MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Dana White | Ben Askren | UFC 261 Storylines | Ep 146

Episode Date: April 21, 2021

Wednesday MK is here. Luke and Brian breakdown the latest from Dana White & Ben Askren. Plus, UFC 261 is fast approaching. The boys discuss the biggest storylines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Reveille, reveille, donks. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas.

I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Oh, yeah. Levity, levity, donks. It is Wednesday, April 21st, 2021. And this right here, yes, it is Morning Combat, the best damn combat sports talk show in the world, period. My name is Brian Campbell, CBS Sports Showtime,

the labels that pay me. Tomorrow night, NBC Sports also going to pay me more on that to come. But no, it's not Friday. And no, I'm not wearing this color shirt because I think it's stylish or I'm a big Miguel Cotto fan. But your boy Luke Thomas of those same networks is sitting next to me virtually. He is a little bit under the weather post second vaccine shot. So your boy BC going to step up today. In fact, if we can put the ISO camera out just for a second. Look at me. Gaff, look

at me. Look at me. I'm the captain now. Alright? Believe that. So Luke's under the weather. I wanted to give him a little Pepto-Bismol feel to feel better. Luke, shot two of Moderna is in your ball bag. Please tell the folks how you are helping saving the planet.

Yeah, I'm fine. I mean, I'm just, you know, my dad is 80 and he got the Moderna shots and he had no symptoms either time. I'm actually fine. I don't have a headache. I don't have nausea. I don't have a sore throat. None of that. I'm not in any kind of pain or discomfort.

I'm just tired. I'm like, it's hard for me to draw breath. Sluggish. But I can't sleep, which is weird. So I was like, you know what, man? I don't think it's a good idea for a man who feels like he's been sedated to be hosting morning combat. Not a good idea.

So BC, I appreciate your flexibility and ability to drive the ship the way it needs to be hosting morning combat not a good idea so bc i appreciate your flexibility and ability to drive the ship the way it needs to be driven well normally the irony there is that 20 24 hours to go luke i want to be sedated but not for morning combat and uh luke the bad news for you is we have an absolutely loaded show today a lot of mixed martial arts and boxing news headlines to react to set the stage for a loaded UFC 261 card with some storylines heading into the weekend. And then, those fun

as-ball side segments where maybe it's a good news day, Luke, that your boy BC's taking over on hump day. Because like Doc No. 2, it's going to be BC heavy today. We got fan subs. We got SJW. And we're going to spin that wheel of death as well it's back after a week off uh where we are gonna dig deep into luke thomas's psyche and get him to provide good faith

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and that's all I've got to say. Luke, I'm going to limit your speech today, so I'm trying to only hit you with questions that really matter. I only want your analysis on things that are blowing up the interwebs. So before we get into our five topics today, Luke, I'd be remiss if I didn't hit up a pair of breaking news elements to two different former UFC women's bantamweight stars. Gaff, I know I hit you up last minute, but I got to bring this in a little bit of congratulations to maybe MMA's biggest power couple, Luke. September 22nd,

it's coming. The baddest baby on the planet, Ronda Rousey and Travis Hoppa, or maybe we should call him Big Papa, Brown. They're expecting, Luke. We're four months into this journey. Your thoughts? I'd be lying if I said I cared, but congrats to them. Okay, okay, Luke.

Well, that was very judicious of you, very fair. You lose sleep at night just thinking about this? Like, you just, it's top of mind? You don't give a shit either. You know, Luke, you can like or hate Rhonda's reactions to wins and losses,

but this is about people, Luke, okay? This is about life. Yeah, no, listen, I'm not like, listen, we've both had kids. I hope the kid is healthy. Everyone's happy. Like, you know, you don't wish misery, but like, do I care? you know you don't wish misery but like do I do I care

no I don't I don't I don't care okay well maybe you'll care about this knowing your preferences in life the other bit of breaking news involving a former female UFC women's bantamweight star is Betz Cohea is in a committed relationship and she's very happy Luke okay I know she

could be a little bit you know a bit of a handful but I'm very happy for her Luke she I know she could be a little bit, you know, a bit of a handful, but I'm very happy for Luke. She, she went public with it today. Um, your thoughts. Just, that's a very classy photo.

Look, I had to, I had to ask you what you thought about that. I had to, right? Listen, that's my wheelhouse right there. You know,

I'm not, I don't have anything bad to say about it. I, uh, God bless her. And you know, Instagram is, don't have anything bad to say about it i uh god bless her and you know instagram is is a wonderful wonderful thing i'll say that you betcha you betcha shout out to brit and joey beltran who are also uh who's the lucky guy cupid zero i don't know luke but he seems pretty lucky all right so shout out to that man all right indeed indeed right there wow uh one

more bit of business we recorded this weekend week. It went live this morning. Please check it out. Morning Combat Resume Review getting you fired up for 2-6-1 this Saturday. About who? Hey, how about Jorge Gamebred Masvidal who has had one of the more interesting runs from everyman, quasi-contender

to overnight sensation star and legitimate title challenger entering Saturday's rematch with Kamaru Usman. Luke, this show was so contender to overnight sensation star and legitimate title challenger entering saturday's rematch with kamaru usman luke this show was so uh so good so in-depth so detailed given jorge's unique career we went two full hours brother and i'm very happy uh thanks to mikey more while producing it for what we were able to put out there to the people yeah i'm pretty happy with it too you know obviously there's a lot of stupid jokes from people that have been in car accidents about this, you know, curse thing.

But it's like, this is, in all seriousness, like in all sincerity, I should say, part of the reason why we do this is because it's not like Jorge Masvidal is not popular, but he's only been popular the last, what, couple of years? 2019 really is more or less when that kicked off for him. And so there's a huge portion to his biography. I just don't feel like people know or know all that well.

We've been around a little while. We obviously did some homework to complement our experiences. But the reality is I like to tell these fighters stories. You know, listen, he's probably going to lose on Saturday. You know, and so the jokes are going to continue. But, like, fine, make the jokes. But in all seriousness, BC, and I probably going to lose on Saturday, you know, and so they're going to the jokes are going to continue. But like, fine, make the jokes. But in all seriousness, BC, and I know you agree on some level. I don't want folks to lose sight of what we're trying to do.

And we're trying to bring some historical significance to the present moment. And especially for a guy like Jorge, where he was never really examined up until the very last chapter of his career. And look, like any great resume review that we put in the effort, you end up finding out you learned things or you relearned things that you either didn't know or time has changed your perspective. So is Jorge a little bit more interesting than the still-in-process career of the great Kamaru Usman? Probably.

So we went that route this time. It's going to be up to Game Bread Luke to, I don't know, try to prove us wrong that this morning combat resume review curse isn't real, okay? It's up to you. I don't fight.

It's not right or wrong. It's not real, which is the major difference there. But also, I was thinking about this. We've done, let's see. We did Connor. We did a mini one on Tyron. adesanya now jorge uh we did one on steep a2 so those are the five right all of those guys are when we did it all of those guys

are over 30 and many of them are closer to 40 than they are 30 the fact that they lose i think probably comes from the fact that they're a lot more senior. By the time you have a story to tell about someone's long biography, they're at the end of it. So there you go. I mean, Luke may talk again, a very Switzerland politically correct game in terms of there's no curse here. You guys are all playing dead. How is declaring something to not be true Switzerland? Switzerland didn't take a position. Hold deep in my heart the texts

and dms you send me where you're like hey maybe we should extend this brand to international journalists maybe we should look at you know politicians or polish strawweights and really trying i'm like no look you know we we hold a certain power we need to be responsible with that power all right hey enough fooling around here why don't we get into the business at hand the top five headlines of your day today on April 21st, 2021. Hey, it starts with Dana White. Look, the UFC president is back in the public eye view this week because it's UFC 261 in Jacksonville. The big storyline surrounding that, of course, are obviously the triple header of title fights.

We'll get into that in a little bit. But also the fact that this will be the first UFC card since the pandemic to be in front of a full house, 15,000 plus there in Jacksonville, sold out in less than a minute. Dana did the rounds with the likes of that sexual beast himself, Kevin Aioli of Yahoo Sports and also our friend Aaron Bronstetter of TSN. Luke, I'm going to set up a couple of these categories and responses and then maybe get your couple word reaction. When it comes to Dana White, in his opinion, to all that went down with the Jakar Close,

Jeremy Stevens shoved from last week's UFC Fight Night card. He said, look, there is a rule. That's why we're there. Sean Shelby missed that one. He was, of course, the UFC matchmaker who was in between them. He went on to basically say, you know, we got a rule that we don't let this happen. And Sean kind of missed it. He should have known that Jeremy Stevens was a hothead and a savage.

I mean, we're not standing there to look good and take pictures. We're there to make sure that thing doesn't happen. Luke, he's saying Shelby should have known. Your thoughts on passing the blame here from Uncle Dana? He's not wrong. So for folks who don't know the rule, it's not a UFC rule. That's actually an Athletic Commission rule. To the extent you have any face-offs, either as part of weigh-ins or media responsibilities, the promoter is required by the rules of licensing, a.k.a. the law,

to at least be present on the stage. Now, I don't know that they need to have their hand in between the fighters or a hand on either fighter or anything else there. But if you go and watch, for example, BC, if you go and watch fights from the early to mid-'80s and you watch face-offs that happened in Las Vegas, there's no promoter on stage. It's just the two fighters.

And then fucking melees break out all the time. So they changed the rule. They made the promoter on stage. It's just the two fighters. And then fucking melees break out all the time. So they changed the rule. They made them, they made the promoter required to be there and then to intervene in the event of conflict. He didn't really do that. You know, Dana is to me,

you know, not exactly a guy who deserves the benefit of the doubt on frankly, anything he says. But in this case, if you look up his claims and look about where they come from listen even if um sean shelby had intervened bc you have to ask yourself a question would that have stopped it that's a different debate but just standing back and not doing anything yeah you're there but you're only really there in spirit. You need to be more there, anticipatory actions, and he wasn't.

So, frankly, I kind of get it, actually. I wonder if this is a coded message to Sean Shelby to get in that weight room, maybe call up Lorenzo, find out what he is injecting Luke, and maybe be more prepared. Here's the deal on this. Like, okay, for the look of your brand, do you want guys scuffling at, at weigh-ins in this type of situation? No, but at the same time, like a, it's a fight. So these guys are

animals that are getting ready to do it. B dude, this does so much for marketing, right? One of the greatest moments in UFC history is what Dave Schaller getting trampled. The former UFC had a PR in between John Jones and Daniel Cormier in the MGM lobby, Luke, which you referred to once as the Triller announce booth. Again, right? Look, that was one of the greatest moments because nobody got hurt in the end. Obviously, they could have, but that produced so much interest in that fight and really kicked off a rivalry that I'm not even sure is over. I don't want it to be over, Luke, okay?

