MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva | UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs. Allen | Petr Yan | EP 367

Episode Date: October 28, 2022

On Episode 367 of Morning Kombat the boys are in Arizona for Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva. They start off the show by recapping their week in Arizona. Next up the guys get you ready for the weekend with their picks for Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva and UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs. Allen. The guys also discuss a report that Petr Yan is very unhappy with the UFC after the judging on his past two fights. They also discuss why Alexander Volkanovski still wants to fight Conor McGregor and if either of Beneil Dariush's callouts make sense for him next. As always we close out friday's show with dead wrong. 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, reveveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Oh, yeah. We're back. Oh, yeah, right?

Oh, yeah. I don't know if you can see us or hear us. Welcome to Technical Difficulties, starring Luke Thomas, Brian Campbell, the award-winning. Hey, don't blame me. Morning Combat, the multi-award-winning. We've got a fantastic combat show for you most days, nearly every day. And today, we are on the grounds in Glendale, Arizona. One more sleep, as John Anik would say, with his new contract with the UFC. Congrats. Glendale, Arizona. One more sleep, as John Anik would say, with his new contract with the UFC. Anderson Silva,

Jake Paul, this boxing extravaganza, Showtime pay-per-view. It's been a wild week, Luke. We got a great show for you today. Not that wild. Look ahead to UFC fight night. Maybe tame. Maybe tame was what I wanted. But, you know, the Donald, the horse that Jake rode in on

took a little bite out of crime on some LT, right? Old McGriff. Yeah, yeah. You know, I'm the beige guy. That's Luke Thomas. You know, you can watch his dissected of Jake Thomas, Jake Paul Thomas' Anderson's boxing ability as well. So much great bonus content.

So, Luke, you and I were talking earlier when the shit fell apart here live, was, you know, YouTube.com slash morningcomic. Great place to go for bonus content. You know, dissect it. Dr. Mike, sit down. But last night on this very couch, we did resurrect the real talk, like the men do.

Danny Segurha. We definitely resurrected the gibberish talk. Shaheen Al-Shati. What I can't figure out is if last night was the very best of us or the cracks are showing the beginning of the end too much BC because I thoroughly enjoyed it. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Just farting up the room with your BC-ness. With my shitty humor, yeah. I thought it was okay. I thought it was okay. It had its moments, but it was a little bit too sloppy for me. A little bit too sloppy. See, I got a little nervous. In the pregame,

it looked like live show Luke was back. It did. Like, you know, I'm filling these margaritas. It looked like that guy was here, so I kind of stepped up my chemical action. Why don't you tell people the truth, which is that you woke up five minutes before that thing, and you had to be, they had to get the paddles out to get you going. Do you tell people the truth, which is that you woke up five minutes before that thing.

And you had to be, they had to get the paddles out to get you going. Do I tell the staff often, though? I'm a red light guy. No, not Amsterdam when I've got, you know, feeling frisky and I've got a little bit of extra cash in my pocket. And it's government regulated out there. Not that type of red light. All right? Not Roxanne. You know what I mean?

Roxanne! That woman of the night, right? You know what I mean? But, Luke, you know what i mean that woman of the night right you know what i mean um but luke you know i do deliver but the question is do i over deliver that's really the question but shout out to our great friends for joining us uh pre-game preview last night luke felt a lot like the maybe the perfect marriage like certain things don't go together right bc stop telling the world that seersucker shirts and or seersucker jackets and Eazy-E shirts? Like, you know, peanut butter and cheese aren't supposed to go together, but it's perfect, right?

Luke, I want to know if last night was the perfect gathering of all of the Juggalo vibes together, meaning MMA beat old school days, pregame preview, room service diaries 1.0, and just like a really fun sausage party. Did you get that? I mean, first of all, that's just a contradiction in terms. A really fun sausage party. Did you get that?

I mean, first of all, that's just a contradiction in terms. A really fun sausage party. Like, no one's ever said that. But a sausage party was great. Well, it depends what position you're playing on the team. You know what I mean? Yeah, but even then, you know, a little bit more of a mixed crowd usually livens it up. So I thought it was a bit of a mess, candidly.

I thought it was a bit of a mess. Okayly. I thought it was a bit of a mess. Okay. A beautiful disaster, if you will. Beautiful is a strong word. I'd use more like regrettable. Okay. Like this turn for your career into MK. It's an award-winning turn, but you can get a little on you hanging out.

Yeah, get a little of the BC old man sauce. No me gusta. Well, you know, it's been a great week so far in Fiesta. Give enough coffee over there? Jesus Christ. And he hit the Savior. No question about it. It's been a... Well, well, well.

Maniche walking in. The prodigal son has returned. Wow. A little hungover? He's like, stop sharing my business with the world. I want to thank all of our great fans for liking this video, subscribing to what we're doing at Morning Comeback, fueling our jet pack to be able to outlast, outshine our competition

in whatever these awards are worth. Hey, we keep winning them, but you can follow us, Bull. You can like what we're doing here. As always, share your feedback. You guys don't hold back, so tell us the truth, and we'll probably, or he'll ignore most of it, but that's fine. We love what we do. Thank you for being here.

A reminder that later today, you've got to get ready for the ceremonial weigh-in. Jake, Paul, Anderson, Silva, will the friendship, the love, the respect turn into tension? Tune in for that. Luke and I will be hosting. Ariel Hawani will be on the scene. And don't forget about Saturday night. 9 p.m. Eastern time is Paul Silva, the pay-per-view.

That you can order right now, by the way. Showtime.com slash PPV. But we're going to appetize you a little bit, MK style. BC and LT, 7 p.m. on the East? No, it's going to be 5 p.m. on here. So 8 p.m. in the East. I think it's 7. I think it's 7, right? No, 5 p.m on here so 8 p.m in the west in the east i think it's seven i think it's seven right no no doors open at four doors open yeah i told you all right luke's on top of it yeah 5 p.m in the west 8 p.m eastern it's a you know countdown it's showtime boxing uh

preliminary action with us on the call special guests zooming out rapidly and aggressively um there we are. We're back. We're back. We're good. I think we should just punt at this point. Just shut the show down? Yeah, just punt.

Maybe this can be one of those BC solo shows that we're trying to get off the ground, but nobody will back me on that idea. I'm not the one who gets in the way of that. Listen, we couldn't convert on third down. Let's just. Let's just. How are the commanders this season? Do you want to talk about that pain at all?

Not really watching. I haven't watched a single down of a single game. Do you think ever since Kirk Cousins left that the, you know, people blame RG3, but really since Kirk Cousins left, they're just free falling into the toilet. You like that? I don't think he was the long-term solution either. You know, these guys are making Jason Campbell every day my cousin my brethren look more more and more valuable he wasn't the perfect quarterback but he could handle a team yeah he took a lot of punishment though he was getting sacked like a motherfucker yeah yeah yeah I think it blew up his body he's not in the league anymore obviously so yeah there's that yeah wow this is devolved

into like regional NFL breakdown talk you know know, this is great. Yeah. Oh, you know what, Luke? I wanted to talk to you about Halloween, and maybe specifically that overgrown Halloween-y that you're parading around. You know, at the Trigger Street Station. Michael Myers sure is scary, BC, but the last thing you need is to be hairy this Halloween. Luckily, our friends at Manscaped launched their fourth-generation performance package

to make sure your pump cans get the ultimate carving experience on this spooky-ass day. Wow. Have you ever tried to let's be honest. Let's be fair. Let's be open with each other. You probably know women watching the show. Have you guys ever tried to trim your balls and it turned into a Freddy Krueger film? I have. I'm a survivor, though. And this is something that could have been avoided. And thankfully, our friends at Manscaped, wow,

they're here to save you with something they like to call the Performance Package 4.0. Unlock the safety. Find the holy grail of the men's grooming item. Luke, this is revolutionary. It's a full moon, BC. And the werewolf in your pants is howling. It's time to tackle the problem with the Lawn Mower 4.0.

Their finely-tuned pube products feature a cutting-edge ceramic blade to reduce grooming accidents thanks to the advanced SkinSafe technology. And the Lawn Mower 4.0 is easily the greatest ball trimmer on the planet. Oh, and did I mention this trimmer is waterproof too the trimmer is a shower essential it actually is you know what i mean it really is i use these products so the performance package 4.0 here's the secret weapon in it if you're trying to actually be hygienic they call it the weed whacker it's a nose and air hair trimmer, right? Like is it? We still may see that rematch

by the way, Bader Fader. It's still in, it's still in play. It's still in play. Uh, what I was trying to say was that, look, they got the proprietary skin safe technology that helps prevent the nicks, snags, and tugs that we just talked about avoiding on the bag now in your damn delicate ear hole if you use that weed whacker look don't be i can't say it enough don't be the guy who's still in the game 35 41 years old you think oh you know i've been working out a little bit a little you know a little tight right here you know it's going good but you got a you got a mole hole growing right here you got a mulberry bush coming out of the side of your head i mean understand like read the room don't be the old guy at the club first of all right seal the deal bc with manscaped's liquid formulations their crop preserver ball deodorant and crop reviver ball

toner will make sure your pumpkins stay fresh trust me when i say this fellas your biggity balls will thank you uh whether you're talking about michael or bruce manscape also just launched their new body buffer the 100 antibacterial body scrubber that's just what you need to help you keep fresh this halloween manscaped even threw in two free gifts to their performance package 4.0. The Manscaped Boxers and the Shed Travel Bag bring your comfort in boxers to another level. Right, and if you've got gross Wolverine nails, they've got something for that, too.

So here's the deal. We want you to get 20% off and free shipping on Manscaped.com by using our code, CombatWithACay. That's pretty easy, right, Luke? It certainly is. Get 20% off plus free shipping with the code CombatAtManscaped.com

luke do you want to give a uh there's just a time for you to parent the the children that are complaining that you know mk got too big and now they have too many ad reads guys we need to make money i mean i don't know what to tell you if i had a better explanation to give you i would give it to you but we have to pay for this yeah Yeah, we want to grow. I mean, Tookie needs shoes, right? What if she needs braces one day? Brenda's got a baby. Wow. You know, Tupac was responsible on some of those early lyrics, right? I mean, I don't know if that was the word I would choose, but... Hail Mary. One, two, three, right? I don't think he says that. Ride or die.

We're going to start with topic one today. We do have an actual show for you. Paul Silva. Jake Paul Anderson Silva. The odds have flipped. Eight rounds. Cruiserweight-ish boxing match. 187 pound catch weight. We know the stakes. We know the storylines.

Hopefully we've done a great job of setting that up. But Luke, to revisit and recap the narratives coming in, we've got a great job of setting that up. But Luke, to revisit and recap the narratives coming in, we've got one more stop on the press tour. I think they're weighing in officially right now, right? They're going to have a ceremonial weigh-in later today. We'll be on the call. You can check it out.

Luke, this is the last time I'll bring this up. Does the switch have to flip today? Maybe not just for Jake to find that eye of the tiger, but to get that last reach out to the public that we've got something potentially special here. Does it need a little, you know, edge to sell that today? Does Jake need to let the old man know that I'm not here to take pictures with you anymore?

I'm here to meme your ass. I don't care, largely, in that sense. Does he need to? Need to in what sense? Like for pay-per-view buys? A combination of aggressive marketing, which he's very good at. For pay-per-view buys, yes. Pushing

and shoving at the weigh-ins can sometimes increase it. Mixed with trying to let Anderson know that I've been a gentleman up to here. I've been very reverent to you. We took pictures. Nah, he's going to wait. No, no, no, no, no. Just go up and slap that old bitch. That's what I'm talking about.

