MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Khamzat Chimaev Drama | Figueiredo-Moreno 4 | Overeem-Hari 3 | Ladd to PFL | Ep 357

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

On Episode 357 of Morning Kombat, Luke and Brian kick off the show by breaking down the reports that Khamzat Chimaev's passport has been confiscated in Russia. What does this mean for Chimaev? Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno 4 is official for UFC 283. was this the only fight to make at flyweight? Next up the guys discuss Alistair Overeem's Kickboxing match with Badr Hari. What will this third fight look like? The guys close out the main topics by discussing One Championship's rule set and Finances and with some Quick hitters. The boys close out the show with their top five favorite ground specialists and Fan submissions. (00:16:45) - Khamzat Chimaev Drama (00:28:40) - Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno 4 (00:36:30) - Alistair Overeem vs. Badr Hari 3 (00:43:30) - One Championship (01:02:00) - Quick Hitters (01:20:00) - Top 5 Favorite Ground Specialists (01:36:30) - Fan Submissions Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Hey, it's hump day. Hi, everyone.

This is Morning Combat wednesday edition midweek combat sports talk from yours truly my name is luke thomas i'm one half of your hosting duo right here in the capital of astatis nidus in washington dc joined by my hetero life mate editorial partner king of connecticut boy he's looking a little down in the dumps i don't know what's going on there. Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian. Why are you looking so forlorn, my friend?

I've just been grinding, Luke, okay? I don't know if I necessarily carry an aura of sadness, but I am one half of the best damn... We definitely carry an aura of sadness. Don't be under any other impression. I'm one half of a multi-award-winning best damn combat sports show, periodke so i got a lot to be excited for and also those new frames you're rocking out in the free world yeah i i noticed

that the glasses i'd been using weren't getting the trick done like they used to went back to the eye doctor sure enough my vision is continuing to fade so these are a new pair all right a stronger coke bottle variety of lens i i appreciate that at this age, Luke. I tried to get a fully clear one because my face is already gray and dark. And they have black on the sides, but it's clear in the front. So I figured it's got most of what I'm looking for.

You like them or not? Well, how would you rate them? I do like them. I do like them. And just like the late Michael Jackson, when talking about his baby, it doesn't matter if your rims are black or white, Luke, and they happen to be both.

So that's very progressive for you in this day and age. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Well, happy to see you. We have actually a fair amount to get to. No singular major story that we're fully aware of, although we have some breaking news I'd like to get to at the top here. But we're going to talk, let's see, about some of the Hamzat drama,

Aspen Ladd to PFL. We've got some drama over in England related to a boxing fight fight and um anti-doping getting in the way here a little bit I suppose that depending on one's perspective among other things among other things that were threatening to derail that fight to begin with Luke right fair enough a bit of a rough run for match room in 2022 as it continues anyway. So we'll get to all of that. You're going to get some blokes after you for that one. They are sick of your constant Eddie Hearn talk down.

I routinely say Eddie Hearn is a great promoter and I like his shows. I just wasn't sure about his American footprint. And I think it's pretty fair to say there's a difference between the British footprint of Matchroom and the American one if that's what people are really getting upset about they can go pound sand seriously okay okay just a conduit of the people a representative middleman I know but I like this I'm not even doing a bit like I genuinely like Eddie Hearn as a promoter I think he does by and large a very commendable job but like there's been some hiccups we have to acknowledge that I don't know what's so crazy about that anyway we'll get to that a little bit later as well plus one is uh hemorrhaging money so we'll talk about them too so thumbs up if you're watching on youtube please hit subscribe by the way if you like the cory anderson rsd and it seems like most people did bc i gotta say this

is sort of proof of concept every rsd is a little bit different some are off the rails some aren't but sometimes you get to know a person that maybe you thought you knew or you knew them a certain way, and then you get to see them in a different light. It seems like a lot of people got a brand new look at Corey Anderson through this, which I'm very happy to hear. Look, sometimes we just get out of the way and let somebody talk, and that's a lot of time what happened here with Corey.

He had a platform here. He used it to talk about his inspiring backstory to, you know, explain why Bellator has been such a strong financial move for him and also tell a little bit, you know, inside details on how things ended with the UFC. A very revealing talk. I think you're going to grow to respect him more. But if you go to youtube.com slash morningcombat right now, you not only get Corey Anderson room service diaries,

you get Luke and I interviewing Deontay Wilder, who's making a big comeback in a little bit over a week. Sebastian Fundora, who headlines the Showtime Tripleheader on Saturday. So no shortage of extra content. Luke, do we have an extra credit? We should. We should. We don't have one up yet, but we should.

So we'll get to that a little bit later. We always give you something extra, okay? That's the deal here, Luke. Yes, plenty. Plenty extra. As a reminder as well um we always give you something extra okay that's the that's the deal here plenty plenty extra uh as a reminder as well we have a new promo showtime is the label that pays now usually and this is still true you can try showtime.com you can go to showtime.com get a 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you can pound sand but here's the deal you can get 30 days free and now 3.99 a month for the subsequent three months. That's a pretty good deal. That's all of Showtime Championship Boxing, all of Bellator, plus everything else that

Showtime has, whether it's on the app or in terms of a live show or a chronicled, archived show, all the good stuff is up there. You can get that on Showtime.com. So very, very good deal. We have merch. You can get merch like this, morningcombat.store. You can get BC. We have merch. You can get merch like this, MorningCombat.Store. You can get BC's hat. I think you can get BC's mug, right?

You can get just about anything I'm wearing. You can go to Nice Price Books and Records in Raleigh, North Carolina, and you can get this t-shirt too. But we are available now, MorningCombat.Store. Luke, I don't know if we got a code anymore, do we? No, right? Not for this show today, no no by the way

as a reminder speaking of the sebastian fundora interview that bc has bc and i are going to be back in the bomb shelter on saturday we'll be calling the prelims live i believe that will start on youtube at about 7 30 p.m in the east so also i'm recording uh a dissected that day so that should be a lot of fun as well. The thing about you and I is maybe not with each other, but the phone call, the two-way sounds just the same. Let's bang. We are putting content out.

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you know it, you love it. We drink it. It's AG1, Athletic Greens BC. I don't know if you have it in front of you here. I had mine earlier this morning. Now I'm having more caffeine.

AG1 doesn't have caffeine, but I got to tell you, it's got about just everything else you could need. Yeah. I mean, it's chock full of vitamins. And for those of us that hate taking pills and hate doing things overtly healthy, even though we know we should, how about we give you a little bit of a cut through here, an easy way to get around it.

One scoop a day in a glass, fill it up with eight ounces of water, stir that shit up. And what do you get? Well, first of all, you get a super healthy drink that doesn't taste that way. It's got a mild tropical taste. But when you look at the high quality vitamins the minerals the whole uh food sourced superfoods the probiotics adaptogens adaptations i mean really if you if it's good for you it's in this cup all you have to do is drink one per day you're gonna feel a whole hell of a lot better look at me don't i mean don't just buy it look at my face you want to be this healthy?

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talk about did you talk about the lifestyle friendly part of it luke because i love talking about that uh yeah of course you can take it with you on the road with the travel pack or however you want to take it but it's easy to do also it's a small uh you knowic Greens has over 7,000 five-star reviews and is trusted by leading health experts such as Tim Ferriss and Michael Gervais. Yeah, and right now, it couldn't be a better time to arm yourself and your immune system with this convenient

daily nutrition that tastes great. I mean, it's flu and cold season coming up. Why don't you get on the winning team here and start fighting back? One scoop a day, as we mentioned, no need for a million pills. And to make it even easier on you, the consumer, here's what you're going to do. Go to athleticgreens.com slash morning combat. Of course, that's with a K and with your first purchase, five free travel packs. I use them on the road. It keeps me healthy and a one-year supply of immune supporting vitamin d uh get

get down on the d it's time luke it certainly is time again that's athletic greens.com slash morning combat to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance with that in mind we'd like to get the show started but before we hit topic number one we really should hit this breaking news bc and I want to pitch it to you as the resident, certainly more expert boxing guy than me. This is what we mentioned with Matchroom having a bit of an issue. There was supposed to be a fight this weekend on DAZN set up by Matchroom between Chris Eubank Jr. and Connor Benn. And it has been put, well, sort of on hold.

Basically, Benn tested positive for a fertility drug from his a sample we don't have the b sample but that's usually always the same and more to the point it was from i believe i think it was vada or certainly a some form of voluntary anti-doping it didn't actually come from like ucad for example through a british regulatory agency so both sides were informed of the positive result and both sides said you know what we're still going to go forward with the fight who gives a shit and then the british boxing excuse me the british board of control which is their relevant boxing commission said no way but i have heard through the grapevine a couple of folks reached out to me this morning saying hearn's going to try and push it through there are a couple of legal avenues where that could happen bc your

reaction to this news in some ways i'm not surprised only because this has been a weird fight so let's let's let's frame this this is the sons of two you know uk boxing legends there uh of uh when you consider nigel ben fought eubank senior two times and in europe in the uk look this is a big deal in the u.s did it translate the same way not exactly but we were looking forward to this fight because it's sort of this weird grudge match based on the fathers. It's a hard fight to make in weight because Ben's basically a welterweight. We've seen Eubank bounce between middle and super middle. Well, they're meeting in the middle. It almost looked like it was going to fall apart a couple of times. You'd have Chris Eubank Sr. going public a lot and saying like, you know, I don't really think this fight should be happening.

And also, I don't really think my son should be continuing to take punches like this for what, you know, the long term health risk it is. And taking punches to the head, which has been an interesting time to push this rather real narrative out there to the front. Seeing it potentially fall apart with these drug issues is not surprising, but it does, as you mentioned, look like something that could get worked around and we could still get a fight. It's a weird fight. It's a kind of a dream in the middle fight in terms of weight. If you're up on that rivalry between the dads, it could mean a great deal to you. But as you've noticed, Luke, not a ton of buzz in the U.S. for this. This does seem to be like a very U.K.-centric operation. Which is fine.

