MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Kamaru Usman vs. Khamzat Chimaev | Weekend Picks | UFC Drops USADA | Morning Kombat Ep 501

Episode Date: October 13, 2023

On episode 501 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell kick off the show with some more UFC 294 news. Kamaru Usman has stepped up to face Khamzat Chimaev, is this the right move for Kamaru? Is UFC 294 better with the replacement fights? Next up they discuss the news that UFC will dump USADA in 2024. How much does this have to do with McGregor and how will it impact the sport? The boys close out the main topics with a weekend boxing preview. They close out this friday with some Fan Submissions. (00:09:00) - UFC Drops USADA (00:56:15) - Kamaru Usman vs. Khamazt Chimaev (01:12:30) - KSI vs. Tommy Fury (01:30:00) - UFC to Saudi  (01:33:40) - Weekend Boxing Preview (01:39:00) - OK, Bet (01:45:00) - Fan Submissions Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh yeah, jump up, jump up, get down. We're back at it. Friday, October 13th, 2023. Episode 501, if you're keeping track of the award-winning Morning Combat, the mostest, Brian Campbell. I've got another guy across from me who's got a hard-on from here to Hanover, of all things USADA, as Pat McAfee pronounced it. Luke Thomas of Washington, D.C. And, Luke, we have a hell of an episode today. Let me write it down for you. Okay, Bet, fan subs are back at it. Reaction to the UFC you saw the fallout a UFC 294 update and so much Dylan Danish John Furry absolute bullshit that this is

really setting up to be my favorite episode of all time before it's even happened your thoughts yeah it was a it's been a good week for your boy it's been a good week for your boy. It's been a good week for your boy. Got a couple of live reactions in that was, um, you know, that was fun to do. And BC, here's the funny thing I've known. I've figured out about being right over time. What eventually happens is people do one of two things. One, they say, Oh yeah, everyone already knew that when of course that's not true. Or what they'll say is nothing. They just won't, they'll just deny you credit. I have seen both this week, but when it comes to USADA and me telling everyone the last seven years that they're zealots,

I told you so. I motherfucking told you so. Luke, let me jump in again, since I mean, you've had multiple vehicles this week to spew the same stuff some of it hard-hitting most of it though self-serving you do have to try to this is very this is this is a uh it's a big moment for you look yes i mean i your your criticism is 100 correct i have made it all about me in ways that's no one asked for i just understand did you see the picture they put up of you on Morning Combat Reddit? I tried to get Mikey to grab it, but it was too late. No, not that one, Luke.

There is one where you are sadistically erect talking about USADA. Yeah, I've not seen that one. Yeah, it is something. Some have said it's the happiest you've ever been, Luke, in your entire life. The happiest I've ever been was my wedding day or when Tukey was born, but this is up there. The only thing I want to say is, BC, it's the happiest you've ever been luke in your entire life so people are very the happiest i've ever been was like my wedding day or when tuki was born but this is up there the only thing i want to say is bc it's just this you can't imagine fighters fans promoters all spewing the same bullshit and then one day jeff novitsky just gets up there and he didn't agree with everything i had to say but on many pieces just gets up there out of nowhere and echoes the exact same thing how would you feel

if you've been fighting off a zombie army of people who did no fucking research at all on this topic well it's driving you crazy the story's a little bit deeper than this ongoing battle between you and all of the fighters nine years ago who you know tried to mutombo your your opinions that it's i think the story's a little deeper than than the vic than the luke thomas victory lap that has ensued well of course it is but like you just don't understand what it's like to fight off people about a principled issue have the have the entire sport tell you you're wrong and then one day and then one day a huge entity comes out and says oh yeah actually some of that stuff was

totally true you have no idea what that's like it's it's a weird feeling let me tell you i've seen i saw it happen with jake shield i saw it happen luke oh yeah come on come on come on come on all right you know what i'm talking about no low blows from this side of the table hey we do have a fantastic show for you, notwithstanding this back and forth. Also, I want to tell you that merch is hot right now. You can see it right here on my chest. Morning Combat co-host shirt, the hat, the coffee mug.

Luke Thomas' incredible Average Joe Art crossover event. You can go to morningcombat.store to find out more about this. You saw the Paquettes on Wednesday's show, and the fans up there in the wheel of death showing off their new merch it's fit it's freaking fantastic guys so get on board now and of course showtime that fantastic label that pays us you can get 30 days free of this great streaming network right now by going to showtime.com uh mikey more miles cbs sports on the ones and twos as always today and luke we've got to congratulate Mikey again on the hard work

And the people that have reached out and enjoyed our top 50 moments in morning combat history bonus video Which you can check right now at youtube.com slash morning combat Luke, I think collectively we nailed it, but we did forget a few that now in hindsight I can't believe we did, I think the most egregious one is when we went to that bellator motel room in uh in in like the gross part of eastern connecticut and then i spit out the water you remember that moment i mean that was something look yeah okay so we did forget a couple i mean maybe there's more than 50 moments bc not everything can make the cut some people that hasselhoff moment back but i'm like why why regurgitate us I'd be okay with that I'd be okay with that all right all right I mean again in the moment I wanted to kill you but now I feel fine

now we're great we're great also you can check out Luke's incredible chat with Gordon Ryan and Luke you've got a new interview out there do you want to sell it yes so I spoke to this this is a gentleman you may not have heard of I mean most of the fighters have heard of him but if you're a fan you may not have heard of him his name is K of the fighters have heard of him, but if you're a fan, you may not have heard of him. His name is Kyrion Fitzgibbons. He's a striking coach for CSA Gym in Dublin, California. He's trained, you know, Henry Cejudo, Dustin Ortiz, Jesse Jess. I mean, the list goes on and on and on.

He's trained all kinds of folks on the Muay Thai side. He's produced multiple champions there as well. And I want to talk to him about like the future of striking, the future of Muay Thai. Now that Juan is doing this like four ounce glove thing that seems to be picking up some steam. What's the future of that? You know,

there's a lot going on with the future of striking and then as it relates in particular to Muay Thai. So Kieran Fitzgibbons, a real wealth of knowledge, a real experience sort of vet in that way in the coaching game, a lot of wisdom to share. If you're one of these people that thinks about what's next in the fight game, it's the interview for you.

Did you guys bring up my idea of the heart punch at all, or did that not happen? Somehow that one didn't make it for live, but maybe the next time. Any other reminders we have to get to, or can we call Tui right now? So we haven't figured out what time we'll start tomorrow. I know that the KSI Fury card, which we're going to do one of these watch-alongs, we're just going to have some fun. Yeah, pants are optional, baby.

Yeah, it's a stupid fight. We're not going to cover it like we would a normal fight. We're just going to have some fun. You can join me and BC for fun. BC, they're saying the main event goes live around 5. The main card starts at 2. I can't start at 2. But maybe 3 or 4 we can probably start and then carry us into the.

Ideally, we would catch one or maybe two max of the early fair, of the salt poppies, of whoever these guys are that my kids probably follow on YouTube. Yeah, those guys. But then we really should be there for the meat of it. of the salt poppies of the whoever these guys are that my kids probably follow on youtube yeah those guys but then we really should be there for the meat of it and i can't i mean we'll talk about it later but dude this has been this misfits boxing card saturday zone pay-per-view but also i think espn plus just put out a press release that they in top rank have brought it in-house as well so you can buy it there too yeah it's absolute make no mistake about it but it is my

absolute i cannot lie sit here and lie to you i am all in baby bc who's got a bigger throbber me for the destruction of usada or you for john fury headbutting a glass wall it is like neck neck and neck right now on girth and and with in length there. Okay, let's get into a topic. Number one, boy, is it a big one. UFC and USADA officially parting ways. And, of course, this went down in a very sort of volatile, emotional type way, including USADA's Travis Tygaard having an interview with MMA Fighting, and then that leading into Thursday's press conference

with Jeff Nowitzki, who heads athlete drug testing treatment for UFC, and then, of course, Hunter Campbell, their CFO, would you say? Yeah, I mean, he's sort of like head attorney, but he does so much more than that. He's involved in all of it. He's a very powerful figure in the organization. Well, they held the press conference basically to try to debunk the statement put out a few days ago by USADA that really started this statement,

which said that they would be done by UFC's choice at the end of the year. And, of course, pointing everything toward Conor McGregor as the reason. So the fallout, Luke, has been steep. Drug Free Sport International, which we'll get into in a second, is new company that ufc will be aligning with beginning the first of january they will be in charge of the collection process under the new program and uh former fbi special agent george pyro the same man known for interrogating former iraqi dictator saddam hussein will be in charge of the new program, basically playing the same role that Travis Tygar of USADA previously did for the UFC.

But Luke, you've had a lot to say on this. I've got a few things to say, but let me start off with this question for you. Okay. What is the most important element of this entire story as it relates to the sport of MMA? Boy, that's a great question. That's a really great question. I'm not sure how to answer that one. I'm trying to think of like the biggest

takeaway from yesterday. I think the first thing that comes to mind for me, BC, is I've seen the UFC go through relationships that worked, some that didn't, some that came, some that went. Like you think about the Reebok relationship, that was at times very contentious because there was a lot of fan and athlete blowback, but even they didn't depart on terms as ugly as this. In fact, I think I can say this rather comfortably. In terms of any kind of longstanding partners,

let's say a year or longer, that the UFC has had with anyone, maybe with the exception of Pretoria or Pretorian. Remember that apparel company that kind of stiffed all the fighters? I mean, I guess you could count that. But in terms of like really long-term sustained partnerships, I have never in all of my years seen UFC go scorched earth on one of them in the way that I did yesterday. It's really just never happened. I mean, Dana White called USADA's press release on the Pat McAfee show, or McAfee, excuse me, Pat McAfee, calling it scumbagism, which was very surprising, I think, to a lot of people, including even me to a degree.

And then he has two of his very chief lieutenants, two executives in the company who are really in charge of this program, go out and speak to the media for roughly two hours to tell them not only all the great stuff that they thought that they were going to be doing, but why USADA was ill-equipped for this. And they were literally impugning Tigert's character. They were calling him unhinged. I've just never, ever, ever, ever seen anything

like that from UFC towards one of their partners ever. It's really quite unusual. Now, that aside, the biggest takeaway is that UFC is not really moving at all out of the anti-doping space, including in what I would describe as a very aggressive, potentially, in my opinion, somewhat unnecessary way. But that part, let's leave that out. What they're basically going to do is they're going to use a company called Drug Free Sport International, DFSI. You may not have heard of them. They are an anti-doping company. But what they're really going to be used for is the mechanics of anti-doping.

And by that, I mean, listen, somebody has to show up to the athlete's house. Somebody has to collect a sample. Somebody has to store that sample, take it to a lab. The lab has to test it. And by the way, the anti-doping agency in conjunction with the promoter here has to pick what they're testing for because they can test for any number of things in any number of ways, but they have to know what that is. So they're going to define what the suite of tests are that they're looking for. Those results will ultimately be submitted to George Pirro or Pyro's office, and then they'll be adjudicated from there. So in many ways, for the athlete, nothing changes, right?

You're still under a random testing anti-doping apparatus. But the argument that UFC was making, and people are free to make whatever conclusions they want about that is, what they're arguing is that A, USADA was way too heavy-handed. B, they were ill-equipped to do the job, that they hadn't invested in any modern technology, any modern services, that they were, this is their words, quote, dictatorial. That was the word that they had used. And so here's what I think is trying to happen, BC. What UFC wanted to argue yesterday was that they were going to stay in the anti-doping space. But what they were going to do

was, in some ways, up the number of tests, look deeper into the blood work if they had to. But, and this is key, and I think really a very important detail, they're actually in some ways in some ways not every way creating a more humane program i mean yesterday jeff novitsky said the olympic model right usada does the two-year four-year eight-year bands right because it's on that olympic track that that maybe that doesn't make sense for people on the professional sport model he He is 100% correct. That is very true. And they didn't say that they were going to let guys, you know, get out of the testing pool and take whatever they want and get back in. They said there was going to be a sort of case-by-case evaluation,

which by itself is also more humane. But this was huge, BC. They said they are absolutely open to the idea that there could be forms of rehabilitative medicine that if you're going to take it certainly there's going to be a period where you cannot compete but you but you could be we'll see could be allowed to take it guys i gotta tell you there's one word for that enlightened that's an enlightened idea it's progress hunter campbell last thing i'll be

saying i've been rambling i know i've been filibustering but last thing hunter campbell said yesterday that he had talked to Conor McGregor's physician. And what McGregor's physician told him was they were so concerned about that injury, they weren't even sure he was going to have use of not merely the foot or the leg, the ligaments around it. Everything was imperiled these kinds of traumatic experiences to an extent to an extent i think have defined more humane streamlined approaches that on some level are good news some of that's good news great news and that's why i sort of started off with that question because there is a lot of talk to talk about spinning off and we will the whole ideas of was

