MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Jones Out of UFC 295 | Tyson Fury vs Francis Ngannou | Alexander Volkanovski | Morning Kombat Ep 506

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

On episode 506 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell react to the breaking news that Jon Jones is out of UFC 295. What do the guys think about Sergei Pavlvich vs. Tom Aspinall for an interim belt? The boys also preview Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou. Does Francis Ngannou have any chance? Should Tyson Fury be worried about the Oleksandr Usyk fight in December? Next up they discuss Alexander Volkanovski's recent comments about UFC 294 and the UFC 294 post fight press conference. As always we close out Wednesday's with fan submissions. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts 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

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That's the spirit we bring to this show I'm Luke Thomas I'm Brian Campbell This is Morning Combat Oh yeah, get some of this Frickin' thing right here The Best Damn Combat Sports Show Right back in your face hole, right?

Chillin' like bob dylan but killing like penicillin it's morning combat wednesday october 25th 2000 and 23 brian campbell right here luke thomas right there john jones not here for ufc 295 more on that to come very shortly with breaking news to start this wednesday But Luke Thomas, it's hump day. We got a loaded show. Fury and Ganu preview. So much more. How you feeling, bro?

Woke up. There was chaos this morning on my timeline. I guess all the news broke around like 2 a.m. East Coast time, give or take. So there was just like madness. Also, BC, I have great news. I have great news for the audience they've recovered my vehicle how about that they found it how about that huh how many pieces was it in luke it appears to be in mint condition or you know the relative mint that i left it in

i'm gonna have an appraiser go look at it today they're gonna call me and let me know but he's like yeah we'll have your car back to you by the end of the week and i was like wow did they take anything did they leave anything did they they took they took the child seat which was not cheap so and by the way comprehensive insurance gonna get reimbursed for that at the price at which we bought it because we have the receipt hey winning wow all right there you go luke uh congratulations to you and your family and uh shout out to the washington D.C. police force, Luke. You know what I'm saying? They came and knocked on my door at 3 a.m. to tell me they found it.

I was like, you didn't have to do that. You could have just left a note. Yeah. There you have it. Welcome in, Mikey Bormile, CBS Sports, on the ones and twos of today's award-winning episode. And, Luke, I'm not going to belabor our usually long intros here but i want to mention morningcombat.store not only can you get this

fantastic hoodie that i'm wearing here it's so warm i mean it's it's a champion like like us right like uh there you go like nico montano once was uh but we have a special today on morningcombat.store all right it's not just celebrating the 2.0 launch of Average Joe Arts collaboration. If you want 10% off the merch right now during this live program, only go to morningcombat.store. Use the promo code live10, L-I-V-E 1-0, live10, and get 10 and uh get 10 off i mean look you've seen this collection we got scooby-doo we got uh wash plumbers we got turtles i mean you know i love turtles luke this is great fantastic you look you look like the kid who told the camera woman he loved turtles

yeah by the way when i first sent tuki to school we had her first progress report and they were like okay okay, great news. Like she contributes to all the conversations. I'm like, oh, great. He's like, you know, but started off real rough. We would just call her to answer a question. She'd just start talking about anything she wanted. Like princesses, Disney stores, you know, you name it.

Kind of like you, Luke, when I tee you up with a question and then you're neither here nor there on the answer. You know what I'm saying? That is true. I'm not listening half the time, but I'm trying today. There it is. Well, Luke, we're all trying to improve ourselves, right, as we get ready to turn the corner here and break down all the changes to UFC 295. But when we're talking about maintaining momentum in our lives,

how about in our workout routines too? It can be difficult, especially when you hit plateaus in progress, in exercise variation. Sometimes sometimes luke you just know that you want to be healthy but you don't really know what to do next you're a donk right just admit it at the end of the day and listen everyone knows the working out uh when you can do it consistently and you know that's the big f but you got to do it but if you do you sleep better uh you look better and bc maybe perhaps most importantly you feel better, you look better, and maybe perhaps most importantly, you feel better. Do you not?

You do. Yeah, you freaking do. And I know I feel better, look better, and I stay way more organized to do my workout so I can get stronger with a little help. It's an app, Luke. Do you know what it's called? It's fantastic. That's right.

We're going to keep your momentum going and get great positive progress with FitBot. This app creates personalized workouts based on your goals, abilities, and, of course, gym setup, which is key. And it's going to help you track and visualize your progress all along the way. Yeah, look, I'm taking my health seriously. I'm trying to turn this liver around. And I've loved the FitBot app, and I consistently use it. You want to know why? Because my results are what keeps me

coming back to the app. FitBot has helped me push through moments where, like I said, I either didn't want to work out or Luke, I had the ambition, but maybe I didn't have the knowledge up here, you know? Yeah, man. Knowledge is key. FitBot's powerful technology understands your strength training ability, studies your past workouts and adapts to your available gym equipment. And the app intelligently varies your intensity and your volume and tracks muscle fatigue recovery and how about this to design a well-balanced workout plan they'll do the hard work for you they'll set the stage they'll tell you what to do follow the plan lift those weights Luke you're back in the game man you can take your shirt off this summer. That's right. The app keeps your gym sessions fresh and fun by mixing up your workouts with new exercises,

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All right. Thank you very much to the many different labels, Luke, that pay us or at least used to, right? At one point did. Yeah, hold on. I just logged myself out of my computer i don't know how that happened in real time luke oh that's not the right password give me a second all right did you just have a technological stroke out moment here right on air yeah why isn't it hold on a second here i have a feeling that whatever you said you did to your computer

you actually did you are the least and i mean this quite sincerely you are the least computer savvy person I know. In the world, in the world today. Here we go. Breaking news topic number one. Let's get right into it. Overnight we talked about it. Major change-ups at UFC 295, November 11th, Madison Square Garden.

This is a big one, folks. Only Jon Jones, Stipe Miocic, no longer scheduled to appear. Jon Jones in a training session with Maurice Green and footage posting on Dana White's social media overnight, torn pectoral tendon right off the bone. So John Jones is not only out for this heavyweight championship bout, he's expecting to hit an eight-month window of recovery time. Stipe Miucic also out, although no word on whether he was offered a replacement fight or whether he denied or accepted it.

What we do know is we have a new co-main event. The heavyweight title will still be at stake, albeit the interim version, when Sergey Pavlovich, who was already scheduled to be the backup for the main event, will now face, on short notice, Tom Aspinall for the interim heavyweight title. And now your new main event, bumped up from the co-main,

is, of course, the vacant light heavyweight title bout, featuring former champion Yuri Prohotska against Padeita, as we call him in these parts, Alex Pereira. Luke, huge, huge news. Before we get to the replacement and all that that I just mentioned there, off the top, Jon Jones out. How big of a blow is this for one of the most anticipated events of the year for the UFC? Definitely not great. I mean, listen, I think that there are some redeeming features to what the UFC has tried, and as you indicated, we'll get to

that in a moment, but there can just simply be no denial, right? Remember, you're not just losing Jon Jones, you are also losing Stipe Miocic, who at this stage is not necessarily the biggest draw, but certainly Jon Jones is, and then that particular pairing, perhaps even more so, I think the ticket prices that we saw for MSG were the cheapest seats we could find, where 900 a pop speaks to the sort of celebrity that that fight offers. So you're losing a lot in terms of the celebrity element, in terms of the casual drawing conditions. And that will have market consequences. That will bring down, I suspect the resale market might get interesting with this card now, because it wasn't

just the Jon Jones Show BC, but it was pretty close to just being the John Jones show and those tickets were outrageously expensive if you lose all of that I think some of the incentive for a lot of people goes away that being said BC that being said there really is a discussion to be had excuse me about the value of that new co-main between Sergei Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall, because I was tweeting about this earlier before the show, that is a better fight among relevant heavyweights, period. I know that there are a lot of people who have bought into the talking points about Jon Jones being the best ever versus the best ever heavyweight,

and there are a lot of reasons why those talking points, BC, as you well know, they just don't really add up in the end. It's still a good fight, but not quite to the direction it's being sold. There's a real question now if they got a better one, albeit with the late notice, maybe not. But we'll see. Well, look, I think that's worthy of a debate right there, because is it a better fight for hardcore fans, Pavlovich versus Aspinall? Yes, it's a better fight to kind of really figure out who's coming in this division.

And we've got certainly the two old registered names in Jones and Miocic, but everyone else, for the most part, seems to be part of this next-gen era. The Jotun Almeidas, you know, that sort of level of guy who we want to find out how good they are. But Luke, I don't think you can overlook a couple aspects of this when you want to make a blatant statement like that, that, hey, I think this is actually an improvement on the fight. It may be an improvement on a fight from what you thought you knew coming in. And what I mean by that is I thought Jones versus Stipe was

going to be very interesting and also very competitive. I do understand your take and a lot of others that, hey, with Stipe's age and inactivity, maybe this was a setup for John to dominate and cut through. So from that standpoint, you're getting a more competitive fight and you're also putting an interim title tag on there, but you're losing a lot here commercially. I mean, we, I don't think you can go any further than mentioning what you did, the $900 tickets. It's not resale costs. It's not stubhub.com. That is pre-sale regular price to like the hardcore fans that get the early emails to get in there and get their tickets early because they're regulars. $900 for a card that isn't overwhelmingly deep was very top heavy, but top heavy in a very good way, in my opinion, with Jones, Miocic, and then the original co-main that we mentioned, the light heavyweight vacant title tilt. Now you're packaging this with recent history, which is UFC 294, which I thought they upgraded sort of the star power and the must-see factor

by bringing in Volkanovski and Usman and being forced to change three of the four most important fights on that card in what, less than two weeks notice. But there's a bad hangover off of that card for a lot of people luke and you've been one of the people talking about it doing the whole hey it was great that we got volk versus mahachev too but what was the risk for volkanovsky reputation wise legacy wise current status wise to take a fight that important on such short notice we're just kind of doing that all over again with Aspinall he did fight in July when he made his comeback against Ty Burr after the long layoff from the injury but he's also

really forcing to kind of roll the dice on his dreams right now you're losing a ton of star power that's got to kill the pay-per-view sales I'm not going to kill the ticket sales because of how anticipated in advance they were sold but But Luke, this is a big disappointment. Even if you're going to say, oh, from a hardcore element, the fight is upgraded. Look, the Jon Jones story in the second half of his career has been, you know, unfulfilling. It's been a lot of issues outside the cage. It's been that three-year retirement slash layoff where he rebuilt his body, but again, had a lot of hiccups outside of cage. It's been that three-year retirement slash layoff where he rebuilt his body, but again, had a lot of hiccups outside of that. To get him to finally return this year, which he did against Cyril Gond, and a new division was great. But while I don't blame

Jones for Cyril Gond laying an egg and Jones sitting on him for 90 seconds and finishing the fight, there was a certain inconclusive nature to that not only was it a vacant title fight and he didn't have to go through and gone to get it but it ended so quickly without really giving us a true feel of who John Jones is at heavyweight and then you mix that with the idea that a lot of people thought he was going to retire anyway after this fight now we're not going to see him if we do again until possibly next summer when he will be turning 37 in July. Not an age we have to worry about and panic at heavyweight, but in totality, Luke, I lay out all those facts to tell you this blows. Dude, this blows.

