MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Dustin Poirier Speaks | Amanda Nunes | UFC Paris | UFC Fight Night 206 | Ep. 303

Episode Date: May 20, 2022

On Episode 303 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian break down the latest news in the combat sports world. The guys start by breaking down Dustin Poirier's comments about a potential Colby Covington fight. They boys also discuss Amanda Nunes' reasons for leaving ATT. UFC announced that they will have their first ever event in Paris on September 3rd. The boys also preview UFC Fight Night: Holm vs. Vieira and David Benavidez vs. David Lemieux. They guys close out this Friday's episode with some dead wrongs and fan submissions. (12:40) - Dustin Poirier Speaks (27:45) - Nunes Details Leaving ATT (38:10) - PFL 50/50 Split (68:40) - UFC Fight Night 206 Preview (95:00) - Quick Hitters Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveley, reveveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. oh yeah you found us the best damn combat sports show

period this is morning combat welcome on in it is friday time for the art may 20th 2022 i'm bc that uh american alpha right the beige guy that just keeps going. It just goes, right? And that's my teammate, though, right there. You're looking at him. That's my quarterback, okay? He's the best damn fight analyst in the game today who's never actually fought. Not a lover or a fighter, actually.

He's just existing. It's Luke Thompson. Just a hater. Just a hater. BC, I got to say, I don't know if it's the screen I'm looking at or if something is happening internally. You look very, it's a mix between red and tan. Like, I can definitely tell you've been outside,

but I also can't tell if you're dying. What's going on? Yeah, this little rock lobster. It's actually very manly, Luke. I've resumed the, you know, peak prime pandemic, how I dealt with my angst was not necessarily uh through emo records although that's you know hey your dashboard my confessional whatever you got luke but uh i i went back to splitting wood okay you know what i'm saying luke all right you got did

you wear gloves i did i wore gloves glasses i had the headphones in listening to the first rage album luke so i was killing that wood in the name of you know what i'm saying so luke in fact fuck you i won't do what you tell me all right i mean you know fuck you right i won't do what you tell me some some of those who are from connecticut are also those who uh wear hoods or that's not. Whoa, whoa, wait. Let me not agree to that. We got a great show for you today. Setting the stage for your fight weekend UFC fight night. Holly Holm is back. Showtime Championship Boxing.

We're talking about David Benavidez. We got some big news to react to. We'll play a little dead wrong and fan subs. So you got a little bit of the good, the bad. Maybe a bit of the ugly. Luke, this is an award-winning show, and we have to thank our great fans to do

that for that. 109,000 strong on YouTube, couldn't be wrong, but either way, if you're new here, you can like us, you can follow us on social, but please subscribe on YouTube. If you're listening to us on audio only, drop a little review, a little five star, if you will. All that shit goes a long way, and I think you know that at the end of the day.

Luke, do you have anything to say about our fantastic Morning Combat merch that I'm wearing? None at the moment, but I have so much. I got so much. All right. Do I have anything to say about it? Yes, you can get it at morningcombat.store, and it's nice, and you should buy it. And if you live abroad,

well, congratulations on that, first of all. Dad, here we go. Get in the Volkswagen. Dad's telling jokes. At morningcombat.store. For the first time, we have flat-rate international shipping, Luke. Okay, right? You know what I'm saying?

Flat as a board and easy to screw. Is that what they used to say, Luke? Dude, I don't know who you talked to up until the age of 16, but they did not make you smarter. I can tell you that. Yeah, that would be a thank you to my hometown for that one. Luke, how are you doing? You know, I never do a wellness check on you. I always just assume that you're angry. How's life, bro?

A bit of a rough week with the illness, but I feel significantly better today than I have in a long time. My daughter is sleeping great, so I've slept better of late. I'm okay, dude. I'm okay. I could be better, but I'm okay. How about you you know luke i live my life uh a quarter mile at a time uh you know uh both fast and furious in my part so i'm getting by look i'm trying my best okay that's all we can do look some days

that's all you can do is show up okay i just want you are you are you are you what is this is this the flu game like are you are you saying you are you what is this is this the flu game like are you are you saying you're not feeling great you know this isn't like the friday's gonna be a terrible show what are you saying like goodwill hunting i'm just saying it's not your fault luke okay that's all i'm saying hey what was your favorite part of our glover to share interview the part where he tells us he plans on fighting a lot more or the part where he did a podcast right after and told him he was retiring this year. All right. Well, that got some headlines.

But speaking of, YouTube.com slash Morning Combat is your home for this show and all of our bonus shit, including the launch this week on Wednesday of our new interview series. Yes, it's the 2.0 variety Room Service Diaries, Episode 1, your light heavyweight champion of the world, UFC and Connecticut's own Glover Teixeira. Encourage you, if you haven't, to check that out. Even if you're not an interview guy, seriously, it's going to be one of those where you go, oh, damn, I didn't really know Glover on that level.

Well, now you do. Luke, there was a little bit of a new Coke reaction from our P1s in terms of, like, you changed the flavor of our crack? And, you know, do you have anything to say to those hardcores, Luke? I mean, I don't think that they're necessarily wrong. We did change it up this week a little bit. We're still trying to figure out what the right things are.

Listen, you've got to innovate in this space. So what we don't want to do is take away the stuff that everybody likes we got to keep that but what we are trying to figure out a way to do and there's still a lot more experimentation involved is let's give you also something new right that you can get you can get coca-cola and then also like crystal pepsi we'll give you both of those at the same time dude i was real into uh sevenUp Gold in the late 80s. Did you like that, Luke? Sorry, you said you were into drinking urine in the 70s?

It was like a cola-flavored 7-Up. It was interesting. You know what? I'll say this. I didn't actually mind Crystal Pepsi because it was a little lemon limey. I wasn't drinking it to be like, oh, this is Pepsi with the color taken out of it or whatever it wasn't that it was like oh is this an alternative to like sprite or something uh but then snl came out with the crystal gravy thing it was over after that did you try the new um pepsi on nitro luke

i've had the coca-cola one that's like half coffee, like literally half coffee, half soda. This is not that. And it is feces. This is brewed in the new hipster way of taking like an English stout and brewing it on nitro so it's like extra creamy. Oh, so it's smooth? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, have I tried the Coca-Cola version of that? No, I have not. Is is it good i had the pepsi one it's fantastic but i'm not really into that that's just me talking to my ass you know what i am into luke is our our partners and our in this game okay i i you know i'm not only a mason jar drinking ag1 customer i'm also a client luke uh athletic greens by the way will give you right now a free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D and the five free travel packs with your first purchase. Please head on over to athleticgreens.com slash morningcombat. Luke, that's just one of our fantastic partners.

Do you have anything nice to say about AG1? They're great. You should get their products, and you should do it at athleticgreens.com slash morningcombat. It is is truly we make a little bit of jokes about it but like truly we both use it we both like it we literally both recommend it there's nothing there's nothing else we could say beyond the fact that we make it a part of our lives and and since then yeah mikey i know that and since then um way, you know, my skin's gotten tanner. I've been happier and skinnier.

But, you know, I don't know if that's AG1's fault. But, Luke, speaking of our sponsors, I want to tell you a little bit about VPN. Because, Luke, I don't know if you know this, but VPN is great for security and privacy by hiding your IP address and encrypting your traffic. So it secures your data from cyber attacks. But the problem is often the protection can be limited with these mofos, Luke, but not our partner, NordVPN, not them. No, not them. NordVPN, here's another one. I was a customer before they even sponsored the show. So you can believe me when I say that they are my go-to for VPNs. Of course, they have a brand new feature to the desktop apps,

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course how about this for your first topic of the week dustin poirier has spoken. Yes, Luke, the former interim UFC lightweight champion who had wanted to be fighting Nate Diaz right now, but the company didn't follow him in that aspirations, chatted with one Ariel Hawane and seems to now be focusing on a potential pay-per-view bout this year with Colby Covington. The exact quote here is, I don't hate anyone, but if there was a line right before hate Colby standing right there, I really disliked the guy. I've been saying, I don't want him to make a dollar off of fighting me, but they offered me him last week, meaning the UFC. Of course it was either wait to the end of the year and fight a number one contender at lightweight or fight in July. And that was the name they gave me.

So I was like, fuck it. End quote. Luke, here's how I want to pitch this to you, because Dustin Poirier made a very important decision in 2021, deciding twice to chase the pay-per-view money of Conor McGregor over that of the world title. And of course, Charles Oliveira won the vacant crown. And then when Dustin came back to challenge Charles, he came up empty in yet another Oliveira finish. This seems to be a somewhat similar dilemma where UFC saying, look, you want to come back.

I'm only going to guess they said, here's Islam Mahachev, or you can pay-per-view dance with Colby for some big bucks. So get over your hatred of him and go cash in, Luke. Does that seem like a realistic presentation there? I still don't understand what you were saying about Islam. How do you think he fits into the Dustin Poirier sweepstakes? Because Dustin said it was either wait until the end of the year

or fight a number one contender. But wouldn't that be like Benil Darius or something? I mean, it could be anybody i'm sort of looking at the division landscape as a whole and saying you know what would make the most sense for him if that's the lane he wants to be in luke it seems ever since the lost olive era that the lane he wants to be in is the super fight lane so in that regard decision making best practices is colby the right move for him right now? I,

it's hard to know what the right move is for him. If I don't know what he wants out of the stage in his career, if he wants to keep going down this Conor McGregor path, which of course you can't fight Conor again, not right now, but you know, fight names in big fights that aren't really a function of whether or not you're in the title race, although could have title implications depending on fan sentiment, but that's what it really speaks to is let's do

fights that really address or meet or somehow satisfy fan sentiment or, you know, just two big stars or guys with decent names anyway, um, battling it out. I think this is a terrible fight for Dustin Poirier. I have deep admiration for Dustin Poirier. I admire his skills. I respect what he's done in the game. I respect what he's done as a man. I respect what he's done as a something of a philanthropist in his home community. Dustin Poirier, from what I know of him, is impossible to either dislike or impossible to not respect. But we do have to be clear-eyed about the realities of this matchup. Yes, Colby does have a name. Okay, that's fine.

But dude, and yes, Poirier is a bigger 155 than a lot of other 155ers. So I don't think 170 is by any means out of the question. But if his own coach is telling him it's probably a bad idea, and Mike Thomas Brown apparently did that, it's worth listening to. This is a very bad fight for him. It's not that he couldn't win, but the biggest feature of his game that could be overwhelmed is defensive wrestling, which I don't think his defensive wrestling is bad,

but I don't think it's enough for Colby. And if Colby can just go back to that, what would be the realistic mechanism by which you could see Dustin getting a clear KO on a guy who has not been KO'd and up a weight class Dustin is heavy-handed of course we know that as well but it's just a terrible fight for him it's not it's not really it's not really winnable in any kind of meaningful sense it's a bad style matchup it seems to be sold upon the idea that okay it's two big stars who were ex-teammates it's like well we kind of just did that with the Jorge situation right so we're gonna go down that road again and then if you look deeper on these quotes

Dustin doesn't even want to fight Colby right now in fact the exact quote here is I'm kind of pissed at myself for saying I do it not that I'm worried about the guy or his skill set. It's that I don't want the fucking guy to prosper because I said yes to a fight with him. I don't want him to make a dollar off of anything I've done, period. But you get a glass of whiskey and you, they call you a couple of days before shit happens and then you fight. So fuck it. End quote. Luke, the major problem with me here, this is not a fight that makes sense for Borea. He's telling you he doesn't want it, but he's telling you that number three

because, Luke, he says the UFC is going to make him wait until the end of the year. He last fought in December against Oliveira and lost. He wants to come back sooner. He's, you know, whatever's left of his prime is getting shorter here. Why is the UFC going to make him wait unless he accepts this why are we here is this still all connected this is puzzling this is yeah dude this is so

silly to me it's like you have Nate Diaz out there being like please give me a fight you have Dustin Poirier out there being like please give me me a fight. They have made that fight before. Now it all fell through. We don't, we know the story there, but they have made that fight before to the point where they had a press conference and a face off about it. And now we can't get it because we don't know.

But our best guess is that the UFC either wants to act punitively as Nate Diaz exits or, you know, squeeze one last big fight out of him slash not give him the fight that he... I should say, not the fight that he doesn't want, the timeline that he doesn't want because they're having a pissing contest. This is what I mean about imbalance in the industry.

