MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Davis vs. Martin, UFC 303 Conor McGregor Out, Chimaev Illness, ATS Fight | Full Ep | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: June 15, 2024

A big weekend of combat sports is coming up and there is no better way to get prepared then a new episode of MORNING KOMBAT. Live from the Sirius XM Studios in Las Vegas, Luke and Brian do a final preview of this weekend's huge PBC PPV card which features Tank Davis and David Benavidez. Also, they break down this weekend's UFC Fight Night event from the APEX and the latest on UFC 303. Plus, they are joined by NBA Champion, Stephen Jackson, to discuss the launch of ALL THE SMOKE FIGHT and the new episode of FIGHT TOWNS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reveille, Reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat.

Oh, yeah, we're dead. We're grateful to be back at it. We're talking about morning combat live and direct Las Vegas. PBC on Prime pay-per-view week from here at the Sirius XM studios at the Wynn. My name is Brian Campbell. That is Luke Thomas. You've stumbled into the best damn combat sports show. Yeah, period.

It's Friday, Juneune 14th 2024 and luke to say that we have a stacked special show right here which stacked has a double meaning apparently here with stack five on his way can you just regale the people with what we've got coming because this is loaded so let's talk about it ufc 303 news i can barely hear myself ufc 303 news we're going to get to obviously is huge we're going to get to a preview of the card which is this weekend although one of the best fights fell out this morning unfortunately we'll talk about that plus of course we have a new main event for ufc saudi arabia which is kind of big we're going to get to some tank versus martin predictions and an nba champion is going to be here today and on top top of that, how about a review? A look back to last night when Luke Thomas settled.

An okay bet. You bet your ass, a year in the making. Let me say this. We were walking into the sphere last night. We have to get this analysis off the top, but I just have to say this. We were walking into the sphere last night, and BC said, wasn't this much better

than me going to some dumb metal show? And you agreed. Yes, it was. Yes, it was. We'll talk about that a little bit later. Shout out to our brother, Oteel Burbridge, the bassist of Dead & Company, for a phenomenal evening. Luke, we're going to get into a full breakdown of it.

You left a little bit early. I did. So you might owe me one more thing to start this show and to play off this bet. Can I get a ch-wee-wee from you? Let's go to the videotape let's get a chihuahua chihuahua hello raul how are you what's up bro hey before we start too bad from that moment can we get a chihuahua from you luke man fuck your mama excuse me sir

give me directions to the interstate all right more to come on that but that was cringier than ariel i love it shout out to raul rosas jr the future of mixed martial arts wow do i have a lot to tell you guys about have you seen how ridiculous i'm dressed by the way luke this wasn't cheap either it's it's six minutes in we got to get this moving okay dad thank you very much We've got to get this moving. Okay, Dad. Thank you very much. Someone's got to be.

Hey, why don't you take us into the lead topic of the day and the reason why people are here. All right, let's put the camera on me here for just a second. So let's get it going. Here is the news that we're going to react to right off the top. UFC 303 has a brand-new main event, a brand-new co-main event, and a brand-new feature fight. So it goes something like this.

UFC President Dana White announced yesterday Conor McGregor is out of UFC 303 with an injury. The fight with Michael Chandler is going to be postponed. They're not giving Michael Chandler a new fight, a new opponent. They're going to have that fight later in the calendar year. Instead, stepping in on a basically two weeks notice will be Alex Pineda putting his title up for grabs at 205 pounds against Yuri Prochocka. This, of course, is a rematch from UFC 295. So that's the first thing. Your co-main event, Brian Ortega at Featherweight taking on Diego Lopez.

You want to talk about a gunfight. Whoa. Banger. And Carlos Alberg, who was originally scheduled to take place, have a fight against Jamal Hill in the co-main, Carlos Alberg will remain on the card, and instead he takes on Anthony Smith in a light heavyweight contest. BC, I did my live chat this morning, so let me just pitch it back to you. Your immediate reaction, let's focus on the Conor McGregor part to open the show, is what?

I don't even know how you can have one word or one breakdown, or even to just focus on the Conor McGregor thing. What the hell is going on over at UFC headquarters? So Luke, unfortunately for the promotion, which has done such an incredible job of late consistently putting out fires in the 11th hour. And this is another make lemonade out of lemons opportunity here in taking the summer blockbuster that is Conor McGregor's return

and the first time fighting in three years and all that comes with that and replacing it with two fights that Luke mentioned that we really want to see. But I still got bigger questions at large about what really happened. What's really going on? You hear Dana White mention almost in passing, McGregor's injured, he's off the card.

So what is the story two weeks later? Yes, maybe this fight will get rescheduled, but we're already two years into this, so that's not even the real topic here. I know you can tie this into, are they relying on McGregor's brand and have they never replaced him as a superstar? But this whole clandestine behind-the-scenes BS,

it unfortunately breeds all of the conspiratorial talk and all this other stuff. What did you want? It takes away from the actual thing. Because here, I have to pay a little bit of comeuppance. At first, I was skeptical there was an injury. And then as the week went on, when it was on again, off again, then off again, I was like, okay, well, maybe this is an injury.

But at first, I had floated a hypothesis on this show that maybe there was more to a contract dispute. It does not appear to be the case, so I have to- But I don't know. And that's the thing. The fact that we have to have that debate is the problem let me just say this that's not to say that there couldn't be more to the story in fact there could be but it was reported by ariel and it was said by dana white that there was an injury so we at least have to accept that at face value

for the time being and i thought it was something different so i have to acknowledge that that was the issue you were a little bit different than me you wanted them to come out and say what the issue was right away tell me why because i guess that part i still am not i mean in some ways it's the same beef i had when we talked about this last time the idea of like where the ufc is at i'm proud of it 31 years into this you know i've been in this game a long while myself and to see where they're at but like to be that big four sport you have to act like it and i just feel like what is this current situation that we're in with the UFC not

just the relation to media and Dana's apathy toward it but now the idea that like major news that just doesn't doesn't just affect us in the MMA newswire but you know the fans that potentially booked airfare and hotel and non-refundable stuff for you know tickets that are selling for nine hundred dollars a thousand dollars much more on the secondary market. And for two weeks, you're just in limbo with no actual details. Is it an injury? Is it a contract dispute? Did Conor McGregor's dad die of a heart attack? I mean, we've heard every single thing. But like, is this the new norm

where we're just going to shut out to the outside world to the things that is normally disseminated between customer, media, and entity in the sports world? If somebody's questionable for Sunday's NFL game? I mean, again, this doesn't just affect us in the media and what we're going to talk about on this show. So your question is, what does the UFC owe the public? Because the reality is UFC 303 is taking place in Las Vegas,

a rule in Nevada. This is not true in every state, but it is true in Nevada. If the main event changes, they are required by law to offer refunds. So you can get a refund for UFC 303, although you can make an argument, BC, that the overall main card is actually now better. Loses significant star power by losing Conor, but you've got much better fights up and down. The new co-main event is better.

I frankly like the Oldberg fight a little bit better as well. And you're getting something on short notice with the main event, but it's a pretty goddamn great replacement. What is your central issue that the ufc owed more information because customers could have gotten refunds because i think it's isn't the issue that they wanted to hold on until they had a replacement to minimize the damage i'm saying when you're acting that way as a hope maybe they're hoping that mcgregor can get cleared or that he's just willing to push through we don't know the deals i'm not sure but like have you ever seen has this like to me look

this two-week period is largely unprecedented in how we execute our jobs how fans execute their information and again if it's just is a fight gonna happen or not that's one thing but when it affects everything else and I just think it makes them look bad it just makes them look not ready for prime time it makes them look a little bush league and I don't love that I do like the replacement fights I do like the action potential but we do have a lot of spin-off talks on there from the ideas of like have we seen the last of conor mcgregor can he physically put it back together is this a larger smoke screen for a contract issue uh they're saying it's an injury so we'll go with that it's an injury but in your opinion is this sort of a tipping point moment when you consider that ufc

300 was two months ago i could argue that should have been the biggest card coming a mile away in history and they kind of they didn't fumble it turned out to be a fantastic event but there was UFC 300 was two months ago. I could argue that should have been the biggest card coming a mile away in history. And they kind of, they didn't fumble. It turned out to be a fantastic event. But there was a lot of last minute, like let's call Poetan to save the day. He did. He came in there and saved the day.

And now two months later, he's going to save the day again. Now it plays into his ability to be opportunistic and be great. But Luke, legitimate question here. Does this sequence from UFC 300 to this crazy last two weeks expose in your mind that the UFC has gone too far in watering down the market? The whole idea that we talk about them

not as a star building machine anymore, but as a content warehouse. Have we reached that tipping point where we can officially say, officially, we got too many cards, we don't have enough big enough names to fill it out. Look what you just had to do to save this after you just had an all-time fire drill before that and then you had in the Hamzat thing in the same day in the same week it's like when you go on

Roku and say we're the best at handling pressure this is what we're all about you're almost welcoming it on but should it be that way right now when they're this successful my personal belief is that they do have too many shows but i tend to think the more i the more i consider how the situation was handled and really all of them i think the ufc likes this system i think they like a system where they can in general have all this content that they can sell right and the more that they sell the more events that they promise the more that they can get in guaranteed contracted revenue right which is now either the biggest part or the second biggest. Oh, it's the biggest part of how they make money is contracted revenue.

When we first started covering MMA, that was not the case. It was pay-per-view exclusively was how they made the majority of their money. That is not the case anymore. It's contracted revenue. So they can keep that. These fights fall out, but I think what they would say is, well, look what we do. On two weeks' notice, we've got our light heavyweight champion

defending his title in a rematch that everybody wants to see. And by the way, it should be noted, it's an action fight. So my general belief is that the later a fight gets booked, the more you take from it in general. But it's also the case that these two guys were going to just bang it out probably no matter what. The first fight didn't go, I think, with two rounds or something like that. However, what I would point out to the fans is look at how many times you have last-minute main events scuttled, changed, whatever. Part of it is because the nature of MMA injuries make that happen.

