MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Green Upsets Dawson | UFC Vegas 80 | Bellator 300 | Wood Stops Warrington | Morning Kombat Ep 499

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

On Episode 499 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell recap a packed weekend of fights. The boys start off with UFC Vegas 80. Who's next for Bobby Green? Who else stood out on this card? Next up they recap bellator 300. Usman Nurmagomedov dominated, is he a top 5 lightweight in the world? How much did this win add to Cris Cyborg's legacy? The guys also break down Leigh Wood vs. Josh Warrington before closing out the show with Dm's from Donks and HYSTS. (00:09:30) - Bobby Green Defeats  (00:30:30) - Rest of UFC Vegas 80 (00:51:40) - Usman Nurmagomedov (01:11:30) - Cris Cyborg (01:23:40) - Wood vs. Warrington (01:36:00) - Dm's from Donks (01:46:00) - HYSTS Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Reveille, reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion.

That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Hey, it's episode 499, and it's free 99. I don't even know what that means. Hi, everyone. It's the 9th of October, 2023. And here's BC with some pussy.

No one's ever said that sentence before. First for everything in this show, Luke, okay? Hi, everyone. It's Morning Combat, episode 499. Can you believe it? We have made it to this line. I cannot... I'm a little bit surprised myself, given a lot of different factors. But here we are. We are reacting to the week in combat sports. I cannot, I'm a little bit surprised myself, given a lot of different factors. But here we are. We are reacting to the week in combat sports.

My name is Luke Thomas. I'm the half host of this wonderful program. You can join me from the capital of the status unitas right here in Washington, D.C. And there is the other gentleman. I mean, just, let me tell you something. Turned off the spigot of talking to old LT after the show that those days are over. It's just him and his cat quiet in the basement. It's Brian Campbell.

Hi, Brian. Yeah, the things that matter in life, Luke, are the things that get us through it. This is Zoe Campbell. Welcome back to the show. Fired up after a weekend, Luke, and I hear it. I hear from our Canadian brethren, right? The Paquettes up in nova scotia others around that it's canadian thanksgiving today luke and since that's my favorite holiday

as you know i wanted to offer that to our canuck brethren including i back the blue of quebec luke including everyone from my province now is canadian thanksgiving like american thanksgiving where also they're celebrating just absolutely decimating indigenous populations probably probably luke probably yeah how was your weekend bc uh it was really good luke because in between uh covering combat i attended uh the black bear americana music festival for two of the three days that uh that my uncle ian put on up there in goshen connecticut and uh although i missed joan osborne's set luke to find out really if god you know if possibly was a slob just like one of us um i did see some tremendous incredible uh tunes and music

and uh a weird uh but amazing community and you know i mean look hippies unite right that's how it gets down anybody i would have liked yes but the ones you would have been like okay that's pretty cool you've never heard of but that's sort of the joy the gem of a festival right you come for the two or three four five bands that are on the marquee but you end up falling in love with the you know the unsigned or the yeah so yeah there was some but look it's americana music and you know i don't think they have that subgenre within the larger metal death abortion rock uh stable so last thing on this who was the headliner or i guess it was since it was a couple of days who were the headliners joan osborne on friday rusted root on saturday and the adam ezra group on sunday so you were just you were just

with around a bunch of whites is that a fair assessment of where i mean i don't know why everything in your life needs to be reduced to race and then to add on how much you didn't answer the question but but yes look this is uh litchfield county in connecticut it's an escape for the rich white new yorkers uh you know of the city area yes luke it's very uh it was very it was honky-tonk man it was yeah luke it was okay it was it was a slice of americana but as you can see luke by zoe's uh fur complexion um it don't matter if she's black or white all right i see that she is a lovely animal yeah um how often do you just look at her butthole like you're staring into the stars?

Does that happen all the time? I'd really like this conversation to advance, just to be fair, just to get to that next level. I mean, look, be like Joe Pfeiffer, would you? Okay? You know what I'm saying? I don't know. What does that mean? Be real aggressive and something?

I don't even know what that means. I don't know what that means either. Listen, there was a fair amount of things that happened over the weekend yeah so like we had the ufc car which had some big upsets i had some good fights we'll talk about that bellator 300 took place uh we'll discuss some of the ups and downs of that event of course dude how about lee wood with one of the most sensational comebacks dude that was dramatic as shit that was like that was like i used to work in the espn newsroom luke and when sports would go down right like let's say it was like the lacrosse championship and it was in overtime some ant feds would yell sports and we'd all come running to the tv

luke that was a sports moment you had to feel it yeah i felt it did you feel it it was fantastic it's honestly probably the best combat sports moment of the weekend if we're just being honest like in terms of just pure drama. Because there were good fights on the MMA cards. Not a ton of drama. Not a ton. I mean, some weird scoring cards, but nothing too crazy, right? Some stoppages with Mark Smith being like, are you tapping?

But not really. The right guy won. So, like, there was really nothing high drama, maybe except for the main event in the UFC, but it was super high drama with Lee Wood. We'll talk about that as well, plus your DMs, plus BC's feces, the whole nine yards. So if you're watching on YouTube. Plus maybe my cat's butthole, Luke, if the angle's correct.

Maybe, right? Just maybe. You act like staring at your cat's butthole when you're a cat owner is some rare occurrence. They put it in your face at all times. Constantly, yeah, like it's a microphone, you know? Like there's a portal. They're just interviewing you on the street vis-a-vis their butthole. It's really quite a sight. I can see China, Luke.

No, I can't. I don't understand. So you get the idea. Thumbs up if you're watching on YouTube. Thank you guys so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. Yes, this is episode 499, which means episode on Wednesday is going to be old 500 BC. Your reaction to crossing that 500 mark?

I can't believe we got here. Four and a half years into this journey, Luke. I can't believe we got to episode 500. I think if we, we didn't reach our YouTube subscriber milestones that would have led to you taking off your top or telling that, that story that you're withholding from the people. But we made it this far. I mean, well, we outlast our own providing companies luke i don't know i don't know what the future is going to bring but i do know this luke i don't even know if i'm gonna outlast my friendship with you but i do know we're here today and uh wednesday we've got something special a bonus episode planned for you that i think people luke if you like this show a lot i think it's gonna move you i think you're gonna love it all right all right well let's

remind can i say it are we revealing it no i guess not no i know you could tease it at the end of the Luke, if you like this show a lot, I think it's going to move you. I think you're going to love it, all right? All right, well, let's remind everyone. Can I say it? Are we revealing it? No, I guess not. No, you could tease it at the end of the show, I guess, if you want. All right. Very quickly, morningcombat.store. If you want to get merch like this, this is the Average Joe Art merch.

It's all for availability right there. You can go have a gander. You can email the show, morningcombat at gmail.com. Remember, Mike, you might read them. BC and I are not going to read them. I'm not touching any of those emails at all. I'm not going near them. People will send it to my work email and then CC Morning Combat.

If I see you've CC'd Morning Combat and you send it to me, I just delete. I don't even read it. I don't want to take the chance of seeing your stick pic show up in my inbox. All right. Mikey will happily be the administrator, the gatekeeper of all morning combat dongs, Luke. Yes. He is the purveyor of dongs.

That is his role and job responsibility. Of course, Showtime.com, Showtime.com. 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. BC, any final thoughts before we kick off this wonderful countdown we have ready for the audience? No, I'm ready.

I'm ready for all things combat sports and kittens. Let's do it. Combat sports and kittens. All right, let's get to it. We start as we customarily do with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Topic number one. Now, BC, you and I, I would say, pretty confidently picked Grant Dawson to win. Well, he didn't.

He loses in about 30 seconds to Bobby Green a straight left that drops him follows it up from there and that is all she wrote so what is your response to Green winning given that both of us believe Dawson winning was basically a foregone conclusion how should we evaluate what happened it's hard it's hard Luke you know you can lean on the old you know it's MMA there's so many ways to lose and the whole fact that as inconsistent as Bobby Green can be at the highest level, boy, does he have skill sets that in the right moment, think like Michael Johnson's one punch knockout of Dustin Poirier, right? Like the aberration moments happen in this game, especially against an opponent with quick hands at 37 with one punch power and with a daring

ability to sort of lure you in with your hands down with that said grant dawson was the higher stock seemingly going in the right direction entering well we kind of summed up to be very fair as a showcase opportunity for him to get a big win against a name in a main event and continue this, I don't know, unlikely, unbeaten streak that he's on. Only, Luke, the sword that you live and die by in this game, it'll knock people off their pedestal if they ain't fully ready for that next level. I'm not sure if this was an aberration for Grant Dawson or that's just the game they play. But either way, Luke uh he got sent he got sent it happened it wasn't a jab like people thought it was a calculated perfect needing to replay it about three times to really gain the full spectrum of what Bobby Green did but that's

what King Bobby does and that's what this game produces Luke you take your eye off the ball for one second you end up looking up at the lights, you know? Yeah. I mean, I got to say, I don't really regret the pick, if I can be honest with you. I mean, it was wrong and it was wrong quickly, right? I mean, Green won within 30 seconds, but BC, like, let's go over this for just a second. Bobby Green is 37 years old, right? 37 years old, heading into that contest.

He had the win over Tony Ferguson, or at least what's left of Tony, but had lost to Drew is 37 years old, right? 37 years old, heading into that contest, he had the win over Tony Ferguson, or at least what's left of Tony, but had lost to Drew Dober, Islam Makachev. He lost to Fazeev. He did have the win over Al Iaquinta back in 2021, but of course he soon retired after that. He lost to Thiago Morissette.

He lost to a lot of folks before that who were sort of the higher echelon of that division. Again, 37 years old. Grant Dawson hadn't lost since 2016 on the regional scene was undefeated in the ufc and had just beaten damir ismagula how old is grant dawson 29 or 30 now again someone like bobby green has the skills and the magic to make something like that happen in this particular occasion he won fair and square he did it very very well he landed a beautiful straight left. He had the outside foot position.

He was able to time the movement of Grant Dawson. Like, he just won flat out. But if I'm ever going to be in a scenario in MMA where I've got a guy who's kind of up and down at age 37 to 155 versus an undefeated, in the UFC anyway, prospect who has just beaten a very good and calculated striker, I'm going to pick that guy every time. Like like if you wanted to make an exception for Bobby Green because you do think he's got some extra level ability that maybe some of these stats don't account for fine no problem but BC like what

is what is the argument for picking an up and down 37 year old striker who typically does not finish by the way he does have two finishes in a row I think these are the first two finishes in a row he's ever had in the UFC. Granted, one of them over Tony Ferguson. What's the argument for picking the demographic, I should say, that Bobby represents over the demographic that Grant represents? The answer is you can't.

You can make a pick for Bobby if you really believe in Bobby's, not so much upside because he's 37, but what he's really capable of. But the idea that picking the guy who's undefeated in the UFC if you really believe in Bobby's, not so much upside because he's 37, but what he's really capable of. But like the idea that picking the guy who's undefeated in the UFC coming off a Demir Ismagulov win, who's just routing everyone,

like that's some kind of, people are like, oh, you guys didn't give Bobby a chance. Guys, the numbers told us not to. So like every time we get to this scenario, I'm picking the version of whatever Grant Dawson represents. I don't think there's a defense here for why we didn't pick him, Luke. If I had any more feeling like this was about to happen, I would have rode that upset pick just to make OK Bet more fun and not get what we thought was probably going to be the automatic push of Dawson winning.

But to hindsight, paint the picture, you do know Bobby Green is capable even with not a finishing history you do know he's capable of landing these type of punches and I think the whole handicap on this fight was more about is Grant Dawson with the with the sneaky win streak truly ready for prime time now as an outright result this fight is going to tell you no, but this fight was 30 seconds long, and that was one perfect, sneaky shot that got him. So it's one of those weird fights, Luke, where it's a step back for Grant Dawson's potential rise. And for all we know, you know, this may be as far as he gets, or maybe he bounces right back and starts a three-fight win streak. But I don't think it changes much. It was a weak main event to begin with. And even with the big upset finish, we're sort of still where we're at with both guys.

Am I wrong? Or am I right here, Luke? I think it's a little bit different. We'll get to that in just a second. But I want to start on the Dawson side. We're going to come back to Green because I disagree with you a little bit. What Green did, it doesn't really, and we'll talk about this, I think, in a different topic, which is it doesn't really change the conversation about like, oh, is he in title contention?

No, he's still so far away from that. It's not really relevant, but it does set up an interesting what might be next for him. But the question is like, what went wrong for Grant Dawson? Is this just a case where if Dawson and Green fought 10 times, oh, yes, Dawson might win more in the end. Is it uniquely a bad matchup? Did he make some kind of terrible error? What best explains why things went so wrong for him here? Shit happens, in my opinion.

We can break this down Zapruder style, and you can Professor S&P me and show me possibly where his head was in line when it shouldn't have been or whatever. But this was a style contrast. We never saw him get into his own was, you know, in line when it shouldn't have been or whatever. But this was a style contrast. We never thought we never saw him get into his own style, right? Like this was one of those blips on the radar where you just go, you know what? It happens. Look, it freaking happened.

I mean, what what are you looking for me to deliver from the standpoint that would potentially represent an educated background or even an answer that would suffice you for a transition, guess what, Luke? Shit happened right there. It did. Yeah, I think so. I think that's one explanation. Here's what I would say.

I think, Bob, one thing that we probably did miss, again, it still wouldn't change my pick based on where they are in their respective careers and what they had shown up to that point, but hindsight being 20-20, what didby show that was really quite good here one of his sparring partners wrote me and said that like what bobby has that you often don't see hence some of the up and down record right and what the odds were pre-fight this is sometimes what you don't see that he felt inspiring was that bobby's got really great just timing, but the ability to catch people when they least expect it through these very unexpected moves.

