MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Jake Paul-Tyron Woodley 2 | UFC Fight Night: Lewis-Daukaus | Quick Hitters | EP 241

Episode Date: December 15, 2021

On Episode 241 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian are in Tampa Florida to cover Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley 2. The guys discuss the biggest storylines of this rematch. Next up the guys transition to the last UFC card of the year UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Daukaus. What should we be looking out for? The guys close out the show with some Quick hitters. (00:10:00) - Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley Storylines (00:35:20) - UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Daukaus Storylines (00:44:10) - Quick Hitters Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveley, reveley, donks. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is Morning Combat. We're drinking on the job because we are professional. Hi everyone, that's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. It's the Viceroy, the Prince of Connecticut. It's the DC Dirtbag. Together, we form a team known only not as Voltron but as Morning Combat. We are live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. The award-winning Morning Combat. Excuse me.

The award-winning Morning Combat at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa, Florida, B.C. Which I've been told by a few people now that it's Florida's best-kept secret no more, Luke, okay? Yeah, it used to be COVID, and apparently now it's Tampa. So take that for what it is worth. But we are here in sunny Tampa. By the way, I have to say, sprinkled a little bit. We were talking to Tyron Woodley. We were at the open workout today.

They were just behind us. Yeah, they just took the ring down. You can see it there, yeah. And there were some Instagram models on the other side with their underwear. Not staged at all. Hiked up their rear ends. Jake did a few laps, literally. With shoes on, and then he did his interview with us in goggles.

This is regular morning combat. We're doing it in the evening, but we have a lot to get through today. We'll talk about that fight. We'll talk about what's coming up at the UFC this weekend. And then that's going to be it. We're going to punt fan subs until Friday's show. Does this shirt make me look fat, or is it just my diet? I think you're just your fat face, really. You know, every watcher of this show's history... Your body is not actually that fat. It's your stupid face that's so fat. Every single BC hater in the history of this show assumes I'm 5'6".

Because I got that fat face, so I must be. Yeah, you're not. You're actually pretty tall. But people get that part wrong. Your face is atrocious. It must be my diet and the way I was raised, but I'm working on it. Luke, we are here for the Woodley Paul 2. Paul Woodley 2, whatever you want to call it. That goes down Saturday night. Showtime pay-per-view.

Showtime.com slash PPV. You can order that right now. So get ahead of that, guys. You're not going to want to miss that. Outside of the U.S., you can get it on fight.tv. This should be a big deal, and we're on the grounds for that. You mentioned we're going to talk UFC, but I'm still basking in the glow

of our great accomplishment, the World MMA Awards Best MMA Programming, which is only... We can only brag about it because it's the fans who did... You did this shit. i didn't you know we didn't do that that was that's on you you're gonna have to deal with the repercussions of that so once again uh one more victory lap and you know we could be in a worse spot luke than literally by the pool here at the hard rock i mean i could think of worse we are not in a van down by the river and there's another another level of congratulations that go in order the gentleman sitting to my left is going to be one of the new faces you're going to see on Showbox this upcoming year.

BC is a commentator on the esteemed Showboxing series. And I'm pretty proud of you. You know, for a moron who's got substantial brain damage, you've done really well for yourself. Wow, thank you. The team with a little around the horn applause. Very excited about this opportunity. The first Showbox card. Showbox, the new generation of the new calendar year will be January 7th.

Your boy BC will be down in Orlando with the great Barry Tompkins. Barry Tompkins at 80 years old. He was the voice of my boxing youth and now I get a chance to work with him. Of course, Raul Marquez in the great Hall of Fame. Who's a great dude, by the way. I had Farhad as well. Farhad's still part of the broadcast, but Raul Marquez is a great dude, the former world champion. So January 7th, a nice tripleheader.

All six guys on TV, unbeaten records. That's what you want. Perfect. Well, congratulations, dude. I'm very proud of you. I know how hard you've worked. I may play an idiot on TV, but behind the scenes, Luke, I'm an idiot. Making moves. the scenes luke i'm you're hustling i'm an idiot making yeah making moves obviously i i didn't rj

dunkelmaker yes thank you tell the folks the good news the good news for all you lovers of what we do merch wise morning combat dot store our home your home to be wearing our faces on your body which could be the chest with luke's mexicanired Dia de los Muertos. It could be in the form of Factory Town MMA. It could be in the form of an MK Drug Rug. Oh, we're back. Yeah, we're back with a bang, baby. MK Drug Rugs 2.0 are available right now, today. If you purchase them during this show, during this episode,

I believe you can get a great deal. How much would that cost you? $69. $69, dudes. Special price for this opportunity. Luke, we put them on sale for a short period. They sold out in an hour. Okay, that's how many people want to look like the heroes of my hometown, Naugatuck,

Connecticut. If you're wearing a drug rug at age 17, yo, that means you're getting shit done. Not in terms of creating the boundaries and foundation of a strong life, but you're living. Doing lots of drugs. L-I-V-I-N, right? I get older, they stay the same age. That's what I'm talking about right there.

Jesus Christ, you're going to get us fired. That's a Dazed and Confused reference. Even the producers are like they're like jesus christ don't get canceled on the air well we do have live drinks right here so um the drug goes to be 75 normally so get your discount now and i got one more thing to say about it if you order in the u.s i know we've been saying come on guys order or it's not going to get there in time if you order in the u.s before fr, you will get that shit on Christmas morning. That's RJ and Uncle Maker's guarantee, okay?

All right. So there you go. If you want to wear hideous clothing, you can get it pretty quickly, but you've got to make a move on it right now. By the way, who pockets the profit on these? Because we don't. We should probably fix that. We should get a cut of the store.

What do you want? Five cents of every drug rug? I want five dollars on every drug rug. I want... Tariffs on this merchandise. Luke, a member of your fraternity, one of your fraternity brothers, joining us on location today.

