MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Jon Jones Teases Retirement & Ranking the Best Fights From the NEW UFC Summer Calendar

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell are back to discuss Jon Jones' possible retirement, the UFC summer calendar, BKFC and more! Plus, a special edition of Over/Under, followed by MK Jeopardy!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Oh Oh, yeah, get yourself rip roaring and ready to go fire it up. It's Friday, May 23rd, 2025. You've stumbled upon skits, spits and all that. And in between it's morning combat, the best damn combat sports show they ever put together. I know what you're saying. It's Friday. I ain't got shit to do. You might as well get high, get fired up, get ready. I'm Brian Campbell, the BBC with that BDE from the suburbs of CT. And the man next to me represents DC. He's a DB. Uh, all right. He's an MF for Hey, it's Luke Thomas.

Luke, are you nearly as excited as I am entering a weekend with no combat pretty much at all whatsoever. Yeah, I'm excited to not pay attention to this uh rancid industry for a weekend. Yes. Wow. Just like that. Alright. Alright. Great. Great to hear. I mean, Luke, would you say that today with not a ton going on in the world of combat sports that maybe just maybe we're turning back the clock and having some old-school MK fun today. I think that is a reasonably fair assessment yes indeed. All right all right thank you

very much folks today we have a couple topics of what's been going on in the news cycle maybe the last time we'll talk about John Jones on this show ever again then we will play over, over, under. We haven't done that BS in a while. What a, what a great time to fill minutes, but the real show closer, if you will, is BC versus LT one-on-one in a game of MK Jeopardy. And let me bring in the third member of our team,

the producer, director, bong enthusiast, and trivia task master for today. One Luke no Sita of the main card minute and Aussie ball bags everywhere. Luke, tell the fine people what BC and LT are going to play for today. You guys are playing for the loser has to buy or sorry, the winner has to buy the loser a terrible t-shirt and they are going to wear it on Tuesday's episode. So the loser is going to be wearing. No, no, no. I pregame preview. Oh, a pregame preview. Excuse me. I thought it was 316 BC LT. We're

talking about bronze and we're talking about Wednesday, June 4th. So mark your calendars there. I mean, look, could you imagine rolling up in a shirt like this to pregame preview? I mean, I don't think you can, right? I really don't. I really, I really, yeah. Luke just rethought the future of his life. That's great. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. We did sign that contract in blood and other fluids there. So there you go. All right. Am I, am I alone here? Luke, are you in this show? Are you here?

I'm in the show. All right. I saw you by the way, on that Dylan Klepper comedy central special. Well done. Luke. You mean Jordan Klepper? Yeah. One of those two Cleppers, wherever they can. Yeah. All right. Look, are you alive today? What is going on inside your dome? I am alive today. I actually, if you can believe this, I had a dream last night for the first time in months, I

think. So I actually slept like really well. Don't dream kids. Yeah, it may not come true, but dream if you can, right? Dream. They don't. Your dreams are an illusion, which is why chasing them is stupid, but okay. Alright, would you have chased Amy in the late 90s as well? She was pretty hot in that movie. Not my type, but I mean she was cute, but not my type, not my type. Alright, so shout out to the the, what's that guy's name

in his movie franchises. You know, that Kevin, Kevin Smith. There it is. There it is. Luke nailed it. Lucas from the nineties. He represents the nineties. My name is your boy BC.

You can follow us by the way on these social channels below and we would love it. Can I ask you a question? Please. It's a loose MK Friday, right? Really loose pants are optional. So for the for the first time in like, I don't know how long. I mean, you know, maybe since the like I saw it in the 80s or something.

I rewatched the original alien, the Sigourney Weaver, the original one. Yeah, Sigourney Sigourney. Yeah. Sigourney for Sigourney is B.C. That's not this guy. Nope. Nope, yeah. Sigourney for Sigourney is BC. That's not this guy. Nope, nope. Okay. Hold on just a second. What was the last time you saw that movie and did you watch it on HD television?

No, no. Last time was like on HBO in 1989 or something. Okay, okay. Whatever it came out. What was it? Same with me. It had been so long, right? So I rewatched the original on my, I a reasonably new TV like about a year or so old,

okay? I cannot overstate to you how good that movie is, like you know it's good, but then when you watch the level of craftsmanship and thought and imagination that goes into it, I had people being mad at me because like once I saw that and then I kind of rewatched Alien Romulus again, I saw that and then I kind of rewatched Alien Romulus again and I was like, dude, that movie sucks ass. Like Alien Romulus is butt cheeks. I mean, I don't know. I wouldn't watch something like that, Luke. Well, okay. But here's my point. The original movie came out the year I was fucking born. All right. So it's an old ass movie and I could not believe how well it held up. If you have an original that good, all the other ones that come after it, not always, but typically, especially as the further you get down the road, they're just like cheap derivative bullshit, right?

Yeah. Same thing about the UFC. I love the Zufa era, but this TKO is the worst, right? All right. I mean, you're shoe hoarding in some nonsense, but I don't know. People were coming after me in my chat yesterday and I'm just like, no, you're wrong. You gotta go see the original on a nice television and then tell me the subsequent ones. Again, aliens, or aliens, okay, maybe a little bit different, but like, you know, alien fucking Romulus.

I mean, dude, you have to be sad and out of ideas with what to do with your afternoon to think that's a good movie. Well we were sad and out of ideas what to do with this afternoon Luke but we have to round and put together a show just the same. I will say is it the same feeling when I watch, thank you, when I watch Dune 1 & 2 and I'm like man F that phony stealer George Lucas. This is the real Star Wars. Not the original Dune. Not like the- No, well not the 84 one, no. Yeah.

Well, I mean, cause the new one is a new movie. So it's hard to be the same thing. I'm talking about something that like, dude, it's hard to watch a movie from the seventies and be like, oh, this is something I can enjoy in 2025. It's not often that that happens. And I admit that there's a lot of those movies. I'm just like, yeah, I can't, I can't with this shit. Dude, that one I, I'm please, please take the Pepsi challenge.

It's on HBO max. Go see it. I'm telling you that movie holds up in a way that will shock you. It is very good. All right. All right. You can also check out my Eddie Herndon interview on the Brian Campbell experience holds up very well.

There's our social handles below. And a reminder, uh, if you haven't liked the show on YouTube or told a friend or subscribed yourself, please help us help you help us. If you know what I mean, right? Or nice, a nice reach around for a friend, right? I mean, that's the least we can ask for in this climate, right? Luke, right? You know what I'm saying? I mean, I'm not, I'm not, if I lose on Jeopardy today, I'm not going to jack you off. I'm not, that's not right. All right. But, uh, man, if I can only get Pennington James t-shirts made up fast enough for this pregame preview, I can't wait to see, uh, what happens right there. Oh yeah. All right. We do have a show for you. Oh, no Cedar. What do you

got? How's your life bro? Today's F it Friday. All right. What's F it. So it's fucking Friday. What do you got for us? I'd fuck it, man. I don't know. I'm hyped for MK Jeopardy later. That's all I got to say. It's going to be a fun one. So everyone tune in for that. Let's get through these topics right away. Let's go. Okay. And no, by the way, no fan subs or D I'm sorry, or dead wrongs today. We didn't get enough to really have a full segment. So why don't you hit up morningcombat.gmail.com and make Fridays great again in this show. Thank you so much. It's called MAFA. Thank you.

Yeah. Or MAFAGA. Yes, MAFGA. Yes. All right. I don't know where I'm going here. Hey, let's go to topic number one. Let's start off the show proper.

I said it, it's the last time we're talking about it. Mark your calendars. May 23rd, 2025 is the day morning combat has had enough. Of what? For me, chicks with tattoos, but that's another topic for another day. What I'm really talking about is all things Jones Aspinall. What the hell are we doing?

We got silence from the UFC. And if you've been following John's journey in Thailand, filming this Russian MMA reality show with Nate Diaz, more to come on that. You'll find out that it doesn't seem like Johnny Boy wants it either. So Luke, let's face it, this fight is a soap opera that we just want to be over. It's annoying. It's held up everybody's career.

So from the UFC silence to its refusal to strip John to Johnny meets own constant disinterest There's really not a lot to love here or even if they told you tomorrow you're getting the fight I think there's been enough damage done So based upon John's latest tweet which came out two days ago and a lot of people are talking about it We'll play it in two seconds. I want you to answer this question Is there any reason left to believe that Jones Aspinall actually happens in 2025? And what really would be the fallout here if this thing falls apart? Let's go to Jones's tweet first in which fans were talking about how does it feel to be retired? And John said, I don't

know if I want to call it retired. I feel like I'm always having an ability to pop out and show them. I've had many breaks throughout my career. Yeah, you have. You've been stripped to your title three times. John would go on to say, my identity outside of fighting is well intact. I'm genuinely enjoying life. I'm growing in different ways. Luke, people don't want to hear us talk about this today, but is this, does that tweet the nail in the coffin that that ends this debate that it might happen? Are you with me at the end of your rope? Like what is going to be the scar if this fight doesn't happen to close out this year? None of you are at the end of your rope. You're all lying. You know, you are, you know, you're

frustrated. I'm frustrated. You're for everyone's frustrated, which is probably part of what John Jones enjoys out of all of this, if we're just being honest, but you're not at the end of your rope because you can't be. The thing that to me stands out about all of this is, and I've seen some people suggest that like this was the plan all along, which it obviously is not. I mean, it's just a ridiculous statement to make, but the reality is we've got the main events now for June, July, and August, September. It looks like it's going to be obviously UFC Noche, which is going to have Volkanovsky probably against your Rodriguez, which is its own kind of issue.

Oh God. We'll get to that shortly. I know. If you go back and you watch the first fight, dude, Volkanovsky beats him literally everywhere, everywhere. Like it's, and then knocks him out. He knocked him him out yeah yeah and beat him up on the ground took him down at will I mean just a complete like manhandling but the point I'm trying to make is so that's done October we don't have anything and obviously November

they're gonna go back to Madison Square Garden we're at the point now where Tom Aspinall hasn't fought in over a year. He hasn't fought once in 2025. But November is the Alamo. That's the Alamo. We are now retreated to the point where we're back in November waiting to see what happens and they still have a negotiating window between now and whenever they need to

to make that announcement. Now I wanna be clear, that is no guarantee that the fight gets made, but it's also not a place where we can affirmatively declare that it can't or it won't happen to the point that you had raised that this is the end, people are at the end of the rope. You're not at the end of the rope because you know there is still time

to make the fight happen. What I will say, BC, is not that. What I will say is it is so unusual in this era to watch a single fighter over a single bout make the UFC look so weak. They are they look absolutely in the palm of John's hand here. And again, partly that might be merely appearances and that the reality is a little bit more murky between them, but that is the perception. The perception is if they if they had a more filled out roster and if pay-per-view buys were in a different place and if there wasn't a general malaise about this such that they needed or they excuse me such that they didn't need so clearly one particular fight to

be made, they probably would have moved on. And, you know, if John came back around, they would have just made it at a later time. It doesn't preclude them from making it later. But of course, they don't want to strip him because they need that title unification in part to sell the bout because people will know who John is. Much of the more casual fan base won't necessarily know who Tom is. It's a pretty important ingredient. It's a historical marker. But because they have such a necessity,

an unusual necessity, and BC we should not forget, they're also in a place where they're trying to renegotiate a new television deal, which there is again some rumoring, not reporting, but rumoring to suggest that Turkey's exploits may have blown that up with Netflix. The UFC is being made to look weak here and I cannot believe I'm saying that, but I don't know what other conclusion you can possibly draw from one guy, not really declaring he's done and kind of stringing everyone else along,

you, me, and the UFC included. It's an unusual time. Well, everyone loses here and I do agree slightly with what you said on Monday show that if they make this in November, everybody will shut up. They won't talk about how long it took. We finally got it. But John's making a mockery of the process. All of us for carrying this much and the UFC in general with these tweets and again, you know, if it's only John's playing 4D chess BC wake up. This is still a negotiation. Then I guess it's part of it, but no seat.

If you could throw up the strip tweet, uh, you know, a fan saying, enjoy your last days as being champ, I think we talked about this on Monday, but look at John saying stripped, LOL. Do I come across as the type of person who cares about things like that? He's basically saying to the UFC, like, go ahead, strip me already. But maybe you're right. It does come down to leverage. He's basically saying to the UFC like, go ahead, strip me already. But maybe you're right. It does come down to leverage. He's exercising it.

