MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Francis Ngannou Speaks | Fight Announcements | Bellator 273 | Jake Paul | Ep. 256

Episode Date: January 26, 2022

On a big-time Episode 256 of Morning Kombat Brian Cambell is solo to break down the latest news in the combat sports world. BC breaks down Francis Ngannou's comments following his UFC 270 win over Ciryl Gane. Next up Brian dissects the latest fight announcements for the UFC. Bellator returns this weekend with a heavyweight title unification bout. What else should we be looking for on this card? BC closes out the show with some quick hitters and an extended Dm's from Donks. (9:00) - Francis Ngannou Speaks (35:00) - Fight Announcements (48:10) - Bellator 273 Storylines (54:30) - Jake Paul buys shares in Endeavor (59:00) - Quick Hitters (75:00) - Bc's Top 10 interviews in MMA Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This is Morning Combat Yeah! It is hump day when Luke Thomas is away You know your boy bc will still come out and play welcome on in it's wednesday january 26 2021 and this right here live and direct on the youtubes it is morning combat the only show uh daring enough to be this great award winning. What else do I have to say? I'm Brian Campbell, your co-host, the BBC with that BDE CBS Sports Showtime. Of course, the labels that pay me are great friend Luke Thomas having some much deserved family time, a little vacation right now.

He will be back next week. Big time thanks to Chuck Mendenhall, who's just, he's one of us, for filling in on Monday's show. Still time to check that out at youtube.com slash morning combat, along with, of course, our high noon fun and game segment, looking at Michael Bisping's Hall of Fame career. I could have had Chuck in here today, had fun with him on Wednesday, going to have a different guest on Friday, but I have heard the overwhelming reviews of, we want more Chuck. Let's get the damn hat in here more. So I put on my hat today because I'm having a dad midlife crisis. One love indeed. Also to shout out, I love me some Chuck too. So why am I solo today? A

little bit of a slow news day, but I don't want you to click off if you've already clicked on because, oh, I come here for Luke. I wish this was a Luke Solo show. Your boy BC's gonna bring it today, looking at the biggest news in MMA and boxing, looking at and reacting to some recent fight announcements, having some fun with you. We'll

do another episode, edition, excuse me, of BC's Top 10, which is always a good time, and I'll take an extended DMs from Donks to close the show, and believe me, of BC's top 10, which is always a good time. And I'll take an extended DMs from donks to close the show. And believe me, no pro wrestling here, all killer, no filler, all big time MMA topics. So settle right in. Even if you're not a BC guy, why don't you, you know, look, sometimes, you know, somebody runs off to the ice cream shop and you ordered chocolate, but you get vanilla,

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Luke, this one's for you, okay? But it's time to get serious here. We're gonna have fun later with this BC's Top 10 list. So tune in, hang in, drop out, all that good stuff. Let's start it with topic one. And look, coming off of UFC 270 over the weekend, it's not difficult to understand that Francis Ngannou doing anything

is gonna be big time news right now. The heavyweight champion unified the belts, of course, with a wrestling heavy, surprising decision win over Cyril Ghosn, but it's his ongoing labor troubles, contract disputes with UFC that continues to be big time news. Let's shout out Ariel Helwani of the MMA hour for having Ngannou on, on Monday. I know Ariel tweeted that it was one of his favorite, most important interviews of all time. Ariel obviously does a great job.

He's a decorated award winner himself for a reason. And I love hearing Francis speak right now because this is becoming more and more a pivotal period, meaning between now and the end of December of this calendar year when he's, if nothing happens between now and then, is a free agent, can leave the UFC heavyweight title behind and go on his own. From now until then, there is the potential for major, major changes in the ongoing fighter pay labor dispute discussion. And Francis is at the front of it. And there were some very interesting reveals in chatting with Ariel that I want to go over.

So first of all, the biggest one was that according to Francis Ngannou, he was about to get into the car, drive on over to the Honda Center in Anaheim last Saturday to get to the arena early, warm up and get ready for his fight. And he was told by his manager, Markel Martin of CAA, who has had a very explosive relationship of late with Dana White and UFC brass that they found out over email that the UFC threatened a lawsuit while Francis is about to get ready to go to the arena threatened to sue and Ghanu's manager for supposedly reportedly having negotiations having discussions with Nikisa Bidarian the the founder of MVP Productions Promotions,

excuse me, Jake Paul's promotional company. He's Jake's manager. He's the former, of course, UFC CFO. And we've heard Dana bring Nikisa's name up during the back and forth between him and Jake Paul. And here was UFC reportedly saying, because you talked to him, because you negotiated with him, here's a cease and desist.

Here's a, we will sue you if you keep this up. So here's Francis' response. Quote, I walked into the waiting room waiting for my manager, and they were like, wow. I'm like, what's going on? They told me they just received the email from the UFC saying they're going to sue for talking with this guy, Nikisa. I'm like, who is Nikisa?

I wouldn't recognize him if you put him in front of me. Now, look, has Ngannou ever heard of him or talked to him? I'm not sure. You see the tricks that both sides are potentially playing in terms of this very public battle and negotiation. But this is a sort of a next level aggressive wrinkle, if fully true. And look, everything that's happened

from Dana not showing up to put the belt around Francis's waist to Dana straight up no selling the the the post press conference to UFC's Twitter account. Not, you know, live tweeting during Francis's win and afterwards to, you know, now we find out that just hours before they're sending potential, you know, cease and desist type letters here. This is getting wild because the crux of what Francis really wants, he got into with Ariel and it's about this whole ideal that, okay, if we have to be independent contractors, and I think this is a really important way that Francis has sort of summed up his biggest issue. He wants respect. He wants to be able to deal with the company, you know, man to man, all that stuff. He feels he hasn't gotten even terms. Of course he wants more money and doesn't want to fight for $600,000 with no bonus. But he's basically saying this. Here's the quote. You can be free and fight for the UFC. I just want to be free. We are supposedly

independent contractors, and that means technically a free person. That's the reason why they need some adjustments in the contract. That's what I've been fighting for. You're risking everything. There's a lot of things. We have no insurance, nothing, no guarantee, which I understand as an independent contractor, but treat me as such if I am. Whether I'm going to be an employee or an independent contractor, make it very clear in the contract, it's very mixed up, end quote. If you're a fighter today, you're a fighter in the UFC from the last guy on the roster to, you know, Kamaru Usman, Israel Adesanya, the other champions. This is this is what you need to hear. This is what somebody needs to stand up

with leverage and something to lose. And Francis, to certain degrees, has both and make this specific case. Look, this has been the ongoing argument not to bring it to pro wrestling because you're waiting to click off if I do. But the same debate's been ongoing in WWE the last five years, more or less, of saying, OK, you know, we're independent contractors. And WWE, they don't even pay travel for these guys. But yet you restrict them in their contracts of what they can and can't do outside of the outside of the fighting service and WWE, the ring and UFC, the cage. This is a great point to bring up for Francis. Because Francis is essentially saying this. You're only going to pay us at the end of the day what we're able to negotiate.

We all want millions. We all want, I mean, look, it's wild when you see, I know I referenced it on Monday, but when you see the tweets, Andreas Hale really brought this discussion into the forefront when it's like, you know, the combined fight card of Saturday Night UFC in terms of fighter purses payouts is a combined, at least in court, in terms of the reported to the California

State Commission, which doesn't include potential pay-per-view points, which Francis has said publicly, right? Francis told Ariel he was not getting anything extra. He's turned down upwards of seven million over his last few fights because he doesn't want to get for deeply or more or deeper entrenched in in what the stakes of these contracts are he wants to break free from that but 1.8 million for the entire salary of a pretty highly level anticipated pay-per-view now will it sell high they didn't load up the undercard there were a lot of fights that fell apart

there's a lot of reasons why it might only sell moderately but still this is ufc in their highest financial point of all time constantly left and right adding new promotional and marketing deals and all this stuff and they're paying 1.8 million total and we can compare this to any recent boxing pay-per-view match in which you know each fighter in the main event is is depending on the stature you could be in the five to 10 million range each, or you could go as high as the Canelo, formerly Manny and Floyd range, where the A side's making guaranteed 40, 50, 60 million. The B side, depending on their stature, is making 10, 20, 30, depending on that. So that comparison is wild.

The comparison we've also seen that some people said of, look, Jack Tunney and, sorry, Jack Tunney and sorry, Jack Tunney going WWF and you, Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey, who fought for the heavyweight title, you know, twice back in the 20s, made more individually on that respective night than Francis Ngannou did on Saturday. I mean, Gene Tunney for the rematch made over a million dollars. Francis made $600,000 on paper. That's in the 1920s.

Now, I know that boxing back then, especially, was number one or two. It's baseball, horse racing, and boxing. Boxing was a cultural event back then when, you know, name it, right? When it's Joe Lewis against Max Schmeling. I mean, the entire world is sitting by a radio, right? I mean, like it's a different level. So, okay. I'm glad they made that money back then. UFC is not hurting. They have an ESPN deal.

They're, they're, they're going through the roof financially. And this is where we're still at. So what Francis, I believe is saying in this independent contractor specific debate is what you pass at the end of the day. Look, we're going to work that out eventually, meaning us fighters like. But at the very least, if this is the cap of what you're going to pay me and you're not going to give me health insurance, at least allow me wiggle room within the contract to do what I want on the side to offset that. And if that's professional boxing once or twice a year, then let me do that.

This is a very important way of presenting this current debate right now, because it's given a little wiggle room. It's basically, you know, everybody just wants an improved fighter pay. But Francis is saying, OK, I'm at the point where, you know, everybody just wants an improved fighter pay. But Francis is saying, okay, I'm at the point where, you know, my window's getting small. I'm 36 years old, whatever. 35 years old, I'm gonna be 36 soon. You know, I wanna maximize that.

So if I can't fully maximize it in this cage, let this cage be part of what I do. This is why the next, this calendar year is gonna be so interesting to see what is the fallout. Is UFC and Francis Ngannou just going to meet in the middle somewhere where it's just enough money to keep Francis happy? And he says, you know what, compared to my other options, this is where I want to stay. Or will it come down to this being the breaking point of Francis saying, no, I need the contracts to change.

You know, it's the same thing in WWE where a lot of times these guys want to go either work for other companies, which I get why, of course, you're going to put, you know, you don't want to actively allow your employees to go somewhere else and make just as big a noise, but to do other things that they want, you know, that they're limited in the same way. Something's got to change here. Will it change because of this Francis situation? Will this be the norma ray

union yes sort of moment will we look back at francis like we look back on kurt flood you know certainly potential but the more that we go down this road i'm not kidding i i don't think francis is going to fight with with the ufc ever again he's going to fight under contract and just two days ago i was more of the belief that him winning the championship meant. He's going to fight under contract. And just two days ago, I was more of the belief that him winning the championship meant that everyone's going to get paid, right? Because how can you avoid paying this guy? He just beat your unbeaten Cyril Ghosn, right? He's going to go in there against Jon Jones,

you know, possibly next in one of the biggest fights in UFC history. The money's going to work itself off out. We'll be fine. I'm starting to believe that at the end of the day, partially because UFC is so spiteful. This was a spiteful ass performance from Dana white and UFC brass over the weekend.

It was really no matter, you know, I, I don't have a stake in either side, depending, you know, some people might disagree with that there, you know,

your Dana, you think all the media is against UFC and just trying to get the fighters paid. But, you know, you want to see what's fair. You want to see justice. I'm starting to believe that spiteful UFC is going to really just try to rid themselves of Francis Ngannou as quickly as they can. Why? Because he is finally the star with legitimate leverage

and something to lose, as I mentioned, because you need both, who is making this a conversation that won't go away, who is digging his heels in the ground and saying, something's got to change or I'm not fighting for you again. And they don't want this discussion to happen at all. All right. They want to pay somebody just a little bit more than they were previously getting, maybe not enough to completely change their lives and win over their argument,

but they're willing to give in little areas. Francis is basically saying you have to give in a lot of areas that will become, you know, transcendent changes. Meaning, okay, when BC just says, hey, Ngannou versus Jon Jones is potentially one of the biggest fights of all time. Just pay these guys. Just pay them what they deserve. I mean, even if you're just going to pay them time. Just pay these guys, just pay them what they deserve. You know what they,

I mean, even if you're just going to pay them three and 5 million each, at least pay them that, but you're going to get a lot of people going. If you're UFC and you've been able for this long to keep such a tight handle on the purse strings to pay out only 15% total of fighter, you know, of revenue to fighters in comparison to 50% in the NBA and some of these other team sports. You know, if you do that just for this one fight, you're raising the bar. You're

setting a new precedent because Conor McGregor tomorrow is going to pick up the phone and go, okay, UFC, I'm going to be back in July. I don't care if you want Nate for me or Max or Dustin or whoever, but now you're paying me that same money too because no one's ever sold like me. And then two months later, it's going to be somebody else. The best way for UFC to avoid, you know, that wall coming down is to build up a dam. And that dam, damn. Damn! That dam is getting rid of Francis Ngannou. And I think they look at it as, okay, there's a lot of upside with him, rightfully so so but he is going to be

36 soon you know guys get injured guys hit walls whatever okay maybe he can go and make a little bit of noise here boxing one time fighting for the Bellator title PFL won whatever but you know as much as we've had our ups and downs with

John we could just as well make John the face of the heavyweight division moving forward. We could just as well, given Ngannou's knee injury, which I want to get to, put Cyril Ghosn right back in an interim title fight against John Jones or Stipe Miocic. I mean, there is a lot of ways UFC can just replace whatever that squeaky wheel is.

