you're due. You've been due for one, Luke, unfortunately. I've been due for a while. I think I did have it, but here we go. Can you see?

Let's go to Maury. Is he pregnant? Is here we go. Can you see? Let's go to Maury. Is he pregnant? Is he the father? Can you see? Yes, red, Luke. No, they can't see shit because this camera blows. No, it's not. Here, I'll take a picture of it, and I'll send it to, what you call it,

to Corey, and he can put it on the air. But no, it is single. It is not a positive test. According to WebMD, it says your ovaries just dropped, Luke. Yeah, that's probably true. That's probably true, yeah. That's probably true. Corey, I'm going to send this to you.

Is that okay, and you can put it on the air? Yes? Yeah, Corey's like, all right, guys, TMI here, okay? Can we move on to fight talk? All right, yes. I am COVID negative according to this test. Corey, I'm going to send you a picture of my colon, but it's from the outside.

Can you put that on, Corey? There you go. All right. Yeah, thank you very much. Okay, let's get back on the train here of Fight Talk and Fight Predictions. We can all wonder to ourselves what Luke actually does have, right? Did he get

chlamydia from that chick Lydia? Man, that was a song in my high school, Luke. Back to the box, though. What's inside that box? A pair of fantastic main events this weekend. Let's start top-ranked ESPN Las Vegas 130-pound champions, both unbeaten. Unification, when Shakur Stevenson, the 24-year-old soft paw, maybe, maybe the next big thing in boxing, which is what he called himself at Thursday's final press conference, taking on the battle-tested Mexican warrior Oscar Valdez. Luke, this will have, for whatever people care if it still means anything, the Ring Magazine Lineal Championship will be on the line here.

First time in this division since Pacquiao defeated Juan Manuel Marquez in their 2008 rematch, also at 130 pounds. So, Luke, this will declare the best in the world, the unified champion, but I think even more, as we talked about in Wednesday's storylines, we're potentially declaring, you know, who's going to join that list of the major power players that have next in this sport that are in their mid-20s, and there's a bunch of them.

This would be a monster step forward. Luke, as we speak right now, Shakur Stevenson, minus 600, your betting favorite, fresh off the dismantling of Jermell Herring to capture that WBO 130-pound title. The champion in the WBC, Oscar Valdez, plus 425. Luke, what are you going to be watching for in the first third of this fight that might inform you which direction we're going here? Is Stevenson setting?

What kind of trap Stevenson is setting? Because I think Valdez is going to pressure into him he's going to try and push him backwards also you know you always got to pay attention I say this every fight it's slightly different fight to fight about where and how it matters but the real estate here I think if Stevenson is up against the ropes a little bit or at least constantly on the rope line that would be a bit of a problem although I do expect there will be some of that you know if touches it, it's not some scandal, but if there's a prolonged amount of time there,

that would be a bad thing. But I want to see what traps he does to counterbox. I think that's really going to be the key because he's not going to be able to repressure Valdez backwards early, I don't think, unless he scores some massive shot or something. What's going to have to happen is he's going to have to absorb that pressure, make Valdez wary about it, and then later on begin to pressure him backwards in kind. So the question is, as he takes that pressure early,

what kind of traps is he setting and are they working or is Valdez overcoming them? Because here's the other key to this. In order to make the adjustments that he needs, they have to happen on a schedule. This is what I always talk about with Floyd. People kind of overlook one of the points, which was if you can't beat him in the first six, you're not going to beat him in the last. But the point is he didn't take very long to get his adjustments going. He made them pretty quick.

After round two, after round three, maybe one after round five. So by round six, a lot of the steam of the other guy's offense has been taken off. I want to see a similar kind of train leaving the station regularity with trap setting, absorption of pressure, frustration for Valdez, and then a turning of the tide. That, to me, is really how Stevenson's going to win this contest. Wow.

So you saw them standing across from each other. Now, they were both champions at 126 a couple years back. Stevenson became the mandatory. He felt, as I said Wednesday, that Valdez was ducking him. He went up to 130. Stevenson followed. They both won titles on their own. Stevenson's still claiming, by the way, that this date was supposed to be Valdez versus Navarrete,

who was going to move up from 126. But the good news is they're both under the same promoter, same network. We made this fight. But you saw them standing across from each other. Stevenson, an inch and a half taller, two inches longer in reach. But obviously, Luke, first and foremost, the divide in speed is going to be massive here. So I really need to see how Oscar Valdez decides to deal with that. If he decides to deal with that straight up in the constant forward motion pressure that he was known for earlier in his career,

I think Valdez will get chewed up and spit out Luke. And it may end up looking a lot like Mayweather Corrales from 2001. Like I mentioned, which was also at 130 pounds when all, when both were also undefeated. The difference here is that Corrales was a betting favorite in that one, and Floyd just, you know, hot knife through butter, five knockdowns surprised us all.

This time around, though, the odds makers, rightfully so, see this potential in Shakur Stevenson, that if the speed, meaning hand and foot, is too wide, Valdez may never be in this fight. But, Luke, I think not only that, I think if he puts on uneducated pressure, reckless pressure, frustrated pressure, and there's no layers to it,

Stevenson's going to chew that up. So it's really going to be on Eddie Reynoso, Canelo's trainer and manager who trains Oscar Valdez. They're going to have to be so smart in the way that they, they time Stevenson in the way that they're sure to not just, you know, be down four rounds to nothing off the start because the, the difference in output is so big. And you got to really think about how you're going to fight somebody this talented and this dangerous, because how did Juan Manuel Marquez in the end deal with Pacquiao for

four fights be the really the only guy of that era I know Eric Morales beat Pacquiao in their first of three meetings great fight all-time great fight but none of those guys Barrera none of those guys had sustained stretches controlling Pacquiao when his speed and outburst was just ridiculous at that weight except for Marquez yeah he got knocked down a bunch, but he sat in there, Luke, and he was able to time the tornado that was Pacquiao. And because he was able to punch with him and at times punch harder and had the chin to stand in there as well, he was able to level those terms. But Luke, Oscar Valdez is very good, but he ain't Marquez, man.

And even if you're trying to tell me that Stevenson ain't Pacquiao, you get my point, though. The gap here in skill might be so wide that this never becomes a fight. I need Oscar Valdez to make sure in the first half that this is a fight, that he's not completely down on the scorecards, that he has figured out some way to slow down discipline, the quicker guy with the bigger output. You know, if he doesn't do that, he's in trouble here, Luke.

He is in trouble. So I don't know how he does that. You know, is it sharpshooting from the outside for the big punch? Because you may look at these odds and go, why are you guys so excited about this fight? It's one-sided. Well, no. Two unbeaten champions with very contrasting styles.

If Valdez can control the real estate, we got to fight here. He's fast enough. He's strong enough. He's got a great chin. But man, he's fighting a wizard. So Luke, here's how I'm going to pin it to you. I mean, don't forget Valdez was an underdog against Miguel Burchell last year, right? He moved up in weight to fight the boogeyman in that division.

But he raised his game because of that influence of Eddie Reynoso, who really introduced a lot more craft and timing and poise into that, to really put on a performance that's the best of his career and that I didn't really know was possible. Can he exceed that to defeat Shakur? Because he'll have to. That's up in the air. But the thing that hedges up against that is,

look, I don't think we are freaking close to have seen the best of Shakur Stevenson yet. Like, not even freaking close. That's the scariest element in trying to handicap this fight. Right. And the other part, too, though, is Valdez was an underdog against Burchelt, but man, Burchelt ain't Stevenson. No. Not at all. Not at all.

Stevenson has a, well, to your point, we haven't really seen him tested in a way where we got the full depth and breadth of his game, but from what we have seen, he is a massively higher fight iq significantly more true athletic real boxing ability and so for those reasons you know while i give valdez all the credit in the world for that birchelt win it was it was triumphant it was the final moment was explosive i mean it was incredible dude stevenson is a whole other ball of wax man i know it's like a real dad thing to say but jesus dude oh it is but look listen to this so so stevenson's never been down to my knowledge and never been hurt or compromised much neither has canelo for everyone out there

wondering yeah no no seriously um stevenson did though feel the power of jeremiah nakantilla the guy who just destroyed birch out right and that comeback fight, it wasn't a comeback. He sent him back down to hell. And what he did with that, Luke, though, is he went into boxer mode from the outside. It was boring to watch, but he absolutely dominated once he felt the danger and pivoted away. Now, the good news, if you're a Shakur fan,

is he didn't stay down that road of avoidance. He came back against Jermell Herring, who granted is not the puncher Nakatia is, but he stepped in there, made that an aggressive fight inside, even though he's the more skilled guy, and just put it all over Herring. If you're a Team Valdez, you have to bank on the idea that we have to hurt this kid. We have to push him to a level that he's never been before of not just pain, but, you know, pressure and needing to make adjustments.

