MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Conor McGregor | Power Slap League Pay | Recent Fight News | Over-Under | Ep. 401

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

On episode 401 of Morning Kombat the guys start the show by reacting to the news that Conor McGregor has been accused of assaulting a women back in July of 2022. What does this mean for Conor's future? Next up the guys discuss the reports of how much Dana White's Power Slap League competitors make. The boys also discuss some recent fight news and react to Lauren Murphy's defense of her corner. The guys close out the show with Over-Under. (00:06:00) - Conor McGregor (00:29:20) - Power Slap League Pay (00:44:00) - Recent Fight News (01:02:50) - Lauren Murphy (01:14:20) - Over/Under Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher 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

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Reveille, reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. 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. Hey, it's hump day. It's Wednesday. Go hump something, but make sure you do it normally and consensually.

Hi, everyone. It's Morning Combat. We're here to hump you, I guess. I don't even know. We might even hump each other. It's that kind of show. What's up? I'm merely one half of your hosting duo.

I join you from the capital of Los Santos, Unidos. It's Morning Combat. I'm Luke Thomas. And there is my partner in humping. It's Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian Campbell. Hey, Tui. Yeah.

Let's, yeah. Indeed. Hey, great to see,, let's, yeah. Indeed. Hey, great to see, Luke, you now attracting sponsors that can help hide your search history from not just your family, but the world at large. So very happy to welcome PIA on board. Yes, you know what? I need something to help disguise my absolutely sick and twisted habits. So glad they're on board to help me do that.

Hi, everyone. Wednesday's show for you today. We're going to play a little over under. We're going to react to some of the news that's out there related to connor related to some lauren murphy related to some slap league i think by the way bc am i wrong i believe episode two of slap dick league is tonight and we'll have that right oh they're having them back on tbs that's that's yeah it's not an automatic cancel it wasn't the discovery channel uh pulling the plug on the fighters after one episode, but,

um, it, I think it is tonight. I have to double check that. I'll double check. But anyway, we'll, we got some news about that.

We'll react to and a whole bunch more. So thumbs up on the video. If you're watching, please hit subscribe. Uh, let's see what else there. Good stuff. You can email the show morning,

combat at gmail.com as always. And, uh, yeah. How about some showtime? Showtime.com 30 day free trials, right? some showtime showtime.com 30-day free trials right you can like it you can keep it if not you can go do something else with your life that's the deal right but it's free uh 99 for at least a little while so go check that out also

want to remind folks hey dan hardy's gonna join us february 8th live in the uk we're gonna be in london england at king's place you can your tickets still. It's the last leg of tickets. That's where we're at. That's our update. It's the last leg, basically. Right, BC? I mean, look, you were online fighting with some of our fans over, you know, are we going to announce another big name as a guest?

We're still in the process of locking all that down, but it's coming, and, you know, I don't know how people can be that disappointed. The outlaw Dan Hardy could headline this show alone, Luke. Can't wait to hang out with him, talk some shop with him. Other special guests to come, not just in the live show, but the whole couple day trip that we're going to be there. It's going to be a special time for one time only, MK, in the UK.

I'm not sure they'll let me back over the pond after this. I might get appletinned, Luke, but either way, it's going to be a fun one time. Get your tickets. Don't miss this, okay? You know, you live in one of those places, right? Scotland, the Geordie Shore, Cardiff, Wales, and you're like, man, this is my show. This is the only time they're going to be there? How am I going to get there?

Just get there, all right? Just get there. Thank you. Just get there. Just go. Just find a way. I wasn't arguing with all the fans. I was arguing with one fan who was like,

the announcement for the UK was top three disappointing announcements in mk history i'm like well jesus i'd love to know what the other two were but more to the point more to the point it's like you have no idea what you're talking about like that you don't understand there might be value beyond just the london show i get but maybe have a little bit of humility to recognize that like there are larger forces at play here uh that i think could it is depending on how things go pay dividends to a lot of different folks please be serious come on now good lord just very as triple g would say are you serious are serious right now max are you serious uh all right BC. I believe that's it for things off the break, right?

So with that in mind, let's get to our first topic. What else would it be? What else would it be other than the biggest star in MMA still somehow hasn't fought in forever. And that's still that guy, Conor McGregor. So there was an incident about six months ago that we knew Connor was at least allegedly involved in but then the person who was the victim in the case either recanted her story or changed it such that the police didn't go after connor but then she has i guess uh changed her story or depending on how you want to look at it um now you're getting the honest version because the story is weird so mma mania was the one who

first caught wind of this although they're not the original one to report it. Basically, here's the allegation, BC. The allegation is that McGregor and a woman who he had recognized from home, he was on some yacht in the Ibiza area outside of Spain, or in Spain anyway, Spain waters. And they initially interacted amicably. He invited her on to his yacht, whatever yacht he was on. And then at some point later, for reasons that remain unclear, he allegedly became violent.

He is accused of kicking the woman in her stomach, punching her in the chin, and then threatening, I'm going to drown you. Who do you think you are? It's left off on the notes here, but it should be noted that also she jumped off the ship and was rescued, believe by the red cross or the coast guard some kind of uh you know very important agency dealing with a very serious situation that part to me is like why did this person flee a yacht and then have to be rescued from the whole thing it's all kind of weird mcgregor's lawyer issued a statement bc quote

mr mcgregor is steadfast in his denial of all the accusations made by a guest on his boat. So that confirms, by the way, she was on the boat. And then Kavanaugh, uh, John Kavanaugh said to Ariel,

apparently on Connor's return. We'll talk about that in just a second. BC, the details are not great. He was initially not part of it. Now it apparently appears to be, he is back in contention for having committed this crime with both, I think,

civil and criminal penalties at least possible your reaction to this news yeah look i mean obviously first and foremost you know unlike some of the other recent headlines we've seen in combat sports with people stepping outside of the boundaries of the of the law or good taste we don't have video to confirm this so you know i'm sure there will end up being some form of a trial where Conor is innocent until proven guilty. But my reaction in general is unfortunately, you know, I hate to hate to bring humor into this. But Nate Diaz, I'm not surprised, mother effer, because of the way Conor McGregor has conducted himself publicly, particularly since the third Dustin Poirier fight in the summer of 2021, which was the last time we've seen him in his actual day job. You know, it's hard, Luke, especially someone

of Conor's stature, of all the business connections he has. It's hard to say, OK, until you're actually ready to come back and fight again, just just stay away for a while. Just stay off social media. Just do your thing. You know what I mean? If you got gotta make a commercial do that if you gotta speak somewhere publicly do that but outside of that just stay away and i say that because every time he's come up for air since then it seemingly has it has led to conversations like this now these accusations are much much more damning and serious than him just putting out a video just talking shit but i'm just saying in general it's like day by day of the amount of time that he's been away from the cage the overall anticipation of his return mixed with how good i actually think he'll still

potentially be mixed with you know any kind of confidence i have that his mind is where it should be overall you know it is going in the other direction day by day and and you know none of that stuff is actually related per se to this because these are serious allegations in his personal time but I know a lot of people are getting sick of this every couple months where we do the whole hey man so when do you think he's coming back and against two because when you start adding you know the allegations here and incidents like this it continues to go down the poor taste side of it where you know i don't know where he's at luke mentally or physically aside from knowing that you know this has been a lengthy recovery from the very serious leg injury he had and then that was probably delayed even further by some of

those opportunities outside the cage which included a starring starring role in the Roadhouse remake of some form. But, you know, I don't know the facts in this case, but unfortunately I'm not surprised that there's another sort of public scandal going against him because it seems to be the freewheeling life he lives, you know, outside of his day job. And I don't think that life, especially since coming to full-on prominence and stardom, has helped matters in the cage in terms of staying prepared, staying mentally focused.

And now we've got another situation he's got to deal with here. Luke, I mean, what are you going to say? Unfortunate at best, right? Let me read some additional details here, BC. The woman says she escaped, then did jump from the yacht to flee the attack. She was, in fact, picked up by a Red Cross boat. Per the report, she initially told rescuers that McGregor was her attacker and that lifeguards saw McGregor on the boat and identified him.

When she later met with authorities, she told them that it wasn't McGregor who attacked her and that she didn't file a formal complaint at that time. Per the report, she said that she was in shock and only wearing a bikini while she spoke with authorities and that she prioritized leaving and going to her hotel to make plans to return home to Ireland. According to the report, she filed a formal complaint naming McGregor after she did in fact return to Dublin, uh, BC. So let's go through this. There's this one, there's punching the old man in the dome, right in that bar. So that's two. So then there's knocking the cell phone out of the guy's hand and stepping on it in Miami. There's, uh, there's chucking the dolly at the bus that's four how about the guy in dublin

who he played the knockout game with he may not remember this but he was accused of knocking out some kind of gangster in an irish bar i think about a year or two maybe a little bit more than that ago that'd be five incidents not named this one god knows what else oh how about jumping in the bellator cage that'd be six dude i mean this is who he is and i'm not saying he's i'm not saying he's uh done what's been accused here that remains to be seen but in general he's a guy oh how about trying to fight machine gun kelly on the red carpet we can go back to that oh i forgot about that right this is a guy who believes he should be able to hit whoever he wants whenever he wants and i think there's a lot of people in the sport who agree that violence is some kind of adjudicator of dispute.

These are largely and not exclusively, but these are largely people with extremely uncivilized ideas that are not fit for the modern world. I don't know how else to put it. And you see, I'll just say, like, is 2023 the year where, like, MMA fighters became Ty Cobb? You know what I mean by that? Ty Cobb was an amazing baseball player. I'm not saying that. I'm asking the question. I'm not declaring it.

But, like, Ty Cobb was this guy who was a great baseball player who was kind of like a dirtbag in his real life. And also, like, in the game himself, like, you know, with certain kind of cleats he would wear and how he would slide, whatever. But he was, like, a hard-nosed, you know, kind of guy. And obviously, look, there's Wonder boy thompson's and there's a lot you know matt brown's an amazing guy an amazing father there's lots of them it's actually the minority they're very much the minority but it's like i don't know like all of a sudden it

seemed like in 2023 maybe this is a better way to put it seems like in 2023 the floodgates open with everyone discovering there's just lots of like either in in private life people just doing outrageous shit in this industry and there's nothing no one's ever wants to do anything about it yeah i mean i think right now any incident you're gonna have is just gonna be thrown right at the tv screen and see like see mma is a you know a flaming shithole because of the continuation of a lot of things that are going on from you know for poor fighter treatment across the board. But as you mentioned, McGregor does have a history of this. And to be fair, I mean, combat sports in general, I mean, the NFL, I mean, look, there is a history of big name athletes getting a lot of money and making very, you know, poor and

stupid decisions. Is it all bubbling over at the moment for MMA? I mean, I don't think this is necessarily related to those other things, but here's what's weird, Luke. This is consistent, this allegation of some of the behavior, as we mentioned, although we don't know the reality of this situation. But it's been 19 months since Connor fought. And now, you know, we're coming up on two years now.