They've proven that they're willing to do that in the past. Right now, still, the machine is bigger than the players. The brand, Dana White, there's a reason why Dana White has long been presented as the face of this promotion and fight corporation. It's been very smart to do it that way. You're not reliant upon a star. You make a star.

To be fair, there have been transcendent people, very smart to do it that way. You're not reliant upon a star. You make a star, right? Rightful. To be fair, there have been transcendent people, Conor McGregor, Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey, who in different windows have been the face of that. Right. And then there are times when that happens. And as a promoter, you you dig in with them and you ride the wave with them and you enjoy it. But, you know, it's not it's not dissimilar if you've read the great book from James Miller on ESPN's history. You know, after the 90s, sports center hosts of Olbermann and Dan Patrick kind of became bigger than the brand and wanted to start doing all these things. The company really started to push back and basically said, look, we can create a vehicle here in which it's all about the brand. We can sub anybody in. That's UFC's thinking here.

As we stand right now, from these quotes from Francis, I think it's much more likely that they basically say, if we don't give in to him in the end, we can just continue, we can just remove him from the UFC history books, more or less. We can act like he's, you know, Fedor or Kimbo when they were at their height and they were competing with the UFC.

And every time Danny gets on the mic, he's like, oh, Fedor's old. He sucks. He never beat anybody. Kimbo is just a backyard fighter. Right. And I think that's ultimately, you know, a flaw of UFC. But also a key part of their success. And look, let's give Dana credit. He once said all that stuff about Kimbo, but he's also willing to give Kimbo a chance to come in and be the face of the tough season and try to, you know, use that celebrity to sell that season and say, okay, well, if you can prove you're good enough,

you can fight with us, you know? And it worked out for a little bit. And I actually thought they cut Kimbo before they fully could have maximized his value to them. And, you know, that was a strong decision of somebody. Okay, we ripped him in the past, but we are willing to work with him now. That's rare.

That's the one thing Vince McMahon, if you want to compare, and Dana White versus Vince McMahon comparisons, I think, are apt in a lot of ways. I think Dana White rightfully learned a lot from, you know, modeling Vince McMahon from a distance. The one thing about McMahon, though, is money is always more important than his own spite and his own uh pride right how many times has mcmahon had like you know death feuds outside of the ring with a bret hart or a hulk hogan roddy pipe whatever and then brings them back in later on when it's time to make money again

that's a that's a testament to somebody who's long-term successful and it's more about the success in the end i think ufc is a little bit more spiteful from than that they're more likely to just cut someone out but i think when you look at how they've been successful to this point it's tough to argue it might be the best decision for them to try to keep the financials as close to status quo as they are so that the uf to can continue to evolve, you know, and grow around the world and open up PIs and other countries and, you know, pay off their celebrity investors and just keep making money, which is their goal, by the way. And they're right.

I think the best thing they can do is, is get this person out of there. Now, it's not going to end the conversation if they did that. There's an hopefully and inevitably going to be somebody else who gets to a certain position, maybe a couple of fighters grouping together and locking arms and say, no, it changes here. And then we're going to see, you know, who's willing to dig in the most, because I don't think what Jake Paul said is wrong in this situation where you get into a beef with Dana, he's going to do his best to bench you.

You know, there's rules in the contract, but he's going to do his best to offer you fights that he knows you're going to turn down and he's going to bench you. I think Francis is going to end up free from all you fights that he knows you're going to turn down and he's going to bench you. I think Francis is going to end up free from all this because I think they want this to go away. And that's the easiest way to get there. Oh, we'll just create an interim title. We'll do another sexy matchup and we'll forget about you. Now, the Francis injury is also going to play an interesting role in here. And I want to say this. this i'm glad that francis in the last 36 hours since this fight is getting getting the sort of

robin hood bo carroll love that i think he deserves because whether you know he's fully right or not or whether you're against the ufc or not he's risking it all he is standing firm okay is he really risking it all well no he can become a free agent at the end of this year and go make money elsewhere. But he's risking a lot standing firm like this in ways that other big name fighters haven't been. Yeah, we saw the Bjorn Rebney MMA fighters association with GSP and Cowboy and Dillashaw. And then we never saw it again. Francis is going further than anyone's gone before. Let's credit Randy Couture for being a big voice back in the day.

BJ Penn had his moments, but those were different times where there was maybe more leverage to fighters to try to go elsewhere, to go to pride, to go whatever. It's a little bit of a different landscape right now. Francis is willing to risk it all. And his decision to risk it all ahead of this fight, knowing he had that knee injury, it's mind-boggling to me. Not mind-boggling that I don't understand it. Mind-boggling to me that he was able to put the pain away,

put the fear of what the doctors told him in the weeks leading up, that, you know, you're risking permanent damage here, and basically say, nothing is going to stop me from fighting out this deal and putting my best foot forward of what's left after this injury to try to defend my title the fact that he pulled it off is is look i'm telling you years from now we're going to look back at this fight in this performance because i think francis when he heals up whether he heals up and comes back in the ufc or bellator or whatever if his next fight is an mma fight not a boxing fight but an mma fight i think he's going to be a lot closer

to that for explosive francis who was there in the Stipe rematch and blew our minds at his potential than he was in this fight against gone when his knee was absurdly compromised and planting and throwing. He was just not able to consistently do that or do it quickly or do it fluidly. So while we, we do have John Jones tweeting up a storm saying, damn, I could be both these guys easy now. I'm confident. When you got DC, right, going public on ESPN saying,

you know, from what I've seen, or I think he texted Ariel, that's right. You know, from what I've seen, John definitely beats Francis now. Which Francis? The guy with the compromised knee who had the world against him, the doctors against him, the injury, the UFC brass, the everything,

and found a different way to do it with wrestling and with guile and with toughness and, you know, at the end of the third round, seeing in Cyril Ghosn's eyes that he's never been here before and Francis going, okay, I can do this. Or the Francis when his knee heals up and he's a lot closer to being that freak of nature force that he was in the Miochic rematch I think that's more likely but he's gonna have to sit out and heal this and the fact that he could pull this off man I mean it's wild but I think when he looked at

when he got the doctor's uh what 25 days before the fight when he got the doctor's assessment according to francis he had a grade 3 mcl tear he had a damaged acl and he had some other cl fcl atf at aliens whatever that other thing is around there i mean he had a napped up knee but when he's looking at it think about his options at that point do i postpone this fight and does that somehow extend my deal even further meaning am i you know am i just falling deeper into their hands with this or am i just going to put it all on the line and win or lose i do believe he was telling the truth in the interviews ahead of time when he said look i'm content if i lose this fight i don't think it's going to hurt me mentally i don't think it's going to hurt my brand and And I think he went and they're saying, this is, it is what it is. This injury happened, but this is what I have to do right now. And again, the fact that he's able to pull that off is insane. It's folk hero shit,

but business wise, it was probably his best move because he's in, he he's grabbed a hold of the most amount of leverage he possibly can. And here's the deal. He says this injury was pretty bad. He's not coming back in three months. I think I made some mention to that on Monday's show. And I did the same thing after Conor hurt himself in the Dustin fight. I recall that now. It was a little too quick of me. You don't want to be healthy for a while.

So I think that further fuels the idea that unless somehow cooler heads can prevail, but if the UFC is sending a cease and desist over a potential conversation, they're not, they're not willing to deal with Markel Martin of CAA or Francis anymore. They're not willing to say, okay, Francis, sure. What is it going to, what's going to take to keep you happy? One boxing match a year. Is that going to be fine? No, it's not going to happen. I think as we stand right now, he's never going to fight in the cage again in the UFC octagon, and he's okay with that.

And I think for everything he's endured, having to sit out all that time, getting kind of wrongfully shat on by his boss, both after the loss to Stipe when he wasn't the microwaved Tyson of MMA that they hoped and they threw him in there two months after knocking out Overeem or not even two months, and he loses to Stipe when he wasn't the microwaved Tyson of MMA that they hoped, and they threw him in there two months after knocking out Overeem, or not even two months, and he loses to Stipe, but they shat on him real hard when he lost that decision to Derek Lewis just the same, and by the way, did no kinds of slant toward Derek Lewis for not making that

boring fight an actual fight either. Francis bent through the ringer, man. He should, in reality, go, you know what? I do have bigger things to accomplish. Maybe I'm never going to defend this UFC title again. I got much bigger things to accomplish. And I think his behavior during this season, obviously we don't know the full story. And unless both sides are going to sit down for a documentary and tell all, you know, has Francis and his team done anything dirty that should make UFC mad? I'm not sure, but I'll be willing, you know, to leave it as a possibility, but at least in terms of how Francis has carried himself publicly, I think this has become more than just his UFC deal or just him, his current UFC heavyweight title reign. And I think he realizes that there's going to be a movie made on this guy's life and

rightfully so. And he's going to inspire a lot lot of people and I think we're going to look at back at this as the first major uh boulder even if UFC wipes their hands with him and says get this conversation out of here it's not gonna be the last time this conversation starts you're gonna look back at this you know I mean making a Curt Flood comparison this early is a little tough. Curt Flood did a lot, a lot for labor relations in Major League Baseball in the 70s, in the late 60s. But this is going to be a big, big moment. And I tip the cap to Francis. And I hope, as a fight fan, that, you know, him and UFC brass, whether they need to call up Uncle Lorenzo as an intermediate, as Connors had to do in the past is,

you know, GSP had a famously call in, uh, Nick Khan, the super agent who's now running WWE to, to, to negotiate his return with all the corporate issues of Nike versus Reebok or whatever the hell that deal was.

You know what I'm referencing? Could, could we go to the bullpen and call in the right arbiter? Could we fix this? Could we pay Francis what he does, what he's, what he's owed, even if it's just hush money, you know, I'd love to keep the train on the tracks. the right arbiter? Could we fix this? Could we pay Francis what he does, what he's, what he's owed,

even if it's just hush money, you know, I'd love to keep the train on the tracks. I'd love a heavyweight division over the next 18 months, which features Francis Ngannou, John Jones, Cyril Ghosn, Derek Lewis, and Stipe Miocic all fighting each other a few times. That'd be great. That's, that's a Renaissance heavyweight area of the era. That's great for business. It's great for fans. It'd be great. But I support Francis Ngannou and what he's doing, what he's continuing to do, because it's important. Don't sleep on this reality

that when fighters finally get in the UFC everything that they actually deserve, it's going to change some things. They're not going to be for the better immediately for fight fans. Some things are going to start to look a little bit like boxing where, where, you know, there's way too many cooks in the kitchen. It's this wild, wild West and you don't always get what you want.

But I think the modern era, you know, Al Heyman's a big part of this and the PBC, they've done a lot of good at the very least in putting fighters in the driver's seat for their own career. Has that led to too many times soft match? It's led to a lot of things, but I think fighters are better taken care of in boxing today or have a better opportunity to maximize their value than they ever have whether they use that or not whether they make their promoter or their network

fish across the street to make these big fight happen uh sometimes they do sometimes it doesn't happen look at spence and crawford ufc's gonna get closer to that direction but it should this is the most violent sport right and to not get i mean you know nfl's pretty damn violent even though they've done a lot to curtail rule changes and you know even teaching football on the youngest youth levels of how to tackle correctly i mean they're doing some right things there it's still violent as hell with a very short window for you to be employed. And those guys get paid handsomely, though, for that. It's time to see that change here.

