MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Gervonta Davis Stops Ryan Garcia | Pavlovich Def. Blaydes | Patchy Mix | Ep 432

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

The boys are finally back together for episode 432! Luke and Brian kick off the show by reacting to Gervonta Davis' win over Ryan Garcia. What's next for Tank? Next up The guys break down Sergei Pavlovich's win over Curtis Blaydes. Where is Pavlovich in the title picture? The guys also discuss Patchy Mix winning the Bellator world grand prix with and a bunch of fight announcements. As always we close out Monday's with DM's from Donks and HYSTS. (00:00:00) - Intro (00:10:00) - Davis vs. Garcia (00:44:30) - Pavlovich vs. Blaydes (00:58:15) - Rest of UFC Vegas 71 (01:04:00) - Bellator 294 & 295 (01:26:15) - Fight Announcements (01:42:00) - Dm's from Donks (01:56:00) - HYSTS Try Black Forest’s TESTO STACK (Testosterone & Muscle Mass): (Code KOMBAT for 10% OFF) https://blackforestsupplements.com/kombat Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

in the words of brian campbell and horny French waiters everywhere, Hi, everybody. Welcome back. It is time for Morning Combat on this April 24th of 2023. My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the capital of the status unidos right here in Washington, D.C., joined by the king of Connecticut and so much more keeping the flame lit as best he could and he did a great job it's my friend and yours it's Brian Campbell what's up BC I'm holding on tight Luke to hold the show together got got back about 11 ish last night but you know that's the life we choose luke so uh i will say i added up the days it's

been 19 days since morning combat has had a live episode with lt and bc so luke finally your most ardent p1s can get off my back because yes you're getting your mma and you're getting your luke thomas all at once right now okay well yes i think the more important story is you're getting a full strength show. Really the show, uh, we come together like Voltron and make something greater. Uh, it's more than the sum of its parts. So full strength show. And boy, do we have a show for you today? Of course, we're going to get to Davis Garcia, which was the crown jewel of the combat sports

weekend. But there was actually a lot that went down. We held out. We had the band, the Bell-Bantamweight Grand Prix come to an absurd and amazing conclusion. Liz Karmush defended her title. And of course, Sergei Pavlovich continues to just be a marauder in the heavyweight division.

We're going to get to all of that. Maybe Nate D has a street fight a little bit too and a whole lot more. So thumbs up if you're watching on the video. Please hit subscribe if you'd be so kind. and if you're listening on your favorite podcast platform do leave us some stars and a nice review um bc i had a great vacation i'm back i know you're feeling not rested i'm feeling pretty good we came back late saturday night i didn't put my kid to bed fully until 2 a.m on saturday night oh wow because of all the all the travel issues it well we got to miami and then it rained and we couldn't take off so everything got delayed real late but

did you did you happen to see any bffs on the trip luke i mean or or should i say forever no i guess i meant to say uh bbls is really where my mind was well it was you know i gotta tell you brian if you go to South America, and in particular party towns in South America, they tend to be in fairly large supply. It's not that hard. You don't have to go looking. They tend to fall right in front of you. So yes, I did.

I had a great time. Dude, I cannot believe this. I told this story to you as soon as it happened. I even sent you a video of my wife confirming it. I was in the middle of a pharmacy in the old walled city of cartagena columbia and some dude right behind my ear goes morning combat and i turn around and it was this american guy and he was like dude i listen to morning combat all the

time dude he even pulled out his phone and then showed me all the things he was listening to he had the mma hour and he had this one in his uh in his lineup Nick Wright as well some other ones super nice guy it's a small world man I mean I realize it's another American and you know it's two American guys reckoning recognizing each other overseas but just for it to happen that way was so fun so cool and I don't know man it was I had a great trip that's that's great Luke that's that's probably the furthest uh the mk has reached up to this point in terms of where you could be in another continent and run into somebody like that um love love what we've built here luke and finally we're back together to bring by the way

have you seen the shits returning today for the first time yes you know in months so this will be a big day this is great hey i i did get you a gift from columbia uh it's tradition i don't quite yeah i don't quite understand it when you're a colombian apparently when you get on a plane you go somewhere you got to bring people gifts i don't quite get it but they do it all the time i find it rather annoying but hey you got to play ball right so i played ball so i thought to myself what's a gift i could get brian campbell that would be like you know, Colombian in nature, but not racist for you to wear. Oh, I got it. I got an idea.

So I came up with this. This is a hat for you that you can wear anytime. Can I wear that around DC, Luke? Can I wear that there? Yes, you can wear it around DC. I'm going to bring this to you the next time we're in studio. You., Luke? Can I wear that there? Yes. You can wear it around D.C. I'm going to bring this to you the next time we're in studio. You obviously don't have to wear it, but maybe we can leave it somewhere. Oh, I'm going to wear it on an MK, okay?

It's either that or the Bob Marley One Love hat, okay? It's a trucker hat, so it's mesh in the back. It's nice and cool. Keep your head cool. Yes. Did you buy that in Carta Vagina, Luke? I didn't buy it cartavagina that's not a place that's not a place although i did i tell you this thing i've been this ecuadorian guy said it last time and it really is true he called uh he was like he's like bro you know americans come to cartagena i was like why because you know i'm

with my family he's like it's the bangkok of south america and i was like all right you know all right sir the sex trade is actually that way thank you thank you very much you'll go downtown and there'll be signs that say like no in Spanish obviously like no sex tourism here um so you know it's a thing but all right I had a great time I'm ready to get this going reminder morningcombat.store you can see it right there you can go get merch you can't get this one but you can get other great stuff like bc's hat for example you can get the one he's wearing right there looking nice um and a whole lot more uh all right bc before we get going before we get going we have to and we've confirmed whether half of our staff is alive and made it

back from las vegas luke so the pre-show call usually has up to maybe a dozen people on it, right? And today's pre-show call had four. The dude running the studio, me and BC, and then basically one of our video social guys, that's it. Everyone else has apparently checked out. But I'm super checked in. I'm ready to do today's show. BC, I've got to remind everyone,

our next partner has a product that you and I use basically every day. Start taking ag1 by athletic greens because i want better gut health more energy and i don't like taking a bunch of pills and vitamins yeah i saw ag2 by the way in hawaii over the weekend calling bellator there mandagara but luke my real best friend this one right here right what do i do each morning i don't know take uh one scoop of the green magic powder put put it in the water, stir that thing up, Luke. And suddenly I'm absorbing 75 high quality vitamins, minerals, whole food sourced, superfoods, probiotics, adaptogens, all the things to help me start my day right. I may screw it up the rest of the way, Luke, but if I could build

that foundation early, I got a fighting chance. That's right. Of course, easy to use. You can use it whenever you're on the road. It good for gut health nervous system immune support and everything else it's lifestyle friendly whether you eat keto paleo vegan dairy free or gluten free contains less than one gram of sugar no gmos or nasty chemicals or artificial anything while still tasting pretty good and you know people like well what does it cost uh how about less than three bucks a day how about if you're already investing in awful habits involving vapes or cold brews? Maybe you should make a change right now. It's cheaper than a lot of habits, to be fair.

And I think it's a great habit because AG1 is a small micro habit that has big benefits. And you could take our word for it, or you could look up 7,000 different people who have put five-star reviews out there. You could actually ask the leading health experts, the Ferris's, the Gervais's. You're going to find out the same thing. It's AG1 or nothing, and nothing is death. Right now, it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition, especially heading into the flu and cold season. Just one scoop and a cup of water every day.

No need for a million different pills or supplements to look out for your health. And look, if you go right now to athleticgreens.com slash morning combat if you're a first-time uh purchaser of this product we're going to throw in the one year supply of immune supporting vitamin d drops the five free travel packs that i just utilized in las vegas visit the website athleticgreens.com slash morning combat all right athleticgreens.com slash morning combat to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. With that in mind, Brian Campbell, we have a show to get to and a big one at that.

So let's kick things off with topic number one. And of course, everyone knows what we're going to do for topic number one. Tank Davis, Gervonta Tank Davis, defeated Ryan Garcia via TKO in the seventh round. He got hit with a body shot and could not answer the 10 count after willingly taking a knee after a bit of a delayed reaction. Of course, he got knocked down in the second round as well to a headshot. The question that we want to start with here, BC, is this. Does this win affirmatively put Tank Davis into the boxing current pound for pound best? And of course, I know some folks had him in the pound for pound best before this.

I guess what I'm saying is, is now that case a slam dunk? Yeah, I really think it should be. You know, he's been right in the back half of my top 10 for a while. I understand there were stretches where we wanted to see better competition, bigger opponents. There's a lot of things people can say when a star is climbing the ladder, but Tank Davis has done that. And then to go in here against such a dangerous fighter and discipline him the way he did.

I talked about it on the post-fight show on Saturday. I want to hear your takes on this fight, Luke. But everything changed with that knockdown in the second round. I mean, it's not the power from Tank. It's everything that builds up and leads to the power. The technique, the timing, all of that. If you don't believe you're watching one of the 10 best boxers in the game right now, I don't know what you're watching anymore.

He had three straight pay-per-view wins in three different divisions a couple years ago, in three different weight classes in succession. Tank is, from an IQ standpoint, like, there's really not many pairs. Seriously. You're watching one of the best of this era executed right now. It's time to give him those flowers, Luke.

It really is. I mean, can we get out of that phase already? Yeah, I got to tell you, before... Well, yeah, I'll just say this. It wasn't like it was this fight alone that does it. But when you were used to do your rankings, I had a little bit of skepticism that Tank belonged in there. In part, not because I didn't think he was really good, I did,

but I wasn't just sure about the level of competition meriting that when some of the other guys were making some big moves at the time in which they were. But now I think the game has changed a little bit. And of course, I did a preview in South Florida when I was there last for this fight. And I really believe a couple of things, BC. One, you can make criticisms of who Tank has fought up to this point, but clearly he's fought better guys than Garcia. I just think that is just very much not up for debate up to this point.

And obviously excluding this point. Obviously, excluding this fight by itself, since it doesn't really count in that sense. But more to that point, man, I think that tune-up fight he got against Hector, even though he was a fellow southpaw, did him some wonders. And I think this fight really showcased, yes, Tank Davis obviously has huge power. About that, there can be no doubt. But this fight really showcased the difference in skill. Ryan was several levels, in my view, behind Tank Davis. You know, it was kind of funny. I was on the plane. I had Wi-Fi. So I was following on Twitter what everyone was saying. And the scores were close. And we'll talk about some of the scorecards that came out in that second round, by the way, which was just bizarre. But I had kind of thought, well, before seeing it,

wow, this fight must have been a little more competitive than I thought. And then I watched it. I was like, no, not really. This was not very competitive at all, quite frankly. There was a couple of good punches. Garcia had, I think, in the fifth couple right hands that were pretty good that got Tank's attention. But that was really about it. Dude, Tank's timing is remarkably good. His accuracy is remarkably good.

His ring craft, his overall iq is super high and i think this fight was the first time a huge audience listen to what i'm saying the first time a big audience finally got tanks got big audiences but i mean this is a separate level of one they finally got to see the overall package about tank because you couldn't complain that he wasn't fighting the guy you wanted him to fight we all knew how dangerous Ryan was and he is dangerous but the overall skill level between the two there was a yawning gap Tank Davis is so much more than a power puncher and frankly Ryan Garcia didn't have an answer for it and to your point when you just look at the top 10 boxers I think it's a little bit hard at this point

to keep Gervonta Davis out of that list. It is because, you know, maybe some of the recent wins didn't wow you in name value, but when you package them all together and you consider the differences in the skill challenge from a big 140-pounder like Mario Barrios down to skillful Hector Garcia, who we just saw in January, who moved up in weight and was an unbeaten champion.

You know, the Isak Cruz in between, which really looks like a very good win right now. And obviously, you know, the bigger ones, the Santa Cruzes and the Sniper Padrazas, the totality of it all, the resume is now there. But again, look at what, I mean, like Ryan's attack, Luke, especially in round two. You know, round one, they just touched, you know, feel and touch, walk around. Round two, Ryan put what ultimately was going to be him and Joe Goosen's game plan in order. And it was use that speed to be dangerous. Put combination punches together and look to land the right hand.

But I think the best part about that was as soon as Tank would go to cover up, they were trying to out-mall him, out-physical him. Ryan was trying to punch on the break while holding Tank with the left arm. These are veteran tactics. These are tactics used smartly by guys who, let's say, aren't as skilled as the guy across them. When you have a speed disadvantage, you've got to be able to use some of these stall tactics.

Them combining that to make it dangerous, it was like, oh, we've got to fight here. This is going to be interesting because Tank was really having to adjust to that combination of speed and power. But, Luke, the second Tank ducked underneath and landed this left hand and changed the fight. I mean, Ryan was gun-shy to even get his jab off because how much Tank was cleanly countering off of that. And when you mix that with a focused body attack

that Tank gave in those middle rounds, man, you're not overcoming that gap that we talked about, the experience gap, the IQ gap in the ring. You know, Ryan had a decent game plan, but as soon as it met opposition, he was done. And very few guys out there could have done that to Ryan Garcia at this weight class. He's going to be dangerous in the future

the more he learns and all of that. I mean, look, that's, that's a surgical what tank did after that knockdown. Absolutely. Surgical. I got to tell you though, speaking to that point, you know, uh, Jim gray interviewed Ryan Garcia after the fight and he asked him, you know, what did you learn? What did you feel? How are you? And he was okay. Again, he was locked. His body was locked up at a moment in time, and it goes away after a little while, and he was fine. But what he said was, he goes, I gave Tank too much respect. I got to say, I thought that was exactly the opposite of the problem. The problem was, dude, all of these guys know that Tank has firepower,

and so they all want to be the one to beat him with their own firepower. They want to beat him with force. It's a terrible game plan, a terrible game plan. Everyone tries to do that. I mean, there might've been specific tactical things that Joe Goosen had assigned for Ryan that would, would have worked well. But I mean, the idea that Ryan didn't give tank enough respect, I actually think that's the opposite way. The reality was he was trying to be too much of the bully, too much of the action, and you just can't do that against a guy with this kind of, let's talk about Tank's power for just a second, because it's more than that, obviously.

It's his timing and everything else. Dude, he is an unforgiving puncher, ladies and gentlemen. Your margin of error with him is very minimal because he's going to place the shot well, he's going to time it when you're mostly defenseless or you don't have great defense, and he's going to put some steam on it that you are simply unaccustomed to dealing with. And that is exactly what happened here with Ryan. More to the point, BC, go back and look at the first time he gets dropped in round two. Ryan is surrendering inside foot position every time, even though he's throwing hooks to the outside. So when he misses it, where is he aligned?

He's almost in front of Tank. So Tank sneaks one around, and the angle is such that Ryan could never see it coming to say nothing of the fact that he was marching into Tank and then throwing repetitive hooks over the side. He did the exact same thing in a sense that Leoo santa cruz had done with multiple hooks over the top what i'm trying to point out here is when you've got a guy who is this merciless and efficient as a puncher and you're trying to beat him with overwhelming offense when his counter punching

is that sharp that is absolutely not the way to beat Tank Davis. It's the way to get stopped, which is exactly what happened. And it just shows, you know, the difference between good or very good fighters and great ones. It's not just being able to adjust to your opponent's most dangerous tool

and finding ways to either take it away or avoid it. It's that adjustment on top of the adjustment on top of the adjustment. You know, that's what, that's a big part of what allowed Floyd to be all time. Great. Right. You know, tank had such a wide advantage on that. I mean, Luke, I give Ryan credit for a couple of things.