I said, let's interview him. You're like, I don't want the motherfucker on the show. No, he's an attorney. He doesn't want to do all that stuff. But yeah, he's here. My wife has actually never met him and thinks he doesn't exist because we only text. But now I have seen him. I have a texting relationship with many men, and my wife probably feels the same way. And you have many more men who just give you underwear, which is apparently a normal thing.

Shout out to your buddy, Rich. Ryan. Ryan. What's your fraternity from William & Mary? Sigma Pi. SPI? Sigma Pi. That's S and P.

S and the P want to get with me. Cool. Right? Hit the skins. Exits that way. Alright, I'll bring the 90s back with me. Luke, anything else we should be talking about before we get into all things Paul Woodley UFC Fight Night this weekend? One more reminder, we are going to punt on

fan subs today, but only because we're going to do them on Friday. So morningcombat at gmail.com, morningcombat at gmail.com. That will be the place you want to send in your fan subs as well as your dead wrongs. We'll do both of those on Friday's show. And also, just a reminder, with the Paul coverage, Luke and I just hosted the Open Workout right here. Tomorrow is Thursday. Luke and I will be hosting the final press conference between these two at 1 p.m eastern on the social channels of showtime sports on youtube and also friday's

weigh-in we will be a a big part of that as well i also hear um one ariel hawani could be in town this week so we'll see how that goes yes could be kind of fun all right for today let's get into it we don't have a whole lot to do in terms of the top to bottom-bottom storylines, but we'll start with what is most prominent. The biggest fight this weekend, of course, the rematch between Jake Paul and Tyron Woodley. We were here at the workouts today. BC, I will go first to you with this following question. Biggest takeaway from today's event, anything you picked up on? I'll say for me, and I wonder what you think about it, and you can add yours,

their energy was very, very different this time around. Well, you pointed that out properly. And anybody that wants to see either the way in stream or our interviews with all of these big names from Frank Gore to Darren Williams and beyond, check that out at YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. But you're seeing a happier Tyron Woodley from the tense. I'm going to prove you guys wrong that we saw August 29th that week in Cleveland where Tyron Woodley still was, I mean, still very new to boxing, but he was very, very new to boxing. I thought he acquitted himself well, and I think he did too in that first fight. Losing an eight-round split decision, but certainly as the narrative has become, there are room for improvements where he maybe could have and should have done more.

I see a guy more happy with the situation. What's the situation, Luke? Tyron Woodley woke up to a phone call and a bag of money that he's going to fill in for Tommy Fury last minute, but I think he's very much a live dog in this fight. I think he knows that from what he learned from that first fight. I think there's more pressure on Jake without question than Tyron Woodley, and Tyron Woodley gets

that, and maybe that can help him unlock whatever it is inside of him, Luke. Yes, he's 39 years old, but whatever it is that's preventing him, and we saw this at the tail end of his UFC career, we're seeing it now in boxing, from really going after it and being the best he can be. If he can figure that out, I learned today, I learned this fight week, that he's in this event.

It's come Saturday night. Yeah, my biggest thing I took away was Tyron had this, like, almost happy-go-lucky attitude that's a little strong, but something like that. And Jake had this, again, you can think it's phony or not, an air of inevitability to him. Like, utterly confident that what he got last time was more or less in terms of what Tyron can offer. Are you supposed to eat these things? Not like a barbarian. Like Conan? He's like, hey, can I shit on your floor?

I'm not housebroken. I'm not going to let you make fun of my eye, though, at all. Dude, do it. Teach the guai lo about the magic, lo pan. Watch him eat. One eye shuts and he looks like Egg Shen from Big Trouble in Little China. And he doesn't want to teach kung fu to the guai lo. Look, normal.

Just normal. Look at you. Barely hanging on with your fat stupid face that guy with the wood right there right that guy's wearing a bad bunny t-shirt the guy carrying that yeah yeah that bunny's awesome i like bad bunny um but i thought that i thought that it they don't have anything else to say to each other anymore. They said everything they could possibly say, unless the results in the boxing ring change, this relationship can't go any further than what you've got. They've maximized this version of it, I feel like.

And maybe in terms of trash talk in the moment, but obviously some things that we talked about earlier, what if Ty Ridley does win this? What if he cashes in that knockout clause that's part of his contract for the five hundred thousand dollars extra could it lead to a third fight could it lead to the changing of the of the of the flow here of the story in this rivalry it probably could but that's that's talk for another day if he can get there he's got to redeem himself meaning tyron woodley he's got to take advantage of this opportunity again i think he sees that i think with jake though um let's be fair let's

call a spade a spade you um let's be fair let's call a spade a spade you ready let's be real here real talk like men do are you about to tell a racist joke wow i don't think jake liked it when he brought out the idea when he we had him sitting right here of of fighting canelo the number one uh yeah i couldn't i couldn't i didn't know how to when he was like i'm gonna fight canelo i'm like probably not from his point of view his view, his take is, look, I'm the number two money earner in this game behind Canelo right now. In terms of a draw, let's just fight each other. We both were like, there are levels to this, and that experience gap, that's a bridge too far. I don't think he liked.

I know he didn't like that we said that, and that's the competitor inside of him, Luke. On one level, listen, you want to do what he does or any fighter at any level, amateur or professional, you have to have a little bit of delusional self-confidence. I don't say it as an insult. I say it as a literal requirement of the job. And so I don't think that, as silly as it sounds to me and Brian and probably to you as well, that he thinks he's going to fight Canelo,

I do think a fight with Nate Diaz, who was here today, who was supposed to do an interview with us and then bailed out at the last second, but whatever, that's typical. But the point being is he could do that fight. I could see a Conor potential boxing match. I do think that is realistic, and those would be massive money earners. Dude, what does Canelo get out of it besides big money? Here's my point.

