MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Errol Spence Jr. vs. Yordenis Ugas | Bellator 277 | UFC Vegas 51 | Ep. 289

Episode Date: April 15, 2022

Episode 289 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell are live in Dallas Texas to preview Errol Spence Jr. vs. Yordenis Ugas. What are the keys to victory for each fighter? Next up the guys preview Bellator 277: McKee vs. Pitbull 2. Can AJ McKee defeat Pitbull again? Who wins the light heavyweight grand prix? UFC Vegas 51 is also Saturday so the guys break down Vicente Luque vs. Belal Muhammad 2. Henry Cejudo has re entered into the USADA testing pool. Who should he fight in his comeback? The boys close out the show with some quick hitters and dead wrong. (3:00) - Shawn Porter Interview (8:45) - Errol Spence Jr. vs. Yordenis Ugas (41:10) - Bellator 277 Preview (63:15) - UFC Fight Night: Luque vs. Muhammad 2 (69:00) - Henry Cejudo Enters USADA (70:45) - Quick Hitters (84:30) - Dead Wrong 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

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. At participating McDonald's in Canada. You hear that? Ugh. Paid.

And done. That's the sound of bills being paid on time. But with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, paying your bills could sound like this. Yes! Earn rewards for paying your bill in full and on time each month. Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply.

Oh, yeah. Clear eyes, full heart. Can't lose. It's Texas forever, baby. Morning Combat, Luke Thomas, Brian Campbell. And how about this guest star on Showtime? They call him Showtime. Sorry for my hair.

The former two-time welterweight champion of the world. He's got the best hair in boxing. Showtime, Sean Porter. Why is he here? Because he's a superstar. Because we're here at Texas Live, Arlington, the dome behind us. And, of course, Saturday night, only on Showtime Pay-Per-View, 9 p.m. Eastern, your Dennis Ugas, Errol Spence Jr., straps is in three of the four welterweight belts at stake.

Sean, this is a boon for us to get you here. I know you were recording your podcast over there. You're making a lot of appearances. You obviously fought both guys. You have that great insight. But you're like my favorite person in this industry. So great to be back with you. Thank you. It's great to see you, man. Great to be back with you right here. I'm doing great. Life is good. The podcast is going really well. So got no complaints. Before we get into this fight, Luke and I were...

No more close-ups too, because... Walk us through the hair. What's the plan here? What's the plan here? The plan is to go to the shop and get my hair done When I leave here We only know you to be buttoned up We've seen those I thought this was a good look Until I came over here This camera is Really exposing how bad it is

It looks good over there They like to shoot us so we look Bulgy in the cross They try to make us so we look bulgy in the cross. Not the good way. They try to make us look as bad as possible. So welcome to the club, Sean. Thank you, man. Sean, you recently retired.

And it was a, I got to give you credit. You fought Terrence Crawford last fall. Pay-per-view. Two networks. Two rivals. Sides of the street come together. It was great for boxing. Dude, I never got to talk to you personally or privately since then.

No, we have not. Bro, you put on a hell of a performance and a losing effort. Yeah. And then just up and decided to retire. So, of course, Luke and I are going to praise you and say you're going out on your own terms as a star, former champion. Yeah. Did you know you were going to do that after that fight? I did.

I don't think it's much of a secret now that I knew I was going to do it. But I think overall, I think people have asked me, hey, man, how do you feel? How do you feel? How does it feel to be retired? And I said, man, I'm good. They say, you're happy, aren't you? Like, yeah, I'm happy. And they say, yo, if you're happy, then no need to even come back. In the moment when I announced my retirement, I was so happy to do it that I didn't have a bone in my body, a thought in my mind at all. No apprehensions should I not do it. I just went for it.

And I think it became, it was a moment. You know what I mean? I kind of had visualized the moment and it went how I thought it would. You heard all the gasps. Your dad must have been like, shit, man. I think my dad and I, we had had conversations. He knew, we both knew that, you know, it was only a matter of fights, a.k.a. fight, until I was going to retire. So I think there was a little surprise for him,

but it was mostly just, all right, if this is what you're going to do, do it. He was sharp that night. I know. He was sharp. If you had won, would you have still retired? Yes. No matter what. That was the to be it.

You know, I keep telling people, like, for me, remaining in the sport for money or remaining in the sport for anything other than fighting who I was able to fight, there's no reason for me to even fight anymore. So once I fought the names that I felt I should be in the ring with, once that was done, I'm ready to be done, you know. And you fought the best of your generation. Yeah, there's really no amount of money that would bring me back. They'll call you with that money.

They'll drive the truck to your home. You know, I got a message. I was like, I guess I should have been expecting this. I've gotten a couple of calls. Hey, are you really done? What do you think about this or that? So, no, I'm done. But you know what?

The best part, your health is intact. Yes, sir. You sound great. You look great. Yes, sir. You made some money. You had some big wins. That's about all you can really do. Final question on this because I was intrigued when you fought Terrence Crawford, who's among the best three or four fighters of the world

this generation as well. I know it ended up turning south. But, dude, you had him. You figured something out. You were sharp as shit in terms of the educated pressure. And let's give him credit for making those adjustments. He had to switch up a lot of things to get that done. You really had to make him work.

But were there moments in rounds five, six where you could see it in his eyes, like, oh, shit, I'm going to really have to work for that? I don't think he never showed me that he was uncomfortable. He never showed me, like, any discomfort at all. I'm used to seeing that. I didn't see that against him. You know, I think for the most part, it takes a special individual to do what I did against Errol Spence Jr.

It takes a special individual to do what I did against Terrence Crawford. I don't think that there's one style that can beat either of those guys. It takes a multiple, a variety of things that needs to be done from beginning to end. And I think, you know, with both those guys, I was able to do those things. Of course, both those guys had success against me, and we would love to see them against one another. He may not be taking checks anymore to fight, but I see him jumping up on every network. I mean, have check well cashed.

If there's one thing Sean Porter likes, it's a camera and a microphone. And a paycheck on the end of it. All right, Sean, we're here for Spence. You guys, fantastic fight. You fought both of these guys. Maybe the winner Chuck. We're here for Spence Ugas. Fantastic fight. You fought both of these guys. Maybe the winner will go on to fight for the undisputed title against Crawford. I don't know.

Maybe Keith Thurman slides in. A lot to talk about for the future. But as it pertains to Saturday night, you saw those guys on the scale. You want to talk about showing up for the big ones. You're a guy who knows how to get in shape, too. Were you impressed when you saw them? I was very impressed by both these guys. I've had an opportunity to see Ugas train.

He just looked very content and excited when I watched him train one-on-one. And then I have an opportunity on my hand to watch Spence do his thing on his media workout. Both these guys look like they've done everything, have turned over every stone. And what we get tomorrow night is definitely going to be a treat. Alright, let me ask. Hardest part about fighting Ugas, who you beat? Hardest part about fighting Spence, where it was

close, but you obviously got it in the end. With Ugas, I think it was, he had to tame the lion, you know what I mean? Like, he didn't buy into my movement. He didn't buy into me wanting to box him from the outside. And round after round, he's coming right after me telling me, come out, fight me like I thought you were, you know what I mean?

Like, I really had to tame the lion and keep him at bay, you know? And then with Errol, it was like just knowing, figuring out what to do every single second of every round was not an easy task. You know what I mean? So Errol was a guy that's going to present you something. Once you answer that question, he's going to bring you another question, you know? What can you say about Ugas' power? Not known for it yet.

If you watch him against Manny Pacquiao, landed 60% of his power shot and stood right in front of the legend. Do they add up? His power, I think, is it goes unrecognized. I think unrecognized, excuse me. I think that he's stronger than a lot of people think. And with this boxing game, especially the welterweight division, it really only takes one punch.

I think the welterweights and the heavyweights are the only divisions where one punch can change the outcome of a fight. All right, so for Spence, the game plan has to be what? Everything leads through the jab. But after that, body work as well. Does he have to press Ugas backwards? In terms of the real estate and who has to define it, who's got the bigger, more important role there?

The real estate, whoever controls the real estate is who wins this fight. That's who wins this fight because whoever's controlling it means that they're being successful. Whether that's on the end or that's on the inside. I would say if there's an advantage or not that there's even an advantage, Ugas has to work

up close. He has to get to the inside. That's who he is. That's what he does. He's not a one, two, three from the outside kind of guy. He's not going to turn and things like that. I believe that Errol Spence can control the range and the distance. I believe he can work from the outside, and then

when it gets to the inside, I believe he's going to be comfortable there. I think that this is Errol Spence's fight. It's going to be so interesting. Is it as easy to say this? Because Spence, obviously, the headlines are the eye surgery, still recovering from the accident, 32, but still in his prime. But, you know, what he says, and I can't get over him saying it because it seems real, is, okay, people want to see if I'm the same guy.

I'm better than that guy, guys. I'm more dedicated and determined than ever. Can that be true? Can he be even better than the guy that fought you in 2019? As a guy who's been through it, I'm telling everyone right now, a focused, determined fighter that's put nothing but their energy into that and nothing else, which Errol Spence has not always done, makes you a better fighter. Errol Spence more than likely is a better fighter now than he was when he fought me.

That's dangerous. He's 32 now. He was when he fought me. That's dangerous. He's 32 now. He's had time to mature. He's been through things that forced him to mature. We got a better Errol Spence Jr. Obviously, the reality is some changes happened to him. I mean, he was part of the car accident.

But, I mean, it's a thing that happened to him. The eye injury is a thing that happened to him. But you see guys who make changes between events. Yeah. And sometimes they don't make sense. Yeah. All of his changes make make sense, including one, he didn't change trainers, number one. Number two, he got out of the positions that were putting him in bad spots and then removed himself. You can be wary of the change, but it's not like any of it is showing red flags. That's how I feel about it. Yeah, you know, when I look at it, I look at it like a guy who, I believe he says this time and time again, I want to be great.

Everybody says that. When you do the things that will make you be great and you're not just doing it when people are watching, but you're doing it when no one's watching, that's the difference there. You know what I mean? So I believe that Errol Spence has put himself in the position to be great. He was already very good. Now he's put himself in the position to be great. You know, one good. Now he's put himself in the position to be great. One time Sean had a talk with me. It wasn't in words. It was just his eyes. You know what his eyes were saying? He's like,

BC, I see you trying to be the best broadcaster in the game today, but your diet can't take you there. I'm under the confines of what it is. I've been judged by this man before, okay? I can tell you that. That's not true at all. What you saw was me admiring you. Whenever you see me looking at you and I'm not saying anything, I'm learning.

You were admiring this glutton. I was learning. Yeah. This guy is a fantastic broadcaster. You don't have to tell me. I've heard it. Because you're smooth, you're personable, but you also, you've been there, man. Yeah.

So you kind of got the five tool game. Yeah, yeah. I'm trying to. I'm trying to, man. I want to go back to tactics a little bit. We all know about the strengths of both guys. The weaknesses. Biggest weakness for Spence, what, a lack of head movement?

