MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Conor McGregor's Trash Talk, Predictions, TJ Dillashaw | Live Chat, ep. 56

Episode Date: December 4, 2020

Today on the podcast, we'll discuss the nature of Conor McGregor's trash talk and its effect on opponents, MMA predictions, Errol Spence vs. Danny Garcia, T.J. Dillashaw's return to the UFC bantamweight division, Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou 2, my favorite movies, Wonderboy's next move, Junior dos Santos's future and much more. --------------------------------- 'Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As I get a call right as I go on the air. It is, let's see what day is it today. It is the 3rd of December 2020 and it is time for episode 56 of the Luke Thomas live chat. Of course my name is Luke Thomas. I am from Showtime, CBS Sports and many other places. We have a lot to get to today. We have some fights this weekend. We got some combat sports programming tonight. We have a whole lot of things to do. So without further ado, let us get this party started, shall we? All right. And there we are. We are live. Let me get my glasses cleaned off before we get going here.

If you'd be so kind as to, in the interim, subscribe, that'd be great. We've made great progress this week with the Dustin Poirier interview as well as some of the other content we put up. We've been doing really well, but we want to keep that train a-rolling, and we need you donks to do that. So I know it's not the very proper way to clean, although I do have a proper rag, but I don't have a lot of stuff nearby. It'd be great if you did. Or you can just, at a bare minimum, just like the video, yeah?

A lot of folks ask, where does the podcast go for this live chat? Does it go on my old, my personal feed? Not for the time being. It will go on the Morning Combat feed, so you have to subscribe to that to get this as an audio version. All right? All right. With that out of the way, let's get to your questions if we can, and I'll turn this thing off here too. There we go. All right. Let's see what you donkeys got for me. Yeah, we had to delay it because we had some other issues going on, but it's up today. Usually it's at 3 PM, but no big deal. We got it going. All right. Very good. Okay. So we'll pull it up and see what you guys got for us. Okay. Okay. All right, first up.

You stated in your interview with Dustin that you underestimated how effective Conor's trash-talking skills would be in the UFC. Has your opinion, therefore, been changed in trash-talking in general, or is Conor an exception to the rule and has trash-talk vastly different and more effective compared to the Chael or a Colby? Yeah, I mean, I don't think that those things are as effective, trash talk vastly different and more effective compared to the chale or a colby yeah i mean i um i don't think that those things are as effective in part because chale and colby have a little bit more of a one note kind of way of winning they were just sort of in and in particular chale i mean colby will mix it up with you a lot of different ranges he will strike with you for

you know long stretches of around or in different. Chael was just sort of in your face trying to get you down, ground and pound, that kind of a thing. It was very, very, there wasn't a lot of mystery to what he was going to do. And did he pull people out of their games a little bit with it? There probably is some evidence to go back and suggest as much. Obviously not in the early stage of his career, but then once he developed some of that persona. But that was more about currying favor with an audience.

Colby, you know, giving up Star Wars spoilers doesn't do much for getting an audience, but the whole MAGA thing did, I think. It worked to a degree to help him capture a fan base, or at least people who were sympathetic to what he was doing. With Conor, it seems a little bit different. It's really intentionally designed to needle his opposition. And, you know, part of the reason why I was a little bit rejecting of the role that it might play

is because the conversations about it were totally outsized. I mean, the only conversation we would have about it, about the fight itself, would be about a so-and-so and so-and-so's head. And at some point, it's like, okay, that matters. But are we just going to ignore all the other things that matter? And people were ignoring it. And I think because they were ignoring it,

even I overcorrected for how much... Yes, those things should have been a broader part of the conversation, but maybe I was going so far that I was doing the opposite. I was rejecting some of the other stuff. So pretty clearly, like, in the fights with Poirier, you know, I mean, I don't know how much of a role it played in the Brandao fight, where a situation where Conor is just, you know, vastly better as just a fighter, whether there was trash talk or not.

I don't know what kind of role that played. But in the Poirier fight, obviously the Alvarez fight, maybe to an extent in the Mendes fight, although not as much. Aldo, that kind of a thing. I mean, those are clear examples of where it worked.

Some clear examples of where it didn't. Some clear examples of where it backfired, like in the Nurmagomedov fight, right, where all it did was fuel him. So I just don't feel like Colby and Chael, you know, I don't feel like they use it as much to get it, to get their opponents away from what they're doing, because there's not really a lot of mystery. And you can say, well, Conor's a little bit one-note, sort of a left-handed guy, but even then there's a pretty big variety, and it's a lot of timing, and it's a lot of just the right distance, just the right moment.

It's not so bang you over the head quite literally in your face, their face in your chest, ground and pound, blah, blah, blah. I think what's kind of interesting, and I did a podcast with Brendan Schaub. I'm not sure when it's coming out, maybe today or tomorrow. I did a podcast with him, and we talked about this. You know what's really interesting is two things. One, I referenced it in my interview with Dustin. People, I guess, did not realize that the original opponent for UFC 196 was RDA.

Conor versus RDA. And he had the whole El Chapo bit going on at the press conference. Now, of course, RDA got injured and the replacement at that point was Nate Diaz. Okay. So why is that relevant? Well, because if you watch the press conference, I mean, Conor just, just chews them up, you know, and RDA did his best to just play it cool, but it was really hard to just, you know, he was trying to just ignore them, and you really couldn't, man. You know, you had RDA with sort of a conventional suit. It was a nice suit, but, you know, sort of a conventional suit

and a conventional way of approaching things. And here's Conor and all this, like, you know, not Pablo Escobar, but this sort of El Chapo kind of gear and, like, just talking over him and in his, I mean, just, you know just being rude and everything else in between. One of the interesting things is, one, with COVID, there are not as many opportunities to promote fights in the normal way. So for example, you've got this Devis and Figueredo pay-per-view coming up. Are they going to have all of the fighters from the next pay-per-view there in fight week to talk up their upcoming fights?

I mean, maybe they might do that. That's certainly a possibility. But it certainly won't be for a crowd. There's going to be no media there. There'll be no fans. So that takes some of the steam away. And the other part is, like, dude, we're at almost 200,000 cases a day here. I mean, do these guys really want to travel and potentially exacerbate any known risk of getting this stuff just to go to a press conference when you kind of already know that's going to happen?

