MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Garcia Beats Campbell | UFC Fight Island 8 Update | Adesanya vs. Blachowicz | Ep. 101

Episode Date: January 4, 2021

The first MK of 2021 is here as the boys kick off the near year with a bang. Luke and Brian recap Ryan Garcia's emphatic win over Luke Campbell. Is it time for Ryan Garcia to start fighting the other young stars in boxing (6:45)? Plus, they recap Rizin 26 (29:20), and discuss Michael Chiesa vs. Neil Magny being announced as the new main event for UFC Fight Island 8 after Khamzat Chimaev had to bow out due to contracting COVID-19 (40:00). Lastly, Israel Adesanya moves up to take on Jan Blachowicz in March, MORNING KOMBAT dives into that fight (48:00). --------------------------------- 'Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is Monday, January 4th, 2021. Reveille, reveille, donks. Hello out there. Welcome to Morning Combat. My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of your hosting duo. We are a team from CBS Sports. I am joined by the gentleman on that side of the screen.

He is the conspiracy to my theory. He is, I don't know what else he would be, but he is many things that are wonderful it is my friend and yours it is brian campbell what's up ec how was your weekend oh it was great luke it's a new year and that means no limits except on certain amounts of speech i'm happy to start the new calendar year luke with no grudges isn't that what you're supposed to do on new year's eve like like just purge just let it all out so no one's coming after me right now right you know can a brother get a little peace right war in the streets war in the

middle east luke instead of a war on poverty they had a war against hating risen so jmma could bother me but i'm back i'm ready all right i'm ready uh speaking of which we will get to that and a whole lot more here on the very first episode of morning combat in the year 2021. So what we're going to get to today, as I mentioned, rising results, but we'll also talk about Ryan Garcia's huge win over Luke Campbell that aired on DAZN. We'll also talk about a couple of announced fights for the UFC side of things, and we'll give you an impression of that. First things first, please, in the year 2021, give that video a thumbs up hit the subscribe button we have goals we have dreams we have all kinds of places we want to go and we need your subscriptions

to get there so thank you for folks who have done that if you would like to try Showtime who make this show possible you may certainly do so you can go to Showtime.com right now and get a 30 day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you can go do something stupid with your life and merch we have merch I don't think i have i never have any around me but um we have merch

you can go to store.show.com hats there you go tumblers mugs t-shirts sweatshirts the whole nine yards you can get anything you want there that we sell provided you live in new york dc la austin and maybe omaha Something like that. I don't know. I look very Masvidalian with this look, correct? Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. I mean, you don't quite have the lantern jaw, but other than that, you're doing all right.

Wow. All right. All righty then. Hey, Luke, do you have anything to say about the—is this a segment I'm overlooking? Do you have anything to say looking ahead to the new year? It is a chance to wipe the slate clean, maybe purge your insides. Because, Luke, I had a very painful eating moment over the weekend. You know that I can eat anything, right?

I got the iron skillet stomach, the trash panda identity. But I have limits, Luke. Only once before have I taken the knee from road food. That was 2008 Mass Pike. They had the hot dogs with the cheese inserted into them, like it's a shot of heroin. And I think I threw up right outside the building. I had a meatball grinder from Cumberland Farms the other day.

It was very ill-advised. Luke, it actually hurt. I was like Kodo in round 10 against Margarita. I was just like, no more. I mean, it just felt like there was knives attached to it as it was going down. So, you know, certainly that was a bad way to start off a new year, but I'm thinking of cleansing and recalibrating this machine here, okay? This was a strange new year because of all the ways in which the

world is working right now we're working from home and with covid and with this project that we're on here in morning combat like usually i always tell myself oh you know it's a new year even though things are kind of the same i'd like to like you you know mentally wipe the slate clean but i couldn't really do that this year so i definitely have some things i'm thinking about i want to get done for the new year. No doubt about it. And, you know, we will,

I think, get those things going here this month, but I didn't quite have a, you know, turn the page moment mentally that I think a lot of other folks did, which for better or for worse is sort of where I'm at. But I also didn't have, I didn't double over after going to seven 11 and eating,

you know, taquitos like you did. So, you know, I could, my, my pain tolerance for taquitos is through the roof. But, hey, one good thing, Luke, my wife made fun of me. Final personal note here. I went to the dump yesterday and got rid of the only, what do you call those things?

Bureau, a dresser, you know, the things with the drawers that you put your damn clothes in. What do you call them, Luke? A dresser? I don't know. Yeah, how about a dresser call them luke uh uh dresser i don't know yeah how about a dresser uh i've had the same dresser my entire life oh god even through college and fucking it wasn't always planned to be this way it just ended up that way literally the dresser i had when i was born i still had now in a closet i finally got rid of it and you know what i found underneath it this king mo lawal tna wrestling shirt so what a weekend luke right you know look you can't find this on ufc shop.com

okay you know i'm saying like come on what a great weekend for yeah i went down to williamsburg and i got some william and mary attire so i felt pretty good about that it was a fun little time with the fam you stopped by bush gardens for a uh yeah europe or what actually we did actually yeah we went through there as well. Took the kid there. It was a good time. Nice. All right.

I did start the year off pleasantly. We'll put that in there. You know what they say about Virginia, Luke? It's for lovers, but trust this hate here for out-of-towners who think they're going to move weight here. Yeah. And if you can't be with the one you love in Virginia, Luke, love the one you're with. All right?

Yes. Do you know what that line is I just referenced? No? Probably some white guy rapping. No, actually, it's two black guys, clips from Virginia Beach. All right, let's get this party started if we can, BC. Biggest fight over the weekend, no doubt about it, at least stateside, was not on the MMA side of things.

It was the boxing side. So that's where we're going to start. Brian Campbell, you and I have been talking about this lightweight division, 135 pounds on the boxing side for quite some time. Back in 2020, we had the huge Tank Davis win over Leo Santa Cruz. We also had Teofimo Lopez upsetting and beating Vasil Lomachenko. And Devin Haney did okay, but not great. But the big one for 2021 to start was going to be Ryan Garcia taking on Luke Campbell. We talked about this on Wednesday's show, saying this was really the big first major

test. Either this guy says who he is or he's not. Well, he got knocked down in the second and I thought for sure he was going to be donezo after that. And instead, in the seventh round, Ryan Garcia stops Luke Campbell with an absolutely vicious body shot, a left hook to the liver. He could not answer the count. That was all she wrote. Okay, BC, how big is this win? This is massive.

And it sounds like hyperbole to say the kind of stuff that, you know, Chris Mannix on the DAZN broadcast was sort of echoing. It felt like a company line in the minute, but it's not wrong to make comments like Ryan Garcia might be the most important piece to boxing in the next five to ten years because of this group of huge young stars that have such bright breakout potential. Ryan Garcia already has something like

7.8 million Instagram followers, so we already knew he was a star. What we didn't know, of course, Luke, is was he a fighter and really to go all Dennis Green on you he wasn't who we thought he was he was who we hoped he was in that ring against Luke Campbell and what I mean by that is a fighter he he didn't get into a brawl because he had to he got into a fun-ass fight because that's the only way he knows how so I'm not here you here to tell you that Ryan Garcia is going to become your pound-for-pound king.

I am here to tell you he has the potential to be a monster player in this sport for the next decade as a draw, as a guy who makes fun fights. Did you catch the feels from that celebration and the victory? First of all, Todd Grisham called the shit out of that for DAZN. Shout out to our friend there. Let's say something real quickly about that. He got killed by the European viewers because they were sort of hyping up sometimes when Garcia would land on the gloves of Campbell.

But I thought in general they got totally maligned and that Grisham did a good job. Yeah, and Mora as well. And again, look, they're playing up a guy because this was Ryan Garcia's moment to prove to us, and he got off the moment to prove to us. And he got off the floor to prove to us. He's not perfect.

He's got a lot of holes. But he is somebody who goes after it. That is what this sport needs. That celebration felt so pure. And, you know, there's only 6,000 people in that building in Dallas. It felt like 50,000 because there was something about, look, in this modern day and age, there are so many gladiators in the sport. I'm not here to question people's heart, but Luke, at the highest level, there is a difference between trying to win under, you know, whatever the boundary is that you say, I'm going to go this far to try to win and just straight going for it.

Ryan Garcia goes for it. And there was a great tweet by a very well-respected trainer, Steven Breadman Edwards, on Saturday that basically said, look, he's kind of no different than Tommy Hearns and Terrible Terry Norris, both Hall of Famers. He's a gunslinger. Ryan Garcia is going to come to the fight. He's going to eventually get knocked out,

but he's going to knock some people out on the way there. So what is going to be so exciting moving forward luke is not the debate for me necessarily is ryan garcia better than gervante or teo femor all these guys it's how far can he keep knocking people out before somebody does it devastatingly to him and that excitement right of a guy who seems to he's got some nice um craft that that eddie reynoso and company in Canelo's corner are smoothing out. But he's a puncher at the end of the day, and he comes after you. And good God, if I take away anything from Saturday, it's that we already know the future is bright for this young group of stars.

But Ryan Garcia becoming, again, who we hoped he would be, is a monster step forward because if he succumbed to that left hand in round two against Luke Campbell, it would have been another narrative altogether. hoped he would be is a monster step forward because if he succumbed to that left hand in round two against luke campbell uh it would have been another narrative altogether we would have been calling him the mexican con which is really mean to say about amir khan but it was all over twitter saturday night after he got dropped but he got up he got back in and the fact that he did not hesitate to go back to being the stalker luke uh look again it's not my paw for pound king but something special did happen

saturday there was a transaction that took place through the screen of him proving to us that he is for real yeah i mean i have a few reactions one i would say is if you watch this particularly for he i mean when he got dropped in the second it was a bad drop because he actually wasn't even able to post his hand to help guide his fall or anything he actually kind of fell on his face and shoulder, which is typically an indication that he got rocked pretty badly. Campbell hit him with a nice left hook he did not see coming, and it sat him down. So if you're one of these people that looked at this fight and said, you know, Garcia's got, I'm not chin issues per se, because he got

hit with a hard shot, but let's say doesn't have a lot of head movement, doesn't have necessarily the best defense overall, I don't think you're wrong. His offense is a lot better than his defense. The problem is his offense is great. It's great. I was one of these guys who was not a believer in Ryan Garcia. I thought he was pretty talented, but I thought this was going to be one of those times where he would do okay, but fall short, and then just kind of milk interesting fights if he could based on his name. And then when he got dropped in the fights, if he could, based on his name. And then when he got dropped in the second, I go, okay, here we go. This is exactly what I thought was going to happen.

And then it wasn't. He really kind of gathered himself, as you indicated, rebounded, and really began to do better work. I thought he did better work starting after rounds five or so. Round six in particular, and of course he won the fight in round seven. The body work was tremendous. When he was acting like in a retaliatory kind of way, he didn't do all that well. So the first thing I would say is if you have a question about his defense, you're not wrong, but his offense is still very good.

The second thing I would say is I went on YouTube to look at trending videos. I like to do this after fights. It's not the most important metric by any stretch of the imagination or all that scientific, but it does kind of tell you where folks are interested. It's not the most important metric by any stretch of the imagination or all that scientific, but it does kind of tell you where folks are interested. Ryan Garcia has the number one video right now on YouTube trending. It's 5 million views. It's his highlights.

