MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Jorge Masvidal vs. Colby Covington | Canelo vs. Charlo | UFC 273 Fight News | Ep. 251

Episode Date: January 12, 2022

On Episode 251 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian react to a a bunch of breaking news. First up Jorge Masvidal will be facing Colby Covington at UFC 272. Reports are out that Canelo Alvarez could be fighting Jermall Charlo in May. Alexander Volkanovski will be facing Chan Sung Jung in the main event of UFC 273. Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan has been postponed. The guys close out the main topics with some quick hitters. (8:15) - Anthony Smith (16:00) - Jorge Masvidal vs. Colby Covington (25:30) - Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermall Charlo (33:50) - Alexander Volkanovski vs. Chan Sung Jung (39:20) - Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan Postponed (44:00) - Quick Hitters (55:15) - Call Me Crazy (70:30) - Fan Submissions Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveley, reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. You know, one of the fans called the new set a satanic whorehouse.

And I, for one, am accepting of that criticism. Hi, everybody. It's Morning Combat, episode 251. I'm one half of your hosting duo, not in the capital of Los Astados, in the capital of sadness, here in New Jersey. Wow. Wow, all right. Brian Kevill, Luke Thomas, with the host of Morning Combat, IBC. I'm fired up, Luke.

Happy to be here. You know the energy on set when we do this in person. Exponential boom. Built different. Balls bonanza. You know, I mean, when I can get the goods here, when I can put on the good merch, the new stuff that's coming from our guy R.J. Dunkelhausen.

How good is he? He's on fire right now. I fear that there's going to be like a Coach Nasser ending in this story because he's so on point right now. All right. Well, that was unnecessary and terrible. All right. You want to tell the folks what we did yesterday before we talk about today's show?

So we were here yesterday on set all day. We shot a bunch of different stuff. Our main man with the plan, Chuck Mendenhall, was here. We don't have anything ready just today, but soon. And I think they're going to like it. It was productive. It was a very productive session. Chuck just fits in well on these parts. And I think that it's some

vehicles that you've known in the past, but sprinkled a little Chuck Mendenhall on top, and it's some new stuff. So, you know, I mean, you're the type of guy that shows up at the band's concert and is like, no new stuff, right? I only want to hear the hits. I want to hear the classics. I don't know if I'll have the sign, but I definitely audibly groan when they play the new shit.

Now we'll play our new Celtic album. You know, it's like, oh, yeah. Yeah, no, we don't want any of that. I'm pretty excited about what we shot yesterday. Some old segments, but some new ones as well, so that should be a lot of fun. Give us a follow, as you can see there on the lower third below. MK's name is the same everywhere. BC and I's name differs. Did you miss the

intervention this morning in the office when the crew sat me down and said, you know, explain really what's going on behind the scenes in this midlife crisis for you to trot out this dad vacation? How did it go? It clearly didn't work. No, no, no, it didn't. It really didn't. But, uh, you know, um't it really didn't but uh you know Am I trolling them by looking this good in this you know you does it actually say on one love I Will only turn turn turn to me again was I say on the brim those a Bob Marley one love I will only wear That's not until RJ dunkel maker can create the MK version of the Randy Couture, Fidel Castro dad midlife crisis hat.

Once we hit that, run in on morningcombat.store. So you take one trip to the Caribbean and already you're like, you know, that Fidel guy. You ever come back from the Caribbean with like bracelets and necklaces, you know, for like a week? And you're like, oh, this was fun. No, you don't do that? No. I come back with a tan. I'll come back with one of those.

That's because you're half Armenian. That's right, son. Yeah. Don't forget about that. Any of you, though, from the great nation of India that are looking for some solidarity, brother, in this, you have as much love for your homeland as you do for northwest Georgia. It's my homeland as much as you are a wonderful, nice person. You've got to hit the road and work the content first, right? Get out there in Nashville, give a tight 10, and then bring it on to this set.

And edit it back is the way to go. Yeah, and then bring it on to this set. So today we have a lot to get to, actually, because there's a lot of news that actually happened when we were in studio yesterday, including but not limited to Colby is going to be fighting Jorge Masvidal. We have some fights that have been announced. We have some big Canelo rumors as well. We have some fights that have been announced.

We have some... Big Canelo rumors. Big Canelo rumors as well. We have a lot to get to. Thumbs up on the video if you're watching on YouTube. Subscribe if you haven't. If you are listening on an audio component anywhere, Stitcher, Spotify, please give us a nice review and a thumbs up there as well. Do we have a sponsorship with them or is that just, you know...

I mean, pick a couple, Luke. Okay, pick a direction in life all right how about that there you go luke do you want to get into this little little thing first before we start the show careful what you wish for production guy huh do you want to get into uh this little thing this little tussle this little oh okay so hold on well real quickly if you want to try showtime you can go to showtime.com get a 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not pound sand but of course we got one of the Showtime commentators here. Tons of interesting content coming your way. You are not going to want to miss that.

That's the first thing I would say. Also, MorningCombat.store, you can see some of this fine merch. Now, is this available on the site now? Actually, I should double-check that, shouldn't I? I don't know, but it's coming soon, and we've got a test drive. Yeah, it's not up yet. We're actually just advertising the content. We've got a test drive of the new line yesterday, and we did a little photo shoot. We even got Chuck Mendenhall up in the gear, and it looks good, Luke. Yes.

It looks very good. So you're going to like what you see and how it fits on you. We guarantee it. We gave him a hoodie. We gave him this hoodie yesterday, this one here. Yeah, yeah. He's like, now he gets to wear Luke's dead face on his chest.

So that's pretty cool. So you can go check that out. And I think, I think that's more, oh, morningcombat.gmail.com for today's fan subs

for Friday's Dead Wrong. Say again, oh, podcast, can you throw up the lower third for the award? Oh yeah,

sportspodcastawards.com. Is that what it is? Sportspodcastawards.com. We are nominated for best combat Sports Podcast. Please go give us a vote there if you are so inclined. To be fair, our CBS bosses said, hey, if you guys win this, we'll send you to Vegas this summer for, I'm assuming, International Fight Week. Full-on live show, interactive with the fans.

Like the real deal, the full thing. They said that? That was the tease. Hey, you guys go out and win this? They didn't tell me that. They told you that? Oh, yeah. Oh, shit.

Okay. Through the fabulous Mikey worms our producer You know, I was like, okay, dude. Okay, then I'm all in on this. That'd be great Yeah, it's more land Jaeger. You know, let's get some more jizz later. Here's the thing though. There's a thing that happened There's a sound bite that's been getting passed around Yeah, let me set this up if I can because I get killed in this too, but mostly it's 99% BC getting killed. So I guess Anthony Smith, Shasta Anthony Smith, and Michael Bisping. Shasta Michael Bisping, I like both of them a lot, actually. I guess Anthony was on Michael

Bisping's Believe You Me podcast and had some things to say about your boys. Mine was not great, but not so much an insult. In fact, I have a very good relationship with Anthony but BC gets a bit of a beat before we hit play in the history of me getting one-way tickets to to hell in this business yes is this the the top of the pops I mean I see here's the difference

the Charlos and Mike Perry were just like fuck this guy Tyson Fury hanging up the phone on me Tyson Fury was like fuck this guy but but Fury hanging up the phone on me. Tyson Fury was like, fuck this guy. But Anthony is more like, because Anthony is a rational person. Yes, that's true. Here's the thing that kind of bums me out about it. You make him sad. I know. That's the problem.

Hit the video. Leaving Scott Frost. We're going to miss college football. Couldn't give a fuck. How does he feel about Brian Campbell from Morning Combat? He will know what I mean. I have no idea. No context. I don't. I'm not being a shit starter. Do you know about Brian Campbell from Morning Combat? He will know what I mean. I have no idea. No context.

I don't. I'm not being a shit-stirrer. Do you know who Brian Campbell is? He's Luke Thomas' partner, right? Yeah. What did he say? For whatever reason, that guy fucking hates me. I've never done anything to him.

I've always been nothing but – I've only been around him a couple times in person, but he absolutely fucking hates me and it's it's just anytime i fight luke has always been uh he's always been very fair in his breakdowns and his analysis i know a lot of fighters don't like luke thomas because he he'll say he'll be honest and he'll say i don't think he's good here i think he has some some discrepancies here or whatever i don't ever take that stuff to heart he's always he's always giving me a fair breakdown and a fair shake uh it's not always been super positive but you know what my career hasn't always been super positive that's my fault uh but brian campbell just shits on me any chance he gets just i'm trash i'm washed up i'm getting too old yeah well fuck brian campbell then and then i've run into

him and he's perfectly polite it's like no issue at all i had the same thing with john annick i swear to god when i lived back in it you know i didn't want this to be the result of my uh of my art and my comedy so let's put it on on down there by the way uh michael bisping went on to say he had the same thing with john annick when john was hosting mma live for espn back in the day and then he met him and they got along great and now they're like this. You did meet him. In the interest of full transparency and actual truth, you and Smith did talk at the MMA Awards, correct? And by the way, he was awesome. So this video that we just played, that is after that, correct? And we're trying to see if we have any footage of that from the doc cameras, you know?

I know there's footage of me talking to Anthony. I don't know if Jake got any of you talking to him. So look, do I hate Anthony Smith? No, no, Luke. I hate you. And that's the problem with this show and this art form and this attempt at comedy. We have a style, Luke, that whether it's this joke or whether it's me, unfortunately, stepping in the risen puddle and I, you know. Well, you karate chopped the air.

I owned up to that and apologized. But the whole thing is, Luke, it's you versus me. It's not me versus Anthony Smith, but this type of aggressive style. Is it you versus Michael Bisping? Because he was like, fuck me, see you too. Yeah, he was, too. In full transparency, I did approach Bisping at the Conor Poirier trilogy when he was in the media room and he was lingering.

I'm like, I don't want to be that dude, but I happened to be reading his book at the time, and I was like, yo, dude, like, this is really inspirational, the stuff about getting out of jail. I'm like, I'm really enjoying it. And he was just sort of like, yeah, cool, cool guy. And then like walked right out the door. Wait, this was in, this was this year? Yes. Yes. I mean, he literally was like, get somebody to get this fan away from me. I've got to go just get away. That's fine. Um, I don't hate Anthony Smith, but Luke, this style is going to create, we're gonna have to break a few eggs. Yeah. And here's the thing, you know, the thing about a

drive-by shooting is it's always some sweet little girl that gets in the way, right? It's always something awful like that. Is this the moral defense of drive-by shootings that collateral damage is sad? You know, I was watching Dirty Harry films this week in the hotel room, you know, like they hated him, Luke, because a lot of people died or nearly died for him to get the man at the end, you know? And I got the wrong man this time, Anthony Smith. So Luke, when I did meet him, he couldn't have been nicer, put his round around me and said, you know, I could be really upset. I tried to explain to him that he became a victim

of circumstance in the comedic war between Luke and I, just like Risen MMA, Japanese MMA. But Luke, I didn't kiss his ass at the same time, not because I'm tough and could take him down, but because you gotta know who you are, we have an edgy style and it's gonna piss people off, whether it's us picking against fighters, whether it's us

debating if Michael Bisping should be in the Hall of Fame or not whatever it is, you're inevitably gonna turn people off, I don't apologize for that part, but no, Anthony Smith, very good fighter, is he must see on the level that you sometimes say, am I just really trying to get up in you? Yeah, I'm trying sometimes say, am I just rising, you know, really trying to get up in you? Yeah, I'm trying to get up in you, Luke, okay?

