MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Jon Jones Retires, UFC 317 Lookahead, Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford Press Tour

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

Two years after Tom Aspinall said he would retire Jon Jones without even fighting him, that's exactly what happened as UFC president Dana White relayed the news of Jones' exit at the UFC Baku postfight press conference. Less than one hour later, reports surfaced of a criminal summons filed in Albuquerque Metro Court accusing Jones of a misdemeanor charge of fleeing the scene of an accident in February. What does it say about Jones' true legacy that the end of such an unrivaled 17-year pro career would come in the most Jon Jones way possible? Minutes after announcing fans could expect double the amount of Dana White Contender Series cards in their next broadcasting deal, White quickly shot down any thought of Tom Aspinall vs. Francis Ngannou by disparaging Ngannou's integrity. How big would an Ngannou return be to repair all that was lost in Jones' title reign for the heavyweight division? Khalil Rountree Jr. dominated Jamahal Hill over five tactical rounds in a headlining bout to decide who's coming and who's going in the light heavyweight title picture. Rountree showed off the evolution of his maturity following a title loss to Alex Pereira by patiently picking apart Hill en route to three knockdowns and a wide victory by unanimous decision. How impressive was Rountree's performance? Plus, Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford embark upon a global press tour. And the fellas break down UFC 317 storylines. It's Morning Kombat Monday with Brian Campbell, Luke Thomas and the entire MK crew!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Oh Yeah, it's IFW fight week where that war with Iran John Jones is retired and gone who's persona the the first boxing match in 10 years. What a time to be alive. It's Monday, June 23rd, 2025, BC LT and Luke Thomas of DC fame. I gotta I don't have to say this. You already know this. This might be one of the most important episodes in MK history. We got a lot of ****

to get into, brother. It's a big one today, boys. Lady, gentlemen, glad you could be here for it. How about that? Children. And by the way, BC, even though I got a terrible night of sleep, I do feel good today. I know I was in a surly mood on Friday because I also had a bad night of sleep before that. So I just want to tell you, I'm sorry about that. Sorry to all the MK fans as well.

But I got to say, I had a rough night of sleep last night. However, however, today as you described it, relatively monumental importance in the history of MK. So let's do this. Yeah, let's get loose here. Let's get loose in the bullpen. We can't even fit Jake Paul into this rundown. There's so much going on. I mean, that might be a win right there. Hey, real quickly, how does that fight end very quickly? How does it end? BC? How does it end sad and disappoint decision or Jake by decision? How about that? I think that's right. I think that's right. There we go. There we go. What a time. Yelia Toporia fight for the lightweight title this weekend. We're fired up today though, to set the stage for that. Look back on what happened. Canelo

Crawford had the first two stops on their press tour. Obviously the breaking news involving John Jones, Tom Esquivel, Francis Ngannou and everything else going on in combat sports. We in this baby. We're right here. We're ready to go. Why don't you follow the show? Why don't you follow us on social media? If you could like this on YouTube, subscribe. If you're listening on the DraftKings network and watching, welcome. Same thing if you're a podcast only listener. We appreciate you too. You can follow our YouTube channels as well. Quick hello to the third man on our team, the producer, director, bong

enthusiast and son of a one time horned up Australian. It's Luke Nocita of the Main Card Minute and LIL, I got to thank you for you and Gaff for welcoming me so kindly to the uh to the main card minutes live undercard uh fest on Saturday when we watched uh Red Rocket Rhonda get an handed tour I mean this is wild. We were we had a great time watching some bad women's MMA uh you know it was a fun time Luke we'd love to have you on sometime you know uh I don't I don't I don't join the parties of peasants. All right. Well, you know, either way, uh, great betting week too, by the way, went six for six on the main card. Perfect week. Did a funnel after that. You

know, you gotta do a funnel if you've got a perfect week. So we had a good time. Did you, do you ever show your girlfriend the fights that you give up time for to what? Like it's like, like, baby, here's Kevin chance. Honey, you know how you wanted me to like, you know, spend time with you at the spa. No, I watched I watched what's his name? Abdi. Hamdi Abdelwahab. I watched him instead of you know, giving you the business. I hope I hope you can understand that, uh, uh, Hamdi Abdel will have was more important to be fair. Hamdi was at noon. She was at

work. I mean, you know, but yeah, yeah, it teaches. There you go. There you go. Thank you for joining here today. No Ceda. Uh, wow. We got a great show planned for you. And, uh, look quickly. You watch game seven last night. Halliburton's never going to walk again in the thunder champions. I did not watch the game seven. However, what I can say is I saw a hilarious tweet from someone saying that they don't even have clubs in Oklahoma City. Those dudes are going to be partying at TGI Fridays. And I was like, yeah, that's that's about right. That's I've been to Oklahoma many times. My dad is from Oklahoma and I, the only thing I can associate with it is bail bondsmen and pawn shops.

As far as the eye can see, shouts, the lot in Oklahoma, easily one of the worst places on earth. That's where you and your brother were accosted by a group of scoundrels. Correct. Yes. We were, we were beaten up and mugged when I was, uh, I think I was with 12, 13, something like that. You couldn't, your dad have used his international foreign connections to at least tell them

the truth about nine 11. I mean, what, this is pretty nine 11, but, uh, you know what? This might've been right around the time of the first of the world trade center bombings, but you know, no one cares about those, I guess. So whatever. Just about a half hour before that Scud missile went into the Pentagon. Hey, this is morning combat. We got your back on everything, by the way. All right, it's a big week for the show and uh shout out to one of our incredible sponsors. We're talking about Cuervo. Now is a good time to remember where tequila story truly began in 1795. Cuervo

invented tequila and since then, you already know this. Cuervo has stayed true to its roots. Same family, same land, same passion. That's what I'm talking about 230 years later. Cuervo's still here in every pour, in every margarita, in every celebration. So, enjoy that tequila that started it all. Yes, it's Cuervo, the tequila that invented tequila, proximocuervo.com. Please drink responsibly. Luke Thomas, if the people don't already know, then they do now. This Thursday, live from New York at a special time we've changed it 12 noon eastern time this Thursday it's a UFC 317 pregame preview on morning combat brought to you by Cuervo with BC LT and the one and only Iceman himself Chuck Middenhall who's back from the

folder yes yes uh the leader of team ice Luke you gotta be fired up for this on Thursday. This is what we do. This is our life. This is our passion, right? That's right. A little bit later than normal, little bit later than normal, but should be a fun time.

Just the same noon noon on Thursday. Join us be there. You know, it's still a brunch time show. You know what I mean? We don't we just pushed it back an hour. That's it. There it is. Wump.

In fact, there it is. No show on Friday this week but you're gonna get a lot of us on this show on our own channels lot to get into it is UFC 317 fight week so get fired the hell up quick reminder merch hey how about morning combat dot shop yes your new home for morning combat merchants. Long Island Luke on the other end of that call. So get on today.

I believe we are in the final days of our original June exclusive presentation, but we've got fresh stuff coming in July. So check out morning combat dot shop right now. Long Island Luke, give me one word to describe merch sales at the moment. On fire. Don't miss your chance to get this skit some bitch shirt. That's all I'm saying. That's what he's saying. That's exactly what he's saying right there. Also, you want to reach the show, morningcombat at gmail.com. Tell Mikey we said hi.

Fansubs, Dead Wrongs, and you showing him your pipe. Alright, let's get into it. Breaking news over the weekend. That really threatened to take over the weekend. And I think it did. John Jones announces his retirement at the age of 37, despite what we believe to be record money on the table for a super fight against interim champion, Tom Aspinall at heavyweight that is more than two years in the making. Uh, we link to that also the latest legal trouble. So this is two years after Tom Aspinall said on that podcast with Biz Ping and Anthony Smith that he would retire

John Jones without even fighting him. That's exactly what happened as Dana White relayed this surprising news at the UFC Baku press conference in Azerbaijan in the middle of the night over there and on the European Asian border. Less than one hour later surfaced reports surfaced of a criminal summons filed in Albuquerque Metro Court accusing John Jones of a misdemeanor charge of fleeing the scene of an accident in February after he allegedly left a half naked woman high on mushrooms in the passenger seat of his car leaving the scene of an accident. Her I believe not her car, leaving her not knowing how she got there. Uh, and then there's deeper details, including Jones calling her 34 times over, I believe

the next 12 hours, Luke, let's get serious here. What does it say about John Jones is true legacy that the end of an unrivaled 17 year pro career would come, let's say it in the most John Jones way possible. What does it say? Boy, that is a big question. Um, you know, what's kind of funny BC. I, I found out about this news while I was doing my UFC Baku post fight show. And I was not anticipating it at all.

Shouts to everyone who tuned in, thank you very much. And I had to react live, but I noticed I did not, I didn't, it didn't even occur to me quite frankly, but I didn't react to, you know, one of the most seminal moments of my career, quite honestly, it's kind of stood the test of time a little bit is the fact when he dunked on me at the, I forget what event that was.

It was the DC, it was the rematch with DC, believe UFC 214 214 that's it you're right I think I was 2017 if memory serves because it's funny because even to this day people will see me and ask me about it and but if you recall BC do you recall what I asked him do you recall what I asked him that day do you remember you asked him how he would look back on his 20s Luke yeah the reason what I asked him that day? Do you remember? You asked him how he would look back on his twenties, Luke. Yeah. The reason why I asked that question, I wouldn't have asked it today.

You know, even if we had a different relationship with John, but the reason why I asked it at that time, and I'm getting to answer your question, BC, but the reason why I asked it at that time was because personally, I'd seen it myself to a degree, and I definitely seen it in some of my friends who had made some bad choices in their twenties. right around the time they turned 30 31 or so They began to really clean up their act right these are guys who had DUIs these are guys who had had

Various run-ins with the law they ended up kind of figuring it all out Getting it out of their system and then turning the corner and I kind of wondered if he was in a similar place at that time And of course we now know he was not at that place. But I think what's interesting is here he is at the end of his career and he's still exactly in the same place he was at the time that I asked that question banging on 40s door and there has been no demonstrable improvement to the things he does at all. And in fact, what's kind of interesting about it is you could look the other way, or at least at a bare minimum,

there was a more of a duality of a story when he was leaning into how good he was at the time, right? When he was beating up Daniel Cormier, when he was doing incredible things at light heavyweight, but you didn't even get that in this case. You got, I think the way I would look at this situation as BC is not only did I finally get an answer to that question, which was there was no ability by him whatsoever to reflect on his behavior

and the pain that he causes others and the discomfort that he causes others and the frustration and frankly, the rank disappointment that he causes in others no no no reflection on that whatsoever so i'm glad that now you know eight years later i'm getting an answer to the question in a very full-throated way but more to the point you know this is just as you indicated it's just the most john jones thing ever it's just the most an unceremonious ending. Well, UFC President Dana White is announcing it at a post fighter event where a dictator basically

rented the organization. You know, the fan base barely knew how to react to MMA as if they'd never even seen it before, right? All the while before those two African American gentlemen entered the main event, much of them a bunch of them left after Fazifah. That's absolutely true. But that happened while I think my big takeaway from this BC is I don't speak for the fans. I could never imagine in a million years imagining doing so. But if I'm reading the tea leaves,

it seems like this event, yes, it frustrated them, but it kind of demoralized them to a degree. I mean, that's how lasting this damage was while hurting Tom Aspinall's career. All the while, new criminal charges, which his lawyer denies, and these are just allegations, but they just sound eerily similar to various other things that John Jones has done throughout the course of his career. My big takeaway is BC. I'm transported right back to 2017 asking him this question, finally getting an answer. And the answer is he's walking out of this organization, the exact same guy and the exact same person he walked in. Congratulations everyone. You've just now endured the John Jones experience. Well, wow. Wow, that's that's well said and also accurate for the

record. This is a misdemeanor charge hanging over John. If we can show the tweet Long Island Luke of John's reaction or the cryptic tweet reacting to the allegations against him, he put out a quote that said, keep in mind even the media can get it wrong sometimes if they don't have all the facts. Don't believe everything you read online. Dana White was interviewed Sunday by Oscar Willis about the allegations and asked if they're related to his retirement. And Dana somewhat aggressively shot that down said people will probably believe that, but it's not true. And Aaron Bronstead of this morning tweeted out a statement from Jones's attorney Christopher Dodd, who said,

quote, as John's lawyer, I am stunned by the Albuquerque Police Department's decision to charge him in this new case. In the thousands of cases I've handled in my career, I've never seen a case as strange and unwarranted as this one. Jones was not driving that night. He wasn't in the car. It appears that an intoxicated woman used a false allegation against John to avoid being arrested for DWI and the police fell for it.

That's a portion of the quote, but it's good to get that out there because Luke, there are so many layers to this story that it's insane. Yes. The fact that there is a something, uh, you know, criminal or, or, or a legal issue attached to this is the most John Jones thing ever. And this is such a big topic that we're going to have two topic today. Topics today to kick off the show. So let's pause for a second on the heavyweight division and all this meant for that and where Aspenall goes next. But first and foremost, look, I mean, I wrote an aggressive column lambasting both Jones and Dana White

and UFC and TKO for the way this entire heavyweight reign of enabling has been handled for John and I did get a lot of pushback from, you know, pro UFC and Dana fans. It's like, what's Dana supposed to do? They offered this guy record money. They gave him a chance to think about and he turned it down. End of story. Let's move on only Luke, obviously it's not that easy because of all the unprecedented levels of enabling that went into this, how this affects every other fighter in the division, including Aspinall and his earning power, how this affects the look of the company in terms of whether they do have their shit together in 2025 or not, or whether they're just set up to be run on autopilot to continue to extract value.

