MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Joshua Van vs Manel Kape Next? | Vallejos Highlight KO & UFC Vegas 112 Recap | UFC on ESPN Legacy

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Reville Reville, Donks. It's time for a Monday edition of Morning Kombat! The fellas go over the results from UFC Vegas 112, starting with Manel Kape finishing Brandon Royval in the first round. Did Kape earn his shot at the flyweight title against Joshua Van? In the co-main event, Kevin Vallejos unleashed a highlight-reel KO of Giga Chikadze. Former Bellator MMA champion Yaroslav Amosov made quick work of Neil Magny in his UFC debut. Where does Amosov fit in the absolutely loaded welterweight division? The guys also discuss the legacy of the UFC on ESPN, plus more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Revely, revely. Look at us now, tip to tip. Oh, Jesus. Oh, ha. Do you want a margarita? Oh, my God.

It's us doing what we love. Two, three, three. It's time to bang. Oh, yeah, it's Monday morning. Get fired up. Morning combat. Directly back in your face hole live and direct from the Metal Arc Studios here in Manhattan. Hey, it's December 15th, 2025.

I'm Brian Campbell. That is Luke Franklin Thomas. And Luke, I don't need to tell you with a feel. feels like of five at the train stop this morning at 5 a.m. That it's cold as a witch's tit. It was, ooh, do I sound modulated? How do I sound? I sound super modulated in my ear.

I'm not sure what that is. Well, that's terrible. It'll be AIDS. Yeah, I sound like a robot in my own ear. I don't know what that is. Anyway, to answer the question, oh, that's a little bit better now. To answer the question, BC, I looked at the thermometer this morning.

It said 17 degrees when I got up at 3.45. Oh, wow. And I was like, do I just want to, maybe I'll just jump in front of the train. Okay, that's too much. I was thinking more like take the toaster into the bathwater or something like that. But there it is. Let's celebrate that. Self-death.

There we go. No, we have a fantastic show for a day, a loaded show. I'm going to look back at all things that was in the final combat weekend, at least major combat weekend as UFC closed out the ESPN era with a late night fight night card from the apex. PFL put a wrap on its main card for 2025. We will also be reacting to breaking news about Ilya and in a moment some breaking news about this show. I still sound modulated in my ear. I don't know why that is. We can fix the modulate. Where's Ken when you need? Ken, are you over there? Let's go. Ken's working on it. Put the ball on it. Put the ball on it. Oh, Ken's working

I didn't hit the bong first, then we'll do it. Yeah. That voice you hear, by the way, the third member of our program, the producer, director, bong enthusiast, of course, and of the proprietor of the Main Card Minute podcast, one Luke Long Island, Nocita, L-I-L, how is it? It's good, boys. How are we doing today?

We doing. We doing. We doing. We doing. Big announcement. In mansions and benzes, giving ends to my friends, and it feels stupendous. Yeah, tremendous cream. There you go. Sorry, we're dealing with the bunch of it. shit back here, guys. I got too many people talking.

All right. Well, that is a great conversation. I'd like for you, though, if you like this program, then like, subscribe, tell a friend, spread it around like a freshman year dorm STD, and subscribe to our extended YouTube channels and everything we've got going on, including that great prop quiz on the main card minute. Did you watch the, thank you, did you watch the Oscar Willis versus Brocomoto episode? I heard good, I did not see it. However, I did hear very good things about the episode. including that old Okamoto choked at the finish line. Is that true?

More like Chocamoto. Chocomoto, yes. There we go. So, spoiler alert, check that out as well. You can reach the show by emailing morningcombat at gmail.m. Friday, you know, dead wrongs, fan subs, whatever you got going on. Wherever you and Saul are hanging out in Louisville over the weekend, I'm sure it's documented. And also, I think that's about it.

Is that about it? Morningcombat.combead.com, shop, but we can come back to that. All right. RIP, Rob Reiner. I mean, I learned of it by watching that Trump's truth social post. You know what? I'll just say this. I mean, it's not really anime related,

but there was just a lot of tragedy in the world over the weekend. Yes. There was the Australian shooting, then the brown one, then Rob Reiner. Then Tupteria got blackmail. Alleged. Okay, okay. We'll talk about that in a minute. Yeah, yeah.

Wow, that's a trumped arrangements syndrome put him down. He's got some. That's a wild ride right there. Let's get into our breaking news about this program, some very bittersweet news this morning, if you can put the camera on me, Brian Campbell. As many of you know, my parent company, CBS Paramount, I've been there nine years.

One of the best jobs I've ever had in my life has acquired the rights, of course, the UFC Zoufa boxing, and a lot of changes are coming. And with that, my role in CBS sports is not only changing. It is growing rapidly, so rapid that it, It's tough to say today, but it is the truth.

I will be stepping away from morning combat in 2026. My final episode will be Monday, January 5th, 2026. It was never the plan to have it announced this abruptly. It's sort of just how it all worked out. But to begin to use the word bittersweet would certainly not even come close to describe the emotions today. As you know, from listening to Luke and I, It's been a rough couple of years professionally for us since the fall of Showtime abruptly and picking up the pieces, getting this show back on the streets was a long battle.

And I'm very proud of what we've done. But two years of juggling paychecks all over to get the opportunity to go solid and go all in with my company is an offer. I can't refuse. So Luke Thomas, it doesn't bring me joy to announce this, but it is major news to a program that we built together almost seven years the most fun I've ever had of anything I've ever done in my career and the thing I'm most proud of by the way this news isn't easy to deliver and it obviously has an effect on the future of this program yeah I mean do you remember that phone call I gave you when we were in New York it was 2019 before the show started and we were describing like what

the game plan was and like don't sign this and just wait yes and I don't know what you had in mind about what this could be, but, you know, there's been some challenges, but I think it over-delivered relative to what that phone call and the promise of that meant. I don't know if you feel that way. I do, because at that time, I was hosting a show on Fox for PBC an interview show that was doing well, was getting great ratings, but the news came across that, like, it's going to get canceled after one year. And it's like, that's this business. You just never know what's going to happen and no I didn't if you would have told me seven years strong multiple award winning duo headlining podcast festivals sold out space in london and you know seven doc documentaries uh you know

literally documenting the growth of men the ups and downs of the life that we've shared with all of our listeners I'm very very proud of what we've accomplished in the connection that we've built with the fans and you'll hear me echo that uh you know as we get close to to January 5th, and hopefully we can have a big going away bash episode that does justice to what we've built. But thank you, Luke Thomas, for being my huckleby.

Yeah, I have a couple things to say, if I may very quickly. I mean, this is really about you today. One thing more broadly, as BC indicated, we're going to have a Jan 5th show and that will be one where we talk about the show, the two of us. It's a shame we couldn't have it on Jan 6.

In DC, come on, come on. It's a shame we couldn't have it on Jan 6, but we will talk about what we built together on that day. I just have one thing I think I would like to say, which is, listen, I mean, there's many things I could say, to be honest with you. But the only thing I think is appropriate at the present moment. Two, two things. Okay. So one, people are going to say, well, then what is the future of MK? Let me just say this.

There is a future. M.K. will continue. Which I greatly support and I'm excited about. We had many conversations, BC and I had many conversations are like, what do we do here, given the reality of things? And so the plan is to continue. Now, you're probably asking, well, what does that mean? Details to come. Right.

All right. We're crossing T's and dotting eyes as we speak. So today, unfortunately, I don't have the full plan I can just delineate to you, but you're probably going to know in pretty short order. I don't imagine it's going to be that much longer before you know. Obviously, we have to move pretty quickly, given the reality of things. There's going to be some familiarity, though, in the future. Yeah, I would say, I would say, how do I put this? Expect familiar faces.

Maybe it's a good way to put that, something like that. So there's that. But I think for today, the only thing I would want to say to you, BC, is, I mean, listen, you know, they're taking very good care of you at CBS, which I know, you know that I know that. So what I'm about to say is not in any way about that. but I here's one thing I do know they're lucky to have you and the reason why I know that

is not because is one reason it's because we were lucky to have you and I know that and I know you're going to make me cry here okay I don't know I'm being serious like we were lucky dude like this I want you to understand something I've worked with a lot of people you know me I don't work well with others

that that way you know me i have no soul i mostly don't like people including myself and i don't work well with others for the most part but dude there was never i was thinking about this the other day there was never and i mean never a day a fucking a moment where i had to question your commitment to this project where i had to question what you worked for i mean there was there was this moment Listen, there's been times where, like, you're like, I don't like mango, and I'm like, clearly this is the dumbest motherfucker on the planet. But I'm being serious, dude, like I, as a business partner and as a friend, obviously, you did everything I could have possibly asked for and then some. I never, ever had to worry about whether you cared.

I never, ever had to worry about whether you sometimes had to worry about whether you were high on air. But that's a separate conversation, but you understand what I'm saying. like I I know that CBS is lucky to have you dude because we were lucky to have you this this went fucking great you're saying that means the most to me and also we have an opportunity to bring people joy and every time I hear that back from the people I know that we did something special so we'll have a lot more talk on on romanticizing the great history between us and I appreciate the kind sentiments also you might have questions BC what does that mean for you moving forward still to come still to come some of that's still being worked out this this came together relatively very very unnaturally quickly a restructuring of a deal and i'm very obviously i'm very excited about it my my twins who my twin sons who mean anyone that knows me knows

that that that's my focus in life and to get to get them the opportunities they deserve in life and they're starting college in the fall so this is this deal lines with everything good that could have happened in my life so um thank you thank you very much, everybody. There we go. It wasn't easy to deliver, but it's the truth. And MK lives on, and I think that's the best news of that. Before we move on, do we, did we, do we, do we get everything there

Snides? More or less? Okay, all right, I just want to make sure we didn't fuck it. Oh, no, no, no, wait. Now, now it's time to profit. Oh, yeah, sorry. In true American fashion, folks, because of this great tragedy, we now want you to buy,

you can buy pieces of my body. No, all Brian Campbell, BC, branded clothing. If you go to morningcombat. Dot shop right now, 50% off. Any t-shirt with my face on it, some average Joe Art described cartoon equivalent of my face

and any poster, 50% off morningcombat. Dot shop. Also, we have December exclusives of the Masters of the Universe Collection and also mix and match colors, get an autographed poster, all the merch you can handle, ever green items available. We'll head to morning combat dot shop. If we're going to cry about this together, let's at least profit while we cry.

Yeah, let's make some money while we cry. Let's go with that right there. All right. Other breaking news before we get into the final apex fight night of 2025 for the UFC and to close out the ESPN era was what Ilya Teporia shared through social media overnight, the idea that he is now officially confirming what we sort of knew all along and by the creation of the January 24th, Justin Gae, Patty Pimble, interim, lightweight title fight.

We knew that personal issues was going to cause Ilya Tuporia to step away. Well, now he's come public for his one and only statement, he says, to protect his children, that, yes, it seems these divorce rumors are confirmed, but it goes a little bit deeper than that, a potential extortion plot, potential accusations of domestic violence, which Tuporia is greatly denying.

Luke Thomas, this adds some unfortunate delays to the career of, you know, arguably the biggest breakout star in the sport of the past couple of years. A two-division champion, a guy that you've championed a lot. You don't normally like to get into the, you know, salsi, the salsa behind the scenes here, but the behind-the-scenes stuff have affected what happens inside the cage. What do you make of the Tuporian? Yeah, I mean, like, when it comes to, like, people's average, ordinary day-to-day relationships and romantic ones, I just don't care.

and it's not our business but this is a little different in part because he's making it public that's the first thing i'd say and the other one is this in recent months he writes i have been subjected to severe and unacceptable pressure including threats to disseminate false allegations these are what again this is what he is saying to disseminate false allegations of domestic abuse unless financial demands were met these allegations are entirely unfounded the truth is not a matter of opinion it is a matter of evidence i'm almost done all relevant evidence that has been carefully preserved and documented, including audio recordings, written communications,

witness statements, and video material. The evidence has been submitted to the appropriate judicial authorities in order to pursue legal action for attempted extortion, falsification of evidence, misappropriation of funds, and personal property, and multiple threats. Now, B.C., he does not indicate who is behind what he is suggesting is an extortion scheme. Obviously, though, there has been a lot of rumor-mongering

around the was apparently a breakup of his marriage. Again, we don't really know exactly what the detail is. Again, he is alleging that he's being extorted, but BC he also kind of introduced, hey, I'm being extorted because someone is going to falsely accuse me of domestic violence and it's like

or domestic abuse, I should say, which maybe is distinct. I'm not sure. Either way, BC, sounds real fucking bad. Yeah, it does. It does. We're not surprised unfortunately because news like this affects a lot of combat sports athletes. in some degree, but him being having to step away.

