MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Jake Paul Signs with PFL | Gervonta Davis vs Hector Luis Garcia | Dana White | Ep 394

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

On Episode 394 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian are live in Washington DC to preview Gervonta Davis vs. Hector Luis Garcia. The boys also break down the news that PFL has signed Jake Paul to fight in MMA. What does this deal mean for each party? The guys also touch on the report that Dana White's Slap League debut is being pushed back a week. As always the close out the show with Dead wrong. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Reveille, reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. 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. Oh, yeah. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of smearing your own feces on a politician's wall. It's January 6th, and Morning Combat is in Washington, D.C. Perfect timing. Liberty and the pursuit of smearing your own feces on a politician's wall.

It's January 6th and morning combat is in Washington, D.C. Perfect timing. The epicenter of the hearts of most of our listeners, Luke, whether we like it or not. We're also here for a fantastic Showtime pay-per-view boxing event that's going on Saturday night. Hector Luis Garcia going to step up and challenge Gervonta Tank Davis. But Luke Thomas, Brian Campbell, your co-host here, we win awards and it's cool and stuff. But Luke, what can you say about being here on this

insurrection anniversary? We tried to set up on the steps. Pat Militich was even offering to put people in Americanas for patriotism purposes. That didn't happen. But here we are, though, and we're going to be hosting The Weigh In later today. It's a great fight weekend.

There's a lot of bullshit headlines going around. Luke, how do you feel about being here back in the scene of the crime? It's a much more subdued January 6th today than in previous ones in the city. Feeling pretty good about the weekend. Feeling pretty good about the week in general, I guess. We had a team dinner last night.

Yeah, you weren't too talkative. It was like, you know, it's like... I may or may not have been extremely baked. I can't quite say. But then you Lithuanian exited. Which, for the record, to declare heritage here, it's the polite way of pulling the Irish exit.

I am 1-8th Irish, Luke, but the half-side of me that is Lithuanian says, I'm telling you in advance that I'm leaving. I can no longer be here anymore. My time has expired. And Luke, the show But the half side of me that is Lithuanian says, I'm telling you in advance that I'm leaving. I can no longer be here anymore. My time has expired. And Luke, the show today is sponsored by the two-drink hangover I have because I'm an old piece of crap. I didn't have any booze left.

I had nothing. Yeah. I was way too – I had used a lot of marijuana is basically the point I'm trying to make. Well, Luke was like, you know, we got to go to this Mexican restaurant as a team. And by the way, it lived up to expectations in the end. I thought it was a good recommendation. But the gimmick was, hey, guys, even though you're all adults, you can't order what you want. We're just going to bring you shifts of what we want to serve you.

You got to order what you want. Now, for the record, it turned out great. But there was like a full pit crew team coming in and out every five minutes with more meat. Food, yeah. So much meat. Morning combat. So much meat. Morning combat. So much meat.

Especially on Mondays when we do Have You Seen This Shit, it's just dicks. Yeah. But, you know, at the end of the day, the lazy Susan got spun a few times, you know? Courtney was in love with the lazy Susan. She was like, I want to use this technology. I'm like, it's just a circle.

It's just a circle. Yeah. How about Filthy Phil, the camera guy? And then you walked all the way home, which was about a mile plus. I had to get a taste of that city. So you basically, we went to a place called Mi Vida on 14th Street. You walked straight down 14th. How was it?

It was wonderful. Yeah? You actually got to go through Thomas Circle, which was that roundabout you saw there a few blocks out. I didn't cut across it. I went around it. Did you? Yeah. There used to be a lot of homeless. And that Yes song was playing in my head the whole time.

The Yes song? In the roundabout. No, I don't listen to music when I pee sitting down. All right. All right. We do have some form of a show for you today. Set the weekend straight in terms of our picks for the combat sports events and hit those very juicy controversial

headlines. Dana White's on Instagram this morning doing his Fuck It Friday. I think it was like baloney hammers. He seems deeply remorseful. I mean, that's not fair. But here's a couple facts that I did want to share with you guys. Something's going

down. Not here, not on American soil. Today, something's happening. Hopefully, it's going to be peaceful, okay? you guys um something's going down not here not on american soil today something's happening hopefully it's going to be peaceful okay but today something's happening but wednesday february 8th on a different soil on that country that we beat in that great war okay that's not um it's going to be mk in the damn uk when morning combat co-headlines the pod live festival brought on by the Sports Podcast Group. You remember they named us Sports Podcast of the Year in 2020? Did I ever tell you when my brother's British co-worker dunked on me once? In a game?

No, no, no. Like John Jones. I said, we went out to dinner. My brother used to live in London for years, and so I visited him once, and I said the word aluminum, and he's like, it's aluminum. I'm like, no, it's aluminum. And this was his exact line. He goes, I believe we invented the language.

It's aluminum. And I was like, well, fuck you. It's aluminum. Ain't no MFers calling that aluminum, Luke, anywhere. Aluminum? Yeah. It's always been aluminum to me. Well, here's the deal, guys.

We're going to be doing a live show in front of the potential of 500 people. It's going to be an experience. We got a word on ticket sales. They're moving. They're freaking moving. Surprisingly more than we thought they would be. We are heading in the direction. We're heading in the direction of a sellout and still some big announcements to come in terms of what special guests

you may be able to see if you're making the journey. And by the way, touched that the Paquettes are coming from Mount Unaiki, that Appy is going to press pause on all the charges pending against him in his personal life and come hang out with us. Now, do we know if the facility has metal detectors? Well, look, we've said this before on the air. If he's allowed to get through customs, he can walk.

I guess that's right. If he can beat Interpol, he can show up. Yes. The modern-day Carmen Sandiego. It's David Appleton. No, but the thing is you can buy tickets. So hit that QR code right down there and come see what this is all about, okay? Us giving back to you guys who vote us in to win these, you know, ridiculous awards that we don't know what to do with.

You know, but I know what to do with it emotionally, right? Like Luke, for most of your life, keep it down deep inside, stuff it down there, pretend it's not there anymore. Yeah. But eventually it builds toward an explosion and this is going to be a positive explosion.

I would not go that far. It's certainly not a camera, but I will tell you that Wednesday, February 8th could end up being special or they could wait. It's like watching somebody die. It could be our end. But the thing is, Luke, you have to guarantee you know deep in my heart that I'm willing to take that chance. I'm willing to go up to the fire, sniff it, touch it, and not get burnt.

Bro, you got to risk it for the biscuit. That's what I'm talking about. You know what I'm saying? You got to do it. So will I go hog free, hog wild? No, I will not. I will not risk that. Don't you show up like Porky Pig with no pants and underwear on.

Yeah, there you go. You're going to show up with a dress shirt and no pants, just some socks. Yeah. Just a dick dangling in the British breeze. We're allowed to do lengthy intros because it's our show. But I know some of you would like us to get on with it. But do we have to sell anything else, Luke? I think we're ready to go.

You can get this bomber jacket at morningcombat.store. That's a true thing. It looks very healthy on you. And by the way, I think, I don't know if this is true, but so I have this bomber jacket, BC, and I have the black bomber jacket. The black bomber jacket doesn't have M-O-K-O. It just has the actual Morning Combat logo on it.

Oh, M-O-K-O is Moco. That's R-I-P-D-U-R-C-A-B-O-O-G-O. Yeah, he got cancer and died. Yeah, poor thing. But in other words, you can get a different, like, lapel symbol or whatever. Okay. We don't have any Jan 6 merch, but we do have fantastic merch at MorningCombat.store. It's RJ.

Shouts to all our listeners and viewers who are on the run from the FBI. Yeah, RJ Mouth and Ball Gagger himself has certified that this is great merch. I'm feeling these margaritas right now. Flat rate international shipping, all that great stuff. We have stuff I've seen. I've now seen people wearing stuff I didn't even know we sold. That's true. RJ, he's sneaky.

He just shuffles that product in and out. He puts it on in there and starts selling it. He probably takes all the props. Like an amateur wrestler, when he goes for that high C, RJ, he runs that pipe, dude. I mean, he just, you know, just, RJ, he runs that pipe, dude. I mean, he's just, you know, just, you know what I'm saying, right? That was

more or less insulting than the gymnastics doctor joke. I just think you're mentally disturbed. All right. A lot of CTE in the BC. We've had a lot of fun here. There's been a lot of serious topics as well, and we're pretty much ready to get into, but just a reminder of one of the labels that pay us, Showtime. You can get free Showtime right now. You can been a lot of serious topics as well, and we're pretty much ready to get into, but just a reminder of one of the labels

that pay us, Showtime. You can get free Showtime right now. You can take a sample run, and why would you? Oh, I don't know, Championship Boxing, Bellator MMA. Showbox. Showbox, great. You know, Bill Cosby Docs. Shout out to Kamau Bell there. Who, by the way, has been texting me this week. We need to RSD that, man. So what we're going to do, it turns

out, let me just pull back the curtain a little bit. We recorded, I recorded one with a friend who helped me produce it in like an in hotel room interview with W. Kamau Bell. There was a couple of problems with it. One of them was on the two shot, it was out of focus, which it was my fault. No one else's fault. And then not the, I shot it by myself. So it's 100% my fault.

So he agreed to redo the whole thing. So, but he, the condition was he wanted you to sit down with me. And I said, hell yeah. He's like, Luke, I'll eat your meat, but I need that shit seated. Okay, I mean, I don't know what. No, I don't mean it in the way you think I mean it. I'm saying I need that shake and bake on there. You know what I mean?

I'm ready. Shake and bake. I will pepper that steak, okay? Yeah, whatever metaphor you'd like to clumsily use. So we're going to redo it, I think. it I think I'm looking forward to that right there Showtime.com 30 days free and then how about that deal Luke 6 months at $3.99 per month that's a great deal

that's like getting engaged you don't have to fully get married yet just come on like Ashley who had a 5 year engagement oh I would that was a very dicey transition right there. Wow. She's like, what the fuck are you talking about? Oh, Ash bought merch this morning?

She bought merch? What did you buy? The tie-dye sweatshirt? It's a good sweatshirt. Hold on. Just full disclosure. You work for the people who make the merch. You're allowed to take the merch, in my opinion.

