MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Davis vs. Cruz | Aldo vs. Font | Bellator 272 | Haney-Diaz | Quick Hitters | EP 236

Episode Date: December 3, 2021

On Episode 236 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell have a big weekend preview show set for you. First up the guys preview Gervonta Davis vs. Isaac Cruz. How do their styles matchup? Next up the guys break down UFC on ESPN 31, which fights should we be watching out for on this card? Bellator 272 is also this weekend and the guys breakdown a huge bamtamweight title fight between Sergio Pettis and Kyoji Horiguchi. The guys close out with a preview of Devin Haney vs. Jojo Diaz, MMA Quick Hitters and Dead wrong. (9:00) - Gervonta Davis vs. Isaac Cruz Preview (24:45) - UFC on ESPN 31 Preview (50:30) - Bellator 272 Preview (64:15) - Devin Haney vs. Joseph Diaz Jr. Preview (75:20) - Quick Hitters Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh, yeah. Better late than never. Technical issues. Be damned. We made it. We're here. It's Friday.? Strike that reverse. The American Alpha, the guy you're looking at. Are we live? Hopefully we're live here. Internet's dead. I think we've had people just quit the show in mid-screw up there. But your hosts are here. BC hosting on Friday, December 3rd, 2021, with a huge weekend of fights to get you fired the heck up for.

But you know what gets me fired up? Normally, a fendi bag and a bad attitude. That's all I need to get me in a good mood. But anytime I can share a screen with this wonder of MMA analysis fame, I get a little excited. Wow, yes. Live and direct from the nation's capital, it's Luke Thomas. Hi, Brian Campbell.

That was a tortured intro, but I do those myself, so I can't complain. But it is nice to see you. Dude, we have a monster weekend of fights, do we not? If the internet holds up, hopefully, Luke. Hopefully we'll get there. All right. Thank you, Luke. Someone's a little upset about the quality of the internet.

Let me bang. Okay, please. Okay, just let me MK already. Yeah, Luke, great fights. A great show we're about to give you everything's great right now you know what else is great luke are you checking out what's going on on our morning combat dot store site on this cyber monday deal that just won't go away have you seen this it is that thing is humming and by the way we were told that not like it's not the best seller, but one of our more noteworthy sellers these days is the underwear

with Brian and I's stupid faces on it. I cannot believe you animals are buying it, but you animals are buying it. We're buying a lot of them. It's not quite a sellout as the BC Hawaiian shirt, but it is moving. So right now you can go to morningcombat.store. I want to urge you though, if you are buying for yourself, for your loved ones, for your spouse,

ahead of the holidays, ahead of the Christmas season, Hanukkah, shout out Kwanzaa across the board, you're going to want to get those orders in now. Really, this coming week is the last time you can put those orders in to make sure with the shipping delays that you can get them by Christmas morning or whatever you celebrate. I mean, I can't guarantee Hanukkah. Isn't it Hanukkah already going on? I don't know.

I'm out of the loop culturally, but you get what I'm saying right here. And Luke, you want to spend a hundred bucks. How about 10% off? Okay. 150 gets you 15. You drop two bills. You can even get 20% off. We got a code there. Live 10. Do it right now during the show. There is a new holiday line that I think will blow you away if you haven't seen it. So thank you for supporting us. Hopefully, Santee Claus can put a little bit of that under your tree as well. Luke, obviously, people come here for us, but if they want a little bit more from our parent company, ViacomCBS, you can get a little showtime for free for 30 days.

And why wouldn't you? You got a must-see Bellator Bantamweight title bout tonight Bellator 272 from the Mohegan Sun you can only watch that on Showtime in the states go to Showtime.com now get your 30-day free trial championship boxing great documentaries billions up the ass it's really a great time to be alive so check that ish out right there by the way also somebody told me as well that like uh if you're amazon prime member you can get showtime through that right now with a reduced price so if that's what you're looking for like a deal ultimately what you're going to spend on showtime and you're an amazon

prime subscriber go check that out yeah please check that stuff out indeed i want to get through this as quick as i can to get us into the fights but luke uh friday is fans or friday i'm sorry he's dead wrong wednesday is fan subs but we got a little bonus fan sub right now coming at us from uh who's the fella gaff that set this in what's the guy's name don set dante hansel gretel one of those three nothing all right i don't know i look we may be the only ones working right now on the show i don't know if anybody else is with us right now but uh oh there we go let's zoom in on this thing here we go from mateo with one t thank you very much look you see this i can't read it because it's too small can we zoom in please there you go yeah caesar's sportsbook have it as a virtual

pick'em so this fight could go either way yeah Yeah, it's a great fight. Let me see what our friends over there. You know, that's only every episode, but that's fine. We enjoy each other's company. Listen, Caesar Sportsbook gets two plugs every time, or it's your ass. You understand that? Exactly. All right, I don't have any ad reads, but big ads coming. A lot of people, what happened to DraftKings? Wait and see.

Wait and see what happened to DraftKings. kings okay big news coming in the future for morning combat and as always with this show if you're coming on right come on already all right let's do it luke uh this weekend loaded we got ufc we got bellator we've got big time boxing and sunday night not saturday Sunday night, not Saturday. Sunday night. Staples Center, Los Angeles. Showtime pay-per-view is the home for the one, Gervonta Tank Davis. He's won titles in three-way classes. He's back at 135 against a late replacement. We know it's not going to be Rolo Romero,

but as we established this week on the show, Isak Cruz from Mexico, he's coming on. The pit bull is ready. Luke, Gervonta, Isak Cruz from Mexico. He's coming on. The pit bull is ready. Luke, Gervonta, Isak Cruz. When I see that, I see fireworks. I see potential for a back and forth fight. Yet the odds makers firmly still have Gervonta, ranked number 10 pound for pound in boxing on CBS Sports

right now as a massive favorite. I'm sorry, minus 1,200 for Tank, plus 750 for Isak Cruz. To sort of kick off the X's and O's look at it, I feel like it's a much better matchup than those odds are telling you. Oh, there's just no denying I think it's a better matchup. You know, we liked what Rolando Romero brought prior to all the allegations, obviously, around him. But as a boxer, right, as an opponent for Tank Davis, we like what he brought because, you know, he has a lot of gumption, for better or for worse, he has a lot of gumption.

He does have legitimate power, but he was reckless. I mean, he is reckless. He takes a lot of unnecessary risks, and you think, well, that makes him a little bit dangerous because if he lands with big power and, you know, in a place he isn't traditionally supposed to because of all of the risks he takes, that could be interesting. On the other hand, he was probably going to get viciously KO'd. In fact, I thought he was going to get viciously KO'd. A guy like Isak Cruz is just totally different. He is smaller. He is more compact. He takes risks as well, BC, but within the kind of skill set and stature that he brings into the fight.

In fact, in this fight, believe it or not, as small as Tank Davis is in terms of professional athlete standards anyway, he's still two inches taller than Cruz, more or less not that big a factor, but he does have a five-inch reach advantage, and I really, really kind of wonder what role that's going to play because,

you know, Cruz doesn't, the game plan doesn't change a whole lot. Fight over fight, right? I mean, he's in your face. He's crouching low.

If you go high, he hits you with the overhands. I mentioned he does some decent body work. He's got good uppercuts. He likes to press opponents back into the ropes. This is going to be a test. I mean, I'm not saying it's the same as Leo Santa Cruz.

It's not. Leo is a household name. He's rangy himself. What the fuck? Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. I had an exorcism live on air.

I had an exorcism live on air. Hang on. I fixed it. I fixed it. Don't worry. The universe is talking to us. The point being is this, BC. I'll wrap up on this, which is to say, this is going to be a test of Tank Davis. A, you got an opponent on somewhat of late notice,

and B, dude, you got to get this guy off of you. Now, you saw against Cruz, he was able to turn him into the ropes and be a little bit of the bully himself, but Cruz is going to welcome that. So to me, it's like you're going to have to have a game where you're anticipating this pressure and what you do with it but you can't let that be the whole fight you like Stephen Fulton obviously against Brandon Figueroa last weekend he got away with one but that was a really hard fight to judge and it was kind of close and I'm not saying this is the same

fight I'm just saying you don't want to fight completely on Cruz's terms sometimes you're going to have to but I want to see this is what I what I want to see from Tank Davis. I wonder if you agree. I want to see Tank Davis play the levels. Sometimes you're going to have to inside fight. I want to see it. Sometimes you're going to have to outside fight. I want to see it. I think late in the fight, he's going to have to step on it. I want to see that too. I want to see a guy who's supposed to be the better boxer show that to me. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm fully expecting, by by the way fan man to fly into your office right now anything can happen on morning combat right here where's galada yeah please uh look isaac cruz if you don't know as luke sort of mentioned he fights in sort of

that that you know mike tyson low crouch style coming in low in order to get inside he's going to have a big reach disadvantage as luke said but what he saw cruz does well go to the body rough you up make it more of a fight than a boxing match and for as unorthodox as he can be with the angles and the in some of the variety of combinations and hooks that he throws they're very effective so without question he's got to get inside we know he's going to push the pace there is that potential if he's successful at pushing the pace and getting inside, at slowing Gervonta down to the body and really outworking him. And I think if you're Isak Cruz, look, you're going to go in there going for the knockout because that's your style. But Gervonta's shown a very good chin up to this point,

and you're going to try to outwork him each round should this end up having a chance at going the distance. Ultimately, though, Luke, why the odds are so wide is because Gervonta is just that good he's 25 and 0 with 24 KOs that's 96 percent you only got to go the distance with him with some journeyman in like a sixth round fight seven years ago so Gervonta catches up with you with that power whether he's the smaller man as he was against Mario Barrios or he's the bigger guy in this point I think this has the potential to be a true reckoning for Cruz, though, Luke. If he doesn't, obviously you've got to be careful when you're going to rush a puncher like Gervonta,

but with the reach disadvantage and with the fact that Gervonta's outpunch really is that uppercut, Cruz is going to have to be smart at how he tries to duck in to get inside and the timing of it. He's going to have to punch his way in at times because that knockout could be tailor-made. And that's what Gervonta has said this week at the press conference and in most of the media events. Look, he respects Cruz's aggression, taking the fight at last minute, you know, no stone unturned. Cruz is focused 100% on cardio this camp, by the way, knowing this opportunity that he's going to have to bring it. But Davis believes it's a style that's tailor-made for him,

and I don't necessarily disagree with that. But some of the questions we had earlier this week, yes, Coach, Calvin Ford is still in the corner, but they did bring in Barry Hunter, so you've got two genius minds in there. I like what both coaches said at the press conference, essentially saying, okay, you know, we might be more skilled than Cruz, but this guy's way more dangerous than Romero. He's going to come to win.

He's going to cut angles. He's going to do some things. Luke, if he can't get inside on Davis, it could be over before the midpoint. Yeah, he's in trouble. I mean, as we mentioned, he gets so low, his opponents sometimes try to match that, and then he hits them with uppercuts, and then when they go up, he hits them over the top.

He's very, very good at playing the levels game in boxing. I'll say this, though, for Cruz. I mean, you're right. If he can't get inside, dude, like, Davis is going to just eat him alive. But what could be kind of interesting is we're seeing some of these, like, I'm not saying Tank is on the Crawford and Canelo pound-for-pound discussion. I mean, I know he's on the list, but not, there's a gap between them and where they are on that list.