Then there's another video in the top 10 of him getting interviewed. Then there's another video in the top 15 of Luke Campbell getting interviewed. That is not what you saw for Anthony Joshua's last fight. That's not what you see for most boxers, quite frankly. So here's my point. All of those promoters who want to tell you that the Paul brothers and those bullshit things that they do are the future of how you get the next generation of boxing fans, they are lying to you, and it is not true. Those events will do well, but ultimately that is a very different kind of environment and product that they are selling. But Ryan Garcia, pulling those kinds of numbers with his age, he and his other cohorts, which we'll talk about in just a second, he and people like him, they are the

future. Tank Davis is the future. Teofimo Lopez is the future. Those are the young guns that are going to attract a younger audience and then pull more in. Garcia in particular because he appears to be particularly savvy on social media. The last thing I would say is if you have a question, BC, not you necessarily, but the proverbial you, about Garcia's abilities. Because I would not rank him above Tank. And I definitely would not rank him above Teofimo Lopez. Devin Haney is the more interesting fight. That might be the one that's going to happen because it's a mandatory.

That one to me gets a little bit more, that's a little bit more well-matched. But here's the point. At his age, what is he, BC, 22, 23 years old? 22. He's deuce-deuce, brother. That's ridiculous. He's the deuce-deuce Roger Clemens player. He has a ton of time to get better, and I suspect that he will.

Canelo, when he fought Mayweather versus the Canelo now, and I'm not saying he is Canelo, but it just is emblematic of the kind of growth that you can have. We talk about it all the time on this show. Do we not, BC? Marvin Vittori comes into the UFC at 23. Okay, he's good, but he's got some issues to work out. Well, by 27, he is much different. I don't know how good ryan garcia is going to get and i don't think he's the best lightweight on earth but he has there's reason to think bc he could be very good if he can bring a new audience along with him oh god it is interesting very good i mean we saw that's why this fight was so important first of all fight was brilliant it was just old school exciting back and forth swings of, but a lot of craft being shown.

Okay, so that's first and foremost. Second of all, he has the kind of potential look as a matinee idol to bring in fans who don't normally watch boxing. That can be a tired narrative. Dazon really tried to hammer it down, but it's true. It was the same thing with Oscar De La Hoya. I mean, good God, anyone who remembered when Oscar De La Hoya put like 43,000 people in that outdoor stadium in El Paso against Patrick Charpentier and like 90% of them were teenage girls. Like he's already one of those weird aliens who can do that. But the fact that he's so willing and not again, not just willing because he wants to because or because he gets in those situations, but because he wants to he wants to be an action fighter that side of it

means there's legitimately no limit to his star potential because it's not just that you're a good-looking guy or whatever you sing shirtless on instagram people want to see you when you then fight in a style which is exactly what casual fans want which is how he fought against luke campbell on saturday again monumental potential and you love to see that. It's great for the sport. The whole thing is how quickly can he continue to evolve? Because that recent involvement since joining camp with Eddie Reynoso in the last three fights, it's been a steep improvement. I mean, his offense has gotten so dialed in.

The speed is tremendous, Luke. The combination ability, but the accuracy and the power that comes from the speed. Yes, there's defensive holes. I give Eddie Reynoso a lot of credit for what he's done so far. But I don't know how much more you can change him, even though he's only 22. You almost want to just say, this is your strength. Go after it. That's sort of how he fights.

Obviously, you want to see a little bit more of the jab, distance. You don't want to be reckless in there. But he is so much fun when he's taking his strengths, not worrying about what his opponent brings and just throwing it at you i cannot wait to see this kid in his big fights in the biggest fights of his career luke even if i'm sitting here telling you that if they fought tomorrow gervonta davis would send ryan garcia to the to the parts of hell that aren't accessible by car foot you know what i'm saying the land of the land of wind and ghosts yeah that you have your soul has to get sent there like in a package right and like yes maybe right

now he would do that but i think if even if you're tank davis and you watch this you're still saying to yourself i gotta fight my way to get there because this guy's five inches taller than me he's got longer arms he's probably a little bit faster and uh he's going to be coming for my chin and that's what makes what happens next, Luke. So freaking exciting. God, how long have we waited? Not just for a heavyweight division, that kind of matters again, but for young fighters who go after it to be the guys who are in that bullpen

saying, I got next. Good. Let's go to the righty already, okay? Let's do this thing. All right, so it takes us now to our second question which is part of the result from the Garcia fight which is back in the 80s in the middleweight division you had Hagler, Hearns, Duran, and Leonard they were known as the four kings these were guys in that era and this is an era where boxing was doing better generally certainly heavyweight boxing at that

time also had Mike Tyson and blah blah blah but they sort of put the sport on their back at a time. But it was key, BC, because they all fought each other. Well, these guys aren't middleweights. They're lightweights. But you now have Haney, Lopez, Davis, and now Garcia. Proven commodities at this point at different levels, but proven commodities. Could they be, in your mind, the new four Kings of boxing? If they're willing to fight each other, even, you know, 60% with the great four Kings did in

the eighties, right? Starting at welterweight, although Hegler was that middleweight going up to 54, then going up to 60. And like you said, they all fought each other multiple times for the most part, they're all going to become stars and are going to carry this sport it's inevitable because it's not you know like that was the problem with the floyd mayweather model really only he could pull off the floyd mayweather model because he was that brilliant and that savvy and that everything you can't follow that model and try to think your only way to start them is by glossy record and the zero and the you gotta fight and that's the old school mentality and it seems now look money always gets's the old school mentality and it seems

now look money always gets in the way but it seems right now these guys want to fight you look say whatever you want about ryan garcia on saturday and there's some cringe factors to his presentation there's certainly some uh things to critique in his game but he won that fight by knockout after getting knocked down then he grabbed the mic and said i want gervonta davis and i want devin hinney like what else would you want a guy to say in that spot thank you so luke if they are all willing to fight each other yes we could have a four king situation i'm not saying the combined four is going to be near the all-time greatness of those four we mentioned because duran leonard hearns and ha Hagler are like, you can put them on Mount Rushmore, right? We're talking about royalty in the history of this sport, but you only have a fighting chance of getting there if you're willing to fight each other on big stages. And can we stop

with the four kings here and not forget Shakur Stevenson? I know he just moved up to 130. I know he's not here yet, but he's going to rise and wait quick. He already wants to fight Lomachenko this calendar year. And oh, by the way, as great as Tank is, as great as Teo is, as great as Devin Haney is, as great as Ryan Garcia is, I think Shakur Stevenson's better. And I think that we're going to see five guys. And that's already in a lightweight-esque era that has Lomachenko still. You still got Jorge Linares. You still got some other tough names around you. The next year or two at light, good God, it's going to be insane.

Yes, they need to fight each other, but even as planets hovering around each other, it's going to be really fun to see what the next couple years brings. Yeah, I mean, I'd be curious to get your perspective on this, BC, which is I don't think from what I can tell that they're happening at the same rate, but this is a great time to be both a boxing and MMA fan because, dude, there is a real youth movement happening, frankly, in both sports.

There is always this ushering out of old and in with the new. That part is true. But there appears to be, as you hear my dogs going apeshit, there appears to be an even greater pronounced movement as we speak today, where there is a ton of youth displacing older talent on the MMA side of things, like a Kevin Holland, for example, beating a Jacare. And on the boxing side, these four guys, to your point, are not the only ones. They are emblematic of the larger movement, but we could name a lot of names. How about guys who still have a lot to prove

but there's a lot exciting about? How about Jaron Ennis, for example? Coolboy Steph, for example. I mean, on the boxing side of things, dude, you have so many interesting younger guys. These four are kind of leading the pack in terms of what they've accomplished and name value notoriety,

but would you agree, BC, that more than normal we're having turnover from old to young in both combat sports and i'm not saying if that is true it's happening for the same reasons but it does feel like it's happening right now it does and it's exciting and that's how you revitalize eras in sports and you know i mean we hear too much that boxing is dead and obviously boxing constantly shooting itself in the foot. It's sort of its MO.

It's how it's going to be, right? It's with the scarlet letter on my sport already. It is. She is who she is. But this is going to help boxing really reload, obviously, along with the heavyweights, along with that always sexy welterweight division. If we can get Spence and Crawford, you know, on the road to fighting each other by the end of this calendar year.

Yeah, we're in a great spot. But again, it not only takes being marketable and being really good, it's a willingness. And we don't consistently see that willingness across the board to do what those guys did in the 80s, which is not be able to rest knowing that there's somebody out there. There wasn't Twitter in the mid-80s, but not being able to rest that there's some fan out there that thinks another fighter is better than them.

That was sometimes the calling card to get these guys up. Yeah, it was about money. Yeah, it was about those things. But it was about glory. Now, if you make your whole career about glory, you may be slurring your speech at age 48. I mean, it is what it is at the end of the day. But we're seeing, I think, in this new, new era right now just a willingness to put it out there. I mean, Luke, off

just the top of your dome from a pulse check, how freaking excited would you be if Ryan Garcia fought both Devin Haney and Tank Davis in the next 18 months, and Shakur Stevenson fought Loma, and Teofimo fought, you know, Haney. I mean, just thisofimo fought you know Haney I mean just like

all this is ridiculous right now well I mean we should slow the roll too because if you actually look at the time that the four kings actually did this I don't want to be clear it's like I'm not telling you that Haney and Lopez and whoever I'm not declaring to you that they're this era's four kings they have to fight each other before we can even begin to say that what we're really pointing out is there are some interesting parallels. Well, if they go down that path, if they choose to do that, they might end up being in a position where we can call them as much. But I want to point out something.

If you actually look at Duran's record, for example, I pulled it up. He fought, let's see, he fought the first of the four that he fought was Hagler. That was 83. Then he fought Hearns in 84. No, he fought Leonard twice before that. I'm looking up here. Oh, yeah, sorry. He fought Leonard before that in 80, two times in 80.

Okay, but the other ones were still three or four years apart, right? So it didn't happen all on top of each other. The only thing I'm trying to point out here is if you look at it, you have a situation where when they fight each other, BC, I don't think it's all going to happen in the next two years or three years or, frankly, maybe even four years. It might be a while. Or at this weight class.

It may not happen at this weight class, and that's fine too. I'm just pointing out, this could be a five- to six- to seven-year project. What we want to see is, I think, in the next two years, at least one or more of those permutations, because BC, on the heavyweight side of things, of all the big heavyweight fights that we could have had, we've only really had one. And we've had it twice,

and it was good both times for different reasons. But we've not had Wilder versus Joshua. We've not had Joshua versus Fury. They still have some time to get this done. But that frustration begins to build about what kind of era we're really going to have at heavyweight if they don't make those fights happen. So I think some patience is in order at 135 pounds.

It certainly is from the idea that, look, if you're doing a two-network pay-per-view, if you've got guys on separate sides of the street, they're both going to have to get a little bit more popular before it's really going to work. So we understand that. But we're talking about Ryan Garcia putting the words Tank Davis and Devin Haney in his mouth. We saw Devin Haney in the crowd, look I'd love a Tank Davis fight, you know, and I know that even Steven Espinosa who was on this show

last year was like, we would love to do a Tank Davis-Ryan Garcia fight, so I'm not putting off that it's impossible to make, but would you say it's more likely Ryan Garcia's going to fight Devin Haney given that they're both on the same network the same side of the road? So for folks who may not know, it's also the WBC mandatory Haney, given that they're both on the same network, the same side of the road? So for folks who may not know, it's also the WBC mandatory.