This is not UFC, you know, hiding on Spike TV or something. It's the ESPN era. It is a different ballgame. So there's that for your opening statement. Francis Ngannou, keep fighting the good fight. But as of right now, your boy BC doesn't see him ever, uh, ever step into that octagon again. We'll see what happens over this next year. Awesome fight announcements that I want to react to. Um, let's start off the top here. UFC London, March 19th, a very interesting heavyweight clash, Alexander Volkov against Tom Aspinallall now on the surface this is a is tom aspinall for real

type fight and it's important just like chris dawkins just had against uh derrick lewis just like in some ways tito evas is about to have with derrick lewis this is the right step up opportunity but in crafting during this holiday break i showed up on aaron bronstetter's tsn mma round table where, you know, I like his setup. It's, there's a lot of predictions we make,

but you know, he's like come up with a one tier bold prediction, a two tier, one, a three tier one and looking around and going, okay, what, what could happen this year?

What's the untapped fighter. That's going to make a move. What division is going to get hot? Alexander Volkov, I think hasn't figured out yet how good he can be. So you're going to come to this fight, which is very good matchmaking, to see if Aspinall's for real. And if you

hear from, you know, Cyril Ghosn and his coach Fernand Lopez, and, you know, they've worked with Aspinall, they identify Aspinall like Ghosn as sort of one of these future next 2.0 heavyweights. Aspinall's showing a lot of potential. I don't think he has the same dynamic upside as Ghosn does showing a lot of potential I don't think he has the same dynamic upside as gone does in a lot of ways but he's interesting but I think Alexander Volkov and we

know heavyweights age later uh he's very young and he's got a frame he's got a toughness he's got knockout ability but can also point fight and jab from distance. He's got a kickboxing ability. And I think if you look at his fight with Curtis Blades as one of the early turning point moments in his career where he could have been, you know, he got dominated early on the ground and he could have sort of just faded away there. And he fought around the back door and made that a fight and would not stop getting up and trying.

It takes these guys a while to figure some things out. You know, Volkov looked like he was maybe on a run when he got stopped by Derek Lewis that time in the final seconds in the final round of that fight. That happens a lot in heavyweight. But I am interested to see just as much as whether Aspinall is one of these heavyweights of the future, whether we are overlooking whether Alexander Volkov

could be a heavyweight of now. Look, Curtis Blades never quite lived up to that potential that he showed on multiple occasions, really on three occasions, the early rise, and then he got knocked out by Francis, although, look, that early rise was very early. The second rise when he got knocked out by Francis, and then the third rise when he got knocked out by Derek Lewis, and he never quite became that. He may.

It may still happen for him. I think Volkov's closer to figuring out how to get into that crust. And I think we could end this calendar year going, it might be time for Alexander Volkov to fight for the world title. It might be time for him to enter this conversation. Now, this could be a clouded picture bottleneck, depending on what happens with Ngannou, an interim title, John Jones, Stipe. There's, you know, we have got some players finally.

But I think Volkov's, I don't see a lot of holes. You know, I mean, he's not great on the ground for sure, but, you know, those are one of those skills that you keep improving your defense on there. And I think if he starts, if this becomes a growing trend, heavyweight wrestling,

would that become a growing trend? I mean, it's not that we've never seen heavyweights wrestle before. Couture, Velasquez, utilized that impressively, but you don't see it a ton. Imagine if Alexander Volkov can get proficient enough to take a guy down and use that frame to control on ground and pound. I think there's a lot of

improvement that can be made here, and I'm looking forward to this fight. Also, UFC London on March 19th is the same card. Gunnar Nelson is back expected to return against claudio silva uh interesting interesting fight here um i've never been gunnar nelson gunnar nelson whoever you want to say it i try to say things the uh right way and i end up saying i'm the wrong way but you know our buddy from iceland is 33 he's lost two in a row to elite competition. Gilbert Burns and Leon Edwards has, you know, lost three or four overall considering the Ponzinibbio loss. He never quite fully, I think, figured out where he, where he'd look to be going at certain times. He's always

been a, you know, he's been a great training partner to kind of McGregor at times. And he's always been a tough out, but at 33, is this the end or is there a new life for him? I'm looking forward to see that. He's a guy who's got a lot of craft in that game. Can he put it all together? I want to see that. The fight announcement that's getting blown up for rightfully so

because it's a sick matchup. Also that same night, March 19th for UFC London, Dan Hooker versus Arnold Allen. Give me that shit. Give me that shit. That's a great matchup. We have fears. We have fears that Dan Hooker is so ambitious in his window to be great

that he's going to wear himself out trying to do that. We had those fears when he went, when he took on insane damage for five rounds against Dustin Poirier, but they fall well, right? And then gets stopped by Chandler and, Chandler, and then he gets a win, and then a quick comeback and a turnaround. I fear that Dan Hooker's on his way to being the new Michael Johnson of the lightweight division, a guy who is good enough to beat anybody

on any given night, but can't figure it out enough to be great and to win consistently and maybe sometimes matches himself too aggressively to get back in there there's something missing in dan hooker and is it just a willingness to love to trade i don't know because when he came out and wrestled two fights ago and looked really good doing that you're like okay here's a guy who gets it he sees that that there could be a fork in the road right now depending upon which path he's going to go down. He's going to try to keep getting better and reinvent himself in all that good stuff. And now this is a featherweight clash with Dan Hooker moving down in weight and trying this as an avenue. It's going to be hard, but he's still young enough to pull this off if he can do that. We've seen instances of it,

of guys moving down in weight. It happens a lot more in MMA than in boxing. Arnold Allen at 28 is very impressive and we haven't seen him lose in the UFC yet. He's 17 and one overall. What he's got eight straight wins to open his UFC run. Now, you know, outside of a, of an old Gilbert Melendez, he hasn't beaten, you know, super elite names, but he's beaten soundly the Nick Lences, the Sadiq Youssefs, the Mads Bernal, who we know of course from from Bellator fame now um this you love those fights where it's veteran against guy on the rise which direction is the winner going which direction is the loser heading uh a little bit of desperation

move here for Dan Hooker but still young enough still good enough where I hope he finds a home here and this fight will be worth watching for many, many reasons in that regard. As will this one, a rematch set for April 16th. Asante Luque and Bilal Mohamed. Wow. They go back to UFC 205. I distinctly remember their fight because that was a big deal. That was a massive MSG card. That was what?

The UFC's first MSG card, the return to New York State, finally after that draconian rule from the damn shifty senator there. What the hell is that guy's name that's in jail now? Anyway, they blew out that card, rightfully so. 205 is one of the best cards ever, on paper and in terms of delivery. And I remember at ESPN.com at the time, I was the MMA editor.

I was also writing and doing on-camera stuff. We were trying to blow up every story, every fight on that card because it felt really big. And this was one of them. And it was contested close. And I believe it was, what, Luque getting the knockout. And I did the interviews afterwards, you know, in that prime backstage position next to Braun Stetter, next to the Brazilian outlet, next to a, whomever else is there. The, you know, at that time who had the deal Fox deal. So it's probably Megan O'Leary in the first spot and interviewed these guys

one by one coming out. And, uh, it's wild that we're all the way back here and these two are both hungry contenders, you know, at this moment, trying to break through. Um, you have seen people react to this and say, damn, Luque can't catch a break. He can't, you know, firmly make a move into the upper core. And they got to they got to run back Muhammad here. But Muhammad's a different fighter from that first meeting. And he's on fire and he's figuring out how he can be. This is one of those gritty fights that you have to win to keep your title dreams and hopes alive in a busy division.

Very much looking forward to it as I am. Chris Barnett, the, well, to say it as simply as possible, the fat guy who did the spinning kick and then did the split, right? They have you wait,

who made a, you know, large debut, uh, for the UFC there. He's going to take on Martine Boudet on April 6th on April 16th. Uh, yeah.

Let me see some Chris Barnett. So here's the deal. Whether it's, you know, Bellator, which has big tuna coming back this weekend, or whether it's UFC, which I think we've seen more of this throughout the pandemic, where the hungry get rewarded. If you're willing to take fights on short notice and fill in at the last minute and maybe take short pay, you know, think of the guys who had big 2020s.

Think of like Kevin Holland, Hamzat Chemaev. Even Billy Q made a big move in 2020 to get us to notice him. There's opportunities here to make fights. I want to say the problem. I don't know if it's a problem. Not everybody's a great fighter, right? Not everybody's really good. But UFC's doing a really good job right now.

And the Dana White Contender Series is a great factory, if you will, for that is finding fun TV fighters. I don't know if Chris Barnett's a real heavyweight. You know, I don't know. I don't know. He's must see TV from the celebration to the interview to the people like Daniel Cormier loves this guy. I like that we're getting more characters back into the game of late.

And again, maybe it's just these guys are hungry. They're at a certain level. They look good at this level. Eventually, when they climb out of this level, you know, they get they get humbled and they get sent back down. And that that's sort of the, you know, life cycle, the food chain of this sport. But I feel like really last two, three years, we've had more of these type of fighters. I mean, look at what's her name from over the weekend?

Vanessa Demopolis, you know, I's her name from over the weekend? Vanessa Dimopoulos. I don't know if she's a real fighter. I don't even know if Cheyenne Willismas is a real fighter. Pretty damn fun to watch. They go after it. Chris Barnett is another one of those guys, indeed. And you know I love this matchmaking, and it's a rebooking, and it's going to go down UFC Fight Night April 23rd,

when Macy Barber, who got the big win against Miranda Maverick that she badly needed, but I don't think I'm fully back on team Macy Barber, future youngest champion in UFC history. She had a tough fight against Montana De La Rosa. You know, Montana's another one of these fighters. We know about her for a while, had a little bit of up and down, starting to put some wins together, but does she have the game that's going to jump to that next

level? Does she have the finishing ability or is she dominant enough in one skill where she can create enough of a divide against this level of matchmaking to show us that she's ready for the next level? Well, these are those type of matchups that show us that because Barbara's going to come out aggressive like she always does. Montana's a little bit longer, a little bit more technical. It can take the fight to the ground. I like this matchup a lot. Very, very interested to see where this is going. And Antonina Shevchenko, one week later, April 30th, she'll be back against Courtney Casey.

And I'm not looking up the records right now. I'm not going to outright call this a loser leaves town match, but I'm kind of starting to smell like one. And Antonina Shevchenko is not young. She's a fantastic striker. She's very decorated in her Muay Thai and kickboxing background, as is her sister. But when she gets exposed in that octagon,

which has happened here and there, she gets exposed bad and she gets handled and she gets beat up. So it's going to be as well another interesting fight. I don't know what it is about. I mean, UFC has done a better job marketing not just marketing female fights and female fighters better than boxing or really any other mma promotion i mean obviously we always give credit for strike force for for in this you know being the the the foundation for the pioneering that happened with chris cyborg and and and Gina Carano and, you know,

transitioning to Tate and Rousey and all that. And, you know, UFC built upon that, right. And really just graduated those fighters up to them. But there's just something, I mean, I get so into the storylines of these female fights. Is it because I'm just some old creeper dad who has too much Instagram time? Maybe possible, these female fights? Is it because I'm just some old creeper dad who has too much Instagram time? Maybe. Possible.

But they do a better job at sort of, I think, you know, it's probably the debate we always have if you look at the four women's divisions in the UFC and it's why strawweight is so loaded and consistent and always recycling the top 10, but yet always, you know, coming up with new fun names, aggressive fighters that could be something. But maybe it's just the larger congregation of talented fighters is around that, you know, weight size and as possible. But I just think that sometimes you get a ho-hum men's undercard fight and you're like, all right, that one, one of the two fighters might be good. Then you get a similarly matched women's one. It's's just like, no, I like, I like this. I like this a

little bit spicier. There's, there's, there's, I don't know. Maybe, maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just, you know, maybe I am who I am. Okay. Um, Macy Jason on May 7th, UFC 274, also going to fight Norma Dumont. That would be one of those rare ones. Or maybe BC doesn't have a storyline hook for you. And it's just another fight. All right. Sometimes that happens. Thank you. That's topic two. Let's move over to topic three. This Saturday night, 10 p.m. Eastern Bellator 273 hits the Showtime waves.

Yes. 30 days free Showtime dot com. Check it out. We're back. First card of the new year for Bellator. That's a big deal on top. Ryan Bader fresh off losing, but looking good for the most part in the light heavyweight World Grand Prix. Of course, he in the light heavyweight world Grand Prix.

