MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Dubois KOs AJ, Sean O'Malley Speaks Out, Dana Back In Boxing | Full Episode | Morning Kombat
Episode Date: September 23, 2024Another massive MK Monday coming your way. The guys are in studio with tons to talk about. In boxing, Daniel Dubois upsets Anthony Joshua in an absolutely one-sided demolition to defend IBF heavyweigh...t title with a 5th round KO. For all the talk coming in about AJ's rejuvenation and newfound mean streak, how badly did the guys overlook Dubois' exact same transformation over his last two fights? The Wembley Stadium fight set new UK record of over 98,000 in wild atmosphere. What does this performance say about Dubois' future chances against the rest of the division? Plus, it's about time that we wake up to the fact that we are living in the midst of one of the greatest heavyweight eras in boxing history. Also, Dana White tells Irish media ahead of Friday's Callum Walsh homecoming in Dublin regarding future in boxing: "I'm in". Given teases of "Shake Turkey" partnership in 2025, it's hard to imagine Dana/UFC's involvement in boxing will be small. But considering Dana told Irish media of his plans, "I'm HBO, that's the way I would look at it," what type of impact could TKO/Endeavor have in the boxing market? In MMA news, Sean O'Malley declares himself still the undefeated UFC champion after UFC 306 rewatch, where he scored it 3-2 for himself. Is O'Malley pulling this public stunt because he's a sore loser, or he's angling for an immediate rematch or he's just trying to make compelling YouTube content? Does O'Malley's torn hip labrum reveal and subsequent surgery better explain his poor performance against Merab Dvalishvili? Or does it take away from Merab? Finally, the guys make a huge announcement that you Donks wont want to miss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's.
It looks like a regular chicken sandwich,
but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich.
McSpicy. Consider yourself warned.
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At participating McDonald's in Canada.
You hear that?
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Reveille, Reveille, boys.
Look at us now, tip to tip.
Oh, Jesus.
Shout out to Mortal Kombat.
Do you want a margarita?
Yes!
Oh, my God! It's time to bang.
Oh, yeah.
Back from the bird.
Back with a bang.
It's Morning Combat, Monday, September 23rd, 2024.
And no, I'm not wearing this hat because it looks great on me, right?
You know, I'm just kind of stuck in my nostalgia.
Hey, I'm Brian Campbell.
We have a partner here.
His name is Luke Thomas.
And we got a great, a great show for you.
Recapping all things Daniel Dubois versus Anthony Joshua.
Checking out the latest news in combat sports
and setting the stage for Saturday's UFC Paris fight night card
with Benoit Saint-Denis.
But Luke, that's not what most of the people are here for.
Most of the people are here for this inevitably sad announcement that we have.
Is it inevitably sad?
I think that's the summation of people's guesses on here.
Luke, if I may.
Oh, you might.
Very quickly.
Very quickly.
As you know, we already spoke about this last week,
and I did address it on my live chat.
But unfortunately, I have to...
Listen, you are a loathsome piece of shit.
However...
Well, when I have too many deltas in the show,
I tend to interrupt you a lot.
Listen, we're both guilty of this crime.
We're both guilty of this crime. I wanted to just take a moment to be
I know I already apologized to you, but on the air,
I'd like to apologize to you here for
snapping at you last week. Well, thank you.
It was unprofessional and shitty, and I want to
apologize to the MK fans. They deserve better.
You deserve better. Again, we spoke
about it already, but...
Well, good timing, because our announcement is that we'll be ending this show at the end of the month.
Don't do that to him.
Don't do that to him.
We have a big announcement.
So sorry about that.
Sorry, everybody.
Sorry.
Yeah, I mean, you know, you had three margaritas before and we forgave you.
It turned out to be an epic moment in our show's history.
Here's the deal, folks.
Luke Thomas said he will not say
anything until there's something to say so luke thomas i want to give you the floor there's
something to say about the future of morning combat you want me to do it yes all right i'll
do it like this i'll be very quick about it starting in the month of october formally with
staff with budget everything the whole nine yards Morning Combat is expanding to two days a week.
Hit the hip-hop horn, motherfucker.
Play it now.
Thank you very much.
Oh, wow.
Yes, we are starting in October, the exact October we're trying to figure that part out.
But this is not the free MK Fridays we were just kind of having fun with before.
A real show, a real staff, a real production effort.
Two days a week, every Monday, every Friday, live, 11 a 11 a.m in the east it was approved we got it
approved it took forever to get to this place it took a little longer than we thought brian campbell
a little a lot longer than we thought a whole lot longer than we thought but we have arrived
starting in october two times a week mondays fridays live 11 a.m in the east so we will still
be here in the studio every mond. Metal Lark here in Manhattan.
Love our surroundings here.
Friday will be remote like it used to be,
but we're going to be back in your life more often than we were before.
We should bring back OK Bet.
We really should bring back OK Bet.
I fully agree with that.
You know, we should bring back a lot of things.
So I brought back this hat today and this drug rug that I was wearing, Luke,
to try to bring back those nostalgic feels of the way we were.
I mean, I don't want to bring back and nostalgic feels of the way we were. I mean,
I don't want to bring back and do the same show we used to because we have
to constantly evolve.
You know what I mean?
But this gives us a chance to get to a,
a truly new level,
a new era that,
you know,
brings back some feels from the past and,
you know,
allows people to ingest,
inject whatever us,
you know what I mean?
In your face hole and your throat hole on a regular basis so uh
big news feels good luke let's get a round of applause everybody let's get i mean i mean there's
no one clapping back there but all right i'll take it i think there's some ass cheek clapping going
on um in speaking of pd by the way right wow 1000 bottles of lotion what are we doing do you know
how long it takes to go through one bottle of those things oh wow there's a lot of people that could get it like epstein here right seems that way seems that way it's
been a it's been a as luke would say 2024 has been a long december in these mk parts but i'm
very happy to have yeah 2024 sucked the backside of my balls it was not awesome it was not awesome
yeah that's very eloquent of you but But yes, yes, that is true.
But, you know, we still we rise, Luke, like a damn phoenix, right?
The MK won't die.
It's trying to, but it won't.
It's like boxing.
Can't save it, can't kill it.
It's kind of like your health, or formerly your health.
I'm on the other side of things.
But no, in all seriousness, this is kind of what the show I think has needed for quite some time.
One day a week was a good start, but it's not enough.
Three times a week was a lot.
And I just don't know if there is, I don't know if we'll get back to something like that.
You never know what we could.
Right now we're focused two times a week, Mondays and Fridays, starting in October.
By the way, that doesn't mean like October 1st.
We're still trying to figure the exact date, but we have had it approved from the top.
They told us we could announce today, so here we are.
This is not the ceiling for the new MK, but it's a great step forward.
It is a huge.
I don't think folks understand how much of a step forward it is.
Because the things we need to get two of these to happen a week require a big change on the back end.
And so cautiously optimistic it's going to be real good for us. If I don't snap at you. On that back end, on the back end and so cautiously optimistic it's gonna be real good
for us yeah if i don't if i don't snap that back end like a low-end theory like a fucking taxi
cab body for days right you ever think about that moment again every time i go to that station i
think about that it's not new york newark penn no no no it's dc my home station no she's in there
it's like that lady in london she'll scan my phone and be like, she'll do shit like that.
That's pretty gross, ma'am.
I'm like, dude, this is like straight up sexual.
I mean, I don't care.
It doesn't like bother me in that particular sense.
I've never been whistled at, so I can't really.
Yeah, I guess there's a certain demo
that I've got on lock apparently.
So very excited about that.
Thank you.
Let's back up a step here.
Please.
How are you feeling?
Cause you went from Canelo Berlanga, which as you call Berlanga, Berlanga fight week,
you flew here with your ugly ass luggage.
That was from here.
You flew to Ireland and then came back yesterday.
I got back home as AJ was walking. Oh, sorry. Saturday. As he was walking to the ring and Wem back yesterday. I got back home as AJ was walking to the ring.
Oh, sorry, Saturday.
Saturday.
As he was walking to the ring and Wembley.
Okay, so you had two nights at home.
How are you feeling?
Dead and tired and used up,
but a great trip in many ways,
personally, professionally.
Yeah, great times.
How was it calling fights in three
arena in dublin ireland intoxicating yeah the right word yeah absolutely like i i hope i hope
if you if there's an arena that can make bellator look good it's a great arena you know what i mean
you know we said this when we met the people in london and and i and i've never been to ireland
before but the people in dublin are awesome do the irish yeah the irish are the friendliest people
in europe yeah they're friendly.
They're dirtbaggery like myself.
You can just kind of smell it.
My brother lived in London for five years, and I'll never
forget the first time I visited him. He's like, dude, you're going to
find the English are kind of cold. He's like,
the nicest people here are the Irish.
And it's quite true. I actually had,
and I didn't take anybody up on this, maybe out
of fear of black liver ending up in an
abandoned building, but no, just kidding. I had of fear of black liver ending up in a abandoned building,
but no, just kidding.
I had a lot of donks who said like, look, BC,
I was at the live show in London.
I live in greater Dublin.
Like you need a tour guide.
You want somebody to go out, drink beers with, you know,
I appreciate that.
I didn't end up taking it.
They also wanted to fuck you.
No, no, did he?
I like to bag it up.
But you know,
cause I ended up being busy and I was anxious.
You know, it was, it was a, it was a new experience. You know, I was a little anxious this week, but I fought up being busy and I was anxious. You know, it was a new experience.
You know, I was a little anxious this week.
But I fought through it and got the job done.
Well, listen, I know there was eight fights on that card.
A couple of them were like amateur fights, I think.
One of them was, yeah.
And then the Callum Walsh fight was a round and a half.
It wasn't like it was a ton of work.
No, it was five hours.
It was intense.
No, the whole call.
But, I mean, the main event itself.
Sure, sure.
He was fantastic.
It was pretty quick.
It was pretty quick.
All right.
We'll have so much on that and more of what went on this week in combat sports,
but thank you to the morning combat listeners for being patient, for dealing with us in
our issues.
We've been fighting a long time.
Shout out to Brian Daly, our guy.
Shout out to him.
He's the one that gave us the green light to announce today.
He's the one that's been kind of in charge of this process and doing the literal
level best he possibly could
to advance things. They just took a while
to get to this position, but we
have arrived at a much better
place. We are very, very excited
to get two days a week going in a formal
way. So some of those old segments you used to love.
Yeah, by the way, morningcombat
at gmail.com. You can start sending
stuff there because we'll have a lot more integration with that back into the show.
We'll be able to get fan subs back in.
We'll be able to start doing a lot of the stuff that really built the community that made this show special.
A lot of that stuff we had to put on hiatus for this rebrand.
I think all of it kind of matters.
I put it that way.
All of it played a big role.
And again, we want to put some new things into rotation.
But the things that people want to keep, we want to bring those back as well for sure there you have it so follow us on the
socials if you don't mind like and subscribe it doesn't cost you a damn thing uh we want to be
back in your life in a big way you also can pick out some merch over there at morningcombat.store
not sure who's working the cash register over there but hopefully uh you'll get it on time
all right we're in we're in uh transition Last thing, how did the Brian Campbell experience go last week?
Not good because I broke my audio equipment through traveling so much.
No!
So I had a lot of ideas for stuff I was going to film there.
No dice?
I just decided to shelf.
I was also really busy juggling a lot of things.
Not so easy, is it?
Not so easy.
Well, I mean, it would have been done if I didn't break my equipment.
But that was really like...
Dude, but this is what I mean.
Like, shit breaks, shit gets lost.
Yeah, and I ended up going to the equipment. But that was really like. Dude, but this is what I mean. Like, shit breaks, shit gets lost. Yeah.
And I ended up going to the store and getting a replacement for like HQ purposes, but I
didn't end up doing any more content.
I wanted to do it right.
You know, so I thought, look, I got a lot going on this week.
Let me just press pause.
I'm in control.
It's cool, right?
It's my thing.
So I pressed pause and we had some, you know, backlog stuff that we published.
All right, let's do this show, bro.
Yeah, I'm into that too.
All right.
So let's do it, folks.
Thank you for everything.
It's time to get into the week, and that was,
and topic number one, no surprise here,
it's just different, right?
Heavyweight championship boxing,
and it's certainly just different
when it's contested in front of more than 98,000 people
at London's Wembley Stadium between two active,
still in their physical prime, still at, you know,
still in their physical prime in a lot of ways, reborn heavyweights.
Daniel Dubois did the thing. He came in, defended his IBF heavyweight title,
upset Anthony Joshua scored four knock round knockdowns in route to the final
one in round five that he splattered AJ face first.
So Luke Thomas for all the talk coming in about AJ's rejuvenation, the five days, you know,
isolation darkness thing, the knockouts of Valene, of Nganou, and the newfound mean streak,
how badly did we overlook in hindsight that Dubois just underwent essentially the same
transition, not just in recent years, but in his last two fights.
And then when he got the chance, he walked right through AJ in ways we never imagined.
I can tell you, I certainly didn't anticipate that.
We did know that there had been something of a, what do you want to call it, momentum that Daniel Dubois was taking into this fight.
Because he had beaten Jarrell Miller and he beat him like in the waning seconds of the final round.
Like didn't let it go to the judges.
It was a competitive fight though.
Certainly, certainly.
There was moments of adversity, but he really stuck it to him when it was time to do so.
Then you go to the Philip Hergovich fight.
And again, he had to face real adversity actually in that bout.
Hergovich was tagging him consistently with right hands throughout, but he fought back.
I think it ultimately was stopped on cuts.
I forget which round in the end.
So he had some momentum, but at the the same time questions still lingered about him less so about being a quitter
but like hey did herkovich really look the part and miller kind of fades because he's he's a big
he's a big old boy been off a long time yeah you know just eating a lot of jimmy dean's breakfast
sandwiches it looks like down there with peds when he's not robbing car dealerships you know
he has a lot of challenges.
I'm just pointing out,
I'm just pointing out.
There were reasons to kind of undermine him.
And then you go back to the Usyk fight and you're like,
okay,
it was on the belt line.
Was it low?
Was it not?
But then he gets stopped ultimately in the end.
On a jab,
he got stopped.
Sure did.
Sure did.
So the point being was you felt like Dubois could make it fun.
You felt like Dubois could make it competitive,
but I don't recall hardly anyone seeing that he would go in there and steamroll Joshua.
But BC, when you go back and you look at it now,
was it fair to call him a quitter in the Joyce fight?
Probably not.
What does he have?
Double eye fracture.
We're talking, I read up on this.
He had the kind of fracture that could have resulted in him losing eyesight
if he actually had not stopped when he did.
So that's part of it. And you go back and you look at some of his other performances
and they weren't like super clean all the way but there were seeds of things being put together but
there are two differences that really need to be pointed out we'll talk more about the second one
here i think a little bit later in the show number one after losing two fights to usik the recovery
tour of joshua was not nearly as good as I thought it was.
You had Otto Wallin, who at a moment in time gave Tyson Fury a tough fight, but probably wasn't really all there.
You had Francis Ngannou, who certainly was just not up to the challenge on that.
