MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Jon Jones, Dana White, UFC 249, Tiger King | MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 36

Episode Date: March 30, 2020

On episode 36 of Morning Kombat, Luke and Brian discuss Jon Jones latest run in with the law and Dana Whites comments on UFC 249. They also talk about the job the combat sports media has done in covering COVID-19.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Reveille, reveille, donks. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell.

This is Morning Combat. It is Monday, March 30th, 2020. Reveille, reveille, donks. It is time for Morning Combat. How are you doing? My name is Luke Thomas. I join you from the nation's capital right here in Los Estados Unidos. I am joined by my hetero life mate and partner. He might know where Carol Baskin's ex-husband is buried. We have to ask him.

He is my friend and yours from CBS Sports and many other places. It is the one and only check casher himself, Brian Campbell. Brian, it is an interesting Monday to be here, my friend, is it not? What a time to be alive and not in the jowls of a large cat, Luke. You can call me the Joe Exotic of combat sports, but we back, baby. Trust me, we back. Let's do this thing luke i'm fired up how about that new intro for the people did that give you any movement luke yeah again what's it i hope you understand and you saw that it consecrated tip to tip in the intro you keep thinking you're gonna outrun this reputation it is your reputation yeah how dare you how dare you but uh let's let's let's uh let do this thing, Luke. I hope people caught our debut of Classic Combat over the

weekend. You can catch it on YouTube. Looking back at that Marquez Vasquez famous boxing trilogy. Luke, can I announce much more to come in that direction? Yeah. So we talked to the folks at Showtime and they liked what they saw. A lot of room to grow. Now, we've got to nurture it. We've got to develop it, much like this program. But they saw what you guys saw, and they enjoyed it. They saw your feedback, and they enjoyed it as well. So more is on the way. We'll have some details about that.

Now, Brian, before we get started, I forgot to do that last week. I'm going to make the plea again one more time. If you're watching right now whether live or not thumbs up thumbs up on the video and hit that subscribe button we are back to doing live shows this train rolls on and it turns out today that there's actually plenty of combat sports news to get to so without further ado go ahead well just double down on that briefly look we're very knowledgeable that we're within quarantine season we've never experienced this life before but there's two things you want to do during that and mk's got you covered professor salt and pepper can keep you updated on how you should be socially reacting

and your boy bc i will just talk tips for an hour and a half let's do this luke i know you have a harder out than me watching color of night with jane march 1994. So we better get this train on the tracks. All right, let's do this. So first things first, let's see if I can match up with the graphics, Jay. Let's get to it. All right, topic number one. Let's see. Put the graphic up.

Did I get out of the way of the graphic? Yeah, I did it. We have to rearrange this rundown in real time because we have, I guess you would call it something like breaking news. UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov took to Instagram, I guess this morning, Russia time, and he is in Dagestan, to say basically the following. He was told by, this is his words now, he was told by UFC that the fight with Tony for UFC 249 was going to be almost 99% sure it was going to be overseas, certainly on the other side of the Atlantic.

So it was told Abu Dhabi. He goes to fly there, and they say, we're going to close the borders. So he dips out of there, goes to Russia, awaits further instructions. And for folks who don't know, Friday, they grounded flights in Russia. And then today, they sealed their borders. He is basically stuck. ESPN's Ariel Helwani reporting that the UFC is now trying to make Tony versus Justin Gaethje as something of a replacement fight. Brian, I'll go to you first on this.

What is your reaction to this news? Certainly, there's an element of my reaction, Luke, that does center on the idea we can't afford it this fight's cursed five fifth time's the charm right web scream who jumped in our dms that episode with chuck and i uh christy furrows may not have been wrong here unfortunately the gods the the powers of the world luke whether you believe that this country is run by people in an underground bunker in Colorado or not uh mother nature the lord this fight can't happen Tony versus Habib at least not right now so that's

certainly one element of it the other it's disappointing Luke and for me it centers around Dana White this is no longer in my opinion about let's give the fans some kind of entertainment while going through this quarantine season or maybe even about you guys don't understand the financial realities of endeavor and UFC and debt so the show must go on to me this is all about Dana White refusing to take the L and if Dana White is going to continue to come out here and not take a loss, then Luke, nobody's going to win in the end because if we get a bastardized version of something that we waited so long for, which would have been Tony Habib 5, there was already an element where you could complain and say,

look, is it worth it? Do we want to do this in an empty arena halfway across the world with a questionable training camp? But now if you're just going to blow that up and potentially take the powers invested there, potentially take Tony Ferguson, who's 36, has been down such an incredibly long and difficult road to preserve this moment of finally fighting for the lightweight title in the deepest and most dangerous division in UFC history. And now you're just going to throw the dice up in the air and say, yeah, you're going

to fight Justin Gaethje instead on Florida Native American grounds because just because that's an L. Take the L, Dana. No one's going to hate you long term. In fact, you'll get support. These cards are not supposed to be going on right now in these unprecedented times. What else needs to be done or right now in these unprecedented times what else needs to be done or shown for Dana to understand that remember it was going to be

full steam ahead after UFC 249 I need folks to listen to what I'm saying I'm going to be as as clear and I conscientious of everyone's feelings about this, but understand something here. Why are world governments like Italy, Iran, now Russia, the United States, Canada, Brazil, by the way, Brian, instituting today a 30-day ban on foreigners. Now that won't cover UFC 250, but what if they extend it? Why is that happening? This is a very easy thing to understand. Luke, Russia, Russia is closing the gates. Russia is saying, no, you cannot have the. Luke, Russia is closing the gates. Russia is saying, no, you cannot have the fight here. Let me make the point.

There are a number of solutions they could all be taking. If there was a vaccine, they would do it, but there isn't one. If there was a known, clear, clinically trial-proven antiviral treatment with antibiotics that they really knew and could deploy, they would. Now, they might get that soon, but as I speak to you today, they don't have that. The only mechanism, the United States, Russia, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, the only mechanism they have is social distancing, quarantine, suppressing people, and pushing them away from each other. That is it. That is why they keep doing it. And if you look at the numbers in this country and in Russia and in Spain,

maybe not Italy, they could be over the hump. It's going to get a lot worse. I have been saying this for almost a month now, and I'm going to keep repeating it. This is not going to get better anytime soon. Not the economic distress and not the pain from this virus. The idea that this can just carry on in this environment is ludicrous. And honestly, I feel for the fans who've been led to believe that this is something that's still going to go on. Dude, we have not even entered April yet. By April 15th, we might, might be at the peak of that. And by the way, you mentioned the Florida Native America grounds. I don't know what the rules are for what the UFC could or couldn't do

there if that was an opportunity they want to explore. But number one, yesterday, the president expanding CDC guidelines until the 30th of this month, not relaxing them for Easter, number one, yesterday, the president expanding CDC guidelines until the 30th of this month, not relaxing them for Easter. Number one. And number two, beyond that, the governor, DeSantis in Florida, has not taken an aggressive approach to the one tool that we have, which is keeping people apart from each other. I don't know if that place is going to explode, but chances are it's probably going to explode. This is all predictable. This is all knowable. Brian and I spent our weekend drinking alcohol and watching fights, not making epidemiological models.

But the people who do have been saying, look at the math. It's going to get worse before it gets better. This idea, as world governments close their borders, the only tool they really have is going to be an environment where you either can or should create fights. It's just ludicrous, Brian. I cannot believe the MMA world has lost its collective mind.

And look, I am here to say, I don't know what the right word is. I mean, what am I congratulating you for? I will applaud you for having a stance publicly, Luke, on terms of making it even bigger than sports and sticking to that. Yes, I told you at times I had to get away from your Twitter feed, but how things have played out, you seem certainly justified

in your reactions and your private reactions to us and the staff to say, hey, I don't know if we should keep going to the studio. So all that is confirmed. I'm happy the service you ultimately provided to people. But even separate

from the life and death issue the political issue um hey dana white and ufc like i don't want to rag on you i love you guys we were already starting out the bang with this year this was going to be incredible it still can be just not now so i understand the realities for example of habib nurmagomedov's observance of Ramadan, which sort of, like we mentioned last week, throws the potential timeline off of Habib maybe beating Tony and then fighting Conor. Look, that fight can still happen. There's no need to rush this.

We do not need narratives and fights that have been years in the making and built up just either thrown away or forced out there for no reason. The correct move would just be UFC going public and saying, look, this is bigger than any of us thought for right now. So tentatively, we will finally do Tony Habib later this summer as soon as Habib is physically able to do it. Hopefully, the world will be back on orbit by then but Luke just about the fights and the narratives not even the health this would be a dramatically poor

decision and just throwing away the journey and the road to get to this fight for just um I promised you fights so you're gonna get them yeah 249, robbing Peter to pay Paul. What is the point? If you've waited all this long for Tony versus Khabib, just wait a little bit longer. I have to tell you, Brian, we've had this conversation before. I'll repeat it again. There's no such thing as the MMA gods.

There is no such thing as curses. I know it feels that way because we've been dying to get it. I was at, was it UFC 207 or 209? Whenever, I can't even remember the number anymore, when it was on the co-main event to the Wonderboy and Woodley rematch. I went to that. We were there. We spent all this money to go there, and then that fight doesn't even happen.