The other part is they have so many events on the calendar and so few that can fill up that top slot, any kind of change becomes really problematic. And again, I want to say on paper, this new UFC 303 card looks phenomenal yes but you're getting ortega lopez on short notice you're getting a light heavyweight fight on short notice that is an enormous risk to those fighters so i hope they got the bag and i hope the fights are great but in the case of islam volk that's different because one guy

was already in camp and then another guy just got off the couch in the case of Islam Volk, that's different because one guy was already in camp and then another guy just got off the couch. In the case of both of those fights, presumably none of them were in camp and they're all getting the heads up at a similar time. Sort of what my head's on. One thing I want to bring up, and this is like, I went on CBS Sports HQ to respond to this this morning. It's funny, look, you and I, when we talk about this over text

and sort of say like, what is this? This is wild. We're talking more of the business side and some of that, but the casual opinion, right? When we go on the CBS Sports HQ, it's all about McGregor, the star power, what he means to the sport. And the reality is not really an active fighter, right? He hasn't fought since 2021. He hasn't won since before COVID. And we can talk, we've talked ad nauseum about the second half of his career and it's been more business. It's been more police blotter. It's a lot of things so I don't think they're

as dependent upon him this just happened that when he fights he's so expensive that you're going to see an extra watered down card but with him out of there they they look what they make lemonade no one does that better but it doesn't feel like they're a star making system anymore so when they announced that they were actually going to Dublin for that press conference you get all excited because that's from the playbook of old, right? That reminds you of 2010 UFC. That reminds you of when you came for Rousey and Lesnar,

but then you fell in love with the product of what's up and down. It's not so, I don't like the question of like, has a McGregor successor not been born? Because how often

is that going to happen? It's a one in a million. That's asking a lot. But I think you can ask that based upon what the casual response is to this of who is in line to fill that slot and has UFC done enough to put him in there. I mean, Poiton might become that just because he fills in a last-minute notice

in the biggest cards that they have and gets knockout wins. There's no way to do as many shows as they do, and we all know that the injury rate in MMA, the incidence of you know problems what guys have to fall out is significantly higher than it is in boxing there's no way to make that business model work without a plug and play system that is what they are that's what you happen to that's like that's not even an insult or or condemnation more than it is just an obsessive reality how do you have that many shows knowing injury is such a pervasive problem

without having a built-in plug and play system and the question is really for the fans and what they want do they want to get plug and play fights on short notice a lot and get it consistently or do they want a different kind of model that's a little bit more curated around individual stars akin to how it may have been some years ago it seems like the answer now is they'll just take it as it comes. They they'll like it the way that it is. As long as they get their UFC, they seem fine. And that's a real big boost for the UFC because that's exactly what they want

as well. They want to have, yes, attractions, people that are larger than life that can sell more pay-per-views than the next guy. But what is really important to the UFC machine, what really makes it work is the trains

have to leave the station on time that is more important than anything else for them we're gonna get to hams out we're gonna bring in stephen jackson cannot wait to get down on all the smoke fight but to circle back to close quickly do you not feel any of that concern that i have with the topic that we started with and i guess if you ask him even deeper bc what's your real concern if we don't check that organization as a entity, as a media entity, as a front, for not giving any info, any info about what's actually going on, where is the injury? How long is he going to be out for? How did it happen? We get none of that. Like as if it's government secrets. It's not. This is professional sports, right? It's not. These things affect betting

lines. These things affect so many things. Aren't you afraid that if we're not going to get the truth in this situation, then we're essentially never going to get the truth again on anything because we're allowing this MMA media sucks. Get out of here. Let's bring in more people with the last name drama in the front row. Like that's where we're headed. That's where we're going. You don't see this as like the ship's going that way. And pretty soon you're not going to get any truth. What you're basically asking is in a situation where you have an expensive headliner get injured, what does the UFC owe the public? Not you and me. What does journalism owe their own self to try to force this information out of the UFC?

That too. I mean, that plays a role, but it still goes back to what do they owe the public? What information is owed to the public? And it is delicate because you are talking about a state where if they had just announced that connor was out and they don't have a replacement they would have had probably uh an absolute you know stampede to the box office to get refunds sure and they can still get those refunds again if in the main event falls out that they have to deliver that but this certainly softens the blow so i can certainly understand the ufc's position however i'm with you as well there are bets being placed there are flights being kind of unethical

in some there i understand them wanting to mitigate the damage i think that's not necessarily that bad but my my rule of thumb on this is and this is the one question i still have which was remember they were like oh there was early on he may not fight and i was looking pretty good and then he won't fight again and my point was was, like, what injury could he possibly have that takes that long to figure out? And they're like, well, let's give it a couple days and see. I don't know. It turns out that whatever assessment they might have made at the beginning

was the correct one anyway. This is what I mean. Like, these injuries are not inscrutable orthopedic mysteries that they cannot figure out. They can figure that out pretty quick. My response is I'm actually sympathetic to the UFC in not causing a stampede to the box office on their own interest however however under the condition that it has to happen much quicker and that's easy to say oh go find another main event on two weeks notice but i'm not the one who booked the fights i know i'm not the one who made the

calendar the public the public on some level is owed more than, oh, now we've got our bases covered. Now. How many days are we talking about later? We found out about this. 13 days later. This is my point. Whatever the initial assessment was that he probably couldn't make it on Sunday or Saturday whenever he got injured,

it turned out that was the right one. Wasn't it for June 3rd and today's June 14th? Something like that. This is my point. Whatever that assessment was was probably right. All right, quickly, how nervous should we be for Hamzat Shemaev? We see the outpouring from his team showing the hospital bed pictures and basically saying serious, serious deep illness that is not getting better.

And don't forget about the double COVID, the public retirement. He's been through it physically before. And again, everyone had a different experience with it. His looked to be pretty bad. He had the pictures where he was blowing blood into his sink. Remember remember that he was like i'm gonna retire and then kadira was like no you're not so i don't know what the medical situation is with him but i've seen an interesting way of describing the situation which is people are saying alex pareda has become everything hamzat was supposed to be you're damn right the guy who showed up anytime anywhere

fuck your life i'm gonna fight and in this particular case putting his title up for grabs as well i will point out though the fact that he's 36 kind of makes it a little bit easier because he probably knows he does every two months now so it doesn't really matter and also he probably got a gigantic bag to do it but the point i'm trying to make is what a change of fortunes for a guy who was shot out of a cannon to start his ufc career all can say is, let's see what happens. He's 30 years old, but if you want to divide someone's prime at 30, did the first half of his prime go well? Are you talking to me and I'm Jon Jones right now?

Are you asking about my 20s? I mean, what's going on here? I'm saying, Homsat is 30. Your prime goes until about 33, 34. So from 26 to 30, did he maximize that portion of his prime? Probably not. Probably not.

He had a great 2020. I remember that. He had a killer start. Fantastic. Where the fuck are we now? We'll go back to this topic. Yeah, we will. Robert Whitaker taking on, what is it, Alaskarov.

Ikram Alaskarov. Who is coming the hell on. By the way, everyone's giving all the props to Pineda and all those guys. And Yuri, fine. Pour a little one out there for Robert Whitaker. Going from Hamzat to Ikram Al-Skarov on a fucking week's notice. By the way, still going to be in hostile territory. But will he fight Jon Jones?

That's the real question. That's the fight that everybody wants to see. By the way, last night at the Dead Show, I had visions of that fight. Wow. I was like, wow, they're going to make this. Wow. I think I got healed on the inside from that show. We'll talk about that more.

I think you just took a big dump. We got to get to segment number two here, and it's the launch of the new partnership. You may have seen the press releases this week. You may have seen us in Thursday's fantastic Radio Row interview special on the Morning Combat YouTube channel. Please check that out. Jim Lampley, David Benavidez, James Toney.

I mean, deep shit going on in there. But we have joined in this YouTube channel. Please check that out. Jim Lampley, David Benavidez, James Toney. I mean, deep shit going on in there. But we have joined in this new revolution, the launch, all the smoke fight. Luke, we got a little bit of a sizzle reel to throw too. And then on the other end, we're going to welcome in one of our partners in this crime. But all the smoke fight is coming. We're a part of it. Let's get fired up. What up, world? We're back. Fight times. Right now, we're in Miami, man. David Benavidez is here in Miami right now training.

We're honored to be here. We're able to spend some time with him and his dad. Watch him train, watch him get ready for another big fight. You know, there's a lot of things going on. He's been calling Canelo out for a while. You know, a lot of people have been dodging him. His family has been through a lot. You know, his dad has been through a lot to get both his boys to where they're at.

Also, we get to sit down with the legend Roy Jones, came all the way from Pensacola. We're starting Fight Times off bigger and better with Roy Jones and the champion, the Mexican monster, David Benavidez. This is Fight Times baby, stay tuned. This is the type of intensity you want to see, let's go. I love this. This is a legacy fight for both guys, and I think both guys understand that. Did you get nervous in the big game? I did get nervous. See, if you don't get nervous, you don't care about that moment.

The biggest fight of the year, probably the biggest fight of this generation. How do you feel? I feel good to have these clothes on. Head on top of the guy, bro. I want y'all to look to me as an ally. Go, go, go, go. Right hook to the body. There you go. Nice it, throw it, throw it, throw it. Right hook to the body.

There you go. Nice. You think I can take a body shot for you? Let me see. You want to try? No, I'm Zach. In the next 10 years, I see myself being the greatest in my generation. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey! Woo!

Yeah! What's your name? Big Five. Bam, no. We were once family in Showtime. We were family once more in All the Smoke Fight. You saw the sizzle in the preview of the first episode of Fight Towns, which is out now with this gentleman, 2003 NBA World Champion, and one half of the should be multi-time award winning all the smoke podcast, Steven Jackson joining us to talk about the fight game, but to talk about

this reunion union we got going on the new combat sports vertical. What can you say about what's coming with all the smoke fight? Well, glad to be back with family, family, my guys. I think I always call y'all guys, my'all guys my intro to the boxing game. Y'all definitely ushered me in in the best way possible. Y'all was a great point guards with Thormey, the right pass and the right time to answer questions in this boxing space. I tried to bring that Terry Porter. And to learn. You know what I'm saying?

I learned a lot from you guys, so thank y'all. I'm glad we're family again. But, you know, this is – we had a great blueprint, you know, of what the boxing game should be, how it should look, and in all verticals, right, being at Showtime. So we definitely know what it look like. So I think now it's time for us to just make that better, take that blueprint and make that blueprint better. We have a great opportunity to be in this space

and to do some great things. You know, even with fight times, we off to a great start with David Benavidez and Roy Jones times, we off to a great start with David Benavidez and Roy Jones. I think that was a great, what probably the best episode so far. Having Morning Comeback back, I think that's the best thing having it back.

And with all the Smoke productions, it's everything. You know what I'm saying? All the Smoke fights. So I just think everything that the fans been loving from the boxing game the last couple of years, I think we all have it in-house as a family now. So I think it's time for us just to make it better, and we have that opportunity. We've taken over the old Showtime Sports and Showtime Boxing social channels,

our patriarch Brian Daly, a huge part of this operation, along with your partner Matt Barnes as well. Speaking of fights, man, we know you're fired up about this Saturday. By the way, so I went to my barber on Wednesday. You're getting braids. No, but I went to my barber. He's a big NBA fan. He's always got the NBA channel on.

So he was watching an African championship or whatever teams were there. And I told him, I was like, hey, he knows I do this for a living. And then he was like, oh, when are you traveling again? I'm like, oh, I'm going to the tank fight this weekend. And I said, you know, I'm doing a podcast this week with Steven Jackson. He goes, malice in the palace, baby. Can he live that down already? You know what?

Some people respect it for the right reasons. He loves you. He loves you. Because you know what the prevailing thing we learned from that is? Brotherhood and loyalty. Loyalty, man. Loyal to a fault. It was so great.