Seriously. I mean, people are going to see you being weird. But seriously, I laid out a plan. You only want him to do that because it's been, let's be honest, it's been a relatively tame fight week. Like at the presser yesterday, not just between Silva and Paul, but at the presser yesterday, I don't think there was one bad word said about another person's opponent. There were ten fighters on stage. Besides Logan Paul from the crowd saying that.

Yeah, but I mean of all the ten guys on the stage, not one had one bad thing to say about the other. So if that's the case, it's like, can Jake change that with a single shove or slap at the press conference excuse me at the weigh-ins today uh the tenor is what the tenor is might as well just ride it out till fight night from the standpoint of hard news this week in any developments beyond the the betting odds flipping constantly the betting odds seem to take the biggest move though when that interview from september that we referenced anderson anderson silva did with what mma mania jim Grease and said he got

knocked out twice turns out he meant knockdown but Luke the Arizona Commission like as of like yesterday early evening were having hearings to fully 100 make sure that Anderson should be in there turns out he passed his health test with flying colors was this much ado about nothing was this like a comment two months you you know, a month ago that was, or is there something here as we head into this fight? I don't know. I mean, on the one hand, is it entirely plausible that, just so much talking happening.

I mean, it's just unbelievable. I know, I know. I'm just teasing. Would you like them to put the control room in the commode where you... No, that's not fair. Yeah. But here's what I was going to say. I, I, uh, sorry, what was the question?

I got distracted by my own ridiculousness. Uh, it was about Anderson. Did he get knocked down? Does it matter? Oh, yeah. Like, okay, so it does matter in the, like, if you say something like that, the commission, like, they have a responsibility. Like, that, once you declare something like that, it doesn't matter what the state is.

The state then has to at least look into it. They have to. My understanding is they did. He got an MRI. I really don't know what the value is of the MRI in terms of actually looking at brain health or current state of brain health or what it would even... With the MRI, my understanding is even if

he had been knocked out twice in camp, there wouldn't necessarily be signs that the MRI would even pick up. It's Arizona. They're not known as one of the more stricter commissions. Didn't Tommy Morrison fight in an MMA mixed rules bout with HIV in this state? Either this one or West Virginia. It was one of the two.

Yeah, it was this one. It was this one for sure? Or New Mexico. But was it on Native American territory? It was. So that changes the whole game because then the Arizonarizona commission's not involved palace there you go but that's in california right but it oh yes outside of the commission responsibility yes well hey they approved it so i mean you can decide to believe whether or not it was a miscommunication based on a language barrier or if he was telling the truth and if it matters i tend to think that it's probably not true but you know do i think he's probably had hard rounds of sparring you know and maybe too much maybe yeah for sure probably the headlines out of

yesterday's thursday's press conference again wasn't pushing or trash talk it was this weird bet and you know jake paul has done the bets before tyron woodley the tattoo which he got on his ring finger there middle finger whatever but luke this one was a lot different i don't weird bet and you know jake paul has done the bets before tyron woodley the tattoo which he got on his ring finger there middle finger whatever but luke this one was a lot different i don't understand the first half of it which is jake betting anderson that if anderson wins jake would then gift him with a first mma but anderson didn't want a kickboxing rematch so like if the guy beats you you're going to give him an even easier fight i don't understand that at all but the latter that jake, well, if I win,

you'll be the face of my essentially MMA fighters association slash union. To Anderson's credit, whether he's making a fun moment or not, he stood right up and said yes, and they shook hands. News stories were written about this. Press reports, PR statements were

put out. Is there something here? Could there be something here? Very skeptical there's anything here. Like they're really going to form an organization based off something they said at a press conference. Color me very skeptical of that. It made you feel good, though. Did it make you feel good?

Sort of, yes and no. I mean, this is one of those moments where it begins to be a little bit of a, it's a blurred line in terms of, is Jake actually doing this to help the MMA industry, or is he using the fact that the MMA industry is exploitative as a way to further his own career? Yes.

I tend to think it's probably been a mixture of both. Now, in the end... I mean, he's a businessman, so it's got to be both, right? It's got to be both. And the other part is, too, if there actually is real progress made, whether it was all a big troll job or not is almost irrelevant by that point if it actually happened.

So we'll see if Jake actually follows through on this. It was good for making headlines. I mean, this is the part to me about this whole Jake Paul experience. It was one thing to get Tyron Woodley to fight, and what credibility he ever gained from that you can debate. I'll beat your ass. That was a good hit. I'll beat your ass.

But the point was Anderson is a new level. And we said this on last night's preview with Danny and Sean, which was, you know, if you're already a Jake Paul fan, it's very interesting, I'm sure, for you to go and watch to see how he's developed. But if you're not already a Jake Paul fan, how interesting is it the idea of him trying to be a good boxer? It's like he'll only ever get so far.

He started way too late in life. I don't care how good he is. You're not going to get that far with it. But the real story to me, the one that's the most interesting, and this is where it intersects with your question, which is this guy is obviously using the insecurities in the MMA industry, the gaps in pay, and some of the realities about how, you know, onerous the promoter contracts are.

And the respect and treatment, right? And the respect and treatment as a way to further his own career. But I thought the point you raised last night was the most interesting one which is dude he's given some of these ufc guys a retirement plan no question like the whole thing that is the story is how far can he take that to superstardom heights if he gets iced by anderson silva tomorrow then probably not this is probably the end of the road this is a much classier offer in the retirement plan than a bare knuckle fight than a slap fight or whatever right right it's and you get respected you get a chance to here's what a lot of these but of course but the other side is if he ices

anderson man he is going to be on fire he's going to be doing something crazy in this industry but like it's um i don't know it's giving the guys the respect and the proper send-off, but it's also giving them an opportunity to all of the Jake Paul opponents, which have tended to stray toward aging mixed martial arts, you know, name fighter, is he's giving them the chance to compete for another payday, too, right? You know what I mean? Whether that's an instant rematch or to become a player in this larger silo, which is why I want to transition right now.

The only other fight week development news-ish-wise that we sort of saw related to this was Steven Espinosa during the press conference, Showtime Sportshead, saying, you know, we brought in George St. Pierre, who will be a broadcaster on Saturday night's show. But given that GSP was already trying to box Oscar De La Hoya, but Dana White famously blocked it,

and there was still contract verbiage that prevented GSP. We've got Nate Diaz here in chris avila's corner nate's got to be first in line you would think for the winner of this you know based on whoever's running the show behind the scenes what does the gsp edition do to the larger conversation so let's say anderson does ice jake and you don't need an instant rematch whether it's on showtime sports or whether it's anywhere else in the larger bubble, is GSP and Nate and Anderson all in this same sort of weird boxing super fight crossover bubble like a great development this week that we're now potentially adding GSP to the mix? Are there going to be... Jake is giving people a chance by, you could say, exploiting them or by trying to feast on their age and their name, but he is giving them

a chance to beat him and make even bigger fights. Are we setting the stage for a potential Nate versus Anderson or Anderson versus GSP with boxing gloves? Are you moved by this? Am I moved by it? It's a different question about whether or not the market is moved by it. I don't exactly know. Would you pay, would MMA fans pay to see George St. Pierre versus Anderson Silva box in 2023? Some, for sure. But does that make a lot of money? I don't know. I don't know what the answer to that is. I think a lot of that

is hard to say. But we mentioned this last night as well. I don't think George St. Pierre is here in just some kind of goodwill ambassador tour or something. I think he's here to like... I mean, he's kept himself in supreme shape the last few years. He's waiting for his contract to end so he can start doing some of this stuff. I think he wants to be a player in some of these sweepstakes

if there's a good opportunity that arises. Okay, here's what's interesting to me in this larger crossover bubble, which does it actually have to be crossover boxing? Could it just be MMA? Hear me out. On this couch last night, we remembered, because you and Sean O'Shaughnessy had covered Kimbo versus Dada together. And we

nostalgically were like, hey, remember when Bellator on Spike TV then was or what thing was, did it become Paramount yet? Either way. I'm not sure. Either way, there was that run there where they were aggressively going after the Shamrock versus Kimbo slices, the Shamrock Gracie 3, the Dada 5000. I mean, just

this aggressive kind of circus-ymaking, which was bringing in on regular TV millions of viewers. I said offhandedly, like, hey, I kind of missed that card in Scott Coker's deck, that willingness, that ability. Whether or not it's Bellator or somebody else, forget boxing for a second. What is stopping GSP and Ernest and Silva from finally having their fight? And we're assuming it wouldn't be sad

in the Tito-Chuck-3 level of sadness. It'd be somewhere in the middle where we can reverently say goodbye to them, but let them make money in an event. I mean, could that be a Bellator-MMA pay-per-view? Should that be what we're focusing on instead of boxing, now that everybody's getting free of their contract?

Could Bellator, you know, I'm just asking the question, could they afford that? I don't think, even if it's on pay-per-view, I don't know how that. Is there a market for that? Is there an appetite for that? See, here's the thing. The reason why the Jake Paul stuff works such that it does

is that he is the MMA antagonist. We were at a boxing press conference yesterday and it was nothing but MMA talk. It was nothing but the MMA world the entire time. It is all this way of Jake Paul. Jake Paul hasn't picked a fight with Anderson Silva. Jake Paul has picked a fight with MMA. And he has trolled it, he has needled it,

and he is using it to advance his career. And it's not clear if he'll get he'll be fully successful yet we'll have to see but if you don't have that antagonism how how do you get MMA fans to pay for that it's not so clear like the whole point is that it's Jake versus MMA yeah not guys we love inside MMA who might have enough star power but then again you know you had again that's a different level star power we had Roy Jones versus Mike Tyson, and people did pay for that. So it's like, would they pay for it? Maybe, but it's not what this is.

This is a different thing. So Jake versus Nate, for example, which is certainly potentially in play if Jake wins, or maybe even if he loses. Do you remember when Conor was? That's got that Conor-Nate part of it. Everyone's going to hate this comparison. And again, it's not a comparison in a totalizing way,

which I always have to make as a disclaimer. But I remember when Conor was making his way through the ranks and there was a series of fans or even media who thought at the time, okay, the next guy is going to be the one to take him out. And of course, he went on this tremendous run through the Alvarez fight. I'm not suggesting Jake is going to do that. But I remember the whole entire point of watching that was if you were a connor fan you wanted to see him succeed the other part of that was if you were a hater

the entire thing was predicated on the neck okay it'll be the next guy to do it the first poirier fight i remember someone made a graphic of poirier built as a train and connor standing on the tracks about to get run over by it. That was the whole thing. What you're asking is, is there a market for two big superstars to do something different? Certainly possible, but this idea is all about antagonism and next man up. No, no question about it. All right, let's transition from this into topic two,

which is our expert picks, not just Jake Paul Anderson Silva, but of course the UFC Fight Night this weekend. Luke, it'll go down 9 p.m. Eastern tomorrow night. As we speak right now, and these odds have gone all over the place lately. Let's check. DraftKings at the moment, minus 185. Jake Paul is your betting favorite. Anderson Silva

plus 145. Luke, enough of the storylines and the bullshit and the pretense and the horses. When they touch gloves, you did a deep dissected on Jake's actual boxing ability. We've seen Anderson Silva upset Chavez Jr. in Mexico. What the hell is this going to look like, Luke Thomas? First three rounds, I think Jake does. Here's what I think.