usada ever really set up to to fulfill and were they ever honorable there's the argument of how mcgregor fits into this and certainly more fun stuff of who he said she said and all that bs but i think the biggest takeaway is ufc identified that the current model was no longer active to 2023 and that's something that both hunter and jeff said in that press conference that the first six or so years of this relationship they thought was wonderful, but it was really USADA's failure to adapt to the times. And what that means, of course, is the actual treatment of the fighters, their locations, everything that involves that, the actual process of collecting. And I think most importantly, what you touched on is what,

what Jeff and Hunter talked about the whole idea of we're looking into stem cell. Now we're looking into things that could be more repairing, recuperative to help with, with, with really one of the biggest reasons why PEDs are used to begin with the recovery process. Now, not always, right. I mean, across any sport, it can be used in many ways, it's most useful you know it's the same way luke in some degree of how we look at marijuana now right right forever but now we're like hold on as not just as a recreational alternative to alcohol but how about mental health how about physical health and the things it can do i think that's

all huge and great the whole idea that maybe we are putting this under a negative scope when in reality, I mean, look, we've already seen Kobe go to Germany and get the secret knee surgery and come back with the fountain of youth. Like, there are new ways to do this with drugs. So at the end of the day, you and your T-shirt are probably right, right? Drugs win the drug war in 2023. Now, Conor McGregoror also wins and that's another side topic and we'll get to that but first and foremost i do think ultimately the proof will be in the

pudding but first and foremost this does look like a sound smart progressive move from the ufc that's right but luke that's not without a lot of questions a lot of cynical dead bulls advocate questions that i do want to get in with. Let's start first and foremost with Conor McGregor, because the only thing about that press conference is it wasn't fully about from the UFC standpoint fully. Here are the reasons why we want to make change. And by the way, Hunter told the media there that they've been talking about this for a year. So this is a year in the process of the idea of we might want to go in a different direction. But UFC has largely made their stance upon the idea that USADA is crazy, Tiger, it's a liar. And boy, have they soiled McGregor's

reputation. And oh, by the way, this could be libelous. Let me read you a quick couple of quotes. Here's Novitski saying, McGregor fulfilled every obligation under the rules that's been asked for of him and gets rewarded with that garbage statement that came out earlier this week. It's really unfair. Then you have Hunter Campbell who said, there would never be a situation where Conor would fight until he had been in the pool for six months. And I don't give a shit if he had 37 tests. What they have done to him is disgusting. He went on to say they've used him as a media vehicle to advance a fake narrative and it's disturbing disgusting and i think they have legit lie of legal liability that they will have to deal with hunter said connor had said he's going to fight

in december and he's already been training i got a call from travis and i told him we already have two title fights done for december dana's dealing with a lot of stuff right now. He hasn't been able to get back in the room to announce it. We have a whole process of how we announce it. I give you my word. Conor is not fighting in December. Now, Hunter claims that Travis Tigard said, well, he's saying this and that. Hunter says, well, he says a lot of things.

You guys know Conor. He says a lot of shit. He says a lot of crazy shit. But the reality is USADA knew in August that there was never going to be an exception made that Connor would fight before the six months is done. Luke, let's examine this. Is this actually true? Because it was July, of course, International Fight Week, where Dana did the interview with TSN's Aaron Bronstetter, friend of the program, and basically said, who cares about USADA? I don't care. And basically said a theme that he had been saying all year that yes, as of right now,

Conor will fight in December. Luke, how many times did Dana say publicly in 2023 that Conor will likely fight in December? Many times, right? And I get also what Hunter is saying here that Conor talks a lot of shit. He does. He defamed and sort of put down USADA or the need for it every step of the way. But if Hunter can show proof that they have definitely talked to USADA in August and they

definitely knew that Conor is not fighting in December, that certainly helps their cause. But I do have to ask about the timing of this exact announcement. And it's this. UFC 300 is probably in April, right? Even if Conor entered the pool this week, like we have found out he legally did. That's not six months to get him in there. You also have the news, which we'll get into of Saudi Arabia is now in the UFC game.

And if the past is any history, they call up WWE for those events and they try to bring guys out of the bullpen that are retired and in some cases with yokozuna dead my point is they throw stupid money to get the people in the card that they want there's something that's too i don't know that's too convenient here luke that i do want to dig into this whole idea that like well connor and dana never really met what said. The reality was he was never going to fight this year. All I've heard all year is basically, fuck you, Sada. Talk to Novitskiy if you have a question. I don't want to handle this. I don't care about them. He's fighting in December at the end of the year. Is there a legitimate devil's advocate question to ask against the UFC and say the timing of all this and making it about us versus Tygarga is reality a

smokescreen to get Conor back this year without any issue I'm sorry get him back in early 2024 without any issues because if he fights before a six-month window I'm gonna think the answer is yes uh I think skepticism towards UFC in anything they say is warranted right I mean I do I do want to be clear though if he were to fight a ufc 300 he would satisfy the six month window because it'd be october november december january february march he'd be fighting the seventh month so that would qualify he'd be okay so my math is already way off yeah okay but if he if he fights before then then there's a different question but if he fights a 300 then it would satisfy that i think in the end they probably will

for any number of reasons he will stick with 300 like to want to show the world hey look we suck by this publicly stated timeline but the point you're you're talking about is they've been saying things different all along i i suspect and listen i'm just guessing this is my opinion based off you know guesswork i don't have any hard evidence for anything. My feeling has been that they've probably wanted to get Conor back in there sooner rather than later. And it was probably difficult to find a way to get that done with their USADA partners in a way that they could understand or agree with or tolerate. And there was probably some discussions to that effect. They didn't go anywhere. And ultimately, it looks like they did come to a place, whenever that may have been, August or otherwise,

that, hey, this is not tenable. This is not going to work. We have to go in a different direction. So I want to be clear, and I've said this for a long time, USADA are zealots. There's just no two ways about it. They are the worst of the worst. But that doesn't

mean to the point that you're raising that they're that therefore we should defer to any kind of public statement that the UFC makes as ironclad and true and in all ways above reproach I think the skepticism that you're pointing out especially with the timing of things we don't have any evidence to really say what it means, but we do know that any kind of fight promoter is going to want to get their way. That's just the way fight promotion works, especially if you're a monopoly or at least an arguable monopoly in a very unregulated industry. So the interesting part to me, BC, and I wonder what you make of this, because I'm not a lawyer, neither are you, is they kind of hinted that the way in which usada had treated connor could carry some legal significance i wonder when you

heard that what your reaction was well it's probably going to come down to he said she said because there was one more quote from campbell now he didn't give a timing of when this meeting happened but hunter campbell said that he and mcgregor met in la recently and that they put travis tygart on the phone and they connor acknowledged that he would do six months in the program and what you're saying on the timeline of my math was off you're right if it really is starting this week he could fight at 300 so there's that and cut and campbell said this is why it's frustrating i think you kind of used him the way they have because he has allowed them to get a level of media attention meaning Connor uh that they can't

get on their own USADA put some shit out no one cares but if you put Connor on it suddenly it explodes they used an athlete as a vehicle to advance a false narrative blah blah blah if that's true then that certainly paints USADA in this case making it all about Conor as potentially a lie. And maybe in effect that is liable. Now, do you have proof to prove that? Because I think you can ask the same question that I did of all we have ever heard publicly. And I know it's one thing to say Conor talks a lot of shit. But what about Dana, your UFC president, who kind of talked the same shit all along?

We had heard when specifically asked will he do the six months from dana like yeah i don't know no well look he'll fight by the end of the year even though it was mathematically impossible so if you're usada i would think you have some level of grounds on these two very public figures are essentially just publicly tearing down our own uh our own what integrity like let me is that fair to say luke is that a fair counter to whatever liability ufc says they have about how about how usada disparaged connor's name didn't dana and connor do the exact same thing so i don't feel like is there is there we're not lawyers but what is there that's liable in that case i don't know about the legal thresholds involved here but i mean this is

all this is what usada does this is what they do what they do is they create this punitive framework where athletes can only be um innocent in a temporary sense because you're only one test away from that ever being false, like just because you can maintain a clean record, people will still cast or have suspicions. And then the minute that anything goes sideways, including by a liability standard, they can no longer enforce, they will absolutely ruin your reputation and have done so multiple times. They live for it. In certain cases, people applaud it, like in the Lance Armstrong case, which of course is a very unique and important one.

I certainly grant. But that's what they do. They're there to either let athletes maintain what they have or to tear it down. It is never to boost. That is not what these guys are about. When I call them zealots, man, I'm not exaggerating in any way whatsoever. That is what they are. And so, you know, they can get good press from the

Olympic cycles, but in between them, they were working with this kind of sport, which has, you know, the new cycles sort of constantly going and putting a global superstar like Conor McGregor in that is a way to really get attention. It really comes down to what Hunter Campbell is saying. If he is right, that they had these meetings where it was expressly clear about what their intentions were, that does raise some troubling questions. However, it is also true that to the best of our knowledge, Conor McGregor broke the rules, right? He kind of just retired, pulled out of the testing pools. I'm just going to take whatever the fuck I want and get back in. But again, even that one, BC, it goes back to this question. Guys, if you had the injury that Conor McGregor had and your physician came to you with,

this is what the treatment should be, and then USADA says we don't agree with it, who on earth are you going to listen to? You really believe that what USADA has is the best available medical science for any athlete, Conor McGregor or otherwise, is long-term quality of life. What nonsense. Who believes this? Who is the rube who believes this?

So really what this shows, BC, is the Conor McGregor situation. I think the big takeaway for me also is that people are like, UFC only did all of this for Conor. Yeah. Yeah, motherfucker. Welcome to the world. This is how it works. You and me don't get shit. Powerful people do. But, but if Conor McGregor's situation where he has a devastating injury and he goes and gets world-class treatment that is well above anything USADA is even capable

of understanding or regulating, and he really wants to resume his career, I agree that should be navigated in a careful, scientific, and professional way. What I'm saying is, USADA, these are not the guys for that job. And if he can change the policy where now UFC can take a broader look and say, hey, wait a second, there might be cases where if someone has what god forbid connor happens or you know like cyborg uh santos where he got his fucking skull broken or whatever some kind of devastating injury that there could be kinds of rehabilitative medicine they could take while not being eligible to compete tell me how this is a bad thing i don't even understand

what the argument is no look usada's got a us saw it had a bad reputation in boxing before ufc ever hired them i was shocked when they hired them usada's got a spotty record up and down with the ufc when you consider the tom lawless and all the stuff that you've talked about at length and you're right the people that have received raw deals that after the fact had had their name tainted in parts of their left of their money making prime stolen from them over pictograms and things like that and we'll get into the john jones quote in a second there's also been some head-scratching moves and some head-scratching ufc responses to these moves that's just sort of why i question i guess you can paint conor mcgregor in this case potentially as like a freedom trailblazer pioneer

to to force the necessary changes in things like stem cell and recovery from disastrous injuries. But, but you did get in bed with USADA. If you're the UFC, you did sign up for this, even if it's just for insurance purposes, like we talk about a lot,

the rules were the rules and they kind of broke the rules using a loophole for Brock Lesnar. And it blew up in their face ridiculously. And now it's hard not to look at this in some level and feel like if we can't do this for Conor the way we want to, let's just switch companies and defame them and say it's all about libel back and forth. He said, she said, when isn't it more about you, UFC? You signed up with these people. You agreed to their rules. You stopped wanting to follow their rules. And, I mean, look, you can go a lot of conspiracy angles.

You can attach a lot of things to this. But timing is everything. And we are now in the TKO era, Luke, where WWE and UFC are together. And there is a very lax understanding of how PEDs are used in modern-day WWE, meaning they have a wellness program where they test their performers or athletes, if you will, but they only bring to light publicly

or even to the level of suspending when they feel like somebody is getting out of control with their use of this, right? I know this is a not an apples to apples comparison because it's real fighting with staged entertainment but it timing wise there is this window that that you're starting to ask yourself does this company just want wax more lax drug testing and allow the stars to sort of live i mean look there's one loophole in the wwe wellness program that's com. All part-timers are not

subject to testing. So whenever you get a 50-year-old former star coming back for another WrestleMania run, you're pretty much assured and assume that that guy's taking everything over the counter. Okay, again, it may not matter if all we're doing in that case is scripted fighting. But all of this, I think

at least needs to be devil's advocated, Luke, and just kind of say on the timing of it you did get in bed with usada if you've got the issues that's cool you can wait till the end of the contract and get a new person all together but this felt like a really weird ending given all the timing and given the players at play given that luke we've never necessarily considered ufc heroes during their usada run We still have a lot of questions about that card getting moved from Vegas to L.A., the last minute for Jones Gustafson 2, about how some people got the hammer dropped on them and others were seemingly given every chance to try to figure it out.

It's largely been a shit show used to protect themselves in case of trouble. I feel like to some degree UFC is leaning into that shit show to justify the ending right now. That's all I'm saying. I don't think, again, skepticism, and I'm going to say it again to the point you're raising, skepticism about the motives of any fight promoter, you're usually not going to go wrong. Or at least it's a better way to look at the world than just sort of blindly accepting all the things that any fight promoter might say. So I understand that. And BC, I do think that the UFC has a degree of culpability here that you're identifying. I mean, so for example, yesterday at the press conference, they noted, here's one thing that they said that they're not going to do in the future.

