MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Khabib, UFC 242, Boxing Heavyweights, KSI vs. Logan Paul | MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 9

Episode Date: September 9, 2019

Khabib dominates…should he be pound4pound? Who’s next? Ferguson? Conor? GSP? Diaz vs Masvidal November 2nd in MSG for the BMF Title! Should we care about Fury vs Wallin? Ruiz vs Joshua II kicks off promotion ahead of their December 7th date in Saudi Arabia. Bellator 226 was a mess but their Featherweight tournament is legit! KSI vs Logan Paul II…is this boxing? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is Monday, the 9th of September. Reveille, reveille, dawgs, because it's time for Morning Combat. My name is Luke Thomas. I am the host of this program. Next to my co-host, you know this man, Brian Campbell from CBS Sports. Hi, Brian. Did you miss me? Yeah, I don't know if you noticed that. We almost Wally-pipped you out of there, the man in the damn hat. I like how the week I'm out, you have more technical difficulties and you can swing a dead cat out of the way.

The show barely got off the rails. We barely got back on the track. It was more like morning combat tape delayed, not really in the morning, but hey, we made the show happen. Actually, technically, we don't even know if we're live right now. We're just assuming that the show is live. We're assuming we're being watched. We actually don't really know. But we're back, man. Here is the dome, back with the base, a couple weeks after jury duty. How'd you survive there? I managed

to tell people how much I didn't want to do it. I won't say quite the terms that I used to get out of it. I got out of it twice. I got selected for voir dire, and then I told them why I couldn't do it. They're't say quite the terms that I used to get out of it. I got out of it twice. I got selected for voir dire. Then I told them why I couldn't do it. They're like, okay, go back to the jury pool. How quick did it take them to figure out that you're actually a communist? I don't think communism is outright disqualifying.

In any event, they selected me for a second time in the afternoon. I got out of that one, too. So I was pretty excited about it. Did you take in the show, this show, while you were sitting there? Well, before you mention that, I figured, hey, by my 1.30 lunch break, I can go back and I can watch the show. And then there was no show. So I didn't actually watch it.

All right. Labor Day weekend is behind us. We're fired up. You go away on the lake. True story. Was it laborious? Did you knock anybody up? What happened?

The most important thing in my life right now is to get sleep, right? Because my kid is four months old. and so we finally got her sleep trained. I don't know how long it's going to last, but right now, inshallah, I've got 12 hours a night. So the trick is, I found every two hours you've got to put her down, and then I got her this thing called the sleep suit. It works like a charm. The sleep suit, is that like a straight jacket for children? Well, isn't that what a swaddle is?

It's a straight jacket for kids, right? In a way, in a way. Anyway, so the point being is I didn't go anywhere because most important is keeping our own schedule. I did watch UFC 242, this is a true story, at a baby shower. Had to go to a baby shower, and I'm like, here's the deal. I'm not going unless there's the fights on, and the person who owned the home bought the thing.

So I actually got to watch all of it there except the co-main and main I watched. Maybe we'll have time later in the show. I'd love to hear parenting tips from a guy who uh who plays uh dying animals around the house as the kids just grown up my daughter's first concert this is true story in when she was in utero was dying fetus that is not an exaggeration i took my pregnant wife to a dying fetus concert she born uh inside a swimming pool like the cover of uh nirvana never mind no no all natural sibling memorial uh all right ready to get this started? That's pretty gross.

Let's talk mixed martial arts. Ready to get this started? I like the tea this week, though, bro. That's right, son. Shout outs to Jamie Josta from Hatebreed. You can get this

on the Hatebreed website. People always ask about it. Bloodsport. Top five martial arts movies? You can't not. I wouldn't put it in my personal face, but you can't say

anything against it. It's too iconic. If it's number one for you, it's so damn iconic and so damn entertaining. I wouldn't put it in my personal face, but you can't say anything against it. It's too iconic. If it's number one for you, it's so damn iconic and so damn entertaining. I wouldn't put it number one, but it's up there. All right. Let's get it going. You're not going to give me the green light on a pit bull right now? I mean, I think that...

Look at that. I think that she's... How did you... Before we get this started, how did you get that shirt? Well, I acquired it, but I think that she's kind of like my spirit animal. She's kind of a mascot for this show in the way. You got viciously KO'd by Holly. No, she comes into the ring to do two things, the cage, right? Spit hot truth and bang. And that's kind of what we do in this show.

We're not playing up to any corporate sponsors. We're not protecting anything. We bring the damn truth, right? This is a show with stars who don't need to act like stars. You don't want producers in the video? Come to Morning Combat. That's what I'm saying out there. If having corporate sponsors meant I got a raise, I would have all the corporate sponsors. I'd be like a NASCAR logo up in this bitch. Just trying to keep it real in this piece. All right, let's get this going.

So UFC 242 over the weekend, Khabib Nurmagomedov, what do you want to say? Easily defending his UFC lightweight title against now former interim champion Dustin Poirier, winning the third round rear naked choke. Brian, the question has become at 28-0, who on earth can beat this man? Here's what I was thinking about.

I dove into this when you so rudely interrupted me during morning combat. Dissected. Oh, yeah, sorry. Professor Salt-N-Pepa was out here teaching class. Brian just walks in the room like Michigan J-Frog strutting down the street. Like, what are you doing? All right, here's the point, though. The answer is 28 have tried, 28 have failed. It doesn't mean he's invincible. What it means is,

you'll notice the same thing, Brian. They all try to say, I'm going to resist the takedown, and then when he gets the takedown, I'm going to try and stand up. And what happens? They lose via wrestling, they get submitted, or they get ground and pound to death. That is not a method that anyone can do. Dustin Poirier couldn't do it. Conor McGregor couldn't do it. Rafael dos Anjos couldn't do it. Michael Johnson couldn't do it. And the list goes on and on. For people to think that that's the way to beat him, it just isn't anymore. Somebody's got to try something different. Now, I don't know if Tony Ferguson's jiu-jitsu is the way that it gets done, but here's what I do know. That's different. Here's what I also know. Habib Nurmagomedov, never been knocked down, Never even been cut.

He's never even been cut. You mean to tell me that Tony Slashing Elbows couldn't get that done? All I'm saying is… Even Matt Dolly couldn't get him cut. Exactly. The point being is I don't know exactly what beats him. Here's what I know what doesn't beat him. The same old game plan that every coach keeps trying to implement.

Dustin Poirier, Brian, is super talented. Well, that's the whole hook of this argument. Last thing I'll say on this, toss the baton here, I'm just pointing out, if someone like Dustin Poirier, who said he was well-prepared, who's had 40 fights, who's a black belt in jiu-jitsu, if that's as close as he could come with that game plan, that's a failed game plan. I love that you said 28 of trad, because it's the Floyd Way Mayweather reference, because Habib is sort of entering Mayweather territory in here, right? Sucking the entertainment out of the fight but I'm not using that as a negative to win on his own terms and win so dominantly and technically that I'm on

the point that I go Luke maybe salt and pepper professor has to get up right now how does Habib do the voodoo that he do because what I'm watching is a man who just sticks to people and it's not that I didn't predict him to win it's not that I didn't predict him to win. It's not that I didn't think he could win. But win this dominantly on this level against a fighter, you just nailed it, in Poirier, who has willed himself and evolved to the super elite level. Would I have predicted it went down that way? Where each round, as soon as the first takedown happened, that round was over. No.

I thought, if I still think in my heart Tony Ferguson's the only one, and we can shelf that discussion for five seconds, I really thought Poirier was at a point where he had the perfectly evolved and the variety in his striking game to be the type of guy who, yeah, he's going to be taken down, but he's strong enough and big enough to get back up, and then he's going to make it a fight. Not one punch, knockout power, but he's going to chop, and he's going to work, he's going to hit leg kick, He's going to do those things. I never would have predicted that Habib could make him look like Pat Healy, could make him look like Camille Chalarousse.

Pat Healy went the distance. Could make him look like Daryl Horcher and, like, could just make this A-plus fighter, and that's who Poirier kind of became the last three or four fights, really make him look average. And that speaks to it's not that I didn't know Khabib was great, but he's getting greater by the day. He's evolving.

Even his striking, which I know he's one-dimensional, but as Joe Sun would say, there's so many dimensions inside that one dimension that he's insanely good. But the way that he sets up his takedowns, and maybe you broke it down on the chalkboard, with some of those combinations upstairs, it's just full-on brilliant to the point that, yes, we need to have that conversation.

Who out there has a shot at doing this right now? Outside of the typical bad luck that can happen in MMA, one shot. Outside of Habib, who I never would guess, by the way, tanking himself and not taking training seriously. He doesn't seem a candidate for that. He seems like an absolute machine. Outside of that, now that he's figured out this level of prime it's Tony Ferguson and it's nobody else so here's what I was thinking about you go back and watch the fight what was the only time Habib was in any kind of danger any kind of danger two points the guillotines no the two punches to open round two

I think that's overstating a little bit they hurt but they didn't he took steps back and reset and that's a that's that but that's a boxing consideration not an MMA one. All right, but don't act like he wasn't. Yeah, he got stung. He got stung. But he was in danger. Here's the difference. When those guillotines were on that, remember Dustin applied it once, twice, and then three times. The second of the three was the closest.

What did you notice about Habib's behavior? He went to a hip. He actually rolled like a fish just completely over. My point being is you can't wrestle him that way. But the jiu-jitsu application, the guillotine choke, made Habib choose to go down that way. Now, again, this is not me saying jiu-jitsu beats Habib, or even Tony's jiu-jitsu beats Habib. It's me saying, well, that's got to be a lot better than just trying to slowly build your way back up against a guy whose game is predicated on you doing just that very thing.