First three rounds, Jake is going to jab and clinch a lot. He'll do a lot of stuff where I didn't mention this actually in my desk. It was too long. But another thing that Jake does, I think you're going to see this exactly. He's going to jab. He's going to single shot, single shot, single shot, single shot. And then he'll come in with a multi-punch combination kind of out of nowhere. Clinch if Anderson ever tries to move forward.

And remember, Anderson is very evasive and elusive, like literally wrapping him up, control some of that. It's after the fourth round, if it goes that far, unless one guy is just clearly superior to the other. I think it will go past the third, and I think that if it does, I think that's when the actual fights start. If you're

Jake, you need to bag rounds early, for sure. I like Jake's chances much better if he is bagging rounds one through three or at least two of those three rounds. So there's a fear in Anderson. Look, there's obviously a fear if Jake pushes the pace too much and gets in Anderson's web and gets countered like Tito. Right. Certainly a fear. Jake seems more responsible and smarter than that. So the fear for Anderson is to not look around and try to be a sniper and throw too little amount of punches. Because if under your scenario, Jake would make some rounds,

it would get hairy late, but if Jake could survive till the bell, he may be able to sneak a decision. This is just what I think. It's like anything could happen. One guy could land on the other, and who the hell knows. But one way or the other, as long as the fight goes the distance, as long as the fight goes the distance, Anderson Silva's going to figure out Jake Paul. Like, it's going to happen. By round eight, I would be completely

surprised if Anderson's confused and doesn't know how to get his offense going, and everything else is a mess. I just don't believe that. I don't believe he's going to be confused. He may be down on the cards, he may be up on the cards. But by that point, he'll know how to attack Jake Paul, what his openings are, what he likes to do, what he's looking for. And at that point, he'll have a much clearer sense of how to handle himself. Yeah, I agree with you. So if the guy is going to figure you out regardless, take rounds early.

Take rounds early, and then you can mount a little bit of a comeback in the middle late parts, stealing a round or two. That's really all he has to do. All he has to do is have a strong start and steal a couple late, and then he can be just fine. That's really, to me, what it's going to come down to. Anderson's going to figure you out. You might as well get the ones that are free and then see how you can handle things later. Is it more likely if Jake wins, and he's the betting favorite right now, so as much as we with the MMA backgrounds were certainly echoing Chael Sonnen's opening statements at the

first press conference that this is... Jake Paul, Jesus, with DraftKings, minus 240. Oh, did it move again? Yeah, minus 240 as I'm speaking right now. That is crazy. Minus 240. I've got to tell you, that seems very, very off. Okay, what's more likely here? Because that's telling you that there's a lot of belief. And we talked about on the boxing side, everyone's sort of like, Anderson's 47. This kid's young.

He can punch. He's big. What are you guys thinking? Is it more likely that Jake would knock Anderson out with one punch or one punch that leads to a finish? Or more likely that he would outbox him with activity? Yeah, he's got to walk the tightrope. He said he had to be perfect.

Jake said yesterday, I'm going to have to be perfect to win this fight. And to some degree, that is true. Is it more likely that he somehow outboxes him or that he stops the old legend? If you're leaning Jake. I think you, Jake has to outbox him. Certainly a big bomb seems possible. I don't want to, you just saw Certainly a big bomb seems possible. I don't want to, you just saw him do it to Woodley,

but Woodley's a very, very different kind of striker. And by the way, Chavez Jr. did land on Anderson a few times, especially early. Some bigger shots that he was able to throw, a couple of body shots and some harder ones up top. But this is why the task for Jake is very difficult, is that it's unlikely he'll be able to uncork something like that as he did on Woodley, which means if you don't have that, you have to win five of those eight rounds or something like that. And you've got to take five rounds from that guy.

That's not easy to do, but that's really what you're kind of faced with, which is why I go back to what I said before, which is if Anderson's going to kind of play around for the first few rounds, take it. Take those rounds. You're not going to get them later. They're not going to be there. Jab, hold.

Jab, hold. Make it ugly, make it stupid, but take them. Take those rounds. Yeah, that's a fair point. If you see Jake getting handled in the first three, BC, I'll ask you this. If you see Jake getting handled where it's not getting super beat up, but he's clearly losing these, right? Clearly, no doubt about it.

Do you really believe Jake can mount a comeback? I'm not saying he couldn't land one big punch and turn the tide, but mount a sustained attack comeback. I'm very skeptical of that. I think that would be a moment of truth portion for Jake. Not the scenario you first laid out where it's kind of pawing and circling, and did Jake do enough to steal those rounds? Okay, what if he's getting handled?

What if he's getting countered in combinations and he gets even floored? It'll become the fight or flight moment for Jake, where my only chance to win this may be leaning 1,000% into my youth, good size, strength, and just make it a brawl. Now, obviously, that could facilitate his exit. Like, it could at any point when you're going against a crafty counterpuncher and somebody as smart as Anderson. I mean, it's funny.

It's why, like, Anderson's such a head games master, and it's been tame on the buildup here. Anderson's head games typically occur inside the fighting ring than outside of it, right, luring you to come forward or making you think he's hurt or whatever. I wonder if this whole knock down, knocked out thing, was Anderson planting a seed?

Probably not, because the interview was from September and it just randomly arrived in our laps three days ago and became a big story, right? But it's all part of, Anderson's not going to be nervous. Like, is Jake's only chance, if it goes that route,

to enter fight or flight mode and make this a frickin' brawl? It's going to be, entertainment-wise, theater-wise, it's going to be interesting when it gets there. It's going to go real badly for you. It's going to go real badly for you. I love fights that you really don't know what it's going to look like. I felt that for Oliveira.

Mahachev, even though I picked Mahachev and thought I ended up picking that it would be one-sided in his favor and it was, but when you really don't know which way it's going to go, this is one of those. Here's the thing. It's like when you look at the improvements from the first to the second Woodley fight, there were many of them. But the common denominator is his boxing got more vulnerable by certainly rounds five or six.

There's a big shift in Paul. And that's just common. There's not a lot of guys who are going to get better as the fight goes on. Some do. Obviously, there are exceptions. Or guys who can have a couple of big two, three-round spurt in a 12-round contest. But we're not talking about a guy who's a world-level fighter here.

We're talking about a guy who is, for a celebrity, a pretty good boxer. That's one of the best ways to, I think, look at it. The longer this goes, the second half of that fight is the one to pay attention to. All right, which. Cannot overstate that. Which unproven attribute or characteristic, when we talk about Jake has improved incrementally, he has. And he's now, he's been off, what is it, 11, 12 months? 10 months, I think.

10 months. If there's one thing that is most crucial that he has really elevated, what is it? Is it the conditioning to have no fear of gassing out if this is a high-paced, aggressive fight? Is it the IQ adaptations? Is it the defense? What is it? That jab is a weapon?

What needs to have leveled up for him to have a chance to do it? I did not see a major leveling up in terms of offensive setups from the first to the second fight. There wasn't a huge change. To me, it was more, and again, we'll have to see, because that was only four months apart. Now it's been an additional ten. The biggest changes between the first

and second fight are the defensive responsibilities. Much better footwork, much better staying in the stance, much better ring generalship, much better proactive clin the stance, much better ring generalship, much better proactive clinching, things that protect you during the course of a fight, not things that make you more lethal, exactly. And I guess they all kind of feed together, yes,

but you know what I'm trying to say? This is more about he got rid of a lot of the ugliness in his game. He didn't necessarily add a lot of lethality. Now, again, that last punch he landed was pretty great, but if you watch the majority of that fight, it wasn't a heavily offensive effort from him. It was a lot of start, stop, start, stop, and then he landed the big bomb there at the end. Yeah, I'm with you. I like how Danny Segura summed it up last night saying, you know, Jake Paul

through five fights has proven that he's a fighter, but Anderson can box and most of the guys making this transition we know can't really box. Anderson can really box, and he can really finish you. So, Luke, it does set up this question. I like Anderson in this fight. So what is the major pitfall he has to avoid? Is it just avoid the big right hand? I mean, what is the one thing that could be that one spot on the Death Star

that blows Anderson Silva up? Being too defensive and too slow to react. I do think he's going to feel out Jake a little bit, right? But what he really likes to do is kind of get cooking after a certain point, and he should not wait too long to do that. He should not – he's going to lay against the ropes. I think that, you know, yes, you could lure someone into a trap that way, but you can also give up valuable time if you just kind of fuck around there too long. Like has Anderson Silva fucked around in fights before?

Yes. Sometimes it hasn't cost him. And sometimes it's always been a little bit weird. Um, so what I would say is, you know, he has to keep it playful and that's a big part of his identity now in this post MMA stretch of his career, even even before but certainly even especially now but I think that what he really needs to do and you heard Danny talk about last night what was the last time that Jake Paul fought a combination puncher never he's never fought a combination puncher number one number two is dude Anderson is very elusive. If he can maintain that reach, make Jake miss, and then counter off the miss, like slipping a punch and going at the same time or getting out of the way of an uppercut off a pivot with a check hook

or whatever he's doing, making Jake. By the way, Jake has a problem of attacking from long range and not bringing his feet with him. Yes. Dude, if you can get Jake to attack with a huge step that he'll take and come on in and then counter him by being proactive enough through that middle portion of that fight, I think you can send him to the land of wind and ghost.

I absolutely believe that. Combination punching, elusive trunk movement, and getting Jake to commit errors through positioning I think are very much on the table. All right, let's show the cards on that table. Here it is, Luke Thomas. I like Anderson, and I like him by knockout. I do still think there are ways that, certainly, that Jake could win this fight, but I think there's

also ways that Jake can win, as Max Kellerman used to say, and I hate that term, the story of the fight. Luke, is there moral victory potential here in a Jake Paul loss? I think there is. He's going to have to show the toughness, chin, backbone, recuperative ability on a level he hasn't had to yet, although he did, after getting rocked by Woodley, did bring it all back together. Yes, he fought through a bad cut in the second Woodley fight. Like Danny said, Jake's got a backbone. He can fight, right? He can fight a little bit here.

He's going to have to, but I think that'll keep him in it for a while, but I think the combination of the clean punching and more the exhaustion that comes from being in a drag-it-out fight, not not an eight round boxing match where you have to make quick decisions which he's done and you've got to stay responsible and walk that line he's done that he's done for the most part he's done that i think anderson's going to pull him out of that and it'll be the first opponent to do that that makes it a real fight and i think the exhaustion is going to catch up with him and i think that's what's going to lead to about a sixth seventh round tko where the ref is like all right you've taken too much clean punishment let's stop

it right here uh What do you say? Well, let's, let's preface something. And we started the conversation this way. If, if it is true that Anderson Silva has been knocked out twice in camp, Jake Paul's going to walk all over him. Let's just be very clear about that. Your brain would be in no condition to absorb damage in no condition to be fighting a boxing contest this weekend.

And it could be as much as the breeze of the punch missing that could knock out Anderson at that point. All right, that's a... Well, I'm just saying, no, dude, you're... Sorry, if you've been KO'd twice in camp, it's going to take very little to put you down. Very little. Your brain will have no resilience.

