MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Francis Ngannou Free Agency | Jon Jones vs. Ciryl Gane at UFC 285

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell are here with a bonus clip to break down the UFC Heavyweight news. The boys discuss Francis Ngannou's free agency. Where will he sign? How will this impact other fighters? They also break down Jon Jones vs. Ciryl Gane. How do they see this fight playing out? 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

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Oh, well, hi there, boys and girls. I don't know what we're calling this. It's an emergency pod because it's an emergency moment in the sport. Hello, everyone.

Welcome to Morning Combat, whatever episode we're calling this. My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the capital of the status of Ninos right here with the king of Connecticut as well as the king of CTE, my friend and yours, Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian Campbell. Yeah, I go away to NYC for one night, Luke, and the whole MMA landscape is flipped upside down.

You know what I mean? I do know what you mean. So here's why we're here. As BC indicated, this is not a full episode of MK, not even close. But what we are doing is going to talk about this news related to Francis Sanganu, as well as John Jones, the heavyweight division, and the UFC, everything in between. Didn't want to leave you guys hanging until Wednesday. Wanted to make sure we got something

out because there is no full MK coming out on Monday. Alright? So thumbs up on the video if you're watching, obviously, on YouTube. Hit subscribe. All that good stuff. Not going to run through all of the things. Buy our merch. Go to pod-live.com and buy our tickets if you're going to be in the UK. Come see us

on February 8th. BC, anything else? No in this nonsense you know as as my goat often says that's about it that's about it there you go all right that's not annoying at all you know not at all not at all all right bc well let's set this news up and then we'll go to you first on this so everyone's kind of saw it but let's recap just the same yesterday Yesterday, following the conclusion of UFC Vegas 67, which was the first UFC event of the year, it took place at the Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, UFC President Dana White did a post-fight scrum. And there's lots of things that actually happened in that scrum, but for the purposes of this conversation, let's focus on what he said related to the heavyweight division. First, Jon Jones is back. He will fight in March.

He will take on Cyril Ghosn. I believe this is UFC 285, if my math is right. I think that's right. I think March 4th. I'll double check the weekend here in just a minute. But he is back. He has reportedly signed an eight-fight deal. That fight will not be for the interim heavyweight title. It will be for the full heavyweight title because the other big news that he revealed is that Francis Ngannou is no longer the UFC heavyweight champ. He has been stripped and he is not a part of the organization anymore. He is a full-on free agent, could sign this moment anywhere he wants to. No exclusive negotiating period, no rights matching, no nothing. None of that exists. And Dana White had said to the media, you know, listen, I understand if someone wants to go and fight lesser competition for more money, but that's just not what we do here. So there's a lot to unpack.

BC, first things first. Your overall reaction to this news. And then I want to focus in on the Francis Ngannou side first. It's like even though we know it was possible, meaning Ngannou eventually signing or not signing, in this case not signing, do we know that was possible? Yes. Still feels shocking to me. And maybe it's because even though Francis Nganou's UFC deal didn't officially, what, expire until the end of December of this year, it's been a long time since he beat

Cyril Ghosn in April of 2022, amazingly, heroically, to defend his title and put himself in the driver's seat for, for leverage, for freedom, for whatever he wanted to do and was willing to go down that dark road to get there. I just assumed Luke that this would have been consummated before the end of his deal. Meaning I thought at some point we knew he was going to be out with the knee injury. That was not anything that we could fast forward, but I thought at some point you were going to hear, yes, they figured it out. Some type of hybrid in-between deal of whatever Francis wanted, which was big money, freedom, respect, but the ability to do other things, to box a Tyson Fury, box a Deontay Wilder, whatever he wanted. I just always assumed they would meet in the middle.

UFC cannot do certain precedents, right? They couldn't give Francis the world. I thought they would just meet in the middle. He would get moreents right they couldn't give Francis the world I thought they would just meet in the middle he would get more money than he was asking for and because the John Jones fight was there which feels historic feels well now it feels like it's not going to happen in the same way Fedor versus Randy Gator felt but that's another topic shocked that we waited this long past the end of his deal, John ready. And it's not going to be in Ghanu versus John Jones. Um, you know,

in a set, in a vacuum separate from all the other news, John Jones versus Cyril gone for the full heavyweight championship. And John Jones, his heavyweight debut is great news right around the corner in March. Like so many things to talk about, about that fight, but you can't separate away from the Francis one. And in some ways, I don't even think you can

separate this news, this development, the fallout of what happens from all the other craziness going on in the UFC, right around the turn of the new year from Dana's, you know, his transgressions through everything going on with gambling, fighter pay, all of that in a weird way is all connected. To see Dana White kind of paint it after the fact of, well, we offered him money to be the richest heavyweight of all time. We offered him Lesnar money. And to see him double down on that with the, you know, it's clear that Francis wants to make more money and fight lesser competition. That comes across as so hollow and such bullshit to me because outside of the the one-off in 2016 when brock lesnar came back

at ufc 200 for huge money blew right through the testing protocols straight up taking every roid available and then was basically glorified and awarded for that victory over mark nearly got a daniel cormier title shot off of it, to be fair. Brock Lesnar hasn't been active in like 10 years. So to say, okay, you know, we gave him Lesnar money. That's great. But not only do UFC fighters deserve to be paid a lot more, especially the elite champion, somebody, you know,

a one of one like Francis Ngannou won in a million years. But to kind of see that and to see the rip on the competition I mean is it really tougher competition when in reality we know Ngannou wants to go up there and box in his pro debut against the reigning recognized heavyweight champion Tyson Fury that doesn't sound like easier competition to me but it does sound like Francis was hell-bent on achieving the freedom that he worked so hard to get and the leverage fighting that gone fight when nobody would have advised him to do that. That at the end of the day, you know what? Francis wins here.

He wins because he got to do this on his own terms. This seemed to be more about respect than even money and financial freedom for Francis. It was about, you know, we're in an era here where you're treating us on caveman levels when Piter pay treatment, constant lying in the media, all the narratives, all that stuff that's going on. Like it's all coming to a head right now. It feels on a larger scale. And you can argue with me and say, BC, you're just playing into the sensationalism. You won't let this Dana thing go. No, it feels like it's all connected right now.

