MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz | UFC Nashville Picks | Amanda Serrano to PFL | Ep 473

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

On Episode 473 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian Kick off the show with Ok, Bet. Next up they react to the Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz press conference and give their final thoughts on the fight. The guys also discuss some recent fight announcements and Amanda Serrano signing with the PFL. (10:30) - Ok, Bet (32:00) - Jake Paul vs. NAte Diaz Press conference (47:00) - Fight News and Announcements (62:00) - PFL Preview (66:00) - One Preview (73:30) - Name that Quote (80:00) - Dead Wrong Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Oh, yeah, that sound of Friday art evasperating through your ear hole. Yes, I just created an award.

Hey, this is the award-winning Morning Combat, the best damn combat sports show. Period. Yes, Friday, August 4th, 2023. I hear a tremendous echo in my ear hole. Yeah, tons of echo. I am your hostess with the mostess.

Yes, one half of this fantastic duo. This award nominated, by the way, for the third straight year of World MMA Awards. BC, the BC, there's a lot of letters involved, but basically the translation is American Alpha Brian Campbell. Thank you very much. My partner in crime, though,

as I come to you from this secluded basement with a basket and a bottle of lotion in the basket. Shout out Silence of the Lambs. Luke Thomas, everybody. Luke, we're fixing our sound issues, but we are ready to rock on this Friday. Are you feeling what I'm feeling? And that's overtly pathetic. I don't feel quite as bad as you, although the doublespeak is already making me nauseous.

Having to hear from you twice is really more than my stomach can tolerate. But I will say that, listen, hey, I tell you what, I tell you what, it's not Spence Crawford Fight Week. You know, they can't all be this big, but you got a little tasty treat with one tonight, PFL, if you're bored. I guess is the best way to put it sorry i don't mean to be mean but that's really kind of what it is uh you get some ufc tomorrow you get some you get some jake paul if you're into it nate diaz kind of thing you know there's

a little bit there's a little bit going on to be happy about i think so jake is going to ride him like a cowboy tomorrow we'll get into all that weirdness, Luke. I am coming to you live and direct at the moment from the Wind Creek Resort and Casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Luke, why? Why, you might ask? Because tonight, 9 p.m. Eastern time on Showtime, we've got another installment of the incredible 22-year history of tomorrow's champions fighting today, Luke. I'm talking about Showbox, the new generation. I'm talking about Raul Marquez, Barry Tompkins, Steve Farhood scoring the fights, your boy BC, a tripleheader.

We got 130-pound fighters in the main event tonight, Luke. We are fired up over here in PA. Jordan White taking on Erickson Garcia so if you want to get this for free and check out your boy BC hey how about you go to Showtime.com right now get the 30 days free so look it's a weird combat weekend but I'm excited to call the fights tonight be back Saturday night post Jake Paul versus Nate Diaz with a morning combat instant reaction. And tomorrow, for those that are following your personal life, Luke,

is also your 44th birthday. So what a weekend. What a time. Yeah, yeah, 44th birthday. I'm going to see Oppenheimer on Sunday, so I'm pretty excited about that. Pretty excited about that. Dude, the runtime on these movies, it's 180 minutes. Guys, I'm in my 40s.

I can't hold my bladder that long. You know what I'm saying? You've got to cut an intermission or something. This is a little too long. Well, I heard Mission Impossible 6 Part 1 was almost three hours, and then it gave you the cliffhanger for Part 2, Luke. So that's what they do to you nowadays. I guess so.

I mean, I'm still going to see it. I'm going to go through with it. But, yeah, I'm pretty excited. And, yeah, man, 44th birthday. I don't really know what to say except at 44, I'm uglier and dumb as ever, actually. You know, Luke, while your self-loathing and humility-filled rants are endearing, Luke, you are on top of the world right now. Your morning combat dissected on all things Terrence Crawford, has blown the frick up.

I mean, Cannibal Corpse is reaching out to you. I dare say, Luke, you are in your absolute prime right now. Doesn't feel that way. Certainly not in terms of attraction levels, although I've really never held high attraction levels, for you to be fair, Luke. But I feel like you are on top of it, so enjoy it, Luke. It's thin air up there on top I'm trying to get a breath I appreciate that, it's very nice of you

and I appreciate you covering that Paul Diaz fight which we're going to talk about a little bit hopefully it's a good one tomorrow fingers crossed shout out to CBS Sports Mikey Mormile and the ones and twos Linda fill in today, our fantastic director happy to work with you

Showtime as always, the label that pays us. You can check me out tonight, as I mentioned. Looking forward to that. You can also grab merch, by the way. I'm wearing this fantastic hat. You can go to morningcombat.store right now. So, Luke, we can't say it's going to happen. Yes, but it's going to probably happen. There's going to be a big movement coming to the Morning Combat merch store. There is huge rumblings going on behind the scenes in the return of R.J. Dinklehopper

and this collaboration in work, in waiting here in this moment here. You know what I'm talking about. You hear the words I'm saying. You feel the emotions that are just, you know, that are just alright, let's keep it clean. Yeah, that's a good idea.

I don't want to say much, but yes, there's a movement, a bowel movement coming. That's how big it's going to be. I don't know when exactly it's going to get through, but it will get through. And we'll have some fun stuff for you guys. Long time in the making, right, BC? Also, we should point out, I want to make sure, because we've got the Showtime plug-in for you tonight. You're going to be on Showtime as you indicated showbox the new generation also tomorrow on showtime there's going to be a re-air of spence versus crawford plus i guess the

all-access epilogue episode for what happened after the fight behind the scenes there as well which none of us have seen so pretty excited excited to see that. Indeed, indeed. Big weekend there for Showtime as well. Happy to be a part of it. We are watching also closely as the fighters are coming to the scale for all things Nate Diaz versus Jake Paul, which we will get to very shortly. I believe Jake Paul, by the way, Luke, just made weight. Needed the nude curtain, but made weight at 185 for this catchweight uh boxing extravaganza looked like

there was a little shenanigans on the scale for amanda serrano where the scale changed pretty epically between stepping on the first and second time but i believe she's in she'll make weight here uh mark ray monday on the scene from espn if you check out his twitter account it's got us live but luke i'll tell you i'll tell you what, BC. The Texas Commission is on the job. Rest easy. Exactly. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to stress about. It's going to be great. All right.

Luke, we got a lot. We got a weird show. We got a great show for you today. We're going to do your dead wrongs. We're going to do a few different things. We're going to do a fun little segment here that Luke Thomas has cooked up. Do you want to give a little tease about this? So what we're going to do is I'm going to read a quote, and BC has to figure out who said it. Did Jake Paul say it?

Did Nate Diaz say it? Or is it completely made up? It's tough. It's going to be tough. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Now, this is the first time we're rolling this out, so there's nothing on the line just yet, but BC, depending how it goes, depending how you feel about it, we can run this back and then put some actual steaks involved. So we'll see. I like steaks.

I like steaks big time. Luke, I did break my black liver, uh, silence last night and did, uh, not a steak at the steakhouse, but did some, um, some, uh, short rib, boneless short ribs. Those could change your life at a high level you know you know what they this is only something you think about if your digestive system no longer works as a functioning 20 year old anymore uh i used to be able to eat anything like it didn't matter what it was and i would sleep and you would hear people be like well i can't have red meat before going to bed i won't sleep and i'm like you have the worst genetics i've ever heard of you are barely human and now that i'm in my 40'm like, right, it's going to be fish for dinner.

No, you're right. Because I was talking about this last night. When we go out on the road and we get access to corporate dinners, order what you want, and you're like, yeah, I'll get the $135 steak. Do you know how many times I've had that, Luke, and then been up all night as my heart is pounding through my shirt? You know what I mean? Yeah, it doesn't work. When you get older, it just doesn't work anymore. Now, the beef short rib, I got to tell you, that's a little lighter, I feel like. I mean, it's fattier,

but it shouldn't be quite as, like, gut-heavy. It's so tender, and you get the gravy and mashed potatoes and the suffering succotash with it, Luke. It was tremendous.

Shout out to the Chop House here in Methlehem, Pennsylvania. It's time to get into the show, though, Luke. In our first segment, hey, sometimes this segment can be hit or miss, and we can pretty much guarantee you'll lose money if you follow our picks.

But on OK Bet this week, your boy BC is coming a-knocking, Luke. I think you hear me knocking, and I think I'm coming in. This one's called OK Bet. Lukie, Luky, Lukeito. I want to look at last week when your boy Brian Campbell bricked on the Errol Spence main event pick, as did you. But Luke, for and oh the rest of the way, shout out to Kevin Holland. Shout out to Alex Pineda.

Shout out across the board, Luke. Unfortunately, Tony Ferguson went down, but I got that submission with seconds to go. Here is Luke Thomas' ledger. One and four last week overall. You didn't pick Spence officially for this event. You took Poirier, who got head kicked. Kopilov saved your afternoon.

But Luke Thomas you are going in what many people would call the wrong direction and if I'm here to update the overall standings remember we go head to head in five categories every week and at the end of this calendar year the loser will have to watch a concert of the you know I can know, I can't tell if you guys putting the Indian flag there because I was born in India. Is that racist? I honestly don't know. No, Luke, it's truthful.

I honestly don't. I wonder. It's factual. It's actual factual, okay? This was not sovereign U.S. Embassy territory. You know what I mean? Like, I can just decide right now. I'm standing in Oklahoma.

No, Luke, I'm in Pennsylvania, okay? That's what it is. And what you are is barely in the lead, 56, 55, and 3, hanging on by Luke by a crotch hair to not being under 500. But your boy BC is lingering like a stale fart in church, Luke, 54 and 60. A couple picks back, which means tell me if I'm wrong about my math. We've already exposed my lack of SAT math skills on this show. If I go, let's say, 4 and 1 this week,

and you go, you know, 2 and 3, 1 and 4, I'm in first place, right? I'm going to be on the phone with not just bringing you to a concert you don't want to, I want to make my own festival of concerts you don't want to be at involving our connections in the MKE industry. Maybe it'll be MKpalooza. You're not going to get a festival out of me.