Anyway, he was over the moon that I was sitting here with you, so I'm going to take this clip of it and show it to him. What's up? What's his name? Juwan. Juwan. What's up, Juwan? Yeah, you're missing out, bro.

Peace to you. Yeah, there he is. Thank you. That graphic behind us, by the way, looks spectacular. I know. This graphic is sick. That is fire, man. Rosé, Conor, good job.

Needs a little more Diamante, Raul Marquez sprinkled in there. Yeah, shout out El Diamante. I don't know where he is right now, but every time I think of him, every time I say, eso, that's his famous line, man. But we'll see our brother soon. Hey, can we talk about what's going on Fight Week right now? Yes, let's do it. All right, man.

I know you saw it last night. Gervonta, Tank Davis, and Floyd are just having it out in public now. Yes, yes. So for folks who didn't see it, there has obviously been some longstanding, well, not recent beef anyway, between Tank and Floyd, with Leonard Ellerbe is kind of like the intermediary. Yep. The CEO of Mayweather Promotions. They said he resigned.

I don't think he resigned. I think he got fired. They put in Richard Schaefer last night out of nowhere. Moving the operation to LA. Out of nowhere. Seemingly out of nowhere. And then Floyd gets on social media, says the Tank fight is canceled and you should watch the UFC card this weekend.

Tank calling Floyd basically a bitch on Twitter. What do you make of all of this? I mean, one thing you don't do is you don't mess with a man's pockets. You know, I think that's – if you're a secure person and you have all the money you say you have, Floyd, then why even stoop to that level, right? So it's something that Tank has said or done that's really got under Floyd's skin to really make him come out and say the fight is canceled and all that.

So I just think whatever it is, it's to the point where you know that they're not going to come back from this. We've seen Tank and Floyd argue publicly before, but then you'll see Floyd in his corner talking to him in the corner. We've seen this many a time. I think this is a different situation because they're attacking each other personally now. It's not just about boxing.

It's not just about what happened in the ring or Mayweather promotions. It's more of him talking about Floyd owing money and now Floyd saying his fight is canceled. Like, you're attacking people personally now. So I hate it got to that point because, you know, they made a lot of money together, but it'll never be the same with him too. And it'll probably get to the point where if they see each other in person,

you know, I think they might go to blows. Oh, wow. Well, I got to ask you because, like, this is pretty wild. We've seen when a promoter is an ex-fighter and is a superstar think oscar de la joya you're gonna get a bloated ego we've seen him spar with his own fighters right canelo ryan garcia have issues in and out is this rooted do you think in just that people used to say when tank was coming up floyd would speak too much put his arm around him hog the spotlight is it just an ego battle or is there some deeper beef there i

can't figure it out well i mean i've heard I've seen other boxers that's been around Floyd, and a lot of people say that he don't want to be outshined by anyone. And I can see that being a problem. If you're a young boxer coming up, and you're around a guy who had his time, and he's still trying to outshine you in your time. Floyd's time was impeccable. Like, seriously. He beat the game.

It's a perfect game, right? So why would you even be around trying to take somebody else down when you mastered it? Like I get what Tank's saying, but like I said to it before I even stooped to the level and then to do all this is something that said that it's true. You know something that really bothered him for him to get

to this point, but I just hate it. Do you think it's going to play a role tomorrow? Uh hard to say because leonard ellerby i went back and i watched the presser i went back and i watched the presser this week they introduced leonard ellerby as mayweather c mayweather promotion ceo and then gone in an instant i i don't know i think i mean i i think i don't think it's gonna bother tank but i think definitely if if Floyd's in the building

and he's being seen and making himself seen, I think it's going to be something that Tank would do to either piss Floyd off or to let him know that he's running things now. It's going to be some type of confrontation, but I don't think it's going to affect Tank's performance. I think at this point, Tank has been through so much in his career. We've seen the best Tank the last couple fights, so I think at this point, Tank has been through so much in his career. We've seen the best Tank the last couple of fights. So I think at this point, he's mastered the outside stuff,

especially, you know, just coming home from jail and all this type of stuff. He can't have a bad performance. Sure. You know what I mean? So I think he'll be locked in. Well, I think this drama takes the pressure off Errol Spence Jr.,

who's returning with his ex-trainer, Derek James, in the corner of Frank Martin here. But when we go back to Tank, we've had a lot of debate about this. I thought the gloves off program that Prime Video put out to preview this fight really sort of showed us that Tank's in an interesting spot

because last year he hit the highest of heights in knocking out Ryan Garcia in an April blockbuster and then does 44 days in a detention center for violating his probation. We know the lingering trail of things that have followed him outside the ring, but he's what, 29 now? So you're thinking now or never to step up to that level of maturity right but then we've seen him like bullying frank martin at like an aggressive comedic level this week where do you

actually think tank's head is at because he does have a lot going on take the floyd mayweather thing out of it for a second he's got a lot going on right now yeah i think i think that's the hunger to get back in the ring he had a nice layoff so, I think that's the hunger to get back in the ring. He had a nice layoff, so I think he's hungry to get back in the ring, and I think deep down inside, he knows just as well as you two guys know, because you guys are smarter than me. Frank going pushing. Frank going pushing. Frank is a guy who's

strong. I really think that tanks in Frank's head a little bit. When you flinch like that, that says a lot. I mean, I watch a lot of fights. You don't see too many boxers flinch when somebody jump in. You know what's funny? I see a lot of people who look like me saying, oh, that's not a big deal. But people that are real, people that have been in and out,

have seen a little bit of the street life. They're like, no, that was a telling ass moment. Well, I mean, I'm going to give you a perfect example. You remember when Benavidez was fighting Bud Crawford? He was fighting him off, he just got shot in his knee. Yeah, Jose Benavidez. Bud sw Crawford, he was fighting him off, he just got shot in his knee. Yeah, Jose Benavidez. Bud swung at him and he weaved it in a heartbeat.

If you can do that, you know what I'm saying? That's his Bud Crawford we're talking about. Bud swung pretty hard. He really tried to hit him. He weaved that. You have to be on your game. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't it Matt Barnes who put the ball in Kobe's face? Yes. And Kobe was just the mamba. In that moment Didn't, correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't it Matt Barnes who put the ball in Kobe's face? Yes. And Kobe was just.

No flinch. The mamba. The mamba. So, I mean, in that moment, in that moment when you know, like, there's no flinch. You can't show no sign of that. But at the end of the day, they both got to go in there and fight. I do have Tank winning, but I think Frank is going to push him, you know, with the layoff he's at. I think Frank's going to make Tank have to not only knock him out, but, like, maybe knock him out cold to win the fight. Yeah. I feel like Frank is bringing the dog,

knows this is his moment, has decided he is going to be as confident as he possibly can be, whether you feel like you've seen fear or maybe not ready for prime time yet. By the way, update on Gervonta Davis, he is now going back and forth with Oscar De La Hoya on Twitter. So that's fun. Oh my God. This is great. This is fun. It adds flavor to a matchup. Dude, some of these people, some of these people, it's interesting. You know this better than we do, certainly, but just covering athletes. I have seen some that have to psych themselves up for the moment, and they can do it, but it's a process.

And then I've seen others who cannot fucking wait for the lights to be on because that's the only time, actually, that they can get themselves to that place. I don't know who Gervonta is. Seems like he's the latter, but I guess're gonna find out tomorrow right because you're adding so much stress to this process was it jim lampley who was crying yesterday and told us that like he cries a lot so many fighters feel like they're only safe places in that ring yeah was it him who said that i don't even i think that's right yes all i know is that james tony called canelo a bitch okay to be very fair right there um i want to talk about David Benavidez.

Well, I can say this. The only time I was at peace is when I was playing basketball. Even in big games? Even in big games because it got to the point where I don't even know. I don't even see them. Like, it could be a loud, I don't even know you here. You know what I'm saying? I'm so locked in and so happy to be here and love what I'm doing

and want to win and competing so bad that I don't even know that this arena filled with 30,000 people. Mauro Ranallo used to say the same thing in that documentary, great documentary he did on Showtime. The bipolar rock and roller said like chaos in his life. But when the headphones are on, when he's doing what he's born to do is the only time he feels safe, alive, valued. To some degree, I can understand that, too. David Benavidez is playing a big role in Saturday's PBC on Prime video pay-per-view in the co-main event against Alexander Vovcik

moving up to 175 pounds. I got to find out because you spent time with him in Miami and he's a new man in Miami, it seems, right? Got moved from Seattle, has the secondary home there in Miami and has infiltrated himself into the lifestyle. But we've been impressed this week after talking to him by just how cool, calm, business-like,

assassin mode he is. Not going out of his way to disparage Canelo, even though we keep propping week after talking to him, but just how cool, calm, business-like, assassin mode he is. Not going out of his way to disparage Canelo, even though we keep propping these questions up to him, but he's just focused on his business. And when we hear Jim Lampley telling us that one day could be the first, you know, star crossover Mexican heavyweight champion, you got to really start thinking about

what David Benavidez has put together and what his potential is. What did you learn from spending time with him, you know, off camera and really finding out who that man is deep inside? Well, what a coach. How lucky are we to have him in the co-main, right? Him and David. We're so lucky as boxing fans.

I learned a lot. I learned that David Benavidez is a kid who is growing to be a man, but also who is learning how to be a professional and who is getting to the point where he's mastering his craft. David is one of the guys, especially since I've been shooting this show, he asks so many questions. And I've never seen a boxer ask so many questions. Like, we was in there with Roy Jones, and he was just so eager to learn.

And when you have a guy at the level that David's at, you know, a lot of guys thinking, okay, I've been boxing for so long, it's not too much I haven't seen in the ring. You know what I mean? I don't think David would ever be that way. I think he feels like it's always something that he can add to his game, whether it's footwork, whether it's, you know, whether it's moving, whether it's controlling the boxer, taller boxer. Like, it's so much that he feels like he still has to learn game, whether it's footwork, whether it's moving, whether it's controlling the box,

the taller box. It's so much that he feels like he still has to learn in the game of boxing. And when you're at the level he at, that is impressive to me. I got a chance to run with him. I was supposed to run eight miles with him. I ran four. I ran halfway.

I'm like, you're a 45-year-old man, right? I mean, come on. I could not run eight miles, and David ran it like it was around the block, right? I mean, come on. I could not run eight miles, and David ran it like it was around the block, right? Jesus. And his work ethic, like we was talking about Kobe and all these other guys, he has that one-of-a-kind, once-in-a-lifetime work ethic. And it was a pleasure to see him in this camp working to get ready for this fight.