He's just got a real knack for finding guys, you know, in between stances, getting them this way, or when their movement's not right, or whatever, and really, like, one shot, single catching them, sort of knowing them better than they know themselves, almost preternaturally. And I think that's what you saw here. He really just got a clean, fast read,

was able to fire the left hand straight down the pipe and land on him when he had outside foot positioning. It was just really, really well-timed. I don't think there's anything more to it than that, except to say if there's anything we did not give enough attention to, not give enough credence to, it's that Bobby does have the kind of capability you show. Obviously, he showed it here, but I'm saying we knew he had that before.

It was just a question of whether or not it was going to materialize against an opponent like Grant Dawson, and it certainly did. And I want to be clear about something, too, BC. There are times that you and I get wrong picks, and we're actually much more willing to be like, hey, this really went wrong, like Sean Strickland pick. We really had some, hey, we really got this wrong. We have to look at it.

Or your Charlo pick. We've all been there. We've all done the kind of pick where it was like, how the hell did I get that one? Just for the record, that was Jermell's fault, not mine, Luke. Just like, please correct that. It was Jermell's fault. I mean, you pleaded a pretty good case for him.

He just. I mean, I rewatched the All Access epilogue from Showtime, which is always an incredible piece of content and man um it recapped everything he said fight week everything he said fight week was everything i predicted luke right you know what i mean like yeah all right yeah it didn't uh anyway you get the idea it's not that we're immune to the idea that there are lessons to be learned from this it's just this is to me a strange one and i bet if they did fight 10 times you know i don't know exactly how it would look i think we're immune to the idea that there are lessons to be learned from this. It's just this is to me a strange one. And I bet if they did fight 10 times, you know, I don't know exactly how it would look. I think we'd have to rethink it a little bit.

But I'm not really down so much just yet on Dawson's upside. So let me ask the question like this. A fight like this, obviously, as we indicated, doesn't put Green in any kind of conversations around title shots. But it does set up a fun next bout. There is momentum behind Green. There are people who are like, okay, this was a great win for him. It was quick, but it was fun. It was brutal.

It was authoritative. Let's give him somebody fun next. What's a good, fun fight for Bobby Green? Well, I was hoping, Luke, bobby green was going to tell us that because you can't operate in a style that he does with the swag that he does and not expect you're going to win right yet in his moment he delivers two extreme company men messages that i didn't love i i get it's it's who he is so when he says i don't care who I fight next. I don't do that.

I, you know, UFC offers a name and I take it. You mix that with, you know, him basically saying the only thing I really want is I want to come back again this year. I want to be the most active fighter. I just bought a house in Vegas.

I think that was an unfortunate response in two ways, Luke. This is your moment. You may never be in title contention. We thought you may have peaked already, Bobby, in getting an Islam Mahachev main event, right? Getting matched up against this guy who's probably the next big thing and you had the chance to do what you did right here.

Obviously, the odds were against you and you didn't do it. But you just stumbled into, you know, not just a main event opportunity, but a holy shit perfect case scenario that makes you not just make you look like a killer, it makes you look like an absolute badass because of the swagger that Bobby brings in here. And Bobby, you get on the mic and you don't have something ready. That's your moment. That's your soapbox. That's your platform to create the exact question to the answer Luke just asked me. That's your chance to maximize the financial opportunity of what this win is. Luke, I get that you can argue and say that's what he did by saying

what was most important to him, which was, I want to come back again, put me on the December card. But Luke, I want to answer your your question but i also want to say this i get i get that a title run is not for everybody and there may be some fighters who get to a certain point they're like no i'm an attraction or i'm a badass or i'm whatever but i just feel like that answer was him punting away whatever big money creative fight opportunity could have come his way by just saying you know what i really want i want to be cowboy cerrone and i want to pay for this house and maybe i want to buy a boat or maybe i want to do that and luke you know i can't change somebody's sort of core values if that's where they're at it's this is not a romanticized business where everybody gets in

there and hopes to one day wear a belt there's a hard fast reality a financial and violent reality about this game and the businessmen are the one that survive in the end but i wanted him to say something big luke i wanted him to create a sexy matchup that you're asking me for and it's almost like he poured the water over the candle that would have got me all excited and pumped up and ready to shine bright and tell you so i have no answer for you like bobby green and i'll punt it back to you what should he have said Luke because I'm disappointed about this Dan Hooker Dan Hooker's the fight to make and Dan Hooker by the way told submission radio that he wants it I was going to say Dan Hooker anyway but now the the boys in Malka are confirming it Dan Hooker Bobby Green versus Dan Hooker now

there's a I would I'm a little surprised that Dan Hooker wants it because I thought he would want names a little bit more directly in line for whatever the linear path is to the title. However far away he might be from that. I mean, he's been the guy saying, I'm not in this just to fight donks. I'm here to, you know, try and be the best in the world, get the biggest titles. And that's what I want out of my career. So, I mean, you can assess that for whether you think that's realistic or good or bad, but that's just what he said. But a Bobby Green fight, that seems to me like a great fight in both directions.

Dan Hooker and Bobby Green are in similar-ish kind of places in their careers, a little bit more senior certainly than they are junior. They've had some big wins. They've had some tough losses. It's hard to say where they are, but they're both in a little bit of this renaissance period going on for them, especially Dan Hooker coming off that Jalen Turner fight, which was brutal and difficult, and he had to really gut that one out.

And here's Bobby Green with the Tony Ferguson boost, now making good on it with the stoppage of a really, like, in his prime or right at the beginning of his prime, Grant Dawson. I mean, this is a great opportunity to get two guys who are gunslingers, who are talented, who are vets in the game who are fan favorites and the best part about that is you can put that fight basically anywhere main event for a fight night i'm not advocating that but could you do that yes could it be a nice bolstering fight for a pay-per-view obviously you could put it on a fight night you could put it on the prelims you could

put on the i mean this this is a fight that works in every way for everybody and it's hard to see exactly who would be a loser here right that's the fight to make okay that that's a much more realistic fight and i do believe to what you're saying green could advance be doing that being that dan hooker's rank nine has a big name in this division despite having lost more than he's won at the top yes that does suffice allice all of that. But I wasn't necessarily asking him to say, hey, Conor McGregor, now that you're in the USADA pool, don't fool around with this Chandler fight. You can't win. Fight me.

But didn't you want him to swing big, whether it was something ridiculous that could be a fun creative fight or whether it was someone ranked really high just for the money of it? I don't know, Luke. I really hate that. Why are so many guys willing to settle to be the cowboy? Why is i think you can be the cowboy but you gotta i'm with you you gotta be a little bit more intentional with it for example even if you wanted to say hey i don't care if you could put whoever you want on there say a date i want to be on that 296 card he did that that's what he did, though.

Okay, but that showed me what was most important to him. It doesn't matter who he fights. Get that paycheck and whatever. I mean, this was the time to call out Patty Pimblitt. This was the time to call out anything that you're like. I'm just clarifying. You believe his interest would have been most best served if he had given a name specifically and tailored everything around that. Yes, because he plays a role in a potential big fight. Now look, beating Grant Dawson was big.

It doesn't get him a real big fight. It can get him an interesting attraction, maybe co-main event on a decent card type of fight. But if you are targeting someone specifically who has clout and you know your role, what is Bobby Green ultimately in matchmaking? He's that fun and dangerous B-side who's going to talk the trash, going to look the part, and maybe, oh maybe, every once in a while, spinning that dial of the revolver,

he'll have the same moment he had against Grant right there. So if you are that and you play that role, call out a big fish that you can potentially want to shoot down and be that that cow that you know cowboy in the dark cape coming in looking to steal everybody at the end like that's what i wanted out of him luke i felt like this performance mixed with the tony win gave him enough credence to try to ask for that but instead we're going to get come back in december against anybody let's keep it going i mean look house payments are house. I get there's a reality here. I get his window is potentially closing, but this could have been

a gangster moment rather than almost an aw shucks, let's see who the UFC has next for me type of thing. Yeah, I guess I must have missed that he had expressly, I apologize, I didn't see his post-fight interview, so I must have missed that part where he expressed the December or bust. Nevertheless, I think you're ultimately right. I mean, here's the

reality, right? I think you would agree with. I mean, here's the reality, right? I think you would agree with this. If you're going to be one of these guys who's not really in contention for a title, plus at 37 and 155, I'm sorry, it's still a very difficult place to be. And you don't want to expressly try to pursue the title path and you want to get bonuses and these other ways in which to accumulate wealth.

Having a more direct plan of attack I do think is in your interest, right? If you want to be the next Chris Lytle, yeah, you got to fight balls out, which by the way, Bobby Green doesn't fight like Chris Lytle. Chris Lytle fought way more recklessly, way more, you know, wide open, you know, for offense and defense. And so that was his sort of magic where it really didn't matter who he fought. He was going to fight

like an absolute maniac every time bobby is talented but not a maniac there's a big difference there and so if you're going to be that kind of guy a certain degree of intentionality has to accompany it if that for this all to make sense right he's going to get double his pay because he won but he just as easily could have lost and would have been half and there's no other opportunity to really maximize from there so it's just a strange way of going about it. Would you have even hated, hey, Max Holloway, you're never getting the fourth Volkanovski fight. Why don't you put on the man pants and come up to 55

and fight a real gangster, fight a real gunslinger, all right? This ain't no soft-handed featherweight. Why don't you fight a real man? Am I asking for too much from these gunslingers, Luke? Come on, man. Dude, that's the Nate Diaz thing. You know what I mean? I'm the real fighter you want. So what's the better model? If you're an aging

non-title contender who has some level of it factor, what's the better model? Forget B. Joe Pfeiffer. Be Cowboy Cerrone, Luke, or be a Diaz brother. Start being a fucking Diaz brother, all right? Dude, the Diaz brothers literally made millions, and they might go into the Hall of Fame,

whether we think they should or not, based off of being the most attractive B-side. They loved being, now, against Jake Paul, even then he was the B-side, because it was Paul Diaz. They've made millions by being this kind of like, they loved being the super hyped but somehow yet overlooked b-side that can take the popularity from the guy who they're fighting you know look like the iconoclasts that they present themselves to be and then move on to

bigger checks and it worked brilliantly even when they lost it worked brilliantly for the most part so you know being a high prized B-side in this game is definitely a thing you can do. Last thing on this before we move to topic number two, BC, which is Grant Dawson. How much of a hit does his stock take because of this? Because he'd never had a loss in the UFC, Luke, I don't think it's devastating, and also because it was very quick.

There wasn't a lot of like, oh, he got his wrestling stuffed, and then that led to him getting walked down and knocked out. No, that's what I said off the top. This was a little bit of a reach as a main event to begin with, although I get what they did here. Ultimately, though, I don't think it overly resets either man. It gives Green a little bit more of juice to get a bigger fight for sure did he utilize that or will he we'll see what matchup he can get in december if they let him i think for

dawson though luke it's obviously it hurts but you weren't overly exposed there's a way whether it's just for himself and self-talk there's a way to write this loss off right as that's what happens in this game but it's a directive to go back to the drawing board and sure up and evolve your game. And if anything, try to figure out what happened here. But if not, Luke, I don't think it's devastating. You're losing this game

in MMA, right? We embrace it more because it matters. It helps. It helps you grow. It's a bad luck, break your ball sport, Luke. So many ways to lose. You can be pitching a perfect game, and then suddenly Leon catches you up on the side of the head

like it happens in this mofo, all right? I think that's right. In this bitch. In this bitch. I would just add very quickly, if I may, it's definitely not great. It's a bit of a reset moment to understand exactly how distance closing is going to have to work for him and what kind of movement he uses and what kind of setups and entries and all that kind of stuff.

But it's one you can correct on. You can really build off of the learning that comes from this mistake. He didn't take a prolonged beating. He's still pretty young. He's going to be able to get another fight, I'm assuming, relatively quickly. This is not great. It's definitely a reset, but it's hardly fatal, is the way I would put it. Hardly fatal.

All right. With that in mind, let's go to topic number two, BC. Now, there are a bunch of other names on this UFC Vegas card that had some pretty nice wins. How about Joe Pfeiffer just dominating Razak El-Hassan? How about Bill Algeo upsetting Alexander Hernandez or Drew Dober just blasting out Ricky Glenn BC whose stock from this UFC Vegas card went up the most and who's dropped the most yeah I got a few answers here Luke let's break it down let's go first and foremost and you nailed it dude Joe Piper is coming the hell on and obviously he had the bump

of the be like joe piper hashtag mixed with the sort of underdog way that he that he got through the dana white contender series and you know promised he'd come back and get a win and he did and i think you mix that with elements of his hard luck story uh you know coming from such a dysfunctional family and being on his own for so much that it has come together to to to light a rocket up his ass of of spite fuel and everything else but i think this fight illustrated luke that he may be better than we thought he was meaning i'm not ready to necessarily put like the bone nickel shavkat type of sticker on him of like holy shit man like we're never gonna know until we like, holy shit, man. Like we're never going to know

until we know, but holy shit, this guy looks like he's ready right freaking now. Hey, Luke Thomas, Joe Pfeiffer looked like he was ready right freaking now in this fight. He is a destroyer. And although he has had success leading up to this fight, and although he has had stoppage wins, I'm not sure he just looked the part in every way the way he did here the physicality and tossing um abdul razak alhassan around the speed in which he turned it into a submission and nearly got one a minute before that just the same and just the overall destructive anger fueled nastiness i mean look put me in the place, okay? Because this was one of those moments

where I did have to retake stock of where I'm at in life, what I'm seeing through my own eyes. Joe Pfeiffer looked like a freaking super. He looked like the Brock Lesnar of prospects right there. How much is that performance the reality of what we have here?

Because this guy looks like he has put it together, and I want to see him all the time. He's a bull, right? Joe Pfeiffer is a bull. The way he would go in there and push Alhassan backward with heavy strikes, combination Alhassan bringing his guard up here, and you could see the punches from Pfeiffer just coming down

and breaking through and coming around, and you could see they were from Pfeiffer just coming down and breaking through and coming around and you could see they were like deterring Alhassan who usually is all too happy to throw back wasn't that excited to throw back in several occasions and again his defense was just getting like kind of overwhelmed with the firepower of Pfeiffer but dude his transition to takedowns and then his takedowns in particular my god dude he was, he was hoisting El Hasan in the air like he was a child and then bringing him down and then just kind of roughhousing him. Still being technical, but everything he does is physical. Everything.

