MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Five Things We Love About UFC | UFC Vegas 74 Picks | Call Me Crazy | Ep. 448

Episode Date: June 2, 2023

On Episode 448 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian kick off the show by discussing the 5 things that they love most about the current UFC. The guys also play Call Me Crazy with some recent news topics and make their picks for the weekend. As always we close out Friday's with Dead Wrong. (6:30) - Five Things We Love About UFC (40:50) - News Items (50:00) - Call Me Crazy (91:50) - Ok, Bet Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher 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

oh yeah i mean oh yeah You know, French creepiness aside Oh yeah, we're back at it with a bang It is Friday, June 2nd, 2023 This is the show that wins all them awards, right? It's called Morning Combat Your combat sports showcase I am one half of your hosting duo, the BBC With that BDE, All America Alpha'd out Maybe the Prince of CT.

Or you can add an E on the end. Basically, it's the way I was raised, folks. Brian Campbell coming at you. Great show today and a great co-host next to me this Friday. He's Washington, D.C.'s finest. He's also watched his shit. It's Luke Thomas, baby. Yeah, right?omas baby yeah right what up bc how are you buddy oh you know skits and bits a couple other things going on in my life that's about it luke okay

that's all i got going on at the moment but uh happy early summer to you the weather luke today in connecticut it's gonna be in the 90s, bro. All right? Yeah. Yeah. And then like 61. And then tomorrow's a high of 61. You got to love it, Luke. You got to love it, right? You don't have to love the heat, but you can. No, you love the uncertainty. Who's been messing with the weather in some, you know,

underground bunker underneath a mountain in Colorado and the government, Luke? What's going on, right? I honestly, I know you said words in a language that I speak, but I don't know what they mean. I don't know what they mean. Well, Luke, if we're already talking about the weather this early in the show, it must be bad news for morning combat.

But no, thank you for joining us, fans. You can like, follow, subscribe below. I said fans. I meant listeners and viewers. There's no fanatics out there, right? Uh, Mikey more, more on the ones and twos from CBS sports.

Thank you very much. A reminder, since I'm all merged out right now, you can merge yourself out at morning combat. Store. Get this mug, this fantastic professional polo shirt, which would look great on either a golf course or a PTO meeting,

or, uh, you know, if that's the best thing in your closet, a trial, right? I mean, Luke, we do have some of those listeners, Luke, who they've been P1s a long time, but due to their Jan 6 affiliation, they could be prisoners moving forward.

So we wish them well on their way out, Luke, right? Of society? Yes, but everyone's got an expiration date. Perhaps they have hit theirs. There it is is luke we want to keep you alive speaking of that also you could check out the label that pays a showtime you can go to showtime.com get your 30-day free streaming trial right now right speaking of trials yeah we're talking about the best in combat sports uh documentaries movies all that great shit pound the sand at the end if you don't like it but let me tell you what you will you definitely will luke thomas uh we don't do long

intros anymore and i don't even think we have sponsors anymore outside of this ag1 glass here so shout out uh but you have anything to say to the people heading into this weekend anything at all don't drink and drive don't drink and drive did you enjoy luke uh memorial day weekend four days off did you enjoy it i did i did i really did i needed it also by the way i've seen a couple of movies i have some reviews for you for finally oh wow that could be i saw john wick four saw john wick four all right uh do you want to lean in any direction? No, or save it.

We'll save it. Here's what I'll say. Here's what I'll say. Super fun, super good. Enjoyed basically every minute of it, but I've yet to see a John Wick movie that was better than either the raid or the raid to just haven't seen one yet.

Saw a great movie. So an amazing movie, but didn't see that. Didn't see that. So there you go. You hear that right here from Luke Thomas, Luke. It's it's it's time to start this show.

Are you ready? Let's do it. All right. Well, here's what we're going to do to kick off this Friday. There's not a ton going on, although we'll, we'll,

we'll cut across the news headline sphere and update you on what's going on. But, Luke, we have had to have been very honest of late in speaking our truth about the current state of the UFC, matchmaking, fighter pay, all that stuff. And I get that sometimes, Luke, that can leave your ass a little bit charred since that's the reason why you're here, to celebrate this great fight promotion and this great sport. So, Luke, I thought, hey, if we had to spend all that time telling the truth on this half of it there's

got to be another side of the story there's got to be some things we still love about the ufc so luke i tasked you and i with ranking five of them and here we are on this friday to kick it off and celebrate how much we love the best combat sports promotion in the land, right? Can I be candid and say that I think this exercise is a little silly? May I do that? I mean, you know, it's a Friday filler, Luke, but thank you for already undercutting, and there we go. That's hilarious.

Here's my only pushback on this. My only pushback, which isn't even real. Like, I don't... Is that you hate everything about MMA? Is that your only pushback, Luke? I mean, what are we doing here? I do hate everything about MMA, except the fights themselves. But what I was going to say was, MMA has this...

It's weird, right? Because you just don't see this in boxing at all. And I get the reasons, I get the reasons, but here's what I'm about to say. I've never seen a sports community that has a greater need to outwardly celebrate itself more than MMA. Like there's just a reflex in every corner,

every nook and cranny of folks constantly making it an effort to celebrate MMA in some kind of expressive way, more so than you see with a lot of other sports. I mean, I don't even see this with people who like their own sports team this much. So I get that they don't do it in boxing because, dude, everyone in boxing is a miserable bastard. I mean, it really is kind of amazing. But MMA's got a weird little everyone has to attend the pep rally kind of amazing but uh mma's got a weird little everyone has to attend the pep rally kind of vibe to it that's all yeah all right well we'll leave all

your negativity luke at the doorstep because it's time to get positive luke right yeah that's what i'm talking about luke's favorite and least favorite sport coming together here we go luke you and i we're gonna count it down from five to one. Do you want to go first here, Luke? Or do you want me? Yeah, I can go first. I think it sets the tone, and I do have very nice things to say. I took this. You know what?

Here's the thing. I registered my complaint up front, but BC, in the spirit of being a great broadcast partner, I took this segment seriously. I really did. I'm giving you honest, heartfelt answers. So five things we love about the UFC. Here we go. Number five, John An number five John Anik

John Anik I love the the the ability to hear John Anik so consistently on broadcasts I think he's one of the best broadcasters we have in the sport if not the best for the play-by-play he is to me the voice of the UFC's broadcasts I know obviously Rogan is much more famous and Cormier you know is a celebrated fighter in his own way and broadcaster as well. But I just think he's just a steady captain of that ship. But more than that, I think he pours his heart and soul into the sport. It shows up constantly. He's a pro's pro.

Other broadcasters respect him, and all the fighters seem to like him. He must be doing something right. So two thumbs up for the ability to hear John Anik and for him to be featured so prominently yeah that could have easily made my top five Luke you don't need me to recount how much I love John Anik and go back as a longtime former co-worker now friend of him but Luke is it fared for us to separate uh our bias of really liking that man but also being really honest here and saying it might be the greatest play-by-play man in this sports history and that does include more Rinaldo in this conversation who as you have often said pound for pound might be the greatest play-by-play man in this sports history. And that does include Mauro Ranallo in this conversation who, as you have often said, pound for pound might be the best combat sports announcer ever on this planet.

I do think it's about time we start stepping up and saying, yeah, we all love J.A. He's a great personality. He's also phenomenal at that gig and might be the best to ever do it. Yeah, here's what I would say. I mean, if you wanted to have an argument that he was the best play-by-play guy in MMA history, I think he's definitely 100% in that argument. The problem is for Mauro, or the arguments against Mauro, is he's been doing it a long time, did Pride and everything else,

plus he does boxing, plus he's done Glory, plus he's done pro wrestling, and he's done them all super fucking well. And so when you do that, that's just a really tough resume to beat by virtue of its its breadth yeah the totality of it i agree hey number five i see you i skit skits i see you i see you i see you using my words i see you using my words how am i skidding or bidding when i just said number five luke and then you cut me off what am i going you said in totality you're doing my bit there. Because I get made fun of for using that word.

Yeah, I mean, I thought you'd be proud that I'm using the upper bound limits of my vocabulary. To be fair, you know what I mean? Like, some of the, you know, look, a lot of things of you have rubbed off on me, Luke. Luckily, none of them are fluids. But I will say that, you know, there's been some positive change in the character and presentation of BC to some degree since joining forces with you. Correct? True? Yeah, fair enough. All right, Luke, I like some things about the UFC, too.

And here's a positive thing that I don't think we say enough, number five, and I think it's important. You ready for this? The UFC PI, the Performance Institute. We rightfully give a lot of crap in the direction of UFC about the general care of athletes, including fighter pay, medical benefits, contracts, stuff, all that. Rightfully so. How about one really great thing they're doing that I think they should use more in an argument to counteract some of ours, which is they've made that performance institute a free hub

for whichever athletes under their system that needs it. And Luke, that could be to come down and get extra training with top shelf coaching. That can be to rehab an injury. That can be exclusively to focus on dieting and nutrition. And how many times do we see fighters kind of have their buddy from high school be their nutritionist, right? Not everybody's calling up Chef Cass, K-A-S, right. And doing it the right way. But I think this has been very crucial and important to offset that gap between fighter pay and saying at the very least, look for free,

this employer is offering their employees a chance to improve across the board, physically, mentally, you know, in some ways and also to raise their game to another level. They can go there and eat for free. Everything we've heard from fighters has been very positive about it. Sometimes you see boxers even taking tours and working out there and crossing over. Luke, I do want to say that's one huge asset for the fighters under contract at this moment. And I do think we've seen a lot of them grow by filling in whatever gap they have in their game.

Right. Sometimes a lot of times, like I mentioned, it's nutrition or it's rehabbing or whatever and going there and taking care of it. I think that's a very important thing that creates, you know, longer careers and a lot of good things for the UFC in the long run. So I want to shout them out in that regard. All right. Fair enough. You have anything to say about the pi luke i have a very different view of it than you and so in the interest of like not being a hater um i'm gonna let your point shine how about that no hold on hold on one second i am interested luke i am interested in a very polite manner uh how you would counteract that it's not that i don't think it provides value and let's also like posit something here too. You mentioned it was popular with fighters

and virtually every level of fighter too, like from champions all the way down to the guys who could just access it on the beginning of their first contract. I think that like imagine if a union were like to be created tomorrow, you know, would they want to make sure that access to the PI was maintained and like that was something that all fighters, even if they had to contribute financially to its upkeep, would they want to keep it around? I think that they actually might. I think they actually might. So like it actually has resonated

enough with the fighters to provide very, very clear value. And I don't in any way dispute that or that the professionals who work there don't do a great job. my argument rather it's the ufc centering itself as the origin of service it is the ability to put money there that should not be theirs to spend frankly in my judgment it should be more spread out throughout the workforce and in terms of how they are paid and these are all the all i'm saying is these are when the ufc creates the pi it's a wonderful thing but let's not be fooled. It's a company. It's a for-profit entity.

They're also doing it to set up good publicity for themselves. And again, in the minds of fighters center themselves as the origin of help and who you need to lean on and who you need to look for. And I just don't think that's the right way for that service to be structured personally. That's all very fair and polite. Luke. I appreciate that. Let's go to number four and let's get happy fair and polite Luke I appreciate that let's

go to number four and let's get happy all right I mean this one a lot I think this is maybe one of the most slept on realities about being a UFC fan in my judgment everyone's got a different way to be a fan but in just the role of my job and also in being a fan as well I cannot overstate from where we used to be granted granted a different technological environment. But even with that, dude, the content accessibility that the UFC provides is really second to none. Second to none. Show me a boxing platform other than YouTube, which is handy, but very incomplete, where you can just access that promotions library in a really helpful and direct way. It doesn't fucking exist.