Also, you've seen these athletes too, right? True in any sport. There's certain times where you can see them begin to really elevate, and these are guys who in practice cross the T, dot their I's, almost like going into a test knowing you have done all the homework, all the studying, everything. There's nothing you won't know about. Not to say you know everything, but about that night, about that test,

you already know. The confidence he had, it felt like he already knew. I know exactly what's going to happen. I know exactly what I have to do. I know exactly the kind of energy and intensity I have to muster, and let's just go and do it. I'd never seen someone so dialed in on so many levels all at once. Yeah, I mean, a guy like that, when you show up to the fight,

if anything goes wrong, you want to when you know a guy like that, when you show up to the fight, if anything goes wrong, you want to sit there and be able to say, you know, I prepared, I did everything I was supposed to do for this fight. Even on the show, it's a guy from overseas that was there that wanted to spar with David. He gave David some work that was going to help him in his next fight. So David gave him a job and kept him around. Damn. So, you know, that shows the type of person that David is.

If he got somebody around that's going to make him better and then can keep him around, that shows a lot. All right, let's talk about the intensity that you saw from him because he's almost matter of fact when we sat down with him yesterday and relayed the story that Breadman Edwards told us about how Benavidez has been in camp before with the big light heavyweights who he's moving up and putting himself in position to face. Because remember, if he beats Wozniak on Saturday,

we expect him, and so does Torquay Alashik, to fight the winner of October's B--ball versus better b-ball disputed clash but we find out that benavidez has sparred before b-ball vodzik ggg and and like the report coming back was that he put it on them he confirmed but without being braggadocious like yeah that's exactly what happened did you see that fer ferocity come out? When we talked about it, you saw the confidence in him. You can tell that he has some great experiences with those guys, and him moving up is not a problem to him. You know, he knows he can bang with these guys.

He knows he can get in there and win these fights. And I just love David because he's willing to fight everybody, not only his confidence, but he wants to make the fights for the fans. He always talks about, I want to give the fans what they want to see. You don't have too many fighters saying that today. You know what I'm saying? A lot of fighters, I want to make sure it's a great fight for me. I want to make sure the money's right.

He's doing stuff for the fans, and that's refreshing to hear that from a guy like me who's a true boxing fan. Also, one thing I love about David's style, listen, I don't begrudge a fighter for fighting smart because sometimes you've got to do it. You got to get the dub and just get out. And I'm not saying he fights recklessly, but he has a square stance.

We talked about with him yesterday. He defended why he fights right in front of you like that. You know, if it's a David Benavidez fight, it's going to be action. He doesn't have any other gear. That's what he does. There's no second game where he's slipping and rolling and turning, going to be action. Right. He doesn't have any other gear. That's what he does. Right. There's no second game where he's slipping and rolling and turning,

marching you down at all times in your face. It's just a matter of when the damn breaks, really. Right, right, right. I'd love to see it, though. Stack, I've got to talk about your time with the OG Roy Jones on this first episode of Fight Towns. We have a clip to throw to. We'll be back on the other side. Roy Jones Jr. Remember that name? Y'all must have forgot. first episode of Fight Towns. We have a clip to throw to. We'll be back on the other side. Bucket.

Bucket. There we go. Bucket. Bucket. Ice water. When you fit it, you get it. You know what I'm saying? So dope.

Me and Roy just got us some shots in. We're here checking in with David Benavidez. We want to pop up on him because he's a big fan of Roy Jones. He's getting ready for his fight coming up. Let's see what he got going on, man. You almost forgot, forgot, forgot, forgot, forgot. Can I get some silence from you? Forgot, forgot, forgot, forgot, yeah.

Of course, of course, of course. We can call right now. You're fighting Bostic, right? Yeah. He's right-handed, right? Yeah, yeah. So what you want to do, you want to go this way. Yeah. You want to force him to go to his right. you want to do is you want to go this way. Yeah.

You want to force him to go to his right. Because the comfort rate from the move is to his left. Yeah. He's comfortable like this. Put him in this position. Now you're messing him up. Don't get too close. Because you're going to get him too much.

The apothecary got to get too close. What you want to do is keep this up. Keep that up on him. See what I'm saying? Keep that. You stopping him? Keep that up on him. See that? Yeah, yeah. See that? Nothing he can do now.

I've been watching about you. I know that you do a leaping. Boom. And it comes from here and then you go. Exactly. So where that goes is when you go here, see the shoulder floor. I met David Pops about four or five years ago and I've been a fan of David. And I'm one of those guys that if I'm a fan of you, whatever you want, I want.

I want to see him fight Canelo. He wants to fight Canelo. There's a few guys in boxing that not only I'm just a fan of, if I'm a fan of you, whatever you want, I want. I want to see him fight Canelo. He wants to fight Canelo. There's a few guys in boxing that not only I'm just a fan of, but I really want to see them succeed. And David is one of them. Stack, come here. So when he's moving, now you go left Stack, you move there. So you go back and you try to stay away from me.

So if he comes, I gotta come here, you know what I'm saying? He goes there, I gotta come here and cut that off. If he goes there, I gotta come here and cut that off. I can never let him look down at my face. There you go, there you go, see that? Now, exactly, but now, now you got control of both of them. See that? You control, you control both of his hands now.

That's how to fight, exactly. Exactly, eh, eh, eh. Oh, he's got, I'm down, I'm down. I'm happy to be here. I'm not scared. I ain't. Yeah, I ain't scared of shit, and I'm bigger than him too. I got the size advantage against David. I'm happy to be here. I'm not scared. Yeah, I ain't scared of shit. I'm bigger than him too.

I got the size advantage against David. He came close to my mouth. I was worried for a second. I was real worried. I thought he was gonna connect and I was gonna be like, yeah. Stack, it seems like Roy has not lost the alpha inside of him at all. Not at all. And his passion to giving the game back to the youngsters is unreal.

I think that's all he really talked about. When we told him he was going to the gym to see Benavidez, I think he lit up more than Benavidez. You know, he was excited. I was super excited to get called into the ring. You know, if you watch the show, show, I was feeling myself a little bit because I had my hands up and I was moving and David stuck his hand out and knocked his hand down. Hold on, I'm feeling myself a little bit too much.

I was having too much fun in that ring. But Roy Jones, from me watching, I was watching the footwork, just the little things he was teaching David, it shows that not lifting weights and just the one step that he showed David and throwing the hook made all the difference in the world. So it's really like we say the fundamentals. The fundamentals in boxing are the same way. You know what I'm saying? You got guys like David that's really done everything

in boxing, but Roy was telling him just little things, fundamental things to add to his game that he was wowed by. You know what I'm saying? The things that he probably could have learned, you know, at a young age, but Roy's still teaching him those things. So it was good to see Roy give the game back to David and him, and David accepted as well. Roy is an – you know, it's interesting, right? Because, like, he broke all the rules when he played.

You know what I mean? You're talking about one of one. Yeah. Hands up. Yeah. And yet you can see, like're talking about one of one. Yeah. Hands up. Yeah. And yet you can see like encyclopedic knowledge of what comes with boxing. I guess he doesn't have the time to train, but he's certainly got the brain power to share some wisdom.

Incredible. Incredible. He says he still trains. He says his dogs, his feet, he says his feet be killing him. Yeah? I mean, he fought until he was 50, basically. I mean, it's incredible. Stack, I got to, because you're a basketball guy,

and we are in the midst of the finals. I'm so dismayed by how it's going. So I'm a Celtics fan, so I'm allowed to say this. Does Donchich need to man up and stop being a bitch? Well, I just, you know, let's just give credit when credit is due. They're playing against a better team, and that's what it all boils down to. What's up, everybody out there in the world?

They love Stack 5. At the win. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. They're not here for you and me. I think they want to dress like this. That's what I think. It's the shirt.

It's definitely the shirt. They're playing against a better team, man. That's what it all boils down to. Yes, they were able to get out of the Western Conference. They played well against those teams. But Boston is the most seasoned team in the NBA and the most seasoned team in the playoffs. You got to think, Boston has been to the finals and lost.

Boston has been to the Eastern Conference finals with three out of the last four years. So this team has everything they need to win a championship. So if they didn't win it this year, it was going to be a bad look for Boston because you don't get that opportunity all the time. This was their year to win it and their season that moment.

They are the better team all the way around. They're placed seven deep. You have two guys you have to worry about with the Dallas Mavericks. On Boston side, you gotta worry about seven guys, right? You can double two guys in Dallas. You can't double anybody in Boston. And they're showing you have to, it's not really just Kyrie getting D'd up,

missing shots. It's not Luka just arguing with the referees and missing shots. We're not playing defense. It's Boston, the better team. They're so balanced. And that's what people need to say. People are trying to say Luka's off, Kyrie's off. Boston is just the better team, and that's why they're winning by large amounts.

Deal with that. I guess that's what he's saying. Man, fuck you. I got one moment in life. Come on. You know what I mean? I'm rooting for Kyrie and Luka myself. I said Dallas was going to win it.

I said I wanted Dallas to win, but I knew Boston. Yes. This is their opportunity. Do you think – is it going to be a sweep? I think you can pull the brooms out. I mean, in order for the series to go on, Luka and Kyrie are going to have to have mega games at the same time, but they're still not beating Boston four times in a row.

I think the third leading scorer for the last game heading into the fourth quarter had like six points for Dallas. Yeah. Like, you just can't win doing that. You just can't. Luka and I have come to terms. We don't agree on much, but we come to terms and agree that in the 2008 finals, which is apropos of the last time

the Celtics won the championship, that when Paul Pierce got into the wheelchair, it was because he shit his pants. Can you confirm or deny that rumor? We all thought that. The whole world thought that. I think he tried. I think he cleared it up.

I think, I don't even, he said they put, he said he did ask them to pull a wheelchair out. He said they did that. They did that on his own. I don't believe it. I don't know. He might have sharted. Deathbed reveal one day coming from that guy. He might have had a weird try. He said they did that. They did that on his own. I don't believe it. He might have sharted. Deathbed reveal one day coming from that guy.

He might have had a shart. Lucas said this many times. He just wants to make it okay again to shit your pants. Just like it's not a big deal. I don't care if it's okay. I'm just going to do it. It's not okay. But I mean, sometimes you might not be able to hold it, you know. There it is. There it is. Stack, we could not have enjoyed this more. All the smoke fight, the new combat sports sports vertical the same old flavor that you love

from the showtime boxing days is back us back together can't wait to see the continuation of fight towns our coverage on the road the biggest events we're back and everything that we're all adding together thank you for all the smoke podcast as well go get your all the smoke podcast and your anillos. Oh, yeah. Have you had it yet? Yes, I did. How did you like it? It's incredible.

Okay, I wanted you guys to pay me. I think I need a bottle of that anillo. Don't say less. Say less. Whatever you guys need, I'm going to do it. Is that Spanish for get fucked? Rings. Thank you, Stack.

We are now going to throw to our sit-down with David Benavidez yesterday from Radio Row. And on the other side side more UFC news breakdown boxing, the sphere, so much more be right back El Monstro is here, David I think I'm trying my best to get that flavor I'm making fun of him I speak gringo, so how should I say it

David Benavidez there we go with the fresh fade and everything I was going to say the best super middleweight in the world just walked in right here, right? But he's going up to a still. I still am. I'm still in the best super middleweight in the world. He's going up to 175.