Okay? Come on. All right. Yeah, yeah. Oh, right, right, right oh yeah like the free 99 discount yeah all right i mean there was a transaction whether money was exchanged i don't know right all right let's go with uh the top of the show here we go topic number one kind of came out of left field thursday morning while we were reacting still to the fallout

and the deafening silence related to the Dana White issue with the UFC and all the related headlines there. It turns out Jake Paul is now an MMA fighter, announcing in a New York Times release there that he has signed a two-fight deal with the PFL, particularly aimed at launching that super fight pay-per-view division that we've heard about in the past, but not just Jake Paul, but Nikisa Badarian of MVP Promotions

and both getting equity here. The idea is to make a run at treating fighters better through pay. They're offering 50% at least of pay-per-view revenue to go to the fighters, and this super fight division can include MMA fighters, but it looks also to be aimed at the super fight division can include mma fighters but it looks also to be aimed at the idea of celebrity crossovers athletes and other sports the kind of bubble that jake paul has dominated of late the interesting question luke as i transition to you regarding our reaction to this is i i'm not joking i know this the timing of this really doesn't

coincide with the with espPN silence and Dana White. There's really no connection there at all. And this was probably in the works and it just probably worked out that way. But here's the deal. You did have ESPN acquiring Dana's biggest critic. And in some ways, his biggest pay-per-view kind of rival in this combat sports space. Because Jake's model is to go after, you know, ex UFC guys, sometimes disgruntled, give them a big payday and then talk about saving the,

you know, the fighter game with them and forming a union like the Robin Hood of sorts to a degree. Now you got ESPN saying, okay, come on here. You can compete against Dana under our flag. Is that a big, is that a big topic in this or am I just an absolute weirdo? I think it is a topic in this. It remains to me a little bit unclear. And I think you and one of our Showtime producers were talking about this, which is what is the relationship between the UFC and PFL? It used to be the case.

It felt like anyway, BC, and maybe you'll disagree with this. It felt like they were kind of semi-symbiotic. The UFC on ESPN is going to do this side of things. And yes, there's a PFL alternative, but it's almost a different side of the sport, and there's some overlap, but, you know, really two things can coexist at once. Blah, blah, blah. And I

don't know that I would call them antagonists today, but if you read the press release about Jake Paul, they even say you don't have to be trapped in the UFC anymore. Trapped or stuck. One of the used... Yeah, Don Davis, the co-founder, I'm not saying he declared war, but he's like, this is essentially... He clearly positioned BFL

as a viable alternative to high-level UFC fighters in a way to get paid. Now, whether that's true is a very different matter. But he leaned on revenue sharing. He leaned on the 50% revenue share for the Superfight Division, which Jake Paul's going to be allegedly a part of. And so, I think, one, there's a bigger question about, like,

what is the relationship between PFL, ESPN, and UFC? How does that all work? It does appear to be changing. And so Jake Paul is a part of that. If they're actually going to try and get some of the same share of fighters that the UFC really leans on and enjoys for their market dominance, yeah, I think you do have to have a bit of a more adversarial tone, at least in terms of your language, around that.

So that's an interesting thing to consider. But to me, the bigger one here is, can Jake Paul meaningfully change the trajectory of the PFL? I will tell you I am skeptical. I do believe this is a good deal for a lot of reasons. I think it makes sense in some ways for Jake. I'm a little surprised by Jake not taking some Saudi money or the fight with Tommy Fury. Well, he still, by the way, this morning formally publicly offered Tommy Fury. I think February 18th is like a last ditch.

You're fumbling the bag again. Here's your last offer. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how much I believe that. I'm not really sure either. But the thing I just wanted to say here is I think it makes sense for Jake in certain ways. It does appear to be a bit of a derailment from what he was trying as a pure boxer, but it certainly keeps him in the headlines. He can still box a little bit with this, and then he can try the MMA stuff.

The MMA part I don't quite understand because folks are like, oh, he can fight Nate Diaz in MMA. I don't know what athletic commission would approve of that. Well, to be fair, Jake, as a big part of his video presentation presentation was to say i challenged nick diaz or nate diaz to a two-fight deal right first one in boxing second one in mma um this i mean look this is essentially pfl going how's it but that's not a real thing nate diaz fighting jake paul in mma i honestly don't know what commission would allow something unless what about unless jake Jake knocked him out in boxing brutally, and you're like, okay, now we run it back to him.

Maybe that's possible. But also, does Nate Diaz really, who, by the way, tweeted a photo of the Ryzen logo, essentially, on his social media, does he want to actually sign up with PFL? Would they do a one-fight deal with him? I don't think that they would. I think that they would want to do a two-fight with him. And so it gets to a weird spot where, like,

I don't know how some of this is going to work. But here's what I think is going to happen between Jake and PFL. There's, to me, no denying he's going to be a jolt of electricity to their pay-per-view fortunes. I do believe that. But on the MMA side, even Clarissa Shields, an Olympian, had to fight bums. Not bums, but, you know, very unheard of regional fighters to get going. He's going to have to do the same thing in MMA. He's not going to get a premier name. I just don't believe that.

Do you really believe he's going to go and pick a young guy who just turned pro? No, he's going to look to do KSI-level fights, or... Something like that, yeah. He's not going to straight up do an MMA match against a seasoned MMA fighter, even an old seasoned MMA fighter. The commission will not allow it. They will not allow it.

They will not allow it. You know, unless it was that sort of two-fight deal with Nate and the idea was it's just so much money, who cares? But, Luke, I think the real broader... Hold on, I want to make one last point. Make that. Final, final, final. Just dunk.

I promise. Here's where I'm skeptical about the long-term fortunes. I do believe he can provide a jolt of electricity to their pay-per-view fortunes, but the reality is this. I've seen this movie before. I have seen Bellator under Bjorn Rebny try a model that looked just like this, albeit with very different considerations in terms of their revenue financing.

PFL got – That was Coker era. No. This initially started where we're going to basically do tournaments and then Superfight Division came exactly from Bjorn Rebny in 2014, 100%. Okay, but the spirit of saying my window, my chance of actually competing against UFC, actually making a run at them, I need the carnival side to kickstart that

and get me on the casual radar. That's a Scott Coker playbook move. It can, yes, and it can be helpful. But in general, what it ends up being is those events do well, but unless you can meaningfully adjust the roster where you can get a larger share of the world-class fighters, the UFC has approximately 80% or more of them, unless you change that equation, you cannot change your long-term fortunes.

You must get access, routine access on some level to that side of the fight game. So the Jake Paul thing can work for those events and for its overall popularity and the time in which he is competing. But unless that meaningfully leads to a change in the number of fighters they have that are world-class, nothing will change. Right, so they would have to use him as bait

not just for the ratings and the brand identity that it will give you in a short window, but as a recruitment tool, ultimately, because under the hood, they have a very good system, the seasonal format, the very, very intelligent cage that I'm sure knew about this story long before we found out about it. I'm told the cage did the actual contract negotiation. Yes, yes. Who needs a Nikon-level guy at the table there? Let's just bring out the smart cage.

But yeah, so it's a ballsy move from PFL. And I've heard a lot of people echo what you kind of did or tease at it. You know, Big John McCarthy on Twitter as well. And basically saying, like, PFL, you're giving him share. You're giving him, like, Conor McGregor in 2016 was virtually walking on water after he stopped Eddie Alvarez and became a two-division champion. In an MMA sense, right? Just like, oh, my God.

And his plea for skin in the game and, you know, here's some stock options, here's a little piece. No, not in that time, not with those people. But this guy has not fought a single MMA fight outside of, I think we can throw to the footage here, Gaff, if we have it, of Jake Paul messing around a few years earlier. And I get, of course, that he does have a high school wrestling background. And he's a good athlete like his brother, all that.

But he hasn't even ever had an MMA fight or really a practice. And he has a percentage in this. Is this Jake Paul? Yeah, he went to a UFC gym. And that's Jake in the right with the blue shorts. How long ago was this? Early. Was this like teenage Jake, right?

10 years ago? What year did you produce this? He was 20 years old. So what's that, seven years ago? Six years ago? But look, the question is interesting. He hasn't even ever had an MMA fight outside of this video we're watching right here. And he now owns a piece of the company.

Now, is that not as big of a deal because PFL has so many celebrity investors already, and there is a lot of money behind the scenes pushing that? There's not that much money, to be quite honest with you. So I looked this up. They've had five rounds of funding. They had a Series E in May for $30 million, and it's the $30 million that they want to use as a way to pump the Superfight division. $30 million is not nothing.

It sounds like a lot, but I don't know exactly how much runway that is. If you don't have the right event and it loses money, you can easily lose tens of millions, sometimes on a single event. You can certainly lose millions in a single millions over the course of one event, several over two. What I'm trying to point out here is between the cost of running the event, recruiting the talent, paying for them, and again, they're going to get 50%, which is admirable as a way to attract them over to sign,

$30 million, and they have an overall $200-plus million in funding, but the $30 million was the runway supposed to be for this new division. It's not nothing. You can get a decent shot at it, but if it doesn't take off fairly quickly, that's what, Two years of runway? If that at most? And even that, probably not that much. Especially if you want to get Nate Diaz. $30 million sounds like a lot.

You can do something with it, but that's not an infinite amount of money by any stretch of the imagination. Tell me the truth. Is the first PFL Superfight pay-per-view card going to be like, my God, that's Ariel Helwani's music. Will he be on it if Jake's on it?

Imagine if Ariel Helwani walks back on ESPN's coverage of MMA. He might. Yeah, he might get that gig. That'd be wild, right? He's well-liked by him. And by the way, Nikisa, I think, who was the CFO for the UFC, is now Jake's scumbag accountant, according to Dana White. But he should be handing out the term scumbag less these days, huh?

He might want to dial that one back. I mean, you could also say UFC's Twitter account could dial back the PowerSlam commercials today. If you want to see what the word shameless looks like in full terms, there you go. But the point I'm trying to make here is the Kisa also, I think, gets some ownership stake here. Yeah, do you remember earlier in the show when I laid that out? I apologize. I did miss that part. I apologize. I'm just pointing out, like, they're a business tandem, and they should be thought of in that way.