When this news hit, I was shocked. And then I said, you know what? Good for Francis because his window may not be super large. Meaning he's got to prove to us. They can come back from this knee injury. He's no spring chicken, but he now has the ability to do exactly what he wants and make huge money. And to see PFL tweet out the Hulk Hogan NWO gif right when that news broke

down and lets you know that there are suitors out there. There are people that want to make big moves. You know what? Well done, Francis and Ghanu. I don't see how you can look at this situation separate from compartmentalizing and saying, well,

Jones versus God damn, that's another conversation. That's great. And it is great. Separate from that. I don't see how you can't lump everything together and say in the past couple of months alone, I've seen some people tweeted out.

Sean, all shot. He had a great tweet and just name all the things that happened in the ufc in the last three four months alone they let the greatest heavyweight of all time walk away and we aren't privy luke to the financial discussions but i think we all believe that you know francis and guys like him certainly deserve a lot more than they're getting and even whatever he turned out whatever number he turned down and Danish framing it like, Oh, he's purposely just, you know, just wants to fight lesser competition.

What came with that number? How, how big is the deal he had to sign because look at where we are. Suddenly John Jones is the hero in the company guy who signed an eight fight deal after sitting out three years and finally making it. So UFC had the luxury to say, okay, Francis, we're not going to give you exactly what you want because we have John Jones right here. Fans are going to suffer because they don't get that matchup,

but it's hard for me to sit here and believe like this isn't the continuation of a negative trend. To me, this feels like, and I want you to respond to me here, Luke. Doesn't this feel like this Francis thing is going to create even more ripples that the lengths he had to go through to get freedom. And now he's got it. And you know, you could say, oh, well, he's old and he's injured. Like I just did. He has a chance now to, to redefine what people can make in this spot. He can do crossover fights. He can do whatever the hell he wants. The UFC just let go a one of one and all timer right

there during the time when they slam dunk, nobrainer fight of Jones versus Ngannou was right there was that because Francis asked for too much or was that because Dana's trying to hold the line right now on on the larger picture of we have to keep these salaries down for for endeavor either way the fans don't win as a result of this but Francis does and considering what he had to go through to get here I I do sit back and applaud that. Okay. So there's a bunch to unpack with all of that. Some of it I agree with, some of it which I don't, but in general, I agree with the spirit of it.

First thing I want to say, and I just want to make sure we do this upfront, BC, because I want to make it clear to the audience. I know you know this, and you know that I know this, and some of our audience will know this as well, many of them. But for folks who may be catching this and don't know this let's make it clear the reason francis and ghanu was able to extricate himself from his contract in the year 2022 or 2023 whenever the exact moment it was he got to get out is because fighters like kung lee nate quarry kyle kingsbury and others john fitch they filed an anti basically an anti-competitive antitrust suit i think almost 10 years ago to this point not quite a little bit less than that maybe 2014 or so and around 2017

the ufc not because they were required to but in order to make fewer problems for themselves going forward with any additional litigation begin to put sunset clauses in those deals five-year sunset clauses and francis's deal was signed around 2017, which you just do the math, and then here we are. So I want to be clear about something. One of the biggest agents of change and what makes this entire thing possible, and frankly, I know the MMA media has not been great about reporting this issue. There's been a couple of stars, but in general, it's just not been front-page news. But now it should be, because this is front-page news. The entire reason that Francis Ngannou got to do this, because there used to be a thing called the champions clause 10 years ago,

this moment would not exist because he would not have a sunset clause. He would just keep going. It doesn't matter. Nothing would have happened. So it only happened because the UFC's hand was forced by ongoing litigation to make this moment possible. It's the first thing we should definitely get out there and say. Now, one thing I do disagree a little bit with is we had talked, I was with you, we

had said on the show, what's Francis going to do? And I was like, well, you know, six months ago, whatever it was, there was actually a lot of talk about him versus Tyson Fury. It's gotten pretty quiet. And just given what's out there, I think he could probably make not the most amount of money with UFC, but a good amount all's well that ends well. And he didn't do that. But while this moment is big for the reasons aforementioned related to all these contracts, the bigger issue for me is he bet on himself.

He bet on himself. He's been betting on himself for a long time, and it has worked out quite well for him up to this point. So I understand that but i i personally am a little bit worried that it won't work unless like this the larger significance of it won't actually mean anything to fans i should say unless it results in a material improvement like he has to show with this move proof of concept now there's lots of ways to skin that cat. To your point, does he get the Tyson Furyfighter, maybe Deontay Wilder, or some kind of weird combination where that gets the job done

and he makes something like a $20, $30 million payday. Yes, that gets the job done. I am skeptical that that could work with PFL, but certainly we have to at least consider that as a possibility. I wonder if Bellator is interested. We know BKFC is on the hook. But I just want to be clear. I think it's a big deal no matter what.

But will it really lead to big change? Will it actually motivate people to follow his path and other big-name stars when that sunset provision hits to go and seek out their options if Francis goes out there and falls flat on his face? I don't know that it does that. By the way, one last possibility, one last possibility. Here's also something else, BC, we should consider. It's not necessarily a done deal that Francis' UFC days are over.

He could go and get a Tyson Fury fight and make a bunch of money and then be like, you know what? I'm going to do the old Nate Diaz thing. I'm going to promise to go back home. Go back home go back home sign with ufc and i'm not saying that's gonna fulfill all the fans needs but i can see like there's a lot of ways this goes i just want to be clear i do think bc he's got to make proof of concept here otherwise there's going to be a lot of second guessing okay i'm not going to say there's

no there's no way this goes bad for for francis and this can be a a regret or there's no way like you said like could he go out there and get you know knocked out by tyson fury or just dominated and that lowers his well at that point he'd be making probably more money than he made in his entire career one night maybe that's the point but i do believe with francis it's more about respect freedom and that's why he went down the dark road the knee injury the gone fight with that but luke think about this though, and what this impact could mean. What are the biggest free agents the UFC have ever lost? Like from the time that they really became the UFC,

not when they were still competing with pride and it was still kind of an open market, but it's like, we remember there, there have been times where guys in their primes and even though Francis is older and there's injury status, heavyweights age later. so the prime is going to be small but you know there's still a window here where Francis can be great it's like you know Rory left on his own terms but wasn't like he was a champion and you know you know Demetrius Johnson got traded but the UFC was kind of done with him Benson Anderson when he still had a lot of gas left, left early, but those are sort of, you know, Corey Anderson in his own unique situation. You combine Nate Diaz getting out on his own terms, needing MMA karma, by the way, and, and Jermia have to miss weight to make that

happen. But how much, how significant do you think it could be if you package Nate Diaz exit with Francis and Gano's in the same season? Now this,. Now this could get juicier if the Jake Paul PFL gamble pays off for PFL. And if then they sign Ngannou and maybe they bring in Nate for a big fight, then suddenly you have, in theory, a competitor. But as far as it stands right now, I don't remember a period where it felt like there was a chance for others to make moves, meaning fighters joining together or rival promotions that had access to money. Because sometimes when you have a competitor, it's like, okay, maybe they got great ideas, but do they have the money to compete with UFC?