We all love Francis, but we saw how that fight went.
We thought he would be after that Fury fight.
Remember that?
I know.
I know.
So there's a few different narratives that were competing
that made us think that way.
Who else did he, the guy that Wilder laid out?
The Viking.
Jermaine Franklin.
Jermaine Franklin was the first one back,
but there was another one.
Oh, Hellenius.
Hellenius.
And then he ices Hellenius in the seventh round.
That was a vicious KO.
You're right.
Franklin was a decision.
And so we thought after the Nganou fight,
okay, he's fully back, he's fully there.
But the reality was two things.
One, matter of factly the
wins that a guy like Dubois had since his uh rebuild were significantly better right and then
on top of it 27 years old Daniel Dubois 27 on October AJ is going to be 35 with more mileage
to be much more mileage and so the reality ended up being,
was there something of a recovery from the Usyk fight prop,
the Usyk fights,
excuse me,
probably,
but this guy is surging and it took us this moment in time for us to
recognize AJ's rebuild.
Wasn't what we thought.
And Dubois ascendancy is at this point,
BC undeniable.
And obviously the performance he ended up showing.
How could you have seen that coming?
Because we hadn't seen that despite kind of missing.
Sergio Moura predicted it.
He did. Sergio Moura of DAZN was one of the rare people
who did predict a Dubois knockout or even a Dubois win in that regard.
So look, Dubois was only about a 3-1 underdog,
so it wasn't like people weren't giving a chance.
We didn't end up getting to really preview this fight,
but I would have told you ultimately that he's going to have that puncher's chance but luke you know hakeem
dermish of cbs sports hq friday night when i did a hit with him he had a he said look bc isn't this
the case you're telling me that there's going to be a competitive fun fight which i thought it was
going to be but i think a lot like a lot of people i thought aj had that meaner streak at the moment
was riding what i thought was more momentum he said isn't Dubois in some ways just a younger version
of what AJ brings to the table?
And it's not a perfect comparison,
but in some ways he's seven years younger with less mileage.
He's the same size, basically one inch shorter,
not as good of a boxer as AJ,
but still can hurt you with both hands,
still is a formidable force.
But dude, I've never seen him fight exactly like that.
He said afterwards in the press conference at Dubois,
he said, like, no matter what was going to happen,
I wasn't going to be denied.
He came in with that almost sociopathic look on his face
that, like, no matter what, I'm going to walk through this guy.
But, Luke, when you look back on how he did it,
him jumping on AJ right away with not only big shots
and big right hands, but short, perfect timed right hands,
just cutting
and chopping down at him it put aj i think early on in a case where it was almost fight or flight
survival from the start and that broke down his defense look at this is ultimately the finish here
in round five and what made this finish crazy was aj hurt dubois and you thought he was coming back
okay but do we hope i know we have to talk about this and again i'm sorry to cut you off but
okay let me put you back to you because i really want to I know we have to talk about this. And again, I'm sorry to cut you off.
Okay, let me pitch it back to you because I really want to get to this.
I want to talk about how great Dubois was.
And I really think the reality of why he did so well was a function of his jab.
His jab is powerful.
He was consistent with it.
And I went back and I did a tape study.
You can check it out on my YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Luke Thomas.
He varied up the timing on it.
And then he would double it up later. So, for example, how many times did you see Joshua just get hit clean with a jab?
And a lot of it was because he pendulum steps, Dubois does,
and then he'll change the timing on it,
and that's why it would just pop his head back because it's powerful generally,
and he was so flat-footed and unprepared for it.
But I have to ask you, I really do.
BC, you're a big AJ guy.
I'm not a big AJ hater,
but I'm less of a believer than you are.
Sure.
How damaging will this be to him physically?
And that's psychologically,
because even today he put out a video being like,
hey, we're going to come back.
But physically, what's it going to do to him?
And also, can you admit
he fought like a dumbass in this fight?
Well, let me hit the dumbass part of it,
because I think he got hit with that.
I mean, look, the right hand Dubois floored him with in round one was a finishing shot.
And to be fair, Dubois is a finisher.
I mean, he's got, what, 21 knockouts and 22 wins.
Everything AJ got hit with was not only a finishing shot, but he would get up and shake it off like nothing happened. So I get that the knee jerk reaction after what was largely a one sided demolition.
I mean, look, this was a fun fight.
Fun event reminded you why heavyweight championship boxing is different and the best thing going in sports and life.
Really, if we're really thinking about it sometimes.
Even though it was so one sided, I can't jump on the train of everybody else and go okay 34
added on mileage even though this was the first time he was sort of knocked out he had stopped
on his feet by uh Andy Ruiz in his first pro loss is because I've never seen AJ behave the way he
did there and you said BC I'm bigger on AJ I'm bigger on AJ's sort of long-term, I'm not, I'm not
disaware that he's vulnerable.
And I think that was such a smart strategy
from Dubois to just attack him and make it a
firefight right away.
Don't allow AJ, who is, I think, slightly a
better athlete and certainly a better boxer
than Dubois.
Don't allow him the time to bank some rounds
and build a momentum and a flow behind that
jab.
He came right after him, made it a fight.
Brilliant.
And I think a lot of that, AJ's, really,
his technique just falling apart and backing up
with his arms down and his chin up
became a function of getting hurt early.
But I'm not going to join the chorus of saying,
oh, AJ's done, he'll never be the same.
And I get why everybody had that knee-jerk feeling.
Just like we have a knee-jerk feeling
to, in some ways, discount the recent knockouts and wins
and go, okay, maybe we bought too much
into the AJ rejuvenation theory.
I mean, look, we were essentially every writer was writing in their head what the post-fight
story was going to say, because it was going to be the culmination of AJ's great comeback
to where now he's going to get back the belt, be in the title picture, and whether it's
Usyk or Fury coming out of December, he's going to have a good chance of going in there
and doing something because he's finally different.
He's a badass.
He's willing to take it to people,
which almost hides to some degree the vulnerabilities that have always been
there for him.
He's a little bit chinny.
He gets back up,
but he's a little bit chinny.
And you know,
who isn't at heavyweight when,
when there's these super heavyweight hulking guys.
But the reason why I won't throw in the towel,
really why I say not only should we do the rematch,
but I almost might even like AJ's chances on a sneaky way, is because AJ has never behaved like that.
He behaved like Vladimir Klitschko behaved against him
in their 2017 slugfest in the same stadium
that's one of the great modern heavyweight title classics
where Vlad, despite his greatness in his run,
we said, well, look, once you find his chin, you can get him.
And he's not the kind of dude that's going to get up and keep fighting.
In that fight, he couldn't stop getting up and keep trying and eventually took AJ brutally
finishing him to end that. AJ came in with that same fervor. That's never been there before.
I know AJ got up off the canvas in the past to beat Klitschko and it became one of the
enduring stamps of, you know what, love him or hate him, this guy is a fighter. He is a warrior
and he is. But Luke, I have never seen a willingness to take punishment get
back up and keep trying to win from AJ all the way until the point of round five where let's not
forget he did seem to have Dubois hurt and cornered and it ultimately led to his undoing because he
came in and didn't set up his punches but he'd all been also been multiply concussed and dropped
four times before that but his willingness to fight mixed with how
he reacted after such a big loss i assumed he wasn't going to do an interview or he would be
crying i mean i'm not sure if it was a good idea that he did he didn't say anything bad
but when you've been like rocked like that i still don't understand what the value is and
putting a microphone into that guy's face separate argument but i don't fully disagree
but he was not only clear he was doing countless interviews afterwards and everything was I'm coming back.
I rolled the dice. I tried my best. I went for it. I paid the price.
Look, he's never been here before. He's never been that guy who would just welcome the punishment.
I'm going to get back up. The fact that he was constantly trying to win until, you know,
he got beat to the point where he couldn't get up and couldn't continue.
That doesn't show me, oh, now he's, you know,
over the odometer in terms of mileage accrued, he's done.
That showed me that he might actually be really ready to figure out
what the final chapter in his career is going to be.
Because he's only 34 and heavyweights age later.
Yeah, these heavyweights age earlier.
These guys have, I mean, for example, Tyson Fury is, what, 36?
He doesn't take great care of himself physically.
Fair enough.
And he had a long period where he took terrible care of himself. AJ going to be 35 next month he's old as shit he's like 36 37
these guys are starting while how old is wilder 36 as well 37 older i think look up how old wilder
is done anyway but yeah okay but i'm just saying these guys you're not this is not mma where guys
are like still kind of viable up till 40 and maybe even a little bit past no how old is he 38 30 you see 30 well there's 38 yep yeah oh he's so done dude you age late in heavyweight boxing
let's not try to change i understand that they do i'm saying this particular crop for how good
they are we're gonna talk about how good they are a little bit later they're not waiting till 40
before they decline sure you're watching signs of it now at 35 ish 36 36, 37. Dude, I appreciate, and I thought, listen, credit to Eddie Hearn,
who after, by the way, Frank Warren is beating the bags off Eddie Hearn.
He shut him out in that head-to-head, if you remember.
Smoked him at the five-on-five, and look what his boy Dubois did to AJ.
I mean, he is crushing him, right? Terrible.
But credit to Hearn, who gets up there and really tries to put him over
by talking about the heart.
I really don't dispute the heart of AJ, nor do I dispute that a second fight could go very differently.
I don't think that that's out of the question.
Some folks are like, he should retire, blah, blah, blah.
I think a second fight probably will happen, and I think it actually could be a little bit different.
Maybe even a lot. One never knows.
However, you really, really, really have to connect two different dots here.
He fought terribly.
He really did.
He fought strategically quite terribly.
And also, he was kind of very dismissive of Dubois throughout the course of that fight.
You have him being like, he ain't shit.
He ain't shit.
They picked him up on camera.
In the round before he got KO'd.
He was taunting.
No one picked up on this.
Go back and look at the end of round four.
He goes like this
because they were basically in Dubois' corner,
and he very tauntingly was like,
have a seat, sir, kind of like this,
with his arms open like that,
to walk him past, almost like...
I take that as a positive.
I take that as...
Dude, that's a positive
when it elevates your performance.
When it degrades your performance,
you have to acknowledge the difference.
He was arrogant to the point where he thought he could just waltz in there
and run over this guy, and he got whooped for it.
Believe me, I'm not some A.J. Nuthugger apologizer,
but he also was concussed early on,
so that would explain possibly the breakdown in the defense.
But, Luke, that shows me that there was never a point
where he didn't think he was going to come back and win.
Tell me the truth.
Was there multiple parts in this fight where you said to yourself,
he might come back and win this?
Sure.
Including round five before he got KO'd.
Sure.
I mean,
that was the best shot he'd landed all fight.
Dude,
do you realize that before AJ concluded the two losses to Usyk and then had
that really bad meltdown in the ring,
right?
You remember that?
Yeah.
That emotional meltdown.
That weird speech he gave you.
Yeah.
Where we just kind of let all of the things he was holding back for years out.
Back then, yeah, he got up off the canvas against Klitschko.
Yeah, he could get hurt in fights and still come back and win.
And that was sort of part of the selling, the drawing card.
He was this vulnerable champion, but with big heart.
But he never fought like a fucking badass.
What was the criticism we talked about, AJ, in the two Usyk fights?
Why are you trying to go out there and outbox the best pure heavyweight boxer we've seen in decades?
Go in there and be the bigger man and walk through him.
Well, then he did that to Valin and Ngannou, and you're like, oh, I wonder if that can change the equation.
Even though, yes, he ultimately lost and got a one-sided win.
We've already spent too much time talking about him, you know, compared to Dubois.
If he's fighting with this new spirit, Luke, he's filled in some of those holes that used to hold him back from the
potential.
Who cares if your strategy is terrible?
I lost the fight.
The question was, do I think he comes back?
This was an all time bad performance by him all time,
because I'll tell you something.
And again, he was already rocked after the first.
So like, I am like,
this is why I am because we were texting about this over the weekend and
you're like, I think a rematch could go differently.
And I cannot dismiss that.
I don't know how different it would be, but you really have to take that seriously,
because he was rocked so badly at the end of the first.
But dude, there are three really consequential punches in this fight.
The one at the end of the first, obviously the decisive knockout blow,
but the fucking punch in round three, where he overshoots with the right,
and then rather than rolling under or like pivoting out,
just fucking stands up and gets lit on fire by Dubois.
Dude, it's like one of the most elementary terrible mistakes. So there's one of two explanations.
One, he was just not there and his body was just reacting,
which I think is probably the likeliest one.
Or two, like he forgot how to fucking box. not there and his body was just reacting, which I think is probably the likeliest one or two.
Like he forgot how to fucking box. Like, I don't know what that was, but it was terrible. It was terrible. You have to reconcile at some point, whatever attitude he brought to
this fight, did him no fucking favors zero. It did you favors as a spectator to watch him.
Let me be clear, not, not discounting his heart at all
Eddie Hearn was totally right about that I fully fully acknowledge he got up and tried to really
be like okay next round next round next round but dude if you fight terribly all the heart in the
world means fucking nothing yeah but I think in the past for as great as his ambition was in the ring and as great as his
skills were and let's not you know disrespect him he's got a great resume and for a guy who
came to boxing late and his looks like he should be playing linebacker in the NFL I think he's
really turned himself into something look he never was never willing to act like this he was never
willing to behave like this he was never willing to be this absolute badass I think that again I
just think that's the power and the spirit behind I can't count him out.
He got into a gunfight
and he got got,
but he never stopped trying
and I think that wins something over.
We can't keep lingering on AJ
when it was ultimately Dubois.
So Dubois, I thought,
had a perfect strategy
to jump on AJ,
who is vulnerable in those spots
and was able to expose it.
We've never seen that type of,
a type of poise under fire from Dubois.
That type of willingness to commit to his power shots
and believe in his power no matter what.
I asked you off the top of what we missed,
and I think we missed that we had the right narrative coming in.
We just had it attached to the wrong fighter
because Dubois was the guy who really rebuilt himself
after we counted him out so many times.
But he really put in the work behind the scenes.
That plays into this just as much.
He wasn't that type of combination puncher before this. I fully agree. I was blown away by watching his performance. I
want to say a couple of things about him. Number one, the strategy I agree with is huge. I mean,
taking it to AJ from the word go was the right decision and his ability to execute on the game
plan. Incredible. Well,'ve got to say something else.
98,000 people in attendance in Wembley Arena, 98,000,
and you would have thought there were nine people there
given the poise of Daniel Dubois, like it didn't even matter at all.
He is supposed to be starstruck in this moment.
How many times before Saturday had Anthony Joshua
done a stadium show? Five, six times? Something crazy. Setting British boxing records for
attendance. This was another one he did. And by the way, that's another credit to Joshua,
like how important he's been as an economic driver of that scene in boxing more generally.
But I thought that Dubois, who we covered one of his fights on the Jake Paul card. Granted,
that was a while ago, but he was just, I mean,
I remember we talked about him.
He was like, he's a good prospect, kind of a donk.
We'll see how it goes.
In the lead up to the fight on Instagram,
he's pulling chat GPT prompts out and then pasting them onto his account
for the post he's putting up, just like a total fucking donk.
