MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Jose Aldo Retires? | Canelo Defeats GGG | UFC Vegas 60: Sandhagen-Song Recap | Ep 350

Episode Date: September 19, 2022

On Episode 350 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian start the show by breaking down the news from Combate that Jose Aldo is retiring with once fight left on his deal. Is this the right move? Next up the guys break down Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennadiy Golovkin 3. Is Canelo vs. Bovil 2 a bad idea? The guys also break down UFC Vegas 60: Sandhagen vs. Song. What are their biggest takeaways from this fight? What's next for Cory Sandhagen? The guys close out Monday as always with Dm's from Donks and HYSTS. Courtney's Fighter Page: http://www.haymakersforhope.org/event/boston/2022/belles-brawl-ix/courtney-maag Courtney's Salem News Article: https://www.salemnews.com/sports/mauler-on-a-mission-marbleheads-maag-steps-into-the-ring-to-ko-cancer/article_3e60689e-2555-11ed-98fd-8ff18ae9af93.html 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

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Reveille, 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. Hey, it's the 19th of September, 2022, and it's time for Morning Combat. Hi, everyone. I am merely one half of your hosting duo i join you from the capital of the status unidos right here in washington dc my name is luke thomas as i indicated earlier probably you'll see some graphics on the screen i am joined by my friend

and yours he goes by a lot of names some of them good some of them bad i call him the king of connecticut he's my friend and yours it's brian camp. Hi, Brian Campbell. Luke, I'm like that thorn in your side, that off color of your toenail that just won't go away. But after a while, Luke, you kind of get used to it. Let's do this thing, right? You're the fungus on my toenails? You know, at some point, though, when the colors change so rapidly

each time you stub them into the staircase inevitably, it does begin to look a little like art. I don't think that's how art works but there's interpretations of art nevertheless i appreciate you joining us all here today bc i know you were busy over the weekend following a very lackluster i would argue triple g canelo trilogy fight we'll get to that jose aldo has retired. You know, I would be really upset about how badly that fight blew and how excited I got myself. And in tune, may have gotten the MK audience a little bit too excited. And then, you know, sometimes, Luke, sometimes it's shit in your hands, right?

But, Luke, something happened to me the night before, Friday night in New Haven, Connecticut. Blood in the streets in the town of... Luke, do you know what happened to me? You saw a concert by a very underwhelming band that no one cares about? I saw a band, my favorite band in the world, My Morning Jacket. But the thing is, Luke, I hadn't seen them in nine years. And they took five years off of recording and, for the most part, touring.

Do you know what I hadn't realized in that time, Luke? What? That a very, very good band became great. I'm not doing the 1917 Uncut Gems bit here, okay? But Friday night I saw the best concert in my entire life. Alright, well we'll talk about that a little

bit later in the show. And I'm still high from it, Luke. Very good. Thumbs up on the video. If you're watching on YouTube, hit subscribe. If you're new and joining us, we appreciate you. We do this live Monday, Wednesday, Friday, live 11 a.m. in the East. So we appreciate you joining us.

You can see our socials there on the screen. Morning Combat is everywhere, including on TikTok. Give us a follow on TikTok. That's where all the action is, I'm told. Yeah, if you're young or you, you know, seek to, or if you seek them young, you'll find us on TikTok, Luke, okay? All right. By the way, Showtime is the label that pays.

You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. If memory serves, and I believe this is correct, the very next Bellator event should be this weekend. Bellator 23 at the 3 Arena in Dublin, Ireland. This is the card headline by Peter Quigley taken on Benson

Henderson. By the way, y'all Romero back in action against a fight I don't really love that much against Melvin Manhoff, but it should be wild for as long as it lasts. That will be, I believe, on the 23rd is what, Friday? I believe it's a Friday afternoon fight, so that should be kind of fun if you're

up for it there uh let's see you can email the show morning combat at gmail.com if to reach the show for wednesday's fan subs friday's dead wrong and bc i'm wearing merch i got the new polo shirt on you're wearing merch you got the sort of new gray what was that gray military green like it's hard to tell exactly oh you got the real talk like men do shirt on. There you go. BC, tell these good folks where they can get all this good stuff. We got a website. It's called morningcombat.store. You may have taken part last week in our great Jay Paquette-induced 15% off sale.

But look, folks, it's high-quality merch, and that's ultimately the difference. You want a bomber jacket? There's only a couple left on Big Ray Dunkelmaker's war chest in his bedroom over there. He'll be shipping them out directly to you. Come and look around. We got fanny packs. We got different brands and lines. We got Factory Town MMA gear. We got

Luke's dead face. It is really the best merch house going today for the best damn combat sports show. Period. There you house going today for the best damn combat sports show period there you have it very good uh and then let's see oh want to remind folks vote for us world mma awards voting is still open but not for much longer if you've been slacking on that you can put your phone up to the screen right now use the qr code or you can just go to world mma.com slash nominees. You can vote for Morning Combat for best MMA programming. We would appreciate that.

I mean, you hook us up here, it's going to be huge for us. Yeah, you're going to get it on the back end. It's like prison, Luke. They'll get you on the back end. We'll take care of you there. Also, can you vote for A. Braun if you're interested? Aaron Bronsted are up for MMA Journalist of the Year. He's a part-time member of this clan.

And then last but not least, there's a producer on the show. She works on the Showtime side. She's doing a charity boxing event where she's actually going to box. I think it's like just three two-minute rounds, and the whole thing is everyone raises money for charity. If you would like to help out, let's put the information here on the screen. I believe we have a graphic for it. is her name is courtney you can use the qr code right there on the screen if you're listening on the audio platform please try to find this um on the uh

the video side here if you can but courtney is raising money for cancer victims correct that's right that is my understanding as well and if you'd be i mean 50 cents a dollar uh oh but i'm told by the way it'll be in both the pod and youtube description so you can find the link and information down there but if you'd be so kind i believe she's fighting on friday or thursday maybe this thursday i believe is when she's competing so uh help out donate to a good cause help the producer and we'd be grateful she'll be going three rounds for a great cross in Boston, right next to Fenway park.

And, uh, court is a part of the backbone, the fabric of, of this operation from day one. So, uh, we've got her back in this,

in this journey. And, uh, if you, if you feel so inclined, uh, please support a great cause. Uh,

Luke, I was shocked when Courtney's like, Hey, by the way, guys, I'm going to take a boxing match, but, uh,

you know, you don't, you know what I responded over text? Factory town tough. Okay. All right. I've seen her training footage. I'm actually blown away at how good she's gotten. She might give Jake Paul a run for her money.

You know what I'm saying? They won't make that fight because there's gender discrimination. All right. But Julia Rose, Courtney's coming for everything that you took from her. Okay. But no bullshit. It's a great cause. She's working really hard. She makes MK what it is. Rose, Courtney's coming for everything that you took from her, okay? But no bullshit. It's a great cause.

She's working really hard. She makes MK what it is. It wouldn't be the same without her. So help out if you're so inclined. All right. BC, anything else before we get started? You know, I was going to break down song by song that fantastic concert I saw, but if you'd rather talk MMA, it's cool.

I prefer MMA, yes. You'll be okay with that. Maybe I'll have an extra credit later on that Luke okay all right let's start with the I think the biggest and so I mean there was big fight news from events over the weekend but we got hit with this yesterday and it's a monumental piece of news according to Kombache which has now been confirmed in reports on MMA Junkie MMA fighting I think even the UFC kind of acknowledged it was true at this point through social media postings. Jose Aldo has retired. Jose Aldo has retired. Now he, according to Combache, had one fight left on his deal. The understanding that I have, according to that report, is that he would be allowed if he wanted to do like sport jiu-jitsu

or maybe even boxing, but he couldn't obviously go sign with another MMA promoter. That would be out of the question. We will see what happens. BC, your reaction to this news and more broadly, what is Jose Aldo's legacy in the sport if this is the actual last MMA fight that he has? First of all, reaction to the news, I am surprised. Knowing the competitor he is, we talked about it last week,

I assumed he would be the kind of guy you'd have to remove from the sport because he's always going to get the most of himself. In a training camp, in a fight, he's moved down in weight so late in age to become a legitimate title contender multiple times at Bantamweight here. I'm surprised. I kind of feel like he's still going to want to go out on his own terms in Brazil one day

but if he never fights again as you so mentioned earlier last week it's damn it is it the right time in some ways he's kind of going

out on top I know he's coming off a loss but going out late in his career in the deepest division in the sports history that close to a title shot

but what's the legacy of the great king of Rio Jose Rio it's just that that he's royalty in this space whether you the legacy of the great king of He-O, Jose Rio? It's just that, that he's royalty in this space. Whether you have him in the top five, you probably could have him no worse than the top 10 fighters in this sport's history.

I think that what jumps out at you first in terms of the first line of his accomplishments is he was the face of a division for a decade, basically. Became a devastating star in the WEC was moved right into full UFC title championship mode without needing to to win it because of how dominant he was and then that run of title defenses he went nearly a full decade without losing he was always class he was always about the the purest elements of this game, respect, hard work. But what's my personal legacy for Jose?

It's actually more of what he did when things weren't fully going in his direction. The way mentally that he bounced back from the one-punch knockout loss and all the trash talk against Conor McGregor and the aforementioned reinvention at Bantamweight. Here's a guy who just never stopped trying to be great no matter the circumstances. And more often than not, you know, like 80% of the times,

it seems like when he intended to go out there and be great, he figured out a way to do exactly just that. I could not have more respect for a fighter who after those two losses to Max Holloway, I kind of question even then, could he be done? Or would we see a market drop-off? He just kept finding ways to siphon whatever greatness was left inside of him.

And maybe that's why I fear he really isn't done yet. But regardless of what he wants to do next, I'll be behind him. And I have nothing but the utmost respect as a man, as a competitor, for somebody who, even if his accomplishments may not necessarily put him in your Mount Rushmore or my Mount Rushmore, not only is he close, but he stands for everything that a great champion should in so many ways. Maybe short of that tattoo on his right arm,

but that's more of your beef than mine. I love me some Jose Aldo. Yeah, I share all that analysis. I would add a few different things. Now, in the end, who ended up doing great beyond WEC, but was a WEC fighter? For example, Demetrius Johnson fought in WEC, but I don't think he really hit his stride

until the flyweight division really started cooking in UFC, and he moved over there, right? Like, even then, he was still fighting Dominic Cruz at Bantamweight as late as 2011. But if you're talking, like, WEC runs, who had the best one? Jose Aldo is probably your number one choice. He had eight fights in the WEC, won a title. All of those are by stoppage except for one, which was the Faber fight,

which was an absolute shellacking from pillar to post. I don't think Jose Aldo lost a minute of that fight, much less a round. So you're talking about arguably, and I would say almost definitively, the very best WEC fighter of all time. That's the first thing I'd say. Second of all, he came not from that very first generation of Brazilians, the Nogueras, the Babalusa Brawls, the Chute Box teams, the Brazilian top teams. He didn't come from that, but he came from the very next generation of them. So I would still put him somewhat in a bit of a pioneer category, certainly a very important component of the

growth and development and popularity of Brazilian MMA. I would also say one thing that really, really gets lost with Jose is we talk about how good he was and all of his accomplishments. We should talk about how he changed fighting. In other words, we talk about how Habib changed fighting with his focus on grappling, the techniques he used, and how everyone is trying to play catch up with what he did. We talk about George St. Pierre, who never really wrestled in any kind of academic or scholastic program, and nevertheless was able to shut people down or use wrestling in a way where he could beat even the Josh Koscheks, Division I national champions of the world. Jose Aldo, to me, doesn't get a lot of credit for developing the game. Now, he didn't really have offensive takedowns in that way.

His takedown defense for a guy who never wrestled is arguably the best maybe ever in MMA. It is shocking how good he was. And he showed that you don't have to come from those backgrounds, even in the lighter weight categories, to be able to do that effectively. And the way in which he did it and his understanding of it. I had people who covered wrestling, not professional wrestling, but they covered freestyle wrestling and folk style wrestling, and they did that for their jobs. And they were telling me, like, who stands out to you? And it'd be like Jose Aldo's takedown defense. It looks like he's been wrestling all his life.

Ringcraft, the way he was able to advance the game in that particular department. A guy who was a brown belt world champion in jiu-jitsu, beat Cobrinha, and then was still nevertheless a devastating Muay Thai fighter and super athletic as well. He developed the game. He improved the game by virtue of his participation. And you could very much argue, we're asking about legacy here, BC, and this is a matter of debate. There's no ironclad rule about it. That's not written in stone, but I would argue he's probably in the

five best fighters of all time, right? Probably in the five best fighters of all time. I would also say, even though he was beaten by Volkanovski and he was beaten by Max, and obviously the loss to Conor McGregor hurt his legacy. I think a lot. His record as a featherweight champion is, to this point, still better than anyone else's record as a featherweight champion, which to me makes him the best featherweight of all time. You're talking about one of the very best guys to ever do it, change the game, improve the game by virtue of his participation, lifted it in his home country to say whatever else he did overall,

did it in two different weight classes, and even in this this last fight bc although it's kind of a shame with his last fight ended up being what it was even though his last fight was still very competitive in a different division which he made his name they will not come around like jose aldo very often an unbelievable career it comes to an end at least in MMA, we think. He's one of the very best to ever do it. And maybe, Luke, because he was all those things I mentioned, whereas the King of Heo nickname is perfectly translative, how about that, wow, into the whole idea that he's MMA royalty, he's so humble and so dedicated, right?

Look at the way he turned his body around for this move to 135. He may have sacrificed for himself a more marketing-heavy persona, but that was something that never mattered to him. So it's like I almost respect him even more. I mean, he could have been a front-page breakout star if he was a little bit more of a trash talker or adapted to English earlier, but he always was who he was, which was great. So you watched his journey essentially from start to finish,

maybe mirroring the same years of your professional career. Luke, what's his best win, but what's also your favorite in the Jose Aldo story? Best win. I forgot what I had on my rundown list. I think we went through it there. Um, I think my, I forgot what my Jose Aldo favorite list is. The one that stands out to me, top of the food chain, as you asked me now would be the

second Mendez fight. Yeah. Second Mendez fight. Cause he got, I mean, he had more glorious wins. The first Mendez fight, the Swanson fight, the Faber fight, the Mike Thomas Brown fight. He had more glorious wins. The first Mendes fight, the Swanson fight, the Faber fight, the Mike Thomas Brown fight. He had more glorious wins. But that one where he got pushed a little bit and nevertheless answered the call

and then still kind of put it on Chad Mendes overall in the end. He had to do things that Lamas and Chan Sung Jung didn't really make him do, and then Chad Mendes kind of did. And he still was able to come out on top in a very difficult fight using all of his various skills, including that takedown defense, including obviously his incredible Muay Thai. That would be mine. What about you?