It doesn't exist. There's nothing like that. If you're a UFC fan and you pay enough, you get access to everything that ESPN plus warehouses plus all of Fight Pass. And these are now overlapping, but still in many important ways, highly distinct platforms in terms of what they do actually warehouse. Then on top of that, if you don't pay for it, yes, YouTube is incomplete, but the amount of content that the UFC puts out on YouTube and other places like this is extraordinary.

You can find a moment in time throughout the entire web, not of MMA history, but many of the most important moments in MMA history. There's simply no other combat sports promoter who has done as much as they have to make their content as discoverable, digestible, usable, visible in the way that the UFC has. And also just think about the other promoters. Where do you find warehoused one content? There are places to do it, but it's not really all that great or helpful. Or Bellator. Like Bellator content's got some stuff, obviously, on YouTube, but they don't have as much video record keeping as what I would call it as the UFC.

They are unparalleled with that. And then when you consider the size of these libraries, not an easy task. Pretty amazing. Yeah. I mean, I would like to see some elements of ufc fight past the presentation and the ease ability on the menu increase and improve i'd also like for it to stop signing me out luke and having me forced to retype in on my keypad on my tv that's the password but uh transgenitally no trans what am i trying to say luke trans i don't i

really don't know what's that word that begins with that luke transgently right what does that define that word please transcendently is that what you mean no no um i guess i'm combining a lot of different words in one incorrectly luke somewhat related to this i will also say uh and when you're referring are you i think their content strategy in general of embedded countdown all that type of stuff i think it's top-notch quality it's all like there's no you never run out of things if you're a ufc fan that are relevant in terms of videos to watch separate from the slap stuff which fills up a lot of those menus i would dial that back a little bit i would say that like they that they are like a machine

in terms of how on time and ready they are with this kind of stuff. But it is to me, while initially creative, it's always stuff that's built for scale. And so therefore, you're talking about top-notch content. It is very good, but I don't know if it's the highest level of it just by virtue of how consistently you have to produce it. Well, part of that, they have this new vehicle. I forgot the name of it.

It's on their YouTube channel where they, you know, show fighters like personal life backstories and how they got there and the things they've overcome. And I love a lot of that stuff, too. So across the board, Luke, I like the content. It's very easy to access. I like that at number four. Let's go to my number four. This is just a fan of me talking. I'm not going to lie. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Heavyweight Jon Jones has

me super intrigued and excited. Luke, you know this is an idea that both Jon Jones and us as media and fans have talked about for like a full decade, sometimes even longer than that, if we're being honest. The constant threat of going up. Then we had to endure a three-year sit and wait. And to be fair, we didn't necessarily get the debut from the standpoint of fanfare meets full-on competition that we deserved or expected with not only the Ngannou thing falling out, but gone kind of laid an egg. But at the end of the day, it still matters to me to see the greatest fighter of all time look to cement that legacy in the most ambitious way possible, which is not just going to another weight class and fighting for

a title, but going to heavyweight where that weight gap is so giant, where it's so dangerous at every point. And look, I've always been very intrigued and loved the backend of great athletes careers. And I'm not talking about the ass crack, Luke. I'm talking about like, you know, I'm a monster Larry Bird fan. What were my favorite seasons? The broken down 91, 92 Larry Bird seasons where he might play every other day, but he might put it together one night and remind you through experience and guile who he is. That's how I kind of look at this John Jones heavyweight experiment,

relying on that experience and the smarts to, to swiftly move around these larger dangerous guys i know we've argued about our perceived length of jones at heavyweight but i still think we're going to get the fights we want and need from him and there's enough young names in this division with contrasting styles that are exciting and dangerous that uh like to me john jones versus anybody at heavyweight is among the best fights you can make in terms of intrigue, and I'm happy to see that finally taking place. Like, all the BS aside,

Jon's personal issues aside, him back in the cage taking on dangerous challenges, dude, that's funny shit, Luke. You gotta back that, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, dude, I've been there, I've been lucky to see, basically, not the early, early, early, early, early parts, but basically, I've been lucky to see every part of Jon's career and to see how it's gone for all the good and the bad.

And then this latest iteration of it and the ability to have him back. I guess to me it will depend on who he fights to see what we actually get out of this last chapter, but the broader point I think you make is pretty reasonable, pretty true. All right. For me, number three, again, the one I just did about the content accessibility and now this one, I think people are going to think I'm trying to give the UFC as little credit as possible. I'm actually not. This to me is, I don't expect anyone else to care as much about this, but I will tell you for me, not a make or break kind of improvement, but such a difference maker in my enjoyment in the sport, not so much week to week, but definitely over time. I think people really don't appreciate how much the ability to integrate and have as part of their services and what they do and what part would they make in the broadcast fight statistics for their

fighters guys. It makes such a difference because PFL tries to do a version of it but it's really bad they're very clumsy at it and it doesn't work especially miles per hour just absolutely made up shit what the ufc did was under endeavor they basically bought fight metric they turn it into 3027 they own it from a proprietary standpoint but they got the best fucking guys in the game to do it. And I realized there are a lot of people who will tell you that MMA statistics are not helpful. They're just flatly wrong. They don't know what they're talking about. They've not really looked into it in a way that is, I would consider full-throated and reasonable. And it adds so much to the conversation, so much to a fighter's profile and identity and fight signature

and matchup. And sometimes, of course, the stats don't tell you much. They don't mean anything. They can't possibly do that. The numbers don't always have the most significant real-world relationship. On the other hand, over time, the value is clear. And it really, really bugs me, BC, that a great fighter like Vadim Nemkov, who's in Bellator, you can pick Anatoly Malikin in one. We're just not getting an accurate statistical read of what kind of fighters they are. They can pass the eye test, which is valuable, but I think you just miss a certain degree of really understanding who a fighter is, especially when they've got 20, 30 fights in their career, really getting a much better, cleaner, more precise picture of it.

I love that this is such a part of their product. In addition to already being tied to that library, it's a big, big one, two punch for me in their favor. Yeah. And are you, are you sub tweeting, shouting out a Dick boy, Richard man, our, our, our friend there in the, in the stack game for being one of those fantastic members of that society, Luke? Well, a subtweet would be an insult, so I don't think I'm insulting him. But yeah, he's one of the great ones. Well, our compliments tend to toe the line, right? I just called the guy Dick Boy, so I'm saying it's kind of close, Luke.

Yeah, well, that's you. Yes, but I knew the original founder. I have lunch with him usually like once a year. Rami is the original founder, and they're based here in D.C. It's a D.C. outfit, but it's the official stats provider, and they just don't have a great competitor at all in terms of who can provide these services. To me, it has really made a difference in how I view the sport

and how I enjoy it. I thought that was a very positive soliloquy you gave. You even put UFC in the term full-throated in the same sentence Luke without talking about octagon girl tryouts and I also can respect that and I think I'm glad you're here BC glad you're here I think it plays perfectly into my next point Luke uh number three at the moment of uh what I love about the UFC I mean this and this ain't no virtue signal uh women getting equal billing and respect across the board. So here's what I actually mean by that.

This is something that even though UFC was late to the game on women's fights and it took, you know, Strikeforce and Showtime and Cyborg and Carano and then, you know, Rousey and Tate to really help this sport go full bloom and get to where it did. But once UFC hired or signed Ronda Rousey, excuse me, Luke, I think overnight, they not only made female fights a destination, but they from the beginning presented it as equal to the men. Even to this day, how many times do we see female main events? And we don't have to say, oh, history made again. This is the fifth time. No, it's like, no, that like,

not only Luke are these fights hella exciting but a lot of times whether we're talking about strawweight or now flyweight bantamweight and featherweight have their issues in terms of competition and depth but we are talking about the best in the world very high quality some of the biggest struggles for women's boxing in the times that it's been so up and down. And right now, by the way, it's very up and I'm happy to see has not only been a lack of depth, but I think some, a lot of times a lack of elite consistency across the board, you have like one or two very good fighters and everyone else, you know, from day one of launching the strawweight division in particular, it's been, you know, this, this is world-class this is, this is high level

skill. This is great. So I think that's something that doesn't get talked about enough. And it extends, obviously, to things like Laura Sanko and pioneering and becoming the second female announcer in company history. But I think in general, it's like, in the fighter pay issues, which is big, we're not hearing a big argument on the disparity between male and female luke and it's never been like oh we're rolling out the female fights let's go get a bathroom break from very early on it was presented as equal it was received as that

and the product is you know one of my favorites when i look up and down a card and that's not for instagram reasons like you may think and if you are an absolute dirt hole, by the way, you also have unrivaled access to your favorite female fighters through various websites that we joke about too. That grossness aside, Luke, I think this is important. And I think if you ask yourself truthfully, like, like there are some women's sports that are great that I watched that people get behind, you know, college basketball is a big one, but I don't know if it's as like professionally presented as the, as the women's MMA side is uh and i think the ufc has been a huge part of that taking the baton from strike force fair enough i i i very much agree with that obviously um people think that it was scott coker who discovered ronda rousey was actually sean shelby

um i mean she was well known because she was a judoka. But, I mean, I think the recruitment process started through him. And so, you know, they have been – Dana was famously, of course, against it until he wasn't. But to your point, once they brought it over, it was full steam ahead. And very few sports operate in the way MMA does, where women are as accepted at this level. Like, the NBA can't figure out a way to do that right you know what I mean so the UFC actually has all right for number

two for me there might be some similarity with this with BC so I'll keep mine a little bit on the brief side but I'm going to call it priming the Latin American pump and then you're actually seeing something like this we think the early early early, early stages in China, right, where the UFC is opening up a performance institute and they're using the Ultimate Fighter over there as a way to recruit, not just from China specifically, but, you know, that sort of general part of the world, East Asia. And I think they're in such an early stage that you can lose sight of what value that that might provide. I looked up something I had written actually for MMA fighting all the way back in 2014, actually June 1st, 2014. So almost hitting the anniversary here by a day. And I had spoken to Jamie Pollack. Jamie Pollack was the guy,

the UFC's front man in Latin America. And the article is not just about Mexico. In fact, it's mostly about the entire Spanish-speaking region. And it goes through all of the things that they were trying to do, including launching a UFC network in a lot of these countries that was on over-the-air television. Of course, BC, I think we'll talk more about the Mexican efforts. But beyond that, I want to say we are so accustomed now to seeing shows in the apex,

we have kind of forgotten that there were times when the UFC was visiting Montevideo. They were visiting Chile. They were visiting these other parts of Spanish-speaking Latin America. I know they've got their sights set, I think, on doing shows in Colombia at some point and beyond. And I cannot tell you that every time I go to this part of the world, I see more and more and more enthusiasm just general visibility for mma and you can lose sight of the fact that these these efforts that uh pay dividends down the line and i think a lot of people want to say well it's the people in digital you know who are native to these countries who are the local promoters who are you know they're really the the backbone of the sport

there which is absolutely true but but you cannot overstate the impact it has when the UFC puts its effort and real branding and promotion into launching into these other markets. And I think it has paid an enormous dividend that we're only collecting from right now, really on the Mexican side. But I think there's going to be a wave probably in the next 10 years, at least a certain much more visibility from a lot of these other countries in Spanish-speaking

Latin America by no small part by the effort that Pollock was let go two years later when the UFC ended up getting sold to Endeavor. But that effort that they undertook there from Mexico all the way down to Argentina, it continues to pay off. It is still building on itself. And already we've seen some of these rewards. And I think there's a lot more of where that came from in the next five to 10 years. Yeah. Remember it's Columbia, not Columbia.

But Luke, real question tied to that. Your wife is a fan of combat sports. She's trained in jujitsu, like actually legitimately respects and appreciates it. Would a Colombian born UFC champion be like Elvis Presley in your house? Seriously. It would be a big deal. It would be a really big deal.