I'm trying to show you how good I can be, how great I can be, and because of that, how great this show can be, okay? I don't mind pissing people off no matter who they are, if we have to, but this is the one thing I've been trying to tell audiences who watch MMA for a long time. It's like, dude, you heard Anthony Smith said at the beginning, and you'll be in this boat, you are in this boat too, I mean, it'll just be the way that it is.

Dude, I mean, a serious question, friend to friend, co-host to co-host, do you think my analysis of fighters is mean-spirited or vindictive or otherwise unprofessional? No, the reason why I have fun with it in this Anthony Smith situation is because you're so nice that sometimes I'm like, oh, maybe you guys are just friends. And you heard what Smith said. Maybe you guys are just friends off the thing. And you heard what Smith said, which was, dude, I take extraordinary care to be as friendly and as giving and as accommodating as I possibly can. And you heard what Smith said. What it got me was a scenario where, you know, half or more fighters are bitter. I hate my fucking guts. Despite the fact that I go out of my way to be as friendly and as fair as possible.

I think it's what hat you're wearing. You can't win. You cannot win. When I'm writing feature stories and interviewing fighters for CBS, it's a different angle and mindset than when I'm sitting here entertaining y'all. And I don't apologize for that at all. That's what we do. And if it leads people to turn off from us or put me in a rear naked, you know, Luke, that's a street we'll cross when we get there.

But I'm doing this show full on. I'm coming on. And I'm sorry to Anthony Smith. Obviously, good dude. Dude, he fits the mold of Factory Town MMA. Yeah, he kind of does. All those losses and turned it around, and he won't go away now.

You can't pick against him now. He's going to keep winning these fights to get himself back into position. He's hungry. He actually has a pedigree similar to mine, Luke. Okay, last question on this. Which fighter is going to play the knockout game with you? Well, Luke, did I join forces with you, you know, knowing your history as a bouncer?

Oh, yes. For security reasons, all right? For security reasons. You know, it could have been me and Mike Bond, probably. We could have called ourselves the handymen, if you know where I'm going with that. You'd be fucked. All right. But, hey, look, you know what I think I should do, Luke, to repay?

And maybe I'll start a new segment. Every Friday it'll be the Anthony Smith appreciation. Okay, don't be patronizing. No, I like that. He's a good family man, too. He's a real nice guy. He's also a good analyst. I'll give him that.

He's a very good analyst, yeah. He's good. You should pay attention to that more commonly. But, you know, is he must-see TV, Luke? You can have that debate on morning. That's fine. That's fine. I just want to point out to the audience there, you can take great care to do your job, and

it won't really matter here in this industry. So you might as well just say what you want to say and let everyone do what they're going to do. Well, Luke, by the way, that's the job. That's the damn job right here. That's the job. But that's why I don't really do interviews as much anymore is because... Because you assume people will hate you.

No. I don't want to talk to people that don't have an interest in talking to me. Because it doesn't... I don't know how much of the hate... A lot of the hate I've noticed is not like, it's more like, man, fuck that guy, like in almost an indifferent kind of way. What's the point of talking to that person? Sometimes you've got to fight through that, though. Cosby fought through that a little too aggressively, to be fair. You're the worst person in America.

All right, let's get the show on if we can here. Topic number one, if we may. We start with huge news. It looks like, although the setting for it is not so clear. March 5th, UFC 272. We are not making history as the first one, but a rare one, just the same. Non-title main event between Brian Campbell, Jorge Masvidal, GameBread, the man himself, and Colby Chaos Covington. Yes, Masvidal versus Covington, March 5th, 272. Now, the fight is currently set for

Brooklyn. It appears that there is some effort to get this fight into Jacksonville, Florida. That is not a reported fact yet, but it is in discussion. Put that to the side, BC. Your reaction to the booking, I guess my key question would be, is now the perfect time to make this fight? Yes. I love this fight because it's creative. It's one we didn't necessarily see coming, although obviously with the history and where they are in the rankings, it makes sense.

I think UFC is always at their best when they're forced to creatively matchmake in the last minute scenario. Did Anderson Silva versus Daniel Cormier at UFC 200 turn out to be, you know, what it could have been? Not really given the circumstances. But I was pretty damn excited in those final 48 hours just to be like,

what the hell is this going to look like? Anderson Silva coming in on, you know, 24 hours notice. And I love when they can, when they have to scramble and when they do scramble like this. Okay, this fight card kind of fell apart with the two title fights that we pitched for it. But this is a fight you have to see. Whether you think this is some weird way

of cashing Masvidal out or you take his chances seriously, I mean, the betting odds started, kicked off with Covington as sort of the wide favorite at minus 325. But Luke, personality-wise, potential for great theater in terms of the contrast in styles.

Damn right this is a pay-per-view main event. And I'm glad that both guys get this opportunity and the payday that comes with it. This is one of the bigger grudge matches, frankly, in UFC history. There's been other grudge matches that were born from competition where the first fight, something happened,

and then they had subsequent fights, and then it built into something a little bit bigger. Wilder and Fury's kind of like that a little bit, although obviously Wilder... So you're buying in. You think there's legit hate? I think that's a little, even though that's part of the sell, of course. There's no denying that they have turned it up to 11.

It's not at 11. I don't think it's that real deep inside, to be fair. I'm pretty sure it is. I don't really think it's that real. Have you talked to folks around them? Why is Big Time Manga 2? Dude, you can hate people you share a political worldview with. I don't think that's that crazy at all. But the reality is for a non-title rivalry with two guys who've never fought, I mean, you think about some of the scenarios where that was the case when we're training partners.

That's Jon Jones, Rashad Evans territory. I mean, that was different because both of them were at this precipice of a title shot, and Jon got it ahead of Rashad, and then the whole thing was welcomed into Jackson's. That's gone and gone and shit right there, right? Yeah, it's on par with that, and on top of it, I asked you if this is the perfect time to make it. I don't see how it's not.

I mean, there's going to be a bunch of different good times to make this, but it's definitely not by its sell-by date, right? This is not Vanderlei versus Chuck in UFC, where it's, well, you're getting it but it's like uh you got this one kind of late moreover they did not tie it to the ultimate fighter bc so there's no delays it's going to happen quickly in the ufc 272 kind of a bmf fight to be fair it's a little well because jorge's in it or because this is the right feel for that both yeah both i mean all things considered they're probably never going to bring that that belt back

but if they wanted to be gimmicky here and say, well, we've got to put something extra on it. I saw the people joking on Twitter had some great jokes about, well, maybe the loser has to get vaccinated. But there needs to be some kind of playbook of stakes. I can't take credit for that joke. There needs to be some kind of stakes there. But if they added it on, it kind of fits that mold.

Because Jorge is still the defending BMF champion. It's lame to say it. I mean, he got knocked out by Kamara. I think Kamara's probably got that title. Yeah, Kamara might have that belt now, too. But the point being is they didn't tie to the Ultimate Fighter, which I really love. It's easy to sell. I'm glad they're trying to put it in Florida, which makes a little bit more sense, certainly, for their backgrounds.

But, dude, to go back to what you were saying, do I think it's real? Again, have they turned it up to comical degrees? Yes, of course. But, yeah, my indication from everyone I've talked to is that it's very real. There's a real falling out. I don't think we've ever had this unique circumstance. I saw our colleague at CBS Sports, Shaq Majoree from Montreal. Yes, the Frenchman.

He put out there that of the last five combined fights for Colby and Jorge, Kamaru has won four times. We've never seen something like this before, right? It's kind of like a weird factoid in there, but. That's wild. Well, listen, I mean, the other reason why

it's a great time to make it is because Jorge is at a bit, crossroads is a strong word, but his reign, that moment in time where he had those wins and the Askren win and everything else

where he had that big. That's over. That's,. That wave has now come down. He's still quite popular and quite good, but he's trying to manage to think what's left of that. A Colby fight is at least theoretically winnable

and is going to be huge for sales. He's going to make a lot of money doing that right this time, plus their headlining. They're going to get pay-per-view points for this. If you're Jorge, I don't know what a better fight could be at this point other than a Diaz rematch, but that seems very unlikely. The only better fights for Jorge would be McGregor or maybe something like Chandler getting ballsy and moving up and doing something.

Chandler's a bigger fight than Colby? I don't think that's right. Conor, yes. Conor, yes. But Chandler, no. All right, but do you think this will sell huge? I think it will sell pretty big. I love it. no. All right, but do you think this will sell huge? I think it will sell pretty big. I love it. I love the fight, but do you think it will sell? I do think so. Again, I don't think Jorge is at his absolute peak, but I still think he's on a high note in his career. We'll count that.

Dude, you know what's funny? I did Submission Radio about a month ago or so, and they were asking, like, do you think that Colby will be popular? And I was like, well, I saw Kamaru on Hot Ones. For sure, Colby will have a degree of popularity, but I thought Kamaru would be the more popular of the two, well, I saw Kamaru on Hot Ones. For sure, Colby would have a degree of popularity, but I thought Kamaru would be the more popular of the two. No, I don't think so. Colby has finally, I think, turned a corner with the fan base.

Is he a monster star in the sport? No, not at all. But he does have support. And even for people who hate both of these guys, they kind of want to see him scrap it out. Dude, what's a bigger rivalry in MMA right now between these two, especially among two competitors who haven't already fought?

This is probably number one in the sport right now, so with that reason, you've got to pull the trigger now. It's a great time. Plus, Colby, if he wins, stays in that orbit where if Hamzat moves up or Gilbert moves up, he's never too far from another fight with Kamaru in this scenario, which is, I think, something UFC wants to keep around as well.

We have plenty of time as we get closer to this to talk about the actual fight. I just want to ask you one question. Do you think Masvidal will be willing to get knocked out to do everything he can to go for the knockout? Knowing that Colby's not as dangerous of a slugger, certainly, as Usman, do you think this is, I mean, it's going to be fun with this version of Masvidal. We all know that, but do you think he's going to go out there and really commit to putting it all on the line?

Yes, I do think so. The question is, what is Colby going to do? You know, Colby knows Jorge very, very, very well. Is Colby going to just be happy to take him down and play that game? I think he's going to be happy to take him down, taunt him, beat on him, embarrass him, make him look bad, make him look like he can't do anything, and happily do the Colby chaos thing, especially if the takedowns come easier and easier over the course of that bout.