The body kicks were physical. The high-amplitude takedowns, physical. The choke, physical. Would you say it was a DC versus Hendo level of physical wake-up? Like, watching it going like, what? Like, wow. I haven't seen that fight in so long, but that might be a pretty good comparison. Dude, he ragdolled a legend.

Just ragdolled it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, here's the thing. I just stand. I don't know if it's quite on that level, but Pfeiffer, he, you know, middleweight's weird, right? Because you got some guys at middleweight who are like, they're too big to make 170. Like, they literally can't do it.

But they're not, like, overly freakishly strong at 185 either. They're kind of these tweeners that just kind of get stuck there based on how far apart the weight cutting is between welterweight and middleweight. But then you get these guys who are, like, perfectly suited for middleweight, right? Like, they settle into it no problem. And they clearly look much stronger

than the rest of the guys around them. Like, Alhassan is not a weak guy. He's not some kind of physical pushover, and he couldn't stand up to the physicality of what Joe Pfeiffer was doing even a little bit. Like, that's what I'm talking about. Pfeiffer is a massive, strong, physical, imposing, and, BC, the bigger part of it is it's

part of his style. He bakes in being physical into how he attacks the takedown and how he chains the takedown with the guard pass, with the, in this particular case, the head and arm triangle and everything in between. Like all of it works together because he knows he has those built-in advantages in virtually every single department. So, like, I don't know exactly what his upside is because this kind of fight, while interesting, doesn't really tell us that. But what it does tell us is that his stock went way up for me based on a performance like this and everything he's done to this point.

And I can't wait to see him tested against somebody a little bit more highly ranked. Dude, he has a nastiness to his, not just his physicality, but there's an edge to the way he fights that early on I wasn't sure if that was going to become a superpower for him. I wasn't sure if he was going to be able to regulate that because of that whole debate about fighting too emotional or fighting too angry, but he's turned it into menacing fuel. There's something here

there is something here and he's also luke going like heavy ham aggressive hacksaw jim duggan like usa flag all the time bro he's become like he's surpassing colby as the new face of the flag in this organization luke your thoughts i i don't i don't i don't mind i mean again flag code violations at this point just what everybody does i will say i don't i don't mind i mean again flag code violations at this point just what everybody does i will say you know what i thought was kind of weird was dana afterwards being like hey if any and this is exactly how i said it if any flag that was the modifier any offends you like too fucking bad it's like dana we weren't the ones who banned the flags to begin with like it was you yes no we didn't call for it we didn't like it it wasn't us bro we didn't do that shit like y'all did that shit

so was that the was that the um uh what's the armenian prospect's name is that the fight you're referencing edmund shabazzian so he so where there's two sort of competing theories one is that what had happened was he had or used for his flag the Armenian flag, not the strict state official Armenian flag he had used a bit of a separatist flag around the Artsakh region, right, and it caused a lot of problems, like the ambassador from

Azerbaijan literally wrote a letter to the UFC about this, about how pissed off he was about it, right, caused a bit of an international incident, and this is why BC it deserves some thought, if everyone off he was about it right caused a bit of an international incident and this is why bc it deserves some some thought if everyone has the official state flag of whatever they're representing then i would basically agree with dana like if you can't live in a world where people can show the official state flags of where they're from or what they're representing then that is your problem

but like for example do i really believe they're gonna let someone walk out with out with a Taiwanese flag in a show that's going to get broadcast in China? I got to tell you, I don't believe that. I don't believe that at all. Like, are they free to walk out with a Taiwanese flag even in any kind of Chinese show? I don't believe that either. So this idea that like, oh, we're going to let anyone have any flag they want. Can they have the Confederate flag? And if so, why or why not?

There's just a lot of really bigger questions about what flags are allowed are separatist flags allowed are they not but you'll recall bc last thing on this george saint pierre used to walk out with the imperial flag of japan and it was actually chan sung jung who begged him please don't do this anymore it's very very offensive to koreans and he listened and he changed so my point being is state flags i don't think there's really any issue but like where does that lie yeah for all of the different competing political interests you know pretty soon luke all of the ufc would have the yellow don't tread on me flag anyway so no but is the right way to regulate this and regulate meaning the the potential of this going afoul meaning look we we have the ukraine russian conflict which

changed some rules or ideas on how we present flags for stuff like this and obviously now there's the israel palestine conflict luke so there's there's heightened emotions would you be okay though if they limited it to just your nation flag so that you're not so that would eliminate the potential of like let's say separatist groups or let's say outdated flags you know if somebody brought a confederate flag and it has all this extra meaning and it would be potentially an issue if you kept it to your home nation or any nation i mean look would you be okay with american fighters coming out with let's say a ukrainian flag to support that side of the conflict now you're crossing over into into bleeding lines though right i think the best you can do, because people think it's so simple.

Any flag, word, right? Like if someone walks out with like an LGBTQ flag, people are going to be like, oh, yeah, that's cool, right? In MMA, please be serious. Like half the fan base and half the sport would lose their mind over something like that. Like that's not true. So what I think is probably the best workable policy for everybody's

interest is you can walk out with any official state flag right any the official flag of finland the official flag of brazil the official flag of whatever any you know any place recognized in a larger international body because if you don't anything other than that you're just opening the door to any number of problems that i just think are easy to avoid if you keep it you know relatively workable in that way but we shall see we shall see how that's going to go now i did getting back to make you take that marines flag down you used to have in the shop behind because of my support against the uh sex trade luke the organized uh what marine flag did i take that that was more of a crack on your Marine teammates' choice of after-hours activities, Luke.

Hey, they keep in the sex trade and business. Someone's got to pay those bills. You know what I'm saying? Disgusting. All right. BC, we're talking about stocks rising, stocks going down. We talked about Joe Pfeiffer. How about Joaquin Buckley at 170?

Yo. Yo. He looked, true or false, zero cardio issues. Zero at 170. Dude, first of all, he's always ripped, and I know he took his shirt off during the media day. First team all titties is Joaquin Buckley. Oh, God, you know, yeah.

First team all titties. I mean, that guy, well, that's a hell of a rack, that guy's got, right? I'm looking at you, Big E. I know what I'm talking about here, okay? Luke, anytime there's a division change, you're always going to be really close to see, like, like well how does that change them or or is this a desperate move or is this the right move dude the patience he showed for a guy that's so aggressive and is a part on both sides of the business ends of so many devastating finishes it was really nice even

though he was going for the finish but didn't get it to see this version of him but even more importantly and this is why it comes full circle on my criticism against bobby green rant after joaquin buckley's promo that he cut after luke was perfect it was perfect and he had the built-up money of the performance he just put out and he's like you know hey dana and company um i don't ask for a lot but um it's time you put me in the main event i've earned it i deliver uh you know i'm this i'm that like what what do you hold why not why are you holding me back like luke i love you probably didn't hear it because you probably had the um this one i did here this one i did okay great i didn't know if you had it muted uh while you were while you were listening to reggaeton which is a normal muted yes it's a

normal occurrence right for latin music to be playing and people to be screaming while you're watching fights true or false this is true this is a very true thing yes um this was the perfect like if you're the company and you hear that and it's backed up you're like you know what this dude's kind of right i mean look he's a sexy main event type of product that he's evolved into it's time he gets that love i mean i can't believe pop quiz bc how old is new mansa how old is probably like 27 a little older than that 29 but still i mean he's been doing a lot of good work for a long time and in the wrong division at that right so now he finally is in the better division for himself at 170. I understand a little bit of the UFC's hesitation with him. Like on the one hand, what he did to Mpukasangana is just one of the most,

it's probably the most spectacular KO finish in UFC history. If not, it's like, you know, top three at worst, right? Just insanely acrobatic and spectacular. At the same time, he's had a few underwhelming performances in sometimes unexpected ways against other strikers. He just kind of got in front of his skis a little bit. And if you look at this fight, like what was great about it? He won convincingly. I don't think he lost a single round. I think he even won around 10-8 on a couple of the judges' scorecards

perhaps. But the bigger point I wanted to make was, he even gave up the takedown in the third by using that spinning kick, Luke Rockhold, Chris Weidman style, and then he ended up on his back. There's still a couple of times when he tries to go for acrobatic versus pragmatic, and I think that's one reason why we do love him, but it's also one reason why I think matchmakers

might be a little bit hesitant about what his actual upside is, because does he have all of the athletic ability in the world? Yes. Is he a natural born fighter? Like he doesn't, you know, is he afraid of contact?

Absolutely not. Is he in the right weight class now? 100%. But I think there's just a little bit, and I don't mean a lot. Listen to what I'm saying. A little bit more seasoning, a little bit more working through some of the decision-making

and key spots to clean up some stuff because he's got all of the other things that you might want. And for anyone who had worries that at 170, he was going to be a diminished version of himself, totally wrong. He was an elevated version of himself, and I cannot wait to see him continue this process of development as he gets better. And just a reminder, Luke, he showed up at our Three Margaritas Vegas live show. He did.

He showed up. He did, although a little late, though, because someone only told me after the fact. I'd like to see that guy in a bomber jacket is really where I'm going with this. You know who else I got to shout out? I got a few, Luke. I got a long list here. Let's go. Drew Dober.

Day drinking dad, Drew Dober. I mean, look, this was a potentially favorable matchup for him to land the bomb against somebody like Ricky Glenn, but he did, Luke. He did the deed, and he looked like a million bucks doing that. This was an important win to show us coming off of the Frivola loss that he still may not have reached his upper bound limits true or false true all right i don't know how much more

that i think there is a little bit of a question there also ricky glenn's glub grab in this fight sure glub grab is one of the worst i've ever seen i mean he literally had like sleeve control it was robin's race and luke he literally used it to then grab the far side heel i was like oh my god dude take a point like this is this is blatant uh the worst of it was just insane so this was a great win by drew dober he was widely expected to win we do have to be honest about that he was a big favorite i believe believe, heading into this contest. Glenn is a lot older. Dober still, I think, maximizing what he's got, but there's a lot there.

I will say I thought Bill Algeo's win, or Algeo, I still can't remember how to say it. I thought his win was. You're worse than Rousey Rousey on that one. I know. I can't get it right. I think it's Algeo. I think. I think.

I believe that's how I heard it pronounced. Why don't you interview him so that you can ask him, Luke? I should't get it right. I think it's Algeo. I think. I think. I believe that's how I heard it pronounced. Why don't you interview him so that you can ask him, Luke? I should do that, yeah. I mean, how would you say Adrian Yanez? Yanez, and I was right about that. You POS, you know I was right about that. Anyway. Yeah, but why don't you give love to non-Hispanics, Luke?

I mean, their last name matters, too. Hey, I don't take Russian lessons on Rosetta Stone, MFR. The only thing on my mind is learning Spanish. That's why I got to give him preference. All right. Neither here nor there. I thought he looks pretty good. He gave Hernandez a lot of problems.

Hernandez didn't look completely out of it. I thought he won the third round and was doing well enough in the second, but got dropped. That caused him to lose the round. And ultimately, I think, given he had lost the first, you know, fairly cleanly, the fight in general. BC, Hernandez didn't look terrible, but he just has a hard time at this point,

OAM and Benil Dariush fight notwithstanding, getting over the hump. He switched weight classes. He's with Mark Montoya. You know, it seems like he's doing all the right things. He's fainting before he throws. His skills are much better. He just, it's just not coming together the way I thought it might. It seems like he's doing all the right things. He's fainting before he throws. His skills are much better. It's just not coming together the way

I thought it might. It's not working. I don't know because he looked good at this weight class, meaning he doesn't sacrifice his power seeming or his speed. You know what I mean? There were moments in this fight where it looked like he was putting something together, but when you switch weight classes and have the same flip-flopping success, yeah,

it becomes, how much time do I have left at 31 to still figure this out? Still has time. But yeah, there's been a string of frustrating losses, but at the same time, Luke, Algeo was the better fighter who had the better game plan and really is that weird sort of, like, would you say he's kind of a mixture

of, like, Corey Sanhagen, Dominic Cruz, and uh, uh, Sebastian Fundora luke bill okay maybe not the latter um but yeah no dude he's got that a little much no i don't think he's a combination i'm not saying he's the the combined equivalence of all of their elite skills i'm just saying he moves a lot he's got a wide open stance. He's also tough, too. So when he calls out a few names, including Billy Q afterwards, I'm like, yeah, please, can we?

Can we do this, Luke? I was all about it as well. BC, last thing on this, Nate Maness getting a nice win over Mateus Mendoza. All three of the women's fights went to the decision. I'm going to have to interrupt you and interrupt you again for this non-Hispanic. We've been through this before. It's Maness, Luke. Nate Maness.

All right. Will you join me on this? Will you join me on this, Luke? It's Nate Maness. Maness. He had the win there. It was a good win, but we can't end this discussion, Luke, without mentioning Carolina Kovalevich.

Correct, Luke? How do you go from losing five in a row to winning four in a row at 37? You saw the emotion afterwards when she mentioned the two family members that have passed recently that she's been mourning. She didn't beat a world beater. I predicted she'd beat Bell B to Luke. This is the level she's been on in this four-fight win streak, so she's not stepping up in class. But this is the level she's been on in this four fight win streak so she's not stepping

up in class but this is becoming a fun turnaround right like it's really becoming an easy story to cheer for i think is a good way to put it yes yes all right and she's leaning on on her strengths with that you know look did it really come down to am i learning this right that she married her her trainer and he was the lead voice in her corner during that losing streak and they collectively decided let's save the marriage first of all it's going great right yeah and let's move her full-time to american top team and he'll just be the husband more or less and it's worked right yeah also i think jj had i mean i know that they had beef before or whatever but probably probably JJ being gone from ATT,

so it's creating a little more of an opening for her there, helps as well. But can you imagine trying to fist fight and your wife giving you, or your husband or your significant other, whatever, giving you advice in the corner? That'd be a disaster. That'd be a disaster. Well, it happens in this game, Luke. There's significant others who end up being coaches,

and then some people compare them to Celine Dion's husband, but I didn't do that. That's definitely true. I didn't. I did not do that. All right. Here's what I mean. It's fun to watch KK.