You know what's crazy is I can't think of one. He doesn't move his head a lot. But he doesn't get hit. Like, he makes the right moves. So, no, he's not a left and right head movement kind of guy, but he steps offline. Right. He's responsible with his defense.

He always brings his hands back. I tweeted just the other day, like, you talk about a guy that has the basics and fundamentals of boxing to a T. His balance is good, too. You have to be talking about Errol Spence Jr. Yeah. You know what I mean? So, no, he's not dipping and rolling and all those things.

No quick turns like me and nothing like that, but he's got the basics to a T. And the basics will get you out of trouble, and they'll put you in good positions. What about Ugas? He's, again, not so much weakness, but every style has strengths and weaknesses. What might be some of the weaknesses of that style he presents? He does something that I wouldn't teach a fighter to do.

His defense is blocking. The shell defense. I wouldn't teach fighters to do that because it breaks you down, especially if you're in the ring with someone who's going to be relentless and not shy away from punching just because your hands are up. They're going to look for the

openings, which usually end up being around, and they'll move your hands and things of that nature. I don't personally like the shell defense. However, Spence has built himself up to be able to perform like that. So it makes him

a rare commodity. Guys who aren't built up to take punches on their arms and just wear all that, they break down. He's not going to break down easily, but the fact that he's not mobile and the fact that he wears a lot of the shots on his arms, I don't like that about his game.

Let me pick your brain a little bit more. Now, I'm not saying these two fighters are equivalent. In fact, they're very different. I'm acknowledging that up front. No, no, no, but I'm going to tell you. I'm going to tell you. I want to talk about Spence versus Lamont Peterson. Now, Lamont is different than Ugas, but it was still Southpaw Orthodox.

And if you go back to that fight, Lamont was hiding behind that guard. And one of the things that Spence was able to do was, if he jabbed a lot you would see the hands come here and then he would go around or if the hands were here, then the punches got linear. So Ugas is different than Peterson, but we've seen at least a little bit of Spence dealing with something like that. Yeah, I'm glad that you brought that up

with Lamont Peterson, exactly what I'm talking about. I'm not saying that Peterson wasn't built to take the punches like that, but that really wasn't the style that he grew up using and it wasn't the style that he used later on in his career. The first round wasn't like that,

but then he kind of turned to using the shell defense and blocking a lot of shots. And like you said, Errol Spence knew how to set up the openings. Throw here to force him to go here so I can go around, and then the body work, and that fight played out the way that it played out. Errol Spence has the ability to break down just about anybody out there,

and a guy like Ugas, who's not very mobile and is going to wear a lot of the shots, he stands the risk of getting broke down. I want to talk about how live and underdog Ugas is because I thought it could be a trap fight against Manny Pacquiao. I did not expect the numbers difference. The 60% of power punches landed. He held Manny to 16% overall landed. Like, that's CompuBox wild.

Yeah. So it's easy to say if the same Spence shows up or better than the one you fought, I like his chances here. How live is Ugas, though, if he's willing to realize, this is my moment. This is the biggest fight of my life. I need to leave no doubt and fight at an offensive pace that's maybe not comfortable for me. Does that increase his live dog factor? I would say right now this is a 65-45 fight.

Does that even add up? No, that doesn't add up. 65-35. I was fine with the original math. 45-55, right? That's what I meant. 45-55. My math was off. This is a 45-55 fight. I don't think it's 50-50, but it's that close.

There's no surprises to me tomorrow night. I think what we got from Ugas and Pacquiao, we got a completely different Ugas than we've ever seen before. He was razor sharp. He was able to keep Manny off balance, a guy that gets everybody else off balance. And yes, to Manny's credit, he didn't really do much of what he usually does,

and that worked against him. But I think Ugas proved that he can make adjustments and be a different fighter depending on who's across from him. With that being said, I believe this is a 55-45 fight. I think it's going the distance. I think there's some thriller potential, high skill, high pace,

because Ugas, he gets up in your business behind the high guard. He kind of makes you fight. He does. So it's going to be up to the three judges. You can't walk down. You don't walk down spits. No.

No, you don't. You know what I mean? Even when I took the fight to spits, it was head movement. It was going around. Tons of movement, yes. You know what I mean? You got to do a lot of things to take on or to take the fight to arrow you know i mean so i'm really curious to see what uga what their tactics are to open up spence and to hit him and not get hit does ugas

have a better chance trying to outbox the boxer from the outside or making it more of an action fight than we're used to ugas fighting if you you watch my fight with Spence, I started off boxing Spence. And I believe that I was out boxing him until he tried to adjust to that. And then I went into more of the pressure game. And then it became, do both. I think if anything, Ugas, you should try to box him from the outside first. See if you can have success from the outside, opposed to just going in there, going right into the fire.

You know what I mean? What do we do? We put the logs in before, and then we put the gas in, and then we light the fire. You go right into the fire. Something bad might happen. Okay, okay. What hipster take is more accurate here?

Because you've been in some close fights in your times. That maybe Sean Porter did enough to beat Errol Spence, or maybe they kind of robbed Ugas against you. You settled this right now. Okay, Maeve, let's be fair here. I think I I think I I think I did enough to beat

Errol Spence. I don't think they robbed Ugas. I think... I mean, do you send Jack Reese a Christmas card for missing that 12th round knockdown? No, it wasn't a knockdown. Oh. It wasn't a knockdown. I mean, do you send Jack Reese a Christmas card for missing that 12th round knockdown? No, it wasn't a knockdown. Oh. It wasn't a knockdown. I mean, so here was my thing.

It's a little knockdown-ish. It was clearly a slip. I think on every angle that you can find, you don't see a punch landing. However, my thing is, when I got up, I jumped in the air to let everybody know that, hey, what Jack Reese saw was right. I'm not hurt. And I don't think that anybody in their right mind, first of all, you're out of your mind once you get knocked down. But anybody in their right mind would not jump in the air if they're hurt or anything like that.

So I was really just trying to show, like, hey, I wasn't knocked down, and I'm good. That was a good fight, man. Was the corner, did it have ice in it or something? It was a wet night. It had rained and it just was the moment. I think I squeaked by that moment and went on to better things. Alright, if you stay away and

continue your burgeoning podcast, the Port Away podcast, great, great fight show right there. You guys do a great job on social media. Whoever's running that for you. Shout out to that. Shout out to Keith Hyphen. I will say, obviously, I would have loved a Keith Thurman rematch. Are there any matchups that you, 20 years from now, will tell the grandkids,

man, I wish. I mean, obviously, Floyd, you tried. Everybody tried. But is there anything? Manny, is there anything? My thing, once I fought these guys, my thing was just, like, move forward and be better on the next one. So when I fought Keith and people were screaming rematch, I was like, that was great.

Like, why do we need a rematch? You know what I mean? Like, what if the rematch isn't as good or whatever the case may be? And then, you know, we moved forward. People wanted the rematch with Arrow. I was like, I want Terrence. And now, of course, people, you know, what rematch would you want? I believe at one point we did the press conference for Manny and Arrow

before everything happened and Arrow didn't get to fight. Myself and Keith were in L.A. together, and we were talking. Oh. We were talking. Oh, shit. And I thought that I might be moving towards a rematch with Keith, and then things started to move into motion with me and Terrence, and I was very happy about that.

So I think that if I came back, I think probably the best promoted boxing match that I could have would be against Keith. Yeah, that's a good point. That was on CBS, by the way, like 5 million. I remember distinctly. All right, so for Spence, if he ends up winning. He's talking to you like you don't know boxing.

Who, me? This guy. Yeah, he's talking to you like you don't know boxing. I don't? This guy. Yeah, he's talking to you like you don't know boxing. I don't know boxing like him. I don't know boxing like him. I came from MMA, so I'm still a bit of a. Well, I'll take offense to it for you. How about that?

Thank you. I appreciate that. Stop that. Yeah, jerk job. What the fuck is wrong with you? Why don't you go eat some gas station food, loser? I got this spot on my crotch. I'm trying to play it off as soda.

Why don't you stop urinating in your pants? Okay, go ahead. My question for you is, you fought Spence. You fought, obviously, Bud Crawford. We don't know what's going to happen with Bud. I don't know where else he could sign to get the fights that matter, but separate conversation. Let's see if he signs with PBC. Then you have Spence versus Crawford.

Everyone's asked you about it, but really, how does that fight look in your brain? I haven't looked at it much. But a lot, like I said about this fight, whoever can control the range and the distance, that's who will win the fight.

That's a pure boxing match. I believe we get more aggression from Arrow in that fight. We get great boxing from Terrence. And at the moment, that's a coin toss in terms of who wins at the end of the night.

Are they different styles, but are they equivalent in fight IQ? They are. They are. They are very, very much so equivalent. If I had to say one had more intellect and was more intelligent in the ring, I would say that I saw more better. I could see the thinking in the eyes of Terrence Crawford. Yeah, I've always framed it.

Tell me if I'm wrong. I framed it that Spence is the pinnacle of what you can do as a southpaw with a conventional well-rounded game. But Crawford's the abstract painter who can do shit that you didn't think of. Crawford puts himself in harm's way sometimes to get the shots that he wants. It's a little unusual to see that. Yeah. I don't know if he did that against me.

Maybe he did. Not so against me. Maybe he did. Not so much you. Maybe he did, but he does. It's almost like he's willing to kind of take those shots, you know. He's the pitcher that's willing to throw the fastball no matter what. Right, right. You're not a tattoo guy. I'm not.

No tattoos. No tattoos? I tell people I got two tattoos, my birthmarks. There it is. You got a couple tattoos from your time in the game. Errol got the full back done. I saw that. That's aggressive.

That's a lot of work. It's aggressive. I mean, he looks good with it. I just never wanted to do the tattoo thing, and I'm not against him. I'm not against anyone that does them. But to see him get all of that, start slow, but he was just like, I'm going for it. A back piece is a large commitment.

It's pretty cool. We are trying to improve in the pod game ourselves through sponsorships. We're trying to get Delta 8 up in here. Let's go. But you once had a major sponsor that Twitter loved. Do you ever remember when he was represented by Ultimate Sack? It was this beanbag company and he'd show up with the headband that said Ultimate Sack.

Bro, that has never been more on brand for our show. We need to get hooked up with those guys. Shout out to Ultimate Sack, and shout out to Blue Wire. We just signed with Blue Wire Platform. We'll be streaming our podcast through the Blue Wire studio at the Wynn Casino Hotel and Casino. You're based out of Vegas? Yes, sir. The podcast is moving on up.

Good for you. Thank you, man. Sean Porter, man. It's good. I could talk to you for hours. I know. I know. This was great.

Thank you for stopping by. Do you have a final prediction? Are you willing to do that? Yeah, because we were talking on the stage here. We did the weigh-ins. And some folks think it goes the distance. I think it goes the distance. What about you?

