MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Jon Jones Future | Mayweather vs. Paul | TJ Dillashaw OUT vs. Sandhagen | Ep 149

Episode Date: April 29, 2021

A ton of combat sports news went down yesterday and MK has you covered. The boys dive into Jon Jones future after he split from his management team. Plus, Luke and Brian talk about the Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul fight has is officially set for June 6th in Miami on SHOWTIME PPV. Also, TJ Dillashaw pulled out of his fight with Corey Sandhagen due to a cut on his head. What's next? After Kamaru Usman KO'd Jorge Masvidal, whats the state of the UFC Welterweight division? --------------------------- 'Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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 Wednesday, the 28th of April, 2021. And it is time, everyone, for episode whatever number it is, for Morning Combat. Hi, I'm from CBS Sports. My name is Luke Thomas. And I am joined by the King of Connecticut himself, Mr. Washy-washed McWasherson, Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian. How are you, buddy? Luke, I'm fired up.

I'm feeling very artistic today. It's hump day. It's Wednesday. Hey, no wheel of death today. Don't tune out, though. Don't drop out. How about you tune in? Corey, are you talking to me?

We're a live show right now. Yeah, they do a lot of that jibber-jabber talking to me you're talking to me bro uh so yeah luke i'm ready okay a lot to get into today all right a lot a lot i uh i can't quite read the thing behind you as my dog barks uncontrollably what does it say behind you you know it's a revelation is jake paul i mean am i wrong because am i wrong jake paul jake paul is uh equally untalented but way more financially compensated some people have called me the the jake paul of the art world do you want to see my latest thoughts luke your thoughts your thoughts um it's it's a it's more of a uh it's more of a commentary on today's political system than anything luke but you can pull from it what you need all right all right it's interesting yeah Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. How do you follow that, Luke? Wow. But there's no Wheel of Death today. However, there are fan submissions. We will do those later. We have a few big topics and then a few small topics. We'll get to them all with equal zest and joie de vivre.

It's like you just described looking at you and I naked back to back, right? No. I don't think I did do that did i no hey i'll just check out now look this is not starting out well okay i'll just uh i'll just excuse myself from here uh all right so let's remind everyone thumbs up on the video hit subscribe if you want to try showtime you can you can try it free for 30 days if you like it you can keep it if not you can pound sand if you want to try Showtime, you can. You can try it free for 30 days. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can pound sand. If you want to take the da plunge for a real Bellator experience, you can go to show.com slash bellator MMA. And for the first six months, you can get it for $4.99 each of those months.

If you want some MK merch and you live uh in you know tim tebow throwing distance from the actual place in which they are produced or you see a mug that bc's holding up that you actually cannot buy on the store you can go to store.show.com you can buy that beanie though bc how about this co-host t-shirt maybe you cannot buy that one either not yet anyway although i've heard rumors and rumblings uh that that's coming speaking of rumble ing there's only one place to watch rumble romero may 7th looking that is on showtime so i always need you to hammer that home for the people okay and you and i will be there we will be at the mohegan sun watching that in person i am looking forward the last bellator show i saw in person, I think this is true,

was Kimbo Dada 5000. I think that's the last one I saw in person. I was a regular attender of the Mohegan shows, Luke. So I've seen a lot of Benson Henderson, Pat Curran, Patricio. I've made the rounds, all right? All right, fair enough. So we'll be there next week.

We got a whole thing to do about that. What else we got going on, BC? You think the guy with the hat will be there? You think Chuck Mendenhall will show up? I mean, it is his state. You know, that's a great question. Because if he does, I want to reunite with that man. I love that man.

See, he's gone to indie media, though, so your travel budget's going to be minimal, although he lives not too far from there, right? Pretty close to you. I'd say there's a pretty good chance actually pretty good chance i'd host him in my room if he was willing to sign a contract that says the hat must stay on um and nothing else huh just the hat i've seen star wars episode six luke or whatever yeah i mean can i tell you that's the most dude that's the most disappointing scene in Star Wars oh no no no no no they finally take the mask off and Darth Vader looks like someone's

fucking English butler it's like this dude doesn't look tough at all man and I realize he's supposed to be all mangled and like you know burned and shit but even then he looks like he is the kind of guy who lectures 17 year olds about not knowing Latin derivations of words. Fuck that guy, man. He sucked. First of all, his head hadn't seen the sun in like 45 years. All right. He's been killing dudes.

So his skull and his skin is going to look a lot like your balls after the winter season, Luke, before it's time to get out there in the sun. So, look, it was a very touching moment. And I think as a kid seeing that, it was gross. It was weird. sun so look it was a very touching moment and i think as a kid seeing that it was it was gross it was weird you know it was like oh and it was like everyone's like oh wonder woman's such a good movie i'm like it's okay the fucking uh villain in that movie is something larger than this but for the most of the movie takes the form of you know uh an english teacher at parochial school for it's like what who the fuck is this he's got elbow pads and he wants to lecture you on the significance of tom sawyer and huckleberry

finn fuck this guy i don't know i took the deeper message between father and son there he was able to turn his father back to the light luke and i think there's still time for you and your dad to do the same yeah i don't think that is. I think my father's a little bit closer to Palpatine at this point. Alright, if you want to email the show, morningcombat at gmail.com for fan submissions, which we will do today. We have Dead Wrong on Friday,

so you can get those in as well. And yeah, by the way, BC has some interviews out. He's got an interview out with Chris Areola, which I have to tell you, I found surprisingly good in this sense, BC. I ain't got a lot of interest in that fight with Andy Ruiz, but I am kind of curious about Andy being with this new camp. Chris Areola's seen some shit, and he's got some stories to tell.

It was a great interview, by the way, too. Yeah, it was actually surprisingly good. Yeah, and by the way, this is one of those fights that, like, shouldn't be a pay-per-view. Yes, we should defecate on it, but then at the end of the day it's probably gonna be a pretty fun fight it's just one of those things luke okay the thing for me is andy ruiz in shape with maybe the best trainer in boxing i gotta tell you bc that is intriguing to me this fight in particular i take it or leave it whatever it ain't for me all right but i gotta tell you if

he can look good against areola which he should and then build on that i i am intrigued by that bc i'm legitimately all in on well-trained in shape motivated andy ruiz you know and luke i've got another interview coming out later today on morning combat on youtube do you all right a fellow by the name of yuri prohatsuka if you will okay hotchkai i think i don't know. This is a wild interview. I mean, I've never had one, Luke, before where

somebody pauses the video screen to look up a translation of a word. I mean, there's some entertainment in here. I hope people can check it out. All right.

That'll be up, I think our producer said 3 p.m. today. So be on the lookout for that as well. Okay. Well, we have a lot of stuff to get to, BC, so

let's set it all up here. Obviously there are some fights this weekend, and we will get to that on Friday's show, although we'll have a little bit of that here today as well. BFL is going to be back and whatnot, but let's start the show with what I think is actually a surprisingly big story, which is that Jon Jones has parted ways with his longtime management company, First Round Management. For folks who may not know, those are the Cobble Brothers, Malky and Abe. They represent a number of other clients,

Jorge Masvidal, Mike Perry. I think they represent Tyron Woodley still. The Pettis Brothers. He goes on and on from there. PVC, Luke. Paige Van Zandt. Paige Van Zandt. They also represent, it should should be noted you have to get

a license to be a agent in the nfl mulky kala has one and he does represent um several nfl clients as well it should be noted anyway john jones had been with them for 11 years and bc if i had to ask you about the last 11 years of john jones career, you know the story. It is filled with incredible highs, no doubt about it, and it is filled with some punctuated lows, man. Some jumpsuits, some Bentleys wrapped around telephone poles, some DUIs, some drug test failures, and it all came apart here. I made some calls behind the scenes, so I have, I think, a little bit of information to share maybe not a whole lot but for you first i feel like bc you don't see fighters

of this stature just leave a management company and when they still have some big fights left on their career it's very rare to see that kind of thing you see sometimes a tony ferguson type fighter do that but not somebody who's's a pillar power player in the industry and certainly not somebody who, like you said, when you look back at John's run with the Cowas, I mean, there was the Nike deal. There was so many ridiculous highs and obviously some major, major scandals and issues that they've had to help pull him out of.

So this is big-time news. John's 33. He's about to make the move to heavyweight. You can certainly assume there could be a very bright and exciting second chapter coming of big fights to his career. So this is going to be interesting landscape-wise, especially coming off of the breakdowns of the discussions for him to make superstar millions that we rarely ever see

in the in the sport of mma to take the toughest challenge of his career against acting heavyweight champion francis and gano and acting like a like a badass acting like a killer so pay that man his money indeed so the timing is interesting to see can john find greener pastures on the other side and maybe somebody a little bit more i don't know know, because I don't know the inside. I want to say somebody a little bit more connected or aggressive. I don't know, you know, what has been going on. It's the one thing we don't see, you know, the sausage being made at the negotiation table. But, Luke, you know, we look at NASCAR for the people that follow it as sort of like they have these power team structures. And, you know, to some smaller degree, MMA has that with these giant, you know, management, promotional things.

You know, sometimes they'll fight each other, but there's times you see like an Usman and Habib say, look, we're both under Ali. We're not going to fight each other. We're friends. So it's going to be interesting which of these power players, whether it's Ali, whether it's Adi, whoever, can jump right in and not only get John, who's got a lot of juice left, but maybe take him to the kind of deal to face in Ghanu that he's looking for that maybe could make a change in the industry too for the super elites, Luke.

So you're the one, though, that's been a little bit more connected. So I'm interested to hear how you could frame what this means for him and and maybe even the sport moving forward yeah well understand i've not spoken to john who you know he don't talk to you luke okay all right he doesn't like you very much i don't know he doesn't uh he doesn't like me very much doesn't like a lot of people very much to be quite candid but so certainly whatever is the he likes boo boo wild thing i'll tell you that much brother wow but that ain't that ain't. That ain't your phone number that comes up on his phone that looks like that.

But my point is this. Obviously, John has a side to be told here, and we're going to need to hear it, and that's going to complete the picture, and I want to be very clear about that. Anything I tell you is not in concert with what John has to say about it. It's people outside

of him. But from making a few phone it. It's people outside of him. But from making a few phone calls, here was my understanding of things. First of all, this actually does set up first-round management, I think, a little bit well. In the following senses, losing John as a client is probably not awesome. But there's a couple of things to be noted about that. First thing I'd say is,

it sets up the Derek Lewis, Francis Ngannou fight for them without much controversy because now if John can't get the deal or whatever happens, they've got Derek on standby. My understanding is that fight is not signed. They have not, you know, formally agreed to terms about that.