It's fun to watch Luke. She's got to get a name, right, from a four-fight win streak like this. She's not going to win a championship. Yeah, I mean, she might still stay in the apex but yeah but it's been fun yeah and i've got to ask it's been a really nice story it's been like and also i would say unexpected i don't think people look after her loss to who is it uh the arm bar she suffered who had jessica penne i believe right five after that oh god yeah i thought everyone must have been like oh well that's i mean that's a wrap now and here she has four wins later like it's really remarkable i got one more for you luke but it's not a riser it's a downer okay give me the

downer you did ask me about that um the downer montana de la rosa luke has lost now three in a row is one four and one in her last six um i told you i i thought she would beat aldrich but she doesn't have a like that finisher to lean on that she can do damage with. She got beat up bad in this one, Luke. Aldrich fought well. Is it over? I've had a good relationship as a fan here, Luke.

Is it over? It's not looking great. It's not looking great. She just seems... I mean, her record's 12-9-1. I don't know if they have, I don't know if she, I don't know how much longer at this level she has.

I think it's probably, I mean, I'm not trying to be difficult about it, you know what I mean? So are you saying that she's already met her historical footnote, meaning that her and her husband, Mark, are the first married couple to appear in the Octagon together?

I mean, that's already written in stone. It's a question of what they can build from there, but I just don't know how much of the full onset of skills there are. I was going to ask how cold the breeze was under your ball bag when your pants were around your ankles for the Vanessa Demopolis fight. I mean, it's just not fair. I do have a Vanessa's got her own section of have you seen this shit today?

Lucas? Okay, great. Very good. Yeah, very good. All right. With that in mind, let's move it all along a little bit. Let's talk about Bellator 300, which, of course, took place on Saturday in San Diego, California. Usman Nurmagomedov, BC, in the main event, just easily routed Brent Premis to retain his lightweight title. Of course, he moves into the finals now of the overall 155 Grand Prix.

But, BC, I want to ask the question this way. All right, true or false today Usman Usman Nurmagomedov is no worse than a top five among all lightweights in MMA true or false oh true I'm glad you said that Luke it's not the totality of just this dominant performance against you know a fighter who still had something left in the tank a former champion in premise but because we have so little tape on Usman maybe it was the length of this fight really getting to see as a showcase the commute the accumulation of skills look he's fucking great like he's not just like like any great you know uh asterisk you want to be like Bellator great nope right like you know great

for second tier of this extended Nurmagomedov family. Nope. Luke. Nope. He's great. He's, he's fucking great. There's nothing he can't do in there.

And I think what I learned even more about him in this fight was that when it comes to the combination of patience and execution and variety, he might be on his own level as a striker, Luke. I mean, look at these moves right here look at this i i want to see you for this on saturday no but i scored it for them live it was really nice that they were like you can just stay in your pajamas and and stay in that eighth row and not come on screen but uh i mean look am i wrong here a guy who we we always said isn't just the wrestler because he has the Nurmagomedov name.

He can do more. I'm starting to wonder if it's actually his striking, the variety of it, the way he operates in the pocket, so calm, never getting touched despite being so close. That actually might be his greatest skill, and I just didn't realize it until now. I mean, here's what I would say. He's, okay, so he's 25 years old, and I tried to look up, like, say he's okay so he's 25 years old and I tried to look up like where was Habib when he was 25 years old and it was basically around the Pat Healy era when he was still just a heavy takedown I mean he was always just a heavy takedown guy

but you know he wasn't it was there was a certain degree of rawness still to his game and a lot more ferocity than what you saw from Usman Nurmagomedov. In answer to the question, BC, true or false, is he top five? I could hear an argument for false, but this is why I still think it's true. People are going to look at this performance, let's be honest, the crowd booed.

The crowd booed from the second round on because it wasn't super action-packed. But the reality is, if you look at the overall development of his game, one thing that he and Islam Makhachev have in common is, dude, they don't make a lot of costly errors. Maybe at times their offense wows you, like we did see it against, for example, Benson Henderson.

Like his offense was incredible in that fight. Or maybe it doesn't, like the Brent Primus fight, it didn't wow you. But how many times have you ever seen Usman in trouble? Rocked, cut, cut tired on his back doing something to fight off a bad position you just never see it I can understand arguments for saying hey on top of Brent premise a guy like Usman has more skills and should have done a little bit more than he did I do think that's a fair criticism but if you want to compare the overall development, while Usman Nurmagomedov doesn't have Habib's ferocity

and maybe singular focus on the takedown, his well-roundedness is far advanced at age 25 relative to Habib. To me, a guy like Usman Nurmagomedov, by the time he's 28, is very easily going to be in the top three of all lightweights and might be the king of them all he has that kind of potential we always hear that that that you know i don't even know if it's true anymore but i hear it my dms a lot that you know that umar the brother of usman right he's coming really is really potentially the best of the group and when you make that type of hipster argument without having us fully seeing it,

I mean, you would be putting him ahead of Habib, Islam. But I'm starting to have that same feeling about Usman, Luke. And I know it's early, and I know he's going to fight a killer competition. Did you notice his trunks, by the way? Didn't they look like he was trying to create his own version of the UFC Venom trunks? Yes, they looked oddly similar. I almost wondered how deep of a purposeful, intentional move that was

just to show everybody, UFC, anybody, that I am of the world-class level. I may have the Bellator title, but come take it from me. Anybody in the world, come take it from me. This guy's a world beater, Luke. This guy has poise and a variety to his game that is unnatural for this age, especially when it all fully comes together and maybe more of that...

I mean, you mentioned it earlier last week that he's starting to talk more shit in interviews. He's starting to carry a very stone-faced, confident opinion of himself. But he could almost be more offensive and go after people even more because I feel like he has such a control and understanding of defense space and poise and all of that where, yes, the crowd did boo the shit out of this fight. But I don't necessarily think that was his fault because he was constantly coming forward.

Yes, there were long stretches with him in top position, but Premise was, you know, trying his best to fight him off. But, you know, you saw Brent Premise's face afterwards. I mean, this was a slow, deliberate destruction, but it wasn't slow enough to warrant boos, in my opinion. All I'm saying here, Luke, is this was an eye-opener as much as the joe pfeiffer fight was for the oh shit like the up there's upper bound potential we already knew there was upper bound potential in usman i didn't know he was like already kind of there luke i really didn't

let me ask you though i'm you know me i'm high on usman i'm really high on usman i think the world of him you don't think there's a fair criticism he could have done more on top to Brent Premis? Because I do. I think there is, and I sort of showed that card by saying, you know, like I'd like to see more of that confident cocksure go from not just his quotes, but into like, okay, I got a guy damaged. Let me do it.

You can argue there was some elements of play with your food, but look at all the variety that he was trying. I mean, he basically was showing us the peacock. This is exactly what I am. Look under my jacket. See all the stolen items I have ready to sell you. Luke, he's got everything. He's that guy that shows up to the barbershop with the overfilled duffel bag

that not just has the DVDs, right, and the bongs. He's got everything luke he dildos you got yes you got to prove it and he's doing that and unfortunately again i lament here of aj mckee getting knocked out of that tournament so we don't see it at least in the tournament final where it would have been the ultimate pound for pound test but if you told me tomorrow and it's not happening right belator's probably getting sold to pfl and we'll see what the hell what that brings on make a bit wild but if you told me tomorrow that usman was walking into the octagon and ready for whoever they got i mean who are you

tell me right now who are you gonna who are you gonna favor on paper from an odds making standpoint maybe besides islam who else right now would you be confident enough to favor Dustin Poirier against him right now? See, here's the thing about Usman. I think he could win, right? And I probably would. I still think Usman, it's not that he lacks confidence, but he's a little bit too willing to manage risk on the defensive side.

And I think that there's a dialing up of intensity and offense that you could get available to him without much extra risk. Some extra risk is always involved when you dial up the intensity, but this is the manageable kind. For example, when you would see George St-Pierre, one of the criticisms I had in the Dan Hardy fight was he spent a lot of time in Dan's guard without really trying to pass all that often.

And it's like, did you really think that Dan was like a really significant submission threat from his back? He doesn't have bad jiu-jitsu, but from his back, does he have the kind of guard that would threaten in that way? And the answer is no. And so that's why I think you could make a criticism of it. St. Pierre was a little too risk-averse in that fight. There were is no and so that's why i think you could make a criticism of it saint pierre was a little too risk averse in that fight there were some interesting moments that he had obviously but in general is what i'm talking about i still think usman

hasn't gotten over that hump yeah when he does he's gonna be freaking better he's gonna be even better he does he's gonna move downhill on everybody. Okay. But here's the thing. Up until that point, Dustin could still win that. Yes. Yes. Yes. There's a lot. We don't know. All I'm saying is the evidence of what we do is starting to get overwhelming.

And is there criticism there? Yes. But we're basically criticizing him for not risking enough yet was completely controlling every aspect of that and showing us every possible wrinkle so you ask yourself okay could that slow down his commercial growth certainly but that's not what this discussion about it wasn't about commercial growth it was about who actually wins in the cage and right now luke i mean i think you'd favor you'd favor would you fit i don't know Are we ready to have this discussion?

Would you favor Islam? You'd favor Islam. You would. Islam is more developed, yes. But who do you think, okay, then who do you think long-term, though, right now is showing you the potential to be the better fighter? Long-term, fully developed, let them play their whole career out. Who comes out the more accomplished fighter?

So I'll say this if usman can learn how to more offensively navigate risk he looks to me to be the most well-rounded of any of any of the number of madoffs i've seen um but that that is a big fbc it's a big if it's like on paper who's got the skills usman's got the I mean he's got the skills and then some I mean he's got more than he knows what to do with but people make this argument it's like oh he was really totally in control of Brent Primus like Brent Primus was never in this fight right that's why he should have dialed up the intensity it's because he was in that much control he was not in any any danger at any point that i can recall ever in this fight

and so for that reason the kind of not lackadaisical but the kind of slower pace that it had is a little bit hard to forgive it didn't need to go that way but here's the thing you have to understand dude they may have looked at this fight and been like we're going to take it as slow as we need to to get this kind of requisite experience. That's the other part, too. These guys may have intentionally said, hey, even if it comes this easy, don't do something stupid. Stick to this. And that could have been what the plan was. I just think if that's the way he's able to perform

against an opponent like Brent Primus, time to ratchet it up a little bit. Time to show us what else you can do. Here's what I like. They asked him, who do you want to win? The other side of the Bellator lightweight Grand Prix semifinals. It's going to be Alexander Chablis against Patrycki Pitbull, and that's going to come up, I believe, at Bellator 301 in Chicago in October.

October 18th, I think. He said straight up, Chablis, that's a very tough fight for me. He said, I respect him. That's a very, very tough fight. No disrespect to Patrycki, but we did already see him lose his title and we did already see him get dominated by usman um how interested are you to see a potential usman versus shibley fight for one million dollars and how much of a of a chance would you give the the b-side on that one look if we get is good he ain't usman number gamedov good usman number gamedov is the best

guy in this organization from what we can tell i mean here's the really weird issue right so aj mckee has a fight he was supposed to be in this tournament he got injured blah blah blah we know the story so he's out so now he's gonna fight sydney outlaw who's a good fighter but aj mckee should win that one that's a good fight that's a good test though let's pause that that's a good find out because all we know about him at lightweight is the spike carlisle fight am i right i'm saying i think that's i think that's right i'd have to double check but or did he fight in for risen uh he didn't yes he did he did fight in risen but that's a weird thing because it's the ring and you know it's a little suza roberto de suza is that correct yeah roberto

satoshi yeah but yes yes um okay so i like that fight but what are you building towards are you building toward these two fighting each other? McKee versus Usman? Is that what you're trying to take me? Take me there, Luke. How did we get there? Is that on the smart gauge? Okay, so he has to beat Sidney Outlaw,

and then I don't know what Bellator's future is after 301. Is there a Bellator 302 that's been scheduled? I don't think so. Did you get... Okay, let me ask you this. Bellator 300 happened. There were some elements of the prompt and circumstance and the fireworks. I really loved.

I loved the ramp that had the video screen. I loved a lot of the visuals. Didn't it feel like an anniversary card? It almost felt like a last hurrah, didn't it? I know there's actually already a card coming, Bellator 301. It's going to air on Showtime. We don't know what's going to happen after that, but it almost felt like a graduation or something, didn't it?