Keep fighting. For a rivalry that good despite two clear and concise victories for one guy, it's a lot because of that freaking moment. You have a job as a promoter. Like, I was watching Ray Flores, who was working for Triller. He was in between Teofimo Lopez and George Cambosos when they did that press conference last week. And he said the right thing. He's like, hey, guys, you don't get paid to fight right here.

You know, back up. Save your energy for fight night when you do get paid the reason why that's smart for promoters is because you can have lawsuits you can have injuries you can have arrests you can have bad things happen if guys are trading shots and it goes south but look the fan in me wants to see that at the same time and i i've never been in that role except for briefly when i hosted pbc's face to face the interview show in 2019 on fox which pit two fighters in in you know at the fox uh studio lot in la sitting on a small table we only had one episode it was tony harrison and jermell charlo which really got heated and you know there's times i'm thinking and i asked the producers beforehand if this gets

on what's my role in this you want me to break it up you want me to get out of the way like what do you want to do and it's it's interesting luke do you think the promoters should be absolute with this and be in line with the commission or realize that a little bit of this it really helps it really adds to what we're trying to build here. Yeah, but what Stevens did doesn't. The guy got a concussion, and the fight was off. Pretty obviously, that was bad for business. So how do you manage that? How do you manage it, then?

I mean, listen, again, that's the debate. The debate is, had Sean Shelby had a hand up in between them like this, would that have been enough to deter them? And there's really no way to know. It's a perfectly fine debate to have. And maybe some people think it would have, maybe some people think it would have had no effect either way. It's unfair to blame Sean for the actions of one individual fighter, but it's like also dude, like again, you are tasked by law with managing this. If you don't do anything, part of that culpability falls on you. So I would say, yeah, listen, getting guys face

to face is important. Obviously, when there's melee, it's great for the brand in terms of the promotion, like the fight, as you mentioned, between DC and Jon Jones and the MGM Grand was just brilliant for business. And they used it. And they used it when Conor chucked a dolly at a bus and they've used all this stuff. So like, a complicated thing it's it's kind of contradictory on the one hand it's bad for business on the other hand it's great for business but i will say having a presence up there so you can avoid fights falling out yeah that that seems to be like a line in the sand anybody could understand not wanting to cross it's hard you want to get as close to that line as possible. I mean, why?

Let's be really honest with ourselves. You can call me the gas station eating pro wrestling fan all day. And okay, that's fine. But, you know, 80% of the audience that actually tunes in for a ceremonial weigh-in, Luke, they tune in with the hope that these guys push each other. You've been in Vegas with me covering fights. We schedule it in advance. We're going to be at that weigh-in inside the arena on Friday.

Do you know when it sucks when nothing happens and we're like, wow, that was a waste of an hour, right? You watch an adult movie for what, Luke? The dialogue? Oh, many reasons. Dialogue's probably not chief among them. So you've got to find a way to harness it. I don't know if it's a clear glass wall between them. I don't know.

Whatever, Luke. Let's keep it rolling here, though. Dana had a lot of thoughts, and I'm sorry whether you love him or not. When Dana speaks, it is news. He addressed the $2 million bet with Snoop Dogg for the Jake Paul-Ben Askren fight. We remember Snoop Dogg celebrating wildly on the trailer broadcast. He's even using the N-word when Jake Paul won, saying Dana owed him $2 million. Luke, this was a

conversation that i believe started was it the hot boxing podcast with mike tyson where they had a little fun debate about who would win am i right i think that's right yep all right well dana says i don't even want to say it i don't even want to say what i think happened in that fight i think he's talking about a potential fix that's just me filling in my editorial blank but he says i can tell you this i don't know snoop two million i never bet let me make it clear right now to everybody i have never made an illegal bet i did not make an illegal bet on saturday i did not bet snoop two million or anybody uh luke i i want twofold here uh what both kind of involve you know the the involve the norms of street life. What's the man code in this?

One, if you make an aggressive verbal bet on camera and you're a rich guy to another rich guy and it's a podcast that goes out there, is that enough? Is that a handshake? Is that a blood contract that you owe money? One. Number two, you're telling me

Dana White's never made an illegal bet? That's a good point. He's probably made a billion of them um let me let me plead ignorance on this one why is the bet illegal i actually don't understand anything about this because because it's illegal it's illegal to in a bet where gambling in a state where gambling isn't legal right it's illegal to call your bookie and and enter organized crime quote-unquote and make a bet right so some states have regulated it and legalized it so the state gets a cut and there's some built-in protection if you bet two million dollars among friends technically luke i guess it's illegal right because technically you're circumventing the government system it's like i can get I can get marijuana through your medical card,

right? But I can't buy it from you if you grow it in your backyard and we're not in a state that has those rules, right? But I guess I'm trying to understand why can't two entities, independent of everything else, have a gentleman's bet without government oversight? Why is that illegal? Like, we bet $5 on something. Is that illegal? Well, you know, you've heard for years people saying in certain work environments that, you know, NCAA tournament brackets or even fantasy football leagues, you know, some bosses are like, I don't want any of that in my office

because technically it's illegal. I see. Okay. Yeah, I don't believe that at all. I'm sure that he paid up. I think he's just doing this because there was probably some attorney at UFC. By the way, I don't believe that at all. I'm sure that he paid up. I think he's just doing this because there was probably some attorney at UFC. By the way, I don't care, which is to say the following. If he did bet him, I don't see that as any kind of scandal whatsoever. Nothing.

I do think that if you make a statement on a podcast publicly, you do have to own up to it. I'm going to use that against you, Lukeke there's a lot of tape on you i'm gonna use that against you someday okay it's not do we have a whole section on this show about what we get wrong which we do unless you're absent every single week you can't hide from error you just kind of have to roll with it everyone's gonna make it but the point i'm trying to make here is yeah if he said it for sure and if he paid it privately to me no issue whatsoever but do i think he's doing a little bit of face saving yeah i definitely do all right dana was talking to aaron bronstetter and was asked about if masvidal loses to usman who's next for kamaru dana says usman's at a point in his career now where he's looking at who's next again. He went on to say he's coming back and he's going to face somebody he's already beat.

So obviously, Masvidal took the first fight with Jorge on short notice. So let's give him this fight, meaning the rematch, and we can do away with all the excuses. And then Colby Covington is next. Right move for the promotion, Luke? I think so. Obviously, there's always x factors that you should never lose sight of um nate diaz is kind of always going to be something of a in this case probably a bit of a fringe player but a player also the return of nick diaz i still think that

that is uh something of a long shot to get him a fight at this level did you see the ig post from nick of his of his abs in the shape he's in? Did you see the IG post from Nick of his abs and the shape he's in? Yes, he appears to be in great cardiovascular condition. Whether that's the same thing as being ready to fight is a little bit different, but still, you're right. He looks tremendous on social media.

So, you know, you can never lose sight of that. Connor, Nick, Nate, all of them are going to be wild cards in a situation like this, but you're asking about what is A, most probable, and frankly, it makes the most sense. Dude, you got to run that one back if, in fact, Usman wins. It was competitive the first time.

Remember the scorecards? 1-3, 3-1, 2-2. It was really down to that fifth round. And yes, obviously, Kamara would have won because he was beating the brakes off of him in that fifth round. So he would have won no matter what. But I'm just trying to point out, that was a tight contest. I think Colby Covington may like his chances

with the wrestling. Obviously, you're going to have an ugly fight promotion, but to your point you just raised at the beginning of the show, that can also be a double-edged sword where you can get a lot of good out of that. Yeah, dude, that's the fight to make for sure. And honestly, dude, it goes either way, right?

If Jorge Masvidal wins this, you're going to do Jorge versus Kamaru three times in a row you know they didn't do that for Volkanovski and Holloway why would they do that here so in either case Kamaru versus Colby two or Jorge versus Colby one either of those dynamite we don't often bet our kidneys or our children on this show but I'll bet everything I own that if Masvidal loses Usman's getting Colby next. Dana loved the shit out of that

first fight. Look, rightfully so. It's one of the most exciting, you know, as a fight of the year contender. It's one of the best fights in UFC history, straight up. Two elite guys just standing and trading for five rounds, but that's we've always said that's the key to Dana's heart, right? Be a loud mouth, be willing to fight anybody and when you get in there, stand up

and let your hands go for five rounds in a blood and guts war dana's gonna run that ish back you better believe it speaking of running rematches back luke i probably should have let off with this of all the dana insights we learned from these interviews he told kevin aioli absolutely next for in ghanu it's probably going to be the black beast dana said. At the end of the day, Derek Lewis and Ngannou is the fight. That's the fight to make right now. Derek Lewis is a heavyweight. He's been fighting at heavyweight. He earned his shot. He's got a

win over Ngannou. That's the fight to make. Luke, I want to ask your response in a very sort of pointed way here, okay? Because we're going to respond to this emotionally. we're emotionally fueled to say two things one don't marinate you got the john jones fight right now and ghanu versus jones could be one of the best and biggest events you've ever promoted make it happen two

we're emotionally invested in the idea that fighters need to get paid luke you saw cory anderson current bellator light heavyweight tweet yesterday which basically said in his last two bellator fights he's made more than his entire ufc career combined i think he even said like twice as more luke if i'm correctly uh retelling that tale so the emotional response in us is pay the fighters what they deserve pay john the millions make that fight is there a potential though that we're missing something business in matchmaking wise and i'll just say this i don't think derrick lewis should be next i do think it'll be a great fight but derrick lewis did beat in ghanu it is one of the worst fights of all time but derrick lewis beat him he is technically the you know the next in line in terms of guys who are active heavyweight

since john has yet to make his debut. Is there any chance that we're too emotionally involved in this to see it through the right way? Ready for this? Do you believe that? You know you don't believe that. No, no. I'm emotional on everything, Luke.

I mean, come on. Dude, you know, it's funny. I remember the first time I went to – so follow me here, but it'll make sense. The first time I did a field operation at Fort AP Hill for artillery, I remember we had to climb this tower. And you're climbing up this thing, and it's going to hold, but it's fucking rickety. And I'm like, this is not...