I really don't like making predictions. I like to tell y'all why it happened, but I see this fight going the distance, and I believe that this Errol Spence will win this fight. If it doesn't go the distance, I see Errol Spence. You know what I've noticed? A lot of people give Ugas his flowers,

like, okay, he's good, blah, blah, blah. I don't see a lot of people picking him. That's his whole life. That's his whole people picking him. I'm not picking him. That's his whole life. That's his whole life. I'm not picking him, but I'm definitely not counting him out. Sure. If the first round and everybody's like, oh, Elgaz won that round.

I'm like, yeah, he won that round. Like, he's good. You know what I mean? So I believe in both corners. To wrap it up for me, I believe in both corners. Derek James and Silas are two of, I think, number one, two of the finer men in boxing. Yes.

And two of the best coaches. Ishmael Salas, you're talking. Ishmael Salas, yes. With that being said, I believe they're going to have some work and cut out for them on fight night. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. The adjustments upon adjustments.

They are the college professors that are willing to come to the classroom and teach and make adjustments round after round. So it's going to be a great fight. Good shit, Sean Porter. Thank you for doing this. You know it. Pleasure. Nice to see you, Sean.

Thank you so much for stopping by. We've got to talk MMA now. I don't think you want to talk MMA. Hey, don't talk about my hair when I leave. Oh, boy. You've already been warned. If I hear something, I'm coming back. Look, people have been talking about your suits. I had to defend you want to talk about my hair when I leave. Oh, boy. You've already been warned. If I hear something, I'm coming back. Look, people have been talking about your suits.

I had to defend you, Steven Jackson. Yeah, Steven Jackson had things to say about your suit. Okay. I'll be looking fly on fight night. All right, fair enough. Thank you. Thank you, Sean Porter. He's wearing the ivory suit there.

He's always matching. That's great stuff. Look at that. Look at that. Look at those kicks right there. Special thanks, of course, to Sean Porter, who's having a really awful hair day. But he's a great man. He's a great man on top of that.

Luke, we saw them on the scales. If anybody's tuning in late, we just hosted the live weigh-in, which you can watch on Showtime's YouTube channel. It was us two. It was Raul Marquez. It was Steven Jackson. Special guest from the Dallas Cowboys. Micah Parsons.

Micah Parsons, the defensive rookie of the year, was in the house. So, big stars, big events. Luke, I checked into my hotel room and looked at that very view. Yeah, I got a great view as well. Right there. Texas live in the house. A lot of MK fans, I think, I hope, are lingering around. There's fans.

Some. I've seen a few. I've been told some nice things. But, look, the whole point is this fight matters. Luke, let's talk about it. Dude, in the last 40 years, really, since we've been alive, welterweight is the king division. Boxing, heavyweight comes and goes, right?

It injects the sport and then it leaves. But this is just the 12th welterweight unification fight in history in this division. And we're talking about fights like Leonard Hearns, like De La Hoya Trinidad, like Pacquiao Mayweather. Maybe this one doesn't have that same name sex appeal, but it is, stakes-wise, three or four titles at stakes.

The potential of the winner fighting Terrence Crawford, I mean, it feels as big as it gets, Luke, and as we talked about with those shredded bodies on stage, man, no stone left unturned from these guys. No, not at all. Those guys look to be in tremendous condition. And again, you heard

Errol Spence talk about the weight cut and how it went so much better this time. And, you know, you get guys at this level. I'm not saying that every training camp is perfect, every weight cut is perfect, but you know as well as I do, if they're this deep into the game and they're this elite, they cross every T, they dot every I. You never have to worry about it.

It's never a thing. And I have to say, to your point, like, you know, does it carry the same Pacquiao Mayweather name value? No, it does not. But dude, you ask anybody who's a boxing insider about their excitement on this one, even if they're picking Errol Spence, there's a little bit of trepidation in their voice because you have so,

you have such tactically intelligent fighters. You have guys who can do that kind of thing. And dude, on top of that, you know, I would just say personally, this is maybe a strong way to put it, but I, dude, Errol Spence, we'll see what version of it we get. Errol Spence, I'm not going to say he's a boxing genius, but he's pretty close. He's pretty close to that. He is incredibly good. He's on his way to being an all-time great, like an all-timer. And Ugas doesn't have that kind of resume, but he's so tricky and technical and skilled

that if you're not on your game, he'll eat you alive. And so it's such an interesting moment with all the questions, with all the difficulties, with the combining of the weight class titles. The only one left after this will be, of course, the winner here will have three, but the outside of that is Terrence Crawford. That is it.

So it is huge stakes, huge course, the winner here will have three, but the outside of that is Terrence Crawford. That is it. So, it is huge stakes, huge fight, really important. I've been telling all my friends, this is the boxing fight to make time for. Absolutely, and it's like, look, you look at the betting odds as they stand now. Errol Spence, a minus 550 favorite. You're Dennis Ugas, plus 400 for boxing terms, which typically

has wider odds. That's not awful, but it's still pretty wide. But here's the thing you've got to ask yourself. It's like, did I expect Ugas to fight that good against Sean Porter a couple years ago? No. He came on in the second half, made the adjustment, started walking Porter down, and as we talked about, might have dropped Porter and deserved maybe a winning nod. Then he comes in against Pacquiao on late notice last fall, and we're going, okay, Pacquiao's

still the favorite, but that's based on the Pacquiao from two years earlier against Keith Thurman who hadn't fought during the pandemic and you saw statistically what your Dennis Ugas did I mean he in a fight that was close in the end on the scores what your eyes saw though was a fair not one-sided but a a clear victory I didn't think he was going to be able to dictate the terms of his offense against Pacquiao the way he did. And, Luke, how your Dennis Ugas does that is the high guard getting in close on you, but never leaving himself open. His defensive responsibility for a guy who puts the pressure on you is very, very interesting to watch. I bring up the Winky Wright comparison. You don't see a lot of fighters these days who aren't brawlers,

who are able to hide behind that high guard and get in punching range and stay there against elite folks. And he doesn't, to what Sean Porter said, you watch the tape on Ugas, and it's pretty clear he doesn't move a ton. He is, what he does move, in terms of whatever punch he throws, or the lateral movement with his feet and his footwork, by the way, we should talk about it,

his footwork, he's not a dynamic mover, but his footwork is very precise. Where he takes a step, and how far he he takes a step and how he balances his weight, all of it carries massive implications. What you mean is sometimes a half step to the right to unload a punch and right back into range. It's not a ton of movement, but what is moved is extremely precise. And for that reason, by the way, we don't talk about this, that keeps his cardio up as well because he doesn't do a ton

to tire himself out. His defense is stout, as you mentioned. A great judge of distance, a great judge of angles. Dude, Errol Spence, I think he's going to, in the end, be a little bit too much for Ugas, but the early going, those are going to be very difficult problems to solve. That's the thing about picking

against Ugas here. If you're telling me I'm getting a prime version of Spence, if it's possibly true that at 32 he can be better than he was in the past because the preparation is better and the commitment, okay, I certainly like his chances. He's the rightful favorite. But Ugas has spent a whole career proving people wrong.

Leaving Cuba on a treacherous journey, which every Cuban exiling has some wild story that they've overcome. And then what I don't think is talked about enough, Ugas in 2014-ish is this interesting prospect with a Cuban amateur background, but loses two in a row.

He's suddenly 15-3, takes two years off of the game, and then comes back and goes on the win streak that he's on. He's 6-1 against left-handers overall, Ugas. The only loss came against Emmanuel Robles way back during that losing streak, and it was so early in his rise. He got

dropped, he faded late. He doesn't do that anymore. He's such an interesting test for anybody, but he has the potential to make this such an interesting chess match for Spence. So, if I try to get in my mind's eyes, Luke, and figure out what is this fight going to look like? I asked Sean Porter this, I want to ask you this

because it's a tilted question. If Ugas' plan is to try to outbox Spence, I think he loses by decision and he doesn't win this. If his idea is to come out brawling, it's not who he is. But Luke, I think Ugas needs a high pressure. That's right. A close in stance, high

pressure style, high behind the guard. Yes, you got to be responsible on defense. Yes, the body shots from Spence could be killer. But Spence's weapon is the jab. He is the most prolific and most accurate jabber among welterweights, according to CompuBox in the game. But now this is a southpaw righty matchup. The jab's not going to be as effective.

If Ugas can get inside and make Spence. Oh, I think the jab's going to be effective. I don't mean make Spence brawl him, but maybe do what Sean Porter did. Make the action fighter of Spence come out. I believe that is Ugas' best chance to win the fight. Do you agree with me? I do agree. I do agree completely. Just think about it rationally.

We talk about this all the time in MMA, but it's a similar rule for boxing, but a little bit different because I do believe that the guys in boxing have better footwork and better ring craft to move around, so it's a little bit less true, but still true if errol spence has room to move to set up jabs to angle off to work into body work you guys have to understand something spence is very good about lining up

things and then changing the angle of it ever so slightly so it's the same combination work sometimes but now the targeting of the where he's hitting it is totally different. He is able to mix these in in a very unpredictable kind of way. So that's really difficult for him. That's a really strong thing of him. He's able to move a lot. If he's able to time the jab and work off the angles, it's hard to see exactly how Ugas can

win that. Conversely, if Ugas can control not just the real estate between himself and Spence, but the real estate behind Spence. I think it's going to be key. Not just getting Spence up against the ropes. You've got to work up against the ropes. Those are valuable moments that he's going to have to take clear advantage of.

And if he does, if he really can work him over there, that's going to be a very tough thing for Spence to deal with. So pay attention. The distance between them and then what's behind Spence. If he's got all that room to move, I don't know what Ugas is going to do. That's what Mikey Garcia found out when Spence purposely stood on the outside and outboxed him and said, I want to prove to you what I can do.

Ugas is going to have to make... All championship adjustments are needed in a fight this big, but there's an equation for Ugas that I think might be tough to swallow. It's this. Even if he executes his game plan to perfection, if Spence has no lingering effects from the things that have held him back, it still might not be enough.

Correct. Do you believe that to be true? I believe that's absolutely correct. He's got to go in there and do more than... Well, I don't know what the game plan is. If the game plan is to back up Spence, then yes, you could do everything you game plan for, and then you might win.

But I think even if he's still successful in counterboxing at times, that won't be enough. You really have to control Errol Spence. But Spence's chin is so good, nobody really hurts him. That's the problem. Fair enough, but he's also 33 with the time off, and he's in good shape. I'm not expecting the chin to deteriorate, but at a bare minimum, you've got to test it. You have to make Spence second guess, because if he can just begin to build off the jab,

and the jab to the body work, dude, he is going to be off to the races. He's a great body player. He's going to be off to the races. People don't talk about him enough, Spence. No, dude, and his targeting of the body is so precise. Also, one thing we don't talk about enough, I kind of went into it a little bit. The lead hand of Errol Spence does a ton of work. He doesn't just jab with it, as you mentioned.

