MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Evander Holyfield-Vitor Belfort | Silva-Ortiz | Brian Ortega | Tyson Fury | EP 201

Episode Date: September 10, 2021

On Episode 201 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian preview Evander Holyfield vs. Vitor Belfort and discuss all the weird things surrounding this card. They Also preview Anderson Silva vs. Tito Ortiz and break down Anderson's comments about a potential Georges St-Pierre fight... They guys dissect some of Brian Ortega's comments in his interview with BC. Tyson Fury came out with a potential timeline and opponent for his next five fights. Finally they close out the topics with some quick hitters (Alex Pereira, Kyoji Horiguchi, Gable Steveson, Oscar Valdez, Daniel Cormier). 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: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Oh, yeah. We came, we saw saw we consummated it's morning combat the best damn fight talk show in the world period yes you heard it right here friday september 10th 2000 and 21 welcome on in they gave me the microphone first because i can bust like a bubble with BC and LT together. Man, you know we are trouble. It is Brian Campbell, CBS Sports, Showtime. The labels that pay me to hold this microphone like a damn

grudge, motherfucker. Yeah, I dropped an F-bomb this early at Showtime. What are you going to do about it? My co-host is, he's an edgy fella, but I gotta be honest, he might be the best in the world at what he does. Aed brethren in this game luke thomas it's friday you ain't got shit to do how you feeling i'm on my second cup of coffee but it is a delicious cup of joe and i'm excited for friday's show i just rhymed how about that hard bars with a z brian campbell yes extra hard bars uh you have been uh doing a lot

of solo parenting of late uh are you ready to throw in the towel at all yeah i'm tired my kid woke up at 5 40 this morning when she wasn't supposed to and i fell asleep at my desk last night doing research for today's show at one in the morning i woke up wow so your boy is not exactly refreshed but you know nothing that a cup of coffee can't probably fall asleep like this. Or was it like forward? Like in this very chair, I did this number. Like you ever seen your, you ever had, you've had kids. So you ever propped them up in your car seat, but you didn't get the balance quite right. So with that, when they sleep, they kind of fall forward like that. That's what I was doing. I was falling forward like that. And I woke up and there was drool all over my desk. It was, listen, I'm not a proud man anymore

because the proudness has been beaten out of me, but I am a ready man for today's show. I actually did all my homework, so I feel pretty good. Wow, look at the dedication from this guy, Luke Thomas. We thank you for the dedication, of course, of our fans. So continue to like this video, please. Subscribe to this channel, please, and continue to follow us on social,

and spread the word of what we do here on Morning Combat on the road to 100K. If you're new, it's live show every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at this time, 11 a.m. Eastern, MK, all day, nearly every day with plenty of bonus content as well. We'll get into some of that as the show progresses. Friday's here. No J Friday. We set the stage for the weekend and there'd be no better way to spend your weekend than to put on the clothes that we wear here at Morning Combat dot store. And we got three new pieces of merch today.

Three new t-shirts. So check that out. There's a couple other new designs, mugs, hats that you may not have seen of late. More to come, by the way. Some big things to come. So check out morningcombat.store. Also, Showtime, the only place in the States, at least, you can watch Bellator MMA.

You got championship boxing. You got a lot of great stuff. So go to showtime.com. Take your 30-day free challenge right now. And as Luke often says, if you don't like it, go F yourself. Or pound sand. Either or. Either or.

It's a nicer way to say it. But we hope you take that Pepsi challenge, as Luke would say as well. A lot of Luke would say stuff here. Why not just let Luke host? Oh, I don't know why, because on Fridays it's so good with BC here. Luke, a lot of people are saying maybe this should have been the original plan. I just speak for the people, by the people. Speaking of people that are supporting us, Luke, how about our folks over there at DraftKings?

I want our people, our listeners to realize that, as already do it, look, it's NFL season. Fire up your freaking tailgate. Get back in the action. You can't get on the field, but you can have a little action in the game while you're watching. So why don't you download the DraftKings Sportsbook app, the official sports betting partner, of course, of the NFL. And with the NFL returning, it's a new customer deal here that we're offering $200 in free bets instantly when you bet $1 or more on any football game. That's a deal you can't pass up, okay? Why not put a little action on the action, if you will?

Head on over to the DraftKings Sportsbook now, place that bet, get your $200 free, have a little fun with it. If Sportsbook is not available in your state DraftKings still has huge cash prizes up for grabs all season long with our daily fantasy contests and for week one Luke how about this DraftKings giving all new customers a free shot at one million dollars of a top prize so uh there's nothing more to say but but do it download the app it's called DraftKings Sportsbook now.

Use the promo code COMBAT. Here's the important part. That's with a K, K-O-M-B-A-T, and receive your $200 free for making a $1 bet. Not a bad deal, Luke, if you can get it. Luckily for our listeners, they can, okay? And I'm looking at the app. If you wonder what I'm looking at,

everyone thinks I'm reading my emails. I'm not. I'm actually on the Sportsbook app right now. See if you can see it. I'll pull it up a little bit closer. Yes, there it is. And I'm looking at, everyone thinks I'm reading my emails. I'm not. I'm actually on the Sportsbook app right now. See if you can see it. Let me pull it up a little bit closer. Yes, there it is. And I'm looking, of course, we'll talk about this later, BC, but my Washington football team plays the LA, I keep calling them San Diego, but they are the LA Chargers.

And I cannot believe this. They've got the Washington football team as a minus 130 favorite. They're banking big on the defense there and some Fitz magic maybe so we'll talk about that later. Yeah, and BC's far from a football expert or a swami, but I did tell you on Wednesday's show, take the Cowboys here and they

did cover the damn spread even though Tom Brady's vitamins lifted him to an important win on opening night. All right, Luke, they have told us, our people have said, hey, can you quit the one-hour intros and get right into the meat of it? It's time to bang. Bang beef.

Let's do it here. We're going to start off our weekend preview with our first topic. Whether you like it or not, it's going to happen. Saturday night, Hollywood, Florida. It's Triller Fight Club, and they're back with a pay-per-view, and we know the sketchy details. Is that the right way to say it? Oscar De La Hoya has COVID. Luckily, he's out of the hospital, but he's out of this main event.

It will not take place in LA. Evander Holyfield is in on six days notice to fight an eight-round official boxing match with two-minute rounds against 44-year-old Vitor Belfort of TRT and MMA fame. Luke, let's just say it, right? We've already done the morality ethics play on this is this event going to be a disaster or are those concerns overblown as we are 24 hours away from this sloppy super bowl come saturday night i would say this about almost any combat sports event from the trillers to the UFCs to boxing at a low level.

When I say low level, I don't mean like necessarily corrupt or something, but you know, regional boxing, club level boxing. I would say it's no matter what. Combat sports is, part of its appeal is that it is inherently unpredictable. And every one of us, cynic, skeptic, fan, whoever, should always have a little bit, at a bare minimum, a little bit of humility about how this might go. So with that acknowledgement, I will say, do I know exactly how tomorrow is going

to go? Of course I do not. I do not. Is there a possibility that it could, if not be the most thrilling thing in the world, reasonably entertaining for enough of the audience to get something out of it? It is certainly possible. But BC, I was thinking about something ahead of today. We've talked about, of course, you know, 58, he was suing Triller, six days notice, the whole thing, commission shopping, the whole thing. We got into it. The one thing I wanted to do was I remember when Holyfield, he'll be 59 in less than a month, but when he was 42 BC at Madison Square Garden,

he fought Larry Donald. And that bout is actually pretty significant because it was after that bout that the New York Athletic Commission said, we just can't sanction you anymore. They didn't stop other states from sanctioning him, but they said your days here as a competitor are over. Well, it turns out you can find that fight on YouTube. So I went back and I watched the entire broadcast, which they had miraculously. Someone had taken the entire thing. Dude, this was, first of all, a terrible performance. Larry Donald was a guy who had once had a shot against Bo, I think, and shit the bed. And by the time he had gotten Evander, he was very much damaged goods

or a guy who had never really ascended to the level of which they thought he was going to ascend but understand something heading into this contest he had just lost to james lights out tony by the way first time evander had ever fallen from a body shot and this by the way was a guy who used to be what uh what would you what was the lowest james ever was middleweight middleweight in boxing middleweight so he got dropped by a body shot with a guy who used to be under uh what would you what was the lowest james tony ever was middleweight middleweight in boxing middleweight so he got dropped by a body shot with a guy who used to be underrated that you know james lights out tony's a very special fighter but i want to point out something i took notes on this after that fight and then before the larry donald fight don turner his longtime trainer left evander his manager jim thomas left Evander. It had been seven years since his previous KO.

Of course, all those KOs usually come from outworking opponents, which he could no longer do. And in that bout, it was his lowest output of any 12-round bout ever, including in one round, he only landed a whopping three punches. Folks, this was 16 years ago, right? So what is it that you think is going to happen tomorrow that makes you giddy with excitement? I think there are two likely possibilities. First, disaster, where, by the way, I didn't think Belford looked like a humdinger

on the mitts either, BC. I wonder how you feel about that. Okay, but he looked like a humdinger at the pose-off, Luke, with the ripped rockets that he's got in there. I mean, we know this guy's only three years removed from elite UFC competition. Fair enough. Fair enough. I'm just saying on the mitts, it wasn't like he dazzled or something.

But that's a fair point. I just want to point out something. So either you're going to get something like that or, you know, listen, Belfort's people, they're not blind. Dude, Belfort is an experienced fighter. His coaches are experienced coaches. They know what they see when they look at Evander here. The other possibility you might get if it's not disaster, and I think this is a very real possibility, is that Evander can't really do a whole lot, might try but not ultimately fail. He has a bit of that Tyron Woodley syndrome 16 years ago where he just would not throw at all, the only way he could really win. Or what you might get is Vitor kind of calibrating it so that it doesn't become a disaster because

he wants another payday against De La Hoya. He can't ruin his chances of getting that, in which case, no disaster, but you might just get the world's most boring fight. Here's what I want fans who justify this, or anybody else, any stakeholder who's watching this. Give me the scenario, the realistic scenario, under which you can look at the various contexts in play here and make a credible argument that tomorrow night will be thrilling you can argue it won't be a disaster you cannot argue it's going to be thrilling it's gonna be gross it's gonna be gross as shit the thing we want to avoid luke is a disaster we almost want it to just be a gross plotting slow you know burn just to get through it because this fight wasn't

supposed to happen and you mentioned the the law know, Evander didn't file a lawsuit, but he filed the demand for arbitration for the $5 million he said he was owed. It would probably lead to a lawsuit. This just feels like, here, Evander, save our event, shut up, be happy. Now, look, I want to defend Evander. When he got his license taken away 16 years ago by New York, he did bounce back from that, and he looked a lot better. He had some health issues.

He came over them, some injuries. He fought for six more years, for better or worse. He actually fought for a world title twice. And Luke, the second fight, he got robbed against Nikolai Valuev in Moscow. Notwithstanding here, he fought 57 times over a 27-year career. What do you gain here? Okay, if you want to fight Tyson a third time, and it's an exhibition, and we got bigger gloves, yes, we'd care.

That's fine. I know he says he's been training for two years i know he's in great shape there's nothing good that can come from this at all there just isn't luke okay and he says look i got technical advantages against uh you know belfort yeah like you know five years ago ten years ago yeah i'd say he'd outbox belfort easy but luke holyfield was the betting favorite until that video came out Wednesday at the workout where he's just plotting his slowest shit. And you know what it reminded me of? Unfortunately, Chuck Liddell against Tito Ortiz in the third fight.

