MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Jon Jones Update | 2022 PFL World Championship | Fight Announcements | Ep 378

Episode Date: November 23, 2022

On Episode 378 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian start the show by breaking down the Jon Jones news. Will we really see Jon back in March of 2023? Next up the boys preview PFL's 2022 World Championships. What should we be looking for on this card? Arnold Allen called for a Max Holloway fight, does this fight make sense? The close out the show with a weekend boxing preview and fan submissions. (8:00) - Jon Jones Update (34:00) - PFL World Championship (62:30) - Fight Announcements (88:05) - Arnold Allen calls out Max Holloway (98:00) - Weekend Boxing Preview Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, it's hump day. It's the day before turkey day we got dj wax weasel we got dj cte in the house in this bitch hi everyone it's morning combat it's 23rd of november 2022 uh my dad turned 82 yesterday how about that uh shouts to old dad thomas turning 82 all right happy birthday yeah my name is luke thomas i'm one half of your hosting duo i joined you from the capital of status news right here in washington dc my partner in crime you know him from the uh grand streets of nogata connecticut where you know if you uh if you don't die from a meth overdose you'll probably just uh die from a different kind of overdose hi Hi, Brian Campbell. How are you?

Like those three women in Destiny's Child, I'm a survivor, all right? I'm not going to give up. I come from the wrong side of the tracks, but look at me now, right? I think you're more what TLC was talking about when they mentioned scrubs. Yeah, no scrubs, all right? I was once a scrub, but look at me now.

Hey, welcome to what used to be one of my favorite days of the year. They call it Valley New Year where I'm from, Luke. The day before Thanksgiving, you know, you get out of work early, figure out your bar schedule, look at all the, you know, recent graduates that are now of age that you can make a run after, you know, if you were in the game, right? But, you know, now I'm just, you know, just a nice homely family man, you know. Emphasis on homely.

All right, so we have a fun show for you today. We have a lot going on. Let's see, there's some Jon Jones news. PFL is in a couple of days. We'll talk about that pay-per-view that they have. Yo, that's a pay-per-view, brother. All right, that's a championship. For better or for worse.

For better or for worse. It's a pay-per-view and a lot of other things. So if you're watching on YouTube, thumbs up. Please hit subscribe if you are new here. If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, do be so kind as to give us a nice review. As a reminder, Showtime.com is the label that pays. Go ahead, BC. Oh, I keep talking about our label that pays us.

I love that label, but I wanted to remind the people that Friday, Black Friday, day after Thanksgiving, time with your family. For me, it's a family tradition. We put up the christmas tree put the lights up all that uh we have already pre-taped a fantastic mailbag episode brought to you by the questions that our viewers asked us on social media so enjoy that friday 11 a.m eastern uh check out our anthony smith room service diaries episode that's available right now youtube.com slash morning combat look some people have said that's the best rsd we've ever done the anthony smith one that's what that's what some have said yeah it's pretty good it's definitely pretty good so go check that out youtube.com slash morning combat as i was saying though before showtime.com is the label that pays there are some bellator events left in the month if you want to watch those things best place to

do that of course is going to be at showtime showtime.com 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you are allowed to bounce as bc also indicated black friday your boys over at uh well this place morningcombat.store they're gonna have some some deals for you over there so if you want some merch and you're in like the christmas shopping game this is your window right there the bomber jackets bc can't slow your roll, Kyrie. We welcome people of all faiths and holidays for December in terms of gift shopping. But I will say, if you go to morningcombat.store,

you put your email address in that opening on the front page, you're going to get an email from RJ Gangbanger himself with the best deals this side of merch. Do any of our competitors make merch? I mean, I've actually seen people in the wild wearing mk clothes i've never seen a helwani shirt or hat anywhere i'm doing a bit here no i've never i've never seen it i'm just trying to um we made merch when we did the a-team stuff over at um over at uh mma beat but I don't think that's like

I think it's just a Vox Media thing. I don't know if they allow that kind of thing. I'm sure there's a 10-7 hoodie out there somewhere, but all I'm saying is, Luke, if you check the scoreboard lately, Morning Combat is coming, and they're on top, and we're here to stay. We win awards, and we put sweatshirts on your back, and they're very comfortable, so

check us out. Continue to hey, take the taste test. Go around the tour of the combat sports offerings, the shows, the podcast, all that shit. You know, taste and see what you got, okay? If you end up coming back to MK, you're welcome. There you go. As a reminder, of course, the email, morningcombat at gmail.com

for today's fan subs, which we'll get to a little bit later in the show, as well as Friday's Dead Wrong, which we'll get to not this Friday, but the following. So the next one is probably going to be a hefty dose of L's. We'll take those a little bit later. BC, I don't know what you're sipping on. I had mine earlier this morning, but you know what I'm talking about. AG1, Athletic Greens, the best way to get any day started. Am I right?

I am talking about that, and I do get MK viewers and listeners that DM me and say, BC, look, I'm serious. Are you guys just doing a bit or does that really help you? Do you really take it? I take it every morning, okay? It's one scoop of the magic green powder, fill up my glass of water, mix it up. And you know what?

What I've built there is a foundation to start my day with something that's clean, healthy, filled with high quality vitamins, minerals, whole foods, sourced superfoods, probiotics, adaptogens, basically all the stuff that I'm kind of missing in my very selective and ignorant and stubborn way of dieting the world and, you know, trying to be healthy. Well, now I got a shortcut. Now I got some cliffs notes, if you will, a tale of two cities, right? One of them. Oh, you know, I'm from swanky Georgia where everything's great.

Oh, we're in the debate team in the math bowl. No, the other city in this tale is a dark factory town where sometimes people don't make it. But here I am, thanks to AG1. I think if you saw where I came from, you would not assume it's radically different from where you came from, if I could be honest about that. Also, I want to point out, it's good for gut health, nervous system, immune support, energy, focus, recovering. BC, it's lifestyle friendly.

You can take it on live stream days. And of course, whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free, or gluten-free, contains less than one gram of sugar, no GMOs, no nasty chemicals, no artificial anything, while still tasting pretty dang good. Yeah. You know what I like best about it though? The price, less than $3 a day to really, for some of us to start a new chapter, to start

fresh, to take over our health coming up on that vaunted new year where everybody vows to do that. If you're already investing in a cold brew habit or you're vaping like a dirty son of a bitch, hey guys, you can go down that road, right? Two roads emerged in the woods, and you know what Frost chose? He chose not to vape like a large orangutan. I mean, he chose to get healthy, okay? That's the road less traveled, and it costs less than $3 a day with AG1.

I don't know where you left that off, but right now it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition, especially heading into the flu and cold season. And I know what they're saying, Luke. Why would I listen to these two pieces of shit? Don't listen to us. How about those 7,000 people that gave five-star reviews for Athletic Greens after trying it?

How about Tim Ferriss and Michael Gervais, bitch? And of course, just one scoop in a cup of water every day. That's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health and to make it even easier on our people. You go to athletic greens.com slash morning combat today, put in your first order. Here's what you're going to get for free brother. Five free travel packs. I take them on the road, slice it open, pour it in the glass. You're great. And how about a one year supply of immune

supporting vitamin D? It's a droplet. I put it in my athletic greens every morning gives me that additional boost right now athletic greens.com slash morning combat in fact luke they can take ownership over their health and pick the ultimate daily nutritional insurance with ag1 that's right athletic greens.com slash morning combat to take ownership of your health and as as BC indicated, pick up the ultimate daily insurance. Verbatim. Verbatim. Verbatim. Not really, but kind of close.

All right. Let's go with topic number one, BC. Let's get the show started here, where I think the most important news is, certainly the most high-profile news. There's a bit of a John Jones update. It comes to us from Nolan King over at MMA Junkie. Here is what he basically reported, that John Jones is nearing a comeback, they say for real.

The UFC apparently plans to have him at UFC 285, one way or the other. With Stipe Miocic out of the picture, by the way, Stipe recently sharing on social media his father died on Sunday, I believe, so obviously condolences to him. I'm going to imagine that means he's really not going to be prepared to be fighting at UFC 285. They say that Francis Ngannou is the hope.

We'll put an asterisk on that. We'll come back in just a second. If he's not healthy, it could be, of course, Curtis Blades. Now, the question that is sort of interesting to me, BC, is, per the situation or per the sources close to the situation, if Ngannou is ready, that'll be the fight the UFC wants. If not, there is a plan C, which is Curtis Blades. The UFC also has Cyril Ghosn in consideration

for similar planning position as Blades, though there are concerns about his return timeline from injury. Now, BC, I do want to pitch this to you first, and I'm going to, but I do want to introduce one other factor here. Ghosn's con... Excuse me, not Ghosn. Francis Ngannou's contract ends at the end of this year before i think right or right before certainly 285 which means in order for francis to be on the table he would have to renew that's what i would say and which makes me wonder bc is this a leaked report

or i leaked information to force in gone whose hand by saying if he doesn't sign we're just going to move on with x and y and z well i think that's that's a good smart way of looking at it given ufc practices in the past uh go you know going the public negotiation route to try to put pressure on or saying a fight's agreed to when the fighters are like it has really um but i think that's also the move ufc should make meaning look i can't believe john jones didn't return in 2023 or 22 i'm surprised connor didn't either by the way but that's just sort of the way things went but that that sort of potential non-negotiable chip involved in this you know the whole idea of inganu having the freedom to do what he wants outside of the

ufc cage and box Tyson Fury. I feel like because it's things have takes took so long and here we are still in the same spot that that same leverage might not be there. UFC should be allowed in some ways, even though I largely support Francis's fight in this larger fight. They need to have some insurance, which is why if it's not going to be Francis, if it can't be Francis for the past six, eight months, we're like, okay, just get John back in there. And oh, by the way, John moving up to heavyweight as the GOAT is such a big thing that I'm okay if you put an interim title on the line, because if John goes out there or the opponent wins, you have an interim champion in stone waiting where if Francis goes, you know, you move on at the end of the day. Look, I think Francis versus John Jones is the fight that they should protect. I think you should put that in a football stadium.

And best laid practices, I would have already had Francis resign by now and be banging the drum toward this huge fight. And it's like, I think not knowing what Jon would look like at heavyweight leading into an actual title fight against Ngannou would only help that be even bigger. But the show must go on at some point, and it's no guarantee right now that Francis does resign but Luke if they announce Jon Jones in an interim title fight doesn't that essentially corner Francis and be like look you're losing all of your leverage here so you know shit or get off the pot and again I agree with Francis

in the larger discussion of fighter pay and his want to get out of his contract and be on his own terms. But it's, it feels like a long time ago that he beat Cyril Ghosn and nothing's happened since then outside of him continuing his recovery. So, you know, I just want to see Jon Jones at heavyweight. And like I said, I do think he carries with him enough earned respect, at least in the cage that even if it's Curtis Blades, you know, who's, who's very, you know, worthy and respectable. I want an interim title on that thing. I look, I want to see it.

I want to see John Jones. Let's do it. Let's fricking do it, Luke. And I think they should have necessary concerns that they might not be able to get Francis back. I mean, what do you, what do you think is going through Francis's head at the moment right now? I don't know.

I mean, I don't know how hardly they're renegotiating. I don't know if they're renegotiating at all. I don't really know what the state of that is. And we don't hear it because we're hearing this. It kind of tells me it may not be going all that well, to be quite candid with you. I will say if you're Francis, it was kind of funny. I remember when Curtis beat Tom Aspinall,

and we were like, but it was kind of a freak accident. The fight was over as soon as it started, basically. And we were like, what was this really worth? If he ends up getting this fight by virtue of kind of a process of elimination, yeah, he lucked into it, but that would have been a thing that helped him get into it. It turns out that there might actually be some value to that win beyond you know other than just being an L it was a W so it's kind of interesting to think about I'll say this as well BC like for me I really like a John Jones Curtis Blades fight to

be perfectly honest and I'll tell you why it's very easy is it as big in any marketing respect as what John Jones versus Francis Ngannou would be. No, but let's go over a couple things. You mentioned the interim title. Well, if Francis doesn't resign, it might just be for the full-on title, number one. That's in play, by the way. That's the first thing I'd say. The second thing I'd say is either interim or regular title or even no title.

It's certainly going to be probably for a main event. And for me, dude, Curtis Blades is a very tough test. And we had Chael Sonnen on RSD he said it's John Jones's toughest test of anyone in the heavyweight division now you can agree or disagree with that but that's certainly not a totally crazy opinion given what we know about the improvement in his striking I think he's worked on his cardio and certainly his wrestling is phenomenal and to me it's like dude we just don't know where John is at. He's taken long breaks in his career before, but this is a huge one, three-plus years, basically,

since he'll come back. You have a very tough test in this. I actually wouldn't mind if they end up going to their C plan here in Curtis Blades, whatsoever, fully recognizing, BC, that the Francis fight is bigger and in many ways more important, but I'm not going to cry if they end up with Curtis Blades. I got to tell you. Yeah, you're right.

I mean, it's an excellent matchup title or not. You do make a good point that if Francis's contract is up at the end of this calendar year, then by then, or in theory, if they announced that at the turn of the new year, this could be a full fledged championship bout, which if it was though, wouldn't you want Cyril gone in there against John? it was a full-fledged one? My only question, so this ties to what I'm saying here. Here's what I'm trying to say. We don't actually know what John's going to look like.

It could go spectacularly. It could go disastrously. We don't know. But if he goes out there and loses to Curtis Blades, marketing-wise, excitement-wise, that's not a great case scenario for the UFC. Would you want to risk that? I mean, if it's for the full title, then mission accomplished. Who cares if John loses at that point? But if you got a chance to put in Cyril Ghosn and it's for the full championship, wouldn't you?