He is prodigious with it, landing seven jabs a round, whereas most welterweights are somewhere around five per round. So he's more active with it, and he lands with it, and all the offense builds. But he controls with it. Pay attention to the lead hand. Why do I bring this up? Because a lot of times he'll grab the gloves down like a hand trap. He'll pin the hands to them. He'll use his own glove to blind and hold and push. By the way, that time he knocked down Sean Porter, pay attention. He has his hand here. He pushes down

on Sean Porter and that's when the punch came through. So what I'm trying to point out here is if Ugas is doing a lot of this, let's see what Spence does with that lead hand to grab the hand, to pin the hand, to move it away. He's very active with it. I'm looking for that as well. As always, more content we give you. YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. You can get Luke's entire dissected breakdown of both Ugas and Spence's

biggest wins and how that might play into Saturday's fight. I also have an interview with Spence's trainer, Derek James, that you can check out as well. Luke, we're going to get into the prediction, but just to reset this Saturday, it's pay-per-view 9 p.m. Eastern. Go to showsho.com slash ppv. You can order it now. You're going to

need to see this main event. Obviously, it's a stacked pay-per-view main card, which also has Yuriy Skamboa, the veteran in the co-main against Isak Pitbull Cruz. We just saw Cruz against Gervonta Davis. He missed weight the first time around. He'll come back a second time. That's something to watch. We've got Josecito Lopez going

in there against unbeaten Jose Valenzuela and also Cody Crowley, 20-0 the welterweight. First big step-up test against Josecito Lopez. But Luke, we also have a two-fight, I don't want to call it a preview card, ahead of this pay-per-view. It goes down 7 p.m. Eastern on Saturday on both regular Showtime

and on Showtime's YouTube channel. It's a special Showtime Championship Boxing Edition, two fights. I'll be on the call along with my traditional showbox team of Barry Tompkins, Raul Marquez, and Steve Farhood. And, Luke, this main event for the secondary WBA welterweight title, which has Raja Butaev against Stanionis, my Lithuanian brother. My Montes Stanionis. Luke, there's going to be fireworks in this one,

so people should definitely check that one out as well. This is fun. If you have Showtime, you can watch it on Showtime. If not, you can hear BC, Raul Marquez. Is Barry Tompkins on the call as well? Absolutely. So they're going to be calling that. Those are free. Those are going to be starting at 7 p.m. Eastern tomorrow. Check that out. Luke, main event pick, and obviously this is a monster weekend for Showtime Sports in general.

We're going to get to the Bellator card, which is tonight in a second, along with UFC. Spence, who wins and why? I'm going to go Errol Spence. I think Errol Spence is a balk. Again, if he's not a genius, he's pretty goddamn close to it. I think he has got way too many tools to win. Like everyone else, I recognize we are probably underestimating Ugas on some level. We're going to see what that level is on Saturday night,

but you're asking me for the pick. I'm going to go Errol Spence by decision Saturday night. Yeah, I like Spence by decision. I think it'll be unanimous. I think it'll be close. There's going to be ebbs and flows. There's going to be adjustments that are needed. I do think Ugas will surprise,

but there's another surprise that can happen. That Spence is even better than we think he is. And you say, BC, how is that possible? He's already got the best resume of welterweights right now. Look, I still don't think that man, Errol Spence, has been pushed to the absolute limit of what's in him. Sean Porter came close. Pulled that dog out of him.

So what I'm saying is, the better Ugas performs, the better Spence will perform across from him. Also, I would say, I've seen Spence tested physically. Ugas will test him physically as well, but I think Ugas also has a little bit more of a mental stress. Yes.

And so that'll be interesting, because, you know, Kell Brook was physical, Sean Porter was physical, at least for parts of that fight. Ugas is not exactly going to, unless he just, you know, Spence falls off a cliff, but that'll be interesting. This is such a great fight. Can't wait. Saturday night, 9 p.m. Eastern, Showtime pay-per-view.

Showtime, though, wow, the home of combat sports, not just puts out great award-winning podcasts like the one you're watching right now, but tonight, San Jose. No, is it San Jose? San Jose. California, Bellator 277. And, Luke, this is a double main event, they're calling it. And these two title fights, I mean, they could headline any MMA card in the world.

AJ McKee, Patricio Pitbull, two for the Bellator MMA featherweight title. They met in the finals of the World Grand Prix last year, and Luke, within, what, a minute and some change, we saw AJ McKee put it on the damn Pitbull, the face of the franchise, the greatest fighter, pound for pound, in Bellator history, and it was over like that. Guillotine choke. He basically took the best fighter, pound for pound in that company,

put him in his own finishing move, and choked him out after beating him down. Yes. I mean, you know, that's fine. We don't need it. Luke, as it pertains, I don't even think people realize how great the second fight was. The first fight on paper was rightfully the best fight in Bellator history. They're still right there, one and two more or less pounds for pounds. A lot of it's the best fight in Bellator history. No, still right there. One and two more or less pounds. It's the biggest.

But even then, that's not true because Kimbo was bigger. You love that point. The whole point about the stakes, the names, the homegrown, all that. Luke, as we enter into this rematch, is it as easy to say we're going to find out the answers that we didn't learn the first time around because McKee was just that

efficient and that quick and that good. Well, we can't. So there's a real possibility of it. There's a lot of debate. Like, what would have happened if Askren would not have been kneed in the head by Jorge Masvidal? Would he have won? Conor against Aldo.

Aldo. What would a second fight have looked like? Me against you if I put that shit in and just went after it. I mean, you would need the rematch, not me. But the point I'm trying to make here is the first fight, I can't say it's not representative. What happened, happened. AJ McKee went and did that to Pitbull, but you've got to understand something about Pitbull in particular.

He's the rematch king. He fought Strauss three times. I think Curran a couple of times, if not more than that. Vyshal several times. Did you say Strauss four times? Strauss is four, for sure. Four times they fought. The guy gets better in rematches. Here's the thing for me, BC. Here's what I'm watching for.

Dude, AJ McKee is so fast and so explosive and so full of confidence. He went in there and just, I'm not saying he didn't take Pitbull seriously, but he went in there fully in command of his own greatness. Like, I am inevitable. I am Thanos. If I'm Pitbull, I think you have to respect that a little bit. He needs to go in there, and Pitbull is well-rounded at this point. He's used to getting people out of there with the hands. I think this time you should wrestle AJ McKee. AJ McKee has shown some weaknesses. Not so much that he's a bad wrestler.

Who's put AJ on his back in Bellator? Derek Campos was arguably, I'm not going to say beating him, but was taking him down and kind of giving him problems up until he got triangled in the third round. Darion Caldwell is a guy who can wrestle pretty well. So like what Gleason Tebow did to Young Habib? No, because Campos took down McKee. Like, McKee was off of his back for several rounds. So what I'm pointing out is, even if Pitbull can't do that,

you don't have to hold him down. But, dude, you've got to make McKee face doubt. You've got to make McKee back up. You have to make McKee go to second, third-order attacks. If he can just go up there and then flow with it like he does, dude, he's going to be his range. If you noticed how well a guy like McKee with his speed and his decision-making can cover distance,

it's like lightning he can do it. You've got to take that away from him. If McKee is able to have a similar mind-blowing minute-and-a-half efficient finish where you're just like, what the damn hell? I mean, is he the – he already calls himself the Mayweather of MMA. Is he like the Tiger Woods of MMA if that happens? I mean, Luke, hyperbole is – Well, Tiger Woods has made $2 billion in his career. He's got a libido and a half too, okay?

There are degrees, Luke, of hyperbole here. But if A.J. McKee beats Pitbull a second time, and if he does it in any way that's thorough and convincing, I mean, dude, we are... Forget about this idea of, oh, whoever wins this light heavyweight grand prix could be the best light heavyweight in the world. McKee's among the best fighters on the globe if this happens. You beat Pitbull twice, especially if you do it

by stoppage twice. I just don't think folks understand how good that is. And again, I'm going to repeat it one more time. When they met in the finals of the featherweight Grand Prix, understand Pitbull didn't limp his way in there. He beat the shit out of everyone to face McKee in the finals.

Emmanuel Sanchez. Dude, he just ran over the folks they put in front of him. So he's still a viable contender in this particular case, but he's still very much with it. This is going to be for a guy who is known for performing much better in rematches. And also, we should say this. Pressure is on both guys. Pressure is on Pitbull.

You don't get this one back. Hard to know where you go from here. Well, we start talking about what other big money fights are left in your career. That's what we start talking about. That's right. Yet if he wins this and wins back the title, we're probably talking about a trilogy with McKee. So, look, I want McKee to be tested here.

I want this to go rounds. I want to find out exactly what he's made of. I want him on his back. I want to see a lot of these different scenarios. Again, Pitbull's well-rounded. We want to see the well-roundedness. But McKee might be that great to get him out of there. All right, we'll see. AJ McKee, minus

335, your betting favorite. Patricio Pitbull, plus 260. It's pretty high. You gotta love McKee, but dude, if I'm a gambler, and I'm not, Luke, because I'm a cheap bastard. You know that about me. I'm sorry, it's a character flaw. I'm a cheap fucking skate.

Because I've been skating on sneakers, no wheels. DeCano, as my wife would say. Gringo Tocano. Tocano, yeah. Gringo Tocano. Yo, we met a couple Colombians here. We did. We did. They recognized you. They did. I understand these people.

Luke, you know, if I was a gambler, I might be throwing plus money here at Pitbull. If you're Pitbull, though, how do you win this? Wrestling, you mentioned, does it behoove you to try to brawl McKee? Or is that just walking into a spiderweb? Leave a message and I'll call you back. I think that's definitely the old

Gwen Stefani, 1996. No doubt, bro. No doubt about it. I just feel like, I'm not saying that, it's kind of crazy. Isn't it crazy to say, I don't know if Pitbull can win a striking match with AJ McKee? I think it's crazy to create. But do you agree with me, at least to start,

you've got to slow McKee down. If McKee has all that youthful energy and ability and confidence, you're fighting one version of him. You have to have a little bit of patience, drain him, and then start the fight. And then if you do that, it's very much a different ballgame. Well, McKee

has let his intentions known. He plans on beating Patricio a second time, then moving up to lightweight and facing his brother, Patrici, to become a two-division title holder. And why this is relevant, because we've had an interesting couple days for McKee doing the media rounds, specifically with Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour. Luke, AJ McKee

reporting that he has turned down contract extension offers from Bellator. He says he wants $1 million per fight as his minimum. He said Bellator has offered as high as $500,000. That was Ariel kind of yanking and getting it out of him. And he's claiming Bellator has only offered $250,000 for this fight, which he took. Now you're saying, well, what's really going on here? Technically, his Bellator contract contract is over but because he won the championship the championship clauses kicked in per aerial this is fight one of a three fight extension extension based on winning the championship it's hard to have this conversation because we don't know if mckee's gonna win this fight right so that happens tonight bellator 277

on showtime we're gonna find out if you're sc Coker and company, I don't know what the answer is. Can you afford one million per fight for a special, special, special talent that could be the face of your franchise for a long-ass time? I mean, here's what you have to realize. Folks are like, you know, oh, there's two things I've seen. Oh, AJ's asking for too much money. No, he's not. No, he's not.