There's a rare spot where he has it because the UFC look at how much they scrambled to fill every pay-per-view main event date of late, it seems to get the gate that they're hoping to in MSG. They're going to probably need John at this point, unless they load that card up and they don't really do that anymore. So I hope this is the last time we're talking about it. But like it's fair to say, I mean, you say we're not at the end of our rope because we, we would accept this in November. I mean, it's literally at the point where everybody looks horrible, including

us for continuing to lead another show about this dead topic that I don't even know what to say. It's not a dead topic. That's the problem. Can we all just give up? I mean, look, there's people being affected by this like Aspinall's arc. Can we watch a video quickly where Aspinall is going to tell Mighty Mouse the ways in which this whole thing's actually affecting. Now I've been almost a year inactive with no prospects of anything apart from weight. Yeah. So now is actually a little bit more of a tricky time for me mentally

than it was then and that it's kind of difficult like mentally to be like and but this is the this is the fight against John Jones like not the fight is another thing. Yeah. This is the tricky bit where I really have to stay switched on stay motivated and I'm trying my best. I'm sure it's tough sometimes especially but you know what again? I'm really lucky with the team and stuff is that we're in a spot now where guys come to me when they've got a fight coming Up yeah, so like they're in training camp because we have international guys coming as well Yeah, we have like a couple of Croatian guys We have a couple of guys coming from you know all different places

And they're coming to me when they're in training camp and I'm like look if I ain't on the ball They're gonna they're gonna kick me out So you're getting a different looks you're staying fresh Yeah, so like I obviously don't want to be getting beat up in the gym all the time So like I want I've got to stay on beat up in the gym all the time. So like I want to, I've got to stay on the ball in the gym, even though I've not going to fight myself, which is again, a huge advantage that I've got. So look, he would go on to say about sort of like the mental boulder that he's carrying from not knowing what the UFC is going to do next or what John's going to do next. This ain't fair

to anybody. And look, the reality is this is the consolation fight to the real era defining super fight that we should have had, which is Jones and Gano. And I don't mean to like disparage Jones, Aspinal. It still means a whole hell of a lot, but it's the consolation prize to that. And we still don't have it. And we can complain about no Che and we can complain about this or that. I love the fights that are main eventing in the summer. And we got a segment coming up where we're going to talk about it. But you've got Aspinal, shit out of luck.

You've got Jalton Almeida telling MMA fighting that he would move down to 205 if they can promise him a title shot against Anklelayev because he can't see where his path to the top is since Aspinal is idle. I mean, this does matter at the end of the day, right? They are fucking up here as a promotion. What would you have them do? Draw the line in the sand. Come out tomorrow and say, look, so everyone said, Oh, let me finish it. They should come out and say, we want to get to the end of this like you do. So John Jones, you have three days to either accept our offer. That's it. And then you've got to move on UFC. People say this stuff without thinking it through. Tell me why they haven't done it then.

Because they believe and you can argue that they're right, that if they still make that fight in what became their intended date, which seems to be MSG, then in their mind, we still get the record gate. All the trains go back on schedule. It's John Jones. We're talking about, uh, let's just keep moving like they're, but they're, I don't think that's right. I don't think that's right. They would not let themselves look exposed like this if they, if they could flip a switch and be like, well, let's just move on. And what we really lose is, I mean, how much money would you make from John versus Tom? Right? Let's, let's actually gain this out a little bit. What is it? Like a million paper, paper view buys you could sell. Maybe, maybe that's at the high end, but let's,

let's, let's even say it's that, you know, so you're talking about what? Like 80 million just on pay per view sales alone. Let's say another 20 million at the gates. You're talking about a hundred million. Now that's nothing to sneeze at, but this is an organization whose profits already went up year over year for the first quarter of nearly 20% already. I'm not here to say that 100 million is anything they could sneeze at, but I don't really think that that's quite right. I think that this is they see it. I think if it was as simple as just moving on and there'd be smaller costs to it, I think they would have done it. I think they see this as a little bit more existential, to be perfectly honest with you.

I think that they- So what's the stain if they don't do it in your eyes? What would be the lasting imprint? Would that turn off a third of this fan base? I mean, what would it do? If you're the UFC, I mean, just think about it. If you're in the UFC's position, what would you do about it?

And I don't mean I'd tell John Jones to go fuck himself. Yeah, that sounds, that feels nice. But if you have to manage the business and their interests, you have to think about this a little bit more carefully. And this is why I mean the UFC is being made to look weak here from this position. If you're the UFC, you absolutely have to plan for a contingency where this is not gonna happen.

But you have to do that in such a way where you can put all the blame on John. And I think that they're trying to figure out the best way to do that. That's partly what they're doing is just buying themselves a little bit of time, putting this on John, putting this on John and saying we waited and we waited and we waited and we waited and we met his financial, whether that's true or not, they'll say they met his financial demands and they gave it every opportunity. They just simply can't wait any longer. So partly the waiting

game is to absolve themselves from blame in the event that this fight doesn't get made. Right? If you just move on, yeah, you can blame it on John, but then you lose to your point, you lose the possibility of it. And the fans are gonna be like, well, why do we wait this long? To begin with, you could have done this months ago, right? So you don't really get out of this problem in that particular scenario.

So that's the first thing I'm gonna say. Second of all, I think that these guys are feeling the heat. I think they're feeling the heat both in the general malaise on the product, and I think they're feeling the heat in these contract negotiations. Dude, when they went to ESPN the first time, those things happened like right away.

They made an announcement almost immediately from one television deal to the other. That's not what's happening here. They had a negotiated window that was exclusive to ESPN, that expired, now we're in the non-exclusive one, and please don't misunderstand me, I think they're gonna sign in the end what's gonna be considered a lucrative deal

that will be worth much more than the last one. But if this was going swimmingly, they would have bottled it already, or I should say quite the opposite. They would have handled it already. It would have been done. I think we're in a bit of a different position here where people are saying, oh, are they trying to save John versus Tom for the next fight deal? Well, that would mean putting it into 2026. I don't think that's likely. But the appearance of being unable to make big fights, the reality of something like this falling through, especially if you can't put the blame on John, this would be a terrible look at a very critical moment in this organization's future. That's why I think they're not really

making this move. They don't have the cards. They don't have the same amount of leverage that they typically enjoy. And so they have to kind of eat this in-between spot BC until we get to a later date. But it makes them look double worse in my opinion with this much silence. And I think what you just said is true. I just wrote a column yesterday at CBS Sports about this,

that for all that talk about, hey Zoe, what boxing is and isn't these days and Dana railing against it for years, it's not an original thought to this show and this microphone, me saying they've become boxing. But when you package together, it's not like one big super fight slipped through the cracks. And it's not like you don't have a monopsony and monopoly. Oh, actually you do. So now it's Jones and Gano we didn't get, Jones Aspinall. We're fighting to get Elia versus Islam. We

didn't get Connor versus Chandler. We didn't get despite a similar sort of four-year build that felt like to that one and I'm not saying each of those fights on its own saves the day or is the biggest thing ever but this is becoming a bad trend. So maybe you're right. Maybe that's I mean, it's not like John didn't know this was gonna be the next fight when he beat Stipe in November. So may I say one more thing BC? Please avoid that. You know, more buttholes being shown on this side. Yes. Are you next? Are we

gonna see the BCs buttholes that F in Fridays, Luke? All right, F in find out. Here's the other thing that just deserves to be said. And there's not really enough of a, uh, I don't know. I don't think there's been enough acknowledgement of it. The first time that they tried to book the Miocic fight, it was stupid. And then John gets injured. And I remember after that, I was like, this is your chance. Oops, let me turn this off like that. There we go. This is your chance to walk away. This is the UFC's chance to walk away. If people be like, what are you gonna do? You're just gonna cancel the fight?

Yes. That is exactly what you had to do. Because look where it got us. It gave John a bullshit fight against a guy who had absolutely no business being in there with him, being in there really with anybody at that point. I mean, that's the reality of where steep a was and now we have to delay the fight that was supposed to have been made yet basically another freaking year if you had never made

that steep a fight and you had made the deadline for john versus Tom last November 309 were never in this position to begin with. All of the boosters of the Jones-Miochich fight, you are the architects of this mess. You helped contribute to this stupid scenario that we're in where we're now playing this very frustrating and annoying waiting game for a possibility that might not even emerge long-term, all for what? So John could beat up a guy who should have never been in the octagon, not merely with him, but with anybody ranked anywhere

in the top 50 in the world. Congratulations. Aspenall versus Stipe while John was out. And then John fights the winner. That's what you have to do when injuries like the one that happened to John happened that put him out a year. I'm not saying you had to strip them. They didn't do that, but they didn't have to do that, but they could have moved this division along. Now it's, it's, see, at the end of the day, even if this gets made, it doesn't matter whose fault it was. It doesn't matter whose fault right now, everybody looks bad. I hope from their sake they can save it. But to act like right now, there isn't a problem in combat sports with three letters and it's not the UFC, Luke. Well by proxy it is, but it's TKO.

I mean, like look at this debacle with Turkey and Canelo Crawford that they're not talking about, no one knows what's going on. Now we got this Aspen All Jones thing, they're not talking about no one knows what's going on. Then WWE, which already announced next year's WrestleMania would be in New Orleans, just suddenly changes that and they're gonna go back to Vegas for the second straight year. And New Orleans is like what the F and people are like, are you doing a make good with Allegiant

because you may have lost that Netflix crock and all that. There's just like this look TKO is the worst thing to happen to combat sports since CTE but we already knew that. But there's still time to get your shit together here, especially with this giant TV deal up next. If you can't play the hits, which should be, in my opinion, automatic, making the biggest and best fights happen, or if you can't make it,

move on in a timely manner to the next big one, rather than doing exactly this, a Mayweather Pacquiao-like soap opera, that it's going nowhere, and it's embarrassing and are we just haters here or do we rely a certain part of our income on this great promotion being a great promotion yes some of that's true too so get your shit together please let's go stop jacking up prices what is it $700 to sit in the nosebleeds at 318 to watch a Marvin Vittori, Brendan Allen co-main event?

Yeah, it is right now. That's literally where we're at right now. This is all connected, Luke. So why don't I ask you the other thing connected with the fan's anger today, which is we think Noche is going on. We think. We think Noche is going on in Wadalahara the same day now as Canelo Crawford, even though Danny Segura is tweeting that the arena is canceling every event right now

and isn't going to be up until like a week before that show. But we have no public on the record about that either because Dana got on his private jet at the end of 315 and didn't talk to the media again. So what about this Movsar Evela thing in Noche? Volkonovsky is the champ and it looks like all signs are pointing to a rematch against Yair Rodriguez, a guy he dominated and knocked out. The stats that you can read related to this are hella damning, but they could have probably done a hot Khomein of hot blooded Diego Lopez here against Yair who he hates and then done Volkanovsky, Mosar, Evloyev in the main event. What are we doing here with this?

Is this defendable? Is this forgivable? Is this no check card even going to happen? Luke, what's going on? So, I mean, there's a few things that you're asking there, but let's sort of unpack it. First of all, the guy who asked the question to, I think it was Dave Shaw following the last card in Mexico is Rodrigo Del Campo. He's out of Claro Sports in,

and I'm saying it the most gringified way here, but he's out of Claro Sports in Mexico. He had asked them because he had known that there was shows being canceled left and right from that Guadalajara venue. And in fact, BC, I don't know if you know this, they've canceled all events all the way up through September 4th. You might be saying, well when's UFC 320 scheduled for that venue? September 13th.

And they've already scheduled, they've already canceled everything all the way up to September 4th, nine days before that. This seems ominous to begin with. So that's partly an issue there. But Rodrigo had brought up an interesting point that I think is quite correct. He's basically arguing like the Mexican roster as it stands is simply not really prepared to host a pay-per-view if you wanna have like Mexican stars at the top of it. It just doesn't really make a lot of sense

that it should have been a fight night. And if it was a fight night, you could have just put Yair versus Diego at the top of it and it's done deal Have a pay-per-view with Movsar and and and valk somewhere else and you're in great shape at that point But they're trying to combine everything and it simply doesn't make a lot of sense Now I am open to the argument that Movsar is without question the number one contender I mean, this is this is not even debatable right like this. this is the guy, if we're talking about meritocracy. However, he is a largely anonymous and unknown figure to anyone except the hardest of hardcore fans.

So I could at least understand the UFC having some trepidation about it. But the problem is, dude, Yair is utterly undeserving of this opportunity. And I'm okay with guys getting main events in their hometowns or their home countries, certainly where it makes a lot of sense, but just giving him a fight that he doesn't deserve because they have to match

a pay-per-view demand in a market that they put themselves on to, to match these, uh, you know, basically, you know, too lofty of a standard given the realities is ludicrous. I mean, you can go back and you watch it. It's a you problem. It's a UFC problem. It's not an us problem. You guys did that to yourselves. BC, the first fight is not competitive.

I implore everyone to go watch that. Let me read these quick stats that Ben the Bane Davis tweeted out. Yair Rodriguez is one in three in his last four fights. Two of those he lost by stoppage. One of those was him getting crushed and knocked out in the third round by Volkanovsky in a title fight. And the one win to get here was a victory over 37 year old Patricio Pipple who was making his UFC debut. On the flip side, Movsar Evloyev, who's going to be fighting in the summer,

by the way, getting skipped over in Abu Dhabi at a fight night before maybe getting the next title shot. He's 9-0 in the UFC. I know he's boring as shit to some people, but he's got wins over number 2 Diego Lopez, number 6 Arnold Allen, number 9 the former champion in Aljo, and how about number 14 Dan Ege? And he's not getting a title shot. So, Luke, is this similar to roundtree getting the call because Poetan had beaten everybody else? No, it doesn't really feel like that. I get that they're not in the most perfect position except for you actually are. You have a guy who's nine and oh, he's number one contender, nine and oh and beat all these ranked guys.

