MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Dana White And The Coronavirus, Gervonta Davis, Roger Mayweather | MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 35

Episode Date: March 23, 2020

Luke and Brian are back for episode 35 of Morning Kombat as they discuss Dana Whites comments about the media and his handling of the UFC during the Coronavirus crisis. They also talk about Gervonta Davis' latest misstep and pay tribute to Roger Mayweather. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moe Monroe is wanted for the financial terrorist attack, Black Monday. Black Monday was my idea. It's me! It was Wall Street himself. Moe is back, baby! Reveille, reveille, donks! It is Monday, the 23rd of March, 2020, and it is time for Morning Combat. Welcome, my name is Luke Thomas. I am one of the hosts of this program, but there are two. Joining me all the way, if I can see, somewhere in the bowels of suburban Connecticut is the other host of this program.

It is Brian Campbell, who you might know from CBSbs sports brian how are you my good friend i'm hanging in there i'm doing so much better this week luke and i hope that we can say the same about our listeners as these are trying unprecedented times but as you can look around this sure ain't the swamps of jersey luke we've changed a lot and then some some but you know our viewers have always been down down and luke if i ever didn't thank them let me do that right now because these people are passionate they've wanted us back in their lives shout out to showtime shout out to malco for sending us some equipment all i need is one mic luke and i'm ready to go i can't tell what is what is worse your 311 reference or that self-made barracks cut that you're sporting here on today's show.

Look, here's the deal, Luke, okay? From the front, it's borderline professional. I watched five YouTube clips yesterday. It's not bad. I, you know, from the back looks very amateur, but you got to understand here, Luke, not only did I save $24 in giving myself my first haircut, I saved $100.

You know, you could argue at the same time. In DC box, yes. You could do the same, brother. I'm going to have to. There's nothing I can do. Now, let me ask you, we spoke about a week ago. A lot has changed in certain circumstances. A lot has remained kind of the same, I suppose.

Is the family doing well? Give the viewers an update on how bc is doing in in old ct you know i was a little bit too tuned in like we mentioned last week in the beginning i hit that wave of of fear it was fear-mongering it was everything you could imagine and those same fears certainly persist but there's a lot of good that has come out of this luke as long as you are adhering to the guidelines of quarantine, there are some joys that can happen. I know not everybody, you know, is blessed with a family, but getting all this great family time going on long hikes with the dogs, I've really sort of began the rewiring, Luke, of sort of this Northeast mentality, I call it, which is, you know, ambition, ambition,

succeed, cash checks, fear about the future, plan for the know, ambition, ambition, succeed, cash checks, fear about the future, plan for the future, work, work, work. Sometimes it's good to take that step back. I didn't want this step back. I'm certainly mindful that many other people are not going through as good of a step away at this moment, if you're fighting the virus or if you're just in panic and fear. But when you just mix, Luke, I know you and I, Luke, we don't necessarily serve the same master, but I've been able to sit at the feet of that master and remind myself that we're living right now. It's a different life. It's a different time.

It's a different schedule, but I'm finding some great joy in this Luke. I'll say something kind of similar, which is, you know, there's always a lot of work to do. If you, there's never a shortage, I suppose, at least in this kind of a business, when you can work from home. I gather that there's going to be a lot of people out there suffering. And so we obviously hope that the people who have been laid off or are going to be, that there is something that can be done for them. I know the federal government is working on that today. Fingers crossed that we can get a good bipartisan resolution and move forward with that. But in terms of personal life, folks were asking me on my live chat, like, oh, I'm so

bored. What are you going to do? And I'm thinking to myself, man, there's so much to do. What about that home improvement project you put off? What about that book you never read? Even me, Brian Campbell, how about this? On Amazon, it took a couple extra days to get here, but I ordered an Xbox controller with a USB plug, plugged that sucker into my PC, and I bought and played Mortal Kombat 11.

Can I just say, first of all, I don't have enough frivolous fun, number one. Number two, dude, I'm not a video game expert by any stretch of the imagination. I know virtually nothing, but it's a great game. I loved it, and I really enjoyed being Baraka and slicing up johnny cage in your honor sometime on saturday night yo cage would get your ass believe that but i like that i like that fun side coming out of you luke as we'll get to later in the show i've been staying up late every single night watching classic movies i've been you know rediscovering quality family time remembering what it's like luke to put your life first.

You know what I'm saying? And I do have a message from the maker, Luke. There's plenty of room on that arc if you want to join us. There certainly is. Okay, well, without further ado, let's get the show started. You're going to no-sell JC right there? What's going on here, Luke? Well, yes, I don't really believe anything that he has to say.

Okay, but that's a different story for a different time. Let's do this. Let's get the process started here. We've got some MMA headlines to get to. As Brian indicated, we're going to talk about a project he's been working on a little bit towards the end of the show, but let's start with the biggest news probably over the weekend, such as there was. Namely, UFC President Dana White has lashed out at the MMA media. He did an Instagram live video with Kamaru Usman, the current UFC welterweight champion, and they discussed a number of different topics. One of them was the MMA media, and Dana White had a lot of negative things to say, saying

that if you just look around, the people who cover the sport are some of the wimpiest, weakest people that cover the biggest, baddest sport, I think was something approximating his wording. BC, I've kind of weighed in on this a little bit on my own so by all means take the floor here what was your reaction i mean look the obvious reaction is this is ridiculous this is on brand for dana's in some ways par for the course uh but i you know you got to dig a little deeper i guess uh and get on the psychology couch, so to speak, and try to figure this out. You've got to understand, Dana's a fighter. He only knows one speed.

He's an achiever. He's fought uphill battles for a long time. And he's unprecedentedly and largely unbeaten in most of those battles. So if you look at his thriving business just, what, three weeks ago before this scare came, there really wasn't much that could slow him down. He was absolutely on top of the world. Got the ESPN TV deal. You want to talk about full-on legitimization of this sport,

and now the only thing that can slow him down or try to contain him is this uncontainable larger disease. So it may not actually surprise me luke that dana would be so extreme in one direction to say like you know this maybe isn't as real as people say or it won't slow me down or i'm going to fight it i'm going to keep putting on shows unless the government takes it out of my hands which is essentially what has happened during this week in the next two weeks he's standing firm of course that ufc 249 will happen more on that in a second but the idea of why would he respond to this i mean he's a a class a not a whole but a class a alpha in this case so when he sees people

spreading the message of the only thing that can slow down his business which is fear and cautiously taking the right precautions it's low-hanging fruit for him to go oh yeah these these white guy nerds that sit in their basement i mean i mean you could nerds could be of any color but you get what i'm saying and i'm in my basement right now and i'm white and i'm a journalist so maybe he's right but But the whole point of like, oh, these weak-ass-minded journalists, they're the problem. They're not the problem. But we know who Dana is, so I understand this. Is this the right reaction?

Hell no. I do want to ask you one thing, Luke. And look, again, Dana's way off here, way wrong. I mean, come on. I mean, calling people like you, actually, Luke, who are trying to be everything you do on Twitter, trying to be in good nature and inform people, that's certainly the wrong way. Is there any chance, though, Luke, long-term,

that Dana's absurdity and ridiculousness is going to be, we're going to be better off for it because he's going to get fights back on the TV screen sooner than later. And that's what we're all here for job-wise. And I'm not downplaying the potential danger he's putting his own employees at risk for and all that. But this man's fighting to get our life back on track right now, Luke. Will you soften to that down the road at any point?

Soften to what specifically that in his wrong reaction and motives that's going to be the first sport that gets back to active duty yeah but being the first sport back to active duty isn't necessarily a badge of honor i mean here we are with the olympics still being decided whether or not they want to go through with it. The IOC kind of resisting, resisting, resisting. And then last night, Canada saying, we're not sending a delegation to the Olympics. And the U.S. track and field, I forget what the official, I think it's ITF and USA Swimming saying, we think this is a really bad idea. Those dominoes are beginning to fall.

Being resistant or being the first back at the end of a pandemic, there might be ways to view that as like really positive. So for example, during that same Instagram live, Dano noted, hey, we've got our own infrastructure. We've got UFC Apex. You know, as soon as the lid is lifted, we can get right back to making fights. I think that is a great point. I think that is very true. And I don't have any issue with any of that. But being the first back, I mean, they were kind of one of the last ones to go in terms of professional sports. That was not a good thing. So are you going to come back before the world is ready for it by the time where the government might technically allow it, but it would be

medically and potentially from a public health standpoint, inadvisable? I wouldn't view that in a positive light. And I don't think any rational adult should. So while it'd be nice to get back to action, and I do think there are ways that make their business nimble, and I appreciate that fact, first, last are not the answers here. The question is, are you in the appropriate space or are you not? And the second thing I'd say is, look, I don't know what the long-term upside or downside to it all with Dana White is I can just say I think you're getting both sides of the coin here right which you kind of alluded to one of the reasons why UFC and MMA and Dana White have been tremendously successful are these fighting characteristics that you described like not taking no for an

answer and believing when people didn't and that that has resulted in many, many, many, many good outcomes for his business, for fight fans and people like us. And I can admit that readily, but there's two sides to that coin. And what you saw recently was the other one. The only other point I'd make on this BC is you call it an absurd, but it's worth actually figuring out why it's absurd. The only thing I'd add, cause I made a bunch of other comments. I won't repeat them here, but the one thing I'd like to just sort of drive home here is, do you notice how nowhere in that entire Instagram Live he actually ever makes one argument on the merits? He never says, we did not test for COVID-19, and here's why we don't think we needed to. He never says that. He never says, we have not paid the fighters yet, and here's why we don't believe that we need to.