So let's show first the split screen of Dana just six months ago compared to the Dana that we saw Saturday night announcing this news. John Jones behind the scene is not a guy that turns down fights. Would you say, would you guarantee 100% we see that fight? Yeah, I'll say a hundred percent. John Jones called us last night and retired. John Jones is officially retired. Tom Aspinall is the heavyweight champion of the UFC.

Luke, I mean, there's no other way to say it. The, because this has gone on for over two years, John won the heavyweight championship right after Francis and Ghana left the company in early 2023 against zero gone in March. He gets injured shortly after he's out for 20 months. Tom Aspinall wins the interim title in that spot in November of 23 that was supposed to be Jones

versus Stipe the UFC then unconsciously not only doesn't strip John, they don't force steep a to fight Tom Aspinall. You know the story. We wait another additional year for Jones versus steep a three years removed from fighting 41 years old. And now it's not like this is December 1st of last year. This is six months, seven months later.

We'll do the math. Seven months later after John one in NYC at MSG and now he's done. Luke, when you look at this, this is an embarrassing debacle in my eyes in which everyone deserves a good bit of blame. How would you push back, if you will, on anyone that says this is the greatest fighter of all time? It's his choice whether he wants to continue going. He said, no, shut up guys. Uh, I mean, these are people who don't think much about the world, right? These are not people who are critical thinkers. These are not people who have much to say that's interesting at all. The people who would make an argument like this probably will go along with what

any powerful person tells them about anything. Because they're just vessels of repeating those things. They're not people who can come up with their own original ideas to a large degree. That's the first thing I'd say. The second thing I'd say is, yeah, you're right, he can retire. I don't care that he retired. You know, that means we've been over this a million times. And again, it's not one or the other. People being like, well, the UFC has a role to play here fine I'm absolutely not in any way discounting that but the reality is if you want to do listen There are bigger issues at play these contracts that these guys sign are long John Jones is better suited for fighting the KSI's of the world now than he is the Tom Aspin alls to be honest with you I mean KSI is a little bit of an exaggeration, but you know if he had the Tom Aspinalls to be honest with you. I mean, KSI is a little bit of an exaggeration,

but you know, if he had the freedom to go and fight like whatever he wanted to do, and it wasn't necessarily other top fighters, but he was contractually open, I don't think I'd have an issue with that. I mean, I wouldn't be necessarily the top consumer of it, but that's different, but he's been the champion. But of course, BC, it does go back to a little bit

some of these broader considerations. Can you get the same money put on your deal if you don't have the belt or if the belt is not up for grabs in the UFC? There are some larger contractual issues in the way in which money is earned in this organization that does bear repeating. But at the same time, like the reality is very simple here.

He clearly articulated that he didn't have a desire to fight the best. He hung on to the belt and more to the point, we had to go through the Kabuki theater of his title defense against Stipe Miocic, meaning anything at all. It meant nothing in the end. It was just a cash grab. It was just, that was him going to the ATM of the fandom and then pulling cash out There was nothing and given of any kind of substance whatsoever in return and I'm supposed to honor this as like some kind of Grand achievement or give back to the fans show of fucking hands who enjoyed the heavyweight chapter of this guy's career Because I saw the light heavyweight chapter that was highly enjoyable.

In fact, BC, if I may say something, this is kind of like the really unfortunate reality of it all. MMA could have used, you know, like I was, for example, I was around for John Jones's light heavyweight run and that was, you know, a moment in time and also, as you know, BC, to make a big run through a division, you need a big division to run through, right? You need other names that are part of a story that you can set up. And he was just kind of perfectly situated to make that light heavyweight run on the way he did.

I saw that and there were problems with it at that time. Oh my God, there were problems with it at that time. But at the same time, MMA would kind of kill for something like that. Now MMA would be really kill for something like that. Now, MMA would be really benefited by something like that. Now, not all the, not all the other issues, but you know, some, some young on fire, rising contender slash young champion, just, you know, getting out there and doing something or more to the point, just, just somebody leaning into their own greatness in that particular way, daring to be great, even late in

their career, he doesn't have to, but a, he wore the belt. B, man, MMA could have really used something much more substantive at this point in time. And three, we had to go through this song and dance over irrelevant matchups that he kind of tried to tell us were something meaningful. He is complicit in all of that as well. It was a gigantic waste of time. So my response would be you can't even listen to people like this because while they may have more numbers than us and they may have the loud shouting about it, they're just lemmings. They're NPCs. They have no real ability to think on their own. And anybody who does can realize at a bare minimum BC, the

picture is a little bit more complex than that. Yeah, I mean it's embarrassing to me that the UFC would allow this to go on for so long, enable him and then have it completely blow up in their face because they gave for the first time way too much leverage and glazing to the one guy that is, you know, yes the best fighter of all time, undisputable in my opinion, also arguably the biggest, you know, what if story because of how many headaches he's given them, being stripped of a title three separate times, a UFC record for failed drug tests or legal issues.

The fact that the legal issues have not stopped. It's pretty much on a set schedule. The fact that they once moved a card during Christmas week from Las Vegas to California after Jones failed the drug test. So this was straight-up enabling. How long did we hear Dana White just lie to us, John Jones is the pound for pound number one today and anyone that says something different, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They went to all that length only for Jones to double cross them in the end. So first, let me play here a tweet from Jones

explaining his retirement that came out a couple hours after Dana's press conference statement. Today, I'm officially announcing my retirement in the USC. This decision comes after a lot of reflection and I wanna take a moment to express my deepest gratitude for the journey of everything I've experienced over the years. He would go on to thank Dana, Hunter, UFC, and all that, Lorenzo.

And he closes with, as I close this chapter of my life, I look forward to new opportunities and challenges ahead. MMA is always a part of who I am, and I'm excited to see how I can continue to contribute to the sport and acquire offers in new ways. Thank you for being part of the incredible journey. The best is yet to come, end quote from Jones. Luke, I almost want a lightning round here where I ask

you questions and you give me relatively succinct answers. Did John Jones retire because of the legal issues? Because he's straight-up scared of Aspenol? Because he never intended to fight him? Or is Dana correct that this is a change of heart after he agreed to it just some six months ago? Mostly all of the above. To go succinctly here, Ariel Hauwane's reporting is that the UFC

made a significant effort to match whatever he was asking for and that he initially agreed and later changed his mind. If Ariel's reporting it, you can have whatever issues you want with him. I've worked with the guy. If he's reporting it, it is almost certainly true. I would believe that number one, second of all, was he scared to

fight Tom Aspinal at the risk involved? Yes. I mean, I think he's abjectly afraid of Tom Aspinal. I wouldn't even make such a claim, but clearly he recognizes that there is significant risk to it and as a consequence, he just didn't want to, didn't want to deal with the risk. What was the first part of the question BC? Uh, what is this, uh, new allegation, which is a misdemeanor. just didn't want to deal with the risk. What was the first part of the question, BC?

What is this new allegation, which is a misdemeanor. He is saying he's not guilty. Does this factor in in your eyes? Yeah, did it factor into his retirement? The timing seems way too coincidental. Now, whether it was the reason, whether it was the reason of the straw that broke the camel's back, on the one hand, BC,

you just saw Cedric Dumas, who was charged with felony home invasion, and they booked him to a fight. This is a misdemeanor, and John is, to his credit, like every other person charged with a crime, they are guilty until proven innocent. So these are just allegations. But at the same time, people are like, he ran from, again, alleged to have run from the scene of a car accident. He's done that before before and it's just a misdemeanor. How big a deal is it? Well, first of all, even if it's just that, it's a big deal. Also, what I would say is the nature of the allegations.

And again, they're allegations, but the allegations from the ABQ, the police department, are that the woman had, again, for whatever reason, I'm not making allegations, but I'm just trying to recite the facts here. She had no, again, no clothes on from the waist down. Last thing she remembered was doing drugs, allegedly at either his place or her place or together at some point. And then there's this alleged running thing. Again, they also claimed that whoever was on the other end of the phone made threats to the police.

Now, to your point, John's attorney says this is all some kind of a case of mistaken identity. I guess we'll see but you know, there's just too many things that rhyme here and it looks kind of bad and at a bare minimum, it's yet another distraction and to the point I raised previously BC. It just seems like this dude is not only living a different life than the one that a fighter would live. He's actually kind of in a way living the same life. He's

always lived just a little bit more money and a little bit more enabled along the way. It's all those things and apparently according to Long Island Luke, you said guilty until proved and oh excuse me. I apologize. Let me go back and correct. I didn't know if you were being cheeky. Yes. Yeah. No, I was not being cheeky. I apologize. Of course, I don't want to misstate it. John is innocent until proven guilty. These are just allegations. These are

charges. No one has proven his guilt in any way whatsoever at this point. Yeah, this is all part of the story though. Just the same without question. Luke, let's let's stay on this rapid fire thing. You get people saying, look, don't you guys see this? He just doesn't want to fight Aspen. All he's got legal issues. He's going to step away now. He's going to come back when things change. He'll fight whoever is the newest champion. Maybe he'll fight poets on Luke. Does John Jones ever fight again is the newest champion. Maybe he'll fight Poetton Luke. Does John Jones ever fight again in the UFC? He might.

You know, people saying that Tom Aspinall, if he loses, which by the way, I'm not one of these guys who believes that he automatically loses. John does to Tom. I don't, I don't believe that there's a lot about Tom. We simply don't know. But to that point, if Tom loses, do I think he comes back? I do.

If Francis were to come back and they could make some super fight, maybe that'd be interesting. Or if somehow the, to your point, the Poetton fight becomes some kind of renewed effort that they could get behind. I think that they will. But for the time being, yes, he is going to lay low. I doubt it's the last time you see him possible, but I doubt it. And look again, he could do what he wants, but like retire after the

steep a fight, we would have ripped him for three weeks. It would have gotten over it Aspen all would have been full champion He probably would have fought two or three times since then but the fact that he didn't retire then When he had these questions the fact that the UFC allowed it to go on so long There's blood on all their hands right now and what a time for this to happen in the midst of what we appear what we think Is the final stages of negotiation with the likes of Netflix, Prime, ESPN, whoever else, for this new TV deal that they want to get three times the valuation upwards of more,

actually more than 1 billion per year. So it's all connected. Let's see a tweet from a company man in Daniel Cormier, but John Jones' greatest rival, Cormier went live on his YouTube channel and said, by not stepping in the octagon, John Jones quit. He didn't want to fight Tom Aspinall. Luke, you already sort of answered that for yourself.

Do you think that's fair of DC to say? I don't know. I don't know. I can understand why DC would say it. I can understand why DC would say it. I can understand why DC would say it. I just think that, again, we've kind of beaten a dead horse at this point. He doesn't need to fight Tom Aspinall. But to the point you raised, BC,

if he had done this, fought Stipe, which was a gigantic waste of time, I hope everyone can understand that now, but had he done that and then did what George St. Pierre did after beating Michael Bisping, which was within days basically returned the belt that still would have been extremely unsatisfying but this is what I mean about like demoralizing the fan base this was just dragging on and on and on I don't care that he didn't want to fight

Tom Aspinal I don't even think his logic about it is necessarily all that problematic BC if it is you know what this guy doesn't have a huge fan base yet and he is very dangerous, why do I wanna risk myself against that? I understand that, I actually don't think that that's crazy. But then to just kind of hold onto the belt and then while holding onto it, lobbying for another fight in real time, DC is going to make a series of conclusions based on that.

Other people are gonna make a series of conclusions based on that. Everything goes back to the fact that there was this wasted effort in this second weight class campaign over and over again, delays with injuries, and then on top of it, this rigmarole that's been taking place since November. All of it leads to different conclusions, BC. All of them justified because none of this was necessary. Yeah Aspinall becomes the longest reigning interim champion in any division in UFC history and John was what 50 days away

from passing Kane Velasquez for the longest heavyweight title reign. Let's get one final piece of sound from Dana who caught up with Oscar Willis on Sunday who had a pointed question about John. Let's listen. I'll just come out and ask you, do you think he's ducking Tom Aspinal? No, John Jones. I said it a million times, I'll say it again. He's never ducked anybody other than that one goofy time

with the Chael Sonnen thing. He's never ducked anybody. And I think the reality is whatever changed his mind with this fight, I don't know, you'd have to ask him that, but you know, he's 38 years old and I don't know. Do you think if you were someone like Alex Pereira, he would fight them? And it's maybe Tom that he specifically like doesn't fancy the matchup, doesn't fancy the age difference?

I don't know. I don't know the answer to these questions. Only he does. You know, we had the fight done. Listen, our job is to make the biggest fights we can make and the fights that the fans want only he does. Um you know, we had the fight done. Uh listen, our job is to make the biggest fights we can make and the fights that the fans wanna see and uh that's what we try to do but the minute somebody starts talking about retirement,

you know, my philosophy on that you should do it. Yeah, unless you're Habib by the way and then we'll drag that out for another year. Uh interesting stuff there, Luke. I it's all I do think we should say BC because we're like, oh, the UFC blaze plays a role here in how this all went and they do like there's no there's no way they do. But at the same time BC it is a complicated picture because again, I'm going I'm going to trust aerial aerial is

reporting and if arrows reporting is accurate that they kind of made it perhaps an historically unusual effort at giving him a substantial fight purse again, the specifics of which we're not totally clear on, but a pretty big one. You know, again, he was underpaid through his whole career. I fully believe that. But at the same time, don't you feel like they, again, I know one wants to give the UFC credit right now.