You'll see this, like the, the, there are a couple of sports that the Colombians are good at cycling. They're good at and soccer. And so you see some heroes there, but what you'll find is like they'll be like a famous bmx rider or like a famous you know something you've never paid a

lot of attention to but it's a very specific kind of niche world and if they excel in those worlds they become national heroes it's the craziest thing a colombian-born ufc champion would be an absolute game changer for that country no doubt no doubt in my mind at all yeah and in your house luke that's what i'm talking about yeah yeah well my house is a given but yeah for sure all right uh yeah luke uh what what's the word i'm looking for again trans transgently that's the word right trans gentle no no transgenital i don't know uh what i'm trying to say is look i put the rise of mexican m MMA and it ties into what you're saying, but it also is its own thing. Why? Because, look, I come from boxing where not only is the Mexican fan base just, you know, the backbone of the sport.

Who's got the best when we tie like stereotypes, not negative ones, but positive ones in combat sports to certain regions. And it's like, you know, these Russian hammers or whatever. I mean, look, you know, what's more synonymous with the idea of the toughness that comes with being a Mexican boxer? And it's, you know, it's like that in other areas too. Obviously, on boxing, the island of Puerto Rico has always been on fire for boxing. But I mean, fighting, boxing has always been part of that great nation of mexico's like fabric so i did always wonder like would how long would that actually take to to make legitimate inroads

on the mma side and i know that something ufc has tried forever why because they come from boxing themselves the you know the the fortitas and dana who made this company what it is today and know of that but i think they always looked at it more as like, if we could just get that one star who can talk, who can become champion, and could just inject that population and bring over the boxing fans. And certainly that could have worked if they could have gotten that. They never quite got that, that one individual star who was also great on that level. But sometimes, Luke, that can just be a little in

you know injection and it can go away what they've done and it's a long road it's a long game but it's great to see have changed the culture there now you're seeing for the first time kids that are growing up saying i want to be mixed martial artists and luke when we do talk about those i'm saying positive stereotypes mex, Mexican born people connect with the fight game. The toughness is there, the focus. And now you're seeing it go full bloom with two full Mexican born champions at the moment. And Brandon Moreno and Alexa Grasso, Yair Rodriguez with that interim featherweight strap. Irene Aldana fighting for the title against Amanda Nunes coming up.

And, you know, great soup, powerful super gyms popping up. We know the UFC is expansion ideas with PIs in Mexico and China in the hopes of, you know, eventually Africa, but it took time, but they did it the right way and they did it the organic way.

And I think now this is the first generation growing up wanting to be MMA stars. What will the cyclical fallout of that be with all of these actual Mexican-born champions atop the marquee right now? It's great to see, Luke. I've got so much love for Mexico and the culture in so many ways. And fighting is fighting, right? I mean, I don't know if you've heard it before. Luke Dana said it a few times.

But we all have fighting in our DNA. But in the Mexican DNA, it seems to be extra special. So I'm happy to see that transition being made. That's still a boxing nation, yes. But MMA is legit, Luke. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely legit there, and it's good to see. It's funny.

Like, MMA fans here in the States have witnessed in front of them the power and the passion of Irish fight fans right they've seen it with their own eyes by virtue of Connor like you haven't quite seen that yet in my mind with the Mexican fight fans who are here at least not like for example you if you go to big fights in boxing you will see the Mexican fan base rally in a way that I don't think I've quite seen that in MMA and obviously when you go to big fights in boxing you will see the mexican fan base rally in a way that i don't think i've quite seen that in mma and obviously when you go to mexico that's different or whatever and yeah kane had a couple of moments against brock but that they got pretty close but you know

event to event or your month to month anyway in boxing like you go to vegas dude they just they are a presence they cannot be missed when you go i would love to see something like that here for the mexican fans or mexican fans yes but also the mexican fighters and the general fight community that we have in general in the states indeed indeed all right so i know i i know what people are going to say is that i was kind of sandbagging here a little bit and not oh you can get a lot of their content and they have stats and people think that, you know, I'm not giving them enough due with other things. These things matter to me greatly, number one. But okay, if that's not enough for you, how about my number one answer? This is real simple in this one. Very simply stated, some of my happiest days of my life in the last 20 years have been

watching UFC programming. That means quite a bit to me. I've been doing this a UFC programming. I don't, I, that means quite a, quite a bit to me. I've been doing this a long time. I've been doing it almost 20 years. And yeah, of course I've had a lot of bad times too. And, and, and, um, even what, whether it was going on in the sport was good or bad, sometimes life outside of it affects it one way or the other, but just being quite candid when I think back on my life, even sometimes when I'm working, sometimes when I'm not, sometimes when I had friends over,

sometimes when I didn't, but just in general, for whatever reason, to the extent I've had some happy moments in the last 17 years or whatever it's been, so many of them have been filled with UFC content. That's a real thing. You know,

I've spent the lab big part of my life being, whether through work or recreationally i've spent a big part of my life being associated with what that company has done and of course not everything they've done i've liked and not everything they've done has made me happy but i've just had a lot of great fun but like not just like day-to-day fun but like memorably like fun memorably joyful moments from big fights, from crazy endings, from things that got me thinking about fights, you know, week at weeks and months and years after a time.

A lot of that, and maybe the majority of it in the last 17 years, has come from UFC content. So I don't take that lightly. I think that actually, I don't know how that sounds to the audience, but I'm trying to be as honest as I can. I don't know if I can give much more of a higher compliment than saying I chose to spend my life around this thing. And yeah, mostly that thing is MMA,

but the UFC has been the biggest winner in that and some of the biggest winning, so to speak, moments of my fandom and my work life have happened through that. And that is about all you can really do as a person not so much to show loyalty or whatever but to show um i think gratitude you know i chose to spend my life around it and uh i would say luke the ufc tuki and mk have conspired to save your life and restore your heart i've had some other good ones you're leaving out but those have been those have been pretty good i'm sure you've gotten laid once and once or twice too i mean you know congrats on the

sex and stuff but uh luke you know my number, you know, if you can combine my two favorite things, fighting and gas station food, then you'd have fucking Friday, Luke, right? Yeah, right. But that's not my number one. Well, all right. Luke, my number one is very easy. Every top 10 lightweight fight right now in the UFC is a fucking banger, bro. Okay, banger.

I'm talking about there's not one. There's divisions that might be deeper and better at the moment, and my number one could just have been the Bantamweight title picture, right? It could have been, let's try out Mick Maynard, what he's done to the men's flyweight division to save it and make it so fun. Like a lot of those things. But, Luke, what draws me to the screen most excitedly? It's a top ten lightweight bout. It's the perfect mix of names that are coming

on old names that are lingering at the title level and even older names that still have something left and are willing to go in there and mix it together i this is a non-scientific experiment but if you ask me right now to write down the best 25 u fights I've watched over the past like five years, I bet you they'd all be at lightweight. I mean, seriously, Luke, outside of Ioana and Whaley one, it would all be at lightweight. We're getting a BMF fight in this great rematch of what I think has been the best fight among all of these all action lightweights of this era, which is Gaethje and Poirier. And we're not even mad that the gimmick belt is back because it actually fits and it works. Only the thing is, you don't need to go out of your way and just mix aging veterans that

are known for brawls to make brawls happen in the top 10 pairings in this. The title bouts have been as exciting as any, particularly Charles Oliveira's recent run in which he's getting hurt or compromised early in a lot of them, but just dramatically outlast the guy across from him later on in the fight. That's what this division is all about. That's why up until recently, it was the best division. I think of all time in terms of its depth in one moment, you know, just barely eclipsing that great run at light heavyweight in the pre John

Jones takeover. But damn, Luke, 155. You know, there's people like Jed Meshew, that absolute dirt hole who I like a lot, Luke, who think that lightweight is still the best division in this sport just because of what I just said. And I have to say, in terms of my interest as a fan, when that red light goes on, when that lightweight bat phone rings, Luke, I tend to answer on the regular, okay tend to answer on the regular okay you know yeah i don't think that's the craziest opinion in the world it's pretty clear that bantamweight has caught up to lightweight there used to be like one was like both were good but one was clearly better and that's not the case now bantamweight still i think has made some strides but to your point like pound for pound bangers i don't know man the the top five

at at lightweight that's tough to beat that's tough to beat i mean look you're good in like across the board across the entire 10 to 15 it's just it's just killers bangers aggressive brawlers spectacular finishers it's just you know it's that perfect intersection, Luke, of greatness. And they keep doing it. And I hope we talk about this lightweight era one day as having been so super special. You know, I mean, damn, I love it. But, you know, Luke, it turns out we do like a lot of things

going on in the UFC right now. Who would have thought? Well, again, it's a silly little exercise, but you got to hear five things I legitimately really do like about the UFC. How about that? All right. Now, Luke, next topic is five things you don't like about me. Let's go.

All right. That was good. That one surprised me. I didn't see that one coming. Well done. All right. A couple quick mentions here on the way out before our next segment related to news and related to the UFC. How about this fight?

Heavyweight. A main event. Sal Palo. How do I say that? How do you say Sal O'Palo, Luke? How do you say that? So my best, again, this is going to be my gringo version, which is only marginally better than yours. Sal Palo.

Sal Palo. November 4th. Dude. Curtis Blades versus Gialton Almeida. Yeah. Hell yeah, right? Yeah, dude. Yeah, dude, that fight is so fucking sick. I love this fight.

And I know what the complaint is, which is a fair one. It's a fair one, which is, okay, great fight, but if Blades beats Almeida, he's just killing off contenders that could make for eventually a fun fight against whoever ends up being champion, whatever Jon Jones does. Like, you know, in other words, like feeding everyone to Rich Franklin so they can never get to Anderson Silva. Okay, fair enough. They're running a risk there, but it's a fun one to run. That's going to be back in Brazil, which you're going to love Almeida's momentum already. Plus with the crowd hyping them up, Curtis Blades will go to any place to fight anyone.

Shouts to Curtis Blades for being a fucking dog. I love this. And also, I think he's got the upper hand. He can sprawl and brawl. He's going to be much better on the feet. This is going to be a real big test of exactly what Almeida can do in making his grappling game come to life because I don't think he can beat Curtis Blades striking.

Yeah, dude, just Curtis Blades we've always talked about, even though when he does get up to the highest level, we'd somewhat consistently seen him come up short and, you know, dramatically come up short, but he's still, you know, arguably the most well-rounded heavyweight in terms of what he can bring in certain points across the board. We want to see that from Almeida So how about a guy that can kind of Keep you honest in every area But also obviously has dominant wrestling Damn I can't wait to see Luke If this ends up being a five round fight on the feet We're going to find out How much the influence of Almeida's dad and uncle Having been pro boxers in Brazil

Will play into Luke Because that's what we want to see right I'd love to see him get to the title level Where we have no idea if he can go more than a round or if he can do it on the feet because I like that intrigue sometimes. But as a fan, you want to see how good that striking is right now. Maybe this is the fight that forces that.

It could, but I don't think that's really what you're going to get. I think this is a bigger question of like, okay, you're not going to be able to outstrike him and you probably are not going to be like man to man be able to out wrestle him but there might be like other tricks you can pull to win what are those grappling tricks like again just creating back exposure stuff like that what else can you do i want to see yeah yeah it's going to be great uh also luke news related to this saturday's uf Fight Night card. We're going to get to OK Bet soon with our picks. But Luke, it's been less than 40 days and 40 nights since Jared Gordon was knocked out cold against Bobby Green in a fight that was changed to a no contest.