He's undefeated, came up through Bellator entirely, and beat Patricio Pitbull, the overall up to that point, and maybe even still now, the greatest fighter in Bellator history, and he did it like nothing. He should be commanding numbers like that. But the question you have to ask yourself is, if you look at the numbers, Bellator gives out

about 45-46% of their overall revenue to fighters. The margin for how much they can add to that is pretty thin. So, while I completely understand Bellator saying, well, 250 is what we've got, I also understand A.J. McKee being like, right, not good enough. What I would say is if he wins, Bellator has to do everything possible to keep him, which means also probably calling up the people at CBS and saying,

Paramount, what do we got to do to get him on your network because we need you to help pay for him and i think that's legitimate and real and if they don't put that on the table i honestly don't know how they retain him i mean luke if you're talking look will there will there always be the want for someone this great to go to the ufc and test himself of course he's also hella young we see the intention that he has of beating patricio super smart we should say that he's super smart and look i say that. He's super smart. And look, I don't think it's out of the realm for him to move up to welterweight one day

and challenge for a title there. I mean, it's crazy. Crazy right now. If his skill is really that great, I don't have limits for him in that regard. There are big fights. There's the CBS connection. Maybe there's the boxing crossover. There's a lot you could potentially do, but it will be a very important negotiation in

this world of lack of fighter pay. Because even if he did entertain a UFC deal, you ain't making one million per. No. I'll tell you that much. Well, even then he could. Listen, the best way to get a UFC contract is to not come up through the ranks. It's to be acquired. Yes.

When there was more MMA organizations like Sengoku and Dream and everything else, you would see that the prospects that got signed over there, or the contenders anyway, they would have huge money because someone was competing to acquire their services. So a million seems a little high, but I'm telling you, a guy this good, if he goes in there, and who knows what could be in the next three fights. If he loses, forget about it. But if he wins three more, yeah, they're going to have to pay for him, no matter who gets him. And I don't think a million is crazy at all.

A key lesson that we've all heard, but you don't really learn it until you're in that spot negotiating. Your contract that you sign is not what you're worth. It's what you negotiate. If you can package a couple podcast awards into a negotiation period, you're a big-time host like we are.

Big time? Middle time? I mean, there's people around us eating, but they don't care about us. Down here, it's up there, it's their time. Down here, it's our time. That's right. Our time. Luke, this goes down tonight on Showtime from San Jose.

How do you handicap this in the end? Tough one because you got so little of the first one. I tend to think that McKee winning is in no way accidental. I also think that him doing what he did the first time a second time seems almost impossible to believe. I think Patricio is going to push him late, but I tend to think that the power and then the speed of A.J. McKee really will make a difference.

It's going to be hard for Patricio to have any answer for that. So I take Patricio's chances very seriously. I give him a better chance to win than I do for Ugas against Spence. And I already have a lot of respect for Ugas, but AJ McKee is not here by accident. Sometimes when we get into these prediction situations, it's sort of like, okay, what's the

most likely thing to happen, and what's the best thing to happen for business? And sometimes those collide. You know what I think? What is the best for business for us learning the lessons we're supposed to learn is that AJ McKay wins this rematch, but he has to do it over five rounds. And there's ebbs and flows. There's adjustments. Time spent on his back.

Time spent in a toe-to-toe war with Pitbull, which you don't really want to do for length. We're going to find out a lot, I think, this time around of what we're supposed to find out. I like McKee winning a decision. Question. And I think he has to walk through hell. Walk through hell to get there.

So Pitbull versus McKee, two. We're I think he has to walk through hell. So Pitbull versus McKee 2. We're just coming off of Volkanovski Korean Zombie. What will be more competitive? Volkanovski Zombie or McKee Pitbull 2 when it's all said and done? How do you rate them? I'm talking about the fights. I think this rematch with Pitbull will be more competitive but I said that

the first time Luke. I mean that's the thing Luke because AJ McKee I think is doing the right thing and the media stops this week and saying, hey, Volkanovski, I see you, bro, but I'm not impressed. That's the way you need to talk. Plant seeds. Spray that seed all over the place.

In your face. Boy, you've been smoking that Delta 8. Luke, there are some people that thought if we did another show, if Morning Combat ever got back on the air, that you may have murdered half of our production staff. You want to address that at all before we move forward?

Well, it's complicated because we have, what people don't understand is that we have staff. We work for Showtime. We work for CBS Sports. And so coordinating things can sometimes be a little bit difficult. I'm not going to throw anyone under the bus, especially because I've got my own production challenges and my own errors, but we are aware of all the things that you're

aware of that went wrong, both on Monday and Tuesday. We hate that shit, too, just so you know. Trust me, I had a conniption fit on Tuesday, which was not anyone here's fault. It was a different sort of circumstance. But yes, trust me when I tell you, we are aware and we're handling it. a different sort of circumstance. But yes, trust me when I tell you, we are aware and, you know,

we're handling it. You know what I think we should turn Morning Combat into? It's already basically... Having an intervention with our producers. It's already a sitcom and an award-winning show. I think we should go more like reality show, like Survivor style.

So what I'll do is next week, I'll put out my Malka Power rankings so that people know where they stand. Yeah. And then every week, then every week, one guy gets voted off the island. You know what I mean? One girl or one guy.

You know? And then sort of, hey, you had a good run. Can the audience hear you, Corey? Yeah. Okay, okay. No, they cannot. You know, some people. Yes, yes.

We want to make sure that they can hear you. By the way, could Jay Aaron have worn more Dallas Cowboy paraphernalia when he walked in? Jay Aaron is such a piece of shit. He had socks, t-shirt. He's such a fucking loser. All right, the audience can hear me. Okay, Maneech, what do you got, bro? I'm saying BC, pre-show of the weigh-in, you told me I was pound for pound.

Number one? Did I say number one? You said that to Raul Marquez. You know, I did say that. He might have just been blowing smoke, but you said it. No, all the smoke. I'll back that up, okay? Because right now, RJ, our merch maven, he's number two.

He's number two, all right? I'm going to lose a lot of friends being this blunt and honest. I've got to take a number two. That's what I've got to do. All right, Luke. This co-main event could main event anywhere else. It is the finals of the Light Heavyweight World Grand Prix. $1 million at stake.

And Vadim Nemkov continuing this run of coming out of nowhere, winning the Light Heavyweight title, beating everybody once, even twice that they put in front of him. But now he's got the hard-charging high-rising Corey O.T. Anderson. Luke, great freaking fight. Sick fight. Great fight and nobody's talking about it.

It's flying under the radar big time. And how about these odds? Plus 150, Vadim Nemkov. Plus 130, Corey Anderson. Is that right? Oh, they've got Nemkov as the underdog? No, but they're both – is that right? Did Mikey enter this wrong? Anybody got five odds on this?

If they were both in the odds, then it would be two negatives, yes. Two wrongs don't make a right in this case. Two wrongs don't make a right. Hey, how about our camera guy? You know Phil? Do you know what they call him behind the scenes here? You know Phil from Vanderbilt. They call him Rocco Soffredi?

They call him Phil. Rocco Phil Freddy? The guy in the camera. The guy that loves the old woman. They call him Filthy Phil. Isn't that just apropos, Luke? So wait, they've got... Chef's Kiss, right, Phil?

Yeah. Oh, no, no, no. So they've got Nemkov minus 160. Yeah. Corey Anderson plus 130. So they've got...kov minus 160. Yeah. Corey Anderson plus 130. Mike, these odds are bullshit that you gave me. They've got Anderson as the underdog. All right, Luke, Anderson's red hot since leaving the UFC on his own terms, getting out of that deal. He's beaten everybody they put in front of him.

And, dude, he just beat the freaking bags off Ryan Bader. I mean, he just crushed him, Luke. Can he do the same to Vadim Nemkov? Yes, he can. He absolutely can. Corey Anderson, folks always, whenever a fighter's vulnerabilities have been shown to you, people hyper-magnify them, right? They say, oh, especially if you fought someone who you haven't seen necessarily look as bad. But, of course, they might have fought a wildly different competition who showed you more of one person's vulnerabilities than the other.

That doesn't mean that that's what's going to happen when they lock up. And so you've seen Corey knocked out. You've seen Corey lose. Nemkov has just only been on a tear. But a point I wanted to make here is Corey is still young, just on the other side of 30, I think, 31, 32 at most, something like that. And more to the point, dude, he has clearly turned a corner in ability. He has put the thing. Oh, he can strike now, dude.

Yes, he can strike. We always knew he can wrestle. You always knew he had good cardio. Now he's putting it all together and blending it very well. Plus, he just has good sense about where I need to be, what my plan is, what implementation looks like, how I bring that to bear. He's experienced. He's still young.

He's not shopworn. He's always had a couple good foundations. Now all of that has built itself up to a much stronger degree. Dude, Vadim Nemkov, you can see the odds, has his hands full tonight. Nemkov can wrestle defensively. We've seen that against top guys. I mean, look, his victories over Phil Davis, over Ryan Baer, they're no accident. This guy is absolutely rock solid and legit.

I don't know, though, if Corey Anderson can have that same success in take down, pick back up, take down, pick back up, and then coming off of the separation on the clinch being that dangerous because Nemkov doesn't open up a lot. He doesn't show you. He's never reckless. He's always in control. If there's anything against him, he's one of those guys that looks solid

across the board but not overly spectacular. Maybe the stoppage of Ryan Bader, notwithstanding, that was a spectacular finish. If he just beats Vadim Nemkov, can he win a five-round war here? Just be true to yourself? Be stingy? Be solid with the jab? Be safe? Well, I certainly think Anderson can win,

but I would say what are the differences between what Anderson might do and what Nemkov might do? Solid with the jab? He's safe? Well, I certainly think Anderson can win, but I would say, like, what are the differences between what Anderson might do and what Nemkov might do? Nemkov, to me, he's got good boxing, but a little bit more of a kickboxer. I expect him to go a little more high-low and test the defense transfer of a guy like Corey Anderson. But I'm going to say this, too. Dude, Corey is going to try and put a pace on him. He's going to try and push him back.

The war will be who leads the dance here, as far as I can tell. Can Vadim Nemkov put punches together and put strikes together and an attack together that keeps Anderson off of him? That's really the key component here, I think, for Nemkov. And, of course, I do think he has the ability to do that, as we've seen, but he's going to have to implement it against a guy who's got good footwork, who is a mobile target, lots of things. It makes him hard to hit, hard to hurt in certain cases.