What's your walk-around weight if you can? Like 230, 240. Jesus. I'm sorry. I'm playing with you. No, like 200 pounds. 200 pounds. Okay.

Okay. I don't want to stress the Canelo topic or pin you down, but I think we've got to get through it, okay? Yeah. Are you done carrying and or chasing and or potentially cutting your body potential to 168 to fight that man? Where are you at in your head space on that thing that we can't stop talking about? Well, you know, to be honest with you,

I did everything in my power possible to make that fight happen. I beat the fighters that they told me I couldn't beat, and I was number one contender for the past three years. But I had my hands tied. I did everything in my power possible to make it happen. The only reason this fight is not happening is because Canelo doesn't want it to happen because he knows damn well that once he faces me, I'm taking all those titles home with me. Is there any part of you that's saying, well, he's just trying to raise the price tag?

Saudi Arabia is here, and that's changing things you know what i mean i i can't keep thinking about what he's doing what his strategy is um i've done my job i've done my job perfectly and um i i think it will happen i just don't know when i think this is too big of a fight to leave on the table like that and you know everybody wants to see this fight and um i want to be in this fight included you know i mean i want I want to show the people I am the best in the world, but I don't know when it's going to happen. All right, final question for me on this. James Toney sat in that chair and called Canelo a bitch to the camera.

You seem to still keep a very business-like level head. You're not out there saying, Canelo, what do I have to do? Piss on your lawn. You're just sort of like, all right, you don't want the smoke? I'm making my own name here. Was there a moment that changed, or was it always sort of the way where it's like, I don't need him to define my career? Yeah, it's always been like that.

Since I was a little kid, I never had that thought in my head, like, oh, I'm going to face Canelo. My main objective is to become the best at whatever weight class I'm in. And I was trying to do that at 168. I was trying to unify the titles, but I didn't get that opportunity. So I came up to 175. Now this fight is going to put me in position to fight for all the titles at 175 and I'm going to continue being dominant force in whatever weight class I'm in who wins when better be even Bivol finally square off I

I'm leaning more towards Bivol but I can't say because they're both great fighters so it's a 50-50 fight but you you lean Bivol tell me why you at least lean that direction because he's a hard puncher and he's a boxer. Meaning he moves around a lot. As you can see, better be if he had a hard time with Alexander Bosnik. And Bosnik was boxing him, but his punching power is not like B-Ball's. So I think for that reason, he's going to have his hands full with B-Ball, and that's why I'm leaning towards B-Ball.

I got to jump in and ask you something, because there was a man in this chair earlier, Stephen Breadman Edwards, who we love, who said, not breaking any you know news here this is knowledge that david benavidez fought all these light heavyweights in sparring before and it kind of put it on them up warn them out put all i put it on all of them on on all of them and they know that too but i'm not showing no disrespect they're all great fighters and i know how to come 100 100 percent prepared for each one of them because all these guys are beasts. Is there an expiration date in terms of how, like, you can't make 168 anymore? No, I can make 168, but for what?

For what, right? For what? Just the opportunity. Yeah, just the opportunity. I could definitely make 168, but that's why this fight is perfect. It was a perfect time to come up to 175 because I had did everything in my power possible to fight for all the belts, but because that's not given to me,

now I get to test my skills at 175. Can I talk about how you developed your style? Because obviously you are extremely effective. You walk people down, and I'm not here to in any way honor the haters that you see online, but one of the things people bring up is you have a squared stance at all times,

but it completely works for you. If you take a look at the square stance, that's an art that not everybody can perfect. Okay. Julio Cesar Chavez did it to perfection. That means you're basically ambidextrous. Yes, sure. You use both hands. You could use the lefty stance or you could use the orthodox stance.

So if you know how to use it, if you're comfortable, you've seen me in all my fights. I've used it pretty well. And the people are complaining about that because they don't know how to use it if you're comfortable you see me in all my fights I've used it pretty well And the people are complaining about that because they don't know how to do that How did you develop that style despite coaches telling you to stop or? My dad never told me to stop my dad First of all, we'd work on the jab opening them up and then once we get them to the corners Then you start to pick. But boxing is you have to pull tricks out of your hat, meaning that you have to touch here, you have to touch there.

You have to be really unpredictable. And how is it to be the most unpredictable? Change from lefty to righty. And that's what we've been doing our whole career, and it's been working for us a lot. And, you know, I feel good and happy that I'm part of the few that could actually do that type of style because that style does not work for everybody all right we saw members of your team vaping before and that looks all fired

up he's like vapors there were some vapors though he's like vaping is for closers at this point in your career when you're making weight championship weight are you could there be nothing no sugar no cookies no not like where are you adding that Spartan lifestyle where you can't even let anything in from the outside? No, I don't. I mean, I'm not going to be that type of person and be like, you can't do this. They're grown men. They can do whatever the heck they want to do.

But for me, I take my job serious. Strictly water, no sugar, good protein, fish, chicken, salad, lots of tomatoes. And, you know, yeah, we try to keep it as clean as possible. Hey, when did you – it seems like, I'm just on the outside looking in, that you and your family, like, fell in love with Miami. Yeah. When did that happen? How did that happen?

I've always been in love with Miami. Miami is a beautiful place. You guys been? Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's a beautiful – See, he loves these things called BBLs. I don't know if you've heard this before. He loves them.

I mean, it's great, right? Yes. My wife's from South America. He never stops bringing it up. But in all seriousness, when did that happen? So I've always visited Miami because I have family that lives there. But I just bought a condo out there. And, yeah, it's just a beautiful place.

It's the capital of Latin America, is it not? Yeah, and you know what? Miami, when I went out there, I didn't really think I was going to get noticed like that. But people love boxing out there. Everywhere I go, people notice me. It just feels like there's a lot of opportunity in Miami. I don't know. It just feels like, I don't know.

There's just something different. When I went there, Roy Jones went. Rigondel went. Andre Durrell. A whole lot of fighters went. Mike Hoppinger. Yeah, Mike Hoppinger went. Ugas is out there.

Ugas is out there. I didn't see him when i was there but he's out there as well and uh yeah it's just a good environment good environment and you know everybody's motivated and everybody's pumped up over it i will say this though miami very showy you have to you know what i mean like everyone's got nice cars everyone's got like uh he's he's pretty showy too he's i was gonna say i saw the car i saw the car in how to fit in that car who the one that's metallic looking. The gold one.

How did you get that? Well, I bought it from the dealership, and then I wrapped it gold. That thing is amazing. Yeah, it's nice. Wow. All right, I've got to ask you about Alexander Vozdik, your opponent on Saturday. I've got a lot of respect for him. He's 37 now, though, 3-0 on this comeback.

What is the real challenge that he brings to the table for you on Saturday? You know, he's a very decorated fighter, amateur great ex-world champion his only loss was to better be it but he actually knocked out donald steven once in the one of the most fierce light heavyweight champion retired in recent memory so i i'm definitely come 100 prepared for this guy i know what he could do but i know i know his strengths and those weaknesses but this is the challenge that i wanted to take and i wanted to show everybody that I am the best in the world. Do you think that this one, any chance this one goes the distance? No. Hell no.

I'm going to knock out Olazun and Boznik. You can mark my words, and I want to steal the show. You know what I mean? I know I got stiff competition, and Gervonta Davis and Frank Markin are going to duke it out, but by the time this event is over, this is going to be the day we're going to be the show. You seem to be one of the more beloved fighters of turkey al-ashik of saudi arabia that he seems to have his favorites and he mentions you a lot is there a budding friendship and

really he's a great guy you know he's shown me a lot of support um he's a great guy and we uh definitely me al hayman louisa kubas we love to do business with him what's when you think about where you are in i don don't know, three years, what does that look like in your mind? What have you accomplished? Definitely unified world champion, I think, at 168 and 175. You know, when I was a little kid, I thought it was going to be impossible to even win one well. I got three of them now, and now that I know I can accomplish greatness,

I'm just reaching for the stars now. Do you think you can get to the number one spot? I mean, in a way, we've got Usyk, we've got Crawford kind of in that space now. Yeah, that's my dream. That's what I envision in my head, and that's exactly what I'm going to manifest into my life. Wow. I can't wait. I'm feeling the aura, the energy.

He's ready. He's dialed in. He's focused. David Benavidez, El Monstro. The monster is back. Closing comment, though, because Mike Tyson gave you that nickname, and Mike Tyson's going to box Jake Paul. Do you want your friend Mike to do that?

I know you wanted to cash the check. We all do. It's going to be a nice check probably. Is it a bad idea or what? Mike Tyson's Mike Tyson. You know, if Mike Tyson's asking if you're telling Mike Tyson, Mike, is it going to be a bad idea you face Jake Paul? He'll probably slap you. But

at the end of the day, we just want uh everything to you know go right you know it's a good fight mike tyson still got the fire in him but jake paul is a tough opponent for him too so um i'm sure it's gonna be a good fight big audience on netflix yeah yeah we'll see david benavides thank you best of luck sir always a pleasure to chat with you maybe the best 168 or in the the world. And there you have it. El Monstro himself. Monstro. I got it.

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That many that That much? So you put $5 down on Tank, KO1 maybe. That's been a hot bet this week. Yeah. You're talking about $150 in bonus bets instantly, but only if you use our promo code. MK. MK.

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put the camera on me the crowd is yours that's what i'm talking about draft kings right there use our code m to the k indeed all right we put that behind us luke we wanted to get back into how we started this show uh so much going on in the ufc really an unprecedented level so ufc 303 here in las vegas international fight week june 29 will still happen no conor mcgregor we talked about the replacements. Luke, is there anything lingering you want to hit on this? I mean, we love the replacement fights, first of all. That's box office.

Let's get back to UFC if we can. Let me just ask you, right, because there's some things I've been thinking about. Hey, can we switch the back? I guess we can leave it. I don't know if it really matters. Whatever. Hey, there we go. I do love stack, I'm just saying.

Is UFC 303 now a better card? Yes. Now, hold on. That's an honest statement. What you have to factor in, what you have to factor in, excuse me, is you're getting, I think, on paper, a better fight card. But with the short notice, are you still getting a better fight card? I mean, that's the question. How will this affect Alex Pineda?

And how delicate is this walk he's doing right now of going in there in the second division and just knocking out killer after killer? I mean, it's been unprecedented just in his own arc, the way he's wiggled. But now we're going to ask a lot of him. Remind you, I mean, he has so little, what is he, under 10 UFC fights still?