And I understand that, but if they did make a historically unusually high offer to him that deserves to be noted in the record too, does it not? Okay, it deserves credit for that because that's what we've been pushing them this whole two years like pay that man his money. So I agree with that but it's the by doing unprecedented levels of both glazing and enabling in this case, and the only precedent, I guess, is the fact that John's had this treatment his whole career, although in between times when he was Dana's enemy, but by doing that, they F'd it up for everyone else around them. The fans, their own financial bottom line of business decisions,

the heavyweight division at large, Tom Aspernell's career arc, all of this, like, you know, collateral damage, that it's like you delayed the completely unnecessary Jones-Meo chip fight the way that you did, and now to delay this in an additional, you know, seven, eight months,

and now we don't even have the fight, that also falls on you inevitably. You never put that line in the sand and said, all right, John, we need a decision. Let's go. I feel like there's too much at stake right now with the TV deal with all that. Now, Luke, I just want to final point. I'm going to throw to you, but look, did I say that this was all a ruse? We were getting pro wrestling taking advantage of that. I show I did, but I don't take embarrassment of that for being wrong because part of that is built up on the optimism That he couldn't possibly mean what he's saying the guy who's the greatest fighter of all time

Who if he really didn't want to fight? Aspinal would have retired after gone when he got hurt or would have retired in the cage after beating steep a but again The fact that this was allowed to be stretched out I'm was almost protecting John and Dana with that type of line of thinking of saying, this is the only way to justify why this is happening here. And it turns out that wasn't even true. So Luke, final point here, final question related to this.

If there's any precedent, look, I get that. Like what you're saying, John's the greatest fighter of all time. He's a superstar. He's the rare guy today with, with, you know, pay-per-view backbone that can bring in the fans. So I get that he's going to get different in special treatment. And this was, you can't necessarily compare that completely to Jermaine Duran to me getting stripped of her title after four months because she refused to fight Cyborg or Nico Montano

after she was hospitalized in that bad weight cut in her first title defense and got stripped There's also let's not forget Lennox Lewis the all-time great heavyweight champion who after his final fight that life-and-death War with Vitaly Klitschko He not only decided not to rematch Klitschko which the fans were calling for or fight Vladimir Klitschko. He walked away. I Get it. We don't talk about that much today We talk about Lennox Lewis being one of the top five greatest heavyweights of all time. So Luke, with all that said, does this do anything to alter John Jones's. Legacy in any meaningful way, or will it just be something maybe we bring up 10 years from now, but what we'll also bring up is he's the greatest fighter we've ever

seen, he's basically undefeated and he did win titles in two weight classes. I mean, it's a great question BC. I can't rapid fire this one, but I'll make it succinct to say the following. I have seen people try to downplay his 205 resume and listen, everybody who is an elite guy, Silva. Demetrius Johnson, St. Pierre, John Jones, Jose Aldo, they all have gimmies somewhere in their run. And they all maybe have gimmies as an easy opponents, even during their title run. And they might even have a couple of decisions that went their way that maybe shouldn't, GSB over Hendrix, John over Dominic Reyes. I mean, Demetrius Johnson over Miguel Torres.

You know what I mean? Like these are things that probably shouldn't have happened, but they did. And they all play a part to a degree in their resume. But the reality is John's 205 resume, if you're asking, give me an example of what weight class dominance looks like. They just don't come much better than that. It's what I said earlier, BC, MMA could really use John Jones if he was actually giving a full-throated effort right now. They could use that. They could use somebody who has that kind

of greatness and that kind of commitment that he once had, but I guess those days are long gone. So what I'm going to say is his resume at 205 is so good that he's always going to be in the upper echelon of discussion. What I think is interesting though, is because he is a two weight world champion and because there is such controversy and frankly, almost venom for this guy from the fan base and at a bare minimum, extraordinary disappointment. extraordinary disappointment. Any conversation about John second weight class title I think is actually going to be something of a either a net wash where it doesn't actually boost his resume and in certain cases might even harm his stock because of how frankly undistinguished it was not merely

relative to his 205 run, but to any kind of championship run. This is one of the worst runs in championship history for any really relative to his 205 run, but to any kind of championship run. This is one of the worst runs in championship history for any weight class. In the terms of like what it means, did it add anything to a legacy? How difficult was it? It's got almost nothing to it.

And I think that BC, once you have like, okay, let's make a list of the two-way world champions. And now you're talking about what this adds to their legacy. There is a strong case to be made that this other weight class actually might serve as something of a net distraction and a net reduction in overall how he is reviewed. I think that's a, that's well said. All right. We had every angle of that tree.

Before we transition though, into what's next for Aspen, all UFC Heavyweight Division. How about Francis Ngannou? I want to tell you this Luke Thomas hotels in Vegas may be booked solid this weekend, but there's one vacancy ahead of UFC 317 excuse me that is left to be filled in this IFW main event a new lightweight champ will be crowned when Ilja Toporia takes on former champion Doe Bronx Charles Oliveira. The simplest way to get in on the action and win real cash? Yeah, you already knew it. Download that Pick 6 apps from DraftKings right now.

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pic6.draftkings.com slash promos. All right topic number two is the UFC heavyweight fallout to the John Jones decision. Luke I felt like Dana White had the chance to be the hero after this bad news delivered at the Baku press conference when he was asked about a possible Francis Ngannou return to the UFC. Instead, minutes after announcing fans could expect double the amount of Dana White contender series nights in their next broadcasting deal, White quickly shot down any thought of Aspenall

versus Ngannou by disparaging Francis' integrity. We're gonna play the video and then I'll tee you up for your response. Let's listen in on Dana right now. Francis says he changed his mind and he would consider coming back to the UFC. Would you be open to having Francis back?

He would consider coming back to UFC if what? One thing I've learned over the years about Francis, Francis doesn't always mean what he says publicly. What he says behind the scenes are different than what he says publicly. I'm not a big fan. I would be shocked if Francis ever came back here on lots of different levels. I'm not a fan and he doesn't always mean what he says publicly. Luke, before I ask you this question, I just want to make one thing clear here for people that are coming after me. I'm not asking for a co-promotion anymore. I don't even think PFL is going to be around in a year to be honest. I think

Francis has one fight left on his PFL deal. John Nash thinks he might already be out of the window of that deal. So let me ask you this, who is actually benefiting here from Dana White clinging to prior grudges and how big would it and gonna return be if he fought Aspin all to repair that whole of this Jones Aspin all or maybe even this Jones and Gano fight not happening at all. It's a great question. So let me just say this as you indicated, folks have been like, Hey, is Francis even eligible?

That is somewhat up to different legal interpretations. As you indicated, John Nash says there is one interpretation based on how the length of the contract has expired or reached a certain threshold, I should say, so therefore it's no longer relevant. Certainly publicly you've heard mixed messages from Francis, I could come back, how do you know I want to come back? Who know who says I'm leaving PFL, you know kind of playing it Show that tweet real quick if you just flash that in Gano tweet up there Yeah, put that up on the screen if you can there long on Luke. Did I ever say I'm coming back? Right exactly. So he's played a little bit with that as well. But to me none of that is the point, right?

The point is not is he available? That's not really what Dana said, although he kind of intimated it a little bit like on a Few different levels. He'd be surprised if we got back there That's not really what Dana said, although he kind of intimated it a little bit like on a few different levels he'd be surprised if we got back there but what Dana basically said there is without saying it and we kind of just know this is the way that he goes and he actually had said previously. He'll never be back.

Not at this press conference, but at another one when ultimately Francis left for the PFL. The reason why the question of whether he's even available isn't even the right one is because the real question is. What would be the good faith argument in service of the fans interests? What would be that argument that precludes Dana White in the UFC from even being open to the idea?

Right? Because A, he could still be, you know, difficulty with getting out right now and it's not really a relevant question. Or B, they could be open to the idea, but maybe Francis wants like, you know, some absurd number 30 million and they're just not going to give him that, right? But even that's not the point. The point is that they're saying,

they're not even open to the idea. How can you possibly look at the state of this division? And they also said they wanted to make it up to Tom Aspinall. I can scarcely think of a better way to make it up to Tom Aspinall. And frankly, to the UFC fans more broadly and inject some life into this heavyweight division than if possible to bring Francis back. But there's, he is saying he's not even open to the possibility of that. There is literally not a single good faith interpretation of that in service of the fans. Ask a basic question, which is what you did. Whose interests are served by icing Francis out again, not even entertaining the possibility of it. Is that in Francis's interest? No, but you may not care of it. Is that in Francis's interest? No, but you may not care about those. Is it in UFC's interest? I would actually argue it's not. Not at all. It doesn't service them even a little bit. And more to the point,

is it in the interest of MMA fans and UFC fans specifically to not have the other, by the way, the lineal heavyweight champion and the other dominant figure, frankly, in the sport at this time in that weight class to have them together with Tom Aspinall, perhaps the most exciting talent in all of MMA, who also just happens to be a heavyweight. There isn't one. There isn't an argument you can make in service of that. It is absurd on its face. Now, BC, if they tried to make a deal and Francis wanted, you know, hey, I want green cheese on the moon. Well, what can you do? But until we even get to that point, this is not... What business that actually has to compete for your dollar would ever say something like this? This is literally in defiance of their very own fan base. What business that has competition breathing down their neck

and nipping at their heels would ever say, we don't need the lineal heavyweight champion of the world. Guys, people ask me all the time, what are the problems with monopoly? You're fucking looking at it. Yeah, you are. And you know, no one's knocking on the door in terms of UFC's MMA hold and power in the number one slot unless they continue to do stuff like this, in my opinion. And look, the John Jones fallout here is embarrassing. It's

it's ridiculous. It's disappointing. It's everything. And then you package on this absolutely embarrassing quote from Dana that makes it all about him. Why? Because Francis is not a good guy. John Jones, Conor McGregor, we don't care about who's a good guy in this business for the most part, right? We care about like, can they make money? Can they make fun fights? Whatever. It's showing you that this is some shitty personal grudge. Why? And I've had so many people come at me on Twitter in the last two days and be like,

how are you defending this guy, Francis? He obviously, you know, tried to swerve Dana and lost. Well, I mean, first of all, it feels like he won because he became a free agent, kind of screwed PFL with that big deal, but he made big money in boxing. And I'm not here to try to put Francis up as like the greatest person of all time. He's a human being like all these people. But could Dana have fixed

this hole by saying, look, John made his decision, but I'm available. My phone's open. I wouldn't be fully against this. I mean, they, I mean, like, good luck, Tom, to hearing Dana say, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll make it up to him. Ask Tachi Palace how that worked for them, okay? Please ask them. Here's Dana quickly on whether he regrets enabling John Jones for two full years. Dana, right here. Just back to the Tom Espinel and John Jones situation. Do you somewhat regret the time that you gave John Jones to make his final decision that

it took so long and the whole division? Do I regret the time that I gave him? Listen, if you look at what he's accomplished in the sport, you know, no. No. That is what it is. I obviously feel bad for Tom that he lost all that time and obviously money, but yeah, we'll make it up to him. Tom Aspinall is a good guy.

He's, he's been incredible through this whole process that we've gone through. He's been willing to do anything, fight him anywhere at any time and do this. And now he's, he's like, I'll fight anybody. You tell me who and I'll fight him. So Aspinall has been great. He's going to be a great heavyweight champion for us. And, uh, I'm, I'm and I'm excited to work with him. This is why the company's broken right now.

And I don't want to hear, well, they're not broken financially. No, they're not because they're taking from you, the MMA viewer, at every possible stretch that they can. So it's like John Jones does this to you, does this to the company, does this to the fan base, but we're not going to say anything bad about him. But Francis dared to challenge your monopolistic draconian contract system and crawl through the Shawshank pipe to get out. And now he's the biggest evil villain heel of all time.

Like this is, this is embarrassing. Vince McMahon for all his faults would not have done this. So Luke Thomas, what do we? What is the heavyweight division going to look like moving forward? Especially if in Ghana is not going to come in to fill that super fight slot. Who is out there that would interest you for a Tom Aspinal fight?

And is there anything the company can actually do to quote make it up to him? They could sign Francis in Ghana. You know you want to make big. But I mean, how big would a Tom versus Francis fight be? There's certainly a debate about that. I don't think it'd be blockbuster in that sense, but it's going to be a lot bigger than him versus gone. It's going to be a lot bigger than him versus Jalitan Almeida. It's going to be a lot bigger than him versus

Curtis blades for the third time or Cunha or anybody else that they Sergey Spivak for however many times they've already fought already. I mean, it's like the tour of Tafa in the same night. That's yeah, you know, it's like the tour of Taffa in the same night. That's yeah. You know, it's like, maybe it's like Tom Aspyn, I was like five fights on the main card and it's just Tom versus five Taffa brothers. That actually would be kind of interesting, but short of that, this is, I mean, it's silly comment, obviously BC because this is simply where we are now.