Now, there could be maybe good explanations for them. In fact, especially on the latter case where if you're postponing a card and not canceling it, and if by the end of fiscal year 2020, you have paid them, maybe all's well that ends well. I'm simply pointing out, if you listen to his comments, nowhere does he actually defend the merits of his decision. Instead, what he says is he tries to surf on the fact that he's right. UFC in the combat sports space typically has a great medical record, right? They have done way more in terms of accident insurance and combating weight cutting and the Performance Institute. I give them all the credit in the world for it, but that does not immunize you,

no pun intended, from whether or not you acted responsibly related to this current global pandemic. You don't get to surf on that as some giant wave that overtakes it. And nowhere in that entire conversation with Kumar Usman does he ever stand on his own argument. Not once. Which tells you there is no argument. How can you look someone in the face and say, we didn't test for it and here's why, and

we believe in it? You can't. You can't. You can't. All you can do is bash journalists and try and surf on other parts of your record that are admittedly exemplary and hope that no one notices. He has the potential, Luke, to look like a, I don't want to, hero is the bad word, but if he's able to get fights back in a regular rotation and if he's able to get March 25th, right, when the Las Vegas commission meets again, if they're able to lift the sanction against him using the Apex

and he gets fights back on there, I mean, this is, there's potential great that comes out of that and he could be looked at as a quasi-hero in this until, Lukeke that virus spreads through the fighters and then we have a major problem right which is why it's not a matter of what the government might say or not say in terms of the commission what the commission demands of you the question is what is responsible public health behavior for private actors where you have a lot of moving pieces i think that's the thing that should be

listened to be quickly quickly luke when he did come out with that comment calling the wimpiest of the wimpy there was a lot of reaction on twitter because he's so far extreme in one direction and you have been so far extreme in the other direction that maybe those comments were some type of sub tweet at you and then there were some of our viewers going, man, the fight to make right now might be Luke versus Dana inside the octagon. So, Luke, you've been rolling, rolling, rolling for about 20 years on that canvas. How do you think Dana's is in a mythic Monday matchup? What about my comments was outside of the mainstream and epidemiological consensus name one name one name one thing i said just one brian campbell that was outside consensus so you in our friendship

fourth wall removed you often remind me that you're a passionate man and everything you say is good intentions and i often incorrectly look at it as oh that's cannibal corpse luke talking he's ready to eat some flesh and i have sort of taken an l on some of those go you know what you're right luke may be this aggressive salt and pepper uh individual but you know he means for good and in this case you mean for good that doesn't mean that your boy bc didn't have to stop following your twitter account because it was making me so nervous so when i say you're the extreme in the other direction you're extreme for good reasons yet every time i read your tweets the sky was

falling on top of me yeah well did you see that we have uh we have a past in terms of the exponential growth curve either for cases or where we were for deaths at the same point in time, we've passed the, not just the aggregate number, but the exponential curve of Italy. You see that? A lot of big words there. A lot of big words there.

We are worse off than Italy was at the same point. Right? So you can say I was hammering people over the top of the head and I was, and I took a 48 hour break from it and I'll probably continue to do that. But when this is all over, you're not going to be able to look at a single thing I said and say wow this was really outside of any kind of public health consensus my approach may have not been delicate and I think that's a fair point but I don't think it's a delicate situation now can I be can I be real with you here and ask you this question because sometimes

us as sports stick to sports and all that crap, whatever. But whether it's during an election season or whatever, there are sports personalities who have large opinions and large followings, and they feel it's their goal to spread certain messages. Do you feel either a responsibility or do you feel like you've, whether accidentally or on purpose, fell into a role of a public influencer in a way to wake people up, Luke? And I'm saying this with all the best intentions, because you are a well-educated person who seems to be tied into this, you know, I'm just sitting

back like a buffoon in my basement, but you seem to be tied into what's going on. Do you feel that responsibility to educate your followers? You know, it's funny that you mentioned that, BC, because i'm not an epidemiologist i'm not a public health official and i'm not giving you what my opinion is i believe that what the experts have said here this entire time uh well actually at first i was skeptical like everybody else but then after that when reviewing the evidence it became clear to me this was going to be a serious threat i you know it's so funny i saw that uh the athletic had done a q a and it was not in any way out of balance.

Someone had asked a question, you know, what is Luke Thomas' cover sport he seems to hate? Well, I don't hate fist fighting, but what I couldn't believe watching it all was I actually, believe it or not, despite the fact that there are a lot of people morally bankrupt and deeply ignorant inside this community, and willfully ignorant, I care about MMA and I care about the industry and I care about the people in it. I care about the fighters who traveled. I care about the people who came into contact with them. I care about having advanced medical protocol beyond this current situation into this global pandemic one, right beyond the current practices of weight cutting and so forth.

I actually care about that. And I was trying to get people to pay attention because I thought it was in our community's best interest to understand the tsunami that's about to hit them. And it's only going to get worse. The easy part of this coronavirus is over. We haven't even hit the hard part yet. And so I was actually trying to get people to notice because I actually do care because I do want them to be on the right side of this, to take precautions, to take care of their families. And it appears that there's large portions of the community that don't want that. So I can't make them want that. All I can do is what I feel like is a moral obligation to say, we should be taking this a lot more seriously than we have been. If people don't want that because my methods are harsh,

or the information seems impossible, or any other combination of reasons, then perhaps it is a personal failing in effort, but not in motives. I do give you that applause for having the best intentions during this time, even if you've scared me a few times. Are you going to completely no-sell my mythic matchup Monday? Dana's only run from one fight in his life, and that was against the Boston Mob, Luke. Could you take him down? I'm 40 and broken and i refuse to answer questions like that can we move on i got a job to do uh all right

oh real quickly real quickly you mentioned tony khabib what is your thought now it's now march 23rd we're less than a month away khabib has apparently gone to russia to finish camp thoughts on whether it happens or not i'm still going to say no chance well everyone there dana habib anyone going public they're saying a hundred percent i'm wondering luke how ramadan affects this are they looking to keep the the storyline and narrative going in the lightweight title picture to make this fight happen now under any and all circumstances so if habib wins then when we return to regular fighting we can potentially make the connor habib fight which would potentially shatter all records and be the biggest uh whale that ufc

could pull out of the water that leads me to believe there's a lot of fuel in that and maybe there's some of them just not worrying about the larger picture look i don't know if they're going to do a one-off pay-per-view but i feel like they are so focused on this that okay dana conceded and took the next three weeks off they're gonna find a way to make this fight happen i do believe it will happen i hope everyone can be safe and they can make it work there's some people my colleague brent brookhouse had a good idea maybe dana just buys a cruise ship luke and puts everybody in their trainers on there for the next three months and circles around the Atlantic and puts on fights. Your thoughts? I would not be in favor of a regression to international water neutrality. That would seem to me a total disaster.

We've got to move on. All right. Jay's in my ear. Harassing. Jay's in my ear, and I'm at home. I want you to understand that, BC. Hey, I do want to shout out Jay, Corey, Gaff, our fellows there at Malka who are in the studio today with the plastic gloves on making this show happen. I know we give Jay a lot of heck, but the guy's been FaceTiming me all weekend setting up this equipment.

He's a true star of the show. All right. Thank you. All right. So now we move on to our second point, rising boxing sensation, Gervonta Davis. This kind of got lost a little bit in all the coronavirus news, but it is worth a mention. We know about the old video. Devontae Davis. This kind of got lost a little bit in all the coronavirus news, but it is worth a mention. We know about the old video. A video had surfaced of him during, I think, the NBA All-Star weekend. Of him at some kind of celebrity game or some other event on a basketball court,

grabbing a woman by her clothes, picking her up, and then marching her behind closed doors. Well, TMZ has found a video where it's not entirely conclusive, Brian, and I'll go to you first on this as well, but it appears, and I want to make sure I'm using the word carefully, it appears he is striking someone, and it appears to be the woman in question from the previous video that had been well circulated. So, number one, what do you make of what the video shows first? What does this say to you about that incident and about Gervonta Davis? You know, it certainly adds a little bit more on top of what is, you know, an S sandwich in terms of just bad press and bad everything. You're right. There's an inconclusive nature.