Of course, he lost his light heavyweight title to Vadim Nemkov before that, but wasn't able to get over the hump, wasn't able to make a full run at the title like we knew was possible. But he's back in the heavyweight division where he is the defending acting champion. But Valentin Moldavsky, who won the interim belt with a sound, thorough, unanimous decision over Tim Johnson, who was game on this night. Is Valentin Moldavsky, you know, what's your biggest storyline here, BC? Is Valentin Moldavsky the next one in line of this larger wave that's happening now in UFC? See, the wave that I'm talking about has a lot more to do with Shmesh factory, neck beards, Abe Lincoln, Dagestan guys. And then their extended brethren, Chechens and all them around. I mean, look,

those guys, they freaking bring it. Bellator's got a few of them too. But in general, Bellator is just doing such a damn great job, whether it's Dagestan, whether it's Ukraine, whether it's, you know, mother Russia. And I'm not, it's not, it's not lost on me. The, you know, the war and political and all the threat, you know, there's a lot, a lot going on in the world outside of the cage, but just in MMA relations here, Belter's doing such a great job finding these guys and, and giving them platforms to, to show how great they have the potential to be. And that's Vadim Nemkov at light heavyweight. That's Yaroslav Amasov at, at Welterweight, the new champions. It's, uh, you know, Usman Nurmagomedov and Magomed Magomedov at Bantamweight. I mean, there's on and on, right?

I mean, on and on here. Is Valentin Moldavsky of that ilk representing Team Fedor like Nemkov is? Fedor is his trainer in his corner, his mentor and all that. Or is he just an aggressive wrestler who had a good win over Johnson? And we're going to find out. It's an interesting storyline. or is he just an aggressive wrestler who had a good win over Moldavs, over Johnson? And, you know, we're going to find out. It's an interesting storyline. It's a big question coming in,

just as big of the question of who is Ryan Bader right now. You give this guy so much credit because he left UFC as a free agent on his own terms and went to Bellator and probably made more money, as you hear Corey Anderson say a lot, than he did before and was probably treated better. look you know he had he had hit his limit Ryan Bader in the UFC meaning he had a much better record in win streak than than maybe people will remember well it wasn't overly overly an aggressive marketer of himself and could get one punch Kato at the highest level when he steps up right you? You know, it kind of found his ceiling. Well, then he goes to Bellator, finds out that, you know, damn, he's pretty damn good at heavyweight with the quick hands and the wrestling ability and the stamina. And, you know, he can win two

titles in the same division. And it was a perfect storm in that heavyweight world Grand Prix where he just dominated. But he hasn't looked great since then. He's looked good to questionable. And I say, look, that loss to Nemkov, is Nemkov being a badass? Yeah, that loss to Nemkov is mostly the fact that Vadim Nemkov is ready, and he's among the best light heavyweights in the damn world right now.

Bader also kind of lost himself in that fight. I don't know if it was an implosion, a distraction. You know, he's honest in saying that things weren't right in the camp and his personal life heading into that is an excuse. Well, sometimes it's an excuse that gives a shot of realism into what might have went on. And I think since that loss, even though he rebounded a little bit and, you know, won his first round matchup in the in the light heavyweight world

grand prix and had his sights set on regaining the title and you know took the decision over machida in the rematch but it's machida well then he gets stopped in the first round by cory anderson and you know in 51 seconds cory anderson's hot right now and has a legitimate shot at winning this light heavyweight title in this tournament but is he the kind of guy that finishes you in 51 seconds i think there's just as big of a storyline here of whether you know for ryan bader it's getting time he's 38 you know he's lost seven times and how many of those losses have been stoppages well how about every single one so not all by TKO you know submissions in there but I'm wondering if Moldavsky can come out and really I mean look it's going to be an uphill battle from the standpoint

that Moldavsky can wrestle but Bader can wrestle so will that cancel each other out and if it completely cancels each other out is Bader just the better boxer on the feet yeah I'd say Bader's the better boxer on the feet I'm just not sure Moldavsky's not going to find a way to take this to the ground. I'm not sure he's not going to be able to use just his motor and his aggression and the wisdom of Fedor, who also lost to Ryan Bader in the finals of that heavyweight world Grand Prix to, you know, if Ryan Bader is on the way out, Moldavsky's certainly good enough to get in there. So there's some very interesting storyline in that regard in terms of is the, you know, not the Russian takeover, although that's part of it, but there's overall Eastern European takeover in Bellator. Is it coming? Can we not get out of the way of it? It's going to be interesting. Also, Benson Henderson

coming back in that co-main event against Islam. Mamadov. Mamadov on fire for Bellator. 31 years old, trying to also join that group, right? Trying to also get a smash factory consideration here. This is a win he's got to get. Benson Harrison still tricky enough, but, you know, he's on the other end. He's on the other side of it. So this is interesting. Also, Aiden Lee, Henry Corrales should be good. A couple of names up and down the card, including one Ben Parrish, Big Tuna.

I talk about TV friendly fighters who can entertain just as much as they can compete. Yeah, this guy's potentially one of them. I mean, he had the big upset KO. He's back here against a fellow by the name of Sullivan Cawley. I don't know how tough this matchmaking actually is, but he went in there against Edwards and shut the door and was like, you know, don't judge a hairy, white, fat guy. And then to have Big Tune afterwards talking about, you know,

well, my dad's in the mafia and all this. It's like a storyline to Ozark Season 4 right here, you know? Tune in. Can't miss it there. So Bellator 273 going on down this Saturday night. We'll have a special guest on Friday to preview this more in depth and get

you ready for the weekend so swig of water for the working man as stone cold would paraphrase to say topic number four this will be a quick one because i don't want you to sigh and turn the channel here but uh jake paul buying endeavor stock Okay. So this little bit of news created an interesting little debate on Twitter. Our boy, Aaron Bronstetter, who's a, you know, he's MK approved. He's filled in admirably for Luke Thomas or myself in the past from TSN. We love that guy. I don't know what got in that guy's ass crack in Canada over the weekend, but he was coming out guns blazing,

arguing with Darren Revell, Ariel Hawane, about the true meaning of this. I get what AB, who has a voracious vinyl appetite, by the way. Great guy. Have met him. I get what AB's saying. Look, so you're telling me Jake Paul just went on the, you know, the frickin' public NASDAQ or whatever you want to call it and just bought some public stock here of Endeavor. Cool. I could have done that, too.

You're right. You're right. You're right. I don't think this is bigger than that in terms of like, oh, Jake Paul didn't just, just let's, let's see the actual tweet here. Jake Paul says I've invested in Endeavor stock with my partner, Jeffrey Wu to focus on UFC's ESG standards relating to fighters. We believe Endeavor can drive long-term economic value by increasing UFC fighter pay and providing them healthcare, reaching out to engine number one to partner on this Endeavor. Now, is this Jake Paul teaming up with some super rich guys and buying, you know, 39% of the stake in Endeavor and now going to be sitting in the board meetings and

making important decisions regarding UFC's future. Nah, brah. Okay. I don't have the financials in front of me, but that's not where it's going. And that's why Aaron Bronstetter came off. He kind of came off UFC brass friendly with his response, but I get his response. What a, what a polite Canadian fellow who's, you know, really, I mean, he's been enjoying free healthcare for so long. Maybe he should flip his stance and get on board here, but I have to bring this up and I have

to laugh at it because I've seen some people even debating with Twitter polls who has been more important in the UFC fighter pay debate in the last year. Francis Ngannou, who's standing out alone on that mountaintop, right? At top of Mount Washington as those hurricane force winds are coming. Or Jake Paul, who has, you know, used his platform, whether he's doing it earnestly as a Robin Hood or he's doing it slowly to try to get under Dana White's skin

for the hope that White will start releasing his aging welterweight marketable UFC fighter so the much bigger Paul can box against them. Probably, probably the major intention there. But somewhere along the way, Jake Paul said, this is important to me to try to expose my rival in this case as a, is Dana White a rival for Jake Paul? I get Jake Paul's a fighter promoter, puts on massive events,

looking for big opponents to help him put on massive events. In some ways he's a competitor. So I just think it's hilarious that he's finding new ways to publicly clown them. And maybe this is just him putting a couple bucks out of his pocket and buying some Endeavor stock. And maybe like AB says, you know, I can do that too. But I think it's hilarious. And it's continuing this important trend and topic.

And I know we may be getting to the point where even listeners of this show are like, okay, cool, I want the fighters to be paid more, but do we have to talk about it for 42 minutes per MK episode? I get what you're saying there. But you want people in these spots who have either leverage or influence to make it a conversation. Luke and I can't make it a massive conversation. We talk about it. Ariel can talk about it. He does.

Other people talk about it. We can't move it. We can't move mountains. It's up to the fighters to do that. Well, here's someone with a little bit more, not leverage, but influence than, than even the,

you know, the MMA journalism bubble has and Jake Paul and he's doing this. So it's funny. It's funny to see how much it gets to Dana. And if you don't think it does, look at Dana's reaction video, which, you know, in the midst of that trolling that Jake was doing, look at Francis saying UFC threatened to sue them

for talking to Nikisa and Jake. It's interesting. It's pretty damn interesting. Finally, quick hitters to roll out to end topic number five before we get into BC's top 10 list. Our report, the WBA has ordered one Roley Romero as the next mandatory challenger

to fight Gervonta Tank Davis. Now, Tank Davis has the secondary title, the regular title there at 135 pounds in the WBA, which is the secondary sort of BS one. And we get a lot of arguments in the boxing journalism games, sometimes the networks, sometimes even Showtime, you know,

it will promote a title as being the championship of the world when it's really like one of the four or the secondary to one of the four, the WBA is credit. They're trying to clean up. So they're trying to, the reason why this fight's being ordered is because Tank Davis has the regular WBA lightweight title. Obviously,

um, George Campos Jr. Has the real one one because he beat Teofimo Lopez. But Roley Romero has the third level bastardized WBA lightweight title. So at the very least, they're getting them to fight each other to take one of these fake belts off the market. I could support that. Roley Romero, as we talked about on MK in recent weeks, did go public and said he's been cleared of all sexual allegations, charges. I'm not sure about that.

You know, take him at his word, but would I still be here for Gervonta Davis versus Rolly Romero? Yeah, I think I would. Here's the deal. As long as he's going to last, meaning as long as Rolly Romero can,

can face elite competition and not get consistently KO'd, like handled. Think like Amir Khan, who has so much ability, but goes in there and just gets handled. Until that happens, he's must-see TV. And I don't agree with everything he does or say, but he's not afraid of these guys. So there is sort of this weird.

Why for me to see him go in there against the power brokers and trash talk them and be absurd and ridiculous, knowing I got a puncher's chance. I'm unorthodox. I hosted that press conference when this fight was originally going to be scheduled for December and him and his trainer were like, man, we don't teach boxing okay we teach street fighting i mean it's just it's just a different it's just a different mindset a different strategy he's got big time power he's going in there to knock you out could tank do bad things too yeah he could but uh maybe i'm a sucker for fights that have trash talk fueled soundtracks coming in that's probably more of the reality of the situation. Tough

news per se here. You know how fired up I was getting that Dizon and Eddie Hearn were going to be rolling out in the next couple months a trilogy fight that I have to see at Superflyweight, 150 pounds, the legend, Chocolito, Chocolatito, excuse me, Chocolito, sounds like an asshole. Roman Chocolatito

Gonzalez, the four division champion, right? The former pound-for-pound king who's in his twilight, but as he proved in his second fight with Juan Francisco Estrada last year, a legit fight of the year contender, Chocolatito still got it. And it's wild that Chocolatito still has it. You age quickly in the smallest of weight divisions. And he's operated this whole career at 108, 112, now 115. He's been able to carry his power up to protect himself.

But he's in there against bigger guys. When he finally lost on that incredible run he was on, and part of that run, by the way, was the first meeting against Estrada back in 2012 when Estrada gave him the toughest fight he had during that whole reign until he met Stisaket sorrung vasai and if you didn't watch the two chocolate tito fights against strisaket sorrung vasai from thailand sorrung vasai he has like a whole different real name like his birth name is like wongs collect walking them something like that i know i butchered it he's one of those guys which

is the thai tradition to sort of sell your name to a sponsor. We've seen Thai boxers who have gone by the names of Fasan 3K Battery before because they sell their names to companies or gyms or whatever. So this Srisaket name is just some sponsor that he sold it to. This guy's freaking crazy. Wears the tall socks like Keith Van Horn, big for the division. Eats a celebratory meal of grilled rat. Yes, when he knocked out Chocolatito in their rematch in 2017, I believe, he showed up at the airport in Bangkok and they had plates of grilled rat for him. He finally ended the Chocolatito reign, or so it seemed. They fought to a very close decision in the first fight,

one of the most brutal fights I was ever ringside for at Madison Square Garden, and in the rematch, Sohrungvisai knocked Chocolatito the hell out. The fact that Chocolatito has come back from that at this age, and he was going to go into a third fight with Estrada when they had that rematch last year, and it was amazing, and everybody thought Chocolatito should have won, and then Estrada got the controversial decision. You're like, damn, great fight.