Haney called him out. Garcia said he, well, Garcia seemed to be more interested in Tank Davis and maybe Lopez than he was Haney, which could be some gamesmanship. But if you just look at the matchups, BC, this is not hard to figure out, right? So here are Garcia's choices. Tank Davis is one. Obviously, Lopez is another. And then you have Haney.

Haney on the same network, different promoter, but promoters that work for the same network in the zone, and it's the WBC mandatory easy call. Golden Boy and Top Rank, I think, don't necessarily like each other, but could get it done. With Golden Boy and PBC, it seems like that one might be a little bit further away. Plus, Tank Davis, a pay-per-view star at this point, or at least pay-per-view, I think, sort of level. It's a little bit harder to do, maybe. So if I had to rank them in Likeliest BC,

I go Haney, then I go Lopez, then I go Davis. What is your power ranking there? Yeah, I was going to say Haney most likely. But sometimes it just depends on leverage in the moment. Because if Ryan Garcia had struggled here to win and we had a lot more questions, you know, you can make the argument that somebody like a Gervonta is going to go out

of his way to fight him. Now, Ryan Garcia is in a power position coming off a strong win, but obviously not a, not a win that didn't have any questions. So I do want to close with you this. I think Haney's most likely next. I don't think the tank fight is impossible to make,

but how concerned are you, Luke Thomas? I've seen a young de la joya get dropped before i've seen trinidad got dropped a ton on his way up when he was still knocking dudes out how concerned are you overall with what we saw at garcia in that second round um if he fights Haney next, maybe a lot concerned. But I'm not going to say I'm not concerned, BC, but you have to understand something. A young fighter almost always, and there will be exceptions that you can point to. When I say this, someone's going to say, yeah, but what about X? What about Y?

Sure. But in general, your offense will be better than your defense as an immature fighter. Now, not as a bad fighter, but as a young one. Offense tends to come better because fighters tend to focus on it more. They tend to gravitate towards training more. They just simply invest more time. And a defense is not something that they necessarily prioritize until they have to.

With a wake-up call like this against Luke Campbell, where he got dropped, and you can even tell he was like, that should not have happened. I let it happen because my defense was not on point. And of course, Campbell's a crafty fighter as well. That tends to be those moments where you realize, there needs to be more happen here. Now, is that me declaring to you, BC, that by age 25, the reason he got dropped in this fight won't rear its head then? No, I have no way of knowing that, but it is very, very, very common for a fighter at this stage in their overall development to have offense that far exceeds their defense. It'll be interesting to

see if he can make up that ground as he ages. Definitely, definitely. Can't wait to see. And by the way, shout out to Luke Campbell. I know he's going to go down as a guy who went to the title level three times and lost three close fights, and you become sort of an elite gatekeeper at that point. But he's world-class, Luke. He may not be a finisher, and that ultimately may stop Luke Campbell from really climbing that mountain. But he's only 33.

I could still see him winning a world title. I could still see him making fun fights. He's a tough out, man. He had a good night, except for that body shot. Let me me ask you we'll move on to mma after this he has olympic pedigree is he like um is he like a lightweight derivianchenko something like that yeah he doesn't have the uh you know the top end power you know like you know or even sometimes the the instinct to finish a guy you know Even he was somewhat conservative after he had Garcia floored on a perfect shot. And maybe that holds him back from getting to that super, super elite level.

But God, does he have the size, the heart, the craft, the amateur back. I mean, he's got almost everything. But yeah, he's missing that one thing to get him over. But God, he's given some guys some tough runs. I thought he had a chance on the scorecards against against linares he looked great at times against loma you know you are who you are at the end of the day but uh he makes fun fights that guy he's not a bad fighter he's a very very quality fighter and my heart broke for him in his interview but you know what he handled it with all class too congratulated ryan garcia and and dapped up canelo

so it's the best you can ask for given the circumstances. All right, we move now to point number three, onto the MMA side of things. This happened a little bit earlier in, well, I should say later last week. Some time has expired since then. But we had Ryzen 26, BC's favorite event, as I'm sure he's willing to tell you right now. But in all seriousness, let's talk about the main event here for just a second. Kyoji Horigiguchi who had to give up his titles basically due to um uh time off and everything else because he had lost to kai

sakura but it was non-title so he had injury he had layoff 15 months gone comes back the rising titles up for grabs against the guy who beat him again that didn't beat him for necessarily the title and bc he fucking demolished him he looked great first of all what what is your reaction i'm serious what is your reaction to koji horiguchi's i won't call it a statement win but a statement comeback win for sure yeah what a man what a man what a very good man uh what a performance how do you turn back 15 months questions about injuries you know coming off the only you know the only major defeat he's had their only defeat in general since the demetrius johnson fight i mean that run horiguchi had been on was incredible and then he gets knocked out in

the first round and he comes back from all that and and just makes it look easy and sort of caught asakura jumping into a shot in a way. Almost a little like Fedor against Arlovsky there. And that's sort of just weird. He's catching a guy at the beginning of his jump there. But that's a statement powerful win. I mean, you know, amid my clowning when we did try to half-ass preview this, you know, I meant it. Horiguchi

is among the best in the world at his weight class at what he does. And he doesn't necessarily get that full attention for it. But this was a reminder of what's there. He's still in his, you know, physical and mental prime here. And this was a great win that,

you know, you, you want to see him against the very best. Now he's back. This was like, what else could you have wanted there? Unless, you know,

some topless girls jumped over the ropes and hugged him or something. I mean, it was a perfect night at the office. Yeah. Here's what I looked at when I, when I watched this fight, I was like,

first of all, the leg kicks, the calf kicks, I should say, well, they're like, first of all, the leg kicks, the calf kicks, I should say, well, they're leg kicks, but the calf kicks of Horiguchi were tearing Asakura up. And that was a nice strategic thing to do. But more than that, he looked sprightly. He looked like he had good timing.

You mentioned the shot that was like Fedor Arlovski-esque from Affliction. You have to have good timing to do that. He had just really on-point timing. He didn't look like there were any physical issues lingering from the layoff. He looked super, super ready for this. And Asakura never got close. Once those leg kicks started adding up, he was changing stances. He was backing up.

I mean, Horiguchi beat him basically in every way. I wonder about the stoppage. I don't know if it was a little earlier. I couldn't tell what was on Asakura's face because the ref kind of covered it up against the ropes. But either way, that fight was going in Horiguchi's direction the entire time. He just looked phenomenal. So it wasn't just a great win over a guy who had beaten you before. It was a great win to remind everyone why you are revered. You can beat a quality guy and you can beat him kind of making it look easy, to be honest with you. He was not in any difficulty ever in that fight. I mean, I'm not even sure how many strikes Asakura even landed on the guy.

Now, it leads us to the next question, BC, and this guy is all over social media asking for it. And at first, I wasn't even thinking about it it I'm not sure what I was thinking about but he kind of put it in my mind he did a little inception BC the current Bellator bantamweight champion is Juan Archuleta now what you'll recall it used to be Horiguchi because he beat Caldwell and blah blah blah had to give it up okay well now it's Juan Archuleta should the next fight BC be Archuleta versus Horiguchi if you can make it yes of course and we've seen scott coker and bellator in the past you know have a working relationship here to allow this to happen and allow the the belt to be defended i you know off bellator turf in a way but we saw through eight rounds against darian caldwell that horiguchi you know could have an outside case for being the

best in the world of his weight class why not not go in there against the best available guy you can face outside of doing the same thing with a UFC fighter and do the same thing to Archie Leather and try to make that same statement? Horiguchi's rising. He's looking great. This would be a war, Luke. It would be a freaking war.

Yeah, and also, I just sort of feel like, I mean, owed is a strong word, but if you have to give up your titles due to injury on what was basically your, I mean, for the most part, your career hot streak, and then you have to spend 15 months away because your return in some ways was probably delayed by factors outside of your control, then when you come back for the first part of that,

you not only beat your previous foe who had gotten a nice win over you, you do it looking the way he does. It's not like I can look at the Bantamweight division in Bellator and say that it's bad, but off the top of your head, what do you want to see? The Apache Mix rematch? Like not exactly. Like if I'm just thinking about what's the best fight that could be made for Ryzen, I like the Archeleta fight.

Certainly on the Bellator side, that's it. And also it's like, dude, I mean, Horiguchi got screwed. Not by anyone going out there and like putting pins in a doll. I mean, it was just the way in which life went and it was unfortunate and it was bad. But if you have an opportunity in the fight game to do right by a guy who hasn't done anything wrong he didn't pot

for any peds he didn't beat somebody up in a gas station trying to get a meat grinder at cumberland farms he didn't do anything he just got injured and then couldn't come back in a timely kind of way for circumstances outside of his control well now he's back now he's ready both sides can benefit it's good for mma when promotions can work together he had this title previously no one beat him for it and he looks awesome now again i don't know exactly what bellator wants or can do at this point especially with travel and blah blah blah but like the guy didn't get beat for this title that's the guy who should be fighting next. In the MMA cage or ring of your choice, that is the inside of your brain, Luke. Beyond your refusal to use hair dye under any circumstances.

When you do match up Monday inside those chromosomes there, Luke. And you imagine Peyotre Yan against Horiguchi for the all-worlds I'm the biggest badass at 135 title. Who comes out on top? Oof. That's a tough one, dude. I mean, Horiguchi... Horiguchi can stick and move. I think taking down Jan would be very difficult.

I think Jan's scrambling is crazy underrated. Horiguchi has a bit of that Aljamain Sterling style, where you could stick and move from the outside and then jump on a submission quickly if you need it. In many ways, he'd be a similar kind of opponent. I'll say this. Whatever answer you want to come up with, whether it's Aljo, whether it's Jan, or Horiguchi,

it is very, very debatable and is very open to interpretation. And it's an example of why Horiguchi deserves to be taken seriously. And in my mind, if he can get that champ-champ status internationally back again, why he should. Do you lean a certain way on that one? I mean, look, this was a small sample size to his return, you know, but look at the run he had been on before that loss to Asakura. Talking about Horiguchi, obviously.

He matches up very well. It would be very fun to see. But yeah, it's almost too much of a CTs to even have this conversation because we just want to find out who the best Bantamweight in the world, knowing that Aljo should get next, that Corey Sanhagen's lingering and all that.

But he'd be in that fight. I don't know if I could favor him. I love the scrambling of Jan as well. And I think that, I think Jan just hasn't shown us how great he can be yet. And maybe Aljo will pull that out of him of him but uh you know i would have liked to have seen him beat somebody else for the title so to speak but uh everything he's done has been

gold so far so uh yeah that's that's a that's a matchup in my dreams okay and right now it's uh it's wet let's clean that up somebody clean that up clean up on aisle uh bc's dreams thank you uh luke um i i had a risen related comment oh did you have more risen you wanted to go through rising risen rising um the rest of that card was you know mileage um your mileage may vary on how well you like it or not um tension escala got a win techinori gomi got a weird win um Hideo Takuro got a nice win over Armbar over uh this sort of a Olympic wrestler who is trying to make his way into MMA um tension looked good I saw some wild spinnies that shit yeah I mean here's the thing it's like on Japanese MMA I said this when we

were getting you know killed for it more so you than me I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of uh the way in which that I never was the biggest fan of like the wild side of japanese mma i was more of a fan of like when mma was relevant it was relevant over there like with pride and to an extent dream and sengoku um and so for me the main event was like everything uh you know i'm not here to say that the rest of the car was bad in fact it was quite entertaining although dude i don't know what happened with the commentary frank tricks and like he was calling through his iphone it was just a disaster to listen to it's not his fault i guess i don't know what happened with the commentary Frank Triggs sounded like he was calling through his iPhone it was just a disaster to listen to it's not his fault I guess I don't know what they had sent him up with from a technology

standpoint but it did not work so the rest of the card is if you liked it great but for me I could take it or leave it it didn't and Hamasaki got the Adam White title with a leg scissor which was interesting but be careful tread lightly with those comments listen that wasn't the only thing that got you in trouble, guy.