I mean, first of all, I never took your chances of winning seriously, and I still think I will win, but now you have closed the gap. I've let you back in the game with lazy picks. It's time to put a little more focus, which I didn't even do this week. Yeah, I know. Tough talk from a guy who I had to remind a minute before the show started that you haven't made your selections yet so that shows you

the care and concern that Luke Thomas is putting in but you are now kind of in bed with cannibal corpse so I got to be careful I could end up with you know some dying fetus and all the other weird things going on in your world but you got to be careful Luke that we don't get some jam band going in your world that we don't get some psychedelic that we don't get some jam band going in your world, that we don't get some psychedelic pop, we don't get some things that you are not prepared for. Can't wait.

Hope we can get a dot camera out at that if we're all still in play. You know we ain't getting no dot camera out there. Come on now. All right. Luke Thomas,

as the defending champion, you get to go first or second. Where are you going? You know, I've been going first and it's been sucking. Why don't you go first? All right. Right off the top, the main event.

Luke, what I have identified this week as the biggest fight, even though I've had a lot of questions about how big it still really is, and we're going to certainly get into all the ins and outs of fight week, but just for the purpose of OK Bet, the main event pick is Jake Paul versus Nate Diaz. Ten rounds of professional boxing at the 185 pound catch weight. Luke we've seen Jake Paul as high as basically a four to one favorite and I think it makes sense considering the age difference and considering you basically got Nate Diaz coming up in weight 15 pounds from the highest weight he's competed that in the UFC and you've got Jake

Paul just kind of cutting down a couple pounds from where we've largely seen him. He's younger. He's been targeting boxing much more consistently of late. And, Luke, we're going to get into the reaction to this press conference and all that in a second. But I'm not sure Nate even wants to be there. In fact, I'm almost assured Nate doesn't want to be there.

All of that, for me, plays into I I'm not gonna lose sleep over this pick I feel really confident Jake Paul's gonna win and that's what I have to do for okay bet Luke the younger man the more experienced boxer of the moment he's gonna win this thing on Saturday night that's my pick yeah I mean again I we don't Caesars didn't put odds on this that I can see but I'll just say Nate Diaz is anywhere from a plus 300 to as high as a plus 350 underdog uh I've seen Jake Paul BC as high as minus 550 like you know Nate's at least from an odds perspective Nate's got his work cut out for him right look the specifics of why I'm making this pick ultimately it's it's the age the weight all of that but I don't think Nate's gonna throw have enough offense I really don't I don't

think about it this is his first pro boxing match. I know he sparred a lot of boxing at high level. But this is a 10-round fight in his first pro boxing match. I know he has great stamina and all that. But is he going to be as active enough to win rounds if this goes the distance? I've got too many questions about Nate. Again, I don't think he cares about this at all outside of the paycheck. Let's spin it forward. So I'm going to take the hungrier, younger guy here.

And I think it's fair. And also, we said this on, I think, Wednesday or maybe, yeah, Wednesday's show, which was, are his fans really going to abandon him if he loses? No, not at all. That's, you know what I mean? Like, they want him to win, yes, and they like it better when he wins, but they're not going to run from him when he loses. Not now, anyway. All right, for me, so I'll go with the UFC main event. This was also not the most difficult pick in the world. Rob Font coming in super hot off of that win over Adrian Yanez, as we discussed on Wednesday. Nevertheless, I feel like Corey Sanhagen is still, it seems to me, a level above what Rob has beaten. So I respect where Rob is. I respect what he has turned in, the time off, getting back, being hungry.

He made weight today, by the way, on short notice. He's a pro's pro. I don't have anything bad to say about Rob Font. I like him a lot. It's just that Corey Sandhagen's ability to manage distance really well with changing looks, changing stances, changing angles, the rhythm disruption, and then he's mixing in the takedowns at a bare minimum. He's just kind of spamming you with it to slow things down.

It's just, it's going to be a lot for a very technical fighter like Rob to kind of match that same level of computer overload that Corey Sanhagen spits out. Give me Sanhagen in the main event. Yeah, Sanhagen does those things and he does them very well. He is a minus 340 favorite from Caesars plus 265 is Font. I've got the same respect for Font that you do. Could he pull this off at 36 and continue this run? Yes, he could. But now we're going to five rounds. The run that San Hagan's been on, I got to side with your pick there, but that's your official main event pick. Let's go to favorite, Luke. And I'm going to take a favorite of the show this weekend, along with a slight betting favorite.

Minus 160 for good old Billy Q. Billy Quarantillo looking to bounce back from the disastrous KO loss to Edson Barbo. So the F around and find out moment when that 37-year-old legend came in in just sick and disgusting shape. Well, Luke, let's see if lessons learned for our guy taking on Damon Jackson here in a pretty high featured bout in this Saturday's UFC Nashville Fight Night Card. This is an emotional pick. Those tend to not work here on OK Bet, but I love Billy Q. I'm going to put it in his favor that he's going to learn from the lessons needed in how overaggressive he was.

We know the heart. We know the scrappiness. But, Luke, we said it on Wednesday. Billy Q, I'm challenging you. I need a more complete full-game effort here. I'm going to back the blue. I'm going to back our guy, Luke. Billy Q has our back. I got his back. When I topple over you,

I'm going to do so with Billy Q getting his hand raised. That's a tough fight. Billy Q's got a tough fighter in his hands. I definitely think he can win it. He looked tremendous on the scale this morning. So it looks like he's in excellent condition. He's going to need to be. So I favor him to win as well.

I didn't put a pick on this one, but I like the pick, but I acknowledge, you know, minus 160, Damon Jackson's tough. It's a tough fight, so no doubt about it. For me, VC, and my favorite, I'm going to go with the toughest Kyler in the United States, Kyler Phillips. Give me him at minus 190 over Haone Barcelos at plus 160. Barcelos, I think, has won one in his last four. So he's won in three in his last four.

Kyler Phillips, now, this guy has been off for a long time. He had a fight against Jack Shore, fell through. Had a fight against Saeed Nurmagomedov, fell through. And I think he even had one against Rafael Sonsal and it fell through as well. So he's been out for a while. Folks, forget this guy has a win over Song Yedong now he did lose I think who was his last the one loss he has two losses but the last one yes to Haole and Paiva back in 2021 but did you watch this guy compete especially in his last fight the Marcelo Rojo fight which he won via submission in the third round he's got a lot of skill a lot of athleticism a lot of skill also he's 28

barcelos 36 right so he's on the wrong side of 35 on this one i don't know tough fight but i like carly kyler phillips i think he's very talented i think he's got good upside glad to see he's back that's my pick all right i'll be cheering heavily for honey barcelos in this one luke let's go to underdog and look you got to take a, you gotta take a risk. You gotta take a stand, as Cameron once said in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Luke. I'm gonna take a stand here on the upset-minded, red-hot

Jesus Pinedo. Yes. PFL playoffs from San Antonio. Lightweight division. Taking on the very accomplished, very tough Bubba Jenkins, a 35-year-old who lost in the lightweight finals last year when he got knocked out by Brendan Loughnan. Well, Jesus Pinedo made his name in this tournament this year by knocking out Loughnan. So I'm not necessarily

picking this on MMA math, but I am trying to ride the hot hand because what we have seen in recent years in the PFL playoffs is typically the bigger names, especially coming over from UFC, tend to take surprising L's and fall out. Other people tend to fall out because USADA came in town or maybe PFL now acquiring a relationship with USADA to try to direct what has been going on when they've gone to Las Vegas, which was people popping for drugs, big names and getting pulled from the tournament. But we've seen upsets. We've seen people get hot and come out of nowhere.

Give me Jesus Pinedo, who has a history of finishing opponents to do just that. Bubba Jenkins is tough at 35. He's come close before to this championship and million dollars, but come up empty. But I'm going to ride the ride hard underdog here in Peto. Alright, fair enough. For my underdog pick, BC, this one I struggled with. These are usually the picks I, I mean, I don't think I've ever gone 5-0. I've gone 4-1 a few times. Well, I can't wait for you to struggle with Kennedy's last name, Luke. That is your, that worse than

Macy Chazon, this is your, this is your... How would you say it? Njekwu. I mean, it's definitely not Njekwu. I can tell you that. I've never heard it called Njekwu. Well, it's definitely not the extra three syllables you put at the end of it because you're trying to cover up for the fact that you can't nail it.

And Njekwu would be like somebody out of like mainland China or something. This is not that. All right. So underdog pick. Give me Dustin Jacoby sitting at plus 125. Barely an underdog. This is a close fight against the... Say it. Say it!

The light heavyweight out of Fortis MMA, Kennedy Nzechkuyu. Nzechkuyu is how I've heard it pronounced. Obviously, I have no clue. He's sitting at minus 150. Now, he has been on the best win streak of his career. Got a super long reach. But Jacoby

BC has the kickboxing background. Now again, he wasn't people like, oh he fought in glory and stuff. And he did. He's definitely, and he got way better through that process before returning to MMA. It's made him a much better fighter. It's made in fact this run in the UFC possible for Jacoby. I do think if Jacoby wants to

that he can play a distance management game of stick and move on Kennedy and Zetschkew. I do think that that is possible. How likely that is, the odds makers don't really favor it, but forced to make an underdog pick in this case, I think there's reason to believe he could get it done. So I'll take Dustin Jacoby at plus 125.

And just to reiterate, there's nothing wrong with being an Uber driver. Luke, let's go over to over-under. That's not what I said. Dude, you love to like misinterpret it in the most bad faith way that was never ever intended for it to mean. And I don't know why you like to do that, but you do like to do that. It's not fair.

It's not accurate. And I need you to know that I see that. Well, Luke, I unfortunately succeeded at baiting you. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about that. I really am. I hate you. All right. All right. I mean, I'm. I really am. I hate you. All right?

All right? I mean, I'm willing to have a public feud with you over this, though. We could be just like Jamal and Ariel, right? We could put out alternating videos against each other. Dude, you know what? We should do that. We should do it and just absolutely say the meanest shit about each other. You know how much traffic and attention we'd get?