Believe me, I have been waiting for this fight like everybody else has, but the idea we can just throw it away and throw Justin in there. Justin, I think you had told me, I think you had shown me the link, but you had texted me before the show, Brian, I give you credit. You'd find a link from Aaron Bronstedter speaking to Justin some time ago on a red carpet, I think for the MMA awards being like, well, he was offered to fight Tony on four weeks notice. He couldn't do it. We're not even talking about the fact that these guys can't train. We're not even talking about the fact that if they are going to get COVID testing,

are we taking away COVID tests from people who actually might need it more than just athletes in a recreational activity? We're not even talking about the fact that are they going to go to a place where the hospitals might be not able to provide the resources that they need to give medical care? We're not even talking about any of that. And they're all relevant considerations. Here's another one. It's like, dude, the curse is not real. You got to say it out loud. Curse is not real. I'm a guy who's a Washington sports fan. I didn't see a championship in this town since I was a kid living on East Capitol Street, down the street from RFK, and I would see all the Hog fans come through to watch. You could go to a bar and get served a drink from somebody who was alive after the last time

the Ritzkins or anybody in town had ever won anything. It had been that long. But dude, and then the Caps won, and then the Nats won, then the Mystics won, whatever. It would turn into a championship town. If you have a good process and it's clean and it's considered

and you just keep swinging the axe, it will happen. What on earth is the point of having, just on its fight terms, Brian, Tony versus Justin, which is a good fight under these conditions where they can't possibly train right. And then if Justin wins, which he might, because hello, Justin's a badass. Now you've ruined Tony versus Khabib, which you might say, well, if he was going to lose to Justin, he should have lost anyway. Right. But that was Kabib's doing to get this is for brian the greatest lightweight fighter of all time

it's one way that way i hate to interrupt somebody just to rudely tell them that they pronounce argentina wrong but you had me at hello i'm with you almost the full distance except for when you said there's no such thing as a curse. This isn't cursed. Bro, this thing's effing cursed. Get web scream on the phone. This thing's cursed. Doesn't mean you shouldn't wait another time and continue and try to wait. But this thing's effing badly cursed, Luke. Come on.

No, it's not. It feels that way. Once the dam breaks, you realize you're not under its spell anymore. Right now, Brian, you're under the spell. And for years in this town, I was under this spell. Last thing about this, one more note about it, if we can, Joe Rogan had said, and this is before all this other news broke. Joe said this under the assumption Tony and Khabib were going to fight, but he says he's not going to commentate. It's going to be somebody else. I think the fact that you're one of your longest standing employees one of the most important figures frankly in mma history perhaps its greatest

ambassador to the mainstream has said yeah maybe traveling during this time is not something i feel safe doing given i have a family isn't that a hello moment brian campbell yes it is a hello moment and while even in real time right now you're seeing guys like dustin poirier true warriors saying i'll fight i'll fill the card on april 18th let's have some fun um you need to take this away from them that opportunity because fighters are heroes they have a soldier mentality they will take really bad chances just for the fun of it and I understand the cabin fever and I understand all that but Joe Rogan is suddenly the the real voice of reason and the company man, like you mentioned there.

Just because Jorge Masvidal is willing to fight Kamaru Usman right now doesn't mean you should do it. Let's just continue pressing pause. Wherever you stand politically or any of that, turn on the news and see what's going on in New York City, for example. And I think you're going to realize fairly quickly that UFC fights, not a priority right now. By the way, WrestleMania, not a priority either.

Although WWE was able to pre-tape that and pull it off and you can make certainly some real connections between the mindsets of a Vince McMahon and a Dana White. But Luke, I wanted to close quickly on Dana. He's given so many interviews over Instagram, has made so many headlines, but some of those headlines seem to be coming at you and bringing you into this. If I'm going to call out Dana for the biggest egregious offense, it was that Kevin Aioli interview where he basically was like, I've had a great run. Bring on Corona. I'm not afraid of it. I'll take it on now. To me, I am a fan of giving people their forum i had a uriah faber on my podcast the other day and he's like i'll fight tomorrow cash is king i didn't interrupt him because that's his

his forum his take and there are two sides to every story and i try to stay largely in the middle but when dana's openly saying corona come get me that's where i'm like this is a really bad message what would be the difference between that and what uriah is saying it's essentially the same thing no there's a reckless nature to it it's basically putting out a message that that you're uh invincible to that i get fighters just being like look i'll take that chance i'm a fighter but there's a recklessness to that luke that is just, people follow that. People see that.

People hear that. People go, okay, if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me. So they're both equally reckless. I see no distinction between them other than the packaging of it. But in terms of its message, I'll get out there and compete. And by the way, risk potentially getting sick and in the process, risk getting other people sick. I mean, yes, anybody's allowed to, if you want to endanger your own safety on some level, I suppose you are allowed to do that, right?

That is technically part of something you're allowed to do. What you're not allowed to do is endanger anyone else. And unless you have a keen, not even a keen, I would say even a basic understanding what experts have been telling us about this thing, just saying we're going to soldier on, it's not about you per se, it's about everybody else. Here's what I think the UFC should be doing. I think they've got two options as far as I can tell. One, if you can provide some kind of economic relief to the

fighters in the short term, two, three months, I think that'd be a big help. I don't know if they can do that. I don't know if they want to do that, but that's one option. The other part is the $2 trillion relief package that was passed by our United States Congress. And there's something called the pandemic unemployment assistance, which independent contractors would be eligible for. I think either you're going to give them some assistance directly, or you're going to provide guidance on what they can get in terms of that. And that's really the only option here. What can we do to put money in the hands of fighters as soon as possible?

That's the issue. And the issue is not via fighting it's independent of that and we do have some options so you just said the issue is not via fighting so jokes aside of whether dana's takedown defense would be good enough against you since i labeled you last week as on the opposite ends of the extreme although i'm not saying your message is wrong um can we get dana on an interview on your radio show or on this show? You and Dana one-on-one to really get the issues put to the forefront and get challenged?

Because I do believe you've had an issue with how people have left him off the hook and sort of the media's responsibility in this. Would you be open to that with Dana? I know UFC Fight Pass blocked you on Twitter, Luke, but would you be open to that? Sure, and we've requested multiple times for him to be on. They get routinely rejected. So if that was an opportunity he wanted to explore, yes, of course.

How would I ever say no? But if past is prologue, it's not an opportunity that's going to be afforded to people like me. Now, with that being said, we'll come back to some more Dana White talk as it relates to Zufa boxing a little bit later. There were some other headlines last week that are just kind of, I would say unbelievable, Brian Campbell, but I suppose they're not. Let's get the graphic up so I know when to slide right here a little bit. There it is.

UFC light heavyweight champion John Jones was arrested last week. Four counts, but only two of significance. The first one being the negligent use of a firearm in Albuquerque, New Mexico. But the more important of the two was that he was arrested for aggravated DWI. What does aggravated mean in this case? Meaning you didn't really break the law by virtue of having too much high of a level of BAC, but that it was extraordinarily high. Now, Brian, there's a lot of reactions to this.

His people have come out. No, I'm just kidding. His people have not come out and given a formal statement, and the UFC has said they're looking into it. The arresting officer statement can be read, and there was body cam footage that came out. I watched maybe two minutes of it, Brian, and I couldn't take any more of it, and I have to tell you why,

which is I feel for the guy, to be honest with you, man. I know that, look, I don't expect his rivals, whether they're in his division or it's Israel Adesanya, to necessarily say nice things, and they didn't. Dominic Reyes didn't say nice things, and Jan Blachowicz, and certainly Israel didn't. I don't know what you can really expect in those particular circumstances, but for the people who are neutral in this case, you don't know John, you don't know them, you're just observing from afar. I would count myself in that, maybe you as well, and most of the fan base. Man, my conscience just won't let me make fun of them. If anything, it looks to me like, you know, you ask yourself, if you're in your 20s and

you're a young man and you're getting in trouble, it doesn't make it okay, but you can kind of understand it. If you're still doing that in your 30s, where you're mixing vehicles, drinking, and firearms in the middle of a pandemic, it's not merely a function of risk assessment being bad. It speaks to me to something perhaps deeper. Now, what that is, Brian, I'm not a doctor. I don't know, but it looks to me like somebody who is a kind of care provider in that way or who has some expertise needs to make an assessment and something bigger has to happen here for him in terms of treatment because this was hard to watch

dude it was legitimately hard to watch my heart goes out to him to be honest you can't take pleasure in other people's pain that way i can't take pleasure in that man's suffering i was i was really alarmed by it what about you yeah yeah you nailed it and look in the in the recent john jones public uh regressions whether it be the whole usada uh you know era of of questioning whether he was uh you know innocent or guilty mixed with his brushes with the law being stripped of the title so many times you'd always had sort of a split 50 50 of people basically going look this reckless guy he deserves it when's he gonna ever change mixed with you know kind of feel bad for the guy i think this development right now seemingly when we're

already past the idea of him having made a personal comeback oh remember those years and those days when john was so reckless now he's's put it together. Well, he hasn't. So I think now we're in the point where I really believe everyone's motive and response should be more of grace and worry and care, not necessarily forgiveness, but just of he's showing you that he has legitimate problems here. Maybe even mental issues that need adjusting. I mean, Luke, you know, I'm no different than a lot of people out there. I mean, I've had undiagnosed mental health issues in my late teens and early 20s that led to substance abuse.