Got right up after a hard knockdown in round two. Yes. Needed really was gun shy for a couple couple rounds, but round six, you know, I thought he won that round. And I thought he was back in it from a confidence standpoint. It was at least trying, you know, okay, what can I do after, you know, I think rounds three and four particularly, he couldn't commit to the jab because he didn't know how to adjust off of Tank countering him so quickly and making the adjustment. So ultimately, though, that gap, it was just, I mean, it was massively wide. And should we have known that coming then? Well, I think part of what made this fight unique was we didn't know how good Ryan Garcia really was.

I don't think he knew how good. And he was making a big leap to get into this fight, something I still give him credit for through the weight cut, through all of that. But clearly, Luke, even with the positives that Joe Goosen adds, he's still more hunter athlete than he is pure boxer. And, you know, is he young enough to completely change and learn? Absolutely. What is it in him, Luke? Could he be wired that way? Could Ryan Garcia become a complete fighter who can make adjustments and box off the jab if he needs to? Or is he just going to be

a dangerous slugger the rest of the way? I think ultimately in this fight, he failed that audition, and now it's how bad does he want it moving forward? Because Luke, there are people that are going to say he could have gotten up, or he should have gotten up what do you say to that all right a couple point a couple points i want to answer that one but i want to make one more point if i

may about tank sure i saw people in the run-up to this being like hey isn't this the guy that like struggled with gamboa and couldn't get crews out of there to your point i thought you were exactly correct you go back and look at the isak Cruz fight. In retrospect, dude, you go watch that. I showed BC my notes when I broke that film down. I stopped taking notes after about the seventh round because Cruz had no answer for him. The idea that that fight was close is absurd. He's tough and hard to get out of there, but simply not true. More to the point, you look at the Gamboa fight.

Dude, look at how much better Tank has gotten. The Roley Romero fight was a big crystallizing moment and him learning to deal with pressure heavy punchers getting backed up learning how to juke occupy the jab hand pivot out of bad spots at exit where the foot should be and all the stuff you can see all of those opponents he had from Santa Cruz to Isak Cruz to Gamboa to Barrios to Roley Romero. That stretch really, he changed over the course of that. I don't think folks really paid attention, and now they got a wake-up call. Tank is a very complete, he's a unique boxer.

He doesn't throw a lot, as we all know, but he is so unique in how sharp his counterpunching is, how devastating a puncher he is, and now add all other elements the juking occupying the jab hand the left hook of garcia was the right hand was a much better weapon in this fight for garcia than the left now answering about the the knockdown i i just listen the reality is you have a big fight you're going to get bigger audiences and when you get bigger audiences you're going to get much more casual takes um that isn't to say that only casuals are saying that ryan quit there are people inside of boxing who are saying it as well i i simply don't really care do tank is arguably you know i mean sub 170 pounds in boxing i'm not sure who the pound for pound hardest puncher is well maybe less than that he does a punch like Canelo but certainly you know Tank's power is enormous and carries up

several weight classes and already has as he's moved through he is a he is a fiery as I mentioned before merciless unforgiving puncher but the truth of the matter is like you get hit with a body shot like that it looks like Ryanyan was choosing to stay down because he simply didn't want it anymore there might be something to that but bc you got to give ryan some credit pardon me here this guy the entire time has wanted to be great oh this guy this entire time has called down the thunder this guy this entire time wanted the smoke and he got it and it proved to be a little bit too much for him i simply do not buy knowing how devastating a puncher is and by the way who was the last tall right hander that davis

put down with a body shot it's mario barrios who he did it to up a weight class, ladies and gentlemen. In a close fight. Huh? In a close fight on the card. In a close fight. The idea that like, dude, if you watch the Barrios fight, nothing here is, they're not the same boxers, but in terms of body dimensions and stance dimensions, nothing is really all that different.

And they ended in virtually similar circumstances dude Ryan Garcia got hit with a shot that would make the rest of you piss blood and cry oh there's no question about that so there's no my point is could he have gotten up we have no way of knowing here's how we'll know here's how we'll know how does he respond to this what does he show us the idea that this means he's automatically a quitter I simply do not accept so I don't bring that up in the way that that you'd assume I do which is the natural knee jerk and by the way Oscar De La Hoya went through the same thing in the Bernard Hopkins fight did he quit is he not tough enough I'm not I'm not gauging Ryan's toughness in this questioning

because as you said he you know was he ready for tank on like an experience level or you know had he beaten enough guys that you would have wanted them to before fighting tank in reality no but this is the way it went we got this great fight and that's because of him so no i don't question that i wonder more about like because you know the no one no nowhere are there more cynical people than on boxing twitter and i think the knee-jerk reaction from people on there were like oh this shows that you, if he could have gotten up and didn't, this shows that he's like, he doesn't want this. You know, like he won't be in this sport for the long haul. And I disagree with that.

My question is, though, OK, you know, because there's strategic ways, like you said, if he just knows, look, you know, I'm worn down. I'm hurting here. If I get up, he's going to headhunt, and he could take me out and hurt me. Let me preserve myself for the future. Well, there's certainly some potential smarts in that. I guess I do have questioning about, like, he wants to be a star. He's tough as nails. He was willing to fight to get this fight.

All that stuff is great. Could you see him at 24 learning from this in the same way, let's say, Canelo did against Floyd? Where, I mean, Canelo raised his game from a technical aspect, you know, like not night and day because Canelo was always a thoughtful counterpuncher. And, you know, not the Chavez mold. But, dude, he became a technician after losing to Floyd. It was a wake-up call in a lot of ways. Do you think that same wake-up call is in there for Ryan, or is this just his style? He's a gunslinger. That's who he is. So I think it can be, but there was something I heard, and it was, you know, I didn't hear

everything pre-fight because I was on vacation. I tried to pick up what I could. But I did see one place where Joe Goosen was talking about how when he works with Ryan, he doesn't tell Ryan what to do, that it's more of a collaborative effort. Didn't love that. Didn't love that. I'm not in the training room. And certainly I want to be very clear. Joe Goosen is the guy, if Ryan wants to be a champion who I think can take him there I have enormous respect for what Joe Goosen can do what he has done and who he is but even as

good as Joe Goosen is it doesn't matter if the other person doesn't want to let you in you you have to want to be coached you have to want to be changed and it sounds to me if you're collaborating with the guy and he's this technically far behind his opponent in this particular case again this ain't this ain't Javier Fortuna then I think that dynamic needs to change he needs to be a student again not like I mean you should collaborate when you're in your like early to mid 30s when it's already very clear what skills you have but maybe you can sort of, you know, you can ask for advice here and pick up something there and you work out the details and, and that's what it is. Ryan is still, I think fairly far behind in his development relative to the guys he's got his sights on. So can he be that time is on his side? I do think athleticism,

he's got plenty of it. Clearly he's got firepower as well in the right circumstance, but between the footwork, some of the choices the choices you know giving up his height and reach by walking the guy down and into that range where it made it possible he's got dude he's got stuff to work on and that's if he wants to be who he is in his mind and i think he can be but there has to be an attitude change about where he actually is right now in order to get to right over there i think he's got enough of a fighter's heart where you know he's going to come back and you know could he win a world title absolutely but he is in the midst of this group of four princes or whatever you want to call it this young era of guys in 135 and 140 who have the potential to be like superstars.

And a lot of those guys are absolute technicians, right? So, you know, think the Shakur Stephensons, the Devin Haney's, those type of guys. So you do wonder what this does to Ryan's identity moving forward. But I think he's back and I think he comes back in a big way. I love the, I mean, you love everything it took for him to get into this fight. But Luke, in hindsight, was the the 10 pound rehydration closet factor. I think it was, I think it was, I don't, I, here's what I'll say. I think it definitely drained him.

Not so much like, um, in the moment per se, but overall, I just, you know, he even said afterwards, I'm going to go to one 40. Like he, well, he didn't even hesitate. He wasn't like, eh, no, but overall, I just, you know, he even said afterwards, I'm going to go to one 40. Like he, well, he didn't even hesitate. He wasn't like, no, he was, I'm going to one for he's a one 40 fighter, right? Like we should just say that he's a one 45. He has been at one 35 guy at times, but really his best weight class, he's a one 40 fighter. So he wanted to fight, take down a weight class. I, you know, he signed the contract. It is what it is. I think it probably had some effect some effect i do the problem with that argument is even if it's true and i think i think that it is the level of skill difference means that tank probably would have won that one regardless and

you go oh well he would have had better punching resistance maybe maybe but the reality is dude tank barely got touched in this fight and i want folks to go back to the most important stat in this whole fight. Through two rounds, Tank landed four punches, and Ryan still hit the canvas. That only happens when you've got, yes, a dynamic puncher, but when he's hitting you when you are cleanly wide open. I want to be clear that Ryan was getting hit when he was wide open. And the window for that is small. But against a guy like Tank, that's all that guy needs, dude.

He doesn't need a huge window. He's Aaron Rodgers in his prime, finding the wide receiver at the narrowest of windows in the end zone. Yeah, those guys can do stuff like that. So, you know, for me, it's like, I think the rehydration clause did play a role. They didn't put it in there by accident, but you just got stopped earlier than you probably would have.

Tank was going to win that one 10 times out of 10. Right, and the problem was always going to be for Ryan, Luke, that, you know know we saw how how getting knocked down and a lot of credit for getting right back up and have you know he didn't have he didn't have jangy legs afterwards i mean uh he was like right back in it but if if he would have let's say he had more gas in the tank or more energy or whatever but if you go after tank even with the dynamic attack dude that does speed up the process of getting you out of there. And, you know, for anything of trying to diagnose

that single body shot that dropped him and could he have gotten up and all that, like Tank had put a lot of work to the body the previous rounds to set that up. Yes, it went a little bit unnoticed on the broadcast. I love those guys. They're trying to call a million things. You know, you can't get them all right.

But definitely I want to point out, Tank was working that body up until that KO, right when it all right but definitely i want to point out tank was working that body up until that ko right when it happened also i want to point out something about tank dude like we'll talk a little bit about david morale when he would he beat the hell out of falcao in the co-main event which was a last minute replacement but bc i want to point out something i'm coughing up my lungs i got sick sick in Colombia, by the way, so that sucked. But what I want to point out is look at when Tank finds the opening. He finds it when his opponents are attacking. This fight against Garcia, Roley Romero lunging in. When did he get stopped?

Right in the middle between his punches. Mario Barrios between his punches. Leo Santa Cruz between his punches. Dude, he gets these guys on the attack. The idea that more attack, even if Garcia would have been fresher to do that, would have been the problem. It's like, dude, your attack is not so much your problem. Your problem is your defense. Your defense is simply not really up to speed. And the way he puts himself in position to attack against a guy that's good is not up to speed. That's the problem. So like, yeah, he got drained from that weight cut

and everything else, but levels, levels, everybody. Tank was several, several above him. BC, to that point, let's talk about what's next for Tank. So this put him in a very exalted spot as a star in boxing, but it now puts a little bit of competitive pressure on him about which next fight to take. And that's always been there for Tank, but now it's really ratcheted up because we've got an upcoming bout in the same division between Devin Haney and Vasilij Lomachenko

for all the belts. So the question is, what does Tank do next? Does he fight the winner of Haney Loma? Does he fight Shakur Stevenson? and to what extent are any of those guys yes a tougher matchup but in particular in what ways makes them a tougher matchup for Tank well look outright first and foremost Devin Haney and Shakur Stevenson are those those are tough very tough matchups for Tank like they are very tough because you know in the case of Haney you've got size and length on tank and, you know, just a full, a complete game and a full understanding of distance control and, you know, the purest purity of boxing. I mean, sometimes Haney can get young Floyd comparisons

in some of those, you know, elements of the game. And obviously Shakur Stevenson, it's just different altogether. He is like, you know, if anyone would ever deserve a comparison to Floyd, when Shakur gets it, I don't cringe because you're watching a Southpaw who may not have the power, but has next level everything else. I would love, love, love to see both of those against Tank and see how, you know, if that forces him to throw more punches or if his power can, you know, discipline them in some ways. I mean, look, those are tough matchups on paper right now. But are they likely coming off of this, even if this pay-per-view does great numbers that people are expecting

and there's that potential for ripple effect of, hey, some of those stars did watch what Ryan just did. Should we follow that? I don't think that means automatically we're getting the winner of Haney, Lomachenko against Tank next, or that anyone's even going to try to pursue that at the moment. The good news, how we sort of, you know, look, all these guys are going to move up to 140 before it's all said and done. So we already understand that. But I think the good news is there are it's such a deep pool right here that like, you know, Shakur Stevenson wants the winner of Haney Lomachenko.

So if that's if that's a path, depending on Haney's contract situation and where he's going to be, that's amazing. What about on this side of the bracket, Luke, as we see Garcia moving back up to 140? We know Teofimo's there at 140. He's going to fight Josh Taylor. Ramirez is still there, so they may be all locked up. What do you think about the idea? Because I know nobody likes my Manny Pacquiao idea, even though I think it's freaking brilliant. And I would be willing to defend that if people didn't think I was crazy look um what about we start building toward tank against Frank Martin oh I hadn't even thought about that yeah oh shit right like come on dude that is a

sick fight wow dude I hadn't even thought about frank martin wow wow i love that fight i love that fight that's a great and they're both under pbc so you could make it relatively easily boy i gotta tell you though man that's a tough fight for for frank uh tough fight either way tough fight either way but i mean you'd favor that that's a great idea bc but frank's rugged he fights so well on the inside precise i mean like he's got he's he can box like he's you know he's i mean he's got he's got derrick james in his corner and there's only you know three men in the world that can say that professionally right now for a reason so yeah um that would be a hell hell of a fight that's a that's a that's a tough fight for frank and that's a risky fight for uh sorry that's a tough fight for Frank, and that's a risky fight for, sorry, that's a tough fight for Frank Martin

and a risky fight for Tank Davis. I love that idea, though, dude. That would be a, you want to talk about testing those guys, and they've got, both those guys have, like, great fight IQ. Boy, you'd be testing it. You'd be testing it. You make any mistake against one of those guys, you will pay for it.