But we are seeing some of these A-side guys, right, who are, you know, in that pound-for-pound discussion, kind of give rounds away, hoping to, like like just let the fight accumulate in their direction like a frog boiling in the pot dude it is entirely feasible to me that he you could see rounds where Davis is kind of hanging back maybe with his back on the ropes BC where he is kind of fielding things looking for that big shot and then the round kind of gets away from him.

Maybe Davis doesn't take a beating or anything, but he loses on the cards. I'm imagining a scenario if it goes to the 7th, 8th, or 9th. It is conceivable to me, very conceivable to me, Cruz could potentially be up on the cards if Davis isn't locked in on the right game plan and exercising it in a disciplined kind of way. I could see him kind of punting a few rounds waiting for the big shot,

and that could be a problem because Cruz can be hit, but his chin seems sturdy, dude. He seems quite durable, so if you're waiting for one or two big shots to land, Davis has fight-changing power, no doubt about it. He's the dominant puncher in this weight class, period. It could get interesting, depending on what style he likes to play here. Cruz is a one-note kind of guy, so the onus is on Davis to figure out what to do about it. And if he gets a little bit lazy or a little bit one-note himself, honestly, the scores could be all over the place. Yeah, if he gets a little too selective is really what you're saying.

If Cruz does a better job than we assume he will at covering up behind his guard and being hard to hit despite being in front of you. And look, sometimes if you crowd a guy and you close distance, you don't give him the room to get leverage. And although Gervonta is very adept at catching you coming in with the uppercut, if there's any part of his offensive game that we haven't seen over a long stretch because let's be honest you come at him he tends to get you out of there but if Cruz has a plus chin we haven't seen Gervonta really have to hold and fight and fight dirty on the inside this could be a good test of that a lot of things you mentioned of how Cruz could have a chance to be

up on the scorecards are potentially in play. I think the biggest problem, though, in the end is if this was the Gervonta Davis from two, three years ago, and I'm not saying he has cleaned up his life to a level where we're talking about a model citizen. I mean, we are very honest about Gervonta, a sublime talent who I don't think gets the full pound for pound recognition. But as a person, he's had some some bad issues. There's no question about that. But if this was two or three years ago, I think that was still a Gervonta that was maybe partying a little too much, believing in the hype a little bit too much.

You saw him lose the title on the scales in the Maymac co-main in 2017. I think we have seen a guy much more dialed in. It comes across in his interviews. He says he's quit drinking for the most part, which he says has been 100% the reason why he no longer has trouble making this weight we saw him make 130 against leo santa cruz without issue when before that he had had issue making any weight right we looked at gervonta as a guy who was kind of puffed up a little bit meaning he was he was a little bit chubbier than he needed to be at times he says he's curtailed that personal life

to at least focus on the craft it hasn't freed him completely of legal troubles but it has made him a dynamic well-rounded fighter who can box just as well he can bang so look as we get into the prediction here i'll tell you what the the guarantee is for me at least from a prediction standpoint is you're going to see fireworks this will be worth your time 100% because Cruz gets after it and for him to have a chance to win he has to go to that danger zone and make this a fight inevitably when you do that with a puncher of Gervonta's level and somebody with the skill to execute creative shots you will get. If Cruz has a chin that we don't know is possible, he may be able to last. But inevitably, Luke, 24 opponents have tried, right?

Except for that one guy, and 24 opponents have ended up being stopped. I'm looking at about a ninth-round knockout from Gervonta, and given the aggressiveness of Cruz, it could end up being spectacular. I'll go round 10. I think it'll take him a little bit longer to set himself. Cruz will be an available target, but again, I think a sturdy target. I'll say it one

more time, dude. Cruz is not the overall boxer that Gervonta Davis is, but here's what he does have in a certain kind of way that Gervonta doesn't. When the bell rings, he puts his hard hat on, and it's time to go to work, and that is exactly what he does. And he doesn't stop until the referee intervenes or the bell sounds. That has been in the past, as BC has indicated, sometimes that could be a style that has given Gervonta, if not trouble,

it hasn't showcased what he brings to boxing in the best way. So this is a nice test for Gervonta, not just to win against a very durable and challenging opponent, but against the kind that spoke to some of his previous weaknesses that he needs to iron out as he gets older and up the food chain. So fun fight. I like Gervonta to win. I think he's going to have to work for it, but I think he gets it around 10. Just a reminder, this is for the secondary WBA title. And the reason why this all matters is the lightweight division is on fire right now.

George Cambosis just upset Teofimo Lopez. He has three of four belts. While we know Devin Haney, the WBC champ, could be the frontrunner to getting him, if Gervonta Davis goes out here and looks spectacular, and then the PBC and Al Heyman and Showtime and company call up Lou DiBella and try to make a big offer, Gervonta's definitely in play should they want to unify

and move forward on that. It'll be fun to watch. Sebastian Fundora, by the way, in the co-main event, is an unbeaten junior middleweight who's 6'7 and lets his hands go. He's fun to watch. And, Luke, our old buddy Sergey Derevyanchenko, a very tough middleweight contender, has a good fight against Carlos Adamas on this pay-per-view undercard.

So some good matchups there. Luke, before we close off of Tank for Good, you didn't have that best interview in that podcast that's been circulating when they asked you if you would fight in the octagon one day i know you wanted to uh kind of yeah let's play that we have the audio here if you didn't see this this is this week you have a full send podcast they asked me if you want to fight mma here's what he said but we can't who's gonna actually people have But We can't hear you Actually people have

People have done it But not recently Like you can't kick me In the face like Can you kick him In the face Yeah yeah yeah You can do all that

You can do everything Knees Elbows Yeah you gotta be careful When you give that answer You just have to choose Someone that's maybe like Not a big wrestler

Or some shit Nah Somebody just Yeah I gotta fight somebody like in my weight class because i don't think nobody like get me like somebody in my weight getting me down like pinning me i don't i don't see that because we use i'm from the hood like we use some if i you go into the octagon yeah well i'll say this bc you know in his defense he is from baltimore

you know what i'm saying he had the same understanding of current mma as as my dad did who who by the way my dad and i used to watch my my dad's visiting this week love him he used to watch you know ufc 234 with me on the illegal pay-per-view box back in the 90s we always watched together he still thought when we were talking just recently that mma was no gloves that you can bite that it was just you know no weight classes gervonta is like you know you know i don't want anybody bigger than me that could take me down and pin me well that's not like really how it works but yeah i get it dude you know what you know what's funny to me is like uh you're right he's like i gotta find someone in my weight class it's like that's the law actually uh you have to it's there's no way to really get around that part

uh and the best part is like how like hood wrestling we i want someone in ufc to come around and be like you know how like uh roy nelson used to describe himself as like a kung fu fighter yeah i want someone to come around and be like i I'm a hood wrestler. Remember when, early UFC, the green card girls would have the discipline up on the card and be like, this fighter fights in Joe Sando. You know, here we go. Yeah, hood wrestling. I mean, he's from Baltimore.

You know, shouts to Purple Camo Nation. You know, they're a troubled bunch. Look, I do want to see, by the way, if this run for Gervonta in terms of, like, packing arenas continues. He's done it all over the East Coast. it before in in california in the in the tennis theater had a lot of celebrity turnout there in carson california now he's in the big arena at staples we'll find out sunday night once again only on showtime pay-per-view oh and by the way we will have

last thing last thing last thing we will have some special programming for that on sunday not saturday night remember gervonta Davis, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Yeah, get that right, please. Okay, Sunday's coming. All right, MMA fans, you know why you're here, and that's to talk Bellator and UFC. So topic number two, from Las Vegas at the Apex, very interesting, UFC on ESPN 31 fight night card. Who the hell's still calling it ESPN on UFCfc on espn 31 if you're still in that just stop it okay it's ufc vegas here we go phantom weights in the main event we hit the

storylines this week and this is a hell of a great matchup red hot 34 year old rob font representing massachusetts going to step up fresh off a nice string of victories maraish garbrandt and the likes against the king of Rio, the former featherweight champion, Jose Aldo. Luke, the betting odds have had this very close all week. I believe as we stand right now, Rob Font with Caesar Sportsbook, minus 140, Jose Aldo plus 120. X's and O's wise, Luke, does this, in Rob Font's chances here in a five-round fight,

just his second in his history, does it live and die behind that great jab that he offers? It certainly does. The jab, there's been a lot of analysts pre-fight have sort of pointed out, you know, if Rob Font can't get the jab going, obviously he's got a ton of other abilities, but he has developed a game where everything really lives behind that. Defensively, he's able to keep opponents off of him. He can set a rhythm behind his jab. He's got a lot of other, obviously, great combinations behind his jab. He can pressure behind it. He can retreat behind it. I mean, it's just, it is the center piece of his offense, which has become, as you see now, now he has the win over Cody Garbrandt, and he's facing off here against Jose Aldo. Quite formidable.

It is interesting, there was an article, I retweeted it, written by Richard Mann. Richard Mann works for Fightmetric. He's one of the guys who is behind the team there. He always looks at some of the inside stats ahead of time, and what he had shared was something pretty interesting, which is when opponents land on Jose Aldo more than five strikes per minute, he's never won. He loses all of those bouts. And when he keeps his opponents under that, he is 20 and one. The one that he lost was the Marlon Marais fight, which

a lot of people think he actually won. So you could almost make a case that when they're under five, he's undefeated. When they're over five, he can't win. The interesting part about Rob Font is he has a high degree of landing. What does he land per minute? On average, 5.58 strikes per minute. Dude, that's significant strikes anyway. That is exactly the kind of makeup that, at least in theory, could give Jose Aldo some problems. So it's not merely that the jab has to get going,

although that certainly is part of it, and they're both orthodox, so you wonder exactly what he might do to shut down the jab there. But in any case, it's the volume. The volume from Rob Font. If you see Rob Font, for example, one of the ways where he was not able to get off was when he was really retreating under the power of John Lineker.

Now, Rob Font went the distance in that fight because he is a very capable defensive fighter when he needs to be, but the power that came back, the power counter-striking from John Lineker was so overwhelming, it made it hard for Rob Font to get going. Jose Aldo's modus operandi here has got to be to shut down the jab, yes, but to limit what Rob Font can reasonably throw behind it or in overall totality because if he can't get that going, Jose Aldo can then start cooking himself. Now, how do you do that? You could do it the Peter Yan style where he got in southpaw and then the lead hand was shutting down the jab of Aldo

and he was going over the top of it and did actually a fair amount of body work in that fight and then that high-low inside-outside thing kind of gave him a lot of trouble, or you can do what Max Holloway did, which was, of course, switching stances, but then turning Jose Aldo, right, kind of always having him in motion. He wants to stand there in front of you and not move, and then trade counters or shots or combinations, because he's got great hand hand speed he can slip and throw at the same time like he's really really good there so Max Holloway turned him so he could never quite set in place and actually by the way in both fights turned him this direction one way turned

him that direction in the subsequent fight and then put all different kinds of weapons behind it but you get the idea there's a lot of different ways they could explore this but what you're looking for in this matchup pay attention to the volume of Rob Font. If it's kind of low or, you know, in the threes or whatever, probably not a fight he can win. But if he's moving and that jab is sticking, Jose Aldo might be in trouble. Rob Font, the last man to defeat current Bellator Bantamweight champion,

Sergio Pettis, who has a huge fight we'll get into shortly tonight. Rob Font's been on a run, Luke, and this division is so stacked. It's the deepest in the sport today globally and within the UFC, and I don't think the winner of this gets a title shot, but this is No. 4 against No. 5 Aldo, so there's no question that big-time stakes are in play. So for me, the key question of what this fight will ultimately answer, and I'm interested to hear your response, is if Rob Font wins,

it won't get maybe a title shot because you're going to have to rematch Jan and Sterling. You've got TJ Dillashaw, who's more a let's do. Do you think this, though, would answer that question? Is Rob Font truly one of the upper room elites at this weight class? I think people certainly have great respect for his game. That four-fight winning streak has been fantastic. But, Luke, I think if you talk to a lot of non-hardcores, they'll go, oh yeah, I know Rob Font, he's good, but I don't know if he's great. If he beats Jose

Aldo for his fifth straight, he's already ranked number four. Whether he's great or not, he's going to be put into nothing but great matchups moving on. When you look at Rob Font's game, do you see greatness? Well, here's what I can tell you I at Rob Font's game, do you see greatness? Well, here's what I can tell you I've seen. I mean, to your point, this would be his, clearly his toughest test to date and most important fight to date. The Garbrandt one before that served as that role previously, and then he passed that test with flying colors. So here we are now against Aldo. Anybody who watches tape on Rob Font will tell you, even from his earliest days in the UFC, he stood out a little bit. One, because he had a jab at a time when a lot of fighters, frankly, didn't.