We're not going to be the company like USADA did that tried to get a sample from Paulo Costa in the middle of weight cutting, right? They're like, we're not going to do that. We're not going to be the company. They also cited that tries to get a sample from Alexander Volkanovsky at Fight Island in the middle of the night. I think it was somewhere like 2 or 4 a.m., some absurd amount of timing, right? They're like, we're just not going to do that. Right? So they were talking about a more humane, rational way of doing things, which I can certainly applaud. But it's like, it's like, guys, I believe what you're saying. I believe the arguments that you're making about USADA and why you wanted to make the switch. BC, you know this as well as I do. Anybody knows this. All of those problems that they identified were easily foreseeable.

They were easily foreseeable. They had to know. Like those problems were great for you until they weren't. And now suddenly they're the worst things ever, right? But here's what I think happened. And one thing, we talked about the Mark Hunt lawsuit. It did not feature prominently yesterday at all. That's not to say it didn't play a role,

but it didn't come up at all yesterday. But one thing that didn't come up also that I think may have played a role is remember Nowitzki was part of the the Balco scandal he played a role later uh to a degree with Lance Armstrong as well and Tigert did as well although they don't have overlapping I mean they have overlapping times in anti-doping but not working together except as maybe a liaison in this case through UFC but the point I wanted to make was Tigert has done something excuse me not Tigert Nowitzki has done something of an evolution over time now Jeff Nowitzki and I in terms of our views on anti-doping are probably still very far apart but he and I are going to be much closer together than let's say someone like me and Travis Tigert, right?

Because, for example, I remember distinctly Jeff Nowitzki doing an interview with the athletic Josh Gross at the time where he was talking about this strict liability standard. And for folks who may not remember, it's the idea that like, hey, I took a test. This showed up in your system. Doesn't matter how it got there. You're responsible. But of course, we live in a world where people dump pharmaceuticals down the toilet and then enter the water supply where, you know, God only knows the levels of cross-contamination.

And Jeff Nowitzki was the one who told The Athletic, we now live in a world where strict liability just cannot be uniformly enforced. We have to have a degree of humanity, a degree of flexibility around these things, because everything is contaminated one way or the other. That is rational. That is a rational thing. And so I know that McGregor, it looks to me, BC, and I think you would agree, looks like the straw that broke the camel's back. And so all of the focus is there. And yes, it does seem like that was the predominant amount of focus. But what I also think is happening is that over time,

the guys in charge of the anti-doping program at the UFC, while I still think they're wrong about many things, they begin to see the inhumanity and the irresponsibility in this program, and they begin to go a different direction. USADA, who are zealots never did that that cleavage so to speak is a real thing i love cleavage i'll be honest with you but look i gotta i gotta bring up usada's side of the story now this is travis tiger talking to mma fighting and just for the record this was before the press conference with hunter and uh and jeff novitsky

so tiger it's basically framing this as a financial issue. He says, you tell me that costs are an issue, talking about the UFC, when they've never been before, and you are all now valued at $12 billion. And $7 million to a $12 billion company is frankly peanuts. So what's really going on here? There are some private companies out there. Some of them are owned by venture capital firms,

and they're willing to run any kind of program, whether it has credibility or not, if they can make a little bit of profit off of it. My guess is you'll get some sample collection company for UFC that does that. Now, he also referenced Drug Free Sport International, which UFC would then go on to announce a relationship with. And he said them, for example, and some other even professional sport that does it.

And then they'll probably try to subcontract out with a laboratory. And then you'll have UFC likely handling all of the results. That'll be my guess. So they'll bring it in-house, control every aspect of it, who's tested, what's tested, what they're tested for, and send out to collectors to get it tested. That's my prediction.

That's not a model that comes close probability wise or effectiveness wise to what we do but that's the model you can control and get the results that you want when you want them without the same level of openness and transparency and independence now i gotta counter that and say hey you saw that didn't you take out the transparency element in recent years so that people can get popped and we don't have to know about it? That's that's such a misnomer. No, that's not. Is that just for the picograms? Meaning if you pulse, then it doesn't have to become a front page. No. Why should the public know about something you actually haven't been found guilty about? about okay something that came up in your records so do you put any value because you know it's fair to tell both sides of the story do you put any value here in what usada is saying that watch

ufc is going to go handle hire a private company which will allow them to essentially control it better themselves won't that mean luke that we'll see less main events getting canceled and the show will go on yes i mean the criticism that USADA makes there is pretty fair in the sense that what they're describing is probably true. What they're describing is true. Here's what these fucking clowns just don't understand or refuse to understand. They're smart enough to understand it.

They just don't want to. There is an inherent contradiction between the rights of athletes and what anti-doping wants. There is friction right where they meet, and you have to make some accommodations. Now, he's right. Does it surprise you that the UFC wants to exercise more control over a process? And then what kind of transparency are we going to get? That's why they went balls out and hired some you know very scary law enforcement figure to like let everybody know we mean business but in the end the devil will be in the details about you know who gets punished for how long

who sets these precedents how transparent is this process he's right that they're trying to retain control but what they refuse to understand is that in order to accommodate some of the humanity and the rights of athletes, there is a trade-off you have to make an anti-doping. You can't have that full-on zealotry mode that they're looking for. Yes, that will probably be less effective, so to speak, in the end. However, if you're still going to be able to have some degree of effectiveness with much more of a humane policy, I got to tell you, folks, this is my personal opinion. I think that's a much better tradeoff. I can't argue with that.

We talk so much on this show about fighters' rights, about their ability to represent embarrassment, disparity, you know, over, like we say, over picograms or things that, you know, a tainted supplement, stuff like that, rather than be out of the sport for two years and branded with a scarlet letter, could this protect them more the right way? Obviously more for that than anything, Luke. And if this ultimately is a better process more for that, but there is a lot of cleanup in aisle eight associated with this.

Let me get to that. First of all, let me just say Drug Free Sport International, according to Novitsky, has 325 current long-tenured clients, including NFL, NCAA, MLB, NBA, NASCAR, horse racing, FIFA, CrossFit, PGA, LPGA, WNBA. So, like, we're talking about all the major brands here. Some of this cleanup, though, Luke, will be, what do we do about the biggest USADA scars that we have had on this sport

during the time period that they've been serving this role? I bring you Jon Jones's tweet on this topic. Quote from the great one here, man. I survived USADA. First. They said I was guilty of having picograms. Then they considered me innocent.

Next picograms became legal. Guess what? I'm still here. I'm still unbeaten. That BS no contest over DC needs to be taken off of my record. I've never cheated this sport and I will stand by that until the day I die. Daniel Cormier on his own YouTube channel during an interview with Ben Askren went on to basically say, Hey John, you can't rewrite history. Luke Thomas, can we rewrite history?

Should we rewrite history separate from taking cocaine and, you know, running away from that intersection with the pregnant woman and all the other stuff John has done just from a drug standpoint. Does this news this week do exactly what Boney says it does and remove that stain from his resume? I mean, this is the bad news for people who don't like Jon Jones. Now, this wouldn't actually be an issue. Sorry, this doesn't cover all of his run-ins with drug issues. So I want to be clear about that. But here's the funny part about all of his USADA issues.

In the end, either through an arbitrator or some other mechanism, he was exonerated. I know folks don't want to believe that. I know in their hearts they don't believe that. They see that as some kind of legalese nonsense or whatever. I'm just asking you guys, what is the actual record that came out, printed, final findings on all of this for any infraction that john jones had with usada whatever you personally believe you are entitled to believe but just answer the question that i asked what are the results of any infraction that john jones had with usada it is exoneration it is exoneration

anything that they did say he had certain forms of recklessness but uh or negligence but never malfeasance you're talking about dick pills yes the whole the whole bit yes they never actually say he will it willfully and intentionally cheated in fact they go out of their way to say the opposite and he's right about the picograms he was one of the first athletes although he was not the only one who ended up showing that this is the substance that gets in your body they're not sure they're not sure how long it lasts it's really weird the whole nine yards that's a real thing that he did so you know do i think that what he is saying is true i've got my doubts to be perfectly honest but but in terms of what his run-ins with usada show who won that him or usada he did that's a fact he did yeah yeah bones won the drugs war too apparently uh to close on the pyro part of it george pyro

the former fbi investigator or piro piro maybe i don't know here's novitsky's quote while i had a noticeable federal law enforcement career. The IRS? A little pat on the back there, right? Yeah, a little IRS. No, he worked for the FBI. Nowitzki did at one point, right? I think later he did, but in the Balco scandal, he was an IRS guy. He says, my resume pales in comparison to that of George Pyro.

As I talk about George Pyro, he's quite literally an American hero. He's also a world champion no no gi jujitsu masters level. He knows the sport. He knows the athletes that go through this world-class level of training. He was mentioning to us that he has watched every single UFC pay-per-view every single fight, virtually every single one live. He knows more about this sport and UFC than probably the entire personnel

of USADA end quote so I guess it's not saying much I guess they got the right guy for the job um I don't know the John Jones quote makes really has me thinking to be fair here okay I really thought the whole relationship with bumbling UFC and USADA all through the years we had a lot of questions concerns and it seemed like it was, let's get a certain level of insurance and integrity on this topic because we're about to go public.

We're going to be sold all this stuff. We want to be taken seriously. And look again, if the new company in the end is the better for the fighters and better for everything and not as zealous, then it's a big win-win.

And like you said, if Conor ends up taking six months off and can prove that everything's fine, and in the future, if we have more leniency for stem cell and disastrous injuries, except for involving Chris Weidman, stop trying to fight Chris. All of that, Luke, I say, heck yeah. But are there anything else we need to look back over the history of, not just John Jones' experience us in you know his experience but

anyone else's where we have to cast a large level of doubt upon it in terms of like was their career above board yeah i mean are there any other major suspensions now that we have to go back and completely exonerate people from oh the lyoto machito one was absurd he took something over the counter and they got him for it and he wrote it down because it wasn't a big deal um they just and they took 18 months from him they fucked him i know josh barnett has his own uh issues in terms of contamination with supplements with you too luke he was coming at you on twitter did you see that yeah i know but i didn't they someone found proof of me talking about it and uh i i've only ever taken his side in these disputes.

I don't know what that's about. He should run a correction. He really should. I'm not asking for anything. I know what my record on this is. But the point I'm trying to make is he also got railroaded. That's a real thing. We go back to the Tom Lawler situation.

Tom Lawler basically had his career ended in MMA by virtue of some of this stuff. And, again, that goes back to the same kinds of things where they were using these testing methods at the time that they thought were great. Then they realized later they're not very good at all. And then they're like, well, it just is what it is. And so I think these kinds of things, the folks in UFC were noticing like, this is a little heavy handed. This is not very nimble. This is not very, very wise. We need to change a lot of this.

And it took a lot of athletes getting kind of fucked over in order for us to get to this point i mean i don't know what i'd like genuinely i have no idea what can be done at this point i don't even know if there anything can be but this is what i mean people be like oh well this system you know the ufc might retain more control that's probably going to be true i don't know what that will mean in real terms in the end um this one may not be as strenuous as the last system i don't know what that will mean in real terms in the end. This one may not be as strenuous as the last system. I don't know if that will be true or not. But, guys, the last system had a lot of problems.

It had a lot of problems. Like getting a system that's not nearly as hard-ass as the one we had, I'm struggling to understand how that's a bad thing. No, I mean, look, what do you make of the long resume I mentioned of the new testing agency they've hired that they work with all those people because you do tend to see a non-scientifically validated opinion from many that they could they could test every nfl linebacker or running back or wide receiver and they could pop anybody any day but they tend to only pop who they want or

maybe the testers are ahead of the system, which is largely what we assume in general with combat sports and testing. Does this give you the confidence, given their deep track record with many front-facing professional sports, that this is on the up and up moving forward? It will entirely depend on how they operate, dude. I mean, they laid out what they're going to do. Let's see what it looks like in real terms. Again, I don't know.

I don't know because they're also talking about we're going to up the amount of testing for X substances. We're going to do different methods of technology over the sampling. I need, I think we all do. We all just need to see how this all looks. I think the most important thing I'm looking for, BC, and I really mean this, they've got these things.

By the way, they claim they're going to be able to draw blood samples without having to actually puncture the skin and pull blood, which I think is a very, if that's true, that's a very interesting and important development. But more to the point. Can they fix the prostate exam without having to go in, Luke? I mean, it's 2023 right i don't i think we're just i think we're screwed quite literally over that one bc i don't

know but what i'm trying to say is i think that um i forgot where i was going with this one with after you're we're gonna go about the credibility of the organization that they're yeah it really the thing i'm looking forward to most is that uh is seeing what the punishment time frame looks like sure i think a lot of people are going to be like, oh, these punishments are shorter. Guys, they're supposed to be. They're supposed to be. We're not Olympic athletes.

Not we. They are not Olympic athletes. We are not on an Olympic track timeline where that kinds of things, I still think those are burdensome, but they make a little bit more sense given what they're up against. We're not on that.