And, you know, there's been giant gaps before that, of course. Everything changed when he knocked out Eddie Alvarez, right? Like everything, that's the end of phase one of his career. And that was the beginning of phase two. But Luke, it's weird, man. Every single day I mention it since then, I feel like people care less and less. I feel like the general consensus right now, even though I agree that McGregor back in any form against any opponent is a monster event, will take over the crossover headlines, will be a big deal. I don't think I've ever seen a time where where people care less though in general about mcgregor

and it's not just hey bc and luke wake up we hate him in ireland in the uk in general and that's the you know the opinion across the board and you americans are the last to realize it yeah there's a little bit of that but i mean look there's not even the belief anymore even in the old school magic you know mystic you know though the old school guys who will believe and i was one of these at certain points that mcgregor a focused mcgregor can do anything right i mean there's i don't even think there's any of them left anymore it's unfortunate it really is the second half of his career outside of the the money he's been able to make and the stardom is is largely unfortunate when you consider the missteps, the performances inside the cage, the constant things just like this outside of it.

But I don't think this is necessarily in line with, hey, combat sports in MMA particular is a dirty ass puddle. I mean, we already knew that. But dude, I think it's even bigger story on the whole about Conor himself. It's like, look, are we going look back and and really summarize his life in the public eye as as for a point the you know it's still to this day as you mentioned the most popular athlete in combat sports but for a for a season there on a pump for pound level on an accomplishment level you know one of the best runs we'd ever seen through 2015 and 16 dude there are legitimately

two there's the before and after of this guy you know what i mean in terms of taking all the time off fighting mayweather getting all that money launching all these business ventures and really not just it's almost oscar de la jolla like in boxing it's not apples to apples but it's the idea that like this guy comes up with a with a lot of noise behind him wins all these big fights does all these big things but then the second half of that career is is just hit or miss you know a lot of more missed opportunities than accomplished ones i mean we're not that's not just a trend we're there um do you care about that at all luke i mean here is a guy who you know he was always fighting the battle of people you know

thinking he's overrated and once he finally meets this type of opponent we'll find out once he made all that money everything changed and that's the facts i'm looking on his career and his arc it's true it's true i for me i just think of it a little bit differently now there are times when he i mean let's be real like when he was making his to your point like maybe maybe the most incredible run in mma in terms of just going from zero to 60 right like who made the fastest most incredible meteoric rise conor mcgregor has a claim to that if not like very clearly is that guy but by virtue of how far he went and how fast he did it culminating with the eddie alvarez when at ufc 205 but bc even though he was antagonizing a lot of people even though he was pissing off a lot of people at that time based on his antics dude there was some there was buzz about it there was like honestly

in retrospect wouldn't you say that through the alvarez fight especially remember he showed up to the press conference with that big coat and like suck my big irish balls and all this it was kind of fun it was kind of like it was a party it was a roving party that just kind of never stopped and some people were invited to the party and some people weren't. But it was a party, man. It was crazy. Like, what about everything that's going on now is fun? Now, obviously, his injury is not fun.

And there's nothing he can do about that other than rehab in the sort of quiet way that he has. Like, some of this is just very much out of his control in that way. But with this kind of stuff where these headlines are happening the way that they're happening and then the absence on top of it, like, the mcgregor orbit fan or otherwise is having fun with any of this it just seems like it's everything that made what what was magical everything that was a component there none of those are in play now of course he's still not out of the running for some kind of potential comeback or you and i have been on the record of saying we probably think he has one more big win left in him bc i might start questioning that i mean that's a

little early to do that but i'm just saying i agree just thinking about it like i don't know i don't really know what this dude's future has never been this uncertain and dude you can go back in either and stuff i've said on the air in different podcasts or conversations i've had with other media members i've always been that guy it's like no no no, no, man, he can, he can pull it back. If anybody can pull it back together, it's this guy, you know, count them out at your own peril. You know, I picked him to be Habib as laughable in hindsight is that now feels, even though let's be fair,

he did seem to have a better performance than a lot of his contemporaries against Habib, although still got dominated and lost. But yeah, Luke, I'm even at that point now where it's like, I have almost zero confidence that when he comes back anything good can happen outside of him being matched in another cowboy like comeback which you know I guess we should have some level of that discussion regarding the comeback because look if I asked you when he hurt his leg when he broke his leg against Poirier and he you know sat in the cage still making fun of Poirier's wife Joe Rogan squatting down I mean it was a moment for for good bad reasons, mostly bad.

You never would have guessed that 19 months later, we haven't made much progress, right? Outside of his recovery, which is important. But like, dude, like it's not even like we're not, we didn't even start the new year talking about, well, Hey guys, you know, this could be a big year. Cause Connor will be back probably in name that month, dude. We don't know that that's not even a conversation. So, you know, what the a big year because connor will be back probably in name that month dude we don't know that's not even a conversation so you know what the hell is going on luke is there is there a dog left in him you know part of a big part of what made the magic and that incredible run so special was not just the outrageous self-belief but like he had a focus a goal a plan

always you know like there was there was, there was Muhammad Ali comparisons at certain points, just on the ability to like pick out a task and go accomplish it against all, you know, that, that, that guy's not in there anymore. So who is in there, Luke? If these allegations are true, it's certainly a damaged privileged person who's, who's consistently got a lot to sweep up in his personal life uh don't know if it's true in this case they'll have to hold judgment to a certain degree but like what is like how different in your eyes is the man the fighter the the person that has to get up and train you know from where he was before the eddie alvarez fight because well it's changed

a lot he's had moments he's had little sparks and moments since that point, but nothing sustained. Dude, I don't know if that guy's in there anymore in any form, Luke. Yeah, I mean, there's sort of two things. It's like once you get past 30, I've said this with Jon Jones, I forgive a lot up to the age of 30-ish. Once you get past 30 and you're still doing, again, allegedly criminal acts like this.

I mean, you know, not that I would forgive it in the 20s, but like I've just seen a lot of guys who are just disasters in their 20s figure it out in their 30s, like sort of waiting for them to get right is a thing that does happen, and I've witnessed it. You know, I don't really know. Now, again, I want to say this in his defense, not related to this particular incident, but more broadly at the stage

in which he finds himself in his career. He took some additional time to probably heal better as well as whatever he has to do to get back into the USADA testing pool and clear out his system or whatever has to go into that, plus this movie and blah, blah, blah. Also, I've seen training footage, BC, of his

rehab and whatnot. It's pretty serious rehab. Like, BC, of his rehab and whatnot. It's pretty serious rehab. Like, it's not BS rehab. It's very sport-specific. It's very functional-specific. It's very related to sport performance. And it does appear like he's put in a tremendous amount of work into it. So, like, again, you know, does he have one more big win left in him?

I guess we will see I don't really know the answer but I wouldn't write him off but I think to the point you raise like it just feels like everything we understood him to be has been or was just a function of that moment in time not actually an enduring characteristic of like the kind of guy that he can be or as a as an athlete anyway like those things seem to be very much locked into that moment in time and it's when you combine it with the whatever the hell is happening outside of the cage it's not really disconcerting here's the other part too bc we haven't even really talked about it like and you know we knew before dana

white got into his issues that nothing was going to happen to Conor, especially since this is all alleged and there's no criminal act associated with it. But like BC, he could be charged today. And we both know UFC ain't going to do a thing about it. Nothing. No, there's precedent there. You want precedent? There's precedence there. Whatever.

Is it precedent or dense, Luke? What am I doing here? Grammar. Well, the singular would be precedent and so precedence would be like with a with an s on the end would be many of them uh i don't know if precedence is i have to double check that's a word yeah precedence of america yeah the po that was a pos band the the po uh you know i'm talking about you know the peaches band they suck it's lump it's lump anytime I hear people talk 90s rock and they're like man I love the presidents, I'm like

we're done, that's the end of this conversation that's the wall I won't climb along with you yeah Luke I don't even know where we were right there oh precedents, yeah, no nothing's gonna happen to them, that's the precedents that Dana has handed down, and look you can argue Luke to a certain level in general like, you know, that's the precedence that Dana has handed down. And look, you can argue Luke to a certain level in general,

like, you know, that's a decision, but it's a decision to let the legal system in general deal with it, which is again, why we went so hard against Dana for having, you know, to,

for being able to just step personally aside from that process. You know what I mean? Like, like there's no oversight, but in general, look, if that's the way that the company consistently wants to go, I don't think that's the safe and smartest way. I don't think, you know, somebody like John Jones can just continually, you know, cross up the law and it's just sort of like, fine. You know what I mean? Same thing with Connor and the Dolly incident. And obviously Luke in general, same thing with anybody. We're talking about Gervonta Davis headlining Showtime pay-per-view cards. Sure. You know, it gets to a certain level where you do have to say like,

are we enabling this activity? Now this incident is for Connor is, you know, separate from the others, but it is a continuation. So no, nothing's going to happen. Luke to him.

And I enjoy, dude, I can't believe nothing happened off the dolly thing. Why do I feel like i'm the only person in mma who thinks that's wild and thinks it was a you know what i mean like dude he it's not even like he attacked a guy only to play up a big fight which it worked out perfectly for ufc but it's like he actually attacked co-workers you know what i mean like it actually like it's it's just and they're just

personnel as well yeah and actually took people out of fights took ray borg out of that fight and and you know and kiesa as we said just settled his lawsuit in december for that as well and you know rose almost not jumped out of that fight i mean it almost every time there's been a test that like from an ethical standpoint like the industry could have passed it it doesn't it doesn't pass yeah yeah no you're right that's the one thing you keep coming back to it it just without the law compelling actors in the space to do it it just continuously fails these tests over and over and over again um all right so now the inevitable luke you want to read the comments from john cavanaugh talking to ariel i don't have much to say about i'm not going to read the whole thing bc i want to move the show from John Cavanaugh talking to Ariel Bala? I don't have much to say about it. I'm not going to read the whole thing.

I want to move the show along. But basically, if you have a reaction, love to hear it. He says he is very, very confident. Quote, very, very confident we'll see Conor back in the octagon this year. Doesn't say against who. Doesn't say exactly when. But just that things are in motion. Yay.

All right. I have two quick questions for you on that. One, the demeanor and what he's selling when he does come back. Why I ask that is against Cowboy, there was a refreshing level of not only, oh, wow, Conor seems to really be taking this comeback seriously. And I think in hindsight, Luke, we were robbed with COVID and everything going on where he fought Cowboy was supposed to be fighting three times that year and it just never happened, right?