I want to be clear about something. Even if they did sign Francis, we all have to recognize that doesn't actually fix the problem. Now it would fix the short term problem quite a lot because you could get potentially two and this is getting a little greedy, but you know there's a world where

you could get three, but you could certainly get two fights between them and that's. That's not enough to save a division, but it's enough to make for a better calendar year while other things can happen at play. But once those fights are over,

you still have this other situation that we have. And I know, for example, one championship just announced today that they're going to have Rug Rug versus Anatoly Malikin for the second time. Either of those guys could be signed to the UFC and I think that would be a benefit to them. You could get Vadim Nemkov, BC, and I think that would be a benefit to them. There are some other names out there and maybe long-term. Gable Stevenson is a name you could go after that you really wanted that would be a benefit to them. There are some other names out there and maybe long term. Gable Stevenson is a name you could go after that you really wanted to would be available. But like this is the reality. The heavyweight division isn't just a problem in UFC. No, no, no. It's a global shortage of talent issue. That's the problem. And that's why this reluctance to even entertain

the idea of Francis. It's like, how can you look at the state of the heavyweight division, which to my mind, as someone who's been watching MMA for a very long time, longer than some of you have even been alive, how can you look at the status division and say it's in anything other than borderline ruin? You just lost its biggest star. John is for all the other problems,

farmed away the biggest star, arguably the one of the bigger stars in the company obviously, certainly at heavyweight, he just walked or certainly on ice for the time being and you don't even have the like the willingness to be like, okay what are some other great options for us? Francis is at the top of that list. So you're asking what can they do? One thing that Dana White said at that UFC Baku press or BC, and I saw a lot of groans about it, which is they're gonna have double, potentially in the next television deal,

double the amount of contender series fights. Now, if that is done as a real way to comb through talent to see what the diamonds in the rough are, I don't necessarily have a problem with it. I don't know if that's going to solve their problems or not because another interpretation BC could simply be that they want to have double the amount of contender series fights just to have double the numbers of contender series fights to meet contract demands for simply more content, right? Which case you're not solving the problem at all. Also, somebody said something to me recently who might have some idea about these matters that

basically anybody who used to be an interested American heavyweight isn't interested anymore. The wrestlers aren't coming over. You're not getting the same kind of talent acquisition and you're just seeing a bigger focus on places where the American dollar goes a little bit further overseas talent, Russian talent, Brazilian talent, where they're willing to take, you know, a 10 in 10 to them might be still a decent to good financial deal, whereas it's just not for an American heavyweight trying to compete in this kind of American market. So the answer is BC. Everyone has a bit of an issue. It just makes the reluctance and the repudiation Francis in Ghana frankly incomprehensible and I'm gonna say unjustifiable

Well, yeah, not to mention that if in Ghana beat aspirin I'll guess you'd be the first person to be tweeting that they want to come back John Jones Just a heads up on that well now look put out a poll to the people asking who they want next for Tom aspirin 37% went to serial gone and Tom is an early offshore book favorite at minus 350 should they make that Cyril Gonn fight. 34% wanted Poetan, 23% Volkoff and 5% Blades. And Luke, you mentioned that good news for one championship that goes down November 16th in Tokyo when 1173 gives a co-main event rematch for the heavyweight title,

Rug Rug against Anatoly Malikin and also Super Bond in the main event against Masaki Nori. So check that out for one championship fans out there. Alright, that is topic number two. Let's slide into topic number three and that is UFC Baku Fight Night, which certainly for a Saturday afternoon card did give us a lot to talk about with that light heavyweight five round main event. Luke, this was to decide who's coming and who's going in that light heavyweight title picture. And it turned out Khalil Rountree Jr showed off that evolution of his maturity following the title loss to Poetan by patiently picking apart former champion Jamal Hill and route to three knockdowns and a wide unanimous decision victory that was 50 to 45 on two of the three scorecards.

Despite lusty boos in round four from the Baku crowd, the thinning Baku crowd for the lack of action, how impressed were you overall by 35-year-old Khalil Rowntree's performance? Pretty impressed. pretty impressed. Not hugely impressed, but I don't want to sit here and say I thought it was some kind of letdown. I don't think that's right. I think actually in general it was good, commendable, and otherwise serviceable. I did not walk away floored, nor did I necessarily walk away with the feeling that whatever chances he had at getting a title surged, you know, like, oh, I have renewed

confidence beyond what I had seen previously that, you know, there's enough here to make me think he can unseat the champion. I would not dismiss his threat, but again, it didn't change the way that I had necessarily calculated the threat that he has. It's a real, but I think somewhat remote threat and I stay in that place. Nevertheless, we had talked last week about what he was writing heading into this fight and we were saying it's kind of strange that here comes roundtree off of a loss, off of a fairly brutal stoppage loss in the way it actually finished. And yet he's the one riding momentum into this.

He's the one riding high and renewed and with vigor and a pep in his step. And I did think you saw some evidence of that. He hurt and wobbled and rocked and battered to a degree. Jamal Hill, not the first round, but in virtually every other round, he did that to him. He didn't do much necessarily beyond that each round. It was kind of weird, right? You see there'd be these clear, good, punctuated moments where he would leg kick him and you would see

Jamal Hill trying to get his balance or he got dropped a couple of times. And there were flash knockdowns, he got up pretty quickly. But you know, memorable, punctuated, dominating moments and then not necessarily a ton on top of it. However, as he indicated in the post fight presser BC, he had said, listen, I wanted to make good smart decisions, get the W, but also showcase, you know, that I can win over the course of a long fight and I can make good decisions and not, you know, make mistakes. Fair enough. I thought he accomplished that.

So it sounded to me, BC, like the mission that he had set out for himself, he did. And that their confidence that we had detected in him that he said he had, I think showed up. I just can't say, wow, I've I'm learning about Khalil roundtree for the first time. I feel like he is now turning in what I kind of always thought he had in him. And it's great to see, but not necessarily like blown away by it. Still two thumbs up on a very quality performance. It's weird.

It plays into some things that I have an issue with roundtree, especially when he faces more elite opponents is that he doesn't throw enough strikes. But in this case, it works perfectly because he worked from the outside. He brutalized Jamal Hill's leg. And really what he exposed with his constant stance switching was that Jamal Hill in the orthodox stance, right? They're both soft paws after Jamal Hill was forced to protect that right leg. He just wasn't effective striking.

He didn't have that base to throw punches off of. He was only throwing one punch at a time. So it almost leads me to say this, look, you and I both picked Jamal Hill somewhat confidently. As much as yes, I did see the evolution of Roundtree's IQ in his mind. He didn't, he wasn't there to be hit. There wasn't a point where he just switched on the crazy brawling and gave Jamal Hill a chance. He won on his own terms. But I almost feel like in the process, it exposed Jamal Hill more than it showcased roundtree. And now you've got everybody going, was Jamal Hill ever that good to begin with?

Or is that victory over a 40 something Glover Teixeira after they tried to find other people to fight for that title. Are we seeing the complete limitations here on full display? I mean, Luke, I got to get your take how disappointing of a performance was this from Hill who didn't even really have that urgency in round five, when his corner was like, you need to go in there for a KO. It's still one punch at a time. Dude, did you see that?

It's still one punch at a time. Did you see that? Hill thought so he goes to his corner after the fourth round and they're like you know he gives this corner. He gives his corner man a look when it's corn was like you know he might be up and he was like like, you know incredulous at the idea

when they read the decision. He's like 50 to 45. Why? And I'm like and I'm like dude, you know I, I could see one round for him too, if you were being like, outrageously generous. But even that is like not justifiable. And certainly 50 45 was justifiable. I mean, I think Jamal Hill's got a couple of problems. And listen, here's the reality. And he might see this and get mad because I think he just kind of does this thing. But I promise you, dude, I am I don't get any joy out of getting out here and been like, oh, Jamal, he'll perform bad.

It doesn't, I'm not out here trying to score points or settle some kind of thing. He's done nothing bad to me. I don't have any ill will towards him. And I don't know if that's gonna matter. He might get, still get mad, but I mean that sincerely. And I hope you see, if he does see this, I hope he sees this part of it.

I got nothing against the guy in anything beyond what I'm just talking about here, but he does seem to me have two pretty, pretty big problems. The first problem is the biggest one, which he just doesn't seem to have the requisite self-awareness. And I think allowing himself to be comfortable with the idea that there are things not great about what he does and like, it's okay to see yourself in a positive light. It's okay to big yourself up.

In fact those are important and he should do those things but if you do it to such a degree that you have a hard time engaging with your limitations, how is it benefiting you? That's the first thing I'm going to say. The second thing I'm going to say is guys I mean the reality is this if you want to be um you know if you want your a skill to be your boxing, both defensively and offensively and MMA again, no problem. But if you're a head hunter, that's an issue. And B, if you can't really get it going because the delivery system that you use to get into an out of position, which is your footwork is really holding you back.

You know, you just have to reflect on that and be honest about it. You have to say the footwork is it's a problem for him, man. It's a problem. It's getting him into trouble because it just he over commits. Dude, that fight could have been much worse. I mean, the reality is a lot of times what you see from from Hill, Hill's got good vision and good reaction timing. He actually has very good timing based on what he does in certain ways. You could see he was just a little bit short with some of those counter check hooks over the top, but his timing was there. The placement was a little off, but the timing was there. He actually is pretty good about that. But the reality is his feet are often in the wrong place or what you saw with Yeri. Yeri would slip and then counter him.

He would turn defense into offense. Dude, Roundtree let him off the hook. There were many times Roundtree was either evading big time or getting out of the way and you could see was loaded up for a huge counter, but played it a little bit safer obviously to get the dub, which I don't have a problem with, but this is what I mean about Hill. Hill kind of got a, got a reprieve with that. He had nothing to say about getting his leg battered other than switching stances, but that didn't really serve his defense. His defense is kind of low. One hand is chin, one hand is floating, whereas Khalil has both hands, you know, up his guard is up around height, eye level, and that enables him to catch and then shoot a little bit better. He just seemed like everything was tighter, smoother, more put together, because I think Khalil's probably spent a little bit more time engaging with his shortcomings. I think he'll have some questions to ask himself. I do think he has ability. Yes. But these

bigger problems we see are holding him back. And I don't think there's anything else you can say to the contrary. And it's like, I don't want to take away from round three. It was a smart, full, you know, nicely executed when he adjusted. He made adjustments around four by starting to throw those looping lead shots and he was landing at will on Hill. I just don't think that game plan of such low output from round tree will work against most elite light heavy weights. It just worked perfectly here.

Probably because he battered that leg so early, but look, it's like we both said Hill just has more ways to win. We think he's the better fighter. He took that belief away from me, unfortunately. So what do you make of Hill after the fight, being incredulous about the scores, and then cornering Rowntree to the point where Herb Dean, the referee, was trying to kind of get nervous

trying to separate them. And essentially, I think accused Rowntree of running or not engaging in what the cameras picked up was roundtree said, you're not easy to read. I have to protect myself. Again, that just seems to fall into the like, damn, Jamal Hill didn't just not have it here, dude. He didn't have anything in this fight.

Yeah. And again, kind of harassing your opponent after you got you had 25 minutes to do something about it And now you're minute 26. You've got an issue. It's just not this is not the kind of thing champions can do You know and you can you could say oh, what do you know fine disagree with me? But show me which champions over time and do GSP was a champion Because he was keenly aware of his limitations because he was keenly aware of his limitations, because he was keenly in tune with the things he needed to get better at. And a guy who wasn't that keenly in tune with his shortcomings, at times he was,

but at times, most times he wasn't, is BJ Penn. And look at the difference, dude. Look at the difference in how uneven the results are for Penn versus a guy like St. Pierre. You can't say that Penn's not talented, but if you're not willing to look at the things you're holding you back more honestly and more openly, then they will continue to be the things that hold him back. You're going to continue to have long looks and like, you know, surprised faces at decisions you don't understand and judges making reads you

don't get. And of course, BC, you know the reality. You can retreat behind that. Oh, the judges did me wrong. Oh, the fans don't understand me. Oh, it's me against the world. You can find a place to hide in all of that, but none of that is gonna make you better. You simply have to look at it.

And I know it's not easy. I know it's not easy if you're a prize fighter to sit there and say, I'm bad at this kind of a thing. But one thing I noticed, BC, this is a small other thing, is I noticed, because I have the same problem, and although I work bad at this kind of thing. But one thing I noticed BC is a small other thing is I noticed because I have the same problem and although I work on it pretty actively, he's got super flat feet Jamal Hill. And that just leads itself to all kinds of orthopedic injuries. If you

don't treat it, it's no to me no surprise, you know that he had an Achilles issue. I think these things are all positively correlated. Is he doing anything about that? This is what I mean. Like, there's just so much that I think he's got something to build off of that's real that that that that's not a mistake. He's got something to build off of there. But if he's unwilling to look at the things that are holding him back, I don't know how much more he can build.

Yeah, I think he needs to get in the best shape of his life. Okay. You know what I mean? Something needs to be in bad shape. Did he, did you? Well, I thought in the picture we showed during fight week that it was an improvement, but he's always got a little belly, but I mean, he's got a little dad bod going, which isn't impossible for a light heavyweight to have that and you don't, and that's not the judgment zone between if you're

good or bad, I just feel like he's kind of hit a wall now. Not only do I think bringing in maybe a new look into camp, trying to round out his game, I mean, they had said on the year that him and round tree both don't have a career successful takedown in the UFC. I think some changes are meant to be made and one of those might be, let's get in the best shape of your career and see what happens because of that. See what that unlocks and opens up in your game. What unlocked when this fight started was the mass exodus from the Baku crowd at

2 AM. Here's the shot of a fan inside the arena here. After... Yikes, I mean that was live on ABC right there. Baku at 2 AM. That's insane. Now, there were a lot of locals on that card and one of them who had a huge night was Rafael Fazeev in that Coalmane event. We said this might be the best fight on paper coming in as Fazeev at lightweight welcomed Bahamondes Luke, who was looking and that of course for the biggest win of his career as he was streaking coming in on a three-fight win streak as Fazeev although there were circumstances

involved came in on a three-fight losing skid but at the end of the day 30 to 27 Fazeev across the board against Ignacio Bahamondes who did start to land some shots in that third round, but he had to deal with that trademark Fazeev elusiveness to get out of the way of his kicks. Luke, Fazeev said after that second Gachey loss in which he took the fight on six days notice that you'll see the difference in his next fight with a full camp. What do you say about full camp Fazeev and how he essentially just took away everything that makes Bahamondes dangerous here in a shutout decision win. Yeah, we weren't sure how it was going to play out because as we indicated there was a height advantage for Bahamondes as well as a reach.