But the last, you know, five or six have been monster headlining. We're talking about MSG. We're talking about UFC 300. Now we're talking about international fight week here. I hope that doesn't affect him. But when we talked about the advanced age, he does have a smaller window than most to get that done. And boy, is he taking advantage of it? But is everybody healthy? Is everybody full on camp? I mean, we only saw potato perera two months ago luke is yuri fully healthy and ready i mean they're healthy enough to take the bag here will that affect will that if any of that short notice give anyone an advantage how do we look at that

again so here's my my view of this is the main and the co-main those are action fights no matter what diego lopez and brian ortega it wouldn't matter if they had five minutes five weeks five months five years notice it's going to be two cats in a bag right so that's just the reality the question is can you double check to see if that's I'll look here in a minute I don't know if it's five rounds or not I'm going to guess it's not I'm going to guess that's going to be for three still they're going to have active scrambles I don't see how that one goes the distance although one never knows this fight might make Diego Lopez right the question you have to ask yourself is more in the main event that's an

action fight too like Yuri doesn't fight any other way nevertheless might there be more of an additional sprint off the top knowing if you're either guy you probably don't want that fight going to the fourth and fifth round if you can at all avoid it given how little time is you got to get your cardio where it needs to be and to what extent does that change the fight so my belief is again the later a fight is put together the more in general you are taking away from it at the same time these two individual match-ups are already action fights irrespective of what booking context in which you make them i wonder if it just dials up the intensity even more given what they're up against you're right it's going to be I wonder if it just dials up the intensity even more, given what they're up against.

You're right. It's going to be spectacular. And if it does improve the card, which overall, top to bottom, it kind of really does. So, Luke, before we get back into Robert Whitaker's new opponent, and this is a hell of a great fight. Can I say something about the Carlos Olberg fight, too? Oh, please.

Oh, yeah, so add that in. Anthony Smith, right? So, yeah, it's Anthony Smith. I got to tell you, I like this fight more than the Jamal Hill fight. Sure. Because... We went from Round than the Jamal Hill fight. Sure. Because... We went from Roundtree Hill to Hill, Elberg. Elberg, and now Elberg-Smith. And the reason why I like it is, first of all, Smith just got the guillotine win over Vitor Petrino,

who fought not intelligently and paid for it by getting choked out in the first round. It shows you if you give him something, Anthony Smith still has a little bit of trickery left in his game. Ulberg, I don't know, has the best jiu-jitsu, but again, if he keeps it standing, it's a different ballgame. I'm simply saying the reason I like it is it's a different fight than the Hill fight. It's going to test different parts about his game, and if he wins, he might get a title shot from it, but it's certainly no guarantee.

It's a little bit more of an iterative step than a huge leap that the Jamal Hill fight would have been by virtue of the ranking position that they came from. I actually like this one. It's a little bit more of a modest incremental step up. Yeah. That you want to say and it's a particular step up of his fight IQ in keeping this fight probably at range. And what he can do with it. I like this a lot better than the other better than I don't disagree with that.

Olberg and Diego Lopez, who has a bigger opportunity to like this international fight week, Diego Lopez, Diego down on their star. Ryan Ortega is currently ranked number three in the division. Diego Lopez is ranked 14. You just rarely ever see somebody ranked number three coming off of a big win over yaya rodriguez in this particular case but how many times you see someone at number three giving a shot to someone at number 14 it never or not never rarely happens you're getting that here so diego lopez can go warp speed to the top of the division however let's think about this for a second we

don't know if max and ilia are fighting next, but they probably are. We don't know when. And then Volk is kind of hanging out there. Does the winner of this fight get Volk? Does Volk take the winner of this fight? Does he wait until he gets the winner of, and by the way, if Holloway wins, are they going to do Holloway-Volk? So if you're Diego Lopez,

there's a little bit of a blockade at the top of this division if he wins. Brian Ortega, too. Well, I don't know if they get a title shot right from it, but, man, you're going to be in a great position. It is wild when UFC makes these late substitutions, and, look, this is their reputation now. They're able to do it.

They're on the top of the hill, and they are able to put a big Band-Aid on and keep the show on the road. It might have improved the card overall. You give them that credit. No question about it. But, Luke, I actually thought it would have been O card overall um you give them that credit no question about it but luke i i thought i actually thought it would have been o'malley versus marab and maybe that was talked about i don't know but when we were looking at like who's possibly available in the timelines if that one would have substituted in would that have made this bigger maybe but i kind of really

love this pro hot scope per rematch the more i really look at it like you're talking about like the guaranteed fireworks i love it so i'm all in in on where they landed and how they fixed it, at least. For a two-week replacement, you'll just never see anything better at MMA. You can be mad at how we got here, but now that we're here, given what we were promised and now what you got, no one else in combat sports could do this. So you're like, honey, I know the labor pains were horrific, but the baby's here.

Can we just focus on that? That's really what I'm saying. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, look, the UFC has constructed a model where they can develop this next man up kind of thing. And if you deprive people of the salaries that they normally earn, but then give them big bags for opportunities, this is how the whole thing works.

All right, close the McGregor conversation for me. Does he fight in the fall? I'll say yes. I'll say yes I'll say yes um I think he does one more time beyond that it's really hard to say and I want to be clear about something too we don't know let's assume it's an injury like as we've been told we don't know what injury it is if it's a cut is it's a cut, is it related to the leg? Is it related to something of a imbalance that the leg created? You seem so chill with the fact that we don't know. Like we shouldn't know.

Like it's not our business. Like it's just weird. My issue is this. They dragged it out unnecessarily. So keeping part of it secret, I'm less bothered by. I'm more bothered by the duration of time at which they twiddled their thumbs that's my that's and again i was trying to figure out like what orthopedic injury takes this long dude the initial assessment that they probably couldn't do it was fucking correct this is what i mean they know fast it doesn't take a

long time to figure this shit out that's the part that kind of gets you, but keeping their cards close to the vest in a shorter window, I'm less bothered by. All right, and they did save, of course, when we're talking about the UFC Saudi Arabia debut card, which is next weekend. Robert Whitaker not going to be facing Hobbs out to my of, but is Ikram Al-Skarov, who

takes the opportunistic opportunity, and really, we're talking about opportunistic opportunity. You love that when you can combine that shit in the same sentence what i'm saying here is we talk about what diego lopez can do in doubling down the star power this is a step we thought ddp stepping up to robert whittaker two fights ago was like is this going to be a bridge too far how ready is alaskar off for this level of smoke has only lost to hamza tramayev in his career the finishing streak is incredible of knockouts. He's a freight train coming, Luke.

Yeah, he's never fought anybody like this. I mean, there's just no denying. So the good news for Alaskarov is he was supposed to be fighting this weekend, I believe. They're just pushing him back a week. So in that sense, he has a full camp. It's short notice, but a full camp short notice. So that's a great thing.

So both guys are coming in with a fair amount of, you know, good prep but unknowns. Huge, huge moment first for Whitaker because if he wants to get back to the title, and he's been pretty explicit that's what he wants, no room for fucking error. And he is taking on a very, very tough assignment, a very different one than Hamzat.

Hamzat gets shot out of a cannon and of a cannon and kind of fades down the stretch. Alaskarov does not, but I would argue, it's hard to say if he's more well-rounded. His game is a little bit more balanced but different. So he's got more of a traditional Sambo style where he's got trips, throws, foot sweeps, that kind of a thing. We saw a big bruiser in ddp take him down

there were young children i was just waving did you wink at a little child what am i gonna do they were waving i was like hey i didn't want to like distract you and raise my hand i mean what any real man does i mean i'm not gonna apply to be the defensive coordinator at penn state after that or anything if that's what you're concerned so the point i'm trying to make is this bc if you're robert whittaker no for error. We saw the big physical takedown passing style of DDP give him real problems. Alaskarov is a real threat in that sense. He's got a fantastic Kimura. He goes to mount the whole bit.

So that's what I would say on his end. On the Alaskarov side, I think he's playing with house money. He is getting warp sped. ABC, by the way. ABC primetime, right? In the afternoon. That's right. Early primetime. That's right. And if you're Al alice carob if you lose against whitaker okay fine you

can go back to fighting sort of more middle of the road guys at and and middleweight and he can beat those guys too but if you beat whitaker you're going to go warp speed to the front of that division probably get a title shot relatively soon thereafter however that's a very very difficult uh guy to solve that's why it gets exciting when the ufc is able to save face and they did it they made the lemonade then people get to cut the line then chaos ensues that is fun that is fun to see that fall and you can reorder the whole table of things like that in a single instant for alice carrava would have taken him probably a little bit longer middleweight's a little bit easier to push through but it would have taken him a lot longer now all of a sudden you're in a robert wh For Alex Kareva, it would have taken him probably a little bit longer. Middleweight's a little bit easier to push through, but it would have taken him a lot longer. Now,

all of a sudden, you're in a Robert Whitaker main event for the UFC's debut in a new coveted market in Saudi Arabia, as you mentioned, primetime on ABC. This is an enormous opportunity. It's a much more difficult one, but a much more enriching one if you're Alex Kareva. To me, it's the Whitaker side that I'm really kind of paying attention to take hit he he is also taking on enormous risk here for what could be a disaster if he doesn't win could be a disaster it's gonna be exciting to see the fallout of that so at the very least can't wait to see the what UFC has done to to keep that going and keep that alive Luke this Saturday we have a UFC fight night card from the apex I didn't know that if anyone was super excited about this but then Floyd Mayweather was sweet in that you know you should probably tune into this and that is live

right now i mean that was a little bit weird uh it is what it is luke but is what's the biggest gold we should look for well so we had a joshua van versus ulan um oh god what's his last name i can never pronounce it um ulan bakal the tagger ulan bakov fight is now off so josh van one of these great up-and-comers he was supposed to take on tagger ulan ulan bekov it fell out because he missed weight back off by i think by like four pounds something fucking absurd he's nearly at the next weight class it's a flyweight fight so we lost that one that was a big gem on this card unfortunately and the rest of it is not that great um adam fuggett is on this one, or Fuggett, however you pronounce his name.

The delicacy and care that you show to the Casterists of the world, and then you're like, ah, fuck it, it's Fuggett, whatever you want to call it. Okay, I'm just doing some jokes. The main event is still great. Alex Pettis taking on Tetsuro. Tyra is a phenomenal contest.

Tyra is, this one, to me, is really going to come down to who's initiating the grappling sequences and then winning the scrambles is going to be a big part of it. Tyra, very good about mount, very good about back, kind of fights long distance, not an in-the-pocket kind of boxer typically. And Perez has a wrestling background, very, very good scrambles. But you can recall against Pantoja, I believe, he was very good about getting behind him just to create back exposure, and then he was able to get it.

I wonder if Tyra can do that. Tyra, one of the very top prospects. Interesting moment in Japanese MMA, where for, you guys may not appreciate this, but back in the late 2000s, Japan and Brazil were both equal powerhouses, not in terms of filling out all the weight classes. Obviously, Brazil could fill out heavyweight a little bit more, but Japan was a factory of MMA fighters. They were relevant just by virtue of how many fighters were coming out of the scene.

And then after what was called the Kakutoki Boom, which was this big boom in pride and K-1 and pro wrestling. I think I saw an adult film named that one time. No? All right. If I had HIV in a squirtirt gun i will shoot you in the face that is too far all right but the point i wanted to make was they faded after the boom the balloon or the the bubble popped the scene really contracted i know there was dream there was

sengoku but it majorly contracted you're now starting to see a change in things the race arroyos the tetsuro tiras and many other ones coming out of Japan. Really kind of an interesting moment. And BC, this kid, 15-0, is at the front of the pack. Tough fight for him. I know folks are like, oh, it's not a great main event.