Anderson was like, no, your song was ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Mine was, you know, yeah, okay. It's not the same. It's not the same. Sorry, David Bowie. But you get what ding, ding, ding. Mine was, you know, yeah. It's not the same. It's not the same. Sorry, David Bowie. But you get what I'm saying, BC. I'm not trying to be hyperbolic, but anybody, if you have been knocked out in camp,

you are not, nothing, nothing you can do will stop what your opponent is going to do in terms of punishment. So let's assume that that's not in play. Let's assume that he has not been knocked out. I like Anderson Silva here to win, and I think the boxing world is really wrong about this. I don't know what we're going to get from Jake.

And I think everyone who kind of says, because they don't like Jake, that they do know what you're going to get from him, you're full of shit. None of us really have a good sense of things, which is part of the intrigue of this fight. But the biggest difference, again, that BC asked, and I thought that was an important question, between the first and second Woodley fight was defensive cleaning things up, which is true. But again, he went back to looking down. In the first and second fight, the common denominator was as the fight wore on, his stance got kind of loosened, his footwork got kind of loosened, his positioning got kind of loosened. Everything kind of began to fall apart a little bit. Woodley was never really in a position to attack because he just wouldn't throw for shit. Did you give an ending though? What's your ending? I don't think Anderson has any of these problems.

I do think there might be a dirty durability problem by virtue of being 47 years old, but I think I agree with you BC. I think after round four, if it goes that long, pay attention to what Anderson Silva is doing. If he is making him miss putting combinations together, putting Jack's back up along the ropes,

he is going to walk away with this one. I like him to stop Jake somewhere around the, I'll say, seventh round TKO. I just feel like what a lot of fighters, and we see this at the elite level in the UFC, you don't really know what five-round stamina is in UFC when you make that gap from three rounds to main eventing until you have to be there. I always bring up Stipe Miocic in the loss to JDS in their first fight. He had to learn. So it's not like, I think having the right amount of stamina isn't just about did I work hard enough cardiovascularly.

I think some of it is mental too. Like you have to go through it and push past that. And I think sometimes you have to learn that lesson harder. It's just not always naturally there. Dude, we've talked about a lot of Anderson's incredible performances, and you were the one that sort of highlighted that earlier this week. Go back and watch the first Chael Sonnen fight where he had a fucked up rib

and was getting pounded on for four and a half minutes and then pulled a triangle out of nowhere. Calm and poised. Do you think Jake Paul is going to take him to that part of the depths of what combat sports can offer? No chance. The only issue would be is he too slow at 47 or his reflex is not there at 47. Has he been knocked out in camp?

If those are really the limiting factors, then Jake should win. But I just don't think there's actually enough of that. I think it's going to come down to skills. And I'm sorry, Anderson Silva, for what we know, seems far more skilled. Before we run down this pay-per-view main card of quick picks here, I just want to ask you, what is the

best and worst scenario outcomes for Jake Paul versus Anderson Silva for the business at large? And that business, by the way, brings in boxing and MMA and social, like it's a different world, but in this bubble, in this world, what are the best and worst scenarios? I think the very best scenario, the very best scenario, because we're talking about what does that mean? That means getting people to want to see you more and getting the kind of opponent that makes sense for what you're trying to do so those are the two considerations I'm

putting on to play here credibility is sort of part of all of that I think having a bit of a back and forth with Anderson or it's exciting crowds on their feet right they're engaged you're showing strengths and some vulnerabilities Anderson's making it exciting but people had a good time. And then you finish authoritatively. That's your best case scenario for Jake, because then you can't claim to be perfect, but one, you got the job done. You beat Anderson Silva in that context. Also in that context, you delivered for people who put money down on the pay-per-view or paid for a ticket because they got to see some finality about it all. And you can reliably trust that this person will give you good action for

future events. That is the best case scenario. A worst case scenario is the exact opposite, where it's a fight that he looks like he can't do anything, he retreats into like a- So Jake winning a decision he doesn't deserve might actually be the worst case scenario, right? No, because then they would do a rematch. All right, all right.

Then they would do a rematch. That's a bad scenario. I don't think I'd say... What's worst case? Worst case is not only are you boring, you can't fight for shit. That's the worst case. First punch lands in the groin and the fights end. Or he just looks like he can't do anything.

Yeah, yeah. Right? Again, the whole idea is people should be wanting to see this. At some point you have to deliver more than just, I'm a guy trying a weird thing, come watch me do it. It actually has to be entertaining on its own merits. Let's be honest about it. The second Woodley fight was not entertaining. It was not entertaining.

This one has to be different to avoid what I'm talking about, which is then getting stretched, of course, a worst-case scenario. Co-main event, we will see the 18-year-old Ashton Silva, who's a legitimate boxer, 7-0 at lightweight, take on Braulio Rodriguez, who's only lost to the unbeatens. He did get stopped by Ryan Garcia. So that's one of your real boxing options to notice. This isn't a real fight.

Silve's got to step up to a higher level here at just 7-0, but watch that. But, Luke, in terms of the crossover feel and certainly the how-do-I-bet-this feel, what do we do here with Le'Veon Bell versus Uriah Hall? Uriah may not love us, but I have a lot of respect for him and what he's gone through post-retirement in the UFC. And he was open with us at the Open Workout about contemplating suicide and how hard it was to adjust. Well, now he seems a little happier, but he's also been salty as shit this week.

He should run over 30-year-old former NFL running back Le'Veon Bell, right? Right? You would think. I don't – I would be – it would be real bad if he didn't. Okay. Right? It would be real bad if he didn't. I can understand him being patient.

How many rounds is that fight? Do we know? I don't have that information. Courtney, how many rounds is that fight? Sorry. The – Le'Veon Bell. Hall and Bell.

It's a four-rounder. I mean, it's not like, you know, that's not, I mean, not a lot of time there to get some work done. See, there's less pressure there because the main event is eight rounds. There actually is a back half to that fight. Yes. This one, there's no back half. This is a sprint.

It's just a sprint the whole way through. So Bell could look bad but, like, hold on. See, that's no back half. It's a sprint. It's just a sprint the whole way through. So Bell could look bad, but hold on. See, that's what I think will happen. Here's what a decent possibility is. Hall does what he's supposed to do. Looks great the whole time, but Bell hangs on and survives. It's like, wow, this guy, he hung on. Isn't that impressive?

Against a guy who was a much more credentialed combat athlete who was already a striker-based kind of guy, impressive. And then Hall gets what he needs, which is the dub, the redemption, potentially being as a candidate for a future Jake Paul fight, who knows. See what happens with that. I feel like I'm fearful for Le'Veon, but he's got balls. I mean, he did knock Adrian Peterson out, whatever that means. We'll see.

Chris Avila of the NDA, officially the Nick Diaz Academy. I always forget the Academy part. I go right to the Army part, right? Well, they use both interchangeably, I think. He'll be taking on Dr. Mike Mikhail Varshavsky, the 32-year-old New York City-based New Jersey working family physician who is, look, he won a charity match in May that he says was in front of like 10,000

people. And he said it sold a lot of pay-per-view buys. So he's very confident. He's like two and a half divisions larger than Chris Avila, who's been, who fought MMA, what, at lightweight? And has boxed at 168 his last time out. And now this is a 180-something pound catchweight? 185, was it? Yes. It's So 185-pound bout. Dr. Mike is 6'3 and a southpaw. This is like some UFC 1 matchmaking. I'm kind of here for it, but this could go weird. Yeah, I don't know what to make of this one.

I tend to think that, like, you know, Chris Avila is obviously the much more credentialed athlete of the two. But I don't know. Like, the doctor, like, could he sneak one just by being like... He's got a little bit of Flanders vibe. Oakley-dookley. Hayley-hoodle-nay-breast-y-hoodle-nay. But Flanders always had his lawn mowed, and his car was always washed,

and the house was always well put together. Fuck Flanders. Yeah, fuck Flanders. But I'm saying, could the doctor steal one by virtue of just trying a little harder, a very specific kind of strategy and executing it on a very specific plan? Seems like you could. You want me to raise this mic a little, Maniche? All right.

You know, I'll work on that. You've got to pull that lever. All right, Luke Thomas, I'll pull that lever in a second, but why don't we toss it to you? It's UFC Fight Night. It's at the Apex in Vegas, and we hit the storylines coming in. Your main event, Calvin Cater, a plus 100 underdog at featherweight against minus 120 Arnold Allen. Luke, we know the stakes are pretty high in this one.

What are the X's and O's telling you? X's and O's tell me that Arnold Allen probably needs to showcase the fact, or if he believes this, but I tend to think it's part of his game anyway, he really needs to lean on the well-roundedness of his offense. Hey, wow, Hercules. What I mean to say is, can Arnold Allen straight up win a striking contest with Calvin Cater? It's on the table. It's possible. I just find it unlikely over the course of time. Now, of course, there are the durability issues for a guy like Calvin Cater who's had three, as we talked about, very tough fights in a row,

very damaging, difficult fights in a row. So I don't know what to say about that. We'll have to see what kind of response we get. But I think that Arnold Allen can win if he is meaningfully able to make some takedowns available to himself, have top control, use ground and pound, slow things down in the clinch, strike a little bit at distance, but perhaps in a way where he can stick and move. A little bit of almost not quite Sterling versus Jan, because everyone there is a very different fighter,

but something along those lines where you can stick and move at distance, and then you can meaningfully have takedowns in the middle of the rounds, for at least enough where you can get some value, some scoring value out of it. Be the more well-rounded guy, use more tools, slow the fight down, mix it up. Whereas, by contrast, I think if you're Calvin Cater, the jab has to get going, the down blocking has to be right on par. You cannot spend time being pressed against the fence, for example. You really have to make it a proactive in the middle of the cage striking contest.

So when you're watching this fight, just really pay attention to where they're fighting and on whose terms. Are they fighting in the clinch because Arnold forced them there? How long is he able to keep it there? What kind of work can he do from there? But if you're just seeing them constantly circle each other behind the jab, that should be Cater's fight to win, it feels like. Cater has better experience. He's gone late into fights. I mean, he showed a tremendous heart against Max Holloway.

I mean, it's almost ridiculous. And Giga Chikazi. That was a brutal fight. Does Allen have – I know Allen doesn't have the same level of experience. So is there any potential in him not being exposed? But, look, when you go from three rounds to five rounds, sometimes you've got to water down your offense a bit to make sure you end up there down the stretch. And also, like... So are you fearful at all for Allen in terms of this adjustment?

Could be. I tend to think he strikes me as a very well-prepared athlete, so in that sense, I don't think he'll be caught off guard, but like if he has a really tough first three rounds, then it could begin to, like, how do you manage those latter two? Then it could be involved. But if the pace of the first three rounds is relatively slow, then I don't have those concerns necessarily. But I think Arnold Allen's also been relatively inactive, right?

He doesn't fight three times a year. He doesn't come in. I'm not entirely sure. Partly he's been having some injuries. I think partly he's been very careful about his matchmaking. So it's been a combination of factors, which is partly I would say why his record is pristine for that reason. It's not just by the fact that he's very good. Yes, he's very, very good, but also the relative lack of experience

and then the relative inactivity is part of that. So I think that's part of it too, BC, is like Cater has much better experience against much better guys, but he got put through the fucking meat grinder to get there. Allen is much more preserved, however, doesn't have that experience against those kinds of opponents in those kinds of spotlights.