And by the time Fight Week rolls around, you can just do it. I mean, so there's just a lot less of media to do in a public-facing way than there was before. That's one thing. Two, you had Conor. Again, that was maybe very particular to Donald Cerrone or maybe particular to Conor coming off of some of those New York Times reports and his time off and punching the old dude in the bar and blah, blah, blah. But he was real humble, elder statesman kind of a role he was playing in that fight. Is that what he's going to do against Dustin? Because Dustin even says in the interview he was fighting Conor,

but more so he was fighting the fans, the media, UFC, the expectations, all these other things, the hoopla. Here's what I'm saying. Who is Conor as a fighter without the sorcery? Now, that doesn't mean I'm telling you he's nothing. Listen to what I'm saying. But you have some clear victories, including his two title victories, that came with both fighters sort of admitting after the fact

that they had gotten caught up in all of that kind of stuff he was playing. Okay, well, let's say you take that away. Now what do you have to deal with? And to be clear, Conor is a formidable challenge. I'm not one of those guys who underestimates him. I actually think in some ways it might work in his favor, which is to say a lot of people are like, you know, Conor has an army of supporters and also a smaller army,

but a vocal one of absolute detractors. And part of it is that they think, you know, he got lucky here or lucky there. Okay, but if you go in there and you beat Dustin Poirier twice, and you do it years later, which there. Okay. But if you go in there and you beat Dustin Poirier twice, okay, and you do it years later, which is how a real rematch should go, time apart, and you do it up a weight class, and you do it without all of the trash talk, without all of the, you know, the nonsense, the hoopla,

you do it that way, dude, what could they say at that point? I'm sure that, you know, assholes will always at that point? I'm sure that, you know, assholes will always find a way to be themselves, but you know, dude, that's something that's impressive. That's extremely impressive. Dustin Poirier is much better. He's much bigger and he just understands himself and what it takes to win. If you beat that guy at all, that's impressive. And if you beat that guy without any mind games, shit, dude, only the most special guys can do that. Only the most, most, most special ones can do that. If Connor does that, I'm not here to say I would take it away from the win if you used, you know, mind games, because that's also part of the game too. I'm just saying you beat him purely on the skills that are relevant to,

you know, your hands and fists and, and fists and knees and elbows? Like, shit. That would be kind of interesting, right? And so it's a moment I'm kind of paying attention to here. What role does trash talk play here? How much is it affected by the pandemic and how much it limits exposure to wider audiences? And what particular strategy does Conor adopt here?

All of these questions are extremely interesting. Of any famous duo of the past, whether it was from sports, pop culture, movies, music, who are you and BC most like? Jesus, I have no idea. Um, um, Burton Ernie, Lennon and McCartney, um, Sonny and share. Fuck if I know, man. I mean, I think what makes it work is that we're actually pretty similar in a lot of underlying ways. Two dads in their 40s with kids, love combat sports, kind of hunkered down in their house at all time, got animals in the house. And there's a lot of differences as well too, but it's kind of the same.

But then when you begin to drill down into some of the more specifics, that's where the departure exists. I'm a little bit more gloomy. He's a little bit more glass half full. I'm a little bit more serious. He'm a little bit more gloomy. He's a little bit more glass half full. You know, I'm a little bit more serious. He's a little bit more goofy. And so what actually bonds us is the similarity and what makes it work is some of the differences.

So, you know, I don't know, past duos, I'd be overstating what we're even doing by even making any comparison. You know, Lyndon McCartney is a joke. I hope everyone understands that. But, you know, there's a reason why opposites sort of work in this particular way. Hi, Luke.

I occasionally hear people base their predictions on fights purely on what they have heard or seen in sparring and training. For example, people saying Colby would beat Masvidal based on the footage that shows them training and sparring. How much relevance do you think people should base their predictions on this factor? Okay, well, two different claims that are being made there. If you have two people and they have sparred before and you have footage of that and one got the upper hand, or at least it looks like they got the upper hand, you can't read very much into that, depending on how it looks, obviously. the upper hand, you can't read very much into that, depending on how it looks, obviously. But in general, what I would say is I would strongly caution you to be careful with that

for any number of reasons. One, there could be situational drilling. It doesn't explain in the video, but one person was only trying to do one thing. Hey, we don't care about you going for any submissions. We just want you to get up off the bottom. So your whole task is to just get up off the bottom, and the other person's whole task is just to keep you on your back. And maybe they're good at that. Maybe they're not. Maybe that'd be relevant in a fight. Maybe it wouldn't be. And so depending on how that played out, yeah, one person's going to get the upper hand, but that may not have any

real relevance for how it would look if they fought or pick any other scenario where they're openly sparring, but one person has gone 10 rounds and been there for the long haul. And one person is the fresh rotation and they're brought in late. So the other person looks like they're getting tuned up, but really they're actually not because they're not, they're not, they're not playing with, you know, the same amount of energy or, you know, one person is, you know, you know what, today I'm going to work on my jab. You know, my jab's been really bad. And the person's like, okay, I'm just going to do what I normally do. And so you see somebody trying to work on a part of their game that

they're not really good at. And you're like, wow, you look at this footage. You know, that doesn't mean that's how the fight would go. Or if it was, you know, okay, I want you to focus strictly on winning this round. You also do the same. You're both fresh. Now, how does it go? That's a totally different thing. If you just have that strongly caution you not to look too much into it, it's not that it's irrelevant. It's just hard to know what it could mean. Okay. So that's the first thing I'd say that is different than the second one, which is here. We have two people, in the case of Colby and Masvidal, who trained together extensively for years where you might see one piece of footage where one person gets the upper hand, but the idea is that that is emblematic of their relationship generally. Anybody who's ever trained knows there are people who are kind of on your level, there are people who are kind of below your level. And this all changes over time, right? It's like stocks in the stock market. Some overperform and then they come down and blah, blah, blah. Everyone has their own journey. But if you start as a, let's just pick something, you start as a white belt and there's

a brown belt in the room until you both get to black and then you really take off, he's going to be better than you for a long time. A good four or five years at a bare minimum. That's four years of getting your ass kicked by him if you even roll with him. So if you have that kind of a relationship with somebody, and there's footage of you, let's say, as a purple and brown belt or something. Let's say you caught up to him pretty quickly, but still he's better. Yes, in that one scenario, maybe you wouldn't want to read too much into it, but if that tells the story of the last four years, well, that's a little bit different. That's a little bit

different. So in any one individual instance of crossover, try not to make too much of it. But if that is supposed to be emblematic of something broader, then you might be able to draw some firmer conclusions about that. And the idea, in terms of what I've been told, is that Colby is by far the better of the two. But who knows how much Colby has progressed, or Jorge has improved, or, you know, I mean, there's a lot of ways to reassess it. I just think over the totality, Colby was the better, at least wrestler of the two. Certainly not the better fighter per se. In fact, I think Jorge's been the much better fighter for the longer duration.

But as it relates to them locking up and training in certain scenarios, yeah, Colby's probably a lot better. That's not saying much. I mean, dude, Colby's really good. So, Nick Diaz's manager, I'm not sure sure which one is saying there's a 99.9% chance. Well, I don't know. I don't know which manager it was that said this. If it was the good one that I have worked with and I would take it seriously. If it's the bad one that I worked with, I wouldn't put fucking any stock into it because that person is a fucking idiot. So I don't know which manager it was. He's got a couple of them.

