MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Fedor vs. Bader on CBS | Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia | Kara-France-Perez | Ep 376

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

On Episode 376 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian have some news to react to. Next up the guys break down their picks for a packed weekend in combat sports. The guys give picks for Bellator 288, UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Spivac and One on Prime Video 4. The guys also react to the news that Kai Kara-France will face Alex Perez at UFC 284. The guys also debate how long Alex Pereira will be champion and if he is the least well rounded champion ever. The guys close out the show with Dead Wrong. (00:00:00) - Intro (00:12:20) - Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia (00:30:45) - Ryan Bader vs. Fedor Emelianenko (00:46:00) - Weekend Picks (01:26:30) - Kai Kara-France vs. Alex Perez (01:28:50) - Alex Pereira's Title Reign (01:43:50) - BKFC Preview (01:48:40) - Dead Wrong Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. 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, it sounds a little bit like art to me Big fight announcements on this Friday morning And nobody better than the biggest, most decorated combat sports show, I don't know, ever, right now, in this world, to break it all down. Welcome, my men, to Morning Combat. It is Friday, November 18th, 2022. We've got your weekend preview. We've got all that stuff in the news cycle. We also have major breaking news announcements.

One overnight in boxing one from bellator mma just seconds ago we're gonna break it all down for you brian campbell that bbc with that bde yep you know that guy right here some would say i should be hosting every episode but that's a topic for another day let me not waste any more time though after so many commercials and bring in my editorial hetero life partner it's luke thomas from washington dc luke big day on the show today i had to put on a collar here you know normally i wouldn't even shower but uh i'm fired up for some mk did you do hq this morning negative negative yeah i have to do it this afternoon or this evening anyway so we'll see

how that goes but yes big show big big big boxing news we just had some big bellator news we have not one not two three big well i wouldn't say big but three events anyway uh this weekend overall on mma so it's a good one it's a good show today plus dead wrong they're gonna tell us all the dumb shit we did so this will be a great one indeed uh luke uh anything you want to talk about about life before we get right into the mix of this i mean it's a new day you've got rain energy drink in your hand you just took another one to three days off the end of your life but you know as dennis larry would say that's the you know the days nobody wants anyway so maybe you're ahead of the game right now that's right i

i'm not too worried about this energy drink and what i would say is um i'm just excited for the weekend i'm excited to work tonight and then i'm excited to have a couple days off with my fam who i have not had a lot of time with recently so this should be fun all right must be nice you'll enjoy it hey let's before we kick it off here luke remind everybody that we are getting closer to the end of this month november 2022 and you do know what that means because we've been telling you it's almost time to select the first ever money line hammer of the month money line one of our favorite sponsors they know how to do money right that's what they do and for those of you that have missed it a few weeks back we decided to start

spotlighting undercard fighters who aren't getting the recognition they deserve money lion agreed so we've come up with this amazing hammer trophy and every month we're going to let you the viewers vote and look somebody's going to get this in the mail somebody's going to realize that no you you actually can't touch this because it's hammer time that's right if you want more information go to moneylion.com slash morning combat and of course you know how it works you can tag moneylion on twitter for as long as twitter exists at moneylion or on instagram at moneylionInc. Use that hashtag, Hammer of the Month. Use that hashtag, Holy Hammer.

Let the folks know what you think, or I should say, who you think deserves this award, and we're going to ship it to them. We're excited about this. Yeah, if you're somebody like Aaron Blanchfield, you may want to clear off that mantle. Who's that guy from CWC, Luke, or CW? Paul Hughes. Paul Hughes, you might want to consider opening up some space

good deal coming up for Moneyline can't wait uh hit that QR code below for more details all right Luke Bellator MMA it's coming to big CBS we'll get to that in a moment but our first topic of the day on this Friday is what took place last night in the world of boxing. How did we close 2022? With plenty big fights kind of falling apart right before our eyes. Spence versus Crawford, nah. Fury versus Usyk, you're going to have to wait. But according to both fighters, the networks, the promoters, everybody involved,

look ahead to April of 2023 because two of the most exciting, young, dynamic boxers in the game today are going to meet. No, not when they're 35 years old. Right now in their unbeaten prime, Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia have agreed in principle to a super fight in Las Vegas in 2023

that according to reports from multiple outlets is being targeted toward April 15th. It'll be a 136 pound catch weight there are some hurdles and details we have to get through but you know in this boxing game with promoters networks on either sides of the street it can be hard to get the fights when we want when we want them luke thomas everyone seems to be in on this because both fighters fought to make it happen it'll be a pay-per-view produced by Showtime. DAZN will also offer the same production on their streaming site.

What is your reaction to the idea that, I mean, you know, still cross your fingers until all the T's and I's are dotted, but we may be getting Tank versus Ryguy in their physical primes in April. Yes, there are a couple of hurdles ahead according to dan rayfield it's possible possible that garcia will take a tune-up fight ahead of this uh proposed or semi-scheduled contest remember to be clear i want to be you know not to pour cold water on it because i am excited but let's get to the cold water later luke i want to hear the hot water right now i want to hear the hot water right now. I want to hear your reaction to what this means.

We're just talking hot water. We're just talking hot water. This is I mean, if you're thinking about what are some of the biggest fights that boxing could make today, this is one of them. This is one of the top three. You could even argue by some people's estimation, maybe even number one. You're talking about, you know, boxing gets sort of associated with older names or older crowds or sort of, you know, entrenched figures. And here comes Ryan Garcia, one of the youngest and most exciting and frankly most popular boxers in the entire sport.

Then on the other side, Gervonta Davis, a similar kind of situation, one of the most popular, one of the most exciting one of these sort of groundbreaking surging talents him a little bit obviously with showtime and on pay-per-view and then with golden boy and then the zone for the garcia side so we're talking about a highly anticipated fight as you indicated with guys in their primes this to me just tells you a couple of things one like if the boxers really want it the deals can get done there was probably a lot that had to happen to make this deal possible DAZN will sell the pay-per-view but they won't have any control over the production it's all going to be showtime but there's a two network semi deal in place here I'm sure that was not easy to get and a lot of

people have to work around it to find a way to do it, but more to the point, we go back to what we lost, because remember, tomorrow was supposed to be Spence Crawford under its originally scheduled date. It was supposed to be effing tomorrow, and the whole thing fell apart. Here we've got two young guys with massive fan bases, skewing younger, pulling that younger audience in from all different directions. They have the highest celebrity quotient in terms of fans, as you indicated, in their primes. I mean, this is, if it finally happens,

and we're talking hot water, this is exactly what boxing needed. This is highly exciting. This is relevant. This is important. This is all action oriented. When this finally happens, this is exactly the kind of thing that boxers need to do to elevate the sport. I give all the credit in the world to Gervonta Davis. I give all the credit in the world to, to Ryan Garcia could not be more excited. This is one of those 2023 kind of bucket list fights

you would really want to see. I mean, this is a hell of a holiday, Christmas gift, Hanukkah gift, whatever you celebrate right there. Why? Because as Luke indicated, it doesn't always go this way. Ryan Garcia is 24 years old, and as much as he's a crossover superstar in a lot of ways because of his social media following, I think he's got 9 million followers on Instagram,

he's yet to be tested on that super, super elite level. Got up off the canvas to stop Luke Campbell in his biggest fight to date. Had some physical and mental setbacks, but he's back. He wants all the smoke. And this is what happens. And by the way, Tank Davis, 28 years old, right? Right on the edge of that pound for pound, proven star, titleist in multiple divisions.

This is the type of showdown between a 24 and a 28 year old that just isn't easy to make in modern boxing and you had both of them leveraging essentially their leverage essentially their standing to push through the barriers which like luke said shows you that if the two fighters in question in any fight in any weight class right obviously it can be harder when you don't have the following that these two have to demand, you know, the money to where people just go, okay, let's make it happen. But this is about two fighters in Tank and Ryan Garcia, and maybe specifically Ryan Garcia,

whose network and promoter didn't have the leverage in this situation. It was two fighters who wanted this fight to happen more than they wanted to get caught up in all of that red tape. Now, we don't know the financial breakdown. It's hard to compare this to Spence Crawford and point fingers at whichever side you're pointing on. But these are two young, hungry fighters who didn't care about the network issues, didn't care that that, you know, it wasn't going to be a true two network pay-per-view. They pushed their people, their promoters, their networks, and they said, I want this more than anything else. Make this happen.

I think that, you know, it can be an awakening moment for the rest of boxing that when you do take control of your own career. Yes, you have people to answer to. You've got things you have to do in the modern breakdown of promoters being so aligned to networks. But these are two fighters who wanted a career defining opportunity right now, not 10 years from now. And they pushed, and everyone involved got together at the table, and they made it work to make this happen. Now, according to some of the reporting, guys like Dan Rayfield, Mike Coppedger, Lance Pugmire, this could be a situation where DAZN gets international rights on the pay-per-view.

And obviously, Luke, we could have some potential hiccups which get in the way. So let's quickly break down those right there. One, it's not completely completed. Both have verbally agreed there's going to be a further contract negotiation. But again, maybe unlike Spence Crawford to some degree, both want it right now, no matter what, let's make it happen. Number two, Tank Davis put on Twitter that he wants to come back January 7th in D.C. against an opponent to be named.

It looks to be kind of a tune-up to keep him fresh. We don't know the level of the opponent. We don't know if it'll be a pay-per-view bout. Brian Garcia, as Luke mentioned, could do the same in his own right. But what that will only do is serve as a potential, you know, drumbeat session to get the crossover casual audience fired up for this. I think this is different from the Fury-Usyk situation where I argued against the idea of taking unnecessary interim fights or tune-ups in between. Why? Because that's four titles. That's an undisputed championship at stake. This fight's at a catchweight. There's

no belts on the line. Devin Haney has all four titles at lightweight, right? This is a different scenario between two stars who are at a crossroads moment and just want to prove they have it. So that doesn't worry me as much. The other potential hurdle is Gervonta Davis's court date has been moved from December to February 16th, I believe, where he'll serve trial for an alleged hit and run. So we'll see what that potentially affects moving forward. But on the surface, the biggest hurdle in making these fights is always that last step at the table with network, with promoter,

with money and all that we seem to be good here so there is reason for optimism i want to see spence crawford more than anything but already that fight is three four five years too late maybe whether pacquiao was five years too late this fight's about to happen not right now but right around the corner and luke tell me if i'm wrong but when you get the social media followings of both going the fact that they have separate large fan bases that reach into the crossover reach into the celebrity areas you give this fight six months to build to which seems to be the setup and plan right now this could be as as you know i don't want to say as big as it gets could it be bigger than fury fighting for all four heavyweight titles in a different way it's just as

big because you're reaching into a younger audience and you're finding two unbeaten guys who have yet to take that L in a fight that you know, you know, is going to end in knockout. Yeah. Sign me up. This is as good as it gets in boxing and it's time to bring back that level of optimism. Yeah. I mean, I always say it like, what is the job of the promoter?

Let's repeat it one more time. The job of the promoter is to put on fights that people want to pay money to see, but the reality can sometimes be that people want to pay a lot of money for someone who is a celebrated figure who can't fight or celebrated matchup between two old guys or something where, yes, it's a lucrative thing. Or for example, they could go to the UK and Tyson Fury can fight, you know, uh, not Dillian white, but Derek Chisora for the third time and maybe sell a bunch of tickets.

Like that is a thing that meets the promoter's requirement without really understanding where the fans are. This fight doesn't have that problem. As you indicated, the celebrity level of attendance between tanks fan base and Ryan's fan base. And then just the collision of them is going to be extraordinary. It's going to be, you know, who gets the seating right around the ring.