It's the opposite side view. Somebody, I assume, with a cell phone can, unless it's like a locker room can that they had there, but it's the opposite view of that party coming in. You do see Gervonta throw a punch. You can't tell's throwing it out there's a scuffle afterwards it's just bad altogether so here's the deal he's not the first fighter to have had a transgression on this level and still went on with their career and and you know dealt with the legal uh realities of that and kept rolling i mean we're never going to forget 2012 when Las Vegas allowed Floyd to delay his jail sentence for a month to make sure that Cotto fight happened so everybody

can make money. I do hope though, at this point, that this isn't a negative turning point for Gervonta. He had been really, I mean, he'd been, like I said, largely a baby face. If we're talking wrestling standpoint of a guy who entertains crowds, he's funny on the mic. He's got charisma when you really sit down and talk to him. And he's an entertainer. He draws a large crossover audience. I'd like to see him go public and put this behind him with the type of public acknowledging and responsible response, Luke, that can allow us to put this behind him. Because this is such an awful look and I don't think you know you want him to have to become a public villain and go down that road while you

can use that from a marketing crutch if you want to there's no reason he has to I want to cheer for Gervonta Davis this is deplorable this makes me not want to I hope he can correct this and move on he's still a young guy who came to fame at a very early time, not making any excuses. But I'd like to see a public stance on this, and then we can be done. I would just say this on the situation, Brian, which is my hunch is that when this is all over, whether it's next week, next month, next year, God only knows, right,

that there's going to be in boxing and MMA, frankly, across the sporting landscape, there's going to be, in boxing and MMA, frankly, across the sporting landscape, there's going to be a massive appetite for sports. I mean, when the ball gets rolling, it's going to be slow at first, and then it's going to be a roar. And as a consequence, I don't know if Gervonta Davis is going to go right to pay-per-view, as it was assumed following his last win over Yuriyukas Gamboa. I don't know if he's going to face Leo Santa Cruz. I don't know where things are going to shake out. Here's what I am hoping. I am not under the impression that somehow the bug, the appetite,

I should say rather, for fights is going to pass him by. He's going to get booked and probably against somebody big, depending on who's available. Maybe Leo Santa Cruz, maybe on pay-per-view. We'll have to see. My only hope is that when this is all said and done, he has, at that moment, a great opportunity to address everything. And I hope he does forthrightly, because up to this point, he's, I think,

deleted certain social media presences and not really kind of addressed it. I know he's had some back and forth with Ryan Garcia. I've just not seen him say anything in the way of contrition, whether or not he struck that woman in that second video or not. He certainly grabbed her in the first. That's bad enough of a look, whether or not it's illegal or not. So he has a chance. He has a chance that when this is all over, when he gets booked for a fight, when the media ask him about it, to be upfront about it, to be clear about it, whatever the laws are that he has run up against and whatever law enforcement decide, we'll see how that all plays out. What I don't want to see him is in the position where, because there is such great appetite for him to get going, that people in the media and the public kind of put those questions away and say, you know what, I just want to see fights so bad. I'm not even going to care about this anymore. That would be

the wrong conclusion to draw, that if you just wait for literally a global tragedy to happen that interrupts global life, I don't ever have to worry about any of my personal misconduct. It would send the wrong message. I'm not saying he has to get on his knees and flog himself with a whip and this has to be the case for the rest of his life. Rather, what I'm suggesting is addressing it up front, telling us about a plan of action, being clear, being precise, and then showing that kind of maturity that you were alluding to as he enters this next chapter of his career. Which, by the way, if he plays his cards right, both as a professional and in his personal life, it should be BC, the most lucrative. It should come on the biggest stages.

It should be against the biggest opponents, whether it's Ryan Garcia, Leo Santa Cruz, or anybody else. This is his chance to hit superstardom. Doing this kind of stuff is not only morally reprehensible, it's just not even professionally wise. And we want superstars. We want the people of our era to fulfill their potential and right now he's in that young group of the guys like the devon haney's the ryan garcia's the teofimo lopez's who legitimately might have next in this sport as terms of being the faces of it you don't want to see another adrian broner situation to be really

honest with you a guy who never quite maximized what was inside of him. Next up, we move on to just an unfortunate tragedy. We certainly send our condolences out to the Mayweather family because this week, legendary boxer and boxing trainer, most folks only know him recently for his boxing training, which of course was quite good, but he is much more than that. Roger Mayweather passed away, I think, at the age of 58, and what they're calling essentially him succumbing to his illness. I've not heard it described exactly, but no one has suggested that it had nothing to do with a lifespan in boxing and some of the damage that he had taken.

Brian, we're talking about what his biggest legacy is, and rather his biggest accomplishment. What did he bring to the sport? And I was going through and I was watching some of his old fights. First of all, a lot of folks should recognize this. He was the original Black Mamba. Obviously, shouts to Kobe, what a sportsman, truly one of the best of our era irrespective of sport.

But the original Black Mamba was Roger Mayweather. He was the guy that wore that crown at a time I don't think anyone had up to that point inside the squared circle. So first, I want to say I always found that kind of fun. Secondly, I would say this was a guy who was a two-weight world champion. And yes, he lost to, I think, Chavez twice during his era. There were some other noteworthy losses he had along the way. It wasn't the same distinguished record as Floyd, which I think gets a lot of folks confused about how good of a boxer that he was. But he won at, I think, junior lightweight and junior welterweight. So he was a two-weight world champion, and he beat some great fighters along the way.

And he also had some great wars. Now, maybe some of those were what contributed to problems down the road. But a lot of times, he was not expected to win. A lot of times, he would go to his opponent's territory and be in their home area. I think he won his second of his two world titles doing that in Puerto Rico. And so you really get a respect for him.

Here was a guy who could do it all in the global sense of boxing. I don't mean global in a geographic sense, Brian. I mean global in the sense of everything you can have in a boxing life. Can you be a good fighter? Yes. Can you be a good fighter? Yes. Can you be a good trainer? Yes.

Can you be good on the mic? How many times did Roger Mayweather say, people don't know shit about boxing? He was famous about that. And he also just had a real keen understanding of human psyche, of what made people work. He has a famous quote when someone asked him, Floyd has all this money, Floyd Jr.

He has all this money. He has all this money. He has all this celebrity. Why does he keep fighting? And he said, hey, you know how Bill Gates got a billion dollars and he still make them fucking computers? That's Floyd. And I just thought it was such a smart and easy way to describe it, but it homes in on something really kind of true about the nature of the big greats.

And the last thing I'll say is, I think some of the lessons, Brian, that he learned from his career, yes, he was able to impart on Floyd when he trained him and Floyd and Floyd Sr. had their falling out as a technician, as a tactician, that too. But I think he had lost a cost to Zoo in 96 or so right when Floyd Jr.'s career as a pro was getting going. I can't say this for any kind of certainty, Brian, but part of me wonders if Floyd Jr. took some of the tactical smarts that Roger was able to employ in him and just observing kind of what the fight game had done to Roger as a competitor

and then taking those lessons in and incorporating that into a fight style, and then as a business strategy. Certainly as a fighting business strategy. Now, Floyd's gone on record in the past, and obviously, you know, this is a fighting family, the Mayweathers, and Floyd Jr. was hitting doorknobs as a two-year-old in his playpen. So this was a guy who was groomed for success. And obviously, of the three Mayweather brothers, Floyd Sr., Roger, and Jeff, Roger had the best pro career by far. And as you mentioned, Floyd's gone on record and said he saw the end of Roger's career up close, saw the punishment he

regularly took in order to stay in those fights and wanted to be the opposite of that. So that certainly played a large influence. And that was right around the time in the late 90s that the falling out like you mentioned with floyd senior when he went away to jail and sort of left floyd he taught floyd how to fight and suddenly uncle roger was there to nurture him helped him start as a pro come out of the olympics become an early pound for pound king people forget right around 2000 2001 and then eventually become the crossover pay-per-view star that he became, the largest star in history. But Mayweather Promotions did put out a statement that gave the cause of death to diabetes. And we had seen Roger step away from the spotlight.

He left Floyd's corner right around 2013, 2014 for good as Floyd Sr. came back in. But you look at Roger, and certainly I think the greatest contribution to this business was being the trainer of the most successful fighter of this era. And he was such a calming influence in there. And I know there was always that narrative that, oh, Floyd was so great, he trained himself. It didn't matter. But Roger was certainly someone who Floyd respected, who had the air of. He wanted to hear what Roger had to say. And look, you've seen the videos a million times.

That relationship they had with Floyd hitting the pads as Uncle Roger would hold him up and slap back at him, it became a dance. It became this thing they did that is sort of indelibly burned into your mind. When you see that, you know a big fight's coming. And it just really put into focus the relationship that they had, the trust that they had. He played a monster role in that. And I think even bigger, although this is sort of a lesser note, he became quite a personality. As, you know, the idea of these pre-fight documentary shows, whether it was 24-7 on HBO or Showtime's All Access really

gave you that inside look behind the fighters Roger was an early star in that it wasn't just the hashtag YDSAB you don't know shit about boxing it was uh you know the the back and forth with Freddie Roach ahead of the Floyd Oscar fight Roger really showed you just how hilarious he was he had a few missteps outside of the ring as well, but this was a guy who was a lifer. You mentioned how underrated he was as a fighter. He was the Mexican assassin, the Mexicutioner. Won titles in two divisions.

Yes, maybe lost his biggest ones against the Custas U's, twice to Julio Cesar Chavez. But, you know, he's got wins over Vinny Pazienza, Livingstone Bramble. This guy really gave a lot to this business and it was tough to see him sort of take a step back as his health declined in recent years and certainly tough to see him go during a very hard time in the Mayweather family in general as we know Floyd lost his longtime girlfriend Josie Harris the mother of a few of his children at age 40 so tough time in the in the Mayweather clan at the moment, but Roger gave a lot to the sport

and he was always a joy to walk up to and get a quote from him. Big fan, big fan of the Black Mambo. And it also tells you too, that like one, Floyd is such a, in terms of a professional career, he's just one of the best ever. But to be that, it requires such a command of oneself. But you have to have an incredible supporting cast, too. All the stars kind of have to align. And that you can do that, essentially, while keeping everything in-house in the family is kind of... You've seen a father and son relationship or uncle and nephew relationship in individual instances, Brian. You've certainly seen that, or even that uncle trained other people.