Chuck also got into great shape. Now, you know, I'd put my money on 58-year-old Holyfield, who's always stayed in top shape where Chuck has been up and down. And Chuck certainly has much more chinny issues compared to Holyfield, who's always stayed in top shape where Chuck has been up and down, and Chuck certainly has much more chinny issues compared to Holyfield, who at the very least fought so long because he wasn't getting knocked out like crazy, the Tony fight notwithstanding, the Donald fight notwithstanding. But, Luke, this is precarious. And I think the biggest concern, obviously, is Evander's health.

Maybe second biggest concern is what this kind of stain, if it goes bad, can do to boxing. What do you think this does to the bubble that we keep talking about? I've always said that, look, a big Paul Brother loss or a consistent big build-up, but failure to come through of these celebrity

fights is going to pop this bubble. If something goes wrong here and Evander gets hurt and stopped and we're just like oh my god does that kill this overall bubble or is it not really related i think it would have to be scandalously bad and to be clear like what is the most probable outcome you know disaster i don't know if is the most probable outcome we're courting enough of it that i'm uncomfortable but i don't know that that's the that's like the number one likeliest outcome i tend to think the likeliest outcome will just be a bad fight.

This is what keeps happening when we get guys who, you know, like Jake Paul is trying and he did his best against Tyron Woodley, but he's not a real boxer. I mean, he's a professional boxer, but he's not beating other boxers to this point. So, you know, as I said on yesterday's live chat, for a celebrity he can box, for a boxer he's a celebrity. That's really what it is. And then you get these guys who are kind of past their prime. And Tyson is the one that sort of set all this in motion because for 50 or whatever he is, you know, he looked pretty good. He could move with some agility and some speed. And they, you know, they made an exhibition and it all worked. But now there's this like this run to

the buffet to see what else is there. And I don't know, man. It just seems quite bare to me. I think it would take something very disastrous for the bubble to pop. But what I do think is going to happen, and this is what I keep going back to, if you get prime elite boxers, that is no guarantee of action. It's no guarantee. But if you're going to get old dudes to fight, and if you're going to get people who aren't really boxers to box, at some point, man, you've got to deliver on the action. Belfort versus Holyfield, whatever else it's set up to do,

it is not set up to thrill. Unless Belfort decides to go and you know completely wax Holyfield and and then you know then you get to the quotient of disaster but to the extent he wants to calibrate this to get a second payday you're going to get another event that's just not that great the only difference I would say though is there is an exception to this rule we'll talk about it later that Tito Silva co-main I'm a little bit warmer on that than maybe I used to be. But as it stands for that main event, I keep going back to it. Even if you want to say disaster is not the likeliest possibility, fine. It's not. But I just don't understand at some point what the appeal is of seeing names that I get that people are attached to.

But the current generation of sports fans, a lot of them don't know who Evander is. They really don't. Vitor is still relevant in certain senses. Don't you want to see fights that are fun? At some point, we're missing fun. Triller's breaking glass right now.

Their model is this ridiculous connection between the past and who's hot at the moment mixed with the musical acts, and they've had card after card fall apart for COVID, or sometimes we suspect they weren't going to get enough ticket sales. By the way, they just moved the Teofimo Lopez card again. Now it's going to be Monday, October 4th,

so it doesn't go up against the Yankees game the next night in the playoff. I mean, it's just like, so they're panicking. If something bad happens to Holyfield, this is the low point of this celebrity boxing movement. But I think you can argue this already is the low point, Luke. The freaking commission of Florida accepted this on no notice. They switched it out of California because they wouldn't approve. Holyfield, we're already there.

And then you add in the ridiculously bizarre sprinkles and icing on top of this shit cake, Luke. As we teased and talked about a few days ago, this broadcast is as weird, and it's by design, as it can be. It was supposed to be 72-year-old Hall of Famer Jim Lampley and Sean Porter. Now it's going to be Sean Porter and 50 Cent on the main broadcast. Of course, that alternate broadcast feed, according to Triller, is going to be Donald Trump, Don Jr., Jorge Masvidal, and our good friend Todd Grisham of all people to try to corral that circus. And Luke, I'm sure you

saw yesterday's final press conference, bro. Like I'm not trying to like, like, look, you can say what you want. Hey, you guys are Showtime guys. You're in the Paul brother business. We are. But as we've always said, Luke, when Jake Paul made the move from Triller to Showtime, at the very least Showtime is presenting the Paul brothers as legit. You can say what you want, whether you think the actual boxing and we've been critical has been legit or fun, but it's presented as, look, this is real. This is real fights. We're going to do it. Triller's unabashedly a circus. Luke, Luke how how much of a low point for the sport of boxing which is hard to say because boxing is the red light district right of sports I mean as Bert Scherker would say it is already though the whorehouse was yesterday's press conference when the fighters

talked for like 30 seconds each and then they trotted out Don Jr. who had like a 15-minute press conference he's talking about politics they got Donald Sr. on the phone. He's calling Evander the greatest light heavyweight of all time, even though he never fought at that division. I mean, Luke, you know, political leaning aside, this was bizarre as it comes. Hey, Jim Lampley, well done on pulling out. He never gave reasons publicly, but I think it's pretty obvious all things considered here, Luke. Well, I'll say this. I think Don Jr., aside from being the world's worst deadlifter, you know, is just a repugnant creature. But put aside personal politics for

just a second. I will say that the whole thing is gross. The whole thing is absurd to the nth degree. And all I can say is I hope that disaster is averted. Probably will be, but we'll see how things go. The one thing I will say, you didn't really ask about this, but this is what occurs to me. There was a lot of consternation for years, the last 10 years, wouldn't you say, Brian, from left-wing sports writers about how politics and sports are inextricable.

Not that every time you bring up sports, you have to bring up politics, but that at some point they intersect and you can't deny that. And I think that part is true. However, I also think that they took that a little too far where there was just a lot of advocacy for athletes who spoke out in favor of progressive causes and whatnot. And it did become, you know the look at the season that the NBA had in the bubble in terms of all of the progressive messaging on the jerseys and everything else. And again, you can like it or dislike it. But here's what I mean. It opened the door for people who have a different political leaning to do exactly what they want in the other direction, which is to invite Don Jr. and the former president and whoever else to espouse those causes. I think that we can

complain about it because it's weird and it's unusual, but it's Triller's money to spend. And if they want to do that, fine. I would just say this should be a time for people of all political persuasions to reflect on to what extent does opening the door for these conversations about the need, the necessity, the demand to have politics as part of the sports, again i don't think you can avoid um but if you go overboard everyone is going to want to try and do it and then you get to situations like this where people now the former progressive media members being like well this is disgusting well it might be but you open the door for it so this is the reality that we get i mean

what happened to shut up and dribble when when basically don jr's like you know we can't help ourselves there probably will be a lot of political talk on Saturday. I kind of felt bad for the fighters, Luke. I mean, look, this is their shit show, right? I mean, maybe this was Triller's way to cover up the narrative of should Evander be fighting by just throwing the Trumps at you. It's a distraction, too, because, dude, if we're talking about Don Jr. and we're talking about Donald Trump and we're talking about, you know, whatever the fuck was going on, we're not talking about the fact that Evander is going to be 59 in less than a month and all of the other relevant you know commission shopping and everything else all the focus is on oh my god president trump is

going to be uh commemorating 9-11 by calling a boxing fight in florida you know it's you can't write this shit what you say luke you can't write this shit and by the way lampley pulling out is like the ultimate indictment of of of how bad this is and it was the right move it would have been almost hypocritical for lampley who was like the most straight-laced like he's the voice of our lifetime uh him pulling out whether it was for trump whether it was for holyfield whether it was for both it just seemed like uh okay at least there's an adult in this room uh it's weird i can say one last thing i can say brian i wonder how you feel about this as Between the two of us, you are much more the boxing fan, not just as a way you've lived your life, but for how long that has been the case.

So in going back and looking at some of these old broadcasts, I saw an old broadcast of Lampley and Merchant calling the Holyfield and Foreman fight that was in Atlantic City, obviously at the Trump or whatever the venue was, it had the big Trump sign, and it was in atlantic city just you know obviously at the trump or whatever the venue was had the big trump sign and it was in atlantic city it was at the convention center which they renamed trump uh uh trump plaza whatever the hell they named you know trump put his name you could see trump's name there and whatever yeah but the point being is you know they had jackets on and ties and they had a hbo logo on their shirt and they spoke in these sort of narrative language and they were trying to like I don't know they were really putting an effort to kind of gussy up boxing and you can call that fraudulent in terms of what boxing is and how HBO was trying

to present it and that there is an asymmetry there fine but Triller's not even trying no like they're not trying to promote boxing in any kind of way that makes boxing look good in fact they're trying to do the opposite if you're a boxing fan you should reflect on who do you want to give your money to to make boxing look good or bad and some people might say i don't like jake paul i don't want to give showtime money make that call as a consumer you know you can do what you want but you should reflect on the fact that triller is absolutely going in the other direction here in terms of trying to make boxing bigger than it is. Why were you and I so negative at the Jake Paul Askren card and then not as negative when Jake moved to Showtime?

I mean, that Jake Paul Askren card had comedians in the booth making fun of the fighters and the action the entire time. So it's the tone in which you present it. They're encouraging their talking heads. In that case, it was ray flores and our buddy al bernstein to you know smoke weed on the air and blow to each other's faces and drop the f word in just to force it in so it was a completely different shit show i'm i'm assuming now saturdays will be an equal level shit show because you got 50 cent and sean porter i don't know is is ray or todd gonna going to, I don't even think they know what's going to happen, okay? So we'll just find out.

We're going to have to watch this, or at least I will have to write a recap about it. So it's going to be interesting. Real quickly, we know that Triller wants to be in the Tyson business because that's sort of the reason I think they felt they had a long-term model here. We know that Triller is suing Tyson to try to get that second fight out of him.

Ryan Kavanaugh of Triller talked to Sky Sports and said, we know Mike is trying to stage a fight with Lennox Lewis. We have been told he is scared to fight Evander. There has been back and forth hoopla. There is a massive payday ready for Mike to fight on Thanksgiving. A massive payday, one of his biggest, but we can't seem to push it along. Now, I have heard from a number of reliable sources that Mike is too scared. Evander would knock him out.

End quote. Hey, Ryan Kavanaugh just shut up like stop just stop why did I even read that quote just stop I don't know all right Luke to close on this topic um the odds are close but but Belfort has become the betting favorite and as you said it's not like he looked

like a million bucks he does have pro one pro boxing fight but it was back in 2006. I've seen that fight. How does this fight end? What does it look like? Remember, two-minute rounds, which could help Holyfield at 58. What's your pick? I mean, again, dude, even when Bellator,

Bellator didn't do exactly this, but let's be honest, they did some old man fighting themselves for a while, and then that kind of went out of favor. They can be unpredictable. I think the money is probably on Belfour. Again, I lived through, it was a very different situation, but it was a very instructive lesson

when Ray Mercer clobbered Tim Sylvia. These old boxers, I think, are a little bit more formidable than their skeptics, including you and I, I might imagine. So again, you got to reserve space for what Holyfield is possible of doing. But I just have a hard time. You know, when you 16 years ago,

granted, as bad as Larry Donald might have been as a boxer, he's much better than Vitor Belfort. So take that for what it's worth. But even then, he just wasn't throwing. I think you're probably going to get a lot of that. And so folks are gonna be like, be like, why the fuck did I? I mean, that's why Triller puts on guys in the booth and musical acts. Because, dude, the fights themselves ain't going to sell shit.

The names might. But, like, the fight? The fight is not going to sell anything. So you've got to dress it up in all this other accoutrement. So I'll go Belfort and say who the hell knows. Yeah, I think Belfort stops him. I mean, you could say, how do you say that? Holyfield's so freaking durable, but

I compared it to the Liddell situation because like, once it's gone, Luke, the reflexes, the chin, the all that, I mean, it's freaking gone. How much longer could it be there for Holyfield? He fought to his 46. I mean, he wrung out every inch of that incredible warrior spirit.