It won't be quite like Mayweather Pacquiao, where the private airport was overloaded with private jets that people had flown in from. But it's going to be something kind of like that. That's the first thing I'd say. But to your point, BC, here we have two guys who are vying to be something special in boxing by boxing standards. They want to be greats. They want to be champions. They want to be on that pound for pound list.

And now they want to risk it all against another guy like themselves. This is exactly that sweet spot where the promoter gets to put on the fights that people pay, want to pay money to see. And the fans get to see something action-packed something relevant something frankly a little bit historic something important all of the above it's the uniting of all of those forces together and i think that's why everyone in the boxing world as you saw yesterday on social media and other places was so excited about it well it feels historic yet it's kind of just old school because we're so not used to this happening. I mean, look, we have been lucky in recent years, and I will echo some that say the whole narrative of, you know, boxing always shooting itself in the foot. Okay, is it true sometimes? Yeah, for sure. It some degree, that's true. I mean, you saw Wilder and Fury on opposite ends of the street get together for a trilogy.

I mean, that can happen for the really big ones, but not always when the guys are in their absolute primes. In Ryan Garcia's case, has yet to truly prove himself as a true elite. This gives him every opportunity to not just double down on his stardom, but, you know, become a pound-for-pound recognized force. Same thing for Tank Davis,

who some people have criticized his matchmaking or who he's had access to at times. Well, look, whether you think Tank's going to win or not, Ryan Garcia has some of the fastest hands in this game. He's one of the most explosive fighters, and he is coming in with the intention that I'm going to come there and get the knockout and earn my star,

not lean on these social media followers. BC, we should say this too we've talked about it for a while and when he first i forgot the uh the kid he fought the uh the african kid um when he first switched over to training from in canelo and eddie reynoso to over to dan goosen but he seems recharged he's in r.i.p Luke. Joe Goosen. Joe Goosen. What am I saying? Sorry. Yes, Joe Goosen. But you get the idea.

Like, that switch in the camps invigorated him. It lifted him. It was a slow start at first, and I didn't quite understand it. And leaving Eddie Reynoso at the time he did, we were both like, I don't know if this is going to be a good thing. And again, we don't know how he's going to perform against Tank. But he wants to take boxing by the scruff of the neck and then just bend it to its will that's what he wants to do and that has put him in this position of course tank is also meeting

him halfway but it put him in this position to really kind of seek big challenges and and and shoot for the stars and all this kind of stuff he's got this new attitude since changing trainers and whether it will work out for him we'll have have to see, but it's certainly working out for us. And I appreciate that. Also. Well, yeah, I was in the middle of a point.

Luke, what else you got for me? No, no, no. I can wait. I can wait. All right.

I was going to say it's not historic. It is old school though. Meaning, you know, what was the era that, that, that formed your boxing love? Was it the seventies?

Was it the eighties and nineties? Was it the Pacquiao Mayweather rise? There were stretches. There were times it didn't matter if Don King or Bob Arum hated each other. When they had the fight to make, they made it. When the fighters were in the position to make the fight to make and were in a spot where they're risking it all. I mean, yeah, they're getting a giant payday and a giant step up opportunity, but you're still risking that. Oh, you know, back in the day, fighters were more willing to do that. Now, we have evolved to a point where boxers are more in control

of their own, you know, financial destiny, and that's a good thing. But this feels old school because it is. And I think this young new generation, the guys like 24-year-old Garcia and 28-year-old Tank, I think they want to be a little different than the generations before them. I think they want the smoke now. They want to become stars the old-fashioned way by earning it in the ring. And not everybody, not in every situation, and sometimes numbers do dictate.

A star is not going to sign up for a big fight unless they feel they're getting the right breakdown financially. And sometimes there's different leveraging factors with networks and stuff. But all that's going away because these two fighters want it. So I hope more people are taking notice. And if you're asking, you know, what, what can be done to rejuvenate the sport and, and, and bring it back in the mainstream? Well, the rejuvenation of the heavyweight division in recent years has been a great part, but fights like this happening when six months ago, two weeks ago, you know, we would have been like, Hey, more often than not, good luck. It's a fantasy matchup, but you're not going to see it until many years later when they

have much larger profiles. No, we get a chance to see it now. So Luke, we're not going to get down and preview the fight, but tell me this. I think we'd both agree that these are dynamic offensive forces with hand speed, power. Tank Davis, probably the better boxer on paper, but you know, you, to your point, Joe Goosen bringing, now working with Ryan Garcia, I mean, yeah, they're working on defense, which is certainly a question mark in Ryan's game,

but Joe's one of the most dynamic offensive coaches historically. So what we saw Ryan Garcia do in six rounds against Javier Fortuna, I mean, I don't think he's ever going to get past some of that vulnerability, but he overcompensates with that by just being sublime and fast and dangerous. You may have a pick in your heart early, but what do you think the betting odds will be as we get closer to April and these two putting their unbeaten records on the line? Tank as a slight favorite or moderate favorite.

Because promotionally, he is the A side. And folks are like, oh, no, he's not. promotionally he is the a side and folks like oh no he's not yes he is there's one one of these two guys has been selling on pay-per-view and one of them hasn't let's be very clear about that tank is the a side but that's not what your question is your question is like you know from a betting perspective the power obviously of Gervonta needs no introduction. And more to the point, I actually do think he's quite clever. I think that Gervonta could be had early, but I think the longer this goes, we know that Gervonta's power carries late. He is clever. He can set up shots.

He can really use it to great effect when he wants to. So assuming he trains the right way and he gets prepared the right way, it's a tough fight. It's a close fight. I do think that Gervonta's power punching should make a difference in the end. Yeah, it's going to be interesting. But, you know, if you're looking at the other side of it, what does Davis potentially bring in?

I'm sorry, Ryan Garcia bring in that could give Davis a problem. Well, you know, look, he's going to be four and a half inches taller, two and a half inch reach advantage, Ryan Garcia. He may have a slight speed edge. I certainly like Tank's boxing and power better. But Ryan Garcia, until he gets solved, is going to be a problem, I think, for everyone he faces because that length and that speed, right? He's like a – there's some AmeriCon comparisons,

and obviously that's a dangerous comparison because for as sublime offensively as american was in his prime there was always that back that trap door waiting to open with his chin you hope for ryan garcia's case that the knockdown against luke campbell was not an aberration of things to come but there is a scenario here where sometimes gervonta can be selective with his shots and maybe too efficient where Ryan Garcia's activity, the jab, the speed, look, it could give him some issues. There's going to need to be adjustments. I can't wait for this one. I'm so fired up. It could not have more stardom. It could not have more in that youth crossover factor. This is the goods and fingers crossed,

everything goes to plan from court dates to setup fights that we start banging that drum i mean start banging it now look just get i mean are you into that luke do you have like you don't have like um congas in your office in the corner that sometimes you just bust out and break down would you be asking that because i live with hispanic people no no i asked that because uh because the music that you lean to, you know, death metal, right? It's always known for the Caribbean rhythms. No, we don't have that. We do have maracas in the house.

But BC, you kind of buried the lead here at least a little bit. Tank Davis fighting in Washington, D.C. for the tune-up fight on January 7. Buried the lead for you. For you, Luke, right? As a homer. For you, that's a buried lead. Dude, I got to tell you, having a home Luke, right? As a homer. For you, that's a bury. Dude, I gotta tell you having a home game, we don't know his opponent yet, but having a home game

I cannot tell you how excited I am for that, number one. And number two, BC, we gotta get the doc cams out of retirement if Tank Davis is coming to DC we got DC in or excuse me, we got BC.C. in D.C.

Yeah, you can't fit B.C. in D.C. It's going to be great. Yeah, you can't fit B.C. and D.C. in D.C. because one of the two has let themselves go a bit. Well, actually, both of them. But to be fair, B.C. and D.C. is an event. Hopefully we can unlock the dock budgets, which have since left, right?

You know, and get this going. But yeah, Tank Davis against anybody January 7th to start setting up. I heard Boutanis could be on the card. which have you know since since left right uh you know and get this going but yeah uh tank davis against anybody january 7th to start setting up i heard boots and this could be on the card i mean look a lot of a lot of good things coming today so let's let's put a cap on topic one which is a huge night of boxing down the road but how about topic two a massive night of mixed martial arts on national television is coming your way february 4th the announcement just happened some 30 minutes ago and let's be fair it's a big one or maybe this is topic one and a half because our other lead story is that bellator mma is coming back to cbs with a star-studded doubleheader februth at the Forum in Los Angeles in Inglewood.

That features Ryan Bader versus Fedor Emelianenko in a rematch for the Bellator Heavyweight Championship. They, of course, met a few years back in the finals of the World Grand Prix. And Yoel Romero against the winner of tonight's Corey Anderson-Vadim Nemkov light heavyweight title rematch, which is also for the $1 million world prize of the Grand Prix, in that co-main event. Luke, the last time Scott Coker has done this old trick, which is now a timeless trick in his playbook, was the stretch of five fight cards that Strikeforce had on CBS

from 2008 to 2010, when guys like Fedor Milianenko did five six million live viewers in 2023 though this still feels like a power move what is your reaction to Bellator's breaking news on this morning I think this is uh well I have a few I have a few different feelings about it um well one this this is, I don't know if the press really says this, but this is my understanding. This is supposed to be the retirement fight for Fedor Emelianenko. So him getting to do his retirement fight on CBS feels right. That feels right. That feels like there's a grand stage for one of the most important fighters, frankly, in all of MMA history,

certainly in the MMA heavyweight division. That part I like a lot. Also, Bellator getting on CBS. I'm glad that we work for Paramount, so we're all part of this family in some kind of way. Obviously, these decisions are made without our input in any kind of way. But what I mean to say is that I like that the company, remember the company bought Bellator.

They own it, right? So using it and leveraging it with its existing platforms in the biggest way possible for biggest events in the sense of Fedor's retirement fight, like this all makes sense. And I lived through very explicitly, I lived through the unfortunate Nashville brawl involving the Diaz's and Mayhem Miller, I remember that. But there was a lot of glorious history for Strikeforce on CBS as well this is a good return for that I think it's good for the brand I think it's good for Fedor my only qualm would be that I just for his retirement fight and I said this before so I'm not going to change my view I would have liked to have seen a different

fight now in the end I think somewhat Coker's hands are tied because you want to put Fedor on CBS. You need somebody that the casual fan would know if you're going to go to this big platform, mission accomplished. And the problem is that Fedor really wanted this particular fight. Apparently, this was the one he was looking for. He wanted to write this wrong because remember, he got dusted in less than a minute the last time they fought. Were I king of MMA for a day or something, I would have loved to have seen Fedor versus because remember he got dusted in less than a minute the last time they fought were i were i king of mma for a day or something i would have loved to have seen fedor versus anderson silva or something i know they tried to make the jds one but his whole shit came apart quite literally

so they couldn't so i'm a little bit i don't i don't i don't necessarily love the matchup itself but the news for bellator and what this could mean for his future is frankly enormous this is enormous news for them see this is a big move this is a power move from scott coker and like i mentioned it's from his old playbook but it's a timeless uh move in in many ways i get your point about the matchup but i'm wondering luke like i don't even look at the fatal retirements a nice selling angle one i don't believe it because I think Fedor is at a point where he's found new life. The knockout of Timothy Johnson in Moscow was a little eye-opening that, you know, the quick hands are still there. We've counted them off many, many times before.