It'd be great. Would that drive up our ratings or would our company fire both of us for that? Absolutely. Yes, it would. Us just a sack. Dude, nothing works like 1990s morning radio battles between stations. Like, you know what I mean? Those were the heydays. This is just that all over again.

Alright, Luke, my over-under. Typically we try to get cherry-picked layups here by picking UFC women's fights that statistically end up going the distance so much more often than they don't but I'm going to go against that because this Tatiana Suarez Jessica Andrade co-main event 115 pounds in Nashville on Saturday I just feel like there's I love the storylines and what's at stake for both are we coming or going Andrade if Andrade is going to win this Luke it's going to be by knockout. We kind of feel that.

But what about Tatiana Suarez? If she comes out in continuing this sort of next level drive confidence and evolve certainly more than she showed against Montana De La Rosa and that comeback at 125, where it was wrestle or nothing. I think she's going to have to show a little bit more here against Andrade, even though the wrestling should be a big part of her game plan.

But Andrade, Luke, if it's not her night, it ends disastrously. Could it end ground and pound wise on the ground? It could. Either way, this will not go the distance. Suarez, Andrade, it doesn't matter who wins it. It doesn't matter the method. I'm just telling you, I'm going to go the under in a rare UFC women's fight here. Three rounds only, of course, but I feel confident. I feel really confident. Yeah, I don't think that's a bad pick at all. These are some better ones for you. For my over-under, and this one I do think

this one is the... This is, to me, of all the questions that are interesting about Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz, this is actually the more interesting one, which is, does it go the distance? I don't really know, but we're making picks here, so I'm going to say I think it'll go the distance um i don't really know but we're making picks here so i'm gonna say i think it'll go the distance i mean they the thing is they added the two extra rounds

now jake has dropped everyone he's ever fought he dropped nate robinson obviously knocked him out ben askren tyron woodley anderson silva he did drop tommy fury folks forget that i think it was late in that fight but he last round eighth him. Last round. Eighth and final round. Eighth and final round. So, like, you know, he's obviously got some power, and Nate is going to be, I think, under the gun. But, you know, adding the two extra rounds, like, it was the Diaz camp that wanted it, because I think that's where they think they're going to shine

and really put it on him when his movement gets slower and he gets trapped up against the ropes. I still think he'll be able to hang on, but I don't know, BC. I wonder if you feel like it's going to go the distance because I thought Spencer Crawford was going to go the distance, and like, Jesus, man, after the seventh round,

I was like, this ain't going much longer. Maybe we get something like that. I don't know, but I'm picking from my official over-under. Give me Paul Diaz going the distance. This is very interesting for a few reasons in terms of which way we kind of feel like. Will it go the distance or not? I think the one thing we can't forget

is even though Jake is more experienced than your average YouTuber turned boxer for sure and takes it very seriously, and if you're wondering if he's going to gas out, he's brought in Coach Larry Wade, an elite strength and conditioning trainer, works with a lot of the PBC stars. He's brought in Shane Mosley as new head trainer.

I mean, Jake takes it seriously. He looks to be in tremendous shape. But these are novice professional boxers. They still are. And what happens in novice professional boxing fights when you have that inexperience is you could end up in a little bit more of a war than you intended in the first half.

And either of these guys could gas out late. You know, we're going 10 rounds here in boxing, which is a different type of physical pace than mma it is you know in certain regards also let's not forget the scar tissue and the cut factor for knee and now we're going 10 rounds could a fight be stopped here absolutely so you're saying it it will go the distance i think either way it's it could this could go anywhere but luke i don't think you need the disclaimer anymore that you tend to bring to betting segments of you know i don't really know what's going to happen nobody knows well i mean here's the thing it's like if i'm just being serious for a minute i mean again we're just making picks we're having fun winner goes loser

goes to a concert whatever i mean you know it's all for fun i get all that but like if i'm actually thinking about where we provide value to the listener, we don't only provide value to the listener in accurate betting segments. What we do is provide, like setting the table, giving them information upon which to draw conclusions, not so much coming to the betting conclusions that are advantageous for them. Well, to remind you on the fact that both of our records are hovering around 500, a lot of these categories force us to take chances, pick underdog scenarios, all of that. Also, nobody expects that you can predict

the future, Luke. You're not Yanni the Greek. You don't have good enough teeth. You cannot see the future, Luke. Okay? So people know that about you. So just roll with it. Here we go, Luke. That is the over-under scenario. Let's go to KO or sub. I'm going to pick one here.

Pick one not necessarily on stats, more on white belt feelings, Luke. Every time you get a UFC card, there's going to be some finishes on that mid card, right on that mid to under card. I'm going to go with Jeremiah Wells and Carlston Harris, both with finish histories to end in knockout one way or the other here. It's a non-emotional pick, Luke. I tend to lose my emotional picks, which, good luck, Billy Q on Saturday.

But I'm going to stay it straight here. I'm going to try to take advantage of it. Usually there's chaos on these undercards. Let's hope it happens right here. Well, I think that's a great pick. Jeremiah Wells fights like he's shot out of a cannon, and Carlston Harris will stand in the line of fire. Like, that's a good pick.

That's a really good pick. For me, again, all the disclaimers, you've heard them a million times. Give me Suarez versus Andrade ending in sub. Now, of course, as long as one submission wins it, it doesn't matter who does. But I feel like there's going to be – here's why I say this. Now, obviously, when you get on the ground like that, especially with a big puncher like Andrade,

KO is really always in the ballgame here, right? So you have to kind of take that. I think ending a KO would also be a good bet either way. But the reason why I picked sub is because I think Andrade is going to be fending them off a lot. And if she's really not herself or whatever,

that's going to be a good thing. Plus, if they're playing reversal games and they're on the ground and they're vying for top position, I just feel like either one is going to be a good thing. Plus, if they're playing reversal games and they're on the ground and they're vying for top position, I just feel like either one is going to be looking to snatch something in those moments. So, you know, could it be a spot where someone just gets completely flattened and then pounded out? Yes, of course. But I feel like there's a decent chance anyway, BC.

I'll put it that way, a decent chance that one of these ladies is going to score a sub. Indeed. We'll see what happens there. Potential you and i push if it goes one if you get the finish on sub but if i get the knockout there i'll take the pick i'm only two back or two plus some ties we'll see what happens come this weekend luke topic number one though we're gonna look at some of the highlights time out time out we didn't do it at the top of the show we didn't do it at the top of the show. We didn't do it at the top of the show. We got to remind everyone. You got to go to www. We don't have to do that.

But you can just go to worldmmaawards.com. Right, BC? worldmmaawards.com. You want us to do HTTP semicolon forward slash? Yeah, two forward slashes. Also, it could be HTTPS, but neither here nor there. worldmmaawards.com. Or you can put your phone up to the screen right now,

scan that QR code, and vote for Morning Combat. BC, there's another place, I won't even say what it is. They put out odds on who would win best MMA programming and we at Morning Combat are sitting at plus 800. We have the worst odds. Even though we're back-to-back champions.

We have the worst odds as two-time defending champions. So when I saw that, and I, of course, quote tweeted it as did everybody else, Jed I. Goodman added me so I would see that, and all of our fans, rightfully so, are like, holy crap, dude, I'm betting the house on MK. They don't know what happened. Is this ignorance? Do they not know what happened?

Or do they have inside info? Are they predicting that one of the shows we're up against just makes a public assault on their voters to try to make a run at us i think that they're underestimating us as one but i also think that they're just making something of a basic calculation like listen um you know we don't do the biggest numbers of some of the shows or programs in this category. And I think they're looking at that and they're saying, and they're saying, aha, you know, there's something to this,

which I understand, but... Well, I want to say something to the other nominees then, who I respect a lot. You may have more listeners than us, more subscribers, more followers than us, but are your P1s crazier than ours? No. Are your hardest of hardcore fans willing to risk it all, including up into

and including incarceration to not only support their favorite podcast hosts, but inevitably in the Shakespearean arc of Luke's life, be there to finish him off at the end. My answer to that, Luke, is no, you don't. You've never seen anyone bring any of the producers from Contender Series Land Yeager in a sea bag. They've just never seen it. You've never seen it.

And I ate it in my room. So how about that? Sir, are you a seaman or is that just your main ingredient? You know what I mean, Luke? I don't understand that guy's history. All right, let's get away from that. Let's keep the show rolling. You know what to do, folks.

If you love us, vote for us. Yes. And if you really love us, vote for us illegally 37 times so that everybody can get mad that we sold you. 49 is the optimal number. 49. It's the optimal number. Indeed. All right, topic number one, we do have to look at the fireworks and the specifics of what went off on this week's Jake Paul versus Nate Diaz tour stops.

The press conference on Thursday, all taking place in Dallas. American Airlines Arena where Saturday's DAZN pay-per-view, which can be purchased on ESPN+, which is an interesting development. But it's Jake Paul. It's Nate Diaz. it's 10 rounds, 185 pounds, professional boxing. Luke, I had made, look, we've been very honest about one thing, and I get because of the timing it's easy to say, okay, BC and LT, Jake's not on Showtime anymore, so it's very easy for you guys to ponder whether the balloon has popped of the celebrity crossover or whether there's any air left or whether this fight has grabbed the attention

of the public in a way it maybe would have or could have a year ago, two years ago. I still think what we're seeing and what we saw at that press conference, even though I challenged the promotion of this fight to say, look, there's just not enough cheese, pro-wrestling anger. There's not enough of hype or buzz or anything to give people feeling

that i would have expected between these two luke i'm not saying they specifically answered my call but they did respond and the question now becomes should i be careful what i ask for because luke how would you describe how the poor ariel had to be the the director of ceremonies on this. How would you describe what went on in Dallas yesterday? Well, I mean, listen, on the one hand, you sort of know that like this was not, I mean, you know, this was never intended to be, no one was ever going to take it this way. Like this is not Spence Crawford.

This is not in a way versus Fulton. This is a different side of the game. And everyone kind of understands that. But even with that, it just felt like disjointed yesterday. You know what I mean? Like an event was happening, but almost in a way where there was like a small series of other events

in a kind of, as I indicated, disjointed way and kind of just rolling forward in this loose confederacy of weirdness. You know, for example, let me give you an example. Right, I mean, these guys are calling each other slurs that we can't even repeat on television or even on YouTube, but for losing all of our modernization money. There's one part of that.