This might be asking too much. Even if Vitor is crude, he's still close enough. And, Luke, he's freaking 2013 level jacked. I'm sorry. You got to go Vitor here. I think he stops him, and I hope not, and it's going to be gross. All right, Luke, the co-main event, our second topic, does have some level of intrigue here as Anderson Silva comes in at 46,

fresh off the victory over Chavez Jr. He will be the betting favorite against Tito Ortiz. I believe the catch weight is 195 pounds. Tell me if I'm wrong here, Luke. Obviously, Tito fought almost all of his career at 205. Tito's been talking honestly about how hard this weight cut is, and don't forget Tito is also 46 what are your expectation levels that that this fight could save this sad event will we see action what the hell are we going to see here I think it's up to Anderson Silva I'll say this you know um Anderson Silva might pull off a bit of a post UFC career heist here where he already beat Chavez Jr. granted a much smaller guy um you know who's

coming up in weight and Tito is a little bit bigger, but we know, we've seen Anderson fight in MMA anyway, in his prime, certainly well above that, but I'll say this, if there is anyone poised to be able to make, you know, chicken salad out of chicken shit here, with this stage of his career, it's probably Anderson Silva, because, you know, he did take some MMA damage, but his defense is pretty good, the gloves are bigger. He's smart. He's rangy. He does understand striking on a pretty decent level.

I think even a boxing cynic might say, you know, Prime Anderson had some skills worth taking seriously. Tito is completely out of his depth here because obviously there's no wrestling whatsoever. He has to just strike with Anderson. You know, I'll say this I think there's a real possibility that Anderson could just absolutely mollywop him and turn the Chavez Jr. win into the Tito win into now a even bigger opportunity for even bigger money my understanding

yeah he's that that's what he's doing right this is an advertisement yes for for him to get because you my understanding is behind the scenes he's he's asking for huge paydays for subsequent fights so if he's doing that he gets this big win look at the advertisement i beat a boxer i beat a ufc champion i'm still looking great why not why not well look i think the storyline here is exactly what you said it's an audition for bigger paydays for Silva who look the the the facts look bad he's one in eight with a no contest in his final 10 UFC fights that looks horrible but to your point and take a taste we didn't get beat up a lot his defense was still there why because in his prime he had otherworldly reaction timing and

speed so even though that's you know it expired a bit it's still at a very high level so regarding his future because i think we both agree he he may mop the shit out of tito here i mean i'll tell you i had better hands against chuck in the trilogy fight that he ever had before but come on guys that that was that was like a zombie version of chuck um anderson silver was on MMA Fighting's Portuguese podcast, which is called the Trakaiko Franca Pod. Excuse me for butchering that. He said, it's a possibility when asked about GSP.

George St. Pierre is a guy that deserves all respect, not only him, but fighters, Vitor, Tito, De La Hoya. They are legends. I think me boxing GSP would be an interesting fight, but we need the almighty to stop being annoying and let the guy move on. Nobody, nothing coming from Dana surprises me, brother.

I would like Dana to free GSP from his contract. He's in shape to continue fighting. There's no reason why you would keep him stuck just for ego. It's ridiculous. Uh, he went to say, uh, blah,

blah, blah on that. Luke,ke i think although he's mentioning gsp and i think at this point look gsp is not going to fight in the ufc anymore so so can we get him out of his deal so we can make money and do what he wants on the side you know regardless of what that is would we all want to see gsp versus silva in either a boxing match or an mma match with another promotion absolutely luke i feel like if Triller was smarter, they would have switched this boxing match to an MMA match at the last minute. If this was Anderson Silva versus Tito,

both at 46, both washed legends in a cage for the co-main, you could bump that up to be the main event and tell Anderson to bust off, and I think you were going to get buys. I think it's interesting here. Even though he's talking about GSP, and even though there's certainly a debate to be had about dana's uh you know taking over in this situation i think this is a trout for the paul brothers and i think there is big business to be had and i want to ask you a critical question about this does anderson have to be careful to not look too good if he wipes up

on tito is that going to force jake or lo, given Anderson's size, comparative to the boxers that they have boxed against who weren't actually boxers? Is he too tough of a test on paper if he looks good for either Paul brother? Could be. I mean, this is the problem with this whole scenario is these guys realize, okay, there's a very limited way in which this could work. One is limited in the number of fights that reasonably you're going to be able to get at this stage of your career for the amount of money they're commanding. There's a few on the table, but you got to, you know, like we talked about with Vitor,

he doesn't want to blow up his chances of getting the De La Hoya fight. So he has to thread that needle. Same with Anderson Silva, right? And then the other part is you don't want to look so feeble that folks can't believe what you're capable of. So you have to kind of walk this tightrope and And it doesn't allow for kind of like the free, it doesn't allow for what combat sports to be what combat sports is. Yeah, I tend to think you might get a little bit of that

because a lot of these Brazilian guys also, especially the ones who've been to the mountaintop, they like to, as they say, do a good show. They like to put on something that the fans can remember. If you go in there and just completely fucking obliterate the guy, like you did Chris Lieben, it's memorable, but I don't know if it's good for what you're trying to do now, which is to milk this gravy train as long as you can. One thing though, that you're not bringing up that I really feel like we should bring up. Listen, I'm not making any accusations up with, uh, because I

have information that I wanted to share with folks. I don't have any information. I just have a few questions that I think are worth putting out there. Dude, Florida and Triller, we're not talking about a match made in drug testing heaven here. And you guys know me. I'm not the guy who's the drug testing guy. But I want to just point out, part of this old man fighting thing uh is that you've got guys like Vitor and including Anderson and some other ones along the way that have all had various at

times um anti-doping issues or infractions some more serious than others to be clear but you know you want me to believe that these things happen during their career and that they get bounced from the UFC now they're in competitions competitions where their livelihood won't last very long and they need to compete as best they can and certainly look the part to a degree as well. They at least probably on some cases experimented with it, used it for a long time, and now there's nothing to be said for it in this chapter of their career.

That seems insanely silly to me. I think obviously a big part of old man fighting maybe it's happening for anderson maybe it's not i don't know but in general it's hard for me to believe that drug use is not a huge part of what is happening here and driving some of this rejuvenation well i mean evander holyfield has had more than a little whisper throughout his pro boxing career as well luke google ev Evan Fields for more information on that. Yeah, I think we all assume and to some degree maybe even hope they are, Luke. I mean, is that crazy to say?

Yeah. Is it truthful? It's going to give us some level of entertainment if they are. Here's the reality. Here's the reality. Whoever it is, this fight, the next one, whoever, if they are using drugs and it results in making the product better, everybody will love it.

If they are using and it results in making a fight that ends up being a disaster for whatever reason, the world will come crashing down on them. But as long as it goes well, I think the fans will just look the other way, which they always have. I do think it's interesting that the Paul brother connection here, I'm crashing down on them. But as long as it goes well, I think the fans will just look the other way, which they always have. I do think it's interesting that the Paul-Brother connection here. I'm not lying. I think if Anderson can win but not look like the Chris Lieben match, I'm wondering if Jake or Logan would want to take the –

look, the key to their success so far has also been bringing in that MMA crowd. They would do that with Anderson Silva. That's a – you know, Woodley was not overall beloved. He was respected but not beloved. Anderson's a folk hero. That would be a, that's a big fight. So it's interesting to see where it goes. Uh, finally, how did, just real quick, how does GSP get out of this? Cause he, he got cost a boxing match against Oscar by Dana. The, you know, the idea is that Dana would probably block Anderson from boxing him the same when Anderson versus GSP could give Triller actually some like good headlines if they were going to box each other it'd be the MMA super

fight that never happened um is there anything legally GSP can do what does he have to do wait out the deal what I don't even understand he might the the only argument that I understand that could feasibly work would be taking UFC to court under the idea that when it comes to boxing the UFC is not allowed to be his sole promoter. He is protected by what the Ali Act would give. But no one's done that at this point. Like you would have to, like you just have to go through with a lawsuit to see if it'll work. I mean, that would take years. By the time you got any kind of resolution, you know, it would be a moot point anyway. And listen, I don't think Gsp's the guy who's like my last hurrah i want

to be noted by taking ufc to court he's so too gentlemanly for that so the answer is um unless dana just changes his mind nothing dana you're killing me brother okay and and and if you think that i'm a scumbag because i'm planting seeds in these fighters mind by telling them they're underpaid as as somebody eloquently tweeted at me. Cheyenne Bays already knew she was broke. Look, we didn't have to tell her, all right? All right, that's a, yeah. All right, topic number three this week, Luke.

Maybe, maybe the best featherweight in the world. We'll find out September 25th. Brian T. City Ortega. We know he's got that UFC 266 fight against Alexander Volkanovski following the delay, following their tough coaching opposition. We also had him on Morning Combat yesterday. You can check out that interview right now at youtube.com slash morningcombat. You remember, Luke, I talked to him in March,

and he was next-level intense and weird and fired the hell up this time he was much more chill and delayed and relaxed and i saw some of the commenters hated that but he had a few juicy things to say on a few different juicy topics including somebody he's targeting outside of the featherweight division regardless of whether he beats Volkanovski in just a little over two weeks. Let's hear that sound now. This is a for sure defining moment fight in my career for me to become the opportunity to become a world champion. That's the number one thing I've always wanted. But it's bittersweet because now there's one man left out there and said he beat the champ

right or he has a win over him and then there's other people in other weight divisions that i don't like oh wow that i want to name them that i wouldn't that i wouldn't mind fighting i think they know there's only one guy who's talking shit about me, a 170-pounder. He already has a fight lined up, but still. There's other fights that people don't realize how big I can get. I'm 5'10", 5'11", walk around 185s. So 170 is not far away from me. Wow.

Wow. so 170 is not far away from me wow wow so there's there's just little things that i think about that people are afraid of i mean for the uninitiated who is this man you're speaking of i choose not to make his name relevant till he actually signs a fight because i already called that so this is a for sure defining uh luke first of all the the pregnant pauses that t city puts out there they're so tilting i i interviewed him on my radio show one time and i constantly interrupted because i could not tell when he was stopping uh Just so you know, the earlier reference I had, that question was basically me saying, look, you know, is this Volkanovski fight the defining fight of your career, or is the competitor inside of you thinking more about the Max rematch?

He admitted that, you know, that Max rematch is really what's driving him inside. But Luke, his talk about this mysterious 170 pounder, you and I did a little research, it appears to be dating back to March when one Colby Covington came out and was all over Ortega and ripping him. This surprised me that Ortega would sort of hijack an answer

in which the question was pitting Holloway versus Volkanovski in his division and say, no, there's other men out there that I really want to see. Do you think Ortega at 5'9", although he said he's 5'11", has the frame and size to compete at welterweight, something we never thought of? And would this fight potentially interest you? And what about if Covington beats Usman and Ortega beats

Volkanovski? This just got a little, little, a little more prestigious, Luke. Yeah, no, no, no, zero, less than zero interest in any kind of Walter Wade action. I mean, so I referenced him being on my show and on that show that he called out Habib, not for any animosity reason or anything like that, just because he's like, oh, I'd love to test myself against him. And of course, guard player versus sort of takedown guy, what would that all amount to? But I tend to think that with the way I've seen both guys very up close in person, Colby Covington's much, much bigger,

and obviously he's going to have great submission defense. And no, zero interest in that. All right, it was interesting to see young T-City, who's not 30 years old, right in the midst of his prime. Hope he can stay active and stay busy, Luke. I also asked him, speaking of call-outs, I also asked him about a fellow City of Angels product, one A.J. McKee, who we remember, Luke, after his victory over Pitbull,

was asked by many outlets you know what are your dream fights if you could fight anybody regardless of political ties and ortega was one of those names let's see what old t city had to say about it um somebody else mentioned your name and i don't say this in a trash talking sense i say this in a respect sense uh aj mckee the uh fellow la-based fighter who who had the breakthrough win for Bellator defeating Pitbull when he was asked about dream fights for him. He mentioned your name. How do you feel that call out?