He's always been a guy who was jab first, jab heavy, and built stuff behind it. That's been a piece in a lot of MMA fighters' games that's been missing. He will stand out for that reason. The other reason he stood out is he has always been very technical. I like watching technical fighters fight, man. I like what they can bring to the game. And even when they're overmatched, like he was in the case of Lineker at that time, he kept himself safe. He didn't get run over. He didn't get blown out. He got good experience there. So you've always had, you can't watch tape on Rob Font and not have respect for his coaches, for what he's turned in and the kind

of sort of beautiful technique that he brings to life. But to your point, some of those wins against the key guys were kind of missing up until recently. The reason why the Aldo fight to me is so different than the Garbrandt fight is that, yes, obviously Rob Font is a very, very, very talented guy and has earned this spot, no doubt about it. But beating Cody Garbrandt, who I think now is going down to flyweight and has kind of had some mixed results of late, he beat a quality fighter. I don't want to take it away from him. But I think even he and his team would tell you Jose Aldo is another level.

Jose Aldo went down to bantamweight and the Marais fight, whatever, throw it out, it doesn't matter. He's beaten everyone basically except who? Like Peter Jan, right? And he gave Jan some trouble. Okay, you can't beat Jan. Fine. But dude, he is beating very good bantamweights down there. He is as battle-tested and tried and true as they come. If you beat Jose Aldo cleanly, right? The judges didn't fuck it up or it wasn't a referee issue. Like you just beat him, whatever that means. They cannot take that away from you.

They cannot undercut it. They can say what they want. Like, you know, Jose's a little bit past it. He is a little bit past it in terms of his peak. He's not past it in terms of beating good elite fighters. He's quite in the thick of it right there. This is a meaningful win in every way. If he gets this one, you cannot deny Rob Font any longer. He will have firmly, firmly arrived. Yeah. Whether you think his game is truly great or not, the results have been great, and this would be the biggest one you mentioned. Let's now talk about Jose Aldo's outlook and chances in this fight. Oddsmakers rightfully giving him credit for the experience

for that recent run, the two wins you mentioned. Look, he's a destroyer at this weight class. I love the way his body is able to cut down, and there's no body fat. He comes out there looking to land hard and powerful strikes. He's 35, though, but he's got extreme experience going five rounds, which will be needed in this main event if it gets that far. Luke, the story on Aldo, you know, the last few years has been

if he could be the Jose of old and attack those legs, you know, he's a different type of fighter. How much do you see that as a potential strategy against Font, Jose of old and attack those legs, you know, he's a different type of fighter. How much do you see that as a potential strategy against font? Who who's got some quickness. I don't know if he's faster necessarily than Aldo, but a technical guy, a mover. If Jose can, can start chopping away at him. That's gotta be a big part of him sloning him down. Cause then Jose can be closer and set you up for those combinations.

And it, which is his trademark with the boxing. No doubt no doubt about it dude like the leg kicks would be a really important thing here but he has you know dropped off a cliff in terms of how he uses them he's become much more of a boxing heavy fighter himself and people have theorized about it is it strategy is it age is it some kind of injury or you know it just doesn't want to do it anymore probably a combination of all of them but again Richard Mann's article had pointed out, I mean, they used to be like 21% of his striking offense. It's something like less than 9% now. There's a lot of ways to take away the jab. You can slip off the jab encounter. You can leg kick it. You can, I mean, there's different stances from which you can kick inside and outside. There's just a lot

you can do. I don't know if he needs to go to the leg kick in the in the most pronounced way which you're talking about like leg kicker or it's all else i think jose aldo's got a lot of ability to to find answers to it but i would say that like there's a there's a version of this fight where he doesn't do enough of it and maybe cost himself in close rounds that could be worrisome but i don't think he needs to go back to what he did in wec where it was like one of every five strikes with one of these things no that's fair and by the way to do that it takes a toll that's on your gas tank and we'd seen jose even in his prime and peak sometimes fade a little bit at the end we remember

the mark hominick fifth round he faded against against Peter Jan, too, in the fourth. Absolutely. The spirit of the question, though, essentially implies, do you think if Aldo tries to point fight Rob Font, it's the wrong fighter to do that, considering where Aldo is in his career, Font's technical ability. I need Jose Aldo, whether it comes from leg kicks or not, to come out early and do damage. And, you know, that sometimes also can tax an older power fighter's gas tank toward the end.

Do you think that's going to be Aldo's strategy? Because I don't want to see him try to point fight Font. I want to see him say, okay, Rob Font, you've had a good run, but you're not on my level, and I'm going to show you why. I'm coming out. I'm not reckless, but I'm coming out guns blazing. I think what he is probably going to try and do is a smarter, more modern version of what Lineker did. Dude, Lineker landed on Rob Font where Rob was like, you know, eyeballs got like saucers.

And again, Rob is more experienced and he is certainly, you know, understands the game and has much improved since then. He's not bringing that version of himself into tomorrow night's fight. But Jose Aldo might be able to pick up on some things. We're like, dude, has it been shown that big power can deter Rob Fountain fights? Yes, it has. In this weight class, no doubt about it. And you got a guy like Jose Aldo who, I don't know if he's like a big power puncher, but he has certainly got the ability to have fight-changing strikes land with regularity in the course of his career, whether they're leg kicks. By the way, don't forget what's one part of Jose Aldo's offense that is incredible. Body shots, liver shots.

He is a vicious body puncher. I think that's going to be a huge part of how he deters some of Rob Font and the jab and everything. So, yeah, for sure, dude. I think it's going to be, you know, Rob is probably going to be content. I don't know. But like,

if he has to point fight his way to five rounds, I think Rob is willing to do that. I don't think Jose, to your point is as willing to do that. I think he wants to get in there and kind of physically put it on Rob in a way where Rob becomes less of who he was before. I love Bantamweight Aldo. I mean, I feel like, okay, it's not like he was never this guy.

He's always been super aggressive and goes after it, but I feel like since the Holloway knockout losses, he's been more of a, I'm going to go out there and let it go, and that happens to a great fighter when their reflexes slow a little bit and the speed slows with age. But the recent win streak shows you that he's still pretty damn near elite at this point. Luke, I love this matchup because head-to-head when I look at it,

I think Aldo's certainly the more experienced fighter. I still think skill-wise he's the better fighter. But you've got Font who's sort of the faster riser and the fresher fighter at the moment. What is that going to lead? What will be the results? I still think this is Aldo's fight to win. I still love the plus money on the veteran. If you look at the recent level of the quality of fighters that aldo has beat i still think rob font fits into that category i like jose aldo here luke do you think

him taking it to the ground and trying to wrestle something we don't always see a ton of could be part of the strategy at all from aldo yes from font maybe. Font goes for about one and a half takedowns per 15 minutes. Actually, excuse me, secures one and a half takedowns per 15 minutes. Typically, getting Jose Aldo down is hard, but I actually feel like if I'm Rob Font, especially if the jab is having a little bit of issue, or even if it's cooking, actually, you can go either way, but the point being is to bring some dynamism to the game, is get Jose Aldo thinking about the takedown about what might happen if he

gets too close and blah blah blah blah because remember takedown distance is jab distance not always but in general that's the way you want to be able to reach out and touch someone that's the that's the distance you want to be when you take someone down so yeah I would expect some level of that to be incorporated but as you know dude Jose Aldo I mean we've known this since Gray Maynard went down there to Nova Uniao years ago was like holy shit this guy's takedown defense is next fucking level he's got some of the best hand fighting by the way in the division um and uh and grip breaking if you guys ever noticed when fighters get behind Jose Aldo and they wrap up either with a gable grip or a s grip or c grip whatever you want to call it

he's very good about breaking that apart and getting away it's really really hard to get a tight waist around jose aldo and then let that ride um he's so gifted so i do think you should incorporate that to keep him off balance but you can't you can't bank on a game plan where you're like oh i'm just gonna take down jose aldo and get on top yeah good luck with that shit i was talking more about aldo being more offensive with his wrestling, which he isn't often, Luke. I'd love to see him implement more top game.

Now, look, again, you're taxing an older man's gas tank who is already cutting down to a weight that I didn't think he could ever make. But I think he could be a little bit more strategic in that. You don't see it as a possibility. That's fine. But, Luke, I see it as a possibility for Aldo to win this fight. I think he does have to stop Rob Fott. And i think when we get into those later rounds he will okay you heard it right here what round do you think championship rounds first three rounds seems

a little bit early to me yeah i like i like about the fourth round i think he's going to be able to go to the body and that's going to slow him down and hurt him and then look every great fighter can sometimes have a last stand i don't think we're at the last standpoint yet but if you told me you saw the future and this was jose aldo's last great win against a prime fighter in the moment I might be able to believe you I think Aldo's got enough here yeah well let's turn the tables I think you bring up a great point that we didn't discuss we're all like oh if Rob Font beats Jose it's such a great win that's true dude I'm gonna say the reverse if Jose Aldo gets a win of a Rob Font even if he's somewhat expected to by the oddsmakers,

to me that's a super quality win. It doesn't change my opinion about whether he could beat, you know, Jan or whoever the eventual champion might end up being. I still think he's a little bit outside of that. But, dude, you know, you want to tread water, and you beat a guy like Rob Font, especially if you stop a guy. Like, dude, John Lineker couldn't stop Rob Font. Jose Aldo does it.

That would be jose is in such a beloved portion of his career the crowd would go sick i know it's vegas it's the apex but the people will be getting fired up luke um shock majori on monday he he let out something he was like hey what if aldo wins this and we make aldo dillashaw probably not likely given that tj seems to be in the bullpen for a title shot. But let's say the injury lasts a little bit longer and TJ gets skipped over. Could you imagine how great that would be? I mean, you could still make that fight if Aldo loses

and we don't know what's going to happen with TJ moving forward. But I love me some old veterans matching up who still have something to give. I thought that was the fight to make when he wanted to come back and they ended up with the Corey Sanhagen fight. I think Dillashaw versus Aldo is like, I mean, that's just manna from heaven. I can't wait to see that if they make it.

So I'd be all in favor, but to your point, you know, with the title implications, who the hell, and also the timing with his injuries and shit. Well, I want to ask you who you think the winner of this fight gets.