I don't think I'm in danger, but boy, this is not the best. I mean, don't we have like, you know, laser guided missiles and shit? We can't get a nicer one of these fucking things. And what they explained to me was for infrastructure like that on base, the military, Marine Corps in particular,

they will give the contract to the lowest bidder. So the person who's like, I'll do this the cheapest, that's who gets the deal, which is why it's not necessarily like dangerous what you're in, but that shit is kind of rickety and it makes you second guess the, you know, uh, engineering of this whole thing. That's what's happening here. They're giving it to the lowest bidder. You know, they're, they're deciding that the expensive way, which would be, frankly, the appropriate way, is nothing they want to do. You have WME, Endeavor. You have them setting up an IPO.

They are not about to raise their prices. I should say their costs ahead of that. No chance on earth. And even if there wasn't an IPO, they're going to fight that tooth and nail. So what are they going to do? We have a great fight, maybe a historic fight we can make that's very expensive, or we can have one that we can just pump out among a series of other good fights in the calendar, great fights in the calendar, because we have so much control of the best fighters in the game. And maybe this one won't do all that well, but in the grand scheme of things,

we're going to have a good year overall with all this contracted revenue and we don't end up having to get leveraged by elite talent. It is the contract going to the lowest bidder and that's the quality potentially. I mean, maybe the five can be better than I'm giving it. It probably isn't going to be as bad as the first one.

Maybe it's even pretty good, but it's not what it's supposed to be and that's the reason why. I say this often, but these are one of those cases where i wish dana would just be completely transparent with us so that we we get what he's going after if his stance is this yes it's a risk but i could make francis and ganu double as you know potentially marketable and popular should he go in there and knock out a popular guy in Derek Lewis, which could mean the Jon Jones fight could be even bigger. And oh, by the way, I also might be able to talk Jon in the meantime into making his heavyweight debut in a pay-per-view main event, maybe against somebody he could beat, should

beat pretty easily. And that would not only pump up the idea that Jon at heavyweight is a legitimate thing, but maybe also make John happy. Now, I don't have any inside leads on this, but what if they offered him Brock Lesnar? What if they offered him an aging heavyweight name where you're like, oh, he's going to beat that guy, but it's also an event.

It also gives John another big payday. Okay, we're not going to give you, let's say, John $25 million for Angana, but what if we give you two large paydays back-to-back? I mean, there's something to say there. It's a gamble that if it works out, it could work out very well for the UFC but obviously uh you know he's the boss for a reason they've had detailed long success but if you ask me right now come on it's got it you gotta go John you know this is uh this should tell you what you know whether or not the UFC is a monopoly or a monopsony that is for the courts to decide

if you look at the arguments that either side have made in that case, these are highly complex arguments about economic models, far above most of our pay grades. And when I say far, I mean a lifetime of erudition on this subject. So I'll leave that for the courts to decide. But I think what I would say is they do hold substantial control because the idea is, in theory, BC, and you know this too, the market is, not every time, but it's supposed to work in such a way where if there's extraordinary fan demand that produces the fights and or if fights are delivered that are relative to the highest standard, something, you know, one or two or maybe even three steps below that,

it's supposed to come with such rejection in the market that the promoter has an incentive to avoid that kind of thing but here the promoter has so many resources across so many weight classes across both genders that they can afford to just flip out a dud that no one really asked to see and it won't matter there might be other good fights on that card and the next event could be conor mcgregor versus you know whoever the fuck and everyone just forgot about that boy i gotta tell you if you can inoculate yourself, no pun intended, from what are supposed to be the market forces that shape incentives and behavior, you are cooking with gas. And that is exactly what the UFC has. So once the fighters want to get together and change that, it's just going to be what

it's going to be. Quickly, Dana said on Conor Dustinin three luke he shot down any conspiracy theories that the public tweeting war between connor and dustin about the fight falling apart was somehow staged to increase demand you know he said look we've been doing this for 20 years you're crazy if you believe that the fight did almost fall apart but they made it happen great news all around on that the final bit of information luke it got a lot of play. Here we go. Dana was asked about, you know, masks and quarantine safety for all the 15,000 plus

that will be in attendance on Saturday. Look, let's give the UFC credit. They are always first on this kind of stuff. Here's Dana's quote. In Jacksonville, everything is opening up again. Even in Vegas, it's going to open up June 1st. But 100% open in Vegas in July. There's still going to be some things that are set in place. We are still going to open up June 1st but 100% open in Vegas in July there's still going to be some things that are set in place we are still going to have a bubble for the athletes and things

like that but as for the fans you can wear a mask or you cannot wear a mask it's up to you it's your decision Luke he also went on to say essentially that they only had a bubble in place because he felt the media needed it so they would feel safe over the past year and i want to ask you about timing as soon as this dana thing went viral ufc suddenly got a press release that you can see on the screen there saying that they've brought in a third party company to provide free face offerings for everyone at the next two pay-per-view fights. Your thoughts there, Dr. Fauci? Yeah, I mean, I have a lot of thoughts on this.

I don't even know what to start, you know. MMA, where everyone wants you to respect their expertise in hard work, but not people in other fields who have developed expertise through hard work if that expertise bears down on their ability to enjoy and participate in said sport at that point it becomes totally permissible to apparently ignore everyone else's expert warnings and opinions but okay you know that's mma i mean here's my thought on this bc it's like

you know at this point you have listen we're a year into this more into this pandemic everyone's got their own safety protocol. If you want a vaccine in this country and including in the state of Florida, you can get one. I highly encourage you to get one. But I don't even know what to say anymore because if people don't want to take the kind of precautions, again, not merely to protect themselves but other vulnerable populations, at this point, any kind of browbeating about it's not going to work. So there's no point in wasting my time. The one thing I will say that I found kind of interesting is that like, oh, we went above and beyond with the protocol because the media was, you know, alarmingly scared about all of this. It's like, let me see if I understand

this argument correctly. That video he put out, the incredibly misleading one full of distortions, which just should not be taken seriously by anyone with a mammalian brain. In this video, he makes a series of claims that the media got wrong while not telling the audience that all of those criticisms came before the original Jacksonville show where he instituted all these reforms now he is crediting in a manner of speaking the media for uh the high level of protocol that they enacted because they did they did enact a high level of protocol which is why they had a very successful year despite the many challenges so now it's actually you're he's not designing to credit the media but now the media is being credited for this by pushing them into a greater safety direction?

Here's my response, BC. You're welcome. That's my response. I am glad to see that UFC President Dana White finally understands that the media was trying to get him to not run around California State Athletic Commission while doing shows in California. And then if you're going to do a show in a state, it should be done under the auspices of the relevant state athletic commission with established COVID protocol.

Glad to know that the media had a very strong hand in pushing them in a safer direction. I feel better. Yeah, and you know, some people had to become victims in this, like this mug right here, Luke, on a four minute salacious video launched right before Christmas.

Thank you very much. All right. I mean, what else can we say on there? Obviously, UFC seemed to knee-jerk that reaction. I think it's obviously safe and smart to give out free masks to everyone in attendance. I don't think we need this to be a super spreader event where it compromises future big crowds.

Look, you know, I mean, the crowds are back in other sports. I want to go to Conor Dustin three in July, Luke, hoping that most people in the arena are vaccinized and being safe, but yet still having a full arena with the feel that we used to have. I think we're almost there. I just want to do it smart and safely. And sometimes Dana's comments cross into other territories, but look, we have different Luke. What I've learned in my adult years, we all have different beliefs on everything, okay? Even people inside our families. You can't put everybody over the fire, Luke, okay?

We need to live and let live, all right? I will say, I'll give Dana, and I mean this sincerely, I will give him credit on one thing. I will give him credit when he earns it. I don't know if he's been vaccinated, and that's a private medical matter. I certainly hope that he has. But he did say something about UFC staff

that's heading down there. Any UFC staff, particularly in Nevada, and I think they were trying to do it for those in California as well. I'm not sure where all they have employees throughout the lower 48. But they wanted to get them all vaxxed right away. I'm very glad to see that. I'm very glad that that company put resources towards keeping their employees not merely safe. But again, we know that the vaccines have lowered the rate of transmission. So you're protecting other vulnerable populations and more to the point listen what does the UFC value they value that the train stays on the tracks if you have a vaccinated workforce

you would be much better positioned to pull off those kinds of things so I and I mean this unironically and I mean this sincerely I am I was like honestly truly happy to see that I was like okay good work that's what I want to see that's the good kind of stuff so more of that please you know it'd be a viral video and a half if Dana said all right media all right you a-holes you want me to get vaccinated let's do it let's make it an event because look everybody wants to look I don't like big public shows of certain things right celebrity dies I don't need you putting out a 1800 word Facebook post. How much David Bowie changed, changed your life, even though you're 15 years old.

Okay. I don't need that. People. I voted today. I don't need that picture on Facebook with the sticker. Okay. Congratulations. I voted many times.

All right, Luke, you know, you did what everybody did. I'm vaccine, baby. You know, look at this. Yeah. Okay. That's cool, Luke. But what if Dana said, I'll play your game. I'll get vaccinated on camera.

I want Dr. Luke Thomas Fauci to prick me, and I'll do it right in the ass cheek, all right? I'll bend over for you, brother. This is the worst question imaginable. It's not a question, Luke. It's an imagination of a potential viral video that really shuts down all arguments and fears, Luke, okay? You prick that man, right?

You know what I mean? I'll just say this. You know, I say MMA is firmly entrenched in right-wing politics. The governor is going to be there. The mayor is going to be there. These are two, particularly the governor, Ron DeSantis, has become something of a star in the Republican Party outside of Trump. They're going to be there.

So there's pretty clearly a political dimension to this. But as I always tell folks, Trump got a vaccine. So what are you all waiting for? Go do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's in your wallet? All right, Luke, let's continue. People are very upset at this show for doing 40-something minutes on Monday

in reaction to the Triller pay-per-view, which did big numbers, stole the headlines, Jake Paul, ben askren all that i will say to all you people though um you're not gonna see a ton of it moving forward because i think what we learned from that broadcast is it's kind of not for us and kind of not sports and boxing will we still mention it yes but uh i got a couple little follow-up tidbits that could be the last we talk about it for a while luke but i hope because i don't think the audience cares anymore they cared a little bit on saturday night enough to tolerate it on monday but i got to tell you like there's nothing else to say about this at this point well the only other thing was really hearing ben askren's take since he hadn't done media that night i don't care about that

either well he made the media rounds i believe he was first with ESPN's Ariel Helwani. They talked at length, Luke. I saw a bunch of the excerpts on Twitter. Askren admitting a few things. He thought the Triller broadcast was in bad taste in general. And he basically said, look, I didn't care about this fight. Yes, I trained for it. Yes, we worked on keeping my guard high. Something that was not only a problem for him in terms of his natural instincts, but Luke, he admitted basically that he always kept a shitty guard in mma because his hope was to induce big

right hands so we can duck and go for the takedown makes sense if you're a wrestler who has a bad stand-up in mma so he said yeah i had tyron woodley in my corner and in all camp telling me to keep my guard up i didn't do it i got caught it is what it is but he basically said look i had no emotional connection to this fight i don't know why everybody cares so much it is you know a payday at the end of the day but it's the details of the payday that are interesting luke he basically says uh he made more in this fight than he did in his entire bellator and one championship career combined and also that he tried to get pay-per-view points in the negotiation realized that he probably would have pay-per-view points in the negotiation realized that he probably would have lost the fight if he had kept pushing and essentially took the

$500,000 appearance fee and then Luke we don't know what other kind of bonuses that were built into that um are you surprised by this did he get what he paid for in terms of embarrassment in CTE are you going to double down like I did that this smells funny? Do you have any other reaction to Ben's reaction as we put this shit to bed for good? I mean, I hope, you know, I hope that's the last of it for him. Well, I hope it's the last of it. And I hope it for the Jake Paul and Triller folks.