Says he's fighting in 2021. I've been hearing about him and conned it, but I'd rather see a fight between Nick Diaz and Tim Means. Yeah, Nick Diaz ain't fighting Tim Means. I mean, if he's coming back, he wants to fight a big name. And I respect Tim Means. Tim might even give him a great fight. Shit, Tim might even win.

I wouldn't want to discount Tim's chances. Tim's a bad dude, but he's not fighting. Nick's not fighting, Tim means. Nick's going to come back and fight somebody who was a champion, former champion, someone who's headlined pay-per-views. He's not coming back. At least, I'll tell you this much. I'd be very surprised if he fought somebody who has basically been a television fighter

for the predominant amount of their career. Thoughts on Khabib Nurmagomedov wanting to introduce MMA into the Olympic games. I'm not one of these guys who's super hard up for it. I don't mind it. I'm not like when these guys are like, oh, no, definitely don't. But I'm also like, I think people are looking for MMA to get some kind of, I don't know, what's the word? Like, they feel like if they get into the Olympics, they'll have a certain, you know,

social belonging in the hierarchy of sports. It's like, first of all, if y'all want to be in the, you know, firmament of accepted sports worldwide, you can stop buddying up to dictators and you can stop promoting QAnon and you can stop calling COVID the flu. It's like, if you really want to know what's keeping you out of that space, it's the fucking abhorrent practices and ideas that they all, and not just to be, but they all routinely, uh, share. And it's a, it's a wide problem.

I am not picking on any one individual fighter, but it's a it's a wide problem i am not picking on any one individual fighter but it's like worry less about mma being the olympics and more about like science but okay let's stick to the olympics here by virtue of the question um i know ia mmaf has been working on this for a long time and what khabib is trying to do as i understand is a little bit different it's more like something kind of closer to combat jiu-jitsu than it is actual MMA. I mean, here's what you'd have to kind of accept. There are probably ways to do it, but you'd have to have a not-for-profit entity that would be essentially the Olympic liaison, which means you're not going to get pros. And if you're not going to get pros, what are you going to get? You could still get, you know, in boxing, same kind of thing, you know, these interesting amateurs as a way to launch it.

But there's not really enough of a global amateur program, I think, to qualify at this point. It would take a long time to get there. And then on top of it, you would have to have a modified rule set. So at that point, it's like you've got a version of MMA kind of in the Olympics, but not really. And you're only going to have amateurs. And what does this really tell us about the broader acceptance of MMA into the firmament of elite sports? If that's a thing you want to pursue,

I certainly wouldn't argue against it. It's just I don't... When I think about what I want out of MMA for its health, for its future, for its success, getting it into the Olympics, it's not high on my list personally. It'd be a cool thing depending on how it all worked,

but it's not like it's going to change the fortunes of professional MMA in any kind of real way. You could say, well, it'd be a good recruiting process and the best ones coming out. You could make stars. It would help regulate and really form an amateur system. I actually say it would work the opposite. If you actually had a real amateur system,

then the Olympic acceptance of that real amateur system would almost be telling you how far you've come. You can't make it work backwards. The Olympics won't create a giant amateur system. Only an amateur system, a widespread one, that includes women men you know and it's uh you know uh huge participatory rates across the globe only once you have that with the olympics then say you qualify for consideration

you know so just keep that in mind and then once you once you're in there, the Olympics have a say over how, not obviously how professional MMA would go, but how it would look. And you could say, well, aren't there pros that do, you know, they're pros in their sport and they compete in the Olympics. Right, that's true. I mean, obviously the NBA is a, is a big example, but for, I mean,

to start, it would certainly be the only, the amateur side of things. Uh, and then, you know, I don't know unless it was like a real clear government sponsor, who's going to take time out of their career when you're already underpaid to

go fight in the Olympics for nothing. Um, when you could just go to the pros and make a shitload. So it's going to really be predominantly a, you know, it's going to be an amateur system. Is Francis Stipe really the fight that should happen over Jones Stipe? Is Francis Stipe? Yeah, I mean, you'll be doing Francis pretty dirty.

I mean, understand where we're at here. Francis wanted to be a... wanted to fight Rosenstruck for the interim title on that same card that Gaethje fought Ferguson for one. And they didn't give it to him. And now we're in a place where the dude has, what, four wins all by first round KO. He's sitting here waiting

on a title shot. We don't know exactly when that's going to happen, March maybe or sometime in the second quarter of 2021. And on top of that, he had said, if you had given me a title shot or an interim title, one, we'd all, just matter-of-factly, at this point, he would be getting more money if he was competing. Two, he told Brian Campbell openly,

if he had an interim title, he would just defend it. He'd just fight. He'd stay busy. So you would have the situation where we wouldn't have to worry about what exactly Stipe's going to do and when he's going to come back. Maybe he fights Jones, maybe he fights Francis, whatever, and Francis could be making money in rotation. And instead

now you have neither of those things. I understand that folks have a revulsion towards interim titles. I get it. There's a very good reason to have it. It's not like it's a bad reason. It's a good reason. But at the same time, it's like, you know, you have to ask what ultimately is the better outcome for all the various players here.

And it's hard for me to see how UFC wins by having just Francis sit around all this time. I don't think that they would even argue that that's like the best way all of this has gone. So, you know, are you asking like in a vacuum, what would be a better fight? Yeah, I think maybe you can, hard to know, but there's a reason to believe that Joan Stipe would be the more interesting and coveted of the two. But you can't do that to Francis, man. The guy's been waiting all this time. It just seems, that would be absurd to do that to one of your own premier talents. Here's somebody asking a stupid question, which I will ignore. Chance we see a TJ Dillashaw versus Frankie Edgar fight in 2021.

Boy, isn't that interesting? Huh. 21. Boy, isn't that interesting? Huh? I mean, it all depends on how good TJ is, right? Like how much did he lose with the time off? How much was he really benefiting from PED use? Man, huge question. How much did he recover from all the surgeries? Remember, he got, I think, both shoulders operated on. Huge amounts of questions. I tend to think it's probably pretty good. Now, my hunch is they're not going to put TJ to start too far away from any kind of title opportunity.

I think he'll actually be pretty close. But what will I say? What are the chances? I'd say a good 50% or higher. Honestly, I think that's a real possibility you could see that. It's a kind of a function of TJ and how good or bad he looks. But I think the chances are high. What do you think is Dustin's best path to victory against Conor? Aside from Habib, who in the lightweight division, you see is Conor's biggest threat.