Or is that a hard—I don't know. I don't know how to look at this, Luke. It's interesting. Okay, so who's a—okay, no one knows how good John is right now, but whatever you think he is, for better or for worse, given what you think, who's a tougher fight for him, Gaunt or Blades? I get why Chael would say Blades, but I think Gaunt because of the striking.

Because when I look at a Blades-John matchup, I think of, you know, the John, I imagine at heavyweight is going to be able to outstrike blades and keep distance. And no, it's not, it's not, it's not as if it's not going to be a dangerous challenge, but I think John can swim that now he's good. He would have to stay off his back, but John's, you know, got a detailed history of being a great wrestler and being able to control himself in those areas. So I think Cheryl gone presents the unknown to Jon Jones, mostly because he has that true heavyweight 2.0 style where he strikes like a free-flowing middleweight in a heavyweight's

body. And although he did lose Stangano and although he was, you know, quote unquote, exposed on the ground, I don't think it was an overall exposure that he can improve on. And since then, yeah, he was life or death with Tui Vassa, but he showed us his backbone and got through the end of that fight. So, yeah, I think Sorgan is the toughest matchup. So, look, if we have a chance to go full championship, if it becomes clear that Francis Ngannou is going to go his own way,

but, Luke, I'm running out of feeling like he has leverage to do that, because nobody's talking about a Tyson Fury fight anymore. So, it does lead you to believe that there's a middle ground in money that they could give Francis to get him back and they should want to in reality. I mean, to me, Francis versus John is the fight you just make. So I'm hoping, Luke, that this is all just talk. I mean, where is Francis on the recovery?

Because that's a key part of this. A key part of whether or not he'll sign december 31st is where he's at physically right and by the way we didn't set it up but uh 285 is going to be in vegas on march 5th so he would have some time beyond that to get something done i tend to think you're right we said it before like it just the best option would be for francis to get a pay bump and then stay with ufc versus going on his own and risking something that just may never ever ever materialize certainly if you stay with the UFC you have you know you know nothing's ever guaranteed but a pretty clear path to get some big fights and some big coin as

a consequence so that's I know he's making a documentary about his recovery I don't think he's 100% yet that's the thing too it's like we're already in late November if he wanted to fight in early March that would just give you December, January, and February for the fight camp back. I mean, that just seems really rushed to be quite honest with you. Uh, if he's not fully 100% yet. So, and he's only getting older and there's only more questions about how that knee actually looks when he does get back. So look, I'm going to say it. I'm feeling like he's going to look at the ground you know look at what's available to him he's gonna get a bump i think from this whole situation

i mean he went out there with no knees and and defended the championship against you know a real one in cyril gone i mean it was an insane performance and victory i think we see him and john next year if it's not march because of franc's knee, then we push it out a little bit more. But I mean, that is, that is still the fight to make. But look, my,

the biggest question out of all the unanswered questions pertain to this situation. I know I've asked you it before on the show, but I want to do it again. Cause I still don't get it. It was 18 months ago, 18 that John Jones hired Richard Schaefer, former,

you know, CEO or whatever of golden Boy Promotions and Boxing to be this advisor that would, in theory, cut through the middle of what then was, John will only come back if they pay him Deontay Wilder money. That's a story from a long time ago, but it's been 18 months since John hired Richard. And then we started to hear more about the negotiations or that the talking are going a little better we always see videos of John in the gym and he's got a heavyweight but look he's had a heavyweight body for like two years it seems he hasn't fought in like three freaking years specifically to the last year to 18 months answer this question the best you know how

why the hell has John Jones not come back yet because we know full well why Ngannou hasn't although he did fight this calendar year in that fight I mentioned why the hell has John Jones not come back yet? Because we know full well why Ngannou hasn't, although he did fight this calendar year in that fight I mentioned. Why the hell has John Jones taken this long to come back? Is it tied into the idea that him versus Francis is still the Super Bowl heavyweight fight they can make? Is that part of it?

Yeah, I mean, there's probably a few factors. One is, there's been probably times he wanted to come back and whatever the UFC who knows what the UFC offered him at certain points right I mean it's just hard to know that's probably one factor what what what who did they offer him at what times so that's one second one of course is just sort of the general concern about getting his body ready I mean that's probably delayed it to some degree um the other one is going to be once Francis got injured and then they weren't

sure about steep, a, it just made things difficult to get that ball rolling. So there's a lot of things in many ways out of John's control and fairness to him that he can't control what steep a wants to do and when he wants to do it. He can't control how healthy Francis and Gano is and when he can be back like these things are and who, or who and when the UFC offered him. I would also say, and again, this part's hard to know and i don't want to overly speculate but he obviously had some issue privately with that whole thing in las vegas um and i think he had a familial split as a consequence

like dude that can really mess a person up and change all your priorities and you know just create i think as a basic way to say's some serious complications about anything you're able to do personal professional you name it right so uh between i should say among all of those factors and also again i go back to it john jones has been teasing a heavyweight move for 10 years a decade there you go he was waiting for just the right time and i guess this is fine but also how old is john what is he 34 35 dude he's gonna be 36 next july it's time it's time like so february will be three years out of the cage since the dom reyes win shortly after if you remember he did give up the title saying he's moving up i mean that's three years i'll give him a year to rebuild his body and take his time okay you add in what you mentioned some legitimate outside the cage

issues with arrest in family situations and repositioning his life and all that okay i'll add on another six months to even a year that's still two years and we're coming up on three years away so if we've had to wait this long and with all the potential options, and again, no disrespect to Curtis Blades, but if it's going to align, we're in some form in the next six months, both Jon Jones and Francis Gondo will both be ready. You might as well just wait to put them together at this point, because that is the fight. I love other permutations of a Jon Jones comeback earlier. You know how much I love the idea of a non-title John Jones vs.

Tai Tuivasa pay-per-view main event that just says, F it, let's have fun. We'll give John a test, but it's just going to be violence and war. I love that too. I think that's a perfect soft launch. But short of that, if Francis is coming back, I don't want to see him against Cyril Ghosn or Stipe or, I mean, Stipe would have worked with

the history, but, or Curtis Blades. It's got to be Francis versus John. And like I said, to start the segment, what we don't know about John in terms of what exactly he'll look like at heavyweight, I think will fuel the, the, the build and the want to find that out. I want to find that out first in a full title match against Francis. I'm at that point now I've waited too long. And look, if we wait any longer than the next time you show up at a Jon Jones press conference,

you know what you're going to say to him? You're going to raise your hand and say, hey, Jon, your 30s have been largely wasted. How will you look back on this decade? And you know what he'll say this time? Luke, I thought I told you at 214, you piece of shit, I don't like you. And I never will. That's a great joke, man. I'm glad you're telling it again. Super good. that's a great joke man i'm glad you're telling it again super good hey uh since 2011 where he

fought one two three four times john jones fought four times in 2011 2012 he fought twice 2013 twice okay so that's pretty decent 2014 once 2015 once 2016 once 2017 once 2018 once 2019 twice that was with anthony smith and tiago santos fights and then 2020 once bc not even taking into account the fact that it'll be three years basically and more if he fights actually in march because the last one was february 8th of 2020 so it'll be more than three years but even before dude, he has missed significant amounts of time dating all the way back basically to 2014, the Baltimore fights, and only competing once a year basically since that time. I will say this, man. If he goes in there and runs the table on whoever it is, Gon, Blades, and Gonu, whatever. I mean, just to beat those guys with all the time off would be amazing.

If he goes in there and shines, dude, he would be the outlier of all outliers of all outliers. I'm glad you said that. Because what we're asking of him, what I'm asking of him, I'm asking everybody to just kind of wait a little bit longer, get Francis re-signed, and just make John versus Francis for the title.

It's the biggest heavyweight fight you can make, right? Lesnar's not coming through that door. We're not pulling in casuals. This is the biggest fight you can make, right? Lesnar's not coming through that door. We're not pulling in casuals. This is the biggest fight you can make. That's asking a freaking lot of Jon Jones to make his heavyweight debut against that monster on that stage with this much time off. But with membership as the current reigning GOAT, in my eyes, that's the type of responsibility it comes with.

And Luke, for other fighters, you'd be nervous. I mean, look, it takes a rare breed. What GSP did after five years to beat Bisping in a division up I mean there's a reason why that's such a beloved moment it takes a special kind of metal to be able to shake off any ring rust shake off the things going on in your life move up redo your body and then go in there and beat that killer but if anybody can can do it, it actually is Jon Jones. And to your point, if he does it, dude, we're not going to have a GOAT discussion ever again. That upper room, they're going to carve out a hole in the ceiling and make a little attic in there. And Jon Jones will sit up there alone, right?

And everybody else will be looking up at him. And despite all the shit he's put himself, his family, MMA fans the company through i'll still bow down and say yeah you're the greatest i've ever seen because that accomplishment is insane but it's in play luke it's still in play i would agree if he can come back and win after all of this time off again not just the three years all the years prior to that with all of the issues inside the cage outside the cage dude i was just looking at me and just i know this is not what we're talking about but like listen to his numbers so this is you know the guy made his ufc debut back in 2008 okay 2008 to 2022 basically and got granted a significant time off in various places strikes landed per minute 4.3 strikes absorbed 2.2

like like like an over two positive differential striking accuracy 57 that's high striking defense 64 that's high takedowns per 15 minutes 1.85 that's good takedown accuracy 44 but we all know that's not really a very strong indication of anything takedown defense ready for this guy made his ufc debut in 2008 his takedown defense is 95 95 that's after two fights with cormier 95 i mean i dude i'm telling you if he comes back the debate is fucking over over over completely over and you know not my best friend i wouldn't care if he ever came back but if he does and he looks the way that some people think he's going to, I don't know how, oh, he did drugs, blah, blah. All your favorite athletes are on drugs.

Stop it. Dude, at some point, at some point, we're all going to wake up and call Barry Bonds maybe the greatest baseball player of all time. And look, it's comical how much he roided, probably. Because his numbers were comical. His jacked size at age 40 with a small bat being intentionally walked 150 times. I mean, it's all comical his jacked size at age 40 with a small bat being intentionally walked 150 times i mean it's all comical but that's the reality of sports and at at that you know the the 2000s he may have been the best baseball player anyone has ever seen john jones is that in in in fighting and um

i really wish you would have at least sold a little bit my john jones comeback 30s joke i mean i get it i just go to joke. I mean, I get it. You just go to the same ones. You know, I get it. It's very low hanging fruit, but it's large. You know what I mean? It was, you know, it's still got a little bit of life to it. But damn, I mean, seriously, this is a big deal.

And maybe it won't get a million and a half buys like I want it to or two million buys if they do John versus Ngannou. But there's a lot at stake there and a lot of pressure on John. But he is built for this in that regard. Luke, I did want to ask you before we get off John Jones completely. Yes, I'm here to promote our Anthony Smith room service diaries. Do you have any response to, I guess, what some people thought was a controversial take by Anthony Smith in our RSD where he says, look, looking back on my title loss to John

Jones, I feel like he's very beatable. I feel like he's very beatable I feel like he's very basic in a lot of categories it's just that he's very good in so many categories is that like happenstance I could have been a contender I'd love to get it again talk from an athlete who has to be stubborn to be able to keep you know reinventing himself or is it disillusioned I think partly people I think people misread that one a little bit not totally but a little bit like i think mostly what drives smith's opinions about that fight is his own regret about himself right like he's mad at himself for not performing up to the level that

which he thought he could perform and i don't think anyone can say that like that's the best version of anthony smith they ever saw again a lot of that is what Jon Jones was doing to him. But I think what drives a lot of that is just a lot of personal regret over having the ability to fight a different fight and not being able to execute in the way that you thought, especially against an opponent who in some ways, I'm not going to say was there for the taking, but that could have been and should have been a closer fight.

Now maybe you think Jon's going to win no matter what. Fine, I'm not here to argue with that. You know, I think John would have won that one. I would pick him in most cases too, but I think that's what's driving it. Also, his central point is, I think, it's not totally off, right? When he says, like, you know,

what is John's super elite at? You know, in individual composite arts. He's a very good wrestler right like that you could say especially on the defensive side but beyond that like on the offensive side his numbers declined badly at the end of his light heavyweight run I mean they dropped off a cliff I did a whole video on it like they weren't nearly as good as they once were and so you begin to look at you know like what is he truly elite at based on what we know from the end of his light heavyweight run what makes him elite is that he's very good at everything and that he

blends it but the individual composite parts are not overwhelming like on the ground he's not hadra gracie standing up he's not rod tang you know with wrestling he's not habib like that's not who this guy is so at least wasn't at the end there there were certain parts of his career where the wrestling was dominant and so you know i think he i i think he underplays the argument about what the blending means and how it elevates his whole game but the part about the composite uh uh sports being not as elite in any one respect as folks imagine them to be i don't think that's that's that crazy i really don't yeah um are you of the belief that we see this is what i really want to see about john heavyweight not just because you know resistant punch resistance against the elites not just

is he going to be slick enough with a light heavyweight body with more muscle on it to just you know reinvent himself and you know even though he's 35 we don't panic because it's heavyweight do you think john offensively wrestles at heavyweight in ways that he didn't always need to at light heavyweight he wrest always need to at light heavyweight. He wrestled a lot at light heavyweight. Almost two takedowns per 15 minutes. True, but toward the end of the reign, it was more about keeping people at bay.