Gordon was supposed to be back this week against Jim Miller. The picture kind of feels like it's painted like this. Tell me if I'm wrong. The word came out that after Wednesday's media day, the UFC medical team became aware, they say, of something that forced Jared Gordon out of the lineup. Is that awareness related to the fact that he just had a concussion 30-something days ago? He's been taken out of this fight.

Jesse Butler is going to step in last minute. And Jim Miller, who will fight anybody at any time that's not the question here luke he actually made an instagram video to come back at those in the media who have taken the pursuit of finding out his new opponent a little too aggressively let's go to this video too yes unfortunately uh jared is not cleared by the commission. This is a question that I had asked when his name was brought up. I was told everything was good, but apparently some new details came out. Working on a new opponent.

Please, for the love of God, folks, the, the MMA media people out there. Stop asking my fucking wife, like sending her messages, asking her about what, what's going on. Like fucking a leave her alone. Is that a subtweet at Mike bone? Or did I just create an enemy? Look,

what's going on here? Were they flying together? What's happening? Uh, I would want to know. I mean, obviously he's not going to say, but like,

I would want to know like which, you know, I doubt that that's, I doubt that people working for junkie are, you know, texting or trying to DM his wife. It sounds to me like the people from clown penis dot fart. We're doing that.

Number one. I mean, who's doing it? Oh, skits and be. Hello, my baby. My mom. I was going to say, yeah, but it's a dude like, you know, first of all, here's the weird part about that scoop. It's like messaging his wife is weird.

I agree with Jim Miller. He's very right about that. And secondly like messaging his wife is weird i agree with jim miller he's very right about that and secondly even if you got it it's not going to be like a high traffic news bump you know what i mean like you're not going to get like some avalanche of traffic because you broke who the new uh who the new opponent was so it's just weird in every direction it's a bunch of people who just don't know what they're doing basically. Do you find it weird that Gordon was pulled out after he talked at Media Day about having just been concussed?

What is the medical limit on coming back this quickly from a damaging fight like that? Or what should be the medical limit? Basically, I haven't looked this up, but after that event with Bobby Green, he should actually fine, which, again, I don't really know what you can do besides CAT scans,

which only show you bleeding on the brain. They don't show you TBI. But, okay, either way, you have to get that cleared. And I guess he did, but perhaps that was insufficient. There you go. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, Michael Bisping was allowed to do that when he got up from the canvas after losing his title to GSP and hopped on a flight to China to fight Kelvin Gastelum.

That was weird, Luke. But yeah, I don't know. It just doesn't, things don't seem to match up here. But either way, new opponent for Jim Miller this Saturday, that will be Jesse Butler. Luke, before we go to segment number two, also in the news, this came out late yesterday. Things have turned for Gervonta Davis. So he had a hearing in Baltimore yesterday that at the end of it, he was taken into custody by the Baltimore city sheriff's office. And he was serving, as we talked about, a 90 day house arrest, but still allowed to train.

And that house arrest was at the home of his trainer, Calvin Ford. But Luke, they took him in and now he has to serve the rest of his 90 day sentence inside jail. What they haven't said is the reason why all news outlets have been very generic and the spokespeople from the Baltimore courts have not gone into detail, but it's assumed, I think it's safe to say it's assumed that there's been some violation of that order of that court order that set up that 90-day house arrest and now we see tank davis gonna uh gonna finish that off luke behind bars interesting turn of events here and not a positive development for a fighter who i really is really pretty much out of second chances in a lot of areas no dude i mean he's him his situation is impossible to show any sympathy for dude how

do you fuck up house arrest? Seriously? Like, again, I, my buddy, he is a criminal defense attorney and I, I showed him everything from this case and I was like,

did he get off light? And he was like, yes, he absolutely got off light. Like there's a lot of people who would have been that kind of a circle, not the Lamborghini per se, but similar, a similar kind of circumstance who absolutely would never have gotten house

arrest or anything like that. It's rather remarkable that he did. And fucked that up too like just you cannot sympathize with him at all at all um he has one billy he pled guilty to those crimes um the judge gave him an opportunity to apologize to the victims during the final sentencing hearing he refused to do it he gets house i thought that by the way just to cut you off there i thought him not being willing to publicly apologize in the court i thought that would have been enough for them to like be like okay you're going you're going away right i thought so too but again this is my point addictive like that yeah

yeah 100 100 they let it ride he gets house arrest and then he fucks that up too. I mean, not only does it make you worry that this dude in no way has learned his lesson, which is just mind-blowing given how many chances he's had, but then on top of it, he's going to have to learn the hard way. He has more than earned everything he has heaped upon himself, and he has to figure this out. I mean, it's just crazy. Fucking insane to me. It is. It really is. Luke and he has to figure this out. I mean, it's just crazy. Fucking insane to me. It is.

It really is. Luke, segment number two on this Friday. Hey, we haven't done this in a while, but we got enough things going on in the news where I think it's pretty interesting. This is a segment your boy BC created where I present news updates and possibly provocative statements to Luke. And Luke tells me, am I crazy or am I onto something? Luke, this is call me crazy. Chingity bang,

bang Luke. Number one. And call me crazy has taken a dramatic turn in the past 24 hours, but here's how I originally set it up. Armed with new trainer, Derek James, of course there's Ryan Garcia. He told fight hub TV this week that his preferences for a 140 pound return coming off the loss to tank would

be roly romero pipple isaac cruz or teo femo lopez who's fighting josh taylor for all four titles at 140 on june 10th by the way luke none of those fighters happen to fight on the zone where garcia's promoter oscar de la Hoya and Golden Boy have an exclusive deal. Then things got crazy two days ago. De La Hoya was quoted by the media in saying that he is actively trying to get a Manny Pacquiao fight back together for Garcia, to which Garcia quote tweeted and said, This isn't happening! I said what I what i wanted it's frustrating tired of this then this video started making the rounds about the aftermath of garcia's loss to tank let's

throw to that one please okay so when i wouldn't have got to see it i lost i seen everybody leave me and then i just got to see who was really there for me after the fight nobody was there for me like my team but just didn't come to the press conference. They didn't go do nothing. You know what I mean? That's so garbage, man. I was left with somebody betrayed me in camp. They weren't trying to look out for me after the fight.

It was like, I was left with that. That's worse than the fucking fight. Bro, it was the worst. And I had Tank's team really care about me more than my own team. I had God with me the whole way. So, I'm going to understand who's there with me. God, my mom, and the team I'm going to have now. I look forward to seeing more, man, for sure.

Well, Luke, a lot of that is referenced to the fact that his ex-trainer, Joe Goosen, did not go to the post-fight press conference, although Goosen said publicly afterwards it was just miscommunication. He didn't know they expected him to. But Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins of golden boy also no showed that oscar would go public later and say that there were death threats against his life so he no showed a conference that did not have fans public i don't know about that luke but that was where we were speculating shit last night there's no more speculation jerry springer rip pretty much broke out on twitter

here's oscar de la jolla saying all uh what the f ryan garcia it's been almost two months and you're still crying about the post presser the blame for your loss is on you and your advisor lupe he is the only one who pushed you to accept that insane rehydration clause and that is the reason you lost man up own that by the way hold on who is this who is this lupe he's referencing uh uh i'm sorry ryan garcia's lawyer slash manager is uh guadalupe i have to look up his last name apologies on that in the moment but lupe is his uh who reportedly luke from people i've talked to on both sides ahead of tank versus uh r, Ryan, uh,

Ryan, no longer, even in the build of that fight was talking to Oscar De La Hoya at all. And his advisor lawyer was handling all of the communication between golden boy showtime does not like everybody. Okay. So that's just where we were at. Oh, can you throw that please? Mikey back up on the screen. He would continue Oscar and saying, also, you keep saying tanks team offered you more support, blah, blah, blah,

bro. They set you up to lose with that rehydration clause. And most importantly, Al Heyman didn't even show up the entire week. Actually, he never shows up. How's that for support? And quote,

Luke, before we get to what happened after that, like, could I jump in and be like, what the frick is go? Well, how do you even respond to this luke like what is happening here dude i mean it's amazing how like rank unprofessionalism

among people in this sport gives us so much to talk about it's insane here's here's my quick take on this bc why are both of them fucking doing this this crazy public battle that makes neither of them look good. And I'll be honest, like, I don't really know who to trust here. I sort of see Ryan Garcia's point about, especially the post-fight presser, that is really weird, and that was a big fight, and they really should have been there. And I don't know what the fuck the truth is, but I am skeptical that death threats were really a reason he couldn't go.

But who the hell knows? I don't know the answer to that. On the other side, when De joya says you know you signed up for this stupid ass rehydration clause you made all these deals you lost fucking own that he's right he's also right but then on the other side bc it's like dude why are you fucking tweeting about this stop doing this dude if you're a good de la joya you had canelo alvarez who had a lot of issues with you who walked out and now you're battling with like your last big star what the fuck because it's going to play into how i tee it up luke that would continue overnight most of the

tweets have been deleted but ryan and him went back and forth finally oscar was like why are we airing this out publicly your job is to. My job is to promote the fight. Oscar patted himself on the back, essentially, during that fight week against Tank for causing the drama, right, and talking shit that kind of, like, helped promote that. Oscar's taking credit for that. But, look, the fact that he's doing it so openly is wild. So let's play into this Call Me Crazy. All the opponents Ryan Garcia mentioned don't fight on DAZN.

Ryan doesn't have the zone deal which we talked about ahead of the tank fight it's golden boy that does ryan resign with golden boy i believe to open 2022 to a multi-fight multi-year deal no information in terms of the totals or how many fights left uh luke call me crazy here but losing ryan garcia could be an actual death blow to golden boy promotions and it doesn't look like king ryan wants to stay with these folks at all you were getting into and i interrupted you the fact that oscar recently had the biggest star in the game canelo and that fall fell apart disastrously yes golden boy still has unbeaten welterweight prospect, Virgil Ortiz jr.

Yes. They have some strong veterans like Jojo Diaz and a couple other, you know, that are worth watching Jaime Munguia. But look, if this is setting up for this to blow up disastrously, whether that means golden boy keeps Ryan in court to keep him out of the ring to keep,

you know, cause one thing Oscar tweeted about that he took down last night was in response to fans that were like, what are you doing, Oscar? He's like, dude, I've got him under contract. Like, he's got a fight. You're fucking around with the calling card you have remaining. So Luke Thomas, call me crazy, but like this could actually be the death blow to Golden Boy if this thing happens and falls apart.

Disaster. True or false? These names you bring 100% true true these names you bring up i respect them but dude who's paying for a zone subscription so jaime munguia can fight somebody that they're disappointed to see fight jaime munguia get the out of here you already had canelo who was the big hook for the zone promotion more generally when it launched in this particular market he is now gone and by the way he hasn't gone out and necessarily like hardcore trashed De La Hoya but has not been quiet about some of his issues that he had with him I will say that

for Canelo that's the first thing now you're back to back the the the two stars you had in Ryan Garcia one of the still to this day certainly even more so than before the fight, one of the biggest stars in boxing, one of the brightest, I would still say young stars. I still think it's very early to say exactly how his future could go, but definitely really extremely well is one of the things on the table. You're going to fuck with that. And all you've got left are like Jaime Munguia and you're like, yeah, Virgil Ortiz too. Okay, fine. But like, dude, that's those other two names are like good for hardcore boxing fans. They're not good for a general audience. Ryan Garcia is good for a general audience. Canelo Alvarez is good for a general audience. You're going to punt on both of those fucking guys because you want to tweet, dude,

what the fuck are you doing? You got to be out of your mind i'm not even saying again i want to be clear about this i'm not even saying that i know or i can declare to you that the substance of de la joya's arguments are wrong that's not necessarily what i'm telling you what i'm telling you is get on the fucking phone or in person with this kid and work this out. Dude, this is madness to me. Giving me another reason. I'm a DAZN customer, BC. You lose Ryan Garcia, you're giving me a very strong reason to be like, why am I keeping this around?