And then he goes out there absolutely ice fucking cold
like there was nobody there like no one was watching other than his own fucking trainer
and put it on a mountain of a man who by the way he's also british and it felt like he was in the
mouth of the lion here and so i just want to say you're talking about Anthony Joshua's poise to get off the mat, which I echo.
But the, what do you want to call it?
The Moxie?
The Moxie, but more than that, just the
absolute certainty
by Daniel Dubois that
he belonged there and he was about
to put it on this guy
in front of the largest crowd I think
in British boxing history is
remarkable.
Let's go to the soundbite, Long Island Luke, of Dana DuBois afterwards.
People are ripping him for this, but, like, you can see in his face
he had an unnatural level of, like, psychotic focus for this.
I've only got a few words to say, man.
You know?
Are you going to die?
Are you going to die?
Are you going to die? like the moment never seemed remotely too big for nothing not even like nothing shook his
confidence throughout that takes a cool customer and that's not the same guy who lost to joe joyce
or even lost to usic to be fair even though his performance in that age is better just like it's
the win for usic age is better So this is what I love about this performance
because part of it is because I think AJ had a bad strategy.
And again, even if you discount the third round,
he should not have been hit as cleanly as he was in the first round
by that big punch, which he may have never recovered from.
But it is also true that Dubois' strategy in this fight was fantastic.
His execution of that strategy was fantastic by pushing behind the jab,
obviously then changing the rhythm of the jab, then doubling up on the jab,
and then throwing those right hands behind it, making, by the way, what did you always see?
Back hand, rear hand parry from AJ, and then his other hand would come out. So BC, where was the
right hand coming from? Right over the top of this. He got hit with that multiple times. They
audited this fucking guy. Yes, they did. Daniel Dubois and his team,
they audited Anthony Joshua
and they had him dead to rights,
even when, by the way,
he gets rocked with a vicious shot
that Anthony Joshua lays on him in the fifth.
Like that was,
I thought that might have been the beginning of the end
because you saw Dubois wobble.
What did he redo?
What did he do?
Centers himself,
bites down on the mouthpiece
and fucking exchanges with the guy.
But they were such short, perfect shots, man.
So here comes Joshua with like a punch from Oklahoma.
And Dubois just came with a little short one.
By the way, on my breakdown, you'll see it.
That exact sequence happens in the fourth round,
but Dubois didn't land quite cleanly.
Boy, he landed cleanly this time.
I just want to say, for as much as you can pick on Joshua for not doing what you know
he could probably do a lot better, win or lose, he could do it better.
Dubois finally explained to me how good he was.
I feel like after three fights, fighting Jarrell Miller, stopping him.
Fighting Philippe Hergovich, stopping him.
Fighting Anthony Joshua, statement win, stopping him. Fighting Philippe Herkovich, stopping him. Fighting Anthony Joshua, statement win, stopping him.
Now at 27, I'm like, oh, right.
Now I've got a sense of how good Dubois can be.
I don't think he can beat Usyk,
but I think anybody else in that division is fair fucking game.
He just nailed it.
I think even against Usyk, who low blow or not,
and I think after watching the replay,
I'm an Usyk guy to some degree, but I really thought that that was a low blow.
It was borderline enough where, but you could argue there was a knockout there.
And definitely he got criticized, of course, for succumbing to the jab knockout
that Usyk landed later in round nine.
But with this performance, it makes you recalculate what you think Dubois is capable of.
So, Luke, would you say, I was talking with Brent Brookhouse of CBS Sports over this, we were sort of re-ranking
on like a pound-for-pound level our heavyweight
division after this, and he goes
you know, I think Dubois, this version of
Dubois is the third best heavyweight besides Usyk and Fury.
I don't know if you can argue against that. That's exactly
correct. That's exactly correct.
So what I love about this is
he beats Miller, top 10, top 15
win, then he beats Hergovich,
top 7-ish win.
And then he beat AJ.
He was ranked third in this division prior to this,
according to the IBF, I think, anyway.
Or maybe he was second in IBF.
Either way, he's up there.
I think most people had him in that 2-3 range.
He just beat him.
And again, stopping all three.
How could you even argue he's not the third best?
What would it even be? And by the way, again, I don't know if Tyson Fury will end up facing him I don't know
how that's going to go you saw him complaining to I think either Conor McGregor or Turkey he's like
this guy just cost me 150 million dollars and some shit later okay and I can understand being like
what the fuck at the same time would I favor Dubois over Fury I don't know I think it's kind
of a toss-up at this point but if you had asked me that a week ago,
I'd be like, oh no, Fury would just
probably box circles around him even though Dubois would
make it spirited. No. Dubois,
I think, with the exception of Usyk,
could beat basically anyone in that division.
This is why heavyweight boxing is so crazy and why we always say
one punch can change everything, and it's so
true. We don't actually know what this fight
looks like if he doesn't hit that early right hand on AJ.
We don't know if AJ's defense falls apart completely yeah but the thing is he was going
for it no that's the I know that's the point of how he got it done and I mean I don't know I don't
mean just literally in that moment I mean like the expanse of it my dude this dude was trying
my point is that this performance makes Dubois look like he can take down Godzilla and I don't
know if this is actually him moving forward or not it was him for five rounds he locked in and
he got it but I got to give him so was him for five rounds. He locked in and he got it,
but I got to give him so much credit
because he was the champion coming in
and even though we were excited about this fight
and loved that it was such a big platform
and expected to be such a big crowd
and one of the Gallagher brothers from Oasis was going to be there.
He sucked.
I didn't end up seeing it.
I got home too late,
but you know,
Dubois flipped that script.
So Luke,
obviously I want to go, okay, I want to see Dubois against the winner of Usyk Fury 2 and see what he can do there.
But then you get Eddie Hearn and Anthony Joshua talking about the immediate rematch clause that they have.
But then you get Frank Warren saying they have an immediate rematch clause.
We don't.
But we'd still be willing to negotiate and potentially honor it because it's such a big fight.
And obviously, we all have to wait on Fury and Usyk in December anyway.
I don't know how that makes sense because, you know, if AJ is the star coming in and
he gets the, you know, just because Dubois didn't have one doesn't mean it cancels out
AJ.
Notwithstanding, we think they're going to have to do it again.
So let's hear AJ talking about his future where knee jerk.
A lot of people thought he should retire right there, but I didn't hate what AJ's saying
here.
I want to say a few words.
Firstly, always walk with your head high.
We took a shot at success, and we came up short, unfortunately.
We rolled the dice, man, for the third time.
That's 13 world title fights.
Not everyone's been successful, but everyone's been fun and entertaining.
We're trying to create history for British boxing, and I think we're doing that.
And also, I appreciate all the press, media.
The fans aren't here, but I thank them through you guys.
I'm sure you guys will let them know that we're appreciating their support.
And probably you're asking, do I still want to continue fighting?
Of course I want to continue fighting.
That's what I said is, we took a shot at success and we came up short and what does that mean now? We're gonna run away, we're gonna live to fight
another day and that's what I am, I'm a warrior and also before I finish we have
to give credit to our opponent as well Daniel. Even though when I sign up to
fight opponents I don't really like them in my head anymore.
But now it's done.
I take my hat off to him and say well done to him and his team.
And also thank you to my team as well.
Luke, I wanted to run that because it sets up my next question.
Good.
You know, I take that as positive.
We just debated that about is he going to come back?
Should he come back? It seems like he's going to come back and it seems like we're probably going to get this Dubois rematch we do now start needing to have to
like look at the totality of what AJ has accomplished especially commercially and and you know really
start to really give him his flowers as he really is the only guy who can fill 90 something thousand
consistently in the stadium by the way that time he fought Carlos Takam I think he set the European
indoor record with like 70,000 in that giant stadium, that giant soccer stadium, which was different than this.
Do you think the balls he showed in this performance and the way he's talking now, because remember, he was so maligned after the second Usyk loss when he had that meltdown in the ring.
It was like everything was bad about AJ.
Do you think he will get the flowers he deserves moving forward? Not just as a former unified champion,
two-time champion, has a better
resume than people give him credit for when you go up and down.
For a long time, he had the best resume in this
era, in this division. But will
this toughness performance
do you think make it where we
only talk positively about this guy moving forward? Because
he has been a monster
part of this division's
renaissance in this era i tend to think it'll
be one of those things you'll get more of it once he's gone than while he's here you'll get some of
it while he's here i mean you're doing a fair amount of glazing today for example give the
guy the respect he deserves i mean come on man i'm just teasing i'm just teasing but the point i i i
do think that there is part of that but i i would say that we're gonna have a debate about whether or not we're in the
another golden era of heavyweight and i think that you can't i don't know how much folks are
going to be able to appreciate what aj has done by the way not alone but as a key contributor
maybe the key contributor until that changes and we're in a new era of heavyweight boxing
in england or otherwise and it just doesn't look the same anymore.
Do you know,
you can trace the current boxing boom in England back to him winning gold at
the 2012 Olympics.
Like what he has done.
And I've been annoyed with him at times.
I'm not,
I'm not some AJ super fan,
even though I certainly sound like it today,
but we do have to give him that respect,
dude.
I mean,
you know,
there was a stretch where I thought he was the biggest star in the sport.
You know,
Canelo's kind of taken that back and,
and,
and ran with it.
He was, if there was anybody else who could take it, it would be him.
Yeah.
And Fury certainly popped up in big ways after some big wins, too.
But I think it is a good transition point.
Let's do it.
Okay.
Let's get into topic number two.
It's easy.
This is half editorial for me, this sentence, but I believe it.
It's about time we wake up to the fact that we are living in the midst of one of the greatest heavyweight eras in boxing history. And it's not, it's to some of us, it kind of catches us off guard because when this era started, which I personally believe was when
Tyson Fury upset Vladimir Klitschko in 2015, that it kicked off this era. I think there was a
hesitance for a while because even though Fury, Wilder, and Joshua at those times in 2015, 16, 17, 18, 19 were charismatic, huge figures, we certainly had questions of, you know, are they all-time greats?
You know, what are the big eras in heavyweight boxing history?
The 1970s with Ali, Frazier, Foreman, you know, Norton, so many second and third tier guys.
And then obviously the 90s, Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, Foreman again,
and Moore and so many others along the board.
There's been great heavyweights throughout history, but not great eras.
Seeing this fight, which wouldn't even have been to watch Joshua, you know,
belt or Nobel wouldn't even have been high on your list of like the ones we need the most.
But it kind of snuck up on us.
Then we're like, oh, my God god this has potential to be a great fight and
then it freaking over delivered and gave us so many things to talk about luke there may not be
an exact apples to apples comparison to those two decades 70s and 90s that i talked about
but in your opinion what has gone into making this era so compelling and so dynamic that if we're going to be honest, this might be the third greatest era we've ever seen in heavyweight?
I hope I have a good explanation because I actually spent some time trying to get a good answer to this when you put the rundown together.
Part of the answer is going to be relatively obvious.
You have a series of different big personalities.
You have an Olympic gold medalist in the case of Anthony Joshua.
And again, you have this guy who, when he beat Klitschko, kind of ascended to the top.
And then he had this dramatic downfall and then this resurgence.
Meanwhile, over in the United States, there was Wilder kind of coming around.
So you had these big personalities with big power, big ability, and they all had these kind of unique clashes and these unique
moments in time. But really, there's a bigger picture you have to look at. You mentioned the
1970s as one of a golden era. Why was it a golden era? Let's set the table and actually explain
how we got there. In 1967, Muhammad Ali is basically stripped and then forbidden from
competing due to his stance on wanting to not fight in the Vietnam War.
He comes back, I think, 70, 71, right?
But what ended up happening was when he is stripped of that, there is a, what do you want to call it?
There's a vacuum created at the top of boxing, which Joe Frazier ends up taking over.
Ali comes back, and I think a lot of people were like, okay, well, Ali's better than Frazier.
He's going to win, and he doesn't.
He actually loses.
And in fact, he has a couple more.
And the biggest fight of all time.
Biggest fight of all time.
And then has a few more fights and wins,
but then fights Ken Norton and loses that with a broken jaw as well.
All right?
But, and here's the big but,
not only does he eventually get some redemption over Frazier
and Ken Norton again,
but all the while, George Foreman was coming up as an unstoppable force.
He destroys Joe Frazier.
He destroys Ken Norton,
which sets up the rumble in the jungle and Holy shit.
What did Holy,
excuse me?
What did Ali do?
Showed the rope,
a dope beat him.
Then has them out.
By the way,
knocked him out,
stopped him in there,
stopped him in the single-digit rounds.
Then, in the 14th round, basically gets Frazier to quit
and wins the thriller in Manila.
What I'm trying to point out was there was this moment in time
where you thought there was one guy, something stopped it,
and then there was this power struggle at the top.
What we have now are these big personalities and these big bodies
in Fury and Wilder and AJ.
We never mentioned Dusik, by the way.
He was the best.
I'm going to get to that.
He was kind of that one force who comes through and you didn't see him coming.
A cruiserweight coming through and just slashing through the Olympic gold medalist and this gypsy boxer who's 6'9".
And then this guy who's an all-time puncher from the United States.
Yes.
This is why it's one of those era.
Big personalities. Yes. Big power. from the United States? Yes. This is why it's one of those era. Big personalities?
Yes. Big power? Yes. Big ability? Yes. Surprising storylines and surprising outcomes as there's a
battle for supremacy all the while at the top with huge drama, huge stakes, historic success
in terms of what a guy like Usyk has been able to do. I'm not telling you that the present is as good as the 1970s.
What I'm trying to tell you is I can hear the echoes of how it all came together.
You're seeing some of the same dynamics all play out today.
The knee-jerk thing is to say, okay, but this crop doesn't compare to the 70s or 90s
because when we're mentioning the names, we're literally talking about first ballot
Hall of Famers across the board.
But it's catching up. Usyic is an all-time great like there's no question about it tyson fury is
an all-time great heavyweight champion he maybe doesn't have the long succession of wins due to
his you know in and out of the sport and all that but but it's sort of one of the most unique
champions we've ever had wilder will have a place in history for as limited as he was in what he accomplished.
He's got a ridiculous amount of title defenses, by the way, Wilder does.
And then you got AJ, who's the biggest star in the sport, filled stadiums and won the
title two times.
Who knows?
Maybe he wins it a third.
But I think what enters this era in the conversation is the depth.
It doesn't have the depth of the 70s or the 90s.
But the sneaky part of what made those eras great,
along with the fact that they're fronted by four or five Hall of Famers,
like iconic guys.
I mean, the 90s was just ridiculous.
And the 90s had some of what you're talking about, Luke,
where the power would shift a lot, right?
From Tyson to Holyfield to Bowe to Lennox Lewis,
you know, George Foreman in the midst of that.
But that had a second and third tier of heavyweights,
the Ray Mercer types that were just awesome
and could have been studs in any era.
We used to say during the run of the Klitschko brothers
where they were great and historic,
but there was nobody else in the division
for them to fight of note,
that all those second and third tier guys in the 90s
probably would have been competing with them
and winning championships too.