It's not like an afterthought. They're sort of a dynamic duo in a way. Well, think about it. Jake and Nikisa with MVP Promotions have certainly capitalized on what's left of the crossover bubble and the interest in bringing in a whole new fleet, it seems these days, of potential YouTube crossover boxers. That's why even

DAZN has their own Misfits series or whatever. They're essentially just sidestepping and bringing it over here because if you're already going to more or less exclusively try to get MMA names to fight you, if some of these MMA names have some gas left in the tank and they want to come over to PFL and do other fights as well,

I mean, it kind of, it's interesting. Also, there is a part, I would wonder what you make of it. It did say that the pay-per-views would be co-distributed by ESPN and DAZN. I did not read that. I want to make sure I double-check this, so if I'm getting this wrong, you can kill me on dead wrongs, but I do believe that they said it's on the pay-per-view side.

Again, we talk about this in boxing. Sometimes this can be a hurdle. Who's going to distribute the show? And again, if they do make a Tank Davis versus Ryan Garcia fight scheduled for April, that would be entirely produced by Showtime, but then the feed would be carried by DAZN. You could buy the pay-per-view on their broadcast if you wanted to. So interesting. I'm going to double-check that part, but I if you wanted to. So interesting. I'm going to double check that part, but I believe that's right.

Look, it's a big swing. And the connections to Scott Coker with Bellator taking what Bjorn was already doing and then aggressively going during that stretch of extreme old guy versus extreme old guy fights and Kimbo Slice versus Dada and all of that, which did equal the big ratings to justify it in the long run. Whether or not, Luke, that period for Bellator and Coker ever actually sparked momentum from the idea of people tuning in for the ridiculousness and staying for the Michael Chandlers and Patricio Pitbulls, I don't think we... Do we have data to support that? It's hard

to tell. Maybe for short periods. But dude, that got brand recognition on spike tv back in the day in paramount with you know instantly by doing that um i always wonder luke it's an aggressive move is it it's not like a bush league move is it it's not seen as a negative move at all or or is it should a should a pure mma league be better than this i don't personally think so sometimes i even say that's why the the bell Fedor Baydor February 4th on CBS rematch. I'm like, it's a cool fight in some really cool ways. I kind of like that.

Do you look down on PFL for doing this at all, or do you say that's a savvy move at the right time? I definitely feel like, listen, here's how you know it was a move worth taking seriously. It definitely caught me by surprise. They're trying to go, listen, it can work. I don't think it doesn't, Jake Paul coming over doesn't guarantee automatically all of

these great results. You still have to do a lot of other components beyond just the scope of the deal to make it all work. But as an interesting challenge to the market, as a new way of thinking about things, as recognizing that there is actually a pretty sizable size to the market, a sizable scale, anyway, to the market that they can now take advantage of, they can offer some of the ESPN platform as a way to combine forces. It's an interesting call. It's definitely ballsy. It's definitely forward thinking,

but it also, in fairness, no really great attempt at anything comes without risk. And there's risk involved here too, which is that you're going to burn through a lot of money for events that could do really well on their own, but don't meaningfully change your long-term fortunes. That is the risk they're playing here. But hey, go big or go home, right? That's the whole idea. Indeed, indeed. So can you humor me to put a ribbon on this, Luke? What were the behind-the-scenes conversations? Does ESPN have to go to Dana as a friendly to say, hey, we're doing this? Just to clarify, Paul's deal is the first of PFL's newly developed pay-per-view Superfight Division,

which is separate from its regular season rosters. The PFL held its first pay-per-view event on ESPN in November. It intends to host two more pay-per-view events in 2023. Those events are expected to air on ESPN in the U.S. I'm sorry. ESPN in the U.S. DAZN internationally. Still, there is some kind of cooperation happening

for international and overall distribution. There you go. Does Dana care? Is there... Do they go to... I don't think Dana cares about much. Does ESPN go to Dana and just say, just so you know, like they're bringing in Paul and, you know, we're all in on this. I mean, like we're questioning, and we will in a later topic in this show,

like does ESPN really care about what's going on with Dana White in terms of, you know, how do they actually look at UFC? How do they look at PFL? Well, I'll tell you this. I think what has really dawned on PFL is that doing the tournament, you can have a different format. You can have big winners from the tournament format. All these things are great. Look at how different our product is structured. Look how different it looks. Look how different it sounds and feels. That's fine.

Again, what will really determine long-term success is what kind of access to the top pay-per-view names you have or don't have. And I think that they finally realized they can't play footsie with the UFC anymore. They don't have to be entirely adversarial with them, but they can't play the same game that they were of separate and let there be sort of a firewall between us. They're realizing they have to take some of what UFC has in order to survive. So if you're going to make a go for them, why not sign up the guy who has been the chief antagonist, as you indicated at the beginning of the broadcast,

the guy who's done the best pay-per-views to rival them in the combat sports market. Basically, you know, I mean, it's from another sport because it's boxing, but, you know, we were in Arizona. It's entirely an MMA audience watching Jake Paul. There are no boxing fans really watching that. There's influencer fans. There are influencer fans. That's true.

That's true. It's not entirely just MMA fans, but it's no boxing fans are watching Jake Paul. MMA fans are watching Jake Paul. So if you're going to make a move at him, Jake Paul is as good as any catalyst you can find currently out there today. And not under contract by UFC, right? You could sign a big name like a Francis or whoever, and of course Francis is, you know, under contract, but I'm saying a John Jones. Some kind of transformative name.

They're all under lock and key. Jake Paul is not. It's an interesting gamble. It's an interesting gamble. Before we transition out of this topic, I think the last main thing was the reference you made that Nate Diaz puts out a rising picture to show some, you know, it's a strategic public move. But we know that Jake is trying to get Nate into the PFL for some type of super fight.

How does Nate Diaz's future and the stop he inevitably chooses first to go big in the first time that he does a post UFC combat sports event. What do you think the Ryzen thing means? Is that, you know, Pacquiao just signed there. We're not doing Pacquiao and Nate Diaz, right? I mean, what are we doing here? Floyd? Are we doing Floyd? Well, there's a couple of things you could do that folks maybe forget about. One is you could do Floyd

versus Nate Diaz. I don't know what kind of fight that is, but could it be an attraction? Oh, it could it be an attraction? Oh, it could only be a boxing fight. It could only. What I'm saying is, like, how good it would be. You know, I don't know. Because Floyd is obviously degraded

from the guy who fought Conor, too. I mean, do you think Floyd has a real, like, training camp left in him to go into a fight in which if he did F around? Like, I feel like the Logan fight changed him. Where, like, oh, crap, if I mess around too much in this area, it could... Yeah, because he was stealing our Logan left and right, and he kind of just stood there and took it, right? I mean, it Logan fight changed him. We're like, oh, crap, if I mess around too much in this area, it could... Yeah, because he was stealing all Logan left and right,

and he kind of just stood there and took it, right? I mean, it didn't go away. But here's the thing you might forget, and they did this with Floyd versus Tension. They could match up Nate versus some kind of Japanese name that may not be big to us, that would still do massive ratings and or pay-per-view buys. I guess it would be pay-per-view buys.

Excuse me, not ratings because they're not on Fuji TV anymore. Would do big buys in Japan, and they could use that to finance the whole thing. So there's a couple of possibilities. Nate versus another big name in Ryzen. Nate versus some kind of Japanese name that isn't moving to us but good enough for that market and, more importantly, winnable for Nate and bankable. Big money for it, just the same. There's a lot of possibility in going to Ryzen.

Nate putting that tweet out like he did, cryptic nature, that's to say, hey, I don't really want to go to Japan, but I can right now. So, hey, Jake, if you're looking to really do something, man, you've got to pay for it. Yeah, also, that's great news for you, Jake. I'm interested in doing my own thing. I very much think Nate and Jake and their teams are probably in coordination.

Right? I'm going to guess. You don't know that for sure. I bet that they have some kind of contact between each other. I'm going to bet that they have at least some kind of contact. Somebody pass the duchy to the left side? Pass the duchy on the left-hand side. And so they know that their careers are kind of connected in that way,

but I also believe that Nate doesn't want to be seen as like, oh, I'm going to react to everything that Jake does. No, I'm going to set my own news cycle. I'm going to have my own vision. I don't need to follow you anywhere. That's a big part of it too. Yeah, that was an 80s reference, guys, but good effort. Just the same.

Yeah, they don't know. I mean, these guys were born in 1999. Does this camera angle make me look fat or has it been my dietary choices this week? We did eat a lot last night. Yeah. Dude, and then the plate came out and I was like, I have nothing left for this. I need to Lithuanian

exit. But before I did pull the exit, I had like six pieces of that. And my liver is not supposed to fight that battle anymore. I'm like Chris Lieben. I can't stop fighting, you know? You walked home. You walked home. I had to walk that off like a man.

That's what a man does. That's a smart call. So I'll give you. And you left. And I did too. We left and then they brought churros. I was not there. Oh, dude.

Churros when done delicately, like passionately. Like when you bake, you know, like if the person is nude while they make it. It's just kind of. You want me to make you churros nude? Just rub my balls all over the churros? That incubator known as your dungarees, cook them in there, all right? There you go.

Okay, all right. Topic number two is the reason why we're here. Yes, the anniversary... No. Gervonta Tank Davis is going to take on Hector Luis Garcia Saturday night Showtime pay-per-view and by the way not only is this main event really sneaky good in a lot of ways

yet still playing its role as being a potential appetizer on the journey for Gervonta Tank Davis to a Ryan Garcia fight should he be victorious this pay-per-view card is also pretty damn loaded with interesting sort of storylines from Boots Ennis to Demetrius Andrade's PBC turn here at 168 pounds. I do that too. In boxing, because he's American, it's Demetrius Andrade.