You've got to shake it up. Maybe Justin Gaethje's the guy. Maybe Justin Gaethje can go in there and stop the takedown and then just bruise him up. And, man, again, never been knocked down, never been cut. It's insane. Someone's got to break new ground here. Tony and Justin are the two wild men, I think, to at least consider. Wild men is the key, and that's why the Floyd Mayweather comparison in this case actually makes sense, for two reasons.

One, because Mayweather started making it look so easy that people stopped being able to understand what they're watching, right? It's just sort of like, oh, it's boring, and look what he's doing out there. He's not doing anything. No, he's doing absolute, subtle brilliance, and that is what Habib's doing. But the other thing on that is Poirier was almost in the end.

He's great, but he's basically great, right? Everything he was going to be able to bring in the end. He's great, but he's basically great, right? Everything he was going to be able to bring in the end, Khabib's got that studied. He's got it scientifically how he's going to break it apart. Same thing we said about Floyd's second half as a welterweight pay-per-view star. If you come at him traditionally right-handed, one, two,

he knows how to break that down in his sleep. He'll need two rounds at most, and he's got you figured out, and he's pot-shotting you the rest of the fight. The reason why Tony Ferguson is the only guy remaining is because he potentially is that Marcos Maidana for Floyd, even though he's much more technically sound than Maidana. Maidana lost twice. But the point about the first Maidana fight

and the reason why he was able to push that to a majority decision and be the closest anyone comes since Castillo to beating Floyd is that it was wild. It was from left field. There was nothing traditional about what he was doing. Habib is almost on a Floyd level where he has beaten the game. The chessboard is his. He knows a counter for every single move.

The only way you're going to have a chance is to take that chessboard and flip it upside down. That's right. And that's why Ferguson, with the mixture of the ground game, with the psychotic mentality to love pain and walk into it and be fine in that fire. He's like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He'll live in the flames.

He'll be there. It's no problem for him. And you mix in the variety of striking. That's the fight. The fifth time will be the charm. Do nothing. Do not pass go, but make that fight UFC. Because this on paper, I can't remember a time for the hardcores that there was a better on-paper matchup.

Forget pay-per-view buys, forget celebrities, forget grudges. X's versus O's, this is a dream. And I would also add, Tony Ferguson is a guy who looks for offense everywhere, from his guard, from his elbows, off his back, standing, takes risks. That's why he's fan-friendly, but it's also why he can overwhelm. He gets hit a little bit, but then he just drills right through and finds a way to score no matter what. And if Habib shoots in,

he secures that anaconda choke. Again, I don't know if that will win, but that's got to be a much better option than something else. Well, did you know quickly Habib was picking up Poirier's patterns? He caught that second kick. First kick was a nice inside leg kick,

hit him firm. He started catching kicks. He was basically taking away Poirier's path to setting something up. Poirier had to go into sort of, if I'm going to have any offense early in round two, I'm going to have to bite down and just wing. And that's what he did. It's the craziness against Habib.

Because also, Habib, people won't admit this, he'll oblige you a little bit with the craziness. True, but the point of what I'm saying here is Ferguson has the ability with the angles and the awkwardness and just the unorthodox ways, he's going to give Khabib pause. Khabib's not going to be able to enter the traditional pass that he will to go for the takedown. I suspect that early on, Khabib will take him down no problem, even though Tony has great wrestling. It's that what happens when Tony starts to bust him up underneath?

What happens when Tony cinches up an anaconda choke and you saw the same kind of escape that he had to hit against Dustin and he'll have to hit against him? It makes him up underneath. What happens when Tony cinches up an anaconda choke and you saw the same kind of escape that he had to hit against Dustin and he'll have to hit against him and it makes him rethink this. Again, it's separating contact. Again, any kind of contact with Habib is a liability for his opponent.

If you can invert that relationship and I think Tony has a chance of doing it, a chance, it gets more interesting. Here's a question for you. Habib, after the fight, said he thinks he should be ranked pound for pound number one. Should Judy? I got two words for you. Let me hear it. Where's my ISO cam? Crown him. Those are my two words. Wow, that's bold. He is who we thought he was in the end, and it's full-on dominance. And there was a thing that started to happen when Habib came back

from the knee injury, started putting wins together, where some people started giving those whispers, Luke, that we could be watching a greatest of all time here. Not the greatest, but a greatest. A guy that could sit at that table of four or five, right? I'm not saying he's there yet, but what I'm saying is he needed those marquee wins to really have fuel in that conversation. When you are packaging together what he has now, the dominance of the Barbosa win, the dominance of the McGregor win, you mix in the Iacintas and the RDAs, and now you do this to Dustin Poirier when he's this red hot, when he enters on a four-fight win streak in which Poirier was trying to convince reporters that if he had beaten Habib, he would be the greatest lightweight in UFC history. And at first, you go, come on, does everybody have to be the GOAT? And then number two, you look at that streak and you go, the guy may have a point.

So now that Habib is doing this and it's so damn dominant, how is he not pound for pound, number one? I was holding firm on Jon Jones since the comeback. But here's the difference. Lightweight is historically deep and dangerous right now. It's deeper than prime light heavyweight was 10 years ago when you had all those celebrity names and that title was bouncing back and forth from Forrest Griffin to Sugar Rashad to Rampage and all that. It's deeper and Jon Jones is operating right now kind of a shallow pool at light heavyweight and his fights are closer.

Maybe he's shifting in his early 30s to be a more efficient style and not take as many chances, but that shift is real. And what Habib is doing right now is full-on greatness. I'm not ready to crown him beyond pound-for-pound king at the moment, but he is showing you a spirit and a flair at 28-0 that they are preparing a chair for him at that table. At that very elite table of the greatest that ever have done this game,

yes, he's got a little bit more to do. This is not hyperbole. This is not, oh, everybody's got to be, this is the greatest podcast through five minutes a minute. I don't know, but the whole point is, like, what we're seeing is yes and yes, okay? Here's what I would say. The reason why the Tony Ferguson fight is so important is because one, that would be his, at least perceived top rival to this point. You could have said McGregor before, but now that that's over,

Tony's still hanging out there waiting in the wings. And moreover, you've got that win streak dating back to 2012 for Tony. You've got it dating back to literally his pro debut for Habib. There's never been a fight with two lightweights as accomplished as this in the history of MMA. Literally, it's never happened. There's no historical antecedent to Tony Ferguson versus Habib Nurmagomedov. It stands apart from everything. So you beat that guy, you begin to get into territory where if he's not pound for pound now, he'll be pound for pound then.

How is he not pound for pound now? Make that debate if you can. The thing is, I was really thinking about this. Here's the one difference. John Jones came into the game when, you had The thing is, I was really thinking about this. Here's the one difference. Jon Jones came into the game when, you had noted it before, there was a celebrity division. You're absolutely right.

For a time, 205 was the division in MMA and in Pride and UFC. And then when it all merged, and Jon came in and just retired everybody. He had the opportunity to build off that celebrity name. Now, he beat all those guys fair and square. My point being is, lightweight's still a little bit newer. Remember, they got rid of it after Thompson knocked out Eve Edwards and they brought it back. And he did get the McGregor thing, which is big. My point is, Habib didn't come in with the same kind of circumstance. So it's not apples to apples. But pound for pound is about what's going on right now, though. Like, Jon Jones can be the GOAT without being the pound for pound king at the moment. I understand. What I would say is, if you wanted to argue Habib was number one, I really wouldn't.

I would not go to the mat against it. You know, I'm still partial to Jones being number one. But the one thing I can say is I don't think I've ever seen an MMA grappler like Habib Nurmagomedov. I'm not telling you he has the best submissions or even outright the best wrestling. What I can say is there is nobody, nobody in the history of the sport, in any weight class ever, that combines takedowns with passing threat, with control, with ground and pound, and submissions as effortlessly, comprehensively, and fluidly as that guy. And then you have the tangibles of the crazy mentality of the work ethic and all those things.

The ability to come back, by the way, after the two years for the knee injury, after getting screwed around to finally get a title opportunity, after missing time when he got sick ahead of the Ferguson fight, always sort of with Ramadan, can't get on a consistent fight basis, this fight coming in on an 11-month layoff, none of that ever matters to him because he's so mentally tough. It's insane. I don't like to put you over that often. I'm not a big morning combat dissected fan.

Probably a good show. Not enough Campbell on it for me. This week, I've got to find out what makes Habib so good because you speak a little bit more of this nerd sauce than I do. I'm going to pour it all over myself. So here's the last question about this and we'll move on to the BMF title, which I can't wait. It's about Conor McGregor. You know, I'm dead serious when he said this. He tweets after the fight, give me my rematch in Moscow. And I was like, why does he want to fight Dustin Poirier in Moscow? That doesn't make any sense. Oh, wait. He means he should fight Habib in Moscow. Yeah, let's not move on too quick here.

Let's talk business. You ready? I don't. Where does Conor fit in the lightweight picture? I heard what Dana White had to say, which is they're going to try and make the Tony Ferguson fight, and if for whatever reason that doesn't fall. When cynical Luke, when he heard that, goes, we're going to try to lowball Tony Ferguson, and when he doesn't accept it, Conor, get up in the bullpen. And he's like, yeah, Conor, you know, it makes a lot of sense. No, I was like... He goes, we're going to try to lowball Tony Ferguson, and when he doesn't accept it,

Conor, get up in the bullpen. And he's like, yeah, Conor, you know, it makes a lot of sense. No, actually it doesn't. It makes no sense whatsoever. It doesn't make any sense. The guy lost comprehensively, cleanly, fully. There's no denying it.

You could say, oh, he only threw one punch in the first round. You know how many punches he landed, Habib did, in the third round against Poirier? One. You're going to tell me that's not part of an overall dominant strategy? It's a dumb argument. You can't take it seriously, and I don't.