Frank Martin has one of the best pull-two counters in the game i love that idea bc jump back on what i was talking about there and you and i were talking about this over text how tough are is the idea uh and no disrespect to loma chanko who's obviously in this mix too but if we're talking about haney and shakur like tanks on the pound for pound level with them but would you favor them to beat him or would it be the other way around? Man, those are some interesting fights to think about. So I'll tell you, I'll tell you this. Both, getting back to what I said about Ryan Garcia,

he's like, oh, I gave him too much respect. No, opposite problem. You didn't have enough. Haney and Shakur are, in theory, bad matchups for him. And the reason I think that's true is because both of those guys are absolutely surgeons with their distance they are clever with their setups but more to the point they've got the footwork they've got the ring craft to be able to touch and go none of those

guys are going to be able to put Tank Davis's lights out and uh should be very clear they wouldn't even try like Stevenson couldn't do it and neither could Haney but they definitely have enough to frustrate Tank land on him and exit especially against a guy in Tank who as we've said doesn't throw a lot now with Haney the counter to that is that I've seen him get hit in a 12-round and get rattled under duress. And I do think that tank would land on him and land on him big. I think the Haney tank one would be real close, but you can see stylistically how Haney would give him problems. Something akin BC, something slightly akin to Canelo Arislandi Laura, a little bit, a little bit of that where you had to chase the guy down

and he's rotating on the out. So there's a little bit of that on the other side though stevenson stevenson has no hope of knocking out tech by the way we should say the tank's got a pretty good chin too um but but the sharpness of movement the sharpness of every detail yeah that shakur stevenson has yeah dude that's going to give tank real genuine genuine, hardcore problems. Make no mistake about it. Do you think there's any, like, okay, win or lose Lomachenko against Haney? Do you think there's any chance a Lomachenko-Tank fight would ever make sense and anyone would go after it? Yes.

I mean, we all would love to see it, but in the business structure, is that possible? You would know more about the business structure side of things than I mean, we all would love to see it, but in the business structure. Is that possible? I don't know. You would know more about the business structure side of things than I would. But I think, like, the thing is, if he looks bad against Haney, maybe not. You know, but if he looks, you know, something on the order of what Derevyanchenko looked against Triple G or something, where he had, like, well, it was an inspiring fight, but you kind of lost in the end.

That, I think, there would be an appetite for. Again, whether top rank and PBC could make a deal, I simply don't know. But yes, there could be ways where that's both an interesting fight and also one that the public would have an appetite for. But people are asking me like, oh, is Shakur or the winner of Loma Haney next? It's like, no no I think Tank's going to take at least one fight in between any other major uh step up in competition maybe maybe two you know well Pitbull Cruz keeps winning and keeps calling out Tank so you know that wouldn't

be my first choice but that's you know that's certainly also going to be out there do you like the idea of uh Ryan Garcia and Teo Fimo one day at 140? Yes, but even as suspect as Teo has looked since beating Lomachenko, I still think he's levels above Garcia. Yeah, I agree. So it's like I think Garcia needs to take a tune-up fight next. I know he doesn't want one. He probably wants to go right back into the smoke,

but I think it's really important both to get his confidence back and continue to work on some of the things that are holding him back. He's got some of the great things that you need, but not enough of the other missing pieces to cover up, you know, like for example, tank doesn't have a really high output, but for all the other reasons he can kind of get away with it. There's too much missing in Ryan's game.

I think right now for a Lopez fight to make sense for him, especially coming off of this kind of stoppage with my tail can thump too by the way like tail is not the hard hitter that tank is but he can land on you oh yeah so so something to think about all right before we close the book on Davis versus Garcia quickly in the co-main event now it was a last minute replacement but David Morrell out of Cuba now Minnesota of all places he just absolutely wiped the floor with Yamaguchi Falcao. What can we really say about this victory? Because he wants to fight with David Benavidez.

Benavidez wants to fight with Canelo. I'll say this, BC. I would love to see Benavidez versus Canelo more than I want to see Morel versus Benavidez. But if we can't get Canelo in that equation, I would be all too happy to see Morel fight Benavidez. For folks who don't know, this dude, David Morel, might just be the next big thing in

boxing if he can get the right matchups and keep going. Dude, this division is already loaded and offers us so much beyond what we just saw with Plant Benavidez, which was great. If Jamal Charlo moves up soon, you know, Demetrius Andrade, we always just count down the names that are available. But like, Morel has gone from like, dark horse, you know, hey, he might turn into something here

to like, I'm not sure he doesn't get to the championship round in this, you know, unofficial 168-pound bracket as we start to narrow down. Obviously, the matchup we all want is Canelo versus Benavidez. And if it, if it could be made like right now,

no problem. And everybody wanted that they would Luke, but you know, I just, I feel like Canelo wants to be of all fight more or first or whatever, dude, Morel's going to be a problem for Benavidez. So there are levels to competition for sure.

Morel's only got nine pro fights. He's 25 years old. You know, he won that secondary title in his third pro fight. Like he's already been daring to be great at a, like a Lomachenko level yet without as big of an amateur career that would give you the, you know, the, the, the balls to do something like that. I know that there's levels to the guy he just beat here and Eidos Yerb a league who he had you know beaten and injured really badly in the last fight but every fight he's jumping through your screen for like different reasons you remember last fight it was like the defense and the quickness and all that sort of like showmanship to it and now it's just the absolute crushing one

punch power but Luke he's also a southpaw that can box with some Cuban school background to him. Like, you add in, like, humble as a hard worker, but, like, cocky in his self-belief. He loves to dance and sing, and he did karaoke with Akin Brock, some reggaeton, Luke. I mean, this was like, this is a guy who wants to be an absolute stud.

Obviously, it's a different level than when you go in hell with Benavidez. But I'm here to tell you, I think he's ready for that hell. I don't know if he wins that fight, Luke, but he's ready for it. And if Benavidez is about that life, then maybe this is the fight we should focus on next. Because this would be a hell, a hell of a matchup. Yeah, I don't have much to add because there just wasn't much to the fight. I don't know what's going to happen next.

I find the idea that Morel will get Benavidez next unlikely. I think it's probably the best way to put it. But I just want to make one note for the broadcast, for folks to take home from this. Please pay attention to the career of David Morel Jr. This dude is... David? That's how you say it and where he's from, David.

All right, all right. I mean mean what do you want me to do i don't make the rules bro i don't make them out of sonia god no it's it's like you ever seen the movie red uh god now i got in my head all messed up red red sonia sonia yeah there you go that's no one says arnold schwarzenegger starred in red sonia just red sonia um or brigitte nelson too was in the movie i think that was her uh anyway this kid from cuba keep a close eye on him he is destined for very very big things all right let's talk a little ufc topic number two so we go to ufc vegas 71 ah the old apex

the place that everyone is absolutely sick of, but the UFC keeps going back to. So we had a card up there. It was funny, BC. I always know that I can skip things when I miss it, and then I tweet like, hey, what did I miss from the weekend's Apex card? And like two-thirds of the reply is nothing.

Don't watch. Don't bother. It's like, god damn, that card must have sucked. But all right. The main event, definitely pretty intriguing. Sergey Pavlovich just absolutely runs over Curtis Blades. BC, I want to talk about Curtis Blades and some of the decisions he's made,

but we got to celebrate the winner here first. Sergey Pavlovich, what is this now? Six fights in a row where he's dusting people off inside the first round, something absurd? Yeah, that's a UFC record. Yeah. What do you make of what kind of threat he is? And I to point this out or at least put it to you does a fight with john jones make any sense hell yeah it makes sense i mean look john jones is going to get the tough matchup

the historical elements of fighting stipe which could very well be stipe's last fight and that's great but if he wants to hang on his heavyweight title it's going to be quickly about who's next right Aspinall's coming back from injury and Pavlovich has just earned a title shot in my opinion I mean what else would he have to do these are you know up and down the six names there's some big names on there that jump out at you and this is like very Shane Carwin like who you know they couldn't avoid and got him into the title picture here. Is he good enough where we can make, like, serious talks about him being a threat to John Jones? Well, power, yes. But I kind of like to some degree that we don't actually know those other answers.

I would have loved, as you are probably about to say, that Blades shot more and really tried to show us what are Pavlovich's limitations outside of that early knockout loss he had to Overeem, but since then, six straight names in the first round. We didn't really get that, but considering he's got the same reach as Jon Jones and considering he seems to have the type of power where just even touching you starts to change the momentum of the fight. Yeah, dude, of course, man.

I mean, this would be a hell of a fun challenge to see the great John Jones decode and, and, you know, try to, try to, you know, try to, try to blow them up in front of everybody and, you know, take them down and wear them out. But I don't know if you get there. I don't know, Luke, we haven't seen enough to know, but we've seen enough to know too much that it's time. It's freaking time right now. See, here's the thing. I just don't find that fight very likely, right? I mean, the problem is, like,

Sergei is doing things that are, like, almost Ngannou-esque. I mean, not quite the same, like that, you know, that sending Overeem's head into orbit the way he did is, you know, not exactly what happened here, so you don't get the same kind of appeal. also like you know putting on these apex cards they're not doing a whole lot for his star power to be perfectly honest with you like he's just sort of quietly putting together these like an amazing win streak um but there's just no juice to it like why would Jon Jones I mean maybe Jon Jones wants to fight all these new guys but I have a feeling he just wants to fight any guy with a name and then be done and Pavlovich is an interesting test but

he's not an interesting name insofar as John Jones is concerned uh so you really believe if John like submits Stipe in the second round or something that like that's it I. I mean, I just, if he, if John has his way with Stipe after like absolutely dominating gone, dude, he's going to watch this tape on Pavlovich and go, okay, hits hard. Okay. Interesting with this long reach, but I'm John Jones. I'm going to calf kick the shit out of this guy. I'm going to shoot in. I mean, you know, I'm going to, I mean, I'm that John, the name John Jones still carries a lot of critical merit here, Luke, especially in this division.

You're not walking away from this. Come on. He looks at this guy and says, let me gas him the frick out. At least give Jon that respect. It's not that I don't think Jon could win. It's not really that. It's that, you know, Stipe's, what, 40 or right at it, you know? And Gon is not, but has a very lopsided game,

I think is a good way to put that. And so, but also had a bit of a name in the division, so, like, there's some value to beating him and everything else. Pavlovich is 30, has the same reach as him, hits like an absolute fucking Mack truck, and beating him gets you only credibility with, you know, a thousand hardcores on Twitter. Like, and by the way, I just want to point out something too. Like, you know, John looked flawless against gone for however long that lasted, but

in this game with four ounce gloves, just a very minor error can be catastrophic, especially at heavyweight. It can be catastrophic. You just, it's a lot of risk for very little reward given the mantle of Jon Jones and what he's built to this point. I'm not saying it's not an interesting fight for you or me or perhaps the audience who's watching here. He might have a chance to fight Aspinall in like a soccer stadium

in front of 80,000 people one day defending the title. That's a little different. Aspinall's got a name. Aspinall's got a country behind him. It's a little different. That's a little different. Again, it's not one ingredient or the other. It's sort of the combination of them. And I think the combination of Sergei makes him an interesting challenge on a very technical level. But beyond that, in terms of fight promotion or what John wants to risk, like, what are you going to give up and what are you going to get for it? I don't know that Pavlovich really scratches that itch,

but the bigger point to me is, dude, here's the interesting thing about this fight that I really took away from. Curtis Blades, like, everyone's going to kill him for his decision-making where he shot, I think, one time, maybe, maybe twice or something, like, hardly at all, right? And the one shot that he did get stuffed it was a very half-assed shot it wasn't even like a really great one on the feet if you actually go back and watch curtis drills him with a right hand clean several times yeah several times he lands on him hard and Pavlovich just kind of ate it I can understand why Curtis thought aha I don't need to wrestle this guy I can fucking drill him whenever I want

but it goes back to the point I just made that those things were real like he was landing pretty effectively but Pavlovich has a very sneaky uppercut where he starts this way and then it kind of shoots up and it caught him right between his guard he wasn't expecting it at all this is what i mean slight little errors they they can just be very very very costly so you know i do think that curtis blades probably would rethink his game plan if he had a second opportunity on the other hand i just want to give him a little bit of credit and say i can understand why he thought he might have been better on the or safer i should say on the feet than he actually was i mean it's tough he's so talented and he's and he's essentially becoming the title level gatekeeper bridesmaid at every turn some of the

decision making hasn't been great i mean you could go that route here and critique of him but i hate to see that because i know how hard he works but and and how long he, you know, he's got to come back from some disastrous losses and regroup and then sometimes looks fantastic in doing so. But man, this was rough, Luke. This was rough. But I didn't want you to close the chapter on Jon Jones. I have to ask you this question. Do you think it's because we did not get striking heavyweight answers to the Jon Jones? How will it look at heavyweight question against gone?

Is that holding you back from believing that, that John could mop up this division and then would, and then would be willing to want to do so? Um, maybe a little, maybe a little John's got, uh, got a great chin,

uh, over the course of his career. It's been tested a few times and he has been in large part, uh, pretty good about it.'s got a great chin over the course of his career. It's been tested a few times, and he has been in large part pretty good about it. He has a legendary chin. Can we give him that respect as well? Yeah, I mean, he doesn't put it out there to be touched all the time, but when it gets hit, he has done quite well, and he keeps his composure and obviously has performed quite successfully.

I just feel like he's glory hunting. And I don't mean that. There's plenty of criticisms you can make of John. This is not one. I just think he's glory hunting. I think he's hunting big-name targets, big-name opponents, big-name opportunities. What's the minimal amount of work I can do to get the most maximum gain? And beating Gon was one of them.

If Francis had been there, that would have been a better one obviously and then Stipe provides some value short of that who is the other person in this division that adds to that particular calculus in a meaningful way I don't really know the answer to that I don't think that there is one there are certainly tough challenges in front of him Pavlovich would be a tough one and again the striking part of it makes it interesting because they'll get the reach and his power and how unforgiving it is um I just don't feel like John is in a space where he's like I want to prove how good I am against the current field of contemporary heavyweights I think what he wants is show me the biggest uh game that I can hunt with two rounds on the Savannah. That's who he wants.

And it's those two guys and probably it. Looks like he's good and all, but what would he say about his 20s? I mean, really? You know, I mean, come on. What would he say? I could not disagree with you more. I think he would take, I don't know, dude. I mean, dude, John's going to fight Francis one day in the octagon you you are aware of this right if francis gets back

to the ufc yes otherwise you know so there i think there's plenty of for john to do and i you know i look we don't know about dude you have no idea how good pavlovich is we have no idea i mean he's pretty damn scary but we have no idea how how how championship good he is right i mean what happens if he gets wrestled to his hands and then beat up on the ground or leg kicked and he can't jab you know it's like oh it was alexander romanoff the whole time and he had the mask on you know it's like yeah that can easily happen right yeah he can he can unravel uh you know beating so that's what happened to francis before he fought stipe right just bulldozing all these guys and then he fights stipe and it's like oh, he's totally underdeveloped.

And then he had a second chapter, too. Yeah, I mean, listen, I'm excited about the future for Sergei Pavlovich, especially after his very slow initial start against Alistair Overeem, a guy who I've been skeptical about. I'm not really skeptical about in terms of at least that first round and how absolutely devastating and dangerous he is. I'm just, and I would welcome a Jon Jones fight. I just don't think Jon's going to give it jones fight i just don't think john's gonna

give it to him and i don't think john wants that kind of stuff i guess we shall see i don't know we should just get him on the show and have him answer the question directly to us luke right i'm sure he'd love i'm sure he'd just love to come right on and talk to me and you i'll go right to dana we'll book it right now yeah that'd be fine okay yeah why don't you text dana and tell him we need john on the show, see what he says. With Curtis Blades, he's 32. It's certainly not over for him in any kind of respect, but it feels to me, BC, he was a guy who's been, you know,

obviously the wrestling is what kind of got him here for the most part, but more recently has been really working on his hands. I think he really wants to show that i i want to point out again he was landing really vicious shots on sergey who just kind of ate him which by the way that won't last much longer either um but it almost looks to me like he's kind of forgotten the you know that he's not dancing with the one that brought him here do you think he should begin to not like just go back to a hardcore Matt Hughes wrestling only ground-to-pound, but maybe mixing it up a little bit more?