Get excited about Pavlovich Aspinall all you want, but this freaking blows. To be honest, Luke. A couple things. A couple things. The first response I would have is that I cannot in any way say you're wrong. You're right. This is really not much different than the Volkanovski situation. A little bit in the sense that Aspinall barely got touched in his last fight,

but in terms of the lack of preparation and all the things that that could cause, that's one problem. However, remember, one thing that accompanied Volkanovski was a tremendous weight cut. You're really not going to get probably that here with Aspinall at all. I don't think he's going to have to worry so much about that, although there probably will be a question about his weight. I think people profoundly underestimate when guys have to do dramatic weight cuts, and then they fight and they say, yeah, I just couldn't pull the trigger.

I have a feeling there's a connection. It's a personal thing, but that's really what I believe. You don't get that here. However, you do get a very, relative to what you would get with a full camp, a very unprepared Tom Aspinall. And so I fully recognize we could go in there and he gets laid out with the first punch because he looked totally out of it or wasn't. He just didn't look himself. And you're like, well, what the hell was the purpose of that? Fair enough.

I do think you are risking that. However, what I would say is, man, listen, if you are a Jon Jones fan or a Miocic fan, or you're a big fan of that particular fight and what it meant, then I can absolutely understand the frustration. It's a massive trade-off in star power. It's a massive trade-off in the kinds of storylines that make for more interesting conversations. I recognize that as well, but I'm sorry, I just never bought into any of that shit. I really didn't. I think by the time they fight, by the way, I think Miocic might be 43 at that point, something close to that.

Well, I want to double check that if we can. I don't want to dead wrong myself. But certainly, you know, another eight plus months to get back to a fight. However long after that, they can make it with a full camp. I mean, it could be a long time. To you know steve pays 41 right now he turns 42 next august so not not not too bad but he's been off a while beating down the door of 42 is a terrible place to be fighting even a 37 year old john jones i just don't believe it's going to be that interesting or that

competitive and of course i don't know that. I don't think we see it. Luke, you think we're going to see that fight in eight months? I don't know. Okay. I'm so glad you brought that up. Even if we get a chance to see it, it could suck. But to the point you're raising, I think it throws this fight into jeopardy completely at any point. Whether or not we get it, Stipe might just decide, fuck it, I don't even want to do it anymore.

By the way, a pec tear, people come back from it all the time but it's not it takes time it's not easy like who knows how that's gonna go where's the interest gonna be where's the heavyweight division gonna be there could be all kinds of complications between now and eight plus months I mean think about how fast MMA changes eight months from now could be a different fucking universe before we get there fully agreeully agree this fight's in jeopardy. Luke, when I went to a WWE house show in Hartford, Connecticut in 1997 on a Monday night, thinking I was going to live Monday Night Raw, only to find out that back then they were still pre-taping Raw episodes a lot, and I went to a house show,

Stone Cold Steve Austin was still in the main event but I remember specifically like we let you know that Ahmed Johnson uh would be on this card he's now no longer anybody in the arena tonight that came here for Ahmed Johnson and wants a refund please leave now do you get a refund of your 915 dollars for the last seat at MSG. Now that Jones and Stipe are off or not, Luke, does that matter here? I mean, I feel, imagine if you imagine if this was your dream and you're like, I don't care the price. I got to see Jones in his potential last fight. Now it's like, man, I got to see Tom Aspinall on 12 days notice.

Do you know what I mean? Like what? Like, it's just like, listen, this is the, your strongest argument by far. Cause there's just no debate about it. Aspinall's a nice, interesting guy. Could be a future champ. Could be a future who knows. His talent seems to be extraordinary.

But right now, he and certainly Sergei Pavlovich, they're just not even approximating the kind of draw and relevant figure in the sport in terms of their popular attraction that Jon Jones is. Just not even bordering on it. And again, you go back to the particular nature of the matchup and how it was marketed. Best ever versus best ever heavyweight, blah, blah, blah. There's a lot of that that was going to pull on the box office. But BC, the point you raise also needs to be mentioned. I suspect that there will be some turnover between resales and whatever. But you might get a packed house by the time that fight rolls around because there is something for people who really love UFC like like hardcore

fans especially at MSG I suspect there'll be some turnover but ultimately uh uh it'll be filled with it'll be filled come fight time all right before we get it deeper into this Pavlovich fight and what this now what the what the new pairing of the main and co-main means, I do want to kind of talk about where we're at. Look, this has been such a weird year for UFC. And certainly these type of injuries are not their fault. And I certainly applaud the efforts they went to save UFC 294 last weekend from a star factor. But our new main event for 295, which rules the way Prochaska versus Podeda uh this is only

happening because the champion Jamal Hill got injured and he only had a chance to fight for the championship because the other champion Yuri Prochaska got injured although now he's back and Prochaska in a lot of ways only got a chance to fight for that championship because Jon Jones left the division and now indirectly Jon Jones also kind of affects this too. So neither here nor there on all that, but I did want to ask you on a larger picture. I remember the first year I was the backup combat sports editor there at ESPN was 2012. I'd already been, you know, obviously huge into both combat sports and been working at ESPN in some aspect with them.

But when I got plugged in as like the backup MMA editor, you remember 2012, it featured Jon Jones refusing to fight Chael Son in that last minute and that UFC card was at 151 or 152 getting canceled. Whatever it was, yeah. Yeah, we didn't get Jon Jones versus Hendo because of the injury. I remember that year there was a lot of storylines, a lot of early podcast narratives of that year was cursed, right? I also felt like 2017, which came a year after the UFC sale,

a year after Conor and Ronda Rousey walked away, that felt like a hangover year where things just never quite went right. You remember the GDR-Holly home fight? There's just a lot of weirdness. How are you going to frame, based on the results of the last two weeks of UFC main events, mixed with power slap, wife slap, fighter pay, Francis crawling through the Andy tunnel onto Shawshank to get freedom for this weekend.

How about the TKO-WWEKO WWE UFC merger, raising ticket prices? This is a weird freaking year that has not been without blockbuster main events that have caught our attention. But I would say as a whole, dude, not my favorite year in MMA history. Yeah, it's a weird time. I mean, just on the injury side, right? I mean, the injury turnover is significant and crippling potentially to the industry. Like, the UFC certainly deserves some credit for having developed the kind of machine that makes turnover. And then also, I think more importantly, the amount of risk these fighters have to take to keep the machine kind of moving. I mean, here you are, I think fairly BC, fairly complaining about your disappointment because you are losing a significant drawing factor. And the UFC's backup is, you know, about as excellent as you could possibly imagine,

given the circumstances. So even in the very best case scenarios of replacement, there's still just a lot lost. This is a thing that the industry, I really wonder what the right answer would be. If the fighters ever do get liberated from these onerous contracts and they have the ability to move around,

but they also have the ability to say no much more frequently given opportunities. I think there still kind of is a next man up culture in the sport that would basically help out the promoters, but the promoters live in this sport off the fighters. I mean, the sport literally doesn't work as we understand it, as we experience it. It does not work unless the fighters take the lion's share of risk associated with staging these events and the conditions under which we do. It is crazy how much risk they have to assume. Not to say they don't get rewards as well, BC.

They do. It's a mixed bag in certain ways. But let's just be honest about that risk that they have to absorb. Now, you raise broader questions about the overall year. I mean, I certainly echo some of the sentiments you're sharing. You know, we have talked about how the year started with Dana and his wife, unfortunately, and all of the various things that have happened since then. But, like, if you're the UFC and you're just looking at what you've drawn at the gate,

if you're looking at what you've drawn on pay-per-view and the other ways in which you've raised revenue, yesterday reportedly a nine-figure deal with Bud Light, it's been a successful year for them. Financially, not reputationally, Luke. What you're describing is unease on the consumer side. And I guess my retort to you would be, and maybe I'm missing something, as long as it doesn't really show up on the financial side i'm not sure how relevant these complaints are when they're also the the dominant player in this game to the point where they're a monopoly because right now they won't feel it because right now they're still in the my opinion still in the post-covid let's just get out of the

apex fans in any cities are just so happy for them to be there all they have to announce is which fighter will be appearing in the marquee and the cards are selling out, which has allowed them to really move forward on sort of this greedy aspect of raising prices to an untenable level for average fans. And again, while it's not the UFC's fault to have a rash of injuries like this that are pulling off a lot of the fights that people have pre-purchased

plane tickets you know made vacations around and paid exorbitant amount for tickets when you have a year that's been dominated by shallow matchmaking without a justifiable excuse mostly because nobody asks those questions of the powers that be at the fights and you and i have not been at the fights this calendar year it's just our current business reality based on the things that we're covering you know firsthand as opposed to covering from home but like this is a really bad year for an injury bug breakout like this to happen when I've already felt like for the fan and consumer experience it's been a step down how many times do we have to talk about it this year that it's been an unexplained level of softer matchmaking, shallower

cards, more 12 and 12 Dana White Contender Series graduates filling up from top to bottom the cards unhappiness with staying in the apex all this stuff matters in the end maybe you won't see a financial penalty for all these breaking out but I just want to put it out there

horrible year for the ufc to have major co in in main event injury bug concerns when you're already not giving the full pay-per-view value of what your fans are used to that's really all i'm saying luke it's not their fault but it kind of kind of is in a way kind of is in a way well it's weird because like they mean basically they don't promise you this explicitly, but, you know, more or less what you kind of expect from being a UFC fan is, you know, not every Saturday, but just about every Saturday. And that's sort of what they aim to deliver on.

But, dude, to do that, even when you have a monopoly in the industry, is, like, fucking hard. Like, it's really, really very difficult to do that. There's a question of whether or not, like, the UFC business model, as it is constructed, is overpromising, even with all of their advantages that they already retain as the dominant firm in the space. Even with that, are they overpromising what they can even do, even with those vast resources? There's an interesting question about that as well. What do you think the fans want?