I know you've seen him knocked out, but I'm saying this rejuvenated version is just a little bit more dialed in. So if this is for Nemkov, the test is what does he do to get Anderson off of him? Could be wrestling, could be punches, could be kicks. That's going to be absolutely crucial to victory. Corey Anderson's striking has improved in certain surges, but if he's going to try to strike for strike against Vadim Demko, that's a bad idea. Who would you say? Harder puncher, harder striker of the two.

I'm definitely going to say Vadim Demko. Oh, yeah. But I think Anderson, when he times it straight, when he's able to use the threat of the takedown, faint the changing of levels, and then he can sneak in some stuff on there. And I'm talking about keeping Corey off of him? Yeah. Another thing to keep Corey off of him is Corey's going to be wrestling him. How long does it take for Vadim Nemkov to stop the takedown

and then create separation? Because if you see Vadim Nemkov constantly getting pressed into the fence or bouncing on one leg or whatever, and then Anderson is putting offense behind that, that's going to be a tough fight. That's going to be a tough fight. We'll see. If we put in a formal request to get Jerry Jones on Room Service Diaries,

what will the response be? There won't be one. They won't fulfill it. Okay. Like many of the requests that we make. We're going to schedule our podcast the rest of the weekend. Hey, we won an award. We should get a press release.

Go fuck yourself. Go eat shit. Luke, I like Nemkov. I think it's going to go the distance, though, and I think it's going to be a great fight because I think Corey Anderson might gas himself out a little bit. I don't know. Corey's gas tank is great, but I do agree with you.

It's probably going to go the distance, and this is going to be one of those ones where it's like, you know, three rounds to two. The scoring could get real interesting here. Pay attention to the scoring as well. The one thing I would say is biggest weakness on either side, I don't think Corey Anderson has a bad chin, but I don't think his chin is the same as Vadim Nemkov.

Yeah, who sent him to hell in his last UFC fight? Blahovich. Oh, yeah. Blahovich, but he also ducked into it. He went this way into it. So, as a consequence, you know. Hey, $1 million at stake. The light heavyweight title, the tournament championship.

Good for the winner here. And maybe the claim of the best 205-er on this planet right now, but the King of Connecticut has something to say about that. King of Connecticut does. Yes, he does. That's not you. That's Glover Teixeira. Nobody's talking about Aaron Pico's return.

Well, his opponent fell out, so this is a last-minute one. Yeah, so Adley Edwards, who will be making his Bellator debut, 9-1 overall, has won seven in a row. Mop up for Pico, hopefully for him. Because, look, he's closing in on a freaking title shot. It's like Pico needed a reset, and he got one. He got one at Bellator. They did it the right

way. But now it's time to turn the corner. Now this is not his fault. Who was the original? I forget now, so I'm putting him on the spot. But I remember being a little bit more competitive. In any case, still for Pico, you've got to take this opportunity seriously. It's another chance, another camp, another chance to work your game,

another opportunity to implement all the things you've been working on so that when that elite opponent circles back in, you're ready to go. So no mistakes. Can you imagine Pico against the winner of Patricio and McKee? Candidly, I don't know if Pico's ready for either of those guys, to be honest with you. If it's McKee, it may be a while because McKee wants Candidly, I don't know if Pico's ready for either of those guys, to be honest with you. If it's McKee, it may be a while, because McKee wants Patrycki, so maybe if we give Pico a couple more, you know,

I don't know, man. Aren't they training partners? Aren't they training partners, I'm being told? So, they used to be at the body shop. Was that Gaff who slid in? Yeah, Gaff slid in there. Gaff's like, fuck your top pound-for-pound list on Malka. That's what he just said right there. They used to train together at the body shop. They no longer do. Alright. Gaff, by the way.

Where's he on your Malka power running? He's coming on, bro. His THC tolerance, fantastic. Fantastic. Luke, Timothy Johnson going to take on Linton Vassell in a heavyweight slobber knocker, but how about Johnson showing up to the scale with that limper? Did you see that? No, I didn't.

You didn't see that? No. I thought we were exchanging texts. You didn't see that? I didn't see the dip in his mouth. Oh, Tim Johnson. Yeah, dude, he had the total dip packet. He had like the...

A little Kodiak. Where I come from. Look, that's... You know, we talk about drug rugs. Those are the heroes of my hometown. You packing a lip, you... Bro, I told this story and no one believes me, but it's 100% true. When I was at boot camp, my drill instructors would just swallow it.

They would like... Dude... Not the wad itself, but the juice. They would just swallow it. You'll be... Okay, wad itself, but the juice. They would just swallow it. You'll be, okay, maybe you can train your body somehow to get used to that. But the first ten times you'll be throwing up your house. It takes a long time, but you can do it. You can do it.

On the undercard, your boy, Davletzan Yakhshimuradav. Davletzan Yakhshimuradav. Against former champion Rafael Carvalho, who's been losing a lot. From middleweight, who's going to be. But also, Yakhshimuradav is smaller, 205-er. So, that makes sense. Let's go on to UFC Fight Night. It goes down this week. I believe it's the Apex, correct?

It's a Vegas show? I believe that's correct. And look, it's a week hard, but this is a hell of a very good main event. A rematch of what went down at UFC 205, was it? It was in Madison Square Garden. I remember interviewing the winner backstage after the knockout when Vicente Luque sent Bilal Muhammad to the Deep Dark Realm. I think it was a first-round finish.

It was definitely a TKO. Luke, all these years later, these two are back in prime, prime title positioning. Are we sleeping on this fight? Yes. What should we be looking for heading into this one? I mean, as much as things have changed since their first fight, things stay the same. You would imagine that Bilal Muhammad

has worked on his striking, his striking defense in particular, his range management, all of those things I think are probably a lot better. But again, it's like, is he going to beat Vicente Luque in a straight-up striking match? That's hard to imagine. Conversely, Vicente Luque has much improved, I think, over time takedown defense. Certainly those Darce chokes, if you're not careful, are going to set you on fire. But again, I'm going to ask, do you think he can beat Bilal Muhammad trying to wrestle his way to victory? Probably not. So for as much as things have changed, we get back to the same kind of question. Is Bilal Muhammad going to be able to wrestle his way to victory? Probably not. So for as much as things have changed, we get back to the same kind of question. Is Bilal Muhammad going to be able to wrestle his way to a victory, or is Vicente Luque going to be able to stick and move, stop the takedown,

or whatever else goes inside of that? Really, that's going to define this fight as much as it defined the first one. Here's how I look at both these guys. Both sleeper title contenders that were on impressive win streaks each. They both highly improved guys. They both earned it to get to this point. But when if there's a fault for both guys, as I've always said, they're a little too interested in coming forward. They're a little too willing in letting their hands go.

You put them back in together and this, I mean, look, is the winner going to get a title shot? No, it's a little crowded at the top of the division, but a winner's going to be right there. But this would... I don't see either playing safe is really what I'm trying to say here. No chance. No chance. And also, I think Luque prides himself in his cardio.

Yeah. And you know Bilal Muhammad prides himself in his cardio. So either way, this is going to be... They're going to put... Dude, that's the other part, too. Bilal Muhammad, if his wrestling is working here, he's going to start putting a pace on Luque and slowing him down, getting those arms kind of heavy. Then it becomes a much different kind of fight.

So really, let's see what kind of work Bilal Muhammad can do. And again, I want to point this out. He doesn't, yes, the takedowns would be great. It's not so much the takedown. How much work is he forcing Luque to do, and what kind of effect does all that work have? If it turns into a slobber knocker, whose combination of chin and finishing power at this point,

not back in 2016, at this point, do you favor if it gets there? Luque has taken more damage. So I'll say that, but I would still favor Luque in a slugfest. I'm going to favor Luque. Listen, if you're advising Bilal Muhammad with all the skills that he has, would you advise doing that? That seems like deeply inadvisable. That's exactly what you don't want to do.

So, you know, you start getting reckless at range with Luka, you're going to wake up looking at the lights. But Bilal Muhammad, while aggressive, typically doesn't do that. Look, there's a lot of names a casual fan would not recognize looking up and down this fight. Not a great card. Boy, are they trying to just stick square pegs in round holes, Luke. It looks a lot like your college personal life.

I would say I'm glad you're back, but that would be lying. I mean, it was a decent setup and delivery. Is there anything that jumps out? I mean, Miguel Baeza, Andre Fialho. F that. How about Drakkar Close? Yeah, who's that? Coming back after two years, he'll be

a minus 630 favorite against Brandon Jenkins, but did you see the freaking quotes, dude? Can you sum up what he's been talking about? So remember, he was supposed to fight Dracar Close, was supposed to fight Jeremy Stevens. They go to the weigh-in and he gets pushed. Candidly, it does not look like the push does a whole lot,

but it did. It fucked Dracar Close up big time. It messed up his neck. He was getting brutal headaches. He was reducing his mobility. It was getting all kinds of back spasms. And they wanted to do surgery, and he's like, fuck that. Yeah, they wanted to do surgery. It was not an easy road for him to come back from that.

And so you have to question, like, what kind of condition is he in? I mean, if he got cleared, okay, it's some kind of condition. But, you know, long term, what is he built for? And remember, Drakkar Klose had a game that was built on forward pressure coming at it. So, you know, you're going to take punishment in this fight in all likelihood. I worry about his future a little bit. I'm sad to hear what has happened, and I do worry about his future. He basically is saying that he's not functioning well from the lingering injuries.

He refused surgery because he wants to go out on his own terms, and then he ripped up the UFC for not taking care of him medically afterwards and how little they pay. I don't know if this is an advisable position. I want the guy to make money, but, like, this is tough. This is a hard mental space to be in if you want to be a professional prize fighter. Or a professional promoter. Or a professional promoter, yeah.

How about that big boy, Chris Barnett, the heavyweight that had that spinning kick knockout, remember that dude? Yes, he's back. He's a plus 195 underdog against Martine Boudet. Am I pronouncing that right? I couldn't tell you. Alright, tune in Saturday if you're interested in all that shit.

Luke, real quick before we continue and round out our show here, is your dad an American football fan? No. Okay, because he's just texted you and I was wondering if maybe he saw you interview Micah Parsons. No. And he's like, son, I'm so proud of you. You made it. Do you think he's like, hey Luke, can you check out that property I have in Arlington? No, but

his brother lives here. My uncle lives here. He wants me to hit him up. Okay, that's good. That's family. Yeah. I'd put him on set. What's uncle's name? Larry. Uncle Larry. Laser suit Larry, right? Larry went to Harvard, if you can believe that. You had two uncles that went to Oklahoma. One played football.

That's right. Topic four, Luke, this week is he's back. The triple hoping to be quadruple cringe. Henry Cejudo has announced that no more teasing. He's back in the USADA pool. We know he wants to move up to try to attempt to win a third championship in the UFC against Alexander Volkanovski. Also talking about taking on Aljamain Sterling if that opens up.