I hope that's the last of it in the terms of let's pick smart opponents here. You're going to pick limited. Dude, this was a smart opponent. This was a brilliant opponent. I've got to say this. Whoever at Triller came up with this idea outdid themselves. This was a very good call on their part. In name value and in perceived limitation, yes, Luke.

But what I'm saying is you've got to be careful because nobody wants to exit this talking about, is it fixed, blah, blah, blah. Well, whether I'm way off or not, Ben Askren clearly didn't get himself physically prepared for this, right? He came in kind of a fat shit, Luke, okay? Oh, he never has a body guy. Yeah, that's fine. He never looked this fat either. And number two, Luke, I've seen him take more punishment and i've seen him move his head more so however you want to you know sculpt this uh this was i think this is a bad look altogether you know okay jake paul beat him that's fine you know but um he seems to be willing to just trade

a certain amount of um you know public shame for the money you know he five academies. I think that the money could probably go pretty far. You know, and if that's a cost that you're willing to take to get that kind of money for whatever reason, then, you know, okay, then this is America. But I got to tell you, my appetite for, I mean, because remember, like, Askren did the super wrestling match with Jordan Burroughs and got tech-falled, which means they stopped it due to mercy.

Like, he just got run over. And then he does this, and it went terribly. It's like, and obviously you forget about the Masvidal fight, it's like, I think what he did in his career is very important and exemplary, and he was fun to cover, truly.

But the days are over. Him being a teacher for the next generation of kids, I think those kids are lucky. They're legitimately lucky to have a guy like Ben teach them how to wrestle. And their parents should be quite happy with that. But that's, to me, where he needs to focus his energy.

I don't want to see this anymore from him. Yeah, I don't want to talk about it anymore. I'm done. All right. Luke, what I do want to talk about is our third topic, UFC 261. This weekend, a trio of world title fights. Let's give the UFC credit. This main card's great.

These three title fights atop it are fantastic. Kamaru Usman versus Jorge Masvidal in the rematch. Rose Nama, Eunice, against Weili Zhang for the strawweight title. And, of course, in the co-main event, Valentina Shevchenko taking on Jessica Andrade, which, Luke, I'm sorry, that might be the last good flyweight title fight we have on the women's side in UFC as long as Valentina is your champion. Luke, all things considered here, what's the biggest storyline entering this fight or what is the storyline that has you most intrigued?

For the co-main? For the whole damn fight. The whole damn card. No, Luke. The whole damn show. Okay, Luke? The whole thing. What's my takeaway from the entire fight card?

What the hell's the storyline you care about the most, you vaccinated prick? Sorry, sorry. I misunderstood your question. I apologize. Okay. So I would say, for the purposes of today's show, let's not count the main event where there's a million

storylines you could potentially go to. I would say, I gotta tell you, the whole main card is good. The Araya Hall-Chris Weidman rematch for the first one taking place, I think it was CFFC years ago. Anthony Smith in a bit of a where are you kind of fight with Jimmy Crute same thing but I'm gonna say I find uh the co-main and

what it says about uh what's possible with this division where we've been talking about at men's 130 135 in boxing where you've got all these we don't call them kings yet the princes the lopez's the devon haney's and so forth dude you know obviously andrage moved up a weight class but she could go back there i think of that weight class between joanna and jang wiley again i thought you want to beat her i mean i realized it was close but i did score it for her and now you have rose there you could be in a situation man or a little bit here where you could just have three maybe four queens so to speak of women's MMA you had a little bit of that um at women's bantamweight and now you're really beginning to see it you know solidify itself it's not that I'm wishing for the title to change hands per se BC but if it does it not only shows parody at the top but I

think it creates um all of these great matchmaking possibilities and do-overs between some of the best the fight game has to offer i'm very intrigued by that co-main yeah i i you're when you say co-main which one you mean the straw weights or the flux i think strong okay so technically the straw weights are the co-main event i take that back okay yeah luke look that's in my wheelhouse you know how much i love the straw weight division you know how i've been harping for six, nine months that this fight, Rose versus Weili, is one of the two or three best the promotion could make.

Former champion who, Luke, when she's at her best in Rose Namajunas, is like an all-time great best. Like her ceiling, when she reaches it. The cool, I guess the intriguing thing about her career is that she's been so up and down. There's been such uneven performances, or even that first androgyne fight where round one she'll click the greatest straw weight of all time and

then round two she gets dropped on her head and we're talking about potential retirement she's had one of the more unique careers i think when she won the title luke against uh you wanna she had a record of six and four coming into that so you can see that nobody's really had a career like rose but at the same time nobody i think presents the same unique combination of skills and that to give whaley a hard time i mean you wanna basically fought whaley on the terms of this is going to be a war i'm going to give you every single thing i have do you have the backbone to stand up to that whaley did she had the cardio she had the cardio. She had the toughness. She had everything. It was a great fight. You could flip a coin, I guess, on who won.

Whaley won it. We advance. I think Rose has the best potential with the long arms, the submission game on the ground, the really crisp boxing when she's dialed in. To make Whaley Zhang show us a plan B that we haven't seen her really have to show. I mean, look, she walked through Andras to win the title, and I think Jessica had a bad game plan and just kind of fell on the sword, you know, indirectly in that regard. We didn't learn a ton from Zhang Weili's first three UFC fights. We learned a little bit about her potential and her skill sets.

But I want to see her have to make key adjustments. There wasn't a ton of adjustments against Ioana because it was two trains that just kept colliding for 25 minutes. I'm not going to sound ignorant there. Obviously, they both had to do things to get certain bursts of momentum in their favor. But Rose could take, could take Whaley completely off her game and make her have to do something completely different. So I want to see that.

To your point, Luke, I want to see this era, this great era of women's straw weights continue to put out classic fights with its top two, three, four, five fighters. You know, it's interchangeable at this point. It's great to see. Luke, I want to touch quickly because we're talking storylines. I know I just leaped more into X's and O's, but we're talking storylines here. It's Wednesday. There is that storyline that you addressed, I guess, with Rashad when I was away on vacation, but the better dead than red fiasco, if you want to call it that, with Rose Namajunas, who did an interview with Lithuanian TV and radio and, you know, talked about her family's issues with communism under Russian control in Lithuania and the hardships they went through to emigrate to the U.S., but, you know, probably unfairly linked Zhang Weili into it and assumed her political stance just because of her connection to fighting for China, right? Which has a communist political setup. Zhang Weili did end up responding in the past few days and kind of did a, you know,

you don't know me, don't jump to conclusions, you don't actually know what I believe thing. Is there any thought process here, Luke, that this will have a role in the fight itself i mean to rose's credit her words got misconstrued some people thought it was a little bit racist some people just thought it was ignorant i mean you know all things considered it was her way to motivate herself probably the wrong wrong way to go about doing it but she's obviously got some hurt and pain connected to her family and her life and this means a lot to her is she going to regret doing this is really what i'm asking you know at the end of the day i don't even understand why she would do it if you are

lithuanian by heritage and you were born i think she was born one or two years um after the fall of communism well the fall i should say the fall of the Soviet Union, excuse me. And so the Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania all got liberated, you know, and you grew up in a world after that, which I still, you know, you're still feeling part of that, of course, but you grew up in a world after that. You know what your parents and your other relatives went through. If you know that, and I'm not here to say that the end of the Soviet Union and its collapse is identical to what is happening in china china has its own culture certainly uh a very distinct one at that

their their system of government is wildly different in many ways than that of the soviet union and um and whatnot but we also know that there's a lot of political repression that happens there especially if you're a uighur muslim which she's not but you get the idea all i'm pointing out is dude if you know about the pernicious and evil effects of communism in the 20th century, wouldn't you say you feel like Zhang Wai-Li is also a victim? Like, you should have a degree of sympathy for her because she can't speak out. And it's not that easy to leave. And especially if you want to leave your whole family behind.

And they have some freedoms, but not the ones we have here. And you kind of just make a and especially if you want to leave your whole family behind and they have some freedoms but not the ones we have here and you kind of just make a choice about how you want to live your life and so uh all the while suffering under a repressive regime you you should extend an olive branch to her at least after the fight you know if you got to hype yourself up to fight someone who's very difficult ahead of time use whatever you got to use and i get it i you know i don't think like condemning rose is going to fix anything but she probably should reflect on it and if anything you should have a camaraderie to a degree with someone like zhang wiley not not this weird she's an agent of the state take i didn't understand that at all yeah i mean to to give rose any kind of uh not not credit but like defense here uh both in the initial interview and when she was asked about it during fight week this week, and by the way, I will be talking to her later today for Morning Combat, she did say, look, there's nothing personal against Wei Li.

You know, like, I'll be friends with her after, that's fine. But look, when you throw someone's name into it, it becomes personal. personal um it's just it's interesting uh because rose is somebody who's always been so not only quiet she doesn't get caught up in trash talk i mean look you'll want to came at her ahead of that first title fight with some of the most aggressive attempts at getting in someone's head and as we remember it even crossed over into you'll want to saying some pretty poor things about mental health and uh nama unis's family history you, her father's history with mental health, which led to his death and really some shitty stuff, right? Ioana was trying to make it grimy. Rose stood in the face of that, didn't respond negatively, knocked her out.