Although, you know, Dana has sort of pinpointed Derek. But now there's no conflict because John and Derek Lewis were both represented by first round management. Now Derek is sort of sitting in the catbird seat there's no conflict because John and Derek Lewis were both represented by first round management. Now Derek is sort of sitting in the catbird seat because John has kind of set this fight up and then he can probably take it for a decent amount of money.

I guess we'll have to see what the details look like. The other part, though, that I found more interesting, this is what I just did not realize. My understanding, and again, we would need John's side of the story here, but my understanding is the relationship between John and the management company had been slowly deteriorating for some time, and that he was actively negotiating for this Francis Ngannou fight on his own. Now, he may have had advisors outside of first-round management that may have been guiding him but my understanding was that they were working perhaps with i think some of his endorsement deals or you know other parts

of his business affairs but that john had increasingly been exerting control over how that goes and um and you know negotiating in public and whatnot these are again my understanding is that those are calls that john Jones made on his own behalf. Now, you can like those things or you can dislike those things, but here's the question that it raises, which is now that he's no longer part of that, and again, my understanding was first-round management did not do any negotiating on behalf of Jon for the Ngannou fight. Jon wanted to do it on his own. Does he stay on his own? Does he go to Audiotar who's like kind of inside the combat sports space but a little bit outside of it does he go to caa who is at odds with wme does wme sign

him does he does he stay on his own bc because really you have to ask or does he go to dominance mma by the way i i think ollie's signing him you know i i know that there's mutual interest there like uh that's not out of the question either the question you have to ask yourself is which one of those paths gets John to where John wants to be and the answer is I don't really know I don't think it's CAA I don't think WME is going to do it Audiotar is interesting I think Ali Abdelaziz is an interesting choice I think going it alone is an interesting choice and I have to tell you I think Ali Abdelaziz is an interesting choice. I think going it alone is an interesting choice. And I have to tell you, I think those are the probable three. I don't think he goes outside, like find some sports agent who's not working in the combat. I mean, maybe Gary Vee

or something like that with his new agency. That's a possibility. But I'd be curious to what you, what you, what you make of what I'd been told from a few different people. Yeah. I mean, look, you know, as a sort of a layman's response from what you sort of read from the tea leaves, it's like, could he go to Ali, who seems to be the connected bulldog of the moment, who's getting his fighters time after time, consistent, huge things, right?

Or could he go to Audi, to your point, who's got, you know, Conor and Pacquiao and can do some of these straddling things into other sports or other ventures? I'm not really sure, Luke. I just think that it could have a ripple effect on this sort of stance we're at, right, with fighters on the super elite level and fighters across the board. But certainly fighters on the super elite level, you know, not getting the pay that they deserve, which is why this whole Jake Paul conversation, which, you know, we're even gonna have a conversation today about it because, because it just don't stop. It's why that is actually relevant at the moment, why you can go to those places to make stupid money and not in your own profession. So I wonder

if there's long-term effects there. I have no way to really guess where John is going. I do look at, you know, it feels like in some ways, you know, John kind of made the Coward Brothers, and in some ways they kind of made him, and it was a fruitful relationship. And, you know, I don't imagine him without them by their side. In fact, Luke, where do you think the Coward Brothers rank in terms of

brotherly MMA influentialness in MMA history? You know, after the Fertittas and Diazes, but ahead of the Miller's. Is that where you're going with this? I don't, I don't know exactly where they would rank in that sense. I will say that like, look, man, anytime a relationship deteriorates, um, both sides probably have something to contribute to that. You know, uh, I will say obviously the greatest fighter in the world, you're going to make some allowances for,

you know? So like when he, I did, I at that ufc 200 presser when he had tested positive before the cormier what was supposed to be the cormier i guess rematch at that point brought in that lady the fixer they brought in the damn fixer dude and it was a whole shit show you know those guys stuck by him through some pretty bottom times at the the same time, though, you know, listen, again, if the relationship deteriorates, I think all the, if I mispronounce his name, I apologize. Or if he goes to Ali, whichever way he goes, he might end up getting a somewhat better deal than what he was actively negotiating for on his own. Again, under the FRM umbrella. But again, my understanding is pretty clearly they were not negotiating on his behalf for that fight. He was doing that by himself um so could they

probably get him a little bit closer than maybe that effort was going to get him maybe i mean there might be something to be said for that but i don't think it's going to be a lot remember ufc is going to stay within that 18 to 20 pay overall of the revenue structure they're not going to really change that for a whole lot, first things first. And I think secondly, apparently what part of what's driving a hard bargain here is, and I've not spoken to UFC about this, but when you talk to folks who are somewhat familiar with this situation, the thing that comes across is the UFC does believe that John is the best of all time and that he is a solid A-side that they have for themselves,

but that his draw is highly contingent upon the matchup. Fight over fight, it's around 400, maybe 500, which is, again, very, very good. But not like, doesn't blow the doors off. And with all the other pieces that they have in play, including all that contracted revenue, I just don't know how motivated they are to really come up off their pockets to fix stuff. When I say fix, I mean to make the fight happen, to get it right. So there's a couple of factors for John, I think, that are working not just against him, but against any fighter who would be in a similar kind of position by being an A-side,

which is that you might find maybe the Ali arrangement, maybe the Attar arrangement, maybe these will fix things for him a little bit. But in general, I don't see a big revolutionary change happening no matter what path he decides to take. Although, obviously, I hope that everyone gets something out of it if that's what they deserve. Yeah, and I think that's always the fair comeback when you and I come on here and say, you know, pay John.

Look what he's accomplished, you know. Pay him to fight Ngannou. Let's get these guys what they deserve. You know, the comeback is what you said. It depends on the matchup. He's been a consistent pay-per-view draw, but not Connor, Lesnar, Rousey sort of figures, you know, time and again, which leads me to sort of say this. It's like, yeah, Dana can always sort of say, you know, what could have been with John and all this stuff, but they've also gone to bat and protected him a lot of ways I mean he got out of that USADA thing in ways that we didn't think possible they moved the card from you know Vegas to LA that time for the Gustafson rematch so

they've certainly stood by him but I wonder Luke is are the days over where UFC brass has the type of emotional relationships with its top fighters that you, they say not to do in business, but we saw that from that first generation of those guys who helped Zufa get over that hump, right? The, the, the Stefan Bonner, Forrest Griffins, Matt Hughes's, you know, Chuck Liddell's, they were given, you know, lifetime jobs for a while until the, the, the, uh, the sale, the sale in 2016, they were sort of just always given full-on protection, love, you're our heroes forever. That sort seemed to end with that generation. Like, okay, they were with Conor and ride or die when he was their ultimate meal ticket for sure. But we've seen Dana and Conor go at it a little bit. Maybe you could say Rousey because of the special nature of her being the

female pioneer. And she was very sort of pro company, whatever they want, she'll do it. And she'll, you know, let them help her to get to the top that she was beloved in of pro company, whatever they want, she'll do it and she'll let them help her get to the top, that she was beloved in a way that you don't normally see. But we don't see anymore Dana having those one-on-one relationships like he had with Chuck Liddell, where you're going to go out of your way to over-the-top protect these people. And maybe that's how it should be between promoter and fighter to a certain degree.

Yeah, it probably should. But again, every time we bring these things up and we say like, oh, UFC doesn't believe that John can sell more than $400,000 or $500,000, which again is still pretty good, and right matchup is there, you can probably get a million or more, but that would take a very, very special matchup or whatever the case. And maybe you want to make that argument that Francis is that fight. Either way, the point is this.

It's not, they take that as like the UFC's framing of it as the general framing of it. Understand something. If John is selling 500,000, you could still give him a raise commensurate with the kinds of things we think that he wants. And I'm told it's somewhere in the 15 million range. And they could still make a profit. Yes. The idea is they couldn't make a profit on the profit margins that they currently enjoy, but they could still make money. So I want to be very clear about this.

That's just the UFC's framing of it. That's not the framing of it. And my framing of that last point was, you know, if John had been a little bit more Liddellian in his history of commitment to point was you know if john had been a little bit more ledellian in his history of commitment to the brand and all that maybe they just throw the money at him and we don't have this public scandal right that's right i mean again this is one of the situations where it's like dude does john deserve to make and i and i gotta tell you i do think that this is

personal speculation this is not from any conversation that I had. I do think that the UFC might be looking at him and saying, we're not sure he's done, but the last few performances might indicate that he's not exactly what he once was, and we want to see kind of what we got before we pay for it kind of a thing. There could be that a little bit too. I wanted to close by essentially touching on exactly what you just said

and saying, Luke, what's interesting is, while I had been on the side of the fence last few years it's like whenever john makes the move and by the way i don't think 33 is too late to make the move to heavyweight we know how heavyweights age kumaru's 33 that i think he'll be incredible and the best and i think you know in ghanu coming in and taking over and being such a absurd freak of nature certainly clouds that belief. Like, I now need to see Ngannou Jones to really know who's going to win and what it's going to look like.

And again, that just fuels my interest in why I think it'll be a monster pay-per-view. But we really don't actually know what John's future looks like. Not just because of the history of outside the cage stuff. Not just because, you know, if he goes out there in a heavyweight debut and gets knocked out, what does he do? Does he go back

to 205 and can he be the same fighter? Does he retool that heavyweight? Does he walk away for good? We have no idea. I don't want to always sound ignorant when I'm just like, pay the fighter, pay him, look what he accomplished. Obviously, I know John also caused a lot of headaches. Obviously, I know UFC has enjoyed a certain

level of profit margins to take this business to new levels. But I do wonder. I mean, it could go really good for John where he can survive an outpoint in Ghanu and keep beating big names and really cement the GOAT conversation so we never have it again. Or I wonder, Luke, I mean, are his crazy times behind him? You have no idea moving forward. So I'm sure that, to your point, that is a big part of UFC's reticence in this position. Yeah, again, here's my prediction on this,

and take that for what it's worth, which is not much. I know that at least pre-pandemic, pre-pandemic, there was mutual interest between Jones and Dominance MMA. I don't think it ever went anywhere because he was under contract, but I know that there was probably some interest there. Where things stand now. I don't think he ever went anywhere because he was under contract, but I know that there was probably some interest there. Where things stand now, I don't know. But if I had to guess, he probably signs with Audiotar,

who may have zero interest, I don't know, or Ali. I do think he could sign with him. And that they make the Francis fight happen probably marginally better than what he would have gotten by doing this on his own. You know, something, I think that's probably your most likely outcome. Because structurally, what John is doing is interesting to raise awareness,

but it's not interesting in the sense of being an actual catalyst for change. There's only so much another party can do. It'll probably end up like we think it's going to end up. Just we'll see where exactly it all falls and what it looks like in the end. Just to fill this picture out perfectly, do you know who Ngannou is represented by? I do not. I do not.