Not because he didn't try. He couldn't get them. He sat back and wanted to make you pay for your mistakes and make you... Look, that 84-inch reach at light heavyweight or whatever it was is ridiculous. Okay. He used that to his advantage in ways people say is he does that middleweight, you know, until, until a poet on. that a part of the game plan luke to control people and and and gas them out at heavyweight and try to minimize the effects of their power it could be even even more dangerous than we thought right if he can wrestle like he used to with that ability at heavyweight he yeah he won't be beaten

he won't be beaten that's just as simple as that but it's like how many times can you f up karma wise how many times can you take time off how many times can you be teflon we know what like look love them or hate them how many times can you get away with it you know we at some points in the end of floyd mayweather's career especially when he was you know i remember he went to jail in 2012 we were sort of saying the same thing to floyd's credit he was always able to hold things together in the ring despite what's going on outside of it and he did it on his own terms and he was 50 and oh and he's still beating up people are on the globe today true john true can john be teflon in that same way i that's that's the allure i do want to move on but the last thing i would say on this bc to answer that question

because i do think it's a good question, is this is the difference, though. MMA is still a very young sport and is rapidly evolving. The guys he was stunting on in 2011 and 2012, some of them are still around in certain ways, but the game itself has advanced considerably. Now, maybe not as much at heavyweight, and so that's where he's making that,

I'm going to thread that needle and go up there and see what happens um and so that that changes the equation a little bit but you know how much did boxing really evolve between 2012 and 20 say 17 or so it may have devolved it may have gone backwards like yeah again and again heavyweight relative to light heavyweight it's going to be a little easier, so there's part of that in play too. But in general, it's a much tougher game. It's a much tougher game. So we're going to have to see.

All right, let's talk about this. The big card on Friday. It's the biggest card this weekend. The 2022 PFL World Championships. Main card starts at 8 p.m. It is an ESPN Plus pay-per-per-view 49.99 if you are so inclined your main event bc kayla harrison taking on larissa pacheco for the women's featherweight championship before i pitch you the first question about that just as a reminder who's on this card

you have the featherweight championship between brendan lochnan and bubba jenkins you have the heavyweight championship from between ante delia and mateus sheffel You have the heavyweight championship from between Ante D'Elia and Mateus Sheffel. You have the lightweight Stevie Ray, Olivier Aubin-Marseille two UFC vets. Delano Taylor, or Delano Taylor versus Sadu Busi at welterweight. I've interviewed C a couple times. Omari Akhmedov and then Rob Wilkinson at light

heavyweight. Also on that card, Aspen Ladd versus Julia Budd, Marlon Marais versus Shaman Marais. And no, they're not related and it goes on from there. Jeremy Stevens on the card. Loser has to change his name, I hear, Luke. I hear loser has to change his surname. All right, so BC, Kayla Harris and Larissa Pacheco.

This will be their third meeting. I went and I rewatched both of them. In the second one, BC, the scores were 50-43 and then two 50-45s. Yeah, so I'll set it up for you. Or shoot me. Why the fuck should I care about this fight? Here's why. First of all, it's Larissa. So can you put a little bit of respect on her name luke fair enough yes i will accept that larissa pacheco okay couple reasons why number one because larissa pacheco has what seemingly nobody else really has in this division

to be a true threat to kayla harrison and that legit power, and even to the degree of potential one-punch power, number one. Number two, despite the fact that, yes, she does have two defeats to Kayla Harrison, and they both came in 2019, one in the regular season, a three-round unanimous decision, and one in the championship of that 2019 regular season, a five-round unanimous decision that, to your point, was very wide. But if you look up and down that run, Kayla Harrison's finishing percentage against people not named Larisa Pacheco under the PFL banner is like insane. So you have somebody that has a built in level of toughness and resistance who looked after

they took 2020 off due to COVID. They reunited last year in the 2021 season. Larissa Pacheco was looking to be on her way to becoming that challenge for Kayla and seeing how much the two years off changed her. And she got her, or no, she missed weight by two pounds. She got kicked out of the semifinal. I mean, it's her fault. She lost the opportunity. Kayla went on to demolish the other two ladies standing.

This is her chance to come back. No excuses and prove how dynamic of a threat she is. To her credit, Larissa Pacheco. Here's probably the third reason why I got a little bit of confidence that this could be worth your time and worth watching. For the 28-year-old Pacheco, who, by the way, yes, does have losses in the UFC to GDR and Andrade at Bantamweight. Since the second loss to Kayla Harrison, she's 5-0 with five first round knockouts. So Pacheco has done everything since she last lost to prepare herself to be as dangerous as possible, to maybe be the only one in this division that can really challenge Kayla. Kayla may go out there and just ragdoll her and get to the finish line, but Kayla has proven in two fights she hasn't been able to

stop Pacheco. I think this is worth watching. I think Pacheco could not have more motivation to go out there, be dangerous, go for it. And Luke, she has improved in the three years since that loss. She's demolished everybody else. No one's trying to claim that this division's deep, okay? It's not. But she has demolished the competition. I think we give her a little bit of respect for the power and the experience she brings in here and say, look, how hard is this for Kayla Harrison

to get her... I know there's a million dollars just to pay for a view championship. You should be motivated. But she has to constantly get herself motivated against people that you look at the odds. They have no freaking chance. When we try to break it down, we know they have no freaking chance. To her credit, she's been able to demolish most of them and cut pro wrestling promos after.

But you do have to ask yourself, how long does that catch up with you? Can you actively pull deep and get the very best of yourself every single time when that motivation isn't always there all that this is a real fight this is a real challenge so luke i think that we should we should kind of suspend the history and and look at it that way and just say kayla's gonna have to go out once again and prove that she can disarm this dangerous opponent who may be the only shot at at somebody putting her away here the odds makers disagree with you they have this as the widest fight by a considerable margin on this entire card our friends at caesars have kayla harrison at a minus 650 they have larisa pacheco

at a plus 475 i don't have the odds of their other fights in front of me to see how that compares. I would imagine it's roughly approximate. I will agree with you, I think, on one thing, BC, that does deserve to be noted. Now, Harrison has locked horns with Pacheco for eight rounds. If you look at the last five of them, and part of the first three as well, I have noticed a distinct lack of ground and pound from Harrison in these fights. Now, I'm not sure if that's intentional.'s intentional in fact I think that it is because you'll recall that one sort of stint in Invicta that Harrison had she was lighting her opponent up with elbows and it was a disaster and cutting her up and it was all kinds of stuff but in general I find that that in those fights and partly it's the rule set obviously but I also find that she just doesn't have, at least in their second fight, I'll put it that way,

I did not see enough ground and pound in the second fight between Harrison and Pacheco, not to not win. Obviously, she won walking away. She got the 10 on all three judges' scorecards for all five rounds, but rather that Pacheco was just kind of always hanging around, and then she was pressuring hard in the fifth round before being taken down and then mounted again. And so you're like, well, she can always go back to the takedown and then positional control.

But, you know, you're giving someone now, if they fought eight rounds, you're going to give them nine rounds, potentially 10, 11, 12, 13, 13 rounds. That's a lot to give an opponent who's a big puncher and who has faced that person, obviously, many rounds before that. So I understand the odds and I do agree with them. I think Harrison should win this one without too much trouble. But I will say, if you see her getting takedowns in the first three rounds or so, something like that, BC, but she's not delivering a ton of punishment through them, that does, to me, make the championship rounds a bit on the dicey side.

Would you agree with that? Yeah. And look, like, you know, I said outside of Pacheco going the distance twice against her in her 15 pro fights, she's only ever been taken to the scorecards one other time. And that was in May of this season's tournament.

Remember that fight against Marina Machat, Machna, Machnat Kena? Yeah, but that wasn't a strong performance from... So what I'm saying here is Kayla was very, you know, upset at herself for not being able to get a finish there and for kind of not being able to dominate in the way she's used

to is that a trend is this the perfect time i mean i think your point about like how many rounds can you give somebody who's still pretty damn good and pacheco is a chance to try to try something new and figure you out i'm just saying that there's a kind of a it's weird to set to try something new and figure you out. I'm just saying that there's a kind of a... It's weird to ever try to breathe words that, like, Kayla's kind of in a no-win situation this year because she had to resign with PFL. They had matching rights. UFC offered her but didn't go overboard

in backing up the truck to her. And that's the position they're going to take. You're going to have to come to us on our terms and earn it, especially where you stand marketing-wise right now. We don't even know if they're going to take. You're going to have to come to us on our terms and earn it. Right. Especially where you stand marketing wise right now. We don't even know if she's going to, you know, what next year is she going to be a pay-per-view fighter against two? We don't even know.

I mean, like there is a lot like this test, the true championship build of her to be able to constantly get yourself back on that level. When it's sort of like, what does she have to gain this year? Luke out of besides the 1 million. And I don't want to, you know, I don't want to sneeze at that, like what does she have to gain this year luke out of besides the 1 million and i don't want to you know i don't want to sneeze at that but what does she have

to gain the competitor in her can only keep doing this for so long right you may go out there and just i don't know overlook an opponent or just be too focused on trying to get a stoppage because you're trying to make a big statement i wonder how you know if this ends up catching up with kayla eventually and she ends up in a really close there's just a couple of ways this could all go real weirdly so let's say that this fight plays out like the last two where harrison wins five rounds widely 50 45 or something like that you know some version of that and you're like well geez this person had 13 rounds against Kayla and she couldn't win does Kayla really have any real peers anywhere that that organization can find that would probably

tell you not on the other hand even if Kayla wins but wins the same way she has been which is like a lot of positional control not a ton of ground and pound you're gonna say well where's where's like the I mean you had 13 rounds against this person you couldn't put them them away. Is this really a dynamic talent that we should be following? So there is pressure on Kayla in that particular way, where even if, yes, a victory would be great because she'd get a lot of money and she secures the bag and God bless her for it. But if the showing is not strong enough,

in other words, if she's strong enough to win but not strong enough to finish, it's not the worst of both worlds, but it's not the best place because it shows that there isn't enough competition. And yet, even though there's not enough competition, Harrison still couldn't get the finish over her. That just doesn't create a lot of excitement

for any future opportunities for fans that are tuning in. I mean, the pressure is on her every single fight to finish the person in the first round and then cut a pro wrestling promo afterwards because there's no threat to her outside of potentially Pacheco. So that's why it's going to be interesting look i think kayla's wired like few are you know i think you're right the odds say she should win i do think there's danger here i would ultimately pick kayla but if things have the potential to go wonky

you are in there against somebody who's battle tested has fight ending power is hungry as heck is probably embarrassed how things fell apart in last season's tournament with a weight miss and like i mentioned is five and oh with five first round knockouts since losing to kayla so you know what i talked myself back into this main event there's legitimate debate and we we were a big part of it of like should this be a pay-per-view are they actually offering enough to warrant this you know uh god bless them on the final numbers but i am very interested in this luke to overall considering the kayla situation because if kayla is on her way to you know one day fighting to become the goat you should finish the person that you haven't been able to right you should figure out a way to i mean they're we're expecting her to go in there

and finish her right and that's not going to be easy that's right that's able to, right? You should figure out a way to. I mean, we're expecting her to go in there and finish her, right? And that's not going to be easy. That's right. That's right. All right, so on this card, we're not going to go through all of them unless you really want to. But the other one, the co-main on this one, to me, is highly interesting. Brendan Loughnan, who, of course, famously was on the Contender Series,

wins his fight but goes for a takedown late. Dana says, no thanks. Well, he says, well, what the fuck am I supposed to do with that? Goes to PFL. And now he fights Bubba Jenkins. Man, I remember, folks, I don't know if you know, no, thanks. Well, he says, well, what the fuck am I supposed to do with that? Goes to PFL. And now he fights Bubba Jenkins, man. I remember folks, I don't know if you know the story, BC, it was big when he made the transition. Bubba Jenkins wrestled at Penn State under Kale Sanderson, of course, the powerhouse of all powerhouse programs. And those two had a falling out. And so Jenkins left the program, went to Arizona State, and then won a national title at Arizona State his senior year.

I cannot overstate this to you. That was a massively triumphant moment for him. Huge, huge, huge. Because everyone thought he was just some malcontent who wasn't that good, and then he goes in there and wins a national title. Incredible. I covered him at a Beat the Streets event when he did a rapping intro for it. This was like 2010 or 2011.

And then he got into MMA and he was good but he was like it looked for a while fatally flawed two losses to Georgie Karkhanian in Bellator he got bounced from there he was kind of fighting in Russia and overseas places found a home in the PFL he's 19 and 5 these guys both have a win over a similar opponent this season it seems to me BC Brendan Lachlan Brendan Loughnan, more well-rounded, definitely more well-rounded. Bubba Jenkins, it's wrestle, grapple, or this is not a winnable contest. What do you think?

Yeah, I agree with you, and I do think you kind of set the tune. It's a redemption story both ways. I like this fight. The odds are telling us that we should expect something fun, special. Our friends at Caesars at the moment, Luke, has Loughnan minus 160 plus 135 for Jenkins. So this is going to be a great fight. But, you know, Lachlan has been hoping and waiting

and building for this moment that validates that Dana White made a wrong decision. And, you know, he has an opportunity to get this even with being a slight favorite. But Bubba Jenkins has always been interesting. There's always been a wild card factor about him. Can he pull out a performance we didn't see coming here in this moment? Because this is also his chance at legitimate,

I mean, not just a million dollars and a title, but a reputation of legitimacy outside of just being a name or being wild and crazy. It is a tough challenge. The odds do represent that it's going to be a battle, Luke. They both can handle themselves on the ground. This is going to come down to who can strike. This is going to come down to who can stand.

And that's where Bubba Jenkins' crazy side of him could make waves here, Luke. Also, I do wonder about Jenkins' gas tank. Not just by virtue of the fact that it's five rounds, but the way in which he fights so wrestling and grappling intensive that um you know lochman's tough and he's durable and he's got stamina and he is going to be hard to hold down that one to me like i could very much see a case where jenkins has just the better wrestling up front yeah But can he sustain that lead, so to speak, over the course of the fight?

Don't know. He is 8-1 in his last nine, Bubba Jenkins, and there's been a ton of... Dude, Bubba Jenkins is on the best run of his career. Absolutely. At least in MMA, by a mile. There's been a good amount of decisions in that, too. So he has proven he can go aggressive late.