I look back on it now and sort of understand it a lot better, didn't understand it then. And I certainly have a lot of sympathy for what's really going on, because at each step of the way for Jon Jones, there had never really been a full on, despite him apologizing, despite him always sort of being able to say the right thing in the right moment and lean on his faith and all that. If you pick deeper and deep interviews and conversations, you know, he regularly would mention, oh, I still go out to clubs. I still drink. I still party.

I just don't do this stuff. That was obviously giant red flags. But now you're in a scary territory where you're waiting for the real rock bottom. And Luke, you know, everyone's different. Sometimes the real rock bottom is death, or sometimes the real rock bottom is a public scare or an embarrassment. We're past scare and embarrassment, but we are entering into even more dangerous territory where you're more worried about his life by all means than any form of fight legacy uh this statement has been uttered before and i think it's still true it's amazing that john jones is equally the greatest fighter of all time and the greatest cautionary tale

in ufc and mma history at the same time competing against each other. I mean, whether you thought Dom Reyes or Maheta Santos won or not, Jon Jones still held the title up at the end and was victorious against some of the best fighters in the world. He still got it inside that cage, but boy, does he not have it outside. And Luke, I'm really at that moment now where it's like, please, not only are we saying suspend all fights for the moment during Corona season, suspend all John Jones fights. And let's really the people around him, the coaches, the family members, the UFC just force him into a level of facing the truth

of what's really bringing these, these experiences on in his life and why he can't sort of put those demons away and save his life first more than anything else. Because at this point, Luke, I don't know. How could you have a bad thing to say at this point? I care about the man. I want to see him okay. And not making much worse headlines. And there's good news here to an extent, which is that, you know, you and I grew up in the era of the Doc Goodens and the Daryl Strawberries. You know, we know how far a famous, rich, celebrated athlete can fall if things aren't taken into consideration in terms of the full breadth of treatment. Now, those men had their own situations.

I'm not saying Johnny's equivalent, but here's what I am saying, Brian. He still has his title, he's still winning, and he still has his money as far as we know. He's still been a strong key earner. Those things, the titles are not important. But in terms of even his wealth and being able to take care of his family and himself, he actually hasn't lost that yet. He still has it.

There is still time to make sure we don't get to a point where the real big part of the tragedy, or even worse, his physical health and beyond that. I don't even want to talk about that. So what I'm saying is, to the extent and some kind of intervention is possible to the extent that some kind of lifeline or just come to Jesus moment, whatever you want to call and classify it as you're actually operating from a point where he is still a talented professional who hasn't lost all his money, dude, that's a big thing that you don't often see that in a lot of

cases, we've got one here. I, you know, I don't know what kind of guidance the UFC is going to provide or should. I'm not saying the pandemic is good, but this is a time for, I, for him. I hope to hit the reset button and I'll say it one more time.

Whoever is in a, a position to give him the help that he needs, please do it. I mean, I mean, yeah, it's nailed it. Can we have a,

a 30 second convo spinning off of this luke with no disrespect to the serious nature of it um is are you of the belief that john has left a certain amount on the table in his career because of this uh because of the constant problems or maybe a little bit more like some of those problems fueled some of his best performances i always bring it back to manny pacquiao whether you believe there were substance you know performance enhancing drugs in that or not he went through that peak era of his career stopping people left and right and then when he turned his life around and cleaned up it became more of a point fighter how much do you

think john jones didn't show us over the length of his career when we're already calling him the damn goat i think you've seen a lot of what he has to offer, but my hunch, and it's just that, Brian, I don't really know, my hunch is that you've not seen his upper bound limit of ability. In fact, by the time in the last five years when he really, let's say the last two or three,

when he's really kind of hunkered down and been in training, not taking time off between camps, that sort of a thing. You've seen, I think, his defensive fundamentals grow. But he's 32 now, almost going to be 33 coming up. He's been fighting since he was basically 20, almost a teenager in terms of training and everything else.

His drop-off just naturally is going to happen a little bit sooner than people who got started a little bit later by virtue of the years, by virtue of the wear and tear. And those formative years, he spent a lot of time partying. I mean, some of the stories I've heard, I've never had corroborated. I can't repeat them. But if they're at all true, it's shocking what he's been able to do. So this is my point. It's like for all of the bad things that have happened, for all the times there's been missteps,

we've not reached, in terms of some of the things you could identify, a cataclysmic level of decline. Now is the time to get this right. now is the time to sort these problems and so i i think he's a he might be the greatest fighter as you said he might be the greatest of all time but i still think he's left some stuff on the table i hope that he still has more to give because whatever he's going through now doesn't get in that way and i hope that corona season luke while we're all pressing pause on our lives, could help us, as I mentioned last week, bury the hatchet on everything. So we're going to get you to follow back, Joanna, on Instagram.

Your choice, how many hands you want to use. We want to get you to interview Dana. And I want to get you in one of the, remember that weird thing you did with Brendan? It was like Java Bros or something. I need you and Jon Jones to sit down and talk and bury the hatchet and have a moment there, Luke. Yeah, most of those are just simply not up to me.

That's like bringing Carol and Joe Exotic together, Luke. All right. Speaking of which, we've got to move on. We'll get to that a little bit later. Next up, Brian, let's go to you on this. So, as I turn my chair, there we are. Let's have at it. We have Billy Joe Saunders over the week.

I mean, who goes out there, even if you're joking and you're a popular celebrity, who goes out there and goes, you know what? I'm going to make a video. I'm going to be joking. I'm going to teach folks, teach, how to beat your woman, your wife or whoever, if they just start to annoy you. It's like, dude, do you have friends, Billy Joe, that just tell you have friends, Billy Joe, that just tell you, yo, man, I think that's a real fucking stupid idea? I guess he doesn't.

Anyway, point is this. He went ahead and made it. He was obviously joking, but it was a stupid joke at a bare minimum. There was a backlash. Clarisha Shields put out something. Heather Hardy said something about it. And then the BBBC,

essentially the commission of sorts in the UK, suspended his license. Brian, how stupid of this was this for Mr. Billy Joe Saunders? I mean, it's certainly, I mean, it's unadmonishable. It's supremely stupid. Unfortunately for him, Luke, if this was like a first offense in this category, I mean, I don't know how you justify it, but you could say strike one horrible idea. We don't use that kind of humor in 2020 in the U S let alone anywhere else. But the problem is when you dig deeper on Billy Joel, he, Billy Joe, Billy Joel, good

God, get that guy off the road. When you dig deeper on Billy Joe, Luke, he's got a long history of really bad public comments. Look, he's a proud Irish traveler, gypsy like Tyson Fury, and I think with that has been this boldness to say whatever they please publicly, damn the torpedoes, and there's consequences that come with that. And for Billy Joe Saunders right now, he was poised to be getting into that super middleweight title pay-per-view bout uh Cinco de Mayo weekend against Canelo Alvarez in Las Vegas where obviously

Luke just corona you know anyway could have held that fight back from happening now this suspension it's like does he deserve to still have a shot at that fight no this is deplorable this is awful Billy Joe has a track record of doing this type of stuff hey you remember his fight against willie monroe jr at the weigh-in when billy joe's son came up and punched punched uh monroe and the jewels i mean look this like it's fun and games in that moment and i'm sure there are people who watch billy joe's video and just went okay it's awful but he's just he's fooling around laugh at it no no you lose in this case. You know, it's 2020. Come on, wake up.

You can't do that. Yeah, you should lose the Canelo fight because of that. Well, listen, Billy Joe Biden, not too smart to just go off there off the cuff and just say whatever you're going to say. People don't seem to understand this. It's like, dude, that you can avoid being prosecuted by the government for your actions

because you're not screaming fire in a crowded theater is one thing. But private actors, whether they're sponsors, fans, or any number of other intermediaries, they are also going to be able to have a say about this. If you're on the cusp of a record payday, this is just me thinking out loud, Brian, and I'm a little bit out there, obviously, as you know. Maybe joking about beating the shit out of women won't get you a world record payday. Now, I know that might be extreme. I know I might be thinking outside the box here, but I don't know.

If I wanted to manage wealth, I'm guessing even if I didn't mean any harm, look, there are just some things in life you have to shut the fuck up about. You just kind of have to. Well said, and I want to say this. Look, I don't want to live in a cancel culture. I don't want to live in a lack of freedom of speech culture,

even if that speech is horrific. Guess what? We make horrible, offensive jokes on this show from time to time. I don't want somebody to pick that out and be like, cancel Brian Campbell, but Billy Joel went out of his way to make this video. Like, it was like a theme for the video.

This wasn't, oh, we had a camera on him in a bar and he cracked a joke. This was him putting it out to the masses. So, yes, there is a price to pay for that. And somewhat related to this story, Luke, a news item that kind of got buried in the past week was Canelo Alvarez's team going public and saying, we've agreed in principle to a third fight with Gennady Golovkin this fall. Finally, DAZN's dream, all that money they put in, it's going to happen. And if you read some of that language in the report from Lance Pugmire of The Athletic,

there was that should the coronavirus push boxing season out a while to the summer, they would essentially skip over the Billy Joe Saunders fight and go right into that Triple G trilogy. So in some cases, Luke, with everything going on right now, and God, I can't believe the sport of boxing, by the way, is becoming the adult in the combat sports room and is like, let's cancel everything. There's a good chance this fight was never meant to happen anyway. Just wanted to put that out there. Would you pop, by the way, for 38-year-old Triple G against Canelo III finally?