But to have three brothers, as you indicated, and then one child who could do it, and then to develop this brand around a boxing gym, and more than that, dude, they're the first family of boxing, right? I don't know who would be beyond them, certainly for this generation. And that's an impossible thing virtually to become but it it's an underscore the fact that whatever people think of of Floyd and what he accomplished there is a bigger Mayweather story that needs to be told and a lot of it got told through Floyd which is not the worst way to get told right because he has sort of the sun and everything was kind of revolving around him

at the same time you can't forget the individual greats in their own right. You mentioned that Roger had Floyd with Freddie Roach. I was there for Mayweather Packer. I'm sure you were too when they had the coaches press conference. Floyd Sr. was doing the exact same thing when he was talking to Freddie. They just had a way of going back and forth with any of their rivals. And to do that in-house, it's so incredible that they were what they were. And they were interesting on their own, Brian. And then they were something greater than the sum of their parts when they were together. And in closing, shout out to Roger in that 2006 Mayweather-Zab Judah fight.

You remember that melee when Zab Judah started throwing dirty shots? Roger was the first one in there. Took a swing from Yoel Judah. He took a shot at Zab. He ended up getting a one-year suspension from the Nevada Commission, but that just showed you who he was, Luke. He certainly was. He was not all talk, Brian Campbell. All right, let's go to something else that I find very, very interesting. So apparently, Dan Lambert, who is the owner and proprietor of American Top Team, one of the truly great teams in mixed martial arts,

has issued something, Brian Campbell, of a gag rule. The way I understand it is, unless there is a bout agreement signed between two competitors, two fighters inside of ATT, fighter X, fighter Y, they both train at ATT, he does not want any trash talk. Now, he said he understood that if you've got a fight coming up, hey, you got to promote it. That's just part of the business. But outside of that, the gag rule stays. Brian, let's go to you first on this. Your sense of things about why this rule was made,

I think we kind of know, but I just want to hear your thoughts on it. And two, is this smart or is this too much of a, is it too heavy of a burden? No, it's really smart. And it had to be done because of extreme circumstances, which is Colby Covington. Luke, let's wake up. This is the Colby Covington rule. We all know it. The reason why I love that this happened was, look, we know how great the team there at

ATT is, what Dan Lambert and company have built, Mikey Brown. Who's the brazilian fellow i call him brazilian shrek which is probably insulting you know that's conan silvero conan my man yes um look they've built something so truly special they were a powerhouse team and what can potentially break that up uh something rotten in the inside and when you have the potential when colby has built this outward villainous character, to see him get in fistfights with a Poirier or a Jorge inside a camp, obviously, that's a poison.

You want to address that right off the top. I love that Dan said two things. One, which you mentioned, which is, look, if you've got to fight together, that's fair. You've got to promote it. But two, us in the pro wrestling side, we know of dan lambert's history he played a heel manager with impact wrestling a couple years back he's got one of the largest pro wrestling belt collections he puts the blame on himself for loving the trash talking that that you know is so affiliated with pro wrestling a little bit too much and allowing that to become a thing and then you know luke you

see it every time we're interviewing jo, every time we're interviewing anyone, we're bringing up Colby Covington within the first three or four questions. You want to cut that crap down now. You want to bring everybody back to the team level. Smart move, Dan Lambert. Look, there's two ways you can run a super team, right? You can do the AKA model, which is we're going to have one guy who's going to be our guy per weight class. We're going to have our Luke Rockhold. He's going to be our guy at middle

weight. We're going to have Cain Velasquez. We've got Daniel Cormier. Well, one of you is dropping down and one of you is not. So DC says, you know what, Cain, welcome to be into this team. I'm going to make the sacrifice. I'm going to go down to 205. Now in Cain's absence, we know that that was not necessarily the case. So when he fought in strike force, that wasn't the case either, but they were deferential towards each other for being the men in that gym. And that was how they remained cohesive. And all those years where Dana White was like, we're going to get Fitch and Koscheck to fight, they never did. Now, to what extent they were offered, I don't know, but they were adamant. It wouldn't matter if they were offered, we were never going to fight each other. That's one model. The other model is what ATT has, which not only

has an affiliate system around the country, but inside that Coconut Creek facility, they've got so many heavyweights, so many lights, so many junior, or I should say middles and welters and lights and feathers and all the way down. And they're coming from Brazil. They're coming from across the country. They're changing teams. It goes on and on and on. It is not possible in that kind of model to not have some clash. You're right though. If you're going to have that model and you're going to have people, so many elites in one weight class, in one organization, Brian, it's not like they're spread out evenly between Bellator and One and UFC and other organizations are all kind of clustered in that particular organization. So if that's going to be the case, you have to have some kind of established order that

doesn't ruin the gym. You cannot have a couple of bad apples spoil the bunch. And Colby Covington's trash talk has been widely debated about its value, about its merits, and whatever position you want to take on that, you can. But I think Dan Lambert doing this was not only the right call, it was the inevitable call. If you're going to have confrontations at your gym, if you're going to have people fighting in the street,

if you're going to have people who can't even train, not together per se, but at the same time under the same roof for how ugly it is, you can't run a business. You cannot run a business. Not effectively, not under that model he had to make this call for preservation not only was it the right call brian it was the only play right because inevitably you're not only going to have fights that could slow down the growth of your gym and ruin ruin potential big fights being made but look you can have factions that develop

and that's when suddenly you know one trainer grabs a few fighters and starts his own gym smart move overall this is look i've been there i you know that's a very impressive organization they have down there the quality of fighters the overall attitude and culture inside that gym very clean and welcoming if that makes any sense luke i mean it's a professional environment shout out to them for preserving that and also last thing on this a big portion of how you succeed, no matter what your model is of being a super team, whether you're the AKA or the ATT method, is recruitment, right?

People come to you from across the country. We just saw Violent Bob Ross went over to ATT. It's a recruiting thing, not just people in the Coconut Creek area who happen to be there. People come to you. But if they hear stories about confrontation and about there's just this disorder there in the business they're not going to be as eager to come

over to your facility and train under your team doesn't matter how good everyone else is around you so this was absolutely not only the right call this was the only call now yeah i mean it was like that time that jay was mad at you and he called me up and said let's go start our own show let's do uh afternoon combat let's do it bro i was like no no bro luke and i day one ish all right you know what you know what jake jake called me this weekend you know what he said and he said uh he said hey luke if i masturbate at an arby's is that gonna get me coronavirus and i said it could jay he goes well wait a second is masturbating at an arby's a symptom of coronavirus and i said could be either jay i just don't know i'm just pointing that out i was like jay has a

very weird call but you do you my friend just shout out to the jamocha milkshake only available at arby's top shelf stuff yes all right let's do this a little bit different here for point five on the show brian you have been on a quest i hand you the floor this is an interesting intersection because we have a lot in common we have a lot not in common but one thing we have in common is we both love movies and now it turns out we both love military slash war movies although there is a difference why don't you tell folks about the quest you've been on and then i want to frame the discussion we're about to have about it yeah so here's the deal luke and listeners out there viewers uh we'll invade your ear hole or your eyes it's your choice uh i've made the point clear on here that 1917 is the best film i've ever seen it being of course the upper was how could

you say that bc if you ain't seen apocalypse now brother now here's the deal i'd seen certain war movies i i thought i'd seen parts of some i saw casualties of war and thought it was platoon in my mind i saw a lot of different things so i don't want to be a half-hearted expert here my goal was to a prove to people that 1917 really is the best movie i've ever seen but b luke do that by becoming woke across the board so So in the last 10 days, you want to know what I've watched? You ready for this, Luke? Tell me. Platoon, Casualties of War, The Deer Hunter. Keep it coming.

The American Sniper. Saving Private Ryan. Saving Private Ryan. Apocalypse Now, I think I said that already. Did you see it? Let me ask you. We'll just go through. Did you see Hurt Locker?

I have not seen that yet. It is on my on my list anyway i saw three or four other ones i even went back and watched glory and gettysburg i'm massive fans of both i think glory is a top five war movie but here's the whole point of this larger discussion luke have i been able to prove to myself that at each turn all of those movies and some a full metal jacket another one and some of them are just spectacular and they're in the conversation but are they better than 1917 in my eyes no they're not luke and it's close okay apocalypse now is a freaking masterpiece the deer hunter is my favorite of that entire group that i just mentioned i cannot i wake up in the middle of the night thinking about that russian roulette scene i mean it's denaro it's walking this is like this is the top of the damn pops but Luke I think you

got to ask yourself what are you trying to get out of a war movie it's very rare that war movies are feel-good stories I think Saving Private Ryan which you're right it was everything everyone said it was it is a super bowl of exactly what a war movie can and maybe should be because it actually balances together the very, very harsh realities of war with like an action movie feel with a quasi happy ending in the way. And it's very rare that you get that happy ending. But I think in some ways that's what I'm looking for. So here's an example, Luke.

Platoon. It was the best picture, 1986. I hated it, brother. It was uncomfortable. I didn't want anything to do with it. I wanted out of the damn jungle. There was no ending for me. I'm not looking for that out of a war movie.

I think our brethren, do you know this fella at Web Scream? You know him? Yeah, he messages me all the time. He seems like a smart dude. He's the Greek god of MMA thunder. His name is Chris, Christoforos. He actually, by the way, lives in Italy, and he's been fighting the good fight through this whole virus,

so shout out to him. But he took the challenge. He watched it. He came back and said, BC, look, you were right. 1917 is a cinematic classic. And it's so unique that I don't even think you can put it in the war genre. I think it's a separate thing altogether. He might be right, Luke.