These guys have a very short window in which to make money. And if they run afoul of the rules, then of course, there should be some kind of punishment that goes into it. But we got to make sure it fits the broader system in which we're all in. Let's be honest. We've talked about it very honestly, that either whether you come from an ideal standpoint

where you don't care about PEDs, or maybe you just say to yourself, look, the users are going to be ahead of the testing processes always always right they're constantly going to be ahead of it let's just say because when this news dropped we didn't know about the new organization if when this news dropped the narrative and that's probably not fair to the ufc but the negative narrative was instantly like oh crap now they're just going to drop us out and do whatever they want and maybe rely on commission state urine tests like a lot of boxing does, unless they specifically hire a Vada or a big testing company. Let's say UFC boldly did that. 2023 right now, let's say they were like, hey, start of the year.

It's on you. State testing commissions is not on us. This is on you state testing commissions it's not on us this is on you and we all assume that it really was that wwe reality that i talked about that like go use what you want just go out we gotta we gotta we gotta keep the marquee filled with these big names are we close enough yet as a society where that would be accepted because i only fight the good fight on on drug testing meaning i don't want them to have a serious drug testing plan like they had with usada and then at the same time try to act like it's not

credible and it doesn't matter well hey you you got in bed with them but if they had said look at the future is everyone's going to be taking this stuff the future is your doctor's going to be giving you hgh for all your ailments. Are we close to that? Would that have worked if they were the Trailblazers and they said, look, we're a new group. We're TKO now. It's a different era.

We're not using USADA. We're not using WADA or VADA. Hey, Arizona State Commission, you better bring out that piss cup and you better get it right. I don't think that would be a very you know you're just asking what kind of scrutiny or i mean dude because you know they were pulling in baseball players in the early 2000s into congress you know to testify on some of this shit so like you know the i don't know that they would ever do that but you know you just have to ask yourself where is public sentiment where is opinion leader

sentiment on this and to what extent do we run afoul of it by going to a path that you're prescribing you would probably be creating a lot of headaches for yourself again a lot of this is social insurance um again some people might really believe in the strength of the anti-doping program you're certainly entitled to but part of it is also hey we're doing what we're supposed to be doing as this very visible public public facing entity who is owned by disney i think you know it makes a little bit more sense even though bellator is owned by paramount for you know however much longer these these are just outside the ufc promotions i think it makes more sense for them to be like hey we rely on the state

commissions because that actually is a model that works but But if you're 90% or 85% or whatever percent of the industry, I think just throwing your hands in the air with the public, I don't know that you can sell that to the public. Maybe you could, but I don't know that you can. All right. Well, this is the new era, Luke. I believe it starts January 1st. Yeah. Do you expect any kind of fallout?

Do you expect any kind of good or bad in the media seat? I think probably business as usual. Again, the thing that will be the most interesting to me is to see how they treat contamination cases, which, by the way, USADA was never good at. Drug Free Sport International, I'm told, is much better about those kinds of things. So that could be a big. And then the other one, of course, is going to be that if someone does run afoul of the rules, big or small, whatever whatever what do the punishments

look like i think that's going to be a real key indicator of um of how good this program well look we give him a chance novitsky he stated that their their their principles have always been integrity and all that and authenticity and transparency well let's continue to see that and and if this helps the athletes then then good in the end uh luke and maybe connor was a a a trailblazer maybe he was maybe i'm telling you if he ends up being the guy that makes we're not there yet we're not there yet but if he ends up being the guy that makes it so that people can get the kind of medicine they need for traumatic injury dude that is no small achievement that's a big achievement if we can get there.

And I think we're closer than ever. Then in hindsight, do you give USADA at least this credit? Because I heard you say, show me, show it to me. Show me the BBLs. I mean, you are a very passionate man, Luke. Show me the money here. Did USADA at the very least succeed in lowering the ridiculous physiques of everyone from the TRT era and at the very least establishing a threshold of fear that, you know, F around, you may find out.

I think what USADA probably did for the poorer rank-and-file fighters who don't have the knowledge or the money to skirt or avoid even the kind of testing that they can provide, they probably did substantially reduce any kind of drugs that they were on. However, I think for the richer ones that have, that can get proprietary blends that nothing can detect, or for people who are very clever about cheating systems, I don't think that they had made probably any difference at all in something like that. And I think it probably only entrenched their advantages over time. But again, USADA wants to make claims about all the success they've had, and they provide zero evidence to substantiate these claims.

So just take that for what it's worth. There it is. Topic number two, Luke, is also a biggie. Big time fallout here from the UFC 294 and the injuries we talked about. We got a new main event, Volk versus Islam 2, whether you love it or not, and I still freaking love it. New co-main event, though. We debated the potential opponents that could replace Paulo Costa,

who had the elbow surgery recently, has the staph infection beginnings there, Luke. He's got a lot of issues going on there, although he said he still would have fought. It ends up being Kamaru Usman, the former welterweight champion, that wins the sweepstakes. And to add more juice, Dana White said the winner will get the next shot at Strawn Strickland's middleweight title. This goes down, of course, October 21st, Abu Dhabi, UFC 294. And your opening line here from FanDuel, Usman plus 220, Chemaev minus 295. And Mikey tells us here this is Kamaru opening as an underdog for the first time since he won the title against Tyron Woodley in 2019 when he opened as a plus 235 underdog for the first time since he won the title against Tyron Woodley in 2019 when he opened as a

plus 235 underdog. Luke, it wasn't the sexiest pick, but this is not a disappointment though. This is not a small move. Usman debuting at 185 with a chance to beat maybe the most red hot guy in the sport and then a chance to rematch a guy you already beat in Sean Strickland for a chance to become a two division champion there's some there's a big fallout potential here of this matchup introducing the new mcspicy from mcdonald's it looks like a regular chicken sandwich but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich mcspicy consider yourself warned limited time only at participating m At participating McDonald's in Canada. You know what? On Wednesday's show, I was like, ah, this wouldn't be my favorite.

I would rather go in some other directions. And there are some other directions that I think, personally speaking, I would have liked to have gone. But, dude, I think the fans love this shit. From what I can tell, the fans are 100% on board with it. And if you think about it, there's a few ways it actually makes sense. First of all, BC, obviously in the main event, you have two guys both with titles, right? So you have champion, champion. I mean, I realize only one is in that fight, but you have the featherweight champion versus the lightweight champion.

And I know Kamaru is not a champion anymore, but he was one. So you're asking how many guys have ever worn a UFC title out of the main and co-main event? The answer is three of the four. Like, that does add some cachet to it. Fans know really well. I mean, fans like and know Paulo Costa, but Kamaru Usman, for all of the ways in which fans might have polarizing feelings about him, they know who he is. They know he's a very well-established quantity.

And, you know, he's got a wrestling background and everything else. Like, this is a super intriguing fight. This is a very interesting fight. well-established quantity and you know he's got a wrestling background and everything else like this is a super intriguing fight this is a very interesting fight this is a surprising fight and again would i like to see maybe x or y choice sure but bc from what i can tell this is a home run with the fans they much more value this fight than the fight with Costa. Very interesting. Oh, look, here's the deal at the end of the day. It's an upgrade from Costa.

It is. I mean, Costa had more violence potential. Yes, yes. But I think from the pedigree and the credibilities of the two fighters, I did have a lot of people DM me going, the reason why I like this fight so much more is because I don't see Paulo Costa as a true elite fighter, a fun fighter, but not a true elite.

And certainly the upside of Usman is still very elite, but Usman fresh off of two losses, the rematch with Leon Edwards, though, was a majority decision. And Luke, he's not getting any younger in that great stat you talk about of welterweight and under, but this ain't welterweight anymore. What are our expectations here for Kamaru Usman? Because this is a monster opportunity. First of all, it's never going to be an easy task beating Chemayev,

but he can go in there and have a chance at becoming a two-division champion against a guy he already beat. This is hugely revival. This is a potential revival for Kamaru when our current stock of him, I don't think is all that high given those back-to-back losses, considering that he was pound-for-pound number one at the start of that. Correct me if I'm wrong. Didn't Leon Edwards take Kamaru Usman's back in the second fight?

I believe so. Right? I mean, pardon me. This is an interesting one. I don't know what to make of Kamaru on 11 days notice up a weight class. No clue. No clue. Really kind of strange. I do know. And I, you know, we've seen Hamzat at 185, but not against anybody really all that great. Not like a super elite guy, certainly, at 185. And now we have to, like, do this thing with Kamara.

I mean, this was the thing for me for BDP, BC, which was, I just say letters in conjunction here. But in all seriousness, like, what is the value of beating Robert Whitaker with a full camp? It's extremely valuable like it's I know what that means that's a very very difficult thing to do what does it mean for Hamzat to beat a guy who hasn't fought at middleweight and he's beating him on 11 days notice even though he was a champion at a different weight class well the answer is it has to mean something right I mean it's not it's not without value it's just really hard to parse what it all means so in terms of Kamaru's chances I guess I don't really like them if I'm being

honest just give him the kind of like nutso insane guy who's got great grappling that that that Hamzat does but the big takeaway for me BC is Dana White was like yeah these two guys Hamzat and Kamaru they stepped up on short notice and for that reason I'm going to reward them with a title shot wow man I'm not saying that they sent a message to DDP but I'm sure DDP took a message from that and I doubt he's happy about it even though that win that he has over Whitaker is a known valuable thing you know dude they are they might be straight up just just penalizing him just saying look this is how we run business you're on the way up you do what we say you jump when we say

jump we give you a big opportunity you say yes you do it they have so many veterans that will live and die by that style as we see here although this is a newsman taking you know some kind of crazy dangerous gamble could turn out that way but i think you know this is a great opportunity for him legacy wise to get himself back in a big fight that can set up an even bigger one but i do wonder where and how israel adesanya fits into this and whether that affected their decision adesanya went on to his podcast or went on to the rock podcast this morning luke is that his yes what is the that is his podcast i don't i don't know what that is no i'm sorry all right is he was on the rock podcast this morning and here's what he said

I'm not going to fight for a long time I'm definitely not going to retire because I know me, I'm not leaving like that I know me, but if I did I'm fine, I don't need to prove anything else I'm going to heal myself up you won't see me fight for a long time

do you believe that that to some level this knowledge was part of the decision for ufc or is this a reaction from israel to this situation um i uh probably they had some idea you're right i mean i'm guessing that he didn't come to this decision lightly there's probably been a lot of talks with his manager and I'm sure his manager has been in contact with UFC Tim Simpson who's a very good manager at that so I would imagine that there's been how much is hard to say but I would imagine there's been a degree of coordination about this and so that probably informed some of their decision making okay because you know if Izzy was like itching to get

back in there that would kind of inform their judgment about this. But if he's going to be out, they've got to move the chains on this one. And so that's the direction they're going to go. By the way, I do think that that's probably a good idea for Izzy. I think he's been nonstop competing for basically his entire UFC career. He's never had a really extended break. He has been traveling like an absolute madman to accommodate the UFC's promotion of him,

and of course that's a good thing, but I would imagine the burnout has been significant. I think that the pack has kind of caught up with him a little bit, at least figured out his game a little bit, is maybe a better way to put it. And taking some time off to heal, taking some time off to get refreshed, taking some time off to work on his game,

all of these are very, very, very, very good things. And it also gives a chance for the division you know to move forward a little bit like strong strong strickland's the champion now maybe hamza gets the next title shot could be kamar usman which would be kind of weird but i guess it could happen here's ddp not far behind like there's these new faces new names even the kamar is an old name a new face in the division it kind of moves things forward in a little bit i think it's good for all the parties i like it a lot because i think sometimes even if even if there are times that we fall into no i want this immediate rematch i love this rivalry or i want to see this again

we do have too many immediate rematches too many of the same people lingering around a loaded title picture this opens up the door like i mean look in general strickland's upset of izzy should have flipped the apple cart gave other people new life who maybe said look i already fought izzy and i got dominated but now i may have a new chance at it we have a a new beginning here if the winner of this fight and the potential of it being chamayev and contend you know he could be the next big thing in this entire sport if he could become champion soon uh the kamaru strickland rematch luke wouldn't be my favorite choice, but there's storyline elements to it. And if Usman beat Chemaev fair and square, what could you do?