It feels I mean, he's a champ in Bellator, which is good. I've met him. We rolled one time and I think he got. I don't know if it's bitterness or he says I had won over on him. As in terms of a submission, I don't consider that a win in any way. I just, there was just different levels to our grappling at the time. I don't go walking around saying, ah, I submitted this guy. Never once, never will I even on camera

that to me it's I even said hey champ like listen it was more along the line like you did good but I did this and uh you might want to work on this a little bit just because it's a threat and I showed you twice that it's a threat and uh but you have great jiu-jitsu i was more in a coaching helping aspect never once do i go and walk around and say this i seen him in fights i always shook his hand i said hey bro we should train together i talked to his dad say hey man you guys would be good work together uh it's always respect um i would i would have no argument with saying it's a dream fight. People have dream fights all the time. I'm a fighter.

I'm more than willing to step up and fight anyone. Luke, he was cut off a little earlier there. He went on to say he doesn't believe, however, that AJ McKee will ever be commercially viable enough for that dream fight to ever make sense. So he basically said, hey, AJ, you want to fight me? That's your dream. Come to the UFC. And why would you, given the money you are expected to make in Bellator?

Luke, people rightfully so in the comments took a little umbrage with a guy saying,'ll never kiss and tell essentially what goes on in uh sparring or the bedroom but oh by the way i may have tapped that ass twice i mean do you you respect or take of being like i don't want to tell you what happened but you know twice i did submit him i mean here's the reality though like when was it and and also you know if you've never trained like dude i mean javier mendez told me once that habib's never been tapped which you know i'm not accusing javier of lying i've never been there but i'm extremely skeptical of that on some level only because dude like training is like when you go to train sometimes it can be about okay i want to make sure that i win this round

for whatever reason especially if you're in a fight camp and you're heading into a big contest. But a lot of training is about losing. If you're jujitsu, that's what Brian Otega is talking about. I want to work on my deep half game. Dude, when you start working deep half, you're not going to have a good deep half. Guys are going to flatten you. You're not going to have a good deep half. Guys are going to, they're going to flatten you. They're going to, you're not going to be able to lift them. You're not going to be able to get any kind of reverse or sweep and you're going to lose. And you know, they're going to pass your

guard. Like it takes time to learn these things and some will learn it faster than others. But like the idea of getting tapped is almost completely inconsequential. It's not that it doesn't matter at all, but it's just, it's, it's a necessary part of growth. And you heard what he said. He said, jiu-jitsu was in two different levels at that time. I'm sure Ortega is still better on the ground, to be candid with you. I'm sure Ortega is better than almost any 145er on the ground, but in an MMA fight, ultimately that may not matter and blah, blah, blah. So like, yeah, he kind of kiss and told, but he also sort of couched it at the right level, which is like, you know, at the time for

whatever it was, we weren't on the same level. is like you know at the time for whatever it was we weren't on the same level he's probably right and also for fans who are watching dude training is it's about winning it's also about losing for growth you need both to get better it's not one or the other uh luke just gun to your head who would you favor if they fought today on even terms at featherweight on the On the feet, McKee. On the ground, Ortega. Probably slight lean Ortega because I think he's fought better competition. And here's the thing about Ortega.

Ortega gets, like, you go back to, like, the Guida fight or even, like, the Brazilian kid he fought. God, what was his name? Moicano? Hainato? Hainato Moicano. Those guys were whipping his ass for a long time, and then he just has this unbelievable ability to pull something out late.

He's formidable in that way, truly. And even in the Holloway fight, dude, they had to save him from himself, basically. So he's tough as shit, and he's very capable late. On the ground, he's a dynamic force. he's very capable late on the ground he's a he's a he's a dynamic force but AJ McKee is you know he's a motherfucker too man so you know what like anybody else this is what AJ McKee has done he has elevated himself to the point where you're asking these questions what would happen if they fought that tells you um he is now ascended to a place that is very special Luke we'll have plenty of time to talk on all things Ortega-Volkanovski,

but to close, I wanted to ask you this. I'm sure you've seen ESPN, I think last month, had a double interview there with Ortega and Volkanovski, and it devolved into, surprisingly, a trash talk accusation. You're a point fighter. You're ugly. You're lame. You have no IQ.

I mean, there was a lot of little jabs. Do you think Ortega, you know, I know you didn't watch the tough season, and I know you probably didn't watch this full interview, in which he talked a lot more seemingly about Holloway and Covington than he did against Volkanovski. Do you think he's looking past? Do you think he's given enough attention to the champion from the things you've seen?

That was my one kind of sort of you ever seen your dog just kind of look at you this way moment that was the one thing I was like there was a lot of animus and as you put it attention paid toward these things that have I mean the Covington fight like do you think Dana's gonna make that I mean I don't I'm not Dana White I don't speak for him but I've sort of seen the decisions he's made for the better part of 15 years. They don't look like that very often, do they? So that's a weird one. And then the McKee thing, you brought it up.

He didn't. But okay, so the answers that he gave, I don't know. I tend to think, look, is he fully prepared for Volkanovsky? I do think so. And either way, you better be because I guarantee Volkanovski has crossed every fucking T and dotted every possible I. But a guy like Ortega, he says that the key to his reformation was getting rid of that rock star lifestyle. And I believe that. At the same time, though, do we think that those rock star pressures all just went away? People want more from Brian

Ortega than they want from Volkanovsky. It's just true. Hollywood wants more from him. Advertisers want more from him. Sponsors want more from him. And that's a hard thing to just It's easier, I think, for him to tune out that part of the world than it is for Volkanovsky. If for no other reason than the bandwidth is just much

less for Volkanovsky than it is for Ortega. I do think he's focused, but I do also think, dude, that he's got a lot more competing interests that's harder for him to manage relative to the champion. Yeah, her name is Cortez, one of those competing interests, Luke. And he seems to be managing that well on the old IG. But this is a great fight, and you have to look no further than the Drafts King Sportsbook.

Look at the odds here, Luke. As we speak right now, a little more than two weeks out at 266, plus 140, Ortega, your underdog, minus 160 the odds here, Luke. As we speak right now, a little more than two weeks out of 266, plus 140, Ortega, your underdog, minus 160, Volkanovski. I cannot wait for this fight. I did ask Ortega. We've seen such extremes lately, the brawler against Holloway and the technician against Korean Zombie. You know, which version are we going to see?

He, of course, gave the, you've got to tune in to watch and find out. But I am looking to see, Luke, is he going to combine those two? Is he going to try to play chess against the chess master? Or is he going to try to use his length and walk him down? It's going to be a very good fight. I'm getting a little giggly and pumped up, Luke, just thinking about it. And again, even if Volkanovsky wins the first four rounds, it's not like he put a beating on Max, right?

So by round five, was Max beaten up? Now, Max is not Ortega, but to the point I've been raising earlier, if Volkanovski is, let's say, judicious with his striking, we already know Ortega is game late. That one could be interesting. That one's going to be one you have to watch full entirety, full attention. Can't take any breaks. Luke, you know, to be this job, to be an interviewer,

an investigative journalist on this level, you do have to ask the hard questions. And I saw that little, I don't know, hesitation, the little twinkle of your eye that's wondering, BC, did you do it? Did you go back to the freaking well? You were unsuccessful in March when you asked Brian for the details about his relationship with Halle Berry. Did you try

once more? Luke, you know, it's given the nature of my job. You're damn right I did. Let's see what Ortega had to say. Speaking of fantasy matchmaking, there's a lot of people that were hoping that you and Halle Berry had sealed the deal. I'm sorry to say it out loud, okay? Those people can, can, can,

you know, they can, they can, they can, it's all fantasy all right thank you very much uh sliding out of that awkwardness to close here uh we can't wait for this fight ufc 266 september 25th las vegas uh luke you know like teddy kgb with the Oreos, you saw the... Echo, echo. You saw... You saw the... You saw the twinkle of his smile there, Luke. I got two words for you.

He smashed, brother. Yeah. Yeah, right? I mean mean you know yeah right yeah yeah definitely i mean you know right wow wow all right whoo yep okay let me just uh just reset here, Luke. Bullworth, heck of a film. Yep.

All right, Luke, topic four this week, Tyson Fury, the WBCN lineal heavyweight champion, who, of course, October 9th, we hope, headed into that trilogy bout against Deontay Wilder, which hopefully can set the winner up to face the winner of Anthony Joshua versus Alexander Usyk later this month to crown a full undisputed first-time-ever four-belt heavyweight champion later next year. Tyson Fury and Deontay both hit the media circuits this week, Luke, to begin the banging of the drum for this fight, and Fury revealed a five-fight hit list, which begins October 9th against Deontay Wilder and ends in late 2022.

If we can throw this up on a full screen, we can look at it a little bit closer. Fury's goal over the next year plus is to fight five times Wilder in a trilogy, Dillian White, which would be a heck of a battle, a two-fight series with Anthony Joshua, provided, of of course he beats Usyk and is still the three belt champion and then he wants to close with what I think is a little bit of a misguided trilogy he already beat Derek Chisora twice but he wants to go a third time with Del Boy Luke is it possible do you even envision a possibility that fear forget about winning these fights that fury would go through five fights over the next uh

i don't know uh 15 months no what do you think of that plan no i don't buy that listen i admire the ambition i think tyson fury is frankly as a as a self-promoter and a boxer um you know he's had some duds as a boxer in terms of excitement, but in general, this is a guy worthy of high praise when it comes to his craft and the profession, both as a promoter and as a boxer. But that,

dude, when... I always love this, like, here are my plans for boxing. It's like, have you heard about boxing's plans for you? Because that's like have you heard about boxing's plans for you because that's much more important you know what i mean like you know getting out there and saying this is my i think it's fine to have these lists and these goals that chisora won like you i'm like i could do without but what oh you know even then you know if he's out there competing it's better than to be not

competing but dude that is you could do that if you were like Israel Adesanya and it was UFC where you know they control the matchmaking and they have such force and that you're trying to make a name remember he was competing like every three months for two years it was something insane he was getting out there it's it can be done it cannot be done in boxing like that where this ease of putting events together and the timeline works so well he might get three of those in and even that's ambitious it is it right and it is and you know look it's been a long time since he's had issues so i'm not certainly trying to wish anything on him i think also it's like him staying active helps him helps him stay in shape help him stay

mentally there but you know um i think with Tyson Fury, you just never know, Luke. We never thought after he upset Klitschko in 2015 that he would take the next four years off, basically. And, you know, of course, go through so many personal demons and all that and the depression and the retirement and come back. I would love, especially given his age and that right now, Luke, in his prime, I think that even though he's got to prove it in the ring, meaning he's got to be wilder, and regardless of his other hopes and dreams, he's got to fight Joshua at least once.

And I like the idea that they both, and everyone involved is saying when they do, it's going to be a two-fight series, which let's be honest, it should be. You know, it should be. Let's make some legendary battles and rivalries out of our potentially legendary fighters. But I think eye test wise, we all agree.