I mean, it's number four versus number five, but you do have some big matchups in the division next week at UFC 269 when not only Sean O'Malley returns, but Cody Garbrandt, I'm sorry, Garbrandt moved on to flyweight, but you got Pedro Munoz, number eight, against Dominic Cruz, number 10. You've still got Murab Davachili, I butchered the name,

at number six. Could that be the guy who's the winner? It could be. Yeah, I mean, if I'm Sanhagen, you you know he has to ask himself a question here about like what he wants to do to get to the top if i'm him i'm actually going to take a step back and take someone outside the top five just to sort of work on some things and then work my way back up because you could say winner of this uh aldo font fight gets um san hagen i think that actually would make a lot of sense for where they rank in

the division but i i don't i don't know exactly what sandhagen and his team have cooking on this one um so i guess we'll have to see i don't i don't know what to see we'll talk more about it next week about sugar sean and i know he's been taking a certain level of matchups consistently because he feels like if i'm only going to get paid a certain amount why take the risk but you know one of these days lu, after he splatters another guy, his star power and celebrity could push him into a very, very big fight. I mean, eventually we've got to put O'Malley in there and find out who he really is, correct?

Yes, but there's so many factors that go into that, including his contract, that's really hard to know when that eventual push might get made. But there's no doubt, like he is. We thought it was the Chito Vera fight, and then he lost it, but he's due for a reckoning up the food chain. Absolutely, a referendum, if you will. Also on this card, Luke, we've talked it up, how fired the hell up we are. Very slight favorite, Brad Riddell of CKB fame, in there against Rafael Fizayev of the Kazakhstan nation.

And Luke, this is a virtual pick'em. We love the styles. We love the potential for action. They know a great deal about each other. What ultimately is the difference between these two when they touch gloves on Saturday night? Output. Output.

Fizayev has a much higher output and is much more willing to take one to give one that's not to say he has bad defense there were if you go back for example and watch the yon versus aldo fight there are clearly scenarios not all the time but there were a couple of scenarios where yon was willing to take a punch in a certain context because then it opened up a three or four punch combination to him but he was eating one and that goes to some of the stats against him. Dude, Fazaev is just much more active about trading, much more active about kind of receiving in the pocket depending on what he's trying to do. A guy like Rudell is a little bit more careful, a little bit more judicious, I think, with his offense. Although he'll throw in combination as well. It's not like

he has a low output. But I think what I'm paying attention to here, it's hard to know exactly how they're going to match up in an MMA context with the kickboxing and if one of them might go for the wrestling. That part, I never really know exactly what to say. But what I do think is the hurried pace of a guy like Fazaev. If you see Riddell trying to play catch-up to that, that could be a problem. Conversely, if you see Riddell slowing to play catch up to that, that could be a problem. Conversely, if you see Riddell slowing the fight down a little bit where Fazayev is sort of stuck, because Fazayev is going to be a rhythm guy, right?

He's going to be this sort of high energy guy. You've got to take that away from him by hook or by crook. That is sort of what you're looking for here. Whose style of offense is defining the complexion of the exchanges? The more judicious riddell the more active fizzia that to me is the central tension here well look riddell's great and i you know i want i want to see him get the chance to leap into this top 10 and take the big matchup to find out who he is we just saw that though in his last fight you just saw the pictures there against

drew dober it was the kind of fight that sounded like the one you're describing saturdays will be high pace dober went after it he had Ultimately, Riddell wins by unanimous decision. How much better do you think Vazaev is than Drew Dober? And what will that, you know, mean for what type of fight we're going to see? As a striker, I think he's probably much better. But, you know, I don't know how relevant that is. I mean, here's a big difference between them. If for per 15 minutes, Brad Riddell secures two takedowns per 15 minutes. Now, a couple of those times he got takedowns. It's because he got rocked like against Drew Dober.

I think must've five as well, but he also won both of those fights in the end because he had that other gear to go to maybe Fizaev rocks him, but Brad Riddell finds a way to take it to the mat and hold him down there. And so you end up getting a scenario like that. It's kind of hard to say exactly in direct answer to your question, but I guess what I would sort of point out is there are a few different gears that a guy like Riddell has to go to that I'm not saying Fazaev doesn't, but he hasn't shown it, at least by choice or whatever.

And so I'm looking to see Riddell not only slow down the striking a little bit, but I'm looking to see him change the places where this fight is contested along the fence line, down on the mat, that kind of a thing. Because this is not a kickboxing contest. It is an MMA fight. And he is, to me, at least in terms of MMA, I would say Riddell is actually more well-rounded. These odds are changing as I speak.

I mean, they were both in the minus, which is basically a pick-em with Fizyev just a slight more in there, and it's changed since then. Now, Cesar Sportsbook has plus 110 Riddell, minus 130 Fizyev. You see how competitive we expect this. Luke, at the end of the day, though, do you have a CKB or not when the winner is announced? I don't know. I haven't looked at the odds.

I think you talked about they had changed. Either way, they were close. I'll go Riddell. I think Fizyev is probably going to give him problems on the feet, and I also think that Fizyev is probably the faster athlete of the two, by the way. I think he's a little bit more explosive explosive a little bit more nimble between them but i do think that riddell is a little bit more well-rounded if he plays to those strengths this is a very winnable fight for

him look why after i read you the odds and how they change would you respond with i don't know i haven't seen the odds like what because i'm trying to i'm trying to read these numbers and prepare my answer i can't hang on every word all right i was just trying to read these numbers and prepare my answer. I can't hang on every word that you say. I was just trying to have a two-way conversation with my editorial spouse. I'm trying to ready my answer to make sure I don't fuck that part up. I apologize. Don't ask that up at all because people know I don't bring anything to the table. They're here for you.

Luke, when you look up and down this great card, do you have any predictions to make? Give me a lock. Give meke thomas lock on this card a lock now that is tough uh a lock wow i mean beyond cheyenne vlismas you know uh sounds like she did break free luke okay she did i hear you out vlismas uh I don't know what the origin of that is a lock on this one I don't know um you know what I'll probably this will probably blow up in my face but I am a big believer in Brendan Allen I think he's a very talented guy I think Chris Curtis is too but I've taken this fight in pretty quick succession I like Brendan Allen here I think he's very well-rounded very technical very well trained I like I like him here here I think he's very well rounded very technical very well trained

I like I like him here a lot Luke we haven't seen the best of Jimmy Crute yet still just 25 years old um this could be a good matchup for him uh against Jamal Hill to to put that back together he comes in as a slight favorite but he is coming off the TKO loss to Anthony Smith are you high on this man at all yes but some of those setbacks have shown that there's a lot of room left to go. Clearly, he's got big power. I think he's respectively well-rounded. But there's been some defensive issues to iron out. And against Jamal Hill, he's going to need him to be ironed out

because that guy can thump and he's quick. So, yeah, all these guys have certain moments where you're like, wow, they're really talented. It's the overall auditing that happens over time where you're like, there's still some things to work on. I think Crute's defense needs to be tightened up. The last-minute main card addition is Welterweight's Brian Barbarina against Darian Weeks.

Barbarina's lost three of four, Luke, but he is must-see TV every time out. Old Bam Bam himself, okay? Yes, I think he's half Colombian, by the way. Oh, wow. That might explain his toughness, Luke, and willing to get after it. It certainly might. That wasn't suggestive or stereotypic at all. No. Stereotypic?

I don't want to say racist. It's not racist. It's a little racist, but that's okay. You know who my favorite Colombian person is of all time, Luke? I'm going to guess you're going to make some drug dealer joke. No, I don't do that anymore since you told me how much it hurts your family. Edison Miranda, remember that? Boxing light heavyweight that boxing light oh yeah yeah yeah wait who was the guy that beat khan british prescott yes yes one punch to mirakhan yeah he was also cool yeah i love that guy all right luke uh ufc is saturday but tonight 10 p.m eastern is your main card only on Showtime. Guys, I mean, if you already know, you know.

But if you're somehow a casual here, this is a world-class main event for the Bantamweight world title. Bellator 72 going down in Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun. Sergio Pettis, your new Bellator Bantamweight champion, but he will be the betting underdog at plus 140 when he welcomes back to the Bellator cage, Hioji Horiguchi, a minus 160 favorite. Luke, for anyone that was sleeping,

Horiguchi's been off for a year with a knee injury, but he beat Darren Caldwell in those back-to-back fights, one in Bellator, one in Rizin, to win the Bantamweight title for Bellator. He lost to Kai Asakura, but avenged it by knockout to win the Rizin title. Apparently I mispronounce Rizin, Rizin, all the time. People are very upset at me, Luke. I'm sorry about that. Luke, we love this matchup. We went over the storylines.

You and I did weigh-in coverage for CBS Sports HQ. We got a chance to talk to Sergio Pettis. He told me about the mindset change on his four-fight win streak. The old guy is gone. He's no longer Showtime's little bro. He is a full-fledged, complete elite fighter. But good Lord, Horiguchi is great, Luke. I mean, it's just there's nothing better than to see a matchup this good,

to see Pettis come out and say, I'm the champion, but I'm not the real champion unless I beat the guy who never lost it in the Bellator cage. We go to X's and O's on Fridays. What should we look for in this fantastic pairing? I think in certain ways, obviously Juan Archuleta and Kyoji Horiguchi are wildly different opponents. But one thing that they might have in common, might, we'll have to see what game plan he employs,

is that he was going to be, both guys are going to float on the outside and then make either these blitzes or these brief charges into the pocket to strike. But the difference is that a guy like Archuleta is going to do that off like wrestling feints and he's going to be boxing heavy in MMA to get to that. A guy like Horiguchi is going to be much more judicious with that. He's going to be able to bounce in and out of pocket versus like I'm out, I'm in and I'm gone. He's going to be able to play with that a little bit. And so while it's good to have an opponent who was on the outside, who you had to learn how to corner and then anticipate some of the movement towards you to react to, Kyoji Horiguchi is just going to be a lot different.

I think the Kai Asakura fights tell us a lot. Why did he lose the first time? He got overconfident and charged right in and didn't really set up his entries very well and got timed over the top off of his jab. You could just see it coming. Kai Asakura just waited for him, popped him, and then closed the show from there.

In the rematch, what you saw was something very different. Horiguchi playing very much on the outside. Tons of feints, tons of fakes, tons of turning. And then going for that outside low calf kick. And it was devastating. Kaya Sakura couldn't stand after maybe four or five of them. He was in deep trouble. And then by that point, he was so hobbled, he got hit with a big shot.

And then, you know know obviously horiguchi finished him off from there so what i'm expecting here is again sergio pettis kind of stalking i'm expecting horiguchi to work from the outside but i think horiguchi is going to be much more careful maintaining distance learning to strike at the furthest away range as possible the safest one and then slowly getting closer and closer as he begins to figure out some of the nuances and the responses that Sergio Pettis shows him, which means there might be some slow moments of the fight,

but I think it will heat up over the course of time. A guy like Horiguchi, who is so nimble, so fast, he has to be very careful about making sure he stays far enough away to stay out of big problems because a guy like Sergio Pettis, dude, his ability to time people between beats is incredible. It's very, very good. In fact, that's how he got his only stoppage win inside Bellator against the Armenian guy whose name I forget.

But this is what I'm expecting. What about Georgi Karhanian? No, no, it's a 145 fighter. It's a different guy. I forget his name. It was the debut, I think, in Bellator for Pettis, and he won in vicious fashion. Yeah, Alfred Kashkayan?