I'm not saying PFL can compete with UFC head to head, but can they crash the market right now? I didn't think we'd be here six months ago where we are now. Francis out, Nate out under the terms that we didn't expect, and Jake Paul, of all people, to PFL. So my question is this. When we look at fighter pay, and you made a great point about the sunset clauses, and this changes a lot of things for the future,

but we always say to the guys, it's sort of like, okay, if you don't like that, then wait till your deal's up and go somewhere else. But it's so much easier said than done just to get removed from your deal. A lot of times they're going to throw you hard fights on the way out to try to damage you and bring you down. Both Nate and Francis have now stepped out of the shadow into their own, but with the momentum in their direction, from a brand power standpoint, I'm not used to this as an mma observer and journalist and fan watching it if it's as simple as ufc fighters you know aren't

getting paid what they should so go elsewhere and try to find it this francis move could be if it works out for him to your point could be the package with nate the opening of a new door for all the athletes. Maybe we'll never get the full-on union organization, join hands, stand up to the man, but this has to be the beginning of, of some major possibilities and opportunities for fighters and the free agent market in general. And I think the reason why the free agent market has never created real competition is like you said, those, the contracts are so draconian. If you become the title level, like Francis, it's not just easy to get to the end of your deal and walk away. There's always a loophole keeping you. There's always another big fight. I

mean, most people on this pod, if you're Francis and they offer you the John Jones fight, but you have to sign this huge deal. Most people are going to sign it. Okay. Because you're probably going to get like, like Dana said, Lesnar money, the biggest payday of his life, but he doesn't just want the biggest payday of his life. It doesn't just want the biggest payday of his life it feels like francis wants change he wants freedom for himself but he wants to be historically that person that fought the man fought the machine and created change if there's ever going to be change it's going to be now after what happened with nate and francis i do feel like luke this could be something big in the long run. It could be. I think it's him and Nate are the interesting ones for a couple of reasons.

One is that, to your point, I remember when Lorenz Larkin left UFC and went to Bellator, and a lot of those deals, the guy quietly kind of fights out the last fight, and then you're like, I guess we'll see what happens next. But these were grand exits where everyone really noticed not just their departure, but like, whoa, what's next? And it's very open-ended, but exciting. And there's all these different possibilities. It just feels like, in terms of the scale of it, much bigger.

I would also point out something that I really think should not get lost, BC. And I know you'll agree with this. Look at the two fighters, the big ones who left, right? So Nate Diaz and Francis. What's a cool thing that they both have in common? I'll tell you this. They both have managers who don't manage a bunch of UFC guys. In fact, they have managers who don't ever have to worry about UFC.

I know Nate's guy, that's the only fighter he reps. And I believe that's the case for Francis as well. That's really the only guy. Maybe there's like one or two more other guys. That's it. These guys who have like hundreds of guys on their record, do I think that they're going to be in a position to have their guys fight out their deals in this kind of a way, like in public, have these like go to the mat with the UFC moments? I just don't. I could be wrong. We'll have to see, but I

just don't. So I think to me, part of this is these guys have surrounded themselves with people who can't be rolled over a barrel like that and don't have to be leveraged in that way. We talked about this before, like the ability to speak out. You've got to build into your career all of your freedoms along the way. Otherwise, they simply just won't exist. That's a big part of it. But BC, I'll have to ask you as a boxing guy, because on the MMA side, realistically, who would a guy like Francis fight? There could be some names that they could give him but I just think candidly there aren't a lot

of good names for him especially if the idea is to make more than what the UFC can make and everyone's going to say well if the UFC makes more than why are we bitching about fighter pay because this is the whole point the whole point is that the market is so fucked that one part of the industry has such control over they can depress wages and it's hard for anyone else by virtue of how closed at least historically speaking the contracts have been to ever make up that difference that's the reason he has to go to boxing which is much more open-ended in that way to get the regulatory freedom to do what he wants so speaking about mma if you sign with bellator is there a real i mean could you do another fade or fight no this is a retirement fight coming up on feb 4th i mean maybe maybe but probably not there's more one-off capabilities in

most organizations but i get your point but i'm just wondering if if the francis exit creates a chain of momentum where more people who have who are closing in on the ability to do what nate and francis just did now go oh i've seen it done i see how to do that you know what i'm saying yes and i think if nate even if nate does something silly like goes to ryzen and boxes mayweather and some kind of stupid exhibition and we don't really care about it doesn't mean a whole lot but he gets absolutely bonkers paid yes this is my whole point getting back to the previous thing it's like this is big because it sets in motion and i also do think i don't want to sleep on this whether francis made a mistake or not in terms of how much money he'll get from this we will have to see i don't know but to your point yeah well

i was just i was just gonna say bc to your point the courage it took to make the walk that he made is a big deal it's just that in the end i do think he has to make the vision work that is essential uh to this so look there's two ways like it really works for him outside of outside of whatever crossover like you said boxing whatever kind of crossover weird stuff that'll get him paid and good for him if he does it but in terms of settling in pfl bellator mma one championship whatever it is you know he's gonna of their free agents to kind of follow suit. And I know his window's closing. So it's like, you know, for these other promotions to populate a division that would present to him the type of career defining fights that have, you know, historical financial implications, you know, the, the,

the steep age it fights, the John Jones, all the fights he could in theory, get under UFC. If he signs one of those crazy contracts, not for the amount he wants. the John Jones fights, all the fights he could, in theory, get under UFC if he signs one of those crazy contracts, not for the amount he wants. But I wonder, Luke, because we do have to realize something. MMA is so young, okay? The sport's basically 30 years old, okay? We regularly on this show say we're living in the prehistoric era

from the standpoint of fighter treatment fighter pay medical benefits all that stuff right all the stuff that took even the nfl a long time to really catch up with you know brain health all that stuff we're so early in that i wonder if francis um if there's a way he sets a new tone from this standpoint in the boxing structure it's obviously different than the ufc because there's many cooks in the kitchen and it's disjointed and it's the wild, wild West, but there is a graduation process within stardom that can happen.