No, he's no longer elite, but yet he's back in this title fight, which could be the perfect send-off. I just don't think he's going to go away, Luke, because I think that Anderson Silva fight could still be very viable, especially potentially under the Bellator banner. But I'm wondering if this is an introduction to Coker and, you know, maybe more. I mean, let's not forget, Luke, in addition to first Kimbo and Elite XC being on CBS, then Fedor and Strikeforce. What was it, five, six years ago with Keith Thurman versus Sean Porter on big CBS that did monster, you know, six million views. We had Keith Thurman versus Sean Porter on Big CBS. It did monster, you know, six million views. We had Keith Thurman versus Danny Garcia the year after that. I want to know if this is the opening of a movement toward that direction again

to the type of attractions that really bring in a different level of audience. Fedor wanted this fight, as you mentioned. If he's going to go out, he wants to go out big. And fighting for the heavyweight title is great uh i don't know if we should call it fader bader or fade over bade or fade or look i can't air hair i can't figure that out but the point is this um it's going to be all action it's probably only going to last a minute and a half two minutes either way right so probably i think it's going to be very exciting it's crazy that fade or still in this

spot because we saw him on cbs wasn't against brett rogers and he was getting rocked and he had to rally back for a dramatic knockout and you know once bigfoot silva sat on his chest it looked like it was all over back then and here we are now the the fan that that is no longer an mma fan is going to get into this and is going to come back and want to see it. That co-main event is fantastic with a red-hot Yoel Romero reformed at 205 pounds, taking on the winner of Corey Anderson and Ladeen Nemcov. I think this is a big power move. And as much as maybe Fedor against somebody a little less elite than where Bader stands at heavyweight for Bellator right now, given Fedor's age, I get the point.

We saw this before. It was a quick knockout. But what happens if Fedor and Emelianenko wins this oh let me be clear about this like before this kind of rejuvenated run I would have been like oh well Bader's just gonna win this outright and I do think when the odds come out that Ryan Bader will probably still be the favorite but Fedoror has had this very improbable surge. And I do think that Bader is beginning to show a little bit of a decline, actually. So to me, I'm not expecting the first fight redux. That's not what I'm saying at all.

In fact, I think Fedor's chances of winning this are as high as, I won't say they've ever been, but in recent memory, this is his best window let's put it like that uh so I'm not expecting the first one all over again but also something to be said here BC like Strikeforce occupied a different space in MMA than Bellator does right now now MMA was different back then so you know UFC was smaller and the industry TV TV was different back then TV TV was totally different back then and so it's been you know Bellator has a very good roster and in some ways if you compared it to the Strikeforce roster it's

much bigger it's much fuller in certain ways maybe obviously the top-down heaviness of having Cormier and Rockhold and all those guys isn't quite necessarily the same, but it's a huge roster that they have. This is the first, I won't say the first, this is a big moment for Bellator in reliving and then kind of reframing a little bit themselves in light of Strikeforce. This is getting a little bit of that Strikeforce treatment that they used to have under the Bellator banner because they're very different organizations. they occupy and mean different things this is a turbo

charging of their fortunes to begin 2023 and that's good for mma it's good for us it's good for fans um i'm excited to see what it looks like well the reason why i don't get upset at all by by this matchup is this sometimes you and i in our many lengthy hours we do talk to each other on camera we've talked to you know hey look I kind of miss Coker's playbook with Bellator when he first got there where he would take some chances in that other area the Dada 5000 fight which didn't you know was almost disastrous or even you know old Shamrock against old Gracie in a trilogy and I was I was straight up and saying, I kind of miss that playbook, that part of it, that hook, which if you're going to compete in this very crowded MMA space,

sometimes you do have to reach to that level. I mean, even UFC with CM Punk in recent years did that. Bellator was great at that for a while. That's a bubble, though. It can be popped, and the matchups can go disastrous, as I talked about right there. But even though this is... The reason why I love this one is the fact that Fedor's still here,

the fact that he still has huge power and quick hands, and as we just said about Bader, it's like, yeah, he's 2-0 at heavyweight this calendar year, and he's still the champion, but he got knocked out twice in the year and a half before that in light heavyweight. He's 39, so there's no guarantee that this is a replay of the first fight. But even if it's a mismatch, it's still that old playbook

of getting some type of crossover attraction that you kind of have to see, and then by getting people to sit there and see that, they see what else you have to offer on the card. I mean, look, Yoel Romero versus either championship winner there at light heavyweight is going to be great theater. I love that. The big news is obviously Bellator to CBS. Great.

Fedor on it. Great. Again, I don't hate the matchup with Fedor. I would have preferred a different one, but, you know, they probably tried and it just didn't go that way. But the other piece of big news that is so exciting. Wait, wait, but don't go down that road yet luke okay i'm interrupting you because we're getting to that and we talked about it but i was just closing my point here of saying this is that old playbook but it's also for the heavyweight

championship at the same time so it's kind of serving both masters you're going in the crossover carnival route but it's an absolute legitimate fight in your rankings with a legend whether he gets knocked out and retires there it's still a moment and oh by the way what happens if fedor wins then you've got a potential bonanza even if fedor doesn't win if the ratings are through the roof then you can take aj mckee and potentially put him on cbs right there are things that you can do moving forward using a little bit of the old playbook even with the changes in tv now to streaming being so much heavier and still make a major impact but luke along with look i hope they put aaron pico on this car i hope you load it up with the kind of fights you want the casuals to see you got to agree you were about to go down that road casual or hardcore that co-main event's fantastic right so the winner of tonight's bout will be the undisputed Bellator light heavyweight champion.

Either Vadim Nemkov will retain, or Corey Anderson's going to be your new guy. Whoever wins is going to turn right around and fight Yoel Romero on CBS on this card. Dude, Vadim Nemkov versus Yoel Romero, yes please. Or Corey Anderson versus Yoel Romero, yes please. Or Corey Anderson versus Yoel Romero, yes please. I would be happy, delighted to see either of those. And this is, to me, the right call by Scott Coker to put Yoel Romero in this fight. His run of wins in Bellator,

since I think he lost to Phil Davis previously, the wins have not been against the most credentialed opponents, but Romero is a fan favorite he won them convincingly he looked good he still looks spry for his age which is just incredible if you're gonna make a move with Yoel Romero right now is the time love the call prefer the weight class of 280 205 for him can't say a single bad thing about that co-main event. I love it. Yeah, I think UL's last fight, Luke,

when he announced after that he was committed to making middleweight again and wants to come after the title. And by the way, that still could be in play. I think since he's announced that and gotten to better shape, some of that magic seems to be back. He looked a little flat at the new weight class.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. And look, changing organizations, changing weight classes getting older these things are not so easy but i think you're right he has began to smooth things out a little bit in this new home and in either case against nemkov or against cory anderson if he ends up beating nemkov tonight it's just you can't go wrong either way with that all right in seconds we're going to transition into the weekend picks we're going to get break down that main event and that co-main coming your way final question luke on

the topic of scott coger and company going back to big cbs uh it is a big deal we can argue it's you know arguably not as big certainly as you know a decade plus ago before the streaming wars but how big could this be even with today's tv reality i mean there's still a lot of people out there luke i'm looking at middle america who may not be streaming their their their networks right they could still be going it with the old uh cable system in the in the box i mean still kind of feels like a big deal in that regard do you see big numbers coming from this? Hard to say exactly what this will do. I don't know what to make of it right out of the gate.

We only found out this news late last night, so I haven't had a whole lot of time to noodle it. You look at some of the previous outings on CBS they had done in the sum to the low to mid millions. I don't really know what is possible, but I do have to say that if they promote it the right way and by the way I think you'll be able to stream this as well on Paramount Plus if you're like if you don't have traditional TV and you just have the app

so you're good there but the question is like they've got this brand and they've got some good talent on this brand and they've got fighters people care about on this brand it's just good to see it get pushed in a way where the wider world can get a much bigger look at it like let's be real about MMA MMA in the years since Strikeforce was on CBS it has consolidated a little bit there's there

are some new players like one and PFL but the UFC has only gotten bigger in that time. It's harder, actually, for any other entity to compete, which is why Bellator is not exactly the same as Strikeforce, even though there are obviously some commonalities. This kind of thing, I'm not going to say levels the playing field between Bellator and UFC. That's not exactly right. UFC has arguably a monopoly, but this is a massive just burst of wind at the back of bellator

they've got something given the ownership group to get their their vision of things and their product leveraged in a way that really no other promoter can say i mean yes obviously pfl is on espn um and they do sometimes get that treatment, but this is like prime time treatment. You are the only star of the show. There's no other MMA entity on CBS. It's just them. This kind of thing is majorly helpful for their fortune.

So what it will do, I don't know. We'll have to see how it's promoted and how it all looked and how it is well received. But this kind of thing is, I would say, a little bit overdue for Bellator. They've been due for this for a while, and I'm curious to see what it does for the brand. Yeah, and I have to say, the reason why I started to tee that question up is, no, the landscape is different from 2010, 2008 in terms of how people watch this stuff, but you have the NFL playoffs on CBS, still the most watched linear network to promote this. And, you know, do people, are people still flipping through the channels and come across this?

Yeah, that's still, that's still happening, Luke, to a certain degree. Maybe not in 15-year-olds, but there's a way that this can be big. And I think it's worth the effort. So I applaud all those involved. Topic number two official takes us to tonight's Bellator 288 card. We've also got UFC in one to give our picks and preview, but 288 is a good one. Chicago tonight, 9 p.m. Eastern only on Showtime,

where, of course, you already know you can get your 30 days free by going to Showtime.com right now. MMA, boxing, Cosby documentaries. Don't miss it, okay? Don't freaking miss it. Luke, don't miss this main event. Vadim Nemkov is still your light heavyweight champion, but he's a plus 185 betting underdog against the red-hot Corey Anderson.

Minus 215 is the odds for the favorite. They met in April. You remember what happened midway through the third round. Accidental headbutt as Corey Anderson dove in in top position. Stopped that fight, no contest. We talked ad nauseum really Wednesday about this storyline of this mulligan, this second chance for Vadim Nemkov. We talked to Corey about it on the couch, about now he's got the tape and the intel. Does that matter though, given how good Corey Anderson's a game is entering this

rematch tonight man that is just the central question to this entire fight and there's really really really no way to know and you know you could say well look at other fighters who have had a chance to deal with Corey Anderson and what the rematch might look like like Jan Blachowicz I mean if you've never seen the first fight between Corey Anderson and Jan Blachowicz, Corey Anderson runs his ass over. Like, it's not really competitive hardly at all. And then the second fight, he got viciously KO'd, you know? So is that the story here?

Is that the way this is going to go? Now, there was much more time apart between them than this one and that one. So, you know, we're talking a little somewhat about apples and oranges. I just don't know, BC. You're asking a central question. It's the most important question. It's the one we have to have an answer for, but unfortunately, there's simply no way to know.