Get the fuck out of here. I mean, what's crazy is losing Canelo, the fact that they've been able to hold it together, I get that they're not the featured or the sole featured boxing promotion on the zone, right? Eddie Hearns, matrim sport feels sort of the other half of that,

or, or maybe bigger than other half, but still they kind of share that together. But like losing Canelo could have been the end. Oscar has experience as a fighter getting into a rift with Bob Arum and, and top rank. And essentially before Floyd did kind of the same move, like went on his own way and then started his own promotional company.

And, and, you know, I mean, there was, there were points when, when Oscar was, had Richard Schaefer and was aligned with Al Heyman where like, you could argue that was the number one promotion in the, in boxing at the moment, you know, they certainly had the biggest stars and how are you going to, like you said, take this chance that this happens? Because look, even if it goes to court, even if Oscar's defense is, well, we've got them under contract. Like remember what happened to Andre Ward when he tried to get out of his deal with Dan Goosen and went to court multiple times and lost in it. You know, it just basically was this big headache that eventually at the end, all parties were like, all right,

let's just go our separate ways. Like Golden Boy doesn't win if he's in court, Luke, right? You know, they only win if he's fighting. So I don't think it's a bad idea, by the way, to explore the Manny Pacquiao fight. Like, I don't think that's promotional malpractice. Like Oscar saying that publicly, even if that was their intention, and I know it was a couple of years ago, like that's fine with me, but you're outright lying according to Ryan Garcia and how you could air.

I mean, Luke, I don't go on Facebook much, right. For obvious reasons, like my, you know, grandmothers have kind of ruined it for people and moms and aunts and stuff, Luke. But, um, I've heard someone say, Luke, that the only people left on Facebook are racist and grandmas. Do you think that's true? I don't think that's fair, but I will say this though, that a lot of people I went to high school with are more than willing to air the dirty laundry on Facebook, like the dirtiest of the dirty and sometimes you're like you know eating your popcorn but a lot of times you're like man that's pretty sad like take that shit in-house like i shouldn't know this about you um none of us some of the marines i served with putting up

artwork that was like uh modeling the crusades i was like okay yeah all right i think we're done here yeah yeah i think we're done here on this topic too. Please, please, Oscar. Hold on. Last thing. Last thing on this. Truly the last thing. One last sentence.

MMA fans might be accustomed to Dana White butting heads with fighters and then still just kind of putting up with it and reaching some kind of new arrangement or whatever. Just life moves on. Folks who are MMA fans, top boxers don't have to put up with that. Like at fucking all.

Like they don't have to put up with that. Not fucking all like they don't have to put up with that not nearly as much as you might imagine they have choices ryan garcia at the end of this deal is going to have big time choices oscar is making a tragic mistake there you go number two on call me crazy luke a former ufc flyweight challenger title challenger tim elliott's back this week in the cage. We didn't get into it here on MK probably for reasons of decency, but I'm sure you know he posted a tweet a few weeks ago accusing his ex-wife and UFC fighter Gina Mazzani of cheating on him with his own training partner, Kevin Kroom. I'm not here to deal with those details,

but Elliott did tell MMA media this week that he was overwhelmed by the positive support from the typically nasty MMA community, from fans, fellow fighters, all that. But Luke, this is another MMA power couple splitting up and doing so very publicly. And if you think about it, there tends to be enough salacious shit across the board regularly going on that UFC actually could follow WWE's lead here now that they're in the same company and create a cable ratings bonanza similar to what WWE did with reality shows Total Divas and Total Bellas but using active MMA personalities and power couples that would not only allow the fighters with big personalities a in no shame because you need no shame to be in these shows

uh to pull in healthy side income and you can argue well that's shameless well so is showing your butthole and only fans luke it would also further promote ufc the brand the fighters individual brands sometimes reality tv it's staged but it's all a big show there are fans luke who aren't necessarily in this watching this sport for the violence. Call me crazy, but the day-to-day lives of MMA couples and fighters would make very easy reality TV fodder. I hate how good this idea is.

You are not crazy now what i would say is it i didn't talk about anything that tim elliott put on twitter related to his marriage and everything that was alleged in there because uh i don't care and when i say i don't care i mean like i don't care if bad things happen to you what i'm saying is you know that's a very sad thing that appeared to happen in his personal life and i certainly extend sympathy to him but i don't you know that's not what i'm in the sport to cover is that aspect of people's lives that version of their privacy seems to me not really relevant so uh i didn't get into it but what i would say is is there a market for what you're talking about like without a question in my mind the only problem is if you really like did this that you know eventually like someone either the fighter or someone in their orbit is going to be like you know all trans people should be shot and you're

like well there goes the there goes the show like we can't have you don't have to put it on the air luke it's not live you know i know i know but you know it would somehow get in there and you'd be like well now the show's over because there's a lot of retrograde views going around but i think what i would rumble sports might be interested in that just just just that's true that's true but i would say like i gotta tell you like my wife watches those uh 90 day fiance thing and i got into it initially too and it would seem more like semi-document it was always entertainment but semi-documentary now it's just straight up hey we want you guys to wreck your lives and then we just want to film the crap the prostitution of people's like own human failures is crazy to me well look i set it up as a prostitution and i think inevitably if this ever happened it would become

that but i have seen in my days covering wwe where female wrestlers who were not involved heavily in big storylines and we're not getting a lot of tv screen time for wrestling actually became much more famous through just showing up on total divas and like going out for drinks and having drama you know in terms of their friendships and stuff like you could kind of build your star that way in ways that don't necessarily need you to show yourselves naked luke that's all i'm saying okay so by the way what is what the top tell me tell me what is shameful about in your words showing your butthole on only fans why should they be ashamed of that it's my personal take on on on certain things and and look uh you know my we're all we're all

caught we're all a uh we all contradict ourselves, Luke. I sometimes talk about ridiculous stuff for comedic purposes on this show, but I think you should have a line and draw on the limit. I've never been for, not in my dad adult adjusted years, for things like strip clubs or things like that, Luke. Okay? All right, Luke. I mean, I would be honest. I'd be lying if I said, like, you know,

I don't have higher aspirations for my daughter. I certainly do. If we're being really fair, though, the only way you should be ashamed is if you show your butthole and you don't get paid for it. Like, if you do it and you get a sick amount of money,

I feel like that trade-off, you kind of just have to let it rock. But if you do it and you're also, like, not even getting money for it, that's when it's like, okay,off, you kind of just have to let it rock. But if you do it and you're also like not even getting money for it, that's when it's like, okay, well, you did some questions. Yeah, I don't know. Sometimes it just, I think it comes down to your personal preference on how much you value money.

I always give that comparison that my dad would always like get into arguments with me and say, for a million dollars, I'd eat a plate full of poop right in front of you right here. And I'd just be like, dad, you're supposed to have more decency than that. It doesn't matter the amount of money. I'm not going to eat the poop, okay? I do have non-negotiable human limits here, okay? All right, that's just the thing.

Two and a half million. Luke's like, what about if it was a Cleveland steamer, baby? Yeah, all right, there you go. All right, yeah. But also, Luke, you could present this reality show in a positive way too you could follow around mandy and nina luke like you know i'm saying like it doesn't have to be all trash is what i'm saying okay thank you very much it kind of does it would eventually become that luke okay but you could have competing storylines that's all i'm saying luke according

to sports illustrated chris manix is reporting representatives for David Benavidez, the unbeaten super middleweight star, are prepared to offer Canelo Alvarez close to $50 million in guaranteed money for a fall pay-per-view showdown. Benavidez, if you're wondering, is promoted by Samson Lukowitz. Here's the problem for me, though. Between fighting Floyd 10 years ago, headlining countless pay-per-views over the ensuing decades, and having once signed a DAZN deal for $365 million that I know Canelo didn't already, didn't get all of that, but you get my point. Alvarez has made a shit ton of money, probably more than any other fighter not made Floyd or Manny, right? Like seriously, that's never necessarily been his motivation,

but he does take things like honor very, very seriously. So, Luke, I love the $50 million offer. I hope they do this fight this fall. But call me crazy, but the quickest way for David Benavidez to lure Canelo Alvarez into a fight would actually be attacking his manhood publicly and something you brought up in the past as a throwaway line that i loved trying to turn the mexican fan base against him if you come out aggressive nasty in the persona you already employed against caleb plant this take no shit personality because look the only

thing i didn't like about benavidez after the plant fight in the ring the post-fight interview was he was way too polite and saying Canelo if you want to do this like I'm here I'm ready you're like a little bit too much respect come out and wear the black hat and I think you're going to end up with Canelo in the fall and you don't need to offer him 50 million call me crazy Luke I think you're right I think you're right I actually think you're right and again this doesn't come without risk because if canelo ends up winning and stopping him they're gonna you know it's gonna be a huge part of the story that it all blew up in his face although if he wins of course it would only cement his legend and there's a risk in trying to turn the fan base against canelo that also could go a lot of bad

ways for someone but but if you were trying to do it by getting under Canelo's skin, by representing and positioning yourself as the true flag bearer for Mexican boxing, the true flag bearer for what it means to represent that place, even though obviously Canelo is the biggest star from that country, but to try to find a way to kick him out of that kingly role he has assumed. Yeah, dude, I think that actually could go a really long way. You know, we have people always try to pick fights with Cano and he's pretty good about getting out of them. Like when Kamaru's been wondering, he was just like, yeah, payday, payday. Same thing with Jorge Maslow. I was like, payday, payday. And like, you know, Demetrius Andre showing up to press

conferences and, you know, being like, you know, just get out of here. Like, who are you? You're nobody. He's very good at deflecting it. But all those guys just didn't have a compelling pitch. David Benavidez, if he could actually make a case for himself as the true representative of Mexican boxing, the face of it, really. Yeah, that would be kind of, I honestly wonder what that might do. Because to your point, 50 million is great, but he's got 50 million and then some so and some people might counter luke that that benavidez wasn't born in mexico

so that wouldn't work as well and he does have is proud of the ecuadorian side of his heritage as well so i guess you know maybe this is not the foolproof angle of going on the the all mexican guy but just being aggressive and abrasive like Like the one person that it worked was, uh, was Laura Arislandi. Laura tried that Andre move years earlier and it worked. He crashed Canelo's press conference, you know, tried to do it politely, but Canelo's like, fuck you. And then guess what? He said, yeah, I'll fight you. I'll fight you on pay-per-view for your, and we'll, we'll bring our titles together. So I just, but look,

what about the people that will say, okay, BC, like a, stop bringing up pro wrestling bullshit, but B, what about the people that will say, okay, BC, like a stop bringing up pro wrestling bullshit, but B does every fight have to start with this? They're like, shouldn't it just be about that? They're both superstars and they're both stars in this division. And it's the undisputed champion against the guy who might have next. Like, do we have to go to this? Well, I'm boxing.

Yeah. Sometimes you have to go to that. Cause there's no structure in this game. Sometimes that's the way to do it. Right. Also like Benavidez, Benavidez, like in terms of how he positions himself, I'm not saying Well, in boxing, yeah, sometimes you have to go to that because there's no structure in this game. Sometimes that's the way to do it, right? Also, like, Benavidez, like, in terms of how he positions himself, I'm not saying he can be like, I'm more Mexican. Maybe he can't do that.

But he can be like, who rewards you more? Who gives you more? Who flies the flag harder beyond just, you know, what I say about it? Like, how do I fight? Look at the way I fight. When you actually look at the way I fight, what does it tell you about who I am? You know, those kinds of things. You can, you can definitely do that. All right, Luke, number four, call me crazy. As you may know, the July 29th UFC two 91 Cole headlining fight is an absolute banger.