That's rare, but you need full sort of control to do it. What do I mean by this? When you get to the Mayweather level or think Canelo in recent years, or think Miguel Cotto, the last three, four years of his career. When you are not tied down anymore by the long-term promotional or network deals,

but you get to such a level of leverage where you start calling your own shots. Canelo saying, I want to go to PBC for one fight against Caleb Plant. Oh, I'll take a two-fight deal here with Eddie Hearn in the zone. Oh, now, what do you guys got for me? Let me see what you got for me. Cotto started picking one fight on this network one on fight on this network floyd obviously rewrote the book on how you take control and do it i'm wondering here if there is a way where francis can it can really trailblaze

and start a new thing for free agents maybe nate can do it too where maybe it is one-off boxing fight here one-off pfl pay-per-view super fight here, or one season of PFL. And then let me see what one championship has for a big opportunity. Oh, Scott Coker wants me to fight Fedor on CBS. Do you know what I'm saying? I wonder if this is the beginning of being the exact opposite of what the man is offering you, which is a tied-down deal. And if they can begin to use their own leverage in the free agent market to

say, no, I call the shots now because I earned it. Cause I won knee. I went through hell and beat Cyril gone. I earned it. That's where the really big change comes in. And that's where this changes the game.

So early 30 years into this sport. That's why I believe this could be a monster game changer. When just the same, as you mentioned, he could also go out there and lose and not, you know what I mean? Like he's also, he's also 36 coming off a major knee injury, but man, the commitment, that's why when that news became official, I was like, man, that mother effort did it and well done to him. I don't think we have any idea, Luke, if things start going in

the fighter's direction in terms of leverage and being treated correctly, what this can do the larger free agency system the way contracts are set up but you brought up a great point about managers and and look i mean you know that that new that new hot mma uh youtube account mmai that put out that very long james kraus now they've got a multi-part series coming out on mma managers the first episode was kind of about jason. You heard a lot about Ali and stuff there. It does seem to be a larger problem that a lot of us are kind of just getting educated upon about the managerial system within the UFC too and how advantageous it is for managers

to stay in the good grace of the UFC and does that in the long-term lower the argumentative leverage and negotiation power of the fighters in these situations. You know, the new factory that is the Dana White Contender Series, where you're able to come in there hungry and desperate to please the boss and fight like a maniac so you can maybe get that contract, which is peanuts, and they can escalate you on such a slow process to the top.

You know, it's weird. I wonder if this change begins to really change that. It's going to take a lot more, but anyone who's sitting here going, man, I love the UFC the way it's weird. I wonder if this change begins to really change that it's going to take a lot more, but anyone who's sitting here going, man, I love the UFC the way it is now. I get great fights all the time. Hey guys, so do I. And anyone who's sitting here going, man, I'm sick of these guys from MK always being these watchdogs for UFC, man, they must hate the UFC. Want to bring it down? No, it's because we love the UFC and love, you know, and respect the fighters and the entertainment they provide, the chances they take that we're sick of seeing. We know how the system works.

We're watching from a distance how the sausage is made and nobody can do a damn thing about it. Maybe Francis crawled through hell like Andy and Shawshank, right, to try to change that. I think that's on a macro level how the potential of what this news is. I do want to ask you though, Luke back to the micro level. PFL just kind of, I mean, there's,

there's a IG post out there. I don't know who to attribute to that showing Francis's family already dressed in PFL t-shirts. I don't know if it was Photoshopped or someone called, you know, I took a picture of them at a restaurant. PFL tweets out the Hollywood NWO thing on a micro level. Dude, how much is Francis phone going to be ringing because i saw bkfc tweeted adam cokers already got headlines

out there like what's the next three four five six months going to look like for him separate from talk about jones versus gone which we should do but on a micro level with francis dude what do you think he's thinking so let's do the math we're in january He said he could have been ready for March if that fight had gone through, but that was a little bit early, like a little 50-50 on that. So I'm thinking in April or May return, like maybe a Cinco de Mayo weekend, May 5th, something like that. I got to tell you, BC, I just don't buy the PFL side of things. I mean, don't get me wrong.

A one-off, maybe, maybe, certainly. I think they're going to make a genuine good faith effort, but I just feel like his first move, here's my official prediction, I think his first move is going to be somewhere inside boxing. Now, Tyson Fury, we know, is locked up with Usyk. It is believed, we have reason to believe, probably because they're both in PBC, right, that Deontay Wilder's probably going to fight Andy Ruiz. I guess we're going to have to see, but they seem like they're locked up. AJ, he makes more money than God and doesn't really need this.

I don't think he would go in there. And I also think he wants like redemptive wins and he's overhauling his coaching staff, so that's not there. So there's like a Chisora fight. Maybe you could do a Dillian White thing. I don't know exactly how it all plays out, but I definitely feel like he goes inside the boxing direction first. I don't think he abandons MMA by any stretch of the imagination long term. But I think that, and I also think, and I'm going to say it again,

I think Nate Diaz's first thing is boxing too. I think these guys, what they're going to do is, I got freedom. The time to use it is now. It is right now. This is what I should do. That's what they're going to do, I think. Somewhat potentially tied to what you just said. I know that Jake Paul signed a two fight MMA deal with PFL, but he's got more skin in the game. There's there's, there's stock options. There's, you know what I mean? He's got like

equity in this right now. You got Ariel saying, which I thought was smart saying, you know what PFL should do if they really want to splash the market and almost in a pro wrestling style, allow Jake to be their Dana, right? Allow him, allow this to be, which I can't even believe it's happening in house within ESPN, but allowed Jake to essentially be the Dana who's calling out UFC and Dana constantly and trying to use that as leverage for the PFL. But Jake really makes his money in these crossover boxing fights. MVP promotions now kind of works for PFL. Is that cage smart enough, Luke, that they could do boxing inside there too?

Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, no. They might try, but, dude, we all know. What do these guys want? They want to be – like we saw with Tyron Woodley with Jake Paul. They want to be in control, right? It's not just like the share of the rev. They want to run the show.

They want to have say over this. They want to have say over that. They want to have say over that. And in boxing, they do. They have say over things you couldn't possibly believe they have say over. They have it. I think he wants it. I also want to have a discussion, BC, not just about the. Wait, but don't go too far on that because it's called the Professional Fighters League.