I understand he wants another crack at it. I'm sure Dustin wants another crack at it. I'm sure Healy and Dos Anjos and Johnson, they all want another crack at it. But you don't rate. Not right now. So he has to get back in there, as far as I'm concerned, and get another win. Now, the question is, well, against who? And I don't know. I don't know. The winner of

Gaethje Cerrone, maybe? That's something you can do? Here's the point being. Here's the point being. I get what the UFC might try to do. They're going to try to make this fight with Tony, whatever that's supposed to mean, low ball, not low ball. And if that falls through, oh, they only have a rematch between two of now the bigger stars,

if not the two biggest stars in the lightweight division, one of the biggest stars in the sport. They're going to make money either way. So to them, I think the chances of Conor getting a rematch are kind of high. Unfortunately, they are kind of high. But the point is, he doesn't deserve it, period. No, he does not deserve it. This is a lottery ticket that they need to put in the jar and preserve it right now.

Because if you run Conor Habib 2 back out, you're doing it for the money, you're doing it for the business, and you're going to get Caddyshack 2. You're going to get a sequel that bombs because I don't think you have the same level of fuel and hatred. And that's essentially what you'd be selling. You're not selling the hope of a competitive fight, Luke. You're selling, let's do part two, part duh, of essentially this hatred. Here's the thing, though. Khabib doesn't want to be that guy anymore. Whether you thought he went overboard or not on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, he put over a baby-faced turn like we have never seen in a while, puts on Dustin's shirt, respect hugs, donate to Dustin's charity.

All while Ramzan Kadyrov is in the audience. I'm like, ugh. I get it. But, you know, talks about, I want to fight GSP next, and I want to do it in Africa and give away the money. My point is this. If you book the second Habib-Connor fight, you are telling Habib as a promotion,

for this fight to really work, we need you to be foreign villain again. When Habib had the opportunity on Saturday to kind of become global superstar. And by the way, the numbers internally, CBS Sports, our coverage of him through the roof for an afternoon fight. Habib got the Conor rub and he's making it happen worldwide. So if you're Dana on UFC and even Disney, who's probably at that table when you're talking about the larger picture, keep Conor in that jar and puff him back up. Give him Frankie Edgar in a marketable fight in which he can and probably should win. You had Justin Gaethje going after Conor on Twitter in a very ugly way.

It's fine. It's fine. Justin wants to play the ugly game with him. Conor plays an ugly game. We all know it. Some people love it. Some people don't. I don't hate that fight either. I don't hate that fight either. Here's my point. You've got to give someone who wants to get in ugly game with him. Conor plays an ugly game. We all know it. Some people love it. Some people don't. I don't hate that fight either.

I don't hate that fight either. Here's my point. You've got to give someone who wants to get in the mud with him. Well, Justin Gaethje's that guy. You had Habib at the press conference say, this is a respect sport. You respect the gym. You clean it. You respect your training partners.

You respect your coach. Whether you want to believe that or not, he does. He doesn't want to go back to that anymore. And it was ugly. Give him somebody else. Oh, by the way, Tony freaking Ferguson. If UFC runs back Conor in this rematch, you're cashing him out. When you have a chance to

revive him, you have a chance to build him back up. Here's the truth here. Unless Habib retires after his next fight, him and Conor will fight again in some form because there's too much money. It is a lottery ticket sitting in a jar just like the third Diaz-Conor match is. You gotta repair that and build it back up.

It's not rocket science. So in the meantime, bad luck has become good because if Habib-Tony had already happened, and I don't know, you could argue maybe it happened two or three times already. Maybe this is the fourth time they're fighting. We'd be this excited. No, we've never seen what this looked like. There's been four cases of bad luck, but those bad luck have built together a fight that now matters more than anything. It's now the most hardcore of hardcore fans fight. And it's for the world title. And Khabib's still unbeaten. And Tony's got a 12-fight win streak. Don't screw that up.

Go back to it. Go back to it all the way. Go back to it hard and firm. And if you're UFC, why not roll the dice on what Khabib's brand actually is right now? If he's going this far with respect and I'll donate the things, then give him the damn GSP fight. Let him become an absolute headlining, lovable superstar. Don't

drop that really on me. So then let's say GSP wins, then he's already said explicitly he told Robin Black this week or last week, yeah, if they do that, I'm going to win, I'm going to walk away. Because that'd be smart. That'd be smart. I'll tell you what, he wouldn't walk away. He'd fight Conor. Make it non-title, I'm with you. Make it for a title, forget it. All right, we've got to move along.

But you know if they did that, then you'd get Conor and Tony, which wouldn't be bad either. A lot of good options, but the best option is, as you know, Habib versus Tony. All right, here's another great option that has turned into a reality, Brian Campbell. At MSG on November 2nd is going to be the BMF title on the line, the bad mother, can I say it one time? Fucker. Title's going to be the BMF title on the line, the bad mother, can I say it one time? Fucker,

title is going to be on the line. Nate Diaz is going to face Jorge Masvidal. I'm assuming at 170, they haven't clarified that as far as I know. They have, they have. Okay, so it's going to be 170. It can be a welterweight title fight. I'll pitch to you here, Brian. Why is this so great? For every possible reason, but the core outside of the glitz and glamour of what it makes it so great, two action fighters, the most gangster fight ever booked, the core outside of the glitz and glamour of what it makes it so great to action fighters, the most gangster fight ever booked, the core of what makes it great is because it's a dramatic shift in disposition

and theory from where UFC was recently. UFC had gone corporate. They'd gone to a degree anti-fan when it comes to the matchmaking. More about, let's make the biggest business match. If you gave the keys to any Jamoke fan sitting on a couch somewhere and were like, go ahead, MSG's yours.

What match are you booking? They're going to go, oh, I want that crazy guy with the three-piece and I want Captain Gangster Nate Diaz and I'm going to put them together and I'm going to bring a bong and it's going to be at MSG and it's going to headline and a five-round main event. Where do I sign up? This is such a give back to the fans. This goes against the recent philosophy of we can't have a main event in which we float sign up? This is such a give back to the fans. This goes against the

recent philosophy of we can't have a main event in which we float out a belt that doesn't matter. Now I get that they're kind of floating out a belt that doesn't matter, but hold on. It's decorative. But the way that they're doing it is so fan friendly. And I know there's a whole BMF spinoff that I want to have this talk with you, but just at its core of what this fight is, a main event. And for anyone saying, oh, this fight doesn't have a storyline, though. There's no hatred. I don't need hatred and storyline. That is for pro wrestling. I get down for pro wrestling, all right? I give a shout out to my brothers on welfare down there, right? BC cares if no one else cares, even though we can't talk about it on this

show. But my point on that is, this is a Super Bowl of being a fan. This is everything we would want. Thank you, Dana. I mean, here's what's amazing about it. What is the UFC's brand in terms of an MMA promoter? Well, yes, they're the best. Okay. But more than that, their corporate efficiency meets law and order. That's what they like. They like the conveyor belt of content constantly churning. They like the fighters to say yes, whether it's, you're going to take this fight in that place for that amount of money. Just everyone say yes. Let's keep this rolling. Everyone gets in line. Everyone says, okay, no problem.

You got, well, I would say Jorge is pretty good about doing that kind of thing. But you got, you know, he can float that brand that he's not. He's the outsider, you know, the guy who, like Kimbo Slacks, was fighting in the streets. And then you got Nate Diaz, who is the, again, the anti-law and order candidate, the anti-hero, as the New York Times called him. Putting those two together is everything that the UFC typically is not. And used to do. And used to do. But they have completely gotten away from. But the fan demand, like what is the promoter's responsibility?

To make the fights that people want to pay money to see. Well, I got good news for you. You can do that. And you can also, it's not like you're putting on Logan Paul versus KSI. You're putting on two world-class athletes, two world-class fighters, who, by the way, in the case of Jorge Masvidal, rank near the top of that division. It can get sticky and complicated if you lean on this as your business practice. But for a one-off, and they're going to make a decorative belt for it, this is the UFC for once, for once, getting out of their own way and listening to what the fans demand and realizing you can have a little fun and it doesn't damage your product.

When you heard the news, Luke, when you heard the news, is the equivalent of finding out mom and dad get high and they watch Faces of Death 2? I mean, like, is it really like, it's like, oh, we can party now. Like what's going on here? I thought for sure, because during the week you had that interview with Berto Komodo and Dana White and he was like, I don't even know where Nate Diaz fits in the big picture. We might be three more years when you hear from him. I'm like, uh, not if you give him the Mazda ball fight. This ain't

UFC Saskatoon. They're giving him the keys at the world's most famous arena. MSG, where they fought for years to get in that building. And once they did, they set records every time they have a show there. They're giving Nate Diaz the ball. And they are transitioning to the BMF, creating essentially this badass

gangster world wrestling title that I actually hope they go the distance and actually create a belt to put on. Is this MMA's turnover chain? You know the turnover chain? I don't know this. Jesus Christ. You watch pro wrestling,

you don't know anything about college football? No, I don't know what a turnover chain is. Oh, my God. You know what? Literally, you sicken me. Like, legitimately sicken me. I don't know what a turnover chain is. If you score a turnover, you go back to the sidelines, right?