Obviously, if they don't do that, Luke, this will not be a fight. But, you know, have you sniffed out anything on Stevenson that could let you know that's a problem, right? Like Floyd always had a great Floyd, never a big puncher, but always had a great chin and then had all those other intangibles to get out of trouble. Anything you've seen yet from Stevenson that could make you doubt if this becomes a fight that he could have issues in there nothing specifically in terms of how they match up in that way which doesn't say it doesn't exist but I can't pinpoint

one at this juncture but I do think the larger point you raise about this guy is very young he's had a lot of success but no one's ever really put it on him you know he got the silver medal in the olympics but no one ever really like stuck it to him and made him question things and made him think like oh shit like how am i going to get out of this trouble how am i going to get out of this problem valdez i think really has to go in there and he i don't i don't think that stevenson's some kind of volume machine either so i'm not asking valdez to be but i think valdez has to pick very high quality shots high quality shots you got to really go in there and sting this dude and you got to make him begin to doubt you have to make him begin to like question you have to

make him be a little bit more reserved because if he just gets going and he's flowing him that high fight iq he has and that ability. He's off to the races. You got to stop that dead in its tracks, which means you probably have to fight on the inside to a degree if you can, which is why where the real estate takes place is a big deal. But BC, I think heavy body work is going to be key for Valdez, especially early. And I think you're going to have to really absolutely punish this dude. If he doesn't, if Valdez lands but isn't punishing you would agree no hope right yeah I think that's what we're coming down to the final equation that he must hurt him he must visibly hurt him to change the tide of this because you're not gonna outbox him right can you win rounds if this becomes a

track meet like a fast-paced fun fight not a brawl but a high-skilled fast-paced fight I would still question he can win enough rounds against Stevenson like that. Yeah, dude, you gotta go back, but when I say I don't want Valdez to go back, like I said, to straight-ahead, pure brawling, there's really gotta be craft in the way he

sets up his opportunities, but when those opportunities are there, if he can corner Shakur, if he can hurt him to the body, boy, does he have to jump in and show the explosion that he showed against Burchell. Obviously, part of that big storyline we talked about Wednesday, though, is we don't really know exactly where Valdez is and what version he is because of everything that happened with the tainted T, the failed supplement, yet he still went on and fought Robinson Cancayso and looked flat and seemed to succumb to a lot of the pressure and bad

headlines. I don't know. Maybe he kicks the tires on that Luke and, and comes back and is the very best of them again. But even if he's the very best of them, if he can't hurt Stevenson, he is in serious trouble. Luke,

do you add any added elements to this, that you got Valdez in San Diego with Team Canelo actually training with Canelo to a certain degree, right? Because Canelo's preparing for that May fight. And then you've got our boy Shakur bringing in Terrence Crawford, his big bro, his mentor, mentee, little brother relationship they have. I mean, Luke, they spar all the damn time. And Shakur told me many times dude i i have moments i mean i you know i hold my own i put it on bud crawford in there um you know that that's that's a that sucks to know that knowledge coming in when you're going to face

when you're going to face stevenson yeah i mean i i've seen different times i think even in that fight against conseil there's times when you when you've seen after the fight or whatever, Canelo go and talk to him and be like, you should have done this, you should have done this, you should have thrown it this way and have the shoulder positioned this way. And you can see Valdez being like, oh, right, right, right. I mean, what does this tell you?

Eddie Reynoso is a boxing savant, man. You know, he really knows his stuff. And he's going to get the best out of Oscar Valdez. But what he cannot do is make Oscar Valdez somebody he is not right he cannot just make him somebody he cannot be he can make him the best version of himself but that's it dude yeah the very best version of Stevenson especially with Bud Crawford who is a fucking genius helping him and if he's holding dude if you're holding your own with Bud Crawford I don don't know who can beat you, to be quite honest. I mean, you know, very, very, very, very few people.

So Stevenson has his work cut out for him, but this to me is a very, this is going to be one of those key moments, BC, in Stevenson's career where we go back and look like, oh, this is where he leveled up. Now Valdez can spoil the party, but if he wins, and I suspect that he will, we're going to look back at this performance and be like, this is, you leveled up. Now Valdez can spoil the party, but if he wins, and I suspect that he will, we're going to look back at this performance and be like, this is not the same exactly,

but this is a similar kind of moment of Errol Spence beating Kell Brook. Many, many differences. That's a great call. That was a big moment when he just leveled up right there. And he did that to a certain degree last fight against Herring,

but Herring is more tough out. Pedestrian. Brook was a higher level fighter than Herring certainly not at this level so um man uh this could be still a great fight but i think it's going to be more valuable to stevenson if he wins luke if if he has moments that he has to overcome if he you know he builds a lead in his boxing spectacularly and landing big shots, but then eats a big right cross midway through and suddenly we have to see more of his character.

I do almost welcome that because I need to see, is Shakur really the real, real, real deal, right? Like he looks like it. I need to see it. Will this be that fight? I tend to believe, Luke, we have a chance of this being that fight. Meaning, even if Shakur goes on to win and looks spectacular, he's going to have to really answer some questions that he never has before. At the very least, I'll say

Valdez is that opponent that can do that. Will he? Will he lose 12-0 and get, you know, painted on? That could be in play too. But Luke, let's find out. Let's go to the expert. Let's bring in Luke Thomas. I'm going to guess you're picking Stevenson, but how? What does it look like? Stevenson, ninth round TKO. I think it starts competitive, and then about four rounds in, Stevenson starts to pull away and doesn't look back. And I think Valdez is, I don't know how bad he's going to get beat up,

but he'll get beat up bad enough for the referee to save him yeah yeah i got an 11th round stoppage and i probably got it more on cuts more on the idea you know can you get a couple knockdowns maybe you can get some some flush flash knockout knockdowns even though stevenson again not a big one punch guy but so quick so accurate like a young floyd damn right. He can hurt you. Luke, this would be a monster statement. If Shakur Stevenson like pisses on and stops him. I mean, again, look, this may be in the rear and where we come back after a great fight and go, oh my God, we undervalued Oscar Valdez.

Look what he did. He may do that. But if Shakur does what we in the betting oddsman tend to think is possible, meaning, you know, can he, can he put a performance out that we've never seen? Yes. I think the better competition he faces, there's obviously inevitably a ceiling, but the better the competition he faces, the brighter

his skills will look, because he'll have to raise that game. He'll have to get sharper, and you'll see even more dynamic stuff, because I think, Luke, he's wired in a way that the stage isn't too bright. He's ready to be that guy. Right. So if he stops him here, it's I've already got him, I think, at number nine or 10 pound for pound. Most people have been waiting for one more dude. He's going to be in the middle of that top 10. And it and eventually he's going to he's going to either take over number one or be in a fight that if he wins it would get him number one.

You know what I'm saying, Luke? He's of this ilk. That's why I've got to go big on him. I've got to stay on this road. He's the goods, Luke. I love some things I see from Ryan Garcia, some things I see from Devin Haney, a lot of what I see from Tank Davis.

But, dude, I love Shakur Stevenson. All right. I've got to... It's 11.45. We've talked about one fight. We should probably move along. You guys want to talk about this COVID picture? You want to see it?

Yeah, let's go to the COVID picture. You're right. I mean, look, the thing is on Friday, I could take this thing off the tracks and just leave it in the ditch. You know what I mean? I know, but our audience mostly cares about MMA, so we should probably...

Yeah, yeah. Okay, with that in mind mind let's go to the covid picture what do we got here cory yeah no covid bitches okay okay is that a win i don't know if that's a win luke is it a win i mean you're still because i know i probably have some new strain that this fucking test can't even pick up and i'm dying, actually. You should just call Fauci himself and just get his advice on that, Luke. But I hope you get well, Luke. And Corey, very, very good day to pick hygiene on those nails, right?

Looking good, man. I was going to say, Luke, you working on those cuticles? What's going on there? You got a manicure? Is that Long Island Luke's hand right there? Yeah, they're called teeth. Oh, that's Luke Thomas' hand that that was.