By the way, in all seriousness, in absolute seriousness seriousness this is where where you and i and certainly you much more long-standing but this is where you and i being boxing fans really i gotta be honest i know you're feeling it in this way i'm not feeling it as acutely partly because you know i'm trying to not be like you know in the weeds fan as uh like i used to be but the other part is like dude the boxing has been so fucking good that like i've just sort of taken what mma has given me been grateful for the good parts kind of cast out the bad ones and i've just been feasting over there so i haven't felt it as quite acutely as someone who just watches mma you know do you think the not the casual fan not the

fan who who tunes into one to two pay-per-views a year because they follow the biggest stars, but the hardcore and the three-quarter there fan, the fans that make this sport. Would they rather have guarantee of a card every Saturday, or would they rather have deeper undercards to get their values worth? It's the essential debate, and I don't know what... You know that UFC has internal research about this. And based on the way they've done their model, my guess is they feel like if they went a whole lot further with what they have, they might alienate. But they're probably,

what the research, I'm going to guess, shows based on the way the UFC runs their business, I'm going to guess that whatever research they have internally shows that there is probably a tipping point where you can really begin to damage the relationship with your audience but you can push it pretty far and they do and they do um so yeah all right a big part of my my overall lament here luke is more of my fandom speaking out but i you know i think that's important nowadays that we i i always hated luke when it's like i get that you're not if you're a journalist you can't stand in a press

box and cheer right like that that there's a job responsibility but to always to try to act in this job which is just an entertainment show like we're not here because we're super fans would be you know disingenuous we're a super fan i'm not a super fan of john jones from the standpoint of like posters on the wall but from the standpoint of seeing who I think is the greatest fighter of all time compete on a somewhat regular basis and have the opportunity to leave with no doubt or debate that he's truly the greatest of all time. His inactivity, his sidesteps have obviously been tough to handle, but what do you think this means, this injury at this time, to his future? You and I were on CBS Sports HQ this morning,

and I was sort of pondering in real time, more people had the opinion that you had, that if Jones beats Stipe and, you know, no issues, everything's fine, he might just walk away right there, rather than risk having to face the next generation of heavyweights at his age when he could literally just walk away with the the two titles on his shoulders and put the goat hat on and that's it I wonder Luke if this complete flip up of his own timeline and when you do consider that yes he dominated Cyril God he's your rightful heavyweight champion but again

didn't have to go through Francis to get there and it turned into be like a colossal mismatch quick ending not a great night for gone didn't tell us everything we needed to know i'm wondering if this flipping of the apple card of john jones's lifetime line changes whatever motivation he had to either stay or go what do you think this means for john j Jones's future if we consider that it would have to be next summer probably international fight week time for him to be healthy enough to return and you can see Luke on that graphic as you answer me not active right not active at all um I don't want to see more of this guy's prime wasted although in this case it's certainly injury-led what do you think this means for his future?

I mean, we're definitely post-prime. You agree with that, right? Sure. I agree that the heavyweight division gives him the potential for longer life. But yes, that clock is ticking. I mean, he's 37. He just tore his pack. He is definitely out of his prime.

He's 36, Luke. He'll be 37 next summer. Okay. All right. I mean mean 36 and you're tearing your pec you know you're close you're closer to 40 than you are 30 and you're tearing your pec when you're wrestling yeah you're old congratulations you're old that's what that means so um i'm not as okay here's what we have to talk about which we didn't which is related

they're putting the interim strap on this heavyweight fight. And I know a lot of people have been kind of like, not alarmed, but it caught their attention. They're like, well, if Miocic isn't going to fight the next man up and you're going to put the interim title on that and then Miocic gets to fight for the heavyweight title later, what the hell are we doing here? This is not how any of this is supposed to work, which is right. It doesn't make sense. Except, BC, you've got this kind of celebrity thing going on between Jones and Miocic, which seems almost, and quite literally is, separate from the rest of the heavyweight division.

Especially since they're, like, everyone around Miocic and everyone around John all talk about how they're both going to retire. Like, everyone in the know is not making this ambiguous. They're making it pretty goddamn clear. Now, I think if the UFC can make a fight later, again, we talked about how perilous that now becomes, but should it be possible when they're ready,

I think that they can do that, they will do that, and it'll be whatever version of it it will be. It does get interesting if they can't make it what it means for John, whether it's his injury that won't let him come back or again Miocic just gets sick of waiting or whatever. I think that does change the things. The good news here is they're moving the heavyweight

division along here. Things are in progress. There's actually a good part to this. I know you're focused more on the Jones equation. It shows you how hard it is to really map and exit. George St. Pierre, again, thread that needle about as best as you're focused more on the jones equation it shows you how hard it is to really map and exit george saint pierre again about thread that needle about as best as you're going to get aside from from habib um so i recognize that but again there's a larger picture here of divisional health that i think is being missed all right i mean i i had more ideas of getting

into that and the health of that i just wonder is there any chance you believe that we have seen the last fight in Jon Jones' career? You have to take that seriously. You have to take that seriously. Again, it's way too early to predict something like that. But for people who might be like, oh, yeah, there's no way. Yes, there is. 100% there is a way. That is very possible.

We shall see. But it's something to monitor a billion percent yeah i just hate what this potentially did to his momentum because you know he did fight gone just recently and looked freaking fantastic i wanted to see whatever this prime heavyweight window was for him to see what it looks like i have the same lament that when connor defeated cowboy and sort of you know announced himself as a sort of baby-faced mcgreg. And suddenly he's like, you know, I want to fight three, four times this year. The leaked DMs unfortunately showed us that when he talked about fighting regularly, he was talking about Diego Sanchez, unfortunately.

But I felt like, Luke, the pandemic robbed us of whatever was going to be left of that second prime of McGregor. Didn't want the same thing to happen to Jones. But you're right. Let's spin it forward. Let's talk about this. We have Tom Aspinall on short notice as a slight betting favorite from some of these overseas books, Luke, to kick off this new fight.

How do you sort of look at this matchup stylistically when you consider that Pavlovich, after being knocked out in his UFC debut, has recorded five consecutive first-round knockouts. He's gone five rounds before, by the way, pre-UFC, and won. But this is an interesting clash, both in styles and terms of the current stock of both men. Yeah, okay, so one more time, putting aside just for the sake of conversation the well-known point that Pavlovich, everyone rightly notes, was supposed to be the backup for Miocic.

I mean, dude, what the fuck was the point of Pavlovich being the backup? I mean, I guess it's the same thing as Gamrot. It's like only on fight week. But dude, if John had gotten injured on fight week or whatever, and Miocic had to fight Pavlovich, you know Miocic is going to be like, fuck, no, I ain't fighting this guy. Like, for fucking what I gotta fight this big ass Russian on you know 72 hours notice no chance so kind of funny but it does do Pavlovich a bit of a favor because it kept them fresh and again with Aspinall I guess we shall see whatever we get putting that aside for just a second

both guys are probably more well-rounded than what I'm about to say especially Aspinall but it's striker versus grappler and I just don't really think it's a great idea especially early for Tom Aspinall really be slugging it out with a guy who appears to be the second coming of Francis Ngannou right Pavlovich can thump if nothing else he can do that even though he can be wide open and he can be hit it just seems like a big mistake to try and do that with that guy. By the way, BC, obviously with a title fight, five rounds, right? Not a three-round contest, even though it's co-main event. So if you're Aspinall, you have some choices to make

about how good your gas tank is, what you want to do. But I think it's really going to be a function of getting close range to Pavlovich, getting him up against the fence like Overeem did, using both of those factors to control his movement while you slow him down and really pound on him. Aspinall's got the skill to do it, but can he pull it off given the circumstances? It's an interesting question. Yeah, there are some interesting factors of the pace, what this will look like. Same questions we had for Volkanovski in a sense against Malachev when he was promising the idea of, I'm not going to have the cardio, so I'm going to have to go to the knockout, go for the knockout. He unfortunately never really

got out of gear there. But as we look at the heavyweight division at large in terms of the rankings, Seregon, number one, coming off of a win, you're going to have the number two Pavlovich against the number four Aspinall. Stipe will stay at number three, but is he really even ranked or in this discussion? If we're not talking about a Jones fight, as you mentioned, probably not. And then you've got Blades 5, Volkov 6, and we keep going further down there. But Luke, No. 9, Jelton Almeida, we will see him before this November 11th reboot on this interim title bout. So when Jelton Almeida takes on a replacement in Derek Lewis, replacing Curtis Blades, in a fight night card that's going to go down November 4th, so not this weekend, but the next, the final card before 295.

Does that raise the stakes on Almeida versus Lewis in your eyes now that we have essentially removed the two aging, not blocks that were in the way, but if this new fight is all about moving the division forward what does this change for Almeida versus Lewis number one contender if he can if he can do it if he can pull it off I don't know if Lewis gets that by beating Almeida that remains a little bit unclear but there is certainly a lot of momentum behind Jelton Almeida the Curtis Blades win I think would have been a little bit more interesting but you know don't sleep on Derek Lewis

obviously he beat Curtis blades so we know he's got you know we only need to go into Derek Lewis's game everyone knows the story but in all seriousness yeah Jonathan Alameda can absolutely prove himself to be a very top contender with this particular win if he can go there and look like gelatin Alameda typically does and it could be kind of interesting no matter who wins in the co-main event for the new heavyweight title this is what I mean man like we're getting some movement here at heavyweight we're taking out you know the blocking you call them up you said well I don't know if they're blocking mechanisms dude that fight was holding up the division it just like matter of fact it was but there was I

don't know I fought for that fight in terms of its meaning because I love the history that it brought. It's just a talking point. Like this thing about like best ever versus best heavyweight of all time. The guy's fucking 41. He's not the best heavyweight. He is reputationally. He is not right now.

This was the same thing as when Anthony Joshua was rising and Vladimir Klitschko came out of retirement and was like, you know what? I got one more in me. Let me go up against this guy. I know it's not the same thing because Jon Jones is not this young riser like AJ was in that comparison. I just mean like I didn't have an issue with Stipe who always takes time off between fights.

I didn't assume he was going to come out here and look tragically old and get dominated. But I also lament it from a commercial standpoint because in a calendar year, I think you do need certain pillars of those fights that are designed only for the casual fans, only for the general sports fan ESPN audience. And unfortunately, we lose that. But staying with the theme of the heavyweight division now getting rejuvenated, we don't know if Jones and Stipe are just going to fight again next summer for this title. We don't know if Jones is going to come back and be tasked with fighting whoever is the interim champion. But crystal ball time, Luke Thomas, July would be what, 10-ish months from now?

Who do you think will be the interim UFC heavyweight champion 10 months from now? I think Aspinall is overall more talented than Pavlovich, but the circumstances make me a little bit nervous. Yeah. So I am going to guess that it's probably Pavlovich. I think this path of destruction he's been on, while it started inauspiciously, right?

Overeem beat the shit out of him. But since then, he's been moving downhill on just about everybody he is vulnerable he's wide open at times his punching mechanics are a little weird at times like he doesn't seem to be unbeatable but he seems to me right now you've got to really really kind of be dialed in he's at the speaking of somebody at the peak of their powers that guy is at the peak of his powers and he's a tough customer i suspect it's probably going to be him if aspen i'll say this for aspen all man if he can come in here on less than three weeks notice and beat the guy who was preparing this whole time who's been on this win streak shit that would be an arrival moment and a half even with the interim

designation that would be huge that would be huge final point on heavyweights luke which former ufc heavyweight champion do you think we would be more likely to see in the cage in 2024 kane velasquez or brock lesnar brock lesnar brock lesnar i uh i i don't i don't know what the story is with kane's trial um I suspect even in a good case scenario, it will result with him spending some time behind bars. Okay, if he wanted to fight Luke, would they allow him to wear the low jack in the cage or would he be forced to take that off? Super serious question. No, I think it would preclude him from participating.

All right, all right. So, wow, craziness on this wednesday morning ufc 295 flipped upside down and that new main event luke which we were already fired up about it almost sort of raises the stakes on all things uh prohotska versus uh versus that other guy luke because now it's the damn main event at madison square garden luke and of course the other guy is potato um this this adds a little bit more juice, but this card ain't going to sell, bro. Come on. I guess it doesn't matter anymore, Luke.