Yeah, I tend to think that's the way it's going to look. You would agree, and the oddsmakers have it this way, this is a tough fight for Jorge to win, right? Yes. Yes, it is. But not a huge knockout threat. Not a huge knockout threat. I mean, Colby damn near beat Usman in the second fight.

Damn near beat him in the first one, too. Colby has won the sort of organic fan points of being a warrior now. He's willing to do what it takes. You know, in the first Usman fight, he sort of, you can still hate him for the gimmick and the shtick, but Luke, he's going for it. You got to give Colby that credit. He's going for it.

He's trying to max himself out. I do. It's going to be a fun fight because of that. I do. But you agree, this is Colby's fight to lose, yeah? Yeah, minus 325 opening favorite. It seems steep, but the more you think about it, it's kind of his fight to lose.

Yeah, he's a bigger guy than Masvidal, too. They're not hugely different in size, but Colby, I don't think, could make 155. Jorge probably could. But that is a fun fight. It's a huge fight. And if you're a UFC, UFC just, everything they do is just printing money these days.

Most of the time, the biggest fights are going to be around the title. Here, you don't have any title whatsoever. I love, don't you, do you like me? Do you love non-title main events? When they're like this? Sure. It means nothing. It usually has to be because of a grudge, because of the potential for action, or both, right?

And so when you look back at history, obviously the McGregor-Diaz ones were monster events. Even Rashad versus Rampage was a big-ass deal without there being a title on the line. And that one sold over a million, although that was tied to The Ultimate Fighter. This is not. But it is in theory rare, though. Correct? Super rare. I think there's only been a handful

or less. I mean, Chuck Vonderlay was a big one. Yeah, but some of those, I have to go back and look at Chuck. There's a few of them that have been made where they were three rounders, or they were made kind of last minute or something like that. But outright planned, hey, let's just have a five-round modern main event without a title, that is decidedly rare. I mean, that's what made the BMF fight so fun because it was two gangsters getting rewarded.

Gangsters. For being hitmen in this game, right? For coming after that bag. Bitch. All right, with that in mind, let's go to topic number two now. An interesting one. This is one that has me and BC quite pleasantly surprised,

I think is a good way you could put this. There are reports from ESPN's Mike Coppinger. Now, it should be noted, they're just that, reports. They're not in any way suggesting that we have reached a conclusion to these matters, but he is reporting that around the May 8th mark, close to Cinco de Mayo

based on the weekend, there are talks between Canelo Alvarez and the camp of Jamal Charlo to create a Alvarez-Charlo super middleweight fight. BC, is this the right next step for both of these boxers? Yeah, I love this fight.

I fucking love this fight. It's a savvy move by Canelo if he goes in this direction because let's be fair, that whole idea of facing Makabu for the cruiserweight title, Lunga Makabu, and doing, like, crazy dare to be great, that was Eddie Reynoso, his trainer and manager's idea, who breached the topic to the WBC without even asking Canelo.

Canelo, of course, is a man. He said, yeah, I would do that. I think that people like that idea, but they also look ahead to that fight and go, eh, I don't really know if I want to go out of my way to do that. I think that people like that idea, but they also look ahead to that fight and go, eh, I don't really know if I want to go out of my way to see that. His other option was go to light heavyweight. There's better B, there's B-ball, there's Joe Smith Jr. But even if Canelo goes in there and wins and outclasses these guys,

you still have to take damage as the smaller man to do that. If you look at what's the biggest fights he can make right now, it's still 168 with Jamal Charlo, with David Benavidez, with the possibility of a Triple G trilogy, although I'm not hugely into that. But what does Jamal Charlo bring? He's not gonna be favored against Canelo, but he's got a unique skill set with the speed,

with the power, with the ability to box, with the athleticism. Luke, I'll go to my grave saying this, and it's a topic I bring up a lot. I really thought Danny Jacobs had the skill set and the everything to beat Canelo. And when they fought in the middleweight title unification, it was a close fight. I still think Danny left a little bit. He could have done a little bit more.

He would have taken on chances and danger, but could have done a little bit more because that's the body type and the skill set that's going to give Canelo problems, that combination of speed and power at the elite level. I think Jamal Charlo has that similar game. Does he have the mindset to pull it off? Will he be willing to risk it all to try to win it all? That's the type of answers that I think the theater will give us, but I like his chances of competing

in this fight. You've got to favor Canelo. If Canelo's number one with a bullet, I like this fight. At 168, there's two fighters who I think would be really interesting to watch Canelo face. Again, at that weight class. I'm not saying that's my number one. Of all fighters we could pick from any weight class, I'd like to see him face.

But at that weight class, personally speaking, I think David Benavidez is by far the best one I would want to see him face. And I honestly think David Benavidez, like, I really believe he can beat Canelo. Jamal Charlo, I'm not so sure he can beat Canelo. But to your point, one of the things I really like about him is great athleticism, great speed, big power, and when he wants to, when he wants to can fight physically, can be the bigger

kind of physical guy, and the reason why I think that's important, BC, is, listen, we saw the limits of what Caleb Plant tried to do with Canelo. You have to have some skill, of course. You have to have some finesse, of course. But you kind of got to get in there and mix it up with Canelo. You have to have some skill, of course. You have to have some finesse, of course. But you kind of got to get in there and mix it up with Canelo if you want to have a chance

of winning first triple G fight or pick whichever one you want. If you try to carefully out slick him, or even the Danny Jacobs fight, same thing. You come up a little short. You got to, easy for me to say, ha ha ha, but I'm pointing out the reality and the track record kind of shows you got to get in Canelo's face

you got to back him up a little bit you have to fight fire with fire with a little bit and dude Jamal Charlo has the possibility to do that I think David Benavidez would be even better at it but Charlo is on the list of guys who absolutely slug it out with him and can probably on some level give him some interesting problems

and it's not lost on us that Jamal Charlo is coming off of 2021 that wasn't his most overwhelming highlight, you know, viral finish. I mean, that title defense Jamal had, I'm thinking of the, I can't think of the guy. Castagna? No, that was Jamal. Which we're going to see the rematch. But when Jamal had that middleweight title defense against a guy that we kind of

looked at, was he last minute? He was kind of a no-hoper. And that guy hung in there and pushed it. It wasn't Jamal's best night. It was kind of like when we saw Caleb Plant go in there against Caleb Truax ahead of it. It was Fernando no, it was what was the guy's first name? It was Juan Macias Montiel. Juan Macias Montiel. Apologies

for forgetting that in real time. But we saw Jamal just not be overwhelming leaving the back door open. Montiel to his credit showed an incredible chin and kind of walked back into that fight and then you're like, is Jamal going to gas out? That's not his best night at the office. I also know that's not Dramal Charlo. And like Kayla Plant, who I think, let's give him credit.

He brought everything to the table. He didn't win. He got stopped by Canelo. He had some moments. But he, I thought, at least went for it. He tried his best to win it. When you're facing Canelo, number one in the world, biggest star, you're going to come through with your best camp ever. I think sometimes with such a short shelf life, especially in this modern

day, and you add in the pandemic, fighters aren't fighting regularly. They're fighting once, twice a year. You get a bad performance, you're only as good as your last performance in this sport. That's what it is. But I don't think that's who Jermall Charlo is, the fighter that we saw against Montiel. You give me his best training camp ever and go in there against Canelo, it's a sellable fight,

Luke. It's a very sellable fight. And it has the potential to be interesting theater in there because they're going to box. It's going to be a boxing match more than it's going sellable fight, Luke. It's a very sellable fight. And it has the potential to be interesting theater in there because they're going to box. It's going to be a boxing match more than it's going to be a brawl. But obviously, when is that going to change? When are we going to see one fighter step in there? Will it be Canelo stalking him and going to the body? Will it be Charlo standing up with that big jab?

There's a lot to like in this match. Yeah, I mean, Charlo is in many ways unlike some of the other guys. I would say most of the other guys he fought at 168 to get the belt, right? So you go to Callum Smith, Charlo is very different than him. Billy Joe Saunders, very different than him. Caleb Plant, very different than him. Who am I forgetting?

Who's the other one? There was Yildirim in between. Who's the one that has the belt? It was Smith. He got a vacant belt against Smith, then he took it from Saunders, and then he took it from Caleb. So this is my point.

At 168, who has been the kind of fighter that he has faced? Cheeky, creative boxers. That's the only guys who've had any success. And guys who were bigger in frame, but not physical even for that weight class. Charlo is physical even for that weight class. Even if I grant, Canelo is a better boxer than him. There's no denying that, and is a pound-for-pound king. But could this be interesting, fun, rough and tumble a little bit?

Yes, it absolutely could if it comes to fruition. On May 8th, you'd rather see this than the Mukabu fight, but would you rather see this than, say, Betterbeave? Who I know just fought when he was ready. I agree with you. If I had a pick, I'd go Benavidez right now. That would be my pick. Charlo would be number two.

There's more at stake, a little bit more history if he went up and fought Better B, if he went up and fought Macabu, or even Dimitri Bivol, the unbeaten light heavyweight title holder. But those aren't as interesting. Those aren't as sexy for the potential of what the fight's going to look like for me. Even with the danger there at light heavyweight. I just think Jamal Char Charles is a more complete, well-rounded fighter

who at this weight class potentially could be a problem. So we'll see. We'll see if it happens. We'll see if it goes that way. It's Canelo's show. Whether he wants to come back to Showtime pay-per-view, whether he wants to go anywhere else, he's in control. He's earned that. Let's see what Big Red does. I will say he fought four times in 11 months in the last year, more or less, something

like that. And this year year you might get him twice. When these guys are out there three, four times a year, sometimes five in the craziest scenarios, you should be quite appreciative because those don't come back very often. It looks like Canelo's going to be slowing down, which is also understandable. If he fought Charlo and then Benavidez in the same calendar year, that'd be good shit. Or even if he fights Charlo and Betterbeef, Charlo and Bivol, Charlo and somebody interesting. Do you have any interest in Triple G at this point?

No. Neither do I. Chris Mannix, we talked to him when we were in Vegas. He still thinks that there's a lot of interest in that fight. There's fan interest.

Let's be fair. There's fan interest. Yeah, you have a better sense of what the boxing fan base wants, but between you and I, no. But it's more, to be fair, it's more casual fan interest because Canelo versus

Triple G 1 and two were modern classics. You got your, you know, they delivered on the pay-per-view level with action and intrigue and controversy and all that. Yes. There would be a fan base that just wants to see if you, if you think Triple G got robbed to see him get his chance, but Luke, he slowed down a lot and there's been a lot of inactivity. He's going to get hurt in that fight, but you know, we'll see if it happens.

Hey, comfortable, Ashley Ashley just walking on in. How are you? Luke, I don't think that's the right way to host a show. Just unprofessional, you know what I'm saying? Super unprofessional. All right, let's talk about our feces. Topic number three, we're back to MMA. I love this.