We've got some depth in this era.
And I think it was really Dubois sunning AJ in the matter that he did,
where you're like, okay, Dubois is there.
You certainly got fun second, third tier guys like, like Julie Zhang,
but you got, you got Parker,
a former world title holder who had rebuilt himself, Joseph Parker,
completely.
Very quickly, Parker versus Dubois. I'm all in on that.
Absolutely. You've got, you know, these fun side guys like Bacoli now,
Jared Anderson before that,
the other big baby.
It's like, I know these,
not all of these guys are world beaters,
but you have a fun amount of depth.
And I think ultimately,
it's hard to beat star power.
If you just want to say star power alone
for seventies and nineties
are the best eras.
You don't have to worry about depth
or anything else you'll win.
I mean, the iconic fights
you mentioned in the seventies,
and then we could obviously bring up
the iconic Bo Holyfield
trilogy in the 90s, Tyson versus Holyfield
1 and 2, you know, Lennox Lewis versus everybody
else, Form and more. There's been so many
ones. We've not only gotten
big moments in this era, we've not
only gotten big fights, but I think it's because
everybody except for
Usyk is vulnerable.
And now heavyweights are always going to be vulnerable
because it's the heavyweight division and anything can happen.
But they're really vulnerable, right?
I mean, Fury's been largely dominant.
But these other guys, AJ can lose at any given moment.
And that's what's made it so exciting.
There's a Twitter account.
They're really funny.
I think it's ACD MMA.
They tweet about boxing, too.
And he was trying to argue, not like angrily, but was saying that, you know,
this heavyweight era has been a disaster,
well, because we didn't get AJ versus Wilder.
We didn't get AJ versus Fury, which we still might get, by the way.
That's still a thing that could happen.
And those are two major misses in an era.
It is a miss, but what ends up happening is that you actually see
that the people who deserve to ascend, the U6, the Fury to an extent,
AJ had his moment, and now Dubois having his moment,
everybody who was supposed to ascend did Ruiz had a moment that made it fun but he couldn't maintain it
Dubois feels like he's made of more than what Ruiz was made of Ruiz has some talent but he's
not the same the point I'm trying to make was Usyk's ascendancy has been a marvel to watch
and a historical moment in the heavyweight division.
Dubois' ascendancy over the weekend shakes things up in this incredible power dynamic way
where all these big personalities are now clashing with a younger generation
looking to take over.
And to your point, ready for this?
How about Dubois versus Parker?
I would take it.
Dubois versus Big Bang Zhang?
I would take it.
Dubois versus AJ in a rematch?
I would take it.
Dubois Fury? I would take it. Dubois versus Usyk too? I would take it. Dubois versus Big Bang Zhang. I would take it. Dubois versus AJ in a rematch. I would take it. Dubois Fury.
I would take it.
Dubois versus Usyk too.
I would take it.
You can match him up in all these different directions and none of those fights suck.
And I think almost all of them, maybe with the exception of Usyk, but almost all of them
are winnable for now for Dubois.
This is what you're talking about.
It's generational handing it down at the same time. It's these big
personalities. It's the depth. Again, it does
fade around seven or eight after that
point, but you're getting five or six
incredible guys all at the
same time, not getting every
fight we wanted, but the
right people are ascending at the right
time. And to be honest, the combination of
Wilder, AJ, Usyk, and
Fury, the big four, have more personality, charisma, and reasons for you to tune into them, sometimes just due to their social media bullshit on top of it, than I think a lot of these other era tough guys that we had.
You know what I mean?
Like, these guys are—it's hard not to love these guys and follow them.
And then you're getting to see fights in stadiums like this with this type of pomp and circumstance, and you're getting the fights that we got. It's not just
the Wilder Fury trilogy, which is an easy one
to reach to as a good part of this era.
We just had Usyk Fury
one. It may have been the greatest heavyweight title fight we've seen
in a long-ass time. It was
awesome, and now we're going to get a second one. We've
gotten the fights this era, even missing
those two massive ones. Those are big ones.
And the reasons why we didn't get those, a lot of times
were largely due to the bullshit of modern era boxing politics so it's like we're still shooting
ourselves in the foot but to your point the right fighters are still getting through and we're still
making the matchups even if shit goes south for the stars let's say fury loses to usic again and
let's say aj goes out there fights hard but loses to dubois luke would you turn down a non-title
fury versus joshua inside of a soccer stadium?
No.
No, there are – I mean, people are even trying to put Joshua right now in a Loser
Leaves Town match with Deontay Wilder.
If they book that tomorrow at Wembley Stadium, you're going to be like, yeah, fuck, I got
to see it.
You know what I mean?
Dude, compare who you've got at the top of boxing.
Fury, Usyk, Wilder – well, I don't know about Wilder, but Fury, Usyk, AJ, Dubois.
Who would you want to put fifth?
I mean, you could sort of take your pick.
Bang, Bang, Jang. Bang or Parker, however, Dubois, who would you want to put fifth? I mean, you could sort of take your pick. Oh, Bang Bang Jang.
Bang or Parker, however, because Parker's been doing pretty good recently
as well. Dude, just compare that to what you've got
at UFC right now. You've got Jon Jones,
who's one foot out the door. Then there's
Tom Aspinall. Okay, pretty excited about him. Steve Bay's got
two feet out the door.
Then there's Cyril Ghosn, who's kind of fun,
but we don't really know exactly where we're going to get with him.
Isn't he hurt in the Volkov fights off? Yeah, well, they're going to delay it
until 310. And then you've got Volkov and Pavlovich and Blades. And the Volkov fights off. Yeah. Well, they're going to delay it till three 10.
And then you've got Volkov and Pavlovich and blades.
And again,
those are not bad fighters. They're fun,
but just compare the depth you have at the heavyweight division at the top
versus this.
And I granted Francis is not here.
You know,
Henifahita might have a moment next month.
We'll see.
I'm just pointing out.
Are there problems with the heavyweight division?
Yes.
Is it as good as it's ever been?
Probably not.
No, I don't think it's that.
But it's damn good.
It's damn fun.
And for all the misses that might be there and the real,
there's plenty of hits.
And there's plenty of hits still to come.
Big Bang wants to join the party.
Can we play his call out here?
Eat chowder.
Congrats, Daniel.
Good win.
I'm happy for you.
But if...
Hey.
This is how I speak Spanish.
Call me, we'll bang.
That's basically what he's saying.
I'm like, to Joe.
And Long Island, can you,
what Luke referenced before,
that Tyson Fury comment,
ring set, let's check that out.
Listen, he's got a cost of $1,000.
I mean, it's not true.
He's still fucking in Turkey.
You gotta pay me now.
McGregor's sober. Check it out.
Well, I mean, relatively speaking.
Okay, so let's talk about what we do have, though,
because we can talk about the fights that we never got or that may not get.
It looks like we've got a Final Four right now to get back to the point that we were
when Usyk beat Fury, the first time the four belts were unified,
undisputed heavyweight champion, one name, one face, one division, one sport.
Usyk gets stripped.
This is why the IBF title is now on Dubois.
But if we get Usyk-Fury 2 in December, which we're getting,
and if we get AJ versus Dubois 2, which seems inevitable based on the contract setup,
that's kind of a Final Four to determine a winner.
Will the winners face in 2025?
Will we be back to the thing that unites the whole sport
when you have one champion, one marketable, fun champion atop?
I don't see how it's not, because if it's AJ versus Fury, it's huge.
If it's AJ versus Usyk, that's not as exciting because they've already fought twice.
If he knocks out Dubois in the rematch, wouldn't you talk yourself into it?
Fine.
Then fine.
If he can really score a major redemption win, then yes.
So there you have that.
Then let's do the flip side.
Dubois versus Fury.
I don't know if Fury would want it, but I would certainly take it.
Fury versus Dubois 2.
Sorry.
Usyk versus Dubois 2.
I would definitely take it. Fury versus Dubois too. Sorry. Usyk versus Dubois too. I would definitely take that. Like there's no permutation that isn't for big stakes and or is a big fight. It's just a
question of whether or not the principles involved can be coaxed into making it. And anyone that's
like, oh, I don't need to see, you know, Usyk versus Joshua again, even under that circumstance.
Isn't there a way we can talk ourselves into that idea that aj just fought the
wrong fight twice against usic what if he came out there and tried to physically body him is that
even hot no whatever all right it's fun that's the whole point let's keep this great era and
enjoy it while it's here moving uh speaking of boxing but with an mma twist dana white had a
big weekend so did i by the way friday night karen walsh delivered a second round knockout of shemiswav runovsky on
ufc fight passing for the 12 and 0 wash walsh it was his first fight on irish sawyer the 12 and 0
wash irish sawyer irish soil um but dana white made much bigger headlines through this particularly
he did a media scrum after the weigh-in on thursday the Irish media and a Q&A where he said some things
about the idea of him getting into boxing on a serious level. I know we've been teasing it. He's
been teasing it. We've been talking about it. But Long Island, Luke, can we go to the videotape first
of what Dana said? There will be some big announcements soon. And let me tell you,
if you know anything about me
and you go back and look at anything that I ever said,
I never say anything that I don't do.
Ever.
I've never said that.
And we've been kicking the whole boxing thing
around for a long time.
You've never heard me commit
and say,
I'm in.
I'm in.
Wow.
So Luke, he would go on to be asked at the same Q&A,
like, what role will you play?
And here's what he said.
He said, I'm HBO.
That's the way I would look at it.
So Luke, given Dana's teases of late
that a partnership with Turkey Al-Ashiq next year
could be in the works for UFC slash Zufa slash TKO
slash Endeavor.
You having like a stroke over there? Are you right bud what type of impact if Dana goes as all in as he seems to
be teasing and just want to let you know like they brought the full UFC production for that
Callum Walsh fight on Friday and it was tremendous and awesome and obviously the arena we'll talk
about it played a big role what type of impact do you believe dana slash tko slash endeavor could have on the boxing market so let
me ask you a question at its peak and showtime and hbo at their peak probably played similar
roles in what kind of boxing aired on their network how would you translate for i do want
to answer your question but i would like you to first translate what it means when dana says i
would be hbo so they're going to air.
He wants to, I think, listen, we both know the reality.
There's big money to be made in big boxing fights.
There's not a lot of money to be made in some of the smaller stuff, which isn't to say they wouldn't do it.
But what I do think they have their eye on is they want to have their hand in the big events.
Right.
So what does it mean when he says, think of me as HBO?
Well, here's how I look at it because a lot
of people say well what role is he going to play I think when Dana was teasing after Maymac in 2017
that Zufo boxing was coming he had the t-shirts he talked about it a lot I think he thought he
was going to have an idea that he was going to come in and be a major player as a potentially
promoter signing fighters maybe he found out that it wasn't as easy to break in as he says none of
these guys wanted to work with me but the market is not only so different right now,
and then you've got Saudi Arabia and Turkey Al-Ashiq
to potentially bankroll it,
that if he's saying I want to be HBO,
then Luke, you know, the previous era,
the Mayweather-Pakiao era, what led to that fight, right?
The early, the aughts.
And even in the late 90s to a large degree.
People miss those days
because even though
Showtime was there
and they were always a strong
either two or one B
at different points,
HBO was the top shelf in boxing.
HBO was where the big,
regardless of promotion,
it wasn't more,
it wasn't as much back then
about a promoter signs
an exclusive deal with a network.
That wasn't always happening.
It was more about
no matter who's promoting,
if I get a fighter
that becomes a champion and becomes super huge and marketable, inevitably he's going to go toward HBO wasn't always happening it was more about no matter who's promoting if i get a fight fighter
that becomes a champion it becomes super huge and marketable inevitably he's going to go toward hbo
and we're going to make the big fight there now obviously at times showtime would compete when
they had don king in particular they really compete to try to pull some of those big fights
over and sometimes i think showtime actually regained control particularly in 2013 when floyd
and pbc moved over there but at that point, HBO was not tied to necessarily two specific people.
It was almost this island of elite boxing.
If a fighter gets big enough, if an event gets big enough, it's going to be here on
HBO pay-per-view.
If Dana's thinking that, if that's what that soundbite meant, and you have the bankroll
of Saudi and you potentially have what TKO or Dana would bring to the table in terms of production and quality and, you know, want to match the best against the best.
This could mean that he's trying to say we want to be the premier platform in this sport.
And that does change things because I don't know if the Turkey League is going to work.
We don't know if that if that's just a report that we read in Reuters or New York Times.
So would they air on Fight Pass? I don't know that. I don't know. I mean, there's so much that we don't know if that if that's just a report that we read in reuters or would they air on fight pass i don't know that i don't know i mean there's so much
that we don't know and obviously i'm not privy to it having just announced that card i have no idea
but i wonder i wonder you know him saying i'm hbo i think that means it's not necessarily about
him signing fighters but him creating the largest platform for turkey's money and the big fights and
the other promoters have to come to him.
So does it, let me ask, let me follow up here.
So does that sound to you like Dana wants to battle DAZN?
Because right now it does feel, I don't know what top ranks future on ESPN is.
I mean, it could be more.
I just don't know.
DAZN feels like in the absence of Showtime now, like they've kind of become the premier
boxing platform.
Yeah, for sure. They're doing the biggest ones. Yeah, for sure they're doing the biggest ones.
With some exception here, they're obviously PBC
with Canelo or Gervonta is doing big stuff.
But he's going at them?
Not like fuck them.
You know, honestly, I don't have the answers.
I don't know what actual network they'd be playing.
Sounds like he would like to take the fights that they have
and then find a way to air them.
I think he's found his lane of how he can make the impact
he's trying to make, meaning Dana. And it obviously seems to be with the influence of turkey and saudi arabia but i
think he might have the right design in his mind if it's more like i'm not a promoter but i'm a
platform all i know is look it helps that it was in ireland it helps that you've got this young
you know star on the rise and callum walsh who but like that was a that felt like a premier event
in there you know
what i mean uh it would be interesting to see what type of role they can play in i mean is that what
you take from that it's very cryptic obviously but he's now not teasing it he's saying i'm in
and he's saying big announcements to come i i take from this that getting in there and trying
to sign fighters and then make matchups feels like the kind of headache that they don't want
it's already the toughest thing they do in MMA,
and they do it in MMA with all the institutional advantages,
where they've got most of the fighters, they've got injury replacements,
they don't have the Ali Act, they control their own titles in MMA.
Like, why the hell would they want to get into a sport where the fighters
on the signing guys' side of it, where the fighters make 80%?
I don't think they would want to do that.
However, getting in on the side
where you're helping produce events,
where you're helping to both in-person
and then for television broadcast,
and then becoming, because listen,
again, I don't know if Fight Pass features into this or not,
but Fight Pass already airs boxing.
Fight Pass already airs MMA.
Fight Pass already airs kickboxing and j and jujitsu. I don't know.
Again, I don't know what role fight pass plays in the Zufa boxing plans, but there is a, I'm going
to say one more time. There is a shit ton of money to be made potentially in being a part of boxing's
biggest events, whether it's Canelo, whether it's AJ, whether it's Gervonta Davis, maybe they could
sign a star or two, something like that. And that's what HBO also did when it was Canelo, whether it's AJ, whether it's Gervonta Davis, maybe they could sign a star or two, something like that.