Yeah, that guy. That guy. Yeah, that guy. He caught him right between punches. It was incredible. And that choked him out. Yeah, that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a guy like Horiguchi on the outside,

pot-shotting at first, and then slowly getting warmer as the fight heats up. Look, the major difference between these guys might be power, the finishing power of Horiguchi, the physical strength. It's hard to body this guy. He's so well-rounded and so smart at the end of the day. But, Luke, we saw Pettis use Archuleta's aggressiveness sort of against him, waiting for him to come in, disrupting his rhythm, as you said, but really just landing clean counter shots

and kind of making him look a little bit one-dimensional. In that regard, he kind of waited back. Who do you think becomes the aggressor early on in this fight? Pettis. I think Pettis will look to counter-strike, but I think he's going to look to elicit a response. Do Horiguchi got into trouble when he became the pressure-you-backwards kind of fighter? Especially a guy like Sergio Pettis, who's clinical, has good timing, can slip punches.

You can't just run into him. I expect it's actually going to be Pettis who's looking to pressure and then elicit some kind of response from Horiguchi and then counter that. Horiguchi's challenge is going to be obviously getting out of the way of whatever potential counter is thrown from Pettis. Do you see wrestling playing a factor in this game? Yes, I do. I think Pettis has very underrated wrestling.

Again, it's the Rob Font thing. Even if you don't get the takedown, if Horiguchi has to worry about it and think about it and he has to make decisions about how to get around it, that's going to change the equation a little bit i think horiguchi you know obviously darian caldwell was able to get him down for big portions of however long both fights lasted um but you know pettis is not darian caldwell and isn't going to pursue a game plan like that but i think again off balancing people getting them thinking high low that stuff can be quite beneficial. So I'm not expecting a wrestling-heavy fight,

but I'm expecting a dynamic setup process from Sergio Pettis as the fight wears on. Luke, when you look at what they both accomplished, maybe the experience edge goes to Horiguchi, and let's not forget he was 7-1 in the UFC, 9-1 in Ryzen. But yet Pettis, I mean, he's got wins over Joe Benavidez, over an early pre-champion Brandon Moreno. I mean, he's no slouch himself. Would you say, though, that given the stakes and given where both of them are at in their careers now,

that whoever wins will have scored the biggest, most impressive win of their career? For Sergio Pettis, yes. Yes. For Kyoji Horiguchi, that's a different one. Because here's the thing. Single, okay, as a single best win, maybe. I guess what I just want to point out is,

I put the two Darian Caldwell wins together as like such an impressive feat you know what I mean I really thought that was extremely impressive the way he did that but as a singular one win yeah it might actually be this might actually be mutually their toughest test that's a little bit debatable but definitely true in the case of Sergio and I would argue yeah probably in the case of Kyoji Horiguchi as well look you and I have already gone public on CBS Sports HQ we both like the former champ to get back in there and reclaim his belt we also both believe it goes the distance and it's a decision win for Horiguchi but if you're Sergio Pettis how do you change that Luke we don't look at him as a big finisher can Can he come out and now look, let's hold it out.

We don't know what's going to happen. Is Horiguchi the same fighter after the knee injury? He's young enough. He probably will be. Okay, I expect a great Horiguchi. If you're Sergio Pettis, though, can you raise your game to an even higher level through movement, through strategy? What can he do to pull the upset here, although the odds are very close?

Imagine a scenario like yon versus aldo and for folks who may not remember yon is a switch hitter but aldo is in orthodox so he's this way yon decided somewhere i think around the second round or so certainly the third on to go southpaw he switched a little bit but he stayed in southpaw and it shut down the jab of jose aldo and a few other things but the real key insight to me was he was able to crowd Jose Aldo, which is also one of the reasons why Aldo couldn't get off as many leg kicks, probably, in that fight as he wanted to. Sergio Pettis sometimes in fights has ability to corner fighters, but he hovers.

He doesn't really get into that tight window where he can force dramatic action, hold the jab if you're, you know, opposite stances, and then go to the body with your cross or whatever you may do. He kind of hovers a little bit further away. What he needs to do this time is similar kind of approach, except he needs to get in close. You got to, dude, just think about it rationally. If Kyoji Horiguchi has room to move, and he has has room to blitz and he has room to evade how are you going to beat him it is possible certainly that's going to be fucking hard you gotta you gotta take that away from him you have to crowd him you have to make him feel like he is trapped in a phone booth and you have to give him a series of bad choices to make upon which you know how to

act thereafter if koji horiguchi can move, he can win. Simple as that. Does it matter at all that Horiguchi has been in a cage, what, just one time in the last ten fights? That doesn't matter, right? It's not great. It's not great. But he's not some inexperienced guy, right?

Like, Koji Horiguchi has 32 pro fights. I know he had a great run the ufc he's no stranger to a cage i'm just looking at potential x factor yeah i think again and then the injury to his knee as well i think these are all to your point these are great questions to ask definitely things to pay attention to and by the way i know there's a lot of folks who kind of think okay i respect sergio pettis but this is horiguchi gonna win and it's just you know whatever when ear out the other, and they're not necessarily paying as much attention to this as they should be. Dude, a Sergio Pettis win here should not be surprising if it happens. I don't think it's the likeliest outcome, but it should hardly be surprising.

This dude is 28, dude. He's 28. He is good. He is very good. So there are some X factors in play play and maybe the knee will be an issue maybe you know who knows there are a few factors but um it is close enough where if he has a little bit of rust and a little bit of knee issues that can make all the difference by the time you hit the championship rounds this is a fun fight just kick him right in the knee just be

like okay now we're fighting just stomp that shit. We've known SP for, he turned pro 10 years ago. We've known him for most of that because he came to the UFC very early in his brother's shadow. The narrative when he beat Archuleta rightfully was, you know, he's out of that shadow. He has really found out how to be great, and I give him all that credit. You think he can eclipse his brother's legacy? I mean, it feels like he's only 28,

and he's just figuring out how great he can be it's in play Luke it's in play but that's a big ask not because Sergio doesn't have a great record he does but like here's the other part too Pettis is still living maybe it was a curse more than anything else but he's still living in the like this is the dude on the Wheaties box you know um Pettis Sergio Pettis is a while from that it's not this is dude this is such a quality win if he can get it that I think then at that point you begin to be like okay let's actually compare their resumes and maybe they're not the same but you know you you enter a different territory of the conversation but in terms of

like widespread acclaim I think actually Sergio Pettis has a lot of work to do. Luke, I gave you the sneaky Spike Carlisle. Bellator debut has something to watch for. Do you have anything to offer the fans? Is it a Kyle Krutchmer, Oliver, and Kev matchup? What on this card will have you tuning in before the main event, interested and excited? Candidly, I don't love a whole lot about the card. There are some interesting fighters on there.

Alex, I can't pronounce it right, Shabli, the Russian guy who's 20 and 3, sort of a hot prospect at 155 pounds, by the way. A guy who was cut from the UFC, but very, very competitive in close fights. Kai Kamaka is making his Bellator. Yeah, he's got the best hats in maybe

all of MMA. He's just got tremendous, tremendous work. A guy out of Extreme Couture. He was in the fights that he ultimately lost. Very, very talented. But dude, it's got to be the co-main event. Also out of Extreme Couture, Jeremy Kennedy taking on Emmanuel Sanchez. Emmanuel Sanchez, he got blown out by Pitbull in the semis of that Grand Prix. This dude can fight. He is so, so talented. And Jeremy Kennedy is no slouch himself. 16-3 record. Has fought very, very good guys I think it's a tough fight for Kennedy but I do think it's winnable and in either case Emmanuel

Sanchez still I'm not saying he has to prove he can get finishes or something like that BC uh I don't think it's quite like as starkly laid out as that but I will say that like if he can add to the resume of like now I can reliably be trusted to finish off opponents that are not as good as me, that would only hasten his chances to get back at a title opportunity. It's a sneaky-maker-brain fight for him because, okay, he lost to Patricio in the rematch, but then he lost to Mads Brunel in a competitive fight, Luke, so he could use a big win to remain in that greater title picture overall.

Yes, but Mads Brunel also like criminally underrated and can wrestle his ass off. Kennedy can wrestle, did by no means slouch on the mat. Probably not as like chain wrestling, grappling position ability oriented, I should say, as Mads

Brunel. Doesn't quite have that. Alright, also boxing this weekend, we hit the storylines earlier in the week, but it goes down to Vegas at the MGM Grand Unbeaten WBC Lightweight Champion, Devin Haney, just 23 years old, one of the most promising, well-rounded, skilled young fighters in this game, taking on a hungry former two-division champion, Joseph Diaz Jr., a southpaw who brings the action.

Kim Bocks, he was an Olympian, but he's known for that aggressiveness. Luke, I expect this to be a fun matchup, especially considering Devin Haney in that step-up fight against Jorge Linares that we mentioned earlier in the week, his last time out. Looked amazing for 10 rounds and then really had to hang on late when he got that chin tested. The overall storyline, though, is that lightweight title picture and the fact that George Cambosos is

the new unlikely king with three or four titles. The only title he does not have is around the waist of Devin Haney. Cambosos has said, look, Haney's the frontrunner. I want to do it in Australia in front of 80,000 in a soccer stadium or rugby stadium, whatever the hell you guys play there down

under, full respect. But Haney said, look, I want that fight too. So look, we know the potential stakes right here, but I got to give some respect, which people think I did not give to Cambosos because we spent so much time on the storyline of Teofimo's potential free fall, which was warranted editorially on our end. But since that victory, Cambosos has done nothing but keep himself in the public eye.

I don't know who he's using as a PR agent, but, Luke, he's been interviewed by every single media outlet and show, essentially except for us. And he's really got his face and name out there. And I saw Lou DiBella tweet that they're going to have Cambosos Saturday night ringside for this Haney DiaDiaz fight in Vegas. And then the next night ringside in L.A. for the Gervonta Davis fight. So it's a potential tryout for both Davis and Haney to try to get that fight.

But I also got to give Cambosis credit, Luke. This is the way to stay known heading into trying to cash in on your biggest payday. I will say it, too. We were wrong about George Kambosis' chances, and we were wrong about who he is as a person. He fought superbly against Lopez. There's no denying that. And he has played the win about as well as a human being can play it,

both in terms of asserting what he always knew to be true to make his story likable. He worked hard for it, and he is like, buddy, you want to talk about striking when the iron is hot? This is the way to do it. He has shaken that division up in the most interesting of ways. I don't know how long he'll be a player. We'll have to see.

It's a tough division to be a player in at the, at the, at the pace and the place he is, but dude, he has my respect. This guy is not taking his foot off the gas. And I honestly can't wait to see, like, do I expect Davis to beat Haney? Ultimately? Probably not. Right. I think probably Haney is going to get his hand raised here, but George has just, his win has made us rethink all the different possibilities of what could happen and what could be coming and going and who's up and who's down and what might be interesting and what is inevitable and what is not inevitable. I love what he's bringing to the table here.

He's making a fight that seemed a little bit ho-hum, candidly, a lot more interesting now that he's there. And when he can offer the potential of a full stadium like that in Australia, where they are, as we already know, you know, die hard for combat sports. We've seen some of the biggest crowds in UFC history down under. We've seen Manny Pacquiao and Jeff Horn in front of that giant stadium, so that would be a fun event. But first, Haney's got to get past Diaz.

And, Luke, with what we talked about, I mean, Haney is so damn skilled in every category. We got to really find out here. Was that a hiccup against Linares? Does he have the chin, the backbone? I believe Joseph Diaz is going to try to find that out. He has sort of, you know, evolved out of being a pure boxer. I know this week he talked up about, hey, don't forget me. I'm a great boxer.