I mean, Luke, you could say it's favoritism for an aging star, but you've got to go through Chemaev to get there. So that's the hurdle. I mean, just like I never would have considered DDP for the title unless he went through Whitaker. Oh, he fucking went through him. But it feel like ddp's on the odd man out so is he looking at maybe fighting the winner of the winner of this fight or do you think they end up putting ddp back in there against the top contender like a cannoneer for example cannoneer is the odd

man out right he was the backup for the last fight he's kind of the odd man out all of us i do this is like this is what i mean like you know one thing that eugene was right about eugene bearman not in this particular way that things have gone but he is right that if you get offered a title fight and you can't take it and again sometimes you just can't take it like i'm not saying this is fair believe me that's not the point i'm trying to make but rather that if you don't take it whether you're ready or not dude there's no guarantee you'll get that later no even if like you got it based off of whatever achievement like that the value of that achievement and then you get the title shot after if you say no the value of what came before that automatically starts getting compromised and now these new players new scenarios new needs they all start to take root

dude this game moves fast fast and so i don't think it's fair to ddp i want to be very clear about that i hope folks aren't taking home like oh ddp gets what he deserves not my point but rather just based on the way the game is structured i don't have any i mean i guess he'll get depending on when sean strickland comes back i guess he could get the winner of that fight but we're gonna see do you ever envision a long-term scenario where there is some element of a fighter union or fighter representation will will that extend to the level of a union being able to step in and say hey ufc you're you're you're you're not following your own meritocrist plan here. You're not giving

the right guy. Again, this is a scenario where we're not going to protest about it. Yeah, GDP is kind of getting a raw deal, but Chamaya versus Usman is a whole interesting fight into itself. But do you see that becoming a thing down the road? Because look, I worked under a union just one in my life, and I'm not anti-union by any means. My dad was a big fighter back in the day and he was a fireman and was the union leader in there i worked under a union for in a grocery store luke but i did see a lot of people use the union to serve their interests and serve their ability to get things are we doing this are we really doing this we're gonna do anti-union nonsense i'm not doing anti-union i'm telling you i'm largely pro-union. I'm just asking you if long-term, will that extend to that?

If there was a union, could they step in and protest who gets the title shot based on meritocracy? So I don't know how that would work, right? Because in order to get a union, you have to be an employee first. So, for example, BC is a big fan of the New York Giants. The guys who play for the Giants, they are employees of the team. That's how that goes. So a lot would have to change. And remember, if you're an employee and your employer's like,

hey, you're fighting that guy, remember, hey, the NFL schedule comes out, right? Hey, commanders are playing the Giants at the Meadowlands on this date. They don't have a choice. You just have to show up and play that day. That's just how it goes. So as independent contractors, they don't have a choice. You just have to show up and play that day. That's just how it goes. So as independent contractors, they can say yes or no. In terms of your question, I don't know how that would go. I don't know how that could or would affect things in the future.

It's a great question, but I don't know the answer. Interesting. To close on this larger 294 topic, Luke, I sat on it a couple days. Dude, I like Volk Islam to even more than I did before. And I'm starting to realize that this may be the only time this fight could have been made right now because you don't know what the future is going to happen. And I saw a video that Volk put out saying, look, I train every day. Yeah, I may have been, you know, enjoying myself a bit lately, but the call came. This is what I'm about i did it look you do get a lot of people saying something i

brought up the other day that could be true that because of the connection with abu dhabi and wanting this card to be a big major and not suffer from someone falling out do you think volt got paid like like stupid top end money to accept this and do you think that ultimately was the decider to take this fight on 12 days notice i'm sure it didn't hurt i'm sure it didn't hurt listen here's the truth i think both sides wanted this fight again you know javier mendez told the guys at submission radio they want they they also felt like there was unfinished business that people thought islam was um more vulnerable than than than otherwise should be looked at you know what i mean So they want this one back as well. And of course, Volkanovski wants it back.

I think he thought he was like this close, maybe even deserved it to win. It goes back to the 11-day notice thing, though. Again, with Hamzat and Kamaru, it's only a three-round fight. So I have some hope that that won't be like Kamaru's inability to have fight-ready cardio. I'm halfway confident that that won't necessarily be, like, the deciding factor. Because that would suck, right? The fact that he didn't have cardio.

In a five-round fight, dude, even Volkanovski said, I don't want to test his cardio late. He said that. The guys at Submission Radio had it. Makes me a little bit nervous, dude. Makes me a little bit nervous that, like, yes want it and that makes it very very interesting to me but if you know you don't have five round cardio that also changes your game plan it does i don't know what that's gonna do i don't know what it's gonna do it may come back to that original equation that i don't think he loses much if he loses a competitive if he loses competitively Luke I don't

think he loses much historically I think it's just hey you tried to be great you fought this guy twice you were close this guy's also great you came up empty you made a shit ton of money and you went back to defend your title in your division right but if you win but if you win but if you win but if you win it changes everything i mean and so i'm conflicted right because on the one hand you're like if he wins it's such a monumental achievement it's beyond the biggest thing you can think of or you know it's certainly up there anyway but if he loses and it's not like a beating or anything you're like well i guess we're gonna have to do the Teporia fight. Pretty sized for it. So that's a big part of the news that we didn't have the other day is that he had subsequently

went on Ariel Hawani's MMA Hour and said the plan could still be if he does not get hurt against win or lose against Islam, or probably more likely if he lost, right, that he would come back in January to face Teporia in Toronto. That's interesting. That's a two-month turnaround, Luke. That's Tyson Fury boxing in Ghanu and then fighting Usyk, right? Yeah, but instead he's fighting Islam Makachev and Ilya Teporia across two different weight classes.

I mean, it's one thing to fight an MMA fighter who has no pro boxing experience and then two months later fight Oleksandr Usyk. That's not the same thing as what he'd be. I don't think – listen, if he can pull that off, holy effing S. But I just find that extremely unlikely. All right, let's get into topic three. This is my Super Bowl. I can't hide from it.

They have won me over. The Misfits card on the Zone pay-per-view on Saturday, 2 p.m. Eastern it starts. Main events we're thinking around 5.15. You can also get it on ESPN+, which I don't think is a small story that they continue to throw themselves in there, trying to attach themselves to fights that are getting a lot of attention. This doubleheader

atop the marquee, which on paper is very gas station hot dog, they have promoted the absolute shit out of this card. The main event, KSI versus Tommy Fury at Cruiserweight. The co-main event, Logan Paul versus Dylan Danis at a 195-pound catchweight. Plenty of influencers on the undercards. Luke, I don't even know where to begin because yesterday's press conference was

among the most bizarre, ridiculous, amazing theater that I have ever seen in this space. You have to understand that me and Rafe Bartholomew, through many iterations of boxing podcasting leading up to me coming over to this show, Luke, Johnny Fury, father of Tyson and Tommy, has been our hero. He has been a soundbite machine. He is the full representation of a real fighting man. He's willing to fight anybody, anywhere, at any time, right now to defend his family's bare-knuckle lineage. He damn near stole the show yesterday, and that doesn't even get into the weigh-in controversy

slash conspiracy that went down this morning. Luke Thomas, first and foremost, before we play some of these incredible videos, would you agree with me that like we're not trying to tell you this ain't a pig with with lipstick on it it is but this is about the best it gets in terms of getting you to care about something so stupid be honest with me i mean just think about it what would it take to get you to watch donks who can't fight for shit to fight it would take pulling out chris hansen have a seat over there

have a seat over there john fury showing his big old ass which he did he showed his ass yesterday quite literally uh he headbutted a glass wall and by the way the glass wall is brilliant showtime pay-per-view once did that with record ricardo mayorga and fernando vargas because they were they were getting too antsy. So the weigh-in, they put the glass wall between them. Whenever promoters do that, you know it's going to get good, Luke. You know it is. Yeah, I mean, again, we'll be there to cover some of these fights. They're going to suck the horn. You know that. We know that. We all know that.

BC is in love. He's got a throbber in his dungarees and that's okay but i will say i will say this like my timeline i've muted half these guys my timeline won't stop producing content around this i opened up instagram yesterday after this press conference i didn't know it was on to be fair every single post for like 12 straight was this thing luke 12 straight up and down my timeline there it was like you couldn't avoid it well let's watch some of it so look as much as ksi and tommy fury is the main event uh dylan dennis is either trying to recklessly get this fight canceled so he doesn't have to or he is trying every troll trick in the book as is lo, to one-up each other. It also produced real fisticuffs of some degree. Let's go to the videotape of this skirmish after the face-off. so luke normally like fights like this have just like cartoon bs where you're like is that fun to

me i don't know it did get real he caught logan paul under his eye by slamming him with the microphone a member there's an altered an angle of a member of danis's team threw a water bottle so hard that it cracked logan in the skull you had jake paul tweeting that if logan needs him he'll jump in and replace him i mean look this it there's a lot of bs here but it also got kind of real. What was your reaction to that? Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, Jerry. That was my reaction. I mean, what do you mean my reaction? My reaction was, God damn, these people are donks. That's my reaction.

Well, we also had KSI versus Tommy Fury with a face-off behind. It's funny. They went behind the glass wall, even though there's not a lot of heat between Fury and KSI danis and logan paul they just let him go up there and throw bottles of microphones at each other you see ariel ariel got the fuck off that stage he got the fuck off that stage mikey do we have video of ariel that alternate angle of ariel getting the fuck off that stage i think we do right he doesn't okay well there is an alternate angle as soon as that bottle hits that ariel's like yo

i'm out of here and he got the f off and uh i mean look would you have in that spot would you because i've been a couple times press conferences where i'm the guy standing between the two and i'm like this may go this may go gnarly here man yeah well i mean if you're interviewing one of the charlos on the fox that it might be you they come after mike coppinger that has almost happened when i got called mike coppinger you're damn right. Mikey, show me something else. What else we got here? Show me more of this BS. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. over. It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over.

It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over.

It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over. It's over is going to get knocked the fuck out. You're going to get knocked out. Dude, John Fury headbutting. First of all, he showed his ass, as you mentioned, on another alternate angle that you couldn't see on the broadcast. He head-butted and punched that glass wall, which is just brilliant. And then, Luke, John Fury went after our guy, Ariel, and this was hilarious, too.

Can we watch this? What about James? John, just a minute. One more second. Let's just hear what he has to say, and then we'll get back to you in a moment. I'll bring the microphone to you. No problem. Me? What did I do to you what you keep quiet i keep quiet we're friends john like a bunch of and i'm still being bad all right here we go sir this is a wendy's so just to recap there john like, hey, Ariel, you're all a bunch of pussies. And then twice celebrated the fact that he's still banned from public places in 2023. For the record, Luke, he cannot fly to the U.S. because John Fury, the father of Tyson, once took a man's eyeball out in a bar fight and did prison time.

I once asked Tyson Fury in the only phone interview I ever did with him, Luke, and he hung up on me shortly after that. Just so you know. The other video we have is really what is – I mean, Luke, I got to say it. Not only have they promoted this incredibly well. Yes, some of it was Dylan Dennis going way over the top in harassing Logan Paul's

fiance, but that glass cage with the chains around it, I mean, this is how you take pro wrestling ridiculousness and you kind of smooth it out and put it around something that's kind of real, but I guess not really. But when Logan Paul brought out Chris Hansen of To Catch a Predator, this took that idea that Dylan Danis did with that – or no, sorry, was it Logan who did the Danis cake with the vagine on it, Luke? Yes, that's right. That, to me, was the high point of this build until Chris Hansen. Let's watch. In order to attacking an innocent bystanding woman for this entire fight buildup,

Dylan Danis is a stalker. You got over 600 photos of my fiance on your phone that's 600 just google it buddy google those no on your phone your personal phone you have an entire gallery of a woman you've never met before that's that's weird right that's not normal behavior you're a stalker you're a cyber bully in fact dylan you're even a predator you're a predator and this saturday october 14th i'm gonna catch you and in fact i brought an expert because we are going to catch you. I got my boy, Chris Hansen. Because this Saturday, October 14th,

me and Chris Hansen are going to catch a predator. Wow. That is Chris Hansen. That's actually him. And he's shooting a new show called Takedown. He's shooting a new show called Takedown right now. And you're on it right now, buddy. He's in jail for tax evasion.

Dylan Janis. That name sounds very familiar to me. Tell him to sit down. I'm going to need you to Take Time right now, and you're on it right now, buddy. He's in jail for tax evasion. Dylan Janis. That name sounds very familiar to me. So tell me to sit down. I'm going to need you to take a seat right over there. Go ahead. Take a seat. Go pay your taxes, buddy. Go pay your taxes, buddy.

I have no issue there, brother. Yeah, you do. No, I don't. You're wrong again. See, this is why I've been through the transcripts. Is this actually Chris Hansen? This is the real Chris Hansen. Yes.

So you need to take a seat right over there. Okay, Logan, that's a good one. I'll give you that. Because I've been going through the transcripts and I've seen some predatory behavior. You don't make money anymore? I'm doing just fine, son. I got a whole new network. Logan Paul. True Blue.

Came here on my own. True Blue. That's a new network. Takedown with Chris Hansen. That's the show. Well, his dad's a pedophile. You're just making shit up. You're lying. You're on a predator show right now, buddy. No, no, no. Literally. You had a YouTube video of him kissing a 16-year-old. You're just making shit up. You're lying. What do you mean? You're on a Predator show right now, buddy. No, no, no. Literally.

You have a YouTube video of him kissing a 16-year-old. You don't remember that? A what year old? 16-year-old. You're just making shit up, though. I haven't. You're lying. I'll put the video up on my Twitter later, buddy.

Bro, you're a Predator. We're going to catch you Saturday, October 14th. Fucking get Chris Hansen out of here. Go pay your taxes, buddy. Yeah, right. Yeah, you old man. I did look up, Luke, that Chris Hansen had extensive back tax issues, so that was actually not a bad zinger.