You're right. I missed this. I don't know what I'd be holding that test for. Yeah, how the hell would he be holding it, you fucking idiot? I was caught up in the space-time continuum there. Too many gigawatts this morning, apparently. All right, let's keep it going here. That card, by the way, is on regular ESPN, and a lot of prospects worth watching,

including in that co-main event, Keyshawn Davis. He's a big favorite in this one, but he's coming. He's coming on. Nico Ali Walsh also on that among some other prospects. Luke, let's go to what we're going to see. New York, Madison Square Garden, DAZN, the biggest women's boxing fight of all time. Number one versus two pound for pound. The four belt lightweight champion, unbeaten Katie Taylor against the most decorated champion in the history of this sport on the women's side. Seven times.

Dead wrong me now. I said five times the other day. Seven division champion Amanda Serrano. Is Pacquiao eight? Pacquiao is eight. He's the only male to get to eight. I mean, even Luke in this era with so many belts where like Adrian Broner is a four division champion.

He is like he actually is, even though he's, you know, like who'd he be? Big Paulie. I mean, you know, you get my point. Even in this era, that's still stupid impressive, by the way, just ridiculous. Anyway, Luke, here we go. Big time main event, 10 rounds, two minute rounds. That's how we're doing it at this level.

Your odds right now, Amanda Serrano, the unified featherweight champion, who's technically moving up in weight for this, minus 140 favorite, although unified featherweight champion, who's technically moving up in weight for this, minus 140 favorite, although she's won titles, as we said, between 118 and 140 pounds. And Katie Taylor, plus 115. Luke Thomas, I think the oddsmakers did get it right in the end. Serrano's got the power advantage.

She's super versatile. She's fought in all different weights. She's been around a lot longer. Yeah, that's right. But would you agree this is still as 50-50 as you could get? I mean, this is really, if you're going to do a damn fight and put this type of, you know, label on it, these are the right two, Luke.

This is going to be incredible. I say there is one difference between them, BC. One difference that's, I I think noteworthy one thing or a couple things that I saw when Amanda Serrano fought on those Jake Paul cards we'll see what game plan she employs against Taylor so that could be a bit of a wild card here but in the fights that she had on the Jake Paul undercards she was what I would call stubborn stubborn in the sense of she had one game plan, a couple of minor adjustments to keep it alive, but there were times where her opponents,

who were outmatched in this case, landed on her and she didn't really adjust around it. She kind of just ate through it. Yeah, I will just jump in and say, I really think she was trying like hell to impress and just get a big knockout and took on more punishment than she would necessarily do if there were more stakes on the fight I think that's entirely fair I'm just pointing out she did do that so it will be it will be important to see what kind of game

plan she does here again we go back to it they both are absolute punching machines they both have high volume they both have high work rate. To me, Taylor, a little bit more of a sharpshooter than Serrano, but Serrano, although both have their experiences this way, and I'm going to give the edge in body punching to someone like Amanda Serrano. Here's the thing I need to think about, BC. Stop sitting on your aeroplane points and get big savings so you can be somewhere you actually want to be, like on a beach.

Right now, you can save up to 25% in Aeroplan points when you book a trip to one of 180-plus Air Canada destinations worldwide. So stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one. Don't miss out. Your chance to save in points ends February 23rd. Book at aircanada.com. Conditions apply. We said that these rounds, like we had Coolboy Steph taking on Figueroa,

some of those rounds are a little hard to score, a little bit hard to know exactly what happened. I think you're going to get that. Here's one thing to think about. With the two minutes set up, you're going to. You're going to get that. No question that no question about it dude you're gonna be split after so many of these rounds I think it's possible early that Amanda Serrano will take more head punches and look physically messed up a little bit earlier in the fight than Taylor however should the fight go later and Serrano stays busy with the body work which I think she will to me BC I'm not going to ignore the first six to eight rounds that's not

what I'm saying but I am going to pay attention a little bit more I'm going to lean in like that meme a little bit more closely after six after eight because I think Serrano is going to have probably unless she's just way better which I don't think she is she is going to have probably, unless she's just way better, which I don't think she is, she's going to have her bet, the fruits of her labor will appear later in this contest. So then you have to ask yourself, how much fruit will there actually be? I might be leaning a little bit Taylor

by virtue of the fact that I think that Serrano actually has had an incredibly tough road and might be in some ways a more, I like her game better at a bare minimum. I really do. I love her body punching, has had an incredibly tough road and might be in some ways a more, I like her game better at a bare minimum. I really do. I love her body punching, but Taylor is an absolute brick wall, man. I'm curious to see if this fight gets decided, A,

based on what you have pointed out, the two-minute rounds, making it difficult to score, but leaning towards Taylor because I think she's going to mark up Serrano a little bit quicker than Serrano's going to mark her up. And I think that's going to sway the judges a little bit. Yeah. If there's any, even though Serrano can do it all and she can't, she's done it.

She's fight any style, right? If you, if you're telling me just in a track meet who has the, the advantage, if, if there were no knockdowns and no knockout and we go the distance dude that's what katie taylor does and can do and has proven that a lot and so

luke if katie taylor in my opinion is not the aggressor and not looking to i don't want to say like milk the system but use the two minute round system and be first, be always, but definitely be last and, you know, try to out volume as many rounds as she can. She's going to have to show a great chin, of course, but she's done that in the past. But I don't think she can win unless she does that. So the question is, what will Serrano's response be? You know, can she humble that and discipline that with a big shot early? Or like you're saying, maybe it's the commitment to the body and being willing to lose those rounds but serrano's got to be wary of that

two-minute setup in my opinion and not gamble on that too often like yeah you got to put some money in the bank you have to you know work a few rounds and try to set up the big shot that you think could change the momentum and end it but again this, this is only 10 rounds and, and it's not like they're both new to that distance, but you got to make your statements and you got to make them large. So will that come for Serrano from, you know, looking to counter what she can do? Will that come from trying to up her output and trying to,

you know, box Taylor from distance and make Taylor chase her. I don't know if she can pull that off for long stretches. It's tough. Katie Taylor's been in a few competitive fights. Her fights are always fun to watch. But, you know, you have to talk about the two Delphine Pursun ones when you talk about what's the most we've seen her, you know,

specifically in the first one, Madison Square Garden, AJ Ruiz won undercard. Amazing fight, Luke. I was there. It was just an amazing fight. But Pursun just just was like, I'm going to absorb everything you have and not even like get out of the way or try to. But I'm also just going to try to throw bombs the whole fight. And I'm going to try to keep up with

your output. The difference here, Luke, is I don't I think Pursuit is far more limited compared to Serrano. And I also think Serrano's got a power advantage. So, you know, look, I thought the first fight was, was that best to draw. I think you could have scored it for, for pursuing it. Taylor won it. And even though the second fight was really fun, I thought Taylor was more in command of it, but like, could Serrano match that volume if she really wanted to? Yes. But Luke, I think she has enough power where there's going to come a point where she's

going to either you know hurt Taylor and make her make a tough decision of fight or flight you know or whatever or she's going to put it on her because Pursuit wore Taylor down definitely stung her but turned that into such an absurd track meet that we saw Taylor to be honest hanging on for dear life dude I think Serrano's got a lot more ways she can win this fight than Taylor, Luke. And I really want to see if she's, I don't want her to wait too long, but I want to see the first time she really lands something big with that left hand. It could be a hook to the body. It could be a overhand left.

I want to see how Taylor's going to keep, you know, fielding that because I think Taylor has to keep that same energy and keep that pressure going to win. How many of those left hands can she eat, though, on the way there, Luke? That's the thing. That's the key thing. Let me play a fine point to make. Let me play an X-factor game and see what you think. Now, I don't want to speak for either of these communities

because I'm not a part of them, and I don't know what they're going to do or how it's going to look or anything like that. But this fight's in New York City. New York City has, for folks who may not know, they have a ton of Irish immigrants there. I mean like from Ireland. I worked at a bar, an Irish bar, when I bounced at one when I was living in New York City when I was 23 years old. It was all run by Irish people. And of course, need I tell you that there is a giant Puerto Rican community there as well. Both make New York City better, and I'm glad they're there. But I don't know who supports their fighter better.

My hunch, BC, my hunch is that there's going to be a bigger Irish contingent than there is going to be a Puerto Rican one, only because I think Katie Taylor has been embraced more at home than Toronto has here. Dude, they're going to travel from home to follow her here. So how much is that going to play a role too? I don't think it's going to be too crazy of a role because I think Serrano has long proven she's tough.