Let's say you pick six or whatever. These divisional programs will give you this giant, gaudy, ghostface killer kind of chain you get to wear. And then you get on SportsCenter and everyone says you're a legend. You put it on Instagram and then... You haven't seen this turnover chain? Everyone here knows what the turnover chain is except you. I live in a small bubble. But this BMF title, it kind of

feels like the UFC super fight belt, which I used to love the crap out of. It was okay. Oh, back in the day, the old Dan Severn bit. Yeah, we do tournaments. But you know what? Let's make really fun fights that people want to see. So let's rematch shamrock and gracie and put this super fight belt up so here's my hope for the bmf thing i hope it's a tongue-in-cheek joke but to get serious for a second i hope it is a title luke where it can be open weight and it can be as long as you get two

crazy mfers in there and the guy who has it at the moment is willing to fight another crazy MFer close enough in his weight class that it's just a fan Super Bowl every single time. And it's no different than when we used to say, hey, who cares what weight class Conor is? And let's create a Conor pay-per-view belt. He's the pay-per-view champion. Let's just match him up with the biggest star. It's kind of like that. But you're going to end up having your 165 division without actually having it. Because it turns out like that, but you're going to end up having your 165 division without actually having it, because it turns out that most of these fights are going to be between lightweight and welterweight, but I love the creativity that you can have. Anything that makes you feel the old

early UFC semaphore vibes, I'm down for that. Two fights in a row, Diaz has booked his own fight. Kind of interesting to note here. Very quickly, because we have to move along. What's it going to look like? We can't move along that quickly. No, we have to. What should the BMF look like? I don't know. I haven't thought much about it. Alright, by the way, shouts to BossLogic he had a mock-up of his way. He thought it looked like actually it's pretty cool. This fight though is going to take place the same

day as Canelo versus Kovalev, November 2nd. I think it's going to happen on the other side of the country. Vegas. Here's what's interesting. If you wanted to be a cynical fan, Brian, you could frame it as UFC's frivolity versus boxing attempting something legitimately serious in terms of historic greatness. That would not be a fair framing. Do you think the boxing world's going to try to do that?

What's going to be the bigger fight? And is there going to be antipathy between the worlds? Or is it just two segmented populations of this? It's going to end up being two segmented populations. There's Kross over there because there's so much celebrity involved in Nate Diaz and Canelo Alvarez. I hate this. I get where we're at with so many people having TV deals and big fights in both sports. There's naturally, you're going to see Kross promoting against each other.

We see that a lot. Big UFC card going up against a pretty good boxing match. But this is arguably the biggest boxing pay-per-view of the year from the idea of, like, potential buys, although it would be on DAZN, so there's no pay-per-view buys. You get my point though. Canelo's name is that big, and I don't care if you think Kovalev is washed at 36, and yes, he's a bit washy, but Canelo would be moving up two weight divisions. Like this is like stop traffic, dare to be great-ish, that I need to see what happens next. Kovalev can still box, can still bang. But Kovalev's coming off that tough last fight in short order. It's the perfect time for Canelo to take it.

But the whole idea that I hate when the very top of the sports compete against each other. I hate that UFC going to MSG is always your second biggest pay-per-view card of the year in importance. And now it's essentially going up against the one or two biggest boxing card of the year. That sucks. That makes us choose as fans. It makes us choose as journalists which one we're going to cover

in the end. Your question of which one is actually bigger, though? Barely the Canelo fight. Because here's the thing. Canelo as a singular entity moves. He is the biggest of the four. So between Diaz, Masvidal, Kovalev, and Canelo. Canelo is by far the biggest. And this is a

rare sequence where somebody is taking a giant gamble for no other reason than greatness. They want to add another division. I mean, look, dude, Canelo's got balls. Can you comment publicly on this? Can you speak of the man's satchel? Like, this is insane what he's doing right here.

I know the guy's a little bit old and washy. He's moving up two weight classes. He's moving up 15 pounds to take this guy out. Canelo's old and washed? Oh, you mean Kovalev's old and washed. Kovalev. This is fantastic. And having to put that up against this gangster Super Bowl, man, it's tough.

Very quickly. You're not going to speak on his balls? Dude, I'm telling you, we've got to move along. It's just how it goes. Speaking of boxing, Tyson Fury is going to be back this week with, what do you want to call it, another tune-up fight, second in a row. Here's what's interesting. I actually had him in studio at SiriusXM.

And I asked him, how do you pronounce the last name of your opponent? He actually didn't know. He goes, I have no idea. Ask the promoter. I'm just here to wash this bum and collect a check, and then we'll see what happens with Wilder in 2020. So I'm sitting here thinking to myself, it's like, well, Tyson, you're an interesting person. I do like watching you compete. And maybe, maybe this is a situation like Ruiz and Joshua where we're all discounting one gentleman and auto-following. No, we hope it wouldn't be because this could ruin all the big business. Well, I'm not saying I would wish for it, but maybe this could happen and we're all just discounting it.

But I'm like, tell me why I'm supposed to care. And I get it's going to be an ESPN Plus again, right? Tell me why I'm supposed to care if, Tyson, you don't even know how to pronounce the last name of your opponent. And I get what his explanation was. If you look around the division, he didn't say it was the best available choice, but he did make a credible case that there were a lot of people who were already booked for other fights. And, again, you can argue with that a little bit. There is some merit to it.

Here's where I'll argue it against that. Hold on a second. There's some merit to it. But the point being is, asking do we care, I'll be honest with you, I care enough to see after the fact how quickly

Tyson Fury gets it done. This is the very opposite of appointment viewing. They're just making us wait for the fights we really

care about. December 7th will be the first one when Ruiz fights Joshua again. If you want to watch Tyson Fury, knock yourself out.

I'm going to wait to see what happens on SportsCenter. It's just for the shits and I'm going to wait to see what happens on SportsCenter afterwards. Yeah, it's just for the shits and giggles of the show and to see what happens. But ultimately, this is, oh, it's heavyweight boxing, which means we finally have stars. We finally have viable contenders. We just had Wilder Fury in December. Sold good pay-per-view numbers.

Was insane to watch. And now we're kind of stretching out and slow moving it here. From ESPN's perspective, you signed Tyson Fury. I get why they want to put him in two fights first to sort of set him up as a potential pay-per-view brand when you do the scheduled Wilder rematch next February. But they're putting him twice on ESPN+. I get it builds their subscriptions potentially, but wouldn't you put him on regular ESPN if you're potentially building him into a pay-per-view star?

That's what they put Lomachenko after the Heisman Trophy scenarios, and that always did well for them. Number two, here's the deal. Tyson Fury had two gimme fights last year when he finally came back. Then he went against Wilder, and you know what? He beat him. He didn't get the win, but he beat him. The fact that we have to go back and see him fight the Schwoz a couple months ago, you know, may the Schwartz be with you on that one,

and now against Otto Wallin, who may be someone. He's 6'6", Southpaw, has got an Olympic amateur background, but doesn't scream that it's going to be a competitive matchup. And you know what? I almost don't want it to be a competitive matchup because we want the big fights to come. I just hope that the powers that be here at Heavyweight

don't screw this whole thing up. And the problem is that there's too many powers that be. There's too many networks and promotions all sort of going, hey, heavyweights are back. This works again. Let's all try to play together. I want to get to Wilder Fury 2, but we got to get through this fight. We got to get through in November when Deontay Wilder has a very tough matchup against Luis Ortiz the second time around. Tell me why it's very tough the second time around. Subsequently, I have not, okay, so the first Ortiz fight was competitive. What has happened since that fight to let you believe the second one would also be competitive? Because Deontay Wilder is still the same guy he was in the first fight. So what does

that mean? He's got historically great power. He's incredibly exciting. Not a great boxer, not a great technical fighter, allows other fighters to have success. And what we saw in that first fight was Ortiz, who does have the Cuban background and is also big and tough. Also old, but also big and tough and has power. Had Wilder on the verge of being knocked down and out midway through that fight. Had him hurt. Was knocking him from pillar to post. And we saw Wilder dig deep and we saw him pull that fight out.

Ortiz fatigued late, which happens in a lot of Wilder fights. And Wilder put him away. Second time around, it's a sexy matchup where the same thing can happen over again, essentially. Ortiz getting a second chance at this because he fought so well. I love that fight. I want to see that fight. I want to be front row for that fight.

I also want to get to Fury Wilder in one piece, though, at the same time. And that fight was so good in December. Why are we waiting another year to do that a second time? The signal-to-noise ratio in boxing, where how much nonsense you have to put up with to get the sweet stuff, is extraordinary. One thing I'll give benefit to in mixed martial arts,

there's a signal-to-noise ratio in that. I did see UFC Uruguay, I can tell you. There's a whole lot of it. But on the other side of things, it's just a little bit more bang for your buck in terms of consistent matchups between ranked guys. And of course, that's from a function of a bad business model for the fighters. I'm just saying, as a fan, Jesus Christ, man, the boxing world asks so much from you sometimes. Oh, it kicks you in the stick constantly. I had Tyson Fury on my State of Combat podcast on CBS. He hung up on you.

He hung up on me. He was off the rails. It was MFers left and right. No real tangible questions. But when I asked him all these promotional business questions, why are we doing this? Why are we scheduling two fights in between? I mean, he just gives up. He just punts to say the past. He says, go talk to F and Bob Arum. It's, you know, what do you look like? I just come in here and knock mother Fers out, which he doesn't actually come in there to do, but that's okay. But my point is, what do you think about the developments of Deontay Wilder doing a public interview and saying, hey, maybe Tyson Fury steps aside coming up, and I fight the winner of Ruiz and Joshua, so that Wilder, if he beats Ortiz next, has a chance finally to be that undisputed four-belt

champion? I don't think, I don't take it very seriously, to be honest with you. I mean, look, is there a possibility that's true? I suppose. But I don't, look, they've already done a deal with Fury. They have history. They have historical connectivity. There was a lack of a resolution over the result and certainly some controversy. They have both the mechanism and the means and the reason to run that one again. Now, they have reason to make a fight with the winner of Ruiz or Joshua, but they don't have any of the same... They'd be starting from scratch to a degree with just the, well, this fight should happen kind of push, rather than a sense of, no, no, we have historical issues unresolved.