Yes. And then, obviously, she's Brazilian, so it's Jessica Andrade. I get the Andrade-Andrade thing fucked up all the time. Absolutely. You know, a lot of good storylines is what we're saying. Speedy Rashidi Ellis taking on Roy Monvia. That guy's tattoos are intense. Bro, and do you notice he shaved off

his widow peak too? Dude, he looks like he would thrive in prison. You know what I'm saying? Like, if he got stuck there for whatever reason, he would be in charge of shit down there. He's a Venezuelan slugger, and I called his Showtime, or I'm sorry, his Showbox debutuelan slugger, and I called his Showbox

debut on Showtime in September, and he went in there against an unbeaten guy in Boca Chica and put it on him. Dude, he's that bad guy at the end of the video game. We'll see that Rashida Yellis fight, but look, Tank Davis is here, and there's been no shortage of headlines and debate. Do we want to talk about him versus Dana Controversy

now, or do you want to save that for Dana? Save that for Dana. Okay. We are going to have a conversation about, like, hey, how is it possible you guys can say what you're saying about Dana and then cover a guy who got arrested for domestic violence, what was it, now two weeks ago, something like that? And the short answer, by the way, is if I held that ground in every situation, you know, this is combat sport. No, no, it's an important conversation to have, so we're going to have it. But for the moment, let's discuss the fights. Look, the fight itself has enough storylines and intrigue here to be something interesting. But, Luke, I do want to ask you, which we've said, look, the outside the ring stuff, will that play a part at all in the focus?

I've seen a very intense, I've seen a playful Tank Davis this week. I've seen him intense when he needs to be to remind you that, you know, I think he said at the press conference yesterday, I'm going to take out all those or no, it was his coach Calvin Ford who basically said he's going to use all this as fuel and all the negativity that he's had to fight through, whether self-induced or not, Luke. By the way, self-induced. Absolutely. What does that mean, though, for his mental game? Because you can imagine where he pulls Floyd Mayweather and is able to just compartmentalize, use his fuel, go in there,

and even though Hector Luis Garcia is the real deal, and that's why we're excited for this matchup, blow him away. It also could compromise him. What did you make of the times Tank did speak this week? When he spoke, he sounded reasonably fine, right? Fine. Can we be honest? That was a weird face-off yesterday, right? I've been trying to Zapruder it and figure it out.

I don't quite understand what happened. They had a weird touching thing. Here's what I think. I think Tank, who he has been sort of like happy and weird and kind of like just chill, and I think he was doing like a playful like this, and I think when he shoved Garcia,

then it kind of became real. Hector wasn't sure, so Hector put his fists up and got close. Hector was like this, pushing him away. Right, but he was also ready to fight. Afterwards, by the way, they hugged and laughed and did all that. And Bob Santos and Calvin Ford have a good relationship,

it seems. I think in that moment, the spirit of getting real was there suddenly out of nowhere. And I don't think that was Tank's intention, or was it? I'm trying to get a don't think that was Tank's intention. Or was it? Like, I'm trying to get a full read on it. Here's my read. Tank, to me, looked loose yesterday.

Maybe a little too loose. I don't quite know. Fucking Hector Luis Garcia looked all business. Yeah. And Bob Santos looked all business. We've been saying this since they announced this fight. Since they announced this fight, I'm like, dude, this is not a tune-up fight. Maybe it's a fight that Tank

should win, but it is not a tune-up fight. Hector Luis Garcia is good. He is good. And did I not say it? Did he look to you like the guy moving up from 130? No, he looked like... I told you, man! And by the way, that Facebook post that Hector Garcia did... Okay, was

that racist? Look, basically it was Hector Garcia did. Okay, was that racist? Look, basically it was Hector Garcia standing on stage. I think it was at the last press conference. It was at the initial press conference. He was in a suit. All the other fighters, including Gervonta, were dressed more in casual clothes. And he made a comment that essentially said, translated from Spanish, was... I look like an attorney with my clients. Yeah, and that started to get spread around Twitter.

Well, Tank brought it up at the press conference. And that was when he got serious for a second just to let people know. Don't let anybody fool you. I'm not saying that Hector Luis Garcia is racist because there is a way to say, was he just talking about the clothes? If you're just talking about the clothes, then the joke still works. But make no mistake, racism in Latin America is alive and well. Either way, it's created an added edge to this, as Gervonta said there. But look, this is a case where

boxing odds are boxing odds. This is not what the odds tell you. Gervonta minus 1,600, the favorite, plus 800, Hector Luis Garcia. It's just not. But there are stylistically, X's and O's wise legitimate questions that both will have to answer, but particularly Garcia.

Even though he looked big in the face-off against Tank. And we have to remember, Tank can fight in multiple divisions, but he's always going to kind of look like the smaller man because, you know, he doesn't change his height when he goes in each division. He's a short fighter who's skilled and able to, you know, close that distance. Garcia is moving up from 130 where he won a championship belt last year against Roger Gutierrez, fresh off that upset of Chris Colbert giving him his first loss. And he has put together, I believe, the remnants and the foundation of his amateur background, 2016 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, with the style he started to impose when he did turn pro,

which was aggressive, high-volume, get-in-your-face. He's merged that gap together, where if you look at these highlights against Chris Colbert, yes, he had to take big punches from Colbert in key moments. That's part of the danger when you operate at punching distance in front of a man. But the craft that he showed, the angles, the variety of punches, the gas tank, the intention, he can be a problem if he's able to start going downhill against you and controlling those terms. And if he can wear down your gas tank or just put extra pressure on you to be able to get his shots off and land.

Dude, look at how off-balance Colbert is. Jesus Christ. But Luke Thomas, if he cannot take Gervonta's power, then the entire equation changes. And that seems to be why, even though I give Calvin Ford and Gervonta Davis so much respect for telling everybody, okay, we're building toward the Ryan fight, but Hector's the truth. We know he's coming on. We know how good he is, but they also know that they have the biggest weapon in the fight at the end of the day when it comes to the power that Gervonta can create with both hands, but particularly with

that left hand. And he can do it in uppercuts from distances, darting in and out. It's going to be something when we see early, can Hector Luis Garcia, who I believe is coming in no matter what it takes, all in to win, willing to get knocked out cold if he has to, is going after this. I believe that. They've said that. But power can discipline and change an opponent, especially early in the fight.

What do you think about that equation? What's it going to look like in those first two, three rounds when Gervonta starts picking up the timing and he does land big? I actually think the first few rounds, Gervonta is going to lose. I think Hector Luis is not – I mean, I think that – I don't know. Again, he's not a brawler brawler. That's not really what he is. You saw him there at range kind of just out-dueling a little bit,

Chris Colbert, in some of that footage. Crafty movement with the head. And his lead hand movement is very clever, where you can't tell if he's going to jab to the body or come over the top, or if the other left hand's going to come through because he's blinding you with it. He is a crafty guy. He'll brawl with you a little bit if he has to. I don't think that,

I think you're going to get, dude, here's the thing. You can say what you want about Gervonta, and he's not like the most capable public speaker, but he's a thoughtful boxer. I will say that. He's a thoughtful boxer. I will say that he's a thoughtful boxer. And he's on the Rolly Romero fight. He kind of let Rolly do a little bit of the leading at first, especially to get him comfortable, but also because he told me to my face, he's like, dude, Rolly's got power. Like you can say what you want about Rolly. The dude can

thump a little bit. He said he got, he said he felt the power. He felt it. He felt it. He's like, okay, this dude can crack a little bit. So we need to be careful about that. I think Garcia doesn't represent that kind of threat, but he's a crafty guy. You cannot just come out bulldozing against him unless you really think he's just going to crumble under the pressure, and I don't. I think that would be a bad strategy. I think that Gervonta has to take over in the middle rounds a little bit. That's where you're going to see the difference when the power begins to accumulate. I also think body work is going to be interesting for Gervonta Davis. He's got good hand speed.

Alvin Ford keeps saying that all week. The body work is something you're going to want to watch from Gervonta because it's not – he can – listen, look what he did to Leo Santa Cruz. I mean, he blew his fucking head off. There's a stoppage of tank against Romero there. Yeah, I mean, you can see what he can do. He can one-punch KO anybody in this weight class, no problem. But I also think the body work to slow a guy down who's a volume puncher like Garcia,

that is going to be critical here. It won't be as critical necessarily against a guy like Ryan Garcia. Against Hector Garcia, I think it would be hugely valuable. And Garcia, it's just to me, it's going to come down to, I know he's going to be daring enough, but can he either absorb the power of Gervonta and be able to still implement his game plan and make adjustments and create ebbs and flows of style changes and adjustments there, which is really the chess that breaks out. He's got those skills. He can do that, but that durability has to be there because Gervonta's power is different. But Hector Garcia, we were not talking about him a year ago. Nobody was.

Look, he had only fought one fight past eight rounds as of a year ago. And then he has those two big wins, Colbert and Gutierrez. He's a champion at 130. And now he's moving up with the idea of this is my chance to become a star. This is my chance to do very big things. Trainer Bob Santos, who would have probably been the trainer of the year if Derek James hadn't had that extra victory with Frank Martin, which really seemed to seal it for most people.

Currently, Bob's got three champions, all from the Dominican Republic in the stable. And the relationship between the two, I believe it. I liked the message that they put out there on Wednesday, which was, we are, or Thursday, we are willing to go there to win this. You better

believe that we are willing to go there. I think Gervonta knows that, but damn, what happens if it does go there, Luke? That's where it's going to get very interesting. And also, I think Bob Santos has been the most interesting public speaker, so to speak, whatever, this week. Listen,

if he's asked about Gervonta Davis, BC, tell the audience if I'm lying. He gives Gervonta all the props. Calls him a pound-for-pound talent. Says he's not just big power. We know he's crafty. We know he's good.

Bob Santos has convinced me that this fight is going to be much more competitive than I think other people will. I don't know if Garcia is going to win. But Santos is so clear-eyed about the challenge. They're not downgrading Tank in any capacity whatsoever. What they feel like is not that Tank is some kind of easy takings there for whoever wants it, rather that their guy can rise to the occasion to take on something so difficult and unique and powerful. They are very, very understanding of what they are up against.

They just believe their guy can do it. And in a very honest, straightforward, no BS kind of grounded way, he's convincing. He's convincing. I do believe that Garcia is going to have something for Tank. Enough to win, I don't know.