And then afterwards kind of took a public stance that I think we have a greater responsibility as fighters, as promoters of this brand within the cage to be nice to each other, to show that it doesn't have to be about fake or real trash talk so even though i don't think rose was actually intending to talk trash when she went down this road she unfairly linked way lee and now it's going to be interesting look if that doesn't matter if we're going to have a great fight and who cares or if that'll motivate zhong weili more than maybe she would have or how is the crowd going to respond to either of them it's interesting it's worth at least touching on whatever that let me ask you a different question it's not even about rose per se

do you expect not that i'm saying that i do so we're taking ourselves out of this i'm just asking a a a blank question do you expect professional fighters to have enlightened political takes no no yeah i mean i think you got to be careful with this one because she you know she carries the name of the lithuanian people her her relatives directly suffered under um you know the ussr i mean there's a lot of things of real pain and repression that you should not none of us should take away from the worldview that Rose Nama Yunus has. And also I've run into any kind of fighter who is well-learned, erudite, rational. But as I get older and older and I keep covering the sport,

I find myself less, I don't think we should be policing their takes as much as we do, especially when it comes to that kind of a thing. I don't think we should be policing their takes as much as we do, especially when it comes to that kind of a thing. I don't know. That's why I think the handling of this went a little bit too far, meaning people calling it racist because, like, I get what Rose was trying to say. It's not racist.

She doubled down and said it's nothing against Wei Li. I'm just trying to speak out against communism. And, you know, who's going to stand here and say, yay, communism, right? You get that. But, you know, it also a bad timing right now we're we're you know we're getting woke in the right ways to asian hate you know risen jokes notwithstanding right we're we're we're awakening our eyes to to mistreatment uh rightfully so of so many different groups and uh so it was bad timing in that but uh again you know i'll just say this because you know and obviously you saw a lot of really warm sentiments yesterday with the with the derek chauvin case uh going to the jury

and him finding him guilty you saw a lot of sports brands like dc united put out a statement about it and certainly if you read the message you know obviously this is a deeply tragic moment for the country although there was some accountability that was served and you know these organizations that have lots of you know black leadership or black players you know they feel like a very important moment to speak out as an organization but here in the fight world i gotta tell you like do i want the ufc weighing in on the murder of george floyd as as heinous and uh just evil as it was i gotta tell you i don't think that i do. I think I'm not saying there's no case for the intersection of politics and sports. There absolutely is.

But forcing a brand to have a take or policing it all the way is. I don't know how I feel about that, BC. I don't want to be in a world where, oh, this brand didn't respond publicly. So does that mean they're upset? I don't know. I want athletes to have a platform to say whatever they want right you shouldn't say shut up and dribble but i don't want necessarily slogans on uniforms just my take so whatever at the end of the day i know it's like oh did did footlocker weigh in on climate change it's like do i give a fuck what

footlocker has to say i don't i don't think that i do anyway different discussion for a different time uh final bit of notes regarding 261 uh jessica androgyne interviews this week said i don't think amanda nunes is is the pound for pound best female fighter in the world i actually think it's valentina shevchenko look i care about whether you believe we're at a point where um amanda nunes is stan like her record you mean what the hell you're gonna say negative about the lioness, right? I mean, she's the damn GOAT, right? But I think you can be the GOAT, like Jon Jones in my opinion, but not necessarily be the pound-for-pound best at the moment.

So at the moment, should more people be saying, hey, Valentina's so great, maybe she should get a third of the vote of the pound-for-pound queen. You know what I mean? I mean, do you care about that um that's an interesting question that's a great question bc i i i would say though i don't get too hardcore into the share of debate and rank choice and all this shit i would just say that it's it might be true that Shevchenko is a, and I'm saying might, might be true that Shevchenko is an overall more talented fighter

and she can't beat Amanda by virtue of the size disparity. It's just a little too hard for her to get over. Not that that's the only reason, but it's a big contributing factor because they're more or less equal in technique. I can understand that. But at the same time, if you just look at their resumes, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The level of devastation that she has run.

Maybe if Shevchenko keeps going, she will either meet or surpass it. She's still very early in her championship journey, I would argue. But, dude dude are we really going to argue that her resume and mma is better than amanda nunez's even uh accumulatively i just don't think you can make that argument no and i think not going in shevchenko's favor is how how bad until now this women's flyweight division has been i mean look like andrade is going to be a tough a great name on the record if she can beat her. And, you know, she did beat Ioana, but above her preferred

weight, yeah, I'll give, you know, Valentina all credit all day at 135 when she handled Juliana Pena easily. She beat Holly Holm. I mean, you know, she beat Sarah Kaufman by split decision. She's got some wins, but look, what Amanda has done, you can't even, you know, you can't even. So let's roll on.

Dude, it's not just the wins. She was blowing these fuckers out, you know, you can't even. So let's roll on. Dude, it's not just the wins. She was blowing these fuckers out. You know, it wasn't even close. And yes, Shevchenko had the nice win over Jessica Ai and Pena and stuff. But in general, dude, you know, some of these go, and yes, Amanda's had those moments too. But, you know, you just rack up the amount of devastation that Amanda has caused. And then among women, no one matches that. Not even Cyborg.

No one does. all right luke uh one on tnt is back this evening as we record this on wednesday uh it's one on tnt three and it's headlined by former ufc hard-hitting bandweight john lineker against troy worthen and a featherweight bout you're also going to get a muay thai bout between john wayne parr and your everyone's favorite european dj nikki holzen holtzkin holtzkin holtzkin uh will you care at all about this let's be fair to one but will you care at all about yeah dude that fight is tremendous john wayne parr is an abs john wayne parr um you know who were some of the early mma pioneers out of australia the king of rock and rumble elvis sinisek and you know it was like anthony parash the hippo and shit you know when

all that was happening and frankly even before that to a degree although uh elvis has been around for a long time but um dude john wayne parr has been an absolute fucking beast of a human in the kickboxing muay thai world this time. His, I mean, just look up, Parr is spelled with two R's, P-A-R-R. Look up John Wayne Parr. I mean, he's fought everybody. In fact, I think he's retired a couple of times. He still keeps coming back. His face is all scarred up from Muay Thai. And to take on a guy like Nikki Holtzkin, I think Nikki is, you know, for a time was one of the best kickboxers in in the world certainly the best in his weight class for a time if you've never seen his fight with bazooka joe valtellini at glory it's just tremendous so yeah dude that fight i mean i think

holtzkin will win but motherfucking john wayne parr you better put some respect on his name that dude is an og yeah one of our great one of our great UK viewers, the great Dan Silifan, has shot a John Wayne Parr documentary in his spare time. So he talks in my DMs often about that. He's got a great cat named Millie. Shout out to the OG there that has appeared on our fan submissions before. But yeah, Luke, I'll tune in. Also, one announcing that Eddie Alvarez, fresh off that weird DQ,

will be back next week in the final one of these four one cards in a row, Luke. He'll take on the winner of Murat Gafurov and O.K. Ray Yun. Do you care? I think it's Murat. I could be wrong about this. In fact, I probably am. I'll say Gafurov. Gafurov?

Gafurov? They're fighting at Welterweight tonight, Luke. He's very good. That's a quick turnaround. Yeah, he's very good. Going back real quickly to the kickboxing record of John Wayne Parr, he's had 45 wins, 34 losses, and one draw. Excuse me, 45 KOs, 99 wins.

I think he's looking for his 100th win, BC, in world kickboxing. According to Wiki, he made his debut at Lumpini Stadium, which for folks who may not know, in Thailand, there are two stadiums that are considered to be the very elite ones. Lumpini is a big one and Rajadamnern. And Lumpini might be the, I could be wrong about that too, but I think is the more elevated of both of them. In any case, 1997.

1997, he made his debut in Lompini Stadium professionally, and he's been fighting all this time. Fucking legend. Yeah, he's got a pretty beat-up face, Luke. Yeah, he does. You got, you know, 100 wins and 34 losses. Your face is going to come out looking a little bit different on the other end. One championship also turning Roug Roug, Umar Kane, around very quickly.

I believe he'll be in next Wednesday's card as well. Smart move there. All right, Luke, we got a lot of bullshit to get through here on the show today, so let's get right into it. Sometimes we do this on Wednesdays, and most times you hate it because I read tweets awkwardly that involve current young people lingo like fasho, or is it fosho? Luke, you have a choice on that.

Yes, I can't wait for you to say on fleek and turnt up. Yes, turnt up, my homie. It's called Social Justice Wednesday. Let's bring in the Honorable Judge Luke Bader Ginsburg here to break down these street beefs that we got going on in these uh mma world here it's conor mcgregor versus nate diaz again so mcgregor came out with a anti-steroid rant on twitter luke and uh nate responded he said mcgregor fast system this is what steroids do for you and showed a mcgregor on the losing end there let's keep it going that's hilarious these guys these guys i mean are you not committing a crime by fucking saying shit like that you know without any evidence well can we have an opinion anymore in this life i guess not luke okay connor quote tweeted and said silly goose

that was pre-mcgregor fast mcgregor fast was created in the aftermath of that fight here's an image of direct result of me following the mcgregor fast program your face left like a bowl You know what? McGregor won that one. McGregor won that one. That's UFC 202, their rematch. Is he accusing Nate of being on steroids? That's what he's doing, right? They're both accusing each other of being on steroids,

which is, you know, silly and idiotic. But here's the thing, dude. You call down the thunder, you know, don't be surprised. I always say this, BC. If you try to fuck with people, don't be surprised if you succeed. And he

succeeded. That's true. Well, Nate comes back, Luke. He says, So I brought McGregor fast to life for you and you didn't use it against Mayweather kebab or DP you're supposed to learn and grow in this game grasshopper not keep fucking up the same way like a rookie okay that's nice that's good that's good and and here comes Nate again I'm right up i'll write up a ds conditioning system to show how it's really done anyway and shit on this stupid ass gregor fast bullshit this dumb f just copies all my moves anyway trying to get on a bike and swim and shit bruh you don't know what the fuck you're doing

connor says ds slow has a nice ring to it go get him champ that's it luke who wins um okay diaz recovered a little bit he recovered a little bit but i still think mcgregor got the best of that one don't you because at the end he was kind of just like all right motherfucker like this is not worth my time and then the one zing he put an effort in was pretty good you know yeah i think i think connor you're the judge luke i don't tell judge clarence thomas where to put what coke to put his pubic god can you compare me to somebody who's got a better sense of jurisprudence than that stupid fuck jesus at least give me gorsuch or you know you think i got trading cards of supreme court judges luke you think i care about that i mean i'm just justices but yes golly i got the worst one shirt yeah all right luke let's keep this going here um

so here's the deal during the jake paul ben askren can i stop for a second yeah i find this shit with dc and jake paul and everything else i'm like, I hate everything about it. I hate everything about continuing to do this shit. Gaff, take this tweet down for one second. Let me set it up. Then this will be the last time we ever talk about it today. So here's what happened. In the locker room, you know how boxing works.