Yeah, it felt like the symbolic end of it to me. I know that Kevin Kay, the former head of Spike TV, was there. David Schwartz, the head of PR, and a couple of other folks that I knew at my time in Spike TV were there in attendance as well. The old producer for my show is now a producer for Bellator. Yeah, this to me felt like a celebration of everything they achieved, but a bookend to what they were ultimately going to do. Now, again, Bellator 301, this to me felt like a celebration of everything they achieved, but a bookend to what

they were ultimately going to do. Now, again, Bellator 301 will be November 17th at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago. So it does roll on. But 300 absolutely felt to me not like a feeling of what's ahead, but a reminder of just what they've done, which is a good thing because they've done a lot. But it didn't feel like i didn't get like wow man the future's so bright for bellator after this did you i didn't get that feeling no i mean i'm trying to take coker's comments knowing the sort of larger picture but he'll say whatever i mean i mean he's a he's got a job to do to maintain his public line yeah you know he's he's been put in an impossible position so i want to be clear i'm not like bagging on him but like what he says about the future has to be taken with an extraordinary grain of salt yeah so but look if suddenly you are

potentially injecting all of these unknowns into the pfl million dollar tournaments or pay-per-view matchups this could get very interesting but let me ask you this straight up let's say it did happen under a bellator banner um can aj mckee be usman at lightweight i don't think so i don't think anybody in this organization can and i think by the time they fight each other that will be proven correct uh wow now aj mckee if anyone's got a shot at it it feels like it could be him uh because he is athletic he is crafty sometimes he does fight down opposition sometimes he fights up you know yeah yeah i mean he's skilled as shit he's got sneaky slash explosive ways to finish fights or to get out of trouble or whatever but

is he as rock solid technical and strong in every single category because look that's what you're gonna have to be against the guy if if usman based on the resume so far if that's what you're going to have to be against the guy. If Usman, based on the resume so far, if that's a telling prophecy of what is to come and not just it's because of that level of competition or anything else, then yeah, I always thought this was like the 50-50 of 50-50 fights. Usman has to be the favorite right now. Luke, this is also his division too, right? But I don't even think, could AJ keep making feather?

He told me he could. When we sat down with him for room service diaries, he told me he could. All right, let me ask you related to this. I did see Patricio Pitbull mention, I don't know what the outlet was, but did you see this quote I'm talking about where he was basically saying,

due to the uncertainty of not knowing what the PFL or Bellator future is like i could see myself when i get healthy going to the ufc now he's 36 years old this would assume this would lead you to believe he's at the end of his deal then luke so how how freaking excited would you be if that was a reality it's a little too late right that's the problem between his loss at ryzen which folks have forgotten and then granted it was at 135 he didn't look like himself okay fine but even at 145 where he's still very good he's slowing down there a little bit i think you saw that in the um the kid he the hungarian kid he fought what's his name boric adam boric

adam boric yeah uh who's a good great fighter but you could see even then he's slowing down the problem is man the guy has been in bellator since they were doing tournaments under bjorn rebney he was kicking everyone's ass back then he's still doing it now but he's like any like this any any match against anyone you get like a max or a volkanovski yeah you're going to get a diminished version of Pitbull. And so, therefore, I'm not going to say it's pointless, but the real value on what it could have been is gone. There's just no denying it.

All right. I hope not. I mean, couldn't he have a, I'm here for a good time, a short time, not a long time. Too much mileage. Too much mileage. You don't even think he could come and bang for, like, two fights? Like, at least Askren splashed the pot, the pool, Lukeke then the pot when he got in there he didn't win most even

he wasn't as i think oh that's not quite true because he had hip issues but yeah you listen you could probably get a decent if you got him a two-fight deal who could one of those be really good and really great maybe maybe but we just have to be honest where pitbull's at the best fighter in bellator history without a shadow of a doubt easy to call okay then here's the better question he's but he's a little bit past it here's the better question then in light of you believing and i and i don't fully disagree but i do think he could dial it up he's at that age where you can dial it up for the right matchup sometimes it doesn't respond though luke it doesn't respond but here's what i'm trying to ask you. Would you

rather see him stay with Bellator and potentially align himself in a Super League with PFL, knowing that Trilogy with AJ, fight with Pico, fight with Usman, I don't know, plus you mix with

the PFL roster. There's a potential for him to age more gracefully. Right. I know some of those names I mentioned are a lot of them are super elites, but like, he's going to be a part of big fights. If he stays,

where would you rather see him go? Which way? Sounds like you have more of a preference on this one than I do. Tell me what you're, you're seeing. I think either way is fun and you get huge fights and he comes and delivers and he loses some and knocks people out in the others. So I still

think there's some unanswered questions in the Bellator roster of fights I'd like to see and you mix that. Would you like to see him against Patchy Mix, Luke? At what weight? What would have to be? Feather? Yeah, it would have to be 145. I mean, let's see how he looks,

Patsy Mix does against Sergio Pettis at 135. Okay, so what I'm saying is there's fights we haven't seen yet. That would be interesting. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a couple ways you could go about it. I mean, yes, yes, you're right. You're right.

There are some interesting fights that you could put together. I'm being a little bit dismissive. Like, you don't think he could make a second cut to 35 if Mix beats Pettis to try to fight mix if he comes off a big win i don't think he'd beat mix if he did he could do it i don't think he'd beat mix if he all right all right there we go all right let's go to topic number four here as we move along bc we stick with bellator 300 chris cyborg just easily dispatching kat zingano inside of a round to retain her Bellator featherweight title did this win do anything to strengthen Cyborg's argument for best of all time in women did it do anything for her or not I mean you can always argue cosmetically that you it's sort of I sort

of looked at this fight as Cyborg fighting like in some ways the last of the Mohicans the last of the big names from her era that she didn't get a chance to fight. I thought they overblowed the bad blood between them. And unfortunately for Kat Luke, she came out looking better than I thought she would early. And then it was over. Yes, if you want to cosmetically massage the whole idea that Kat beat Amanda Nunes, right?

The last person to do that before Juliana and Cyborg lost in one round against her, maybe. But I think it's more about the totality and the ridiculous consistency and longevity of what Cyborg has done and who she still is. She looked great against Kat Zingano. She instantly is talking about fighting Leah McCourt, who had a stoppage win in the first round over Sarah McMahon on the same night. And they did a face-off afterwards in the cage. So it's like, it shows you that she wants to get right back in there as fast as possible. She knows what she's dealing with in her advanced

stage, that there's a window here of what she can still do. Luke, she brings so much joy to the game. She's been such an ambassador of the game over her career that when we're talking about this, winning back goat ship, right? We all feel like the transaction happened when she lost to Amanda Nunes. And I take nothing away from Amanda doing that. I think she acquired goat dumb for whatever rules or credentials you use. Can Cyborg just outlast everyone else and still stay on top in some form and get that back? It is possible, Luke.

And I think this was another really strong step in that direction. Whatever you think of 41-year-old Zingano, there's name value and Cyborg was dominant and was already willing to fight the next in line. That might have to be part of her lean because she's already sort of accomplished everything. So it's like, what else could she do? Maybe fight Kayla Harrison if there's some merger, maybe. But for now now she's doing the best she can just keep getting title defenses just keep

getting big wins keep cashing those checks you saw she was the highest paid fighter on the card luke 500 000 um cyborg is special and for whatever reason lou maybe it was the way ronda and dana used to crap on her or maybe it was because she did feel that steroid test and strike force that time. And it plays into everybody saying, Oh, look, she's,

you know, this or that. She's amazing. And I feel like we do this after every title defense, do the whole, Hey guys, wake up. Like we're watching continuously.

One of the best in the history of this sport under any category. And she's still on top all these years later. Um, I'm, I'm enjoying this and i've come to really enjoy her interviewing her in recent years luke that i have a lot of respect for who she is as an athlete and how she operates so yeah i'm all in on the uh cyborg may actually be the women's goat overall the quote luke tell us i just feel like a win like this is going to be not really useful in any kind of argument about her GOAT status long-term. Because, I mean, 41 years old, let's just be honest. I felt to me, it seemed to me that Kat Zingano has been past it

for quite some time. Yes. I respect how much effort and hustle she put in, but at 41, she just doesn't. Her prime looks like it's been gone for some time. And so, you know, you have to have some managed, not expectations, but some managed assessment about what the value of a win like this is. However, BC, the point you raised to me seems like the very good one.

It's not like Cyborg is a spring chicken herself. She's 38 years old. 38 years old, dude. Her punches still had zip. They still had pop on them. They would hit Zingano, and you would see her eyes get as wide as saucer plates. She was physical in the clinch. Her down blocking was absolutely on point in this fight.

Her technical level has only getting, only continues to get better year over year. Can I put her based on her wins and losses as the most accomplished female fighter of all time? I don't think i can do that but what i can say is as a fighter she's probably no better than you know second best all time right no no i'd say no worse than second best all time and more to the point the amount of longevity she has enjoyed where she still retains not only her physical abilities bc but her the fire to compete the desire to win the desire to train to put in the road work to be a part of the show to give the athlete or the uh the audience a show all of those things to me look like they haven't diminished at all she's still in it to win it

her mentality feels just as it did five to even 10 years ago. That, to me, is the most incredible part. Not that she is beating all of the most amazing, difficult opposition that is available to her at this age. No, but the level of martial arts and fighting spirit that she's able to muster at this length of her career, now nearly 30 professional fights deep, having made her pro debut all the way back in 2005. It's just insane. You're just not going to see many athletes

who have this kind of a lengthy career that stays this poised, this full of competitive fire, and then this technical and physical on top of it. She's not the best ever, I don't think, but goddamn she's good, and her longevity speaks to how special she is. It does, it does. But I do think the argument,

if you want to make that argument, I know Scott Coker has on the broadcast a lot, I think the argument's still there. I'd still pick Amanda, but I think she's close enough in that discussion that there is an argument, despite the head-to-head matchup between them and the finality of that.

Obviously, I think, Luke, for the second half of her career, we would have loved, at the very least, for her to get a rematch against Amanda Nunes because Nunes lured her into a brawl and Cyborg got caught sniffing what she loves, like the fumes of what she loves. Oh, we're going to throw down? She got caught. To her credit, as we're talking about, she's evolved and adjusted and repaired and she's just unfortunately not fighting i want to say like elite level but

luke what is elite at 145 worldwide ufc barely has a division they only really had it for cyborg to begin with it's definitely not going to be fighters who are 41 right i mean at least there's a pocket in pfl with like pacheco bud kayla in and around 45 I know they had to do the 55 division when Kayla was active last year. This year they've bumped it back down to 45. But it's not like there is a ton of... So here's the best question I can ask you to actually sum up, not what Cyborg's achieved all time, but just right now. Where would you have her right now, pound for pound, globally in women's MMA?

Ooh. Man, I don't do the ranking, so I'd have to think that one through a little bit. I'm not sure. Because we're at a weird time in women's MMA, in my opinion, where we're all kind of going, should it be Grasso or should it be...

Who else? Should it be... Who am I forgetting here? Whaley. I've got Whaley number one. Some people have grasso i told you kevin iola of yahoo has juliana pena which i think is unacceptable but yeah i don't agree with that you know but like there's a larger argument some people i think still had

shevchenko really high despite the despite that series so because there's no like clear-cut order right now where this could actually aid so basically i'm asking you is how good is cyborg still and where would you put her in and around a pound for pound level comparison to those names i just mentioned man that's a tough one that's a tough one i would probably still say certainly top 10 um maybe some have her in the top five i don't know if i would agree with that or not that's i i again i do so here's the thing i haven't put together a list for women's pound for pound i don't think ever so i'm a little bit cat you're catching me a little bit off guard having not okay but you know you know the abilities and accomplished enough if i asked you who would you prefer for pound for pound number one right

now um uh the god i'm my mind is going to alexa grasso or Zhong Wei Li which one would you prefer right now one pound for pound number one Zhong Wei Li yeah I've got I've got Wei Li too I think but Grosso's right there Shevchenko's right there some people have Blanchfield coming on into the back end of the top five here's the thing with Cyborg right here's the thing with Cyborg she beat Zingano she had the two boxing fights skip the boxing fights for a second but she had the Zingano win Blanco Sinead Kavanaugh Leslie Smith dating back to 2021 then Blanco again 2020 and then before that Julia Budd at Bellator 238 which was her Bellator debut and then before that Felicia Spencer the Spencer and the Budd wins to me are very legit the Blanco wins are pretty good

too but the Smith and Kavanaugh wins don't necessarily mean a ton same with this win over Zingano they don't mean all that much. So that's why it's amazing what she's able to do and show, given everything she's been through and who she's beaten. But these are just not the kind of names in the level of difficulty that they represent in 2023 that should elevate your name too, too much. It's a tough question. It's a good question.

I just don't have a great answer for you, unfortunately. I mean i mean top three i don't think it's crazy if you had her number three if you had a number three is that crazy luke the whole question the question people would say then is could she do that right now at 145 in the ufc top five could she okay but here's the better question could she be the champion of the ufc at 145 right now and largely be untested that's the real answer to this so I think so it's hard to say I think so but hey let's get let's get this merger between brands going because if we can get her against Pacheco Kayla but again like let's do that please ask the lad let's do it BC one one note if I may make on this Liz Karmush a lame-a-lame McFarlane fight which was also for a title Liz Karmush, a lame, a lame McFarlane fight, which was also for a title. Liz Karmush wins.

I think it was third or fourth round. Stop. Fourth round stoppage. I believe that was a brutal leg, leg kick, leg kick. We see this, this, this fight sucked.

This fight sucked. And I'm not even mad at either of the competitors, but this is this, this is such a great lesson for everybody. Who's like, yo, we got to have friends fight. We got to have teammates fight guys. you're not going to get the satisfying result

having teammates fight that you think they're going to fight. Now, I realize they're not teammates. They have been apart for some time, but they're very, very good friends, right? So we're using teammates kind of like a holding arm. Yeah, yeah. This is next level teammates. This is like they've cosplayed as each other for Halloween, Luke.

They're deeply close. So this is my thing. These people, she tried to win. The leg kicks were brutal. She won in the end. But it was in large part a sparring match in every other way other than that because they just didn't internally, they could not bring themselves to really hurt the other person.

Everyone bloodthirsty for, like, we got to have friends fight. It's not going to be as satisfying as you imagine it to be. Yeah. Friends is another level. Let's remember, like, just as an example, when Usman fought, you know, back when I had a memory. I mean, is this really the end of my career right here in front of your eyes? Yeah.

You are stroking out live on our 499th episode. Yes. Thank you. Gilbert Burns shows you that. Look, it doesn't always. But yes, friends are another level. That's why I've always sort of like pushed back on like the, how close was Kane and DC? Actually, what does it appear to be for Aljo?