Like, let's go. Does Volkanovsky not sell as a pay-per-view main event if you put, like I mentioned that Lopez Yair fight in the co-main and load the card up with Nationals. I think it still sells. It's not like they're trying to jack up the main and co-mains lately. So outside of also big moments this summer. Also another problem is like, back know, back when the UFC was making schedules again, you know, they put they put Cruz versus TJ in Boston and you can

say what another made a lot of sense. Great fight, obviously, but it was a good great card. But the point I'm trying to make is, fuck, fuck, I forgot my goddamn train of thought about this whole fucking shit. I'm sorry, BC. I forgot. All right. You said train. I'm like, do you mean drops of Jupiter or Osborne? Which way? Oh, I was gonna say this. I was gonna say this though. Like to the point where it could have been a pay-per-view down to a fight night. I mean, one thing that's really missing, I think, from the UFC these days, BC is like creating a platform for things to happen, right? And yeah, they're doing press conferences and everything, but it's all very formulaic.

They're not doing any kind of white gloves, special treatment for anything. And sometimes when things pop off, they're just not letting, they're not catching that wave and surfing it. So for example, we all saw what happened between Diego and Yair. Like you can't tell me that the Mexican fans

would reject that as a main event. You simply cannot. And you cannot tell me that the Mexican fans would reject that as a main event. You simply cannot and you cannot tell me that the American fans would or any fans in Europe or really fans anywhere you can't do that but what's kind of interesting BC is they're not like they when they they have an ability to book places whenever they want but they're a little bit more beholden to going to places when they get paid to go. So for example, could they just go and again, make Noche UFC a fight night, then take Volk back to Australia at some point in that month

and have MovSar travel. What's MovSar gonna say? I'm not gonna travel. Of course he's gonna fucking travel, right? So that you can easily make that fight, but do they want to go back to Australia when they've already got a bit of a set calendar, based on what various government agencies or tourism boards, New South Wales included, but not

limited to only them are paying them for right, we've already we're going to go to Australia on these dates, because they're paying for us at these times, rather than giving yourself the flexibility to go when it makes sense for a main event or a particular matchup or a moment in time. And so all of these sort of fixed ways of doing business, these fixed ways to meet content demand, reduces the flexibility that they need

to match the reality on their roster. Yeah, yeah. And if they can't, they're showing us that they're so, despite being so far ahead financially, they're so far behind when it comes to the combination of matchmaking and storytelling and actually planning things out. Everything seems to be a last minute bundle throw together from UFC 300 last year to the way that the UFC 315 main event instantly dictated the summer schedule Luke. It's it's I'm really not trying to like dunk in teabag for the sake of you know of Clicks or what else do we have to talk about on a Friday? It's really legit concern like this goes beyond we figured out how to beat the game financially and it's just us against us and we're just

Tinkering with new ways of putting money in our shareholders' pockets. This is like, you're fucking this up and you're making it not as fun anymore and it looks like you can polish up a few different things and raise the morale pretty easily if you wanted to. So let's get back to that because it is a fertile time. You've got the TV deal coming up. Like, let's get back to that because it is a fertile time. You've got the TV deal coming up. Like, let's get back to that. Make it about the fights, the fighters, and the storylines first. And the schedule in a lot of ways will write itself in that regard or put a little more thought into how this is working.

And I know it's not easy and there's injuries and guys don't want to fight other guys. I know that. But you have a monopoly. You have an insane amount of money. You have all't want to fight other guys. I know that but you have a monopoly. You have an insane amount of money. You have all the ingredients to make the meal make the freaking meal. Yeah, you've got more money than any combat sports promoter in the history of combat sports. This should not be that difficult.

Thank you. Lou quickly on where Jones is in Thailand. It is that MMA Russian show that turned into a, it turned into a hell of a shit show there, uh, of Nate Diaz getting involved in a fight. Jake Shields played back the, uh, the thing. I mean, it's, it's, I guess it's what you expect from those type of shows, but, uh, yeah, John Jones did put out a video explaining it, but look, we could just move on.

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Luke, now it's time to get back into the fights. And topic number two, we designed this to put a smile on your face, all right? Let's talk about what we do have this summer scheduled out. In terms of fights that were already announced here. When you look ahead over the next three months Luke, which previously announced UFC fight has you the most excited? We're going to rank each of them from five to one and we're going to alternate Luke.

So why don't you of fights that are already booked. Tell me your number five and why you're so fired up. May I call a very quick audible a very quick one. We have a pretty similar list from five to one. So if I may very quickly, I'll just quickly go through it. I have five honorable mentions that don't make I think your list or my list, but are actually primo fights to look forward to. Yes. All right. Here we go.

BC again in no particular. Actually, this is in no particular, actually this is in chronological order, essentially. UFC 316, Gastelum Pfeiffer. I'm actually very excited about that fight. I'm in. Maybe, do you think Gastelum will be fighting with a heavy shoulder and the pulse

of the Mexican national fan base after Pfeiffer just ripped a heel promo on that country and said he's never coming back? I know Gastelum is a Mexican American, but you know, we can get some old school WWF nationalistic storylines in this. Yeah. I mean, it was partly racism too, not just nationalism, but who knows? All right. UFC Atlanta, uh, Rose Nama, Eunice Miranda Maverick. I'm not exactly expecting necessarily the best fight, but the stakes are pretty interesting for me. It's a crossroads fight in that division straight up. This one is I think I almost put this in my top five UFC Baku, Rafael Fazeev, Ignacio Bahamundes. Oh buddy that

is going to be an absolutely sick ass fight. I can't wait. In a moment like this you just let the rhythm take you over Luke. That's right 317, we already know about this one, but Brandon Royville taking on Manel Cop is a really interesting fight. And then for UFC- Worthy of a main event. Worthy of one. Worthy of a main event, to be fair. I agree. And then for UFC Abu Dhabi, you could pick the main, you could pick the co-main, but down on that list, it's got to be Mozar versus Aaron Pico, uh,

if they end up actually making that one. Can we also shout out that Jamal Hill in Azerbaijan versus Roundtree will be a banger? Yes, yes, if I get the chance I will. Yes, yes, right. You know what I'm saying? A Bangor like straight from Maine Luke, you know what I'm talking about? Bangor, Maine. That's right. Yeah. All right. For my top five, for number five for the rest of the summer, give me Kamaru Ustman, Joaquin Buckley, your main event for UFC Atlanta, AKA UFC on ESPN 69, June 14th. Very simply stated BC, this is an easy one.

I think this is going to be Buckley ushering in the end of, or the beginning of the end anyway of Kamaru's career. And I feel like you've wanted that end to come. Like you're ready for that. I'm ready to him for him to not be ranked in the top five of welterweight, but you're like I'm ready for well I've just I'm a little surprised. Here's what I've been kind of reacting to very surprised that people are like, oh the the top fighters in though in the welterweight division like Shaft cut JDM and Usman and I'm like Yeah, no, he's on the way out. He's on the way out and they're making this fight

because he's on the way out. Now, obviously he's the second best welterweight champion of all time. He's had a extremely distinguished career, but like the tape on that third, and I know he looked halfway decent against under unenviable circumstances against Hamzad, but tape on that third Leon fight, he looked bad.

He did not look good at all. and he's only gotten older and I think more, you know, relatively speaking for an athlete in firm. I think Buckley is going to be a real fucking bad fight for him. Yeah, I'm interested in seeing that, but it's not going to lead us toward or would you like this? Kamaru Colby 3. No, Jesus God, please. Doesn't that sound like a, like a, like a,

uh, an upcoming pay-per-view, uh, co-main event. It does kind of sound like it, right? It sounds like one from 20, you know, 20. I mean, I'd watch it. It'd be gross, but yeah, I mean, okay. I'm into your number five fight. I'm going to go number five, Luke, my only women's fight on this list. And it's, it's an interesting why I would put this up here so high but I'm gonna go to UFC 316 June 7th and of course Julianna Pena the two-time Bantamweight champion gonna defend that title if she can make it at 135 Kayla Harrison don't forget she was hospitalized when it was like urinating blood last time out in that win what was it who was that against Luke real quick the Kayla Harrison win last time out in that win. What was it? Who was that against Luke? Real quick, the Kayla Harrison win last time.

Katelyn Vieira. Katelyn Vieira. Katelyn Vieira. Thank you. So this is interesting, Luke, not in the fact of like, I mean, Kayla's a what? Minus 700, something like that favorite, which is insane and wild here, but I also kind of understand and agree with it. I just want to see if Kayla can, as they said for Cody Rhodes and his WWE run to the top when he came back after leaving AEW, finish the story. I want to see if she can finish the story. It's crazy that she's doing this at 35. I don't know how long she can keep it

up. I know that I'm very harsh on Pena in general, but I mean, I think I'm justified. I don't hate her Luke, but this is she's being, you know, set up here, but she also can sell a fight. So let, let, let's get to this fight already and let's see if Kayla Harrison can bring some actual life, not just to women's band and weight, but to women's MMA in general by waking up Amanda Nunes and maybe giving us a fight that like both from storyline and from Execution we would care about in high level UFC women's MMA. I'd like to see that. I think that's totally fair I mean, it's just insane that Kayla's trying to do this at a place that doesn't make any sense for her athletic ability In terms of the weight, but store that's open for Luke. They closed up

You know, I get it. I get it just find her and Pacheco and have a featherweight division or go to women's heavyweight already please I get it believe me I understand it's just it's unfortunate that that's where we are but okay for my number four BC this one is a very easy call this was just such a great fight it's impossible to not like this will be on July 26 USC Abu Dhabi's main event. Robert Whitaker taking on Ryanier, Orenier, Derritter, RDR. Man, Bobby Knuckles versus the Dutch Knight. What is there not to like about this one? Whitaker badly needs to get back on the winning ways,

obviously after a terrible performance against Hamsot. And if RDR wins, he might be the next one to fight Hamsot. Of course, it depends what happens later that summer. But I mean, RDR has been such a breath of fresh air he might be the next one to fight Homs out. Of course it depends what happens and later that summer. But I mean, already are has been such a breath of fresh air in the UFC, such a breath of fresh air at 185 Whitaker, a consummate professional, a tough out for everyone. Again, didn't go well against Homs out, but I'm you know,

fight over fight. That's a reasonable expectation. Interesting style clash, interesting different body types. Man, what a fight this is gonna be, can't wait. And on free TV, can't wait. Free 99, you know I love that, Luke. I love this fight so much. I have it at number four as well on my countdown here,

case to case. And everything you said, I never thought this would be a crossroads matchup in the middleweight title fixture to find out who's coming or who's going. And Whitaker trying to hold that line that he's still, even though it's in the second half of his career. And we can see him lose and even lose disastrously at this level, like now has happened twice, Tom's in DDP.

At the same time, he gets a win and bounces back and shows us that Superman ability again. He's back in duties back in and he deserves that. He's a living legend, but momentum matters. And RDR is one of those old school specialists that we barely see and that's entertaining when somebody's a one hit wonder, but man, that hit, that hit will seduce you, Luke.

So I wanna see if RDR could do this. Cause if he adds, if he adds a fourth win and this time Bobby knuckles in what? Nine months and his UFC run. Is he knocking on the door? Is it time? Luke? Is it, is it time is DDP get it going to get up in that bullpen?

Is that what's happening here? That's what's happening. If under the, under that scenario. Yes. Be wild. That's I know like, it's not that wild in reality. People have gotten title shots and then we never heard from them again But like for our DR and the arc and where he was and he just walked out of his contract by the way

And like took the chance that legally it would all work out You know did did Ali do a do it do him a solid behind the scenes there. I Don't know but Whatever whatever was whatever happened it worked. So it's good for us, I guess. All right, Luke, let's continue this UFC Good News Tour to top it to fight number three on the summer calendar. So now we're gonna get to the meat of the summer. And for me, we're now forced to,

I mean, your mileage may vary, but, oh, and by the way, I forgot one more fight that was supposed to be a honorable mention. Yeah, watch your sign. Tetsuro Taira taking on Amir El-Bazi. I forget which card that's on, but that one's gonna be a honorable mention. Yeah, that's a Tyra taking on Amir Al-Bazi. I forget which card that's on, but that one's going to be a fucking banger. Can we add can we add Macy, Barbara, Aaron Blanchfield to that list? Or will you not accept that? Because I'm hella intrigued about that.

I'm pretty interested in the problems they made at a main event. If it was just another fight, I think I don't you want it five rounds because it's no, no. If Macy wins, she's getting a title shot, most likely in a crowded division. I I'm that's gotta be a five round fight. Luke. It's gotta be the first someone that still cares about the meritocracy of women's MMA and not just the only fan side side of it or not at all. That side of it, Luke, although you paint that picture of me often. I mean, you know, it's like, you know, what, what, what are

you trying to say? Paint that picture? You mean take a photo? Yeah. Yeah. Luke, so that's, what'd you say was your number three again? Oh, so my number three, getting back to it. I'm gonna go Dustin Poirier, Max Holloway three.