From an MMA standpoint, Luke Thomas, we have no idea how long he's going to be out, but does it put more onus and prize on the Pimbled Gachy fight? Yes, it does. Again, I don't hate the Pimbled Gachi fight. I don't hate it. I think it's a good fight. I don't even mind under these circumstances

that they're having a fight for a number one, well, essentially a number one contender, but for interim title. We've been over this. The debate is whether Armin should have been in it. I do think that he should have been. he knows what he did look apparently he might be the only one because we certainly do not but um anyway the point i'm trying what was the fight question uh does it make gachi

pimblit more more sturdy as a title fight knowing that we don't know when and if tipporia is going to return i mean just a day earlier there was news where tippori is like i'm not going to be an m mhm a lot much longer because i'm terrible going back too so he often said he was he indicated that he didn't want to come back very soon but the reality is dude i mean you know splits like this are insanely ugly and a thing to remember is it's like maybe here in the United States we see we you know he's a big MMA star but he's not like a huge American media presence but in Spain you know they're they're obsessed with their celebrities there as you can well imagine and Spanish tabloid culture is vicious um they're going to eat them alive dude

they're going to eat them alive. And I think having concerns about what that's going to, assuming that there's no law enforcement component, but even if there's not, dude, this is the blast radius on breakups like this are kind of insane. It is. This is hitting the sport kind of hard today because it makes it a lot more serious than I'm having

some personal issues, relationship issues. I'm going to, you know, delay my return. Now we don't know ultimately what the future holds right. there. So more to come in the future for a lightweight champion, Ilya, Tuporia, in terms of updates of a potential return. But let's hit now the top of our show officially with our first of five topics. And it was the end of an arrow Saturday in Las Vegas at the UFC Apex, the final fight card for the UFC in 2025, also doubling as the final fight card in the seven-year

UFC ESPN and ESPN Plus relationship. More on that to come. But in the main event, fly weights, we saw. Manel Cop potentially take a massive step forward to the idea of fighting for that 125-pound title by finishing Brandon Royval and less than a single round. And now with Cop, seven wins in his last eight fights, five by stoppage. And now with this impressively efficient knockout of the former title challenger in Brandon Royval, you have Cop calling out the champion Joshua Van, identifying cities, months, times, and even challenging to take his diapers alive.

Whatever the heck that means. Luke Thomas, is there any argument against 7 and 1 in his last eight fights, five knockouts, Manel Cop getting the first shot at Joshua Van? I don't think so. I think this is the guy. He's a weirdo. That post-fight call-out was one of the worst I've ever heard. It was truly, did he, was he, did he take malaria medicine or something?

I don't know, but your daddy's here. I mean, I actually wrote it down, Luke. I actually wrote it down. Can you read it because it was truly, I mean, he was trying to cook. Yeah. And he just couldn't get the burning home. You turn the burner on, it just clicks. It just won't work.

Click, click, click, click. Here we go. Here was Milka. Now, baby, listen, very well. I'm here. Your daddy is going to take your diapers alive on a new deal, Paramount deal. I'm going to take your diapers alive.

Be ready. Luke Thomas. I'm going to take your diapers alive. What does that mean? I mean, what does that mean? What does that mean? Has this. man visited a Joseph A. Baker, what?

What is happening here? Jokes aside, that was some pretty lame trash talk, but I do love the villainous behavior of cop outside of the homophobic slurs. Dude, he's the good. He's the guy. He's the guy. He's the boogeyman right now. Brandon Roy, I saw this, has I think, something like 12 fights in the UFC,

B, all of them against ranked opponents. All of them. He is in a male cop, a very there's always a little bit of weirdness that surrounds him. They've tried to make that Royville fight three or four times before it eventually got through. There's always fouls, as we indicated, that kind of surround what happens.

And this fight, BC, to me, he just did what he does really, really well. We talked about his ability to cover distance with the backhand, his speed, his accuracy. You saw that. Those are some mean shots. Not only the one that dropped Royval, but then that one with the right hand down below. And, you know, listen, Royville looked like he was in shape. Royval has fought credentialed opponents. And I like that kick he was throwing because you saw a cop trying to go down.

a lot. They were trying to greet him with it. They were trying to use the weapons that they had to get the job done. And, hey, it didn't work. And a part because you could see he tried to punch with him when he was back up against the fence. And that was a fatal error. But Brandon Wivel is an experienced competitor who had a good idea about some things he wanted to do in this fight. Cop is just on fire. 32 years old, if you're going to give a guy a title shot at flyweight, giving it close to the end of his prime is probably not the ideal, but it's not outside of a good spot to give it to him. And not for nothing he's a live threat i think to either josh fan to pantogia yes are you really going to say that you can look at monocop and think i know he can't beat any of those top guys maybe he does

maybe he doesn't bc but we often talk about well did you earn it you know did you get to a number one spot that's one question he already did that a separate question is okay but do we actually think that this person even as a number one contender can win i do i mean just the fact that van and royval went you know kind of life or death in a fight of the year candidate it and then cop comes in and just mows him down i mean that's a statement right there also uh keoggi heraguchi is going to be in the co-main event of the first uh ufc fight night of the paramount era septemberary 7th in the apex uh who's the opponent um be ralbos in a very good fight so that really opens the door that it's got to be cop next now in that post fight call out with the i'll

take your diapers rant uh cop wanted van in houston which is the city van and his family moved to when they came over from Myanmar, and he wanted it as early as February. So Van took to social media and seemed to confirm it by tweeting Houston, Texas, at Manel Cop, let's run it, talk is cheap, and he added out the UFC. So Cop at the post-fight pest conference talked more about Joshua Van, and yes, you could guess it was spicy enough that we had to make a phone call and dial C for Cuervo because it's time for a little bit, shots fired. And you already know that shots fired is brought to you by Cuervo.

Now is a good time to enjoy the tequila that invented tequila. Here is Minnell Cop talking about what he going to do to Joshua Van. If you do get the title shot, can you get out, can you get out, can you get it? Well, what the fuck is that? This is the remix. That's the remix version. That clip is fucking corrupt. Hey, I'm going to take your diapers alive. Well, you know, it was going to be a great clip.

Spoiler alert on what he said. He said he's going to be Van's worst nightmare. He's going to finish him. Luke Thomas, there doesn't seem to be any reason why the UFC, not only A, wouldn't make this next, but flyweight to keep a busy calendar. I mean, Van fought, what, like five times in 12 months coming into that. Could we see this as a main or co-main event for a PLE?

not in February because there's no PLEs that month because we're doing back-to-back weeks to kick off the Paramount era but like March, you could see this, right? Yeah, and I also feel like this is one of those fights where, I mean, one of those divisions where, like, you know, UFC's going to be like, hey, we need to fill a slot. Like, you may not get a full amount of time, but you just got to kind of make due.

So I think they're going to kind of test all the contenders here to kind of see who really wants it. I mean, we'll see, you know, we'll see what they're planning looks like. I think cops should be favored over a van. That's not crazy. That's not crazy talk. Cop favored over Van. Deeper experience.

Just knocked out the guy that Van had the breakthrough win against. Yeah. Yeah, you know, because I don't want to play too much MMA math. As you indicated, you went a little bit of tooth and nail, Van did with Royville. And then Royville got blasted out like Khan inside of a cop, excuse me, inside of a round. Yeah, yeah, I could see that. If it was a different cop, we'd be like, shut the fuck up, you little prick. Shot the fuck up, your little prick.

We may not have had the clip we wanted for shots fired, but when cop speaks, shots are always getting fired here's cop breaking down how much of a star remember he's what angolan born and but resides in portugal him making a statement of how big of a star he is in the sporting culture in portugal we always see the the the cr 7 christian rinaldo celebration after they win so what do you think that would do for you say you get the title fight you know on a big stage and the whole world sees you do that celebration you know from a that's you know a tribute to a global icon it will be amazing it will be amazing you know uh i born in angola I represent my country very, very well, always in my blood.

I come from mother of Africa. But I grew up in Portugal, and I played soccer for a long time. That's why I celebrate the way I celebrate. I never forgot my route, you know, where I burned, and never forgot where I grew up. So this is something mean to me. Because in Portugal, Christian Ronald is the famous thing, big thing, and second person there is Manel. And right now in sport in Angola,

I'm the big thing there. Luke is Manel cop number two to Cristiano Ronaldo in Portugal? Well, I was in Lisbon over the summer and I saw a lot of iconography of CR7. I don't see a whole lot. Nobody grabbing any diapers alive. You know what? I forgot.

There was a sign, there was a big billboard in one of the main thoroughfares that said, I'm going to take your diapers alive. I don't know how you say that in Portuguese, but that's what they wrote. Listen, it doesn't matter if he is or he isn't. Portugal is a growing market, but this is not some kind of geographic priority for the UFC,

and I don't think really matters. What really matters is, did this guy earn it? Is he a threat? And could this be a fun fight? And I think the good news for Menel Kopp is it checks all three, right? It really does. It's going to be a good fight. He can win it, and he deserves it.

And look, he's a fun villain. He really is. He delivers in the cage with finishes. He delivers often on the microphone. A lot of hits with those, A lot of misses with those hits, but right guy, right time, division turned upside down. Let's go, van versus cop, cop, cop versus van, however you want to do it right there. Luke, should we be concerned, though, about the multiple memes on X of putting cop in a bra?

I mean, are you seeing this? Luke, let's play a new segment called Gyno or not Geino? That's not great. All right. You know, that's not great. That's definitely a problem. Okay. I mean, your former favorite toy in the box, Israel-Ata-Sanya has that same thing.

Which, you know, mysterious circumstances, let's say. That was Schatzfire brought to you by Cuervo. Now's a good time to enjoy the tequila that invented tequila. To stay on top of this topic a little bit more at age 33, Luke. What do we feel like is left for Brandon Royval? And is there a strategic adjustment or evolution to his game that is not only possible, but would be necessary if he has hopes of making one more run to the top of the amount. Yeah, I mean, listen, he's come, I mean, this fight didn't go great, obviously, for him.

But, B.C., you would agree he's largely competitive with the top of this division. He's a step short, seemingly every time, but he's always, for the most part, there, or, you know, or pretty close. I'm going to say it's a couple things. I think the physicality of the game is not, he's got a little bit of Diaz in him with that sort of that lankiness that sometimes can show up when he can really get moving downhill. but that somewhat is stylistically dependent. That's a big problem. The other thing I'm going to sort of point out here is, you know, he gets hit a little too much, B.C. I mean, some guys can afford to do that if they've got, you know, if Josh Van gets hit a lot,

but he's 24, right? So his chin is not completely compromised. I'm not saying that Royville's chinny. I'm saying he's just much further down the road in terms of punishment that he's absorbed. But to me, it's like getting on that jab. Dude, I just see this all the time. It just blows my mind how much, you know, again, and Royville's skilled and has a And definitely, again, I thought some of what he was trying early in that fight,

I really liked what they had an idea for. But I just really believe you, if you, if wrestling is not going to be a lights out defensive phenomenon for you, your jab better be. Yeah. And I think, you know, that's not going to fix all the problems. I think some strength and conditioning could fix it as well. But I do believe that the ability to dictate range and make guys make bad choices at the end of your jab is just a game changer in modern.

Maybe mix in some takedowns. Cop's got pretty sturdy takedown. He has great take-down defense, yeah, yeah, yeah. But if you're going to do a take-down attempt that you know is going to fail, but you're setting up some other kind of offense, sure. They had mentioned on the broadcast that Cop had said in the fighter meetings that he felt Royval didn't respect the power of his opponents. That was certainly the case against Van when it seemed like Royval's whole game plan

was, I'm just going to blitz him full on the whole time for 15 minutes and see if he can take it. To his credit, he took it. You think that's what ultimately caught up to Royval in this fight against Cop, just not having enough respect cop was backing him up throughout in that first round before finishing you know i looked at the finishing sequence and he gets him backed up as you indicated and then kind of stutter steps as he's moving into range and you can see him draw back and and it looked like you can watch the decision making of royville he tries to greet him because remember

previously before that cop had been kind of going down to the body and i think he thought he was going to catch him coming in going down to the body and instead he got caught coming upstairs right So he was trying to play almost like a speed anticipation game with him while backed up against the fence. And that's just real, real risky to do that. And also cop, fast hands, dynamic finisher. If he gets you hurt, I think that's a pretty good way to put it. He was just, he miscalculated. And you know, you've got to be real, real careful when you're up against the cage like that.