But when he came back, dude, he was so complimentary. He was humble. It was almost like almost like wow whether calculated or not this is like a baby face turn that made yeah but that's because he was welcomed back by the industry in a sense even though he had those rape allegations that were made or sexual assault i should say whatever it was now since then it's been almost exclusively negative including the way he, you know, was rabid against Poirier in both fights. And he got sued by his longtime stablemate, uh, Artem Lobov. Like there's lots of things that have crumbled. I think he'll come back, uh, probably closer to the third Poirier fight, much less so the cowboy fight, probably a little bit of a mix between them because there are,

of course, Connor is very famous. He is very well liked by a portion of the fan base so you'll see some of that but i expect it to be he's he's like antagonistic on social media a lot these days and i think it'll go in that direction is he still in a position where versus anyone dude i'm talking like diego sanchez versus anyone it's a million pay-per-view buys at this point still not in his return not in his return i could see a dynamic return setting up something you know i think he's got one no questions asked return left where everyone comes out for it so i'm almost inverted on your analysis but i think the performance he's got to deliver to keep this train going i think that's about right i think that's about right uh and also i don't think he's got much interest in fighting much longer anyway right all right final final question here i want to know

luke who who you want who's who what opponent right now today makes the most sense if they announce this for you know june or july there's no international yeah okay fair enough there's not a lot of wrong answers i i'm not there's a lot of people who love to play the matchmaking game and for all the nuances they've never really been that guy obviously the name that they've attached to him is michael chandler i think that's a great fight i think it tells you a lot about both guys you know michael chandler's weaknesses and strengths at this point um can connor take advantage of them or not and it'll be action-packed the whole time it'll be meaningful in all likelihood and uh you won't get some of the overall ugliness that you'd get with like another fight with Poirier for

example it'll be somewhat toned down for them you might even get vintage Conor in terms of the press conference so yeah I'm fine with that all right I think I think it's better for the promotion to try to make him that baby face version again try to make people want to cheer for the comeback want like want to see him despite everything he's been through and done to himself turn it around so i think there's one opponent that produces that luke you gotta you gotta find a villain i think that villain is patty pimble here i think that's the fight i think it does just as good come on i think it does just as good as any of your other creations. It gives Connor, in theory, a better chance to win. And I think he comes in as the guy people are cheering for,

especially after Pimblitt's performance last time. That's how you book the territory. That's how you do it. That's how you, you know what I mean? Put me in the chair. You know what I'm saying? Put me in the damn, give me the pencil. Give me the book.

Of all the names you could have picked, that was, I mean, no, I'm just not interested in that. All right. Let's go with something I'm also not interested in, but we're going to talk about it just the same. Topic number two, how about Power Slap? There is a little bit more in the news. I'll double check to see if there's another up today, whatever it is. We have two pieces of information I want to share with you. BC, I'm going to go in separate order from what we have in the rundown.

I'd like to show you mine first. So I follow Eric Spicely on Twitter. He's a UFC veteran. Actually, he has a win over Tiago Santos, if you can believe it back in the day uh hasn't really fought in ufc in some time and i'm not even sure if he's fought in mma in some time but he tweeted something kind of interesting that he was contacted basically by the power slap league to see if he wanted to participate and uh someone he was like you'd be shocked about how much it pays and then what he said was first fight was 2k 2k so i shot him a dm and i'm like, you'd be shocked about how much it pays. And then what he said was first fight was 2K, 2K.

So I shot him a DM and I'm like, are you sure this was Dana White's power league, power slap league? And it was, he showed me some evidence from some text messages that he had received from the people who were booking the show. And I got to take a look at him. Sure enough, it was them.

Now he later clarified to Stephen Morocco of MMA fighting that that was for just that bout. I guess the show would be booked for three three so the pay would somehow for a full day of all of the fights come out to something around give or take 10k something like that but for the first one two and two bc your reaction to the pay scale i mean it's here's two words for you, Luke, fucking ridiculous. And it's like, not that I think, you know, these athletes should be paid a ton for what this is, which is just barbaric comedy. But it's not funny at the end of the day. Like, it's absurd and it's stupid and it's just violence for the sake of it. But, you know, because it's just violence for the sake of it

and you can't even bring defense into it, yeah, I almost feel like they should be paid more, but then, you know, a lot more, right? But then UFC's got a problem. What are you going to overpay your power slappers in comparison to your actual fighters that you're underpaying? Look, here's the best way I can say this, of what a hypocritical decision this was to try to put this out as UFC owners and like we mentioned, using the UFC promotional vehicle to do that.

This is the equivalent of if UFC was so vocal about women's rights let's say you know because to be fair you know they they capitalized on what was going on in strike force with carano and cyborg and rousey and and built a women's division around that and it you know you look back and you go good on ufc right like there's been some some good but imagine if they were like big proponents of women's rights and all of that and you know actively did that and then they also instead of powerslap launched like their own porn company you know what i mean like it just you know and just like and just in in the rumors were that you know that they're getting into the sex trade and that things aren't looking good that's that's the that's the exact same message that that

i feel like this whole thing sends to the fighters. And we do all these things to protect their safety. But in our other vehicle, we're going to promote this absolute bullshit. It just disgusts me. I'm shocked that this is going to go to a second episode. I really am. Could you have a more toxic product at the moment? And for every possible reason obviously the dana white

new year's eve thing takes it to a new level but i don't you know i love that like i said i love that more fighters are actually tweeting about this a couple of them that they're just like what the hell you know this isn't a sport what the hell are we doing here but like this is the true character of dana white of the fortertittas who back this financially, and maybe even, you know, Ari and Endeavor. You know what I mean? Like, this is the character that they're showing by being affiliated with this.

So what do I find out? What do I think when I see on top of that? Oh, yeah, we're offering two and two for you to take. I mean, look, look, look. Did you see that video I tweeted out from Chris Norinsky, if I said his last name correctly? The former WWE wrestler who now heads up all that research for brain health. He's telling you in the highlights from the first episode, that right there.

You see the way that guy fell right there? That's permanent brain damage right there. You know what I mean? So two and two? Yeah. Seems about right, UFC. Seems about right, Dana. That's how you do it.

That's how you do things. That's how how you do things that's how you do things it's been monstrously successful but that's how you do things and i feel like finally not as the not only is the curtain being pulled back and sometimes it's only being pulled back because of like the john s nashes and the people that you know the guy from mma you know mma analytics there who just go and ham on a lot of these inside things some of us that were smarter already knew a lot of this stuff, but to see it all just kind of be on earth at the same time, and then you have this giant thing that we're all worshiping here, this power slap league that you're putting out there,

it's like they are telling you exactly who the fuck they are, and they're grimy and gross as shit. So 2000 and 2000 to win, yeah, I i'm not surprised i'm not surprised at all and uh man yeah i mean listen listen they were never they hold on a sec they were never going to they were never going think about the vehicle that they're using here right it's a television show you need to be able to make affordable tv like for folks who may not know i mean everyone knows this but like we bc and i have worked at the fringes of tv we've had a little bit of tv work and here's one thing bc and i can definitely tell you even just being on the you know like the the small tv gigs that we've had

over the years uh although your showbox gig is quite nice bc but you know what i'm about to say is true uh yeah listen budgets can dictate a lot but there are going to be people especially around reality programming they're going to want to make that programming as cheap as they can right that's us that's a big sell to the network a big sell to the network is how much is it going to cost for me to make eight episodes of this how much is the actual budget they were never going to do slap fighting because it was expensive they're going to do it because it's cheap it's affordable tv it's easy to get these guys to sign because probably 2k for slapping

or 4k if you win or whatever it ends up being for the actual slapping side of it i have no idea what the industry pays i'm gonna guess that that's reasonably competitive with it and by the way for people who compete on reality tv uh 2k or 10k for a day, you know, is not necessarily a small sum either, but this is the point. Brain damage shouldn't be this cheap. Shouldn't be this cheap. Now, of course, on the regional scene or for up and coming boxing, there's really nothing you can do, but when you're around people that actually do have money, people who do have money should not be able to buy brain damage for cheap. It should be expensive, right? That to me seems like a real basic way to examine whether or not there's something that you're

looking at is ethical. It's like, are rich people paying for this at what it should be or at some bargain basement version of it? And if it's a bargain basement version of it, and you can see there's obviously brain damage associated with it when it doesn't need to be, that that's the only red flag that you really need this is very very cheap brain damage that they can sell to networks as an overall cheap experience and that was partly the reason why bc it may not be canceled right away because it probably was not very expensive to produce they're not paying these guys a lot dude half the stuff whatever is at the ufc apex they don't have to pay for any of that it's cheap to produce it's cheap so all they have to do is sell ads against it and they might be able to make their money back on yeah look i

don't expect them that looks like not only do not only you know i'm not surprised mother effort at at how low it was based on what we already know but yeah to your point on budgets you couldn't expect it's like this is it's like man i hope you know i hope someone i love doesn't get into the adult film industry luke but if they do i hope they make a ton of money and maybe there is the money to pay out in there. And this power slap bullshit, there's not. But the thing that gets me the most upset about the news that you share there on Twitter, and it was one of the things when this thing was first launched, we were like, oh, man, please don't tell me that this is going to be, you know, UFC's way of looking at the combat sports market, seeing the success that some UFC veterans, when their time is up physically, have outside of it, whether it's BKFC for a big paycheck or boxing Jake Paul,

and thinking, oh, well, I could jump in that market too. I remember saying it when this was first conceived. If this ends up being Diego Sanchez and, you know, insert any other name showing up at the Power Slap League, because that's just where the biggest, you know, the next payday at the moment is here in retirement um I'm gonna throw up in my mouth and you know and and and smear all over the screen here Luke on the tv because are you telling me that they went out of there they're now recruiting Spicely and ex-UFC fighters uh by the way who had noteworthy uh brain trauma issues following the end of his mma career

absolutely the end of his ufc run uh i mean this is where it wasn't even a guy it wasn't even a guy who had like you know not much damage issues they had like no like documented damage issues and it's hard dude i'm gonna be honest it's hard to take a big soapbox thing here in general when we all are combat sports fanatic maniacs. We make a living off it. We make a great living, all that stuff. And I get, you know, the difference is defense and the difference is there's a lot of differences, right? But even that generic like, well, you guys are in this sport that that's as we talk about is hard to deal with on a regular basis to the risks and the damage. This is a sport in which it's enhanced by the millions of the expected damage that you're going to take.

And now they're recruiting their ex-fighters who may bring in some level of name value or toughness, right? To do the same thing. Luke, if it gets to this point where we're actually seeing ex-UFC fighters show up on the show and you're an active UFC fighter and you're not willing to go, okay, maybe this is finally the last straw in terms of us interlocking arms. We don't need be on revenue necessarily, but we may need to take a stand in terms of our overall treatment together. Again,

not the media's job, but I feel like the media is the only one that's talking about it because we're all just grossed out Luke. But I mean, is that the level? You know what I mean? Is that way way if you start seeing like mark coleman coming out of retirement getting in the slap league game luke is that where the fighters should be showing up outside the apex with pickets signs and and trying to be like like look enough is enough here

or more just realize like what you might be looking at your future too that's what i mean just think about how like if just think about that if you're actually trying to recruit previous fighters who may not have competed in a while or whatever, I'm sure they would say, yeah, they don't want the opportunity, they don't take it. But what you're really trying to do is get them for a modest amount of money that they might need, one never knows, so they're not making an economically impartial decision. They're making one that could be a little bit more based out of necessity. And then the whole idea is doing what you did for Shogun, feeding him to somebody new in this case,

feeding him to power slappers who might have some kind of structural advantage or just, you know, from an industry standpoint, have done this more, they're going to be better at it. That seems to be a reasonable conclusion. And now you can say,

Oh, you got beat a UFC fighter on, on your resume, right? It's like refeeding them to, to, to get the other population then spruced up and looked better. It's soiling green, Luke. It's soiling green. It's a gross business. Hold on. We have one

more piece. Luke it's made out of people spoiler alert, great movie, right? Soiling green. That's what this is becoming. Okay. So we have one more piece here. I didn't pull this. I'm not sure what it is, but I know John Morgan of sports illustrated previously. MMA junkie spoke to Frank, I believe his name is Lamichella, who is the – he's actually a Zufa attorney that they just randomly turned into the head of Power Slap. He had an interview with him. Let me hear some of this. We'll react to it.