He had both of those which is bigger in boxing bigger in kickboxing potentially. Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what that means in MMA and that turned out to be one of these scenarios here. I thought Fazib looked good BC and some of the things that we had said about him. I think in generally proved true. It's like okay, he lost twice to Gachey. That's not great. But the loss to Gamrot, you know, that fight was still very early and he was doing well on it before he got injured. You basically only really lost to one guy.

You know, granted three losses in a row, hadn't won since 2022, but there was another sort of picture of quality there. And I think that showed up here BC. Once you saw Fazeev get the range and figure out what Bob Mondes was throwing, you saw him kind of plant his feet and then just get out of the way of stuff and then counter. And he used his explosion speed combination work at times. Nice time. Take downs. Nice time. Take downs. The reality is this though. It's like, first of all, for Fazeev getting back in the win column, critical.

Second of all, doing it with, you know, a relative, not a huge amount, but a relative amount of style, you know, there's a bit of a confidence building performance, very, very important. You know, these are all critical things. But again, did that teach me a lot about exactly where he is at the top of the division? No, it tells me he's definitely still a top five guy or right around that for me. But the Bob Mondes probably has a little bit further to go. The issue to me was really more about what I learned about Bob Mondes, not so

much what I learned about Fazeve. And to me, like, for example, BC, like the thing I wasn't sure about with Bob Mondes before this fight was he throws a lot of stuff and I wasn't sure how strategic it was. Like he likes to be active. And then through that activity, things emerge and then he likes to follow up on them. So for example, he might throw a one, two,

it doesn't score someone, you know, rolls off. He grabs their head and goes for it and knee, right? Like he just reacts to that knee based off of how the situation unfolds. But Fazeev denied that a lot to him. He never let him get going. And as a consequence, there was never anything to build. More to the point, Bob Mondage just throws a lot of stuff

to throw without really thinking strategically about it. How many times did you see him throw a spinning, of different varieties of it, but basically a variety of a spinning kick, never even to the body? They kept going to the head. This guy is built to plant his feet and lean to get out of the way.

Why are you spending three rounds throwing kicks that are never going or highly unlikely to land against a guy like this? It's a bit of a fight IQ issue there. Well, he was spamming his jab too. It was just like five feet away. It wasn't even hardly, I mean, there was, I think the second round, he kind of sat behind it a little bit.

But there's a lot of times to your point he's just reaching and that's fine. You can probe with it, but you got to vary it up too. He was just kind of just probing with it the whole time. And this is what I mean. It looked to me like, is Fazif coming or going? Is Nacho coming or going? And it looked to me like Bob on this still a lot to be excited for eager for the fight does has offense in a lot of places, but doesn't have a lot of systemic thought given to what he's doing. Doesn't have a more organized game.

The Z does. And you can see what the difference looks like along with that foot speed and explosivity that he's got. The guy that had such a disadvantage in height and length, he never stopped moving. So full camp Fazeev does matter. He never gave him a solid target. And then the fact that he mixed in the body cut. No, that's not true.

He moved a lot. No, go back and watch. He moves a lot in the first round and then at various other places you'll see him pick it up. But as that fight gets longer, what you actually notice is Fazeev stops moving. Well, the trunk movement though picked up. Yes, yes, I'm sorry. Yes, I meant to say he's not like, you know, constantly going laterally, you know, whatever. He would stop and then get out of the way and be just outside that range. And that's what kind of frustrated me about bomb on is like you're measuring

him and then you're throwing these spinning kicks that aren't even coming close. There's gotta be a better way. You know, it was an experience gap. Ultimately in the end, uh, here is Fiziv talking about what he wants next at 155 pounds. In my mind, first one after this tall guy is a Dan Hooker. Yeah. He's a, he's's one more tall guy, you know. I like to fight with tall guys. Do you expect the same war with Dan Hooker because he also loves bloody fights like you?

He's a man. He's a man. How many crazy fights he has. he deserves one more crazy fight. He has a place now. I don't believe this place. When I'm lost to Gamret, I don't lose that place really. It's my injury. This place now he holds, I won't take it back Luke I'd be down for him and hooker Let's do it Sounds like a great bout. What is there to dislike? Let's make it. Let's keep going down the card

There were 12 fights in all by the way only two Ended in a stoppage. It turned out to be the third longest card in terms of time in UFC history in Baku on Saturday But Luke Thomas quickly on this matchup We thought for 34 year old Curtis blades it might be a stay busy fight against PFL alum and the debuting Rizvon Kunev but dude blades got lit up in this fight and was almost not lucky but Fortunate to come away with a split decision win is he on the wrong side of it at 34? What happened here? Well, I think he tore his MCL. Is that not what he said? I did not hear that part then.

Yeah, he injured his knee and he was just trying to survive out there. Oh, I remember he said that. Yes. He said that in the interview after. So if that's true, then I think I can look the other way because I still think highly of his ability and his movement was weird and I'll be honest, I thought Kuniyav won the fight, but if it really is an injury that explains it, and again I'm saying if, I don't know for sure, I'm taking his word for it, but to the extent that that's real, I still think Curtis Blaze, I still think he's got known weaknesses, right? It's not like I think we've never seen before, but BC, I still believe in his ability to do well if need be against good opponents. All right. Let's talk about Mike to Beck or a Bali. Did I say that correctly? I think it's Mike to Beck or Mick to Beck or by or or by. Thank you.

He takes on another debutant and Taufik Moussaieff who has a, who was on a great run and certainly has a respectable background coming in look this was a Dominant first round submission win, but I think or by miss weight by something like 10 pounds So or by coming off that absolute brawl with Rebechki that was insane, but he lost it Now he looks like a killer in a future a future killer Luke how much do you take away from the weight mess 10 pounds dude 10 pounds for oral body they agreed to a catch weight like at the last minute so like I'm it might have been on oral by Zen but he technically didn't miss wait it was I was gonna say I didn't understand it in

those terms either um tell you what dude what, dude, Oral-Bai, he looks pretty fucking good. He looks good, dude. I mean, Taufik Mosayev is a hammer, a limited, like all guys are, but Oral-Bai just took the fight right to him, made a good decision. He's like, I'm not even gonna,

I'm not gonna strike it out with this guy longer than I have to. And he does strike it out with him some, obviously, but then takes him down, establishes the threat. He he gets back up takes him right back down and like again he's got a variety of these takedowns are all looked they were pretty good and do the way he passed from half to side stepped over the head I'm telling you folks once they step over the head it's a fucking rap and he got it and had that guy screaming in pain and he did this in the first round dude Mike Tabeck oral

by that's a name to pay attention to. He looks like the real deal. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Is there any question about his courage in the pocket? Zero. So keep an eye on him.

I like what I'm seeing from him. All right. The Ray Longo and John wood trained and Marab, the Vosvili teammate, Nazim Sadikov had a hell of a performance in an absolute war improving to 11, one in one overall for Owen one in the UFC taking on a very game. Nicholas Motel with Rashad Evans in his corner. And after two action pound packed rounds, we had a brutal knockout. How bright is Sadikov ceiling now moving forward?

I think that his ceiling is. I don't know. I don't know. I'll say this. That was the best fight on the card. It was thrilling and I was so impressed with his surviving, uh, his survival ability. And dude, did you notice the rampage rolls he was doing? Right. Or you're, I mean, you're supposed to grab behind the head, but you can just kind of go to the ear if need be. You know you see that in the first round when Motaz like just just just hauling off on him, dropped him seemed like for a moment he recovers then puts it on him

and then finishes him off in the second. You know it's hard to say exactly what the upside of something like that is but you know if you had any question about his metal, if you had any questions about his durability, if you had questions about what kind of bearing does he show under fire? A bunch of those got answered and that's all part of a bigger piece of the puzzle. We need to see some of those other pieces, but as far as those are concerned, check approved. Yeah. His only blemishes in all action draw with Slava clause, Borshavorshav. So he's really coming together He's got a great team behind him one out look quickly

We got a loaded show anything else on that undercard that you and I were watching in the eighth row with gaff on Saturday And the other way longest 12 round fight card in UFC history 12 fight card, you mean yeah, I mean there's been longer fight cards but for a card that had 12 this was the longest. I want to give a shout out to Seokhyun Ko for upsetting Oban Elliott I feel like no one was really on that. Dude 3027 hit me. He looked good on the ground those wrestling exchanges and shit but yeah this card was pretty bad I'm not gonna lie. It was ass right? It was butt cheeks. It was really good. There you go there you go. I gotta say dude I thought you know and we kind of been over already, but it's just worth mentioning, because I do those watch alongs. So I have to turn the volume down. I don't

wear an earpiece. I have a I have a speaker right here BC outside my monitor. And so I have to turn it down so I can barely hear it, but I can hear at least enough to absorb the bigger points. And it seems suspiciously quiet. And then I went back and I listened afterwards. and I was like, no, it wasn't, it wasn't my, how low my volume was. There just wasn't a crowd. It was insane.

Well, they also had crazy audio issues. It would go out for two seconds randomly all the time. Yeah, well, that's ESPN. I mean, I don't know what's going on. I mean, it's a debuting crowd. We also had a lot of biz ping on that broadcast. I mean. He is chatty.

He's chatty. God. All right, Luke, we got to keep this show moving 10 minutes away by the way from special guest Brian Norman Jr. The unbeaten boxing welterweight champion under the top-ranked banner who's going to slide in

following his breakthrough victory. Let's get into topic number four Brian Norman Jr. on the way, but let's talk a little bit of boxing right here. Canelo Alvarez and Terrence Crawford. They're going to throw down September 13th on Netflix, Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the first, I guess, fully promoted Zufa boxing card, although that

was the co-promoter for Mayweather McGregor. And we've seen Dana of late with Tom Loeffler and company, but this is much bigger. Two of the three stops on the global press store took place in the past few days. The first one in Riyadh on Thursday and on Sunday at the Fanatics Fest in New York we not only had an appearance from Dana White. Dana announced that Max Kellerman would return to boxing, would be on the call. He also spoke at the press conference and then you got Turkey tweeting out a picture of Lampley and Kellerman which is teasing who could be calling that fight but Luke we learned a lot I think we learned a lot from these two pressers some of it was weird there

was a lot of turkey involved but what were your biggest takeaways for a fight that's being billed as the biggest in a decade now that we have seen Canelo and Crawford face off twice talk a little bit of trash. In fact, let's show the video of the face off on Sunday and then we'll get Luke's reaction here. Bud did rush up against Canelo. You can see the size of Bud right there. He's bulking up. Then you get a Canelo push. Some people were saying, oh, they're laughing. It was a chummy push. Other people are saying, look at the intensity in Canelo's face. Dana was loving it. Luke, what did you learn about this fight from the two stops on this press tour? One more to go, as you indicated. I would say I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand,

as you indicated, great to see Max Kellerman back. I think he can only add gravitas and make the broadcast better. So I'm happy to see that he's back and getting some work. I mean, he was definitely out there simping for Turkey and Dana, which is funny because I've heard him speak about UFC pay before, but I guess all's well that ends well.

Oh dude, he called Dana the greatest promoter of his lifetime and he was, he was ball gaggling on turkey but that's his new boss Luke you know what I mean? Yeah I mean they're cutting the checks so I guess they get to see how you tap dance for it but in any case I do think he's gonna be great for the broadcast and I'm glad to see him back. So that's cool I'm glad they're doing a media tour I think that's good it definitely seems like some people are getting hyped up because of it. That can only help. But I just can't help but feel like with all the money that's

going into it and all the promotional effort that's going into it, I appreciate they're doing a lot of promotion for it. They put out this new Goats podcast. You know what I mean? They're doing a multi-city tour. They're talking to the press everywhere they go. They were at the Fanatics Fest, whatever

it's called, in New York City, that big convention. They're out there making the rounds. And I think that's all gonna be a big deal. Being on Netflix can only help. But as you indicated to me, BC, you know, you heard Turkey kind of apologize to a big executive at Netflix during the course of this press tour stop,

which I thought was, you know, essentially confirming the reporting on this that like Nick Khan had to rescue it. My biggest takeaway BC is I appreciate that this fight is happening. I appreciate the money that they're putting into it. And I also appreciate the work that they're putting into it going on these press tours.

They look nice engaging with the fans, engaging with the media, getting people excited about it. Two thumbs up for me in general on that. On the other hand, BC, I can't quite get rid of this nagging feeling that it all feels a little forced. The push feels a little forced. The matchup feels a little, you know, I'm happy for it but it doesn't feel like the natural fight for frankly either of them. It's kind of being thrust together that their beef, you know, they were seen seeing eating with each other and then the boxing world got bitter and

now they had that push. You know what I mean? Like, so it sounds like I'm just being a hater and a complainer. I promise I'm not. I'm excited about September. I'm excited about Max Kellerman. I'm excited about this fight. But do you get the nagging feeling that it's just a little like some part of it just doesn't feel organic. They're trying to force it. And some of that just isn't quite clicking for me. I could understand that.