You know, we talked to a different countdown in the past where this was brought up. Even though it wasn't like, you know, a major win in his run, the body shot knockout to Jeremy Stevens, which was devastating, came at a point where he needed one of those reinventions I talked about after the two Holloway losses. And the joy he showed in that celebration was so pure that I remember thinking of the moment, I think he doubted himself just as much as we did. So that moment stands out big. I mean, the heart he showed even in the losses to Holloway, just like the stand and like, I'm going to go out on my shield. And I mean, the heart he showed, even in the losses to Holloway, just like the stand and like, I'm going to go out on my shield. And I mean, that embodied his career to me. He didn't always fight like that.

We know that. Most often in his prime, he was moving downhill, you know, controlling the terms. But that was what was going to be needed for him to have a chance to win both of those fights against Holloway. And he went there willingly. I love almost more, like I mentioned, the second half of his career because of the hurdles that he faced in age and defeat and how he always so deftly got around those and reinvented himself. But you can't look past the first round knockout against Mendes for just pure devastation in terms of like,

is that the best we've ever seen of him? I mean, probably the best we've ever seen of him were those last few fights in the WEC when it just became clear that like, you know, this is boss at the end of the video game type of dude. He's the boogeyman, you know, for this entire, you know, promotion. He just had a killer vibe and instinct to him. But with a career this long, I mean, he faced everybody, right?

So you can pick and choose. The only regret, Luke, and I still say this, is not getting in some form a McGregor rematch. It didn't have to be immediate, although it obviously could have been, but in some form a chance to run back, because it ended up being, not for a lack of trying, right? When he got knocked out in 12 seconds against McGregor, he actually landed a big punch simultaneously, but it ended up being obviously a low point considering the amount of trash talk he endured, the fact that that fight got delayed because of injury, and then you finally have it. I would have liked to have seen him at least get a chance to save face, but the saving of face that he did in the Edgar fight right after that and all the other reinventions, damn, Luke, you said it. If he's in your top five, if he's your number one, he's just that kind of dude that you really can't argue with.

You really can't. I mean, do I think he's in that necessarily Silva, GSP, John Jones area of the GOAT talk? To me, he's a step down, but he does have one of those auras and resumes and reputations that you can't argue him in if that's your cup of tea at the end of the day. And a lot of people drank from that cup, Luke, rightfully so. I don't think he was ever tied into PED scandals, correct? No, I don't think so. He was always a dynamic athlete.

Yeah, I always wondered if he smuggled all the drugs in that Mark Hominick ball that he created on his forehead so it can get past USADA officials. If that conspiracy is not true, God, he's what you god he's uh he's what you want look he's what you want your son to grow up to be if he gets into mma right yeah i mean you would want anyone to be a fraction of good as as he was so but let's talk about the other side of things here and this is a a genuine thing to explore for just a moment how much did the mcgregor loss hurt his legacy you know losing to Holloway definitely was a

torch-passing moment. Losing to Volkanovski took the wind out of his sails at 145. It was after that when he lost to Volkanovski that he went on to fight Maraich at 135. So it ended up being an exit. I do think that people might have a higher opinion of him.

Like, if he had never fought McGregor and had his exact same record all the way through, I think he'd be held in slightly higher regard from the casual fan base perspective. True or false? True. Definitely true.

And it's funny that right after that, like, we didn't really have a ton of goat debates before that. Maybe it's because things like this show, being on three days a week, have fueled the need to have these discussions, and it certainly goes overboard. But, you know, if you asked people back then, before the Aldo McGregor fight in 2015, you know, who's the greatest? I mean, some would say GSP, some would say Anderson, whatever. But I feel like right after that, McGregor made this huge rise, and, you know, Rousey was leaving, and there

was so much star power around at the time that we did start to say, is Jon Jones in front of our eyes the greatest? And maybe Jose got bumped down because it was an embarrassing loss, Luke. And it's not because he fought awful, but because of all the trash talk and the buildup and this big moment where I think the core fans were like, okay, you're going to serve this guy. You're going to show this guy that he's just a loud mouth and he's not on your level. I think that's why that's one of the most shocking, if not the most shocking ending in UFC history. But it did diminish in that short term in the few years after.

Maybe it's why I put him in that second five and I get a lot of criticism from the fans. I think it did drop him a stock. But look, I got to be honest, what he's done since then, as we just broke it down, I mean, that has to bump him back up to a certain degree because most guys, when they get to the point of their greatness and how great they're going to be, and then they lose, and let's say it's in devastating fashion, in four fights, he got knocked out cold by McGregor and got stopped by Holloway twice. So, you know, guys don't come back from that. They don't. You know, they come back, they take a couple of fights fights they might win or lose some but nobody comes back from that and constantly rebuilds we have to add that now retroactively into the total body of how we look at him and i do think

as a lot of fighters he'll be one of those fine wine legacies where you know five years from now 10 years from now i think we'll be holding him a lot higher than maybe what that McGregor one fight one knockout loss did in the short term to to blind some of us maybe me included and to just how great he really was yeah there's probably something to be said for that and also you know Bantamweight what he did was remarkable but he never got a finish in Bantamweight not like he was fighting chumps or something but you know obviously his his efforts down there were mixed he lost obviously to Jan pretty badly. He lost technically to Marais and obviously to Marab,

some of those being lackluster fights. And then the Jan fight was great, but then he got kind of polished off. And then he had solid wins. But this was the thing I always said about going to 135 for Jose. It extended his career, and I think it brought the fans back around him because what he did was admirable. But if you just look at the reality of what it did like what was his campaign like at 135 versus what his campaign was like at 145 it didn't materially change anything he was more or less kind of stuck in the same spot not good enough to win a championship good enough to beat

a lot of other guys pretty commendable place but But it wasn't like an upgrade for him. It was more or less the same. Still, to be that senior in your career and then that competitive, pretty remarkable. Hard to know what the bigger L was. With the killers right now? With the killers at Bantamweight that this era has, for him to have been twice in the title discussion at that age is remarkable. Oh, it's beyond. Yeah, it's extremely impressive.

Again, I'm just pointing out like nothing was really hugely different for him in that sense uh bigger l the mcgregor loss or the tattoo he got last week bc hard to know you know what i'm saying the mcgregor loss because i think he could still add like i'm always telling tristan our great cameraman luke who will probably kill you in your sleep one day you know he's got all of those animals in the in the wolves and you know he needs connective tissue he needs a uh he needs a dream catcher to connect them all together i think if if joe's egg adds something or you know around that that can some color something that can take away the no he has to get it partially lasered and then get tattooed on top of it that's

what he has to do there's no fixing that there's. He's too proud to do that shit, Luke. Let me ask you this. Okay, what is he? Jose Aldo currently sits at 36 years of age, just turned 36 in September. Would you like to see him box at all? Is that a thing you care about? I mean, you got to ask yourself who. You know, he's too small for a Jake Paul-sized guy.

I mean, he's also kind of too small to box Nate. I mean, I guess you could do something like that. But the question is, would it be... Are we looking at a Jose McGregor boxing match when both are 39? I mean, yeah. Call me back. Look me up then, Luke. I'll probably be into it, for all you know.

I'm not against him trying to make money. I don't know. I just feel like he's going to fight one more time in the UFC, Luke. I kind of want to see him fight under the guise of like going back home homecoming send-off you know what I mean like a chance for him to jump the fence again and run through the crowd like he like he spectacularly did that one time I mean I want I kind of really want to see that why do you think he retired with one fight left on his deal my best read on this BC and tell me if you agree or not, is that like everyone's like,

Oh, but the USC is going back to Rio. Well, a couple of things like number one, he already fought in Rio a number of times. He fought in Rio against Max. He fought in Rio against Volkanovski and you can be like, okay,

well he lost those two. He also fought in Rio against Chad. He fought in Rio against Chan Sung Jung. He fought in Rio against Chad Mendes the first time like he fought in Rio a fair number of times wasn't like he had never done it uh with the UFC I'm pointing out obviously and then the other part is like I guess he was like listen if I'm not going to be fighting for a title I don't want to just keep doing this bullshit like yes he could fight somebody else but what the fuck is the point do you share my sentiment yeah I mean I'm sure you

know his coach, who has been either brother or father to him this whole run, depending on the dynamics of their relationship, he came out publicly and said that. And that happens when a fighter feels like he's got a couple paydays left, but the team around him or the family is like, come on, enough is enough. You're everything.

You've done everything. We don't need any more. I'm sure that played a part, because I'm sure he respects those who spoke up about that um yeah i mean i can i respect him more now for doing that you know what i'm saying so so i i think that's ultimately it i think you probably had to talk to my neighbor for not starting their lawnmower right outside my window until the show started i really appreciate that from them you know well look they don't have to know or care about your day-to-day schedules you know what i mean the people can't hear it luke the people that are listening to the show right now they can't hear it and it's fucking

distracting he's got like a chainsaw out here i mean you know what are we doing all right can you hear that somebody in your neighborhood cares about his lawn luke i'm that guy in my neighborhood that doesn't care not on the luke thomas level but i'm that guy who was like yeah whatever and uh maybe he's one of them you know he does care more about his lawn than me but that's I'm that guy in my neighborhood that doesn't care, not on the Luke Thomas level, but I'm that guy who was like, yeah, whatever. And maybe he's one of them, you know? He does care more about his lawn than me, but that's not saying a whole lot. So we'll leave that as it is. All right, well, we'll see what happens with Jose Aldo.

An impressive run, as impressive a run as they basically come, certainly in the lower weight divisions. All right, let's go to topic number two, if we can, BC. Let's get to the fights. First things first, let's talk about Canelo Alvarez. We will get to the UFC in just a second, but we want to start with the biggest fight of the weekend. It was clearly Canelo Alvarez defeating Gennady Golovkin via unanimous decision. Now, the good news in the broader picture, BC, and you would probably agree with with this is that this was the most definitive of the three in either direction Canelo was clearly better than Gennady Golovkin however the fight was not great at all and even with Alvarez winning it just he that was not an

wasn't a terrible performance from him but it was was hardly his best. So explain to me in your best way possible, why was this fight so lackluster despite Canelo being so clearly better? You know, it was the perfect storm of a bunch of factors that could have produced a fight that was past its time and not necessarily necessary. In the end, that's exactly what happened. Now, sometimes it doesn't happen. a fight that was past its time and not necessarily necessary. In the end, that's exactly what happened. Now, sometimes it doesn't happen. Marquez, Pacquiao, four, the comparison we had coming into this,

if we were romanticizing what the perfect ending for this rivalry could be, that shocked people, right? That was an outlier where it was not only the fourth meeting, which is sometimes the saddest if you get that far. Think Vasquez, Marquez with that forgettable fourth meeting. But, you know, customer fatigue, all that. But they were aging enough that they slowed down to be more vulnerable. And I think we underestimated the hatred and the fire for one another.

None of that matriculated into this third meeting, even with some of the parallels. Should we have had more fears about what Gennady would look like at 40? In hindsight, of course. I mean, you only have to go back five months and watch the Ryota Murata fight in Japan and see him get hurt to the body against a non-puncher before rallying and getting the knockout. But not only did we hope that that wouldn't play into this fight, I think we hope that the combination of, like, look,

there are levels to how jacked up a fighter will commit to training camp. I mean, it's different. If you're Gennady even at 40, I think we said to ourselves, look, you're fighting the career rival, the guy you hate the most. There's so much at stake.

He's going to pour out whatever's left. Look, it just turned out that whatever was left was way worse than we expected, which wouldn't have been a killer. I think my dissatisfaction is really of the entertainment value, which happens. We didn't get what we could have gotten. And even if Gennady came in old, you say to yourself, okay, well, Canelo is going to take care of him.

And if he does it decisively, if not spectacularly, boy, is that a flag in the ground to close this rivalry. Well, unfortunately, the other a flag in the ground to close this rivalry. Well, unfortunately, the other side of it was we didn't get any of that from Canelo. So whether it is 75% because of the injured left wrist that he's claiming needs surgery, or whether we may have to look a little bit closer at this fight in the combination of the B-ball loss to the idea that at 32 after turning pro at 15, Canelo's also aging too and may not be that guy. Either way, Luke, it came together for a boring fight, one that I thought was more or less completely one-sided despite Gennady rallying late to at least pick up his output, and a

fight that was almost a debacle on the scorecards when all was said and done. So, you know, it's a shit sandwich served in a men's room, Luke. I mean, that's what it turned out to be. That's harsh. It wasn't as bad of a fight as I'm saying, but the expectations after the first two were obviously through the roof. There was enough stakes and interest and emotions into this. You know, we should have had a better fight.

We didn't. I'm glad the right guy won at least but anybody in the past 48 hours trying to say that this fight was close nope that the scores were right nope that you know either guy was impressive in their performance nope it was just one of those times that happens luke they make a big fight duran leonard three is a good comparison and it just sucks the horn uh what were your biggest takeaways on how we got here luke so i but i have a bunch more questions for you and i'll use what i'm thinking as a way to pitch to you because you watched it live and so i watched it after the fact you can get a different

reaction to things when you already see the headlines and then you watch the fight like i did so let me say this or let me put you to you this way canelo at the post fight presser was asked about David Benavidez who by the way is like in this weight class is a very deserving contender and I realized former champion former two-time champion right and I he has the interim title I think for WBC at 168 which doesn't mean much but still um you still. But looking at who to fight at this weight class, this is the next guy. He got asked about it.