We got the ESPN deal. Again, if you're the UFC, what are you supposed to do now? I mean, this is like, I mean, they just pulled out Sergey Pavlovich versus Tom Aspinall out of their ass. You're just not going to get anything better than that. you're just not going to get anything better than that. You're just not going to get anything better from that. So, there you go. Well, speaking of former UFC heavyweight champions, Luke, Francis Ngannou is back this weekend.

Saudi Arabia, Riyad Sisson, hashtag get fired up. Or maybe not get fired up. Luke, we've got a lot to talk about on this fight for whatever it's worth, right? But I think that whole idea of for whatever it's worth is what needs to be talked about first. I want to throw your attention here to two tweets from Fight Freaks Unite and former ESPN writer, personality Dan Raphael, regarding what this fight is. The original tweet says, Those involved in Fury and Gano have refused to answer a basic question is it an official fight one person involved answered like this on monday quote it is a boxing contest that is regulated and fought under the rules of

the british boxing board of control how's that for a non-answer says dan he would go on to quote tweet himself and say from the time the fight was announced i've been asking if it's official as it goes on their records, regardless of outcome. Not only did I get no answer, but serious evasiveness from all I have asked. Also, card is not listed on BoxRec, which is highly unusual on Fight Week. And Luke, I'll echo what Dan's saying.

We sometimes get fights on BoxRec that aren't even real. It's sort of like a rumor broke out and that matchup is already there and then they eventually change it um this fight's not there so luke thomas i got a lot to say about this but let me tee you up first because you will get fans that'll say hey bc and lt stop wasting our time we know what this fight is why the hell would it matter if this fight was an exhibition if it was a inside of an arby's like what who cares you're either buying it or you're not luke would you echo that statement or would you fight

it yeah i mean the donks who are gonna buy it have donk level decision right just like you know what i mean like just grunting their way through purchases yes you know there is that but for anybody who's like thinking about this in any kind of way, I mean, just realistically understand something, right? Like, what are the two things that make a fight real? Like, or, you know, put the stakes there. One, is it reasonably competitive?

And two, like, what the fuck are they fighting for? You know, what's the, like, what's, that's, what's on the line here? That's really the two big questions. And you have a have a fight that you know if you have any knowledge of fighting again francis has enormous power but in all likelihood he's going to get wrecked right i mean there's going to be a big gap in skill and are you now telling us that there's nothing on the line other than just there's just they're just doing this for the fuck of it which means what in the hell is the point other than to just kind of borrow the architecture of reality

right of the way it's actually done and then just use it for nothing other than celebrity and you know pomp and circumstance and if that's what you're into again i think there probably is an audience for that i'm just saying if you are at all a fight fan it's just it's just hard to know what on earth is the attraction i'm pissed off at this luke i don't mean to start this whole show with regurgitation of being pissed off i want to get into this event for the spectacle of it for the gas station hot dog of it for the what if element i feel like though that the powers that be have taken off all of the potential good feelings that would lead me to be fired up and exciting for this. I think it started with not putting the world title at stake.

And as ridiculous as that sounds, that you're going to put the heavyweight championship of the world at stake for a debuting fighter in Francis Ngannou who has, you know, next to zero pro boxing experience. And I say next to zero because we know that he originally moved from his native Cameroon to France, right? Being detained first in a Spanish jail for trespassing under the auspices of I want to chase a boxing career. Well, that quickly turned into an MMA career and you have one of the most storybook stories of someone's life journey that we've ever seen in this,

in combat sports. If you don't have the title at stake you remove in my opinion all of what you talked about what's at stake what's the meaning why does this care and now if you're telling me that the promoters and networks in this case espn plus right the promoters are both top rank and frank warren who are co-promoters of tyson fury if they are being not so truthful about whether this is an exhibition, now you've doubled down on screwing the pooch and maybe even tripled down. And the triple down part of it, Luke, is we're two months away from the most important heavyweight championship fight in a really long time. Four belts, one face, one division, two all-time great champions in Usyk and Fury. Yes, two all-time great champions are going to come together in two months. So you have this exhibition,

which means nothing, which means we are going through the motions of Tyson Fury, having to avoid everything from a freak knockout loss to a cut to anything that would delay the Usyk fight. And now if the impossible happens, like, look, let me pause my rant for a second. It should go without saying, if you followed my analysis, that I'm happy for Francis. He didn't fumble the bag. He's going to have this moment that means so much to him, not just financially, but also in the idea of like, my whole life has been an impossible story. So why would I stop trying to do the impossible?

I can get behind that as a fan. I think they've robbed from that because if Francis does the impossible, it means nothing. And what's going to happen? He's going to have to do the impossible a second time, or it's going to fuck up Fury versus Usyk in December anyway. I mean, look, could you imagine here if Ngannou does the Tim Sylvia versus Ray Mercer reverse, right?

Like does the ridiculous opposite, knocks out Tyson Fury. It's going to mean almost nothing. Okay, let me ask you about that, because I know what someone watching the show might be asking the screen right now or they're you know listening on the audio podcast how can you say it means even though I agree with you I want to hear you articulate it how can you say it would mean nothing if Francis was able to flatline Fury you could say aha the top MMA heavyweight beat the top boxer okay it's not going to go on his record but a punch landed a guy fell we all saw it it has to mean something well it'll mean a lot of negatives in the short term because could Tyson Fury go forward with a

fight against Usyk if he lost to Ngannou under any circumstance no it would like ruin that fight and while yes it would prove whatever doing that would prove, right, the idea that there's this MMA fighter that's so unique, different, powerful, that the lack of skill didn't even matter. But my point is, unless you're going to do this in some type of freak crossover fight with four-ounce gloves where you're like, you know what? We're not going to put the title at stake, people. But we really do want to find out who the baddest man in the world is. This isn't just about money and hashtag Riyadh season. This is about finding that out. So we're

going to do it in an MMA cage with four ounce gloves. While that would not be my preferred method of doing it, at least that would mean something to the idea of what you're saying. Like the whole idea of could an MMA fighter close that gap and do it? Now if Ngannou does the impossible, like I said, he's just going to have to do it again. So let's compare to the biggest fight of this kind that ever happened, the perfect storm of perfect storms. And that's the poster behind me, Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor in 2017. Luke, what made that fight unique and then ultimately so financially lucrative that everybody had to get on board,

including Dana White, which I didn't think would happen, was ultimately that you had a red-hot person in McGregor that was so on fire, pushing past the glass ceiling of what we thought was possible, and fighting a retired 40 year old Floyd Mayweather that the general public could be, you know, talked into or confused to the idea that what if McGregor goes in there and catches him? The reason though, that we never also say of why that fight mattered so much in the

short season that it did producing the second highest pay-per-view buys of all time and producing the largest live gate in combat sports history was because it was a real fight. Meaning that if Floyd Mayweather had lost to Conor under any circumstance, 49 and one would be the reality. Why does that matter? Because Floyd's such a marketing genius that he built his entire financial legacy on that unbeaten record on being the tbe and he came out of retirement two years removed at 40 and risked it all that was part of the selling factor luke we're removing in my opinion pretty much all of the elements of the selling factor with this fight except for that one freak show part of it of like what does this look like i might just have to see it we're gonna watch it anyway heck we might be even doing a live stream Luke but this kind of sucks and I think

it sucks for Francis I think it sucks for regular boxing that is so close to the Usyk fight and now if you're not even going to be real to the fans of whether the money they're paying for this fight whether it's actually a fight or not and why does that matter again because if it's not a real fight and it's an exhibition and let's say Tyson Fury goes out there and just is not you know competing is just whatever what are you gonna do Luke it's an exhibition right it's just kind of bs man it's a tune-up it's a tune-up it's a spectacle it's a spectacle this fight's the 23rd of October his fight with uh excuse me this fight's the 28th his fight with Usyk is supposed to be December 23rd of October, his fight with, uh, excuse me, this fight's the 28th. His fight with Usyk is supposed to be December 23rd, right?

That's when those two dates are. It's a tune-up fight. I mean, it's, you know, it's a sparring partner. It's just a guy. I mean, imagine if you're Tyson Fury, right? You get to remember, because he, after the Deontay Wilder fight, correct me if I'm wrong, he had the big, you know, he had the big, uh, fallout and he, you know, lost his mind and everything like that.

Or no, it was even before the Wilder fight, excuse me. But whatever the timeline was, he eventually took time off and he had to fight Otto Wallin and the other gentleman. I can't remember his name. Schwartz. Tom Schwartz. That's it. But they were tune-up contests, right? And then he eventually went back and fought Deontay.

I believe that's how the timeline works. It's like that all over again, except rather than fighting Otto Wallin, who sliced him open over his right eye and you know in a sort of a small arena he gets to do it in a big arena for an enormous amount of money i mean that's really just what this is like what are ways in which we can put together celebrity and for events that we can sell to the public that basically have no cost other than whatever physical toll it takes to either competitor. It's sort of the most bizarre thing you've ever imagined.

They've removed any of the pillars that make fighting for a living what it is. But here's the thing. Does any of this conversation if i'm being dead fucking serious does any of this conversation matter to the people who are most likely to buy this i don't think that it does i don't think it does well okay most likely to buy it maybe not but i think you are i think you're hamstringing your your own marketing potential by doing it this way i mean there's always going to be that audience that doesn't care, Luke. But what about that built-in fight audience, which you kind of need to buy this pay-per-view if you're going to get any kind of success?

You don't need hardcore boxing fans for this. No, you don't. Okay, but do you counter that you don't need pay-per-view buys at all because there's so much guaranteed Saudi money? At least we assume that this may not even matter. Like, we just wasted 10 minutes of yelling. I don't think the Saudis want to lose money. I think that they probably would like to make money. They're not in the losing money business if they don't have to be.

I suspect. I think they are. I think that they're willing to. You think they don't care at all about making their money back? It's not about care at all. It's about they're willing to take, they're willing to go under financially on every event because the larger goal is to re-educate the global public true or false here luke to re-educate the global public about how safe a tourist attraction saudi arabia

might be yes and how for how it's becoming a new sort of hub for combat sports. That's what this is about, dude. Yeah, I mean, despite the fact that the human rights abuses that they, you know, we're talking jailing people, beheading people for the most minimal of crimes, things you wouldn't even think of it being a crime, that's actually been stepped up inside Saudi Arabia. However, by the way, I have a whole conversation about Kareem Zidane,

not so much actually on the human rights side, really just about what you're asking about, which is this projection that's happening. It's not just Saudi Arabia. Of course, we just came off a weekend where another major combat sports event was in the Arabian Peninsula, basically, where you have the UAE, you have Qatar or Qatar, and then you have Saudi Arabia all doing the same kinds of things. And not just in combat sports, in other sports and other ventures as well.