It wasn't just not liking Japanese MMA. But okay, we can move on from that and get to our next topic, which is BC. So we were sad because we lost Leon Edwards going to take on Kamzat Shemayev. And we thought, well, maybe Leon will stay on the card and blah, blah, blah for that second of the two fight cards from the first three that will be on Fight Island in a couple of weeks. Wasn't to be, but they announced a different main event for that card, BC. Michael Chiesa is going to be back, 170 pounds as he has been here recently,

taking on Neil Magny. BC, your reaction to this fight as a main event first and as a matchup second? As a main event on its own island, if you'll let the pun take its course here, I wouldn't be that excited, although it's a very good fight. But to come in the already gluttonous week of, you know, three monster cards in what, eight days for UFC and the return to fight island, this feels just like another treat right there as the Wednesday morning main event. Because, look, it certainly matters in the division.

I think it's the right move overall for Leon Edwards. You've already secured something big. You might as well, like we always said, you know, you could still fight in this fight. You could still take a little bit of a step back and try to beat somebody like a Kiesa and make a larger statement.

But in some ways you've already made that statement. You are who you are. Try to get Hamzat, try to get something big after this, but is good ass fight stylistically though and both need to sort of assert themselves which of the two is going to not just be a top 10 guy on a nice little run but get a top five opponent to try to teach us more I tend to like Chiesa you know off off first reaction looking at the matchup but look thatique, every time I think he's about to turn that other corner, he comes back with a big win.

He's technical. He's smart. He never sort of has that next-level finishing ability in a big fight to sort of reward overhyping him. But you underhyped Neil Magnique left and right, he's going to keep surprising you. So I'm certainly not going to count him out. But it's an important fight to the future of this top five.

I would say as a matchup, I think it's great for a Wednesday. I mean, I don't know how much I would love it on a Saturday or something, but for the middle of the week, it's an important fight in the welterweight division. Currently, the rankings have Chiesa sitting at eight, Magny at nine, so they're right next to each other. That is usually sort of a sign that you're going to get a very competitive and potentially a fun fight. So it's got important stakes with the division about who may enter into that top five space.

Maybe the winner takes on Wonderboy. So there's big doings here involved. Plus a guy like Magny, all action, all the time, never gets tired. A guy like Chiesa, I think, has been just utterly revitalized at 170 pounds. So I like the idea of, especially as this is your backup. This is your backup as a main event. Like, it shows the UFC's roster strength that they're able to do that. In terms of the fight itself, it's a little bit more one-note than I think folks realize.

I mean, Magny has a good jab when he uses it. He's well-rounded. He's beaten good opposition at this point. But his takedown defense is 59%, and Chiesa is averaging nearly four takedowns every 15 minutes, which is very high. You usually see that around the one or two mark for most fighters. His is around the four mark, which is double what is normal, I think, for a lot of fighters at this stage. And so Chiesa is not like crazy on the other end of a reach disadvantage BC. He's got 75 to the 80 inch reach advantage of magni but it's

like if you had to ask yourself how do you see kiesa winning is it going in there and like bombing on him with strikes maybe that's certainly something you couldn't rule out but that has not been traditionally the way he gets his best wins especially at 170 pounds when he can lean on these guys and use that frame and fill out to me he's going to have to get that takedown can he get the takedown consistently and then find a way to the back and then submit this guy in a way that he needs to

to get the job done? Not so easy. And in fact, if you look at the odds on this one, BC, let me see if I can pull them up here. The odds for this fight, they've got Magny as a ever so slight minus 125 to Kiesa's plus 105,

a damn near a pick them between them. Would you agree with those odds ever so slightly towards Magny? No, I would favor Kiesa, but it's close. It is close, Luke, and for a lot of the reasons that you mentioned, but a three-fight win streak here for Kiesa, and he certainly looks reborn. I mean, he's now suddenly a big welterweight, right? He wasn't making lightweight because he was big. Now mean he's now suddenly a big welterweight right? He wasn't making lightweight because he was big. Now he feels like he's a big

welterweight. Do you think he has whatever will be the best run of his career still in him? Does the Chiesa win here probably catapults him to a top 5 fight but is this the run for him where he goes as far as he can go? Maybe his ceiling Luke is to get and

lose a UFC welterweight title shot. Can he get there? I don't know. I don't know. There's a lot of times where I thought guys could, and they didn't. There's a lot of times where I thought guys couldn't and they did. So I'm,

I'm less convinced about the certainty of anything. And I'll say this. I wasn't necessarily blown away by the winner over Condit I mean I was in the sense that he had that one-armed Kimura if you recall that was pretty impressive and he was very strong and then he beat the fuck out of Diego Sanchez and I was like well there's not a whole lot to be said for that one but then he fought Dos Anjos who's not necessarily the biggest welterweight but he's a very very difficult competitor to go against and he demolished him it was six takedowns he got against him he utterly controlled him and so you six takedowns he got against him. He utterly controlled him.

And so you could say, okay, we'd seen that against Colby and against Kamaru. Yeah, fair, but those guys are championship caliber fighters. For Chiesa to be able to do the exact same kind of thing gives you a little bit of hope that, wow, maybe this guy can really do something along those kinds of lines as well. Magny's going to be the next best test for us to declare. And so I can't say because even if you beat Magny, you still have one or two more fights in front of you at welterweight that are going to be tough as shit.

Like we just mentioned, let's say the winner gets Stephen Wonderboy Thompson. Like, dude, that's a hard fight to win even today. Does it come down, is Chiesa offensively employed enough? Employed is the wrong word, but you get what I'm saying. Does he have enough offense to win the really big fights of his career? Right, because, for example, Khabib is not well-rounded, but what he has is just so dominating that it doesn't matter. So Chiesa, not fully well-rounded.

I mean, obviously he's got some stand-up skills, but obviously his ground is significantly better than his stand-up. You know, I certainly think he is perfectly capable of winning this matchup and even won better than that, but that doesn't mean anything. Like, what my confidence level, this is a hard fight. This is a very hard fight. I think Magny's takedown defense is a real liability. The problem is, if you look at some of the other stats here from Michael Chiesa,

let me pull this up for you real quickly. If you look at his overall striking, which includes ground striking, his strikes landed per minute are only 2.07, and strikes absorbed is at 1.95, meaning he's got a positive differential, but just barely. The accuracy is 39%, and that's not a high volume. By contrast, strikes landed per minute for Magny is almost at four, right? So Magny, not the best takedown defense, but he's going to be very hard to submit. He's probably going to get back up. You know he's not going to get tired, and if he pumps that jab, he's going to be hard to get a hold of, and he can score

points. If you're Michael Chiesa, yes, the takedown here is important, but you better do something with it when you get it. You better pound on this guy. You better threaten subs. You better really make his life miserable down there because if you don't get him out of there, he's going to be there all five rounds, and he's going to find ways to sneak offense from underneath.

By the way, Magny's got skills on the ground too. And if you're Chiesa, you don't want the most important punch you landed in your career to have come at a press conference against Kevin Lee, definitely. I'm a big Mike the Mav guy. I think he has a very underrated tat set and a sport that has very shitty amounts of it, Luke. You're a big ink guy. Mike the Mav, not bad, right?

I have to go back and look at him. I can only see them in my mind. That's not a fair way to judge them. By the way, your last three wins for Neil Magny, Lawler, Martin, and then the leech, Jing Lang. So both guys coming off three fight win streaks. That's a hell of a great fight. Love that contest. All right.

Last but certainly not least here for our Monday show, BC, topic number five. It was made official March 6th. I believe that's the date. I have to double check it here. But the light heavyweight title is on the line. We knew this was coming, but now it's official. Israel Adesanya is going to be taking on Jan Blachowicz

for the UFC light heavyweight title. I want to talk about Glover Teixeira in just a second. Plus, Jon Jones did an interview with Bleacher Report saying he's never going back to light heavyweight. We'll talk about that in just a moment, BC. And we've kind of assessed how much we like this for the division.

Forget all that for just a moment. Break this one down. What kind of chance do you give Adesanya to become the UFC's next champ champ? I give him a great chance. And I almost feel like the fear here is that it's so easy to envision because of how great he is and sort of the teases he's shown to his, as Luke would say, his upper bound limits of greatness. This is a style matchup and a difference in speed that I think, you know,

there's potential for hot knife through butter in this one. And that's crazy because we always count out Jan Blahowicz. And who would have thought at 37 he had the type of 2020 Renaissance and the big knockout win over Reyes to win the title to begin with. I fear that it's going to be too heavy once they actually touch gloves that everyone's going to expect an Adesanya knockout win over Reyes to win the title to begin with. I fear that it's going to be too heavy once they actually touch gloves that everyone's going to expect an Adesanya knockout. But even if it is, you still might get it here, Luke, because if he's as great as your CKB hard-on tells you,

and me just having, you know, look, this is going to be his year. You know, a lot of people are set to have a giant year, right? You know, Hamzat Chamayev, Kevin Holland, the younger guys looking to bang on the door. But I really feel like we're set up that this is going to be Adesanya's year to finally get the fighter of the year honors and cash in and have his biggest one. If he goes out there and wins a title in the second division and is willing to, you know, potentially be active in defending both. And what if his second fight of the year is a rematch with Whitaker or what have you? And what if we end 2021 on the road to the potential idea of him fighting Jones at heavyweight and having that grudge match happen?

Who knows? You know, will Jones be the heavyweight champion by that point? We don't know. All I'm saying is Adesanya is about to do monster things. UFC giving him the opportunity to do that by signing this fight. And I think we're going to end this calendar year just, you know, even further about how great this guy is the odds on this one again for whatever that is worth they have adesanya at about a minus 270 and blachowicz at a plus 210 so they've got adesanya as a clear favorite in this one again you may disagree you may agree but that's how the odds

makers are currently looking at it you're asking me my opinion on what i think will happen in the contest we'll have to see. I actually, listen, there's a lot of times where Blachowicz has been the underdog and came out and boxed people's fucking ears off. So let that be a lesson to everyone, including me, who has been late to the Blachowicz party and may even still. Speed kills and speed thrills, Luke. The speed difference here is going to be astronomical. And I also feel like, you know,

Adesanya just has more ways to win even inside the stand-up at more ranges than Blachowicz. Adesanya has fought as high as heavyweight in other combat sports. I don't think the size will be that big a difference. I've seen Adesanya up close a lot of times.

He's wiry, but he's got a huge frame. But the key for me is, I do think that Blachowicz is a little bit more of a difficult tactical puzzle to solve than folks realize. If you try to bear down on him, his counterpunching is very good. It'll be interesting to see what game plan Adesanya goes with. I wonder if he might go with a game plan where he kind of forces Blachowicz to chase him, and then he gets to be the counter-striker, sticking and moving, finding a way on the outside. If he does that, I think his chances to win are actually pretty good.