So the question is, who's making the bigger trade-off here? I guess we'll find out. I think that's a fair setup to that. You know, did Calvin Cater run Zabit out of this sport, Luke? I don't think he did, no. In round three, did he? You know, it would be Zabit in this fight right now

if things had gone differently. It might have been. But as it pertains to this, Luke, Calvin Cater at plus 100, they're giving him that respect. He'll be in this fight it'll be competitive it'll probably get hairy at times are we asking too much of him

to find that other gear to come over the top of Allen who's coming on who is responsible who's got all his boxes checked who's kind of sticking to that well here he's not dealing with a guy who's bad he's dealing with a guy who's good

but Arnold Allen is not an offensive dynamo. He has good offense. But, again, everything he does is careful and selective. So you want to make him too safe. You want to create a – What I'm saying is, like, this is not the same as Chikadze, who is just a force of – you know, he's just coming right after you. Arnold Allen is crafty and takes his time and that kind of a thing.

So you really have to figure out, like, it's a very difficult challenge, but it's not the same kind of challenge. Like Josh Emmett. Josh Emmett is all gas, no brakes, right? This is the opposite of that. This is a lot of brakes and just enough gas, you know, to – listen, in the case of Dan Hooker, he ran him over. But in general, he's very careful, selective offense.

Okay, okay. I like this. Do you have a prediction? Tell people what to do with their money? It's a tough one, man. I mean, I'd love to put money on plus 100 Calvin Cater, but. I think Cater's going to get it done. I worry about how much damage he's taken.

And I know if you ask him, they all kind of are like, oh, it's no big thing. We're fine. And I just don't believe that. Like, I don't believe fighter self-assessments hardly at all anymore about, like, you know, the impact damage has had on their career. They tend to, I think, ignore all of the seriousness of it, which is what't... I think that Cater is going to be too skilled in distance management to let some of the parts of Arnold's very good game come to life, especially since he's already selective about it. But I'll say this, man.

If those three fights had an effect no matter what, you're not the same after those no matter what, but I'm saying is that past the tipping point? I't know if we're there yet but if we are then all now it's going to fuck them up you don't necessarily though want to box five rounds with calvin cater especially at distance so does alan shoot here yes oh yeah and tries to find the clinch shoot you know at will or is this just strategically strategic strategic strategic um you know and calvin cater can chain wrestle, defend a little bit as well. But I think that's what it's gonna come down to.

You're gonna have to make him chain wrestle, make his hands get to the mat. You're gonna have to get outside of his elbows. You're gonna have to be pulling down the head, forcing him away, and then making him work, capturing wrists, holding him down. And so then when you're on the feet you could kick at kicking range get out of the way he's still coming after you re-clench re-get the takedown re-force his hands to the mat get outside of his elbows again if you can make that happen i think you can win but if if that part of the game is taken away from alan i i don't know i don't know i think i saw enough things

against dan hooker from arnold allen that that i see, Luke. I see it. This is his chance to fully prove it to us, but I do see it now. He's a safe one, but he is coming out in his own way. Yeah, for sure. I love this match. Making a great fight. The rest of the card is? I don't know if it's full Basura, as Luke

would often say, but for a co-main event, the Dirty Bird Tim Means against Max Payne Griffin, who did appear in Doc 6 in the MK chronology on the red carpet. Oh, yeah, that's right. Max Griffin, minus 180 favorite over the plus 155 Means. Does that surprise you? I mean, Means is that guy.

He is that guy at the tough out who's going to be, you know, a two-to-one underdog, more or less. But, dude, he's fighting. He's a technical brawler. Yeah. He's fun. I think he could beat Max Griffin here. Yeah. The thing is, Max Griffin has a real in your face style, you know, and I think he's going to get after it and try to put it on Tim means. So Tim means we're going to test the depths of Tim means his defense wrestling positionally. Mike Perry tried that. Yep.

Yeah, but Max Griffin's more of a gung-ho wrestler type. Yeah. And, you know, that's a man. If you're Tim Means, you just don't have any easy assignments. They're just all fucking hammers, one after the other. So to me, really, can Tim Means

avoid a takedown? And if he gets taken down, to what extent can he avoid damage? And I think get back to his feet or get top position, something like that. Because if you see him wrestling or grappling from guard, any kind of response from the grappling where he's fighting on essentially Griffin's terms, that's probably a fight he can't win. Well, he's not uncomfortable on his back, though, Tim Means. No, Tim Means is super well-rounded. But I just mean if you eventually see him relenting to those positions, that's a bad sign.

Chase Hooper opening up, and we talked about him on Wednesday. He's fun. Do you still feel like he's trending overall in the right direction here? He'll be a minus 255 favorite over the plus 215 Steve Garcia. I mean, there was a time that UFC was sending as a PR gift an M&M jar, M&M, M&M jar, M&M, M&M jar with his face on all the candy, Luke, right? Remember that, did you get that from them? I wasn't listening. Remember when UFC like three fights ago thought Chase Hooper was like the next

big deal and they sent out those M&M's with his face on them? Yeah, I didn't get that. I did and I ate them and it was awesome. But then he like lost and we were like, oh, too much too soon. But he's kind of, like he takes big chances. He's so submission gung-ho that he ends up in some firefights on the feet trying to get there. Do you still have long-term confidence in him as somebody who may be a threat once he puts it all together? I mean, I was never one of these guys who necessarily had anointed that.

Listen, Chase Cooper seems like a very smart guy. He seems like a very hard-working guy and obviously he does have some skills. I think one of the things that got to me was he's a bit of a late bloomer in terms of his physical development. Like I know he's obviously very young but I don't think he's grown into his man strength yet. I would like to see in this fight BC a couple, two things I would like to see. One, on the strength and conditioning side is he packed on some muscle i would like to see that i think he could benefit from it and the other part is what choices does he make about maintaining position on the ground so that he

doesn't get into these scrambles where he's on top he's on bottom he's on top he's on bottom rolling for leg locks that may or may not work. Just making more decisive calls about control positions. I would like to see him do that rather than just kind of playing in a top-bottom game. He does play with his food a lot and it almost gets him in trouble at times. He's so lengthy and he seems to be

about it. He's willing to take punishment and be in fights. Yes, he's quite durable. Again, he's a tough guy. He's a tough guy. This is what I mean with a 17-year-old kid. Everyone's like... Raul Rosas Jr., who will be fighting UFC 282. Which he might win. They might feed him a guy who he can beat.

I have no doubt. But you just have to be like, oh, I want to join the UFC as soon as possible. Be very careful about that, dude. You need to be special beyond special. I can't wait to go to hike school, Billy. Say again? I can't wait to go to hike school, Billy. Say again? I can't wait to go to hike school, Billy.

You're just not on point anymore. You lost it. Is this a Billy Madison reference? Yeah, of course. I do like Billy Madison. I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast. That's Happy Gilmore, but well done. No, wait. So then

Happy Gilmore is the terrible one. No, Happy Gilmore, but well done. Jesus Christ. Well done, just the same. No, wait. So then Happy Gilmore is the terrible one. No, Happy Gilmore rules. Is that the one where he sees the penguin and he's the failed rich kids? No, that's Billy Madison. That's Billy Madison? Did you not grow up in the 90s? Who are you right now? Adam Sandler's movies are, some are good.

Okay, some are great. I know Billy Madison hasn't aged well, but that, for its time, is one of the funniest movies of all time. Happy Gilmore has aged well. Happy Gilmore is better. The football movie, what's it called in the swamp? Waterboy?

Waterboy has aged well. Seriously, Waterboy's still freaking hilarious. Waterboy's okay. Little Nicky was a regretful move. Mr. Deeds, underrated. Haven't seen that one. I don't get into like the... Happy Gilmore is stupid.

I'm not... I mean, the Drew Barrymore one is obviously good, but I hate when people are like that's his best movie. 50 First Dates or whatever. No, it's not. Or Big Daddy. My wife loves Big Daddy.

I'm like, it's okay. Big Daddy's okay. No, Punch Drunk Love is Adam Sandler's best movie. See, I like... Click. People sleep on Click. It's actually really good.

Punch Drunk Love. Or you could say Uncut Gems. Uncut Gems is his best movie. Like that's... Like he should have won an Oscar. No, Punch Drunk Love is better than Uncut Gems for him. That movie's so good. Have you seen Punch Drunk Love? I have not seen it. his best movie. Like, that's... No, Punch Drunk Love is better than Uncut Gems for him.

That movie's so good. Have you seen Punch Drunk Love? I have not seen it. Right, okay. Well, there you go. What about Reign Over Me or whatever the one... Wasn't he in, like,

a post-9-11 one with Donald... Or what the guy's name from Boogie Nights? Mark Wahlberg? No, the African-American guy. The Haitian-American guy. The Jamaican, you mean?

The guy. You know the guy. I don't. This is horrible. Luke, there's a lot of stakes in this heavyweight fight on Saturday. Okay, maybe some stakes. There's some beef in this fight. Andre Arlovsky, the veteran, who's riding like a four or five fight win streak,

he'll be a plus 190 underdog, according to DraftKings, against Marcos Rosario de Lima. But if Arlovsky is victorious again, he will tie Jim Miller for most wins in UFC history. Luke, I kind of like, I hate comparing things to wrestling because our fans hate it so much, Luke, but it's almost like a bullshit WWE 24-7 championship

that like means nothing. You can roll a guy up in the bathroom and pin him and win it, but I kind of like that the aging veterans are getting this send-off, like, Cowboy's the number one most wins. Oh, now it's Jim Miller. Oh, now it could be Arlovsky. There should be some prize, a jacket or something, that you can wear in real time that's like,

I'm the all-time winningest fighter, right? Isn't that like... Oh, I see what you mean, yeah. Except that you sought a jacket where you get tested a million times. Right, because it kind of raises the stakes a little bit right? You're going to tune in for that

like oh shit let's see if Arlovski can do it again yeah yeah I don't know how you would meaningfully do it but you have to be

impressed the guys like Miller and the guys like Arlovski who have changed their game enough yes Arlovski the most among them

to be able to stay relevant and beat good guys and you know not necessarily all the most exciting fights but competitive ones. He's a good test for any up-and-coming heavyweight.

You've got to be very, very impressed by him. Luke, Don Cheadle. Don Cheadle. Don Cheadle. Cheadle was the guy I was talking about, okay? He was in that Sandler movie, right? He was in a lot of movies at that time. What was the name of the movie? I'm looking it up right now, okay? He was in a lot of movies at that time.

What was the name of the movie? I'm looking it up right now. It's great if our team, who are all sitting on their phones, if they could just jump in at any point to rescue us, just give us a hand here, guys. I like watching you drown, too. The movie in question was Rain Over Me in 2007. Isn't that like the Mark Anthony and Pitbull song? It's a buddy drama film

baby rain over me no that's from the who off of Quadrophenia it's also a Mark Anthony and Pitbull song Dolly yeah I'm sure it's all original too baby rain over me dude you get so upset if I call any music that involves a Latin person if I call

it reggaeton you get so mad at me you could play mariachi music and he's like, if I call it reggaeton, you get so mad at me. You could play mariachi music, and he's like, I don't like this reggaeton. I'm like, it's not reggaeton. You could play salsa. He's like, I don't like this reggaeton. It's not reggaeton. You could play Spanish rock.