And I think he has the right mental toughness. That amateur history, fought between 300 and 400 fights, went to the Olympics, has done international tournaments, fought every kind of style. That that's not the problem i think the problem for me is when tank notches it up when he uses the data he collects to your point floyd used to do the same thing right really study give away a couple rounds figure it out and then begin the attack that's going to be the moment of truth and the fight can go uh you know a few different ways

in there uh but very good or very bad for Garcia. But Tank has bigger fish to fry, I think. Mentally, I expect to see a sharp Tank. I do. I don't discount what all of this stuff does. But I do. And the reason why, Luke, he's going to walk into an arena that as of yesterday had sold 16,000 tickets.

The ticket sales with, as you mentioned, not a ton of advertisement in the local area. I've seen none. It sold itself from the beginning because Gervonta is that rare attraction. If he comes out to an audience that still pours that love on him, and he rises to the occasion in the big moment, which he has a penchant for doing, he could provide that knockout that takes you on a road right down the street to Ryan Garcia. That road, by the way, still has potential pitfalls with a looming court date

and everything going on with that. Make no mistake. But let's see if he can put it together like we mentioned, how Floyd used to do. Just turn off the outside world and go handle his business. Prediction time, though, Luke. How does it end? I think Tank eventually gets it done.

I think he gets it done late. Here's another fact about Tank Davis' power. It carries late. We've seen it multiple times. We know he can thump well into the last few rounds. No problem. I think that's where the difference will be had. I really believe, similar to, not exactly the same,

but in the sense that Caleb Plant was able to take away a lot of what Canelo did early. Not that he was able to get a whole lot of good offense going, but he made Canelo work for it. Does that sound fair? He made Canelo work for it. Does that sound fair? He made Canelo work for it. I think Garcia is going to make Tank work for it. But Tank's power, his fight IQ is pretty good. It actually really is.

And so when you combine those two, he's just too devastating a puncher with too many smarts to carry him through. This is not Deontay Wilder who's got big power, but maybe not the rest of the fight IQ. Tank's got it. He's too much to handle, I think. Yeah, all things equal, Tank will win this fight, I think, though, if there's some level of compromise and focus or what have you.

I mean, look, what Hector Garcia does right when he's allowed to go downhill and just pour on the pressure and not worry about gassing himself out because he knows he has the gas tank despite not having a long history of going 12 rounds, he could take you if you're not exactly who you need to be in that moment and shake you up and put that pressure on you. Let's see if Devante Davis can swim in that deep end. He's shown it before. I believe he gets a late stoppage as well, Luke.

I believe we come out of here respecting Hector Luis Garcia's effort and his willingness to go big here. But you know what might happen? This Garcia loses, but shows some vulnerabilities in tank that actually makes the fight against Ryan Garcia that much more intriguing possibility. Absolutely. Luke, the undercard we've been playing up,

the matchups and what we're looking forward to, and by the way, it's not just the pay-per-view main card that we're talking about here. You and I are going to be calling the Showtime pay-per-view countdown prelim fights. Three of them, we're talking about unbeaten prospect Brandon Lee with the big power, but coming off being knocked down in his last fight. We're talking about Vito Malnecke Jr., the 20-year-old from less than Jake's high school in New Jersey. Yeah, just the suburban lily-white side of New Jersey. Yeah, just outside. The suburban Lily Whiteside of Newark.

Yeah. I forgot the third guy's name. Marshall. The other young unbeaten prospect. Was it Trayvon Marshall? Yes. Who will be also fighting in the opener. We'll be on the call.

Sean West? Yes. We'll be setting the stage for the pay-per-view fights to come. But look, that co-main event, Karen Chukadzian is going to be the next one to step up to the rising Duran Boots Ennis. No need to remind people how great this kid could be. We always talk about it. Now it's time for him to meet a fighter who will be fighting in the U.S. for the first time, born in the Ukraine. I believe he fights out of Germany these days.

We don't know a ton about Karen Chukadzian. You can watch the tape and you see a muscular guy who likes to get inside, likes to do some things there. In this interim IBF welterweight title bout, this is about if Boots Ennis can continue to raise that stock and just be that magician in there, but that magician that gets you out of there in a couple rounds or less. Luke Thomas, what are you looking to see in the maturation growth? Because if you're going to imagine, this could be Bo through like, like nothing, like he does. Okay. Eventually there's going to be, finally,

there's going to be some pushback in some area. Is it the pressure of two cage and getting inside and making us making boots have to show a different gear? Is there that potential in here? Or could this be a showcase of everything we're talking about? I think two cage Ian's is going to give a legitimate effort and might look good in a round or two, a moment or two. I just think that. I mean, dude, okay, so if the job of boxing, especially when you don't know a whole lot about your opponent, is over time problem solving.

You have to sort of diagnose, right? You have to run diagnostic tests. What is he good at? What is he not? Dude, Jaron Ennis just has too many tools in the tool belt to not figure this guy out. I don't know exactly what round that will be. It's hard to say.

But it is, he is Thanos showing up on the ship of the Asgardians and then, you know, fucking snapping Loki's neck and telling everyone, I am inevitable. Yeah, he's inevitable. I just cannot imagine a case where... I could see a much

more high-level guy like Errol Spence giving Boots some trouble. Some trouble? That's like... Well, I mean, trouble to the point of even beating him. But what I'm saying is legitimately making it difficult for him to problem-solve. Oh, absolutely, yes. He's got way, way, way too many skills, offensive and defensive.

He is so smooth. I just can't overstate this. Nothing would shock me more than Chukadzian giving him a hard time, much less winning. Look, Chukadzian's never fought in the U.S. He won his own fights up the ladder to be, you know, in this sort of opportunity for the interim title, but he hasn't beaten anyone close to this level. So, you know, it's up to Boots to not have any pitfalls, not step in any traps, but do exactly what he does because the stakes get massively huge. He wins this. He's the mandatory for Spence in like two alphabet

organizations, and it's going to come down to, you know, probably unless Spence can make the Crawford fight or maybe, I don't know, Spence had a cryptic tweet, right, about April? Maybe he fights Keith Thurman? I don't know. We'll have to see how that plays out, but he may get to a point this calendar year where Errol Spence has to either give up the belt or face Boots, you know, or pay Boots to wait so he can do the other big fight first, but Boots does feel inevitable. Let's see if he gets through this, and we mentioned Demetrius Andrade going to make his PBC debut, also his move up to 168 pounds after winning titles in two divisions. And Luke, on

paper, it looks like he should beat DeMond Nicholson, who has fought some big names but has taken losses. He was the first guy to take Edgar Berlanga the distance when Berlanga had that first-round knockout streak. He's a tough out, and he wanted to let people know yesterday at the press conference that let's not talk about Andrade versus Charlo

or any other fun, creative matchups. Dude, you gotta come through me first. Bubu told us he prefers that, though. He did. He wants a guy coming at him kind of angry and... And, you know, Daman's a local guy. I'm not sure how great his chances are. I'm excited about the Andrade

fight, right? New weight class. New promotional home. You know, if he looks fight, right? New, new weight class. Yeah. New promotional home. Um, you know, if he looks good, some great opportunities, as you've indicated are, are waiting. There's some, there's some like real fun. Cause I, I thought that it was over for Andre. Like he was going to do whatever he's going to do in the zone and that was going to be it.

He at 34, it's not too late. So, you know, 34 was when Michael Chandler went to UFC. Yep. You know, you can still have at 34, if you've taken care of yourself and looks to be in pretty good condition. Dude, he missed a couple years earlier in his career to get out of a promotional deal. Right. And then has been kind of active with his own, but just wasn't able to get the name. So he hasn't taken damage or anything, right?

Right, exactly. He's stayed in shape. He just has really had to wait his turn. He's kind of like a young 34 in that way. So I'm pretty excited for this one. And by the way, the guy, DeMond Nicholson, was bitter he was being overlooked yesterday. This is his moment. They had the best face-off yesterday.

Absolutely. They had the best face-off yesterday, for sure. We ran into DeMond Nicholson's manager, the former light heavyweight contender, top dog, Williams Jr., Thomas Williams Jr., and it was great to see him still back in the game. He made so many fun, great fights at Donna Stevenson, that war with La Bamba, and to see him, a DMV guy, Washington, D.C. guy, come back now and get into managing, and his nine-year-old daughter is coming up in the amateur boxing ranks as well,

so it's good to see that connection. We'll see if DeMond Nicholson can make the manager a winner here with a big opportunity against FUBU. You see the boxing town, BC. You know it is. It is. You know what? My second visit, the family trip last year and now, and I'm starting to fall in love with your city.

The architecture, you know, the attitude of the service professionals. Dude, just because the baristas don't think you're funny doesn't mean they're mean. They've no-sold my jokes. Many people, cross-section of all different types of people. This city has no-sold me. Okay? That's fine. Now you understand me better. Yeah, I guess I do. I guess I do understand you a little

bit better. And we didn't want to forget Speedy Rashidi Ellis, who almost got spent I'm sorry, boots this fight. Talked trash on the dais with boots trying to... Didn't have much to say when he sat down with us. Didn't have a lot to say there, but he's got to chuff out with Royman Villa, the Venezuelan slugger we mentioned with the neck tats, with the big-time power. That fucking guy...

It's going to be a good fight. It's going to be a good fight. There's a couple guys in combat sports you just don't want to get sideways with. He looks like one of them. I'm getting like Maidana vibes. You know what I mean? Matisse vibes. He's not Argentinian, that idea of, like, oh, the gaucho's coming to town, okay? And he's coming to town.

Like, from the caje in fucking Argentina, bro. Remember that time Richard Schaefer got on the Showtime mic and interrupted Jim Gray after Matisse knocked out, what was it, Mike Dallas? And he was like, we have a new Manny Pacquiao, and his name is Lucas. The machine, Matisse. That was just a great moment. Just a great moment in boxing. Do you remember when What's-His-Face told Mayweather if he was younger,

he'd kick his ass? Oh, Larry Merchant, yeah. That old bastard. That guy's still throwing punches in his 90s, I believe, right? At the what, the mailman and shit? No, he's just still aggressively living his life. Was he one of the guys who fought in that Wawa video that got taken down?