Dude, he got $50 million or more to fight Caleb Plant. I don't understand what the incentive would be for Canelo. He already gets enormous paydays, and yes, it would be easy, but he's trying to go in the opposite direction. Maybe getting them clicks from the YouTube generation. Who knows,

Luke? It's money to be printed anyway. I don't know if he gets there, but the point is he's ambitious, meaning Jake Paul. He knows that there are big fish to fry, which is what you identified. If it's Nate Diaz printed anyway i don't know if he gets there but the point is he's ambitious meaning jake paul he's he knows that there are big fish to fry which is what you identified if it's nate diaz or conor mcgregor if they could ever make something like that someday at the celebrity boxing crossover level it you couldn't put a ceiling on the potential buys he's got to be tyron woodley though a second time for that to still be a reality luke he has to also realize and i think jake has done this and we talked this, he made a certain level of mistakes in that first fight as well. He got a split decision win, that although I'm more comfortable saying I watched the fight, he was the better fighter,

he left some doors open that I think that was the wake-up call that Jake Paul, who's taking this uber serious, realizes he's got to fix some things out of this rematch. No doubt about it. I mean, there's a lot. I actually went back and I looked on tape at what both of them offered the first time around because the first time when I was watching, I was talking to BC about this, I was just waiting for, like, the worm to turn, for the action to develop, that I never paid attention to what an absolute barbarian

my co-host is who is eating quite literally hand to mouth like a Neanderthal. And then the other part I didn't notice was there's a lot they've got to fix in this fight. Did you notice that Jake Paul cannot create offense moving to his own right? He can create offense moving to his left, and he can create offense moving to his left, then right, then stopping, then going straight. So in other words, he can go straight or he can moving to his left, and he can create offense moving to his left, then right, then stopping, then going straight. So in other words, he can go straight or he can go to his left, but he can't create offense moving to his right.

One wonders if the team of Woodley who let him roam before would be more inclined to force him to his left where he is much more defensive and you could then annihilate him, seemingly, if you could make that work. I find that... What did you make of Woodley saying, like, oh, I was just kind of getting my feet under me for the boxing context, that's why I didn't throw as much? Well, I think... If it wasn't for the four MMA fights where he also didn't throw, I would be more welcoming.

But let's be fair, after that stretch, he threw against Vicente Luque in the entire final UFC fight. Yes, it was a knockout, but at least he went out, quote-unquote, on his shield. I didn't love everything about that. It was a little bit reckless, but he was like, I can't lose another one where people are saying, why am I not letting my hands go? Did he have a moment like that against Jake Paul? Yes. And I thought it was a key question that I asked Jake Paul's trainer, BJ Flores,

who got up- We talked to to for 45 seconds yeah he got upended and intercepted by jake which is fine but what you know i asked bj when you look at what tyron didn't do in anticipation of if he could correct that was it because of age was it because of fatigue was it because of bad game planning you know or was it the fear of fatigue of i got to make sure i have the gas to finish this fight they say all the it's probably is but some of that i think woodley realizes he didn't even understand necessarily properly how to game plan for boxing it's different this was his first fight uh he realizes now luke that those openings those opportunities sometimes they they barely show up if they show up at all

and when they show up you've got to fill that spot you've got to step in when a fourth round when he hit the left hand the biggest punch of the fight back jake into the robes probably should have been called the knockdown we got to see the woodley that follows up on that not only immediately after but even that next round where i think he let jake off the hook even if it was to preserve his own stamina not knowing he's got to be willing luke at the very least and i think you can agree with this to to be ready to risk it all to try to win it all and when when i say risk it all i mean jake or tyrant tyrant and when i say risk it all i mean not only leaving yourself open because you're gonna have to exchange but you got to take the risk that your gas tank

may not be able to go you know you got to you got to take advantage of the opportunity i feel like he gets that luke and i think adding dean thomas to the team which has gerald tucker as the lead trainer we all know dean from the mma side, ATT, although he's no longer there. If they could work on the mental side, on letting go more, and just saying, look, this is your opportunity. You got the bag, man, but you could get another bag if you get a big win here. If you get that 500K. You could get numerous bags if he looks good here.

But the problem is if he doesn't, like, dude, if you have four MMA fights, well, he threw in a Luque fight, but it didn't go his way, and there was an issue there. So if you have basically three and some change MMA fights, and then two boxing fights, and after all of that you're not throwing, what are you supposed to tell your next opponent and promoter to get you to sign them? I mean, that's not saying he won't or he can't or that I'm discouraging it. Rather, I'm just saying here is a grand opportunity for Tyron Woodley to finally silence critics who say he is just, he's washed, some will say,

that he is far past it. Whatever you want to say, this is an opportunity to go and throw. And I think even if he loses, but he at least shows volume, activity, offense, willingness, I think that alone will secure better chances of fortunes in 2022. But if he goes out there and is like, oh, did I eke out five possible rounds? Again, we said it on the broadcast. He had, of eight rounds in his last fight, seven of them, he only had one recorded jab. One jab per round for seven rounds of eight.

Dude, you can't do that again. You just can't do that again. Let me ask you a question, Luke. Are you ready for this? There's a lot of names on this undercard below Jake Paul and Tyron Woodley who are rematching Saturday Night Showtime pay-per-view. There's everything from the NBA versus NFL matchup to Amanda Serrano getting one more, maybe the final close-up before a Katie Taylor fight.

Who do you think on this undercard used the media day to kind of grab the attention and say I'm here? The most. The best. Liam Parrow was the guy that came on here. Jake. No, the undercard. Of not including the main event. Yeah, that's how you define the undercard.

I know. I barely listen to you. Maybe Frank Gore? Frank Gore, he's coming to fight. Maybe Frank Gore? You know, Frank Gore, he's coming to fight. Maybe Frank Gore? You know, Frank Gore's coming. I almost want to pull Darren Williams aside and be like, man, you're an amazing athlete. You may not be 6'7", like some people thought, but some people are willing to fight over because they believe in their dicks.

You thought Santa was real until you were 12, I mean. But, you know, Frank Gore's coming. He's coming to get revenge on that 2000 election. He saw what happened to Al Gore. He's coming for it, Luke, okay? Gore's coming. He's coming to get revenge on that 2000 election. He saw what happened to Al Gore. He's coming for it, Luke. Okay? He's coming for it. So in Bush v. Gore, Frank was the v. Gore?