You could play Spanish rock. You're like, I don't like this reggaeton. Dude, BC, it's not. Dude, you play it, though, as racism. It's just playful ignorance. I mean, they kind of bleed into each other. Some days on the calendar they do. January 6th would be one of those days.

But, you know, this is not that day. Oh, Courtney is just giving me like the not happy. She can fight. She's got a backbone. Bro, she played hockey. She went three rounds with that bitch. I know. She was like, fuck this. Yeah, right. I still want to

rematch. Yo, if we could do a rematch. I don't want to turn Morning Combat into like Barstool's Rough and Rowdy, but if we could like promote a rematch. We should do like the Rough and Rowdy version of Slap Fight. And we just undercut the Power Slap League. With all like chicks that are like. No, no. Just Malka staffers having to assault each other

for our amusement. We do a tour of the country looking at all the young waitresses. All the young diner waitresses. Do you want more out of your life? Do you want to fight on MK? BC's diner waitress slap off? Yeah, we could do a reality show where they have to live in a house with me. What you want is basically a harem.

So you want to be an ultimate fighter. You want a harem of Cracker Barrel waitresses. That is not incorrect. What was the last time you harem of Cracker Barrel waitresses. That is not incorrect. What was the last time you went to the Cracker Barrel? Serious question. I did with my parents the morning after a wedding in Massachusetts. No, in Connecticut. I don't know.

Is there a Cracker Barrel in Connecticut? They have them in Connecticut now. Yeah, it was gross. It was gross. I mean, there are ways you can go to Cracker Barrel and really enjoy yourself and indulge in the grossness. But, you know, post NAFLD, Luke, there are ways you can go to Cracker Barrel and really enjoy yourself and indulge in the grossness. But, you know, post-NAFLD, Luke, there's not a lot there for me, okay? Post-NAFLD?

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Oh, right. I'm a card-carrying member. I don't want you to have any sympathy for me because it's self-induced. It's like, I'm so sorry, sir, about your alcoholism, you know? Yeah, I don't feel bad for you. But, no, it could be. And I'm not trying to downplay that. There's chemical addictions to things, Luke.

People are addicted to this show. Chemically? Probably. I mean, JP from Mount Yunaki, we love this guy. Chemically addicted to this show. You know what I mean? Because we gave him the first one free, Luke. That's why.

Less talky-talky. Yeah. Here's you right now. I need you to do to do that look do you want to talk about this ufc card anymore can i roll no we can please move on like a deodorant stick all right let's go to topic number three uh report i don't know who the real sources are daniel cormier though shared this with the ethosphere on his dc and rc espn show uh peter young considering leaving the usc ufc here's the quote from DC. Yang is so disappointed in this decision, meaning the O'Malley fight.

He says against Aljo. Oh, he's talking about the Aljo rematch here decision, Luke. That I'm hearing words that this guy may want to look at something different down the line in terms of his career because he just does not feel like maybe the organization doesn't have his back it's crazy luke end quote i want you to know and he's referencing both the split decision lost to aljo which he thought he won and then coming right back against o'malley and he thought he won i'm surprised company man dc is sharing this on the espn airwaves, right? I know DC is also like a connected fighter in the game, too, but doesn't

this seem a little weird, this whole scenario? Is it true? I'm not sure what to believe. I don't know what the truth is. But like, why would it come from DC in this case? That's what's weird. Just because he has connections in the industry. Alright, how are we going to work on this? Yeah, just loosen it and then tighten it, yeah.

There you go. Now, give it the old college try. You think Filthy Phil, who's sitting there on his phone, could offer it? We're still making it loose. Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. You know, if you're upside down, righty can feel tidy, Luke. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what to make of this.

I tend to think it doesn't matter in the end, like, where is he going to go, that he's going to get a better deal, nowhere, probably. Like, in the end? It doesn't really matter, Linkin Park. One thing. I don't know why. Do you like Linkin Park? No, but if that song comes on the radio,

I am rolling down the windows and just slapping it, right? No, I don't mean that way. I mean, like, you know, like air bass, like, you know. I don't mean. I actually do believe he would roll down the window and be like, Hi, welcome to Arby's. Can I take your order? Oh, yes, you can. Okay, that's unacceptable.

Could you believe... Look, Giannis had a bad stretch. Yeah, but what does the UFC have to do with this? He accepted both of those fights. That's true. He didn't have anything to do with it. When there's controversies, people always lump the promoter in. It's like, oh, Bob Aaron paid that guy off.

Al Heyman did that. You know, Dana White did that. Who knows what the circumstances are about how this fight was made. Maybe he felt pressured to take it. I don't know. But even then, the guy was ranked, you know, at the time, again, everyone says 11. At the time they made the fight, it was 13. Yeah, somebody should tell Jan that they used the same judges and referees and all. It's like, all the Jan

fanboys, Jan's a great fighter, but his fans are very annoying. And they all assured everyone before the fight that it was going to be a mauling. And then after it, they're like, well, you know, this is a travesty against humanity. How could this happen? It's like, dude, you didn't take Sean O'Malley nearly as serious. Not Jan himself, but the annoying supporters. That you didn't take this nearly as seriously as you were supposed to. Who is the commission in Abu Dhabi when they go?

I'm not really sure. Because, you know, like when Bellator goes around the globe, they bring the Mohegan Sun out of Connecticut, like Missoula. So if they have to self-regulate, the UFC abides by Nevada's rules, and then I think they self-regulate there, or they bring in some kind of crew of officiants from other commissions to do like a skeleton crew job. But they abide by Nevada's rules when they have to self-regulate.

Either way, whatever commission is there is not going to be some kind of like terribly authoritative one. It wouldn't really matter. Despite the judge's decisions in recent fights and his own self-induced losing the title by DQ, is Jan still among the 10 best fighters in the world right now in your eyes? 10 best fighters in the world? I in your eyes? 10 best fighters in the world? I don't know about that.

Okay. But he's probably on the short list for top 25. Or, yeah, he's inside the top 25. Come in. Here we go. Live. Let's see who here is. Is he cute?

Knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door. Housekeeping. Housekeeping. You see, can we not play with this anymore? Okay, I'd like to get it. It just keeps dropping. It keeps dropping. I did it last night.

You're just going to have to continuously readjust it. Okay, which I did without complaining, but you're making it a thing, you know? Because you're distracting you. You're not aware of it. You're not registering it, but I am. Okay, Luke, let's go to topic four. I didn't mean to upset you.

Luke, Volkanovsky, Alexander, still wants a McGregor fight. He talked with our friends down under on Submission Radio, and here's the quote. There's maybe a little bit of history there. And again, right now, he knows that if I go and take that lightweight title, he knows he ain't fighting for the featherweight title. I go and take that lightweight title, he knows that there's an opportunity there, especially because I've touched on the fact that he was the featherweight champ, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Luke Alexander claims there's still a deeper meaning to that fight. I did see Conor on Instagram in the past 24 hours. He's jacked, dude. He had, like, some fake blood from filming Roadhouse. He's freaking jacked right now, Luke. I mean, look, I've said it myself. You want to make Mahachev a star, you're probably going to put him in there with Conor the first chance you get.

Everyone's just always trying to jump in the Conor pool, especially now when he's wounded, you know, and he's not the same guy. So I'm not moved by these comments, are you? Well, basically that Volkanovski wants to have beaten every previous featherweight champ. Yes. Beat Aldo, beat Max, beat McGregor, and, you know, move on from there. So I like that idea, but there's no way you could make it at 145, so you could do it at 155, but then it doesn't mean the same thing.

Alvarez was lightweight, yeah. So it doesn't mean the same thing. So it doesn't, I don't, I wouldn't be, I don't hate the idea of the fight in a general sense. But, like, here's the thing, too, about Volkanovsky. It's like, dude, he's like, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to defend this. Like, dude, first of all, you've got to got to beat Islam Makachev let's just start there

like good luck with that no no seriously like for anyone talking down the CKB right there I like I'm not talking down I'm simply saying if you're going up in weight to take on the next weight class champion who by the way appears to be very very good well well I do think Max is the best guy in the game as it stands today, the reality is if you've got that kind of challenge in front of you, you have to be cognizant to not mention the other stuff right away.

You've got way too much on your plate already to start playing those other kinds of games. Guys, it's fine. Don't worry about it. It's okay. You have to keep adjusting. That's what I did yesterday. I'm fine here.

I'm happy. Everything's good. Okay, Luke? So I don't mind the idea of this fight. It would hardly be a bad fight, but in terms of just a list of priorities, this seems very bottom of the list in terms of what he has in front of him to do first. I agree, and people hate when we talk about Conor McGregor on the show. They hate him.

Do they really? No, they do. They do big time. They feel like we just reach over and suck the teat for views, you know? That's partly true. Yeah, that is true. Topic number five, Luke, how about Benil Dariush? Morning Combat's extra credit this week focused on Benil's big win over Mateus Gamrot last weekend. Also, Luke Thomas making a claim that, you know, hey, Benil might deserve a title shot.

Well, Benil has named his own two potential opponents he'd like to face while talking to, what are the Submission Radio guys' names? Casper and Dennis? Mm you um he says this is dariush if i have someone to fight come february i'm kind of excited for it i'd love to go to australia and fight there i would want to go out there blah blah blah charles would be great olivera meaning he would also say luke um dustin poirier and michael chandler are on his list. And he would close by saying Raphael Fazeev. I like that fight too.

Luke, I kind of like Charles wanting to stay in the mix. It'd be the biggest fight for Benny. He escaped Abu Dhabi, despite some very, I want to talk about something. I want to ask you a question, which I supported because he's,

he's, he's on my team. Yeah. Serious question. Given the way that Makhachev – I don't mean that Makhachev beat him soundly. That's not exactly what I'm saying, although it's part of it. But this is my point. I think there is something to consider.

I'm not talking about Marlon Marais territory. I don't think that's right. But I do think you have to worry a little bit if you're Charles. His offense is dynamic, but the way in which Islam fought him shows that there are a couple of things you can do that totally nullifies

his game. Well, good luck trying to be an average guy doing that, though. Average guy could not possibly do it, but a guy like Dariush, who can wrestle, who is obviously Dariush was a very decorated jiu-jitsu practitioner, right? Very high level, certainly experienced at this point, I think physically up to the challenge. A lot of the other guys fought Charles before we realized what the best way to fight Charles is. Makachev showed you, you have to have the skills

involved, but neutralizing and flattening the guard, the left cross, the right straight, excuse me, the left cross, the right hook, or the right hook, left straight, were the only two punches he threw the entire fight, right? hook, or the right hook, left straight, were the only two punches he threw the entire fight, right? Parrying out of the way, the front kick, and moving out of the way. This diffused all the parts of his game. Dariush can follow that blueprint, and I don't know if he can get similar levels of success. That's why they have to fight.

But I do wonder, against enough elite guys who are well-rounded, did Makachev lay a blueprint? That's interesting. That's interesting. I think that while that's a good question to consider, you also have to consider what I talked about coming in, that he was at the peak of his powers, Oliver, the very peak, and just taking big chances and maxing out and exposing and finishing guys. But when that very peak is done, that's hard to recapture.

It's hard for Jorge Masvidal at this age to ever find that spark again after he had it briefly. It may be hard, Luke. He may go on a kind of there's a potential losing streak because he's still going to want to match himself as big as he can to get back in there. He still can beat anybody on any given night, but we may see Oliveira package a couple big name losses here in a row just because you can only do that so often. And also, after you lose the way Jan did to Sterling where you lose the title, the one right after that also is a tricky fight. It just always is that way.