The UFC does, I would say, mostly a very, very, very good job of making sure that they're giving fights, the fans the fights that they want. Here's a clear-cut case where they are not, dude. Here's a very clear-cut case where they are going around what is the most obvious choice here, which, by the way, would hardly be a small fight. I mean, Poirier versus Diaz, that's a big fight

and a competitive fight, quite frankly. Dude, Diaz versus Poirier is infinitely more competitive than Poirier versus Colby. Like, this is not even a contest in that, in that regard. And so, you know, you're just playing games here to, to like not give these guys the things that make the most sense because it makes more sense for them to act in whatever mechanism they want for the Nate. This, it all ties back to Diaz and Connor kind of like messing with the way this division

should work. And it's not really working out for the fighters in this particular case, these ones anyway, and certainly not for the fans on the short term. I guess if they can make the long-term fights, there's a broader debate about that. Yeah, to paraphrase what Dustin went on to say was, Colby knows the history of us sparring. I'm not a spar and tell type guy,

but Colby had success riding me and holding me down for rounds, and I had success doing what I do on the flip side. And I had, you know, success doing what I do on the flip side. But again, another troubling quote here is I don't want my family to go through this Poirier said, but I also want to fight. Give me a fight. So Luke, he obviously understands that when you fight Colby Covington, it's a, it's a shit storm of trash talking BS, you know, Poirier's wife's going to get involved. There's, you know, his child's going to get involved there's you know his child's going to get named I don't think there's enough of an instant commercial demand for this like look would anybody turn down these two stars no of course not but it just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense so Luke but hold on can we can we ask one question here about Colby I mean the guy in in

in his legal defense team has claimed that he suffered as a result of the alleged incident with jorge maslow well the incident took place but alleged that jorge is involved that he has brain trauma from it now how on earth do you claim that and then take a fight even at 155 or sorry even with a 155 or up a weight class at one how do you take a fight at all how do you take a fight at all if you have claimed that in court? So, like, we're hand-wringing over this, but I got to tell you, I don't, dude, there's no way he takes this fight, right? I don't know.

I mean, if you're Colby and you're looking around going, what's my payday right now? What's my payday? That may be his best option. Dustin's straight up telling you that's my only option, to not have to sit idle and then fight a number one contender who i don't want look it looks to me that poirier has made the firm decision of i'm not chasing the title anymore i'm chasing you know the paydays so

i get if you're saying if you're if you're colby and you take this doesn't this completely blow up your case with jorge yeah yeah it should i don't think he believes that firmly in that case to begin with, though, Luke, to be fair with you. I mean, look, it's all you're right, but you're adding more wrinkles onto why this is a puzzling and weird decision. It seems to be against what UFC normally does. Sometimes I think we argue for them more often to do pay-per-view non-title sort of fun fantasy matchmaking that they don't tend to do because they don't need to do that.

The rankings playing out tends to be entertaining enough right for the most part uh but luke is there another if it couldn't be nate for whatever reason and obviously dustin's saying he doesn't want colby if it's not going to be islam or benil or him getting back in line at 155 is there anyone else that he could be that he could make a one-off pay-per-view bout with that would move you basically this is my way of saying fuck it if he if this is the road he's going why not fight Usman for the damn welterweight title right now right like like what what else would it be if if it can't be either of these guys okay so and we're assuming that the Diaz choice is not in play right well I guess there's Nick Diaz, right?

I mean, there's that. You could fight Nick Diaz. Dustin Poirier versus Nick Diaz. That's kind of a weird-ass fight, but I guess you could do it. It's there. So at 150 or 170, I guess you could do Gilbert Burns. That's a thing you could do because Burns also appears to have turned that corner after the Hamzat fight. That was a tough-ass fight too, dude. Dude, it's a thing you could do because Burns also appears to have turned that corner like after the Humsop fight.

That was a tough-ass fight too, dude. Dude, it's a crazy... Gilbert's ability to choke from the back is not to be trifled with. So yes, of course. But of course, if he wants to slug it out with Dustin, and he came up from 155 before anyway, remember that? He used to be a 155 or two. Now he's a 170er.

That's a thing you could do. Sean Brady would be a terrible fight for Dustin Poirier as well. I wouldn take that but um yeah but you know what I'm saying like yeah there's a couple of different ways you could go Gilbert Burns versus Dustin Poirier again if Gilbert makes it a wrestling match and then you know choke to the back fight that's a terrible fight for Dustin but if he wants to you know shake it up a little bit and give the fans something that's a really uh competitive fight or I should say a reasonably competitive fight so that would be a fun choice we're forgetting one name who who tends to bleed over multiple categories the bmf category the legitimate title shot category and that's one michael chandler chandler now everybody would didn't chandler

say he didn't want it okay yeah i'm gonna get into it don't give me that dirty look see that's what i don't like you gave me that dirty look like oh yeah chandler dude chandler versus poirier is like the one fight in all of those guys fighting each other that we didn't get right like that's sort of like let's get closure on that group of you know gaethje jorge and all those guys in and around this not jorge but you get my point all those guys that have all fought each other right the only ones that really haven't in some ways are these two two. Now, I think it was Poirier who said first he didn't want it, and then Chandler kind of clapped back

and said, because you said that, I don't want to fight. I don't know, Luke. All I know is Michael Chandler seems to be only wanting to do things that please Dana White these days, in every category, it seems, if you read all of his quotes. I'm a little surprised why this wouldn't be more to the UFC's liking a Chandler Poirier fight under all these circumstances and conditions when they're in the same division.

And to be fair, whoever would win that could get some pretty secure placement in this larger title picture. Right. I mean, like you could you could you could cut lines getting a win that big um i it just it's it's still to me the same draw that a covington poirier fight would be it really is i know okay maybe colby can talk talk you into more pay-per-view buys doing the ridiculous shit but that just seems seems to be more pressing and i know you said didn't chandler say he didn't want it yeah but like chandler's gonna do whatever dana says luke yeah it seems that way well then yeah but okay but that but your question initially was I mean I don't listen I don't have any problem with Poirier Chandler I would love to see it but your question was if we're gonna go down this fuck it we're not even worried about the title path now to your point Chandler crosses

boundaries where he can be that really exciting fighter but the reality is if you're fighting Chandler and you beat him you are talking about number one contender sweepstakes you are talking about title shots at this point he's kind of in that space where at least that question becomes relevant so don't please don't misunderstand me I would love to see that fight of all the choices it's that or Diaz that maybe make Diaz less so but certainly those two ones make a lot more sense at 155 or I guess Diaz wants to fight at 170 I don't fucking know I'm just pointing out those are seemingly seemingly readily available and make a little bit of sense the Colby one is like the least attractive option of all of them I don't know how likely it is but I really hope it doesn't come to fruition yeah I'm with you on that I mean look I'd be look I'd

be just as fired up for a Poirier Gaethje rematch under those same sort of circumstances as the Chandler one, where it's a great action fight that sells itself and you're putting the winner... Oh, what about Poirier-Gaethje 2? What about that? That's what I just said. Oh, sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you said he was going to be in a different track.

No, no, Poirier-Gaethje rematch, I think, solves all of these problems and more, just like the Chandler one does. So it's all very interesting, Luke, but if Poirier is telling the UFC, which I'm not confirmed, but it seems that he's telling them he's more into this, you know, let's make money role. Then, I mean, Colby does offer that. It's just weird to see a fighter straight up, say, I want nothing to do with this. Uh, but it's my only option right now. Why would there not be more options for a guy like Dustin Poirier? Look, it's head-scratching where we are with the success of this company

and how little leverage the fighters still have in every category. I mean, it's wild, and maybe that's why the success of the company, Luke, right? Maybe that's why. Yeah, I really am curious to see what happens with Diaz. Cause if we end up in a world where please don't misunderstand me, Diaz Chandler would be a great fight. There's nothing wrong with that fight, but like if we were forced to wait because we were promised Diaz, not promised, but you know, it's sort of widely expected Diaz McGregor three is going to happen. Okay. Then that's fine. I suppose that,

you know, you can hardly cry for either fighter in that case, but if we end up getting there and then it doesn't happen for whatever reason. And we had to just go back to what we were avoiding by not making Diaz versus Poirier, you know, it would be just a giant waste of time.

So I'm a little bit concerned about that. Luke topic too. This week is also an interesting behind the scenes tidbit that has come out uh women's featherweight champion and former bantamweight queen amanda nunes talked with mma fighting's tell me how badly i pronounce this luke trococo franca podcast is that oh i don't know that my pronunciation would be any better but i can definitely tell yours sucked all right well amanda nuna spoke with said podcast about specifically her exit it's uh it's the it's the shout out real quickly it's

i apologize for cutting you off pc but very quickly it's the guillermet cruz podcast in portuguese on mma fighting which uh fantastic i think that's also an awesome vehicle that that's there because so many of these fighters speak so differently and they're in that detail in their native tongue i'll look so amanda got in about why she left ATT specifically to start her own gym. And here's the quotes, Luke. There's that saying, this is Amanda talking like it or lump it. I was bothered by the whole situation. Of course, there were no girls when I got to ATT. I was the first women to bring two belts and put the women's team in history. When Kayla got here and then Kunitskaya, it began creating a weird situation for me

because ATT was my territory. And then Kayla started talking. I was kind of, man, I'm not even safe in my own territory. I was kind of cornered even because we share the same coaches. She trains with Mike Brown. I train with Mike Brown. I was already training with them. And then Kayla got there. If there's someone that carries the name of the team, that's me

who brought two belts to ATT. If I wasn't who I really am a champion in two divisions, cool, no problem. But I was the champion already. She would have to train somewhere else to fight me. Luke, there was also another quote that really filled the headlines of her just kind of no longer feeling safe at ATT, but the safe part is more tied into what she said there. So basically here's how I'm taking Amanda's stance. She's the greatest female fighter of all time who brought a lot of recognition to ATT as a two division champion. She kind of feels like, and this is me talking through her statement that the gym should recognize that up to the level where they should essentially say, look, we have an opportunity to bring in these other big name fighters who you may end up one day having to fight. You know,

what do you think about that? She feels like she wasn't given that, um, you know, treatment. And then ultimately felt like she was getting pushed out in a weird way so luke who is right here the once in a generation all-time greatest who kind of wants special treatment from her superstar gym or is it the superstar gym that's basically like we not only have a champion we're a house of champions and will continue to be lu Luke, is this as simple as ATT choosing Kayla over Amanda, or is this a champion wanting the type of star treatment that this gym isn't willing to provide? You know, you're asking us to parse a dispute with, you know, these are the facts as we understand them, but we don't really fully understand them.

I mean, two things you need to very much keep in mind here. It is going to be the case often that a superstar gym and one of its superstars, while they may have had a lot of time together where their interests align and they were able to do good work, there is going to come a point where they're not going to be aligned. It is entirely possible that a superstar could have very reasonable or generally expected demands or expectations about how they should be treated and what's good for them, and the gym will have different ones. We've seen it a million times. What is the benefit of the superstar gym model?

It's that MMA fighters don't really make a lot, so they have to pool their resources and train together in large groups and hire all these things. At scale, you can afford a lot of expensive coaches. pool their resources and train together in large groups and hire all these things and then at scale you can afford a lot of expensive uh coaches at scale you can afford great facilities everyone chips in to make this thing it's like a little commune basically is sort of how it works but at the upper end of the mma spectrum where you get people as good as amanda nunez arguably the best female fighter ever it may not be the case that that model serves their interests anymore uh is it possible she's being difficult or in some ways you know the person who

is being unfair in this equation yes of course it's possible but you know we've also seen a lot of folks leave att phil derue left att dean thomas left att lots of folks leave att it may not work out for them so i have no idea colby Covington left ATT, right? Well, his situation, I mean, a little different. And of course, you know, there are people who've been loyal the whole time. Folks like Jorge's never left and Dustin Poirier's never left. Like there's a lot of folks who are, you know, it works totally fine for them. Great. I leave those choices up to the individual fighters. But what I would say is you don't see this model a lot in boxing where yes, BC, it's true. You can get a cron see this model a lot in boxing where yes bc it's true

you can get a cronk gym where a lot of people can come through there it's true you can get you know a gleasons or whatever but in general your better boxers they build camps around them they don't join with other peers including ones in their own division necessarily um where they you know where they're the same level of contendership let's say uh to just you know pool resources to get the best class best in class training they build it all themselves that model doesn't work for a lot of fighters and i understand why yeah it's a tough situation i mean i think that the hidden thing that came out of uh amanda's hidden within amanda's comments was the part about Kayla talking. I believe that was the creature of change

when Kayla Harrison started to get more aggressive. Look, she's doing the same interviews, essentially being asked the same questions. I mean, look, I remember the first time I interviewed Kayla, I went right to the catnip of, oh, you've got to be sparring with the greatest of all time, Amanda. What's that like? Who's getting the edge? Of course, Luke, I asked the kind of

questions that the fighters don't want to answer in that regard. So Kayla being honest, Kayla no longer playing small and just coming out and cutting promos, that had to change the temperature when you go back into the gym and see that person who you may have to fight. And then not only had they talked some junk, but I can't imagine it's easy to be vulnerable in a sparring or training situation knowing you're watched by a potential rival like that. So, you know, not that anyone's asking for a judgment of who is right or wrong here to be laid down. But look, some fighters need that individual treatment to just, you know, it just works better for them. And if that's what it's going to take for Nunes, who has enough clout, right, and accolades to open her own gym and even, you know, create her own group there. But it does sound a little sour-grapish after the fact, Luke.