Topic number three, Luke. It's Dana White related. Yay! The fallout of our analysis, the fallout of the deafening silence that remains from the standpoint of the UFC, ESPN, parent company endeavor.

Nobody's talking at all. And people think we're journalists now are witch hunting to try to get Dana fired. Not the case. You do want a certain level of, you know, communication and transparency of what's going on. But Luke, tied into all this is that Dana White's supposed to launch his Dana White Power Slap League

in what, a week's time? And there was some reporting on Twitter that kind of confused us. At first, it looked like TBS was taking it off the books completely and canceling it. And obviously, who could blame them if it went that way, given Dana's issue with trading slaps with his wife in a domestic dispute and the timing of all of that. But now we find out that TBS is going to wait a week, Luke, and put it out January 18th to kind of let this all blow over. Yet what happened

today, Friday, January 6th, UFC acting like everything was back to normal on social media, fucking Friday videos. We got commercials for the Power Slap League. Dicey, dicey. I mean, just, it already, to me, I mean, I'm not against people trying stuff. There's celebrity miniature golf shows out there and stuff. I mean, there's all kinds of weird stuff out there, okay? But it's such a, there's no self-awareness in launching this league to begin with because of the head trauma and the lack of defense. And now you time it with what happened.

Dude, I don't even care in the end if Dana has to sit out, if it gets fine. That's not even the thing. The thing is, like a column I wrote on CBS Sports overnight, is if UFC does want to be considered on the platform level that they already are with this TV deal, which is making them basically a big four pro sport, and they've lived up to that in recent years

with the offerings and the big fights and the ratings and all that, but the response now after this very real situation that really can't be just passed up with. That's a private matter. Leave them the F alone to not even comment on it. And then you look at ESPN's coverage of this across the board from the Stephen A. Smith to the Molly Karam reactions on first take to the I don't see any stories written at all like on this. You know what I mean? They don't care. Jeff Wagenheim's tweet, which teased the idea of, is there a gag order? No,

there's not, but I used to work at ESPN, full disclosure, so there always typically is a directive of some degree about what is fair play on social media when big time things are going on affecting the company. Do you feel let down by ESPN as an editorial entity? I never took them seriously as an editorial entity. Even with the Greg Hardy stuff, you saw this. By the way, it's just amazing that Greg Hardy is like a terrible villain. I mean, because what he did is terrible.

I mean, it's not to say he shouldn't be, but, you know, like Dana is already back on social media doing his gross food fucking porn thing. We just want him to address it. You know what I'm saying? Not in a set-up TMZ interview. You asked a question. I said this on Dan Levitar's show. I'll repeat it here, which is there was some belief, certainly as the UFC left

Spike and into Fox and then definitely into ESPN, which, by the way, they signed two more years onto their deal, but the initial deal was five years. They were coming up on their five-year anniversary here in March for the initial deal, so, like, they would be up for a new deal. We all thought that, like, that would mean, ah, okay, you're going to get the greater halo of the Disney ESPN properties and everything that comes with that. That might mean greater scrutiny.

And it is, in fact, the opposite that has happened. It has done nothing but enable them. I don't have a great explanation for it other than to say, and I said this on the Libertard show as well, Kyrie Irving tweeted a link to this stupid anti-Semitic conspiracy theory video that he found on Amazon, and there was wall-to-wall coverage about it on ESPN, on everything about how terrible this was and whatnot. I'm not here to challenge any of the coverage, but they got Dana on video hitting his wife, maybe even stomping on her a couple of times. You're going to tell me what Dana did was less as bad, was better than what Kyrie did? I mean, that seems to me fucking insane to think something like that. Their coverage is embarrassing, such as it exists, but they don't exist that way. Listen, Jimmy Pataro can say

whatever he wants about what ESPN's ambitions and goals are as a journalistic entity. It's a fucking lie. Their goal is to be in these partnerships with the various entities that they are, the NBA, the NFL, whatever. And in certain cases, if the public will allow for it, they'll get into more journalistic work. Journalistic work is done there, but they are not principally a journalistic arm. They are a broadcast arm who will protect the interests of their partners such as they are demanded or willing to do so. And that's the end of the story here. You cannot go to them for journalism

on this issue. You cannot go to them for an actual fair good word on this issue. It doesn't exist. They don't care. The response might be, oh, they did cover it as a news story on SportsCenter. And oh, there was a news story written. But there's no detailed analysis.

And the point at the end of the day is. Stephen A. Smith, I mean. The point at the end of the day is. I don't, you know, and by the way, shout out to Wagenheim, who quote tweeted the Stephen A. video, just to basically say the attitude behind the scenes is not what you guys, you know, we are as against, you know, the fallout of this, what the story means and all that. And again, I cannot stress this enough because you get so many responses of like, you guys have always hated Dana. Keep trying to get him out of his job. No. Dana's done great for this game. We want maturity. We want accountability, maturity and transparency, which becomes

expected when you raise the company to the level, a billion dollar public company, when you get it to this level with an ESPN deal, which means it's in every barbershop and gym and in your living room with SportsCenter and First Take doing real UFC coverage. So is the difference in the end, Luke, the reason why ESPN didn't comment when Trent Reisman reached out and they basically said, no, we distribute it. They do their own content. Is that actually the reason? Because the UFC broadcast is self-contained from a production standpoint.

And by the way, they do a great job. But they're also allowed to control the message within that. Yes, once in a while you'll get Stephen A. Smith showing up on a postgame or pregame or Michael Eves on the desk or whatever. But, dude, this is a UFC operation. What role does that play in in espn's ability to just be like we don't really have to care about this guys we just you know we just we just stream it dude it's just bullshit i mean to the extent they were pressured to do something about it they would here's the reality the stakeholders in mma don't care mostly about

malfeasance the fans there's a sizable portion that do but there's a very sizable portion that not only think that's not a big deal even though dana white apologized for it there's another group of people who feel like he's utterly justified that it was even a good thing that he did what he did right as long as that is the case and let's just be honest about the mma media has been super fucking cowardly right and you know exactly who i'm talking okay is it cowardly or is it the idea of a organized muzzle? Because do you look at a lot of people, we love at ESPN and go, damn, their hands are tied. Their hands are tied to protect them. Let me say this, because I actually had someone reach out to me last night and make the same point, who used to be a very successful manager in MMA. If you care about having a voice in this business,

it is incumbent upon you to protect it, right? The corporations you work for are not going to protect it for you. I mean, sometimes they can, that can happen. It is incumbent upon you. You have to build into your career as you take steps, the kind of latitude and space. And frankly, the principle has to matter enough to you to actually build in the resources within your career to give you the freedom to say the kinds of things you need to say. And if you don't ever do that, and then it comes time to say something, you're like, well, my hands are tied. Your hands are tied because you didn't protect yourself. You did not protect yourself. You didn't, it wasn't enough of

a priority for you to have enough of an independent following or an independent voice for you to be able to have the latitude to do that. So yes, I get that up to this point, if you're being told don't say shit, then you can't say shit. I get that. But let me just give a piece of advice to everyone out there. It is your job to build into your career the protections and guardrails you need in order to say what you want to say. No one's going to give that to you. You have to do that yourself. So go do it. Go.

Right. Just like Joey Romero said. Let me see. There is something to think about here, which is the kind of counter to this, which is, let me make two points. One, on the one hand, like, what is the media's role here?

It's a great question, because if you look at why the Rumble in the Jungle took place in Zaire, it was because Don King was having trouble raising funds for the fight, and Mobutu Sese Seiko was all too happy to offer up the funds in order to sports wash the image of his horrible regime, basically. And so that's why the fight was there. In other words, this kind of thing where we just accept gross characters into the sport and we don't ever want to police anyone's

behavior, even on basic shit, this has been happening long before you and I were even born. Yes. Right? So there is some reality there. On the other hand, this is my point. And you can go back and look at what I said to Levitard, and I'll say it again here. We have not called for Dana's job. Have you noticed that? We have not called for it because I actually don't even know if that's the right call. Here's my point. They won't do anything.

They won't mention it, and the silence is insulting. They won't do anything. I'm not calling for Dana's job because I genuinely do not know if that's the right answer. I don't know. But what I do know is you're not going to do anything. You're not going to say anything. You're not even going to make a public comment. This is the province of cowards.

You have to say something. You have to say something. And they won't say or do anything. If TBS, not ESPN, but if TBS had canceled the Power Slap League, that's saying something at least, right? Very modest. I mean, I think it's going to fall on its own face because it's fucking stupid. But listen, I'll repeat what I said to Libertar.

I think a suspension is in order. I do think a suspension is in order. He should be removed from the product for a little while. Yeah, Kevin, I only think it's one month. Just kind of, you know, take a break from all the stress of the job. Probably a little longer than that. But I did not call for his job because I don't know if this kind of thing – I don't know what the right answer is.

And the public should have some say about it. But the fact that the stakeholders in play won't do anything. You guys think we're calling for him to be fired. We haven't. We're just saying between nothing and fired, there's nothing in between? No, I want communication. I want all that stuff I just laid out before.

Be transparent with us. But Luke, I did want to address one thing, which is we gave our honest takes about this the other day, and there's passion and there's prior history baked into a certain degree and tried not to make it all about ourselves but i guess sometimes that does feel inevitable but there was a lot of people you know fighting back on the the breakdown of who hit who first god do i hate that but i want to focus purposely on all the people that did because

we try to be as transparent as possible about why we're covering about about why let's have it yeah let's have it um here's the deal there's a few deals at the end of the day what makes this different you know the fact that the giovante situation was actually was legal action taken and now there's even this dispute of could the charges be dropped based on the results of that which is a large gray area to begin with but what's one difference between him and dana giovante got fucking arrested yes yes like in the narrative nothing is by the way the narrative had already been that gervonta is this bright star of a of an athlete and crossover entertainer but has to clean up what's going that's already been the narrative which we've covered every stop along the way

but the idea of how could you hypocrites then take money to go work on it because this is my job it's not just my passion but this is what i do this is the best you know like uh like liam neeson and taken i do have a particular set of skills. This is the best, you know, like, uh, like Liam Neeson and taken, I do have a particular set of skills and this is the best way to utilize that in the game. I love, but the games that I love boxing and MMA are dirty as shit. And in some ways they're a, they're a reflection of life to a certain degree, but they're also, this is like being in Tatooine and, and, you know, we're most nicely spaceport where they're just, you know, the dirtiest rotten scoundrels in the game. And I want to do my job, but do my job the best way I can, which is like we try to do on here, being as upfront and honest and critical as best we can.