BC doesn't love it. Love is a strong word. I love it given the circumstances. How about that? We do have a replacement for Max Holloway. It is not Triple C. Now C4 is the name he's going with, which is fun. How about Mick Kringleberry or Crunchmaster? Or, you know, just Applesauce McGee. Just make it nice and generic. He will fight Chan Sung Jung, the Korean zombie, who's coming off the nice win over Dan Ige.

That will be the main event for UFC 273. Now, remember, they were going to be at UFC 272, or whichever one it was, and they got moved out of it. So now, Volkanovski versus Chan Sung Jung is your main event. That will be for UFC 273 on April 9th, and I believe the co-main has moved back to that one as well, which will be Jan versus Sterling. All right, BC, your reaction? Good night of fights right there.

They went with Korean Zombie. How do you feel? I know it was not your number one choice, but... No, look, and I identified it's, if you're just looking to put the band-aid on, get a title defense, get Volkanovski back out there, it's a favorable matchup for him, and certainly in some ways, in the Korean Zombie, it has the reputation and all that.

It's a fine fight. I thought you could have done bigger, more dramatic, more interesting. The only problem with this, tell me if I'm wrong, tell me if I'm underscoring what TKZ does in there. Underscoring means to highlight in a positive way. Okay, how about overscoring?

How about just not using that word at all? Just because four presidents, U.S. presidents graduated from your secondary educational institution doesn't mean that you're better than me. No, it doesn't, but I do know what the word underscore means. In community college,

we weren't big underscores. I look like one of your professors again. All right, tell me if I'm wrong. What Brian Ortega did to the Korean zombie, it brought him down a peg for what you think could be possible for him on the highest level, and there's a little bit of linger lingering stink there with that when you go,

oh, him versus Volkanovski, in theory, good fight. But in play out, Volkanovski's going to handle this. He's going to handle this one from the outside. Yeah, probably, right? Probably is the idea. I mean, obviously, Korean Zombie has great boxing skill. We've seen that. One of the best uppercuts in the game, truly.

But, you know, against better strikers who... But Ortega's a different striker. He's longer. He's longer. Yes, Volkanovski's not that, but Volkanovski is very good at maintaining and mastering range by virtue of the kind of style he employs. So to your point, doesn't have the exact physical dimensions that someone like Brian Ortega does. He is

shorter and doesn't have longer arms, but I don't think that's going to be an issue. I mean, listen, MMA is crazy. Anything can happen. Certainly you take the possibility of Korean Zombie with the skills that he has winning. He's been a devastating finisher, one of the more improved boxers in that division,

but I just think all these guys are several steps behind Okunovsky. Oh, you missed it. Those guys were hardcore TKZ fans. Do we have that again, Corey? Can you put that up there? Look at these guys. Can you go full screen on that? Look, there's no American-born UFC fighter who draws this type of, like, rabidness, right?

So this is the point I was going to make. Did we not properly consider in thinking about the overseas markets that the UFC might be thinking about here? One is the Korean market. That's fair. Right? There's thinking about here. One is the Korean market. That's fair. Right? There's one. The other one is the Australian market. Like, if you believe that, let's say you believe that.

If you believe that Volkanovski is going to be champion for a while, let's say two more years, something like that, which in MMA times is a long-ass time. True. Don't you want to give him opponents that are tough fights, winnable fights for the opponent, but can do more to make this guy a bigger deal than he is. Korean Zombie goes a long way towards doing that, assuming you think Volkanovski can win.

Well, that's why you can't hate it. That's why you go, okay, I get it. Let's move on. And that's what I'm doing. I'll watch the fight. It'll probably be entertaining. Look, I'm not going to let Volkanovski impress the shit out of me with how he handled Brian Ortega and the ways, the manly ways in which he did that, Luke.

Okay? He ain't just a did that, Luke. Okay? He ain't just a foot-working wizard. Okay? There's some substance there. There's a backbone. Put some respect on CKB at this desk. By the way, so for UFC 273, that's the Volkanovski and Chan Sung Jung fight. We mentioned Sterling and Jan.

They also have it listed here on Wikipedia. Women's flyweight bout. Lauren Murphy versus Misha Tate. Have you heard that? Yeah, I kind of like it. I don't hate that fight at all. Lauren Murphy is underrated, man. Underrated. She's big for this weight class, too. She is. She was not physically... Shevchenko is physically a beast,

but in terms of frame and whatnot, she was not totally outgunned in that sense. Yeah, that's an interesting fight. That's an interesting fight. How many wins But I mean in terms of frame and whatnot she was not Totally outgunned in that sense so Yeah, that's an interesting fight. That's an interesting fight How many wins at 125 would take me to get a title shot showing her value to you think to I think one is you think She beats more Murphy. She gets title shot. Yes, I do she might she might she was the number one contender Yeah, you're right. You might be right certainly for that and then they got Mickey Gall versus Mike Malott Now who is Mike Malott? I cannot tell you.

Do you know him a lot or a little? Alright, you know, I'll get back to that. I'll go back to the drawing board, you know. I'll get the clay out and start molding. I want to see more of your paintings. I want to watch you work. Paint you like my French girls.

Do you think we should do like a ghost, like the movie reenactment? No. Okay. I think that would be disturbing. Willie Lopez was a scary ass villain. You know the guy in the shadows that killed Swayze? Spoiler alert, that killed Swayze.

Who? Willie Lopez. He scared the F out of me when I was a kid. I thought you said underwater Lopez and I'm like, why are you? GGG, no, I don't go down that road anymore. Can't we just be friends with people, Luke? You're always trying to get me into fights. I got Anthony Smith on me.

My train was canceled? Oh, that sucks. All right, well, what are you going to do? You can come home with me in the... And take seven airports to get home? No, no, Luke, I got the car service. Oh, you got the car service? All right.

Like a G. Let's talk about this topic number four since it's all connected. They've got Aljamain Sterling versus Peter Yan is now delayed. Now, it's not delayed by a huge amount. I think about a month or so. Do you care that this co-main event, which has been a long time in the making, is now even longer in the making? I just want it over with at this point.

And I think both fighters do, and there's still a lot of back and forth with them. Let's just see the fight. It's probably going to be a great fight, right? And we talked last episode about, you know, are we just sort of naturally undervaluing and underrating Aljo's chances in here and what he brings to the table because of that first fight? Probably.

I mean, look, at the end of the day, Jan should win. He's shown us, winning back the interim title after that hiccup and that mistake, who he is. He should win. He's shown us, winning back the interim title, after that hiccup and that mistake, who he is. He should win. He should be favored. It's still the potential to be a great fight, as it was the first time, in terms of the anticipation of what it could be. So let's just get it over with, Luke, okay?

I don't really want to talk about the matchup anymore because we need to find out. We need this division to heal. We need to find out who we need Dillashaw back. We need to find out who's the best in the world. I think it's Jan. Are the fans going to blame Aljamain Sterling for this? Yes. He has become their villain.

Someone asked me, I think it was on my live chat. Someone asked me, do you think that Sterling has, like his popularity with fans has declined as he's been champion? He's definitely become more visible for sure. No, but to be fair, it has declined. His PR work on this, whether it's his fault or not, at every step, him putting on the belt and taking pictures because his friends afterwards were like, hey, man, this is your moment.

I know it didn't go the way you wanted, but let's celebrate it. And then people saw those pictures and were like, oh, you're this and you're that. I think he got a little bit of a raw handling, but he also brought it on himself. So it is what it is. I like saying peyote a lot.

There's other ones you like to say too. Say them. I don't know. Peyote. Peyote, peyotrayon. But you know this. Peyote is another one I think you've used. Peyote, that's a good one, that's a good one. Well, he's going to punch us.

What's the limit for you and I to be around each other and still feel the charm of it? I still feel the charm. You're the one who's kind of on autopilot this morning. Is the limit two and a quarter days? Because we're right at that point. We've seen each other for like seven or eight days at a time. Yeah, it's going great. It's going great. It's wonderful.

I love it. You've been traveling more than me because you were in Florida last week. To be fair, my bloating is what makes this hat look bad on me. I think it's the food. Yeah, when your jowls go past the hat, that's a problem. Once I get this cleaned up a little bit better, Luke, and I figure out a better facial hair technique and plan and maybe even color. Because I don't want to look like you where you've got the full paint palette going on in your teeth.

There's dead dreams still there visible. There are dead dreams, but I think the best thing for your face is to set it on fire. Just pour kerosene on it. You still have that carbonic acid in the back room there? Yeah, just pour kerosene on it and just light that bitch. Just honor kill you. Luke, is Young going to close out this calendar year as Man of Weight Champion? Yes, he is. Then he may be the fighter of the year if he does that.

He is. Well, he's missing the first quarter. So he doesn't get to compete in the first quarter, which he would have had he had the original date. Because I do think that it's only one month delayed, but I do think all those kinds of things can compound itself. You do typically, typically on the men's side, you need three fights to get fighter of the year. Typically, not always typically. So that means you need three fights to get fighter of the year, typically, not always typically. So that means you need to compete on a regular enough of a schedule. Is this disrespectful by our producers

to just put picture after picture of Aljo down and DQing himself as champion, considering Aljamain Sterling once co-hosted this show right here? Yeah, also, no one can see those. Do you think that's disrespectful, the layout of the screens? No, I mean, it happened in the fight. You've got to talk about the fight. But it's weird that you can see two-thirds of the TV.

Do I regret challenging our staff's work ethic Monday afternoon? Do you? I don't know. Do you? A little bit. But the result yesterday, we had a great day. You know what? The problem was, like Ashley, there was a lot of upfront complaints.

Yeah. But when they started getting into motion on the tasks, they did a good job, I think. Jay was here, and it was weird, right? Why was Jay here? I don't know. With his red fucking glasses? I think, one, to pick up some of our merch,

because he owns everything we've sold. I don't see how. I never saw anybody give it to him. You know what I mean? And, two, I think he's hoping that the doc cameras were running. But I like the guy. That's the difference between you and me. I really like him.

I don't hate him. the doc cameras are running. But I like the guy. That's the difference between you and me. I really like him. I don't hate him. I just find him useless. I got sorority snaps over there. Yeah, finger clapping over there from our weed provider. I'm a camera guy, yeah. Sorry, I always get that confused. How many Delta 8 gummies are just sitting like a fucking penny at the bottom of the fountain at the Luke. At the bottom of the fountain of the mall. That's all you, bro.

Okay? That's all you. All right. Last thing, but not least thing. Let's do some quick hitters here. Topic number five. We talked about it once before. Misha Tate versus Lauren Murphy.