Yeah. It didn't look like he was in the best physical shape that we've seen of him in the past as well in this fight in particular. I believe that's right because, look, we've seen it a couple of times where he's trying to rely on his striking against elite-ish strikers. Yeah. So if there is another run on him, it's like, you look at his record, it's like, damn.

I mean, the losses are devastating, but they are spaced out. There's like four wins between each one. I mean, you're not going to rush him and gone back against each other in a loser-leaf title contention town match, right? No, right? No, I don't think so okay okay yeah then you know yeah there is another run and a rebuilding and if that's the case luke that he's got to lean on that strength man i mean he he can hurt the second level heavyweights and knock them out even but it is different at that elite level so against the elite i mean the same

thing i've been saying about vittori too luke It's like you do have to pick a lane that's your best strength and your best chance of upsetting the field and winning the title and kind of lean in it and go after it if you're not going to be on the same all-around level as these elite champions. I'll just say this. He's got a little bit of Michael Bisping in him. Now, Michael Bisping obviously broke through in the end, right? He beat Rockhold and got his revenge on Dan Henderson and subsequently lost, but he got the title. He had that moment where everything finally came together and he broke through, albeit on short notice or whatever.

It feels to me like Blades is kind of occupying the same space. He's going to beat most of these guys the vast majority of the time, but once he gets up to the upper tier, he just finds himself a little bit wanting in more devastating ways. Although two of those losses are to Francis, but you get the idea. I'm just sort of pointing out, he's still 32. He's still a good athlete, a great athlete. He still has really good wrestling. And obviously, I think his striking is better

than folks are giving him credit, despite the results here. But I also believe that there's still another gear he has to hit, which he's not at in order to be able to be really competitive with the top tier of guys in this division I think part of that gets back to a much more defensively minded game he just seemed also BC again everyone wants to beat everyone with firepower in this game and you can do that under certain circumstances but I'm going to just say I think defense is just criminally underrated across the board in combat sports and especially in mma defense first offense second for

a lot of these guys would i think give them better winning streaks yeah john jones has great defense right and he's a champion like i mean the two are not a coincidence to be very clear um also from this card let's talk about this point number three bc two more things on this ufc vegas 71 carl there was a really interesting thing that happened did you see the semelsberger and um who did he fight the semelsberger kid uh with wells do you see the semelsberger wells fight i did not watch this fight semelsberger basically in the first like minute 90 seconds had wells walloped through all three rounds but then like the last 330 of every round he got controlled and like not just control but like beat up on the

ground so like one of the score that they read the scorecards as follows 30 27 wells which you can understand right you can make sense of that doesn't sound like the fight was close but if each round was close you can get there. Then another judge had it 29-28 for Semelsberger, which you can also understand. You're like, okay, I can get how you thought that the first part of the round did better work than the last part of it in these two cases. And then the third judge had it 30-27 back for Wells. So you had these really weird scorecards and really weird tests about how you judge. How do you judge.

How do you judge a fight where one guy gets his ass kicked for 90 seconds or, you know, beat up pretty bad and dropped in many cases, but then it comes back and then stomps on the guy the rest of the round. It's really kind of strange, but that's not what I want to ask you about. What I don't ask you about is what would be a fair outcome and listen to the words I'm saying what's a fair way to handle the situation between Bobby Green and Jared Gordon where a headbutt caused Gordon to collapse he gets hit on the ground and polished off they called it a no contest but remember Chris Curtis didn't get the benefit of that against Kelvin Gastelum yeah so what's the right outcome here I feel the right outcome is is what they ended up doing looking at the video you know talking back and forth not making a hasty decision and then figure

it out that's not a fair way for a guy to lose the fight because they didn't see the follow in real time had they seen it they would have stopped giving them the time to recover suddenly he's down in a vulnerable position and then getting beat up yeah Luke that can't be a win so they got it right this time no question about it if you have replay and it's in the laws and you can use it why wouldn't you so all was good in this one okay true they got it right i'm not mad at how they adjudicated it but it's a really clear example of why the split between show and win money is just a travesty in this game. You heard afterwards Bobby Green being like, pay me my money. Yeah, dude, he's right. What did he do wrong? Yes, the headbutt, he did land, but he clearly was not trying to headbutt

Jared Gordon. He led with his head, but they're Southpaw Orthodox, and we know that in boxing, kickboxing, MMA, doesn't matter. When you have open stance like that, you're going to get clashes, head clashes, because they're dipping to the same side a lot of the same times. Sure enough, it's what you got here as well. And I want to point out something in these guys' contracts. I've seen UFC contracts. They don't break it down win and show.

They break down here's your purse, and then if you win, here's your bonus. They need to stop taking a purse splitting it in half and then calling the second half of it a bonus it's not a bonus well that guy's money they're saying is is if you don't handle your business and get the knockout we'll just keep the extra money you know that's what they're saying luke that's really it okay so uh and then lastly, BC, from the UFC 71 Vegas card, any thoughts on Bruno Silva and his first round stoppage over Brad Tavares? Now, Brad Tavares complaining that the stoppage was a little early. I think the referee was Dan Mergliata, if I'm not mistaken.

And I went back and I watched it. It did look a little early. It did look a little early. Although Bruno Silva was certainly on his way he had dropped Tavares with a hard right hand over the top and sent him packing there but nevertheless any takeaways from this contest about what it means for Bruno Silva who by the way folks might remember this you know he didn't win but he gave Poetan Alex Pareda a pretty respectable fight before Pareda fought Izzy the first time.

I think when Pineda went in there against Izzy, and let's say if Izzy would have knocked him out at the end of round, what was it, one or two, when he had him really badly hurt, I wonder if we would have looked back and said, oh, that Bruno Silva fight was a more accurate showcase of the limitations of Pineda. But it didn't go that way. But look, this is the comeback win he needed, Luke. Apparently we do talk about Bruno in your household when it makes sense.

But he had been on that knockout run against names we respect before that two-fight losing skid. So, you know, we had reason to wonder if we have something here. His ability to reset and get that even with the questionable stoppage. In some ways, if you're going to be a threat still to this division you got to handle a guy like Tavares and you know look he handled him so um it was good to see him bounce back in that regard there's still something to watch there yeah Bruno Silva to me they had the fight against Pineda yeah he showed himself to not be good enough to beat Pineda but like a worthy adversary definitely a worthy adversary

in that fight and he's got a bit of a loose open style. I'm not sure how far he can carry that, but he's definitely dangerous. He is, he puts a lot of pressure on guys. He can strike from distance very far. He can, you know, he obviously covers distance really well with his punches. Uh, he puts them together in combination. He's not afraid of contact. He's going to beat some guys that I don't think folks are necessarily expecting. At least maybe now they might, but certainly up to this point, they didn't. Super solid win by him. All right, let's talk about this one because I got to tell you, this was, you could even argue, not the biggest fight of the weekend,

but maybe the best knockout in any main event anywhere in the world. How about this? Patchy Mix is your Bellator bantamweight Grand Prix champion. Does it by absolutely icing. Ralphie Unstotz in the first freaking round. BC, he positionally dominates Kyoji Horiguchi to win his first fight in the tournament. Then inside of two submits

Megamed Megamedov who's a hammer in this division and then in his third fight wins the whole show by completely dismantling a guy up to this point who has looked very very good in Ralphion Stotts he not only obviously won all three you had to to get to this point but what I'm saying is he decisioned a good guy he submitted a guy he KO'd a guy and he did it quicker and quicker each time on. Patchy Mix has arrived. Has he not? That should not be messed with at the moment because it's not just the calling card of the submission game and how aggressively he goes after finishes. But he said to himself in the post-fight interview afterwards, with the work he's done in his striking, to be able to, you know, this was a move that they scouted, that they knew Stotts had that tendency. And to break it out, I mean, you know, early like that and it flows so perfect, the timing, the destruction. This is the best weight class in the world, and Bellator's had some, you know, launching this tournament

has had some good claim to the idea of, like, you know, this is the best weight class, and some of the best in the world in this weight class are right here in this tournament. But, dude, Pachamix is a problem for anybody globally right now. You see the five straight wins since his only career loss in that title fight with Archuleta, the vacant title bout, in which he kind of gassed out, and that was the early hurdle he had to clear in that regard.

Now that he's putting the entire game together, he's a threat to finish you on the top or the bottom. His confidence is through the roof. He's part of one of MMA's best power couples of the moment, Luke, that don't get a lot of love and respect between what him and Tatiana Suarez are doing in their own careers. But, dude, he's like, I mean, this guy is coming in like the bad guy in a movie and just icing people. We got to wake up to how great he is, Luke.

And when you look at this title picture coming off of this tournament, the fact that the full champion, Sergio Pettis, is going to be defending against the greatest champion in Bellator history, Patricio Pitbull, coming up, and the winner's got to fight Mix. Dude, this is going to be some fun theater, but also this is going to give Patchy Mix a chance to actually make the claim that he's the best band and weight fighter in the world. You know, like, we don't always allow people outside of the UFC to have a slot in that claim.

Dude, if he keeps winning against the guys that are still to come, yeah, he's going to have a chance to say that. I'm just going to say this. Folks have asked me, like, where would you put him among all bantamweights worldwide? I'd probably put him top three, certainly no worse than top five. That's how good I think he is. Remember, this guy got his start as like a submission grappler.

He positionally dominated Koji Horiguchi by taking the back and being able to hold it over and over again now look at what he's doing now look at who he has become he has absolutely rounded out his game learned from a previous loss that he had i think it was to one archuleta you know learned that there were some things he still had to work on that's a great experience for him we talk about you know what could ryan garcia take it all depends on what you want to be and how you want to do it but this guy went back to the drawing board and really worked on his overall development and the results speak for themselves he is an absolutely excellent talent first rate world class in every way at bc i'm going to say this i think it doesn't

matter who he ends up fighting whether it's pettis or pitbull i think he wins i think this dude in Bellator by the end of the year is going to be assuming that the fights take place is going to be the full weight class champion he is a threat everywhere everywhere this dude is a threat he's got great experience nearly 20 pro fights I think at this point maybe even more certainly around that mark he's coming for that full bantamweight title at Bellator. I think he gets it. And it's just remarkable to see a young man like this, who had great potential, finally actualize it in the most brilliant and dynamic

and truly authoritative ways. This is how you want tournaments to end. One guy, yes, gets his hand raised, but there can just be no question. Who was the best guy in this tournament? It was Patchy Mix want tournaments to end. One guy, yes, gets his hand raised, but there can just be no question. Who was the best guy in this tournament? It was Patchy Mix from beginning to end. He had a rough road to get to the finals, and he beat all three of these guys in their own ways,

thoroughly, without issue, in all different kinds of ways, quicker and quicker and quicker. That man is a huge problem. Do you think he would have been able to neutralize Stotts's wrestling in or in fact beyond neutralize like take it away completely had this fight gone you know three four rounds yes uh I think it would have been closer that way right like if he wasn't confident in striking and they had to do it that way I think so because I think that Stotts is a better pure wrestler than him,

but not a better submission grappler. I think you saw a little bit of that with the Sabatello fight, who, by the way, Danny Sabatello also go back to his winning ways. But his ability to find the back, he's got good arm drags. All he needs is back exposure, like those particular things. Dude, when you control Kyoji Horiguchi the way he did for as long as he did, I mean, that's just, it's not an accident. Darian Caldwell couldn't do that, you know, not in the same way. And Darian Caldwell was a two-time NCAA Division I National Champion

wrestler. Like, no, it doesn't, like, his submission grappling is excellent. He's Jake Shields' coach out of, I think he was, used to be Extreme Couture. I'm not sure if he still is, but you know, he's just, he is a very very special talent and the pit bull fight I think if it ends up coming his way is a much more uncertain one Pettis I think he's just got too many skills for Pettis to deal with Pettis by the way been out for nearly two years we haven't really talked about that he's been out a long time obviously he's got a fight coming up but um just a remarkable a remarkable tournament for this guy who was considered to be a dark horse candidate boy dark horse no more front runner if ever there was one

remember that time we saw him at high rollers luke he was preparing for the main event we had he was very friendly yeah he had arms full of gimmick we had arms full of gimmicks and i grabbed his arm and i was like yo beat that motherfucking ass and he was just like yeah okay I will yeah yeah okay sure yeah right he was like security can we yeah well look to our you know I mean they just hand you things there they just my only regret and I guess there's just nothing they could do about it because Showtime has such a packed combat sports calendar I just felt like the Davis Garcia fight basically overshadowed everything, including this. But the fact that he got the win that he did, I think salvaged it a little bit in terms of the overall punishing Davis Garcia halo. He was able to poke through and make a real

imprint, I think, on the minds of everyone. I just don't want folks to lose sight of it. If you haven't seen it, it doesn't even go a full round go watch patchy mix one of the better tournament runs we've seen in mma i think in years and against this field nothing but killers he had to face and he made them all look like they were lesser than even though they're all quite good patchy mix is a supreme talent in this division do you how much love do you have that Rafael Stotts wore the MK Green Bomber jacket at halftime of an NBA game when they did a shooting contest and he hit a half-court

shot wearing the MK jacket? Did you see that video? I did. Someone sent it to me. I was very happy to see that. We like Rafael here a lot. He's a great guy. And that jacket is cool as shit. I took one of mine on my vacation. We were in the cold north or south of Columbia, but Apache Mix just wasn't going to be denied, bro.

It just wasn't going to be denied that day. It is what it is. Now, also on that same card, BC, Aaron Pico got a really solid win over this kid named James Gonzalez. Again, I think it was a last-minute replacement. What did you see from Pico that you liked or greatest performance or what impressions did you get from what he turned in over the weekend? Well, I mean, I was tuning in not for his new, you know, darkened goatee, Luke.

I was tuning in to see if his shoulder was still attached after that last fight and the loss to Jerry McKenzie, which really halted, you know, I mean, Pico could have been fighting Patricio for the title right after that had he won that. So to see him come back, be healthy, to see the, look, I mean, he's on top of you, whether it's going to the body, his left hook to the body is, you know, we've seen beauty. Yeah. And we've seen him finish guys with it before, but it's such a weapon and a threat. And all it does is allow him to get close to you, maul you, and then take you down. And he just, I mean, look, he will grind you the hell out. I mean, he just wears people out down there.

So, yeah, he's back to find out how good he can be. He wants Jeremy Kennedy in a rematch for the interim title while Patricio is away. But did you see Pitbull came out on Twitter and was like, yo, I'll fight you right now for the title. And it won't even affect me fighting uh you know the pettis for that title too a couple months later so um what do you think bellator does here because it is time to find out what we have in this man i i think you run back to jeremy kennedy fight yeah i like that one that because it's not just like oh we go back to the same one we already booked because we don't have creative ideas no No. There are other guys you could give him that would be worthy fights.