A member of one training staff stands in the locker room of the others as he gets his hand wrapped to make sure there's no antonio margarito situation correct so basically tyron woodley was representing ben ashgren when he stood in the locker room when jake paul got wrapped jake paul has former um boxing love right jay leon love yeah he was a junior middleweight a middleweight a super middleweight contender never one of floyd's protégés who just didn't pan out was one of floyd's like first fighters that he promoted along with badu jack he was pretty damn good didn't win a world title i don't want to say he was a disappointment i mean he's a good fighter luke he just didn't get over the hump he was talking shit straight on to t woodley the video kind of went viral

a lot of people were tweeting it out like acting like jay leon some scrub he's not he's a pro boxer with hands he's not gonna back down from Tyron Woodley, right? Would he lose an MMA fight to Woodley? Yes. But he's a grown man who fights for a living, Luke. He's going to stand up and be tough. So DC saw the video and he tweets out, I mean, the way this dude talked to T-Wood makes my skin crawl.

All these kids are going to get taught a lesson, I swear. And I can't wait for it. At Jay Leon Love love you can't fight better respect dude like woodley before he puts his hands on you he ain't ben luke is that a good take because jayleon love can fight he can't no no it's not a good take it's a terrible take i mean he might be right in the sense that you know tyrant's not ben Ben. Okay, fine. But, and I understand being pissed. I don't like seeing Tyron disrespected by Jay Leon Love either.

It's not like I get warm feelings watching that. I get a little annoyed by it too. I think some more respect should be put on Tyron Woodley's name even if he's, you know, falling off a little bit. Here's my point. Everybody, if your boy signs up in a boxing match, which he should never have done but decided to do to get the money which is fine you can do that and you get stretched you can't afterwards keep

the beef going by like oh yeah but if we did this well you see then it'd be different you want to have them stop talking shit to us stop signing up for shit you can't win period because we all know if that was an mma contest even with a hip replace and everything i feel like ben would have torn him limb from limb i legitimately mean that absolutely right but you didn't sign up for that your member your co-member of the 2008 olympic wrestling team did not do that he signed up for a boxing match take the l take it right well because you see was dc's the one stirring the pot here so let's get some reactions jay leon love quote tweeted it and said hey fuck you too dc okay there you go jake paul quote tweeted it oh god and then there's this part you got you've got Daniel Cormier, one of the very best representatives this sport has and has ever had.

And he's going back and forth with this homunculus fuck. I mean, what are we doing? Yeah, he should probably focus more on Canadians, Luke. So Jake Paul says, okay, fat boy. So me versus you and Jay Leon Love versus Tyron Woodley. Jake Paul came back one more time and said, bow to cook him up Cleveland style. And then, Luke, we had noted boxing videographer and journalist, Ellie, take a step back.

Ellie's setback sliding in. He says, LOL, DC should stay in his lane. You can't compare Jay Leon Love's boxing skills to T-Wood. Jay has been around Top Boxing Mind for years, from Emanuel Stewart to Floyd Mayweather to many others. I've seen him box posts like this. Just expose how little you know about boxing. All right, Ellie, sec back.

Wow. We close with Tyron Woodley getting the last word. Reporting. Reporting. Tyron Woodley says, Begging so hard to get your prostitute a gig in response to Jake Paul. You trying to fight everyone but me when you realize I'm not with the child's play. You froze like winter and started stuttering.

You want real smoke or you want to keep padding your bitch ass record. End quote. End of white dad BC repeating this stuff. Luke, who wins this overall street beef here? Jake Paul times 10 everybody wants a go at him because they feel bad about the way it went and the way it made mma look and they can say that they don't but they all do and of course you know tyron might be throwing his hat in the ring for a payday which whatever fine you know it's just gonna

happen uh not necessarily with him but you know you know, these things happen. All right, gun to your head. Hold on, let me just say it one more time. If this happens and the people who win the effort talk shit, you don't have to like that, but to the victor goes the spoils. If you don't want Jake Paul talking shit about you, stop signing up and encouraging members to sign up to get stretched because this is the result. Two last questions.

I only want one-word answers. Who would win a boxing match between Tyron Woodley and Jake Paul? Tyron Woodley. Who would win a boxing match between DC and Jake Paul? Well, I mean, at what weight? Are they even remotely the same size? It's all got to be cruiser weight it's all jake paul's it's you're in jake paul's backyard yeah in that case in that case

for sure dc because him having to come up that big it's going to slow him down and dc is going to be pretty nimble at that weight yeah okay that's interesting well that's all the beefs we have for the week there hey we're going to go into a next segment and it's the best thing going i want to say combat sports luke but i really think in all forms of digital media, really. I mean, let's be honest here. So here's the premise. There are questions Luke Thomas does not want to waste his time talking about and answering. So we created a segment about that.

It is good faith answers to bad faith questions. It's called The Wheel of Death. Are you chewing food? No, I'm just really gross. Do you have like food coming out of your teeth? I've spit coming out, Luke. Okay. See, here's the deal.

I drink the whole episode, whether it's coffee, seltzer, water, because I put out so many fluids while I speak, Luke. I need to replenish in the moment. Here's the premise, Luke. Ten categories. You get five spins of the wheel. I'm sorry.ish in the moment. Here's the premise, Luke. Ten categories. You get five spins of the wheel. I'm sorry. You must hear my long rant. You must respond with a good natured answer. You get what you get. Here are your ten categories this week. I so wanna you wanna. Men who vouch for Bieber. Show me your Johnson Picks. Ortega Definitely Smashed.

All Triller No Filler. Canada's Worst Exports. Is Gaff trying to give people a seizure here? Cinematic Feels. Hey Girl, Ya Hungry. Old Enough to Remember Nico Montano.

And finally, Luke, Billy Bong Thornton. Any hopes and dreams here, Luke? What do you want?, Billy Bong Thornton. Any hopes and dreams here, Luke? What do you want? The Billy Bong Thornton one captured my imagination, but knowing my luck, I won't get that. Spin the black circle, Luke. Let's do this thing. Oh! Luke! Good Lord, does this fit the spirit of this show i so wanna you wanna hey luke former ufc women's strawweight champion you wanna young jay tech told mma fighting this week that she

texted ufc matchmaker mick maynard and said quote the baddest bitch on the planet is back. So book the fight, watch the fight and tell everybody that I'm next. What Joanna Champion was saying, Luke, is she's been busy during COVID doing Polish TV, but she expects to begin a two month training camp at ATT in May and wants the winner of Waley Zhang, Rose Nami Yunus this Saturday. Considering your text response yesterday to me, Luke, when I pushed the idea of this you'll want a topic making our rundown for the week, in which you responded with something I cannot repeat here, involving Tommy Morrison, West Virginia, and a prominent immune disease, I figured this question fits the spirit of wheel of death so perfectly Luke.

Okay. So here we go. Considering Joanna is 33 and hasn't fought in 13 months since co-authoring the greatest fight in women's MMA history. Entertain me by answering this roulette of Joanna themed questions with good faith response. Number one, which rematch would sell more pay-per-views as a main event? Ioana Rose 3 or Ioana Whaley 2? Ioana Rose, well, Ioana versus the winner of Saturday.

Yeah, which one, Luke? Which winner? That's what I'm saying. Which rematch would sell more? So, Nama Yunus. Nama Yunus, for sure. Ooh, interesting. We don't often see trilogies where somebody won the first two fights,

but it could be interesting here. Question two. Which rematch gives Ioana the best chance to win her title back? Weili or Rose? Damn, she has a tough road no matter what. You know, I thought she beat Weili, but could she do know i thought she beat whaley but could she do that again where she got like disfigured and stuff she did take two rounds off of rose um man that's a great question

best chance i don't think she has a good chance either way, just to be clear. But I would say maybe the best chance, maybe against Weili. I think she suffered in that fight too. She put some miles on as well. I didn't think, obviously the first fight with Rose and JJ was short. And then the second one, it was clear that it was three rounds to two. I really thought that Ioana won that fight with Weili. So I guess I'll say that one. But even then,

you know as well as I do, and the fans do too, both of them left a piece of themselves in the octagon that night. I don't think they'll ever be the same. How much worse? I don't know. That was a lot. I agree with you, sadly. I don't think Ioana will ever be the same. I think that was the very best she had left, and she had to use it all, and she came up just short. I appreciate your good faith response. Also,

can people wake up and remember that you want a rose too is a great a great fight great fight super underrated it's overshadowed by the fact that you know uh the first fight was this brilliant knockout rose won the second almost like you know foregone conclusion and then jj has this insane fight we think is the best women's fight we've ever seen you know people just you're right they've totally forgotten about it but if you if you haven't seen it recently it's it's fun it was you know at the beginning of round five it was whoever wanted it more truly truly that's what it was percentage one to a hundred what percentage do you give jj of ever wearing ufc gold again in any division zero wow wow zero yeah so if she went into a rematch with

roser whaley you're saying she has zero chance to win that's that's not smart luke that's not okay that's wrong yeah she has more than that but uh stated differently um what is the likelihood that she would be champion again uh 10%, 10, 15%, 20%? Single digits. All right. Well, final question on this one, Luke. Let's reimagine 2021. Let's say I'm 42 like I am now, but I'm single.

And let's say you gave me two months to get in great shape. What percentage would you give me, one to 100, of successfully sliding into Ioana Champions DMs? Zero. Dude, come on. Zero? Dude, I mean, I know that you have, like, you know, people who LARP in real time, and they do, like, they play the Harry Potter sport game, like, starts with the letter Q.

I forget what it is, and they do Dungeons and Dragons, and then those idiots tell you you have bde you have less bde than stephen hawking i mean it is you're you're you're getting out of here those are fighting words dude come on zero chance look i'm not saying it's it's a it's a likelihood i'm not saying it's likely but but luke i got an outside chance right i could talk i'll talk my way in luke i mean you have a greater chance of her calling the fbi on you than you do of anything that's another topic for another day all right luke thank you for handling that correctly spin number two luke let's do it i like the sound of the slot machines in this thing. All right, show me your Johnson picks. No, Luke, this one's not about Representative Anthony Weiner's DMs. This one is about gambling.

In that absurd picture you tweeted via MMA Junkies Mike Boner showing the shape that 37-year-old Anthony Rumble Johnson is in entering his May 7th showdown with Yoel Romero and Bellator. showing the shape that 37-year-old Anthony Rumble Johnson is in, entering his May 7th showdown with Yoel Romero in Bellator. Gaff, can we show that picture, please, to set this up? Yeah. Here is a man who has never played Quidditch. Gaff? Where's that photo?