Luke, your reaction, it seemed inevitable for a guy who retired on his own terms and then never really went away. He's been doing a great job as a sort of trainer for hire, him and the captain Eric Albaracin, turned around the fortunes of a bunch of big name fighters. But this seems like the right move, best for business, best for fans,

best for making big fights. Do they make him fight a non-title fight upon comeback, or is this going to be a name we can plug right in when the first opening happens? I don't know what they're going to do, because based on everything he said, it doesn't make sense that he's back. I mean, it makes sense if you ignore what he said and just look at what people do. And, of course, fighter retirements never last, so in that sense, it's quite normal. But I don't know what they're going to do, because he was

saying, like, he was telling Dana Segura when he interviewed him at Eagle FC, like, 54, whatever it was, that, you know, listen, it's kind of over. Dana doesn't want to pay me the money, blah, blah, blah. And so you're like, oh, he wants to come back for the money fights. But it's like, are they really going to give him a Volkanovski fight? That seems unlikely, at least for

now, very unlikely. Okay, the Sterling fight is super interesting to me. Now that one I would love. Any fight at Bantamweight against TJ, against Sandhagen. Obviously a rematch against TJ. Any old guy fights would get you fired up? I mean, he already fought Cruz.

Aldo? The Aldo fight? I'd be into that. So like at 135, I'm very happy to see him back. 145, you know, it would be a big fight, especially if you wanted to be huge, but it just seems really unlikely. And you don't want anything to do with some kind of Conor Catchway fight. You don't like that shit. Let's see what he does against.

Dude, Bantamweight has never been hotter. So, Cejudo wants to come back and make it even hotter. Great. Let's see what he can do there. Topic five, Luke, let's hit up some quick hitters to close out. People think that's just mailing it in, right? It's a little bit mailing it in. Throw a couple news together. Here's where we got

to start. Nick Diaz going to make his UFC return again in 2022 following that ill-advised-ish comeback against Robbie Lawler in their long rematch, long-term setup rematch. Cesar Gracie put up an Instagram of Nick saying, quote, look for Nick Diaz to fight by the end of the year.

Luke, is it advisable? I mean, look, if he can come in better shape and actually do it for the right reasons, unlike the last time when he was basically telling people in interviews, you all made me do this, talking to his management. I don't want it unless it's an old guy sloppy celebrity fight, but again, we just saw that. Do you have any guesses? I mean, do you put him in there against a cowboy?

What the hell are you doing here? Cowboy, maybe a Jim Miller. Yeah. Something like that. I don't really know what you do. What if they did a card in Stockton, California that had the Diaz's and the Cohen main? They don't do good shit like that.

They don't do stuff like that, right? A Stockton homecoming? A 209 in that bitch. That'd be kind of cool actually. Yeah, we'd have to go there for that. We would have to go there. I'll just say listen, we talked to some folks close to Nick and they were telling us that he just wasn't as prepared

as he needed to be by virtue of things apparently being forced on him by gunpoint. I don't know about gunpoint but let's just see what happens the next time out. By bong point. Probably at bong point. Which you've made a lot of important decisions in your life have come at bong point. Luke, Shavkat Rachmanov firing back at Hamzat Shemaev on the IG.

So Hamzat wrote, who is that chump? Rachmanov responded, let him say it to my face, not in the comments. We'll talk when we see each other. I've got nothing against him. We're just opponents, and I'm not going to insult him. I'm not going to insult his family or his nation. We'll fight one day and then see who's better. End quote. There you go.

I'm here for this shit. Yes. Oh, Shavkat Rachmanov taking on Neil Magny in June. Huge test for him, and I got to tell you, folks, if you weren't aware of who Shavkat Rachmanov is before, you're about to find out. Yes. He and Hamzat, I don't know when they're going to fight, but they have a date with destiny, and I cannot wait. So do these two women.

Speaking of which, by the way, I don't know if it's on Quick Hitters. Yeah. New York Times story today written by Kevin Draper and Kareem Zidane exploring the connection between Ramzan Kadyrov, the totally insane Chechen warlord in parts of Russia, but Chechnya, and the connection he has with Hamzat Shumayev. Quite troubling to put him on. Why don't we get into that right now? Mikey didn't put it in the rundown.

I thought he did. Luke, big news in boxing this week, and here's why it weirdly relates to what you're saying. It does relate. Is that Daniel Kinahan, the accused, suspected Irish-based, but out of Dubai now, drug cartel lord, who had been, depending upon who you asked, deeply involved as an early investor in MTK,

the boxing management team, which represents the likes of Tyson Fury, Billy Joe Saunders, Carl Frampton, Mick Conlin, a couple other big names. Also Darren Till. And now the connection with, of course, the new promoter Probellum, which Richard Schaefer has been walking around here for. I did see him, yeah. There's been talks that that's also fueled by Ken Hansen.

Why does this matter? It's not that this has not been in the news that there's a suspected drug lord close in on boxing. The fact that we in a lot, I think, American media never really went nuts on it is dumb but true. Dude, there's a lot of fucked up things that go on in boxing and convicted or unconvicted people in key spots and it's just sort

of that's the game that it attracts. You want to go into MMA, Ramzav Kadyrov and see the connections there. Well, this took front page precedence when the U.S. government now banning trade sanctions. U.S. government stepping in and saying, if you do any business in boxing with this suspected figure, you will be under penalty and arrest.

So now, Luke, the reaction is we've got everybody either lying or trying to cover up. We've got MTK saying, oh, no, Kinahan was no longer with us from 2017 on, even though Tyson Fury, when they booked that Anthony Joshua fight, thanking him publicly and all pictures partying with him. And now we've got Probellum saying, oh, we've never had any connection with Kinahan, even though Kinahan used to promote MMA cards under the Probellum name. So, like, it's all kind of like. And also, wasn't there an ESPN card that was supposed to be aired that they're now not going to air?

Yes. So there's a lot of shit that's hitting the fan here. Luke, the reaction based on what I just said about MMA and boxing is, again, I mean, Don King. Again, it's not new in boxing, but given the circumstances, should this sanction be in place? Yes. It seems right that you wouldn't want

to do business with somebody like that. I'm glad people like Alan Dawson of Insider who's done a great job covering this for a long time never been afraid to put it out there. All that work is being paid off. But the thing about throwing houses at glass houses Let's get stoned in

someone's glass house, Luke, is how many MMA fighters are kind of linked to this type of thing too? Totally. What do we do here, bro? I don't know because it's so funny that like ESPN will cover how many MMA fighters are kind of linked to this type of thing, too? What do we do here, bro? What do we do here? I don't know, because it's so funny that, like, ESPN will cover, you know, oh, a pro basketball player said something insensitive to a female reporter,

which is fine. Like, you shouldn't. That's a thing that you should cover. I don't have any issue with it. And then they just, like, totally ignore that they have one arm of their boxing business involved with MTK. Oh, ESPN Plus regularly does MTK cards. Yeah, like there's no discussion of that. There's like this rule of morality

in media police around stick and ball sports that never gets applied to the fight game. I somewhat understand it too because the other part of the story is BC, like I've been raising issues related to Kinahan per se or Kadyrov.

I've interviewed folks about Kadyrov as well. But the point I'm trying to make is I brought this stuff to light in previous interviews or coverage. And most combat sports fans just don't care. They either already think there's stuff like that going on or, like you're saying, they just don't care. They want to see the fight. But it's like, dude, do you really want people you're in business with to be in business with fucking murderous warlords? Quite literally, murderous warlords. No, that's probably a bad idea. Top rank, Bob Arum, which has done business with MTK constantly.

Bob Arum was quoted about a year ago when asked about stuff like this and saying, look, you know, all this is accused. I don't, you know, Kinnahan's fine. You know, people say things, whatever. Well, now they interviewed Bob Arum and Mark Ramondi did a VSPN and Bob's like, yes, we have to cut off ties as well, which is a smart move. But I don't know what more we're supposed to do

than that. I mean... Right. I think you just tell the audience what the truth is and... Now, here's what I don't like. Tyson Fury did a teleconference ahead of the April 23rd Dillian White fight, which is going to be a monster fight. We're going to break it down next week, obviously. But I saw Kevin Aioli tweet out that, you know,

he's been trying to get in the queue to ask a question about it. Nobody asked the question. Stories afterwards from Gareth A. Davis basically saying that, like, the Tyson Fury's team has shut down any questions. That's the bullshit I hate. When it's straight up, you cannot ask this question. I'm sorry, Tyson, you agreed to work with this guy, okay? If it's public record, it's fair game.

So you should have to face that music in that regard. I think that's who you point the finger at. Not necessarily the American media, unless the American media has turned a blind eye completely, which, you know, we haven't. Well, they have to Hamzat and his relationship to Kadyrov. Until this New York Times article. Until this New York Times article. So it'll be interesting to see what kind of coverage happens after that.

Yeah, we'll see if that extends into MMA. Keeping it going here, Luke, talk about a big-ass fight. UFC 275, which comes up in Singapore. I forgot the date. Was it June something in Singapore? Yeah. We got two title fights. We got Prochazka taking on Clover. And Valentina and Tyler Sondland. And you got Valentina. Well, now you got

the rematch of the greatest women's fight of all time in MMA, and among, I think among the top five fights in MMA history. Agreed. And that's Zhang Weili, Joanna Young-Jaychek, no title this time, but Joanna champion finally coming back. Luke, she had held firm. Wait, three rounds or five rounds?

I believe that didn't one of the reporters ask Dana at the press conference, can you make this five? And Dana's like, do you want me to? And wasn't it like Sean Elshadir one of those guys? Might have been, yeah. Mike Bone, one of those guys? You gotta do that five rounds, right? And then Dana's like, all right, if you really want me to, I will. Part of me says, do we really need to do it five rounds when they almost kill each other the first time? But here's the thing, Luke.

No title at stake. I love that Ioana stood firm. She said, I want to come back and fight either a champion or rematch Whaley. I'm not coming back for less money against a contender. I'm not at that point in my career. She's not. No, she's not. She's a senior fighter.

And, look, I don't know what she got paid in that first Whaley fight, but it wasn't enough at the end of the day. No chance she got paid enough. For, she's not. She's a senior fighter. And look, I don't know what she got paid in that first Whaley fight, but it wasn't enough at the end of the day. No chance she got paid enough. For what she took on. This is a loaded card suddenly from Singapore. Yeah, that's a great, again, that's the best women's fight in UFC history by a country mile. I don't know if.

I scored it for Ioana. I thought she won it, but it was close as shit. Part of me from watching that fight live, and I've talked about, like, it was uncomfortable. It got hairy. You know what I mean? It was fucking close as shit. Part of me from watching that fight live, and I've talked about, like, it was uncomfortable. It got hairy. You know what I mean? It was fucking uncomfortable as shit. Once Ioana's face started getting deformed, you got worried.

And they both would not take a backward step, and that's what made the fight great. But I always said, look, if they do that again, I just can't see a once great champion like Ioana not having poured it all out in that fight. Whatever was left in her, and everybody's got one last stand. There's levels to it, but everybody's got one last stand. I think that was her last stand.