Now for a couple of reasons, obviously it's very high on the list. It's hello, it's number three. Now we've seen it before twice, but I do think this time is different. Poirier's at the end of his run. I think you're gonna, you've always gotten, you know, the best out of Poirier every time, win or lose.

Well, I mean, the Michael Johnson fight wasn't his best, but you know what I mean? Like he doesn't ever phone it in. He might make mistakes, but he always gives whatever he has. So I'm not really saying anything about that, but Max I think is going to be just some questions about him after that support your loss.

However, I think that they really understand how to go to 55 now and what that's supposed to look like and how he's supposed to feel. And I think you're going to get a different Max, the max that beat up Justin Gaethje, which is exactly what happened. You know, I think this is, uh, I might favor Max in this one. In fact, I think I will say that I am favoring Max in this one, but- He's just a slight favorite.

Slight favorite, okay, interesting. Yeah, that's probably about how I feel. I probably would consider him a slight favorite to win, but I mean, two legends of the fight game, two adored figures, one on his way out, BMF title on the line. I mean, there's just so much to like here. It's my number three.

All right, Luke, you'll be seeing that fight in my countdown moving forward, but let's hit number three first on mine. And that's Ilya Toporia versus Charles Oliveira. It is the summer blockbuster, the main event of the International Fight Week card, UFC 317, June 28th. I think what maybe holds it back, although number three for the summer is a pretty high nod, just the same, but for how much sex it is on paper, the fact that it's the consolation to Ilya Islam, I mean, I'm not going to be like sore over that, but holy shit, I wanted to see that fight and I felt like it was right there. And I know there's another argument to that. And maybe we can get into it

in a minute related to Mahachav and everything connected there. But come on, you know why we need to see it. There's so much information we need to get from this to find out if we still are on the road one day to Ilya Islam, maybe even under some incredible circumstances, like for a third championship at welterweight, if the series takes it there. But we're never going to know if it does take it there. If this man, Lali Endaa who cut ties with his training staff Luke so he can now train at home full-time with his brother If he's the real deal here, we got to find this out

This is the perfect dangerous ex-champion to do it with and it's gonna be entertaining as hell I mean look isn't this a a fight that you wish You could pause your normal life and how you get down and how you feed your family and oh I'm getting ready to go on YouTube or I got to write a story or whatever. I just want to pause all that and sit as deep in the eighth row as I possibly can. Put the TV up to my face Luke and just you know visually you know um pleasure myself right? I don't watch fights high. I'm just trying to take pleasure I have some feedback. I think it is borderline criminal that you put that one at three. Oh, wow.

Okay. Get spicy here. How can you put two fights? I can understand not having a one, but how can you put two fights above a guy going for a second weight class title after icing, Volk and Max back to back? I'll tell you saying that you think there's two fights better than that one. I'll brilliantly slide right into my answer for number two here, Luke. Okay. And I know that it's a controversial answer, but my number two was Luke's number three,

Dustin Poirier versus Max Holloway three, even though even though Poirier is two and O coming in, even though it's, you know, pretty much a retirement fight, it's like a victory lap type of deal. The reason why is this, Luke, first and foremost, I told you about the Iliya Charles being the consolation prize, a hell of a consolation prize. Look, there are some good mountaintop peaks this summer. We're ranking them right now. Let's celebrate that. I love that fight, but I think sometimes you're allowed as a fan, it's preferred. The same reason why people get fired up for the next Superman versus Batman all-star game comic book superhero movie, maybe because that's all they know how to write, Luke, in

this era. But it's an all-star game. Oh, Jason versus Freddy is probably going to suck, but I got to see it. There's part of that. Like, you know what? Like it's a combo of Bushido and love and respect for what these guys are, what they do. And then also I know that they're going to entertain me while honoring each other, while honoring the sport.

There's a lot of heavily soaking wet romanticism in there, Luke, but like we're all fans and sometimes that's the, uh, that's the lane we deserve to be in every once in a while. To look at it from that point of view. This is action. You know Poirier is going to go out in a blaze of glory. If this is the last fight, he's going to go out. Max is going to point to that shit in the middle. The actors are there. The play is going to be incredible. Get fucked. I'm allowed.

I almost made that number one look for that same reason. The rare moment where you don't need a title and in this case, you don't need bad blood either. We can do this through respect. I wouldn't want to share it with anyone but you for the last match. Like it's almost like a pro wrestling flair, Shawn Michaels type of feel, you know, I love you. Here's the superman never does those, right? That's why I kind of like, right. But even in reality, like even when they try to do it, like it doesn't, it doesn't really work for the most part. Like it's not going to be that, I mean, it'll be a great fight. And that's why it's on my list. But I just think trying to say

that that's got something more to it than what then, then like Ilya Tuporya, who from what we can tell, we'll see appears to be the next big thing in the sport going up a new weight class. Are you saying that's your number two Luke? Is that what you're saying that we just had him flip flopped? Well, my number two, I just dropped off in the commode but you know what I'm saying. Hey. No. Uh well, yes actually that's what I'm saying. My number two is in fact Toporia versus Oliveira. Now, yes, actually, that's what I'm saying. My number two is in fact, Toporia versus Olivera.

Now, I did struggle with this one in terms of like, is it my number one or my number two? I had a little bit of a hard time putting it. Well, I didn't know where to put it. I mean, I knew it was one of the two. I just didn't quite know. I didn't put it at number one for a very important reason, which I'll get to when we talk about number one. But the reason why it's obviously as high it is on my list is I just don't think. I mean, listen to Porias changing coaches, uh, moving to Madrid, or I think he's already moved to Madrid, but you know, changing coaches and, uh, fucking with his nickname and all this nonsense. These are all things that could definitely be red flags.

I mean, I certainly am not immune to that idea whatsoever. But at the same time, his talent is considerable. His trajectory appears to be for the moon. And this is in all likelihood, the next step in that direction. Charles is a very worthy adversary, but he's also a bit shop-worn. And that's probably not gonna do him any favors

against a guy whose power is, and accuracy is as considerable as this Plus Charles is a bit hittable now, of course Oh, look you said something important. That's part of the reason also. I didn't want to say it that's part of the reason I put that at three and not two the fear that Charles is is Like made to order that the fear of that. I think made to order is a little strong, but I can understand some of those concerns I just feel like You know, let me say something like when marab was going through the contendership queue and

He eventually becomes champion. I just didn't think he would ever do it, especially after he lost a Ricky Simone and Now he's champion and he hasn't quite cleaned out 35. That's not true, but he's obviously put in a pretty heavy dent. And I didn't get to enjoy it. Like in terms of like, I kept doubting him and doubting him and doubting him and doubting him. But like, I did not have that problem when for example, Habib was coming up. I kind of had an eye. I was like, Oh, this guy's different. And I'm like every time he went out there, you know, the ally I quit to fight was weird cause it came together at the last second.

But you know, the ally I quit to fight was weird because it came together at the last second. But you know, in general, everything he did just escalated and escalated and escalated. And it was incredible to watch. I got to enjoy it. I don't know how everyone else feels, but I'm enjoying watching the ascension of one of the sport's brightest stars. And I think this next step is gonna put him

in a very, very different place. Like we're dealing with a different level of history here. You know, it's very weird for me, like the guy that Ilya just iced, it's hard for me to put him above Ilya in terms of whose next fight is better or more meaningful to me. That's kind of the issue.

Is it fair to say though that if Toporia has the potential to be as great as you're sort of teasing there and, and be as big of a star in all of the metrics that we always talk about in multiple nations, then should this be a Conor McGregor to Poria fight in reality instead? Should that have been kind of McGregor is, dude, I don't give a fuck if he never fights again. I'm not. Well, I get you that this would be a hundred percent the promotion using what's left of his name to add that on Top of this rising rock. I don't I don't care. I mean I cannot overstate this I don't care if we ever see him again. I don't I doesn't matter. I don't think about him at all

I get that but do you think only in terms of matching to Poria and trying to make him the biggest star that from a company strategic standpoint, I'm actually a little surprised that they didn't go that way. I mean, in a world where that was available, I suppose that there's that sort of an ironclad argument, but in the world in which we live, it's utterly irrelevant at this point. You know, I just don't, I don't, it doesn't matter. I literally don't even think about it.

I don't think about Conor as a young, fat girl. It's only relevant if you care about attempting to try to build somebody into that star. I know it's a volatile game. I know- How would you even get him to 55, much less, I just, I don't even know how that's possible. Oh, you'd have to catchweight that,

but that'd be part of the allure. You'd have to Korea fighting over his head and weight decidedly just like Connor did against Nate to be fair. You know what someone said though, kind of a separate point is what if Soryukian fought Patty Pimlet and I got to tell you first of all, I fucking love that fight and winner of that gets Ilya like to me that's like real exciting, you know. All right. Well well can we agree on the final point here which is our number one fight for the summer? I think we got the same one

here because it's the best fight and it's August 16th it's UFC 319 in Chicago and it is Drikus Duplisi continuing this incredible run at middleweight against undefeated Hamzat Chamayev who could beat this dude in 60 seconds for all we know or it's gonna be 25 sweaty minutes of finding out who Chamayev really is. Lather me up, sign me up. Yeah, I wish I could suspend all work duties and just get one on one with this, Luke. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, let's go. Let's get, let's really enjoy the fights, right? Let's get fired up. BC's new podcast, the MMA five knuckle shuffle. We'll watch fights and jack off together.

It's going to be unbelievable. Isn't that the main card minute? Oh, we got a little bit of this too. I love that. I love that. Thank you very much, Long Island Luke for joining my dunk. Luke, what say you? It's the same thing, right? You got those same loin calling feelings going on right now. Yeah. I mean, Ilya trying to get a second title in another weight class is its own kind of specialness. But the reason why I ended up putting as well as you did, BC, DDP versus Chumayev number one is because it's got the most interesting questions and storyline of any fight that they've created at any point in this calendar year.

Now again, if they end up making John and Tom, that's it's whole other, I mean that's better than anything else they could make on the calendar, arguably. But this one is special. This one is very special. Homsot was a guy we thought was gonna be already at this point years ago

and got delayed for crazy reasons, health, visas, whatever. But he's finally here. They're finally putting him in North America in a major market on pay-per-view. And it looks like BC, he's maybe answered all the questions except that first Saudi Arabia fight didn't go right and then they had to rebook it.

And of course he looked amazing when they got a second chance at it. But there's a lot of questions about him. He appears to be the most dominant fighter and in certain ways, he might be like insanely vulnerable. We don't we don't really know. We don't we don't really have a good answer. And then DDP, DDP, the world's goofiest fighter who also happens to be an absolutely amazing talent, by the way, a physical presence, a bulldozer when he has to be and fights that way as well, resilient, mentally tough and absolutely battle tested. The questions heading into DDP Hamsot are

much more interesting than they are against Ilya versus Charles just on pure fight terms. And for that reason, it is absolutely my most anticipated fight of the summer. We share that at number one. Maybe not a surprise to some, but let me throw the wild card question in there. We know this fight's coming, but it's not booked yet. It could be October in Abu Dhabi. We are talking, of course, about the welterweight title, Jack Della Maddalena,

and the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Islam Mahachev, after putting down the lightweight title. And this is part of that consolation prize we get for not getting Ilya Islam right now. Luke, where would this fit into your top five if it was announced today? Ooh, that's a point. Is it crazy to go one, Luke?

Ooh. That's gotta be, oh, it's cool. Do you see how jacked Islam is in the training videos right now, dude. Oh yeah, let's go. I don't I'd have to think about that one a little bit more. Certainly in the top three, I mean, I I might

put it number two only because it's got basically everything that um number that that um Olivera and Tafoury has but Islam is uh obviously a you know, powerpoint number one so that to me is just a bigger deal. But again dude, the questions surrounding DDP and Hamzat, the kind of fight like as a fight fan deep in your soul, you just don't know the answer to. I know a lot of people are like, oh, DDP is gonna maul him or Homs, that's gonna maul him. You motherfuckers don't know.

You don't know shit, you don't know. What you really know is the uncertainty. And you're trying to dismiss the uncertainty by like asserting certainty, which you don't have. The reason this fight is so amazing is because of the uncertainty. That's actually what makes it interesting. So trying to deny it's there is trying to deny what in fact makes it special.

Congratulations listener. You played yourself from Luke Thomas right there Luke speaking of fire and shots. Mahachan has been under fire from a honest speaking part-time villain and full-time gangster and one and only Chael Sonnen who did apologize this week to that couple that he brutally beat up at the Luxor when he was on that medication. Good Lord, that's a wild situation. But this was a sentiment so heavy that we had to bring in our friends at Cuervo again

for this week's Shots Fire. fire. Here is Chael Sonnen speaking his truth about Mahachev's decision to move up in weight. Islam did everything you could do to avoid that fight that's just the truth guys that's just what happened. I don't know Ilya I know Islam I like Islam a lot. I'm gonna be a fan of Ilya but I mean I don't know Ilya. I know Islam. I like Islam a lot. I'm gonna be a fan of Ilya, but I mean I don't know him. But it's still what happened. Islam did everything you could conceivably do to not fight Ilya, including leave the division, including leave the championship. Hey, if you don't fight this guy, we're gonna strip you of your championship strip me of my championship There is nothing more that illy could do in our industry nothing. There is nothing that exists giving a belt leaving publicly Walking away from it all to hunt a guy down

There is nothing more that Islam could do in our industry truly. These are literal statements. There is nothing in our industry These are literal statements. There is nothing in our industry that is a stronger way to get away from somebody than to leave the division and even leave the championship behind. Now Luke, to be fair, Chael says a lot of things about every topic every day, but I don't think you're going to back him on this, but I'm interested to see. Is there any part of that? That's truthful. Speak your truth, Luke. Is there any part of it?