It's actually extending far beyond that. So maybe you actually raise a good point there. I don't think that they necessarily want to lose money, but if this is all part of a broader effort at essentially tourism, at about image reform, at about international power projection, and dude, Saudi Arabia is becoming a combat sports destination for very big fights. question is is it becoming a destination at all times for very relevant fights i don't think this fight services that uh that other need i mean we saw you know andy ruiz versus anthony joshua too a very significant yes i'm not saying i'm not saying relevant fights don't happen that's not my point i'm simply saying fury and ghanu ain't that that's

just so so far from that than what we're normally talking about. Indeed, and by the way, if you're Saudi Arabian, you're paying a reported $55 million per event for multiple WWE events per year. Yeah, you're okay with losing money because you're not making that back in the live gate. All right, Luke, let's get into the actual preview and storyline and all that goes into this fight because, love it or hate it, it's got two of the biggest uh you know heavyweight combatants and really the history of combat sports and a unique storyline that got us here we were able to catch up with eric nixick and people of course caught youtube.com slash morning combat our room

service diaries chat with him eric nixick of course is the uh is one of the trainers for francis gano on the mma side The difference in this fight was that Mike Tyson will be the head trainer for Francis Ngannou and Luke Kevin Aioli of Yahoo reporting this week that it is official that the country of Saudi Arabia paid Tyson and reportedly paid him handsomely to fulfill this role. So we're going to get into Eric Nixick talking about Mike Tyson. Then I got questions about it. We caught up with Eric, who's obviously very close with Francis. Here's sort of the behind the scenes on this relationship and what we can expect style-wise for Francis working with Iron Mike.

Francis picked Mike Tyson, and I was wanting to see what this would look like. And we get a little view with some of the training videos. What has been the dynamic between them? Because obviously for Francis, that's his hero. That's my hero. It's everyone's hero. Yeah, no, I think it's a very cool dynamic and it's, you know, Francis will listen to you. And, but he has a different type of respect when it comes from Mike Tyson.

You can feel that with him. You know, me coaching Francis for the last five years, for me, I always had to approach things different with Francis in a way where you had to explain things to him so he understood the reasons why. If Mike tells you to do this, you just do it, right? Me, I'm like, hey, man, you want to throw a jab to the chest and the gait level change, or you want to do this to set this up or do this. And once he understands the reasons, then he would go about and do it. Mike, no problem, man. I'm on it. I'll do that right away. And so it's been a lot of fun for all of

us because, you know, you sit back and you put your learning hat on and you're able to learn from one of the greats. Absolutely. Tyson doesn't have training history, but if you are being smart here, and a guy who can't beat Fury with traditional boxing, it's going to have to be

unorthodox explosiveness. Tyson was kind of unorthodox but always you know in his prime kept to his technique his defense by the way no one ever talks about prime Tyson's defense was on point with the head movement can we expect functionally in this short period of time some level of impact of this relationship between Mike Tyson and Francis Ngannou? I mean, it can't hurt. But, you know, Francis and Mike just have different body types. I mean, you don't see tall, lanky fighters doing a lot of peekaboo stuff. Like that peekaboo style that Mike has fits his body type,

where he was a shorter, stockier, heavyweight, very athletic. That's a great style for someone of that build to have. Now, of course, Mike knows how to box more than just a peekaboo style. I'm just saying, like, dude, how, you know, are we really fucking doing this? Like, how much is training with Mikeyson for a very short amount of time okay here's the real question okay here let's get right to it here's the real question i'm asking you we know that mike's being kind of paid handsomely to do this in in almost a ceremonial

role you can't talk about this fight without saying hashtag riad sisson right it's this is about promotion and tourism is there anything anything that you think Mike Tyson could positively impart to Francis or has imparted? Because to be fair, the footage we've seen of Francis hitting the bag or hitting the pads with Mike Holden, it hasn't looked good. It hasn't been looked good. So is that the best move? Because the comparison is Conor McGregor using his MMA team against Floyd Mayweather and coming up empty. And we start to ask those questions the more times we see crossovers like this, should you go the route of traditional boxing coach or should you go the route

of anybody who can help you create chaos and pull an upset here? Yeah. I mean, listen, if you're Francis, again, you could land a big punch at any range at any point and anything could happen. Right. Okay. So that disclaimer out of the way, your likeliest chance of winning, such that one even exists, is probably by just making it an absolute dirtbag fight. Not even joking. You want to get completely on the inside. You want to rough him up.

And by the way, there's science to the inside game. It's not like that's just a place that Francis is going to be able to hang out. Deontay Wilder tried that inside game in the third fight he got leveled for it so like I'm not even saying that this is some like safe haven for him to just chill but all things being what they are I do think that tying Fury up wrapping his arms quite literally wrestling him in the way that Errol Spence uses to wrestle opponents moving him backwards kind of foulingrol Spence uses to wrestle opponents, moving him backwards, kind of fouling him, using your head to just make it rough and ugly and mean.

The referee, like if Francis doesn't get several warnings from the referee, he's fighting this fight wrong. I mean, there's just no denying that. Like you cannot box on the outside and expect to catch a Fury. Also, again, we're going to assume that Fury is in reasonably good shape, did train hard, won't fuck around too much, that kind of a thing. So, you know, reasonably normal circumstances. The reasonably normal circumstance way to win is to get right in Fury's face, mess him up, make it ugly, make it dirty, put volume on him, wrestle him, wrap him up,

foul him the whole nine yards because a boxing contest will go extremely poorly for Francis. Yeah. Unfortunately, if you're Ngannou, you got to be thinking anything that can screw up the Usyk fight. Like it's not connected. It shouldn't matter. But if you're Ngannou, like you got to be thinking, I've got tonarly and dirty and and and constantly a physical threat to this man in every possible way uh tough uphill battle let's go to Eric Nixick one more time on exactly that the uphill battle of this

fight and whether there could be any tricks there to change the outcome what what would you say to people who are like this is a giant waste of time? Yeah, I mean, and I completely understand that, especially people from the boxing realm, right? The purists of the sport. I think for me, it's just that nostalgia of the one punch knockout power, the ominous figure that you see Francis Ngannou walk into a cage, what he's capable of doing when he does connect and when he does land. Now, how do we get there, right? What are the methods that we can go and land that big punch and

that's where I think a lot of the X's and O's need to come in and you know how do you cut the octagon anymore it's a boxing ring how do you cut it off you know how do you set up traps you know a lot of things that we've been talking about with him is to try to implement some of our theories within MMA with the switch stances and coming in from different angles that most, not saying not all boxers, but some boxers might not be accustomed to in some of the things in their preparations, right?

So it's been very different. It's been very meticulous. For me, it's been one of those situations where it's like you try to bring up some different theories and thoughts and ideas and see if you can execute them in the rounds. Like yesterday, he was doing really, really well. It's like, hey man, let's change our look.

Let's go over to southpaw. And he's got even a better southpaw cross than he does with a right cross. Some of the things that he does off of that, he can build into moving guys over to his power hand side, which is now his lead hand side. So having a lot of fun with it. And for us, I think it's just a matter of, you know, the purists aren't going to love it. I get that.

I understand that. But we have the opportunity to go out there and make the most of it, grab the bag and do everything we can. Yeah, he didn't fumble the bag. You did not fumble the bag on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Luke, do you think his team believes he can win? No. No, Eric Nixick's a smart guy.

They know that they – I come on bro like they're going to try you know because it's that it's you know what it is it's the scene from the avengers when dr strange holds up the one and it's like the one and 800 gazillion or whatever the number was about all the scenarios under which they could beat thanos there's one out there there is a scenario out there where that can happen they're're going to try for as long as they can to get there, knowing full well the likelihood of that is probably fucking close to zero, right? So,

I mean, you know, listen. They're pros. They're going to take it professionally. They're going to treat it seriously. I do believe that, you know, for whatever this contest is supposed to mean. But, guys, Francis isn't fighting, like, some heavyweight. He might like, some heavyweight. He might be fighting the heavyweight.

And unless the heavyweight has punted on taking this seriously, there's no fucking way Francis will win. It just requires extraordinary circumstances. Think about it. Like, if he was fighting some heavyweight champion that was, like, 6'2", 245, you'd be like, okay, Francis is huge. Could he lean on him? Dude, Tyson Fury's six foot nine

with ridiculously long reach and he's like middleweight light heavyweight quick compared to heavyweight so it's I will say one thing I will say one thing was it not the autovaline fight where over Fury's right eye he had a big ass cut. And if that fight had been in potentially a different jurisdiction, they may have stopped it. Oh, 100%. I think it was 15 or 18 cuts. Right. So, dude, here's my game plan for Francis, and I'm dead serious.

Open that fucking cut. Open that cut. Damn. That's the only way to really cause genuine problem. You've got to cause a problem for fury you're not going to do that whiffing with slow punches he sees coming a mile away you know well obviously francis has the kind of power that makes even this ridiculous fight possible in the last comparison i'll make to mayweather mcgregor was this luke looking back there was that narrative of that thing i always

talk about that fans get pissed off the the mregor magic, the whole idea of like, if you were starting to buy into the belief that Conor could do it, you were focusing on this next level self-belief that he had. Well, I'm here to tell you, not that I'm here to tell you to put all your money on the Nganou upset, I'm here to tell you Nganou seems to have a self-belief level that almost is a superpower like is it more ridiculous the idea of and gano knocking out fury with you know 10 ounce gloves on saturday or in gano going on the journey that he did to the ufc heavyweight title in a span of like eight years from never training once to becoming champion equally, maybe not equally, but somewhat unlikely on that same scale. Shaq Mujuri of CBS Sports, a contributor to this show, he caught up with Francis Ngannou this week and they talked about just that, that self-belief. Let's see what Francis has to say about this. What makes you believe that you can achieve what many think is unachievable?

Why do you have so much self-belief? I don't know. Maybe because I'm crazy. Aren't all people who achieve high things a little bit crazy, right? Yeah. And maybe because I'm not afraid of failing. Maybe I accept failing as part of it. Maybe because I just dive when I have to dive without thinking of the if if this is that you know that's how it works you never know I mean regardless the

amount of confidence that you have you never know what will really happen until you get there so your the the best confidence that you can have the best way that you can do to prove your confidence is to put the work in and go out there and give your best and that's that's all and sometime you might come up short, but it's okay as long as you give it up. He's like the Cameroonian Schwarzenegger. You know what I mean? You're right. And I admire everything that he just said. I admire it.

I want to be like it. But does anything that he just said have any effect on Saturday's fight? No. No. Zip. I mean, again, Francis has big power. If he lands and if Fury's fucking around, okay, craziness can happen. But, you know, if it comes down to skill, where if he has to use skill to land,

and that's really what this fight hinges on. I've underestimated people in the past. And, like, I just want to say something about Francis. Like, you know, I know why he has self-belief because obviously he had a very difficult upbringing but at the times when he really decided to change his life, it wasn't easy but he did persevere

it worked it worked making that trek it worked making the trip to Europe and finding the boxing gym it worked a career in MMA it worked becoming UFC heavyweight champion and look at him now, he's going to make between this fight and whatever he does in the PFL, I'm told upwards of 30, potentially 40 million or more. Like he's just going to completely alter generational wealth for his entire family. I mean, that's fucking insane to be able to say he can do that given

where he's been from or where he's come from, excuse me. So like, that's why he has confidence, but it's like, it's like lots of people have tried hard and failed. You know, it's easy to have a lot of confidence when you're a very special person. But even very special people, they are not superheroes. Life will throw, you know, very known complications in front of you. And so I admire his optimism. But it's just that, optimism. Yeah. He does act like a superhero.