That's not going to matter to her. She'll be fine being the villain. No, but the crowd cheering on anything Katie Taylor does affecting the judges. Right. So that's where I was going to get to was the real question is the, is the scoring by the judges with those two minute rounds. It favors output.

It favors attract me unless you can visibly hurt somebody. So Luke, like that's the thing. There's a, there's a strong reality here based on what we're both saying that Taylor could be up, you know, at the midway point,

you know, four to one even. And Serrano is going to have to ask herself, you know, at the midway point, you know, four to one even. And Serrano is going to have to ask herself, you know, do I really think there's an opening here to land this big shot or do I need to go box and match that output? Things could get very interesting there, Luke, around that midpoint, because I feel like I know who Taylor is going to be. I want to see if she can take the power, of course, but I feel like she's going to be the most consistent.

I think it's Serrano because she has more ways to win. It's going to be up to her how she utilizes that, how she goes to plan B and C and D. Is it going to be a mixture of styles to win this fight? That's going to be interesting to watch. Yes, I certainly agree with that. I mean, dude, this one's going to be, I have a feeling like, I have a feeling that Stevenson's going to beat up Valdez before it's all said and done. I have a feeling both of these two are going to get beat up in the process. I could not imagine this one ending before five, even nine, to be perfectly honest with you. It's 12 rounds, right?

It's a full 12? Ten. Ten. Sorry, ten rounds. Even then, before the first eight, I can't imagine it being stopped. I think this one's going to go to the judges, and I hate to say it because boxing judging is what boxing judging is, but we're at the mercy of what they're going to give us in two minute rounds this one's going to be

super super super close i think i mean we'll see but my hunch is that this is going to come down to this punch this wobbling in this round adding up you're right i think you're right here you just nailed it you just nailed it we're gonna it's to be a Barry Tompkins. How do you like it after a Leonard Hagler? It's going to be like that. Luke, the volume and the accuracy of Taylor mixed with those handful of moments that Serrano wobbles her or hurts her, maybe gets a knockdown.

Who knows? Damn. I do think it's going the distance too, but I think ultimately what separates them is the punching power. And it is the versatility of Serrano which we cannot forget. She can do it all. She can counter punch you from the outside.

She can out pure box you and she's got length and she knows great footwork and she can brawl too and she can punch big. She wins the decision here, Luke. I got Serrano by decision. It could very easily go to Taylor,

and I'll be the one telling you, no, I scored it the other way. I think it's going to be that close. But here's what I want. Here's the gift that they can give back to us and back to this women's sport, which is growing steadily, slowly but surely.

If they can create a need for another, maybe another. But at the very least, Luke, if they can create a need for another, maybe another, I mean, but at the very least, Luke, if we can come out of this fight Saturday night going, not only was that amazing and it's the best of what women's boxing can bring, but I got to see the sequel and I got to see it next. That's the best case scenario.

I hope you're right. But I'll just say this, may the best fighter win and may the judges accurately reflect what happens in the fight. Other than that, I don't have much else to say. Okay. I hope both women fare well is what Luke's saying. Okay, I hope they have fun.

Thank you. Luke, don't forget Jesse Vargas, Liam Smith on that undercard, 154-pound battle, which could get really fun. Don't miss out on that. Also, Saturday night, it It is time UFC fight night. Look, are we back at the damn apex? Are we? Yeah, we are.

We are. Okay. Here you go. They could not take this card on the road. Yeah. They could not take this card on the road. A hometown card here. We mentioned on Wednesday with the storylines, slim pickings on the undercard, but a few

things you might be able to talk yourself into. You don't have to talk yourself into liking Bantamweights. Rob Font, Marlon Vera, plus 105 as we speak. Is Vera your betting underdog against the minus 125 Font, even though Vera's won two in a row since losing to Jose Aldo? Rob Font, of course, fresh off the loss to Aldo, which ended his four-fight win streak. Luke, it's telling you we could see five fun-ass rounds here. Let's start here. Do we go the distance here? How are you looking at what it's going to look like when these styles match up? I do think we go the distance unless Chito gets the stoppage. I don't think Rob can finish Vera.

I mean, folks don't realize this, dude. Vera is tough as shit. Like, whatever else you want to say about him as a fighter, and he is a very good fighter, but you know, went the distance with John Lineker. I mean, you go and look, I think he went the distance with Song Yedong as well. Like this dude is fucking tough, bro. Very, very tough. So I don't really believe that Font has the firepower to put him away unless, you know, Vera makes a really critical error. And even then I don't think it's going to happen. The other way could happen because Vera has much more of a wide-open style relative to Font anyway. And, you know, he's a little bit more of a kicker than Font is,

a little bit more of a risk-taker than Font is. I think a little bit more of a submission threat, although that's a little bit dicey as well. But still, a little bit more of a submission threat than Font in certain cases anyway. So to me, what is this fight about? Rob Font, great jab, much cleaner mechanics, really sits behind it, builds offense in that way. BC 5.64 strikes per minute. That is very high. And he absorbs 3.55. That's a little on the high end, but it's a really great positive differential over two full integers. By contrast, Marlon Vera, 4.08 strikes landed per minute. That's pretty good. Strikes absorbed, 4.27.

So he's got a negative differential. Now, he can get away with it, BC, because he is so tough and so durable. But if we're scoring points, that obviously ain't great. This is a fight where if Font, pay attention to this one. It doesn't matter if he's leading or backing up? If Font is working behind the jab and Vera has a hard time negotiating the distance as a consequence, it's not a fight Vera can win. I'm looking at A, BC, Font's jab, and B, I'm looking at the leg kicking from Vera. I want to see the leg kicking from Vera. He is a prodigious kicker.

He's good at it. He has some, he's pretty heavy with him. I want to see what leg kicking from Vera. He is a prodigious kicker. He's good at it. He has some, he's pretty heavy with them. I want to see what he does to slow down Rob fonts, boxing with his Muay Thai, because he can't beat him with boxing to boxing, but he can beat them with relying on his strengths and then sort of applying them over the game of Rob font. Yeah. I think that's an accurate foundation to build that.

What we could see and how things might develop here. Two top 10 guys, number five, Rob Vaughn. I believe eight is Vera. We talked about the stakes. It puts them in that upper room. Okay, these guys, let's start fitting them for their title shot, more or less. I mean, you're gonna have to win a couple more, but you're there.

But my casual knowledge will tell you between the two, Luke, I like Vera better on the ground. Ooh. How does he get it there? Does it come through looking to shoot, or is it more, you know, if it goes there, if he ends up there, it could benefit him?

Well, I'll say this. Rob Font's takedown defense is not that great. Just 55%. That's low. That's low. For a fighter at this level, that's low. Takedown accuracy for him is 36. Takedown defense for Chido Vera, 70%, much higher. Now his takedown accuracy is a little bit low and takedown accuracy is a little bit of a misunderstood metric, but suffice to say, yeah, there are opportunities where if you're, if you're able to tie, if, if, if he can slow Rob Font down and then time him and get underneath him

or mix it in as part of a combination where Rob Font is really feeling it and has to cover and transfer the defense up top, it's absolutely in play. And plus, dude, Chito Vera can work from the back as well. I agree with you. On the ground, Chito Vera to me is much, much better. Getting Font there and holding him down, hard to do, hard to do. I mean, the totality of it obviously only has 55% takedown defense, but the totality of keeping him in those positions can be quite difficult. But dude, is it very possible that

Chito could get him down, find the back, put on the body triangle and hold around a la Aljamain Sterling to Peter Yan? Yes, it is very, very, very possible in that sense. Again, Chito cannot beat Rob Font straight up boxing. He can't do it. But there's a lot of other ways where he could make this very difficult for him. And he's got five rounds to do it. So if he's going to go the the calf kick method to try to build that foundation, there's time to work with there at the very least.

And look, if if Chito comes out and the difference in striking because Font's an excellent boxer, if that's wider than even he thought, you you know you can almost sort of take a knockdown or pull a guard to try to hope to to change that momentum as you're saying on the ground and get that control that's something to look forward to look i love when cheeto just comes out and most of the time he does but like carefree violent cheeto vera right like he mixes those two He finds the middle ground on that. And when he's flowing, right. I mean, you know, a little bit of Masvidal gangster in that, but like, I just don't think he's figured out how to really get the best out of him yet though. Like he's gotten close a couple of times. He's on the rise. He's a, he's, you know,

he's an entertaining fighter as shit, but like there's something he's still ironing out that's gonna get him to that next level i really can't put my finger on what it is luke you well he changed trainers he left colin oyama um i honestly the parts of the game that I, it was pretty fucking good, man. Um, maybe the boxing actually, maybe the pure boxing is the thing that his boxing as a part of a tie boxing game is pretty good. His pure boxing by itself is the part that could be a trouble.