Biggest threat besides him. Maybe Justin. I mean, it's hard to know, right? Here is my best guess about Conor. And it's just that, it's hard to know, right? Here is my best guess about Conor. And it's just that, it's a guess. Even grappling, Habib did this. Go back and watch that first round. I know some folks are like, oh, by the rules of MMA, it's actually kind of debatable who won. I somewhat understand that argument.

But if you know anything about grappling, it's not debatable who won. It was very clear who won. Whatever the rules may or may not say, you know, in terms of what the positions that the two were in told us, Habib won. But he won by doing something. Now, the second round was very bad for Conor. Third round, much better. He won that one. And the fourth round, he got finished. But in the first round, it was a little bit on the boring side because what was Habib trying to do? Just drain him. Just drain him. Constantly trying to get him to go flat. Constantly trying to advance position. Not a ton of ground and pound, but high work rate. High work rate. Now, Conor had a bit of a rallying moment, as we

mentioned, in that third, but it paid off big time for Habib in the second, which was maybe a 10-8 round. Habib beat the fuck out of him in the second. To me, I don't know what the shortest path is to beating Conor, but it seems like to me the shortest path is that you got to drain him. You got to drain him. To me, Conor is very good coming forward. You heard Dustin himself, an excellent judge of distance. Fantastic timing. He packs a punch in the left hand. You've got to keep that guy guessing. You've got to keep that guy off of you to the extent possible.

You've got to keep him turning. You've got to tag him at distance, and you have to make him work. How do you make him work? So most of the time, I think you should be turning. Good footwork, making him follow, making him follow to the extent possible, which is hard because Conor is good at cutting off the cage, but I mean really, really nimble lateral movement. If they're fighting in fight island, it means it's a bigger cage. I think that will help Dustin to the extent that he wants to make that part of his game plan. I think the other part is you got

to close the distance on that guy and you got to wrap up with him in the clinch and you got to make him defend takedowns against the fence. And he will. I actually think that Conor's takedown defense is pretty good. I think Conor's jiu-jitsu actually is very good. I know some folks think that's a controversial statement. I don't know why. I mean, the guy swept Nate Diaz with a kudu-kudu guard,

which is a very esoteric guard where the blade of the foot goes inside the crotch and then you lift and turn them. He hit him with one of those. Dude, that's like a hard-ass thing to do. It's just that when he gets tired, when people get tired, they make bad choices, right? I don't know that if you wrestled him the whole first round,

that would make him super fatigued. But anything that slows Conor down a little bit is going to be a big difference maker. And the reason why is, again, I don't think that Dustin is a slow starter exactly, but if you just look at how he performs against elite opposition, even in fights where he wins, his early rounds are, early round, I should say, first round, it's not necessarily his best one. He makes the adjustments over time. And then by the third and the fourth, he's pouring it on you. The path to victory for me, for Dustin, does not lie in the first two rounds.

The first two rounds are about making Conor frustrated, making him work, making him, not like if you can make him exhausted, great, but just take him from being fresh to something less than that, and then open up. And then the striking is not nearly as potent, the timing isn't nearly as sharp, then he's a much more manageable thing, because Dustin tends to get hit a little bit early. But as you saw in the hooker fight, if he can withstand that, and he did, He can absolutely wreck people's day. So I really feel like it's first two rounds, not survive. First two rounds, frustrate, make them work, never settle, never let him settle, either all the way out or all the way in, the whole nine yards. And then at round three, then you really begin to open up.

Hey, Luke, you and DC's dynamic compliment each other like a McDonald's milkshake and fries. Moist, delicious, and I never knew I needed it in my life. People do this, not so much with a compliment, which I appreciate. I'm sure BC does as well. But people tell me that they like to dip their fries in like a Wendy's Frosty. You people belong in the Hague. What is wrong with you? I've seen people do that.

Like, you ever seen these people? Like, I never knew people did this until I moved to the South for a time in my life. My parents got divorced. I remember the first time I went, I had watermelon in Georgia. People are like, yeah, you should put salt on it. And I'm like, dude, why the fuck would I put salt on watermelon? Oh, well, it tastes good on it It's like, I like salt I like watermelon

Motherfucker, I ain't putting salt on my watermelon You know what's delicious about watermelon? Watermelon Doesn't need anything Doesn't need hot sauce Doesn't need balsamic vinaigrette Doesn't need olive oil Doesn't need balsamic vinaigrette doesn't need olive oil doesn't need you know soy sauce it doesn't it's good just slice and eat nature's candy

and people do this shit i don't i don't i don't i don't quite understand it i'm i'm all for mixing opposites in fact that's really what makes food work in a lot of ways, right? Like what's a great way to eat starch and balance it? You put some acid on it, whether it's like vinegar or lime. You put some lime on top of rice, for example. Buddy, you are doing something. Lime juice, I should say, not lime shavings. It's delicious. It's amazing. You know, it's really, really good. Or just think about it, you know, any number any number of different ways you can make opposites work. When you have a burger, you want a little bit of softness. You want a little bit of fat. You want a little bit of acid.

A little bit of crunch. You want to mix things to get a holistic experience. Okay, cool. But you know what my ice cream needs? Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments? Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game.

Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. The credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. Doesn't need potatoes.

Just eat the fucking Frosty. I've never, oh, Luke, you should try it. Bitch, I tried it. It doesn't, I'm not going to say it's like terrible or something, but you know, you know what your oreos need feces put some feces on those oreos buddy you never had what have you had oreos with feces have you had oreos with feces well until you've had it you can't say now i'll pass Who in your opinion in MMA are the best ring cage cutters?

And conversely, who do you believe are the best ring generals? Ooh, Jesus Alright, who's a good... Conor's a good cage cutter Very good cage cutter Canelo Canelo is a fucking beast at it So is Triple G in his prime

Tyson Fury can be He hasn't been in several fights So it's a little hard to call him that But when he has tried to implement a game plan Where that was the last Wilder fight for example He was very good at it Canelo is the big one He can fight all different kinds of ways

but when he wants to back you up he's so good at it who else is good Adesanya when he wants to which often times he doesn't when he wants to he's good is there another one in boxing that stands out honestly the guys fighting this weekend Errol Spence is pretty good at it. We'll have to see.

Kananir versus Costa and Jan versus Sanhagen. All right, Kananir versus Costa. I think as long as Costa didn't get too derailed from the loss to Adesanya, I still like him to win against most dudes in that division, so I would side with him. And then Jan versus Sanhagen. Boy, ain't that the fight? Man. I know Sanhagen got quickly beaten by Aljo, because Aljo is a monster, and you can't make mistakes against him, and I think Corey would tell you that. I'm still pretty high on Corey Sanhagen, man. I'm still pretty high on that guy.

I think that with a little bit more development and a little bit more time and a little bit more polishing of what he does, you know, he's just... If you go back and watch his early fights in the UFC, they look in many ways quite similar, except, you know, you could tell... It's like if someone had...