But again, full honesty here, it's such a tiptoe, tightrope walk to do something this cringe and not have it come off as only cringe and ridiculous. To do something this cringe but make it clever, amazing, hilarious. Once again, I have to tip my hat to these weirdos, Luke. This was fantastic. Clever is a strong word, but spectacularly and stupidly over the top? Yes, it was 100%.

I even was watching to see where does this go, and then he was like, why don't you have a seat out here? And I was like, okay. That's a new one. So you're telling me you crossed state lines to have pizza with a 12-year-old. Okay, yes, okay. Yeah, that's great.

What about Dennis' glasses? You ever watch that show where these guys would show up and they'd be like, I've got orange juice and a box of donuts. Where's the underage girl I'm supposed to? They're like, all you have in your car is condom and beer. What is going on here? Luke, what did you make of dylan dennis's weird futuristic glasses but with a red tear under the eye does that mean he's part of the the bloods or something i don't understand yeah i don't understand anything about him actually i uh i literally get nothing about uh why people pay attention but they do they do oh they pay attention in droves so let's talk quickly about

this weigh-in um situation or if it is i thought it was resolved so so dylan dennis tweeted that the commission rules state that weigh-ins are between 10 and 11 if you miss the 11 o'clock deadline you've missed weight he he uh it ended up being where logan did make weight but there was a bunch of tweets after that because it's a 195 pound catch weight. Logan came in just around one 94 and Dylan says this fake commission is paid for by KSI and the misfits. They do whatever they,

they say to get paid. It's a bunch of bullshit. This isn't complaining. What's fair is fair, but there were no drug tests. They were breaking the way in rules. I ain't nobody's bitch. I run the show.

Fuck Logan Paul. He claims he made weight, but it doesn't count. There are rules. If he wants to be viewed as a genuine boxer, he needs to follow the 11 o'clock deadline. It's not fair. I had to follow the rules, and he is not an exception. Is there any truth to this?

Did Logan come in after Logan? Please be serious. Like, okay, maybe he missed the weigh-in deadline. Are we supposed to give a fuck if he wants to be seen as a genuine boxer dylan he's boxing you well i don't think that's the goal buddy mike perry has ripped as shit right now mike perry looks like he's ready to go and he did a face-off with dylan so there was some question after logan got cut if logan was going to pull out and if suddenly mike perry was going to replace to beat up dylan dennis then you had

the story of maybe j Paul will fly in. Now you've got the story that Drake put a ridiculous bet down that Logan Paul win by knockout. So people are wondering if the Drake curse continues. Here's the biggest question surrounding this card, and I want you to answer it. Will Dylan Danis enter the ring tomorrow night? Yes, because he wants to get paid. Okay, number two. Will he actually exchange and try to win this fight or will it be some weird Diaz brother routine on steroids like remember what

Nick did against Anderson where he was largely disinterested for the second half of that fight will it be that I don't think there's gonna be much of a second half of this fight I could be wrong I think he might try it first and then the instant it gets difficult there's gonna be much of a second half of this fight i could be wrong i think he might try it first and then the instant it gets difficult he's gonna dq himself by like drop dropping for a leg lock or put the money on the dq we didn't have that an okay bet a dq possibility dude if there was i don't know mikey i don't know if you can look this up for us i don't even know if that exists what is the line on logan paul winning because of a dylan dennis dq i would love to know what the betting line is for that uh drake placed a 850 000 bet reportedly on logan to win

by knockout but yeah i agree with you uh luke uh i mean i could see a low blow he's been threatening dennis that he's going to choke out logan paul um look it's it's i'm telling you it's probably worth watching luke it probably is so we're going to be there we're going to be there here's the line the main event ksi is a plus 280 underdog he's one and oh as a pro getting that split decision win over logan paul in their rematch against tommy fury who's minus 400 fury nine and oh with four ko's still only 24 years old which is ridiculous And he was jacked as hell. And then Logan Paul is a minus six 50 favorite to beat the plus four 10 Dylan Dennis. Um, final point on this. I wrote a story about this. Luke, I asked this question earlier this week.

Is this the last of the carnival circus bubble? Is this the last stand, right? It felt like Nate versus Jake kind of sustained it a little bit. Or is this the opening of a new avenue? Because you know this Misfits brand, it's KSI's company, but he joined forces with the Sauerland brothers who used to run the absolutely legitimate boxing promotion in Germany called Sauerland Events. They ended up selling that to Wasserman,

the Wasserman group, two years ago, and now this is their new vehicle. So it's like it does have smart people behind it. They do bring out a lot of young people that only care about watching if somebody named FaZe is going to get knocked out or Salt Poppy. If this thing delivers, I mean, we're doing a live show for this tomorrow.

Is this bubble still ticking Is this bubble going to go on for a while I don't Yes Yeah like it is I don't know It's not clear how long it can sustain itself But I think we have to be honest

And say it's sustained itself a lot longer Than we thought it was going to already Yeah If this does a big number and if there is i don't you know i will say that like you know we have to see how the main and co-main goes in terms of like did people listen let's just put it this way who's buying this this shit you me and a bunch of juggalos right that's who's watching this the juggalos are watching us the juggalos of the the fight game, yeah? So the question is, in the end, this is the really only thing that matters

in terms of the audience that they're trying to get. Did they feel like when it's all over that they got their money's worth, whatever that means for them? If the answer to that is yes, and maybe even a resounding yes, dude, this shit's just going to keep going. I got to say, they got to go with the grudge match model, though.

The grudge match model is what makes this bubble work, what makes this genre work. There was some element, like when Jake fought Tommy Fury, of what's he going to look like against a real boxer. That sustained the interest for a while. But I think it's got to be stupid grudge matches that actually deliver interesting fights, right? It doesn't have to be highly skilled.

It just has to be interesting. Interesting to the juggalos, yes. That's what it has to do. It has to be, you know, it has to be interesting uh interesting to the juggalos yes that's what it has to do it has to be you know it has to be uh what is it what are their names shaggy too dope and you know yeah the other guy uh do you think i'm the only one that's bitten in or do you think most of the legitimate combat sports world has has fallen for this too this is not for the combat sports world this is for people who are mentally challenged yes these are these are for people whose parents uh you know uh smoked when they were in utero or something like that that's okay you know and us and also us and let's be clear like we're no better we're right there

with them but again it's just a question of like are there enough people to pay for it and when it's all said and done did they get their money's worth if you answer these questions with an affirmative yes steady as she goes for you want to go live at 4 p.m eastern tomorrow if the main event's supposed to be at 5 15 yeah we'll probably go live around 334 something like that yeah be there or be normal apparently hey topic number four uh we don't have to belabor this but it's interesting uf UFC and Saudi Arabia, this relationship is real. And a reminder, now that the TKO group has formed, it brings in WWE, who has a longstanding multi-year relationship and get paid reportedly $55 million per event.

They do two to three per year at some times, Luke. The inaugural UFC Saudi Arabia card, though, is reportedly going to be a fight night card, not a pay-per-view, March 2nd, 2024. So this does, some of the initial rumors since this news came around the same time as the USADA news was that, oh, they're trying to get a new drug company so they can push Conor through the six months faster than normal so he can appear on a Saudi Arabia blockbuster card. Doesn't look like it's going to happen up front but conor mcgregor did tweet out huge congrats to the kingdom of saudi arabia

and the ufc on the major announcement exclamation point incredible news i am honored exclamation point and then bravo at turk i underscore alashki alasik is that some um high power over there luke i'm sure yeah so look sports washing is real luke what do you make of this it finally happened we got we everybody else is going to saudi you might as well go if you're dana too right seems inevitable right uh we'll see what happens with the pga and live golf thing because i think that might get broken up at least here in the united states from antitrust concerns i guess we'll have to see how that goes. But, you know, listen, they're everywhere in sports now, and it's not just them.

As I mentioned before, my own monumental sports company, which owns the Wizards, it owns the Capitals, it owns the Mystics, they just took a $5 billion or roughly $5 billion cash injection from Qatar. Like this is a thing that's just happening. And by the the way you have to imagine there's more of this on the way unless some kind of rule gets passed where you know teams or leagues or whoever can't take money from sovereign wealth funds but uh it's gross and it's awful but it is our present it is certainly more of our future and um yeah here we go well if you followed which i know you didn't the wwe run of recent years there was this trend where whoever the leader of Saudi Arabia wanted on the card,

he would request to Vince McMahon, and they would pull these people out of retirement, Luke, even if they're in their 50s. Shawn Michaels, who long said he would never wrestle again after his retirement in the rematch with Undertaker at WrestleMania 25, he came out of retirement bald as shit for Saudi for big millions. Goldberg came out of retirement. They even wanted Yokozuna who's dead.

So Vince had to find another, uh, sumo wrestler to fill his spot. Do you think that'll happen in the UFC? Could they be like, Hey, look, we want Habib.

We want GSP. We want all of our heroes. What, how much money is it going to take for this to happen? Let's see what the doping program looks like and what that says about it, right? Because that's part of it too. I mean, this first card is a fight night. They're not bringing a pay-per-view there.

So it's not the most marquee event that they could do. But I suspect, dude money talks and bullshit walks and whatever they want i mean not whatever they want i would imagine that if they're willing to fork over the cash for it and of course the saudis seem quite willing to do that they're going to get more or less what they want more or less dude it's the prize fighting game right that's the problem with it and the reality of it it's get the biggest bag that you can while you can that's a very alluring and attractive principle by which to conduct business for prize fighters.

So, yeah. Do you think Dana will feel the call from a chic and go, well, how would you accept Kimbo slice junior? Cause we, we have, we can,

we can probably call him. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably where it's headed there. Luke, there you go. Uh, Saudi Arabia,

the UFC, the future. Uh, let's go to topic's headed there, Luke. There you go. Saudi Arabia, the UFC, the future. Let's go to topic five, a quick weekend boxing preview. In addition to the celebrity happenings of the crossover DAZN event, we got a hell of a Showtime International card. Saturday night, 10.30 p.m. Eastern time, only on Showtime. You can get 30 days right now at Showtime.com if you wanted to. I think you should.

Tim Zhu will make the first defense of his WBO junior middleweight title. He's had the interim title in recent fights while waiting to fight Jermall Charlo. Jermall Charlo was forced to be stripped of that WBO belt, walking into the ring against Canelo. So now Zoo is the full champion, and he welcomes Brian Mendoza, who has been upset city of late, knocking out former unified champion Jason Rosario and then knocking out Sebastian Fundora. Now, Mendoza has lost twice in the past,

including won a wide decision to Jesus Ramos Jr., who's a big prospect. But, Luke, he has turned it around big time. And if you're wondering right here what the line is i can tell you minus four uh minus 600 for tim zoo plus 450 for brian mendoza but luke you followed this brian mendoza sort of you know renaissance of late as i have it's been inspiring tim zoo has gone out this week and said look i think this might be the toughest fight of my career because i've got a big puncher he's upset minded he's got nothing to lose and he's coming for that belt. You fired up for this.

I actually am fired up for this. You know, I would have rather seen Tim zoo versus Jermell Charlo. I think that would have been the right fight for this division. It's not what we got. We all know we've all been there. So now you have to figure out what you do have. Brian Mendoza is a beast. I think he took that Jesus Ramos fight on short notice, too, if memory serves. Now, Ramos is a good fighter. He just had this terrible fight in his last contest on the undercard of the Canelo and Charlo fight. But in general, he's a high-level prospect, and in general, people are rightly impressed by him. Mendoza couldn't get past him at the time in which they fought.

But, dude, since then, the guy has looked like a beast. You mentioned he beat Rosario, but Rosario's a little bit chinny or a little bit inconsistent. Fundora had walked into that fight with maximum confidence, having the best year of his career up to that point, and Mendoza sat his ass down with a three punch combo that just was spectacular. He can thump. He is a very hard hitter. I don't think he's going to be the long – the longer the fight goes, I do think that will favor Zu, because Zu is really kind of a heavy pressure guy. But make no mistake about it, these guys are going to trade bombs.

This fight is going to be great. Looking forward to it. Yeah, very much looking forward to it. And also to see what happens. Let's say Tim Zu wins this. Do you go into a – does Jermell charlo go right from canelo to a try to to try to become the undisputed champion once again in the long-awaited zoo fight or do we see other players emerge and jump in it's going to be interesting to find out they're also saturday night in rosenberg

texas we have an espn plus card luke this is i'm going to be honest for as a hardcore boxing guy this is barely on my radar the middle honest, as a hardcore boxing guy, this is barely on my radar. The middleweight division at the moment in boxing is empty. Jamal Charlo is still your WBC champion, but he's kind of in recess for two years. We are going to have, did you even know this, Luke? We're going to have a middleweight title unification fight on Saturday between two unbeaten fighters,

and I don't think anyone even knows about it. Janabek, I don't try to pronounce his last name because I can't he's a Kazakh he's unbeaten he's a minus 1200 favorite when he brings his WBO title in there against Vincenzo Gualtieri the the IBF champion is this problem some Luke that I can't pronounce both of their both these guys names and they're in a unbeaten versus unbeaten unification fight? Yeah, I mean, it's not setting the world on fire. Someone asked me about it yesterday. For some reason, I thought it was like a light heavyweight contest

because I couldn't even remember the goddamn division they were in. It's, you know, I've seen Janabek fight. He's good. Yeah, he can punch. He's fun. He's fun. He's good. He's not some scrub.