It's not called, you know, American MMA or something like that. You know what I'm saying? You don't think there's a chance that the launch of this super fight pay-per-view division might also bring in the potential. Hey, Nate, you want to box with us? Hey, Francis, you want to box with us? Dude, why would he on the boxing side, on the boxing side, why would he? I mean, here's what he's going to do.

You know this too. He's going to open up his own promotion company called, you know, Francis or the Predator Promotions or something, some name. It's a shell company. And then they use that to get, you know, oh, I i'm gonna get a promoter credit on top of getting the uh the check for just being a fighter like i just why would you split that with the pfl if you don't have to that's because i don't understand that um but there's a really important conversation we have to have to bc before we even get to the jones side of things which is about like the state of like the number

one heavyweight i hope everyone understands like the number one heavyweight. I hope everyone understands this. The number one heavyweight in the world does not fight in the UFC. Now, I realize that Jon Jones, if he wins, would have some kind of a claim over it by beating or some kind of a claim to it anyway, if he beats Cyril, especially if he beats him like very impressively. We'll have to talk about that in just a minute. But right now, as it stands, Francis is that guy. And if Cyril wins, Francis is definitely that guy,

since Francis beat him on one leg, basically, in his last fight prior to all of this. So I just want to point out something, too. We see in the rankings and everything else and how we talk about this. It is interesting now that, like, affirmatively, the best heavyweight in MMA does not fight in the UFC. And I hope that when folks understand that and they talk about the nature of this fight with John and Cyril, these guys are not vying for number one.

They don't have access to that. And I don't know if we're going to get that at some point, but it's not the case as it stands of March 4th, 2023. No. And I mean, look, let's be also be honest. And it's rare when this can happen for as great as the UFC is and has been, but like Glover toira versus Jamal Hill for the vacant light heavyweight title doesn't produce the best light heavyweight in the world

with the winner, right? I mean, it's rarer than this happens. That's a little tougher. I mean, here's the thing, dude. Did you not get a little bit bothered by Dana? I mean, like, well, he wants to fight lesser competition. It's like, dude, he beat the guy that's in your replacement main event

with a fucked up leg. Like, what are you talking about? He knocked Stipe out with a jab. Let's be fair with that, okay? I mean, you know what I'm saying? Just listen to this. Listen to this. Since he went to the UFC, which by the way was back in 2015,

he beat Curtis Blades twice. I'm going to leave out a couple of names that don't even matter anymore. Then he beats Anthony Hamilton round one Kimura. Then he beats Arlovsky round one knockout. Then he beats Overeem round one knockout. In the greatest knockout of all time. The nastiest knockout you've ever seen. It looked like he got decapitated.

Okay, he had the back-to-back losses. The Stipe one wasn't great. The Derek one was even worse. But then rebounds against Curtis Blades. Then KOs in round one, Cain Velasquez. KOs in round one, Junior Dos Santos. KOs round one, Jerry Senior Rosenstreich. KO round two,ipe and then he

decisions Cyril Kahn yo get the fuck out of here with this he doesn't want to fight tough guys are you kidding me he's destroyed the roster and did it for the most part largely with ease what a nonsense argument this is yeah yeah you mentioned Kane quickly and I don't want this to be a thing but there were there were some people speculating that with the uncertainty of his own future and we saw him take a wrestling match in Mexico right like or maybe it was in the United States I'm sorry about the location but is can Kane is he free to fight MMA anywhere is he like if he wanted to fight MMA is locked in I know that Francis already beat him but it was a weird fight I'm just basically trying to think of what what what big mma opponents would you be like oh i'd see

that i mean look what i see francis versus ryan bader for the belt or heavyweight title yeah i'd be into that right even though i'd be fearful for bader's future but they're you know you they're all things didn't go well against rumble johnson it's hard to see how they go better against francis yeah girl ryan bader you know what mean? This is what I mean on the MMA side. It's not a lot of great names. No, no, certainly not. But, man, I mean, was there a question in there, Luke, was I supposed to respond?

No, I'm just sort of pointing out that, like, the way in which Dana set it up, like, he wants more money to fight lesser competition. It's like, you know, I mean, just, dude, you can't mow down your own roster to the point where your replacement level event is a guy he already beat. Dude, stop with the bullshit. You know what I mean? Let me let me stay on Dana for one second in talking about Francis, because, again, I think it's so much easier for UFC to go. You know what?

At the end of the day, and maybe it's justana and i'll get to that in two seconds but at the end of the day dude you are 36 with a bad knee and we're not going to break the bank set new precedents in our contracts allow you to go moonlight elsewhere we're just not going to do it luke i don't think they're that willing to do that unless you have john jones ready to slide in right now against cyril gone so maybe that helped the situation but what do you make of that almost cryptic comment when dana was asked at that post-fight scrum saturday about do more more d and by the way i felt like this was the most that the the mma media especially the the regulars who show up at all the ufc events this felt like the most they pushed dana back in a long time right like brett bradley moco was going bradley camaro was going at him you know with follow-up questions and stuff but they pushed

him about the idea of like potential any regret and letting like you know the biggest free agent go and whatever and and dana did not seem to regret it but then he mentioned you know maybe maybe hunter campbell does though you know he probably does so do you think there was dissension because this is a key part here the whole debate that we've had in the last couple weeks about is there going to be or should there be punishment for Dana White? And what would that actually mean to the company moving forward? So when he arrogantly says, you can't punish me because, you know, it would hurt everybody else. We're all like, dude, wow.