I've not dealt with his management. I don't know. Because it's always interesting, just like any big-time agent in broadcasting who can get his clients big money by leveraging others, I wonder how much that comes into play when you look at somebody, just for example, like an Ali who is having such high-level success. I mean, Vittori's now getting a title fight.

I wonder how much that leveraging across the board plays a factor. We'll have to see. It's an interesting scenario. All right, topic number two. This is an interesting one that our producer brought up. Matchmaking at welterweight. So here's who we have as top ten fighters who are not booked.

Not booked right now. Some of this you will understand because they just fought, but technically they fit the bill. Usman, Covington, Masvidal, but here's where it gets interesting. Luque doesn't have a fight booked. Michael Chiesa doesn't have a fight booked. Neither Neil Magny and neither does Jeff Neal obviously Kamzat Chumayev isn't technically a top 10 fighter certainly a wild card you could throw into that space now we do have Burns can you mention the accident that seemed to just break on TMZ before

the show that Kamzat Chumayev uh reportedly wrecked a car that was given to him by Kadriov did you see this report I'm not making it up yeah I know he wrecked his car it to me I don't care okay okay I never know with you Luke that's why we have segments like the wheel of death because I to me Mike Tyson versus Lennox Lewis why would I care about a star talk about it you know why would I care about it why would I care about a story where a guy partially wrecks his Mercedes it's like who cares well because your boy gave it to him and you always like talking about that guy but you know why would i care about it why would i care about a story where a guy partially wrecks his mercedes it's like who cares well because your boy gave it to him and you always like talking about that guy but you know i can't read your mind luke i can't i don't know what it would be like to be married okay so let me just make it clear i don't find it to be a very important story for now we're married for now all right it's right we're on the rocks typically burns

thompson is booked on i think for july or something like that but later on edwards diaz is booked on, I think, for July or something like that, but later on. Edwards Diaz is booked for 262. And then I think you have Maya Muhammad that's going to be on the docket. So here's what Masvidal told ESPN talking about Nick Diaz. Quote, Nick is a stud. If Nick wants to throw down, I'm more than willing to throw down. Like I said, I'm going to do it on my time. I'm not taking short notice fights, no matter it is I'm going to I'm not going to

do that right now but if Nick does want to fight towards the end of the year what can I say I'm here I'll definitely fight again this year as it all continued I've got to fight this year I want to if it wasn't for the suspension and this knockout I would have been fighting three or four times this year it's what I wanted to do I just wanted to compete a lot I still want to compete a lot this year but obviously the circumstances so if I do. I just wanted to compete a lot. I still want to compete a lot this year, but obviously the circumstances, so if I can just get at least one more fight this year, I'll be happy. If I can pull two, which is doubtful, that would be cool. Alright, let's matchmake here a little bit,

BC. You heard the names. Usman, Covington, Masvidal, Luque, Chiesa, Magni, Neal, Chamaev, blah, blah, blah. Let's matchmake here. Alright, let's start off. This is very easy. Let's start off at the top. Kamaru Usman, who, by the way, debuted today as number one on my CBS sports, uh,

MMA pound for pound rankings, Luke. And I, you know, I stand by that. You got anything to say about it? You got anything to say, say to my face.

Uh, I don't care. Your boys at ESPN did the same for, if that, for what it's worth. All right, look, Usman Covington will be next.

Unless one of them gets injured. It makes sense. Dana loves it more than anything what it's worth. Alright, look, Usman Covington will be next unless one of them gets injured. It makes sense. Dana loves it more than anything. It's happening. Take those two off the board, Luke. And look, Covington, it's not like he doesn't deserve it, right? I mean, to me, it makes sense. It's happening, okay? But Masvidal's the interesting other sort of outlier that I think we

have to remove from this. Luke, his days competing for the UFC title at Welterweight are over. He got a second chance he, you know, in a lot of ways didn't deserve because of his stardom. And dude, he got sent to hell, right? It's over now. He's 36. It's celebrity fight time. I don't

think it makes any sense for him to fight anybody in the top 10 right now unless it is specifically about a theme. Meaning, oh, you punched Leon Edwards backstage and you have nowhere to go? Okay, we can make that one. meaning, oh, you punched Leon Edwards backstage and you have nowhere else to go? Okay, we can make that one. Or, oh, Covington's coming off of a loss

and you guys are ex-teammates who hate each other? Okay, we can make that one. I think where Masvidal goes right now is outside of the top 10 into essentially BMF land. Dana White would never come back, Luke, and bring back the BMF title and announce a BMF tournament. But in an unofficial way, that's sort of where they should go.

Jorge bringing up Nick Diaz, I was like, yeah, that fits the script. Let's freaking book that. I beat your brother, and there's still an opening down the road if they want to do Nate Jorge too because of the unfinished business with the stoppage, whatever. But it connects the dots storyline-wise. If you're UFC, why would you throw Nick Diaz at Hamza Chamaya for him just to get chewed up and spit out? Make Jorge versus Nick Diaz. It's a pay-per-view main event.

The fans would go nuts, and it shines Jorge back up. And the reason why I said, Luke, that that could create sort of a de facto BMF tournament is because the odds are that Conor's not going to beat Dustin Paulyway in the third one, July 10th. He might, Luke, right? He might. And if he does, he'll probably face the winner of Chandler Oliveira for the damn belt, but he's probably not. So where would Conor go from there? All I know, the Nate trilogy and a super fight against jorge so it kind of makes sense to put all those guys out on the side and sort of just create these marketable bmf matchups to get what is left of them and let's get back to the damn top 10 luke where do we go from there

uh okay so from there i like your call call, by the way. I agree with it. I would go... Man. I think you got to go Luque versus Chiesa, don't you? Yes, and that's a good-ass fight. Good fight. That's a great fight. And honestly, the winner of that, you're not far from a title shot at that point.

I'm not sure exactly where it would put you, but you're not far away. Now, if Leon Edwards wins, obviously he's going to jump that queue pretty, pretty cleanly. If Diaz wins, you could do Diaz versus, what would you do? Diaz versus Chiesa? I don't think, I don't think he would take that fight, would he? If Diaz loses to Leon Edwards, what do you do with Nate Diaz? That's a big question. You're right, because if Nate Diaz beats Leon Edwards, Luke,

let's talk this out fairly. He would get the next title shot after Covington. He would! And by the way, that fight is what, next month? It's right around the corner. Yeah, no, but I'm not wrong there. If Nate Diaz beats Leon Edwards, which he shouldn't beat him, but if he does, that's his last monster non-Connor fight right there.

Or maybe he could get a Masvidal rematch. But if he doesn't win, Luke, Nate's out of this picture. I think this is Leon Edwards' last setup. You beat Nate Diaz, you get the next title shot after Covington does. So who's Mont's future, Luke? Is Covington? It's Edwards if he wins after that. It's maybe whoever comes out of the Chiesa, Luque, Jeff Neal sort of, you know, pocket of next level guys that are ranked. I know

Jeff Neal's not as hot at the moment as he was before, but you get my point. I just have a question surrounding Conor and those tweets we addressed on Monday, Luke. If Conor doesn't beat Dustin, but looks pretty damn good in defeat, let's say they do a five round action fight and it's great. Dustin wins. Okay. Would the UFC really put him into a fight with Kamaru just to cash in like Chael Sonnen getting the John Jones fight when it made no sense to anyone after losing the second Anderson Silva fight, Luke, that was 1000% UFC gone. All right, let's just throw the second Anderson Silva fight, Luke. That was 1,000% UFC going, all right, let's just throw the cash register at him, right?

Like, let's just cash this shit in. No one thought Chael was going to win. Probably not even Chael. The fight went exactly as you thought. Are we legitimately, would the UFC do that? Yes or no? Barring Conor getting knocked out and the brand just sinking.

If he looks okay and he says, screw it, I'm moving up to 170. That's where the big players are anyway. Or no. Barring Conor getting knocked out and the brand just sinking, if he looks okay and he says, screw it, I'm moving up to 170, that's where the big players are anyway, would he go right to the top and fight Kamaru? I don't think so. I don't think so, dude. Because that affects this conversation in big ways. It really does.

Dude, Kamaru, I mean, do you not agree? Like, absent any kind of consideration related to what being a celebrity or a high-priced drug does for you and i realize that that's very important but just for the moment absent that conversation tell me you you don't like kamaru would do evil things to connor you agree with that i mean even, right? Even if he announced ahead of time, I'm going to wrestle this guy for five rounds. Whether he does that or he says, I'm going to try to slip him and mix it up, he's going to dominate him.

Right. So if Khabib could do what he did, and Khabib's very different, but some of the things he was able to do, Kamaru's going to be able to build on that in times a thousand. I mean, it's a horrible fight for him and i here's what i think i i think if you wait to even have that conversation he not only has to win against poirier he's got to look like the connor that beat him the first time you know

something where it's just not even close see i think it's clearly showed you're better so you're saying it's more likely connor gets the usman fight if he beats Poirier in this non-title trilogy. I think it's the opposite. I think if he loses but looks competent, looks sellable. No. No, I don't think either. Listen, if he beats Poirier and does it convincingly, at that point he'll be so close to a lightweight title shot

that I don't think anything would change. So in that sense, your argument is probably correct. But here's my point. Dude, if you don't look good enough against Dustin Poirier, striking or grappling, doesn't matter. Kamaru Usman is going to eat you alive. That is a horrible fight.

Yes, Luke, but that didn't stop them from throwing Chael at Jon Jones in a weight class he didn't belong in. Chael was dispensable in a way that Conor is not, which isn't to say that they can't book Conor in tough fights. Hello, Poirier is a tough fight. But there's a point at which you're like, dude, why are we doing this? The amount of damage.

Two things to consider. Number one, you put him against a guy as big and strong and talented as Usman, not only will he almost certainly lose there's actually a decent chance he might suffer some horrible consequences to his health as a result you really want to risk that uh you said you just said why would they do this Luke I'll tell you why because if Usman beats Covington and that means four of his last five fights are two against Covington and two against Masvidal. He's the pound for pound number one. He's the new Habib.