But even just like the ESPN people, you still work for certain people and have to do things the right way. And I don't think this exact scenario is perfectly crossed because one man is an athlete and one man is a billionaire leader of a publicly traded company and no one's talking about it. No one wants to talk about it. So it's just- Yeah, there was plenty of talk about Gervonta.

We talked about him on here. We talked behind the scenes with people of what's really going on. We did our own, but we also, this is our job to do. And if I tried to take some kind of lane on, well, I'll never, you know, work. And when this person is performing because of this, you wouldn't work in combat sports or life in general, if that was your stance on the people around you, just so you know. Just look around right now. So right now we have the Dana White issue.

We have the Gervonta Davis issues. We have MMA and boxing. You have the Greg Berhalter issue where he apparently had kicked his, they ended up getting married, but when he was in college, Greg Berhalter is the coach of the U.S. men's national team in soccer. He had basically assaulted his now wife,

then girlfriend, some time ago. You have the coach of the Texas men's, I believe the Texas men's basketball team for, arrested for, and fired, by the way, fired for, now that's a really bad one, felony assault, allegedly on his girlfriend, I believe. So we are surrounded by it. And let's just say this, too, and this is a sad reality,

and this is where we are complicit to a degree, right? And I think you have to own up to this. If you tried to have a boxing or MMA promotion where you'd said, we are never going to work with anyone who's ever been arrested or convicted of domestic abuse, you'd go out of business in a year. But on top of that, you would go out of business. But that's not our job on top. Our job is to be critical of the news cycle and what's happening and the decisions being made. But our job isn't to like to judge on the level where it's like, I can't even be associated with that.

No, I have a job to do. I'm doing it. We're going to cover Jon Jones when he comes back. Where were we when Floyd had his own missteps and went to jail? Covering it, right? Where were we when Jon Jones was? Covering it. That's our job. We're also covering this event, what happens in the ring and outside of it. So hold on. Let's say, what is the difference

between Tank's situation and Dana's? Because we need to have this out for just a second. Number one, you can believe who you want to believe. Tank maintains his innocence. Dana does not. That's the first thing I would say. Also, my understanding is this whole ordeal about whether this event should have taken place went up to the highest levels of the company. And we're not privy to these details, but they believe that there are enough exonerating circumstances to let it go forward. But my understanding is they had some kind of discussion about it. Now, maybe you think this event shouldn't have gone forward and you don't want to support it. Strongly encourage you not to if that's in accordance with your beliefs. Dude, I don't think Tank Davis is in any way a Boy Scout. What he allegedly did is fucking gross. And by the way, I'm going to say it one more time, that dude has a jury of his fucking peers who are going to bear down on him next month. Next month for an alleged hit and run on a pregnant woman.

We are not shying away or not talking about any of these details at all. We'll talk about all of them here and tell you exactly how I feel. Do you feel a little conflicted covering someone like this in this particular situation, whatever happened in Florida? Yes. Yes, of course you do. Yes, you feel that way. Whether you think there are meaningful differences between Tank and Gervonta, I don't know. But the reality is, if you're going to work is be honest about what has happened, be honest about how you feel about it, and act in accordance with your principles and values. That's the best we can do. Yep. Yep. But I do think, you know, which is

sort of the summation of the story I wrote for CBS Sports on it, it's just like when you package everything together during this new cycle for the UFC, which still involves the fighter pay situation, still involves the gambling fallout and how those two stories do intersect from the idea of pre-existing injuries and whether people just fight through it just to get the surgery paid for, mixed with all of the big deals, mixed with the idea that Dana behind the scenes and UFC are publicly, you know, legislatively campaigning to try to limit the fighters' rights as much as they legally can in every possible way. Right? Aren't they lobbying against their right to?

Yes. Lobbying against the Ali Act? Yes. They're going to try and do their best to kill it. But are essentially doing everything possible to make it as hard as possible for unionization and all of that. Yes. And in fact, I think they called in some favors with the National Labor Review Board. So my point is this.

You have enough of these unresolved issues that are all attached to it right now. It's not going to sink the UFC tomorrow. Things aren't going to get shut down. But if the company in general and Dana as the leader don't start acting in a more mature way, I don't think you're going to stay in this lofty spot on an ESPN deal in every barbershop and gym and in this type of coverage and handling because you're not showing the maturity level of the responsibilities of how you need to be.

And to me, that maturity level is the transparency and is the honesty in things. And we don't see that under this regime. And there's a lot of great that Dana White brings to the fight game, and I don't want to see that to change. I do want to see the accountability and the treatment and all that. Let me ask one basic question, and we can move on from this. We're saying we don't know what the people in power should do about Dana,

but they should do something. What should the people in power do about Tank Davis? We asked the exact same question. What should it be, BC? I think they're doing that. Should they have killed the event? Not in this situation. I understand their decision and and it wasn't an easy one and it was one that had a lot of factors involved but in this particular situation i think it's too much of a gray area right here not to remove doubt from gervonta's name he's lost in the court of public

opinion that the benefit of the doubt that's not the direction we're going but uh to the idea of just you know no this isn't cut and dry, this entire situation. So this was the decision that made and we're moving forward. But again, it's just that they won't say anything. They won't do anything. They won't come down. Because the silence is deafening. It's saying that it doesn't matter what they're either saying. And I don't truly believe they're saying this, but it's basically them saying that domestic violence doesn't matter. I don't think that's their intention, but that's what it comes out. And then what you're also saying is our business relationships trump any level of morals or ethics or transparency on all the sides.

And that's the reason why you need watchdogs, Luke. And I'm trying to be a watchdog. The reason why you need it is because we all live in this pool. Don't shit where you eat, right? We all, this is where I make my money. This is how I feed my family in this game. We gotta get past this caveman ways of operation. Fighters who enter into this dangerous game

need to have a foundational structure where they're taken care of, where they can afford training camps, where they can afford surgeries. Like, this is why you do need people knocking on the door who have the right platform to do that. So, um, damn. I mean, enough of this do that. So, damn. I mean, enough of this shadow business.

Enough of this. I mean, ESPN's in some ways the most respected journalistic entity in terms of established ways in sports media. And look at this response. It's wild. It's wild to me. But I just feel like, I don't know what's going to happen with the Slab League. I think it'll die on its own, but we'll see. But I just want to, I don't know what's going to happen with the Slab League. I think it will die on its own, but we'll see.

But I just want to be clear about this. People in combat sports, I made this point before, you can look at a situation like the World Cup where you have this incredible amount of moral devastation where all these migrant workers are killed and they have the World Cup and everyone is party to it. But you have these influences in various levels within soccer, I should say, that push back against these kinds of evil forces, basically.

In combat sports, that doesn't exist very much. People are just welcoming of bad actors, Ramzan Kadyrov, for example. People are welcoming of bad behavior, dropping the N-word constantly, hitting your girlfriend, whatever, having insane attitudes about women you name it and there just is not nearly as much pushback not from the media this week you haven't seen very much not from uh the fighters very much i mean the fighters have been bending over backwards to defend anna which is fucking amazing and dude they try people try to make this political what where's the politics in this i get the fuck out of here first of all i'm

not even on the side you think i'm on to begin with as if that matters. I mean, is there a human side to this? I mean, come on. Let's be real for a second. If that had been Colin Kaepernick, or let's even make it for MMA, if that had been Jon Jones on video getting slapped by his girlfriend and then retaliating the way Jon Jones did, or Colin Kaepernick, do you think you fucking frauds would be telling us it's justified? Go fuck yourself. You liar. You're a liar. You're a liar who can't be honest about the principle of things. You're a fucking liar who says things like, well, he was totally justified.

You would turn on John Jones or Colin Kaepernick if they did something like that in a fucking second, you fraud. And I see through every fucking one of you for exactly what you are. I don't take your opinion on this seriously at all, and neither does anybody else with a fucking mammalian brain. Go fuck yourself. It's just such a fraudulent argument. They would turn on someone they didn't like who did that in a fucking instant. In an instant. I can't believe

how much is exposed this just old school bro method of, I don't care who hits me. You know, a child, a disabled person, an elderly person, whatever. Just bullies. It's open season. In your own marriage? And you know, no one is actually defending Dana White's wife. Nobody. It's not mutually

exclusive that if you have this one side of the take that you're defending. She has a lot to answer for here too she's got serious fucking problems yeah it's it's not automatic in that regard that that you lean this way and then you support striking dana was unacceptable you know what i support i support humanity and i support that um you know what a real man does and look that was dana's instinctive reaction was to not just counter but then get risk control counter again and then forcibly that was the natural in public fight or flight reaction uh that's okay with people that's how you're wired or or or is it more you know because people go hey bc and luke like you guys are great all this you this hero stuff here, but what happens when your wife slaps you in public?

Do I have enough love for her not to retaliate? Because that's the foundation of my response there. My protection and love for the people that I've choose to live the rest of my life with. The people that go to war with me in life's

what do you call that in the military? When you go back to back with somebody in the bunker there, you know what I'm saying? Sex? No. I've been through life shit with my family. This is a life and death relationship. We're going the distance together. I love them enough never to feel the need as a man to want to counter and strike back. Never did we say it gives latitude for women to go on the offensive. That's not what this is about. I hope they fix their family based on what

happened. That's the goal and goal for me. Not anything else or not any other way around. And if it happened to me, Luke, I'd be looking to fix things, not break them even worse. Yeah. Also, I'll just say this is a general rule. I don't know their marriage and the private parts of their marriage. That was a public event. He's a public figure. So that's why we're having some discussion, but the private parts is not your business, not my business. But you know, um, I have a feeling that that, you know, the idea that the very first time that they laid hands on each other, it was caught in camera. I don't really believe that. And so if there are broader issues and against, and if, you know, they both and, and her, especially like what she did is utterly unacceptable. You don't really believe that. So if there are broader issues against it, they both, and her

especially, what she did is utterly unacceptable. You don't ever put your hands like that on another person. Fuck no. But those are not equivalent situations much as you want to make them one. Yeah. Alright, Luke, let's transition here as we...