And that's what HBO also did when it was on top.
The very big stars.
That's right.
So I could see that.
I could see that.
But what I don't see them is like, we're going to build a Zufa boxing roster of like, here's our straw weights.
Here's our fucking, you know, cruiser weights and our bridger weights.
No, they're not going to do that.
This is very interesting because there were times i mean
do we go back to about 2013 2015 2016 where as boxing fans we used to always argue and say well
what if dana did come in could he be the the change that we're looking for to get through
some of this bullshit in this sport it's not going to be just him now but if you put those
two powers together him and turkey it does change a lot of the equation to how the sport can be
presented how it can be organized how we can guarantee that the best will face the bells
if finance if financials are never an issue if financials are never an issue but just one thing
we really have to be quite honest about is you mean you saw that um who was it boxing scene who
wrote the article on stuff turkey's trying to do where they tried to buy BoxRec and they didn't accept it.
Yeah, I think there's a lot of rumors that he's buying Ring Magazine.
He's buying Ring Magazine, but there was also reported
that there are some suggestions that BoxRec was retaliated against
for not wanting to sell.
Here's what I'll say.
Dana White and the UFC trying to bring their production muscle to boxing,
I don't see as, by itself,
I don't know what the problem would be.
I really don't.
However, any kind of further Saudi influence in the sport,
we should be very, very, very, very.
I can't wait until Turkey holds your hand down the aisle.
And just bone saws it.
Oh, come on.
It's his thing.
He likes to grab.
Did you see him do this number?
I was like, this is what this is
what they do to journalists to uh criticize them when aj got knocked out they did put the camera
on turkey don't be squeamish about saudi criticism you can't do that on this show well i wasn't
squeamish about the criticism you know the bone saw of a journalist considering i am a journalist
that's just not something i like to talk about it's sort of like deaths in boxing the one i would
like to make is without really knowing knowing what Dana's plans are,
I want to be clear.
Here's my view.
My view is him getting on the production slash event promotion side,
I really think would probably be pretty good, all things being what they are.
And listen, has Saudi Arabia delivered to us some great fights?
There can simply be no question about it.
But we should not be stupid and then just think,
oh, they're just going to give us money for free forever.
There is going to be a cost to that.
They're going to want to control things.
More of that is coming.
Whether or not that is good, we will not know until we see what they try to do.
For sure.
Do you feel like Dana's bored from MMA?
I think he is bored as shit about MMA.
Listen, what is left to do in MMA?
They've built the biggest star even imaginable in MMA in Conor McGregor.
They changed the game of women's sports before other places were changing the game of women's sports.
Now, of course, there's other sports and associations that have done more for women's sports.
I'm simply saying, circa 2014, when they brought over Ronda Rousey,
this was a big moment in time for combat sports and in sports more generally.
They have total control of the
industry they make 90 cents of every dollar they went to the sphere just to fuck it because they
could i mean i know it was because of the whole canelo thing but you know what i mean like what
is left to do except yes you could grow the sport in china but that's more of a long-term project
you could they don't have competitors so it's hard they don't have competitors i mean there's
nothing left
for them to do in MMA
except for, like, you know,
smaller things.
And in the scope of things,
the Sphere Show is a small thing.
If he takes the passion and budget
that he gives to Slap
and puts it into boxing,
that could be interesting.
Listen, this is my point.
Whatever they're doing with Slap,
just let all those truck drivers go home.
Right?
Let them all go home.
Or hire them to set up the ring, maybe.
Yeah, listen.
Let Bill's Mafia go back
to the parking lots. Okay, okay. Right? Let them do that let them do that shouts to bills mafia you're all a bunch of
fucking losers okay let bills mafia go back to the parking lots shut down slap quit giving away
14 000 fucking dollars worth of tickets for the gate and a 17 000 gate put that energy into boxing
that to me seems like a much better more that, again, a real sport that could really benefit from another player.
So just quickly, so it's hard to know how good Callum Walsh is.
He looked great on Friday night.
Improved to 12-0 with 10 KOs.
Got Freddie Roach in his corner.
He has been matching at the right pace.
But, you know, if this was supposed to be the test that pushed him, let's check out the highlight.
I mean, he obliterated this guy in the second round beautifully
on that counter left hand.
Corey Erdman's good at this job, by the way.
I like Corey Erdman a lot.
I mean, I obviously know him as a boxing writer going back a long time,
but this is the first time I got to work with him, and he's good, man.
He raises my game.
He's good.
He's really good.
So, Luke, it's like this arena, it wasn't like McGregor beating Brandao, which was also in that arena.
But they went nuts afterwards.
They started throwing beer.
Let's check through that.
It's a madhouse inside the free arena.
Peter Brady, he's my voice over.
Oh, wow.
Oh, wow.
Oh, wow.
Oh, wow.
Oh, wow.
You got the Burger King crown?
The whole panel of white
brought his own crown back.
We are getting showered
with beer at the moment.
So I already had blood on my suit
from one of the undercard fights
in three spots.
And then I just got soaked
from like the knee down
on one leg.
And dude, when I was in the ring
trying to do the post-fitting...
Did you get soaked
or was that piss?
No.
Well, no, they're coming in
like bottle rock. I'm told that that's what they do in Dublin. And that's soaked or was that piss? No. Well, no, they're coming in like bottle rock.
I'm told that that's what they do in Dublin,
and that's what they do at the three arena.
Dude, I know they had Katie Taylor versus Chantel Cameron,
one and two in that arena, too.
Yes, yes.
That was a wild event, man.
I hope Dana goes back there.
I know we're talking about two different things.
We're talking about Dana and Turkey,
but then he's also got this project with Callum Walsh.
I hope that he goes back to Walsh.
This is what I mean.
He might have a couple of pet projects, the Callum Walsh one. Here's my view on Callum Walsh. I hope that he goes back to Walsh. He might have a couple pet projects to Callum Walsh.
Here's my view on Callum Walsh. I simply don't
know. He's 23. He appears
to be good.
The guy he fought did not appear to be great,
but it's, you know, your 12th fight in boxing is supposed
to be decent, not great. He
stopped him very quickly. He stopped him
with ease. I simply don't
know enough about Callum Walsh to really say how
good he is. He seems promising. I guess we'll see we're not gonna know obviously until he steps up even
more but he's already ranked in the top 10 and two of the four sanctioning bodies at 154 he wants to
push himself and i'll just say this what i have learned about him his cool under pressure like
this event was built for him there's got to be so much pressure dana's ringside like it's you know
this is a big deal dude he just walks out like it's
nothing and delivers and you know there's like you never like you know there's guys that are cool
under fire but still will match up to the title level and not make it who knows he'll have to
prove it to us but this is not too much for him to handle this this type of push it's it's interesting
to see the Irish lift the Irish man have you noticed that how many times have you seen an
Irish fighter compete at home and then was like oh the jitters got to me it feels like the crowd does such a good job in
boosting the confidence of their countrymen countrywoman whatever the case may be to to
to not always win certainly yes but to get the best out of themselves or at least what they've
got to give that night I can't say the same for uh every place in the status bonitos i wish i could no we don't really back our own too aggressively
it depends unless it's the olympics it depends like if you're if you've got like you know if bud
when he fought in in nebraska i'm guessing that they would lift him up oh they yeah those were
wild atmosphere um you know i thought the crowd that crowd when we saw Spence fight Ugas was good, not great.
It was Jerry's world.
It's different to this UK slash Ireland crowds.
Dude, they're insane.
There's just nothing quite like boxing over there.
It's a different ballgame completely in terms of the fan.
What's crazy is obviously the Irish are different.
Actually, I'm not sure how different they are.
But the English are football crazy.
The English are football fucking crazy.
They're boxing crazy, too.
They're boxing crazy in a way that is hard to explain.
He said he's going back to Cork with this kid.
We'll see.
Callum Walsh looking good so far.
Let's go to topic number four.
We'll take you right back deep into the MMA.
Although Tabitha Ricci, Baby Shark, was ringside.
Yeah, she was wearing the crown that was ultimately on Callum's head.
Back to topic number four.
Hey, Sean O'Malley, we saw him lose his
Bantamweight title at UFC 306
to Murab Davalosvili,
then reveal afterwards that there was the torn
labrum in his hip, that he
had hip surgery scheduled. Tim Welch,
his coach, would go on his own podcast and say
that this has been a recurring injury and that
he didn't even want O'Malley
to go forward with this fight, but that's not
necessarily the meat of what we're here to talk about
because O'Malley has now declared himself Chael Sonnenstile,
the undefeated champion all over again,
when for a YouTube clip on his channel, he rewatched the fight
and has declared that he won 3-2 and got robbed.
So, Luke, first let me show some of this evidence.
Can we go first to the Twitter roundup?
This was my first look at this, Luke. I'm like, what are we doing here,
Sean O'Malley?
Round one, he believes he won that 100%.
Round two, he lost but took a little damage.
Three was closer than people thought
and then four was Marab's
but obviously O'Malley came and finished strong.
Here's the video that a lot of people are reacting
to. Cage I flared up I have a 1-1 going into third no bias it's already way different
than I was just what I've been hearing people say dude this round is closer
than the first yes
he took a bad shot there
can't say it's really competitive I mean the narrative is crazy I might ask you a
see so you please put this on you that one hurt him that one hurt him that one fucking hurt him round four
Lazy this motherfucker hold on for dear life to you know, like he knows this is a fucking close
Ten eight I won the first third and
Turn the commentary on It should be a 10-8. I won the first, third, and fifth round. Rewatch that fight.
Turn the commentary off.
And tell me I did not win that fight.
You did not win that fight.
So he's had subsequent memes really pushing this first, third, and fifth narrative.
So Luke, he's smarter.
He's a great marketer.
He's a very smart kid.
Is he pulling this public stump because he's a sore loser?
Because he's angling for an immediate rematch or is he
just trying to make youtube content because you can't you can't believe he believes that correct
um dude fighters believe lots of silly things you can believe that why couldn't you believe
that is there an argument to be made after he kind of got dominated short of that fifth round
all right so let's go through the math here a little bit five rounds two and four even o'malley
agrees are marabs okay so two and four are his round five clearly Sean O'Malley's so if you go and look at the scoring of the judges
two of the three judges gave O'Malley round three round three uh and none of the judges gave him
round one so really the only rounds you could look at as toss-up rounds would be three and one so I
actually went back and I watched them three you could score for O'Malley I don't think that's crazy that was competitive
it was certainly competitive you could do it so what about round one I just don't really see an
argument for round one at all he did land some decent shots to the body but they did not really
deter him he was taken down twice which by itself doesn't mean much but certainly on the first
takedown he got peppered with all kinds of shots from Merab that had a noticeable effect on
his positioning and the way he moved, which is exactly what you're looking for. Plus he had to
carry his weight and that stuff that he was hitting Merab with, while it matters, it did not deter his
behavior. In other words, who landed on the other guy in enough volume and to the extent that you
could witness an observable change in the behavior as a consequence it was marab to o'malley
people are fucking bored and youtube does this youtube makes creators want to just invent shit
because there's nothing to talk about now again maybe o'malley believes this but i'm saying even
if he doesn't which goes closer to what you're believing it would make sense because people on
youtube when there's nothing to talk about they'll just invent shit like and if they run out of things to talk
about they'll find ways to show their butthole on only fans yeah they'll just do butthole on
only fans listen i think sean fought a better fight than maybe it looked in real time but and
i've seen some people go back through and do like zapruder films dude none of that shit matters
yeah i've done this bit like when michael Bisping beat Matt Hamill, it's a very
controversial fight. You can go back and watch it. I don't know if he actually deserved to win,
but he did in the end, the fight was in England. But the point I'm trying to make is going back
through a fight afterwards can be educational BC. I learned a little bit more about, for example,
Sean Strickland, when he fought DDP by going back through the footage, I was like, you know what?
I feel like Sean maybe should have gotten the nod. However, you are judging it in real time. Your first reaction to it is quite
literally the only one that matters. So even going back through and doing like a granular detail
still kind of shows Merab one, but more importantly, that way of examining a fight after
the fact, I'm not saying there's no value to it, but there is no value to it as it relates to
scoring the way in which you observe and process a fight in real time. Remember guys, how does
scoring work? A round finishes, the judge looks down at their paper, scores it, and then turns it in, and they get no do-overs.
That is how a fight is judged, for better or for worse.
Sure.
Under that circumstance, BC, and watching in real time, there's an obvious case for Merab,
and a secondary method of going through it very carefully is nothing for scoring scoring it is irrelevant for scoring it means
absolutely nothing in the end so disagree so like from a process standpoint and in just a meritocratic
standpoint the argument for sean winning round one and even to an extent round three is fucking
shitty it's bad yeah stop this i think it was just i think he's trying to curry favor and trying to
put the idea of an
immediate rematch really out there.
But did we talk enough about this whole injury reveal?
Because this wasn't as bad as the Dillashaw situation,
but hearing Tim Welch speak at length,
doesn't it make you feel like they,
they prioritize the payday and the opportunity to headline the sphere and
thought,
you know,
I did hear Tim will say like they were, they, they had a worse camp for the aljo fight and he was in worse shape
but he just went in there and knocked him out right aljo made a big mistake and it happened
and maybe there was a part of them that thought okay marab will run into something and this won't
become a factor but in hindsight with that hip injury wasn't kicking at all takedown defense
was he did kick a little later and now he threw a spinning kick oh went to the body yeah yeah sorry
in round five when marab was tiring down and he can land that.
With a healthy hip, is he better at takedown defense against Murab
in this situation where he had nothing?
So I think, do you think that he was content?
Well, if I lose it, that's fine.
I get a break.
I'll get the surgery.
I still got the money of the sphere.
Is that just to blame of the structure we live in?
Where I don't blame Dana and UFC for this
because you can pass the medical test without
revealing these things.
Well,
I mean,
again,
people are like,
how did the doctors miss this guys?
If I go to the doctor and I have no observable injury and I just lie to
them,
how are they supposed to know what you have?
Like when you go to the doctor and you tell them what's wrong,
you literally tell them,
Hey,
I have this symptom and this kind of thing happened to me.
And they use that to piece together.
Like what happened to you.
Well, that's what I'm saying.
I don't think he should be in the running for an immediate rematch when that's kind
of what he did.
Unless you just make the argument that they're always banged up.
They all do that.
They all lie to the doctors.
So I don't know really how you want to adjudicate that.
I take your point, but I don't really know what the right answer is.
But I was just going to say this.
I have seen different responses from orthopedic surgeons about labrum tears in the hip.
And how, obviously, it's not ideal.
And it can impact your performance.
But that a lot of athletes tend to go along with torn labrums in the hip on, like, cortisol shots.
And they're able to compete at a reasonable level.
We simply don't know until he gets it repaired and we can judge after that.
All right.