Usman is the new Habib. And if they see that Conor now has lost his, what, three in his last four fights, he's going in the wrong direction, we could give him Nate no matter what. I mean, Nate versus Conor, three sells whether both are coming off three-fight losing streaks, right? They can give him Jorge in a grudge match no matter what. Wouldn't't you if you're UFC and Endeavor and Disney and you're thinking only about money go well we could give them to Usman to make Usman our our new Habib and our you know second biggest star you're damn right they'd do that get your head out of your ass Thomas no you're just inventing permutations that sound nice on podcasts like this that don't really have

any relationship to the real world. I will permutate your entire family, whatever that word means, Luke. This is a silly conversation. They're not going to do it. Not anytime soon. All right, back to the top ten. If things dramatically change after that Poirier fight, which is possible but unlikely, and I do mean dramatically,

then and only then can you begin to revisit that. But as it stands today, we are nowhere close. Not even on the same ball. By the way, here's the real conversation. I like Nick Diaz versus Jorge Masvidal a whole hell of a lot than I like Nick Diaz versus Kamzat Shumaya. We haven't even talked about that part. What's a better fight for you? Masvidal Diaz

or Shumayev Diaz? And then explain why. You're talking about Nick? Yes, Nick. Yeah, we talked about that earlier. It's not a good fight with Hamzat Shumayev. No, he's going to chew him up and spit him out. Nick Diaz has not fought in forever. You need to put him in a

celebrity fight only. And yes, Masvidal would most likely hurt him but there's that potential for nick to do nick things and lay on the ground and do weird shit and just make it an entertainment spectacle all you're getting with nick diaz moving forward and it may only be one more fight given his weirdness luke is celebrity spectacles okay so go that route don't sacrifice him to the altar of kamzat in In fact, Leon Edwards, Kamzat, that still could happen. Also, I'll say this. Kamzat versus Magny or Kamzat versus Neal,

I don't know if Kamzat is ready for them, but it's a good way to find out. If he wants to jump the queue, careful what you wish for kind of a scenario, right? I mean, his only career losses have been to COVID and Kadriov's sports car. So he's great, Luke. All right.

With that in mind, we'll move to topic number three. Not a very hefty one, but worth bringing up for just the sake of completeness, I suppose. TJ Dillashaw was supposed to fight Cordy Sandhagen, I believe, on this May 8th UFC card. And he is out. Do we have an asset for this one bc we should have the picture of the cut you know i don't really like let's see let's see the picture of the cut yeah there it is yeah as you can see caught a uh quite the l there with that

giant ass cut oh right over his eye so they have to delay it this is This comes to us from, let's see. At TJ Dillashaw? Yeah, it comes up right directly. I'm sad to say that I had to be pulled from my fight on May 8th due to a cut received from a headbutt while drilling, rescheduling the fight as soon as possible. This was before UFC Vegas 26. Ariel Hawane from ESPN reporting that the UFC is looking at Michelle Watterson

and Marina Rodriguez as the frontrunners to be the new headliners. I guess the good news is, BC, that the cut sucks and it's going to delay May 8th. But it's not so bad that they can't rebook it relatively quickly, right? True, true. And I think for us combat sports fans that are juggling a lot of different fight cards in a short amount of time, that's going up against Canelo. It takes a little bit of the, how do I watch all this shit at the

same time feeling off. But still, I'd like to see Watterson, Rodriguez just the same. And yes, you can do this again soon. I wonder though, sometimes you get fights announced, then something happens and a guy falls out. And then one of the guys goes, I don't really know if that was the fight for me overall. Maybe I should go in another direction. Do you think for me overall maybe i should go in another direction do you think tj dillashaw should go in another direction or do you think because despite the layoff and suspension

he was a dominant former champion pound for pound rank guy what arguably the best bantamweight of all time do you think this is the way to do it get right back in there with a guy who if you beat him you're going right to the title yeah you got to keep this fight for the reasons we mentioned one the cut is not so devastating that it can't be rebooked in pretty short order that's the first part and the second part is the reason why you would want to keep that pairing together is because it solves a lot of problems for you Corey Sandhagen you could make the case really deserves a title shot but as we know the champion is kind of on ice at the moment, and he has to run that one back with the former champion first things first.

So if you're Corey Sanhagen, you want to stay busy to some extent. And also, you still have a little bit of work, maybe, maybe, to do to wash kind of the stink off of the loss to Aljamain Sterling. Now, certainly the Frankie Edgar win was tremendous. The Marais win was tremendous. But let's get somebody, maybe one more hill to climb, right? Like Robert Whitaker beating Kelvin Gastelum. Once you cross that, you're in this land of security,

your placement in that division that just nobody could question. And TJ Dillashaw, there's some questions about him as well, but I really love this fight. Former training partners, well-matched. Both guys have a real modern game. What's TJ Dillashaw going to look like at 35 in this division? Can Corey Sanhagen rise to the occasion? So the cut, unfortunate. It was going to make for a hell of a weekend, BC, because you would have Rumble Romero on that Friday, including Archuleta and Pettis, so a title fight there. Then on top of it, the next day you'd have Rumble Romero on that Friday including Archuleta and Pettis so a title fight there then on top of it the next day you'd have

Canelo fighting Billy Joe Saunders and then that same day you would have had Dillashaw and Sandhagen still I'll take two out of three ain't bad that's what Meatloaf said uh okay alright let's get to topic

number four I mean he did he said it bro i mean what do we even say at this point there was a hilarious joke that derrick brunson had which i'll tell in a minute which i thought was very funny uh it's official logan paul the youtuber and the gentleman who watched another man hang himself in a tree a forest in japan oh how dare you and then put it on film because that was a very smart decision is going to take on floyd mayweather in an exhibition boxing contest june 6th at the hard rock stadium in miami gardens now bc there's a lot we still don't know about it i thought derrick brunson shouts to derrick brunson he had a hilarious joke about you gotta laugh at this a little bit i'm sorry you have to yes i work for cbs but come on silly shit deserves to be called will you though will you after this joke that's

the question yeah i know exactly no but derrick brunson made a joke so everyone settled down and it was he was talking about the poster it was like mayweather versus paul and had their pictures and all the information about the fight and then it had like do you remember when mayweather fought um uh mosley and it was like who are you picking that was the theme of i got that poster right here yes on my wall yes yeah the theme of this one and to derrick brunson's point i'm not sure why it's called bragging rights bragging rights really of all the things you could have called it bragging rights is what you're gonna go with but okay well they'll have bragging rights over really? Of all the things you could have called it, bragging rights is what you're going to go with? But okay, that's what they went with.

Well, they'll have bragging rights over who's the most dominant social influencer between them. Because, look, that's been a big part of Floyd's game and who he is. Now, look, it is what it is. It's carnival spectacle entertainment. Am I a little bit happier here, Luke, that it is, you know, it's a retired Floyd who can do what he wants and if he sees an avenue to make some money, sure. Did I try to sell to you that in this space, which we don't always love this space,

but in this space, there's a size disadvantage here. And look, the rules haven't specifically been played out. Now, when this was first reported by Mike Coppinger of The Athletic a week ago, Luke, there was some rumblings that the rules were going to be that Logan Paul cannot weigh more than 190 pounds, and mind you, he's like 6'2". He weighed 199.5 in his only pro fight up to this point when he lost a split decision to KSI,

the fellow influencer, YouTuber, and singer, whatever, and that Floyd cannot weigh above 160. Now, that doesn't really matter because floyd highest career weight was like 151 and a half but uh dan rayfield of fight freaks united has has come out and said that may not be what they end up with the rules so we're not sure the exact rules here but what we do know is what we kind of already knew because this fight was originally supposed to take place in february that we're going to see it that it's probably going to do very well there's just some interesting elements here luke they're going sund see it, that it's probably going to do very well. There's just some interesting elements here, Luke.

They're going Sunday, February, excuse me, Sunday, June 6th. Thank you. I had a near seizure there. Sunday, June 6th. So that'll be the night after, Luke, the trailer pay-per-view, which features Evander Holyfield, Kevin McBride in the co-main event, and Teofimo Lopez Jr. and George Camboso. That's interesting. I didn't realize that. hold on isn't that fight also in florida hollywood

florida yeah so they're both going to be in florida i mean look you're gonna you and i could go to those back to back for all i know i don't know um they'll both well i don't know showtime's going to be hiring me for any of their coverage for this particular bout we'll have to see but i but look in the other part of it is, Logan Paul is in danger of becoming Frank Stallone here. This was the original famous rowdy YouTuber who was coming over to boxing, and we were like, oh, by the way, he also has a brother who fought on the undercard too. And now Jake Paul is a guy that we tend to talk about now every episode, and that's for good reason.

I wonder if this gives Logan Paul a chance to remind everybody which brother he is, almost like a Nick and Nate situation. Only Luke. It's going to be hard for him to win this one. I mean, it's going to be really, really, really, really freaking hard. But if you are anti-YouTube, anti-Jake Paul,

and you want to watch an aging, old, great champion of Mayweather, probably put the bricks to him. You know, this one's for you. And, Luke, I'm going to – how about the co-main event, right? How about the rematch? What's the co-main? Badu Jack against Jean Pascal, the rematch. That was a brawl the first time.

Okay. All right. I'm in favor of that. I like that. I've heard some other rumors of support fights that are pretty damn good. So it seems, Luke, we don't know. Maybe this will be a little bit more boxing-oriented than some of the recent carnivals. This is what we said the last time, BC, didn't we?

Like, Triller is outside of the traditional boxing institution powers. And that's part of their charm, if you like them, which is, we're outside, we're rebels, we're changing things up. Showtime is very much part of that institution in the firmament of boxing it will be curious to see how they treat a fight that is an exhibition that is silly let's just call it what it is and uh how they how they manage that i don't i don't know what their plans are obviously do you think that there is any way i i don't want to ask you, do you think there's any way Floyd loses? I mean, is there any way Floyd loses this whole event? Is there any way that Floyd doesn't come out of here richer, cooler, more connected to a younger audience? I mean,

this is just like playbook 101 of the Floyd financial and mainstream dominance, right? I got to tell you, Floyd Mayweather convincing people that he has not no chance but that there's this is a great time to pick against him only for floyd to come out and stomp on those people and make them lose all their money i have seen that movie a hundred thousand times it is very unwise to bet against floyd mayweatherather. And I don't mean just in a fight, but in finding ways to just make whatever he's doing work for him. He has shown a unique ability to do that quite carefully and quite well over time.

So I would not be picking a Paul brother here in an exhibition contest or any other kind that Floyd Mayweather has entered into. We need to get floyd on morning combat that's over that's a relationship that has yet to consummate all right no i gotta tell you it's funny about the frank stallone thing i had i thought jake paul was like i don't know like the mark to matt hughes you know like he was around you knew who he was they kind of looked the same but not exactly but you know riffraff you can who he was they kind of looked the same but not exactly but you

know riffraff you can just ignore boy the tables have turned dramatically have they not it is amazing that jake has so rapidly eclipsed his brother at least for the moment of the modern news cycle um with what he's been able to do so let's switch over gears to that if we can. Hold on real quick. In your household, your brother, the former restaurant owner, the doctorate of education, which one of you is the Jake and which one of you is the Logan? I'm definitely the Jake. You know, a bit more of an idiot, a little bit louder and more annoying, for sure.