You know, not everything has to be for every market. I know you don't say that pejoratively. I just want to be clear for the audience's sake. Yeah, I had someone hit me up. Let me see here. You know, Hearn did an interview, I think, on BT Sport or Sky. I can't remember which media outlet. Basically being like, yeah, it's in the hands of the lawyers now,

rather than just being like, well, the commission said, no, we we're going to stop he's going to try and push it through and my understanding is there could potentially be uh a way to get the courts if the there's no agreement the courts to force the fight to happen because ben has not technically been uh he has not actually committed a rule violation because he hasn't been like sort of convicted of anything there is this information but it's still innocent until proven guilty in sort of the same kind of way so we'll see what happens there i don't know if the fight's gonna happen or not if it does did you have a favorite were you leaning a certain way yeah i mean like you bank is is bigger much bigger much bigger punching power you know ben is probably more skilled he's certainly gonna have a speed advantage but the fight is being made because of the background and the trash talk between them

more than it being a need to be made i still like eubank in here even though the second half of his career has been very up and down and puzzling at times but it was clomiphene the drug in question and as you mentioned luke a fertility drug that can increase the production of testosterone if taken on a daily basis by men and you know i'm always looking to also be post-cycle therapy as well yeah i'm usually grabbing the brazilian nuts that you often see on the rsd table set to uh increase my t level but uh this is uh yeah i mean whatever i guess they're gonna fight who knows i don't know luke yeah i just my only take from this is you know the whole thing is just theater i mean no one really cares if he's using no one really the fans don't care the fighters

don't care the promoter doesn't care the commission you know doesn't want to look like they're completely rubber stamping everything well i mean it's easy for you to say that luke but i think the descendants of roger maris said it right when talking about aaron judge you know he's he's the clean home run champion because, you know, Roger Maris, no chance did he ever walk into a clubhouse in 1961 when they had those jugs of Greenies, Luke, you know,

straight amphetamines that you know, they'd have the coffee pot, the leaded, the unleaded, they'd be hung over, you know, there'd probably be a couple hot dogs and whores in the clubhouse. I mean, you know, none of that, Luke, waske was dirty okay you know who was dirty you know what's amazing i found out that the only people who use peds in baseball are everyone but the yankees isn't that amazing i don't know how it ended up working out that way but it sure did boy never touched never touched the stuff luke

never amazing uh let's talk about topic number one here. Not really sure what to make of it. There was some news yesterday from kombat, which is in general, a very reliable media outlet. I have gone to their coverage when they've broken news consistently. In fact, this is the only time I can remember where they reported something and then it was challenged thereafter, but it's not really clear if that challenge is factual either here's the story kombache reported that hamza chamayev had his russian passport seized that he had he is obviously from native chechnya is now a resident of sweden and flew to russia to visit family potentially some other stuff as well business whatever and then had his russian passport seized by Russian authorities in St. Petersburg.

And that the report was it was related to the effort of mobilization that the country has undertaken in Russia to combat Ukraine's advances on the battlefield. Now, subsequent to that, Brett Okamoto of ESPN said he spoke to Hamza Chamayev's manager, and I'm sure I'm going to mispronounce his name, Majdi Chamas, who told Okamoto of ESPN said he spoke to Hamzat Shamayev's manager, and I'm sure I'm going to mispronounce his name, Majdi Shamas, who told Okamoto that Hamzat being stuck in Russia with a revoked passport is not true, that he is in Russia. In fact, we did see him on an ACA card yesterday, but there are, quote, no problems with any travel restrictions, according to him.

BC, are you buying or selling that Hamzat is stuck in Russia? I'm going to buy it, Luke. You know, do I have that deep information to prove it? No, I don't think any of us do as we're being very speculative based on the reports we've seen. But Luke, what do we know to be a fact that Hamzat is a favored son of certain Russian political powers, particularly within Chechnya? Let's call them what they are murderous dictators that's what uh Ramzan Kadyrov is who we're talking about at the moment Luke um when this original when the news originally broke I thought it was more of a Tyson Fury can't come to the

states because of Daniel Kinahan thing but it seemed the narrative was more is he getting drafted into the war here well here's the deal Luke we know of their relationship we also know of that very weird reality that took place during the pandemic when hamza had back-to-back covid positive tests and very rough battles according to reports and openly considered retirement only for uh kadirov to go public and be like nah brah that ain't happening you'll be just fine and you know you'll go out there and represent our flag and fight so luke, if I'm going to believe the things associated with that fact that we've seen in the past, that it feels like it's a fighter who is in some regard controlled by a higher power entity

or financially backed, or at the very least, there's a lot of pressure on chemayev to live up to whatever expectations or standards are being put on him politically within that relationship could i also believe that that could also play into hit them going not we need you on the front lines of this war to do exactly what we're trying to do here uh yeah i could believe that without having the facts to prove it luke so i can hear everyone say no it's fine he was just here yeah he's still there by the way okay so until i see him fly out and we talk about his next fight i'm gonna hold back feelings here of of you know i i kind of believe this to be true here let's see what the next step

is well interestingly what kombachi also reported was that chamaya was scheduled to be in brazil i think next week or roughly in that time frame to see a documentary about a famous jiu-jitsu player named Terere. Obviously, the fact that he may or may not show up to... Well, if he shows up, obviously it's not true. But the fact that if he doesn't show up, that doesn't automatically prove it either. But I guess we will see. Here's

the thing. I in no way want to impugn the character of his manager. I don't know his manager. I have no idea if he's telling the truth or not. He very well could be. My only caution is a general statement to the audience, which is this manager notwithstanding, because again, I don't have any information to challenge this in any way, but I just want to point out, I have lived through this world quite a long time. MMA managers in general will absolutely lie to the media for any kind of reason that they feel necessary. That's crazy, Luke, because MMA promoters do the same thing like all the time, right?

That's wild. All I'm saying is he could very well be telling the truth, but until we get more information, I would not necessarily assume that just because any fighters manager says it's not true, that therefore it's not true. To me, that would be interesting and i think enough of a declaration that we have to at least heed it to a to a degree but we don't have to defer to it as biblically true i guess we have to wait until we have further confirmation one way or the other the only thing i would say is if they do keep him i mean here's the thing there have been reports of smaller-named Russian fighters

who have been pulled into this conflict, some of which have answered the call, some of which have fled the country. No one really at that UFC level, right? No one at that Makachev level. No one at that, you know, pick your fighter from that area who is in that same military age demographic. None of them have been called up,

and I certainly hope that they don't have to. Yeah, I follow Liana Jojua, Luke, on Instagram. She has not been called yet. Right, fair enough. My only concern would be that if this thing drags on, what effect it could have. Obviously, the most important significance is a war, but I mean to the extent that it affects elite-level fighters

whose careers could be interrupted by this conflict. I certainly hope that's not the case. But one wonders if it might spill over into this world in a real and serious way, even beyond this current controversy such that it exists. Luke, let's talk Chimaev on more of a macro level here. I don't know what's going to happen based on this report, based on whether he's headed next to fighting Paulo Costa middleweight, you know, rather than coming back and proving that he can make welterweight and get back into

that title picture. But it does feel like that Friday, the day before he was scheduled to fight Nate Diaz, he was on top of the world being given the ultimate showcase opportunity against the fading legend on the way out that would have groomed him for crossover superstardom and an immediate title shot against the winner of edwards and usman if they do that trilogy and now after missing weight by so many pounds and having that sort of the weird way it played out with his demeanor on the microphone being so dismissive now this report you do have to wonder if we're in the midst of of a a sort of monumental turn of events in the direction his career appeared to be heading maybe it's nothing maybe he gets back there and you know within six months proves to us he can make 170 and gets a title shot.

Or maybe not, Luke. Maybe this is the turning point on somebody that looked like the kind of can't miss. I mean, I know we're talking about Bo Nickel of high regard now, of course. And Pico had a huge rise. Even Jon Jones, to a certain degree, was labeled so early as, God, you're looking at a future champion, you know, in bloom here. Are you worried that like he may never return to that where he was just you know an hour before stepping on that scale to face nate i will tell you it's a great question and i will tell you the the direct answer to your question

is i don't know but i will tell you aligned with that, a thought I did have, which is that sometimes, you know, I've been around covering MMA for quite some time and some guys have, you know, most guys don't have very long careers. Most are in and out pretty quickly, but sometimes guys have a surprisingly long career. Like someone like Clay Guida still being around is pretty impressive. You know, that he can be this senior into his career still, you know, somewhat relevant and doing pretty interesting things. And, and that's very commendable, but some guys are just you know it's like like like Brock Lesnar he was yeah he had the

UFC 200 thing but really he had that short burst of whatever here is my hunch and I don't know which way it's going to go I just don't feel like Hamzat's career is built for the long haul like one way or the other the craziness and unusual circumstances surrounding him make me feel like I don't think it's coming to an impending crash or something that's not what I'm saying but if you had to ask me am I going to be covering if I'm covering fights at all in 15 years let's assume whoever is sort of standard MMA media in 15 years or even 10 in 10 years are we really going to be covering Hamzat Chemaev's fights I have a I'm skeptical of that to be candid with you is that is that a fair suspicion on my part BC I don't know what

you expect here Luke this is a weird situation all all things considered everything that's happened to Hamzat of late I mean even if you go back to look I'm not but I'm not gonna hide it here what happened during the pandemic with him like almost retiring and then retiring that's weird as shit luke that's unresolved in my eyes in terms of how that affects him as a fighter i think all that did play into what happened with this weight situation i don't really tend to believe that there was some back room like hey let's not fuck over nate this bad hey hamza you're just gonna go you know fake a weight miss no they didn't do that. But something weird has been going on, Luke. Is it the pressures of living up to this as being, you know, to tab the next big thing and potentially having the weight of Chechnya behind him and all

that that comes with being a favored son in that area with that type of leader? I don't know, Luke, but it is a story to watch very closely in terms of how long this could keep him out, what direction he's going personally and inside the cage. It's bizarre. But Luke, you know, that's combat sports. I mean, are you ever surprised by this absolute daily barrage of bullshit that we weed through trying to find the corn within the fecal matter. This is combat sports, Luke. At the end of the day, you get used to the smell, right? I think that's true, and I just think if you're going to work in this industry or even just be around it as a fan for a long period of time,

you really come away with the conclusion that you just can't ever expect sustained normalcy. It doesn't work for whatever reason. You've got crazy people doing a crazy sport i mean i i can't i don't even want to let another week go by without reiterating daniel white just shut down media and fans to the damn live sporting event to allow a rich friend to have a you know he met look, there's a chance he caught whatever Latifi was selling, Luke. What was that, staff? I mean, there's a chance.

I mean, I'd love to see Zuckerberg's chest to see if it looks like Kevin Lee's against Tony Ferguson. But short of me getting those picks, Luke, we're already in weirdoville. I mean, this is fucking bizarre as shit, right? Like, there's no explanation. There's no press release from the ufc it's just not he was our buddy so we decided to give him a fun night out without you pesky scumbag media around i mean what a bizarre set of circumstances in general luke get used to it swim through the fecal it's what we do in this part all right enough with that i i certainly

agree with that and it's also interesting that like the larger media didn't pick up on it. Well, I got to tell you, there's a lot of talking heads at ESPN that are very concerned about making sure there is, you know, their progressive values seen in sport. They don't have a thing to say about UFC. Nothing, ever. So are you saying that, like, Stephen A. Smith and people on that level? I'm not even making a declaration. I mean, these people cover what they cover.