Let me let it breathe for a second. I wish I had a vape. and you know you got any side i wish i had a vape dude are you proud of me seriously for what for not vaping you haven't seen me vape one time for taking a stand for humanity no i am proud of you in that regard because while you did add tremendous comedy to 2022 with your it really was your gift dirt hole side habit um it it i don't know it kept you happy and it produced you know just comedic miracles time and again i mean it It really was a gift. Dirt hole side habit. I don't know. It kept you happy, and it produced just comedic miracles time and again. I mean, it was the lowest hanging fruit with the sweetest taste in poontang.

You know what I'm saying? It really was amazing, yeah. Wow. All right, Luke, as we kick off the new year, we wanted to remind the people of our favorite sponsor, Money Lion, and this Hammer of the Month movement we've got going on. You remember Aaron Blanchfield. You remember Ilya Teporia.

You guys voted along with us. And every month we do this, when we look at the undercards or those kicking off the main card in combat sports who are making their presence known. Breakthrough moments. If you're coming on, come on. They are coming on, Luke. So be on the lookout as we head into boxing this weekend,

the return of mixed martial arts in the new calendar year. Use that hashtag, Hammer of the Month. Use that hashtag, Holy Hammer, and go to moneyline.com slash morningcombat. You can see the QR code there for more information about the award. The physical hammer, Luke, gets awarded. We gave it to Aaron Blanchfield

in person on the Room Service Diaries. I need an update on where Elia Toporia is going to receive his hammer. España. Yeah. Stop. Hammer time. It's Money Lion. Here goes the hammer.

Oh, oh. I think that's all we have to say, Luke, about it. And I think it's fantastic. Moneylion.com slash Money Lion. Oh, at Money Lion on Twitter, at Money Lion Inc. on Instagram. Let your voice be heard. Look, we do open the Vaults of Accountability every Friday where we let our viewers' voice be heard.

Are they going to beat us up today? I think they are. When they send a fancy email over there to Mikey Morms from CBS Sports at morningcombat at gmail.com, and they got a bone to pick with us. So pick that shit. I mean, don't just sing it. Bring it. You better bring receipts. don't be a pedantic piece of shit but yes we will straddle that fence we will be willing to take the l if we have to i'll sit on that cactus if i'm wrong luke you know what i'm saying jiggity ding ding this one's from craig what up donk one and two in episode 387 look i can't read

anymore close distance i should get welcome to my world i should get glasses it happened overnight i can no longer read i gotta i literally have to do this i mean what a life right you know what i mean first your libido goes and then this, right? Your libido went already? Well, I did have the three needles. That was an emotionally scarring experience to levels that I never thought I would experience, Luke. You should know I still have healthy levels of libido. Your search history continues to prove that to be true. Craig says in episode 387, Luke says that Drew Dober, quote, gets dropped a lot, around 51 minutes and 45 seconds, to which BC with the BDE, which stands for Big Diseased Energy, responded with a, oh, yeah.

Well, here's the thing, Donks. Dober's only been dropped once in 18 fights with the UFC. The 19 would be the green fight, which is less than BC gets dropped to his toilet bowl in the last 18 bouts of gas station food hot dogs. All right, it's a bit of a torture joke. Because Luke, well, you know, from an intestinal standpoint, for sure. You know what I mean? I mean, that shit, you know. Okay.

Because Luke likes stats, only three fighters with 20-plus appearances have ever been knocked down. Have they never not been knocked down? I think he means never been knocked down, which is Jon Jones, Max Holloway, and Cheto vera is that true i guess so i have to double check peace and love from the man who has the same moose mug as bc as seen in a previous fan sub it's craig thank you craig um luke will you take the l i'll take the l okay oh yeah i was wrong drew dober does bring it though he does fuck yeah he does i mean he enters that I mean, he enters that party, and it's like, where's the women?

Where's the keg? Yeah, he's going to... You remember that story from Charlie Murphy about his brother at the peak of his popularity, Eddie Murphy? Yes, yes. He would walk into a club, do a lap, walk out, and the way he expressed it was he would drain the club of women. They would follow him out, and there'd be nothing left in the club.

He would drain it. Pretty impressive. Wow, wow. This next one is from a lot of different people, but the one who wrote the note is Lord Edgar from Scotland. Luke? Well, I doubt he's really a lord. He might be a leerd at the end of the day.

When discussing BC's dream matchup between Chimaev and Usman, BC said that Usman, quote, did everything he had to do for four and a half rounds and didn't look dominated. I think they're talking about against Edwards in the rematch, to which Lucas surely stated he didn't lose until the last minute of the last round. He had lost a round, yes.

Yeah, well, Usman got taken down for the first time ever. Yes, but he was winning the fight. Guys, how can you forget the spectacular trip and back control that Leon appeared to open up? That's not what we meant. Yeah, that's not necessarily what we meant, so don't be pedantic. But thank you, Lord Edgar from Scotland. Luke, so I have a Scottish last name, right?

Right? I'm an eighth Irish. I've recently been adopted by the Welsh. The UK could be my bag, baby, right? The UK is great. I like the Welsh. I don't think that's real. The UK could be my bag, baby. Right? The UK is great. I like the UK. And I know people go, Ireland's not in the UK, BC.

Here's what I'm calling the UK moving forward. Northern Ireland. I'm calling it UK plus. Like, you know, ESPN was great, and then we got the UFC. Yeah, I don't think the Irish are going to like that. So the UK plus now is Ireland and the UK together. I don't think that works.

Well, Luke, the Northern Irish are allowed to be a part of the UK, right? Yeah, it's a different country. Is Van Morrison a Northern Irishman? I'm not sure. All right. Yeah. They're asking if Canada is US plus. In a way.

In a way. Yeah, in a way. All right, let's go to Michael. Do you think the uk people will accept me and absorb me yes the uk uh people will very much be accepting they get me right although we'll say the irish are friendlier sorry do you like irish chicks i'm not into to uk plus chicks see you see i am luke okay you know what i mean you know pre that's not my bag pre libido failure, yeah.

All right, let's go to Michael. On the January 2nd show, by the way, my wife's Irish and Lithuanian. I don't believe that. On the January 2nd show, smartest man in the room, Luke Thomas, was dead wrong when speaking about Demetrius Johnson losing by getting kneed in the face. He said DJ lost to Sergio Marais. It might be time to get a brain MRI. He said DJ lost to Sergio Marais. It might be time to...

Oh, Adriano, yes. It might be time to get a brain MRI. He's probably right. Because Johnson didn't lose to middleweight Sergio Marais. I got to use the bathroom really bad. It was Adriano. That's dead wrong. Morning Combat.

I'll take that. Morningcombat at gmail.com is if you want to send more and be protected. Bye, Courtney. Thank you, Court. Thank you. Somebody in here is crowning Luke like the king of England. You know what I'm saying? So do you want to take us out of here, Luke?

You also look inbred like the king of England. That's not fair. Can I tell you something about my family? Yeah, please. You're going to make an inbred joke, but it's not true. Okay? Oh, God. Are you semi-related somewhere?

No, no, that's not true. Okay. okay oh god are you semi-related somewhere no no that's not true my grandfather and his two brothers okay married a set of two sisters oh i've seen them and their first cousin that's common in south america too so my dad has an aunt that's also his cousin okay we can end the show there that's uh that's a little disturbing that's that's how the french canadiens do it there's actually there's nothing wrong with that. Just wanted to let you know that. All right.

Reminder, let's go for our tickets for the London show, February 8th. We're going to be at King's Place in London. You can see the QR code on the screen if they throw it up here soon enough. Yeah, there you go. Got it right on time. You can go to pod-live.com as well to get tickets if that's the thing you're into. Showtime.com, 30-day free trial. Plus, we're going to do

$3.99 a month for the six months thereafter. MorningCombat.store of course for bomber jackets like this. Do you want to do MK and UK viewer homework and we'll watch the Harry and Meghan Netflix series and then respond? My wife, I've maybe watched about an hour of it. My wife just told me we're going to... It's painful.

Oh, we're going to start it together, episode one. I figure I've got to get up to speed on my UK gossip. It's so fucking stupid. Let me just say something about this. The UK is, or I should say England, all the ones in the UK, but England specifically is an awesome place. I don't give a shit about your royal family. Not even a little bit.

Don't care. Don't care. How much do you care about the king of Spain? I don't. Exactly. Right, that's exactly how I feel about it. I'm more of like, I like lords and lairds

as my royalty obsession. Yeah. Lairds and leotards. And then, of course, morningcombat at gmail.com. Don't forget, today, 4 p.m., it'll be me, B.C.

Stack will be here. Steven Jackson. Raul Marquez will be here. We're going to, the four of us are going to. Some of the smoke will be here. Some of the smoke will be here. At least one has played

the basketball, though, Luke, to be fair. I mean, how long are we going to do this joke? I was nervous here. Some of the smoke will be here. At least one has played the basketball, though, Luke, to be fair. I mean, how long are we going to do this joke? I was nervous, okay? Cut a guy a break. Cut a guy a break. Do you think Matt Barnes will look down on you the rest of his life? He probably has.

Or only because he's 6'8". That's how tall he stood. Yeah, like Montel. Dude, Montel in 94 must have done damage. He must have did it in 94. Oh, my God. Once upon a time. So there's where you can follow us. We hope you do.

We'll see you at 4pm for the weigh-ins. Also, we haven't talked about this. We're going to have a post-fight show, a reaction to the fights on Saturday night live from the Capital One Arena here in Washington, D.C. So be on the lookout for that live stream as well. Any final message to our Gen 6er population?

It's time you tell the FBI where you are. It's time. It's time to call it a day. Alright, get your face paint ready. It's time for the holiday season, Luke, and today is the anniversary, so celebrate it well. Be safe. Don't be dirtbags, alright?

So this is going to end the show right here, guys. This is going to end the show.