And by the way, it's not education. It's mathematics, PhD mathematics. That falls under education where I come from, Luke. We have very generic terms. We studied math. He would be the Logan Paul, for sure. For sure. No doubt about it.

All right. Quick prediction because it's official. It's happening. Pay-per-view buys. Floyd, Logan. That's the thing. What is Showtime going to charge for a Sunday pay-per-view with the retired old Floyd and a YouTuber?

I don't know. I don't know what they're going to charge for that. Do you think this is a power move from Floyd to say, I see what you're doing, Triller, but I was already in talks with Logan, and I'm going to one-up you by doing this the night after, same state, and I'll prove to you that people are going to buy me over the Teofimo card? Yeah, dude, because Teofimo, we love him, and I'll watch him box 10 times out of 10,

even though he's going to run over his opponent in June. But, dude, he's not the draw Floyd is. He definitely ain't the draw that Logan Paul is. And we understand what the reasons are for that. But, yeah, they're going to get drummed out. Because I've got to tell you, the amount of interest I've seen in Evander Holyfield and Kevin McBride, I've seen people more enthusiastic for their DoorDash deliveries to arrive than they have for the announcement of that one. Just a reminder, though, this ain't Ben Askren.

This is Floyd Mayweather. Could Floyd and Logan do two million pay-per-view buys? No. With the right price point and the right promotion, maybe. I doubt it. I doubt it. I doubt it. But, listen, I don't know what the numbers were for Jake Paul and Ben Askren. I tend to think that Dana White is right, that whatever we heard in the public is exaggerated.

But I also probably feel like it did a high number. Like, they're not going to make money on that show because of how much they spent. But, like, did it sell a lot? Yes. I absolutely believe that it sold a lot. And I think this one will sell a lot, too. A lot of donks out there, BC. A lot of donks.

They're coming after the pirates right now. You see that? They're taking lawsuits. They're going Dana White style. I saw that. $100 million they're claiming in lawsuits. We'll see if they can get any of that back. All right.

Now we go from one Paul brother to another Paul brother because this show is totally out of ideas. No, that's not it, Luke. That's not it. That's because this is relevant because this is relevant I'm sorry I know I know I know BC it's a joke I'm joking this is actually the point so Jake Paul spoke to Ariel Helwani I did not see the interview but BC did but we wanted to have a conversation here because this is the most hilarious shit I've ever seen the crowd at UFC 261 couldn't stop chanting about him. President was asked and talked about him passionately, by the way, at length. Daniel

Cormier commentating at the event leaves his seat to go over there. Tyron Woodley threatens to do whatever he's going to do to him. A million other fighters to the point bc that the guy in uh kamaru usman who i think saturday may end up serving as something of a turning point for him in terms of popular appeal and how much people know and understand who he is i mean that was a star making performance he turned in against jorge masvidal even that guy is calling out j Paul. Now Jake Paul says, I accept. And then the whole thing fell apart. Cause he's like,

I'm not going to do all this shit. But even the fucking guy who has no business dealing with the Jake Paul's of the world, whatever their celebrity or not, even that guy is talking about him. BC. It is in contestable. Jake Paul is the biggest star and owns mma in a way

that is shocking like it's it this may surprise some people it may not in the last like 48 hours he got called out by carmier usman clarissa shields old ass antonio tarver and like three other prominent names so it's it's wild, Luke. And it's an extension, of course, of the things that we already talked about. But I think the whole story got a bit escalated in the last 24 hours with not only him going on Ariel, which I want to address those comments in a second, but also the whole Daniel Cormier thing, Luke. Because Cormier, again, is like really, really, really pissed off about the fact

that Jake Paul put his name in his mouth. And we know that DC not only went in the crowd and challenged him and tried to fight him, but I saw some, I guess, transcribing of whatever Dana's, I guess Dana does a show with Ariel on Mondays or something. And I saw Mark Raimondi tweet out some of the transcribing. And here's what Cormier said. I'm going to torture him. I'm going to hurt him.

I don't want to box him. I don't want to fight in a limited skill set of rules. If you really want to fight me, fight me in a mixed martial arts competition. So first of all, Luke, the hell's DC doing? Because on top of that, he then came out in the same sort of thing and said my name will not be used as a springboard i love my legacy and will protect my legacy and protecting my legacy means i gotta sleep this slap this kid upside the head i'm gonna do it it's in some ways it goes back to what we talked about on monday where if you're dc and you're retired accomplished

incredible all-time hall of fame potentialAT category athlete who has a great career in broadcasting and is one of the best interviews and nicest guys this sport's ever seen. Even if you're doing this to angle toward a celebrity boxing fight, which it appears you're not, you could ask yourself, hey, DC, shouldn't you be better than that? And why are you doing that on the UFC broadcast? And if you're not, and this is about he hurt your ego like what are you doing you know what I mean if he hurt your ego then challenge him to a street fight or or a

boxing match which may be somewhat competitive but he's like no I want to fight you in an MMA cage never gonna happen I mean it's just it's a little bit embarrassing don't challenge him at all because that's juvenile do you know the best way to it... It's sort of like when somebody who can't fight you is talking trash. Whether it be, like, if you're a big tough guy and it's some girl. Like, you can't fight them, so you gotta kind of just ignore them, Luke, right? Or a small child comes up, starts talking... You can't punch the kid, right? You gotta just move on and ignore it.

You gotta take the soft L there. I don't get where DC's coming out talking about his legacy is being challenged by a damn Paul brother. So that's that. Then we advance to Jake being on the aerial show. And Luke, I've got to echo what you've been saying. I know there are legitimate fight fans and a lot of them who watch our show going, hey guys, if you talk about Jake Paul one more

time, we're going to pull out here. Something Luke knows a lot about from college. At least he hopes he does. But here's the deal. Jake Paul nailed it on the aerial show. It's hard not to like him. He really did. He basically came out and said, look, I knew this would happen,

but I didn't think this would happen this quick. Or the fact that I've got John Jones, Floyd Mayweather, Conor McGregor, Dana White, all these people talking to me. I got DC challenging me. And he not only punked DC by basically saying, look, you embarrassed yourself. You could have attacked me and slapped me and you didn't. And number two, I didn't put your name in my mouth. You've been trashing me all over your podcast for weeks before that.

And on top of that, Jake's just like, look, I'm a troll. This is a game. They are coming into my game and getting their feelings hurt and getting all caught up and they're just fueling my game look the best way to make this guy go away is to ignore him yet mma in general and most of combat sports cannot stop falling over themselves to get hooked up with him now if you're floyd mayweather and you're fighting logan paul again we thought conor mcgregor was like the great white hope on a white horse who trampled in at the right time of Mayweather's career where he can make stupid money in a fight he can't

lose. I mean, Logan Paul's like 10 times that, right? If you're Floyd, I get it. But if you're an active competitor or somebody with a clear name to protect who is an upstanding citizen and all that, like DC, stop doing this. What are you doing? You're letting him win. You're putting money in his pocket. And on top of that, Luke, Jake Paul told Ariel that he got free tickets from the UFC. They invited him to the show and told Jake they'll give him his own private security to protect him in the crowd. So this is,

UFC got what it wanted. They wanted that rub. They got it. But if you're not angling to make a pro wrestling fight with this guy, shut up. Seriously, shut up because that's all he's into. Luke, this is the closest we've ever come to putting pro wrestling in legitimate sports and saying, okay, the end game is a legitimate

fight. Now, I know I came on here and said to the Askren, Jake Paul fight, was that on the up and up? I'm not sure, Luke. But the end game, for the most part, looks to be a real thing. But the road to get there, it's all fake pro wrestling bullshit. Now, I just happen to have a diet for that, like I do gas station

hot dogs, so I don't, you know, hum and haw. Is there a point to any of this? No, I just like to fill up time on my own podcast that I'm the co-host of, Luke. Okay? Listen, this is the only thing I have to add to this i want to be clear to the audience this is not us endorsing jake paul this is not us telling you oh now we think he's awesome or we love his shtick or any of that i don't think that that's what this is. What this is is just a observation that this guy has major power players routinely and shockingly in positions of the most elite status consistently

every day putting his name in their mouths and in ways you just can't believe. This is the key to understanding Jake Paul. If you don't go along with it, it doesn't work. His shtick only works if you participate in it and he's got them lining up for volunteer duty. You can't fucking believe it, but it's real and I gotta tell you, BCc it is amazing to watch i don't like his shtick but this effort how could you not be fucking amused by this dude i left that ariel interview actually respecting him for the first time going like he like he said to ariel

trolling is like where i come from i'm'm an internet troll. I'm a full-time internet troll, and these people are trying to beat me at my own game. I mean, again, you want this guy to go away, stop fucking talking about him, all right? You know what I mean? Like, seriously, you want him to stop showing up on this show? Tell your celebrity fighters, like Kamaru Usman, who just ascended the pound-for-pound throne and established himself again as a legitimate pay-per-view buy

and one of the best fighters in his division's history. You don't need Jake Paul. Okay? When you're Ashton level washed, you want to do it? That's fine. But does anyone have any control over their own morality and go, you know what? I'm doing good right now on my own lane. I don't need

to go over to that. Do you remember Bloodstained Lane? Oh, remember him? Bloodstained Lane is a legend in these parts. BSL, baby. He kind of lost his love for MMA and moved on and does other things now. I'm not entirely sure what. But there was a time when he was a troll inside of MMA.