Yeah. I mean, I'd be lying if I said no. But just revisit this last thing one more time. It's like, to your cancel culture point, I don't want to be in that kind of scenario either. But you just have to understand, think about things rationally. If you say something out in public, let's say, again, it's a First Amendment understand, think about things rationally. If you say something out in public, let's say, again, it's a First Amendment privilege, at least in this country, you avoid criminal prosecution. You have to understand what the blowback might be to that.

And then you have to ask yourself, is it worth it? And there might be certain cases where speaking out amidst blowback is really worth it to you. You just need to know what you're going to be up against. You cannot be surprised that people did not find it especially charming that you made a, again, I don't think he meant any harm. I know he clarified he didn't mean any harm. I don't think that Billy Joe meant any harm, but you got to remember a lot of people are not going to be as forgiving as you or I, or at least understand that they're not going to find it as amusing. They're going to say something about it. That is going to cause a chain reaction of events. Are you willing to go through with that? Was the joke that important to you?

And if it's not shut the fuck up, it's not that big of a deal. All you got deprived of was the ability to make a joke about hitting women. You'll be fine. Your sheets are still clean. Your bank account is still full. Just shut the fuck up and if anyone hasn't seen the video and billy joe sunders has taken down his twitter account the

video has been largely wiped off the internet but um there's like detail on how you should hit a woman and then counter to knock her out so again it's not just a passing comment but to what you mentioned if it is work it worth it luke then let me work it. I'll actually take my thing down. I'll flip it and I'll reverse it. It's on Brandly. Come on. By the way, you're right. You had Eddie Hearn today canceling all matchroom boxing events through May.

So the Usyk fight with Chisora and then some other ones as well. It's like, how are Arum and Hearn getting this right? But MMA, forget it. By the way, speaking of Dana White, let's go to our next topic if we can. He also made news in that, I think it was the Kevin Aioli interview as well, as I lean to the right here for the graphic. Not so sure about Zufa boxing, Brian Campbell. Dana White came out, and I found this one kind of interesting.

We all know that there was supposed to be something related to a press conference in October. Didn't happen. Then November. Didn't happen. December, January, February. And, of course, March has been something of a crazy month. But you had all that other time to make announcements about Zufa Boxing.

I know there had been reporting in the industry that there had been hirings inside of Zufa to get it done. There was that intimated deal. It wasn't explicitly stated it was part of Zufa Boxing, but with Floyd Mayweather. So you're thinking to yourself, yourself wow this might be something here now he's saying he doesn't know if boxing can be fixed that the business is a mess it's a different kind of buyer Brian Campbell is Zufa boxing dead before it ever uh got off the ground yeah it was always gonna be Luke he's not wrong this is boxing right but why do you think why do you think that bob arum's 88 89 whatever and is still at the top of his peak of his game and don king went into his 80s still putting on

big time fights and it's largely the same players over and over again it's a cutthroat shark infested business that you can't just walk right in and do essentially exactly what Dana White did to make the UFC what it is. We have to remember this for as broken as boxing is right now, still pretty functional. It's not UFC in 1999, 2000, 2001, when you couldn't even get the sport, you know, regulated or on TV to a larger extent. What Dana White and the Fertittas did to save that sport, to inject all the things into it that they missed about boxing, it was brilliant. They made it work. But for years, we've been sort of arguing, is there a savior who could come into boxing and has the right amount of money, the promotional ability, the celebrity ability, the resources, the everything to make a run and actually becoming a power player and changing it.

Dana's name had certainly been mentioned for years, but Luke, unless in the current status right now, he did something, for example, like join forces with Al Heyman in the PBC, which has TV contracts with Showtime and Fox and has in its managerial stable, essentially half of the fighters in boxing globally that matter, unless that was the case and they turned PBC into a legitimate UFC

putting doors on the borders and saying, we have our own champions, screw the IBF and WBO and all that. We have our own champions. We got big TV deals. We are going to retrain the industry that if you ain't in UFC or PBC, you ain't in the elite level of boxing. That plan, by the way, wouldn't have necessarily worked because you've got the OGs like Bob Arum who are going to dig in with their ESPN TV deal

and their stable of big name fighters and be like, yeah, not so fast. So it was always an uphill battle that really wasn't going to be able to be won unless UFC Zufa had a long term educated plan. The problem becomes that boxing is even more segregated right now than it was in the 2000s in the beginning of this past decade, because now tv networks are so tied in specifically with one promoter that you really have leagues and teams and separations so when i heard the dana white interview on the chris mannix sports illustrated boxing pod a couple months ago

in which chris really pressed him and dana's ultimate answer on what zufa boxing would look like was too many things at once he's like yeah we want to be a promoter. We want to be a manager. We would also be willing to just stream fights on fight pass. We'd be willing to take the UFC apex and put fights on that. You can't be at all right, Luke, you know, Washington Redskins history. If you have two quarterbacks, it means you have none. You can't be at all. You got to pick a lane.

Dana never picked that lane. And history shows us that the people with a lot of money who come into boxing the jay-z's the 50 cents the sugar ray leonards the name it on and on and on who think they're going to come in and tomorrow be a big time player and promoter um it's not that easy and in boxing more than any other sport there's the haves and the have-nots and the haves will be willing to slice your throat to keep the food on their own table. So again, Dana was very misguided in thinking he could walk in tomorrow and with a lot of money and an infrastructure,

just be like, yeah, let's make Mayweather McGregor all over again every weekend. Can't do it. Can't do it, bro. That's right. If you have Rex Grossman and John Beck or RG3 and Kirk Cousins, it turns out all you really have is Colt McCoy. I certainly agree with your analysis there.

Let me just add here a couple of things. Chris Mannix did do a pretty good job of pressing him. And every time someone does, though, Dana, to his credit, is pretty good about keeping his cards close to the vest. Okay. But here's what I would love to know. When you say the sport of boxing is broken, I'm not unwilling to believe that.

But what do you mean specifically? Why is it broken? Who broke it? And what would the potential solution be to getting there? And is that solution legal? And what I mean by that is there is some federal oversight that the Ali Act about promoters not being able to have their own titles that doesn't affect MMA. So they've got a little bit more regulatory room in MMA to do the kinds of things that they do. It's not illegal there, but it wouldn't be possible in boxing. How do you do that unless you get those laws changed?

It just doesn't seem clear. Well, to counter that, Luke, you know, Al Heyman and the PBC, by staying technically on the record as a manager and not a promoter and using other promoters to put on the shows, have been able to some degree pull it off legally. But yes, boxing's broken. It's an uphill battle. That's the frame. That's the structure. It's broken because people are willing to kill others to keep the food on their own table, and there's no centralized body, whether that be a government centralized body or a league structure in which everybody wants to join together for the health of the sport to make long-term money. Everybody wants the short-term money. People only play well together if you got Maypack money on the table or Wilder Fury money on the table.

Last thing I'll say about this is I would love to just know more about those details. I think the other part I would say here is a lot of people think that the folks in charge of boxing are stupid. Well, they might be a little bit, what do you want to call it? Morally, you know, loose with the rules a little bit, but they're not stupid and they've been there a long time. I think it was stated yesterday or maybe Saturday, Brian, that one of the first cards that was ever promoted by Bob Arum in the sixties, Ali versus Chuvalo, you know, this guy's been doing this literally for all that for most of that decade, then the 70s, then the 80s, then the 90s, then the aughts, the 2010s,

and here we are, and this guy is still out there doing it. People are smart. They understand it. It's just a big challenge. It just cannot be done that easily. And so I listened to the boxing people when they said they'd welcomed Dana White. They were curious to see what he could do. But now that he got a look under the hood, it looks like he thinks he found a lemon. And honestly, better attention spent towards the MMA properties, not the worst idea in the world after we get through this pandemic. That takes us to our last and final of the five topics today,

Brian Campbell. It has taken the world by storm. I don't know if you're Bhagavan Doc Antler or you're Joe Exotic, because I'm going to be one of those people alongside of you. But Tiger King, the number one trending show on Netflix, has been a tour de force, as Brendan Schaub calls him, the king of the quarantine, because everyone on home and socially distancing themselves has been watching this. It has taken over everything. Brian, I'll go to you first on this, because I know you finished the whole thing.

Yes or no? Very quickly, yes yes i have finished it yes okay why is tiger king so popular well i'll give a shout out to my cbs colleague brandon wise who was like dude drop everything i'm sure everybody had one person in their life who was like you need to watch this tomorrow um yeah you do need to watch this today actually um good god it's it's a car wreck but it's one of the most glossed up lipstick car wrecks that has such insane swerves and developments that it has to be real because you couldn't write this stuff now look long-term larger picture uh there there's there's ways that these stories were told that were very reality tv like i'm sure in which maybe we didn't get all the truth in there. But the reason why people are stuck to this and rightfully so is the characters you find within this documentary are like, I mean, if people like pro wrestling Luke because they like a little craziness in their life.