But then again, if Amanda can't say this, who can? She's the greatest of all time. So if she can't complain about this who can luke you know listen this is this is a much more complex situation than the one i'm about to describe it's very different in a lot of ways but the basic point i want to make here is there is a lot of entanglement between the idea that these relationships in mma are both business and personal together when really it's just business and then they pretend that it's personal or they think that it's personal but really this is at

the end of the day it's it's transactional a lot of these relationships at their core are just transactional there's a lot of martial arts schools Brazilian jiu-jitsu schools where you show up and you know if you're if you train there it would be considered disloyal to go and train with a different team or to change you know know, to a different team. And it's like, motherfucker, who are you? I pay you money to show me this shit. You're not my fucking dad. And you're certainly not my, you know, my religious overseer. Go fuck yourself. And then, and there's a whole culture inside of that. Less so these days than there used to be. But when I, you know, back in the, in 2004, 2004, it was really, really enforced. It was considered highly disreputable to go do something like that. It's fucking nonsense. So the point I want to make here is, again,

I think that this model, like these elite, elite fighters, Amanda is the elite of the elite. They have graduated to a stage where they're going to need things and expect things and want things that that model that used to work for them, they have graduated past that. And I think they have the sense of like disloyalty or this feeling that someone in this equation has been disloyal. But at the end of the day, if you really just examine it from a business perspective about what someone owed someone, what was really expected in that context,

I'm guessing that that would explain more of what or who made a decision either way than any kind of personal betrayal angle that I'm not saying is imagined, but not really the functioning situation here. Yeah, it's hard to make this stance when you're talking about arguably the best gym in the game, a gym that's considered a super gym where, you know, you could, where people, it's a destination gym for fighters at a certain level or that need a retooling or whatever. So that's harder to say now, like if it was the Jon Jones Rashad Evans split where at that time, you know, Rashad was honest in saying he felt like the gym chose Jon over him. Whether that was true or not, even if that was true, you kind of get it.

Jon was looking Jon was coming on and looking to be the greatest of all time. But, you know, he was coming on in a way that was like, holy shit. I'm not saying this decision was made that the ATT chose Kayla over Amanda from the, from the limited information we have. It looks more like they just chose to be a superstar gym. But for the benefit of the doubt to amanda you know maybe there's some inner political things that went down or decisions that were made or any type of presentation that made her believe that and if it did make her believe that the gym

chose someone else over her then maybe the time is to go luke so maybe it's good this is what i mean bc it's like to your point you you made it quite good but to state it simply if you look at the rashad and john situation from a personal angle did jackson's betray him yeah maybe they did i mean i'm not saying it's affirmative but it's certainly in play but if you look at the decision from a business perspective was it wise to choose john jones over rashad i mean i hate to say it because we have great respect for rashad but if you're making a business decision you would want to have both obviously but if it's a choice of one or the other of course you pick John Jones like that's not even that's not debatable and so you know again re-examine what

lens you're using to look at these scenarios easy for me to say from afar but they do explain a lot yeah indeed all right Luke topic three speaking of Kayla Harrison her home the PFL the Professional Fighters League which of course has the TV contract with ESPN, has the seasonal playoff format that's unique, has the $1 million prize. Well, Luke, we also know of their intention next calendar year to launch a pay-per-view division. They had a big day yesterday, Thursday of this week in terms of breaking news. And I think the quote that jumped out the most from PFL founder, Don Davis,

who did a ton of interviews was the quote, we're open for business for top fighters and quote, Luke, here's the break, the big news on a smaller level, Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees, a great has added his name to the celebrity list of investors and board of

directors reportedly investing 30 million of his own to join the board. Simultaneously, Waverly Capital has announced a new round of investments with the PFL, which could equal 500 million of new available cash. And Luke, that all ties into the biggest announcement of the day that when PFL launches this pay-per-view division next year for the first time in mma history they are offering a 50 50 revenue split to the fighters

on these pay-per-view cards so this in the era of fighter pay talk and into the idea that anyone not named the ufc whether you're bellator one championship pfl whomever the idea that anyone not named the UFC, whether you're Bellator, one championship, PFL, whomever, the idea of potentially becoming a free agent destination home. Luke, how big is this news? The 50-50 pay-per-view split to the idea next year of PFL potentially signing some giant in their prime names based solely on the money that they're offering here this big it's really big and i hope we let's let's spend the appropriate time really breaking

this down because of all the stories we're going to talk about today i find this one to be by far the most interesting and frankly impactful um i have a lot of mixed feelings about it there's a lot of things i think about it that are great there's a lot of things that i have genuine trepidation about i I'm not sure which direction you want to go, but to start off on the positive, the round of financing is enormous. This is clearly a play by...

If you think about it now, PFL, Bellator, and One, all of them make claim to be the next person or the next entity right behind UFC, but it's actually not so clear you know because bellator has a lot of things going for it one has a lot of things going for it pfl i mean all of them make a pretty competitive play so i would actually say you know you can make your rankings but it's hard to know exactly which one really is number two this

is this is an effort by pfl to make that argument uh very clear for the rest of us this is their push to say right there's u's UFC and then there's us and then there's everybody else. That's what they're trying to do here pretty clearly, right? Before we get into the drawbacks of that, let me just add in the specific. I'm not saying that's a drawback. It's just an ambition goal. No, I'm saying before we get into the potential drawbacks,

you just nailed the key part of this. Does this mean that they are ready to become a legitimate contender for the UFC? Yes, it does mean that. No, no, no, no, no. That's not that. Well, okay, let me back up a step. That's not what I'm saying.

What I am saying is, listen, the UFC is either at or arguably a monopoly. They can't be touched. You're not going to beat them at their own game unless something catastrophic happens to their business. But what is clear is my point. Bellator has a lot to offer for fans. Bellator has a lot to offer for fans. PFL has a lot to offer for fans. One has a lot. They're all kind of different, right?

But it's not clear to me anyway, who is the leader among them. What I'm arguing is PFL wants to finish that debate. They want to make sure that they move past all of them. Yes, encroach somewhat potentially on UFC's territory. In fact, they will have to if they want to make waves in pay-per-view. But I think it's for them to put aside any notion that there's any debate about who comes after the UFC. They want to assert themselves as the clear number two.

Okay, so you look at this as them becoming, they're showing you their ambition to become the clear number two. See, I'm looking at a little bit further than that. Let me see if your opinion changes after the specific quote that Don Davis gave. He said, we disrupted, call it the media business, with the league format. We have as good a TV product, not pay-per-view as the UFC or anybody else. But until today, we've never been in the pay-per-view business. So if you're a pay-per-view fighter, Conor McGregor, or you're Usman, John Jones, or you're people who like Kayla Harrison next year, you're so good.

You're top two or three or four in your weight class, but your economics demand you fight on pay-per-view. Until today, we've never been in that business. We've only been in the media business so far. So starting next year, outside of the league format, we're going to put on two super fights. Now, two doesn't seem like a lot, Luke, but back to the quote. We're open for business

as of today. We're going to do things differently. Just as we disrupted before, fighters will be true economic partners 50-50. Luke, that sounds to me like they have intention

of making a run here because right now, look look i was surprised they re-signed with with with espn the pfl because it gives off the indication espn is the exclusive home in what north america for for the ufc so you know ufc that gives off the indication that espn's major leagues and so is the ufc so's one-on-one right there. But that PFL is almost the JV team or almost the feeder league, which, you know, in some ways they are as everyone else ends up being to the UFC. But Luke, this to me screams that's not our long-term identity. And we believe our identity can change as early as next year.

I mean, having your founder use a quote that has John Jones and Conor McGregor's name in it doesn't mean you get both of those guys or that you're in that space. But that to me is a major claim like, hey, along with what we're doing on this unique format of the season and the $1 million prize, which could already attract a certain clientele that may be unhappy with their standing in the UFC. We're also going after big fish. Knowing, like you do, Luke, that there's a lot of aging big fish in the UFC right now that still command a top dollar, which is why our first topic about Poirier touched on that whole Nate Diaz one fight left on his UFC deal.

Will he go to box Jake Paul? I think PFL's straight up trying to say how we're going to start competing is by going after your unhappy names who feel like they, at this point they demand to be paid on their name value. And, and you won't do that. We will. I mean,

is that a game changer? That could be Luke. That to me is them saying we got balls big enough in the money behind us that we ain't nobody's fucking JV league. We got an ESPN deal, and we're doing big money pay-per-views now. Yes, I think it's that, but I think it's also partly a necessity.

Like, if they wanted to remain what they are, maybe they could for a long time, but how much can you scale this tournament model to, you know, again, to pass the Bellator's, to pass the ones if that's what you want to do. Like they have turned the tournament model into something pretty clever, pretty interesting, and they've got a good product. But if you scale this, like where does it really go? Like how does this meaningfully improve your market position? It probably doesn't, right? You have to do something else. So they've got this ambition and this monster round of funding to try that,

to try and not just scale out what they're doing, but scale up. And I think that is, it's a very difficult choice, but it's an ambitious one. And let's just say it out loud, dude. MMA needs more of this, right? I lived in a world, when I first started watching MMA, I remember Rumble on the Rock. You know, I remember tournaments and they weren't big shows in the sense that we understand them now, but there wasn't, yes, there were dominant players. Pride has been a dominant player for a long time, again, back in that era. Certainly,

UFC was a dominant player in the space, but there were a lot of middle players. It seemed that way anyway. Some of these were fly-by-night operations too, but I'm just saying there was more parody in the space. Now, listen, I'm not trying to drag the UFC down, but for the fans, for the fighters in particular, having a promoter in the space that can do pay-per-view, that can reasonably say, hey, we are a pay-per-view company. Now they have not proven that yet. You can say you're doing pay-per-view. Can you actually meaningfully follow through and have it be successful?

Separate conversation, which we'll have. But the the general point bc is i want to be clear we need more of this we need we need companies who can put together big bank accounts and say hey let's try let's dare to be great let's try to do something in this space that the other promoters are just just not either doing or not capable of doing whether they'll be successful i don't know but i certainly applaud the ambition well first of all i hope that smart cage can predict whether this has a chance of being successful i mean i hope it can do more than than uh order your dinner but i can never get over i can never get over that like they call their cage smart and i honestly don't know what the fuck it does other than be a cage but okay i mean like i'm excited about that

because like the parallel to pro the pro wrestling world which a world i'm kind of out of now but like is right like when there's stretches where it's only wwe and everybody else is a distant second it's not as fun the overall product's not as good now you got an aew and other things going on it kicks it up but look there's a difference between where we've been the last few years, which is UFC on top, but then a strong group of number twos, meaning not strong enough where you felt like they could overtake number one. No, but like all have their own niche and strong TV deal and enough names and money where you're like, okay, you know, they're there. Would I like them all to be together in some sort of, you know, utopia?

Of course. But no, at least,, at least it's fun. But this is the first time I've seen somebody since Strikeforce show intention that we're trying to make a run. Now, I don't mean a run to take over the UFC because they're not even armed for that. You need depth. You need a lot. You need a lot. But they already have a very strong TV placement. They already have very deep funding and celebrity backing and all that for whatever that's worth.

We're finding out now it could be worth pretty good. They've got the unique setup. They've already got an okay amount of names. But if they could, now they're opening up an area where they could potentially attract those same names that we're talking about cashing themselves out against Jake Paul. Those same names who may say, look, I got, you know, three or four viable fights left. Do I want to do that in the UFC? Or do I want to potentially do that in the PFL for a much greater split? Luke, in this day and age of fighter pay this is a genius move this is a

smart whether you know whether it's all sound and legit and they have a shot or no this is going after the type of names just like in pro wrestling when wcw makes a run at wwf in the 90s you're going to go after hogan and these names that you know can give you legitimacy hopefully long enough for the rest of your roster to catch up. But dude, this feels like the first time we've had this type of life in another body since Strikeforce and Scott Coker, since they had the Showtime deal, since they put fights on CBS to monster ratings, since they had the EA Sports video game, right? Since they had that heavyweight tournament, at least on paper and how it was announced,

that was better than what the UFC had at that moment. Bellator with Scott Coker have had some nice moments since then, but I don't know if I feel like it's as strong of an attempt since Strikeforce. And what did UFC do to Strikeforce back then? They bought them out, right, to eliminate them. I mean, it's different to compare pride because UFC was still climbing the ladder during those head-to-head battles, but this could get interesting, Luke,

if they could get the type of names that we know are difference makers, even if the names are old. These names are potential difference makers. The proof will be in the pudding, but does two fight cards per year do that? To say we're going to do two super fight shows is that enough luke what to start i maybe more than they need i mean we don't know two i would say to listen if they have all that they need they'll just again scale up if all of a sudden they have this signing bonanza they can't believe all the names that are coming over

then yes they will will absolutely have more. So don't worry about that. Two is probably a fine place to start. But let's be very, very, very clear. And this is, I want to, the reason why I think this conversation is so important is because I do take this news seriously. And again, I started off the conversation, hopefully in a positive direction, which was we need this. I'm glad PFL is trying.