He's the best in show of this era. There has never been, you know, say what you will about this era. If you think it holds up to anywhere, even close to the seventies and the nineties, the two prime eras in heavyweight history, there have been all time great heavyweights going back a hundred years, but the 1970s and the 1990s were the deepest, most electric, most incredible heavyweight eras. I don't think this generation compares ability-wise to those guys because boxing, specifically heavyweight boxing,

is literally, Luke, the only Benjamin Button sport where it's like ages in reverse, you know? In basketball, George Mikan couldn't last 10 seconds on the floor with Laker's version of Shaquille O'Neal, right? Those guys back then in the 50s used to smoke cigarettes at halftime and had, you know, part-time jobs selling furniture, right? Heavyweight boxing is the only thing where you regress and go in the other direction. And people like Wilder are picking up the sport, you know, at age 19 rather than growing up at a boxing gym. But Fury appears to be the best in show.

And Luke, let's say he did roll out this schedule and let's say he won them all which betting odds wise he will be favored against every single one of those guys barring you know a loss in between or some kind of great deterioration luke i got news for you if fury runs the table of who's left in this heavyweight division and then retires which again with his unpredictability for good and bad reasons in his personal life, you just never know when he's going to be done. I really think he has a chance to go down as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time because you can only fight who's in your era.

It's the defense against any criticism thrown at Vladimir Klitschko. You can't criticize Klitschko not being willing to face everybody. You can criticize his boring style at times, sure. But Klitschko was in a dead, dormant era. He never got to fight Lennox Lewis. His brother did, but he never did. You know, you can only fight who's in your era. At least Fury has

had guys with a pulse in his era. And if he beats them all, Luke, given that he's 6'9", and given that in the mythical matchup, matching him against anyone in history, you want to match 5'10 Rocky Marciano, who weighed like 190 pounds, against Lennox Lewis, good luck, right? But if you want to match in your head Tyson Fury against anyone, 6'9", with that speed and elusiveness, Luke, I think he has a chance to end up in that upper core of the 4'5", 6', six greatest heavyweights. And I know that's blasphemy to some, but he's on his way, bro.

This is a special athlete that we're seeing here. I agree. The debate about all-time heavyweights is beyond my level of boxing area edition right now. I don't feel like I can meaningfully weigh in on that. And I do think a prime Lennox Lewis would be an interesting test for him. That would be kind of fun. Because he's the first of that super heavyweight era. 6'5", jacked, can box and punch. Right, exactly. He was, in many ways, in his prime, the total package.

So that would be kind of fun. But you're right. There's a lot of other names that get exalted for good reasons, for what they did in their era. When you look at him now, you're like, dude, I don't know what that would even mean to fight a guy like Tyson Fury in this stage. Because Tyson Fury is not just tall, like you mentioned it.

Dude, he's got great boxing skill. He's a very, very, very skilled tactician. And I think that would carry over across genres. Actually, not genres. I should say eras. But the one thing I want to point out, very, very, very skilled tactician, and I think that would carry over across genres. Actually, not genres. I should say eras. But the one thing I wanted to point out, BC, is I got to say, I looked at his schedule. I didn't see Usyk on there, and I know Joshua is the big one

that everyone wants to see. I got to tell you, I favor Joshua to win that one, but the idea that we're just casting Usyk to the side like this is a foregone conclusion that Joshua was going to win I have to tell you I find that very much premature especially the trouble Joshua had with Andy Ruiz and even in winning the rematch against Fat Ruiz Luke he was very skittish and almost you know like scared almost so I agree with you on that Usyk's alive out in there. And I think obviously anyone who disagrees with my Fury take, the thing against

Fury is his inactivity. He does have some soft fights when he made comebacks. I mean, you know, God, he fought Sefer Safari, surfing Safari. Good God. Luke, to close on this topic, we all know Deontay Wilder, who of course hasn't fought since the second Fury fight, has been busy, you know, getting hungry, staying hungry in the gym with new trainer Malik Scott, his former opponent. And Luke, some new video has gone out that I would love your reaction to. You know Wilder's one of the biggest punchers of all time. But Luke, we can barely get this guy to commit to a jab.

He's right hand or almost nothing. Check out this video of him working the body with malik scott wait a second, BC. BC, why are you showing me videos of Uncle Pepe on dates in Colombia? Oh, wow. Wow, Luke. BC, why are you showing me videos

of you eating pad thai with medium spice in Cleveland? Luke, like Khabib against Gaethje being one leg kick away from possible trouble, I was close. That spice was intense the second time. Wow. Luke, I've seen equally polarizing reactions to this video how does this make you feel uh in terms of your expectation for

the trilogy concerning i've never seen dionte throw a body punch before and that was pretty interesting i'll say this for dionte does he not seem much more energized for this third fight than Tyson? Fury seems like, you know, and listen, we all saw the second fight. I mean, Fury just put a fucking beating on him. You know, what do you want to say? Like, that was just completely one-sided. So I understand the confidence and frankly the resolve that Wilder has, even if we can say it's somewhat delusional, because all fighters to an extent are a little bit delusional, right? That's what makes them great. But what I would say is when you look at this, like, first of all, half the ones he threw there were, did you notice he was falling over? Yes.

Did you see that? He lost his footing in the process. And like he had, by the way, we never talked about it. He put up another bench press video where he added 40 pounds to the bench press. Still had gloves. Still his spotter still had more hands on the bar than the moss hey look whose technique is better brendan shabber dionte wilder be honest it's about equivalent but brendan's stronger brendan can bench almost 100 pounds more than that so he's

stronger but uh what i would say is like you you look at when he, when he hits the bench, his ass comes way off where his it's like, it's so much leg drive. I'm like, wow, is this a bench press or a squat that you're doing this with? But you know what? You can mock him for falling over or the bench press or whatever, dude. He seems like, I'll tell you what my interest level in the third fight before was not very much. Cause I thought Tyson was just going to go in there and beat him. And to be clear, BC, I'm picking Fury to win. I'm not in any way changing that. Fury is the much better boxer.

But I got to say, my interest level, because of everything that went down last time and then the arbitration, and now you got, you know, Wilder seems a little bit like a madman out there right like i kind of like it a little bit he's got to save his career to some degree with this in terms of reputation and look i got no dog in this fight from the standpoint of like you know this is not a showtime fight i'm not here to try to sell it to you necessarily but i'll tell you this um this third fight's going to be a war tyson fury has nothing to gain by this fight. It's a contractual obligation. He should be fighting Joshua right now for all four titles and making history. So Fury in the past has played up or down to the level of his competition

or the level of the prestige of a fight. And it's not that this fight lacks in prestige. It just kind of lacks for Fury in terms of like, I don't need you know I've already shown you kind of twice to be honest that he's better than Wilder so Wilder is a live out and I think that at the very least we've seen video wise that he's doing the right things Luke I want to see a Deontay Wilder as I've said from the second that second fight ended I want to see a one who's not waiting back looking to counter, who is bringing the fight to Fury and is willing to get knocked out to try to deliver the bang. If that happens, this is going to be old school, heavyweight, front seat, edge of your seat theater. And I can't freaking wait. Fury has taken his dad's advice and has put on a lot of weight.

He's going to be over 300 bills for this. You've seen Wilder in the weight room adding a bigger frame. This could be a surprise special bout, Luke. It is not out of the question that Wilder flips his division upside down. Yes, he almost fell over going to the body right there. He's as raw as any. He's as raw as a YouTuber. But that guy has, and you hate to use this word, but in this case it might be true, murderous punching power, Luke.

He does. He has absolutely crippling, he has historic punching power. I mean, that's really what he's got. He's got historic punching power. Not so much in the same way we talked about it before, not like Julian Jackson where everything that lands is like, what the fuck was that? But that straight right, he's just got an absolute behemoth amount of power behind it.

Dude, and here's the other part. Even if Fury wins again, but wilder goes out there and makes a strong account of himself there's all kinds of ways this could be great you know what i mean like there's all kinds i will again it's just hard to pick wilder over tyson fury but the fight is what like a month away there's not nearly as much interest in it as what I thought there would be. And Wilder is just going out there and he's trying to, he's trying to do alchemy. He's trying to turn nickel into gold and I don't think he can, but God bless him. He's a mad scientist out there and I'm having a little bit of fun watching it all. Yeah, I absolutely. So this will actually be a surprisingly very fun build. We'll see what happens October 9th. Luke luke our final top of the week quick hitters so we want quick reactions to this alex pedeta the former two division glory kickboxing champion most well

known of course for knocking out current middleweight champion in the ufc israel adesanya will make his ufc debut at get this 268 at msg according to mmaie, it'll come against Andreas Mihalidis at middleweight. Luke, is this the right debut for the transitioning kickboxer? I think it is. I did some tape study on, I think, Mihalidis or Michalidis or however you pronounce his name. He's Greek. I apologize. I don't.

I can't. By the way, when I went to, I've been to Greece and when I went there, you know, usually like after a week you can hear words and people's sentences. You're like, oh, I sort of get an idea what it, I couldn't pick out a single word ever the entire time. Greek is a funny ass language. Okay. Neither here nor there. Um, the guy has had, you know, an okay run to begin his UFC start. He has a loss against Bukowskis, your Lithuanian brotherhood,

and then he beat KB Bullar. But Bullar, I don't think he's even on the UFC roster anymore, and it was kind of a decision. Tends to prefer striking over the ground game. Yeah, I think for the first opponent for your entry into the UFC with everything he's still dealing with and getting ready, and obviously it's not his MMA debut, but you kind of have to get right with the camp. It takes a few of those under your belt before you're really fully transitioned over.

I think it's a great first start. It's a beatable opponent, but it's a credentialed opponent just the same. Yeah, it's a good call. Can't wait to see it. The Brazilian is 34 years old. As you mentioned, he does have a few MMA fights. He's 3-1 overall, most recently November of 2020. A first-round knockout over Thomas Powell under the LFA banner.

Luke, the fact that they're putting this at MSG just sprinkles on top of what is a can't-frickin'-miss card. Hey, Canelo, move yourself off that date already, bro, because this is big theater going down. Hopefully your boys at MK will be front row and center. Luke, number two here. Scott Coker, Bellator president, CEO, whatever you want to call him, confirmed it last night on Twitter, former Bellator and current Risen Bantamweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi, of course, a former UFC title challenger, is not only a free agent, he has signed up for a return to Bellator. ESPN's Mark Ray Monday further confirming that he will retain the Risen Championship

leaving open the door for more of those Bellator Risen crossovers in Japan. But Luke, as it pertains to Bellator and the constant rumors that a Grand Prix could be coming to 135, is Bellator's Bantamweight division the best division

in their promotion at the moment? It's pretty close. First of all, you could make a case. I'm not going to the mat for this. But with signing Horiguchi, bare minimum, he enters into the conversation of who's the best fighter on the Bellator roster. And you can pick him or not. There's a healthy debate to be had there. But he's on that list, first of all, number one.

That's how good of a signing this is. But if you look at the other Bellator bantamweights, I mean, listen to who they've got. First of all, Sergio Pettis, the best version of Sergio Pettis is your existing champion. You've got Juan Archuleta, Jalon Bates, who folks may not know, but is a very, very interesting up-and-coming prospect, Banger and Henry Corrales, Darian Caldwells,

obviously in this division, James Gallagher, Patchy Mix, Leandro Ego, Josh Hill, Brett Johns, who I think is going to be in the upcoming card anyway, weldwells obviously in this division james gallagher patchy mix leandro ego josh hill brett johnson i think is going to be in the upcoming card anyway megamed made off you're forgetting rafi on stats who's on fire at the moment i haven't even got to him yet you have eric perez goyito jared scoggins and as you mentioned rafi on stats dude this is already turning out to be and by the way look at look at the names. They're not just good. Most of them are quite young. There's a couple of exceptions here or there, but in general, it's not just a great division.