And, you know, he has a big crumb, according to Sean Strickland, though, Luke, as well. I know you don't care about that. Hey, cardio was an issue. I bet you do. Cardio was an issue for McGregor against Mayweather, and Mayweather used it strategically. These are different sports, MMA and boxing. The same old debate is still true. Here's Francis talking on the potential of a cardio dump for him with all that muscle and size transitioning to a new sport.

What has your approach to cardio been for this camp? Obviously, training for five-minute rounds in MMA, very different tasks than preparing for a boxing match. Well, I've been very focused on my cardio and my endurance. And that's why I do believe that if this fight goes to the distance, I still have my chance. And that was my main focus, in fact, because cardio carries everything. Cardio helps you to carry your power as long as the fight goes.

Luke, final point on Francis here. Do we have to be careful in over-romanticizing what this fight is? What percentage of this is about the money for Francis? Because I could make the argument that the money is part of the factor and this is all about proving everyone wrong and proving Dana White wrong and all that is it really just about the money though at the end of the day in your opinion well I mean getting a paycheck like this is about proving not just Dana White but you know like a a difficult end I mean listen Dana White certainly has gone to battle with with Francis but like let's be honest

he ain't the only one remember he had other promoters coming out there being like yeah Francis was just really hard to work with. Dude, they were trying to fucking ruin this guy a little bit. So let's be very clear about this. There's plenty of blame to go around in any number of directions. And I think, yeah, probably it's some response to that. Dude, the money is like 90% of this. It's 90% of this.

Let's just be honest about it. I mean, they're fighting in Saudi Arabia. What on earth would you be fighting there for if it was principally about anything other than money? That's the whole fucking point about going there. You're fighting there to change the vision of tourism in the region. Yeah, exactly. I'm here to make beheadings more Disney-friendly.

That's not what we're doing here. We're here to collect a fucking gigantic paycheck. These guys are writing it. They want to get in. They want to get in. They want to get out. That's what it's about. And again, you can make a very clear argument if you want to. That's what the fight game is about.

I understand that too. I understand there are people who have that perspective, whatever you come down on. But you're asking me what's behind this. Getting paid is what is... They're not even... To your point, the Mayweather thing, right? 49-1 or 50-0. That was a real thing that was at least being risked.

They're not even risking that. It won't even be a note in Wikipedia. So for Tyson Fury, we have to believe it's all about the money. And luckily, Shaq Majuri caught up with him. Luke, our fans can watch these interviews in full on the Shaq MMA channel on YouTube. Here's Tyson Fury talking about

whether he has to prepare differently in this fight for an MMA fighter. Here's Tyson Fury talking about whether he has to prepare differently in this fight for an MMA fighter. There's no different because I've sparred a lot of MMA fighters and kickboxers in the past over in Holland. Everyone from like Rico Verhoeven to Daniel Gita to so many different top kickboxing champions. And a lot of these guys are MMA fighters as well. None of them's been pushovers. They've all been tough sparring. So I'm expecting a tough fight. You know, a lot of people are saying to me,

oh, this is a mismatch. Somebody even compared Nganou recently to the YouTube boxing. I was like, you guys are crazy. You guys are crazy because how can you compare this guy who's an absolute killer right here behind me to somebody who plays PlayStation all day and then goes in a boxing fight. This is a real combat sportsman

who's coming to smash my face in and I'm coming to do exactly the same to him. So all I can say, I hope he's had a fantastic training camp because I know I have and I'm trying to take his lights out. No mercy. There will be no mercy.

I predict pain not quite clubber lang luke yeah same prediction bc i also predict pain pain and having to watch this card all right for a living yes are we doing a live show or not saturday a companion luke for the just i would like to i would like to I think the answer is tentatively for the audience. I think the answer is yes. Also, El Clasico is that day in the morning. I'm going to have to watch that with Tukester. Okay.

After El Clasico ends in the Ali Brehe, Luke, and you've got my toe spacers, right? All great classic hits from Doc No. 7. By the way, I never understood your fascination with the toe spacers. I watch those docs so often because they bring me joy, Luke, looking back at the memories. And there's just certain quotes from the docs that just stand out as being like they were said peculiarly or whatever.

You acted like a mental patient giving Jake the tour of your office, and we benefited as doc fans because of it. You're like... I think the more noteworthy line for me from the documentary you're referencing is, yeah yeah you very much have the wrong address yes yeah yes or that great joke you made in the cleveland doc that got edited out for understandable purposes luke finally here on tyson fury uh is he worried about the usic fight and that's the that's the

disingenuous part of this I'm upset with. The promoter's not confirming if it's an exhibition. Fury acting all year like he doesn't want to fight Usyk, and then now suddenly he does, but I'm going to fight him two months after I fight Nganou. Let's hear from the champ himself. Let's let him decide. How mindful do you have to be in your approach

that the guy doesn't come charging in and somehow there's a cut or an injury is something that may sort of delay or impede on that Usyk fight that's coming up yeah what will be will be though in these fights you can't worry about I'm not worried about Usyk at all Usyk to me I'm not interested at all at this present moment in my time in life I'm only interested in Ngani so if I get a massive cut 27 inches across the eyebrow and I get an injured right hand and two broken ribs and get victory, then that's what I'll do.

I'm not too concerned about Usyk at all. All my focus energy is going into fighting Francis and I've given him an unbelievable preparation. I mean, look, that's the problem. He hasn't been concerned about Usyk at all, and now he's like, hey, if I get injured and that fight doesn't happen, it is what it is, bro. Oh, boy. All right. Thank you.

Yeah, I know. The boxing fans are super bitter. The MMA fans, like, you know, they're half on Francis' side and half, you know, are just reliably anti-Francis. So I don't know how they feel, but the boxing fans, bro, are bitter about this. By far, by far, on my timeline, the most negative coverage comes from the boxing side and by far the most positive coverage comes from the MMA side. Well, imagine if your favorite UFC fighter who had this long, impending, career-defining fight that's historical on the horizon,

and he's like, hold on, let me do this meaningless thing first two months earlier that I could get injured and it could completely blow. I mean, it sucks. But thank you to Shaq Mujuri for that content. We will be doing it. I will say this. BC, serious question, because we we got to put it out there before

we move on i know we got to move on but let me just ask this last one how happy would you be in the however unlikely it is but if francis stops him and stops him legitimately unlikely as shit we get it how happy would be? I think I'd be surprisingly very happy while lamenting the real realities of boxing. For Francis, this is the ultimate Shawshank Redemption. This is the ultimate on the beach with Andy Dufresne and all the money, all the respect, all the whatever. And I think it's tough because I've always loved Tyson Fury,

even though he says a lot of ridiculous stuff. I've always loved Tyson Fury, even though he says a lot of ridiculous stuff. I've always seen like the smart businessman and the crazy, the positively crazy guy behind the scenes. But this whole song and dance, this calendar year of, I mean, fighting Chisora unnecessarily a third time, asking, acting like you don't want to fight Usyk, then doing the Ngannou thing. Luke, you would almost say you had this coming if it happened, right? You would almost say that.

You would definitely say you had this coming if it happened right you would almost say that you would definitely say you have it coming if francis gets knocked out knocked out that means or excuse me francis knocks fury out that means fury like fucked around either in the fight didn't train properly whatever like really kind of phoned it in and also dude the chaos that that would cause while some of it would be chaos i'd be really upset about because it would probably ruin the usic fight but the other part of the chaos that that would cause would be quite a delight to watch it would absolutely that scene where heath ledger is the joker just setting all the money on fire not metaphorically that but just how much that like set in motion this craziness it would remind me of that it would be amazing. Mikey asked two key questions along this way, Luke, while we were talking. One is technically is the lineal championship on the line if this is still an exhibition?

Sort of, yes. The lineal champion is mythical to begin with, right? It's the guy who beat the guy. It's the idea of if we have to have four champions per division, then at least there's one that carries the old tradition of I became the champion by beating the champion um i don't know luke i don't know i i don't think it'd be on the line and the other one is if in ghanu knocked fury out would the next fight be fury and ghanu

two for the heavyweight championship or would it be in ghanu usik for the unified heavyweight dude these are so preposterous. You know what I mean? Like this whole conversation is so preposterous. The only thing he said in the clips that we were shown that stands out to me about Fury is he is right about one thing. Like it's not a bunch of dudes playing PlayStation

and then like cosplaying as athletes. These guys are real athletes kind of cosplaying as entertainers so it's not a great version but it's a better version than that but um he is right about that like they do deserve more credit as like legit athletes uh because they are they are yeah i think fury is going to do a combination of leaning and moving early luke to try to get in ghanu tired and then we'll see if he can try to step in and finish him late. Maybe that's it.

Maybe not. I don't know. We'll see. Hey, join us live, Fight Companion. You guys asked for it. You guys asked for this shit, okay? So you're going to get it right in your face hole. Let me look it up very quickly about when that's going to start

so I can get a clean sense of things. Luke, our final topic before we close with fan subs is, as you look this up, wait, do you have it ready? No, not yet. I'll let you know when I do. I'll let you know when I do. All right. Topic number two, Alexander Volkanovsky, or topic number three, excuse me, our final one.

Luke, he speaks. He has spoken. Oh, I have it now. What do you got? The event is set to start at 1 p.m. I couldn't even tell you who else is boxing on this card. And the ring walks are scheduled tentatively for 5.40 p.m. I couldn't even tell you who else is boxing on this card and the ring walks are scheduled tentatively for 5 40 p.m. so we'll probably sign on around 5 ish 4 30 ish something like that sounds great hey Luke Alexander Volkanovsky has spoke for the first time before we get

for those comments coming off of his loss to Mahachev in their rematch and the whole idea about a short turnaround here's Volkanov, and you know I pop for this every time when fighters return home to their native land at the airport and are met like a conquering hero. Let's look at this thing. This is great. We'll be right back. I was walking out and I've seen a few of my brothers and sisters, and I was like, I'm going to be a part of this. I'm going to be a part of this. I'm going to be a part of this.

I'm going to be a part of this. I'm going to be a part of this. I'm going to be a part of this. I'm going to be a part of this. I'm going to be a part of this. I'm going to be a part of this. What was the surprise? Yeah, obviously really appreciate it. Everyone had the support. It's been incredible. But yeah, thank you to everyone that's here. Obviously, I can't thank everyone. There's that many people here, but you're probably going to be watching through this.

Thank you. I really appreciate it. It means a lot to me. But don't worry. I'm all good. I'm going to be back. Guarantee you that. He's like, don't worry.