It does appear for Aljo and Murab that it's like, we know each other's secrets. We've helped each other get to this point, but I don't think they'd be like, is it as much as like, we don't want to hurt each other. It's more like, I don't want to block your opportunity, but you're right. Sometimes it like we we don't want to hurt each other it's more like i don't want to block your opportunity but you're right sometimes it's i don't want to hurt you and i think that's what what fell into this fight although obviously you know karmush did the deal in the end it took the referee warning them every round that hey we need action we need something and also luke and this is what went against my i made a i made a a desperate hail mary attempt to play into an okay bet play into the potential boringness of this fight and hoping that uh

lima lei would just outwork her and steal a decision and the pre-existing knee injury luke that that had cost the lima lei arguably like either her title or just like the zip that she used to have as a prime fighter um that's what failed me in the end in my okay bet one and I think that's what created an opening for a finish and unfortunately for Alimale it was brutal and vicious and she'll probably have a legitimate recovery from that um Karmush lives on and everything's great but you're right Luke this this they this was um this had the potential to go bad and it leaned right into that direction right off the start also plenty of boo birds for this uh fight as well not so much for the cyborg fight but plenty for this one all right last but not least in the combat sports weekend bc we end on this one lee

wood i mean what else can you say one of the most amazing comebacks seventh round stoppage over josh warrington bc tell me if i'm getting any part of this wrong he was down bad on all three judges scorecards heading into the seventh round they found that out after the fact look to be a step behind look to not have any answers lands a short right in the middle of a combination drops warrington he can't really recover we'll talk about the... Well, it's not just the short right. Did you see the slow, low extended? It was a flurry, but it was the short right on the inside

that caught him, and then it was a flurry then subsequent to it. What I'm trying to point out is it is very unassuming punch that kind of set in motion these larger things. This was so goddamn impressive. How impressive was it? It was huge because this is who Lee Wood has become, which is this dramatic, never say die,

no matter what the situation, can still come through with the big moment after risking it all. That's what we romanticize and love about boxing in general. It's the fuel behind the Rocky movies when you add in sort of that underdog element. And look, UK boxing actually is really fun. Sometimes in the States, we look down on it, mostly because a lot of times you'll get a champion with some hype behind him from the UK who's great on that domestic level. And then, you know, you come to Vegas against a slicker guy and you get exposed and we sort of go oh yeah that's what we thought but luke i called a trio of

cards for the zone right when they launched in late 2018 and they were all eddie hearn local cards that i was calling remotely there and you know the matchmaking is great there's just a large group of guys exactly like wood and warrington who are all like perfectly flawed in their own specific way but go all in, are skilled or tough or whatever it is that they bring as their major skill of the table. And they put on these barn burners all the damn time. It's really no wonder why, you know,

Hearn gets so much credit for sort of reshaping the face of UK boxing promotion after the success of the Olympics with Anthony Joshua and how that has fueled this renaissance and how they've made it a night out for people and you always hear dressing up in nice clothes well you often get fights like this which have not maybe this dramatic but the crowd was on fire the whole time it was two relatively local guys and wood is almost becoming the arturo gatti now of this pocket you know what i'm saying yeah it's a big name yeah they're on the world level

already this was for a world title right the two of these guys have already put on crazy fights with mauricio lara in this division and warrington had sent carl frampton to retirement but this is sort of like for me the best part of uk boxing in the larger spirit it just so happens that lee wood is the same guy luke who is executing this so that's the same guy that knocked out michael conlon in what was already potentially the fight of the year in round 12 and you know warrington's already a badass the only thing i want to argue back against is i know what the scorecards were but i did feel like warrington was in i'm sorry wood was in this fight maybe more than the scores fully indicated that doesn't mean that Warrington

wasn't building a lead on the cards but I felt like he was there was some element that he was in it but at the same time it did go from one direction to the other in such explosive fashion and look it took seeing the replay a few times to realize that it really was that right hand you talked about that almost knocked Warrington out on his feet and then would just teed off with like four more creative uh power shots as the openings opened up and unfortunately uh you know warrington got he got k tfo'd but those extra shots prevented him from getting up at all in this fight going forward um you know it's it it was a world title fight but to me this is about what they do over there luke and lee wood is box office right now because the dude fights with balls he fights with huge

balls at all times i mean this is what we love about this game talk to me about the stoppage itself the referee counts him he does kind of turn his back to the referee and doesn't yeah say like he doesn't make it a point necessarily to answer the 10 count and the referee waved it but after the fact he was like no no i was ready to go i didn't think he was going to wave it i thought i was going to get more of an opportunity did he deserve an opportunity for the fight to continue i think there's a strong argument that he didn't based on what i saw when when like i said watching the slow motion replay packages after a couple times and seeing like he was concussed on his feet then took just some clean ridiculous shots and when he hit the ground he looked you know a basement room of hell uh to his credit as a warrior

yeah he seemed to be able to perk up and fight to it. Here's what I'm against in modern-day boxing over the last 5, 10 years, where, you know, again, we don't talk about it a lot, but we have seen guys die in the ring. We have seen people whose health is forever changed, right, from one fight. So we're seeing shorter hooks. I do not like it, though, when a referee does not give a fighter a chance to use the full 10 count, meaning that they get knocked down, let's say, a second time in a round and they instantly wave off the fight and teabag the fighter. I'm of the belief that you give them that 10, no matter how bad it looks, to try to put it back together. But if at the end of that 10, you see something that that lets you to believe that they're there to get hurt, you stop it.

I felt like in that regard, Luke, this was perfect in that regard. Could you have let him out there? Yeah, but dude, he was done. This is different than those instant stoppages where it's just like, oh, the momentum was heading this way. I think you need to leave that window of the 10 count because there are Diego Corrales out there. There are Arturo Gattis. There are Lee Woods out there, Luke, who are just balls to the wall and will just create drama. And I think Warrington has shown he's a warrior of that ilk. He said he at least would have tried it,

but this wasn't a quick stoppage. He gave him the time. He didn't like what he saw. End of discussion. So will there or won't there be a rematch? I think you could and should. And we've already seen the incest incestuous nature of the players that be in and around this weight class especially the uk-based ones yes do it again because if you're warrington you have the argument that you were winning the fight you could try to add on to that the cherry of the stoppage um yeah these they're perfect for each other do warrington fights without for a guy that doesn't have a lot of pop. Did you see the opening round? He came out, guns blazing, dude.

He was like, meet me in the middle, and we're going to find out who's more man. Like, I love that shit. Yes, we're going to do this again. Luke, I've got breaking boxing news that I think you'd enjoy. Are you ready for this? Let's hear it. Let's hear it. This is from Ali McManus on X.

Brian Bomack McIntyre, the trainer, of course, of Terrence Crawford, is a free man having been given a 20-month suspended prison sentence. Terrence Crawford was one of a number of people to give in-person evidence at today's hearing. The sentence is suspended for a period of two years. And this man, Ali McManus, says, I'm now going to the pub. Luke, that's the end of the tweet. You had mentioned earlier that, what, Bom was uh close to to maybe being freed here he was he had uh he had

pled i think guilty to the charges and so there was a question of whether or not the uk was going to say either you go to jail for five years or maybe we might just put a travel ban on you and then just tell you to leave it looks like they're going to let him leave and go home. So old Bomack was eating beans on toast. To recap, he brought a handgun with him to the UK to train a fighter shortly after the Crawford Spence fight. Why would you do that? Got caught with it at the airport and then has been in jail for how long? Has it been like a month?

More than that, almost six weeks. Damn. So, yeah, I'm happy to see him go home home do you think he'll be travel banned for the from the uk for i suspect that there will be some level of that yeah i mean permanently i don't know but yeah i suspect i suspect his days of returning to the uk regularly are probably over for the time being but yeah all right one other comment not related to this um i saw an interview that um cain velasquez did after saturday night because he was in the corner with his aka brethren of usman magomedov and he they're asking him like what he does as a coach how he basically said i'd like to do more but you know you can't really tell this guy uh nothing he already knows it all he said it i think

as a compliment but should we take it any other way? He said it almost like this guy already knows it all and is kind of coaching himself. That's what I sort of took from the quote. That's all I'm going to say. So I didn't hear that. I have to hear the quote. Yeah. I'd have to hear the quote.

I'd have to hear the quote. That's a tough one. I don't think so. I think he's still a little, not shy, but he still hasn't fully opened up. I't is it fair to call his cane though a straight shooter luke or no because of the yeah all right let's get out of here luke let's just get out of let's get out of here all right all right i mean i think he tries to shoot straight yeah he tried yeah he tries dude we didn't talk about it his aim is dude joe pifer's explosive double leg is

insane talking about shooting straight on luke oh my god he's so powerful just ripping guys up and then you know returning them to the mat i mean it's you know he's i'm not saying he's the heir to rampage that doesn't that's not quite true but he's got he's got some of the most athletic control over these big takedowns that I've seen from a middleweight anyway in a long time. Yeah, no doubt. That is it for our top five, BC. Before we get to DMs from Donks,

I want to remind everyone that our sponsor, FitBod, is going to transform how you work out this fall. FitBod workouts, of course, fit into my routine, keep me motivated, and I've been seeing this progress from the past summer. Yeah, and smart technology, Luke, it's all around us. You wouldn't use a printed map when you have your phone's GPS, right? Yeah, of course. Here's the deal.

Using technology to improve your workout is the same damn thing. FitBod's technology improves my workout by creating routines that I can actually stick to because I'll forget everything, Luke. That's right. If you're looking to push your limits at the gym or even just jump start your fitness routine fit bod can help and the fit bod app creates customized workouts that are based on your goals your fitness level and the available equipment you have it learns from your previous workouts and adapts as you improve it's the perfect companion to help you crush your fitness goals this summer it doesn't even talk back luke or nag at all how's your i can't even make the joke anymore uh fit bods powerful technology understands your strength training ability

studies your past workouts and adapts to your available gym equipment keeps your gym sessions fresh and fun by mixing up your workouts and people ask me why do i look this good hey how about this i can easily keep track of my achievements, and so can you and your personal bests with FitBod's progressive tracking charts. You can learn new movements the right way with over 1,000 demonstration videos. Okay, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. That's quite a lot. Here's your call to action, everybody.

It's not too late to crush your fall fitness goals. Try FitBod today. action everybody it's not too late to crush your fall fitness goals try fit bod today get 25 off your subscription right now or you can try the app for free go to fitbod.me slash combat all right that's fitbod.me slash combat remember combat with a All right, with that in mind, boys and girls, it's time for DMs from donks. Hee-haw. Hee-haw. All right, there we go. BC will get right to it from Mumdo77s.

He's got a three-parter. Hey, how do you get three questions in one here? Is there no game? Well, one of them doesn't even matter because it was literally topic number one, so we can skip that. So two, can you give us the breakdown of how shavcott versus wonderboy goes bc any thoughts on that yeah well do you think shavcott wrestles in that at all because he can't oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah all right if you're gonna tell me he's gonna wrestle then he's

gonna could he stop he can't stop Wonderboy with ground and pound. No. Yeah, he could. He can stop anybody with ground and pound in that division. Alright, then he might stop him. Look, he might stop him. They get five rounds, right? He might get tuned up a little bit beforehand, but I think he wins. Alright, and then lastly, your favorite technical fights from MMA

of all time? Yeah. Would you consider TJ Dillashaw versus dominic cruz in this discussion sure that's a fun one it's a good one you could add obviously just from this year you could add volk and islam that's a pretty good one as well okay how about uh rose versus joanna too yes you could do that one you could do the first pen versus edgar that's a fun one as well yes yes um yeah there's a bunch you could pick there's a bunch of good ones you can strickland versus out of soinia luke

out of soinia yes the world famous out of soinia all right number two flannels and jits worst name ever since john jones has been john jones excuse me has been training a lot with gordon ryan what kind of adjustments or additions will he help bring to Jones's game PC I saw some people making the fucking dumbest criticism of John Jones working with Gordon Ryan which was like well you know Gordon's just gonna try and make him you know grapple like he grapples I'm like no the fuck he isn't like first of all that would take a lot of time like a lot of time like years and second of all like he's not being brought in for that. He's being brought in, I think, because Jon and his team are smart and they're like, oh, look what Craig Jones was able to do for Volkanovski.

He's going to bring in, like Jon already knows how to wrestle. Jon's been doing submission grappling for a long time. They're going to bring in a series of pointers, I think, to work through positions. Like what are the likeliest positions we're going to find ourselves in? What are the key things we're looking for in these positions? And what is the maximum, easiest, strongest, and best way to achieve them? I think Gordon's being brought in for that,

which makes all the fucking sense in the world. It does. So, Luke, our long debate, and I get right now it's looking like you may end up winning the whole, is Jon Jones going to retire after Stipe or how much longer will Jon Jones keep around? Are we underestimating? Because, again, I'll have to remind the people, Luke, nobody knows dick about what Jon looks like a heavyweight. You got that?

Your sample size is like a shot of wheatgrass, right? And it probably cost you 13 bucks in your hipster town. But here's the deal. If he reinvents himself as a jujitsu, like constant submission threat to some level, because it's not like jujitsu is always overly prevalent at heavyweight, couldn't that lead to more longevity, Luke?

I mean, what if he goes in there and, I mean, what if he's leaned intuitively? And John's a great student of this game and John's a hard worker. And what if he just subs the shit out of Stipe? You're telling me he won't say, hey, if you guys will pay me really good money, I'll do that same thing to Sergei Pavlovich at 300 inside the damn football stadium. Right, Luke? Is that potential there? Could John own this division on the ground and help transition into longevity at a late age

similar to what Glover Teixeira did in a division below by leaning on the fundamentals, right? Right. I don't know how likely any of that is. I think these top-level MMA fighters, i think these top level mma fighters i think these top level mma fighters going at senior levels of their career and getting these like next level jujitsu guys the current next level jujitsu guys the guys who are rewriting the game because that's what folks don't realize they're not just doing the existing parts of jujitsu really well they're actually changing

the sport they're changing what matters they're changing positions they're changing the way you look for things i think that um i think that those guys are going to have distinct advantages in ways that nobody else will yeah they have so many secrets i think you could confidently say both up their sleeves and in the case of coach craig up their nos. That's right. Nose beers for life. All right. Number three from Stefan P. Drew Dober has the most KOs at lightweight. Can he get a top 15 like Hanato Moikano or Diego Fajardo?