Now, a lot of those are three-round fights. This is a five-round championship fight. But I think all of those things we just laid out, they're both going to be hungry. This is going to be a good fight. Alright, I'm talking myself into it as an MMA fan. That's different from MMA pay-per-view customer, but I do like a lot of these matchups.

Look, you know what? Matchup's going to bang this heavyweight championship, because we were ready to all crown Bruno Capoloza of Brazil a second time and start propping him up in the larger global heavyweight discussion. But it fell apart for him this year. And I think a big part of that was Mateus Scheffel stuffing all of his takedowns

and gassing him out and winning a decision against him. So look, Mateus Scheffel, who came into here as really and also ran in a lot of ways. We weren't talking about him. He's going to rematch Ante Deligia, who knocked him out earlier this season in the second round of a war.

This fight's going to be fun. They're both going to throw heavy leather because that's what they do. But Sheffield's been an interesting underdog wild card to this tournament. I wouldn't count him out, even getting stopped by Ante the first time around. This is going to be a fun fight. Yeah, again, Deligia, I think, already beat him. As as you indicated he knocked him out in the second round when they fought earlier this season but you just never get the sense that there's one pfl heavyweight who's clearly better than the other ones yeah on any given night like you get the sense that there are there some are better

than others for sure and have different strengths i'm not saying it's the same fighter but like do you really get the sense that like one guy is head and shoulders above the rest? I don't, it feels like there's a lot of parody in that division. So that could play out certainly on Friday night, a BC, any thoughts about Julia bud and Aspen lad?

I'm going to ask you this way. As a reminder, this fight set one 45, not one 35. So there's a bit of a breathing room, so to speak for lad. Is this a, is this must win for Aspen Ladd? Feels like it might be.

It must look very good, like without question. I mean, she's running out of options, right? She's running out of outs. This is an opportunity at a reinvention here. But look, it's not going to be easy. Like, Julia Budd was the Bellator champion for a while, and she's got experience, and she's got size here. I think

the jury is, the jury is out on Aspen Ladd in a lot of categories. Moving up from Bantamweight now permanently is going to hopefully take off the pressure of her chronic weight missing and how much she was taxing her body physically. But, you know, Julia Budd is, is, is big for this weight class and coming down from fighting up at lightweight and trying to develop herself as a free agent, pick up a legitimate threat to Kayla Harrison. That never happened. She lost. She was one-on-one in this season, didn't make the finals.

But, dude, Aspen Ladd has not yet to, like, truly prove that she's a contender at 145 or can be a threat. She had that one decision loss in UFC when she was kind of forced to move up. Yeah, there's a lot that she's going to have to answer in this. And the reason why I say she's going to have to, there is a scenario that this is an action fight and she, you know, could lose a decision, but lose it very competitively where it shows you,

okay, the fighting spirit's still there. You know, basically I think the biggest in cage thing, a lot of outside the cage things she has to answer. The biggest in cage thing for me is Aspen lad's most recent fights. Her striking is just, uh, a lot of noise and movement without much coming out of it.

Right. It's just a lot of yelling and moving and moving the hands. And it just hasn't, she hasn't seemed confident. She hasn't seemed fluid. She seemed lost. And, uh,

you know, I like the long-term potential She seemed lost. And, uh, you know, I like the long-term potential as a wrestler puncher, meaning, you know, take you down good ground upon there's times we've seen the animal come out of her in the past, but she's got to really come in here against a, a, a studied proven opponent and Julia bud, who's fought the, you know, the best she's had the ability to improve that she can outstrike her. In my opinion, if she can come out and do that even win or lose right show on the feet that she's legit and she's here uh there's a there's a lot of ways she can win on on friday night but um if she comes out here and loses luke and doesn't look good i don't know what else we're going to say about her after that also reminder julia bud has been around for quite some time and is always a physical fighter but

she's 39 39 fair like i'll just say this i'm gonna say it's slightly different than you must look good is probably true for aspen lab it's she should win this fight she should win this fight quite candidly she should win are you sure though look she's coming she's coming up from 35 bud's coming down from 55 i know she's, but she's not easy to just handle. I mean, she's stubborn. No, she's not easy to handle. But if 140, yes, you're right in that sense. Sure.

But the way I look at it is Ladd is supposed to be at 145. She was killing herself to get to 135. So she should have more energy, more stamina, more ability to put the fight on her. And you've got Bud, who is, again, quite a physical fighter and certainly an experienced one, but probably on the decline for her career, just given the age and the natural way these things kind of go.

I don't think it should be easy, BC. So when I say it's must-win in that sense, I don't mean that like, oh, this is never a fight you should lose. I don't mean that. I mean, if you are who we think you are, this should be the fight that you win, that you should be i don't mean that i mean if you are who we think you are this should be the fight that you win um that you you should be able to pass this and if you can't it raises some serious questions at that point bc i got a question for you i got a question for you quickly though

yeah on the outcome of this there's a new segment brought to you by mamitas uh luke i want to ask you if asserman lad looks too good and looks like she made the right choice and whatever she did to change outside the cage has worked and she goes in there and she stops Julia Budd on the ground. Could be a submission, could be just pound her out. Is she fighting Kayla Harrison on pay-per-view next year? Probably. Under the PFL banner? Probably, yeah.

145, probably. Okay. All right. I just want to get that out there luke i wanted you to you know bite on it and tell me let's move on 155 stevie ray taking on olivier aubin marcier these are two ufc vets oam the french canadian out of uh tri-star gym up there he has not lost since he fought Armin Saryukian all the way back in 2010, BC. For this recent season, he beat Natan Schultz, he beat Housh Manfeo, and then Alex Martinez.

He won all three of those via decision. Stevie Ray had a little bit more of an interesting run. Loses to Alex Martinez to begin the season, then beats Anthony Pettis twice. It brought him to this. It seems to me, BC, OAM, better wrestler, probably a better athlete, less miles on him. He should be able to get his hand raised here, right?

He should. First of all, don't ever forget Chuck Mendenhall has an OAM UFC t-shirt that he regularly wears, but this should be OAM's moment. And I was going to ask you, Luke, when I do this, what do you think of? Introducing the new McSpicy

from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. I participate in McDonald's in Canada. What do I think of? of yeah what's the first

thought about your racism towards exactly you all like people like you luke will wrongly jump at the race the potential races which it was and we got through that already the point of that was to tell you you were presenting a combat sports event to me that i might have should have cared about but i was just being honest with you like you would have been to me in boxing and say, Luke, I don't care about it. You're going to go. We'll see you at the Waterbury open next week. Yeah, sure. Right. Same thing right there. I felt like this for Ray and OAM, like coming in, looking at this. So I almost wanted to spin it on you and be like, I'm showing you my ignorance. Karate chop. I don't care about this fight. Why should I really care though, Luke? Because I picked choosed off the PFL menu, and I've largely liked the last two seasons what I've tasted.

I'd love to see that cage's SAT scores, first of all. Second of all, can you talk me into this like I just did to you with that heavyweight brawl or that women's fight in the main event? Not necessarily. I'll say this. Stevie Ray is a good submission artist, and obviously can strike a bit as well, but I think his submissions are pretty spectacular.

The one that he got over Anthony Pettis was remarkable. He certainly is battle-tested. There's that as well. I mean, he's a guy who's not going to be easy to beat for anyone, but the oddsmakers are friends at Caesars. Minus 360 for OAM, plus 280 for Stevie Ray. OAM just looks to me like he's had to pass different kinds of challenges, in many ways tougher kinds of challenges.

He looks fresher to this point, despite the fact that both guys have been around for some time, and he's more physical of the two, and he's got the wrestling advantage. Like, I don't know how exciting it will be, BC. I think that much remains to be seen. Could be. I'm not saying it won't be. I want to be. I'm not saying I'm not saying it won't be. I want to be very clear about that.

I'm not saying it's going to suck. That's not my point. But if if OAM has to get to the wrestling and rely on it, I think that option is there. There are paths for Stevie Ray. They're just not great ones. This is this is OAM's fight to lose as best I can tell. I hope OAM gets it. I hope this is I mean, he's got a chance to really show what he's done since leaving the UFC.

And, and, and this would be a great, a great turn in the win streak to get that Luke. I'm a little bit more excited though, about that Walter way about you. Um, not as much,

not as much, um, Taylor versus C Taylor is interesting at 25 years old. He has the loss to Magomed Magomed Karamov, but that, you know, that dude is real good real real good um and he's got the win obviously over he stopped rory mcdonald and he's

got wins over joe on zepparino so he's got like some legit wins c is good he hasn't had a stoppage i think since 2019 you correct me if i'm wrong the the body kick he hit over Machaud. I interviewed him right around that time and since then he's just been kind of a decision machine. I think he's got a win over Rory as well, if memory serves. Let me double check that. I'll tell you what they both have.

The thing is, C is a good athlete. He trains at Extreme Couture. He made the move out of All-Stars to Extreme Couture. He's got a lot going for himself, but I've not been moved in the kind of way you might imagine. Well, yeah, I don't know. I think it's going to be a fun fight. I mean, both, like you said, have recently beaten Rory,

but both have their last defeat having come against Magomed Karimov, who's on the undercard of this card, by the way, and not in the championship. They both are. Luke, they're both long. They can be selective and patient, but once they get going in a fight, they both tend to take chances and go after it.

I think it's going to be a wild fight. I do. I think it's going to be an interesting fight to see who kind of has next in this division for PFL because Rory fizzled out. Magum Makarimov didn't make it back here. Both of these guys, in their wins over Rory, particularly, which got a lot of attention, seemed to overwhelm him and kind of force him, you know, force the fight out of him. I'm interested to see what they can do against

each other, Luke. And Magomed Karimov, by the way, he knocked out Taylor this season, but was he in the tournament? I don't even know his situation, Luke. That's the only fight he had this calendar year. He'll be on the undercard there. He last lost in the 21 championship by knockout to Ray Cooper III, who also didn't make the finals here. But, you know, we would have picked anyone else but these two guys, it seems, coming into this year's tournament.

And look at where they are now, Luke. Let's give them a chance to go out there and let their hands go and do this thing, okay? I'm into this. Get me in. I forgot exactly how Magomed Karamov ended up not here. He did have the fight against João Zafirino. They got canceled twice.

Okay. And he has the bout against Lisa Thibaut coming up, so I think he just didn't have enough to advance in the tournament or he must have gotten injured and some part of it was moved. I forgot. Yeah, they had a lot of quiet, like quiet COVID things that knocked people out of the tournament, I believe, Luke, and visa travel issues, right? Yes, that was it as well, yes.

There was a lot of issues that caused late changes or guys getting shots that they otherwise would not have. Still, Taylor's only 25 years old. He's a young guy. He's actually pretty good, so it should be kind of fun. And then last but not least, BC, again, two UFC vets at middleweight previously, Omari Akhmedov and then Rob Wilkinson. Rob Wilkinson, of course, was the guy that Izzy fought in his UFC debut, and Akhmedov had a fight, I think, with Weidman not too recently

when he was still with UFC. It might be Weidman's last fight, if I'm not mistaken. It's Weidman's last win, right? No, he beat Weidman. No, he lost to Weidman. last fight, if I'm not mistaken. It's Weidman's last win, right? No, he beat Weidman. No, he lost to Weidman. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's Weidman.

Weidman won that one. But since then, he beat Tom Breeze, and then he moved on after losing to Brad Tavares. He fought Jordan Young. He lost. Okay, fine. But for this season, he beat Victor Pesta, I think also a UFC vet, a dude whose last name I cannot pronounce. He won via arm triangle.

And then Josh Silvera, who is the son of Conan, who was this up-and-coming prospect, who was looking pretty good. Omari gets the win of him. Rob Wilkinson ballooned a little bit. He was always kind of a wrestle-heavy type, right? So he makes his PFL debut. He beats Bruce Suto. Then he beat the same guy, Victor Pesta, and then Delon Monte. And then he did it in spectacular fashion. By the way, all three wins in the

PFL come by way of stoppage for Wilkinson. He looks good, BC. Omari Akhmedov is tough. He's hard to really kind of stick it to for long periods of time. So that's going to make this a little bit of a I don't think it's going to be an immediate bulldozing. I like Wilkinson's chances here, dude. He's looking like a brand new man. Because I'm not sold on Omari Akhmedov. Those two losses and three fights to end his UFC run and then to get stopped in his PFL debut.

I know he's turned it around since then, Luke, but he looks better than he is in some ways. You know what I mean? There's some parts of his game that I want to see him more dominant on the ground. I know he's willing on the feet, but this is Wilkinson's fight to win and there and again like oam there's a there's that redemption possibility same thing of course in the bubba jenkins fight so um i i like wilkinson well i'm looking trying to see what the odds were on this one luke did you see that um all right it's wilkinson minus 250 plus one yes plus 190 on some of these lines is Akhmedov.

So, you know, I would say, though, that I care about this the least tied with the Ray OAM fight. You know, I'm just being honest with you. I think the Ray fight is a little bit better, candidly. I like it a little bit better. All right. I'm looking at the PFL welterweight semi, the playoffs here, and it was Roy McDonald versus Delano Taylor

and Sadu Busi versus Carlos Leal and so of course you get C versus Taylor I'm trying to see what happened in the quarterfinals of that round I don't have that in front of me I'll try and dig that up how Megamed Karamov ended up not being here but those were your semis so that ended up being what we got in the end

alright BC some fight announcements would love to hear what you have to think about and say about these. You're going to just brush over the Marais bowl? You're not going to mention that Marlon at 34 is making? What is there to say? Okay, well, he's lost four in a row by knockout in five out of his last six. Can he survive a loss here to Shaman Marais? I thought he was retired.