I'm just saying if they were at all interested in consistency across the ESPN ecosystem, they seem very selective about their targets. Like a Sarah Spain, for example, very selective about the targets. And maybe she's like, I don't know anything about combat sports. I don't want to cover it. Yeah, okay, fine. I mean, that's a very defensible position but the things that they do not tolerate in the sports that they cover they just seem utterly willing to ignore

far worse versions of it yeah in a related sport that also airs on their channel anyway we got to move along you know i'd love to show them dana's ran against loretta hunt and see their take look but that was a long time ago right long time ago uh and he doesn't talk that way of any more of what I can tell but yeah okay fair enough all right topic number two good news very good news very good news Devis and Figueiredo versus Brandon Moreno 4 it is booked this is scheduled to be at UFC 283 in the UFC's return to Brazil which of course will happen on the 21st of January, 2023. Now, just as a reminder, first fight was a draw. Second fight, Moreno won via rear naked choke.

Third fight, Figueiredo won via decision. Somewhat disputed, but not really. I think that was a pretty fair one. A bit of a stat here, BC. No fighters have fought four times exclusively under the UFC banner. Now, of course, Arlovsky and Tim Sylvia had three fights, the last one of which took place in one championship. Vanderlei and Rampage had four fights, but two were in Pride.

One was in UFC, one was in Bellator. So they had the four meetings, but never consistently under the banner. Your reaction to the UFC pulling the trigger on the fourth fight between these two very elite flyweight talents? I've come back around. Why? Because the proof is in the put in there, Floyd. When they fight, you know, amazing things happen. They are made for each other in so many ways. And this rivalry has had such exciting chapters that it just seems right right now in this regard. There were points of customer fatigue which

can happen. I mean, Pacquiao Morales is the best boxing equivalent to this type of high level four fight. You know, I mean, this kind of stuff that we didn't see in boxing since the 1950s and 60s, when guys would fight each other six, seven times, that had customer fatigue in it, yet found a way to keep entertaining us. Yeah, let's do it, Luke, because this era of the post Demetrius Johnson, and we'll always throw Henry Stahudo in there, who may or may not have saved this division from being eliminated. I thought, you know, Figueiredo would be our hero. I thought he would be our new lethal face. No, Mexico's Brandon Moreno is, but they flip-flop enough in showing how perfect they are for each other that this era is about them. And they will go in the history books after these four or, I don't know, five, six,

how long are we going in this series? They're going to be linked with each other forever. And if you've watched any of the first three, maybe save for how one-sided the second fight was, although you've got to give Moreno credit in that regard. Yeah, Luke, I'm here for it. And the other news linked with this is that Alexandre Pantoja will be the replacement who will weigh in and be ready, you know, as the potential alternate for this fight. I mean, the way that you would argue against this is if there's somebody else super deserving. And if we are at a point in the rivalry where we don't have closure and you kind of need to see it again.

I got to be honest, Figueredo winning that fight, coming back the way he did, and it being a close decision, there's no closure here. I mean, look, I'd love to put Askar Askarov in here, but he didn't win, Luke, okay? So this is where we're at. Pantoja would be the guy if you were looking for a fresh contender in that way. I do think that's pretty fair. I mean, but here's the thing, dude.

Moreno didn't beat Kaikar France. He stopped him and had to rally a little bit if you recall like kaikara france was doing really well in that fight especially relative to the first time they fought i thought he had a great strategy was largely executing and moreno found a way to just fold him with that body kick it's a great win huh great win very yes super solid win but bc here's what kind of occurs to me about this fight. And you would appreciate this more coming from the boxing side of things. Now, boxing is more established and this isn't quite true.

But here's what I mean. Obviously, when four guys or excuse me, when two guys fight four times, it's going to mostly revolve around what it means for their legacy, how that rivalry raises their careers. But I also feel like this will go down as a very important part in the history of flyweight. Most notably, though, what is also an important part about the history of flyweight was previously that the UFC decimated it and then saved it kind of at the last minute with what they ultimately chose to do. But they let a lot of the talent just bleed out and go away.

Why do I bring this up? Well, what I mean to say is it's not only a great fight there is the unresolved sort of status between who is better between them there's a lot involved there i also think one way to really help again this fight by itself or the four by themselves even that doesn't do it but as a building block in the process of helping to really solidify flyweight, to rebuild flyweight, to make some history around the flyweight division. What's one big component of the UFC's flyweight history? Of course, it's Demetrius Johnson, no doubt about it. Here's another big piece. It's things like this that actually help flyweight solidify itself.

And of course, there's more involved about going into places like China and Latin America where you can recruit fighters more naturally sized for these kinds of weight classes, those sorts of things. Yes, there are much bigger stories in play here. But I just mean to say, BC, if you disagree, by all means tell me. I really believe this kind of thing helps. And yes, the UFC bled out flyweight a while ago. But it takes a while to build a

division it takes some time you have to build stories you have to build drama you have to build history you can do that really well when you have two guys paired this uh closely and importantly at the top it's a firm belief that i have and and you nailed it about the point on moreno beating kai kar france kk france was rising he seemed be the next guy. They gave him a chance to become the next guy. That was an interim title, if I'm correct. Right, Luke, in that fight? That's right. So they gave him the chance.

He didn't get it done. Moreno's time. Let's do it. Man, I do. I've really. It's like it's never going to be shade against DJ. He did nothing but be dominant and arguably act like the greatest fighter who's ever stepped in the cage i

mean his some of his you know records are going to be still going to be hard to topple for a while uh but post dj flyweight has been fantastic luke you know it has it's been great yeah i kind of i'm sad that uh suhudo moved on to bantamweight and then to retirement as quickly as he did i wonder what he could have done if he stuck around. But I just mean is like, you know, what's the best thing to happen to Flyweight post Demetrius Johnson, which coincided with the bloodletting? I'd argue it's this rivalry.

I think this is the best thing that Flyweight has had going since that time. Now, of course, there are other fighters who are doing well. We mentioned that the standby is Pantoja. Great. He's doing really well. Kaikar France fell short in his last fight, but I still think he's a really tough, very elite level flyweight. There's a lot of good things happening at flyweight, but the very best thing that's happened are these two guys making their fights must see TV around this weight class and then

showcasing what this weight class is capable of big power submissions great cardio great durability great rivalry this is a great advertisement for what elite flyweight fighting can be to say nothing of what it means for each guy's respective career i think that's important to just observe for on a show like this agreed agreed luke i love celebrating men that's what we do on this show it's a bunch of men talking about men to listeners that are largely men it's just a it's just hallelujah it's a man circle jerk weird it is it's raining in fact yeah thank you thank you all right bc i don't know how interested you are in this i will tell you i'm interested you know can't say that it's like... Well, let me just get to the story. Just get to the point, Luke.

Alistair Overeem is back. Now, he's not back in MMA, although that's not done yet. I got a quote I want to read you. But Glory is back in action this weekend, and it's going to be Alistair Overeem taking on Badr Hari 3. Now, if you're a hardcore fan, you guys already know this. They fought twice. Badr Hari is something of a bad

boy of kickboxing um he's this you know well a hulking figure uh he's dutch but i think moroccan natively and you know he is just a crazy person balls out fighter he's got some tremendous wins he's got some brutal knockout losses he's kind of an interesting and sort of polarizing controversial figure in the sport, and he's got history with Overeem. So they first met at K1 Dynamite in December of 2008, where Overeem flatlined him. Hardy returned the favor at the K1 World Grand Prix in December of 2009,

and I think there have been previous attempts to make this fight happen, and they couldn't do it. Now, Overeem spoke about it. Quote, I do love grappling, I do love MMA, but I think it's just more of a complete art, striking and grappling and strength and conditioning. I like the less limitations. To answer the question, my goals are batter.

I'm going to smash him. Then I'm going to smash Rico. He's talking about Rico Verhoeven, the existing champion, arguably pound for pound best in the sport. And then, you know, maybe one more in MMA. But for now, the goal is batter, then Rico, then get the belt. Maybe one more final MMA fight because the MMA thing didn't finish satisfactory for me. So we also want to finish that.

I believe I'll have it in me. And then lastly, it will not be much more than that. It will not be more than those two potential two or three fights. So it's two or three that he wants to get into coaching. BC, level of interest in this rivalry. The first two fights certainly delivered on excitement. And where do you think, level of interest in this fight, what two fights certainly delivered on excitement and and where do you think what level of interest in this fight what are you expecting here i suppose yeah i'm

expecting fireworks and i am interested in this fight this is that rare big name fight that glory can do that can pull in even me who doesn't have the same history as you do as you have watching you know the the big fights i do remember the first two, particularly that first one. It was a very big deal. I remember me as a, at that point as an MMA fan being, you know, being particularly impressed exactly what Overeem did walking into there and knocking him out. And then you see the way it went the other way in the rematch. It does seem like time let's let Overeem have his victory lap of whatever non-MMA specific sort of opportunities and given the history that there there does need to kind of be closure in this rivalry if both are willing and both still have a little bit left in the tank and they do so uh yeah Luke I'll be fired

up for this I mean how I guess I gotta ask you because you you used to be a sideline reporter for Glory you've covered this a lot more than i have is this like is this more hate to say it is it more chuck and tito under the golden boy mma banner at this point or is it still pretty damn legitimate to find out who won this rivalry in terms of what this means i've not kept up with better harry's career and again i was a sideline reporter for glory but i sucked at that job i was actually relieved when they didn't rehire me because i felt like i didn't deserve to be rehired um so wow that's blatantly honest luke that's like that's i've tried i mean you know when you get opportunities you should try them in this business i do believe that but after the the opportunities are over you

should have some reflection about how they went that one one went poorly for me. I, you know, I was not good at that job and I can fully admit that it's not, I'm not the right guy for it. But in, in relation to this, here's the funny part about it, BC, two things I would want to bring up about this. In the case of Overeem,

he had to kind of readjust his MMA striking style to gain that longevity that he had in the last period. That style. I don't know how well that's going to work for him in kickboxing, especially against a bruising marauder like Badr Hari. That remains to be, that's a really interesting piece of this puzzle that I don't know how it's going to go. I would also say, you know, they don't do a lot of, or any real drug testing that I'm aware of,

so keep that in mind for both competitors and really all the competitors on this card doesn't that play to your last point though you made a point about him having to change his style i think he just had to change his intake for usada really that's really well so here's the here's the part about that though like once your chin is compromised here he was fighting to me to take less damage and there's other components to it but a big part was i just can't take the kind of damage I used to take, which was a smart play, and it worked out in large part.