If you guys don't know, it was this guy. He was from, I think, Ozone Park or Osborne Park. He's in guys don't know is this guy he was from um i think ozone park or osborne park he's in queens i forget where in queens yeah he's got hands luke he has legitimate well he actually had an amateur mma fight yeah he looked pretty good in it but the point being is this he had the gloves on and the machismo and the whole thing going and he would routinely call out fighters in these videos and you know listen who was he okay he's a very funny person but on some level like you and me just a know listen who was he okay he's a very funny person but on some level like you and me just a guy on the fucking internet like he's not it didn't hold

he wasn't the president of some major organization he wasn't a celebrated fighter with 50 you know wins to his name or otherwise famous just a guy and all the fighters routinely bought into his shit well there was one time where like jackson wink fighters were making response videos to him i'm like what in the fuck is going on jake paul took that to the highest level and it has worked out to my shocking surprise i suppose to the best way it possibly could i mean bsl was maybe more realistic than those guys but you know that was early internet he didn't have the following that a Jake Paul had he wasn't trying

to take it to millions on pay per view I think he was just having fun and kind of you know playing off on his pro wrestling badass side to him but you know I mean we've seen it with Charlie Z in boxing Charlie Zelenoff who got even Deontay Wilder to come after him in a quote unquote fight but this is just all

new levels Lukeke and you know at some point you just kind of like i don't know it's a it's a wild it's it's a vice and maybe the vice luke is free money is that the vice is that like because you know everyone's got a vice you can see a well put together lawyer who's dominating in business but then you break out the alcohol and he's a freaking mess and he's selling away his soul i mean everybody's got some kind of vice women something is is every is every fighter's vice, the idea of the cheap, the cheap and easy payday against the white guy who can't fight. I mean, I guess this is the ultimate catnip for, for, for every MMA fighter who's active. But once again, like the tweet,

Jake had sending Dana to hell, uh, that we talked about in Monday's show. He's not telling lies here. He's showing you his playbook, and it's working every single time. To Dana White's credit, he didn't respond. To his credit, he did the right thing. All right, moving on from those two zeros. Let's go to topic number six here. This is more a thing of interest to you, not so much to me.

So I'll let you have this one, BC, if you'd like it. BKFC signing Rachel Ostovich and Pearl Gonzalez. Why do you like this, BC? Well, look, BKFC is in the same spot of some of the, you know, let's say the comparison to like, you know, we were talking about PFL. Get my attention. Okay, they're starting to get my attention. I think the best thing BKFC can do is keep adding names. In the beginning, it was just relevant but older wash names.

We saw Malinagy come through, Artem Lobov, whatever. But they're starting to figure out an identity. And I think signing Paige Van Zandt was a big thing there, even though she lost to Britton Hart. But maybe that spawned a star-ish that they can build off of. Now they're going off and getting two you know uh female fighters with decent names here in pearl gonzalez and rachel ostovich with a storyline built in where ostovich lost to pvz in the ufc and now wants to make her debut in july against page

which would be an interesting sort of comeback fight opportunity uh rachel's 30 years old page or pearl is 34 we'd seen her compete outside the UFC in recent years in MMA. But I think the main reason, Luke, why I bring this up is because, you know, Rachel Ostevich has a lot of guts. She's been challenged and tested before outside the cage, if you know what I mean, outside the squared circle. And, Luke, she passed that test with flying colors. She's the real. What are we watching here? Oh, hey, this is the Y&I Cliffs.

This is the cliffs in Hawaii. Oh, hey, there's Dana White. All right, all right. I mean, look, she had the guts to jump off that cliff. All right, so fighting bare knuckle on a big stage, you know, that's nothing to her. Let's see if Dana followed. I don't know that's nothing to her let's see if dana um followed i don't think he's gonna make that leap i'm sure they'll wait for him all day right they probably

got a like a camera crew there with i mean the batteries could die eventually but i'm sure they'll wait there all day until the sun goes down and he never jumped all right well look sometimes jokes on paper they they they you know they make me laugh a lot, right? Sometimes you've got to execute them to see how badly they fall. But, yeah, that's the deal there. No, but seriously, this doesn't interest you at all? No? No. No, not really.

Sorry. Thank you. Is that okay? That's fine. That's fine. Let's talk right-wing politics. Does that interest you, Luke? Well, we can make this quick.

But there was something that came up over the week yesterday in in particular i just thought was like comical i cannot believe we're having this conversation but people in mma i've noticed like to pretend they don't understand things when they know full well they understand things or maybe they're you know they got hit in the head with an axe handle too many times but i don't actually think that's the reason i think they just pretend to not know. So Dana White has been doing a lot of media of late, not a ton. He did the Candace Owen show.

He went on Sean Hannity and some other places as well, but those are the two biggest ones. These are obviously, they cater to an explicitly right-wing audience, which is fine. There's nothing wrong with that. But the point being is, BC, hold on as my phone rings here unacceptably in my effing ear the the point is this during those interviews they're presented by the host whether

it's hannity or whether it's uh owens as the ufc is keeping politics out of sport, which I found to be a very weird way to frame that. Now, it is true, BC, that he's keeping left-wing politics out of the UFC. I think that is very true. And by the way, I want to be clear about this. I'm not even sure UFC is wrong for that. Here's the deal. No, no, be clear about that because what he's saying is we keep it out of the broadcast we're not hitting you over the head with with you know covid and with fears and stuff

they're saying this is sports this is entertainment this is a distraction we're going to keep it that way you don't you can't disagree with that sure you can i mean understand something here like the ufc doesn't do national anthems i think they're right for not doing that. I think it's a distraction. Not that that's political per se, but they have a certain way that they want to guide the broadcast and not get certain messages through. But you've got to understand something. Like, to say what happens during our broadcast,

that's only a part of your organization's influence. Things you do beyond that also matter and send a message number one number two here's the point about the ufc being separate from politics yes dana white is doing a job of removing left-wing influences so you'll see black lives matter and whatnot on nba or nfl broadcasts they are explicitly not doing that and by the way i want to say i don't necessarily think that's the wrong thing to do for if you're ufc you're UFC. I don't know that I think it's the best thing for those organizations, the NBA and the NFL and whoever else does it, to be explicitly pushing those messages. Because I have to tell you, even if you agree with those messages, what's going to end up happening is

it's going to force other organizations who don't have that same kind of leaning or posture or influence to go the other way where they want to keep that kind of stuff out of it or they may promote alternate messages down the line you just don't know it ends up costing i think this situation where um you create you create differences and uh opposition in ways that wouldn't have ordinarily existed but for one person introducing it. So I do think there's something to be said for that. But this is the point I'm just trying to make to folks. It's like, A, if you prohibit frank discussion about the toll that COVID has done to the world, you are automatically entering the censorious space of trying to influence the discussion in a way that you find more pleasing to you.

That is a political decision, whether or not you think it is. It is absolutely one of those things. And yes, they move away from left-wing politics, which you may even think is a good thing. But the idea that the UFC doesn't peddle in right-wing politics more generally, it's absurd. It's absurd to even consider. Understand, you had the president of the UFC going and speaking at two Republican national conventions, and not as a private citizen, as someone who directly through those speeches tied the success of his organization

to the decisions that the person he was endorsing made, which, by the way, was kind of an overstatement. Then they produced these puff pieces, these propaganda pieces about Commander-in-Chief or whatever the fuck the name of that thing was tying their organizational history to President Trump. President Trump at the beginning of a fucking UFC broadcast coming out and endorsing it for reasons that he had political to do in order to push a narrative for re-election. All of this shit is connected.

So if you wanted to make the argument that the UFC does a good job of not doing the kind of left-wing advocacy that other sports organizations want and in fact do, then say that. Then just say that. But to say that there's no politics in there, it's just not true. It's not even remotely true. Yeah, but there's no politics in there it's just not true it's not even remotely true but there's no politics on the broadcast and i think i just told you they had trump ahead of an election

endorsing the ufc getting back to events because that was directly in his interest he didn't need to be there they made those choices okay but was that ever on the political just for full disclosure was that ever on the broadcast? Yes. Yes. That went on on national television. Yes. On a UFC broadcast. They talked politics.

Yes. Yes. I don't remember that. But what I will say about it. You don't remember President Trump being like, it's good to have events back? Well, here's what I want to say about this. And I tried to watch part of that Candace Owens interview, and it was a little bit too puff piece, hero stuff. But here's the deal on this like there's a lot of things I did resonate with Dana where he said look they want to keep it distraction free this is

entertainment this is an escape it's sports it's not that serious at the end of the day I mean it's the fights are serious but you get my point I respect that I mean what they do outside whether Dana shows up at the Republican National Convention or not or whatever, I mean, that is to a certain degree his personal side. Broadcast, I don't see a ton of it. And more than that, I really stand by Dana for what he does for the fighters from the standpoint, and he talked about this in the Owens interview, of giving them the platform to do and say whatever the hell they want. So he said, look, we got people that come out and and support you

know black lives matter and make that part of their post fight interview and that he goes that's fine we got people that come out like colby wearing a red maga hat that's fine you know that's not true either when they went to china when they went to china they airbrushed the pro uh buddhist tattoo uh off the body of dan hardy on the poster when when edmund shabazian had a flag also when edmund shabazian had a flag in support of the azerbaijani armenian conflict on the armenian side they they lost their shit about that they won't allow that anymore this idea that like they can say whatever they want no the fuck they can't no they cannot that is absolutely not true you you think they that the fighters are tied down to some degree

of what they can and cannot say i think this i think in listen i don't think they police that this is this is the problem with this conversation the problem is that everyone wants to give the ufc credit for absolutes you just cannot so if the idea is that the UFC provides a significant degree of latitude for most domestic political concerns or just viewpoints that they want to air, does the UFC do a good job of providing latitude? Yes. Do they let fighters, however, say whatever they want? No, the fuck they do not.

They absolutely do not do that. That is not true. And you have to understand the differences between them i don't see a lot of policing to that though i mean there's times when ufc fighters will get in certain arguments and we'll say hey maybe that went too far and ufc sort of like you know you know that it's a fight they're talking about provide significant latitude then just say that just say you provide significant latitude is this luke i don't i don't i don't try to talk politics in my real life and i certainly try to talk politics on this show and uh you know

about it and i uh if dana white had a different political leaning and background and perspective on everything that's happened over the past year would it be better or worse for all of us i'm glad dude i'm happy he took those chances. I'm happy he went in that direction at the end of the day. I'm glad. Honestly, I do think that, listen, I'm not a black person. I'm not a rich, young black athlete on a team that may want to feel that we want to use our voice for advocacy.

I think the NBA has to deal with a very different set of problems than the UFC does. But I generally do believe that the more we force in these conversations around basketball games, questions about larger political considerations, I think that we're going to go down a path that not everyone's going to be happy about. I understand that. And again, if you want to say that the UFC is good about keeping out that left-wing advocacy from the broadcast, then just say that. I don't think that's the end of the world. Just fucking say that. But what I don't want to hear is that these are bereft of politics. Understand something.