If fighting is penmanship, the strokes of his pen were not as smooth, and now, man, it looks like absolutely beautiful line work. And I can only imagine, given his relative youth, how much better that will get. Jan's a force to be reckoned with, too. You know what I've never done?

I've never done tape study on Jan, and I was meaning to do it for the Aljo fight, and I think I partly lack a full understanding of what Jan is good at until I really take the time to examine it. The one thing that really stands out to me that would give Sandhagen, I think, some problems is Sandhagen could keep the fight on the feet if he wanted to, but to the extent he wanted to mix it up, and this is something that Aljo is going to have to overcome as well, Aljo can fight him at range. I think Aljo's got that.

Dude, yawns, takedown defense, and scrambling. It is lights out. It is lights out. You're going to have to fight that guy on the feet, man. You're going to have to really at distance on some level. Maybe in the clinch a little bit. But it's going to be very, very, very hard to not only take him down, but keep him down. He is quite good at it. Okay, TJ Dillashaw's suspension will be up soon,

given his recent interview with Brett O, Brett Okamoto over at ESPN. He seems to think current Bantha White champion Peter Yan is undeserving of the title I mean Guys, he's just doing an interview To make noise I would not read too much into it But the question is, do you think TJ should get the title shot Right away No, but I wouldn't mind

Giving him like a number one contenders fight right away I wouldn't mind that Your taste may vary You may say, oh fuck fuck that guy. He didn't deserve shit, blah, blah, blah. Okay. But to me, the guy was champion in the weight class. No one beat him. They had to take the title from him. Granted, he cheated. Okay. But he's a name people recognize. Just from a business standpoint, it's like, what do you want to do? Okay. The guy served his time. All right. So what do you want to do with the guy? Do you want to reward him

with a title shot right away? Okay, maybe not. I think that might be a bit much. But do you really want to just put him to the back of the pack and waste what years he has left as a guy who still has a name inside the sport? Just from a business standpoint, you're like, that doesn't make sense. The guy was asked to serve a punishment, and he did. So thread the needle here a little bit.

Give him a number one contenders fight or something pretty close to it, and then go from there, but just like, oh, we're going to put you outside the top 10. Dude, he's going to beat probably some of the, if not most of those guys. I mean, I guess we'll have to see, but it seems like not totally a crazy thought,

and also, if he's still got a name, why would you do that? Why would you do that? So, okay, title shot, maybe not, but something pretty close, I think so. This person writes, I was glad to see Tyson back in the ring. I'm wondering how come the MMA community wasn't screaming rapist from the rooftops the way they do woman beater when Greg Hardy fights. Yeah, it's a great question.

There is certainly, well, some people were, to be clear. There's a guy I follow who wrote for Deadspin for years. He no longer does. He wrote some pieces about Floyd and about Mike, and he won't watch Mike as a consequence. I think Mike has done a lot more over the years to endear himself, not really to the combat sports community, but to wider society. For some of the things he's done wrong, he has atoned for them.

For some of the things he has not, or he claims that he doesn't need to because he's not guilty of those things, and that's certainly a matter of intense debate. But it would be wrong to say that has Greg done the charm offensive that Tyson did? No. Also, Tyson may have committed a worse crime, but he also went to prison for it. Greg, you know, never served any time. And so maybe people believe he got off, you know, he got lucky or something like that, you know, depending on your perspective. But if you're asking, like, is there a moral inconsistency if you really believe that Mike did those things and you really believe that Greg did those things, isn't there an inconsistency in the way that Mike is treated by some versus how Greg is treated?

Sure. Sure there is. No doubt about it. Who are some of your favorite comedians? Well, I don't know who are all the current rages, so I'm going to date myself with probably some of these references. But as I told... I'm not sure who I told. I don't think I told Joe this exactly.

But as I told either on this podcast or other ones, I grew up in, not grew up, I should say I lived in New York at a time, you know, 020304, a little bit of 05, where the comedy cellar in Greenwich Village was like the place to be. I mean, Caroline's on Broadway was, you know, the big place to catch tourists and shit, but like where did the real big dogs go night after night? You know, they went to the comedy cellar. And so this was the era of, you know, he's not necessarily my favorite, but this was the, I'll tell you who was there.

How about that? This was the, before he had a stroke, it was, was his name Keith Richardson. He's a black comedian. He was just hilarious at the time. I think he had a stroke. I think he's still out doing comedy, but he's not the same as he was before, but it was Jim Norton. It was Colin Quinn. It was Patrice O'Neill. It was Bill Burr. You could, if you lived in New York city in oh three and oh four, I'm not kidding. If you wanted to see Bill Burr four times a week, you could do it. Cause he would go to the Boston comedy club, which is right around the corner from a comedy

seller. Then you go to comedy seller. Then he would go to like Caroline's on Broadway. Then, you know, I don't know if he did was doing NYCC at the time or something, but like, you know, he could go, it was just, it was crazy. And so it'd be him. I don't know if I said it already, Nick DiPaolo. And it was just so many, Dave Attell was part of that, Dov Davidoff, and on and on and on. Russ Meneve was part of that crew. So my favorites, again, I don't know that I have the same affection for them as I once did, but I grew up on Nick DiPaolo, Bill Burr. Patrice O'Neill has been a huge figure in my life in terms of artistic inspiration.

Bill Hicks, he obviously got a little preachy, but I thought he was extremely original. I read some of his biographies. Richard Pryor is just a fucking absolute master craftsman. George Carlin, not my favorite, but he was extremely prolific, putting out an album almost every year. I mean, that is insanely difficult to do, and he did it.

My favorite living comedian, I think by a country mile, is Doug Stanhope. Doug is, to me, unlike basically any other living comedian that I have seen. Now, again, there's going to be a limit to what I can say because I don't know that I'm as embedded in going to – we live in New York City, and it's $10 to get in the comedy cellar. There's a two-drink minimum, and Dave Chappelle might stop by and Jerry Seinfeld might stop by. You know, that was a great way to spend your day. And I would go all the time. I saw rock Chris rock there. I saw so many guys there. Um,

but Doug is different. You know, Doug has a piece that he had to wait on a statute of limitations to clear him from legal culpability from not his most recent album, but the one before, where he discussed how he helped his mom with assisted suicide. She wanted to die, and they had planned it out, and so he helped her. And he had to have a statute of limitations on that before he could tell the joke and the whole bit. And it is absolutely, totally genius. He has, one of my favorite albums from him are,