I'll be back in two weeks, Luke. Unfortunately. No, here's the deal. I said conquering here. hero obviously he's coming in there off a loss but is that australian's version of chris weidman is still my boy he's still my son no that was cool man that was really cool that was touching and um you know he clearly still has the support of his home country you know also strangely i don't really understand it because i don't know much about austral, but they seem to have absorbed and indigenous culture together in larger Australian society

much better than we ever did here in America. And you can see that, like, dude, there's like this big, not just in number BC, but like all the ways in which I've ever seen Australia, like they all love Volkanovski. It's really quite amazing. And he is deserving of that. And then some, I'm really glad they showed up and did that for him. I'm going to update my UFC pound for pound rankings this week on CBS sports.com. So we'll see where Volkanovski ends up, but we already know Luke that he's number two on your pound for pound Bonair list.

And here is Volk. We're not going to run all these videos, but we got a few on some of these key topics that came out, including what went wrong in the fight. I think this is on Volkanovski's YouTube channel. Let's hear his take on this. Volume fighter that I usually am costs me a bit in this fight. You could see usually I throw a lot of volume and there's a purpose to that. It doesn't have to land, but I usually like people fighting my fight. I don't really give them chances and times to just set things up. I don't like to let people think. I let him do his thing.

I just stood in front of him. We had a range that I wanted to fight at so I could be more dangerous. I knew I'd be in danger there. So I did everything. I just could not pull the trigger. I was talking to myself in there and be like, come on, you've got to go, you've got to go. Do something, you've got to go, you've to go. Like, do something, got to go, you got to go.

And I just couldn't do it. And then even when he was kicking, I seen him all coming. And even that one, I went down. I thought, you know, I thought I had it shelled up. Went straight over, top of the head again. Great setup, great kicks. I full credit to Islam.

Luke, my fear here is that when you have a failure to launch, when you know what you want to do, but your brain can't convince your body to do it, that's not a reaction to a 12-day turnaround. That means you've got an old... That's one of the ways you can get old overnight. It happened to Tyron Woodley. That's what scares me about this whole...

That's the number one sign of either a shot or old or shot and old fighter is the inability to throw back. That's the number one sign. Number one sign. And I'm not saying that he got old. Like, oh, my God, he'll never win again. Yeah, but you cursed him with that stat, Luke. You tried to make that stat become the universal law

and it killed your favorite fighter every time i bring it up dude how can it be universal law if it's already been broken it obviously cannot be we've already seen someone break it someone else will break it it is the whole problem with volk taking the fight in january is not that he cannot win. That's not the argument. The argument is that he is significantly raising his risk of losing by doing so when he doesn't necessarily have to. Very talented guys in very, very unique positions will break the 35-year-old rule, only because it's sort of an interesting demarcation line. There's nothing magic about it. But BC, when he says he can't throw, I'm going to tell you, man, trying to get down from 181 to 155 and then getting in there

and your body won't let you do it, something is off about you. You should be listening to that. That's not a thing that's just happening that you can just look the other way on, especially when you're a fighter this dialed in, this good. He's not some average fighter. He's the fighter. We're pretty goddamn close to it. So if your body is doing this dialed in, this good, you know? Like, he's not some average fighter. He's the fighter. We're pretty goddamn close to it. So if your body is doing this, you should listen to it.

And then, BC, as you already know, you add on the head kick. Dude, Teporia is a fucking hammer. He's a hammer. Don't do this, Volk. Luke, I wanted to say about that stat, though. I mean, you, like, vehemently,ly aggressively one-sidedly shot everyone down that the morning combat resume review curse was not real and it's not a thing yes of course we don't have magical powers bc with this 35 stat you've been standing on the street corner like

the grim reaper and luke i'm here to tell you you just took down volkanovski with it and your other favorite fighter i did hold on hold on and your other favorite fighter Adesanya who just said he wants to take a lot of time off Luke I'm here to tell Izzy this you turn 35 next July according to the rules that Luke Thomas has set forth in this sport you will never touch gold again unless you rush back right now Luke you have ruined what you've loved with this love for the stat, man. Again, Tyron Woodley already broke this not once but twice. Somebody else will.

But what it does show you is that at the lighter weight classes, by the way, the stat BC only applies 170 and down, not 185 and up. 185 and up, it's 50-50. 185 and up, it's 50-50. It completely turns around. But for the lower weight class, I'll just warn anyone of this. A lot of people feel like, in any career probably,

where if things are going well, you're like, well, dude, things are going fucking well. I can keep this up for a while. But there's just a series of things that will happen to you that you are not in control of that you can mitigate to an extent,

but you are not in control of that will have you pulled in different directions that you are not in control of that you can mitigate to an extent but you are not in control of that will have you pulled in different directions that you did not anticipate it's a real thing that happens you got to be cognizant of it as an athlete well a big storyline coming out of this fight was obviously volkanovski talking about the mental health realities of the build to this fight why he wanted to come back and take such a risk and not sit home and sort of deal with the realities of his own mind. Luke, here's Volkanovski reacting to those comments he made that got a lot of people talking in different directions. But I do want to clear the air.

Did I just stroke out here? Oh, here we go. And to be like, yeah, I was struggling the last few months, but I mean, yeah, the newborn and, you know, surgery, you know, not being in the gym as much as I would like. And then, you know, again, trying to be the best father I can be, obviously can take away a lot from the training, especially when you're coming off injuries. So I wasn't able to be in the gym as much as I'd like which sometimes can make things a little bit more difficult right because two things that are most important to me my family and my career right that's how I look

after my family that's they're my two purposes in life providing for my family and how I do that is my fighting. And I'm in my prime and, you know, sometimes you put a bit of pressure because I know that I need to make the most of me in my prime because who knows how many of my days are numbered. You know, me and my wife, we're great. Again, got a beautiful family. Like, we're all good, so I want everyone to know that. I don't want everyone thinking that it's not like that.

You know, it was just me trying to deal with being, I guess, a high-performance athlete and not being able to fulfill that side of things, especially the last few months. When I'm in camp, there's a specific direction. I know exactly what's happening. It's easy when it comes to that. And I'm still very present at home. I'm my most happiest. I'm probably an even better dad when I'm in camp because I'm ticking all the boxes.

But it was harder to do that the last few weeks with everything that was happening. So I just want everyone to know that it was more just the timing. And that's why you see me a little bit more vulnerable in the press conference after getting knocked out and having that sort of situation. Luke is that enough of a justification for UFC to say yeah no problem here if you want to come back in January and headline the pay-per-view against one of the up-and-coming biggest hammers

in this entire game go for it bro. Yeah I mean you know i'm not here to say the ufc is not looking out for fighter health and safety but what i'm also saying is that they're looking out for their content and pay-per-view schedule as well i mean the two are both important for them i think you could make an argument that and i think you know listen if a doctor clears him and he goes up there and says he wants to do it i don't think they would step in um i don't think they would do that at all probably by some people's estimation for good reason i i think it would i i do think that you know listen again it's not to say he cannot win not at all this guy is so talented even at 35 he's gonna beat the shit out of people but the risk you are running coming off of a ko having some

issues pulling the trigger at age 35 against an absolute physical dynamo in the way that he is, is concerning. In the words of Elon Musk, concerning. Hey, Volk, well, it's one thing for me to say, hey, dude, take some time off, really get healed. I know he realizes that window is closing. He knows that 35 stat, it is closing, but take some time off, man.

Come back International Fight Week. I don't know. Whatever. All right, Luke, we do have one more video on this, and it's the thing we talked about. Is he going to come down and make that quick turnaround? He still says yes. Luke, let's hear it.

Let's hear it, Mikey. Let's talk about what's next. I talk to UFC and say, keep me busy. So I say that because, again, i'm in my prime i need to fight a lot of people got he needs a break he needs i don't need a break um i want to get back in camp obviously i need to talk to doctors make sure there's no concussion you know the stitches and whatnot but i want to get in camp like i said i'm the best version of myself inside and outside of the cage when i have clear direction. And clear direction

is me having a fight and I think January still looks great to me. Ilya Teporia obviously is a very exciting fight and I can shift all my attention to that. You're going to see a better version of myself January, I promise you that. There it is. Volkanovski kept very busy over the last two years and as you heard from him he wants to only continue that quick schedule against maybe maybe I mean look where do you where does Teporia rank in terms of danger of recent featherweight title challengers I would have put Yair up there but he man he he humbled Yair quickly man, this is... If Volk's not the guy... I'm sorry, if Islam is not the guy you want to fight on 12 days notice,

I don't think Tepuri is the type of guy you want to fight on two months notice, given what just happened. Yeah, two months notice with just being viciously KO'd or pretty close to it. Dude, I put Tepuri at the top of that list in terms of danger. I mean, remember, he went up a weight class against jai herbert and with a single shot lifted him off of his feet looked like he cut him in half i mean bryce mitchell lost that fight again i think he was wise to say he shouldn't have taken the fight in the conditions that he did but dude he was talking about retirement when that fight

was over i mean the kinds of beatings this dude puts on people josh emmett withstood it when he was more reserved toporia but dude the kind of beatings this dude puts on people, Josh Emmett withstood it when he was more reserved to Poria, but dude, the kind of beatings this guy puts on people are fucking altering. Like, he is not the guy to play with lightly at all, which I'm not saying Volkanovski's doing, but again, do I think they're exercising enough risk management if they all go through with it?

I would disagree with that calculation. Yeah, I don't know, Luke. I have a lot of Islam fans probably upset at me because you categorize me as a Habib hater, which is furthest from the truth. And there's being like, it's very fair.

And they're being like, you guys fell for Volk doing the forced baby face bit by reaching for the mental health so that you guys wouldn't rip on him for taking the fight on short notice. I think you ripped on him the whole time for taking the fight on short notice. I'm the guy who, who got,

you know, fell into the romance of it. Luke, I'm sorry. Hashtag vibes. Sometimes they win fights. Sometimes. Just by coincidence. Just like flipping a coin. Sometimes it'll land on heads.

Sometimes it'll land on tails. All right. Well, Luke, we close this week by offering our fans an email address, morningcombat at gmail.com. Every Wednesday for fan subs, every Friday for Dead Wrong. We won't answer that. You know that. Mikey does, right? Say hi to him when you're there. This one's called

Fan Submissions. You've got mail. Viewers. Viewers. Viewers. Luke, this is, um, where's the first one? Oh, let's go right to saul luke the best right he says greetings this past weekend was my birthday weekend i'm 31 now and to celebrate my wife got me an only pipes video from the american alpha she took me out for drinks

rented out to bay at top golf and most of my friends in Topgolf management told us we could not eat my custom made blueberry lemon cheesecake due to quote health concerns our server hooked us up with go plates and silverware and we ate that shit in the parking lot my wife did show me that there are limits in our relationship and we made it very clear

she would not come to a concert with me so I took my 13 year old brother the band in question Cann Cannibal Corpse. It was his first concert, and my brother had a blast, all the while wearing the best merch in the game, MK, all day. It's Saul. Yeah, dude, but look at these mutants at this show. I mean, you better shave your head after this show because you're leaving with lice.