Kennedy's actually a really good test. He's a really good test, I think, for Aaron Pico because the takedown's going to be hard to come by. Kennedy has fought a lot of really good guys. I think he's in the best space of his career. He's got good grappling. He's a veteran. He knows how to win.

He's with a good camp. Yeah, that's a really tough fight. And I think we need to see. Look, the guy who fought James Gonzalez was last minute. I looked at his record in some of his previous fights. He's actually pretty good. He's got a 10-6 record, which doesn't scream amazing things necessarily. But if you look at who he's lost to, it's just a little bit short.

He's never been finished. And just a little bit short against much better names. So, you know, this was a good. And it ends up being a bit of a tune-up contest for Pico, so he should look good in a fight like that. But I just mean he had great development, great decision-making. He didn't put himself in trouble. He was in control the whole time.

His personal weapons and signature was on display. All the things you want to see in a circumstance like that, you got. The Kennedy one, to me, is important because it's just to me the right kind of test that I think is going to neutralize some of Pico's strengths that he leans on, which means the rest of his game has to fill in the gap, and I want to see how he does that against a more veteran talent and experienced talent in a guy like Kennedy. I like the rematch idea I think they

should go that route for me is there any chance that riding his his horse Rocco Luke has uh helped raise his own testosterone I can only help I mean it can't hurt right it can't hurt now I mean the natural that horse that horse just oozes trend I mean it's absurd uh BC Bellator 294 was the night before Liz Karmush fourth round submission victory over Deanna Bennett now it was a bit of a rough run up to that point but in the end she gets it done what do you want to say um Deanna Bennett was like woefully unprofessional did you see that whole situation with that she had alerted everybody the day before that she's like 11 pounds over and wasn't going to make weight and so I saw that she missed weight very

badly I didn't hear the rest of it. Here's the deal. She didn't want to try to cut down. They forced her to. Karmush was so mad, she ended up saying, like, so I guess Bennett ended up only missing weight by like 5 pounds or 4.6 pounds or something like that, which is still, again, badly

unprofessional. But Karmush still wanted to take on the fight. It was a rematch, of course, of a win from Karmush a couple years ago, and like i'm gonna put my belt on the line no matter what which we've never seen a champion do that but then karmush was talking some trash and was like i'm gonna retire her from the sport we need to get rid of her luke i mean they could have canceled this fight it was it was uh kind of bizarre that it went on and then b then Bennett got off to this great start and was putting it on Karmush. But to Gorilla's credit, once she got that to the ground and she started grinding, it was her fight. Look, that was just a bizarre stretch, what just happened there.

Very bizarre. Yeah. So Karmush could have fought, as BC indicated, without her title being on the line and still decided to do it. And remember, when you do what she did, where you put your title on the line, Bennett couldn't win it, but Karmush could have lost it, which could have been a problem for Bellator in the end, had that happened, where you now have no champion in this weight class you're trying to build.

That would have been bad. But Karmush gets it done after a bit of a rough run. Good thing it was a five-round fight, not a three. She would have lost the three-round fight, no doubt about it. Just remarkable to me. I got to say this. Her physical strength is amazing, and yes, there are some technical aspects to her game

that even at this advanced age, she's nearly 40 years old. She's 39 years old. Her wrestling was not as good as Bennett's, although Bennett was obviously leaning on a lot of her weight discrepancy. But I just still feel like, dude, this is arguably one of the better versions of karmush

in her entire career she's passed her athletic prime very much and about that there can be no debate but she has salvaged a lot of it by staying in great condition and her technical maturity i think has really come together you know she's beatable but a great version of what she i think always tried to be. And she got it done here against really difficult circumstances. She did not have to entertain. I take my hat off to her. Semper Fi to old Liz Karmouche.

No, absolutely. This is a very respectable run. And she's relying on that experience to outlast some of the, or to out-decision some of these fighters in terms of, like, what she wasn't willing to do in the past was make things happen on the feet. Now she's more willing in situational stretches here to do that. I like to see that. What do you think about the fact, Luke, that Alimaleh McFarlane that was on the Saturday night card and got a split decision win over Kata Watanabe, and now it looks like the old friends Karmush and Alimaleh may be in line to fight for that world title. Luke.

It's a bad fight for McFarland. Um, I think Karmush wins that one. Um, although McFarland does have some of the kind of wrestling slash grappling that you saw from Bennett, uh, that could give her problems.

I don't know if they're going to make that fight or not. I guess we'll have to say they probably do. They probably find a way to make it work. But, um, you know, McFarland, I think became champion. we all felt like she was going to get way way better and then there was this weird time off slash regression and she's kind of been able to get back to her winning ways a little bit but not like she once was so i i just don't feel like she was exactly the threat she was maybe in 2018 2019 something like that uh okay a couple more questions on this and then we'll go to some fight announcements over the

weekend all right i'm going to give you some names bc these are all winners from the weekend on bellator danny sabatello yancey maderos sarah mcmahon as you mentioned elima lamec farland timothy johnson who had the most impressive victory of them i gotta shout out sarah mcmahon luke who's who who always tough as nails, but she went in there against Arlene Blanco, who we know can can throw, you know, hammers and can go late into fights and and outlast folks. But this was a gutsy win for McMahon and she dominated early, but then she got busted up from some hard punches from Blanco.

Look, she may have put herself like legitimately in contention for Cyborg's title here at 145 and even cyborg herself tweeted afterwards basically saying look make get me a fight scott coker i'll do this i'll fight her i didn't expect i mean look it can be a fountain of youth if the if the if the matchmaking level is different and in car but it just so happens right now that carmooche found new life here and bellator and, you know, some of her best that we've seen in a while. This was as good as I've seen Sarah McMahon in a long time, Luke, and she was tough as nails through it, too. Would you hate Sarah McMahon against Cyborg?

I don't know if I'd hate that. She's got a lot left in the tank. I like that idea much more than I like Cyborg versus Kat Zingano, to be quite honest with you. Like, I had kind of forgotten about Sarah McMahon for all the reasons everyone can understand, and I'm with you like i had kind of forgotten about sarah mcmahon for all the reasons everyone can understand and i'm with you and especially you know she looked good through the first two rounds here and one time she got taken down and then reverse she tried for a take down she got reversed and then she swept blanco right away and got back on top and then that third round she got rocked badly blanco put it on her and she still found a way to control her control the round and ultimately take you know the easy unanimous decision victory so like all the things you're talking about she's still got

some athletic gifts you can see she still looks to be in tremendous physical condition she's all her skills are this is about as good as it's going to get for her certainly and she put together a good win against a bellator mainstay i think that fight against cyborg is much more competitive than the one with cats and gano personally speaking so yeah i'd be all in favor of it absolutely look quickly did you know deanna bennett has wins over jennifer maya juliana pena and miranda maverick in her career i was yeah from a while ago though and some of that's from invicta right yeah some of that's from way back but i was just letting you know the truth there okay uh real quick i'd give a shout out to Danny Sabatello, who looked a little bit. Dude, that kid he went up against, I forget his name, Breno. Yeah, he's good.

Glover Teixeira trained. He was stuffing every takedown. He was denying every scramble to Sabatello, rocked him on the feet in the first round. I was like, okay, this kid's all right, man. He's pretty good. But once, you know, listen, Sabatello just shoots and shoots and shoots and ties up and shoots and ties up and once he was able to get his hands together and more importantly I think up against the cage where he could begin to chain together attacks more easily without

having to break contact then you saw the difference and on the ground you know on his feet Sabatello had you know a couple of decent strikes here or there but it's mostly he's got a lopsided game but when he get to that lopsided end of things he got out of a knee bar and then he was able to go and then win via choke there at the end um that was a good win for him he changed his tune a little bit he was like hey if you're cheering for me thank you and if you're not go fuck yourself it wasn't go fuck yourself to everyone you know what i mean that's the drive-by was a little bit more coordinated uh than it was in previous outings so yeah he almost lithuanian exited them luke it was almost polite in that regard i will tell you that yancey madero's luke second straight win in bellator

and the first one was against emmanuel sanchez he dude he looked good he put this guy away what in the first round just made that nice transition on the ground and uh the other guy was really pale luke charlie Leary from the UK but um you know I mean look at 35 Yancey's a fun fighter Luke and this was another Hawaii homecoming good for him to get that but he still could make some fun fights here yeah people love Yancey uh Yancey is one of the nicest guys you'll ever talk to in the sport and I genuinely mean that he's still got some gas left in the tank you know you got to give him the right kind of fights for where he's at to your point, you know.

But you put him on an opener of a main card and you put him in Hawaii and he's going to deliver. He's going to deliver. So that's what you got there. I think that's sort of the good spot for him in this stage of his career. One more question about Bellator over the weekend, BC. Just a weird and frankly unfortunate turn of events.

Ray Borg, I would say he missed weight, but he didn't even really try to weigh in. I don't really get that. Instead of asking me, can you just explain what really happened? I've read the headline, but this is bizarre, right? So he had a fight against Kyoji Horiguchi, which, by the way, on paper, you're like, Ray Borg, Kyoji horiguchi which by the way on paper you're like raybor kyoji horiguchi that's a great fight the whole thing gets canceled he doesn't even attempt to weigh in then his management dominance mma put out a press release kind of throwing him under the bus if we can be honest i mean i get that they were frustrated with him and he has probably been

frustrating and the fact that he didn't even bother to weigh in really pissed everyone off but like that's your client you can just say hey we're gonna cut ties with him you don't have to be like we're tired of his unprofessionalism but okay different matter i i understand why they cut him i actually do understand that but not in the way in which they put out a press release but okay neither here nor there they put out the press release they cut him and then he just subsequently gets on social media and says you know if one of the more of these kinds of incidents happened i was going to retire so i'm going to retire i didn't really buy that he wanted to retire he was just kind of keeping a bizarre promise to himself well bellator caught him luke and bellator cut him too yeah so so he he doesn't

weigh in and when he was supposed to his management releases scott coker releases him understandably as well and then he just retires it was like a series of really bad failures for ray bork who has missed weight many times and has had some other injury woes and you know he's had some tough luck i feel bad for him but it probably is the right call at least this is my confusion did we ever get like what what happened like no i don't i don't understand the issue no okay and it sounds to me it sounds to me like if you don't even attempt you were not very close he probably was like way way off you know i couldn't tell if it was that or if he just like lost the you know lost the the

love to fight and and just didn't want to be there luke uh pop quiz bc how old is ray borg 34 29 wow 29 29 really really unfortunate that it has come to this and i want to point out something too uh in terms of all the fights that have gotten messed up in his career just here's a minor list of them jesus i can go all the way back listen to this supposed to fight ryan benoit 2014. Didn't happen. Was supposed to fight Richie Vachilic in 2014. These are all in the UFC. Didn't happen. Was supposed to fight Freddie Serrano in UFC. Didn't happen.

Was supposed to fight Ian McCall, who also had really bad luck. Didn't happen. Was supposed to fight Demetrius Johnson. Didn't happen. Then he did. And of course he loses. He had subsequently this many cancellations.

Brandon Moreno fight canceled. Second Brandon Moreno fight canceled. Joseph Benavidez fight canceled. Pinguan Liu fight canceled. Kyler Phillips fight canceled. He then fights a few times. Marlon Vera fight canceled. Marad de Wallach-Whealy fight canceled. Nate Maness fight canceled. Vinicius de Oliveira fight canceled somewhere else. And then this one, Kyoji Horiguchi. Again, some weight misses, some injuries. It's a combination of things that goes into it. But just a really, really, could never stay consistent, BC. Could never really find a way to continuously get out there and perform.

And I think if you're having this much friction in your professional career, maybe it's time to look at maybe doing something else. Okay, let's do point number five, BC. We had a slew of announcements over the weekend. Not going to laundry list them here, but there are two I want to talk about. Let's talk about them first. BC, UFC president, I believe Dana White announced at UFC 290, we're going to get a middleweight, it looks like number one contender fight

between Robert Whitaker and Drikus Du Plessis. Your reaction to this matchup, do you agree it's for a number one contender fight, between Robert Whitaker and Drikus Du Plessis. Your reaction to this matchup, do you agree it's for a number one contendership? How do you feel about it? Luke, are you talking to me? Because I'm back, all right? Oh, were you gone? I didn't realize you were gone.

Yeah, I had poor fluid management, Luke. I had to, you know, break the seal. Did you go on another vacation? Should we pull in Shaq Majuria here thank you i'm back uh i believe you're talking about robert whitaker getting the drink is yes we're talking about ufc 290 the announcement we got whitaker versus duplicy ostensibly you would imagine for number one contender i'm assuming you agree with that if not say so but otherwise how do you feel about the matchup tough fight tough fight dana said the winner gets out of sonia luke this is this okay that's official then yeah I mean they're

going all in on Duplicy here Luke that I don't know if he's right I mean I'm telling you he's not ready for this level this level Luke yeah it's like dude like I appreciate that he has earned his spot here but it's like you're fighting a fucking surgeon in Robert Whitaker and Duplessy is kind of, how should we say, all over the place. Yes. That is a tough ass fight for him. Very tough fight. I mean, this is just to speed up the idea of bringing the UFC to Africa, right?

And finding out who the real African born champion is or whatever that BS narrative was. The Mike Perry award. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. Let's be honest here so duplicy is five and oh

since making his 2020 uh ufc debut 19 and two overall um i've certainly loved the escalation from beating marcus perez to trevin giles and now tovaris darren till and derrick brunson but luke derrick brunson does not get you, you know, Robert Whitaker, the living legend. Like, I mean, I understand what they're doing here. They're giving him, you know, OK, let's prove it. We got a window here to potentially make this Adesanya fight. And to be fair, Adesanya is like largely cleaned out this division with the exception of potential risers like Duplicy and Hamza. But. Yeah, I guess if you I guess if you're good enough,

go beat Robert Whitaker. Okay, dude, that's a big leap. That's a big ass leap. What are we doing? Dude, seriously, on the whole, on the whole, what are we doing here? Nunes, Peña, three, like what are we doing here? I know UFC like usually bats 800.

Like they're usually on top of it, Luke. But like what, dude, really? Really? Well, I mean, but just think about it for for a second like I get that the fight is weird and you're like dude Robert Whitaker is gonna mop the floor with this guy but like what are they supposed to do because to your point dude duplicy you know yes sometimes he pulls Darren Till right on top of himself that has happened but he does have the five and oh wins like he's marching forward you can't just leapfrog I mean I guess you could you could leapfrog Robert Whitaker and then put Izzy

in a title fight but it leaves you in a weird space with Whitaker because who the fuck is he gonna fight at this point so you gotta give him Whitaker you know it's a really tough fight for him anyone's a really tough fight for Whitaker, obviously, but especially with a guy who has a very offensively, less defensively-minded style, I just feel like it's not the best outcome, but it's a defensible outcome just given the lay of the land. I guess I kind of see it. I mean, there had to be a perfect storm

to open up this as an opportunity, and if the perfect storm is that Adesanya has already fought everybody. And the only one really that who deserves another shot is Whitaker. Who's already fought him twice. Well, let's just match these two up against each other because look up and down. Everybody's coming off a loss for the most part. And I think Paulo Costa might want to be a light heavyweight.