Where's that money photo? There he is. Oh, my God. Look at that Johnson right there, right? Woo! Wow. What's that photo? Where's that money photo? There he is. Oh, my God, Luke. Look at that Johnson right there, right? Woo. Wow. What's your question? All right, Luke.

Look, I'm going to be honest with you. When I saw this, it made me rethink the odds I'm giving on who wins this Grand Prix. Of course, you can only see Rumble and Romero May 7th on Showtime. But I know we did a Grand Prix breakdown and update on Monday's MK, but per usual Luke Thomas, you skirted out without making any picks for the future or without addressing the gambling realities of what's left in the tournament. So since this is Wheel of Death, Luke, and I want you to be uncomfortable, I want you to be as uncomfortable as looking into the teeth of Yanni the Greek

and knowing there's a chance you go blind. That kind of uncomfortable. Give me a list, Luke, from best to worst of the five remaining fighters in the 205-pound tournament in terms of their chance to win the whole thing. Keep in mind how great Johnson looks in that pick and how much that might change your original thoughts on this tournament. From best to worst of the five remaining fighters left. Alright, so power rankings,

right? Yep. I'll go Nemkov one. I'll go Bader two, only because Nemkov is one and Bader's on the other side of the bracket. So you're only saying Bader two because he has a potentially easier

path, meaning he only has to win one more fight to get there. He has to fight someone, yes, who beat him quite badly, but he at least has experience with him. I'd probably put Rumble third. I just don't believe Romero can win the whole thing. Maybe I do. Rumble third believe Romero can win the whole thing. You know? Well, maybe I do.

Yeah, Rumble third, Romero, then Corey. And I'm probably sleeping on Corey unfairly. I apologize. You are. Yeah. Especially since Corey's going to beat Bader, Luke. I'm sorry. He is.

The question is, can he beat Nemkov in the finals? That's the only question at this point. But I appreciate your opinion and your commitment to this topic. Alright, let's roll on. Luke, I was hoping you would say Rumble's going to win the whole thing. I saw his abs. I've seen the Johnson, right? No, you know, okay. Alright. Spin number three. Here we go.

Oh, hey! Look at this! All tr triller no filler i promise this is the last time we ever talk about trailer i really mean that this time i don't i don't believe you the debate still persist online whether triller's estimate of 1.5 million pay-per-view buys for jake paul ben askren was accurate or not but let's give him the benefit of the doubt. For the sake of argument, let's say this upstart promotion tapped into the market with this giant pay-per-view. If they did 1.5 million buys, Luke, just so you know, okay, that would be the fourth biggest pay-per-view in UFC history after Conor Habib, Conor Diaz 2, and Conor Dustin 2. Conversely, it would place it in the top 10 in boxing

pay-per-view history. So using active pro fighters only, so I mean no Floyd, no Habib, no Mike Tyson, for example, and excluding any YouTubers or any cross sport fights like Mayweather McGregor, name for me three main event fights in either boxing or mma that you would feel most confident betting your one year salary could outsell jake paul versus ben askren in 2021 which fights would you be most confident betting could beat 1.5 million of active fighters. Yeah, it didn't sell 1.5. I can just tell you that right now. Okay, but let's assume for the sake of argument that it did. Who could you do?

You could do Conor versus Jorge. You could do that. That would sell it. Wow, that'd be a massive fight. You think that goes 1.5, though, with no title at stake and just a grudge war? If they put the BMF up, I bet it could. I really think that one would sell huge. Maybe Conor Nate 2, or Conor Nate 3, I should say.

You could do that. Let me think. I think, see, the crossover ones would be big. Like, if you did Jorge versus Canelo, that would be big. No, we're not doing crossover ones, Luke, okay? You know, do we think that Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua can clear that? Maybe. Maybe. A lot of these have the asterisk, Luke, of we need a really good promotion.

We need, like, a three-month build where they're traveling around the globe, doing press conferences, pushing each other, right? You really need to stir this thing up. And I think, so those are, I would say those two. And then I would say, man, I don't know. I don't know about a third one. I mean, 1-5 is a lot. That's a lot. That's a real lot. Jones, I don't think there's a't know about a third one. I mean, 1-5 is a lot. That's a lot.

That's a real lot. Jones, I don't think there's a permutation that would do it. Unless Brock came back. But even then, I'm a little skeptical it clears 1-5 with Brock. Because he's a little bit damaged goods at this point. That's a fair point. So I'll agree. I think Conor versus Jorge for BMF belt Will do it because people are going to pay for

What they know they're going to get they're going to get a war right That fight could not be anything but a war For as long as it lasts I don't Think as we stand right now Conor Nate 3 Would do a million and a half I think it would do just short Because second and third Fights of rivalries don't tend to exceed

The first one and I feel like both You know they're a little bit damaged From where they were in the first two fights, right? Brand-wise, like a little bit. Just enough to pull us back down to earth. I wonder on Fury Joshua. I wonder on Jones and Ghanu. I said it could do two, Luke. People thought I was crazy.

I think with the right promotion, it could. Maybe I'm crazy. No, it couldn't. All right. could maybe no it couldn't all right i don't think in boxing as we stand right now that you have any with floyd retired like floyd manny too it would do big right floyd canelo would be absurd right i don't but you know floyd's not active it's that's not fair to say i don't think we have anything in boxing right now that can do that sorry besides joshua all right right well thank you for that luke let's do you got two more spins hopefully you don't die before then do your vaccine all right

all right this is taking forever spin that's the point luke okay that's the point spin number four oh hey luke let's do it cinematic feels lu, you know what's one of the most fun and pure experiences that COVID has robbed from us over the past year? The joy of heading to the old movie theater, stumbling into the greatness of a first-run film that catches you off guard and provides you with that magic of emotions and feels that you didn't see coming,

that only seeing a movie for the first time can do for you in the right setting. Now, full disclosure, Luke, I've asked you a version of this question in the past, and you kind of no-sold the shit out of it. So that's really what this segment is all about, to get you to talk. Luke, we've all had magical moments in the movies, right? I stood up and cheered in 1984 when the crane kick hit in Karate Kid. I exited Back to the Future the year later in 85 thinking that's the best movie I'd ever seen, right?

Jay Aaron, full boner style. You remember Star Wars Episode VII, Luke? I got drunk for that. I laughed. I cried. We wanted so badly. I cheered to get a non-George Lucas Star Wars movie that entertained us.

It was a moment. Doesn't mean that movie was great, right? It was just a moment in time. I want you to do this, Luke, okay? Dig back into your memory bank. Those memories that you can only get in a theater. Search the inside of your emotionless

carcass and share with us your three most memorable in-theater movie experiences in which you caught the most feels. Not the three best movies you ever saw, but sometimes the right setting, the right time in your life, Luke, it'll hit you right in the heart. Saving Private Ryan

was one. I had to piss so bad by the end of that movie. I think I did damage to my kidneys. Blackhawk Down. There must be a military fucking connection here. Blackhawk Down was another one. And then...

Did these activate your PTSD, Luke? Is that why it was such an emotional thing? Or are they just great films in your eyes? They were great films. I'm trying to think of another one. Oh, I mean action movies anyway. What's a third one that I had all the feels in that one? Oh, you know what?

I mean, even when I watch it, but when I did watch it in the theater, even now, Coco, my daughter's favorite movie. There's a scene at the end if you've never seen it where the lead character miguel sings a song and every time i hear that song i well up with tears i just can't help it so there you go wow hey luke you know this old shitty segment sometimes really produces you know genuine moments i appreciate hearing that people don't always get to see the good side of you Luke right because you hide it behind black metal t-shirts and

overgrown beards I guess okay alright it looks like Luke you have the energy for one more spin final spin of the day here on the best segment of all time yay motherfucking spin one more spin final spin of the day here on the best segment of all time yay oh hey luke how coincidental is that the one that you wanted we close with here we go billy bong thor and hear me out here i got a speech to give luke we're one day removed from

everyone's famous cannabis holiday 420 so you remember that recent question in Room Service Diaries that our MK Social team did a great job of putting out the other day where we talked about which four UFC fighters would you want to party with to make the best night ever, right? It got me thinking, okay? Look, I was just on vacation last week, and the downside of that vacation was the stamina and focus I needed to show while driving my family for 13 consecutive

hours there and back from Connecticut to Tennessee in one shot, very short stops to pee and eat back on the road. Luke, it's not for anybody, everybody, right? I can do it. You know, it's in me. It's not for everybody, but I'd much rather have been in the back of a comfortable limo, hot boxing it across the country with an unlimited fast food and beer budget sitting next to four incredibly fun people. Sounds great, Luke, right? Right? So how about I change the stakes a bit

from that Room Service Diaries question for you, Luke? Imagine you win a nationwide Willy Wonka-inspired golden ticket from UFC President Dana White and what you win is a hot box limo ride from your Washington DC home to ViStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville for this Saturday's UFC 261 card. Wow, Luke, right? Wow. You get to choose four fellow passengers to sit in the back of that hot box limo as you laugh it up and eat fast food from D.C. to Jacksonville.

But there's a little catch in your selection of those four people, Luke, okay? One needs to be an active member of the MMA media who has never appeared on More In Combat before. The second one needs to be a current or former UFC Women's Strawweight Champion. The third needs to be a UFC on- ufc women's strawweight champion the third needs to be a ufc on-air broadcaster who has never had a pro fight and the fourth needs to be any member of the triller fight club broadcasting team from last saturday not named snoop dog or pete davidson but luke as much as you're already enjoying how much fun this question is there's a catch you ready for this? The entire ride will

be filmed for an upcoming UFC Fight Pass reality show pilot that if the pilot gets picked up on the basis of entertainment, Luke Thomas wins $1 million for his efforts. And I know what you're saying to yourself, you know what, that's cool, but if I win it or I don't, whatever. Oh, there's another catch to sweeten the pot, Lukeke should the episode be deemed not entertaining enough and it doesn't get picked up by ufc fight pass you don't win the one million dollars and your internet search history over the past two weeks will be read line by line by you wanna young che check on next week's episode of DC and Helwani. You think I have shame? So Luke, you can argue here. Do you think for two fucking seconds

I have shame over my internet search history? I'm not saying it's not vile and, you know, filled with all kinds of really, you know, things that are not appropriate for a younger audience. But I, oh, I would adore having someone look through that and just to watch the absolute horror on their face. Well, I'm sure there's plenty of hummers on there.