But then, you know, we're, we're looking at the Edgar fight here. I also just wouldn't want to take away his game where he's excelled, like with the elbows, with the front kick right up the middle like he did when when Edgar never saw it coming like that's the Chito Vera especially you don't want to take him away from that but I do think having a few more options in the boxing space to round out your game could really help him because he is tough he is durable he is in good shape he is well-rounded just adding that little extra component could do a lot for him I mean he has insanely great violent explosions, right? Of like, you know, combinations and swerves.

But you'd like to see him maintain. You'd like to see him. I mean, like, he's pretty damn technically strong, too. He's ready. He's ready to go here, Luke. Yet, he's the betting underdog. We know of Font's background, the win streak. Dude, he looked impressive as shit during that win streak,

which ended with Jose Aldo. Do you believe that Font can get right back on the horse and continue to grow? Because some guys, when they get leveled out, more or less, they stay that way, or they go in the other direction. Do you see Rob Font as a guy that can bounce right back here and win this big fight? Yes, absolutely.

Rob Font is well-trained. He is very experienced. I think he absolutely believes in himself too, which is a really key component of it. The Garbrandt win, I think, did a lot for his confidence. And he got outclassed by Jose Aldo, but so what? Jose Aldo is Jose Aldo. I think he took a lot from that experience. And I don't think he just believes he can win, but in the individual components of his game, like you actually talked to him about his jab and his boxing, these are things he really takes a lot of pride in because he's put a lot of work into them.

He is going in there, not a doubt in my mind, to win because he not only believes he's the better fighter, I think he believes he's the more technical fighter. And in the space in which he operates, that's generally going to be true. That's the key for Marlon Vera. Chito cannot let this be, like, if this is a, it cannot look like a Rob Font fight.

It cannot, because he cannot win that way. It has to look more like a wide-open kind of fight. And if it gets wide-open, or Vera's retreating or something, or excuse me, Font's retreating, then that's winnable. But as long as, you know, this guy's doing this and then sticking the jab out and he's on his way, he will win. It's funny. I was just talking about, you know, long-term,

maybe Chito needs to siphon the violence a little so it can sustain better. But, Luke, those violent outbursts, the dramatic swings of momentum, they're kind of what Chito seems to thrive on right you know what i mean like he he responds well in those moments so look very very well like we saw at the top font could be piecing him up early maybe i do need to see a violent chance taking vera to to dramatically try to take back the momentum when he feels he's lost it maybe that's where he's the most dangerous. I don't feel like it's a great long-term plan to maximize yourself necessarily, but you can swing and connect your way to big opportunities fighting like that.

I will say this too, something we haven't talked about. We mentioned it briefly, the durability of Vera. Looking at these slides, remember Font went the full distance with Cody and couldn't put him away. I'm not saying that Font can't punch hard he can he has some stoppages what i am saying is you know dude you have to hit hit vera with a fucking sledgehammer if you want any hope of putting him on the canvas and i don't think vera excuse me i don't think um i don't think rob font can do that so one element of danger here is not really all the various skills that a guy like Chito

Rivera possesses. And those are significant. On top of that, if you don't put him away, dude, he's going to be right in your face in the fifth round. He does not get tired. You know, Rob Font's ability to stick behind the jab and use lateral movement is great, but that's going to be tested here because I don't, I really have a hard time seeing him substantially hurt Chito Vera I can see him winning rounds based off you know scoring the more effective damage or whatever but I cannot see him substantively like really hurting Vera and for those reasons and MMA being as chaotic as it is BC if Vera is still in this fifth round and maybe he lost the first four but he's not hurt dude he's gonna come out like a fucking bat out of hell after Rob Font, and that will be very, very difficult for him.

Pay attention to that. Dude, the fan in me wants Vera to win this because, you know, he's fun. He's fun as shit to watch, Luke, and I think he's getting great. He's slowly becoming very, very good. Man, Font might do this. Just piece him up over five rounds, play it technical like he always does this is the type of opponent that that strategy works the best against luke for rob font if he's going to just be that hard punching technical fighter just constantly shut off the the barriers of

entry for vera he may be able to do this and sustain this over five rounds and win and win a clear decision so um i'm going Rob Font here, Luke. I don't care what you think about that, though, at all. I'll say this. It's not like losing to Rob Font is some kind of chump move. Rob Font is very good. But what I would say is if Chito can't figure out a way after five rounds to get around what Rob Font is doing,

that would be something of a major setback for him. Not a setback in the sense that you lost to somebody great. That's not a setback. But if Rob Font wins in that way so which is to say cheeto loses in that way you know there might be a little bit of moment of reflection about like how is it possible i could not get around this guy's jab for basically 25 minutes it would be a moment of reflection there oh of course he could go in there and beat his fucking ass in which case none of this is relevant but um just the the the results here could tell you a lot man it could tell you a lot i actually love this fight i think it's great yeah it's very good do you think the winner here is more likely to fight somebody in and around the same position as them like a devalish wheelie or luke do you

see them fighting a higher rank guy coming off a loss like a Sanhagen? Yeah, you might get the Sanhagen one because these guys will then move in. For Chito, this would put him top five. For Rob, this would be like firm stamp top five. And then we've talked about it. Four on up are all those guys who we think either could or do have the title.

Yeah, it's got to be. And Sanhagen's looking for a bounce-back one, and I think if Chito beats Font, that's great. If Font wins, that's great. The winner of this clearly puts themselves in a position for some of the very top dogs in this division. Sanhagen needs to get back. And, yeah, I love that idea.

I think that's exactly the route that they go. And I would welcome it. Luke, far from a deep card under it, something to note, they rescheduled that heavyweight bout i think it's on the prelims still it might be the feature prelim when alexander romanov the unbeaten takes on chase sherman luke romanov a minus 2200 betting favorite so wow wow right there luke he has been a hammer dude he is on a nice run he is good he's a good fighter all right but when you look up and down this card, Luke, all right, what, what's going to be the best

fight? That's a, that's question a and question B, which fight, who can benefit the most from a win on this undercard? Well, to your point, um, if, if Romanov loses to chase Sherman, I would consider that chase Sherman's best win. Romanov's good. And chase Sherman would, I mean, that would be a big, I mean, coming would consider that Chase Sherman's best win. Romanov's good. And Chase Sherman would, I mean, that would be a big, coming in on late notice on top of it. Like, that would be a really good win for him.

I'm going to say pay attention. I've said it on Wednesday. I'll repeat it again. Tetsuro Taira. I don't know how to pronounce his last name. I don't speak Japanese. This guy's a fucking beast. He is good.

Out of Vale Tudo, Japan, I believe. Yeah, I believe in Vale Tudo, Japan. Dude, I think he's undefeated as well. He is on tape. On tape, he looks amazing. On tape, he looks amazing. So we'll see what he can do here against a guy who doesn't have a great profile, Carlos Candelario. We'll see.

But I have my eye on him. It's funny, man. When I first got into MMA you know right around the 2000s well I mean I've been watching it for longer than that but like you know getting reacquainted with it

in the early 2000s dude there were elite Japanese fighters everywhere except maybe the heavyweight division and then Fujita rocked Fedor and you're like shit Fujita might do it here too and now they've kind of been depleted

now that the polar the major poles so to speak of uh mma have shifted over to north america and to south america or you know um brazil anyway and you know other countries now um you you people have lost sight of the fact that japan used to be a fucking factory of elite guys but there are still some coming out of there that are worthy of your respect we'll see what happens with tetsuro Taira on Saturday, but he is one to keep your eye on for sure.

Looks like they got a sweatshop there of fighters. Yeah. I don't know about sweatshop, but they're going to produce them. Luke, I'm telling you right now, Darren Elkins and Tristan Connolly are going to go to war, Luke. It's going to be interesting. It's going to be sloppy. Feely and Brito as well. Yeah, it's going to look like the backside of a of a 7-eleven in middle america luke right that's

where that's where you hang out and inevitably inevitably the fight's going to break out we saw mcdonald's parking lots and have you seen this shit i grew up in a place luke that gets down in a mcdonald's parking lot all right um i've never gotten busy in a burger king bathroom though i mean who i mean who has, right? Disgusting people, also great rappers. Great rappers, great rappers indeed. Luke, I have nothing else to say, really, about this UFC card, okay? Yeah, no, the card's not great.