This is like this is like, you know, on forget on steroids. This is insanity the amount of um ridiculous players involved the characters that as you're watching it the most fun game you can play is like okay for right now i think this character right joe exotic he's the only one with a with a heart and a moral code and then two minutes later you're like oh my god he did that too he probably killed a man so you're constantly not really able to identify who's the villain who's the hero in the end they're all villains later you're like oh my god he did that too he probably killed a man so you're constantly not really able to identify who's the villain who's the hero in the end they're all villains it seems but i think people like a little bit of crazy for for sure but luke the best thing i could say is

this is very reminiscent of of a first time shrooms trip you get in there you go okay this is fun i can handle this oh this is a little bit weird oh my god get me off this ride i'm never gonna change i'm gonna be like this forever oh my god i can't do this oh i kind of like this again oh this makes me feel dirty but i'm gonna stay with it oh my god i need this we need to get more let's get another eight ball and last us all weekend oh and then it ends and you're just like wow i just gave a lot of time to that wow you're right i'll never be the same but i think i'm kind of happy about that get dirty get involved in this if you watch this show and think it's overrated there's something wrong with you luke yes this is redneck territory this

is murder for hire territory this is a man with three husbands and i don't know if any of the three enjoy the pleasure of another man they just like meth and tigers but stay for that it's worth it I mean just think about all the different subplots or at least themes or ideas that run through the show ready true crime right uh fragile masculinity uh animal conservation and you. Animal conservation slash animal abuse because you get the tiger petting and all that kind of stuff. That's part of it. Polygamy. Gay polygamy.

Not even gay polygamy, but still kind of... Well, it's definitely gay polygamy, but it's gay polygamy with straight dudes. You've got parts of the South, redneck America. There's a one-armed woman? You've got a one-armed woman who was eaten by a tiger. You've got business competitors. It's all that kind of thing. You've got internet culture? You've got a one-armed woman who was eaten by a tiger. You've got business competitors. It's all that kind of thing.

You've got internet culture. You've got arson. You've got crocodiles. You've got multiple con men trying to join with the government to turn their best friends into enemies and turn them in to save themselves. Luke, it's really like the plot of five great movies put into an actual real documentary. You don't understand the depths of white trash kingdom, like species, genus, phyla, all that kind of stuff.

You just don't understand how much there is and diversity there is until you see something like this, where a guy can just bang two straight dudes because he offered them meth and tigers, and one has teeth and one kind of doesn't. And then he's got this business rival, then he's feeding them expired walmart food and then one of the people got kind of eaten sort of and then there's this other woman who he wants to kill who by the way may or may not have killed her ex-husband who was wealthy and then she took his wealth and then the family hates her it's And how about the dude on the jet ski? How about the strip club owner on the jet ski?

He's turned everyone in. The fat dude on the jet ski? Yeah. The dude who looked like a thumb, that guy? And why are women getting together with Jeff Lowe wearing his Affliction lumberjack shirt, Luke? Why is that man getting woman after woman and hiring hot nannies? What is happening in this world doc

and they're sleeping with half of north carolina luke dude if you go and look at the primary results from the governorship that he was running for after by the way he ran for president of the united states that being joe exotic he got into the bit of the teens for the party he was running and dude there was like a lot of people who voted for this guy this is one of the most insane bill duns roman out of your mind white trash kingdom stories you couldn't possibly brian true or false you couldn't possibly have someone write a fiction story bring it to you and you'd be like that's plausible you'd have to see it to believe it we're seeing the follow-ups carol baskin and her husband who in some ways are presented as like the the moral people in this yet throughout

the movie you're like oh my god they're they're they're worse than the actual worst people they're refuting a lot of that blaming it on the way it was shot and presented and filmed and i don't doubt that a lot of that's true i also don't doubt that carol baskin's got a lot of skeletons back in that closet luke it's got a lot of skeletons back in that closet luke it's just incredible quickly and i know you have another job you you want me to respect that but it's awards season who's the mvp of this stock it's got to be joe exotic oh um yes it has uh you know what yes it has to be by virtue of how he is the connectivity to Doc Antler, to Carole Baskin, to the meth dudes, to the people on the Walmart truck. He is the center of the constellation. But the supporting cast of characters, they're each kind of one note or one guy. How is the dude who is most responsible, the guy with no legs and like clowns on his prosthetics who just happened to now live in a trailer fixing cars?

Who is the most, in a sea full of sewage and sharks and tigers, dead tigers, who is the most morally sound person? It's got to be the guy with no legs, right? The guy with no legs kind of was clear-eyed about everything that was happening. I think he tried to make a genuine effort to not break the rules, to work hard. Even if he wasn't making a lot of money, he just tried to do right by the animals as well, which, as we know, towards the end, it didn't really happen all that much. So I actually thought he was pretty great.

But everybody else, and then the lady who got eaten, she seemed like a nice lady, but she also got eaten, so, you know. Now, who was the most morally reprehensible in the whole film, Luke? Oh, on the jet ski jeff low bro jeff jeff low is bad but jeff low jeff low got into more possibilities of bad by virtue of his wealth the thumb on the jet ski was a snake dude he would turn on anyone just for retribution. He was like, I might feel a little bit bad that someone went to jail, but what are you going to do? Pass me the eclair. According to you, Luke, most of our

MMA brethren are on that jet ski with him. But quickly, I want to say this. It's been amazing because when you watch it, you think of this as that these are characters. These are actually real people. It's been amazing to see the spinoff content and realize as my colleague Jack Crosby would say at CBS Sports, shout out to Yingling Bear, that all these people were under our noses the whole time and we didn't realize it. Did you see Joe Exotic promoted wrestling and did play-by-play commentary?

Did you see that The Undertaker just did a conservation video with lions and it was Doc Antler who was in the pool with him? Did you see all this stuff? Show the Floyd Mayweather pic. Floyd, what are you doing? Why are you hanging out was Doc Antler who was in the pool with him. Did you see all this stuff? Show the Floyd Mayweather pic. Floyd, what are you doing? Why are you hanging out with Doc Antler? No, he did? I mean, Joe, show me the Britney Spears pic. Remember that VMA performance?

Jay, blow it up so I can see it better. Are you kidding me? That's Doc Antler right there back in like 0-0-2. You mean, sorry, you mean Bhagavan, Doc Antler right there, back in like 0-2. You mean, sorry, you mean Bhagavan Doc Antler. Get the title right. By the way, he exposed a lot of women to bad things, including his nine wives to what he's got down below. And also, did you see the, look it,

Carol Baskin to the right of Britney there at the. Do you think Bhagavan Doc Antler's pubes are like dyed like tiger fur? You know, like with black spots and everything? So look, that's so disgusting i wanted to basically compare us in this show to the characters i mean you can make the argument that i'm the joe exotic of the of of this show i don't like that i could certainly call you bagavan lord doc antler doc antler yeah but i'm wondering if like really like dana white is joe exotic in this world sphere and you're Carol Baskin fighting

for good supposedly and I'm Howard Baskin the the I don't know I don't know hi all you cool cats and kittens it's another day on morning combat who's Jay in this morning combat Tiger King uh story here is he Travis Maldonado is he R.I.P.? What's going on here? Jay is definitely the dude with the tap out tattoo who bangs other dudes for meth and tigers. 100%. He has more tattoos with the name Joe on it than he has teeth. That is for sure.

Anyways, if you've not seen it, I really just don't know what you're doing with your life. And I'm one of these people by the way, last thing on this, you know, you don't like to see animals get abused, but I try to tell people there is animal abuse in this, to be clear. There's cub petting, there's animal selling, there's, you don't see it, of course, but there's intimations of animal euthanasia and blah, blah, blah. But it's not like you see animals getting beaten. And here's my point. You got to see this for what it

is to understand. There are literally more tigers in captivity in situations like this than in the freaking wild so you might as well know what the ecosystem looks like for a lack of a better description and i got news for you it's it's joe exotic that's what it looks like it's a redneck with a blonde mullet with brown on the sides joe dirt baby by the way by the way last thing on this there's no way he's singing in those country videos no he's not they found that out afterwards look if we could get one person i just saw david spade did an interview on his podcast with the one-armed lady who who by the way identifies himself as a man so i want to respect that but my bad didn't know if we could get one guest on this show who are you picking who are you picking who you got to get someone who's going to share the

details i'm getting the guy with no legs he seemed to be pretty clear out about the whole thing what do you think he bared his soul i think we've heard it all from what he has to offer so what let me guess you want the mafia guy from florida yeah i kind of do i i certainly want i have questions for bagavan i don't think he would appear on here to answer them um how about that real weird dude the handler who uh who has the big stuffed animal tiger on his bed and lives in the trailer there's a lot i don't know all right if you're listening if you're watching tiger king kingdom come out come to morning combat okay we got there's plenty of room for you here all right sit on luke's lap we can make this happen and and doc antler's always looking for a wife for our female viewers, if that's a thing you're interested in.

All right, with that in mind, it's time now for DMs with Donks, Brian Campbell. Time to get a word from the listeners. All right, very good. Okay, as we do it every Sunday, we go to our Instagram page, at Morning Combat on Instagram. We put up a post, look at the comments. We pick the best there is. Okay, Brian, first one's up from DBScottMusic.

This is for you. How much farther can the UFC sink, he writes, if they let Cowboy fight at UFC 249? Why am I not surprised this could actually happen? Have you heard any rumors about Cowboy? I have not, but that's a great question on how shameless can we get here. I don't know if you've been watching, Luke, but Tito Ortiz, UFC Hall of Famer,

has been posting nonstop pro-conspiracy theory, extreme right-wing videos about the whole coronavirus. And look, again, I'll hear both sides. I want to hear both sides and find my opinion in the middle. I'm wondering if he's just petitioning to get a fight in the UFC right now, knowing that that's Dana White's politics and that most fighters will be afraid to get involved in this. Are we going to see a Tito forest three or something? What's come?