And as you said, it was interesting to hear Turkey confirm that it took Nick Khan to save this fight being on Netflix and talking Turkey into it. And then he apologized to Bella Netflix, as he called the CEO there and basically said, sorry, but I'm doing this on Netflix because of Nick Khan only. That was interesting. Let's pause this discussion because we do have a very special guest coming in and I'm talking about the 24 year old unbeaten WBL welterweight world champion. They call him the assassin to Georgia's own Brian Norman Jr. on morning combat. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. All Alright. I like the intro. I like the intro.

Yeah, get fired up with us right here. Four days removed from going to Japan and spectacularly knocking out Jin Sasaki with a left hook from hell, hitting his head on the canvas. And boy, do we have a lot to talk about your future. But I want to talk about the past. Where did you come from? You seem to just drop in to boxing you became a world champion you look like a finished product at age 24 I know you've been grinding for years but I look at you as a refreshing addition to not just the welterweight scene but American boxing welcome Brian Norman jr. Welcome welcome welcome welcome but I am not a finished product at all I just want you to know that this was just me introducing myself to the whole world,

out there in Japan as well. Shout out to Jinsisaki, but things had to be done. I had to keep living my legacy and making a name for myself. I mean, just 24 years old right now, you've improved that record all the way up to 28 and 0 with 22 KOs. So let's start right here. What are you bringing in your eyes to the welterweight division that is not there? What makes you special among the elite at 147? Playing the love of the game. A lot of people now, I don't see the real deal love of passion and just straight up throwing hands. At the end of the

day that's what boxing is about. You got guys over here saying look at my clothes look at what I got on you got guys over here saying a whole bunch of just unnecessary stuff I don't care about what you driving I don't care about what clothes you wear I don't care about the women you around can you throw these things put your dupes up and let's lay down that's all I care about and a lot of guys you know they not on it a lot of guys, you know, they're not on that. A lot of people not real deal world champions, they get their belts and they go home and they try to protect it right there in their little pocket. No, I'm a world champion. I'm like Thriller Manila. I'm like all of those great fighters in the past that fought everywhere.

Marvin Hagler, Alimenta fighting in the UK. Uh, shoot, Carol and uh, Aeros Pints, UK once again. So it's uh, fighting worldwide instead of just fighting right here down the street around the corner on the block, you feel me? So I am trying to show everybody I'm a true world champion. Brian, so let's talk about that left hook that polished off Jin Sasaki. He jabs you, excuse me, you jab him to the body, then he wants to get it back for Sasaki he jabs you excuse me. You jab him to the body. Then he wants to get it back for some reason and jabs you to the body and then you saw it there.

Did you were you baiting that left hook? Did you know he was going to react that way? Talk me through how that KO happened. I knew exactly what he was going to do. It actually started the day before. I was sizing up Jen and I seen he look. He look up to me. I don't know if it's my energy or whatever the case may be but I seen that he look up to me. He look at where I am at, you know, gotta be in the champion, how I carry myself or something and we'll take a picture at

the weigh-ins. I would literally see him look over, see what I'm doing, and do the exact same thing. So I knew for a fact he will copy me. So in the first round, I peeped his game plan off the top, jab to the body. Down to his whole thing, jab to the body. I see him when he come back up, his hands is down, he's not up point, he's not ready. I said, okay, cool. I can use that to my advantage. Then shortly enough, fifth round came in, and he got away from the game plan with a jab to the body.

And I don't found myself, you know, found my rhythm, found my range and boom, I jabbed it to the body just to remind him. So he copied me and he went right back to the jab to the body. He didn't even wait on it. He didn't faint anything. And then of course he came right up into it and you see I was ready. When you hit him, I often hear from prize fighters when like when a clean KO shot lands they can barely feel it even though it's super powerful because it's

so the transfer of power is so fluid. Did you feel the same? Was it just the cleanest shot you've ever landed? Oh yeah, it did. It felt like I just swatted a fly or something like my hand just flew through him and I will say it was a it was a scary visual because if you watch the fight back I was locked in on him the whole time. So after I hit him, I'm still looking at him He was standing up with his eyes closed. I'm walking towards the corner. I see him falling back I see his head hit the mat and I know that's not a that wasn't right. No, I heard that loud bang I heard everything about it Gladly, you know, he's okay now

The did it scare you a little bit when his I think it was his coach or his corner was saying he doesn't remember the last Six weeks. I mean you I mean that's a that's a devastating punch you landed man. She scared me before that so after all the You know bound and celebrating I was doing, I seen him slide to stretch and I'm thinking, okay, he finna wake up in a minute. I take my gloves off, that took a good little minute. I turn around, he still asleep. So that's when it started setting in. Okay, this real, this ain't a regular knockout.

This, it's one of the ones. So I would definitely wear it at that point. Brian, when you delivered that knockout, I didn't think you could do better than that until you got in the post fight interview and really gave a nice sort of cryptic, I don't know, call out or a slant over at unbeaten, drawn boots.

And as a fighter, the former unified welterweight champion that we have a lot of respect for who just announced the move up to 154. You said he put on his boots and run basically. But I feel like boxing Twitter's like, hold on. Didn't Brian Norman turn down 1.7 million to fight Boots that one time? Could you give us the true story of what happened here?

Did you have a chance to fight Boots? What went on? So now with that, they were trying to downplay who I was and who I am and trying to low ball me. So even with the one, we said we do like that number, but it's over there in Philly. So you can, we're going to give you two options. You can even move the fight over or you can move the fight right there. Just bump up the numbers a little bit. They said no to both. Said, okay, cool. Then a few months later, they fight and what's my dude's name?

Stan Jonas. And they gave him the best of both worlds. They gave him more money plus moved the fight over. And a lot of people like to try to say, but it was my biggest paycheck. I just, you better set whatever they give you. Stan Jonas got paid less than I did in my previous fight before that as well. So how does he get paid more to me?

And the fight bumped over. Okay. That ain't making no sense. All right. Cool. We're going to let all of that slide. We're going to let all of that slide. They came back with a, a second fight and we said, cool, we can fight.

Uh, it was right before this fight. Uh, this fight was already signed in Ashley, uh, official, but he said cool we can fight it was right before this fight this fight was already signed in Ashley official but he said we wanted you to sign a contract before this fight before the fight before the fight day and we said no we can we can we can sign a contract we could talk about the contract literally right after the fight I fight June 19th we can make it uh they can make a call we could talk to each other literally right after the fight. I fight June 19th. We can make a call. We can talk to each other literally right after the final bell. They said no. They said I'm ducking. They said this and they said that. Okay, cool. But why y'all move up literally the week of my fight? Why did y'all literally move up the day before my fight at that? That's when

the boots made the post. It was like, we'll put the fight after this. I never said no I just said can I get get down with this fight first? Sure, then we can make something happen I don't know if y'all remember David Haney and Ron Garcia supposed to run it back, but they not because he lost a role He wasn't focused on the task at hand if you remember the whole bit up to the fight. They kept they anywhere to care about Ryan versus Rolly or Devon versus Ramirez they was just going Devin versus Ryan you know already pre-determined what's gonna happen and we've seen some happen then you got Caleb Plant versus Charlo that's supposed to happen but his eyes wasn't on the prize he was focused on

Charlo instead of who was in front of him and we've seen what happened with that so when I try to do the same as focus on fight by fight, I'm in the wrong. But when everybody else do it and they lose, now they try to down talk them and this down to third. And he's just me learning from my peers. That's all I'm doing. It's the reason why I came out there two weeks earlier to Japan. What's my dude name? Cool Boy? Still, he went to the own fight week

and we've seen what happened with him and his performance. I'm pretty sure that wasn't him at his best but he didn't take the proper precautions or whatever. I did. I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do. I'm taking everything fight by fight, time by time, day by day. So we're sitting here right now, what's the day? June 23rd.

We're supposed to fight after this. We can still make that thing happen. I just want to let that be known Well, I I certainly can understand and I think that's wise the way you're operating on a fight-by-fight basis and giving that respect to your opponent After boots announced the move up to 154. I did see an interview with him where he said Doctors looked over his body stats and found that he's only operating at 30 to 40 percent of himself at 147. How do you respond to that? And let me add on the back end of that. Do you think he could have made 147 one more and fought you?

I got a question for you. I got a question for you. Pull the panel back up. There you go. I got a question for you. What does a doctor check, like what test do they run to say at 147 you not performing you only matter of fact and give you an estimate you only perform that 30 or 40 percent what do they check? I don't I don't know I never heard that before I don't think that's a urine test. Look people it sounds amazing yeah my doctor said so now it's off you a professional stated this. So it's a real deal thing that happened. Man, forget all that.

All those doctors and everything, they just like us. They be Googling stuff. They be, look, I seen it firsthand. Somebody Googled what to do in my face. So just cause they are so called professional things of that nature don't mean nothing. But also even if they're professional things that nation up past good and did all of that. What do you check? To know that you are only performing at 30 or 40 percent. I want to know I really didn't want to know what what tested they run

Do your blood say something? Oh, I don't believe you blood say anything like what how and now if you say your nutritionist said this I'll probably get you a pack. You know, they say you ain't eaten enough or something like that He didn't say his nutritionist. He said his doctor said and he gave an estimate on how much he said 30 or 40 percent How that makes sense what test did they run? I want to know Let me go to the test it. I want to know more about that too. I want to get, how good am I performing that one 147? Do I need to go up or go down? Well lately you've been performing at 147%. It seems. Let me ask you this. If Boots is gone now, there'd be two belts up for grabs. But the other title holder in this division

in the WBC is Mario Barrios, who has a fight coming up July 19th on PBC pay-per-view against 46 year old Manny Pacquiao. How do you read that fight? Uh, what are your thoughts on that? Um, that's a hard one to read simply because of course Mario Barrios is a great fighter, but also Manny Pacquiao got them calf muscles. And I know he got bricks in them gloves. So, and he a legend. So anything is still possible. I know if he land one, it's gonna do some serious damage. I mean we seen he the only one to beat the one time Keith Thurman. So we seen what he can do.

What if you do it again? So we never know. Yeah, let me see your hand your left hand Brian You got stitches, R-S-K-E-A. What happened there? Sure, I got them on both hands. That's the crazy part. Wow. Talk me through that. Sure, broke both of my hands. I gave the boxing game my life, real deals, since seven years

old. I broke literally both hands. So that's also something else I've been going through in my pro career. Also, so now as you see with my past fights or whatever, my past few fights, I've been on point because now I got both hands and I'm able to operate and able to train how I'm supposed to train. Literally at one point I couldn't do pushups how I wanted to. I couldn't hit the bag.

I couldn't hit the spar. It was a lot of stuff that I literally couldn't do because of my hand injuries. And of course, with the attitude that I got, it was like, I'm still fighting. I don't care about anything. But it built a whole lot of character. I mean, it's hard to go out there to Japan and enemy territory, not just in another state in a whole other country, and still put on a performance that I did. So it taught me a whole lot of character building.

Let me ask you about the state of American boxing. How would you describe the health of boxing in the United States? And if there is a problem, what is it? Self, that's how I describe it. Everybody's just self and I ain't even gonna say self. I'm gonna say a whole bunch of fakers. Everybody a whole bunch of characters, everybody not being who they truly are,

like boom, I'm right here doing the interview. If I get out this interview, I'm talking the exact same way, doing the exact same thing, because this is me, this is who I am. You asked me all these same questions a year later, they're gonna be about the exact same, because this is just who I am. I am who I am.

That's it. A lot of people, they seen Floyd Mayweather and they seen how he did what he did. So they try to copy and paste the same exact thing he did, but they don't realize that worked for him. That's his recipe, that's his blueprint. Let him have it. Let him bake his cake and watch him make magic.

But all these other guys, they more so forcing it? Oh, I know they're not being themselves and it's just like They are being overly disrespectful just because that's what sales fights. That's what do you know your performances what sale fights? That's what's in my book Did you are you putting people to sleep? Are you being entertaining at the end of the day? I don't care if I thought windmill or back can or slap if I put somebody to sleep y'all gonna love it. Where are you now are you still in Georgia? Yeah I'm back in Georgia now. Yeah well you're from Decatur? Yeah. What high school did you go to? Not with the MLK Martin Luther King junior high school. Okay right I went

to Marietta and Valdosta so you know you know, I know a little bit about that area. All right. Hey, how much, how long before your headlining at Nationwide Arena in Atlanta with a big fight? How long before that happens? Shoot, probably soon. I mean, I'm doing my thing, y'all see it.

So I'm going global, but now it's time to take it back a little local a little bit, you know, have a little homecoming or something. I mean, that would be a blessing. That would be good, but we shall see what's next. Well, Brian, you're the assassin to your father, Brian Norman, the assassin one, a former pro himself. He come on retirement earlier this year at 46 for a comeback fight. What is that like for your dad to be still in the game like this?

Scary that's exactly what it is. It was scary because once again, he was 45 at the time 45 and he did a push-up or nothing in like 10 15 years probably so it was very very scary, but the boy bad I see exactly where I got it from. He was out there doing his miles, everything without me telling him. He was doing his miles, hitting the bad jump rope and this, that and the third, eating right, eating on point. At the drop of a dime he was on it so I see exactly where I got all of it from and it was a joy to see. Congratulations to your pops right there, former light heavyweight and super middleweight, maybe not former anymore. Let's close with this.