The way in which he has fought traditionally in kickboxing, just, I don't, that's going to be hard. That's going to be difficult to make that work. So we will see how much punch resistance either of them still have. And by the way, both of them have vicious power still. So that one, there's just, I cannot imagine that one going the distance. Just doesn't seem that way. resistance either of them still have and by the way both of them have vicious power still so that one i there's just i cannot imagine that one going to distance just doesn't seem that way

how interesting to yeah you didn't answer my question about how big it is and how big is it in europe where it's going to be held is it massive i think it's pretty big i mean i think glory is not quite in the state that it once was but i do think this is one of the bigger fights they can make in all of kickboxing, certainly in the heavyweight division. Now, of course, you could make bigger ones in terms of ranked fighters, right? You could get Rico Verhoeven versus the number one guy or something like that, a Benjamin Adegboui or something, Jamal Ben-Siddiq. But the point I want to make here is you got two really big names here.

Really, really. This, to me, feels very, very big in that way. So there's value there the thing that's interesting to me bc is the guys who leave the ufc it's hard to finish away out the you know all the door in the ufc to get like a goodbye and thanks for being here and you were really important over him's not on the mount rushmore the way to anderson silva is but i do wonder if he can get a big win here on Saturday and then set himself up for some subsequently big fights, he might be able to have his own exit from combat sports by doing some stuff outside of MMA that enable him to facilitate it,

like with Nate potentially going to boxing, if he can get that, or what Silva is doing. It's interesting that these guys can author potentially more celebrated exits by doing these kinds of things. Absolutely. Look, you know what's never talked about is that when Overeem finally did come to the UFC, his per fight income salary-wise was through the roof. Who negotiated that deal?

Even if he wasn't prominent at that moment and was more just an add-on to the card, he was still making 500k guaranteed and more than that i saw several cards where his his like purse guaranteed purse was 800k and by the way i don't even think he had a split in his purse at least not for every fight in the ufc i think he had it no no bonus yeah flat fee just that's what it is and whoever yeah whoever negotiated that for over him did a very good job, relatively speaking. So you're right. He made big checks.

I don't have anything against Badr Hari, but I do like Overeem. I will say I'm glad he is eyeing the exit. Alistair Overeem has done incredible things in combat sports. Remember, he was simultaneously the K-1 champ, the dream champ, and the Strike force champ all at the same time very difficult to do something like that at the same time uh he's taking a lot of damage he's taking a shitload of damage i really really hope um that the next chapter in his life whenever that officially gets started he's able to have you know the cognitive functioning that one would need I am a little bit concerned to be to be quite candid one would need that and speaking of one

Luke yes speaking of one I'm not going to get too much into the details here for topic number four but let's start with the sort of bad part first and then I want to talk about the rule set. Here's the bad part first. Bloody Elbow through Anton Tabuena and John Nash. Every year, basically with the Singaporean equivalent of the SEC, they have to file a business report about revenues and losses and everything else. By the way, it should be noted, BC, I don't know if you know this. It was detailed at the end of the article, if you didn't make it all the way through, that one has transferred their base of operations to the Cayman Islands. So this might be the last report we ever see of this, because at that point, they won't have the same financial disclosure laws that they have in Singapore that enable this kind of reporting. It's a way to kind of make everything secret. Remember that and the commissions in certain states not releasing fighter pay and everything else. They love to keep the media guessing so that they can just pretend that

their talking points are the actual truth. It's a very interesting way to go about business. But here are the big takeaways that you need to know about. Good news for one, they had an increase in sponsorships by I think about 20 or 30% year over year. They had an increase in what they make for broadcast rights fees, not by a significant amount, but there was an increase. The problem was they experienced $48 million

in losses in 2020. And ready for this? $111 million in losses in 2021. Their accumulative total losses are at 383, which means after this year, BC, it is a virtual certainty they will have accumulated over $400 million in losses. Now, I want to ask you what you think about this, obviously. Let me just add in one final note. A lot of people like this stuff because they're like, oh, get them. They say this stuff in public and they're clearly frauds about it.

And yes, if you want to say that there's a gap between what and by the way these documents that were reported on by bloody elbow they were signed by Chacheree Sityatong himself so he can say whatever he wants after this his signature is on these documents I worry BC because it looks to me now more than ever, the state of fight promotions outside of the UFC, they look very big and they have a lot of visibility. Amazon, Bellator's on Showtime, PFL's on ESPN. You can list whoever you want. And obviously they're going to be in different stages of financial health.

But I do worry that the UFC has sucked up so much of the industry that outside players can't make a sustainable profit on a product that people care about am i overstating things what's your reaction i mean that point specifically is the reality of when you have somebody who's so dominant and other other you know entities are trying to not only carve out their own space but in some degree compete which is you know sometimes why are trying to not only carve out their own space, but in some degree compete, which is, you know, sometimes why the knee jerk reaction is, well, why can't they all just join forces? Well, a lot of cooks in the kitchen, a lot of different business plans and all that specifically to this. And to your point about Chakri, he has gone public in the past and

refuted all of this saying, did it come from the internet? Well, you can't believe it then. Well, to your point, Luke, he signed it um you know this this is startling i mean luckily for chatri luke one championship apprentice edition was so it was such a ratings bonanza didn't it set records for most watched show of all time in the far east luke or maybe i'm exaggerating let me be honest it didn't do a fucking thing i mean exaggerated report i was going to say luckily that was such a ratings bonanza that i'm sure it offset all the financial losses here but luke my joke sets up what where are they getting the money how much more do they have left how much can they keep hemorrhaging uh you know in some degree you get

it it's all been a build-up to try to come at North America and the U.S. to invade, to get a legitimate U.S. TV deal that would pay for everything, and to do what they haven't done yet because of the pandemic, which is launch a giant card on U.S. soil that grabs your attention. They're almost there, but to see this heavy of losses who's who's war chest are they expiring slowly that's my question venture capitalists they're burning the the money of venture capitalists get groceries delivered across the gta from real canadian superstore with pc express shop online for super prices and super savings try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. And the other part about the article is it notes that since 2017, Chachri Sityatong has been basically proclaiming that the company is about 12 months away from profitability.

And they claimed that this year as well, that they would be very, very close to profitability, and it doesn't ever appear to be true. Now, want to be very clear about this i like the one product i don't like chachri's clearly you know ridiculous statements the whole thing that they do about honor and bushido is just fucking jack off material it's would you call it bullshito now luke is that what you're saying yes of course it's just silly but the product that they that i as the consumer get by the time it gets to me, I really like it. I think it's great. I just really wonder about their financial future. I really wonder how much longer they can keep this up. We shall see. Something to pay attention to. Now, BC, I flipped the next part of this one. We stay on topic four. Over to you. There's been some discussion about the one championship rule set, and I know that they sent you some stuff about how that works. What can you tell us?

Yeah, so rightfully, I think on Monday's show, recapping what was an incredible trilogy matchup for the one female strawweight title between Jingnan Jiang and Angela Lee. You know, I had the question of, okay, we know they're doing the old pride thing and scoring the fight as a whole, rather than the 10 point must system. But what are the judges looking for? Is it who had the majority of success or was it essentially in a poor man's

way of saying who had the biggest moment? And I think if you're arguing for Jean to have won this fight, you're, you're kind of leaning pretty heavily on the biggest moment, which was the second half of the first round when she scored a pair of knockdowns uh one reached out to us luke and sent us copies of the scorecards turned in by the judges which has a a breakdown in there if we've got the art to to pair with this of exactly how the judges look at each category of the criteria and i think even more importantly whether that fighter do we have

it yes or no team you know we should have it you should have it here i did email it this morning just in case nobody had it they're pulling it up go ahead they're pulling it up so not only are the judges looking at five categories i believe of criteria on how to score the fight as a whole look there's severities within that small, medium, large, whatever. Well,

I got to see it. What were the breakdowns again of, of dominant as opposed to, I don't know if we could produce these pig. I see the head crowned in like the King of England here. I see that. I've got it here. I'm pulling it up on my,

uh, you know what it feels like you ever, you ever get on the internet and like 93 at your buddy's house and he's got that thing called prodigy and you're like yo we could download pictures of topless women we only have to wait seven hours for one picture to finish downloading and then you're just like sitting there look for hours you're like yo i see a boob your buddy's like no dude that's a knee so here's here's how that goes by cry this is, so first of all, criteria by priority. One is near KO or submission.

Two would be damage. Three would have two parts striking on the ground. Four, takedowns. Five, aggression. And then, to your point, they have degree of advantage. So for each of those, near KO, submission, damage, striking, ground, takedowns, aggression, they have slight, moderate, and dominant. So each ofedowns aggression they have slight moderate and dominant right so each of those is did they have it and then to what extent did they have it and by the way they can have it for the advantage red corner advantage blue corner or no advantage just even

which by the way they had let me go through this so on near ko it's submission they gave the advantage to the red corner which was uh shong jingnan that's one judge that you're reading one yes i'm looking at one of the judges scorecards here yes i'm sorry uh damage also to the red corner striking and they gave to the red corner ground to the blue corner that makes sense obviously because angelia is much better there takedowns to the red corner because remember in one takedown defense actually counts in favor of you whereas in the 10-point must system any form of defense is its own reward including takedown defense and then aggression one judge had it even and they of course then gave the fight to shangjin nan so there is a process in place and there is a i would call it some kind of

you know methodology here to ascertain who the winner is bc knowing this now having looked at it do you feel more comfortable that this is a workable system i don't know and i just wanted to hedge the one point you said about the 10-9 system that the ufc for example uses while you're right and saying you saying defense is your own reward, you're also wrong based on the judge's reading of the criteria. Again, the key word in the rules is not damage, it's impact. And it directly states that if you have the type of success. Here it's damage.

Literally on this document, it's damage. Right. But if you are able to change someone's game plan, meaning you could change that through takedown defense changing someone's game plan so significantly or frustrating them that could be enough impact to win the round that point aside um i'd love to be able to look at these scorecards luke i mean okay is the nude woman fully can we i mean what are we doing here yeah i think they're on tiktok can we have an intervention can we have a an intervention here i mean can i see the yeah yes or no you guys gonna

get it or how's this gonna go i mean what i mean guys what are we doing here you know they're uploading it now they're uploading it now i'm gonna look at some of the other scorecards just looking across here so here's another judge they also had it for zhong jinan but they had her having the advantage in near ko submission which obviously she dropped her in the first for example uh damage the striking advantage went to angela lee ground uh and then takedowns were even aggression went to angela lee so here we go yeah Yeah, look at this. So, okay. So let's, let's recap here. This is just one judge's scorecard, but this is how you should look at it in the left-hand column. You can see it there near KO submission is one. Can you blow it up full

screen for us in case someone's watching on their phone? Thank you. Gaff Gaff four for four. There we go. Two would be damaged. Again again we're reading the left side criteria by priority column three who did better in striking who did better on the ground four takedowns five aggression the who they gave the advantage to within that criteria by priority and then the degree to which they attained that advantage all the way through i gotta say people like the 10 point must system i don. I don't really like it. I don't think this system is above criticism. I think they've got aggression a little bit too low, quite candidly, and I don't know that they fully fleshed out point number

three all that well. But as a general rule, I like one system better than I like the 10-point must system. I do. So you asked me before, how does this change my feeling about it? I like this transparency. I like seeing exactly what the judges are going after. Now, I don't necessarily agree. I guess my only issue is like, I still think there's a good argument for Lee here. And I don't think, you know, the judges necessarily scored some as high the impact had early on with dropping her in, in, in scarring up or, scarring up or swelling up her face that they even could have. I mean, you see moderate. It looked pretty dominant to me, but my whole point is this seems to be the nuances. This seems to present the foundation for you to properly weigh the nuances of it in ways the 10-9 system that we normally see cannot and is flawed. It's basically

a boxing scoring system just adapted to mixed martial arts not taking into account the longer rounds the more skill sets needed the the different elements of defense that have big moments the you know ring ring generalship that we talk about a lot in terms of who's one fighter making the other fight his fight i think you could mess with that on this card and kind of value it to a certain degree. Now, what do they do at the end, though, Luke? When you look at this, how do you know that the red corner won? Because they received the nod in more categories?