Yes, he was the v. Gore. Courtney, is there any chance I can have another drink? I polished mine off. Oh, please, Courtney, me as well. I want to get more weird fruit. Thank you. Thank you very much. What did you order?

A pina colada. Getting caught in the rain. A penis colada. Yeah, alright. You know what they said about this show? Do it short and do it wild and weird. I don't want your filthy Coronas. Corey's like, yo, I got these Coronas, man.

I bet you do have Corona. Virus. Wow. Wow. Alright. Hey, guys, Matt Snyder right here. Here's our Showtime producer walking by. This is also the look he gives us when we ask him where our money is. Yeah, yeah. He just keeps moving.

Right there. All right, Luke, Frank Gore is going to be in there against Darren Williams. They both look to be in good shape. I care about it more than I did coming in, and I did a decent amount. Also, I care more about this than Ocho Cinco versus some guy from the woods. Brian Maxwell. Yes. Right, from Moonshine County woods for matt brian maxwell yes right from moonshine county yes i've had moonshine no i haven't i've actually had real moonshine that will that will fuck your world up let me tell you this i thought this was one of those luke trap questions where you you float a question you throw out like that jab that's like purposely

slow you're like yo bc you ever had this food you never heard of and i'd be like no and then you'd be like you got that story right about that time in Europe that you were there. And the food will be like chimichurri. He's like, I've never heard of it. That's because you're a rube from the middle of nowhere. I think Gore versus Darren Williams, Frank Gore, could be some entertaining theater. I agree. And they're both great

athletes. And Frank Gore, he didn't, like we said during the broadcast, he didn't use that time in the ring for a photo session. He got that sweat up, and he's coming. I have to tell you, another sort of angle to this whole thing, in addition to this fight, where we had Darren Williams come out, who was with Saif Saoud, again, the head of Fortis MMA. He was here. We talked to Saif very briefly.

He came by our position by what was then the ring before. There's a weird MMA boxing crossover element to this entire card where Tyron Woodley, former UFC fighter, Nate Diaz is cornering Chris Avila, who we also spoke to as well. Saif Saoud is one half of the ownership group behind Fortis MMA and Gore Longwood, Darren Williams. And it just sort of goes on and on. There's a ton of MMA built into this event, even though it's obviously strictly boxing. Yeah, I mean, this is also the best MMA programming for 2021. Award-winning MMA programming.

It all comes together there. Luke. Will they bring us our drink before we're off the air? That's a fair question. You know, I'm looking forward to it. Some of it's a little bit weird. Some of it's mix match, mismatch fun. NFL versus NBA, we'll see on the Sunday.

Are you with me that every event needs to deliver on some kind of way the first one was expertly promoted yes this time around they don't have that same level of promotion just by virtue of time and the late change and everything they got to deliver in the ring and that's the main event that's the main event jake paul and tyron woodley to keep the momentum going for whoever wins whether that's building toward a third fight if that's the way they go if woodley won or, or if Jake Paul uses this as another stepping stone to take, you know, a Tommy Fury-level fight or beyond next time, if he wants to get into the Nate Diaz conversation, all of that, he's got to win. But I think for the genre right now, which is a balloon, right?

It's a balloon, okay? It's a balloon right now. It's still full, though, and they've got to keep that going with action, with the kind of entertainment that's sort of like, okay, we know the ability level's only here, but the want level, is that up here, Luke? Okay, Frank Gore wants this shit. Wow. He certainly does, and both of them are noncommittal about 2022. They're always like, let's see how this one goes on Saturday.

Probably the right attitude. If they look good enough, who wouldn't want to see more, provided you could do something similar with a similar kind of opponent. You're not going to get the third all-time leading rusher in the NFL, but something along those lines. 16,000 yards evenly. I know, it's crazy. Number three all-time.

You could win some bets at some sports bars with that. Who's the third leading rusher all-time? You'd be like, I don't know, Dickerson. He's behind only Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton. Yeah, that's pretty wild. That's ridiculous that he's been that good. So looking forward to that one. Amanda Serrano will be in the co-main event on this card.

But again, BC, it's sort of like, okay, it's good that she's back. She had a high-volume, decent performance last time. She'll probably have something similar here against Miriam Gutierrez. But this is the Katie Taylor tryout, right? And I think this is the final step. Katie Taylor just fought last weekend on the zone, had a nice win. If Amanda Serrano, which, by the way, this is not some soft, you know, stay busy. She's moving up in weight, two weight divisions to lightweight, taking on Miriam Gutierrez, who has a title there.

Or I think it's a secondary title because Katie Taylor's undisputed in that division. But it's sort of like, you know, you're fighting legit people to get to that point. Did we have to wait this long? The pandemic got in the way. Some debates over money got in the way. But what is not in debate is that Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor are, no worse, two of the three best pound-for-pound boxers alive right now on the women's side. Clarissa Shields in that conversation.

It's obviously we've had more names to talk about in women's boxing in the last two, three years than a long time before that. This is a great time. And, Luke, I don't want to stop being the one who says this out loud. People are legit saying if Serrano gets by Gutierrez, and this is maybe a great chance in her first fight officially with Jake Paul, MVP promotions to flex a little bit. I'm the pay-per-view co-main.

That Katie Taylor fight could be the greatest fight in the women's history on paper. And that's like, okay, sometimes we attach that hyperbole to try to sell it more or whatever. It earned it. I mean, you know, like you can't find, I mean, you could find like Layla Ali versus Jackie Frazier. You know, it was another Ali Frazier that sold a lot of money. Everyone knew who was going to win. This would be the opposite of that. Yeah, this would not be that at all.

Who was the lady who did the Netflix documentary? Christy Martin. Christy Martin. Christy Martin. She got walloped by Leila Ali, but that was a pretty big fight for its time anyway. Yeah, we've had a few of those where it was like, okay, the star of the moment against another star. Right, but there was a big weight class disparity in that fight. I mean, we never got Ann Wolfe versus Leila Ali, which that era needed, but this would be the fight of this era. That would be a hellaciously great fight.