Well, I think that is this a sport? Conversation online goes on with everything, right? Is bowling a sport? Is pool a sport? Is this a sport? At the end of the day, you have two athletes competing, right? You talk to them. They absolutely feel right is bowling a sport is pool sport is this a sport at the end of the day you have two athletes competing right there you talk to them they absolutely feel like it's a sport you don't they absolutely feel like they are training and working hard you'll start seeing that in the episodes with the coaches right where they actually train

technique work out in the gym um so listen i think i think what you saw in episode one was just the surface and what you'll what you'll continue to see is even more improvement in these athletes and more improvement over the way the matches are run. On the no defense, I mean, there's no evasive defense. If your definition of defense is only evasion, then that's obviously got some element of truth to it. Or blocking. Again, talking to these guys, there is definitely defense. There is training the head, neck, shoulder muscles, and our sports science and sports data that we put out will start to support that.

Learning how tense to make the muscles, how tense to clench the jaw, all of that matters. Learning to roll with the slap but not committing a flinching foul so there's really a lot of time you know how how when do you close your eyes you know do you leave your eyes open the whole time do you know so there there are elements and then on this on the striker side you know again back to the health and safety point part of the rules were built to limit force where we can right so they have feet have to stay grounded there's no stepping or pivoting watch a boxer everything is thrown with a stay grounded. There's no stepping or pivoting.

Watch a boxer. Everything is thrown with a pivot, right? Um, there's no, okay. I mean, I've seen enough of this. We can, we can call it there. Um, this is BC. We are at the point now where we've got someone who went to law school, right? Right. This is not a person who ever engaged in these behaviors once. Like I have a feeling that attorney Frank Lamichella, uh, you know, didn't have a lifelong passion for slapping. He was just hired by Zufa and then forced into this role. And he has to pretend that all of this is real. And then we're at the point now, by the way, which, you know, tells you you have every right to be cynical about anyone in power's motives.

But just to put a bow on the whole thing, BC, we're at the point now where we're like, should you close your eyes or not? And this is supposed to be constitutive of effective and important defense. Get the fuck out of here, Frank. What are you talking about? You know how every time a fighter in a combat sports gets, here's some harsh analysis against them from a pundit like us who don't have pro or amateur fights. And you know, the knee-jerk reaction is,

okay, you know, but you don't know. And to a certain degree, there's only some things we do and don't know because of that. I agree you've done actual training in some degree i've done minuscule boxing training but enough to get a taste of it but no i don't know the day-to-day um i usually think that's a bullshit take in power slap though if you want to look at that guy's video and say you know i can't listen to that guy until i see him take one of those power slaps it's like i feel like that should be a prerequisite if you're gonna make money off of this luke you should at least go in there and have to have it done to you and then we'll see if you

want to uh if you want to continue down here describing as a sport look i thought john morgan was with mma underground is that linked with uh sports illustrated yes yes they're connected so a lot of his work i say sports i'm not sure who he gets credentialed through. But, yes, he's with the UG slash Sports Illustrated because they have a partnership. John did that interview, and I think our producers edited out the question. I don't know John's take on this, but he did offer it up as like, hey, some would say that this isn't a sport because there's no defense. You know, what is your thoughts on that?

I don't know where John stands on that. But have we had a media member that has been like, you know slap's not that bad guys like you should probably check it out has it happened yet or is it just i think you know what i think there were a couple before dana white had his controversy yeah we're like okay i'm gonna i saw i definitely saw you know what which is fine i understand this if this is your view pre dana white's incident i get it which was you know what i'm not gonna judge a book by its cover i'm at least gonna go see what it's about and then i'll make a decision okay i can let's that's that's that's hard to get mad at someone for that i mean that's

just doing due diligence to me it's a little bit you know slightly gullible but fine i wouldn't die on that hill but then after dana white had his thing i just saw people being like kind of repulsed by the whole thing um i can't which is not exactly the same as having like a principled stance against power slap more just being kind of gross but you get the idea there it is hey enough of this slapdick business let's get out of here all right BC let's talk about some fight news actually let's talk about some good news because we got some here all right how about this BC we have the tweet for this this one was announced or at least I think reported anyway how about old song yadong taking on ricky simone now this one at bantam weight just looks incredible ricky simone by the way bc has anyone ever made a joke about yadong

and like using it as the words your dong because i've never seen that before i was just trying to get through your pronunciation of simone luke where are we going with this simone chillo like what do we got here that's how you pronounce it if they're if they're i thought it was simone ricky simone right yeah simone simone yeah oh simone okay well i guess it would depend on where the accent is over the eye it doesn't matter ricky simone simone whatever uh bc he makes a Yadong joke because everyone does. But nevertheless, as a fight, woo, fun, fun action fight. Oh, great fight. Is it not?

Great fight, great fight. And I love it too because Ricky Simone has been turning that corner to a certain degree of showing us that when he puts it all together, when he matures and grows from some of the setbacks, man, this guy could be a player in this division and this would be the kind of fight that that he'd have to prove that to to just to certainly make that leap into the upper core of contention of contention contendership overall

but uh dude us get your dong still so young that i think we're all pretty confident he's going to be very very good will he be great though luke i don't know you got to win fights like this to do it so you're going to see action but man you're gonna see two hungry guys having to you know prove it all night luke let's do this thing and then simone has also like both guys have really gotten better but simone to me has really come a long way he's really kind of just tightened up everything and you know he still has a long way to go he's far from a finished product but i've been really impressed with how clean everything is starting to look with his game once you got a haircut friends don't let friends get haircuts luke it turned out good for him though exactly cut off that mullet that thing was a waste of time all right how about this one this is fun dan hooker versus jalen turner ufc 285 march 4th this will be obviously in Australia and Perth BC listen to this from

Jalen Turner he has fought Callan Potter Australian Joshua Kulibow I believe Australian he might be New Zealand but one of the two right then he fought Jamie Malarkey Australian Brad Riddell Kiwi he's fighting yet another Kiwi uh here again between between Australia and New Zealand I think Jalen Turner's trying to fight all y'all. I don't know. You might be. I was going to call him the Aus-secutioner, as lame as that was,

until you mentioned all the Kiwi slayings on top of that, Luke. But yeah, that just turned out that way. But man, I like this fight a lot too. Did Oscar Willis break this news? Look, I know he does that drinking pod with Dan Hooker. He did, I believe. Yeah, I want to give Oscar willis some respect there as a man for you know doing living his life as recklessly as he does luke that man that man's tough you know at the end of the day but uh do you think hooker

is going to turn that corner luke is going to come back and be a title here's the thing remember hooker and riddell teammates teammates so it's trying to avenge a teammate there as well hooker obviously much well i would say riddell was striking base but he just didn't look like himself i think hooker has looked despite all of the damage he still looked pretty fresh-ish i think is a fair way to put it um so i'm expecting a tough fight but man turner just looks like dude he uses his range so well. He's quick. He's athletic. He has just dynamite finishing ability.

I mean, I don't know, dude. That's a tough fight for Dan Hooker. Do you think he named his spider, Luke? I don't know. I had a friend who had a spider once. They're fucking weird. All right. Yeah, so did Buzz from Home Alone, Luke.

That guy was a dirt hole. Yeah, he was. All right. Makwan Amirkhani taking on Jack Shore. This will be a UFC 286 in London. You see, Jack Shore shouldn't. He had that one loss, I think, recently that kind of derailed him a little bit. But other than that, I just think he's got a higher upside than Amirkhani. Yes.

But could be a fun one. Do you think there's, was there a lot of buzz when Jack Shore came to the UFC that there's a future title contender here? Yes, there was, yes. And I think, by the way, it'd be foolish to write them off, but some learning lessons along the way, I think is what I, the way I'd put it. This is a fun one. This is a really fun one. This will be a UFC 287, April 8th. Kelvin Gasolum was gonna take on Chris Curtis. Chris Curtis, you know, didn't look so great against Jack Hermanson, but rebounded

beautifully. I think has really recaptured the fans enthusiasm. He can box his ass off and Kelvin Gastelum, man, he can box too, but is in need of a win. But these two are kind of, if you think about it for a second, BC, they're well matched. Both guys can really damage the other one here. This one could be fun. Yeah, you're going to see action in that one too. And I think it's, I mean, would you say that's a better matchup for Gastelum, who is in dire need of getting a win here and turning things around, than maybe the Nastordine-Imovov one would have been, Luke? Yes, I do think.

Not to say that Curtis is some step over, no. But stylistically, I think that he'll just put himself in a place that Gastelum is like, okay, I'm happy to fight on these terms, whereas Imhovov I don't think would have been as consistently good about that. I don't want to see Gastelum have a Johnny Hendricks-like exit, Luke. I want to see him. I still believe, okay? Yeah, but if you can't, I mean, here's the thing, BC,

to the point we're making, like, Chris Curtis is going to meet him in the middle and he's going to be happy to box with him. Oh, yeah. You can't beat that guy. I'm making, Chris Curtis is going to meet him in the middle and he's going to be happy to box with him. Oh, yeah. You can't beat that guy. I'm not saying Chris Curtis is easy to beat, but you can't beat a guy who's supposed to be roughly at your level who is willing to fight you in the very way that you like to fight. That spells trouble, right?

It's not Jack Hermanson trying to take him down and then going for a leg lock or whatever, but in any case. All right, how about this one? BC, I think i wrote him off on like the end of the year thing because i was like we haven't seen him forever it's going to be it but he's back sage northcutt is going to take on ahmed and if i'm mispronouncing it please forgive me much taba i think is how you pronounce it i'm not sure it's spelled m-u-j-t-a-b-a this will be at one fight night 10 cinco de mayo may Mayo, May 5th, BC sage North cut his back.

He was the victim against Cosmo Lashandre of epically poor matchmaking on the part of one. And I want to say something to Mikey Musumechi's last grappling contest against the, I think he's either, I think he's Mongolian or something like that. He was a decorated, decorated combat Sambo guy. In fact, he was the reigning world champion in combat Sambo, but those guys the very very best nogi grapplers in the world they're going to be outmatched and he tore his mcl pcl acl and meniscus he might never make a full recovery they booked a squash match and that's kind of what happens when you do that they booked a squash match in the case

of sage northcutt it took four fucking years for this guy to get back here but here he is i kind of hope he wins to be honest oh me too me too i i do i'll be talking to him later today luke so i really look forward nice okay great picking his brain and seeing exactly where he's at because you know i'm sure there were multiple times that he thought that was it too we thought that was pretty much it here is a guy luke who you know seems to have a bright future in certain areas if he wants to go after i mean look that guy could model couldn't he be a fitness model tomorrow luke or is he already yes no he i think he already i know i know he has like a pretty great supplement deal with red con supplements um which is like a pretty big name in the industry they also rep brian shaw

four-time world's strongest man i mean he's like an influencer in a way luke okay yes you know in some form yes he's still i'll say this he, Luke, okay? Yes. You know, in some form. Yes. I'll say this. He kept himself in good shape. He never got out of shape. Well, let me say this. You know, we forget in a way that he was, you know, a part of that big announcement when Demetrius Johnson and Eddie Alvarez came over to one.