But if he has to chase down Blachowicz, it'll get dicey. I mean, that's where Blachowicz pulls the upset, when you sort of underestimate him and you start walking him down. Because he has a sneaky counter-attack there, as we saw what he put on Reyes to pull the upset when you sort of underestimate him and you start walking him down because you know he he has a sneaky counter-attack there as we saw what he put on Reyes to to pull the upset but uh in your heart of hearts if Israel wins this will he fight again at middleweight in the UFC yes I don't think middleweight is that hard for him to make, again, relatively speaking. And I think, you know, does he have anything to prove against Robert Whitaker?

No. I mean, you beat him the first time pretty cleanly. But I think most people would agree. I don't know if City Kickboxing agrees, but I think most other observers would agree that the renewed version of Whitaker, maybe he wins, maybe he doesn't, but he is better than the one that Adesanya faced. And so given the oceanic region's growth and what could be on the line if Whitaker could recapture the title in his absence, which by the way, Paulo Costa's manager calling for a fight for the interim middleweight title in the event, or I should say when Adesanya goes up to 205, which I'm not necessarily opposed to that idea.

If he can get the belt around his waist and you see Adesanya sort of still standing out there, there are ways in which I could see him going back down. But I also feel like he's sort of chasing at this point the biggest challenge with potentially the biggest reward possible. That's not 185 pounds at the present moment. That's what I would say. Absolutely. I mean, look look if he pulls this off if adesanya keeps taking on these ridiculous challenges and pulls them off

luke i mean we're watching an all-time you know movement here right we're out we're a run up the ladder of uh you know from from nothing just a couple years ago oh that kickboxer to i mean we're in play is a super fight against john jones probably in a year i mean that's in play i mean he's really setting himself up to to have the potential to to have go-es conversations if he can pull this whole thing off we have no idea and that's what's going to make it fun but uh this is exciting stuff uh okay so now it takes us to a different part of the question though we're still on point five here. All right, so you want to make this fight, you can make it.

If you look at the rest of that card, BC, that UFC 259 March 6th, you got Rakic versus Tiago Santos on that card. Amanda Nunes versus Megan Anderson on that card. You got some good-ass fights on that card. But speaking of Rakic and Santos, that fight is taking place at 205. Rakic has a win coming off of Smith. Santos, a loss to Glover Teixeira. Now, what the hell is the UFC supposed to do with a guy

they gave a title shot to in Baltimore back six years ago, seven years ago almost at this point, but has somehow found a way to go on a multiple fight winning streak at this point? What should happen next for old Glover? I think he's in too valuable a spot right now he's basically the the guy in waiting the number one contender i don't think you mess with this uh you know i think you sit back and you wait and you hope that you can you know have a nice conversation with the ufc that says barring an immediate rematch to adesanya and blahowitz that if either guy wins they're getting glover to share next and

if that's the case luke you don't want to see a guy at this age sit out a while, but that should be worth waiting until at least the summer for if you get this second chance to come all the way back with your well-rounded game, your smart, educated turn that he's done in his late 30s. I think this has become an accidental overnight success, this second act he's had, that I wouldn't risk it by going in there.

I mean, you just beat Tiago Santos. I mean, what are you going to do, take on Prochazka? I mean, you've already earned the best of what you can earn, so hold that lottery ticket and cash it in when it's time. Yeah, but you know how they are about that. Oh, you shouldn't wait. You shouldn't wait. Here's the other part that could get interesting. I mentioned you have the Rakic versus Santos fight on that card. If Rakic wins, that means he'll have beaten Anthony Smith who he didn't finish but beat cleanly and then let's say he beats Tiago Santos cleanly which he may not he

may get knocked out but let's just say he wins that in a very sort of clear fashion right if Rackage does that he'll have beaten two people who fought for the title and one of which took a card off of John Jones they may just skip the line and give Rackets a title shot, BC. So then what do you do if you're Glover Teixeira? You just sit around? They're not going to give him. A word? Word?

Yeah, I guess you're right. They would do that in a heartbeat. No, still, look, if I'm a gambler, unless I need the money, right? Unless I'm Glover and I'm like, you know what? Who knows? They may screw me anyway. Let's make the most fun fight the biggest money we can do. Maybe that's his attitude.

He's been in this game a long time. I just would sit him down and say, you know, Glover, first of all, never get the meatball grinder from Cumberland Farms, dude. I don't know what is in that sauce. Like lighter fluid or something? I mean, it felt like it was smoking wet or something, Luke. It was just disgusting. I'd say, Glover, don't touch that.

First of all, we live in the same state. We got access to the same gas stations. Number two, be smart. Wait for the phone to ring. You never know, okay? You never know. Hold that line, right, Luke? I don't feel like I'm just talking in a giant circle,

just a full circle of Master Baturby speech back and forth. Yes, perfect time to transition here if we can. Okay, so those are our five topics. Let's go now to where BC and I aren't asking each other questions, but where you, the viewer, the listener, get to ask us questions. It's time for DMs from dogs. All right, BC. Up first is from Zach Harkness.

He asks, Am I crazy to think that Garcia showed a level of hittable in that fight that guys like Tank, Haney, and Tao can absolutely exploit? We kind of covered it, but yeah, dude. I mean, my man's got some defensive issues to work out, to be clear. Yeah, he has some of the cardinal sins that you don't want. He backs up in a straight line his head is typically coming at you you know straight down broadway and doesn't

move enough and he's walking toward you he's constantly stalking you again the problem is for all of these guys yes on paper teofimo gervante maybe even devon who i mean we shouldn't sit here and crap on devon haiti because he had one boring wide win over Yuri Orkus Gamboa. The guy's got all the tools. Those guys should be able to. I think the problem and the excitement is can they get to that without getting stopped themselves? Because I think we're content in this, Luke. Ryan Garcia's a finisher.

That body shot was beautiful and brutal. He seemed two rounds earlier to have Luke Campbell. Sorry, Luke Thomas. He would have had Luke Thomas on Queer Street there. He had Luke Campbell seemingly on the verge of going out in round five. I mean, the guy can freaking podge. When you have sublime speed

mixed with accuracy, it doesn't matter. Look, would I pick Gervonta Davis to knock him out? You're damn right I would. Would I also, if I'm Gervonta Davis' camp, be prepared that you're going to fight? Yes, it's going to be fun and it's going to be a fight. That's the gamble right now for Ryan Garcia. Will he stay on the path of being a gunslinger?

I kind of hope that he does because I think that's just the way he's wired. I think there's a little old school in that. Look, he's not the guy that's going to show up at the house party and ask for the girl's number, right? Who? Ryan Garcia. No, I don't think he asked for numbers. No.

He's going to go into that party and just take, okay? I mean, he's going to go into your house and take. He's not discriminatory in that regard. So, yeah, you can knock this guy out if you're a super elite walk through hell to get there let's find out let's make these fun fights i can't i was i would say i don't have much to add to it but the fact that it adds to the intrigue of whether he can win is really interesting you know it's going to make him more of a draw i think is somewhat debatable i think some of the things that make him a draw aren't necessarily related to his lack of defense.

But if you are a viewer or you care about these kinds of things, the fact that he does have some defensive liabilities as it stands, they make the prospect of him winning and losing, A, more precarious, and as a consequence, B, much more interesting. It's a lot more fun knowing that. And not just that, Luke. It endears you to people when you show weakness when you are vulnerable why is anthony joshua a freaking mega star in england right yeah he's got good looks he can talk he's

homegrown guy all that stuff luke his biggest fights the dude's got to get up off the deck the dude's got to go through hell to finish you there's a relatability there's a working class thing with that on the surface guys like us we can't relate to ryan garcia you watch that guy get off the canvas though and have to fight his way out of trouble then suddenly you're like that's my guy that's my guy now so it you know the lack of defense vulnerability can help you from a marketability standpoint it can all right from a verified uh viewer of ours from from at Ben Schnitzer. All due respect to Stylebender.

I always love these intros. They're always like, look, I'm not racist, but it's like if you say all due respect, that means some slander is headed his way. So, okay, all due respect to Stylebender, but has he lost standing in the Jones beef now that he is moving up to light heavyweight, basically as soon as John vacated, it pains me to say this, but how is that not a bad look after all the trash he talked? I don't understand this argument at all.

John Jones has been up. Yeah. John's been competing in the UFC for what? Over 10 years at this point. Okay. He just moved up. Now they moved up at the same time if anything the level of willingness that Adesanya has to go up to light heavyweight much faster than John had to go to heavyweight

when there was Cain Velasquez up there and more to the point like I listen we all been over a million times John's doesn't love me but I've been a huge fan of his career for a very, very long time in terms of what he's been able to do. But the reality is this. His number one nemesis had to come down a weight class to face him twice. Light heavyweight was not Cormier's natural weight class. He could compete well there, but that wasn't where he was best situated. We saw how much heavier handed he was above uh above 205 pounds so let me get this

straight they go up at the same time adesanya goes up much quicker relative to his run and the number one nemesis that john had had to come down a weight class to face him and adesanya lose his face bullshit he loses face not at all wow wow that's a powerful statement driven home it's just an absurd argument i don't understand it at all let me let my cat out that's a verified viewer who sent that in luke okay what do you i love the viewer i understand a lot of people believe that but it's just ridiculous yo here's moco bro hey moco in the house love that booger look at look at the bow tie on that handsome devil i know my wife put it on him. What's up, Moco?

You think I'm awesome? You think I'm awesome player? Am I cool as shit? Well, you got him gripped by the heart bag. He really can't do anything, Luke. Okay. But get those yams off him. Let the guy breathe a little bit. Sorry about that.

Go ahead. No, I mean, hard to argue what you said there. But I don't like, though, the tone of his biggest nemesis had to come down and wait. John had plenty of nemesises through the Hall of Fame run at 205 that he defeated, including one. He's the best light heavyweight ever. He's the best fighter of all time, Luke.

Maybe that, too. Say it. Say the words. No, no, listen. If anything, I have been generous about John's accolades and people like oh he did this with terms of PEDs and blah blah I don't give a fuck about any of that stuff none of that matters to me I look booty calls in the Albuquerque intersection I'm not judging I don't care I don't care I'm talking about what he can do if he's

a the best light heavyweight ever be maybe your maybe your best fighter ever. Right? So there's that. But if we're just pointing out a willingness to accommodate the challenges that come with moving through weight classes, it's a big knock on John's career. He hasn't done it until he was in his mid-30s. And he's been in the UFC since he was, what, 21 years old? I mean, it's just I don't understand the argument at all. Yeah, I'm with you on that. Hey, I don't understand the argument at all. Yeah, I'm with you on that.

Hey, I don't know. Maybe I'm high on the secondhand smoke of your CKB cologne, but Adesanya could enter one day a Jon Jones super fight with the chance of being the GOAT if he beats him. That's wild to me that we're on that road. Yeah, it's not... It's imaginable at this point. And not just in a sort of a theoretical way,

but like you can sort of plot it on a map a little bit. All right, from Telvin... Kipapa. That's our guy. Telvin Kipapa. Will you guys cover more Rise of... I mean, listen. I was the one on the rundown. This is so overplayed. This is... I don't hate these... Listen, listen, I was the one on the rundown.