This is something that MMA hasn't had in a while. And I really hope on some level it succeeds. However, we should also not dismiss the difficulties. Now, I don't know what Pride ever did, but I think this one involved them too, but certainly since the end of Pride, which has been some time, no other MMA promoter who has tried pay-per-view has ever broken a hundred thousand pay-per-view buys except for bellator one time one time they got right at or near the hundred thousand mark when they tried it uh in the i think i don't know if that was scott coker or bjorn rebney i can't remember anymore but was that the rampage fight yeah uh the rampage fight i believe and tito or well i don't even

remember anymore but i remember that they got a hundred thousand for that. That's usually considered to be something of a break even point. So understand that basically, basically since the end of pride, no other MMA promoter has ever even broken even on a, uh, an MMA pay-per-view, right? This is what I go back to when I say, well, what would you rather watch? Low-level UFC fights or let's say high-level one, high-level PFL, high-level Bellator fights. What would you rather watch? If your answer is low-level UFC fights,

you are not an MMA fan, not much of one, right? There is a real, and Jay Larkin, who, by the way, helped found Showtime Championship Boxing in the 80s and ended up being an executive at the IFL before he tragically passed away from, I think, brain cancer. He noted this. People think that there are MMA fans. There are not many true MMA fans. There are a shit ton of UFC fans. And there is a real brand cohesion in terms of the fan base to the brand

where it's not just about getting some of those names which we'll talk about just a second one of the most important things that pfl is going to have to overcome is to figure out to find a way to grow the mma fan base because if you think you can sell pay-per-views on the kinds of folks who love all different kinds of mma and you can make a lot of money from that you are are very mistaken. You have to pull in UFC fans. Otherwise, this whole thing is DOA. Yeah, no doubt. And I'm not saying it's easy to make a run at number one,

whether it's pro wrestling or MMA. It's not. And I'm not even imagining a world if PFL did over exceed the expectations of what 2023 can look like. They're still not competing on a dollar for dollar, day for day. But those comments from the founder was that there's two companies now starting next year. So it shows their intention. If they could offer a home, a second opportunity in the negotiation scale.

Like, I don't think we're going to see a union of MMA fighters tomorrow and everybody get what they deserve. But it's a legitimate second suitor that's that's potentially throwing around big money. But look, obviously, it comes down to the dollars and cents. Like, you know, you don't have an offer until you have one. Then it's legit. Are they offering huge fight purses or are they only offering the potential of the 50-50 split, which is great when it sells, but you got to make sure you have the right fights, the right card, the right presentation,

so that it will sell so the fighters can make the money that they're being promised here. I mean, I don't know specifics beyond what he said with the 50-50 split, but do they need to be offering more than that for this to become a legitimate free agent destination for the top names well I mean they have to still make money on it right they can't like 50 50 seems like it sounds fair um it's what a lot of boxing promoters do right it's a 50 50 split with the talent so it just seems like a place where you can still make some

money and you can make your premium talent a lot happier by virtue of the, you know, at least in theory, the elevated purse levels. But, you know, it's a clear pitch also because PFL has, for a long time, prided itself on being a very pro-fighter league. That's one thing that they've been high on. And then two, they would need to offer this much before losing money. Like, how much can we give up as a way to, like, incentivize people to come over? This is basically how much they can give up, um, as a way to like incentivize people to come over? This is basically how much they can give up before it becomes, you know, a losing proposition,

but we should game this out here a little bit BC because here's the reality. There are a certain set of stars where being like, let's say Nate Diaz, Nate Diaz being in the UFC and fighting Connor and then the UFC promoting this is going to make it, you know, they are a helpful entity in that way. But it is also true that if Nate Diaz fought Conor without the help of the UFC, how much would they sell? They would still sell an absolute metric ton, right? The UFC in that sense is valuable, but hardly essential. However, there is another tier of fighters, and this is the majority of them who you see on pay-per-view, who, yes, they could sell a fair amount without the help of the UFC, but that's where the partnership with the UFC, and this is an argument Dana has made, and he's right, that's where the fighter brings some popularity, the UFC as a brand brings some awareness, right, and some connections, and then the two together become a more powerful force than if they were disaggregated. Now you have to ask a question. How many of those guys are you going to be able to get, number one, if you're PFL,

and then what can they sell on their own in such a way where it makes sense for them to not partner with the UFC because you'd be getting a greater share of the PFL, but probably a much lower buy rate overall. Would you still make more by being with the UFC? See, here's the end of the day BC what the PFL has to figure out a way to do you can offer 50 50 but what does that mean if that

doesn't mean in the end that you actually get more money than you would be at the UFC then this effort goes nowhere that they have to sell enough where not partnering with the UFC even if the buy rates are lower still gets them more by virtue of the cut that they're getting. Right. The fighter has to realize that like that 50 50 only were, if you're only getting the, the, the backend, then that 50 50 only works. If everything sells perfectly, there has to be a large enough guarantee involved. Um, Luke, here's an interesting potential wrinkle. Is it more realistic and financially sound for PFL to design this 2023 world of big money and pay-per-views and 50-50 split by of an agnostic pay-per-view super fight home where if Bellator wants to lend out Cyborg for one fight against Harrison, we can work

out a deal. Or if one is willing to lend out, you know, this person for some type of deal or exposure, is that a, a re is that a better way to do it? Is that even a way that's possible to sort of say, look, we're going to put on these super cards. Anyone's available. In fact, hey, UFC, we're in the same network, more or less, at ESPN. It's also available for you to send a fighter over here if you wanted to. Now, Luke, I'm not saying that would ever happen,

but is it going to be better for them to be a number two where you got to be a PFL fighter to fight on pfl pay-per-view to get 50 50 or could they just be the home for that i think pfl is going to have to do two things to really make this work and i mean this quite genuinely and this is going this is why listen while i am certainly um applauding the pfl's gusto here They're making a real effort at it. They're skiing uphill, okay? Let's be very clear about that. And I mentioned already that most MMA fans are really not MMA fans.

They're just exclusively UFC fans. That's one extraordinary hurdle that's going to have to be overcome. The other two pieces of this puzzle, BC, as far as I'm concerned, are one, let's do a test here, for example. If they sign Jon Jones tomorrow, BC, right? John Jones gets cut from UFC, PFL signs him.

Who does he fight in PFL at 205 pounds that you would want to see on pay-per-view? You would pay money for. Give me one name, quickly. Who fights at 205 for PFL again? Right, right. So that's the first problem. There are going to be a lot of weight classes where they could sign someone and match them up against native pfl talent and that could work but the reality is they're probably going to have to co-promote too which by the way is going

to cut into that 50 50 because the fighter is still going to get 50 now they're going to have to split the other 50 with a potential co-promoter which case i don't know if this is financially viable anymore. Another big problem is you can sell a lot. Now that conversation changes though. If you can co-promote, if you do sign a John Jones and you can wrangle in Bellator, and now he can fight Anthony Johnson.

He can fight, you know, UL Romero. He can fight whoever the hell he can fight over there. You've got a different conversation at that point. I'm just pointing out the folks need to be clear about this. Gary Shaw said this years ago, and Gary Shaw doesn't have the same reputation he once did,

or maybe he does, depending on your perspective, but he was right. You cannot sell a pay-per-view fight with one name. Oh, I've signed, name somebody big. I've signed Dustin Poirier. Maybe you could get away with it a little bit with a modern Nate Diaz, but only for one fight and then not really, right? You need to have a big names you can pair against each other. So I want to be clear about this. They may get a signing of somebody in this

weight class and then someone in that weight class and then someone in another weight class and all of that sounds great, but unless they've got dance partners, that won't work either. So there has to be a major, major, serious recruitment effort to get these people over, which I realize this is the PR push is part of. I'm just saying, ongoing, they've got to make that sale. And I will say this, BC, last thing. I doubted early their ability to attract interesting talent with their tournament model and they have exceeded my expectations in that regard that i i was i think wrong in how far i thought that could go

they have done better they're gonna have to do something similar here at pay-per-view yeah and look and even my agnostic idea i mean how do you get a rival promoter how do you give him enough financial incentive to give you a fighter right you know i mean i know it's an espn pay-per-view that's great but i don't know luke there's a lot that would have to get what if what if what if pfl and bellator both got out of their own way and realized however powerful pfl is and however powerful bellator is they would be infinitely more powerful together and there was some kind of a talent swapping program. And you could say, oh, that would never happen. Scott Coker already did it with Ryzen.

It already exists. That was the point I was getting to, that this is the same week where Habib Nurmagomedov, who, of course, has his own promotion, Eagle FC, put out there and said, look, Fedor's my guy. He's the go. I'd love for him to fight Junior Dos Santos with Eagle. Hey, Scott Coker, let's my guy. He's the go. I'd love for him to fight Junior Dos Santos with Eagle. Hey, Scott Coker, let's do it.

Scott Coker tweeted back, let's talk. Let's have a meeting and wrote some hashtags to the degree of he's the only guy willing to do this. Is there a world in which PFL could be the home for those type of ideas? If everybody gets their

cut, but then look, why did it never work in pro wrestling when everybody who not named WWE tried to get together and put on these super clash pay-per-views in the eighties because nobody trusted each other or was willing to take away from their regular business enough to use their talent here and let somebody else benefit from it. It takes a lot of ego wrangling. It also takes money. So I don't know, you know, maybe that's not a realistic endeavor and you have to be a PFL fighter to make this type of split on the pay-per-view level. Either way for big name,

especially the aging ones, the big name aging UFC fighters. And by the way, Conor McGregor is becoming a big name aging UFC fighter. The fact that you potentially now have more options that go beyond just selling your soul in a boxing match, right? Now that you have potentially have more viable, like that's great for fans. It's great for fighters. Anything that forces the UFC, who's amazing, which is amazing, right? They're, they're, they're amazing at what they do or anything that forces them to be even better. It's a good thing in the end. So I admire PFL's ambition, even with all of those realistic questions that we have about how this is

going to work and what it's going to look like. Yes. And, you know, they're going to have to, you know, that's why you ask like it's too, like too few, too might be too many depending on how things go, but they've really got to get, if you want to sell on pay-per-view, they've got to build real rivalries. They've got to get, and also you have to ask, who is someone who's still a pay-per-view name,

but is kind of towards the end of their career at the heavier side of things? I'm not sure who I would go to in that way. But for example, if Glover lost this fight, maybe they wouldn't sign him, but if they did, would you trust Glover to sell on a pay-per-view with PFL? A, if he didn't have a dance partner that you could really recognize, or B, just in general. Yeah, well, Glover's the wrong point of comparison because he doesn't sell with the UFC. Okay, so give me one who you think would be a better one. Like a realistic one.

Jorge Masvidal. Okay, all right. like a realistic one Jorge Masvidal okay alright now again who could you put him up against that's out there not in the UFC that would sell let's say 300 or 400 thousand buys it's like okay if PFL signed him tomorrow would I love

the idea of Jorge versus Anthony Pettis or Rory McDonald or whomever? Of course. But are those pay-per-view fights not on their own? No. Well, I would say Jorge versus Pettis is maybe an intriguing fight you could put together. But, I mean, on its best day, on its best day, it's selling 400. And that's probably overstating.

Oh, no, it's not selling 400. Not the washed versions of them. Yeah, you're right. Their best day when they're in their prime with the UFC behind them, but no, they're washed versions of them are not going to sell 400. But could that be a co-main event to something else? And then the larger card

gets you to the 300 level 400 level. I mean it depends how deep the card is depends what you got on there. If you've got also Kayla versus Cyborg, then you're starting to touch different categories that go beyond just two old names, right? Yes.

And you do have some of that ESPN help to promote you if you really had a fight that ESPN, like SportsCenter and the car wash thing. Here's my question, though. This is why I'm still surprised that ESPN offered, now in its second contract to air the PFL. Just as surprised as I am that PFL was willing to almost play JV to UFC. Where does the UFC's leverage in the Disney deal end when it comes to how hard ESPN would push a PFL pay-per-view? I don't know, but it's the million-dollar question.