And I think you've got defensively a little bit lax and one mistake against guys this good. I mean, of that seven and one run for cop, which came after losing his first two UFC, fights five of those have been by knockout three consecutive so let's go to our betting expert long island luke no ceda i teased it earlier i think cop should actually be the betting favorite how would you what what line would you assign for this title fight yeah it's a tough one man i might go pick them on this like minus 110 either direction is it what's your hesitation on cop my hesitation on cop is his ground game but joshua van isn't going to test his ground game like mohammed macaa beat him by just taking him down i think if he faces a good wrestler he's

There's not really a good wrestler in the division right now. So, like, he's kind of got a wide open. I'll give cops, ah, no, I'm going minus 110 either direction. That's my interesting. Okay, okay. I'd be down with that. I'd take that. So, Manel cop breaking through in the main event.

But before we get into the co-main event and everything else on the card, it's time for your weekly history lesson here, because now's a good time to remember the story where the true story of where tequila's story truly began. Let me take it back to 1795. See this on my chest here, Cuervo. Yeah, they messed around and invented tequila. And since then, all Cuervo's been doing, staying true to its roots.

We're talking same family, same land. Most importantly, that same passion. Because 230 years later, Quervo is still right here. In every pore, in every margarita, in every celebration, and every morning combat pregame preview. So enjoy the tequila that started at all. Cuervo, the tequila that invented tequila. ProximoCuervo.com.

Please drink responsibly. Luke, unfortunately, I won't be in attendance for it, but our next morning combat pregame preview would have to be in the buildup to that January 24th. UFC 324 card on Paramount CBS. You know what I'm talking about in Las Vegas. Yeah, we'll see how that goes. Get ready for that right there.

Let's go into our second topic, which was the co-main event, the breakout run of 24-year-old Argentine. Let me get this right. How would Mrs. Thomas do it? Kevin Vajos. Pretty close. Yeah, thank you very much. Kevin Vajajos, boy, did he end it for Giga Chikaze with some high light reel spinny shit in round one.

And now the Argentine pocket rocket is 17 and 1 as a pro. Luke, look at this view from Cajside. Look at that. Good Lord. Another spinning knockout for 2025, which has been on a trend. 17 and 1, 12 KOs as a pro. The only lost that first Dana White Contender Series decision loss to G&LOS. Lord G.N. Silva. And now

this brutal K.O. of the veteran Giga Chikaze. The buzz for this featherweight killer is rising. What was most impressive to you, Luke, about El Chino's victory as he improved to 3 and 0 inside the Octagon? The brutality of it. I mean, he

looked a little I thought Giga won the first round. Didn't you? I thought Giga won the first round. I thought yeah. I don't think Kevin was overly impressive in that until until he was. Yeah. That was kind of my read. Now, he was being He was being, I think, intentionally a little careful, which was probably smart.

I mean, it worked out, right? So it was obviously smart. But what I'm saying is, you know, he didn't get to offensively shine right away. He was fighting a very credentialed opponent. He was fighting a very rangy opponent and a dangerous one, a dangerous kicker, as we indicated. You know, Giga won that first round. I thought Giga hurt him a little bit with some of those shots to the body. They were pretty impressive.

But for a young guy like this to persevere, come back in round two, and you could see he was steering Giga Chikazi into that, into that power hand, and then to get him to move in that direction again, up against the fence, dude. Up against the fence is such a different scenario, even just one or two feet in front of the cage. It's a completely different thing, and he gets absolutely iced in BC.

Once he gets hit with it, he doesn't even have an opportunity to rally because on his collapsed descent to the mat, he gets hit with another one, And then he kind of goes like both arms are back, you know, landing without being able to break. One of the things they look for is do you brace yourself when you land? And, of course, he cannot even brace himself. And then, you know, Bachejos is up there just fucking unloading on him.

Let's see you one more time. He is jacked by the way. He's fucking super jack. You're like, blah, ba, ba, ba, ba, bah, ba, those elbows. He closed the door to recovery before Giga even had an opportunity to try and turn the knob. He sealed it fucking shut. That kind of immediate brutality and finishing instincts, if you can build around somebody like that

who's got the power and the patience, I'm going to say, plus the smarts to set up a guy fading into your power side, which is what he was doing there, man, or the outside of the power side anyway, is, um, let's just be honest. It's very, very impressive.

Yeah, he gave him the Mazzie star, the fade into you. Uh, the only thing I didn't like about Kevin Veevesant. Vajos's breakthrough performance here in the co-main event was the call-out afterwards. And M.A. Twitter didn't like it either when he called out a retired all-action legend, of course, Cub Swanson. I could think of many more names in the top 15, including some veterans. How about Brian Ortega as a possible next appointment? But before we talk about that, here's Vajos standing up for what he's really trying to say

and why he thinks this call-out is perfect. Your call-out of Cub Swanson, why did you make that call-out? Seems like there might be some guys higher up that you could fight. We don't even know if Cubs are going to fight again. You know, Cubs has been training pretty much every fighter that they sent to fight me. Every time I'm fighting somebody, Cubs in the corner, so might as well come up and let's fight. And also, I mean, we're talking about the fact that the guy's a legend. The guy's got gracious boxing.

It would be amazing for us to go at it. And I want to be a legend hunter. I mean, there's so many out there to hunt and to get it. I want to be the person that actually fights them. So I think it would be great. I think it'll be a war. A great fight for everybody. You know what?

There's a little logic to this. That explains a lot better, but we still think his neck is whole. Dude, he has, I mean, his traps and neck situation. That's like a Canelo like build up there. Yeah, yeah. He's, he's diced of the fucking socks. Long Island Luke reminded me offline that Brian Ortega's moving up to lightweight

has a fight with Hanato Moikano. A rematch. but you get my point is that I could pick out other names I'd like to see him against but at the same time the way he explains that that Cub's been sort of the handpick guy in the gym that's been prepping the guys to fight him I don't know it's interesting what would you prefer for if you're thinking about it we have something here they have something here and this division needs that this division has gone through a lot of turnover to pouria out holloway out you have an aging champion back on top they're throwing Diego Lopez at him a second

time you have two number one contenders who the UFC didn't want either of them to be in the next title fight. And then you've got some people that show Flash in the top 10. Lord Silva was one of them until that defeat. Obviously, he's going to have a chance to bounce back coming up soon. But if you want to build him to be a star, what is the next fight?

Well, I just want to say, I understand, like, when Patty Pimbley is just beaten unks after unks and then Buckley did it too, I mean, obviously that came to an end with Buckley against Usman, but as a general proposition, like, I sort of get it, right? Let's pick on someone who's got a big name who's

Yeah, and then aging and go after it. The problem is you've got to pick on someone who's still actively competing. And I think, this is, what do you have here? Oh, God. Is this the kind of thing where, oh, you got to spit that? I got to spit it alone. Oh, this is so MK.

It's disgusting. I mean, wow, wow. We haven't seen this since Luke puked in the sink after that room, after that rooftop pregame preview we did. Wow, the phlegm has exited the building. How gross was that, right? All righty then. Yeah, look, I think you want a kind of name you can build to.

I mean, long out of Luke. Let's just wait for him to come back, right? How many dirty looks did you get out there throwing up in the garbage can? A few, maybe. Or do you think they realized how much I looted from the fridge earlier today? I was not going to swallow that. Wow. I just spit up in abortion.

That was just what I... Okay, okay. You just took that... Wow, okay. This is why I'm leaving the show, people, all right? Luke, I don't even know where you were because I was so taken off by that. So who should Kevin fight next?

Dan Igay? Ooh, Pitbull. Pit bull would be perfect. That'd be a fun one, right? All right, what do you... We'll slug it out with him. Normally, if we're going to mention Michael Bisping's commentary on here, unfortunately, it's negative.

I don't think he did an abrasive job on Saturday. By the way, Laura Sanko was great on Saturday and she was wearing like the 1920s mobster suit with like the gun holder and I'll just say this about Laura very quickly you can like her dislike her commentary everyone everyone's going to have preferences show me somebody on that broadcasting team who does more prep in the color side of the obviously Fitzgerald and Annick they you know they go crazy but on the color side of commentary she does the homework and it shows indeed uh Bisping had an interesting comparison not an apples to apples comparison he said ultimately but he said

does Vajahos remind you of another young featherweight knockout artist in Ilya now he's more compact and shorter but the way he carries his hands the way he has responsible defense the way he's got that sort of one punch power did you get it are you getting any of the feels

from a young featherweight Tuporia that you're seeing in Kevin Vajos Kevin Vajin how about that? Not yet not yet but he's well on his way he's He doesn't need to be the next to pour you.

I don't know. Like, am I feeling like that? And exactly no, but clearly he is good. Clearly he has got a bright future. He's super young. We need to celebrate as many of these younger fighters that we can who have had success more recently, him being one of them, obviously.

I don't exactly know where it's all headed. If they put him in a comming at 24 like they did on Saturday, against a decent name in Giga, they got big plans for him. And he's jumping out the screen. For sure, for sure. I just mean there are still a lot of unanswered questions about everything. That's all. I mean, eventually he's going to rematch Lord Silva and it's going to be fantastic, right?

Eventually. Do you remember that fight on Dana-Wikintender series? I haven't seen it in so long. I don't remember what happened in. Do you remember no Sita? It was a unanimous decision for John Silva. I don't really remember it like that. But if John Silva loses to Arnold Allen, I feel like you could actually make that fight next.

That's a good-ass fight. Rankin-wise, they're right. Yeah, you could. Luke, four losses in his last five now for the 37-year-old. year old Chikaze and he was brutally knocked out here. I think first time he got viciously ca-oed. PFL calling or what? This is, I mean, you know, we don't take any pleasure on this.

Like, it doesn't do anything for us to say any of this stuff, but like if you're 37, you're being, this is the way it goes, right? I mean, you did, you were like, we should do 50% off Giga shirts in our website. I got sold it too. I didn't say that, but the truth is, you know, we, some guys, the ending is very quick, but a lot of times what you'll see is exactly what you're seeing with Giga where they're losing and then it starts to get violently losing and it gets worse and worse. It's not fun to watch. It's just it's a life cycle of combat sports. The reality is if you're at that stage and you want to keep fighting, that's one decision to make. But if you're going to do it, you have to have it with recalibrated level

of opposition, right? Because it's just too dangerous to be fighting guys like this. Definitely, definitely. Have we seen enough about Kevin to know where the question areas might be in terms of a complete game? I'm not saying he's going to fight a top five guy next, nor should he? I think more veterans. He's saying he wants to be the Randy Orton legend killer. Like, that's fine. Be that guy. Yeah, the one dimension. And I'm I'm exaggerating. Okay. I'm exaggerating what the issue is. But something like the idea that he's got a little bit of a one dimensional game where if he can get to you with the boxing, clear, or you know, MMA boxing where you can do spinning back fist and stuff. Clearly it's formidable. But there's a question about whether or not

someone who is a little bit rangier than giga who has a great jab. Can he get around that? What if he's getting wrestled to death the whole time. How does he deal with that? Like, I mean, what does a Mofsar do to him? You know, these are unanswered questions. We just don't know. So this is why I'm like, is what we've seen really cool? Totally.

Yeah. But we're at the stage of the division now where the questions become much more significant. And we don't really know how a lot of this is going to go. Yeah, let's not put them on the Sage North Cup plan too soon here. El Chino, same nickname as Argentine boxing. hero Marcos Maidan. I remember asking Marcos ahead of the Floyd May with the first pay-per-view fight. How'd you get that nickname? He's like

I had slanted eyes as a kid so they thought I was Chinese. How is this nickname still prevalent in 2025? El Chino? Yeah. Okay. All right, let me explain this to you because this was a hard learning lesson for me in all right. Can a gringo tell this story? Let me be very careful about this.

First time Luke's had that thought on this show. Normally he's like, I'm Columbia. I'm the guy. I'm the guy. Okay. I don't want to overly generalize, but here's something that I've seen, and it's not specific to anyone, Latin American country. They, bro, if you're Korean, they'll call you El Chino. If you're Japanese, they'll call you El Chino. If you're anything like that, they'll call you.

Also, Chino can also mean boy. It can also mean boy. Oh, okay. It doesn't necessarily mean it. But, dude, like. So Maidana told me how he meant it. I don't know how Vigejos means. Yeah, I mean, bro, here's how you get a nickname in Latin America, and I'm dead serious.

If you show up a little bit overweight, they'll be like, oh, here's El Gordo. If you're, if you're, you know, like, whatever, whatever. Do you shit your pants as soon as you land in Volvat? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you know, you're the Luke Thomas. Like, if you have, you're ugly, they'll be like, oh, there's, you know, carafea. What do they call you, Lukeito? Yeah, so that's the other ways to do it. I'm just saying, like, they have ways of, like, both racializing nicknames, as well as just being very brutal in their, like, visible assessment of it.