Wow, Luke, a man after both of our hearts. First of all, Saul's the best. He wears MK shirts every day of his life, even on vacation. His wife did send me a cameo request, cameo.com slash Brian Campbell, and I filled his pipe, Luke. But he's also going after your favorite band here. Good thing his wife had enough sense to stay away, but damn, Saul, right? Damn. Yeah, there's not a lot of normal-looking women at the Cannibal Corpse show,

if I can just be honest. I love them to death, but, you know, you're not going to get a lot of Miss Universe candidates up in that bitch. But, yeah, dude, that's great. By the way, I got to say, eating a, what was it, a lemon blueberry cheesecake in the parking lot he had his own episode of food truck diaries huh didn't he here francis let's pull it out of the trunk you can eat this yeah yeah i'm just saying he's out

there eating hey by the way lemon blueberry cheesecake sounds sounds tremendous amazing yeah it sounds amazing so such a great dude man he's a pillar of what we do around here you know maybe he should be nominated for donk of the year this year maybe Luke we'll see what happens sounds like his his girl should be nominated for a dunk of the year is that because she we ran that picture of her one time and Mikey was like don't comment on that bro this guy gets to wear the podcast merch of ostensibly his favorite podcast or something approximating it he's eating lemon blueberry cheesecakes uh slices in the parking lot on the way to top golf after his girl got the space at the bar and then he's going to wash it all down

at a cannibal corpse show like your life's okay dude your life is okay you're doing all right man most of your life this is a song about when you come blood i mean yeah it's real classic i come blood one of my favorite i mean look that is such a I don't want to say a blind spot in your in your life and your loves but yeah tell me more tell me more about your theories on music you don't listen to all right we said this for the music that BC likes he actually does have good taste that's true I acknowledge it up front but here's what bc doesn't understand for sure he doesn't understand metal and his rap taste is shit that part kills me because you're shit it's just confined to a certain time and space the early 90s commercial crossover rap

revolution um tv raps to get white middle school age kids like me into it luke that was my rap era all right i know you missed a lot. I followed it through with Biggie, Tupac, Jay-Z, early Nas. I mean, I've done the classic tour back in the day, Luke. I just grew out of it, all right? What are you going to do? Can you name two Nas albums? Illmatic and Stillmatic.

Oh, yeah, that'll work, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. It was written. It was written, yeah. Speaking of metal, you ever listen to Deep Purple's Made in Japan, Luke, the greatest live album in rock and roll history, potentially? No, I don't pee sitting down.

All right. If I had said, like, you know, some jazz fusion band, do this Deep Purple. Come on. They were like the innovators of metal. I'm just teasing. I'm just having a go a go that's it let's go to john he says hey donk since luke gave my raven leg tattoo a rating of 9.5 i'm curious to see what his rating is for my japanese traditional sleeve big ups to the team and i'm waiting on my donk merch to come in the mail luke what about john these colors are popping, right?

This is pretty good. Japanese follows certain rules and customs and certain forms of imagery are central to it. The whole thing is about imagery and telling a story. This is a very, very, very good tattoo. Again, I wouldn't the some of these pieces um is that a kabuki mask with seven eyes on it luke yeah i'm not sure what some of the symbolism is there uh i think the other part is the chrysanthemum but um again all of japanese tattooing is is uh

again it's an encyclopedia one more time look here it's an encyclopedia. One more time. Look here. It's an encyclopedia of different things, right? I mean, it's so much. It's just so dense on all the different things it can be, right? So there's all kinds of stories and figures you can tell. There are more common ones that are used, but that's a very good tattoo. Yeah, really good tattoo. Luke, I forgot to schedule my first colonoscopy when I met with my new liver doctor because, you know, I'm 45 now. So that's what we have to do.

Do you think it's possible, given that I don't like pain or needles, that if they put me under for the colonoscopy, they could also check my prostate and tattoo me at the same time? Is that possible? No, but I'll tell you what. I had a colonoscopy and the level of sleep that I got from that anesthesia was heaven. If they sold that over-the-counter, I would have OD'd years ago. Well, yeah, that's what Elvis took until he died, Luke. Did you wake up feeling awkward at all in the nether regions? No.

Because after my first prostate exam, I didn't feel right for like eight days, Luke. No, I didn't even notice it at all. But I'll tell you, they make you not eat the day before and then they make you drink this drink that empties out your insides you're gonna feel it then buddy let me tell you my wife has a foolproof plan that involves eating nothing but bone broth for the four days before you begin that shake and she says you won't have i won't have any issues you don't need to do all that just take the stuff they give you you'll be fine that's your that's way way issues. You don't need to do all that. Just take the stuff they give you. You'll be fine.

That's way, way overkill. You don't need to do that. I mean, am I going to listen to my real wife or my editorial wife, Luke? The guy who's actually been through this process? It's not a big deal. Just do the stuff they give you. You'll be fine. There's really not much more to it than that.

Let's go to Adam from Toronto. My son apparently had as much respect for MK and my sword as Luke's entire extended family. One love, Adam says. I don't know what this means. What are we doing here, Mike? I don't know. Let me see. What do we got? Super Watch Dads.

Super Watch Dads. Superwatch dads. Superwatch dads. I don't get it. I can't hear what they said. Oh, the joke. I think the joke is that his son was looking at it and was just like, you could see the expression on his face. That's like, what the, who the F are these guys? Yeah, who are these two absolute losers, right? Yeah, yeah. wow, all right.

Let's keep, thank you, Adam, for sending that in. Yes, thank you. Shout out to your son there. We appreciate you passing down, right, this great legacy of this great podcast. It's a lifestyle, really. Here's History HD. I decided to make my dream MMA card involving media and coaches.

Although this is a niche offering, how many pay-per-views could this sell maybe we could get a group of investors to make one last yamma pit fight so luke the the pay-per-view on this poster was called yamma pit resurrection in the main event it's joshua fabia versus luke thomas ariel hawani versus the schmoe and the co-main and then Eric Nixick versus Eugene Barrowman to kick off the tripleheader. Anybody who bought this should be shot in a rocket to Mars. That's what I would say.

All right, let's keep it going. Here's Appy. He says, hi, guys. Average Joe Art is getting too big for his boots, while other former donks of the year have disappeared, gone to prison, or had a four-month sulk because Luke gave them a little roast. Is that a shot at the Paquettes, Luke?

I didn't like that. I'm the last donk standing, and I accept the challenge of defending my title. USADA is out of the way, so I'm coming for a Joe on a John Jones diet. A mix of MK-sponsored dick pills and spinach from this amazing discovery

I made at Gare du Nord Paris. Much love. It's Appy. Let's hear it. Fart, you claim to be the 2023 undisputed donk of the year. Well, you've come out swinging like Conor McGregor in 2016, but I'm here at Popeye's Paris to get me some of that Louisiana spinach and Dustin Poirier, your ass. I'm the last donk standing the Benoit Saint-Denis of the French Bill Cousbic. I'll see you

soon, my boy. Luke, considering that you don't care whether these people live or die, would you like to see average Joe Arden Appie just go at it in a yapit to decide, you know, who lives and who dies? I cannot imagine what fucked up version of pigeon French he's teaching or English he's teaching these French people or whoever the fuck he's teaching.

I don't know who he's teaching, but I can only imagine. It's horrific. Oh, wow. How is that man gainfully employed? Well, he leaves the students very happy in the end, Luke. He says, P.S., absolutely pathetic to solicit support for my former vice donk of the year, Jay Paquette, in last week's Wheel of Death. That's like being endorsed by Dan Quayle.

Are you into this Appy versus JP rivalry, Luke? We went from best friends into, like, I don't know. I don't know if I like it. They're doing Dan Quayle humor? I don't know i don't know if they're doing dan quayle humor i don't know how relevant that is in 2023 all right here's mike he says i lol pretty hard when luke thought the ref wiping the gloves for boxers was to check their sturdiness when he stands to wipe perhaps he too is checking his dirtiness. You standing to wipe POS? If you have staff on your balls, you're having a bad day.

You're having a bad day. So Luke, as the boxer, is saying, would you mind checking my sturdiness? And the referee says, Luke, I already told you, your sturdiness is fine. It's the staff on your balls I'm concerned about. Who is that ref in that picture? Do you know?

That's Benji Estevez Jr., I believe. Wow, that's a good poll. That's a great poll by you. All right, let's go over to Todd. Hey, guys, apparently the D.C. police were just having fun at Luke's expense when they said his car would be recovered in a matter of days. Are you going to find these guys, or do you got any leads? Leads? Yeah, we got four more detectives working on it. They do you got any leads? Leads?

Yeah, we got four more detectives working on it. They got us working in shifts. Leads. They found it, fuckers. Yep. They found it. Luke, would you ever dress as the dude from, what's that movie called? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would.

Big Lebowski. Big Lebowski, yes. By the way, there's a game you can play where anytime anyone in that movie has a drink, have what they have. It ends up being something like two beers, three shots, and like five white Russians. Something insane like that. Wow. All right.

Here's from Mikey. I think this is our Mikey. He says, I saw this clip and had to make it. Here's a fan sub from the master of fan subs himself. Let's see it. I'm here with... Vogue. What do you think of Power Slap? Pretty brutal.

I'll leave it at that. If you could slap anyone, who would it be? Ilya Teporia. What do you think of Power Slap? They got bigger balls than me, I guess I could say that. Yeah, they got big balls. I love competition. I love to compete. Big balls, though. Big balls.

If you could Power Slap anyone, do you have anyone in mind? Luke, how dare you disparage the fine people of Chechnya, Luke? How dare you? Okay. Yeah, I got some nerve, huh? Some nerve. Well done there, Mikey. We close with this from Alan W. He says, hey, Donks.

Surprisingly back for a second round. I guess I need to exercise that creative muscle being that marketing proposals, ROI assessments, and needs analysis can be quite monotonous. With that said, you guys didn't share any memorable or funny Halloween memories last week.

I will make the same request this week. And following the season's theme here is Dr. Hannibal Thomas and Buffalo Brian. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. So it's a little tight in my nether regions there, but that's okay. Buffalo Brian,

it rubs the lotion on the skin or else it gets the hose again dude this is gratuitous tucked in dancing oh my god oh wow put the lotion in the basket indeed that's a great poster right there the silence extremely good that's extremely damn dude i mean it's it's still early in the end of the year luke but there's but there's a new guard of donks that are coming for that title. It's a surprisingly competitive race, yes. Everyone that wins it disappears in some form or loses their self-worth. How can you top it? Listen, Nobel Prize, Fields Medal, I spit on the ground.

Donk of the Year, how can you top that? All right. Do you think I should try to legitimately spend money to try to find Damien the Donk? Are you concerned? Just Google the obituary of whatever town he's from. He's probably going to show up in there. He's from Stockton.

Also, where's Punch Drunk Pete? We haven't heard from that guy in a long time, Luke. We just kill these people off left and right, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, it's good that you're bringing up people who just don't listen to the show anymore. That's good. That's great. That's great.

Bill and Jen, right, in the RV. We love them. All right, we've got to get out of here. Thank you very much, Mikey Mormal, CBS Sports. Thank you to the fans for watching. We'll be back on Friday. Don't forget, Saturday, live companion, late afternoon, maybe 5 p.m. Eastern start. Fury and Ganu, be there.

It's Riyadh season. That's Luke Thomas. I am Brian Campbell. And, yeah, we're out of here. That's it. We're out of here.