Because you do have to take into account that far right column. It's interesting. I hope they know what they're doing with it. I think long term, I would like this type of direct criteria better than the 10-9, but I'm not sure I'm sold that scoring the fight as a whole is actually better than scoring it round by round. How do you feel on that debate? I would argue that the 10-point must system, which you're right,

it comes from boxing. I would argue that the stakeholders in MMA have done a pretty good job, as best one could, retrofitting that for MMA. But I still feel like an organic way of judging MMA and what kind of systems you could put in place, what kind of procedure you could put in place, will ultimately benefit MMA more than anything you could retrofit from boxing. So I'm mostly in agreement with you. I still have plenty of questions on this as well. Leave it up for just a little bit longer if you don't mind, because I want to reference something if I may, Gaff. I still have some questions about this, but I do believe that

in the end, following this process down the rabbit hole will yield you better results over time. I mean, it just makes a lot more sense. Here's what we're looking for. Here's who had the advantage. Here's the extent to which they obtained that advantage. Let's judge the entire thing as a one product, no pun intended. And then let's make a determination there. And let's get qualified people to make those judgments.

Right. Plenty of questions. I just feel like this is a cleaner process to me than arithmetically each round is essentially its own fight. I don't think that's a better way to do it. This is a giant step forward, in my opinion, in showing the truth. Basically, when the judges come out of here

with a scorecard that we deem awful, we're always, you know, critically jumping on them and their integrity and saying the hell did they see? I think this takes us closer to a world of understanding better what the hell they did see that not only fighters can use, because look, what do you keep?

What do top level major league baseball hitters that are competing for batter batting titles? No, everything. They know pitcher tendencies. They know umpire tendencies. They know who calls the close strike, who's a little bit more liberal. They know everything.

This does give more information in the hands of fighters who can look back, if they're so inclined historically, and gauge a judge's strike zone or tendencies. That's a plus that's a step forward because luke to to greatly fight the appearance of of fraud or or things being fixed in combat sports i've always gone to bat and said why are the referees and judges not required if needed to enter some like a press conference after and talk i know sometimes referees like in boxing will agree to be interviewed afterwards. But for the most part, the commission that assigns these jobs doesn't want a circus, tells their judges, you know, don't do media appearances where you're previewing fights

and sort of showing any potential, you know, favoritism that isn't there just to avoid controversy. I think being completely, you know, see-through is the way to fix this. I mean, look, it's already a really hard job to be a judge. No one's saying it's not, Luke. But I think it would weed out who's good and who's bad or who's, you know, not up to the task or who might even be taking the heavy envelope loaded in their back pocket if they were forced to speak about it. If that's not going to be a reality and it doesn't seem like anyone actually cares enough to make it a reality, that's my two cents, this is a great step forward

in at least giving you more information. I don't think open scoring is the fix. I think it plays with the entertainment value in a way that if I'm proven wrong someday in the long run, I'll take the L. Right now, the fan in me still does not want to open the Pandora's box of open scoring. But this is better.

This is better. And, Luke, you can actually kind of apply this, even if you stuck with the 10-9. Is there ways that, like, this would give us better explanations of what the person scored if boxing was willing to do this? Okay, but here's the thing about – well, no, not necessarily. And, again, I still would have some questions about this. I don't know if they look at everything in totality.

But remember the criteria of the 10 point must system. If someone has, let's say effective striking on the feet, you just stop there. You don't worry about ring generalship. You don't worry about aggression. You don't worry about anything else that comes after the hierarchy and the, the,

the priority list there. So if that is, so if someone just, you know, jab someone else's face off for three rounds, stuffs, the takedowns or whatever, it's, you don't need any of these other considerations or the advantage or the So if someone just jabs someone else's face off for three rounds, stuffs the takedowns or whatever,

you don't need any of these other considerations or the advantage or the degree to which they retain an advantage. The 10-point must system doesn't allow you to even look at those things if someone has that advantage early on in the key priority list. This gives you just a much more comprehensive look at everything that was involved. And you're right, this is not a substitute for a judge doing an interview that you could really, you know, really pick their brain. But here you at least have some read on the decision-making process that each judge took to arrive at that position.

By definition to me, this seems like it's more, well, one's got transparency issues, but when you have access to the cards, certainly it's more transparent and one's got transparency issues but when you have access to the cards certainly it's more transparent and it's you can just read into the decision making process i gotta say i like that a lot more a lot more yeah all right yeah i'm with you on that hey look quick real quick breaking news i wanted to share with you um the wbc has created a special elizabethan belt that will be awarded to the winner of the october 15th cloressa shield savannah marshall undisputed fight uh that's that will honor the late qe2 who forced the fight to be postponed look if anybody's on top of shit it's wbc right i mean that is a that's a title worth fighting for right there you know what i i couldn't believe it when we interviewed rockman

jr and he was like i really want to win the Bridger weight belt. And I was like, do you? Yeah, that was a red flag. Like, that's your goal? Okay, all right. As soon as he said that, I was like, in my head, I was like, word? That's the peak? Okay.

BC, let's do some quick hitters. How about this one? I think this is good news. I would consider this good news. Aspen Ladd has signed with the PFL. Of course, she was released from UFC after her last weight cut fiasco when she was supposed to fight Sarah McMahon. And here's her statement.

Quote, I want to thank the PFL for giving me the opportunity to continue my career in the PFL smart cage. You know, it's got to be required, right? You sign that deal in blood. That computer will hold. You better fucking call the smart cage the rest of your life, right? gotta be required right you sign that deal in blood that computer will hold you better you better fucking call the smart cage the rest of your life right i mean that fucking smart that cage is just the smartest motherfucker on earth i am excited about the pfl sports season format

where you win in advance but i mean they just wrote this for her but here's what she did say i look forward to testing myself against the best women's featherweights in the world. BC, here is my question. Okay, 145 must be fine for her. I think it's a better weight class certainly than 135. And again, outside the UFC, she has an opportunity to get things right. But dude, if she's not fighting Kayla, what the fuck are we doing here? Yeah, I mean, I think the plan is for her to fight Kayla. But my fear now, because we're so close to 2023, I mean, I think the plan is for her to fight Kayla, but my, my fear now, because we're so close to 2023 being October and we know, Luke, that's the launch of the PFL pay-per-view era, the pay-per-view

division, they call it, even though that makes no sense to call it a division. The whole idea was Kayla will give you a chance to win a million in year one if you resign with us well she had no choice they had the option but you get the point and you know year two we'll get you that cyborg fight on pay-per-view Luke it doesn't look like we're getting the cyborg fight I hope I'm wrong is Aspen Ladd signing the replacement for the cyborg fight on pay-per-view is that what the hell we're doing right here Luke I don't know I really don't. That pay-per-view, I mean, I feel bad for PFL because they're going to take a fucking bath on that. I mean, I love the signing.

Talent-wise, great signing. No question. There's nothing wrong with the signing. I think she'll be good for a 145 division. She might win the whole thing. There's nothing wrong with that. But in terms of, like, pay-per-view prospects, it doesn't mean anything.

That's going to be bad. All right, how about this one casey o'neill who trains at extreme couture versus a twitter troll i saw this play out in real time i don't know if we have any of the images or not did you see this at all bc i did uh eric nixix ig thing was like where's she at you know we're here we're ready meet me in temecula basically the long story short is this some dude was like oh, oh, Casey O'Neal is terrible. And then they were like, yeah, come down and spar. And he was like, yeah, I'll fucking come down there. And they were like,

oh, yeah, that'd be great. And they had him ready. They all had to do was sign a waiver. Eric Nixick tweeted him, like, all you got to do is you got to come down. This used to be more of a common thing where you get street toughs who would come on the gym and be like, hey, I'm going to show these guys what happens. And they get wildly fucked up and then don't come back.

Nothing happened here. The guy didn't post. Although, apparently, Hunter Campbell had something to say about this. Quote, we've got Barstool Sports covering it. I've got Hunter Campbell from UFC texting me like, don't have unsanctioned fights, please. I need you healthy. Everyone's taking it so seriously.

It's pretty funny for me, though. I think people say it almost for attention. She's taking it so seriously. It's pretty funny for me, though. I think people say it almost for attention. She's certainly right. Yes. Yeah, this seems like... I always tell folks, if you want to see how tough you are, you can show up to your local MMA gym and ask to spar. They will oblige you.

Trust me. This is different than that, though. This is... Look, at the surface, it's a fighter going, I'm sick of these keyboard warriors so why don't you come here and prove it oh you didn't come here you're you know you're a wimp like i thought but we already know that first of all and second of all luke that's like leftover from the bully beatdown era i know like you know dionte wilder did that with charlie

zelenoff the the much maligned uh you know but that got because look that was getting really gross and dark. Zelnoff was doing, was leaving ridiculously inappropriate messages, talking about Wilder's daughter and being racist. You know, Wilder could have killed him with one punch. So I think for a fighter,

Luke, you know, Hunter Campbell's not wrong in the idea that like, we got to get past this idea. Cause look, who knows that a crazy person doesn't come in with a weapon or something. Like, I just feel like this is a thing that they're professionals we know they're badasses like you don't have to

win this battle just just log off of twitter or you know what i mean or log off of all together or you're or you know what i mean like i know it's not like listen dude if you fist fight for a living your risk assessment is going to be off a little yeah right that's just that's a natural byproduct of the job that you do uh and it's very good if you have that kind of strange risk assessment for that job. In fact, if you don't have that kind of risk assessment, you cannot do that job very effectively. It's an occupational necessity. But then apply to the wider array of things that can happen in life. I don't know that that kind of risk assessment is always going to be beneficial for you so um i think it is it is wild that you know we're actually not that

that far removed from bully beat down on mtv being an actual show that like uh you know andre arlovsky would sign up and if you had some dude who thought he was tougher than you at work you know arlovsky would kick his ass for three rounds on tv I mean I can't I can't even believe that happened Luke but you know here we are cage fighting reporters yeah all right BC this one you must this must have uh brought tears to your eyes warm the cockles of your heart how about Adrian Broner getting on Instagram and calling out Nate Diaz I was like what are you doing here, AB? I mean, we have an image of it. Let's show it.