It was like, okay, they're grabbing legitimate names from the UFC, you know, with certain levels left in the tank. Um, I still want to see him fulfill that even from a standpoint of just consistency, just showing up, whether it's win or lose Luke. And I don't think he'll hang around if it is, you know, lose, lose. But I do think that, you know, I'd like to see just for his own right. He's so young still. I want to see him play out the string on his own terms and find out if he can get to a certain level of success or if you know a combination of bad luck and it just didn't pan out or the other extreme of you know did the ufc get him too early when he was you know yet to yet to

be fully refined in certain key categories that's probably true as well but uh this is if i'm correct me if i'm wrong may 5th luke that's the first one fight card on U.S. soil in Broomfield, Colorado, featuring the Demetrius Johnson-Morais trilogy at the top of it. So in that regard, this is an attraction, right? We want to see what he looks like. This could be interesting. I don't know anything about Mutaba, if I correctly pronounce it that way, but do you know, can he fight, Luke?

Don't know much about him. Don't know much about him. I'm expecting them to give Sage, I dude if I mean forget about all the damage to his face just the time off alone I think he would need a soft entry if the guy much taba or moot top moot taba however you pronounce it if he's overmatched he's supposed to be like there's they should give Sage Northcutt not a complete cab-driving scrub, but they should give him what I think they've got here, which is a fighter with some experience, some ability, that Sage Northcutt is just much better than and should be able to dispatch.

I think that's very reasonable and fine. Remember a couple years ago? I'm not talking about Big Tuna, but Bellator had that guy who worked in the meat locker? Yes. They should get that guy, Luke. I don't know if the weight matches. Probably not. They should get that guy, though. Yeah, he actually worked the weight matches. Probably not. They should get that guy, though.

Yeah, he actually worked at like a Piggly Wiggly or something, which is fine, but I'm not sure how much actual training he was doing. You know what I mean? Big Tuna's a real fighter. Say again? Wasn't he punching the dead carcass, Rocky Balboa style? Yeah. Yeah.

All right, Bellator announced something kind of interesting, which was they have now agreed to a multi-fight, multi-year contract extension with current Bellator light heavyweight champion Vadim Nemkov. He will stay in the Bellator family for at least probably a couple more years, potentially longer than that. BC, great news for Bellator. We've had all this conversation. Jamal Hill obviously did very, very, very well for himself at light heavyweight,

but Vadim Nemkov having that great win over Corey Anderson and their rematch really showed that if he's not the best light heavyweight in the world he certainly deserves consideration among them that's a good thing for Bellator to hold on to. He might be the best he really might be right now the run he's on I know there was the misstep in the first Anderson fight which you could almost say and to some degree was he lucky that it ended in a no contest or could he have, you know, rallied in those championship rounds? We're not sure. It didn't look like it was going his way that night though, but you know, given the second chance, damn, damn, did he, you know,

must y'all, y'all must've forgot. It was one of those moments indeed. So, uh, pay that man, his money. Hopefully that all worked out Luke. But on top of that, I've already talked about, look, I think Anderson rematch could be a serious fight down the road. How about, obviously, I like him against Musashi if Gegard likes that direction. But do you ever see a scenario in which Nemkov

under the Bellator banner tries to move up and go after heavyweight? Like, what if Bader knocks out Nemkov's guy, Fedor, on February 4th on CBS? And what if he's like, alright, I've seen this twice and I've seen enough of it. Bader, out Nemkov's guy, Fedor, on February 4th on CBS. And what if he's like, all right, I've seen this twice, and I've seen enough of it. Bader, I'm coming. I'm jizzing.

I think you could see it, but not even against Bader. I think it would have to take some time. He's still, like, he is definitely the best guy in Bellator's light heavyweight division, but that's still somewhat unsettled. He's supposed to fight your, well, we didn't get that.

We still need to see that. Like, I think he's just got work ahead of him at two Oh five, but I'm with you that like a move up a weight class, especially given Bellator and like how they're kind of a little bit more liberal with their attitudes in terms of allowing these kinds of things that you might see it sooner than you otherwise would. I think that's definitely true.

Uh, and BC last but not least, tell me how much i should care this is the way i would i would question it tell me how much i should care anthony joshua is set to return april 1st no this is not a joke against jermaine franklin jermaine franklin versus anthony joshua april 1 it'll be in the uk i believe bc should i should I care? How much? Okay, if you are under the way of thinking, like I am in this moment, that Joshua deserves a comeback fight here, a step down on the level of competition because he's only been fighting the best, whether mandatory or not, for a good stretch now.

And he's tried to come back twice from defeats and had mixed results in that regard. I allow him a step down. This actually isn't that big of a step down but that's the thing if you would ask me a year ago luke i would have told you jermaine franklin is an interesting american heavyweight prospect but i'd yet to see anything big that i can say more you know that i see more in him like big baby jared anderson i see something right this guy i didn't see that until his last fight let's give him the credit he goes there against dillian white uh i had my doubts dillian white could have

used a big win there to try to set up an aj rematch and dude i thought franklin upon re-watching that probably deserved the decision white ended up getting a disputed uh i think it was a split decision in the end but it was a competitive fight franklin showed that he's on another level. Obviously there's, we should have a discussion of exactly how much we think Dillian White has left, but that was a great performance and to get rewarded, even though he lost, if this, if this, you know, report is accurate here against AJ, this might be the right test for AJ because whatever direction AJ is going now in terms of mindset and strategy. And I don't know if he's keeping Robert Garcia or going with an all new trainer. I haven't followed that part of it that closely,

but you know, there are internal discussions as we talked about that need to be had about, you know, are you a boxer? Are you a puncher based on the matchup? You're going to have to, you know,

you have to be different things here. I thought he's, he committed too much to his boxing in general. And that's what led to the two Usyk losses, even though he fought well in spurts and pockets and, and, you know, against anybody not named Usyk or Fury.

I think he, he is a good enough, incapable enough boxer that he can outbox you and use the boxing to set up his power punches late. But dude, he's got to figure out what's the best use of his strengths, you know, and the opportunities he has left,

which could be big. I like this matchmaking here. I'm okay with it with it but don't do you echo me where it's like step into being a puncher dude because in certain matchups that's exactly who you need to be go after it man i definitely especially in this stage of his career where it's like you couldn't beat usic you know it's not about maybe it is for him still being the best, but to me it's like I want to see you on, and this is very easy for you or I to say, but what would I like to see?

I'd like to see a guy who goes, okay, I can't manage these fights on my way to being the best. And I can fight with a riskier style, which means I might get more losses than normal, but I also feel like he can get himself back to a place where, you know, he can let his athleticism and his power do more work than a reserved game plan otherwise could. And you'll get uneven results from that, BC, but you might actually get higher highs, right? You might get lower lows, too, but you might get higher highs.

And at the stage he's in, trying to carefully manage a fight through 12 rounds to prove i'm still the best heavyweight seems like a bit of a wasted effort but i'm sure you know he's got a different perspective and look anyone could counter what we say and said well look he's had you know not chin issues but per se but like you know you can hurt him you can hurt him man and that and that can change the the tenor of the fight like he did in the first ruiz one so um but you know i think he's got to lean on those strengths when it matters. I don't know. Let's see who's training him. Let's see his mindset. Let's see what happens here. But if he does come back, remember that he said

he'd love to have two to three fights with the second one being Dillian White and the third one being presumably whoever comes out of the Usyk Fury fight. So I think Anthony Joshua can still get there, meaning I think he can get back to close this year either fighting or on the road to be fighting for the Undisputed Championship think Anthony Joshua can still get there meaning I think he can get back to close this year either fighting or on the road to be fighting for the undisputed championship and be in a spot where

we have confidence that you know you're not going to favor him against Fury but you want to have the confidence that he can potentially turn that into a fight and have moments and have a shot to win it I think there's still reality there Luke even though just as easily on the flip side I could see Fury breaking him down and stopping him but I do think there's still reality there luke even though just as easily on the flip side i could see fury breaking him down and stopping him but i do think there's a window here still left for for joshua to to to find how great he can be again um i that's what wilder did wilder in the third fight you know he didn't try to really outbox tyson fury he knew he wasn't gonna and tyson fury tried to outbox him and of course Tyson also invited a little bit of risk based on what he was doing but like you know Wilder didn't win but Wilder put him on his ass

like in a way that you know it's just pretty fucking remarkable I think that Joshua's capable of at least that maybe a little bit more we'll see we'll see man I love I love this I mean it's funny I heard Max Kellerman on his ESPN show officially say, and he recognized that we don't have a lot of great heavyweight eras in boxing history. You know what I mean? Like there's been great heavyweights, but outside of the 1970s, 1990s, it's really hard to pick one stretch and say that's an era. You know what I mean?

There was a champion sometimes with two other names you knew that ended up making their dent in history. But Max believes this renaissance era that we're in right now luke where at least we have a lot of commercially viable guys who want to fight each other for the combination of combined talent here with usic joshua wilder and fury not to mention that you know the secondary names after that with this is becoming one of the greatest eras in heavyweight history. What do you think about that? I don't. I would like to move on.

I'd like to keep the show on track, if I may. This is a great discussion. That was great. Yeah, so we don't have to. I mean, we don't have to have that. That's the most important part. We can actually keep the show on a time budget that we had talked about. All right, BC, with that in mind, let's get to this part.

Topic number four, Lauren Murphy. Now, we had talked about. All right, BC, with that in mind, let's get to this part. Topic number four, Lauren Murphy. Now, we did talk about this on Monday, namely, like, should the corner have stopped it? And again, there were things that Daniel Cormier had said as part of the broadcast team that her corner didn't necessarily say, but we were just having a discussion, like, should it have been stopped? What are some of the arguments about it? Blah, blah, blah. She responded, BC.

Yes, she did. Quote, she wrote a tweet about it. She says, all the podcasters and fans screeching about Lauren Murphy needs a new corner and they should throw in the towel. Now, in fairness to us, BC, I don't think you or I called for her to have a new corner. I don't think we did that. We didn't. And by the way, when she says all the podcasters and fans, it's like, dude, Cormier and Paul Felder and John Anik were the ones who brought this up. Are you suggesting that they're podcasters?

I mean, I guess that's technically true. They are. Don't they all host their own podcast? Yeah, they do. But it almost sounds like she's absolving them and pointing the finger at media and fans. I could be wrong about that. I don't know. But it just was unclear.

Anyway, here's what she argues. Is anyone arguing that Glover Teixeira's corner should have stopped it? But yes, is the answer, like many people did. I saw him after the fights and he looked way worse than me. We haven't seen her, so I don't know if that's true. Both his eyes are closed and he took a lot of unanswered shots. True. What about when Brian Ortega got a boxing lesson in the middle of a fight against Max Holloway?

That fight was stopped after the fourth. Look at Darren Elkins' entire career. It's a fist fight. Sometimes we get beat up. Sometimes it might make you uncomfortable that is your problem where were these people when Joanna looked like effing Megamind in her fight with Zhong Wai Li plenty of people call for that to be stopped uh if they're concerned for safety why weren't they screaming for her to be pulled some were competitive or not shouldn't her safety have come first miss me with that double standard BS and she also goes on to

say something kind of interesting BC which, which was that, you know, she's like, I signed up for this. I mean, I have a few responses and I'd like to get yours. But one of the things I want to make clear here is the government regulates this. The government cannot regulate any activity that anyone in theory would consent to. For example, you could not, even if people would consent to fighting for the death, fighting to the death, excuse me, the government does not have a compelling interest in regulating or allowing this kind of activity. You can't consent to something like that.