The reason why Sean Hannity and Candace Owens want Dana White on their show is the same reasons that conservatives always want validations. Because in general, we have a very conservative country, but the tastemakers tend to lean to the left. And so you have this sports situation where the NFL and NBA and whoever else is in bed with the side that they don't like. They're looking for some kind of culture war affirmation. Dana White providing that just by doing the interviews is automatically a signal to right-wing America. Just say that. Just say that. Just say what you're actually doing

rather than being like, we're not doing any politics here. Yes, you are. You quite clearly are. You're just doing a kind that is palatable in general to a large but different kind of audience. You're getting pretty worked up over there. I just don't understand how people can be like,

there's no politics here. What are you talking about? For a few minutes to let off some steam or something, Luke? What I'm saying is, I don't see it on the off some steam or something luca what i'm saying is i don't see it on the broadcast frustrating all i'm saying is i don't see it on the broadcast okay that's all i'm saying and i'm saying that by definition you see it that any choice you make is one that is political inherently and that guy put me in a video look that guy made me the star of a trashy video and i'm still i'm not listen when have i said it's bad that dana white

has politics people are going to have it you have them whether you want to acknowledge it or not i have it my audience they know it they know it i don't ever hide it from them and they're allowed to make decisions about to what extent that influences my decision making and the work that i produce i don't tell you that it's politics free because it's not. It's a lie to say that my work is absolutely free from it. Just as it is similarly true, an organization cannot say we don't do politics. No, you don't do a certain kind of politics and in general try to leave out to what extent there might be any political say, but it's not possible to fully extricate the two.

They're a significant form of influence, and every time we see them, they always come from the right side. Just fucking say that. Just say it. I liked you a lot better during the Jake Paul discussion. Now you're turning into a whiny old bitch. Bitch!

All right, well, you know, sorry for trying to be accurate about what we say in this world. That apparently is a scarlet letter that I have to bear the rest of my life. All right, BC. We move on from that to the real palate cleanser. The thing that everyone... The sorbet of MMA.

It is one championship. The sorbet of MMA. One on TNT for BC. I think it's tonight. It is. I think it's tonight. It's going to be on TNT, hence the name. And in the main event, you have on,

I never pronounce his name correctly, La Nang, La N Sang. I don't know how to pronounce his name. I apologize. He's a very good fighter. The light heavyweight championship over there. Are you excited? Dude, this card kind of bangs, Luke.

This card kind of bangs. It's the fourth and final of the four consecutive Wednesday nights to kick off one's, you know, full-time, I guess, full-time movement at TNT. I'm not sure where they're going to go from here. But this has, you know, I always want to say Audie Lang Syne, the New Year's song. Luke, I apologize for that.

But that light heavyweight guy can bang. He'll be in there against, do you know anything about Rainier de Ritter? Am I still on? I don't. All right. Well eddie alvarez back in the co-main event luke uh against uh okay ray yoon who won last week against marat gofferov so it's going to be interesting to see eddie fired up from that dq loss turned into a no contest to come back and try to make his statement about where he's at in his career on US TV. And then we get the damn roog roog, Umar Kane, in a heavyweight opener there against Kirill Grishenko, if you will.

But Luke, do you care about some of this undercard stuff they're going to dangle to? Shinya Yaoki against Edward Furlong from Terminator 2 and uh Colby Northcutt you see you would think you would learn from your one mistakes and your risen or excuse me your risen mistake to not then follow it up with a one mistake you'd be wrong though you'd be wrong I don't pronounce names correctly all the time but Colby Northcutt is the younger sister I believe of Sage Northcutt Luke and she'll be making I think, her MMA debut here against Australia's Courtney Martin. I saw that, what's her damn name?

I saw that Colby did an interview and she said that Sage has been hit very hard by COVID and has been in and out of hospital care and stuff. So we certainly wish him well. I know he had to recover from that broken face in his one debut. But do you have any expectations or care or entertainment concerns about another Northcutt entering the MMA space? I don't have a strong opinion about one way or the other.

The Aoki-Fully Yang fight, which is the one you had referred to earlier, that's a rematch that Aoki won the first time via submission. So they're going to run that one back. I'd be curious to see how that goes. Obviously, Ruge Ruge is going to be, you know, for the MMA hardcore. Can't miss. Eddie Alvarez getting another chance to get things right with the co-main event there. And then, you know, a really decorated and good champion that they have.

I think he's Malaysian or is he Burmese? I'm not entirely certain of his origin. I've seen him fight a couple times. Burma turned into Myanmar. Yes, Myanmar. Yes, I'm no I'm trying to remember where he was from um yeah the Burmese python that's right so so we'll see but Brendan Vera talks big about him saying he says he's really really good um 35 years old coming off of a loss in his last fight they're gonna run that one back to the same dude so we'll see how it goes

could be interesting you think when when shotry uh talks with the producers ahead of the next episode of uh one championship the apprentice edition that he says look no politics in this show like the ufc we need to keep that shit out of this all right probably do you i mean but like what well you know what they're going to stay out of any pro hong kong you know messages you know what i'm saying they're not gonna they're not gonna jeopardize the relationship with mainland china over that have you ever been to singapore luke will you ever go there i've never been i would go i would go but i've never seen them cane your shit on air as part of like an mk doc you you have this weird set of fantasies that all revolve around me suffering either emotional or physical harm.

I don't know what is wrong with you or this relationship. I grew up in the 80s, Luke, okay? I remember Michael Faye getting caned, but I'm not going to go. That's a deep cut. Yeah. Yeah. You thought I forgot that shit. I didn't forget that.

But I'm not going to go around spray painting Mercedes. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. I got you. I got you. All right. Yeah, that's a deep cut right there.

Alright, that'll be tonight for losers who want to see that. Alright, by the way, BC, hey, Morning Combat listeners, I want to talk to you about the CBS Sports mobile app. This sounds like an organic read. Yeah, go for it. BC, this is the truth. You understand that? As you know, BC, it's my

go-to for live scores and breaking news, but it's NFL Draft Week, and I wanted to let you in on a little football fan hack here. If you don't have the app, you can download it at your mobile app store. The CBS Sports app is totally free. Once you have the app, or if you have the app already, make sure your NFL team news and draft alerts are turned on via the settings screen. It takes about five seconds. You'll not only get

updates on each pick your team makes, but also when the pick is in, breaking news if your team makes a big trade, and lightning-fast analysis like draft grades and player comps on each of your team's draft picks. The CBS Sports app is the best way to never miss an NFL draft moment. So if you haven't yet, fire open that CBS Sports mobile app and get your mobile war room ready ahead of all the action this Thursday. BC, definitely don't change the settings on your phone.

Don't do that. Let me ask you a question. Notifications on your phone, which ones do you get? Because I have a consistent theme across mine i get text message notifications slack notifications not audible that's brutal it's brutal but you got i guess you got to know what's going on in your work life to have that

balance that no one has um i think that's it oh no i get a notification every day that um 5 p.m eastern on sirius xm classic vinyl with uh with my favorite dj there that that shows on and often i'll get that notification and i'll i'll tune it in luke okay okay uh i only get notifications from a real human trying to directly contact me right now. So if the phone rings, if someone texts me, I have WhatsApp for other donks, and that's it. I don't have any other notifications. Oh, I get ESPN notifications for giant breaking news giant breaking news of, like, across all sports. Yeah, no, I don't have any breaking news alerts. They're just designed to get you to use your phone.

I mean, not ESPN, sorry, CBS Sports, of course. CBS Sports. What am I talking about here, right? Yeah, I mean, you know. I get the notification when DC and Ariel starts. Yes, all right, yeah. Wow, great job selling the company app. Really, really did it.

We're going to need to find a new home after this episode for more than one reason. Oh, yeah, we're getting super fired when this is over. All right, BC, it's time for fan submissions. Take it away again, sir. All right, so here's the deal. Not doing the Wheel of Death this week. I'm sorry.

I was in a position to mail it in, and I don't want to mail it in. So next week, Luke and I in proximity at the damn Mohegan. We can do it in person. We can have some fun. But fan submissions, you know the email address, morningcombat at gmail.com. You can send in your pics. Send in

your, well, no stick pics. That's for damn sure. But, you know, every Wednesday we do this because we've got mail. All right. Let's see. I'm very excited. Like Chippendales, right?

Yeah. All mail. Yeah. Yeah, brother. All right. J.A. kicking it off here. J. Aaron, maybe? MK fans don't drink coffee in the morning.

Wow, Luke. They drink Four Loko out of the mk mug your thoughts i don't know why our brand is what it is but this is our brand also this man is wearing shorts and the first thing i did was look at his well i was trying to find this package and i couldn't find one so wow wow our producers jumping in saying oh I can't say that in the air Yeah, you're right, you are right about that Those are some John Stockton ball-huggers There, impressive, J.A.

What was the last time you had a Four Loko? I know exactly What it was for me I've never had one, but I used to drink in mid-2000s You remember Sparks? That came out It was one of the first energy liquors Vaguely It was an orange can. I think it was called

Sparks. Hopefully somebody can dead wrong me. I just remember one time, Luke, drinking two cans back to back before a Wilco concert in Boston and feeling like I had just hung out with Motley Crue for the whole night and done lines up and down the freeway.

You should not mainline two 16 ounce cans of Sparks back-to-back, Luke. I was ready to peel my skin off. So this is a true story. Remember that time I told you I went to one of the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prixs? It was the one where Fedor lost to Bigfoot. It was at the Izod Center in New Jersey, wherever the fuck.

It was a sad night, yes. Sad night for my career, too, because I remember Strikeforce at the time put me all the way in the back on the floor so much so that there was no seats behind me and i could feel the heat from the pyro on the stage i mean they put me they didn't give a fuck about me they put me in the worst possible seat and i remember i was like wow man like they still don't because i don't think you got any of that bellator merch in the mail so you can argue that they still don't, because I don't think you got any of that Bellator merch in the mail, so you can argue that they still don't care about you at all. I got zippy Bellator merch.

They didn't give a fuck either. And I remember I went back to my sad hotel thinking, wow, man, I really have done nothing for myself in this life. And I went and drank two Four Locos that I got from the gas station across the street. That's a true story. Yo, that's a low moment in the career right there. That is sad as shit is it was super low it was i was like i was like wow man i'm a legitimate nobody to these fucks the only one

who had a worse night than you was fedor when bigfoot turned his face into hamburger you could have been asking fedor about his favorite russian novels and just you know uh gone deeper into hell that would have been great it's true it's It's true. It really is true. Apparently, everyone named J.A. is a straight-on a-hole. So let's move on here. Andres V. jumping in. BC, the outline on this is rough. You botched the shading in what is Mr. HeBoss's proudest moment. He may be happy with it, but anyone with eyes can see this is beat.

You completely missed the mark. You do not have what it takes to be Ink Master. So I think that is you. Hold on. have what it takes to be Ink Master. So I think that is you. Hold on. No, no, no. So they're copying. So these two guys are Oliver Peck.