But is there a potential here that, you know, Hunter who's, who's negotiating here, all those guys like wanted this. And this is in some levels, Dana's ego going ego going no you're not going to cross that line again we're not going to set new precedents for you we're not going to what does that comment mean luke where he says i have no regrets about this maybe hunter does you should ask him he probably does because luke there is a debate and we've had it is the ufc actually better off with dana without dana moving forward from a PR standpoint, from a lot of things I do think. And I stand on the record of Dana was fired tomorrow,

or if you quit or whatever, that in the short term, there'd be from, from a commercial acceptance level. I think this, there would be some more hiccups that people don't realize because Dana is the face of the company, but do you think there's more internal because of how he treats the fighters, which might be a stronghold he does to, to, to retain control, to keep his endeavor bosses happy on the bottom line and all that financial stuff,

which makes sense when you see it laid out by the folks at MMI there on YouTube. But is there any part of you that believes based on that cryptic Hunter comment that there was more people behind the scenes going, maybe Francis does deserve this money or whatever he's asking for. How do you let the number one heavyweight in the world walk away at this point? I'm just wondering Luke,

if, if Dana's value in days are short, shorter than we realized are more overvalued than we realized is, is there a potential riff behind the scenes about whether this was actually the right move for the company? Wow. That's a great question. But the problem is we just have such little information to know if there's dissension among Dana and his generals in that way. Uh, you know, I've talked to some folks who were UFC executives who definitely didn't see eye to eye with Dana on any number of issues, but in the end, just defer to him because that's just the way business goes. So there could be something to that, but I mean, just to warn the audience, I would be,

I'd be doing nothing but speculating. I just don't have much information. Within the role, within the ball of speculation here, do we actually know these days, like really know outside of being the front face show up at the microphone answer the questions be the bullish guy who moves the company forward and by the way dan is awesome amazing at that but does he does he actually sit in on negotiations like what hand does he hold in that regard oh so my understanding is there is some of that he does but that relatively relative to what he did 10 or 15 years ago, it's significantly less.

Because we always make the Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno comparison. When you get to a certain level as a legendary coach. I don't know. He's not Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno. He's where you're like literally just a figurehead, and you're not calling any plays. You're just showing up with the headphones on and walking around the sidelines.

No, he's not that. He's not that. But relative to what it used to be, I can tell you for sure, it's a lot less. And also since the acquisition by WME. You asked a great question that leads us to the other side of this conversation.

It was perfect dovetail, which is that how can you let the number one heavyweight in the world walk? Well, isn't it funny that a lot of this in many ways got started because Jon Jones wanted dot, dot, dot, Deontay Wilder money. Right? And it just so happens he's able to take a break and then sneak back in.

I'm not, you know, he didn't sneak, but I'm just saying, it's sort of funny to describe it that way. And then he signs a new 8-5 deal. There's no way that deal money wasn't influenced by the departure of Francis and them needing Jon and then upping it. So whether or not he got Deontay Wilder money, I don't know, but he definitely got more than he was going to get by virtue of everything falling apart with Francis. What a funny turn of events.

I mean, look, that's the actual definition of John's legacy, which we've said ad nauseum that he's equally the greatest that's ever stepped in front of this cage. And if he comes out here and wins the heavyweight championship, he's the goat with like no asterisk. I don't care about the drugs anymore. Luke, he's the freaking goat. He's the goat right now in my mind. He's all he, but if he beats gone, he's the freaking goat yet along with being the best.

He's also like the tragic, the constant tragic tale of what could have been. Dude, he just, speaking of domestic violence, like he just had one. He also just had some, some other equally disturbing moments during this three-year, you know, step away, argue about money, build your body up for heavyweight. And then I don't understand the other parts of it while he was gone for so long, but here we are. Advantageous, but it's just weird that he becomes the company's savior when he just got arrested for essentially what we're arguing Dana should have been in trouble for. And by the way, the only thing that's consistent here with Dana not wanting to self-penalize himself in this process. And by the way, Brett pushed that question again. Brett Okamoto of ESPN on Saturday. And Dana basically said, no, this is my personal life and my personal life.

You know, I'm condemned for life because of my own actions. Why does this, what does this have to do with my job? You know, wouldn't you love to tell your employer that Luke, that off the job, you got a DUI and then you walk in on Monday morning, your employer's like, I don't know what we're going to do about this. And you're like, no, no, no, dude, that's my personal life. Right. Like imagine that. I have to live with the regret of, no, no, no, dude, that's my personal life. Right? Like imagine that.

I have to live with the regret of the DUI. That's really, that's enough. But to be consistent, Dana didn't penalize John through any of these. They stripped the title of him three times, which is historic. But again, Conor didn't. I mean, people in BC, stop bringing up Conor with a dolly. Hey, guys, he took a weapon, showed up unannounced, attacked a bus full of his coworkers, got glass in Ray Borg's eye that pulled him from the fight, and he wasn't able to make money.

Almost scared Ioana out of walking away out of that title. It was like me walking into the break room at Stop and Shop and just attacking people. Would I be allowed to work the next day? Would I be rewarded with the biggest pay-per-view? My point is the UFC's policy has always been to separate the personal from the professional there. So here we are, Dana, but, um, that's the only consistent level of that. It's just crazy that John Jones has been through worse PR and here he is as the company savior. And you're right. This whole stuff, this whole shit started with John Jones saying, no, we deserve more. And we're like, could John Jones be the Marvin Miller of MMA? Like, could he be this creation of change? Nope. Francis might be in the long run. But Jon Jones has a chance March 4th or 5th, whenever that date is, Luke, in Las Vegas.

Yeah, it's March 4th. To cement himself as the greatest of all time after signing an eight fight deal. When just like two weeks ago on our show, we're like, don't really know what john's gonna look like could he be one and done at heavyweight is he gonna go back and fight for the light heavyweight title i can't believe we're here this is madness but with all that madness behind me luke when you hear john jones is gonna fight cyril gondon his heavyweight debut for the full heavyweight title this is still what makes the ufc great right because of all that other bullshit aside and it's some of it is real with francis and dana and all that dude come march we're going to be seeing one of the most badass fights you can make in this sport i don't even know what to do with that information right now right it's like it's so crazy eight fight deal i mean i don't think

he'll fight all eight but one never knows doesn't really matter that means listen here's what that means eight fights if he fights two times a year because he's been gone for three i mean even if you fought three times a year that's three years basically to get that all done because there could be injuries and everything else he's 35 i think almost 36 now john jones right how old is john jones i think he's i thought he was 34 i believe he's actually 35 now john jones according to wikipedia yeah he's 35 he'll be 36 in july dude this is the last deal he's basically gonna sign this is the last major deal he's basically going to sign. This is the last major deal that he's going to sign.

This is it, right? This is it, folks. He might do retirement fights or he could fight way past, you know, prime or whatever. But what's left of what we think is the good part of John Jones's career, this is it. This is the last part of it. And I got to say, BC, to your point, now, if he wins on that March 4th, Saturday, we already made it the point, doesn't make him the number one heavyweight in the world,

but it would make him the UFC champion. It would now make him a dual weight class champion, at least not at the same time, but collectively over the course of his career. It would basically continue his, not undefeated, but basically undefeated win streak. If he's not already the GOAT, and let's say he stops zero gone

that probably changes the debate overnight for any of the follow or the leftover doubters john has the capacity here to not get everything he wants because francis isn't there but to get a huge chunk of it and to make dramatic history not only to your point bc as a company savior but you can quiet all that Habib talk. You can quiet all that GSP got two titles talk. The King has returned. That is on the table in just a couple of months. Did the King get in this?