This is so overplayed. I don't hate these. Listen, listen, I've said it before. I'll say it again. I was the one who put the Ryzen thing on there. I wanted to talk about it. BC kind of poo-pooed it, whatever, which to me is not the end of the world.

It was some of the things that got BC in trouble. We've been over it a million times. I'm not going to rehash it. By the way, if you missed Wednesday's episode and you didn't see BC talk about how he really felt about things after all the blow up, and this is your first time back, you fucked up. We don't have to go back over it again because you missed it. But okay, we will cover it? Yes, I will cover it to the extent that we've... Listen, people make this argument like it's your job to cover it. No, it is not. No, it is not. Showtime and CBS could not

give a fuck less if we covered Ryzen to the extent we cover it we cover because we want to and because we think it is relevant so BC I think this is a fair way to answer it going forward to the extent that we think it is relevant and Koji Horiguchi is quite relevant or to the extent we think it's interesting we we will cover it. If we don't, we won't. And that's true for basically anything. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's the one championship rule, right? Yeah, I know. It's like, are we going to start covering fucking Donk versus, you know.

You put out Vitor Belfort against Roy Jones in an all-steroid match, I'll probably watch it, okay? Until then, I'm not going to go nuts over it. Here's the thing. I don't want to talk about Jake Paul, but sometimes I have have to i definitely don't give a fuck about roy jones fighting mike tyson in a you know in a patty cake contest which is what it mostly was about risen it was about your dumb ass luke yeah you were slandering me right yeah and i got caught up in the wrong neighborhood slandering you i love everybody what the hell happened okay but it's like you know it's your job no my i can

tell you i've looked at my contract doesn't say anything about rising in there risen whatever there's nothing in there credit for this show apparently yeah it's just it's just it's 18 pages of just says producer credit over and over again and i signed that bitch i will cover any combat sport to the extent that i want to and to the extent that it is relevant. And Ryzen 26 was both of those. But if it's not, if it's just a bunch of regional-level fighters that I don't really care about, no. We are not going to cover it.

And trust me, no one is going to get us in trouble for that. It'll be okay. So we'll see. Do you want to respond to Kai Asakura's tweet now? Did he send another one? No, just the first one. I already responded. I told him we were going to do a nice recap, which we did.

And I wished him all the best. God, those guys are great. They put on great shows. It's the people that wanted to hang me afterwards. Good God, Luke. Yeah, well, I mean, it was the thing and then the Mickey Rooney thing you were doing, you know. Yeah, well.

All right. We've been over it. We're not going to do it again. All right. At RVDoseATC. I'm sure I'm saying it all fucked up. BC, do you have any thoughts on now that he died? I guess he died on Halloween,

but they didn't announce it until New Year's Eve. The death of MF Doom, the hip-hop artist. I got more thoughts on Risen 26 than I do this story. You don't know anything about MF Doom, really? It's sad, man. I'm not well-versed enough to give you a quality eulogy at the moment. Well, I don't know if I'm well-versed enough to give you a quality eulogy either, but I'll try a little bit.

MF Doom was a guy who in the aughts, 90s as well, but especially in the aughts, he was a rapper. Not at first, but eventually he put on a Dr. Doom-like mask. And you might be like, oh, is this some sort of Slipknot gimmick? No, quite the opposite. I mean, Slipknot basically turned into like a metal band that they used the gimmick to get attention. And then they made metal that was extreme, but palatable to a pretty wide audience if you look at the way in which their music has changed it changed in sort of a more mainstream kind of direction at least insofar as metal is concerned mf doom is sort of the opposite he was a rapper's rapper he was an artist's artist he made concept

albums he was always trying to do very interesting wordplay. He was the kind of guy that if you had a hip-hop friend who was way too into hip-hop, they all had a favorite MF Doom song or bar or album. And in fact, his sort of magnum opus is Mad Villainy, which he had made with a famous producer. And that was the one time he never reached critical appeal. But the guy had an enormous amount of work that he had done that was just designed for people who liked hip-hop, I would say, as an art forum, commercial appeal be damned. And so it was interesting when he passed away.

It was quite sad because you know me, BC. Whether you like the music or not, I like artists who are not compromising. He was not a compromiser. He made art for art's sake that he wanted to make. It sounded like he wanted it to sound the whole nine yards. He also worked with Zarface. So shout out to Inspector Deck and Esoteric who make up Zarface. They did an album together with MF Doom.

And he was exactly that way. So I don't know exactly what the cause of his death was. Only 49 years old. His brother had died in 93 when they were part of a hip-hop group and the whole thing. So it's sort of a sad trajectory of it all. But you want to talk about, you know, every artist I could see who was into hip-hop

that has any kind of name was shouting him out as a very, very, very special talent. And that's exactly what he was. Yeah, and I certainly remember the mask. It had a life of its own. Look, I just wasn't that familiar with the catalog. Well, you know, I mean, he's not white. Why would you be?

You know what I'm saying? It's not really your thing. You know what I mean? We come to expect that from you. It's okay. The thing is, people are going to believe you now. I know. I'm teasing.

I'm not being serious, but it's fun to say that. Okay. At underscore Kate Law. That's what I'm going to say. Forget New Year's resolutions. What are your New Year's threats? What is a New Year's threat? Is that a Hatfield and McCoy type thing?

We don't usually do that in Connecticut. We make a threat to start the whole New Year off, Luke? What is a threat? I mean, I know what a threat is in a basic way, but what is a New Year's threat? Like this year I promised to fuck up grandmas who get in front of me at the register and they write checks in the year 2021

to pay for their groceries. Is that what a threat, a New Year's threat would be? Is that what he's talking about? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. We don't have Jay, by the way. It's a No Jay Monday, randomly, right? This is a Gaff Pierre production.

Shout out to Gaff. Gaff, have you ever heard of this? New Year's threats? Gaff, you wouldn't be? What do they mean by the question, Gaff? All right, Gaff is relaying to us. He has no idea. All right. So who do we want to threaten in 2021 on that regard i threaten the viewers of this show to get our get us up over 100k okay because then you're on

the road to me getting an mk tat and this you know rocket ship uh look i threaten to be welcoming of all mixed martial arts organizations this calendar year. That's more of a resolution. Look, I threaten your ass that if you get too close to me, I get that thing. The thing is, if I could just get below, not just the jawbone, but that wizard sleeve you have there, if I could get underneath that and I lock in that Adam's apple, Luke? You don't know how to choke. Do you have a New Year's resolution?

I mean, we all want to get in shape, Luke. Is this the year? Yeah, it is. It is. It is the time. I plan to have better haircuts this year. I plan to get in great shape. Are you ready? Plan to get haircuts and be ready for the beach when it's cut-em-up season?

Yeah, damn right. Okay. No, I have made a resolution myself. I don't know. Luke, when will my old man basketball league pick up again? I mean, the fall maybe? Maybe? Maybe?

If it does, Luke, I'm 42 years old. I got one more run in me. Okay? I'm no longer showing up at these just to, you know, have an excuse to eat bad or just to say, man, I used to be quicker back in the day. There's a little bit left in this tank i'm gonna pour it out all over that court all right i sometimes i show up just to get into a fight just to feel that energy now i'm here to i'm here to bring it i'm here i got one it starts today okay yeah that's my resolution are you like seymour hirsch and along came polly we were like

buckets and then it just fucking bricks the shit out of the backboard? No, no. I'm a little bit more of a... I'm slippery, you know what I mean? I sweat a lot. I'll get up underneath your shoulder. I'll get you in the air, Luke. It's an M1 waiting to happen, okay? So, no, you're more like Seymour Hoffman, not on the basketball court,

but later when he was like, dude, I sharted a little bit. I sharted a little bit of shit. Never, never, never trust a fart, Luke. I think you already know that, all right? Yes, thank you uh all right well with that lovely intro bc it's time for your funny portion of the show take it over good sir yeah this is what we do you know what we do we scour the globe luke for the

highs and lows the good and bad and beyond in the world of combat sports and whatever else you got can we play the opening intro gap it is? It is. Have you seen this shit? Yes, and it starts in Japan. Luke, I wanted to shout out the fine people of Risen 26. Did you see the Kyoji Horiguchi celebration after that first round knockout in the rematch against Asakura? They got the hot tub, but they were popping some bubbly. Look at the man size this this bottle that they're about to uh can we just push play can we there we go yeah yeah oh yeah look this is how men

celebrate i love this you know what i'm saying did you have champagne oh yeah i had breakfast with wimbledon there i was watching this in my pjs we yeah broke out the mimosas with Horiguchi. It was fantastic. You love this? I actually don't believe you did that, but okay. Alright. I like the celebration. We got confetti in there. He had a throne. I mean, the risen title is pretty badass, too.

Unlike the UFC, they let the fighters have fun. They do. They do. And he had a lot of it there. This wasn't the only, though, prominent mixed martial artist that jerked off a large bottle this week. Did you check out Brethren Israel Adesanya here down under, Luke? I think I did see this. Yeah. Good Lord.

Okay. All right. All right. Yeah. Thank you, Peter North. Okay. That is well done there. What is the occasion here he's doing this?

I don't know, but he's very into it, Luke. It was like what he did against the cage after he stopped Costa. Remember that? He's got a white hype man in the back holding his belt for him. Yeah, jerk off, Izzy, yeah. Luke, let's go back to Risen 26. People think I hate JMMA, but but how could i did you see this guy this guy's freaking fantastic luke yes yes right so what is he doing like a 1940s kind of

take on things i think it's yeah it's like a 1950s diner waitress look it's fantastic though that is awesome like a western tie there with the string. Yeah, that's great. That's great. What do you call that hairdo? A pompadour? A weave? I don't know. I honestly could not tell you.

All right. Luke, let's move on. Oh, we got one more. Did you check out Ren Hiramoto during the introduction was told about our preview of Risen 26 before his fight? And, yeah, that was yeah i saw some people sent that to you on social media yeah it was not kind not kind but uh strong tack game from this fella nice entrance there uh speaking of entrances your thoughts on king rye ryan garcia going to the bold level of coming out on a throne to the ring to face lu Campbell. I mean, didn't Tyson Fury do this recently against Wilder? Mayweather had done it a few times way back in the past.

I mean, it's the kind of move that you need to back up. He backed it up at least, right? Yeah, I agree. If you're going to come out this way, you've got to come out fighting like a maniac, which he didn't quite do at first, but eventually did. So, yes. Yeah, the key word here might be might become talking about this celebration luke this is where all the king rye celebration stops and really the slander begins i love the purity of his celebration

but what do you call this dance that him trainer eddie reynoso and father henry had uh they is that a love swing, Luke? Is that called the love swing? What is this, Luke? These are not the porn sites that I frequent. I don't know. By the way, did you see that sound bite of Kate Abdo on the DAZN broadcast telling Riker that he's got a fantastic sperm?

It's like, your jizz is excellent sir wow yeah wow presented without comment wow okay well uh speaking of producing new life though can we shout out our mk brethren the ufc hall of famer rashad evans on the birth him and his wife the birth of his son solaris lance evans they're gonna call him saul better call him saul a healthy baby boy at eight pounds and 10 ounces shout out to the evans family down there in south florida luke you know most babies when they're first first first born are not cute but this one is yeah oh yeah oh yeah well well done uh rashad and company down there uh let's go on uh luke you hear about the new BMX sport?