Well, dude, you're a good boxer. You're not outboxing Devin Haney. Your chance to do it, in my opinion, is for Diaz to get inside, take chances, and make this a fight. Because Luke, Haney is so skilled. We saw it against Yorick Escambola when he got booed, that he can outbox you from distance in the most boring fashion possible and not get touched. Haney is that quick, smart, and just technically flawless. He's also going to have a 7-inch reach advantage over JoJo Diaz here. I'm so glad you brought that up, yes. Which is monster. So, Luke, if I'm Joseph Diaz, I've got to be willing to get knocked out

to try to win this fight because we're talking about, is Gervonta in the sweepstakes for Cambosis? Is Ryan Garcia? Hey, guys, how about Jojo Diaz if he comes out here and upsets Devin Haney he may put himself right in that mix he's got some nice wins Jojo does the Tevin Farmer win stands out the Javier Fortuna win stands out but with all due respect to Fortuna and Farmer, I have great respect for both of them as boxers. They are very, very good. Haney, if he's operating at his distance, is better than both of them. I mean, by a considerable margin at that. Listen, Jojo Diaz can win this fight.

But if he can't get on the inside, he cannot win this fight. It is just as simple as that. You don't have to be a boxing expert, BC, at all. Go type in Diaz highlights here for him and see what comes up. And all of it is him, not quite phone booth all the time, but really kind of close range, head to head sometimes, shoulder to shoulder, real inside fighting kind of stuff. He's not going to be the stick-and-move operator that Devin Haney is going to try to be for long stretches of this fight. But, as you indicated, against Linares, he got tagged with one, and then the legs went whoop, and you were like, well, wait a second.

So, it will be interesting to the extent that Jojo Diaz can make it interesting, but that is, I'll make it as simple as I can if he can't get inside that reach it is not a winnable contest for him period he has had problems comparative to the other four princes to look at you know super exciting and sometimes it's because he's so skilled he can just do it boring and get it done but Luke you know if you're just comparing skills between Ryan Garcia, Teofimo, Gervonta, and now Devin Haney, hey, Haney might be palm for palm the most skilled. So the pedigree is there for him to be a superstar, but you got to win these tests. I'm very much

looking forward to this fight on Saturday. It's on the zone and to see if Diaz can push that pressure. But the pick has to go with Haney because of the skills, the reach. Vegas has minus 600 for Haney, plus 425 for Joseph Diaz. So as you mentioned, if things go right for Diaz, he is very skilled and tough. And look, I kind of like Diaz's public rebrand.

He kind of came up as like Golden Boy Jr. He was promoted by Oscar De La Hoya. He was a fresh-faced, good-looking kid. Have you noticed he's now going with the trucker hat and the necktats and the tough-guy goatee? I kind of like the look. What is your opinion? What would it take for you to get a neck tattoo?

Probably a prison sentence. But that's fine, right? If I get a neck tattoo in the next five years, because I do like neck tattoos, would you disown me? I wouldn't because obviously the stigma has changed. But, you know, when you grew up in the 90s, if you saw somebody with a tattoo on their hand or their neck. Yeah. You know, you'd be wondering.

That was you're either a crip, a blood, or, you know, in the Aryan nation. You've definitely done time. The only question is, are you going to stab me? That was what it used to be. Now it's hip and cool and, you know, for chicks even, I guess. Dude, Gervonta has his whole neck blasted and also, like, the under part of his jaw. Like, it doesn't come over the jawline. It looks like a beard.

Yeah, it's almost like an underbeard, yeah. That's interesting. I like it. I like it. I like it. Luke, I do have to get over the hurdle of my hatred of needles and just the whole, you know. Like, I'm really bad at giving blood. And you can say what you want about me. That's fine.

Luke, we all have dark holes, right? Spiders, black licorice, needles. I can't do it, Luke. I'm sorry, all right? It's not that bad. Once you get your MK tattoo, you'll realize it's not that big a deal. And then I'll just go for it, right? That's right.

Then you're going to get your whole shit blasted, and you're going to look like Stitches, the rapper from Florida. How much would it cost me to get a sleeve on one arm from a decently skilled guy? I can give you a rough estimate. So I would say from a decently skilled guy. Yeah, and remember, I'm cheap. I'm really cheap, Luke really cheap okay you know that four thousand used to having money okay i'm a cheap bastard about four thousand dollars probably

it's less the money it's more of the fact you might have to sit in a chair for 18 to 24 hours that would be the the issue can i get blasted beforehand or that's not safe? It's not safe. Here's one thing. I got tattoos in my 20s when they didn't have... Well, if they had this, I didn't know about it. But now, dude, they've got... In fact... So now they have

numbing cream. This is one that I... I've only used it for this tattoo. I tried it out. I didn't apply it very well, so it didn't work that well, but where it did work, it was pretty interesting. You can get numbing cream like this right there. TXTK is the one. It's from China, so it probably isn't safe. It probably gave me COVID and Ebola at the same time. I have no idea, but what you can do is if you apply it properly, I've seen guys put it on their neck and their

legs, for example, for big pieces, and they didn't feel a thing for as long as they were in there so you can do that now you can take the you can take the pussy more culturally inappropriate me assuming that when you had malaria in egypt that the only toilets was a hole in the ground are you saying that uh that chinese numbing cream will give you the omnicron uh it's not omnicron it's omicron. It's not Omicron. It's Omicron. There's no N behind the M. Thank you, Dr. Luke Fauci. Hey, Luke, what? Well, it's just a Greek letter. I mean, if I'm going to get teeth pulled, they can put me out.

And, you know, I'm trusting my body with the doctors while I'm out. Why can't tell me the science? Why can I not say I want a full sleeve for 4K, but I don't want to feel that shit. So just put me out well I don't think they can give you anesthesia number one uh you have to be an anesthesiologist for that and number two could they give you and it takes time like could they give you anesthesia and anesthetics for 24 hours I think you'd die I think people do that that. It's called illegal drugs, Klonopins. You know, you could be out for three days, Luke, right?

Hey, I've taken Klonopin. It's a fun ride, but I wouldn't want to get tatted on it. All I'm saying is that sounds like a business proposal. If you're a tattoo artist and your friend is a doctor who has access to, yeah, why don't you just merge businesses, Luke? There you go, right? Yeah, I'm sure people have thought of this before, but it sounds like a bad idea. All right, all right right let's close with quick hitters as we do in our

fifth topic every friday luke i will read some news and you'll tell me your reaction to them we'll start in the ufc um our producer writes aspen lad is heading to bantamweight she's always been at bantamweight luke the problem is is she heading to featherweight? But as she told MMA Junkie, talking about Misha Tate, I think Misha's definitely stirred the pot quite a bit. We all have life experiences, right? But without knowing what's happened to another person, you can't just apply, like, your triggers and what's wrong with you to them. She has a tendency to see the world through what's happened to her in the past.

I don't want to talk ass, but I definitely want that fight. You said some things, Misha. let's go handle it like adults here luke um is she leaving bantamweight did mikey get the headline wrong here is she going to featherweight she probably should luke you you passed out on a scale twice in four fights you probably should move up right uh yeah but i think if she wants me to take it's only going to happen at 135. So, all right. Tate just lost a five rounder, Luke. She's probably going to be looking for names moving forward. Do you like this fight?

I do. But remember when Aspen Ladd got grilled in her corner by her corner man, it was Misha Tate who came out and had a lot to say about it on the radio show and Sirius XM and social media and other places. I guess Aspen Ladd caught wind of it and now wants I guess to avenge it actually makes it work for a decent kind of you know get back scrap for both of them I actually like it a lot so yeah let's make that fight I like when there's something salty to talk about heading into a fight right Luke you it's about the only thing you like

but yes if I could write their material I'd get Aspen going on that atv that carraway stole i'd get i get all the you know yeah man all right hey john jones luke uh had an explosive uh you had explosive diarrhea last week john jones had an explosive few days on twitter taking out his wrath on former coach mike winkle john luke i believe we have the tweets to throw up there's about you, 86 of them over 48 hours. But essentially, Coach Winklejohn went on national TV and told his side of the story. And John has called them everything from a lot. Let me ask a question here. When he says national TV, does he just mean Ariel's show?

I think so. I mean, you know, internet is the new TV of the future, Luke, right? No, no, I understand. I understand what he meant. But I'm just trying to clarify, like, did he go on Oprah or some shit? And, like, I didn't he meant, but I was just trying to clarify. Did he go on Oprah or some shit and I didn't hear or whatever? Is somebody's podcast? I don't know about that. Yeah, I mean, look, John grew up the same era we did, Luke, okay?

He's whatever. But Winkle John, who, by the way, if you were sleeping, said that John Jones can no longer train at their gym after the most recent arrest. Excuse me. John Jones, though, just took Coach Greg Jackson and the other assistants and went to a satellite gym but luke uh jones is very upset and in fact he is threatening to air winkle john's

dirty laundry moving forward um just keep playing these tweets in the background you know i think people are expecting us to tee up the pinata and you to just hammer it, Luke. But what was your reaction to old Boney getting this upset? What stage of therapy and getting right with your life is assassinating the character of old coaches on social media? I don't know what stage of actual therapeutic help that one is in. I've never heard of it. This is what I mean. It's like, dude, I don't give a fuck about this, honestly.

You know, this is like, I'm not saying that there are no merits to his claim or that in every case if he feels wrong, he certainly is allowed as an adult to say what he wants. Doesn't look to me like there's a real, the guy kicked him out of a gym. Let's be clear about this. He kicked him out of...

Or suspended him, or whatever language you want to use, because John was accused by law enforcement of hitting his head on the car of a vehicle and then being intoxicated, and there were at least some seemingly credible allegations in the course of this that he may have put his hands on his significant other. And, you know, you can go from there.

You can all read the police report and listen to the 911 call yourself. He is reacting to that. I heard Winkle John's interview with Ariel. It is about as tepid and reasonable, quite frankly, as a person could be in that situation. That's not to say that the totality of anyone's life isn't filled with hypocrisies. John could be well right, but it's like, dude, if you're out there tweeting about this, what stage of recovery is this? This is not anything related to recovery.

He's his own man. He can do it. But I don't care about anything he says until there is evidence he actually is taking his situation seriously in terms of recovery and i don't see a shred of evidence of that happening jones accused wink of running off every one of greg jackson's original fighters i can't think of a jackson's veteran that still talks with this asshole but he spelled asshole as two words a s s also misspelled his own name o l e-O-L-E Like the whole ass Not the whole, but the whole ass Which was great

And then he said, look, Winx is spending me from the team Changed nothing, which we already knew Just don't go on TV and pretend to give a shit About someone who has made you so much money Over the years Giving you so many world championships And then behind closed doors secretly try to crush them Real douchebag move

mike we literally had a convicted rapist training on the team for years and now all of a sudden mike has morals get out of here luke that part rubbed me the wrong way to be fair all right now we're comparing sins luke yeah again what part of recovery is assassinating the character of your coach on social media after they kick you out of a gym for your own misconduct. Again, this is just all theater, and it means nothing. Let's say we announce that next week we will have an exclusive one-on-one interview done by Luke Thomas. Who would be the most – which guests do you think the fans

would be most surprised at? I'll give you a list here, okay? Jon Jones. Mm-hmm. Dana White. Mm-hmm. Conor McGregor. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich.

McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. At participating McDonald's in Canada. Okay. You'll want a young J-Check. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. You'll want a young J check. Which of the four, if we announced, hey, you're not going to want to miss this exclusive one-on-one Luke Thomas sits down with,

which one would they be most surprised? Okay, hold on. Let me parse this question a little bit. Are you asking which interview would generate the most amount of attention or are you asking which one, generate the most amount of attention? Or are you asking which one, as the fans read who's on there, which one would generate the most genuine surprise? That could be mutually exclusive depending on the name,

but both is what I'm asking. Probably Jon Jones. Probably. Probably. But, I mean, my level of interest in talking to him is less than zero. I was hoping for you on a really fair that would that would be number two that would be number two I also have less than zero interest in talking to but um yeah probably those two Dana White I've actually interviewed before and you know a long time ago but yeah but would you go to bat against Dana and protect me like you failed to do in the face of Josh Thompson,

Floyd Mayweather. I didn't think, dude, you were a little soft about that. I didn't think you needed, like, you know, you're a big boy. You don't need me to, like, fight your battles for you. But if Dana came after you. I did get your back when the punk did that ill-timed mom joke. All right, I did get your back, okay? I did drive you to the ER that time.

In a way, I didn't ask you to. I mean, I left you at the ER. okay i did drive you to the er that time i mean i left the er but i did drive you to the er well they actually kicked you out of the er to your defense they were like get the fuck out you little prick yeah you little prick uh speaking of dana white luke unfortunately he has contracted covet 19 i'm not sure if it's the uh the Omnitron version or not, but Luke, he spoke to the Jim Rome podcast, and he said that he did cold plunge and steam every day, and then he picked up his phone and called one Joe Rogan, noted scientist, doctor, and COVID expert. And here's the quote from Dana. Joe said, as soon as you get up in the morning, get tested.

So I get up at nine on Monday. I get tested. I test positive. He said, get monoclonal antibodies as soon as possible. I did. By noon, I had them. And then he told me to do a NAD drip. I did that.

I get up Tuesday getting ready to shave. I clean my razor. I could smell the alcohol. My taste and smell were back the next day by 11 a.m. Then I took a dose of ivermectin and then I did a vitamin drip. And then today I did another NAD drip. Could not feel any better. Feel like a million bucks. I'm doing two a day workouts, by the way, for the next 10 days while I have COVID. I'm in quarantine. I can smell and taste. And I got him back in less than 24 hours. End quote.

Luke, there should be lines of people now in Austin, Texas, lining up outside Joe's studio to get cured, correct? Yeah, if you have a ton of money and access to unproven drugs, by all means. What is an MAD drip, Luke? I'm not entirely sure um you know listen i'll say this for dana he's vaccinated he'll be fine you know okay should we should we look at this as proof though that that joe is a leading expert yes we should always look at uh anecdotal evidence for which there is no large-scale support as proof of things because it confirms our priors rather than looking at the body of work,

which shows that much of the stuff that, at least in the case of ivermectin, there is no good evidence whatsoever that it does anything. The jury is still out. We don't really have a full grasp of the issue yet and fairness to it, but there is nothing currently that suggests it does anything uh related to covid thank you i won't i won't poke the bear anymore just you just listen here here we go ready for everyone just get fucking vaccinated it's free what the fuck i got the booster luke i feel great yeah i got the booster too it's be like oh go get that booster

i'm like motherfucker do you know what they shot me with when i was in the marine corps i don't even know i've got the anthrax vaccine that took three little fucking sticks as well you know i don't i don't i don't listen some people have this i don't and it was yeah you had to get the three needles in there with the anthrax as well i don't have an irrational fear of vaccines that i dress up in political freedom language because i'm an adult so for other adults out there just go get your booster and quit being a fucking idiot about it there you go end of story and dana is vaccinated so he'll be fine luke you just lost another 10 percent of our fan base for that rant thank you good goodbye goodbye quickly here luke felicia spencer has announced her retirement at age 31.

The UFC women's featherweight is nine and three overall, was two and three in her last five since 2019, including decision defeats to Amanda Nunes and Chris Cyborg in separate title bouts. Luke, your reaction. Sorry, the Cyborg was a non-title one. You get my point. Your reaction to this movie? I would say good for her.

Listen, Duke Rufus had a post on Instagram recently that sort of like succinctly put something to think about. The fight game only really works for you if you do it spectacularly, right? If you do it spectacularly, either you get a bunch of wins or a bunch of money or something, there's some kind of real spectacular dimension to your career, then it can work for you. But if you're anything less than that, it just won't. It will be very, very brutal on you. She had, Felicia Spencer, totally commendable ability. I think she's a black belt in jujitsu as well, but she was also a math teacher. She was not doing MMA spectacularly. You cannot argue that she was. I think she realizes she was not doing it spectacularly. So while commendable and high level and certainly achieved some noteworthy things in her life, there was no way

this was going to go in a spectacular direction. Time to do something else in her life. She's obviously quite smart, quite rational. I commend her on a great career and I commend her on whatever she does next i'm sure she has a thoughtful plan for her future that was very well said luke you said uh what did you say you you tend to get um i forgot all right you're not let's just read the odds again that i can repeat yeah yeah please i just i think i just died uh one more real quick luke jeff neal the ufc welterway who does return by the way or are we i don't know if he will return at ufc 269 next week he spent thanksgiving in jail after being arrested on dwi and weapons charges in texas luke there was a time we thought he was maybe the next big thing at welterway this

been a tough run remember he was working a regular job during covid and then he had had some losses which he wasn't so focused in and yeah yeah i mean sounds like there might be some problems you know he's still on the fight card to take on santiago panzanibio i don't know if this will pull him off luke since ufc doesn't really have uh let me ask you bc let me ask you should it like and here's what i mean i'm not saying since ufc doesn't really have uh let me ask you bc let me ask you should it like and here's what i mean i'm not saying the ufc has to look at this like we are your dads and moms and we're gonna punish you i don't mean that way but what i mean is like dude fighting is fucking dangerous and do you want a guy going in there who's literally been in uh you know a jail cell for being drunk uh you know 10 days out from a fight.

Do you want that? I don't know if you want that. No, he's going to have legal fees. He's going to need the money. You're probably right. Alright, Luke. Let's keep the show rolling. Every Friday we do this great little segment. MorningCombat at gmail.com is the email where we stand up to our

critics to our accusers look we're not always perfect we speak into a microphone for sometimes upwards of 12 hours per week we're gonna say some shit that's wrong you have a chance as the fan to call us out on it but you better give receipts this segment's called dead wrong i had to eat a shit sandwich when you were gone before thanks did you see that graphic just froze luke this is a great show today everything's working out great yeah great is it was still working right now all right are you mad about it i can't tell yeah normally that's you who gets very frustrated i saw your meltdown yesterday on your live chat oh god sorry sorry to see that i didn't share luke i'm not taking pleasure in no listen you do listen you live a life in public you're gonna live embarrassments in public and i've been living a number of them i've lived in public and private look i've been

all over the map all right let's take some l's L's. This one's from Callum. On Friday, the 12th of November, when talking about Canelo's pay-per-view record, BC once again forgets about the $1 million buy rate that Canelo produced for his fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., making Canelo versus Plant Alvarez's fifth high-selling pay-per-view. BC has done this before in an episode over one year ago where I dead-runged him then. But hey, when you're the American alpha, stats are for nerds.

They are. That's right. What are you, some kind of stat guy? Yeah, they are for nerds. I'm sorry I did screw up. I tend to always forget, A, that the Chavez fight happened because Chavez Jr. just mailed that one in and b that it did hit the right fan base and produced 1 million buys you know i mean that that that worked out

well even though the fight well we also know bc that marlon rice was a previous ufc bantamweight champion that's a fact that will just live forever you know what i'm saying absolutely absolutely all right let's keep it going this This one's from Christopher from L.A. Wow, my favorite city. Greetings. I've got an indisputable dead wrong this week for the king of the donks, B.C. Wow, they're coming at me here, Luke. On Friday's episode 228, around the 1 hour and 40 minute mark, B.C. mentions the disgusting sounding Arby's French fry flavored vodka. The edibles he took before the show must have finally started to kick in

because he says that the vodka is, quote, 800 proof ABC. 800 proof vodka would literally burst into flames as soon as oxygen touched it. I don't even think 800 proof is scientifically possible. you silly teenager and a 60 year old man's body you must have been referring to the standard 80 proof abv content that we see at the local 7-eleven or anywhere that sells fine booze of all people to confuse their alcohol serving sizes the last person i'd predict making the mistake would be you bc keep up the great work you guys better drink this shit on air when it's available chris from la i take the L there, Chris. All right?

I take the L. Thank you. All right. Let's keep it going. We still have to have the Arby's vodka, by the way. We do, on air. No question about it. Jordan slides in at episode 228 at the 14-minute mark

in discussing Max Holloway closing in on 3,000 total strikes for his career. BC mentions that Max joined the UFC, quote, as a teenager. BC, you're close, but no cigar. Max debuted on February 4, 2012, as a short-notice replacement for Ricardo Lamas when he was age 20 and two months against Dustin Paulyway, and Max lost via mounted triangle armbar. Luke, I remember that.

I remember he was on, do you remember that great show, ESPN MMA Live? Remember that great business? I do. People forget that I was. A brief but important run. Yeah, I was an editor on that show. I edited all the lower third graphics. And also, Luke, remember the great Franklin McNeil?

I was about to say, that's the show that Franklin McNeil and Gareth Davies built. Do you know who made that hire possible? My boss walked by, poured, you know, our guy poured. He's like, ABC, find me an analyst. I'm like, this boxing guy, Franklin McNeil, is great. And, you know, the rest is history, Luke, okay? Shasta, where is Franklin McNeil these days? Do you know?

You know, I know he was doing some editing the last few years, but I think he's transitioning out of the business. You know, he's closer to retirement age now. Always been a big fan of that guy. Loved his boxing coverage back in the day and wish him well. But, Luke, they had Max Holloway on there when he was basically a teenager. I remember that early on. That show was awesome.

It produced – did you think about who that produced, Luke? John Anik? Zach Candido, who's the lead producer on the UFC fight cards? Molly Karam, you know, the co-host of First Take, right? Rashad Evans made his TV bones there. Kenny Florian. You used to have Pat Miletic come in? Yeah, man.

Oh, okay, great. Good talking to you. All right, let's keep it going here with Cameron says, on Monday's show around the 39-minute mark, BC says that Cynthia Calvillo won five fights in 2017 and her first four in the UFC. He's dead wrong. She fought five times in 2017,

but her fifth fight was against carla esparza in which she suffered her first loss that was also her birth her fourth fight in the ufc to clarify she won four out of five in 2017 and won her first three overall in the ufc okay that's i was wrong all right so some of these are not that bad they're just sort of minor notes all right great uh let's go with the final one here or no not the final one we'll keep it going this from mike hola luke and bc i said hi in spanish for luke i know he gets a half chub he gets a half chub whenever he hears that mystical language well at two hours and eight minutes of episode 230, BC pronounces toques. Toks?

Tokays? Tokay. Tokays. When referring to the type of hat that should be pronounced tokays. It is pronounced toque. It rhymes with smoke. As in, what the hell was BC smoking? I didn't know they sell CTE cigars.