Alex potato making his light heavyweight debut against former champion Blahovitz. Hey, Luke, Daniel Cormier, the UFC hall of famer was on DC and RC and ESPN this week, and he said, quote, we have seen Adesanya hurt Podeta in two fights. He can't get hit by Jan Blahovic. He hits so hard, bro. I have seen Blahovic almost decapitate guys, end quote, and then he referenced the Dom Reyes and the other big hits, or Luke Rockhold fight, where Jan punched holes through those guys. Luke, this isn't against DC, but I'm going to counter his point here. Call me crazy, but with full respect to the legendary Polish power, Poiton has only been stopped once in 33 kickboxing fights in terms of with strikes.

He's also a former glory light heavyweight champion. Like call me crazy crazy but you know he could get stopped but i wouldn't avoid this matchup out of any fear there okay adesanya got him twice adesanya is arguably the greatest striker in this board's history call me crazy but i think poiton will be fine luke in this okay there's no there's no major warning here um um i'm not i'm not actively afraid at his of his durability now moving up in weight and facing the elites who all can bang but i'm not actively fearful of what that means for him luke he's not gonna have to make that that crazy weight cut anymore either that's gonna play into the durability yeah actively fearful against the top of the pack no um

somewhat fearful for him against Blachowicz yes yes okay all right you kind of met us in the middle there all right maybe I'm happy I don't think I don't think I would say this I don't think Cormier is crazy necessarily either MMA striking is just different dude again I mentioned this yes I was talking about this yesterday but BC like there's a video by a guy who was a Bellator kickboxing champ when that was a thing. But he's been obviously a champion. And I think, if not Glory, I think K1. I forget exactly where some of his best work has been done.

But I'm not a huge kickboxing fan. I'm not pretending to be. But Gabriel Varga is sort of a decorated Canadian kickboxer. Actually, a very decorated Canadian kickboxer. He has a YouTube channel. He was explaining that the two styles that these guys have are different in really important ways. Adesanya, however you want to say it,

has all of this in and out movement, a little bit more like a boxer, the leaning and whatnot, the trunk, the shoulder, the head movement. And that style just doesn't work when you have narrow, confined spaces, especially when you have combination striking and kickboxing. You can't get away with that kind of stuff as easily, but it works really well. Making guys miss works really well in MMA. Pineda is the opposite of that.

He has a much more kickboxing friendly style built for those kinds of realities that doesn't have as much movement and defensiveness built into it and evasion built into it and so his striking style at least in theory we will see a light heavyweight may not necessarily translate as well as people might imagine we'll just have to see so something to think about yeah i mean you have to respect not being in the pocket for jan's power of course right but let's give this guy a chance to shine my connecticut brethren all right uh number five here on call me crazy luke so i was effing around the internet and i found this weird ass jerry springer set looking video from 2010. uh let's go to the video tape luke dale go ahead you're in the air hi um i've had a question for um mike from uh booty uh elbow dot com said again that was

bloody elbow bloody elbow elbow bloody elbow that's alright i didn't see the l i actually had a question i saw just that you know i've seen other matches that you were in and i saw that clip there now there's been a lot of physiological testing recently done on the sweat and the perspiration effects, the effects of that evaporation off the human body in our respect to, you know,

work in stressful situations and get that so-called extra competitive edge. Now, there's been a new developing theory that working out in more workout gear actually will reduce your competitive advantage. Is that what prompted you to wrestle in the Speedo? Not even sure to tell you. I just like training. You know what, Adele? We didn't have a clue what you said. To be honest, I really don't understand.

I think I need to go to graduate school. Okay, look. Hold the phone here. I have a lot of questions, but for the sake of this segment, call me crazy. But, yes, it's about time you dropped that fucking vape pen and started working out in your front yard again because 2010 Luke Thomas was swole as shit in that Georgia MMA t-shirt, Luke. Okay?

Call me crazy, but stop fucking talking about it and be about it, dude. What was up with that? Yeah, bro. I'm trying to tell you, I haven't always been a Dodge Omni. Haven't always been one. I just turned into one. And I'm working on it. Like I told you guys, I just, you know,

you can't put all this business out on Front Street all the time. But believe me, I did tell you that I hired a personal trainer. That's a real thing. There's a tell you that i hired a personal trainer that's a real thing there's a lot more that i've done than just that so trust me trust me trust me i am so tired of the way that i look i cannot take it anymore hopefully this is a part to an opportunity to get back to something approximating that yeah i was in great shape back then all right look back to that jerry springer set uh channel eight news there uh adele asking about rasslin and speedos um luke what what was that what is going on so that was a local show that broadcaster was uh he's still around he's a

legend that show doesn't exist anymore but that was like a real big um big show in the dc area and um mike easton i don't know if you can show a screenshot of it one more time. I want you to, if you can, Mike, Mikey, if you can just take a screenshot. She called it booty elbow duck. Yeah. Listen, they would take local callers from the area who were fucking weirdos, bro. I don't know what else to tell you. Just like crazy motherfuckers who would call up and you'd be like, just say the most random shit that was part of it. But there's a better story here, which is,

I don't know if there's a way story here which is if i don't know if there's a way to get a screenshot of mike easton sitting next to me if we can you'll see he has a towel on top of his uh like arm or hand i forget exactly where it was but what happened was this was back in 2010 this was not this was totally above board this was legal after cutting weight they were they would get the iv they would get the IV to rehydrate. And however he did his IV, yeah, see how it's covering his hand? See how he did the IV? He fucked it up, and the thing was shooting blood.

So he had to put, like, a wrap on top of it and then the towel to cover up the fact that this shit was not going right for him from the IV. It was a bit of a weird moment. And we had to drive straight from the weigh-ins together to get there. So, shouts to Mike Easton, legend. I saw him on U Street not too long ago. He's a DC legend. So, there you go.

Yeah, you were hyping up DC MMA in that video and hyping up Mike Easton. It was great to see. Look, I do have questions here. Were you thin as well? I couldn't really tell. Were you? Yeah, that's, uh again put me on the screen one more time i'm gonna i'm gonna guess the weight at 2010 i think that was i want to say

about 240 ish 230 ish something okay so where were you in your in your love life at this point luke um i had been dating my wife for maybe a year maybe a little bit less um so can i declare this is 2010 hashtag prime luke is that when it was luke right here are we looking at prime luke right here i don't know no no no actually i used to i was much bigger than this when i was 22 remember this is me at age that's me at age 30 i'm telling you bro i haven't always been a dodge omni your boy got out there and i was able to do some shit with my years were better and nicer to me but you know okay i used to be a dodge neon sometimes yeah well that was better than a dodge omni shit oh yeah soke 22 was my most jacked 22 i was fucking enormous uh yeah but you were also crazy at 22 and and not so like maybe this was where everything came together luke prime maybe

right maybe yeah i told you bro i haven't always been this fucking ugly i used to be a little better so respect respect my game oh yeah there we go uh luke speaking of trt right that's a good transition uh call me crazy number six. Logan Paul was recently in Australia grappling with your CKB legends, Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovsky, teasing a future in MMA for the former high school wrestler. Here's a pic of it, Luke. Call me crazy, but you don't need a smart cage or Jeff Nowitzki to tell you

that Loganul spends a lot of time in the weight room a lot of time like 2013 vitor elements of time in that weight room um he ain't passing no usada tests right no in my in my opinion there's not it's in my opinion i want to be very clear about that it's not possible to get that jacked without without drugs now he is also quite clearly very athletic and i know he does have a wrestling background he did pretty pretty well ish in in high school wrestling in ohio which is very very difficult to do well in um so don't misunderstand me like i'm not saying he's not an athlete he's an athlete but but even the best athlete doesn't look that way doing calisthenics let me just fucking be very clear

about that so yeah yeah by the way he is as we've shown video of here apparently i don't watch anymore but a very good pro wrestler very or you know i could do the high i could hit the high you showed me on have you seen this shit he did the jump off the rope with his phone doing the selfie thing on the way down. I mean, that's, you know, he's a showman. I'll give him that. He's a showman. All right, let's close here. Call Me Crazy No. 7.

Luke, there was breaking news, right? Tuesday night after Tuff on ESPN Plus' show called After Tuff with Dean Thomas. Breaking news. It looks like Conor McGregor has finally entered the USADA testing pool, so we can stop complaining. Let's go to the videotape. I just heard that Conor McGregor

has entered the USADA pool. I repeat, Conor McGregor has entered the USADA pool, and we actually have the footage. Let's take a look. Michael Chandler, you little rat. I'm going to sever your head, clean off your shoulders, and you'll do nothing. You'll do nothing. You see me, watch.

It costs more than your entire apartment. I'll see you at the end of the season michael why why is conor mcgregor all of a sudden jamaican in that accent dean that's what i want to know is that him wearing orange face is that racist look i don't know but it was i'm like this is this is i'm like this is humorously And also, I don't understand why he is drinking Red Stripe and sounding Jamaican. That's a little weird, but okay. Well, in case you're wondering, Luke, that breaking news is not true. But shout out to Rashad Evans, our boy, for being on that show as well after tough.

In all seriousness here, Luke, I've watched Conor McGregor's manic behavior online very closely over the past two years throughout his injury recovery. I've also caught both the Netflix documentary that I reviewed last Friday's episode and the first episode of tough. And I've noticed a general rabid energy to Connor's movements and speech. And I've taken notice how many times in public of late he's shown up places and he's appeared to be visibly drunk or possibly even more than that luke call me crazy and don't sue me but call me crazy here luke conor mcgregor isn't living the spartan lifestyle anymore at all and at his age his fighting performances have and will continue to show that because watch episode one of tough it don't look like he's the same guy anymore mentally luke in i know what i see i know what

i see when i look into a man's eyes on a crazy twitter video i know what i see i think he's off the rails luke and i i don't i don't think it bodes well for this comeback fight. I don't know if he's off the rails. Hard to say. But I will say this. You and I have both been pretty adamant that we feel like in the right circumstances, whatever Conor has left is good enough to get one more really great elite win right yes i still think on some level that's probably true but the listen to the caveat there it's what your potential is and then your ability to actualize it and it looks to me like his ability to actualize whatever he

has left is severely compromised like he clearly isn And look, he's fucking enjoying his life. He's built a fortune forever. You know, for generations, for his family. Like, that's such an enormous monumental thing. I'm not even mad. I mean, I'll be honest. Would fight fans be devastated if he never fought again? Of course.

Of course. But how could you, how, would you really be surprised? Think about that. Would you really be surprised if he actually found a way to never fight again? I don't know that I would be that surprised, to be honest with you. I'm not necessarily predicting that. I'm just saying that seems to be on the table much more than we're readily admitting. Or getting back to a fight and then just really kind of underperforming in a very obvious way.