I think it's called Turning the Gun on Himself. It's a good one. He has a bit on school shootings that is fucking hilarious. He has a bit on, from Deadbeat Hero, on, I mean, any number of very, very controversial topics. He was good. I said it before. A lot of comedians want to say it like they make you like,

oh, I'm going to make you rethink this. But they're not nearly as clever about turning the premise on its head. They get kind of halfway there. And it's kind of funny. It's kind of interesting. But it's a little bit surface level. Doug Stanhope is a genius at that. He can take the world that you're looking at,

he can take the premises by which you think you operate and flip them on their head and you have to completely rethink scenarios. He had a bit on why life needs to continue in its later stages and there's a bit where it's like grandma talking about how she savors every sunrise as the ants in her assisted living facility chew through the drywall and

slowly eat her to death. You know, it's just, he has such a sort of macabre way of looking at the world, but there's an undeniable amount of truth in what he says. And there's an undeniable amount of bullshit in the way in which we have not only conceived of the world, but in the myths we tell to keep it that way. And he is unencumbered by those myths. And it gives him a very, very difficult worldview to accept to some, but there's just no denying its originality. There's no denying its humor. There's no denying how unique and special he is. And the other part I would say is, and this is the thing that was really a wake-up call to me, dude, Doug Stanhope is better than basically any comedian. I won't

say any comedian you have seen on The Tonight Show, but I'd say 99% better than those comedians. Okay, Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle have been on them or something. He's not better than them, but he's pretty fucking good. He's excellent and completely original. They're not going to book him on Conan. They're not going to book him on The Tonight Show. They're not going to book him on Colbert. They're not going to book him on all of these ways in which the comedians typically go on to get famous. Now, that paradigm has changed a lot. A lot go through Netflix. Dude, he's not getting on Netflix.

Now, maybe they came to him and offered him something, but the point being is this. He has his own economy. He has his own fans that follow him on his own mailing lists. He has venues that have no relationship to the comedy industry that he rents out so his fans can go to, and that gives him complete artistic freedom. People think, I want to say whatever I want to say. No, dude, he did it. Now, that means you don't get to go on all the mainstream media organs,

the various shows that go on network television or having a celebrated event on Showtime or Netflix or HBO or whatever. You don't get those things. But what you do get is nobody is going to tell you what you can do except the law. That's it. That's the only person, or I should say, that's the only line you can't cross. And buddy, within those lines, you can do a lot. I can't think of another comedian who has, you know, decided that my craft is so important and saying what I want to say is so central to my identity that I'm going to give up all of the trimmings that do like from a talent. If you want to write those stupid ass jokes, he could, a lot of people know him from like being with Joe Rogan, the guys who kind of killed off the Man Show.

Let me tell you something. That is so not how you should understand Doug Stanhope. Let me pull up his discography here. Oh, my God. He's got a bit shitting on all religious groups, all the Abrahamic religions. He's got one where he goes after... I mean, he's got a million where he goes after Christians.

He's got one where he goes after Jews as well. I don't million where he goes after Christians. He's got one where he goes after Jews as well. I don't know if he goes after Muslims. He goes after Muslims a little bit too, but in very original ways. All right, so let me read you his discography here. And let's see. All right, what are the best ones? Great White Stanhope is okay Sicko is funny

Something to Take the Edge Off is hilarious I've Not Heard the Acid Bootleg Die Laughing is good Word of Mouth is good 2004 to me is when he really starts to get very good Word of Mouth is good Deadbeat Hero is one of my favorites No Refunds from Across the Street

Oslo Burning the Bridge to Nowhere 2012's Before Turning the gun on himself 2013's Beer Hall Putsch is the one where he talks about his love of the NFL in a way that you just can't imagine

No Place Like Home from 2016 is interesting I've not heard Popov Vodka Presents an Evening with Doug Stanhope. That was in 2017. I didn't hear that. And then I saw The Dying of a Last Breed from 2020 on Vimeo. I thought that was okay. That wasn't some of his better work.

But he has books. He had one. This is the name of a book he wrote in 2006, Fun with Pedophiles, The Best of Baiting. And I think what he would do is he would go and play tricks on them. You know, dude, we're talking like, shit, I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole. Totally fearless, man. Totally, completely, utterly fearless. Burning the Bridge to Nowhere.

What were some of the chokes on that one? Oh, he goes after, I think they've made up since, but he goes after Dr. Drew and... Jesus, man. He is out there. Totally original. All right. TKZ, the Korean zombie, is aiming to make his return in March or April

and wants to fight Zabit. Your thoughts on the matchup? Love it. And do you think the fight will happen? We now know that Yair is serving a six-month suspension from USADA, but he'll be able to return in March of 2021. Yeah, okay. Well, putting him aside for just a second,

what do you think of the matchup? I don't, well, I totally didn't see Ortega coming the way that he did, but Zabit doesn't strike me as like a heavy power puncher. He's the kind of guy who has a high work rate, likes to make you work through positions, threatens to take the back, is sort of always kind of on you in that way.

But he struggled against a guy like Cater, who could resist that and then begin to use his boxing later. TKZ seems like that's something he could do as well. So that would be a very competitive fight. If they made it, I would hope it'd be five rounds, in part because Zabit hasn't been in one of those yet. So I would like to see that. This is a political question.

I'm going to just skip for now. Who would win in a doubles fight? Luke and BC versus CM Punk and Joshua Fabia. Well, I think we're bigger than those guys. I'm not sure how much I trust BC to get the job done. Unfortunately. That push is kind of sad, but that's why we don't do those things.

We often talk about big fights that fell through that we wish had gone ahead. Tony versus Habib being the obvious example. But are there any other fights that have fallen through that, with hindsight, you are glad that did? For example, Habib versus Holloway in 2018. Looking back, I just feel like that guy would have gotten ugly for Max. And I'm kind of glad we didn't see it. It's a great question. I'd have to think about that one. Um, I don't know that I'd be able to answer offhand, but it's a really very, very smart observation for a question. These fuckers just won't stop texting. It's like, Hey Luke, are you on there? Oh,

Luke, put your phone on vibrate. Yeah, I can't, fuckers. I got shit to do. Okay. All right. I have to think about that. It's a great question, but I have to think about that. I mean, there's not a whole lot of like, I mean, whether... Let me think about that one. It's a great question. Luke, you mentioned better leg entanglements and better back control as something that would likely extend

from no-gi BJJ to MMA in the future following the trend of after the initial leg lock explosion in the no-gi game by the Death Squad in 2015 and 2017 and subsequently how the meta shifted back to both leg lock explosion in the no-gi game by the death squad in 2015 and 2017 and subsequently how the meta shifted back to both leg locks and back taking would you say that it's likely we'll see more leg entanglements to back taking in mma i think you're already seeing some of that or leg entanglements as a way of forcing disengagement so that someone can stand

up or leg locks as a way to stop a scramble from getting worse. People aren't going for leg locks in the way that they used to, which is, you know, they would go for, what was it, like Dennis Hallman and Frank Trigg, where you can just, you know, you can like turn behind you and just fucking hammer fist the guy, you know, who's right in close proximity because he's not really all that close on the bite and he didn't really do anything to off-balance you.