And Canelo seemed almost offended. I'm not going to ask you, did Canelo phone in this whole thing? He trains too hard, blah, blah, blah. But I did get the feeling that like, I don't know how to say this exactly, or rather than this, did you get the feeling that Canelo almost didn't want to be there? He was going to do enough to get the win,

but after that, he was not interested in participating in this thing anymore. Remember I said I had fears about his motivations coming in, and I interviewed him for four minutes, but in that satellite interview where it's one after another, I was like, okay, he's selling to me that there is real animosity here, that he wants to finish with a knockout and end Golovkin's career. And, you know, that didn't translate. And look, if the injury is completely real, then that certainly explains parts of it. I also think he's aging because he did turn pro at 15 and had so many huge fights in his early 20s and fought everybody and fought on a killer schedule, by the way,

that eventually will catch up with you. You fight two years in a row, four fights a year at this level, it's going to catch up with you. But most importantly, Luke, the motivation was not there. It didn't look like the second half, especially rounds 9 through 12, as Golovkin is finally showing a pulse and is finally coming forward, it didn't look like the thing that I think I feared

most for Gennady was that Canelo would utilize the emotions at play and would basically say fuck this guy for talking about steroids about me all that time I'm going to make him pay now that wasn't there at all and I think that was disappointing for a guy who I've been trying to argue is still my pound for pound

king he didn't look like it in this, I think the emotions played a big part and that's why to some degree, neither man really worked hard to sell this fight marketing wise, which wasn't a surprise because of their personalities, but still other men sold it in the ring. I mean, look as much as like, okay, was there a triple G rally? Well, okay. There was, but rounds one through eight, the guy didn't do a damn thing so it was you know much ado about nothing in the end in that regard um all right so second question second question second follow-up here Canelo looked well first of all triple G to your point I mean I think the other we're making this about Canelo but let's be very clear about this Canelo did some decent

work rounds one to eight. Decent work. And Triple G just did very little. I mean, he just did very little. He looked so old. But here's the thing that's nagging me in the back of my head. In a lot of these fights, like, for example, the Kovalev fight, he was losing that fight up until he wasn't. Do you think Canelo was like, I'm going to sort of put in a decent effort,

and if the knockout shows up, then great. And if not by rounds nine, when the, when the, when triple G was actually finally starting to do something, he kind of like mentally checked out. In other words, if the Billy Joe Saunders fight had gone the distance, if the Kovalev fight had gone the distance, would we be saying something similar about Canelo that he looked fine, but not as remarkable as he would be, but for chasing the finish in the, or finding, I should say the finish in those particular fights? Well, you know, if those fights had gone 12, but the intention was there in the second half, then we would, it would be, you know, you could, you could critically question that, but, and say, okay, did his power carry up to these weight classes? But it's all about intention. The intention wasn't there in the second half of the fight from Canelo. Was that, you know, was, was his training camp compromised

because of the injury? Was he gassing a bit? Was he old? There's a lot of questions right here. I thought strategically, he was very smart in the first half of the fight. And, you know, we can say Triple G looked like shit and looked like he was about 50 in the first eight rounds. And that wouldn't be, by the way, inaccurate, but it was because the speed difference that was already there four years and five years ago was heavily exasperated now with Triple G fading. And Canelo was smart, got right up behind that high guard so he was close enough, and he countered every jab attempt that Triple G had, seemingly with a harder, quicker punch over the top. So, Triple G basically was like, my A game's being taken away. But look, he never got that fight or flight flip. Didn't happen. I mean, at the end of round five, Jonathan Banks

is like, I need you to believe in everything we worked for here, which is a major sign that Triple G's frustrated and has no idea what to do. So, Gennady, I'm happy he found a second wind, but that second wind was there because Canelo wasn't fighting with a killer instinct he wasn't fighting with a

posture that suggested he was looking to find that that knockout and find that climactic moment here could it have been also Luke a fear of Gennady's punching power knowing how tough this guy is certainly could have been but I think it all conspired again to a fight that like half the people

weren't all that jazz coming in and nobody was on the way out and um i'll hold that benavidez talk though until we get there on what's next or no because more on that topic okay so i want to get to that in just a minute but i guess what i uh the thing that was okay so that's a fair response the other part i was gonna ask about this was like you know to what extent was it being at 168 made them both relatively speaking a little lethargic I wonder if that played a role but let's talk about like what's next for Canelo because here's my thing BC if you look at the performance he had against Caleb Plant we were there for that dude he was hunting Caleb Plant like he went for it that's why he got the finish in round 11 because he had his foot on the gas about it he really wanted it it just seemed like he didn't want this so a where is Canelo going to go in other words does he resign with Eddie Hearn who he seems to have a great relationship

with but like delivered on a fight where he lost and then was ultimately lackluster in the second one because if he's not going to fight Benavidez I don't know what the fuck he's going to do other than the Bivol rematch which I got to say at this point seems like a bad idea I don't know what the fuck he's going to do other than the Bivol rematch which I gotta say at this point seems like a bad idea I don't love that for him at all lay lay out the future of Canelo here in all those respects yeah so the Benavidez thing is just hovering over this he's the most deserving in the division as you mentioned for the undisputed four belt champion which is Canelo. Benavidez, former champion, twice lost it because of his own wrongdoing, but came back and has won big fights and gotten back to it.

Canelo's reason, it seems, for not fighting him in terms of not necessarily what he says, but what his actions say is, well, hey, how hard can we criticize this guy when he's going one division higher, which is clearly we found out against Bivol in the last fight, and parts of the Kovalev fight, meaning it took Canelo a long time to kind of really get into that fight, he had to be careful on the outside, was that this is a division that's probably one step too far from him. So should Canelo completely focus, which he said he would after the fight, on getting healthy and then getting back in there to beat B-Ball.

Not only could that open up more fights in that realm at 175, the Joe Smith better B-winner. I mean, if he gets a chance to fight for all four belts at 175 in a division he probably shouldn't even be in, Luke, it's going to be hard to get on him about this Benavidez thing. But I did say one thing when we talked about this probably about six months ago. If we get into 2023 and early in the year there's no like immediate plans for Benavidez meeting meaning let me take care of B-Vol first

because I'm a competitor and this means a lot to me and I feel like I can beat him. But as long as, you know, but hey guys don't worry. I'm going to be back at 68 to close the year. So start hyping up this big Benavidez fight now, right? Mexico versus Mexican-American, both warriors, pure, this is the fight. You can say from Canelo's post-fight comments about Benavidez that that might not be the

best look, words-wise, right now. Because again, actions-wise, if he chases, look, can you say he's ducking Benavidez when he's going up in weight, Luke, and potentially, if he chases it's, look, can you say he's ducking Benavidez when he's going up in weight, Luke? And potentially, if he keeps going there could end up fighting better beef? Dude, you can't, you really can't rip him that much. But I do want him to handle the topic of Benavidez appropriately.

So that soundbite you talked about, I think the reason why it came out extra nasty was Sean Zettel, I think that's how you say his last name, he's on Sean Porter's podcast, a journalist out of las vegas he was the one that asked it but he asked it under the guys that's a skinny white guy that's on the program yes yeah he asked knowledgeable i like that guy a lot by the way he's a real nice guy he asked it under the guise of like you've said in the past you won't fight mexicans so you know like benavidez is mexican-american so will

you fight him and canelo took issue because he's trying to say, look, you can write whatever headlines you want. I said I won't fight against Mexico, meaning the nation, because that's who I am and where I'm from. But in terms of actual opponents, I don't give a fuck. I'll fight Benavidez. Like, I don't care about him. And then Canelo went on to essentially rip Benavidez's resume. He's clearly upset that Benavidez's father and trainer is trashing him in the media left and right. And he basically said, look, you fought, you know, Anthony Durrell, one champion, like shut the fuck up. So Luke, here's the deal. Unless I start hearing Canelo

saying like, yes, I will fight that guy. Let me just finish this off first. I'm not going to lie. The optics are starting to not look good. Even though 175 is bigger fish to fry, Benavidez just happens to be that boogeyman guy that everybody has said from the beginning. Either Canelo won't fight him or when he finally does, he's going to find real trouble because that guy's got everything

that the other people are missing, right? Size, backbone, all that stuff. Skill, intention, everything. If you want to start to say this is the beginning of a duck move, you can certainly find fuel there. I'm going to still hold Canelo right now to the benefit of the doubt in the idea that the B-Ball fight is not

easy. We just saw him lose it. Is this a bad idea? Well, sometimes competitors, Luke, have to find that out. They go back to the well for a rematch and get humbled again. I'm not going to be mad at him. What's your breaking point? At what point are you going to say, personally, as a boxing fan, that, like, all right, Canelo, let's take a bit of business now with this dude, Benavides?

It's fairly simple to understand. I mean, I think you're right, right? You can give Canelo more breathing room than you would another unified champ by virtue of what else he is attempting. Fighting the Bivol one, you can admire the courage. It's not like he's fighting some chump. Again, he's fighting a guy who beat him. There's something to be said for that.

But it all comes back down to the architecture of boxing. BC, here's where I'm at. My guy, Canelo, you have all the belts at 168 you can't have all the belts at 168 and then say i'm not going to fight number one contenders i i yeah do you have to fight david benavidez next no right i think that's fair you don't have to fight him next i don't think okay i don't know when exactly you have to fight him but at some point if you're going to have those titles and those titles are not his only claim to fame but his current part of what makes his status what it is right the first guy to ever unify at super middleweight at some point dude you got to defend them against the most deserving

people if you want to retain them i suppose he could give them up and go do other things. BC, that is also his right. He doesn't have to, but you can't keep them and then not defend them. David Benavidez. Now maybe here's the thing. Now maybe Canelo will change his tune if they are able to make, which by the way, there's some beef between them, a David Benavidez and Caleb Plant fight. There is something to be said for that. Now maybe that changes the game, but at some point BC, you you have the belts you have a responsibility to defend them because the whole in canelo's argument is you're saying benavidez hasn't beaten big names or accomplished much yet how can you win a title if you're holding them all it's true but i do think the flip side of that is all these guys need to fight each other who haven't. And I think that's a fair thing to say.

Canelo is the undisputed champion, so he's already proven dominance over this division. If Benavidez, by the way, hadn't lost his belt twice, one for drugs, one for missing weight, Canelo would have already fought him to become undisputed champion in theory, right? So the working theory is, okay, Benavidez, how about you go out there and just take care of

the business of the other contenders, meaning Caleb Plant, former champion, who you guys have had that beef. I think if Benavidez does that, you know, his next big fight, then there'd be no argument. And if Canelo didn't respond after that by setting up the groundwork for a fight, then it's full-on duck. And I don't think Canelo actually fears him. I think Canelo's just pissed off that his dad's running his mouth.

I do think Canelo recognizes it's. I think Canelo's just pissed off that his dad's running his mouth. I do think Canelo recognizes it's going to be a very tough challenge. I just want to be careful that we don't wait too long because, you know, I watched Canelo wait out Triple G for a year and a half to two years so that he was, you know, 36 by the time they fought. So, you know, I saw him wait four more years for this fight, although I don't think he was waiting Triple G out this time. I think he just didn't care about the fight or want it. But DAZN, the fans, boxing kind of made it happen again.

No foul there. And also, BC, hold on. I understand Canelo's point a little bit when he's like, look at the status. He didn't say this exactly, but this was basically his argument. Look at the status I have achieved by all my accomplishments.

Look at the status that David Benavidez has achieved by virtue of his accomplishments. There's a massive gap there. So for me to award this guy a fight, he has much more to gain than I do. I understand that. That's utterly reasonable. But if you don't want to fight him, you can't just have the titles. They're not yours to keep in perpetuity. There's an architecture in place by which they have to be maintained. You can't just have the titles. They're not yours to keep in perpetuity.

There's an architecture in place by which they have to be maintained. If you want to be part of that, then you've got to honor it or just drop the belt and then do what you want. Either way, I won't judge, but I just can't stand someone sitting on the title and then not defending it. Of course, eventually the Texas Bison get involved. Why we got so outraged when the WBC started this bullshit super champion status which basically was set up for Canelo knowing he's a massive star knowing he jumps around in divisions

it's basically saying we love you so much you bring us so much money and attention we don't even care if you campaign in this division you'll always be our champion mandatories aren't affected by it, it's just absolute trash but the reason why I'm being so critical about this to close on this is because

Canelo has won our respect over so huge over the things he's done the past couple of years and the way he's carried himself that I want to talk about him like he's a badass because he is, you know, I want to argue for his pound for pound ship because whether it's the fans or his commitment to his legacy, like he always delivers. Or making big fights, he always seems to deliver. But he's not getting any younger. So if I don't hear him start recognizing that there's a fight out there that the fans think you need to take, then I'm going to turn and I don't want to. So you know what I mean?

I want to have that same respect for him. But it is a business. And going to 175 and fighting for titles is not easy luke if he beats let's say he outboxes bevo on the rematch or whatever let's say he wins it there's you know i mean could could you deny him the chance at going up to fight better be for all four belts i mean that that that's a crazy ass tough fight it would be amazing last question on this then i promised before our audience has a mutiny we will get to the ufc stuff in terms of triple g dude he looked in the marauder fight he looked old but then had a much better rally and he had a bit of a rally here but it was way too little

way too late he indicated he wanted to keep boxing i'm sure he could still beat some guys but i gotta tell you man that was not an inspiring performance i was the first time i was like wow he looks old what do you think will or should be next for triple g i think he should retire but you know he gave that speech he was like almost like a one-liner he threw out there of like you know i know you know he did the whole bit but the whole speech was like i'm still the unified champion in this other division where I've only lost once, and that's to this guy or this all-time great right here. So I just think he, in his mind, for whatever reason,

whether it's the competitor in him or whether he realizes, even if I go out there and lose two more times in super big fights, the paydays will be big. He made $20 million for this. He finally, at the end of his career started making big time money. I don't... Could he go in there against the remaining middleweight studs he hasn't faced? Guys like Jermall Charlo, right? Guys

potentially like Demetrius Andrade, although he moved up to 168. And can he have the type of fights where, yeah, he's going to be slower and he's going to have to take on big damage, but he lingers in fights and could he get a knockout? Yeah, he could. He could have that repeat against Murata in theory, but Murata's also not a

puncher and some of these guys, if he gets the best version of Dermal Charlo, that version could kick his ass, Luke. Right, badly. You know, and I think that's why these scores being closer than they should have been,

you know, eight rounds to four, seven rounds to five twice, which was not the fight we saw. Even with Canelo taking his foot off the gas. Even with this comeback, which was Triple G actually just sticking to the game plan because now he wasn't getting countered as clean anymore, and he just kind of went for it. Okay, he didn't brawl, but he kind of went for it. Even with that as being fool's gold to him, he has to know,

Luke, that there's not a ton left. I hope he knows that. I hope this is more financial thinking, you know, maybe I can beat these guys like a Charlo, but it's a big fight. I'll make a lot of money on the way out. I'm thinking he's trying to be strategic here, Luke, but, you know, he can't look at this and go, okay, that's Canelo, and I rallied and almost won. No, you didn't. You didn't. You didn't rally. And I know a lot of people are coming back at me, BC, you listen too hard to the Dazon team.

They were only focused on Canelo. They were kind of only focused on Canelo. I'll agree with you with that. But that didn't manipulate my score. I saw what I saw. Luke, what did you see? What was your score loosely, roughly watching that? Ten rounds to two?