The other part is, how about this guy, Derek, the better guy, which is the BETR, Jake Paul Company, where he's the guy who was taunting Nate Diaz the last time there was a press conference to announce this fight. He's back, and then he calls him up on stage or tries to. It's this really ugly episode where Nate says a bunch of things he probably shouldn't say. Well, let's go to it. Let's illustrate it, Luke. Let's go to Derek from Better Media here, Mikey, if you don't mind.

Statement and a question. No, it was an apology. Okay, fine. Fair enough. And, like, it's, you know, maybe if your boys see me, you don't mind statement than a question no it was an apology okay fine fair enough and like it's you know maybe if your boys see me maybe they won't me up this week anything to say nate can't wait to watch jake knock you the out Hey, bring this little bitch up here. Get him the fuck out of here. He's coming. Oh, no.

Oh, no. Derek, what have you done? The lack of respect for my mother. What this f***ing camp, motherf***er. That's the problem. What is going on? F***ing influence. These guys influence f***ing Rhode Island b***h boys because they're motherf***ers like you. You're the f***ing bad guy and this little f***er needs to be f***ed with. And f*** your dad too.

Well, Luke, it was nice that DAZN put up the disclaimer atop the screen that they apologize for the content. To recap here, I saw a separate video that Andreas Hale posted of the Sporting News where it looked like Jake Paul's father, who had been a big part of this Netflix series documentary in terms of being an antagonist for Jake that we didn't know about, actually stepped in and prevented Derek from better media, from getting on stage and maybe starting something.

Now, unfortunately, Nate made some homophobic slurs there, bringing in the Island Boys who look, I don't know, we haven't even talked about this because... Island Boys catching strays out there, huh? Well, did you know that they now make out with each other on videos? Did you know that? All right. I mean, we don't, this is information I could have done without okay well that's what nate was wrestling you got up this morning you need to think more like what do i not need to tell yeah okay well i'm just letting people know that

this is how the ridiculousness is that's what they're reaching for and bring me in here so i get what nate's trying to do here in fact he almost you know showed his cards during this presser saying look yeah we finally got n, you know, pissed off. We finally got him going. But I never felt it was Nate versus Jake in the end, which is the thing when I thought their initial press conference failed when they did it in Dallas in front of zero fans. And there just wasn't really any heat between Nate and Jake at the end of the day. And in this one, Luke, we got Derek involved, but it was cringe and it was weird. And we're going to throw to eventually hear that ultimately the security teams fought, but never real heat between Nate and Jake. So while I appreciate the effort to do something here to try to drum up interest, I got to say my biggest

takeaways are this. The homophobic stuff just went too cringe and Nate just doesn't want to be here, dude. It's clear. It's evident. And I think that's the biggest issue from this fight, along with it being a little bit too late in terms of the prime bubble for this crossover thing. There's no real stakes, Luke. And Nate just doesn't seem like he cares. Jake tried his hardest to come in like a cowboy. Can't nobody tell him nothing, Luke. it didn't work at the end of the

day yeah I mean again I I really agree I think that's the issue it's like you know it's when when Nate talks about like the importance of prize fighting and getting the bag like we're all I think most MMA fans and I speak for myself but I know a lot of fans feel similarly that it's like okay this is the good this is good for Nate this is good for Nate to go and try this out get this get this bag whatever it is leverage his name to reap the biggest fortunes he can in the fight game. That's ultimately the name of the game, prize fighting, right? But in the end, he doesn't seem that invested in this rivalry. Jake does.

Jake seems invested in this rivalry, in this opportunity, because for him, it's like if he wins, it's like another MMA endeared name he would have on his ledger which would be great for him obviously especially coming off the tommy fury loss but i said it before it's like their face off didn't have a lot of heat to it like there's it's just every it's every side character battling with every other side character yes or side characters battling with jake or nate but not with jake and nate battling you know each other in that not with Jake and Nate battling, you know, each other in that way. It's just a weird combo, you know?

Look, you know that term we throw around, old guy at the club? And we've kind of felt feelings of that before we got married when we were 26, 27, and we'd still go out to the club and there'd be all college girls there. And you're like, oh my God, did I just become the old guy at the club? Nobody wants to be the old guy at the club. We've seen the old creepy guy at the club who tries to grind with the younger ladies, right? I felt old guy at the club vibes for Nate when he was going up to the face-off, meaning obviously Jake, rightfully so,

is trying to turn, because he can't get Nate to get pissed off at him, so he's trying to turn social media influencing and the youth against him, and Nate is just repelling it like, guys, this isn't what I'm about. And it made him look like he's almost too old for this BS Luke, you know what I'm saying? So part of the, I think part of the fail here that Jake tried, Jake's trying to offer $10 million

to Nate through the PFL to do an MMA rematch next year. And I'm asked multiple times this week, Nate's basically saying, I'll fight you in MMA, but it's not going to be in the PFL. an MMA rematch next year. And I'm asked multiple times this week, Nate's basically saying, I'll fight you in MMA, but it's not going to be in the PFL. If anything, it'll be a co-promotion with my own promotion, and more than likely, I'm going back to UFC anyway.

Luke, not that this boxing match needed the gimmick of an immediate MMA rematch. I'm just saying, the same principles that led to Jake becoming an attraction are no longer in place now. One of them being he's this guy who's moonlighting as a boxer. Well, we'll see when he finally loses. He just lost. It happened, okay? And number two, why did crossover boxing and carnival influencer boxing have a legitimate window where the balloon was filled with air because it came up to live during the pandemic during a time when it was even harder

for regular traditional boxing to make the fights that really mattered because they didn't have the live gate access for the most part early on. Remember it was Triller putting on these fights with no crowds and just throwing money at celebrities to show up. It worked then when the best weren't fighting the best. Now we're having this great boxing calendar year where the storyline of Jake taking on MMA just doesn't feel like it's hitting. The whole idea of is Jake a real boxer, like we're already past that.

My whole point is, Luke, unfortunately to those involved, they're trying their hardest except for Nate. But we're already past this. And you can say what you want. Oh, you guys said different things when Jake was on Showtime. Well, we were in a different point of the crossover bubble at that point. We're kind of past that, Luke. Yeah, I mean, also, you know, listen, we were paid to do a job,

which was to cover Jake Paul's fights, and we tried to do that as forthrightly as we can. BC's going to do a post-fight show. It's not like we're not doing one. I would do it as well if I wasn't for my birthday. My wife's got plans. But, like, we're giving you the coverage of it. I just don't feel like...

Listen, if people... And everyone's going to be different. There were probably some people who felt this way by the time, A, even by the Woodley fights, but then certainly by the Anderson Silva fight. And I understand that. Everyone gets to it at a different spot. I'm not even mad at this fight, to be honest with you.

Like, I don't even, like, I think Jake Paul has gotten a lot of MMA fighters paid. I think what he's done in trying to pick a fight with MMA has been interesting. But I feel like that interestingness is winding down. It's not really as interesting, that rivalry between himself and the fan base where they really hated him. And remember, listen, Dana White used to have to respond to everything Jake Paul said in the media. Like, Dana White is obviously on vacation or whatever, but, like, there's none of that happening right now.

This is what I mean. Like, that thing has kind of cooled off a little bit. So, listen, Jake Paul is going to get Nate Diaz a, I'm sure, respectable back. He's going to get himself one. If you like it, pay for it. If you don't, skip it. I don't care. It doesn't matter to me.

We're going to give you coverage of it just the same. We're going to cover it straight up and legit. And hopefully, Luke, seriously, hopefully it's a really fun fight. Hopefully for their sakes. It could be. Especially if Nate pulled the upset, you would be talking about a rematch. It would matter. So I'm cheering for something fun to happen here, but I've got my doubts.

Let's go to the second video we have. We all hoped it would lead to some pushing and shoving on stage, Luke, or something that tells us there's a real beef or a real competitive aspect to this. Unfortunately, we didn't get that from Jake and Nate. We got that from everybody else who was lingering on stage. Here's proof of what went down. Jake, brother, who cares? Because he could lose there and still be okay he's losing to

nate diaz absolutely i just think nate feels a little bit out of place i'm not gonna lie he doesn't look comfortable no i think this is him when i watch him like pointing out jake's manager as well now so you want to get some well you can get some like uh me no not me buddy yeah this must be a bit unusual it is weird because they're not even staring at each other. There's no face-off. They're just standing close to each other. I don't think Nick can stand still for more than two seconds anyway. That's the issue.

I would like to see a typical boxing face-off. You know what I mean? I particularly don't like the MMA style one. Yeah, we are hopefully going to hear from both. Jake, I know will definitely come and join us. Uh-oh, there's some pushing going on. Now it's the security guards pushing each other as well up there. That we don't want to see.

No, we don't want to see a brawl there. We don't want to see. Uh-oh. Hey, hey, hey. Uh-oh. Oh, okay. That's what we don't want to see. Well, Luke, the bodyguards went ham.

How did nobody shoot a double leg on the problem bot in that? Get that gross guy out of there that's on the inside. You know that weird guy with the hair on the inside? Shout out to that guy's job. But, yeah. What do you think, Luke? He seems like a nice guy, but he's definitely slept in his car in the last two months. You know what I'm saying?

That's definitely happened. I mean, this is what I mean. By the way, you heard, I didn't know who all the voices were. You heard Ack and Barack up there, I believe. Shouts to those guys. They've always been real cool to me. I saw Ack, by the way, in Vegas. I didn't see Barack.

They're always so cool to us that I have so much respect for them, and I really like their personality. But he made a good point. He made a good point, right? He was saying they weren't even looking at each other. Nate was there on stage. Jake was kind of trying to pose off. But there was no nothing between them.

And listen, it doesn't all come down to the face-off. Spence and Crawford didn't have the most electric face-off either. We're just saying that distance between them, both literal and figurative, is emblematic of what it kind of feels like promoting this. I will say, BC, we should say this. The stage there looked like a really well-funded operation, right? Where they had these giant apparatus of their faces and who's promoting it and the companies and the date and everything and the step and repeat back there.