You could say it's about Sean O'Malley and a bad decision or whatever, but that's always a tricky fight. So I realize that he was not the champion heading into this one, but he kind of was in our mind. So if you think about it, this would be be in that way, this would be the first fight after losing your title. Benil Torre should be a tough fight, dude. Either way, obviously it's a tough fight for Benil as well.

You know what was a great, tough fight after somebody got solved was when Chuck Liddell had to fight Keith Jardine. Keith Jardine sat him down. Yeah, it was like a split decision win or something. It was a good fight, right? Only three rounds, but yeah. Yeah, man. I think I had a bathroom, Luke, you know? All right, let's do dead wrong then.

Well, yeah, we have to dead. We got to do that. Oh, we got the DraftKings read. Can we do the DraftKings read? Or I can do it while you go if you want. Yeah, that'd be a nice tradeoff. All right, let's do that. So how about put the camera on me here as BC goes and has potty time in the commode.

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force us to face that L it's coming worse than my diet has. It's called dead wrong. Man. You know? Might have to blow up the commode downstairs. Yeah, I bet you do, Bill Porter. Dalton says, in episode 365 at 2748, the king of reheated hot dogs, B says volkanovski is always giving up a height and reach disadvantage in his own division and now he's going up this is dead

wrong bc at least on the reach side volkanovski actually has a slight reach advantage over islam he has also had the the reach advantage against every top contender he's fought interesting at featherweight with the exception of the Korean Zombie. Sometimes short guys have long appendages, as was evidenced by Conor McGregor's shorts at the McGregor-Mayweather weigh-in. He had an erection during that. Anyways, always enjoy the content, despite the fact that BC has a more tenuous grasp on the English language than Borat.

Keep up the great work. Luke, you had... He is your slave. You had a Borat-y... Oh my god! While I readjust my microphone again, can you tell that story, Luke? You're doing this way too much, by the way. So what do you want me to do? Just have it... I'm going to be like this soon. Do it more subtly and nimbly without

disrupting everything. Burning them. Get quick. Dude, I had a driver pick me up... Oh, Jesus everything. I had a driver pick me up from the airport and he eventually told me he was from Bulgaria and then we got to the car that we're in and he has smooth jazz

on and he was like, do you like music? And I was like, actually, no, I don't. You don't like music? The way he said it, I didn't. And then he goes, I like black man jazz. And I'm like, right, you don't have to specify that. When you say jazz, I kind of got what you meant.

Oh, as opposed to the white guy jazz? I know there are white jazz musicians. That's not what I mean. I like I know that our white jazz musicians that's not what I mean but like you know I like a table tennis he was obsessed with black people because then later on he was talking about how much he hated people from Arizona yeah and he's like they are stupid and then he goes he goes the first time he goes the first time I come uh arizona uh i felt like black man 1950s i'm like i think i don't think that's right i don't think that's right um that's i think you're going a little hard yes yes on the weekend i like to go capital city and watch a woman make toilet i'm like i'm

like i bet it was tough yes i don't think it was like a black man in the 1950s. Wow. Okay. Good transition. Let's go to Kevin on Dead Wrong. Luke, what the hell was up with that pronunciation of Oaxaca, Mexico at 141.05? You're going to make fun of me now? No, no. I'm trying to work it out. Grasso, any chance you get to clown on BC, you clown on him and you correct him. That's true.

And you translate something from Spanish to English with lots of pride. You're going to say Juwaka or O-Jaka. I didn't say that. No, pronounce the J like an H. Oh, hockey in Apollo? Yeah. Handy couture. I laughed a lot at that joke last night.

Dude, he did that. I was fucking dying laughing. All right, so they're saying that you said Waka or... Like Waka Waka, like waka, flaka, flame? This is so pedantic, this absolute bullshit. Well, he might be right. I have a little bit of trouble with that word, so that actually sounds right.

And I've also learned when... Who is it? Is it like a Miguel or is it like a Steve? Kevin. Okay, that's indeterminate. I don't really know. But if it was a Ralph or a Jimmy, I'm not listening. Yo, Ramblin' Ralph is my guy. He is your guy. So he might be right that I mispronounced

it. I'm learning. Yes. My, my, my Spanish is not great. I never, you've never heard me once say it's great. It's not. Kevin says, I get Luke. That's not your first language, but how has anyone outside of Hispanics paying close attention supposed to know what the hell you're talking about? Better work on your Spanish with Tkey or when you visit them BBLs over at Oaxaca, they're going to be calling you Lukito, their little pendito. Pendihito.

What does that mean? Little bitch. Okay, that's all we got for dead wrongs this week, but please send your fans. Fansubs are on fire lately, man. They are just on fire. Yeah, they're fucking great. Those are the only two dead wrongs? Yeah, I guess we had a good week, right? I don't know. Have we?

We have. Luke, you know who else had a good week? Who? Hashtag Holy Hammer, right? Yeah, we're getting closer to the end of the month, and you know what that means, BC? What does that mean? It's almost time to select the first ever Money Lion Hammer of the Month. For those of you who may have missed it, a few weeks back,

we decided that we were going to start spotlighting undercard fighters who aren't getting the recognition they deserve. Our new sponsor, Money Lion, agreed. So we came up with the Hammer of the Month, which invites you guys, the viewers, to nominate which undercard fighters simply blew your mind this month and deserve to be rewarded for it. You only have three days left to vote, so go to moneylion.com slash morningcombat to learn more how to enter. Does it have to be just undercard or is it anybody below the main event?

I think I have to double check, but I believe it's anyone below the main event. Okay, so anybody that you feel is coming on that may be knocking on that door, that may be packing a hammer. Knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door. You can be a hammer or you can be a nail, right? You can be a hero for just one day. Wow. You know, that David Bowie song was covered immaculately by the wallflowers for that, no? We can be heroes.

No one likes to talk about the wallflowers or the fact that I saw them three times in three states in the same week in 1997 in the fall. Does that actually... Not sober. The fall of 98. Is that BC being totally 90s or is that lamest shit

that I saw the wallflowers three times in a week in three different states? That's the lamest shit. The states were small and close together, Luke. Lamest shit. Super lamest shit. I mean, that album... Did the Gin Blossoms open, you fucking fraud?

Yo, Wallflowers were way cooler than the Gin Blossoms. That album, Bringing Down the Horse, their second one, the popular one, dude, that had like three, four, five, six good-ass songs on there. Yeah, we'll have it to them since then. They fell off like a bitch. Hey, did you see Theo Von Hats got Stapp on from Creed? Like recently?

Yeah. I didn't listen to it yet. What's the name of his podcast? Like This Other Tuesday or some shit? Kinger and the Winger or something like that? No, his private one. Sports The One. I don't really listen to other people's podcasts.

Like This Past Weekend or something like that? This Past Weekend. No, I got respect for Theo. He's funny. I don't really listen to other people's podcasts. This past weekend or something like that. This past weekend. No, I got respect for Theo. He's funny. I remember him from Road Rules. I'm into that shit. He was on Road Rules? Yeah, that's when we first got to know Theo Vaughn. He was that weird guy in the Winnebago. Which season? In the first two or three.

Back when they were still living together on the road. I don't think that's true. Theo Vaughn was 100% on Road Rules. Was he really? I don't know anything about true. Theo Vaughn was 100% on the road. He was on the road. Was he really? Yeah. I don't know anything about this. I just thought he was a comedian. Are you serious?

Luke, you are really dropping the 90s ball today. Yeah, sorry. I didn't watch MTV like you did. You know, I didn't have a lot going on for most of my life. Season 8? All right, I'll take the... Oh, 2000? Well, he was on the subsequent, you know, challenge shows and stuff.

Do you know his last name is Von Kurnatowski, Luke? I did not. That's a weird name. I mean, you know, not everybody can have two first names as a name, Luke. I had no idea. They told me to never trust a man. I had a lot of... There's a lot of idioms that I lived by growing up, right?

Don't hook with a hooker. Never trust a man with two first names. Yeah. How'd you sleep last night? Great. And alone. That's a weird thing to interject into the conversation. So, like, remember that joke Dennis Leary used to have?

Did he steal them all from Bill Hicks? Maybe. But he said, like, the real smokers know that, you know, you smoke it down to the, what do you call it, the filter, because that's where the heroin is. The real MK fans know that if you hang around long enough, the end of the show, you'll find the heroin. We're in it right now, and this is it.

It's great, right? Because you're just making it all about you? Isn't that how the shows usually end here? That's how conversations with you typically go. Yeah, yeah. Luke, what else do you want to say? It's been a great week. Shout out to our great staff.

I don't know what happened. I don't know who won the Moneyline contest for the tickets. Yeah, they were supposed to be right here making their picks. Do you know our team was like, BC, you're really inviting, like... Dude, BC loves... Okay, find the weirdest

motherfucker on the subway. The kind that's like picking his boogers and smearing it and talking to himself. BC's like, I'm going to be that guy's friend.

That guy is my personal friend. Maybe I'm just not as judgmental to all members of the human race right now. No, you love losers. You love people who are in distress,

who have mental illness. Does that explain how I found you? A little. Possibly. Certainly. I couldn't exclude that from the part of your discovery. I'd like to shout out a few people that mean a lot to me, Luke. Martine. Martine's great. That guy's the best, right?

I hope we do. I really hope we do. He's one of the last... Paula Cole was like, where have all the cowboys gone? And then we're going to see him tonight. I hope we do. I really hope we do. He's one of the last, like, you know, Paula Cole was like, you know, where have all the cowboys gone? There's one remaining gaucho in this country. Martine Bader. He's got that spirit. He keeps it alive. Would you look at me at all as an American

gaucho? At least in terms of my mentality and my intention? You see, I will never look at you as an American gaucho. It's impossible. As like an urban cowboy. By the way, you know what I saw for the first time?

Pornography? What's that movie? Is it urban cowboy? No, what's the movie with... Yeah. Drugstore cowboy? The one... Matthew McConaughey?

No, the... What's that guy's name damn damn this is way nowhere it's going nowhere dude who was in um what's the movie it's so weird midnight cowboy thank you filthy phil look midnight cowboy my entire my entire youth, it was talked about by people like my dad and my uncles as one of the legendary movies, right? And it's artsy and it's avant-garde as shit. It's also so creepy that I had to stop watching it on cable recently.

Have you ever seen Midnight Cowboy? Not in a long time. Yo, it's weird. Why is Anderson Silva on our screen right now? What is going on right now? Are we about to get canceled over Midnight Cowboy? Watch Midnight Cowboy and get back to me, okay? I will.

It's as weird as like, what's this? A Clockwork Orange, you know, where it's just like Stanley Kubrick. That's pretty weird. It assaults you. It assaults you in that same way. Kind of like, do you know what movie I walked out of the theater on? You might look down on me. Austin Powers.

Natural Born Killers. Oh, I love that movie. I did not love that movie. That movie was a little too dark for me it was very dark but that was a great movie I mean it was a satire within the darkness

right? yeah I mean it was an artistic film in the way where it's sending a broader message yeah Midnight Cowboy Phil have you seen

Midnight Cowboy Filthy Phil would you mind joining our show will you stop alright sorry dude not everyone has an insatiable thirst

for the camera to be on them just trying to make not all of us trying to make good content not all of us have holesable thirst for the camera to be on them just trying to make not all of us trying to make good content not all of us have holes in our heart that need to be filled

by camera time just trying to make good content with the people in my life alright Filthy Phil have you seen this shoot I thought it was

an okay movie Phil liked it remember you know Phil you got labeled you said it was okay you're like Phil loved that shit you got labeled

by the MK audience as being a you know a milf hunter, a cougar enthusiast. Is that true? Was that ever true? Maybe in the past. Okay.