I've seen Kayla on some of the bigger shows, I think, but I've never seen any PFL executive on Get Up or First Take or something like that. Would that be the exclusive province of the UFC? My thought is, you know, God, for folks who didn't know, like the, you know, the UFC of the aughts would never in a million years allow another person or another entity to be discussed, um, on whatever network they were on. But in this case, I would imagine if they've signed the property, they, and it was on pay-per-view was, I guess it would be on, are

their pay-per-views going to be on ESPN Plus? They must be, right? Is that where they're going to be? I would assume so, Luke. So then if that's the case, then they're going to want to make money. Yeah, they would promote it in that case. In that case, they would make some room for it, I think. My only question is, you know, what type of pushback then does the UFC do if PFL had a fight with that promotion vehicle could get a good number? I mean, look, that's all interesting. That's dicey.y that's potentially dicey luke but it's going to be interesting um i

would oh what real quick we'll click can we talk about the streaming aspect of this too and the cost of pay-per-view like number number one i want to point out there's a real question of price point because you you would say all the fans are like oh make it 30 then i'll buy but it's not clear that they can make the money that they need to make if the price point is 30 right so there's a real trade-off between how much do you lose but in customers but gain in dollars and what's the right price point um we'll see what they end up coming up with but if they have the same price point as ufc i don't i just i'm skeptical that that could work long term a somewhat relaxed price point i think might be a little bit different the other thing i would say bc is it's just amazing

how much tv has not changed at all dude there was this major revolution where cables being left behind and we're going to streaming and this is going to be what it is and now you've got Netflix bringing in ads Disney uh is going to have an ad tiered platform pay-per-view is back and alive DAZN is going back to pay-per-view TV looks the same as it always has just now you can get it on your phone almost nothing has changed yeah kind of kind of remarkable in that way uh final points on this i don't think ufc is worried by this at all i think they look at this as good luck to you you're gonna find out the same problems everybody else has when they try to compete against us blah blah blah it is an uphill battle but luke i think the area where ufc would get concerned i don't't even think it is if Nate Diaz went over and headlined a PFL pay-per-view.

I don't even think at that point UFC is concerned. But if PFL can sign a sugar Sean O'Malley before he fully blooms and then he becomes your pay-per-view star, that's where I think UFC would start countering back and it would be an issue, correct? Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you're only doing two a year, you need to make sure you're clear of everything else in that regard, right?

I mean, there could be nothing else to, yes, yes is the answer to your question. And that would come down to how much they are willing to pay separate from the pay-per-view. I don't know. There's a lot to focus on as we move forward. Either way, pretty strong statement by PFL. We'll see what happens. Luke, Saturday night topic four is UFC Fight Night card,

which has an interesting mix of good, bad, and ugly, but we will stay at the women's bantamweight division here for this main event, a key one in top five title contention from Las Vegas, the Apex When 40 year old Holly Holm, the former champion could be one win away from her fifth title fight. It's not out of the question here. She's the number two seed. Of course, the champion,

Juliana Pena is going to rematch Amanda Nunes sometime later this year, but Holly Holm ranked number two, taking on Ketlin Vieta in what itself, Luke, is a very interesting fight. And when we look at the betting odds at this moment, Holly Holm only a minus 260 favorite, plus 210 for Vieta.

I want to get your thoughts on the fight, of course. But is that the right sort of narrative covering this right now, that maybe we don't talk enough about the longevity of 40 year old Holly Holm and she could be you know with a win here could be on a three-fight win streak looking to fight the winner of Peña Nunes too that's not that crazy right I mean since her three-fight loss streak with Tate Shevchenko and Duran Dimean when she was still

relatively like I say new to MMA but sort of new to the high level MMA right where she had only had I think a few fights before that um in the UFC so she got you know thrown to the deep end it didn't go her way the Duran Dami fight was certainly you know controversial her only losses subsequent to that right so so her so her next turn as a fighter MMA fighter her only losses since then were to Cyborg and Nunes that's it that's it she's beating everybody else and in fact to your point she beat Raquel next turn as a fighter, an MMA fighter, her only losses since then were to Cyborg and Nunes. That's it. That's it. She's beaten everybody else. And in fact, to your point, she beat Raquel Pennington and Irene Aldana. Now here she is potentially against Ketlin Vieira. Yeah, dude,

at 40, I would write most fighters off the list, especially at the UFC level. Like that's just, you know, no. But dude, you know, one thing about her, she has always been in incredible condition. She's always been in great shape. She's always had the gas tank to go at long distance and fights. And a lot of times she has needed to. She's been a marvel of an athlete that, yeah, we have kind of, you know, losing to Cyborg and then losing to Amanda and especially, you know, in such authoritative ways. Kind of like, oh, right. She can't,

this is over for her. She's now a forgotten piece of the puzzle. But no, dude, she is very competitive still with the rest of them. Now, can she beat Amanda Nunes if there were to be a rematch, I think this time at 135, and I don't know how that would go,

probably not great, although we'll see. But yes, I very much think that Holly Holm has been slept on. I think her age is a contributing factor, although maybe perhaps it shouldn't be. And I would also say, like, dude, this is a fight, you know, you mentioned the odds obviously already, but like, you know, it should be clear.

This is, I'm going to favor her to win this contest. She's still a player. It's pretty amazing. Yeah, when she's fought the non-championship super elite, dude, she's been not only consistent in some of these fights, like the Megan Anderson one, Luke, she's straight up dominant and she looked great against Aldana too and it's like we've never counted her out I mean we've counted her out after the head kick loss to to Nunes in

terms of being back at this level but but she's never slipped from the top like two in either division that she's been ranked I mean she, she's got the wins to prove it. She's already got a weird enough resume and legacy where, you know, she's going into the International Boxing Hall of Fame this year. I mean, like, she's already got one of the craziest, most impressive resumes, yet has, if you want to get super critical, has, like, damn, has any fighter lived off of the success of one fight more than Holm from the rousey upset seven years ago uh well the fans still love her her record is so up and down since that rousey

fight as you mentioned but she she's been competitive for the most part even in losing with the exception of that nunes head kick she was competitive against cyborg for the five rounds and she's never gotten worse. In fact, Luke, you can argue she's actually gotten better. Like this is just a path of getting better. She hasn't slown down physically enough where she's compromised.

Her wrestling and grappling is much better. Her kick game right there. You betcha, Luke. That kick is fantastic right there. It's such a weird career i mean i remember writing certain previews and exploring narratives ahead of the durandamy and i believe the cyborg fight where you're like you know if home becomes a two division champion here um damn it's like she's already got a great resume that's just unique and weird to itself

but now you add in the longevity. Now you add in the potential that she's not potentially not done fighting for world titles. I mean, look, if she fought Juliana Pena, you're not really sure what's going to happen there. Like, you're not, you know. But what is happening? Yeah, well, Pena got to the ground, but yes. What is happening, though, this fight for the first time in a long time is Holmes going to have to prove to us not only at 40 can she be the same fighter but Luke she's she's coming in off a long ass layoff I mean she hasn't fought since 2020 she had um the kidney issues which pulled her out of the

Pena fight she had the knee injury which pulled her out of uh I believe the Norma Dumont fight so here's for the first time Holly having to deal I think you know up close with with the age and in the miles but yet you see those odds makers and is still putting her you know as a as a favorite uh what type of challenge luke does ketlin bring here in this matchup that we should be looking forward to for five rounds on saturday night to one point i wanted to bring up is i didn't i don't think the cyborg fight was like that competitive. Cyborg was pretty clearly better to me. But what I would say is here's the weird thing she's up against. Her career peak in terms of the biggest win, the most significant eyeballs, the biggest prize was clearly Ronda Rousey, right?

In that sense, she peaked there. But as a fighter, she actually didn't peak there and you can a testament to that is BC is when she fought Megan Anderson she won that fight wrestling her you know what I mean like like to your point she's going into the boxing hall of fame soon and yet in an MMA fight she was able to out wrestle someone up a weight class I mean that is remarkable man that's really really special that someone can do something like that. So in saying that, I think that that's where she's kind of up against. Her peak as a fighter was not the Rousey fight,

but she's kind of living in the shadow of that, despite the fact she's still doing quite well, all things considered. To answer the question about Ketlin Vieira, this is a very winnable fight for Holly Holm. Now, Ketlin Vieira is a little bit surprising as a potential threat, which is to say she does not move her head. We go back to the Aldana fight that Aldana had with Vieira, who absolutely smoked her with that, pretend to go low, and then come up high with the left hook and sat her down and then finished her off with a couple of hammer fists. You know,

Ketlyn Vieira just doesn't move her head and she marches forward a lot. That doesn't mean she's not a good striker in other ways, but that is clear liability and in that sense super winnable fight for Holly Holm on the other hand BC if Ketlin Vieira needs to she can get ground and get the fight to the ground she can have some decent ground and pound so the real chore here the real task what this fight hinges on is for Holly Holm to make sure that this fight stays on the feet and stays at a competitive distance where she can do her best work because not only do we know that does she not move her head and a lot of other problems she actually has a negative striking differential bc she takes more punches than she ever dishes out that's a recipe for someone as

good as Holly Holm to get the w right Holly Holm's game is to is to counter you and pick you apart like that and then look you know on the flip side, you mentioned the avenue for success for Vieta. Look, Holm doesn't get handled on the ground. Her takedown defense is great. It's a long cry from who she was in the Misha Tate title loss at UFC 196.

One of the best fights, by the way, in company history. I mean that. You know, there was a gaping hole in her ground game. You're right. She's closed all that up. This is a matchup that I think favors her in a lot of ways. I mean, would you say that Holly's almost her greatest skill now is almost an ability to, to kind of find the hole in her, in her B plus and lower level opponents and really

just disarm them, right. By leaning on that. I mean, she's very tactical and smart in that regard yes but also it's a little bit like what volkanovsky told me which was the style in that case in his case it's very different than holmes but the underlying point would be that style in in volkanovsky's words of himself it just covers a lot of ground it works for a lot of different fighters holm style is not the same in that sense it doesn't cover as much ground and it's very different in in all the ways in which

she applies it and what it looks like but it does in this particular case and in many other ones cover a lot of ground which is to say now you know depending on her ability to faint and move and keep distance yes of course that's the basic choice here or the basic task. But if she's able to do it, and she's able to do it to a lot of fighters, BC, they just have a hard time dealing with it, right? She has a game at that distance where it's like, okay, let's say you were able to keep distance on an opponent, but your opponent was Adesanya. Can you still win?

No, because he is also really good at that distance, and he also has a lot of tricks there. But her competitors do not. When she's able to establish that distance. On terms that are favorable to her. Or at least seemingly favorable. Where you thought well maybe the opponent. Has an answer in this range as well.

They just never do. She really is not good at just commanding range. But once she does. She has lots of offense. In all different kinds of ways. So Ketlin Vieira. Who does not move her head a lot. Who just marches forward a lot.

Not all the time but a lot that that that that part of her that part of her is just serving it up on a silver platter yeah to holly holm the question is what is age and the layoff going to mean and what is the ground game going to mean i thought you know we haven't seen any any indications that holly's not the same fighter i thought the rematch win over pennington i didn't love a lot of what i saw from holly it was a little bit too safe yeah but the first pennington fight was also super boring oh oh certainly well no there was a rising drama of wood rocky you know taking that punishment get to holly but the second one i thought was maybe okay maybe we're seeing it but no what holly did against irene luke it was

it was a reminder of who she still is. So I'm looking forward to this fight. Um, Holly was asked this week, Luke, because she's showing interest in a boxing return for the first time, really since she's came to the UFC. So I'll sum it up for you after watching a Holly interview, she is willing to fight only one person. It would be Katie Taylor at 135 pounds for all four titles, but she's not willing to try any type of thing when she's still in her UFC contract out of fairness to everybody, but mostly out of fairness to her ambition to win UFC gold still. But she says she has quote two or three fights left on her deal. She's not sure. And if that expired in the fight, you know, materialized,

she, she wanted to challenge Katie Taylor. So if you're wondering where did home compete in her boxing days, she won titles in three divisions, but it was one 40, one 47 and one 54 made a total of 18 title defenses. So, you know, decorated for a reason, but she's never fought for a world title at one 35. That was a weight that she only did an MMA. So, uh, that that's an event there. If Holly can ever get to that point, but I did like her distinction of like, yeah, that's the type of challenge that would get me out of bed and make me care and want to go for it. I want to prove that I could bounce back, which no one's been able to bounce back and forth between sports. But at the same time, let's forget that conversation till we see where I'm going towards the UFC title. So let me ask you, 0% to 100%,

the odds that Holly Holm wears a UFC title again before her career's over? Low, but doable. 25? I mean, that's even high. Probably 15%. No, I think 25's solid. Okay, you're saying like a 1 out of five chance that she

and it could come by the way that would that would be that would be 20 one out of five yeah i mean i did i did get some level of math at naugatuck high school class of 96 one out of four would be 25 so greyhounds um i mean there could be different scenarios too i mean you know what i mean amanda nunez could could you know retire and there's a vacant title at 145. Who knows, right? She could beat Pena. Who knows? Also, Luke, Holm could be fighting until she's 45. This could be Randy Cooter all over again. Who knows, Luke?

That would be pretty amazing if possible. Also, we haven't really seen women's MMA has obviously come a long way and is much bigger than women's boxing, but it's still not all that big. I mean, the UFC only has three divisions. That's not a lot. Well, four, I guess, depending on your perspective.

But boxing also doesn't have a lot of different stars. And we've seen Clarissa Shields come over to MMA, and that's cool. But I guess what I'm saying is you don't see the, oh, what would happen if the female MMA fighter fought the female boxer? And what if there's a big industry for this? There doesn't really exist that part of the game yet. I'll be curious to see if it happens in my lifetime where we get like this big demand for a big MMA versus boxing women's crossover fight. Yeah.