I'm going to try to move the goalposts here. Cyril Ghosn has the potential to be an all-time heavyweight, right? And I think he's going to learn from all of the- We'll talk about that side in just a second. No, but I think Cyril's going to learn from all. We'll talk about that in just a second. Yes. No, but I think Cyril is going to learn from the loss to Francis. He's going to learn from getting into trouble against two of us. I mean,

Cyril seems to be absolutely the real deal, but would you say from the idea of taking three years off and moving up to a new weight class, John's debut could have been Francis for the title could have been the most dangerous, scariest next level 2.0 we've had heavyweight we've ever seen gone as a 2.0 heavyweight but in a different way but just on fear because what's the biggest hurdle in theory in layman's terms that John's gonna have to clear

moving up to this new weight class and fighting the best in the world on day one for the title it's does he have the chin to take heavyweight shots does he have the power to to keep people off him all that stuff he's not well cardio all that extra weight okay but in terms of like layman's in terms of like the thing that you're going to be focused on the most the biggest test he has to pass to me is overcoming because it's not moving from 135 to 145 light heavyweight to heavyweight is is is a gap okay even with the 265 limit you're fighting you could be fighting some big mfers okay they don't have they don't have francis and gano at light heavyweight okay and as much as cyril gone is great and very well

could go out there and and put it on john would you think that for john this is a little bit of a relief he doesn't have to fight stipe he doesn't have to fight francis and even though cyril from a movement standpoint from the ability to fight almost like a middleweight in a heavyweight's body, up to this point, he can't wrestle, and he's not a knockout threat against somebody with John's chin. You have to believe this is almost like everything is coming up roses suddenly for John Jones, right place, right time, sat out the right amount of time.

Like, it's mind-boggling, right? His timing is weird his timing has been delayed but it might be right on time to all the points that you raise when they first made this fight i mean to me bc this is the central tension of this fight i mean we'll talk about obviously ad nauseum between now and march and march 4th but what i wanted to say was when they first made it i was like well this is going to be interesting because if francis can outwrestle cyril gone you would imagine john could but then i put up a poll kind of funny and this is going to be interesting because if Francis can out-wrestle Cyril Ghosn, you would imagine John could. But then I put up a poll, kind of funny, and this is a very unscientific poll,

but just to see where people's minds are. It was a poll on Twitter. Most people in terms of who voted thought that John Jones would win, about 2-1 more or less. But there's a lot of comments being like, dude, Cyril's going to win this one any way he wants. One, his wrestling is going to be better than it was against Francis, which I do think would be true.

I do think that. He'll make improvements. He's wrestling is going to be better than it was against francis which i do think will be true i do think that he'll make improvements he's too good not to be better um but the question that they had was like dude john's wrestling at the end of his light heavyweight run fell off a cliff in terms of its effectiveness he couldn't really out wrestle dominic reyes that's true i went back and looked at the numbers actually had a whole video on this comparing him to a potential fight with uh izzy which now seems very much off the books um not gonna happen but if you look at the last few fights he had at light heavyweight the his wrestling prowess fell off a cliff it wasn't hardly good at all he could do very little with it except in the anthony smith fight and even then some of that was smith just kind of acquiescing to position it it's just there wasn't a whole lot to it but we've said this before a million times was

he burned out was that uh the wrong version of himself he just couldn't get right and now three years off and rebuilt and blah blah blah that's all going to come back to me bc this fight will be won or lost basically there in that central question that i mean it doesn't change how intrigued this is such a super intriguing fight and you know three years ago when john beat reyes and then soon after gave up his belt i was that person that said dude i don't even care if it's francis in his first fight john is it's going to be quicker than these guys gonna be too skilled but boy has time you know away turn that i mean our colleague shaquille majori shout out to you know his mk contributions look he's going on the public record say no cyril's gonna knock john out so it's crazy how

much things have turned there is potential there is potential that cyril's the right opponent at the right time for john because it's not francis and it's not stipe who can do a bunch of things and has knockout power but hey stipe did tweet out and he here's another guy who has to be happy with francis gone stipe is like oh march 4th sounds great can't wait to fight the winner i mean the whole world in the ufc heavyweight land uh woke up except for probably curtis blades who kind of got you know once again stiff-armed and pushed back everybody's got to be happy about this um wild dude i don't know again i don't know how to properly frame this whole situation into words because we knew it could happen like this there was no secret that francis go, but to see it go exactly like this,

the timing, the coinciding with the Dana bad PR and, and all of that, like changes afoot. And I feel like Luke, there are people, by the way, there's already,

I feel like there's already been some people that got paid because of change. Meaning do you remember immediately after the John Jones public argument with UFC over the Deontay Wilder payment that not too long after that Izzy re-signed and it was like highest paid fighter of all time like you know we felt like he got paid and used that situation do you feel like Francis leaving under these terms and and somebody asked I think it was Alan Dawson our buddy from Insider asked Dana uh okay did Cheryl Gahn get a John Jones level offer to step in here and fight John for the championship

now that Francis is gone? You know, did he, I'm sorry, did he get a predator-like offer? And Dana was like, no, he was already under contract. Do you think there's going to be a few stars, more than a few, that this calendar year, even if they don't use, even if they don't, you know, facilitate some crazy leverage and try to pull an Ngannou, which is not easy to do, do you think at the very least the big stars are going to get paid

so that this does not happen again? I think that's a key question to be asked. I don't think so. I think that they believe in their business practices. There are times, like, for example, Sean Strickland, who won on Saturday in the fight against Imavov, right when it was over, he was like, I didn't want to take

this fight and they gave me a bunch of money and blah blah blah we know like when the the the Nate Diaz and Hamza Chamayev card that got all jumbled all the guys who took new fights got paid I'm told really well to do that and so there are you'll get situations like that but dude in general in general they're gonna keep fighter pay costs low until they are made to do it otherwise, until the force of law is on the side of the fighters. Until then, they're going to do whatever they can to keep the costs. Not like poverty wage, but certainly, well, in certain cases, it might be the case. We're talking for A-level fighters, for A-level fighters. They're still going to keep that competitive, certainly, but below the number. Also, bc below the level i just want to make a point here too we haven't even

noodled this let's just have a quick discussion about this part so wait a second let's say shaquille majorie is right and cyril goes out there and beats the fucking brakes off of john jones i find that to be unlikely but who the hell knows who the hell knows right so let's say he does that so then you lost the number one heavyweight and here's the thing i don't know that the ufc believes they can i mean if you're the ufc do you really think you can count on john jones for eight fights i mean that seems like without him getting in trouble doing some dumb shit yeah i mean that just seems like you know a lot and then by the way if you know John has barely kept it together while being maybe the best MMA fighter ever in terms of what I'm saying is winning.