I thought he did retire. Okay. And then he's back. I don't love this fight. I think he was retired. I thought he did retire. Okay. And then he's back. I don't love this fight. I think he should retire. I think he's taken a lot of damage. I think it's really changed him, and I worry about his brain health going forward.

All right. And the second biggest betting favorite is also on that prelim card, Natan Schultz, when he takes on Jeremy Stevens. So there you go. Natan Schultz is a pretty clever, disciplined striker. He should be able to win that against this version of Stevens. So there you go. Natan Schultz is a pretty clever, disciplined striker. He should be able to win that against this version of Stevens. Again, also Magomed Karamov against Gleason Tebow.

I would imagine Magomed Karamov. I like that fight. Yeah, that's a good fight. Yeah, that actually is one of the better fights on the card, quite candidly. All right. Fight announcements. BC, this one is a surprise to me.

This one is a surprise to me. Not, well, let me back that up. I get that that again, people don't understand the matchmakers try to make certain fights and then it falls through and then they have to go to plan B, plan C, plan D, and so on. They ended up with Gilbert Burns versus Neil Magny at UFC 283. Now Neil Magny is coming off of a great win. Burns coming off of that loss to Hamza Chumaya, but again, something of a redemptive loss such that they exist because he performed quite well. Some people in fact thought he actually won BC we thought they were going to make Burns

versus Jorge Masvidal and they didn't there was some chirping back and forth in social media they ended up here I don't hate this fight necessarily and if Burns is washed from the Chemaia fight or like you know shop worn as a consequence then this one could be kind of close but if burns is still pretty fresh it shouldn't be right yeah i mean i i don't like anything about this fight it feels what it appears to be is like neither had anywhere else to go but you know they're both fighters and they want to be active and they want to get out there and it's not that there's no potential stakes in this fight i mean it's a much bigger fight for Magny without question. But, you know, you don't at the same time leap to the front of the line.

It's not that type of fight. And I felt for Gilbert Burns, you know, considering the performance he was willing to put out against Chemaev and that he was willing to take that fight when people didn't want to, I kind of echo what was his words when we talked about him coming into that Chemaev fight when we sat down with him you know i feel like he should be should have been in the conversation for the jorge fight or the covington fight and i know him and jorge went back and forth and i don't know whose side to believe all that stuff was it possible that he could have waited based on jorge's most recent suggestion and fought jorge on a pay-per-view, you know, co-main in Europe underneath the trilogy of Usman

in Edwards. That seems to me a much better fight. I don't, I mean, if you're Gilbert outside of staying busy and, you know, getting another paycheck and getting to do what you love, you don't gain much at all from this fight. I mean, you know, Neil Magny is the kind of guy that people just don't look good against. And I'm not here to say Neil Magny shouldn't get the opportunity at this level of fight. No, I'm not here to say neil magny shouldn't get the opportunity at this level of fight no i'm not here to say that i'm just saying this is a surprise and i don't think they both benefit from it and i think that's what you sort of would want from a fight like this that's probably pretty fair i mean what stands out to me what's so interesting is there are certain questions that follow a fighter no matter what the fight booking but it is also

true that certain questions get raised specific to the fight booking let me give you an example if we were doing Gilbert Burns versus Hamzat Chemaev too we would not be asking in the same way the kind of questions we are now that he's fighting Neil Magny where you're like well gee maybe maybe he is kind of long in the tooth and maybe that fight did really wear him down in other words like who you get pitted against either elevates the tenor of the questions or kind of brings about more criticism depending on which way the match making goes in the booking itself and I think by getting matched against Neil Magny who again is a very talented fighter and if Burns in fact is not up to par this is a very winnable fight for Magny in that sense but if Burns is who we think he is this should be relatively straightforward it's just kind

of interesting to me that getting booked against someone who you are perceived to be widely better than makes the questions about Gilbert Burns trend towards the lowering side, not the elevating side. And I don't know how fair that is or even accurate, but it tends to follow that path one way or the other. You think that's fair? I do. I do think that's fair.

I mean, if you if this was instead Bilal versus Gilbert, we would all be like, yeah, sure. Great. Right. Like winter probably gets a title shot. Right. I just don't feel that that's the same thing here. And I thought Magni was in the single digits of rankings and then, you know, you can argue that he might deserve it. No, he's like, he's on the outside looking in. I just, man, I mean, good to both for, for signing up. And it's not that the fight sucks. There is an element where it could be, you know, look, if, if, if

Magni can neutralize Gilbert's explosiveness it may not be the most entertaining fight but it'll probably work out great in the end I just feel like Gilbert Burns showed you against Chimaev that he's two things at the same time right now he's an aging respected brand who will give you the goods of an action fight no matter how you met you know you match him but he's also a sneaky title contender still. So, you know, it's not Anderson Silva versus Derek Brunson, but I did have a similar... Really?

We're doing that? Speaking of Derek Brunson, we move on. He is out. So now Jack Hermanson is going to fight Roman Deleuze, which is set for UFC Orlando December 3. BC, thoughts on Hermanson versus Deleuze? Yeah, set for UFC Orlando, December 3 BC thoughts on Hermanson versus Deleuze. Yeah. I think it's going to be a great fight. Cause I, cause you know, Hermanson sneaky, he's definitely skilled, but he loves to fight and, and, and, and he's willing to, to lean on that, to get through there. And I think Roman Deleuze in a short burst of late is

showing people that he wants to be a hammer. He wants us to consider him, you know, hammer time in that larger conversation so it feels like a step-up opportunity for him and for a replacement i like it and look is he officially cheyenne's mans or we just we're done with that conversation don't care not my business i mean did she move to europe for him i mean poor poor jp but you know that happens once again don't care not my business um but i will say this bc this is jack hermanson can't be fucking around here no this is uh the leads they look to me like massively improved over the last couple of fights he's had he's a heavy hitter hermanson i watched his and i told you i bought and watched his entire seminar on grounder pound it was actually pretty

good but he's at the point now where he's trying to hang on to the spot he's got. And it feels like that connection's a little bit slipping. The leads, they could come in there and then close that whole show completely by getting a big win here. So that's big stakes in that one. If the leads, they can avoid the ground and pound and the control on the ground thereafter.

Look, do you think her Manson is in a spot where some veterans get to where you're like, I've gotten pretty far, but I have juggled wins and losses. You know, there were times that looked like I was making my move into real contention. And then, you know, I mean, split decision with Sean Strickland was a tough fight. He fought his balls off. Is there sort of a crossroads point you get to when he's 34, where you're like, am I done improving? Like, you know, if I go out there and try to out smart and

out skill and, and, you know, beat people straight up, or to out smart and out skill and and you know beat people straight up or am i at a point where i need to take what i've built up in the skills i have and get a not full-on michael chandler but get to the point where it's like my best chance is is to go for it and and be that that that you know that that hammer that you're gonna have to get past to get to your next stop um i would just say at 34 the way it goes for most people is at 34 it's not that you can't add new things right you can but you they're very small at that point right you are at your genetic and work development close to not not at it but you're close to your peak it's not like you are at 24

where you still have a lot of time left to add a lot of stuff by 34 you not not totally but you more or less are who you are you can add different strategies you can add different things for particular fights you can still work on your overall skill development but the increments are much slower to gain and they're much smaller in size to achieve so you you have to make a choice then to your point about what kind of fight you want to pursue thereafter do you want to just be a little bit more reckless and and uh offensively geared or not but either way the skills you have developed by age 34 is more or less heavyweights notwithstanding is more or less just who you are at that point um that's the sort of challenge that

anyone at that age and those kind of weight divisions is up against bc this is a fun one drew dober is back ready for this one taking on bobby green this will be ufc vegas 66 december 17th i gotta tell you i like this fight this is a fun little one right yeah it'll be fun to watch yeah i'm into that i mean yeah, yeah, I'm with you, Luke. You are in. You know what's funny? I can't even be mad at your choices per se, but I can't quite get a read on which fights you like

and which fights you don't. Well, I'm an absolute weirdo, Luke. Okay, so it's a pattern that's hard to follow, but we all have our favorites, Luke. Okay, I mean, you know. All right, fair enough. I won't spend much time there. Ryan Sp anthony smith wasn't my cup of tea on paper back in the day you know that's fine all right i've come not everyone not everyone likes it all right bc you gotta like this one umar number gamedov who is still undefeated taking on hyoni barcellos this will be january 14th bc bit of trivia for you all the way back let's see when was this all the way back in 2019 back

at ufc on espn plus 23 barcelos defeated saeed number came off who is related but sort of on the outs and a bit of a different character um what do you think bc i'm really excited for this fight you know honey honey's gonna bring it and he's gonna go for it and this this fight's gonna be a little bit wild at times. But, you know, the pressure is on Umar now, right? You know, it's like Islam just had his moment. Usman Nurmagomedov just had his moment. It couldn't be a better time to be coach, you know, on Team Habib and the larger Javier Mendez, a.k.a. family there.

But specifically, you know, you hear the people saying, no, Umar's better than them all. He doesn't have, like, that same exact hype that hype that like shavkat has every time he comes out now but it looked great in his last win and i feel like he he knows what time it is it's time to come out and impress again so i think that's going to make this fight very interesting to watch luke and you know there's a good name for umar to go up against right now to kind of continue to remind us that he's coming on. I mean, I don't know how far away he is though, Luke, if he wins this, but he's entering the larger conversation as is that team, which is taking over the sport at the moment. True or false?

Yeah, definitely true that they're taking over. He's 26. He's got three fights in the UFC. He beat Sergei Morozov via rear choke, in his UFC debut in 2021. Then he beat Brian Kelleher, via rear naked choke in 2022. And then he had the fight against Nate Maness this year in June. And while that one went to a decision, I think some of the scores were like,

you know, 30-25 and 30-24. Dude, he looked sensational against Maness, as he likes to pronounce it. He looked sensational. Maness. So that one's a fun one. That should be a fun one. January 14th.

BC, this one's got your name written all over it. Macy Barber is back against Andrea Lee, March 25th. That is a big fight for Lee, who has been kind of very much up and down, down of late. Macy Barber, up of late in general. Tough fight at 125. What's the setting for this fight? Is this a co-main or something?

Because doesn't it feel like... That I don't know. Let me see. I don't feel like this is a step forward for Macy in terms of matchmaking. Am I wrong? I mean, let's look at it. No, I think that's pretty good.

Yeah. What is... I could look it up myself, but what is Angela ranked? Okay, so currently, Angela Lee, we're looking at women's flyweight, right? That's the division in question here. You've got Andrea Lee sitting at nine.

You've got Macy Barber sitting at 12. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with this fight. Ranking rise, it does make a lot of sense. I didn't realize Barbara, I'm sorry, I didn't realize lee was that high but look at three the three fight win streak for barber after that you know surprising back-to-back losses although i still think that alexa grasso one uh was closer than some do you know beat miranda maverick beat montana de la rosa and then beat former title challenger jessica i, Luke, I think she's found the adjustments, you know, probably more mentally

that she's needed to following that bad string. So, ratings-wise, this is the fight she has to take. I like her to win this, and I like her to win this big, Luke. Yeah, it could certainly be that way. Obviously, you have Barber's on a win streak. She has the win over Miranda Maverick, which was a little bit contested.

She obviously beat Montana De La Rosa and then Jessica Ai more recently. Lee has had, again, her share of ups and downs. She's had her issues, to put it quite mildly, but is a very good striker, well-rounded for the most part, experienced. I like this fight a lot. I don't have much negative to say about it. But that was a loaded weapon you were waving when you were like you know had her issues did you mean like with men or tattoos or both or just fighting just fighting bc um you know again i think she

has had some outside the issue outside the cage issues some of which she is the victim of which is unfortunate yeah in other cases probably some poor choices but you know i don't wish poor things upon her all right bc this is a fun one and you know this is true bellator 291 man i'm telling you if you didn't see the first one it fucking rules the rematch logan storley versus yaroslav amasov has been set bellator 291 this is going to be scheduled for February 25th. Now, the original date was February 4th, but now we know that CBS show is there, so they're going to move it to later on that month.

BC, I saw the first one. It was a three-round fight, and it was close. One of the best wrestling battles you'll ever see. And you're like, oh, I saw Logan Storlie versus MVP, and that fight was boring. Right. Bro, Amasov ain't MVP not that guy this dude can wrestle his ass off they were scrambling back and forth this was very closely contested we haven't seen

him since the war in Ukraine got started and then some BC yeah there's a big fight okay there's a lot to love about this fight that go beyond just hey go watch their first one it was three you know it's a track meet of of you know, of grappling and exchanging on the feet. But this is in Dublin, Luke. We got to add that element to it. This is going to be soaked in that Dublin sauce in Ireland. Every time Bellator goes there, it feels like, you know, UFC International Fight Week or

the Super Bowl or something. Dude, like the only thing I don't love about this fight right now, I always knew they would rematch and it would be great and it would probably have a title on the line. I don't love about this fight right now, I always knew they would rematch and it would be great and it would probably have a title on the line. I never doubted that. It's just the scoring in that close fight between Storlie and MVP. You know, I think it's tough with the very gray way of looking at the letter of the law, but I feel like MVP won that.