It's a division that is poised to be great for a long time. Putting Horiguchi back in, I'll say this. I don't know what he does for American audiences in terms of ratings, and we should be honest about that. But if you're Bellator, why would you sign him? him one it makes one of your marquee divisions even better uh number two gives you an entry into overseas markets right that's that's pretty great and three dude you need guys if you're bellator that validate the roster having koji horiguchi on your roster is about as great a validation as it gets in terms of free agents yeah and uh by the way when we talk about that division under the bellator banner i don't think you know i think ufc

is still stronger because ufc is at like a historic moment of bellator or of bantamweight depth but when we talk about whether coker is going to do an eight-man grand prix or even a 16-man don't forget about freaking pitbull patricio Freire who has said I can move down to 135 I want to be a 3 division champion imagine if we started that tournament put him in there you know Caldwell wants another shot at him Darren Caldwell lost both the Risen

title fight and the Bellator title fight to Horiguchi and if you're wondering about is Horiguchi really that good 30 years old Luke he's 29-3. He went 9-1 under the Risen banner, avenging his only loss to Kai Asakura by first-round knockout to take back the title.

And Luke, he won his only Bellator fight against Caldwell, and he was 7-1 under the UFC banner, losing only on a last-second submission to Demetrius Johnson, one of the greatest of all time. That's as strong and decorated a resume as you'll find globally in this game. I mean, that's legit right there. And however good he was against Demetrius, and Demetrius was better, that's okay to say, but however good he was, he's infinitely better now. Honestly, if Horiguchi and Johnson fought,

I'm not sure that I wouldn't pick Horiguchi to win. I think he's that much improved. So, again, you know, and Johnson's a natural 125er, I understand. But I'm just pointing, Horiguchi was to an extent too. But you get the idea. Like, Horiguchi is such a great signing for Bellator. I don't think he's going to blow up their ratings. I don't think he does that for them.

But he solves a lot of other problems. Yeah, and he was on the american top team podcast this week and said he wants sergio pettis so whether we get that fight or whether we get the tournament let's do this thing also luke we mentioned gable stevenson shows wwe above any potential mma offers a little more details came out as wwe announced the deal uh luke it'll be one of those uh nil you know imaging and licensing deals with wwe which here's the key point will allow gable stevenson to stay in college at the university of minnesota defend his ncaa championship in his senior year wwe even going to these two levels one

signing his brother and bringing him into the performance center and two bringing a gym and camp and ring to minnesota so that gable can train and learn the WWE way while still in college. Why does any of that matter toward MMA? Because Luke, it's obvious that WWE has sweetened the deal to the level that any MMA promotion was unwilling to. Why am I saying that? ESPN's Mark Ramondi came out with a report that UFC only offered essentially Gable a development deal on par with what Greg Hardy,

former NFL star, did, wanting him to fight first on the regional scene and then attempt to qualify for the UFC through the Dana White Contender Series. Luke, Gable appears to be a once-in-a-generation, not only athlete, but maybe personality, which is why WWE threw themselves at him do you look at usc's particularly and mma in general as having failed for not being willing to treat him that way to bring him in right now at first i thought yes at first i thought dude like no one in mma is a sure thing uh even they have success, how long can it be sustained? I thought Cain Velasquez was a sure thing,

and for a time he was, and then he just wasn't, and the whole thing kind of went away. So at first I thought, dude, why would you just let this guy walk? Because even if you let him go to WWE and he does well there, by the time you get him, assuming you can get him, he's going to be way more expensive than if you had gotten a deal early on. And by the way, those development deals weren't just given to Greg Hardy. Like, Mackenzie Dern got one of those deals.

There's lots of fighters who've gotten those deals to, like, you know, you can moonlight in an LFA or something like that. And then when you're ready, they can call you up. And so, you know, they hand those out, I won't say with regularity, but they're not super rare either. But then I thought about something, BC. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have put more effort in, because I do think they should have put more effort in. Because if he goes to WWE, now there's no guarantee he even does MMA. I think he probably will, but the future is quite unpredictable. The one thing I'll

say though is, like, why would they whiff on that? Like, the UFC doesn't have dumb people running it. Like, you can disagree with this call or that call, but they're smart people, right? My feeling is that two things. One, there's been lots of NCAA champions and even Olympians who have just not necessarily turned into great MMA fighters, even when they've tried. Of course, we know the opposite is true. There's been plenty that have. But as much as you might think an Olympic gold medal and an NCAA Division I title is a guarantee of MMA success, it might be the best guarantee that we have,

but it's still not great. Dude, prospecting in MMA is difficult. They might just want to see, like, is this guy ever going to be any good first? Let's just see what we have. The other part that I sort of consider BC, and I wonder what you think about this i don't know if at all this is true but i wonder dude the ufc is more popular now

than at any point in its history now you could make a case that 2016 was this big watershed year because you had connor and ronda basically fighting essentially every quarter and it was such a big year and then they had the sales but But, dude, the ESPN partnership with UFC has leveled it up in a way where I don't ever remember UFC being this culturally accepted and big month over month, week over week, in the way that UFC is. This is all a high watermark in certain ways. They might just feel like, Brian, tell me what you think. Dude, he's going to end up here anyway.

Why do we need to go and spend money to do x y and z when dude he knows as well as we know we're really the only game in town i don't know if that's how they feel but i kind of wonder if they might be leaning in that direction well look um you know just for for point of record espn's mike coppinger did interview gable and he he essentially said that the Monday report was wrong and that none of those offers ever happened. So who knows the truth specifically on that? And to your point, the UFC brand's stronger than ever in terms of

it doesn't matter who we put out there, the money's coming in. But, you know, I wonder if this is Dana White saying, you know, our job is not to make stars. Our job is to sign stars that are ready to come in. And if this guy, who knows at the negotiation table, was Gable a little unwilling? Did they get any sense that maybe he wasn't the real deal in MMA? This is them just saying, we don't lust after anybody.

You lust after us. And I do think UFC is in a position to act like that, Luke. That's why they can tell Jon Jones, go pound sand if you don't want to fight for this rate. They are still in the power position. I just think, you look at the unprecedented deal Bellator gave Aaron Pico, where they were paying him while in high school to

train and go through school, and at the end of it, they'll get him. And it still worked out, even though obviously he didn't become the same level of early success we thought. I'm shocked, though, that it seemed like nobody was willing, not any of the organizations were willing to throw themselves on that level. Maybe there's skepticism.

Maybe they think he's a little bit too in love with the pro wrestling side, which personality-wise it seems that he gets that and he's willing. But it is interesting. Luke, we will see him in MMA. It's inevitable. And I think you'll see him in MMA on the brightest stage for big-time money when it actually does happen. But you will also see him on WWE programming during his senior year at Minnesota as he continues to train and grow.

Hey, big move for WWE. Let's keep it rolling here, Luke. Also, Oscar Valdez, a little controversy, of course, with the drug test. He will fight tonight. ESPN card from his hometown of Tucson, born in Mexico, raised in Tucson. Against 2016 Olympic gold medalist from Brazil, Robson Cancésau. It's a rematch of their Pan Am Games final in which Cancésau won 6-5. Luke, given all the drug testing BS,

does this make you want to watch this fight more or less based on original? Because this isn't a high-level fight, but you do respect unbeaten Oscar Valdez. He plowed through Miguel Burchell to kind of become, you know, one of these 2021 risers. Uh, are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments.

Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO eclipse rise visa card the credit card that rewards your good financial habits earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month level up from bill payer to reward slayer terms and conditions apply your mileage may vary but it makes me want to see it more um okay i am very curious to see how this all plays out i tend to think it will look just like the way you thought it might in your head maybe anyway like i don't know if there'll be just a dramatic difference but you know i don't know if he's on something and i don't know if he's not but what what I do know is there are some exceptions to this rule,

certainly. There are ways in which things can go quite poorly, but in general, I tend to think that drugs do have a place in sports, and then when they are placed properly, they make sports better. I'm supposed to say that I'm horrified by all of this, but his opponent knows exactly what he's getting into at this point, and there's a larger debate about everything that happened anyway. So, yeah, I'm actually quite curious to see what happens. Look, they've got the amateur history, but Valdez is just a better fighter at this point in their careers.

There's no question he's the favorite. He should be. I'm trying to get the specific odds. DraftKings has minus 1,600. Valdez plus 800 can say so we know Tim Bradley wants to see Valdez get knocked out Shakur Stevenson also came out and said he didn't think this fight should happen and Luke I want you to hear these two tweets that Leonard Ellerbe CEO of Mayweather Promotions who obviously promotes Gervonta Davis who is in and around this weight division

he says all of a sudden you got fighters who move up weight classes and weren't punchers before. Now they're scoring as fuck, punching through the target. Get the fuck out of here. Either you a puncher or not. You don't all of a sudden just start punching through the target. I mean, literally punching through the target. Run that bullshit on Boo Boo the Fool, LOL.

Luke, although he didn't mention Valdez's name in there, it seems like that's who he's talking about. Is he talking about Demetrius Andrade? No, he's talking about, I think he's talking about Valdez moving up in weight to face Burchell and then knocking him out when Valdez wasn't a massive puncher at featherweight in the past. He was more of a brawler. Oh, I see.

I was confused because he was saying Boo Boo. Yeah, I don't know exactly what that reference is to i mean it was yeah uh in any case um yeah yeah there might be i i don't know i i've not examined valdez's career probably to the same detail that leonard ellerby has um i'll just say that you know my position on this is is fairly clear i think his opponent knows exactly what's up and if he is not okay with it then that's fine but if you are okay with it then you're okay with it so uh i think almost every big name boxer is using i don't know if that's gonna get me in trouble i don't know if that's i don't know if every big name boxer is using but i do think most big name boxers at one point or another have used. I think you get to a point if you have the money, I think you say it's it's smarter to protect myself because I'm sure my opponent is right.

I mean, this is a business, Luke, and there's a business with noted gangsters in power. Luke, it's the wild frickin West. You know this, Luke Thomas. OK, I do. All right. I do. Oh, look, here's here's an interesting quick hitter um former ufc women's strawweight champion jessica andrage admitted that leaked photos on only fans helped her pay off both her house and her car so she's okay with it uh these are nudes that made it out there and luke just to give you a little bit of reference not long after winning the title by slamming rose on her head i remember

andrage had made headlines saying she had to sell off the gloves that she wore to win the championship and some of her gear to pay for training camp which is in a lot of ways an indictment on the current fighter pay situation although although obviously we have no idea Andrade's true financial situation. But this was an interesting headline just the same. How bad does it look for the UFC? That's some of its biggest fighters, and it's not just Andrade. You've got a ton of fighters either making their own PageVanFanZantPage.com or going straight to OnlyFans.

Is this an indictment on the uh on the industry in general luke yeah yeah i mean again there's a always a larger complex figure or a situation that should be examined about with someone's financial situation and how money is spent and what kind of challenges that they have but you hear enough of these where it was like yo i mean this is not like Gronk being like, oh, I've not touched my football money. All of my money is from, that I spend day to day and for my life is from advertising, right? I don't touch the football money.