Yeah, I gave generously i gave triple g3 three three rounds um but that you know two i think you've got two clear rounds and i was sort of being generous about one of them uh that's it i mean it was a clear to me canelo won that one easily easily but not a fun fight um all right with that in mind bc let's talk a little ufc if we can here all right topic. Topic number three. So the biggest fight of the weekend, of course, was Triple G Canelo 3, but that was on the boxing side. On the MMA side, the UFC held a show back at the Apex

in the Bantamweight division was the main event. Corey Sandhagen getting back in the win column finally with a win over Song Yedong. Now, it was stopped, I think, just before the fifth round due to a massive cut over the left eye slash eyebrow area of Song Yedong. Now it was stopped, I think just before the fifth round due to a massive cut over the left eye slash eyebrow area of Song Yedong. BC, I have a few takeaways myself, but let's start with you. Your biggest takeaway from Corey Sandhagen getting this victory is what? Not to panic. That's what. He's still of this ilk back to the to the uh the lab retooled a bit

this fight was never going to be easy right i think collectively our prediction was basically it's going to be a real fight he's going to have to go through some heck but we think experience wise we think what's still left in him can get him not only to a victory maybe even a stoppage now i know the stoppage was a different kind because of the blood but you know still opened that cut. He's still the reason for that cut that brought him here. Luke, I saw a reformed mentally, physically, emotionally fighter who is ready to get himself back into a title fight, and I think we will see him there again. This was the type of test he needed to pass and the way he did, and I'm not going to look at, just because two of the three judges had it 2-2

going into the fifth, that that says anything bad about where he was here, Luke. I liked a lot of what he did out there on Saturday. But the people want to know, Luke, what the hell do you think? I thought this was a very important performance for Corey Sanhagen. I liked a lot of what I saw. I want to be very clear. I mostly have very positive feelings.

And I understand what he said after the fight meaning like hey I want to fight a guy who's ranked you know more highly even above me because in this fight I think he was ranked fourth and Song Yedong was much lower I forget what the rankings were I actually I can pull them up here uh very quickly I think he was somewhere um in like the 10 region so at Bant, yeah, Song Yedong was 10 and you had Corey Sanhagen at four. So that will change at some point, I suppose, today in one way or the other. So I understand that, all understandable. The very good thing that I saw was

there was a lot of really important parts of the things that were weak in his game that he cleaned up. Number one, he didn't get hit nearly as much. Song Yedong still landed some big shots. Corey Sanhagen has a tremendous chin, but you saw him blocking a lot more. That was the first part that I noticed, right?

Yedong would make contact, but he wasn't able to meaningfully break through with his tremendous athleticism and his tremendous power very often like that. Number two, the takedowns from Corey Sanhagen, most of them were stuffed, but you saw the commentary team talk about it early in the fight about how it

was, you know, creating problems for anticipating the offense from Sanhagen. And I thought that was real. And then by the way, in that fourth round, he not only gets the takedown against the fence he's able to move an advanced position on top and that to me

was big i was like wow okay really love this i thought that at times when he was taken down you saw him scoot back to the cage to get back up now there were still some times he was giving up his back a little bit maybe that was coordinated because he thought that you know Song Yedong is not necessarily going to be the guy who can take advantage of those positions fair enough that is utterly reasonable didn't love that he was giving up his back or showing his back that could cause him like again I do that against Aljamain Sterling and it's over for you but in this case it was not cataclysmic so I like that even though he brought in Ryan Hall who's obviously a tremendous grappling instructor, fighter, trainer, whatever himself, you didn't see him. One of the

big problems from Corey Sanhagen previously, he would roll for underneath for knee bars and leg locks that would get stuffed. Or even if he was able to hurt TJ Dillashaw, it just didn't really meaningfully put him in winning positions over the course of the fight. He was abandoning those in large part, which I thought was great. And by the way, Ryan Hall, just because he's good at leg locks doesn't mean he's going to advise them in all scenarios. He probably was like, hey, we'll go for them in these scenarios, and if they don't present themselves, let's do the other parts. So there was a lot to like from all of that. The only thing I would say is the Chito verified to me is the one that makes sense. I think that one of the things that got Sanhagen in trouble in that losing

chapter that he would just, you know, put behind him a little bit was that he was really eager to move to the top. He was number one contender fight against Aljamain Sterling. Let's get back against Jan and let's, let's go fight TJ Dillashaw. And it showed that his game was still in development. What I would say to UBC is for all the things that I love that he cleaned up,

and there was a lot, that process to me is not over. That cleanup process is still in motion. What I would say is, I don't wish for him to rush back. Like, if he fights Cheeto and wins, you know, and it's a quick fight, which is unlikely because Cheeto is durable

as, you know, old shoe leather, I which is unlikely because cheeto is durable as you know old shoe leather i still would want to see him fight yet another one before jumping back into the title that reformation of his game still is in process wow that was the perfect example of our show you know i got a little too excited you reigned me back in but i think you're right in the points that you caution. Like, the thing I've never loved about his game is almost like that, like, you go to a restaurant, you know, it's like a kitchen... What's that Gordon Ramsay show where he

tears up the restaurant, Luke? And yells at everybody? That's probably every show he's on. It's not Kitchen Nightmares, maybe? Kitchen Nightmares, or Fuck You Kitchen, or whatever it's called. Fuck You Kitchen, there you go. You know, inevitably, the answer, outside of get rid of all the expired stuff from your freezer, the answer is typically your menu has 400 items on it. Like, get that down to about seven and make them really well, right?

I think sometimes I see a Corey Sanhaken who has too many options, is too smart for his own good, and is always trying to flow and react. And sometimes, Luke, he's waiting too long to react. The decisiveness of the decision-making, I thought, was a key part of this, where even though there was a lot of movement and switching stances, I felt like he was in better control of what he wanted to do. Loved the offensive wrestling. No, it wasn't perfect.

But at least he's back in the right direction. So I still think he can get back into another title fight, and it showed us that because largely he looked at Song Yedong, who is still impressive and dangerous and explosive, and he saw that Yedong is still far from a finished product. He's still too one-dimensional as an aggressive striker. I think he'll get there and get a lot better. But for right now, I think Sanhaken really leaned on that experience edge

and it took him to where he needed to be, which was either ahead like he was on my card or going into the fifth fight round even with a chance to win it. But that didn't matter, Luke, because he was vicious with that switch to the lead elbow very often. It was almost like he was using it like a jab every time Yedong was getting in close. And this was a good version of Sanhagen, Luke. This was a very good one.

He looked sharp. And again, I thought that it clearly showed that they game-planned well. They knew what they were up against with this opponent, and they had a lot of really smart. And again, Sanhagen, to your your point he just kind of flows and goes to me they dial that back let's take what you're good at let's take what you're good at what matters against this opponent and let's stick to that which I thought was absolutely the right call again he cleaned up so much I see people being like oh Sanhagen should go to 145 and I

don't understand that at all when you look at this fight between Sanhagen and Yudong, what you really begin to realize is that, and something I say every Friday when we do Picks, BC, skills win fights. Skills win fights. When you really get to the top, skills win fights. Look at this scenario. Like, Song Yudong is much more powerful than Corey Sanhagen.

He's much more athletic, I would argue, at least in terms of the physical force that he can generate, his explosivity, his speed. He's much more of a dynamic athlete than Sanhagen in that regard. And Sanhagen, you heard Dean Thomas, the punches and the kicks couldn't quite get Song Yedong off of him, but it was the overall other choices and skills that he has that he could go to that ended up making the difference. If you've got not like power problems per se at 135, but your power is not super remarkable, what do you think is going to happen when you go to 45? It's not going to be any better.

I realize he's got a long frame in that way, but to me, he is highly skilled. He is obviously a very good athlete in his own regard. He has no cardio issues at all. He's very durable, and if he keeps cleaning up these deficiencies and I think simplify, not, not like make it stupid, but simplify his game a little bit. Um,

I think he can be champion. I mean, Luke, is there room for more offensive wrestling in this game? I want to say yes, but you're also asking him to be, you know, elite at every single skill across the board.

But I think even if he firmly established the threat of a takedown better, it would only open up even more lanes for his creative striking. See, I'm glad you brought that up. I was blown away at how good his offensive wrestling was here, and I know that the stats will show that Song Yedong stuffed the vast majority of them, but the fact that he overtook him

late and then kept him down for a while to me was big, because that's a much stronger guy you're going against. So I really that but to me the big question is not that that's an interesting fun and very important wrinkle that he added to his game but to me it's going to be the defensive wrestling that he has to show uh breaking contact like TJ Dillashaw was able to just hold him against the cage, defensive wrestling, breaking contact, and scrambling. Those are going to be the three big things that I'm looking for. Because again, even in this case, again, it could have been a very calculated move that they knew he was not

so much going to be a threat from the back that they were able to create or just to give him back exposure and then not really worry about the consequences. But against other guys in this division, Jan and Sterling and Dillashaw, you absolutely cannot do that. You cannot do that. So to me, this is what I'm talking about, about rebuilding some of the other parts of his game that have been a little bit not ideally suited.

I want to see how his scrambling improves, which by the way, it was better here. His defensive wrestling, I guess we didn't see a whole lot of it here to get a better clear sense, but also breaking contact. Not guys who necessarily want to take him down, but guys who want to stifle him. That's what he did to Song Yedong. Those early takedowns,

what is he trying to do? He's just trying to put blood in the arms of Song Yedong. He's just trying to wear him down, get the arms heavy. And so that when you have to strike with this guy, it's a little bit easier to do later on. Fair enough. What's going to happen when someone does that to him for extended periods? He needs to be able to someone does that to him for extended periods he needs to be able to this is the other part too he has to be able to physically be more of a presence in these fights not so much against this guy who is really really really powerful but against other guys like tj dillashaw a little bit more powerful a little bit more dynamic of a physical force he's's got all the skills. He's smart as shit. He knows what he's doing, but let's bring some of those other forces to bear.

10 second divergence here. You know, I often like to fantasize about the idea of, can that guy dunk a basketball? The Sandman, 5'11", good athlete, lanky Luke, does he put the ball above the rim? So I definitely think he could touch the rim. I think he can touch the rim. I mean, I could touch the rim, the bottom of the rim. Ooh. So I definitely think he could touch the rim. I think he can touch the rim. I mean, I could touch the rim, the bottom of the rim. I could barely touch the bottom. But you're 6'2".

6'1 1⁄2", to be fair, Luke. But people are surprised at how cocksure I am when I stand up when they meet me the first time, Luke. Yes, that is true. I get that a lot, too, but you get it as well. People are surprised that we're well above the 6' club. Well, I was going to mention here, Luke, that it was great to see the Just Bleed guy

who once did time in prison get a job as the ringside doctor for this card because that guy loves people fighting with, you know, cuts the size of the Grand Canyon there. I do want to say this, that even though I think Song Yedong hit an early sort of ceiling

at where his game is at against the elite. Is that unfair? Because two of the three judges had it 2-2 going to the fifth? Probably. But I think even with the scoring that close, I like Sanhagen's work overall better. I think this was the perfect test in the end for Song. Because, no, he didn't win. There is something to be said about the scores and the timing of the stoppage.

And Luke, with a really bad cut that affected his vision, because no, he didn't win. There is something to be said about the scores and the timing of the stoppage. And Luke, with a really bad cut that affected his vision, he was an effective warrior. I mean, I know once he got on his back, that was going to bring an end to it, rightfully so. And yes, I wanted the cage-side doctor to stop this a few times as I did a couple of these fights because it was getting gnarly in there. I was really impressed by his intangibles

that really lead me to believe that the more Song Yedong takes on tough fights and continues to work at it, this dude's going to be something big, Luke. I still feel that. Were you feeling anything? I tend to feel more than you, Luke. I tend to emote more than you. What is he, 24 years old?

I mean, he's 24 years old. Dude, he's going to be very good. He's going to be a great fighter, Luke. Yes, he needs to avoid damage. And again, to to me it's like athletically song yedong has he's good to go like he's more than ready to to uh he has everything he needs in in that particular category the question is does he have enough of the skills that he needs to you know really batter the guys in the top five not yet not yet but to your point

24 years old trains with a good team I just feel like he needs to manage this next stage of his career okay you've tasted what it's like to fight the top five guys and you found yourself wanting but there were some positives for him as well what how do we balance out this equation to make it a little bit more of a winning formula and I think that he has plenty of time to get there but not taking a shitload of damage he has to really not just like lacerations. I mean, don't get hit, don't get beat up, don't accumulate this wear and tear if you don't have to,

and he'll really be on his way. He's got a bright future as well. It just wasn't his day on Saturday. Corey Sanhagen is just much, much, much more skilled. And I know it sounds, BC, like I'm beating up on Corey a little bit, or maybe it does, I'm not sure, but I just want to be clear. What he's good at is championship good. What he's good at is that fucking good.

So the reason why I'm kind of harping on him is because I love that portion of his game. I want to make sure that the deficiencies, which every fighter has, don't hold him back from what I think is, you'll bring it up all the time, his UBL, his upper bound limit. His upper bound limit to me is championship level. I don't want to see the other parts of his game drag him down if that up all the time. His UBL, his upper bound limit. His upper bound limit to me is championship level. I don't want to see the other parts of his game drag him down if that can all be avoided. That's all.

Now, let's stick with him a little bit, but talk about the Bantamweight division a little bit more broadly, BC. We talked about it before. It seems like, and he called him out, and you can understand it. I want to talk about it first, but then I want to talk about the rest of that division. Is the next logical fight for you and for the UFC, is it going to be Sandhagen versus Chito Vera?

And if so, walk me through what that fight looks like to you. Yes, yes. First of all, it's a great fight. This is topic number four, by the way. They didn't show it there, but this is topic four. Seriously, among the list of the fights you can make in the division and even abroad, that would get me very excited because of the contrast and styles and temperament and everything here.

I think this is the level that Corey deserves after such a tough win, and he called for it, and Chito was in attendance, and seems like, yeah, motherfucker, let's do it. So what is it going to look like? That's going to be the key because Luke Sanhagen needs to, you know, we talked about the spark seemed like it was back here, meaning that the quick adjustments, the quick decision-making, certainly opponents are different.

Song Yedong is still a little bit more about force than strategy at this point. It will be different against other guys, but he's going to have to make quick decisions against Chito because Chito comes at you with very devastating hidden strikes. I do need Sanhagen to be the aggressor, though. I need him to set the tone offensively here, Luke. I need him to be on his toes. You've got to be daring, but you've got to be constantly moving.

I'd be very interested to see what it looks like in total, because Chito can be a late starter once he sort of settles in, reads you, and then sees the openings where he can land damage. I think Corey's got to try to extend that as long as he can. Obviously try to make it as hard as possible for Chito to figure him out.