You have finally tasted and see. Fill in the blanks here. How great was 1917? Is it top of the pops in the war genre, or is that not even what you're looking for in a war movie? I would struggle to put it top 10. You could make a case for it top 10, but I'm not exactly sure where. Top 10 war movie ever?

Top 10 war movies, yeah. So let me tell you what I saw in this movie. If you've not seen 1917, highly recommended. What an excellent film. If I had to answer what was the best thing about 1917, two things stand out to me, Brian, and I think you'd probably agree. Number one, the cinematography is magic.

It is so, it's a war movie, right? But it's beautiful to watch, which makes it sort of an interesting contradiction. The coloring and the landscaping and the framing of the shots just magnificent sam mendez directed this movie and did a phenomenal job with his direction as well so number one the cinematography unbelievable especially the scene uh brian in the second half in the sort of the burning ecoust uh area of town um just what a jaw-dropping

cinematography during those moments i mean it's a apocalypse now worthy luke shout out shout out to coppola i would agree there in terms of cinematography it's it stands away well there's a lot more to it jay so shut your mouth look at your phone jay also texted you um so i would say that the second part to me that stands out was it's essentially two parts of a continuous shot. So for folks who may not understand, a lot of war movies are split in half like Full Metal Jacket, where it has the scenes at Paris Island and then ultimately in-country at Vietnam. But there are different scenes within that where they cut and they restart and they cut and they restart.

The first and second half of 1917 is just one continuous shot. Now, I don't want to say more than that because at that point i'd be giving it away that's a novel way to shoot a war movie that has not been done a whole lot which i found uh really really interesting and a bit of a video game feel for me over time so i was glad they split it in the middle of the way they did nevertheless very interesting beyond that though i have some problems with the movie. One, in parts it was telling the story about the horrors of war, but it did it in almost a horror movie kind of fashion where it was in some ways not real

and in other ways so over the top that it felt a little phony when they were climbing through different areas and there were bodies and hands reaching out. It had a little zombie apocalypse kind of feel. I don't know how realistic that was. I thought the rats chewing on the bodies was sort of like a wake-up call to the realities of how brutal World War I was and that the bodies were just all left there. Right. And trench warfare was a big problem. And again, they did, the set design was good on that, but it got to a point where it just felt like, am I watching a war movie or am I watching a horror movie?

It was a weird distinction that kind of got blurred there over time. I think the other part is there were small things about how unrealistic it was. Like when he was marching up a hill and he was firing his weapon, he had a bolt-action rifle, and he was still able to hit the target every time while on his feet. I'm like, there's no way you can eject the round, reload it into the barrel off a bolt-action rifle and have that kind of accuracy.

But okay, that's small. Here's what got me. Didn't like the screenplay very much. There was hardly any surprises. Oh, there's a gut-wrenching surprise. I mean, it's the surprise of the movie, Luke. Relative to every other war movie I've seen at a top level, there were not many surprises. And then the last part I'd say is this whole thing of romantic war movies, which is essentially what

this was, yes, you could say the same thing about Saving Private Ryan having done that, but that was 20 plus years ago. I did not really, the predictability of it, married with the bad screenplay, married with the romantic nature of it, brings it down a notch for me. All right, do you think it was, even though there was some brutal elements of war, you know, blown up, you know, rats chewing on dead bodies, do you think it was sanitized enough, and that maybe Web Scream is right, that it's not really a war movie and me not being a natural war movie guy that i fell in love with the fact that look

unlike any other movie maybe beyond uncut gems which we can also talk about i felt like i was in the movie look i saw this thing twice and the second time was even more uncomfortable i'd never felt like that really before at that level the cinematography was so unique and amazing that i'm in i'm the third soldier with them i'm in the movie but ultimately there's almost an adventure side to this movie that feels almost like the goonies for example right there's a start there's a finish there's a mission i mean you can compare it to to many movies that were like that almost like a road trip right like we start here we end there maybe that's what maybe i fell in love with that mixed with the romanticized hero element of it i just felt like luke i was watching something so unique and special and again you got to ask yourself what are you looking to get out of a war movie some people just want as realistic a

representation as possible other people just want carnage. We mentioned some of these, like the deer hunter, for example. The elements of storytelling within the relationships of people go to next level. Certainly 1917 doesn't have that. Yet at the same time, man, gut-wrenching, moving. I don't know. I felt like I was on an LSD trip or something watching that film. It was a phenomenal movie. Again, I'm not going to say bad things about it,

but you asked me what I want out of a war movie. And again, military movies, not the same as war movies. They can overlap. They can be very different. Well, explain that. Explain that. So, for example, let's talk about easy cases. One, military movie. A Few Good Men would be a military movie, but it has nothing to do principally with conflict. On the other hand, as you mentioned, let's pick up with Saving Private Ryan, both a military and a war movie.

But another movie I would consider a war movie that has some of a military overlap, but not a ton, would be like Zero Dark Thirty, which is more about state versus terrorist kind of conflict. So it can actually go a lot of different places. Now, in the case of what my favorite war movie is and what I'm looking for, I've had many friends go to war. I have not, but I've had many friends who go to war. And what I have noticed, what appeals to me about war movies is it's sort of weird that you want to reinforce, but I suppose that you do, is how it complicates you. So the one reason why I like Sam Prebber Ryan is because it's very realistic.

We can all agree on that. But what it shows you is the hazards of war, which is how it can make people who ordinarily make good decisions make bad ones, like when Tom Hanks refused to go around the German gun nest, and then they lose the medic, or when Upham refuses to save a colleague who gets stabbed because he just has cowardice in the end um and then and then somehow kills the guy in the end but lives so there's just like that the fact that there's never really karma for bad for bad faith behavior

doesn't show up that um people can be morally complex where you talk about in full metal jacket you know to see the world and meet interesting people and kill them. This duality. When you deal with hazards where it's messy and you're good and you're bad and it works and it doesn't, and when you get that full breadth of a character, that's what I'm looking for in a war movie. So you might be asking,

and please don't mock me on this, man, because if you're going to count, oh, we have to count the best filmmakers ever, if we're going to count war movies and who made them like a spielberg in this particular case like a mendez the number one war movie for me of all time uh has got to be ran akira kurosawa it's an 80s movie you're talking about okay well you're talking about maybe the best i mean dude a master a master filmmaker seven samurai is another great

one that he made his wife died during the making of this. At the time it was made, it was the most expensive Japanese movie ever. I mean, beautifully shot, incredibly acted. I mean, everything about it is phenomenal. It's a story about a guy, basically, who spends all of this energy to build things and to make things happen,

all for it to come crumbling down and then when he sees how morally compromised he became to build it he realizes the worthlessness in it all and it is told in the most masterful of ways dude that is a movie that you just cannot forget you could get it for like two bucks on youtube ran i guess that's what we're looking by the way last thing ran translates to chaos in Japanese. Look, I think Glory is a top five movie I've ever seen. Agreed. Glory's amazing.

But it's about courage and heroism in the end, right? And overcoming. But war isn't principally about that. Exactly. People think it is. It's not. What I ultimately in the end didn't love and wasn't willing to pick out the good of Platoon was that it's really just about how effed up war is and i think there were other movies that

did show you that i mean look if you haven't seen the deer hunter good lord is that a classic it captures all of it inside of one so i'm going to put that one right up there as well and full metal jacket is almost its own thing luke yeah full metal jacket is truly different i would completely agree with that um it's it's almost two different movies they're marines in there and half of the movie is paris island is that comparable luke to your experience very yeah very there are some differences in terms of some of the minutiae obviously there are some practices that were put in place to reduce hazing of that kind but the thing you there, what's called a blanket party when you get hit with the soap, that kind of thing does go on.

And my understanding was, I don't know if this is true, but Arlie Ermey, the guy who played the relevant gunnery sergeant there, was, I think, hired to be the trainer to an actor. Like, let's get this guy up to speed. And then, this is just urban legend. I do not know

if this is true but he was eventually the director realized i was a kubrick that this guy was so good you didn't need an actor and they just pulled him in um that's what i was told i've never actually looked that up so someone should look that up but you can tell he was in the marine corps he did know what he was talking about and that's really the difference that's why it's like these small little details like when a guy is marching up a hill aiming at a window and he's got a bolt action rifle and he's hitting the target every time i'm like if you had if you had someone in the military there they would tell you you have to get a sniper to do that 10 more seconds because jay's pushing me here have you seen do you know about this russian roulette scene in the deer hunter luke oh who doesn't oh my god it's a bit

so it's a ridiculous scene yeah i mean that might that's got to be up there in the greatest scenes of all time i mean it's like 100 and and also to close um apocalypse now is i mean when you hear that when you read the you could almost make a movie about the making of that movie in terms of how you know insane it was how long it took how uh charlie sheen's dad martin sheen was was basically so drunk, almost died on it, was really not acting in some of those scenes. Luke, when they slaughter the calf at the end, and the whole, I mean, that is I mean, it's Brando. I mean, this is

like, there's something special going on there. Look, I'm going to go deeper, okay? I liked American Sniper. I know you talked about propaganda. I'm going to keep going down this road, okay? Do me a favor. If you don't have time for Rand, because you don't like subtitles, you still owe me one. You owe me one, BC.

I saw Parasite, brother. Come on. That's pretty good. But skip that one. Letters from Iwo Jima. Clint Eastwood made it. I'm telling you. What about the other side of that?