My hunch is this, though, BC. My hunch is this. When you watch their first fight, Anderson, as we indicated on Wednesday, was slowly beginning to take over, right? And remember, Anderson comes from a good team, a good coach. Like, they know what they're up against here. They know who they've got in Corey as well. And Corey seems to also understand the same thing you're talking about,

that I'm going to have to bring things differently. I tend to think that given how much better he was, which I'm not saying he was a huge amount better. I'm saying given what we saw, making up that difference in the time since the last fight is certainly possible. I think this one probably goes the distance, but I still think Cordy Anderson will have distinct wrestling advantages at least by the end of the second, probably beginning of the third round. Is that enough to win? That's a separate question. Will he be able

to have distinct advantages in wrestling exchanges from before the championship round start? I think he will. I think he absolutely will. But there's just so much that's hard to know, BC. I don't know exactly how to measure that. I'd be curious to see what you think of it. Well, I think it goes back to their first fight too. There's so much we don't know about what rounds four and five may have looked like because I am here to tell you that Nemkov was in this fight more than we tend to remember,

but I also, when I hear Corey Anderson's comments on our couch about how that fight went, he's not wrong from the standpoint that he waited out the hot pocket first round. Nemkov seemed to win that from distance, but once he started weaponizing the cardio and mixed it with sound striking and obviously the the aggressive wrestling takedowns dude nemkov wasn't you know in fight or flight mode or wasn't you know on tilt but he was gassed to a degree this wasn't the the nemkov that we see

going downhill taking control leading with the jab, landing those hard body kicks, just kind of starting to walk you back and make you wonder if you really want to be in this, if you're willing to trade with him. That guy wasn't there. That guy was on his back, exhausted. Given Nemkov's track record before the tournament started, which, by the way, scored four straight wins, three of them by knockout against current or former Bellator champions, then into the tournament and you know look great in the first two rounds i want to give him that nod that he had an extra gear potentially and he could have done something so you know in either way we don't know until we see this rematch he will in some degree you have to believe benefit

from the the second chance and the chance to at at the very least, go after that cardio and just step that game up, knowing now what he's up against. But Corey can trade Luke on the feet. He's not in a spot where he can lose the fight on the feet, I don't believe. But do you think Corey's dynamic enough to win the fight on the feet if he has to in the rematch? With volume. With volume. Like, if you're talking about power or even to a certain degree like slick kickboxing I think Nemkov's better I think on that level he's better but Corey's jab

his footwork his lateral movement his level changing right you're talking about you're talking about just the striking but that's that's part of it too right? You're talking about, you're talking about just the striking, but that's, that's part of it too, right? Where you're at least threatening the takedown, that kind of a thing. I think that if he can get the jab going and really begin to pressure, remember, here's one thing I do feel very confident saying, even if Nemkov's cardio is the best it's ever been for him, it's not going to be better than Corey's. I just, I have a very hard time believing he's going to out cardiocardio Corey Anderson. That seems unlikely, putting it mildly. So, through volume, through jab, through just constantly just raining on this guy,

do I think he could outstrike him long enough to win the contest? It would be hairier because you're dealing with a guy in Nemkov who can thump, who can fight at different ranges in certain ways I don't think Corey quite can but yeah dude through volume through behind the jab Corey Anderson absolutely can win this strictly on the feet he's got that that kind of stylistic favorability and just frankly overall ability to get that done well he's always had sneaky striking from the standpoint if he can come out with the big strike that you know you just didn't see coming based on the way his body was moving.

He disguises well and explodes. So I think he can level up there. But do I expect Nemkov to, though, end up on his back regardless? As we said, that's the key question. I think if you're Nemkov, you have to look at it as, I can be on my back for two rounds, right? If he's just better than me and he gets me down a couple of times in one round and I'm just fighting off the top position, okay,

but it cannot be more than two. He's got to set himself up in those championship rounds to be in a spot, meaning Nemkov, to keep it on the feet and then use that kickboxing advantage that we talked about, particularly through distance with the jab, but also the kicks. Those kicks have to be there. They have to be dangerous. They have to be a constant threat. What's interesting is the odds flipped. Nemkov, a slight favorite in the first fight, now a slight underdog. But look, I went back and looked at the tournament opening odds in January of 2021 as to who would potentially win the tournament. No surprise at that point that Nemkov was the betting favorite at nine-5 odds to win the whole thing. But it might be surprising to remember that tied for 5th and 6th place

was Corey Anderson and his first-round opponent, completely unheralded, Davletdan Yagshimuradov. Davletdan Yagshimuradov. There it is. They both were 10-1 on the standpoint of winning it. So it's like, don't forget, you know, Rumble Johnson was, RIP was an unknown. So he was, he had like the third best odds.

Romero's in there. Ryan Bader was in there. Phil, you know, Phil Davis and Machida had the worst odds, but they opened Corey Anderson as a 10 to one. I mean, you know, with, with arguably the fit, with really the fifth best odds here, he's been on fire. He's been getting better each fight. His confidence, you heard on our couches through the roof,

he may be just better than Nemkov at the end of the day. You know what I mean? Like, that's what we may end up finding out. But I agree with you. I think it goes five rounds, and we're going to find out what we should have the first time around. And even if Nemkov uses the advantage to get better, that might mean a better fight, Luke.

Even better fight. Yeah, I think this one will be closer before it was it was exciting in the sense that we both thought Nemkov was going to win and here comes Corey Anderson doing things that through his Bellator run no one had done to Nemkov like let's be clear about that the success that Anderson had in the first fight with Nemkov no one else in Bellator had that success with him. Obviously, Davis was able to slow the fight down and make it close, but prolonged periods of top control after takedowns? No, that didn't happen.

And so we were like, whoa, what is happening here? And you're right, dude. Listen, I think all of us, to an extent, I can certainly speak for myself here, and if you feel differently, by all means, say so, BC, but I have slept on Corey Anderson a lot throughout the course of his career. There's been times where I'm like, okay, he's getting better,

and then he has the loss to Blachowicz, or something happens, or I think it didn't OSP viciously head kick him at some point, right? There's been moments where he's kind of bubbled up and then fell, and then bubbled up and then fell, but I agree with you. I do feel like maturity-wise and everything else and technical development-wise, remember, how old is he? 31, 32 at most?

32? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the guy is really now smack in his prime. That cannot be lost here. So if you're like me, and at times you've been like, well, Corey Anderson's talented, but I just don't know about this matchup or that matchup, fair enough, I'm with you.

But I think now is the time to look at this and be like okay fair enough he had growing pains but now he's a fully mature mma fighter what do you have on your hands now different equation yeah i think he's a better fighter than he was on that four fight win streak that led up to the loss to blohovich in the rematch where he was looking like a dark horse ufc title challenger and you know, he was told before that, you know, that fight against Johnny Walker, that Walker was going to get the title shot if he beats him. So at that point, that was a pretty damn good Corey Anderson. But I think that everything that has happened since then, it's just changed him. I mean, look, he entered Bellator with like full on BDE, you know, almost like, hey,

I was just in that pool of sharks. I know I could dominate this pool and now that's not automatic i mean we've you know we're part of the narrative of this fight is does the winner have an argument of being the best light heavyweight in the world and i think it's still an argument like we said wednesday yeah you know the first loss of nemkov's career did come against pro hotska but that was seven years ago and you know it ended after one round when when nemkov couldn't continue and then anderson's got wins over the two former champions in the ufc before that so i think

anderson has just made the leap and it's come from that full combination he got his health cleared after the the setback after the blachowicz lost which was scary they thought he might have heart issues and wasn't going to fight again and he's certainly been very vocal about the combination of money and respect that he feels he's getting from bellator that he wasn't going to fight again. And he's certainly been very vocal about the combination of money and respect that he feels he's getting from Bellator that he wasn't getting there. He's coming. He's coming to fulfill those dreams. So I didn't think the first fight would look like the way it did,

meaning if you told me ahead of time, stylistically with the takedowns, it would look that way. I'd be like, okay, I guess I could see that. I didn't think it would look that way with Anderson's body language and physical appearance just showing us badass domination, and Nemkov, again, not on tilt, but struggling

to keep up. I didn't think we'd see that. Even if you told me ahead of time that Anderson was going to win with wrestling, I didn't think you would see that visual difference between the two in terms of momentum and maybe even skill in that moment. Yeah, we have slept on Corey Anderson. He gets a second chance, too, to prove everyone wrong.

Get that million bucks. And now we know, fight on CBS if he wins, defending his title against Yolo Romero on February 4th. Not small. Not a small escalation. This is the big leagues here, too. So happy to see that. Luke, as it pertains to a prediction though,

you said it would go the distance. Minus 215 Corey Anderson plus 185 Nemkov. Does Anderson raise that title at the end of the day? You know what, man? I've been a big believer in Nemkov. When he knocked out Ryan Bader, I was like, holy shit. If you guys have never seen that knockout, go back and find it.

He looked like a goddamn murderer in that fight. I couldn't believe how just slick and athletic and fast he looked. And I thought the first time he was going to look slick, athletic, and fast against Corey Anderson, he just didn't. Again, to your point, he was in the fight more than perhaps memory might tell you, but Corey Anderson just was able to do things, as I indicated, no one else can do, or I should say had done to that point. I'm going to stick with Corey Anderson just was able to do things as I indicated, no one else can do, or I should say had done to that point. I'm going to stick with Corey Anderson, man. I've been a big believer in them call. I do think he's one of the best light heavyweights in the world, but Corey Anderson really seems to me to be crystallizing every, every good thing that's happened to him, every failure that's motivated him, all the technical development he needed. He is primed

for this one. He could get knocked out. He's dealing with a heavy hitter, an athletic, younger guy. Let's make no mistake about it. This is a tough fight. It's a close fight. I think Corey Anderson's going to edge him out. We shall see. Yeah.

I think the recent history tells you Anderson, by decision, is a good feeling. I feel good about that, but I am interested to see, can Nemkov, like we didn't get to see in the championship rounds in April, can he show us an even higher gear, the Team Fedor product? Pretty damn badass himself. This will be great tonight from Chicago. Luke, the co-main event, though, we feel like Esparza versus Yongwei Li here.

It feels like we've already crowned 4-0 in Bellator. I believe 16-0 overall. Usman Nurmagomedov, 23, 24 years old. Man, I got to get my stats up to date here. But he'll be fighting for the lightweight title that is around the waist of Petriki Pitbull Free 80. Free air. Free day. 24 years old is Usman Nurmagomedov. Look, before we get into the X's and O's on this breakdown,

you echoed pretty hard on wednesday and rightfully so pitbull's claims about usman not having earned this are are glass housey and i had we had uh patricky on cbs sports hq after the weigh-in yesterday and he was you know all matter of fact no this guy doesn't deserve it he's only getting it because of his name gosh that's a bit hypocritical when his own brother gave up the title for him to have a chance to fight it against a guy who just beat him i mean we got to be we do have to be fair here so i want to ask you off the start is that just patricky being a badass and doing something that it doesn't matter if it's true it's what he needs to tell himself to overcome

the odds or do you think he believes that i think a lot of fighters have a me against the world attitude you know and i think that's just an occupant for some anyway for some because everyone's a little bit different but i think for some in my you know nearly 20 years of covering this or covering combat sports what i realized is these guys live and die in their own mind and sometimes they will tell themselves shit that has either little or sometimes even no evidentiary backing just to give themselves the architecture they need to go and accomplish a goal to go and accomplish a mission they will truly just lie to themselves over and over and over again brainwash themselves as you can say to go accomplish a goal i think he's bitter that you know a guy with the name number made of is

getting what he sees as fast treatment he's been in that organization a long time he did have a six fight win streak or I think a six fight win streak before uh or should say um since the loss to Chandler he had one and then the whole Quealy thing or even Tawfiq Masayev but you know he had put in his dues in Bellator in a way that I think he feels like Nurmagomedov hasn't and fair enough that's the way he wants to look at it that probably is true he hasn't put in the dues. But the reality is what the reality is, man. If you want to be champion, there's a target on your back. You have to accept the top guy.

And he can say he didn't fight anyone right. Except the guys that he did fight, he made them look like fucking amateurs. That's the difference. And you look at the odds now, and they are wide apart. There's one place, I won't say who it is, BC. Look at some odds now, and they are wide apart. There's one place, I won't say who it is, BC. Look at some of these odds. Our friends at Caesars, they have Nurmagomedov as a minus 650, Petriki at a plus 475.