That's true. I mean, I don't think it's, uh, no, I don't think there's much value in it. Um, people want to see the fight and I don't think that's crazy and I think there are people who think Toporia could beat him. I'm one of them but what has Toporia done at 55 that necessitates Islam wait for him when he doesn't have much time left in the sport and he's got his own goals which by the way include going up 15 fucking pounds and fighting those guys. If he had a resume at 55 and Islam wasn't going to go anywhere, that's, or, or even

if Islam wasn't even going to go anywhere, that's one thing to, you know, maybe a slightly different conversation. Um, I think what's dogging Islam is that, you know, you just look at some of the fights he's had where, you know, the last one was Moicano and he got the title shot off green, which were not his faults, these were all things that kind of fell in his lap. People are saying, well, he doesn't have the wins to necessitate just going up and doing that kind of a thing.

And I don't think that's necessarily crazy at all, but Islam has probably like Habib, a very set time in which he's gonna call it a day. I don't think he's gonna ride this one out until his late thirties. That doesn't sound right to me at all. He's got a very, time in which he's going to call it a day. I don't think he's going to ride this one out until his late thirties. That doesn't sound right to me at all. He's got a very, very limited window left. And he has to strike while the iron is hot. He did a favor to 45 twice in giving a shot to Volk.

He wants to get that cashed. He doesn't have to wait around for it. For a guy in Toporia who, by the way, are we going to be, what, what are we going to say if Toporia goes up to 55 and he gets choked out from the back by Olivera? We're gonna say that Islam had to wait around for that? Oh, well, yeah, I mean, that's a what if, but yeah, I mean, it's a possibility. So what if in either direction?

You know, I mean, like you're talking about a guy who's got no resume, he's got the Jai Herbert win. But other than that, he's got really no resume at UFC at 55. Now I think highly of him, obviously, but this idea that Islam is ducking him, dude, Canelo, if you actually see what ducking looks like, it doesn't look like what Islam is doing. Islam going to 70 after beating everyone basically,

everyone within a timeframe anyway, that he had, that is not the same thing at all, especially against a contender who had at the elite level hasn't had a single fight in this weight class. No, it's a strange argument. He's doubling down on daring to be great. He's going up to a new weight class against the new champion who looks like a killer in arguably a harder fight, depending on your opinion than the toporia one. So there's also the argument to be made of course that he doesn't owe this to the company, to the fans, you know, that he's his own businessman trying to navigate his career. And again, and I always throw in this, we have no idea

if he has been talking to the UFC about exiting the lightweight division for a while and maybe they've been encouraging him to stay. Like you just don't know how long that's been going on. What Chael seems to be attacking, though, is like from the manhood side of it, like, no, that guy called you out. He walked up to your front door and said, I'm here to take over this division. So forget the good business choice or anything like that. Is there any merit? Maybe only a guy like Chael could say it because, you know, he was in that cage Luke and also he'll f you up at a at a lower tier Vegas hotel

at any point including your significant other but like from that man mano-a-mano side Luke you're not you're not buying it either. No no I mean again would it have been nice to have seen the fight? Sure. Can you really say that Islam is acting disreputably given the circumstances? I think that's a very, very weak argument. All right. That was Shots Fired brought to you by Cuervo. Now is a good time to enjoy the tequila that invented tequila. We of course are talking about Cuervo. We'll be back partnering with Cuervo on Wednesday, June 4th, a UFC 316 pregame preview. Get a little Blanco out, Luke.

Get a little Aaron Bronstetter inside the Manhattan studio as we're gonna do things like men do there with the three of us. It's gonna be epic, Luke. It's gonna be incredible. And Cuervo will be there along the way. Here's one of Islam's many comebacks to Chelsun and over social media in which he said,

chasing hype and money is not the same as chasing greatness in sport, but average athlete who built his way to the top with cheap trash talk won't understand that. So please see and watch how others doing it. Uncle Chael. That's probably the nicest of the comebacks from Islam. And here's the argument from Chael's co-host and cohort there, DC, the teammate who came out and said, this is the first time that Islam put his wishes above what everybody else wants. He's defended the belt multiple times. He's fought people on short notice. He's fought people coming up in weight.

He's done everything he can show that he's willing to lay it on the line. When Armand couldn't fight, well, this guy who's number five with no training camp, he did it on a day's notice. He's always done it." End quote. Even though that's his boy talking about his boy, Luke, you got to also agree with that. I mean, it's a complicated scenario. All right. Is there an argument for Justin Gaethje in your eyes of having gotten screwed over or is that a topic that's moot to you? Screwed over is a strong word, but I can understand why Gagey might feel upset that he got passed over. I don't think

that's unfair either. Alright, alright and and it defended him after going golfing with him, but we'll skip that Luke. Let's get the topic number three here so we can get time for over under and MK Jeopardy with a lot at stake at the end of the show. You're not going to want to miss that. Luke, here's the deal. Bunch of online reports in recent days suggesting that BKFC parent company Triller could be

close to going under amid bankruptcy rumors, threats of NASDAQ, delisting them, and a failure reported failure to pay their employees the last three months. BKFC, which has a high value in that realm, Luke, could be in the need for new investors like ASAP and new ownership. So given, I'm being honest here, this is a straight up pitch to you, given the failure of PowerSlap, given the possibility slash likelihood that TKO won't be in the boxing future if that fallout with Turkey ala sheik is real. I don't know Is now the time for TKO to actually shift and pick up BKFC and make it the biggest hand-fighting thing in the world and take McGregor off the bench and put him in main events there and Blow that thing to the sky does not this not seem like a perfect marriage TKO and BKFC? First of all, can we

take a moment to talk about Triller? Is that a thing we can do? Yeah, it's a debacle. It's it's a it's a I mean, I remember I'm looking at some of my old tweets here. I have one from April 17th, 2021. Triller is the moment Joan Namath tried to kiss Susie Colbert, but as an entire event. Colbert. Yeah. Yeah.

I had people and there's, you did too. There was a lot of conversation at the time like, oh, they're reinventing the way we do combat sports. Unlike burning money is not a reinvention of combat sports. Um, you know, wasting money is not a reinvention of combat sports. Just dumping music acts into shows with questionable fights is a reinvention of nothing.

Now that's a separate conversation. They smoked weed on air and offered a Trump cast. So they've done things no one else has ever done. Yeah, they're the future BC. They're the future. I have people telling me that's the future of combat sports promotion. I'm like, you're new here, aren't you? Yeah.

All right. That aside, that aside, should TKO acquire BKFC? I certainly hope not. The last thing we need is for TKO to expand its reach into the rest of combat sports, which by the way, they're already trying in boxing. I guess we'll see how that goes. And I know I've been having a lot of discussions, BC, with some folks behind the scenes this week. They're going to make a big push into grappling here soon as well. And I don't have anything to report, but it looks like all the signs kind of point to Craig Jones being on the opposite side of that.

And so there's a big battle that's gonna be heading between those two entities. I don't know exactly who's all gonna be on Craig Jones' side, but that's headed our way as well. Because what do they wanna do? It's the same playbook, a million other places. And we talked about it. If you fight on the Fight Pass Invitational, it's show money and only sub money.

Even if you win, you don't get the second part of the check. You have to submit to get it. It's the, it's somehow even worse than their MMA contracts, if you can believe it, but that is exactly where we are. It's honest question here. Can it be a Zufa LLC? No, I know technically Endeavor purchased Zufa when they purchased the UFC, but couldn't be a Fertitta brothers and Dana like spin-off, like old school grassroots thing.

Yeah. I mean, I'd be cool with any kind. Listen, I just think a lot of people have this like in this, uh, reflex where all the gravitational pull in the industry is coming from TKO. So there's this desire when things are fledgling or new or maybe struggling but interesting to then all have TKO come in and save it. No, no. That is absolutely the last thing that we need. Now, of course, I would like to see, well, I mean, I don't care if BKFC survives or not, I'm not wishing them ill, I'm simply saying, I don't have a dog in the fight in that way.

But what we do need and what is a much healthier sign of a combat sports economy is when you have a combat sports economy, when there's multiple suitors, multiple businesses, multiple different investors, multiple different kinds of communities, all sort of working in concert or at least alongside one another. That's what we actually need.

So it's not that I'm wishing BKFC fail or something like that. What I'm saying is I would rather that not everything go back into the arms of TKO where now they have yet even more control over this vast industry. And for all the people like belly aching about fights and this and that, like, your, your answer to this is to give them yet more of the assets in the industry,

to give them more control. This is a disaster. I mean, it's kind of shaking me to my core. That's like, you know, if I can't open the show ripping on the direction, TKO is taking things in the, you know, fear and can't open the show ripping on the direction TKO is taking things in the, you know, fear and distaste it's putting in me and then be like, yeah, just take this and rehab it when it, it doesn't need to be rehabbed. It needs a power injection behind it. It's particularly financial, but maybe even in vision. But it also like the idea was if UFC guys can be in bigger moments there on BKFC, then they can't, you know,

if Jose Aldo, rather than fighting contenders and in our opinion, him being wasted, but I did watch his interview on Ariel where he explained it as if I'm not chasing the title, then I'm not fighting, like who am I? And I certainly respect that sort of classic romanticized warrior you know uh motto there but uh I was thinking it more of like well you it's a better use for these guys to have a fun bare knuckle fight if you'd prefer that that's going to be hyped up big and make you a ton of money but maybe you'd make more of it if the same bosses meet the new boss same as the old boss, Luke. So I get that.

I get that. But do you think if it did happen, I'm being hypothetical, although you could connect the dots and see a path for it to happen, do you think they could take it? To like mainstream, like legitimate mainstream level, or is it always going to be an extreme, like novelty pay-per-view? always going to be an extreme like novelty pay-per-view. I don't, I don't know how mainstream BK, BKFC can be. Um, maybe I could be convinced. Maybe you have a different idea. It seems to me that like, they do a lot of business in grassroots small markets and they have a lot of questionable characters on their roster.

Oh yeah. You know, you see that that that Britain Hart music video that just came out. Am I the only one that saw this? She's like rapping and it's it's uh it's interesting. Look, I gotta see your algorithm. I would love to see what it shows you. A lot of future waitresses. Luke. No, I'm kidding. All right. Enough of that stuff. Okay. Hey, let's transition out of that. Thank you very much. And it's playoff time right now. Luke, I don't need to tell you that. Okay. It's playoff time in this show because we're about ready soon to get into that competition. But if you're still just at home watching the games, you're missing out right now. We've been trying to tell you about pick six from DraftKings where you can turn your hoops knowledge into real cash. Just make your picks, track your score, and if you hit all six, you're looking at bigger payouts than prize picks, flex plays. This is what we're talking about tonight, right? Game two, Knicks versus Pacers in an incredible Eastern Conference final series.

Incredible Luke because that sort of choke choking collapse that was sort of historic by New York in game one. And did you see the bounce on that Halliburton shot? Holy crap, Luke. What a wild series. But when you look at that from a standout of which of these stand up stand up point of which of these stand out players is going to go over under on these core stats, you got a lot of big players in those lineups that can fill up big tonight. Are you part of the Halliban? No, no, no, I don't go that deep. Well, Tyree or the, the, the, whatever, I'm not going to get into it. But yes, as BC indicated, you know, we're, we're not looking, you got to pick, Oh, who's going to win Knicks or Pacers. That's really

not what this is about. It's about who are the high performers BC? Who are the guys that can rack up totals, points, steals, assists, rebounds? Who are the big time, not just clutch players, but consistent players? That's what pick six is all about. Now I missed game one BC, although I did see the ending and I thought it was kind of interesting, but this is your chance to not choke. This is a great opportunity from DraftKings. Pick 6 BC. And so here's what you're going to do. Nobody's dropping better payouts than pick 6. Hit 6 picks and that's 25x your cash. And if you beat your competition, excuse me, you could be looking at a 500 times bigger bag in your pocket. And right now, new customers get $50 in bonus picks with just a $5 entry. So here's what you're going to do BC, the playoffs are on. So why not take a shot at

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Well read, well said, Luke here. Let's go to a fun segment that we used to float around where your boy BC looks at the latest headlines and then pitches some scenarios to Luke where I give him a number and he goes over or under based on the ridiculous or legitimate scenario being offered to him. Yes, this one's called. Show me that graphic. Over, under. We don't have a real graphic. I just used some generic. Yes, this one's called show me that graphic over under.