The pace that Katie Taylor puts on but yet uses technique and volume with Serrano who can fight every style. I mean, give me that, Lucas. Softball against, and the crowd, if they did it in NYC at MSG, which there's some talk with, would be insane. Imagine if they did it in England. Would be insane. If they did it at MSG.

Imagine if they did that in Ireland, where she's from, right? I mean mean come on you wouldn't get the puerto rican element there which you would obviously get in new york city but um it there it's a can't miss fight thank you very much it's a can't miss fight i appreciate that all right uh but it is can't miss if did that feel a little bit like mom and dad giving the kids like the kids finally turned 21 or we're in international waters on the cruise after high school, go ahead, have a drink, go ahead. You're going to do it anyway.

At least we want to supervise you while you're on air. If you're going to get fired, if you're going to catch a case... I never had parents like that, ever. My parents were always like, if I catch you drinking this coat of Hammurabi shit. Like the Iron Sheik Persian clubs come out and they start... They didn't quite say i'll f your a and make you humble but old country style what's he saying yes i f your a and make you humble yes yes

um wow persian accent's pretty good by the way yeah shout out to uh another persian prince himself uh shaquille majori a new new staffer here. Who you were certain was from Paris, France. Or Montreal, you know, a little bit of that French-Canadian vibe going. Luke, anything else you want to say about Paul Woodley, too? We're here in Tampa. This is the biggest combat sports fight, they're saying, in Tampa history. It's not a noted fight stop. You know, we've had a few fighters, boxers.

Jeff Lefkuk-Lacey was from this greater area. Are you expecting a diverse turnout for Saturday night in the Amelie Arena in Tampa? We could see fans that are not here for the MMA and boxing, Luke. Yeah, I'm expecting a gathering of the Juggalos. It is Florida. Not sure who else is here besides fans of Insane Clown Posse and meth addicts. I don't think they sell masks in this state, Luke. I think masks are literally illegal here.

It's like, do you care about COVID? Get the fuck out of my state. You walk around here. People don't care. They just... They're like, get that shit off your face. Your friend from your fraternity, he's a lawyer. He's like, I'm proud of you, Luke.

I heard you won an award, but I ain't ever watched that shit one time. He told everybody here how little he watches of what I do. He's like, but I hear good things. Like, wow, it sounds just like somebody else I know, a.k.a. everyone else in my family. Hey, Luke, this one's to you, though, okay? Because for all the thanks that we've rightfully given and accepted and all that for this whole award business, Luke, you know, I don't get here without you, okay?

I don't get you, but I don't get here without you. You know what I mean? I feel very similarly. You are an enigma wrapped in CTE, but I don't get here without you as well. So that worked out quite nicely. Whereas here... Here's the big question. When are our wives going to meet each other, and are they going to get along?

I hope. They'll probably talk bad about us the whole time. They probably will. I tell you this. I have a very strong suspicion that our wives are going to get along really well. To the point where it's going to be uncomfortable because they're going to ask to hang out and like swap partners we're like brian camp we're like you know i i'm not into this guy on that level i can't do that you know

yeah basically i don't have much else to say about the fight except i'll just reiterate one more time we've been down this road with these guys enough where how many times has there been memorable fight action you can go be like hey remember that paul fight round seven or blah blah you can remember that round four had the one where he nearly knocked down uh tyron nearly knocked down jake but other than that there's not a whole lot to hang your hat on in these fights and i just feel like you don't have to have a slugfest per se no one has to get stretchered out that's not what i'm asking but i am saying where in the case of tyron woodley seven of eight rounds you only had one jab it's just not enough and if you're jake and you're pot shotting you're probably going to get your hand raised and i do think the incentive

structure for him to not fuck this up for himself is going to mean he's probably going to be a little bit more reserved than he's indicating but if you're a tyrant you really have a not just an opportunity kind of have a bit of an obligation to sell yourself for 2022. And to try to extend that bag, as we said. Or if this is your last huge fight, you've got to go out swinging. So here's the deal about this, though, Luke. The biggest question we have about the idea of how, you know, is Jake for real? Well, not like for real, for real.

He's, you know, one of the best in this genre, in this crossover genre, for sure. He takes it serious. He's legit. He's got some decent wins, and he's climbing the ladder. The one thing we don't know is something we talked about on the live stream of the intangibles, the backbone. Can he get up off the canvas? Can he fight through that? Woodley's actually proven that at a high level, right?

He's been in big fights. He's gotten hurt. He's sustained. You know, maybe he doesn't have some great dramatic come from behind win to hang his hat on, but he's been a guy who's been through the wars. He's going to probably be more comfortable right if this becomes an actual fight not a boxing match an actual fight i think he knows how to handle the fights man right but one thing he and he respects jake's power and i respect that he is that clay he called it robbie lawler power he knows it's thudding he knows he can get hurt with it But Luke, he doesn't know and we don't know how Jake acts. We saw Jake's volume go down

once he was knocked into the ropes in round four of the first fight. You know, the posture changed a little bit. I think he was a little bit more there to box and try to hang on and win. But Woodley's got to find that out for us, doesn't he, Luke? He does. Woodley can make it messy for sure. Woodley can...

What else? Obviously, he's got the power. We know that. He's got the experience. But I don't know if he's got the cardio. He can sing. He can rap. Well, that's also pretty debatable. What's his hit? What's that? I'll Beat Your Ass? Yeah. I was wanting to do the, come on, be my baby tonight.

You know, real world. Oh, yeah. David? Yeah. Something about like, I don't know those other thugs you've been with. Come on, be my baby tonight. Come on, be my baby. Everything he's telling you is a lie.

Just so you know. He has advanced CTE. He really does. It's a real thing. Let's play it out to his buddy, his buddy, Ryan. I'd love to get him on and talk more stories. No. No.

No. We are not doing that. We might get some tonight, though. We'll see how that goes. I hope I can get a free dinner out of Showtime tonight, you know? Well, I mean, I'm going to dine and dash, so it ain't going to be me paying one way or the other. Oh, wow. You ever dined and dashed in a non-fast food establishment?