But he didn't, so we go right into this rematch. It's not going to be like that, but he didn't. So we go right into this rematch. Um, it's, it's not going to be like that. Like you mentioned, the contrast in styles, aren't, aren't setting us up to have, have a schnoozer here. And you add in the, we haven't seen the champion since this conflict broke out. And, you know, some, you know, a lot of fighters put down their, their career plans at the moment and, and join the frontline in some form, you know, Lomachenko, Usyk, all those guys. And you, dude, you tip the hat to them for that. It seems like Amosov was like in deeper than most, like this wasn't like a desk job, you know, he was actually, you know, protecting neighborhoods and, and, and, you know, remember that, that video where he found his belt,

it was, it was touching. He's also going to have to answer for the time off here too, against a guy who's hungry and was close that first time around. Yeah. I couldn't ask for anything more for Bellator from this fight, the date, the placement, all that stuff. This is going to be a good one. And this division is good. It's good right now, Luke. And so I want to see if MVP, who's not getting any younger either, can find that itch to get back, you know, despite that Mike Perry sidestep and get back into this title picture, because I think he got as close as he can come to finally having his moment as well. But the way that we know these two fight,

Amosov and your boy Storlie, you can't be wrong here. This is going to be good. I don't know who comes out on top given all the questions and circumstances here. Storlie has improved his striking. Amosov is not quite the wrestler Storlie is, but he's very, very good, surprisingly good,

and he's definitely more well-rounded. But with all the time off, you just don't know what to make of it all. You just don't know what to make of it all. And Storlie's stepped his game up to some degree with striking, but not completely. Not completely. He's got a lot of work to do still.

And remember, Storlie could just wrestle balls out the first time because it was only three rounds. This one's for five. This one's for five. So it's a, and it's a title unification because remember, Storlie's the interim champion

and then Amosov is the champion sort of at large. And now they're going to unify these titles for five rounds. You know, you've got to strike some of that time and Amosov is just much better in that, in that way. So we'll see how that goes. That's a fun fight that they got booked. another Bellator fight I don't have a whole lot

to say about this one Bellator 289 Denise Kilholtz taking on Ilara Joanne they both have losses to Kana Watanabe um Kilholtz obviously has got a black belt in judo but is sort of known as a kickboxer uh Joanne can is sort of you know largely well-rounded uh I think prefers to strike as well no strong thoughts BC unless you do no no I think I think prefers to strike as well. No strong thoughts, BC, unless you do. No, no, I think Kielholtz, she got into a title shot. She tried late in her career to put it all together, and she's made the transition in full-time into the sport. I like the effort she put in, but it wasn't enough.

She wasn't offensive enough, and she lost her title shot. This is her getting back to the table and seeing, do I have one more big run left in me? When she's active on the feet, and I know a lot of times she's a smaller fighter in these matchups and gives up a lot of length, but when she can be explosive and dart in and out, I mean, she's a fun fighter to watch.

It'll be interesting to see. Which direction is she going after having her close-up opportunity in Bellator? I still think she's among the best in this division, so this will be a tough fight. All right, Damon Jackson taking on Dan Ige. Damon Jackson has climbed his way up. Dan Ige had certainly climbed his way up previously, but is now looking to get back there. Tough fight against two well-rounded veterans. This will be January 14th at the UFC Apex. Not massive stakes for the division per se, BC at 145, but definitely big stakes for their individual careers. Biggest fight Jackson's had to date.

And Ige is a tough competitor, to put it quite mildly. I've always feared for Ige that when it does start not going his way, it could turn quick, Luke, because he fights a very aggressive, power-puncher style for a guy that I don't think has enough weapons to fight that style consistently. Is that a fair categorization, or am I just a jerk and probably off a bit on it? I don't think it's totally off. Jackson was a guy who needed time to figure himself out,

and I think he's finally done that. Ige was a guy who flew close to the sun, like Icarus got a little bit burned. But both guys have... These are two guys who are probably, fair to say, not the very best in their division, but two guys who are intensely motivated to get better off of losses, and I know all of them are, but these are the guys who actually make those corner turns.

So this is a fun and tough one. Jackson's probably going to wrestle a lot this time, so it's going to be incumbent upon Ige to really work on that portion of his game, which is not bad, but probably not the best portion of his game so that'll be a fun one and then last but not least BC uh we can it's not we'll do a weekend boxing preview here in just a minute there was some confusion and understandable because you got two Garcia's named and there's one signed and one's not Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia are tentatively set to fight later in 2023 after one or potentially both of

them have what you could consider tune-up fights or early fights or however you want to phrase it. In the case of Gervonta Davis, he'll be in Washington, D.C. I think January 7th, taking on Hector Luis Garcia. Now, if you don't know who Garcia is, this is a different Garcia. It's not Ryan Garcia. This Garcia, BC, we talked about it on this show, was the one who upset Chris Colbert and surprised us big time. So let me pitch to you the question this way. How much of a challenge is this Garcia for Tank Davis? More than people realize. I'll say that.

And I get what people are saying. Like, I want to see Ryan Garcia against Tank right now. Hopefully we'll get it in April on pay-per-view in Las Vegas. Can't wait. And it looks like Ryan Garcia, by the way, is going to do an interim fight, according to reporting from Dan Rayfield, January 21st. No location, no opponent yet, whether it's going to be a pay-per-view. So you can look at this and just say, well, it's not Ryan Garcia. And this is really Tank coming back on pay-per-view to set up and preview that big showdown. And that's true. It is. But don't sleep on Hector Luis Garcia for this standpoint. Not just that upset win over Colbert, which kicked the doors in.

Then he fought for the title against Roger Gutierrez at 130 pounds, and he won it. And he is from the Dominican Republic. He's very crafty, very smart in the ring and durable. And look, I bring up that trainer's name a lot. Bob Santos has been in the business forever, but is really starting to become a leading man. And he's, you know, Carlos Adamas' trainer. I mean, Andre Durant.

There's a lot of guys he's joining with. I think he was with Ugas for a while recently. That guy is hot right now and on a run in terms of game planning against the opponent. That, yeah, you look at this. Okay, Gervonta Davis should handle this guy who's moving up and taking the challenge against him. But there's two unbeaten fighters and Hector Luis Garcia has the type of seasoning that could very well make this a tough style matchup for Tank. So I'm very much looking forward to it. Man, I hope they put Ryan Garcia in the front row for that fight. And I hope Tank's in the front row for whoever Garcia fights a couple of weeks later, because

this is the type of the fight, Tank versus Rai guy, that demands a real build, a real bang the drums media tour. And sometimes we don't always love when they do the interim fight to set it up. Tyson Fury's doing that coming up ahead of hopefully him fighting Usyk. But sometimes that ends up being the best way to bang the drum and build it.

But Tank's going to have to earn it on this night. Do not sleep on Hector Luis Garcia. I'm going to be looking forward to it. I got to tell you too, I am so happy to have a home game. Oh it too I am so happy to have a home game oh man I am so happy to have a home game dude I was thinking about this before there's been some fights at National Harbor uh including that um uh who was it Maxim uh the the the poor guy who died yeah yeah um something like that I forget his last name I I apologize um there's Yeah, yeah. Jared Heard, Jared Swift Heard, excuse me. Jared Heard taking on J-Rock over at the now Eagle Bank Arena, which used to be the Patriots Center on the campus of George Mason University

in Fairfax, Virginia. But in terms of city limits, BC, which this fight is going to take place at the Capital One Arena, which is where the Wizards play, which is where the Capitals play, this is the biggest fight in the city since Amir Khan versus Lamont Spence. Maybe the fight I've loved covering more than any other fight I've ever had. So what do I say? Lamont Peterson.

Excuse me. Lamont Peterson. Him and his brother, Anthony. Lamont Peterson taking on Amir Khan. I got to tell you, so excited to not just have a home game, have a home game right in the center of the city. Oh, yeah.

I mean, you had Gary Russell Jr. fighting there in Oxon, Maryland, but to be in the city, to have the stakes, you got to go back almost to like the Riddick-Bowe days to back when there were really big fights in D.C. And the fighter you mentioned, unfortunately, at the MGM National Harbor in 2019 that passed away,

that was Maxim Dadashev, so we want to get that right. And, you know, tragic and horrible situation. But, yeah, Luke, it's B.C. and D.C. It's Tank picking out another city, and let's see if he can go in there like he's been able to do, by one and, you know, bring the hype, sell the place out, you know, do a big box office and get so much of that celebrity clientele ringside. But if there's been some rumors that like maybe Boots Ennis could be on this card in a very interesting matchup. So if they can add that, you know, and sweeten the pot on the pay-per-view, we'll see what happens with that. This would be a very fun night. I'm excited to be on the ground. Can we get can we get Jacob in the the pot on the pay-per-view, we'll see what happens with that. This will be a very fun night.

I'm excited to be on the ground. Can we get Jacob in the bullpen with the doc cams? I mean, BC and DC is a thing, Luke, right? It should be. And I'll just say this. I obviously don't speak for the local boxing community, but based on the read that I'm getting, I'll use a little bit of DC lingo. DC, even though Tank is a Baltimore guy, DC gets sized for Tank Davis.

Make no mistake about it. They're going to show up big time for this one. All right, BC, topic number four. Don't have a whole lot to say about it, but I do like the idea. I wanted to pitch it to you if it's from Arnold Allen, but I don't mind it. All right, so Arnold Allen wants to fight with Max Holloway. Max Holloway, of course, had that terrible loss at UFC 276 to Volkanovski, who we now have anointed as the pound for pound best fighter in the sport.

Certainly also since, um, Kamara Usman had lost. Here's what he said about missing out on an interim title fight. He said, my whole career has kind of been like this. It's been a blessing in disguise. And my goal is never to be an interim champion.

I want to be the full on champion. So it would have been nice to be in part of that, but yeah, always work for something better. And then he says, of course, who he wants to fight. He says,

a lot of people are saying Max is the fight to make. That would be a fun one. I don't see why not. And also, I think a win over him would be a bigger statement. And then you throw your interim in the bin, right? BC, we know the interim is going to be on the fight on the Perth card between Emmett and Rodriguez, which I'm all in favor of. So you can't have another interim belt.

If you're going to find a fight for Max and you're going to find a fight for Arnold Allen, I love putting those two together. And here thing everyone says max go to 155 maybe eventually i don't know if that's an immediately a very good call or even long term i don't know if it's a very good call even though he's a huge 145 or do you like arnold allen's idea i do because this is the the only thing remaining in this weight class like that that's like as good of a title shot for him. He's won 12 in a row, Arnold Allen. So you can either wait around and hope your number gets pulled soon.

Although that interim title that got booked there makes things even harder. This is the closest way to get a lot of attention and prove yourself. And if Max decides to do this and sort of it announces in terms of my perspective as him going back under and going for another run at the belt, which is I think Max is at an interesting crossroads given how one-sided that loss was. Granted, it did come against the pound-for-pound king and the champion of Volkanovski, but in a series that was noted for how close and disputed it was, there ain't nothing disputed about that. So Max, I think, has a lot of questions right now. Do you take a lot of time off? Do you walk away from the game?

Do you reinvent yourself at 155? Or do you go back to the drawing board and do what you do? If he picks Arnold Allen, that's telling us the answer of where he's going. And it ain't an easy test at all, but it'd be probably Max's best opportunity to get right back in there and prove it against the next best guy available that he still got it. So it'd be a lot of intrigue here, Luke.

And I don't know. I don't want to say I'm fearful for Max. It's like, okay, one bad night at the, you know, one bad night at the office, but we're just not used to seeing him get bloodied and battered.

Right. I'm just not used to fully bloodied and battered. Like he got, I mean, even against, even against Poirier, where you felt like, for most of that fight... Dude, he rocked Poirier several times in that fight. Right, so even though in most of that fight, I felt like Max can't win this.

Like, he's at a... You know, if he can't knock out Poirier, he can't win this. He still would just make surges that you're like, holy shit, right? Dude, that life was not in him against Volk. I am afraid. I'm afraid, Luke. I'm afraid. I'm afraid, too. I thought not in him against Volk I'm I am afraid I'm I'm afraid Luke I'm afraid I'm afraid too I thought that last fight against Volk the thing that you know again I always say this like who you cheering for who you're not cheering for you always I think the fairest thing you can do is no matter who you like or dislike you got to cheer for a fair outcome

that's it just a fair outcome and you got a fair outcome in that fight, UFC 276. And Volkanovski was just better, and he was better by a lot. And if you're a Max fan or someone like me who likes Max a lot, that's a hard thing to watch and a hard thing to accept, but it is the truth. It's just what happened. And so one of the questions we had leading into that week, BC, when we sat down with him, was, you know, man, what about all the damage? He took a lot more even in that fight, you know?

So it's a real question of, like, he's a young guy numerically, but the miles are starting to add up, and Arnold Allen looks to be the best he's ever been. He's sitting at four. Max is still sitting at number one in terms of the rankings. Of course, you might say, well, okay, but before that, look what Max did to Calvin Cater. Is there some version of that still available?