He has that right game for it, but you can also be too dynamic and too you know too much variety uh temperament will be key luke because i do you do need him to take chances in this fight to win if he's going to win he's going to have to hurt cheeto before he gets hurt essentially is what i'm really trying to say but um good luck is the best way to say that i've absolutely yeah see this is the part to me which is an interesting fight. Corey has, I think, is more well-rounded probably, right?

I think he's certainly in the striking department. He has more tools that he goes to more regularly. Chito Vera is a fucking deceptively tough customer. I mean, everyone gives him his props. Let's talk about it for a second. He is durable as shit, and he is better in the fifth round by a mile than the first. And go back to what Dean Thomas said.

Now, Chito Vera and Song Yedong are different fighters, but the thing he goes back to is that he couldn't get Song Yedong off of him by virtue of the power of his strikes. Now, the elbows disciplined him, for sure, but the punches and the kicks didn't necessarily do that. If you have trouble keeping Chito Vera, again, he's not going to walk you down the same way, but if you have trouble like

really landing on him and really hurting him and deterring him, that guy is going to be a fucking nightmare in the fourth and fifth rounds. Just no doubt about it. And by the way, if San Hagen and Chito Vera fight, that's got to be a five roundround fight. It got to be a five-round fight. You cannot do that in three rounds. That would be an absolute travesty to have that three-round contest. So this is what I mean. This is the part I really liked about Sanhagen. He simplified some of his game, but then added some other dimensions, particularly in this case, the offensive wrestling or at a bare minimum, the threat of offensive wrestling. I think he's going to have to do that. If skills win fights, he's going to have to show more in the totality

of the MMA game to keep Chito Rivera off balance, out of his rhythm, off of him, turning, right, just a step behind everything that he's doing. That only be done i think very effectively or at least i think fairly to chito we can only get a real answer to that question as a better way to put it perhaps in a five round contest than a three now yeah if you wanted to add something i want to talk about the um the rank no yeah i wanted to to add that um it's we're taught where the things that we're asking of of san hagen potentially in this fight with this type of game plan, thinking about it, is we want him to throw the takedown established. We want him to have a high motor.

We already know he has great stamina, but are we really asking him to weaponize it at the end of the day, Luke? Is that the best way to offset? So we need him to add in more things that they said rightly on the broadcast about he's got to be able to hurt the opponent to keep him off him. No question. But when the power isn't working, I think the best way to get around that is activity and constant pressure.

Do you need him to weaponize his cardio more, Luke? You're talking about Chito or Corey? Corey. I think his activity is not the issue. In fact, it might, well, it's the opposite. It kind of is the issue. Here's just the reality. Well, it's the opposite. It kind of is the issue. Here's here's just the reality. I'm saying how he uses the pressure.

He uses the pressure to always be in a great spot to land a creative strike. But I almost need him to use the pressure as a weapon. And that's where mixing and takedown is going to be a big part of that. Yes, that I agree with. Yes, 100%. I think that's right. I think that, you know, and I think he would say, in sparring i hurt and drop guys fair enough but the guys that you face in sparring that ain't chito vera bro like chito vera went the distance with

john lineker and i think even won the last round you know this guy's ability to stand up to power and to body strikes is next fucking level he is not just having a good chin. He is just undeterred by pain. Like he doesn't, he doesn't make, uh, you know, fatigue and pain make people make accommodated decisions. Oh, I'm not going to put out as much effort. I'm going to lean over. Cause my, my ribs hurt or whatever. They don't do that to Cheeto. He doesn't make any accommodations. He has good cardio. He's well-trained, and his ability to endure suffering without it affecting... That's what I always go back to. We talk about it with Noguera. Oh, he doesn't like getting punched in the face, people would say about Brock Lesnar, and then someone would respond, well, nobody does. Right,

but here's the difference. Noguera doesn't lose, or in his prime anyway, didn't lose composure. He would hit him and he would just still be the same guy. Chito Vera is that. He does not lose composure over time due to pain and suffering and fatigue. It doesn't affect him in the same kind of way. He is a fucking cyborg as a result. And so on the one hand, I think Corey needs to simplify his striking. On the other hand, these other portions of the game,

bringing them up to the level of his striking, that is going to be critical. You've got to off-balance Chito. You've got to make him second guess because if he's in a rhythm and he's marching on you, not a lot of bantamweights are going to be able to stand up to that pressure, especially in a five-round contest. He's also a cobra where he can go from zero to devastating strike in very you know very quick

ways he's deceptive like you said in that way and and powerful as shit that is a great fight in fact let's not create any other scenarios luke let's just make it okay okay so let me talk about the rest of the division you can text sean and mick that please that'd be great yes i'll let you i'll let him know so let's talk about the rest of this division here a little bit the next pay-per-view is not until next month but here on that one you have uh sean o'malley taking on peter yan now yan is widely expected to win that but mma is crazy and sean o'malley has by the way the highest oh hold on hold on what why he's widely expected to win that you don't know you that's presumptive from your pretentious ass. Let's look at the odds.

You'll see what the odds makers have to say about Bill O'Connor. Wildly expected? Really? I said widely. Widely. Widely. I'm offended by both, Luke. She's just big boned.

What? Sorry. Sorry, Luke. You just heard me saying stupid shit? I thought you were coming with me down that hallway. Apparently I'm alone. Yeah. Yeah. you ever had a college party luke and you accidentally stumble into the powder room and you're like oh sorry guys yeah yeah uh for some reason i don't see these odds on best fight odds let me pull up the odds let's see uh ufc 280 odds i want to see what

the odds makers have to say i don't think i'm crazy on that, but I could be. All right, here we go. Let's see. UFC 280. Most places have Jan as a substantial favorite. Our friends over at Caesars, I don't see here, but DraftKings, for whatever that is worth, has him at a minus 380 Jan. That's the biggest favorite on the card,

except for Mohamed Mokhaev over Malcolm Gordon. While I'm not going to act like that line doesn't say something, it certainly does. It speaks to what we haven't seen from O'Malley, but I don't agree with you that widely people despite those odds that people are entering this thinking, oh yeah, Jan's got this.

I've heard that. O'Malley's a polarizing individual. Jan has more experience and might be just more devastating in certain categories, of course. But, dude, O'Malley's got a chance to raise that game right along up with him when you take on better competition, Luke. That happens. Certainly, and I can't remember. I don't believe it's a five-round fight. I believe it's three rounds, so that might change the equation.

I could be wrong. I have to double-check that. You can dead wrong me if I am. But we all know Jan starts slowly and whatnot. But dude, like the two times that Sean O'Malley has really leveled up in competition, we didn't get a great answer. There's the Chito Vera fight, which he lost. And then the Munoz fight,

which Munoz kind of seemed to have an answer for him before the eye poke. So, you know, it was inconclusive, I think is the best way to put it. But it was hardly some kind of like, oh, here he was just styling on Pedro Munoz. But the point being is, what's better for the San Hagen Cheeto winner?

Is it for Sean O'Malley to upset the apple cart or for Jan to stay where he is in that place? Probably O'Malley because because look, Jan, until he gets, until there's proof that Jan's old and he's still in his prime, he's not there. Dude, he's just so damn,

not only well-rounded, but so devastating in the cat, in so many categories that you don't want to see that MF-er at the end. You know, you want, if it ends up, if O'Malley ends up beating him, which I'm,

which I'm just at least was trying to make the point that like, we just don't know. We just don't know. He's a little bit more potentially vulnerable than that rock, Luke. Okay. I think if Sean O'Malley beats Jan, so the number 13 contender beats number one, what does that do for TJ Dillashaw? Because at two and three, you have Dillashaw and Merab.

So here's my thought. If Sean O'Malley beats Jan, it kind of is going to force Dillashaw to fight Merab, because I think if you beat Jan, you might just get the next title shot. Is it Dillashaw fighting for the title, Luke? Are you assuming that he loses? So what am I saying?

Yes, no, there's Merab there. Dillashaw is fighting Sterling at 280. me so that leaves just marab there should the winner of sandhagen vera fight marab next no matter what or is there a case for the winner of sandhagen vera to get the title shot over the winner of yon versus o'm. Apologies for the error on the show. No problem. I think it's going to come down to the scenario that is becoming a regular thing in the UFC, and I like it, where it's like, okay, you know our top five or six rankings.

You know we've got three fights involving fighters in here. Let's just look at whoever does the best. Because if Piotr Jan handles O'Malley in the way that you seem to potentially think, and certainly the oddsmakers have set that at, do you really need him to pass any other hurdles but to get back directly to the title picture in place? The idea of the winner of the Cheeto, I mean, it's not like I'm asking Cheeto, though.

Let's say Cheeto beats Corey Sanigan. Do you want him to clear another hurdle after that? Look, that's why I think the original thing I said is true. Whoever looks to be that combination of the best win, the most spectacular win, and who can cash us in at the box office, because, Luke, let's not forget about the what if O'Malley does O'Malley things to Jan,

nobody's getting the title shot but him next. You know? So you get my point here. Whoever grabs the brass ring with their performance you know yeah fair enough i tend to think i just feel like if if yon is upset he's gonna leap uh by by o'malley o'malley's gonna leapfrog everybody and so that leaves in that space what exactly you do with the remaining talent and so it actually i feel like if Sanhagen beats Vera, it works out a little bit in Sanhagen's favor

in the following sense. Remember I said he's got this Reformation project going on that I thought this was a big step but not a complete step? This would actually be another sort of like, if you end up losing all those fights

and then you beat Song Yedong, Chito Vera, and then Marab, A, you couldn't be denied a title shot. And by that point, you probably have really worked on the pieces of your game that need to be worked on to get back there. Conversely, who's a tougher fight for Marab?

Chito or Corey Sandhagen? That's a tough one. That is a tough one. I'd like to see. Oh, I can't wait for all these styles to keep matching to one another. Damn. So, final point on Bantamweights, unless you have more.

No, that's it for me. Is Aljo TJ the great fight on paper that really nobody's talking about? Dude, this is a fucking awesome fight. I feel like we're not getting the, like, hey, dude, 36 days. I mean, come on, Luke. I think the fans are slowly warming to Sterling. You know, the MMA media was a big believer of his. And then, you know, he had a couple of tough losses

because that's fighting, everyone does. And then, you know, the first Jan fight didn't go his way. And the second Jan fight, people are in denial about, even though that was, you know, a great win by him. I just feel like it's being overshadowed on a very important card number one and then beyond that there hasn't quite the the the popularity of the game hasn't quite caught up to uh sterling's accomplishments and abilities there's like a gap there and so i think that's as a consequence it's kind of overshadowing it plus dude like you know having a number 13 guy

fight the number one rank guy is fucking crazy like that's just gonna bring more you know it's just it's just a it's just a it's just a lot of noise that is hard to ignore it's so crazy and so unusual so do we know what the early odds are do you know the early odds on aljo dillashaw aljo dillashaw let's see Aljomaine Sterling uh it's gotta be really close like minus 170 plus you know 125 type close right so uh what we have here is let me see here we've got Jesus this thing is I mean could these betting places make their fucking sites harder to read I mean what you know what are they doing here with my life? All right, so the opening odds, I can tell you the opening odds. The opening odds have Sterling as a slight favorite,

minus 140 to Dillashaw's plus 120. That sounds about what you were saying, more or less. I got Caesars updated. It's Sterling minus 165, TJ plus 140. Damn, I love this fight. Interesting. Slight movement love this fight. Interesting. Slight movement even more towards the champ. That's interesting.

Do you think TJ should come out with Lance Armstrong in his corner, Luke? Just be like, fuck y'all. He should come out with Gordon Ryan. I mean, dude, ADCC not giving a fuck about drug testing is my favorite thing on earth. All right. Let's do this. Point number five here, BC.

We close with the co-main event from this card gregory rodriguez dude he had to overcome some adversity against chidi and jacobani but robocop gets it done my question to you bc is not what he did was impressive of course it was impressive is he now a threat to you thinking he has to rise to the ranks but is he now a threat that folks should be really talking about in the middleweight division yeah i the ranks? But is he now a threat that folks should be really talking about in the middleweight division? Yeah, I mean, if you said, is he now a threat to the title? No, but is he?

I think that the arc is becoming, is he the new must-see TV guy, right? He's a different type of entertainment that a Tai Tuivasa brings, but, dude, this guy is grimy as F, Luke. I mean, do we have, well, there's Luke. Hey, Luke, do we have pictures of this cut at all? I'm sure we do, Luke. I mean, this is just, so Chidi Chidi Bang Bang came to do that. I mean, this comeback is absurd, but the toughness of Rodriguez,

the ability to carry the power, I need to see him against anyone. So he's a contender now for my viewership, Luke, I'll tell you that. He makes great fights, but, I mean, you've got to do this a few more times. You've got to, right? Okay, but he's got very good MMA jiu-jitsu. He's, I think, only 30 and survived a very stern striking test. By the way, returned the favor in the first round because that was a wild-ass round

and then came out and finished the job in the second. Here's who is at 11 to 15 in this division. Kelvin Gastelum, Nasurdin Imavov, Drikus Duplassi, Brad Tavares, and Chris Curtis. Now, I grant that there is more he has to do before we're at those fights, but the skills he's showing, the resiliency he's showing,

those are things that could carry him very far, no? Yeah, I mean, he looks a lot older than he is and he's got that he's 50 he's got that stubborn old man type heavy damaging strength and also just that i mean reminds me of glover to share and like the determination that just drips off of him in that regard um let's let's get him i mean look i'm not you know chidi is no pushover but let's get him in there now with a guy in the top 15 and let's let him pass that test uh certainly entertainment wise we're going to be right there look do you feel like this comeback is like it's not getting the kind of play it could like or should like this was wild television i just feel like mma is so

routinely crazy week over week that it's just hard to keep up. By the way, he lost his contender series bout in 2020, then went to LFA, had two KOs in a row, gets signed with the UFC. He decisions Dusko to Dorevich. He beat Park Jung-Yong via KO. He did lose to Armin Petrosian via split decision. There's some controversy about that. But then he KO'd Julian Marquez, and then he finished off Chidi Njikawane.

Yeah, he's got some work to do before we're talking about beating ranked guys but the level of improvement especially in the face of adversity to me is sort of the takeaway that i have here he's very good about um either learning from a mistake over the long term or not succumbing to error in the short term if he can avoid it. Pretty amazing. To be able to create dramatic moments consistently, you need to have a next-level poise when shit goes bad. And he seems to have a very special ability to navigate extreme danger and still make very smart decisions under duress. That's why I wanted to shout out

Song Yedong before, Luke, which was the other kind of crazy back-to-back fights we saw with these cuts. You get cut that badly, and it affects your performance that badly. Guys fold, Luke. Great fighters fold in that regard. And both of these guys were like,

damn, I mean, damn, Luke. I mean, Jan was like, they were pouring cups of blood into his eye. I mean, it was everywhere. Yeah, that doctor was. Not Jan, Song Yedong, excuse me. Song Yedong, yeah. That doctor was. He's like, yeah, fuck it.