Merab saw all of this and built a skit to respond with let's check in on that
it's you my friend what's up with you bro why you keep smoking my friend? I thought you were just sleeping now. It's a sleep time for you, bro
Listen son, don't worry about this Umar Lumaga medal. I will take care of Umar
You're not a champion anymore, and I'm gonna take belt from you again. So you drive safe son. Let's go Sean
No more smoke. No more smoke. See you
Drive safe, okay? safe son let's go sean no more smoke no more smoke see you bye drive safe okay
it's corny as shit but uh dude i don't understand what the point is of a skit with no punch line what's the maybe it was lost in translation long island luke what was the point of the skit with
no punch line i don't know i didn't think it was that great until the kissing part i did laugh
well he did that in the ring that's why it's funny it's a call whatever yeah do you have an
updated opinion of who should be next i know we were talking about last week about the possibility
of figuerito there's obviously umar but does he have enough big wins what do you think i still Do you have an updated opinion of who should be next? I know we were talking last week about the possibility of Figueiredo.
There's obviously Umar, but does he have enough big wins?
What do you think?
I still believe it should be Nurmagomedov.
I understand the case for Figue.
If they went with Figue, I hardly think it's some disaster.
The three wins he has at 135 are all really nice.
Rob Font and everybody else.
It's great, and I respect it.
But not one of those wins is on par with Corey Sanhagen.
And Umar Nurmagomedov has that. Plus, he's got a name a name plus he's got the particular and also figueredo has this too
but he's got the particular kind of skill set that could give marab some serious problems and
so for that reason i really would want to see it but honestly you can't go wrong in either direction
it's really just what they want to do i would love to see umar though umar caught up on the
pound for pound podcast with uh sahhudo and usman and was
asked whether he feels he deserves it and all that let's listen yeah what else has that been promised
to you by uh dana wider huncha that you're next for the title they said to me i'm next but you
know i don't want to wait these two guys until next year you know i want to fight i don't they
said he don't deserve he have to fight hey guys i don't care about you i just need built you can keep built and leave i just will come and
take you know i don't need your name you i don't interesting i don't have anything personality
with you yeah i just want this built yeah enough so right right now, you just want to be busy.
You want to be active.
He would go on to say that if Figueredo gets the shot, no problem.
He just wants to be active.
He just wants to fight the next guy in line.
First of all, his English is great.
I don't know if I really knew that.
And third of all, I love that type of attitude.
Like, fuck you.
I want the belt. If I can't get the belt next, I'm not waiting around. Give me your next best in line, and attitude. Like, fuck you. I want the belt.
If I can't get the belt next, I'm not waiting around.
Give me your next best in line, and I'll continue to show you who I am.
You know, I can understand that.
By the way, we'll talk about it when we preview UFC Paris,
but this is going to be Moikano's third fight in 2024.
That is very rare these days for a UFC fighter.
And he had a grappling match this year as well.
So that kind of – I can understand it.
It's like, dude, I just want to stay active. It's not only how you get paid,
but it's how you stay good. And in a sport
where you can't get tune-ups, activity is
even more important.
I love his attitude. This is what I mean. You give it to Figueredo,
I'm not going to cry. I'll take that, absolutely. 100%.
100%
Alright, let's go to topic number five. We stay with the UFC.
UFC Fight Night Party
is this weekend and headlined by a
really fantastic lightweight duel. Money,
Moikano, Hinato. Is it
Hinato or Hinato? It's spelled
R-E, so the R is in H, so
I think it's Hinato.
Against, of course, BSD
is back from that
stoppage loss. Wait, what's his name?
You're like,
Luke, what do you
believe is the central tension in this matchup between the number 11 and number 12 lightweight in the world in a fantastic main event in Paris?
Styles make fights.
What should we be looking for most in this one?
Both guys are surprisingly well-rounded in the sense they both can strike it out and they both have some different skills,
but skills on the mat just the same bsd is looking for a bit of redemption after kind of well being finished by
dustin poirier but i think to an extent underperforming head staff right you're a staff
victim i mean no i actually did not have staff did i tell you what happened? HIV? I don't know why that would be funny.
Like you die of AIDS?
No, I can tell you, but I never had cellulitis the entire time.
I had a completely different condition.
Can I catch it by looking at you?
I could rub it on you and you wouldn't get it. If I smell your flatulence, will I?
Okay, back to the real topic here.
Yeah, no, but I had to get a biopsy done,
and they figured out it was something that masquerades as cellulitis,
but it is not, in fact.
Something called morphia.
I had morphia.
Anyway, what was the question?
Oh, with central tension.
Okay, so there is something of a redemption arc,
and also this is at age, I think Moicano,
I believe he's 35 at 155.
So this is kind of that moment where, A, he beat Drew Dober,
and he's got, again, the other one, I forget, the Tarantula.
Who's the Tarantula?
Jalen Turner.
Jalen Turner.
And that was, he did get knocked down,
and Turner kind of fucked around in that fight,
but he did really come back and perform quite ably.
This will be his third fight in 2024.
This is Moikano's time.
He has debuted, and when I say that, I mean,
he has really shown his personality.
He's on this podcast.
Everyone kind of knows him now.
He's got a couple of great wins.
Wind at his back.
He's 35.
If he's going to make a move, the timing has to be now.
Right?
His last loss, I think, was to RDA.
Yeah, he's won five of six and three in a row.
Right, exactly.
So, BSD, however, is in a bit of a different position.
I think he's just 27.
He is coming off of that loss to Poirier.
However, you wonder about the long-term upside because he has that win over Bonfim
and some other ones where he was really
just showing incredible ability.
To me, the central tension is who can define...
We talk about this all the time,
but it really matters here
where guys are really well-rounded. Who can, I think it's going to be define the terms of the fight on the
other guy. And this is what I mean. BSD is always going to be looking for more offense and pace,
volume and pace. Both guys get hit a lot, BSD a little bit more. Both guys land a lot,
BSD a little bit more. Both guys have pretty good wrestling, BSD a little bit better. Both guys have pretty good jiu-jitsu.
Moikano is a little bit smoother in that
regard. However, the age difference
is noteworthy. I think it's a function
of can BSD put
a pace on him and just
overwhelm him with offense?
Or can Moikano be a little bit
more precise while still matching
the intensity, slow the fight
down a little bit, I think take the back,
find advantageous positions in the grappling or make him fight at the end of
his range where you can really take this juggernaut like Poirier was
ultimately able to do had to had some tough moments.
Yeah.
Folks forget Poirier was flattened out a couple of times with his back taken.
It looked bad for a while,
but he was able to turn the tide.
This is what I mean.
He has dominant punching.
I think we give an excuse for staff in that case i don't know dude i mean antibiotics can really
fuck you up you know uh the disease itself can fuck you up like it's not the same but what i
will say is this is different though bsd had a chance to learn this is a five round main event
right so there's a question of like the contribution of resources but how much of a
time horizon he has to give to it i have seen. Do you want to hear the odds on this fight?
Our friends at DraftKings have
BSD as a, I can hardly read shit,
minus 270.
I'm so fucking old.
Look at me.
BSD as a minus 270 favorite.
Moicano plus 220.
I take pictures of menus and then have to blow it up.
I'm that old now.
I really am. Sorry.
Yes, yes.
Dude, that's the saddest thing I've ever heard.
It's where I'm at right now.
So I think this is a question of who is able to either, in the case of Moicano,
slow the fight down at his range or his positions,
or in BSD, fucking overwhelm you with offense.
That's what's going to win or lose.
It means so much to the arc of Moicano because it's like we talked about like this is his chance to prove that he's legit this is his elite opportunity to crack that
top 10 in a major way and and you know approach title contention we'd seen flashes from him we've
seen this change in personality that i think has been so fun you can't wait for him to get on the
microphone he also fights like a freaking badass but lu, I think this is probably a matchup where he's going to get lured into fighting like a badass.
And it might not go its way because BSD is so motivated.
Now they're putting him in front of his home fans.
And he's so motivated to prove that all that hype was real.
And that the hiccup against Poirier was more an effect of him being limited, but still almost got it done.
Dude, I'm telling you, Luke,
you want to book it?
Book it.
BSD by stoppage.
Moikano's going to force himself
to run into something.
It's going to be an absolute war
until he's stopped.
This is BSD's moment.
You know, a loss doesn't kill him.
It's a bad, but it doesn't kill him.
But this is his moment to remind us,
and he's doing it at home, Luke.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
That's what I'm feeling right now,
but I love this fight.
Is there anything else on this card
that outside of Matt Favola's return?
So two things to pay attention to.
Wow, those Long Island horns coming out of nowhere.
Okay, so here's what I think matters on this card.
Obviously, the main event is great.
Co-main event is also pretty good.
Nas Zorodin Imovov taking on Brendan Allen.
I actually love this
fight a lot.
That's a great, great
fight.
By the way, our
friends at DraftKings
have that fight.
Yeah, that's a close one.
Oh, wow.
Listen to this.
Brendan Allen, who
was punching Vittori
in the PFL parking
lot, whatever it was.
Best action we've
seen in that tournament.
Smart Cage wasn't
smart enough to be
there, was it?
Was it?
A plus 185 for Brendan Allen, minus 225.
What do you think about that betting line, Long Island Luke,
you fucking degenerate?
I'm riding with Brendan Allen.
I got him at plus 200 on DraftKings.
Did you really?
Yeah, a couple days ago.
Give me your logic on this one.
He's on a seven-fight win streak, five of those coming by sub.
I just, I don't know.
I think he has some three-round fights.
Are you going to be doing the Mile High Minute live on Saturday during these fights?
You know it, BC.
Tune in, guys.
3 p.m. in the east.
Luke, will he do illicit drugs on this podcast?
Dude, if you pulled his blood out, we could fucking smoke it in a crack pipe and get high.
We got to wait until you already did all the drugs.
We got to wait until you die and smoke your ashes.
Okay, so also on this card are a series of interesting kind of prospects.
You mentioned Matt Favola.
I wouldn't call him a prospect, but he's on this card.
But what I mean is there's some other ones here that are kind of interesting.
So Ludovic Klein is taking on Roosevelt Roberts.
That's a really fun fight there.
Taylor Lapolis is taking on Vince Morales.
I love that fight.
Aileen Perez is taking on Daria Zalesnayakova.
Aileen Perez is going to celebrate out of control if she wins, Luke.
It's just going to be a lot of twerking.
It's going to be a lot of twerking.
I don't know how to pronounce his first name, Balaji or Balaji,
but his last name is Oki.
He's a top prospect out of the European scene,
taking on Chris Duncan out of Scotland.
That's another fun one.
So, you know, not the deepest card.
If you're a hardcore fan,
there's definitely a couple of gems there along the way.
But really it's that main, co-main, and a couple of prospects.
And then shouts to Matt Favola.
We love him as well.
Yeah, Matt Favola.
He just had his...
Him and his wife just had a baby.
Shout out to the Favolas.
Do you see...
Long Island Luke, you're in Huntington.
Do you ever cross paths with Team Favola?
I have run into Matt Favola at the coffee shop on numerous occasions.
Oh, the coffee shop.
I like that.
At the coffee shop?
You fucking ape. Oh, come on. That's our guy right there. That's Long Island Luke. No S shop. I like that. At the coffee shop. You fucking ape.
Oh, come on.
That's our guy right there.
That's it.
Well, Luke, no Seda.
It's weird.
It's weird.
I really love New York and the surrounding areas, but the New York accent drives me fucking
crazy.
I can't stand it.
Long Island accent is a little bit more.
What's the difference between the Long Island accent and like a Brooklyn or accent or something
like that?
I don't honestly know.
That's that's for someone else.
He doesn't. It all blends the same.
Austin's on Long Island. Aussie rules, Luke?
Almost worthless.
Speaking of Aussie rules, the grand final
is this Friday night at midnight.
That's like their Super Bowl. Big deal.
Who's playing?
Brisbane Lions and Sydney Swans.
The fuckabouts and the
wallaby smackers. Is there a crossover
between MMA Australian fans and
Australian rules football fans? I don't know,
dude. I watch Australian rules football and sometimes it looks
like MMA. I mean, these motherfuckers.
Shout out to Tim Simpson,
the manager. He's a big
West Coast Eagles fan.
That's an Aussie rules team. So there is some crossover.
Shout out to all those Aussie people.
I like Aussie people. We should go, we should take
the podcast there. My wife is going to Australia this year for work.
I know.
I'm fucking jealous.
I'm super jealous.
You know what's going to happen the week that she's gone?
The biggest fight of the year will happen.
It's inevitable when either of our wives try.
No, I actually looked at the calendar.
This time it won't be that bad.
Thank God.
But also, let me ask you real quick.
We didn't put it on the rundown, I think.
Please.
What else you got for me?
What do you think about a proposed fight between Gervonta Davis and Lamont Roach in D.C.?
So I know that that's a giant deal in D.C., and they're going to sell out that arena.
And they were amateur rivals, and Roach is a champion at 130, and he's looking good lately.
But we were talking about him fighting Loma or maybe Shakur.
Dude, I liked the idea of him fighting Valenzuela at 140 for the title.
Jose Valenzuela just beat Pitbull.
But I saw Robert Garcia, Valenzuela's trainer, put out there that Tank's team won at 135.
Don't know if that's true, but that was his opinion on that.
It's an interesting fight.
It's not an awful fight.
But I feel like with so many big fights being made, and Tank seems to be on the other side of the street of Turkey, I wanted him to come back with a bigger bang.
Let me ask you a question.
And if I'm full of shit, please tell me I'm full of shit because I actually don't know the answer to this.
But for example, you look at the Canelo fight against Berlanga, not the fight that should have happened.
However, it was a commercial success.
I think $17 million at the gate.
They're saying $650 on pay-per-view.
I think that's a little bit high, but it probably did not do poorly.
It probably did very, very well, right?
But the problem with that is, it's like, I don't mind that Canelo made money,
but this is not the, I mean, what incentive do you have to take fights
if you can just not take the ones that matter
and still do massive, massive box office returns?
To your point, if they make that Roach versus Gervonta fight,
I don't know
what it would do on pay-per-view but if he gets a cut of the gate i mean they're going to sell that
out fucking instantly in dc the capital one arena i guarantee if he's going to be active i i don't
mind these in-betweens like this is an interesting matchup that's a huge fight in that area but here's
what i'm asking you how many times have we watched jake paul compete and it's like this complete you
know he's fighting fucking pre-diabetic gas station attendants
and he's whooping them out and then
it still does
good numbers. It still sells.
It's a star business.
The stuff he was doing at the Caribe
Royale, whatever, not so much.
But anybody else, it was big.
Has YouTube boxing
and that whole thing, has that
made us, let me ask you a question, has that dulled our sense of competitive rivalry? and you're reasonably active, there are not many demands placed on you
where there are box office returns
that directly correlate to opponent quality.
I don't think it has anything to do with YouTube
because that's been boxing's reality
for a couple decades now.
I mean, I feel like,
what was the equivalent of Floyd
taking a fight like that?
Berto was a world champion.
That was his last one.