He photoshopped some fight poster that would look what it would look like if Broner was, in fact, fighting Nate Diaz. Do we have the poster? I believe that we do. There it is. There it is. BC, how interested are you in AB versus ND?

Here's the deal. I can't act like I'm not interested. And because Adrian Broderick's career... You're such a pathetic piece of trash. It has gone... Look, let's be honest about AB, okay? I'm one of the last people left defending the nine lives theory that there's still time for this guy to what? Live up

to the original hype and expectations? No, but have a, you know, a decent end to his career if he wanted to. At the same time, Luke, his second half of his career has been an absolute train wreck in many different categories. And you know, a day after he did this, Luke, he posted a very honest, long message on Instagram talking about how hard the mental health battle he's going through right now really is and how he's trying and he's trying to make a comeback. But like, so to act like this is a ridiculous idea or I'm not into it at all would be lying because Luke AB's career has been so out of control of late, if you can even call it a career with all the missteps outside of the ring that physically inevitably he's going to end up where this,

these may be the type of fights that do make the most sense. I mean, Luke, as much as you don't want to hear me go, hey, dude, imagine Broner versus Jake Paul. You actually could start imagining it. And I don't think you'd run out the back door, Luke. I think you'd go, well, if we got to do this, it'll be a fun build. And, you know, I mean, it would work better if AB's fighting a considerably bigger person like Jake to offset the fact that he is a real boxer and has very good real skills. But as much as this doesn't make any sense, Luke, it also kind of does at the same time. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me ask you a question here.

Just to see where your head is at. Are you under the impression that, I find this unlikely, but let's, it is possible. So we have to take the possibility seriously. Anyway, let's say Jake Paul stops Anderson Silva. I know that that is crazy talk. I know that that's crazy talk, but let's just say,

right. If he does that, do you think that there's going to be an effort to book him against a B? Well, I don't think otherwise I'm not acting like that was on anyone's radar i'm not acting like even this ig post is going to make it a higher priority necessarily but what i'm saying is luke let's look at jake paul as a whole right now this anderson silva fight is going to be a legitimate test of where he's at in his boxing growth i know one day he wants he's talked about

wanting to fight for a real boxing world title there's still a lot of skepticism that if he goes in there, even there was skepticism in the proposed Hasim Rahman Jr. fight, because even though Rahman's flawed, he's a six foot three southpaw heavyweight. He's a real fighter, son of a former champion. Do we really believe that Jake's endgame is going to be him going in with actual light heavyweights or cruiserweights in boxing that are 15 and 0 20 and 0 in beating them you know we have our doubts for a reason here luke yeah but within those no but within the celebrity bubble which he's done a great job being the face of what's a more realistic way of

fighting a quote-unquote real boxer but also having like doubt in the public of who's actually going to win or what's it going to look like. It's fighting a smaller one, Luke. You've got to give him the built-in advantage of some kind to offset the fact that he doesn't have real experience and he's basically a, you know, actor, influencer turned fighter. Now he's the best of that group so far for the most part. We'll give him respect for what he's done, but this may be the best way to actually have those fights in the game. Look, we don't

know what, one loss could derail the Jake thing. He could just wake up the next day and go, yeah, I don't really want to do this anymore. We don't really know. He's done a great job of acting the part, but do I think in terms of it happening and entertainment being something that we really want to see, I do think that the idea of like him fighting Broner at some catchweight is probably better than him fighting some cruiserweight or light heavyweight you never heard of who would probably beat him anyway right uh yeah I think that's true uh all right I don't know how much we want to do on the rest of these given the time constraints we can go through these pretty quickly uh BC level of interest in Dracar close taking on Mark O'Matson set for UFC Vegas 63

fun fight pretty high because it like it's Mark O'Matson is pushing 40 right and he's showing us some things we really like some things that are going to be a problem in this full transition to a new sport but this is that next step level up matchup that

he's really going to have to prove it so match making wise love it. Probably be a fun fight, too. Yeah, I'm all in. Give me this. Give me this, all right? All right, what about Tommy Fury fighting on the Mayweather undercard? Now, to be clear, he's fighting a dude by the name of Paul Bomba.

This will be the co-main event to the Mayweather versus Deji lineup. I don't know who the fuck Deji is. Paul Bomba, by the way, is 5-2 with four KOs. Tommy Fury's still keeping the flame lit for a jake paul fight isn't he well yeah maybe no i don't know i mean you could argue you didn't see that video of them recently like facetiming i have not i have not i yeah they're still they're still chitter chatting over there look jake talks a lot that tommy like never wanted it and fumbled it and kind of backed out i mean like i could I could almost believe that. Right. So like,

I think Tommy just wants to fight and be a celebrity fighter. If it ends up being where he can cross paths, which I mean, this fight is still makeable down the line because we don't see either of them, you know, achieving some great advancement in pro boxing, but no, I'm not necessarily interested in Luke. I don't know. Floyd's adding a lot more fights to his, to his schedule lately. I mean, should we be concerned? I mean, there's even people on shows debating whether Floyd versus Jake is that. Like, I know I just talked up the idea of Jake and Broderick, which is ridiculous. I know I'm already ridiculous. But Floyd versus Jake can't be a real thing, right? Or can it?

No. Well, I mean, he already fought his brother. Why wouldn't it be? Because Jake's better than his brother. Yeah, but small. Well, yeah, smaller, though. He's not as big as Logan. I don't fucking know.

I don't care. I don't want to see that fight. I don't want to see that fight. Now, I will cash a check to cover it and like a complete hypocrite, but I don't want to see that fight. Because Tukey needs shoes, baby, and that's what we do in this life. We give her anything she needs, Luke, okay? Maybe even what she wants to.

And then last but not least on the quick hitters of note to me how about old kevin holland i'm not coming back unless it's quote super duper magical and then the next fucking day he gets announced to be fighting wonder boy thompson in the ufc orlando main event this will be december fucking third right around the corner bc i gotta say if you're a fighter why would you not tell the media you're retired you get a week of free fucking media and it's all yours and then you can just go

back on it no questions asked yeah it's like I don't want to celebrate this because well I like the fight first of all I do think it's the right fight to make in this I like the fight just fine yeah but you know this is this is then doubling down on all the shit tommy uh i'm sorry tyson fury has been doing publicly of laid all the bait and switching

and shell games and then you know this is straight out of the mcgregor playbook just the same it i kind of try to reserve it for the rare mcgregor like personalities who can do it and you know what else you're going to say about it when he speaks we listen and we write about it i don't want to see this become a trickle down theory luke at all i mean is there any chance that doing that helped his leverage or negotiating power to get this fight in the terms he wanted i don't believe so right uh i'm not i just think it was a bunch of nonsense i'm not saying necessarily to get free media or to get a fight or something maybe maybe there was something bunch of nonsense i'm not saying necessarily to get free media or to get a fight or something maybe maybe there was something there like oh i'm done unless it's super good

because i want a better fight and here you got that but the other part is i mean it was a note partly because the retirement talk partly because he's young but also because he's something of a growing fan favorite like he has built his status which is to say he may have gotten this fight no matter what, especially after he did the UFC Assault and took that ass-whipping against Hamzat Shamayev. That kind of owed him something a little bit more manageable. Here he gets a tough fight, but against an aging veteran in a main event slot who doesn't wrestle. You know, like, that could have happened under any circumstance, at least in theory. I'm not going to celebrate this.

Are you going to mention Bo Nichols? This guy wants Homs out really freaking bad. We don't have time to get to all this stuff. We don't. We have to cut something else out if you want to keep it all going because I have to go get my daughter from school. Unless you really got a hard-on for it, we can. I don't have a hard-on for it.

I am surprised Bo is being this aggressive. Like, did you see these IG posts, Luke? I mean, he's going after people. He did say initially he doesn't want to be on any place but a main card, but then realized there's a lot of ways in which the UFC could construct a card where he'd have to go into prelims. That's what I would tell him. I'm like, listen, dude.

I think this guy will do something special in the sport. Take your time, young fella. Take your time. Don't rush it. Take your time. Everything will happen exactly as it needs to. Trust me. Yeah, look at us winning all these awards, Luke. You know, if you can go back and tell Vox, Luke, to just shut up,

everything's going to be all right, all right? It's not that bad. I don't think they care about anything in my life one way or the other. All right, BC, I want to remind everyone, we all want to turn back the clock and relive those glory days. For me, I would love to wake up every morning with zero brain fog, a clear mind, and be as energized as I was when I was younger. But thanks to First Person, I can take a more active role in my brain's overall health.

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Get 15% off your first order right now by going to this website, getfirstperson.com and using our code combat with a K. Again, that's G E T F I R S T P E R S O N. Getfirstperson.com code combat with a K as BC said for 15% off your first order, getfirstperson.com code combat. All right as bc said for 15 off your first order get first person.com code combat all right bc we do this on wednesdays now not every wednesday but we're trying to get it a little more regular a top five list top five movies top five strikers top five we might do bbls at some point one never knows today though today though we're not going to do that. We're going to do top five active, I believe, ground specialists. Now, BC had a bit of a revelation.

I'm not going to air them out here completely. Air it out, Luke. By the way, this is favorite. Our top five favorite ground specialists today. Favorite, yes. I want to be clear. We are not, yes, in defense of BC here and myself and everybody, just for clarification purposes, these are just our favorite ones not

the best ones just the ones that we like whatever reasons that we like them although bc do you want to tell the folks what you told me over text message last night that truly shocked is a strong word i don't get how shocked you were you were like like i had exposed my like you know like the end of total recall when the guy takes off his fake arm and he's part lizard you know what it was it was like the scene in total recall where when the guy takes off his fake arm and he's part lizard. You know what it was? It was like the scene in Total Recall where the woman had the third titty. That's really what it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I guess it's something like that. The idea that BC, the boxing guy, tends to prefer MMA fights on the feet. Yeah, I think that's true at the end of the day, Luke. I respect and, for the most part, understand what goes on on the ground. But when we're pitching fun ideas a top five like our top five classic rock albums from the 70s list luke or something fun like that that's fun counting down my top 10 favorite ground fighters of today is it's you know it's it's a luke thomas hard on but i'll indulge you it's not it's not a hard here's what i'll do i will meet you halfway i mean i think

that's a little bit of a casual opinion if i can can be candid with you. It's white belt shit, Luke, but I'm here for it. All right, bro. In fairness, here's what I think we should do. And I think the MMA audience might appreciate this. We should do next our top five favorite, again, not saying the best, top five favorite boxers to watch, because I do think that could be a little bit of a roadmap for people who want to know more about boxing, some guys or ladies to check out okay okay we can do that with you know UFC ladies too Luke it's called the 115 pound division all right that's but that's your

Instagram feed all right go first all right Luke who do I look for in a favorite ground fighter uh somebody completely sublimely talented and for for my money, Luke, that's still Bellator's A.J. McKee at number five. Luke, the creativity is there. The aggression is there. But there is this calmness to his aggression. We know he's child phenom who grew up in this game around the gyms with his father. But you only have to look further than the McKee team that you so aptly named that he broke out against Darian Caldwell in the Grand Prix tournament.