What's the, what's our future looking like here? Yeah. My favorite yesterday was like, you know, he was defending calling it the China virus. He was like, that's just where viruses get caught.

When, wherever they come from, they get named like all of a sudden the immunologist Tito Ortiz here. It's like, really Tito? And he goes, and that's why they called it the Spanish flu. Little known fact, Spanish flu didn't start in Spain. So sorry, Tito. I don't want to hear both sides. You can, you can miss me with that shit. Uh, I've not heard anything about Cowboy, so I won't comment on that. All right. This comes to us from Jack C mcginn brian which ufc fighter do you think loses the most career wise from the pandemic he says i would argue either

reyes or dc i did see dc said that if this goes on too long and he can't get a fight i think by the fall he's just gonna have to call it quits i am legitimately worried about that also i point out brian campbell tyron woodley is going to be 38 soon it quits. I am legitimately worried about that. Also, I'd point out, Brian Campbell, Tyron Woodley's going to be 38 soon. And for somebody in that division, man, that's a little bit on the older side of things, even as good of an athlete as he is. All right, Dom Reyes loses the immediacy of his instant sort of star turn

with his performance against John and the possibility of an instant rematch. But look, John's outside the cage stuff needs to be addressed. DC, if he retires because of this certainly look tony ferguson's a giant answer here if he takes an in-between fight just to you know whatever and loses it or even wins it but you know gets a little bit older takes on damage there's really it makes no sense when he's gone this far to wait in line for that title shot

um outside of that i mean who else is jumping out at you, Luke, as sort of like this stunts their shot at really becoming something? I would have said something in the Bantamweight division, but I don't even know if UFC 250 is going to happen. It might kill off the Aldo fight if things drag on long enough into that early May. So that's not exactly what the person's asking, but I'm saying the most delta, the most change. Yeah, but DC's the one I've got my eye on, man.

It'd be a real shame if he couldn't get this done because Stipe had the eye injury, and then they were trying to work it out, and then things just got pushed. And then, by the way, I wonder about Jorge Masvidal, too. There was a little bit of concerns, I think, of overexposure towards the end there when McGregor came back. But now it's going to be a situation where I don't think it's listen to me isn't popular he's not going to go away but in terms of you know getting that title shot for international fight week and riding it high some some of that i think could be affected as well certainly luke

if this lasts if ufc doesn't go forward with 249 and this lockdown on live fights oh you know empty arena or not lasts until the summer. Let's say when we finally have fights, we've talked about this before. The idea that they could be jam packed and loaded is certainly giant, but just the idea that UFC panics and takes two giant stars and stuffs them together and gives us a Jorge Connor just for the sake of they're both here. Let's do this.

This could be wild. What we end up seeing. Let's go to this next one and this is a great question and I think I think the answer is yes from David Sandeen was Brian one of the first COVID-19 survivors in the USA wasn't he in the hospital with pneumonia like symptoms in January if I recall Brian do you think you had the coronavirus I do full disclosure here I was in Vegas December 15th weekend for UFC. Luke, you and I were in Brooklyn for a long weekend for Showtime around Christmas, right? We did that famous beer episode, our year-end awesome S-Fest, December 31st, was it? You know, December 30th.

The next day, I went to the doctor with extreme shortness of breath, was admitted to the ER, was in the hospital, diagnosed in the end with pneumonia, which seemed like a victory because it wasn't the pulmonary embolism they may have thought. But Luke, follow up over the next few weeks, took me about two weeks to get healthy. My follow-up visits to the doctor, my physician tried every test under the sun. He never believed the pneumonia diagnosis from the ER. It just didn't make sense to him. Had my heart tested, had literally everything tested.

And it was no answer. It's still a mystery. Yeah, this kind of makes a lot of sense that I had it, Luke. Luckily, you and I kept the tips apart, you know, adding a joke into something very serious. But yeah, man, for my family, my neighbors, my friends, my colleagues, Jay, I'm glad that I didn't spread this thing on. If I did have it, it was a dark two weeks, bro. It was a rough time. I mean, just standing up, I couldn't breathe.

It was a scary time being a guy, you know, 41, decent health. It was a very scary time. And by the way, I'll say this as well. I'd read over the weekend that there are now some people who have heart conditions or not even necessarily, but they're getting into cardiac arrest. They go to the hospital. It turns out they've got COVID-19. Doctors are now beginning to wonder, is there a connection between heart problems,

potentially in certain people, or the manifestation of heart problems? They didn't have it before, but now they do. By virtue of what COVID-19 could be doing to them, you could have been one of those as well because you didn't exactly have a runny nose. You didn't exactly have the typical I'm under the weather kind of symptoms. You had a bunch of weird ones you didn't see.

We just didn't know it at the time. I don't know what you had, but if I had to bet, I think you did. And I had the flu over Christmas the week before, so it's kind of all coming together, Luke. All right, so we go now to SugarMill underscore eJuice. Is there a market for MMA fighters fighting each other under boxing rules, i.e. Conor versus Jorge? So for example, Metamorris used to do a little bit with this, right, where they would have Rory McDonald go up against JT Torres, or they would have, you know, you've seen a million of

them. He's talking about something a little bit different, which is fighter versus fighter, just not in that. I would say if somebody is popular enough, Brian Campbell, you can basically get them to do anything. If, if Conor McGregor opened up a YouTube channel and then just streamed even on Twitch, let's say, here's me folding the laundry. Here's me playing video games. Here's me mowing the yard. People would watch.

Would they watch a Conor versus Jorge boxing match? Yes, I suppose that they would. But it would never really do, in all likelihood, what Conor versus Jorge would do in MMA. And as good as it might be, it might be better than people's expectations if they have low ones, because both of these guys can box a little bit, of course. It would never be what it is inside MMA. So the answer is yes, sort of, but not really. There could be a market for something in the middle, Luke. I'd pay $3.99 for a pay-per-view

of watching Conor drink whiskey while over Skype, Jorge's drinking his stuff they caught Jon Jones with, and just arguing and talking trash and cracking jokes. I'd also pay upwards of maybe $12.99 to watch him play one-on-one basketball and see some trash talk in there. Yeah, but here's the thing. It's like if you're Connor versus Jorge,

how much money could you make in an MMA fight? A lot. How much money would you make in a boxing fight? Probably a little bit less. So then why do it? So you could film sparring sessions if they happened. I still think of Conor. Conor versus Paulie is, I mean, if they put

that out there, that's going to be bigger than the Pamela Anderson versus Tommy Lee sex tape for crying out loud. That thing would do gangbusters. So there's things like that that could happen. That guy was packing heat Luke. He could steer the boat with that hog. I was saluting that man. But the point being

is... He only needed one drumstick, Luke. Let's be honest. Double bass. Still, the idea is he... You're giving up some money to do something a little bit different, whereas with the metamorphosis j Morris jujitsu stuff,

that was always the side piece. That was not the marriage. But by the way, Connor, Connor would get smoked one-on-one in hoops against Jorge. Just so you know, just so you understand that Luke. Probably,

probably. All right. Last but not least, Brian Campbell from brand Tendo 64. What is your favorite horror movie of all time i am an old school halloween one fan it's certainly the best in so many ways so many bare bones basic ways um i have respected the genre for a long time i don't go very deep in it because i don't i don't like uh i don't like too much of it luke but look i my favorite horror movie of all time saw one i stand by it as

being brilliant we've said it before on here when i compared it to other things luke i just think that was a hell of a great story told with the twists and turns enough of the violence but not too much to get me uh wanting to turn away the sequels are deplorable but i stand by saw one maybe that makes me a surface level halloween or a horror guy i'm sure you can pull out some kurosawa classic in japanese subtitles while they're speaking chinese but um that's where i stand okay i look i'm deep on a lot of topics luke okay okay war movies i'm getting there you're getting there you are you are absolutely getting there i would say i'm not in horror movies i'm a little more surface level you want to talk guitar guitarist, Luke? You want to...

I'll be with you all day, all right? All right. Well, I admit I'm surface level on this too. I'm not much of a horror fan. So I liked Saw just fine. I don't know if it's that good. I remember Hitchcock's Birds was pretty good when I was a kid. I would say this, and you're going to say this is not a horror movie,

but hear me out for just a second if I may friends Romans countrymen let me hear yours there is a site a YouTube channel

one of my favorites called Red Letter Media they've got a gazillion subscribers and they do this thing called review where they go back and they watch old movies

and they kind of react to them well one of those movies they reacted to was Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger Carl Weathers and the whole bit. Classic.

By the way, airs on AMC. That's how I got my wife to watch it. I'm like, if it airs on AMC, it's got to be good. But one of the guys on the channel made a great point. He's like, yes, it's an action movie. It's like a military movie to a degree. He goes, but really, it's a slasher flick because what you see is people getting picked off one by one with this mysterious creature that nobody knows. There's this final confrontation.