Both guys are warriors, but Chocolatito, the legend, right? He's in that like legendary phase where everything he does, anytime he wins, it's just like, oh man, we love this guy, the legend. Well, they were going to fight a third time. Estrada ruled out though of their March 5th meeting due to COVID. And by the way, I still want Chocolatito to have a third time. Estrada ruled out, though, of their March 5th meeting due to COVID. And by the way, I still want Chocolatito to have a third fight with Srisaketsor Rungvisai,

who I mentioned, who's going to be fighting Carlos Quadras coming up in a rematch. So this division's still on fire. But you know what Chocolatito's going to do? He's not going to stay in the division. This guy's so great that on March 5th, instead of fighting Estrada, who has COVID, he's going to move up to super flyweight,

118 pounds, which is basically what? Bantamweight? What is super flyweight? Super flyweight is bantamweight, right? And he's going to fight Julio Cesar Martinez, who comes after it. Guys, I know 90% of the people listening are like, hey, BC, we already heard Vince McMahon's name, Jake Paul's name, and now we got to go on like small boxers, but we don't know what, I know 90% of the people listening are like, hey, BC, we already heard Vince McMahon's

name, Jake Paul's name, and now we got to go on like small boxers, but we don't know what. I get that. You should know the journey of Chocolatito Gonzalez, though, from Nicaragua, the legend. This is wild because he's already been in full-on dare to be great mode. And now his big rival Estrada pulls out. So he's like, yeah, I'll just move up and wait and fight another young better. Cool.

Sure. Sure. That's great. I'll be there. I'll be there to tune in. Love you some chocolate, you know. Also, Kamaru Usman, interesting interview he gave, I believe, with GQ magazine where he said, look, I want to do something big, Dan, my career.

I want to make a pound for pound move. He said it would be on paper in theory to move up to middleweight and fight Israel Adesanya. Right. And I think, you know, given Usman's incredible winning streak, the fact that he's become a finisher, you could talk yourself into the idea of whether his wrestling, you know, would work against Adesanya and all that.

But we know they won't fight each other. They're they're, you know, they're they're brethren. And and and I respect that. So he said that before Jan Blachowicz lost his title to Glover Teixeira, Usman's working plan was to skip 185 and move up two divisions to 205 and take on Jan Blachowicz, who he felt was sort of the perfect style matchup for him to try to do something as crazy as that damn now it's not you know yan lost his title it's not gonna happen it doesn't really make

a ton of sense it would make it would make more sense if you're usman probably to try to get as many money fights as you can right now and then wait to see what happens in middleweight if you don't want to fight adesanya i get that Whitaker could beat him for all we know Adesanya can move up and wait for all we know but the idea of moving up to like that would have been a spectacle but he have done it I don't think so I mean Adesanya came in there as a smaller more skilled guy and you know Blachowicz was smart to just kind of pull an Nganu Gan on him and use his size to hold him down and control that um okay Usman's a different fighter he's a wrestler he's aggressive he's athletic as shit Pull an Inganu gun on him and use his size to hold him down and control that. Okay, Usman's a different fighter.

He's a wrestler. He's aggressive. He's athletic as shit. You know, now he can punch a little bit. But that punching power is not going to matter at 205. I don't see how that fight's a great sort of option. Like, yeah, I can make history here. But the fact that he's bold enough to say he would have done it, he's one of those guys that I do believe him.

I do believe him. It was in his thoughts, in his mind. It would have been a spectacle to see. I wonder if we're going to see an era of this. It's not that we haven't seen guys willing to try to test history. I mean, Cejudo just wanted to fight Volkanovski for a third title. We know Conor's always a threat to fight anybody at some stupid weight just because he's old school.

He's of that ilk. I wonder if we start to see a little bit more of that. You're never going to see a return to the original days of MMA and early UFC and no weight classes, nor should we. Right. Although some, one of these days,

somebody with a lot of money is going to make a nostalgic one night tournament. I don't mean like a combat day. I mean like somebody with a lot of money is going to make them a nostalgic open night, open weight, one night tournament. Maybe it'll be fun for one night, but it's not a sustainable long-night tournament. I don't mean like a combate. I mean like somebody with a lot of money is going to make a nostalgic open-weight one-night tournament. Maybe it'll be fun for one night, but it's not a sustainable long-term model. But a move like this for Usman is

I mean, that's a small guy going up against a huge guy. That's, uh, I wonder if we'll see a trend of that. You know, trends happen in this game. I wonder if that ever becomes interesting. Uh, PFL announces a multi-year broadcast deal with ESPN. That was going to be an interesting note because PFL is coming off their best season to date by far. They seem best fueled to really make a run at Bellator for the number two MMA promotion overall behind UFC

and to become like a legitimate home for free agents because they can offer you the $1 million prize in the tournament format. They're doing fun things like bringing in Clarissa Shields as an attraction. If they can re-sign Kayla Harrison, which, you know, we're going to have to see, that's another big giant attraction elite, you know, arguably the best in her weight class, or at least you can argue it until we see that proven wrong. And they just launched what on Fubo TV, a challenger series. So, you know, they got big time sponsors not sponsorship uh celebrity ownership stake in this company there's a lot of money behind pfl we're gonna remember that but all things considered them getting the deal espn probably made the most

sense and congrats to them espn's attention and devotion of course is the ufc but with the with the arm of espn plus being a being, in a lot of ways, a big-time home for combat sports, competing against Showtime app, with Bellator and PBC competing against others, it's still a very large platform to be on, obviously. You're on ESPN2, it's important. Will they get a lot of SportsCenter love? Probably not as much.

But if you get big enough names or attractions, you know, you can get featured on there too. Congrats to PFL. I'm very interested to see how they can build on everything that went right last year. It was a lot. I think a lot went right. I think their broadcasts were up to a level they hadn't been before, from the talent calling

the fights to the look. Okay, maybe a little bit too much of the on-screen graphics to make Luke mad. I mean, how smart is a cage is a cage actually well they got the smartest cage apparently all right but you know it's probably was an expected decision and it's probably the smartest one for them to go back to espn and finally juliana pena has had talks with ufc about coaching the ultimate fighter against amanda nunes to set up a rematch. Quote to BT Sports, Juliana said, a dream come true would be for me to coach tough and then go right into the rematch.

That's a perfect world scenario. I know we don't live in a perfect world, but that's what I would like. As long as I can get that rematch at whatever time, that's what's going to make me the happiest. Yeah, it has Pena. I'm sorry. Yeah, it has. So, I mean, we'll see. Pena said. Yeah, it has, Pena. I'm sorry. Yeah, it has. So, I mean, we'll see, Pena said. Yeah, it has was a reference to, yes, talks have happened with the UFC.

Okay, if you're UFC, it's probably a smart move, because here's the interesting situation. The jury's still out. If that was a one-night perfect Upset of a lifetime aberration because you had a fighter who was hungry and skilled enough to produce a performance that great, but needed a perfect storm to do that of of her long journey to get there mixed with whatever was wrong with Amanda. And something was wrong with Amanda. Let's be straight up about it. Whether it was lack of preparation, lack of focus, whether she got lured into getting gassed out on the ground, whatever it was,

something was not right. And now we got Amanda switching teams or starting her own team. There is, there's some upside here in, in, in Juliana Pena because she can talk and, and she's, she had the kind of victory over Amanda that like it's it's Buster Douglas Tyson. Like, you know, it's like, OK, we knew we knew she's capable of something. Right. But I didn't think she was capable of that. And it was so much, as I've said, ad nauseum, that win wasn't her striking ability or her gas tank. It was her will. It was the conquering of the human spirit. It was, you know, no more excuses.

I am going to find out how great i can be on this one night there's potential marketing there and if ufc believes and they're shrewd with matchmaking you know we argued coming i wonder if they thought figueredo was on the way out and that moreno in that trilogy it was the perfect time to further build on his potential at stardom. I wonder if they look at this closely and say, maybe Amanda's just not long for 35 or this sport anymore. And it, or maybe this is a fighter who just potentially could have her number because she's fearless and she's bold. Maybe the tough vehicle is the right vehicle to,

to market her and to, and to and to use this you know her against the greatest of all time and a big money rematch that would be a great way to make that potentially a big money rematch because coming in there wasn't a lot of buzz on it and there's and for as great as amanda is i'm not getting into this darren revell versus dana white twitter argument but you know that she's got such a great story and she's got so many great wins and she's got such a great ambassador for the sport but she but you know there's there's a ceiling to her marketing level and now you've got her in a really important interesting sexy matchup here um go the tough route for this do it i think it's important i think it's interesting and i don't know i don't

know if pena is going to lose that rematch and uh and never be this great again i don't know if pena is going to go out there and somehow win that even easier i you know is is is can she find the self-destructive button in newness you know that we didn't think was there and and or you know are we just waiting for valentine to move up and fight her i think either way juliana's going to make a lot of money and there's there's a there's a window here for her to be a star. She wants it. She's very good on the mic, very good representer of a fighter in this game, so it's interesting.

Gaff, are you there with me, Gaff? Gaff, I think I have the ability to talk to you here. I've been trying to get Gaff out to the masses for a while. Gaff is like the backbone of what we do here at Morning Common. Him and Maniche. Gaff, are you there? Are you in the restroom? i'm here bc all right

they hear you yeah i'm here bc oh there he is there's gaff there's my now gaff are you you know i've been pushing for a while for you and maniche to get the jay aaron treatment the the microphone the camera you know i want to make you guys a part of what we do here now maniche if we could be honest with each other he saw saw the way Jay Aaron was presented and what that meant to Jay Aaron's music career after. And you guys are talented. You're not just, you know, work the ones and twos on MK. You guys are all working on your own music careers on the side.

Is that justified by Maniche to say, look, I don't want to be an unlockable character in the MK universe because they're going to clown my art like they did J. Aaron. Is that what you're thinking? No. My thought process was, you know, mistakes that you call out on the show, I don't want them being tied to me personally or my persona. I'm not usually the one making those mistakes. Got it. Got it. So yeah, that's that's the qualms for me about this. So you're like an NFL referee. You're like the NBA referee. Like the least amount of times we say your name per show is better for your

brand. Better for, you know, visual. Exactly. Okay. That's how we know you're doing your job. All right.

Thank you, Gaff. I'll be, uh, teeing you up shortly as we throw to some fun video content. All right, let's get into a recurring segment we have on here. We've done that in the past.

I think the last time I did a solo show when Luke was out, I counted down the top 10 fights I've ever been to in person. I have fun with some of these right now. So today I've got a new topic. It's not the top 10 interviews BC has ever done because that'd be a fun top 10 list

of me getting sent to hell. But interviews are such a big part of this show in general, not the live show, but the larger MK experience to this job as a quote unquote MMA journalist. And, you know, across this game, when either you're getting pitched interviews or you're reaching out to UFC to get interviews, you're looking at, you know, I want to make a great interview. I want to be the dance partner in something special here. I want to get inside on these guys, if you will, and make them say something

they didn't think they were going to say coming in. It's not tricking them. But if you better believe there is a psychology in this and what you get across the board is a mixed bag, just like you do in life of different personalities. Some people that hold the cards close to their vest, some people that just can't help themselves, but make every interview a success and fun and engaging. There's personalities of all kinds. So I said, you know what? Why don't I share a little bit of the inside of how the sausage was

made? Why don't I count down the 10 best interview subjects in mma which fighters are bc's 10 favorite to interview and why what's it like to prepare for them what are your expectations all of that stuff so it's gonna have a little fun here as we enter into another bc's top 10 all right all right there we go that was weird enough my 10 favorite interviews in mma not my 10 favorite specific interviews but who gets me jazz i've been i've been covering mixed martial arts on a national level since 2012 i'd say as an editor for espn.com eventual writer podcast host for espn transition to CBS Sports. You know, I didn't just start covering MMA last year, as many people believe.

But I want to throw out a couple honorable mentions before I break it down in the top 10. First off, two retired guys. They'd be here in a second, and they were. I think Daniel Cormier, over my run, has been my favorite person. I think he's the best interview in mixed martial arts. It's no surprise that he's transitioned so well into a broadcasting career. I think at his peak as a fighter, Daniel Cormier was charismatic and funny.

He was humble and he was honest. And when you are looking to conduct and perform a high level interview, whether you're in this business like me or you're a fan watching at home and you want to be entertained, you need certain elements from the fighter. You need them to play ball to a certain degree.