Or even the fact that he took the great Patricio Pitbull's, you know, quote-unquote finishing move, the guillotine, and used it against him in the first couple minutes of round one of their fight to put him to sleep after hurting him with strikes. AJ McKeon is long, he's quick and athletic, but he knows this game, Luke. It's fun to watch in the moment how his mind works. He makes quick reactive decisions. And I think what we did see in the Spike Carlisle fight of late, that was a plus for him. His aggression while on the ground has to be respected by his opponents. He's very violent with those lead elbows and forearms. And that only adds to the threat of him always looking for a submission. I don't know if people applaud him enough, Luke,

for how great he is on the ground, because he can do flashy, spinny shit just the same in the striking, but he's nasty, and I like watching him. People forget, dude, he's got a ground game that is ferocious. If I had to pick for me, he almost made the list, Goichi Yamauchi over in Bellator because he's a little bit more of a direct ground specialist in that way. But I agree with you.

The McKee at team's nice. He's had a lot of interesting submissions from his back at certain times or already has threatened him at certain times. I like what AJ McKee can do on the ground. For me, for number five, I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself here because he's just starting out in MMA. But because of who he is and what he represents inside the heavyweight division, my number five is going to be Boucher.

His formal name is Marcus Almeida, but they call him Boucher, which if you don't know what that means, it means fat cheeks in Brazil. I guess he had fat cheeks when he was a kid. He is phenomenal. Let me be very clear about this. He's arguably the best ground fighter, at least I should say this. He's got the best jiu-jitsu probably in all of MMA.

I don't think that's crazy to say. And in the heavyweight division, he is by far the best submission specialist. We will see what will happen with his development, but remember the category, it's top five. So what I've seen from him in one has been promising. I think he'll end up in the UFC before too long, to be quite honest with you. And as long as he can get the fight to the ground, which of course is a big if he's going to terrorize that division, because he's not just a great grappler. He's a phenomenal athlete as well. In fact, his jujitsu was very much aided by his physical gifts and attributes. Boucher is very much someone who he's not on your radar. He should be. Yeah. Shout out to Boucher. Luke, you've, you know, he does, he is your type of flavor and everything I've seen from you has seemed to live up to that, uh, billing in regard.

You said Boucher means big cheeks, Luke fat cheeks, fat cheeks. It was Freddie Mercury who once saying Luke that fat bottom girls make the rock and world go around. So maybe, uh, we'll change youechia and you have you know more than one thing in common luke okay number four sorry okay number four luke i don't know if this surprises you but you know who i love watching on the ground journeyman flyweight tim elliott now journeyman may be a harsh label but he has seemed to juggle wins and losses at an equal level of late did fight for a world

title once after winning the Ultimate Fighter Tournament to get that shot at Demetrius Johnson. And I really think even within that fight, it's a snapshot of what makes him so fun in general as a fighter. He takes big chances and he's long and he's got a weird sort of rhythm and style to him that certainly makes it tough, but he's just as apt to get a fantastic, dramatic submission as he is to yield one. And Luke, he takes big chances. He goes after it. He's creative. And I think watching his fights, there's always that added level of like, something's going to happen here soon. I always loved the performance he showed out against Demetrius. Yeah, eventually he got handled and dominated, but he was weird enough in that fight to kind of give Mighty Mouse something to think about.

And I think that plays into what I like about him, that it's kind of unpredictable. Yeah, the techniques there. Yeah, he can tap you out, but I just like the balls that he sort of goes after it, no matter if the odds are with him or against him. I can get by on that for me, for number four, I'm going to go again. There's a lot of people I had to leave off this list, which I was not happy about, but I couldn't make this list for me without including this guy, Bryce Mitchell, number four, thug nasty. You got to do it. Now, listen, me and old Bryce Mitchell, we don't see the world the same way, but who gives a flying fuck? We're talking about his ground game here. And if it doesn't bring you joy to watch this dude operate on the ground, I don't know what you're, I don't know what would man. We're talking about his ground game here. And if it doesn't bring you joy to watch this dude operate on the ground,

I don't know what would, man. We're talking about a guy who, against Andre Feely, for example, I didn't know what kind of work he was going to be able to turn in. And he looked phenomenal. He's very good about making his opponents just make a series of bad choices. He gives you one bad option or another bad option. And then depending on what you want to go with he has an answer for everything he wrestles top to bottom he can you know leg lace he can do all kinds of

stuff he's good with his ground and pound he's good with finding submissions hitting a twister so he's innovative he's aggressive he incorporates physical punishment through it and he beats other really good fighters with it plus you know he's got a really sort of fun story as a life story and a very unique, I think, personality and background, which a lot of people like and respond to, which is also great in the small part of that. Of course,

one in the camo shorts, that's a little detail, but I think it speaks to something larger about his authenticity. Anyway, on the ground, can't miss exciting fighter. My number four choice thug nasty. And choose scoop fulls of coffee grounds in the morning, Luke, on his farm there.

I've seen, I do. Again, we learned that in the military. Like, that's a real thing. That's a real thing. All right, number three for me, Luke, is a wild... This guy almost made my list. I'm so glad you included him because I love this choice. Yeah, a wild man of sorts, and that's Scotland's Paul Craig.

Luke, he operates in a division that you don't see as much ground game or submission specialist 205 as you do in the lower weight classes but he walks around that division like he's either got a big dong or he's got a pile of money behind him that he can show off with knowing it can bail him out and that superpower is his submission ability it's like luke that privileged kid he went to high school with whose dad was the police commissioner and he always knew that he could talk trash to guys way tougher than him because he had that thing in the back that can get him out of trouble. He's like that in the striking exchanges he gets into, often ill-advised against people that he shouldn't.

Obviously, the entertainment theme of Late With Him has been that fact that he could take big damage early but still linger and trap you on the ground because of how wide his uh you know the ability gap is but he's a fun exciting fighter who's never out of it and never stops looking for ways to dramatically surprise you and come away with a win that's fun to watch and when you sell it with the attitude the nickname the accent the painted face at the weigh-ins he's one of the rare ground specialists who's also a pretty cool dude, Luke. I love his game. Very unique for that weight class in which he operates.

Love that choice. Really debated putting him on here, but had to go with some different ones. All right, for me, for number three, he's much more than this now, but I think if you looked at the overall body of work that he has, I think this would be a fair label. How about Charles Oliveira?

I mean, he is just so much fun to watch. He's got all the submissions. By the way, the all-time leader in submissions for the UFC. I mean, what else do you need to say beyond that? But now what I love about his game is all the other parts have come to life, but it's not just that. I want to point out he's able to achieve dominant positions in a much more unique and interesting way,

which is that he forces these big reactions from physical punishment oftentimes on the feet. What do I mean? He drops Justin Gaethje. Gaethje goes to scramble, and as he does, he leaves, at least in jujitsu terms, monster openings for someone to do something. In this case, for Charles Oliveira, take the back. And so he can just instantly find very dangerous,

desperate positions for his opponents anyway like that everything is coming together but the ground is still so terrifying for everyone because of how fast he can work how nimble he can work and how all the other pieces of the game now fit into it but even before that was doing really really tremendous things in the 145 division and now obviously at 155 for me I couldn't have made this list talking about favorite ground specialists without someplace for what I think is the uncrowned lightweight King. Yeah. He's the all-time greatest finisher.

When he sees the opening, he goes from zero to 60 on like a Habib speed level, Luke of just like, Oh shit, the fight's over. We're here. We're now there's the tap. Um,

you can't not love to watch him because of that, Luke. And the swagger that he's gained from rounding out his game and not having to just lean on what he can do on the ground with the silver haired, dyed, he's an absolute bad. Luke, is he in the conversation for having, because of so many finishes, the greatest jiu-jitsu in history or is he not considered on the maya jacare level he's definitely not on the maya jacare level but their accomplishments came from outside of jiu-jitsu like in mma obviously he did what they

couldn't in capturing a ufc belt but if we're talking about strict jiu-jitsu prowess he's not even close to them not even close okay he knows how to get the the fight over though luke that's for sure certainly he certainly fucking does go ahead all right let's go to number two on my list of five favorite ground specialists to watch and it's a the only crossover one we had let's shout out bryce mitchell luke he has a gas tank on him and it is fun whether we're talking about darab mavalish wheelie or guys like that who can weaponize marab darab you're uh yeah i'm sorry marab davalish wheelie correct me i might have just nailed that luke um the point here is when you can weaponize that gas tank and pair it with the threat of what you can do on the ground bryce mitchell's you know chain wrestling and way he

just sticks to you is so fun to watch mixed with the constant pressure he puts on you. I don't think you can have a list right now. I mean, Luke, you got to tip your cap. If this isn't the list of the best, Islam Malachov may be the damn best for all I know, Luke, at the end of the day on the ground, but Bryce Mitchell is entertaining as well in doing it and in leaning on that strength. I'm interested to see how far he can go. Luke, this is a good division. This is a very good fighter. Get fired up here. I don interested to see how far he can go. Look, this is a good division. This is a very good fighter. Get fired up here. I don't think you could make a list without having Bryce Mitchell on it. I'm glad you had him.

Had him a little bit higher than me, but had him just the same. For my number two, this is someone who, you know, has proven me wrong at times, and then through that really forced me to reconsider what I got wrong. So I'm going to go with Aljamain Sterling as my number two. I think the work that he has done, obviously choking out Corey Sandhagen immediately, he's got good wrestling,

and the way in which he's able to find and hold and legitimately threaten from the back is very, very impressive. He is a solid, solid, more than that, he's just a phenomenal ground operator. He's obviously more than that he can stick and move on the feet has great cardio good strength for this and he's really ironed out a lot of the problems like for example when he gassed against um who was misha tate's ex brian what's his face uh carraway carol yeah i think it was carol you know he gassed in that

fight and i don't think that was his best showing but then you watch him i didn't think he was going to be able to get the job done against Jan in the second fight, and he did, and he did it very impressively in part because of the way in which he is able to create back exposure through half takedowns or mat returns and then really take advantage of that. He's innovative. He's at the front of the pack, I think,

in a lot of the ways with his grappling and MMA, and he's a championship-level fighter quite literally. I had to give him respect for this one. I'm going to have him number two. Yeah, I mean, dude, he put Sanhagen in the spiderweb, you know, leave a message and I'll call you back. Luke, one other thing I want to add on your Charles Oliveira, did the wrestling and the smothering that he did to Gaethje,

I'm sorry, they did to Dustin Poirier, excuse me. They did to Dustin Poirier to just completely gas him and prepare him for finish. Fantastic. Just a fantastic stuff. I can't agree more. He's more than a ground specialist these days, but on the ground, he is certainly one. All right.