We have history between you and I. That's a much weightier push to getting fights made. And also, what if Ruiz wins again? I don't know that he will. We'll talk about his party in just a second. He wants Ruiz to win because Ruiz, if you look at how people are aligned, is a PBC Al Heyman fighter. So it would be easier to make a Wilder. But it wouldn't be the fight that people want to see historically. They want to see Joshua versus Wilder. I ask you that with an angle, though, because as much as I want to see Fury and Wilder, I just complained and told you how bad I want to see it today. What would it ask you that with an angle, though, because as much as I want to see Fury and Wilder, I just complained and told you how bad I want to see it today.

Yeah. What would it mean, though, to actually have a four-belt champion and have one champion, one division, one name, which has been Deontay Wilder's wish and goal all along, which at the core, as a fan, would be our wish. We want it to be the old days where we remember what it was like to have all the belts in one house, and Mike Tyson to Douglas to Holyfield to on and on and on. Would you rather have that and not so much worry about the drama as of, is this guy going to fight this guy?

When's this fight going to happen? Is this fight going to screw it up? Would you give it all up to get that chance to have one champion? To be honest, I don't even really think much about it. I would rather just see the various permutations in play. I would just rather see Wilder fight Fury a second time. I'd like to see Fury fight Joshua or Joshua fight Wilder or Ruiz to fight any of those. To me, I'm not saying that belt considerations are irrelevant. They matter to some extent. And the historical relevancy you're pointing out, I take seriously. But in the end,

is that the reason why you want to see these fights? Like, not really. If you're a fight fan, that's not, man, I want to see those belts unified. That's a nice little side action to it. The real hustle, the real mechanism of this whole thing is that you want to see who is truly, if you're a fight fan, if you're a fight fan, who is truly the greatest. What would really happen? What kind of action would we really get? So much nonsense, so much pomp, so much circumstance. Let's distill it down to that blue crystal that old Heisenberg used to ship out to Albuquerque.

I want that blue crystal. You can put whatever wrapping on it you put on it. You understand? to that blue crystal that old Heisenberg used to ship out to Albuquerque. I want that blue crystal. You can put whatever wrapping on it you put on it. You understand? Yeah, real quickly on Joshua Ruiz, which will be December 7th. Looking forward to that rematch. They do the press tour around the world. They go to Saudi. Ruiz, a little bubbly around the belly here.

So I actually looked this up. If you guys didn't know this, here's the issue with this. Ruiz had a birthday recently. Yeah, 30th birthday. 30th birthday. He had some celebrations beyond that. And there were pictures that came out and video as well of, let's see, waitresses in lingerie. He had an ice luge with his own name and logo on it.

He had naked. Naked girl as a sushi. I actually looked this up. Do you know how much the naked sushi girl cost? So her body is a plate, right? Her body is a plate, and she's covered strategically with sushi, although eventually that strategy fails as people eat more of their salmon roe or whatever. Do you know how much that costs? No.

I looked this up. The most basic of those, and I don't think he got one of those. I think he had one of the grander ones. They start at $12,000. $12,000. Well, he bought a Rolls Royce. He bought a Manchin. I'm not telling the guy how to live his life.

I want to see him come in more trim than the first fight. I'll throw this back to you. We talked about Habib and why he's great. Now, look, anybody who doesn't want to train for any reason will find one. But because of his devout faith, he doesn't engage in any kind of hardcore partying, certainly not any consumption of alcohol that we're aware of. It kind of keeps him to a degree in terms of his athletic demands. It keeps him on the straight and narrow.

Joshua, excuse me, Ruiz, I'm not here to question his faith, but rather it doesn't define his life that way. And here he is on the biggest fight of his life. He's already spent what seems like, I'll put it this way, imprudent financial investment amount of money. And he did look a little bit big heading into that press conference that they had out in December, the December 7th fight. Are you worried he's going to blow this whole thing?

I'm nervous. And the whole point is like, he was fat the first fight and that's what made the whole story. That's what made it viral. He had the Snickers thing going on. This chubby guy who people didn't realize actually is such a good fighter underneath, but he's got three months to do it. I know his trainer, Manny Robles, wants him to come in even, I think it was 15 to 20 pounds lighter than he was the

first time around. Not everybody's the same. I'm giving him a chance for his moment. He's the heavyweight champion of the world right now. He's got three of the four major belts. He may not have it again after December 7th. So if he wants to live it up and buy everything, that's cool. But I also would have loved that guy, knowing he signed for the rematch after he won the first one, to kind of be in the gym every single day and say to himself, I'm going to come into this second fight, no excuses, the best I could ever be. You know why that Dustin Poirier interview hurt so badly watching it after the Habib loss? Yeah, it was heartbreaking. Because he knows there's no excuses. At age 30, he is at the mountaintop of how great he could be as an athlete.

That was his prime. That was his peak. That was his peak. A lot of guys go to their grave saying, man, I wonder if I would have tried to become pro, or if I wonder if I would have tried to become a rock star, or I wonder if I would have given my best when it was my moment, right? Mom's spaghetti, all that good stuff. Poirier got to that moment, and he found out he just wasn't good enough.

And it's heartbreakingly sad that he's got an Alzheimer and Habib in front of him, but he found out he just wasn't good enough. And it's heartbreakingly sad that he's got an all-timer and Habib in front of him, but he found out he's just not good enough at that very elite level. Well, I'm glad you're treating it with such delicacy. But you get what I'm saying. That's the core of what his heartbreak was. Not saying he can't have a biz pin comeback, but I just want Ruiz to find out the very greatness that's inside of him. I don't know if he can do it in three months.

I'll just say this lastly because we've got to move along. Again, they're killing us back there. Whoever is in your ear, I mean. You know who's in my ear. You know who's inside of him. I don't know if he can do it in three months. I'll just say this, lastly, because we've got to move along. Again, they're killing us back there. Whoever is in your ear, I mean... You know who's in my ear. You know who's in my ear. I mean, you know, it's a blues riff in B. Watch me for the changes. His name rhymes with Shmay. Try to keep up. Alright. The point being is, Ruiz, it's one thing to gradually get better and accumulate

titles and money and then everything slowly crescendos to the top. Not super slow, but you know, it's a steady progress versus overnight. You have three titles, all this money. He simply doesn't know how to navigate the space effectively. And you're seeing it now. He's treating it like rather than slowly building wealth through real estate investments over the course of 10, 15 years, he won the lottery. He's treating it like he won the lottery. And he's spending money like he didn't know what to do with money now that it's

all of a sudden in front of him. All right. Bellator was over the weekend. Bellator 226. I'm not even going to talk about that main event. What a disaster. I can't believe how bad that was. Nobody even got kicked in the stick this time and it was great. I just, I can't even dignify what happened there. And I think Ryan Bader's right. I cannot see the eye poke there at all. I don't know what they're talking about, but okay. Here's the good news. That featherweight tournament that they're putting on, I absolutely love. The first round of it, so to speak, was what happened on Saturday. The next one will be the 28th of this month, right? So they had the first four matchups.

To me, I'll tell you who my standout was. I would love to know who yours is. I'm going to go with Adam Boric defeating Pat Curran. That's it. I got to tell you, man, this guy went out there and beat, through adversity a little bit, Aaron Pico. He's undefeated. He comes from Hungary. Tell me, Hungary top team?

I mean, who the hell is out there competing in Hungary? I don't even know. Certainly the Europeans have a better kickboxing background, which he does have one. But he is turning out. You can see, I think, yes, that's him there, I believe. Oh, no, that's Emmanuel Sanchez. Point being is, he had a good night, too. Point being is, the guy has slowly gotten better and better and better.

Bellator's featherweight division is for real. It's very good. It's why they can have this tournament to begin with. And then he keeps landing this flying double switch knee. People have no idea what to do with it. Pat Curran is a very tested veteran. He's not been competing as a pro and only a pro. He's been a pro, but he's been like, he has a Joe job now.

Nothing wrong with that. I'm just saying he's not 100% in the gym. So it's still, to me, a developmental win for this guy. But when you finish someone at that level. When you finish someone at that level with those kinds of stakes. And he was the one, by the way, it was kind of evenish on the feet.

And then who took a risk? That guy did. And he took the risk and finished him off. He's got great finishing instincts. I have my eye on Adam Borch. What about you? I've got to double back on that and just put it right down. Borch made the news with Pico.

I've got Rashad Evans on my State of Combat podcast every week, who's in the gym at Hard Knocks 365 with Adam Borch. He's telling me, I'm telling you, this guy's going to win the tournament from day one. I think he's certainly making that early announcement that he's the wild card, that he's the potential star. And the thing I love about tournaments, and this is a 16-man one that Bellator is doing at featherweight, so it's even more entertainment. But the point of these tournaments at its core is a lot of times a star can be born.

Remember Andre Ward in the Super 6, super middleweight tournament that was on Showtime? Remember this heavyweight Grand Prix that we're looking at names like Fedor and Chael, but it's Ryan Bader who surprises us and goes from being sort of an average name fighter to must-see two-division champion. This Borch might be the guy that comes out of here and really puts that stamp on him that he's next in their brand, in the Bellator bracket in that division, and maybe overall in the sport. He seems to have a plus-side ceiling that's above even some of the other guys who had impressive wins on Saturday.

Yeah, there's good news for European MMA. They finally have another guy who's out there slowly getting it done and not from an MMA hotbed, although he has now moved to a place where he can get elite, modern best practices. I'm just saying it's good for the development of the sport worldwide. I can't let you roll off of Bellator, though, without, I mean, Rampage coming in and pushing Bader, and now Ryan Bader saying... Yeah, is that his name, Bader?

Was it Fader Bader or Fader Bader, and now Ryan Bader saying... Bader, yeah, is that his name, Bader? Was it Fedor Bader or Fader Bader? It's neither of those. Okay, does that do anything? Bader already says he wants to play. Okay, was that more cringe than when Stephen Bonner brought out the guy in the mask? No, the Stephen Bonner, Justin McCulley was his name. The American Fedor, yes.