It's up to us behind the microphone to pull it out of them, whether we're a doctor or a psychologist or whatever. Daniel Cormier had the ability, which is very rare on the elite level today, to be willing to talk about his flaws and explain what went wrong, the theories behind them, the thinking, the thought process. He very much lived his life on his emotions on his sleeve, crying in the post-fight interviews after his big losses. He was a joy to interview.

Honorable mention Chael Sonnen as well. I know he's also a recent retiree, but still very close to the game through broadcasting, through hosting his own podcast. Chael Sonnen is a can't miss interview at any time. He's the quickest wit of any fighter boxing or MMA that I've consistently talked to. He's got one of the best Irish exits in which he hangs up on you at the end of the interview by setting you up and asking you a question. And then he's gone.

He's fantastic. No wonder as well, while he is doing such great things. Quick shout out to Brandon Moreno, who I think will be in this top 10 soon. Bubbly, so much fun. Joy. What's the one thing I'd wish for any of our listeners for the rest of their lives, right? Wealth, health. Yeah, that's all good.

How about joy? Enjoy abundantly. Brandon Moreno brings joy to every situation. He's done great with the language barrier transitioning from Spanish to English with his Mexican origins. Love talking to that guy. Also honorable mentioned, Jan Blachowicz. You might be a little surprised by this.

And he had a great sort of underdog run to win the title late in his career. And we'll see what he does next bouncing back from that. Jan Blachowicz is just a dude you can have a beer with and he's funny and he's polite and he's just a fun hang. In fact, I think we've got some sound to throw to from the archives of BC chatting itatted up with young one young jan blohovich back when i couldn't pronounce his name let's throw that why is he a bad man he's rude

he's a little arrogant yeah arrogant he thinks this is better for he's got his fancy style you know he played he play golf inside today, drink his fancy drinks. I think my cheapest beer in Poland tastes better than his, you know, fancy drinks. That's it, you know, he just thinks that he's better because I don't know why. 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. That's of course, Jan talking about Luke Rockhold ahead of their fight, in which he knocked him the hell out and talking about how arrogant Luke was.

Also final honorable mention, Luke, not talking about Luke Thomas. He could be pretty arrogant too, though. I think that's part of why we love him though um this is no surprise steven wonderboy thompson now i don't want to talk him up and then throw a slant at him you if you're a high level interviewer in this game and you're looking at okay what can i get out of this person this person steven thompson it's not that he doesn't say much. He does. There's quality to what he says. But he's just so damn polite and likable and funny that it's, even if you don't get anything solid, you know you're going to have a good time chatting with him. And I respect that from him.

He's got a, the Wonder Boy nickname works. There's a childlike sort of, you know, wonderment surrounding him. And, you know, he's still trained by his dad, still says after the film, my dad's going to be upset at me. Like, you're still sort of that kid there in the basement, right? And I respect that. Here's a little bit of a throw to BC and Wonderboy back in the day.

I'm a Seagal guy. So if you were like, BC, show me the one movie that defines your bad taste in this great bullshit, I'd say Marked for Death, Stephen Seagal, the dark Jamaican classic. Marked for Death, Steven Seagal, the dark Jamaican classic. Marked for Death, that was one of my favorite movies, man. Good God, yes. The arm breaking in that movie was legit.

That's what I'm talking about. That was before CGI. You know, and he caught one of those brothers to the crotch with a sword, chopped off the head of the other, the screw face twins. What is your movie in this realm? This wasn't a movie.

It was a TV show, Walker, Texas Ranger, man. Wow, Chuck Norris. Big Chuck Norris man. I even got the Chuck Norris jeans, the stretchy jeans when I was a kid. Wow. You can kick in these bad boys. That is super lame, but I love it.

That is fantastic. I mean, how wholesome is Stephen Thompson? I know that, you know, when the BMF belt came out, Ariel and others were saying, you know, we should have the opposite of a BMF belt and give it to Stephen Wonderboy Thompson for being the nicest MF-er.

He's just so white bread, white milk Americana. I mean, he's a Walker, Texas Ranger fan. He's just, you know, he's a real nice guy. Those are the honorable mentions. There can only be 10. So we're going to get into BC's top 10 favorite fighters to interview. I don't think it's dissimilar when, you know, if you're a fan and you're going, okay, what's going on? Oh, Ariel's got six guests today. Let me look at, oh, I got to see him with that one. Obviously the ones in this game who do the interviewing

that are very good. And I'm not very Horowitz-ing myself per se, but I like to think I can compete with anybody in this game. You know, some of it is what can I bring to the table to get the best out of them? I feel I've, I've, you know, found some success in that area. I love doing it. And that's the difference. Luke Thomas is actually a very thoughtful interviewer. He just doesn't love the process. And that's fine.

When he gets people that are more in line with what he's looking for. I mean, his Ferdinand Lopez one that he did an MK in October. I couldn't have avoided that are more in line with what he's looking for. I mean, his Fernand Lopez one that he did on MK in October. I couldn't have avoided that interview more. Yet when I needed to watch it to get a little background, some quotes on a story I was writing, I'm like, you know, Luke in his own way, he's got it. But Luke is night and day compared to what I come at. So my philosophy and strategy, as I sort of teased earlier, is, you know, these guys do so many of these guys and girls ahead of women and men before, is, you know, these guys do so many,

these guys and girls ahead of women and men before ahead of everybody, you know, they do so many that it's like all of them sound the same. I see some people going, oh, BC, oh, great interview. But that's everything that Ariel asked him. Well, you know, I didn't I don't watch Ariel ahead of time to try to avoid that. I'm thinking, what's the best use of my personality and and question asking ability and curiosity? What am I curious about that? I think the fans would be. And, you know, you you learn the hard way by, you know, it takes years of doing the same interviews that everybody else was doing.

And you get to a point where you go, how I'm going to be different. I'm going to make better content is I got to get them to say something they haven't said in the building for this fight. And that can come through a thoughtful question, you know, whatever. Or I want to create something that they never thought they would say a moment, a reaction. And that's where, you know, there's a bit of psychology involved in here. You know, you can interview somebody, think Donald Cerrone and hit your head against the wall so many times and come up empty that you go, OK, I'm not going to back down. I'm not going to avoid interviewing Donald Cerrone.

He fights every month. I can't avoid him. But I got to come from left field. I got to, you know, I got to either grow up with him early on. I got to waste a couple of questions. And this is a science because sometimes you're only getting 10, 15 minute windows here. Sometimes you got to burn a question to get underneath them. Right? I got to throw out a few jabs to get in. Do I want to kiss a little ass to lower their guard? Do I want to insult them with a, not insult them, but

challenge them with a question of, look, this is the narrative surrounding you entering this fight, right? You play a psychological experiment because everybody responds differently. Some close up shop right away, want nothing to do with asking about the hard spots. Some have, or most have because they do this so often, especially if they're on the championship level, they're doing 50 interviews a fight, right? For how many years, a couple times a year, they already have the built in ready responses to every single question. It's like a dance to them. How do I get them off of that dance? And that's where the strategy comes in. And when you do it right, you can make magic. You can get a funny story. You can laugh. You can get them angry. You can get them to the thing at the end of the day is I want them to

tell the truth. I want to try to create something no one has during this season to be a little different. And, you know, I want to create art. OK, I want to create a BBC or an artist. We saw your documentary. I want to create a magic there, whether that magic comes from the back and forth connection between question asker and question answerer, or whether that dynamic and magic comes because I stopped it being a Q and a, and I made it a conversation, which is always the goal of a podcast, right? We want to have long form conversations.

It's hard to do in a 10, 15 minute window, but it can be done. But my goal in there above all is to entertain you, but to, to create a spark that you haven't seen lately, you know, and that, and that can go great and it can go spectacularly bad. And I like to think I am bold enough to take that chance. Uh, did I entrap Floyd Mayweather when we were wearing the garish robes there in South Florida? What happened? Got an entertainment out of it. We got Floyd fired up because Floyd was in salesman mode that whole week. Of course he right fighting logan paul it's easy money well how do i get the real floyd how do i get the fighter to come out he's got inside on him okay it's a it's a dance it's an art form so here we go the top 10 favorite interviewing subjects who i think

are the best interviews in mma today number 10 welterweight michael kiesa this may surprise you a little bit um it's not that kiesa is so deep on theory and breaking down the you know the science behind fighting or that he's a aggressive trash talker he's really neither of those but kiesa is relatable he's in a dude he's an everyman in that package as elite fighter. And I think that's why he's one of the more underrated broadcasters that we don't talk about enough that I think can have a very bright and long career in this space, whether it's calling fights at the desk for UFC, whether it's sitting at the desk above the arena for television, or whether it's in

some form of a podcast or digital show. I think Chiesa has a very relatable way. He's that dude at the end of the bar. He's that guy, the metalhead you went to high school with. He's kind of that guy. And I think it comes out in his interviews. He's fun to talk to. You feel like you know him.

You feel like you can relate to him. Here's a little sample of BC and Mike the Mav mixing it up back in the day. How about this Welterweight headliner a wednesday card right around the corner michael oh my microphone fall apart my damn hand right here crap god you're jacked you're jacked get all kinds of microphone i gotta go old school right here. Like I'm at Madison Square Garden. No, no regerts. You've seen that online. Not everybody's cool enough to pull out. Did you just talk about my mom?

Is that what's happening? No, not me. Not me. That was secondhand. Secondhand smoke there. I'm kidding. I mean, come on. You know, BC and Mike the Mav, we could do it.

Forget Luke Thomas. We could do a podcast together. It'd be brilliant. Um, he's one of those categories of guys. I just like talking to, so shout out to Mike, the map he's, he's, he's figuring out how good he can be as a fighter after moving up and Wade having a couple ups and downs, but there's still a bright window there. And I think he's got a bigger one outside of that. Number nine. I don't think this should be a surprise to people. He's wild. He's wacky. He's incredible. It's Tony Ferguson.

Now, Tony Ferguson is a hard person to interview because he's a little bit crazy. He's a little bit crazy. He likes to talk. He likes to commandeer the direction of the questions. He'll cut off your question in mid-sentence to start to go on a rant. He produces very entertaining interviews, though, because he's so gregarious. He's in his own mind, in his reaction to questions.

He's funny. He'll talk trash. He'll go down the road of McNuggets and go down there. Traditionally, is he a great interviewer? No, meaning does he answer the question that you ask in the spirit of what you're trying to get out of him? No. I think he's got a very strong defense at keeping, uh, uh, reporters away from getting

out of him what they actually want. We've seen him at press conferences, you know, swear out guys, the reporters. And remember that guy's like, you know, I want to talk to you about mental health and everything you've been through with your marriage and everything that the guy's like, and Tony's like, fuck you. Well, I mean, that, that's Tony Ferguson, dude, which, you know, to be to be good in this job, to be the guy behind the microphone like I try to do sometimes, you've got to take that and use that craziness to your advantage to create a world in which he can feel comfortable, because that's the thing. At the end of the day, there's something to be gotten

out of every interview subject, whether they're great like daniel cormier just press play ask them the question you get a great answer and it'll be funny and charming or other ones they're gonna hide and you gotta pull it out of them i want to pull something out of them and again if that's happiness and joy that's great right brandon moreno gives joy or if that's anger or if that's I got to get them off of their shit and try to play my game. And we are in an era where there's there's more favorable interviewers than there's ever been. People that are not looking to upset the apple cart, not looking to talk about the important topics, kind of just looking to play fun and games and laugh with it. That's fine. I play fun and games and laugh with these guys, too. But it's usually a means to the end. Sometimes it's, it's,

you know, let me toss out a few jabs so I can get inside. Like I mentioned before, um, I've had some good Tony Ferguson interviews. I've had some really bad ones, but although it feels like his time in the spotlight is, is more closer to the end than, than not. Um, I feel like I've gotten somewhere at least in interviewing here's a little sample feeling amazing dude playing mike tyson's punch out right now my kids nintendo switch oh and here i am just getting stitches and they're trying to undress me and getting all this stuff they're panicking they're panicking the people in the room but hey we're looking at my dick like looking sitting here you know they're trying to undress me and stuff it

was funny you can talk a lot a whole bunch of shit from the sidelines. Right? But then who's the fucking guy out there? Are you not entertained? I respect that. You are a man of principle. I respect that. All right, let's close this out here.

Because I know you're a busy man. Hold on, hold on. I'm talking, brother. Hold on, I'm talking, brother. I love it. Keep it going. Keep it going. Bring it.