And I forget the donk on the other side here. But he's famous. He specializes in tattooing in Miami. And then in particular, Japanese. Chris Nunez. And when they. This person who wrote this is actually. This is deceptively good. He took all the phrases and taglines

that these two donks have and then wrote that in this style. It says day one fan from the true north strong and free. What the hell is the true north strong and free? Is that Canada? I guess. I don't know. He says

Andres says, Luke, we've seen your best tattoo. Now let's see your worst. BC, great having you back from vacation. Andy V. Andres,

Andy, whatever. Andy V. Luke wants to see your worst tattoo so we can heckle you Mr. He-Boss style. No, I have enough shame to keep mine covered up. Where is your worst one just so i know

where where's my worst one here on my chest okay any any it's very small though i don't know i'm gonna get it covered up okay well is it about a girl that you no longer frequent no no of course not i'm jesus it's not that bad yeah yeah all yeah. All right. All right. Hey, Todd M. is here, and he says, I just wanted to illustrate what I'd imagine the fabled land of wind and ghosts to look like. Can we zoom in here, Manish? I got to tell you, some surprising faces in there. You know what they should have done, BC?

They should have put all the people from the resume review. I mean, I realize that Adesanya didn't get knocked out, but that would be pretty good. So we got Jorge, Curtis Blades, Ben Askren, Connor, Whaley, and Stipe right there. All right. The land of wind and ghosts, otherwise known as hell, Luke. Let's go over to at game raw aesthetic.

This is a morning combat punch out. No, it's gamer aesthetic. Oh, game raw. I'm sorry. Yeah. What was that thing? I butchered the last time. Luke, uh, uh, thermalitis, thermo, thermo pile or something.

Yes. Thermopoly. Yes. Thermopoly? Yes. Sorry. Okay. All right. So, yeah, that's that. That's Mike Tyson's punch out we're playing on here, Luke.

Morning combat punch out. Your right leg looks like you had half of it amputated. My left leg there looks a little too soon. Too soon to say Weidman-y. By the way, I'm really happy those videos that came out of Weidman with his family outside the hospital like after you make a joke you're really happy about it I didn't commit to the joke

that's the difference I let it slip out can I go Andy Silva like yeah I mean you know born on the 4th of July guy I mean come on FDR yeah first steps to doozy, Frank, right? Yeah.

Wasn't his polio? Yeah. Well, it's been enough time elapsed between them. Too soon? Come on. It's not like he's... You making polio jokes now? No, no.

Is that it? No, no, no. Sorry, sorry, sorry. All right. Did you have your polio vaccine? No. I try to avoid measles, mumps, and or rubella i've only did uh covid this this year luke okay all right you know me i'm largely anti-vax which you hate about me but i you know i

i wasn't anti well it's just because it's a totally indefensible and absurd position but you know they're only miracle literally science is perhaps best achievement in the 20th century the eradication of disease. And people are like, yeah, but that could be bad because I have a friend at clownpenis.fart who told me so. Well, not only will we get fired, but this will probably be where we lose the most of our audience this episode. A lot of Jake Paul, a lot of anti-right stuff going on out of you. I didn't say a single thing that was anti-right,

and anybody who says that is a fucking idiot. Okay. Oliver M. is here he says finally found photographic evidence of where luke was rushing to be all those years he had a quote second job he had to get to you know what what's on that dog there some cheese i'm not against that no i'm not either so above the cooler it says lu Luke's hot dog. Hot dog. Look at my customer smiling like an asshole. Look at the face on you as you jam that wiener into the buns right there, Luke. Yep.

Yeah. Wow, I got people calling me, Shaq. Majoree calling me. Bro, I got a live show going on here, all right? Unless you're telling me I should stop getting fired. All right, let's keep it going. We got one more, Luke. This is the best fan submission maybe we've ever had.

A fellow by the name of, what the hell is this guy's name? Alan? Alan Newman. Love this guy. He not only loves this show, Luke, he's indoctrinating the next generation in his family to be all MK all the damn day, nearly every day. Let's check this out.

It's our passion. This is our life. This is the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I am Brad Campbell. Bye! It's our passion. This is our life. This is the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brett Campbell. Bye! That's the most wholesome moment

in the history of this show. Without question. I know. It is very sweet. That girl seems quite nice. You know, beautiful little girl. But now I'm worried about the father influencing her with this show. I might have to call Child Protective Services on him. Oh, come on. Come on. Don't go there.

No one needs to catch a predator here. This is just wholesome entertainment for all ages, Luke. I have to say, thank you for that. That little girl is incredibly sweet. So if she's watching this, thank you, young lady. You did a phenomenal job with that. That was nice of you. Like Kobe, you're a girl dad. So that was very nice of you to embrace that, Luke.

Yes. She was very sweet. And also, my daughter had a birthday yesterday. So I'm in a pro-daughter mood. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But don't call me daughter, right? Not for your tool.

Well, remind me. Don't call me. I think that's it for us today, BC. This show sucked today. You know, you could argue it was one of our best just for randomness, but yeah, it was pretty bad. It lacked a little bit of like, you know, coherent topic. It lacked a wheel, to be honest with you.

Maybe that's on me, okay? I got to say say i'm glad there was no wheel today really really very happy no wheel your temperament probably would have submarined it for the second straight week luke which is maybe a big part of why i just took no didn't last last week i had the vaccine that i was still dealing with now yeah but you were also a world-class a-hole during it too so you know well dude your intros i mean it's like the chap the first chapter to fucking war and peace just get to it will you okay okay luke okay all right okay look tolstoy can you can we find you an editor glenn greenwald jesus christ let's tighten it up here a little bit all right uh let's remind everyone bc's done some great interviews chris areola on the channel now

and even if you're not like oh i don't want't want to see that MMA fan, it's actually a really good interview for a guy who's been around and seen some shit. I actually really enjoyed it. What's up? I was going to say, we have another morning combat bonus out there. We are MK almost every nearly damn day. Rashad Evans and I sat down for another installment of Storytime with Sugar

that went out yesterday, Luke. This is a can't miss episode. I'm sorry. Chuck Liddell, UFC 88, the knockout punch heard around the world. Here's why Rashad is great, Luke. This is a can't miss episode. I'm sorry. Chuck Liddell, UFC 88, the knockout puncher around the world. Here's why Rashad is great, Luke. He told us the story of the tough finale when he pissed his pants during the fight and no one noticed. He's going to tell

you the story of how he forgot his cup before the Liddell fight and what he did next. You're not going to want to miss this. He told me that story in an interview I did with him. All right. Well, there's a lot of great stories here on what you could really argue was the most iconic,

biggest fight of his life, even though there was not a title at stake. Great little piece of business, if I do say so myself. Check that out. Yairi Prochazka. Also, later this afternoon, you're going to check out that interview. Talking Dom Reyes, talking Adesanya, talking about, this guy's a killer, Luke. This guy, Prochazka later this afternoon. You're going to check out that interview. Talking Dom Reyes, talking Adesanya, talking about this guy's a killer, Luke.

This guy, Prochaska, I mean, he's just a reckless killer. All right? No doubt about it. He's got some wild-ass hair, too. Yeah, he certainly does. He's a wild man. So that'll be up a little bit later. If you want to try Showtime, you can, showtime.com.

Oh, actually, hold on. Don't put it. Leave it up. Leave it up. Leave it up. So this is the, if you want to follow and subscribe us morning combat same name everywhere obviously between twitter and instagram uh bcr instagrams are boring as fuck we should just point that out we just reached 20 000 followers on at morning combat yeah the morning combat instagram account is good

our instagram accounts are shit they're not good well Well, I'm not here to make, you know, I'm not really here for clicks, Luke, okay? I'm here for content. I'm the king of content. They're not exclusive, are they? They're pretty connected, actually. All right, so, by the way, I think we have a graphic for, like, the Jake,

excuse me, the Logan Paul Mayweather thing. Do we have one for that? I thought we had a lower third for that. There it is. June 6th, Miami, Showtime pay-per-view. Chances are BC will be there. I don't know if Showtime is going to give me the call up from the bullpen for this one. I think that remains to be seen. I hope you go because we could do a lot in South Florida, you and I.

We should talk about that for just a second. There is a way for me to go and cover this. I actually feel like in a way that Showtime and CBS would benefit from, but it requires them letting me have a little bit of a leash. And if they don't want to give me that, I understand. I get it. It's no controversy. But I think, BC, don't you agree?

Give us a little latitude in how we cover this. I think the audience would be better off jimmy buffett of you going changes in latitude there luke i'm wondering if you can become the big brown of this fight similar to when he picked mcgregor to knock out mayweather on showtime or as our producers are saying could lu be the new Pete Davidson of Showtime that could be interesting see what I'm saying there's ways to do this where I can't tell you that

I'm not going to sell some shit that I have never ever liked and all of a sudden now I have to like it because Showtime is doing it but there are some other ways I can potentially touch the product that the fans might appreciate we'll see and if you want some merch you can go to store.show.com. You can get some shit.

There you go. If you want to try Showtime, you can go to showtime.com. 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can go pound sand. And if you want to take that plunge, it's show.com slash Bellator MMA for six months, $4.99. BC, I guess we've kind of alluded to it. We kind of talked about it.

We should make it official. We are going to be together in Connecticut almost all next week. Are you ready for that? Yeah, it's going to be a big week, a long week. We're going to be doing a lot of different things. How is it we're vaccinated and now we have to quarantine even longer? Yeah, they're like, we need you to get there two or three days earlier to make sure you're fully. I'm fucking vaccinated.

Why do I have to? Okay. I don't get it. I don't understand that. I don't understand that. I don't understand that. They're just asking us to sneak out the back door and head to the edible store or something. They're just asking for that. We should just, I don't know.

What do anti-maskers do to really show what assholes they are? Should we march through a Kroger with no masks on and cheer or something? Well, if we do, I think it'll be documented. Do we or do we not have the great Less Than Jake following us around next week? Oh, I believe that part three of the documentary will be in effect. So we'll see how that goes as well. Next week's a big week for the show. It's a big week. You could argue, Luke, the next few months. There's not only no shortage of big fights across boxing, MMA,

and this new celebrity fighting. But, I mean, we got Conor Dustin III in July. I mean, I want to be there in Vegas. This is a big time to be a combat sports fan, an even bigger time to get on this MK rocket ship, okay? Because it's coming. There's going to be a lot coming. Here's what I know for sure.

This summer is going to be a lot better than last summer. A lot. So we'll see how that goes. well that is it for us today we appreciate you guys watching yeah thumbs up on the video hit subscribe when friday comes around we'll do all the previews for all the weekends fights so be on the lookout for that for cb dolloway my co-host over there wow cb you really let yourself go there he looks like you put on about 150 pounds deal with it. Deal with it, bro. I'm Luke Thomas. Thanks to Malka. Thanks to Showtime. Thanks to CBS. Until Friday, may all of your gains

be loyal. you you you you