We thought welterweight was a division that needed some big names. You're establishing yourself, Boots is gone, but all those young kids seem to be slowly coming up now that they're becoming grown men. The Haney's, Teofimos, Ryan Garcia's, we got Rowley making big news. If you could pick the next opponent right now, who would you pick? the big news. We got the big news. We got the big big news. If you could pi right now, who would you eyes on to continue to ma

I say besides that WBC bu fight, I say Rolly, he al it gotta be him. I mean, one of those other guys to chance when they don't even got a bill. There it is. There it is. Alright, get a belt Haney and then call Brian Norman Jr or whoever else

George George's finest, the WBL welterweight champion 28 and 0 with 22 KOs. Brian Norman Jr. It's been a pleasure to get to know you a bit. We're big fans. We can't wait to see you return man. I appreciate you boss man. Y'all keep doing y'all thing, man Thank you, Brian. They're from the champ Brian Norman

Jr. Yeah, that's what I'm BC. I gotta I need like 60 seconds Has got an emergency. I need to go attend to it. I think I can solve it very fast. I'll be right back All right Let's get back into what we were doing looking back at what we learned from the first two Canelo Crawford press conference dates. The first one in Riyadh last Thursday, yesterday in New York. I do hear what Luke said.

There were elements about it that were very force, but you are taking a fight, which is important in my opinion in all the combat sports that every once in a while you got to program to the masses. This is certainly that fight, only it's not a joke fight. It really has legitimate history at stake with what Crawford's trying to do. But there's a lot of Turkey involved. There's a lot of other elements involved. Let's show some some footage here from Thursday where Turkey's continuing this

Tom and Jerry no running threat that felt pretty serious in the moment. As I said last week, I hate Tom and Jerry's kinds of boxing. I am sure they will deliver for me smashing face and blood. And this is the boxing. I don't want to force to be having ring 12 by 12 or something like this to have something like this big fight. Smashing face and blood.

I don't know if I love that push. While I understand Turkey's basically like we can't have the debacle that we had on May 2nd and 3rd and Times Square and then Canelo versus School. And I know Canelo is just completely blaming all of that on William School. I think some fell into his lap in that regard. But this is a fight that you feel like is two of the most skilled fighters in the history of the sport, right? Two of the all time greats of this era.

They did in that same press conference ask Terrence Crawford his thoughts on that. Now, yesterday on Sunday, Terrence was kind of asked the same question, and he basically said the only run that I'm gonna be doing is upside Canelo's head. Here's how Bud fielded that though on Thursday, let's listen. His Excellency saying no more Tom and Jerry, no more running, but you're moving up to weight classes. It's not gonna be smart for you to stand there and hammer it out with this guy. So how do you kind of balance that not running, but

being elusive in fighting Canelo? However I got to fight, I'm going to win. Simple as that. I'm not going to let somebody else force me or tell me how to fight when I've been fighting my whole life. Look, I like that he said that. I know he would kind of change his tune come Sunday and say that he's going to be running up Canelo's head and he really put out there on Sunday. The idea that he's going to stand and trade with Canelo. But that's the biggest takeaway. I didn't necessarily love Turkey going so ham in this area of we need smashing blood. We need face smash. We need KO bonuses. Take that shit to MMA. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, some of the reported purses, and I think this is probably an exaggeration, but they have Canelo well above 200 million and they have Crawford at 250, 250 for Canelo, 100 for Crawford and Turkey did say this will be the biggest contract in the history of combat sports.

Yeah. And then also now you got a five K five million KO bonus. It'll give a fuck about that. Five million KO bonus. I mean, you know, people keep trying to do this bit where, oh, we're going to incentivize people with KOs. You're not going to incentivize people at this level to get out of their game plan and into a losing game plan. You know, if it works with their game plan, they'll go for the KO. If it doesn't, then they won't.

It's just as simple as that. But neither here nor there. Bud Crawford can box a lot of different ways. And I like that's just as simple as that. But neither here nor there. Bud Crawford can box a lot of different ways and I like that he's saying that as well. It's just you know what ultimately we're going to get on fight night I guess we'll have to see. But I think you know the issue for me was actually a different one. Jake Paul was like actually quite rightly pointed out if you watch how they get introduced BC they bring the fighters on first and then they brought the promoters on afterwards, which is usually

the reverse of that. So I thought I was like, yeah, welcome. Welcome to TKO. Oh dude at the Thursday press conference, they announced the fighters to come out and then Turkey took planted questions for the next 15 minutes so he can dunk on Oscar so he can threaten about the Tom and Jerry so he can do a lot of different things there. Oh, here's Jake Paul jumping in on the controversy that surrounded that pick of the two fighters last week

eating with Turkey. I have heard a lot of reports that when you're there on Turkey's dime and he calls you and he wants you to hang out in his hotel room for eight hours, that's what you do. Jake Paul tweeting, that's some goofy shit. Imagine Messi and Ronaldo grabbing dinner before a legit match against each other.

Goofy. Jake Paul, of course, back this Saturday competing against IFW. Luke, I will say on the positive here, I like the intensity Crawford brought to Sunday, I think for casual fans or hardcore ones. It reminds you that this is a real fight or this is a real fight. Yes, this could go bad for him. This also could go very well for him. What did you make of them in that face off?

Crawford looks bulked up. He looks to be the same height as Canelo. Some people were saying Canelo had those sneakers with that extra bit of height adage there, but I felt like if Thursday felt for Sunday felt like, okay, this is going to be a real fight. I got a little juicy inside. I got a little happy about that. No, you know, I, I, yeah yeah I like that there is some degree of animosity between them

and a little bit of dismissiveness from Canelo actually is irritating but in a good way right but I still just can't get past how much of it is all manufactured you know what I mean like and he also like you know I listen I mean it's just who cares anymore but the reality is you know this is not who Canelo should be fighting I'm taking it don't get me wrong I'm, it's just who cares anymore. But the reality is, you know, this is not who Canelo should be fighting. I'm, I'm taking it. Don't get me wrong. I'm taking it, but it's supposed to be David Benavides or somebody else. Like it's supposed to be somebody of a similar size.

And like, I just want everyone to remember, like, like, excuse me. Um, Crawford's coming up three at well two at this point, but three weight classes really. And you know, so again, this is why to me, BC,. I'm like sometimes the pieces of this whole thing don't fit together individually. I like what you're pointing out II. agree. It's just I don't know to me. I'm just I haven't I haven't it's not a natural rivalry and so for that reason, it's not a natural feeling that I'm getting, but I don't want

to be just negative Nancy all the time and in fact, that'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy some of these other theatrics as well. All right, let me get your final take on this final piece of two quick videos here. Here's Turkey who was upset at a few things when he sat down with the microphone. In fact, he called them out for the first question by the media was asked in another language. And Turkey jumped in and was like, no, no, no, get them out of there. We want international media only speaking of Americans. Here's Turkey opening the pressure let's listen to this

Turkey the floor is yours sir I don't know why they put me here I want to be in the side of Crawford is that a joke I don't know because we have one more piece of footage of Canelo kind of bringing that back up later in the press conference. And I know Turkeys in your corner. I promise you. But look, look, it's going to be very difficult. He's going to be so mad that day. Believe me. I also have this quote. I have this quote. I missed it. I had it up here. They just released that press. Excuse me, they just released that podcast with like Tom Brady and Dana and Shaq and the Camilla and Crawford all them. I think turkeys in it too. You know, it's fucking hilarious. But in it, he was like, you know, Uncle Turkey, that's how Canelo in

talking to Crawford like, because I know Uncle Turkey took care of you. I know he's your guy, but blah, blah, blah, blah. So there's a little bit of this happening. But again, you know, yeah, it's cool. It's fine. It's all right. It's like he also put out a weird new podcast where him Coppager and Rick Reno sit in a hotel room and talk about the upcoming next cards. It was kind of weird, but there we go. You'll see that fight September 13th at Allegia Stadium. Dana White was in full force on Sunday along with Max Kellerman. So things are moving quickly. Our final segment before we get into that,

she at looks ahead at what's coming this weekend. International fight week. Ilia Traporia returns this time at one five five for the vacant title against Charles Olvera headlining UFC three 17. And this story lines look ahead on the road to UFC three 17 is brought to you by total wireless. The official wireless provider of UFC, Get unlimited data that won't slow you down. Luke, with UFC's annual summer extravaganza upon us, which storyline has you the most intrigued heading into 317? Oh, this has to be for me. I mean, listen, we knew this ahead of time, but it honestly feels like the retirement, however long it lasts of John Jones, really kind of adds to it, which is, you know what the sport needs?

The sport needs a hero. Sport needs a breakout star. The sport needs something that just keeps going and rising and catches our attention. Frankly, after all that's happened, June's been a better month than some of the other months this year, for sure, but it needs a palate cleanser and I feel like we've been talking about you know Can Ilya fight at 55 and get a belt and what I mean forget a title in two different weight classes? But let's talk about another reality here or at least a potential reality. I should say one of the things that we are

Considering at this moment. What if he goes in there and not only just beats Olivera but does it in the most dramatic way and has an insane call out of Islam Makachev. It's so far on the biggest card of the year what could end up being the entire biggest card of the year International Fight Week. To me it's not just the ascendancy a potential ascendancy I should say of Ilya Tupori because of course if Charles Olivera wins this is all for naught and by the way if Charles Olivera wins and gets back into the championship BC I think he's got a claim along with BJ Islam and Habib like in that upper level You know, maybe ahead of Frankie maybe ahead of some of the other champions in this weight class. That's another one

but the one I'm focusing in on is Turning Ilya Tupori into a bonafide new face of the organization. Can he do that by becoming a second champion, by putting it on Charles Oliveira? Can he seize this moment at a time when they are desperate for someone to be able to do that? Sean O'Malley just losing a second time against Marab. And Marab is well liked, but he's not a breakout pay-per-view star. Ilja Toporia has the capability to become that at the time when the company needs it

most. I think honestly BC, the reality is in certain ways the fans almost win either way. Charles reclaiming the title has a significant amount of value. Ilya becoming the new person to become a winner title in two weight classes has significant value. Ilya becoming the new person to become a title in two weight classes has significant value, but one man has the ability to put the sport on his back and take it to new heights if he can win. And that one is Ilya Toporia. I'm gonna be watching closely for many things,

including that one. Yeah, you're 100% right. And I really, I do like this card. I really do. I am excited about it. We do get you know a flyway title in that co main event, which I think is absolutely fantastic. We do get a few things that we're looking forward to but nothing's bigger right now than to pour yet it adds the it ups the ante with

John Jones walking away. Conor McGregor not coming through that door and Luke I think connected to that Islam fight. I think it's in the UFC's best interest to play into that. We kind of said, as you intimated, that like, there is a scenario here that Ilya wins by stoppage and then looks to go directly to a new division. Here's Ilya, we have sound, at a press conference in the past, we kind of doubling down on that idea. If Islam becomes the World of War champion,

for sure I'm gonna push for that shot also. And I will move to the World of War champion. For sure, I'm gonna push for that shot also. And I will move to the World of War division. Just a reminder, this is the number one and two pound for pound fighters in the world, Mahachev and Ilya. They're not fighting each other. They could have to some degree. It didn't happen.

But Luke, I think the story here is if this guy gets it done and you're this promotion, you go all in, even if it's a 12 month build, you go all in on this is the super fight that fans should be fired up about. It's not bringing in an old guy, it's not doing, oh, these are two guys in their absolute prime. They don't necessarily like each other.

They're the two best fighters in the world. Let's go, let's go in that regard. And imagine if Doe Bronx spoils it, then we got another wrinkle in there. That's right, if Doe Bronx spoils it then we got another wrinkle in there. That's right if Doe Bronx spoils it then it's a whole different kind of conversation. You know I think it'd be actually worse for the sport if he does but it still carries I think a significant amount of value for Olivera and sentimentality for the fans but huge stakes in this main event dude, huge huge stakes dude the sport needs a hero and it's like I've said this before oh but

he beat all my other heroes that's how you become a hero you destroy all the old ones so that they can't even be your hero anymore they force you to become their here you to free them to be your hero by virtue of their achievements if they're high enough and you can only work if they're the highest level it doesn't work any other level but if you can actually beat all these guys you take away Everything that they offer the fans and you replace it and that's just something I've seen before Will we see it on Saturday? I don't know but that's on the line Final bit of sound before we get to the shit this jumped off of me actually pulled it out of the have you seen the shit?

Kevin I only sat down with Ilya to poria and he had nothing nice to say about Islam Mahachev at all. Actually, I'm going to say something that I think that it's going to be even bigger, me against Paris than me against Islam. Because the one that no one gives a fuck about him, that's Islam. No one gives a fuck Even in in dagestan when he's fighting the people goes to sleep and they watch his fight in the morning Hmm So so you think even at home that he's not is an attraction even at home who gives a fuck about islam? Islam he doesn't even know how to pronounce two words

Hmm interesting Islam Islam. He doesn't even know how to pronounce two words mmm interest Look I gotta say what started as just a lustful boner for you. This is the hero we need right now We need this fight. Let's go. It's throbbing right now metaphorically BC metaphorically. It's throbbing Disgusting in that regard a very good card top to bottom check us out this Thursday 12 noon a very good card top to bottom. Check us out this Thursday, 12 noon Eastern time as morning combat gives you a UFC 317 pregame preview with our good friend Chuck Mindenhall live from the Meadowlark studios in New York.

Can't wait. It's all Toporia Olivera here. We're gonna find out who's the real king at the one five five. We're skipping DMS from dogs here running a little bit late. Just real quick, Luke, real quick on this. Brian Norman Jr. Very refreshing saying I would have fought boots for career high money, but let me get through my first fight.