But Chino can be boy. It can be a bunch of things. So I'm not sure, I'm not sure if it's just boy or, or excuse me, that's Chico, what am I saying? No, Gino, no, I don't think that's right. I think Chino, I don't fucking know anymore. Wow, we broke him today. Chikos and Chikas are boys and girls, right? Got it, but she knows.

Oh, those are those short pants with the, uh. Oh, do you want me to call my, want to call my wife on the air? Yes, please. Let's call her. Let's call my wife on the air. Line one, here we go. Are you ready? I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it. I'm going to call my wife on the air. Will she be okay with this? About to find out. All right, all right. Ken says his friends used to call him Chino when he lived in L.A. Yeah, that sounds right. Mia Moore.

Wait, wait, what? You're on the air. You're on the air. I'm calling you on there. I'm going to make it quick. I'm going to make it quick. Okay. There's a fighter called El Chino.

He's from Argentina. Are they saying he looks Chinese? Yeah. No, not necessarily. I'm sorry, I mean, I call on second. No, no, necessarily. I mean, does he look at least. A little.

Not really. Not really. I mean, you know, in Colonna. Like a little bit of place. Okay. That could be the kid for that provider. But that looks a little bit of patient. Okay.

I feel like I'm just going to say something racist after this, so I'm just going to let it go. Yeah. I love you, M. Moore. Thank you so much. Tayamo. Bye. Great moments in MK history. So we got to the bottom of it.

There we go. Hey, let's move on to topic number three, the UFC Apex Undercard. And let's dig into those prelims because we found a PFLO fighter who could make the transition. And that came in the form of former Ukrainian. Army soldier, by the way, and former Bellator MMA Welterweight champion Yarasov Amasov, who finally made that UFC debut two years after exiting Bellator with that knockout loss to Jason Jackson.

He did some war time in the, of course, in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and he went in against Neil Magny and systematically took him down and submitted him. So, look, unlike Patricio Pitbull, Aaron Pico, patchy mix, and unfortunately this trend of Bellator stars coming in and just getting wiped out, Yaroslav advanced his pro record to 29 and 1 overall. He looked, tell me if we're wrong, he looked like as cut as possible.

Like, tremendous condition. Tremendous condition. So he's 32 years old. He has an insanely great record, beat a lot of names of guys that were either in the UFC or that we consider very high caliber of guys that are outside of it, blows away Magni. So at age 32, does Amosov appear to be ready for the top five? of the sports deepest division here at 170, right now? I'm going to say yes.

I'm going to say yes. Now, beating Neil Magnin by itself doesn't prove that. 29 and one record, it says something. 29 and 1, he rolled right over Magnet. I mean, Magnet, you know, brought the fight to him for a little bit, but the skill on the ground that Amosov showed was tremendous. Amosov, to me, looks a little slow physically. I don't think he's a spark plug in terms of, like, athleticism,

and I do think that's going to limit what his... his upside is. And his striking isn't at the level of like Islam. It's not. It's not. But he's young. He's experienced. He obviously has a ton of different skills. And dude, that finish of the Anaconda basically doing it from, I think it was either Mount or no, it was Halfcar because he had to put to pull the top leg out. And then the mechanics of the finish, both in readjusting the bicep grip and then using the leg on top to keep the one arm extended in a way. Dude, this was expert shit. I mean, he made that look effortless. And Neil Magny is, we know what he is. We know what he is, right? Is he the best fighter that they have? No, but he's a pretty good measuring stick.

If you can beat a guy like that, especially convincingly, you are going to have interesting fights at the top of the division. Of that, I can say... Tide for second, Magni, most wins in UFC history, right? Yeah, and again, beating him, it doesn't mean you're going to be a champion, but it means you're going to fight other interesting contenders and probably have some good fights along the way. Count me in, dude. Amosov was a guy that we've been, or Amosov, there's a different pronunciation of it, apparently. But in any case, he was a fun, his first fight with Logan Storley was one of the best fights that aired on CBS at the time when Belator was airing on CBS Sportsnet.

I remember that distinctly. I'm so glad he's here. He's here. Walter Waite is so freaking hot. And finally, by the way, a guy coming over from Bellator slash PFL to UFC, they started him off modestly with the right kind of test. They didn't put him on a big card. And he aced it.

Good. That's the kind of thing I want to see. And it speaks to his veteran savvy. He had that first round submission of Curtis Millinder, UFC vet earlier in the year on the regionals now comes out with this. So look, sports deepest division, you get another name added potentially here to the top 15 that we feel like is at least a dark horse to the title, maybe in the same way that we felt Reneer de Ritter was when he put together that quick little win streak coming over from

one championship. So Luke, even though Amosovs or a Mosov striking, not on the level of an Islam, when Islam did what he did at MSG to Jack Delamadalina and just controlled him wrestling-wise, what do we say after that? We're like, yeah, we want to see Islam against every big name in this division, but who maybe outside of Shavkat could potentially not get overwhelmed on the ground, could put up a real fight against that. Do you feel like if he worked his way all the way to a title shot against Islam, you certainly wouldn't favor him, but is he great enough on the ground that that is a potentially different fight than Islam would have against maybe

anybody else in that division? That's going to be more of it. I mean, this is where you're going to call upon Islam's well-roundedness, because I think Islam is probably better than just about anybody on the ground, but those differences could be marginal to where he can't really get much control or much ground-and-pound. And so the vast majority of his resources are going to have to be spent having a battle on the feet. And I think he'll probably do that. But to that point, BC, if you're making Islam steer away from what you do well in order to accommodate a different thing, that kind of speaks to the level here. I'm just excited to see him. I mean, just think about it. Amosov Buckley, sure. Amosov Gary. I mean, I don't think that's right around the

thing. Amosov Brady, two ground specialists. How does that go? Fucking A, let's go. How would we surmise Amosov slugging? I'm sorry, striking. He was stopped by Jason Jackson there. He's not known for that, but is it adequate for elite, elite play here? Is it enough to win a UFC title? I don't think so. But is it enough to make a great account for himself overall? I I do think so, yes. He's got stamina. Wow. Let's throw that video.

Remember throwback to when he was on the front lines of the war. This was him after the house he lived in in Ukraine got bombed. He went to the cross base below, pulled out his bellator title at the time he was the active defending champion. So, look, he got stopped by Jackson after wartime, correct? That's how the timeline worked because he found his own belt in the basement of the rubble of his house. Yeah, I think something like that. Remarkable. He was safekeeping it or whatever.

So at the press conference, I don't know if you heard this on Saturday, he gave a little message to those who like to refer to fights as wars, Luke, he don't like that. And when people said, can say like, hey, this is next fight, we'll be like war or maybe I go tomorrow to the war. Hey, people, guys, if you don't know what is it war, shut up. You can't talk about this because war, this is not act alone. This is not fighting. This is not like, this is different life. This is not like hard training, hard cut weight, something, something more. You can, you can death every second. And your friend can death. And this is different. And this is my country. Now, my country for years felt this. Luke, here is something you can't understand what it's potentially like on the front lines

to have to kill a man, you know what I'm saying? Don't be talking about wars anymore, all right? Yeah, I mean, it seems, I mean, I've never been, but the people I've talked to who go to war, they don't ever really glamorize it for the most part. How could you? They tend to treat it with solemnity. Yeah, indeed right there.

Wow. I found this interesting clip though because we're talking about what type of matchups would you like to see Amosov in this top 15 well everyone basically let's see what he's got did you hear back in November when Ian Gary was asked about the potential of Amosov coming into the division

I did not let's listen I wanted to ask you about a new signing that the UFC has done in a welterweight division Yaroslav Amosso do you know Amosso you guys said Bellator right yes how did that go when they came into the US see. The greatest fighter in the world

is the guy who holds the UFC belt. What? What? The Welterweight champion? Boss. Yeah. Right. Let me ask you a question. Whoever he is, I don't mean any disrespect to this man. Him versus Islamakashv. Get smashed.

I don't know who he is. Him versus me. Get smashed. Him versus Carlos Pratchez. Unconscious. Him versus Mike Morales. T.K.O. Him versus anybody in this division at the top of this sport. is a different, different division. And you are talking about the greatest division in UFC history right now.

The welterweight division right now, my friend, is the best in this sport. There is no conversation about it. So this guy, whoever he is, I feel sorry for him. You think Mr. Machado has a different tune after Saturday's fight, or are we building something? Did I just build something? A little bit. I mean, he's got a point, too. Like, I mean, honestly, you know, again, I live through the WEC coming over.

I live through pride coming over. I live through strike force coming over. they were a little bit pride had some issues actually early which folks don't remember but in general it worked out pretty well you know the veltor guys coming over the pfl guys coming over has not exactly gone as smoothly as those lately before that it did that's what i mean that's what i mean lately like this is this sort of last batch it's been a little bit not that great so i think it's all right to have a sense of hey you've got a lot more to prove here and also not for nothing gary's very good michael morales is very good yes carlos preaches is very heavy-handed these are actually

very big tests for him. But my point is, fuck it. Let's run it. Let's see what we got. If you take anything away from morning combat today, fuck it. Right? Let's go. Yeah, there it is.

Let's talk on that main card about Brazil's own featherweight growing knockout Keen Melke Costa, a head kick A-K-O of Morgan Charier in a fight that was basically a betting pickum on paper. Saw Costa improve to 5-0 with three stoppages since his zone. own knockout loss to Steve Garcia two years ago. So Luke, in two years, he's won five fights, knocked out three, elevating the names

each time. How impressed are you with the turnaround for Melchiesel coast? That was... That was so fantastic... Oh, Jesus. Oh, God. Oh, God. What happened?

Rob Reiner news. There's something just broke. Was it the son? Rob Reiner and son, Nick, get into heated argument at Conan O'Brien's party over the weekend and then he apparently made him hold them more allegedly all right what i'm trying to make is uh bc dude how do you not live milky milky costa how is that possible we were talking on the weekend or sorry on friday show about how fun he his game has really become and how much he's putting everything together and i don't know if you guys noticed when he threw the head kick it wasn't

accidental he was waiting because charierre charier he goes square as he moves and kind of like he kind of like waddles side to side i mean he's obviously athletic but i'm saying the the movement pattern and he got him right when he went square and then he threw the head kick. Yeah, it was like around the high. Yeah, so he went like this kind of thinking it was going to be down rather than two hands up.

Also, not for nothing, dude, like one hand up. That's like, that's not great. That's like being in a car accident and you're like, I have airbags but no seatbelt. It's like, that's not going to do the job all the time. So he had one hand down versus two hands up.

Anyway, dude, it was just well-timed, well-executed. They knew exactly what the plan is. Look at his visit. look at him understanding the mission he's just putting all the pieces of his game together and to me he's now owed a real ranked opponent how big because we want 11 to 15 the same division to match a little slower 24 coming up post has been around a little bit more i'll say 13 to 15 i mean you wouldn't hate dan e gay a name i mentioned for uh for for jejoos um i mean long out look

you believe her now in costa i mean i love the emotion by the way i think you were on a friday no he I said, I was just high. No, I said Morgan would win on Friday, but I have been high on Melki this whole, like, little run he's on. I think I like Pipple. Patricio Pipple. All right. I wouldn't hate that either. We got to build toward, thrown in here a lot. We got to build towards Steve Garcia rematch. Do you know what it would be cool? I mean, I don't know what you want to do with it, but like, don't forget about Pico. Pico's still in this division. What are they going to do with him? I don't know. Send him to the Dan & What Contender Series? I honestly don't know. I honestly don't know. All right. Let's keep on down that main card. We did have a heavyweight bout

poor UFC rules every apex card must have a heavyweight bout. It was one of the grossest that I've seen in a long time with weird scoring, a point deduction, gassing out, people in full mount for a full minute and not stopping the fight. But in the end, Marcus Buccia Almeida fell to five, two, and one as a pro

following this weird-ass draw with Kennedy and Zetichu. Luke, you and I were texting each other, basically what everybody else was tweeting at the moment. And in fact, friend of the show, duty over there from She Loves the Gloves, tweeting, I don't know who needs to hear this, but Buccecha is exceptionally bad at M.M. Damn, duty.

Just harden the paint there, bad at MMA. Luke, should we change his nickname based on the text exchanges we had to Buccecha, poochetcha, or butt cheek chicha after, jokes aside, the experiment of the crossover of one of the greatest BJJ guys of this era to elite MMA is not working out for it. I think also Boutetia could also work. Yes, yes. You know, it's kind of funny.

By the way, the pronunciation of his name, because it's Marcus Almeida, is his real name. I've heard it Bouchetia. I've heard it Bouchetia, where, like, you put the emphasis on the last one. Can we just keep your wife on hold, please? Well, that's Portuguese. It's different.