Oh, sorry, quickly, quickly. Andre Feely, Luke. I said Feely versus Brito. We want Feely to be really good and enter title contention and there's times I mean dude he beat Charles Jordan by split decision there's times that you go oh he's ready now he's coming off a clear loss to Bryce Mitchell and then a no contest is there still time Luke I mean this you know he's got flashes of brilliance I say this I said it on Wednesday it's worth repeating go back and watch the fight with Bryce Mitchell

yes Bryce Mitchell won he won fairly but you compare that to what Edson Barbosa did Feely gave him a significantly harder time and probably took the second round I would argue maybe so it was 1-1 heading into the third or something close to that and then Bryce put it on him late and Bryce is Bryce Bryce is very very talented

as we now know. So, like, to me, yes, some work for Feely to do in the grappling department. As it relates to that, this fight, Mayer probably won't test that, so this is going to be more of a striking affair. But remember, he gave Sadiq Youssef all he could handle for a while as well. Like, Feely has always been, like, right there, right there, right there. This would be a good chance against somebody who doesn't have quite the names of, you know, Bryce Mitchell or Sitchell or or uh sadiq yusuf but a very talented guy just the same

in joe anderson brito uh to really re-establish himself and get back in the in the winning column so tough fight good fight winnable for feely but it'll be interesting to see how it goes luke did you ever see that movie that uh mr faber co-financed that andre feely starred in it was a weed thriller dude i have a voiceover in it i'm in that movie oh dude you're you're right you're in the opening scene we have talked about this okay yeah we have talked about this luke i i took you know a free copy of that in in in exchange of interviewing faber and it was you know it's fun whatever it's great faber's great but then i watched the movie luke and i i went from going oh man this this is low

budget and it sucks to you know know, this is actually pretty good. You know, they're doing an interesting twist to, oh, my God, this is violent as shit, dude. Like, wow, this one's crazy. Luke, that's a good watch. Did you watch the movie? I have not seen it. I have not seen it. Okay, I need you to watch it.

Touchy Feely's good in it, too. You're not the only person to tell me that, by the way. Someone else has told me that, too. I forget who, but I've heard it from a few different places. I think it was maybe my coworkers at SiriusXM back in the day. I mean, it's like a January 6th thriller, the movie. It's great, Luke. A lot of people will love it.

It's fun and games. All right, that's it for the UFC card, Luke. Let's go quickly to topic five. I think we've got a John Jones update, Luke. There's been some tweeting. And here's a John Jones tweet regarding his possible return. It says, Stipe is saying he will be at his absolute peak in September. I'm disappointed, but patient.

I want the heavyweight goat at his absolute best. I'll wait until September. No excuses. Luke, you and I, by the way, both have interviews to watch right now on YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. You talked to Rosnama Yunus yesterday. I talked to Juliana Pena the day before, so everybody check out both of them.

They're great. But Pena was like, I want to be on the Joan Stipe card against Amanda in September. I want the money. I want to be on the big one. Luke, it's starting to feel like it's want to be on the Jones-Stipe card against Amanda in September. I want the money. I want to be on the big one. Luke, it's starting to feel like it's going to happen. Not July like UFC wanted, but maybe in September. We get

there? No hiccups? Interim title? Let's do this. I mean, your many a man has been, you know, what is it? The best laid plans of mice and men, right? I hope. I hope hope but i'll also say i don't want folks to forget this everyone wants to just forget this dude had all these like insane life problems you know we're just supposed to forget about that because he's

a prize fighter on some level that's not our business on some level to an extent it can be either way though the thing i care most about to be honest with you like i only want john jones fighting if he's actually like really trying to get healthy if he's actually not trying to get healthy he's just doing the same old bullshit in one method or the other then i really don't give a fuck if he ever comes back to be to be quite candid so um we'll see like i i would like i i'll believe it when i see it i'm not saying it's not gonna happen but with john man like you cannot firmly make plans with this dude you cannot like dinner plans or like any free business life plans scheduling plans anything he is simply not reliable which isn't to say that

every time it falls through but he is not consistent enough all right i'm gonna be the blind optimist we're gonna get this fight's going to be for the interim title. I mean, look, this is a pretty badass fucking fight to sell. It's like the greatest heavyweight of all time under our banner against not only the greatest light heavyweight who's moving up, but the greatest fighter of all time. I mean, look, dude, Jon Jones is the GOAT, Luke. I mean, he's the damn GOAT.

Yes, he is. I mean, everyone wants to talk about Hamzat's rise, and maybe people were disappointed. Maybe they weren't with the last fight. I'll just say this. On all my time, I've never seen anyone else do what Jon did. Yes, he is. I mean, everyone wants to talk about Hamzat's rise, and maybe people were disappointed. Maybe they weren't with the last fight. I'll just say this. On all my time, I've never seen anyone else do what John did. I live right through his ascension, and I've not seen anyone else do that.

Dude, there are great fighters in all combat sports that come on the scene, and sometimes they're flashy, and you don't know if you want to believe them, and usually your test to decide whether you're going to give in and love them is, they have that backbone do they have those intangibles dude forget personally john's got issues the recurring issues but in the in the fight surface in this in the cage luke he's a genius he's a not only a genius he's a 10 out of freaking 10, rock solid chin punch resistance, ability to navigate while hurt.

I mean, Luke, that's why he's the GOAT at the end of the day. The flashy stuff, the long arms, the IQ, all that stuff can get you there too. But to also be that dude at the end of the day, and now we're going to see him against a Stipe who every time I doubt him, Luke, he comes through with something huge and knocks out daniel cormier you know what i'm saying this could be this could be an epic an epic battle um or it couldn't or it ends up being one-sided one way or the other either john has completely recaptured all of the greatness that he once had and he'll tear into him or steepay finds another gear and john can't get over by the way the other part is he's been gone what three years or some shit at that point like some

crazy ass long layoff like what's he gonna look like after all that time is he gonna be rusty like i mean you know you know what can happen when roy jones got knocked out by tarver dude it was like i think in sports history that's one of the biggest gut punch moments ever. No matter who you, if you were a fan of Roy or not, to see the, you know, like the guy, to see the Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan of the sport at that time, you know, just hit that wall. And of course it happened again in the next fight against Glenn Johnson. But it was just like, oh my God, it's over. Like they, they caught up to him.

Like they, and it's over. Like that's also in play sadly for Jones as well Luke you know what I mean that's why yes I think him being out so long has really added back some juice and almost romance to the idea of him coming back with all these uncertainties like like I'm not saying it's great for his life I'm saying just to be juiced up for a fight it's all there with this it's all that momentum yeah this could be this could be uh depending if you're a steepay or jones fan epically disappointing epically disappointing in the sense of not a bad fight per se but steepay looks old as shit or john looks like he hadn't

picked up a fucking you know uh uh mma glove to hit pads or whatever in three years like i mean i'm not sure i'm sure that's not the case in either direction but who knows exactly what level you're going to get we know what they're at at their best or what we think is their best do we get more than that do we get less than that like there's there's no way to know there's just no way to know and so this is why they got to fight it out uh quickly look we had uh the second card on the 2022 PFL season on Thursday night. I fell asleep at my desk watching it. Yeah, from Arlington, Texas. To put you – there should be like – if they could have a fighting cage

smart enough, Luke, to know that and sense that and wake you up with a text message. You know, I got a feeling, BC, that that cage ain't all that smart. I really am beginning to question that brand. Dude, I bet you that cage has access to your search history. Like, I guarantee it, dude. That cage is way smarter than you realize. If I turn the cage upside down, does it spell the word boobs? I hope.

I do hope. Anyway, Luke, it did go down at Esports Stadium Arlington. Wow, that's a thing, Luke. Look, I watched it. It was fun. It was a fun watch. I'm only saying that. I want to be clear. I'm not hating on PFL. I only fell asleep because I. Look, I watched it. It was fun. It was a fun watch. I'm only saying that. I want to be clear.