It's called Natural Selection, and this guy somehow survived. Oh, my God, Luke. What are we doing here? Do you know what they call these here in D.C. with these guys who do this? They call them this in Baltimore, too. In fact, there's a documentary about it. They call them 12 o'clock boys because they ride with the wheel up like it's 12 o'clock, you know? Yeah, well, they're going to be calling them different things at the morgue, Luke, okay?

You know what I mean? They're going to be calling them baseball gloves soon after. Wow, that is a tough way to live a life. But then again, you know, I did go to opening night of the movie The Program where they laid in the middle of the road. Remember that, Luke? Yes, of course I do. Yeah, that was...

You ever try that? No, I'm not an idiot. Okay, Luke, speaking of living on the edge, the Poor Parenting Hall of Fame has a new entrant for 2021. Check this guy out. Wow. Jesus Christ. Is that a 12 o'clock guy luke wow plus i don't even know what to say

that's great all right well luke how about we also induct this mom for pushing her daughter right in a direct path to hell luke this is great Oh, they uprooted the tree. Could this family be more dubty? Yeah. They got the daughter careening into... The shirtless boy celebrating in a pair of jeans. You got two shirtless rugrats, no shoes either, by the way, running around. The only thing that makes them not dub T is that the grass is mowed, you know,

so they're a little bit better in that sense. But Jesus Christ. This could be going on at any backyard in my hometown, Luke. I can relate, definitely. Luke, our tip-on-tip touch of the week. Adesanya back a third time ckb's finest checking him out here with this white guy all right luke did you not put the tip on tip that i sent you from real madrid no it came just a bit too late luke i'm so sorry it's a coveted spots to get in on this

countdown each week but it was such a perfect video fuck you and uh speaking of tips luke i'd love to get you in a set of these what do you think luke just for a second just to see how they clean why would you ever clean with your fucking fingers i think it's a gag uh gift luke all right all right hey let's celebrate guys like us old guys wearing pajamas right let out Pajama Pants Dad drop in the hammer on his son's basketball game right here. This is fantastic.

Oh, yeah! Yeah! In your face, disgrace! I love that, right? I like how the game is shirts versus skins and it's only skins playing. You got served. Yes.

All right. Luke, check out this other middle-ager delivering a facial on this eighth grader. Whose dad is this? This is great. I love being this dad right here. Get off me. Get off. Yes. Dude, he sent him, get off me. Get off. Yes.

Dude, he sent him to Weight Watchers. God damn. God damn. And he has a victory lap afterwards. Well, Luke, not all old guys. Hold on. I want to talk about this for a second. Look at this dad just dunking on a fucking eight-foot rim like the piece of shit that he is.

He sends Fat fatty to hell and then and then he keeps his arm raised like he's steph curry after 62 points against the fucking against the portland trailblazers worst of all worst of all dad has the leg warmers on dad you're playing five-year-old kids you don't need to keep your legs warm on an eight foot rim to play there's like a toddler in this game. There's like two girls in it. This is great, Luke. But, Luke, as we're finding out in this clip, not all white dad dunks should be celebrated.

Check out Sammy Hagar here in the outdoor court. Would you leave the handicapped kid alone? I mean, what is going on here, Luke? He gave him a teabag. What are we doing here? I mean, hasn't he suffered enough? Hasn't he suffered enough? Hasn't he suffered enough on a six foot rim? That is not good.

All right. Hey, let's go out to the outdoor trampoline. We always get some good stuff. Luke, jumping into 2021 like this guy right here. Check this out and the dog's like you okay dude what's up dude don't these guys know to do this with the trampoline you have to have another person on the trampoline and they have to slingshot you when you you jump up and then they hit it right before you come down and they send you flying yeah ain't you watched slam ball

before come on right this is me taking off in my career bc i'm gonna be an mma media guy yeah i found your weightlifting future check out uh tor Argonauts CFL player Jake Reinhart doing squats with a bucket of concrete in his front yard shirtless during the snow weather, Luke. This is totally you. Any reason why he's not squatting below parallel? I don't speak jerk or what's the other one? Yeah.

But he at least doesn't have a, well, I can't say what it's normally called, but he doesn't have a pad for his shoulders because say what it's normally called but he doesn't have a pad for his shoulders because he has correctly racked the weight so good job on that bit nipply out there though for this luke would you do this in the winter as well like like do you do you get snow in dc i don't know what your life is not not like you guys in connecticut but we get snow yeah all right would you do an outdoor workout in this weather i mean for the gram sure okay okay will you will at any point in 2021 you feel comfortable enough to take off the lifting shirt and post an ig video of you topless weightlifting yeah maybe i'll consider it okay all right got those suns out guns out

from luke thomas okay uh speaking of weird training techniques luke this red hot heavy bag is fire right where it's good what fight is this guy preparing for this guy like cheated on his wife beat his kids robbed a bank and then got a diagnosis he has terminal cancer and he's like i'm going to hell fuck it just gonna get ready yeah just get ready it's probably like the last week before jail on some dy where you like're like, yeah, just like, yeah. I mean, you got to prepare somehow. All right, Luke, here's a little teapot that's short and stout. There is the head and there is the other head.

Would you drink out of this, Luke? My man needs to see a urologist bad. He's peeing all over himself. The flow is not strong. Yeah. All right. Want to see the worst backflip of Temple of All Time, Luke? We're already off the rails.

Let's keep it going. Check out this party. Party's over, Luke. You know what? This is, yeah. This is this is listen let me explain something to you this is what you get for doing this in an above ground pool dub t bored as shit oh god and look at that water dude what is that water from i mean could it be greener honestly could you have more bacteria in there this is where This is where the coronavirus came from. Fuck Wuhan, China.

It came from this above-ground dub-tea pool. That could be true. Hey, Luke, you know anything can happen in regional MMA. Check out our regional clip of the week. You never know. Somebody can come through the ground. You can see a double knockdown. Check out this battle.

This is great. Oh, a double knockdown. Yes. Into an armbar. Into the armbar hammer fist finish. Oh, double knockdown, yes Into an armbar Into the armbar hammer fist finish Shades of Mitrione Fedor here, right? Dude, it's like Carlos Newton, Matt Hughes only Pathetic

And fat, yeah, and very fat, alright Rolling on, hey Lukeke scorpion king auditions are going well for the remake uh first this guy smelling his own shoe before uh yeah my daughter does that she thinks it's funny oh she doesn't do that luke she won't she won't walk off that guy will never uh is this is this the guy is this the guy that the guy that Sammy Hagar dunked on just a few clips ago? Yeah, this was the before, and that was the after. Luke, let's move on here. There's nothing worse than a self-induced scorpion.

I don't know if I can show these, as many as I have on this, because this is pretty sad, Luke. I don't think these guys are walking away from this. BC, I can't believe they're all white. Oh, God. We got one more for you uh don't mix alcohol and scorpions luke you know what i'm saying yeah down to gawky park oh dude someone needs to uh someone needs to like photoshop undertaker like on top of her, you know what I mean, doing his thing. What was his special

move called? Tombstone Piledriver. Yeah, Tombstone Piledriver, that's right. Get one of those and just, you know, because otherwise, but you know what, dude, she's white. I mean, this is a rite of passage that has to happen for young whites in their 20s. They have to go and

disfigure themselves through modelo light and uh and and beast uh look you ever you remember that 80s album called diver down from van halen vaguely yeah this girl's a huge huge fan luke i don't want to i mean it's just just gonna get the the uh you know the rotation know what? It's actually better than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be like a Greg Lugana situation where she hits her head on the board. Yeah, yeah.

Your score, Luke? Judge Thomas? Yeah. You know what? I'm not going to fat shame her. 10 out of 10. Fuck you. I got one more for you, Luke. Check out what's going on in India these days so there's a guy who pulled over in the blue shirt there to take a

whiz right and I think he's now refreshing himself you see I'm gonna do this to you I'm gonna piss in my hand and then throw it in your face and I'm gonna tell you I'm refreshing you oh I know is R Kelly's loving this this guy is no shame whatsoever Luke I don't know what is I mean is there like a drought there and there's no bottle of water I mean yeah put that thing away all right right. Hey, back at it.

Let me get back in traffic there. Okay. Good thing he didn't wash his hands, too. That's nice. That was supposed to be the end of the shit this week, but too bad Jay's not here, because check out what we found off MTV, Luke. Hold on. Before you play this, hold on.

Set this up, and are we able to hear the audio or not Gaff can you hint all right so the guy the guy in the middle is Jay not the not the former VJ and not the dude on the right but the one with his shirt this is prime Jay this is Jay like show up at Times Square for TRL and wait in line and hope to get on a game show at MTV prime like no escape Jay right listen you might want to get on a game show at MTV Prime. Like, no escape, Jay, right? Listen, you might want to get a blanket from all the douche chills you're about to get from watching this. All right, Dave Holmes, take it away.

Good luck. What are you going to perform for us? In syncs, it's going to be me. It's going to be Mitchell and Jason. Let me hear you guys scream. And they're trying to act like sex symbols. Break it up, y'all. Break it up, y'all! Let's go!

Come on New York! What? Oh! You might be inert, babe. Let me hear you! You've seen them all come and go. Oh, I remember you told me And I made you believe in the world and don't cry

But you're maybe that's why Every little thing I do Push it, never seems enough for you What, you don't wanna lose it again Let's go, but I'm not like them. Maybe when you find the peace. Finally, what? Get to love somebody.

Let's go. Guess what? It's going to be me. Woo! Go, go, go! Mitchell and Jason. Woo! Go, go, go!

All right. Let's bring out Joey. The crowd loves it. Luke. He's going to move on. I mean, look, Jay's pursuit, his pursuit of fame, not what he's grabbed. His pursuit of fame knows no limits.

Correct? You know, I've never wanted someone to get the coronavirus, and I'm not about to start. But if I did, I think I know who I'd want to get it. I was hoping you were going to say I never wanted somebody to have their moment as much as I want Jay Aaron to have his, right? First of all, he's got jeans on

that are from somebody who lost like 100 pounds. That was his style, and you know it was, okay? Then his friend has cargo pants, which, okay, I wore cargo pants in the aughts as well. I can't hate too much. I went to a job interview once. That was probably not a good idea, yeah. In cargo pants? What job?

Were you fucking digging ditches? What are you doing? I don't have to explain my life to you, but yeah. So shout out to Jay. He went for it, okay? He went for it. They liked it. Whoa, look at this.

Look, he got a nine there, right? Caught a niner right there. Now, was this before or after he allegedly knocked out Uriah Hall uh this was before this was I think this is like Rutgers Jay right you know college graduate trying to you know like chasing the muff around you know what I mean and uh yeah that's prime Jay right there I mean here's the thing here's the truth about life. I've done things equally embarrassing, but probably not on television and probably not sober. So, you know, I got a little bit of wiggle room in terms of how culpable I am as a human being. Jay just jumps, I mean, once more into the breach, dear friends.

He just loves it. He's going to have a lot of explaining to do if he ever returns to the show. Wow. You think he banged that friend of his? I didn't want to be really mean, but the chemistry between them was undeniable. I mean, it was, you know, it was, yeah.

Listen, I'm okay with it. You got to live your life the way you want to live it, but I'm just saying. Just own up and just admit it already. Did they bang is the operative question. Yeah. At best, Prime

J is a dime store Timberlake, right? Dime store? I'm not even sure he's the trash on the curb. Come on. Frosted Tips, he went for it. He's in shape, too. Shout out to Jay. All right. Odds and ends.