I'm looking at some other ones down the line here. They've got Nurmagomedov as higher than a minus 1,000. Now, that seems a little bit crazy to me because Petriki is battle-tested and he's got big power and whatnot, but I think that Petriki has told himself something to give himself a reason to get up for this fight, to get himself as prepared as he could be. It doesn't lack a lot of evidence,

or excuse me, it lacks a lot of evidence, and it doesn't really hold up under much scrutiny, but if that's the thing that he needs to get the best out of himself, that's what he's going to say. Well, I think you presented that right, the whole idea about what Petricchi has accomplished. In some ways, he's the little nog to his brother to some degree,

which is hard, but this fight, he's closing in on some Bellator records. He's tied for first already with most knockouts in Bellator history as Petricchi, and if he wins, he'll move into a second place spot right below his brother for most wins in Bellator history. So, you know, we think of who's the poster boy of Bellator. It was Michael Chandler. It became Patricio Pitbull. Patrici's not too far from that. So I get that standpoint, but yeah, he is a monster, monster underdog. So Luke, I'm looking back at Patrici's career. I mean, you know, because he's at the, he's at a point where it was good to see him finally get his moment. He's 36 years old.

He went in there and stopped Queely and got the title. Good on him. You look up and down, his career record is 24 and 10. God wins over Benson Henderson, Josh Thompson, Saad Awad, right? Queely, Huerta. He has, though, typically lost when he stepped up really high, twice to Chandler, twice to Derek Anderson, Eddie Alvarez got him, and, of course, recently with Tawfiq Musayev under the Ryzen banner and Queely by Dr. Stoppage there.

He's always been very good, not great. It just feels like Usman's already great and might be like super special. So in that equation, it's like historically, Pitbull should lose this matchup because he is putting his head high above water. How does he pull the upset though? How does Petriki in a five round fight here where Usman's never been past three

and that was one time how does the nearly five to one underdog pitbull pull off this upset tonight the reality about nemerger madoff is you know you hear that name and you think oh good grappling which he does have like he very much does have um but he actually has pretty good striking too uh he's not quite like habib in that way he He's got a pretty good, I would say, maybe even a really good kickboxing game. Now, he's a little bit more hesitant with it to use it at all times. And I think you might see that here because Petriki is such a big puncher. But to me, BC, it's like, again, I want to be clear. If Nurmagomedov was forced to fight this on the feet, do I think he could still win?

I do. I think it would be much harder. That would be a little more coin flip territory. But he could get it done. But if Petricchi can't stop the takedown or stop the transitioning and the chain wrestling of a guy like Nurmagomedov, it's frankly

fucking hopeless for him. I mean, I just don't... If that is not in play, where, you know, not every time, not every time, where it's a five-round fight, right, it's a fight for a title, you don't have to have a hundred percent takedown defensive rate but if you basically basically can't stop it and you can't really create separation to break up the chain wrestling and the chain attacks that uh usman number gamerov is so good at it's a wrap for you it's a wrap you're not gonna win so really that the key. He has to not only stop the takedown,

he has to find a way to disengage from that chained process that Nurmagomedov puts together. Look at the Chris Gonzalez one. He goes to a knee to a knee tap. The guy scrambles, locks up the power guillotine, and then he goes. That process cannot take place for prolonged periods of time. Otherwise, he loses. Luke, I had to bring my crystal ball into the shop to get it looked at after that Poirier debacle last week.

But the biggest statement Nurmagomedov could make to justify the odds and his hype and his name, I think would be a spectacular finish, like a head kick knockout. Dude, that would be impressive to win the title against a veteran so battle tested but that's kind of potentially in play too luke he's very dynamic on the feet i mean you know if you're gonna bet a finish here you might go the submission route like you just said but if he comes out here and head kicks patricky like that's about as good as he could

do tonight right that i mean that's that's like hello world i'm here yeah which by the way is in play like he can do it i mean this highlight to me is incredible for what he's able to show here the guy he's beating is a team alpha male member um and he just made it look like it was nothing uh that is in play but that's more at kickboxing range so if patricky comes out and he's like there's the other part too like is Petriki gonna pressure real hard I tend to think not necessarily because he doesn't want to like push into a takedown so much but he's gonna have to put some kind of pressure behind him he's gonna have to move him back a little bit so the question is how he negotiates that but yeah dude on the feet like Usman Nurmagomedov is not Habib he can strike on the feet very comfortably I just feel

like you know what's the path of least resistance probably what you're looking at on the feet very comfortably i just feel like you know what's the path of least resistance probably what you're looking at on the screen right now not a reminder bellator 288 the main card 9 p.m eastern tonight on showtime don't miss i think it's kicking off the main card when welterweight roman ferraldo brings his 8-0 record with eight knockouts most of the spectacular this time he's a minus 195 favorite on his first main card appearance against LeVon Chokeheel plus 165. So Luke, we talked about the setup for that fight. I want to see if he can keep that streak alive and look spectacular. A couple other goodies there. Don't miss that tonight. Luke, let's transition as well into UFC Fight Night, which

goes down Saturday from the Apex. Heavyweights underdog derrick lewis at plus 165 three losses in four fights definitely at a feeling of a potential crossroads moment sergey spivak minus 195 uh somebody's getting knocked? Well, this is a funny one, right? This is a funny one. So you know me, BC. I like the numbers. I like math. I like turtles.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. All right. I like turtles. Yeah. So here's what Richard Mann, Dick Mann, came up with talking about Sergei Spivak and Derek Lewis. And to me, this is the one that, you know, holds all of the, this is the one that holds all of the cards. Basically, basically, when Sergei Spivak gets the takedown, he almost always wins.

And in fights where he doesn't get the takedown, the chances drop pretty significantly. Spivak has been somewhat overly reliant on his ground game. In the UFC, he has gone 5-0 when he's able to land at least one takedown. However, when he has failed to land a takedown, he is 1-3. But BC, you might be thinking, okay, well, it's takedown or bust then for Spivak. Well, here's the weird part. Lewis is kind of the opposite, and it doesn't make any sense in ufc fights where derrick lewis has allowed an opponent to land a takedown so he has given up the takedown he's 11 and 2 and ready for this in fights where his opponent has failed to land a takedown he is 6

and 6 derrick lewis is better when someone gets him down. The math is quite clear on this. He's 500 when there's no takedown involved. He's 11-2 otherwise. So, BC, what does that tell you? To me, what that read on that is, is that when he doesn't have guys going for the takedown who kind of want to meet him mano-a-mano,

it's somebody like a Tai Tuivasa who actually has a real threat of putting his lights out and that's just the way that it goes conversely the guys who want to take him down are kind of afraid of his power they want to get away from his power they want to get under or not under but you know they want to hide away from it and kind of get this and we all know he's got deceptive defense where he'll just wait for something to happen and then burst and then start a scramble then get back to his feet and then he's punishing someone so that's what it tells you so is spivak going to be part of that 11 and 2 or that 6 and 6 it's hard to say

exactly but this is what you're up against you have to ask yourself the question who is sergey spivak is he the guy that wants to like almost in a trepidatious way get away from the power or is he somebody who wants who can kind of mix it up a little bit and therefore can get the takedown but isn't hiding from that that's definitely a key question in terms of what this will actually look like uh i do wonder though that stat if that means that when lewis is on his back he gets more urgency to need to get up and make something happen as opposed to fights where they're fighting at distance and and sometimes he's playing a little bit too much of the pawing chess game i don't

know his conditioning always is a big factor though it seems into into the wins and losses just the same so the key question is whether derrick lewis is coming or going my key question for you luke is even if Derek Lewis is coming, meaning he had the training camp he needed, he's in the right mental state, he's prepared to get the best out of what's left, can Spivak still beat him? Yeah.

Yeah, he could. Okay. When Spivak first came to the UFC, I thought he was a fine prospect, but not anything remarkable. And I still am not exactly sure how good he is. We're going to find out tomorrow to some degree that answer. We'll just get a little bit more of an approximate answer to it. But there's simply no denying he has turned a corner.

There's just no denying. His ability to mix everything together is just much more nimble. Before he was kind of going one direction or the other, and there wasn't a lot of trickery. There wasn't a lot of smoothness between the different phases of offense. And now there is. There very clearly is. Now, the Greg Hardy fight doesn't necessarily tell you that because Greg is terrible on the ground. And, you know, that's why he's fighting Rasim Rahman Jr. this weekend.

Or whatever the fuck that is. Yeah. Is that this week? I don't even know when that is anymore. Yeah, that's tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah, okay. So whatever the fuck that happens.

But putting that aside, he's got real... Here's the thing. He's got good ground and pound. He's got good balance. He's got good control. He's strong. The Extreme Couture has really worked on his overall striking and just the blending of the two see this is why it's like i don't think it's a hold derrick lewis

down at all costs and certainly avoid some of the more precarious situations but he can do damage to the guy and threaten him in ways that other guys can't i will say something though man i one time rolled with a guy who was like 350 pounds just this fucking monster man all right this guy was fucking terrible uh he was good but it was terrible to roll with him and what i noticed is you get these big dudes you can't really take mount on them man because it's just impossible to sit there and hold that with the space that you need it's actually much better to go to side or turtle or something but in MMA that actually allows them to spring to their feet more easily so this is going to be a question to me BC not so much of Derek Lewis's takedown defense or something like that the traditional questions but rather

getting back to the one you posed before which is okay you can train your ass off and everything has Derek Lewis's chin been compromised is heworn? Is he no longer willing to tolerate these difficult situations in a way where he might have had more competitive fire before? These, to me, are the questions that are more in play rather than will a guy be able to get a takedown or not because those preconditions are the ones that are going to set up the results later. Luke, to answer your question about grappling with people that size,

I go right for North-South when that happens. North-South? Yeah, North-South. Yeah, but only against female fighters, though, Luke. But thank you very much. Luke, up and down this card, we set up the storylines. I want picks now. The fight I care about, well, Jack Della Maddalena I care a lot about.

But I want to pick from you on this Jenniferennifer maya marina morose fight at 125 morose a minus 180 favorite maya plus 155 looking to shake a two fight losing skit against elite foes i i mean i think the you know morose wins this there's there's a path for her to make a move here in this division does she get past that that sturdiness and ground uh game from maya yeah i don't know about this one man i am um it's like how do i say this exactly like each one could prey on the others distinct flaws in the kind of like the perfect way like Jennifer Maya obviously let's look at her takedown numbers here takedown accuracy not high at 30 although that's not altogether uncommon

but like dude what's the takedown defensive rate for Marina Moroz dude it's 47 I mean that's just fucking low it's just low it's really low you know and then you know beating guy or beating I should say ladies like Sabina Mazzo or Agapava, that's impressive. But Maya is much better than them on the ground. Also, she gets hit a lot. She has a positive differential, 4.04 to 3.98. So it's a positive differential, but barely. Now, to that point, Maya has a negative differential, 3.61 to 4.24.

So she actually gets hit more than she lands. So it's like, on the one hand you've got sort of a nimble striker distance and by the way morose has a three inch reach advantage then on the other side she's but fairly poor takedown defense and this capacity for someone like maya to really overwhelm her i do i this is a bit of a coin flip for me i prob I think that... Fucking A. I think Moroz is surging, so I would probably lean towards her, but I have to tell you,

there's very much a world where Maya goes in there, takes her down, takes her back, and just chokes her out inside of a round. That is very much on the table. I'll side with Moroz, but uncomfortably, BC. Dude, that was a really good breakdown of a fight that I thought you were going to, you know, kick me out and gloss over and be like, yeah, it's okay. I don't

care who wins. Let's go to the next one. You gave like a, you know, good faith response there. Wow. I mean, I know you're only going to watch this fight to read the articles, Luke, but this is a good fight. So you know, I want to see if Moroz can take that leap. She's going to have to be way more active, but this is the right setting. Luke, give me

the one you, I'm telling you straight up, Portugal's Andre Fiala is going to get into a war with Muslim Salikov, and it's going to be fun to watch. What else? What's grabbing you here? Is it Mr. Dabolina? Yeah, it's Jack Dela Maddalena. Other than that, I don't really care about this card

all that much. Okay, well, I'll be there for the super sloppiness early in the fight card um and i i expect jack daily madeline to have a bit of a tough fight early expecting to take over this dude's adjustments striking are are sharp he's he's real good okay do you think that uh rodolfo vera gets off this night against uh amanda bobby cooper bundridgeridge's baby daddy and man. I don't know. I don't know what to make of Adolfo Vieira.