You're right, it's not a great main event. It's a great fight, though, and a great test of somebody in Tyra who I think has a very, very promising future. Not even if he loses, but definitely if he wins. I appreciate how you educated me and the audience about there are a few things to find on there.

Not a lot of Wikipedia pages up and down this card. The thing about these Apex cards that you have to admit is the UFC has so many resources that even of their bottom of the barrel product, there's always going to be a couple of gems. Here's the problem for us. We are now at a place where the way content works that we have to make for audiences, you have to factor in how much the audience cares. Hardcores definitely care about this. The wider watching MMA public does not care about Apex shows.

They don't produce traffic. There's no response. It's a dead zone. And so it ends up influencing how we cover them, unfortunately, because there are other things that could pay that could be great now that being said there's also a lot of fights on this card that i would not consider ufc level worthy so there's a lot of filler in there too and that's part of the story but are there gems on these apex cards yes yes there are appreciate them for what they are even if they're on not the biggest card per se. I appreciate your appreciation level. Also, Luke, we saw PFL was back Thursday night, last night in Connecticut, by the way, with a PFL four card. I was going to ask you your legitimate biggest takeaway from the results that happened. By the way, Maheta got knocked out.

I don't love to see that. Here's my takeaway. Nobody watches the PFL. There's my takeaway. Well, they will now after we show this clip because this is look, we respond to so many wacky because MMA produces wacky clips that are just, you know, anytime a family

member walks in and they're in north-south position, you have to explain to yourself. MMA produces wacky clips. This highlight that came out of the PFL last night of this foul double knockdown is I think the most incredible video I've ever seen in MMA history. let's see it right now that's so MK that's so MK that's so PFL it was it used to be so Bellator right to have a double

stick kick moment yeah yeah and a main event Bellator heavyweight main event was basically two guys instead of power slap it was ball kick well this wasn't the main event early? A Bellator heavyweight main event was basically two guys. Instead of power slap, it was ball kick. Well, this wasn't the main event. Okay, fair enough. I'm just saying. But that's like, that was the, who was his name? Eric Pringle?

Remember him? Yes. Just getting lit up in the balls like it was no one's business? Well, that was Timothy Johnson who got hit in the Johnson, Luke. Remember when he fought Fedor in Moscow that time? And that was his opponent, Danilo Marcus. But in the main event, you don't really want to talk about Linton Vassell getting a split decision over Valentina Aldavsky, do you? Who gives a shit?

Do you care about Dakota Decheva? Yes, she's interesting. Dude, she looked like a dynamo up against the fence. Did you see her finish? I did. Drilling her opponent to the body. Ariel's a big cheerleader on her. She's good.

And it's brought attention that she can fight. No, no, no, she's good. Again, it's the same with the apex are there gems on the pfl roster absolutely and dakota deshava i have you pronounce her last name she is certainly one of them she did great work against the fence yesterday i loved how she finished her opponent off at angles when the when the finally with the she hit her to the body with a knee and then began to work the hands oh dude it was so nice loved it you're gonna get fired up for the PFL playoffs?

Like, remember last year? No. It's like, whether you're in or you're out on the PFL. Literally nobody is fired up about the PFL playoffs. Well, here's what I have to say. And we've had our criticisms of where the PFL's at this year after the big, bold announcement that they're coming on and they're competing and all of that.

Normally, there's like, okay, maybe I'm not in on most of the divisions, but there's a storyline involving Kayla Harrison that's interesting, and there's a storyline involving Brendan Loughnane and this and that. Is there any of those storylines yet? No, no. Dude, PFL doesn't... Look at me.

I'm not even trying to be a dick. I'm being dead honest. PFL doesn't have a fan base, and this tournament system is not going to create one. Like, they've got to fucking stop this. Can't they just reset and take people like Patchy Mix, AJ McKee, and just push them to the forefront

and just say, we have two of the best pound-for- on the planet right now and here they are rather than putting them on bellator in in europe right you know what i mean on like random cards there's so much that could be different remember they want to have a champions league model where pfl mina fights pfl europe fights whatever it doesn't make any sense this tournament system is a waste of everyone's time you can do a little bit of tournament work per you know season or per amount of time calendar year but building a product around it while trying to build a bellator brand while trying to build a pfo europe brand it makes zero fucking sense uh and they're going to go out of business but every time i wink at one of the

people outside you get very uncomfortable that look you give me because i it's weird when i give you analysis and you here's all I see from you. What the fuck are you doing? I'm just connecting with the people, like those people. Why don't you connect with the guy you do a show with, asswipe? How about that? Wow, let's connect on a heart level. Look, it's an interesting transition for topic number five because we connected on a very deep, cosmic, almost alien level last night

when you paid off the ultimate bet the okay bet mk bet from 2023 when we went head-to-head on picks for the whole year and no one thought that a guy who represents hashtag team vibes could somehow pull it out but luke i've pulled it out in public before and i'll do it again uh luke thomas your task last night was to pay that off of going to a concert that you definitely didn't want to go to if i would have lost i would have had to viking row in the crowd to see the to see the uh closer after cannibal corpse was there but no we didn't do that we did dead and company but i have to say luke i didn't do you dirty one i didn't get upset that you left early and we'll talk about that two it was at the

sphere so we're talking about whether you care about the dead or the music or there's people that were there that were not even involved in the music they're just involved with the atmosphere and whether you are deep talking to aliens on another level or they're sober on caffeine it was an experience within the experience within the experience i want to get first and foremost since you agreed to it since you walked in and shout out to otl burbridge the legendary bassist of dead and company for his hospitality and welcoming us in and we got to spend some time with him but luke you had to go where you don't go a lot of like smelly white people getting together a lot of unshowered a lot of unshowered whites at the

sphere yesterday how rough was it how would you sum up your experience for as long as it lasted yeah so here's what i would say um there's different parts to the experience as for the music i found it inoffensive i thought i was gonna like make my skin crawl it didn't make my skin but i will say when the jams heated up, the opening tracks were very tame compared to where it went. Do you know what I mean? All of the music is tame.

There's nothing about the music that's not tame. It heated up. There were moments in Althea where I was Dale Senior in turn four trying to keep it together. You were on row eight and a half. 888, I think, was the Delta designation. let me say this so there's different parts of the experience here is my understanding of grateful dead music it's basically gospel for secular whites

that's okay that's that is uh i'd like to that's who it's for because you see these guys correct me if i'm wrong because they all got their phones because it's the sphere, but they're all just kind of waving and everyone's putting their hands in the air. It's like a revival music turn of the century. It's gospel for people who don't believe in God, basically, is really what it is. It's just for people who enjoy love, I think. It's a certain kind of passive tantric almost experience that goes with it, but I didn't find it very offensive. I found it boring, the music, but not offensive. Let me say that that bob weir's old as shit but he he brought it by the end yo

they had old man river on the fucking guitar yesterday and i was like this guy's life expectancy is sunday okay okay someone around me it wasn't you or me but someone around me was like yo put this guy out to pasture i was like what okay okay i mean what are we doing here fella okay so let me say that the sphere holy fucking shit dude i don't have the words bc i don't have the words the only words i can tell you is that the day my kids were born the night i married my beautiful wife yeah are you know the clubhouse leaders in the greatest nights of my life i'm not doing a bit here i'm not trying to over sensationalize even though I'm wearing these obscene pants right now. Last night was among the greatest nights of my life. Because I understand when you merge a band that you love with a friendship

experience that we have with Otele, and then you're in the freaking sphere, which is not a 10 out of 10. It's like a 10,000 out of 10 in terms of what my expectations were. It's it's dude. And honestly, I could have stayed for the whole show. If I'm being dead serious,

I have a lot of problems sleeping this day. these days i'm on drugs to try and sleep i cannot go to sleep naturally is a recurring theme in your life i know well these ones are doctor prescribed so i didn't get sleep the night before and i was like on fumes and i couldn't take it anymore so i agreed to sit there for basically an hour, and then I left. But the sphere itself is, however cool it looks on Instagram or TikTok, it's 10 billion times cooler than that. And I can't overstate this. We were in the 300 section. Sure. So we were on the sixth floor.

I don't know how the math works, but that's where we were. Good seats, by the way. By the way, not a fucking bad seat in the house. Maybe if you were lower underneath the overhang in the general mission maybe but if you're in the stands like you're in the middle of stands trust me when i tell you you're not missing anything i cannot overstate this the sphere in terms of the graphics it doesn't just go right in front of you it goes well past your line of vision here and well past your line of vision when you look up so you're only seeing

the sphere you have to like literally go like this to not see it you have to turn way around to not see it it was so immersive i'm not kidding though i may or may not have had 57 000 thc gummies in my in my style that's a big reveal however however i was so freaked out when they were pulling out into outer space in the opening yes that i literally had to look at my phone so i could get my balance back it was shocking it's so steep up that high so steep and we weren't even close to as high as it goes no no i'm not talking about our toxicology reports i'm talking about the the angles of the thing but yet there was at least 15 times last night that i had to forcibly sit down or i felt like i was going to fall over onto the stage

thousands of feet below it. I won't spoil it, but they play with the sound and whatnot and the visuals where something zoomed from behind us. And it was, dude, just that alone, you could go sober, not care about the music. Just the visual show alone would leave you breathless. And I'm going to say this. I don't know what the UFC has cooked up for the show there. And it could fall flat.

I don't know. I don't know. But if they match what we saw last night in terms of visual presentation, it will be one of the greatest nights in combat sports history. Wow. Just on that alone. Because I've had talks about this with people since the concert last night about what would the UFC look like in there. And I do think from

the standpoint of having fighters look thousands of feet tall in front of you fighting each other, that might be the most ridiculous fight experience ever. But I don't necessarily feel like though, not just UFC, but combat sports in general is a right fit for that venue. Well, they got their work

cut out for them. But I'm just going to say this. I'm a hater. People always say, oh, Luke, you're a hater i am a hater i'm i don't like things very easily i don't impress easily and i don't like las vegas dude if you come to this city i don't give a shit who is playing at the sphere go well i don't know if any other band though has the video set up to pair with the songs. So we talked about the lyrics. We talked the moments that they have there, Luke. Okay. Grateful Dead is nice.

There's a lot of bands that are great. I think there's a lot of bands that could fill that in company. Let's dead in company. Okay. Tool. We talked about this before. The tool. I don't know if there's any interest, but tool could easily, it could change people's lives.