Now. I have no idea what's going on with him, Luke. So still like this is supposed to be Whitaker-Costa, and that makes sense. This don't, I don't know, Luke. This, like, yeah. Are you worried he's going to pull Robert Whitaker on top of him

and then just lose very badly very early or something? I'm worried he's going to get badly exposed, and this would, you know, stunt his own growth, although obviously you could go in there against Whitaker-Lewis and come out better from it if you want to grow. But, dude, he's not ready. Like, really, honestly, he's not ready for this, Luke. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's.

It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. At participating McDonald's in Canada. Who is? Who in that division?

I mean, you could do, okay, I see what you're saying. You're like, okay, if you're going to use Robert Whitaker, do Hamzat Whitaker, right? Because that way. You're right. You're damn right. Because that way it'd be more exciting. It looks like they're trying to force a fight through Whitaker

that is just very difficult to force through. Because Hamzat, you think favor Whitaker but Hamzat's a that's a tough one you know so I can get that this one just feels like we're just wasting a Whitaker fight because we kind of have to sort of but I get it like Deleuze was coming on and he lost like everybody's got a loss here isn't Strickland coming off a loss too Luke or no strickland won his last one it was relatively boring at the apex but he did win it i would but he you know he wouldn't have deserved whitaker right now strickland you know what i mean strickland be ema ema of long island lucas and then also it's like i you yeah ema vov and it's like i wouldn't you know i wouldn't favor strickland to beat whittaker either dude vittori just got a big win shouldn't it be vittori whittaker dude what is the fucking market for izzy vittori three i

mean really oh god worse than than yeah i guess you're setting up a trilogy that nobody wants right yeah this is what i'm saying it's like it almost would have been better for the division if pineda had won because you've got all these other fresh matchups you could have done. It's the same thing like had Colby beaten Leon, or sorry, had Colby beaten Kamaru in the first or second juncture, it reopens the division in a way because now there's fresh matchups down the line,

but you just didn't get that. You just didn't, now we don't have those fresh matchups anymore. And so it's like, we're just kind of here. I mean, Drikus can win. He's a big puncher. He's a big, strong kid. He definitely definitely wants to win i think if he does win however unlikely we view that to be it does set up kind of a fun fun it's amazing it's like yeah i don't even know if i want to

say it should i got it it should have been cannoneer man think about it split decision went over strickland after losing the title shot. And has the history of having hurt Robert Whitaker in round three in their fight. And, you know, I was like, whoa, what's going on here? You know what I'm saying? It should have been that. Dude, that's slightly better. But I get what you're saying. Nobody wants the winner of then Whitaker, Kananir, to fight for the title next.

You're right. So, dude, this is a bold leap, though. Okay. I mean, I'll say this. Alex Pineda just made a bold leap, too, and he won the championship. So what do I know, dude, this is a bold leap, though. Okay. I'll say this. Alex Pineda just made a bold leap, too, and he won the championship. So what do I know, Luke, right? Yeah, well, here's what I'll say. Here's what I'll say.

If Drikus wins, it's unlikely that he does. But if he does, it does set up a fun rivalry fight for, I guess, for the face of African MMA. I don't really know. I think it's going to set up unnecessary, like, you know, Holmes versus Cooney race, race like narratives that just don't need to be there. Right. I mean, that's like, it's like the,

it's a battle between the descendants of colonizers and the descendants of people from Africa for the face of Africa. But okay. No, please no. Okay. No, no, whatever. It sets up an interesting rivalry fight.

I can't, we can say that very fairly. It certainly does. I will say this. Hold on, hold on. I want to make a point. If we are going to do Izzy Whitaker 3, which, hello, I do have interest in. I have interest in Izzy Whitaker 3.

You're asking me about Izzy Marvin Vittori 3. Nah, pass. Izzy Whitaker 3 is a different one for me. That one, to me, is winnable for Whitaker in a way that I'd be curious of, but I want to make sure they do that one big. I want to make sure they do that one, blow it out.

Like they did the first fight where Whitaker obviously wasn't really ready for what is he had to offer. I think he's a different Whitaker. Now. I just want to make sure we're going to do a third one. Let's do it big. My only, my only request.

And just a reminder, it's not wrong. If you scored at three, two Whitaker over Izzy in the request and just a reminder it's not wrong if you scored at 3-2 Whitaker over Izzy in the rematch look that's not a it's not in it's not a wrong score not it's not the one that they turned in you know uh last one on this and then we'll move to other parts of the show Gilbert Burns on short notice, is going to fight Bilal Muhammad, also on short notice, in the co-main at UFC 288, for what you would just assume has to be the number one contendership for the winner of Leon versus Colby,

whenever the hell that's going to happen. BC, do you like the fight? More importantly, do you like that it's happening under these circumstances so quickly? Dude, don't we have Bilal basically asking Gilbert if he's willing to do this at middleweight just because of the last minute nature of it? And also, just to clarify, Bilal has been, I think, observing Ramadan, so he's been fasting this whole time, too.

Nothing. Again, what are we doing here on the whole, dude? On the whole lately? Like, what are we doing here? No, this doesn't make a ton of sense at all. And, you know, maybe you could argue. Like, what are we doing here? No, this doesn't make a ton of sense at all. And, you know, maybe you could argue, well, if Gilbert had finished Masvidal and made a big statement, he wouldn't need this anyway. I get the meritocracy in matching these two. Perfection there.

Not under these circumstances, though. No. I like these two. I like this fight. I think it's a— Okay, on paper, what's great about this fight? You would imagine it's pretty competitive. Gilbert, you know, much more dangerous as a submission specialist than you would imagine as a striker as well.

But Bilal, big physical guy, certainly beaten tough opponents, has earned his position at the top of this division or near it anyway. You know, you would think would be able to match Gilbert on certain levels, and especially if he has the right game plan, it could be very frustrating and difficult for him. So I would still favor Gilbert to win, but Bilal is a live dog in my mind, no question about it. But the late notice stuff, kind of shoehorning it into UFC 288, you know, it's not my favorite. It's not my favorite, because Gilbert didn't take much punishment. You can see he obviously landed on this particular exchange, but in general,

didn't get beat up too bad against Jorge. It works as kind of like a tune-up fight in that sense keeps him fresh his weight's already down he's just going to slide right in you know it sets up some advantages for him but the other part too is bc are we really upset that gilbert's you know we say it's an advantage he still has to go fight fucking balal muhammad just to get a title shot again yeah you know I do feel good for Gilbert that he's got it look it looks like at least a conceivable path to the title right in front of him yeah you know and that's what he's asking for that's what he wants so that's great they are making him walk through it just the same that's why I look at you love pairing them together again

just wrong time I mean look how are you not more upset about Nunes paying you three like nobody wants that no one there's no call for that. There's not even a little call for that. I talked about this with Shaq. I talked about this with Shaq. It's not like I like the fight. I'm not saying I like the fight. What I'm saying is you're not going to make the Shevchenko fight right now

because she just lost at her own weight class. Okay, you have a fresh contender. You have all, I, Renee, Luke, from Mexico. Like, there's a theme. Yeah, they should have done that one but are you really gonna say that that one's gonna blow up the box off if you're the ufc if you're the ufc does that one blow up the box office more than the pain no one i doubt this is this is how do we squeeze out another pay-per-view main or co-main or whatever it is i get like i i

get why it happened i'm just saying like you got a lot of balls there's no call for this fight at all at all dude and all, dude. And I disagree. And the Canadians have shown their displeasure at it by, let me see, I believe they have either achieved a sellout in Vancouver or nearly at it. Dude, the UFC knows. Here's the problem. Here's the problem. The UFC knows they can make Nunes versus Peña 3 go back to a market

that's been, let's say, underserved in in recent years and it's still going to do big business for them. So if you're them, the fuck do you care? Right? That's why they're jacking up. The worst seat in the arena is 500 bucks. Everywhere you go.

Or some people are sending me in England for the upcoming card that there was like 800 pounds for the worst seat in the building. I'm like, damn, wow. We're really at that point luke but jesus 800 fucking pounds i'm just saying i i woefully disagree that shevchenko nunes 3 has to have shevchenko with a title i think now's the time now's the freaking time dude like why does

that matter that her that she has to be the reigning flyweight champion it's about their rivalry you know it's just harder how do convince Pena to take that fight fresh off of... No, not Pena. ...Shevchenko losing in her own weight class? No, not Pena. Nunes. Nunes. Sorry, what am I saying?

Because it's a different weight class, dude. That's not what their rivalry is. I understand, I understand. But, like, the whole thing is champ versus champ. Now it's just, yeah, you're just a contender. Dude, they're making some... They're stretching the patience of the fan right now. is champ now it's just yeah you're just a contender dude they're making some they're stretching they're stretching the patience of the of the uh you know of the fan right now well this

is a problem with monopoly that folks just want to ignore the problem with monopoly is that uh the monopoly in question this one would be a monopsony in the in the argument that they aren't nearly and don't have to be nearly as responsive to not really customer demands, but more importantly, customer complaints, because you simply don't have a whole lot of meaningful alternatives to the product. And so it can ossify and get boring a little bit, and they don't have to do anything about it. That's the problem. Yo, ossification blows, though, right? It's the worst. Yeah. Yeah, it does a little bit. I agree. But that's where we're at all right that's it for

our top five bc we gotta talk about our new sponsor uh morning combat fans want to talk about something that you know i think men think about worldwide maybe getting their testosterone levels back to a healthier state let me introduce you to something that folks are telling me is called the ultimate solution now i've not tried it yet i want to be very clear and then transparent with the audience but we've got something called black forest supplements ladies and gentlemen the testo stack terkesterone 500 milligrams per serving right there and of course you got your tonkat ali with a sustanci i'm not sure how you say that there you go ladies and gentlemen check that out bc what do you think about the black forest testo stack i just started it luke so i so I'll have a fuller report after sampling it for a few days.

But here's the deal. I love that they've named something Testo Stack. Look, you know I'm in on that. But ultimately, it's like, I mean, look, do you believe that there's a critical issue affecting men worldwide? If you do believe that masculinity is going out the window, and if you believe in the rise of feminization of men i don't know if that's what you believe luke but i will tell you it's time to take a stand and reclaim our natural testosterone there's no time machines that will take us back to 2013 luke we're spinning kicks on biz ping and hendo change the world but if you want to be 2013 vitor luke's

got something to tell you all right yeah i'm not trying to i'm not worried so much about those broader concerns although some might be i'll just say this hey are you one of those guys out there that wants to get your testosterone naturally raised and you don't want to take pharmaceutical grade you know anabolic steroids to get there well you know there are some alternatives one you can get better sleep you can go work out and of course you can also supplement with some things you can put into your body. In this particular case, terkesterone, sustanche, and then tonkat ali. You boost it. By the way, terkesterone, you see a natural anabolic compound that supports muscle growth,

enhances endurance, and increases testosterone level. I think it's called sustanche, a Chinese herb known to boost sexual function. I know you need that, you old dog, and improve overall vitality, although you've been snipped, so I guess that won't help you. And then finally, tonkat ali is a potent herb that has been used for centuries to elevate testosterone levels, enhance libido, and decrease stress levels. I know I need that, BC. Combined, they work to do something special.

Yeah, Luke, and the more I deeper down this road, as a Black Forest TestoStack user, I'm sure I'm going to be able to vouch for the effectiveness and the noticeable difference in energy, because that's why I'm in this, Luke, to raise that level, raise that strength, raise that overall well-being. And the best part is you, the MK viewer, can try the Black Forest Testo Stack today and you can get a 10% discount code COMBAT with a K to get on this same thing luke i have heard no joke that it does do wonders for the libido so these are categories post vasectomy at 44 that i could really understand luke all right so one more time you can get the black forest testo stack uh code combat 10 off black forest supplements.com slash combat again black forest supplements.com slash combat again blackforestsupplements.com slash combat all right

luke i love the way you say testo stack testo stack uh bc it's time for the donks to ask us questions it's time for dms from the old diggity donks look do you think um stephen jackson would allow me to change his nickname to testo stack i mean you know yeah okay how about on the how about on the next broadcast when i ask him about the basketball i can call him jerry uh testo stack house yes all right hey guys we haven't done this uh dms from donks thing in like a real long time but all right let's do it let's do it first question from at the real k carter he asks i'm assuming he or she how the hell good question can one judge score the second round the round in which tank knocked down garcia yeah as a fucking 10 10 10 9

i can understand bc don't agree with it but i could understand because the argument for folks who don't know folks think if you get a knockdown it's a mandatory 10-8 it is not it is almost every case a 10-8 assuming that the person wins the round or whatever but uh the the judge has the option of saying well the other guy did really better work so instead of saying at 10-8 I'm gonna make it a 10-9 you do have that option what I don't get is fucking 10-10 what were they watching i i think there has to be an error that was dave moretti who's one of the most you know respected been here forever been always seems to be down the middle in the big fights but the thing i didn't like is all three judges had it the same there was a 10-10 there was a 10-9 there was a 10-9

and again like it's not impossible that you end up at 10-9 there but you know did i think ryan controlled that round two yeah it was his best work of the fight i thought he had some good moments there i didn't think it was automatic that he was so dominant that even with a a clean flush tank knockdown that you're going to give him back the point but to go 10-10 is just that's almost saying you thought it was a 10 8 round for ryan without the knockdown and then suddenly we're even no that's not even how the scoring system works in the 10 point must system so look at that i was blown away by all three judges maybe they're clinging to some letter of the law aspect of that that we're not thinking about but

in terms of you know how we see this done and how we do it ourselves when we have to for work purposes dude how do you know that's 10-8 tank i mean that punch was the biggest punch of the fight in a lot of ways you know what i mean like that's and he dropped him hard come on really come on i don't i don't get it again 10-9 i don't agree with but i can rationalize i steve farhood by the way 10 10-8. I want to point that out. The legend Steve Farhood knows what's up. All right. From at like underscore someone underscore gives underscores a underscores fuck.

I mean, just the worst name in the country. Here we go. What, in your opinion, is the worst stylistic matchup for Tank? Smart high output punchers. Madonna like is the first thing that comes to mind. What, in your opinion, is the worst stylistic matchup for Tank? Smart, high-output punchers? Madonna, Barreira-like is the first thing that comes to mind. No, BC. The first thing that comes to mind for me is someone who has judicious output, but really, really good slick movement, setting up at angles, a good jab.

By the way, because that's another thing that Tank really frustrated Ryan with, with the pinning and then the touching and the glove control. Someone like, to me, when I think of who's, here's my answer, who's the toughest fight for tank in the 135 pound division is Shakur Stevenson, in my opinion. Yep. Yeah. I'm glad, I'm glad you're on that train too. That's where I live, Luke.