It's not really allowed. And that's an exaggerated example that I'm trying to make here. But you get the point. Just because you consent doesn't mean that that consent allows it to be okay. There's a broader discussion about what kind of damage we allow and don't. Your consent to it is relevant only up to a point, but please, your response. Thank you. I'm not too mad at her. I don't agree in general, but it seems, Luke, you know, like, you know, the big part of it, she's pouring her heart out, and I don't question her toughness at all. I mean, no, that's not part of this at all, and, you know, you hear, you saw it, and they're

saying, I am tough. We all think you're tough. That's not the question here. I don't even think it's necessarily a double standard too. Although I do think it's worth the conversation. Do we, because the majority of MMA fans would be male compared to female, although there are a lot of female fans. Do we look at when female fighters are in trouble and want to be quicker to say, stop it because you know, that, that could be, you know, that you're looking, that could be my, my mother, my daughter, my, my wife, my father, you know, whatever. I don't know. Maybe, I don't know. I just think in this case, Luke, based on her comments, like, you know, she's like, when are you people going to be happy? Is that not enough for you?

It's like, no, they're never going to be happy. Like they're critics, whether they're fans who, you know, you have to take what the fan fans say to with a certain grain of salt, especially the aggressive ones. And on the flip side, also media too. I mean, you know, to have to take what the fans say with a certain grain of salt, especially the aggressive ones. And on the flip side, also media, too. I mean, you know, to some degree, Luke, we are filling shows. And, you know, what we say can be constructive criticism if a fighter ever wants to hear it, but should not be something a fighter is using as something they're fighting against to try to make changes to show us.

So in that regard, I didn't like the spirit of how Lauren wrote that, but it's an emotional response after the fact. I just disagree, Lou. Yeah, I mean, listen, Lauren Murphy is very smart. Over the years, in covering her career and listening to her speak, I've come away very impressed by the things that she says, by and large. And, BC, you know this as well as I do. Everything that's gone right in her career, she's earned.

Every inch of it. There's nothing she's ever gotten that she didn't have to earn the hard way, probably, right? I mean, very much someone who has carved their own destiny and did it uphill. And I have a tremendous amount of respect for her. When she says what she says, I think she's being honest. And I don't think she's necessarily being unthoughtful. But fighters keep wanting to do this. This is the one thing I'm going to say.

Fighters keep wanting to make this debate about what they want. And that what they want is really the ultimate arbiter of what is okay. It is not. It is not. Now, it is not to say that we don't care what they want is really the ultimate arbiter of what is okay. It is not. It is not. Now, it is not to say that we don't care what they say. We care what fighters have to say a lot. In fact, of all the people who have voices, theirs might be the most important one. So for that reason, I encourage everyone to look at her full comments,

pay attention to what she says. She's not in any way stupid. This is a very bright woman. However, BC, when we talk about rules about health and safety, we have to convince all of the stakeholders, the regulators, the promoters, the fighters, to an extent, the fans, to an extent, the media, the broader community. Those are the ones that largely shape the rules or some of the norms that end up creating some of the rules it is not merely what the fighter either consents to or thinks is acceptable that is not the ultimate arbiter and we need to be i think fair to fighters we need to

hear them and we need to be uh pay some deference to them but not reflexive death well they're too close to it they're too close to the situation, and they're in control of a lot of that situation, but to me it's no different. Like when you say, oh, you're a judge, okay, you can't be the judge. You can't preside over the court case involving your nephew, right? You know what I mean? It's like, no, you're too close to it.

And in this regard, it's like, that's the case. But I think her argument just loses a lot of steam because her fight wasn't competitive at all without the history of finishes like we've talked about. So in that regard, it wasn't a title fight in round five, right? It wasn't. So there you go. Okay.

And by the way, BC, John Hackleman spoke to the MMA Hour talking about the Glover fight. He was in the corner. He said just a couple things very quickly that I thought were interesting. One, he says, quote, I'm a known fight stopper in between rounds. I'm kind of known for that. Maybe a little bit too much at times, but I thought this was a good time to stop it. I was outvoted in the corner. Kind of interesting. And then lastly, on Glover's retirement, win or lose, he would have retired, Hackleman said. He's ready. He's done enough. He's proved enough. I will say this. She was asking, like, who was talking about throwing in the towel in their corner? Or excuse me,

who was throwing in the, who was talking about stopping the talking about throwing in the towel in their corner or excuse me, who was throwing in the, who, who was talking about stopping the fight or throwing in the towel in the Glover fight. Turns out Glover's corner. Yeah. You know, it turns out Glover's corner.

Now granted it was a five round fight, blah, blah, blah. But I didn't hear anything from Lauren's corner, which, you know, as a three round fight,

maybe you don't expect to necessarily, but there were some meaningful differences. And hack of course, you know, was there with Glover from the beginning and in the camp with Ldell but is in his day-to-day coach now and he said he was invited here as more of a ceremonial encouragement role in fact he he revealed as you read that tweet that or they read the the quote there that you know glover said one last ride was the quote come you know come come join my corner this will be the last time so luke that's look okay the stuff about um him

retiring and should have been stopped, it could have been stopped easily after round four, but I think we all saw how close Glover, who got full mount in round five, actually was to potentially winning that fight, which is wild. But Luke, he win or lose, Glover Teixeira was going to pull the GSP, right? Give the lip service publicly of saying, don't worry, I won't'll defend it you know blah blah our biggest fear entering this fight hill to sheriff as like you know the purity of being an mma fan and respecting rankings and hierarchy is like is the is the winner going to look like the best light heavyweight in the world or are we going to feel like this is a mess because blohovich and ankolyev drew and then you know we just panicked and went to the next two in line

i mean who the hell is going to fight next for next for this Luke Darren Till I mean where are we going with this um we were rescued from that I believe by Jamal Hill having just a such a breakthrough amazing performance um but dude especially if Glover had won this in the dramatic come from behind way dude this is right. There's no chance he was. So look, he would have retired and left the belt right there. What would we have said after that? What would we have?

How would our reaction have been like chaos? Chaos. That would have been, I got to tell you, the UFC dodged a bullet with that one. They dodged a bullet. And I understand Glover. I understand Glover's position completely. Like if you took that beating and then you came back, you were already thinking about retiring anyway, you get it.

Anything else after that, you are just courting disaster. You would have to stop. But that's terrible for the division. That's terrible for the UFC. They got really unlucky with Magomed Onkolaev and Jan Blachowicz. They got really unlucky with that. But they got very lucky with Jamal Hill. They would have had to go to Glover

and be like, what's the number? Seriously. You can build a new academy with this. You know what the best part about, quickly for Connecticut fans, about the embedded build-up in the countdown show heading into this fight. We got to see Glover in his backyard. He has the plunge pool

thing and he's got the hot tub. Luke, in basically like the same house I live in it's like a you know decent raised rent it's like he's just this regular dude and in the neighborhood there in greater Danbury Connecticut and and we saw that come out in our room service diaries where it's like we understand you have a superpower of badassery but outside of that you're just that dude who can come over and help me fix my lawnmower like that's literally him luke so that's clever he lives he lives comfortably but you wouldn't say he lives extravagantly you know i don't think so he's just that dude yeah just that dude well i wonder if if if even he had a price for the million dollar man luke i do wonder that it's it's one we'll never know but but it's certainly something to think about um want to

remind folks we're getting closer to the end of the month, and of course you guys know what that means. Almost time to select the Money Lion Hammer of the Month. And of course, for those who may have missed it, we're going to spotlight undercard fighters who aren't getting the recognition they deserve. So our sponsor, Money Lion, came to us with the Hammer of the Month, which invites you guys, the viewers, to nominate undercard fighters who blew

your mind and deserve to be rewarded for it you have five days left to go vote so go to money lion.com slash morning combat to learn more you can vote for umar norgar made of you can vote for royman via you can vote for i think it is or ishmael bonfim lots of other choices gelton almeida i think is in this consideration, Luke. There was a bunch from the last two UFC fight cards in general that have really made big statements. So I'd love to get nominated. I'd love to have such a good show or reaction or segment one day, Luke.

Bruno Fajeda also on this list, our producer, is telling us that somebody was like, hey, guys, love this Moneyline thing, love the hammer, love all that stuff. But BC killed it on that episode. You know, we may have to get that guy his own hammer. All right? So we have to find ways to give you yet more awards. That's the problem.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. There you go. Like, that joke was so dad and lame, but I think BC found it, found the mark. He killed it. Yeah. You landed it.

You landed the plane. All right, BC, now it's time for you to land our next segment go ahead my friend yeah once in a while we fill time on a wednesday luke one of my favorite things to do with a you know top relevant topic to the news cycle game this one called over under where luke i have 10 numbers for you and you're gonna have to respond to tell me whether my prediction here is over or under luke yuri prohotska him, the former light heavyweight king, told the MMA Hour on Monday that his shoulder is actually recovering better than expected, and he believes he can be back fighting, quote, in July or August or something like that.

He went on to say, I want to be sure that my body works for 200%, and I think it can be summer of this year. Luke, seven and a half, can be summer of this year. Luke, seven and a half, that's your over-under, the number of months before we see Yuri Prochazka fight for the light heavyweight title. From this day. From this day. So if it's seven and a half, we're into August or September then, right?

So, yeah, I guess the end of August there is sort of where I'm targeting. I'll take the over. I'll take the over. I appreciate targeting. I'll take the over. I'll take the over. I appreciate. I'm, by the way, delighted to hear that things are going well. Certainly, it would be amazing if he could come back that fast. But I will tell you, just skeptical about it. I think he actually will make an expedited timeline in the sense, BC,

that it's not going to require a full year off I don't think it sounds like a full year is just really not at play six months for what he's talking about is very ambitious and I just think by the time he gets back and then they book it it's going to be past the seven and a half month Mark so I'm gonna say over I'll take the over on that okay i i think you're probably right but i think it'll be like a day after that a weekend after that i mean he's yeah maybe not i think this is the kind of guy that's gonna fight to recovery which some guys just can do that i don't understand it look shoulder injuries are a bitch man they just take forever to fix they take forever to fix

yeah oh did you see the response video from jamal hill we don't it just came out we don't have it in time but he went out to the woods and he he was like, you know, that's what she said. Hilarious. Well done there. Sweet dreams. Not bad. All right, number two here, Luke. Here we go.

You may not remember this as you watched UFC 283 with the sound down, as you like to do, but your boy BC, Luke, once again, had one of my tweets air during the live pay-per-view broadcast. Did it really? Yeah, after Johnny Walker's TKO in the first round of Paul Craig, which suggests, Luke, that MK's recent hard stance against both domestic

slapping and the sporting type of slap might not lead to media banishment after all from Uncle Dana for your boys in the MK. I guess it's a roulette that we'll find out at the end. So I believe we have footage there of my tweet. Or maybe somebody is going to lose their job for putting my tweet on the

broadcast. Also in play, Luke, do we have the, we're not going to, okay, here we go. The over under Luke is two and a half,

two and a half. The combined amount of times that you or I step foot inside an arena during a live UFC fight card between now and the end of 2024. How many did we step in in the last year? And there's the tweet in mention, Luke, that me generically shouting out the big Johnny Walker win. By the way, I got to tell you, that's a very insightful tweet.