Change your fucking life, but it would change. I'm telling you it's an, it's, there's nothing. I hate giving Las Vegas credit. I i hate it there is nothing like this and you are a downer when the sphere first opened i was very excited about having the experience i had last night to feel it for myself and it was a 1000 out of 10 i mean it was just here's the problem with that i'll never see a greater concert i won't i won't because it can't you unless i you know unless my other favorite bands find their way there and maybe they do something even crazier but it's the grateful dead's history playing into what dead and company did and the i mean we're gonna show can i be honest it's a lot of john mayer well a lot of john mayer there is a lot of john mayer i would have liked a

little more otele on that big screen but i'll tell you this mayer's a bad man dude i mean i know about john mayer's guitar playing i've been a fan of of all of his music in this specific project as well but dude he impressed me on other levels last night i didn't walk away super impressed by him yeah we didn't get to that point you were what was three and a half songs in uh when we were in that i don't know they were songs were long by the way we were in the vortex of that screen i knew it was it might be go time for you but we've got some assets to run i want to say i want to say this too uh otiel burbridge what a mensch what a nice guy i had i don't know i didn't know anything really about him or whatever i sold i was the first time meeting him like you first time for you meeting him right i was on his podcast first time in person meeting

okay first time in person incredible guy more than generous so, so conversant, a true MK donk. We met his wife as well. Yes. Couldn't have been more lovely, friendly as well. Two people that treated us way nicer than we deserve to be treated. Oteel, thank you so much. I don't like the music, but I like you a lot. You made my night, blew me away.

Congratulations on all your success and thank you for supporting mk and thank you for giving the opportunity to do that last night what a what a experience it really was what an experience i mean when i say it's now the best concert i've ever been to it's the best art that i've ever seen that combination of sound visual and what was happening it's so it's so overwhelming you you have to see it but i'm not doing a bit here. And I've been to great jam band shows.

I followed Fish on tour before. I think part of me healed last night. Part of me deep inside. There was like, I'm not kidding. There was a, it was almost a spiritual event at the same time. How many whippets did you hit in the Arby's parking lot afterwards? Beforehead. We have some elements, a quick little fun side show.

Hopefully we'll be putting some of our other elements together. Yeah, so we recorded a bunch of stuff. We're going to send it to our video editor to put together a little something. I put together a little taste just for if anyone's curious about our experience last night. Let's run through a couple of the items here, Luke. We can comment on it. So, Luke, we arrived at the sphere on the outside and you're just like, F this experience.

We keep it going? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Security had to come get your boy. I mean, she lingered. She lingered in those areas, Luke. Yeah, you. There we go. Security had to come get your boy. I mean, she lingered. She lingered in those areas, Luke. Yeah, you know. Don't worry. I was farting right there.

Well, keep it going. Yes, that was my experience with you, and I loved it, Luke. I loved every second of it. There's me looking miserable. A lot of white people in the crowd. You're right. Yeah, a lot of whites. Let's keep it going.

A lot of whites. Dude, I cannot. So they started out eye level with the houses in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. And then they slowly just pull out into outer space. Dude, it was, I literally, BC, did I not tell you I was getting anxiety? It was. Because I felt like I was being dragged into outer space. I shared this with my wife and she was like, I could, you know, she doesn't like these type of rides that I could never ever step in.

I understand that. Dude, I get it. I got to say this. If you are like queasy about this stuff, maybe the sphere is not for you. It might not be. Let's keep the, let's keep the items going. I mean, just the, the imagery was just incredible. That was a beautiful moment. That was cool.

I saw, I left during this part. As we continue. Oh yeah. The pyramids of Giza. Pretty cool. And so Luke, let's play this video out. We don't have sound on it, but this is the moment where I think you lost yourself a little bit. Dude, this was insane.

This was insane. They went from outer space through this tunnel into the pyramids of Giza, and I just couldn't believe what I was looking at. Again, whatever you think it looks like on your phone or your screen, whatever you're watching this on, it's even better in person, like by a million miles. We got a couple more for you. I just wanted to give you a little taste.

Legitimately, I could show you 150 photos and videos here, and I've got them on my phone. Holy shit, dude. This is at the beginning of Althea, and that's the awesome part. I needed Althea on the set. Listen, it showed up. They also played my favorite Dead song, Brown-Eyed Women, which was a killer.

Mr. Fantasy cover by Traffic was incredible. And then Oteel sang. He hadn't sang lead all tour. He sang Fire on the Mountain, which was incredible. Let's advance to the next one. We got a couple more to show you. A lot of these moments broke out, Luke, where I entered a few different portals

and I didn't come back for a few minutes. Yeah, I understand that. I didn't see this one. I missed this part spectacular dude it's so that was the beginning of sugar magnolia it's so it's it's a religious experience to see something like this it really is yeah this was a couple disorder and then this was sort of look at this shit at the end of fire on the mountain and and you know if you look too close at the screen, Luke, you can lose a little bit of your mind during these moments.

Yeah, you could. I did. Again, I had a couple times where I was like, fucking hell, this thing is overwhelming. It truly is overwhelming. Yeah. And if we could close with this fantastic picture of the two of us checking in with our dude, Oteel Burbridge.

The lighting wasn't good back there, but we did our best. He gave us backstage passes to go to this friends and family lounge. And it was great. It was great. We didn't drink, though. Well, we were busy with other things. Luke, I do appreciate you paying off the bet.

You showed up. You enriched yourself in the experience. You hit us with a chee-wee-wee. Chee-wee-wee. But I don't think this will lead you back into the music no i'd rather get fucked to death by an eight-dicked walrus than go to another show like this yeah extreme wow but if you were into this and you even had a thought about coming out here guys it's it is worth also oh say one more time dude oteel is the man oteel is the man can't can't say enough good things about him what a

great musician you know i can appreciate the musicianship he's obviously a phenomenal musician and um oh oh you missed it when they do so they do the long tradition at dead concerts do the long drum solo which turns into this other thing it's like world music right it just turns into this other thing not only was the screens going crazy with crazy drum things but otil comes out to join old ass mickey hart to do it and they've got rhythms and patterns going on and you know when you're at like the dolby surround movie theater and it gives you a little bit of boost right this was that on steroids on like the steroids chael

took against anderson in the first fight level look it would just pop you out of your chair in those moments as the drumming heats up i mean it is a physical experience i will say this again we weren't sitting like front row or anything. Compared to the concerts that I go to, it was way, way more quiet at this one. The concerts I go to are- You normally go to concerts in a dome? True, I'm just saying, I don't know if it's typical of- I felt like they didn't jack the volume. They basically, if you're not there for the music,

then the music becomes a soundtrack to the visuals. Yes. i it felt like at least half the people are kind of just there for that they don't overwhelm you with the music it sort of plays at even keel with everything yes that's true but i'm just saying like the shows that i go to like i sometimes bring earplugs because they're so fucking loud this one i didn't need them at all i was like oh yeah this one's quiet i do what what do you think the experience would have been on the floor in general admission when you're close to the stage? I think if you can't see overhead, it would have been somewhat limited. So I don't know what the best seat in the house is.

I mean, I guess front row is the best seat in the house or whatever. But for the sphere, honestly, I'll say this. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else in that sphere. I thought we had great seats. I'm being dead serious. When do I get on this show and heap this kind of effusive praise on anything? Maybe for Shavkat Rachmaninoff.

Maybe, maybe for Shavkat. And Latin women, can we hear a shout out? Yeah, the sphere is the BBLs of venues. That's what it is. Apex Predator. Wow. There's nothing like it. There's nothing like it.

Alrighty. Luke, we close to remind you here uh that draft kings are great partner has a great offer for you this weekend we know it's tank davis versus frank martin it's david benavidez versus alexander vodzik and this loaded pay-per-view doubleheader pbc on prime video on saturday if you're a new customer you can download the draft king sportsbook app right now put five dollars down on any matchup you want tank by first round KO? Put it down.

If you use our promo code MK, you're going to instantly receive $150 in bonus bets. Put together a little parlay, Luke, all right? Maybe Alex Perez by decision mixed with Luka Doncic under 25 points in game four. I'll take the over. Yeah, he's probably going to just be guns blazing. Yeah, which choice does he have?

Yeah, yeah, you're right. Back against the wall. But if you use our promo code MK, hey, fantastic offer. I mean, Luke, tell them about that crown. And I don't mean the, you know. I've been crowning. Yeah. The crown is yours.

It's yours. $5 down, new customers. You get $150 back in bonus bets. DraftKings Sportsbook app. the promo code MK you can do it for the tank fight you can do it for the UFC fights as you mentioned NBA finals however you want to do it but use that promo code MK get it

done the crown is yours. Quick question a lot of people saying hey love what you guys are doing love the stuff with all the smoke fight it's very boxing heavy at the moment do we have a future doing this type of content in MMAma too new fresh content yeah i think you know i think some of the lessons that we've had from doing a couple of these things these wraparound shows in boxing is our audience definitely wants it in mma probably a lot more and we should respect that and we understand that it's a little harder to do because the ufc would not bring us those guys for us to be

able to do that. They just don't do that kind of thing. So you'd have to set it all up, which is significantly harder. Here in boxing, they just bring you everybody. So it just makes it simpler. But there are definitely ways in which we can do this in MMA. We should. We will. And I think the fans will love it.

I think they're going to like it pretty soon, too. We've got some big ideas coming out and how we're going to continue to add on there. So shout out to Steven Jackson for joining us on morning combat today smoke fight baby all the smoke fight the new combat sports vertical we are part of it we are aligned we are family with matt barnes steven jackson brian daly and a host of others fight towns morning combat great fight coverage on location it's what it is okay search out all the smoke fight on on social media all the smoke boxing get in on that action so luke thomas to close we have a weigh-in this afternoon for tank versus frank and everything else going on the pbc card we got one more piece of business for the people right we do we have a post weigh-in

show today oh yes yes yeah i thought you meant right now no yeah yeah so after the weigh-ins after the weigh-ins join us right back here they're telling us we're gonna get frank and tank they're telling us we're gonna get frank and tank for that show i hope and i want to ask him about floyd i want to ask about floyd by the way apparently dan canobio ran into tank at cvs last night there it is i just winked at raj that's my guy that's my guy right there here's bc put the camera on me my guy raj right there i know that this is me talking it's like bc uh my family was look at raj he looks like john jones as a heavyweight hold on know that this is me talking it's like bc uh my family was look at roger looks like john jones has a heavyweight hold on this is this is how my experience is talking to bc

bc my family died in a house fire last night here's bc that's the john mayer face see the only problem with john mayer on guitar is he's looking like he's shitting his pants as he's going through the motions you know yeah there's a lot i gotta tell you a little a little too much john mayer for me last night. Okay, okay. Well, you should see Oteel and friends on tour if he gets back out there. You know what? Oteel and friends. Oh, I love that kind of friendship. Thank you to everybody for tuning in.

More to come after the Tank Frank weigh-in later today. Check out the Morning Combat channel on YouTube. Anything else you want to say? Follow us, all that good stuff? Yeah, follow us on all the socials. Follow All The Smoke Fight. Follow All The Smoke Fight on YouTube, on any kind of social place.

You're going to get tons of boxing and MMA news there. And I guess check us out post weigh-ins today. There it is. Woomp. There it is. And we are out. Bye.