Hey, Luke, can we get a welfare check on Mike Perry? I don't say that laughing. Did you see the live Instagram story he put out with the broken window and the cut ankle and the ER? Yeah, he needs help. I don't even know what the situation is. I hope he's okay. Obviously, you would never wish bad on him, but he's got issues, bro.

He's been had issues, but they're not getting any better than I can tell, unfortunately. So, hope he's okay. That's all I can say. Hope he's okay. My real, me too. And look, Luke, I just,

like, by somebody like me, who's been sent to hell by Mike Perry, but really enjoys the ridiculousness of him to a limit. Right. To a degree. Right. Like, you see, I don't. It's like going to the zoo and there's a horrible thing, but it's like, you know, it's like going to the zoo to see the exotic peacock. And, you know, you're like, I just got to go up close and see it um am i am i uh enabling him by by celebrating some of these ridiculous no no of course you are everyone is you know everyone is enabling him like if there were real consequences for actions when he was dropping the n-word they would have done something about it now again there might be some not to be

too serious but there might be some actual challenges related to independent contractors and what you can do to them and not given everything else you're doing to them in terms of that versus an employee and some of the tension that that creates. But when the leadership just let them rock doing that, that's not the only reason why this has happened now. It's probably many other things, but it was very emblematic of their you know i i don't think they want bad things to happen to them but uh are they going to take real steps to have a guy associated with their brand have to account for his behavior no not in any kind of substantive way paul daly got let go pretty quick remember that well yeah i mean they're they're at times consistent and sometimes inconsistent so which is to say they're always inconsistent. But yeah, dude, if you let guys just do what they want to do and there's no one ever asking people to mind their behavior

or get help for things where they might have some – I mean, that's really the issue. The issue is not to punish him so much as it is to like, if he's doing things because he has issues, then let's get to a position where we can help him with his issues. And by the way, to let UFC off the hook a little bit, if that person doesn't want it, there's nothing UFC can do. Like they have to want that as well.

But if you want to be in business with this guy, you might have to mandate some more things on a stricter basis is what I would say. So I hope he's okay. I don't want to see him end up in the cage across from War Machine. You know where I'm going with that. All right. My Real Odds and Ends

this week is just what DAZN Boxing seems to have planned for early next year. We know Canelo wants a busy schedule coming back against the mandatory in February. Maybe Billy Joe Saunders in May and then set up for a third fight. So that would take the idea of Triple G Canelo

being next off the front burner. So it looks like you know all reports coming out mike coppinger of the athletics seems to be on top of this that the zone could be angling ganadi golovkin in his ibf middleweight title in the direction of jaime munguia and luke this has all the makings to be uh your fight of the year in 2021 a savage action brawl because look here's the deal about triple g like when he's at his prime he was a destroyer he not only they have the ridiculous power but the amateur craft behind it cutting off the ring all that he still got that he's just a step slow and his biggest fights from here on out i think they're

gonna they're gonna a lot of them are gonna be be like the Derevyanchenko fight. They're going to be absolute wars at a high skill level, but wars. You put him in there with a guy who does not take a step backward and Jaime Munguia, who's young, hungry, and will fight to the finish,

regardless of consequences. This is, this could be special. Like this could be a tell your friends special fight that they're planning up for the first quarter. Fight fans fight. Hardcore fans fight. I'm ready. We should watch this together. We should get your popcorn ready. Let's do this thing.

I had no idea it was even being potentially considered. I gotta tell you, that's a hell of a fight if they make that one. I'd rather see that one than the third fight with Canelo to be honest with you. It's much more newer. Obviously, it's different. It's intriguing. I would love to see one. I'd rather see that one than the third fight with Canelo, to be honest with you. It's much more, it's newer. Obviously, it's different. It's intriguing. I would love to see that.

That'd be awesome. For my odds and ends, March 20th, I think it was announced or reported, it certainly reported that Kevin Holland, who was not the fighter of the year, but maybe you're a runner-up

or honorable mention, depending on how you wanted to rank it, certainly a guy who did a lot with five wins in the course of like seven months or something, his next fight will be in March, first quarter of 2021 against Derek Brunson. You got to love this fight for a couple of reasons. One, Derek Brunson is something of a hype killer. I mean, no one is talking about Edmund Shabazzian at all after that loss to Derek Brunson. So that was a really big moment, not merely in a negative way for Shabazzian, but in a very positive way for Brunson.

Plus, it's very intriguing. It's sort of new up-and-coming guy versus sort of older vet, but still, as we saw against Shabazzian, I would say the best version of him that we've ever seen. Derek Brunson always had a ton of athletic talent and a ton of ability,

but sometimes made weird decisions, like, for example, in the Whitaker fight. But he seems to have ironed some of that out. That's a very tough test for Kevin Holland. Brunson, it's a great opportunity to pick up some of that hype that Holland is rising with, and I love it. I love the matchmaking. They've got current odds.

Have Holland as a very slight favorite. That could change by fight time. March 20th, Brunson versus Holland. It's believed it's going to headline a UFC fight night card night card so be on the lookout for that yeah that's that's fireworks that's badass and i you know if i'm if i'm brunson i keep the cisco haircut seriously it seems to have changed him it worked i mean he's to what you're saying he's taking his foot off the gas just enough to to bring in the right wrinkles and and you know train with the right people and really get down to things like game plans he had been it seemed more of a reactor

uh yeah i mean you mentioned the whittaker fight he just went balls out and tried to win by first round ko and didn't care uh this is the right test at the right time love it love it love it it's great um all right do you, any final thoughts before we wrap up here? Look, this is our first real show of 2021. We did a The Rock recap last Friday on actual New Year's Day, but it was prerecorded. Let's do big things this year, Luke. What do you think? I mean, look, 2020 was massive for the MK brand.

I think it exceeded the expectations that either of us had originally you know you joined the team full-time we expanded we did a lot of cool stuff we you know we didn't get on the road much because of corona but we did some cool stuff we did a damn documentary uh how do we top this in 2021 on the mk side i think one we need to hit 100k this year which we will but we need to make sure it happens um and then anything else beyond that for our subs, number one. Number two, I want to do more with Showtime Boxing, and I want to see what this show can do. I don't know how soon we're going to get on the road. Your February 2021 prediction, BC, was wrong, but my prediction about several years was also wrong. And the good news is I do think that we might have crowds in the United States or North America by the end of the year.

I mean, certainly that's no guarantee. When I say crowds, I mean like not the 6,000 in a 50,000-seated venue, you know, like reasonably full. We might have that by the end of the year. So I'm hoping that we get that and that you and I can take this show and do what it's actually supposed to do. The podcast is fun. It's great. But the show is designed to be a post fight show live on location. It's designed to be like a show that we can have people live attend. It's supposed to be a lot of different things. We just haven't been able to do that by virtue of, you know, the old COVID. So hopefully we can get that under control enough to bring morning combat to bear in the way that it's designed to be brought to bear.

Yeah, hopefully we'll get a new merch launch going. Hopefully we can reach out to our international friends and outfit them just the same. And look, we've, you know, we've effed around and experimented with interviews, done some big stuff. God, your interview with Poirier, I think 20 million people have watched it by now, Luke.

Not quite. Almost 300K, but not so yeah let's get let's continue to push man let's continue to uh and let's do some fun stuff on the side i look i don't think you know i don't i don't you know i could i could bury horowitz myself and the decision makers on this show all day will i do it to the production staffends on the week and hour. But I will say, Luke, that we've got a formula here that you can't reproduce. So let's consummate together and reproduce plenty great episodes. We will be like Jay and his friend on stage

at some MTV show that was short-lived and stupid. But we will make it even more worth your while. Thanks to everyone who's been here since since the beginning which was 2019 technically but uh 2021 i think is going to be certainly the biggest year for growth um of the years that we've been doing this which is a year and a half to this point by the way what will be like the original the original showtime deal that i signed was supposed to expire i mean they may have renewed it but it was supposed to expire at the end of this year. So it was for a year and a half that I had signed.

In that time, the deal got overwritten by virtue of the CBS deal that I signed. But it was supposed to have ended effective January 1st. Pretty amazing how far we've come considering what a gamble that was at the time, dude. It was a big gamble. We didn't know what was going to happen, but here we are. We were playing with house money to a degree. Maybe you gambled a little bit more on your future, but it's become the foundation of what we both do professionally now, Luke.

This is it. It certainly has been. For some reason, CBS is asking me to write, even though it's not in my contract, which I find a little bit annoying. Okay, we'll figure that out. That's fine. Maybe you can work that out offline, Luke. I just wanted to send a comment

because I know they're going to see it and I want to be, you know, a little bit mean about it, but that's okay. All right, if you want to try Showtime, we certainly encourage that. Showtime.com, 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it.

If not, you can go do something else with your lack of spending money that you have not used because it would be free for 30 days. If you want to get some merch, you can go do something else with your lack of spending money that you have not used because it would be free for 30 days. If you want to get some merch, you can go to store.show. That's S-H-O dot com. You can get hats, shirts, mugs, tumblers, the whole nine yards over there. It's nice quality stuff.

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It says submit your questions, but that's less what we want you to do because it's probably an old graphic that they didn't update. Good job, Molka. All right, BC. Well, the year has... Look, I did want to ask you

one question for the road. Yes. What will be the biggest fight, MMA or boxing or a mixture of both, that you and I cover this year? Because that's what Morning Combat does. It sets you up for the big fights to come. It breaks them down. It recaps them.

What will be the biggest fight of 2021? That we are on location for? No, no, no. Just in general. Just in general. That's going to be a big part of our programming. Don't tell me it's going to be Floyd Logan Paul. Don't tell me.

No. Will it be like Conor versus someone for the UFC lightweight title? It's going to be Conor. Yeah. Conor versus somebody. Conor versus Manny Pacquiao in a boxing ring. Something like that. Yeah, dude.

It's going to be Conor for sure. Fury versus Joshua. Conor was not forgotten in 2021. He's too to be Conor for sure. Yuri versus Joshua. Conor was like not forgotten in 2021. He's too big to be forgotten, but he didn't, or 2020, excuse me, but he didn't have the year that he wanted, like not even close. And I think he's itching to have that year this year. So I think we're going to

get a lot of Conor for better or for worse. All right. Shout out to the Schmo breaking some UFC news the other day. Yeah, that's it. Dana loves talking to people. You know, just not people who ask questions about him in a way he doesn't like, I guess. I don't know.

He one time was booked on my show, the UFC booked him on my show, and then the day of, he canceled last minute. I was like, huh, I wonder what that's all about. When was this? Wait, wait, this was Dana White? Yeah, yeah. When?

When was this? This was like three months before my SiriusXM show came to an end. So recently. Well, I think I might have joined you there, Luke, on that side of the fence, okay? Yeah, well, it's a good side to be. Trust me. Public enemy number one, okay?

Yeah, they loved you. This is the face looking to bring down mixed martial arts, okay? I started in Japan, and now I'm going to take it down in the States too, okay? It's really an inside job for boxing to return to prominence where it belongs. That's what Morning Combat's all about, is ruining combat sports. You understand that? All right. So for Malka, for Jay, who's in absentia, for Showtime,

and everybody else involved, that's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. We're from CBS Sports. Until next time, may all of your gains be loyal. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.