I would be in favor of either of those. Yes. Yes. Yes. I mean, we have seen him a lot against banger versus banger matchups. I do like the idea. Well, look, if you put him in with Moikano, Moikano will turn back into a banger. Moikano loves to bang Luke. I mean, God bless him. He loves

to entertain. He certainly does. He's also quite the foul mouth. He's also quite the foul mouth. Actually, that fight has a lot of sex appeal to it. Let's do it. I think Moikano, he's a lot more well-rounded than Dover. He can bang it out and

win or lose. He's too willing to F aroundrounded than Dover. He can bang it out and win or lose. For sure. But he's too willing to F around, though. You know that. Yeah, that's true. All right. Question number four from Fahey.Liam. Couldn't be an American because his name is Liam.

Who should one championship put on their USA shows next year? Rod Tang versus Superlack? Stamp Fairtex on anything? You got to put Demetrius on them because he's an American. People don't realize this. You don't have to rely on American names because you can't, right? But if you've got some valuable American names, you have to use them in America. People think, oh, the UFC has all these names that aren't American. Why is that the case? Well, because they're an American company with a vast amount of brand awareness within the country one doesn't have any of those advantages so they're going to have to rely on a maximum amount of american names in order to get the maximum amount of value in this potential market now that's not entirely true you can get some other people's names that can you know for

the hardcore fans that people really want to see bringing in the one stars your stamps your whoever that would all work right yeah hold on zoe's opening this door by the way you know who's messaging me right now it's actually gordon ryan in fact so i need to respond to him he's got questions for me what are you doing bc i had to close the door because zoe the cat is messing with everything here um but did did you uh just i mean that's a big name drop luke yeah he, he just messaged me. He just messaged me. All right. Yeah, there's that, Luke.

What did you say? I don't know. I had to, there was a cat. It was about one. Who would they need to bring? Oh, I know what I wanted to say in retaliation to you. Look, there's the potential of PFL is getting Bellator's roster and is now going on the pay-per-view level aggressively next year,

that they're in full recruitment season right now. I mean got francis they got jake they just signed a bunch of women's boxers they got you know older names like uh like cisco brunson there shouldn't one now that they're going to transition from successful american debut to we're going to be here four times in almost a tentpole like setup uh shouldn't they don't they need another still in, you know, like remember when Shane Burgos was signed by the PFL, we're like,

wow, it's still kind of in his, you know, in his prime at the moment, there's still a lot left there. This isn't a aging name. Doesn't one need a little bit more of that. I know that,

that, that original round of Eddie Demetrius and Sage had a big impact, but they, they kind of need to go back to that. Well, a little bit. That's why those signings were supposed to be significant. It didn't quite work out that way,

but they were smart to do that. That's what they need. They can't forget about who they've got and the advantages that they've got, but if you're going to penetrate an American market, you just simply have to have more at the tip of the spear. All right, last but not least, Cal underscore 8008.

Yeah. If UFC could make any fight possible for 300, including bringing fighters out of retirement, who would it be? For example, Conor versus Habib, too. That'd be big. Francis versus Jones. Yes. P.S.

I still want to see Luke versus Joshua Fabia. Very funny. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And Whitaker versus Jones, of course. I would say, Luke, we talked about this the other day, and we were like, okay, what if it's McGregor, Chandler, plus Izzy, DDP, and we're throwing around names. A lot of people got in my DM know we were like okay what if it's mcgregor chandler plus izzy ddp and

we're throwing around names a lot of people got my dms and we're like man you were just talking about this before you should have said rousey versus tate or rousey home too either or right um is that more i know we've already debated like because rousey's out of the wwe like and now the two companies are together she's probably not going to get embarrassed if she fights misha tay right probably not i don't think so i think that would still be competitive i do especially because misha's kind of falling on hard times a little okay so if they did that we'd all be we'd all be into it in some form whether that's for like commercial hype reasons or even just to be like okay let's see's see what this looks like. That's fine.

That's one thing there. But if they put the vacant Bantamweight title on that fight, Luke, what are we doing here? Because I'm like, as much as I could get down for a Rousey comeback, it's an eye-opener. It's an attention-getter.

Okay? Are they trying to get me out of here, Luke? All right. No, I'm not trying to get you out of here luke all right no i'm not trying to get you out of here i think it's fine i think you could do it i don't think that they will but you could do that you could do all right all right i'm just saying that uh yeah i was just saying sorry let's keep it going all right well that in mind time for your feces bcs i mean they better not put the title on that you think they would they would they weren't they god okay i scoured the globe you know you

know what i do here luke but gaffney jpierre my fine our fine he has told me that this may not be my finest batch but we're gonna find out um have you seen my feces now i can't hear you again oh god uh luke can you hear me now? Now I can hear you, yes. Now you can hear me. All right, here we go. UFC Fight Night in Vegas.

Luke, what did you think of Chinese Bantamweight Aori Kaleng's hat? I think it's cultural, so I'm going to just mind my business. Okay, I thought it was kind of cool. It's different. It's got a beautiful color on it, I can say that. Yeah, nice win for him there on the undercard. Hey, let's go to Joe Pfeiffer time. Let's watch this slam, let the boys be boys.

But look at how quickly, Luke, he was in position to end this fight after the slam. This guy's something. Dude, the timing on that where he baited the entry and then just lifts this fucking guy, he must be a hoss in the weight room, dude. Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think so. You know, I'd get a Joe Pfeiffer t-shirt to wear on the room, dude. Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think so. You know, I'd get a Joe Pfeiffer t-shirt to wear on the show, Luke. Is that going too far?

No, that's all right. But I would say this. Everyone's killing the referee being like, are you tapping? Well, because it kind of looked like he was tapping, but he was also kind of punching him at the same time. Like, see here? Yeah. He has a closed fist doing it.

It's kind of weird. Yeah, but he's out. He's out right there. He's's kind of weird he's out right there I hear what you're saying Luke Real did recognize Real after this Joe Pfeiffer celebration TB12 Tom Brady was at the old apex let's hear what they said

of expectation heaped on him and he's with Tom Brady right here ton of pressure heaped on this kid and he is not only stepping. So, you know, that's a legend. Like, you know, goats recognize others, apparently. I got to say, didn't the Patriots lose like 34 to nothing yesterday?

My Facebook stream was all angry Patriots fans. Oh, I was so happy watching that dog shit franchise take an L. Thank you, God. Well, I don't know about dog shit. I mean, I'm not a huge Patriots fans oh I was so happy watching that dog shit franchise take an L thank you God well I don't know about dog shit I mean I'm not a huge Patriots fan but I guess aren't you aren't you a Giants guy don't don't no I'm not a Giants guy you know my history it's weird listen this piece of shit franchise has had it coming for a long time why don't your owner go get jacked off more okay this is tough talk from a Redskins fan who just logs to ray they're not they're not they're not called that anymore chicago bears okay luke all right did you and ray flores talk it out over this game or what hey who has more wins commanders or patriots i'm pretty sure it's the

commanders yeah all right let's keep it going through this shit luke rapid fire style here's dc calling out a member of their broadcast team i don don't know if you heard this. I didn't. Let's make his favor a finish in each and every one of our make-up fights. What's that look for? Don't you put that evil on me, Richard Bobby. Hey, let me tell you something. Don't do that, bro. It's the odds, man, because it's so mean. No, don't do that.

Don't do that. You're acting like a rookie out here. You know who you're acting like? I'm going to start calling him somebody else down here. You're starting to act like Alan Joban. You don't ever go full Joban. You don't ever go full Joban. You don't want to go full Joban.

Because the last time we had all kinds of Al had to open his mouth. So they're killing him for saying that all the fights could be finishes? You know what you did. You know what you did. Daniel, you want to make it to the Hall of Fame? Watch your mouth tonight, man.

Now he's threatening. He wanted to ruin the fights and now he's threatening. Al, he's in the hall you look good though alan read the script daniel read the script uh that he is handsome luke you got to give him that yeah he certainly is uh do you think they in you know in the hierarchy of ufc broadcasting he he's the one that they pick on because he's so handsome you think that's's how it works? I'm certain that he has to eat shit for it. But of all the things to get picked on, I'll take that

if that was the fate I had to suffer. I'm not sure DC was ready for this, Luke. Vanessa Dimopoulos scored an emotional victory here to continue the streak, and she did the Lambeau leap into all things Cormier. I don't think he was loving it, though. How jealous were you of Daniel Cormier in this moment? Oh, come on.

I don't subscribe to Daniel. What's the difference between you and Daniel Cormier? When Daniel Cormier watches Vanessa Dimopoulos fight, his pants stay around his waist. I think that would be the difference. All right. Well, speaking of Dimopoulos, Luke, she was on the other end of a move I've never seen before,

Kanako Murata with the two-handed. I believe they call this the Mongolian chop, if I'm not mistaken. Oh, Tattoo on Titi could have been a viable name for this, Luke, but it is. I don't know if I've seen this before. You were going to call this the titty punch? That was your grand insight today? That certainly wasn't, Luke, but wow, okay. Hey, then we had bobby green

mimicking triple h luke it looks like this uh wwe merger has taken off here oh you can't see though the true best part of it which was uh keith peterson when he raises his hand kind of like reels in horror when the whole thing comes up yeah he doesn't want anybody spitting on him luke for sure uh speaking of bobby green uh the jedi goodman compiled the who did it better from cage flips this week in the ufc first here's bobby that's okay and here's jorge rivera from dana white contenders series look i gotta say that's not not the most graceful not so luke uh speaking of jorge he got a contract if you, Tuesday night, despite losing a one-sided fight. But this is a wholesome interview afterwards.

Check in. Jose Medina, you are in the UFC, my friend. You are in the UFC. Viva Bolivia! For Bolivia. Bienvenido a la UFC. No tengo palabras. I have no words, I have no words. I have a dream, I have a dream.

Did you have any idea why we brought you back here? I was at the hotel and they told me to come back, I had no idea. You went to the hotel? Yes, I was at the hotel. I was in the hotel, they got me and I came back and they just told me come back. Yes. Let me tell you something, Dana White stood here and went on and on. He said, I don't know what it is about this guy, but that heart, that desire, that no quit,

you can't take this guy out. I got to have him. Dana was standing here. The interviewer said, look. We can end that here. Luke, this is wholesome. Like, I kind of cheering for this guy now, right? Seems like a sweet guy, but I got to say, the fact that he was chilling in the hotel is fucking great.

Well, but, uh, no, when he arrived at the airport in Bolivia, Luke, this was the sea. I think I'm a Jorge Rivera fan.

Now check this out. The welcome party for my in-laws is usually pretty big. It's usually like a couple of cars full of people, which always surprises me. I remember one time I flew up to see my dad and I landed in dulles and he wasn't there to pick me up and then i called him i'm like dad where are you he's like yeah take a cab but i was like oh okay oh okay that's how we're gonna do this relationship thank you dad father of mine right tell me where have you been hey luke here's your uh truck decal of the week. For folks who are wondering what that means, where are the aunts at? I guarantee he bangs them.

He bangs the aunties. Oh, he does. Yes, he does. This week in college football, Luke, watch this OU photographer closely in the corner. Oh, yeah. As BC would say, right in the payload. Yes, right in the bolas right there, Luke. That is great. Wow.

All right. I don't know if you caught former Florida coach Urban Meyer, Luke, as the credits rolled on this TV show. Look to the left side of your screen, Luke. Damn, dude. Oh, boy. Urban Meyer. I mean, have you ever read the stories about him and what a drunk he is and all that kind of stuff i mean they could have just been talking about like the stock market nah

he was he was talking about you'll meet me back at my trailer like we gotta do you know if you see it rocking don't come and knock him you know what i'm saying wow all right well look this is your play of the week maybe it's from a few weeks ago i don't know i don't watch sports but look at this run by the mississippi state quarterback this is like john elway against the packers right get to the chopper dude what the fuck good that's commitment right you go fucking airborne jesus christ yeah all right hey let's go to pro wrestling new move they're doing down in mexico luke i think this is called the reverse teabag. This is not a product fit for human consumption. I really don't quite understand it.

Luke, you mentioned George Corpsegrinder. He's a master of the claw machine, and he gives away to children. Look at what this person took home. An elephant? Look at him stretch too yeah oh yeah that's the first move every time with me yeah yeah yeah all right Luke this week in baseball let's go to the Giants game check out this catch a barehanded grab to protect his girlfriend no longer hear you I don't know what's happening but I can't I don't I don't quite, but I can't. I don't quite know.

Well, Luke, I'll let you know that this guy was on a date, and he protected his lady by saving the date. Can you hear me now, Luke? No? I can't hear you. I don't know what the fuck is happening. I'm sorry. You should probably fix that, right?

Maybe you should fix it. I don't know. Maybe we'll just keep going, I guess. All right. I mean, how about now, Luke? Can you hear me now? Yeah, I can hear you, but I had to take out my earplugs, and I got to put it back in.

Oh, now I hear you. Right? There you are, Luke. You good? Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. Okay, watch the arm, Luke. I mean, this show is hanging on by a thread.

Can we just be honest about that? Watch this Orioles security guard, Luke, closely. Oh, he just got juked. My man is in his 70s. He's out here. Oh, no. Look at the old. My man is in his 70s. He's out here. Oh, no. Oh. Look at the old face plant.

Yo, look at his arm too, dude. It's hanging. I'm telling you, dude, when you fall down and then you also partly undress, that only happens to you when you're an old-ass bitch. Yeah, he broke his arm on that second fall. Luke, do you think that guy who made the barehanded catch got a BJ for his efforts?