But I will say this while we have questions of whether Devin Haney could be in a fight in which he's exchanges heavy, you know, heavy damage and hangs in there. Um, I don't know that, that Jorge Linares moment with Haney could be in a fight in which he exchanges heavy damage and hangs in there. I don't know. That Jorge Linares moment with Haney is sort of the same stain or stamp he has to carry that Ryan Garcia had to carry about getting dropped by Luke Campbell, but then getting up and finishing him. Haney's got such great defense with the size, with the complete well-rounded game, and with the just next level control of

those negotiation parts that happen in the distance and the footwork and all that setup. Dude, he's probably on paper as bad of a stylistic matchup for Tank as there is. I agree with you that Shakur just might be so next level on his speed, reaction time, and understanding

of footwork and angles and setup that I like that too. I'm interested, though, to see, because when Tank fought at 140 against Mario Barrio, it's like he had to work for that, Luke. You know what I mean? He had to, you know, that wasn't easy. Like, we all kind of think Tank eventually goes to 40

and stays there. And, you know, we've heard Calvin Ford tell us, his trainer, that they see him hurt in 154s and middleweights even in sparring like they see him being able to carry the power but what about being able to carry the idea that like the size every time you step up the size difference is also huge if someone's going to be physical against you or if somebody does have a quick enough and strong enough jab with the footwork where they can really make that size difference a problem. That's what I'm looking for more as he moves up to 40

and starts taking on these rangier guys. Like, if you imagine him against Teofimo, you may like his chances, but that's a dangerous fight just physically for him. Yeah, no, I think that's a great point. And we'll have to see how much longer he can stay at 135, whether that's a relevant question or not, you know? But I think your point is correct. Also, but against the 140ers, I mean, the two tankers, again,

against Mario Barrios, even if you want to ignore the Garcia fight, he's a devastating body puncher, man. He's just fucking – those guys are going to have a tough time with him too. Okay, from at Fahey Liam, who probably is almost certainly not an American, given that his first name is Liam. Who is the most confident athlete? What the fuck kind of question? Raul Marquez named his son Liam.

His little guy? Come on. Okay, but that's like, you know, Mexican at the same time. You know what I'm saying? Oh, it's not Irish. I'll tell you that much, Lucas. He's definitely not Irish. He's definitely not Irish. Or unless his first

name is like you know it could be liam o marquez you don't know could be that way yeah i'm sure yeah it definitely isn't who is the most confident athlete in professional sports today can you make a case for gervonta is number one fuck no you can't like he's up there i get i mean i don't understand this question but like dude how is it you're gonna laugh at this you know because you're uh you know well you're uh you know well you're just an american ass wipe but it's i'm making a very fair argument here wow first of all i'll be the judge of that luke okay first of all first of all whoever is dunking on someone at rucker park in harlem is going to be your most confident athlete professional i don't know

but like dude this guy i don't know if you know who erling holland is he's this 22 year old kid who plays for manchester city who is absolutely dude you I don't know if you know who Erling Holland is. He's this 22-year-old kid who plays for Manchester City who is absolutely, dude, you can laugh at me if you want. He is fucking setting the world on fire with scoring records that are just absurd. Yeah, well, your world is hot dogs and fucking gas stations. I just hung out with Kate Abdo for three days. She didn't mention that guy once. Yeah, ask her about it.

See what she says. You know, there's reverential tones for this 22-year kid him but like even if it's not him who's it gonna be like john bones jones is pretty confident yeah well okay but these basketball players who talk shit about each other like would you put lebron up there or not i think lebron's confident i know there's you see lebron getting dylan brooks's face before the game i did i did yeah yeah he was handling his business like a man, Luke. You know he was saying shit to him like not neighborly. I mean, I get that there's people that, like, from the beginning,

they're just like, LeBron's not my guy and I hate him, or he beat my team and I hate him. But I feel like everybody I know hates LeBron. I don't hate LeBron, but I'm definitely not a LeBron fan. I'm not a LeBron fan. Like, you know, I liked Kobe a lot. We grew up when Jordan was God, you know, so it's just a little hard for me to like LeBron. Or Larry, you know, I liked Kobe a lot. We grew up when Jordan was God, you know, so it's just a little hard for me to like LeBron.

Or Larry Bird, Luke and Magic. Larry Bird. Yes, I don't want to take away your white heroes from you. Wow. I did say Magic, not White Magic, Vito Melnicki Jr. Luke, okay. Hey, did he win? Did he win?

He did win. Yeah, he looked great. I like Vito. He's a nice kid. It's just, it's always, he's got a chain that says white magic on it. And I'm always like, well, a black guy named him that. So I think he gets away with it. I don't know.

But anyway, the point I wanted to make was, I've never been a LeBron guy. But like, you know, when he does the fake reading bit, where he's just carrying books like he's going to class. And like someone asks him about it, he's like, you know, what's your favorite part about the book? He's like, yo, all the words, bro. All the words bro all the words in that book i didn't see that interview you ever seen that oh god it's so embarrassing so he's always he's obviously a bit of a corporate like disingenuous dude but i don't hate him he's obviously a great player you

know he's tremendous you know what i didn't realize luke is uh i had andre ward on morning combat on friday and anybody can watch to watch that interview at length. I did watch that one. It was a great interview. Thank you. Enjoyed talking to him. I didn't realize that LeBron's team were the creative behind that documentary, SOG, Book of War, that's coming out on June 2nd on Showtime.

I didn't realize that part of it. Hey, they got MJ in that doc. You got to watch that doc. It's really good. I've not seen the doc. Is it out yet? No, June 2nd. June 2nd june 2nd

but i could i could acquire a copy for you if you i'd be curious yeah uh all right so then we go to at coiled consciousness bc how insane was seeing the david a lot of questions about davis garcia here from the producers how insane was seeing the david morel ko of yamaguchi falco live the better question here is what kind of position did you get in the T-Mobile arena? Because as you know, BC, sometimes they have us in the blimp, in the circling overhead outside the arena from our broadcast position. Did you have a better one this time? In DC, we were up in the catwalk perch that like, yeah.

No, we were in the top of the 100s level. So the same level as like Brian Custer was at the main Showtime desk, our area was tight and small and I kept spilling drinks on myself, Luke. But so I watched on the, on the screen with the headphones on listening to the broadcast because I was doing a live blog for CBS. So I was not looking at the ring, but how is any incredible knockout look when you get the chance to sit close up front it's it's and it's it's scintillating and also dangerous

and devastating at the same time yeah yeah I mean I gotta say it was kind of concerning because to your point like was it the fight before this where he beat Yerba Cinnaly or was it two fights ago or whatever that was the last fight yeah you, and that dude went into a medically induced coma. And then he face plants this one. And this dude did not get up right away. I was like, oh my God, man. Right. Poor David Morel.

He's just doing his job. But that's tough. But he looked like he was okay in the end. So obviously he's a devastating threat. And then lastly from at MXVRMR. Fucking. I mean, these names. What are your first thoughts on the announced bout between,

great question, love this question, Sean Brady and Jack De La Maddalena at UFC 290. BC, you go first, your initial thoughts. Sean Brady, our guy, not Sean Bradley, Sean Brady is going to dive right back into the deep end of the pool where he came out of against Bilal, where it was a tough loss. We, he knows he has to go back and get after it. Well, Luke, he's getting after it against, uh, you know, a devastating offensive machine here. This is a tough ass fight, but I do have to say after talking to Sean Brady and

getting to know him during that RSD, like this is the only type of fight he wants. He wants to be great, and he's going to have to prove it here, dude. I mean, obviously, in some ways, it's wrestler versus striker here, Luke, but, dude, Jack de la Madalena can do a lot of things there, especially on the feet. This is going to be interesting. Yeah, this is going to be a great test for Brady, who obviously did not look great for him on the feet, even against Bilal Muhammad.

You would imagine if Bilal Muhammad can do that, Jack De La Maddalena can do a lot of that as well. The difference is that Bilal Muhammad is a really great defensive wrestler, and Jack De La Maddalena is, I think, developing in that regard and has shown some ability, but Sean Brady is a different animal. I also want to point out Sean Brady of black belt in jiu-jitsu as well. If he can make this fight his kind of fight, he'll win. If he can't get the fight to the floor,

it's hard to see how he outstrikes De La Maddalena. But you want to talk about, it's interesting too, BC, because Brady is coming, I think his stock has been hurt a little bit by the loss, obviously, to Bilal Muhammad, so it's stocked down. Maddalena is on a rocket ship, and they're meeting right here. It's a tough one man huge stakes in either direction i commend both gentlemen for taking this contest we were talking about that dm a couple ago about who's the most confident combat sports athlete that are all of athletes

that we think i forgot canelo in that discussion he's like noticeably confident but dude jack madalena for a young up-and-comer mr Mr. Bob Dabalina here, Luke. He looks supremely confident when he goes in there and executes. So that's another guy where the star is oozing off of him. It's obviously going to be up to him to put it together and stay on this run. But, man, this is good matchmaking. Everything I said about Nunes, Peña, 3Luke, this is good matchmaking right here. Can I offer you one more good piece of matchmaking that got got me fired up this is almost a super sloppy wednesday choice may 20th ufc fight night you ready for this karolina kovalcavich versus vanessa demopolis dude right come on

i like how you go right like like i'm on the same pants around my ankle that's gonna be a weird and awesome fight right um it could be awesome yes i wouldn't i wouldn't deny that i wouldn't i mean i wouldn't put it like massively on my radar but you know we've got different kinds of radars different sized radars apparently luke okay, all right. You love the Eastern European, you know. I love jujitsu, obviously, Luke. Obviously, right? Yeah. All right, yeah.

Brian Campbell, noted lover of jujitsu, but only when the women are from Eastern Europe at 150 pounds. It's the more purest form of it, Luke, okay? Yeah. Hey, you ready to look at some shit? It is time for your bullshit. BC's feces. Yeah, I scoured the globe. We haven't done this in like three weeks to a month,

you know, but what I found were the good and the bad and the ugly, the highs and lows, all the in-between in combat, sports and beyond. This is the shit you should have seen, or if you already have, let's see what Luke thinks about it. Thank you. It's called. Have you seen this shit? Yeah, there you go. Oh God. Oh yeah. Dude, the guy next to me in first class last night, Luke, how about that? Nice little drop there. Yeah. I was in the first class, Luke. The guy next to me was like probably like 50

and he was like kind of muscular and he had all these briefcases. But, dude, he was so drunk that he just kept like openly farting really grossly and then laughing at himself, farting grossly. And then the whole first class area was just smelling rancid. And then he spilled his drink all over me. Look, it was. Yeah, it was wild. Wild. Thank you for that.

OK, hey, let's start off right here. By the way, I also like farting on airplanes because of the white noise. You can't hear anything. I just let them go, dude. Yeah, I know. I know you do. Fire on the hole.

People always think I'm only in this segment, Luke, for elder abuse and other violent things. How about something wholesome to start the day? Did you see this outfield mlb proposal oh fuck no i hope they get divorced oh come on let's see it where are we it was touching look at this dumb piece of shit can you if you're if you're this person's significant other how do you oh oh wow yeah this is what any future spouse wants to see your soon-to-be husband in cuffs

what a winner this fucking moron is no no no not in mutombo house there it was at the uh the mets security i don't know i couldn't tell where that was, Luke. It's all baseball to me. Hey, let's play a new game. When they knocked his hat off when they tackled him, that's when you knew it was a good tackle. Yeah, absolutely. Let's play a new game, Luke, not sponsored by Mimitas.

This is called Rate That Form. I need you to rate the form from 1 to 10. Luke, your old buddy Drake is back on the pads. Let's get a Luke Rate That Form. Luke, your old buddy Drake is back on the pads. Let's get a Luke. Rate that form. Yeah, not great. I mean, could his headband be bigger? What is he trying to cover? Are the entire fucking Canadian province he's in right now?

Can I get a one to 10 rating here? What the fuck was that shoulder move? I mean, okay. Yeah, three maybe. All right, let's move on hey you know this great hall of famer was back getting warmed up you know i don't know if you saw how i've seen old ladies hand making arepas that hit harder than that i mean let's look did you see how chuck liddell was in camp with alex podeta and then was partying afterwards without a sonia but here's him in camp

luke with his old buddy glover rate that format at this age. I mean, we're talking about a legend here, but this is getting bad. Oh, well, the thing is, I will agree. Outlaws do live forever, Luke. I will agree with that. Look at that. The thing to me is, like, dude, Glover is not exactly like a spring chicken, but just look how much looser he is. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. Like, everything on Chuck looks like he's, like, tight. He's lost mobility in places. Chuck's shirt's pretty tight in this next one, Luke. Can you continue to rate that form but not in Chuck's punch throwing?

Him and his old buddy Tito got back together to go dancing at Adesanya's post-fight win party, Luke. MVP was there, Usman. But look at these two old friends getting after it. Man. Dude, Chuck, I know Chuck will knock all of us out until his last breath.

But, dude, I don't know with that gut if you could do the Mohawk gimmick anymore. I don't, like, one of them's got to go. I know. It's like, dude, Chuck's the legend. God bless him. He gave me some of my very favorite mma moments uh win or lose but does he know he he doesn't have to rock the mohawk anymore it's not i know not mandatory you know i know what was he doing hanging out with tito like don't don't ruin kayfabe for me right although tito's

still in great shape i'll give tito some credit there um i don't know i don't know why anyone would want to hang out with tito but they do so all right all right luke while we're at it why don't you rate the grappling form of pro basketball hall of famer tim duncan here who ran into luke rockhold and they started getting after it dude how long jesus christ tim duncan's got some long ass arms so rockhold would say after this that duncan was like insanely strong yeah and dude he's got good uh you can see he's having a hard time under hooking through pretty good actually okay good okay jason perillo in the house i think that's uh a nice dog the bounty hunter impersonator behind him. Did you see that guy? Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

Oh, look at Jason there pushing everyone around. Oh, there's the Admiral. I didn't see that. The Admiral David Robinson was there. Oh, that was the Admiral. Dude, shouts to the Admiral. Naval Academy's finest. Shout out to Annapolis. Yeah, yeah.

He's old as shit now, but real nice guy. Hey, Luke, let's go to the Jersey of the Week, spot it out in the wild. Let's get your thoughts i mean i was hoping that would be a hartford whalers jersey unfortunately it's tampa bay lightning yeah but it is very fitting that it's florida i will say that oh wow hey luke you know who had an awful weekend deanna bennett remember when she came in like 11 pounds overweight and didn't want to get back on the scale? Did you see this Showtime produced pre-fight interview package that they put out? I didn't know much about Deanna Bennett, but now I do.

Let's get your thoughts. Oh, hello. My name is Deanna Bennett. And did I mention I'm a weirdo? I'd be like, and he would be be like I can strike with the best of them I can grapple with the best as well, but if you get within my space I will lick you My nickname vitamin D actually came from my good friend Barb

I mean you give a friend one or two lap dances and some inappropriateness, and you walk away with a different nickname. One of my favorite messages I ever got was a guy that was like, I have a thing for strong women's feet. I just wanna be your weak little foot slave. Who's my weak little foot slave? This is for you. But that's not what we're here to talk about.

I'm gonna say, sometimes it's not just Deanna. Sometimes we got some other personalities kinda looming in the mist. The main one was Chuck. When I start talking that country accent right there, that's Chuck right there. What a... He doesn't believe in dinosaurs, by the way.

What makes you... He's from Utah. Ooh, did I pee myself? Okay. Angry ass. Angry ass. I got this. Before fighting, I was awkward and quiet and weird, like heavy emphasis on the weird. Still weird. I've heard enough.