But it's not like Weili's coming in as not. Weili's coming in as weathered goods right now as well with the two losses. No doubt about it. She made great adjustments in the second fight against Nami Yunus. She still got head kicked first round KO'd the first time. So it does make it interesting in terms of what this fight looks like. I think you have to favor Wei Li based on youth and damage? Maybe?

Maybe? I think the biggest question is what is left of Ioana? What is left? How much did that fight and the inactivity subsequently take out of her competitive ability? Would she be willing to go to hell again? Would she be? And can she? Can she? With that much damage you've accrued over time,

it's asking a lot. Luke, here's an interesting fight that I don't care about at all. Triller's back, and we know that Triller acquired what, BKFC? Triller's the vaping. Triller's got a lot of shit going on. They're trying to do real boxing, they're trying to do vaping, they're trying to do Trillerverse. Luke, July 16th, they're going to do a

pay-per-view from a bullfighting ring in Mexico City. That's classy. Andy Ruiz Jr., the guy, remember, he once upset Anthony Joshua for the damn heavyweight titles. Dude, what is he doing? Against unbeaten Tyrone Spong, the former kickboxing champion, who was going to be a fight. He was going to fight Zander Usyk, but then he drugged out. Yeah.

Luke, this fight blows. What are we doing here? I mean, it's like I like Tyrone Spong, so it's nice for him. But dude, I just don't understand. Is Ruiz still with Eddie Reynoso? Yes. Right? I don't know. He's still with the PBC, technically, but

I'm not going to shit on Ruiz if this is a big penny, which it probably is. Yeah, Triller's probably still overpaying, which I get why the guys would take the fight. But nobody cares, dude. Dude, you're fighting a guy, Tyron Spong, who's obviously a very elite kickboxer, but we don't know what kind of boxer

he is. Probably not that great. But why wouldn't Ruiz want to fight Luis Ortiz or Deontay Wilder? That's what I'm saying. It's not even on Tyron Spong. He probably got a big check. He wants to make a move in boxing. Good for Tyron Spong. That's great. And for Andy Ruiz, if he got a big check, too, that's great. But it's like, dude, what is the appeal to the average fan?

I don't know. I'm with you on that, Luke. Fuck that. Marlon Marais announces his retirement from MMA. Smart move. Very smart. We talk about Tashaun Porter in this chair. He walked away on top.

I know, but it's like, dude, where was he supposed to go? I feel bad for Marlon. It was a rough end there. He's a nice guy, too. Good interview. Very nice guy. Family guy. But that was a rough ending there. He's a nice guy, too. Good interview. Very nice guy. Family guy. But that was a rough ending.

I'm glad to see he put a stop to it. July 16th, UFC fight night. Luke Askar, Askarov trying to rebound against Alex Perez. Yeah, yeah, bro. Yeah. Sick fight. Alex Perez, come forward guy. Can do everything.

Askarov and him, they're going to have some scrambles. That's what I'm talking about. Luke, finally, Ariel Hawane revealed us an update on the rumors surrounding the best featherweight fighter in the world today. Zabit? Not AJ McKee, not Volkanovski. Zabit Magomed Sharapov. I don't know if he's the best, but he's good. Here's the quote from Ariel of the MMA Hour fame.

I've asked around. I don't know if Zabit is coming back. From what I'm told, he had almost like this moral-religious dilemma that he was dealing with. He's very religious, and I think he reached a point where he just didn't want to do it anymore. His brother fights, and he corners his brother, which I think is really interesting, but obviously everybody's different, but that's what I heard.

He just reached a point where he was like, no, this isn't for me. He might go down as one of the biggest what-ifs in UFC history because it looked like his ceiling was so high. End quote. Dana was asked at the most recent press conference. He said, look, I haven't talked to him at all. We had Danny Segura play the – before Monday's show fell completely apart. Yeah.

And I was out of focus. Oh, thanks to Danny for filling in. And I was out of focus the entire time. Danny played some of the clips talking to Ali Abdelaziz, who's manager, as well as Dana. And both were like, you know, they don't have shit to say, which is not a red flag per se, but it's not an encouraging sign if you were looking for his return.

I love that man. Who, Danny? No, well, Danny, yes. Danny's Mr. 305. Fuck off. Danny's got some low-key BDE. Oh, dude, Danny, you should see him. People don't know this about Danny, and it's true until you really see it.

I would argue that, like, I'm not going to say Danny has a different personality in Spanish because that's not true, but, yo, he's got a little extra swag when he's speaking Espanol, bro. Oh, like, I'm not going to say Danny has a different personality in Spanish because that's not true. But, yo, he's got a little extra swag when he's speaking Espanol, bro. Oh, shit. Danny spit that game. I will say, though, as good as Danny is potentially with the women is not as good as Zabit potentially is taking over the featherweight division. Okay?

I'll tell you a story. He doesn't have Zabit life. I'll tell you a story about, I tried to hook Danny up with someone one time. Was she Colombian? She was. Yeah. Prize. It actually to hook Danny up with someone one time. Was she Colombian? She was. Yeah. Prize. It actually worked out favorably for a little time.

For who? For him? For both. Yeah. For both. Wow. Are we skipping dead wrong? I can read them real fast.

We don't need graphics or whatever, right? All right, let's close here talking about Danny's libido with a great segment we do every Friday. Morningcombat at gmail.com. No bells and whistles today, but it is called Dead Wrong. It's where we sit on the L's and take our losses. Luke, number one, this is from Cameron. It's your boy Cameron Gatlin here from sunny and smelly Los Angeles. I'm a 28-year-old Army vet and father of four.

Nice. Boys, your show really, really stops me from taking the Delta 8 flight to hell at least once a week. Why would it stop him? Shouldn't it encourage it? I just wanted to dead wrong Luke 47 minutes into Friday's show when he said, what college, St. Vincent, St. Mary's, when in fact LeBron didn't go to college that he skipped. Yeah, I know he skipped college, motherfucker. I lived through it.

Nothing major, just wanted to be a little B about it. Didn't he go to St. Mary's? Yeah, it's a high school. Yeah, it was in high school. Yeah, I know he skipped college, motherfucker. I lived through it. Nothing major, just wanted to be a little B about it. Didn't he go to St. Mary's? Yeah, it's a high school. Yeah, it's a high school. In Akron, Ohio, you bitch. Oh, I mean, dude, these... Okay, all right. Okay, Cameron.

Nice job, Cameron. Okay, this one's from Jordan from Hawaii. Hawaii, Luke. Hawaii. Aloha, Donks. In episode 288 at 22 minutes, when discussing what fight should be next for Volkanovski, Luke mentions the possibility

of moving up to fight Rafael Dos Anjos. Yes. Stating that he thinks he's fought as low as 145. No. Well, didn't he While he has fought fighters who have moved up from 145. That's fair. That's fair. Or moved down.

For some reason I thought his early fight against Stevens was a 145, but it's not. Yeah, so you're dead wrong. Dead wrong. Score one for Jordan. And finally, Luke. See, that's a good dead wrong. I'll take that.

Ben, Jordan, Jared, Dalton, Fidencio, Colin. A lot of people riding in here. On Monday's show, when discussing Holloway and Volkanovski being like MMA's Canelo Triple G. What did I say? Luke said that they are similar and that both fight series

had one of the fighters go 2-0. I know Luke knows this, but it's dead fucking wrong. The first Triple G Canelo fight ended in a draw. 118 to 110, Delta 8. Thanks for the content and the great merch. That's a fair point. Okay, the reason why I said that is it is wrong, but the feeling you get is that Canelo was done a favor. He was done a big-time favor.

Poor Triple G. That's a fair correction. It wasn't wrong. Triple G, yeah, whatever. All right, what a great show. Of course, we encourage you to continue to follow us, like us, put our socials below. YouTube.com slash Morning Combat for more interviews and breakdowns. Tell them about tonight.

Tell them about tonight. Tonight is Bellator 277 only on Showtime. Of course, 30-day free trial. Why wouldn't you start right freaking now? Showtime.com. Get your 30 free days because you have to see Pitbull McKee 2 tonight. You have to see your boy BC

call fights tomorrow night, Showtime, 7 p.m. Eastern time. That's right. Leading into the pay-per-view. But tonight, Luke, do we have something planned related to Bellator 277? Can you tell the audience? Yes. Because I have no idea, bro. We're having a post-fight show live from I think either his or my hotel room. Not mine.

Probably not yours, but whatever. We'll have a post-fight show for Bellator 277. The card merits it. So stick around. Morning Combat tonight. We got you covered. Saturday night is the pay-per-view, of course. And after the fights, Luke, we're going live from inside that dome.

They say we're inside the dome. I don't know how inside the dome. Inside AT&T Stadium. We're in a radio booth. We're in a radio booth. We're inside AT&T Stadium, Luke, okay? Okay? Again, once again, I was going to say I'm glad you're back, but I really don't know how true that is. Luke, everything is bigger in Texas, including my bulge.

For our great staff, some of which will be let go as the weeks go on once we get our reality show going. Survivor style, yeah. Survivor Malka edition. Look at the nervousness. Okay? Look at the nervousness. Are people getting fired again? Yeah.

So you know that guy, Tim, that shoots our documentaries? They got him working on here. Like, do they have Jay on camera? They Yeah. So you know that guy, Tim, that shoots our documentaries? They got him working on here. Do they have Jay on camera? They're just, you know. So does that mean we were in focus or we were not in focus? Probably not in focus. Because Jay was working. Probably not in focus.

That's awesome. Jake, the documentarians here. Filthy Phil on the cameras today. Special shout out to our crew. Thank you to Sean Porter for dropping by. Yes. Thank you to our outstanding panel we had for our early weigh-in reaction. Also, thank you to the crew.

The crew did a great job today with everything, so thank you very much. You can check out our weigh-in reaction on Showtime's YouTube channel as well. We had a great chat with Dallas Cowboys' Micah Parsons. What a great guy. So, look, it's a big fight weekend, so hopefully you realize that there's no greater home than Showtime. And no two washier fellas to drive you to those fights than these two at Morning Combat. Your award winning show. I love this show. I love being here

with you, Luke. I am glad you're back. Thank you so much. I did miss you. I didn't go away on vacation. Family was sick. But you know what, Luke? You gotta just grind. You gotta grind through it, okay? We both have missed vacations by virtue of our families getting sick. That is true. So a lot of

analysis coming your way. A lot of reaction shows coming your way. Thank you to the fine people here of Arlington, Texas. Hey, let's put it together for morning combat. That's the saddest shit I've ever heard. Yeah, that's not cool. That's not cool. For this fine gentleman, Luke Thomas,

my name is Brian Campbell, reminding you, may all your ex-lovers stay satisfied. I mean, fuck a loyal gain, right, at the end of the day? Can we close this off, please? I have to take a dump. We out. Yeah.