That will happen when I retire. This is not that. This is, you know, basic, I won't say basic, but this is without this money, I just wouldn't be able to do things. There's a difference between that. Like, Gronk can just surf off of deodorant or Cool Ranch Doritos money or whatever the hell he's got. That's not the same as, and I'm not here to judge it, you know, because this was leaked photos and whatever else. But, you know, nudity, this is not sex work in that way but you know work that would be somewhat considered atypical in order to you know accomplish your financial goals yes i don't think it necessarily sheds the

same light but bc though the reality is that none of us know anything and we're all scumbags so you know i mean look as much as we make only fans jokes i've never been on the site i i really don't don't you know get into that part of the dark but not dark web um are other prominent female athletes in other sports also doing this because it seems there's an inordinate amount of mma fighters who are doing it not to my knowledge like you know you know if you're serena williams why on earth would you even want i mean that could be exception to you know, if you're Serena Williams, why on earth would you even want to do that? I mean, that could be exception to the rule, but if you're a somewhat elite tennis, WNBA, soccer,

I don't know. Are they out there doing that? It seems like it's MMA only, so does that mean MMA is scummy, or does that mean we got a payment problem, or both, Luke? I tend to think that the culture inside MMA is going to be much more tolerant and frankly

like it also says something about dude let's just say it out loud the majority of mma fans are dudes and i realize i just got on drages in a committed um um you know lesbian relationship but most mma fans are dudes and they're horny i mean they're just the horniest toads on the lily pad dude these guys can't keep their pants on quick enough. So, like, one, the culture is permissive of this. And two, dude, there's a giant demand for it. And if you're not making super killer money from your Wimbledon winnings, you know, like, the siren call of some DJ assaults, you know, A&T, is just always going to be out there, it seems like.

It's just the market powers are pretty strong. Tangentially related to OnlyFans, did you see the pictures that came out of Adesanya's ass tats? No, he has ass tats? Yeah, I'll have to bring that up on Have You Seen This Shit on Monday. I think it's him. I'm not well-spoken on his ass, but it was interesting, Luke. Just the same.

All right. Also, in the MMA news cycle, Luke, luckily I didn't ask you, which fighter do you hope ends up on OnlyFans? That isn't Luke, right? I will not answer that question, no. Luke, the MMA movie Warrior, which we have done a homework assignment here on Morning Combat, it's going to be made into a TV series,

and Daniel Cormier has been cast in the lead role. How much of an interest do you have in this, A, Luke, given that the movie was pretty damn good, and B, do you think Cormier can make this kind of transition to, it's not a reality series, this is legitimate acting? First of all, I'll say good for Cormier. I don't know how well he can act. He does most things he tries pretty goddamn well.

He seems gregarious and bubbly. I guess we'll have to see. I'll just say, like, my only thought on this, BC, and I wonder where you are. I'm happy for him, and I hope it does well, and I hope he gets paid. That'd be great. But, like, my, people are like, oh, are you going to watch? No. Like, there's no chance. Oh, i oh come on you got to give it one episode don't be like that i might give i might give one episode i'm not here to look i'm not in any way saying it will be bad or not worthy of

anyone else's time that's not at all what i'm saying it's just for me in this occupation i try to have a life outside of mma and if if i'm done watching fights and then I'm turning on the TV to watch an MMA drama series, I'm not getting that well-roundedness that I'm looking for. So I hope he makes money. The guys who previously involved were Warrior. I thought Warrior was overrated, but most people inside the community seemed to like it.

It obviously had good actors and good performances. Very good performances, as a matter of fact. Brian Callen. Brian Callen, very strong in that role, Luke, okay? Yes. I would say more Nick Nol, very strong in that role, Luke, okay? Yes. I would say more Nick Nolte was strong in that role, Tom Hardy, but you get the idea. Like, this is hard to look at this as anything other than a win for Cormier.

And also, man, you know, there's been two MMA series put on television in the last, like, ten years. You got the, what was the one on DirecTV that was like King or whatever the fuck it was called? Yes, I never never watched that but i hear people like it a lot well regarded show by most observers from what i can uh tell and now you have this one dude like we grew up in an era where boxing was the king and even when mma came along no one could touch that mayweather pacquiao era of dominance dude the tables have fucking turned you can still make boxing movies and i tend to think in general boxing movies are better for a lot of different reasons uh and boxing's

having a bit of a resurgence with this whole youtuber old man thing going on but at the same time it says a lot about mma's entry into the cultural zeitgeist so to speak that it has now all of these television shows oh certainly i mean it's as mainstream as ever because of the espn deal even though obviously the fox deal was a big turning point but the espn deal just took it to another level and we have seen and look this is an mma show so let's give you know this isn't like george foreman getting his own sitcom back in the 90s which was a big deal but it shows cormier's and mma's mainstream appeal just the same but look we've seen at times in sports where, you know,

you get a Michael Strahan or a Tiki Barber or whomever who can do, like, daytime TV because they're so charming and camera ready. Do you think, Cormier, whether it's, you know, transitioning through this RC and DC into some more mainstream sports analysis can become, you know, sort of that overnight sensation in in this in sports media or even beyond is if anybody in mma has that it factor to slide into the living rooms of general you know across america is it dc i'll say this i lived through and you did too as well like i saw the rock you know become a major tele uh i should say that television star uh movie star and the way it

seemed to me and you would know better because you're probably much more familiar with his the totality of his work but like from what i could tell he went from doing pro wrestling really well to then making you know some shittier movies but like he completely pulled it off the first one i saw of his i forget now was the one he did with, who was the guy who played Stifler? Do you remember that movie he did with him? No, I don't. He was the bodyguard for the kid, and they had this jungle adventure and shit. And he and Stifler basically had this brother comedy thing going on in the movie, and it

fucking worked, dude. I was talking about this the other day. My daughter loves Moana. The Rock is on there, and not only does he act as the character Mau Maui dude he sings like one of the signature songs of the movie and he fucking the Rock's undefeated I'm sorry like seriously I just saw that Jungle Book Cruise movie like the movie was okay the Rock was freaking fantastic Luke he he can't lose right now there's rumors he may the WWE may break the bank to bring him back to wrestle Roman Reigns at WrestleMania I mean The Rock is the ultimate winner of life okay but this is what I mean

you got to be able to not just be a in his case pro wrestler in the case of Cormier a former fighter who can do like good television or you know you could pull it off and it's okay like if you go in there and wow people somewhat like the rock made the full transition to movie star and obviously that's an insanely i'm not saying yeah yeah i'm not saying he has to do that but like what is possible here if the rock's lesson is anything it's that once you immerse yourself in that world you have to pull it off on that world's terms cormier seems like he might be able to do it. We'll have to see. Yeah. I don't want to make a rock comparison though,

because because of the pro wrestling success, I understand he's next level charismatic, but shout out to DC. The rock is the outlier of all outliers. Absolutely. Do you think there's any, you know, in the great DC versus John Jones rivalry,

really the greatest rivalry in MMA history. I said it, I mean it. Did DC win because of shit like this or no whatever happened in the octagon will always will probably always have supremacy

right BC I would love to know how you feel about this but at the same time dude look at where they just are today John Jones is the guy who holds the wins and I was there for I think both of them, I was in place for both of those fights. And dude, those were like, I mean, I remember after he beat him the second time, I was like, dude, that is a fucking major, major, major statement he just

made. That's a historical statement he just made. But then you look around today, he's got, he's on television, Cormier, constantly. People are asking for his services as fighters like Kevin Holland. You've got now this budding career, it appears. We'll see what happens on television. He had a weight class up a title, which Jon Jones has not done. I'm not saying it erases the wins that Jon Jones had, BC, but don't you agree at some point when you look around, people aren't really talking about Jon Jones.

He's not doing anything. He's just sitting on the sidelines. And Cormier is climbing the ladder of life rung by rung by rung. I got to say, there is a real clear difference in the picture, whatever that's supposed to mean. You add in the drug issues and suspicions, which are legitimate, you know, even in both fights, because DC claims the first fight was before USADA and he's got legitimate concerns there, which, you know, even in both fights, because DC claims the first fight was before USADA, and he's got legitimate concerns there, which, you know, you can take it or leave it. But the UFC has stacked it against the fighters so much that should Jon Jones continue fighting the good fight for fighter pay,

it's only going to lead to him not fighting, unfortunately, Luke. It's going to lead to, like, long sitting out in legal terms. So Jon Jones is going to get to a point soon where he may just have to fall on the sword and say, whatever they're going to pay me, I'm going to do it just to stay relevant or whatever, if he wants to. Jon Jones could also walk away. I don't see it happening, but if he did, he's intact. He's the damn GOAT, Luke.

There's only so many times we can see Honey Booty Booty call him on the cell phone and it still doesn't soil that part of his reputation this is what i mean in the cage forgot okay but it got forgotten but john jones got arrested during the pandemic for remember allegedly or whatever well i think he pled guilty but there was the drunk driving part and he's you know allegedly firing off shots in the air that just got like wiped away people just forgot about i'm just saying in the game of life the what happened in the octagon is a key part of it so if you want to say that john is like clearly the superior there what am i going to say dc was the superior he wasn't but i just sort of mean like in their rivalry about who was

gonna do what dude like dc is like doing a lot man and you just can't lose sight of that and where john jones is just not around luke you're gonna hate this but you're gonna freaking hate this question but the fan in me can't stop wanting it nine month training camp to give ample time to both to get ready dc versus john jones at heavy, who wins and why? For a third one? You're damn right. You know, here's the thing. I do think there was a window where Cormier could have made it competitive at heavyweight, but he's passed it now too.

You know, the Stipe fight was a big kind of lesson in that. So for the third one anyway. So I'd still say John, but I'm going to go back to it. I'm going to go back to it. I'm going to go back to it, Brian. This idea that when John comes back, he's just assuming to be the greatest heavyweight on the roster, I think is deeply misplaced. The division is moving along, and I think he's going to have to play some catch-up.

Well, the narrative is moving along even faster because of seeing Nganou rise and seeing Gon rise and not seeing Jones fight. And the only tape we have are the close fights. With Mejeda and with Reyes. So he's got to come. You're only as good as your last fight in this game. So I'd like to see Jon get a new last fight.

To recalibrate this discussion. Alright Luke that's enough for our five topics. By the way I've got Jay Aaron texting me mid show. His new song. The new Pennington James song. What's out today, Luke. I don't mean to give him that free plug. How angry would you be right now? If you look down at your phone and saw this text that says,

I know you're live, but I've got breaking news. I mean, with that, I would tell him, I would tell him what a certain fighter once told me when I texted him and he didn't like it, which was lose my number.

Oh, please. Which fighter was that? Please. I can't, he's retired he didn't like it, which was lose my number. Oh, please. Which fighter was that? Please. I can't. He's retired. This was a long. This was.

God, what was this? 20. This was like 2009 or something. He's long gone. Did he ever win a title? Not in UFC. I thought it was Woodley, but I guess not. All right.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You certainly in that moment felt a little bit dead wrong, Luke. Luckily, we have a segment just for that. Woodley answers my texts, so it's okay. Yeah, that's fair. Every Friday, morningcombat at gmail.com is your email address. And by the way, just a heads up, I love our fans. I do

talk to our fans regularly. Still, rule number one, no stick picks, but please don't, do not, please do not send me fan submissions or anything else through the DMs. Send them to morningcombat at gmail.com. Our trusty steed, as Luke would say, Mikey Morms, will handle those and get them to us. That's how you send in when we screw up. Sometimes we do. Luckily, we have a segment for it.

It's called Dead Wrong. Dead Wrong. Dead Wrong. All right. No name on this entry, Luke, but on Luke's live chat episode 85, when Luke was asked about live shows he's seen, I think that means concerts, Luke incorrectly speculated the Mexican duo Rodrigo y Gabriela, this was at 101.41 in the video, were probably brother and sister. It turns out they're not related and are musical partners who used to date. He is dead right about them being excellent live, though. Also, an honorary dead wrong to Big Beige for his unofficial Rigondel Casamero scorecard. Seriously, what the F, dude?

Keep up the great work, guys. Come at me, guys, okay? I'm here. I'll defend that scorecard all day just because you weren't entertained by Guillermo. I will tell you this. You kind of laugh off all the metal concerts I want to take you to. I will say, dude, I'm surprised you've not heard of Rodrigo y Gabriela. I think you would like them, one thing that they do it's just

they don't sing there's no singing no no hear me out hear me out hear me out dude they are like extremely accomplished guitarists and I saw them in Silver Spring Maryland a few years ago and the Rodrigo what he did was he put a

camera a floating camera on a beer bottle and then used the beer bottle acapella with the camera on it on the sliding hand on the frets. And he played Metallica's Sanitarium on it. And then played Orion off the Master of Puppets album. Dude, it was fucking awesome when he did that. Tell him to lose St. Anger's number, Luke, okay, and keep up with what he's doing, all right?