And not just from ring rust. That seems to be a very likely scenario scenario so I'm not even like mad if the guy's enjoying his life he's earned it times a thousand but you just cannot convince me he's living in a way that's going to get him maximally ready for Michael Chandler or frankly any opponent at this point I never thought I'd compare Conor to Oscar de la Hoya, but Luke, for all the stuff we heave at Oscar de la Hoya, usually rightfully so. I mean, let's not forget that Contradictor also sent a letter to the boxing media when Mayweather McGregor was announced telling them to boycott the fight, even though he had earlier tried to get Floyd to fight, you know, to fight his guy. I'm like, you know, it's just BS, right? But the second half, Oscar's legacy is that he was a great fighter,

an Olympic gold medalist, multi-division champion, the face of the sport, one of the biggest pay-per-view artists ever, but also that he fought the best all the time, always tried to make the biggest event. But Luke, he lost more than he won pretty dramatically in the second half of his career

when he stepped up to the highest level which was often by the way and his honesty in his post-life the times he is telling the truth has been look you know i was partying like crazy throughout that run yes i got into shape for these fights but like my stamina was compromised here you know mean? Like, you know what happens when you, when you don't give all of yourself. Conor made the same concessions after the loss to Habib, where he said, I didn't listen to my team. And you can see this in some way play out on that documentary. You know, all he was trying to do in training was to just spar like crazy and fight like a maniac because he's preparing for the fight of getting up off the ground against a beeb and just trying to like rabidly fight him and he says you know i was also partying like crazy and nobody was checking me i was drinking way too much and he almost said it

without saying it luke that he was inferring that it went further than drinking if you watch this documentary at length which which profiles the build to his last four UFC fights. What's the one that we thought ahead of time that he looked and sounded the best? The Cowboy Cerrone fight. It's why, even though that was such a short fight and didn't necessarily answer all our questions about where he was at, that's why I still lament

that the pandemic broke out right after because it looked like Conor was dialed in, ready to fight three, four times that year and give the best of what he has left. Even in the documentary, he admitted after the fact that when the pandemic hit, and remember that whole stretch where he couldn't get himself into a big fight and he was sharing Dana's DMs, that he started to dip back and get back into things he shouldn't have. What's the common denominator about that cowboy fight camp? Some people suspect he had the sexual assault issue,

so he was trying to play the good guy. I don't know. Watch the documentary. It looked like he was sober for the first time in a while and going all in physically, no stones left unturned, which was a big part of the narrative that they're trying to sell you through this documentary that he's always a gamer, he's always ready for the next fight, and he is. but I think it's pretty clear to look at that and go, here's a guy who's just not as dedicated or as hungry as he once was for obvious reasons.

But this shit he's doing on the other end of the candle, Luke, it's dramatically holding back who he could be on this twilight second half of his, you know, prime run or whatever. Instead, it's just a dramatic twilight because he can get into a big fight. He can talk his way in first couple rounds. Even he can have some big moments, but that gas out moment is coming right around the corner. And I don't think he's showing us evidence, especially now in this tough build.

And that's one of the main reasons I'm willing to watch each episode and review it for cheap clicks here on MK. Is I want to see during that process, coming off of that movie, now trying to get back into the mindset for the Chandler fight. Is he really even dialed in, Luke? If he's not, Chandler's going to handle him, Luke. Even with the style matchup you know still offering connor if he's sharp early the opportunity out of ko yeah that's still there he may win this fight no matter what but tell me you have the feeling of anything you've seen from the past two years that he's like mentally where you need to be to succeed at this level no no dude no and also and

also you don't even bring up the fact like dude even if none of that was in play even if none of it was in play that injury he had was devastating that's a devastating fucking injury just coming back from that with nothing else on the table is a herculean task now you're adding in all these other complicating factors good luck dude good luck man he's got it when it's time to actually i mean we don't know when that fight's happening we don't know when he's getting in the testing pool we don't know anything they haven't even booked that fight but when it's training camp and it's go time dude he's gotta he's gotta be clean he's gotta be the spartan again but even then it might be

too late luke i don't know dude you know so again i talked about this yesterday bc let me just bring us up again let's let's posit something that happens in July, right? So same day as Spence Crawford. Same day, UFC 291, you're going to have Justin versus Dustin. BC, we are less than, I mean, we're roughly what? Six, seven weeks from that at this point? Seven weeks or so, right? From that moment.

If the fight isn't announced before then then and Dustin Poirier wins and says Conor let's put this one up between you and me fourth you know fourth fight for the BMF belt let's do it dude they're just gonna bypass Michael Chandler completely like there's no like the more that time expires the more that it makes that fight unlikely. Now, it still might be the likeliest scenario, but you see what I'm saying? They just let this thing go. Conor's going to have new options, and that's just going to change the calculus completely,

if he fights at all, by the way. Yeah. I mean, what if Nate loses against Jake Paul, and then he's looking for the next big payday, Luke? I think that's why they convinced Tom's out to miss weight, but I'm not doing the conspiracy shit. You know me. All right, Luke, let's that's why they convinced Tom's out to miss weight, but I'm not doing the conspiracy shit. You know me. All right, Luke, let's finish the show with a big bang. We got two more segments and they're going to be fantastic. The first one is where you and I go

head to head. We've already previewed the fights going on this weekend. Now we make our picks, five picks against each other, five different categories. This one's called, okay, bet. Luke, you have been barely hanging above 500, and I've been preparing to watch a metal concert later this year. I'm kidding. I'm still here, Luke. Last week, you went 3-2 to improve to 36-32-1 overall. I went 2-3. I am 28-41. I'm less than 10 games behind you, or 10 picks, so there's still plenty of time.

Maybe this is the week. Luke, you know our five categories. You have champion's advantage. Are you going first or second? I will go first. Okay, so as we customarily start we go with our main event pick both of us are going to be using there are some boxing events but both of us are going to be using the ufc card this weekend for our picks i'm going to go with kai cara france i do think that this fight will be competitive not not would not be surprised by an albazi win but i just feel like as good as he is as defensively sound as he is as well rounded as he's become although again a little bit more of a game concentrated in the clinch and the ground specifically i think that kai car france is going to be a little bit too much for

him at this juncture give me another ckb win all right i'm gonna i'm gonna take the opposite on there even though these are both minus 110 they're basically a pick them i'm gonna go albazi and luke when i do the day so i'm kind of doing this man i'm i'm on tilt i'm behind i need to come back and i didn't even know you were picking kkf before this but it makes even more sense now me going albazi i actually can talk myself more into believing that kai car france is going to win this but my record shows you that i keep trying to use logic to make a lot of these picks, Luke. Al-Bazi just might be that dude. He's coming on. I talked him up on Wednesday Big about, you know, his road to get here, the finishing mentality, everything about him. The odds makers believe in him as well, Luke, that he could be a problem here for Kaikara France. I expect,

as always, with these elite flyweight bouts in the post-Sahudo era here, that they're going to be dynamic and high-volume and awesome. Give me Al-Bazi, though, Luke, okay? I'm going to make a comeback here, okay? I'm going to take him on reputation. The Iraqi and Hammer. I'm ready for this, okay? There you go.

What did you call him? The Iraqi and Hammer? Iraqi, you mean and hammer. Iraqi. You mean? Yeah. Yeah. There's nothing racist or insensitive about that. That was a compliment.

Iraqi. Sorry. Sorry. I mean, you say tomato. I say Saddam. Thank you, George Bush. All right. All right.

All right. Very good. Second category. Yeah's go second category. Yeah, for second category, our favorites here on the card. He is a favorite, although surprisingly, I didn't see him as a substantial favorite, even with the late opponent switch. So it comes in just under our proposed limits for me.

So I'm going to go with Jim Miller over Jesse Butler. Jesse Butler fighting from the Fury FC promotion. Good fighter, certainly. 31 years of age. Hasn't fought since, I think, February of this year, so he's coming off the couch a little bit here, although I'm sure he's been in the gym. Please don't misunderstand me.

You know, these two aren't so far apart. Like, Jim Miller is barely in the UFC, right? Like, he's still getting some decent wins, but he is so close to the end of his career, it's not even funny. In fact, we've talked about if he gets this win, it'll be the first one to 25 wins in UFC. It takes a long time to get there.

So Jesse Butler could get it done, but I just feel like short notice, blah, blah, blah. Jim Miller's crafty still. Give me Jim Miller for the win. All right, let's go with my favorite Luke. I'm going to go to the biggest combat sports event of this weekend over in Poland. How about KSW Coliseum?

Yeah, we haven't talked about it at all. That goes down in a stadium tomorrow. They're calling it one of the two biggest combat sports events in Polish history. And Mariusz Pudzianowski is your minus 225 favorite against former boxing heavyweight title contender Artur Spilka, who you may remember they peeled off the canvas after Deontay Wilder. I have always respected Spilka. He comes to fight Luke. He's been in some good ones.

He's gone all in and gotten taken all out in this one. He's transitioning to MMA. Dude, Pusher could take this guy down and wrestle at minus 225 or he can give me those odds. Yeah, I'm going to take Pusher as the close favorite here, but he's going to get it done in front of this crowd, Luke. You know it. All right.

For my underdog pick, this one I didn't feel was too hard for me to go with. I'm going to go with Andrei Arlovsky. He's a slight underdog at plus 115, according to our friends at Caesars, to Dontel Mays' minus 135. Yeah, I like Arlovsky in this one. I've not been super blown away by Mays. I know he's really worked on getting back and making a name for himself in this division.

And, you know, he's had some tough fights, obviously, against Gon and some other folks. But Arlovsky's kind of way to slow the fight down, work behind the jab, keep it moving, and kind of, you know, really work at his pace has been very effective against a certain quality of heavyweight, which I think

Mays probably falls into. I'd like Arlovsky to upset. All right, Luke, my underdog is going to go to the UFC card, the women's strawweight division. Who would have saw that coming? How about Jin Yu Fry, Luke? A plus 115 underdog against Elise Reed. Look, Fry fights hard, Luke.

She's up there in age. She tends to be fodder for the elite, but then will bounce back and get a couple wins against moderate competition. But she's tough as nails when she does go up there against the elite. I think she gets by Elyse Reid right here, Luke. I'm not – I don't think I could be convinced otherwise.

Give me a strawweight win to come back here on the plus money. All right. For my over-under pick, I'm going to take the over, so the distance on Elliott versus Altamirano, which, of course, is going to be on this UFC card. Tim Elliott coming back. I actually feel like Elliott is better, but with all the weird ass things going on in his life, one doesn't really know. I feel like these two are going to have a bit of a back and forth. Altamirano is pretty good,

but hasn't quite fought anyone the level of Elliott. So it's a bit of a coming and going scenario with one guy still being a little bit better, but compromised. It just seems to me like also when you just look at their individual styles, scramble heavy can do a lot of work, but not necessarily devastating finishers to me could be a decent one to think that goes the distance. So that's what I've done. All right.

The last time we saw a big divorce comeback was McKenzie Dern. Luke, she looked great. So we'll see what happens here for Tim. True. True. In that regard. My over,

I'm sorry, my yeah uh my over i'm sorry my uh yeah my over under luke i don't know if this surprises you but i'm gonna take a chance here on a feeling clarissa shields is back to defend all four of her women's middleweight undisputed titles on the zone in detroit she's from flint but this is a somewhat of a homecoming bout there luke she was supposed to take on french sean cruzern in a rematch of what was Cruz-Dizern's pro debut, also Clarissa Shields' pro debut. And Cruz-Dizern has gone on to win a world title since then and be a very good fighter. So this rematch was sort of inevitable, but Cruz-Dizern popped for PEDs. And there's sort of a weird story mixed with it after the Vata test where she's blaming on medication.

She applied to her animals that was banned and got, I guess, into her skin Luke. It's all weird, but they got a late minute opponent here. Maricela Cornejo. Um, I'm going to take the under,

even though Clarissa Shields only has two knockouts in her career and is often very much handcuffed by the women's boxing 10 rounds, two minute round setup. And I think it robs her of more stoppages that would make her seem even more dominant than she is. But Clarissa might be the palm for palm best at the moment and certainly in competition for the greatest of all time. When we've seen her against the very toughest opponent she could they could find her she still finds ways to look great and be dominant like she did against Christina Hammer or in that fight against Savannah Marshall what's probably the toughest of her pro career man she found ways to get it done they're just not on any level that's comparable Maricela Cornejo who's 36 years old

she's done some modeling in the past but I've I believe she's got a fighting spirit and she's bringing the whole Mexican angle here but look I had the chance to call one of her fights back on that NBC sports series a couple of years ago. She's Owen three in title fights when she stepped up on a level, even though she's got a size advantage here over closure shields, she's just more of a defensive boxer with a jab on the outside, not going to be able to keep up with shields as output. And when you actually look at the level of competition that Cornejo has beaten, she beat an 0-1 fighter last year, or this year. The year before, she beat a 17-19 fighter.