What does that even mean, Luke? Do you know what dine and dashing is? So that's running out on the check. Yeah, it's running out on the check. See, I always thought, my friends and I agree with this, Bogo, he gets it, that the times we've done that to people, which is just a heinous crime. It's an awful thing to do, yeah. That we've paid back, we've paid for it later in life through some of the hardships we had to go through.

Every time I've gone through some really hard shit, do you know the first thing I think of? That waitress at the Ribs Place in Cheshire, Connecticut, Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. That waitress, when she realized we ran out on a $300 bill because we were just absolute dirt holes, I paid for that throughout the rest of my life for a while. I'm telling you that. Hey, could our teeth be more yellow? I just wonder.

Look at that guy with the 2x4 back there. That guy's a key grip. No, I mean literally. His grip is key. Mm-hmm. All right. We got a UFC fight night card this weekend, Luke. Yes.

H-weight's the top of it. Is Derek Lewis a... Chris Dawkus. Two-time former title challenger. That'd be correct in saying, right? He fought... Derek Lewis? I think he fought for the title twice, right?

He fought Cormier, obviously, and then he fought who else for it? Francis? No. Bokov? No. Did he fight Gahn? Am I making stuff up? No.

He did fight Gahn for the interim title. Okay, so that's kind of a two-time title challenger. Against a rising phoenix that is known as Philadelphia's Chris Dawkins, five straight wins, four in the UFC, all four UFC appearances have ended by knockout. Luke, he can throw. So this is his, similar to fellow rising heavyweight Tom Aspinall, this is his, like, okay, now you've got to prove it. Luke, the deep end of the pool is called Derek Lewis.

Chris Dawkus will be swimming there. That's a herniate, Luke. Excuse me. Yes, he certainly will be. Chris Dawkus, he's an interesting challenge for Derek Lewis because he's an in-your-face type. He's not as, obviously, heavy-handed as Derek Lewis, but he likes to win with the KO as well. He likes to put it on people in his own kind of way, a little bit more speed chess than single power shots.

He's a very good boxer for an MMA fighter. And a police officer as well out there in the Philadelphia area. It's interesting, right? You would favor the experience and then the pure power of someone like Derek Lewis, but you might favor the speed, you might favor the volume work of someone like Dawkus, but Dawkus with that volume work is going to have to be careful against a Derek Lewis who can

play possum at times during the rounds quite craftily and then find a way to get the knockout or the win very, very late in the fight. Police officers have had mixed results getting into the octagon. Of course, we've seen Jermaine Durand-Ami, the former inaugural, right? Women's. Stop sitting on your Aeroplan points and get big savings

so you can be somewhere you actually want to be, like on a beach. Right now, you can save up to 25% in Aeroplan points when you book a trip to one of 180-plus Air Canada destinations worldwide. So stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one. Don't miss out. Your chance to save in points ends February 23rd. Book at AirCanada.com. Conditions apply. Flyweight, no, featherweight champion. And then there's Sean Gannon on the other side, former Boston cop. He may have beaten Kimbo in a building, but who was the guy, Brandon Lee McCorkle? Brandon Lee Hinkle.

Hinkle, he put it on him. He destroyed him. Yeah, yeah. Gannon had some bad tats for that fight, too. Yeah, he also looked like Bobby from King of the Hill. Wow. I mean, he did a little bit, you know. Okay.

All right. Dawkus is more put together, more a legitimate threat. But, Luke, he's, you know, well, X doesn't know this on Friday, but he's going to have to step up in class. I mean, he's going to have to raise his game. It's not that Derek Lewis doesn't have holes that you can potentially get the better of. And, Luke, I want to ask you this right now. When people try to wrestle Derek Lewis, I mean, he's big.

When people try to wrestle him, is Dawkins a good wrestler? He's a decent wrestler. Certainly it's part of his game he can mix in. Whether or not he'll have the energy or the strength or the willingness to do that on Derek Lewis remains to be seen. But obviously you can also point out something here about Chris Dawkins. This is a big fight for him where you can get to a stage in UFC heavyweight division in particular. This is true of every division, but it's especially true in heavyweight, where you can get three, four, five, sometimes six fights, and you're not fighting anyone of a real big name, and

then you've got someone with a real big name. This is the Chris Dawkins, hi, I'm here fight, if he can get the win, where he can not only beat someone who is highly ranked or well regarded and certainly has been in some big fights in the UFC's heavyweight division, but now you can say my place is among them. Derek Lewis doesn't get that with a win over Dawkins. It's almost like hold your position, hold off the next guy

in line fight. This is another main event for Derek Lewis. Right, but for Chris Dawkins, this is a huge fight for him. I hope he goes for it. You got to. To beat Derek Lewis, you got to stand up to the bully, Luke, right? Also on this card, the co-main, Stephen Thompson taking on Bilal Muhammad. It's a great fight. Early thoughts about how that might go.

I mean, this is the right opponent for Bilal to continue his quest to try to prove to us that he's very legit. Totally. Beyond what the nice streak would have showed you. How much does Stephen Thompson have left? I think a lot, Luke. So this is going to be a very tough technical fight unless Bilal can use the aggression and the power

to try to make it not, right? This is going to be interesting whether what type of adjustments Bilal can make so that Wonderboy doesn't make him fight his fight. Because at that point, fighting karate fight, he'll beat your ass. And Wonderboy was talking about how he wants to do this late into his career, like late into his 30s and early 40s.

And I'm like, why? But if he wants to. Who has proven to be the best old-timer in MMA history? Is it Randy Couture? Randy, for sure. He was up until 47. Imagine if Glover did this for five more years. That's how long Couture did it.

You know, like Anderson Silva was doing it late, but it was a lot of losses in there. Yeah, Randy Couture was something. And then Bernard, obviously, on the boxing side, right? Yeah, absolutely. George Foreman, big moment. Big moment, Luke. For sure. I mean, that's not quite where we're at here.