I mean, Holly's the perfect one for it, given her background, right? Totally. It's just insane right there um uh luke as you look at this card though this coleman event could be a banger in the ufc's welterweight division we're going uh all brazil all the time here as santiago panzanibio will be just just a plus 115 underdog when he takes on minus 135 the circus clown himself luke michelle padeta luke we never quite know if padeta at age 28 is coming or going the last four fights though luke despite some michelle padeta type moments he is four no in his last four right this ain't the dq lost to

diego sanchez this ain't him gassing out against Tristan Connolly. But I don't know if I trust him yet as a legitimate contender, despite, look, I love the win over Andre Fiala. Like, name-wise, it's great. This is the right test at the right time, though, because Ponzinibbio's still got something left, Luke, and he's been through a lot of injuries to get here. Dude, this could be mayhem on Saturday.

Yeah, Ponzinibbio has reached a much higher level, and he's come down from it a little bit, but he's reached a much higher level in the, not just the rankings, but like people's consciousness about who are welterweights to take seriously as potential title threats. Now, again, Ponzinibbio's coming off of that loss to Jeff Neal, and he had a long layoff, and so a lot of that has been somewhat disrupted but and of course there was more fights before the Jeff Neal fight I'm just saying his last fight was the Jeff Neal fight um so this is

Pereira's chance to really begin to like shed that label as the guy who will break dance on you and maybe win or not um this is the chance for him to be like no actually yes i've got the four wins but now i've got a win over someone that everyone told me was someone to take seriously as a potential title threat however long ago now i've beaten that guy now you have to take me seriously that's really what this what this is potentially all about and by the way that fialo fight even though that's a very strong win just like the nico price one but ada showed us everything great about him and everything to be worried about about him in the same fight it was like the full treatment the full experience but luke i think since missing nearly three years ponsonibio's comeback he's still one and two in those three

fights since coming back the split decision lost to neil and then he got didn't get one punched by uh by uh what's it somebody said yeah not yeah yeah yeah the leaning back um i don't i think the luster of like sleeper title contender at age 35 has come off a little bit i still though respect him as a hammer a tough out and still you the odds reflect this with him being a slight underdog he still could win this one viciously i mean that's in play because you know either either guy dude either guy can win this viciously right for sure for sure yeah but dude like what do you need to see from potato before you can like have no more doubt like i'm the harshest i'll tell you exactly what it is okay tell you exactly what it is bc as i cut you off for the millionth time today which i'm sorry about um i need to see more than him just playing so what was he doing before he was kind of break

dancing and doing all this bullshit and sometimes he would win explosively but you know sometimes he wouldn't right and then he kind of dialed it back to a much safer style of fighting that was much more winnable. A little bit of moving at range, jabbing. And there's more than just jabbing, but a little bit of stick and then move. I would like to see more than that. You can beat the guys he's beaten. Andre Fialho is a very, very commendable win.

But the other guys he's beaten, it's not to say they're not good fighters, but they could be beaten with that kind of game plan the point i'm trying to make is the guys above ponsonibbio cannot they cannot be beaten with that kind of game plan you have to show that yes sticking and moving is an important part of the game and defense is an important part of the game i need to see offense that's coordinated that doesn't come from spazzing does that make sense bc like his best offense if you look at the highlight reel came when he was just basically fucking around can he do that not fucking around can he do that in an actual strategic application of things because he can show us defense in that regard now i need to see offense come behind it that's what i'm

looking for in this particular case i can can't remember what fight it was. Was it the chaos Williams win for Pereira in 2020? One of the wins in this four fight turnaround, even though the turnaround has featured highs and lows, one of the wins was wrestling heavy Luke. Forgive me for forgetting which one it was. It's not the last two Nico price. One was,

was pretty crazy, but one of those two was very wrestling heavy from him and i started to to tell myself luke we could be looking at a future title contender here because he's in he might be in the best shape of any fighter in the game i mean i mean i know he got gas that time that he was fucking around and dancing to the i mean he does a lot of weird shit but his his gas tank his body his rest his chain wrestling and commitment to that and the fact that he can f around and knock you out at any point like he's he's one of those guys that with the right discipline dude he could be

something scary i just don't think he's the right guy that can ever be disciplined right i mean like you know wild horses luke they couldn't they couldn't drag me away you know what i mean and and i don't even know what that means to be fair but i will tell you this i don't even know where this question is going you can't there's some women you can't bring home to mom he just might be that type of fighter luke and we might have to realize that like johnny walker in a way you just be as weird as you want to because that's when you're the most dangerous because I don't know if you can play the role of muting yourself to be more strategic and well rounded I don't know if you're still the same some people can be that but they can't be dangerous at

the same time Luke I fear you know what I'm saying I think if you mute this guy if you castrate Michelle Podeta Luke you're looking at just another man. Okay. Yeah, that was a long, I don't know if there's a question there. More like just a lot of declarative statements. But I'll say, I don't have, listen, you are the one that is hung up on this mystery. To me, it's not much of a mystery. Pineda is certainly capable of winning this fight.

Like, absolutely. Very, very, very much in play but i'm i like how much of a real transformation can he make dude if you've already got bad habits and how old is perera like in his 30s or whatever 35 i think 30 yeah you know he's a sick athlete the dude's like a panther out there so maybe it's a little bit different for him. You can grade him on a curve, but like, yeah, it's over. Whoa, whoa, 28. Dude, I'm wrong. 28.

Okay, so no. So no, so it's still in play. So it's still in play. But I would say that, like, I don't have these hang-ups. It's even for as young and as good an athlete as Pineda is, it's still difficult to undo bad habits, which being a kind of spaz was. It gets you far enough, but there's a real ceiling

that you hit and you can't get much further and he's trying to figure that out he has some of the tools that make you think it's possible but it's an uphill climb bro super up you're like bc yeah you're working building a mystery right luke you know you go all lilith fair on you luke were you attracted to sarah mclaughlin in 1997 oh yeah for sure for sure all right yeah she was she had a little something something okay when i was a horned up teenager i always felt she dabbled in the dark arts uh privately luke i was always like a little nervous of her you know how many times how many times have you been to lilith fair never never dude how many How many times did you light a candle during an Indigo Girls set? Never.

It took me a while to find the same love and passion in female artists, but I've come around, Luke, in major ways. I mean, Joni Mitchell's my bad, baby. But no, I was not particularly into that Lillis scene with the exception of the hits, like Paula Cole. The radio hits are great, right?'m not like dude paula cole i was so hoping a tractor trailer would just knock her bus off the highway i couldn't stand her wow it was terrible i mean come on be fair you know she had two babies one was six months one

was three luke right in the war of 44 okay there we go let's keep it going in the war of 44 also dude do we not talk enough about middleweight dusko to dorovich are we really going to spend i mean i'm not trying to disrespect him but you know it's 12 30 we haven't done dead wrong we haven't done we haven't done fan subs we just we just move this all right that's our show for the day look i was going to legitimately have a deuce go to Dorovich conversation, but I'm going to wrap that up. He's a good fighter. It's not about him.

It's just you've got to make time for other things. There's no other fight that you want to talk about then on this card, apparently. There was one other one. Let me pull up my notes here very quickly. Diana has promised she'll get a bonus in a surprise way against Tabitha Ricci. No, the Chidi Njikawani fight and Todorovic fight

is actually a really good fight. I really like it. But also on this card, should be noted, BC, Chase Hooper is back. And also one of my guys who had a real... I've been high on him,

but he had a tough fight against Jalen Turner. I think it was in his last outing. Uro Shmedich, they call him the doctor. He's fighting Omar Morales, who's straight from Venezuela. I've been high on him, but he had a tough fight against Jalen Turner. I think it was in his last outing. Uro Shmedich, they call him the doctor. He's fighting Omar Morales, who's straight from Venezuela. Pretty interesting fight. Both guys are coming off of losses.

Both guys good strikers. Definitely one to pay attention to. Yeah. I thought Tabitha Ricci was that actress, Luke. Apparently I got the names wrong. Who am I thinking of? Christina Ricci? Oh, yeah, yeah. From Adam's family with the big ass forehead yeah

yeah what did you say with the what big ass forehead oh okay okay sorry i was like we're not that type of show luke okay that's good yeah she was in that uh what's what was that movie luke that won the oscar with kevin spacey you know i'm talking about american beauty there it is there it is the guy who wrote that alan ball went to my high school i could see that could see that playing out that way uh luke also this week ufc announcing that uh the first ever event in paris is is going to happen september 3rd is looking like it and marvin vittori tweeted all right so i guess since i can't find an opponent any earlier I'm fighting Whitaker and Paris you better show the

fuck up this time let's do it I've been waiting for too long now Whitaker responded with just one word Luke you want to know what word that is Paris hey Tui but no yeah with Paris yeah forget Paris is a decent

flick Luke had some NBA moments in it. Thank you. Yeah, do you care? Do you care at this point? Yeah, no, no. The fight itself is tremendous. Robert Whitaker is really, I mean, they're making him fight every monster in that division at their very best.

He's doing a lot of, you know, well, Izzy's beaten him twice, but you get the idea. I mean, did he really beat him twice, thoughke that's that's an eternal debate right it's really not he did you know it's kind of case closed um but in this case i would say i love this fight i love this fight because it feels like a championship fight because whitaker is just that good so for you to make that statement that declaratively luke i would expect a receipt of amount of times watched to sort of know that you've really put in the work i know that i listen i realize that the internet will take things and once it does you can't do anything about it and you just have to learn to live with it so i've learned to live with it the 49 times joke is fucking stupid like if you've laughed at it it's

a guaranteed lock you've eaten paint chips you know and or been hit by a domino's delivery guy who was i mean look it's such a specific number right i mean you do get it right i mean it's like i take i take notes on all this stuff dude like i take notes on everything i didn't think anything of it i take no like does no one else take notes i take a lot of notes i take notes it's good for you you should take notes but you know who used to take a ton of notes most mma fans are probably well i don't know most but in the case in the one the case of the one I'm talking to probably failed a lot of classes so like note-taking is not a real big thing in your life I still have all of my notes from all of my college classes do you have those okay that's the that's the nerdiest lamest thing I've ever heard what you have I go through them

not not too irregularly either a few times a year Luke, not only I don't even think I had notes, I don't even think that was a part of my college curriculum before I dropped out, Luke. Do you not care about trying to learn things about the world? Does it not at all matter to you? I mean, I read Wikipedia all the time, Luke, all the time. I go on long rabbit holes. Long rabbit holes.

It's not learning, bro rabbit holes wow you and I are like every time I think we're the same person just different skin Luke we're not even at all alike like there's very little connective tissue holding us together and Luke I'll

that's that tip to tip I'll trim that the remaining connective tissue like a grand opening with like the giant size you know I'll that's that tip to tip. I'll trim that the remaining connective tissue, like a grand opening with like the giant size, you know, I'll do that at any point. Yes. All right. Finally, topic five, Luke Showtime championship boxing goes down

Saturday night, 10 PM Eastern, a triple header, but in the main event from Glendale, Arizona, Phoenix native data. Let me try that again. Phoenix native, David Benavidez, your former two-time WBC super middleweight champion, taking on the all-action David Lemieux for the vacant interim 168-pound WBC title. So, so the idea here is that winner gets a piece of the pie in the larger title picture, which is exclusively owned by Canelo Alvarez but Alvarez is fighting at 175 who knows when he's coming back to the division in some ways this gives

the winner not only a potential mandatory shot at Canelo but a potential opportunity to outright be named the champion should he ever vacate those belts so Luke stakes wise yeah there's something here action potential yes there's something here but can david lemieux the former middleweight title holder at 33 still compete on this level against a guy this young this hungry this aggressive i don't think so but i'll say this i listen i expect david benavidez to win this, and I expect David Benavidez to win this inside the distance. I want to be very clear about that. Probably 7, 8, or 9, somewhere in that phase of the fight. I just cannot see this going past the 10th round.

I will say that Lemieux has had very good power at 160. I don't think it's quite the same at 168. The thing for me is David Benavidez has been, when you watch him box, you're like, wow, this guy is really quite exceptional. He is very, very, very good, right? The question's always been about him was whether it was the drugs outside of the ring or the weigh-in issue that we were actually were actually, we remember that BC that was during the pandemic. We were like, uh, hosting that weigh-in stream when he missed weight and lost

his belt on the scales. That's been the issue at 25 years old. Where is David Benavidez? Has he really turned the corner learning from his mistakes or is he destined to keep repeating them? It seems to me like he has very much cleaned up the the affairs around himself and I think he has turned that corner and for those reasons that's why I have such high confidence in his jab in his in his power his power too by the way his willingness to mix it up his defense has gotten a lot better we talked about this on the

way in stream earlier uh but the point I want to make is Lemieux has to win this only or excuse me Lemieux can win this to my judgment for whatever that's worth if and only if David Benavidez has not turned that corner if something has been off in his preparation if he doesn't take Lemieux seriously but if if Benavidez has done the things he's supposed to at 25 I think he's going to win this one he's going to win impressively well he's made the right comments I thought this week you know, he knows the pressures of the homecoming and performing for the fans, but he's not taking Lemieux lightly at all.