We said this on Wednesday. I think he probably gets the sub, but to be honest with you, I don't have much confidence. Even if he gets the sub here, it's like, do you now have confidence in him as a title contender? Not really, right? So he probably should be favored. I don't know what the odds are but i'll i've slight lean towards vieira also tonight mma offers on prime video it's one on prime video for 10 p.m main card in the east

singapore indoor stadium uh rod tang in that co-main event is going to be fighting for the muay thai bantamweight title but luke this is a very interesting main event when you have now former welterweight champion who just lost his title on the scales yesterday kiam ryan abasov who unsuccessfully tried to move up to uh middleweight and face uh reiner De Ritter there and got subbed. He was going to bring his welterweight title into a defense tonight against Christian Lee, the 24-year-old lightweight champion who's moving up for the champ-champ opportunity. But Abasov came in one and a quarter pound over, was stripped. We're going to do it anyway as a catchweight.

Do you care, Luke? Because I did some research. I'm into it now. Dude, I'll say this about one, separate from the reality reality show although i'd love to be on the apprentice i'd love to go to singapore with jake and the doc cameras every time i do invest in one i feel like it was a good investment when i come out of it yes again one does silly shit and their head honcho chacheree says silly shit but their product is good. It's a good product. If you actually sit down and watch it, it feels different. It feels unique. It feels, you know, unusual. And

again, I'm a prime Amazon member, so it's, you know, very easy for me to watch. Like there's a lot of good things about it. I want to take a step back here for just a second though, BC, before we talk about the fights themselves, which I'm into. this whole can we finally can we finally finally finally put to bed the fucking bullshit that one has fixed weight cutting this is a fucking joke of all jokes they never show their shit publicly hardly ever before years they didn't do anything with oh we're gonna have hydration testing it's gonna fix all this they do them for the ones on amazon prime and it's nothing but weight misses left and fucking right they had 10 people yesterday who had missed weight initially in the hydration test even after retesting i think they still had four they had

jonathan hagerty who came up a weight class still missed it uh Kiamrion Abasov failed the hydration test twice and the weight uh so he loses his title on the fucking scales dude they haven't solved jack shit it's a myth it's smoke and mirrors it's not real it doesn't work you have been led to believe nonsense stop buying. Folks, people in powerful positions, this is true worldwide, but people in powerful positions in combat sports will tell you nonsense and then use the prestige of the office of which they hold or the power of which they occupy and use that as just simply rule by the virtue of popularity, rule by virtue of how much power they retain in the industry. Whether or not that statement or any of the statements they make has any relationship to

the factual world as best we understand it. Stop giving promotions, any of them, any of them, the benefit of the doubt when they make claims about what they do or what they say or what they represent or what positions they hold or whatever. the only thing that matters in this world is what they can prove and what they have proven is that their hydration system doesn't fucking work all right it doesn't fucking work and it's a fucking smoke show thank you can we get off the soapbox look i can never ask you about a one fight without you giving some one rant and you know you certainly just got fired from any potential involvement on the apprentice thank you very much for ruining my chances but um i'm not gonna say you're wrong okay i mean that probably could have been summed up in a sentence but i liked your passion just the same but do you like this fight abbasov versus lee champ once again that aside that aside cards great cards great

cards great so abasov I do wonder about the fact that he like mentally what does it do to you that you lost your title on the scales and this was supposed

to be a champ champ fight now the difference is Christian Lee is an exciting fighter but he is supposed to be the smaller of the two here

right so he's still kind of up against it in that way and should be noted bit of a risk taker bit of a risk taker so like you wonder accepting risk and then being smaller what that does to you in this particular contest it's

going to be hard to say exactly they've reached a catch weight of 186.25 which is where obviously abasov ended up um i i don't i i would have picked abasov cleanly before. I think I'm still going to pick him, BC. I don't know if you have a different read on this. I'm looking to see it. I'm looking to see it. I don't have a read because I'm somewhat new on these guys, but I've been doing some research to get up to this point.

Look, I'll tell you right now, I'm interviewing Rene Derrida, the two-division champion, after the show. He's going to be headlining the next card. Yo, he's real good. Yeah, dude. He had a submission of the year candidate this year. Yeah, so I just watched his last couple of fights. All submission wins and incredible stuff.

Abasov was one of those. But no, I want to see if Christian Lee can come up to the new division, take advantage of the situation, and try to, you know, I mean, look, one gives their guys a chance to do big shit. know again like i said on wednesday maybe that's part of the the marketing idea let you know like get you in with you know we got dj come on over and see him but now you got to see what we really have the winner of this could be one of those you know especially if it's christian lee here abbasov would would not have the belt because of his but we'll see i'm'm here for Rod Tang.

Yeah, Bibiano Fernandez, whatever. You want me to say anything else about this card, Luke? I will say Bibiano Fernandez previously fought at bantamweight and is now at this fight at 153.25. He missed weight real badly. I don't know what happened there. That, by the way, obviously is not one's fault. I don't know what the fuck that is the rod tang one is interesting taking on joseph lasiri lasiri has fought up at flyweight uh before uh but not in some time he's the strawweight champ so he's moving up i do expect rod tang to win but that one should be fun and also as i talked about it before cosmo alessandri hasn't fought since that sort of disastrous fight for sage northcutt where he got his face broken into a million pieces.

He's taken on unheralded and frankly, largely unknown Juan Cervantes. I expect Alessandri to shine here as well. So should be a fun card, dude. Should be action-packed. I mean, they put together bangers on this card. It should be fun. I'll be interested on a future show, maybe ahead of that next fight to talk some Derrida with you Luke this guy thinks

he's the best grappler on the planet so well he's very good have you tapped Brendan Lynch of our social team yet that's my question right well I mean you're asking a lot now I mean who could you know what I'm saying who could I was debating whether Brendan Lynch could tap Brendan Schaub

in a grappling match I don't know about that we'll see one day Brendanndan shop's pretty good i mean he's out of like competition shape or whatever but i'm prepared to be surprised i'm definitely okay so let's keep the show going the only problem is brendan lynch is kind of small and brendan shop is kind of big so i mean you know is brendan lynch close enough to um you know, is Brendan Lynch close enough to, you know, Gordon Ryan and looks to be considered a dime store version? How far away is his jiu-jitsu? That's what I really need to see.

I need to find out, okay? Just killing him. Just killing him. Luke, breaking news tweet from Terrence Crawford. This is real. The real flex is I'm living life happy, paid, and a lot of y'all is sad jealous broken miserable yeah i gotta tell you he doesn't want that fight with spence and you know he doesn't

he doesn't really want it doesn't really well he i think i think a print in another country wrote him an email and said i could you know if you if you send me money i can get find uh you know 100 million for you i just don't know how people could look at the available evidence and come to the conclusion that, like, I'm not saying both sides aren't at fault in some kind of way, but that you can say definitively Crawford wants this fight as much as Spence does. Everything Crawford says, he did an interview with Max Kellerman, and he was like, yeah, my legacy is intact.

And to an extent, he certainly is right. Like, he has done incredible things in the sport. If he decided to hang it up today, we'd be talking about how great he is in myriad ways for long periods of time but all of that to me the way in which he said it was just like yeah i don't really need this fight with spence and it's like if you feel like you don't need it dude he's been saying that for years man he's been saying it for years i know but he's really doubling down here of late like yeah uh just he does he doesn't want to fight he

doesn't want to fight there's a lot of our viewers that think we're way off on this and that it's you know hayman and spence i don't know we don't know we can only pair together what we hear what we see in this it's damn make the fight damn so i think i'm taking all of my pain from spence crawford putting it over here and filling that with tank and rye guy right just just yeah i mean yes exactly like you know again we i don't know who exactly is to blame i'm sure spence had in his side have something to say for it but in the case of tank and ryan they said fuck all that bullshit make this fight and they effed all that bs uh topic number three luke we have an announcement here it's going to go down on this perth ufc 284 card in australia february 11th this this shit's

starting to get loaded right there's this card starting to come together we now have kai car france against alex perez in a key flyweight tilt uh while i do care what you think about that fight luke are you starting to get jacked for 284 i mean it's coming and it's Islam Mahachev Volkanovsky it's Yair and Emmett for the interim title I mean this shit's gonna bang yeah this is a good fight uh certainly as long as this fight stays on the feet between Kaikara France and Alex Perez Kaikara France should win this one walking away but Perez is a good wrestler he's a phenomenal scrambler he can mix it up really well that's a long way to travel for him obviously it's a much shorter flight for Kaikara France but I like this as a get-back fight remember he was beating Brandon

Moreno in the rematch right up until he wasn't you know what I mean he ate the body kick and that's the whole thing but he looked good he has been massively improved we talked about it so if he can get past a guy like Perez you know that that fight against Moreno didn't go his way but i just like do you buy bc that car uh carna france is like totally out of the running for a title i just don't believe that everything you said is accurate everything you said and flyweights i mean they have car crashes so you know guys are going to lose big fights and big moments you know and and they're going to have to bounce back as moreno has done time and again as figueredo did to win back the full belt it's what you have to do at this level and i didn't want to misrepresent that 284 is some absolutely loaded card in fact it's

basically a local special after the top three and a half fights i say half because yeah i i'm excited about car kaya france kaya kara france against a against Alex Perez to a certain level. But those three, Luke, this is top-heavy as all heck. This is great. A reminder, Islam versus Volkanovski for the lightweight belt, Yair and Emmett for the interim featherweight title, and Robert Whitaker, Paulo Costa as well. I mean, you know, that's, yeah, fire me up, okay? Yeah, that's fire, fire.

You can start me up. I never stop all right stop me up uh let's go to topic four luke it's about uh alex perera alex perera uh alex potan the middleweight champion of the world luke i'm here to talk about him, his future and taking stock of the moment, which was the upset, the fifth round knockout of Israel Adesanya. Before I go there though, quickly, did you see Izzy, what, two days after that loss, walk into the MMA Hour Studios with Ariel Hawane? And did you get a chance to hear that interview? Because I saw a lot of people saying he sounded a bit delusional i went and listened to it and i didn't think delusional i just think it was somebody who was like just all you all know i was winning that fight for five you know four and a

half rounds until i wasn't and i know the reason why i wasn't and it was you know those calf kicks so you can all expect you know the same thing in the rematch only better um i didn't catch delusional from that did you check out any of that i did not hear it i did hear that people also said that he sounded delusional like that same thing came my way i have not had a chance to review it but dude i just like when people accuse fighters of being delusional it's like you're accusing them of being fighters like delusion is the secret ingredient to MMA fighting success like but separate from that though Luke he fought great up until he lost right I mean I didn't like how he hung in the pocket a lot but now you know about the calf strikes and and okay there you go right like he was again he was up 39 37 on all three

judges scorecards heading into the fifth. He could have played prevent defense. I mean, I suppose Pereira has a say in this as well, but you get the idea. He could have just ridden out the round as best he could have, and he would have fucking won. He would have fucking won. So I'm not sure exactly what he said. I didn't have a chance to hear it, but I'm skeptical that he was delusional in a concerning way. Delusional in a concerning way.