All that looked pretty good. They clearly have invested a decent amount of money into making these kinds of things happening between real fight inc and mvp which is jake paul's company we dealt with them when they were working with showtime and um and it seems like they've gotten better at the job you know i feel like they've really kind of figured this all out but also this is what jake paul does remember like the the press conference with woodley in cleveland where i was sweating like a prostitute in church and there was a fight with someone was kind of threatening Woodley's mom. Remember that?

In the audience. It was just craziness the whole time. So, like, this is kind of like the Jake Paul experience. This is what you get. It is what it is. Saturday night, his own pay-per-view. Don't forget, Morning Combat, instant analysis reaction to all the craziness. Or maybe it won't be crazy.

Maybe we'll get a competitive boxing match. I'll be there afterwards to take you through it. Topic number two, Luke, I want to get your reaction to some recent fight news, announcements, rumors, all that. Let's start off with this. USC Vegas 80, a fight night card. October 7th, Drew Dober versus Ricky Glenn. Your thoughts?

Yeah? Like that fight. Drew Dober, I think... How old is drew dober do we know yeah we have the internet i have it right here luke i can catch it you know while you're how old is he you know he does he was a guy who fought in 34 yeah i still feel like dober is capable i mean this is first of all it's gonna be an exciting fight two dogs actually ricky glenn was a guy who was really good in world series of fighting didn't quite quite pan out in a UFC the way I thought he would, but competitive, largely well-rounded.

That's a fun, I'll say this, fun action fight for sure. Yeah, Dober got knocked out by Matt Favola, rock and roll, but that had staffed a three-fight knockout streak for himself. Dober always brings it. Adrian Yanez was stopped by Rob Font, which has helped Boston Rob get into this Saturday's main event last minute but Yanez is back UFC Vegas 81 it's going to be October 14th how about Jonathan Martinez Luke Thomas um tough bounce back fight Martinez brings it yeah Martinez has

been on a he has slowly kind of ascended into an elevated space, but boy, he has arrived. Yanez needs a big win here. Needs a big one. This is a tough fight to come back to, but I think it's appropriate matchmaking because I think Martinez has earned an opportunity like this, and Yanez needs to really do whatever he can to hold on to his game. I think that the sharper boxing still belongs to Yanez. The overall better striking still belongs to him, BC. But the deal is this, which is what Rob Font showed.

The amount of punishment he'll tolerate to make adjustments early in fights is unforgivable. It's like literally in the last fight, unforgivable. I really want to see him tighten that up and then really get to cooking. What does it look like when he has a little bit more of that sensibility? I guess we're going to find out. Yeah, yo, Adrian, indeed. Look, we talked about this when it was breaking news on Wednesday, but talking more about this light heavyweight tilt, that's going to be in Abu Dhabi, October 21st, UFC 294 from what it means to the division's title picture. I want

to get your thoughts on the fight itself. Magomed and Kalayev, his return from the majority draw against Jan Blachowicz in their vacant light heavyweight title bout, is going to welcome Johnny Walker at 21-7, who has seemingly put things together after taking that tour of Scotland with his lower extremities and now taking over Ireland with John Cavanaugh. Luke, do you like this fight? I do. I think it's a tough fight for Walker because is Walker going to be able to out,

you know, technical on Kalayev? I'm pretty skeptical of that. You know, I don't think that that's a really doable thing. So Walker kind of has to bring back that old spirit that he had, but maybe be a little bit more, you know, judicious with how he uses his offense. That's a tough thing to do against Ankalayev. A tough-ass fight for Johnny Walker, there's no question.

Yeah, so Ankalayev has underperformed. We should be clear about that. But he still holds a lot of advantages over Walker. But I'll say this. If you had any doubts about Walker, and I think some have been very fair, and he goes in there and beats Ankalayev, well, now you really have to ask, okay, how good can this guy be?

That would be, my point being is, BC, that would be one of the more validating wins you could get in this division. No doubt. Not just in terms of getting a title shot, but like what it would mean to beat a guy like that. We're not, wait, this is not setting up Johnny Walker versus Poiton for the championship

if he wins here, right? We still have Yuri Prochazka coming back yes he might get depending depending when he comes back he might get the winner like there's all kinds of ways this goes wow well Johnny Walker could really crash the party here Luke really could in a wild way he could that'd be wild uh let's go over to boxing ish how about this Luke we're gonna see a double header of exhibition boxing October 14th in which KSI and Logan Paul are not going to fight each other, but they both will box on the same card. You have to believe a further tease to get them back in there for a third time.

But how about this? KSI is going to take on Tommy Fury, who's fresh off of a victory over Jake Paul. Will you care at all for this? Yeah, I mean, listen, I don't care if these guys live or die. I just want to be 100% clear about that. But I'm teasing. But I mean, listen, I'll repeat what Scott Chris says about covering fights like this. It's like if you guys, you know, if you cared as much about one fight night 13 as you do about KSI Tommy Fury,

I wouldn't have to cover KSI versus Tommy Fury. But you don't. That's where the money is. So we have to cover KSI versus Tommy Fury, but you don't. That's where the money is, so we have to give it some attention so we can get some of it. Yeah, must be the money, Luke. Must be the money. Also this for breaking news, Luke,

not necessarily today, but there's some follow-up I want to talk about. Kelvin Gastelum, who was cutting back down to welterweight and really making a last-ditch run at the smaller weight class, was going to take on your boy Shavkat Rachmanov. It was going to be a very tough fight for Kelvin. We know that. That fight is now off. Gastelum pulling out with an injury, but Shavkat Rachmanov quote tweeted two days ago saying, you forgot to mention that you were struggling with the diet

too. This was in response to Gastelum showing video from the gym of an elbow from a sparring partner that hit him in the side of the head there and effed him up a good deal. Luke, separate from the trash talk here from Shuff, or the nose, sorry, elbow to the side of the face, hit him in the nose there and busted him up. This might be a good thing for my guy, Kelvin Gastelum, right? Like, this was the ultimate proving ground fight. You want to crash the title picture in a new division now go beat maybe the best rising guy but you it would be hard pressed to talk yourself into him winning that fight this might be a good development well yes I would obviously you know me I would favor Rachmanov in that fight to be very clear but you know you see what Jeff Neal was able to do putting hands on him where he just walks into range at times and got lit up. You would think an in-shape, ready-to-go Kelvin Gastelum might be able to do some of those same things.

You would think. Now, whether that's true or not or whether that would happen, I don't know. I don't know if they're ever going to fight at any point. I guess we'll see. But I would still favor Rachmaninoff. But I could understand why Gastelum might look at that and think, hmm, I have a chance. And we talked about it before, given the same thing.

If you beat a guy like Rachmaninoff, dude, you're back in the biggest way possible at 170. So it's unfortunate that this whole thing has kind of collapsed. Yeah, yeah, tough break there. But hopefully Gastelum can come back, get a really big fight, improve himself here at Welterweight. Let's go to women's boxing. How about this?

The rematch is set. It's November 25th in Dublin, Ireland. No, we're not getting Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano part two. We're getting Katie Taylor, Chantel Cameron part two. If you forgot already, Taylor, your undisputed lightweight champion, moved up to 140 pounds to take on undisputed 140 pound champion Chantel Cameron came up empty in their hard fought 10 round battle but to Katie Taylor age 37 to her the competitor inside of her Luke she said it right when the fight ended I have a rematch clause we're going to do this a second

time they're going to do it a second time November 25th Luke will you care though yeah sure I thought that Cameron really showed her quality and katie taylor's not getting any younger i understand why they want to do it again i didn't think katie taylor was so far out of it that a win was impossible but i would still favor cameron to win but um yeah it's not listen would i rather see the rematch with romanda serrano, I would. But it's a fine fight and I'd be happy to watch it. Very nice of you, Luke. Very nice of you. All right, let's keep it rolling here.

That's what I try to do. Next on my list is this, Luke. No one's talking about this. Does it matter? Francis Ngannou, we know, is going to box Tyson Fury. But do you know who his trainer is going to be?

Lead boxing trainer. Not Eric Nixick. Mike frickin' Tyson, Luke. his trainer is going to be? Lead boxing trainer. Not Eric Nixick. Mike frickin' Tyson, Luke. Mike Tyson is going to train Francis Ngannou to box against his namesake, Tyson Fury, when they meet in October in the Middle East. Luke, is this ceremonial or is this real? What are your thoughts on this? I mean, here's the thing, right?

It's like, well, one one you know bc could train with usain bolt for the rest of his life he's never going to make an olympic team like you know at some point like the die is cast but here's the other part it's like do i think that mike tyson could impart valuable wisdom from a fighting perspective in boxing for Francis Ngannou. Sure. Yes, of course. But it's like Mike's style would never be Francis' style. Like, Mike's style was short man explosive boxing. That's not who Francis is. You know, that peek-a-boo

kind of head off the line and then you're setting up these quick explosive angles to try and find openings. That's just not Francis. It's never going to work. So it's likeis it's never gonna work so it's like it's cool it's cool i just don't know how much of a difference it'll make yeah it felt ceremonial because of the way they announced it which was in line with uh part of this riyadh season saudi arabia celebration it was like yeah there was like a holiday day marked in there and

they put this announcement out sports washing eve yeah. Yeah, it felt a little bit like that. We'll see how that plays out. Let's go with this, Luke. Shakur Stevenson on Twitter. Now that Devin Haney has officially moved up to 140 to challenge Regis Progray in October for that WBC title, Stevenson needs a dance partner despite being the mandatory for that Undisputed Championship. So he put on Twitter, Yo champ, Vasily Lomachenko, let's make the highest skill level fight happen.

He did this with full respect, Luke. Loma needs a dance partner coming off of his close defeat to Haney that was disputed. How freaking awesome for the hardcore fan in your boy, BC, would Shakur versus Lomachenko be? Damn. I mean, give it to me. Yes, please. What could you say negative about it? Oh, I'd rather have I mean, give it to me. Yes, please.