There was a few other sound drops we could have played from that weird interview with Tony. Um, I try to, I try to watch his movements and go along with it, right? If he's going to take you off the rails, I'm going to go with you. I'm going to follow you down that path. And I'm not going to be afraid to jump in and try to cut you off just the same when you're going way too far off. You know, I'll be respectful, but it's part of the dance that you do with somebody like Tony. And again, I respect if there's somebody like Luke that hates doing this job.

To me, the best interview of fire is the best part of this job. It really is. Now, do I want to do a seven hour show like Ariel? No, Ariel's really good at it. And he's found his style and he's found his great platform in a lot of ways ariel's his legacy will be pretty big and giving the fighters a voice and and you know he's a shit stirrer himself absolutely but you know he knows what he's doing i know what i'm doing in my own lane and um you can't be afraid to get sent to hell at the end of the day tony, I've put myself in spots to get sent there. Never quite got there,

but I respect what he brings to the game in terms of making an interview memorable. Number eight might surprise you here. Not surprising because she is one of my favorite fighters of all time, but Rosnama Yunus, the UFC defending two-time women's

strawweight champion, is one of the best interviews in in really all of combat sports right now and she's very difficult to get that gold that i was talking about because if you just go in there and ask her the questions everybody else is going to ask her she'll you know politely come back and respond and it'll be a somewhat programmed response and it's fine but if you want real emotion and a real reaction, you got to take a little bit of chance against her. And I've again, to have great interviews, you've got to have some disastrous ones. I've had ones with Rose where I'm like,

I'm going to come out. I'm going to get her to talk about mental health on a certain level. And it's going to be inspiring. It's going to be whatever. And somewhere along the line, I misstepped in the wording or in the emotion that i brought to the question or whatever i mean look it's not an exact science right and i've had some bad ones that have gone nowhere and you can just hear in her voice like okay when's this crap over with this guy's a clown right i had other ones where i've set the stage at that moment the temperature correctly and she's responded um there's a reason why when she wins like when she triumphantly won against whaley that like you almost have tears

in your eyes as a fan whether you're a super fan of her or not because she's she wears like peña's win over nunez wears the human spirit so blazingly on her sleeve you know the the i'm the best i'm the you know you're the fuck you're the motherfucking best pat barry i mean it's just like it's just so inspiring here's somebody who has been you know who has had as equal ridiculously large highs in the octagon and then ridiculously large lows and you know that first jessica andrage fight was like the perfect example that first round rose against fight was like the perfect example that first round Rose against Andrade defending the title I thought she looked like one of the best fighters

in the history of the sport I mean she was just dialed in doing the Trevor Whitman striking style working circles around Andrade and just lighting her up and then the second round I thought she didn't really want to be there anymore and the pressure of being champion suddenly got to her and she gets slammed on her head. And it's just like, I don't know if she's ever coming back from that. She, um, I have so much respect for her,

for her mental health journey, for the journey of her family that she's gone through for her taking that stand against Joanna for kind of bullying her. I mean, the way that she stood up in those moments, the way that she's picked up the pieces and come back and found her greatness again after losing, it's inspiring. And she's not an easy interview, like I said, but there are times when you can quickly, again, sometimes you got 10 or 15 minutes.

Sometimes that's not a lot to build whatever foundation of what you're trying to get, right? If I'm trying to get somebody, if I'm trying to entice somebody into an argument, well, I better work quickly to build that foundation. Or if I'm trying to ask them a critical question that I know they don't want to answer, do I have to build the foundation of safety first that this is, you know, that I'm coming with good faith? Sometimes you have to do that. And when you do that with Rose, you can get the gold because she'll give you the real of what she's going through and wears it on her sleeve. And I respect that a lot. And I think that's why we're journalists. We're not supposed to have favorite fighters. OK, that's cool. But

it's hard not to really be riveted at Rose's journey through this. Number seven, another potentially surprising one, one Dominic Cruz. Now, I personally, I'm going to be very upfront with you. I haven't been successful interviewing Dominic Cruz, meaning I had very large goals a couple of different times. And I don't want to say I came up empty. I kind of came up empty. So Dominic Cruz is two things at once. He's one of the most inspiring, introspective people in the sport that I've ever seen. His interview after losing his title

to Cody Garbrandt was ridiculously inspiring. His comment that, you know, the greatest win I ever had in my life was realizing I don't need this belt and that I'll be just fine. His interviews that he's given after some of the setbacks in his injuries, particularly Ariel, love him or hate him. Right. Ariel's when you're that famous,backs and his injuries, particularly, look, Ariel, love him or hate him, right? Ariel, when you're that famous, there's reason to love and hate. I love you, Ariel. All right? He had an interview with Dominic a couple years back.

I think it's one of the five best in the sports history. It was that long, inspirational one about not giving up. I remember after that going, damn,riel that that's a good shit right there i can do that with dominic i'll go a little bit different i'll go a little different angle i'll go a little different road but i'll get him down that road and be fair i failed miserably and that's the other half of it while dom cruz is so introspective and insightful and inspiring in one lane if you if you can't get him down that lane it's kind of a prick i mean he's kind of a dick right i mean he'll tell you straight up with

keith peterson smells like uh cigarettes and hooch you know what i mean he'll call out his teammate daniel cormier to try to inspire him i don't know i still feel like that was uh when uh cruz called out dc for not watching a, I still think it was his way of being mad at commentary that Cruz gave, that Cormier gave about Cruz and where he's at in his career. And by the way, to be an athlete and to fight through injuries and age and be this relevant. And I've been willing to count out Dom Cruz a couple of times since he quote unquote,

you know, got old and he's still pulling out big wins to show us that he's not there. You gotta take slights. I mean, look at Michael Jordan. Look at not there. You got to take slights. I mean, look at Michael Jordan. Look at the last dance. You got to take slights and you got to chew on them and you got to live in them to motivate yourself. So I respect that.

But he straight up shut me down in interviews and just for whatever reason has been like, whether I was unable to crack the code in the way that Ariel did on his own time that day, then that's fine. I'll take the L. I also wonder sometimes if Cruz is just like, this is not the platform where I'm going to give the good. And that's okay. I tried to get it out of him. Maybe next time I'll challenge him and we'll see if we can get it out of him. But Dominic Cruz is a great interview nonetheless

in some of those non-traditional ways, because he's certainly not overly charismatic and joking or making you feel welcoming. He's in there for for a purpose whether he's in the cage in the interview and you know if that purpose aligns with yours you may get the gold if not he's hard to get in hard to get inside on uh number six bc's top 10 favorite interviews in mma no surprise here amanda hebas you talk about the the joy that Brandon Moreno has, he's doing the poor man's version, there has never been a fighter that I've covered in either sport in combat who's just as intoxicated to listen to or talk to than Amanda Hibas, you must be a heck of a hang, to have a chick like that in your friend circle, know i mean shout out to her i hope she has great success and she's a very good fighter and had some ups and

downs and you know had to come back from that loss to marina rodriguez and i think one day she will fight for a title but just just funny as heck just just like i gotta be around that and you know and we all have our good days and bad days hopefully when we're at our best we're having a good day we bring that same light to others. And hopefully on this microphone, on this show, if I haven't turned you off already, you're still with me for that same reason. But shout out to Hiba.

I think we have sound. I think we've probably got her gushing over just enjoying life. Let's hear it. Oh my goodness. I don't know what to say. I just like to enjoy you know because sometimes when you don't enjoy what you do you just do with the bad vibe and that's my co-host so i i all the time try to put my best by what I'm doing.

But it's not all days I'm like this. But I try. I try. You try pretty hard and it works. By the way, you got to love Luke Thomas. Before that interview, he was like, I'll only do this interview with you if you don't mention her dad's tattoo to try to set me up and try to get me in trouble for making fun of me. Was that a fair request? Was it fair for me to share that with the public it's up to you all

right number five on bc's list another champion israel adesanya um he's he's both traditional and non-traditional at the same time he can be very charismatic and fun but he's he's a weirdo and i'm being i'm pulling no no punches pulled here, he's a little bit of a weirdo, and you gotta harness that, you gotta set him up, but you set him up the right way, he'll give you some trash talk, which to be fair, I love me some trash talk, yet it's kind of interesting that my top, you know, the first five names on this list outside of Tony Ferguson, not trash talk heavy, Otis Heiner's a very good trash talker for an elite fighter. Very good at explaining why he's so great, explaining the difference between him and

others. I'm really intrigued when I hear him because his life journey to this point is different than most. And he's certainly one of the best fighters of all time. And, you know, he's not always in the mood to, to be the, the, the caricature and be the guy in front of the camera. Sometimes you got to will him a little bit, but, uh, I always enjoy the chats with him straight up. And I think there's a genuineness to him underneath that, that, that I definitely enjoy. Uh, number four, I've had highs and lows and they've been some of

the darkest lows, Mike Perry. Yes. He may be in BKFC fame today, but he's still around the MMA bubble. No one's going to forget him sending me to the darkest of depths of hell on my old school CBS state of combat podcast. When I, uh, brought up a comment that was made about his ex-wife by one of his ex coaches. Um, that's fine. Mike Perry is a guy who, you know, whether he's happy or angry, he's going to give you something. It's going to be interesting. And I and you let you get excited interviewing guys like that. You have to be careful at where I talked about, like if you're trying to take blood from a stone, you're interviewing. Let's say you get Dom Cruz on the wrong day. He's just I don't want to play ball. You got to work OT to try to get him to say anything. You try to work OT too much with a guy like Mike Perry and he,

and he stops trusting you in the interview. Yeah. You'll get sent to hell. You'll absolutely get sent to hell. Is that entertaining? It can be. That's why I don't fear it. Do I purposely try to do bad faith questions in interviews to get people

riled up? I'll say no. Did I try to rile up Floyd a little bit? Okay. Yeah, I did. I did. I'm not trying to bad faith anybody.

But Mike Perry is one of those guys that he's threatened to kill me in an interview before. He's starting to knock me out the next time he sees me. It's easier to do over the phone, of course, than in person. But you got to be willing to stand in there and and risk missing to get the good stuff and if you can get the good stuff of the guy like mike perry it's it's it's train train wreck must see tv he's he's a charismatic dude you know that's how he got the lovely um with coach latore and and and and one up to ocean I saw the pictures of his birthday party. Shout out to Ocean.

He's a young South Floridian. But Mike Perry and I have had some wild history, and I still get very excited to chat with him because he's a different dude. Here's a little sampling of BC and Mike Perry. The process, maybe I didn't enjoy that. I was free agent there for a little while, and I was curious as to what was going to happen. I was like, man, I'm about to go look for a job, make $20 an hour.

Yes, sir. I appreciate you, man, and it's good to talk to you and keep everything copacetic. So thank you for your time. And stay tuned, fans. We got some big things coming. I love it. I love it. We made it up there.

We're doing good, me and Mike. Me and the Platinum One, okay? He's like a fireball. And you got to kind of just, you know, you got to open the road for him to just go down there and give you give you it good. But, you know, like Tony Ferguson, there's a little bit level crazy there where it could go. It could go off. You can lose a couple of minutes. I mean, look, there's there's all different kinds of interview types, right?

Like there's the Teddy Atlas, Bernard Hopkins types who you can get one question off to Bernard Hopkins. You get a 45 minute podcast out of it, but you're probably not going to follow up. OK, because if you try to cut him off to to switch gears he's you feel that comment he'll slip that okay he'll push right through that um mike perry's an interesting it's an interesting circus interviewing him but i i welcome it at all times number three a guy who i've talked to a bunch lately in the last couple years and i have a lot of respect for the man that he is and, and for better or worse, his willingness to walk through hell to try to be great. And that is one Brian Ortega.

You may remember specifically ahead of his fight with, uh, Volkanovski when it was, uh, when I talked to him the first time the fight didn't happen, remember, but he was on some shit. No, no. Ahead of the, ahead of the, uh, what am I thinking of? I think I'm all over the place here. I had a chat with Ortega ahead of the, ahead of the, uh, what am I thinking of, I think I'm all over the place here, I had a chat with Ortega ahead of a fight that got canceled, was that the Volkanovski fight, anyway, he was, he was on some kind of shit heading into there, meaning he was as intense

and ready to do whatever it took, that it came out in the interview, the second time when I interviewed him ahead of the rescheduled, he was a lot more chill. We got into some Halle Berry talk because that's what the people want, and I'm brave enough to bring that to him, okay? Or weird enough. Or shameless enough. But I respect T-City. One thing he does that's tough is he does awkward long pauses

in the middle of thoughts. And I, I, you know, people say that I, I talk too much and maybe that's a, a, a fear of long pauses. Maybe that's a fear of silence. Maybe it's a fear of awkwardness. And if I hear that, it's like, it just runs up my veins, you know, that, that pause. And then I start teeing up the next question and then he cities right back in mid thought with something intense and weird. that's that's that's what he's cooking up here there's there's a there's a uh there's an oven up here of just of just weird thoughts and that's how he makes that intense version of him come out on fight night and you know and apparently chicks love that so shout out to t city i saw that he just bought his first house with his uh with his

with his fighting beautiful girlfriend there so shout out to the bothCity. I saw that he just bought his first house with his fighting beautiful girlfriend there. So shout out to the both of them. Let's show a little sound of what I'm talking about. The intense nature of one, Brian Ortega. Maybe they see Ortega as that guy who went away, came back. He only improved. He's got the model looks. He was real weird in that interview with me a couple weeks ago.