But same thing. If Bilal Muhammad gets this win, that's your signature win, for sure signature win well you'll remember the name indeed indeed you'll remember the name and also his that song he walks out to my blood is palestinian is just fucking awesome um but if steven thompson gets this win where is he because it still feels like he's kind of holding position right i said to you that i'm i wonder it's a little cheeky to say this if there's still one more run to a title shot and you were like hell no no no it's a little cheeky to say this if there's still one more run to a title shot and you were like hell no no no it's closed you were like you fuck that shit man i think what there's a big enough win where you know he kind of lingers he's lingering he's lingering

luke i've been larry kinging this oh god that means luke is just just dutch ovening this entire backdrop here i love being on planes because you can just fart audibly and they can't do anything about it uh on the women's strawweight amanda lamos or lamos takes on angela hill tough fight for uh hill but a good one just the same what what does that division always do luke delivers and makes it makes you horny wow wow oh well i'm like fly away too now just kidding all right wow luke uh yeah okay um it's an it's a decent come here final card of the year i like that the ufc spitfire wow wow i like that the that the ufc is uh closing shop earlier we don't you don't need new year's eve you Eve giant pay-per-views.

Let's close up shop for the year now, okay? Is that your way of saying you don't like Asian promotions? Once again. That was like an act of... It was both an act of love and an act against you. You were like, fuck Japanese MMA. I don't give a shit. Yeah, it went down the...

It got framed incorrectly. Damn. Also on this card, Carlos Diego Fajeda is taking on Mateus Gemrott. Remember when Carlos Diego Fajeda was a thing, man? Yes. Rafael Sunset taking on Ricky Simone. I like that fight. I like that fight a lot.

It's a decent fight, but here's the one that's kind of interesting. To open that card, Cub Swanson taking on Darren Elkins. Dude, Cub is still trying to wring out the sponge and see exactly what he's got left. Darren Elkins is going to help us find out. Let's be straight up. That's a tough fight. You're always honest about things about MMA. Are you ready for this, Luke?

I need to ask you a very honest question. Yes. Is Elkins' chest tattoo the worst tattoo in MMA? It's not great. I mean, Brock Lesnar's penis sword is up there, too. It's not. Yeah, that's also not great. What about my hat tattoo?

Do you support that at least? I don't like that one, no. Yeah, I wouldn't tell him that, though. No, certainly not. I would tell him it's the best tattoo I've ever seen. I mean, Mr. He-Boss, you've had some issues with his tattoo game as well. It's not great. He has Spitfire on his forearm, you know?

Not that one. Not the one you were calling out. No, he has Emily Whitmire. Mr. He-Boss has Emily Whitmire on his forearm. Oh, yes. I wanted to ask her. Getting choked. Sooss has Emily Whitmire on his forearm. Oh, yes. And a man, well, getting choked. So I almost, so she made a, she's going to make a cameo appearance in Doc No. 6. You'll see her in the doc, yeah.

And I was going to ask her, but I didn't have the guts in the moment. You know, like, the rest of your life, you're going to be on that man's forearm. You know what I mean? She probably would have punched you in the face and choked you out, which I would have adored. Wow. This card this weekend is not great. I mean, the. I like it.

The UFC card? Yeah, I like it. People don think i like ufc luke i love that shit okay that is always weird to me that people like i don't even know if he watches mma i'm like he watches a lot of mma why would you i don't and ever since you dom cruised me i've been watching a lot more you know you know tape study and stuff you know i feel like dom capers right What did you think about the media turnout today? I thought it was pretty good. Yeah, we saw friends in the media. Mike Heck introduced himself from MMA Fighting. Shout out to him.

We saw Mark Raimondi. No Schmo today. I guess he's coming in later. Corey would like us to move on to the end of the show, the quick hitters. Fine, let's go to quick hitters. I don't even have the list. Corey, how about you announce what we're going to talk about on the show, please? Is your live mic live?

Yeah, I know. All right. So Nate Diaz was here today. As we talked about, he's going to be cornering his teammate Chris Avila in this boxing match, a rematch with Anthony Taylor. They fought in Bellator. Now they're going to fight in boxing. We didn't get a chance to talk to Nate, but Luke, the report out there was BJPenn.com

citing somebody. Yes. Is that Nate's deal with the UFC has extended? But you said, hold on, BC. There's a difference between signing a contract extension and the company extending your deal beyond your control. If they offer you a fight and you decline it, you do not have to take the fight. You have the right to decline it, but they have the right to extend your contract either three or six months whenever you do.

So that's the lesson there. Oh, here, take the Shemya fight. And he's like, fuck off. I'm not taking the Shemya fight. And they're like, great. Well, your contract has now lasted longer. So even if you satisfy the fight on the condition of the contract, A, they can put that fight later in, like six months later, or you can have it on regular schedule, and then you can't even begin to talk about who you might fight or where

until that period has finished. So it's just a way of creating some more problems. We'll see when he is really up as a free agent. Luke, if he gets a chance to test his value on the open market, and the open market does mean potentially a Jake Paul crossover boxing match or whatever he wants in boxing or mma or crossover fighting i mean he could be fighting mike perry and bkfc for all i know don't you want to see him at this point in his career at his age with all the inactivity get a chance to call those shots luke yes i think a fight you don't realize

until you get here and you see stuff like this dude a nate diaz versus jake paul fight you guys might hate it i'm not telling you to like it you don't have to like it at all how big would it be it would be fucking huge absolutely huge and you can like that fact or you can hate that fact that's fine i'm not here to police your attitude about it but just a question of how big it would be yeah there's a lot of people that would cash in on that fight and two of them are sitting right here luke that's true i would make money off that getting any you got any more of Pena's throwing shots at people, Luke?