Yeah, but Berto was three and three
in his last six at that point and was a little bit after it, but that was Floyd's retirement fight, so it was a world champion that was his last one yeah but Berto was three and three in his last
six at that point and was a little bit after it but that was Floyd's retirement fight so it was
a little different I mean that fight was almost on CBS right and also that fight didn't do that
great on pay-per-view this is what I mean Canelo's fighting fucking Berlanga and it's doing at least
500k or more sure why would you ever take a tough fight hashtag that's boxing I mean that's that's
the shit but anyway is that always been, that opponent quality had no relationship to?
Well, no, not no relationship, but, you know, like we're more easy to forgive in boxing
and just be happy that the star is back in the ring sometimes than.
So your point is that, you know, not every time, but there's been a long history of guys
not taking big fights and then still not suffering.
Yeah, or you delay the big fight a little bit more and take a couple matches.
I know about the delay, but I always felt like there was a trade-off
in what you could pull at the box office, but then
Canelo's going out there just fighting
dogs. That makes it easier to do that.
I could think of better opponents that I'd
want than Roach. It's not a bad fight at all. It's an interesting
fight. It's the size.
Yeah, because it fits the narrative of, oh, you're
just fighting more. He fought Hector Garcia
in a stay busy before Ryan.
That was different because he was back from jail, right?
He was the first fight back from jail.
And I don't hate that as an undefeated champion in a lower weight class moving up.
But to do that again right now.
Also, I will say this in defense of Gervonta.
I hope the Roach fight, if it happens, is 135, but whatever.
He did try to make the Loma fight.
And it wasn't his fault that it fell apart.
That is true.
Loma pulled out. So whatever his fault that it fell apart. That is true. Loma pulled out.
Um,
so whatever.
Yeah,
there we go.
Uh,
Luke dating on your phone,
right?
Yes.
How about banking on your phone?
How about looking at the latest news on your phone?
How about ordering lottery tickets?
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Thank you very much.
That is our topics for the day.
Now we give you a chance to ask us some questions, and they better be good, right?
We put out the call on social media on Sunday nights on Instagram and Twitter twitter for you to ask us questions we call it dms from the dogs
gross very gross all right let's see the first question coming in here and it is from at random From atrundemcheeks at 1775. Do we have a beating Nganou curse on our hands?
So beating Francis Nganou, which AJ did and then got destroyed.
Did Stipe lose after beating Nganou the first time?
To DC, yeah, that's longer.
Did he?
I believe so, yeah.
Is this a curse?
I don't know.
Is this a curse or are people bored?
Yeah, because he beat Ngannou to get the third title defense,
then he lost to DC the first fight and then won the second two.
That shit happened.
Yeah, that's true.
I've seen it.
Yeah, you're right.
You're right.
I don't think this curse is real.
Yeah, I don't think curses are real, but I will say it was.
MK, what was that vehicle we used to have?
Resume Review.
That was a real curse for a while.? Resume review. That was a real
curse for a while.
It was never real.
It was a figment of everyone's imagination.
Imagination land.
I think you've got a curse in your
dungarees.
I let out a curse.
I am so desperate to have a
I want to wait until I've got really bad diarrhea
and then go in the non-shitting shitter and just let people have it in there are we oh god i didn't do that are we
also forgetting tyson fury who defeated and got a west split decision and then lost it was sick
that's part of the curse too that's rk yeah fair enough okay it's now long island look can you
judge this is a curse or not i think it needs one more to be occurred it's four okay so if henan
fajita defeats in ghanu and then instantly loses in the PFL.
Which, by the way, is entirely possible because he's big and strong and powerful,
but he's also a fucking donk and he's got a really lopsided game.
Like, that is entirely a thing that could happen.
Interesting.
Let's go to our second DM question here.
From at Jacob Breachy, or Jacob B. Ritchie, I don't know.
With most champs and many top contenders leaning on control and ground game,
do you see us entering a less than friendly era at the top of the big cards?
They're talking about MMA.
They're probably talking about the UFC.
Luke, has UFC championship level become too grapple heavy in this era?
I don't think grappling is the problem.
I made a couple videos last week on my YouTube channel about this. I don't think grappling is the problem. I had a, I did, I made a couple of videos last week on my YouTube channel about this.
I don't think grappling is the problem.
I think we, and I know, I understand that when I make this argument, I realize there
are a lot of people who disagree, including people who've been around the sport for a
long time.
But the answer to this problem already, the judges are told, I mean, grappling is funny.
BC grappling has in some ways never been more preeminent
and yet it is also
scored the least as it's ever been
scored in the history of MMA.
They have minimized what grappling
actually counts in the rules and yet
you still get this much of it. The problem
BC is not grappling, which won't go
away. The problem is
I saw everyone getting on Herb Dean
for telling Merab who was visibly fucking
stalling to do more and then they say things like well look how much he works overall which is true
that has nothing to do with whether or not he's working in those particular moments my point is
we need to do what one championship does empower the referees to demand more. There are limits to that. You can go too far with it, but
that's the only way
to consistently get
and drive more action.
It is what they do in collegiate and scholastic
wrestling. The referees
there will call it on your ass
super quickly.
That's a little much, I think, for MMA, but that's
the solution to the problem. I prefer brawls.
I prefer Bonner versus Griffin one, but I also really like skill.
And if these are guys that are dominant in these areas, it's up to the game to catch up.
It's up to the game to catch up and figure it out.
Here's the problem.
Here's the problem.
Why did GSP go from using the full breadth of his skills to just becoming a wrestler in the last 40% of his career. And the answer is when you take a fight down and you control the person
and you're especially from top position,
you reduce the amount of variables and chaos
that you have to account for
when you're just standing with a guy.
No doubt.
And so if that's always going to be the case,
you still have things to worry about,
but it's far fewer relatively speaking.
If that incentive structure is in place,
asking people to not
grapple is a waste of time giving referees the power to be like hey fucking do something with it
that is i mean you could say well i don't want to change the rules more because it's going to
change the way they fight they do that shit in the nba and the nfl they change all the rules
to increase have you seen the kickoffs this year what do you think of the new kickoff rule uh long
island luke in the in the nfl i'm not the biggest NFL fan, but I've noticed that it's weird.
They all stand still.
They've got to wait for the ball to be caught.
Yeah, and they start much closer so they don't have the same kinds of insane collisions.
And also, depending on where the ball lands will determine whether or not they run it back or not.
Remember that original XFL rule for the opening coin flip when they just, like, got on the ground?
They ran at it, and they both got Chris Benoit, CTE, doing that shit.
Wow, wow.
But what I'm trying to make is they tweak the rules all the time to either make it better for the players, better for the fans,
some kind of problem they're trying to solve.
We already have seen a blueprint for how this can work
with referees in another combat sport.
Oh, by the way, wrestling, this is what I love.
Wrestling, I've talked about this before, BC,
referees position
one hand around the waist
one hand behind the elbow
when they're down like this
on their knees and their hands
they don't allow you
to lock your hands there
in wrestling
because if you do
it's basically fucking impossible
to break
they want to allow that
in MMA
and then also
not allow the referee
to be like
yo fucking do something with it
I get it
yeah
do something with it
I just like when the referees
call you at home
if Keith Peterson calls you can you tell me what it smells like through the receiver,
please?
Hi, everybody.
It's Keith Peterson.
Please.
Sounds like.
Yeah.
Well, a lot of Dennis Leary.
I know it's my favorite go-to comedy special.
Actually, this is a Bill Hicks joke that Dennis Leary stole.
Which most of them were.
The youngins today, they don't know shit about Bill Hicks versus Dennis Leary.
They don't.
But I don't even think they know how good No Cure for Cancer still is.
Again, it's a lot of Bill Hicks material.
Bill Hicks was much better.
You know that, right?
I do know that.
But I still saw Dennis Leary once at ESPN and was too afraid to talk to him.
That was the only other time it happened was Daryl Strawberry.
Did you do coke with Daryl Strawberry?
No, but that's my guy.
I was too afraid.
I actually was like two.
Words did not come out.
You're a Mets guy, right?
Yeah, I was. But I don't really watch baseball anymore let's go to the next dm show
hey otani last week yeah dude i did i did man my buddy's paul severino the play-by-play voice of
the marlins got to call that historic night maybe the greatest single effort insane baseball player
since that time that lady with the big jugs morgana the kissing bandit came out and was like you just let them think yeah hey from dc.callaghan3 what were some of bc's highlights during his time in
dublin hope he got to practice that irish goodbye i think i did more of a lithuania goodbye on
ireland because i didn't see much did you uber eats when you were there i did uber eats the food
sucks in ireland yeah people are great candy's great um and i mean actual candy now i'm not
making cocaine references there uh i went out the first night for some drinks with the team and all that and i got
that taste of you know the dublin thing but dude this week became a it was a work week it was a
work week and and and i was uh i was focused i was a little nervous it was it was how much do
whores cost in dublin i don't have that information or that answer so i didn't get to see i know some
people were hoping to have like a bc meetup and like I said like we talked about earlier we'll you know
grab a mug I did get to get some Guinness on tap but I didn't go much further than that it was kind
of hard because I just got back from London and Paris and did the whole vacation things and now
it's like I'm more you know also people don't understand you're there to fucking work I'm there
to work and it's it's serious people always tell me like oh you go to Vegas for work a lot how does
that feel and I'm like I fucking hate every time I go.
It's the fucking worst.
That's how I feel about it.
But yeah, I didn't get to see a lot.
I went for a walk.
I did some things, but not too much.
I'd like to see more, Luke, when it comes to Ireland of the countryside.
I'll go to that place where they filmed that Star Wars movie when Luke was an old piece.
Chuck the lightsaber?
Yeah, I'd like to go there.
I'd like to check that out.
I know you.
Like, where are the whores?
Stop that.
The people are awesome, though.
The crowd was insane.
Yeah, I really enjoyed it.
How was the Guinness on tap in Ireland?
So it was really good.
It's way better than I've ever had here.
But I have to say it wasn't like, oh, my God, let me get nine of these.
Listen, they eat dog food over there.
All right?
I mean, they just don't know what they're talking about.
So it is better.
It is different.
But they act like it's some kind of fucking miracle of science that when they have one,
I'm like, it's a tasty beer.
It's nothing special.
It's nothing special.
The Irish fighters were fun to interview.
Yes.
It's a good thing.
The Irish are great people.
I will certainly say that.
They really are.
So I hope to get a chance to go back.
They eat dog food, but they're nice people. I'm not ready to attack Europe. Too bad it's a good the irish are great people i will certainly say they are so i hope to get a chance to go back they eat dog food but they're nice people i'm not ready to attack
europe too bad it's so expensive but like you know going europe's not expensive europe is much
cheaper than the united states well i mean if you're gonna go fly to like italy or something
you know you're gonna pay it's a big it's a big trip it's not just like the dollar is strong right
now really strong okay okay no it's true like a buddy of mine just moved to spain like you can
survive in spain with a decent life on 30 35k okay switzerland's true like a buddy of mine just moved to spain like you can survive in spain
with a decent life on 30 35k okay switzerland's a little bit different but in general just big
swaths of europe that are much cheaper than you did you have you visited most of europe in your
time i have visited most of europe yeah all right well i mean i've not been to places like romania
you know but okay have you tried the sex trade i have have not, but I really should. Yeah, you really should.
You got any more of them shits, Chin?
What do you got here?
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
I heard that.
You fucking dope.
By the way, shout out to Chin.
He can sing.
You ever listen to Chin?
He can sing, dude.
I have not heard him sing, no.
He's like, seriously, like panties just falling off left and right.
You know what I mean?
I bet yours were.
From at Flannels and jets midgets uh what
are the top five fights we never got to see in mma and so couture versus fedor brock versus fedor
got to be two big ones for sure uh yes francis versus john francis versus john tom versus john
tom versus john would you put gsp versus anderson i would as just a super fight so there was that
window yes i do think that they should have made it the big problem for folks who didn't live through Tom versus John's another one. Would you put GSP versus Anderson? I would, as just a super fight. There was that window.
Yes, I do think that they should have made it.
The big problem for folks who didn't live through that era was that they never could really come to a...
Anderson was always like, I'll cut the weight,
but then UFC was like, we don't want you to.
They could never really come to a consensus on weight class,
which is why when, like,
this is why people call GSP a little bit of an opportunist,
because he was like, yeah, I don't want to cut down,
or, you know, if Silva cuts down, it's not going to make sense
and I don't really want to go to 185. And then
he waits a little bit. And then Bizchick's champ.
And then he goes to 185 and then he's like,
okay, I'm done. You know what I mean? So it's kind of like
it would have been an event. I think it would
have been the perfect event to showcase the star
power in UFC and get everyone's attention. That's another
big one. You never got Kid Yamamoto
versus Uriah Faber, which was another big one at the time.
Yes, true.
There's a bunch you never got.
There's a bunch.
That is true.
We never got Rose Whaley III,
but I seem to be the only one that cares about that.
Hold on.
What were you going to say?
Tony and Habib.
Tony and Habib, of course.
Tony and Habib is probably the number one answer,
and we just completely looked past it
as if it never happened.
That's an obvious one, too.
Tony Habib is...
Okay, Randy Fedor is the number one answer. I think Brock Fedor is the number one answer
I think Brock Fedor
is the number one answer what do you think
well Brock Fedor is a creative fight but Randy Fedor
needed to happen yeah but they almost got close
to it they got close to it
I know
I think from like a casual
fan standpoint Brock Fedor
in boxing we're talking about Riddick Bowe
versus Lennox Lewis the big one right there they in the Olympics, both through the thing in the trash
to avoid having to fight him as a pro.
A lot of people would have loved Sugar Ray Leonard versus,
not Alexa, against Aaron Pryor.
But there was really never a window for that one to work.
There's a bunch of fights you could have made with Salvador Sanchez,
but he was killed.
Yeah, for sure.
I think, well, some people think, you know, Edwin valero had a benoit like exit unfortunately but like he
was getting set up to fight pacquiao and that was seriously a matchup that that uh and also we're
going to talk about fury aj if they don't ever fight but i think they will i really think they
did get floyd manny but you got it kind of late you did get it kind of late you did yeah i mean
boxing you're gonna have a lot more scenarios where we can go each division by division and be like,
man, we should have gotten that or gotten so much more.
MMA does have a good track record.
Seriously, it does have a very good track record.
But they also control the show.
Yeah, they control the whole thing.
I think that's it, right?
No, no, there's a couple more, I think.
Okay, from at rhoopaa420.
That's a person who does a lot of drugs.
Well, this question looks like it.
50 hawksks 10 crocodiles
3 brown bears 15 wolves 1 hunter 7 cape buffalo 10 000 rats 5 gorillas and 4 lions you must pick
two that will defend you while the rest are coming to kill you which two do you pick and why this is
the worst question it's a terrible question but i think've got to go with both volume and you've got to go with grunt power.
Okay, the five gorillas are going to tear up groups of those other animals.
I'm not so sure about that.
I have...
Oh, the brown bears are tough.
So, exactly, the bears, to me.
One time I did this, who would win?
I had a debate with Dan Hardy who would win, a gorilla or a bear.
And then an anthropologist weighed in and was like the bear would smash them to pieces.