And then I've heard Buccecha, where it's a C.H, not an S-H sound. So I don't fucking know how you pronounce his name. Yeah. Oh, my God, dude, he's so bad. I can't believe. I can't, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, If you watch this fucking guy rain hell over sport jiu-jitsu, this is so shocking and so surprising.

He doesn't take punches well, which, okay, a lot of guys don't. That's not necessarily fatal by itself, although it's a problem. Yeah. But the biggest thing that surprises me is, A, he struggles on takedowns, which, okay, also by itself not fatal, but the real big one is he cannot pin. He cannot pin. He has a very difficult time. He can't really strike either, even when he's in full mount, Luke.

I just don't get it. He has a hard time holding someone down. Yeah. And it's like, dude, these Russians, like, when these Russians go into jiu jitzy tournaments, like you've seen, for example, I want to make a point. One does this. Well, they'll have Mikey Musamechi or one of the Rua Tolo brothers fight some guy from Sambo who's like a world champion.

And they'll fucking, the Rua Tola brothers would just run them over, shred their knee completely. in these grappling context the jiu-jitsu guys are clearly better but when it comes time to translate to MMA the wrestling and the judo that comes with Sambo and then the pinning that they're good at

automatically translates so much better I cannot believe I cannot I'm I'm it is a heartbrae as a guy who was in the 2010s a Bouchetia super fan oh it pains me to watch this it does pain and you know it's like

well we don't mean to dunk on him but like it's it's As they're going to the decision, I'm like, okay, he probably won this, but they still might cut him anyway. I was that's what my mind was thinking. Then they're like, draw, and you're like, of course, let's run it back next week. And the draw made sense because he did lose the first to third round. And we should say Kennedy was just fouling him. I mean, the eyepokes were terrible.

And then the fence grabs too. They took a point away, though, on the eye poke. They did, which is how he got the 10-8 in the second round. So then he lost the first and the third round. And it's fine. But, like, dude, for the third round to end, for Kennedy to be in top position with, same side risk control and using that to pin and then land a hammer down

and then Bouchetia being flattened down. I'm like oh my fucking God bro. How did this happen? How did this happen? Yeah. It's disappointing. So do you serve him up to that Steve Hokit guy, Josh Hokit, whoever that guy, the NFL guy with the American band-dana? They probably will, yeah. All right, well, speaking of

breakthrough preliminary card weird heavyweights, who may or may not have a very good story, Stephen Asplund Nicknamed is What's his nickname? Concrete like his father But I call him

I'll suck your toes, Dana For an opportunity, Asplund This bit he does? Yeah, did the nipple bit But in his UFC debut Has somewhat of a, you know, good story, he was once 525 pounds He withered his weight down

And Luke, look at the difference between him You gotta give him that credit For the life turnaround that he's done here Oh, no question He doesn't hide from the flabby body but he gave like a speech as if he won an Emmy Award afterwards and got everybody involved. Are you moved by this as a good story or is this like, is he doing enough to turn you off at the same time? I mean, look, I mean, look, right?

Everyone I see wants to focus in on one part of the story, which is the legitimately cool part of the story. And there is. And didn't he said a striking record, most significant strikes on a heavyweight fighting a round or something like that? He just missed it, but he did it in two rounds where Cormi, has the record in a five round. Okay. So he stopped Sean Shiroff in two ways. Yeah, so two things. One, he does have a fan-friendly, pretty good fight style, which you got to love. Yeah.

Second of all, the dude saved his own life. I love that part of it. Like, you just can't hate on that. You cannot hate on someone to over 500 pounds. What is, I mean, I'm being dead serious. What is your life expectancy when you're that heavy? Like, Thursday is the answer. You're not going to make it.

He saved his own life and turned out to be a. decent MMA fighter because that's exactly what he is and he's a dog but i'm also just going to say this dude like if this is the state of your heavyweight division your division is in disrepair you know and i'm not trying to be it sounds like i'm being insulting i'm not trying to be like the story of a guy rescuing himself and turning into a pretty decent athlete is nothing but commendable but if you had premier talent in your division we wouldn't even be talking about him that's just the reality. If you had Verdume, Overim, Barnett, Coutre, all the guy, Brock, Fedor, ProCop, if you had that era of heavyweights, we're not even having this conversation. We're not even

there. And so it to me is like, on the one hand, I can super appreciate that this guy saved his own life and then, you know, is going to be there for his family and turned his life around. It's nothing but a success story. But it's also an example of the heavyweight division and just lacking depth. And I just, there's no two ways about that. That is true. At least these guys have personalities. Some of them have fringe personalities,

but at least when you're tuning into the apex, you're getting, I don't know. It is what it is. Long Island, Luke, were you moved it all by his offensive production and then the double nipple dance? I mean, the double nipple dance I expected, but I wasn't, like, those shots weren't hard whatsoever.

He was just hitter pattern, but the amount of volume this guy's throwing. It's great. It's absurd. I'm excited to see him go three rounds and break that. record like very easily get so let's get him Walter Walker and Josh Hokka in a tournament against each other just same you know one round a piece keep rotating listen he's earned I'll say this for him he's earned everything he's gotten you can't hate on that and I'm not gonna yeah I just

I just wish we had like a bunch of world champions in other sports coming over to this one like we used to so yeah I mean we got to they got to figure out the NIL thing so we can get these American collegiate wrestlers to come exactly Trump wants to end it must to end NIL to fix college sport. Oh, I saw something about that. Interesting stuff. It's not going to have too much money. You're not going to do that.

Well, hey, the holidays are heating up, by the way. I think you already knew that. It's late December here, and it's cold is a, is a beep. But the holidays are also heating up over there on pick six, right? Draft King's newest fantasy pickum game where you can make your NBA picks for a shot to win big cash prizes this holiday season. Here's how it works. You already know.

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Pick six not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario, void were prohibited, one per new customer bonus awarded as non-withdrawable pick-six credits that expire in 14 days. Terms at pick6.draftkings.com slash promos limited time offer. Well done, though. Let's go to topic. Number four, it was, like we mentioned off the top, the end of an era Saturday night, right? Somebody should break out a hot chip.

I don't want that because the seven-year mirror. between UFC and ESPN was officially annulled following Saturday's final UFC fight night card of 2025, of course, inside the Apex Warehouse. So, Luke, when you look back to where the sport of MMA was in 2019 when that ESPN deal started, to where it is today at the end of 25 before this handoff to Paramount and CBS and the inaugural card there, January 24th in Las Vegas. In your eyes, what have been the biggest pros and cons of the UFC ESPN? I think this is a pretty simple one. I mean, people are going to have different responses. People may or may not like ESPN Plus. That can be a thing.

Are you still subscribed? I am. Well, you know what? Real quickly, I know we're going to talk about PFL. Seeing everybody on social media being like, can't wait to cancel this or posting pictures of them actually having canceled, their ESPN plus.

If you're PFL and you're looking at that, that has to be a kind of moment. Oh, and then you've got the double paywall if you're PFL as well. Right. I mean, they're in trouble. But, okay, we'll talk about that in a minute. But in terms of the, the ESPN on, or UFC on ESPN era, BC, by the way, sorted with a flyweight, KO, round one

main event, ended with a flyweight, KO, round one main event. Kind of funny, right? Started in 2019. MK. started in 2019. That's right. Oh. Yeah, but we're going to, sorry, we're going to keep going. Yeah.

But in all seriousness, if all seriousness, I'll say two things. To me, BC, getting on ESPN when they did, coming off that 5. deal. It felt like an upgrade because it was. And it was a very particular kind of upgrade. ESPN, and in many ways still is, or at least in certain respects, but certainly back then, you know, was the brand leader in sports and sports broadcasting. That was where the most important work happened, not everywhere, but in a lot of places. And it had some of the biggest names. And it was kind of like the standard bearer for quality in sports broadcasting at that time. Now, I think a lot of that has changed over time, BC. I'm not suggesting that's the way

it is now. But the point is, what did it do for UFC? It put UFC, it furthered what Fox had started, which made MMA part of the firmament of major North American sports. It was alongside everything else. It was imprim. It was ESPN putting their imprimatur on it and saying this belongs alongside all of these other things in ways that it simply had not done that to that extent anyway before. And I think that's actually quite important and it was very successful relative to those aims. On the other hand, and I think this is a big task for y'all over at Paramount, and we'll see how it goes, which is it is very hard for me to look at the ending of the pair, excuse me, the ending of the ESPN deal versus the beginning and say MMA is more popular

now than when it started. It is not. It is not. The UFC is more established. No question. I don't know that it's more popular. And it's certainly not as popular as it was coming out of the pandemic, which was a big win for this marriage, for this era. And you got to give Dana a lot of that credit. But the paywall, the paywall didn't hurt, which is, I guess, one of the potential promising things of the Paramount CBS thing that you're removing that pay-per-view paywall on Paramount Plus, simulcasting someone on CBS. But the whole question that everyone's thrown around on Twitter is, did it really elevate the sport? I mean, let's see this tweet from Ann Evans, friend of the program. Let's see if you agree with it where Ann said, less people are into UFC than before the ESPN era. TV views, paper views are down.

UFC are extracting more money from fewer people. The hardcore of folks who watch almost all of it has grown, but the reach is shorter. Anyone telling you different today is simply wrong. Luke, if that's true, how much of that is because, look, the UFC always does say this. They'll do what their part, what their broadcast partner wants in terms of, do you want a card every week?

Do you want to do this? Do you want to do this? Do you want to do that? ESPN won out of a card almost every weekend, like 44 cards a year out of 52 weeks, you know, year after year, in recent terms at least. Is that responsible for what Ants talking about more than anything else? Or is it just a change in business structure?

Let's not forget that when they signed with ESPN, they were getting those flat rates for each pay-per-view. So it took away the need to spend the money on promotion. I definitely feel like the way that the product was structured affected fan enthusiasm because you were just getting, you know, the reality

is this past weekend's card was actually pretty good and we had said it on Friday you know, it's an Apex card but it's definitely not a bad one at all and I think that that largely played out. But you know, we have seen cards, you know, headline by Steve Garcia versus David Onama, Steve's doing great things but as a general proposition, like

that is a tier of UFC product that was unfathomable I don't know, five, certainly 10 years before it and the way in which the incentive structure of how the product was organized, enabling that, along with the apex itself and the pandemic playing a role in the growth of the apex's. TKO is also in a much different place.

In 2025, than it was in 2019. But I think, I think ants largely correct. I don't know how you can, I don't know what an honest reading of the evidence looks like that comes to any other conclusion other than that one. And so does that mean it's inexorable? I mean, we'll find out. But I think if I'm not a paramount exec, neither are you.

But if we were, one of the things I'd be looking at is trying to have an honest assessment. Why did it decline over this time? And to what extent can we repair this? One thing that they can't do, BC, because they've already kind of said it, 30 fight nights, 13 PLEs, whatever you want to call them, you know, that's going to be a fixed structure. The removal of the paywall, though, I think is huge. I agree. Changing the start time back to 9 p.m. These small adjustments accumulatively can have a big deal.

But we all know the real problem. You got to get stars that the American public can get behind. That's going to be paramounts task. I was going to ask you like what lessons do we think Paramount CBS or UFC in the Paramount CBS era could learn from maybe the things that didn't go right in the ESPN era. And I do think trying to return to the idea of building not just stars but rivalries, building those are the kind of things. Because I think the one thing, look, when UFC gives their message, and Dana talks, we can typically pick it apart. But the one thing that they say, which I think is true,

it's similar to what I say, Luke, about the Saudi takeover in boxing, where I say, I feel like it would be more impactful if it wasn't, if all the big fights weren't on the zone, which is this Neshap that in America only boxing fans own. But I think you can make the same argument in the difference between ESPN and how we perceive Paramount to be because as Dana likes to say, and he's right,

the only people that were subscribing to ESPN were sports fans and mostly MMA fans. Yes, they use sports. Center to cross over more to sports fans. And it worked, especially during the pandemic when they were the only game in town. But Paramount, and now it's going to be on Paramount Plus, which means you're going to have so many more non-sports fans stumbling into it when they're looking for whatever show they're looking to watch or whatever movie. So Andrew removing the paywall, I think there is a great opportunity to kickstart the, at least on a U.S. level, the national

understanding of who the fighters are, what are the big fights that we're building to. Whether you love it or hate it, the White House card is going to bring out the casuals to a look there's no there's no question i really hope they ride that momentum heading into june and really let the fans know these are the guys you need to focus on this is where our business is going let's get you in here for these big fights one thing i'm going to say and i know you don't have an answer to this either because i know we've it's something that you know it's come up which is if you just notice what programming the ufc has on ESPN they kind of produce and control all of it you know and like down to the countdowns that come out in their youtube channel

and I think one thing I would like to see, for example, like when Roku was, or that production company behind the, what was that Roku show called? The documentary? Fight ink, yeah. Like, someone else producing it had like a different look and feel and everyone was like, this is, this is cool. I think Paramount, and I don't know what's going to happen again, you don't know, none of us know, but it would, I would be nice to see if folks in Paramount are able to do storytelling independent

of in-house UFC programming. And using some of the other vehicles under the Paramount Skydance, CBS, you know, vault they're putting fighters in other spots, you know, using the, like they had Dana make that announcement of halftime of the Thanksgiving football game. That kind of stuff does go a long way. Remember when Fox had BBC? And for a bit they were using, you know, they were putting on those PVC pay-per-view preview shows like right after a big NFL game would end.