It's shot in a way where it's just like a horror movie. So I know that that doesn't fill the typical horror movie genre answer. But because of his explanation, I'm going to weasel my way in there like Better Call Saul from AMC. And I'm going to say Predator is my favorite horror movie. Wow. Alright. Shout out to Predator 2 and Danny Glover. What a disappointment that was, Luke. I built a whole sleepover party in like 6th grade around Predator 2

coming on VHS. What a... That movie sucked ass. Alright, but you know what doesn't is this next segment. This is the time we look at dongs and watch people falling down. Brian Campbell, take it away, sir. Yeah, hit us with the horns here, money. By the way, they should give you better animation for that.

It's literally just someone going, and then the graphics. They could do more. And I don't like the poop element of it, but I get it. So we scour the globe if you're new to this. The good, the bad, the ugly from combat sports and beyond. And believe me, we're going beyond. But weke undiagnosed undisclosed location of an mma fight over the past month you want to see this axe kick from hell talk about a slasher thing

i don't if you have a foot fetish oh my god luke dude that is what's up with those gloves this is kickboxing in a cage? Oh, yeah, you're right. That's Russia. That's got to be Russia. Yeah, somewhere. You know that or they're in a hurry, Luke. Wow, wow.

Hey, Luke, I don't know what year this is, but let's move on to LFA 63. There's a fellow named Derek Krantz about to go through TSA because he's going to fold his opponent in half here. Up in a suitcase, Luke. Oh, my God. that's the old crow cop gonzaga remember that oh yeah he fell he corkscrewed his ankle and then like herb dean picked it up and it unwound like a toy it's kind of like uh machida sugar rashad too as well that ending oh poor rashad with the face

that got memed out forever oh yeah look at this uppercut nicely done here do you watch lfa luke i do oh and he bounced jesus oh god good shout out to the ref for trying to save his life there but that look at i'm sorry kind sir but you have been sent to hell all right luke let's roll it on from here hey we got a throwback ko there's no new fights caleb plant the super middleweight put this video up of his first televised bout when he was 5-0 on ESPN's Friday Night Fights. Where's the referee, Luke? He just killed a man. Watch this.

Dude, he turns away. Look at this. That's international sign for I don't want anymore. Oh, my God. Protect yourself at all times. You know what it looked like? Do you remember Ray Mercer, Tommy Morrison, when they let Morrison hang on the ropes

and Ray got another 16 shots in? I was going to say, it also kind of reminded me, not the entire thing, but the ending sequence there when David Tua planted John Ruiz. Yes. Where they're on the way down and you're still hitting them, but nothing will top Phil Barone, Dave Manet, where they don't go down because they're being levitated by the punches.

That is still the all-time best. Wow, wow. Shout out to Sweet Hands there with the pink gloves. Caleb Plant. Let's move on here, Luke. Nobody's gotten in the crotch yet. Get ready for this, Luke. Oh, my God. I don't know

what's going on here, but Nutshots once again delivers for us on Instagram, Luke. Great follow. Wait a second. Was the idea that he would stop just short? Yes. I think that guy's just chilling. Or was the idea that I'm going to slow down but still run into you? This is one of those where if it's fake and it's staged, I'm okay with that because that hurts. Somebody just took it right to the pills, Luke.

Bro, you got hit in the balls with a motorcycle. Who says something like that? God. Rolling on here, Luke. You love metal concerts. How about a concert fail? Check out this lead singer here of this wannabe cannibal corpse abortion rock. Oh, take that.

Take that to the face, brother. In the face, Luke. You know what the problem is with that dude's attire? It just doesn't have enough pockets. Look, watch him no-sell this, though. It's like... Dude, dude. Jay thinks he looks like Bagelman.

This guy is wearing a tackle box and just hasn't rethought his life enough yet. Now, Luke, give me a shout out here. Are they playing new metal? Are they playing thrash? Are we doing, is this the death vein? Is this dead children? Look at the guy with the shorts that are kind of like pants that had shrunk in the dryer. And then this guy, I'm going to guess this is a little bit deathcore-ish, which

is not quite death metal, but something kind of similar. Plus, you've got a single bass as opposed to a double. So I'm going to go deathcore. I respect the deep dive that you pulled right there on that. Hey, let's move on. Did you ever see the sequel to Thelma and Louise, Luke? Check this out.

Is this Florida? A bicycle built for two luke oh god block or charge rex chapman yes that is oh that'll ruin your cruise you know you came out you know you always wonder when you rent one of these things it's like why are the helmets mandatory bro yeah that is a fender bend her bend her i just met her look at that one oh my god wow all right that that remember that time you made fun of showtime's phil sims because you know he popped out about 30 pull-ups rate this guy's pull-up form right here and by the way shout out to phil sims hold my beer luke do you have one of those things one of those uh pull-up bars in the door jam no i don't i don't so i have one of those but the way it works i mean this dude's on the wrong side of it you gotta be on the other ankle weights this no no the dude is facing it this way he's

got to turn all the way around you got to be on the other side because it sits on the top of the other end of the door jam he's on the wrong end of it so of course when he goes up it comes right off so fucking idiot i did that same thing in uh jeff heard's basement in about 1998 when i was high i grabbed onto something and fell on my back jeff bogus i know you're watching this right now and you're laughing and spitting up right now but yeah, I've done this type of fall, Luke. Doctor said I need a backiotomy. You know what I'm saying? Wow.

That's a flat back bump. It looks like Juan Archuleta. Shouts to the Spaniards. Yeah, that is. That does. Hey, Luke, you love soccer. Edmund Tarverdian sent this in. Not enough head movement. Watch this lady in the crowd. Oh, fuck no. Oh, my God.

There's your souvenir. It's called a concussion, Luke. Take that home with you. What league is this? Do you know? Is that Holly Holm? Is this a payback right here? Did Travertian send this out? You should have been like, you got to lean into it.

She just kind of takes it. It's like pad work. You don't just get hit. You got to pop the punch as it comes into you. Yeah, yeah, I'm with you on that. Shout out to that old guy for checking in on her. That's Billy Joe Saunders' favorite video thus far. Indeed, indeed.

Let's go out to some, what are you playing? Grab ass in the park with your friends here, Luke? What is going on here? Is this the stupid-ass combat jiu-jitsu that Eddie Bravo loves? I don't know, but I'm kind of... You want to go camping with me, Luke? I got a pretty big tent. You like this, Luke?

No, Bhagavan Doc Antler. I do not wish to go camping with you and your harem. Also, this just shows you how stupid this fucking... I mean, I like Eddie Bravo, and the EBI was great, but we turn it into combat jiu-jitsu where you can slap. It's like pancreas with jiu-jitsu. Dude, I'm super out on that did you hear the joke about uh camping sex luke it's this is a boy scout pedophile joke you can save it it's intense it's intense luke i don't know if you if you were able to yeah that shout out to my neighbor for that

dad joke all right hey we're gonna move on, Luke. People are posting workout videos on how you can stay fit. This is Eric Bugenhagen of WWE. He's an NXT wrestler. He does sort of an air guitar gimmick. He put out this video on how during the coronavirus, and I think we're not queued up to where we need to be, but maybe we can wait it out here, how you can use balloons, Luke, water balloons,

to actually get a decent workout here so let's see bugenhagen sort of set this up and um um luke you're you're you are a fucking idiot what i mean look you got first you gotta grip it luke um what exercise could he possibly be doing? The rhythm method, I think, Luke. All right, now we got a couple of them. Dude, does your family know what you do on this show? Look at the unit on that guy. Yeah. Wow. Wow. See, curls. There it is, Luke. Oh my God. He might have shot his load right there, Luke. That's you after watching the Shevchenko sisters on Instagram. Luke, we always, well, that is true, by the way. We always try to give you some animal on human violence here.

So how about this newscast in a farm? Look at Paige Van Zandt look like right there. This is not going to end well. Bro, that's like the Lord of the, she just gets run over here? Yeah, yeah. That one right in the front is he's going for third base i don't you know wow it's not a base for sliding yeah wow i don't maybe we should move on before we get death threats luke or we or we get pulled out of the canelo fight we will be canceled yes all right oh we want to close on this somebody sent

me this twice in my dms these are tip-to-tip doppelgangers. I think that's you on the left, Luke, and me on the right. Shout out to these guys. Isn't that a famous DJ on the left? That's actually pretty fair, I'd say. Yeah, look at that. Not enough gray, and your smile's a little bit about the same, but otherwise, you know, it looks pretty good.

Isn't that dude with the marshmallow? Isn't that some famous DJ or something, Marshmello? I'm trying to be here. Oh, there's like Deadmau5? Is that him? I don't know. I don't really speak that language. I don't really hang out at Haka San too often Luke after the fights.

So I'm not ready to pay $200 to watch some, some guys spin records. All right. If that's how you get down, if that's how you met your wife in Columbia, I'm fine. I support you, Luke. You think I listened to that? I, I, well, I don't know. But speaking of tip to tip Luke, uh, how about this excerpt from our photo shoot? Look at this, Luke. Look at these guys hanging out here.

You and I are two of the wives. Look at us, the two wives of Joe Exotic. Here are Joe Exotic's two husbands hanging out right here. That was the last time we touched pre-corona, Luke. This is you and I getting ready ready all we need is the third so i guess jay is joe exotic oh no that means am i toothless uh john and you're yeah because i would be travis i would be travis i'd be the one the sad story and then you would be the happy guy with the property of of j J written right above your...