You have any fear that he only is talking about Patty talking about Islam? Is he talking about dope Bronx too? Do I have a fear? A little one, a little one. I would be lying if I said I had no fear. I do have some. However, I also the you know my real feeling is the big one my big feeling is he's right about himself and what he's about to do. And, you know, he's going to prove it. And these are going to be irrelevant questions come Sunday, but I'd also be lying if I said, you know,

Oh, well, it's just Charles deBron's like this is some fucking scrub or something. You like it ain't it ain't you know, and Ilya You know a little a little is the answer a little alright a little alright Morning, come in at gmail.com where you can reach out to the show one final reminder Let's get going for not this Friday's fan. I shit five times yesterday. All right. Well, speaking of shit, I compiled a lot of weird videos to get Luke to make weird reactions. This one's called BC's. Well, Luke, that's the true thing that happened, BC. I mean, at first it was logs and then it was piles and either way it was a lot. At what point are we just this our whole this whole segment is just pictures of your feces.

It's incredible. Hey, UFC was in Azerbaijan. Here is Marabdavolis really losing his shit for teammate Nazim Sadikov after that KO TKO of Nicholas Mota. How about that pop, dude, right? Hey, listen, Marab is a happy guy. I wouldn't want to change it for anything. Speaking of Nazim Sadakoff, Luke, he got the double bonus after that performance and that

finish of Mota. Here is him in his hotel room losing his shit. You ready? Whoa, whoa. The USC just called my phone. You got a hundred K bonus. Ah, yes.

Ah, Open the door, open the door. Police, police. Yo, I just hit a hundred K. No way. I just hit a hundred K. You got the police. I just hit 100K. Luke, was that celebration similar to you after the fifth

dump or what? Mine was more of the Shawshank Redemption one. You know, we're you're just in the rain but yeah, it's pretty similar. Good for him, man. I mean, it's going to do him some good. Absolutely. And how about on Saturday, Flyweight Tagir Ulan Bekov who took took a three round unanimous decision over Azat Maxim check out his all star corner. We're talking about Umar Islam Habib that have his back Luke. If you ever if we ever do like a media MMA tournament imagine having this this corner.

You know what I mean? Maybe dropping coach Latorre. This is it. This is as good as it gets. That is the dream team, brother. Indeed. And he did get the win. All right, keep going here.

There are MMA fighters living it up in the wild, Luke. One of them is friend of the program, Long Island zone, Matt Favola on the boat, ripping a blunt here. Is that a blunt or a cigar? I can't, Noseeda, can you give us a- It's a cigar. A defendant- If I if I know steamroller. That's a blunt Show it again

It's got a cigar seal on it Looks like it might be a pre-roll. I don't know. It's hard to tell I mean, I guess it could be a pre-roll, but that's a huge-ass pre-roll I mean, I just eat in a bigger monitor on the replay and you're right It does look like a cigar now that I'm looking at it. I did just eat in a bigger monitor on the replay and you're right it does look like a cigar now that I'm looking at it. You too are incompetent, that's okay. Also in the wild is Justin Gaethje at the Fanatics Fest over the weekend.

Here's his WWE entrance. Oh. Was it me or he had some big ass shoes on? I don't know if I picked up on that but uh did you hear Canelo when they asked him, hey, you want to promote this fight? Make some WWE skits. He's like, yeah, we're talking about it. I

don't know if I need this Luke. I don't know if I need that. That's just me talking. Yeah. So, you know, there's a certain audience for it. Iron sharpened iron at Fanatics Fest. Check out these two heavy hitters, Poetan and Jay-Z, Luke.

That's right. With the Tims. Look at Jay-Z. He's still wearing Tims, a billion dollars later. Impressive. Two other very famous people came together to rub dollars. Here's Turkey Alashik and LeBron James. Yeah, they are there together. That's a true thing.

There we go. And also a fighter in the wild was TJ Dillashaw and a scooter in which he took the L here look. Oh Man try to miss that shoulder even more people. What are we doing here? I hope he didn't damage the Jackson chain that he was wearing there look that would have been something is it on or just Jackson They call it Jackson, but it looks very Jackson. Jackson. Yeah, there you go. Jackson the Jacker. It's time for your car crashes of the week. Luke, check out this ejection. Sorry, I'm on the block, man. Sorry, I read the ball. When they don't respect your entrance?

Was that again? Yeah, that was dancing. There was some dancing going on. It ended in a fight. That was weird. All right, hey, Luke, tell me if this is lame or cool. Here's UFC featherweight Bogdan Grab showing off his new license plate.

I thought a while about this to do the license plate before I was in the UFC just with my name, but I was like, nah, it's too much. But after I got into the UFC, I was like, okay, now I have to do it. I have to represent the UFC. So I am very, very proud that I'm here to everybody that is supporting me. a big thank you. Thank you, Austria. Thank you, Romania. And thank you to the whole. Look, UFC one is his license plate. That feels very, um, he, he's not going to be a guy that complains about fighter pay. I have a feeling. All right. All right. Uh, now it's time for your car crashes of the week. Luke, let's see if this makes you uncomfortable. Bro, are you showing me a crashes now? What are we doing?

That was a chair and a and a person on it. You see, are you fucking blind? That was a computer generated fucking chasing. I don't know, Luke. I was you're showing a person on it. You see, are you **** blind? That was AI computer generated **** chasing. I don't know, Luke. I was into it. You're showing me video game highlights basically. Sorry,

Luke. I didn't mean to offend you on this on this Monday morning. Alright, let's continue on with our car crashes of the week. This one ain't AI, Luke. Ah, Marica. Alright, let's keep it going. That was better.

That one I liked. Watch this car closely here. Oh! He hit an airplane. You see that shit? How often does that happen? Holy fuck. Bro, these Cessnas and shit that people get in? Yeah. You see that shit how often does that happen? Holy fuck?

Bro these Cessnas and shit that people get in yeah, I don't know about that man Everyone was okay in the end, but that was an airplane car crash there You know did you see the people in the hot air balloon in Brazil die I? Did that was I'm not gonna put it in this show There's someone who fell out of the thing ahead of time and then just plunge to his death. Are you sure that that was GTA video game? I think that first car crash was legit. Luke. Oh, okay. Long Island. Luke. The first one he showed is clearly AI. Is it not? I, you know, to be honest, I didn't think anything of it until you said that Luke. And then I was like, yeah, it does look really fake.

Now that you say it. Holy Dick and let's skip ahead to BKFC Texas right here. Luke, did you see this face off between Jessica? I and Maria Agapola, Agapola gentlemen, two big name debuts in the women's flyweight division, Jessica, I taking on Maria. the women's flyweight division. Jessica I taking on Maria. All right, Luke, right? There's a good development.

We don't mean this is perfect for MMA fans, combat sports fans. You get ass and two women kissing. That is what they're there for. I would win a decision in her debut and now they're setting her up to fight Christine for Raya for the title. Also, Also, Andre Olovski won his debut. They're setting him up to fight Ben Rothwell in a trilogy for the title, but here's Jessica Ive flexing on stage, Luke. Some people thought, some people thought

PEDS, but that, you know, that's impressive, right? Dice to the socks. I'll admit. All right. Luke, if you think the UFC's octagon is overrun with ads, check out MMA in Mexico. Let's get your thoughts on this. Yeah. I mean, amigos, what are we doing here? This is a bit much. Yeah, indeed. All right.

T-shirts of the week time, Luke. Let's get your thoughts on these. Hooker with a penis. Okay. That's a lot for this guy. That's he looks very happy though to be fair. Uh let's go to the next gentleman. Eat your girl out or I will. You know what? I don't think he's much of a threat in that regard but I did the shirt and

finally, Luke, let's see if you own this one. I want to count the wrinkles on your stink star. Okay. Well, this is a disgusting human who should be executed and then he lost MK Jeopardy as well. Luke. All right. Yeah. There you go. Hey, Luke, there's a new pro wrestling finishing move off the top rope. Let's get your thoughts on it. I think that's called the Izzy, right? Yeah. There you go. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. He just wanks on you and then calls it a day. That's sick. Luke, I know it's not Thanksgiving, but I'm grateful for a lot of things.

Let's watch this. What are you grateful for today? Oh, my massive ****. You know, okay. He should have said being unemployed, because that's what he's more happy about. Does it turn you on when chicks get flatulent? Luke, why are we even talking about this? I mean, come on. I'm going to get you.

She's responsible for the stewardship of children. I think so. I think so. I think Child Protective Services should take them away. It's time to have our cake and eat it too. Your favorite person's back. Only she's the yeah. Yeah. Just eat that remote. You

absolutely insane creature from another dimension. She do. This is our two favorite things. Weird cake lady for France. Let me guess she's going to eat the video game too. Right. Cause why would the, why would that be normal? Why would this be absolutely insane creature from the black lagoon? Go back to where you came from.

You horrible alien monster. Okay. It was aggressive. Let's go to some cake and elder abuse combos. Granny holds still. Got you, bitch! Yeah, she got you, Luke. She did get you, right? I mean, that's what's going on here. Wow, this might be my worst batch ever. Here, okay. Hey.

Her life expectancy is Thursday and it's deserved. Caught in the act here, Luke. Watch this bouncer. Excuse me sir, are you scratching your ass in public? No, are you crazy? Get out of here. Get out. What, I just saw you scratching your ass. Oh. You're crazy. Get out! What? I just saw you scratching your ass. Bro!

You're crazy! Get out! Okay, the retching was hilarious. That was good. That was your best one yet. That was great. Alright, alright. Hey look, you ever hear of a Tekken master before? ever heard of a Tekken master before? No, it'd be just suffocation, right? Especially with the fact he has moves that can evade so well in that close trade, like up or to the back. Kempel. The back's a blow. Yeah. Yeah.

That was a great example. But what it is is as well, he's able to be aggressive. Uh, Luke, it looks like he was also a world-class tech in player. Yes. It looks like he was hiding his, his play. So the opponent couldn't see what he was pressing, but it, it definitely looked like he was just rocking out. He was masturbating.

Let's just say what it was. He was joking off. We got two more for you. We know how much you love medieval Renaissance fairs and Riz. Why don't we combine those two as well? Here we go. Excuse me. Wow.

I really love your style. What's your name? Oh, thank you. I'm Ella. Hi, Ella. Are you like a mind goblin or something? What's the mind goblin? Mind goblin D is nuts, bitch. Oh, Jesus Christ. I texted her. I texted a friend of mine today. I was like, have you heard of the band Imagine Dragons? And they're like, yeah, it's like

imagine dragging these balls across your mouth. I'm not too, I'm not too good for it. I'm not too good for it. And the stabbing was also a nice touch too. Yes. All right. This is, if you go to the Renaissance festival, which I'm going to have to do because to key wants to go now, she saw an ad for video of it, please for this show's purpose, did I tell you what took you did to my wife the other day?

No. First of all, my wife says, hey, we need to go because I have to go to the bathroom. And my wife and took you sister, I want to take hold it. Just tells her to hold it. And then my wife was like, get on your feet. We're leaving. Took he gave her the throat slash.

Took he gave my wife the throat slash. And I was like, okay, we have to have an intervention here. What is what is happening in this kind of part? This is, this is on, this is unacceptable. That's, that's wild. Well, Luke, I got one have an intervention here. What is what is happening in this kind of part? This is this is on is unacceptable. That's that's wild. Well, Luke, I got one more video for you and I don't think I'm going to get a good grade this week, but this last one combines your two favorite things flatulence and sweet Caroline sweet Caroline.

That is the song. That's the original. Everything else is a cover of this song. We're going to get copyright struck for that. That was Mr. Methane, the flatulent singer and superhero. Thank you very much. He also, him and Cake Lady should also be shot into the sun. Can we just be honest about that? I've got to work on, you know, I'm going to start DMing Cake Lady and see if she speaks English and she's willing to come on here because this will be The most epic piece of television. I will I will verbally abuse her

Okay If she ever has a bit where she cuts a dong in half, but it turns out all it's just cake Then we got to bring it out on this show cut a dog in half and it's just gonna be a smaller dong I mean, it's gonna be the world's worst bit ever, you know what I'm saying? Thank you to Brian Norman Norman Jr. The WBO welterweight champion for joining us today. Thank you to Long Island Luke on the ones and twos. Long Island. What can we expect from you in the future? Uh what can your girl

expect? I'll be I'll be dropping uh UFC 317 Bet Breakdown today. Remember, we went perfect last week. So, tune in main card minute. Appreciate y'all. Alright. Alright. Uh tune in this Thursday 12 noon eastern time as Cuervo presents morning combat UFC 317 pregame preview LT BC Chuck Mindenhall. Enough said. Enough said right there. All right. Uh Luke Thomas we had a long but I think uh victorious show for the people. We do what we do. We did what we did. I'm happy that the fans were here thank you all so much oh yeah I hope that pussy that pussy's beating you up how about that wow that's the

most action I've got in that category in a long time but um there we go okay yeah you got to put that I want to see a highlight of that cat smacking your shit He doesn't like to be like Controlled anymore. He's you know, he's he's a teenager. I think morning combat dot shop for all your merch needs Yeah Right, I gotta pick to get from from her first day of summer camp. Well tell her I said this Luke Bro, she gave my wife the throat slash. I couldn't fucking believe it. I was like we are raising a monster. A beautiful monster. But a wonderful monster. We'll see you guys Thursday. No show this Friday but a big week.

Get fired up. UFC 317 is here. Good. Be careful out there. It's hot. There's a war going on. Take care of yourselves. I mean look it's like a feels like of like 105 today in Connecticut. Yeah, it's going to be tough. Stay cool. Stay cool. Dirtbags. For Luke Thomas, Luke Noceda and your boy BC, we love you. We out of here. Thank you so much.

Good stuff. Thank you. This is an iHeart Podcast.