What could you say negative about it? Oh, I'd rather have this. I'd rather have that. Okay, fine. I'd rather have a lot of things. But would I be very happy to get something like this? You bet. No doubt about it.

Please, yes, and thank you. Also, Luke, to close here, Terrence Crawford did his first extended sit-down post-victory over Errol Spence Jr. And you referenced it, of course. You can see all-access epilogue Saturday night on Showtime. Is that Saturday night? Yeah, right? Yeah. After the replay of the fight,

Crawford sat down, though, with Hot 97's Ebro and Rosenberg, and they asked him about Jaron Boots Ennis on the idea of, like, what are the big fights available to you moving forward? The quote from Crawford was, Boots is talented, but I'm looking for bigger and better opportunities like Charlo Luke I believe him when he says 154 moving up taking on Charlo taking on Spence a second time if he has to that's the direction he's going we've had Tim Zhu come out yesterday and say hey Crawford I'm here I'm willing to fight you is this this shade at boots? Is this avoiding boots, or is it just, hey, man, you're not quite there yet?

I mean, listen, I've been as high on boots as I think a person can be. It's a, hey, man, you're not there yet. Dude, this ain't Roy Manvia. You know what I mean? And obviously boots look tremendous in that contest, and that's an important test to pass. But this is just a complete – I mean, everyone's – listen, everyone plays this game

where it's like, who have you fought yet? Everyone gets, you know, tried to undermine in that way. But in all seriousness, like relative to the kind of accomplishment Bud has achieved and the difficulty of the task, who has Bud fought yet?

I'm sorry, who has Boots fought yet? It's a fair question. Like, he hasn't fought guys like this, even close. Like, to me, Who has boots fought yet? It's a fair question. He hasn't fought guys like this, even close. To me, have him fighting a Thurman. Keith Thurman's just talking about stuff. You see that clip of Keith Thurman on the airplane? Yeah, that was weird.

Keith Thurman sitting in coach on the airplane, jawing with a boxing fan who's saying, oh, you lost to Pacquiao. I mean, it was weird. It was weird, dude. He goes, I barely lost, so I'm undefeated and I have a BL. That's a barely lost. And I'm like, dude, what are you saying? It's not sensical, but

beating a guy like that, beating a Danny Garcia. I know he's at 154 already because he moved up through the Benavidez fight. But, you know, somebody in that top five, I mean, I really believe Boots has to go in there and dominate someone like that. He hasn't done that yet.

So I completely understand why Bud wants to fight Charlo, and I actually like that fight better. Indeed. And there's definitely rumors that Thurman could be headed toward a Jorgenis Ugas fight this fall, which would be tremendous, especially if the winner ends up fighting Boots. But I need Thurman to, whether it's Crawford, whether it's Spence, if Spence comes back and can and can I mean that would be at 150 either way I need Keith Thurman to go after a big fight at

this point Luke he's probably got one to two left in him I need that direction there and finally Luke uh this was about four or five days ago but I did want to get your take Kayla Harrison of the PFL who was out of the regular season this year the PFL didn didn't add her. Her contract expires at the end of the year. There's no guarantee that she moves on and enters the PFL play or sorry, pay-per-view division they're going to launch next year. She told Mark Ramondi of ESPN that she is interested in trying a soft cut down to 135 to see if she can do that. Now, mind you, she's competed at 155. One time she went down to 145 for LFA I believe to prove that she could do it her her victory afterwards had her saying I could do this like

for a big fight but not consistently look now she's saying I actually think I may need to make a run here at 135 let's be fair she kind of lost some of that big leverage that she had when we were talking about her facing Cyborg or Amanda Nunes does is this in your mind her realizing that she may need to do something drastic if the UFC is really in her future given that the 145 division may not have another day of life left to it I hate it I mean you could be right but I hate it like pop quiz, what weight class did she win in double gold in the Olympics? 152? No, 78 kilos, which is 172 pounds.

Oh, boy. Those are the weight classes that she won gold medals in, y'all. Oh, boy. 78 kilos. So getting to 155, no problem. Getting to 145, tough but doable. Going to 135 when you were a gold medalist in the Olympics at 172 pounds?

I gotta tell you, I don't think that's smart at all. Now, to your point, could it be a financial or frankly, some kind of necessity just to stay relevant in the sport, given where the matchups are and what time she has left? I understand your point completely, but I would just say that is

such a shame that an athlete this good and this ready to compete doesn't have any peers. And so she has to absolutely destroy herself to get to a weight class where people know other names. I hate it for her, dude. I absolutely hate it. Especially because she's a tank. She is a mountain of muscle. And when you cut muscle, as to you know bulk Luke or fat

you're gonna you end up being weakened in most cases so it's gonna be a really tough experiment if she goes through with it she's meant she's as mentally tough as they come but I really feel like the body has limits she should have been in the PFL playoffs here Luke she should have been trying to avenge the Pacheco loss in the championship this is what it should have been in the PFL playoffs here, Luke. She should have been trying to avenge the Pacheco loss in the championship. This is what it should have been. Or, I don't know, they didn't roll out the pay-per-view Super Fight League this year. They're going to roll it out next year. Speaking of that, Luke, let's go to topic number three, because Jake Paul was on Ariel Hawane's MMA Hour live from Dallas there in the arena

ahead of Saturday's fight, and he teased that he had a big MMA PFL announcement. Well, it turns out here's what it is. Highly decorated. In fact, the most highly decorated female boxing champion in history, Amanda Serrano, a champion in seven weight classes, is going to go back into MMA, adding herself for next year to the PFL's launch of this pay-per-view super fight division, which includes Francis Ngannou, Jake Paul. Who am I missing here, Luke?

There's potential for Cyborg if PFL buys Bellator. Maybe there's potential for Kayla Harrison. Amanda Serrano is going to do that. So a reminder, a refresher. Serrano is currently 34 years old. She'll rematch Heather Hardy in what is just an abomination of a boxing rematch on Saturday. But she did go two wins, zero losses, and one draw in three MMA contests, two in 2018, a third fight in 2021.

This was during the time before Serrano joined forces with Jake Paul where she just couldn't get money fights on TV that mattered. She went to MMA. She fought to a very competitive draw under the combate banner, bounced back with consecutive submission defeats, albeit against very low competition. Luke, how big of an announcement is this? Will this matter? What do you expect from Serrano going back into MMA and who the heck could be her opponents? Luke Grigoriadis I tell you what, we always say, hey, when are boxers going to cross over and fight MMA?

And I'm like, you've already seen it. You've already seen how about it? How about a boxer who's unified not one but two weight classes try MMA. You've seen it. Clarissa Shields, she did that. And here comes Amanda Serrano because again, if the market dynamics are such that they are going to get the opportunity to make as big or bigger paydays in MMA for the reasons why women's MMA is more popular than women's boxing, then you're going to see those

economic incentives drive things like this. I don't know exactly how big it will be because it's sort of a big sports story. I don't know that there's a lot of fan clamoring inside MMA for like, let's see what Amanda Serrano can do. I don't know exactly where that market is. But I just want folks to put some respect on some of these women boxers' names. For everyone being like, oh, one of the boxers is going to cross over. Guys, they've done it. They're doing it now. You're looking at it.

And I find it highly commendable. And by the way, it's a good signing for PFL. They need to sign names of people that generate headlines. That's the most important thing, because they've gotten to fight tonight with people that just don't. And so Serrano kind of solves that problem a little bit for them. Now, Serrano did take a lot of damage in her MMA debut in 2018. It was a draw with Corrina Herrera.

She lit her up early and then got taken down and had to really fight through it. But she did bounce back with two submission wins. Little known, Luke, she actually has five victories in submission grappling, does Samantha Serrano. Four of those came on a single night in 2018 under the Grappling Industries Nogi Jiu-Jitsu Tournament. I'm not trying to say she's world-class in there,

but she's a gamer. She's got a little bit of experience. Now, she was never able to box against Clarissa Shields, whose smallest weight as a pro has been 154, and I believe Serrano's highest weight was what, 140 or 147 in boxing? I wonder, could they go in the PFL super fight, MMA? Would you care about that? Would you care about the quote,

Clarissa Shields against Amanda Serrano in MMA? I don't know. It's weird, but I might be into it. I might be into it. Yeah, same feeling. It's weird, but I might be into it. I might be into it. Yeah, same feeling. It's weird, but I might be into it. I'd have to think a little bit more about that. But this is what they need.

They need clever, unusual matchmaking that somehow still captures people's attention. They need that strike force rub. And crazy fights like that may not do it, but that kind of thinking will get you closer. Let's transition into a brief preview of what else is going on in MMA this weekend between PFL and one championship. Luke, tonight it goes down in San Antonio.

PFL 4, and it's, sorry, PFL 7 is the name of the card. It is the first round of the playoffs in the featherweight and light heavyweight divisions. And in the main event, featherweights Bubba Jenkins and Jesus Pinedo. You heard me talk about that earlier on my OK Bet Pick. In that co-main event, Josh Silveira, the son of ATT coaching legend Brazilian Shrek, Luke, is going to take on Ty Flores. Now, Chris Wade also back against Gabriel Braga. Impa Kasangane is going to be in that light heavyweight tilt against Martin Hamlet.

These divisions got ravaged to a large degree by the drug suspensions, Luke Thomas. We're kind of mentioning this in passing. Does this PFL playoff card tonight deserve more mention than just in passing? No. This is, again, when people are like, who is Francis going to fight in the PFL? It's like this is why they need a pivot, because where does this lead you? Again, it sounds like I'm saying these fighters are bad.

That's not what I'm saying. It sounds like I'm saying you shouldn't care. That's not what I'm saying. What I am arguing is these fights are pretty fun. There's definitely a lot of fighters on here worthy of respect, but nothing about this is must-see. That's really the problem like what is the promotional angle that's going to get the average MMA consumer to say I need to take time out of my day to watch

this and it really just isn't any kind of hook so if you like MMA and you just want to see good MMA by all means you should watch tonight but I think this is the kind of roster where it's just not a promotional bridge to anywhere yeah unfortunately I think you're right. ESPN and ESPN Plus are the TV outlets they're streaming. But there's a better fight card, Luke, tonight in one championship. It's going to go down at Lumpini Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. But I've got breaking news about this card. Are you ready, Luke?