By the way, that was, of all the... I said this on our live stream on Saturday. Of all the swerves and reveals, the reveal that poor Joe Dirt, exotics, all of his husbands never actually liked the work they put in to consummate it, and they only did it for his meth and his money and his tigers, that's depressing, Luke. I know he's in a jail cell now. Yeah.

You ever thought about that for a second? Like, I've obviously drank a lot. I've enjoyed the natural herbs of life. Where's this going, Luke? You got stories here? No, no, hold on. I've never done anything serious beyond that, really. So it makes you wonder, like, how money is meth

that you're willing to be like look i'm not gay but i just it is that great that i'm just gonna go bang joe exotic in order to get what bob saget said in half baked you know don't forget what he said he he he did dirty deeds for coke you never saw that scene with the no it's been a while. I'm just pointing out, that high from meth must be amazing. It must be grand. I'm sure. I'm sure it is, Luke. I mean, I'm not willing to do that with you because I've seen how it ends.

I've seen this documentary. All right, Luke. That's the ish for the week. So there you have it. Very good. Have you seen that shit? Very good, Brian. Very good.

Time now for odds and ends on the show, Brian Campbell. What is your odds and ends? Look, a little bit of boxing news. Obviously, time now for odds and ends on the show. Brian Kimball, what is your odds and ends? Uh, look a little bit of boxing is obviously all the fights are canceled and postponed. Mike Coppinger of the athletic.com is reporting that wilder fury three, which we thought might happen in July. They're now targeting targeting October. That's really not the news here because every fight's being pushed off. It's really just the idea here, Luke, that in boxing, if anyone can benefit from this break, it really might be Deontay Wilder. And we've teased this topic before

of how a potential third fight against Fury could be different. And look, could it hurt him to take an extended absence for mental and physical health recovery from that one-sided defeat? But even more, Luke, he's not going to become a boxer in six months we know that but i think the counter-punching style that he's used against uh

fury which in two fights save for those two rounds right he's really been on the you know in a one-sided nature if he comes in there and just says f it i'm I'm brawling, I'm a destroyer, I know I've got a talent deficiency against this man, so the only way to close that is helicopter city. Luke, do you remember round one of Wilder-Stiverne 2? I thought it was the knockout of the year. Yes, Stiverne, fat and overweight and got sent to hell in that first round. But do you remember the explosive reckless i mean i mean you

know he calls himself the bronze bomber that when he enters that ring he channels generational spirits and just whatever whatever you want to believe that bs or not that was a version of wilder who was shifting and throwing just heat that if he did that against fury in the third fight i don't know if it worked luke but it's probably a better strategy than what else he could do. And could you imagine the fireworks of seeing Fury have to deal with that? I'll say this. They were going to do that fight in what? What was the original one scheduled for?

June or July? July 18th was the targeted date. Yeah, I'm not sure that pushing it from July versus October makes all the difference in the world but to the extent that that fight gets delayed a month two three four that makes wilder's chances better which i still think are not good enough to win it was we talked about this before without doing a lot of extra work behind it but i'll say i like his chances in october better than i like his chances in in July and he needs all the help

that he can get so probably that's a good idea for the parties involved it makes it a little bit more sellable perhaps a little bit more competitive even if I still think of Tyson Fury is your prohibitive favorite there but do you think there's any chance that could work because you'll have to agree Luke from breaking down the film Wilder is a counter-punching slugger, which is kind of rare for a guy with that little amount of technical skill. What if he became an attacker, a destroyer? What if you tried to walk him down? It's the old adage, you got to box a brawler, you got to brawl a boxer. He can't outbox Tyson Fury. He was able to sort of outbox Luis Ortiz, but he had to give up six and a half rounds basically to do it in the second fight. You can't really do that with Tyson Fury. He's just too good, just too far ahead. And his

costume is not nearly as heavy. And so as a consequence, I would say, look, I'm not sure exactly what the right method is and how you apply that brawling style, but just trying to go there and tit for tat for him, you're going to get chewed up. We saw what already happened the last time. Now, look, I got one more odds and ends that I'm going to hit you with. Make it fast. It's about Corona DIY. Look, you're about a week away from looking like Doc Antler as it is with the salt on the side.

But I gave myself self-haircut number two last night, and I butchered it badly. I'm going to turn real quick so you can see it. We're always open in this. Wow, dude. And I want to say that i have no choice that is not a that is not a hundred dollar haircut i know i went way too high so my only choice now is to chase the ghost of the great zach morris in that episode when he was banging mindy the manager and the in the friends forever episode that guy is my future. I'm willing to go down that road.

I'm willing to get the blonde tips too, Luke. I think it's time. I think it's time. And I'll say this. You're getting hit with the insults for your haircut. My wife's supposed to cut mine tonight, so it's going to be my turn to eat the shit sandwich next week when I look like I had my head stuck in a blender. I got too confident thinking I can fade it, Luke.

I stopped using the mirror. I did it more by sound and touch. I got too confident thinking I can fade it, Luke. I stopped using the mirror. I did it more by sound and touch. Don't do it. Don't do it, Luke. Bro, less is more. Less is more. Okay. So I'll say this for mine.

You know, there's been a lot of people who have reacted in the sports world with a lot of generosity as it relates to the coronavirus pandemic. You saw Drew Brees, I think, and his wife gave $5 million to local resources. I don't like the team. They're the arch nemesis of my favorite team, but Barcelona's players took a 70% pay cut so that the rest of the Barcelona staff would be able to get 100% of their salaries. I thought that to be an incredible gesture. And in our own world, there has been one man who has been very, very generous with his resources. That is Conor McGregor. Conor McGregor donating about $1.1

million worth of, I think, 1 million pounds. I'm not exactly sure. I think that's right. Worth of money to various causes for the people on the front lines there of the attack against COVID-19 for healthcare responders and healthcare professionals. I really, truly commend Conor McGregor for that. He is the only person in MMA with vast wealth who has decided to share it. And I know what some asshole is going to get out there and say, oh, $1 million compared to his net worth, that's like me giving up a stick of bubble gum. Right.

Except for $1 million, that's actually very impactful. It actually makes a difference. You giving up the cost it would be for you, whatever, it's like a metro fare or the cost of a Five Guys burger, whatever, that doesn't have a tremendous impact on people. That, what he did, does. Now, this doesn't mean that we forget about some of the other stuff that's happening around him.

Those are all to be determined, I guess, but we should take a moment to say, look around in MMA and look who is trying to make a positive difference. He put out that video calling to action the Irish people, calling to action the Irish leadership, and then, then, put his money where his mouth was and helped and donate vast resources. I truly and honestly, I could not mean this more, I commend Conor McGregor for that. One of the few bright spots in MMA

related to people understanding what the challenge is and meeting it head on, especially when he's got some resources to give. Thank you, Conor McGregor. I agree. It really puts that video of that weird lady holding the cell phone with him in the bed in the rear view. And shout out to Amir Khan, by the way, the boxer,

who gets a lot of flack a lot, but he's donated a ton of money to this effort as well. A real humanitarian. Luke, so has been your Twitter feed. So keep it up. Deflect the hate. Stay safe, Luke. Quarantine yourself.

Shower. I showered today for the first time in two and a half days. It felt great, Luke. Yeah, that's the one thing about working from home. I don't shower enough, but I didn't shower today. So maybe after the show, I'll walk the dogs and then go shower. All right. Ozark Season 3, you're going to be on it on Netflix? You're going to go for it? I have't shower today. So maybe after the show, I'll walk the dogs and then go shower. All right. Season three,

you're going to be on it on Netflix. You're going to go for it. I have to get going. So make the pitch quickly. Why should I watch Ozark? I've got no opinion on it. Sell me on it. Great twists and turns.

I haven't seen breaking bad, but there's been comparisons to the, to the way the story is structured. I thought the first season was much better than the second. I've heard mixed reviews on the third, but Justin Bateman in it, some big-time actors that you know, someone that will grab you like Julia Garner. It's wacky and wild.

It's good stuff, Luke. You're going to – embezzlement, mafia. But the idea of – all right, I don't know if people can hear Luke. Jay's talking as if we wish to hear him. Jay jumped in and said season three is phenomenal so if you you know um you may hey luke if you got time jay has a documentary on back to the future if you're looking to fill your covid hours at the moment i'd rather get shot in the face with liquid aids all right well uh that's it for us I don't mean that sincerely

I'm just saying things alright thumbs up on the video Brian Campbell me and the channel put all the social graphics up there Jay so we can see everything there it is

you want to give us a follow on Instagram please do you want to subscribe to the channel hit that subscribe button hit the notification bell, do everything possible. And of course, for Brian's work over at CBS, you can follow him for mine over at SiriusXM and every other

place you can do that for mine. Any parting words, Brian Campbell? Uh, no. Stay safe, wash your hands, wash your privates, um, all your hoes, keep them loyal. Love it, love it, live it, love it. MK invading your sensibilities, your ear holes, your eye holes. Luke, you got any other?

Yeah, just wash your hands, you filthy animals. That's it. Stay safe. Do what the public health professionals tell us. The faster, I'll say this, the more we listen to the experts, the faster we'll be back to this and you and I, Brian, can get back to the studios and do what we love to do. Don't drink and cut. Don't drink and cut. Don't drink and cut.

I've already showed you why. Thank you. All right. That is Brian Campbell. I am Luke Thomas. Until next time, thank you so much for watching. May all of your gains be loyal. you