He's like Ivan Drago. If he dies, he dies. It's okay. Yeah, that was great. It was so like. He was basically like, hey, referee, it's on you. Whatever you want to do you know i mean like honestly he would only intervene of what someone pulled out a shank and just started fucking stabbing the other guy a little bit like short

of that i don't know what didn't it build didn't his liberal ways build drama not just that it made it more violent but that he would often tell like herb dean okay watch closely one more strike so you were almost waiting for like can the other guy land that one strike? And that's what made the RoboCop win so insane is you're sitting there waiting for Chidi to land that one big strike. And then he gets, gets hit with that thumper and suddenly like disconnects and falls apart. You don't see that Luke, certainly not in that type of dramatic moment. I mean, damn, dude, that was fun as balls. And shout out to whoever's decision it was, UFC, Disney, whoever, to put that UFC card earlier, that 7 p.m. main card. Was that just so Dana and Rogan could get over to the T-Mobile

to see the Triple G fight, Luke? I saw Rogan in attendance there at that. Probably. Also, yeah, they just didn't want to compete you know with triple g if they for attention dollars if they didn't have to so and canelo uh all right that is it for our top five there will be an extra credit a little bit later today so be on the lookout for that but now it is time where you guys get to ask us questions it's time for dms from the diggity dogs he Hee haw.

Hee haw. Which, by the way, I don't think I have them here in my email, so you can just put them up on the screen and I shall read them. What do we have here? We've got mail. Viewers. From Caleb Hall underscore MMA. What would have been the best Jose Aldo fight that we never got to see? Against Dominic Cruz?

Maybe? I'm not sure. That was a big one that was wanted for a while. Besides the Conor rematch, Luke? I guess the Conor rematch would be the biggest one. Would that be the best one? I mean, it's hard. You know why it's hard?

Because he fought everybody. That's why it's hard. Yeah. I mean, there was a time when there was a lot of discussion about when Cruz was in his prime and Jose was, when they were both champions, basically. Could that be a fight that happens that we never got? That's probably one.

The McGregor rematch is another one. Brian Ortega? At 145? You already saw the Volk. You saw Max. Yeah, it's probably one of those two, I'm going to guess. Okay. All right.

Or Tracy Cortez. How about this? How about Jose versus Patricio Pitbull? That's one. Oh, balls, dude. Balls. Yeah. Wow.

Balls across the nose. Yes, Luke. Yes. Yeah. Wow. Is there still time? Can we do Yes, Luke. Yes. Yeah. Wow. I'm a kid. Is there still time? Can we do that, Luke?

Please? I don't know if we can, but that would be a fun one for sure. All right. Next. From Mikey Moe Miles. If Canelo continues his ways of jumping. No, hold on. That's Mikey Morms.

That's the producer, Luke. I wouldn't know. I don't follow him on Instagram. I should. Apparently not. We just found that out yep there we go yeah if Canelo continues his ways of jumping from promotion to promotion which fights can he make with DAZN or elsewhere that would be more entertaining than a Charlo

and Benavidez to fight Showtime deal what so what he's basically saying is isn't the best move for Canelo in terms of signing with a promoter, going to PBC and Showtime or Fox, but they're getting, you know, they seem to be getting out of it because the Charlo and Benavidez fights might be the two most attractive. The counter to that off the surf on the surface, Luke, I'll say is that even Canelo signing that two fight deal with Eddie Hearn surprised me because he's in such a position of leverage that I don't see him

doing anything but signing kind of like one offs in the direction he wants to go so if he wants to fight B-Ball next on the zone with the idea of fighting then the winner of Better B-Ball and Joe Smith on ESPN he in theory could do that but to the spirit of Mikey's question no there is not another one-stop shop that gives you the potential of fights you still want to see beyond PBC. They've got the lock right now on the, on the one 68 to matter. So, um, you have anything to add there,

Luke, is there a Canelo fight separate from Benavidez and, and B-ball that you still really want? Errol Spence one day at one 62. I don't know. I mean, there's other ones you could do, but this is my whole point.

It's like the, the, the current claim to fame, as we talked about, was the 168 belts. Like, if you don't beat Bivol, here's the thing. If he beats Bivol, which is unlikely, but let's say he does, that could change the equation, right? That changes the equation a little bit. But if he loses again, it's like i don't even know what the other options would fucking be at this point uh it's just that so yeah so by the way my hope is that well i was gonna say i don't want him to lose to bivouac i don't want him to win i don't have a i don't

have a say but if he does lose to bivouac i do hope that in the intervening time as we said previously that caleb Plant fights Benavidez and we can get some kind of resolution about that. Either you can do a Plant rematch or Benavidez wins and you get a fresh matchup there. Either one of those would be fine by me. Or Charlo or whatever the fuck. Caleb Plant's fighting Anthony Durrell on the Deontay Wilder October Fox undercard.

By the way, now being trained by the bread man, Steven Edwards. Caleb Plant. Caleb Plant? Oh, interesting. His dad, Richie, is still in the corner, but it looks like they brought him in. The only thing else I was going to say there, Luke... Yeah, you know, I forgot. A few too

Delta 8 gummies this morning? No, no, no. Just coffee coffee luke and ag1 all right all right next uh here we go from saint john underscore either canada or california where was bc's humor during the canelo interview feeling a vibe he wasn't in the mood thought the phone ringing was a perfect segue for you so the answer to that it's a great point uh is i couldn't hear canelo there were audio issues where i could i could barely hear him but those things are so rapid fire in the moment i almost didn't want to risk like stopping down and starting again it was one of those satellite interviews where you get seven to eight minutes

with the guy but it is still pretty valuable for us to create content off of. So if I had heard him, I would have played that up more. And actually the only reason why I went four minutes was because I couldn't hear him. So I just thought, Hey, let's put this thing to bed and take it for what it's worth. I was surprised that it was that short.

I thought it, I thought I did about eight with him, but I was way off. Yeah. Luke, I don't know. You know, like some people are like,

man, this guy, BC is the most annoying person of all time. Can't you just be serious for once? Dude, I, I, I hate those interviews. Like you're like, oh, you're going to get an interview. The, you know, the main event fighters and this cattle call. And I used to do them all the time when I had a radio show where, you know, you just

kind of take them when you can get them and it's fine. But dude, for folks that understand, like in this case, he was doing video, but either way, it used to be all, all over the phone. They do this, then they hang up, then they call another station, then they hang up and they call another station. But whenever you get them, first of all, they're always late. They're always late because the people in front of you have always taken two, three minutes extra and it just adds up by the time it gets to you.

And then they just never give a fuck about talking to you. You know, like the best way to get these interviews is you got to be like the first guy or you have them separate or you know it's hard to do that obviously when you have an international star like Canelo but it's just I just don't love the cattle call interviews personally well while they are you know the fast food of it and not always effective it does challenge you to get strategic in the way that you try to get content. And I have found one thing you can ask asshole really hard questions during those, Luke, because you know you're only getting five, six minutes,

and that's sometimes the quickest way to get a real answer or a real reaction or something is being very direct about something that you know they probably don't want to talk about. But that's how we win. That's how we fight back, Luke. That's right. All right, next. From NYSpawn91,

seeing that the UFC seems to be keeping the Apex fights, should slash could they build their own UFC arena to hold fights in? You mean the UFC Apex? No, but they're saying with the lack of seating in there, if they're already doing the Apex. I know what they're saying, but it's like, hey, with the Apex being what it is, could the UFC build a facility where they host their own fights?

Yeah, they've got that. I know he's saying it's more of a consumer-friendly one. Yeah, the UFC doesn't love anything more than vertical integration, right, where they can control every part of the business chain from the creation of the product to its delivery and its consumption i bet they would love to i don't know i don't know how doable that is in vegas because they also want to keep open the relationship with the casinos they can make a lot of money that way as well um that's a good point that's a good point i'm sure their finance i'm sure there is a

financial relationship with mgm properties that would, that would make that not in their, their favor to do it because they can, because they're probably, you know, getting site fees and bonuses to be able to do that. But they have the, and also they have a deal with MGM through T-Mobile to bring a certain amount of fights there every year.

And it's like, why did Floyd Mayweather fight every single fight of his career at the end of MGM grand or T-Mobile down, you know, once he became a pay-per-view star, because I'm sure they made it financially. That was probably the reason they probably made it bountiful, but I would like to see some,

is there a middle ground because you want them to keep the apex? Cause it is perfect for like contender series or, or tough. I don't know. Although they don't use it for tough, but you get my point. It is perfect for like that type of intimate for a reason but there should be some kind of home house in between luke well here's here's what you're here's the problem you're trying to solve and it's very doable i think which is they can't first of all they have an existing deal to honor and to the other point it's in their financial interest to take big fights to t-mobile or wherever the fuck in Las Vegas, right?

So you don't change that. But is there some place where, like, it's not like they're taking the fight night cards to the Pearl at the Palms like they used to. It's not like they're putting fight night cards on anymore at Mandalay Bay Event Center like they used to. So what you need is a fight night venue that is big enough to accommodate 10,000, 15,000 people, something like that, me give you the answer the answer is actually the bandolet bay which is it's arguably the best place to see

a fight anywhere and the big fights don't go there to you know consistently anymore you'll see like a random showtime card or a random whatever but like that's intimate enough it's one of the it's clear certainly one of the best places you can watch if i it's so intimate and it's just perfect the sight line so maybe that should be the in between where that's what he's saying is on that so if you've ever been to like the the ufc offices most of you watching this have never been but they've got it's on this like it's off the highway and there's all this land around them i think the vast majority of which they own.

Could they build another venue around there? Now, that would be off-strip, so there's some concerns, but could they build another venue somewhere else in Vegas just for fight nights if they wanted to? Probably they could. Probably they could. I guess you'd have to look at the expenses and how much they can make off the gate. We are getting to the point where they should just build their own biodome, Luke, with Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin. Do you ever see the documentary about the real biodome that was built and everyone was inside and they started fucking each other and going crazy?

It's great. Wow. Sounds like the Olympic Village for the athletes, Luke. So I hear. Yeah. I watched the Tim Donahue Netflix, Untold. Did you see that, Luke? I haven't seen that one yet. Is it good? It's good. Yeah, it's good.

It paints the NBA in a very, very dark light. They basically paint the NBA as being a mafia. That's a little strong, but what are you going to do? Well, watch it for yourself, Luke, and then get back to me about Manti Teo's girlfriend, alright? Alright, one more. One more. I think. From Jonathan

to Darien, whatever the fuck. Jonathan Ogden, the Hall of Famer, Luke. Yeah, that's right. After seeing Gordon Ryan's performance at ADCC, how much of a threat is he day one of MMA? See, I don't know. I don't know how well suited his game is for MMA. Obviously his attacks from the back are well suited.

He's got some wrestling, but it's, it's, it's wrestling very much designed around no gi rules and realities. Uh, I don't know anything about his striking. I don't know anything about beyond that. So like, obviously if he gets into a wrestling or grappling exchange remember something and ryan hall explains to me once it's very obvious but it's worth saying out loud as a way to think about if you go to a jujitsu match or tournament you have to beat the other person with your jujitsu you can't use anything else in mma no one is obligated to do jiu-jitsu with you. You have to force it on them. So you have to have a game where you can apply that, and that is going to be most meaningfully through setups of the striking,

and then obviously your wrestling. I don't know exactly how well that translates, but we're going to talk about this on extra credit, but for the no-gi jiu-jitsu game, dude, he doesn't have... I don't even know who'd be a close second at this point not felipe pena not anymore uh he is on an island he's the best nogi grappler ever he's the first guy to win a weight class or a adcc title across three different weight classes dude he

dummied these fucking people like they didn't even he didn't even surrender a single fucking point that's dan the only time i ever care is when he when he talks all that shit and i see it on He's dummied these fucking people. Like, they didn't even... He didn't even surrender a single fucking point. That's Dan Gable. The only time I ever care is when he talks all that shit, and I see it on Instagram, Luke. I like that, all right? He talks a gang of shit, and he's very polarizing. He's got some worldviews that, to put it mildly, I don't share. And so a lot of people hate him for it.

A lot of people like him. He's very polarizing. But the question is not that. The question is how good is he. He doesn't have a rival at all at all not in any weight class not anywhere um he's remarkable so luke are you know our social media producer brendan yes brendan lynch do you think you could survive without tapping eight minutes with him um in a yeski match

survive probably i'd probably be all right surviving is you know that's all that's all In a yes-key match? Survive, probably. I'd probably be all right. Surviving is, you know, that's all Andre Galvan was doing against fucking Gordon Ryan for about 20 minutes. But, yeah, surviving probably I'd be okay. Anything more than that, I'm too old and pathetic. All right. With that out of the way, BC, it's time for your feces.

Time for old BC's feces. Hey, here's what i did like i do every sunday i scoured the globe for the highs and lows the good the bad the ugly and the in between in combat sports and beyond we call this have you seen this shit have you seen this motherfucking shit oh luke i am being told and and that was me talking to myself that this is among the best batches of shit we've ever had, okay? So get ready, all right? Yeah, let's see it.

Old man Thomas hates shit. All right, here we go. UFC fight night in Vegas. Dude, Anthony Hernandez damn near killed Marc-Andre Barrio via head and arm pile driver here, Luke? Good Lord. Yeah, I saw this. This isn't supposed to happen.

I don't think he intentionally meant to do it and he does break his fall a little bit with his right hand if you notice right there dude they've cleaned up this sport a lot luke but that that could kill a man i mean seriously that's that's not good dude dude i'm surprised we haven't seen like deaths in mma like especially in ufc like there's enough screening to prevent most of those but like paralysis i haven't seen personally in like obviously in a major promotion i haven't seen paralysis i hope i never do but i wonder how far apart that are far away we are from that yeah do you want the the the blue pill which gives you ct on the long term or the pile driver which is is instantaneous. I mean, come on, Luke. This is crazy.

That is terrible. One of my favorite fighters, Loma Luke Boonme, Luke, came back with a much-needed win against Denise A. Gomes here, but almost got caught up. Luke, I don't know. Did she hear a whistle? We're halfway through a round. Watch Luke Boonme just kind of be like, yeah, I'm done.

I'm done here. That's cool. Yeah, fuck all this bullshit. That's you at the ending of MK. It's like, dude, there's no time left in the clock. You're just fucking walking. Yeah, Luke, she fought hard in this fight. Shout out to Luma. She won and had a message afterwards about people who were depressed.