We don't have a real graphic. I just use some generic. Oh, there we go. There's a generic fill in. That's what we are here. That's what we're reduced to. But we can have some fun with it. Luke. I got 10 of them for you. You just tell me over under look PFL announced on Tuesday. It has moved its debut PFL Africa card in Cape Town, which features Johnny Eblen and Dakota Ditcheva to July 19th which places it by the way on the same day as Pacquiao Berrios, Pwawiwe Holloway 3, Usyk Dubois 1 and Bam Rodriguez in a unification fight against Kafu. Oh yeah the card also starts in the U.S. at

4 a.m. Eastern time and 1 a.m. Pacific time. So we can all get our Dakota fix, Luke, or at least my father. Luke, the number in question here is three and a half. Over, under the combined amount, including this PFL Africa card, the combined amount of MMA fights under the PFL banner that Dakota Ditcheva, Francis and Ghanu and Jake Paul, arguably the three biggest names on their

roster. Paul or Paul Hughes, Jake Paul. Uh, I'm yeah, there we go. Until extinction, until the PFL packs it in until they hit bankruptcy. I don't know what's going to happen next over under three and a half total MMA fights, including this one at PFL Africa. I'll take the under. I'll take the under. Okay. Isn't that disastrous? Yeah, Jake Paul won't fight at all.

You might get one more from Francis. You'll get a total of two from Dakota. That's it. Damn. Damn, that's where we're at, Luke. That's a dark start. All right, let's go to topic number two. Devin Haney's father, Bill, trainer and manager as well,

put out an official hit list for his son. You can see it right there on Twitter, showing the 10 opponents that he wants most next. Number one, being 140 pound champion Teo Fimo Lopez Jr. So Luke Oscar De La Hoya came out this week, he promotes Ryan Garcia. He says they don't want the Haney rematch next. There's a lot of hype behind Haney versus Teo coming next. Even Turkey and Ring have been tweeting out things that suggest that is the direction they're going next. Although a lot of people would like Teo to go to 147 and fight boots, but here we go. Devin Haney versus Teofimo Lopez, six and a half.

That is the over under on the amount of rounds that Haney would win in a 147 pound bout against Teofimo Lopez if they fought next. Six and a half. I'll take the under. I think Teo is a bad matchup for him. Ooh, how come Luke you, you signed in with Tim Bradley here? Yeah, I think Teo, well, not Teo Bradley thinks Teo is too much for boots. I don't agree with that, but, um, I do think his athleticism and his ability to find stuff

With it and his craft is gonna be too much for a guy like Haney who looked like absolute shit in his last fight All right. That's interesting. Um, I still I don't know if like it depends upon is Haney really broken Or were they just not taking any chances against Ramirez? The whole thing was weird Haney wasn't mentally yet there, but like if Haney bounces back I Could see in a boring fight him getting seven rounds against Teo in a in sort of a I can't not right now Okay, okay. I'm maybe I'm still believing in something that doesn't exist All right, Luke number three on the over wonders Have you seen this viral video that's going around showing like an attractive mom who was wearing a cannibal corpse t-shirt?

Sitting in her car and and complaining that high school guidance counselors today Don't push enough kids in the direction of trades like plumbing and HVAC. It's obviously a big topic in the news and in politics these days. Let's just get a quick snippet of it. So my eldest daughter just graduated high school. And do you know what the guidance counselor never said? Not one time. Hey, maybe look into the trades.

Nobody at that school ever said, hey, you could learn to fix an air conditioner and be making six figures before your friends finish intro to what the fuck am I doing with my life 101? Why do we still treat the trades like it's what you do if you fail the SATs? Like knowing how to install a furnace is somehow less valuable than writing a 12 page paper on the symbolism and the great Gatsby. Oh, there we go. Thank you, Long Island. I have that exact shirt. I didn that exact shirt.

I didn't want to make you sit through that if that wasn't the, you know, if it wasn't your topic of interest at the moment. But here's the deal. Over under nine and a half percent of females who own Cannibal Corp shirts that you assume you would be willing to bang. Having been now to many of these concerts, I am absolutely taking the fucking under.

Oh, maybe not a surprise. Maybe Luke, maybe I'm taking the under big time. Are you surprised she was wearing that? Yeah, I again, I have seen. Okay, so I've been to what six of them now, six other shows, six or seven, your poor wife. Wow. What a and at that time, not including my beautiful wife. So we're putting her to the like, you know,

we're not counting her. How many like pretty girls have I seen? The answer is one. One. Wow. All right. Okay. Well, we'll, we'll move on from there. It just gets darker and darker, Luke. Number four, we talk a lot about the UFC's current broadcasting deal with ESPN, which has set a new level of expectation in the sense that there's an event nearly every weekend. I mean, it's why the main card minute is cleaning up, right? They are there for you from the opening curtain jerker to the end, right? That's the name of your podcast, Curtain Jerker. There it is. I like that a lot.

Let's show the graphic here. In 2024, just to show you, last year, UFC did 42 total events, which isn't crazy. You can go back to 2014 when they did 48 events. So they've been as busy before. But Luke, here's the over under question I've got for you. 31, if we consider, there's what? 52 weekends a year?

31, over under for you, the ideal number of annual UFC cards that would both bolster the quality of each fight night and pay per view without slowing down or killing the business financially. I could go over, but just slightly. without slowing down or killing the business financially? I could go over, but just slightly. I could do no more than 35. And I think even that's pushing it. I think it's closer to 32, 33 is about right. I think 32, 33 is typically about right for them. So I'll take the over,

but not in some kind of dramatic sense. Like you put it right near my limit, but technically I can take the over, but not in some kind of dramatic sense. Like you put it right near my limit. Um, but technically I can take the over. I can take the long Alan Luke. Would it be a death sentence to your addictive fan? You'd have to hang out with a significant other that would do that. Would break them up. No, but I, uh, I like closer to like 40.

I wish they just spaced them out better. I know like, you know, 4th of July, we got, there's certain weekends you kind of got to take off, but like, I just wish they spaced them out better. I know like, you know, 4th of July, we got, there's certain weekends. You kind of got to take off, but like, I just wish they spaced them out better. We have that whole month off in December and then we have like 12 weeks straight. Well, I like that they kind of have a one month off season for their employees and stuff, but I hear you, you know, maybe you don't need that anymore. F the employees. He doesn't give a fuck about those employees. No, he doesn't. Let's go to number five, Luke. Erin Blanchfield told MMA Fighting on Wednesday that she doubts starweight champion, Zhong Wei Li, would find

success at women's flyweight. She doesn't even see her as a top five fighter. Let's listen quickly. Because I know that now people want to move up to another weight class. They're making them vacate their belt at the lower weight class and stay in the higher weight class. But I'm not sure if that's something... I'm sure Wei Lee wants to find Valentina because who doesn't like they're both, you know, been around for a while. And it'd be a cool champ first champ fight. But I don't know if she wants to stay at 25 and have to fight the rest of the girls in that division. I think that would be really hard for her.

But, you know, I mean, if she moves up, I plan on winning my fight and like a little less than three weeks now. And then maybe I have to fight again if I fight like silver or something like that and then I can get a title shot. I mean, I feel like no matter how it works out, it's going to be soon. I think Weili would be very similar. I think she could win some fights at Flyway because you know, she is very good. But I don't see her being a champ. I don't really see her even being top five.

I won 25. I think she's just, I mean, Rose was able to beat her twice and knock her out once. And Rose is like a little bit bigger than Weh-Li, at least like height wise. So Weh-Li has even less of a like advantage at 125 being even shorter. Yeah. I mean, she could fight there, but I don't see her being like top five or champ at 125. Luke, a little gatekeeping right there from Blanchfield. I kind of like that Luke. For you the over under in question here is five and a half. Let's put it to the test. The number of top 10 women's flyweights that you would favor Weili Zhong to beat right now.

I need to see the list. Give me a second here. Put me on the spot. All right. Number of flyweights I would pick to for Jean-Marie Lee to beat. So one, you got Natalia Silva, two, Manon Fiori, three, Grasso. She definitely beat her for Blanchfield. I don't think so. And five, Barber. Yeah. I'll take the under. I'll take the yeah.

Wow. Okay. So five and a half. Yeah. I don't think I don't, I don't see that. Does that mean that you partially agree with Aaron Blanchfield in this case? Partially, partially. I mean, I think on the right night, she's capable of beating just about anybody, you know,

but consistently hacking away at it over time. Yeah. I'm skeptical, especially now she's 31, 35, 36. Yeah. I'm a little skeptical. Interesting. Sometimes it makes people more youthful and better when they go up and wait, Luke. I mean, but also sometimes you can see that gap in size. Not everyone can close that gap. I went up and wait during the pandemic. It didn't make me more youthful. You know what I'm saying?

We, we got real fat, the pandemic. Holy crap. In hindsight, let's go to number six, Luke, on this fun filler game of ours, UFC hall of fame or Pat Milletage, unfortunately entered a Iowa jail on Thursday to begin say. Let's go to number six, Luke, on this fun filler game of ours. UFC Hall of Famer Pat Miletich unfortunately entered a Iowa jail on Thursday to begin a 30-day sentence dating back to a 2023 DUI when police found the 59-year-old passed out behind the wheel at a gas station with the car in drive. Miletich, of course, is an alumni Luke of the Jan six, 2021 insurrection. Uh, that notwithstanding Luke, you're over under is 73.

The last age that you believe Pat Miletich could overtake me in a jail cell brawl to the death one-on-one. How old is he now? He is currently 59. The over under a seven and I'm talking we're just straight up small small area. We're fighting to the death Luke. I'll take I'll wait. So am I what's the question again? Pat Milletage and I are gonna fight to the death and yeah yeah the number 73. What's the highest age? He

yeah 73. I don't think he can beat you at 73. So, I'd have to take the under. Wow. Okay. Okay. Long out look. Aging. You know this aging is **** terrible. Yeah but he has ground skills and heavy hands. You know what I mean? Yeah but dude a 70 year old man with one good shot and they're yeah Grandpa ain't coming through that door right now You got this BC you got this. Yeah. All right. Thank you very much Let's go to number seven Luke John Jones may be universally considered MMA's go

And he may own a victory over the recognized greatest UFC heavyweight in steep a meochich Even though steep a was 42 and oldest shit, but Jones was also the 18th He may own a victory over the recognized greatest UFC heavyweight in Stipe Miocic, even though Stipe was 42 and old as shit, but Jones was also the 18th undisputed heavyweight champion in UFC history until that became disputed when Aspinal won the interim title at the end of 2023 when Jones was injured. So the over under is 12 and a half of the other 17 UFC heavyweight champions if you took them in their heavyweight prime versus the heavyweight prime of Jones, which we have to say is the 2023 version that beat gone over under on the former UFC heavyweight champs that you

think Jones would beat if we did mythical matchups here? Because it is an older John and we only saw a little bit against serial gone and, and some, some, I take the under. Wow. Yeah. I take the under. I mean, we're talking like, does he beat Rico Rodriguez? Probably. Yeah.

Probably Rico was Rico was fucking good. He probably does beat him, but Rico's not some bitch No, I'm saying there are certain guys from a different era's where yeah, you know, yeah But his ground game is gonna mop up a lot of these guys. Is it not Luke? I Mean the Marie Smith's of the world definitely but like Kane Yeah, that's a yes, I'm not so sure about that. Mexico City, Verdun. I don't know if he's messing with that guy. Verdun was fucking good. Prime steep was real good. We

did have some even though this division heavyweight, especially in the UFC has been the least consistent, the most all or nothing, like not a lot of longevity or depth. But the high moments. Okay, what about prime Randy? He beats Randy. He beats Randy. Okay. Yeah, okay Prime Brock he beats too and you know it Probably although that's a different one because Brock's a fucking animal, you know, Frank Murm I give him a little bit of trouble. He might put that much Frank Murm. I give him real trouble again prime Frank mirror Yeah, okay. You're gonna take the under let's go to number eight

Luke after Netflix reported that 74 million viewers watched the second Katie Taylor Amanda Serrano fight which happened to come on the Jake Paul Mike Tyson undercard That's the most watched fight in women's sports history It set the stage now for their trilogy which will headline a July 11th Netflix card from MSG in New York, Jake Paul's MVP promotion formally announced the entire five bout card on Thursday, which features, by the way, five of the top 10 women's pound for pound fighters on the same night. I thought that was a pretty good factoid, but you're over under his 20 million. If this fight did

74 million last time, but with Jake and Mike as the lead in, you're over under on total Taylor Toronto 3 viewers that Netflix will report without Mike Tyson on this card. As we do head into for boxing fans, hell yeah, a must-see trilogy. I'm gonna take the under. 20 million is give or take what an NFL game will do. No, it won't do that. I'll take the under. Damn Tyson Paul, like say what you will and we did. We will. We will continue. But that thing was a magnet. I mean, I'll forget the night of that fight. I went to dinner early at one of my neighborhood eateries and not one but two tables around me both with children were both talking about it and I was like yo this fight is going to be fucking

huge and then it was absolute dog shit. We go to number nine on over under ESPN NFL reporter and friend of the program Mark Ray Mundy has a book coming out on June 24th on the history of pro wrestling's greatest faction, of course the NWO, that he's hoping will become a New York Times best seller. Watch this tough guy video that I put out there. I like it. Did you know that no journalistic book about pro wrestling has ever made the New York Times