We don't know the answer. I guess we're going to find out. But for all these reasons that you've articulated now me it is a good fight it's a great fight and i would love to see it if they can make it i do believe that hey luke i know we already filmed our uh our holiday mailbag and we like we thank all the viewers who responded to our tweet or emailed us to our email address we just got a like a last minute one though from our boss brian daily of showtime who we love and respect and and uh big fan of us he tweeted back at my offering a couple days ago you know soliciting uh viewer questions and his question is uh would luke consider a mk

live show at the newark penn station is there like an inside joke in there luke i mean you know you love that place you love that place dude the newark train station i cannot overstate this it's just it's as close to calcutta as you're gonna get i mean it's really it's i will go third world on your ass yeah it's just horrendous i mean if you're not being screamed at by homeless people um or watching cops tase someone you're still watching a fist fight out front between you know parents and children or you know some other kind of just sight of urban blight. And we've talked about the fact that the New York City train station,

the old one, Penn Station, was terrible. And that's true. I saw a homeless guy shaving his pubic hair in the sink at one of those places. If you can really wrap your head around that, that's a fun little fucking moment. I told you that story, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't get tired of it. And if you've ever been to, like, Tokyo, dude, like, you could eat off the floor of the subways in Tokyo. You cannot imagine how clean they are. I can only imagine what Japanese tourists see when they come to the United States. They're like, holy fucking shit, there's a homeless man shaving his balls

in the sink at the public bathroom. Dude, Newark train station is worse than that. It is worse than that. I have to spend time there all the time because I have to get off to go do work. That's the sacrifice you make, Luke. Jesus, dude. If we did a show from there,

we would leave that show with Ebola, COVID, influenza, and then diseases they don't even have named. They don't even have names for them shits yet. And you would have them, bro. All in one go wow wow uh yeah i'd be willing to do a live show there luke yeah that ups the ante right it's the energy it's just good and i've been i've taken i've been to all the train stations between here

and boston i've been i've been to all of them philly's train station on 30th street it's pretty nice it's not so bad right it's pretty good actually uh union stations used to be better here in dc but it's way better than any of those ones the new the new train station in new york called the moynihan station is actually like really nice they completely redid it and it's so great that's across the street from msg but like dude up and down there's a lot of shitty ones and among the major ones the newark train station holy fuck if you are looking to get communicable diseases boy do i have the place for you okay look for some people that that's just you know that's their state that's their home that's their train that's their factory town okay that's their train station that's just how it is all right yeah yeah those people aren't going anywhere

in life all right uh bc they're going on a train to nowhere okay yes yes i'm a train to death on a train from newark that's going fucking nowhere all right okay what if we win you know that there's like another award out there we haven't almost won maybe yet look i think it's uh they do it that one in vegas that we won last year we did the documentary awards yeah we don't i think the award ceremony is in december and thank you to everyone who voted for us and hopefully uh aaron bronstead a friend of the program can win and hopefully we can win all that stuff whatever we'll see what happens if we win that though remember last time we like promised the people if we win that we'll give you a live show in vegas fill these margaritas brian campbell i mean we were all there it happened what do we give the

people if we win again i mean the newark train station idea is decent for a live show but uh i don't know what do we do then do we go global do we we have to go international do we have to like the thing is dude we can't do a show in the newark train station because we'd have to set fire to all the gear afterwards to properly clean it um so i don't want to do that uh what about what about inter we are a global brand right what about in time maybe aust global brand, right? What about, I don't know, maybe Australia? Australia seems hard.

I will say, I will say. I'll go to New Delhi. New Delhi? MK in New Delhi? India. No, that's,

again, dude, traveling to the other side of the world takes too long. Fuck all that. But the UK is only six to seven hours away from DC or JFK. So,

you can do that. Dude, you know where I really want to go? I'm telling you, I've said this before. Wales, right? That's weird. I've been all over Europe. I've been all over Europe. This is not debatable. Although I will say there are other nice people that are pretty close.

But dude, the nicest people in Europe are the Irish. The nicest. I mean, just not even a... And especially compared to... I like the Brits. The Brits are great. But the Irish, they are nicer. They're just nicer.

Imagine if we did. Then all my Welshmen can come see me. Mike Owens Media from Liverpool could hang out with us. Oh, Gareth A. Davis, dude, we could be swinging. Well, he would have to sit outside. I mean, he's a little weird. All right. I don't know.

Luke, I don't know how long this run that we're on is going to last, but everything we touch is gold. All right. I got gold balls, Luke. Okay. It's fantastic. They're just clanging. All right.

Last but not least, we do have some weekend boxing stuff to get to. Yeah, this will be quick. Yeah, no worries. The three biggest fights that we have, as you mentioned before, Rougarou is back, Regis Progray taking on Jose Zepeda. That's fun. That'll be on pay-per-view, which is all right. Well, can we start there before you read them all?

Hold on, hold on. I just want to get the big names out, and then we'll go back real quickly. Well, why don't we go one by one? I mean, I don't get it. Because I am hosting, and I would like to do it this way. Also, very quickly, on a separate card on DAZN, you have Dillian White and Jermaine Franklin.

And then on ESPN+, Zach Parker taking on John Ryder. Getting back to Progray versus Zepeda. BC, it is on pay-per-view, but I got to tell you, of the other main events, I like this one the best. This is a great fight. The problem is that it's going to be on independent pay-per-view and nobody's going to buy it. And I'm sorry to say that out loud, but it's true.

This is for a vacant 140-pound title that was stripped from Josh Taylor. And this will be the second chance regis progray gets to fight for the title he fought josh taylor three years ago in the world boxing super series tournament to unify belts and it was you know one of the fights of the year one of the best fights of this era to be really fair and just a 12 round war that felt like an old school classic he's back but he wasn't even supposed to be here this was supposed to be jose ramirez the former champion at 140 unified who lost to josh taylor in that big. This was supposed to be Jose Ramirez, the former champion at 140 unified who lost to Josh Taylor in that big summit. He was supposed to rematch Jose Zepeda. Ramirez decided instead he was going to get married. Regis Progre was the perfect

substitution for this because this fight's going to be fire. Absolutely. Jose Zepeda a couple years ago inside of him, Brancic was in one of the craziest, best, most violent, most ridiculous fights we've ever seen. I was there when he fought Jose Ramirez for the belt the first time, and I thought he beat him. Close fight in Fresno, California. These two are back, and with their styles, Regis Progray is not getting any younger. We love him, but he's going to be too old too soon. His career has just not gone the way you thought it would be in terms of who he signed with and the opportunities he's got. But he's got this opportunity.

The only potential problem distribution-wise is the purse bid was won by Marv Nation and some other promoter you never heard of. And, you know, some people say, is this just Kinahan, you know, in Probellum doing a secret job here? I don't know. I don't

know who's paying for this, but I don't think anybody's going to buy it, and I like this fight a lot, a real lot. I don't even know if our show's live anymore, Luca. Can you even hear me anymore? I can hear you just fine. Yeah, yeah. All right, so what about the Dillian White-Jermaine Franklin card

on DAZN? Do you like that? It's okay. It's okay. So that's a DAZN fight in London. It could be the who's coming or going in the crossroads fight of this heavyweight division. We know who Dillian White was.

And, you know, can he one day get that AJ rematch, which is his, like, probably last big money fight available? Fought Tyson Fury, got knocked the hell out in front of a giant crowd. I tend to think White's going in the wrong direction here. Jermaine Franklin, though, is somewhat interesting. I think Detroit, he's 21-0 with 14 KOs. Hasn't beaten anybody close to Dillian White's level. You know, he beat Jerry Forrest by split decision.

That's the level he was at. He's good. Is he great? I don't know. He beats Dillian White, though. This is a good announcement in terms of the direction he's headed and whether he's a title player. Will he get action?

Yeah, he'll probably get action, Luke. It's probably a good fight. So there go that's what you got and then last but not least in london also also in london same day on espn plus zach parker taking on john rider should we care oh you you can't see me right now luke i can't i can see you i can see you i can't see anybody in my stream right now you're doing. You're doing the karate chop. Should we care about Zach Parker versus John Ryder? No, I'm doing the karate chop, which you're thinking, oh, you're being racist again. No, I'm telling you, sometimes I'm just not interested.

I'm not interested in this fight. Okay? All right. Very good. All right. As a reminder, everyone, we're getting closer to the end of the month, and you know what that means. It's almost time to select the first ever Moneyline Hammer of the Month.

For those of you who have missed it, few weeks back we decided we're going to start spotlighting undercard fighters who aren't getting the recognition they deserve so our new sponsor money lion agreed we came up with the hammer of the month which invites you guys the viewers to nominate which undercard fighters simply blew your mind and deserve to be rewarded for it go to moneylion.com slash morning combat to learn more and how to enter bc yeah luke i can't see the feed right now in our in our setup here's what we're up against now we're supposed to do fan subs but we actually bc and i cannot see the return feed so we actually cannot see the screen at the present moment so we have a couple of options bc one we can just say fuck it and punt, which I don't want to do.

Yeah. Or two, actually, I guess three options. Two, we can wait for them to come back up. Oh, they're working on it. We got the hold on one minute from the great Gaffney Jim Pierre over there. BC, while we're waiting for them to fix it, very quickly, what is your Thanksgiving Day plans? Now, your parents live in Florida.

You obviously live in Connecticut. Are you all getting together? How's this going to work? On my father's side, we go to Uncle Tony's house in Naugatuck, Connecticut. Shout out to Uncle Tony Campbell, a pillar of that community, Luke. And, you know, it's going to be the closest approximation to what Thanksgiving was like growing up for me, going to my grandmother's, my Mima. And, you know, we're going to have the meat pie.

We're going to probably be upset that Naogatuck lost to Ansonia. Hopefully not this year, though, Luke, because we're coming on. And then we're going to play the Backyard Bowl, and it's going to be intense. And I'm going to be, as always, always willing to put relationships on the line during games like that, Luke, because that's the family way. That's how we roll.

So that's what I'll do. And, you know, video game tournaments, a lot of chocolate cream pie. It's the best holiday because I get to hang out with the best people uh and some of my favorite family members and you know you're doing the three f's okay and you can add the fourth f this this year with football which is four world cup games going up against three nfl games going up against cousin video game tournaments, backyard football. This is what Thanksgiving is all about. Dude, my family hates sports.

I'm going to have to fight them to put anything on. So describe where you're going to be, who's going to be there, and what the setting will be. So Uncle Pipe is in Columbia. He is down there seeing his family. Do you think, to interrupt you to say do you think he does more damage south of the south america or in south florida no he definitely does way more damage in south america i mean just way more not even not even a contest yeah mostly

he mostly does like business in miami in terms of like genuinely doing work he doesn't it's not it's not really a place for play down there but in in South America, fuck, get out of town, bro. It's, I mean, just shooting fish in a barrel down there, BC. Okay. Um, so he's out, but it'll be me, my wife, my daughter, Violetta. Then it'll be my mother-in-law. Who's wonderful as well. And Abuela is going to be there.

And my wife's cousin is going to be here. She's from Columbia as well. She's fluent in English. It'll be great. So it's all five of us heading down to Fredericksburg, Virginia. Whoa. And my brother, we're going to go to his house. His wife is pregnant.

I'm going to be an uncle in January. I'm very excited about that. Yeah, but more important, Tuki's going to be a cousin, Luke. That's right. Tuki's going to have a cousin. Tuki's going to have a cousin. And then my dad will be there. My dad turned 82 yesterday. And more important, Tukey's going to be a cousin, Luke. That's right. Tukey's going to have a cousin. Tukey's going to have a cousin. And then my dad will be there.

My dad turned 82 yesterday. We had a nice call with him. And my sister will be there as well. I believe that is it. There may be another guest or two who comes around, but not on my side per se. Is it fair for me to say this or just ignorant and rude that Tukey actually may have a lot of cousins in south america she doesn't know because of uncle uncle pepe you know that killed the feed all right that's great look we're almost back i don't know i don't know it's a great question it's very hard for me to answer that yeah yeah as my family apparently turns on uh lawnmowers just outside my door which is oh yeah that's you know i explicitly tell them not to do. Could they,

could they, I wonder if they could be louder. You know what I'm saying? Just be louder. No, I hope you guys have a great time. And I love that, that,

you know, you're mixing people from both sides of the family. And you know, what will, will Lukito get everything you're looking for? Menu wise, food wise, you're going to get it all.

Yeah. I mean, here's the thing on Thanksgiving, dude. I, I just, I said, I think I said this on my lifestyle yesterday. I just can't complain it all. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing on Thanksgiving, dude. I think I said this on my live show yesterday.

I just can't complain, BC. Yeah. Again, my brother and my sister had a restaurant for over 10 years. It did well. They just hated the business, so they sold all their shit in March of 2020 before the pandemic really got into high gear. And they don't regret it, but the reality is they can both cook their ass off. That's amazing. That's amazing.

That's great. And by the way, my brother's sister. Sorry, what am I saying? My brother's wife is an amazing pastry chef. Oh, dude. Yeah, exactly. So on the savory or the sweet end, I don't have to do much or complain about much. That's the reality.

Will you vape in their house like an absolute P.O.S.? Oh, 10 billion percent. I might vape in their fucking face, much less in their house. I mean, what are you... You'll vape right in the back of the turkey. Will you blow it right into the turkey, Luke? That's what I want you to get. PC, what are they going to do?

Not like me? They've spent 42 years not liking it i'll look this has been a time-honored tradition uh all right i got two important questions one involves you talking your brother into doing an mk zoom interview with me about like your life growing up and all that or coming on room service diaries if he's willing and two would be will they ask you at all about morning combat and like did you guys win that award or hey i saw that documentary will there be any of that no there won't be one question about it none zero i don't think they even know the name of the show okay what about

if abuela who's trying to just make sure everybody gets along in front of them was like lukito did you tell them about the awards and all that? That is possible. That is possible. Something like that could definitely happen. But short of that, no, there won't be. It sounds like I'm doing a bit because I always do, like, exaggerated talk or whatever. But I'm telling you the truth. There won't be one.

There won't be one question. Now, hold on. We've got to get to business here because they're trying to set it up so we can see the return feed. And we're having a bit of an issue. Here's another solution. If they want, because I know what the folks can see looks good, what we can't see what you're seeing, they could just email us all of the...

Now they're back. Let's go. We're back. All right, let's do it. Let's see if it holds, BC. Yeah, morningcombat at gmail.com every week. Yeah, let's get to it. Let's get to it.

For your fan submissions. Fan subs. Fan subs, whores. We've got mail. Let's see to it. For your fan submissions. Fan subs, whores. We've got mail. Let's see if it holds. Viewers. Okay, this from Michael. Fellow donks, it's Mike K from Danbury, Connecticut again.

And on last Monday's show, BC asked Aaron Bronstetter what he thinks about the rise of Teixeira MMA. And AB so accurately stated the fighters there can focus entirely on training. There can't be too many distractions in danbury ct he's not wrong so here i am out of state visiting charleston south carolina with my fiance and i couldn't help but think of you guys when we sat down for dinner at the mexican japanese fusion restaurant and there on the wall was an original print of the mayweather mcgregor poster There's a lot going on in this picture. Can we blow this up?