You know what I mean? That kind of stuff, that kind of synergy, I think, will help a lot, even if terrestrial TV isn't where it was. was back then even. Let's go to topic number five here. PFL had their final, at least I guess you could say, main roster fight card of the year in Leone, France, calling it PFL champion Series 4 on Saturday,

giving out two inaugural PFL championships. And in the main event, former Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion, Vadim Nemcoff, extended his current unbeaten streak to 15 fights, which does include that no contest against Corey Anderson where it looked like he was on the way to losing. He did in the immediate rematch of Venge that with an easy-looking, very easy, first-round submission of the big Brazilian Henan Faheda.

And after the fight, he didn't hesitate on who he wants. Let's listen in. I know it's not really your personality to call for ambitious things or to talk trash, but you just announced your presence in this heavyweight division. Who do you want to fight next? I would have been with him. I want to fight anybody who wants me to do it, but I really want to fight Francis. I really want to fight Francis.

I really want to fight Francis and of course he's referencing Francis and Ganu. So Luke, over the weekend, PFL's new boss, John, John. PFL's new boss, John Martin, was quoted as saying he has a very special opponent in mind for what they're calling Ingano's final fight under his current contract that they're currently planning. We've speculated, could that be Rico Verhoeven, could it be as it was some, like, big type of pay-per-view type deal? But Nemcoff, the PFL inaugural heavyweight champion, just called out Inganu, one of the best

heavyweight champions in the world who's on their roster. Is this a good fight for PFL and is this a good fight for Engano next? It's not, first of all, I think that Nemcov could win a heavyweight or light heavyweight title in UFC. I'm not saying I would pick him to beat everyone in every case. But if it was, if him versus Poetan, like, that's a tough fight for Poetan. And even though he's out undersized, actually. I mean, his ground game's absolutely legit. It's super legit.

And, you know, he comes from a great camp there with Fador and everything. Like, dude, that's a tough fucking fight. Um, so here's the thing, though, you see, this is, I mean, we keep having this fucking conversation around PFL and it's just driving me nuts. It's like, dude, I've been saying this forever and people kind of just gloss over it when I say it, unless the UFC starts co-promoting, it doesn't matter what PFL does on their own. Okay. You cannot build success on your own.

There has to be roster cross-pollination. I know that sounds like I'm like a broken fucking record at this point. point, but it's true. What way does the PFL roster have to build legitimacy other than to get cross-pollination? You're going to say, well, Francis. Well, I was going to say, if you can't do that when you're both under the same ESPN banner, then you're never going to do that. You're never going to do it. And they don't do it for a reason. And that reason is because they know that it would, again, they would win some fights, they would lose some fights, but it would confer legitimacy onto the PFL roster in a way that they want nothing to do with.

And as long as that is the case, people are like, oh, is this a good fight for PFL? Sure, dude, Francis versus Vadim Nemcoff is a legit heavyweight fight. Is that quality? Sure. Does that matter for their survival? It does not. It will not. It doesn't make any difference unless they can just change the material conditions upon which

they can make fights with rival promotions. The end is inevitable. Yeah. And there's also that idea. of why would you book a heavyweight title fight for Ngano when it's the last fight of his deal and you're not sure that he's coming back or, I mean, are they sure if they even want him?

Like long term? Francis? Yeah. I don't think they want him long term at all. What do you think would win that? Nemcoff, Inganu. I'm still back in Ingano. Not easy. What do you think? What do you think of Long Island?

He's not easy to take down the handle. He's not, he's not. I said, yeah, I went out loud when BC said in Ghana. I think I'd go in Gano and that. What would it, okay, fair enough. So what would it mean if, if Vidim fights Francis and beats him, and I'm not going to say like some judging bullshit, like straight up beats him, where would that put Vadim in terms of the rankings,

independent of promotion for heavyweight? Top three, but I also feel like you could be top three at heavyweight by beating anyone in this day and age. Like heavyweight isn't really that deep. But in all seriousness, like, no, yeah, who I'm blanking on who's even up there right now, John Aspinall gone. Curtis Blades. And maybe Poetan if he goes up there, you know?

Yeah. The big Russian. Volkov. Yeah. Your guy. Okay. Like Volkov versus Nemkov. Who you pick him?

Nemcov. Yeah, I think I'm picking. Nemcoff. I think I am. Like, that's how fucking good he is. Yeah, he's very good. I think he needs to have more focus on that. Unfortunately, it's coming through two paywalls from Leon France at 11 a.m.

on a Saturday morning, but that's just where it's at right now. The crowd was lit. They were. They were light and fucking flares in that bitch. The NFL does a great job like Bellator did before them of going to these UK markets or these European markets, excuse me, and having like a knockout feel with the crowd and the presentation. But Luke, when we're talking about the John Martin tease of a big fight for Francis, of course, we're all like, well, Rickover-Huven, is there some, you know, retired name that we're not thinking of? If Pia, I don't know if I'm just, I'm just asking you. Okay, devil's devil's advocate question.

What would be your response if John Martin's like? We've got a great idea for Francis Inganu, and his name is Fadour Emilianenko. Fire him immediately. Yeah, Fadour has been retired. Fadour has been washed for a long time. Fadour was washed pre-pandemic. So it's not going to be that, right? If it is, it's fucking malpractice.

Even though that's kind of what Scott Coker did with Bellator to make them relevant on the Paramount Network. Okay, but Scott got him, I mean, Scott had Ryan Bader versus Fador and like the, like the, 2020 or whatever. I was talking more about the Kimbo versus Shamrock era. Yeah, fine. I mean, you can play that game for a little while,

but dude, Fador is, Fador's a fucking legend and the modern MMA fans who missed his rise don't appreciate him. We love Fader on this show. We respect the hell out of him.

But he's fucking washed, bro. And do not ask him about Russian literature ever. Are you still better about that? I am. But no, I ended up getting that dream interview finally on HQ.

Do you remember that? I interviewed him. Oh, he was terrible, right? No, he was laughing and smiling. the whole time. He was good. He was good. He was good. Did you ask some about books? No, I don't read. Obviously not. Hey, Luke, let's go to that co-main event where the inaugural

PFL women's featherweight title was at stake and 40-year-old legend Chris Cyborg improved to 29 and 2 in her great career with a third round face-crank submission of the unbeaten Australian Sarah Collins. And get this, Luke Thomas. After the fight,

she called first for a fight against Leah McCourt, if possible. She said if that's not available. She called out to Dakota Dichiva and said, I can cut down to 135, let's meet in the middle. We talked about this as the potential final fight. Is it too much for Dichiva to move up to 45 and do this potential passing of the torch between one of the greatest of all time and someone who is, you know, a red hot rising superstar?

But Luke, do you remember Chris Cyborg said like 10 years ago? There's no chance she could, or 12, 13 years ago, there's no chance she can cut down to 35 to fight Ronda. And then they did that 140 experiment with the UFC. and eventually said, let's just create a 145 title and let her fight for it. I love everything about this idea except for the cyborg at 40 years old

cutting down to 135 when she proved in her physical prime that was impossible. I saw the video of her trying to make weight and crying as a consequence of it. The idea that she can make 35 now, I mean, okay, on the one hand BC, maybe she got better at it after all these years.

And I think that's something we have to take seriously, but I'm going to say this, I have questions about this, because to your point, I mean, she got sideways with the UFC and didn't have a Ronda fight for this. Again, she fought Amanda, so it wasn't like she was ducking necessarily, but, you know, she didn't want to make it down to that weight at a bare minimum and then kind of indicated it was biologically irresponsibly or medically. Even though we gave Ronda more heck during that run, because we're like, if you're really that great, then move up 10 pounds to your old division. Again, again, is Cyborg best suited for 35? If this is a one-off BC. No, she tried.

tried the 40. I specifically remember her saying, like, if I do any more, it's going to kill me. It was a nightmare. The notion that they can go to 35 now is one where it's like, well, wait a second, haven't you been saying for a fucking decade, you can't do this? So my attitude is, am I opposed to it in principle? There's other reasons to be opposed to it where you're just kind of cannibalizing your own roster. I think it's the perfect, I think it's very good promotion. But the 35 component is like, it's like, dude, you said all that shit, what changed. And listen, maybe something changed. But you need to tell us what changed because that was a huge media cycle.

interesting question here I always give Cyborg her flowers she's a pioneer she's still at it she's still holding you know major titles across MMA but should any but there's not everyone in MMA who looks at her as a potential goat candidate

or gives her that same respect so should any part of Cyborg's legacy in your eyes be downgraded by the fact that only seven over 31 career fights ultimately took place inside the October no no I mean I think over like a 20 year run. Yeah, I think if you want to dock her and say that there are limits to how much

we can say by virtue of her kind of organization hopping, which is a fine practice, but you know, to what extent does it limit that she fought the very best at certain times in her career? Sure, she's been the gold standard of excellence for many. Dude, she was the gold standard of excellence when they had three minute rounds for women on national television. Like, it's interesting that Coach John Wood is being interviewed and asked a lot. is Gina Carano coming back and he's kind of giving a non-answer that teases yes? Yeah. And it's like she's coming back from 20 years ago when she fought Cyborg in one of the most important fights in women's history and Cyborg is not only still fighting, she's still a major champion.

Yeah. And not just that. Like Cyborg's game has changed. She was a kind of like a marauder, you know, a brawler type early in her run. And she just got good at everything managing rounds, the other parts of the game and the wrestling and the top control or jiu-jitsu as well. She just became a terrifying, and then ultimately, B.C., a pretty technical force, and I think you have to respect that. The fact that she has belts in all these organizations over all these many years,

over these many eras of MMA, to me, is a demonstration of her excellence. Are there blemishes? Are there things missing? Is it all perfect? No, of course not. There are ways in which you can poke a hole in her resume, and many of them. Like she fought Pacheco last year and beat her up? But on the other hand, B.C., I mean, we're talking about someone who has been excellent

over an enormous duration of time. You must give respect to that. It's unlikely based on the severed relationship, but would you get excited if I told you a year from now, a 41-year-old cyborg would be back in the UFC and she would be getting an Amanda rematch, she would be getting the Kayla fight that should have happened but never did to close out this great career.

I would be down for that, wouldn't you? At the right weight, sure. Yeah, if they opened up, if they brought back the women's brotherway title or opened up women's heavy weight, sure. Yeah, all right, interesting stuff there. Those are our five topics for this week, but before we pick out the kernels in my,

I hate when you say that, B.C. Yeah, I do hate when you say that. We have an opportunity for the fans to speak to us directly through the prism of social media on Sunday nights on X, on Instagram, at Morning Combat as the handle. We put out a call to action for your DMs

and you respond with a question. This is called DMs from the diggities. as the donkey comes to full climax. Our first question comes to us from at v. Sanchez underscore 88. I don't know if he's clean, Luke, or dirty, but how would you grade the overall quality of fights for 2025? I'm assuming he's talking about MMMA slash UFC.

Is it better or worse than 2020? This is a question for Long Island. Long Island, you're the one who does all the... I mean, because we talk about the paper views, but... When we say quality, is he talking about the matchmaking or the skill quality? I think maybe a little bit of both. What do you think, Long Island? Did it all work in 25, about relative to 24?

I can't, like, I don't have them side by side right now, but I feel like top of my head they were roughly the same. I'm naturally going to go with the more previous year because I feel like we've just been getting worse and worse as years go on. And 24 had UFC 300, which was a big deal. I'll say 24 was better, but I'd have to see him side by side. But this wasn't a horrible year. I feel like we complained a lot more in, or I did a lot more in 23 and 24 than I did.

But I think he's mostly right. Like it's actually, they're actually not too different. So, for example, I did a ranking the paper views of, with Boner. With Bonner. Well, I didn't realize this until we had done the whole exercise. Both for 24 and for 25, our lowest rated fight, or paper view anyway, of each year was the year or the event where they had DDP versus Strickland in 24 and 25. So like as much as things change, they stay the same.