Bestseller list or Amazon number one? Well, what if I told you that can all change soon? I'm Mark Raymondi, author of Say Hello to the Bad Guys, a professional wrestling news world order changed America. We need your help. If you want to continue to see projects about pro wrestling that paints it or spray paints it in the disturbing light please pre-order Say Hello to the Bad Guys now on Amazon or wherever you get your books. Because books just like the NWO. Or, like. Luke, that's like the toughest he's ever looked or the most cringiest. It's dependent upon

your taste, but he was- I love Mark Raimondi. I'll never read that book. Well, that's a great segue. By the way, shout out to Mark Raimondi. I've started reading it. I'm looking forward to interviewing him on the BCX to talk about it, Luke, cause I get down like that. Obviously you don't. So you're over under is $3,500. The total cash amount that Ramondi would need to pay you so that you would read

it and then review the book on your YouTube channel. Yeah, that's not gonna be nearly enough. So no, you gotta get much higher than that. Like this is between friends. This is him DMing you and saying, dude, like I just would love, I think your fan base would love this book. I just love, you know, and you're like, all right, bro,

but it's gonna have to be, it's like this Qatari, you know, plane, right? Like, you know, we're gonna have to rub each other a little bit on this. So what am I getting? Yeah, I mean, this is equivalent to being like, how much would it take for you to like, you know, watch gay porn? I'm like, well, it's, you know, I'm not an interest in mine. Wow. We just went from having a nice commercial to support our friend to, uh, but I hope people,

I hope, I hope that the people who do care about this kind of thing buy and watch this book and support Mark Ramondi because he's a great guy. 3500 with like an honest plea from him. That's like friend. I want this to be a desk. My time is precious. Your time is money, but not that much money. Wow. All right. You learned a lot about Luke in that answer. Your final one though, Luke, this is the most important. This is the hardest hitting question of all. After 23 years, 4831 episodes today. May 23rd, 2025 is the final episode of the long-running Around the Horn show on ESPN, which is still filmed in Washington, D.C. By comparison,

Luke, Morning Combat is closing in on its sixth birthday this July. I have no idea how many episodes we've done, but we've done far fewer than the 4,831 that Around the Horn did. So your over under is two and a half years. The amount of time as we enter our sixth birthday that you believe MK realistically has left before cancellation or there's no more money or we've lost our you know whatever that sort of endpoint rock bottom is over under I gotta close the door I mean are you really asking me this question on the air I think the air is the is the is the best place for this question Luke you know I mean we I mean you probably gotta take the under right? Like media. We listen, but we don't judge. Yeah. All right. Well, let me just ask you,

of course we could survive much longer than this, but what I'm saying is like, who I are. Okay. So I had somebody write me yesterday, a kid in college, and he was like, I want to merge my passion for MMA and journalism. What's your advice? And I'm like, yeah, don't do that. Don't do that. You're like become a porn, uh, cameraman, anographer or a rug coin, meme coin, fucking polar, like the worst fucking thing you could imagine doing is getting into the MMA media business in 2020. I mean, it's the worst idea you could possibly have. Yeah, don't do that shit.

All right. There you go. Don't follow your dreams either. Luke Thomas, that's over under for you. Luke, will it see another day or what? Over under? Yeah. Yeah, but this one went a little long.

We got to tighten it up a little bit. All right. We'll tighten it up. Hey, we have one more segment for you and And we put some steaks on the line, maybe even on the grill too. This one is gonna be called MK Jeopardy. Once again, no animation. There's the no animation animation.

So how this is gonna work, Luke and I will compete head to head for 100, 200, 300, 400, and $500 questions. Typical Jeopardy across their five categories, MMA, boxing, MK show history, shelters, and random. We don't know the questions, obviously. We won't lose money for getting them wrong

except for two daily doubles, where you get to pick how much you want to bet, and you will lose it on the daily double So that's sort of your wild card, but Luke and I will go back and forth for control of the board You can steal it if the other person doesn't get it and The payoff is Wednesday June 4th when we do UFC 316 pregame preview with Aaron Bronstead alive with Cuervo on the morning combat YouTube channel 11 a.m. Eastern. The other person has to wear the t-shirt of choice. This is

going to be amazing. Okay. Here we go. Luke Thomas, do you want to start it off? Because we never know is Luke going to play ball? Is he going to submarine this? Like what you want to go first, Luke? Take the week. We never know is Luke going to play ball or is he going to submarine this? I mean, what kind of a statement is that? It insulting one, Luke. Meant to sort of rile you up and get you on your game. You know, let's go.

I'll take MMA 400. Do you guys want me to read these? Or you want me to just- Yes, you read them. All right. MMA for 400. What was the first pay-per-view event that the ufc debuted their new gloves in 2024 now let me ask the question do are we allowed any kind of hints

or is just like raw dog like this raw dog baby brandon boy ball oh yes thank you um I'm gonna say UFC 300 but I don't think that's right. It was UFC 302. You gotta give him a chance to steal. All right I was gonna say UFC 305 so I would have got it wrong. Thank you for cheating. Now in the event that we both get it wrong does it go back to BC anyway? it would go back to you but because i fucked that up we'll give it to bc okay fine all right there we go i'm gonna go with random for 100 here let's go let's get on the board random for 100 cannibal corpse and my morning jacket each have had eight studio albums that

made the u.s top 200 but who has had more make the top 100? This is just an either or question. We're going 50-50 on this. That's going to kill the steel. I mean, who wrote these? Let's go. I'm going to go with, I think it's a setup question, so I'm going to go Cannibal Corpse because they do sell well to a certain dark audience.

Yeah, there we go. Put a hundred on the board. They have had five in the top 100. My morning jacket has had. I just want to say it's a little bit bullshit that he gets a multiple choice answer and that I didn't, but I believe that's the only multiple choice answer. All right. So, all right. So this is my control of the board here. Here we go. Let's go to MK show history for, for a 100. MK show history. 100 since being at theArk Studio, we've had four in-studio guests.

Name all of them. Since being at the MetalArk Studio, our four guests have been Craig Jones, Jed Meshue, Chuck Mindenhall. Are we doing a timer on this or? Yeah, I think you got to count me down. There we go. Three, two, one. Yeah. Luke, do you want to steal the fourth guest? All right.

Craig Jones, Chuck Mindenhall, Jed Meshue. And. Dog, I don't fucking know. I know who the hell is it. It's your boy, Danny Segerha. Oh, fuck. Hey, how did I not say that? Me? Yes, you're so right.

God damn it. We get it. Yeah. All right, Luke, you can take it. Why don't you take it? Also, I've wait, wait, wait, wait, real quick because I'm doing 10 things at once guys. So I apologize. I've totally forgot to been keeping score, but no one's gotten anything right.

Yeah, I've gotten one. It's 100 to nothing BC. Yeah, you got the 100. That's right. You've got to keep score Long Island, Luke. All right. Let's do, let's do random 200. All right. You've got to keep score along. I'll look. All right. I do. Let's do. Let's do random 200. All right.

Random for 200. Which two city states fought in the Pelo Polynesian War? Oh, Athens and Sparta. That is correct. I mean, that's easy. It's easy for you. We were hoping B.C. would get it. You know. Oh, gosh. That's great. All right. Let's do for you. We were hoping BC would get it, you know. Oh gosh. Oh gosh, that's great.

All right. Let's do random three. Random for three. Forget the five boroughs of New York City. Can you name the five counties of New York City? I think one is Kings County. Correct. Queens County.

Correct. I'm out. I don't know after that. BC, would you like to steal? So, Kings, Queens, Suffolk? No, that's Long Island. Ah, mother effer. Then I'm there we go. I'm I I be. What are they? It's New York which is Manhattan, Bronx which is the Bronx, Queens which is Queens, Kings which is Brooklyn, and Richmond which is Staten Island. I was never going to get that. I mean, it's Jersey, Staten Island's Jersey. That's true. I agree with that.

Yeah. There we go with that one. Uh, Luke, do you go again? Do I go here? I guess, uh, I'll go again, I guess. Uh, let's do random four random for four, solve this math equation 35. Wow. that was quick. Yes, that is correct. All right. And then random five. Hold on, hold on.

Score wise, give me a sec. All right, you got 600 now. I was told there wouldn't be math. Come on. That's it. I think that's the only math. Let's do random five. Random for five.

What is the world record for most hot dogs eaten at Nathan's famous hot dog eating contest? I'm gonna guess 76 That is incorrect BC. Would you like to steal? 74 It is 83 by Joey All right in the interest of fairness Brian can take the next one. All right, let's let's hit it boxing for 500 Let's splash the pot here. Boxing for 500 who defeated Manny Pacquiao in his professional debut.

Oh man. I'm not going to be able to pull that. That is tough. I'm not. What I don't think didn't you? I don't think he lost his pro debut. Actually, am I wrong in the they're not doing trick questions. Are you I didn't come up with this question

and I didn't fact check it. But so I wouldn't be able to give you the name regardless, but I thought he would. He lost twice in the, uh, in the early, in like the first 10 or 15. And I think one, at least once by stoppage when he was, uh, dehydrated, uh, in his pro debut, not man. Okay. Now they're saying not man. He's pro debut Okay, um, I Used to know the the names can't pull him out the minute Lucas gonna have to skill Man, I can't I got nothing for you. All right, the guy's name was rustico Torracampo. Yes, I used to know that for sure rustico torque. Yeah, can I have it back then go for it? Let's try del's for two. Delta's for two. Which country was the first to legalize

cannabis for recreational use? Because a bunch of places decriminalized it. I'm gonna say Uruguay. Damn, that's a good guess. You are correct. Damn, Luke, you're putting the crush on me right now. All right, let's do Delta's three. Delta's for 300. Ooh, that is a daily double.

So Luke. Yeah! This is where he's gotta risk it too. You have eight points right now. So before seeing the question, how much do you wanna risk? But you'll lose it if you get it wrong, Luke. This is the only's got to risk it to have eight points right now. So before seeing the question, how much do you want to risk? But you'll lose it if you get it wrong, Luke. This is the only time that I'm going to you know what? I'm going to keep it. I'm going to keep it moderate.

I'm going to go to 200 200. Okay. So for 200, Delta is number three, there are still five US states where marijuana is completely illegal. Can you name three of them? This is both recreationally and medicinally illegal. Can you name three of them? This is both recreationally and medicinally illegal. So I'm going to say Alabama.

That is incorrect. Fuck. All right. Well, I don't know. Florida is one of them. Even medicinally? No. So Florida has medicinal. Okay. So what, Arcade, are you giving up BC? I mean I guess we're getting wrong then. Because you can't steal it, yeah. So what was the answer?

So the five states are Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, North Carolina, and South Carolina. I think Texas just actually made it illegal as well. I saw that literally today, like in the lazy bench. Today or yesterday, yeah. Alright BC, you're up. I think Texas just actually made it illegal as well. I saw that literally today like in the hazy bed Shut up today or yesterday. Yeah All right BC you're up. All right, Luke just lost 200 that puts me back in let's go boxing 100 Boxing for 100 that is also a daily double Wow Now I got a risk at all let's go 100 here, right? Yeah, that's all you could do

We've had four boxing guests on the show since moving to DraftKings. Name all four guests. Damn, that's a good question. Bam Rodriguez. Correct. Keyshawn Davis. Correct.

David Benavides. Incorrect. Oh, eat shit, bitch. Take them. You're down to zero. You punk ass bitch. I'm down to zero, right? Cause Luke can't steal. All right. So it was Teofimo Lopez, Jesse Bam Rodriguez, Sean Porter and Keyshawn Davis. So this is, dude, I'm taking a big L here. You know, they knew I would lose the math ones, but I'm Rodriguez, Sean Porter and Keishon Davis. So this is dude, I'm taking a big L here. You know, they knew I would lose the math ones, but I'm not even getting like the boxing slash MK history layup ones here. Let's get an easy point on the board. Let's do Delta's 100. Delta's for 100.

What does THC stand for? Tetra hydro. Can cannabinoid tetro tetra hydro can I'm gonna go with that that cannabinoid tetra hydro tetra hydro if he's close you gotta give it to him because all right it's tetra hydro cannabinol but yeah he'll take that's good enough for me. You can. All right. If BC says it's good enough, I'm not gonna fight. All right.

All right. Let's do MMA three. MMA for 300 of the 14 UFC pay per views in 2024. How many of them were headlined by someone named Alex? Okay. Then we're just talking pay per views. All right. were headlined by someone named Alex. Okay. Then we're just talking pay-per-views. All right, so at least three of them. But that probably can't be the answer.

Who are the other Alex's beyond him that were headlining pay-per-views? Put a clock on this guy, let's go. 10 seconds. I'll say four. I'm not going to be outlining pay-per-views. Put a clock on this guy. Let's go. Um 10 seconds. I'll say four. That is incorrect. BC. I need to steal five. Two Vulcanovsky, three poets. Oh **** That is also

incorrect. What? The answer is six. Three poets on two I mean dude, it starts with the three. All right, all right, all right. Yeah. Who was Ian Gary's UFC debut against? Oh, shit. It's a great question. I should know it, especially about you.