Look, I'm sure there's plenty, right? But, Luke, that's pretty shameful. You don't want that. You don't want your enemies taking, you know, focus on fun. I don't care. I don't. I don't care. All right, so one more time. Forget all the, i don't give a fuck about the all right i'll tell

you you need four people with you for a reality show it's got to be fun first one first one first one first one is what's the condition an active member of the mma media who's never appeared on mk before danny segura next you really think old danny's gonna hotbox it with you and make the magic i love danny but, but is that your choice? Yes, it's Danny Segura, yes. Okay, okay. Luke, what I also need is a good faith reason why you pick each one. Because I like him and we would share good laughs.

Okay, all right. In Spanish or English? This is only being broadcasted in America, Luke. Los dos. Okay, all right. Number two, Luke, a current or former UFC women's strawweight champion? I mean, how many have there been?

I mean, I guess Rose. I guess. Rose? What's your good faith response for why that will help you win the million? Dude, literally, my motherfucking earbud, whatever, died because of how long this fucking show has gone on. Let me switch here, because now I can't hear for shit. You with production issues? Sorry, Luke.

Never heard of it before, right? Yeah, well, when the things run out of juice, even though they were charged before the show, you might want to rethink how long the show has gone. Alright, so yes, I'll say Rose. What's the next one? Wow, you uncomfortable during this segment? I guess it's a home run, right? And the final one, Luke, is any member of the Triller Fight

Club broadcasting team from last Saturday excluding Snoop Dogg or Pete Davidson? Damn, it was going to be Pete. I'll say Al. So your car that you're going to hotbox on camera with is luke thomas danny segura rose nama unis al bernstein and your final choice needs to be a ufc on-screen broadcaster who has never had a pro fight uh john annick i'm sorry luke you failed this project you uh was i supposed to say joe rogan big latina booty will be read line by line by joanna on dc buddy let me tell you it goes so much worse than that i mean you can't even imagine the permutations i come up with all right well hey thanks for submarining the end of what could have been just you know

digital tv magic you know you know i mean sometimes luke you know sometimes the script's great the acting though you know what i'm saying like ishtar right you know yeah the script on the script on this one kind of nubs but okay okay. You know, they tried, right? They tried. It didn't work out so well. All right, Luke, that's the circle. We'll see if it ever comes back again. Final segment of the week, Luke, if you have any remaining energy, is when we honor those who honor us. It's fan submissions.

And I think we've got mail. MorningCombat at gmail.com is your home to send in your pics your artwork whatever you got let's start out with holly s she says hey love the show i listen to it on my commute every day on april 7th luke said the best decision he ever made was joining a frat and i wanted to say i feel the same way about a sorority it changed my life in the best kind of way Thanks for making my drive easier. Holly. Luke, that don't look like Holly. That's Ryan Hall. And he's next to a guy wearing a Morning Combat

jersey. I don't understand this. Yeah, Mikey's got some explaining to do. Our producer, Mikey Moore. I'm sorry, buddy. That's not Holly, but thank you, Holly S., for supporting us. I'm sorry that you did have to give part of your life and soul to that, you know, all-Greek gang there that bands together, right? Because they can't stand on their own like Luke did with his teak cap of bro-hoes. You know, that's cool.

That's great. Hopefully you got the branded tattoo to show for it. Oh, Luke, sorry, there's a message here. P.S. My husband Eric went to IBJJF Worlds in December, one week after getting his blue belt. He had been training for two years and needed to go. While he was there wearing an MK hoodie, he met Ryan Hall, who was coaching someone else.

Hey, Luke, how about Holly's husband Eric S.? Sweet. All right. I'm tired bro i need a fucking nap i'm tired we got technical difficulties we got co-host difficulties uh thank you holly eric looks great in that hoodie thank you uh andre l comes in he says am i your only fan in bahrain by the way luke i made that off-handed remark do we have fans in bahrain? I got three DMs from some Bahrainians who watch this show. I love it. Andre says, no MK gear here, nor

is it available, but my wife and I relocated to Bahrain from Canada prior to the onset of COVID. Keep up the fun segments, mainly creating awkward moments for Luke. You know I got your back there, Andre. The constant banter and the brotherly characters. The maniacal good son

and the aloof one. It's your friend, Andre. Thank you very much. That picture of him, Luke, with the camel, his daughter. Is that Burj Khalifa behind them? That giant building? No? Is that in Bahrain or is that Singapore? It was Bahrain.

Alright, whatever. Hopefully Andre's enjoying, Luke, one championship, the Apprentice Edition. Okay, thank you. Damien B. sliding in with two of them. He says, I just recently had an operation that included the use of three needles. Oh, God, Luke. The doctor told me to dress comfy, so you already know I had to rock my MK shirt. I was slightly getting nervous getting the operation even though they put me to sleep but knowing that bc went through the same process

made it a lot better i appreciate all you guys do stay frosty luke i never thought we'd get here to this moment right here okay the three needles by the way was the without question the worst moment of my life the most pain i've ever felt, the most diminished my manhood has ever felt physically or emotionally or literally. And no, they wouldn't put me to sleep. They wouldn't even really give me any meds for it. The fact that people in our sphere would get that surgery while wearing MK, we made it. Bro, we made it.

And by the way, why did they have to put this guy out? Do you respect that, Luke, that they put him out? I don't care all right i'll take over this segment here uh damien post-surgery congratulations brother you are less of a man now but thank you don't you go dying on me thank you at least for supporting our brand while you went and did that okay i'm sure your libido is killed like mine but that's okay anyway all right hudson is sliding in with two he says hello luke dino thomas and big beige one in the whole mk crew my name is hudson i'm a junior in college and i'm working on a student's budget so i can't afford

any mk merch that being said i had to find a way to show support around campus i ended up with this horrific work of art is this art is art art he asks mk all day every day luke do you look at this as the greatest piece of submission and commitment to our brand anything has done or does this certify that hudson does not fuck uh i'm gonna guess whatever undergraduate campus he's on, it's not MIT. Okay. He did send in another photo. I love the commitment, Hudson. Thank you, brother.

And that's him. Luke, he may F. Luke, he looks like a normal dude. No. I bet he would be confident letting you want to read his search history public. He's got, you know, he's a little bit uh i don't even care anymore go ahead all right and mikey i'm sorry i slandered you earlier i didn't read the whole thing all right let's bring in jonathan here he says a fool is known by his speech and a wise man by silence here's a luke thomas inspired meme do we have audio here? No audio, Gaff says.

So, Luke, it's a meme of you responding to your own tech issues. All right. That's on point. That's funny if you've been hitting the head with a shovel. All right, Luke, this is great. Hey, Steve B says uh he's got a vitor belfort vaccine meme to share with us let's go full screen with this guy fucking hilarious yep that is uh yeah you know that johnson and johnson one not just not up to the same standards i guess by the way i am getting pfizer number two on saturday so i hope to look like trt

2013 mohawked vitor after it, Luke. Yeah, no shit. But, Luke, here's the deal. The first shot took me out of commission for two days. I hope I'm still able to cover UFC 261 on Saturday. I think you'll be fine. My understanding is even with Pfizer and Moderna, whatever one you have that's mild, then the other one will be a little bit making you sick.

So if you already got a little bit sick, the second one should be just fine bit, uh, make you sick. So if you already got a little bit sick, the second one should be just fine for you. All right, Luke, uh, Ryzen, not, not the, the Asian kickboxing MMA brand.

He wanted to know what you look like with your beard off. Luke, check out this, what he created. I look like, I look like a overweight lesbian, right? Don't I? Luke, that's hilarious because it's true you do you do look like that so i um my dad always had a giant bushy mustache he still has it today he cut it twice in

my childhood it's like days you'll never forget he walked in he looked like a ghost i've been wearing the you know the shitty puberty beard for about five years because my wife loves it i shaved it during the quarantine once, Luke. She told me to get out of the house and our marriage. I'd be afraid to actually see what you look like now that I have this teaser in front of me with it. Don't ever shave, Luke. Don't ever. Okay, don't worry.

All right. God, you're struggling through this show. We'll close with that. Yeah, bro. I'm on the motherfucking struggle bus. I tired i need to get take a nap we'll close with that jonah eat world here with an mk photoshop oh that's pretty good you get to be scorpion does the new morning combat movie come out friday this friday luke is that i believe that i believe that's right yeah will you be seeing it 100 morning combat is still like maybe the only video game i'll play that in tetris

but i'll play some motherfucking uh um i should say mortal combat yeah it's like brian custer there sending us to hell twice on that live stream he's like let's go to our let's go to our let's let's go to our boys sub-zero and scorpion mortal combat boys take it away oh bc there's no bc on bc to our let's let's go to our boys sub-zero and scorpion no we're at uh mortal combat boys take it away oh bc there's no bc on bc crime there that's that's unacceptable there all right all right hey that's we're teasing uh we we appreciate the submissions by the way thank you uh and that holly thank you for your husband wearing that mk shirt meeting ryan hall we appreciate that everyone else yes and i'm sorry that i have dengue fever, but I'm tired and I want a nap.

MorningCombat at gmail.com. Thank you for all of those that did enjoy the wheel that Luke sabotaged, and I don't think he would win the $1 million there, so that would be great there. Let's wrap this show up quickly before Luke dies. Thank you to everybody for taking part. Malka, Showtime, CBS Sports, all the people that add their love, resources,

and sweat and hard work to make this show happen like us and subscribe please you can check out uh store.show.com for all of your merch needs there is our social handles below you can follow us and also of course uh your 30-day free trial you've memorized it at this point show.com forward slash Bellator MMA $4.99 a month for six months after that first one or maybe it's five months i don't know why don't you click on that link and figure it out yourself jerk motherfucker can i go shit yeah just leave lord look i'll take it home just leave in fact get up get it go all right no you do that shit and, uh, our Showtime producers fucking hate it when you do that.

So I'm not going to do that. Mic drop, baby. All right. Uh, yeah. So for the great team gaff on the ones and twos, uh, we appreciate all you. Thank you. Please take care of yourself mentally. It's a reason why you, uh, put the oxygen mask on first before helping the little ones.

Okay. You can get through this. We can do this together. Uh, we hope to be a beacon of light and hope during your week. This was Hump Day. We'll be back on Friday. Luke Thomas' live chat tomorrow, unless Moderna has killed him. My name is Brian Campbell.

I'll be fine by tomorrow, 3 p.m. Eastern. For the great Luke Thomas, I am your boy, BC, reminding you to, you know, you can only hope that all of your ex-lovers have stayed satisfied. And two more words for you. We out. That's it. I'm done. No more. I'm done. We'll be right back. you