Yeah, that's all kind of the same right there. But thank you, Sanchez, for that question. Let's go to the next one. From at Flannels and Jits, a Jiuz-Roller himself, what are five things for MMA and boxing you would like to see in 2025? I'm sorry, in 2006, I'm sure for our year-ending episodes we're going to cover a lot of this. So five would be a lot. But could I get one for each sport?

Say it one time? What was one thing that you would hope you would like to see in 26 in each sport? Someone asked me this question previously, and for MMA, dude, I'll be honest, they're getting rid of pay-per-view and they're putting start times back at 9 p.m. Those are two huge things. I just don't think I can complain too much. Yes, yes.

I mean, individual things you can complain about. I'll say this. I'll say this. For MMA, here's what I want to see. I don't want to see people just give up their titles and walk away. I want to see someone take it or at least try to take it from them. That's what I want to see. For boxing?

In MMA, I want to see more points taken away right away. I want to see you get rid of the eye poll culture by standing firm. Ten toes down referees whether you smell like cheap booze and cold cuts or not. And I'll say on the boxing side, state side events. Big state side.

State side events. Like Teo v. Shakur, Madison Square Garden, January 31st, fired up right here. And by the way, you know, Conello is saying he's not going to fight Cinco de Mayo this year, which is a big... He wants Crawford in the fall. He wants Crawford in the fall, which I hate. But, you know, I mean, we need to see big state side events, and that's been missing, for sure.

Yeah. I don't even know what to say about Zufa boxing, because we don't really know what we're getting. We don't know who's going to be fighting January 23rd card. They apparently, I'll stop it's not been 100% confirmed, but the initial reports that it's going to be in the fucking apex. Who is asking for boxing in the apex? I don't know that there's been boxing fans clamoring for that. No, no, but I don't know.

I don't even know who's going to be fighting. I don't know what's the other part. They haven't even announced any names. I hope we get what Dana is teasing a lot, that Tuesday night fights USA type of feel, that Friday night fights ESPN type of feel. Give us, if it's going to be a prospect type of business, builder factory give us

bangers give us fun stuff I want to see a lot of changes in boxing next year Luke but there's still a lot of things like up in the air the Ali Act will that get approved the amended will turkey have complete takeover you know are these other promoters going to die give in

what's going to have like I feel like we've been having this discussion for two years and we're still at it's the same broken record as the sport continues to somehow make it along let's go to our next question here from at sticks plays time. Do you think he's a drummer? Is that what that means? Six plays time?

Yeah, probably. I always took this as lacrosse sticks. Isn't that how you spell the lacrosse? I don't. I know. That's more of like a rich white kid. Yeah, lacrosse is a... Fuckin to a Long Islander. Unless the Native Americans play it, lacrosse is a wax sport. What is your favorite

quote? I was there moment in combat sports. You already know mine, Luke? How to Swine a Gastillon? Yeah. I was there for Kimbo Slice. Dada 5,000. That is, that's pretty wild. I was there for that. I was in their fucking arena. So I was there at UFC 236 in, in Atlanta.

And that will always be my go. Even though I was at UFC 205, UFC 215, UFC 217, the two garden bangers. And I was at 229 and Habib's manager got arrested on my laptop. Yeah. I was that, was that cyborg Amanda in L.A. It was a co-main. And that, the explosion when Amanda got that K-O, people do not remember how loud that was. It was insane.

I was the guy who asked Habib the question that got Habib to say that's number one bullshit. Oh, you started that. I'm that guy. You can look it up. There's the, it's still floating around from UFC 205. All right. For MMA, for me, it's definitely UFC 236. What would be your one thing if I was like, if someone's like, what's the biggest thing or craziest thing?

What's your official number one MMAI was their moment? Man, I'm not sure. Top of mind, I was in the back room at UFC 229 when Habib came back and then sat there and explained why he did what he did and then he apologized to the commission but then was like no i'm i i had to father will kill me yeah and i was kind of like whoa this motherfucker is not he's not fucking a round that was a big one okay oh you know what watching bud crawford destroyed yes that's your boss that's definitely i was there for that i was like whole you weren't there for that were you calling that fight no my wife was on her one work trip a year so i stayed home to

take care of the house animals and the kids and i had to do the post fight show solo that week yeah yeah yeah remember and then you weren't at ryan tank so i did with that's right i missed ryan tank yeah what what's my number one boxing i was there moment um in contention i was ringside for anthony joshua versus and india ruesa msg and that's a that's big that's huge but i have up everything i still have to say may pack there's just like i was at maypack i was just in the media room i was you on the floor i was on the i was in the fifth row yeah no i was in the media room we all know about that thing i love that drug which is like the final 10 minutes before the start of the big boxing paper view the you know the not the walks the announcements all the celebrity

who are you with in 2015 yespn okay and that that even though that fight week was weird even though that fight didn't didn't by any metrics live up to expectations except for sales uh that's just such a like in that moment as they're about to touch gloves and you're like this is among the biggest fights of all time something that we've built for five and a half years to get here and i'm right here and there's l cool j tom brady you know every famous person of all time magic johnson denzel and it's like holy shit you know yeah i remember when 50 cent and jillen hall came into the media room and sat down with kre karton kirk carton introduced me to boomer asyison who was much bigger in person than i had ever imagined i was like wow okay i kind of get it now um

what's your non-combat sports biggest i was there moment i always referenced those Kurt Schelling Bloody Slock game. That's probably my, my, my, man, I've never been anything big for that. I've always, like, I'm always the guy, I guess, like, cheap tickets to, like, the shitty games that no one wants to go to. Um, I just, I interviewed Mike Tyson at Glory once. He sat next to me. That's pretty awesome.

And he, he did a lot of mouth breathing, Mike did, you know, he did a lot of mouth breathing. Was that in his psychedelic era or his, I'm not sure, but I remember I told you this, he's like, he bumped me and the first thing he says to me, he's like, because it was Rico, Rico was headlining that car. And, like, the ring was shaking. And he was like, these motherfucking. Fuckers is huge. Do we have any more from the people here, Long Island?

All right, from John underscore Winkle, Fred. What is your favorite Christmas movie? Can I say something about this? Are you a Disney Plus subscriber? I was, not anymore. So I still am, and they have a section, like holiday movies. That's everything you can imagine, like the Santa Claus and all this bullshit. They have included, in that portfolio, die hard.

Wow. Which, love die hard, not a Christmas movie, suck the backside of my balls. You just want to watch an action movie, which is fine. It's a great movie. It's a great movie. Like, just watch it on Christmas. Yeah. But it's not really about fucking Yuletide caroling, fuckos. I get that. I get that.

We've talked about this before, so I'll say it again what my favorite one is. And part of me officially making it my favorite is because I harassed my other family members and force them into a once a year watching and they get so mad at me. It was the made for TV holiday and handcuffs starring H. and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, you know this movie. You know where she kidnaps A.C. Slater and makes it be her boyfriend at the... I'm glad you're leaving the show. I stand by that Christmas flick. I stand by it, all right? What was the one where, like, you'll shoot your eye out?

That's Christmas story. That was going to be mine. People hate that. I love that movie. The reason why people hate it is because when we would watch it once a year as a kid, it was the greatest thing ever, and then when it went on 24-hour airing cycles. TNT and TBS. You're like, I cannot watch this for the 3,000. Family tradition, when we put up the tree every year, we watch Elf.

Elf is probably the number one hit in my house. But if there's no kids in the room, the answer is bad Santa. I don't know, I don't care what anybody says. It's bad Santa. Billy Bob Thorpe. What? What? What?

You've never fried a turkey? What? What? You've never put saviche on a steak with green sauce? What? Chimichori, not savich. Oh, sorry. What mango is not a cucumber?

Wait, what? You have the palis. of a toddler. It's embarrassing. It's not true. Have you seen Bad Santa? Not only have I seen it, Luke, I have Badr Santa, which is the NC-17 version on DVD. Oh, wow. Okay. All right.

He's like, not only have I seen it, I have vast stores of pornography in my house. Okay. Long Island, Luke, what is your number one? Number one bullshit. Go-to Christmas movie. Number one. It's a Christmas story, and it's for all the reasons

you listed why people hate it of it being 24 seven there's nothing better than being like drunk on the 23rd technically the 24th or something it's like 2 a.m and you're like I know what's on I'll go to tbs right now um shout out to the uh the Arnold Schwarzenegger Sinbad Christmas movie worst movie ever no I like that one and I stand by that one also I made tuki watch it you know what she said when it was over she goes I didn't like this movie my kids walked out halfway through and I said why she goes this is exactly what she says she goes and she's right it's not about Christmas that's what she said she's right it's It's not about Christmas.

And I have to say, I always thought I hated the Tim Allen series, the Santa Claus. And my wife loves that series and got my kids into it. And after watching each one 10 times each, all right, I kind of stand by that one. There is the one called Klaus, that is the Netflix animated movie that won an Academy Award. It's really good. I like that one. I also am going to say this, Santa Claus, Kurt Russell's Christmas Chronicles. That's, dude.

Not too shabby. Okay. When I saw that last year for the first time, I remember saying that's the first Christmas movie in decades that like, besides Elf, that like raised the bar. Yeah. You're like, I couldn't believe it. You're right. That's a great, that's a very, that's a very, I didn't know the name of it. I forgot that I'd seen that. Just a couple of them were maybe three of them, I'm not sure. I must have been sitting in row eight.

I showed Tuckie, by the way. I showed her, now we skipped the scene where Artax falls into the mud. Yeah. But I showed Tuki never-ending story. She loved it. Again, she didn't see R-Tax die, but. Yeah, that's the horse. Don't show her the opening scene of Bambi?

I've not done that. Wait, why? Someone get shot in the opening scene of Bambi? Yeah. Are you kidding? I thought it was the ending. I thought it was like the... No, the mom in the beginning, it's...

I haven't seen... Honestly, if someone said one's last time you saw Bambi, I'm 40 years. I don't know. Okay. I can't remember. Okay. You should definitely try Chimichanga on a steak. Let me tell you how much, you know?

Jimmy Changa is a fried enchilada, is it not? I have no idea. I'm only married to a South American. I'm not actually... You don't have to eat bad food. You can eat good food. I do. My wife has upgraded my palate over the last 19 years of marriage

and a very, very aggressive. She has the patience of Job, which I appreciate. But there's room for growth. Let's put it that way. All right. Those are, that's it, right? That's all we get. No, one more from ad FMC built.

Kind of a cringe question, I suppose. But any resolutions or goals for 2026? Don't die. Don't have a stroke. I don't know dude I'm gonna get back into reading I swear this time I have like 25 books I've bought over the last three years

thinking like I'm getting you know every self-help biography one a month is not hard I mean depending on the size of the book it's just a combination of Aethro Fortnite vinyl hard man hard you know it's hard Fortnite's really good right now too He's like he wasn't even like you know

So I want to spend time with my family. He's like, God, the solitude that comes with abusive drug use. No, I'm going to, I'm going to read in, I really, I'll say this. I'm going to retrain my mind. I'm going to conquer my mind. I'm going to do it. Glad you're doing that after you're leaving. Big thanks.

Yeah. I'm going to use that while you were here. Those were the DMs from our fantastic viewers and listeners there. Let's also go to the final segment where I scour the globe on Sundays, you know. the good, the bad, the ugly, and the internet in the world of combat sports and beyond. This one's called,

have you seen the shit? Uh-huh. Who-ah! Who-ah! I think I shit my pants on the last hoo-ah. If only Dennis Larry didn't steal all of his No Cure for Cancer Special from below. Alas, he did.

Luke, in the Vatican City over the weekend. Conor McGregan finally made Dee Devlin an honest woman at their wedding ceremony of which Connor posed with a bunch of scantily clad chicks and in full McGregor's style. Who could possibly care? Let's go to the video from the reception as they were rocking out. We got cigars. We got live muses.

Oh, yeah, get it. We got women. We got women everywhere. We got Cyrillic riding. I'm not sure what that's about. Congratulations to the happy couple. Great. Okay.

Is he still standing facing rape charges? I know one lawsuit was with I don't know what the current I don't think so I don't think he's facing anything right now BKFC hit England over the weekend and gave us a weird way in moment Luke I'd like to introduce you to Megan

the witch O'Neill seems like the kind of woman you take home to mom you know only in BKFC what are we doing here Luke what is this the outtakes of the Vogue video what's happening right? I think legalizing fighting was bad idea. Yeah, that is something right there. Um, I don't know where to go next. Let's go next to this.

Uh, the Teo Fimo Shakur press conference gave us some weird moments like this one. 40. Yeah. 40's nuts. Bastor. You, you pause, bro. What's up with you, bro? You been wild. Fuck you hard, bro. Pause. Fuck you hard. Real hard. Man, what do you say to that, bro? You hear him. Gonna have Shakur Jigima. You know? You said you're going to do what? Jigging my balls. What? Baws, bro.