Yeah, the Justin McCulley bit is truly lo mejor, as they would say in Spanish, for the all-time cringiest thing. Okay, okay. That was bad. So when Rampage gets a heavyweight title shot here against Ryan Bader, are you going to care? I'll watch because it's my job. Okay.

And by the way, the second round of the featherweight tournament where you've got guys like Darian Caldwell moving up to featherweight and you've got the title fight in the line between Patricio and Juan Artuleta that's going to be a hell of a show on the 28th so be sure to check that out all right before we get out of here for the major topics that we're going to hit today DAZN and uh Eddie Hearn well they're all behind it two YouTube zilchies cosplaying as boxers also known as KSI and Logan Paul they are going to fight dude it's going to be at the Staples Center. Let me finish this. Staples Center. It's going to be on DAZN.

Whether you like them or hate them, a real deal promoter in boxing getting behind this. Folks have said, how should fight fans feel about it? I'm going to tell you how you should feel about it. There is too much money to be made for any organization or promoter in

boxing where the standards are as low. I mean, they literally have to pass laws to maintain standards. If they could have somebody fight a dead body like Weekend at Bernie's in this business, they would. So the point being is, if you're Eddie Hearn and knowing that Eddie Hearn's going to Saudi Arabia, I mean, trust me, he has no problem taking questionable amounts of money and from questionable sources. He's going to look at this. He's going to say, no, thanks, guys. I've got standards to maintain. The point being is they're just going to do it.

And you have no ability to stop it. You can bellyache all you want. It's still going to go forward. You can make an argument that DAZN needs it for the younger audience, for potential forms of growth. And at the end of the day, all you have to do is not watch it. I think it's dumb. Obviously, I think these two have, you know, I mean, you ever seen that movie with Arnold

Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito called Twins? Yeah. Well, Schwarzenegger, apparently the premise is- You ever celebrate Christmas? I mean, you're acting like, you know. All right. For folks who may not have seen it, the premise is Schwarzenegger in the womb got all the genetic gifts from intellect to brawn, and Danny DeVito got, quote, the leftover crap. These two are the leftover genetic crap. I don't know who their twins would be, but that's what you have here. It doesn't matter what you think of them. It doesn't matter what I think of them.

It's going to make money. It's going to make money for the sources involved. You can't stop people in that circumstance from just doing what they're going to do. Just ignore it. They're putting real fights, like Billy Joe Saunders, the former middleweight title holder, is going to be in the co-main event here. It's super smart of DAZN, because they've got to make things happen. We thought we were going to get all these big-name fights,

Triple G, Canelo III, not happening. This is more to smart from a financial standpoint of them and her. And let's not forget the first fight between KSI and Logan Paul, which had headgear on it, was an amateur fight, was presented as a real pay-per-view in England, but for less money and around the world. I think it was $10, $15. It presented as a real pay-per-view in England, but for less money and around the world. I think it was $10, $15. It sold over a million pay-per-views.

It did. And in 2019, post-Mayweather Pacquiao pay-per-view era, where it's harder to reach that threshold because people are sort of worn out by it, to have any two people get in a ring and move a million is big business. So you can't be mad at it, but combat sports, which is the red light district of regular sports,

Bert Sugar was right, it's the only place where it can happen, Luke. And we know this. So it doesn't really, you're wasting your time getting upset at it. It's really no different than CM Punk getting a chance in the UFC or that Kimbo Slice. Well, it's categorically different.

Got a 5,000 heart attack match. It's really the same type of crap. I mean, the NBA, you know, you're not going to see the Globetrotters be entered into the NBA playoffs. You can't see that type of thing where you don't earn it to get to that point. I don't hate that a real promoter and a real network would get involved. I don't necessarily want to see it on a regular basis, though. I don't want to see an escalation of it.

I don't want to see a combination. Like, do you remember one of the low moments in boxing pay-per-view history, Luke? Oh, Jesus. Where do I start? Right around 2008 or 2009 when Mike Tyson had officially retired, but he was doing a world tour of sparring, and he went in there against Corey T. Rex Sanders with the Big Gut, who wore a sleeveless t-shirt, and they put on a pay-per-view card in Cincinnati that had real fights leading up to the main event, which was Tyson and a fat guyveless t-shirt and they put on a pay-per-view card in Cincinnati that had real fights leading up to the main event which was Tyson and a fat guy in a t-shirt sparring for three rounds and that bombed so badly and came off in such bad taste that they canceled the subsequent

world tour that they were going to do with it which was a good thing if these type of one-offs are fine but like look if LeBron tomorrow got in an argument with Antonio Brown and they wanted to settle in a ring, we'd be fired the hell up that this was a boxing match with two giant celebrities. That's fine. I just don't want to see the whoring out of regular combat sports promoters and networks become a, I almost like

to keep this thing separate. Right. Like, if you're going to do that, then give me some other slop with it. Give me some celebrity boxing. It's amazing, though, what YouTube popularity allows you to do. I'm being kind of serious. These guys are known for whatever they're known for. Logan Paul for, I mean, for what? Having the world's douchiest attitude and watching people hang themselves in Japan. And KSI, couldn't name one song he did, but I looked at his numbers. He has 20 million subscribers on YouTube. They have more subscribers on their social media channels than there are in many world nations.

So this is the point I'm trying to raise. It's like if you can generate enough of your own audience, they become attached to you. Once they become attached to you, you can basically go and do whatever you want. Not whatever you want, but I mean, you kind of sell it to them a little bit. But the point is it allows for this creative and, frankly, this freedom of identity to go and be something else that you're not really. I mean, they're going to be pro boxers. They're not really pro boxers. So YouTube allows this freedom of identity to go and be something else that you're not really they're not I mean they're going to be pro boxers not really pro boxers so YouTube allows this kind of thing and it brings in an audience that sorry if they're not bringing in boxing fans but they're bringing an audience that ordinarily would never watch boxing the reason why I even though I don't want to necessarily see this long term because I think it it it really puts a

watered-down stain on the true elite level of boxing or MMA whenever you do stuff like this, right? Yes. You put... Yes, wouldn't want to stain the... You know what I'm saying, though. The upstanding behavior of Dillian White. I think the difference in this case is I watched that first KSI, Paul Bout.

Jesus Christ, did you? And you know what? What's wrong with you? They respectfully respected the sport. They took training camp seriously and they fought in a celebrity bout as if they were trying to be actual boxers. And we've seen garbage play celebrity boxing in the past. Remember Fox had that series that was must-see TV? You had to sit down and get high and watch it.

It had Screech from St. Bob's Oak out there. I know. It had Todd Bridges. I mean, it was just, it was, you know the kind of stuff I eat when I pull out the car? It was that level of stuff. You're a raccoon. But that's slop. That's barstool sports, hot and heavy, rough and rowdy, whatever they call it. KSI and Logan Paul are taking this super serious. So I can actually respect that. I can respect CM Punk to a certain

degree, not the matchmaking. I always respect anybody who takes the martial arts seriously, but that doesn't mean they belong in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. One thing I'll say about this. Okay, so here's how it worked, and then we'll move on to DMs from Dawgs. Did you see the videos that they each had to put out after the announcement? No, I don't get into the build-up. Okay, so hold on. Here's how I found it, because I was checking trending on YouTube and had all the trending videos. They had to do one of the same things. They both had to have the same thumbnail, which was the fight poster, and then they both had to have that ad they had made, like, this

time, no headgear. They both had to have that as the pre-roll, and then they got to do whatever they want. KSI decided to make like a interview where he's sitting in a boxing room, and it's all black, and he's getting interviewed. It did quite well, okay? Then Logan Paul made one where he's like, here's 12 reasons why I'm going to win, and then he has his friends with him for all the 12, and the reasons are flimsy. He's like, I've got big dick energy. Oh, snap. And next one, he's like, I like to wear my hat backwards. Oh. And I was thinking to myself, he got super downvoted, like 50,000 downvotes. I was thinking to myself, this is the worst thing I've ever seen. And if someone in MMA did this, I'd have to hear from the MMA media how creative it was. That was the first

thing I thought of. I was like, this is literally... I think PED should be legalized. I don't think PED should be legalized. I listen to slaughtering animals. Yeah, it was... I'd rather have Ebola shot in my face than watch that ad again. And I guarantee you, there's never the MMA media being like, bravo, bravo. How do you compare though, to Mayweather-McGregor? People have asked me that. The answer is this. Whatever else you want to say about that match, which was it a money grab? Yes.

Was it uneven from the get-go? Yes. In the end, man, you had two legitimately decorated combat athletes, and you kind of knew what it was about. I mean, okay, there was a Donks who didn't, but for the most part, like, everyone in the media was like, hey, they're just, Conor's going to get rich, Floyd's going to get rich. It's just kind of a curiosity thing.

In that sense, I didn't find it nearly as bad. And the scale was bigger. But, like, in the end, it's like, eh, okay, fine, like, whatever. I think because it wasn't a slaughter in the end, which was our fear, and even though it was one-sided in the end, I think the fact that it looked like somewhat two competitive fighters to a certain degree.

To a degree. And I think so are Logan and Paul and KSI. They're kind of on the same level. The commission's going to have to regulate it. It's kind of the same thing in a weird way. And I don't hate either one. I just, I don't want to live in this space. I don't want this to become the new reality.

But look, it can only happen in combat sports, Luke. All right. It's the, man, you are, you got a happen in combat sports, Luke. It's the... You got a hot date? Yes. I have another job. I got bills to pay, Brian Campbell. Alright, let's do this now. Time for DMs with Donks. It's where we take your

questions, and the lovely production team in the back has sent me theirs. So let's get going here. Let's see what the first one is so I can make sure that it coheres with what I have. Put that up on the screen for me. We're live, guys. We're live.

While I'm still good looking, please. My drawing instructor used to say that. Thomas! Thomas! Go get me that while I'm still good looking. I used to be like, shut the fuck up. All right. This comes to us from Mindless Floyd.