I mean, as you mentioned, it's a unification, but it's like, what is the popular appeal of this one? I don't know. I'm going to be focused on that co-main event, Keyshawn Davis, the 2020 Olympic silver medalist who's 24 years old, one of the top prospects in the game now, 9-0 with six KOs, stepping up a competition against Nahir Albright from Philadelphia,

who we've had on Showbox over the past year and a half and is a good fighter. That should be interesting. You've got a couple other prospects underneath like Richard Torres Jr., the hulking heavyweights that should be fun to watch. But, Luke, enough of setting the stage. It's time now to get into our bets head-to-head. Hey, guess what?

This is OK Bet. And this segment is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. And Luke Thomas, you and I pick five picks head to head. The losing record at the end of the year is forced to go to a concert that he has no want to. Thank you to our friends at FanDuel Sportsbook. This one is OKBED. All right, LT.

Here we go. Before vacation. Before vacation? Oh, that's written in there. Sorry. There must be an old script. Anyway, last week, you went two and two. You had one canceled fight.

So I believe, do you have to pick six fights this week? I did not pick six. No one told me to. All right. We'll just go with the five on five. I went two and three. So your updated standings in the moment right now, Luke Thomas, 69, 70, and four. Luke, is this the first time you're under 500?

No, I was under 500 last week as well. Oh, that's right. I'm at 70, 73, and one. Even though I have one more victory than you, your three ties, I was under 500 last week as well. Oh, that's right. I'm at 70-73-1. Even though I have one more victory than you, your three ties, I believe, gives you the winning percentage edge at the end. You're going to pick an extra fight next week to even us out. But this could not get any closer. As the defending champion, are you going first or second?

I'll go second. Please go ahead. Okay. Right off the top, we've identified our main event is the UFC Fight Night tilt between Sadiq Youssef and Edson Barbosa. It goes down this Saturday at the Apex. We previewed that on Wednesday. An interesting featherweight tilt. Did you see the pictures, though?

Did you see the freaking pictures of Edson Barbosa's body at 37? Yeah, his body is a wonderland. Can we just be honest about that? I'll use my hands. I'll use my hands enough, Luke then i'm going upset here he's a plus 138 according to fan bull dual sports book underdog against sadiq yusuf fresh off a knockout of billy q i'm gonna pick edson barbosa to continue this streak he is dialed in he said he's quit sugar for the first time in his life and it's really hard because his kids love the sweets.

But he is – it's hard to ever look at a guy and just say, hey, look at those abs. He's found the fountain of youth. It does look like he's kind of found the fountain of youth, meaning he's found that extra, extra gear of discipline that he hasn't activated before. This is a close fight on paper. It could go either way.

Luke, I'm going to back Barbosa mostly because I thought you were going to pick Yusef, and I want to be on the opposite here to win this but I also believe in him here uh he's gonna have to do more than just be a hulking threat he said this week that I'm gonna do the same game plan I always do people know what I do I know what he does Luke he lands big I'm back in the old man here to try to take one up on you I gotta tell you dude if I don't know if I like my pick I pick Sadiq Ysef in the main event. You're right, I did. He is the favorite, barely, barely.

You know, not by a wide margin. I think he can do it. I obviously am picking that he will. I have to tell you, I think this one is very close. I said it on Wednesday. Huge test, huge test of his ability. So I won't belabor the point. I got Sadiq Youssef. I really

hope he can round the corner. Edson Barboza is as tough as they come, even at this advanced stage. We shall see. All right, let's go to our favorites and I'm going to stay on that UFC card and go to that co-main event. I don't love the fight at women's flyweight or being featured this high, but Jennifer Maya at minus one, six, four against Vivian Araujo. I'll take that bet. Vivian is on a losing streak right now. Maya did look good in her last fight and figured out against a tough King Casey O'Neill, how to utilize wrestling and sort of that veteran skill to hold distance and get a gritty decision win. I think she can do the same against Araujo, who is certainly not trending in the right direction. Even though Maya is pushing to the late 30s, she balances that big right hand with the takedowns.

Well, she's tough and she's durable. I think she can pull this out as a slight favorite to help me get you to a jam band concert. BC will dying fetus announced a new tour yesterday. So I'm very excited about that for you. But if I can just be honest for my favorite pick, I've got Melissa Dixon from FanDuel. I think minus 150 over irina alexiva i don't like this pick at all but the reality is we can't really pick anyone over minus 250 as a favorite 300 sometimes we go to if there's not a lot of choices even then like the next one i wanted to pick was like minus 350 like that's a little i

would have given it to you luke it's close oh. Oh, well, fuck then. I would have changed my pick, but I guess it's locked in now. In any case, she is the favorite, not a substantial one. I don't trust either to be so decisive in this case. Give me Melissa Dixon at minus 150. I feel like you're going to win both of these because you don't care about them, Luke. I'll get the ones that I cared about wrong and the ones I pissed away, I'll get them right. All right, let's go to underdog, and I'm'm gonna go to that featured prelim on the UFC fight night card I hate betting for this guy because he's bleeds a lot Luke but Darren the damage Elkins he tends to surprise you though

with grittiness uh submissions out of nowhere and just being an impossible guy to finish he is a minus I'm sorry a plus 154 underdog against tj brown himself needing a big win and hasn't been on a good streak lately i think elkins has developed sort of this jim miller like late career persona late in his 30s where yeah we know the the toughness and he's a zombie out there but he's also kind of working on his fundamentals he's tough on the ground as long as he's just not fully there to be hit this is a matchup he can win as an underdog i feel good about this give me the damage um he is 39 he is 39 true uh this one i do like which means i'll get it wrong but i like for my underdog pick i

like cameron simon plus 130 over christian rodriguez now you might remember christian rodriguez is the gentleman that beat raul rosas or as BC calls him Rojas Jr. in his last contest he did miss weight for it but he is you know Duke Rufus trained uh he's a great fighter Cameron Simon I think undefeated out of South Africa has looked not like a world beater but he's looked pretty good and he's it's not a huge underdog at the end this is a very close and competitive fight Rodriguez really overwhelmed Rosas Jr. in the end, but I think Simon is much, much better than that. Give me Simon to get the upset at plus 130. Do you think that Rojas has rolled with Jorge Rivera of Bolivia?

I mean, we're getting close to this. We're getting close to this, the South American version of this. Making up Latinos that, well, I mean, I'm sure there are ones by those names, but not the guys we're talking about. All right, over-under, I nailed this one and you know, I did, I don't have to pick a women's UFC match. Logan Paul versus Dylan. Danis will not go the distance over eight rounds because Danis will get knocked out or he'll foul or the, you know, there's going to be some, I don't even know if this fight's going to happen, but I feel pretty confident in this thing.

Yeah. Listen, I'm a pathetic piece of shit. so I'm just going to pick another women's fight. Emily Ducati versus Ashley Yoder is going to go the distance. I think almost all of their fights in the UFC have gone the distance, or at least the vast majority of them win or lose. I don't know why that would change. I'll take it for going the distance. They've changed their pronunciation to Ducati, Luke. It's Ducati. Okay, Ducati. Okay, very good. Against the spider monkey, Ashleyley yoder who does not inspire

confidence of late that that but yeah that's going to go the distance uh ko or sub look terence mckinney gets finishes he's a pretty sizable favorite here against ufc newcomer brendan moreau it's just tough am i going ko or sub he delivers both i'm gonna go ko against the ufc newcomer here either way i can win this whoever gets the knockout, I think it ends early. Give me a KO. That's a good bet. I like it. So they're going to rerun the fight. I think that just happened recently. Edgar Chavez taking on Daniel Lacerda. Remember, that was the one where Lacerda was in the sub. They raised his arm and it falls and then they stop and he's like, oh, I'm fine. Chavez is an action fighter. He had that one in a sub. He's had many wins by sub. give me edgar chires

versus daniel serda ending in submission um this is the week that i will take over first place you might i don't really like my picks you might you might maybe we'll get ot on and start figuring out you know it's going to be an ot and friend show is dead and company reuniting what are we doing here uh and and by the way uh this okay bet segment has been brought to you by fan dual sports book make every moment more there you go thank you to our very friendly partner there let's close with this a power version of something we've been neglecting lately we give you the email address on wednesdays morning combat at gmail.com to send in your fan subs your your artwork your tight t-shirts and we've been skipping

it due to time and other issues lately so let's put dead wrong on hold and let's hear from the people this one's called fan submissions you've got mail viewers all right let's start off with a legend in these parts saul i think it's the same saul we all know and love luke there he is there's the real saul he says my my cousin somehow worked her magic again this year and got me my wife and my brother weekend passes for the louder than life and bourbon and beyond festivals this year i got to see the remains of blondie bro look at java in the back back there yeah yeah dude look at the girl's ass in the back under chicken tenders um sorry i was looking at the quesadilla ass oh wow yeah

hey this is a great shot okay so he saw the remains of blondie pantera he said they also did not play cemetery gates he saw queens saw Queens of the Stone Age, Green Day, and many more. Best performance was Bruno Mars. The worst was Limp Bizkit, Fug Them Dudes. Who would you guys go see if you had passes? I included pics of the lineups, MK, all day. Luke, do you see this man? Wow, that's a fully right there. Wow, that's quite the revealing top.

That is a fully there, Saul. Wow. Luke, this man has a different MK shirt for every picture. This guy's the best. He really is. I mean, you know, we're not going to pay him, but we really should. You know what I mean? Like the level of advertising that he provides is second to none.

So he wanted to know which band. Mikey, do you have the one with the festival lineup that he promised in the thing or no? Of those bands we mentioned, Luke, I know you would have saw Pantera. Okay, we don't have that. But he went to two really big festivals that had a ton of bands, and we were talking back and forth about who we should see. You don't care about any of the bands he mentioned, right, besides Pantera? I mean, if they're 90s bands, I'd watch a few of them, sure.

I'd watch Queens of the Stone Age. They're always kicking ass. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Queens of the Stone Age is for sure for for me yeah he said limp biscuit was the worst are you surprised by that uh can't say that i'm surprised no okay that one does not come to me as all that surprising and and thank you to seoul's beautiful wife for for allowing him to live out this journey so boldly this mk journey you know yeah i mean he really is just on a one man journey to promote our show to no one who cares we we should consider him at you know at uh donk of the year status at the end

of the year we should really strongly consider we're getting up all right let's go to leo he says hey it's leo i took my new mk merch to bellator 300 it was my first time ever seeing live fights so i had to rep the mk the card was all right, and by far, Cyborg got the biggest pop. I had the worst hot dog I've ever had in my entire life and I thought of BC. Then I got diarrhea and I thought of Luke. Thanks for all the content. I love you all. Leo. I just want

to point out the last two guys who have sent in merch also have nose rings in the middle of their nose. You know what I mean? That's a new thing lately. I guess it is, right? I guess that's a thing dudes are doing now. Yeah, it's not my thing, but shout out to Leo there. Wearing armor. When people go to pro fight cards and wear our shirts in the crowd,

it's the greatest honor, Luke, that you can do to us. Short of naming your children Luke and BC, that's about as good as it gets. Yeah, that'd be interesting, right? Wow. Let's say Average Joe adopted twin cats and he named them Luke and BC that's about yeah yeah that'd be interesting right wow first if you adopted twin let's say average Joe adopted twin cats and he named him Luke and BC and then just euthanized both of them that guy is a savior to many stray animals just like all the reddit community is uh let's go to John he says hey donks since lots of people are putting forward their tattoos I'd like for Luke to grade my most recent one from Alejo.

He's an Argentinian neo-traditional artist and was guest spotting in Brooklyn. So I had to get tatted. Let me know what you think. Boy, that's a 9.5 out of 10. That is an extremely good tattoo. That is really, really. That line work is sharp. The shading is brilliant.