It did feel like the phoenix where you're shaved down to the bone and you're rebirthed and the only thing holding me back was that you know that's the old look i had him let him go he dies tonight we come out a new person and we did bro this is some deep right here i'm feeling it right now that's a never forget moment for me that interview i did not know how to respond to each answer that was uh even your boy bc who tries to be calculated in these spots was just sort of like is he is he doing a bit on me am i trying to am i trying to sorcerer him and he's just taking the magic and whipping it back at me i'm not not really sure, but I was focused. Two left here as this became a long

segment. Hopefully you stuck with me, but there's a lot of joy in here. Number two, he's an elite fighter. He's a warrior. And yes, after we won the World MMA Award for Best MMA Content for Morning Combat, walking back from the stage

down through the crowd, justin gaethje grabbed my arm and was like yeah dude yeah yeah man and i shout out justin gaethje is a hell of an interview he's one half caveman in these interviews meaning you team up to talk about violence and being a man you know he'll give you that answer. It's also very, uh, smart, introspective as a fighter into the technique, into the game planning. It's probably no surprise why him and Trevor Whitten were able to take his savage highlight real style. Once he finally met a couple bullies who can stand in there with him, you know, the Eddie Alvarez, Dustin Poirier, and, uh, and he's made such a hell of a pivot into being still a destroyer but a calculated elite technical destroyer and you know it may or may not have been one leg strike away from putting

uh Habib in peril that's up to you to decide at the end of the day I'm comfortable where I saw that fight from you know um but Justin Gaethje I don't know if people realize he's a really fun chat and you know he's got really fun chat and, you know, he's got to be able to, he gives you the sweet and the sour, right? Gives you the, gives you the, the smart student of the game mixed with just being a bro. And, uh, here's a little sampling of his bro intensity. Uh, PR kind of ruined the saying for me, but if one man can hold you down, two can rape you.

Um, and I will be damned if one man can hold you down Two can rape you And I'll be damned if one man can hold me down I'd be damned about the other half of that equation too Just my two cents Alright But you're not going to hold me down Because I'm going to kill you first That's what I'm saying Anytime he goes down introspection way he ends up uh he ends up off on the curb into like uh damn bro that was that was pretty violent but uh I love it just the same

I like the unpredictability of it um he can also talk a little bit of trash so I respect that because sometimes either if you're not a good interviewer or if the interview subject's not willing at that time, sometimes you just need one soundbite. Give me one soundbite to make this interview worth it. I can write the headline. And look, I understand. It's not lost on me that like.

Even though there's more fighter friendly interviewers these days than ever before, because the journalism model has changed. It's more about accessing clicks. And I don't damn anyone who's created sort of a character and they're like you know this is my lane where i'm hanging out with these dudes we're broke you know that's and that's fine but on the surface we are competing sides of the war meaning like you know you look at it's much more that's why it's like mma can be so luke says this a lot mma fighters promoters coaches they can be so defensive so defensive and it's like the meat

the relationship between media and athletes is so much worse than some of these other team prominent sports that like mma doesn't realize how good they have it meaning it's so much naturally adversarial based in the other sports because i think there's a little bit more in the other sports because they're more traditional people that are rooted in journalism where there's more people in the fight game because the fight game can be a little bit more about entertainment than competition i think there's a lot of entertainment based people in this job now i think its best, you can do it all. And I think I can do it all. But at its core, even in this softer landing of MMA journalism, it shouldn't be about, I want you to have a great time on this interview. At the bout, we are two competing things at the end of the day. My job is to get people to say

something they didn't necessarily think they were going to say coming in that makes headlines, that creates clicks that continues my brand or mk's brand as a one-stop shop a place to come for great interviews and if you're a fighter and you're super savvy sure you're doing a million of these so you're you're doing it obligatorily but the savvy ones know that they also are bringing something to the table they have a message they want delivered or they have a plan to not succumb to the interview style techniques that some of the elite guys do to get what they want.

So that's why I'm not afraid to like tell the truth. This guy's great. This guy's like, at the end of the day, I love these guys. I respect them. But my job is to get them to say something that's marketable, that can be sold. And their job is either to not say something

or to use the platform to get across what they want, which is either increase their brand, show people how nice they are, whatever they want to do at the end of the day. But you know, it's a, it's a dance and we are on competing sides of that line. So, um, you gotta be afraid to go dark if you have to. Um, my number one though, my favorite person to interview is more on the easy side. You put a microphone in front of this guy, give you exactly what you wanted. They'll give you what you didn't even know you wanted. The one and only, the heavyweight title contender, the Black Beast, Derek Lewis.

You talk about, you know, I had Michael Chiesa on this list because he probably just embodies just that dude. I just don't hang out with that dude. Derek Lewis is both that dude and the funniest guy in your friend circle and the most raunchiest ridiculous guy in your school and the this and that and he'll talk shit and he doesn't take this seriously and you know sometimes he's just not in the mood and when he's not in the mood he still gives you stuff he'll him no selling your questions is still brilliant sometimes um der Lewis knows exactly what he's doing to market himself, to kind of.

I think he he he makes the process of interviewing him so ridiculous because he's so bored. Right. Naturally. So he's just sort of bored, man. I know he's about the money. He's about feeding his family. You're not about making headlines, making a good podcast, but he doesn't mail it in because even when he's mailing it in, he's still giving you something. And that's, that's the great one. That's, you

know, Daniel Cormier would be high up on this list because he's always giving you something. It's not in the Derek Lewis lane per se, but he doesn't mail it in. He gives you something. Derek Lewis, even when he's mailing it in, he's still giving you something. I love interviewing this man. I feel a kinship with him in terms of like you know you give me 10 interviews i think i can make nine of them must see tv with him every day of the week here's a little sampling of bc and dl have any kind of uh eating record that stands out um i guess you said i ate a whole pack of weenies just because i didn't want my um brother-in-law to have none. Yes. Yes. So I had like about 12 hot dogs. My wife was mad about me about that. But yeah, I ate 12 hot dogs in less than an hour

just because I didn't want him to eat when he came home from work. That's spite-fueled eating right there. I support that. My liver does not. But shout out to Derek Lewis. Hey, shout out to Derek Lewis. Hey, shout out to you guys.

If you sat through this and you found this entertaining, maybe it's just BC bloviating on a night or day when Luke's off. Maybe you, you know, this ain't MK. The magic is BC and LT. That's fine. And I'll say that outright.

Okay. We've had great shows with Chuck Rashad, Braun Steader, Shaq, Dan Kenobi. We got Rafe. We got a lot of great, you know,

guys to fill in but it's it's not mk if it's not bc and lt i appreciate that tried to give you something a little bit different today didn't end up getting to the dms from donks since the uh some of the news items went longer in my bloviation than i expected but friday show we'll have a weekend preview and a breakdown of the fights coming on we will have a special guest we will have an extended one-on-one DMs from Donks, BC versus the public. So we've got a lot of questions in the hopper. I don't know if we're going to put out another one on Instagram,

but stay tuned to see that. If you've got specific questions you want answered, morningcombatatgmail.com, where you send in fan subs and dead wrongs is also a good spot for that. We're holding off on those type of segments, fan subs, dead wrongs. So that's a Luke and BC thing. So next week we'll be back at it but you know you can't get mad at us i mean we're you know we're well-paid um elite craft here is that our craft so you know we get vacation

time and so do you at your job deserving so luke enjoy yourself the rest of the way shout out to my my man gaff my man gaff pierre on ones. Gaff, can we bring in that little screen experience again right here? Gaff. We don't need Maniche today. Let's be fair. We don't need Jay Aaron. When Gaff's on the controls, it's all good. Right, Gaff?

Exactly, BC. Gaff, would you say you're Brooklyn tough? I wouldn't say I'm Brooklyn tough. I'm Brooklyn born, but I was raised in the suburbs of Long Island So Take that Alright I thought we were going to be here to promote your music career

But if not, thank you for all your work today No, no, later this year though It's coming, right? The mixtape? Is that still a thing? Oh yeah, I got a few coming for you Alright, drop it like it's hot Turn down all Pennington James Requests for duets That's the whole thing? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I got a few coming for you. All right. Drop it like it's hot. Turn down all Pennington James, you know, requests for duets there.

There you go. Thank you very much to Gaff on the ones and twos for the great fans of MK for dealing with me for two hours today. I had fun. All right. I could talk forever about this bullshit. This fight game. This bullshit. All right.

Those are my 10 favorite interviews i hope you like them hope you look out for more as we uh we're trying to get creative we're trying to create new ways to do that how do you recreate the wheel well we're trying to you know because we said like we do interviews at mk i got one schedule for today i got two more tomorrow we do interviews at mk but do we do mk interviews on mk i think we had we had a look we looked deep into our souls around the new year and said we're doing them good but but we're not doing them our way so let's start doing it let's figure that out let's go big picture so uh we're always changing we're always evolving here on mk uh if you want to evolve with us and wear our merch morningcombat.store

is the home plenty of new content this week on morningcombat.store is the home. Plenty of new content this week on morningcombat.store. New lines of merch. There's Luke tough guy biker t-shirt looking stuff. There's tie dye stuff if you're a BC guy. And there are drug rugs. For a limited time, they are back. Why are they back? Because the demand has been so huge.

Because not only are they cool as shit, right? You got your Mexican hoodie. You know, that's what we call the Mexican sweatshirts. I don't know. Is that racist? I don't know. Drug rugs, whatever. But you got that MK logo there.

They're good quality. You got that pouch in the front where you keep your, you know, keep your gimmicks in there, you know. You know, you walk down the street wearing that. You'll probably get pulled over, but you'll be cool in your own town. So check that out. Buy where we are today. Showtime.com.

Get your 30 days free so you can check out Bader versus Moldavsky Saturday night as Bellator returns. Championship boxing around the corner. BC on Showbox. I hope the MK people turned out for a couple. I got some nice messages there. Showbox, a longstanding fun vehicle. 21 years putting young prospects against each other to match them tough to find out, you know, who's ready for primetime. Love being a part of that one. Also,

the sports podcast awards dot com. I think we're running out of time here for you to log in, vote for morning combat for best combat sports podcast. Remember, the folks at CBS have said, hey, guys, we loved you winning that award over the new year, right? Corporations love it, right? They could say award winning Morning Combat, the best podcast in MMA. Oh, you don't believe me? Talk to the World MMA Awards. They gave it to us.

You know what they said? They said, if you could win Best Combat Sports Award at sportspodcastawards.com, we'll do a live show, a real live show with the fans in Vegas International Fight Week this July and I know you hear those same rumors I hear that one Conor McGregor could be could be lumbering up to return for that action

so we would love to do a big blowout that week meet you, eat your land Jaeger that you drove across the country to give us after you filled with unspeakably gross fluids. Maybe you'll even tattoo yourself with our logo. Hey, you might win fan of the year for 2022. I think that's it. I think that's all that I have to promote. Okay. Five-star review,

Apple podcast, Spotify, follow us at the channels below. You know, is my Instagram awesome? No, but you know, Reggie Jackson, the cat, Molly, the Wonder Dog, they are prominent figures on that. So check out what's going on there. And that's about it. Fan questions Friday, okay? BC, gonna carve off some time

if you like this one-on-one approach and answer your questions about MMA and answer it honestly and aggressively, okay? But that's it for this Wednesday hump day show. Um, war Francis, because if you're a fighter out there and you're not watching what Francis is doing and not cheering for him to open up some doors that have been shut for too long, then you're missing out. All right. Shout out to our, our great celebrity clientele base, our great fan base web screen. I see you. OK. OK. Damien, the donk donk of the year in 2021. Bill and Jen in the RV. Love all you guys. Antoine in Alaska. I see you. OK. You know, but for for our team, for our staff here, I love this game.

My name is Brian Campbell and I support the show in this message. I've got two words for you. We are.