Should Habib retire tomorrow, would he be considered the greatest Russian mixed martial artist over Fedor? No. Why? Fedor, larger body of work, touched the heartstrings on a foundational and nostalgic level with fans from back then to today. And he's the greatest heavyweight of all time. By the way, lost in our debates in recent episodes of like Stipe versus the ghost of Randy Couture or Stipe versus DC, I want to establish that Fedor is the greatest heavyweight of all time. We were just having a UFC discussion on that as well.

Also, I had Fedor in the studio once and I was like, what's your favorite movie? Because he would not. Yeah, well, let's tell that story. He was like, Fedor was like the worst interview at the time. And I was like, all right, what's your favorite? I mean, let me just,

I got to get something out of this guy. I was like pulling blood from stone. And I was like, all right, what's your favorite movie? He's like, any Russian movie. I'm like, okay. Yeah, can I tell that story? What's your favorite book?

Any Russian book. I tried for, I don't know, three years to get an in-person interview with Fedor because I believe that I could be the man who could pull the sword from the stone. Oh, yeah, sword from the stone. I believe that I could have been. And I had one scheduled in New York City that day. And there was this donk who had an interview like 90 minutes before me who sucked the life out of Fedor. And he and his team canceled the rest of the interviews for the day. Right. That donk's name? Yeah. Luke Thomas. Yeah. Well, you know what? If he came in with life, it was life support, let me tell you.

Thanks for ruining him by asking him his favorite book to read. Well, he didn't answer any of the questions. What am I supposed to do? It was live on the thing. Why don't you ask him about Suicide Rock or anything like that? You know what? That would have been the next one if I'd had more time. All right.

All right, let's go to- Abortion medal, anything like that? I like how you listen to the kind of thing people living in a van down by the river listen to, and you have the temerity to come on here and lecture me about my music choices. Unbelievable. Temerity, is that more like...

What's that word you... Temerity. What? What's that other word you tried to teach me? I don't know. I don't remember. Niku underscore Mac Ren Yuk. Fuck, I can't remember his names.

Is Dustin Poirier carrying with him a huge increase in fan base from this loss his post fight press conference views on YouTube are higher than

Khabib's MMA fighting has 1 million for Poirier versus 210 for K for Khabib True Gym

a Russian YouTube channel with 2.7 million followers has 1.7 million views for Khabib's post fight press conference but 5.8 for Dustin's.

I don't know how many followers Poirier had on Instagram before, but he almost hits 1 million now. What do you think? I try not to. This sounds like a big pile of nerd. You got a response to this? You seriously don't have a response to the question? Did Dustin Poirier gain fans through the gracefulness by which he handled the loss?

Yes. I didn't hear that question the first time you read it. That's essentially what he's asking. Yeah, he did. And I touched on that earlier. It was touching. Touching the way. I mean, he showed you that, like I said, there's no excuses.

He gave every ounce of himself to this fight, to this resurgence in his career, to that moment, and he just came up short. And the way that he handled himself was equally heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. I've got to tell you, when you watch sports, you learn a lot of things, one of which is how to win. Dustin Poirier taught you how to lose. Now, I know that that's not a thing he wants to be known for, and I don't think he should in general, but what I mean is, the context you're setting is correct.

Dude, this is Dustin Poirier. I didn't think he was going to beat Max Holloway, and then he beat the brakes off of him. And he came in there beating Anthony Pettis. He stopped Justin Gaethje with strikes. He got revenge on Eddie Alvarez. He beat Max Holloway. He had 40 fights under his belt. He was a black belt in jiu-jitsu. He was ready for that moment. He's not shopworn either. You know, he had a great training camp. He's got a ninth grade education. Look what he's done with his legs. He looked to be in great physical condition and he lost. At the moment he thought he was going to have it all, it was all taken from him. And look at the grace that he showed. I'm sure that has been excruciatingly painful for him to deal with. He taught people,

and I mean this absolutely as a compliment, he taught people how to lose with grace and humility on not just a tough stage in his life, but professionally, maybe the very toughest. So if he doesn't get fans from that, if you didn't like the Gaethje knockout, maybe this is more for you. I don't know. All right. I can never pronounce these Irish names.

Ocean? Oishan? Applesauce says, is there any chance of Diaz versus Masvidal outselling Diaz versus McGregor? No, the answer's no. No, the answer is no. But that is an interesting question.

Someone asked me this. Let me piggyback. I'll pitch right back to you. Can it beat a million buys? That's the right question we're here to ask. We're going to assume, based on Dana's words and based on the MSG history, that it will be a loaded card from the standpoint of fights we really want to see and recognizable names.

It cannot reach a million because ultimately in the grand scheme, Nate Diaz is like the greatest B-side from a promotional pay-per-view standpoint. You come on this show and just, I mean, you just take someone's career and you dunk it underwater and watch them drown. What I do is I don't sit in the pile of feelings. I'm telling you the truth here.

All right? I want Nate Diaz to essentially become an A-side, which he's getting the chance to in this fight, right? Yeah. I think he has that potential. I think he's the A-side here.

Historically, though, he's like the greatest marketing B-side, and that's not a slant. He played a villain up to that point, an anti-hero opposite Conor. So he was the perfect B-side. So because he hasn't had an establishment yet as a consistent A-side, I think this will draw a lot of interest.

I think it'll do very big business for them. But in 2019, to get to that one million pay-per-view buy number in boxing outside of the Golovkin-Canelo fights, no one has done that back since Mayweather and Pacquiao or Mayweather and McGregor. It's not something you can consistently do. And UFC, unless it's what, Luke? Unless it's Conor or Brock or a couple times Prime Rousey, it barely ever happens. So I don't think we get there, but I love what this fight can do for both of the brands. The point is this. It doesn't need to hit a million to be outrageously successful.

Exactly. If it gets to 750,000, which I do think is doable. And one thing you asked me in the beginning was, what do I love about this fight? I love that both guys are getting a chance to become a star. There can't be a loser in this fight. Somebody's only going to lose momentum, whoever loses it. This is a sort of like, let's prop up both guys at the same time

and find out what they can be. But no, to answer the question, I cannot outdo what McGregor and Diaz did. Okay, so this comes to us from Purple Smurf1510. That's a real name. What are you guys' thoughts on scorecards getting shown after every round? Combat sports are the only sports where the competitors don't know for sure if they are winning or losing. So this is a question I get fairly often, Brian. I have the same answer every time,

which is if you ask people who are for, it's called open scoring, basically. If you are for open scoring, here's the argument you'll get. Hey, man, if you're down two rounds or four rounds, whatever the nature of the fight is, and you see you're down, fifth round's coming up, it'll drive you to win. And then the people who don't like open scoring

will suggest, well, here's the other part. What if you're up two rounds? You'll look up and say, oh, I'm winning. Oh, I'll just coast. Prevent defense. Right. So in other words, both sides seem to casually ignore that the opposite scenario of which they use to offer their arguments for their cause end up undercutting their own argument.

I guess my answer would be as follows. I'm open to just about anything. But the problem is we don't have enough data to really know exactly how it would go. We've seen it used in kickboxing to mixed results. We've seen it used in MMA in certain cases to mixed results. I would be willing to try it if the UFC wanted to innovate when they went overseas and they can self-regulate. I'd be interested in seeing them try it there and then get a larger body of information to make a call about it.

But here's what I want to say. If this is yours, I'm not suggesting that the person asking this is saying this, but a lot of people think, oh, here's a problem with the 10-point must system. Let's put in open scoring. That will fix it.

If you think that the way to fix 10-point must system is with open scoring, you are going to be very much let down. It is an interesting feature if you think you might get better fights in the end. I tend to think you probably, it's a wash in the end. I don't really know, but that's my hunch. But what I know for sure, Brian,

it doesn't fix the problems of the 10.1 system even a little bit. It doesn't fix any scoring problems. I don't like it for entertainment purposes. I don't even like it for the reasons you mentioned for the fighters. Boxing has tried this at times. WBC has an open scoring policy that sometimes in random spots it's negotiated into the deal in some states and it happens. The last big fight I can really remember where it happened,

I don't know if you remember 2013 in the Alamo Dome when Canelo Alvarez had that 154-pound unification part with Austin Trout. And it was a fight where at the eight-round mark, so how the WBC does it is they announce it, I believe, at the fourth and eighth round, so the two times in a fight where they announce it publicly. And at the eighth round, I had that fight 4-4. It was close. And I think one judge had it 8-0 Canelo.

A second judge had it like 7-1. So if you're Austin Trout at that point, and this is just that specific fight, guy not a lot of power, not a finisher, more of a technical guy, you pretty much lost that fight. You're not going to knock out Canelo. And I know he fought more offensive down the stretch. But I think- Didn't he get knocked down after that, though?

He was knocked down, and that was a big part of him losing what I thought was a close fight. But what makes combat sports unique are a lot of things. But one of those is that you don't have that. One of those is that there's that subjective nature. You do have that. You have it in wrestling, and you have it in jiu-jitsu. Well, in a boxing MMA, at least in this prize fighting sense, it's part of the mystery and the element of a fight. And I know that, look, it's not fun when you watch a fight that you know in your heart was super close and

then the scorecards are red and it's completely wide one way and you're like, man, what a crock. We just wasted all those rounds just for this robbery. But I don't think it helps the sport in any circumstance enough to even consider making it part of it. Yeah, it just, to me, I think in the end, it doesn't really, it's not clear to me what it does to a fight to meaningfully improve it other than transparency for judging malfeasance. I mean, look, the bottom line of this is not competition. The bottom line of this is a business and fans, Luke, and I don't think it helps your viewing experience when you know that. Because some of the things in boxing that make boxing fun are the bad parts, the stains, the fact that, oh, that was a pretty good fight, but watch, this guy's probably going to get screwed. Let's go to the scorecards. We don't like that the guy gets screwed, but the fact that we anticipate that every time is part of the

viewing experience. I think waiting that reveal is always part of the game. Yeah, the reveal is big. The reveal is certainly big. And also, if your sport is dictated by points, so in the sense of wrestling, two for a takedown, that kind of a thing, then I think it makes sense to have a running tally. But there are only points insofar as 10-9 are judged for a round, not for a punch, not for a kick, not for a takedown or whatever. In the case of boxing, obviously different kinds of punches. So if you're not going to tally punches, why do I need to see the running tally, so to speak, of the scores insofar as that's concerned?