Didn't Eastwood make a companion movie with that? So he made an American version and a Japanese version. I mean, he made them both. But I should say American perspective and the Japanese perspective. The American perspective is flags of our fathers. Terrible. Not good. Here's what's interesting about letters from Iwo Jima.

And then we'll move on from this. People don't realize this, but I've actually done some history on the initial battles of World War II between the Americans and predominantly the Marines and the Japanese. The initial set of ready-to-go soldiers on either side of the battle were roughly equivalently good, both in terms of tactics, machinery, understanding of warfare, battle plans.

I mean, the early Japanese, or the first run of the Japanese military, they were excellent soldiers. But what happened over time was the Americans were very good about taking an average citizen over time, giving them some training over the course of several months, sending them out to the battlefield, and they could perform quite ably. It turned out the Japanese were not. So while their first run officers and enlisted were excellent, when they

began to die off, they had a hard time replacing them. It just took them a lot longer and they were not as efficient at it. So you see that they were just drafting bakers and delivery boys and carpenters and then sticking them in these remote islands without good battle plans or tactics or warfare understanding, and this is at the end of the war between the Americans and the Japanese,

and they get stuck on Iwo Jima with its black sand. Holy crap, that movie is good. You've got to check that out. All right, that's next in my rotation, okay? Like Kurosawa, I watch mad films. And if I did, they'd have a samurai. All right, Luke, it's been one week since you looked at me. Let's keep going.

Is that a Barenaked Ladies? Barenaked Ladies? Reluctantly, I did drop. That's the 90s. There you go. There it is. All right, let's do it. It's time for DMs from donks.

Let's do it now. Okay. I can't see the feed. Yeah, there it is. Now I see it. All right, very very good and we're back okay so here we go bc we'll go to you first does this period count towards t or this from long live and you does this period count towards tj's doping pan yes question that's a that's a

morally honest question at the moment i'm gonna say yes luke because uh dana's not trying to look at this as a as a respite or a uh an extended break we're gonna get fights quickly with that man so yeah it counts it all counts luke it's just calendar time that's all it is it's just calendar time is the calendar time adding up or not and yes it is so the good news for him is yeah uh next we go we go to Mora underscore MK, Brian. This is, of course, for you. What do you guys think about WrestleMania still happening next week at the WWE Performance Center?

I was going to save part of this rant for odds and ends, but I'll give it to you right now. I think this is a really, really bad idea. Anybody that's watched WWE in the empty warehouse the last couple weeks, I mean, look, it's WWE Vince McMahon style that the show must go on. We all remember when Owen Hart died in the middle of a pay-per-view. And they just wheeled the body out and they kept going. But this is almost to their detriment.

This has been cringe TV watching them try to pull this off from an empty warehouse, basically. Now we're going to do two nights of wrestling. And it's going to be filmed this week ahead of time with potential for spoilers you got to give whether you love or hate pro wrestling look i covered it intensely the last few years i'm now taking a large step back still watch aew because they're on fire but uh whatever you feel about that vince mcmahon and company have made this wrestlemania brand incredibly special 36 years into it you know what you're getting you're getting like an eight-hour show live music celebrity crossover uh epic matches and usually

epic entrances and so much of that is built around the idea of a 75 000 seat stadium they haven't been inside an arena since 2006 right you remember the days in the 90s when they had no money and they were in the harford civic center of all places at wrestlemania 11 that's a long time ago this is a show of shows so to speak and we're gonna do it in a friggin warehouse this is a time where vince you gotta take a step back bro okay you can do some other show instead but you gotta put wrestlemania off a couple months until we can get fans inside of there i'm stepping back into that level of fandom luke where i've been on and off where maybe i'm not watching week inside of there i'm stepping back into that level of fandom luke where i've been on and off where maybe i'm not watching week to week but i'm gonna watch mania you better

believe it it's in my blood i don't know how they are going to remotely make this a a memorable event or something that's worthy of the of the time and effort put in you tell stories all year to pay them off at wrestlemania we're gonna do it in a warehouse like no no no bro nah brah nah yeah but yeah but don't you still want to see tony khabib even if it's in a similar warehouse s kind of situation i do that's also now look a live crowd in boxing and mma does play a lot into the passion excitement momentum turns the broadcast the feeling yes but it's so much more in wrestling you're playing off the fan i mean look look you may not know this right but and it's not so much as true now in wwe because vincent man scripts everything but back in

the day they would call these matches on the fly and if the fans were overly into one person you could switch the finish of the match in motion, you know, in real time. And if anyone saw Dwayne Johnson, The Rock just put out a long video explaining the nuances of his classic WrestleMania 18 match with Hulk Hogan. He breaks down in there how he became a bad guy in the middle of that match because they didn't expect the crowd to be so into old man Hogan at that moment. So they switched on the fly. In wrestling, you need that. You can't do it with an empty couple rows of bleachers. So I don't care what tricks they're going to pull off.

This is going to be lame. What is your theory about how UFC and WrestleMania might be getting beat up by wrestling media for doing this or MMA media for doing what they did, but that the larger media seems to be utterly unconcerned. I mean, if they had any other sporting entity was still going, even in a reduced capacity like this, they'd be getting raked over the coals. Yeah.

How come they're avoiding all the scrutiny? Because as the great late Burt Sugar said about boxing, it's the red light district of sports. So MMA falls into that. Pro wrestling falls into that. It's combat sports. There's still, still Luke we're you know we're we're only so far into the history of the UFC combat sports in general is still looked

at as oh those those crazy guys over there like that's why when you know Floyd Mayweather or any other major boxer can say incredibly non-pc things over a microphone and we just go yeah this is boxing this is a fight game Tom Brady says that it'd be a national crisis luke hey how about tom brady on the bucks you fired up i can't wait for him to just get i mean sacked left and right makes me so excited fuck him uh okay next we go to andrew chia kong tau i think i'm saying that right to kong tau what are your thoughts regarding this summer's Olympic Games, given where we are with the coronavirus pandemic? If not this summer, because we kind of addressed this earlier, BC, when could they realistically do it,

considering pro athletes may partake in their professional leagues by the fall? I mean, here's the deal. I don't see how you can do it later in the year, Brian. I think, and it would change fundamentally the nature of the Olympics. By the way, it would also change, you don't care about this, but the biggest tournament in South American soccer is called the Copa America.

It's a big deal. When Brazil plays Argentina, plays Colombia, plays Chile, the whole nine yards, they're going to have to just put it off by a year. I don't see any other way because what people are complaining about is they're barely able to train. And even if you put it back later in the year,

now who's going to be able to go where there's overlap between that and professional leagues? Remember, the Olympics used to be about this amateurism ideal that has completely gone away. It is very much a for-profit business. And having a for-profit business means having the kind of stars that you can either create or use to further that business. My answer is Tokyo 2021, BC. I think you can push it to the end of stars that you can either create or use to further that business. My answer is Tokyo 2021 BC. I think you can push it to the end of the year. If things optimistically turn for the better, Luke,

we've seen Summer Olympics in the past go off in late August or September, if that meant it had to for scheduling purposes, for weather purposes, all that. I think you can push this toward the end of the year. Look, I'm trying to be optimistic. I'm trying to always hit the middle ground, Luke. But do you do that how do you do that if the nba is in full swing there i mean you're going to get no one to participate from the united states this may be a situation where you just don't use nba players this time around i just think look there's certain i know what you're saying it is a business at the end but you also need fans for

for an olympics to truly feel like it matters if you push it off toward the end of the year what's the weather like there they They can make it happen, Luke. In Tokyo, it'll be cold as shit. Yeah. All right, maybe you're right. Maybe we come around the corner. Look, I think like WrestleMania, although it's hard to compare WrestleMania and the Olympics,

I'd rather have them do it right than force it. Can you force Tony Habib? You kind of can. You can force it, Luke. Well, I'm not even sure that's true, but is it easier to do a one fight in a warehouse and youtube it or whatever versus putting on an olympic games where people from all over the world are coming both as spectators and athletes they have to be housed in the olympic village can you

imagine if someone got covet 19 in the olympic village right among the athletes and how it would spread to the other half i mean you know what those athletes like to do in the village, Luke? Yeah. Oh, she banged, he banged, they banged. You got orgies up in there. It's like Caligula, for God's sake. So there's no way you could get away with that. It would just be a nightmare. You got to wait till this thing is,

you got to wait till this virus is at his ass kicked. And right now it's doing the ass kicking. Okay, from Ann Vic writes, Luke, Brianrian as esteemed gentleman that work from home do you have any tips for all the wimps working remotely i try to keep the tips covered for the most part i've got this covered because i predominantly work from home you do too i suppose this one to me is kind of easy which is you don't know people are like oh you should get in your work clothes when you go to your office. Here's two pieces of advice I would give because you would love to hear yours.

Two pieces. One, you can kind of wear whatever you want, but getting up on a routine where if I normally got up for work at like, say, 730, maybe you can fudge it to 8, but you get up at 8 and you get up and you go to your routine and you are at work on your particular device at the same time you would be had you been at a commute. You should do that. And that means showering, eating breakfast, brushing your teeth, putting on a fresh pair of clothes. It could be sweatpants, but just making that mental transition. Second part is to the extent possible, don't work in your bedroom. Go to your living room. If you've got a multi-layered house or whatever, go to the basement, go to the top floor, whatever. Don't just sit in your computer,

flip open the laptop in your PJs because everything then will just bleed together. Create some walls, if not literal walls, BC, mental walls of separation so that when you go back to your bed, it feels like what it always has been, something different from work. Yeah, you have to take breaks. And when you take these breaks, to your bed, it feels like what it always has been, something different from work.