UFC fight night, May 14th. I got to tell you, I like Lauren Murphy on that one up front. Up front, I like that one. You know, if she comes out and fights her style, which she had no chance of doing against Valentina, and she was the only one who didn't know that but i think i was thinking i was like the other day i know you're supposed to be but yes her at her best can be amish it a who we don't know how she's gonna look at what right exactly uh... we did we did

even forgetting if i could tell you in advance she makes that we could easy you're still picking makes the week at easy I don't know. But I think... Who's a better wrestler? Because that's what's going to decide. Oh, a better pure wrestler would be Misha, yeah. That's what's going to decide this fight.

She's got to get inside the long reach. Lauren Murphy doesn't have to be a better overall wrestler. She just has to have better takedown defense. And she's got pretty good takedown defense. Okay.

This should be an interesting fight. I like Lauren Murphy in that one. All right, next up. This is one that you might like, actually. Kevin Holland versus Alex Oliveira has been added to that UFC 272 card hard to go wrong with old chatty chats look Kevin Holland has to has to go the long way now to sort of like fully rebuild where his stock was during the pandemic I mean

because he was one of the most advantageous fighters of just fighting off and getting big wins and then he came back down to lurth a little bit when he stepped some of that, Luke, do you think that it's overblown, the idea that because he talks in there he's disinterested or he's not trying hard enough? There's something there, something a little bit off. I watched his UFC debut and he barely talked in it. What does that mean? Does that mean he was nervous?

Does that mean he was not himself? There's something in there that I think the maturity that comes through losing and that comes through learning on the job in this game, that you can't fake it, you can't take a fast track to it. Once he gets that, we're going to find out how great he can be. But I don't think he's fully there mature-wise yet. That's what I'm saying. That's fair enough.

This is the same card, by the way, with Colby versus Masvidal, Bryce Mitchell versus Edson Barboza, Jeskai versus... Love. Who's Jeskai? Jeskai's fighting the French woman, Manon Fiora. Marina Moroz versus Maria Agapova, which is just two psychos. Michael Oleksik.

I can't pronounce his name. Michal Oleksik? You mean the Al Ferran person? Versus Dustin Jacoby for the former Glory fighter. Tim Elliott taking on Tagir Ulan-Bakav. Jan Chanan, we talked about that, taking on Marina Rodriguez. Jalen Turner versus Jamie Malarkey. Another good fight. And then Kevin Holland versus Alex Oliveira is your card thus far. I think Yao Shanan will

one day fight for the strawweight title. She probably will, yes. I think she's the good. She's got to come back from that big loss, but she will. Alright, so Michael Chandler lays out his 2022 wishes. On Nate Diaz, he says the following. Yeah, we'll throw Nate Diaz's name in the hat. I'd love to fight at 170 instead of 155.

I'll tell you that much. Definitely when I fight Diaz, it's going to be a 170 for sure. I've been competing in the 150 since I was a senior in high school. That 150-something is not very fun. Health-wise, it's one of the things that makes it hard in this sport. I know he gets up to, he told me this to my face, Michael Chandler gets up above 190. He's a disciplined-ass weight cutter. Insanely so.

And athlete, really, fitness-wise. He couldn't compete at 155 and as well as he has without being insanely disciplined with his diet. He also said that if he was going to get a lightweight fight, the fight he really wants is Dustin Poirier, and the UFC's not interested in that. He's got more on 170. When I get done with his last fight,

I said I don't want to make 155 unless it was for Conor or for the title. Obviously, I lost that last fight. I'm not fighting for the title next, and Conor would be a long shot at this point. We'll see what happens. I definitely don't want to make 155, but I'm a man of my word, and I signed a contract at 155 pounds. So it's not off the table, but it's not his interest. And as you mentioned, for Poirier, that's what I wanted to go to when I came into the UFC. I wanted to fight all the top guys.

Poirier was actually one of the guys that I asked for, and he declined at the very beginning, which I have no problem with that. He was at the top of the division, and I was the guy from outside the UFC coming in. So he has always been a name on the list. He's a guy that I respect, a guy that I admire, a guy who I'd love to compete against. That fight would be fan-freaking-tastic. More to come on Michael Chandler in Call Me Crazy. All right.

Uriah Faber and Cub Swanson are flirting with the King of California fight. Uriah Faber said, honestly, I know he broke his hand. That might give me enough time to train. He might drop to 135. We were supposed to fight back in 2004, King of the Cage on short notice for a thousand bucks. That didn't include travel. Yeah, probably not. I'm honored that I'm your dream fight in this scenario. So we might have to find out who the King of California is. So this is fun old guy matchmaking. They're talking about bringing back the spirit of WEC. Yes. You're here for this fight, right?

You know what? It's smart by Cub Swanson. It's smart by Cub Swanson to want fights that are winnable against a big name who's retired but semi-retired, sort of. And you can extend your potential win streak. You can extend your winning ways. You can get more money, right? You can double your check if you win.

And it's against the name where you're not being fed to the next generation. Yeah, it's smart of Cubby to call it out. Do I necessarily think this is the most entertaining fight I want to see? Not necessarily, but I definitely appreciate and understand what Cub Swanson is doing. Mr. Faber's still got something. I mean, he got his ass kicked by Jan. And he should have, right, at this point in his career, to a good degree. But

he still looked decent in this comeback. Yeah, it's pretty clear that the division and the game has passed him by. So that's why it's a good match. But it's a good enough fight for Cub at this stage, I think, for sure. So I like that, actually. By the way, Faber's stories of hanging out with Jean-Claude Van Damme are pretty funny.

Do they have orgies? No, but they're pretty funny. Okay. And then last but not least, Sean O'Malley, I guess, did an interview with Michael Bisping, and he says, the last two years, I've gotten three fights in each year. I think that's kind of a good pace right now. I'm thinking this year, 2022, I really want to get three fights in, but I don't want to force anything. So this year might be, I only allow for two, just kind of considering

where my thumb's at right now, I guess he's got a messed up hand. It's not bad, I get the cast off next week, but I don't want to push for anything or any training camps or anything like that. Missed Opportunity by Sean O'Malley. Do you think he's more savvy and in control of his brand in this era where fighters have just

completely lost any kind of leverage because of the new pay-per-view deal and all that, do you think he's the most savvy of everyone in terms of how he's navigating, or does he just think he's the most savvy? He's the most savvy, but that's not saying much. No one else is even really trying. He's well in control of his brand outside the cage, and he knows how to make money and create attention from that. But I can't figure out if he's got a plan, if he's really got a long term. He's got a plan.

I just don't know how executable it is. That's the issue. What happened? He just signed a gaming deal per gaff. Did he? No, when I say making it work, I mean, is the UFC willing to give him a UFC contract that is in keeping with his vision of what he wants for himself? Do I think he can make money outside the cage?

Of course, yes. The question is, can he twist the UFC's arm enough to be like, okay, we'll pay you more. Like, that's the part where I'm like, we'll see. Could you make a case for him beating every man in the world right now? No, I could not. Not right now. Okay, I could not. Not right now.

Okay. Not right now. There's still too many unanswered questions. And are we too old to think he's cool? Because I think he's cool. Dude, our opinion on what is cool is fucking irrelevant. Right, so I think we're too old for it. To me, it's irrelevant. I've looked in the mirror.

It doesn't matter. I mean, I'm wearing this hat, so I'm pretty lame. Dude, you did the most dad thing ever, which is, I found this at the gift shop on the way out. Every dad who has ever sucked has said that. Did your dad, when you were little on vacations, buy gifts for himself but not you? No, not in that sense. My dad was never, like, vicious or anything like that.

But, you know, he would definitely, I remember, oh, one time, what am I going to say i gonna say my dad was like the cheapest fuck ever yeah he didn't want to pay for a car wash and he didn't even have any car washing materials this is a true story he made me wash his like i'm talking beater this thing had no hubcaps no nothing with laundry detergent I'm out there in Washington DC on East Capitol Street like nine years old Scrubbing this Toyota fucking tercel or something teaching you karate at the same no fuck no there was no fucking, oh shit, I'm no Kung Fu motherfucker. There was none of that. I was just covered in time.

Was he a landlord back then? Yeah, yeah, he was. After he retired from the State Department, he got into real estate, yeah. Do you think he ever threatened anyone? No, I've never told this story. This is a true story. So my dad, this is in like the early 90s, late 80s, early 90s. This is a different time in Washington, D.C.'s history. This is back when you could smoke crack, get your job back.

Basically, yeah. I mean, you probably still could depending who you are. But yes, different time with crime and everything. My dad had this longtime partner, his name I won't say. He was a construction guy. And when a guy would build, he would flip the whole thing. Sounds a little shady. No, everything was above board, but I guess

whatever relationship with the guy went south. Dude, this guy was a terrible guy. He used to send his dogs into these abandoned houses, which were filled with fleas first, so the dog would get all the fleas, and then we would go inside. He was terrible.

He was a terrible man. He was a terrible man. Wow. But here's the point. After my dad, like, cut all ties with this guy, was done with the business dealings, my dad took out and paid for an ad in, it wasn't the Washington Post, it was one of the local papers.

The Village Voice? That's in New York City. It's the D.C. equivalent of that. And took out an ad about how awful this person is. And fucking said, like, never do business with this guy he's a fraud and a thief he's like fuck that guy so he he biz pinged him well what does that mean this thing put out a video where he's like, fuck Brian Candy. Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, he biz pinged him a little bit. Yeah. Okay, fair, it's fair. It's fucking hilarious. Nothing ever happened, but it's fucking hilarious. Wow, I love putting the pieces of your backstory together. You can see where I come from. It all makes sense now.

All right. Do you want any, got any more of these brain teasers? No, we're done. It's time for your Carl McCrazy. All right. Do you want any more of these brain teasers? No, we're done. It's time for your Carl McCrazy. All right. People want us to spin the wheel, Luke, but I don't really want to spin the wheel this weekend. You know what?

You're kind of out on the show today, I've noticed. You know how I know? Because your answers are very straightforward and without the salad dressing of your normal flair. Maybe I'm just cutting right to the point. He's like, you know, listen, Al Jermaine Sterling's going to have a great fight at Bantham Way. Very calm. Normally he'd be like,

guys, guys, you're not going to believe. Anyway, Luke, you know, from time to time I have takes as you just impersonated and sometimes... One love, BC. Sometimes the takes... Your teens taunt you when you come home.

Hey, Dad, one love. Leave people wondering if your boy BC is on something or if he's a little bit crazy. Dad, you're the coolest dad ever. One love. We decided to build a segment around that. I got eight of them, Luke. They're called Call Me Crazy.

Okay. All right, Luke, I got hot takes. Here we go. Brazilian MMA legends Jacare Sousa, Little Nog, and Junior Dos Santos have all either booked or talk about booking professional boxing matches in the next few months. Luke, Call Me Crazy, but beyond the obvious of me not stopping them from earning a few final bucks and this being arguably way classier

than selling your facial skin to bkfc this is still a really really bad idea to add this additional chapter of brain trauma to the end of their legendary careers yeah i hate all of this i hate all of this i mean i i don't hate it as much for jds i guess but even then i hate it for him but for jacare i was like dude you, I get you're trying to make money at a moment where you can still make some. You're like, go teach Jujutsu at a clinic. Yeah, please fucking God no.