What you're seeing now is guys can lock it up in scrambles to force the scramble to be different. They can lock it up as a way to force disengagement. They can lock it up as a way to, like, get to the back, mount, sweep almost in certain ways. They're not so much going for it in very obvious forms of IBJJF-approved, you know, Ashigurami. And then, you know, you can just sort of get hit from it.

You're not seeing, like Ian Entwistle used to be kind of a guy like that. He had really good leg locks from a certain kind of way, but I don't know how MMA friendly they were at the elite level. And I think he was forced to pay for it eventually. You know, it's a little different than like Ryan Hall does it. level and I think he was forced to pay for it eventually. It's different than like Ryan Hall does it. Ryan can like find a bite quickly and then let go of it quickly and then transition to something else as a consequence. I mean if you watch sort of what leg entanglements are all about, it's like – and really any

good grappler, they have a lot of good ways to get into positions from a lot of different unique situations and a lot of ways to get out of them in the event that something goes wrong or at least get into another different position that's not that one where they can advance the attack or at least change the attack while rotating through various things. Oh, you know, you were on a 50-50. You used that to take the back. Oh, the back didn't work. You used it to then come up on knee on belly. Knee on belly 50-50. You used that to take the back. Oh, the back didn't work.

You used it to then come up on knee on belly. Knee on belly didn't work. You used it to go to side. Side didn't work. You used it to go to the back. They can chain all these things together when one doesn't work. I think they're finding ways to get into leg lock positions, and those positions have a series of functions and values.

And then if they exhaust them or they can't find them, they can then transition back out to other things. That's really kind of the key to the development of the leg lock game is it's partly it's fluidity and it's less focus on, okay, I got to get this heel hook or there's no purpose to me being here. It's like, there's all kinds of things I can do, including, but not limited to the heel hook or, you know, um, toe hold or, you know um toe hold or you know whatever has jorge missed the greater portion of what's seeming to be his peak with inactivity and circumstances out of his control like let's say covid i don't um i think it's a...

There probably is a case to be made that a little bit more activity would have been beneficial. But also, do you want to rush into taking another fight after you rushed to taking the last one? Even though you performed quite ably given the circumstances, it wasn't the best demonstration of what you had. You've built up all of this goodwill. You want to leverage it for effective purposes.

Taking the right fight at the right time is pretty key to that. Plus, once you start to get money, guys are a lot less interested in fighting. I mean, there's something to be said for that. Also, he's been putting out a lot more content on social media and YouTube and wonder if it could have shades of the Woodley effect with the rap career in TMZ. Maybe. Also, Woodley is not, excuse me, Jorge is not that young either.

Let's see. Was he 36? How old is he? Yeah, 36. In fact, he just turned 36 in November. Yeah, there is something to be said for that. Mm-hmm. You know, but at 36, you begin to have other

interests. When you begin to have money, you want to start living out some of those other interests. On some level, could there have been a more single-minded approach to the kinds of things you're talking about? Sure. On the other hand, you kind of also want to live your life as it comes to you. So this is partly why there are all these distractions. These guys, they don't really blow up until they're in their late 30s. They kind of want to enjoy it a little bit. I get it, dude. I get it. What did Eugene Bearman tell you about the way he sees fights that was so enlightening?

It wasn't one thing. My desire to know this more than my desire to know the true identity of the Zodiac Killer or who shot Biggie. It wasn't any one thing that he told me per se. I mean, he's given me some insights in terms of his overall philosophy of what he looks at and what he values and blah, blah, blah. But most of the time, it's like when you talk to him, there's just a level of detail to what he is paying attention to that ends up being massively consequential. Well, at least, you know, he'll see something small, or seemingly small, and it actually has, you know, completely enormous importance for the division, or I'm not saying the division, the fight itself, that, you know, someone like me who can't see it nearly, I mean, I can see it,

but I don't quite see it with a, there's just almost like a certain simplicity to the way he sees things. I mean, you ever heard sort of like the systemic way that John Danaher kind of understands, you know, here are the two choices you face in this position. This is what makes this position work. This is what makes it go away, right? How you balance all of these competing challenges and goals

he sort of sees fights with a similar kind of, it's not simplicity it's very complex but he almost states it in a very simplistic way and again when I'm saying simplistic it's because he can slice through all the nonsense for just the thing that matters and I've had conversations

with him and I'm like, shit. How did I not conceive of it more clearly the way he has? It really changes my view of things. When you can just understand what this fight is really about, what was this person doing that really made the difference, and he is very gifted. I know everyone likes to clown me for this, and it's like, dude, fine, clown me.

Whatever jokes you want to make, make. That's the internet. You can't fight it. But if y'all had the conversations that I had, and he was saying the things to you that he was saying to me, you'd have a eureka. I mean, you would have a eureka moment too, but when the, when the light goes on, you're like, holy shit, holy shit. I never thought of it that way.

That's so true. You ever had a conversation with somebody and you just have, they just said something to you in a way that just, it was a concept you kind of understood, but not really a little bit, but you were struggling with. And then they just said it to you in the most obvious way. And you're like, you can't believe you didn't understand it that way. And then once they said it, you could just see the whole problem much more clearly. Now you ever met someone like that. I've met a lot of people like that. And in all walks of life, you know, a mechanic, a professor, a fucking bike rider, anybody who's like

a specialist in something. And like, they really understand it, anybody who's like a specialist in something and like they really understand it. He, that's him. He really understands it. And so he has a certain way of just imparting that wisdom that like is so clarifying. It's not any, any one or two things he's ever said. It's just, um, that explained the whole universe. It's just a fight to fight. Oh, here's what I saw. Here's what I saw. Here's what I saw. It's like, holy shit, this guy, he is operating on a different level. Um, well, Junior Dos Santos retire if he loses his fight with, I can never pronounce the guy's name. I don't know the right way to do it. Cyril gone, gone. That's a question for JDS.

I mean, should he retire? That's a different one. I don't know. But will he? I don't know. Assuming Habib does return to the UFC for one fight, what do you think about the UFC using it as an opportunity to A, open the 165 division? They won't. They won't do that. So there's that. How do you think Larissa Shields does in the transition to MMA? Do you think it'll be hard for opponents

hard to find opponents for her? A little bit. And if they do find opponents, what level are they going to be where it doesn't look like a shit show? Dude, I'm telling you her first two or three opponents, provided she doesn't lose, her first two or three opponents, they're going to be pre-diabetic gas station attendants. And folks are going to complain, like, oh, I thought you were a fucking Olympian, without realizing that's exactly who it should be. Yes, she has Olympic pedigree in boxing that will play a lot of really important

roles, I think much more towards the mature stage of her career. In the very immature stage of her MMA career, I don't know how much value that's going to have because only an idiot's going to box with her, which she might fight some idiots, so there's a possibility. But in general, people are not going to be fighting her on ways where that's going to be especially relevant at that point what does she have um she has a clear mind for combat she is experienced in terms of like big stages she is a good athlete but that's great but that's missing a shitload of things you're going to need to win. So I'm actually doing some tape study on her now. I'll have a video coming out, I think on my personal channel, like assessing her boxing

and what it might tell us for MMA. But I would have early on, early on, very managed expectations. You know, I mean, her last five fights have all gone to a decision. Ten rounds, all of them, I think. Right? No stoppages in there.