That's the kind of content you can get at B Campbell. Believe that. You know what I mean? Whatever your mom thought sitting next to you, I had the same exact thought. Wow, that's a nice win for Johnny Walker. Luke, let me put it to you. Wait, what are we even talking about here? Oh, we went in 2022.

We both showed up in vegas for international fight week but we actually both i don't think did i go in the arena no i didn't go in the arena no we shot hq from the media tent no neither of us we were credentialed but we didn't actually go to the arena they actually credentialed us up high too that time they said there was a shortage of availabilities. Yeah, I don't know. So, I mean, between now and 2024, I'll take the under. I'll take the under on that. I mean, I think we'll probably... UFC is still sending me all their emails about, like, hey, here's the fight night results,

and here's photos for media and stuff, which is the stuff they only send to media. Again, dude, I just, we might get banned. I mean, who knows? But I tend to think that Dana got a lot of bad press when he did that to Ariel, and they still have a couple guys in the books that they do that to. But I don't think they want to do that with a CBS employee

because it would turn into a bigger story again, and they have to walk it back. I think they're just like, they're not going to do me or maybe even you any favors. They'll just put us on the roof, probably. Yeah, exactly. That's the soft way of kicking somebody in the balls. Yeah, you're right, maybe, Luke.

And also, we did go to Thanksgiving. No, the November UFC card in MSG. We just didn't go in the building. We didn't even apply for credentials there because we didn't really need it. Yeah, there you go. All right, number three in our over-under journey, Luke. Luke Rockhold was also interviewed by ariel hawani on monday and announced he was free from his ufc contract he said he actually reached out and asked and they they because he has such a

great relationship he says with hunter campbell they let him go so at 38 years old rockhold has declared himself a combat free agent and said he's open to feeling offers from boxing or from MMA promoters like PFL, Bellator MMA, and one championship. He also made a point in saying he still has a great relationship with Scott Coker. That of course goes back to the strike force days. So over under here is five and a half.

If Rockhold did reunite with Scott Coker and came to Bellator MMA, the number of top 10 Bellator MMA middleweights at the moment that you think Luke Rockhold would be favored to beat. We have a graphic we can throw to you with the 10, Luke, so you can check it out. Five and a half is your over-under for Luke Rockhold. Okay, he ain't beating Johnny Evelyn, so you can write that one off the list.

We're talking about betting odds, favored to win, okay? That's all we're talking about. That's it. So they announced the fight. Who do the oddsmakers have as the fave? Jesus. I'll say... I'd actually like to see it.

Maybe three or four at most. I'd actually like to see him here. Would or four at most. I'd actually like to see him here. Would you? If he still wants to go this route? I know he mentioned boxing, and he'd probably be willing to take a celebrity crossover, too, if it was there, Luke. But if he wanted to just go into the top ten here and try to become the Bellator middleweight champion, I think he could have a run in him. Am I crazy? I think he could.

Listen, he is the biggest... Okay, Musashi has obviously done a lot, but who's the most popular name in this group? It would be, if you added Luke Rockhold to it, it would be Luke Rockhold. So for that reason alone, he might be getting acquired and fight fans know him.

And obviously, as you indicated, he and Scott Coker have worked together under the Strikeforce banner previously. I think he could probably get a title shot but like i just don't think he could even come close to beating johnny eblin or anybody like i don't think he could beat tokov dude i think you bring him in bring him in you put him against austin vanderford which would be an interesting style matchup for him yeah and then i think if if he wins that you got musashiasi and Eblen coming up for him

there you go Luke you put him against Tokov he doesn't win Tokov beats him easily Tokov might win the title let's give him that credit February 4th against Johnny Eblen Tokov is a fucking hammer yeah he's built like a brick shithouse Luke and Dalton Rosta too

looks like god damn Hercules out there so I think he could be an interesting addition, but... Or maybe you put him in there with Lorenz Larkin, who's a middleweight these days, Luke. But Lorenz Larkin was fast, dude, and he would light him up. I don't know about that one either. No, I'm saying it'd be a good fight.

It'd be a good fight. Oh, it'd be a fun fight. I mean, here's the thing. It's like, dude, they were at altitude, right, in his last contest against Paulo Acosta. So who knows how much they contributed to it, but he didn't look like himself. He didn't look like himself. He didn't look like Prime McLaughlin.

Okay, I don't want to overplay this, but would you agree that something awakened in him during that fight which led to the violent outbursts of big punches and, you know, being crazy with the blood and stuff. But like, I feel like that, that reminded him that he can still do this and that he could fight back and that it's in him. I don't know something. I feel like something happened there. I think we watched the transaction. I think he's, you know, listen, he's a former UFC champion. He's a former strike force champion. He's only 38 years old. I he's taken some damage that I think has messed him up, but you can't say he couldn't beat some of those guys. And I think for that reason, if he wanted to, that could be a great opportunity for him. All right.

Over under number four here, Luke, it's just 12 days until you and I hop on a plane, not together, but we hop separately across the Atlantic and we land in London for Wednesday, February 8th, the Pod Live Festival, our our 90 minute live show so 12 days from now when you get on that plane luke over under 850 the amount of milligrams of thc that will be in your body upon takeoff for the seven hour flight oh 850 is a lot okay yeah it is um that's a big flight though dude that's going to be like rows of like three four four and three it's going to be like one of those movie planes right

those like big ass well so i pay i paid for my own upgrade now i didn't get first class because i can't afford that but i got what they call what do they call it premium economy yeah i've had that before too that's that's basically first class it's like the same thing yeah i mean it gives you more leg room you more recline room and i think some of them have like instead of like everyone's got four to a seat or like three to a row the rows are only two so yeah it's pretty nice um even 850 is too much i think six is 600 probably do that but you can't get if you can't get across an eight hour flight with 600 milligrams of thc gummies something's wrong with you you know yeah yeah yeah i just didn't know if you just were like knock me out i'm ready doctor just you know let's go let's let's get it's like

here you could you could have if someone gave you 850 milligrams it's like you and your four favorite horses could all get high off of that i mean that's an insane amount yeah sea biscuit would love that shit okay there's no question about it yeah all right number five uh adrian broner i never saw that movie i never saw sea biscuit it's it's inspiring to it wasn't it nominated for oscar on a disney i don't think no not for best picture get the i'm pretty sure sea biscuit was nominated our intrepid producers can look that up quickly, all right? Adrian Broner has another problem, Luke, surrounding his, pun intended, surrounding his February 25th return on BLK Prime pay-per-view. Luke, are you even listening to me? Yes, I'm listening.

Yes, I'm listening, yes. Broner's replacement opponent, 39-year-old journeyman Hank Lundy, was removed by the California State Athletic Commission. Turns out he's under medical suspension. So AB will now face Michael Williams Jr., an unheralded 20-1 fringe welterweight who was dropped six times in his ESPN close-up in December of 2021 in a fourth-round knockout loss to prospect John Bauza.

This will mark just the second time in four years that AB will fight. Luke, it was nominated for Best Picture. I can't freaking believe it. It was nominated for a lot more than that. I'll get to it in the end, but go ahead and ask the question. Oh, my God. All right.

So Broner, this will just be a second fight in four years. So, Luke, it is going to fight somebody you never heard of, and it's going to be on pay-per-view, BLK Prime. Two and a half. The amount of televised pro fights that 33 year old adrian broner will will have before retiring for good now when you say televised what do you mean i mean not like you know hard up on money and he's you know 45 years old and he's fighting you know down the street just to uh off of his name just to keep things going i mean like you know showtime or pay-per-view or

okay you know whatever dazone espn whatever that level of stuff okay um i'll take the over i'll take the over uh you add this one that means you'd only have to get two more i think he's probably got a couple more in him especially if he looks good in this one which you know who the hell knows if he will he might look terrible but if he looks okay and he's still got some name do you look there's still a little bit of name value in beating adrian broner there is you know um you could highly debate what that is and it's certainly not what it once was but it's not utterly bereft of value and i think for that reason you might get him a little bit more it's so hard to get this guy motivated though like it took a lot of money from blk prime to get him to want to do this so i i have questions but

i hope i hope uh for his i don't know i don't know i don't know if i hope it did whatever's safer for him luke you know what i mean he's been in so much mayhem all the time i just want him to get into a good place in life, whatever that means. I agree with you on that. I agree. BC for Seabiscuit. Ready for this? Nominated.

Dude, I can't believe this got nominated for Best Picture. Are you kidding me? Ready for this? How about this? Nominated. Best Picture. Nominated. Best Writing Adapted Screenplay.

Nominated. These are all Academy Awards. Nominated. Best Art Direction. Nominated. Best Cinematography. Nominated. Best Costume Design. Nominated. Best Film Editing. Nominated. all academy awards nominated best art direction nominated best cinematography nominated best costume design nominated best film editing nominated best sound mixing it was nominated

for all of those for the 76th annual academy all right i remember seeing it on uh probably netflix in the mail or whatever year that was that it came out going hey man that was a pretty damn good inspirational disney sports movie i don't remember going like, oh, that'll be up for the Oscar. Are you kidding me? Dude, a movie about a horse with some big ass teeth racing around a track. Got all of that. How about that? There you go.

There you go. All right, Luke. I take the L. I was dead wrong. Number six on the over under UFC president Dana White has appeared in front of the media just twice since the New Year's Eve domestic violence incident in Mexico. Although much of his explanation and reaction afterwards, to be fair, has been rightfully criticized, White has been about as humble and self-reflective as we've ever seen him.

He hasn't argued with anybody publicly or taken shots at anybody even as the power slap league has been universally maligned so luke my over under is five the number of months before dana white publicly criticizes the scumbag mma media again or blames them for power slaps inevitable dissolution under take the under on that one easy easy do you really believe he's going to say that the slap league failed because of something he did i just that doesn't seem at all bonus point which media member is going to be in the crosshairs when he breaks this this uh this silence that's an interesting one because i don't because here's the funny part about the fighters the discovery channel one that he did it wasn't panned by the mma media it was mostly ignored and i think a

couple folks all was like yeah it's pretty good yeah it's pretty good but they you know discovery just didn't have an interest in it at that time and they pulled the plug and didn't do great viewership this one like there's been a lot of the mma media that have come out and been like dude what in the fuck is all of this um you or me are always a good candidate ariel's a good candidate you know uh but dude it wasn't just them like jesus anyone with a podcast did it mike heck went after him i know you know um i know jed mchugh's gone after him just but the spinning back click guys had a lot to say about it too like there's been a lot of people so he might just you might just do what he did before which was just you know spray the block on his drive-by on the

covid drive-by remember that he was just spraying the block grandmas were getting hit he didn't care oh yeah oh yeah there's some people i still to this day can't figure out how i avoided being in that video it really is he's not even you're not even on his hate radar you should be happy with that right i guess so but I find it weird. I find it weird that of all the people he went after, he didn't even use me once. Are you trying to very subtly

hype yourself up as he knows better? He saw what happens when Chael tried. He knows better. I don't think Dana is in any way intimidated by any of us. No, it's not that. It's more like it seems like strategic to deny it. Like he thought he was doing something against me in that way maybe.