And I will say, if Luke has to steal, we're changing the question. These are specific to each other, so. Well, no, if he can steal, he can steal it. Take it. No, this wasn't either or. Depending on who landed on it, I had a BC version and an LT version

So I see it's a great question. I don't even know the answer. I'm gonna These questions are fucking hard man, I know but it's it's doable it should be there it's not in the moment I've got a pass All right. So should I give Luke should I give Luke his specific or should I give me my specific? All right, who is Ilya Toporia's UFC debut against? Yusuf Zalal. All right. Shouldn't have given him the specific.

Ian Garry's was Jordan Williams. There we go. I wouldn't have gotten that one. All right. Let's do MMA 2. All right. Hold on. Let me add your points quick.

800. MMA for 200. How many combined title defenses does the Sarah Longo team have? Dude, these fucking questions are fucking hard. They are hard, yeah, they are hard. Okay, so, Weidman's got three. Aljo had three, going to say six. Merab's had what? Um at least two. So, there's who am I not thinking of here? Sarah didn't have any. Um

I'll say eight. Am I missing that is incorrect. **** me, dude. Seven. Merab had one one that is correct Rx-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r wrong way there. Hold on guys, bear with me. Which one did you want PC? I wanted 500. MMA for 500. How many future or former champions fought on the UFC 205 card? I got a couple hints for you here. There were 11 fights on the card, so 22 total fighters, and three of those were title fights, so at least three were on the card. How many total future former champions? Okay, these are these are future or former champions. Here we go Connor Eddie Yoana

Tyron Woodley Misha Tate, Rocky Pennington, Bilal Muhammad, that's seven. Chris Weidman, eight. Yoel Romero, nine. Nine. No, not, no. Take Rom Romero, nine, nine. No, not, no, take Romero back eight. Romero never a full J.B. Eight, Weidman eight. Eight is my answer.

That is incorrect. Can I steal? Yes. The answer is nine because you forgot about Rose. Rose was not on that card. Fuck. Is the answer nine? Is the answer nine?

The answer is 11. Fuck. Who did I miss? So how answer nine? The answer is 11. Fuck. Who did I miss? So how about this? You missed Liz Karmouche. You missed Khabib Nurmagomedov. Oh my god. How do we forget about Khabib? And you missed Frankie Eiger. I forgot he was even on. I couldn't pull up who's on that card to save my life. So just to name them all in order of lowest to highest, it was Liz Karmouche, Bilal Mohammed, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Frankieav, Frankie, Iger, Misha Tate, Rocky, Pennington, Chris, Wideman, Joanna, and Jay check Tyron Woodley, Eddie Alvarez, Connor McGregor. Wow. That was a tough question.

That would have been worth the 500. I got it wrong. Let's burn. Let's burn through this. Let's try a Delta's for four deltas for four. Who said this quote? That is not a drug, it's a leaf. Bob Marley. Incorrect. I have no fucking idea. BC? Marshawn Lynch.

No, it is actually Luke's idol, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Oh, really? Oh, from the pumping iron documentary. Okay. Let's go boxing for 400. Boxing for 400. Name all five Gary Russell brothers. Okay. Gary Russell Jr. Gary Antonio Russell, Gary Antoine Russell.

Oh man, this is, this is shameful. Barry Allen Russell. That's four. Yeah. One more. Damn. It is a bootleg brother, isn't it? Damn. I don't think he boxes.

That's probably why. Yeah, I am Gary Anthony. Russell. Incorrect, Luke. I have no fucking idea. It is Isaiah. That's a hard but great question four out of five you did good all right let's do boxing for two boxing for two

which boxer ended Julio Cesar Chavez's 87 fight unbeaten streak in 1994 de la 1994. De La Hoya? That is incorrect. B.C. Frankie Randall? That is correct. Wow! Good job, B.C. Good job. Thank you. Boxing for three. Let me add these points. Boxing for three. Of the top five highest grossing boxing pay-per-views of all time, only one fight didn't involve Floyd Mayweather. Who fought in that fight? Of the top five. That's a great question. Only one did not involve Floyd Mayweather. So you have to get both names.

Correct. Yeah Damn Okay, I'm down what Mike Tyson versus Roy Jones Incorrect, can I steal? Yes, Mike Tyson in Holyfield Correct. Yes I want to I wanted I want you to specify which one but I'll know you just said name who's in the motherfuckers Okay, they're right. You're right. You're right. That's incorrect. Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis did like 1.9 million. That's the highest Tyson fight until and then he did 1.5 with Roy Jones. He said correct. I'm not fighting them. Put the points on

the fucking ring magazine. Just put out like a top five thing. This is what I mean. Are you saying they're not a credible source? Is that what you guys are? Well, they could be using international pay-per-views where from that era we use North America. All right. All right. Give me the point. I'm sorry. Give me the point. That's fine. That's fine. He can get it. Go ahead. Alright, alright, let's do this. Uh, show history too. I'm terrible at this show history for 200.

We filmed 11 RSD's in the bomb shelter. Can you name eight of the guests? What the fuck kind of question is this? Alright, very sure. Let's see Laura Senko Sean Brady Glover Tashira Anthony Smith

Aaron Blanchfield AJ McKee In the bomb shelter in the bomb shelter, in the bomb shelter. Um. Fuck me. Um. Dude, these are hard ass questions. These are not easy.

Give me a second. Hold on to this. Because you got eight names is a lot. How many does he have, Luke? Six. He has six. I have six. I'll give you 10 seconds to name two more.

All right. Five. I don't know. I'm at my end. All right. BC, can you name two more? Corey Anderson. Fuck. Five. I don't know. I'm at my end. All right. BC, can you name?

Corey Anderson. And Chuck Mendenhall. Correct. Oh, so all 11 bullshit one. No, you guys did an RSD with Chuck. Yeah, we did. All right. All right.

He's not dead. Sherry, Sean Brady, Demetrious Johnson, AJ McKee, Chuck Mendenhall, Corey Anderson, Laura Sanko, Anthony Smith, Aaron Blanchfield, Ray Long, and I'm going to go with the first one. with Chuck. Yeah. Yeah, we did. All right. All right. He's not dead. Let's go. Sean Brady, Demetrius Johnson, AJ McKee, Chuck Mendenhall, Corey Anderson, Laura Sanko, Anthony Smith, Aaron Blanchfield, Ray Longo, Matt Favola. Oh my God. Yes. Let's go. Delta's 500. I got one chance at this. Let's go. Uh, hold on. How many points was that worth? 202. Yeah. Sorry, guys. Delta is for how much, B.C.? Five hundred five.

That's a tough one. We once allegedly played a fan ripping a bong at an islanders game on. Have you seen the shit? What brand bong was it? It's a worthy five hundred. It's it's it's an obscure, but not impossible. I'm going to have to. It's it's it's an obscure but not impossible. Um, I I'm going to have to, I don't know it. I don't know it.

Would you say brand? You mean like company? The name brand of the bong. Yeah. Not like what model number. Yeah. Uh, I'm going to say the Tyson brand. No, it was an Illidelf. Oh, I mean, I would have never gotten that Tyson brand. No, it wasn't ill Adelph. Oh, I mean, I would have never gotten that. All right, my go. Yep. Yes. All right.

Uh, let's round it out. Show three show history for three. Who is the fighter featured in our most viewed short of all time? I don't understand that. the Correct. BC Floyd Mayweather. It was also incorrect. It is the tank Davis interview that Luke did where he's talking about Shakur did 3.9 million views. Jesus. Did it really? All right. I'm down by 500. There's two questions left. One for 400 and one for 500 in MK show history. Let's go with 400. All right. MK show history for 400. This is a hard one. How many items is Luke seen putting into his mouth in the MK intro? The revamped MK intro? Three.

Close but incorrect. Can I steal? Yes. Four. Correct. I shouldn't have said close. That's my fault. Four. Correct. I shouldn't have said close. That's my fault. Yeah.

Now give me the points, bitch. It was for you put a vape in your mouth, a granola, granola, I guess, Pepto Bismol and you're doing a shoey drinking beer. Oh, okay. Yeah. All right. Last one. Let's just do it for five.

Let's go. I win, but let's do it for five. All right. Show history, four or five. How many? I'm going to give you a leeway here. How many total numbered podcast episodes did we have? It's in past tense because we stopped numbering them once all the smoke started. So pre all the smoke and you're allowed to get within 20 of the actual number. I'm gonna say. I'm gonna say 550. You fucking nailed it. We had 540.

Damn mother fuck. Look at me BC wow wow. Look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me bitch. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me, bitch. Look, can we get a preview of what you're thinking for the shirt? Oh yeah. Like I eat ejaculate or something absolutely unbearable that he'll have to wear. Yeah. Oh yeah. Uh, Oh gosh. I really got taken to school there. So I got to pay the Piper Wednesday,

July 4th, 11 a.m. Eastern on the Morning Combat YouTube channel. It is pregame preview brought to you by Cuervo and I'll wear the shirt in question. All right, before we go, we did want to shout out a fantastic interview that took place on our Brotherhood podcast, The Art of Ward Under All the Smoke Fight featuring Andre Ward with the legend himself, Bernard Hopkins. and you know it's gonna be lengthy. They go two hours, I listen to all, it's so good about the wide range of topics going from Hopkins being a state prison champ to becoming a world champion. His famous fight with Tito Trinidad and the riot he started in Puerto Rico.

The body shot to the liver, You'll understand that joke when you watch it against Oscar De La Hoya. Check out BeHop Breakdown, his historic stoppage of the Golden Boy. And to watch the episode, you can head over now to the All the Smoke Fight YouTube channel. Let's watch a snippet of it right now. You stop Oscar with a sneaky left hook to the body in the ninth round. What do you have to say to people that say, ah, I was fixed, he wasn't hurt, that wasn't a strong shot? What do you have to say to people that say that? What would I say to people that say that that wasn't a strong enough shot for Oscar not to get up?

I would say, have you ever been hitting the liver? Probably not. Until you get hit in the liver, you will understand that the liver is not supposed to be hit on. I heard the gasp and I knew he wasn't getting up. The timing of it was more than a punch. As an athlete, you and I know and anyone else out there will understand, even if you're not an athlete, you get the wind knocked out of you.

It's a problem. How do you shake a lever shot? How do you stop air being forced out of you? You can check that out on all the smoke fights. Shout out to B-Hop. I'm gonna take a shot. Air been You know the significance of that Dale LaHoya Hopkins fight? I believe that was 2004, if I'm correct. It was the first recognized four belt undisputed championship fight of this modern era. Very cool. With Hopkins winning by knockout there.

There you go. Check that out. Follow the show at these social approved channels right there. You can follow us on our YouTube journeys as well. Uh check out my interview with Eddie Hearn this week. Luke, you have anything to promote there on Luke Thomas Live on Substack. Gonna take a break this weekend. Got some cool stuff for Substack on Tuesday. Obviously, you have a

great weekend on Monday and everything like that but uh yeah, Tuesday. Stay tuned. Long Island Luke, will you be, you know, being a great boyfriend this weekend with not much fights going on? Yes I will be being a great boyfriend no content also happy Memorial Day to everyone no show Monday we're going live Tuesday. Tuesday live uh 11 a.m. Eastern at morning combat on on YouTube thank you so much guys Reach the show at morning combat at gmail.com. Let's get those Fridays awesome again. Did you like today's fanfare funfare? Well, let us know. We had some fun. We rolled out the balls.

Luke Thomas, anything else that the people need to hear from you? I like the encouragement. Don't follow your dreams. Yeah. Get in shape. Let's end this. Yeah. Oh, let's let's go home. I've got another job. All right, for LT, it's BC and the LIL. We're out of here. Thanks, folks. All the smoke fighters headed to the Hall of Fame.

That's right. This year's International Boxing Hall of Fame induction weekend in boxing's hometown, Canister, New York, takes place from Thursday, June 5th, through Sunday, June 8th, ending with an annual ceremony immortalizing boxing's all-time greats.

The International Boxing Hall of Fame are hosting fan events and experiences all weekend long. On Friday night, June 6th, Salida Promotion will present a terrific fight card in association with All the Smoke Fight, live on The Zone, from the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Ramona, New York. Featuring USBA Heavyweight Champion Brandon Moore,

defending his title against undefeated prospect Stanley Wright in the main event. Plus a stacked undercard featuring world champion Franchon Fouze Dazern and rising prospects JJ Pagan and Devel Smith. Sounds to me we're going to have a great fight night. And of course, Sunday, the ceremony to induct the class of 2025.

Legends like Manny Pac-Man Pacquiao, Michael Second-to-None, and the Pazmanian Devil, Vinny Paz. Join all the smoke fight and salida promotion at Turning Stone Resort Casino for this year's International Boxing Hall of Fame Induction Weekend. Hey listen, visit turningstone.com for accommodations and tickets to Friday's Fight Night. Visit ibhof.com for the full induction weekend schedule. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.