You felt for that. Look at him. Why are you doing that? Dude, he's literally 11 years old in his mind. Did he do what's your name get you down the other day? How about both of these nuts? Luke, it's time for everyone's favorite subgame show. Rate that tat.

One to 10, Luke, 10 being a masterpiece. Don't call him Takashi. 6'9 showed off his new lion-based tat. What are we doing? I don't be lying. Can we get a rating? Rate that tat. I mean, it's not a terrible tattoo, but... It's just surrounded by terrible tattoos. I mean, I was six. I don't know. I mean, I don't even know what we're doing.

That sets the bar. Let's move on. Bannam Weight Breakout star Peyton Talba added to his tats, Luke. I love his tattoos. I'm going to say eight. Okay. Okay. I like that they are contouring to the body, nicely saturated, simplistic. You're like, why stop there? Let's go ass cheeks, right? These are great tattoos, yeah. Okay, let's get a Star Wars one here. This is called the Darth Vader finger tat.

You know, I don't hate this one. I'll give that a five. Okay, that's decent. And finally, don't call them the Redskins anymore unless you tatted it on your armpit. Hell yeah, Luke. God, look at this piece of work from fucking Waldorf, Maryland. I mean, this is, you're looking at Dundalk's finest right here, boy. There's some quality to that, tat.

Raise your hand if you're from Anna Rundle County. What is it like when the hair grows in? Dude, are you kidding me? Wow. All right, Luke, we know you love gender reveals. So let's combine the two things you love most. The UFC and gender reveals. Here's Yeri Prohatska.

Oh, is you going to slice someone? Congratulations, Luke. He snuck one through the five hole. Okay. And he's having... What color was that? What was that? I don't know what's happened.

The first two are like non-colored than the third one. Oh, they're like a decoy or whatever? Yeah. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Okay. All right. I mean, we're just swinging motherfucking swords over here. This motherfucker take...

I love Yuri, but he's... And you got a girl? I don't know if it's a gender at all. What is... What do you get? Looks like a girl to me. All right, congratulations to the happy... There's simpler ways to do this.

Yeah. Luke, as you know, from doing the show, there ain't nothing like live TV. So let's introduce our next guest here. This morning, we're joined by renowned Greek chef, Harry Paratestes, Paratestis. Who's here to show us a fresh take on Sue Blackie? I'm sorry, your name gets. Dude, let's go to our- Imagine that? Here's our next guest, Harry motherfucking dick and balls.

Harry balls on you. Yes, all right. Let's go to our correspondent there out in the parking lot. By week, but they say fire up the tailgates. Get their girls going. We're coming back in two weeks. And we're taking down home. That's a lot. We're taking down the zoo.

What city is this? I don't know. Probably Philly. Go birds. Yeah, there it is. All right. It said patriots defeat giants, so it's got to be New England or New York. Yeah, that's such an East Coast move right there.

Let's go out to this football game. Watch the cameraman behind the end zone closely here. Okay. the kicking end zone? Yep. Right here. Oh. Tip on tip action.

Right in the pills. Oh, wow. That is great. Okay. Child abuse moment of the week, Lou takes us to this children's party. You're at these every weekend. Yeah.

Oh, Spitey's here. Oh, this is Zona Kids. This is Latin America. Oh, shit. It's like a chain in Latin America. The Zona Kids thing? Yeah. They do cartwheel kicks.

Yeah, apparently you'll just get your fucking kid, fucking wheel. Speaking of children, Luke, I think it's time Tuky knew the truth. So I just ordered this for her on Amazon for Christmas. Franklin questions the official story of 9-11. Oh my God, look at the books. WTC7 steel beams. You need help. Okay.

Let's get flatchel it. We have video now of Luke at the start of every MK podcast. I might have to go shit. In a minute. Okay. I understand. You know, I'm just being honest with trial. We have to take a break, y'all.

America? Yeah. I'm forwarding the motherfucker. I might have to go sit down just for a second. That's literally every time I show up to see you. Luke, we've got a new invention idea here for planes because you never like when the person in front of you leans their seat back, right? It's disrespect. Right.

Right. This should fix it. Allowing for the passenger on top of you to also recline and not invade your personal space. There is one drawback to that idea, as you saw there. That's not so great. All right. Let's read. You love when businesses are honest.

Like, got to go cash a check. Be out five minutes. Be back. Yeah, yeah. Let's check out this business. Got to respect the honesty here. It says, back in 10 minutes, diarrhea. Did I tell you what Tuki did yesterday?

Diarrhea. We're literally eating dinner. And I made her whatever she was in. Whatever the fuck she was eating Whatever we were I think I left over from something And she goes Daddy I have a question I go yeah she goes

What can you tell me about diarrhea And I was like well Are we talking about Joseph A bank or not I happen to be an expert hon I wanted to tell her like literally I make money off of diarrhea Yeah I want to be honest about that That is true dick and balls dick and balls

Luke one time I walked into the studio You're like that's a shit haircut Check out this guys can we send him to that torture prison in El Salvador is that art look are we are is art just send him away all right do you like white rappers some all right let's check out this guy

I'm a white boy white trash motherfucker fucker he's got bars I don't know if he's a rapper or if he's just a racist who got hit with an electrical charge before he could drop slurs. All right, Tom, for your t-shirts of the week. Give me head till I am dead.

Wow. That's, these are words to live by. That's true. Let's go to your Christmas t-shirt of the week. Okay. I mean, that is a real shirt from back in the 90s. That is something. Wait, wait, wait.

What does the bottom say? Can you read that, Long Island? From New York City. It's a real shirt, Luke. You know what? They've got all kinds of creative ideas. Yes. Check out these sneakers.

Would you wear these? Hell, bro. You came in with the CBS ones at one point. By the way, we just got the email to pick a holiday gift for this year. I picked the new CBS sneakers. The new one? We have two pairs. Hell yeah, I'd wear the Burger King ones.

Are you fucking kidding me? I would not wear the Hardys or Arby's ones, though. Okay. What, to flash back to your dad's Halloween ideas? The Roy Rogers Sevens now? Luke, let's just say it. It's Celine time. Cake Lady is back. I mean, imagine, like, waking up in the morning and you're like...

I hope you get bedbugs, you fucking winch. Wait, was that cake or cushion? I just... I just tuted it on there. That is... Well, okay, Celine, that's... Look how she looks... Look at the way she makes eye contact when she does it. Watch. That's what I'm saying. Is it kind of hot or no? Look at it looking at you. Bro, you know she makes eye contact with you in the week. You'll wake up in the middle of the night if you're like, if you're with her.

And she'll just be looking. at you, you know? It's high school football state championship, Sisson, Luke. Check out the crash out from this coach. Don't throw it to Stonehand. Wow, okay. And Luke, we normally show bloopers. This ain't a blooper.

This is the play of the week. Check this out. High school football. Oh. And Michael Vick, though. Remember Vic and that Vikings overtime game? Yeah, yeah. Check this out.

One hand. That is cruel. And then they crash into each other. Dude, you know what I used to blow my mind about Michael Vick? Tell me if I'm wrong. And this is true when back in, when he was even at Virginia Tech, he would just take the ball. And it would look like his arm would barely move. Yes.

And the ball would fly 75 fucking yards. Yes. At the speed of sound. It was insane the arm strength that he had. I think we're something like nine, ten days out from Christmas, Luke. Let's play a new game. Guess the gift. Plan flying into the towers?

I couldn't tell. They have to wait until they unwrap it. That is wild. All right. And finally, Luke, to close it out, this one dawned on me. Hey, man, how you doing? Oh, what's it? Dude, you know what just dawned on me?

What? That's all the shit we can handle this week. Can we just set fire to their property, please? That'd be a thing that I wouldn't enjoy doing. You can reach out to our program at Morning Kombat at gmail.com, Friday's Dead Wrongs, fan subs. And Luke, if anyone missed it off the top, I will be leaving this program.

January 5th and Monday will be my final episode. It will be here in the Metal Arc Studio. But before then, Luke, we'll have a year-end show. You'll be away for a couple episodes on vacation, correct? Yeah, I'll be, I'm going to go to. to Columbia for my first. I've been to Columbia for many, many years, but I've actually never been during the winter.

So we're going to go. It's my wife's first Christmas in Columbia in 25 years. That's a beautiful thing. I hope you guys have a great time. So we may have, are we going to pre-tape? We may have a-hold on. Let me say something. I asked BC and the folks at the show about going on vacation in Colombia.

Long before we knew BC was leaving. I realize that it is in a lot. opportune so we're going to make the best of it i will do some shows while i'm there um but yes we'll make the best of it but monday january 5th the final time of this mk incredible award winning duo uh sorry to share that of course but thank you again mk will roll roll on you're going to have questions what's it going to be like blah blah blah so by the way same time it's still it's still going to be 11 a m on mondays and 11 a m on fridays long island luke's still here long island luke's going to be here details to come familiar faces that you've

probably seen before going to be in rotation here, so stay tuned. And Luke, you know, like it's not goodbye forever. It's goodbye for right now. Who knows what the future is going to bring? Listen, I was talking to Snyder about this, which is after the White House card, you know, we could do because it's Sunday night, you could come to my

house and you could be like a guest appearance. That is interesting. Little M.K. in D.C. I don't hate that idea. Okay. Not the worst thing in the world. You can like, subscribe, this fantastic program. Follow us on our extended social channels, YouTube channels. All that good stuff.

Long Island, Luke Noseito of the main card minute. We talked up that great Oscar Willis Okamoto episode. What's on the horizon this week for both prop quiz and the main card minute? Nothing really in the main card minute. I'm going to do a watch along for Jake Paul, Anthony Joshua, just because there's no other combat sports this weekend. New prop quiz Friday. It's already recorded.

I don't want to reveal who the guests are yet. We'll do that on Friday. Are they first time? Any first timers? One of them is the first time. Oh, okay. John Morgan? I just got the email for the Paul versus Joshua.

on-air talent you want to hear? Yes. Kate Scott's going to host a desk and at that desk will be Lennox, Lela Ali and then all the smokes, Andre Ward, which is great. Ringside team is going to be your buddy, my buddy too, Mara Rinalo.

Love Morrow. David Hay is going to be there with Christina Poncher. Okay. Sean Wheelock will serve as the rules and scoring expert, Sibley Skoles, I think I'm pronouncing her name, right? We'll serve as a reporter.

And then Ariel Hawani as the ringside reporter, the night will be emceived by Cody, Big Moe, Mo Martts. Who is that? That's that tall 6'8 guy. He used to play college football. He does a lot of UK shows. He's pretty good.

Also, they're going to do a live extra broadcast with Cody Erdman and Christina Poncher. Okay. Also, I don't know if you saw this. MVP is doing a real world style house. They have a house, yeah. That like Big Mo, Dan Kenobio, like some ring girls, some influencers. all going to be a part of them. Not sure what that's going to look like or when it's going to air. Listen, if they get in there and they don't make pornography, what are we doing

here? What are we doing? But yeah, so Friday show will be back remote. We'll set the stage for that night's Anthony Joshua versus Jake Paul fight, which is going to be interesting. So we'll see what's going on for that. And morningcombat.com. Not only do you get the December exclusives, the Masters of the Universe stuff with BC on the outs here. January 5th, my final episode all BC clothes and posters 50% off at morning combat dot shop until January 1st at 12 noon Eastern I might extend that till January 5th since that your last show either way extended to the 6th so people can you know be outfitting yeah it's a Jan 6th sale uh it is the BC goodbye sale so your last chance to get BC related merch and to support our program all proceeds going

to BCLT and the LIL. More to come as we get closer to my final episode on, I'm sure tributes what this era has meant for both of us in the show. And you guys, it's all for you. I mean, okay, it's paying our salaries. It's part of our careers. But we don't make it

to nearly seven years without this incredible fan base that we probably never deserved. Also, we didn't mention the top of the show. You're not to interrupt about the fan base, but also Brian Daley. Yes. Brian Daley, who was a champion of, and still is and remains a champion of this program and will remain a champion in the next

version of it has been I mean amazing has been a believer yeah a believer a believer and and the idea that this show will still go on still go on to make great content keep that community together it means a lot to me as well so thank you so much for dealing with this unscheduled news and thank you for watching today's program it's been fantastic to be with you shout out to kenn and adair we got a lot of love for those fellows I can't see them through the bong smoke, but I hear that they're here. Yes, and shout out to Matt Snyder, a guy who's had our back since day one of the show. For L.T. and Long Island, Luke, Nociti, it's your boy, BC.

We out. Take care of yourselves. Have a great week. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.