What happens if he loses? Then you lost the number one heavyweight, and then the guy who left already beat the guy who's now your champion. So, like, that would ruin it. Now, John has to be on the get back. Plus, again, he's been all over the place in terms of just managing his life affairs while things were going well inside the cage. What happens when they, in this scenario scenario what happens when they go poorly dude there's a lot of ways where if cyril gone wins that is not necessarily all that great for the ufc yeah i hear you i hear you now they they are trying to you know invade the new market of france that you know opened up when the laws changed so that wouldn't hurt them all that. But I hear what you're saying.

We also don't want to let this pass without the other development that officially John Jones's new trainer is what Henry Cejudo and the captain Eric Alvaracin. Like that's the new team. Seems that way. Yeah. I saw captain's Instagram account is John all over it. So part of this news announcement seemed to be that Cejudo will be in his

corner. Look, it's like, look, are the odds against John still being John three years later in a heavyweight division? It's still hard to tell because of a few different factors. Like, let's not also forget John has freakishly long reach. OK, so that there's 84. So just for folks who don't know this, to BC's point, I think there's been like one other fighter who's been with an 84 inch reach in the UFC. And that's Semmy Schilt, who is seven feet tall. So there's there's certain elements of the speed factor compared to regular heavyweights, all that that I think, you know, John could end up just being just as great for no question about it.

But how much do you think his style could potentially change here? Because, you know, like I'm not saying Cejudo and the captain are miracle workers, but we've seen in short bursts some major change they can make working with certain fighters. Are you curious in that regard, Luke? Because there's precedence that's possible. GSP went away for, what, four, four and a half, five years, moved up a division and won a title. Different circumstance, not heavyweight, Michael Bisping, all that.

But it's happened. It's rare in this game, but it's happened. Dominic Cruz went away for a long time and came back a couple of times like nothing happened. Do you think that this could lead to a very effective style change? Because when you sit out three years in this game the game can pass you by so quickly i mean so quickly um you know what what are you looking for that relationship to to to to bring forth in terms of i don't think you'd see a substantive change he didn't need one like his style is good for a lot of different his body type and it's just real smart again i've talked about

it before he again now we don't know what level the wrestling's at so we'll have to just see what the story is there also i do wonder about that extra bulk and being able to manage it from a cardiovascular standpoint we'll get well you know especially if you're taking uh punishment to the body you know we'll just there's there's just it's so many unknowns but in general he has a single shot style he does not not much of a combination punch or he will do it if he's really moving downhill on someone. But in general, he has what I call single shot high variance. And so it just works really well at range. It works really well to confuse guys. You can make all different kinds of patterns with it. And then if he has to wrestle

or chooses to wrestle, we know that he's got great single legs. He's got a great knee tap. He's got a lot of different things he can go to. And plus, as you mentioned, that reach gives him such advantages. He was asked in that video, things he can go to. And plus, as you mentioned, that reach gives him such advantages. He was asked in that video, like, what was the benefit of working with Henry? And it wasn't like he was saying a bunch of that was different. He goes, honestly, it's just the finer details, right? Setting up just this kind of right angle, this kind of grip, this kind of setup, all the things to clean up what he needed to do to make sense of what he was doing,

put it all together. I think that sounds right. Dude, John's, listen, John is probably a terrible person and, you know, has been doing insane shit for a long time. But he's always been, as we all know, a really good fighter and he's always had really good fight IQ and an understanding of self and what he has to do. It's hard to know if you can continually, to your point, manage that amidst this insane absence.

That will be the major test here. But in general, all those other questions we've had about him related to this, he's usually answered them with flying colors. So we'll have to see. You know what? I'm going to DM the captain and say it's time we bury this hatchet. Let's get John on the RSD couch to talk about his future. I have less than zero interest in talking to him.

I mean, truly. Let's see if I can get the captain going. All right. You're going to message him? BC, this is a lot we gave him about an hour uh but we haven't even i mean we this is this is going to be ongoing for weeks and months the fallout is beginning but it is by no means complete yeah we're gonna have to see what happens it's gonna be fun no live mk on mlk day but uh we'll be back live on wednesday and um damn luke uh stay tuned because things things are happening fast uh uh you you uh getting fired up for the uh slapdick luke it's coming it's coming dude oh uh yeah by the way they want you to teach no i don't care about dude i actually was like yesterday doing the post fight show and i went to like ufc.com

slash rankings just to see like, hey, where's this guy ranked and blah, blah, blah. And then at the top they had this like giant live banner being like, don't forget slap dick January, whatever the fuck. Come check it out. And I was like, yeah, no thanks. I'll be closing that up. That press conference was wild just on Saturday night where they're like,

you know, Dana, was there a shout to Brett? Brett's like, was there any, you know, did you, would you fear that they were going to shut the slap dick down once you had your, you know, situation? And Dan's just like, no, no, not at all. He's like, the only thing that happened was I didn't get to do the press tour. That's it. You know, it's going to be more

morbidly entertaining. All right. Tuesday though, Tuesday folks, there's some BC live chat fans out there. I know there's a few. Yeah, there you go. We like to talk about life, passion 90s NBA even fights whatever you got uh 11 a.m Tuesday we're back at it this Tuesday so check it out that's it uh that's all I got Luke but and then lastly we're back in studio on Wednesday so we'll have more reactions to any subsequent news that comes out between now and then yeah you guys know the drill so this is an emergency pod I hope we gave you something to chew on.

Thumbs up if you're watching on YouTube. Give us a nice review on whatever podcast platform. And check out BC's live chat Tuesday. We're in studio on Wednesday. All right? All right. So for Mikey Morms, who set this all up, thanks to him. That's Brian Campbell.

I'm Luke Thomas. We'll check you guys out soon. And until then, may all your gains be loyal.