By the way, I got people sliding in, oh, BC, St. Anger's actually the third best album. Yo, GFY, bro, okay? Eat shit. Eat shit and die. It's the third worst album of my life. Lose your subscription to this show right now. Thank you very much.

All right, Luke, John is going to slide in and try to dead wrong us for our reaction to his dead wrong. On your most recent dead wrong around the 86 minute mark, I had dead wrong Luke about him saying one judge gave rounds five to nine to Jake Paul against Tyron Woodley. This was from the post fight recap around the eight and a half minute mark. I re-listened due to luke claiming i was wrong after listening again luke does in fact say rounds five to nine when it was only an eight round fight luke you're gonna have to listen again because you are dead wrong sir appreciate all the hard work you scousers do but like bc this dead wrong was easy easy yeah i didn't mean to say nine rounds but but okay, fine.

All right. Score one for John on that one. Let's go over this one from Cody and David. At the beginning of episode 199, Luke misquotes the song Big Yellow Taxi. He says, pink furry dice to put up a parking lot. Not going to lie, that makes no sense, and I don't know why he thought those would be the lyrics the actual lyrics are they've paved paradise to put up a parking lot wait wait wait hold on

he might i'm sure that the original lyrics are that way no the original lyrics are they paved paradise by joni mitchell uh off of the uh uh ladies of the canyon album i believe yes hold on but uh you know pink very furry dice not not the right layers i should have dead wronged you in the moment i didn't hear that that's hilarious yeah i got it totally wrong oh oh pink hotel pink hotel is what they reference in the song okay all right i decided to dead wrong you in the moment for the artist you were like amy grant i'm like well amy grant did sing it but you're the Counting Crows had a hit with it, but come on, you got to go back to the original.

Did they? Counting Crows covered that shit, too? Oh, yeah, somewhat recently in the last decade, and it was actually pretty good. I mean, it's a little girly and cheesy, but it was good. I'll stand by the Counting Crows, by the way, if you're wondering, in their first album, August and Everything After.

Luke, you've heckled me in the past for saying this. It's a top 590s album. I don't care what you say or think. It is. I'll say this. I don saying this. It's a top five 90s album. I don't care what you say or think. I'll say this. I don't know if it's a top five 90s album in the sense of like, what are the top five 90s albums? But I can't deny in high school, the fucking massive influence the County Crows had over music

and just pop culture at that time. It was like Van Morrison meets Bob Dylan with a 90s feel to it. It was great look i'll be honest they never kept it up to the level of the first album okay i love the first three records but the first one is better than anything by far that they've ever done there's no question but you had the same reaction i did too like what's the song it was like cut up maria show me some of that spanish dancing what's the name of that song uh mr jones yeah remember the first time you saw the Mr. Jones video?

You're like, why does this white dude have fucking dreadlocks? Yeah. Like a moron. Yo, he banged both stars from friends. I know. Like back to back. He just got just laying pipe. Unbelievable.

That's like prime Brian Ortega, Charles in Charge, and John Mayer level BDE. That's like, those are probably the three most accomplished guys we've ever seen, right? Tommy Lee had some big hits, too. Tommy Lee. Yeah, but Tommy Lee had a giant wang. Like, Johnny Crows almost certainly has a micro penis, right? I mean, he just looks like a total zero. Oh, look, imagine if we had that ability when we were courting women to just write them a song and play it.

Like, that would have been instantaneous. I know. I always look back. I'm like, dude, I was tasked. I was given the world's worst abilities. I have a mediocre ability to talk about two dudes fist fighting, and that's it. Like, I got fuck all else going on. I got a crooked nose.

I got an eye that jumps around like lo chang lo pan when uh yeah you got it yeah okay all right hey by the way did you speaking of this did you see where tito at the press conference said i know anderson silva is going to do that bruce lee wang chung bullshit but i'm going to come out fighting what'd you think of that luke i don't think much about what tito says all right we got one more dead wrong here from greg professor salt and pepper was dead wrong at 36 minutes 45 seconds of episode 199 when discussing darren till's difficult weight cut against wonder boy thompson in 2018 while mentioning the fact that till went blind as a result luke made the mistake of referring to this

as the last time till tried to make the welterweight limit i almost dead wronged you in the moment but i didn't oh that's right that's right because he fought he fought uh obviously woodley after this luke is dead wrong because till had two more fights at 170 successfully making weight both times so luke take that l and straddle it don't worry bc i'm coming back to dead wrong your ass next week so check yourself on the mic before I wreck you on this segment all jokes aside congratulations on 200 and cheers to 200 more unless BC

gets you fired first big ups from your Canadian audience don't know what we would do without you MK all day basically every day Luke what's more likely to happen he used to be that me getting us fired I think it's what is it more likely because our friends at MK Reddit put out a poll asking how long they think this show is going to last. It's inevitable, Luke, that it will explode.

Will it be me getting us fired by saying something, you getting pissed off at being censored and running away, or us imploding and hating each other and ending it or us dying luke or us dying due to our habits no i think i think both of us had a wake-up call and we're working on that i don't think that's that's a long-term play but i do think that we the the the wheels are in motion for that one so that one's not definitely people trying to tell me what to do would be a not you know it's going to be a problem down the road, but if I had to guess, I'm going to guess it's you and I just absolutely collapsing. As I mean,

it's not wrong. It's not long before you and I asked for separate limousines to drive us to the events, right? It's not, we're not far from that. We're the only talking we do is on the show. That's coming.

Well, first we have to get limousines. Yes. And then once we get those first we have to get limousines yes and then and once we get those they have to be separate so we got a few hills to climb before we completely uh we're gonna be like the eagles or fleetwood mac or whoever like you know we don't we don't congregate or consummate in real life anymore it's to show up on stage do the business get the hell out of there all right uh luke that's the end of the show i don't really have a tip this week. I failed to prepare adequately in that regard, but we do want to encourage people to take advantage of this MKDK special

on DraftKings. And this NFL weekend really allows you a chance to exploit that freedom on the DraftKings Sportsbook, in which you will get $200 of free bets for one bet being made. I think, Luke, you only have to have $5 in your account, and the minimum bet you can make is $1. You get $200 worth of bets. Luke, when you look at it this weekend, I was already right on picking the Cowboys.

They covered, despite that close defeat by field goal. God. Why don't I take my $200 in free bets and put it on a parlay? I want the Lions plus 7.5. I want the Giants money line at plus 140. The Eagles at plus three and a half and the Titans at minus three. If you run that BC parlay special, it'll net you $3,426.40. That's a lot of hot dogs at the old gas station. So give me the Lions, the Giants, the Eagles, and the Titans on a 14 parlay. I can make your $200 go very, very far on Sunday.

I don't have a parlay like that. I'm not that good, but my God, this app is so easy to use. I might start using it. But again, I go back to, I really, I don't watch a whole lot of NFL football beyond what the Washington football team does. I have seen the claims that this season is supposed to be different. Riverboat Ron is changing the culture. Dan Snyder's out of the picture.

His wife is running the show. You know what I'm saying? They cleaned up the franchise. I don't literally believe any of that shit, but I do know that Chase Young is going to have a fucking monster year. The defense is certainly a lot better than the offense. Fitzmagic bringing it to D.C. I think he'll last the season. I think that they will win the NFC East and they will start.

Yep. Well, I mean, you're talking about beating Jalen Hurts and then the fuckboy Giants. You know. Yeah, they are. Cowboys look pretty good. Okay, you know what? I'll say this, dude. Dak fucking balled out. Dude, I could not stand opening up social media this morning

and all of the for Tom Brady all over my goddamn phone. It's like, did you guys not see what Dak Prescott did last night? Like, holy fucking shit. He was a stud. He was a stud, yeah. So I'll say that, all right, maybe Washington won't win the NFC East, but I do think they're going to start a better season by beating the Chargers. And I like the money line, minus 130.

I'll go with that. All right. All right. Luke, we are not proclaimed NFL experts of any level. No, we don't know shit. I don't know much. I am going to pick a family picks league every year, every week. I've won that league more than anyone else in there,

so take that for what it's worth. But, yeah, don't trust us with your life savings, but hey, if you've got $200 free to work with as a new customer to DraftKings, it's worth a little bit of a dabble there. Luke taking Washington minus one and a half at home. Okay, BC, BC. So Thursday night, not last night, but next Thursday,

so the 16th, I know you don't really have a football team in that way, but I think for the show, we should do a little wagering because that Thursday on the 16th, the New York Giants, who are something of a Connecticut team for folks who know what the region looks like, are playing the Washington football team. We should do some betting before that game. I'm ready for that. I'll take on that.

I grew up in Giants territory in Naugatuck, Connecticut. We didn't have Jets fans or Patriots fans there, okay? So I'll take that bet, Luke. By the way, if you put $200 down on your bet of Washington, minus one and a half, that's a payout of $381.81, Luke. That's not bad, man. I'll take it. That's not bad.

Yeah, I'll play you on that one. I'll get ready. Let me do a little homework. Let me get ready for that shit. I'm going to be watching the games this weekend. Hope all of you will, too. Put a little action on that action with your friends here. DK, MK, Bukake.

It's a messy relationship. We'll see where it goes, hopefully. You know all the details right there. All right, Luke. That's a fantastic show. Very efficiently hosted by 1BC. Luke, do you have plans for the weekend? This is the part where we can linger a little longer.

Yes, because no one in my family or friends or orbit watches the show. I actually have a surprise party for a friend in New York that I'm going to on Sunday. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. So up and back the same day because I need to be back for MK and my daughter needs to come back and stuff. But yeah, it should be fun. I'll be writing a recap and appearing on CBS Sports HQ Saturday after the Holyfield fight. back for MK and my daughter needs to come back and stuff. But yeah, it should be fun. My,

I'll be writing a recap and appearing on CBS sports HQ Saturday after the Holyfield fight. We'd be watching live Luke. Unlikely. Maybe a little bit, but unlikely. All right. I hope your family enjoys the Trump alternate feed.

Yeah. I don't think we'll be watching that one. We'll be skipping it, but I'd be curious to see how it goes. And I'm sure he's going to make it all about himself. So it should be a lot of fun. All right. Please check out our work, youtube.com slash morningcombat.

Luke's live chat from yesterday. The interview with Brian Ortega. So much fun stuff. You can relive our top 20 moments in Bellator. Bellator, good God. Morning combat history that we put out there. A special separate video from the 200-episode broadcast on Wednesday. Enjoy that.

Follow us, like, subscribe. 30 days of free Showtime can be found on Showtime.com. And as we draw closer, Luke, that October 16th Bellator card, you and I will be there in Phoenix when Rumble Johnson challenges one Vadim Nemkov for the light heavyweight title. We also got Bader Corey Anderson, Benson Henderson against Brent Premis. This is going to be some fun

bingo going on there. Can't wait to check that out. You can see that only on Showtime. And please head out to our merch site, morningcombat.store. Three new t-shirt designs today and Monday. A very special BC Hawaiian shirt offer will be there for you

it's going to be limited time, check that out later on Monday a lot of new shit there for you shout out to Gaff Pierre and Sally on the ones and twos today Showtime, CBS Sports, Malka the labels that pay us for my trusted host and

sidekick for now until I turn on him his name is Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. Take care of your mental health. Please put that first and foremost. Love you all. Be safe. Be happy.

Enjoy the weekend. Two more words for you. We out.