Okay, last but not least, how do you eat your steak? There's only one answer to this. Maybe one and a half answers to this. Please tell me you eat your steak like a refined only one answer to this. Maybe one and a half answers to this. Please tell me you eat your steak like a refined human being, not some kind of barbarian, like Romulus and Remus style. What do you think? I was a uncultured person for most of my life, Luke. I can't believe it.

I don't know if you can tell that I grew up in a hard factory town with an urban edge to it. Did you? It made me who I am today, this hard worker who can eat out of— Did you M&M from 8 Mile? Who can eat out of a convenience store at any time. Did you pop a dock? I've learned in recent years what men do, what real life is.

And what is that? That is a bloody ass steak. That's right. How do you have it cooked? I like to carve off what I want and ride the rest home. Good. It's a Dennis Leary joke. I know you hate him. Yeah, I like Dennis Leary. That's like no cure for cancer, right? Yeah, it's my favorite moment in comedy history. Dude, you are stuck in the 90s in a sort of alarming kind of way. Luke, once I went pink, I mean, Aerosmith wrote a song about how great it is, right? Once I, I mean,

you can't go back, Luke. You know what I mean? Once you, once you just get in there. You're going to get us fired with this shit. The answer is, the answer is medium rare and rare are the only two acceptable answers. If you get your steak medium, you're a Visigoth. If you get it medium well or well done, and I want to be clear that you deserve to be killed in front of your loved ones.

That is how awful you are. You have the palate of a toddler and you are ruining America. So you would be fully against using A1 or ketchup at any point? I'm being serious for a moment. Do you understand how the flavor works? To the extent you cook it, you cook you cook out the flavor past a certain point. Yes. No, no.

So the reason why you're putting on A1 is because you cooked out everything that made steak. Because you don't have a good steak. All right. Then let me do this, okay? I agree. Imagine cooking something and being like, yo, all that shit that makes it tasty, let's cook it out and then put A1 on top. Yeah! Even though I'm a ketchup fiend, and I am, and I'm a condiment fiend, I'll dip anything

inside of that. But the point I'm really trying to go with this is, I agree with you on steak. When a steak is great, don't even put anything. Yes. In fact, don't even give me a... Salt, pepper, and oil. Don't give me a plate. In fact, I like going to those places where it cooks right in front of you on that square.

Like, I'll go, you know, whatever. Oh, the skillet joint? Yeah. No, it cooks in front of you on that little heating square. The hibachi thing? Yeah, do you ever go to like a Portuguese restaurant and they got that? They'll put the steak on the hot ass square in front of you.

And then when it gets to the level that you want, you start cutting it when it gets to the cook level that you want. No, I've not seen that. But when you get really good steak, like let's say we go out in Las Vegas. Peter Luger. Let's say the Showtime bosses are taking out the credit card

and we get really good steak. I think you'll know that the sides around it become the best you've ever had, right? That's the best mashed potatoes, corn, asparagus I've ever had because I'm at this steakhouse that's ridiculously expensive. I take a piece of steak and dip it into the insanely good mashed potatoes because it's like, it's the best. How many beers deep are you at that point? No, but do you look at that as big of an offense as putting ketchup or A1 on it? No, I don't think that's the melding of two different worlds. If you have to say, Garcon, bring over the Heinz 57.

Then you're an asshole. You're a complete asshole. Yeah. But if they have creamed spinach on the table. That's like two chicks at the same time off the space. I mean, that's like. That's Andy Ruiz's sushi girl. Yes, yes. You know, you might get some salmon ro That's Andy Ruiz's sushi girl. Yes, yes.

I mean, you might get some salmon roe. You might get some eel. Just the two mix. I mean, I'll eat that without my pants on. Like, that's fantastic, right? Yeah, I can live with that. I can live with that. I don't think that's so outrageous.

But I will tell you this. When I went to Colombia, there's this place called El Humero. I think it's called The Oven. I think that's what it means. And what they did was it was run by all Argentinians. And they have these grates. And the grates would be on chains. And they have this like things you rotate.

And then the grates would come down. And so it was just meat. So you were watching the animal die in front of you. No, no, no. But they did their own butchering too. But the point being is so you watch the meat get cooked on these grates. And they would raise and lower the grate depending on what you were cooking, whatever. They bring you all the meat first.

You eat all the meat. And then afterwards they bring you the sides. You don't get to combine. Oh, cooking, whatever. They bring you all the meat first. You eat all the meat. And then afterwards, they bring you the sides. You don't get to combine. Oh, wow, wow. I wasn't sure how I felt about it until I had the sides, and they were slamming. So I was like, all right. You can have your hoss and eat it too.

I've creeped out many a women in my life. I don't know if you can guess on that. I can't believe it. But what I do with these waitresses is I ask a legitimate question. You're the only guy who preferred to go to prom stag. I basically ask them, how soon can I eat the steak? How soon from the level of butchering

is it A, safe to eat the steak? Because I would assume that it would taste the best as soon as you could possibly eat it. I don't know what the answer is. If I could have it same day, is that possible? He's saying in the back you should age a steak. Yeah, and there's two kinds of aging. Dry age and wet age, too.

Which gets to a whole other thing, yeah. By the way, did you ever see that OTL special on ESPN about ten years ago where they talked about in Japan there's this side business that's getting under fire. Dude, I have work to do. In that they buy old, successful racehorses and then sell the meat as a delicacy

in elite steakhouses to like the super over him style so i would never like go out of my way to eat horse right but if i'm in japan on vacation or whatever and i'm at this restaurant and i have a chance to basically eat well that guy was third in the belmont steaks in 99 you're going out of your way to eat that right i want to eat a race winner uh no i wouldn't think of it that way. Last thing before we go, have you had any of the new like impossible foods? Like the impossible Whopper

and stuff like that? You're too good for school? You know what's impossible for me? Trying to go to the restroom after I eat out at Cumberland Farms. That's enough impossible

in my life. Well, on that note, again, if this is our last show, showtime, thanks. It's been fun. We really appreciate it. All the sexual and diarrhea innuendo notwithstanding.

All right, So as always. Odds and ends, bro. Oh, yeah. Odds and ends. Very quickly. What's your odds and ends? I don't really like to put myself over that often, but do you watch this little vehicle called PBC Face to Face on Fox?

You know what? You are not shy about telling the world about it. So in fact, I did see it. We had an episode with Errol Spence and Sean Porter. You know they're going to unify world titles, welterweight titles on September 28th. But this episode got fiery. It was the best one we've done so far. Dude, Spence was, he was mean.

And people are talking about it because of this. In this format, in this sort of thing, we've seen it before with Max Cullerman, had a great show back in the day. You can get some fake pro wrestling stuff or you can get the people being really respectful. What we had was Errol Spence being a straight gangster saying, Sean, look, we're friends or whatever, that's fine,

but I'm faster than you, I'm stronger than you, I got more dog than you, I'm going to walk you down, I'm going to knock your ass out. And it was just real, it was in your face, and I had a little bit of chills on the set, and it kind of fuels the overall storyline in this fight. Is Sean Porter super elite? But Spence may actually be better than him in every single category.

Let me ask you a question. So the camera stops rolling. Do they have to be, how did the, when the lights came on, how did the set, like what happened? We take pictures afterwards and some episodes it's still pretty chilly

if you know what I mean. What I'm saying, like they didn't have to be separated or anything? No, not those two. We've had, let's just say we've called security

a couple times in advance. There's this episode that hit the floor. I need to go. I have work to do. The Jermell Charlo Tony Harrison episode. The fight got canceled.

We never saw the light of day. That was some... All right. There was some... Last but not least, I'll end on a semi-positive note. UFC President Dana White told Brett Okamoto in that same interview aforementioned that BJ Penn would no longer be fighting in the UFC. Now, he didn't say exactly in the words that the UFC had cut him. He

just said he wouldn't get another fight. He has said that since 2013. It's hard to know if that's real. This is, of course, following the two street fight videos that have come out. One incident with two different periods of the same incident. But in any event, it's the only call because you cannot be ethically co-opted by somebody who's got some... Look, it's not about being anti-B.J. Penn. It's about the guy needs some help. And until he can get that kind of help, I don't think they're putting him in the octagon. It's probably his best choice. It's about being anti-BJ Penn. It's about the guy needs some help, and until he can get that kind of help, I don't think that putting him in the octagon is probably his best choice. It's about being anti-CTE. That's basically it.

Well, I can't make medical diagnoses either. But you get what I'm saying. Yes. But Bizarro World, by the way, in the same week, Dana finally coming around on BJ, and we're getting a gangster main event in MXG. He's trying to do some of the right things. All right, Luke's got to go off the radio. We've got Chuck Mendenhall coming in for the rest of the show.

No, we've got to go. All right, so appreciate you guys watching, as always. Like the video, subscribe to the channel, and hey, tell folks about it. We are on your podcast platforms, so go have a listen in the earbuds. Yeah, stop tweeting us when is this going to be a podcast. I know, when's our podcast? The answer is right now. Put it in your ear hole, guys.

It's on podcast, okay? All right, for Brian Campbell, I'm Luke Thomas. Until next time, may all of your gains, be loyal. We'll be you next time.