Right? Like I'll stick it to him by not giving him attention or something kind of like that. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Interesting. Interesting. Let's keep this going luke since you know we weren't we were unable to talk about good stuff before why should

we continue here uh the pound for pound king alexander alexander volkanovski is just under three weeks away from daring to be great lightweight title mahachev ufc 284 in perth can't wait three and a half the combined number of featherweight fights remaining for Volkanovski under the UFC banner. I'll take the under no matter what. So obviously if he wins against Makachev, he

almost certainly drops one of them. In all likelihood, he'll drop. I mean, if you can beat Islam Makachev, why would you not stay at 155? Unless you took hella damage right yes yes unless it's some kind of like you know horrible i'd never want to experience that again but um you know makachev isn't like heavy with the punishment that way it would require something kind of special um so if you can beat islam makachev just stay at fucking 155 at that point

what i would say is um even if he goes back down how old is old Volkanovsky he's like I would guess 34 that's my guess right at 34 could be 33 but he's close to that even so you think about three and a half more if you take the over that's four that's maybe two more years I think by 35 he's doing something else or somewhere else or up a weight class or something like that. I'll take the under. I'll take that was an easy one for you, Luke. Here we go. Number eight. While the original idea of PFL launching their new Supervite pay-per-view division was centered around Kayla Harrison and, you know, the hope of Cyborg.

Kayla is no longer the women's lightweight champion. champion not to mention pfl also recently signed jake paul to a two-fight mma deal and could be potentially in the running for free agents like francis and ganu or nate diaz so the over-under here is for the number of pfl pay-per-view cards over the next two years that's a tough one that's a tough one i'll take the that's a tough one. That's a tough one. I'll take the... Fuck. I'll take the over. I'll take the over.

I think that they're going to try. Since they did a pay-per-view for the championship night in 22, you think they'll do that, so that'll be two of them, right? Yes. So, like, I mean, here's the thing. The Jake Paul thing alone, you know, gives me reason to think that that will get them at four bare minimum. So all they would have to have is one more than that

over the course of two years. Yeah, I think they probably. Listen, here's my actual answer. My actual answer is it probably is just going to be right at four. It won't be any more or less. But if I had to make a choice, do I think they hit four or more? Yes, I would say that. I would say that they do.

Interesting. There's that potential, especially if they got in Ghana. God, yeah. Okay, to your point. They've already got Jake, right? If they get Nate or Francis, it's going to be more than four. Well, look, there's been some reporting, I think, from Dan Rayfield that ESPN is looking like they're probably going to get the Jake Paul-Tommy Fury fight if that pay-per-view is happening,

like it says, in February. Do you think that's a big story that ESPN is going all in here between PFL and now this to bring the Jake circus under to bring the jake circus under that rap i mean we had it here at showtime it was fun that's a that's gonna be a pay-per-view fight or like it's gonna be an espn plus not pay-per-view no i think it's a pay-per-view fight yeah a pay-per-view fight um that is interesting that is interesting you know uh because i don't think my understanding is and again i don't speak for showtime here my understanding is the showtime and jake's team get along well they might work together in the future like they mean i don't know if they're

going to work together obviously not working together right away or maybe after this pfl deal is done but like my understanding was they just wanted to go and fight uh with people who had directly the kinds of things they were looking for at that particular moment which may or may not have been showtime fine you know go do what you want um but that dude can yes let me ask a question can espn make money on an afternoon pay-per-view with jake paul i don't know i don't know about that that's a weird one right yeah that's that's it's interesting um i don't know what the future there is and i know that people watching on this show don't want us to continue to talk about it look let's go to number nine 45 year old 45 year old floyd mayweather has announced yet another boxing exhibition this time jordy shore reality tv

star and former mma fighter aaron bellator veteran bellator veteran it's going to be february 25th in london the original opponent liam har Harrison, the Muay Thai fighter pulled out. So Luke, you're over under here is 1.3 million. The amount of buys that a Floyd Mayweather versus Nate Diaz real boxing match would sell if done under Showtime

pay-per-view, which has the history with Floyd and has more reach than I guess, you know, if they went under the Risen banner would it have the same distribution? I don't think so. So let's just say it. Let's say at 45 Floyd than, I guess, if they went under the Risen banner, would it have the same distribution? I don't think so. So let's just say it. Let's say at 45, Floyd goes, I got one more in me. And let's say he doesn't fear Nate.

I don't know if Floyd even would ever want to do this again. But could that move 1.3 million pay-per-view buys? I would take the under, but not by much. Like, do I really think that could sell 1.4, 1.5? I am skeptical. But do I think it could sell 8, 9, 1, 1, 1 around that? Yes. Yes, I do.

I think it would be enormously successful. I think you'd have a million pay-per-view buys, probably definitely within the very much in the realm of possibility. But 1.44 1.5 seems high that's okay what if what if they announce a three-day press tour and the first stop nate slaps floyd in the like stockton slaps him in the uh face off at the end of it and like the teams fight each other and you're like oh my god um god! I guess 1-4, 1-5 is on the table, but it would be difficult. Don't get me wrong.

They would make money. It would do well. Anything above a million, you're asking a lot. And is Floyd shameless at this point, or no? Oh, yeah. Dude, he's fighting reality tv this is what all of our heroes did though all the boxing greats did the same thing pro wrestling they did all this stuff you know what i'm saying it's what they do is floyd listen floyd's using

what's left of his athleticism in his name to get the biggest checks possible that's his fucking right you know and like we talked about it before if you don't like it don't don't watch but it's actually regulated boxing it's not some bullshit you know jackass stunt he's doing something he's good at and uh yeah i mean that's it doesn't interest me at all but you know what you're getting into if you buy it so all right uh finally luke on over under the return uh at 110 000 views our glover to share a episode of the revamped room service diaries interview series is the highest rated one of the 12 episodes we've filmed so far. That's 110,000 views. You're over under, though, is 900,000.

The total number of views that a John Jones Room Service Diaries episode would produce if recorded ahead of his March comeback. We would pass on 900k i'm certain so i thought that instantly but i looked it up when when when ariel walked around albuquerque with john many years ago which was a big deal that was like 1.1 million views and then what the last time ariel had john on his show which was like four years ago it did i think 800 in that area yeah but like listen i i don't imagine myself to be that important but john and i have a little bit of history uh and then listen if we got that i would go into it being like i understand very fully this is the last time i'm going to talk to this person right do you understand very few you could get a a

guillotine you could fall into a guillotine loop pretty quickly he could he could beat the shit out of me right like he'd be the shit of both of us probably at the same time uh you know if you wanted to but i would treat that interview very much like this is the last time i'm going to talk to him so fuck it let's just do what we want to do you know yeah i'd also like to have fun with him or you would you would not open also like to have fun with him or you would you would not open yourself up to having fun with him though i know that i'm not interested in having fun with him no all right then maybe maybe this is a bad idea but you think it goes over a million you're like oh yeah oh i think i think if you matched if i think if you matched my energy

bro we had the same vibes yeah we could do it what if i did what if we what if we we bombarded john and turned it into a live high court episode and we were debating each other luke and i that would be great you know and john and john realizes i'm a sympathizer of him and then you know him and i attack you that'd be wonderful uh that's that's always your dream your dream is to have a famous fighter on so the two of you could gang up on me. That's really been a lifelong pursuit of yours. I've noticed. It's a podcast. Get no gang. No podcast.

Gang bang. Is that what that is? We shouldn't go there. We shouldn't go there. All right. Hey, no, that that's your over under for the week. No fan subs. Apparently Mikey says we only got a couple of great ones. Okay.

So let me, let me, we should, we should tell the audience this. So it's not like we're not getting fan subs. We are guys. You have our ladies you have to make the fan subs playable to the public okay so if your fan subs involve violence misogyny uh murder rape torture uh racism or let's not do that we can't fucking use it man we can't use it so there's like a whole the cutting dude the cutting room floor bc you've seen the cutting room floor it's wild dude mikey will text us these and i'll just be like wow i'll be like what the

fuck is that you know uh please stop please stop doing that we can't air them if you don't make them palatable they have to be palatable to the public we take enough risks during have you seen this shit i mean come on you know yeah exactly uh let's remind everyone let's remind everyone we want to be both palatable and risky at the same time you can catch that live in attendance february 8th it'll be bc lt, DH. Dan Hardy's going to be there as well. Maybe some other folks will see. February 8th, King's Place in London. Get your tickets now.

We're in the home stretch of tickets. This is it. Time to get them now. Please, please, please do that if you are so inclined. We'd love to have you there. One-time deal. It's grand opening, grand closing. Come see us.

BC Showtime is the label that pays. You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. Morningcombat at gmail.com for, let's see, Friday's Dead Wrong in BC. Are we putting the resume review out tomorrow? Is that tomorrow or next week? Dude, we should put it out tomorrow.

Can we? I believe, yes, yes, 11 a.m. 11 a.m. tomorrow. So 11 a.m. in the east tomorrow, we're going to have our Fedor Emelianenko resume review. I'm told it came out after editing quite good. And I wanted to, I can't wait. You just announced it, Fedor.

Let's do it. I mean, it's freaking Fedor, right? We're going to be talking Pride. Pride's greatest hits, basically. Okay, let's check in and check that out. Also, Luke, we would be remiss if we didn't mention morningcombat.store because not only do we have great merch there, RJ Ballbagger there, the merch maven there.

Luke, he also has three new shirts, including a brand, brand new one today, UK related. So MK in the UK, as we know, February 8th is going to be a thing. It's going to be a big thing but you can also be outfitted in in merch that celebrates our arrival and there's like the there's like the british invasion in reverse luke okay right now this is great uh we're coming we're i'm going to work i can't wait to see how many people tell me it's football not soccer like i give a fuck you know i hope they show up and be like luke you you disrespected our cuisine here i made this for you luke it's it's filled with pot you

know it's great though it's good some guy also ejaculated in his land yager and didn't tell me you know i i might eat it at the hotel later who's to say you know i don't know by the way instead of like you know how i was calling eerie like yeezy or yeezy yeah you've done a lot of ridiculous you know how i was calling eerie like yeezy or yeezy yeah you've done a lot of ridiculous pronunciation moves yeah i mean you're all you're all just completely fumbling in the dark i i understand that i i get it but now that he did the i am coming video can we just call him jizzy we just you know you just get right to the point yeah old jizzy yeah i don't i don't know i don't know that's my thing it doesn't work i don't think that's my thing no

all right all right we can leave that one for again cutting room floor you see there I don't know. I don't know. That's my thing. It doesn't work. I don't think that's my thing. No. All right. All right. Well, we can leave that one for again, cutting room floor. You see there. I'm going to pee my pants. Luke, you want to, you want to, you want to, you want to land this thing? I mean, let's land this plane. All right. That's BC.

I'm LT. We'll be back on Friday. We'll talk more. By the way, our turbo Terabia fight against Anthony yard. We're going to preview with that on Friday. So join us for that. And for Malka for showtime for CBS sports and everyone else involved. We're out of here until next time.

May all of your gains be loyal.