The year before, she beat a 2-2 fighter. Anytime she stepped up, she's lost. The best win of her career was against Erin Telfill, who is coming off a 13-year retirement for that fight. Everyone else she's fought and beat is like 2-0 or making their pro debut. She's a good fighter. You're going to have to be great to beat Clarissa. No one's predicting that.

Clarissa's minus 5,000, a favorite. I think she actually gets the stoppage here. I think she's going to overwhelm Cornejo because they're just not on the same level. And I think Clarissa's in a very good spot mentally right now. I don't know if you've watched any of her interviews but she's very happy very confident she's changed up her look and hair Luca give her a lot of congrats on that

and she just like I've watched the interview with Ariel she's she's going to come out in this homecoming and put it on I think this is the right setup for her to get a stoppage and look dominant doing so so I'm taking the under on the zone there you go all right so last but not least we have KO or sub this one is easy for me i'm gonna go karini silva subbing ketlyn souza silva a pretty decent submission threat this is how she gets a fair number of her wins she is heavily

favored to win no matter what i think the difference in ability is going to show up pretty quickly give me silva by sub all right luke um i don't know if you checked out the research, but I picked the same fight and picked by sub. Did you? Oh, Jesus. All right. Do I have to change? God damn it.

Sorry about that. Well, you can use your champion's advantage and make me change, Luke. I mean, if I can change, they can change, right? So what do you want to do? I am so sorry. I did not see that. You're right. My bad.

Fucking God. I mean, I don't know if we should blame god for this one luke it seems like i'm not blaming i'm not blaming i'm just exclaiming to the universe um okay let me ask you a question if i pick someone because it's only ko or sub what if someone wins by like a clear tko not like a clean ko yeah tko ko or retired is all a stoppage win that counts as enough okay so then i'll take on the fly i'll take jamie malarkey over naimov uh this gentleman just to remind you of the rules you're not picking who's going to win you're picking the stipulation of how the fight right by tko by there you go we'll take malarkey via tko sorry about that, BC. I apologize.

No problem. Okay, bet in the books. We'll see whose concert is going to ruin the other person's time. I wish this ended in time so we can go to a dead and company show, Luke, but they're on the final tour right now. Shout out to O'Teal. They're tearing it up out there, and I know you don't care, but there we go.

We close, Luke, with a fan-submitted effort here. We call it the email address you can send it to. It's morningcombat at gmail.com. Yeah, Mikey Morms is on the other end of that rabbit hole. But, Luke, we're willing to stand trial every Friday. We may have said something absolutely incorrect or stupid or insensitive, or maybe we're just assholes. But here's your chance to dunk on us, but you better bring receipts

and you better come original. This one's called dead wrong ready for some angry male viewers luke always all right uh let's go to david a is that david appleton he says hi guys on last week's have you seen the shit brian showed us former german national soccer coach joachim low lou lau they say you're you love i mean but you know i don't speak german so um indulging in disgusting private hygiene luke ever the phony soccer fan and always i'll get the fuck out of here fuck this loser he doesn't know shit and always desperate to show us his foreign pronunciation skills.

Interjected. I think it's pronounced Jurgen. How the fuck can even the mad old degenerate vape sucker get that sound out of those letters? Luke was visibly confusing him with Liverpool's German manager. No, I wasn't. Jurgen Klopp. No, I'm not. I'm not confusing him with Jurgen Klopp. No, I wasn't. Jürgen Klopp. No, I'm not. I'm not confusing him with Jürgen Klopp. No, I'm not.

To be fair, in Brazil, they pronounce it Ronaldo Sonia. So he wasn't far off. Keep up the shoddy, unprofessional, but entertaining work, boys. OGRSD was absolute genius. David Appy Appleton. Yeah. Yeah, I don't speak German. I don't speak german i don't watch bundesliga and i don't speak german so yeah all right is bundesliga as racist as you claim la liga is or whatever the syria well la liga is pretty bad uh they've been having a scandal recently but the syria is the real historically very very bad one yeah look speaking of the only soccer i care about did you see the ted lasso uh season three finale confession time i've never seen a single episode of ted lasso not one wow that

makes sense given his abject positivity and your dark ways luke but i think you'd enjoy it if you did and the i have to say the the finale which may be the finale of the show in general, likely is. It's one of the best final episodes of any show ever. Luke, I laughed. I cried. I, you know, it was great. I mean, it was Luke. It was great TV.

It was great. Sweet. I wish you cared about things that other people do. You know what I mean? You're such an independent, you know, roamer. You're such a. Yeah. You're such a piece of shit. Luke, let's go over to Elliot.

He says on the RSD 1.0, which needs to be renamed Skits and Bit. Whoa. That's not a bad idea. Elliot from England. Look, I'll admit. I wasn't for changing, keeping the RSD name and just throwing it on the interview series, although I think it works. It does work.

But if we're going to still do RSD 1.0 because we like it, we know you love it, and sometimes we just roll the dice on our own careers, we do have to change the name. Skits and Bits, says Elliot from England. Do we knight you right now as that's the that's the new we might have to steal that that's pretty good wow all right elliot all right here's what he says luke says that in black hawk down they go inside a guy's arm to get a vein they actually go into the thigh to clamp an artery might be a little pedantic but along with luke i love this film and had a dead wrong him not going to you guys. Just want to say thanks for all the content

from an audio-only listener who watches Have You Seen This Shit? and a London live show attendee. Lots of love from Norfolk. It's Elliot. Norfolk. Norfolk, England, I think. Thank you very much, Elliot.

Luke, do you accept that? You take the L? Yes. Yeah, he's right. He's right. Let's go over to's right. All right. Let's go over to Daz, D-A-Z-Z. He's from Hawaii. Aloha, Luke and BC. At 4.15 of episode 447, BC referenced STEM, and their song became a UFC famous intro.

Unfortunately, BC called it Bring the Pain. Oh, shit. You're right. BC, your casual is showing as any longtime ufc fan knows the song is called face the pain shouts to stem face the plane pace the pain and the just bleed guy great content especially the rsds keep up the good work it's it's dazz mahalo luke i will take that l it is face the pain but it brings pain to you so that's why i like it's a terrible song yeah yeah yeah it is i dude i have that cd that the mma guys gave me in england luke you know that that is that i mean i gotta just this is i mean this is great right i mean

just look at how awesome this is luke ultimate Beatdowns Volume 2 right yeah look we got Slayer on here show me the track list we got Hatebreed can you read it I do like Hatebreed but I can't read it yeah it's blurry American Head Charge is a band

Shadows Fall Sepultura Fear Factory Ice Pick Kill Switch Engage Chamara UFO fall sepultura fear factory ice pick kill switch engage yeah i don't like switch engage ufo black flood diesel and scars of life yeah that sounds like mma so scars of life and black flood diesel i think those were two like ufc signed bands like the band like the ufc had a record label back then and they signed those two bands to that label. So, and then they put out that CD.

Wow. That sounds like MMA volume two. That was great. Yeah. That's sounds like absolute shit. Thank you, Daz. Uh,

thank you. He didn't even dunk on us. Look, he was very polite. I respect that. Finally, we've got one more for you. This one's from.

And Billy, see, uh, delete. Look, if someone is, if something is spelled nd i nd i l i s a how do you say that yeah and delicia i guess i don't know and and delicia sounds sounds latin luke we'll find out hi brian luke is not so no uh luke thought i should emerge from the shadows

to proudly declare myself as a black female fan of morning combat what lies i don't believe it i've been following you both since the mma beat days and well before that your show is fantastic and has helped my boyfriend ben ease into the sport of MMA because of your insightful analysis and fun banter. Ben identifies with you both. One, he's white. Two, he's grouchy like Luke in the mornings and sometimes eats gas station food like Brian. Despite it all, he's great,

and I'm happy to have someone to enjoy the sport with here in South Africa. Keep up the amazing work. Attacks are pictures of your lone black fan. It's just like seeing Bigfoot. I know. P.S. Luke, propaganda isn't a ska band. Hashtag dead wrong. And P.P.S., Brian, we need the 90s counterback.

Hell yeah, Mikey, you need to get up on some 90s culture here so you can work that button. But, Luke, here's a picture of Endelisa sparring. Your thoughts? Dude, I mean, okay, we got one. that button uh but luke here's a here's a picture of uh and elisa sparring your thoughts dude i mean okay we got one we got one uh i'm blown away i don't even i don't know if i believe it i honestly don't know if i believe it wow what a happy beautiful couple there in south africa i just want them to know that i ain't gonna to play Sun City either, Luke. Unless you want to do an MK Live show there.

Dude, my neighbor was telling me. I told Mikey this before the show. My neighbors have two kids that are slightly older and slightly younger than my daughter. After school, they all kind of play together on the block, which is pretty great. She was saying, she was like, you came

up in conversation at soccer practice today. And I was like, how did I come up in your team's soccer? She was saying that she was talking to one of her other moms who was at soccer practice. Like, I don't know any of these people. Like, I don't know this at all. And she was saying how this other woman who lived in a different part of town

was complaining that all her neighbors were lawyers, which that does sound very DC in certain ways. But my neighbor was saying, oh oh my neighbors are nothing like that like one of my neighbors on the other side of this one works as like the head of curation at the smithsonian and then on she's like oh yeah my other side my neighbor is like this mma commentator she doesn't know what to call me you know and uh the other lady who apparently was a african-american lady in her mid-50s what yeah goes goes ready for this goes which which commentator and she goes oh yeah luke thomas and apparently this is how this is how my neighbor described it that woman let out a squeal couldn't believe that i was this person's neighbor a africanAmerican lady in her 50s, bro. So we got two of them.

We got one in South Africa, and we've got one here in D.C. Hey, that's a start. That's a start. Would you declare her as a cougar, Luke, or is that insensitive after such a long time? I didn't see her. I couldn't possibly say, but I was blown away by that.

I was like, wow. We've got white male viewers in a lot of them, Luke, but we've got others, too, a lot of them luke but we've got the we've got others too and i appreciate them all thank you morning combat at gmail.com for your dead wrongs for your wednesdays fan subs and boy luke we're gonna have a lot of shit on monday so i look forward to that one right there yeah all right all right yeah all right uh luke that's all we got this how would you grade this show too long but you know that's i want to be clear about this that's all we got. How would you grade this show? Too long. I want to be clear about this.

That's not me trying to change the show. There's been a group-wide agreement that we need to make shorter shows. And they're harder to do than you would think. Like Rocco Soffredi, I've just learned to not get insulted when you comment on the link. You know what I mean? That's just the way it is, right? Bruce Hornsby knew it when he was playing pick-up hoops with you in Williamsburg. Luke, things will never be the same after Rocco invades that.

Yeah, wow, right? How gross can we end this show? That's really the question. Okay. For the great producer, Michael Mormyle of CBS Sports and all the companies that back us, and to all you great, great fans and listeners and even the audio only weirdos um we love you we thank you have a great weekend enjoy the fights luke any weekend plans that's what the people want to know i'm gonna take tuki to the pool it'll be fun oh yeah that's

great that is fantastic all right uh take care of yourself guys keep your head above water um tip your waitresses uh something about hoes luke but you know that he ain't never gonna be loyal right never cut it out all right i mean look you know you gotta give uncle joey credit for what happened in that movie theater right you do have to kind of give right you know he got some he got some cabezo that day didn't he he knew that age-old equation that crazy is crazy but it's also hot sometimes right luke yeah okay