I'm not hating on PFL. I only fell asleep because I was sick and I took medicine. I'm not saying it was some shit show. It was fine. It was good. It was good. It's worth talking about the heavyweight main event, though, because Bruno Capoloza from Brazil won the-

Dude, is he the most reliable guy in the PFL for just balls out action? So he wins last year's heavyweight tournament is involved in some really fun fights but yet it's durable as shit and you know kind of has a glover to share an edge to him in some ways like you kind of see that swagger maybe it's just the bald head but luke he came back in even better shape dude he's bricked off man like he's lean and muscular and ready to do damage and he put it on Stuart Austin here uh you know the power it it moved Austin and it moved him to the canvas Luke um damn we saw some ground action from Bruno as well Luke I don't know how old this guy is but like he's coming on a bit

like we gotta watch out for him yeah dude he's great I mean this is this is what you love about pfl is like is every fight great do you like all the tournaments and there's a lot that goes into watching the pfl experience but one of the better parts i like is listen ufc and dan and white's contender series are not going to discover every interesting fighter in the space it's not going to happen even if they have close to or at monopolistic control the industry there's going to be other places if you're an mma fan and you want to see the best MMA fights, yes, the majority of them are going to be in the UFC, but a lot of them are going to be in PFL and Bellator and One

and other kinds of places. And it's worth looking around and seeing what else is out there. This has been such, whoever scouted and found this guy, could he have the same success if he was fighting the very best in his weight class in UFC? I don't know, but I don't want want to know i like exactly what he's doing i don't need anything else from bruno other than exactly what he has done it's been to your point he won last season's tournament so he has already enriched himself and made himself a bit of a name and this guy is

fucking reliable for just insane punishing action every single time, winning one round last night, or less than a round. So I just love everything about what he's doing. I like that PFL found him. I like that they feature him at the top of cards. This is great. Dude, PFL has found not just Bruno Caballazo, but other guys, Haushman, Theo, and a bunch of other ones who are like, wow, these guys are great.

And seeing the shape he was in luke it reminded me of like when the first season of a tv show does better than people thought and it gets popular and then the off season even the nerdy characters are coming back bricked up with like you know nice haircuts and stuff because they because they want to be stars this guy came back ready to get noticed this year and um yes i i wonder what his ceiling is you know i mean he he's six'2". At first glance, he sort of looks like an undersized heavyweight, but he doesn't fight like one, Luke.

You know, he fights like a banger. No, he fights like a marauder. Yeah, and he's got some technical. He's just a come forward puncher. And we did see his gas tank tested last season, too. You know, he was in some crazy fights. So keep your eyes on him. But, Luke, did you see the other heavyweight uh

guy jumping through your screen here six foot eight henan fajeda did you see his 25 second ko i saw the uh i saw the ko on social media i did not watch the fight a lot oh my i mean he ran over him luke and like i looked him up last year he was the guy who fought to that no contest with verdum and then had two wins but i don't think he advanced to the playoffs or i don't know if he was And, like, I looked him up last year. He was the guy who fought to that no contest with Verdum and then had two wins, but I don't think he advanced to the playoffs, or I don't know if he was pulled from the tournament. I don't know what happened, Luke.

But he's, you know, he hasn't lost in the PFL. He's monstrous. This will be interesting. If he gets to the end against Capoloza, Luke, that'll be an interesting fight. Who was the guy that fought in Pride they used to call monstro or um oh there was this giant brazilian dude who was like six eight six nine i mean on a poster

could not be more intimidating and then every time he's over no no no no giant silver was like a seven footer this guy was bald-headed i'll find his name but he would fight in uh in pride and you'd be like you know they would do the the the ring introductions and they'd look over him and you'd be like god damn and his name was so intimidating like oh no no no no no no he was he was very muscular he had a bald head was you know was a big old fat dude who now does slap fighting in russia what i'm trying to make you what is he some big fat person? He would get... Dude, you would look across the ring

and you'd be like, oh my God, what man alive could beat this dude? And then he would get flatlined every time. He was shitty at fighting. He wasn't very good. I'll find his name. So he's Bob Sapp. I got it now, Luke.

I got it. No, Bob Sapp just quit. This guy didn't quit. He would just lose. Yo, Bob Sapp was in some bangers before he started quitting all the rest of them, Luke. I mean, he was in some all or nothing affairs. Wow. Luke, were you moved at all by featherweight Chris Wade putting another L on Lance Palmer here by unanimous decision?

Somewhat surprised. Somewhat surprised in the sense of, i thought you know palmer has won this tournament what two at least two times uh yeah but he's not doing well lately luke okay you know he has certainly run into some problems since then um there's no doubt 35 he's lost three in a row yeah he's a little bit older now but dude i mean lance palmer is one of those guys that like forfeited ever going to like a major show to make as much money as possible and he did and i don't think people realize like lance palmer has made more than a ton of very high level popular ufc fighters he doesn't have the people you know marching him down in public for autographs in the same way but that bank account is looking nice yeah he's probably got a shit ton of doge luke that doge coin player uh luke also in the featherweight bracket brendan

locken the man who was uh denied a dana white contract despite uh winning that fight because he wrestled too much uh luke he had to go to the wrestling in this one because ryoji kudo was putting it on him hammer time I saw that dropped him but then Kudo had the cut on his head and they were like no no he can't continue on the hairline I thought that was interesting but we go to a technical decision and Lockton gets the win here

Luke 29-28 across the board I don't know man Kudo could have won that but Brendan was turning things around it felt like he sort of escaped with it though to some degree well well brendan locked in is very good you know he's got a lot of ability including when you know the ability to fight out of uh deficits and whatnot so that is not altogether surprising but again you know they're not the ufc is not going to find every great piece of talent from everywhere another guy from japan is worth taking seriously also bc i found the guy who i was talking about it's ricardo moraish and uh he fought at pride eight uh he got beat by mark

coleman he fought at pride bushido six he got beat by alexander emilianenko and then they gave him lee taehyung and he won that one via tko at eight minutes of pride fc final conflict absolute six eight six nine 270 pounds he looked the motherfucking part but he usually got his ass whooped at the higher level so yeah but did he wear a wife beater in the octagon like my man harold howard okay i mean that's coming on dude i mean seriously did you see those kit those those like running flip kicks that uh howard was trying to hit too what do you call that luke uh an act no a rolling thunder. Yeah, he was just breaking those things out.

It was similar to that guitar solo that Marty McFly did in the 1955 Enchantment Under the Sea dance, Luke. Isn't that amazing? It's like, dude, they're like, it's like, hey, you know this music that black dudes invented? Let's send a white dude back in time to take it from him. It's like, I don't know if y''t really thought this through that was that was a commentary i didn't realize that no well one of the greatest movies of all time and he's like i was like and then the other black dude's like calling chuck berry on the phone's like you gotta hear this kid it's like

y'all just stole chuck berry shit on this one okay all right it all right. It was his cousin. Yeah, Luke. Wow, okay. Too bad Jay Aaron ruined it by doing this giant documentary where he interviews Michael J. Fox and stuff. Did anybody see that? I mean, did anybody see that? No, it's on Hulu again. Dude, shout out to Jay Aaron. Dude, he lingers, okay?

He's like the cranberry. He's like the COVID in my lungs. Yeah. I mean, do you care about anything else Luke uh Bubba Jenkins taking a decision from Kyle Bokniak you got Shaman Rice decisioning Boston Salmon I think Jenkins uh dropped his opponent like three or four times but if you watch the end of the fight Jenkins had a fucked up eye like he got out when I think he got he got a little lucky I guess I would say I mean he won handily in the sense of who was the better fighter but it was one of those things where it's like

out of Ali and Tyson Fury if the cut you know it wasn't a cut in this case but like if an injury could have derailed it all of a sudden like his eye was messed up at the end so good win for Bubba Jenkins getting back on the horse but got a little at the end there yeah yeah hey Pfl you did it again there luke it was a fun watch so thank you hey can the pfl smart cage fix my cold can it fix my colon i mean please come on can the pfl smart cage do anything other than house fighters which by the way a dumb cage can do just as well it can show you the uh miles per hour of your body movements and and uh and yes bc what does it mean if a punch is 21 miles an hour versus being let's say 22 it all depends on the torque luke at the end of the day okay um that's it for topics this week luke but since we say since we say a lot of bullshit into this

microphone we do give you an option to call us out on it morning combat at gmail.com is the emailed home of our address for wednesday's fan subs and every friday when we take a chance of sitting on that l and telling you how it feels like because one time we was dead dead wrong gotcha yeah all right uh we start with adam dude do we is it one guy or do we have like 50 people named adam that watch the show i think there's just a lot of people who are like hey what's the nickname of your kid i don't know motherfucking adam or whatever yeah all right yeah uh they say hey luke um at 136 of monday's show you stated that liam badko had a crazy fight for one championship that's dead wrong the fighter you are looking for is liam harrison it's understandable because you have to shit like kish sorry uh shit like kish but you are a fax person check them next time kidding oh dude did they did

they really do this did they just did they just fucking put a gun in their mouth on this one liam harrison is liam badko you fucking idiot it's the same guy liam badko is his is his motherfucking is there his instagram handle oh you know, dude, no, no, no, you might, you will not sex the Mutombo. Look, you just absolutely wants to sex the Kim Bay. Not this fucking idiot, bro. It's the same fucking guy.