And Lemieux can still punch. We all know that. He's preparing to be in a fight, and they both said it would be a war, only it's Benavidez who's predicting, I'm going to get this guy out of there. Now, I agree with you. In the end, I think he will. He's a big-time betting favorite. We see wider odds in betting than MMA,

but he's a minus 1600 favorite. But for as long as this lasts, it's going to be wild. If Benavides can control the terms from the outside, he's just so hard to beat because he's constantly coming forward. And then when he chooses to cross that line and get inside on you, not only does he land often and heavy,

his defensive numbers are just improving fight by fight. So he's that rare offensive force, maybe like a Brian Castaño, who's not irresponsible defensively and still can get inside and get his work done. He's going to have a height and reach advantage over Lemieux here. So you certainly are going to like his chances, but you know, that power is going to be the last thing to go Lemieux needs a big win at 168 to get the type of big fights he's looking for he's going to go out guns blazing if he has to um I'm looking forward to this one I think it'll be a very entertaining watch but I want Benavidez using names like Caleb Plant uh Jamal Charlo who just moved up to 168 after this because those those are the type of fights, Luke, that he deserves and that he's probably going to get if he wins this, because he'll have

that vacant interim title and nobody else can pick up a title right now because Canelo has them all for the near future. So this is going to be worth watching. But yeah, you got to like Benavidez, man. He is one of the most consistent deliverers of action, yet a guy who's also really starting to put his craft together just the same. And when you talk about that shortlist, who in the heck in this world

can give Canelo Alvarez a tough fight below 175? We know Dimitri Bivol can. Damn, does his name top the list. It's David Benavidez. So good shit there, Luke, in this triple header to focus on. Luke, it's not the only boxing, though, this weekend, because Saturday afternoon, it's now rescheduled the

Floyd Mayweather Don Moore helipad exhibition. They're moving it to Yaz Island in Abu Dhabi. And I don't think it'll be a helipad anymore. But Floyd's still going to box and Anderson Silva is going to still fight some Brazil guy Luke you don't you care less on May 21st than you did a week before right yeah I don't care at all I want to be very clear about it I don't care at all yeah all right thank you uh Luke also tonight from sunny Miami Florida it's Eagle FC 47 from the FlexCast arena. I think it streams for free on the FLXCast website. Yeah, I've used it. I've seen it.

In your main event here for the Habib Nurmagomedov run promotion, Junior Dos Santos against Jorgen De Castro. Also a Hector Lombard, Tiago Silva co-main event at Light Heavyweight to get you in the building. Luke, we've been honest, and habib's done some things right promotionally i i really like the star power of suhudo and chael and all those other guys that show up in her part of the broadcast is this enough of a mix of old and new to get you to care about this card i mean we got a daryl horcher come back on this one habib giving out a favor to to one guy that he ran over that one time yeah i mean uh i'm not here to

tell people to not watch it that's not in any way my desire you watch what you want to watch don't watch what you don't want to watch there's nothing on this card that would pull me to watch it live right like when the kevin lee was back against diego sanchez like i really wanted to see what kevin lee would look like like Like what's going to happen here? You know, I expected him to win and he did, but obviously it was much closer than we thought. But you get the idea. Like that was something worth like,

oh, I want to make time for this one. This one doesn't really have that. There are a couple interesting prospects in the card. As you mentioned, Darrell Horcher, previous Nurmagomedov opponent that Nurmagomedov absolutely abused his back. That was, by the way, the Horcher fight was one of the many

Ferguson fights that was supposed to happen. And for folks who may not remember that, that was one of the times that Tony had fallen out. Yeah, that was in Florida. JDS or Indy Castro was a fine fight, but I don't it's not it doesn't do a whole lot for me. Also on this card, Roosevelt Roberts,

Honey Marks, Andrew Sanchez. Roosevelt Roberts is good and had a rough run in the ufc honey marks has sort of been you know we i think we know what you're going to get with him roosevelt roberts i think i still have a little bit of a upside on maki patolo at middleweight luke is also going to be on this card who who is a guaranteed action fighter for sure it's not it's but it's listen it's not a bad card it's not a bad card but um you know is it like must is it like appointment viewing not not for me personally do you have any care in this back and forth between habib and tony ferguson on twitter or surrounding uh hurt ferguson challenging habib to coach the ultimate

fighter and habib saying he's willing to do it if dana would let him i you don't care right they're not gonna fight i mean here's the thing, BC. Like, serious question. Like, legitimate question. Have you watched any of the recent Ultimate Fighter at all? I haven't watched. I watched the Kimbo season. Okay, I watched the first season. I watched the Kimbo season with Rashad and Brandon Schwab. And then I watched the tough 2014 women's flyweight season. But that's it, Luke.

Everything else is like, oh oh did you hear chale fought vonderlay in a van oh let me tune in and let me see if they showed it you know that's about it luke i you know yeah the heavyweight season i don't think i've watched all right yeah i don't think i've watched since season 10 either and even then i skipped like everything after five um what would it take to get me to watch The Ultimate Fighter? Literally short of being paid to do it, I wouldn't do it. It doesn't, I mean, it's like not only not interesting, it's like negatively interesting to me.

So, like, it's like it actually, like, makes me less interested the more I see it. So, no, it'd be great for them if they did it, you know, or whatever, but utterly irrelevant to my life. All right. Luke, morningcombat at gmail.com is a very relevant email address if you want to reach Mikey Mormal, our great producer from CBS Sports, and provide us every Wednesday.

But today we'll do it on Friday with fan submissions and this segment we're throwing to right now where you challenge us to be better on the microphone by pointing out something that we said was potentially dead raw. You better have a receipt. You better have swung big with big balls. All right. Gavin slides in.

He says, hey, BC, during the UFC 274 post fight show at 53-55, you said Shane Mosley moved up to 147 to face Vernon Forrest and lost twice. Sugar Shane was already the welterweight champion after he beat Oscar for the WBC title, defending it against three donks before losing to Forrest in January and July of 2002. While he did originally step up from lightweight, he was already the established champion at that weight prior to losing to Forrest in January and July of 2002. While he did originally step up from lightweight, he was already the established champion at that weight prior to losing to Vernon. He did step up to 154 to lose a pair to Winky, which you did mention from a boxing hardcore listener of State of Combat to MK. Love your work. Cheers, Gavin. Gavin, thank you for the nice call back there to

my old boxing pod and and for these great facts but in no way was i dead wrong i said after shane mosley moved up to lightweight which yes did culminate in that fantastic does anybody care first de la jolla fight in 2000 one of my three or four favorite fights of all time but no never did i assume or indicate that the oscar fights didn't take first place first the first one so in this case this is pedantic as shit so um you're wrong gavin for wasting glad we spent time on that all right tim says luke grabbed two dead wrongs in a 15 second span on episode 281 during have you seen this shit they have time stamps in here but i'm not going to read them luke asks let's see if i understand this this lady is

smoking the ass of a marijuana brontosaurus first off luke that fine specimen is smoking from the tail dinosaur anuses are located at the base of the tail between the hips near the end of that time stamp luke also says yo my daughter loves brontosauri unless luke is referring to the 70s czech folk band brontosaur e that is dead wrong the plural of brontosaurus is brontosaurus is uh day one fan of you two dilfs thank you for all you do wow he called us a dilf luke does that make you no no one no one let me tell you something a no one's ever called us that, and B, if they've called us that, they didn't mean it. I just want to be very clear about that. Okay.

I mean, I've got a tan right now, Luke, and I'm pretty fly for 43, right? For a white guy? Okay. I mean, you're pretty, you look, if I could say like, yes, for a pre-diabetic, yes, you look fly. Thank you. For a guy with a bad liver, you look, if I can say like, yes, for pre-diabetic, yes, you look fly. Thank you. For a guy with a bad liver, you look half alive.

That's great. Okay, both of those were pedantic shit stains on our normal dead wrong. We got one more from Greg. He says, during the post-fight reaction video for Charlo Castaño 2 BC, the boxing guru himself was dead wrong when he claimed Jaron Ennis was 29 and 0 with 24 knockouts. It's dead wrong because Boots actually has 27 knockout wins, not 24, giving him a finish rate of 93%. Simple mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. P.S. Wow, this guy's going to save himself here.

You ready for this, Luke? P.S. That Glover interview went so damn hard hard i don't know what it is but you guys have a special way of bringing out the most genuine side of every fighter you interview as a team first with gilbert burns now with glover please do more stuff like this because it's exactly the type of thing that separates you from the other mma podcasts end quote yeah we're trying we're trying yeah all right those were shitty as heck uh luckily you also sent in your fan submissions wow great transition you sent in your Yeah, it's hot. We've got mail.

No graph. There we go. Long Island, Luke. Thank you. Yes. All right. This one's from Austin. What's up, BC and LT?

It's Austin from Nebraska. I was in Paris with my girlfriend last week, and there just so happened to be a Bellator event. You know I had to go and rep the best combat sports show, wow wow look at these two psbc don't let the donks keep you from the boxing talk and luke don't let the producers keep you from vaping wow luke this guy's living a good life right now right yes first of all his uh female companion looks very normal and uh that's amazing because i wouldn't imagine most people who listen to the show look normal male or female so that's nice he what would you say

he looks like bc like uh the like the the backup vocals to a 90s grunt or new metal band what do you think i think it could be the fourth hogan brother but that's a deep 80s reference luke all right even i don't get that one i mean sandy duncan's glass i did not deserve that reference luke but um um you know the first time on on uh urban dictionary someone's like you ever look up a dirty sandy duncan and i'm like well no what's that yeah yeah that happened luke okay thank you uh speaking of that man's girlfriend i don't wait wait back up i don't know what a sandy duncan is yeah you don't look that up now then you don't want to look that up now then you don't want to know what a dirty sandy duncan is

either luke okay all right you know this is like the two girls one cup reveal which is just i mean what a violation of proper friendship that you tried to sell me out you're such a you're such a puss when it comes to that i mean uh a dirty sandy duncan when you can't read it a lot you can't do it you can't do it all right that's terrible that's terrible that's really bad that's really bad i had a i had a drill instructor threatened to do this with me oh boy okay yes was your instructor uh jk simons from whiplash the movie at all luke i mean what the hell, right? You ever watch that movie, Luke?

It was a threat to do something, or I will rip out your eye and SF you. Oh, boy. Luke, did you ever see Whiplash? I love that movie. I watched it again last night. Yes, fantastic movie. 10 out of 10. Wonderful movie.

It's right up there with Dead Poets Society, Luke. What a great movie. Seriously. Wow. Okay, Austin um you look like you're doing well i mean you're in paris with with that lady and you got her in mk gear and you're at a mma event like yeah he's killing it he's killing it bro like you know we we may yeah yeah definitely we know i'll stop there uh this one's from at boss dj 71 what's up what up

fellas i've been watching you guys since before MK and been repping you since episode one. I had to see this card live and was upset I wasn't going to enjoy MK's first fight companion, so I did my best at streaming your commentary. And after a while, the crowd grew louder and louder. Don't worry, I caught the episode on the plane ride home and it put me right to sleep just kidding i can't wait for the next one to watch from the home setup

pics coming soon wow boss dj repping the free cane shirt luke yeah listen watching us do absolutely idiotic shit that is i can't believe people watched it but they watched it dude they i'm not gonna lie like our producers came to us at the end of the show was like bc could you stop saying on the air that this show sucks the people they actually they asked us no no dude they asked us during the show they were like dude please shut the fuck up about saying this is bad people are liking it i'm like i don't believe these fucking idiots what do they know and then i felt it was a train wreck coming to a crawl and still screeching. And they were like, no, the people loved it.

And you know what? The people did like it, Luke. So if that's what if they're that easy to please, then, you know, P1s, you know what I mean? Sit on this D, right? OK, right. Well, this is the kind of content we do. All right. Luke, this is from Mario and Rana.

My girlfriend and I canceled our work obligations to have some breakfast and watch you two old bastards do two hours of content, 90 on combat and 30 on athletic greens. Thank you for the great work. Wow, Luke. Mario and Rana just went tip to tip. First of all, that is a, it's actually not a bad tattoo at all. The old timey fighter.