Please God no. It's a trend with MMA guys going, oh shit, we can box too? It's like we didn't know before this. The guys who were on the end of the line. And I don't want to see it keep going. So we'll see what happens there. Luke, here we go.

Call me crazy, but it feels like this era has the most amount of future all-time great potential among its core elite fighters than at any other point in UFC history. In fact, if you look at the 12 male and female champions right now within the UFC, you could argue that eight of them are already there or on their way to legitimate all-time great status. Not just Hall of Fame. I'm talking about all-time great right now. Eight of the 12?

You could make an argument that eight of the 12 people who hold belts right now are on their way to all-time-ness. I feel like we've never been in an era where there's this many active, in their prime, studs. Am I wrong on that? Am I crazy? I see three you could pick. So you don't think Volkanovsky's on his way to all-time greatness? I mean, he's got a long way to go. I mean, he's obviously kicking everyone's ass,

but he's got a long way to go. You don't think Usman's either already there or on his way to all-time greatness? I think he's got a long way to go. I mean, he's obviously kicking everyone's ass, but he's got a long way to go. You don't think Usman's either already there or on his way to all three? I think he's got a long way to go. Well, he's got not as long of a way to go. Adesanya on his way there. He's got a long way to go, too. Nganou on his way there. Dude, this is his first title defense.

Shevchenko already there. She's one of the ones I would consider. Nunes already there. Well, okay, she's the 145 champion. Mama Yunus already there. No. Already there. No. Yeah. No. She has work to do, too. And maybe even Mama Eunice, already there. No. Already there. No.

Yeah. No. She has work to do, too. And maybe even Charlie Olive's on his way. No. Maybe even. No. No.

No. You're way too... Four of them, maybe. That's it. Okay, that's very interesting, Luke. Maybe I just have higher opinions of world-class athletes and fighters. Like Anthony Smith? All right, Luke.

IBF cruiserweight champion in boxing, Myrus Brightus, called out Jake Paul in a weird way this week by getting a tattoo on his left thigh with the words Jake's Bad Karma on it as a way to challenge him to a fight, putting out this goofy video that we're going to throw to you here just to see it playing, and saying in the video, hey, Jake, I've got something for you. Now it's your turn. Luke, call me crazy, but hey, Myrus, you can get a tattoo of Jake on your

face and there's no fucking way he fights you. There's not a chance. If you don't know Myrus Brightus, the IBF champion, Luke, former unified champion, has one loss and that was to Alexander Usyk by majority decision in one of the best fights of the year has beaten every other cruiserweight he's faced. What is happening here? Let's see if we can unpack his thinking here. His thinking is that

Tyron didn't really get a tattoo. If I make a big deal out of getting an obvious tattoo, surely that will get me this fight. Is that his thinking there? Yes, but you have to remember, he's in a... That's a very bad thinking.

He's the best cruiserweight in the world. I mean, he is an elite, elite. 28 and 1, 26K, or something like that. I mean, it's... Yeah, I don't... It's a terrible tattoo, by the way. Jake's bad karma. Is his idea, Luke, to just cover all that once this blows away?

And he always wanted that... Boy, I hope. I hope. Well, you went through planning, and you have money, and you always wanted that. Boy, I hope. I hope. Well, you went through planning, and you have money, and you got that tattoo? Wow. It's big, too. It's not on his finger.

No, it's pretty small. What the hell? I mean, is this the English language gap where he just doesn't know that he has no chance, Luke? Maybe he's, is he stupid? I don't know. It's interesting. I'm not saying he is.

Don't get me in trouble, but I'm saying, you know, is he? All right, Luke. Number four, as we just talked about, Michael Chandler told multiple outlets this week he'd love Nate Diaz at Welterweight. He'd love an extended run at Welterweight. He would fight Dustin Poirier at lightweight. Luke, this is all interesting fantasy matchmaking.

You can argue where Michael Chandler is right now. Entering that fun twilight, but still very much elite. Every time out, it's going to be a banger against no matter who it's against. I don't know if I've ever seen someone this fan favorite in this moment. Call me crazy, Luke, but Chandler is so perfectly fit this fan favorite role, given his action style and willingness to fight, that the UFC should try to capitalize on this by creating a gimmick where they present four potential opponents for Chandler's next fight, allow fans to vote on social media, all four potential opponents were given the contract in advance,

which is basically pay-per-view championship-level money for this pay-per-view main event, and Chandler fights the fan's choice and a guaranteed banger in his next fight. Would it surprise you to learn that Bellator already did this years ago? I would be surprised. Yeah, they did this with a four-man tournament. They did, including one where John War Machine Copenhaver was in it. This was long before he went to jail for that. And they voted on it, and it was a bust.

I don't know what... Why would the UFC want to do that? Because it's a fun gimmick. Right, I don't know. But they don't need to do it, right? So why do they need to do that? Because it's a fun gimmick. All right, no, no, no. But they don't need to do it, right? So why do they need to do it? Why should they do something in a situation where they don't need to do it?

Because it would allow them to say, okay, here's this Chandler guy. We think he could be a pay-per-view main eventer without a title in place because he's kind of like our Arturo Gatti right now. So let's actually make him that, push him out there, create four really fun matchups,

and let the fans vote and let the fans think that they're in on the matchmaking. Be a matchmaker for a day. You're not into this. I don't think UFC likes to cede that kind of control, and the fans don't necessarily have great judgment. Okay. Call me crazy, Luke, but we're never doing this segment again. Here we go.

I like this segment. Number five. The ongoing feud between UFC flyweight JP Baze and women's strawweight Cheyenne Willis-Miz reached Jerry Springer levels over the past 24 hours when JP responded to his wife, ex-wife's, or his current wife. Can I just say for the record?

I just want to say for the record, I'm a little uncomfortable with this. Okay. Well, let's see how I frame this here, okay? He accused her of cheating. She came back and said they had only gotten married for him to get a visa to be in this country. He says he can't fight again because of her divorcing him and all that. Luke, call me crazy, but despite this being an insanely sad situation, the UFC may have missed the boat.

Oh, no. In terms of fans' appetite for sensationalism, whether real or fake, and probably right now, the UFC could rival WWE's success with Total Divas by creating its own Jersey Shore-style reality show focused on its more flamboyant fighters. Think Mike Perry, who's not with them anymore, but you get my point. It's not as shameless as OnlyFans, which many fighters are already doing, and it offers them potentially some extra income when their employer isn't really big on doing that. Luke, call me crazy, but UFC Jersey Shore could get the kind of ratings that Tuff rarely ever does. Should we prostitute our marriage?

Not you and me, but I'm thinking out loud like if I was Will Smith. Should I prostitute my marriage for a little extra cash? And not just my marriage, my failed and dying marriage. Okay, this is an extreme that seems that seems extremely bad idea But is it true that many fighters are? Putting things out there in the internet for extra money to try to make ends that is true Would you be rather than putting them? I mean look you only have to go on Facebook and see the people you went to high school with and they're already doing this They're already putting their laundry out there. I know, but they shouldn't be.

Right. So would you rather them do that than putting their jubblies out there? I don't want to have... My wife watches 90 Day Fiance and it's just the saddest shit on earth. I mean, it's pretty sad. It's just sad people doing sad...

Not entirely. There are a couple of situations that are pretty nice. But in general, there's so many sad people who are prostituting the privacy of their lives for some degree of life working out in their favor because i guess it hasn't i i don't know but it's so you're saying you're better than that and luckily the ufc is better than that i don't know dude but like i just don't feel comfortable watching someone's failed marriage get prostituted for you know ratings yeah no yeah

you watched um nick lachey jessica simpson i did probably i didn't all right yeah okay let's keep it going here one love bc yeah one train wreck uh luke ufc welterweight champion kamaru usman made headlines this week for posting on snapchat aimed at a social media troll saying quote kill yourself have fun watching my life and not yours. Damn. Did he really? Luke, call me crazy, but while I do acknowledge that Kamaru, like a lot of fighters, see some regularly awful shit online from the dark side of this fan base simply because they're

celebrities, without question, but it seems like he got off easy in the court of public opinion here. Like, most people moved on real quick from this story. Dude, it's MMA. You can call someone, you know, terrible things, and you can do terrible things, and no one cares. So this isn't me being ultra soft, saying, you know,

maybe he should put out a statement, or maybe we should just not do this, you know, at the crazy fans. Tell them to off themselves. I mean, it's eye for an eye in a way, but it's... Here's the thing, dude. I used to be the executive editor of Bloody Elbow, right? And you have to understand something about SB Nation, which you may not appreciate anymore,

but if you remember the original web pages when the comment sections were developed, they were developed to look like web forms. The whole idea behind SB Nation was doing, I'll just tell everyone this, in their initial foray, so we're talking post 2005 or so, was they didn't just want this scale universe of websites, they wanted the comments section to pull people away from forums so that they

could look like forums in the comments section and the technology was driven that way. Why do I bring that up? Because we had a robust community of people commenting. And you would get dragged as a media member, you would get dragged to these long, dragged-out comment battles. Here's the point. What have I said to people online who have made me angry or whatever?

I've said shit way worse than that. So I'm not going to get up here and be like, Kamaru's a horrible person. But over time, you realize those battles don't go anywhere. You can have them for the rest of your life, and nothing ever gets accomplished. You do have to for the rest of your life, and nothing ever gets accomplished. You do have to be the bigger person and look the other way. However, I've told many, many people I was going to bang their mothers in the comments section.

So let's just be real about that. I had a vehicle with Chuck that hopefully they edited out the opening in which you also said the same thing to me. I said that one in good fun, not in malicious disregard. Okay. Number seven, Luke. Roley Romero, remember him, posted on IG this week saying that, quote, after three and a half months of my name being slandered with false accusations, that the investigation into the sexual assault made against him has been, quote,

formally closed. In addition to claiming his innocence one final time, Luke, Roley said, quote, formally closed. In addition to claiming his innocence one final time, Luke, Rowley said, quote, I am now the symbol of freedom, purity, and love, known as the boxer formerly known as Rowley. Now all of you hating MFers can suck my fat black beep. Luke, call me crazy, but in addition to having trouble figuring out

where the line is on Rowley between hero and villain in most of his public interactions. Yeah, he's not on either side of any of them. We might be overlooking one part of his value to boxing right now. This lightweight division is overloaded with young stars. I do like it when people tell the world to suck their dicks. I do appreciate that. It's overloaded with young and old talent competing on rival networks with rival promoters in fights that, for the most part, we're not going to see, I bet Roley would be willing to fight all of them.