But you only get three of them.
See, I'm so not into animals killing each other on tape.
I know there's like a whole genre of that for people
that love to like eat steaks while watching animals.
If you want to watch people
shoot people in liquor stores
or you want to watch animals come to
violent conclusions, Twitter's a great place for you.
Oh yeah, yeah. I used to
watch bum fights you
know back in the year early 2000s guys would like break their ankles and they'd pay him with like a
40 ounce and that was really sad i watched faces of death as a kid you know those are not real
those are staged i like to believe that they were i'm gonna go with i'm gonna go with uh 15 wolves
and probably 15 of them but there's a lot of wolves, bro.
You ever seen how big a wolf is? Dude, a gorilla would destroy a bunch of wolves, right?
I don't know about that.
I don't know about that.
This show sucks.
By the way, all the New Yorkers in the back were all like,
yo, 10,000 rats.
I'm like, hey, listen, I know that's what you experience on the subway,
but that doesn't mean it's a great answer, okay?
Hey, Ken's back from Amsterdam, our sound guy.
Ken, are you still high?
He says yes.
Yes.
Do you think he entertained women of the night or did we just break a friendship off?
Buddy, I'm telling you, you go to the red light district, there's little red lights on the street.
I've heard, yeah.
And the doers who stand in the window make eye contact with you and they watch you and then wave and shit.
It's like, Ken, am I lying?
Did you go to red light district?
He said yeah. Yeah. Dude, they make eye contact with you and then they look at you and shit it's like ken am i lying did you go to red light district he said yeah yeah dude they
make eye contact with you and then they look at you and shit and i was like it's a little it's a
little disarming yeah they want you to pay to dude i've had two friends well i guess they were both
marines one was army one was not i've had two friends who found a site that where porn stars do
like uh prostitution on the side and you can
go and bang some of your favorite porn stars
this is a real two of them did it two of them
did it
and one of the ones that they did it on the one that
was in the army like the porn star that he banged
I'll just put
it this quite mildly not my type
not my type at all I'll tell you who it is
not your type at all
let's transition from this awkwardness to even more awkwardness
where I scoured the globe Sunday for the highs, lows, good, bad,
good, between, from the combo sports world and beyond.
It's called Have You Seen the Shit?
Hey, it was Dubois versus Joshua in London.
Did you watch? Here's your pick of the week from Richard Pelham of Getty Images.
Damn.
That's how BC likes his prom dates.
Wow.
Ass up, face down.
A good roofie joke to kick it off.
I didn't say roofies.
I just said ass up, face down.
That's a great shot, dude.
That's the reality of what happened right there.
Holy shit.
I know, dude.
Dude, this is a brutal fucking sport.
He took that loss so much better than I thought he would.
I thought he'd be done and never hear from him again.
I love how the story you took was like he lost with grace.
And I'm like, yeah, but he lost real bad.
He did.
Luke, as you would always say, nightmare blunt rotation.
This time it's Saudi style.
What do you got here, Luke?
Look at this power shot.
Well, Terrence Crawford I like a lot,
and Usyk's cool, but Jesus.
What about the director, Guy Ritchie?
That's him?
That's Guy Ritchie?
Yes, yes it is.
He's been eating some English gravy.
What do you think about old Connor
showing up with the cigar?
He seems annoying.
Does he not?
He seems like, you know what he seems like?
A close talker. Yes. That's what he you know what he seems like? A close talker.
Yes.
That's what he seems like.
He seems like a very close talker.
We got Conor losing his shiat during this AJ finish.
Okay, in fairness, so was I.
Now, that's the end of the first.
That's the end of the first.
In fairness, I was also like, holy shit.
Like, Conor's a fight fan.
He's annoying, but he's a fight fan.
I like Conor still, even though he...
Dude, I asked everybody in Ireland just to confirm. I like you. he's annoying but he's a fight fan i like connor still even though he dude i asked everybody in ireland i like you you're annoying just to confirm the whole idea that
like ireland hates connor dude every single person's like f that pos are you serious i'm
not even joking every single person was like used to love him now since the rape allegations you
know no way like it was it was wild but that's how it goes. Luke Usyk got to meet Connor shortly after that picture was taken.
Let's listen in.
My bear.
See you, my bear.
Usyk, put that.
You got your hand on me.
Bear knuckle, my bear, October 12th.
See you there, yeah?
Come on.
He's great, Connor.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Crazy man.
Look, look, look.
He's great.
Usyk is the man.
He's great, isn't he?
What a character.
Dude, Usyk is the fucking man.
I love Usyk.
And then Fury came up to Usyk after the finish and gave him his flowers,
even though they'll be rematching soon.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
That's it.
That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. even though they'll be rematching soon.
The internet would add that he also taught Fury a proper boxing lesson. Let me ask you a question about the Brits.
What is worse about them?
The history of colonialism and oppression and imperialism?
Or their teeth.
Or their teeth.
Or, more importantly, singing Sweet Caroline.
Hey, they played that before Callum Walsh's Walk.
I don't understand what's wrong.
It's the colonial imperialism of songs.
Please stop fucking doing that.
Please, for the love of God.
That and Face the pain is gonna linger and
and taunt you and how do people end up choosing as anthems the obviously worst fucking songs that
have ever it would be a lot easier to have this debate with you if your favorite band wasn't
i don't think those songs should be anthems how is this hard to understand this brought up a quick
throwback video i don don't remember this.
Apparently, after Usyk knocked out Dubois,
he had this moment with him.
Watch this.
It's not that.
It's boxing.
It's not ballet.
It's not dancing.
Daniel, you young.
You can.
You can dream.
Man, relax. Man can dream. Man.
Relax, man.
It's not sports.
Brother.
Dude, I got chills the first time I just saw that yesterday.
That was awesome.
That's pretty cool.
Pretty cool.
He doesn't fail.
Like, he tends to be cool at all turns.
He seems to have a cheat code for life.
All right.
Well, Luke, we're going to need a bigger boat for these next few clips.
Do you like when...
Got some big old...
When things from the sea attack?
Ooh, fucking shit!
Shamu just took out that fishing boat.
Wow.
Have you seen all of these orca that are, like, capsizing ships off the coast of Spain?
I have not seen that.
Dude, the pods are teaching other pods how to take out fucking ships.
So much for your cost of living argument.
Well, I mean, if you've got a boat, it's a little different.
All right, watch this dolphin.
That's not a dolphin.
That's a fucking shark.
Holy shit, though.
Good Lord.
A lot of freaking out on that boat.
Good Lord.
Sorry, I misplaced it.
Here's the dolphin I was talking about.
Watch this body check
like he's Brian Campbell
take that bitch
suck a dick up to your hiccup
Luke do you ever bowl anymore
I took tuki bowling it's expensive these days
really
150 bucks for me the wife and the kid to go bowling
no 150 okay this must be the DC
$80 haircut thing
I'll even say which place I went to.
Bolero? Let me guess, the customer service
was just, you know, just pissed off.
Oh, fuck about you, yeah. Dude, why do you pay
so much for basic things? Who pays $100
for a haircut? Who goes $150
for bowling? Dude, I didn't even drink any beer.
Like, what do you want me to fucking say?
You should get a reach around for $150.
Robert Clough?
At the Robert Clough Alley. I mean, come on.
Let's check out this bowling prank.
Oh!
He dropped it on his foot. As my wife says,
castigo divino. Oh, yeah.
Castigo divino, mother effer. What does that mean,
Luke? Essentially, like, you
got what you deserve. You're damn right. That's not how it translates,
but that's what it means. Luke, it's rare that I bring back clips
to put them in the Have You Seen This Shit Hall of Fame,
but everyone keeps sending this to me as if we
didn't play it on the show. They do that all the time. The hardcore
fans are like, BC, you gotta put this on the show. I'm like,
it was on two weeks ago. Do you not watch?
But this one from Goggins is great.
I like to get a bunch of men together.
Men.
That are the hardest of the hard.
And I want to be with these men.
Listen,
uh,
each his own.
All right,
look,
we haven't done this in a while.
Would you eat,
would you eat this Mac and chicken fries?
So crinkle fries,
nacho cheese,
Mac and cheese, fried chicken with more aioli.
I'd give it a couple bites.
I'd go after it.
I mean, that's like a big Z at the frat house.
You're not going to tell a lot of people that you did it, but you're going to.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah, maybe.
Elsewhere in boxing this week, Jaime Mungu, back for the first time since losing to Canelo.
By the way, if that was British,
they would have put banana peels and cigarette butts in it.
Probably.
He would end up getting the finish here against Eric Bazinian
in his first fight with Top Rank.
So actually, I watched the first five rounds of this fight live,
and Munguia was losing this fight.
But superior firepower.
Yes.
Brought it.
Had a good finish right there.
Luke, we got a moment on this ESPN undercard that you don't see too often.
The trainer interview mid-round.
Watch what happens.
I hate these.
You got to walk into it.
There you go.
Ooh!
He walked into it all right.
So that was her fighter.
Coach being interviewed.
Dude, I hate the fucking middle of the fight.
Leave the cornermen and the trainers the fuck alone.
I think it's good after a fighter that was supposed to win is suddenly in trouble, gets knocked down.
You go to the corner afterwards or something like that.
I think there's some value in that.
Dude, I would say this.
Of all the interviews you can get during the course of a fight, these ones have the greatest capacity for disaster.
All right.
There's a fun Southpaw heavyweight from Ireland who was on this kalamosh undercard named thomas cardi he his catchphrase is
no cardi no party and all right i like him already joshua and fury brought him in to mimic
usik he's a big south quick southpaw listen to the sound of this body shot he landed he's doing
the right thing he's closing the distance there was yelling at a barricado oh wicked body shot he landed. He's doing the right thing. He's closing the distance. There was yelling at him.
Oh!
Wicked body shot!
The crazy thing was
that didn't finish him.
He would go on to knock
that same dude down again
with a body shot
and then finish him off
with a left cross.
Shouts to the guy for getting up.
But that big Irish boy
is not to be fucked with.
T-shirt of the week, Luke.
You're going to identify with this.
Thank God for Latina women.
I love Latina.
This guy might have a bit of an issue.
Luke, nothing quite goes together like golf and flatulence.
Would you agree?
I don't play golf.
Oh, that's a nice ball right there.
Nice ball.
Nice spot.
Thank you.
Tap it in.
Tap, tap, tap-a-roo.
This is the worst show in America. It it really is let's keep it going on
this theme got that kimbo slice off the tea right there wow that is great that is great i didn't
know farting and golf had such a relationship and now i appreciate the sport more i know you've
heard of two girls one cup because you tried to trap me in that debacle.
BC still won't watch it.
He's a fucking, you're just a fucking puss.
Have you ever seen two ladies, one staircase?
God.
Oh, oh, oh, bitch.
Oh.
Good lord.
Dude, I could see how the first one just kind of trips,
but then the second one.
Oh, damn. Let's watch this scientific experiment. Dude, I could see how the first one just kind of trips, but then the second one.
Damn.
Let's watch this scientific experiment.
Metals aren't the only thing that expand when heated.
In fact, heat causes almost everything to expand. You're trying to heat up his cock to get it wider is that the whole i think so luke
all right let's keep it going that's the bit let's keep it going oh i hit the post
oh if it would work i just hit the pentagon mom i'm being serious i'm looking at it right
luke it's time to rate that tat.
Are you shitting me?
Oh, boy.
Somebody's got that on their skin.
That's something.
They've got 9-11 skits and bits on their skin.
Luke, a lot of people think the 9-11 content on this show is too... That was a crazy fuck.
People have no fucking idea.
That's one of the craziest days of my life.
Yes.
They think it's too morbid for the show, and they're probably right.
So why don't we honor the dead instead,
right?
Take that, Grandpa.
Right?
I think I sent
this one to you. You did send it to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was great. That was fucking awesome. They didn't stop honoring
the dead with skateboarding. Let's go to the soccer pitch.
Can we, what should we recreate at your funeral, Luke? the dead with skateboarding. Let's go to the soccer pitch. What should
we recreate at your funeral, Luke?
Put the headphones around
the casket? They're just kicking the ball around
outside of an open casket? They're going to pass it to him
one more time. Oh, nice deflection.
Oh, and he fucking scores.
Yeah, is that an honor or is that embarrassing?
I don't know.
Those are poor people. Yeah, okay. Let's keep the that embarrassing? I don't know. That is, uh, that's, those are poor people.
Yeah, okay.
Those are poor people.
Let's keep the show going.
We're almost done.
Scaring my little brother with this confetti cannon.
Let's go.
That's a good one.
That is fucking great.
Let's see this one, too.
Hey, seriously, if you just tell me whose
this is i'm not gonna be upset i'm telling you it's not mine i can't see what it is it's a hair tie oh
sorry uh let's keep it going here all right we're almost done yep yep uh yeah Almost done. Yep, yep. Yeah. All right, fella. You may have had one too many.
Wow.
That's BC and Ireland.
Luke, you know what they used to say about me in my prime?
That I had a snake in my pants.
Okay.
What the ever living fuck is that?
Still going.
Look at Sofretti over there.
Where is this? I hope to never go.
It's definitely Columbia.
No.
Still going.
Guy's got a python.
Dude, this is disturbing.
That's the shit of the week I hope you saw.
I gotta pee my pants really bad. There's not nearly enough
elder abuse in this. I'll have to go back
to the well and dig it up, you know.
Let's remind everyone, BC, our big announcement today, back two times a week.
Now, we're saying October.
That's not saying October 1st.
I'm going to be very clear about that.
I'm pushing for October 1st.
We're pushing for the very first, but we have to be a little bit careful about that
because there are a little bit of logistics, some T's and I's that have to get crossed and dotted.
So it will be certainly in the month of October.
But the specific date, TBD.
TBD.
We are coming back twice a week.
Monday here in the studio.
Where's the hip-hop horn, jerk-off?
There we go.
Monday in the studio here at Metal Ark in Manhattan, as always.
Fridays from home, like back in the day.
Trying to get back in your life.
Thank you for your patience.
Long Island Luke, you got anything to plug?
Besides your butt?
Yeah. No no not that
main card minute. Everyone go check
it out. New bet breakdown coming out in
about an hour. There it is. Thanks
to you good people. I'm sure the Luke Thomas
channel has plenty of great content
this week Luke. Just check out
my breakdown on Dubois
and Joshua. Dubois fought really
well. There it is. Wump there it is. Thank you
so much for tuning in. Like and and subscribe go to morningcombat.store for more merch options there are our social
handles thank you to Ken our sound guy for coming back get some sleep fucker you look
I look washed you look drained bro I'm excited to there was no weights in the weight room in
Dublin at the hotel it's just calisthenics bro you have to prison that shit I'm I want to you
know I got a little got a little. I want to get after it.
I want to get after it.
Well, the good news is I have diarrhea.
All right.
For Luke's Flatulence, my name is BC.
Keep your head up, guys, okay?
Good things are about to happen to all of us, all right?
Believe.
Just believe.
I got to pee my pants.
We're out of here.
Conceive, believe, achieve.
I got to go sneeze.
We're out.