Let me hear it. You're not prepared for this, okay? You know the normal play-by-play voice starting this season? My boy Hot Stove, Brett Stover of CBS Sports fame and country music fame. Luke, who just launched his country-fied cover version of Mr. Brightside by the Killers. Did you check that out on Instagram? I didn't. I didn't.

Well, Luke, he will not be there tonight in Thailand for this card. Filling in, friend of the program, combat sports announcing veteran, Ray Flores, Luke? Wow. Shout out. Good for Ray. Shout out for Ray Flores, by the way. Filling in, joining Mitch Chilson

and Rich Franklin in the booth. Of course, you know Ray Flores. He's called Paul Fury, pay-per-views. Davis Garcia, you know his work on PBC. paul fury pay-per-views davis garcia you know his work on pbc we work with them on showtime he's also been both the ring announcer a cage announcer and post-fight interviewer at times for pfl so he's got that experience he's the voice of big 10 wrestling on the big 10 network uh big opportunity here for ray but luke you were talking to me offline about this card plenty of sneaky matchups that MMA fans should care about. It's an interesting one. I think of all the cards this weekend,

obviously, you know, Paul and Diaz got the biggest names. The highest quality main event is going to be Sandhagen Font. I mean, you know, in terms of MMA, but listen, this is what they have going on. It's at Lumpini Stadium, which Lumpini and Raja Domner, and these are the two most preeminent stadiums in all of Thailand. And they have three kickboxing bouts, two Muay Thai bouts, and then two submission grappling matches along with some MMA. We're not going to go through and do a whole breakdown, but I want folks to know main event at 155, Chinggis Alasoff, the guy who is the champion and lightweight for their kickboxing,

is taking on Murat Gregorian, who has beaten a lot of the bigger... I'm not pretending to be a kickboxing expert. I want folks to know. That's not what I'm saying. But trying to get you to understand, he has beaten a lot of the top names. They were supposed to fight previously. They have fought previously. But this is the...

I think there's still some question about, you know, settling their rivalry. Mikey Musumechi, Darth Rigatoni is going to take on Jared Brooks. Jared Brooks is the strawweight male champion out of one on the MMA side. Now, Musumechi will probably destroy him, but it's a fun one that could be kind of interesting. It's for their grappling titles as well. Tywin Chai, who is an absolute kickboxing phenom, is taking on Daveed Kiria. I was on a plane ride with Daveed Kiria when he beat... God, who did he beat back in the day?

This was like, I think it was Andy Riste? This was in Glory 14 in Zagreb? I think that's right. I can't remember. But he had, no, sorry. It was the,

oh, maybe that was it. I don't even remember anymore, BC. But he had just won, I think it may have been in LA. Maybe it was some other one. But he had won when he was competing for Glory. Super, super nice guy. Here he is competing on this card, as I indicated previously, against Tywin Shaw.

That should be a fun bout as long as it lasts. John Lineker's on this card, back in action, although he did lose his belt. He's taking on J. Woon Kim, who at least we'll meet him in the middle for folks who care. Marcus Boucher, who, by the way, 4-0, all these first-round submissions. He's incredible. Taking on Umar Kane. You might be asking who that is. I don't know if it's pronounced Roug Roug or Rug Rug.

I've heard it pronounced both ways. Come on. That's our guy, Roug Roug, man. Yeah. They're finally going to meet. They've tried to make this fight a number of times. They finally got down to it. Marcus Boucher Almeida, Boucher means fat cheeks in Portuguese.

He is already probably capable of beating top 10 guys in the UFC just based off his athleticism and submission game alone. A guy who was, I think, at least a 10 or 11-time world champion through IBJJF competitions. A guy as decorated as they come. That's Boucher. Still young enough, still athletic enough. Say again? This is a very cool fight.

The submission expert against the just savage, ground and pound and muscle-bound Rougarou. It's kind of got some old-school pride feels to this matchmaking. It does. And this, of course, will be a MMA fight that you should be paying attention to. Ty Ruiotolo is going to have a grappling match on this card. And there's some other bouts as well.

The point I'm trying to make, BC, is a lot of fun fights on this card. And I'm sure I've skipped over some ones that folks care about. This is one again, kind of taking a little piece of each of the combat sports world, putting it under an MMA promotional banner. It seems to work for a lot of folks. Indeed. Luke, I had missed this breaking

news that it's not a one-time event. Brent Stover has moved on from this position with one championship. Ray Flores has now accepted the title as your full-time play-by-play announcer for one championship MMA. Big opportunity for a guy, well, I love both guys, by the way, but a guy we know and like a lot, so

shout out to Ray. He's already got Luke extreme platinum status on every airline because Ray Flores travels more than anyone in combat sports. Dude, Ray Flores is going to do some damage in Singapore, Luke, okay? He's going to do some damage in Singapore, Luke, okay? He's going to do some damage and, you know,

get that Hasbulla gear ready because no one's going to rock it quite like Ray. But in all seriousness, congrats to Ray. He works hard. He works hard. Glad to see him getting an opportunity. And we'll see if Brent Stover can, you know, continue this transition, Luke, into country music. This guy, you know what I mean?

Just making ladies cry. Just an unbelievable man, that guy right there. All right, that was awkward for a transition. Luke, we've got a new segment that's called Name That Quote. You want to set us up here? Because I'm going to be in the hot seat. All right, we're going to see how this goes. I don't know how it's going to go, but here is the basic way we're going to run it.

We have quotes from Nate Diaz. We have quotes from Jake Paulul and then we've also mixed in some fake quotes i'm going to read the quote and brian campbell is going to guess who said it seems pretty simple right indeed all right i'm ready ready off camera i'm like chill and very laid back i don't know if shy but reserved i'm always thanking who said it nate diaz is that your final answer yes okay reveal oh it's jake paul you don't sob as nada that problem child luke that problem child what do you think about the cowboy hat and it seems like he's added more aggressive tattoos this time around,

although that image isn't all that. He's got more tattoos. His tattoos are pretty good, though, I have to say. Jake Paul has good tattoos. Jake Paul is one of the celebrities that actually pays for good tattoos, and you can tell, you know? Also, the brass knuckles thing. Here's what I would say about Jake Paul.

Dude, he looks way more muscular now than he did in that picture. Yeah. Don't you agree? that doesn't bode well for Nate alright here we go so you're 0 for 1 let's go to the second quote I don't like fake people

and that's why I don't keep fake around me that's all Nate Diaz that silhouette of him Luke is totally the 209 give me Stockton California's finest who said it it's fake I thought he said that at the press conference yesterday no I just

made it up this morning I really did I made it up this morning no fake you can't tell who says what I don't know shit Luke I know the things you've said though I'll never forget those about me about our listeners yeah like I said bro you don't save us nada. All right, let's go to the next one.

Here we go. Let's set it up. Okay. I don't come and fight for fun. I don't do that. I don't like to hurt people for fun. BC, who said it? Nate Diaz.

Let's reveal. Yeah! Now, here's the question as you go one for three what was it about this quote that allowed you to say it was Nate well the silhouette looked the most like Nate of any of them so far and I guessed him on the first two Luke and it didn't happen and that seems like something Nate would say so I think I finally got one right yeah the thing where both Diaz brothers are pretty big on fighting actually not being fun. They both talk about it a lot. So that's why I put that one in there.

Because if you've heard Nick talk about it, he's adamant he doesn't have fun doing it. Okay. There we go. All right. Let's go to the next one. BC. I'm not rich by accident. Who said it?

Well, I don't mean to show the man behind the curtain, but that looks a lot like Jake Paul. So I guess my question is, is that silhouette Jake Paul, or is this a fake quote? I'm going to try to outdo myself here and say this is a fake quote. Let's reveal.

Yeah! There we go better okay now what tipped you off that that was fake um it looked too obvious it looked too obvious the silhouette wasn't hidden at all it was obviously jake and the quote was kind of generic so i think I'm learning what this game is really about, Luke. All right. Yeah, you know, he stumbled out of the gate. But here you go. He's starting to catch a little speed on the runway. All right, next one. Here we go.

This one's short and sweet. Me calling out Roy Jones is disrespectful. Who said it? Fake. Let's reveal. It's Nate Diaz. What's the context here? So here, so okay, so it wasn't from yesterday,

but yesterday he did say when that guy, that guy Derek from Better, was like, you know, can't wait for Jake to, when he did all that, you know, bit on the microphone. What did Nate say? Nate was like, he accused Jake of being disrespectful. I think part of the reason he kind of hates this whole thing is he just doesn't love the Jake Paul show, right?

So if you go back to the original quote, someone was asking him about fights he could have or fights he could call out. Like, what about Roy Jones? People were just naming names. And his point was at the time, like, me calling out a legend like that is not even respectful to that legend I'm not worthy essentially and I think there's a little bit of like that old school respect that the DS team

kind of operates under and then expects from others understandably to an extent certainly and Jake is just like the opposite of that you know okay all right so how many of you gotten right you've gotten two right I think that's right two so we got the last one this was a bit Jake is just like the opposite of that. Okay. All right. So how many have you gotten right? You've gotten two right? I think that's right. Two? So we got the last one. This was a bit of a trial balloon, so it's gone quickly.

We got one more for you. Let's see what you can do. Let's put it on the screen. I get to do what I want, and I get paid millions of dollars to do it. BC, who said it? Jake Paul said that. Let's reveal. Yes, it was, in fact, Jake Paul.

Now, I have to say, the silhouettes, Mikey, we've got to figure out something about the silhouette. We have to have a generic silhouette every time because sometimes it faked him out, but sometimes it led a horse to water and then he drank. Yeah, this horse is thirsty, Luke. You can call me Brian Camel. Are you even paying attention, BC?

I mean, you've got to show me a little bit of enthusiasm. I'm here, Luke. I've always been here, okay? All right, well, that was the game. Well done, BC. You seemed to have... I mean, I guess that's a one and done. BC didn't seem to like it, and I don't know.