I mean, what do you think, right? made the barehanded catch got a bj for his efforts i mean what do you think right i hope if there's any justice in america yeah yeah all right uh cola kickback week luke watch this kid try to do the uh the mentos challenge here on this bottle oh that's good fuck this kid fuck this dumb ass kid his friend his friend knows it too fuck this kid luke you know it's trendy these days for your wedding to have a grand arrival you ever see a wedding where guys came in on a motorcycle who are these canelo motherfuckers oh yeah there's the groom and the oh yeah fuck these two idiots yeah they dude i've been to a wedding where a guy came in, and I'm not doing a bit. He was Ecuadorian, although his wife was American. He came in on horseback.

Oh, that's okay. That's horseback. That's pretty manly, though. That's a gaucho right there. Except he's like 5'4". He's the least manly guy you know. All right. Luke, it's time for America's favorite game show, Rate That Tat.

Cowboy Oliveira took a timeout from producing children luke to to get this done what are your thoughts uh they're not the shark is better than the other one uh neither is great no is the other one like the back of a marlboro pack or something seriously looks like a marlboro ad i don't even know neither is look athletes love getting bad tattoos i don't know what to tell you they love it they could spend more money and get great ones they just don't they just don't okay well there's more tattoos luke gordon ryan who you're currently texting so watch you'll probably kiss his ass here but here's his new arm yeah that one's that one's better that one's good he's got some other ones i don't love so much but the gorilla here now there is a question about whether or not you

should be getting gorillas and lions on your forearms because there's a question how many people do it uh i'm not sure what the yeah but if you're of that spirit luke if you look you're of that spirit that the gorilla is great yeah i mean he looks like he looks at himself as an alpha luke and you know i'm here to tell you i think he might be i mean there's look at the type of followers he's created like brendan lynch mk social right the poor man's gordon ryan right yes yes indeed i would hope if it was mr hebos like you would at least have the balls to speak up that's all i'm saying i'm certainly asking about whose tattoos are these i have no idea where these clips are whose they are i was going to take us elsewhere in mma luke uh mikey musa mechi oh those are his girlfriends apparently okay but luke mikey musa mechi submitted shinya

aukey with this exact move that ioki created the ioki lock yeah is this it's like a modified uh heel hook and later he's got like an overw would... He's got an overwrap on it, which makes it kind of different. Yeah, later he would say it was a tribute to his hero, Luke. You down for this whole thing? I mean, this is your area. Dude, did I not call this on Friday? Did I not say that this was like a grotesque mismatch?

The guy is beating him with his own shit because he can. Okay. All right. I'm not into it, Luke, because it's all about grappling and shit. I think Mads Brunel was right, to be fair. Hey, Bellator 300, let's look back one more time, Luke, at the striking magistry in this replay package.

Look at this kick that Usman Nurmagomedov landed. Yeah, that was pretty nice. Sets it up and then rolls under when he doesn't quite land it. It would have been better if it landed, but you see the fix high, boom, teep. Then the jab is there right in front of him, catches, splits his timing, he gets out of the way. I mean, the kid, he's very talented. Yeah, he's incredible. Let's go to the kickboxing circle, Luke.

This is Kihan Kedri. Oh, took him off of his feet. Yikes. Wow. Dude, that's something, right? Is that among the gnarlier ones you've ever seen? Yeah, dude.

When someone completely leaves their feet during a KO, something else happened. All right. Well, there's a guy leaving his feet. Watch this guy on the scooter. You see, I can't believe he's white. Oh, he stuck the landing. Dude. Holy shit.

That's like Tony Hawk doing a 930 on the... Okay, shouts to this guy. Respect. Because I thought we were destined for some kind of white guy paralyzation. Dude, that's like Tony Hawk doing a 930 on the... Shouts to this guy, respect, because I thought we were destined for some kind of white guy paralyzation, but he stuck the landing. That is incredible. Looks like we'll hold off on Kill Whitey for one more week. Yes, thank you very much. It drives people in the audience crazy,

which is why I keep doing it. All right, well, it's time for MMA fighters in the wild. Luke Zabit. Zabit, he's still alive. He's doing muscle-ups. Magomed Sharapov on an outdoor jungle gym of some kind. Oh, and just broke that bitch. You know what? That's not communist architecture.

You just can't trust it. Do you think he could win the PFL championship? Hard to say because he's been off for so long, but probably, probably dude, I would be there. I'd be there for that. There's no question. Uh, Sean O'Malley, Luke, this is a wholesome moment. He went to a dance with special needs, needs participants, Luke, and really fit into the community. There's his coach as well. And this is, I love this stuff, Luke. This is great. This is definitely great i do think uh you know i don't know sean personally i've been i've talked to him you know i don't know a handful of

times i've always gotten a pretty i've gotten along with him really well you know i'm not a big fan of the andrew tate stuff but this looks like a great look for him it looks like he's having a good time hard to be anything but real happy about this right yep and speaking of other fighters in the wild, here's Adrian Yanez telling the world that it's not Yanez. Definitely not his name. Definitely not Yanez. So something kind of fucked me up.

I always thought it was Yanez, but then I heard a couple of commentators call you Yanez. So what the fuck is it? It's actually like everybody's wrong. Everybody's wrong. So it's Y actually like everybody's wrong everybody's wrong so it's a it's a young yes you know you know how like izzy was always saying like add this on yeah like that like pretty much almost the same thing i have the india over my end uh for the longest time i have let you know

i have let it go on whitewashing my last name you know and i am done you know i was like i was talking to people about it and i was like man like it just it's just easy for everybody to say yannis and i grew up like with people around me being like hey what's up yannis what's up yannis and i'm like everybody's saying my name wrong but it's a great like i feel like that was a great nickname for me so that you know it's i let it go i let it go so uh look boy alex just can't stop cheesing during this interview huh yeah well he's having a good time he's enjoying his job look that's a good that's very well um i like him i like him you're so this is what you're saying the whitewashing of these names that's why that's why you go to bed i've been trying i'm like you

think i make all this shit like i i honestly think that you think that when i tell you this stuff it's like i made it up at like no one like these are just ideas that came to me and i just think i'm so brilliant that i have to tell other people when in fact it's only because i've made all the errors up front people have corrected me and i'm just trying to help you out you once were a big giant sweaty ignorant gringo luke all right don't ever forget i've made every mistake that every gringo has made i've made up front in front of these hispanic people and they don't let that shit slide when it's just when it's just me versus them you know they don't let it slide so i'm just trying to help

y'all well look you've always been wondering why i won't hang out with you more on the road finally rafael fazeev I think, summed it up. Let's hear him. You could have dinner with any fighter. Who would it be? Dinner? Yeah. With some fighter?

Yeah. Oh, my God, bro. That's a bad choice, bro. How I go into dinner with you? Just with some guy, bro? Yeah, maybe learn. People start saying, like, I'm a gay, bro. You could have dinner

with any fighter who would have oh whoa look i didn't say that was the exact reasoning in the world if someone thought he was gay you know how would he ever recover uh but uh yeah wow that went that went another direction i thought it would luke wow okay uh you know joe osborne's big hit in the 90s luke right what if god was one of us? What if UFC fighters were one of us? Luke, just a slob, like one of us. Here's Justin Gaethje. I mean, this is the coolest thing that Justin... Justin Gaethje has head kick knocked out Dustin Poirier, and it's still not as cool as this.

So, Luke, how expensive is that machine do you think right there? Because that is a next level. The more your bong looks like a Rube Goldberg, you know, like the Domino Falls kind of thing, the better. i'm gonna guess that this one is probably between probably between two and five hundred bucks maybe even more than that maybe a thousand okay what if somebody said you could smoke that with me justin gaethje and

you get to pick one other ufc fighter who are you picking izzy oh you're such a homer come on why why is that a bad call okay would you be upset if i asked him to show me the nipple no in fact i think that'd be great actually all right i legit think that would be fucking hilarious if you did that uh two more for you luke then we can get out of here uh where did hannah go let's find out where did hannah go what the fuck were they doing i don't know luke hannah sucks though i'll tell you that much she had it coming i'm sure wow that is great okay and finally luke i don't know if you saw rough

and rowdy the barstool boxing west virginia thing they got going on i've, Luke, I don't know if you saw Rough and Rowdy, the barstool boxing West Virginia thing they got going on. I've seen it before. I don't know if I saw the most recent one. This guy is the milkman, Luke. After this fight. Oh, man, milkman. Yeah. This is BC watching women's MMA.

It's high, folks, kids. Don't fail your drug test, kids. How do they show this? This is ridiculous. How do we show this? So his bit is throwing milk on big old fat ladies? Is that the idea? Oh, boy.

Yeah, that is something, Luke. That's the shit of the week. Maybe Gaff was right. Maybe this was a bunch of bullshit after all. I'll have to come correct next week. You know what the problem with it was? maybe this was a bunch of bullshit after all i'll have to come correct next week you know what the problem with it was it actually had a lot of good stuff it just didn't have that little extra to it you know what i mean like there's nothing bad in there like grandma getting run over luke by a reindeer something like that exactly like you know just some donkey launching some asshole into orbit by back kicking it that would have been well you know

what happens lately i don't know if our p1s have long memories because sometimes a clip will surface that like we definitely ran on this segment a year ago and got a lot of laughs and i'll get you know 400 people dming me and i'm like did any of you watch our show yeah dude i get i get messages from my friends being like hey did you hear about this piece of news and it will be news that we spent 20 minutes discussing that day on mk and i'll be like well i know one of you didn't listen to mk today so yeah you please take your medicine folks on time 11 a.m in the east every monday wednesday uh bc we're back wednesday wednesday is the 500th episode um 500 episodes i don't even know if i did i don't know't know if I did the Luke Thomas show long enough to do 500 episodes because that was every single day. So that would have been, I wouldn't have been able to reach it quicker.

What about MMA nation with Luke Thomas? I was only once a week. I did it for like four years, but it was only once a week. It was just on Sundays. First on Saturdays, then on Sundays. So no. Twice on Sundays? No.

No, no, no, no. I mean, it was local sports radio. The fact that they had an MMA show at all was kind of a minor miracle. Groundbreaking, if you will. Yeah, a minor miracle. So, man, this is a big deal. It's a weird time in the show. I mean, we can't lie about it, but 500 is no small feat, man.

Luke Thomas, will we get to 750? It's possible. It's possible. It is possible. It's like who will pull the ripcord first? Us? Oh, it's going to be you first. It's either going to be us, one of us, one of our employers, or the entire audience.

There's always a domino ready to fall, Luke. Okay i mean you know what this show is with that message yeah you ever go over somebody's house and they have one they have like two outlets because it's an old house and they have like four extension cords coming off of it with like 50 plugs and you're like just an octopus in the corner yeah you're like that's gonna catch on fire any second luke that's morning combat pretty much that's morning combat i completely agree that is morning combat it is uh pretty good though that christmas tree is gonna go up in flames i just don't know which day you know yeah yeah for sure the blast the blessing the blessing all right so you can see how you can follow us there you can of course reach the show and the producers uh morning combat at gmail.com if you've got an email or a gripe or some kind of complaint you can follow us there. You can, of course, reach the show and the producers, morningcombat at gmail.com.

If you've got an email or a gripe or some kind of complaint, you can take it to them. morningcombat.store for all the official merch, all that good stuff. And yeah, of course, showtime.com. Label that pays, all that good stuff right there. BC, any final thoughts before we part ways and then you tell them about Wednesday's show?

Are you going to talk to Gordon Ryan at all? I am. I'm talking to Gordon Ryan in about six minutes. we part ways and then you tell them about wednesday's show are you uh are you gonna talk to gordon ryan at all i am i'm talking to gordon ryan in about six minutes or are you guys looking to go out to dinner because you know what rafael fazeev would say about that luke we might do they might think we're banging i mean you know dude so our tell me this to close our gordon ryan and coach craig friends rivals competitors rivals no no i'm gonna ask them about it but they're rivals they're rivals if like remember after the 96 olympics when donovan bailey and michael johnson right donovan had won the 100 michael johnson had won the 200 and 400 i believe in all in world record times remember they had that pay-per-view

race where uh uh somebody pulled up like a bitch with a hip i forgot which one of them and then what was it and they didn't even any i think it was donovan bailey pulled up do you think they could get to that level where they're doing a pay-per-view one-off grappling match for not just the supremacy of the genre but of all manhood i think that if they really wanted to they could market a pretty big event but it's not really about craig as much as it is i think nikki rod oh so that's great that's his that's his huckleberry huck b nah i mean he's gordon a little bit a little bit more so i think craig's a little bit older i don't think he wants to compete as much you know i think it's nikki rod who's still full of uh as we used to say in the marine corps full of vinegar and piss so yeah yeah yeah all right

i think so bc is the next time i talk to you gonna be on wednesday's show you're a little incommunicado these days huh what are you what are you referencing um you were quiet this weekend you were quiet yeah i was at i was at my family's music festival for most of it, Luke. And then I, how sober were you this past weekend? I was pretty, I mean, I'm, I don't know what angle you're playing here. And then, yeah. And then yesterday, Luke, I did some, uh, you know, fall stuff with the wife and kids, like real fall stuff.

Like got, uh, pumpkin patches, pumpkins did the maze, the corn maze. You know what I'm saying? I put in the time, put in the effort, and it was wonderful. You know, the fall is the best of the four seasons. It's the king of all the seasons. Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot. Here in Connecticut, we experience all four seasons to the extreme. And right now, fall is tremendous.

All right. Well, with that in mind, I do need to go. So, shouts to everyone who watched today. Thank you guys so much. We're back with episode 500 on Wednesday. If you really can believe it, it's kind of incredible. That's Brian Campbell.

I'm LT. Thank you to Malka. Thank you to Mikey Morms. Thank you to Showtime and everyone else involved with the show. We'll catch you guys for episode 500. Can you believe it on Wednesday until next time? May all of your gains be loyal.