I thought it was a very nice message. I didn't know that Danny Ruby reps her, Luke. Shout out to Danny Rube, right? Yeah, Danny Rube reps her. That's right. Ruby Sports in the house. Oklahoma wrestling, baby, right? What else do you have to say about Danny Rube?

I regret making that hairline joke that time. I really do. He's a great guy, okay? He's a great guy. Luke, if you're going to be like anybody, be like Joe Pfeiffer. Because he made his UFC debut and knocked this guy the hell out, Luke. Yeah, dude. Alan Amadovsky just sat him fucking down.

What did you think about the creativity here to set this up? Pretty good. I've not watched the fight in full, so I have to go back and look to see exactly how he did it. Okay. But that uppercut to overhand right, lift the chin and then let him go. That's nice. Well, paging Dr. Nash, Dr. John S. Nash, who probably has a doctorate in economics, Luke,

let's hear Joe Pfeiffer in the post-fight interview. Fine. Thank you to Dana White. That man gave me cash on the side and gave me a place to live for the next year. And it's my birthday today i'm 26 years old i want that 50k bonus because i'm the birthday boy let's go so luke i have nothing bad to say about an exciting young fighter here in joe peiffer but to the are you are you using are you using this to make another dumb point about a conspiracy theory? But to the elephant in the room, a.k.a. the IRS, Luke, is this another Milk Boy's bonus bag, Luke?

Because I'm glad to see it. I love your theory. Let's ignore court orders and put ourselves in potential contempt in the most important litigation the company has ever faced. Also, Joe Piper can have a place to live. That's a very intelligent theory. On Joe Piper's Instagram stories, he posted a pic of the car and insinuated that Dana had got it for him, Luke.

I don't know why they're this close, but all right. There you go. There we go. I'm happy for him, but that's all accounted for in discretionary bonuses. Okay. Luke, he wasn't on the call on saturday but as we mentioned hey look kids dr joe rogan off the clock cage side at the ufc is that a how much do those how much of those fucking glasses way that they're wearing down the front of his shirt like that oh yeah i don't think that's a natural v-neck i think it just got that way luke yeah there you go hey is that a chuck

mendenhall pounds is he that a Chuck Mendenhall? Is he wearing a Chuck Mendenhall Boston Scally, Luke? Go back one more time. Show it. Yeah, I don't know if that's the official man in the hat one, but there it is. Is that Tony Hinchcliffe next to him, or did I make that up? I don't know.

Or is that Randy Feldface? He's got headphones on. It seems a little aggressive. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what the stars do. Let's go to Canelo Triple G3 in Las Vegas. And hey, look, kids, it's Dr. Joe Rogan off the clock again, this time with celebrity friend Dave Chappelle. So what a night for Joe.

See, Dave's got the right idea. He just wears the glasses. He doesn't rule out the front of his T-shirt. Yeah, yeah, there you go. There it is right there. Good analysis. All right, let's keep t-shirt. Yeah, yeah, there you go. There it is right there. Good analysis. All right, let's keep it going here. Luke, this was a...

What do you want me to say about them two being at the fights? Yay. This was a pre-fight interview with Triple G during fight week where he was asked how much moving up to 168 for the first time will affect his eating this week. You know, like, same, probably the same, just only a couple, just maybe like one, two, more dinners, you know, more burgers, more tacos, you know. One or two more dinners per night or what?

Per night, per night, more extra tacos, not three, like five tacos. There we go. Luke, Triple G, you may be thinking, how does an athlete, you know, that typically toned? Although, dude, didn't he look doughy? He looked a little doughy there on Saturday. I mean, he's an old man. He didn't look doughy.

I'm sure he trained his ass off. He just looked old. Yeah. Well, he's been asked in the past. There's a famous soundbite I used to play on my boxing podcast of him saying, I eat steak every day. I love steak. But, Luke, that comment about beef and tacos did remind me to throw back to his 2013 win on independent pay-per-view against Nobuhiro Ishida in Monte Carlo,

in which the cryon graphic there on the lower third, his favorite food, Luke, meat. Okay, there you go. All right, here it is. Like just meat? Like just any kind of meat? Roast beef, apparently, Luke. Okay, you know? Yeah.

All right. Luke, this was a serious question. Do you think Gennady Golovkin has ever eaten at Arby's? Oh, hell yeah. No. I bet you when he came to the States the first time. Zero percent chance he's ever eaten at an Arby's. Dude, he gets down with the beef and cheddar and the curly fries.

If I see an Arby's in a small town, I automatically feel bad for them. Oh, I automatically go there. That was the old me, Luke, but my liver is... Yeah. Luke, we did get a wholesome moment. Not a great fight, but did you pop for the respect between two

rivals, warriors, putting the strife down. I fucking hated it. Okay. If they had had a gutsy, you know, war, I'd be like, all right, cool. And I get that they're allowed to have whatever feelings that they want to have after the fight, and I'm fine with it.

But, like, did I pop for it? Fuck no, I didn't pop for it. Didn't it compare to that Conor McGregor-Fyd mayweather hug after their fight at the on the dais where it just looked like they were celebrating like stealing from a bank you know it was like we did it they were like dude we got motherfucking paid today yeah yeah yeah uh luke on this undercard i didn't want to let it go by without uh shouting out here fresno's mark cast Castro with the sick uppercut KO. Tony Weeks, the referee, not even needing to count. Look at that.

Stepped into it while the guy was leaning over, too. Boy, that is, he ate. Look at that. All of that shit right under the jab. Timed it perfectly. Hell of a shot. Hey, Luke, I do happen to have audio of Canelo's response regarding the Benavidez comment, so let's go to that quickly.

Guys, always I say this, you short that video and put whatever you want. When I say I don't want to fight Mexican, it's because I represent Mexico. And that's why. But I don't care. I fight anybody. And I fight my entire life anybody what do you think i i don't i don't i don't want to fight with one mexico benavides but i look i i hear his dad talking a lot of shit but look what he's look he's accomplished nothing

one single champion Anthony Durrell please don't respect myself please guys I'm also happy Canelo stopped disrespecting himself by wearing those pajamas everywhere those those uh gaudy Hugh Hefner line look he's back in street clothes again so that's also good to see I like but you know I just didn't like those comments very much. I know. Like, I get it, but I also am beginning to not love it. Real did recognize Real, Luke, backstage as Canelo met up with Steph Curry,

who was in the crowd. I can't tell if they are taking a selfie here or admiring each other's DM nudes. Luke, your thoughts. Have you ever seen that it's like a i saw it like on a sports center instagram reel where like they are on the golf course and then steph curry gets a little ballsy and was like hey let's face off and then canelo i did see that yeah you know catches in between punches like a motherfucker oh yeah he's like yep had enough that's good we're all good did you see obj calling canelo before the fight i did i did it was awkward because it was like like broken ink and i was like

yeah yeah yeah good okay you know i hate it because he's like how you feeling champ he's like i feel good i feel good yes i'm ready i'm ready but they don't really say shit to each other i don't like it luke our producer courtney uh responded over text by saying Julia Rose could catch these hands. I just wanted to make sure that the ethos fair. I'm seeing that here, yeah. Luke, wholesome moment of the week. Like the late, great Kobe Bryant, Luke, you are a hashtag girl dad, but so is Canelo. Here's after the fight.

Papa! My heart with a wig, look how beautiful it is. Look, is that how Tuki greets you after every MK episode? Not after every MK episode, but when I pick her up from school, I get that kind of treatment. Makes you feel like a million bucks, man. I mean, that was great to watch, right? That was a good wholesome moment on this show. That's a very wholesome moment. She's like, Poppy! We went to Philly for

the weekend, just for one night, and then when we came back, our daughter greeted us inside the house that way, so it was nice. Great. Great stuff. Luke, let's see the actual KO of the week, so it was nice. Great, great stuff. Luke, let's see the actual KO of the week, and it came from Tuesday's Dana White's Contender Series. Get ready to meet Bruna Brasile with this head kick stoppage of Marnik Mann.

Damn. That's like, you know what that reminds me of? It's almost in her mannerisms with the way she fell as well. It reminds me a little bit. it's not quite as devastating but it's pretty close to the rashad evans sean salmon knockout oh god where he gets hit and sean salmon actually comes forward a little bit and then does the testifying and church bit afterwards you know it's like he put his toes right in sean salmon's mouth he's like you got a foot fetish bro right i don't think he put his toes in his mouth okay more on that later uh luke president uh florida president ron desantis is uh still considering

a run on the president you mean governor florida president of that other nation down there luke uh still considering a run for the big one in 2024 but right now he's on the campaign trail signing skull cans luke oh wow and by the way by the way not skull that's zen which if i'm not i could be wrong about this i think those are like bandits which you know they're like the little pouches you put in your mouth and here's my view on this and by the way i think zen is just nicotine so i don't know if it's the same but if the nicotine things are separate but if you're just going to get regular like tobacco you can't use the fucking bandits at all like you can't do that okay but like you know i'm not coordinated

i don't roller skate or ski luke i can't keep from accidentally swallowing that and puking for six straight hours not that i've dipped in the last two and a half decades, but Luke, I used to. It's not that hard to not throw up. I got to be honest. I dipped for years. It's really not that hard. Yeah, but once you do it, like once you drunkenly accidentally swallow it and then you throw up for hours, really, to be fair,

it's that fear almost makes the experience not enjoyable that the packets are like a condom for that luke let's be fair here okay no the packets if you pack it tight enough right i mean who wants mouth chlamydia right if you pack it tight enough it's not a problem and also i this is a true story people don't believe me when i tell them this but it's 100 fucking true and i saw it with my own eyes over and over and over again dude my drill instructors at boot camp they would dip in their mouth and they would swallow the juice all day long that's just so I mean I've seen people eat the green on a watermelon I've seen people swallow sunflower seeds left and right even though it makes you shit sideways I mean who would want to do that

Luke but that's just disgusting. It's pretty fucking gross, but those dudes were tough. They were tough. They were tough fucking guys. God. Wow. All right. Luke, speaking of pro wrestling there, nice segue from DeSantis,

Roman Reigns and Logan Paul are going to headline the WWE Crown Jewel pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia on November 5th. They actually did a real sports-like press conference, which had your typical amount of theatrics. Okay, I'm not going to waste time asking you, do you care? I know you don't. But, dude, Logan just went from like, hey, he's not bad at this, to now wrestling the biggest name in a big pay-per-view. Are you impressed?

You impressed by this, Luke? When you say impressed, impressed by what? By how legitimate he is like i know that you know lawrence taylor had a wrestlemania main event match i know that you anyone can do that one time but like they're putting him in there with the biggest guy like they must believe that he can really carry this and work what is the thing so i'll ask you this what is from what you can tell what is the fan base's response i To be fair, I don't know because I'm not watching. I only kind of catch this stuff on social media

because I still follow a lot of these accounts. But I'm going to tune in. I want to see the build because I want to see, can he work the mic? How good is he actually? Because this is a big opportunity. I'll say this. I've only ever seen shit like SportsCenter.

He was at WrestleMania, right? I think that's right. Yeah, he did that jump through the table. He did someone where he jumped off the turnbuckle, whatever the fuck. Someone was on the table, and he landed on top of them. He looked pretty fucking athletic doing that. I'll say that.

So beyond that, I don't really give a shit, but he does appear to be well-suited for that. It's an interesting move here wwe making a lot of changes in the post vince era luke they're knocking on my door again but i'm not ready to open it uh let's go to regional mma that's some wild shit that you never thought you'd see how about spinny shit gone wrong into spinny shit gone right look at this finish oh wow good he did he did the old nate marquart on wilson guvea where let me show it again it's like spinning let's see spinning back fist into like a head kick that misses and then he just goes for the old spinning back elbow fucking a that's a perfect shot

that's arguably your real knockout of the week damn all right let's go to some russian mma luke uh this this is a pretty good ko of the week candidate bop yeah i saw this one us caposa posted this one this is all caposa yeah this is a i don't know if you're gonna have it Did you see the fucking guy who was doing the interview in like a Russian MMA thing? And then they were doing the buns up on him? I got that in the bin for next week, Luke. But yeah, that's good.

Hey, Luke, kickboxing soccer KO of the week. This can't be legal. I mean, what is this? Yeah, that seems a little much. I mean, you probably get caught for and arrested for doing that right that's wow yeah he gets pushed off balance not even hit he's just like fuck it take this l hold that all right let's go to the backyard fighting pit we're all over the place regionally this week uh watch the guy in the sweatshirt deliver the boom pod style

payable upon dirt luke that's where the back of that guy's head jesus i mean dude look at this guy it's like it's like you know this the the black guy here looks like a normal dude and then he's going up against a dude, this white gentleman, who looks like his fighting experience is limited to the mosh pit for dying kid shows. Yep, thought he was tough, Luke, and ended up on our show. Wow, that is some sick. Dude, hold on a second. He gets hit with the right hand as the other guy steps.

By the way, that guy looks like he's got a little bit of ability. Dude, that's like a broken brain stem, that shot, Luke. That's ridiculous. Look at his lead hand. I mean, could it be lower? Could you just put that shit around your waist next time so you can get hit by a fucking Mack truck? I mean, I don't know this guy's experience.

I think I do now, actually. There you go. Let's go to probably the weirdest regional MMA clip we've had in a while, Luke. It was effective, though. Is this your new KO of the year in MMA? Oh, God. Dude, how is MMA turning into like two seven-year-old brothers wrestling in the living room?

When the fuck did that happen? They call that a missile dropkick in pro wrestling. I've never thought you could ever see that in a real fight. Wow. Dude, I'm telling you, everyone thinks UFC is MMA. UFC is not MMA. That's MMA. This shit right everyone thinks UFC is MMA. UFC is not MMA. That's MMA. This shit right here, that is MMA.

MMA is crazy and insane and hard to understand, kind of stupid, but kind of great, but kind of weird. That's MMA. Luke, I made the Rashad foot fetish joke before. I'm sorry about that. But he did. Our colleague was back on a big-time podcast. Ashley Evans-Sm Smith had him on.

Luke, let's go to the videotape. Any fetishes, like a foot fetish? Maybe a little. A little bit? All right. Listen, here's the thing about like a girl, like I look at the feet. I do look at the feet. And I'm not, like I know good feet too, you know what I'm saying?