All right, Luke. First of all, this is a Mexican-Japanese fusion. What kind of... Is that unheard of? No, it's not. They can... I've seen a few of these before. They've got edamame and sushi and then tacos,

but you'd be surprised. They work together pretty well. Also michael's doing very well also i don't see the mcgregor mayweather uh picture there in the far right corner or sorry no sorry like the in the corner of the room but like there's there's literally arrows around oh there's literally the point that's the one over my head luke this one oh okay i see it now i I see that art. Okay. There it is. There it is. It's a great poster, Luke. I'll tell you that. He closes by saying, shout out to the best damn combat sports podcast around, Luke. You might not feel

like MK has hit its groove yet with the RSDs, but I think I speak for the Donk Nation when I say the content outside the regularly scheduled programming has been excellent. From shining a light on important figures, entertaining the industry like Laura Senko and Fabiano Busce, to having real talk with fighters like Sean Brady and Mighty Mouse.

No one does it like MK. Stay washed, never stop vaping, and keep putting out that divorced dad energy. Thank you, Michael. You get us. Yeah, thank you. But we plan on staying married. Thank you very much all right

exactly unless our wives start watching the show let's go over to steve b please disregard my turkey neck and childbearing hips but your boy steve b is out here repping mk and the donk army at bellator 288 in chicago holler if you hear me yes right yes this is the last face you see before you get stuffed in the trunk of a car. Is that our Halloween merch? I don't think I've ever seen that shirt before. Have you? I'm not sure. I'm not sure what it is.

All right. Steve B has, you know, he has, I mean, he may have at least been accused of a felony at one point, right? Maybe not convicted, but. Yeah. Yeah. This dude has definitely gotten away with crimes we appreciate you though steve b thank you very much let's go to at mclean training and here's a meme they got a meme luke we got memes oh god pay attention to bc and respond

accordingly ignore everything he says at the same point and dude once again once again the vaping has been an absolute gift to the show so that you guys could roast the ever-living fuck out of me like a thanksgiving turkey yes all right john also has a meme i don't know where this guy's from or john who but dear john he's got a meme. Let's see it. Dear John. Pay attention to BC or draw a twirl. There it is. I'm sorry, guys. He's just hard to listen to. It really is.

We have a Michael sliding in. He says, BC may be the clown prince of CT, but Luke is the emperor of DC. Dub T. Let's see how well BC knows his partner in old washed white crime name that luke all right this is a game right yeah wow um luke can we try to match that luke can we match them with the pictures here number one is viewing valerie loretta's instagram yep yep two after hitting the new bbl flavored vape pen yep three after Three. After a fistful of Delta 8 gummies.

Wow. Wow. Four. After the gummies, a 40 ounce of malt liquor and mistakenly believing he is on his commode. Fair. Or five. Future Luke watching BC get sent to the land of winning ghosts during a you want a champion or room service diaries.

Which Luke is it in that picture? I got gotta go with uh boy that's definitely number one let's i'm gonna go with three after finishing a full what does that say yeah that one actually you know what the reality is a few of these work a few of these work because if we full screen that one more time please what does that say a full uh a fistful of dough because look there has been once or twice in our show's history when we were about to film something and you looked over at me and we made eye contact and i was like oh no he's he's he's way too far

gone like i've seen that face before this This has happened before, but you need to tell the truth to the audience. This is way more an issue with you than it is with me. No, no, no. I cannot confirm that, Luke. But I have seen that. I definitely have had times where I'm like, dude, why am I sweating and shitting my pants? I don't understand. But more commonly, I just see you staring off into the distance.

And all I can see in your head is, Lisa needs braces, dental plan. Let's go over to Tyler. He says, what's up, Luke and BC and the whole MK crew? Had a blast catching 288 Bellator with my beautiful girlfriend here in our hometown of Chicago. Had some awesome seats, and it was cool to see legends like Javier Mendez and Fedor in the corner as their fighters got the win.

Here's a pic of me rocking the OG MK shirt and like BC at 10 a.m eastern I also had a large amount of THC in my system um I am also in the process of converting my girlfriend into a full-time MK fan but I've only had luck so far with her cat Suki who's in the video that we're going to play in a second at least the cat hasn't questioned why I'm watching two washed dads discuss predatory loans But I've only had luck so far with her cat, Suki, who's in the video that we're going to play in a second. At least the cat hasn't questioned why I'm watching two washed dads discuss predatory loans and grooming their disgusting genitalia. Keep up the great work. It's Tyler. Luke, first of all, can we zoom in?

What's your thoughts on his beard right there? Go back one second. I mean, I can't really talk shit. Mine's unkempt, but his is terrible. I mean, he just... Trim it up, my guy. He seems to have very good taste in women, so hopefully his beautiful wife can be... Her girlfriend, I'm sorry, can one day not only become his wife,

but can become an MK donk, because we do welcome female viewers. We just don't have many of them. We don't have a whole lot, but we do welcome them. So his girlfriend's cat is named Suki. Let's play this video. Let's see what got here so luke i don't play that video do we really just do that i don't know if there was supposed to

be audio with that and we just didn't hear it, but he looked as interested in MK as everyone at this Thanksgiving table you're going to see tomorrow. Look, I mean, seriously, right? Facts. Facts. All right, there you go. Thank you, Tyler, for taking us with you on your life's journey. We're MK.

We're here to stay every single day. JP, you know him from Mount Unaike, Nova Scotia. Good day, MK crew and fans and brian bde campbell's live chat has been announced let's go time for bc to get paid love you guys keep up the amazing award-winning show super fan for life it's jay paquette luke this is uh the logo he wants me to use for my soon-to-debut, maybe next week, BDE chat. Yeah, but you gotta change the shirt. The shirt sucks. All right, there you go.

Thank you, Jay Paquette, for your service as always. I do wonder if that guy has a social life outside of us, Luke, but I'm welcome. He's welcome anytime in our weird family, all right? Okay. He lives on the lake. It looks beautiful. If we do MK in your house, we're going to jp's house

uh danger mouse remember him he believes he's up for this award he says hi bc i'm back with my usual trio of torments to amuse and abuse you i've got two classic memes and some art all from recent interviews let's start by calling out your hypocrisy when it comes to physical content i mean not that i blame you who wouldn't rather hug laura than the hairy watermelon vape smelling ape besides you but if i see it i'm calling you out bc i mean is this really a conversation piece here you know what it is true you don't like to touch me and bc i need your touch i mean you do make it weird very quickly. Just right off the start, okay? So, yeah, you know.

Not like Gareth A. Davis weird. Like, that guy's put his hands down my pants, and I'm like, I don't know what that transaction was about. Well, yeah, I'm not committing sex crimes, but... Okay, Warlock, I don't know where that was headed, okay? But, I mean, this is a transaction in that meme that everyone understands, right? Yeah, it means you're, you know, ring the bell for the horny alarm. It's off and running.

I mean, she's going to smell a lot better than hugging you that close, Luke. Hugging you will be like in Fight Club when they had to hug Meatloaf. Oh, you've never seen that, have you? I've never seen that. I mean, I've seen, I know what you're talking about he had you know he was just a giant gross fat piece of yeah he had he had b tits luke uh but all right let's go over to uh um and not b cup but you get my point and danger mouse says uh what is this the hell is this he says finally one from the izzy interview and his idea what the show was called.

Oh, and if you want to know why you're short and Luke is tall, I used a Fantasy Island photo just because I thought it was funny. So, Luke, remember when Izzy called us Combat Corner? Oh, yes. That's Danger Mouse's. I don't know if I fully get the joke. The top is cut off. I can't quite see the top. Yeah, can we blow that thing out? Is there more to show? No, looks like we can't. All right. get the joke. The top is cut off. I can't quite see the top. Yeah, can we blow that thing out? Is there more to show?

No, looks like we can't for some reason. All right. Well, that eat a bag of Dick's gummies is nice and fun. Yeah, yeah, there you go. There is a margarita. By the way, look at the live boxing screen next to me. It's Godzilla versus Butterbean. Yeah, you were doing a dissected on that that's great oh jay paquette's back from mount uniak good day uh top gun combat with luke

and bc let's go love you guys keep up the amazing award-winning show what's this top gun combat vaping once again dude i'm telling you what a gift what a gift i do i gotta say i like the logo the logo looks sharp yeah i i would i would consider imagine if you just blown up the mk in that with those wings next to it i like that a lot hey somebody get imagine if jp and rj just started working together on designs all the time you know it'd be great maybe you should unleash jp imagine if we got a cut of the merch man yeah we should we should renegotiate that for 2023 what do you think luke i think it's a good idea yeah all right love we have finally alan w has three of them in episode 375 luke was quite vexed and lugubrious from my fan submission where bc was portrayed as the heath ledger joker this is this

is this is a problem and he felt his portrayal in the art piece as a negative to make amends here's the redux version of mk and the batman universe um what does it say over my forehead damaged uh yeah that's fair i don't like bc i gotta say you're still not hot yeah i don't i don't like anything to anything to do with this at all um all right loop vape god vape god thomas you've been a good sport not really but here is a dia de los mortos inspired logo that i made from for you you old wash bastard i love it it's a little similar to the terminator one we already have yeah but uh it is cool and i do like it i like it a lot i feel like we say alan w's name a lot on the show but i don't

know anything about him but check google definitely jan 6 he also says this is an homage to luke's propensity to constantly suck on that robo phallus to get his i didn't i didn't have it one time today of nicotine while conducting morning combat one of the lost paintings from belgian surrealist renee magritte le phil de vapoteur translated the son of vape now if we could if we could put that that art piece in a frame on our mk set in jersey i gotta tell you that one is actually one of the better ones i've seen yeah that one's awesome so uh i don't know who needs to hear this on our mk staff but uh if that poster can be up when we go back next week that'd be dude find any like find any piece of like incredible artwork like the sistine chapel where you know god is reaching out and instead of he's instead of reaching out to touch he's just handing over a

vape you know tip to tip on the... Yeah, or whatever. And then we could just make shirts off of all of that. We could really... We could kill. MorningCombat at gmail.com is your home for this. The Dead Wrongs on Friday. And you could just email Mikey and just talk to him.

Probably Mikey Mormile there at CBS Sports. He's a great guy. He's a protector of the brand. I'm talking about brand. He is. I want to remind everyone we are going to be off for Friday, but the content does not stop. We're going to have a Friday mailbag edition for you. So I just want to say something about Thanksgiving real quickly.

I say this every year. We said it on, I think, Monday. I'm going to say it one more time. Please, folks, I know everyone's going to be traveling. I know everyone's going to be a lot of stress, a lot of family time, a lot of good times, but a lot of, you know, um, a lot of moving around. Please don't drink and drive. There is no need. Put the Uber app on your phone, put the Lyft app on your phone,

do whatever you got to do ahead of time to get yourself in and out of these places. You're going to go to without any incident. Don't drink and drive. Just not worth it. It's just not worth it. And we have too many reasons and resources for it not to happen. So thank you very much. Luke, you know who I'm interviewing in a couple hours? Who? Tyson Fury.

Oh, for real? Yeah. Let's see what happens. All right. Is he going to do to you what he did to True Geordie? Did you see that? I did see that. Yeah.

Yeah. If you don't ask him tough questions like that, you're a bitch. Yeah, I am. We'll see what happens. It's my big rematch from when he hung up on me last time when I asked about his dad removing that guy's eyeball that time. I mean, I think it's a fair question, right? It is a fair question.

Reminder, as always, Showtime.com is the label that pays. You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you'd like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. Reminder, Black Friday, any day, but certainly on Black Friday, morningcombat.store for all of your merch needs. Please give us a look there. If you're in the market, I'm telling you,

I'm telling you, those bomber jackets are legit. Go have a gander at one of those. Black Friday is going to be a good opportunity for you, plus mugs, hats, and everything else in between. BC, any final thoughts before we're out for the week? Please check out our recent Room Service Diaries with Laura Senko, Anthony Smith. I've got a very cool interview with

Rainier de Ritter, who's going to be headlining the December 2nd one on Amazon Return, the two-division champion. Luke, he said he can beat Adesanya and Poiton on the same night. That's a little much, he is very very very very good now he's cool he's a cool interview too i like his uh demeanor as well so uh yeah um you know that's some extra bonus content friday 11 a.m eastern in place of our normal episode we filmed

the fun mailbag i think you're going to enjoy that a lot 90 minutes of good times whether you're setting up the christmas tree this weekend catching up with old friends um you know watching the the sports with the family and unbuttoning that top button enjoy yourselves enjoy it focus on what you have in the moment and enjoy it look i don't know how to live in the present i don't i'll say this because i've been this guy too i remember the first year i moved to new york city i didn't have enough money to go home for thanksgiving so i had to spend it by myself so for all the folks out there who can't travel, who have to work or who have to stay home or whatever, we hear you. I see you. I've been there. I've been the guy who ordered Taco Bell on Thanksgiving. And I got to tell you, ain't nothing wrong with that either,

man. That's, that's doing it up right in your own way too. So, um, a shouts to all those good folks, just the same. Yeah, and thank you to our great, if we're Thanksgiving, we got a great staff and team across multiple companies, CBS Sports, Showtime, Malka, Gaff Pier on the ones and twos today. We thank you all very much for being you, okay? What a show. What a time to be alive.

Count your blessings. Hug your awards, as we often do, shirtless. Thank you. All right. count your blessings hug your awards as we often do shirtless thank you all right for brian campbell i'm luke thomas as well as cbs sports showtime and the mulca staff we appreciate you all so much happy thanksgiving don't drink and drive and until next time may all your gains be loyal