Those are actually very difficult tattoos to do. Herds looks pretty and i gotta say dude look at that breakfast spread the only thing that i think sucks here is by the way cable management a plus yeah definitely totally a plus i don't like the like they they've clearly seared slices of like canadian ham aka bologna on the i thought you were going to talk about the fact that they bought out every five dollar walmart dvd bin to fill up those shelves over there no i kind of respect that actually as a guy who likes to keep notes i respect that um you're like bc do you still keep your junior high test grades because i've been looking at mine lately hold on you laugh you laugh hang on i have it here yeah uh it's here somewhere i could actually find it i have my ap english vocabulary book from high school okay luke that is so low t it's ridiculous like you should just like why is academic well wait stop why is academic achievement

low t because you can't do it okay no succeeding in academic achievement is not low t okay and by the way luke how is it you imagine people succeed without trying i mean yes if you're a genius i suppose you're looking at a uh a underproducing potential star here look just because i didn't give myself to the school work like i should have and and could have luke doesn't mean that i couldn't have taken you downtown in those categories but to keep that as like i have moved everywhere but to keep that as like a token of like this is not from ap english this was from before it this is actually from sorry this is not my ap english one this is my 10th grade

vocabulary book luke like you better have two nicks. BC, what does maudlin mean? There's nothing cool about this right now. What does maudlin mean? There's nothing testosterone-fueled about this conversation. You're exposing yourself. Dude, I don't need lectures from you about what is or is not testosterone-filled. I've done that stuff.

I know what it actually looks like. BC, how would you define lugubrious? about what is or is not testosterone filled. I've done that stuff. I know what it actually looks like. BC, how would you define lugubrious? Luke, this is bad for business. This is bad for your image. I mean, this is just, you know. You think I give a shit about my image? I'm 42 and pathetic.

Nothing I could do could make it any worse. What the fuck do I care? BC, my AP history book's right over here. Let's go through it. No, I don't have those. Wow. Or gave them back or whatever. Yeah, this is 10th grade. This was 10th grade.

This was not even AP. You know our boy Antoine from Alaska? Look, the 6'8 guy who ran up the Capitol stairs? He just went into the live chat and said, keep Canadian Bacon's name out of your mouth, Luke. So there you go with that, all right? Dude, Canadian Bacon? Isn't it just bologna like what the fuck is it it's like isn't it like a different it's ham cooked a certain way i don't know the canadians are really nice luke aaron bronster is a real nice man i mean he really is you know they are nice

what a guy all right wow mario and rana thank you for that really seriously seriously thank you um jp this french canadian dude he says he's my cousin luke jp says good day gents jp back at it with some concerns and a question who's making you guys pose like this morning combat with luke laverne and bc shirley i don't know who's more old and washed you guys were posing like old dolls or me for knowing who the hell they are uh time to man up you old dirty wash bitches keep up the award-winning work it's jp from mount unike nova scotia yeah i mean could i wear that knit cap more like a fucking jackass than i am in this picture bc that was we needed an adult chaperone during that photo shoot it was not a comfortable time yeah i mean i won't name the photographer luke but he he was subliminally with his eyes just being like look

if you guys are willing to just just fuck right here like i'm not gonna stop you you know what i mean like i was like bc i'm not a i did ask bc during the photo shoot i'm like bc now i'm not a photographer but do photographers need to have their pants around their ankles when they shoot because i've never heard of that he's like you know you know he's legitimately like would you get into mount position here and i was like well who's asking right you know what i mean like what you know i mean i mean i could be a power bottom in the right setting luke but i'm not here not here right that's just ridiculous uh this one's from peter he says uh hello luke and bc love the show and all great content you guys dish out every week here's two pictures in a video from last week

of me hitting a pr deadlift at the gym the first pick is the last is off now i can't see the second is the calluses from the lift because i didn't wear gloves like a real man and last is the video and luke feel free to judge my form. I got a little sloppy during the lift. The weight is 190 kilograms, which is about 419 pounds. Luke, is Peter showing us some man hair or what? Yeah, a lot of times. Let's see.

Let's see the video. Blow it up, please. Blow it up. I hitched it a little bit at the end. Dropped the weight, which I don't love. Hold on. Let me see it one more time. Do me a favor.

Watch it. Roll it one more time. Look at the big toe on his left foot. I mean, really? We're going to start talking about those toes, bro? No, no, no, no. All of that matters. BC, for once in your life, can you assume that I know something about the world?

I thought you were taking shots at my anatomy, Luke. Those toes are going to tell the story of my life, okay? I understand. Dude, my toes are trifling as shit, too. But the point I'm trying to make is the balance is a little bit off if the big toe is coming up like that, and he hitches at the top a little bit. Also, the biggest thing I would say is his grip is really wide. That's almost like a snatch grip.

Now, you do see super heavyweights like a Brian Shaw or whatever, like a Thor. They take a really wide grip on a conventional stance. But other than that, the actual, like his back is, yeah, the chest position. There's a lot of stuff that looks pretty good on this one. Did you say snatch grip? What do I look like,y bush on a bus right now look what are we doing it is imp i want you to know this it is impossible to have an adult conversation with you like i

literally can't wow i can't say anything i can't say anything oh oh oh bitch you reading books you reading books the first rule of improv is to completely ignore the other person. I forgot about that. All right, Luke, good talk. Peter, obviously a left tackle in his prime, Luke, but maybe he got laid a few times, right? He's strong as shit. He's strong as shit. But you've got to work on the balance a little bit there.

All right, let's get back to more serious things to not offend Luke. Here's Mateo. He says, you boys are killing it. I'm not offended. I just don't understand you. Keep up the good work. I noticed a pattern during fan subs where Luke and the LT stands for low T will obliterate seemingly uncontroversial photos.

I find it thoroughly entertaining but if it takes Luke's daughter consistently creating a World War 3 zone outside Luke's door to get this entertainment, then keep it up, Tookie. Much love from down under. It's Mateo. Yes.

That is so funny. And he's right. Like, I just roast him for no... I mean, literally, BC, I don't have any good reason to do it. In fact, I have all the reasons not to do it. And yet, BC, I chose violence. I just heard Tookie. I heard her. She's like, I hear you mate Godzilla is back Godzilla is back uh this is Scott sliding in he says i got Luke

trying to impress the in-laws here can you blow it up i cannot read it well actually i have two youtube channels with over 100k subscribers one features features two bumbling idiots, a shitty set, discusses MMA, and is full of technical problems. The other is called Morning Comment. Yeah, that's fucking hilarious. Oh, my God, Luke. That's funny because it's true. Damn it. Yeah, but here's why it wouldn't be true

is because I just wouldn't be talking about it. I've given up. Yeah, I hear you, Luke. You're about to give up on me. This is fromty m-a-l-t-e hey luke in bc it's a malty from germany if that's a name pronounceable for y'all americans it's not it's not uh either way here's my attempt at giving luke a bit of crap for his varying degrees of attention that's being paid when the greatest bbc of them all speaks his art. Much love to you, two donks. Yes, but here's the difference.

When the fighter is talking inside, I'm thinking about doing all the things on the other side of the screen. Yeah, yeah, you are. By the way, that's actually not my phone cover, but now that I see that, I may have to make a change, BC. I may have to call an audible. This is from Manuel. Hi, I hope Luke knows what we're doing.

Hint, it's an old pic in Columbia from before Christmas. Thanks for the content. I haven't missed an episode since the beginning of the quarantine. Luke, what Colombian-based holiday thing are they doing in MK Gear? I forgot the name of this, but it's actually called the Festival of Candles. Candles is in the word of it, candle day or candle night something like that my wife doesn't do it anymore she has told me about it so i've actually never seen it but i have heard her reference it dude you have to like understand something like colombians celebrate everything they have they have holla dude they have a official days off from work multiple times every single month.

You can't believe how much they have it off. And Christmas is huge, huge, huge, huge in Colombia, Catholic country, obviously. And they have all kinds of New Year's traditions and Christmas traditions. What do they call it? The day of little candelas. So candelitos or whatever. What is the word for candelas? I don't even know anymore.

Wednesday, December 7th, Luke. I'm sorry you're going to have to tell your in-laws Pearl Harbor Day, Luke. That's, you know. Yeah. Anyway, my wife doesn't celebrate this particular one, but she gets mad at me because I'm always like, I don't even know what the fuck half the shit is for. Yeah.

You know, so. All right. Well done. This is Tom. He says, thanks for sharing your favorite movie, Luke. Ran by Kurosawa. I just watched it on your recommendation, and I can see why it made such a big impression.

A cinematic masterpiece. Luke, this looks a little dicey here, Luke. I don't know if I could be part of this meme here. Dude, this is... I've peaked. This is it. This is my Holly Ronda Rousey moment right here. That I could not think of a bigger honor

than getting absolutely roasted by our audience and using Akira Kurosawa in my favorite film to make the point. This is high art, buddy. You want to talk about art, BC? That's art. I mean, he did make mad films, and when he did, Luke,

there was often a samurai, right? Seven samurai. He made a bunch of samurai movies yeah you know I yeah all right uh this danger mouse to close us off here Luke uh hi BC I'm back again with another couple of movie based subs I've named the first one not so cool hand Luke let's see that first one first please when luke wants to move the show along where bc keeps making jokes what we've got here is a failure to communicate and i was going to save the second one until a new episode of rsd came out but instead i'll use it to ask the question when is it happening you've been teasing us that something might be coming so what's the score guys when are we drinking,

watching the neighbor's porn and calling everyone a bitch again? Luke, I think he's talking about pregame preview, right? Well, you know what? Here's what they want from us. This is what I've kind of figured out.

They, I don't, I don't think that they, and I also pointed out, it's like, you know, Glover can't really drink, like wait till we get a fighter in studio who can drink with us.

Then it's a whole new ballgame. But there's definitely an appetite for alcohol or Delta-8-infused conversations and stories about our lives that people like. There is a real demand for that from the P1s. And we got one way or the other. Doesn't matter how we do it. We have to give them that a little bit.

A little bit. I mean, as long as we can do it without getting fired luke or patreon i mean what if we just went straight to only fans we wouldn't be the first mma associated act to take it there didn't our producer tell us about some dude who like i don't i don't want to say the company because i don't know if it's true but like he just has a podcast where he bangs his guest like we just interview and we bang him i'm like bc you know this would be a great podcast for you we could do it in a denny's you'd have the pick of the litter yeah uh but look room service diary is the new version it is coming on so uh i get that you guys are like, we like what you're doing, but we also loved that.

Well, I don't know. I'm not, look, could it still live in some other weird vlog-ish form? What, like the old version of RSD or whatever? Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Dude, it can live on. It can live on. like the old version of RSD or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know, dude, it can,

it can live on. It can live on. We just have to, uh, we have to package it correctly. Yeah. I like a good package when it comes to that shit. All right. Those are the fan subs.

Thank you. Morning combat. They were good. They were funny this week. Dot com. Very well done folks. Uh, thank you to our great team for this here show today.

Uh, Long Island, Luke Gaff, Pierre on the ones and twos there, Mikey Mormyle always, always around. All right, the guy's always got our back. I want to remind you all that Showtime, the label that pays us, is really the home of combat sports and movies and beyond, right? So you can go to Showtime.com. Start your 30-day stream for free right now. And, I mean, look, 30 days is a long time.

You've got a lot of good content in there. You can decide whether you're going to pound the sand or keep it going. Showtime Championship Boxing back Saturday night, 10 p.m. Eastern time. The Tripleheader main evented by David Benavidez and David Lemieux, 168 pounds. The vacant interim WBC title at stake. Don't miss that stuff at all, okay? Thank you very much. Check out our Room Service Diaries,

episode one, interview with Glover Teixeira. Look, I've never heard Glover share those type of stories before, okay? You take the taste test, right? You want to see us hanging out? Look, what is our set comparable to? Some people say Wayne's World. Some people say that 70s show.

Some people say it doesn't look like a motel room at all. But, like, what is – either way, it's a 10 out of a 10. Our team, Ashley – led by Ashley. Our team, 10 out of a 10. We love you. Thank you. I think the closest thing would be a mix between Wayne's World and Half-Baked. Oh, I can get down with that.

Yeah, yeah. We fit in somewhere in the middle there, Luke. Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. All right, that's it, though. We fit some, we fit in somewhere in the middle there. Yeah. I like that. I like that a lot. All right. That's it though. Look,

you got anything else you want to talk about? Have a good weekend. Don't drink and drive. It's going to be hot as balls here in the nation's capital this weekend. A bit of a heat wave. The pools are still not open. So I'm going to have to figure out something with my daughter, but I'm excited about.

Look, would you go to the hose? Would you go to that level? You mean the garden hose? Yeah. You'd be like, Tukey, this is the best we got. Okay? No.

I mean, my dad did that one time because my dad's just trifling his shit with that kind of thing. But I would go and just get like an... If worse comes to worse, I'll just go to Dick's Sporting Goods and get like a big ass family inflatable pool or something for the backyard. Yeah. What's your name get you down the other day? Oh, here we go. Okay, I'll bite. What's-you-mean-who-got-me-down? He's nuts.

I'll stop that shit. All right, that's Luke Thomas. He's washed, and he's directly from the 90s. My name is Brian Campbell. Thank you for watching the award-winning best damn combat sports show, period. It's morning combat. the 90s. My name is Brian Campbell. Thank you for watching the award-winning Best Damn Combat Sports Show. Period. It's morning combat. Tip your waitresses

like, subscribe, all that good business. Take care of yourselves. Be safe. Okay? Hard work good and hard work fine. But first taste care of Ed. We out.