So I'm not very picky, but i'm not like i know good feet too you know i'm saying so i'm not very picky but i'm kind of picky with the now do you do you use okay because i feel like there's there's two two people right one who sees the feet and is like aroused and then the other one who uses the feet as an indicator of how the woman or man takes care of themselves and it's kind of both ways for me like i'm like i i can't like i don't i'm not gonna sit in the corner like you know you know masturbate to a bitch or nothing like that but to your little to your little uh stubby toes yeah i'm not gonna do that to those feet but i mean it like i definitely look at him like oh those are nice feet and i'm like you know and

i can definitely though there's definitely okay I've seen enough there we go this is more information about Rashad than I can Luke we've been making the lick the toe joke for a long time about his shaman experiences should be lick the toe apparently wow but that question that she asked did it did ring home

true for me she said you know just looking at a woman's feet give you an indication of you know her cleanliness and hygiene luke so he must think i'm a savage right i don't think he cares about you one way or the other i will say this what happened to just being like a tna guy like what the people like i look at the feet and uh they have to be manicured i I'm like, all right, they can't have hooves, but like isn't like a TNA, like that's the thing? That's what they

you know, I'm sure that man's had a lot of TNA, maybe got bored, Luke, and had to find other things. Who knows? He lived a very celebrity life. You can count me in as not bored by TNA. I am not bored by it. You're like, I've still had so little experience overall in these categories

that still enjoying it, still enjoying it. Yes. Okay. Let's go to the soccer pitch. Only it's inside of a bar, Luke. Theatrics ensue. Oh, yeah. He just sent that little fuck stumbling.

I mean, that's Roberto Baggio level of ball control there. My favorite part of this is he just moves the ball out of the guy's way so he can walk, and he's like, Oh, elder abuse never gets old. Only the participants do. Hey, Luke, this is how a real American family moves furniture. Can you blow that up please that is you know that's ingenuity right there hey why don't you be less prepared for move day it's fucking raining and you have nothing to hold the furniture in you couldn't get a U-Haul truck for 20 bucks?

Yeah. Really? Apparently they couldn't, Luke. The Queen's Funeral was... By the way, driving in the fucking, not even in the fucking lane, just on the side of the road where people need to stop in case they have emergencies, these fucking hillbillies are just like, yeah, we're going to haul furniture in this fucking lane.

Omaha, somewhere in middle America, Luke. Let's go, though, now to, look, the Queen's funeral this morning. I watched the live coverage on NBC, Luke. Much respects to our mourning UK fans. But everybody's paying tribute to the Queen in their own way, including PFL celebrity, the liver king, Luke. I mean, this doofus, you know, the, uh, the, the, the, the caption on this on Twitter was, you know, it's what she would have wanted Luke. And I'm sure that's true.

You know? I mean, he is such a goofball if ever there was one. Well, the good news is he's all natty. That's the good part. You know? Yeah. Look, we should combine, we should combine more's the good part you know yeah look we should combine we should combine more categories for like you know we had grieving and and liver king right

there how about we combine bbls and uh scooters that sounds like a good idea right all right you've captured my attention let's see what you got oh no oh jesus christ she looks i'm not i, how do you know she's... You know, she looks... She could be a lot of different ethnicities. And I like... This is my favorite part about it. She's not going that fast,

but she tries to talk shit to the phone, realizes she's going to run headlong into this fucking other scooter on the floor. Oh, yeah. And then just decides, you know, I got to make... Oh,, you know, I got to take evasive action and then just fucking collapses, which is... Poor female there.

Wow, Luke. This week in alcohol, we got some good ones here. Luke, you remember internet Instagram drinking legend Ronnie Deutsch, right? Yeah, what happened to him? He's now dressing up like Ricky Bobby and playing pop a shot. Let's watch. And now for the drinking exploits. I was about to say, I didn't care at all about the basketball.

Just a pitcher of Guinness or whatever the fuck that is. Dude, I mean, one day he'll just drop, but until then luke he is setting a new standard in this genre right and now he'll tell you that is that i mean as a party trick they don't come much better than that how about the autograph tour hair luke tell me he didn't drink out of a fucking oh he's gonna sign some tea okay all right this is getting good a little tattoo on to tea action there from old Ronnie Deutsch. Well done.

Luke, does this get you terrified or aroused? We've all been in that spot where we can't find a can opener. I'm going to say that's in the arousal category. Was she raised by wolves, Luke? Wow. All right. I'm going to put that in the arousal category. Was she raised by wolves? Luke, wow. All right. I'm going to put that in the definite arousal category. She is handy with her mouth.

Wow. Luke, let's go to the NFL stadium where the fans are of the utmost class. That was a good one-liner. Fuck you. That was good. It was good. It was good. Luke, here's your Cincinnati Bengals fan of the week.

Okay, well, she's awful, and you should just throw her off a bridge. I mean, oh, you, Jesus Christ. I mean, dude, why would you ever go to an NFL game? Wow. Around these fucking. To get blackout drunk with her, Luke? Around these mutants. Why would you go? I mean, could you have bigger cankles, by the way, too?

Okay, all right, Luke, all right. I mean, low hanging fruit here, okay? Her tattoos were enough. But all right. Hey, Luke, happy New Year to you if you're celebrating. And also to this guy's ball bag. I'll never get tired of watching this. What is he trying to open? Fireworks?

I don't know. Something. Yeah. Or, you know, like a New Year's Eve explosion of confetti, Luke, maybe. Yeah. Oh, yes, yes, yes. I see now. Right, right.

Okay. All right. Luke, it's been a long time since we've seen Conor McGregor in the cage. It's been even longer since we've seen him this rock hard with emotion. But like the Maymack weigh-in, Conor posted this video of him all kinds of jacked up. And Luke, he is happy to be here. Got some puffiness around the nipples. Yeah.

What do you make of this, Luke? Is he like ready to come kick some welterweight ass? Yeah, I don't know. He might. I mean, I don't know what kind of speed he'll have. Don't know how erect he's going to be when time comes. I mean, we fucking are fighting here, Connor. What are we doing here, bro?

I mean, wow. Wow. Hey, Luke, credit to at hectic underscore one on Twitter for the tip on tip, phone or on phone or Photoshopping skills. This picture, not for the faint of heart, but it's something, Luke. Dude, like, how often do you get wayward boners like this? You know what I mean? You're just sitting in the movie theater, and all of a sudden you've got Chubb Rock going on in your duster.

It doesn't happen that often for me these days. Wow. Yeah. Luke, some people, though, have taken this type of humor way too far, and that person is Paulo Costa. Borja Chinya responded to that public feud between Dana White and Brendan Schaub. You couldn't wait to put this in here, huh? I mean, it is.

Wow. I don't have the right reaction for this, Luke. So there you go. I got to say, the Photoshop is well done. I have to say that. I mean, he felt it on his face, Luke. You got a little Randy. That is just wow.

Yeah. How happy were you putting this in rotation? You are obsessed. It's not nice. It is not nice. I'm sorry. Let's move on here, Luke. Now hear this, Luke.

This is a newscasting moment that I haven't seen yet. But this guy was in for a surprise. Is that a dong? Yeah, yeah, it is. Yeah is it is it is you know a couple questions here to ask yourself really just one who is the type of person you would know that would just randomly carry dildos around to of to harass newscasters i mean that is a that is a person who is definitely winning a darwin award within the next i mean it looks is a person who is definitely winning a Darwin Award within the next two years, right?

I mean, it looks like a UK football fan, to be fair, Luke, right? Dude, the UK is, they are football fucking crazy over there. It's hard to explain how crazy they are. Boxing too, Luke. Even on the somewhat regional levels in boxing, they're insane. They love their shit, Luke. That's interesting. Hey, you might have thought

people had a big week. Who had a bigger week than Mike Perry, Luke? It began with this much-shared challenge to a new free agent named Nate Diaz to get in the BKFC ring in which Mike sparked up a J on Instagram. Then it went to this wholesome as shit family picture.

Luke, here's three generations of Perry men. It's like an art piece that I call Ocean on Ocean. Shout out to Mike Perry's pops right there. Perry's dad's in pretty decent shape. Yeah, yeah, and young Ocean getting a nice right there. But Luke, the Platinum family is not done yet it was gender reveal time for coach latore and mike and here's the results check out mike's badass uh fanny pack oh snap and have a girl like you and kobe luke hashtag

girl dad. He's in the building. Very happy for the Perrys as they continue. Yeah, congratulations to them. Dude, he's doing well. He fucking beat MVP. Old Mike Perry, he's doing all right. I mean, considering he told me that he'd kill me when I saw him, Luke,

we've come a long way, him and I. I think he's becoming my favorite fighter. All right? Factory town MMA all the way. And I got to say, I'm not personally a big fan of uh gender reveals but um this is a subdued one where like for example there was no no one started a california wildfire as a consequence of this this is very yes yes you know contained i can live with those i can no children were hurt nobody got it in his family nobody took it to the pills uh luke before we go to this last bit here, are you a fan of PDAs?

You know what that is? PDA, Public Display of Affection? Some call it that. I call it Public Display of Ass Play. Luke, let's go to the PDAs here. What a week for it. Is someone going to dig in their ass and you're going to make me watch this?

Well, sometimes it's a scratch and sniff option, Luke. You are so you're the worst nobody goes there but it started at the high school bleachers for this uh not so young couple what do you call that in massage school okay okay and then it can see it Luke, this may not involve ass play, but PDA season is red hot in New York City these days. You ever stumble upon this in the wild, Luke? Oh, dude, they're high as shit right now.

Yeah, that's just... Dude, he looks like he's trying to eat her. And finally, that wasn't ass play, but this one, yeah, well, it definitely is. And that silence you hear is... Okay, okay. Luke, that was a more abrasive plot twist than Million Dollar Baby, to be fair. It was.

I mean, that's just, wow. That is, I hope both of them are executed today. Fly them to Saudi Arabia and tell them that they're heretics or whatever. That was like watching, you know, Uncut Gems in the theater, Luke. I needed a cigarette afterwards right that was a lot of emotions that was no i need i want to i want to be like garfield where he would always mail normal was that was it normal he would mail to uh abu dhabi or wherever the fuck so send them to some place where some dictator will chop their head off please i hear

garfield i think lasagna luke uh oh was he a big fan of lasagna big huge huge fan i forget or maybe that was heathcliff i don't know i watched both of them you know all right bc uh let's remind the folks here that's it for today there will be an extra credit a little bit later uh let's see we have i think we have some stuff coming out this week i had i did an interview by the way with the fameded UFC translator, Fabiano Busque. I think that's coming out this week. Yeah, I talked to old Fabiano Busque last week. Is that the Brazilian fellow with the silver hair?

Blonde hair. Blonde hair. But he's like middle-aged. Yeah. Yeah, I think he's like roughly our age or so. Something like 42, 43, something like that. No, no. I'm talking about the older gentleman.

I don't know who you're talking about. But dude is like the best translator ufc's ever had like he's an amazing translator oh he's talking about the youngest looking yeah that the guy with the he looks like swayze and roadhouse a little bit like a spanish version and he does spanish and portuguese translation so okay yeah yeah i was thinking of the old guy uh that's that's great luke that's great and i should be out soon as well? Are we ever going to run that Chuck Mendenhall room service diaries? It's only been sitting on the shelf for weeks, months. I think that's coming out soon. If not this week, then next.

So pretty soon. Because I don't think there's any. There's Bellator on Friday, but I don't think there's a UFC event on Saturday. I think they're off for a little while. So, yes. So there's that as well. Do you care about Shakur Stevenson versus Hobson Canceso this weekend, Luke? I'm fired up.

Yeah, I'll watch it because there's fuck all else going on. But let's remind folks, morningcombat.store, the merch is moving. The bomber jackets are there. You can get this fucking nice shirt. You can get a leg in what BC's wear, and you can get a lot of good stuff over there. Showtime.com, by the way, Friday is Bellator. Showtime.com, you get a 30-day free trial. If like it you can keep it if not you can bounce by the way bc i get lots of questions about what's going to happen with showtime and their independent streaming

service and paramount plus i have no fucking idea i have no idea what they're going to do right no no i think even our our ceo bob backish explained it that that you know he was having a conversation with a partner and somebody like leaked it but it's it's early conversation they're looking at what what they're you know is going to be their best move and whether it's you know on an app or on an island luke uh i'm going to be there delivering the best fight analysis i know how okay yeah one way or the other we're going to be doing what we do but i don't know what that all is going to mean um put up the socials there you can see morning combat is everywhere. Instagram, Twitter, and now TikTok. And you can give

us a follow there on social beyond that. BC, any final thoughts? Yeah, I don't want to like over... I had another out-of-body experience Friday night at the My Morning Jacket show, Luke. Have you ever... I mean, it's like you think you know

a band, and then they blow your freaking doors in into what's possible with their live show. What's their number one song? What's their biggest hit? They're really, one almost doesn't apply. And that's actually, I think, their secret. Because they flirted with crossover commercialism a couple times, and they've done the popular talk show circuits too.

But I think because they never ended up having that one, they stayed so true to their own art, Luke. And they're the best live band in the world right now. I cannot believe they were that good. Look, my friend Bogo and I were walking out, and we looked at each other. We're like, I forgot what it felt like to go to a show and just get knocked off your feet. You know what I mean? Because sometimes you end up seeing the same band for years and not much always changes.

But I mean, I got kicked right in the face. I was Vitor Belfort willingly right there, Luke. That's how I felt when I saw Cannibal Corpse at the TLA in Philly before the pandemic. But I don't care about these losers. Same vibe, same vibe all the way i mean this sounds this sounds to me like hell on earth this is how wikipedia talks about my morning jacket genres indie rock fail art rock fail psychedelic rock fail alternative country you don't like hard rock

wait are you trying to say that hard rock is a fail it said art rock art art rock oh art rock's fantastic yeah southern rock i can get by with jam fail americana fail so oh probably not for me probably not for me i just want to just to close how romantic this was not in a you know bogo and i weren't holding hands but the point is this look you ever have a favorite song and that you go to your favorite band's country you're like i hope they play it both of us our favorite song is phone went west we never heard it in nine shows and they closed with it the last song and they and then they turned it into like november rain with like five parts and it you know sometimes it's the chef's kiss on it was like watching a perfect game unfold in front of you and you're not even worried if somebody makes an error or on a pass ball luke okay i was conor mcgregor in that

video all right i don't think you were conor m was Conor McGregor in that video, all right? I don't think you were Conor McGregor. I think you were that Bengals fan who just vomited in their seat. I have been that fan before. That is definitely certain and true, but there you go. There you go. Well, I'm glad you had a good time. I'm glad you had a good time.

That is it for us today. Again, content out tomorrow, back live Wednesday. Yeah, a lot to do still. So appreciate you guys watching. We'll be back in a couple of days. And until then, for Malka, for Showtime, for CBS Sports, for the King of Connecticut, I'm Luke Thomas. May all of your gains be loyal.