But now I can show it. I've heard enough. I've heard enough. I've heard enough. I've heard enough. I've heard enough. I've heard enough. I've heard enough. I've heard enough. I've heard enough. I've heard enough. I mean they didn't have to publish that they could have just kept it

not my cup of tea alright well you know have you seen that shit hey check out this guy at the amusement park Luke I used to love playing practical jokes at the amusement park you get, I used to love playing practical jokes at the amusement park. You get up in the monorail and you throw pennies down at people. How about this guy, Luke?

This motherfucker's just chucking fish. Okay. It's sort of barbaric and shitty, but also fucking hilarious. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. I mean, that's amazing. He's got that Kate Davis timing, boy. look at him he gets them right clean hey this is a good transition to some elder abuse luke it's time for the fails of the week here let's see what we got going on let's go to the pickleball courts do pickleball this shit gets vicious on pickleball don't think

it doesn't yo jay aaron lives on that pickleball court all right oh oh big bertha just went face first huh is that a man yeah that's a man baby yeah look at look at boss hogg playing fucking oh god hey let's go out to the baseball field luke no you know who that was i was like roll one more time roll one more time he looks like uncle veto from the bam margera show you know i'm talking about i got who just mumbled and shit yeah that might actually be him don veto they're saying long don veto yeah yeah all right let's keep it going let's go out to the outfield here luke this guy might not be an elder yet but this is a looks like an old bitch right you know is this...

I don't know how they catch the ball in the minor leagues, but I don't think it's with your face. No, no, no. Jose Canseco can enjoy that one. Hey, let's go to the escalator. This is always fun when you mix alcohol and moving snares. Bro, you don't know the dangers of the escalator until you try to take your toddler up one when they're wearing Crocs.

It's a whole level of American fucking uh ninja warrior up on that day well now we are ready for the next drunk woman thank you oh yeah oh oh young lady yeah somebody's paying for her education luke that's what happens you know how about this this horse you know not we didn't lose a road scholar down there no no we didn't we didn't but uh this next guy will never have children yeah you you keep fucking with horses keep fucking with horses see what happens all right hey bumper sticker of the month time luke you're gonna love these is this your truck i wish i had i can't read it i wish i had money instead of yeah oh yeah that might be mr soffredi's truck yes it is uh looks like we've actually found whose truck that was, Luke. Let's run the next slide.

Ah! Ah, me guy! Me guy! Hey! It looked real to me, I'll tell you that much. Okay. If you're wondering what that clip was all about, Luke, I'll tell you in one sign, okay? Penis. Pen, penis, penis.

I love that that made it on TV. People say that college is a waste of money for certain people, and that's definitely true, but this is a fairly useful application of knowledge. I know that we didn't acknowledge I know that we didn't clear the next one with you in advance for privacy reasons but we do have picture of what Luke's actual truck looks like oh god yeah listen truth in advertising I mean you can hardly go wrong with this this gentleman has excellent taste. I just want to point that out.

Luke, Misfits Boxing was back this weekend. Todd Grisham on the call. Let me ask you a question. Do the people boxing in those things know the rules of boxing? It doesn't seem that way. They don't know many things, Luke. Let's go to the weigh-in. We got our best pizza toss of the week.

What the fuck is this yeah uncle pizza is his name that's callie sourland who used to be a regular boxing promoter in the middle from germany luke he's now running this thing um yeah that was weird sad vin diesel on the right well it gets sadder than that luke let's go to kimbo slice jr he was in there against a tiktoker remember when he was in bellator yep and he got handled here luke that's uh slice on the left in purple oh no this is a tiktoker whipping his ass yep yep yep that's unfortunate well then there was this guy named chase demore i've often said dude the best base for boxing is always going to be uh chinese spy apps it's really the number one place to go

to to get your boxing up to speed uh luke chase demore made many bad headlines at this misfit show the first one was when he got disqualified for breaking every single boxing rule in one sequence that's chasing the white yeah he's got good ground to pound bc yeah that's not legal that's certainly not legal so that was a big dq loss and then um chase got nate diaz all upset diaz was there to to help out chris avila and it it got zero to 60 quick here luke jesus what is nate doing just throwing bottles at shit so that's the same guy who got dq'd yeah that's the same guy chase uh demore and then you know nate was so upset that nate went out in the streets luke and he was like the first person i find that looks like logan paul's getting choked out and it turns out this guy was in the wrong

place at the wrong time now I have heard I mean look at this joke this is uh Dan Miller Dave Phillips or you know John oh Jesus John Machida yeah Machida let me just say this you know Louisiana stands your ground law so I'm not sure what kind of legal complications will happen from this perhaps nothing in fact I'm sure likely nothing and uh and whatnot but I just on a on a serious note it's funny to be put in Logan Paul I mean if your whole gimmick is I'm a Logan Paul impersonator you know I mean you got that gimmick for like another six months and then you got to do something else you know I mean it's like however long hasbulla's shelf life is as a social media phenomenon this dude is a fraction of that but i will say this dude like getting in these street altercations even if they're not your fault man someone's gonna have a knife someone's gonna have a gun this is a well-armed and very you know not always bright population

this shit is risky to me man yeah i don't i don't like it, dude. I don't like it at all. We don't need MMA fighters fighting in the airport, Luke, like on the Escalade and stuff. But, you know, sometimes you get MMA fighters out in the wild. That's what happened. Luke, here's Angela Hill and Jessica Penne. They got in a fight? Fuck you!

No! No! Are they in for a bit? What did you just do? Learn it! This is just fun amongst friends, Luke. Well, hey, Paul Craig took that fake fight into another level when he entered the Royal Rumble match at the local pro wrestling promotion ICW. Did you see this, Luke? I did not see this. This is all new to me.

Boy, look at the tans on these Irish fellows. I wouldn't say Bear Jew's. Or Scottish, maybe. Excuse me. His form was, you know, up to par. But, you know, this was a big moment there. He's got the gloves on. He's got the kilt.

All right. Taking a little while to get the kilt. All right, speed it up, Paul. Taking a little while to get the kilt off. There we go. Boot to the face. Andre and Hogan style. Look at that. That's great. Tear it off.

Oh, he rips the shirt. Boy, that thing is the size of a walk-in closet that ring jesus christ yeah he you know he looked pretty cool doing it not everybody luke looks cool when they try to act like a fighter what do you think about mma on point our buddy balian's uh form on this kick punch machine punch machine that he's kicking you ready all right let's see it's not not bad i think balian could could you you think that'd be you don't put him in there Kick in. You ready? All right, let's see. Not bad. I think Baleon could... You don't put him in there with Oscar Willis.

It's a bad matchup for Oscar, right? Yeah, I think Baleon... Also, I think Baleon's a lot bigger. Like, Oscar Willis, I love him, but I've got sperm bigger than him. Yeah, that's a good point. E. Casey Lydon would take Baleon down right away, though. Yeah, probably.

Also, Luke, your boy Adesanya went tip to tip with Burt Chrysler. Did you see this? This was awkward. His name is Burt Chrysler. Burt Chrysler. He's like a comedian in the Rogan circle. Let me ask you a question. I'm not a I don't know enough about this man's comedy to care but i've never why is this

motherfucker shirtless all the time help me yeah he laughs real loud i don't think you know it's not not my cup of tea look i like other comedians you know yeah yeah i don't quite get the bit it's like every time i see him he's got a shirt off it's like that's funny like one or two times my guy we're we're going a little far with that. Now. I like Theo Vaughn and Chappelle and Malik and those types of guys. Luke, his gimmick is being drunk. Long Island.

Luke says, yeah, if his gimmick is again, I'm not seeing this comedy very much. I've seen bits and pieces, so I can't say a whole lot. I saw his one Russian story once that just never ended. Uh, if our producer wrote his gimmick is being drunk and not wearing a shirt. That's not a gimmick yeah that's not that's just that's just just this white trash like that's not a that's just my uncle at the fucking cookout that's not uh let's take this home with a couple more luke here's your best uh celebration of the week from regional mma

oh man oh they both hit each other but the other one hit decent stop it oh oh wow did you see that luke did you see that finish there that was that was something right there wow he was just he was just shaking the old ding-a-ling in the guys but tell me mma is not homoerotic i dare you it's great i fucking dare you that wasn't the best fight we saw this week. You got to go to a Morgan Whalen country concert to find that, Luke, among chicks, by the way, in the crowd. Did you see this shit? Oh, wow.

Oh, uh-oh. Uh-oh. Yeah. We got the white ladies drinking. You know what that means. Oh, yeah. Get out them seltzers, Luke. Here we go.

Okay? Them wine coolers. It's on. Does she ever make it out? Her friend does. Oh, she goes around. Oh, and then kind of slaps her. Oh, and then, oh, here we go.

Yeah, but look at this guy with the hat trying to turn it into a wet t-shirt contest. Dude, they're twinning. They got the same clothes on. That's what they're battling for, the right to wear those clothes. They're fighting over the style. Yeah. Oh, they're just pouring shit on that's what they're battling for the right to wear those clothes style yeah oh just pouring shit on what are they gonna do wait you think if you pour fucking seltzer that they separate automatically what are they doing there oh now he's pulling hair yeah that guy somebody needs to knock that guy out luke

guys i just want to make a point it's's not hard to not get in fights in public. It's actually very easy. Johnny Cash, that's actually a pretty cool shirt. Yeah, that guy looks like a big POS, though, Luke. But we'll keep it going here. He probably is late on his child support, you know. You know what I always say when people talk bad about my toes, Luke? Your feet tell the story of your life.

Yes, and you just don't shower. Let's hear the story of this guy's's hear the story you just don't shower let's hear the story of this guy's life luke yeah i'm gonna tell you that's got to be the toughest foot i've ever seen in my life yeah you guys think that callus that's a thick callus they don't nothing hurt them feet. No, not at all. Let it hang. He had good red fire. That don't hurt. Don't hurt. Don't hurt.

No pain for the crust from tide. Don't give a piss about nothing but the tide. Roll tide, roll. Hit that dart one more time. Just let me see if it's lit. Wipe your foot off. Didn't even burn it. You good? I'm good to go.

What's wrong? This man is impressively dirty. No pain for the crimson tide dude i like how in the middle of putting a cigarette out on his dead ass skin he goes roll tide roll yeah indeed buddy this like this listen you got feet like this this ain't war eagle feet this is roll tide feet war eagle i got this bunion for saving over here yeah to represent This ain't War Eagle feet. This is Roll Tide feet. Fuck War Eagle. I got this bunion for Saban over here. Yeah, to represent his national championship. Hey, we got one more for you, Luke.

You always got to be careful in this world because you never know if cameras are watching. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. what the fuck what did i just watch did he get drunk i think that's enough balls smells it it's like smelling salts and then he gets going well because he realized he was on camera luke so he tried to play it off you know like nothing was happening okay that was the no you know what it was he smelt his own testicle funk and it was like smelling salts when you're about to do deadlifts and it wakes you up you know what i'm saying like ammonia don't fake the

funk on a nasty dunk luke okay there go. That's the shit for a while. We'll have more next week. There you go. Yeah. BC, great show today, my friend. Really good job. I'm so glad to be back. I feel like we hit a lot of the high notes.

Some one championship thing? Oh, yeah. So there was a huge upset between Haggerty and Nongo in one championship. Basically, the way I understand it was this dude hagerty uh you know because we want to be clear about our limits here we're not big kickboxing aficionados we can't say we know a whole lot but i asked some folks about it what they were saying is not only was this dude like moving up a weight class and then he ices one of these guys you know in lumpini stadium in the first round but hagerty had always been seen as a guy who was like good but never broken through and then he moves up in wait and then beats this dude in fucking thailand in

lumpini stadium which is like one of the that and roger domner stadium where they're two most maybe i'll argue important stadiums for muay thai and uh and he just fucking he knocked him up basically pretty face planted him dude it was amazing uh damn i think about it right here davis garcia body shot finish stotts mix that knee was incredible then you have sergey pavlovich putting blades as lights out and then you had this one like so all your main events that we kind of care about on this show they all ended in dynamic or reasonably dynamic finishes you can grade them how you want but it's pretty pretty remarkable weekend yeah that there was also a really good joe cordina fight uh 130 pounds in wales on the zone luke that went the distance and was really close again i think the guy's name was

rock them off or something that was the incredible fight if you missed that as well so fun weekend but we're back luke hey what we should probably get the rashad and the phil derue rsd on the yeah phil texted me like he was wondering when that's going to go out. I actually don't know. I've been away. So I've got to go see when that's going to be out. Also, we didn't publish it, but I still have the interview with Mo Jassim, the guy who runs ADCC. And I asked him straight up, like, why don't you guys

drug test? He had a very interesting answer. It's straightforward. You're going to like the interview, I think. I don't think we'll ever see that interview, Luke. You've been teasing it for six months. I turned it don't think i turned i turned it in before i left i turned it in before i left i thought they were gonna run it while i was gone so they didn't hey i found mike mikey is alive mikey made it back from las vegas he did he's alive did he text you yes yes yes all right is he is he sober that's a different question isn't it that's

a very different question on a monday afternoon i don't i don't know if i'm if i'm the person to answer that i can't all right let's remind everyone you can go to morningcombat.store that's where all the merch is we're back full strength for a while now so we're going to be hitting you with all this kind of stuff but you know if you want to go buy some merch why wouldn't you you can go there uh showtime we didn't even mention this at the top showtime.com you can get a 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you can bounce the email to email the show morningcombat at gmail.com. Very simple. Just email us. The producers are going to see it. Me and Brian won't, but they will

see it. So you can go and contact the show that way. And then, of course, give us a follow on all the various social media. Hey, BC, how about this? So I posted a clip from my Izzy breakdown when I was away. It did a million views for me on my YouTube channel for YouTube shorts.

And it got me one clip. Ready for this? Got me 45,000 new followers on TikTok. I've crossed 100K followers on TikTok like overnight. It's amazing. That's incredible. So if you haven't followed me there, follow me there. Yeah, yeah.

Imagine what that could have done on the MK channel, Luke. Incredible traffic. Hey, that's up done on the MK channel, Luke. Incredible traffic. Hey, hey, you know, that's up to our bosses to figure that out. That's not up to me. You know what I'm saying? So there you go. But good show. BC, get some rest.

I know you need it. Take it easy for the rest of the day. I feel like a giant turd, Luke. But hey, I am interviewing Demetrius Johnson and Mike Perry today. So check out for those on youtube.com slash morning combat unless i you know die before they get out and there's my new hat yes there's your new hat that i got you straight from the streets of cartagena columbia just for you my friend all right there we go if i if i yelled arepa what does that mean it means like it's like

yelling like the name of a food it's's like it's like yelling bread or something. Oh, that's what I do. They sell those in gas stations a lot. I really want to unify this. Yes, they do. They sell that in empanadas everywhere. And Colombian empanadas are different because they're fried. And I think it's corn starch on the outside.

Anyway. All right, B.C., we're done here. So thanks to everyone who was patient during our absence. B.C., great job this past weekend with all the coverage you had to do. And of course, we appreciate everyone who tuned in for today's show. We're back on Wednesday. By the way, we're going to have a big guest on Wednesday and a big Wednesday show. So that should be a lot of fun as well. So for Brian Campbell, for CBS Sports, the Intrepid Mikey Mormyle, all of the Showtime crew, and all of the Malka crew as well. Thank you guys so much. We're out of here for today. And until next time, may all of your gains be loyal.