Oh, I mean, I don't know what the fuck this is. Why don't you just read it, Luke, okay? Read the... I don't have the thing because it doesn't pull up the right link. Corey, what was it again? It doesn't pull up the right link for me. This is a debacle. This is a debacle. Okay, Juliana Pena said Kayla Harrison would be, quote quote a lesser partner and is throwing

shots at her if i'm juliana pena i want the money from the new mystery match i don't want to be fighting kayla harrison anytime soon luke am i crazy why would you want to fight kayla harrison that'd be the worst yeah it'd be the worst idea ever all right here we go i got it now okay pfl announces challenger series the pfl challenger Series will debut on Friday, February 18, 2022 and will stream on Friday nights exclusively on FuboTV. Prospects will have the chance to duke it out and impress a guest panel that will change

from week to week and will feature celebrities such as NFL stars like Ray Lewis, Todd Gurley, and boxing legends such as Mike Tyson. Doesn't Ray Lewis work for this company? I'm just teasing. It's just a joke. The celebrity guest panel will decide the official outcomes of the fights themselves, but will play a significant role in determining which fighters will earn PFL contracts.

Yay or nay? It's hard for me to say nay because I've been saying nay about PFL for a while. And what they do this year, they kind of made me a believer. So, hey, he's trying to tell that betting guy they got. We got a chance to talk with him at length. Ian. What the fuck is his last name? I'm just going to say Rappaport.

It's not Ian Rappaport. I'll tell you that much. The betting guy. People know this guy. He works for ESPN now. The betting guy from PFL. Anyone going to help us out? I'm going to say Ian the European. Wow. I'm a little tired, rather. Last but not least, I don't care say Ian the European. Wow, this is just... I'm a little tired, rather. Yeah.

All right, last but not... I don't care about Fubo. I just don't. I'm not paying for Fubo. Those tattoos are Fubar, Luke. Fucked up beyond... What? Ian Parker, yes.

Thank you, Maniche. Next on your list of quick hitters. Dominic Cruz, interested in a Jose Aldo fight. Quote, yeah, I mean, I'm not going to say no to an Aldo fight because that moves me closer to the title. Aldo's a legend in the sport. I have nothing but respect for all these guys, so I'm trying to go towards the title, he says.

I'm not going to say no to any of them. I would rather have Jose versus TJ Dillashaw, though. Hey, can these guys make more noise behind us? I want Dillashaw versus him. Yeah, I don't think a Cruz versus aldo fight is bad by any stretch hardly top of my list for either of them is there an older guy that you'd like to see against cruz because i it's like don't want to see him against a song you don't know don't see him against you know what i mean like i mean he's fought favor enough times who was out there lu? Who would you like to see?

I'm not one of those guys that's trying to get him to the old man fights. I think if he had the new man fights, he'd be fine. Okay. Then how about him against Song Yudong? You in on that? Ryan Bader's going to fight Valentin Moldavsky, Bellator 273, January 29th. Yay. That's for the undisputed Bellator heavyweight champion. The interim versus the established weight class champion.

And then last but not least, I found this one pretty interesting. Kevin Lee has signed with Eagle FC. Sergey Haritonov will fight Tyrone Spong. This will take place January 28th at the FLX Arena in Miami. The event will be shown on UFC Fight Pass. Also, Hennon Burrell will face Horacio Gutierrez. And this is supposed to be the event where Bigfoot Silva fights probably the 15th time. Yeah, they replaced him with Karatanov.

Oh, they did? Oh, he's the one stepping in. Because I think they heard our show, and they're like, oh, shit. Yeah, well, I mean, honestly, if Florida will license him, they'll license anybody, but you get the idea. What do you think Florida would license me to do? S a D under a bridge? I don't know, something like that.

You see that eye? You see the eye? Oh, look at that eye. Wow. This might be our worst show. Low Pan will reappear. Oh, my God, what happened? Why low?

This might be our worst show ever. I mean, what a horrific effort by us, the staff, that key grip. Well, listen, we gave them what we had for the, what you call it, the stream, and then we just died on the vine right there. Then they started offering us drinks, and I was like, I'm not doing this fucking show anymore. You got any more of them quick hitters? Oh, hey, shout out to Brendan Schaub. He announced his exit.

He did. He is departing Showtime in like two weeks, basically. So thanks to Brendan for making MK possible. He did open the door for us on his channel. Less so for you. You were already in the door at Showtime a little bit before, but I had no intro. I didn't get hired because of Brendan. I'm saying we started this on his

channel, which means we were exposed to his subscribers as a newborn. And then they made us start from scratch and I wanted to cry. Yeah, they did do that. So I'm not a numbers guy, but Brendan was a big part of it. So thank you. Good luck to you. Can you bring him up without these subtle digs that only me and 50,000 other people get?

And say I'm super excited to try Tiger Thick Whiskey. So I was hoping maybe we can do a little RSD with it. I'll do that. I'll do that. And I'll be honest. If it sucks balls, I'll say it. You were. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, you were. Rogan. Joe Rogan. What about him? He's probably like 5'3". He's not tall. No, no. It is alarming.

Before it became cool to say that, I used to say that because I saw him for the first time at UFC 199 in 2016, right? LA. The forum. And then he stood up and I was like, oh, shit, bro. Yeah, he's not tall. Yeah. All right, well, yeah, we're done.

I mean, this is the worst fucking show ever, ever. I mean, it's just embarrassing that we kept people here to do this. All right, that's Brian Campbell. We will be back on. So hold on, let's set the table here just a little bit. Tomorrow at 1 p.m.? 1 p.m.? Snyder, what time is the presser tomorrow?

1 p.m.? 1 p.m., yeah, yeah. So 1 p.m., me and BC will be hosting the presser for this fight tomorrow check that out, Friday we're hosting the weigh-ins as well we will have an MK that we'll also probably punt on and then some other stuff in between morningcombat at gmail.com

for your fan subs as well as anything else give us a follow on all the various social media hey can you ruffle that microphone more so we can hear it, you fucking gorilla? And yeah, go get drug rugs at morningcombat.store. Don't touch me. Don't touch my personal space.

All right. For Brian Campbell, who touches himself at the bus stop, this is what he does to the milfs at the bar. I prefer to die. Also known as cocaine. All right, I don't know. I'm out of here. Luke Thomas, Brian Campbell, we'll see you guys tomorrow for the show.