And I bet he would probably make the most fun fights against one another as anyone else in this division. So, Luke. Yes, but could he beat any of them? No. Call me crazy, love them or loathe them. Roley's kind of must-see TV. I'm like, I'm sorry, Anthony Smith. Roley is, you know. Must-see is a strong word, but I know where you're going at. Like, if he is booked against it, yeah, okay, he's must-see TV in that sense. In that sense. He's not must-see TV in the sense that he's such a visible star that any time he does anything you have to watch, he's not must-see in that way. Like, who is must-see in the boxing world no matter who they fight?

Canelo. Like, you have to see what Canelo is. He's that relevant. Deontay Wilder. Deontay Wilder to an extent. Tyson Fury too. Big names. They're must-see in that sense. He's not must-see in that sense, but in the sense that you

described, yeah, he is. I don't know what to do with that post, Luke. I hope he's cleared. I hope it's... Yeah, is that true? Has anyone... I don't know. Can Showtime tell us is that true? I mean, didn't really have multiple accusers? I don't know. I hope it gets... Yeah, no one here seems to know, but. All right.

Finally, Luke, we just had Chuck Mendenhall join us last minute on Tuesday for a trio of special projects. We knocked them out. They'll all be coming soon. Call me crazy, but there's really no one else out there that gets us quite like Chuck does. Like, even though this isn't a knock on his moral character per se, I'm fairly certain Chuck would help us bury a body without asking too many questions in the moment. Yeah. So here's the thing about Chuck. He gets us,

dude. Okay. Yes, he does. However, however, Chuck is better than us. So, so he would help us bury the body. So he pities us in a way. No, no, no. Well, he probably does pity us, but he definitely would help us bury and he definitely would never snitch. But I'm afraid that if Chuck helped us do that, he'd never speak to us again. So it'd be him and Ariel, like they'd just take over Morning Com. Yeah.

No, no, no. We would still be our thing. Well, that's true, because the public wouldn't know about the public. The public wouldn't know. They'd probably hold the job. But you would never see Chuck on the show. Chuck would be like,

fellas, I'm going to help you this one time, and then I'm out. And then I'm out. And I'd be like, you know what, Chuck? I respect that like a lawman in the 1800s. The thing, fellas, I'm going to help you this one time and then I'm out and then I'm out and I'd be like, you know what, Chuck, I respect that like a lawman in the 1800s. The thing though

about that is Chewbacca would be about that. Chewbacca would complain for five seconds and then he'd be like, who the fuck is dying tonight?

Like, Chuck's cool but he ain't Chewbacca. He's not. I mean, but who is? That's a high level. I mean,

Chuck's more like Anakin episode six to be fair when the helmet comes off. Well, that's a little strong. That's probably a little strong. Yeah, I mean, he's not dying. Anyway, I can't wait for people to see this shit.

It was good stuff. It's going to be good. All right. Maybe we should bring back the wheel. These other segments suck. Yeah, sorry. Time for fan subs, BC. This is your...

Oh, wait, really? Let me find that in my phone. Look, why don't you... Boy, the joie de vivre with which you are doing today's show is really just inspiring, I have to say. You move me. Yeah. I don't know if I have this, Luke.

I didn't prepare properly. Oh, okay. Well, this is a fun show. Just hang with me here, okay? I'm glad you really prepped. Here we go. I'm loading. I'm loading, Luke.

I'm loading. And like Metallica, you'll be reloading. I'll be. Give me fuel. Give me fire. Give me that which I me fire, give me... All right, here's what we do. MorningCombat at gmail.com is your in-hole

to send us pictures of you and your artwork and all that good stuff. And we'll probably make a lot of fans mad who don't get their name in here thinking it's gratuitous and ridiculous. But thank you, Mikey Mormont, for sweeping up the shit. It's called fan submissions. We've got mail, Luke.

We've got mail fans.. We've got mail fans. I bet we do. Yeah. This one's from Jacob. He lives in SoCal. He says, wishing you guys a washed

happy new year. Here is me, my girlfriend, Addie, and my dog, Zion, posing in merch 1.0 and drug rug 1.0.

Can we go full screen here? Is it a drug rug or a Mexican sweater? Heard it both ways. I may have0. Can we go full screen here? Is it a drug rug or a Mexican sweater? Heard it both ways. I may have made. Can we stop with this shit? I mean. I didn't preview these.

As you already know. Okay, enough of the anti-Brendan Shopslander, please. I mean, come on. What are we doing? I may have made my girlfriend put on the drug rug for the photo. She had no clue what it was, but she supports your show at the same level as Luke's family. Maybe one day I'll join the club of fans whose significant others buy them merch.

Day one supporter. In fairness, my wife has been extremely supportive of Luke's wife, so I want to say this. His lady looks good in that drug rug, right? Bull it up one more time. Please. Want to own part of the airline you flew with on your last vacation?

Or part of the company that makes your favorite triple shot latte with extra foam? What about owning part of a company that one day could send you on a tour of outer space? Now you can. With partial shares from TD Direct Investing, you can own part of your favorite companies. Just pick a stock and decide how much to spend on the share. It's a piece of cake. Learn more at td.com slash partial shares. TD, ready for you. Yeah, yeah, this looks like a relatively normal, happy couple. Yeah, they're building a nice family there with that dog Zion. I'm a big fan of them. All right, Kev is here from Toronto by way of Dublin. Okay, well done on the award, lads. Love the content.

Really hope to do a live show with you guys sometime in 2022. Attached is a pic of two merch-clad Toronto-based Irish degenerate dogs, myself included. We are enjoying a Christmas cigar and watching... I mean, he listened to them. It's like, yes, we are two Canadian cigar smokers. We definitely did not storm the Capitol on January 6th. That is not us. You did not see us on FBI's Most Wanted. What's the Canadian Capitol called? The House of Parliament? I don't know. Oh, you mean like their house of... It's probably something weird, right?

They were watching Derek Lewis send a soul to the shadow realm in the icebox, his mate's carriage house. Wow, look. Oh, Ottawa. Excuse me, what am I saying? Ontario. They also got shirts, but it was effing freezing, so those aren't pictured. A few days after, I headed home to the motherland

for the holidays. Look, this guy's in a cemetery, you see this? Also attached to some pics of the old ruins where my grandfather is buried. Look, this is getting dark, okay? Yeah, I don't need to hear about this guy's death history. We always pop up for a pint with him every Christmas. He would have hated the show.

In saying that, proud to sport the MK hat while at home in Dublin. It's great gear. Keep it up, you old wash bitches. And P.S., Luke, wrong one to fuck with is a great tune. Thanks for the recommendation. Great, Dying Fetus. Alright, that's from Kev, good old Kev there in Toronto.

Brownstetter's friend. Alright, here's Shane. He says, rate his form, Luke. Blow it up. Is that guy legit or is he just like showing his mid drift? Yeah, no, I mean these are the... he's gonna clean here. Let's see. I mean not bad. I mean, it's not, you know, they're not super explosive. Let's see the squat here.

He's got a high bar. Let's see how far the knees travel over the toes. Pretty far. Oh, he didn't hit depth, bitch. He did? The first one? See, Mark, the camera guy, he's got cauliflower hair. He's a real man, Luke.

He knows his shit. No, those are not depth. Depth is when the hip crease is below the knee crease. Go back one more time. Go back one more time. First one. Oh, we gotta watch the whole snatch and fucking clean again?

Alright, that's fine. Real quick, real quick, I wanna see. We don't have enough snatch on this show, Luke, to be fair. Damn, he goes collar to collar on the snatch, too. Look at that, Jesus. Big dude. Do you think he sits the key?

Alright, no, no, hold on. He's gonna do the jerk here. He's got MMA on in the background, too, by the way. All right, watch this. Does the hip crease go below the knee crease? Did you say he has MMA on in the background? No, no, no, no. That's three reds.

That's three reds. Sorry. His form is actually pretty good, is the long story short, but his depth, that one was pretty good. The depth on the squats could do some work. Damien the Donk is here. He's your Donk of the Year

for this year, this past year, and he also says for this coming year. I recently watched, re-watched JRE MMA episode 99, which featured none other than the great Luke Thomas.

Co-host. I've seen hundreds of JRE episodes, and although Luke's my favorite, I still feel some type of way about my main man, BC, not getting a shout-out, only briefly being referred to as... I don't care what the metrics say, we all know BC is the sauce,

so I put together the clip video regarding the original origins of the famous co-host fiasco. Stay frosty, my friends, okay? Okay. All right. That is... Last but not least, I got to spend, wow, three and a half hours.

I was shocked at the time with Mr. Joe Rogan, UFC commentator. And by the way, nice shout out to all your colleagues on this show. Oh, wait, there wasn't one. And I was actually happy with that. There was one. I gave you one, as a matter of fact. Can I shout out a couple people who are... Oh.

Last but not least, I got to spend, wow, three and a half hours. I was shocked at the time with Mr. Joe Rogan, UFC commentator. And by the way, nice shout out to all your colleagues on this show. Oh, wait, there wasn't one. And I was actually happy with that. There was one. I gave you one as a matter of fact, fuckface. Can I shout out a couple people who are tremendous reporters?

I remember I was catching up with my co-host for the show I do on Showtime. My co-host was like, I was like, okay, so there was one. I gave you one, as a matter of fact, fuckface. No, you were like my co-host on that show I do. Can I shout out a couple people who are tremendous reporters in this regard? There's a guy by the name of John Nash. He goes by the name of, you want to follow him on Twitter? It's at A&R.

You shouted out John S. Nash over your three hours on Rogan? I did. Yeah, and gave his Twitter handle too. What is it? Hey in the face, please? Hey not in the face. Yes, okay. Alright, Luke. Tyler has two photos. Sorry about that, BC. He's from the 412 in Pittsburgh and he's back.

And he says, Luke, thanks for keeping my ego in check and shitting all over my Photoshop skills. Congrats to BC on the showbox gig. And Luke, congrats for getting that community college teaching job. Okay. Okay. This is a joke apparently. Uh. Can you blow that up? Okay, that's well done right there. That's funny. That's funny. All right. It is a difficult choice, I have to say.

All right, Jack says, hey, Luke in BC, it's Jack. My second Christmas present arrived yesterday after your shitty international shipping was delayed. Don't worry, guys. I know it would have been Jay's fault. I have my own gardening business called Hagerty's Gardening Services. Is this guy just plugging his shit with his shirt on? So my stainless steel insulated drink bottle is perfect while I listen to you guys.

And yes, Luke, like you said last time I wrote in, my cable management is a three, but my life is a nine. There you go. All right. I'm good with that. Congrats on the new studio, Jack. So he used us for- Yeah, I mean, he bought some merch and used it to plug his business. Yeah. He kind of looks like Phil, our

roadie, you know? Dude, when your chest hair goes well below or well above, I should say, the neckline... The spout, yeah. Yeah, you know, you're probably gross. I'm down with this guy, though. You need some Manscaped for your filthy, disgusting genitals. Did you see Manscaped just re-upped with UFC? Did they? I hope we get some of that Manscaped. Yeah, I need some Manscaped cash your filthy, disgusting genitals. Did you see Manscaped just re-upped with UFC?