She's not a heavy puncher, which she might be in MMA by virtue of blah, blah, blah, but there's a lot of open questions. I went over them mostly on Morning Combat, I think, you know,

Monday's show, maybe yesterday's show, I don't remember which one, but we were talking about it, and I'm like, dude, at MMA, you fight a little bit further apart, which I think that helped Holly Holm, because she had some pro kickboxing experience before she did pro MMA, so she was used to fighting in that range a little bit, even though her ground game was not really, you know, anywhere near close to good enough, but if you're fighting further away, it's going to be easier to get away or defend, and you have weapons in that range. Those are two options that are not really going to be as available to Clarissa as they were to Holly. And she is a good athlete, and obviously she can box really extremely well, but this ain't boxing. So if you want to box with

someone in MMA and you're Clarissa Shields, you are going to have to negate all the other things, and you're going to have to force them to box with you because they don't have to box with you. Ryan Hall was explaining to me one time. He's like, if I want to use my jiu-jitsu in MMA, I have to make somebody do it. They're not in any way obligated. If you go to pure jiu-jitsu, they're obligated to use their jiu-jitsu against yours. No one's obligated to do that in MMA.

You can use whatever else you want. So with all of those broader questions, and by the way, it takes a while to get good at grappling. For most, I mean, even BJ Penn got to black belt in four years. Okay, four fucking years, man. And that's the fastest you'll ever see. Usually it takes somewhere between like seven to ten uh if not longer than that so granted she doesn't need a black belt to get there

but we're still you know four years to purple is probably pretty fair um and even that is not going to immunize you from various challenges now in the women's 145 pound division, how good can they get down there? I don't know. You know, that's another, there's another broader question there, but look, please, if she ends up fighting a Hooters waitress, it's okay for her first, first three fights, I'll give you a mulligan. After that, you got to start ramping it up a little bit, but just let her have that without the weight of the olympic gold medals all over her uh with your with current knowledge of vaccines which is to say very little when do you see the ufc

having events with fully packed audiences well that, that's a great question. On some level, I think masks and, you know, other forms of audience control, you know, or I should say the amount of people in a particular place, there's still going to be some restrictions around that, I think for a good long while. So, you know, if, okay, well, first of all, you can just go to New Zealand now, but okay. You're asking like, let's say in the United States or Europe, something like that, or Brazil, maybe. I don't know, man. That's really speculative. I mean, 2022 seems like a safe guess, but you know, New York Times, if you go to the website now, they have a thing where you can plug in your age

and like your health condition and like where you live. And it'll rank you, like where you are in terms of like your medical necessity to get a vaccine. And I was something like, I mean, there's what, 330 million Americans and I was ranked like, I mean, there's what, 330 million Americans and I was ranked like 280th, 280 millionth, like in the back of the fucking pack, you know? And, uh, and I'm in my forties. So can you imagine like a guy in their twenties, you know, they're not going to give you a vaccine right up front. You're asking about the audience. Okay.

Fair enough. But I'm just saying, um, but at the same time, it's like how much will capacity... So I was listening to a podcast on this just to get educated. They had an emergency approval for yesterday in the UK for the Pfizer version, I believe that's right, of the Pfizer vaccine. But that has to be kept at negative 94 degrees Fahrenheit. In any case, extremely cold temperatures that certain hospitals can do. But there are questions about like, for example, how you distribute this to poorer countries that don't have necessarily the freezing infrastructure to handle this. How much can be produced en masse? How much is the population going to accept it?

If anyone's ever been in the military, dude, I've had multiple, I mean, I can't even tell you all the things they shot me up with. Multiple anthrax vaccines. I mean, all kinds of trash. So I think that there is a rational skepticism to be had of like given how quickly these went, where a lot of times they were not cheating the process, but they were expediting it. Where even before there were approvals for next steps, they were in manufacturing stages, either the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine. I think some healthy skepticism around this is possible. I'll just declare it. I'll put my chips, you know, I'll put my cards on the table here. I intend to get it. And I tend to get it in my first basic chance. I tend to think that will be second, third, fourth quarter of the next year.

I don't think I'm going to be front of the line, but as manufacturing increases and, you know, everything else, I, uh, when my chance comes up, I'm going to jump on it because I don't know how y'all feel, but I'm fucking sick of this. I haven't seen my dad. I've missed birthdays. I haven't seen any of my friends. I'm stuck in the house. I'm luckier than most. My job hasn't been upended. I'm in good health.

My family's in good health. We're okay. My world's not ending, but I would like this to stop. I think you would too. You know what I haven't done in fucking 10 months? I haven't eaten indoors in a restaurant. I would like to go fucking eat indoors. I would like to go to the movies.

There was an article out today. I retweeted it. Did you guys see Warner Brothers is going to put up the totality of their 2021 movie selection? We're talking like The Next Matrix and Wonder Woman and I mean everything. They're going to put it in HBO Max and theaters for like a month but then HBO Max. Like movie theaters are in trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble. Huge trouble. I would like to be able to go to contribute to my local theater to keep it in business.

And I can't right now. I can't because they don't make money off ticket sales. They make money off food. Well, I'm not taking my mask off to go eat in a fucking movie theater. I'm not doing that. But if I can get a vaccine, and even that is not necessarily a cure-all, but as there becomes a broader ability of the community to handle these kinds of burdens. And, you know, testing shows that transmission is way low and blah, blah, blah. Yeah, man. I'm ready. I'm ready. So I'll wait my turn for the people who need it first.

But when my turn comes up, I'm jumping on it. I'll put it to you like that. Okay. And, you know, if I grow a fucking dick out of my forehead, you can all laugh at me for it. How about that? All right.

Let's do this. Thumbs up on the video, hit subscribe. Couple reminders. MK is back tomorrow, 11 a.m. We'll preview the weekend slate of fights. Don't forget, BC is on TV in three hours, 9 p.m. East Coast time. Check him out there for Ring City. He'll be doing some weird thing with gloves on his hands, but please check him out. Yeah, and that's it. Thank you guys so much for watching. I appreciate it. Until next time, stay frosty.