Everything about that. That is an excellent tattoo is that a black crow yeah some kind of crow i guess some raven yeah i'm not sure i don't know exactly what that is but dude the word i mean again and look at the feathering the feathering goes the shape of the leg and the shape of this the part of the body that it's on like yeah dude this is an extremely good tattoo really well done well done john we appreciate that right there same story the crow told me indeed let's go to average joe r we know this guy's basically an employee he says so i finally got my own box of mk gear and while no

one really cares what i look like or how i look in the clothing they might care about this guy this is brutus he's our nearly 13 year old special needs great pain brutus is unable to stand or walk on his own and is confined to one of his beds he has a daytime bed and a thicker nighttime one for most of the day with the exception of being taken outside and when i carry him from one room to the other even with his limitations brutus is as happy and healthy as can be most of my day is occupied with caring for him and his care is a full-time job when he's winding down for the day and he's done everything he's needed to do eating his meals taking his meds drink the proper amount of water

or broth and cooperated with me when i clean him off he loves to sit on his nighttime bed and have his special ice cream because he can't really hold things in in place we have to position his ice cream cup in a certain way. So myself or the missus will hold it for him. He's a big guy and it moves when he licks it. You can imagine my absolute delight when I received the MK Pet Bowl. That's not only big enough, but heavy enough to hold his ice cream and not move it around when he eats. Brutus is the heart and soul of our family. So little victories like this go a long way and makes us extremely happy. I hope you two take a second to really take in the fact that something you

helped create and have poured so much of yourselves into really has an impact on people's lives and our families, whether they walk on two legs or not. Brutus approves and wants you to know that this will be his special bowl for the rest of his life. Oh yeah. Here's something spooky for Halloween as well. The position of the ghost behind luke is not coincidental they say that farts are just the ghosts of the food you've eaten i can't quite read what the caption says mikey can you tell us what it says oh is this a pitch for a new line of merch here luke yeah i'll go back to the previous photo mikey if you can.

The one just before this one. Just the graphic itself. So it says, Morning Combat, Land of Winning Ghosts, and the Curious Case of Luke's Voicemail, which is your fart, right? Yeah, and I think it says, like, I would have gotten away with it

if it hadn't been for you pesky kids, something like that. And by the way, look at my shirt. It's got combat, but it's like uh almost like a cannibal corpse and i've got the tattoo on the arm boy this is a 10 out of 10 dude i'm wearing the one love bob marley hat in that picture as well luke and you're like scoops yeah i'm like scrappy basically this is fantastic but luke we can't go any further without talking about average joe's pride and joy brutus you also had an ailing dog in recent years

that you had to carry from room to room that's got to be the the the deepest love you could show an animal is is on their final days loop right yeah she was almost 17 she would have been 17 uh by this december if she had lived we had to put her down about four months ago so she was 16 and some change it's tough man it was really tough like they can't go upstairs anymore and like it's gradual but sudden at the same time like all of a sudden you're like oh they are having trouble with stairs and then they can't do stairs at all and then it just sort of cascades from there i mean that dog was really healthy for you know we were we were going back we have all of our photos on google photos and we're like when did she start to decline so like dude right up to like 15 and a half she was totally fine you know and then wow and when it goes it

goes average joe i don't even know what the guy looks like but i talked to him a lot luke he's got a heart of gold they've got like 10 animals that they care for they they rescue them i've got all rescues in my house luke i love the story of his special needs puppy sent me a video of the same pup eating out of that cup and it was it was just i mean what a joy what a what a joy right there average joe r great guy as well as well as a great illustrator there i mean look maybe maybe he's you know studied under coach sandusky nobody told me but this guy right now great guy and you saw jay paquette on wednesday nominate him for donk of the year but isn't average joe kind of an employee like you and i can't be on survivor luke because we work at paramount yeah that's okay i don't really want to be so i you know one time my wife likes these shows you ever

seen that show naked and afraid oh you heard of it oh yeah so there's like a european version and i'll never forget my wife wanted to see it and it was like oh they had all these french motherfuckers and then they're like we're going to take them i mean obviously it's subtitled or whatever like we're going to take them to the colombian amazon because the amazon reaches into colombia and these fucking frenchmen were all like oh my god look at this beautiful nature and i'm like y'all are you fucking idiots have no idea what's about to happen and then you know 30 later, all of these French assholes are weeping, weeping from being absolutely fucking just run over by mosquitoes all night. Like, one of them had 200 bites on them or some shit like that.

And I'm like, guys, I could have told you if you go to the Colombian jungles naked, it's going to be real bad. It's going to be real bad. We're going to be very afraid, yeah. That Scooby-Doo shirt, by the way, I would buy that with my own money, Luke, if they didn't send me free merch. That looks so good. Probably going to have to at some point. You know what I'm saying? Let's hear from Jeff.

He says, hey, gents, I can picture a few things that make Luke happier than when a 35-year- old takes an L in a championship fight. Well, maybe a woman's fight going to decision to pad that. Okay. Bet record. BC is coming for the throne. Something that doesn't even exist in the land of despair. Better known as Connecticut.

This is also BC's face when he sees a strawweight fight next on the card. You know what I'm saying? They are right though. Luke, when somebody dies to your stat, you do get very excited. That's fair yeah yeah listen not as excited as usada getting getting ousted apparently yeah i mean that was just a great day that was a great week for you yeah all right let's go to nick what's up y'all first time long time this award-winning

pos show is one of my favorite parts of the week. So I decided to put together some of my favorite clips with some LT live chat. BC, bring back the live chat, you lazy dirtbag. I want to. Is there a market for it? I'll do it every day if you want. From y'all the past week, out of context. Also, Professor Sal E. Pimienta appreciates this because he actually went to college, unlike washed ass BC. Hey, I attended two different universities, just so you know.

But Nick says, I am a graduate of the University of Richmond, and William & Mary was my second choice. So go spiders, bitch, and fuck the tribe. Also, does Virginia even count as the South? Anyways, presented without context. Yes, they fought for the South in the Civil War. Yes, does Virginia even count as the South? Anyways, presented without context, morning combat. Yes, they fought for the South in the Civil War. Yes, that would make them count. Let's see his thing here.

What does he got? Luke, can I do the podcast with bare feet? How often do you just look at her butthole like you're staring into the stars? I don't have to double... All I would want, someone who, you know, the body count wasn't that high. Well, listen, I'm not looking for a record breaker,

per se, but, you know, the body count wasn't that high. Well, listen, I'm not looking for a record breaker per se, but, you know, pitching a few innings is definitely going to make them better. I mean, there's no denying that. You're going to take in as much as you can that's beneficial to you and spit out the rest. But this was the third time I'd gone to this lady where she made me wait 30 minutes without saying anything to me while she had another client ahead. And didn't say sorry. And then is now moving to a different state completely.

And now I have to find a new lady. I don't charge a lot because I want people to be able to afford it, Luke, if they want a little joy in their life. That's fairness, to be fair. But I like the kind of medium-bodied one typically that you find from the hills of Columbia, that those are my favorite in general. So, you know. I hope you enjoyed it. It's time now to transition to the meat. Just wear like six condoms, bro.

I mean, you know, it doesn't have to feel great. If he sees dongs, keep touching me. It involves ejaculation is really what I was going i like to grind my own beans you want me to be polite you're gonna have to blow me that's how this works all right that's how this works so much is that really asking so for that reason i'm gonna lean a little bit more towards wood oh yeah i mean that guy well that's a hell of a rack that guy's got. Wow, Luke, that's a nice expose on how delightfully stupid our show really is. There's no doubt about it. Someone was asking me, like, I forget how it came up,

but they were talking about, like, oh, all these incels, they don't want women with a high body count. And I'm like, well, yeah, of course. You don't want the record breakers, per se, but you see, I got to tell you, you know. Don't tell me. A little bit of basic training makes a qualified marine you know what i'm saying yeah especially if there's a train coming down the tracks and you know you dirtbag friends you had let's go to john he says is this where i send memes for the morning combat show thanks when, spelled wrong, at the gas station

and you get a call from your liver specialist saying your liver isn't failing and you can eat all the gas station hot dogs you want. Yeah. Well, here's what's exciting about that, Luke. Today, this afternoon, I will be having my first official meeting with my new liver doctor.

So I have contracted a specialist, Luke, and we're going to beat this thing, all right? Did you tell him no three needles? Like, no, we're not. No, no, I was like, you know, if you want to check out my liver, your first question was, okay, I know you're a liver doctor, but does this involve touching my ball bag? Yeah, yeah, yeah, great, great.

Thank you, John. Yes, I won't be eating any more hot dogs, so thank you. Let's go to a different John. He says this one is dedicated to Volkanovski for stepping in on 10 days notice. So true. Yeah, it really is. I mean, you know, hey, Chewy, you want to go to this fight? Fucking yes.

Here we go. Here we fucking go. Coach Craig on the air on the airways. Luke, right. Do you think he was able to bring any of those no spears with him on the plane or no did he do a keister stash to get him across the border i don't is that where you swallow it and then you then you poop it out uh that's not where you swallow it but the definitely the other end is relevant from the beginning keister stash oh you should just pack it in right let me begin yeah i came to win i came to win yeah that's a sin uh here's jude this is luke reacting to the

usada news uh-oh yes i saw this one i saw this one on the mma uh or the uh i should say the morning combat reddit that's really fucking funny yeah well done well done uh finally we have something from mark here he says happy wednesday fellas on the wednesday september 27th show that undoubtedly almost didn't happen because of the tech fuck up on luke's part luke offered a review of some shitty dorito tube he had purchased declaring them to be such a scam but before luke could even finish his sentence bc jumped in shocker asking if they cost a very specific price 28 i thought to myself now why would bc's brain so randomly quickly and perhaps freudianly pick that specific dollar amount when thinking about the price of some good or service welp mystery solved yeah dude i mean every accusation about how i'm scamming my audience is a confession from you that's what i've noticed every accusation is a

confession oh because it costs 28 on my uh only pipes uh yes yes every accusation is a confession with you every single time every single time and those doritos were a scam they were called mini doritos dude someone just took a fucking dorito and crunched it in their hands and then chucked it in a pringles can i said 28 dollars for that because i've seen you before you take food at the mgm gram rooms you know there's the food that they have out that's like you know literally 12 dollars for a candy bar you eat that stuff regularly so that's why i thought you paid 28 bucks for it yeah i did i did pay a shit ton of money for it but i was like what the fuck is this man mini doritos what a what a scam all right uh cameo.com slash brian campbell for all your

incredible cameo needs okay birthday shout outs encouragement i'll show my toes luke but definitely not my asshole yet i mean if there was a market for it i'd show my butthole i really don't care anymore you know tuki's not going to go to college for free like just let me know all right i'm i'm trying to reserve that for like extreme case scenario you know what i'm saying like like you know like like i'm not fit to fly or work anywhere and you know this is my only option you know what i'm saying yeah yeah we're not far from that by the way all right wow two hours on this friday special thanks to the great michael more miles cbs sports behind the scenes um reminder that you can get showtime for free for 30 days going to showtime.com you can check outtime for free for 30 days. Go into Showtime.com. You can check out Saturday's

International Championship broadcast. Oh, I have breaking news. Oh, boy. What do you got? So remember Christian Rodriguez missed weight for his fight against Raul Rosas? Yes. Yeah, he missed weight again. 140 for a bantamweight fight.

One fucking 40. That's not good. That's not good at all. Okay. All right. I guess we're going to do... He's going to fight this guy biggest shit then. All right. All right. That happens not good. That's not good at all. Okay. All right. I guess we're going to do, he's going to fight this guy big as shit then. All right. All right.

That happens, Luke. Morningcombat.store, right? If you want to feed your dog out of that fantastic ice cream mug or wear this shirt or this hat or I don't know, whatever. You can do gross things with this cup. You can get two girls and do whatever you want, but it's still out there. Morningcombat.store. Reminder that Saturday, right around 3.30 or 4 p.m. Eastern time, we'll hit you up on social to confirm Luke Thomas and I are going to go live on the Morning Combat channel on YouTube to give you a live companion

for all things Misfits Boxing and this ridiculous doubleheader. Wow, I can't believe we said that out loud, but this is what we do for our people. Please check out our bonus content at youtube.com slash morningcombat. Top 50 moments in MK history for our 500th episode. Gordon Ryan interview that you just can't miss, talking about Jon Jones and more. Some other guy that talks about striking too. Kieran Fitzgibbons.

Kieran Fitzgibbons. Yeah. Luke, you have any weekend plans around this i have to go to a i have to drive to fucking herndon virginia on sunday to go to a birthday a kid's birthday party yes will there be a clown i mean i'll be there i'm a fucking clown you know what i'm saying if they have three margaritas it'll be wild yeah yeah i'll be i mean i'll be there fucking pissed the whole dude herndon virginia i told the guy who's on the party i'm like dude just just hold your party in west virginia next time i mean what the fuck are we doing like just why is that far is that in the

middle of nowhere herndon virginia dude northern virginia just sprawls forever and everyone who lives there doesn't mind just sitting in their car three hours a day but i live in the city i don't like doing that shit so it's like an hour and a half two hours for me and it's like what the fuck each way well i hope you enjoy that is it a kid you care about yeah yeah i do actually like the kid and i like this i like i like her little hesitation i heard that very listen the kid is the kid is like turning three like you know we don't have a pen pal relationship or something. But my daughter likes her a lot. So, yeah.

Oh, all right. Does she share? Because your daughter had issues with that chick who was like keeping all the toys to herself at school. Yeah, she does not share. So that's going to be fun. Yeah. All right. It's like working with Luke.

It's great. I mean, are you out of your fucking mind? Are you out of your mind? You're completely out of your mind. Yeah, loosely. Yeah, kind of. All right. That's all I got for you this week.

I hope you enjoyed it. Yeah. This is 501. Thank you. Join us tomorrow. Join us tomorrow. Yeah, we'll be there tomorrow. Until then, you know, take care of your liver.

All right? Yeah.