Did they? I hope we get some of that Manscaped. Yeah, I need some Manscaped cash. All right, Scott says, it's become a meme, so I made the meme. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, what are you going to say? That's what it is. And finally, Mike says, congrats on all your success.

The award-winning MK cannot be stopped. You've come a long way. If you're going to come, come on. Yeah, so if you didn't notice this, this was brought out to me as well. Do you remember the photos that they shared on the MK Instagram account before? If you notice, it's the same photo in the sense that we're both just switching positions. So how it started is me on both elbows on the table and when you look at

the picture from originally, you had hands like this. Then when you switch to the modern one, I have the hands like you in the old one and you have hands like me in the old one. That makes me feel like you're saying, without saying it, that we're now a married couple. Oh dude, we're fucking absolutely married. That we're finishing each other's

Finishing lots of things. Sentences. Sentences, please. Wow, all right. Luke, I look like a Red Lobster pasty bitch right now. Dude, how is it that the white balance on these expensive computers makes us look like Brock Lesnar

turning the color of pink country time lemonade? How does that happen? We consistently look like red blotchy nothing. In theory, I thought I was going to look cool today, Luke. I felt cool coming in here, but I didn't deliver. You know what, to be honest with you, you kind of gave the story away when we were walking up here. I think the travel is a little much for you. Yeah, I've got to get back home and get back in a routine workout a little bit, Luke.

Sleep in your bed. Free my mind and the rest will follow, right? Free my mind. You know, they were ahead of the game on being colorblind. Who was that? En Vogue. En Vogue, that's right. Are they still En Vogue now?

That's all right, though. Their message will last forever, Luke. I hope ours will one day. Seriously, how old are we? 43 and 42. 20 years from now. We're in our 60s, right? 20 years from now I mean we're in our 60s right 20 years from now

what will MK be considered will it be like MMA live hey remember they had that cool show that show was awesome bro you remember that shit

there's a decent chance it actually will or do you think it's still going 20 years it could be but I definitely think there's a decent chance it will be viewed

favorably because Luke Thomas is pissed sucked and no one watched it and I still get people years. It could be, but I definitely think there's a decent chance it will be viewed favorably because Luke Thomas is pissed, sucked, and no one watched it, and I still get people come up to me consistently being like, dude, that was fucking great. Yeah, I hear a lot about the docs too. And so this show is actually good, even though it is stupid.

And so I think people will say nice things. All right. I'm told that this studio is going to be... Well, the question is, when the show is over, when it's run its course, how much of the industry will hit our fucking guts? A lot. I think so. So we should probably never break up, right? Yeah, I think we're stuck with each other.

As an FU to the rest of the world? It's like, hey, I think if someone is an A-minus fighter, not an A-plus, man, fuck that guy. Yeah. I'm told that this set is going to be elastic-y. It's going to move a lot. Yes. We're going to do fun things with the screen right here in the future.

We should take a moment before the show is over and we go home today to say to everyone on the crew here at Molka, specifically Molka, you guys did a fucking bang-up job, man.

Bang-up job. Shout-out to everyone here who helped make this possible. Yeah. Look at the studio. It looks great. And this is just the beginning. We barely used it.

We used it a lot yesterday, but I'm saying it's the beginning of all the possibilities against what I'm saying. And then, you know yesterday, but I'm saying it's the beginning of all the possibilities. And then we move down the road later this year to a much bigger space. I want my own office. I think that's asking a lot. They're gonna put us together with no office.

I want a window. Are we gonna have a green room in the next studio? I'd like an assistant. The green room here is like the latrine slash. Slash closet. Slash closet. Yeah. It's like you can put stuff in that fridge, but we don't.

I'm like, what does that mean? What does that mean? I don't know what that means, but it doesn't sound good. Luke, we. You ever notice that? There's like nothing in that fridge ever. We're like, no, we don't. Luke, as we look ahead to 2022, which we're in right now,

what names would surprise you that we could get as guests or that we could find out are secret MK fans? Is there anything? I'll tell them. Let me remix that question a little bit. In terms of names, despite the fact that we are loathed, certainly me, I don't think it's that hard to get someone to do an interview with us.

But in studio, that is where we've actually only ever had, this is true, we've only ever had Al Jermaine in studio. Yes. That's it. He's the only one. I would like to expand that a little bit in 2022, if possible. Possible. I agree.

I agree with that. We should get Stipe in studio. I was going to say, we should get Conor McGregor. Yeah, we'll just call him right up. I mean, Stipe in studio would be interesting. Don't you think? If he was chilled out a little bit? Or would he just do the whole thing? Do you think I'm, like, how soon before Stipe?

No, we need Anthony Smith. Yeah, no, we need Anthony Smith in studio. Dude, the deal is, Anthony Smith's pretty cool. He would actually do a good job because he knows media. I think he's savvy. Do you think he could tell a good joke when it's coming out? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Both receiving it and giving it? I think so. Dude, honestly, like, he was complaining about you in that clip. Hey, hey, hey, we can hear. Hang on. Just chill out for a second. He was complaining about you in that clip. But, like, he's never, ever.

Like, I've had people who are, like, mad at people I know. And then they call me up asking me to intervene. Yeah. He's never done that. He just kind of deals with it on his own which is honestly a little bit better i'd like to get a job in the studio would you you think you'd do it after all the shit you talked i did not i did not talk shit i you know what i did i tried to um i tried to find out where i'm really at is that it you ever go to like a you know a pickup game

you're like oh yo that that dude played d1 yeah no you game and you're like, oh, yo, that dude played D1. Yeah. You're like, you know what? I'm not as good as that guy, but I'm going to body him. I'm going to have my moment, right? I'm going to try to cross him. What's your number one moment on the court for pickup basketball? Pickup basketball. Don't give me some Al Bundy, I threw four touchdowns in high school thing.

I mean, you know, Luke, I'm a service provider on the court. I know my role. You're the water boy? No, no. You know, I'll set a hard pick, Luke, I'm a service provider on the court. I know my role. You're the water boy? No, no. You know, I'll set a hard pick, Luke, okay? You mean a scream? Yeah, and I'll roll and I'll score. Believe that, okay? I can post up like an off-market Kevin McHale.

I mean, I've got those moves, but, Luke, you know, I play the team game. I can pass. I can pick. I can roll. But you're not the scorer. No, I'm not the scorer. But one time I played a pickup game with Jay Williams of Duke. I've told you that before.

Yes, you did. Everyone's coming out of the woodwork like, yo, I'm going to have my moment on this guy. That's why I did the job. And then you told me no one had their moment on Jay. He styled on everyone. Dude, he hit like a 30-foot three-pointer with four of us in his face for a game point. And it was one of those that when it swishes it makes that little ting sound because it as it goes through, it was

like cash money. It was incredible. Because he limps when he's just effing around, but when you challenge him, he turns into like NBA Jay Williams and then it's like, oh. Oh, right. You did go four years. Right. Okay. Well, he didn't, but yeah. I thought he did all four. No, he left early.

Wasn't he part of the Boozer, Battier, Dunleavy generation that stayed all four? I mean, he didn't, but yeah. I thought he did all four. No, he left early. Wasn't he part of the Boozer, Battier, Dunleavy generation that stayed all four? I mean, he was like the player of the year as a sophomore. But all those guys stayed four? Yeah, Battier stayed four, a lot of those guys, but he was special. When you're special, you come out early. Except William Avery, he came out early from Duke and did nothing. So why did his career end? Because of the motorcycle accident? Absolutely.

He's good on TV. Yeah, he is. He's a good dude. He went to Duke. He's smart. I just wanted, I'm like, you know, you know that part in episode three where Obi-Wan gets on his knees and he's like, maybe I could beat you at this age, Darth, but, you know, strike me.

Strike me down. You know what I mean? I'll become even stronger. That's what I did to Shab, but he wouldn't take the bait. You know what I mean? The thing is, I became stronger anyway. So Shab is Darth Vader and you're the bitch Obi-Wan?

Is Obi-Wan a bitch, though? Yeah, he ain't Chewbacca. Yo, Obi-Wan's smart enough to realize that he needed the higher position in Kashyyyk, I'm sorry, in the Mustafar to take out Anakin. He turned Anakin, though,

indirectly from a bitch into like a badass. Obi-Wan's responsible. Are you with me on my Boba Fett take? He's like the most overrated Star Wars character ever. I mean, he's reaching Jar Jar status. Yeah. Have you watched the book of Boba Fett? I have not.

I tried one episode. I was like, nope. Yeah, but you missed Cobra Kai. You missed it. So I'm not. I watched the first. Hold on. The Cobra Kai I did miss.

I watched the first full season and loved it. I started watching the second season and I'm like, right, the lives of teens are boring to me and I don't find this interesting. You didn't see the school brawl? I'm not sure. I definitely saw the nerd with like the blue hair go from... Yeah, he flipped the script. Flipped the script completely and, you know, I saw John Kreese come back a little bit.

Okay, then you missed a lot of good shit. I missed a lot of good shit, but the lives of 14-year-olds are boring. So let's just watch Continuum or whatever that movie is that you watched. The Raid. Let's watch the fucking Raid. Let's watch Kanto. Do you like Raid? The Raid and the Raid 2?

Oh, fuck the new ones. It's got Michael Bay involved. All right, well, everyone's just talking here comfortably in the studio, so we should probably call it a day, right? Let's call it a week here. We'll be back on Friday from home. That's right. But, you's just talking here comfortably in the studio, so we should probably call it a day, right? Let's call it a week here. We'll be back on Friday from home. That's right. But, you know, this was fun.

This was how you use a studio over three days to your advantage. You make content. This was a level-up moment. You made some content. Will it be good? First of all, I want to say to the audience, one love, as always, Bob Marley. There's our socials right there below on the screen if you can see them. Morning Combat is the same everywhere.

Luke Thomas News, Brian C. Campbell on Instagram, L. Thomas News, and then B. Campbell on Twitter. Go to Showtime.com. You can get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can go pound sand. What else? Email morningcombat at gmail.com and morningcombat.store for merch.

We've got a bunch of that we've already told you about. Any final thoughts? Not really. Well, thanks to everyone at Malka for making all of this possible. Thanks to everyone at Showtime who made this possible. Thanks to everyone at CBS Sports who made this possible. Shouts to everyone who is here, not here,

and everyone in between. All right, so we'll be back home on Friday. And, yeah. Don't catch Omnicrom. Omnicrom. Omnicrom. we'll be back home on Friday. And yeah. Don't catch Omicron. Omicron. Omicron. Omicron. Omicron.

Enough of this shit. Enough of this shit. So until next time, may all your gains be loyal. One love.