Yeah, you have to take breaks. And when you take these breaks, your phone can't be anywhere near you, even though there's that pull on you to have to be there in case something happens. This is a real deal. Luke, I worked at ESPN for 12 years, always in the office. And you didn't realize, I didn't realize at the time how important it was. You're walking on a giant campus. You're saying hi to 50 people a day. then when you don't have that when i got hired by cbs in 2017 and i'm right here in this basement dude i'm straight up fell into a legit and deep depression during winter for about nine months and uh you need the human interaction you need a schedule so all those tips you said are legit you don't want to be working right when you wake up in your bed, none of that stuff, but you need to get away from your house. I've found Luke. So I walk the dogs at length before starting work at the end of the workday. I try to either

go for a walk myself or just get in the car and go get gas and loop around the town or the surrounding towns to have that, um, time to compress and let it all out. Because, you know, my commute from work to home is like six steps right over my shoulder here. And you can bring that stress or that, that, you know, that conflicted mind from here, right to the dinner table. And then, you know, there's, there's conflict and all that stuff. You got to work hard to stay sane, working from home. When you get in that rhythm, it's great. Luke, when the weather's nice, I'll take the laptop out in the backyard. Dogs running around.

Life is really good. But you've got to treat it seriously because it'll get you, Luke. It'll bite you right up from the back end, Luke. I actually prefer working from home. So what happened was I was working at SB Nation when – I was working for SBNation.com for Vox Media when they created Vox.com. And that was the political site. And what happened was they brought in a bunch of people into the newsroom.

Did you work in a newsroom that was an open newsroom? Yes. Okay, which is just the worst design for an office imaginable. That's not the fault per se of SB Nation because that was just the consensus thinking at the time about what makes for great offices because we're going to be collaborative in our open office and what it ends up being is just incredibly distracting so when the vox people came over they were making phone calls all day long in ways that the sp nation folks were not necessarily two different business models between reporting and the kind of reporting they were doing and i just found it insanely distracting because i had to make phone calls too

and i just hated it so i just said you know? I'm going to start working from home Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And we were running out of space in the newsroom anyway. My boss has said yes. And then over time, it just became basically every day. Your mileage may vary, Brian, but I find I'm more productive. I can get more done. I'm happier. You're right about getting fresh air though, man. You got to get, if you don't have dogs, take a walk, sit outside, have lunch outside, do something, get some, get some vitamin D from the sun, right? Feel that on your face because as humans, you need that a little bit. Joe Rogan talks about nature bathing, you know, being around a forest, feeling that on you.

It's good for your mental health. You know, and I got a do not disturb sign that I put on the outside of the door because look, you know, I could be in the middle of something creative, writing a story, being right in the middle of it. And, you know, Mrs. Campbell could walk in and be like, you got to take the trash out. It's like, you know, you got to have those borders up. And also to close, Luke, my wife always tells me, go to Starbucks for a few hours. Dude, just sitting around people, you get a certain buzz off that that you never would imagine. And last. You hate people, Luke, so this is not part of your formula but i don't hate people i don't hate people brian

campbell i just hate most people uh okay brian i'm going to pitch this one to you this ought to be fun this comes to us from ks k stew bp1 of the big three novels in the english language of the 20th century which do you find the best ulysses by james joyce gravity's rainbow by thomas pinchon or infinite jest by david foster wallace bc yeah that's you're speaking chinese luke have you not read any of them no no no i read the great gatsby once all right twice did you like it? Love The Great Gatsby. Love it. That's a good book, actually, right? What is your favorite fiction book that you've read? Not a big fiction guy, Luke.

Probably not surprising. Neither am I. So I'm with you on that one. I'm bad at that one, too. I spent my youth memorizing sports encyclopedias and Guinness Book of World Records and crap like that. Wikipedia has become... You can go down long long i crave information luke okay i i i have trouble in fiction um i you know i like you have any fiction books you've read that you like think about fondly i mean i do them with you i'm not a fiction guy i think it's probably a bit of a

blind spot for me but i do have some fiction books that i look back on pretty fondly i i couldn't even name i wrote 20 000 leagues under the sea loved it in the sixth grade look i got nothing for you okay you exposed me luke no well this person exposed me too because this is a blind spot for me i'd have two i would say the sound and the fury by faulkner has been one that really stuck with me and um some twain books i suppose uh but grapes of wrath steinbeck grapes of wrath was one that really um and you want to start the mk book club i'll read your grapes of wrath okay yeah but i don't my book club would not be fiction i mean there are there's and i've read ulysses of the of the three of these i've not written and that was a incredibly difficult read james joyce writes in this sort of like stream of these. I've not written, and that was an incredibly difficult read. James Joyce writes in this sort of like stream of consciousness that is hard to follow.

But in any event, um, it's a, it's, it's a weak point for me to do. That's not, it's not a strong suit, but I've read,

I've read a couple of the classics. Look, I have a passion for what's real. That's what I'm searching for. What is real? You said 1917 was your favorite movie. All right. Yeah.

It's my, it's my favorite movie, okay? Because it's real. Sort of. All right, it's time now where we dance on sprockets and we look at dongs. It's time for Brian Campbell's favorite part of the show. Let's see it, buddy. What you got? Animation.

There we go, animation. All right, you know how it works. We scour the globe for the best, the worst, the good, the bad, and the ugly in combat sports and beyond we haven't had much combat sports luke you love human on animal violence we haven't had any spinny head kicks from mma how about from the farm check out this back kick from this horse oh that is too great dude that's that's cte worthy right there that is awesome oh buddy they are violent animals when they need to be luke they i'm afraid i love that that is so great yeah speaking of god speaking of your you have another job so we got to go quickly speaking of

violent animals here luke how about this rich guy on the lacrosse field look at this guy the big continent right here just just taking fools out. Look at William Refrigerator Smith over here, just running these fools over. Is this payback for the Duke rape that never happened, Luke? Dude, that's the toughest Skyler I've ever seen in my life. Good God. All right, Luke, we roll on to the rugby field. How about Jorge Taufua with the hit of the year?

The season just started. Dude, rugby is a vicious game. Dude, that's a clean tackle. Look at that. What was that segment ESPN used to have before they feared concussions? Oh, it was... jay you remember that like you got you got something or oh damn or something like that you got served something like jay what was it espn used to do it jacked up that was yeah you got jacked up all right luke we don't have many uh sports highlights

we do have a lot of covid 19 season highlights here look every man needs his own space especially during uh corona season check out this man cave this guy built you down with this asian fellow here luke bro this is how they got saddam hussein remember that yes he was down in that little hole alison chain style you can't even see him there luke that's great yeah but what can what does he have down there nothing he just has a little room to sit he's got a peace of mind by the way my friend's dad growing up he lived around the corner from me for years he'd always talk about oh my dad every night he's down in the basement drinking miller high life listening to the yankees games

and i always assumed luke having been friends with this guy for like 10 years that his dad had this ultimate man cave with plush couches and a speaker system and whatever you know what one of the saddest moments of life was one day when we were adults going down the basement it was a crate a transistor radio and a beer fridge yeah i mean look one man's, you know, look, don't man cave shame. Don't do that. Everyone's got their own man cave. You got to be friendly. Especially you guys with the military PTSD and all that, Luke,

to all respect to you guys, okay? Yeah, it sounds like you have none, but okay. All right, hey, let's roll on here. Hey, Corona season, new arcade games out there, Luke. Take your daughter to this, Luke, right? Just in case there's a good prize in there dude those things never work those things all those things are like the lottery they're just rigged you have no chance of winning that thing no chance how are you doing on tp how

how's your how's your arse luke totally fine we're good i got the double ply the whole nine yards all right this uh toilet paper says in the fear of it is rolling on how about this card game luke those are high stakes. Bro, people are acting like they're in prison these days. I mean, I guess Australia had a legitimate shortage. Are you having any trouble finding toilet paper? No, no. Well, no, my wife stocked up well in advance.

It's the Costco mentality. You know what I mean? Bro, you want a pro tip for our audience, and this is honestly true. Number one, you can order them off Amazon. Do it in advance. Not prime prime now but do it in advance secondly and i'm being dead serious dude go to your local latin supermarket the shelves are all fully stocked are you trying to say latin people don't clean their their backside no but they haven't reacted with the same level of panic buy that all so you're saying to go to a c-town look if you're at a c-town

you're in the ghetto luke uh no you can go to a c-town look if you're at a c-town you're in the ghetto luke uh no you can go to a uh what was the one i went to the other day that was by my house it was over there in tacoma park i forget the name of it but all the shelves are completely stocked just go there that by the way that guy at the poker table he definitely had a shitty hand all right luke let's roll on here um grocery store slim pickings luke you go to try to get meat or produce this is what you end up with look at that luke i don't know if that's dinner or a date check out the lady's face right there i hate you i hate you completely luke the uh the pickings are even slimmer at the uh meat case check this out luke

oh if you saw that at the grocery store you'd be like what cut is from the butcher is this i must have 10 of them that is gross that is the full yeah here's a pro tip don't touch that wow not even the tip all right what is the what is the cut there what is that uh dong that's a huge dong bro yeah damn right damn really the unit on that bull all right luke we're gonna go to one championship they're still fighting so here's when spinny shit goes wrong look at this fella oh no why does everybody think they can spin luke you can't just that looks like edward foleyang i don't know if that it is but it looks like them ah well luke fighting has been banned in most cages so now

we're gonna go to the uh the truck stop here's some redneck rumbling here outside the 18 wheeler check out the guy in the blue shirt he's the he's the antagonist he's pushing it and then watch these crappy hammer fists he's about to break out why does he have why does he have a bluetooth set i don't know but this old guy's about to send him to hell let's say let him know old man don't take that shit wow he's always about to stomp him out look at all the beer cans in there bush cans in there but they were uh but they fell on sawdust they're good you know what fighting on sawdust i just say people always ask me what's your rule of the street fights the answer is a number of circumstances usually i let it play out i would

definitely let it play out in one of these circumstances i don't mean to call that guy on the ground because he probably had the same dinner i did once he got up let's be honest about this right now truck stops great place to find food feed that guy that cut of meat that dong that he had earlier he'd be all right indeed all right let's move on check out this guy left hook larry you ever see a fight break out during traffic? This guy's got one move, Luke, but it's working. Look at this. Send in fools to hell. Dude, what is this? Wow, this white guy has got the most off-balance, ridiculous left hook.