There wasn't really a whole lot to it, was there? So that was fun. Yeah, I tried my best, Luke, and I came up empty. But nice try, indeed. You got three of six. That keeps you in the majors. I tried to come up on top, Luke, and go undefeated, but I was dead wrong. And luckily for our listeners who hate us just as much as they love us,

we also have a segment every week where we have to stand trial. Morningcombat at gmail.com. And, yeah, I apologize for my low energy on that segment, Luke. I was trying. I do have low testosterone, I think. My doctor said I don't, Luke, but sometimes it just feels like it, you know? I think you're just depressed. So we stand trial after you email Mikey at morningcombat at gmail.com.

You better have receipts. You better not be pedantic. You better have good cable management. This one's called Dead Wrong. Alright, Luke. This one's from Mike. Mike the snake breeder, he calls himself. You know what you feel about people

who have snakes in their house, right? Yeah, I mean, listen. There's exceptions to this, you know, but if you're just an average guy, like if you're a single man and you're 32 and you have multiple snakes in your house, you don't have any women in your house. Like that's just a guarantee, right? Pretty much. Mike says, on Monday's show, while discussing the UFC throwing shade

at Derek Lewis by placing him on the 291 prelims, you claim that Dana and company had his fight with the Lima slated to be the featured prelim. That's actually dead wrong before being bumped to the main card. Lewis's fight was scheduled as the third fight on the prelim card, not the feature slot. That's right. Okay,

hold on. I want to throw Mikey under the bus here because I'm not saying that this is wrong, but I, Mikey and I could be wrong here too, but I do recall you writing in the chat window at the time featured prelim, which was why I said featured prelim. I was going on the,

on the strength of my producer who failed me. Okay. Well, what Mike says was that, uh, UFC did the breath UFC breasted the black beast dirtier than you realized. Oh, and speaking of Derek Lewis, he has abs now. You and BC need to take lessons, as I'm sure both of your midsections resemble,

a sack of potatoes. Get it together, and maybe your wives won't be repulsed by you two anymore. All right, that's going a little far. Don't worry about my wife there, Bucko. Mike, the snake breeder. So, Luke, I think Mike is feeling it in his feels about his own gross collection of snakes as an adult male. Listen, it's not my fault that he loves the company of king snakes and cobras and pit vipers. I'm just saying it makes you weird. Yeah, it had to be snakes, right, Mike?

Wow. Let's hear from Randy the White Belt, is what he calls himself. In episode 471 at 1 hour and 32 minutes, while discussing Gabriel Bonfim, BC the... the what? Hold on, I've got to update my... Don't say a racial slur. BC the Fecy, okay, states, it's his first UFC fight. Bone Femme fought Munir Laze at UFC 283 in which he also won by guillotine, but that was of the mounted variety.

Love the show. Hate you both. It's Randy, the white belt. Okay. Thank you. Uh, let's go a little harsh given the error, but that's the end of the game. This is Vinny D., our final one from Flint, Michigan. Episode 471, Luke states that Bobby Green's outfit at the press conference,

that he's, quote, ready to catch fastballs and two-seamers. As an old man league baseball catcher myself, two-seamers are fastballs bud also at 229 luke says you know a guy is from tennessee or australia when they are doing this shit end quote in reference to chandler messing with a snake on the golf course chandler's from missouri my guy yeah yeah yeah but he lives in tennessee fuck off that's not i'll take the first dead wrong not the second no no no no although being married to someone from missouri i can confirm country folk from Missouri are not above this type of behavior either. Thanks gentlemen. Love the show. Vinny D from Flint, Michigan. I guess he, I guess he, I guess I should have said a three seamer instead of a two. So I shouldn't counter Vinny with a bottled water joke, Luke. No, no, no. We'll just let him live. No, no. Luke, our final... That's dead wrong.

We stood trial. Okay? We were willing to. Thank you. MorningCombat at gmail.com. Finally, Luke. So Kevin Lee retired. So we may have...

What is Mikey saying? You're going to... He said there's only two seams on a fastball. Aren't there some pitches called three seamers, though? I understand. I played baseball. Yeah, there's a four-seam fastball. There's a four seams on a fastball. Aren't there some pitches called three seamers, though? I understand. I played baseball. Yeah, there's a four-seam fastball. There's a four-seam.

There's two seams that wind around, but there is a thing called a four-seam fastball. I played baseball. I was in Little League and stuff like that. I've held a baseball. I've thrown it. I've caught it. I've hit it. I understand.

But aren't there pitches that are called three-seam? Like, that's the name given to them? No. Let me look this up. I think there's a two-seam fastball and a four-seam fastball. That's what I think, Luke. They're both fastballs. It's just dependent upon your grip. No, I think there's a two-seam fastball and a four-seam fastball. That's what I think, Luke. They're both fastballs. It's just dependent upon your grip.

There is a three-seam fastball, so everyone can F off. Well, that's lamer than a $2 bill, Luke, okay? Yeah, so how about that? How about all of you stop? There you go. Okay, Luke, the baseball genius over there. No, no, no. I know next to nothing, but I've held, thrown, played baseball.

I understand that you... I get it. Well, Luke, you know, you could look back and say maybe we cursed Kevin Lee by calling him future champion so much to the point of retirement. Yeah, maybe.

But there's a growing future champion in the sport of MMA who has bolas, huevos, as we say, Luke, who loves MK so frigging much that he puts the emblem on his bolas, Luke. You know who I'm talking about. California's own amateur MMA sensation, P1 of MK, Christian Degaro, Luke, who came up to me at the Margarita Field Las Vegas live show and said, I'm going to be champion one day. I'm an amateur. I'm training hard. And Luke, we know

what he's done. He's back Saturday. What you're looking at is his Instagram story photo thanking all of his sponsors. And Luke, even though we don't financially sponsor Christian yet, we do sponsor his balls apparently from the placement here. So Luke, I want to give you some information. This is an amateur MMA fight, featherweight division. It goes down Saturday in Commerce, California. The promotion is Spar Star Promotions SSP. This card is SSP Fight Night 55. And if you want to watch Christian DeGarro of Morning Combat Fight live you can go to sspmma.com this card starts at 8 p.m eastern on Saturday night and five and one amateur sensation Christian DeGarro will be giving up four inches of height to three and one Dylan Morales of Ontario, California. Luke, I love me some Christian Degaro.

One day I will be the coach Latore to his AfriCon champion, Mike Perry. What are your thoughts, messages, warm greetings to Degaro as he prepares for his seventh amateur fight against Dylan Morales on Saturday? I would say this. I would say listen to your coach. Follow the game plan.

You've been here before. This is entirely winnable. You will win because you will go out there and you will execute. You will be careful, but you will be steady. And after the fight, if you're ready to celebrate, I'll say this, BC. I'm not offering my services like I'm some genius, but as a show of generosity, here's something that happens to me all the time I don't talk about too much. I get a lot of amateur fighters who reach out and ask me to watch tape of them.

It happens all the time. So if Degaro wants me to look at some and offer feedback, which, of course, I can understand why he would say, fuck off, I don't need you, then I understand that as well. But I'm merely offering, if that's something that he is interested in, win or lose with that. But more importantly, just a word of advice. You're ready.

You're going to do it. You're prepared. Follow the game plan. Be steady. Be strong. And then go get your hand raised. We're proud of you. The product of Black House MMA in California, Luke Christian Degaro. I see him on Instagram all the time. Follow him, MK fans. if you don't already. Get some good love and warm greetings behind this guy

because he's coming on. And, Luke, I mean, that's so – how awesome is it that he literally got himself an MK patch and he wears it right where it matters most to represent us? We've got to represent him. I love this guy. I love this guy. Yeah, and the best part is we don't have to pay a dime.

We really have figured this out the best way. That's been fantastic. Luke, that's our show for this week, for this Friday. I want to remind you of a few things.

Number one, Saturday night after Nate Diaz versus Jake Paul on his own pay-per-view, you can catch your Morning Combat Instant Analysis with me. Birthday boy Luke Thomas

will be celebrating 4-4 with his family and luke what else you got i got breaking news for christian daguerreau oh ready to hear this yep from average joe art on twitter someone tell christian daguerreau to get at me i'll create his first t-shirt artwork for free man is going to be a world champion so we got to put these guys in connection together and then he can get some great artwork indeed future champion christian daguerreau is coming on no doubt about it love to see it indeed reminder also luke i'm here in bethlehem pennsylvania tonight 9 p.m eastern showbox the new generation is back with a triple header Jordan White versus Aronson Garcia in the main event 130 pounds Raul Marquez Barry Tompkins your boy BC Steve Farah the Hall of Famer will be part of the broadcast team

I am so looking forward to it. There was a purity Luke in show box that is Reminiscent of like intense college basketball or you know intense high school football It's a little bit more pure because these guys are fighting hard to have their moment. Last time we were in this building earlier this year, David Stevens rallied in the final round against Sean Hemphill to score one of the most dramatic come-from-behind knockout wins in showbox history.

I'm looking for the magic again tonight, so I know a couple of donks have reached out and said they're in the area. They're going to come say hi. Thank you. We appreciate you. Check it it out if you don't have showtime why not try 30 days for free you can watch me tonight 9 p.m eastern go to showtime.com thank you very much Mikey Mormal our great producer behind the scenes at CBS sports Linda thanks for directing Luke you want to send us out of here do you want to say anything nice

to anybody enjoy your weekends catch bc's uh paul diaz post fight stream should be a lot of fun we'll be back on monday with a big old reaction i'll let you guys know how oppenheimer is and uh i guess we're out on vacation luke i'm going on vacation next week so oh yeah right so we'll see what happens what the show looks like you're gonna have some replacements in some friends of the program we'll have some stuff for everyone to get ready so don't worry about all right uh we love you folks take care of yourselves protect your head okay put yourself first mental health let's do it we can get through this yes even this trial we got this uh great fights this weekend enjoy them one

championship pfl ufc all that and then some tall pale and handsome your boy bc lt checking out we love you but this is the end of the show i'm done