It's like, bro, that was not Batman. That was Bruce Wayne. Motherfucker. That is Bruce Wayne. Oh, Finkel is Einhorn,

dude. All right. Yeah. Big old Mr. Kanish. Okay. Yeah, there's, there it? Big old Mr. Knish. Okay. Yeah, there's, there it is right on time. Thank you very much.

God, dude, people, I swear to God, man. Does anyone double check their shit? Does anyone double check their shit? Not a single person. Daryl's hair. He says, happy Friday donks on Wednesday's episode at the beginning of topic one. When discussing font versus Vera, Luke says, quote, both of these guys are coming off wins

of some of the bigger names of the division. Yeah, that's wrong. Yeah, Luke is dead wrong. Font was actually coming off the loss to Aldo. Thanks for the fantastic show. Have an amazing weekend. It's Daryl. All right.

Very polite. See, that's an L. I'll take that L. I had forgotten. I thought for some reason in my mind, I had thought that the Garbrandt fight was the last fight that's an L. I'll take that L. I had forgotten. I thought for some reason in my mind, I had thought that the Garbrandt fight was the last fight that he had had, like sequentially. So that was the reason I got that wrong.

But that is wrong. That is very wrong. All right. Hi, Luke and Brian. Dia Stefano, he even gave me a pronunciation, showed me how to do it, from Chicago here. And I'm including the pronunciation. So B.C.

A.K.A. T.O. Gringo doesn't mispronounce it, but wouldn't be surprised if he still does. This dead wrong is for Luke on episode two ninety four this past Wednesday when discussing weekend storylines, specifically with Andre Arlovsky being back. Luke said his last loss didn't come until Tom Aspinall, which was in February of 2010. I don't think a 17-year-old Aspinall

would have been able to get the drop on Arlovsky back then, but a 27-year-old would. The fight actually happened on February 20th, 2021, where Aspinall got a sub-two. Probably just a case of the Wednesdays for Luke. Loved the show and happy belated birthday

to violetta stay washed up gentlemen and yeah thank you thank you by the way everyone mispronounces my daughter's name everywhere we go yes it's like hey uh is violetta here i'm like no violetta's here you fucking jerk job but anyway um hey hey is that too is that tuki yeah yeah yeah that's great i should just start putting tuki on her fucking things anyway uh yeah that's i don't know what the fuck i was why i said that but that's quite clearly wrong so i'll take that all right all right hey here we go uh this one's from greg on mondays have you seen this shit while discussing future bellator megastar danny sabatello bc was dead wrong when he stated that sabatello's win over jornel lugo came via submission my guy bc must be more washed than we thought in suffering from short-term

memory loss because danny's victory actually came in the form of a dominant ud not a submission p.s rafi on stats is a goddamn lock to win this grand prix and you better believe he's gonna break dance all over sergey pettis's butt at bum ass wrestling defense when the time comes wow this guy greg he's wow he's yeah he's he said it luke yeah yeah yeah all right this one's from sahi at 4916 of Wednesday's show. Luke says that the Ovechkin quote that the local cabs blog is named after is Russian machine don't break. The quote is, in fact, Russian machine never breaks. And the blog shares this name. Love the show.

Go cabs. And Luke, thanks for always repping the DMV and India. It's Sahi, Luke. Wow, yeah. Do I rep India? I don't know. I mean, I don't not rep India. He's slowly removing that from his Wikipedia page right now.

Yes, yes. That's funny. That's funny. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I'm sorry about that. I thought it was Russian Machine Don't Break, but it's never break. Yeah.

It's a good one. I break it on occasion. One more for you, Luke. It's from Michael and Oscar. I've been told that this is not actually a dead wrong, in which case I'm going to fucking murder this guy. But go ahead. In this Friday's episode,

when talking about Liz Karmush competing for the belt or flyweight belt, Luke said, quote, I always cheer for former Marines. That's right. I do. Yeah, that's dead wrong.

There's no such thing as a former marine bc bc i keep doing this and i keep having people who want to come at the king and they just like i cannot imagine how many i don't understand why people sign up and say hey luke can you please dunk on me in public and i'm like well i guess i like taking requests so i'll do that you fucking jackass former marine is not only acceptable it is the preferred way to refer to someone what you cannot say and what marines get mad about hello i was in the marine corps for seven motherfucking years is you cannot call them an ex-Marine. That's what you cannot call them.

That is when they get pissed. Calling them a former Marine is actually not just acceptable, it's the preferred method. So lick my motherfucking balls, you pogue civilian nasty piece of shit. Wow. Wow. Wow. misdirected hostility yeah right do not come to me with i'm gonna tell this marine how it actually goes in the marine corps you don't know shit i lived a life i stood on the yellow footprints of paris island do not lecture me about what we say you are you do not rate i rate sit down now somebody get me my leather european man bag

where the hell's my vape pen all right there we go i got it i got it i'm scared if i i'm scared if i if i if i pull one that it's gonna to end up coughing up my lungs. Yes. Can you keep that away from Tukey? Thank you very much. Yes, I always do. Morningcombat at gmail.com Also, once again, your email address if you want to send in your own dead wrongs, fan subs, whatever. Don't forget every

Sunday night, only on Instagram at Morning Combat, we put out the feelers for DMs from donks. You can leave your questions there. Here are our thirst trap follow links here. If you want to get involved on some, get inside Luke. You want to get inside Luke Thomas? That's where you can do that.

All right. Yeah. We don't need Elon Musk for that, Luke. Yeah, man. You see, you've been following Valerie Laredo on Instagram. Dude, one of the co-hosts of the show constantly texts me pictures of her IG updates, so I don't have to, Luke, okay? Apparently, you know?

I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. I have never heard of that. Wasn't me. Yeah, yeah. Just got to bring out the shaggy defense, bro. They even did it in the bathroom? Wow, yeah.

All right. Thank you. I think that's it, Luke. That's all I got. it luke that's all i got that's the whole show okay that's the whole enchilada um all right bro what are you doing this weekend uh watching boxing and doing a morning combat instant reaction after both main events come saturday night i am probably going to be i'm thinking about it i'm going to be dying of full-blown aids i'm guessing by saturday um but if that doesn't happen if i don't die uh i am going to take my kid to gymnastics training and uh wow yeah and then have a picnic on sunday with the fam what nationality

is her coach hopefully romanian luke no american american oh dude i'm not trying to turn her into some olympian she just likes hanging from the monkey bars and you know running around the little kid gym that's right hey have fun tookie you deserve it okay happy third birthday from from uncle gringo over here luke okay part of the bro she got so many fucking gifts it's on dude i can't believe it's a man i gotta tell you i cannot it's it's i didn't know what it was like to have a family that like super cares about you until she came around and then i saw what her her colombian family dude they flew here from colombia just for her third fucking birthday gifts in tow like like she had won the fucking lottery or something i've never seen anything like that meanwhile my family didn't even call to get it wish her a happy birthday father luke she did win that lottery

okay luke i guess so bro i guess so okay let's embrace that um we love you folks out there thank you for for liking the show following following us, all that good stuff. Take care of yourself, okay? Folks, have a great weekend. Shouting out Long Island Luke, Gaff, Corey, our Mikey Moore, our team behind the scenes.

There's more than just them. That guy RJ makes a bunch of merch. In fact, hold on. Speaking of that merch, morningcombat.store, get 10% off right now. Use the code LIVE10 and you could be drinking out of this mug while you wear this hat. And, you know, yeah, yeah, man.

There we go. But thank you to our team, our listeners. I just love fighting, and we got a bunch of great fights this weekend. So buckle up. Enjoy them. Sometimes boxing wins, right? Sometimes, Luke. Okay?

Sometimes. Not with our audience, but sometimes um that's luke thomas my name is brian campbell i got two more words for you we out of here