He's got hands of stone, Luke. This is amazing. Manos de Piedra over here. Look at that. Wow, this looks like spring break, Luke. People are just asking for Corona down there on the Florida beaches. You got Corona. And you got Corona.

Yeah. Luke, they had a fight last week in South Africa. You ever hear of this promotion, EFC, Extreme Fighting Championship? Yeah, South Africa, yeah. All right, Shalomba McKixie is the fella on the left. Watch this uppercut from hell that he gives to August Kayambala. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

Boom shakalaka, Luke. Oh! Wow. Caught him with the old rear hand. Oh, and he gave him the motumbo at the end. No, no, no, no, no. Who wants to sex motumbo? Who wants to sex Dikembe?

Speaking of sexing, Luke, do you ever wonder how Tiger was able to hide his hose for a long time from Elon? Apparently, you just... What is, wait, what? Bro, are you watching Tiger King on Netflix? I hear I should. Brandon Wise from CBS Sports is all over. Yeah, Wise, man, I'll watch it.

All right, bro. Dude, it is the most batshit insane people you've ever seen in your life. Is this art or is this just naked ladies hiding? Because this is a great party trick. Haven't you heard that a tiger's stripes are natural camouflage? I guess so. Is this art or is this just naked ladies hiding? Because this is a great party trick. Haven't you heard that a tiger's stripes are natural camouflage? I guess so. I guess so.

Look at that. That's like the Chinese dragons on New Year's, you know? All right, let's move on to some party tricks, Luke. I think they call this a three-beer monte. Oh, no, first we got a white man can jump, Luke. Check this out. Dude, that honky can move. Okay, so here's the deal. Jay thinks this is an eight-foot hoop like the movie Above the Rim.

Remember when Leon came out in corduroy pants and was doing windmills on that eight-foot hoop? Yeah, but even then, just measure his ankles to the floor. Oh, my God. Look at the ease. He goes high above. Luke, I mean, you claim that you could dunk in high school. I think, like you, I guarantee this guy has no basketball game. Like, he can only do this.

But it's impressive, Luke. Yeah. Oh, wow. He's athletic. He's Like, he can only do this. But it's impressive, Luke. Yeah. Oh, wow. He's athletic. He's athletic for sure. Look at this. Whoa. Armpit.

Armpit in the rim. Yep. He's athletic. That's nasty. Wow. Shout out to that white man, right? Wow. Billy Ho.

Take it to the ho, Billy Ho. All right, Luke. Let's go. How come I see a lot of white dudes dunk on Instagram and I just don't see that in games? I don't care if you can dunk on Instagram anymore. Put that shit in a game, bro. Party tricks time. Can we

roll on here? Jay, can we go to the next slide here? Check out this three beer Monty. This guy might have a future in adult films, Luke. Check this out. Are we now moving on from not merely the observation of phallic objects but to now the reception of phallic objects um you're not impressed by this luke by this jackass whose mouth is big enough to swallow three beers no one time in the woods in 94 luke i saw a kid drink 11 budweiser cans in 12 minutes and then throw up for like another half hour that's impressive it's one version of impressive yes all right all right all right

last slide here uh check out this guy this guy is all of us look this guy will be you in probably 20 years okay we got a public workout class look at you have jazzercise check it out yes yes luke dude old dudes are the best because they just no longer give a fuck and we look at it as cute like in reality that guy's a creeper and he's building material for later but we're like oh look at that guy he's the best oh he's so cute luke dude this is basically me on instagram anyway that's a fair point that's why i don't have grudges against you wanna like you do right because i'm i follow her on instagram yeah whatever you want to say that's i can't judge this man it's no better than what i do on digital all right luke odds and ends real quick because you got another job and you get really angry about it what do you got uh yes well i have things to do

but that being said my odds and ends for this week would be for usada who continue to act in a totally shameful behavior, even alarming other anti-doping experts around the world. They have announced this week that they're going to begin testing predominantly things that are mission critical for the Tokyo Games. Games, by the way, that are in all likelihood not going to happen, and that they were still going to test people for in the UFC. Now, what they had said was, you know, where applicable, we're going to have, you know, protective gear like gloves or something else, but they had said was, you know, where applicable, we're going to have, you know, protective gear like gloves or something else. But they don't say how much there is, number one.

Number two, how do you blood test if, according to the regulations, they're going to keep six feet from everybody? Number three, why is it wise for people in the middle of a global pandemic to be engaging in this behavior where you have to go around town, potentially fly to different areas to get there, certainly drive potential distances, come into contact with the public in ways that is not advisable to test for events that are not happening. USADA continues to show that they don't believe that they have as much responsibility as all the other actors in the sports space to maintain standards in public health. They are above it. They are beyond it.

And in their view, it seems to be they don't abide by the same rules. They get to make their own. How about you test Lorenzo Fertitta? Let's find out what he's on. Alright, Luke, we gotta get out of here quickly. Did you see this tweet from Triple H last night throwing shade at Deontay Wilder?

You got this, Jay, really fast? You see this? I did. Does Jay have it it there it is he's he's relating to wrestlemania 30 being replayed on espn last night and the 45 pound costume um it's not you know what is not a bad zing and i saw the thing he was wearing when was that by the way that was uh 2014 wrestlemania 30 and yeah he had a big get-up on, too. I saw on Twitter. He does a get-up every year.

We want to close with this. Did you see Gronk was announced as the host of WrestleMania? There's Triple H. Shout-out to that right there. Rob Gronkowski was announced as the host of this coming WrestleMania, and they did an empty studio entrance for him on SmackDown, and it was cringe as balls. That's Mojo Rawley slapping some A right there.

Did you see this guy's dance? Can we speed up the video? Check out this awfulness. I don't think Gronk is interesting. Can I say that out loud? Here's the deal. Do you know what makes him interesting, Luke? Besides being a physical freak that he usually shows up in front of, like,

scantily clad women and does weird backflips and stuff. Do you have the video of his entrance or no? Jay. There it is oh boy look at this and when there's no crowd to uh even give uh fake cheers on there um yeah well hey he had a good run okay what is he doing i don't know hey he turned out better than aaron hernandez if he wasn't if he wasn't a, well, I mean, Jesus Christ, OJ turned out better than Aaron Hernandez in certain capacities. But if he wasn't athletic, he'd be the biggest nerd loser. Dana White would be mad at him for being MMA media.

You're right. That's who he would be. All right, before you get angry, I just want to shout out one more more time luke shout out to all of our great listeners uh we got so many people that love this show and viewers and viewers viewers as well shout out to the folks can i get a zoom in here yeah shout out shout out to the folks at murderers row who hooked us up with some fine swag right there uh they love the show we love our our supporters here luke i mean look you want to send me something send it all right all right i'll drink it i'll wear it i'll eat it let's do it okay

all right well i gotta i have to get going but let me say this i should have said at the top of the show i didn't if you made it this far please give the video a thumbs up subscribe subscribe subscribe to the channel keep those numbers pushing you see what the folks at showtime and uh mocha have done trying to bring as much normalcy to this program as they can we'll get better and better at this you see all the social links below to follow for us individually me and BC

as well as the channel and tell folks about us let them know word of mouth still the best kind of marketing and I forgot my mug BC I left it in the studio I won't get it now for months I'm sad it's got Corona it's got corona bro you got that rona player yeah okay bc for folks who want to get more of your stuff by the way on cbs sports what do they do for that by the way they can just follow you but yeah follow me at b campbell cbs on twitter check out my podcast

the state of combat every week boxing mma a lot of fun big big interview this week with chris jericho of wrestling fame check that out, Luke. Very good. And please keep in mind, I do the Luke Thomas Show five days a week. I've got an interview with Derek Thompson coming out by the time today from the Atlantic Magazine and a whole bunch of other stuff as well. So, BCs, stay

safe. Keep the barracks cut living. I might have a shaved head by this time next week, dude. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. I'll come over and shave your hair. I need your tips. The videos you saw on how to cut your own hair. You say you need my tips? Luke, can we stop?

Can we just stop the show right now? All right. No tip-to-tip during Corona season, bro. Your tip-to-tip thing is going to define your entire life. But okay, we got to get out of here. That's BC. I'm Luke Thomas. For everyone who's in the production team and Showtime and beyond, appreciate you guys watching and until next time, may all of your gains be loyal. Mo is back baby We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.