Luke, please deliver a verbal smackdown and beat some education into him love you guys Mike yes sometimes if I touch my wife you know when she's cooking and she doesn't want to be bothered she'll be like no my toques no my toques get off my things like don't touch me

you're trying to get a little spicy I don't know shit about the hats though so I don't know what the story is there. Will you catch an HR case if you grab somebody in the toe case, Luke? If I grab someone in the touches? I don't know. All right, wow, we got a lot of dead wrongs here. Hopefully people are still watching. Yeah, dude, you missed, like, I mean, I'm sure I've got my fair share coming,

but you missed, like, three weeks of them. You're overdue, bro. Yeah, let's do it. All right, Kevin and Matt say at 1 hour and 19 minutes of MK on November 19th, Luke says, quote, since the year 2000, in the course of 11 years, Jedi Mind Tricks has put out 10 albums. That's almost an album every year. Sorry to tell Luke, but it isn't 2011 anymore. I guess they're right, Luke, okay fair point okay take that l yes i'm giant fat l for your guy that's hilarious and also quite true yes luke this one is from david

appleton our favorite rapey french professor you know this guy right yes hi luke a second dead wrong from old French Dave. In your Monday show with Oscar, you said you couldn't wait till Brian came back to have three weeks of dead wrongs. I would venture that as he isn't hosting the show. It is hard for us to dead wrong him. Unless you are giving us an open invitation to dead wrong his very existence and lifestyle, which could be absolutely fucking amazing yours pedantically david a does that make any sense luke i don't know what the fuck this french frog is talking about so i'll

just say this you're welcome for the you know freedom fries fuckhead all right he woke up with many a student in his bed the problem is they were bound and chained that's a problem all right let's keep this going this from jordan at 141 of episode 234 in Have You Seen This Shit, Brian flipped the two fighters in the suplex highlight, Soriano versus Nordenbike. It was the Chinese fighter, Norden, B-A-K, who suplexed Soriano, not the other way around. Okay, I'll take that L. That's fine. All right, that's fair. That's fair. And finally, Luke, this one's from David,

the donk from the shithole that is New Zealand. That's his words, by the way. At 31 minutes of the Monday weekend recap, the Big BC with the BDE incorrectly said Luke Thomas has a city kicking boner from here to Adelaide. The problem is Adelaide is in australia you donk auckland would have been the better option since that is where ckb is actually based okay that's fair all right so that's i mean that's not so much you're wrong but that's a better way to say it i think i think he is right about that it's just a play on word yeah whatever

okay but he does have a very big ckb there's no question luke loves it all right thank you for sending those in morning combat at gmail.com some people still don't know how we do it on this show maybe we have new listeners but if you want to do a dm from donk on monday guys sunday night on instagram we put that post out you have to reply to the instagram post at morning combat every Sunday night. That's DM from Donks. Everything else, morningcombat at gmail.com. Don't DM us. I'm not taking your submissions

that way anymore. No stick pic. Luke, we close every Friday by touching the tips. Telling people what to look out for this weekend. We call it just the tip. Tip to tip. Just just tips some shit oh they're not going to play the intro because the uh the files are acting up oh there we go i guess hey there we

go they got it they got it all right luke um you know what do you got this week what should people be on the lookout uh well i'll give you my tip and then i have a question for you bc okay so here's my tip i finally finally finally finally went to the movie theater for the first time in two years i hadn't gone since the pandemic and i saw the new marvel movie eternals here's my tip do not fucking see this piece of shit movie this is unequivocally and i have disney plus and i've seen them all this is the worst marvel movie of them all and by a considerable distance right it's two hours and 40 minutes and it doesn't need to be there are parts of it that are interestingly shot and presented but in general it doesn't need to be

as long as it is that's the first problem second problem is none of the characters are especially interesting and the ones who are kind of die basically on top of that the villains in this movie are poorly thought out and not interesting the plot is extremely convoluted or just unnecessarily loaded with nonsense that doesn't need to be there there are characters that don't need to be there and the worst part it went out the worst part but one of the stupider parts is like dude the whole part about the marvel universe and comic books is of course you want to get to see different kinds of people and different kinds of powers and different kinds of worlds including one in our own this is not in any way an anti-diversity argument in fact

it's quite the opposite when black panther came out and they built this world of wakanda who had this vibranium and they kept it to themselves and they shielded it from the world and it totally produces interesting people and then they brought you into that world and into that life it was fucking amazing Black Panther is a great Marvel movie it's fantastic even right I can't recommend it more if you haven't seen it go check it out it's phenomenal but this one was not that this one seemed to me like they had a studio executive team being like you know what we got to make sure that we This one seemed to me like they had a studio executive team being like, you know what? We got to make sure that we're especially making sure we like shove. Like we want to make diversity a part of the cast in such a way that we're fulfilling whatsoever because they're trying to be as like the maximally diverse

in the most inauthentic of ways. And it just fails miserably the entire time. Dude, this movie sucked. I don't think it sucked like Man of Steel sucked or like Batman versus Superman sucked, but it sucked. It is a complete waste of your time do not go now bc with that in mind i do have a question for you yeah my daughter who you might hear rampaging like godzilla through the streets of tokyo behind me has never been to a

movie theater this new movie that is out from dis, which is really well reviewed, which takes place in the version of Columbia called Encanto, is getting rave reviews. My family wants to go. My daughter's two and a half. Do you think that's a good idea? Can she handle an hour and 40 minutes of a movie without ruining it and shitting her pants? It's about a 50-50. It really is like you have to be prepared that that one of you will spend the whole time outside or whatever it or that she'll be

screaming randomly because it's dark and she's scared that's an age where you're you're gambling i mean you're my big depending on your child you're gambling almost as high as age four and five in the movie theater you know some just stick to it like water luke right but um i think it's worth the gamble your family loves latin american based disney cartoon movies loves that shit yeah dude we don't we watch coco in spanish here we don't even watch it in english wow that's hardcore but dude i told you so hold on last thing i'll say in this is uh they there's this traveling like van gogh exhibit that's going city to city and we bought tickets for this we had to buy tickets was like months in advance it was finally here and we took our daughter bro she ruined the whole shit i mean just ruined it for us

screaming crying shitting throwing we couldn't enjoy any part of the exhibit we had to leave it was a nightmare so now i'm like do we like, because what I want is for her first big screen movie experience, I want it to be Encanto, but I have a feeling it ain't going to be. So we'll see. I grew up going to the movie theaters in Waterbury, Connecticut, Luke, which is, you know, far from the nicest city in the world. And going to like, you know, as a teenager, horror movies at midnight and people bringing their newborn babies to those and like them crying in the back like come on like don't if your kid if you know your kid's not ready do

not bring them to the theater at all okay just wait while we have big screen tvs and dvrs and all that crap all right that's my service hey i got it in the moment dead wrong here luke we can save for next week our producer mikey more mileyle, has corrected me. I forgot that Esmond Ladd had already moved up to featherweight, made her debut against Norma Dumont in October, and is now coming back down to Bantamweight for the threat of fighting Misha Tate. All right, Luke, my tip is probably one people are talking a lot about these days, the very well-acclaimed Peter Jackson Get Back documentary series on Disney+. So if you don't know what this is, here's the deal.

When the Beatles went to the studio in 1969 to try to record and write songs for what became the album Let It Be, there was a documentary crew filming every bit of it. It ended up becoming, when the recording fell apart, an album that came out a year later after they had already broken up, and it turned into a documentary of the same name that was okay but not great well peter jackson and company have gone back and found every piece of footage from that session and turned it into a three-part eight-hour documentary now here's the deal if you are a beatles hardcore like myself like i like luke thomas and i've talked about in the past this could be for. If you are a Beatles hardcore like myself, like Luke Thomas and I have talked about in the past, this could be for you.

If you are, this is in very much some inside look at the band that we've never really seen at this level before. Portions of this shoot have come out before, whether it be the Let It Be doc or even the Beatles anthology documentary series that came out, but not at this detail, at this length. So you get to see in reality TV voyeurism, an inside look at the dynamics between band members as the band was falling apart because George was rising as a songwriter and wanted more, you know, opportunity. Paul was kind of, you know, the leader and he was very prolific, but maybe not letting George get his cut of the pie. John was in and out and unreliable and was not getting along with everybody. You get to see the dynamics between them and Yoko.

It's a very interesting look, but it is for hardcores only. It's long. I'm only about a third of the way through it. And even I, at times, have to bite down and focus. But Luke, for a band that has had a million things written and shot and produced about them, this is like a, almost like a relic in time that at this level has never really been swam through. Now, that doesn't mean that the audio tracks haven't been out before. You could buy, you know, at bootleg record stores the full Get Back or Let It Be sessions,

but never connecting it to the video like this at this production level it is such a fascinating look because let's remember this was you know a year before they broke up when tensions were high and the marriage was dissolving um i could not recommend it more if you are hardcore and that's your thing i do you know quest love the drummer for the band The Roots? Yes. He has been raving about it on social media, like as an insight into how quickly sometimes the most inspired Beatles songs came together, and then other ones were sort of tortured, they took forever.

I mean, you can watch Paul when they're, like, you know, they're finishing lunch, and he's got a guitar, and he's just kind of figuring something out, and then you're like, wait, that's Get Back, or that's, you know, The Long and Winding Road on piano. Like, that's crazy. And then you watch them kind of figuring something out and you're like wait that's get back or that's you know the long and winding road on piano like that's crazy and then you watch them kind of figure it out in the moment and you know there's been a lot of rumors that during that time john and yoko were heroin addicts and john to some degree has confirmed that years later but it's a very interesting portrait it doesn't make yoko look as bad as her reputation is for breaking

up the band quote unquote but it's an interesting look at where john was emotionally luke which was it didn't seem to be in a great place well i haven't watched the documentary but you're not the first person to say that it's if you're a beatles fan or a music fan that it's must watch and peter jackson he doesn't do anything that's not of epic scale so i trust your recommendation here yeah and even the parts because they have the audio but it doesn't always match up with the video, but they did a great job of taking video that isn't perfect, but it looks like they could be having that conversation. So it's really brilliantly edited and produced in that way.

Cool, man. Telling the story of the tail end of really the most successful, greatest. Luke, what's your favorite Beatles album? We need to do a pull-out special. Oof. Jesus, that's a tough one. I'm tempted. I'm tempted to say Sgt. Pepper's.

Nah, don't do that. You don't actually mean that, though. That disappointed me, Luke. The only time... The only way I think Sgt. Pepper could be... But I'm not as far inside on beatles mania as you are you know so there's that i feel like like sometimes the white album maybe the white album that's that i think there's three acceptable answers if you if you know your shit the white album because of the the volume of it abbey road because it's you know immaculate was their last time in the studio together or revolver which some people like Rolling Stone have even ranked

as the greatest album in rock history. You can have a favorite or whatever, but Sgt. Pepper was really of its time, Luke. If you were alive in 67 when it came out and you realized how much it changed music, I think it could be your favorite. And I don't think it holds up on a five-star level like people think, Luke, but that's maybe another nerd debate. You would know better than me. For another time uh let's put this show to bed luke that's all we got for you on friday all right yeah email us morningcombat at gmail.com give us some follows

on the old socials morning combat is involved everywhere there will be some weekend content for you something special for the gervonta davis, so be on the lookout for that, which, again, Sunday. Gervonta fights on Sunday. Yeah, that's it for me. Pettis versus Horiguchi tonight, 10 p.m. Eastern, only on Showtime, Bellator 272. Very good fight. Do not miss it. Thank you to our wonderful staff who have swam in the rough, choppy waters of Internet failures and other issues.

We love you. You can get 30 days free of Showtime, of course, at Showtime.com. Thank you to our listeners who really go to bat for us on a regular basis. They'll call us out when we need it, Luke, but they are some loyal P1, drive across the country, show up with a bag full of beef jerky that they made in their meth lab to give personally to you, Luke. They're not yes-men, they are are are they tell us

what we need to hear when we need to hear at bc thank you even if it's tough love be nothing without you uh that's about all tip your waitresses may all your ex lovers stay satisfied