Delusional in an MMA regular fighter sense, probably. The only thing I didn't love from both him and Ariel, who he believes in it, so he went ham on it, was that they think it was an early stoppage. I get Adesanya's defense of Mark Goddard was the same referee who was at 236 when he fought Gastelum and didn't stop the fight when Kelvin was getting battered late, that he could have let that go, knowing Adesanya's toughness.

But I disagree with both of them. Look, I've watched that tape a million times, even with the argument of, dude, it's a title fighter. Dude, this guy's historically got a good chin or any of that. If you're standing, you're getting lit up. You're not throwing back, even though he was somewhat trying to cover up. Dude, that's a stoppage. You know what I mean?

You leave yourself kind of getting hung out to dry against a power puncher like that. They're not going to give you a long rope to get out of that. This isn't like Lesnar against Carwin where he is kind of covering up. I mean, it's different. Yeah, again, I think it was, you know, someone made a point that Goddard reffed the fight that you love between Izzy and Kelvin Gastelum and let it go a lot longer, which is true. Yeah, Izzy made a point that Goddard reftified the you love between Izzy and Kelvin Gastelum and let it go a lot longer

which is true. Yeah Izzy made that point I just told you he made that point. Oh sorry I was looking up I wanted to get to the heart of this fucking point not to relitigate this but yes there is inconsistency between events between I know I know BC BC this is not even what we're

supposed to be talking about I want to talk about the other part of this conversation i i make i make dynamic shows regardless of what's on the rundown luke okay can we get to the central part of this yes the central part of this is alex parade as your new champion and i like the videos of him going back to the gym getting his upgrade on his belt from his coaches for his ground game but luke um he's a bad boy and And Izzy can just say, look, I know how he got it done. I'll beat him in the rematch. The odds makers may agree with that. But he showed us a ton. Can this guy keep making 185?

I already hear a lot of people talking about him, a threat at light heavyweight. What do you think about what the future is going to be like for him as champion now? Well, the reason we added this to the rundown is because I saw a ton of conversations semi-related to what you're asking but let's crystallize it here a little bit which is a buddy of mine is rj clifford i think he's a producer for like espn i did work with him on um sirius xm radio he used to be a problem show with with

laura senko he's right that's right on air producer my guy rj clifford fought in strike force i think he's a black belt in jujitsu like he's the on-air producer. My guy, RJ Clifford, fought in Strikeforce. I think he's a black belt in jiu-jitsu. He's legit. Here's what he tweeted, and it just caused a ton of controversy. Quote, and I would love to get your reaction to this, BC. Here's what he says. Alex Pineda earned that win over a top three pound-for-pound Izzy. Fight was awesome.

But make no mistake, he writes, pineda is the worst middleweight champion in ufc history that's the quote now that's a pretty controversial thing to say yeah yeah that's that's i mean okay here are all the champions who've ever been a champion at middleweight dave manet marilla bustamante evan tanner Rich Franklin, Silva, Weidman, Rockhold, Bisping, Whitaker, St. Pierre, and then Izzy, and then now obviously Alex Pareda. Okay? So is he the worst one of them? I don't know that I agree with that.

But I will say this. I've seen people being like, well, you know, how, okay, he's better than that, and everyone's like, you know, he'll be fine. And I'm like, okay, I don't know exactly how good his takedown defense is I don't we don't really know because he hasn't been tested by anybody who's got very good takedowns but BC where are you on the idea that if they made a fight with Vittori not Whitaker Vittori tomorrow who would win well the answer is that we don't know. Make a pick.

Just because somebody has gotten to the level where they've actually hoisted a championship yet has yet to answer all of the questions about their game, about their ability to go five rounds, about their, you know, anything doesn't mean that they didn't maximize their potential and that they're not dangerous their potential and that they're not dangerous and impressive or that they're outright the worst middleweight champion in history no because what alex showed was incredible poise in a lot of these intangible things that can lift you to the championship we've seen people be more of a slugger than anyone else and you can go all the way to the championship level like that but if alex peretto didn't belong here first of all he would have gotten exposed along the way

may have may have gotten f'd around and got stopped in a bruno silva fight or whatever or but look look conor mcgregor knocking out jose aldo didn't answer the ground questions luke but you still knew you had a dynamic force on you. I don't see how anybody could watch that five rounds and come away thinking fluke. I think the Usman Edwards fight, which again is not a fluke, is more fluky than this performance. He had to show a lot in different categories to hang in there long enough to be able to find an opening

for his A game and deliver that. Okay, is he not as well-rounded as everyone else well gsp is an interesting unique one-time middleweight champion too biz ping to some degree is an instant interesting one just because his story is different from the amount of mma fights he's had doesn't mean like i mean look he wasn't dominated on the ground either so yeah he's still gonna have to answer questions against elite foes when it goes against his plan of attack. But he kept Izzy within that plan of attack and had to show everything he had to even create that opportunity to finish. But he did.

So to me, it's like a stupid conversation. We will find out in the subsequent title defenses or fights that he takes against the different styles. But I think that type of analysis was reserved for somebody who stumbled into a title and didn't deserve it. fences or fights that he takes against the different styles but i don't you know i think that type of analysis was reserved for somebody who stumbled into a title and didn't deserve it or is just so one-sided in their style that it's obvious they have monster holes everywhere else i don't know that it's obvious he has monster holes everywhere else because we haven't seen anybody consistently put him there right who would you say he fought that would give you a good indication of his overall ground ability no one yet but but weren't that but

weren't they saying that about mcgregor even after beating a short camped chad mendes yeah they were right uh i'm not sure if that was exactly the same i mean i think the point for me is this the idea that he is the worst middleweight champion ever I think is a little bit overstated in fact I think it's very overstated but I've seen people being like well you know because Izzy you know Izzy didn't have great takedown defense like why would Pereira be any different first of all Izzy was way more tested against guys trying to actively take him down at the top of the division like it's not even comparable. It's not even remotely comparable between what Izzy had to go through

and what he had to go through. That part is just not up for debate. Second of all, and I've been saying this for years, I don't know why this is hard for people to accept, Izzy against the fence, against the fence, has some of the best takedown defense in that division. And we know that because he's proven it over and over and over and over again

against credentialed opposition. Now it is true, it is true that we just don't really have a clear answer with Pineda but we do know he's much older he got fast-tracked to this and the glimpses we have seen where guys tried to take him down he doesn't look great he doesn't look great at all in those respects so how long is he going to hold the title is a different question than acknowledging he's got what we think are we don't totally know but we have pretty good reason to believe he's got what we think are we don't totally know but we have pretty good reason to believe he's got some pretty clear deficiencies in that part of the game and i don't know why acknowledging that is like hating on him or hating on kickboxing

or hating on what he did i don't get that part there's a difference between acknowledging what we still don't know and declaring him as the worst champion of all time. I mean, I'm not, I'm not agreeing. He's the worst. I'm not, I'm not agreeing with that, but I don't think dismissing concerns about his lopsided game is in any way unfair.

The true answer is we don't know. And the next fights will tell us that, but right now you can't, you can't say, you know, because that would be, you can't say, but okay,

but that works, but that cuts both ways. If you're going to tell me, you don't know, it's like a knife. If you're going to tell me you don't know. It's like a knife. If you're going to tell me if you don't know about how poor his grappling is, you cannot also tell me how good it is. You have to remain agnostic in either direction.

I don't think that's the response either. The real best answer is we don't know yet. But separate from that middle-of-the-road answer, I think it's more ridiculous to lean on him just being the worst without having the proof than even trying to go my way of saying, dude, we don't know yet. Like, let him show us, you know, because the other areas proven to be pretty damn great. ultimately dance around him and then set him up for the knockout which in that type of prediction you're basically saying that these intangible areas that we haven't seen yet are going to falter him what he's had to show he's got it okay so let's let's wait till he let's wait till he matchmaking matchmaking is also designed around pageantry as well and they clearly skipped all

the various uh tests that would have given you more of an answer and they didn't do that by accident bc they did not do that by accident they did that was an intentional choice that they made to go around them acknowledging that is not hating it's a fact that happened again acknowledging that is one thing declaring somebody the worst champion i'm not telling you he's the worst i'm not i'm not telling you he's the worst all right i mean you know you're asking me to to do one thing in light of something else. No, I can't do that. But I think you get my point.

I get yours. But either way, fuck you, Luke. Okay? You know what I mean? At the end of the day. All right. That's what it is. Closing point on this is somewhat related to a Mark Raimondi ESPN story about Hamzat Chemaev, who tells ESPN that his goal for 2023 that he has already told the UFC is to be the first one to fight for Poiton's middleweight title.

He's got a date picked out in January for that. And then he wants to come back in March to headline a pay-per-view at Welterweight against Colby Covington. Luke, you got any movement on this bold offering? I mean, it's not likely to say the least, but what do you take from this? Anything? I'll take either of them. I mean, would you say no to either? I mean, I guess the one at 185 doesn't make

any sense, so I would say no in the sense that like, I don't think that's the appropriate first choice or something like that, but you know what they should have done? The Colby one is, I just, if we don't get that fight,

that would be a travesty. And the UFC can't make them do it, right? Because they're independent contractors. They can decline. They can decline. But I really, really, really, really hope that's the one we get. Because honestly,

that's the best test, frankly, for either of them at this stage. Wouldn wouldn't you agree yeah yeah absolutely yeah that's it that's what has to happen there's no question about it um to my of is is interesting though like i thought he was going back to welterweight i mean i get him wanting to i thought they were going to give him a chance to you know compete for the title which this Covington fight would be. He's basically saying, I want to do it all right now. But, you know, you can't get a reward still. This can't be a reward for missing weight so badly and forcing the giant snafu in the last card.

So, Luke, would it be better off if the moment Adesanya lost, they said this, all right, we know we've got Whitaker-Costa set for February. That instead is going to be Chamaya of Costa and hey Robert Whitaker you have just secured yourself Alex Pareda's first title defense whether it's that night or January or whenever isn't that isn't that the better better play right now wow okay so let me think that through Chamaya of Costa and then Whitaker Pareda yeah that's not bad matchmaking either. I don't think. That's a great, great two set of fights. But at the same time, it's like you're declaring like,

I don't know how good Pineda's grappling is. And then your ass is going to pick Whitaker 10 times out of 10, aren't you? Right? You know what I'm saying? Like, you're playing both sides here a little bit. Luke, I play all sides all the time. You know what I mean? That's why you can't get a read

on me i handle i'm like a slippery fish luke you know that a wet fish slippery when wet like bon jovi those those bitches now look bon jovi definitely got a lot of tail and definitely in their biggest commercial crossover rock radio hits they got you not in your head we can't i mean we can't deny that it happened but do you look back at them as you know them bitches i mean they're kind of i mean young guns two soundtrack is badass but separate from that lucas i mean bon jovi like you'll f them and then they went country at one point you know it was like pop country too yo f jbj yeah i mean i gotta tell you like i they were nothing more than a thing we played at fraternity parties, so girls would show up. Yeah, take that.

I'd almost put poison ahead of them because the guitar work is so great, Luke. I walked out of a Motley Crue concert. It was one of the best things I ever did. Well, yeah. I mean, Motley Crue. They suck. Yeah. I mean, they made great hits.

They had a great image, but I think they've been historically, musically overrated to a large degree. I know I'll get some heat for that. You will too, but you don't care about it. That's the difference because you're willing to take your wife to a cannibal corpse show. She liked it all right. She liked it all right.