A milf hunter? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Would you like to see, if we had a game where Phil lost, he had to show his search history to just you, and then we had to read your facial reaction based on how gross it was, would you be interested in something like that? I would be very interested. I have so many good MK game show ideas that nobody wants to.

They don't want to look at the search history? Yeah. Or if you lose, that's what you have to do, right? You still haven't seen Two Girls, One Cup. Dude, that is so disgusting. I don't even want to talk about it. I don't even want to be associated with that. You tried to set me up.

You tried to set me up. You always want to make me clap like a circus seal for you on the meal. And then you never want to ever return the favor. I was willing to get a tattoo. You didn't have to. You've actually never gone through with anything. I offered. It sounds like my wife. She's like, you didn't make breakfast. I offered. You said no. I didn't say no.

You can make me breakfast right now. I didn't eat it. I'm simply saying, dude, you get out of a lot of shit that I don't get out of, and I don't think that's fair. So you feel like you're the guinea pig who has to, like... I feel if you want me to spin the wheel, you should at least

have to spin the wheel once in a while. Once in a while. I'm willing to go under the knife for the show. I was willing to go to couples therapy with you with the doc cams there. That's not couples therapy. That's you doing content. I think... We're doing couples therapy with Phil with the doc cams there. That's not couples therapy. That's you doing content. I think that... We're doing couples therapy with Phil right now anyway.

Yeah. To be fair, this may be the beginning of the end. Because, you know, I... Is that for the storyline? No, no. For, you know, like, there's an expiration date on my comedy. And, you know, according to some of our hardcores, it's coming. The day is coming. You know what I mean? The day is coming. Spoiled milk is upon us soon, okay? Here's what you don't realize. When you're flowing, you know, according to some of our hardcores, it's coming. The day is coming. You know what I mean? The day is coming.

Spoiled milk is upon us soon, okay? Here's what you don't realize. When you're flowing, you're flowing, but you try too hard. So am I like Stefan Bonner with the really thick tan on roids when he tried to do that spinny shit against Anderson? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're like the Anderson Silva, Stefan Bonner guy, or vice versa. You know, you're just a little too trying to shoehorn it into every conversation

rather than, like, we had this guy came up who obviously wanted to have sex with us. I don't know who he was. He was just some weird guy who started conversing with me and BC, probably for sexual intercourse. I don't know. I mean, you could have just been friendly. But he was making a weird conversation with him, and BC was just hitting him with one-liners that he didn't catch on to,

one after the other. I was sitting there fucking dying. Dude, that was great. That was funny. But you were just in a rhythm. When you're not in a rhythm, dude, oh, my God, it's nails on a chalkboard. You know? Kind of like MVP, right?

When he's flowing and he's hitting caveman Rickles. I thought you meant most valuable promotions. I'm like, what? No, no. They're always on it. Like Rogan. Yeah, they're on fire, Luke. Have you ever used Onnit?

I'd love to. I use the shit that we get. I'm skeptical that those things work the way they say that they do. I don't know. I mean, I use AG1. I've bet on DraftKings. Yeah. You use this stuff?

Onnit? I've never used Onnit. No. I would try it. There's a few... There's a little bit of time left on this trip. What strategy have I not used to try to convince our legal team to allow us to have more Delta 8 sponsors?

Because I'm not done. Just doing it randomly on air? You know what also they told me? It's like, dude, why don't we just take the... We should just talk about it. Why don't we just take the sponsorship and do like a Luke and Brian thing where we don't actually ever say MK but they make social assets where it's just Luke Thomas

and Brian Campbell and that way we don't need their permission. I hope they pay us in product. Yeah, I told you the vape guy hit me up. The vape guy who's like a vape retailer. He's like, dude, I love the show. I'd love to pay you in vape. I'm like, what kind of a fucking show. I'd love to pay you in vapes. I'm like, what kind of a fucking trashy whore do you think I am?

He's playing to your... The greatest thing that you miss, because you're not very self-aware. Let's be fair. You're very non-self-aware. No, no, no, no. I don't give in to the critiques. Doesn't mean I'm not aware of them.

It plays to the comedy of the show, so I like that aspect about you but you gotta lean into this vape thing. A company offers to pay you in vapes be like I made it. You gotta go hard into that. No you gotta pay me in cash. No bro pay you in product. Really?

You'd do that? I would do that. Did you ever see that 311 DVD? I'm gonna tell CBS to start paying you in circus peanuts. 311 was getting paid in hydroponic for like years. Yeah, I don't believe that. Watch the DVD. Watch the DVD. I'm not going to.

96 it came out. I'm not watching a 311 DVD from 1996. Let me assure you. Can we close the show? Yo, like how do you think they found out that Amber was the color of her energy? You know what I mean? I mean, I believe that they did hydroponic weed. I do believe that.

Like, is she a roadie? Is this like a love song to a roadie? I don't, I mostly don't care, to be quite candid with you. Okay. Well, Luke, I've stretched this comedy as far as I can take it. You're going to have to find a new bitch to run around with, all right? You know what I mean? By the way, to be in full fairness, if anything I said this week does lead to my exit,

you and Ariel would destroy any numbers that we've built. Why do you think that? Because you guys are arguably the two biggest voices or brands in this space, and there's the redemption angle of seeing you guys back together. So I think that, like, you know, that would really, I'd be a long forgotten, you know what I mean? But I don't want that.

And I'm secure with that. I want what I got. I'm secure with that, you know? I want what I got. Yo, Ariel jumping in on our show is like, yo, it's now time. Hold my hand. It's time for Chang's.

Let's do it. And I was like, yo, dude, just put on the brakes. I mean, just right away. Just put on the brakes. Just right like, yo, it's now time. Hold my hand. It's time for Chang's. Let's do it. I was like, yo, dude, just put on the brakes. I mean, just right away. Just put on the brakes. Just right away. This is a professional Showtime-like operation here. This isn't the... It wasn't the MK show.

Maybe he thought it was MK. I don't know. That could be it. That could be it. You know, maybe he thought we were just doing the old MK. This is the Heelwani era, so anything goes. Yeah, he's out there just... This is low-road Heelwani.

Yeah, I kind of like low-road Heelwani, to be honest, you know, compared to the other guy. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Do you want to hold hands to end the show? I don't. No, but this is us in real life. You are always trying to touch me. And I only like to be touched emotionally, Luke, okay? You know what I mean?

Yeah, there you go. There you go. All right, for our fantastic staff. Hold on, hold on. Let's stop for just a second. We have berated this crew a million times. Largely because, you know crew a million times. Yeah, some people. Largely because, you know, I love them.

Yeah. I wish, I don't understand why they don't want to be on the show more. Like, why wouldn't they? Not everyone has a, dude, not everyone has a crippling insecurity in their life that can only be filled by getting filmed for an audience. Like, not everyone is that way. Yeah, but there are artists out there. All right.

Thank you to the crew for all of the... By the way, they don't just do this show. They do this show, and then they go and do the weigh-ins. Yeah. Then they go and do the pressers. MVP face-to-face. Then they go and do the workouts. So they are doing a million different things.

That new guy slept at... He didn't sleep last night. He worked overnight working on that. Yeah. Good Lord. Yeah. So they're up all late, and they have to deal with our bullshit, too. So thank you.

Usually the people in this area that are up all night look like they were cleaning the chimneys on... Dude, the homeless here just look like they've been bleached by the sun. Only they turn the color of the sidewalk with all their clothes, whatever. You know, rather than ogling at them, you can help them. Who says I didn't help them? Me. I've noticed every part of the country has the homeless look a certain way. They're young in LA. They were crazy young.

It's sad. It is. We'll end on that note. Have you had a good week here in Phoenix? I've had a really fun week. It's been a grind. The driving sucks, if I can be honest with you. We're like 40 minutes away from the Damer. Everything in Phoenix is 40 minutes away from everything dam but dude everything in phoenix is 40 minutes away from it that is true everything else

when sean alshadi told us it's a little bit too spread out to be super awesome he was right like when you walk the streets at night even like a relatively nice neighborhood there's no one walking the streets everyone gets in their cars to go everywhere so like life and well most of us don't live in a major metropolitan area like Houston. Okay, but, dude, small towns aren't necessarily built this way either. It's not the scale, per se, in terms of population. It's just how they want to urban plan and develop it, and they just decided that no one is ever going to live close to one another here, and everything will be spread out, so you have to have a car to do anything.

It's a cool town. I will say this. People in Arizona are really friendly, really friendly. They've been friendly to me. Have they been friendly to you? this. People in Arizona are really friendly. Really friendly. They've been friendly to me. Have they been friendly to you? Yeah. I found everyone's very friendly. Customer service is very good here in Phoenix.

Yo, shout out to Court. What was her name? Huguette. Huguette, who was working at the Starbucks at, what was that supermarket? Safeway. Safeway in Glendale. Yo, shout out to Huguette. So her dad's name is Hugo, so she's like little Hugo, Huguette.

Of course, my wife would say Ugo. Ugo, yes, yes, that's a, you get, so her dad's name is Hugo. So she's like little Hugo, you get, you know, of course my wife would say, Ugo, Ugo. Yes, yes, yes. Apollo, Apollo,

a buddy of mine named his kid, uh, Hugo. And my mom was like, or my mom, Jesus, it was a weird little slip there. Uh,

my wife was reading the names and she was like, Oh, so-and-so that's a cool name. She was like, ah, Ugo. Hey, I want to shout out once more, Sean, I'll shout out to Danny Segura for sitting with us, uh, so-and-so has a cool name. She's like, ah, Ugo. Hey, I'm a Ugo. Hey, I want to shout out once more Sean Alshadi and Danny Segura for sitting with us.

People think Danny and I are like natural-born rivals. He was hilarious. We went and got dinner yesterday. Yeah, he was awesome last night. He was absolutely hilarious. Enjoyed that. Thank you to our crew, Filthy Phil, Maniche. I mean, Gaff.

This new guy, Drew, is trying to hang around us a lot. I mean, you know, it, real big fans of these guys. For Luke Thomas, you can follow us and like us there on Brian Campbell. It's been great, guys. Hey, watch my Jake Paul scouting report. It's too long. The next one will be very short. Paul dissected.

Later today, folks, is it 5 p.m.? 5 p.m. here, local. Pacific time. 5 p.m. Pacific time. It is the ceremonial weigh-in on the Showtime Sports YouTube channel on Joe Paul's channel, Jake Paul too. Check that out. Order the pay-per-view right now at Showtime.com.

It's 9 p.m. in the east, a five-fight pay-per-view main card Saturday night, and you will catch us at 8 p.m. eastern? 8 p.m. eastern is the countdown show, prelims. It's me. It's LT. Eastern is the countdown show. Prelims. It's me. It's LT. There's some special guests. All right. There's a lot of debate going on.

See, I told you it was 7. Tomorrow, Saturday is 7 p.m. All right. Nobody's watching anymore anyway. Guys, we're done. I mean, just, you know.