Who's my favorite guy to watch on the ground? I don't think this surprises you. T-City, baby. Brian Ortega. Luke, I think the thing that I love most about watching him is probably the thing that has prevented him from climbing the mountain despite giving all against Max Holloway before he was stopped in that title fight and nearly, nearly putting the current champion, one of the greatest fighters of all time, Alexander Volkanovsky into very peril

situations at key moments in their title fight is he takes big risks. He swings massively big. Some of the victories on that initial rise to his first title shot were three round fights in which he got kind of handled for two and a half of it, yet could come out with a big triangle or what have you at the end. That makes him so dangerous and so fun. What it doesn't make him is a well-balanced, consistent force. He's inconsistent, but we know of what his actual ability is on the ground. And sometimes, yeah, he leans too much on his chin and his willingness to go to dark places if need be. But at any point, you have to watch out against him. You got to give him credit for

what he did against Volkanovski. No, at the end of the day, that was not as competitive of a fight as some of the, you know, this might be our fight of the year, you know, hype may have, you know, rose that up, but he made Volkanovski have to show us how tough he really is. And he did that against one of the best, maybe the best fighter today, one of the best fighters of all time. His superpower is so fun to watch and by superpower i mean his ability to one after another drag in you know very good looking celebrity names to be by his side his jujitsu is also pretty badass too luke the big weakness on my list is that ortega is not on it and i readily admit that i struggled because again it's our favorite ones we're talking about some of the best ones i think you have to have them on the list and I do it's funny I do I made a list of everyone I had

I had about 12 names and it was tough to eliminate some of them Ortega was the one that was most difficult for me to eliminate so he probably number six for me number one is maybe a bit surprising because there are a lot of ground specialists that I enjoy watching, but I like this guy the most because of the promise of his future and the reality of his presence. 17 fights, 17 wins, 17 finishes. Some of them, by the way, not necessarily by the ground, but when he's on the ground, his ability to get there and his ability to do damage on top

and his ability to cleverly find submissions with the right time, seemingly without really breaking a sweat. I'm just so excited for this guy's future. Shavkat Rachmanov would be my favorite one to watch. Now, there are other ground specialists that I like. I would consider Armin Saryukian one. Because there's real no submission threat there, I didn't really include him. I wanted someone that had a submission threat.

Sean Brady also is another guy who I think has a very bright future. Might have to get a tattoo with him if he beats Wala Muhammad but because of the rare combination of body type that Rachmanov has great like lights out submissions lights out striking that bizarre kind of standing over you ground and pound that he does better than almost anyone he's so unique to me when he fights out there I got to clear the calendar to see what's up my number one choice not saying it's the best that's not my argument but favorite for me shofkat rachmanov that's where i'm gonna go hey that wasn't as painful after all luke you know see not bad and we can do boxing next time oh did you consider yaroslav amosov or does he not as much of a submission game to be as well rounded yeah he'd be dude there's a lot of guys who would be very, very high level ground operators, but I wanted someone

with a little bit more clear submission prowess in that way. Hey, real quick, how great is Usman? If you want to do these fan subs, we got to move. Yeah, we're going to get out on time. You've been judicious on this minute control, but Usman Nurmagomedov in your consideration? He was on the list. He was on the list. Goichi Yamauchi

from Bellator also on my list. I just couldn't quite find a place for him in the top five. let's close strong and get out on time with fan submissions morning combat at gmail.com is the email address it's your absolute bullshit and then we post it up on our refrigerator let's do it yes this is the house refrigerator or the artwork of our three year old we've got male submissioners yeah uh let's go with saul remember i thought he was uh you know little tony and the imperials that time luke but saul is a great presenter here and when the universe gives you free weekend passes to the louder than life music festival you take them without asking questions saul said i went all four days and saw tenacious D, Lamb of God, Slipknot, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, Kiss,

Body Count, Papa Roach, Incubus, Alice in Chains, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, just to name a few. I think you named them all. Wow. All while wearing the best merch you could get from the best damn combat sports pod in the world. Plenty of thick girls in fishnets and thongs everywhere. Great weekend.

It's Saul. Yo, Luke, this guy's a real man. Look at him. Look at this. Look at him, right? Yeah. Also, could you leave some weed for the rest of us? Jesus Christ, this guy had all the weed.

Yo, Kiss is lame, bro. Yeah, Kiss sucks. Can I be honest about that? If you like Kiss, you're probably lame as fuck. I want to be clear. Oh, wow, wow. But Saul, thank you for being a real man, okay? No, no, I didn't say about Saul.

Maybe he liked it, maybe he didn't, but in general. All right, this is from Mark. He said, made a journey to Burning Man this year and took the MK mug with me. You'd think there weren't a lot of fight fans out here, but you'd be wrong. Thunderdome is a Mad Max-style fighting dome at the festival where participants battle each other

while flinging themselves in elastic harnesses armed with battle q-tips okay two burners enter one burner leaves and yes a lot of delta eight gummies and other goodies thanks for the show it's mark hey i support this look i wouldn't go to burning man but i support this yeah i wouldn't go to burning man either but i had a old producer who went who was relatively normal and he loved it so keep that in mind. I mean, how do you describe it? I mean, is it like a music and life and arts festival full for those dudes in your school

who are really good at shop class, and you could say to yourself, they might kill a person before they die? I mean, people make it out to be, I think, more than it actually is. It's just a place to do drugs differently. Okay, with different music, and yeah, I got it. You know what i'm saying it's all we're in the desert doing drugs okay all right uh luke steve is here and he says he's found

your new truck wow oh that's awesome that's awesome maybe i don't get the yin and the yang though i don't quite understand what that's got to do with vaping dads or Christ but that sounds like if you me and Brendan Schaub decided to form a power trio Luke that would be our band name right there it's got the three C's

like Brendan does indeed I'll be your Hucklebee in that band believe me no question about it let's go to Alan w he says uh last wednesday's top five movies uh reminded me of of uh i don't know what here i'm a day one mk fan and got inspired to make art based on both your personalities and antics big trouble big trouble in little china is one of my favorite movies i'm responsible for creating the original egg campbell's punchki logo here's more big trouble and little china subs coming your way this is amazing and i love that you look like kim

cattrall yes yes from mannequin right great movie where the guy bangs the wooden lady yes also from uh yeah i know it's like dude the 80s were just complete you know yeah i mean just the just the worst human beings alive making movies there he is egg shen look at me holding a poonski oh i love it luke i love that is amazing if you guys don't know there's a character in big trouble little channel named egg shen who kind of has one eye and bc whenever he eats he just closes one eye it's the weirdest shit so i have a tick in my one of my eyes luke that when i eat it it opens and closes as i eat and it moves yeah it's uh i think yeah it could be a defect luke okay no no disassemble yes okay let's go to jp look you know this guy from mount unike nova scotia he's done the cleanup post storm good day mk crew and

fans i had to sneak another sub in here after watching the latest room service diaries chuck mindenhall edition i was so excited for the gents when they indirectly introduced their first rsd sponsor bc has done it again with his introduction of room service diaries bc's depends love you guys keep up the amazing award winning show yes the fact that you had to go in the middle of it I like your diaper by the way and you had to go in the middle of it to go urinate you truly

are you know do you do that on showbox or just MK I almost did it on showbox once between fights so look I because I'm so aggressive I mean I hold this microphone like a grudge, right? So because I'm so aggressive, I need a lot of fluids to fuel that. But then I get pissed. They used to call me in the high school woods drinking circles behind trees.

They would call me uterus boy. That's so disrespectful because I would be the first one to pray. In my fraternity. Now, I managed to skip this because that weekend weekend i probably would have told him to go fuck themselves but that weekend i had a drill which is what you know essentially when you have to go work for your military service and they made all the pledges in my pledge class where it depends and then piss themselves okay i'm that that point number one why fraternities are lame cults and you never should have joined you don't need them i agree that that is i agree that that is pathetic i all right i missed that

anyway let's roll out of here alan has two of them i made an rsd thumbnail for you let's see it oh i love is that me as the rock but if i'm the rock then who are you i think i'm the guy from Big Lebowski, right? Or am I wrong? No, I don't think so. Yeah, I may have just butchered that, but that's fantastic. I love that. By the way, I like your man bag.

You talk a lot of shit about man bags. It looks good on you there. Dude, seriously, if RJ made a t-shirt out of this design from Allen W., I would personally buy it. I love it. That looks great, right? 40s, washed, unadulterated stupidity. That really is the best way to describe this show.

Yeah, I would buy that shirt. I hope you would, too. Finally, Mustache Dad is going to close us out. MK Universe as a black metal band, he says and look at the morning combat logo see here's the problem with the logo it's actually too legible if you're a real death metal band it shouldn't even be readable also also i fucking hate this kind of metal i hate. Do you see the comment out of my mouth there, Luke? Black metal liver? Yeah, black metal liver.

Am I right? Yeah, that's great. Oh, boy. All right, Luke, you got to go pick up the toques. All right, let's get this going. That's right. I got to go pick up my daughter. Let's remind everyone, Showtime is the label that pays.

You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. And now, for the subsequent three months, $3.99 a month for three months following that. Pretty great deal if you want to go give that a try. Showtime.com. MorningCombat.store for BC's hat, for this wonderful polo that I'm wearing, and lots of other great stuff. You saw the email address there, MorningCombat at gmail.com for Friday's Dead Wrong, of which I'm hoping Mikey curates should say i'm hoping mikey curates a little more thoroughly this next upcoming week and uh bc any final thoughts uh no but thank you

yeah i do thank you to you the viewer the listener we won that award again the people's choice podcast award best sports podcast we don't we don't get there without you i mean you guys are like it's like you know luke it's it's kind of like we're made men now. These guys, they'll go do our bidding for us. You know what I mean? They will. We have a very reliable and enthusiastic audience for which we should never take for granted for one second.

So thank you for all of the votes. We appreciate it. And don't forget, Friday we'll have a show, a regular MK. Saturday, me and BC back in the bomb shelter, 7.30 p.m. on the Showtime YouTube channel, getting you ready. We'll be covering the prelims off starting at 7.30 p.m. in the east for the Showtime Championship Boxing that I think takes place at 9 or 10 thereafter. I have to get that right, but you get the idea.

All right, for CBS Sports Showtime, Malka, the King of Connecticut, Brian Campbell himself, I'm Luke Thomas. We'll talk to you guys on Friday, and until then, may all of your gains be loyal.