Hey, people have their things. Hey, some people for Topic 5, Luke, are into this. BKFC is back this weekend. No one loves, I swear to God, no one loves BKFC more than MMA loves bkfc more than mma media than you you're number one no uh it's because i work with brett brookhouse who has his eye on more he's like he is the gas station combat guy he is the that like he lives for this type of stuff luke you into that no no all right we are gonna have i'm trying to look up hold on let me look up

the uh the location and the card number but you can't tell me you don't care about this Omaha Nebraska Anthony Smith who you'll see uh you'll see Tuesday on Room Service Diaries so get ready for that BKFC 33 your main event Joey Beltran versus Houston Alexander Luke you can't tell me you don't have like a a morsel of a care to see this train wreck happen. I'll watch the results on Instagram when they get posted or something, you know. Okay. It's a cruiserweight bout. So I think Houston Alexander, by the way, from Nebraska, I believe.

So that's a bit of a homecoming for him. Yep. Do you think he took the money against Kimbo? I don't. I think you're underrating Kimbo big time. Or that I should say that version of him. Those were big slams, but I didn't like how defensive Houston was. I mean, go after that chin, right? That was the move against Kimbo.

You know, he didn't have an iron chin, right? I mean, Seth Petruzzelli jabbed him. I should say, after the Gannon fight, he didn't. The damn pink guy jabbed him to death, Luke. I mean, it was a perfect jab but come on who did yeah seth petrozzelli oh the silverback yeah um all right nobody else on this card is giving me a lot of movement luke i'm sure uh oh dakota cochran's taking on robbie peralta so there's that all right that's probably the only thing you're gonna get for names on there uh luke

it's the holiday season right so you know whoop-de-whoop dippity-dop you know what i'm saying but it's also a wonderful time of the year one that can also be the most hectic time of the year and if you're anything like me luke thomas you put off shopping until the extreme last minute when suddenly you're willing to pay overnight costs like it was never a thing, you know? BC, if you have an online store, you know the feeling of getting hit with a ton of orders at once. When you're buried in orders and emails from stressed customers, you'll wish you had ShipStation. You're talking about ShipStation right there, Luke. That's right, because ShipStation turns holiday ship storms into smooth sailing.

So you can keep your customers happy and still find time for a little bit of that, those eggnog gummies, Luke, if you know what I'm talking about. I know what you're talking about. And as we all know, the holidays can be very stressful, but using ShipStation is not. I like to avoid extra holiday stress by getting on top of our shipping process before the season gets crazy. And with ShipStation, we don't have to feel overwhelmed and we can feel reassured our customers are receiving their orders on time.

Yeah, Luke, I agree with you. And it's better, ShipStation, than using the default shipping option for online stores. Those always take up time to deal with the unnecessary hassles. But with ShipStation, you're able to manage every order on one single dashboard. It's like paradise by the ShipStation dashboard light, right? Automate routine shipping tasks,

print shipping labels, easily compare rates and delivery times. Look, it helps optimize every shipment without that ship storm we're talking about. Sure does. And every enterprise solution that makes warehouse optimization easy, ShipStation scales when you do. So there are no limitations on your growth opportunities. Yeah. And ShipStation has a free trial and a quick setup. If you've been on the fence about trying it, there's no better time

than now. And Luke, one of the best parts about this is that it works with all your favorite places to sell online, including Amazon, Etsy,ify all them bitches yeah no one wants to think too hard during the holidays luckily ship station is a no-brainer you'll save time money and stress during the holiday rush and when you sign up using our promo code bc you'll even get two free months to try it yeah that's fantastic give yourself the gift of stress-free holiday shipping by using promo code Morning Combat today by going to ShipStation.com

to sign up for your free 60-day trial. Tell them BC sent you. That's right. ShipStation.com promo code all one word Morning Combat.

All right, Luke Thomas. We close by giving the people a chance to, you know, come at us. But you better come original. Morningcombat at gmail.com is your email home. If there's something we said that's incorrect, insensitive, ridiculous, or maybe you just want to roast us. Well, you better have receipts when you bring it. Because it takes a lot for me to admit that I was dead wrong.

Bitch. Because it takes a lot for me to admit that I was dead wrong, bitch. All right, Luke, we start off here. We only have a couple of them. Wow, we had a good week. All right. This is from at L Heffy, not Jeffy. At the one hour, 21 minute and 42 second mark of episode 374 that filthy casual bc when referencing his fame his favorite rumble moment stated my favorite fighter knockout is every fight at 147 as his boxing brain incorrectly used the boxing welterweight limit as opposed to the mma limit of

170 pounds yes this is pedantic as hell but i was searching for something to say was dead wrong just as a hack to say that i really wanted to request an in memoriam resume review of rumble so imagine my delight when the man of the people the american alpha himself bc with the bde stated that he would also like to do that. I really hope that the project sees the light of day. Condolences to MK contributor Rashad Evans, as the two seemed very close. If he was up for it, it would be amazing if Rashad could say a few words to open the resume review. Damn, this guy's calling his shot on something that, yes, I was dead wrong on.

Luke, your thoughts on putting Rumble up in that up on that chair i would love to do it would love to do it yeah but i would want to do it the right way like they're talking about i would love to do it with rashad because i just feel like we would be missing some things without it but uh i'm sure we would be but would we be missing ayahuasca at any point hanging out with rashad probably some toads to be looking but um in general, yeah, if we can make that happen, believe me, we've talked about it behind the scenes. It's not a clear opportunity yet to do it, but if we get one, we're going to.

All right, that's good news. Good news from the people. Thank you. Also, Taylor hitting us up with a dead wrong, saying on Wednesday, November 16th, at 1 hour 42 and 8 seconds, Luke states that Gilbert Burns has a huge name coming off of that Hamzat win. Bro, did you forget to take your AG1, you dumbass lifting weights in the front yard bastard?

Gilbert Burns certainly did not beat Hamzat. Does anyone think that I think that he beat Hamzat or did I just misspeak? Fucking A. Well, I got to go deadlift with straps on, so I'll talk to you later. P.S. Not the type of straps on that bc is imagining if that's fair point uh taylor from idaho and no i don't grow potatoes so don't even try wow that's up in idaho don't don't lie motherfucker that is a hell of an offering there from taylor wow are you impressed by his performance like they they come they do they come

they talk a lot of shit up on the dead wrongs, don't they? Yeah, they do. People are just trying to find any reason that they can create an email. It's not just that. It's not like I found this time when you said it was actually 170 pounds at the weigh-ins. It was 171. They don't do that. They go, yo, you fucking child molester.

Look what you fucking did. I'm like, whoa, I just fucking. You washed ass piece of shit. I mean, they're all like Stone Cold Steve Austin. Your family doesn't love you. True, but that's a different story, motherfucker. Different story. Wow.

You know, I think it is, Luke. I think we have ramped up the intensity of this Donk of the Year battle. It's election season right now for us it's coming up on it and these people are i mean you know these guys are getting canceled left and right by mikey he's like we can't run this fansub this is like ridiculous against women in every other category like what are you doing people luke we've got them too we've created a monster we've got them too jacked up to try now they're jacking off i mean what do we do how do we fix this i don't know i think we've created a monster yes yes all right thank you very much that's our show by the way i want to say today i think you called yourself having bde and bbc which

i have to tell you is a little much a little much to be fair i haven't had the latter to be fair though i i hear you do never go back though just the same all right uh thank you to all of our sponsors and thank you for you listeners who are so angry that we started the show with like eight minutes of commercials look that's ballsy on us right but we pulled it off we landed that they don't they don't tell us so then like when the show starts he's like all right we got two and a half minutes of commercials just so we know like you know when to get ready today they're like yo we got 10 and a half hours of commercials like what you know when at what point is the show because like even you know it used to be a triple-a baseball thing but now obviously major league baseball has like full-on advertisements on the

fence behind them you can always see it at what point is the video screen behind us in the bomb shelter just going to be straight like nah we're going to get like those fake golden palace tattoos on our foreheads you know what i'm talking about oh yo do you what if what if what if showtime was like we normally would not you know clear you at all to show your d on the air but what if you put the golden the golden pipe tattoo right on the right on the only pipe luke you know and i mean this is you know and they give you money you can't refuse luke damn that's a conundrum right it certainly is wow all right this could be our last show thank you to our team our amazing staff all the companies that put money in our pockets, all of our great sponsors.

Reminder, Showtime.com. Get your 30 days free now. In fact, you want to see Corey Anderson, Vadim Nemkov for $1 million tonight, and the potential rise of Usman Nurmagomedov. Let's see if Patrycki can end that. 9 p.m. Eastern, Showtime, Bellator 288. Don't miss it.

Why not just get 30 days free? All right? You've been streaming long enough now. Stop being greedy, okay? There you go. That's it. Give to the needy. Yes. I also wanted to say, Luke,

that if you're watching the fights tonight and you see somebody coming on, why don't you hit that hashtag, Hammer of the Month, or, you know, Holy Hammer, if you got it. Go at Moneylion on Twitter, everyone know who deserves to get recognition who deserves to hold that hammer at the end of the month right right yeah send it to him you remember when mc hammer was like uh uh when he got you know he had he was like out of ideas so he did the pumps and the

bumps like gangster video and he had like he had a hog just the size of texas in his banana hammock dungarees yo he got out that i mean he was just look he was flaunting that shit two of these were in his pants wow that was a long long long move from prey you know i mean that was a long journey this was in his underwear yeah yeah wow yeah we did we had liftoff yeah wow okay i mean it was like the mcgregor mayweather weigh-in except it took over the whole screen luke it was he could have used that thing as a hammer that day you know yeah yeah he could have and i don't want to touch this luke but yeah when you're that close you can't avoid it it's like get that away you know all right enough of that uh absolute uh bullshit uh anything else luke that's it no i'm gonna be on cbs sports hq

today to preview the main card and then right after after, right after the Bellator is over, you can catch me on CBS Sports HQ to give a bit of a recap. Should be fun. I'm going to be there too, just so you know. Great. Okay, good. Yeah. Yeah.

We'll hang out together. All right. That's the show. If you're a listener, thank you. Like and subscribe, all that good stuff. But thank you for taking the time to make us a part of your life. Put a comment on YouTube if there's something you don't like, maybe there's something you do let us know you're there morningcombat at gmail.com is of course your fan sub and dead wrong spot send your artwork mikey's way thank you to mikey gaff long

island luke uh rj bumble maker on the morningcombat.store oh yeah luke let's close with that um new merch is available but here's the reminder that black friday deal rj told me it's looking good it's looking good you want to get in on those secret savings why don't you send your email address on morningcombat.store sign up for it because that's how you're going to find out what are you going to get percentage off what are you going to get a free gift i don't know you got to check out black friday mk we're coming after you we want to be on your head okay so uh these new hats look they're fantastic they're great i gotta get one i don't have one actually i need to get one i mean i thought you missed a moment not wearing that chuck mendenhall hat

luke when him and i both had it on and i wore it to uh to drop my daughter off at school today all right all right that was yeah that was age appropriate to what you're you're showing these days but luke i'm one i mean what if you just trim the beard down tight and then dyed everything silver that could be like a reinvention like luke 2.0 what do you think about that so head so like my hair too or like what yeah your hair and entire beard would be the same color it'd be like this like you know very professional and poised, like, silver. I would just turn into Tim Allen in the Santa Claus. Fuck all that.

All right, there you have it. Thank you to our great team. Put your mental health first, guys. Take care of yourselves. Enjoy the weekend. Bellator tonight, loaded. CBS Sports, I mean, Fedor on CBS February 4th. What a time to be alive. Tank and Ryguy,

thank you for making that fight. For Luke Thomas, this is BC. We out of here. That's it. We're out. Cut it out. Yeah.